Regulus is dating Crouch? (James’ POV)
James Potter stares longingly at the Slytherin table, his chin rested on his hand as he lets out a sigh, loud enough for his friends to hear, but thankfully James was sitting by himself, as Remus and Sirius were in the hospital wing (it was a full moon last night), and Peter had left to get his wand which he’d forgotten to bring down to breakfast.
See, since the morning, James had seen a familiar younger student walk to the Slytherin table hand-in-hand with another student. He let his eyes follow the student to where the Slytherin table was located, thinking if the boy he was looking at looked back, he’d offer him a small smile. But just then, that’s when he noticed why this boy was holding hands with another boy. They were… he didn’t want to believe it. This didn’t seem weird at first because James has held hands with many of his friends. Marlene, Sirius, Remus a few times; even Pete once. But as he continued to watch, the Slytherin that was side by side with James’ crush pecked him on the cheek.
James likes Regulus a lot, and has for quite some time now. Since his fourth year he’s been infatuated. Well, maybe not at first considering he didn’t know he liked the youngest Black until around the end of his fourth year, when it’d been 2 weeks before the end of second term, and as he watched Sirius walking over to him and walking away from his brother, he’d said something over his shoulder that’d made Regulus smile. And it wasn’t small, like James usually saw (and not even a small smile was seen often), but a wide grin. That’s what had made him realize he liked Regulus, and liked boys in general. Eventually he had a small sexuality crisis, et cetera, before shortly coming to terms with the fact he was bisexual. He wasn’t upset about it either; in fact it’d been quite cool. But he hadn’t told anyone yet.
So when he saw Crouch give Regulus a kiss, it obviously made James very jealous. Now, hasn’t been able to keep his eyes off of Regulus Black, sitting and talking with Barty Crouch Jr., his… James won’t let himself accept it. Nope. So he just continues to stare.
That is, until he hears footsteps approaching, and a Gryffindor taking a seat next to him.
“Hello? James?” said a voice he couldn’t recognize. Now that he thought about it, he didn’t think he’d ever heard this person talk to him, let alone speak.
James turned his head, and what he was met with he didn’t expect. Sitting beside him was a blond Ravenclaw girl he didn’t know the name of. Surely he’d seen this girl with Regulus strolling together in the halls, though, so he thought of people Regulus’ friends names. This information was, of course, given to him by Sirius, as he talks about his brother often.
”Are you… Dor- no, Pand- Pandora?” James asked, his brows knitting together.
”Yes, that’s me.” said Pandora, giving him a soft smile. James then only noticed a boy that looked almost identical to Pandora.
“And you must be…?”
”Evan Rosier, Pandora’s twin brother.” said Evan. Evan and Pandora seemed to be really identical considering they were 2 different genders; they both had really blonde hair. Evan’s was cut short, buzzed on the sides, and Pandora’s was long a healthy. Currently it was in 2 matching braids. Their skin tone was almost like olive, but a bit darker. The only difference between the two that was easily noticeable, though, was their eyes. Evan had chocolate brown eyes, while Pandora had icy blue, though they didn’t look cold and icy, but rather kind and inviting.
”Apologies, but why are you two here exactly…? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve nothing against you. But, we’ve never spoken, and you’re in Ravenclaw,” James pointed at Pandora, “And you’re in Slytherin,” he pointed at Evan. “You two aren’t in Gryffindor, so why come eat breakfast here?”
”Well,” said Pandora. “Not to come off strong, but me and Evan know you’ve had a crush on Regulus, and still do, for a really long time. What was it, Evan, 2 years now?” Pandora turned to Evan.
”Yep,” said Evan, “2 years of Potter pining over Regulus.”
James looked at them, eyes wide. “How’d you… how’d you know?” James asked panicked, now whispering as to not let anybody that was listening in (which was no one), hear their conversation.
”Well, not to be rude, but you are quite obvious about it,” said Evan.
“No I’m not!” said James, a bit too excitedly. Marlene McKinnon turned her head away from her toast, that had currently been having jam spread on it, and raised a brow at Potter. James shook his head, letting Marlene be the first to look away before he spoke to the Rosier twins again, “I’m not.” he said, much more quietly this time.
”I think you should let us be the judge of that,” said Evan.
”James, you flirt with him constantly-“ Pandora started, but James cut her off.
”No!” he said indignantly, “Well, yes, actually, but how is that a giveaway that I like him? People can have flirty personalities.”
”While your right about that, that doesn’t ignore the fact that it only seems to be Regulus that you flirt with.”
