Crimson rivers, but Evan meets Barty
"If we were alive, who would he choose to be his best man?", Barty questions, brows furrowing in deep thought.
Evan was again on the tree, his tree as he called it. Jumping from branch to branch, holding on to a rope he found god knows where, saying he can't die when he's already dead.
Barty liked that aspect of death, if he was being honest.
Evan chuckled, "Definitely me, i'm the best friend"
"And why is that? He met me before you and i'm like his -- platonic soulmate or something," He replied, almost scoffing in disbelief at his quick response
"I saved his ass with one line, 'no one ever thinks of looking up', of course i deserve the honour", Evan stuck his tongue out almost childishly, yet Barty could do nothing except want to bite it when they kiss.
He still likes bothering the hot ghost that haunts Regulus's nightmares. That was also a good aspect of death.
"I saved his arse during war and held him during nightmares,"
Which was a bit of an oversight in his opinion, considering Regulus did kick him out of bed a few times when he tried to even touch him, but his point remains because they were always there for each other.
Barty had always thought he'd be Regulus's best man, because none of them could manage any other friendship, he was ready to make Regulus his best man too. But he'd gladly let Evan take his place, if he ever asked for it.
He definitely isn't going to reveal that piece of information now.
Evan was quiet for a while, gaze almost fond at the information he already knew. He had always been glad his best friend had someone like that, even if it made him envious that he couldn't be there too.
He was still looking down with a small smile, when he heard a faint rustling in the bush. He was not alarmed for the most part, but he couldn't stop the way his heart dropped to his stomach, fear creeping in.
He reminded himself he was out of the arena. He already died. He couldn't die again.
Evan does not like this aspect of death.
It makes the point of living so pointless and so boring.
A familiar head popped out from the trees as, he stepped out, head still held high and a charm that radiated till miles. He was grinning from ear to ear, no doubt he heard their entire exchange.
"It would be me, you're both absolute idiots", Rabastan Lestrange announced as he skipped over.
Barty's breath hitched, as a shudder worked through his body. Rabastan is here. He was dead before Barty, another friend of his who he could not save. Another friend, that so many grieved. Another friend, he ended up welcoming into his heart.
"Bas", He whispered, heart in throat and eyes stinging suspiciously, he never thought he'd meet him again.
Then again, he was never supposed to meet Evan Rosier either.
Rabastan smiles and crosses over in such urgency, Evan feels a spike of almost-jealousy hitting him as he watched Barty throw himself into Rabastan's arms, tears streaming down his face as he embraced his once lost friend.
It was endearing to watch, Barty Crouch giving way for his emotions to break through his sarcastic exterior, relishing in warm hugs instead of broken bones.
Rabastan lifted up his head first. Eyes shining with unshed tear as he glanced up, "What, are you not joining the hug? I thought we were all gonna be cuddling by the end," He grinned, as Evan gave him a flat look.
"I don't flirt with thieves"
"Oh, come on," Rabastan groaned, as Barty peeked up curiously, hands already wiping his tears, "I stole fruits, Evan, fruits. There are so many trees here! just share," His voice turned into a yelp, when Evan threw a branch on his head
"You didn't even ask," Evan pointed out, eyes narrowed at him ", If you had asked, I wouldn't have denied"
Barty scratched his head in contemplation, debating whether to reply to this conversation or not, but in the end he could not resist riling Evan even further, just to get him out of his tree.
"Well then," He smirked, patting Rabastan on his shoulder ", Why are you so mad now? You'd have allowed him anyway"
"I-", Evan faltered, a stubborn pout forming on his lips as he glared at the traitor beneath grinning at him, "These trees are ours. He should still ask"
Barty's lips curled up, "Ours, Rosier? I wasn't aware you let me be a share holder too"
"You've been a share holder ever since you arrived," Evan huffed, annoyed that Barty thought otherwise, "Unless you want to go live with Rabastan and his crew"
"His crew....?", Barty cocked up a brow as he stared at the said man in confusion
"Oh, yes", Rabastan announced almost triumphantly, "My crew. Let's go meet them."
