Barty Crouch, Jr. is not Oedipus Rex. (culling) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-08-03 14:10:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! . placeholder, ! [1979-08] august, aloysius croaker, barty crouch jr, octavius pepper |
Who: Pepper, Aloysius and Barty
Where: Aloysius' flat, Grindylow Gardens
When: Sunday afternoon, 3rd August.
What: Shenanigans!
Rating: PG-13 for language
Status: IN PROGRESS.
This whole thing, the thing where Pepper took a day off every single week and did something enjoyably predictable, it was really sort of working out for him. With all the doom and gloom that was going on, it was just nice to be able to take some time out, especially when it involved books (which he definitely had far more of than anything else in his flat) and possibly baked goods and/or ice cream-related snacks, and even moreso when it involved lounging in Aloysius' flat afterwards getting steadily drunk off bizarre Danish beer that he'd picked up while doing groceries in a moment of curiosity about what sort of shit they had to drink in the land of his brother-in-law. Surprisingly, it actually wasn't bad. "So then the guy tried to tell me that he was looking for a present for his aunt," he was saying, sprawled bonelessly over Aloysius' couch with his head tilted lazily back, "and I was like, what, is she into illegal monkey dung?"
Aloysius snorted then coughed as the beer he'd been drinking went halfway up his nose. "You did that deliberately," he complained with a grin as he licked the beer off his hand. It had been a very good day and he was quite happy to simply relax for the rest of the day and keep an eye on Nagendra, who seemed inclined to investigate their beer. He was fairly certain should discourage that. Beer couldn't possibly be good for a snake. But other than that it was all good. He'd found some books that he'd been after for a while and they'd even be reasonably priced. "So what in Merlin's name would anyone do with illegal monkey dung?"
Barty had never honestly enjoyed the weekend; in school, he had harbored a great dislike for it because there were no classes, and now he simply disliked the fact that all of the worst customers waited until the weekend to come into the Quidditch shop and bother him. He fully expected that he would dislike weekends once he started Healer training as well, since, given his luck, all of the worst injuries would likely wait until the weekend to happen. The only redeeming quality to Sunday was that, on rare occasions, Mister Jackson decided to close the shop early. Luckily, today was one of those days. Immediately after being let off, Barty had gone home and seen to it that Achilles was fed and watered... and then found that he rather wanted for something to do. He could have read the books he had that were relevant to Healer training, naturally, but there had to be something slightly more productive to be done; after all, he could read anytime. ...Something more productive, though -- perhaps something involving the information he was meant to be extracting from his all too convenient next-door neighbor, or, failing that, finding something new to read and advancing that end in the process.
Steeling up the courage it took to actually go and call on people other than Regulus, Barty found his way over to Aloysius's flat and knocked politely on the door.
"Oh, you know, potions stuff, I think a couple of weird amulets and crap." Pepper waved a hand vaguely; he would probably be able to remember the properties of the damn stuff if he thought about it, but really there were just too many restricted substances, and all had had to know was that they were restricted. "Crap being... not literal, there," he added after a moment, realising what he'd said. Though that was generally a hazard when he tossed words like that into his speech like petals at a wedding and then started talking about monkey dung. At the sound of someone knocking on the door he turned his head, squinting slightly as he tried to recall if anyone had ever knocked on Aloysius' door while he was there. He suspected they had not, though he was possibly a little too drunk to be sure. What he was sure of was that he did not particularly want to be interrupted right now. Sure, they weren't really doing anything special, but god damn, this was his time. "Ignore it, it's probably someone selling-- encyclopaedias. You have enough of those."
"Yeah, I would think that if you already had crap you wouldn't actually need to make more crap," Aloysius said with amusement. "Though that could be said about literal crap and metaphorical crap." He hadn't had anywhere near as much to drink as Pepper but even he had to pause and run that sentence back through his head to make sure it made sense. Not that he particularly cared if it didn't but if it didn't he'd have to clarify it so it was always best to check. He heard a low hiss coming from behind him and turned his head to see Nagendra slithering along the back of the couch. As he watched the python edged over his shoulder and his tongue flickered out towards the neck of the beer bottle he had in his hand.
"Uh, no," he said firmly, leaning forward and putting the bottle on the table. "Beer is not for snakes." He had just picked up Nagendra and was draping over his shoulders when the knock came at his door. He gave Pepper an amused look as he got to his feet. "Or it could be someone annoying who'll just keep knocking if I don't answer." He ambled over to the door with the intent of getting rid of whoever it was but when he opened the door, he saw someone who wasn't entirely unwelcome. "Barty," he said with a smile. "What can I do for you?"
