Larded With Sweet Flowers {ON HIATUS}

Larded with sweet flowers. Which bewept to the ground did not go. With true-love showers.

“Barty, nobody in their right mind would look at you and automatically think ‘Oh yes, I would totally go to the leavers’ ball with him’ you’re too…dramatic and spontaneous. You’re the exact kind of guy people would expect to be screwed over by in less than two days,” He sighed. “Kind of like my brother,” He remarked as a side-thought. Regulus laughed at Barty’s reaction to that comparison and continued. “You are probably right that they would go with you because you’re pretty, I mean you are…but I feel like your reputation precedes you. And your reputation…well, it tells everyone to stay away because you’re sharp and judgemental with a tendency to say stupid things. You have no chance, Bar,” He dropped his potions book onto the bedside table and slinked around the mess Barty had scattered throughout their shared room so he could sit down on his bed in that slightly-too-posh way he always did. “Right, Ev?”

Evan finally looked up from what he was reading, clearly not too keen on joining in on a conversation about Barty’s love life. “Hmm? Oh…erm, yeah, sure, right,” He looked back down as soon as Regulus smiled and nodded, raising a hand in a gesture towards him, turning his gaze back to Barty.

“See? Even Evan agrees and they’re like a loyal little puppy towards you!” This comment made Evan look over the top of his book once more and glare at Regulus, who just shrugged. “Sorry Ev, I’m only speaking the truth,” He sighed and looked at his book again, though he had lost all motivation to read it now, feeling too self-conscious to concentrate on the story. Why did Regulus have to make it sound like they were in love with Barty? It was almost like he wanted Barty to find out about his pathetic crush and laugh at him about it. Just because he had the perfect Gryffindor boyfriend waiting for him with a big mansion or some shit.

“No, he doesn’t! There is no way my dearest little Ev agrees with your crap. He’s just saying that to shut you up so they can stick their nose back in that little book, just like you do. Come on Reg, we have like eight months, I could easily get a date, don’t ya think, Ev?” He sat down rather heavily next to Evan and slung an arm around his shoulder, nudging him in the ribs with his other hand to get his attention.

Evan paused, moving the book closer to his face and not looking at either of his friends in the hopes they would leave him alone. “Sure you could.”

“Hmm, I detect sarcasm there Mr Rosier.” Regulus smirked at Barty, who grabbed Evan’s book, a rather old muggle bookRegulus had found a few years back, and threw it at Regulus’ face.

Evan’s mouth dropped open and he reached forward to grab the book, failing spectacularly as it flew right past him and slammed into Regulus’ hand, where he had covered his face to protect it from the impact of the leather-bound giant of a book. “BARTY! I was reading that!” He hissed.

Regulus scowled and threw the book back to Evan, who caught it softly and opened it, finding his page and marking it. Regulus leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms dramatically. “Yeah Crouch, don’t abuse the book, have you forgotten that Evan is just borrowing it? If there is one dent in that gorgeous leather cover, I will personally skin you and force you to buy a new one.”

Barty leaned forward slightly, his arm still comfortably draped across Evan’s shoulders. “Wouldn’t skinning me first be a bit counterproductive? Just because…well…I would be dead…so I couldn’t really buy a new one…”

“That isn’t the point. The point is that you still can’t get a date to the ball no matter how much you say you can.”

“Yes, I most certainly can get a date! And anyway, I don’t need girls to be happy, if all goes to shit, Ev will go with me like the loyal husband they are, won’t you Evs?” He pinched Evan’s cheek playfully, getting a slap to the wrist as he let his hand drop back to the boy’s shoulder.

Evs, how was it that three letters were able to make Evan stop breathing for a solid 5 seconds? He knew it was pathetic, the nickname was essentially the same as Ev and they both called him that name all the time so this one shouldn’t seem too different. But something about Evs felt more… intimate?... affectionate? It was something only a ridiculous teen boy would think, nobody who had passed that awkward stage of finding absolutely everything gratuitously embarrassing would have thought that and the cheesiness of it made Evan hate himself for it even more. When Evan realised that they had been silent for a few more seconds than they should have been, he quickly moved his hand to look like he was casually inspecting his nails and nodded a little faster than what would have looked natural. “...Sure, Barty.”

Barty’s hand moved to brush his shoulder gently as he frowned. “You okay, Ev? You seem tense.”

“Yeah, perfectly,” He didn’t look up from the floor, regretting the bluntness of his voice almost immediately.