Barty looked at him blankly till Evan followed down. He still could not wrap his head around how the afterlife is a place where they all meet again. Where had Rabastan been for the last two weeks? If he's here, then who else is? Why? How? He had so many questions
"I can see the clogs in your head turning", Evan commented, as they followed Rabastan through, what seems to be a small forest. Almost like the arena.
Barty glanced briefly at him, "Why does this place look like the arena?" He, himself never had the bad luck to grace it but he knew how fucked up it made people. He knew that too intimately.
"I-," Evan hesitated for a bit, biting his lower lip. Something Barty noticed he did a lot when he felt anxious, "I-It's something that gives Sybill comfort. The forest. I personally do not like the eerie reminder so I tend to stay away for the most part"
Barty promptly tripped over his feet when he heard the name.
"Sybill? Like Sybill Trelawny? From phoenix?", He questioned with disbelief, hands reaching out to hold to Evan's because despite everything, he did not like that he was uncomfortable here.
Despite his fears, Evan chose to come along with Barty
"Yes, the very same indeed", Rabastan drawled, they were almost towards the middle of the forest and familiar voiced could be heard arguing, "Don't ask me why or how we're all stuck together"
Evan seemed less nervous now, when he answered, "Because we all need each other" His voice was light now, "Afterlife is a place where broken souls seem to mend each other. I've crossed over so many landscapes, each a home to people Regulus wanted me to know, that I wanted to know. We're all knit together by the war, those who fought and died together, ended up with their homes together. You'll see cityscape, you'll see villages, amalgams of both, even oceans and lakes and streets that could seem familiar."
Rabastan had an epiphany and wondered how long Evan had to stay lonely to find out all of that, he just knew they wouldn't let him get lonely again. But he was still curious, so he asked, "What if the people we hate are here? Like Riddle?"
Evan paused for second before answering, "I don't know where he ended up, but I've never seen one bad person here so maybe he didn't end up here after all."
He shrugged before adding, "People you don't need near you are never near you, I crossed over ten different landscapes and saw my parents again. They had a younger me with them, but the older me did not want them again, hence we were strewn far away. The distance between me and some familiar strangers has gotten much more after you all joined, perhaps the universe knew we needed each other."
"I stopped trying to understand it after a while," Evan admitted quietly. "At first I thought I was just... wandering."
He brushed his fingers against the bark of a nearby tree. "Then I met people Regulus had loved. People I'd wanted to know. People I'd mourned.", He smiled faintly.
"Every path seemed to lead to someone who belonged."
"Belonged where?" Barty asked.
Evan looked at him, "With each other."
Barty looked oddly smug and warmed by it, "Well, well, well. Then that means you needed me so much, we ended up in the same place"
Rabastan looked gobsmacked "You're flirting? Please don't tell me you're going to start dating after you're dead"
"Are you jealous that death did not do us apart?", Evan chuckled while he made no move to deny him. It only seemed a matter of when anyways.
Barty, deciding the conversation had become far too sentimental, responded with the emotional maturity expected of him and found a stick and jabbed Rabastan squarely in the ribs.
Rabastan tried to wrestle the first stick away and Barty disappeared for exactly three seconds before returning with one twice the size.
"Where are you even finding these?"
By the time they reached the clearing in the forest, both were shoving each other and Evan huffed at them, glancing up at the trees.
The distant voices were now louder, someone was yelling, someone else was arguing. A familiar voice shouted that somebody had cheated at cards and another accused someone of stealing pie.
Rabastan groaned, "They've started without us."
"They always do," Evan sighed.
Rabastan threw an arm around Barty's shoulders and almost dragged him along. Evan rolled his eyes before walking ahead.
The clearing opened into a meadow far larger than the one Barty had woken up in. Someone had strung fairy lights between the branches despite the sun still hanging lazily overhead. A card table sat crooked in the middle but half the cards were on the ground.
"...I said you can't play two Kings at once!" a rather familiar voice yelled.
"I absolutely can if I believe hard enough."
"That isn't how cards work!"
"Marlene, Sybill, please behave, we have guests over there," Frank sighed, pinching his nose bridge as he gestured towards the trio.