For a brief second, Barty wondered if Aloysius was even in -- after all, he knew that the Unspeakable took enough of Sunday off work to go do something and read books with Pepper, but Aloysius had never specified how much of Sunday he took off, and even if he took the whole day off, there was no guarantee that he would be home now. Maybe he had gone to whatever nest of filth Pepper called home. Finally, though, the door opened and Barty was met with a smile. Merlin, but Aloysius did make this assignment easy. The information was not coming quickly, no, Aloysius was too good to just disobey protocol like that, but... Barty liked him, which rather helped put his mind at ease. "Hello, Aloysius," he greeted, smiling back. "I was just -- I had a short shift at the shop today and planned on reading, but... I rather found that I didn't much fancy any of the books I have here, and I just wondered if..." Allowing his eyes to briefly drift downward, Barty finally took note of Nagendra lying peacefully on Aloysius's shoulders and tried to banish any thought of such a lovely beast devouring Achilles. "...Now isn't a bad time to ask to borrow some new reading material, is it?"
Aloysius hesitated for just the barest of moments, not wanting to disturb his Sunday for any reason but common sense quickly re-established itself. After all Barty wasn't asking to stay, just to borrow a book or three and that probably wouldn't take too long. "Sure," he said, a little more casually than he might have at any other time due to the combination of the good day, the beer he'd drunk and having Pepper sprawled on his couch. "Oh, Pepper's here. It's our Sunday." As he stepped aside to allow Barty to enter, it occurred to Aloysius that calling it that might sound a little odd but that was sort of how he'd come to think of it. 'Sunday.' Sunday was pastries, books, icecream and Pepper.
Almost unconsciously as Aloysius left the couch, Pepper spread across more of it, limbs sprawling across the entirety of the space available to him. It left him half-lying down and having to twist in interesting ways to see who was at the door, and for a moment he was rather surprised to figure out that it was little Barty Crouch, the very much more tolerable one, before remembering that he'd moved in recently. Next door. Right. Kicked out of home by fucked up tyrant of a bitch-father. At Aloysius' casual 'our Sunday' he laughed softly, amused at the possessive use of the pronoun. Really he wasn't sure he wanted an interruption, but since Aloysius was clearly aware that this wasn't just any time of the week, he supposed it was sort of alright... just for a little bit. He was still the most important one here. "As opposed to the other Sunday that belongs to the noisy twat that lives upstairs from me," he drawled, lazy with alcohol and day-off.
...Oh. Pepper was here; that was an external factor that Barty had very much not planned on having to deal with, which, he saw now, was a rather egregious oversight on his part. As he followed Aloysius and Nagendra back into the flat, Barty observed everything, looking for anything that had changed since the last time he had visited Aloysius's flat, but all he could see that potentially stood in the way of Barty doing what he had come here to do was Pepper and whatever was in the bottle on the table by the sofa. Even though Barty twinged pink in the cheeks at Pepper talking at all, let alone that he was using such language, he forced himself to keep in mind how he had to be right now: nice. Soft-spoken. Nonthreatening. Inexperienced... well -- if any of these adjectives were true, it was surely that one; when it came to Pepper and his shenanigans, Barty was quite blissfully inexperienced. "Hello, sir," Barty said softly, giving Pepper a small smile. "I apologise for interrupting... your Sunday. I won't keep you long, I promise."
Aloysius closed the door and ambled back into the flat. He wandered over to the table and picked up his beer and steadying Nagendra with one hand as he did so, smiling slightly when Barty called Pepper 'sir'. He remembered that it seemed to be Barty's default method of addressing others but there was still something inherently amusing to hearing Pepper being called 'sir'. Not that he didn't deserve it, being a Hitwizard, but it was still amusing since 'sir' was not the usual word that come to mind when he thought of Pepper. He also had to smile at the way Pepper had sprawled even further over the couch after he'd gotten up and he arched an eyebrow. "Remember that I want some of that couch back." He then turned to Barty. "Were you after anything in particular or did you just want to browse through my library?"
