Chapter Text
September 1st 1975 Monday
Barty makes his way onto platform 9 and three quarters slightly nervous but also excited. Excited to see his friends again, excited to get out of the house he is forced to call a home, excited to get away from his father till Christmas. However the person he is most excited to see again is Evan.
When they get onto the platform it's busy and full of people meeting their friends, first years crying because they won’t see their parents until Christmas time and there's people saying bye to their parents whether it’s unwillingly or not Barty will never know. For him however it's a bit of both; he’s sad to say goodbye to his mother but couldn’t care less about his father.
“Now you remember what I told you Bartemius, no funny business this year or I’ll tell you, you’ll regret, you understand?” Bartemius Crouch Sr whispers into his son’s ear grabbing his wrist tightly to stop him from disappearing into the crowd.
“Yes Father” Barty responds back looking down at the ground, knowing better than to try to break free from his Fathers grasp after all these years trying to do exactly that.
“Well, see you at Christmas then” His father says sternly, straightening up, satisfied with Barty’s answer. He lets go of Barty before leaving to wait outside the station, leaving Barty and his wife to say goodbye.
“You take good care of yourself now Barty dear alright” Barty’s mother says, turning to Barty with a caring smile a stark opposite of his Father. Sometimes Barty wondered why she ever married his heartless Father.
“I will mum I promise” Barty answered smiling back at his Mother, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Promise you’ll write, and I’ll see you at Christmas, alright?” She questioned looking at her son, with her sad yet happy eyes. Barty wondered why she never quite looked happy anymore.
“I promise mum I’ll write every week and I’ll see you at Christmas"
Barty’s Mother stared at him for a minute, when she was satisfied he was telling the truth she pulled him in for a hug. Instinctively Barty hugged her back not wanting her to go back to his Father but he knew he had to go.
After a few seconds she let go of him and without another word she disappeared leaving Barty, alone on the platform. Barty looks around for a few seconds before heading to the train, having not seen any of his friends.
He pushed past everyone on the busy platform being careful to avoid pushing anyone. When he finally gets to the train he quickly gets his things on the train and goes looking for an empty compartment to wait for everyone.
Eventually after what feels like forever he finds a mostly empty compartment, the only person inside a boy with short black hair, nose deep in some book he was reading. When he hears the door slide open the boy looks over at Barty.
“Crouch” The boy says before going back to his book not bothering to give Barty a second glance.
“Reggie really, that's all you have to say, after not speaking for two months? I thought you would at least smile" Barty responds mockingly, dramatically flopping down on the seat beside Regulus, leaning against him to get a look at the book he was reading.
Regulus only hums in response, eyes glued to his page he was reading.
The two sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Barty messes with strands of Regulus’ hair while the other boy continues to read his book. When the door slides open Barty looks over instantly while Regulus doesn’t bother looking up from his book.
Evan and Pandora both walk into the compartment. Pandora taking the seat beside Regulus while Evan sits beside Barty, leaning against him to also try and see what Regulus is reading.
“What are we doing?” Evan whispers into Barty’s ear still watching Regulus.
“I don’t really know, watching Regulus” Barty whispers back, turning to look at Evan with a grin.
Evan nods, staying quiet as the two watch Regulus. Trying to see how long it will be until Regulus gets mad. After about two seconds however the two are paying more attention on trying not to laugh than watching Regulus read his book.
“Will you two move over there for the love of Merlin I’m trying to concentrate” Regulus mutters, shooting a glare in the two’s direction while vaguely pointing at the seats across from them.
“You’re no fun Black you know that?” Barty says, obviously joking as him and Evan go over to the other seats.
The four sit in relative silence, the only sounds being the slightly dimmed noise of the chatter on the platform and people walking by scouting for an empty compartment to sit in. Finally after weeks of being in that house Barty finally feels like he can relax, finally feels at home.
Barty looks over at Evan and sees that the other boy was already looking at him, quickly Evan averts his gaze from Barty before looking back at him with his signature cocky grin that Barty has grown to love.
“Wanna see what I found over the summer?” Evan asks, looking at Barty with shining eyes like a kid who did something they were proud of.
“Ew Ev, don’t it's disgusting” Pandora says looking over at the two boys with a disgusted look on her face.
