Not Inevitable

Regulus can’t sleep.

Of course, this is quite normal for him, as is wandering the corridors in the middle of the night when it occurs.  It was Evan in his nightmares tonight– Evan in the Ministry; Evan in a halo of green light; Evan’s dead weight in his arms pulling him to the ground, keeping him there, pushing him down, down, down. Evan’s weight pinning him to the bottom of a grave as his family covers him in dirt.

Sirius wasn’t there though, Regulus thinks to himself as he turns a corner on the fourth floor. So maybe this whole brother thing will actually work out. Otherwise he would’ve been with the rest of my ‘family’ burying me alive.

Regulus isn’t usually one to put much stock in dreams. But the nightmares haven’t let up since December and three months of sleep deprivation has Regulus convinced that if he can just figure out whatever his subconscious is trying to tell him, they’ll go away. It doesn’t help that, while there are a few repeats, they’re different nightmares every night now and Regulus can’t determine any sort of pattern.

“Hey Reg,” a voice says from behind him– James. James, who always finds him, regardless of where he is or what time it is. James can always find him.

“Hey,” Regulus answers, turning around.

James looks exhausted. He covers it up well enough during the day, making a big show of energetically bouncing off the walls. But that’s all it is– a show. A performance. He’s tired and he’s scared, but he refuses to let anyone know. Any one except Regulus. But even then, Regulus only knows because James insists on keeping him company when his nightmares get too bad to sleep, and it’s just too hard to keep up the act in the middle of the night when he has his own nightmares to contend with.

“Who was it tonight?” Regulus asks. Unlike Regulus, James’s nightmares are consistent. Almost every night, he watches one of his friends die. Plain and simple. But not easy. Sometimes it’s an exact copy of what Pandora showed them in the pensieve all those months ago. Sometimes his brain uses the visions to fuel a slightly different iteration of their deaths. But every night, James has to watch someone die while he can do nothing to stop it.

“You in the cave,” James answers easily. The exchange of nightmares was awkward at first, as was admitting they often had nightmares involving each other, but now it’s more of a comfort than anything else. All ten of them get more than their fair share of bad dreams, knowing what they know of the potential future, but James and Regulus are the only ones that are haunted by them to this degree. As cliche as it sounds, it’s nice to know that they’re not alone.

“What about you?” James asks.

“Started with Evan in the ministry, ended with my family burying me alive.”

“Hot chocolate?” James asks

“Hot chocolate,” Regulus affirms.

When they reach the kitchens, Regulus heads right for his seat at the small table in the corner while James goes into the actual kitchen.

At first, when the elves realized their late-night kitchen excursions were becoming a habit, they had hot chocolate ready and waiting for them. It took James five days to work up the nerve to ask them to stop. The process of making the drinks helps calm his mind, he had said, but the Gryffindor was too cowardly to tell this to the elves. He didn’t want to hurt their feelings– such a Hufflepuff.

James moves around the kitchen and Regulus watches. James is very consistent, making it exactly the same way with all of the exact same movements every night. In the dim lighting with the warmth and the smell of bread surrounding them, it’s almost hypnotic watching James move in exactly the way he always does. It almost seems like that’s the way James was always meant to move. Regulus gets so lost in these moments sometimes, wishing that this loop would play on repeat. He could live quite happily in a loop of these three minutes for the rest of his life.

Regulus had this realization for the first time at the end of January, only two weeks after getting his memories back. He felt more safe in their little corner of the kitchen than he had almost anywhere else in his life, the one exception being his and James’s Room of Requirement.

“Do you ever miss it?” Regulus asks James when he brings over two steaming mugs.

“Miss what?” James asks

“Our Room.”

“Yeah,” James answers hesitantly. They had yet to talk about their relationship now that Regulus could actually remember it. “Is that okay?”

“Of course,” Regulus says, chuckling at James’s noble stupidity. “You can feel however you feel, you idiot.” Regulus pauses, gathering up all the courage he possesses. “How do you feel?”

James freezes. Regulus can practically see his brain overheat. “You mean–?”

Regulus nods.

