Word Count: 1,338
Written For:
- Fairytales Class: Write about how much it took your chosen pairing to finally get together. / Prompt: (word) Connection
- Investment Building Challenge/Dialogue Property: "How do you accidentally forget something that important?"
- Gringotts Prompt Bank/Hunchback of Notre Dame: [Plot/Action] Disobeying orders, [Plot/Action] Smelling someone's hair, [Word] Beautiful, [Word] Forbidden, [Item] Hidden staircase
Across the Sky
Across the sky I will come for you, if you ask me to.
"Slytherin!" the Sorting Hat screeched about a second after the hat was placed on Barty Crouch Junior's sandy head. He grinned foolishly, and headed over to the Slytherin table, not really taking in the scowls that came from the older students.
When Barty took a seat, some of the students who were near him stood up and moved further up the table, causing him to frown. He was only eleven, he didn't know the full extent of what his father had done to the parents of many students who sat at that table.
Regulus stood up, feeling irritated at his new housemates. He had been sorted just a few moments before Barty, and he hadn't expected the Slytherins to be hostile. Perhaps his brother was lucky, having been sorted into Gryffindor. As he made to walk over and sit beside Barty, a hand grabbed his wrist.
He looked back at his older cousin, Narcissa. She shook her head slowly, and pulled him back down into his seat, before leaning to whisper breathily in his ear. "Aunt Walburga wouldn't want you making friends with a traitor."
oOo
They were in their third year, when Barty accidentally skipped his first ever class.
He was hurrying down a stairway from the library and the staircase suddenly started swivelling to the left. He gripped the rails, cursing inwardly, as the stairs swept through an overhanging tapestry, and he was instantly lapsed into darkness. He jumped off the staircase as soon as it stopped moving and grabbed his wand, but another orb of yellow wandlight shone in his face first. "Barty?"
Barty backed up, squinting in the dim light. Regulus was clutching the wand, staring back at Barty. "What are you doing down here? We have Transfiguration…" Barty held his wristwatch up to the light and groaned loudly. "Right now. McGonagall is going to be so angry."
"I forgot my homework by accident," Regulus muttered, and Barty could hear his feet shuffling. "I was on my way back to the library to get it."
"How do you forget something that important?" Barty demanded to know. "Wait - why was your homework in the library this morning?"
Regulus grinned. "I was doing my homework before class."
Barty shook his head irritably, and started feeling around the walls. "Where are we?"
"The staircase turned into some kind of hidden staircase," Regulus muttered. "I guess we're lost."
"Regulus?"
"Yeah?"
Barty looked down at his feet, feeling his face glow. "You know, if you're ever struggling with your homework…" he paused. "I don't mind helping out."
"That won't be necessary!" a sudden voice pierced the air, and another bulb of light loomed towards them. The stubbly features of Rabastan Lestrange, an older Slytherin, glowed in the wandlight. "Time for class, Regulus."
"Haven't you got class?" Regulus grumbled, shoving his wand into his pocket.
"Free period," Rabastan shot back. "The joys of being in the sixth year. Come on, before you catch something from this little rat."
Regulus glared at Rabastan. "I don't need you to tell me who to be friends with."
"Actually, you do," Rabastan replied airily. "Bellatrix has asked me to keep an eye on you. To make sure you're not following in your big brother's footsteps," he shot another glare at Barty. "Though, if you keep hanging around with traitor scum, you won't be far behind."
oOo
They were in their fifth year when Barty plucked up the courage to ask Regulus to Hogsmeade. It was the first Valentine's Day visit of the year, and he was hopeful that they could finally get to spend some time alone together.
Trying to be friends at Hogwarts was impossible. Almost everyone in Slytherin seemed to be a cousin or a family friend of Regulus, and they were determined to keep him on the 'right path'. Regulus had explained that it was his mother's doing, because she was determined to make sure he didn't end up like Sirius, but Barty couldn't help but feel irritated that his only friend had so many people trying to keep them apart.
But they still had Hogsmeade, and Barty couldn't wait for the upcoming visit. Regulus had promised to meet him at Madam Puddifoot's Tea Rooma horrible—little dwelling that Barty was sure no one else would dare set foot in.
A shocking pink teapot had just been placed down in front of him when Regulus walked through the door, ringing the bell as he did so. No-one looked up to see who it was; everyone who inhabited the tearoom was part of a couple, and they only had eyes for each other.
Regulus grinned in Barty's direction and sat down opposite him, pulling his scarf from around his neck. "Pour me some tea then," he muttered, placing his hands around one of the teacups. Barty smiled and obliged, holding the teapot out.
The bell suddenly rang once again, and Barty automatically looked up from the tea. A woman, who looked strangely familiar, was looming towards them. She had dark, menacing eyes, and honey-blonde hair, pulled back into a tight, uncomfortable-looking bun.
"Regulus," she said quietly, and Barty saw all the colour drain from Regulus' face. He turned around in his chair, staring up at the woman. "What have I told you?"
"Mother," Regulus spluttered. "What are you doing here?"
"Checking up on my son," she hissed, shooting a glare in Barty's direction. "You are spending time with the Crouch boy. I specifically told you that I don't want you near him. I have forbidden it."
"Mother, please." Regulus whispered. The other couples in the tearoom were starting to glance up from their tea, intrigued by the scary woman who was causing a scene.
"Get up. You've disobeyed my orders for the last time. I'll drag you back up to the school myself, and I will be withdrawing my permission for you to visit this pathetic little village." She curled her lip as she sent a long glare around the tearoom, lingering for a little while on Barty. Regulus kept his eyes down, as his mother pulled him out of his seat and yanked him out of the tearoom by the arm.
oOo
They were just a few days away from graduating, when Regulus slipped between Barty's sheets in the dead of the night.
"What are you doing," muttered Barty, as warm breath grazed across the back of his neck. Regulus was nuzzling into the back of Barty's head, smelling his hair.
"No one cares anymore," Regulus replied quietly. "Everyone who gave a damn has left."
"Your mother has eyes everywhere."
"I don't care anymore."
Barty turned around in bed so that he was facing Regulus, and glared at him through the darkness. "You say that every time. But then, as soon as one of them catches us, you let them drag you off and you say nothing."
"I'm serious, now."
"It could never work," continued Barty. "Your parents hate me. Your friends and family hate me."
"Well, I think you're beautiful," whispered Regulus. "Inside and out."
Barty swallowed a knot in his throat, wishing that Regulus wouldn't always say the right things. He did nothing as the other Slytherin bowed his head, pressing a lingering kiss to his lips.
"We have a connection, Barty. Everyone keeps trying to pull us apart, but we always fight to stay together. Don't you want to fight for me anymore?"
"Don't make me feel bad."
"We'll run away." Regulus went on, and Barty resisted the urge to sigh. Regulus was a big dreamer, with big ideas, big hopes. But he was always brought back down to earth by his parents. "We can be together."
Perhaps Barty was just being pessimistic. "Okay," he murmured, after a long silence. "We'll run away."
Regulus kissed him, hard. Even though Barty knew that he would probably change his mind again in a couple of days, he could pretend. For now, they were together.
