Reunions
Once they arrived at the building where the auditions would take place, everyone's nerves hit in. Peter in particular was stressing. He knew that he knew the songs like the back of his hand, but his anxiety was getting the better of him.
Because of when they arrived, The Untamed was playing for the judges 3rd, but they had to stay and listen to all 12 of the bands who wanted to qualify for the competition.
Peter smelled something and felt immediately comfortable. It wasn't a cologne he was familiar with, so none of his friends used it. He figured out that it had to be the strawberry blonde bloke in front of him. Peter tapped him on the shoulder, and the delicious smelling man turned around.
"Orright?" He asked in a posh accent. Peter thought his voice was quite soothing.
"Sorry, just wanted to know what cologne you're wearing, mate," Peter grinned, sticking out his hand. "Peter."
"Gilderoy. Nice to meet you," the man accepted Peter's hand, dapping him up. "Sorry mate, but I haven't got a clue what cologne I wear. My mum buys it for me."
Rats. Peter just wanted to know what the cologne was. And maybe he wanted to keep talking to Gilderoy. Maybe. So, he figured he would have to pry.
"Are you sure... like what cologne is it?"
"Mate, I'm telling you, I really haven't got a clue. My mum gets it for me!" Gilderoy sounded somewhat frustrated, but bothered by talking to Peter. He was probably nervous to perform.
For a little while, Peter talked to his band mates and ignored Gilderoy as much as he could. But for some reason, he kept staring at his strawberry blonde hair.
Sirius started egging Peter on, which inspired him to start asking for more information about Gilderoy's cologne.
"Gilderoy, do you know what the bottle looks like?" Peter grinned, and Sirius and James burst into a fit of laughter. "I'm almost wondering what the shape of the bottle is." More laughter.
Gilderoy seemed to find this funny as well, but still, he was stubborn. "Mate, I really don't remember, sorry."
As a means of making his friends laugh, Peter ends up grabbing Gilderoy by the shoulders and turning him around. "I need to know what cologne you wear!"
Gilderoy sighs, and Peter almost thinks he has cracked his shell. "If I tell you, will you stop talking to me?"
Peter didn't want to stop talking to him, but the mission to make his friends laugh and get a new cologne seemed more important. "Yes, fine, I'll stop talking to you."
"Okay, well..." It almost seemed like he was actually going to tell Peter, finally, but then, the judges called up Gilderoy's band and he walked onto the small auditorium stage.
"You'll get 'em next time, Pete!" James clapped his back encouragingly. Peter just hoped that his band and Gilderoy’s band would both make it through to the actual competition so that he could keep pestering him. After all, he really wanted to know what cologne he was wearing!
Peter played close attention to Gilderoy as he played the keyboard, thoroughly enjoying both original songs that the band performed. He was also a big fan of the cover they chose, Buddy Holly by Weezer. Peter tried to just listen to the music and let go of his worries until he was on stage in just a few short minutes.
***
They were late. They were late to the qualifying round. Harry did not know what to do with himself. How could he let his band be late? This was so important to Harry, and he didn’t know how they possibly managed to arrive 30 minutes late.
Remus was equally as stressed, and Evan and Regulus were somewhat anxious too. Barty and Niall didn’t seem to have a care in the world, and were more than happy to just go with the flow.
Harry tried to herd them all into the building, almost running through the halls to get to the auditorium. Once he finally found it, he rushed in. Remus followed closely behind. Harry anxiously approached the sign-in table, and apologized profusely for being late.
The woman who was running the sign in had mousy, brown hair, and slicked it back into a ponytail. She was pretty, Harry had to admit, but nothing special.
“Band name?” She asked, uninterested.
“Firebolt. Sorry we’re late.” Harry responded, sincerely.
“Have a seat, you’ll be called up when it’s your turn.” She pointed towards a row of seats, and Harry quickly thanked her before leading his bandmates toward the seats.
