Warm hands came to rest on his shoulders, calming him with gentle swipes of familiar thumbs. He'd felt those hands press down on his shoulders hard enough to make them curl up so that Barty could attack his stomach with tickles. He'd felt them pull him out of the way of too many tripwires —pranks that he'd stumbled upon that weren't meant for him. Felt them squeeze his arm in excitement when he perfected a harder spell, or memorised the ingredients and methods to a more difficult potion Evan had been tutoring him on. He'd not felt them like this —gentle and almost hesitant; a whisper of a touch. "We’ve talked about this, Haz. All of us have. We can’t help each other if we don’t talk to each other. What’s bothering you?" And that was new too, willingly engaging in heavier topics. 