“Someone’s in a mood,” They heard Barty huff and felt him take his arm away and stand up, knocking the book out of Evan’s hands, causing Regulus to breathe through his teeth. Barty rolled his eyes, walking over to his own bed and flopping onto it like a boneless fish. Evan just stood up, picked up the book from the floor and sat back down again, opening it and bringing it back up to his face. He heard a quiet ‘Unbelievable’ from the bed to the side as Barty propped himself up against the headboard before returning his attention to Regulus.

He groaned. “I’m never gonna get a date am I?”

“Nope.”

“Brilliant.”

Regulus just shrugged as a ‘sorry’ and walked over to the bookshelf to pick something to read.

“So that’s it? You’re both just going to sit down and read? You aren’t even going to pretend you’re bothered? That you are upset for me in the slightest?”

“I mean I don’t see why it’s that big a deal, I don’t have a date yet either.”

He laughed sharply and held up a hand, like he was presenting a demonstration to an audience. “Yes, but that, Regulus, is because you went with Potter to his leavers’ ball last year, so technically, if he still came here, you would have a date. I don’t have a blind, vain Gryffindor who would’ve taken me to the ball if he could, I have literally no excuse! Besides, aren’t you going with that Nott girl? I thought you two were going as friends?”

He turned the page he was on and placed a small slip of paper in the spine and looked up, unimpressed. “You’re being dramatic. And no, I will not be going with Pandora, as she is not actually going. She has been allowed to leave a week before graduation so she can meet with her girlfriend in time for their move to Belgium, which you would know if you paid even the slightest shred of attention to her when she speaks to us,” Regulus placed his book down next to him, an eyebrow raised at Barty.

“I’m sorry but she’s just weird, I don’t get why you like her.”

“She is a good friend! She’s clever and kind and a really good person to debate with!”

“Sure. Anyway, I need advice. How did you even get Potter to take you last year anyway?”

“What, apart from by dating him for a year beforehand? And, as I have mentioned several times, we didn’t go together as far as everyone else knows. I went to wish my brother farewell one final time. Do you really think if I had have shown up to the 7th years' leavers ball as James Potter’s date, I would have gotten out of there alive?” 

Barty groaned loudly and flopped forward, his face falling rather dramatically into his bedsheets. “You are so fucking useless, Black.”

“Language.”

That was the first contribution to the conversation Evan had made for a good few minutes and they hadn’t even looked up from their book to do it.

“If you’re so worried about what’s coming out of my mouth, why don’t you shut it up yourself, Rosier?”

“Disgusting.”  Both Evan and Regulus commented in equally monotone voices, though Evan had to put a great deal of effort into not thinking about the comment. This joint remark only seemed to egg Barty on even more.

He grinned at Evan, clearly having forgotten he was supposed to be irritated with him. “Oh, come on Rosebud, you know you want to,” Evan only sighed that time.

In Evan’s eyes, there was no nickname as utterly infuriating as Rosebud. It made him want to pick up the nearest vase and smash it right over the head of whoever had said it. Ironically, the only person who called him that was Barty, who said it every time he did that annoying flirting thing. They could have sworn Barty did it just to irritate him enough to murder somebody. He had never seen him do it to everyone else and it was pretty clearly just a joke so he probably did it once, saw how flustered and irritated it made them and from that point on made it his life aim to keep doing it until Evan combusted. Usually, Evan would teasingly flirt back, just because he liked seeing how Barty smiled afterwards but he had been doing it increasingly less recently, as they realised just how much worse it made them feel afterwards, it felt almost like life was teasing him with what he wanted, then reminding them that it is just a joke and that he is stupid enough to believe for a second that it might not be. To anyone watching, it may look like they were together, Evan hated that because he knew that no matter how it looked to others, that would never even come close to being the case in reality.

Naturally, Regulus just had to point this out. “You know, I bet half the castle thinks you’re engaged or something at this point. I’m surprised Snape didn’t bully you for it before he graduated.”

“Oh, come on Reg, don’t say that like it’s a bad thing. I for one would be honoured to be engaged to our dear friend here. And I know for sure that my sweet little Rosebud over here would be flattered beyond words to be rumoured to be marrying this handsome face, right, Evs?”

Evs, there it was again. He felt his stomach knot at the sound of it. “Right.”

Barty’s grin suddenly dropped and Evan had to close his eyes and take a deep breath, as not to scream at himself for doing that. Barty sat up straight and stared right at him. “What is up with you today? You’ve been sitting there for hours on the same page of that bloody book and refusing to talk to me properly. I bet you can’t even tell me what that fucking book is about! Has something happened? Did I do something? Was it because I grouped with Reg in potions? Look I’m sorry Ev, I didn’t know it would-”

Evan hated it when Barty blamed himself for things. It was ridiculously out of character for him, Barty was usually very much ‘blame my father or the Gryffindors for everything, it is never me’ and it somewhat panicked Evan to see him worried about something being his fault. It sounded stupid to say, but it showed a glimpse of vulnerability and Evan hated that they made him feel like that.

