Stag
“James looks so much happier now” lily let out a content sigh as she let herself fall back onto Mary’s bed.
It surprised Mary how lily was handling all of this, hadn’t she had a crush on james since second year?
“you’re not sad about it?” Mary asked walking over to sit beside lily on her bed. Lily looked up at her from her position of laying sprawled out on mary’s bed
Mary’s stomach fluttered at the idea of lily in her bed in that way it had been doing for a while now. She had tried to get rid of it, dating boys around the school, but it was no use, the only one who could make her feel like that was still her best friend.
“nah, I’m happy for him, I finally am rid of him over analysing every move black makes ‘oh lily he looked at me today do you think he likes me’ ‘lily did you see the way he flew past me at the match’ ‘lily..’ ‘lily..?’ ‘Lily…?’ driving me nuts”
Mary giggled as lily blew air through her lips making that pfrt sound. “sounds exhausting”
“it was! It really was” lily giggled before she groaned “oh no I bet I’ll now be hearing about all the cute things they’ll be doing, Mary I don’t think I’ll survive, they’ll be too cute and exhausting at the same time”
Mary laughed before she realised something “wait so you never liked James?”.
“no? he’s so.. laddy”
“Laddy?”
“laddy. You know like ‘I’m with the lads’ ew, no… men” Lily grimaced with a shiver.
“they are not that bad!”
“you’re biased, you have them falling at your feet” Lily gritted out, sounding jealous.
“you don’t have to be jealous Petal, I bet now that everyone knows you’re not dating potter, boys will fall at your feet just the same”
Lily still had a frown on her face “I promise you” Mary whispered before moving over to hug her friend.
~*~
Marlene was over the moon, she still couldn’t believe her luck as Dorcas laced their fingers together and smiled at her.
For a long time she had been pining over the slytherin girl, thinking that it could only be that, a dream. But here she was and the warm fingers holding her hand are reality, and the soft lips against her cheek are really there.
It’s been two weeks since the party, and slowly they were getting more comfortable with showing they’re together to the rest of the school.
Most students were too scared to do something when Dorcas was around, they knew better than to make a snide remark about the slytherin girl knowing she had, Crouch, Rosier and Black behind her.
But when marlene was alone they weren’t holding back, luckily Marlene knew enough defensive spells and hexes to defend herself but she kept the assaults a secret from Dorcas, not wanting her to worry.
With two relationships between a slytherin from the one friendgroup and a Gryffindor from the other, the two groups had started to mingle. Making homework together, sitting next to one another in classes or generally hanging out around the grounds.
They had also started training together and the Gryffindor x slytherin matches had become more friendly.
Marlene loved training with Regulus, it was nice to train catching the snitch with some competition.
“soooooo how are things going?” marlene asked the slytherin seeker as they were hovering in the air at the side after another round of flying after the snitch which marlene was lazily throwing up and down.
“which things?” regulus asked even though marlene was sure he knew what she was talking about.
“how are things going dating a Gryffindor, tired of him yet?”
regulus chuckled and shook his head in reply “no not one bit, though Sirius has been a menace, making gagging noises whenever James and I are being too close for his liking”
“sounds like Sirius”
“it does, doesn’t it? Anyways, I’ve taken to doing the same whenever him and lupin are being sappy, it’s annoying the shit out of him which means it’s amusing James and I, I mean he’s not the only one having to watch a sibling be all mushy with their partner, mind you he and lupin are waaaay worse”
Marlene almost fell off her broom from laughter, the way Regulus told stories never failed to make her laugh.
“enough about me, how are Evans and McDonald?”
“painfully oblivious” Marlene sighed thinking of her two hopeless friends.
“thought so, both james and Sirius have been talking about it, because lily comes to james and mary comes to Sirius, guess you and I are being allies through this oblivion as well”
Again Marlene fell into laughter and Regulus himself let out a small chuckle.
“we ought to support one another through these though times” marlene sad with a fake sob, her hand clutching over her heart making regulus snort.
“oi fuckfaces, it’s practice not tea time!” Crouch yelled out from below.
“may the best one win, mckinnon”
“oh it’s on Black”
With that Marlene threw the snitch in the air, counted to five before the two off them darted off after it.
