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Now that Julian thought about it, Barry Allen was trying to woo him for seven years.
Well, maybe the word 'woo' was a bit strong. After all, they both met when they were only eleven. The first time Julian saw Barry was when he was sorted. The hat stayed on his head for less than a second before 'Hufflepuff' was bellowed out over the crowd.
The second time was a few days later. He bounced in, a swirl of yellow and black, sticking out in the sea of red and gold that was the Gryffindor table. He squeezed himself in next to the girl who was - as Julian would later learn - his adoptive sister, blatantly ignoring protocol.
"You're to sit with your house for meals," Julian intoned from across the table. Barry craned his neck over to where his house mates were, across the Great Hall. He smiled and gave a wave to the ones who looked back before he turned to Iris again.
"You're supposed to,” Barry admitted, thoughtfully. “But there's nothing wrong with making friends, is there?"
Iris leveled a flat stare across the table at Julian. Her expression shifted into a congenial one as she turned back to Barry and patted his arm. "You can sit with me, Bear. I don't mind. Does anyone else?"
The rest of the table was too busy stuffing their respective faces to answer. Julian only tightened his jaw and narrowed his eyes.
***
“Allen,” the Potion’s professor’s voice rang out, echoing off the damp stone walls.
Barry shrunk at the sound, trying to look small and failing. It was their second year and Barry was already into that awkward phase where he hadn’t quite yet figured out what to do with his longer limbs, save for knocking into things.
“Late again, I see. Ten points from Hufflepuff.”
“Okay but this time I have a reason ,” Barry protested, over the disappointed noises of his fellow Hufflepuffs. “There was this cat in the hall tha--”
“I don’t care to hear your excuses, Allen. Kindly make your way to your seat and get to work.”
Julian directed his attention back down to his potions text, a smirk playing on his lips.
Barry shuffled into his assigned seat beside him. “You don’t have to look so happy about it,” he groused.
“Of course I’m happy. And with enough jeers from your house mates you’ll finally get your act together and be able to make it somewhere on time for once in your life.”
Barry sent another resentful look in Julian’s direction as he kicked his bag under the desk. He paused for a moment to wave at Cisco and Caitlin. The pair were seated in the desk beside them, both garbed in Ravenclaw blue.
"Yeah, about the whole ‘friends’ thing. I bet you'd be a nicer if you actually had a few," Barry retorted.
"I have friends and I don't need yours. Or your pity," Julian hissed.
Barry eyed the nearly-tied red and gold silk of Julian’s necktie. "You sure you were sorted into the right house? You definitely have that Slytherin attitude."
Julian bristled. "Says the person who was sorted into the house that stands for nothing ."
"It stands for loyalty!" Barry responded, a bit too loudly. He dipped his head as the professor's eyes landed on him yet again. "Sorry, sorry." He snatched the wormroot they were supposed to be working with, cutting into it sullenly.
The rest of the class went by smoothly enough. Julian ignored the nasty looks each time he picked through Barry’s work, tossing out the ingredients that Barry had worked in which weren’t quite up to his standard, replacing it with his own meticulous preparations. Soon enough, the potion glowed a pale pink. It smelled of roses, cake and cherries.
Barry dipped his finger into it idly. "The offer still stands," he murmured, softly. Julian looked over in bafflement and Barry clarified, "If you wanted to join us tomorrow."
"I've more productive things to do than join you and your friends on your little picnic excursion by the lake. Thanks."
Barry rolled his eyes, no doubt wondering why he bothered. "Fine. Your loss, Julian."
***
By their third year, Barry had made Hufflepuff’s Quidditch team. Caitlin had made it her personal mission to drag Julian out to every event. Iris helped, of course. Julian wasn’t quite sure when Barry’s friends had become his friends, but they had, and so here he was, flanked by Iris on one side and her first-year brother Wally on the other. Julian wasn’t escaping.
It was Hufflepuff versus Slytherin on the pitch. While the Ravenclaw loyalties were split between the two teams, depending on who had friends where, the rivalry between the Gryffindors and Slytherins were too strong for the Gryffindors to not universally band against the Slytherins.