“Oh, no, no it isn’t that. You didn’t- no you didn’t do anything. It’s fine, I’m sorry I’ve been a twat, I’m just…tired,” He lied, with an extremely forced smile.

At that, Barty smiled and waved a dismissive hand at him, seeming to accept the explanation. Whether he truly believed it or not, Evan didn’t know, but he was glad he wasn’t getting an interrogation instead. “Ah, you could never be a twat Ev, just a bit of a nuisance. Are you sure it wasn’t me though? You just seemed particularly impatient with me.”

“Nah, you’re just significantly more energetic than Regulus, he wasn’t in need of such…excited replies,” He reasoned.

Barty smiled thinly and nodded. “Right. You gonna go to sleep then? Seeing as you’re just tired?”

“Uh, yeah, probably. Sorry.”

Regulus stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. You do look tired…get some rest, I’ll try to get him to shut up so you can relax.”

“Oi! I am perfectly capable of being quiet, thank you!”

“Pft. Sure.” Regulus rolled his eyes and patted Evan’s shoulder once more. “ ‘night Ev.”

He smiled and grabbed his pyjamas, pulling the curtain of his bed closed behind him. “Night Reg.”

“ ‘Night Ev!” Barty called through.

“Goodnight Barty.’ They called back, though with slightly less energy than Barty had done.

-

Evan was angry.

Barty knew Evan was angry. He also knew that it was somehow his fault. Since Evan had decided to sleep early, all Barty had been able to think about was why he possibly could have done to upset him so much. When he thought about it more, Evan hadn’t really been at his best for a while now. Surely he couldn’t just have been tired, Barty had shared a dorm with Evan for 7 years now so he knew that they weren't the kind to snap when they were tired, it had to be something else. But then, why had Regulus been so quick to agree that Evan was only tired? Was he just stupidly agreeing with Evan on everything? Did he really know him that little? Or maybe it was Barty who didn’t know them at all? Maybe Regulus knew why Evan was angry at Barty and was helping him get away from him. Merlin, he hoped not. He didn’t think he could deal with Evan not trusting him with something.

He had tried to ask Regulus if he knew anything but all he got in response was ‘I don’t know Barty, you heard him, he’s tired. Just leave it.’ Which he thought was not only thoroughly unhelpful, but also made him feel even more guilty about everything. It was definitely looking like it was Barty’s fault. 

Whichever way he tried to look at it, Barty knew for certain that he had done something wrong and he hated it. He did bad things all the time, it was practically his job at this point. But doing something bad and not knowing what he had done was quite possibly the worst thing he had ever felt. He hated being in the dark as it was but knowing that he had hurt Evan of all people without even noticing what he had done was just on another level of infuriating. 

Evan hating him and not even trusting him to know why may as well be the bane of his existence.

Okay, maybe that was a tad dramatic…but it was true that the thought of one of the only two people he cared about beside his mother hating him was one he couldn’t bear. Actually, when he thought about it, for some reason, it felt worse than the idea of Regulus hating him. Far worse.

He had spent hours thinking about all this shit and had completely given up on sleep at that point. Every time he tried to relax, another thought about how he had angered Evan surfaced and kept him up even longer. 

It was soon 12 o’clock and he still had not been able to figure out what he had done wrong.

“Fucking hell,” He muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose and clenched his eyes shut, thoroughly annoyed at his own brain by now. “This is tedious.”

He sat in silence for a few more seconds before looking up at the sound of a voice, despite knowing the curtains around his bed had been drawn shut hours before. 

“Barty?”

Great. Evan.

He didn’t reply. He knew he wasn’t ready to deal with Evan being brash and distant again just yet.

He heard the rustling of bedsheets from across the room. “I know you’re awake, Bartemius.”

Trust Evan to press just the right buttons to get an automatic response out of him.

“Don’t call me that, Rosier.”

He could practically hear the smile in Evan’s voice. “Knew that would work,” It was silent for a few seconds further before Evan sighed and spoke again. “C’mon, I know you’re stressed, I can practically hear your brain whirring. Come here and talk to me about it,” He paused again. “I promise I’m not mad at you.”

Barty only huffed. “I’m fine, thanks.” He really didn’t want to bother Evan at that time, especially seeing as they were already mad at him. To further worsen things, he wouldn’t even be able to remedy the issue by apologising, seeing as he had no clue what he had done in the first place. What a shit friend he was.