~*~
“and then she went on about how boys will fall at my feet now that they know I’m single, but I don’t want boys falling at my feet, I want her falling at my feet”
A loud groan was heard as lily pulled her hands over her face, she was hiding with james in the headgirl dorm so she could rant about mary in peace.
“and I literally said “ew, men” and she is still convinced I’m looking for a boyfriend” James let out a ‘hey’.
“am I ‘ew’ now Evans? Okay I see how it is” James scoffed with a fake pout.
“you have always been ‘ew’” her comment was followed by a smack in the facewith a pillow from james. “I deserved that” she mumbled as she threw the pillow off her.
“I don’t even know why I’m coming to captain oblivious for advice, but thanks for letting me talk about it anyways”
“any time Lils, any time”
~*~
“I hate this with a passion” Regulus groans letting himself fall back onto James’s bed.
“Oh come on Reggie It’s not that bad, besides I’m helping you aren’t I?” James let the stack of books he had been holding fall down onto his bed next to his boyfriend who jerked at the sound of the books clattering.
“Have you seen how many books we need to use, this is that bad”
Sirius chuckled from where he was sitting on the floor with his back against his bed, Remus sat behind him on said bed, braiding his hair.
“You have no right to laugh, the only problem you have to deal with is Lupin pulling your hair to harsh and Merlin knows you don’t even mind that at all” regulus gritted as he sorted through his books which he would need for his care of magical creatures assignment. He had to write an essay about three creatures that lived in the forbidden forest. They were given a list and had to pick three.
He sucked at care of magical creatures, he barely knew how to take proper care of himself so learning how to care for other creatures was not up his alley.
Luckily James knew an awfully lot about the creatures in the forbidden forest and offered to help.
Regulus knew he was going to write about thestrals, from the first time he was able to see them he was entranced by the creatures.
James told him bowtruckles were very fun creatures so that was the next he chose and lest they chose doxy’s simply because there was a lot to find about them.
“No not doxy’s” sirius groaned making regulus look up. “Horribly annoying creatures” he added with a roll of his eyes.
“Did you have doxy’s in your magical creatures lesson?” Regulus asked, because when had sirius come in contact with Doxy’s.
The room fell silent and the three marauders all exchanged glances. “Okay don’t tell me, sure why not” Regulus sighed turning back to his book to search up doxy’s.
“Books are rubbish at describing what they look like, let’s go” James suddenly said standing up and holding his hand out to haul Regulus off of the bed. He noticed that Remus and Sirius were already standing as well.
“You mean going into the forbidden forest? I think the fuck not” He crossed his arms defensively, there was no way he was going in there.
“You have nothing to worry about Love, we do it all the time” James tried to comfort.
“You mean to tell me you go in there on a regular basis and don’t get killed? James don’t you know how dangerous the forbidden forest is and just how many creatures there are that are out to kill humans?” Regulus stared at the three other boys with wide eyes
Sirius let out another chuckle shaking his head, earning a shove from his boyfriend.
“Trust me” James said in a whisper, his eyes filled with hope and who was Regulus to say no when James was giving him that look.
“Fine, but if you get us killed I will murder you”
“Sure thing love” James smiled brightly lacing their hands together to follow Remus and Sirius out of the room.
“What if we get seen?” Regulus asked as they made their way across the courtyard.
“We got it covered, literally” Sirius chuckled
“That was so not funny” Remus groaned with a playful roll of his eyes.
“So was”
“Actually I don’t think we’ve got it covered, how are we gonna fit, there’s four of us” James worried as they reached the end of the courtyard.
“Just let him hop on your back, remus will have to duck a bit and I can just transform” sirius explained easily and no one seemed taken aback by this but regulus was utterly confused.
“I’m sorry, WHAT, transform? duck? Fit four of us in what?” Regulus was staring at the three others again just like he had done when it was revealed that they went into the forest on a regular basis.
“We’ll explain once there, for now try not to scream” James smirked.
“Scream? Why would I- Holy Shi-“ James quickly clamped his hand over his mouth to muffle his yells as he stared at the black dog that was standing in his brother’s place.
He licked James’s hand trying to get it off but James didn’t budge, motherfucker.