"Oh! Hi, Barty!" Sybill scrambled over in haste, almost knocking down her table, "You died too huh?"
"Sybill!" Frank groaned. "That's not how you greet newcomers"
But before Sybill could reach Barty, a blur of dark clothing came barrelling towards him and engulfed him in a bone crushing hug, no other greeting than a choked sob and constant murmurs of his name.
"Barty," his voice came, muffled from Barty's shoulders. "Oh, I missed you so much"
"Hello to you too Amos," Barty grinned through the tears streaming down his face. He had already cried twice today. Twice. Regulus would piss himself laughing if he saw that, him crying happy tears. How sappy.
They moved after crying all over each other. Barty had immediately made fun of how Amos bursted into tears after seeing him. After a while of mutual bickering, they joined Marlene and Evan playing cards. Seemed like Sybill ditched her.
"Oh!" Marlene gasped when they reached her, "It's you? I thought it was Kingsley"
"But he's black...?", Barty responded, dumbfounded. There was no way anyone could mistake him for the elder man. Barty was almost as pale as Regulus.
"I don't know, I'm not a racist" She shrugged as if that made any sense at all.
Barty just looked at her with disbelief till she started speaking again, and here he thought they were all friends. She couldn't even differentiate between them.
"Don't worry Barty, you're better than him"
"Marlene," Rabastan groaned.
"What?" She shrugged. "I was trying to be supportive."
"You've never been supportive a day in your life." He scoffed, stealing a look at her cards.
"I support bad decisions." Oh, no wonder she liked him better, Evan thought, hiding his smile behind his cards
"That's... somehow worse." She grinned in response to that.
"So." She walked over slowly, giving Rabastan her cards to play instead, "You're the infamous Reginald's emotional support menace"
"...Reginald?" Barty scrunched his nose in confusion.
"Oh, sorry." She snapped her fingers dramatically, "You're the bloke who keeps Pocket-sized Sirius from sulking himself into an early grave."
Evan blinked at those names, "Are these names supposed to refer to my best friend?
"Ah yes, the second model has been granted many names by me" Marlene grinned, clearly thinking her nickname skills are hilarious
"He must be pretty sad, writing his sad boy poetry, broody black number two."
Barty blinked, "...Do you ever call him Regulus?"
"Only if I'm trying to upset him."
"I wasn't trying to upset him."
Everyone turned towards Sybill, who had disappeared for a while, returned with an armful of wildflowers and frowned thoughtfully.
"I just accidentally told him once that ravens gathering meant someone close to him would fall in love." She paused.
"SYBILL, STOP SCARING OUR GUESTS," Frank hollered from a distance where he was helping Monty to tie a tent.
"Sorry, sorry" She grimaced, not sorry in the least, "I made flower crowns."
She shoved one into his hands, "I don't know if they actually ward off bad luck..." She lowered her voice. "but statistically speaking, you're already dead."
"...Thanks?" Barty replied, unsure of how to proceed.
"You're welcome!", She grinned and went her way to distribute the crowns
The voice was warm. Like stepping into a house after standing in the rain. Barty turned to look at the older man who stood at the edge of the clearing, carrying an absurdly large basket of fresh bread.
His smile reached his eyes despite the grief that still lived in them, "I was hoping you didn't make it here"
He set the basket down without another word and then pulled Barty into a hug.
"Me too" Barty gulped. He knew the grief James was still going through because he lost Monty. He was glad at least one of them had a good father.
Barty tensed slightly, not used to such fatherly comfort but Monty just laughed softly.
"Well..." He pretended to think, "My boy's boy."
He nodded, then frowned, "No... that's not what Effie said"
That certainly drew a laugh out of Barty.
He grinned, "There we are."
Barty let out something halfway between a laugh and a sob, "I've been promoted?"
"Oh, absolutely." Monty squeezed his shoulder, "James collected people."
He smiled, "And now you've been inherited."
The fire crackled lazily beneath the iron pot, throwing golden light over familiar faces. Monty insisted food tasted better over a fire, Frank insisted it tasted the same. Rabastan insisted it tasted better because Monty made it.