“Barty.” Evan’s voice was firmer than before.

Giving in, Barty sighed and slowly sat up, sliding out of bed and walking across the gap between the two beds. He opened the curtain slightly and stuck his head through. “Hi.”

“Hey.” Evan looked up at him and shuffled further away, patting the space next to him. “Sit down.”

They did this sometimes. Sitting and chatting. It felt familiar. They would often do this with Regulus too, when he wasn’t busy telling them about how much he needed his ‘beauty sleep’. 

Barty cast a silencing charm around the bed so as not to bother Regulus and they sat in an awkward state of silence.

Evan spoke first. “What’s wrong? I heard you muttering.”

He shrugged. “Don’t know. Can’t sleep.”

Evan nodded. “Yeah, yeah me neither.”

They stayed where they were for what Barty guessed to be around 3 minutes before Evan turned to look at him and stared, his face unreadable.

A few moments later they reached forward, paused, then continued, picking up Barty’s hand with their own and brushing their thumb across his fingers thoughtfully.

“What’s really wrong? I can tell you’re not fine. I’m not an idiot. You’re all shy and quiet, you’re never quiet. It’s very…un-Barty of you.”

Hearing that, Barty shrugged and thought about what to say in response. He eventually gave up and groaned, letting his face fall into Evan’s chest, feeling them tense up slightly as he did. That confused him, Barty was a very physical person, Evan knew this and had never said anything before, why was he suddenly so touchy? He had literally just held his hand a minute ago, what was going on with him? Maybe it was because he was angry with him. Probably.

Just as he was about to lift his head from Evan’s chest and apologise, he felt Evan’s hand rest on the back of his neck, letting it linger for a moment before raising it and gently stroking his fingers through Barty’s hair. “Tell me.”

After a moment of debating whether to ask what was really on his mind or make up a worry, Barty sighed and gave in. “Do you hate me?”

-

“What?” Evan pulled Barty away slightly, in order to look at him properly, sitting himself up against the headboard and keeping a hand on Barty’s arm. 

“Why do you think I hate you?”

“Why do you hate me? I don’t want to theorise, I just want you to tell me the truth, Evan.”

Fuck. fuck fuck fuck. Barty thought they hated him, he genuinely believed that Evan hated him.

He had also called him Evan.

Barty never called him Evan. It was always either Ev or Evs, sometimes Rosier if he was being patronising and if he was doing that stupid flirting thing it would be Evan’s least favourite nickname, Rosebud. But not Evan. Never Evan.

Not unless he was irritated with him.

Which he really did appear to be.

Fuck.

Barty was unable to sleep because he genuinely believed that Evan hated him. 

Barty was usually the more physical friend out of the two of them, Evan tended to keep a limit to how physically affectionate he was due to how embarrassingly flustered and nervous he got every time he even hugged Barty. He always accepted the contact, of course, and enjoyed it, too. It was just that he didn’t usually initiate it. But right now, he didn’t have the words he needed to say and knew that sitting still in silence would do nothing but send the wrong message, so they leaned forward and pulled his friend into the softest hug they could manage. He tried as much as he could to show that he was not angry or disgusted with him at all. 

He was just tired. Truthfully tired. Tired of school, tired of the demanding, insensitive letters from his family, tired of pretending he wasn’t hopelessly in love with his test friend. So fucking tired. Not angry, tired. That was all. 

Evan rested his chin on Barty’s shoulder and let his hands rest against their back, eyes closed as he tried to think of a way to word an apology, an excuse.

They stayed like that for a few seconds before Barty slowly brought his hands up to Evan’s back.

“You’re not making sense, Ev,” Barty sounded honestly confused as he whined. Evan still hadn’t moved.

“You’re…so uninterested in talking to me, so clear on the fact that I’ve angered you in some way…then you invite me to sit and have some kind of heart-to-heart with you and you just hug me the second I ask you to tell me what I’ve done. I don’t understand, Ev.”

Evan nodded, still not moving from where they were clinging to Barty. “I know.”

“That’s not helpful.”

I know, I know, I know, I know. 

“I’m sorry.”

“Why do you hate me?”

Oh, Barty I don’t hate you, I could never hate you. You don’t understand. That’s okay, I don’t blame you, I can’t blame you. How could I expect you to understand why I’ve been such a twat?

I’m sorry, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…

“I don’t hate you.”

Barty laughed rather brashly. “Evan. Don’t.”

No. Not Evan again. No no no, go back to Evs. Go back to Ev, go back to fucking Rosebud for all I care, just not Evan.

