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Peter herboligy tutor au:
In his heart Barty had always known that skipping herbology was a bad idea. But honestly, he was the top student his year in almost every subject, and herbology was so easy last time he went…….. Four months ago. Which looking back is a rather long time, but other, more important stuff just happened to come up during those lessons.
For one, it was always the first lesson in the morning. Keeping a good sleep schedule is just sooo extremely important for Barty, health and all that stuff.
Two, Ravenclaw had started “temporarily” having herbology with Gryffindor instead of Hufflepuff. Yeah right. Barty had only been the first time they had had it with the Gryffindors, and it had been hell on earth. Sure, Evan and Reg had warned him, but holy fuck, he thought they only behaved that way around the Slytherins.
Three, the professor once made them do something with this screaming plant, and no way Barty was ever putting his ears at risk like that again. Some poor bloke had to be in the hospital wing with hearing loss for almost an entire week before they could fix him.
So, it really didn’t come as a huge surprise that his grade had fallen, but it still hurt his ego that everyone could see it. And honestly it looked ridiculous. Barty name at the top of every subject, except for that one. Number one, number one, number one, number two in potions, number one, number one, FAILLING HERBOLYGY, number one, number one. The fact that they even kept a public scoreboard for the grades, is actually pure evil, Barty decided. It had to be a humiliation tactic specifically aimed at him, and only him. And it was working.
Barty liked to picture himself as a confident fella. And he was, most of the time, pretty confident. Some had, in the past, even referred to him as “full of himself” *cough* Reg *cough* but seeing his name there at the bottom of the list. Standing there and knowing that everyone else could see it too. That they were seeing it. They saw him failing. Not just the rest of the Ravenclaws, not just his friends in Slytherin, the whole school could bloody see it for themselves. The mighty Barty Crouch Junior fallen from his throne and god did it bruise his ego.
The rest of the week it felt like everyone was looking at him. Like he had DUMPED written across his forehead or something. It didn’t matter if they were looking with pity or as a taunt, it all feels the same in the end.
So yeah, Barty confidence was a little shaken, and if he came back every day to glare at the scoreboard like that was going to change anything, then that’s no one else’s business. Not only did Barty glare at the scoreboard during the day, but he would also often sneak out at night just to check that it really was real. He really was a failure. It was on one of these nights that Barty decided to stop moping around and start reclaiming his throne.
It was on one of these nights that he came up with a plan. He was going to take that number one spot no matter how hard he had to work for it. Barty was going to get, not one tutor in herbology, he was going to get two separate tutors in herbology. So that he, in the end, can upstage both of them.
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The first tutor was relatively easy to convince to tutor him. But it was never really that hard to convince Evan Rosier to do anything at all. “Want to study together till the break of dawn?” “Sure!” “Want to skip the whole day?” “Sure!” “Want to tutor me in herbology?” “Sure!”. Okay maybe he did also have to throw in some candy and promise that he wouldn’t report Evan if he ever spotted him out at night during one of Bartys prefect rounds.
Like he would ever have reported him anyway.
No Evan wasn’t all that hard to convince. And many may have stopped there. Most people would think that one tutor would be enough. Especially for Barty, who didn’t really have any issues understanding the subject, he just kinda hadn’t been there. But to beat the number one you must learn directly from the number one.
Barty was going to convince Peter Pettigrew to be his tutor.
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There are two benefits to having Peter as a tutor.
- Peter is the best in herbology.
- If Peter agrees to tutoring Barty, he then in turn has less time for his own homework. In the beginning it won’t be a problem for Peter, but in the long run it could seriously damage his grades.
There are of course also down sides to having to hang around Pettigrew. He is for example friends with Reggie’s dumbass brother. Normally Barty doesn’t really care all that much about who Reg has drama with, but it will certainly make it a lot harder to convince Peter.
He couldn’t just walk up to him and ask, Peter would assume it was a joke, or a mockery of sorts. No, he couldn’t ask directly. He couldn’t ask at all.
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Two days and a herbology lesson later and Barty is fake crying in the professor’s office. Trying his hardest not to do a little spin in the silly little spiny chair he’d been placed in.
“..and I swear I was going to come to class after that, I would never let a few broken bones keep me from herbology class, but then my cat died and my father had a minor magic acci-“
“That’s quite enough mister Crouch. I do not recall asking for your little sob story, I need to know what you intend to do about your failing grade.” The professor flashed him a copy of his test sheet, as if he hadn’t already seen it.
