Roses are red enough to kill
Remus was wandering the halls, not particularly hungry and also still being free of his responsibilities to attend class for a few more hours. The fight between Barty and Evan had left him wide awake, so sleeping was no option either.
He was kind of wondering what it had been about, after all it did not seem like a small tirgger for the fight either.
Since they had stormed out, Remus hadn’t seen Barty nor Evan anywhere and he was kind of worried for them. Emotions made you do stupif stuff after all.
Just as that thought crossed his mind, he heard wild commotion from one of the classrooms. It sounded as if Peeves had found a new place to wreak havoc on.
Remus sighed. He was still a prefect after all and he really did not have anything better to do at the moment, so he was practically obligated to check, wasn’t he?
Taking a deep breath, he braced himself for whatever was coming, a completely ruined classroom, scared first graders or just a pet that got lost, in the best case.
However, when he pushed open the door, it was none of that.
“Barty?”
He was standing at the far side of the room, breathing heavily, staring down at his hands. At first, he didn’t even respond, but when Remus stepped closer he turned around.
He had obviously cried and punched something. His knuckles were bleeding and possibly even more messed up than visible on the outside. His body was shaking and he stared at Remus with blank eyes.
“Stay. Don’t come closer” he whispered lowly.
Remus raised his hands “I won’t, don’t worry. I can just leave if you want”
“No, don’t leave. Just stay there.”
Remus nodded, sitting down on one of the desks, looking at Barty.
He was a mess. As much as Remus wanted to ask about Evan, he felt it would just anger Barty even more and that was the last thing he wanted. So instead, he watched as Barty walked over to close the door, before sitting down on the window board.
“You got a cig?” Barty asked after a long moment of silence and Remus felt around his pockets, nodding eventually and pulling out a pack, giving it to Barty, who surprisingly allowed him to walk over. He also took one, lighting it with his wand before sitting down again.
Barty looked out of the window for a while, falling silent again, before he let out a long sigh and ran his hand through his hair.
“I shouldn’t have said a thing.”
“Huh?”
“To Evan. I brought up some shit I know he hates to talk about and I pushed him and he freaked and I got angry. That’s what happened. You wanted to know, didn’t you? That’s why you stayed.”
Remus could feel his face burn a little as Barty called it out like that. Of course, he was worried about Barty, but yes, he was also somewhat curious, who wouldn’t be.
“You can say it. It’s normal to be curious.” Barty almost smiled now. He took a long drag of his cigarette and turned to look at Remus directly.
“Can’t say I’m not curious about you, Lupin.”
Remus stared for a moment.
“Me? Why?”
That was Barty Crouch Jr. right there, he came from a rich pureblood family, he probably had mostly everything he wanted. Then again, he came from a long line of Ravenclaws and here he was, a Slytherin, not too ashamed of it either.
“You show up and everyone somehow cares about you, I’m not too indifferent about you myself. You mysteriously fit in between everyone at the party despite all of them knowing who - what - you are. And you pique Regulus’ interest. Not many can say that of themselves.”
Remus could have sworn that his heart stopped for a second there, only to run a marathon afterwards. Regulus was interested in him? That revelation shouldn’t affect him as much as it did. But he wasn’t anything special, was he? He was just Remus Lupin, the werewolf.
“I would tell you to go for it if I had any say in it. No one can say how long we’ll live for and no one wants to die with regrets now, do they?”
Remus looked at Barty, tilting his head slightly. He didn’t fully get what he was playing at, however before he could ask, Barty spoke again.
“Anyways, you are here because of me. I think it is only fair that I tell you more about me.” He sighed, leaning his head against the window.
“Evan and I have been incredibly close for years now, practically since I can think. Sure, I know most of the pureblood kids here, but I just always got along with him best.”
Remus just nodded along, letting him talk. Barty obviously just needed someone to listen to him and Remus was glad he could be that person to him.
“He was always smaller and more emotional than everyone. He even cried because his stupid pet fish died when he was 10. Meanwhile, people like Regulus get tortured on a regular basis and don't say a word” Barty gritted his teeth and looked back at Remus.
“I am not saying he is weak. He is damned strong. He went through things that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But sometimes I think he is just not cut out for the life that was given to him, you know? And he noticed and thought I was babying him and he didn’t want that so he pushed me away. I regret it so much and I tried fixing him, telling him that I never thought he was weak at all.
And when you guys went out - he will kill me for telling you this - we actually had gotten closer again before. And he finally let me touch him again and we…we kissed, finally. Do you know how long I waited for that?
But I noticed something about him. Evan isn’t well, Lupin. I knew that for years but it has gotten worse and I couldn’t help but ask him about it and when I did, he didn’t answer at all and tried to play it off.
So I exploded. When I care for someone and they are hurting, it hurts me too. And when they refuse to let me help them, it just makes me feel helpless. I hate feeling helpless, especially when it comes to someone I love. I can’t control my emotions all too well, so that didn’t make it better. I didn’t mean to scream at him-”
Barty cut himself off. He stared out of the window and from the movement of his body and the quiet sniffles, it was obvious that he was crying at least a bit. Remus didn’t want to say anything, yet he wanted to comfort him.
He pulled out a chocolate bar from his bag and handed it to Barty.
“Take it, it’ll make you feel at least a little better. Especially since you ate nothing at all.”
Barty hesitantly took the bar with a grateful nod, weighing it in his hands for a moment before carefully opening it.
“Bloody hell, I don’t even know why I am telling you any of that.” he laughed darkly, but there was a hint of humor in his eyes. “You’re a good listener, Remus.”
Remus. Not Lupin. Did he actually trust him now?
“You know, if you ever want to go for it, you got my blessing” there it was again, the mischievous smirk that slowly crept over his face, the one that Remus had seen on him all week. But he didn’t understand and it seemed to be obvious on his face.
“Regulus. He needs someone good in his life. And you could use some proper training”
The joke wasn’t lost on Remus and he laughed, albeit annoyed
“Oi shut up you idiot” he grinned, pressing out his cigarette on the windowsill.
Never would Remus have expected to make friends amongst the Slytherins, but here he was, having shared a cigarette and some secrets with Barty. And it didn’t feel wrong, not entirely.