“I mean it. I promise. I don’t hate you. Why would I hate you? I could never. I don’t hate you.”

I love you, I love you.

“Then why the fuck are you making such an effort to avoid me!” He hissed, raising his voice, going way over a whisper and making Evan jump.

“I asked you to come and talk to me, did I not?” Evan finally pulled away, leaning back and crossing his arms.

“Oh, yes, sorry. I forgot that giving in to having one conversation with me fixes absolutely everything. Just tell me what the fuck I did so I can fix it and we can go back to normal!”

“You can’t fix it,” That wasn’t what Evan had meant to say. When Barty scoffed and looked away, They groaned and tried to save themself as best they could. “What I mean, is that you can’t fix what you’ve done because you haven’t done anything. I’ve just been stressed lately, I promise. You haven’t done anything wrong and I hate that you feel guilty when you have nothing to feel guilty about in the first place.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yup. Thanks for clarifying.”

Evan knew Barty well enough to know that it was not all forgiven. He was still upset and still thought that Evan hated him. But he also knew him well enough to know that he would do anything to deny that fact.

“Good.”

“Yup.”

“I should go. Thanks for the chat Evan.”

Yep, definitely still angry.

“Are you sure?”

They saw Barty smile slightly. “Oh my dear Rosebud, you’re just so obsessed with me you can’t possibly let me leave, aren’t you?”

Yes. “Oh, shut up.”

He was glad of the grin he saw, even knowing that it was likely not entirely genuine. “Make me.”

Typical. Out of all the creative responses he could have made, Barty just had to pick the most boring one. “Hm, you’re getting sloppy.”

“How dare you!’ He playfully slapped Evan’s arm as he got up from where he sat on the bed, holding the curtain slightly open so he could still see Evan. “Alas, I really must go.”

“Thank god for that,” They meant it as a joke, that much ought to have been obvious but saw the momentary flicker of what could easily have been hurt or doubt on Barty’s face. He quickly tried to save it. “I do need my beauty sleep after all!”

Barty didn’t look particularly pleased, but smiled at the effort nonetheless. “Ugh, you sound like Reg.”

“Well, unfortunately not all of us can wake up eye-bag free! You should be more understanding.” He was extremely grateful for the friendly tone their conversation had taken, hoping that perhaps it was helping to lure Barty from wallowing in self-pity for a moment. 

“Oh Ev, you know nothing of having to try to be perfect!”

“Do you think so?”

“Absolutely,” he took Evan’s hand gently and made a show of bowing to kiss it. “Good night, sweet prince.”

Evan frowned slightly. “You do know that’s what he says as Hamlet has literally just died right in front of him, right?”

“Ah, well, you see, I would happily switch places to hear you say such a thing as I gazed into your eyes, feeling the light fade from my own,” He clutched his chest dramatically as he rasped out the words and grinned wildly at Evan.

“…you’re a twat,” Evan deadpanned.

“You noticed!” He smiled once again and winked at Evan before walking back over to his own bed.

-

Fuck. Barty had thought there was no way things could have gotten worse.

Evan, however, seemed very adamant on proving him wrong. As per usual.

You can’t fix it.

Great, thanks Evs, what a fantastic way to make a man feel better.

If that conversation had done anything, it had only proved that Evan didn’t want anything to do with Barty. Brilliant.

Hopefully, after some sleep, he would be able to think properly and decide what to do next.

-

No no no no no. They had wanted to help reassure Barty that he had done nothing wrong, not convince him that he had lost all of their trust.

All he had done was made things worse.

Talking to Barty had made things worse.

So he decided he would stop talking to him.

It was an impulsive decision but it was all he had.

He didn’t want to hurt Barty any more than he already had. He wasn’t going to ignore him completely, just keep his distance more so he didn’t have to put too much energy into pretending they weren't mad at him. Pretending he was fine and acting okay with Barty’s flirting would just hurt them both in the end so it seemed ignoring him to ease him out of the urge to flirt would do the job.

It would work…hopefully.

Barty would understand…hopefully.

Anyway, if Barty missed it that much, he could just talk to him himself and try and fix things because Evan was sick of doing everything himself and only hurting himself in the process.

What could go wrong?

-

Barty woke up to an odd feeling in his chest. There seemed to be an unnatural tensing in his heart. It wasn’t a terrible feeling, he had gone through worse after corridor fights with Gryffindors but it was still irritating. And to make it even more inconvenient, this strange tension had apparently come alongside the feeling of something sharp being stuck in his throat, just too far back for him to cough it away.

It wasn’t a lump-in-the-throat feeling, no, it was more like the strange tickle you get after inhaling smoke from old books or artefacts. Ah well, it could be worse.