“That sounds right up Barty’s alley” Regulus responds completely unbothered by what was going on.
Evan however was not paying attention and was instead taking something out of his pocket. He held out what looked to be a small skull from some sort of animal.
“It’s a mouse skull,” Evan explains, smiling brightly, holding it out for Barty to take. “You can keep it I already have one”
“Holy fuck, it’s so cool” Barty says taking the small skull from Evan and examining it carefully. “I’m going to put this on a necklace and wear it” Barty whispers, still examining the small mouse skull carefully.
“What are we putting on chains and wearing?” Dorcas asks sliding open the compartment door looking at Barty slightly confused. “Why are you holding a skull what the fuck” Dorcas examines slightly alarmed and concerned.
Just then a big horn sounds and the train starts slowly moving out of the platform to start its long journey to Hogwarts. Students go up to the window all saying their final goodbyes to their parents as the train leaves. All except this small group of people who all know their parents have already left. Instead they all sit in silence, a habit they adapted to when they were heading to their second year in school and Dorcas her third year.
Eventually the train leaves the platform and there are only a few stragglers left in the corridors in the train desperately looking for a place to sit for the long journey.
“So the small skull where’d you get it?” Dorcas quizzes looking at Barty.
“Evan” Barty replies, the simple one word answer making Dorcas turn her head to Pandora instead of Evan.
“I feel like I don’t want to know, do I?” Dorcas asks, sitting down beside Regulus.
“No, no you do not” Pandora responds quickly turning to look at Dorcas, before turning to looking back out the window.
“So how was everyone's summer?” Dorcas questions deciding to change the topic.
“Good me and Evan went to France for most of the holidays” Pandora shared, not going into much detail, her mind more focused somewhere else.
“That’s nice Panda did you do anything” Dorcas asked, hoping Pandora would elaborate.
“Yeah we did a lot of exploring. We found a river not far from our aunt's house. Actually it was nice, very quiet there” Pandora continued getting a bit more enthusiastic about what she was saying.
“What about you Barty, what did you do? I’d ask you Regulus but considering you are not allowed contact to the outside world when you’re home I’m assuming you did nothing” Dorcas said, turning to look at Regulus with an apologetic smile before turning her attention to Barty, looking at him expectantly.
“Uh I didn’t really do much” Barty muttered when Dorcas asked, hoping she wouldn’t pester him because he didn’t want to admit he couldn’t actually remember his summer holiday.
Sure he remembered dreading the train ride back home from Hogwarts and getting to that house but other than that he doesn’t remember much other than crying himself to sleep most nights and the last week of holidays. Even then that was just getting school books and uniform as well as counting down the days to when he’d be out of that house and back with his friends.
“Wow that’s boring at least I actually remember my summer even though it was boring” Regulus pipes up still reading his book.
“Oh shut up Black no one asked your opinion” Barty jokes, shooting Regulus a glare.
“Whatever Crouch" Regulus mutters going back to his book.
The compartment was quiet again, the group just listening to the sound of the trains and the wind coming in from the small crack of the window. Dorcas moves over to sit beside Pandora, the two girls talking quietly to each other. Barty looks at Evan who is sitting up against the wall, his feet up on the chair. He was looking out the window, not paying any attention to what was going on. Barty looks at him tilting his head like a confused dog. Evan rolls his eyes putting his feet on the ground giving Barty an annoyed look.
Barty smiled instantly, lying down on the small couch, his head in Evan’s lap. Instinctively Evan moves his hand to play with Barty's hair. The two boys were lost in their own little world completely ignoring the three sitting across from them who were most likely laughing to each other. Barty wouldn’t be mad if this never ended, if this train never stopped, if it meant he could stay here with Evan playing with his hair as he was starting to doze off. He especially wouldn’t mind if it didn’t end if it meant he’d never had to see his dad again.
_____________________________________________________________
The carriage door slides open and Barty sits up rubbing his eyes, still half asleep, his eyes blurry. There's four people standing in the doorway: James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.
“Regulus, can I talk to you for a minute?” Sirius asks, ignoring the others in the compartment.
“Why Sirius?” Regulus responds, his voice cold as he stares at his older brother.
“Just come on Regulus then you can come back to your weird friends” Sirius retorts, starting to get annoyed.
