Seek, Evade or Admit
James Potter was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Not in Sirius’ dramatic way, where he’d fling himself onto the sofas with an arm draped over his eyes whenever something displeased him, but in the sense that he’d been searching for Regulus Black for hours without success.
And that was concerning, because James Potter never lost at anything. Well, except for rock, paper, scissors against Remus, who claimed to have an infallible system based on logic and statistics. But when it came to finding people in Hogwarts, he had the considerable advantage of being a Marauder with access to a certain enchanted map.
And yet, Regulus Black had done the impossible: vanished from his radar.
“This makes no sense,” James muttered, spreading the Marauder’s Map across the Gryffindor common room table. “He’s in the castle, but every time I get close, he disappears. It’s like he knows I’m looking for him.”
“He does,” said Remus with infuriating calmness, his eyes still fixed on the book that had started this whole mess in the first place. James shot him a murderous glare.
“How the hell does he know? Is he clairvoyant now?”
Remus sighed, snapping the book shut with a decisive thud. Then, with endless patience, he turned to James and spoke as if explaining something to a small child.
“James, you’ve been storming through the castle with the subtlety of a flu-ridden hippogriff. Even Peter noticed, and this is the same Peter who spent five minutes trying to pull open a push door the other day.”
“Oi!” Peter protested from across the room.
“I’m not saying it wasn’t funny, Pete,” Remus continued, “but the point is, if even you picked up on it, Regulus definitely did first.”
James huffed, tossing the Marauder’s Map onto the table.
“Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. First, I find out he’s been telling me he loves me through a children’s game, and now it turns out he’s also better at evasion than I am. Fantastic.”
“I still think it’s adorable,” murmured Lily, who had apparently joined the conversation at some point and was now flipping through the Map with genuine curiosity. “Why don’t you stop chasing him around like a madman and give him time to process?”
“Because I’ve spent an entire year thinking he doesn’t like me, that he’s just being a cold, snobbish arse to me,” James groaned. “A year, Evans! I have suffered! My pride has suffered!”
Lily rolled her eyes, though the amusement in her green gaze was unmistakable.
“Maybe if you’d paid more attention in Charms instead of throwing paper balls at Regulus, you would’ve figured it out sooner.”
“I don’t need this kind of negativity in my life,” James muttered, raking a frustrated hand through his hair. “What I do need is to find him before he decides to move into the Room of Requirement to avoid me forever.”
“Pandora and Dorcas have him holed up somewhere in the castle,” Remus said with a knowing smile. “You can count on them to protect their terrified little raven.”
“Terrified little raven?” James repeated, scandalised. “Have you met Regulus? He’s more like a miniature dragon.”
“A miniature dragon who is currently dying of embarrassment,” Lily pointed out, her grin turning mischievous. “You can’t blame him, James. Unlike you, he doesn’t go through life announcing his feelings at full volume.”
James couldn’t argue with that. In his defence, he’d had no clue that Regulus had feelings for him. Sure, they had a sort of amicable rivalry, with arguments that sometimes bordered on flirting, but he’d assumed that was just the way Regulus interacted with the world.
But now… now everything made sense. The subtle gifts, the way Regulus always found an excuse to be nearby, the way his eyes lit up when they talked. And James felt a little bit stupid for not seeing it sooner.
“Right,” he said with newfound determination, springing to his feet. “If he’s hiding with Pandora and Dorcas, I’ve got a plan.”
“One that doesn’t involve making a public spectacle of yourself in the Great Hall?” asked Remus, raising an eyebrow.
James grinned cheekily.
“No promises.”
“For the love of Merlin, don’t humiliate us,” Peter pleaded.
“I’ll try.”
And with that, James bolted from the common room, leaving his friends sighing in resignation.
Finding Regulus had been difficult. Convincing Pandora and Dorcas to let him talk to him had been even harder. But in the end, after much pleading and many promises that he wouldn’t do anything stupid (a blatant lie, of course), they had finally let him into the small room where Regulus was curled up in an armchair, a book in his hands and a face that seemed specifically designed to ignore James completely.
James shut the door and leaned against it, watching him.
“You’re incredibly difficult to find, Black.”
Regulus didn’t look up from his book.
“You have a natural talent for missing the obvious, Potter.”
James grinned, stepping closer.
“Not going to deny that,” he admitted. “But I’m not here to argue about my shortcomings. I’m here to tell you that you’re an idiot.”
That, at least, made Regulus lift his head, one eyebrow arched.
“Excuse me?”
James dropped onto the floor in front of him, resting his elbows on his knees.
“Yes, an idiot. Because you’ve spent all this time sending me coded messages when you could have just told me how you felt. And yes, I know I wasn’t any better, but at least I didn’t hide behind a children’s game.”
Regulus pressed his lips together and looked away.
“I didn’t know if you wanted to hear it.”
“Are you aware of how desperately in love with you I am?” James asked, exasperated. “How many times I’ve tried to impress you, only for you to look at me with that face of yours—‘Potter, you’re an imbecile’?”
Regulus couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“You have a lot of imbecile faces, Potter. Not sure which one you mean.”
James laughed and, without thinking too much about it, took Regulus’s hand in his own.
“Don’t run away from me again, yeah? No more hiding, no more secret games. If you love me, I want to hear it from you.”
Regulus sighed, but didn’t pull his hand away.
“I love you, Potter. But if you make another scene in the Great Hall, I’ll go live with the house-elves.”
James beamed.
“Deal, Black.”
And when Regulus smiled back at him, James knew that, for the first time in a long while, there was no need for games. Because, finally, they both knew exactly where they stood.
End.