Dittany and Divination
There in the library when it happens, Barty has soon stopped talking, not that Regulus would have noticed. He’s watching the other boy like you’d watch the portraits move on the wall, thinking they’d do something differently but they never do.
Bored, he moves the book from under him. “You know- I know you don’t like him but I thought you’d at least wanna talk to him.” They’d had two Charms classes and not once made an effort to talk to the other.
“Who?”
“Black.”
Regulus doesn’t want to think about him, he’s already got enough to do and adding that- entire mess to it all makes it almost unbearable. “There’s nothing for us to talk about.” He pulls his book back.
Barty nods, “I’m glad.”
Regulus' eyes don’t look down to read. “Glad? Wh- why?”
“Because he’s not good to you.” He shrugs, almost questioning him to deny it.
“He-” His face twists involuntary, “He is good to me, he’s my- my brother, he was there for me in that house when-”
“Yea- he was there.” Barty’s emphasis almost makes him crumble. “But when they leave, ignore you, when they hurt you you can’t just pretend it’s all okay. You’ve gotta, you know- stand up. Face the facts. I didn’t accept that with my father and-”
Regulus’ scoff cuts him off, “Me and Sirius are nothing like you and your father.”
“I’m not saying you are,” Barty’s voice raises. “I’m saying that you need to be the one to walk away first.”
“You’re projecting.” He rolls his eyes, looking back down at his book.
“Believe that if you want but when you’re depending on him and he lets you down-” After a scoff he says: “don’t blame me.” He stands from the bench. “He might be your brother, Regulus, but he’s not your family. He hasn’t ‘bin for a while.”
Barty leaves him in the library, choosing to spend some time alone in the common room of his actual house. The Ravenclaw tower is quiet, not a lot happens but sometimes that’s better. It’s one of the reasons Barty sometimes prefers the Slytherin dorms, where his friends are, where he can be loud and chaotic.
“Barty?” Pandora called out from the stairs, “Are you okay?” She comes to sit beside him on the couch under a bay window.
“I’m okay,” he nodded. “What are you doing awake? It’s late.”
“Yes but I’m supposed to be here.” She shrugs, getting comfortable in the pillows.
He doesn’t really question when she says things that don't make sense, he grew up with a dad that only talked about his work. He grew up confused. “Hm..”
She looks out the window and then back to him, “Worried?”
He looks over at her, “About?”
“Regulus.”
“A bit,” He takes a moment to just breathe. “Just a bit tired.”
“Maybe after some rest you’ll feel better.” She gives him a small smile. “I’ve never seen you so chill before..”
Barty chuckles, “Do you miss my loudness?” It comes out flirty but his face drops once he’s said it.
She looks up, thinking. “I like talking to you, I don’t mind if you aren’t loud.” The smile she gives him is soft, gentle and he thinks that if he was Regulus and got that every day. That brightness, those kind words, her soft smile. He could actually fall in love with her.
He had been talking to her more over the winter too. “How do you- why do you say things like that?”
“It’s how I feel.”
“And you just say how you feel all the time?” They both watch out the window, down in the forest or up into the starry night sky.
“Yea, why don’t you?”
The answer is pathetic, so he doesn’t say it. “Sounds exhausting. Does anyone make fun of you for it?”
She looks thoughtful for a second before looking at him, “Some people do but I don’t care about what they think of me. Sometimes… it does hurt anyway.. But then I can feel them,” Barty gives her a confused glance. “Their emotions, and most of the time they’re just hurting too.”
“You know that’s not normal right?” He turns fully towards her, a pillow on his lap as she tilts her head. “To feel other people's emotions. To get feelings you should be somewhere.”
Pandora just shrugs, “Maybe not for you.”
She doesn’t look hurt but he feels bad, ever since second year her magics been growing and showing in more… unique ways. “It's pretty cool though.”
The grin she turns to him with makes his smile wider, “Thank you.” He often forgot, or became ignorant to how much his words could affect people but around Pandora it was easy to realise.
“Doesn’t it ever get annoying? Like if I could see someone’s angry or sad and they take it out on me, I’d wanna hex ‘em to sunday.”
“Hm, not hex them annoying all the time but it can get a bit too much sometimes.”
“You know me, Reg, Cas or Evan would hex them for you right?”
She looks at him again, her head tilted and eyes distanced. “Because you’re my friend?” She asks and Barty has a moment of self hatred at the fact she had to ask or clarify.
“Yea.” He said, confidently. “And we Ravenclaws gotta stick together, can’t let those snakes get between us, right?” As Pandora laughs he smiles.
“Right.” She nods and they sit for a moment, in the silence of each other's company. “We should sleep now.” She nods and Barty accepts it.
He puts the pillow back down but before leaving the room he’s curious. “What do you do then?” Seeing that she’s looking at him he carries on, “When people get annoying, what do you do?”