“The truth?” James asks

“Always,” Regulus replies

“You really want to do this?”

“Yes James”

James looks at him intently, searching Regulus’s eyes for information. Regulus doesn’t know what James finds in them, but he takes a deep breath.

“I loved you,” James starts.

“I loved you. But I was so mad at you that day, at King’s Cross. And I know now that that wasn’t your fault, not at all. But I asked you to stay with me and you wouldn’t even look at me the next day. And then to top it all off, you kidnap Sirius, dragging him back with you. And I couldn’t help but think that maybe you knew your parents were going to do that. You were always so adamant that you couldn’t leave your family. I thought maybe that was why, because you knew that they weren’t letting Sirius leave either. Maybe you knew and you didn’t tell me.”

“So I loved you, and I was mad at you, even though I had no right to be, I was. And I was also so fucking terrified. I kept thinking that I would get to Hogwarts in the fall and one or both of you would be dead by then and I wouldn’t even have known until you didn’t show. For the first time in my life, I was dreading going back to school.”

“And then Sirius shows up on my doorstep, nearly dead, and I just about lost my mind. I can remember finding him. I can remember standing over my mum’s shoulder as she did her best to heal him. I can remember my dad pouring potions down his throat. I can remember sitting by his bed when they had done all they could. And then it goes blank and the next thing I remember is my mum hugging me, but I’m outside, kneeling by a tree and my hands are bruised and bloody. I must’ve punched it. More than once. I’m not really sure what happened.”

James’s eyes haven’t moved from a very specific spot on the table, but it’s clear that he’s seeing memories behind his eyes more than he’s seeing the table in front of him.

“And Sirius still hasn’t woken up, but he’s here and he’s breathing. I can see him and I can talk to him, even if he can’t hear me. But where are you? You told me yourself, that your mom has killed people. Or worse. And I couldn’t get to you. I couldn’t get to you and I was falling to pieces. And I hated that. Because I was fine. I’m always fine. It’s always other people getting hurt where I can’t do anything to help.”

“And then I thought that even if I could get to you, you wouldn’t let me help you. So I was still mad at you. But I still loved you. And I was still terrified.”

“And then you got on the train. You were right there in front of me, in one piece, and I loved you. You wouldn’t look at me, and I loved you. You wouldn’t talk to me and I loved you. You never came back to our Room and I loved you.”

“I still love you. But before, I…”

James pauses, searching for the right words. “I loved you in the way I knew how to. But I was a kid. And I know I’m not much older now, but I feel like I am. Now I’m not sure I ever loved you in a way that you could understand.”

“And here and now, I think I still love you, but it feels… different. There’s all this other shit mixed up with that love and I’ve spent the better part of a year missing you. And maybe, hopefully, that means this is more than a simple childhood crush, more than just some teenage ideal of love. That it’s real. And I don’t think it’s going away. Not for me at least. I think that just makes me even more terrified.”

“But, Regulus, none of that means anything, okay? Not if you don’t want it to. I want you in my life, in whatever capacity you’ll have me. I can be your friend. I can be a confidant. I can be a pawn in your game of chess. I can be a general in your army. I can be just some guy that makes you hot chocolate. I can be whatever you want, Regulus. Just please don’t shut me out. I know that there was so much that was out of your control, but I don’t think I can go through that again. If you want to forget every word that just came out of my mouth, then it's already forgotten. But please don’t do that to me again, now that you have the choice not to.”

Regulus doesn’t know what to say. That was certainly not the answer he had expected. He figured James would say ‘I love you’ or James would say ‘I don’t love you like I did before’.

It had always seemed like James’s feelings– about anything, not just Regulus specifically– were simple. That’s not to say they couldn’t be strong. James felt things stronger than most people for sure. But feelings seemed simple to him. He felt whatever he felt as natural as breathing.

Regulus thought he would figure out how to decipher his own feelings when he knew James’s in simple terms. But instead the older boy had to tie a years worth of events, many of which were traumatic for him, into his love for Regulus. And Regulus doesn’t know what to do with that complexity. Regulus has enough complexity on his own. Regulus wants simplicity. Regulus wants the James he met on the Astronomy Tower a year ago.

