Chapter 2
James
Turns out, Regulus actually tried to keep things somewhat professional, and he pretended not to realise that James was flirting with him. The problem was that James actually had to stop flirting as soon as they left the room to get to the MRI, because even though James appeared to not be able to think clearly around Regulus, he also knew that he worked his ass off to be a professional football player, and potentially losing that over a crush on a guy that gave the impression of only being mildly interested seemed like a stupid risk to take.
So, James settled on flirting in private and on just being charmingly nice when other people were around. And, since he knew that people generally enjoyed talking about themselves, he decided to ask Regulus questions while he pushed me around in a wheelchair, which James had tried to insist he didn’t need. However, the pretty med student had told him things about protocols and also pointed out that they had not officially diagnosed the ACL tear yet and had thus not ruled out any other injuries that would actually worsen when he put pressure on the knee, and thus he had to be pushed around in a wheelchair.
“So, Regulus, you said you are in your fourth year of medical school, right?” James asked while they waited on an elevator.
"Yes," Regulus replied briefly, while James tried to turn his head to look at the boy properly since he stood behind him. The plan was only mildly successful, as he could not turn completely, but he could see parts of Regulus, and that seemed to be better than nothing.
“Do you want to be an orthopaedic surgeon after you finish medical school?”
Regulus just made a dismissive sound as a reply, and James could make out that he shrugged his shoulders. “Here is not really the place to talk about whether or not I am actually interested in the speciality I am doing on rotation. I have to say that I love doing it because there are people running around that are going to grade my work, and I cannot jeopardise that by being the med student who does not like the specialty. So, you will not get a real answer from me about that.”
James smiled. He liked the way Regulus’ brain worked and how he was so unapologetically honest about what he thought about those things. He could have simply said that he enjoyed it, but no, he had to explain the importance of why he could not say the truth either way.
“So, you love orthopaedic surgery, and it is your biggest dream to be an orthopaedic surgeon?”
"Exactly," Regulus replied, and James could make out the smirk in his voice while Regulus pushed James into the elevator that had just arrived.
“By the way, you won," the pretty med student stated.
Dumb founded James looked at Regulus in the mirror, frowning. “What did I win?”
Another chuckle from Regulus. “Well, you not so much. Your team won against Chelsea two to one. That other Potter guy scored the winning goal.”
“Oh my god, I have to tell him that you called him “that other Potter guy," he will hate that so much," James laughed out loud.
“Actually, what is that about? The Potter thing? I mean, sure, Potter is not the weirdest name out there, but it still seems like a weird coincidence that both of your names are Potter.” Regulus looked back at James through the mirror.
“Ah, so you actually are interested in my life," James teased just because he could and because he hoped that the pink colour would potentially, maybe, return to the cheeks of the man behind him. And he was in luck. He was even more in luck, because just as the doors opened on another floor again, Regulus laughed, and James felt so at ease again. The laugh was pure magic put into a sound.
Just as James wanted to answer Regulus’ question, another man in scrubs entered the elevator and blurted out, “Oh my fucking god, Reg, you’re laughing. Why are you laughing?” James eyes lifted as he heard the guy refer to Regulus as Reg. That definitely was a nick name. Some sort of term of endearment. Was that one of Regulus’ friends?
James inspected the guy. He did not wear a white coat, just the scrubs, and he had tattoos all over his arms. Actually, there was not a lot of skin left. He had some kind of bad boy vibe going for him. And if James was honest, the guy was very hot.
“It is nice to see you as well, Barty," the pretty med student said, his tone rather neutral and not laughing anymore.
“Oh, of course it is nice to see me," the guy—Barty apparently—answered smugly. “Still, I want to know why you are laughing. I haven’t seen you laugh in the last... you know what, I don’t know if I have ever seen you laugh.” That made James chuckle in his wheelchair. He had never seen Regulus laugh. That sounded so dumb to him. All Regulus had done in the hour they had spent together since they had met was laugh, grin, and smile.
He felt the eyes of not only Regulus but also Barty on him. He felt his stare bore in the back of his head until he met the guy’s eyes in the mirror. Recognition dawned on Barty’s face as he focused on James. His head turned to Regulus again.