 He reached his hand towards his bedside table in search of the glass of water he usually kept there but found it to be empty.

Sighing, he wrenched himself up and walked over to the shared bathroom, dragging his feet as he rubbed his eyes sleepily.

He filled his glass and took a sip, his mood not improving as he realised how little difference it made. 

“You alright, Bar? You look a bit…peaky.”

He looked up at the sound of Regulus’ voice. “Hm? Oh, yeah I’m fine.”

Skeptically, Regulus narrowed his eyes at him and looked him up and down. “You sure?”

“Yeah, I just remembered my father existed and immediately lost both my will to live and my physical well-being, you know how it is,” He tried, trying to make a joke that would distract Regulus from his concern. 

“…Right,” Regulus didn’t seem to entirely believe him but was too tired to push the subject any further.

“Where’s Ev?” He asked once he noticed that Evan was neither in their bed, in the bathroom or anywhere else in the dorm.

Regulus looked around the dorm with a shrug. “Erm, yeah, I actually don’t know. He was already gone by the time I got up. Maybe they went down to the library to finish some homework or research something, I’m not sure.”

“Maybe. You’re rubbing off on him too much, Black.”

Regulus laughed and patted Barty on the shoulder as he walked past him towards the door. “See you at breakfast, I have to deliver a letter.”

He saw the opportunity to make a light-hearted joke to further convince Regulus that he was fine and took it. “You better not be writing kinky role play letters to Potter, I will never be able to see you the same way again if you are.”

“The fact you even thought, let alone decided to say that is honestly concerning. But I suppose you’re just jealous you can’t do the same thing to Evan, so really, I pity you.”

Hisheart clenched uncomfortably at the mention of him not being able to have Evan. Maybe it was the pain of Evan hating him. Still, it felt different. He didn’t really like it. “I’ll ignore that last statement in favour of the fact you didn’t outright deny it.”

Regulus laughed and held the letter up. “If you must know, it’s a letter to my dying father. Sorry to disappoint you and your erotic fantasy.”

Barty only smirked. “Well now I’m really hoping it isn’t kinky role play, unless you have a thing for the good old family traditions?”

He dodged the dirty sock that flew at his head (one of Evan’s) and snorted.

“Piss off Crouch,” Regulus smiled as he disappeared through the door. 

“Tell me if you see Evan!” He called after him, trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

“Stalker.”

“At least I embrace it!”

He heard Regulus laugh as he walked down the stairs to the common room. Barty was left with his own thoughts, struggling with his tie as he pulled it over his head, still tied from when he had yanked it over his head the day before.

He tried not to think about the conversation from the night before, along with the fact Evan had conveniently left before he had woken up, and the fact he felt like his throat had ants crawling up it, but unfortunately, he was greatly unsuccessful in all three.

He finally managed to get his uniform on and somewhat neat, then left the dorm himself to go to breakfast and see his friends. 

He got to the great hall fairly quickly, since Potter and his friends had graduated the previous year, things had been a lot less chaotic. Usually, he would have encountered a wall of slugs or a red and gold glitter cannon by now.

He spotted Regulus and Evan at the far side of the Slytherin table and immediately started making his way to them. Evan was sitting next to a 6th year Barty couldn’t remember the name of so he sat next to Regulus instead. They stayed in relative silence until Regulus got a little uncomfortable and tried to start up a conversation, which Barty did have to admit wasn't exactly his strongest talent.

“You’re quiet today.” He looked at Barty over his toast and waited for an answer. All he got was a shrug.

“You are, it’s unnerving.” He turned around to face Evan, who was staring intently at another borrowed book. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Evan didn’t look up, they seemed rather distant if Barty was entirely honest.

“Ev? Ev? Evan?”

“Hm, what?”

“Barty is very quiet today, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. Quiet. Yeah.” He nodded and looked back down at his book.

“Probably something to do with him feeling sick.”

That got Evan’s attention. “You’re sick? Have you seen Pomfrey? Do you know what’s wrong? Are you actually sick or are you just pretending to be sick so you can get out of class?”

“I’m not trying to get out of class Ev, and I’m fine. I just felt a bit ‘meh’ this morning but I’m okay now. Why are you so fussed?’

“I’m not fussed,” He was quick to snap back, turning quickly to his book once again, face pale and eyes wide, almost like he had just remembered something important. Likely the fact he was clearly angry at Barty. What else could it be besides that? “I just didn’t know if whatever it was happened to be contagious, that’s all. We share a dorm and almost every class, if it did happen to be contagious, I would surely be the first to catch it. Besides, even if I was fussed, why would that be an issue? Am I not allowed to worry about my friends now?” Barty felt the odd clutching feeling grow worse and let out a small cough.