He stands up quickly.

“I’m going back to my dorm. I’m not shutting you out. I just need to think. We’ll do hot chocolate tomorrow. Okay?” Regulus says. Please, please, please be okay with this, he thinks.

“Okay,” James answers, but his face falls.

Regulus can’t stop thinking about that face for the entire next day. It’s with that face in mind that when he hears James’s ‘Hey’ behind him the next night, he walks straight up to the older boy and kisses him.

Once they have mugs of hot chocolate in their hands in the kitchens, Regulus returns the favor and tells James how he feels.

“I think I might have loved you too.” James’s face lifts and Regulus feels a pang of guilt for getting his hopes up. “But it was always complicated for me. For so many reasons, most of which have little, if anything, to do with you. My life is just fucked up. It has been the whole time.”

“I think I loved you, or was starting to. But then so much time passed without me even remembering that. I didn’t even get the chance to miss you. Which sounds stupid, because missing someone isn’t usually a pleasant experience. But it was one I didn’t get the opportunity to have. I was dreading missing you, of going home and not getting to see you or talk to you. And then I didn’t even miss you.

“And on top of everything else, I’m just simply a different person now. And you probably are too. I mean, you said yourself that it’s different now, after everything that happened last summer. I’m not even sure we really know each other at this point. You said you still love me, and I’m sure you meant it, but I can’t believe it. Because you don’t even know who I am anymore, not the same way you did before. And I don’t think I could handle it if you tell me you love me, and then when you realize who I am now, you don’t anymore.”

“But I want to know you.”

“I shouldn’t have kissed you, I’m sorry for that. I don’t really know why I did, honestly. But I want to take you up on your offer of being friends. Can we do that? Can we just be friends?”

Thankfully, James seems just as happy with this request as he did when being kissed. “Yeah, absolutely, anything for you Baby Black. I’d be honored to be your friend.”

James finishes the three minute loop and sits down across from Regulus with two mugs of cocoa. They sit in comfortable silence until Regulus’s mug is half empty.

“So how’s O.W.L. revision going?” James asks cheekily.

Regulus rolls his eyes. “Shouldn’t you know the answer to that? I pull half the answers right out of your head.”

It was quite a beneficial side effect of Legilimency and, specifically, practicing Legilimency so often with the same people. Regulus was pretty sure no one had ever spent so much time in other people’s heads as they have. Generally, you only let people in your head for as long as it takes to learn to keep them out. Sure, James could keep him out if he wanted to– his skill has significantly improved over the past few months– but he doesn’t feel the need to. ‘It doesn’t feel like an intrusion to fight against,’ James had explained to him. ‘My mind recognizes yours so easily that it’s more like an extension of myself than a foreign entity.’

At the time, Regulus didn’t understand that. Any brush of Legilimency against his mind felt like an invasion and he had to consciously relax his shield to let anyone else in. But now he knows that James was right. It’s not that Regulus can’t feel when one of his classmates gets into his head, but rather that his mind recognizes the–flavor?-- of their mind. They have a key and can unlock the front door and come right in, whereas anyone else would have to spend a lot of time and energy breaking down the walls to gain access.

Three months ago, Regulus could have never imagined that Legilimency would feel like anything other than an invasion of privacy at the least, a full-on attack at the worst. But then the ten of them spent a dozen weeks all tangled up in each others’ minds. Right in time for the fifth years to take advantage of the sixth years’ knowledge and get ahead on their O.W.L.s. The Slytherins have all agreed that they’re gonna do it during the actual exams too. If they’re going to save the wizarding world from itself, the least that world could do is let them use all their skills to pass their exams. Only Lily has a problem with that plan, and even she is starting to see the logic behind it. She’ll cave in the next three months before exams, Regulus is sure.

“Yeah, that’s a handy trick isn’t it?” James laughs, though the smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

Regulus feels a pang of guilt. “We can’t keep doing this,” he sighs.

“What?!” James exclaims, panicked.

