Trippin' On Hallucinogenics - Chapter 10
“Hello, Mother and Father,” Barty said, greeting his parents who swept him up into an uncomfortable hug. Pandora and Evan glanced at Barty then coldly turned away from him, Pandora being less subtle with a wink before she left to her perfect family. Regulus marched towards his parents, his brother clinging onto Potter until the last possible second. Lupin passed by them, his eyes on his father.
“Son,” Barty’s father said, “We’re glad to have you back.”
Barty froze, then his face broke out into a smile against himself. This was it, what he had always wanted from his father… and it was…
“My dear,” Barty’s mother said, smooshing him in a hug. Barty leaned into her familiarity and hugged her tight. He saw Evan and Panda being shown similar affection by their family.
Bartemius put his hand on Barty’s shoulder, “Come on, let’s go home.”
“Yes, father.”
Bartemius brought them outside where a familiar cab was waiting.
“How was school?” the cab driver asked, smiling at Barty.
“Lovely, sir,” Barty responded, politely. Barty’s mother beamed at Barty.
The cab driver got out to get Barty’s things, minus a ferret, into the back of the car. The trunk being suspiciously larger than the rest of the car.
“I’m proud of you, Bartemius—” No way. “For leaving behind those dark wizards.” There it is.
Barty sighed, earning him a sharp look from his father, he forced a smile.
“Thank you, father,” Barty said.
Panda, Evan, and Regulus.
His father grunted, his mother held onto his father’s arm, “We’re hoping for a restart, Barty. Let’s not let this be like Christmas.”
“Of course, mother,” Barty relented.
His things rattled in the back as they jumped over a pothole, Barty’s fathers head hit the roof of the car. He angrily hit his fist against the seat, Barty’s mother flinched.
“These damn muggle cars—”
Barty leaned against the window as his father went off on a rant about muggles. He drew a smiley face into the fog.
****
Dear Evan,
How’s your summer so far? Mine’s fairly basic…
Barty frowned and threw the letter across the room. The family owl squawked indignantly as the paper hit it in the wing.
“Oh shut up,” Barty snapped, returning his attention to the letter.
It had to be perfect. Say everything he wanted.
Dear Evan,
Bitch…
Something simple, but Barty grabbed the paper and scribbled out the word quickly.
Dear Evan,
I miss Hogwarts already…
This morning, Barty had said something that had set his father off and had left him frozen at the foot of the stairs for three hours. Barty’s anger had festered until it had exploded, and left him with nothing.
Dear Evan,
I want to kill you…
Barty eventually gave up and put the quill down. The letters were scattered at his feet, all crossed out. He stared down at them then felt a rush of fear.
He’ll find them. He’ll know.
Part of Barty asked “who the hell cares?”, but there was a part of him that remembered what it was like to be stuck to himself.
Barty picked up the paper, unsure of how to get rid of it.
They’ll see any ash.
Barty held the paper up to his lips and slowly took a bite. He swallowed the paper, it tasted horrible, he felt it run sharp lines into his throat. He took another piece of paper and ate it. Then another. Then another. Until he was sobbing and laughing on the ground with bleeding gums from paper cuts.
He swallowed as much blood as he could, but wiped the rest of the blood on his sleeve and slowly got up. He returned to the desk and sat down. He just needed a change in subject.
Dear Panda…
He ended up eating that paper too. His wand was calling to him, a simple healing charm would do it perfectly, but as Barty started to reach for it his hand stalled on an empty pocket.
Bartemius had taken his son's wand immediately upon arrival at their home. Barty missed the weight of his wand in his pocket. He patted it nervously, feeling suddenly defenseless.
“Young Master Crouch!” a houseelf squeaked, Barty whipped around to glare at her.
“Yes, Gopher?” Barty said. He ran his tongue over the already healing scratches in his gums.
“It’s time for dinner! Master and Mistress are having guests over! They sent Gopher to get Master Bartemius—”
“Barty,” interrupted Barty, crossing his arms on the ground and feeling like a toddler, “And what do you mean they’re having guests?”
“They just told Gopher, Master Barty! Get him ready for guests, they said.”
“Hm,” Barty grunted, he walked Gopher out of his room, “I believe that I can handle that myself.”
“They said be ready in 10 minutes!”