Honestly, it was just loud and headache-inducing .
And what was Barry Allen doing flying upside-down?
Across the pitch Julian could see Caitlin and Cisco rising in the stands to cheer each time Barry scored a goal. Julian might not have particularly liked Allen, even now, but even he could admit that the boy had talent as a chaser. Every flip and twirl was carefully executed. Barry rolled away from bludgers flying at his head and wove through the enemy defenses, little more than a flash of colour.
The game was close. The Slytherin team was aggressive, upping their defense and quickly closing the gap as their chasers scored goal after goal. The Hufflepuff keeper suffered a blow to the head and the shaky goaltending allowed a few extra Quaffles to sneak past.
Near game’s end, the Slytherin team was ahead by ten points. It ended gloriously for the Hufflepuff team when the the Hufflepuff chaser - one Eddie Thawne - secured the snitch.
Julian stumbled from the stands after Iris, nearly half-deaf. She abandoned him in favour of crushing Barry into a hug when she finally reached him. “You were amazing out there!”
“Hah. Thanks,” Barry returned the gesture with a breathless laugh.
“Well, don’t think I’m going to take it easy on you when Hufflepuff plays against Gryffindor. You’re going to have to work for every goal.” Iris, like Joe before her, was a keeper, and perhaps one of the best Gryffindor had ever seen.
“I look forward to it,” Barry said, with a grin.
Eddie took the chance to squeeze in by them, presenting the Snitch to Iris with a sweeping bow. “Milady.” Iris snorted but accepted it anyway, with a small smile.
“Damn, Barr. You’ve been holding out on me,” Wally commented. “When you gonna teach me to fly like that?”
Barry laughed. “Later, I promise.” Barry looked past Wally, directing the full force of his smile at Julian. “What did you think?’
“Of you?”
“Of the game, actually, but why not both?”
Julian struggled not to smile. Barry Allen’s sunshine attitude was as infectious as it was irritating. Apparently three years weren’t enough to make himself immune. “You weren’t...terrible.”
The smile brightened impossibly further. “I got mad skills.”
“Please don’t ever say that again,” Julian, Iris and Eddie chimed, at once.
***
By the time Julian reached his fourth year, it was starting to become a struggle, avoiding Barry. He was just everywhere with his annoyingly cheerful smiles and bright attitude. Barry was still, always, consistently and without fail, late. He had no regard for authority and why people just let him get away with everything they did was beyond him.
It would be easy to hate him, so easy were it not for the simple fact that Barry also happened to be the single nicest person that Julian had ever met. While he wanted to label Barry as little more than an air-headed imbecile, he couldn’t do that either because, beneath the awkwardness and short attention span, he was also brilliant .
Julian was jealous, plain and simple. Jealous, and something else that he wasn’t quite ready to put a name to.
And, like the Hufflepuff that he was, Barry seemed to be a particularly good finder.
Julian huffed an irritated sigh and scowled at his unwelcome companion. Barry had found him in the library, in a small corner that Julian had thought to be a secret, until now.
“Hey.”
“Allen.”
Barry ignored the clear distaste radiating from the other boy, opting to sit down beside him nonetheless. “It’s nice here. Cozy.” It was a small alcove mostly hidden by shelves. Julian had turned it into something of a fort. Stacks of books made for makeshift walls, and a few pillows cushioned the ground.
“And too small for two people.”
“Funny, I seem to fit just fine,” Barry noted, dryly.
“Allen…”
“What happens to you?” Barry blurted out. Julian gaped.
“What?”
“Every year, it feels like I make some progress with you. That we’re starting to become friends. And then it’s summer, and when we come back you’re back to...well, you. This,” Barry gestured at him.
Julian ground his teeth, tightening his jaw as he tried to figure out which part of that statement was worth addressing. “Why?” he asked, finally. “Why are you so determined to be my friend?”
Barry shrugged a shoulder and looked away, not meeting his gaze. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “Maybe I’m just being stupid and stubborn. I just...want to get to know you. I want to help. That’s all.”