“Ah, I see," Barty grinned at Regulus.
“Shut up," Regulus hissed at him, venom in his voice. “Or you can cook for yourself for the next few weeks.”
Barty grabbed his heart in mock shock. “You break my heart, Reg. Do you want me to starve to death?”
“Right now? Very much.” Ah, so James assumes they live together, right? Why would Regulus cook for him otherwise? But the Barty guy was not Regulus’ boyfriend, right? He couldn’t be. Regulus had said that he didn’t do relationships, but maybe he wanted to let James down easy. But saying he had a boyfriend would also be a good way to let someone down easy, right? James was probably overthinking it.
In that moment, they reached the floor on which they had to get off the elevator, and to James’ annoyance, the Barty guy left the elevator as well. He didn’t even really know why he was so annoyed, but he simply thought the guy wasn’t sympathetic. It had nothing to do with the fact that James wanted Regulus to cook for him. That was not connected at all.
“Where are you going?” Barty asked Regulus now.
“We are getting an MRI.”
“Perfect, I am going to the lung ultrasonography.” Apparently, that was the same way, because the guy kept walking next to Regulus. James started to really get annoyed at that point. He wanted to keep talking to his pretty and smart med student, but with that other guy there, he couldn’t really say anything that might potentially make him seem anything other than perfectly straight.
“When does your shift end again?" Barty kept talking to Regulus.
“It did end, about two hours ago.”
“Ah, I was confused. I thought it did, but then I see you here. Thought I remembered wrong.” Barty laughed. “Why the fuck are you still here?”
“Some football player tore his ACL," Regulus stated matter-of-factly. No emotions in his voice. No grin, no laugh, no teasing. But at least also no annoyance.
“You stayed for me?” James uttered, speaking for the first time since the Barty guy had arrived. The very one started laughing at him, and even though James had thought that he would happily be laughed at just an hour earlier, he really did not appreciate it from the Barty guy. What was so funny?
“No, James, I did not stay for you," Regulus clarified, putting emphasis on the for. “I stayed because of you since my boss told me that there was a V.I.P. case coming in, but he would be in surgery, and he promised me to be able to observe your whole case and potentially be in the O.R. for your surgery. That is huge for a fourth-year med student, so I decided to stay.”
"Hm," James hummed. “So what you are really saying is that you are hoping to profit from my potentially career-ending injury?” Of course he knew that it wasn’t really like that, but he still wanted to tease Regulus about it.
But to his utter disappointment, it wasn’t Regulus who replied, but Barty. “Bit dramatic over there, don’t you think?”
“Oh, Barty, really, shut the fuck up," Regulus growled. James could really understand why this Barty guy did not see Regulus smile often. He was unbearable.
“Ah, you see, I have to go this way," Barty gestured towards one of the floors that Regulus was not turning to. “Are you going home first or straight to work later?”
“Straight to work," Regulus answered again, sounding rather apathetic. “Won’t make it home in time.”
“Okay, then. Maybe Evan and I will come by later; we will see.” Barty chimed while already heading down the corridor. “And, Potter?" He actually turned to James that time. Seen as he did not like the guy, he only made a sound of acknowledgement.
“Maybe you can sign something for Reg, yeah?” James head turned to him, inspecting the guy that was leaving down the corridor. Why should he sign something for Regulus?
“Oh my god, really, ignore him. He is a fucking idiot.” The pretty medical student let out an annoyed. At least he seemed just as annoyed by that Barty guy as James did. So, he would forget what Barty had said because he really didn’t want to remember his existence at all.
“Who was that guy?” Well, so much for forgetting his existence. His mouth really spoke without considering what James’ thought about it.
Regulus laughed again. “Nobody important, really. Also, not telling you personal things.” At that, James started laughing. The boy was hard to crack, but he would do it somehow; James was sure of it.
“I have a proposition," James declared.
“Let’s hear it.”
“So, you wanted to know about that other Potter guy, and I want to know things about you, so if I tell you why his name is Potter, will you tell me who that guy was?” James was rather proud of his idea. That way it was fair, right? And it really bucked him why that guy got Regulus to cook for him, why he knew about how his schedule was designed at work, and why he referred to the place Regulus and he apparently went to as home.