Barty pretended to be deeply in thought before he replied. “I think I need someone to help me in my free time, but I don’t know who. None of my friends are interested in the extra credit it might give them, so I just don’t know who to ask. I obviously can’t do it alone, it’s a very hard subject, and all my peers have certainly learned from the best of the best.” He scratched his hands nervously on the table. “I think the only way I may have just a slight chance of improving my grade, is if we got someone from the top of the class to tutor me. It can’t be Rosier, he’s too busy with quidditch, and he takes extra potions with Black. It would have to be Pettigrew, but I just don’t think he would ever say yes to that, you know? He probably has so much going on, on the side already. I also sometimes think he looks down on Ravenclaws. It’s a shame really, I mean I am the ONLY one failing your class? Aren’t I? It could have been the first time, in what? Ten years? That you had an entire class pass”
“11 years”
“I’m so sorry, what?”
“It has been 11 years.”
“11 years…” Barty casts a pitying smile “And you were sooo close, but alas he just would never agre-“
“I’ll tell him to do it” Barty looks slightly confused at the professor, as if this wasn’t exactly what he had been aiming for. As if the teacher didn’t know it. “I will tell Pettigrew to tutor you for extra credit. But then I also really want you to make an effort. If I hear a single complaint about your behavior, I’ll give you detention for the rest of the year.”
Barty shoots up from his chair and grasp the professor’s hands. “OH THANK YOU SO MUCH!! I promise I won’t let you down. I’ll be sooo good, I won’t ev-“
“Crouch” The professor pulls her hands out of his grasp. “I’ll see you on Monday, now get out of here.”
“You won’t regret thi-“
“OUT!”
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Barty has tutoring with Evan once a week and Peter twice.
At first, it’s a bit awkward, with Peter of course, nothing is ever awkward with Evan. They agree to meet in the library for the tutor lessons. Barty can just feel everyone staring at them, and he hates it. Hates that they all know that he’s getting tutored.
Peter probably hates it too, he doesn’t really seem like a person who revels in attention, even though most of his friends basically are celebrities. But for a person who is forced to be there, he complains less than you would expect him to.
Barty was five minutes late to their first ever lesson, and Pettigrew didn’t even mention it. Just looked down on his book and started mumbling something about “starting with the basics.”
Their definitions of “starting with the basics” are apparently very different. Where Barty would have preferred some light work, Peter seemingly thought that the Thonasy theory, Ledigu circuit and Josmakick process were common knowledge. It really isn’t. But he is so not about to admit to that, instead he notes all the fucked up terms down in his brain, and then he just askes Evan about them later. Is it petty, yeah. Should he just admit to Pettigrew that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about, maybe yeah. Does it make the number of sessions he has with Evan go up, also yeah.
And he does feel a bit bad about it.
A bit.
But not only does it help him improve rabidly, spending time with Evan makes him happy. And after all it isn’t just Evans schedule that takes damage here. Baty now has tutoring four times a week, twice in the library and twice in a dorm that physically could not be further away from Ravenclaw tower. So yes he is losing a fair amount of sleep.
And maybe that’s what does it.
Maybe that what makes him act that way.
In the beginning, the time he spends with Peter is incredibly boring. Just herbology with herbology on top. But then things start to change.
Peter started giggling under his breath at Bartys dumb jokes. Peter started playfully kicking him under the table when he said something outrageous. In turn Barty began staying longer.
He would stay with Peter longer, then get to Evan late, and by the time they got done, it would be too late to walk the halls back to his own dorm. Well, he tried it anyway but after getting caught twice he decided to just stay over. To just sleep in Evans bed.
Nothing weird about that. Mates do that all the time.
He doesn’t know when he began sitting so close to Peter, he could count the boy’s freckles. When did he start letting Evan braid his hair? When did Peter start saying hello to him in the hallways, like they were real friends? When did Evan start looking away when Barty changed? When did Peter start opening up to him about his troubles in the friend group? When did Evan begin to sit at the Ravenclaw table for breakfast? When did his lessons with Peter become less about herbology and more about stargazing? When did Evan begin to hold him in his sleep? When the hell did Barty start sleeping in the Slytherin dorm every day?
He knows the answer to none of it, but he does know exactly which day he realized that he has feelings for Peter.