Chapter 3
After the encounter with Regulus at James’ shared flat with the marauders, James seemed unable to think about anything else other than how badly he wanted Regulus Black.
So that’s how he found himself on Marlene’s room in her shared flat with Lily and Mary writing out a plan titled ‘How To Make Regulus Black Fall In Love With James Potter’—which, according to Lily was “totally unreasonable, because you can’t just control what the other person’s feeling!”
“Okay, so let’s recap,” Marlene said, closing the blue Sharpie that had followed them along the way of making this guide.
“Yes,” James nodded.
“So,” Marlene cleared her throat, “You could visit him on Ollivander’s—”
“Which is a bad idea,” Mary said from her spot on Marlene’s bed.
Mary and Lily had decided to stay out of this, since Marlene and James always did this. This as in pros and cons lists, plans to achieve their goals, etc. And with the passing of time, they learnt they were unstoppable, so, they just let them be. Although, according to Lily, they needed supervision in case they plotted a murder, or something. Which is why Mary was there.
“Oh, shut it, who even asked you?” Marlene threw her a death glare, which was returned with a wide grin from Mary.
“Marls, the point?”
“Right, yeah,” she said, focusing on James again, “or you could go to his dorm—”
“Creepy,” Mary sang.
“Or,” Marlene continued, pointedly ignoring the other girl, “figure out by Sirius at what time he skates and pretend to just casually bump into each other—”
“Creepier,” Mary frowned.
“Or—”
“Actually, I think I’ll just go to Ollivander’s,” James nodded.
“Ooh,” Marlene beamed, “Can I go with you?”
“Why?” He asked.
“Well, it would be creepy if you went there alone,” she shrugged. Okay, good point.
“And, she’s also hoping a certain Dorcas Meadowes will be there as well,” Mary said between fake coughs. Marlene just glared at her as James beamed.
”Wait, oh my God, the girl you—”
“Yes, the girl I said her eyes looked like chocolate, James,” Marlene sighed.
“Oh my God,” he said, “Why would she be there?”
“She’s—”
“Don’t tell me she’s friends with Regulus!” James cut her off.
“Well, I was about to, before you interrupted me,” she directed her glare at him now.
“Aww, is little Marls nervous?” Mary raised a brow.
“I hate you both,” she glared at them.
“Aw, little Marls is in love!” James sang.
“Wait, are we bullying Marls?” Lily peered through the door and when she was given a nod from James she entered cheerfully.
“She’s in love!” He explained.
“I’m not in love, you romantic idiot,” she said.
“Is this about Meadowes?” Lily raised a quizzical brow.
“Yep!” Mary beamed.
“I hate you all.” Marlene deadpanned.
“Aw, but you love Dorcas Meadowes!” Lily said.
“Die,” Marlene made a face at her.
“And you would die for Dorcas—”
“Okay, you know what,” Marlene threw her hands in the air, cutting James mid sentence, “I’m not even going.”
“No, no, no, no—” James said hurriedly, trying to hold in his laugh, “I’m sorry!”
“Stop laughing!”
“I’m not!” James replied to Marlene, evidently laughing.
Marlene stormed off the room with James by her heels.
They always did this—James and Marlene. They were like siblings. As you could see now, Marlene was storming off furiously, but, where was she going, might you ask. Well, she was going straight to the front door to go to Ollivander’s.
She was furious with him, but wordlessly would still help him no matter what.
James smiled at her as they went outside. Marlene just glared at him, but eventually broke into a smile. James seemed to have that effect on her. Through all of those cold masks Marlene wanted to hide, James always brought up her soft side, no matter what.
“I hate you,” Marlene said.
“Love you too,” James beamed.
***
The way to Ollivander’s was a comfortable quiet one. Too much was on James’ mind. What would he say? Would Regulus be happy to see him? Would Regulus even be there? Marlene had quite a lot on her mind too, apparently. She had been wearing that confused expression on her face all the way to the coffee shop. Although her thoughts were most probably pre-occupied with a certain friend of Regulus…
Suddenly, his friend came to a stop. James frowned and copied her motion.
“What is it?” James asked.
Marlene frowned, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you suddenly came to a stop,” he said slowly, “What is it?”
“I don’t know, James,” Marlene looked at him incredulously. Oh oh. Bad sign. “Maybe that we’re literally at the entrance of the coffee shop you forced me to go to?”
“Oh,” James said as he looked in front of him where a clear “Ollivander’s” was written in cursive on the glass. “And I didn’t force you.”
“Piss off and get your arse in there,” she glared at him.