“Alright,” Barty said, and he slammed the door on the house elf.
Barty turned back into his room and sighed, wincing at the slight ache in his mouth. Then he walked over to his dresser and grabbed the clothes that he knew would be acceptable.
“Why don’t you just sneak out?”
Barty pulled the dress robes on, and started to do his hair, staring at his ugly face in the mirror.
“I hate you,” he said to his reflection. His father’s face looked back at him boredly, it had Barty wondering just how much he had learned from Evan.
Finally he walked out into the hallway and down the stairs where he greeted his parents at the front door.
“Bartemius, you look proper,” Barty’s mother said. Barty nodded stiffly.
“Thank you, Mother,” Barty said.
“Was that attitude?” his father demanded.
“No, father,” Barty replied, wide-eyed.
His father muttered something about “children”.
“Who are we having over?” Barty asked.
“The Sinistra family,” his father said.
Barty could have burst out laughing. He smiled broadly.
There was a knock on the door, he practically bounced over to get it. He opened the door and was greeted by the welcome face of Aurora Sinistra.
“Hey, Barty,” she said, he swept her up in a hug.
“It’s great to see you,” Barty said.
“Bartemius,” Barty’s father said, clearing his throat. Barty released Aurora and took a step back.
“What’re you doing here?” he asked her quietly as their parents started to talk and walk away.
“Bartemius if you wouldn’t mind showing Ms. Sinistra—”
“Yes, sir!” Barty said, grabbing Aurora’s hand and pulling her upstairs, “Come on, Aurora.”
Aurora wandered around Barty’s room, “You seriously don’t know why I’m here?”
“No? Should I?”
“I’d have thought your parents would have told you,” Aurora said.
Barty laughed.
“Especially when they want you to get engaged.”
Barty sobered up, “What.”
****
They all sat at the dinner table, Barty was glaring at his food, an awkward silence between him and Aurora now. He wanted to punch his father, and hug him at the same time to at least let Barty see one of his friends, but was leaning more towards punching.
“So Bartemius, how has school been treating you?” Aurora’s mother asked. Barty stopped glaring at his father to turn to her.
“It’s been good.”
“I’m so glad that you and Aurora have become friends! I’ve heard a lot about you.”
Barry’s mother giggled. Barty frowned at Aurora who shrugged then blushed and turned to her mother.
“You and that Pandora girl,” laughed Aurora’s mother. Barty’s ears turned hot.
“Oh, I didn’t realize that Bartemius was such a ladies man!” Aurora’s father said, pushing his daughter on the shoulder, “Don’t start messing with my daughter now!”
Barty’s family all watched the three share banter before continuing the conversation with them.
“I didn’t realize that we were getting married,” Barty muttered into his food.
“What was that?” Aurora’s mother asked.
“Nothing,” Barty’s mom quickly answered for him, “You know how kids are, he still thinks that girls are made of unicorn magic.”
“What?” Barty asked.
He had never believed that, he wasn’t sure of anyone who believed that, but his mother glared at him, as did his father.
“Oh, don’t we all,” Aurora’s father said, winking at Barty. Aurora’s and Barty’s mother both rolled their eyes.
“Oh, I’m so excited, you are so cute together,” Aurora’s mother clapped her hands together.
Aurora leaned against Barty’s shoulder and wrapped their arms together, Barty looked down at her incredulously, but she just shrugged and smiled, “Thank you, Mother.”
“What the fuck?” Barty whispered to Aurora when their parents turned the conversation to another subject, taking the attention off of the two kids.
“I don’t know,” Aurora said quickly, “It’s some pureblood bullcrap—”
“You’re gross, and I’m not marrying you!” Barty said it a bit too loud and all of the table went quiet. Barty’s mother looked horrified, Barty’s father looked… he looked as if Barty were the last thing he wanted to see at that moment.
“Apologise this instance, Bartemius,” Barty’s father snapped.
“You know how we all were when we were twelve,” laughed Barty’s mother. Aurora’s parents were silent, as was Aurora as she stared around in confused horror.
“Apologise for what?” Barty grumbled.
“What did you just say?” Bartemius hissed, smacking his hand on the table.
“Barty—” Aurora started. Then Barty heard it, it was whispered so quietly that Barty almost missed it.
