September 17th, 1977
Who: Barty Crouch Jr., Benjy Fenwick, Emmeline Vance
What: The fight that made everything go to hell lmao
Where: Courtyard
Everything was going fine so far. School was a million times better than home, as usual, the Quidditch team was starting to look like it would come together after all - and under Regulus Black, no less! - and the work was nothing Barty couldn't handle. If only it weren't for Emmeline. He wasn't in love with her or anything, but - well, she was on his mind, in a way the other girls he knew weren't. Regulus would spit fire if he knew Barty meant to help Emmeline with her Quidditch skills, and the other Slytherin boys would probably look askance at him anyway for hanging around with some Ravenclaw. But she was pretty, and funny, and clever, and pureblooded, and Barty caught himself thinking about her in idle moments.
Which meant that seeing that Fenwick boy with his hands all over her was more than he felt like putting up with. He'd never actually wished someone would die horribly before, and the honest pleasure he got from imagining it made him a little worried. Perhaps he was a bad person. Best keep at least some of that to himself.
He hadn't really developed a decent plan as to what he should do about the situation. But spotting Fenwick across the courtyard, something dark and angry flared to life at the back of his mind. Right. Barty adopted the idle stroll of a boy with nothing to worry about, and approached the much bigger boy with a mild, almost innocent expression.
"Fenwick. Having a bit of trouble with Muggle Studies. Shed some light for me?"
There were few people Ben totally disliked. A few Slytherins that kept calling him mudblood, the rival gang from his town, and, quite obviously, Barty Crouch. To say that he still had a grudge from that time Barty had whisked his girlfriend away to France on Christmas would be an understatement, really.
Yet, he fought to keep his expression level when he saw the Slytherin approaching him, because Emmeline was his, wasn't she? But that didn't mean he couldn't look confused, and somewhat startled, at the question.
"Er- okay." He answered uncertainly, shifting his weight to his other foot and pushing his hands deep into his pockets.
Barty stuck his hands in his pockets, too, pausing just barely outside of Ben's reach. "I overheard a couple of Ravenclaws talking," he said, all cheerful curiosity, "and one of them reckoned Muggles can't do magic because they're stupid, but the other one reckoned it was just a tragic disability. Like being blind or whatever. Which d'you think?"
He was obviously having trouble keeping his cool expression now, just when he thought he would last at least for ten minutes of conversation. Ben set his jaw, balling his fists but making sure they remain in his pockets. God only knew how much trouble he'd get into if he punched a much younger (and shorter) student.
"Is that what they teach you in muggle studies?" His voice, however, was still rather quiet.
"No, I'm trying to do some extra-curricular study. My father thinks it's very important, to make integration easier. I think he's a bit deluded, but still." Barty smiled brightly at Fenwick. "So come on, which is it? Is it something left out or something extra we've got? You must have an opinion. Do you suppose Muggle-borns are sort of overcoming the deficiency somehow? Maybe your Muggle mother ate something weird when she was pregnant."
It was really, really difficult not to pull his fist out and smack the Slytherin in the face hard enough for him to lose consciousness, or maybe strangle him with both hands to teach him a lesson- but even Ben, who wasn't as bright as you could be, knew that the excuse Barty gave was fake, and that he was most definitely testing him on purpose. For what reason, though, Ben wasn't sure.
"You don't want to mess with me." He said simply, his tone a lot angrier now, and turned to leave. Sure, he was walking on all of the principles of survival he'd picked up as a child, but the new Good Ben, the one that was born when he was chunked into Hogwarts, was still the dominating one.
"Why not?" ...damn it, he was walking away. Not that pissing him off wouldn't be a satisfactory result in itself, but still. The smile slid from Barty's face and for just a moment his real, honest hatred showed. Then he smiled again, making himself look pleasant, and whispered, "Mudblood." Just loud enough that he guessed Fenwick would hear it.
Screw common sense.
In less than a second, Ben whirled around looking, for a lack of better word, seething. While he didn't exactly mind the word Mudblood (it was like getting cursed in a foreign language, so what?), that fact that Crouch had the nerve to say it after insulting him, his mum, and every single muggle in the world sent Ben over the edge.
He took two powerful strides toward Barty, his fist already out of his pocket and being pulling back behind his head to gain momentum- and then he did it. He swung it forward, aiming for Barty's nose, not giving a damn about who was there to see.
"Because I can break you're bloody skull, that's why."
An instant of triumph, a moment of 'oh hell this will hurt' - Barty hit the floor hard on his back, stunned and gasping. He didn't make any attempt to get up right away; he just stayed down, wide-eyed and clearly frightened, one hand lifting to touch the blood that was starting to leak from his nose. People were watching; they hadn't heard everything he said, but they'd seen the much bigger boy knock him down. Well, he thought, dizzily, that worked, now what?
"Get off me!" At least he didn't have to fake the shaken tone in his voice. Next time - better plan.
Ben didn't have to be a genius to realize what had just happened here, that despite the fact that Crouch was on the ground bleeding, he was the one who had won. The Gryffindor wanted to hit him again just for that, but he knew he shouldn't- or rather, couldn't, not when people where clearly watching now.
He gave a few colourful curses under his breath and staggered away from the boy, his eyes glaring as if he attempted to blow up the Slytherin just by focusing hard enough.
"Fuck."