Regulus had not answered yet when they arrived in front of a big, automatic sliding door that had the letters “MRI” printed on it.
“You know what, James? When your MRI is done and you are back in your room and Dr. Iqbal is not done yet, then I will tell you.”
“I will hold you to it," James smiled. If they could trade truths like that, he would just have to pay attention to the things that Regulus wanted to know. He was willing to tell him practically everything, but James would not be above using dirty tactics in order to find out more about the pretty med student.
“I wouldn’t expect anything less," Regulus replied, smiling, and pushed James into a waiting area in front of the MRI door, where one other guy was already waiting. “So, I will leave you here, and soon someone is going to get you and get your MRI done. Until then, you just wait here, yeah?”
James frowned at that. “You won’t wait with me?”
Regulus chuckled again. “No, James, I won’t babysit you until you get your MRI taken.”
“But I thought you would take the MRI," James added, still confused and a little annoyed. He wanted to keep talking to Regulus, and because of that Barty guy, he had lost precious time, and now he wouldn’t even be able to keep talking to Regulus until his MRI was taken.
“The MRI techs are taking the MRI; they do not need a med student for that," Regulus explained. “And also, I need to take care of some things because you are actually not my only responsibility in this hospital.”
James wanted to make a grumbling noise and to tell Regulus that he wanted him to stay, and maybe James wanted to throw a tantrum about Regulus leaving him here, but he guessed that that would not really be an attractive thing to do for a twenty-four-year-old. So he settled on just teasing again.
“Okay, then I will just make new friends in the mean time, while you take care of your important duties as a doctor.”
“Not a doctor," Regulus laughed. “And if you want to make new friends, Remus here is great.” Regulus nodded in the direction of the other guy, who was about their age sitting in the waiting area.
The guy looked up from the book he was reading and frowned at Regulus. “Oh my god, you really have to stop telling people to talk to me.”
“Well, you really have to stop being everywhere around this hospital then.” Regulus just shrugged.
“Not really my fault, is it?”
Regulus shrugged again. “Not my fault either. So, I’ll leave you to it, fellas. James, if you want something to talk about: Remus really loves sports.” With that, he started to head down the corridor they had come from.
“You are an annoying piece of shit, Black," Remus shouted after Regulus. However, he simply kept walking, not dignifying the insult with a response. James really was in awe. His pretty medical student did not seem to care a lot about people’s opinions, and he carried himself with such confidence that James could only admire it.
He turned his head towards Remus, actually really looking at him this time. The bloke had a buzz cut and prominent facial features, with sunken cheeks. Also, he was skinny and tall, with long arms and legs that did not seem as if he could move around that easily. Actually, the guy was sickly skinny as well.
“You do not look like you love sports," James stated. He did not want to offend the guy, but he somehow already suspected that Regulus had been talking shit.
Remus just scuffed. “Yeah, no shit. I had one fucking argument with the guy about whether chess is a sport or not, and since then he has run around telling people I enjoy sports in order to prove his fucking point.”
James laughed out loud. Regulus was just amazing.
“So I guess you said chess is a sport?”
"Obviously," Remus said. “I mean, it is a fucking sport the same way that a tomato is a fruit. Or a strawberry is a nut. It just is that way, and we as a society have decided that they do not fit into our made-up definitions of those things, even though they really do fit into the actual definitions.”
“Wait, a strawberry is a nut?" James asked. Since when was a strawberry a nut?
“Yeah, technically.” James made a sound of understanding. He didn’t really know about the definition of a nut, so he could accept that. Remus seemed a lot smarter than he was.
“So, you don’t like sports," James stated. “What is your book about then?”
Remus let out a long breath. “You know, you really do not have to talk to me, just because Regulus said so.”
“Oh, sorry," James muttered. “I did not want to annoy you or anything. I am just really bored, and, well, I like talking to people. But no worries.”
“You like talking to people?” Remus asked, somehow sounding condescending. Why were so many people behaving so weirdly today?
James shrugged again. “Yeah, I do. People are great.” That statement got another scoff from Remus.
“You don’t like people then?”
Now it was Remus’ turn to shrug. “Not particularly. I mean, there are people that are okay to be around. But mostly, in general, people are just kind of there.”
