Nobody in 6th year was ever particularly thrilled to be in potions first thing on a Monday morning to begin with, but the second Slughorn had proudly announced his plan to pair everyone up to ‘promote new friendships’ or some bullshit, James was just about ready to throw himself out of a window.
“Now, I have already chosen all of the pairs and I will not be taking arguments from anyone,” He looked towards James and Sirius, and James saw Peter smirking behind his hand. Without thinking, James kicked him in the shin, only to be caught by Slughorn and his beady eyes in the process. “Mr Potter, if you could please refrain from physically assaulting your friends for a few moments and think your actions over, you may realise why I have resorted to changing the seating arrangements.”
James smiled as politely as he could possibly manage, “Of course, Professor.” He didn’t miss Pete’s smug grin in the corner of his eye.
“Right, now, I will start on the left-hand side of the room at the back and work my way around in a clockwise direction to fill the horseshoe. On the far end, can I please have Miss Trelawney and Miss Evans?”
Lily hitched her bag up on her shoulder and smiled, placing a hand on Sybill’s arm as they walked over to the corner, evidently overjoyed at being sat together, James expected he would not be as pleased with his partner.
“Then at the next bench…” He squinted at his notes. Everyone was silent. “Mx Black and Miss McKinnon.”
“Ha!” Sirius stepped forward and met Marlene in an over-exaggerated high-five. James could practically see Slughorn regret his decision to put the most chaotic friendship duo (bar Sirius and James) at the same desk, and at the back of the room, no less.
“Then we have Mr Snape and Miss Meadowes.” Okay, maybe James wouldn’t have as bad a partner as Dorcas had.
Students continued to be paired up for a few more minutes, Remus went with Mary, Emma Vanity went with Pandora and so forth, eventually leaving just four students at the end. James, Peter, Mariah Akesse -a Slytherin girl from the Ivory Coast that had transferred late last year, and whom James quite liked-, and Barty Crouch Jr -the person James would rather forget about entirely than share a class with, if he had any choice in the matter. James didn’t even hide the desperate, pleading look in his eyes when Slughorn turned to the final four. He gripped tightly to Peter’s sleeve, and Pete too was standing as close to his friend as he physically could.
“Mr Pettigrew,” All four of them stared at him intently. “Can you sit at the desk closest to me with Miss Akesse please?” James groaned in frustration but Peter didn’t even look too bothered. Bastard. Everyone knew he had a hopeless crush on Mariah and her boyfriend Benvolio. The pair of them walked off together, Pete shooting James a badly faked apologetic look as he did. At least Pete has a chance of charming his way into a triad, even if it meant that James was suffering alone forever.
“Which leaves…” James turned around to remind himself of whom he was going to be stuck with for the next- however long. Oh. Oh shit.
“Mr Potter with Mr Crouch. Perfect.” He looked around the room. “It appears Filius has not yet returned that last desk to me. No big deal, you two boys can sit over there for the next few lessons,” He pointed to the right-hand corner of the room, right at the front and several feet away from everyone else. It was dark and there was only one desk. Great. If James hated this day before, it had just gotten so much worse.
Not only had he been forcefully dragged from his friends, but James had to sit in the dark, at the front of the room, with the boy he hated more than anything else. It was almost as if it had been planned out to infuriate James into behaving. There was no way he was going to let that work.
-
After everybody had sat down, Slughorn began reminding them all that his ‘expectations for lesson time had not changed’ and they were not allowed to ‘act up’ due to the new seating plan. He told them that they would stay like this until at least the end of the Summer term.
They had been sitting down together for ten minutes by the time he moved on to the actual lesson, unsurprisingly James was still yet to speak a word to Crouch and vice versa. He quite liked it that way. He had sat on the left side of the desk in an attempt to stay closer to the others, but also so that when he craned his head around to listen to Slughorn, he did not have to see the bitter face of his Potions partner; luckily for him, the silence also did a good job at helping James pretend he was alone.
Of course, that couldn’t last forever.
When Slughorn had begun to explain what the next few weeks would be spent working on, James heard a huff from behind him.
“Can you move your fucking head, please? I can’t see.”