Julian took a calming breath. “What makes you so sure I need help?”
“I don’t. I’m not. Sure, that is.”Barry took a breath and looked back over at Julian. “I can just... sense it? Does that make sense? No it doesn’t,” Barry muttered to himself and rested his head against the wall, gazing blankly ahead. “Listen, I don’t know what goes on with you, and I shouldn’t have asked. Sorry. Just...remember that you don’t have to be alone here. You have friends. You might not like me but you seem to get along with Cisco and Caitlin just fine.”
Silence reigned for a moment before Barry shifted, breaking it. “I’ll, uh, leave you to it.”
“Go get your notes.”
“What was that?”
Julian looked down at the tome in his lap, running a hand over the page. “If you’re determined to bother me then at least I can make use of you. Go get your Arithmancy notes and come back.”
Barry beamed that sunshine-smile at him again, the one that did things to his stomach and his heart both. “Gotcha. Be back in a flash.”
***
He was like some character out of a fairy tale, some prince from those Muggle fantasy movies about magic. The Care of Magical Creatures class in their fifth year had quickly turned into ‘watch Barry Allen tame everything with sharp teeth and sharper claws that normally don’t like anyone or anything’.
Julian swore it was a Hufflepuff thing. They were more earth-aligned than the other houses. Herbology and the like. That was their thing . Eddie also had a way with them. But the three winged horses which surrounded Eddie were nothing compared to the rest of the herd, all of whom had flocked to Barry upon laying eyes on him.
The rest of the students carefully made their way to the remaining stragglers. Slow and steady, they were told. Approach carefully and cautiously. Respect them. Let them have their space. Let them come to you.
Well, apparently that only worked with Barry. Whenever Julian came near one, it would bolt, trotting over to join the crowd around Barry. Finally, he gave up, crossing his arms and staying near the edge of the pen, watching the rest and cataloguing behaviour for their upcoming essay.
Barry caught his gaze and grinned. Julian merely stared back, offering a small quirk of the brow.
Barry peeled away from his herd of smitten followers, bringing a Granian mare with him. “No luck?” he asked. He kept a hand on her chin, guiding her forward.
“Seems like their attention is diverted elsewhere,” Julian noted. The rest of the herd had begun to follow as well, trailing after Barry and the one mare that he had chosen to lead.
Barry laughed softly. “Here, give me your hand,” he said. He was nearly by Julian now, the winged mare dutifully in tow.
“What?”
“Did you want to pet one or not?”
“I think watching would’ve sufficed for the assignment,” Julian said. He cautiously extended his arm. Barry took his hand (and Julian studiously ignored the thump-thud of his heart) and pulled him closer to the mare. She wuffled softly, dark eyes flicking to Julian and back to Barry. “Hey. S’ok. He’s okay. Cranky sometimes, but he’s a good guy under it all,” Barry soothed.
Julian snorted, but his eyes were fixed on their joined hands. Barry stepped behind Julian, ( Close! Too close! ) and led him closer to the mare, setting his hand gently on her muzzle. The Granian’s muzzle felt like soft velvet under his hand, but it was the back of his hand that tingled, where Barry’s still lay against him. He could feel his warmth, seeping into his hand, and into his back from where Barry still stood, too-close behind him.
Julian coughed, shifting backward to try and break the contact and succeeded only in closing the distance between them, his back pressing against Barry’s front. For a brief moment Barry’s other hand came to rest on his hip - presumably to steady him - and Julian twitched again, stepping to the side this time, and putting some distance between himself and Barry.
“Thank you. That was. Informative,” Julian stated, shakily, before he scarpered.
“Julian?”
“Thank you!”
***
The spectacular disaster that was the Triwizard Tournament of 1994 put another halt on subsequent tournaments, calling into question the ethicality of the event as a whole. However, with the defeat of Lord Voldemort, and the general control over the matter of Dark Wizards as a whole, there were murmurs of it again returning.
In 2017, it did.