"But it's mine now." Pepper practically pouted, though a moment later he realised they had company and it was hardly the most dignified of expressions, and clearing his throat he dragged one leg back up to make a bit of room at the other end, reaching for the currently-open bottle of beer to cover the momentary immaturity. Not that drinking more would necessarily make him more respectable, of course, but. Well. Barty wouldn't be here long.
Barty rather doubted that he would be able to turn a blind eye to Pepper's behaviour, but, in the interests of facilitating this experiment, he held his tongue completely. This was no worse than the banter that Pepper and Aloysius had had on Barty's journal before; it was just immediate, given physical form, and, hopefully, not going to last longer than it needed to last. At least, he supposed, Pepper was fully clothed and not really behaving in a provocative manner, even if Barty was somewhat suspicious of... whatever it was that he was drinking. But, right. Not prolonging this excursion -- that was a new part of the objective. Keeping himself on friendly terms with Aloysius and getting something new to read, but spending as little time around Pepper as possible and, in all likelihood, immediately contacting Regulus in some fashion to rid himself on any potential contamination (for, if anyone could contaminate him with anything questionable or abominable, then it was sure to be Pepper). "I... I had rather intended to browse, if you would not mind," Barty answered, still keeping on the same polite smile, but allowing it to be a bit more eager. "But that is not to say... I mean, I... I would be perfectly open to suggestion, if you were so inclined. Either of you." Pepper had known enough to recommend books over Barty's journal, after all, which was likely one of his few redeeming traits.
"Browse away. It just down the corridor, first door on the left. I turned the second bedroom into a library. Just watch out for the chained books. They're a little tempermental at times," Aloysius said as he walked over to Nagendra's tank and placed the snake back inside. "No beer," he said sternly to the snake then he walked back over and collapsed gracefully on the couch in the space Pepper had left for him. He was hoping that the obviously casual atmosphere might help Barty to relax even just a little. The young man was so tightly wound that even Aloysius felt like a lazy slob around him. It was Sunday after all. People should be relaxed on Sunday. "Hmm," he said, taking a sip of his beer. "If you're after something Muggle, try the bookshelves just to the right of the door. I've got the Conan Doyle books there if you want to read some. Otherwise I think I have some books on healing in there somewhere that I bought years ago when I had a passing interest in that field. Everything's orgainsed by subject then author." It occurred to him after he said that that he was opening himself for some teasing from Pepper but he supposed that was worth being teased over.
He was, indeed, opening himself for teasing: "He hasn't got around to sub-organising by colour yet," Pepper piped up with a lazy grin, shifting more now that he could see how much space Aloysius needed to sit comfortably and then sprawling a leg over his snake-free lap. "Oh, did I mention I finally got an actual honest-to-god warning from Crouch?" The subject sprang into his mind from god-knows-where, probably due to the presence of his son reminding him - which also reminded him that he should not be talking about work in front of non-Ministry people. Not that he thought either of them would tell on him, but still. "The healing ones have fun pictures," he added to Barty, changing the subject back again hurriedly; he remembered glancing over a couple of them at some point. Possibly his definition of fun was not quite the same as other people's.
Despite himself, Barty smirked a little and gave a small chuckle as Pepper spoke. While he had every good reason to be suspicious of Pepper's definition of fun pictures, he did genuinely find the remark about organization amusing. At least it was someone else's good sense of organization being made the subject of levity, rather than his own -- Barty loathed having his own sense of organization mocked, even if it was, perhaps, a bit excessive. The healing texts would be no doubt useful, regardless of the fun pictures, and... well, as much as Barty was disinclined to investigate most Muggle fiction for its own merits, he did have to admit that it would be useful, in the long-term, as it gave him something more to discuss with Aloysius and one more thing to potentially lead into finding out whatever it was Rookwood needed him to learn. Well. He couldn't just stand here, not when there were books that needed investigating. Giving both of the men a smile, Barty said a quick, "Thank you, Aloysius, Mr Pepper," and excused himself to the library.
Aloysius' hand dropped almost unconsciously onto Pepper's leg and he arched an eyebrow at Pepper as he ignored the comment about his organisational skills save for a small grin. "Really? How did you manage that?" He wanted to add something a little more in regards to Crouch but decided, given the presence of the man's son in the room, to let discretion be the better part of valour. He really didn't know how Barty felt about his father and even if he wasn't fond of him, it still wasn't really right to go around being disrespectful about him in front of his son. He waited until Barty had disappeared into his library then gave the leg draped over his lap a light smack. "Be thankful my books are so well organised, Mr Pepper," he said in a low amused voice, not wanting Barty to hear him. "It means he won't be here long assuming he doesn't get caught up in a book in there." That was actually a slightly literal concern given the somewhat... mobile nature of some of the books in there. Those ones had all been chained but they could still grab hold of the unwary.