Regulus sighed and stood, grabbing his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. “Okay, I’m going to the library, you two can sort out whatever domestic it is that you’re having while I’m gone. Come and find me when you’ve kissed and made up or I’ll see you in potions. Goodbye,” With that, he left the table and began walking to the doors, leaving the other two behind, awkwardly sitting with a space in between them and a million unsaid words lingering in the air like threats.

“So,” Evan started. “You’re sick?”

“I just told you I’m not.”

“Well, you look sick.”

“Is that an observation or an insult?” Barty snapped. Evan didn’t even seem affected, like he didn’t care what Barty had to say about him. Like a robot replacement of the Evan he had previously known.

“You can choose.”

They fell back into a particularly uncomfortable silence until they had both finished their breakfast, then both of them stood up in unison to go down to potions, still not exchanging a single word.

They walked in complete silence until they got there, Evan always making an effort to stay a few paces in front. Barty tried not to let it get to him. There was no reason why it should. If Evan was in a mood, it was a hik problem and Barty shouldn’t have to deal with that.

-

Regulus was fed up. That was all there was to it. 

One minute, they were practically inseparable, touching and chatting and flirting, and now they were acting like they had not liked each other in decades.

To him, and likely to every other mildly observant person in the castle, it was clear as day that they were ridiculously, sickeningly in love with each other. The fact they didn’t notice was past the point of funny, it was just fucking irritating.

They were acting like characters in a teen romance novel and it made Regulus want to pull his own teeth out.

Whatever petty disagreement they had recently had, he wanted them to sort it out so they would stop being insufferably miserable and start acting like they were an old married couple again.

When the two of them walked into the Potions classroom, a few minutes before the lesson started, they were both looking at the floor and not speaking to each other. They walked up to Regulus’ workstation and silently stood on opposite sides of him. Fucking perfect.

It appeared that Regulus’ brilliant plan had failed, and now he had to sit and deal with these two absolute morons for as long as it took for them to get over themselves.

“Cold, isn’t it?” Evan muttered.

“I thought you didn’t get cold?”

“Yeah, okay, thank you, but I really don't remember talking to you, do you?” Merlin, they were like toddlers. At this point, he felt like he was babysitting more than talking to his two best friends of nearly seven years.

Slughorn walked into the class alongside a few other students and immediately walked up to the blackboard, smiling at the class.

“Hello, seventh years! For this practical, you will need to get into pairs!”

-

At the same time as Barty, Evan looked next to him to ask Regulus to work with him before Barty could but saw that he was already walking across the class to join the Nott girl.

Everybody else paired up and like out of a story, Barty and Evan were both left with the one person they were each trying to avoid the most.

Slughorn went through the instructions and then set them all off with their partner to brew the potion.

Evan, the more naturally talented in potions of the two, started arranging ingredients based on when they were needed and started the base of the potion, whilst Barty stood to the side and watched.

After a while, he realised he needed an extra pair of hands and gestured Barty over, telling him to chop the lavender whilst he crushed the dried bat wings. They kept working in silence, save for a few times when Evan would tell him to put something in the cauldron or mix the potion however many times.

Around halfway through the lesson, Barty stopped what he was doing and thought for a moment, then turned to face Evan. “I thought you didn’t hate me,” He remarked.

Evan froze up, looking hesitant and a more than a little put-out.

“I don’t.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes. Can you put the eggshells in please?”

He did as he was told but did not drop the subject. “Well, last night you told me that you didn’t hate me and we were really close but now you’re avoiding me like the bloody plague, do you know what mixed signals means because you’re pretty fucking good at sending them, Evan.”

Evan took the pestle and mortar Barty was holding and put them to the side to be cleaned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“For fucks sake Evan!” He whispered harshly, moving in closer and glaring at him intensely. “You really aren’t helping here. I didn’t believe what you said yesterday about hating me, do you really think I’m so stupid that I would believe you when you tell me you aren’t avoiding me too?” He asked, voice high and slightly teasing, making Evan shudder uncomfortably. “Because that’s really what it feels like, right now.”

“Well, yesterday you seemed perfectly desperate to prove that I hated you and now you suddenly expect me to act like I don’t?” Evan remarked, smartly.

“So you do?” He felt the itch in his throat worsen greatly and had to cover his mouth with his hand to cover the two sharp coughs that followed.

“I never said that. I don’t want you to think I hate you,” Something in Evan’s face after he said it gave the impression that he regretted it. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t help Barty feel any more comforted.