“Imperio.”
Barty felt a flash of panic as he realised he was being hit by a spell, but then that panic was quickly quieted into a nice buzzing noise.
“Apologise, Bartemius,” Barty Sr. ordered.
“Sorry, Sir,” the words slipped from Barty’s lips easily.
“More.”
“Sorry, Aurora, I really didn’t mean that, it would be my pleasure to marry you. I hope I didn’t offend you,” Bartemius addressed to her and her parents. Bartemius nodded at his son.
“Thank you, boy, though don’t think you offended us in the slightest,” Aurora’s father quickly said.
Barty remained silent and turned to stare at his food.
“You may be excused Bartemius,” Barty’s father said, waving his hand dismissively, “We’ll talk more later.”
Barty nodded, “Thank you, father.”
He felt a tug and suddenly he was standing, then he was walking towards his bedroom. He sat on the bed and waited for his father to come.
I should write Panda and Evan a letter, whispered a part of his mind. He fought to stand up, but found that his limbs were so tired.
Don’t you want to sit down, you look tired. The humming in his mind seemed to say.
I think… I do, but I really do need to make use of my time.
You father is coming, you want to wait right? Just sit and wait, he’ll be here soon.
Barty waited, and waited, frozen to the bed no matter how much he fought to stand. He heard laughter from downstairs and wanted to peek his head over, but the humming told him that it wasn’t his business, and it was right. It was right each time. He was tired. He did want to wait for his father. In fact he couldn’t think of a single greater thing.
Finally, the door to his room cracked open and Bartemius stood there in the doorway.
“You will never act like that in front of guests again!”
What did I do that was wrong?!
Barty’s mouth did not listen to him, instead he remained staring ahead.
“Look at me,” Bartemius snapped. Barty’s eyes immediately went over to him, “I am ashamed to call you my son.”
It was so blunt, but for once Barty didn’t care. All he cared about was the nice humming filling his head, waiting for its next order.
“Your friends with those filthy Rosiers, don’t think I didn’t notice how they looked at you.”
Barty couldn’t recall the Rosier twins looking at him any other way than they usually do. Evan with disinterest and Panda with the happiness that only Pandora Rosier could feel.
“Smack yourself,” he ordered. Barty did so, the stinging pain in his cheek waking up his mind.
Why did I do that? Barty’s thoughts asked.
“Harder.”
I don’t want to.
But you do, hummed the voice, Think of how nice it feels.
Barty resisted for a second before raising his hand and smacking himself again. Bartemius frowned at his son.
“Harder.”
Barty smacked himself.
Again.
And again.
And again.
He felt tears in his eyes, he felt the stinging in his face, and he couldn’t stop.
“Enough,” Bartemius told his son, stopping Barty from hitting himself another time.
Barty’s hand calmly dropped to his side again. Bartemius waved his hand and Barty felt the humming in his head vanish. He moved his hand, staring horrified at it.
“Goodnight Bartemius,” Barty’s father said, turning away.
Barty felt his heart pound inside his chest as he stared at his father leaving.What the fuck just happened?
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i just know you'd love an excuse to yap about these two because not enough people do so gimme your Pandora x Xenophilius headcanons pleeeaaasee < 3
Yess I don't think there's a time where I couldn't yap about these two oh my god
There's just so many good flavours of them. My personal favourite headcanon is Pandora Rosier and Xenophilius Malfoy (yes he's Lucius's younger brother—or half brother technically, in my head they don't share a mum) and they chose the name Lovegood together because that's something that represents their values while also distancing them both from their pureblood families.
They also both wore bright yellow to their wedding. Luna mentions at Fleur and Bill's wedding that her father taught her that sun colours at weddings brought good luck so I think it's cute to assume that Xenophilius and Pandora wore sun colours at their wedding.
I think Barty was the first person who got introduced to Xenophilius when he and Pandora first started going out (Pandora was testing the waters for telling Evan and also since Barty is a Ravenclaw like them, and a snoopy, gossipy one at that, it would be more difficult to hide from him). Barty fondly describes him as the humanised version of a wet cotton bud to tease them both but I do imagine they get along.
I've also played around with the idea of Barty and Xenophilius being roommates, so there's that.