“We’re perpetually exhausted,” Regulus explains. “People die from sleep deprivation, you know. It’s a real thing.”

“We’re not dying Regulus,” James retorts sharply.

“We can’t keep this up. You can’t even laugh your real laugh because you’re too fucking tired! I didn’t mean for this to happen. I didn’t think I’d ruin your life when I asked for your help or I wouldn’t have done it. I can’t remember the last time I saw you smile– really smile, in the way that lights up your whole stupid face, the way that makes everybody else wonder what they’re missing out on. I miss your stupid smile and your stupid laugh and your stupid face that doesn’t have dark circles the size of quaffles.

“Aww, you missed me Baby Black?” James says mockingly, though he undermines himself with the reverence in his voice and the elation sparkling in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Regulus admits

“Well then I would think the best thing to do would be to see more of each other, not less.”

Regulus rolls his eyes. “About that,” he starts, remembering he promised Barty he would say something to James. “You’ve got to stop acting all buddy-buddy with Slytherins. People are getting suspicious, Dumbledore included.”

In the past few months, James has managed to learn the name of every single Slytherin– every single person at Hogwarts, really– and says hi to them all by name when they pass in the corridors. The first and second years in all four houses practically worship him at this point. And beyond that, he hasn’t gotten into a single fight or received a detention.

Of course, all of his friends have followed his lead. Not just his dormmates and Lily, either– all of the sixth year Gryffindor girls too, as well as a fair amount of fifth and seventh year Gryffindors. But everyone knows James started it.

“You haven’t gotten into a fight with Snape since December and you haven’t gotten any detentions either. Have you even pulled any pranks?”

“I haven’t gotten into a fight with Severus since last April Reg,” James answers softly. “We nearly killed him because of a stupid childish rivalry. Another Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry, pushing all of us towards different sides of a battlefield.”

“You didn’t do anything to him, James. You saved him.” Regulus had seen that encounter, The Incident they had dubbed it, in the heads of all four Marauders. But he also lived with Snape for the past five years. “And also, he’s a git. Sending him to a werewolf on a full moon was definitely too far, but a few hexes here and there are perfectly well deserved. He’s an ass.”

“Is he? Or is he just a kid– a halfblood in Slytherin putting on a mask to survive his house? People think you’re pretty terrible too. That you’re a Dark wizard who’s itching to join up with Voldemort. Because that’s what people expect to see and you use that to your advantage. Who are you to say he’s not doing the same thing? And even if he is an ass that may or may not deserve to get hexed, what if I just don’t want to Reg? We’re preparing for a war, a fight that we don’t really have a say in. I don’t want to fight any more than I have to.”

Regulus doesn’t know what to say to that. James gives him a few moments to process before continuing on a lighter note.

“As for the detentions, despite being a notorious troublemaker, I don’t actually get that many detentions, and when I do, they’re distractions so the others can prepare for our next prank. And don’t you worry about the lack of pranks. I’m quite sure the boys are about to change that– it’s tradition after all.” James smiles his patented Potter Grin and the mischief is apparent in his eyes.

“Tradition?” Regulus asks, hesitantly.

“Yep! My birthday is coming up.” James wiggles his eyebrows, but does not elaborate. Regulus can’t remember them pulling a prank on the same day every year, but they do usually do something big in the spring. Regulus supposes that even Gryffindors aren’t stupid enough to pull a prank on the exact same day each year.

The laughter gradually falls away and James takes on a more somber tone. “It’s okay, Reg. I know you’re worried about Dumbledore finding out about our plans or about your memories coming back. But half the reason we’re in this mess is because of house rivalries. It won’t do us any good to win the war only to go right back to how things were. If Dumbledore ever asks about it, I’ve got plenty of reasons to have changed my behavior that don’t involve you– Severus is a prime example. And I know he’s a powerful wizard and hailed as the leader of the Light, but he’s just a man. It’s just as bad to overestimate him as it is to underestimate him.”