James would be lying if he said he hadn’t jumped a little when he heard Barty’s voice so close to his ear. It was a bit creepy. They hadn’t spoken since their last argument around a year before they arrived at Hogwarts for their first year, so James really shouldn’t have been surprised at how different he sounded, but he was. It was a lot deeper, less meek, more Slytherin-ish, if that even made sense. Hastily, James pushed the thought to the back of his mind and leaned forward, resting his elbow on the desk and his chin on his palm. It took so much to not snap an insult back at him.
Not even a thank you. James wanted to punch him.
“So, that’s the general plan, but for the next two weeks or so, we will be working on brewing some Amortentia. I will be allowing you to have the rest of your potions lessons after next as free periods to spend revising, due to the way the potion must be brewed, so please use them well.”
A murmur of intrigue spread throughout the class, and James felt a small surge of anger as he heard Barty mumble ‘Child’s play,’ under his breath at the mention of Amortentia, as if everyone else besides him, Lily, and Regulus Black were on Outstanding for every single subject.
“Oh, well we all know what Marls is gonna smell when we’re done, don’t we?” Sirius laughed loudly, crossing their arms across her chest and looking down at Marlene, who scowled back at them. Sirius didn’t stop there, he put on a comically high-pitched voice and tilted her head in a dreadful Marlene impression. “Oh, well, I smell the Slytherin common room! And that really nice perfume that Dor-”
She smacked Sirius’ arm and James seriously wished he was over there right now instead of stuck in the corner with a whining, scheming Slytherin. “Get fucked, Black! We all know you’ll just smell yourself, you egotistical prick!”
The whole class, apart from Barty and Snape, broke out into a fit of laughter, and Slughorn looked thoroughly fed up- as if this seating plan wasn’t his idea in the first place.
“That’s enough!” He hollered, cutting through the laughter sharply. “Black, Mckinnon, I am taking five points from each of you for using foul language inside my classroom.”
Marlene raised her arms in protest and Sirius gawked stupidly, slouching in her chair slightly. “But Sir, I thought you loved me! I thought we had something special!”
Slughorn gave a warning look and Sirius rolled their eyes, barely hiding a smile. “Sorry, Professor, not funny.”
James was still grinning to himself as Slughorn kept talking until he heard Barty scoff behind him again.
“Ridiculous Gryffindors, so childish.”
James ignored him again, not wanting to turn around and face him. Seeing him so close up after this many years would probably give James a stroke, so he was putting it off for as long as was physically possible.
“-Of course, it is a rather complex potion, so this first session, or what remains of it, will be dedicated to the theory aspect, and then next lesson, we will begin to brew our amortentia. Now, if we could all open up our books to Section five, that’ll be page-”
James tuned out the rest of what the Professor was saying as he slipped into a small state of panic. He looked down at his desk and inside his bag, rummaging around in case his Potions book had found its way into a tiny crevice, knowing full well that it was under his bed, with teeth marks in it after he’d used it to play tug with Padfoot the previous night. Remus had told him he’d forget it. Maybe he should start to listen more.
James raised his hand. “Um, Sir…yeah, I don’t have my book, it’s in the dorm.”
Apparently, Slughorn had been expecting that, so he didn’t appear too bothered, if anything he looked bored when he waved a hand of dismissal in James’ direction and turned to face the rest of the class.
“Just share Mr Crouch’s book for today. Bring it next time, please. Now, Miss Evans could you please read us the introduction.”
While Lily began to read, James heard a textbook slam down onto the desk between them with an unnecessary level of force behind it.
It was then that James made the decision to look up. The stupid decision to look up. And when he did, it was as if he had just looked Medusa in the eye and his body had set in stone. Okay, maybe that was a little dramatic, but James had spent so long grumbling and ignoring Barty that looking at him properly felt wrong.
He’d lost all of that soft fat around his chin that James had always loved, and his eyes had settled into a perpetually-bored glower as opposed to the curious glisten they used to hold. His skin was the deep tan as it had always been, just with a myriad of small scars, a few he guessed were acne, but some he assumed came from corridor fights. Barty was notorious for unnecessary duels, not that James paid much attention to gossip about him, of course. It was just sort of a known fact throughout the castle.
Another thing he couldn’t help but notice is that though James hadn’t seen Mrs Crouch in over a decade he was quite confident in saying that Barty looked a lot more like his mother than his father. Perhaps that was for the best. James might have gone mad if he had to look at a mini-me of that self-absorbed prick for an entire term.