The announcement brought much excitement and fanfare. It was again being hosted at Hogwarts and while there was much debate over the validity of hosting the event at the school where it had gone so horribly wrong before, it was universally agreed upon that it would act as a collective middle finger to fate.
They were beyond those dark times. They’d risen above it, progressed past it, and they were more than able to remember the tragedies which occurred, celebrating the memory of those who were lost, while also ringing in a glorious tomorrow.
The group was now in their seventh and last year at Hogwarts, and more than eligible to participate.
Well, all but Wally, of course.
“So what? Even if I put my name in the Goblet of Fire it’s just gonna spit it back out,” Wally said.
“You’re still not putting your name in,” Iris warned, firmly.
“What? Worried I’m gonna get picked?”
“That’s exactly what I’m worried about. That and you getting blasted back a hundred feet when the goblet rejects you,” Iris chided. “Barry? A little help here?”
“Uh, yeah. I mean, it probably won’t even mat--” Iris’ glare was like pure ice and Barry quickly corrected himself. “Buuut it’s probably better if you don’t. Yknow. Do it.”
“But you’re entering,” Wally pointed out.
“Yeah! Well, I’m also of-age and allowed.”
“Sounds like fun,” Cisco said. “I’m in.”
“Cisco. People die in these things,” Caitlin pointed out, softly.
“Yeah but there’s supposed to be all these new precautions in place. Hey, Julian? You entering?”
“Already have,” Julian said, with a grin.
“Oh c’mon, we were supposed to drop out names in together.”
“I wasn’t told that,” Julian responded.
“He wasn’t. Cisco just came up with that,” Barry said, smiling at Julian and then looking back at Cisco.
The chatter went on. Cisco, Iris, Barry and Eddie all dropped their names into the Goblet. Caitlin refrained, vowing instead to make sure to ‘patch them all up’ if any of them were picked (and subsequently injured).
They huddled together in the Great Hall on the night of the Champion Selection. Julian felt something twist in his gut as he looked over at Barry. Not the usual flutter-twist sensation that he got whenever he looked at him - which was getting really irritating by the way - but a different twist. A nauseated one.
The hall was a crowded mess as students from all three schools trooped in. They jostled around, squeezing together, making room for everyone on the bench. Julian’s shoulder was pressed up against Barry’s. Caitlin was at his other side.
The headmistress drew the first name. “The Durmstrang Champion...Oliver Queen!”
Julian didn’t listen to the name. He was more fixed on that feeling in his gut.
The second name was spat out from the Goblet. “The Beauxbatons Champion is… Kara Danvers!”
Everyone held their breath for the third. “And! The Hogwarts Champion is…. Barry Allen!”
Oh. Of course it was him.
So that’s what the feeling was about.
Of course Barry participated - with zeal, happy to carry both school and house pride - and of course he got hurt. It was a Beauxbatons win during the first Trial, but just barely. All three Champions trooped out of the Forbidden Forest, sporting varying degrees of injuries. Sure, there were precautions in place to prevent deaths . But as is the case even with basic wizarding classes, there wasn’t any amount of anything that could prevent a person from getting hurt.
Julian visited, while Barry was healing up in the infirmary. They all visited, but by some, unspoken agreement between the group, Julian was often left to sit vigil at Barry’s bedside on his own.
“You don’t have to look so worried,” Barry said, gently. “I heal fast.”
Julian started. “I didn’t realize you were awake.”
“Just woke up.” Barry shifted and winced.
“Don’t move. Did you need water?”
“I’m good.” Barry settled back down and turned his head, watching Julian for a long moment. “Didn’t expect you to be here.”
“Where did you expect me to be?”
“Dunno,” Barry said. “Not here?”
“Funny.”
“I know,” Barry said, with a dopey, lopsided smile. “I’m glad you are though. Here, that is.” he added.
Julian’s heart did a jump and he scowled internally. This crush was getting out of hand and while, yes, he was ready - after literal years - to acknowledge that this was a crush, it was no less bothersome to deal with.
The younger him might’ve been onto something with the whole idea of applying distance. It didn’t work, and wouldn’t in the future - not with Barry being Barry all the time - but he was onto something.
