Chapter 1
The first time that James Potter noticed Regulus Black was actually earlier than many believe. You see, James had been to many a “Fathers Work Event” and knew his way around avoiding the adults he didn't want to see. His parents had taught him at a young age that there were certain people to say hello to with a tip of his head and a small smile, and that there were those to walk past and hope that they didn’t notice you.
Walburga Black was one of the latter. James had only ever had the curse of being under her scrutiny when he had first met her and she had glared at him when he accidentally interrupted his dad.
James avoided even the thought of her if he could after that.
Now, let's not get it twisted, James wasn’t like Sirius in how he would purposely cause trouble on the night of the party and then be “banned” from going with the rest of the family, much to the boy's absolute pleasure. No, he was more of the “take his fathers invisibility cloak and see how much of the location he could map in his head before his mother and father gave him the signal that it was time to go.
This is where he met Regulus Black.
One night, at a party much too loud for the youngest son of The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Regulus was hiding in the ladies powder room he had managed to sneak into thanks to the assistance from his favourite cousin Andromeda.
As he sat there on the counter, legs swinging and head thinking, at the fragile age of 6, he ate a scone. And he didn't stop eating said scone, even when the one (1) James Potter, age 7, pulled off the cloak and stumbled into said room.
He didn't even stop when James noticed he was there and yelped.
“Sorry! I didn’t know this one was occupied” the Potter boy said with a small grin and then turned as though to leave.
“Wait.” Regulus Black whispered without really knowing what he was going to say when the other boy turned back around to look at him. To be honest he wasn’t even sure why he had called the other back.
“You can stay, I was just leaving anyway.” Regulus said as he popped the last bite of his scone into his mouth and headed towards the door.
“Oh, thanks!” James said and he stuck out his hand in the other’s direction. “I’m James!”
James was too young to notice the other boys flinch and the other boy was too busy trying to figure out what the older wanted from him to realise that he had let his guard down.
“Regulus Black.” the younger said with a quick shake and then he pulled away and dashed out the door. He would have to find somewhere else to sit, Andy had not anticipated that there would be others in that wing of the house.
And that was that, they first of many collisions of worlds.
The first time Regulus Black noticed James Potter, like really noticed him, was his first train ride to Hogwarts. 11 year old Regulus knew then that the idea of this mysterious “James Potter” that his brother had gushed about the whole summer was completely askew. You see, when Sirius had been talking about his new best friend, Regulus hadn't put together that this was the same James that he had bumped into many times throughout his pitiful childhood. The small light he saw when he was forced to attend his father’s Ministry work events.
He had pictured this James Potter character to be somewhat of a copy of Sirius, and not the kind and loved boy that he had come to recognize.
When Sirius led him into the train cabin and introduced him to this new group of best friends he had developed over the past year, all Regulus could do was be what his parents had raised him to be. A snob. He sulked and brooded as he had been trained, turned his nose up at their antics, and tuned out the conversation every chance he could get. Sirius barely noticed. He was too busy with his new brother. James and one of the other two boys named Peter didn't seem particularly surprised by his behaviour. The only person who gave him a strange glance and a small smile was Remus Lupin.
Regulus immediately liked Remus. Maybe it was the scars that littered the other boy's face that showed that he hadn’t been raised in sunshine and rainbows. Maybe it was the understanding smile that he passed Regulus, even though the younger boy could only make his face a frown.
Remus was the bearable one.
Peter was the copycat.
Sirius was his brother.
James was the sun in the sky, the one he despised.
For stealing his brother. For being happy. For having the life he so desperately wanted.