“That is a really weird way to look at things," James considered. He did not think that way. People were amazing. Wherever he went, he was able to find fun people to talk to and to have fun with. It had always been great for him getting to meet new people and finding out about how different people could be in the same situation. But James guessed that he was simply a people person that way. He also knew a lot of people who were not so content to be around other people and just enjoyed silence. James didn’t like silence. He got bored and agitated so fast if he was not talking to someone or doing something.
Remus didn’t say anything at first and kept reading his book. Apparently, he had decided that he did not want to talk to James. Exactly that silence made James agitated. It felt like an itch to do something. Usually, in situations like this, he would start pacing or wiggle his legs, but he liked doing it with his left leg, and he tried not to move too much because of the injury. So he started cracking the bones in his hands. When that did not help to make the agitation go away, he reached for his phone when he realised that he had not taken it with him to the hospital.
After what felt like a lifetime of uncomfortable silence, but realistically were only a few minutes, James gave into his urge to talk to Remus again.
He cleared his throat to get Remus’ attention, and after the bloke had looked up from his book again, he asked, “Why are you here then?”
Remus let out a dark laugh as he eyed James. “What are you here for?”
“My knee, they think I tore my ACL during the match," James answered. Sure, Remus did not seem to be too keen on talking about himself, but if he didn’t want to, then James was just as happy to talk about his own life.
“What match?" the guy asked, sounding at least a little more into the conversation than before.
"Football," James answered. As Remus just looked at him, seemingly a little confused, James elaborated: “I play for Arsenal, and today was the match against Chelsea, and well, I only played about ten minutes. But we won, and apparently my best mate shot the winning goal, so there is that.”
“You do professional football?”
“Yeah, for the last three years and hopefully for a lot of years to come as well," James shrugged.
Remus laughed. “So there are a lot of people who would be dying to talk to you right now, and you just so happen to be sitting here with one of the only people in England that doesn’t have a clue about football.”
“Yeah, I guess so," James agreed. In theory, he knew that a lot of people wanted to talk to him or had somewhat of a crush on him, but it never really seemed real to him. That is such a wild thing, right? He just wanted to kick a ball around a field and hopefully occasionally into the goal, but he had gotten famous because of it, and people wore his name on the backs of their jerseys and even started writing fanfiction about him. And his brain hadn’t really caught up with those facts yet. Hell, he was just a boy born to immigrant parents who had worked their asses off to be able to give him the life that he had gotten.
Remus voice brought him back to reality. “So, what is it like to be paid obscene amounts of money just because you are somewhat good at kicking a ball?”
James chuckled. “Fucking incredible, lad.”
At that moment the MRI door opened, and a woman came through it.
“Mr. Potter?" she asked James, to which he nodded. “That would be me," he said to Remus. “I hope I see you around again. Have a good one.”
“Yeah, you too," Remus just answered bluntly, his head turning towards his book again.
After the MRI had been taken, it wasn’t Regulus who had brought him back up to his room, but another nurse, who seemed nice but sadly wasn’t what he had been hoping for. Would he see Regulus again today? Or had he left already? James could understand that if he had already been at the hospital two hours longer than anticipated, he might have other responsibilities outside of the hospital. But he was still a little disappointed because they had a deal, right? He wanted to talk to Regulus again, and he had the whole plan to get him to go out with him.
When he was pushed into the room, Sirius was sitting in the chair next to the bed.
“Hey man," he smiled. “How are you?”
James smiled as well. Sirius always made him smile. “It’s okay, I guess. They think it is an ACL tear, but they did not get a look at the MRI yet. But the doctor will get here as soon as he can and talk to us about it.”
“Oh fuck, man," Sirius muttered. “That is a shitty way to start off the new year.”
“You say it," James agreed. “But you know, I hear “that other Potter guy” shot the winning goal?” He mockingly teased, but his voice was full of pride. He loved it when Sirius was successful, maybe even more than himself being successful. Life had not been great for his best mate, and so he was just infinitely more excited to see him doing well.
“What do you mean “that other Potter guy”? I was the star of the match, while you were busy laying in a hospital bed, so I would argue that today you were “that other Potter guy”.”
