The Aftermath
After an encouraging shove from Niall, Remus decided that he should approach Sirius. He wasn’t sure what to say. He desperately hoped that it would come to him before he reached Sirius, and, thankfully, he didn’t even have to be the one to speak.
“Remus!” Sirius grinned, gesturing to embrace Remus. Remus opened his arms and gave Sirius a hug.
“Nice to see you again, Sirius. Your band was amazing!”
“Oh, please. Youse were incredible!”
The two began to fall into a conversation, and it just felt so natural. Remus wasn’t sure how or why he didn’t ask for Sirius’ phone number at the party, but he was certainly not going to let that happen this time. When the time felt right, Remus passed Sirius and let him type in his number.
Remus and Sirius followed the rest of their bands into the hallway, still talking. At one point, Regulus caught Remus’ eye, and Remus tried to wave him over. Sirius looked somewhat uncomfortable as he waved at Regulus, and Reg’s eyes were full of disdain. Remus wasn’t totally sure what had happened between the two of them, or why Regulus seemed to despise Sirius so much, but he hoped it wouldn’t be anything that would get in the way of Remus and Sirius.
Regulus began to chat with Evan, who definitely knew Sirius. He dragged Regulus over and embraced Sirius like an old friend. Sirius’ face lit up upon being this close to his brother, regardless of Reg’s reaction.
“Evan, mate! Good to see you! How’ve you been?”
“Great! How about you?” Evan seemed elated to see Sirius again.
“Doing well!” Sirius shifted his attention to his brother. “Hi, Reggie, how’re ya? I’ve missed you!” His tone shifted when he began to speak to Regulus, and Regulus almost looked like he flinched upon hearing the nickname.
“Hi, Sirius,” Regulus’ tone was bitter, and he clearly had built-up resentment for his brother. Remus could tell, even through his facade, that Regulus was really happy to be seeing Sirius again, even if it didn’t feel like it at that moment.
“Look, Reggie, I know we haven’t talked in a while, but maybe we could catch up? I tried reaching out, but I could never get a hold of you,” Sirius seemed very genuine, but Regulus looked uncomfortable. He shrugged his shoulders, grabbing Evan’s arm and leading him away.
“So, he’s my-”
“Brother, yeah, I kind of figured that one out.”
“It’s hard to explain…” Sirius’ demeanor completely shifted, and Remus immediately switched the subject. After talking for a while more, a man who Remus thought was James called Sirius over. Before leaving, Sirius burst out, “would you want to get coffee or go to dinner or something? It wouldn’t have to be a date, well it could be a date, but only if you want it to be, but if you don’t that’s completely fine and-”
“Yes, Sirius. I want to go on a date with you. I’ll text you,” Remus winked, cutting Sirius off.
***
Peter couldn’t stop thinking about Gilderoy. Well, about his cologne. Why would he be thinking about Gilderoy? He wasn’t. Except for his smell. Gosh, his cologne was perfect. Peter needed the name.
Once Peter saw the strawberry blonde guy again, he immediately approached him. “Gilderoy, Gilderoy!” He turned around, smile dropping just a little when he saw Peter.
“Yeah?”
“Just wondering about your cologne… you didn’t happen to remember, did you? Your band was great, by the way!”
“Thanks! But no, sorry mate, I dunno what cologne I wear,”
Peter had to think fast. He needed a way to get Gilderoy’s cologne, no matter what it took. It wasn’t just a bit to make his friends laugh anymore. He was desperate for this cologne. Then it came to him. “Well, what if I give you my number and you can text me a picture of the bottle when you get home?”
“I mean, all right, but I’m not sure if that would be all that helpful.” Gilderoy passed Peter his phone, and Peter quickly typed in his phone number and sent himself a text, just to make sure he had Gilderoy’s number if he needed to be reminded.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Anyway, how are you?” Peter decided that if he was going to continue to harass this man about his cologne, the least he could do is get to know him a little bit.
“I’m great,” Gilderoy started, sounding somewhat suspicious, “you?”
“Doing well, doing well. Just hope my band makes it to the actual competition.”
“I’m sure you will, from what I heard. Youse sounded great.”