As much as he knew that he had come here with the intent to talk to Aloysius over books, Barty was more than willing to disappear into the man's library and allow him and Pepper some manner of privacy to do... whatever it was that they did. Merlin, even accidentally happening upon thoughts of it was sickening. Of course Barty could handle himself in the face of possible contamination -- he was, after all, eighteen and adult enough handle exacting the Dark Lord's will on those who stood against Him -- but with actually seeing Pepper drape his leg across Aloysius's leg... Suffice to say, Barty more than understood the concerns that Regulus had had when Barty had first found himself with the assignment from Rookwood. But it did not matter anymore, or so he told himself as he let himself into the library; he was going to find books that interested him, he was going to borrow them and thank Aloysius gracefully, and then he was going to go back to his flat, write to Regulus for a bit, and then actually read said books.
Really, the most complicated and time-consuming part of the plan was finding and choosing the books. Barty highly doubted that he would be allowed to take too many of them, and he hardly wanted to overstep any unspoken boundaries when: a. he was still trying to completely earn Aloysius's trust, and b. there was no doubt in his mind that Aloysius was protective of his library. One would have to care deeply for one's collection of books to keep them so well-organised. Besides that, Barty rather doubted that he could fit them all into his flat, especially not with the ones that he had taken from home. Barty was, admittedly, a bit surprised by the sheer breadth of subjects on which Aloysius had texts and by the number of titles he had in each category -- upon consideration, he really should not have been so taken aback, given Aloysius's profession; and, upon further consideration, his own reaction was more surprising. Clearly, he had been away from the Hogwarts library, his family's library, and Mr Lestrange's for far too long. Idly -- or idly in comparison to how he should have been moving in order to expedite this process -- Barty looked through the shelves, picking out two of the Conan Doyle texts (A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, which seemed to be the first two in the series) and lingering at the healing texts to skim through them before settling on two of them.
It was really only by happenstance that Barty wound up by any of the chained books at all, as, given Aloysius's warning, even painful curiosity compelled him to avoid them. He was attempting to examine the selection of Defence and Dark Arts texts and, as he was wont to do, had run his hand along the books' spines. In something vaguely resembling idiocy, he had briefly looked away at some other cover. Apparently, this was more than enough time for his hand to not only find one of the chained books, but also to pull it off the shelf instead of simply looking at what he had happened upon. Barty paled when he saw what he had pulled off the shelf and the quick moment he wasted staring at it gave it enough time to growl at him, and Barty knew from too many trips to the Restricted Section that this noise was not a good one to hear from one of the books. Oh, no -- how was he supposed to calm this one? ...How had he calmed any of the other ones? ...Oh, Merlin, of all possible times in which to completely forget how to make a book calm itself.
It would have been very, very silly and childish to get caught in a fit of giggles at being called Mr Pepper, really, and Pepper managed to resist the urge. Sort of. He stifled a burst of laughter with the back of his hand, reaching down with the other to bat Aloysius' hand away from hitting him. "We managed to find out just how sensitive the journal tags are," he explained once he'd managed to calm down a little; that, at least, was safe to talk about when there were still Impressionable Youths present. He wasn't exactly doing anything he wouldn't do with any of his friends, but Little Barty did tend to get a bit alarmed on occasion, and he harboured no illusions that if any of his extra-curriculars got back to Evil Barty he'd be fired over trumped up charges very, very quickly. "Apparently, very sensitive."
"Ah," Aloysius said with understanding. "I had wondered. I don't think anyone in the Department has been caught but then, now that the idiot Quinn girl is gone, I don't think there's anyone there who'd talk out of turn." He frowned and shook his head at his own mention of Quinn. He had no idea how that one had managed to get through the entrance requirements for the DoM. Surely her inherent... unstability should have been caught far earlier. He opened his mouth to continue but a strange but rather familiar sound caught his attention. "Oh, bloody hell," he said, thumping his bottle of beer onto the table and shoving Pepper's leg aside. He didn't bother to try and explain as he narrowly avoided tripping over the table. He hurried out of the living room and into the library to see Barty holding one of the chained books. It was growling ominously but hadn't made a move as yet.