Another wave of laughter took over James whole body. “I am so proud of you," he brought out between laughs. There was no way he would not have told Sirius that. He was so happy to have Sirius in his life, and he was always going to tell him how much he adored him.
“Thank you, man," Sirius said, a sheepish smile on his lips. “I wish you could have been there.”
“Yeah, me too," James admitted.
“Ah, by the way, I called Ma and Baba," Sirius told James while walking towards the bed and sitting down opposite of James, who put his feet directly into Sirius’ lap. They had always been rather close and had never much cared about the toxic masculine attitude regarding physical contact. James loved that about their friendship. Also, he got foot rubs out of it if he didn’t feel well one day, so he was very happily accepting that now.
“Oh god, I totally forgot about that," James said. “What did they say?”
While drawing soozing circles on James’ feet using his thumbs, Sirius told him about the phone call. “Well, Ma asked how you were and what I knew—which was about the same as she did—and she said that she was worried. And then Baba said that you should not make Ma worry so much by hurting yourself on national television.” Both of them laughed in unison again.
“Of course Baba cared more about that," James laughed. Their parents had always been amazing. Sadly, they had not been able to move to London when James was scouted for the youth academy, and so his time with them had been cut so much shorter than originally anticipated. Of course, a twelve-year-old boy couldn’t completely comprehend what that meant, but especially now looking back, he was more than a little sad about all the missed family dinners, movie nights, and days spent at the beach. On the other hand, by going to the youth academy, he had gained a brother and his parents another son, so ultimately he was okay with the sacrifices he had made.
“I should probably call them now, right?” James asked Sirius, who was still rubbing his feet. He knew that a lot of people would think that it was weird that they did that for each other, but they played football, and especially in the beginning when they started the more intensive training schedule at the academy, they had both been suffering from incredibly sore feet, and nothing seemed to relieve the unwanted pain and throbbing. Until, one evening, Sirius suggested to James that he could maybe try rubbing his feet, and James had agreed because he simply couldn’t take the uncomfortable pressure anymore. That evening, both of them had gone to bed with a lot more comfort, and since then it had started to be a ritual that they honoured each evening after playing football or if one of them simply didn’t feel so good.
“I guess you can wait until the doctor actually tells you what is wrong and what the game plan is. Right now, they are already worried, and you cannot relieve the worry until you know what is going on.” Sirius smiled at him reassuringly and kept massaging his feet.
In that moment, a knock on the door made Sirius’ and James’ heads turn, and through the opened door, Regulus dressed in jeans and a hoodie entered the room. And even though the outfit was really nothing special, James’ heart made a leap at laying his eyes upon his pretty medical student once more.
Regulus’ gaze wandered from James to Sirius and then to Sirius’ lap and his hands that were still on James’ feet. His eyes went back to James. “I see you have a type.”
James started coughing violently—he had inhaled some of his own spit at the unexpected conclusion Regulus had drawn. Sirius, on the other hand, just started laughing, looking at James as well: “I see his point.”
“Oh god, it is not like that," James said to Regulus hastily, not wanting him to misunderstand. “You wanted to know about the Potter thing, right? So, well, my parents…”
At that, Sirius hit his foot. “Ah, what was that for?” James yelped.
“Our parents," Sirius corrected him with a frown on his face, half joking and half serious.
Regulus gaze wandered amused between Sirius and James. James guessed that he had already connected the most important part and was now simply enjoying the show of their brotherly banter.
“I was coming to that part, you prick," James exclaimed, now turning back to Regulus. “My parents adopted him when we were 15. So, now they are our parents.”
“I basically stole his last name and his parents," Sirius added. “And they like me better than him.”
James frowned. "Yeah, sure, keep telling yourself that.” Sirius just kept laughing and shrugged his shoulders, mindlessly continuing to rub James’ feet. Even though James really enjoyed it, he did not want to make Regulus feel weird, and he had been told before that it sometimes felt like imposing on personal moments when Sirius and James interacted like that, and so he slowly pulled his feet out of Sirius grasp and gave him a small apologetic smile. Sirius seemed to understand, but still, James would explain later.