Realising this approach was only making people more angry and stressed, Barty decided to change the way he was going about everything, choosing to take a more gentle, heartfelt approach in the hopes it would work at least a little bit more. “You hate me but don’t want me to think you do? Then why do you distance yourself from me like that?’ He reached out to touch Evan’s arm but they pulled it away before he could. He didn’t get a chance to say anything because he was plunged into a coughing fit immediately after.

Well, so much for the intimate approach. Evan didn’t seem to approve and neither did his bloody lungs.

As he began to recover from his little show, Barty looked at Evan as he spoke. “You’re being dramatic. I’m not ‘distancing’ myself from you, I’m just having a life of my own. It’s our final year, I want to concentrate on my studies more, if that’s okay with you. Pass me the spiders,” Barty passed the dead spiders and watched as they were delicately dropped into the bubbling mixture, shifting the colour from lilac to grey. “I barely even did anything out of the ordinary apart from waking up slightly early. You’re overreacting.”

Barty couldn’t just leave it alone. It wasn’t in his human abilities. “Yeah, you left early…after making the conscious decision to leave us there without saying anything, you just pissed off to wherever it was that you went, I wouldn’t know because you didn’t tell us. You then proceeded to sit next to that 6th year whilst seeing the whole rest of the table you could have sat at, and don’t say he sat down next to you because you can tell just by the state of the plates that he had been there longer than you. Then you decided to pretend to read that book, just like you did yesterday, knowing it was a half-decent plan on how to avoid talking to me. You made sure Reg sat next to you and that you were all prepared to ignore me by the time I arrived. Then you barely engaged in any conversation, not while we were at the table or after, and you are being all cold and rude with me, which you only do to people you hate or to Regulus when he spoils the end of a book for you, but never to me, Evan. Never to me,” When he finished his little psychoanalysis, Evan stared at Barty in shock for a short while. 

-

“Who are you, Sherlock Holmes?” After finally responding, Evan turned back to the potion. Okay, that wasn’t meant to happen. Barty wasn’t meant to realise what was happening, at least not this early on. He was supposed to fall into the trap and slowly drift away from Evan, not even realising what was happening until it was too late.

Of course, that had been rather unsuccessful.

“Isn’t that the muggle detective guy?”

“Yes? What, so you have no problem with Shakespeare but Doyle is just too much?”

“That’s…not what I was saying.”

“Of course, it wasn’t,” Evan laughed, dully.

-

His heart clenched once more and his throat tickled almost threateningly, it now felt like there was something trapped there, waiting for the perfect moment to burst out and reveal itself in its full, irritating entirety.

Class finished and Slughorn judged the potion the boys had made, deeming it 'greater than average’, to which Evan muttered a “you’re welcome” and left the classroom, trying to catch up with Regulus. Of course, seeing as he was their mutual friend, Barty followed after Regulus too.

When they both caught up with him, Regulus hesitated before speaking, like he almost didn’t want to know the answer out of some kind of fear that they’d gotten worse than when they had first  entered the potions classroom, which, of course, would have been very much correct. “You two do okay?”

Evan was first to reply. “Fine. You?”

“Perfectly. Pandora and I had the best potion in the class, according to Slughorn,” He smiled, that typical gloating smile Regulus did whenever he was even slightly better than somebody at anything.

“Of course you did. Well, ours was above average, which basically means it was better than yours but he didn’t want to take away the compliment and hurt your feelings, isn’t that right, Evs?”

Evs. Evs, Evs, Evs. Oh, Evan could kiss him. Or slap him, that was the opposite of his aim. How was Evan supposed to anger and avoid Barty if he was calling him Evs? Fuck.

Evan decided that he would have to push the ignoring phase forward a bit, just to break things up a bit and make it seem a little less planned out. Maybe that would stop Barty from catching on so soon next time.

“Oh absolutely,” He grinned.

Regulus sighed but smiled. “You’re such a suck-up, Evan, you’ll agree with anything your beloved Bar says.”

Evan stuck their tongue out at him but didn’t speak after that, too busy thinking about what Regulus had said and how guilty it made him feel. There was in fact a time when Evan would have agreed without question to absolutely everything Barty said.

That time, as it happened, was actually no more than a few weeks away, before he had realised how much it hurt to be so close to Barty constantly. Before he had made the decision to react progressively less to Barty’s flirting and teasing. Before he had started plotting to avoid him. To neglect him. To hurt him. Not directly, but did that really matter? He would still be in pain, just not physical.

He appeared to have been joined on that train of thought. “Yeah, well, those were the days,” Barty grumbled, shooting him a bitter look.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Can you two not get along for more than two minutes?”