When did James get so… wise? Regulus asks himself. James was never dumb. A little silly, a prankster, overly energetic, and at times naive, but never dumb. Maybe the confusion is less from the logic he’s using and more from the way he’s using it. He’s always had a large capacity for intelligence, but now it’s more than that. Now it’s almost like he’s weary of the world, like he’s already fought the war and come out the other side.

Regulus is dreading what an actual war might do to him.

“I suppose you make a fair point,” Regulus concedes.

“So I’ll see you for hot chocolate tomorrow?” James asks hopefully

“James–”

“Please?” he interjects. “I get more sleep once I see you than I would if I didn’t, even with the walk all the way down here.”

Regulus would like to disagree, but the older boy makes yet another good point.

“Okay, but we’ve got to think up a better solution than this soon. I wasn’t kidding– we can’t keep going like this.”

“Yeah, yeah okay,” James says with a smile as he gathers up their empty mugs to wash them.

Three days later, James announces to the group, “My birthday is in two weeks and there is something very specific I want as a present.”

Everyone looks up from their stacks of parchment– they still haven’t figured out Dumbledore’s secret files or the whole Master of Death thing– with blank faces.

“I want to help you plan my birthday prank,” he says to Sirius and Remus. “And I want some other people to help as well.” This time James turns to where Regulus is sitting with Evan and Barty.

“Yeah okay,” Peter says from behind James. “We could use the extra brain power. We’ve been having trouble thinking of something good enough– seventeen is a big deal, it’s got to be spectacular!”

“Anything that gets me out of doing extra homework,” Barty says, abandoning his pile of parchment.

“I hate to break it to you, Barty, but pranks usually involve a lot of research– anything too simple would be too easy to counter or clean up,” Remus says with a shrug as Barty groans.

James ignores that. “Great! And while that’s definitely part of it, there’s something else I want to have happen,” he says, suddenly getting nervous.

“Out with it Prongs,” Sirius says with a huff

“I want you all to bring a couple people into the planning process too. People that aren’t already in this room”

“Why?” Sirius asks with clear disdain

“Because otherwise, what’s the point?” James answers. He’s been having trouble putting into words why he wants this so badly, even just to himself.

Maybe part of it is because the Marauders had always talked about leaving a legacy. When they were younger, that had simply meant they wanted everyone to know who they were, the pranks they pulled. But more recently, James wants more than that. He doesn’t want to just be a troublemaker or a class clown.

He’s been so lucky– he has a wonderful family, and great friends, and he’s good at magic, and he’s smart, and he’s athletic, and he’s popular. He wants to be able to do something with all of that, pay it forward in some way. He can’t change a lot of things about the world, but he can make a difference in one person’s life. He can include someone, show them that research can do more than help you pass your classes, that magic can be fun as well as practical.

And maybe, if he starts reaching out now, it will be easier to pull kids out of the way of the impending war, keep them from being pawns for the Light or the Dark

“What’s the point in having a legacy if it doesn’t extend beyond your reach, if it doesn’t live on even after you’re gone?” is the answer James decides on. Sirius doesn’t look convinced.

“We’re good enough at this by now that we can handle pulling off a great prank while showing other people the ropes, yeah?” James says. “So just find a few people– different years, different houses, it doesn’t matter. Anyone who seems like they might benefit from being a part of something and get them to the history of magic classroom after dinner on Monday.”

Sirius still seems put out by the idea of involving any ‘outsiders’ so James adds , “Please? For my birthday?” He is absolutely not above a little guilt tripping.

Sirius gives a dramatic sigh. “Yeah, fine. Whatever you want.”

James grins and turns back towards Regulus and the Slytherins. “You guys too.”

“You do realize if we all find a few people, there will be like 40 kids in on this, right?” Remus points out.

James just shrugs. “More wands means we can think even bigger than we usually do.”

“Great,” Dorcas says dismissively. “Now that we got birthday presents out of the way, can we call it quits? I want to actually eat in the Great Hall for once. I’m sick of all of our mediocre cooking.”

“Oi!” James yells in mock offense. “My cooking is superb!”

When Monday evening rolls around, James realizes that he forgot to put any thought into how to actually run a prank-planning meeting.