”That’s not true. I flirt with Lily. She’s one of my friends.” (Pandora was happy to hear that, but she wouldn’t tell anybody).
”You use to have a crush on her,” Evan retorted.
”Yeah, but now we’re just friends. I just flirt with her because it’s fun.”
”Yeah, but even if having a crush in her is in pass tense, it doesn’t matter; it seems you only flirt with people you like, or have liked before.”
”No,” said James weakly. But it was true; as he tried to think of someone he flirted with that wasn’t Regulus or Lily, Evan spoke up again.
”Why are you trying to deny your crush on Regulus anyway, Potter? We know, and you obviously do, so no need to hide it.”
James frowned and gave a little huff before speaking again, “Fine. But does Regulus know? Crouch? Any of your other friends? Potential other students?”
”I don’t think so, because even if people noticed you giving Barty a deathly glare, giving Regulus puppy eyes, and just stabbing mindlessly at your plate,” Pandora said matter-of-factly, “our school is pretty oblivious.”
”I’m just surprised Lupin or Evans hasn’t found out,” said Evan curiously, “I mean those two are fairly smart,”
James’ teeth clattered nervously. Oh no, did Moony know? Did Lily know? He began to think of possible scenarios beforehand where he might’ve given his crush on Reg away.
”Don’t worry, James,” said Pandora reassuringly, “Me and Evan aren’t over here to discuss the possibilities of someone knowing who you like.”
”What for, actually. You never exactly mentioned it.” James spoke aloud, realizing he’d just had a conversation with Pandora and Evan without having a reason to speak with them.
”We’re here to help you win over Regulus,” said Evan.
James’ eyes widened. “…what?” he said before having time to think over how that could happen, and instead let Pandora and Evan tell him.
”Well, since we’ve noticed you liked our dear Reggie,” started Evan, looking at his semi-painted nails.
”We thought about how it’d be for you to date him.” Pandora continued. “A little bit of a joke a first,” Pandora admitted, “but as we started to think more,”
”And how your, for starters, a hopeless romantic,” Evan said before Pandora could say her next detail. Pandora continued with what she was saying.
”And of how much Regulus spoke of you-“
”Regulus talks about me?” James asked, incredulous, feeling a blush rise in his face.
”Whether it was something small, like a smile you flashed him in the hallway,” said Evan. “Or something bigger,”
”Like a joke you told him, when passing him in the entrance of the great hall,” Pandora spoke.
”We realized; you’d be quite the cute couple.” James flushed at the compliment.
”But when Barty started to show a little more interest he usually did when flirting with someone,” said Pandora. At this comment, Evan’s face looked hurt. He quickly contorted his face back to a neutral facial expression, though. “Hence, Regulus gave Barty a shot. We were surprised at first, considering male pure-bloods are expected to have kids in order to continue the bloodline. But than we shrugged it off; we aren’t against it so why should we question it.”
”But then we talked about you and Regulus being a couple, and thought of an idea.”
When no one continued James asked. “What idea do you two have, exactly?”
”Well, we’re so glad you asked,” said Evan, a glint of mischief in his eye that reminded James of his best mates, wondering where Pete had been for so long.
”We made a plan for Barty and Regulus to break up.” Pandora said dramatically. And boy did James love hearing that; it felt good to hear someone else didn’t want Barty to date Regulus, But than James thought about Regulus. Regulus didn’t seem to be the guy to date, much less have gone out with someone for so long, especially considering how much James had teased him. Yet again, Regulus knew James was ‘joking’ and was just flirty.
“How’d that work?” said James.
”Well, slowly we’d start to separate Barty and Regulus’ time together, to start,” said Evan, “Planning time where the two can’t hang around each-other because they have plans with us.” Evan waved a hand between himself and Pandora.
”But how’d Regulus start to get feelings for me? It’s not like I’d be with him; I mean sure, he wouldn’t spend time with Crouch, but he wouldn’t willingly hang out with me if I asked him.”
”Which is why,” Pandora jumped in, “That after a few hang out sessions of them apart, we’d start hanging around with you. Make them believe we started hanging out after an interaction. It’s the perfect pl-”
At that moment the bell sounded, indicating it was the end of breakfast.
”We’ll explain it more to you at say… after dinner? Meet infront of Flitwick’s classroom at seven o’clock?” asked Pandora.
”Well,” James thought this over. Could he really deal with being the reason why two people broke up? “It’s a plan. See you at seven.”
And with that, James walked away, feeling over the moon.