Aloysius eased his way into the room, being careful not to make any sudden movements. "Just stay still, Barty," he said in a low soothing tone as he edged around far enough to get a look at the title of the book. He breathed a curse when he saw which one - Arithmancy and the Dark Arts: Theoretical Models. It would be one of the theoretical books. They tended to be just that little more vicious though he hadn't quite worked out why. Perhaps it's because they were simply theory without any of the ethical and moral discussions to leaven the subject matter.
He carefully pulled his wand out of his sleeve and edged a little closer. The book growled and quivered and he froze until it settled down. "Barty," he murmured. "I want you to very, very slowly stretch your arms out as far as possible. I don't want to risk catching you in the spell when I restrain the book."
Barty was absolutely certain that his stomach was going to find some way to plummet right out of his body, which was completely and utterly ridiculous. Even staring down an apparently very irritable book, he should not have been afraid. His status as a Death Eater and several-time torturer and murderer aside, he was a man now (at least, the law recognized him as such), and he had stared down more than his fair share of Restricted Section books. Why on earth was he afraid of this one? When Aloysius finally joined him in the library, Barty was more than willing to just take direction. Taking direction was how he had gotten so popular with his professors and why he was not in trouble with his superiors in the Death Eater hierarchy. Despite his natural inclinations to either shake or clean something, Barty forced himself to stay as still as possible and only moved when Aloysius told him to do so -- at that, he moved very slowly, as he'd been told to do. The problem with going slowly was, though, that Barty presented himself with too much opportunity to falter, which, unfortunately, he did. It was just a small jerk of his elbows, Barty had hardly noticed it, but before he knew what was happening, the book had slipped far enough out of his hands to fully escape and bite down on right Barty's arm. ...Oh, Merlin. Barty was scarcely sure that he could pale any more than he already had, but he might have managed it, if only because he had looked down at his arm.
Aloysius swore when Barty moved just a fraction too fast and the book bit down on his arm. He'd had too much experience with these books and others to do anything foolish. The current situation did however give the opportunity to close the gap between them. "Hold still," he said to Barty before running his fingers along the spine of the book, searching for the spot that he knew would get the damn thing to let go. He found it about a third of the way down and poked it sharply. The book whined and let go of Barty's arm. Aloysius grabbed it and slammed it shut, holding the struggling book awkwardly in one arm while he pointed his wand at it. A single barked spell had the book subdued and he shoved it back onto the shelf, making sure the chain was secure and then after a moment's thought, shortening the chain length.
Once that was done, he turned back to Barty and gently grabbed his arm with a concerned look on his face. "Did it hurt you at all?"
Barty watched in awe and appreciation as Aloysius got the book off his arm, calmed it, and put it back on the shelf. He had absolutely no intention to move as long as it was hanging on him; getting bitten was more than enough reason for him to avoid moving. But, thankfully, Aloysius was more than capable enough to handle the situation and, as he did so, Barty examined and gingerly touched the wound from the book. ...It was not particularly deep -- it was not even bleeding profusely, although it was getting a bit red -- and it was surely nothing beyond Barty's ability to fix on his own. After he was back in his own flat, he could easily make a quick antiseptic salve, transfigure something into a wrap for it, and let it heal. "Not terribly, no," he answered Aloysius softly. ...Well, Merlin. If this was not going to be a good reason to prohibit any trips into Aloysius's library in the future, Barty did not know what would be so. "I'm sorry," Barty said, almost reflexively, looking down at the floor and his arm as though Aloysius had been a professor catching him in the Restricted Section without the pass he had earlier obtained from Slughorn. "I... I grabbed that one accidentally."
Aloysius inspected the wound. It wasn't too bad but it still should be looked after. "Come out into the living room. I'll clean it up and I've got some salve and bandages." He smiled wryly, remembering the results of some of his experiments and research. "I'm used to patching myself up." He ushered Barty out of the library and shook his head. "No need to apologise. I know what it's like when you get caught up in a library The books have caught me a few times when I haven't been paying attention." When they got out into the living room, he gestured for Barty to sit down in one of the armchairs and headed for the kitchen to get a dish and some warm water. "Pepper? Can you get the first aid kit out of the bathroom? It's in the cabinet under the sink. I'm afraid one of my books decided to be obstreperous."