He turned back to the pretty med student. “What brings you back here after so cruelly abandoning me at the MRI?”
Regulus had taken the now empty chair and sat down, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
“I did not abandon you. I gave you a new friend, didn’t I?” His voice was a little teasing, but a lot more reserved than when they had been alone earlier. The fact that his pretty med student apparently behaved a little differently when it was just the two of them had a weird effect on James’ insides.
“I am not sure if I would call us friends," James thought out loud. “To be honest, he was not really interested in talking to me.”
“I knew he wouldn’t be," Regulus laughed. Really, the laugh was James’ favourite sound, and it made his heart skip a beat every time he was blessed enough to hear it.
“So, what brings you here? And where did your scrubs disappear to?" he repeated his question to his med student.
“I made a deal, and I am a man of my word. Also, Dr. Iqbal is going to be coming in here in the next few minutes, so I am here as well because I was promised to get more responsibility on your case, and so I am going to do most of the talking.”
“Oh, I do like when you are talking," James said, back in his element of blatantly flirting with Regulus. Apparently, however, he had forgotten Sirius’ presence, who tried to suppress a laugh but was only mildly successful and let out a loud snort. Both James’ and Regulus eyes landed on him.
“Don’t mind me, James," Sirius pressed out while still trying to contain his laughter. “Please continue your shameless flirting.” At the words, James felt a blush creep up his face, and he was silently begging that his brown complexion would hide most of it.
“You did not have to point that out in front of him, did you now?" James muttered in Sirius direction, who simply snorted out loud again. Great, he knew that Regulus was aware of his flirting, but it still felt weird to have Sirius point it out so openly. At least he did not really seem to be hung up about the part of him flirting with a guy, so that was something.
Regulus cleared his throat. “So, about the scrubs: I am already late for work, and that is why I changed before coming here, so that I can run out of here as soon as this is finished.”
“Aren’t you at work?" James asked, confused. It was already past eight pm, so what kind of work would he have to go to?
Regulus smiled. “I promised you another answer to a personal question, and you are only getting one.”
“Oh, now I do not want to know who that Barty guy is anymore. I want to know why you leave work to go to work.” James pouted, a little less mature than he would like to appear.
“I promised the first one, so you get the first one," Regulus simply said. “So, Barty is my roommate. We study together. He is a pain in my ass most of the time, but he is borderline psychotic, and that makes for fun stories to tell.”
“Borderline psychotic?" Sirius exclaimed. “Why would you want to be friends with someone who is borderline psychotic? Why would you want to share an apartment? Aren’t you scared of being murdered in your sleep?”
Regulus laughed again, but his laugh sounded rather condescendingly amused. “Not everybody wants friends to rub each other's feet while braiding each other's hair and talking about rainbows and unicorns.”
At that, James let out a loud laugh. Regulus was amazing. He was so unhinged; he seemed so different from everybody he had ever met before. He also was nothing like James, and he really wanted to get to know him better. To see what his life really was like. And also, it sounded really stupid, but he actually really wanted to braid Regulus’ hair. It seemed long enough to do tiny braids, and that would give him the opportunity to touch his hair. His curls looked so soft, and he wondered what shampoo Regulus was using and how his hair smelt. Could he ask that now, or was that a weird question?
Before they could continue talking, there was another knock at the door, and Regulus stood up immediately, while an older man in scrubs and the nurse that had introduced herself as Poppy earlier that day entered the room. Behind them followed another man and a woman, both dressed in scrubs and white coats.
“You must be James Potter; a pleasure to meet you," the older doctor exclaimed after taking his place next to Regulus.
“I would say the pleasure is all mine," James smiled. “But I would actually prefer not to be injured right now.”
That made the doctor laugh, and he kept talking: “I believe you have already met Mr. Black and Mrs. Pomfrey. That are Dr. Moore and Dr. Nielsen; both of them are residents and are going to participate in your care. I am Dr. Iqbal, the senior attending in charge of your case. We would like to give Mr. Black the opportunity to show what he has already learnt and practice taking charge of a case, seeing as he is a fourth-year medical student he already has some experience, but of course all of his work would be looked over by either myself or Dr. Moore or Dr. Nielsen. Would that be alright with you?”