James grinned as he opened the door. He started to laugh, at which Marlene began to laugh as well, although she didn’t know why—but they’d known each other long enough to know they needed to follow the other’s flirting skills; so if James thought he’d look cool if he entered while laughing with his friend, then Marlene wouldn’t have a second thought and laugh along with him in order for him to achieve his goal.
“Good afternoon, what can I do for you?” James’ color drained from his face as he heard those words come from a voice that very clearly didn’t belong to Regulus. This voice was lower, more seductive—although it didn’t seem as if that was intended, and raspy. When James looked up he was met with a messy black haired boy wearing a black jumper. He seemed to be covered in tattoos, although most were probably hidden by his jumper.
“You’re not Regulus,” James stated dumbly, earning a shove from Marlene. Okay, so he probably seemed like an idiot, so what? He came here in hopes to see Regulus, damn it!
“Really?” The bloke cocked his head, feigning confusion, “Shit, I couldn’t tell.”
James made a face at him. He read his name tag. Barty. Barty. Who did this Barty think he was? Mocking James. Nobody mocked James. He was James Potter, for fuck’s sake.
“Do you want anything or are you just here to get in Reggie’s pants?” The guys asked with a bored expression, blinking up at him.
James choked on air, “Excuse me?!”
“You wouldn’t be the first,” he shrugged, seemingly with no regret, “So, you’re not here just for that?”
“Actually—” James began but was cut off by the bell that rang as the door open, meaning that another customer had just entered the coffee shop. Barty seemed to light up as soon as he met this person’s gaze and said, “Cassie!”
One look at Marlene and he knew exactly who this ‘Cassie’ was. He was pretty sure that if you were shown a picture of Marlene McKinnon at that moment and a tomato and were asked to compare them, you’d have to have a good few minutes to actually see that one of them is a person while the other one is an actual tomato.
Marlene was very pointedly trying to avoid his gaze—or anyone’s for the matter—and was staring at the floor, clearly begging it to swallow her. James tried to hide his smirk as he slowly looked at this new customer. None other than Dorcas Meadowes. She was wearing a dark purple shirt and black skirt, with long black boots. She rolled her—as Marlene had called them to her facwhile drunk—deliciously-chocolate-like eyes.
“It’s Dorcas, smartarse,” she hissed. She seemed really confident, walking up to the counter. Of course, confident until her eyes followed the tall silhouette standing beside James. Dorcas seemed to take one look at Marlene’s blonde hair and stopped in her tracks. All confidence lost.
Barty looked between the two of them with confusion written all on his face, until he seemed to be hit with realization. “Blondie,” he muttered knowingly to himself.
So Dorcas had mentioned Marlene to her friends before? Interesting.
Pandora seemed to enter the scene right then, jumping up from behind the counter, making Dorcas jolt up. “Jesus, have you been there this whole time?” She asked, to which Pandora just shrugged.
Pandora frowned, apparently not used to her friend being so—awkward? And she looked to where her gaze was fixed on. She seemed to realize who Marlene was immediately.
“Blondie!” Pandora said, reaching a hand out to Marlene.
Okay, what? When James had met her all he got was a dirty glare.
Marlene seemed to be puzzled as she realized she was talking to her. She sent a panicked look to James’ direction, he gave her a reassuring nod and Marlene reached out to greet Pandora.
“Sorry?” She asked, clearly confused about the nickname she was given by her and Barty.
Dorcas sent Pandora a death glare, making her smile brightly, “Pleased to meet you,” she seemed to ignore Marlene’s question, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“What?” Marlene—if possible—grew even redder.
“Because you’re really popular, McKinnon,” Dorcas was quick to say, before Pandora gave in any more secrets. She seemed to get flustered as soon as she realized she was now trapped in a conversation with Marlene. “Er—hi.”
“Hi,” Marlene said, meeting her gaze briefly before looking away.
After a minute of awkward silence, James decided it was the best moment to step in. So he reached a hand out to Dorcas and said, “Hey, I’m James.”
Dorcas looked at his hand, eyed him up and down and said, “I know.”
“Okay…!” James said, taking his hand out of Dorcas’ way when he realized it would not be taken by her. Seriously, what was with this friend group and disliking him?
“Potter, are you ordering anything or not?” Barty raised his eyebrows, unimpressed.
James frowned, “How do you—”
“I know enough about you, Potter.” He said.
“I’ll have a regular coffee, please,” Marlene, bless her, stepped in.
“Great, and you, Potter?” He looked back to him, “Are you getting anything or are you just here to pull Reggie?”
“Wha—”
“What?!” Dorcas interrupted James. “Potter wants Reggie?” She looked confused, but her eyes said something else. He felt like he was missing something…
“Unsurprisingly,” Pandora sighs.