Marlene insisted Rabastan was only saying that because he wanted a second helping.
"...Which," Rabastan said, already reaching for another piece of bread, "is entirely unrelated."
Marlene squinted her eyes at him, her index finger running over the ring on her thumb. "It is literally related."
"It is spiritually unrelated."
"I would," Rabastan replied solemnly, "but I'm eating."
Barty snorted into his bowl. Someone—he suspected Sybill—had somehow managed to weave flower crowns around the cooking pot. Nobody questioned it anymore.
"Why is there lavender in the soup?" Frank asked
Sybill looked up, "It wards off bad dreams."
"...Oh." She blinked. "I just thought it looked pretty."
"It does," Monty smiled, taking another spoonful anyway.
Majesty had settled with his knees tucked against his chest, listening more than speaking. Evan had somehow climbed onto a fallen log instead of sitting like everyone else.
Barty was beginning to suspect the man physically couldn't stay on the ground for long.
"So," Marlene said around a mouthful of bread, "Whose funeral was the sappiest?"
A collective groan rose around the fire.
"Absolutely not," Frank muttered. While Sybill chimed up saying "Oh, absolutely yes."
"You've been waiting to ask that." Rabastan pointed a finger at her accusingly
She just shrugged peacefully, "I have."
Rabastan pointed dramatically across the fire, "Evan."
"Oh, don't start." The said man groaned as he tucked his head between his knees, a smile threatening to come through
"I was observing emotionally."
Evan sighed wearily and rubbed a hand over his face. "...Fine, I cried" Everyone looked at him expectantly, wanting the reason too.
"As you know, I have no parents. So the only funeral I got was a very personal one, where.....Regulus planted white lilies."
Silence settled over the fire.
"He... wouldn't stop apologising." His voice was quiet now.
"He kept saying..." Evan swallowed. "...'I should've looked up first.'"
Nobody spoke at that moment, expressions ranging from grief, acceptance to small smiles of pity. Barty stared into the fire, he remembered that story. Regulus had mumured it in his sleep numerous times and also told him about it. "No one ever thinks of looking up."
"Mine was embarrassing." Rabastan declared, clearing his throat a little, eyes unfocused. Everyone turned toward him.
"I looked fantastic." He shrugged, like that mattered the most. To him, watching his own funeral wasn't the worst part, it was watching his brother attend it.
"You would start with that," Marlene muttered.
"I did." He nodded with a slight smirk. "They put me in my favourite jacket."
Frank snorted, "You mean the one with the missing button?"
"It had a personality" Rabastan cried out indignantly.
"It had holes." Marlene deadpanned as she exchanged a look with Frank, clearly judging Rabastan's taste
"It had it's history." Rabastan continued to defend his favourite jacket, the one with patches sewn by his brother.
Marlene shot him a flat look, "It had moths."
Amos laughed so hard he nearly dropped his bowl, "I can't believe that's what you noticed."
"What else was I supposed to notice?"
"I don't know...people mourning you?" Barty supplied, helpfully.
Rabastan's grin softened, "I noticed." His fingers traced circles around the rim of his bowl, "They came, more people than I expected."
Sybill looked into the fire, "They didn't hold mine." The words came so quietly that several people almost missed them.
"My parents..." She shrugged, seeming to be accepting her fate "They couldn't, I watched the memorial instead"
Monty simply reached over and squeezed her shoulder. She leaned into it without thinking. "I watched everyone else instead."
"In mine," Monty continued, a smile lingering on his warm expression "James punched someone."
Every head turned toward Monty. Any sane person would look exasperated right now.
"What?" Sybill asked, scrunching her nose at the mental image of the sunshine James Potter punching someone in his father's funeral.
"He punched a journalist."
Barty blinked, "Seriously? And Regulus is the crazy one?"
"They asked him whether he thought he'd lose anyone else."
Marlene whistled, as Barty responded at the same time, "Fair enough."
Monty smiled into the flames, "Effie did try to stop him."
"Did she?" Sybill was leaning closer now, curious about the topic. Everyone there seemed to like Monty, hell even Barty and Evan liked the man.