In front of him are 23 Hogwarts students, of various ages and houses, along with the 10 who brought them. All together, that’s 33 kids– 33 kids to pull off the best prank in recent history; or 33 kids to get them all caught.

The first and second years all congregated to the front of the room, sitting at the desks just like class. That’s when James knows he was right to insist on expanding– the eleven younger years are all sitting together, whispering excitedly, seemingly not even aware of the color of their ties.

This is in sharp contrast to the upper years, who have split by house rather than age. With the exception of the Slytherins. All five of the fifth year Slytherins brought first and second year Slytherins who are sitting at the front and the five fifth years are standing near the sixth year Gryffindors– being stared at with disdain and even contempt by the other three houses.

“Alrigthy then,” James starts, “My name’s James and these are some of my friends,” he gestures to his left, to the Marauders, Lily, and fifth year Slytherins, “And we’ve got something we need your help with.” He moves closer to the front row of desks, the least nerve-wracking place to look, and eleven pairs of eyes lock on him as he leans down conspiratorially.  “You see, every year, we pull a prank. Well, we pull a lot of pranks year-round, but we specifically pull a really good one in March or April. And we’ve decided we’re gonna do something really, extra big this year, so we could use some help”

Seeing a familiar glint of mischief in the eyes of the younger years warms James’s heart. It brings back so many memories of him and the Marauders. But then James feels Dumbledore’s puppet strings, retroactively, as some of his best memories flash in his mind's eye and his chest tightens. He looks at the kids in front of him— they’re so small, he thinks. I can’t believe we were ever that small— and vows that it’ll be different for them. He’ll make sure of it.

With his resolve hardened, James risks looking at the upper years. While still clearly uncomfortable in a room with such a mixed crowd, he can see hints of curiosity in their eyes too.

“Alright,” James says, addressing the whole room this time and using his wand to levitate a piece of chalk. “Step one is brainstorming.” With the chalk, he writes out The Marauders and Company’s Biggest Bestest Prank Yet.

An hour later, they are still the only words on the board. Most people were thinking too small. The Marauders were able to come up with a way to stop those pranks nearly instantly, meaning professors would be able to as well. A few people were thinking too big— one of the first years suggested turning every common room into a pit of quicksand. And a couple of suggestions were very targeted at Slytherin house that James quickly dismissed.

Even the Marauders themselves haven't come up with anything— nearly six full years of pranking seems to have dried up their imaginations.

By now, most of the room is quiet, entranced even, watching the four Marauders bicker back and forth.

“We did that already Petey— November of fourth year remember?”

“Well what about modifying the—“

“Moony if you suggest modifying the sky mirroring spells in the Great Hall one more time, I’m going to hex you”

“We’re not thinking about this right— we’ve got 30 wands at our disposal this time. We can do something that reaches so much further than the four of us could do alone”

“Yeah but we barely have time to think ourselves, let alone teach 30 people complicated spell work, half of them haven’t even learned how to cast a proper summoning charm yet!”

“No offense”

“Yeah, no offense”

“What would be so bad about repeating a prank again? We could spice some of the old ones up— we did all sorts of things before learning summoning charms that we could put a new spin on now”

“That would be sacrilege! A disgrace to our sacred name!”

“Always so dramatic, Pads”

“Jesus enough!” Lily shouts, knowing from experience the bickering between the four boys  could devolve into shouting quite quickly when they’re frazzled so much. “I’m putting you idiots on time out.”

She takes the chalk out of James’s hand as the four Marauders stare, slack-jawed at the red-head.

“But—“ Sirius starts to protest. He’s silenced by Lily’s icy glare. James chuckles, earning him Sirius’s elbow digging into his ribs as they all move aside, giving Lily the floor.

“Oh how the tables have turned,” Remus teases her. She had always implored him to use his influence to stop the other three from pulling any pranks, and he’s clearly amused that she’s now using her influence— her Prefect influence— to pull a prank herself.

Lily rolls her eyes, trying and failing to suppress a grin. “Shut up Lupin.” She turns her attention to the other students in the room.

“Most memorable Marauder prank: go,” Lily demands, pointing at Evan.

