Barty was up hitting a bludger at Mckinnon when he saw him. Regulus had just gotten hit right in the back by a bludger when he and the Gryffindor seeker were racing for the snitch. With a sickening crack, he flew off the front of his broom and was falling towards the ground, fast. Barty flew as fast as he could to get to him. He could barely hear Lupin commenting over the sound of the wind rushing past his ears and his mind saying over and over to not let Regulus touch the ground.
He was reaching out to Regulus but couldn't quite reach him and the ground was rapidly becoming closer to them. He finally grabbed Regulus just a few yards away from the ground and pulled up as fast and hard as he could. As soon as he came to a stop he jumped off his broom with Regulus in his arms.
“Mister Crouch follow me, he needs to get to the hospital wing right away. You know if you hadn't caught him when you did he would have been much worse off.” Madam Pomfrey said as she came rushing towards them.
When they got to the hospital wing Barty layed Regulus down on one of the beds and sat down by him. While Pomfrey was bustling around regulus and casting diagnostic spells, Barty was grabbing Regulus’ hand and tried to catch his breath. When he grabbed his hand he felt something in it. He opened his hand to find the golden snitch.
While Pomfrey healed Regulus, Evan came into the hospital wing and sat in the chair next to Barty. He didn’t say anything, just sat there.
“He can go back to your common room when he wakes up, but make sure if anything is wrong he comes back, alright.” Madam Pomfrey told Barty and Evan.
They both nodded.
Regulus ended up waking up about 15 minutes later.
“Barty” Regulus mumbled.
“I’m right here, Reg.” Barty said softly, squeezing Regulus’ hand and kissing him on the forehead.
“Don't call me that.” Regulus said, sitting up in the bed, ”So, when can I get out of here?”
Evan handed him a glass of water, to which he mumbled a thank you and took a few big sips.
“Pomfrey said whenever you woke up.” Barty replied.
“Okay, let's go then.” he said, swinging his legs off the bed to stand up. He then grabbed his wand off the bedside table and began walking toward the doors. Evan and Barty got up to follow him as they all walked down the corridors to the dungeons.
When they got to the entrance to the Slytherin common room they said the password and walked in. It was fairly crowded when they got in because the party had just gotten started.
“You guys go up to the dorm. I’m gonna see what drinks they got.” Evan said as he walked over to the table off to the side to get, as he said, a drink.
Regulus and Barty walked up the stairs to the fifth year boys dormitory. The three of them were the only people in their year so they got the dorm to themselves for now.
Regulus changed out of his quidditch robes and into some comfier everyday robes. When he was done changing, Barty beckoned him over to his bed where he had already laid down. When Regulus got close enough Barty grabbed him by the waist and pulled him into the bed with him. Regulus made some sort of noise between a squeak and a squeal when he was pulled.
Barty maneuvered them around so he was wrapped around Regulus like an octopus. His right leg was over Regulus and his arm was wrapped around him with his head under Regulus’ chin.
“What's wrong?” Regulus said softly as to not disturb the soft atmosphere.
“It's nothing.” Barty mumbled, pushing his head further into Regulus’ chest.
“There’s something.” He replied, holding Barty a bit tighter. “You get even clinger when somethings wrong.”
“You scared me. I didn't know if I was gonna catch you in time and it scared me. You looked so peaceful and the bluder hit you so hard I thought something bad happened.”
“But you caught me. That's all that matters.”
“I almost didn't though. You were so close to the ground. If I was just 2 seconds later in catching you, you would have hit the ground, and if I was a second later in pulling my broom up we both would have gotten hurt badly.”
“But you didn't and we’re both okay.” Regulus kissed his forehead and gave him a squeeze.
They laid there in silence until they eventually fell asleep.
When Evan came up to bed and he saw them lying there, he went to his desk and grabbed his muggle polaroid camera and took a picture of them. They were wrapped up in eachothers arms like nothing else mattered, like their only problems were quidditch injuries and homework. Not the war, or abusive parents. Just them, lying in each others arm.