***
There was a band playing on stage. The Untamed was up next. Sirius turned to look at the door, and he watched as it opened and men who looked around Sirius' age filed in. Only, he stopped paying attention to anyone else once he registered who the second person to enter was. Sirius perked up immediately, and he didn't even pay attention to anyone else in the band that just entered, because yup, that was Remus.
Sirius didn't know that Remus was in a band. He didn't really know anything about Remus though, he supposed. Still awestruck, Sirius grabbed James' arm. James turned to look where Sirius was looking, and patted Sirius on the back.
"Well then mate, you've got to get his number this time!"
"As if I would leave without it." Sirius kept his eyes on Remus as he and his band signed in and took their seats.
Remus still hadn't noticed Sirius, but in just a few minutes, Sirius would be on stage and Remus would have no choice but to see him.
Suddenly, Remus walked out of Sirius' viewpoint and he saw familiar black curls. No. It couldn't be. But then, the black haired boy turned, and it was. Sirius hadn't seen him in years. After his blowout fight with Walburga, Sirius stayed out of contact with any of his family members.
He missed Regulus. Of course he did. He was his little brother. They were two peas in a pod for as long as Sirius could remember. Sirius tried to reach out once or twice, but Regulus was still fully under Walburga's influence. As far as he knew.
But, considering he was in a boy band, Sirius had to assume that Regulus cut ties with their family as well. Sirius was flooded with emotions. He didn't know how to react to seeing Remus again, let alone Regulus. And, if Regulus really was estranged from the family, why hadn’t he reached out?
"Sirius, you ok, mate? We're about to go on..." James looked concerned as he called Sirius' attention back to the current moment.
"Oh- er- I'm fine, it's fine, let's go. I'll explain after." Sirius followed his band mates onto the stage.
***
"Next up, we have The Untamed!" One judge boomed. Regulus thought it was a cool name. He looked at the band as they entered the stage, and he was shocked to see that their lead guitarist was none other than his older brother.
It had been ages since Regulus saw Sirius, let alone spoke to him. He didn’t know what to feel. Regulus never was very good with his emotions. Walburga had forbidden any contact since Sirius' little rebellion, and that was probably her only rule that Regulus was happy to oblige to. After all, when his brother left, Regulus had to deal with the majority of his parents' anger.
He and Sirius were close all throughout their childhood, so Regulus struggled to understand what possibly could have led Sirius to leave him behind. If anything, he always assumed that they would be in it together.
It took Regulus quite a bit of time to recover from Sirius leaving in the first place. He had known it was coming, especially with the way their parents were treating Sirius the weeks prior. Of course he left them. The obligation. The torture. But why did he leave Regulus? That was what he didn’t know. And he wasn’t sure that he would be ready for an answer.
Sirius’ band started playing their first song, an original. Regulus ignored their introduction, eyes glued to Sirius, so he didn’t hear the title of the song. Maybe it could have prepared him.
Hey there, brother, my old pal,
I haven’t seen you in a while
Because a figure dressed in black
Caused our family to crack
And the story that was planted in your brain
Still remains
Within the walls of Grimmauld Place
It was like whiplash. Regulus was in utter shock. Grimmauld Place. The street he and Sirius grew up on. Sirius wrote this song. After hearing that, Regulus really tuned into the lyrics. He wanted to hear each and every word. After all, it was almost like Sirius was talking to him.
In shaded streets, I ran alone
Haunted by our mother’s tone
The weight of her words, a heavy crown
In that house, I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t drown
I fought for freedom, for my mind
Couldn’t you see? She was being unkind
The next verses were clearly about Walburga, but the very last one caused Regulus to feel tears forming in his eyes.
And my brother cried and begged
To the gods who took his friend
And I gave my warning
With these words that I am forming
And I called to say “get away
Before they can say
‘Your brother is a disgrace’”
And still they say within the walls of Grimmauld Place
After the song was over, Niall cupped Regulus’ shoulder, noticing that he was tearing up. “All right, Reg?”