"She just punched him harder afterwards, when he dared to ask her the same question." He chuckled again, voice quiet against the fire
Soon Frank was saying how his funeral was arranged by Emmeline and Alice, Majesty did not have a funeral either and Marlene wanted to go at last. Barty hadn't realised everyone was looking at him.
"Mine was" He frowned thoughtfully, "Soft and very meaningful to me"
Nobody interrupted his line of thoughts. He tried to remember each and every intricate details of his funeral. How, the one person who loves him so much couldn't form words through his tears. He left him a poem instead and, that was a secret only privy to both of them.
"Regulus didn't speak much, my eulogy started and ended in a few words, but too many tears"
His voice had become almost impossibly quiet against the crackling fire "He just..." Barty smiled sadly. "He stood there."
"He stood with me alone for a long time, I kept waiting for him to say something more"
Barty smiled, a smile full of melancholy yet it reached his eyes "He never did. All he left me with, was a letter"
Evan reached over first, his hand finding Barty's, doing what he did when they were watching his funeral together. Neither looked at the other.
"Your funeral—" Marlene frowned, eyes squinting in the fire to remember the scene, "—I remember catching glimpses of it because Sirius thought about me, it wasn't exactly....your vibe as I'd say"
"It was very intricate," She continued, playing with her hair, "and very soft and devoid of your usual chaos"
"Because I had my funeral along with my mother" Barty grinned, he was happy that his mother got a proper funeral. "Me and Evan even saw her here, about two landscapes away, with her parents"
Rabastan nodded his head, finally understanding why Barty's funeral was so peaceful. Because Regulus knew the boy beneath the exterior built of chaos, he knew Barty would prefer a small, comforting funeral with his mother.
Evan piped up. "He talked later." He offered Barty a comforting smile
Barty looked up baffled, "What?"
"When everyone had left, even him but he came back and you stopped looking at the scene" Evan's thumb brushed absently across Barty's knuckles. "He stayed a bit longer"
"He always stays." Barty chuckled, the lump in his throat more prominent now
Barty's throat tightened "...What did he say?"
Evan smiled, "I quote, 'You absolute idiot.' "
A laugh escaped Barty before he could stop it, a drop of tear finally left his eye before he could stop it. "That sounds like him."
"'You promised we'd grow old enough to complain about our backs.'"
Barty laughed again, this time it hurt so damn much, he couldn't breathe. He couldn't breathe through the sobs that wracked his entire frame.
"'I hate you for making me do this alone.'"
The sound of the fire crackling was the only sound everyone could hear other than Barty's sobs, no one looked away from the familiar grief that broke everyone.
He curled up on the log Evan was sitting on, letting Evan put his head on his own leg, letting him cry all over him.
"And then—" Evan's voice grew softer as his fingers weaved through Barty's hair. "—He apologised."
Barty closed his eyes. Of course he had, that moron. His moron.
"Mine wasn't very sad." Everyone turned to Marlene. She shrugged, "Dorcas refused to cry. Only Sirius cried"
A tiny smile crossed her face, "She was furious, she even yelled at my grave."
Rabastan blinked, while Sybill voiced his thoughts, "...Seriously?"
She laughed, eyes glinting with unshed tears but she willed herself to not cry. She couldn't, when Dorcas refused to "'You absolute selfish idiot.'"
"'If you think dying gets you out of apologising, you've got another thing coming.'" Marlene laughed, as chuckles echoed across the room. Only Evan's gaze faltered, he had been there long enough to see the aftermath through Regulus's eyes.
She looked up at the stars, "I've replayed that speech about six hundred times. I still fancy her."
Frank rolled his eyes, "We know."
"I'd fancy her seven hundred times more too."
"We know that too. " Rabastan shoved her good naturedly , laughing when she yelped
Nobody spoke for a while after that, the fire burned lower. Someone added another log. Someone else passed around the last piece of bread. Someone started bickering with someone else for more dessert.
It sat among them as naturally as the laughter did.
Like another friend who had quietly pulled up a chair.
If you have any specific oneshots you want me to write on crimson rivers, or even art heist, baby! do comment.
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