“What?” The snappy remark caught James off guard, and he stumbled on his words.
“I didn’t say anything. I was reading the book.”
He tried to not notice the eyeroll and head shake he got in response to that. James didn’t like having his intelligence mocked, and this boy was no exception, not anymore. He turned to the book and tried to focus for the last twenty minutes.
When class was finally over, Barty scooped his book back up and slid it into his bag.
“Being your own book next time Potter,” he called over his shoulder while he slung a hand over Dorcas’ shoulders, the two of them leaving in quiet conversation. James stuck his tongue out petulantly after him and heard Remus snort from the other side of the room.
“Sorry,” He cleared his throat. “It’s just that seeing the way you two act together is priceless.” He walks over to James, wrapping an arm around his shoulder in a way mirroring how Barty and Dorcas had just moments before. He lifted out his free arm and Sirius slipped next to him, dragging Peter with them and holding him into her side tightly. The four walked out of the room conjoined, awkwardly managing to manoeuvre their way through the door.
“I’m sorry, Jem, I know how you feel about him.” He was right. Pete was the only one of the Marauders James had been friends with before coming to Hogwarts so he was the only one that knew the reason for his dislike of Barty. He was the only one who knew about their disagreement and the reason they avoided each other like the plague.
“Yeah,” Sirius joined in. “Sitting with Crouch looked like hell. Marls and Lily almost hatched a plan to save you, mate. You looked so miserable. Well, what we could see of you, at least, it’s dark as shit in that corner Sluggy dumped you in, we can only see half of you.”
“He knew exactly what he was doing dumping me there. He’s just looking for ways to shut me up at this point.”
Sirius hummed. “Well, it worked. I’ve never seen you that quiet before. Though I suppose that means we’ll have to listen to you complaining about Crouch all term, now.”
“Ah, you know me so well!” James beamed back at him. “If I have to sit next to him, you have to hear about it.”
Next to them, Peter rolled his eyes and shared a look with Remus. “Oh, joy.”
-
“You may begin.” Slughorn called out to the class, prompting everyone to pick up their books and start poking around at the ingredients.
James stood awkwardly, their chairs had been moved to the back of the room for the practical lesson so he just stayed where he was, looking around the room and waiting for instructions. Trying to take the initiative to do something himself would probably end in a slap to the hand and a vicious scowl.
He watched Barty heat the water in the cauldron and scan the Instructions briefly, then put the book down on the desk, cover-up, clearly having decided he didn’t need it. James watched him work for a few seconds and then interrupted quietly.
“Is there anything I can do?”
Barty glanced up at him for a split second and took in a deep breath that made James feel a little uneasy. “You can measure out the rose thorns.”
James nodded, then stopped. “Can I have the gloves, please?”
For a minute he was certain Barty was going to say no, but then he felt the leather of the gardening gloves being pushed into his hands and accepted them with a half-smile.
“Thanks.”
The scales were on Barty’s side of the worktop, and James didn’t feel like bothering him again was a good idea, so he stepped around the table and picked them up, carrying them back around to the other side. He felt Barty’s glare on him the entire time, which was ridiculous because for once James wasn’t actually doing anything. Carefully, he reached a gloved hand into the small burlap bag and fished around for the scoop. Weighing the rose thorns out wasn’t as bad as doing nothing, but it wasn’t particularly time-consuming, so he tried to stretch it out for as long as possible.
Only a minute or two later, James had measured them out pretty well and went back to looking around the room to see what his friends were doing. Each pair seemed to be splitting the work between them quite well, besides Dorcas. She caught James’ eye and gave him a polite smile, nodding towards Snape who hadn’t seemed to bother letting Dorcas speak or try to join in with the brewing.
James looked back at the instructions to try and figure out where Barty had gotten to, only to realise that he was still working on the peppermint leaves and wouldn’t need the thorns for another ten minutes, leaving James with absolutely nothing to do.
James had never been too great with waiting and Barty knew that. Well, he had known, maybe he’d forgotten after so many years, or perhaps he just didn’t care. Either way, he didn’t offer James anything interesting to do, so he had to find his own entertainment in a way that wouldn’t start a fight.