"Oh, will you just move?" Emmeline grumbled, stopping in her place because it seemed like all of the traffic right where she needed to cross the courtyard was backed up and ugh she needed to see Flitwick because she had questions about the last lesson and wanted to do the extra credit he assigned and--"Ben!"
She squeaked, really squeaked, when she saw that it was Ben, her Ben was the one in the middle of the big circle, it was Ben looking down at---"Barty!"
Oh--oh God. This had to be a nightmare. Emmeline dropped her belongings at the foot of a bench and didn't care about who was watching (Oh--oh God, everyone was watching!) as she pulled Ben's arm, "What's! What's going on!"
Barty sat up, but didn't get off the floor just yet. He could hear Emmeline yelling, which was of course the whole point. Best not to look too eager. He dabbed delicately at his bleeding nose with the cuff of his sleeve, then fumbled a handkerchief out of his pocket. He felt genuinely quite dizzy.
For the first time ever, Ben found himself feeling greatly disappointed that his girlfriend, Emmeline, had showed up on his side. He was well aware of the (wrong) idea she's probably already formed- with him standing tall above Crouch, the guy that practically broke them up less than a year ago, who happened to have a bloody nose.
But he still hoped that she'd listen to him first, rather than that mislead idea.
"Nothing that has to do with you, Em, please leave." He tried to soften his voice as much as possible, but it was difficult because his eyes were still on Crouch, glaring.
For the first time in a very, very long time, Emmeline was speechless. Speechless! Around Ben of all people, she never had to force herself to speak around him and--why was he talking like that? It felt like a completely different person standing before her, and she looked down at Barty with a helpless expression on her face before turning back to Ben and tugging on his arm again.
"Right, nothing--so let's go," she finally forced out. "Come on, he's a foot shorter than you, you don't need--" why are you fighting! "Let's go, please!"
Barty glanced up at Fenwick, looking frightened, then cut his gaze finally to Emmeline. He looked ashamed, and rattled, and rather bloody too. "It's all right," he muttered, muffled through the handkerchief he was using to stem the flow. "It's all right, Em, it was nothing."
The scuffle had drawn attention; either a teacher or a prefect was bound to turn up soon.
"No- nothing to do with you, you go." Ben insisted, resisting Emmeline's pulling rather easily, and still not looking at her. "It's between him and me," and the way he'd said it, practically spitting out the words, one might think he was about to commit murder.
And on top of that, he was calling her Em? If Ben were a cartoon character, his ears would be whistling out smoke by now.
"Shut up." He yelled coldly at Crouch, crossing his arms over his chest to make himself look, if possible, taller. "Emmeline, leave."
She'd been ready to drag him off and cool him down and simply get him away from a fight until he started talking to her like that. No matter how scary the situation---yes, this was scary, Ben shouldn't be able to glare like that!---he couldn't talk to her like that, act as if she didn't belong in certain places and to hell if she was going to let him continue this fight.
Emmeline moved in front of him, trying to get him to actually look at her!
"Benjamin Fenwick," she said in a low voice, trying to keep the prying ears that were closing in on them from hearing. She needed to get him away before he got into more trouble---the Head Boy had just warned all of them! "If you don't leave him alone I swear on my wand I will never speak to you again."
She didn't think that maybe Ben would take it as her defending Barty; no, she just wanted to get him out of any more trouble, and the slightly pleading look on her face hopefully showed him that.
The change that had happened in that instant was amazing. Shocking, even. Ben went from looking extremely angry, so angry that he probably wouldn't have a problem facing a wild dragon and skinning him alive- so angry that- well you get the picture, to the complete opposite. No more glares, the set jaw was gone, and instead, a look he'd hardly let anyone see before took over.
He simply looked hurt.
"You're defending him?" It came out more of a statement than a question, really, because at that point, he couldn't possibly hear her try to explain herself and not get his anger back. It was obvious, she was defending Crouch.
"Stay with him, then, clean up his nose. I bet you know loads of spells that muggleborns with damaged mums won't have any idea about," alright, he was exaggerating, but she was blooding defending Crouch! "I'm done."
Without casting a last look at the boy on the ground, Ben turned and roughly pushed his way through the crowd, away from all of it.
Fuck.
Emmeline didn't get a chance to try to figure out how the hell that went so badly before Ben stormed off and she stood there, in the center of the courtyard with everyone whispering and watching her and oh God was there a fire somewhere because she couldn't breath it was so hot!
What did that even mean, 'I'm done'? Was that Ben breaking up with her or just done with the arguement or done with with--what did it mean! Emmeline bit the insides of her cheeks to stop herself from crying, but that was fruitless because tears had already started to form and oh God everyone in the entire school must've seen and it was so hot!
She turned quickly with her head down and pulled up her bag and her loose parchment in an almost frantic state because what had happened? Emmeline fuzzily remembered the nasty (he'd been nasty with her) comments about muggleborns and she shot a terrible glare at Barty, just knowing he'd said something before she too pushed her way through the crowd.
...wow. That was perfect. Though the sight of Emmeline crying did rather dent the victory. Barty struggled to his feet, stunned by the force of that glare. "Emmeline! Wait - " There were too many people here, starting to crowd around all wide-eyed at the blood on him. It was going to have to wait. He would just tell a teacher the truth. He was teasing Fenwick, it was his fault, and Fenwick really shouldn't be punished just for over-reacting to a harmless joke.
Perfect.