“Thanks, Gilderoy! You did as well, to be fair. Have you done other competitions before?”
“Yeah, we’ve done some others in the past few years, but it hasn’t taken us very far.”
Peter nodded in agreement. “Yeah, my band and I did Sound Revolution last year, but it ended up being quite embarrassing, so we don’t talk about it much.”
“I’m sure it couldn’t be that bad.”
“Hey, G!” Peter turned and saw someone waving Gilderoy over. He assumed that he was in the same band.
“Gotta go, mate, see you ‘round!” Gilderoy walked off, and Peter slowly felt the smell become further and further away.
***
Louis left his band for a moment in the hallway after the qualifiers and headed to the bathroom, needing to take a quick piss. He finished up and then moved to the sink to wash his hands. A taller boy came next to him, who he had recognized as the lead singer in one of the other bands that had performed. Louis tried to remember the name as he watched the curly haired boy take his many rings off his long fingers and set them beside the sink on the counter. He had many tattoos scattered across his arms, which Louis thought were really cool since he had quite a few himself.
All of a sudden, Louis knocked the boy’s rings off of the counter and watched them scatter across the floor. He bent over to pick them up quickly as the other boy joined him on the floor.
“Oops!” Louis exclaimed, feeling a little guilty for knocking the poor boy’s rings all over the floor.
“Hi,” the other boy responded, looking up at Louis with an amused smirk as he also picked up his rings.
“Sorry, mate,” Louis apologized, finally getting all of the rings and standing up. “Didn’t mean to get them dirty.” Louis poured the few rings in his hand into the other boy’s hand, noticing the cool designs all over the rings. Louis admired his style and almost envied it.
“No problem. Hey, you were singing in that band earlier, weren’t you? The Untamed, was it? You guys were great,” the other boy complimented, making small talk as he continued to wash his hands.
“Oh yeah, good memory you’ve got there. I’m shit at remembering anything, but I at least remember how good you were in your band. Lead singer, right?”
The boy chuckled lightly and smiled at Louis, making Louis smile back. “Yeah, ‘m Harry. My band was called Firebolt,” Harry introduced.
“Woah, sick name!” Louis responded with wide eyes, making Harry even more amused.
“Thanks, mate. Your band was the one with the Sirius guy in it, right? He’s brothers with one of my bandmates, Regulus,” Harry started but then thought for a second. “Well, they don’t seem to get on very well, actually.”
“Yeah, that makes sense. Sirius never told any of us he had a brother, though now I can tell one of the songs we performed tonight was actually about him. Kind of sweet, innit?” Louis explained, grabbing a paper towel.
“Yeah, for sure. Sirius and my bandmate Remus also met before at a party, I think. They sure hit it off,” Harry chuckled, following Louis and grabbing a paper towel to dry his hands.
“No way! Your bandmate is Remus? Sirius had been going on non-stop about him after they met. I couldn’t believe how stupid he was to not even get his number,” Louis realized. He watched Harry carefully as he slid each one of his rings back on his fingers, really taking time to admire the unique style of each of them. His eyes then moved across Harry’s hands and wrists to look at each of his tattoos. And if he had admired the shape of Harry’s hands then no one had to know.
“Yeah, Remus was the same. I’m glad they found their way back to each other, though. Fate, innit?” Harry said, focusing his attention on his rings and not noticing Louis’ keen stare.
“It is,” Louis started, but before he could continue, his phone started ringing in his pocket. His ringtone was an ACDC song, which made Harry perk up when he heard it. Louis read the contact name and groaned, aggressively hitting the decline button. Eleanor had been calling him non-stop ever since he broke up with her, and he honestly didn’t even have the time of day anymore to deal with her. Harry furrowed his brows at Louis’ sudden reaction, and Louis felt the need to explain himself.
“Sorry, just me ex-bird,” Louis shrugged, not noticing the way Harry’s jaw had clenched a bit when he heard. “Broke up with her like a week ago and now she can’t stop calling me. You get it, right?”
“Uh, yeah. I know what you mean,” Harry nodded. Louis opened the bathroom door and headed back out to the hallway with Harry in tow. He turned around to face Harry and gave him a smile.