“Oi!” James said, “I’m not—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Barty waved him off, “So, nothing for you?”
“No, but—”
“Reg’s around somewhere in the tables upstairs,” Barty said without missing a beat, “He’s on his break.”
James opened his mouth to say something but when nothing came out he quickly closed it again. The process repeated itself for around a minute.
“I— thanks,” James said, trying to hide his blush and ran to the stairs that would take him upstairs. He refused to look at Barty in the eye after he’d told him exactly what James needed. Even more when he was fucking blushing. James Potter didn’t blush! Ugh. Regulus Black made him a complete different person.
He heard laughter as he began his way up the stairs and only then did he realize Marlene was not following him. He made a mental note to either apologize for leaving her alone with that hell of a friend group or make fun of her for staying with Meadowes.
For a moment, he thought Barty had been full of shit, which wouldn’t have been surprising, and had wanted to just make James embarrassed and prove that he indeed was there to pull Regulus. But then he narrowed his eyes slightly and—ah, there he was. Sitting alone by a window with his black headphones on and a book in hand was Regulus Black.
He looked almost angelic with the afternoon sun hitting his face. James took a mental picture of this moment—Regulus with no hatred behind his eyes, no coldness whatsoever reflected in them, nothing. He just had his lips slightly parted, brows ever so furrowed in concentration and intense look in his eyes. He looked relaxed. Which was weird, because relaxed and Regulus Black didn’t suit well together, but turned out they did. They were like like ketchup and tomato—it seemed weird putting them together but once the taste hit your mouth, it was like entering heaven for how well they mixed together. (Don’t ask, okay? Marlene had gotten him to like it when they were ten…)
“Hi,” James said with a wolfish grin.
Clearly, that was not the right thing to say because Regulus practically jumped at the sound of his voice. His eyes went wide as he met his gaze and he roughly pulled his headphones down to his neck, all relaxed features leaving.
“Fuck, Potter, what did I tell you about just jumping on people?” He hissed.
James simply shrugged, “I thought you’d know by now that I’m not one to listen to people’s advice. Especially pretty ones.”
Regulus blushed but quickly masked it with fury—or so was James trying to gaslight himself into believing.
“What are you doing here?” The younger boy asked, ignoring James’ flirting.
“Just needed a coffee,” he shrugs in hopes to seem nonchalant. By the way Regulus raised his eyebrows James could tell he did not achieve his goal.
“And you decided to come to Ollivander’s?” He said skeptically, clearly not buying his excuse.
“Hey, I’ll have you know,” he crossed his arms over his chest, making Regulus flicker his eyes to them for just a second before going up to his face again, “Ollivander’s is really popular ‘round here.”
“I’m very aware.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem here?” He asked.
“The problem is, Potter, that you know I work here,” he deadpanned.
“Are you suggesting I came all the way here just to see you, baby Black?” He narrowed his eyes at Regulus’ faint blush. Oh, he’d be using Mary’s nickname for Regulus much more often if that was what he got out of it.
“Don’t get silly ideas into your head, Potter,” Regulus said, refusing to meet his gaze.
James smirked down at him. An eternal second passed where none of them said anything, until James decided to break the silence.
“Say I was here for you,” he said, leaning in slightly, “What would you do about it?”
Regulus looked up at him, wearing an unimpressed look on his face. James didn’t miss the way the blood rushed into his cheeks as their eyes locked.
“I told you, Potter,” he said, turning back to his book, “You have to do more if you want me to want you.”
The way Regulus said that so simply, as if it were a regular occurrence, knocked the air from James’ lungs.
Fuck.
“Okay, then what do you suggest I do?” He asked, sitting down next to him, looking at him, trying to memorize every single detail of that gorgeous face—
“For one, stop staring,” he said, still not glancing up from his book.
James’ smirk only widened at the remark.
“You’re on your break, correct?” James asked.
“Only for one more hour,” he said.
“What do you say we go for a walk and kill some time?”
Regulus scoffed a laugh, “Woah, Potter, your flirting skills are asking someone to go for a walk?” James just shrugged, making Regulus shake his head and mutter to himself, “Jesus, you’re not as good at flirting as I thought.”
All James got out of that was; “You think about me?”
Regulus stayed still for a moment before jumping up from his seat, “Let’s go for that walk.”
James smirked. He knew Regulus was only going on this walk in order to ignore his previous question, but, hey, a win is a win.
They reached the bottom of the stairs and Regulus’ eyes widened as he took in the sight of Marlene talking to Dorcas on a booth nearby.
“You brought blondie?!” He whispered to James.
James took his time to respond, not realizing he was actually talking to him, since he was too preoccupied on his red lips moving slowly as he spoke.
James took a shake breath before regaining his composure.