“I go to bed,” The simple answer almost makes him laugh. “And then in the night I try to send them words or images through my dreams.” She smiles, so proudly that he snorts out a laugh.
“Ingenious.” He says quickly, the sweet smile she wears doesn’t throw him off. She’s doing it on purpose. “I was unaware of your threats.” He held his hands up while still laughing.
“Do not worry, I’ll send you nice things tonight.”
“I’ll keep my mind open then.”
“Don’t lie in the morning,” She raised an eyebrow at him while pointing. “You have to tell me exactly what you dreamed.”
“You got it,” He started to head to the boy's staircase. “Goodnight Pandora.”
She walks over to him, for a moment he’s scared at the closeness, and then she’s hugging him. She’s hugging him.
“Night Barty.”
He becomes paralyzed for a moment as she walks up the opposite staircase, her golden hair flowing after her. He has a realization that he might have to fight Regulus. And Evan. Probably both.
The next morning Regulus doesn’t join them for breakfast, Barty is out of it. He rips through his toast as his mind wanders, Amelia smiles from the Hufflepuff table.
“Did you dream about me?”
His neck snaps to Pandora, “What.” The room suddenly feels small, he doesn’t take a chance to look at Evan. Her arms reach out to grab some honey and he feels like he’s burning. ‘What is wrong with me?’
“Last night.” She repeats, “Did you dream about anything?”
“Oh.” He breaths out, he doesn’t know if he’s relieved or... “No- no, I didn’t. Sorry.”
“Why would he dream about you?” She shrugs as she waves a hand through the air. “Visions.”
“What?” Evan, confused as ever, stares at her.
But she shrugs and sends Barty a smile before eating, unconsciously he starts to smile back. “Where’s Regulus?”
Evan stares at her with an open mouth before muttering, “Library, he got a letter and then left.” His eyes squint between them both.
“From his parents?”
“Looked like, black envelope like always.”
“Hm.”
“You know what I heard yesterday?” Barty interrupted, “I was talking to a Hufflepuff-”
“Your girlfriend?”
He doesn't mean to but his nose scrunches, “No- shut up.” Evan laughs as Barty glances at Pandora. “The Hufflepuffs are creating a prank, asking for any and all hands.” His smile turns to a grin as he looks at Evan.
“Oh?” Barty flicks an eyebrow up, “You wanna join?” Evan asks with his own eyebrow raised.
He scoffs but Pandora speaks, “As if you don’t, brother. I remember how angered you were when they flooded the dungeon.”
“My plants were over-watered! Soaked!”
“So you’ll join with me?” Barty bites his bottom lip as he smiles.
“And if the Hufflepuffs don't want our help?” He asked, although Barty could see the mischief behind his eyes.
“Then we’ll get them back ourselves!” He turns away with an eye roll, “Come on Evan- for your defenceless plants that they slaughtered!-”
“The plants survived-”
“For the attempted murder then!” He lifts his cup of coffee and with a laugh Evan clashes his tea with it. “You with us Pandora?”
“Unfortunately I can’t follow your path of mischief but I do wish you both the best of luck.”
“Oh, see now,” Barty turned to Evan with a face splitting grin. “Now we can’t fail.” Evan places a hand on his shoulder to push him away and for a split second the burning subsides.
Pandora separated from them both but she could feel them scheming from the Astronomy tower anyways. “Oh.” She says as someone turns around, the girl had been writing on a board. Constellations and, what looks like, prophecies.
She turns around, her eyes wide- wider with her thick glasses, her messy hair in a bun as it sticks out from all directions. “Hello? Hi- hello.” Her robe wasn't a robe at all but a mess of fabrics stitched together.
“Hello, do you mind if I work here?” Her soft voice was quite loud in the tower.
The girl shook from where she was standing, “Sure! Work?” She questioned.
“Divination.”
She gasped, “Divination- the future? Why do you want to know the future?”
“I don’t know it yet. Why are you looking into prophecies?”
“To understand.” The chalk on the board starts to move again, the cancer constellation is circled. “I like the stars- reading them is… “
“A journey.” Pandora supplies, although they might be talking about different stars.
“Yes- a butterfly flying through rain.”
She nods, setting up her own table and crystal ball. “Trelawney?”
“Sybil.”
“Pandora.” They share a smile before working on their separate works. She’s heard of Sybil before but not interacted with her a lot, as she sets down her things she can’t help but watch the way the other works. Turning away she speaks, “It’s okay to talk. Sometimes thoughts need to be spoken to be understood.”
Sybil starts to mutter about different stars and constellations, prophecies and curses. It becomes muffled as she puts her hand on the ball, watching it fill with smoke. She had a vision, she’d seen something, she wanted to know if it had changed.
As she thought and opened her mind, what intruded was much darker, someone else was trying to see. An eye opened in front of her, the iris purple, she knew who that was. “Cassandra?” She mumbled, watching as it changed.