“Promise you will be calm and ask no questions till we’re in the forest?” James whispered In his ear from where he was standing behind regulus pining him to his chest with his hand on his mouth, If this were to happen in any other circumstances Regulus would’ve been Insanely turned on but seeing as his mind was a little occupied with his brother being a dog this wasn’t too big of a problem.
He nodded his head and james let his hand fall down but kept his arm wrapped around Regulus. “Okay no questions, I can do that, it’s perfectly normal that my brother is currently nudging his snout against my leg and wagging his tail, just like any other day Yupp” his voice was higher then normal and James chuckled lowly in his ear before letting go.
“Alright you’ll have to get onto my back so we can fit under the invisibility cloak” of course James had an invisibility cloak, sure why not.
Regulus hummed and nodded, no questions.
James helped him climb onto his back before remus threw a cloak over the three of them. Sirius had already darted of in the direction of the forest.
Regulus felt oddly safe in his place on his boyfriend’s back as they trailed down to the forest, it was a bit of a hassle at first but apparently the boys had been hiding together under the cloak plenty of times before so they quickly fell into step.
When they passed the first rows of threes sirius started barking loudly at them.
Remus removed the cloak and put it in his bag. James kept regulus up on his back, not that regulus was complaining.
“Okay so is anyone going to explain to my why my brother is a dog?”
Sirius barked at him and happily wagged his tail, he was very fluffy and regulus resisted the urge to coo becausee that was his freaking brother.
“They’re animagi” remus said calmly stroking sirius behind his ear.
“Yeah but why? Also what THEY!!!” Regulus looked at james “don’t tell me you can turn into a dog too”
“Oh no, not a dog at least” James smirked.
“Do I want to know?” Regulus sighed leaning his head on James’s shoulder. “How about you?” He asked Remus who shook his head. Regulus let that information sit with him for a few seconds before everything fell Into place.
“Oh! you guys have become animagi to help lupin with his moons” James almost dropped him at the exclamation.
“How do you know about Moony’s furry little problem?” James asked regaining his grip on the younger boy.
“Figured that one out long ago, I started to notice that you all skipped breakfast one day every month, sometimes even skipped quidditch practice which is very out of character for you and sirius, so then I started taking not of when this happened, every morning after the full moon, Remus was the one with the scars so for me it wasn’t hard to figure out, but believe me anyone who isn’t deliberately watching James’s motives wouldn’t know”
“You’ve got yourself a stalker prongs” Remus chuckled.
“Nah just a simp” James grinned leaning his head against Regulus’s.
“Padfoot, moony, wormtail prongs… that all makes sense now” Regulus mused. “Let me guess peter is a rat?” Sirius barked and remus nodded.
“Prongs… oh Merlin James don’t tell me you’re a stag” he groaned, but he secretly found it very cool that his boyfriend was a stag.
“Alright I won’t tell you then, can show you though” suddenly James transformed with Regulus still on his back.
“JAMES!” Regulus shrieked as the stag he was sitting on now darted of in a run through the forest. Regulus clutched his arms around his neck, holding on for dear life… dear life… funny.
James ran a lap around some trees before running back to his two friends who were watching them.
“That was terrifyingly fun” regulus muttered as he let himself slide off of James’s back. James nudged his nose against his chest and Regulus reached out to pet his head. Slowly running his hands up and over his antlers, he was magestic.
Regulus had adored stags ever since he first casted his patronus, which was a stag. WAIT!
Suddenly regulus bounced back as if he had touched a life wire. “You okay black?” Remus asked sounding concerned.
“You’re a stag” regulus whispered in shock as James transformed back, concerned as well.
“You’re a stag!” Regulus exclaimed and James raised his eyebrow.
“I know that love” he commented.
“No, no, you don’t get it, you’re a stag, and, I..” Regulus’s mind was running an hundred miles an hour.
Instead of explaining he reached for his wand.
“Expecto patronum” he called out and everyone watched as the blue flow of light streaming from his wand formed a stag, with the same exact antlers as James.
“It’s a stag!” James exclaimed in the same way Regulus had done before he tackled his boyfriend into a hug.
“I love you” he whispered in his ear as the stag ran around them happily as Regulus’s stomach fluttered with love for James.
“I love you too” he said back before kissing James.