Regulus couldn’t speak. He just nodded, but Niall could clearly tell there was something wrong. After all, he did have a very good read on people.
***
The judges called up a band called “The Untamed.” Remus thought the name sounded vaguely familiar, but he assumed it was just from past competitions and things like that. Actually, if he really thought about it, Remus remembered Niall mentioning a band called The Untamed. He just did not expect Sirius to be on stage.
Clearly, Remus had forgotten Sirius was in a band. The alcohol probably impaired his memory, but he definitely remembered their kiss. In fact, Remus hadn’t stopped thinking about it since it happened. When he saw the curly black hair and sharp features, Remus’ jaw dropped. He couldn’t help it.
He quickly glanced around at his bandmates, just to make sure no one noticed his look of utter shock. He did not expect to see Regulus gawking at Sirius either.
Oh. My. God. Now that he thought about it, Regulus and Sirius had a lot of similar features. Remus knew that Regulus had a brother, and he knew that they didn’t really talk anymore, but his brother was Sirius? Of all people, of course it was.
After realizing this, Remus tried to shake the thought. He focused on Sirius, and to be fair, he was an excellent distraction. Remus was determined to talk to him again, he just had to. He felt absolutely terrible about the way he left things that night, and he was desperate to make up for it.
Sirius and the rest of his band played their two original songs, and ended with a cover of Eye of the Tiger. Remus was enamored with each of Sirius’ movements, and he could’ve sworn that they made eye contact at one point. Remus could not wait to speak to him.
The way that the qualifying round worked was that you couldn’t talk to the bands that already performed until after everyone played their songs, so Remus sat through the next bands constantly thinking of what he would say to Sirius.
Would Sirius even talk to him? Had Sirius found their kiss as magical as Remus did? Did Sirius think of Remus every waking second? Remus simply did not know. But he was desperate to know.
***
Liam was filled with adrenaline through the entire performance. It felt amazing to be performing on a stage, even if it was just for the qualifying round. He sincerely hoped they would make it all the way though. He had a lot of faith in them, and as they kept playing their songs, Liam had a strong feeling that they would be seeing the judges again soon.
Not to be cocky or anything, but Liam had to be honest with himself. He and his band were good. Really good. After they finished playing their three songs, everyone embraced each other and cheered. No one messed up, not even Peter, who was infamous for his stage fright.
After walking off of the stage, Liam wrapped his arms around Zayn, who turned to give him a kiss. Liam and Zayn had been working on this band for years, and they were both thrilled to see the fruits of their labor.
Everyone was grinning like maniacs, clearly very proud of their performance, as they should be.
“Lads,” James boomed, “we’ve really done it! That was amazing!”
“I really hope we make it to the actual competition,” Peter said, slightly bringing down the mood.
“After that, I can’t see why we wouldn’t!” Louis added.
***
“Firebolt,” one of the judges called. He was a thin, short man with a receding hairline. He wore large glasses.
Once Barty heard their band name, he jumped up and practically ran onto the stage, followed by Evan. The rest of his bandmates trailed after. Evan wrapped his arm around Barty’s shoulder, and before he knew it, he was counting them in, hitting his drumsticks together, chanting, “One, two, three, four!”
The rest of their performance was a blur. Barty had never felt more alive. He really felt the music, like it was pumping through his veins. Harry’s voice sounded angelic, and the entire experience was amazing.
Barty had never been one to enjoy being on stage. He loved being the center of attention, but for some reason, being on stage was always out of his comfort zone. This was entirely different, for some reason. Barty felt at home. He felt like he left a piece of himself on that stage, and he was desperate to keep performing. He wanted to perform for the rest of his life.
Once they got off stage, Evan immediately gave Barty a hug. He had been getting closer to him recently, not that Barty was complaining. Barty wanted to talk to Regulus, but he felt like he had been on thin ice, and Regulus seemed on edge. From the moment they walked in, Regulus tensed and hadn’t been very energetic. Barty wondered why, but he figured he needed to forget about Regulus and stop worrying about him.