Although…maybe if he did start a fight, Slughorn would move them away from each other.
No, it wasn’t worth it, James had seen some of Barty’s past opponents and there was no way he was willing to sacrifice his face like that for a chance to sit with someone else.
Eventually, he resorted to attempting to balance out the scales perfectly. He didn’t know why they insisted on giving students the most old-fashioned equipment they could find but this time it came in handy. James tried to balance the arms out to perfection for what was likely over five minutes, taking thorns off one by one and placing others on, watching the scales twitch intently.
When he’d gotten as close as he could, James looked back over at the cauldron and saw that it was nearly time for the thorns. There was a black ramekin on the table in front of him, so he scraped them into it and took the gloves off, patiently waiting.
Barty stirred the potion clockwise a few times and looked around for the thorns. James couldn’t help but proudly smile when he handed the bowl over, watching them plop into the shimmery potion a few at a time.
The mixture was stirred five more times and then Barty flicked his wand to stop heating the cauldron.
“Potter, quick, find the silk cloth, it needs to be put on top before the potion starts to cool.”
Part of James wanted to tell him to do it himself, but the other half was glad that he got to do something again. It was more than he had been expecting, to be frank.
He looked around for the white silk, seeing it folded up at the corner of the desk. He grabbed it, let it fall open, and gently drifted it over the top of the cauldron.
“Done,” He clapped. “Now what?”
Barty dragged his hair out of his face and started gathering empty bottles and used utensils.
“Did you not read the instruction? We have to leave it and come back every day to check on it and add the rest of the ingredients until it’s done. Help me clear up.”
James picked up the bag of thorns and unused moonstone, looking around to see if anyone else had finished. Lily and Sybill were close but apart from that, nobody else had finished. Even Snape was still working, scribbling down notes in his book and ignoring the fact Dorcas had joined Peter and Mariah.
“We finished before everyone else.”
Not seeming to care too much, Barty cast a glance around the rest of the room and hummed. “That’s because I am efficient, Potter. Take these to Slughorn’s desk, I’ll deal with the extra ingredients.”
James obeyed, but not without an eyeroll and sarcastic curtsey that got no reaction whatsoever. He walked over and put them in front of the professor, seeing Barty walk past him to the storage cupboard, placing the ingredients back where they belonged.
Slughorn looked up at James and beamed.
“Ah, Mr Potter, done already? I had a feeling pairing you two together would be a good idea. Mr Crouch is an extremely talented potioneer, isn’t he? Almost as clever as your father, if I remember our school years correctly.”
Trying not to scream, James nodded politely. “Yes, Professor. Can I go now?”
“Ah, don’t be so hasty, Mr Potter. Mr Crouch, could you come here for a moment? Thank you, my boy.” He looked at the two of them proudly. “Well done on finishing so soon. I would just like to remind you to come down each evening for the next four nights so you can finish your potion if you’d like to decide on a time now.”
“Can you do seven O’clock each night?”
James stood and blinked stupidly for a few seconds. “Oh, um, yeah, I think so.”
“Perfect!” Slughorn took a note and smiled up at the boys. “If you wouldn’t mind, could the two of you please go and assist the other students for the remainder of the lesson?”
Without a moment's hesitation, James made a beeline towards Sirius.
-
The corridor was damp and dark by the time James got down there that evening, and he briefly debated not showing up and just wandering off instead. Probably too late now.
He cracked the door to the classroom open and peered inside, seeing who he assumed was Barty standing at their desk, stirring the potion.
James walked into the room quietly and stopped next to him.
“You can leave the door open to let some light in, you know.”
Naturally, James wasn’t given the leisure of being looked at, the potion kept all of the Slytherin’s attention.
“I like privacy when I’m working.” Something about his tone told James that meant ‘shut up’ as well as being a response to the question.
More out of safety for his well-being than out of genuine respect, James remained silent for almost two whole minutes.
“So, what are we looking for?”
“I need to stir it until it goes a brighter pink, but stop before I spoil it and it goes red.”
James tried not to talk any more, he really did. “What happens if it’s red?”
“If you drink it?” James nods. “It serves as a hatred potion instead, as the textbook says. You should read it sometime.”