“Well, it was nice meeting you, mate. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of each other soon with the whole connection between our bandmates,” Louis chuckled at himself, making Harry smile too.
“Yeah, see you around,” Harry waved, turning to walk down the hallway towards the exit. Louis wandered in search of his bandmates for a minute before finding them all huddled together in a corner.
“Louis, mate. Where were you?” James called out, waving him over into their group.
“Sorry, lads. I was just having a piss. Ran into a lad from another band, says he’s bandmates with Remus and your brother, Sirius? You sure have your hands full with that one,” Louis said, directing the second part of his statement to Sirius, who had a proud smile on his face.
“Yup, definitely gonna have a lot to work out with that one,” Sirius said, raising his eyebrows.
“Well, besides that, well done today, boys. I think we had a standout performance and it’s looking like we can make it to the next round,” Liam cheered while Zayn stared up at him proudly. That made Louis smile sadly. Even though he knew Eleanor wasn’t right for him, he wished to have that connection with someone.
Someday, he thought. But for now, he had to focus on the band and his school. There would be no time for distractions.
***
Harry made his way out from the building where the qualifiers had taken place and met his fellow bandmates in the parking lot by Barty’s car, who were all smoking except for Niall. Barty gave Harry a nod in acknowledgement as he approached them, with Niall clearly having been talking all of their ears off about god knows what.
Regulus seemed to be a bit off, even though he wasn’t normally one to be the leader of discussions he seemed quieter than normal today, which Harry pieced together that it probably was because of seeing his brother again. Harry imagined if he had a long lost brother who he hadn’t seen in that long he might go a bit mad too.
Barty seemed to be a little bit concerned for Regulus, occasionally looking over at him to make sure he was still standing there. Evan watched Barty’s repeated actions with curiosity, frowning a bit, however, when Barty looked over at Regulus for the fifth time. Harry watched the dynamics between his bandmates with a smirk, amused at how dumb they all could be.
I mean, even he could tell what was going on, so why couldn’t they?
Niall had still been blabbing off about something when Harry thought back to his interaction with Louis in the bathroom. He had really liked the lad, he seemed fun to talk to and was pretty funny, Harry had to admit.
When he ignored the call from his girlfriend that reminded Harry of Taylor, who had been badgering him non-stop about wanting to try the threesome thing again. Even though her and Harry were in no way close to dating, the way that she had been bugging him resembled a clingy girlfriend.
In hindsight, Harry realized he had actually enjoyed the other night (more than he probably should), but didn’t feel like he wanted to try again just yet. I mean, he was still sort of grappling with what that said about him, that he had liked it so much, but tended to push the thoughts to the back of his mind when they came up.
Harry was brought back to reality when Evan suggested they head out to dinner in celebration, likely becoming fed up with how many times he had noticed Barty checking on Regulus. For a “best friend,” he sure seemed to be quite jealous of the lad, Harry noted.
Despite that, everyone agreed and piled into two cars, one being Barty’s and the other Remus’. Harry noticed Remus was in an especially cheery mood, and he could guess why.
“I heard that you found Sirius,” Harry mentioned, climbing into the passenger seat of Remus’ car with Niall in the back. Remus smiled and almost blushed at what Harry had said, readjusting himself in his driver’s seat.
“Yes, we exchanged numbers. He also…asked me on a date,” Remus added. Harry broke out into a grin at that, patting Remus on the arm light enough that it wouldn’t distract him from driving.
“That’s great, mate!” Niall called out from the backseat, embodying his role as the encouraging one.
“Yeah, he seems nice,” Remus downplayed, making Harry roll his eyes.
“Sure, he’s just ‘nice,’” Harry said sarcastically.
“Well, he is!” Remus retorted, quickly making a pointed glare at Harry while Niall laughed on from the back seat.
“Anyways, seems really good for you, Remus. You deserve someone that’ll make you happy,” Harry supported.
“Thanks, H,” Remus replied. They sat in the car until they reached Niall’s idea of fine-dining, Nando’s. They met up with the rest of the band that had been in the other car and got a table together. They reflected about the competition and their upcoming music together, basking in their accomplishments of the day.