New Beginnings
Barty
As Evan went to get himself a drink the Potter kid approached me. “Well, if it isn’t the infamous Hogwarts Heartbreaker. Y’know, I saw you dancing earlier, you’re quite good.” His admission that he’d been watching Reggie and I surprised me, I’d never have expected him to bring it up, especially if he was in denial about his potential feelings for Reg. “Y’know it's crazy, the Hogwarts Heartbreaker and the Gryffindor Heartthrob, we’re both so well known around here and yet we’ve never really spoken, even when we happened to go to study group on the same days last year, why is that?”
“I dunno Potter, I s’pose we just have different circles, I stuck to my friends and you to yours.”
“And yet I seem to know quite a few people who’ve been close to you at some time or another. Tell me, Crouch, have you ever thought about me? I know you’re close with Reg and by extension Remus to an extent and I’m sure the two of them speak of me from time to time. I know you and Dorcas had a brief stint too before she accepted herself and started dating Marls.” He leaned against a pillar beside me and looked deep into my eyes. The look on his face convinced me, I had a good idea of what was happening here. James must have gotten jealous when he saw us as I had suspected and mistakenly believes he was jealous of Regulus rather than me.
“Well I dunno Potter, maybe I have, what’s it matter to you?” I winked at him giving a slight smile. “Have you been thinking of me?” I saw him visibly falter for a brief moment before picking his confidence right back up.
“You may have crossed my mind once or twice.” He replied coolly. I felt my smile shift into a smirk at which James’ eyes briefly darted to the floor before relaxing back to their previous position. “I will admit you’re definitely not unattractive Crouch.” I shook my head at that.
“Is that so? You’re not so bad yourself y’know.” His eyes began darting around the room, looking at anything and everything that wasn’t me. I knew he didn’t mean it as much as he thought he did but this confusion wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t at least a little bit interested right? What was the harm in entertaining it for a little bit? He was rather attractive, his hallway fame hadn’t come from nothing after all. Evan was heading back towards me. “I’ve gotta run Potter, my mate’s back but I’ll see ya around hey?” I smiled and gave him a wink before striding off to meet Evan halfway leaving Potter stunned and staring after me, this was gonna be a blast.
“What the bloody hell was that B?” I dismissed his concern with a wave of my hand.
“Just a stupid dare, the Potter kid had to try to make a move on me, think they were playing some drinking game.” I didn’t know why I lied to Evan, just felt like the right thing to say at the time. He seemed to accept the response and held out a glass to me. “Clean or spiked?” He pulled the small bottle out of his pocket and shook it gently.
“What did you expect Crouch, you know me don’t you?” I smiled and took the drink gratefully.
“A toast, to friendship.” I held out my glass to his “You, me and Reggie, forever.” I smiled warmly.
“Forever,” he replied with a smile as he clinked his glass against mine. We tipped back our glasses in unison finishing the first drink of the night in one go, our yearly tradition, though it felt weird without Regulus. Even though his was always clean Reggie always stayed for our first drink of the school year. Something was definitely up with Regulus Black this year and I was determined to find out what. I tried to let these thoughts slip into the back of my mind until I had the time to process them and enjoy the party around me.
After a while of chatting with Evan and a refill or two of punch something the Potter kid had said came back to me. “Oi, Ev, Didya know that Marlene chick Reg was hanging out with a while back is with our Dory now? That Potter mentioned it earlier, was talking about people he knew that I’ve been close with.” I looked around the room briefly “Wonder if they’re here, I’d love to meet the girl that means so much to our friends.”
“Knowing Dorcas they’ve probably snuck off somewhere to snog, that girl needs constant affection ‘member?” I thought back to the brief stint I’d had with Dorcas and nodded, he was definitely right, seemed every evening she’d pull me away from Reg and Ev just to feel like someone cared, poor dear. So many little siblings running around that once she was old enough to care for herself she didn’t get much attention, not that her parents did it on purpose but it made her need constant affection to feel like she truly mattered.
“Fair enough,” Evan didn’t mean to be mean about it, he just didn’t know, nobody did except for me, and now maybe the new girl. I had a way of doing that, I could extract secrets from people that they wouldn’t tell anyone else, I got that from Father, bloody git. He used it to manipulate people but not me, I used it to make people feel at ease for once in their lives, I knew the toll secrets can take on a person and if I could take that away, even for a moment, it was worth it. “You’re probably right, I might ask her about it next time I see her, let her know it's okay to introduce her to us, I miss our Dory.”
“That’d be nice, I miss her too honestly, I haven’t really seen her much since you first started with her, she’d always whisk you off with barely a hey to me and Reg. We were all so close before that.” I nodded silently, trying not to give away any information, she’d been really low when we started hanging out, didn’t really want to be around anyone anymore. I’d noticed her start to close off so I started flirting, she eventually flirted back a little and we started to talk, away from the group. I made her feel safe and I wanted to help so I did what I knew how to do, I got her to open up and we started going to Hogsmeade, walking the grounds, same as always but it got messy, we were friends first and it just wasn’t working, things had gone well for a while but it got weird and we drifted apart again.
“It would.” Suddenly I spotted someone in the crowd, I gestured in their direction “Mind if I?” Evan shrugged nodding. “I’ll see you later then, night Ev.”
“See ya B.” At that, I waved and headed off into the crowd.