Obstreperous? Good lord. Pepper was smart, but there were still limits to his vocabulary, and he rolled his eyes at the needlessly pretentious language use as he swung himself into a sitting position and rose to his feet. His head spun a little and he had to pause, remembering why it was you shouldn't drink while sitting (or sprawling). His tolerance was high though, as Millicent had frequently observed, and it only took him a moment to adjust before he could lope easily down the hallway, well aware of where the bathroom was. "Does everything in this flat bite?" he called back over his shoulder in a teasing tone, digging the box out and kicking the cabinet door closed before heading back. "People will think you have an oral fixation, you know."
Resorting back to his usual method of handling things -- taking direction from people who knew better than he did without questioning it on the grounds that they knew better -- Barty sat in one of the armchairs, an apologetic smile slowly creeping onto his face. ...Well. Maybe he was not going to be banned from Aloysius's library after all -- at least, he certainly hoped that he would not be. Even if it was not as extensive as, say, the Hogwarts library or Mr Lestrange's, there were several titles in Aloysius's possession that Barty would have liked to read at some point or another. The one that had bitten him had even looked interesting enough in the brief glimpse of its title that Barty had gotten, and, if he could learn to keep it from attempting to eat him, then he would have gladly explored its pages further. As confusing as Pepper was being with his talk of... oral fixation (whatever that was meant to signify, beyond the literal definitions of "oral" and "fixation"), Barty decided that there was no real need to question Pepper, at the moment. He only waited until Pepper returned with the first aid kit and said a soft, "Thank you, sir," giving the man a smile.
Aloysius snorted with amusement as he returned to the living room with the bowl of warm water and a clean cloth. He didn't make the reply he wanted to - 'Only the books, you and me.' - given that Barty was sitting right there. For one, he'd probably embarass the tightly-wound young man and secondly, he didn't want to risk making trouble for Pepper. He doubted Waffling would give a damn about who he chose to bed as long as he continued to work as well as he did - the Department had a reputation for drawing the oddballs of society - but he somehow suspected Crouch Senior wouldn't be so forgiving.
"I'm an Unspeakable. We're supposed to have strange and unusual surroundings," he said with deceptive blandness as he started cleaning the wound. It wasn't too bad but better to do things properly than risk infection. He gestured beside him to let Pepper know where to put the kit then finished cleaning the wound. "Not too bad," he said with a nod. "It didn't get too much of a grip on you." He opened the kit and rummaged around until he found the jar he was after then he opened it and started spreading the salve on the wound before reaching for the bandages.
Well, whatever Pepper had meant in talking about oral fixations, Barty certainly appreciated that Aloysius had not allowed it to become anything disgusting in nature. Whether he knew it or not, Aloysius was rather adept at making Barty feel as calm as he could feel in these situations -- meaning, situations wherein Barty was in the flat of a Ministry official, regardless of the presence, or lack thereof, of a cruder variety of Ministry official -- and Barty likewise appreciated that. He was normally rather averse to physical contact, but he didn't fight as Aloysius saw to fixing up his wound. "I must be out of practice in dealing with aggressive texts," Barty commented with a self-deprecating smile. "Granted, I have not encountered any quite like that, but my last trip to the Hogwarts library was quite some time ago and my father attempts to avoid having books such as that in the... in his house." Merlin, Barty hated having to make that correction. He had not adjusted to making it yet, after living on his own since late June, and he rather wondered if he ever would make that sort of adjustment.
"You should try living in Knockturn Alley," Pepper commented, picking up his beer bottle again and dropping casually back into his seat on the sofa. "All sorts of interesting hazards there. I saw someone selling cursed bookends once that set all the books on your shelves to start screaming and jumping off onto the floor in the middle of the night. Thought about buying them for my sister." Except that he highly suspected Magdalene would kill him if he actually bought her a present like that - either that or do odd things to his memory, which was even more terrifying. God, it had to kill their mother that they'd both gone into such specialised professions. "At least when you're out on your own you can decide for yourself what you want in your house," he pointed out at the last. "No offense but I deal with his rules enough at work, the last thing I can imagine wanting is dealing with them at home as well."