I think Pandora was close with Sybill when she still attended (though I imagine Sybill to be older than both of them).
Xenophilius was really fond of plants and did great in Herbology—he also had his own little stash of items that were commonly hard to get one's hands on that he got through his father or trading/making deals during the holidays. It's partially because of this that he was part of the Slug Club (Slughorn also just liked the idea of having both brothers in his club after having already taught Lucius).
Pandora was creating spells even back at Hogwarts and she and Xenophilius would frequently try them out together.
In the summer you could often find the two under a tree on Hogwarts grounds making flower crowns for each other.
Pandora struggled more with leaving behind her pureblood family, not because of the values, but because of Evan who she was becoming increasingly estranged from. Only after learning about Evan being a Death Eater did she pull fully away.
I also think she's the one who came up with the idea of changing their names. She was heartbroken by Evan becoming a Death Eater and sought to distance herself as much as possible. Still, she held onto things from their childhood, things she later passed down to Luna in an attempt to make new, positive memories with the things.
Even though she abandoned her pureblood family, a lot of the customs and ways of acting were still deeply ingrained in Pandora and despite living a very carefree lifestyle she was still very tidy and cared a lot about being presentable (this reflected in Luna as well, up until Pandora's death). Xenophilius was the opposite, he was eager to be free in every way possible from what was expected of him.
The walls of their home are full of paintings. Not paintings in frames but just straight on the walls. They spent a lot of time painting together when Pandora was pregnant with Luna and somewhere in the house, they have handprints on the walls. They added Luna's after she was born. Since Pandora's died hers have faded and it's breaking Xenophilius's heart.
This is not a very specific headcanon but in aus I kinda like the idea of Xenophilius being the "hot and funny vacation boyfriend" except when Pandora describes him as such the skittles are standing there like 🧍🧍🧍🧍 "this is the hot and funny guy you've been talking about??? he looks like a ghost and he's currently collecting shells and seaweed???"
They're both huge nerds and they bond over being huge nerds.
Also, I love picturing them as like the Hogwarts parents of Gilderoy Lockhart, it's so sweet to me and I love picturing them being the only ones willing to listen to him ramble/brag about whatever thing he's done now or whatever his Bubbe has told him over the summer
Pandora loves to braid Xenophilius's hair and putting trinkets and shit in there.
You will 100% catch Xenophilius walking around in Pandora's super flowy patchwork skirts.
They both only have one ear pierced (opposite holes) and Pandora pierced Xenophilius's so they could wear matching earrings.
Both are big friendship bracelet wearers
They're the most queer coded straight ship to me
The first time Pandora heard Xenophilius curse was when he was trying to put together furniture for their house (even with the help of magic my man could not figure it out). Pandora proceeded to join him in yelling at the furniture, not because she couldn't figure it out but for support
They would 110% be the couple who goes all out on their Halloween costumes or just costumes in general honestly. Any occasion is an occasion to dress up
I don't think Pandora was soft-spoken at all, those two give me "he asked for no pickles" vibes through and through
Xenophilius does not believe in the concept of time and Pandora wants to be early to everything.
Xenophilius enjoys making jewellery and Pandora loves wearing it. Xenophilius also taught this skill to their daughter.
Please!!! Let's not forget Xenophilius being slightly cross-eyed!!!!!
Pandora was a Quidditch fan (she was influenced by Barty and Regulus, what can I say). The whole family used to go to Quidditch World Cups together and Xenophilius and Luna continued the tradition after Pandora's death
Xenophilius would definitely burn shit with Barty just because
He would also do graffiti with him in modern aus you can't convince me otherwise
These two would dance naked in their backyard in the moonlight
They would both be friends with Aurora Sinistra, Xenophilius bonds with her over stars and astrology while Pandora bonds with her over Alchemy and Spell creation
I feel like Pandora would really like fish/fishing (aquarium date when)
I think that might be all I can say about them for now but ask me again at literally any other time and I will probably have something new to ramble at you vnfjnbjgnbjg
ALSO!!! ACTUALLY!!! We as a fandom need to find a cute ship name for these two istg I need something. Idk what we have to work with but like,, silverpanda or silverseer (though this could be interpreted as Sybill because of the seer thing so???) or something I don't know, if anyone has any better suggestions PLEASE throw them my way
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