Caged Birds

I'm crazy, baby, I need you to come here and save me.


"It's going to be okay," Barty murmured to himself. "Nothing's changed. It's going to be okay." He whispered the mantra into his hands as he rocked on the hard wooden bench.

But it wasn't going to be okay. His father had just been sentenced to ten years in prison for...well, Barty didn't know exactly. The judge in the courtroom spoke in English, but he may as well have been talking in tongues because Barty hardly understood a word he said. Something about a corrupt politician taking bribes from offenders.

Barty had been practically a prisoner to his father for as long as he could remember. He had been homeschooled by his mother, and his father had plans for him to follow in his footsteps as a politician, though he was barely allowed out of the house. Barty Senior was a strange man, and seemed almost irritated by Barty's mere existence, and so did his best to keep his son as hidden as possible.

It would have stayed that way too, if Barty Senior hadn't gone and got arrested for his corruption crimes. Instead of sitting safely in the darkness of his boxy bedroom at home, he was dwelling on the results of the court case, wearing one of his father's stuffy, pinstripe suits. He tugged on the collar to loosen it as he tried to sift through his anxious thoughts. What would happen now?

A series of soft sobs distracted Barty, and he looked across the corridor, where a young man about his age was sitting with his head in his hands, tears spilling through his fingers. His dark hair hung in his face and his body shook from uncontrollable crying. Barty noticed a necklace dangling from his neck—some kind of tooth hanging on a length of black cord.

"Looks like you're having a worse day than me," Barty offered, hoping he spoke in a sympathetic tone. He stood up and ventured across the corridor to join the crying man.

The man looked at him with watery grey eyes. Barty wondered if it had been a bad idea to talk to him—he wasn't exactly well-versed in social skills, as he'd spent most of his life locked up in his bedroom. "Do you have a tissue?"

Barty fished around in the pockets of his suit, but came up empty handed. "Sorry," he replied. "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" The man asked incredulously. "My brother—my stupid brother—just got sent down for something he didn't do. Something that was my fault."

"Do you want to...I don't know...talk about it?"

The man carried on speaking, without barely registering Barty's question. "I stole something from my mother. It was stupid—I didn't need it. I wanted to show off to my friends at university, and she has all these silly trinkets in the house, fanciful things that cost about as much as her mortgage. It was a pendant from some medieval Romanian princess who we apparently have ancestry to. I didn't think she'd notice; I didn't even realise it was so important. So I stole it from her, and she found out. She blamed Sirius straight away—she always blames Sirius. I tried to explain that it was me, but she wouldn't have it. And Sirius just took the responsibility for what I'd done without even questioning it, and she called the police. On her own son!"

Barty was silent for a few moments. He wasn't sure how to comfort someone, especially not when he was in need of comfort himself. So he stayed quiet, his hands fidgeting in his lap.

"How long did he get?" Barty finally asked.

"Eighteen months," the man replied softly. "It's not that long, but his career will be ruined now. No one will want to hire him, and our family is done with him. Except me, of course, and maybe our uncle." He clutched the necklace in his fist as he spoke. "He gave me this. Before they took him away."

"My dad has ten years," Barty replied quietly.

The man looked at Barty again, shocked. "I'm sorry." He sat up and rubbed his tear-streaked face with his sleeve. "I shouldn't have just gone on about myself like that."

"Don't be sorry," said Barty. "My dad is...kind of a dick. Him going to prison means I'm finally allowed out of the house."

They were both quiet for a few more moments. The dark-haired man wrinkled his eyebrows together, before holding out a hand to Barty. "I'm Regulus, by the way. Thanks for...coming over to talk to me. No one else came to support my brother, so it's been...hard."

Barty smiled. He noticed the ribbons of charcoal that seemed to ripple through Regulus's steely grey eyes, and felt glad to have met him. "Barty."

At least something nice had come out of this awful day.


Written For:

Meet Cute Prompts Day #7: A keeps mentally repeating the line: It's going to be okay. Nothing's changed. But after A's parent was sentenced to prison, it's hard to understand what exactly will be different. As A is waiting in the courthouse for a chance to talk to his/her parent before being transferred, A notices that B, sitting on the adjacent bench, is quietly sobbing. Sympathetically, A says, "Looks like you're having a worse day than me."

Assignment #5/Magical Law & Government Task #1: Write about a court trial.

Supernatural Club: 22. Martha (Legend of Zelda): (object) Necklace

Writing Club/Showtime: 11. Walk Like a Man – (relationship) Father/Son

Writing Club/Amber's Attic: 15. (genre) hurt/comfort

Writing Club/Elizabeth's Empire: 13. Write about someone finding themself in an unfamiliar place.

Writing Club/Liza's Loves: 18. Graceful Green - Write about a Slytherin

Writing Club/Lizzy's Loft: 13. (word) Responsibility

Writing Club/Scamander's Case: 19. (action) crying

1,000 Prompts: 26. (word) Soft

Word Count: 819