It takes him a minute to comprehend that he’s being addressed specifically and then another to think about his response.

James thoroughly enjoys watching some of their various pranks unfold from the Slytherin’s perspective as he watches through Evan’s mind.

“My second year, their third— the pink bubbles.”

James grins. That had been a birthday prank too. They had charmed every faucet to spew pink bubbles non stop during the night on a time delay, activating it at breakfast. It took them the entire night to reach every faucet and they still probably missed some. But by lunch, the castle was so full of bubbles no one could seem to spell away, that Dumbledore had been forced to cancel the rest of the day’s classes.

Lily writes pink bubbles down on the board.

“You. Best prank: go” Lily points to a fourth year Ravenclaw.

“The snowballs,” the Ravenclaw answers.

Ah yes, the snowballs. That had been an impulse prank Sirius and Peter pulled last year after the winter holidays. They had charmed colored snowballs to attack anyone who came near the front entrance to the castle. It had not been a good day to have Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures and you could tell who had from the colorful stains, almost neon and glowing against the dark fabric of the school robes.

“You,”

“The fireworks”

“You”

“The clocks”

Lily kept on asking. The students kept on answering. James hadn’t realized they had managed to pull so many pranks. And the ones against Slytherin house specifically didn’t even come up, as only the Slytherins would know and they obviously hadn’t enjoyed the ones targeted at them. That was kind of the whole point of those pranks, James admits to himself regrettably.

“What about you Evans?” James calls, after nearly half the room had already answered. He was incredibly curious. He may not be in love with her anymore, maybe he never truly had been, but he had spent nearly five years of his life trying to get her attention. He wanted to know what had.

“I don’t think I should answer that, Potter. Your ego is being inflamed enough as is.”

“So it’s not one that somebody already said,” James says. Not a question, but a statement. An accusation even. “And that means that you do have an answer. You have a favorite Marauder prank.”

“Evans!” Sirius exclaims. “Have you been entertained by us all along?”

“The same ‘all along’ that you’ve been being a bunch of toe rags for you mean?”

“You’re the one currently holding the chalk Lils,” Remus points out cheekily.

“And, let’s be honest, you stopped trying to stop us in third year. You’ve only been scolding us out of reflex,” Peter adds.

“So what was it Evans? What was your favorite prank?”

Lily glares at James, but her eyes are nowhere near icy now and he knows she’s going to answer.

The Howlers, she adds to the bottom of the list on the board.

James’s jaw falls open in disbelief.

“Howlers?” Dorcas asks. “What howlers?”

“That was first year!” James yells in shock. All these years fighting for her attention and he had it the whole time. He just didn’t have her affections. James can feel the sting of that realization, but it’s muted. More like he can empathize with his younger self, who would have been heartbroken over it, than actually being hurt by it in the present. In fact, in the present he smiles fondly. Of course the howlers were Lily’s favorite.

“You inspired that one, you know,” James tells her, amused that she’s the one shocked now.

“What? How?” Lily demands. James is too busy laughing at her five-year-delayed annoyance to answer, so she turns her gaze, now with a hint more ice in it, to Remus.

“Don’t look at me. I didn’t know about that— that one was all James, we just helped with the execution of his plan,” Remus responds, hands up in surrender.

“Explain Potter.” Lily’s eyes shift back to James.

James takes a few deep breaths, trying to get his laughter under control. Lily Evans could be a terrifying witch when she wants to be, but James has been slowly building up an immunity to her temper for years now, and while she can still terrify him under some circumstances, this is definitely not one of them.

“Relax Evans,” James starts. “I’m glad that one’s your favorite.”

“Do you remember our first large-scale prank?” James continues. “December of first year? We spent months, nearly the whole semester, in fact, researching and practicing the spells needed to do it. And a week before the winter holidays we finally put the prank into action.”

“The chalk,” Lily says

“Yeah, the chalk. We charmed as many pieces of chalk as we could to write gibberish and nonsense, rather than whatever the professor holding it was trying to write. It was the most interesting History of Magic class I’ve ever been to,” James adds with a chuckle. “Binns didn’t even notice what the chalk was writing. The other professors countered the charm easily— we were only first years after all— but we thought it was bloody great.”