"You can never quite tell how the aggressive texts are going to react," Aloysius said absently as he bandaged Barty's arm. "No two ever react the same way." He snorted at the mention of the Hogwarts library. "Do they still have that screaming book in the Restricted Section? I remember the first time I encountered that one. Scared the blue blazes out of me." He finished bandaging Barty's arm and got to his feet. "Is that the sister whose an Obliviator? Yeah, I wouldn't do that either," he said with a grin as he cleaned things up, taking the bowl and cloth back into the kitchen. He took the first aid kit back to the bathroom and fetched the books Barty had chosen from the library. He offered them to Barty when he got back to the living room and asked, "Can I get you a drink, Barty? Tea? Water? Pepper's beer? It's European and it's rather good."
Pepper had a sister? ...Oh, right, yes, Pepper had a sister. Barty had briefly seen a distinctly female name combined with 'Pepper' on the journals one day, though he'd managed to blissfully ignore it. The only logical conclusions were that Pepper had a sister, a mother, or a wife (or perhaps an aunt or female cousin), and since the female Pepper had not seemed old enough to be the male Pepper's mother and Barty highly doubted, given Pepper's conduct and his own personal biases, that any woman would willingly marry Pepper... of course she had to be a sister. ...That poor girl. Not entirely sure what to say about Pepper's Knockturn Alley story (beyond being utterly unsurprised that Pepper attempted to live there, which was decidedly in the category of 'Things Not To Say') or about Pepper's Obliviator sister, Barty instead picked up on one of the subjects he was most comfortable discussing: books. "The screaming one is still there," Barty affirmed, staying still and not fussing as Aloysius finished tending to the wound, "unless it has been removed since December. ...I almost did not return to the Restricted Section after I accidentally found that one. It... I found it on my first trip there."
Barty smiled apologetically at the story of his misadventure in the Restricted Section, but quickly looked back at his bandages and the small pile of books; he had no idea how to respond to Pepper's talk about his father without potentially incriminating himself. After all, his perpetual alibi was predicated on being a Good And Dutiful Son. He loved his father, practically worshiped his mother, and wanted to make his father proud of him. Still and all, he couldn't seem impolite; he had already unwittingly upset Pepper several months earlier when there had been that debacle of a group discussion about sexual intercourse, of all things. Being impolite was almost as dangerous as being uncensored. Still smiling, if a bit more weakly, Barty forced himself to look back up at Pepper: "None taken, sir. I... I know he is not the easiest person with whom to... to deal with. At all. ...It just isn't his way of handling most things." He held no double standards, either, as Barty was perfectly sure that his father behaved much the same way at home as he did at the office. As for the question about drinks, though... "Tea would be fine, thank you. ...I don't drink." The latter part came quite reflexively, but it was true: Barty didn't drink. He never really had, at least.
Aloysius chuckled, trying once again to set the young man at ease. He could almost swear that the Barty had no idea how to relax, in which case he was going to get an eyeful if he stayed. Aloysius saw no reason not to slouch all over his own couch, especially on a Sunday. "Not the best introduction to the Restricted Section. I think I hit one of the biting books first time." He grinned at Barty. "I see that it didn't stop you from going back. Glad to see." He headed into the kitchen after Barty asked for tea and set the kettle to boil. He then pulled out a cup and saucer and the tea and carried it back into the living room. He placed everything on the table then sluouched down onto the couch again and retrieved his beer. He'd levitated the kettle in when it boiled. If he couldn't be lazy on a Sunday then when could he be? "You're probably wise not to drink." He shot a grin at Pepper. "Has all sorts of interesting effects."
At work Pepper was quite accustomed to the grand tradition of throwing balled up paper at people who misbehaved, so much so that it was quick and mindless work to summon some to launch playfully at Aloysius. "It's beer, it's all of eight percent, I'm moderately tipsy at most." He took another swallow of beer, eyes closing for a moment appreciatively, because despite the presence of Company he was feeling incredibly lazy and casual and Sunday-afternoon-bored and goddamn he could appreciate his beer if he wanted no matter how repressed crazy pureblood kids were. "Besides, in the grand scheme of things, if you have to balance up between screaming and biting books, and, well, books, no one decent is going to let themselves be scared off by a bit of wailing."