James eyes swiftly went to Regulus, and a small smile spread over his face at simply seeing him there, standing so straight with his hands crossed behind his back. That would be so alright with him, because that would mean Regulus had to spend more time in his room and thus with him. He was selfish that way. Also, he really wanted him to have the opportunity to practice. He might not really understand what that meant in medicine and how much Regulus would want to do that, but he guessed in football he had always been extremely happy to get as much time on the field as possible, and so Regulus would probably also be happy about it. “Yes, that is alright with me.”
"Perfect," Dr. Iqbal said. “Regulus, will you do the presentation then?”
Regulus face seemed so serious as he nodded and started talking to James. “First off, is it alright that the other Mr. Potter stays for the talk?”
James nodded without a moment of hesitation. Of course he would want Sirius to be here; everything else would be absurd.
“Okay, I just wanted to make sure. As I have already told you, Mr. Potter...
"James," he interrupted Regulus. “Please, call me James.”
Regulus cleared his throat, sending a searching glance at Dr. Iqbal, who nodded encouragingly. “Okay, sure, James. As I have already told you, we assumed that you tore the ACL in your left knee. Now that we have the scans back and the radiologist had a look at them, we can confirm our suspicions.” At that, Regulus was handed a tablet from one of the residents, and he turned it around to show James and Sirius the MRI scans opened on the screen. It showed two knees next to each other. First, Regulus pointed to the left one. “You see, this here is a healthy knee with a healthy ACL. In comparison,” he now pointed at the right knee, “this one is yours. Do you see this flap here? That is your torn ACL.”
James nodded, understanding. Okay, he had already prepared for an ACL tear, and a lot of football players had them, so it would not be career-ending, would it?
Regulus continued: “The next step is an operation to replace the torn ligament. During the operation, Dr. Iqbal is going to clean out the remainders of your ACL and replace it with a tendon. He is going to use the tendon from a muscle in your thigh. That way we can make sure that you will not reject the transplant, and the success rate in doing it that way is a lot higher than if we would use a donated tendon. You do not have to worry about mobility in your thigh as there are two different muscles lying on top of each other that have the same function, and we will just connect the two together so that there is no loss of function. Do you agree with that treatment plan until here?”
James nodded again. He didn’t really have any other choice, did he?
“The surgery should be as soon as possible," Regulus elaborated. “We will have to wait seven to ten days to make sure all the swelling is gone down. For the exact appointment, you will get a call in the next few days. Until surgery, you will get a knee splint that you should wear at all times when moving around. Other than that, you can move around rather normally; you should just be more cautious than usual. You cannot work out. The details of what you can do will be discussed with you with your usual team doctor and physical therapist. After your surgery, you will stay in the hospital for at least one night to make sure everything went well regarding the anesthesia. Then you will not be able to put pressure on your left leg for about two to four weeks, so you will get crutches. We can discuss everything that happens after that in more detail when you come back here for your surgery. Do you have any questions?”
James had to digest all the information for a moment. That all sounded doable. But he actually had one burning question. “When can I play football again?”
“We cannot give you an exact date, James. It will take somewhere between six and twelve months for you to fully recover and continue your professional football career. How long exactly depends on so many different factors that we cannot tell you a closer estimate.”
James nodded. “Okay, thank you. That all sounds doable.” Regulus smiled at James encouragingly.
“Actually, I have another question. What kind of painkillers can I take in the next few days?”
Regulus answered, “Ibuprofen would be best, as it also helps against any inflammation. However, you can also take your preferred painkillers. Only aspirin is off the table, because that one also influences the coagulation of your blood, and thus you should not take that prior to surgeries.”
James nodded again. He always took Ibuprofen, so that worked out well.
Dr. Iqbal then continued talking: “Thank you, Mr. Black, for taking over. James, Mrs. Pomfrey will bring you the knee splint and put it on you. Then you are free to go home, and we will see each other in seven to ten days.”
“Yes, thank you so much," James smiled at the doctor and at Regulus, who seemed not as tense as in the beginning of the presentation.
At that, the doctors left the room, and Regulus followed behind them. Before he pulled the door closed behind him, he turned towards James and smiled.
“See you next week, James.”