It was pretty obvious that James was expected to stop talking, so he did. They stood side by side and watched the potion, waiting to see the colour change, which proved to be quite difficult in the dark, even with the pearly shimmer it was emitting.
Without thinking, James cast Lumos and held his wand over the cauldron so it was easier to see. Barty didn’t thank him, but he did nod, and that was good enough for James, given they had stubbornly avoided each other for six whole years.
Neither of them spoke while they waited for the potion to shift colours, and when it eventually did, Barty didn’t say anything, he just stopped stirring, replacing the cloth and turning to leave.
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
-
The next night, James showed up at exactly 7 and realised that, once again, Barty was already there working. This time, however, he had lit a candle on the desk to light up the space a little.
“We just stirring it again?” He asked, but spoke again before Barty could answer. “Sorry, stupid question. I read the book, there’s a load more of this, isn’t there? A whole week.”
“Well, technically, we aren’t administering it to anybody, so we can skip out on the last steps. That gives us only two days left after this.”
James nodded.
It was quiet. He didn’t like quiet.
“So…how was your day?”
Once again, Barty didn’t even look over at him. “Why are you talking to me?”
“Just trying to start conversation.” James shrugged.
“Well don’t.”
James let the silence settle for a few minutes, then leaned an elbow against the worktop.
“So,” He smiled smugly, knowing exactly what he was doing. “How’s your father?”
James was instantly met with the coldest glare he’d ever seen. But hey, it had worked. He’d gotten his attention. Barty only seemed to realise James’ plan when he began to laugh.
“I knew that would work!”
“Bastard,” He spat, but James saw the glint of humour in his eye. Some things never changed, then, if there was anything Barty had always loved, it was the sly and clever.
“I can’t believe you fell for it so easily.”
James practically bathed in the tired look he got in return. It wasn’t bored anymore, or disgusted, it was almost a smile, but he didn’t let himself think that.
“I swear to Merlin, if you don’t stop looking so smug, I am contractually obliged to punch your stupid face right here and now.”
“Oh?” James only grew smugger. “How intimate.”
“Potter, I swear to Merlin-“
James opened his mouth to say another snide remark but instead found himself jumping out of his skin and pointing frantically.
“Potion!”
They both surged forward, not sure what they were aiming to do to stop the masses of bubbles spilling from it.
Barty grabbed his wand and lowered the heat it was getting, watching it calm down to a simmer. He looked at its pink shimmer and licked his lower lip in frustration.
“What?” James hissed. “Is it ruined?”
“No,” James sighed in relief as if he was the one to put all the dedication into it. “By some miracle, it’s fine. This,” He jabbed James in the chest with his wand. “Is why you don’t distract me when I’m working.”
“Sorry?” James stepped back and smiled sheepishly.
“Just…go back to your common room, it’s nearly done anyway.”
James didn’t argue. He walked towards the door quietly, turning around in the doorway to say something hit rolling his eyes and leaving without another word.
-
James didn't show up the next night. He had planned on telling Barty beforehand but after the events of the previous night he thought it better not to. Working with him was like treading on eggshells and James hated it.
On the final night of brewing the amortentia, James arrived a few minutes late.
“Hello,” James smiled and walked over to the desk, hoping he'd be able to cheer Barty up enough to not be hexed for missing last night. His plan was thwarted immediately. “I almost thought you weren't going to show up. You weren't here yesterday.”
“Er, yeah, sorry about that; I was gonna tell you but…there was something important I needed to do. Friend things, Remus…yeah, I'm sorry, I had to-”
“I don't need to hear about your friends, Potter.”
James tried to brighten the mood. “You say that like you don't believe they're my friends.”
Well done, James, that was the least cheery thing you could have said.
“Just…shut up.”
James nodded.
He looked at the desk, noticing a jar he hadn't seen there before.
“Are those the ashwinder eggs?” Did that prove that he'd read the textbook? Hopefully.
“Mhm.”
“Nice.”
All James could hear for the next few minutes was the gentle bubbling of the potion.
“So…”
Closing his eyes on exasperation, Barty kissed his teeth and put his wand down on the countertop.
“Are you trying to start conversation again?”
James dragged a stool away from the wall and sat on it, managing a proud grin.
“Are you going to let me?”
