Punishment and Reward
“There you guys are, thank Gods!” Evan exclaims, panting a little after having walked up the stupid hill to find the missing parties from the camp, cursing Regulus for choosing the river route and leaving him with the hill.
Sirius and Barty spring apart like he’s shocked them, and Evan realises that he might have just interrupted something. Forgetting for a moment the urgency that he should feel to get everyone prepared to face a murderer, he pauses, glancing between them, his brows furrowed. He frowns, pointing at the space between them, “What was going on there?” He asks.
“Nothing,” Barty answers quickly, Sirius flinching as if he’d been slapped.
“Doesn’t seem like nothing, actually,” Evan says, raising a brow, crossing his arms.
“Please Evan, don’t,” Barty begs, standing up and holding out his hands. Evan knows that he could just leave it but where was the fun in that? It’s not like Barty ever let up on anything, ever in his life. Most recently, he had been absolutely relentless about Evans' crush on Marlene, to the point where Marlene absolutely knew about it and had to sit him down and explain to him that he just wasn’t his type, to his absolute mortification, further explaining that she was, in fact, a lesbian.
So call this Barty’s punishment, or Evans' reward for having to put up with him for so long as Regulus’ co-best friend.
“I can not wait to tell Regulus that you’re fucking his brother.” Evan smirks, rubbing his hands together.
“I can’t wait to tell Regulus you’re a fucking liar,” Barty snaps back, and Evan looks pointedly at Sirius, sitting on the blanket they’ve layed out under the stars and looking between them uncomfortably.
“Would you like to explain this, then?” Evan asks, and Barty sighs, crossing his arms.
“I– I don’t think you need to tell Regulus, I really don’t. We didn’t even really kiss.” Barty says, his voice struggling to stay flat.
And oof, Evan didn’t expect Barty to throw Sirius under the bus like that at the mere suggestion that Regulus might find out. Quietly, Sirius stands, and walks away, and Barty lets him.
“Wait!” Evan calls after him, recalling the “urgency” of the situation, the reason he came looking for them in the first place.
Sirius keeps going, and Evan glances desperately between Regulus’ brother and Regulus’ other best friend. “Go back to the camp, Barty, something’s happening, Pandora’s freaking out about a werewolf or something, she’s basically preparing for battle over there. If you find anything that could be used as a weapon on the way back, you might want to pick it up.”
“What the fuck,” Barty says, frowning.
“Just do it,” Evan hisses, running after Sirius.