"Certainly not, sir," Barty affirmed over his tea, watching Pepper and wondering what on earth Aloysius had said to merit having paper thrown at him. There was hardly anything wrong in saying that alcohol had 'all sorts of interesting effects' -- at least, it was hardly wrong judging by how Pepper was taking to it. Barty couldn't honestly say that he had any real, quantifiable experience with alcohol. His father rarely drank and Barty could not ever remember seeing Mother do so -- if she had, he could only imagine that her Healers would have had a few unpleasant things to say about it -- and... well. All Barty really knew about negotiating alcohol was that it was unwise to allow Aquila to drink after he had fought with Severus because, in all likelihood, he would be upset and require an intervention from someone. Barty preferred to be one of the people involved in said hypothetical intervention, but that was rather difficult with Aquila being exiled in France. "It was rather unnerving the first time, though. ...But, ultimately, as you said, the Restricted Section was far too interesting to just ignore because one book is rather vociferous."
Aloysius laughed and threw the balled-up piece of paper back at Pepper. He was utterly unconcerned about how it might look to Barty. It was Sunday, it was his day of relaxation and if he wanted to act like he was back at Hogwarts then that was his own business. Besides, maybe seeing other people relaxing might teach Barty a thing or two about the subject. "For the moment," he said with amusement. "Keep drinking and you'll go past tipsy and into spending the night... on my couch." He quickly adjusted the end of that sentence from what he'd intended then continued as thought he hadn't made the adjustment at all. "If I could have spent all of my time in the Restricted Section, I would have. It was by far the most interesting section in the library. Unfortunately they kept insisting I do my homework and attend classes and sleep and eat and wash." He laughed. "I don't know. They just don't have their priorities right, I say."
"God, I know, homework - in a school," Pepper sympathised, rolling his eyes with a grin. Admittedly he had simply ignored half of his homework until being allowed to drop the classes, but he had ended up with detention quite a few times because of it until finding the acceptable middle ground requiring the least amount of effort. "It's like they think we're there to actually attend classes, or something. Highly unreasonable, I agree." He didn't comment on spending the night on the couch - that was one concession he'd make to Company - though he did raise his bottle slightly in a vague toast to the concept.
The more time he spent in Aloysius's flat, the more Barty felt as though he very much Did Not Belong, and it was an utterly less-than-pleasant feeling, even if his present company was so utterly loathsome and no doubt contaminating him with every single second he spent in here, breathing the same air as a degenerate like Pepper. ...Perhaps he should have just left. Leaving would have been much easier -- he would escape with much less of the abomination's foulness on his person, and Aloysius and Pepper would be free to do whatever unspeakable things Pepper had corrupted Aloysius into doing. On the other hand, though: leaving also would have been a show of cowardice, and cowardice was hardly befitting of the sort of Death Eater Barty wished to be. Mister Dolohov and Madame and Mister Lestrange had hardly made their way into the Dark Lord's inner circle by being cowards, and Barty would not make his way to that same place by running from an assignment that was not even particularly dangerous. Besides that, it would have been rude to leave before he had finished his drink, especially after Aloysius had made it for him.
Despite his need to rationalize staying, and despite knowing that Pepper was an awful influence on anybody, Barty could not keep himself from snorting into his tea and coming up with a highly crooked, somewhat misshapen grin at Pepper and Aloysius's banter. "I actually did sleep in the Restricted Section once," Barty commented with a small smirk. "It was fifth year, completely accidental, and I still hold that the book I had selected was possessed of soporific properties, though, in all fairness, it was rather helped by how I hadn't slept enough at all." ...Well, it was obvious that he lacked the proficiency that Aloysius and Pepper had with being freely ludicrous. Perhaps he could just have his tea and go after all, rationalizations for staying be damned.
Aloysius laughed and slouched down a little further on the couch, stretching his legs out and making himself comfortable. "The homework generally wasn't diffcullt. Hell, sometimes it was even interesting. Too much of it was boring and tedious though. I'd much rather have just kept going to the interesting classes and dumped the boring ones. You wouldn't believe the number of times I had to remind myself that I needed the Divination NEWT and couldn't drop the class. Talk about tedious." It didn't help that he'd never quite believed that Divination was genuine at that point in time. He'd learned differently once he joined the DoM. The Hall of Prophecy was a fascinating place. Not all the prophecies there always came true but that was to be expected. They predicted a possible future, not necessarily the actual future. "Still..." He took a long swig from his beer. "Got me where I wanted to be so it was worth it, I suppose."
He grinned at Barty. "I nearly did that. But I nudged that damn screaming book and boy, did I wake up in a hurry." He chuckled. "Brought the wrath of the almighty librarian down on me because it was nearly midnight. She'd missed me on her first patrol. I'd tucked myself up in the back corner of the Restricted Section with a number of very interesting books."