“Do you remember what you said to me about it?” James asks Lily

Her brows furrow in confusion. “I talked to you about it?”

“Yelled at me, more like.”

“Sounds like me, but no. I don’t remember.”

“Well you called me a privileged toe rag and said that if I wasn’t going to respect my own education then I should at least not spoil the opportunity for others to learn. And I definitely shouldn’t disrespect the witches and wizards who have dedicated themselves to teaching me how to be a competent wizard because I certainly needed all the help I could get.”

Realization dawns on Lily’s face as she puts the pieces of the puzzle together. “Hence the howlers,” she says with a small smile.

“Hence the howlers”

“Yeah, great for you two for figuring that out. Now can you give the rest of us some more fucking information about what you did with the fucking howlers?” Barty says impatiently.

James takes a closer look at the students in the room, noticing that there aren’t any other sixth years or any seventh years.

“Oh,” James says, moving his eyes away from Lily, sliding to her left to the Slytherins. His eyes lock on Regulus.

The younger boy looks exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders slumped. He looks as if he’s going to collapse under the weight of it all. James wishes he could hold it for him. But even now, most of that is masked by the Black Heir. To anyone else, Regulus would merely look thoroughly disinterested in the proceedings. His eyes are downcast, trained on the stone floor beneath his feet.

“Well a couple months after the chalk prank, we pulled another one. It was much simpler as it didn’t actually involve any spellwork at all. All we did was buy a bunch of Howlers. But Lily was right, we shouldn’t have targeted the people trying to teach us, so we wrote all sorts of nice things to all the professors–”

“‘Nice’ is an interesting word for it,” Lily grumbles

“They were nice!” James insists

“You sent one to Professor McGonagall that said “I love you so much Minnie, will you go to prom with me?’” Lily recounts. “How’d a bunch of purebloods even know what a prom is, anyways?”

James just shrugs and grins.

“We asked the owls to fly down one at a time, one right after the other, and we made enough to last through the entire breakfast hour!” Peter exclaims

“Huh,” Evan says. His eyes flick up to stare at the ceiling, thinking. Finally, James thinks as he waits for Evan to say it out loud.

“Okay so we combine that with the bubbles– we make a lot of noise throughout the entire castle. If we find a hard enough spell to counter, we might even get ourselves a day off from classes.”

“Do you think Hogwarts has a PA system?” one of the second years, a Hufflepuff, asks.

“A PA system,” Lily explains to the many questioning faces, “is something big Muggle buildings have, so that announcements can be made and everyone in the building will hear. But no, Hogwarts doesn’t have one. We just play a game of telephone with the portraits here.”

“Telephone?” Sirius asks at the same time Regulus whispers, “The portraits!”

Nobody besides James seems to have heard Regulus. Not even the Slytherins standing next to him. But then again, no one else can’t seem to stop staring at the dark haired boy.

“What was that, Reg?” James asks.

The murmurs that had started up in the wake of Evan’s half-idea died instantly.

Regulus looks up from the floor around the room, all eyes trained on him. The Black Heir stares right back, but behind that Regulus looks at James with wide eyes.

“You had an idea, didn’t you?” James prods

Regulus’s hesitancy turns into a glare. James’s smile widens

“Well obviously someone had to end this bloody meeting and you and your hooligans were getting nowhere.”

“Well please enlighten me and my hooligans with your genius, Regulus Black.”

Regulus rolls his eyes and his lips twitch upwards in one corner. “I think you should spell the portraits. They’re all over the castle. If you want to make a whole lot of noise, that’s the way to do it.”

“You mean if we want to make a whole lot of noise,” James corrects. Regulus merely rolls his eyes again.

“I have made no such commitments.”

James has to fight to pull his eyes away from Regulus as he dismisses the room. “Alright, you heard the man– same time and place next week. Between now and then, try to come up with any spells that could help us accomplish our goal. And for the love of God, don’t get caught”