“Shit.” He looked down at the long scratch on his finger and watched some small beads of blood appear along the surface, fizzing as they mixed with whatever was in the poison of the plant. Barty hissed in pain, biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from screaming. Instinctively, he raised his hand to his mouth to suck away the blood the thorn had drawn but stopped when he felt a cold hand grab his arm and pull it back sharply.
“Don’t do that, you idiot, it’ll kill you. Did you not do any research on what you were stealing before you came here? If that goes anywhere near your mouth, you’ll only have a matter of minutes before you’re completely paralysed, let alone the way your mouth with froth up and choke you!” The boy had curly blond hair, blue eyes and was wearing a very unimpressed expression on his face. Barty took in the Slytherin jumper and perfect stature, groaning internally. Of course he had to be caught stealing a deadly plant from the greenhouses by a snobbish snake. The boy shook his head and dropped Barty’s hand, speaking again. “Merlin, I thought Ravenclaws were supposed to be clever.”
“And I thought Slytherins were supposed to be evil,” He snapped back, stepping back and aggressively pulling his arm into his chest. “Why are you helping me?”
The boy shrugged and turned around, walking over to some strawberry plants opposite (why they grew strawberries in the same room as toxic magical plants, he didn’t know) and started picking them, putting them in a small bag that likely had an extension charm on it. “I’d rather not watch some idiot die in front of me when I had the ability to stop it. Besides, I wouldn’t want such a pretty face to go to waste, would I?”
Before Barty could question him on what that meant, the boy continued speaking. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go back to picking these, you can finish up whatever it is you’re doing and we can both act like the other isn’t even here, yes?” He didn’t wait for an answer, only nodding and continuing to pick strawberries.
“Why are you picking strawberries at three in the morning?”
The boy turned around and leaned back against the tall barrier. “Why are you picking tentacled houndglove at three in the morning?”
“Okay, fair point.”
He smiled and turned back around. “Finished with the interrogation, pretty boy?”
He had to look down to hide the blush he almost definitely had. “I’m sure your parents wouldn’t be too pleased if they heard you kept making comments about my pretty face, would they?”
He took a bite out of a strawberry, thinking over what to say. “What makes you think I give a damn what they think?”
“Well, do you?”
He didn’t respond and silently continues picking the berries. They stayed in that awkward silence for a few minutes, until they heard footsteps drawing closer. Both of them froze and turned to look at the door, hearing muttering from the other side.
“Stupid, stupid professors, won’t even listen to us, will they, my love? If I say there are grubby students lurking around there are. We’ll get them, my dear, we will get them.”
“Filch.” They both muttered, and before Barty had time to think, the Slytherin boy had grabbed him and pulled him to the corner of the greenhouse, behind some ivy-like vines.
“Intimate.” He muttered and laughed when the boy glared at him.
They heard Filch enter the room and instinctively grabbed onto each other’s shoulders, looking through the gaps and watching as Filch shuffled his way through the greenhouses, holding a lamp and glowering at everything that moved in the slightest.
It was perfectly silent until Barty whispered to the boy he was with. “So…what’s your name?”
“What?”
Barty shrugged. “I mean it looks like we’ll be stuck here for at least a few more minutes so it would be nice to know which snob I have had the pleasure of being huddled in a corner with.”
“Well, thank you for calling me a snob. My name is Evan.”
Evan. It certainly fit him quite well. “Nice. I’m Barty.”
Evan smiled down at him. “I know.”
He opened his mouth to answer but Evan shook his head and put a hand over Barty’s mouth, nodding down at the floor. He slowly turned and looked, seeing Mrs Norris nosing her way around, getting uncomfortably close to where they were hiding. They stood and waited for her to turn and walk in the opposite direction, hands still tightly gripping each other's shoulders.
“So…how do you know me?” The whispers were even more hushed than before as they heard Filch get even closer. “It’s because of my father, isn’t it? Listen, I promise I’m absolutely nothing like him, in fact, I am half certain he isn’t my real father at all and he just-”
“No. No, I don’t know you because of him. I know of him, of course, but I don’t know you because of that. I know you because I sometimes see you talking to Nott in the great hall at mealtimes. You’re very chatty, you know that?”
Evan watched him? “You know Pandora?” He said instead.
“Well, she’s friends with my best friend so sometimes she hangs around with us, I don’t know her too well myself.”
Evan let go and leaned back against the greenhouse wall, he took a strawberry out of the bag, biting into it and watching Filch through the vines.
“Aren’t you supposed to wash those before you eat them?”
A breathy laugh echoed through the area, almost loud enough to alert Filch. “It’s not like they’re going to kill me, is it? You can hardly talk, you’re the one picking bloody houndglove with your bare hands.”
“Fair point.”
“So,” Evan looked him in the eye, his curiosity clear. “Why were you picking tentacled houndglove anyway? That stuff is used in dark magic.”
“Well, I was going to prank the Gryffindors. Not anything bad, just…houndglove is known for being overreactive when it comes in contact with liquid. It fizzes or explodes based on-”
“The components in the liquid, I know.” Evan finishes, wanting to get to the point faster.
“Yeah, well, I was going to pick some and squeeze just a little bit of the venom into each goblet at the Gryffindor table so when they sat down”
Evan was smiling widely. “Their drinks fizz over and drown their food.”
“Exactly!” He exclaimed, still trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible. Filch must have heard something, as he started coming even closer, looking around at every plant near them.
They went silent again, automatically huddling even closer and gripping to each other once more.
Filch poked around for a good few minutes before eventually turning and calling Mrs Norris to him. They left the greenhouse miserably but the boys still stood still for a few minutes. When they were certain he wouldn’t come back and wasn’t just lurking outside the door, they started to laugh.
“How did he not see us? We were hiding in the most obvious place!”
Evan shook his head, dropping his hands to his sides. “He never checks there. I come down here every night and I’ve never been caught.”
“You come here every day? Why?”
“It’s just nice to get away, you know? I love the strawberries so I just grab some and eat them here but I always take some back up to the dorm with me. You can join me sometime if you like?”
To Barty, it sounded rather like they were arranging a date, but that was probably just his own mind hoping. “Really?” Evan nodded earnestly. “Sure! How about tomorrow?”
“Sounds good. I should probably be going back now, though. Remember to clean out that wound before it gets any worse. And don’t wash it with water until you’re sure there is no more venom because you know what will happen if you don’t.”
“Merlin, you’re right. I was just gonna go and shove it under the tap but that’s probably not the best call, is it?” They smiled awkwardly at each other. “Right, erm, goodbye Evan, it was nice meeting you. I’ll…see you tomorrow?”
Evan nodded and started walking towards the door, turning to wave on his way out. “See you tomorrow, pretty boy.”