“Ugh fine, whatever” Regulus sighed standing up leaving his book on the seat.
Remus, James and Peter all step into the compartment as the two brothers walk down the train presumably going to an empty compartment. The three boys just stand there awkwardly while Barty puts his head back on Evan’s lap. The compartment was filled with an awkward silence, the tension thick. Dorcas and Pandora were still huddled together on the seat across from Barty and Evan, the two girls just talking away to each other.
Eventually Remus sits down on the far side of where the girls were sitting, leaning forward, resting both his hands on top of his cane.
“So are you two dating or something?” Remus asks bluntly trying to start a conversation so they wouldn’t be in an awkward silence.
“No we’re not” Barty responds, turning his head to look at Remus.
“Really with the way you two act around each other everyone kind of just thinks you’re dating” Remus explains looking genuinely shocked when Barty says that.
“Okay cool” Barty huffs, turning around so his face was buried into Evan’s stomach. He closes his eyes and tries to fall back asleep.
The compartment falls back into a silence. Evan was looking out the window playing with Barty’s hair, the two girls were still talking but Barty could hear James talking with them as well. “Fucking sunshine talking with everyone he can fucking typical” Barty thinks to himself. Soon Barty can feel himself falling back asleep relaxed and calm, something he hasn’t felt since the train ride home last year. Eventually he falls into a deep, dreamless sleep. Everything around him falling silent, his mind finally becoming silent which was rare for Barty.
_____________________________________________________________
Barty feels Evan tapping his face. Slowly Barty opens his eyes, looking up at the blonde slightly dazed.
“Oi dumbass get up, we're almost at school and we both still need to change into our robes” Evan says looking at Barty, a small grin on his face.
“Don’t wanna” Barty grumbles, closing his eyes trying to fall back asleep.
“Tough shit you have to” Evan says poking Barty’s side.
Barty jumps when Evan pokes him, making him fall off the seat onto the floor with a loud thud. Making everyone else in the compartment start laughing. When he sits up Barty shoots a glare at Evan, which Evan only shrugs in response before standing up and getting his uniform to change into. Barty follows suit grabbing his uniform and the two boys walk down to the bathroom to get changed, nudging each other down the cramped hall.
Peering into the other compartments Barty can see nervous first years looking around one in particular caught his eye a young boy sitting by himself in a compartment, looking bored scared and excited all at the same time and instantly it reminds Barty of his first day and how he had sat alone in a carriage the whole way he was excited to finally get to leave that house to get away from his dad to finally find who he truly was. Bored because at this point he would have been on the train for at least nine hours, maybe even longer and scared because what if no one wanted to talk to him because he was weird or different. This was true for the first three and a half months until one day in charms where they had to go into pairs and a boy with blonde hair and striking green eyes decided to pair up with him later he found out that boy was Evan and now almost four years later that same boy was one of his best friends.
“You alright there Bee?” Evan questioned looking at Barty with a confused look.
Barty shakes his head and realised he had stopped walking and was just staring at the boy in the compartment who was just giving him a weird look.
“Yeah I’m fine Rosie” Barty responded quickly, walking over to Evan, clearing his throat and deciding to change the subject. “So got any plans for a prank we could do the first day back?” Barty asks with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Hm well we got to start simple like floating stuff in the common room or something” Evan suggests as the two get to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. The two of them both manage to fit into the relatively small bathroom to get changed.
“Oh hell yeah which common room though Ravenclaw or Slytherin?” Barty asks, glancing over at Evan before going back to getting changed.
“Slytherin probably since that’s where we are mostly” Evan responds, still getting changed.
“Yeah, good idea. Hey Rosie, could you tie my tie please?” Barty asks, looking at Evan with puppy eyes.
“Ugh fine one second Bat” Evan says, tying his own tie before tying Barty’s.
“Thank you,” Barty says smiling.
Evan only hums in response. When they finished getting changed the two go back to the rest of their friends. When they pass the compartment with the little boy Barty was looking at earlier he peaks in the glass to see if the kid was still by himself. Barty sighs to himself when he sees someone else sitting in the compartment with the kid, the two talking quietly amongst themselves.
“You two took long enough” Regulus comments when the two get back to the compartment going back to where they were sitting.