“You are?” Julian asked.
“Yeah.” Barry closed his eyes, smiling. “It’s nice, having you around. Well...when you’re not being a butt,” he added, carefully.
“Sorry. That’s more or less my default personality. You’re going to have to get used to it.”
“Mm...s’not though,” Barry murmured. He blinked at him before clarifying. “You care. A lot. And that scares you. Because you’ll do anything for the people who you care about, right? Your sister? Emma’s starting Hogwarts next year isn't she?”
Julian frowned. Barry’s thoughts were coming out in a disjointed fashion, which added to the confusion. Though, the real question here was how . “How did you-?”
“Know?” Barry finished. “Sorry. Wasn’t looking into you or anything but. I heard. Things. Your family’s crazy rich, right? Must be hard, living up to that reputation. That’s part of your deal, isn’t it?”
“Barry…”
“It’s okay. You’re brave. You’re a Gryff, after all.” Barry laughed and winced when a spasm pulled at still-sore limbs.
"Easy," Julian murmured, setting a hand on Barry's uninjured shoulder to still him. "Just res--"
Barry took his hand in one of his own. "You were worried about me," he observed.
As was the case with the pegasi of last year, Julian was reduced to staring at their hands. "I was," he admitted, because he was a Gryffindor and he was supposed to be brave.
"You were sorted right," Barry murmured. "I didn't see it right away. Guess that's why they let the hat do the sorting, huh?"
Julian shook his head. He needed to get this conversation back on track. "You need to be careful. You still have two Trials left. You can't bring the Cup to Hogwarts of you exhaust yourself."
"Yeah. Next one's supposed to be in the air. Somehow. I got a weird clue from the box we were supposed to find," he said. Barry shook his head. "Good thing I'm a fast flyer, huh? Have to plan for that...but, I gotta say, I'm also planning for other things as well."
"Such as?"
"Such as the Yule Ball and who I'm going to take. Champions have to bring a partner," Barry informed.
Julian's chest supplied him with that helpful gut-punch feeling. Thanks. "Yes, well, I'm sure the ladies and gentlemen of Hogwarts are all lining up for you."
Barry had the decency to blush. "Well..."
"Anyone would be lucky to go with you," Julian said. And if he sounded a fraction bitter, it was because he was.
"Anyone?"
There was something in Barry's tone that made Julian think that he'd just walked into a trap. "Er. Yes?"
The smile confirmed it. Definitely a trap.
"Okay. Be my date then."
Julian stared for a moment before he pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “That isn’t funny.” He sounded annoyed enough, despite the fact that his heartbeat had sped up to something alarming.
“Did you think I was joking?” Barry’s tone changed, dipping lower, more somber. “Hey, remember when you asked me why I wanted to be your friend so badly?”
“That was almost four years ago!”
“Yeah, and I have an answer for you now. I like you, Julian. I wanted to get to know you, to get close to you.”
“And you realized this just now?”
Barry shook his head. “No, I knew I liked you liked you for a couple years now. I didn’t say anything until now because...well, I didn’t know how.” He laughed once. “It still didn’t come out quite right, did it? But...I needed to say something. I guess nearly getting crushed by a troll changes your perspective on things.” Barry said. Julian remembered the winged horse and the soft touch on his waist. Barry squeezed his hand and Julian realized that he was still holding it.
“If that was what it took then I would’ve dropped one on your years ago,” Julian mused. He shifted his grip, threading their fingers together in wonderment.
“So that’s a yes?”
“Hm?”
“Yule Ball. With me.”
Julian laughed, rising from his chair to press a kiss to Barry’s cheek. “Yeah. It’s a yes.”
Barry’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Good. Not sure what I’d have done if you’d said ‘no’.”
Julian chuckled softly. “Knowing you? You’d have annoyed me and pestered me until I agreed to go out with you.”
“Well, to be fair, it’s how I got you to be my friend the first time.”
“Yeah, it was.” Because, now that Julian thought about it, Barry Allen was trying to woo him for seven years.