“Why do you guys call her that?” He whispered back.
Instead of responding, he walked to the counter, where Barty and Pandora were happily talking to a blonde haired boy.
James followed, watching the whole interaction with amusement.
“Guys, blondie’s here,” Regulus staged-whispered to his friends.
“And dinosaurs are extinct,” Barty rolled his eyes at him, “Welcome to the world, Black!”
“She came in with Potter like half an hour ago, and Dorcas has been drooling over her since,” Pandora explained to him, sending Barty a death glare.
“Yeah, we were just telling Rosier that,” Barty gestured to the blonde bloke on the other side of the counter, next to Regulus.
Rosier.
Next to Regulus.
Shit, James knew this guy!
He was the Hockey boy that had made Regulus laugh. Okay, so he hated this guy.
Without thinking—who’s surprised?—he reached his hand out to this blonde guy.
“James Potter,” he said, gaze hard. He was trying to transmit a message; stay the fuck away from Regulus.
It clearly didn’t transmit to him, seeing as he happily grabbed his arm, “Oh, yeah man, I know who you are,” he smiled obliviously, “I’m Evan.”
James didn’t miss the way he avoided saying his last name. He remembered how Sirius used to do the exact same thing when he met him. He narrowed his eyes slightly.
Barty and Pandora shared a knowing look as they let their hands down. Regulus had a small frown between his eyebrows.
Regulus and James left shortly after, beginning their walk.
“You didn’t have to do that, you know?” Regulus noted.
“Do what?” James asked, genuinely confused.
“That—act all…” he visibly searched for his words, “you.”
He raised his eyebrows in surprise, “Well, Reggie, excuse me for being myself.”
“That’s not what I—” he sighed, “You don’t have to be jealous of Evan.”
“Me? Jealous?” He scoffed, earning an unimpressed look from Regulus.
“He’s taken,” he said.
“Is that your only excuse as to why you don’t approach him?” He huffed, “So if he weren’t taken, you’d take him for yourself?”
Regulus narrowed his eyes and gave him an incredulous look, “Of course that’s what you got from that.”
“I’m still waiting for your answer.”
“I don’t owe you one.”
“Well, as your brother’s best mate—”
“Does he know you’re here?” Regulus inquired.
That shut James up.
“Er—no…” he whispered.
“Hm.” Regulus said simply.
“That’s not the point!” He said, “The point is, would you date Rosier?”
“No.” he said.
“Good.”
“Good?”
“I mean—” James started stumbling through his words, “You know…”
“Right.”
“Right.”
They walked in silence after that, until James decided it was too much to bear.
“So you seriously don’t want Rosier?” He asked.
“Goddamn it,” he groaned, making James shiver, “He’s my best friend who’s literally on a relationship with my other best friend.”
“He’s with Pandora?” James was surprised his eyebrows didn’t fall off from how far they’d risen.
“No,” he scoffed at the idea, “He’s with Barty.”
“Oh.” he nodded slowly.
“Got a problem with that?” Regulus asked. James had to look at him to look if he was joking, but Regulus looked ready to throw him against the wall if he said the wrong thing. Not that he’d mind.
“Are you—” he laughed, “You did not just ask me that.” Regulus frowned, so James elaborated, “I’ve literally been trying to flirt with you this whole bloody month we’ve known each other and you’re actually insinuating that I could be homophobic?”
He laughed harder as soon he saw realization hitting Regulus. Yeah, he’d probably forgotten all about that once the idea of someone having a problem with his best mates’ relationship hit him. James could relate to that. They reached the Ollivander’s door, since Regulus’ break was about to end.
“God, Reggie, you amaze me more every day,” he shook his head as he regained from the laugh he’d just had.
“And you, Potter, fail to amaze me every day,” he said.
With that, he entered the café.
Yeah, never one to say “goodbye”, Regulus Black.
James peered through the window and saw Marlene leaning against the wall, smiling at Dorcas Meadowes as she told her something. So, she’d be there for quite some time more.
He tried to catch her eye in order to let her know he was leaving, and once he did he started kissing the air mockingly. Marlene sent him a death glare, making James chuckle—which made people look at him strangely, which was fair because he was loudly kissing the air in an attempt to act like how Marlene and Dorcas would look like in a couple of hours and then laughing at himself afterwards—and he waved his hand so she knew he was leaving.
As he opened the door to his flat and was greeted with Remus pacing back and forth and glaring at him as he growled, “You went to see him, didn’t you?” James had no option other than to smirk.
“Sure did.”
“And you’re planning on seeing him again, aren’t you?” He asked.
“Sure am, Moony.” He winked at Remus, who ran a frustrated hand through his face.