There was a split-second of hesitation as Barty looked him up and down, trying to weight out his options.
“I suppose it couldn't hurt.”
“Great!” James perked up. “So, I'm curious.” He led.
“Oh?”
“Yup!” He clasped his hands together and leant forward. “Why haven't you hexed me yet? It's public knowledge that I'm really annoying and I know I get on your nerves.”
Barty looked at him from the corner of his eye and then directed his gaze back to the cauldron with a shrug. “You're not worth it.”
“Worth it?”
“My time and energy.”
James couldn't help but laugh. “I'm honoured.”
“That wasn't a compliment,” Barty looked down but James could see the stifled smile on his face.
“Oh, but I'm going to take it as one,” He leaned forward even more, almost close enough to be hit with the steam of the potion.
Barty picked up the jar and held it out to him. When James looked on blankly, he shook it a little, holding it closer.
“Come on, crush these up and add them in so we can call it a team effort.”
“How kind of you,” He took the jar and opened it, pouring the shells into the mortar and then looking up for confirmation that he was doing it right.
“I measured them out before you got here.”
James started to grind up the shells, a soppy grin on his face. “How very thoughtful.”
“Stop smiling and pay attention to what you're doing, we only have a five minute window to add those in.”
He finished crushing the shells and tipped them into the potion, watching it change colour.
“Don't you need to mix it?”
“Hm? Oh, shit, I do.”
James watched while he stirred the mixture, witnessing it shift to a pearlescent pink.
"I forgot you knew how to be nice to people, you know," James blurted out, regretting it immediately.
"Did you? Well, Potter, I am human too."
"No, it's just that you don't really see people the same when you're not friends with them, do you?"
Barty frowned at him. "What are you trying to get at?"
The potion popped and sizzled, signifying that it was done.
They both stood and stared at it; barty gestured towards it and waited for James to step forward and smell it. He did. Instantly, he wanted to climb onto the table and dive into it, it smelled perfect. He knew there was a dopey beam on his face but he didn't care, it was heavenly.
“Well?”
He looked up. “It works. Want to know what I smell?”
Barty raised an eyebrow at him. “Not particularly.”
“Well, I'll tell you anyway,” He leaned in to smell it again. “It’s sugar quills, there’s a...forest, maybe? Then it's pomegranate. There’s something else there too but I can’t quite put my finger on it…oh! It's um...rhubarb! Like a crumble or something...that's it! Rhubarb crumble like the one your mu-” James cleared his throat and pulled away from the cauldron, sitting back on his stool.
Of course. Of course the last thing he'd smell in the amortentia was the arrogant Slytherin across from him. Or, at least, a smell he had come to associate with him. It wasn't as if he'd smelled the actual Barty either, it had definitely come from the potion seeing as there was no way Barty had managed to make a crumble at 7pm on a school night, because they didn't serve it in the great hall.
He was yanked out of his thoughts by Barty’s voice.
“What?”
He stood up and walked to the edge of the desk, too far from the potion to be able to smell it anymore.
“Nothing. You try it.”
James watched Barty lean over the cauldron and close his eyes, taking on whatever scent it was. Probably death and suffering, if that had a smell. He waited for him to describe the smell but he never did. Instead, Barty smiled and moved back, not showing any indication of wanting to tell James what it was.
“So, what is it?”
“Just trying to pinpoint what it is,” He rolled his sleeves up and bottled a small amount to show Slughorn in their next lesson.
“Hey, that's not fair! I told you what I smelt.”
There was a weird look on Barty’s face when he turned around to look at James. If he wasn't mistaken, James would say he looked amused. It was a look he hadn't seen on Barty for years now.
“It's true,” He paused. “Can you help me figure out what it is?”
James didn't exactly know how he could help, or what he was agreeing to, but he nodded anyway. “Okay…”
He felt a hand on his arm, tugging him closer. “Come here,” Though he didn't know why, James did. When they were standing close enough to look each other in the eye, Barty moved to the side and brought his face up to James' cheek, inhaling deeply. It was a bit concerning.
“What in Merlin’s name are you doing?”
He stepped back, letting go of James’ arm and nodding as if that explained things.
“Yes, it was definitely that. See you next lesson.”
With that, he turned and walked away, leaving James alone, speechless.