“What, there were two of us who had to get changed,” Barty retorts.
“Still. Also your hair is a mess” Regulus says having finally put his book away.
“I was asleep the whole train ride Reggie, what do you expect? Also was I dreaming or did your brother and his friends come in here?” Barty asks genuinely confused if that had happened or not.
“Yes they did” Regulus responds, still observing Barty closely.
“Okay, what did he want?” Barty inquired looking at Regulus intensely.
"Don't worry about it” was all Regulus responded with before going back to talking with Pandora.
_____________________________________________________________
As they exit the train onto the loud bustling platform having finally arrived Barty feels someone grab his arm and pull him away from his friends.
“What the fuck” Barty says turning around and seeing Regulus staring up at him. “Oh it's just you, what's up?” Barty asks, noticing the nervous look on Regulus’ face.
I have a question and you have to promise to not tell anyone about this please” Regulus says and Barty notices a hint of vulnerability in his voice.
“Yeah okay promise what's your question?” Barty asks, looking at him confused.
“If you see Potter or one of his friends preferably the one that isn’t my brother could you maybe ask if he’s seeing anyone”
“So I'm assuming you mean Potter and not your brother right?”
“Yes you imbecile obviously I mean Potter” Regulus responds staring at Barty as if he was the slowest person on earth to exist
“Okay just making sure I mean you never know with your family and all I mean you lot marry your own cousins”
“Shut up”
Barty puts his arm around Regulus, laughing as they weave through the crowd on the busy platform to get to the carriages and hopefully find Pandora, Evan and Dorcas.
_____________________________________________________________
Eventually after the sorting ceremony everyone was eating dinner Barty and Pandora were at the Ravenclaw table while the other three were at the Slytherin table like usual when the school year began but come tomorrow the five of them will all be sitting together again.
The great hall was buzzing with excitement of friends talking with one another about their summer and what they would have the following day for classes.
“Barty” Pandora says, leaning against Barty’s side to get his attention.
“Yes Panda,” Barty asks, laughing slightly at her antics.
“Did you actually not do much during the summer or do you just forget?” Pandora questions looking at Barty, her brown eyes staring into his soul as if trying to force an answer out of him.
“Why do you ask?” Barty inquired, trying not to completely shut down at her question.
“Because every year you have said you didn’t do much over the summer so either you’ve forgotten or you just really didn’t do anything” Pandora states still staring at Barty.
“I just don’t do much over the summer Panda dad is usually really busy with work and mum usually goes somewhere with her friends most of the time or else she’s at home but even then she tends to busy” Barty lies or at least he thinks lying because he actually doesn’t know what his mother does during the summer nor does he knows what his dad does during the summer but going off how Bartiemus Crouch Sr was when Barty was a kid he assumed he was most likely right with that one.
“Oh okay” Pandora says before going back to eating the two were now sitting in a comfortable silence.
Barty looks over at the Slytherin table to see Evan was staring right back at him with quizzing eyes as if asking what he and Pandora were walking about. Barty just makes a face at the blonde which was just sent straight back and Barty had to duck his head down to stop himself from laughing.
When he looked back over he saw some girl in their year talking to Evan who was being rather touchy with him. Evan doesn’t try to swat her away, he just listens to whatever the girl was saying and for some reason that just made Barty mad but he didn’t know why it did.
_____________________________________________________________
Later when everyone had finally settled in for the night Barty was still awake. It was well past midnight now but he couldn’t sleep because he couldn’t stop thinking about why that girl who was touching Evan made him feel angry, jealous even. Instead he took the small mouse skull that Evan had given him earlier and took his jewellery making things out from the drawer beside his bed. Carefully he drilled a small hole into the skull being careful to not break it due to how delicate it is. He gets a jump ring attaching it to the skull and then he attaches it to the chain and closes the jump ring.
Barty puts the necklace on the bedside table and puts away the jewellery making things before he lies down to try and sleep.
The only things being heard in the dorm were one of his roommates snoring, the breeze coming in from the slightly opened window and the sounds of Barty’s dad shouting at him in Barty's mind as he tries to fall asleep. Tossing and turning trying to get comfortable and trying to ignore the sounds of one of his roommates who was snoring obnoxiously loud.