She saw the woman, Cassandra Vablatsky, sitting in a chair. “What do you want, Tom?” Her voice rasped, as her elbows leaned on the table.
“The favour you owe me, dear friend.” His voice was muffled through the fog but it was emotionless, a hiss in the wind.
It skipped, the things around them moving. Pandora realised, she couldn’t control it, couldn’t leave. She wasn’t seeing the future at all, her crystal had been hijacked, she was watching a memory.
“It’s changing.” The elder Seer spoke, her brown skin more ashen as sweat dripped down her cheek.
“What do you mean it’s changing?! Look again!”
“I can but it’d be different- the same- it’s constantly changing-”
“How is that possible?”
“Someones disturbing it.”
“Someone? A wizard is doing this- a powerful one?”
“No..” Her purple eyes pierce through the crystal ball and Pandora can feel them on her. “A powerful Seer..” Then it’s over, her hands are recoiling from the ball like it’s an open flame but the dark purple doesn’t leave her mind.
She had changed it though, enough that their new fate hadn’t been decided, it was all in their hands now.
That thought almost made her smile but what did? Cassandra Vablatsky had called her a powerful Seer. She wrote the book that Hogwarts used for Divination class, Unfogging the Future. Was an esteemed Seer herself and one of the only one’s gifted enough with the inner eye to have visions of the future.
It felt good, satisfying. Pulling the strings around people, helping them, guiding them to a better future. Or at least she hoped it’d be. She’d have to live it to find out, let fate run its course.
Of course, if fate decided to end worse then she’d have to get her hands twisted into the strings. Something about that thought felt natural. Sat opposite the crystal ball she was right where she was supposed to be.
“Dorcas?” Barty leans back against the bench as he calls out in the courtyard to their friend, who is stomping over to them.
“What’s wrong?” Pandora asked as she stepped forwards, always the first to offer comfort.
“Black is a piece of work.”
Barty, confused, asked: “Sirius?”
“The other one.” She flopped onto the bench with a sigh.
“What’d he do?” Evan asked.
“What hasn’t he done.” She replied before turning to him. “He’s not hung out with us for the past two weeks, keeps ignoring us- to work on dark spells in the library- not to mention if you push he just snaps at you, who does he think he is?!” She crosses her arms as she calls out, her voice rising.
“Ah,” Pandora sat on the arm of the bench next to her brother. “I think we have all noticed.”
“I think.. That he’s just under a lot of pressure..” Evan spoke, Dorcas sent him a glare from his side. “Okay- I’m not justifying okay? I’m just saying- that letter he got last week? Found it in the bin in our dorm- he’s never done that before.” Her arms uncrossed as her face twisted.
“He binned it?” Barty repeated, “Must’ve been a bad one- the only ones I set on fire from my dad are the bad ones.”
“That’d be all of them, Barty.”
“Ah- Guilty.” He smiles, they all know he’s imagining setting the next letter on fire too.
“Okay-” She sighed, “So he’s under some pressure, he’s been under pressure the last few years hasn't he? And he’s not acted this bad.” Dorcas points out. “You two saw him over the winter solstice right? How was he then?”
“I didn’t, only Evan did.”
They all turn to him, he fumbles for a second. Unknowing whether to say anything to them.
“You know something.”
“What happened?” Barty asked and he can’t really keep it in anymore.
“He was injured..” He whispered, “When I saw him at the party, he was injured.”
Pandora’s eyebrows move together, she knew something happened, she didn’t know it was that. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Her voice, usually soft, was sharp as she asked.
He didn’t answer, “Then there was a meeting- I wasn’t invited in but Walburga took Regulus to it. When he came back… it- he.. He was so pale.. And shaking. I asked what happened but he said he couldn’t tell me, couldn’t say.”
The words hung heavy in the air, although they knew that house was no picnic they hadn’t been worried about violence before. Not with it ending physically.
“I’m dragging him to the medical wing.” Barty stood from his seat with a scowl.
“Don’t.” Evan grabbed his arm but he pushed him back.
“You’re telling me he’s injured and you expect me to do nothing?”
Evan grimaced, “No- but taking him to Pomfrey wouldn’t help. I’ve been putting dittany in his coffee in the morning, I stopped after a week so he’s completely fine. Now.” Barty watches him, hands tight in a fist.
“At Least physically anyway.” Dorcas says, looking off into the distance.
Pandora stands, “You’ll have to talk to him.” She says, looking at Evan.
“Why me? He’d talk to you better than me.”
“He doesn’t need me now, he needs someone that was there. You share a dorm Evan, surely you’ve noticed other things.”
He has, of course he has. The little black book he keeps so close to his chest he sleeps with it. The fact he’s spelled his trunk shut, unlike every year before. The fact he wakes up in the night with heavy breaths.
“He won’t accept comfort,” Pandora says, her voice soft once more. “He needs someone who will push him to talk.”