Chapter 2
James couldn’t be more excited.
He loved Godric's Hollow since he was a child and has always wanted to return, but always visits his family in Brazil. But this year, his mum and dad have decided to go on a month-long trip and told him to be a counsellor with his friends.
“This is going to be the best summer ever!” James runs out to the car.
“I know right!” Sirius agrees as he steps into the driver's seat.
“I really hope the kids like me, do you think they will like me?” Peter says sitting next to James in the back.
“They will love you Pete, we all do. What about you Moony?” James pats Pete on the back.
“Mhm.” Remus mumbles in the passenger seat.
“Oh come one, babe. Don’t be like that.” Sirius pouts.
“Okay, okay.”
“Can we get McDonalds?”
“Pete it’s 8am!”
“Pancakes!” Peter argues back.
“Yes, we can.” Sirius agrees already turning into the drive through.
“Yay!” Peter and James shout like children in the back, Remus just rolls his eyes.
After they get breakfast they officially set off. Pete falls asleep, Remus reads, and James and Sirius talks.
“Did you remember everything?” Sirius asks him.
“Yes.”
“Bathing suit?”
“Yes.”
“ADHD meds?”
“Yes.” James laughs.
“Toothbrush?”
James goes silent.
“You brought your toothbrush right, James?” Sirius looks at him in the mirror.
“Remus did you grab my toothbrush?” James asks.
“Hmm, no? Why would I do that?” Remus goes back to his book without a second thought.
“What?! You said you would!”
“James Fleamont Potter! Do you have to turn this car around?!” Sirius shouts at him, how Pete doesn’t wake up is a question for the ages.
“I am so, so sorry.” James mumbles with his head in his hands. He feels like a little child getting yelled at by his mum.
“Fuck.” Sirius whispers, turning the car around.
They don’t speak a word till James gets back in the car.
“Sorry.”
“Mhm”
-
“What’s up, Siri?” Regulus’ voice fills his ears making him perk up. God he is pathetic. It has been years since he saw the young Black and his heart still skips a beat when he hears Sirius speak of him.
“Are you guys there yet?” Sirius frowns while looking at the gps.
“No, about an hour away. You?” Regulus says James can hear snoring in the background, it must be one of his friends.
“Fuck, like two hours. James bloody forgot something when we were already 30 minutes into the drive."
"I didn't forget! Remus did, he said he would get it!" James shouts trying to defend him self. He shouldn’t have trusted Remus to remember, but whatever.
He hears soft laughter coming from the other side of the phone, coming from Regulus. It’s a beautiful sound that James wants to drown in.
"What are you laughing at, baby Black. You should be grateful cause I would have just took yours." James has never called Regulus by his real name, always Baby Black or Reg or Reggie. Never just Regulus. James refuses.
"Gross," Regulus says earning a laugh out of Moony.
"Did you remember all your stuff, bug?" Sirius says and James tries to think of why. Oh, oh yeah. James remembers when Regulus was diagnosed. He fell terribly sick and Sirius called James choking on sobs for his baby brother. He didn’t understand that Regulus wasn’t going to die just not feel well for a while. But Regulus had passed out infront of his brother and it scared Sirius shitless. Apparently Sirius had been worried for him a while before, he had been drinking loads of water and slept more that normal.
"Yes. You all need to leave me be." Regulus huffs annoyed.
"Okay, okay. Just checking, call me when you get there! Drive safe." Sirius starts making a bunch of kissy noises and Regulus hangs up on him.
“You all worry for him too much, he is already anxious and doesn’t need more people babying him.” Remus speaks up.
“I know, I know. But I just-“
“He is your baby brother, we get it.” James finish’s for him and he and Remus nods. Remus, James has learned, has grown a liking to Regulus in the years they have known each other.
“What?” Pete wakes up and they all laugh.
-
“Minnie!” James knocks on the door. He hears a soft shriek.
“Oh, my boys! Look at you, you’re all so handsome!” She brings them into a long embrace. “How has college been?”
“Good, we are all living together. I am getting a degree in music, and there is a record label watching me!” Sirius’ words are cramped together and hastily spoken.
“That’s amazing, baby! And the rest of you!” She has a big smile on her face and James realises how much he truly missed her.
“They are thinking of making me captain of the football team and Moony is at the top of his classes in classical.” James says, a tad tamer than Sirius but still fast. Remus nods in agreement.
“I knew you all would do well for yourself. Actually, Sirius, your brother was in here not long ago with Pandora and they were talking about how they were doing. They go to the same school as you, correct!” Minerva is shuffling around a few papers looking for something.
What, he goes to Hogwarts. Oh, shit.
“Yeah, he is getting his, umm, oh, yeah, art history degree. But he is a painter on the side, a damn good one too. There is some fancy art gallery in London he is planning on working with.” Sirius grabs his sheet and smiles as he talks about his little brother. Sirius speaks nothing but glowing words about his brother, it’s always oh, my Reggie is a genius. Or, I swear he is the next Di Vinci. Or, did you hear he is at the top of his class, again? It’s sweet how much he adores his brother. And while Regulus isn’t as vocal as Sirius, he still shows his love for his brother in many ways. Sirius has been a model for many of Reg's paintings.
“Oh, that boy.” She rolls her eyes. “He failed to mention that extremely big thing going on in his life.”
“Well, y’know our parents. Beat it into his head that it is nothing but a hobby. He doesn’t tell most people, though he should. He has got this whole renaissance-turned-modern thing going on. One of his recent ones that the gallery wants is, you guys know the umm paintings of Ophelia’s death? Yeah, he did that but she was surrounded by trash and waste and stuff it is really cool.” Sirius rambles in awe of his brother's talents.
James knew he painted but didn’t know how serious it was. Now he really wants to see them, but Sirius has mentioned that he very rarely shows people his art.
“Anyway, I’ll let you boys go. Don’t forget to come visit me whenever you can, okay? I want to hear everything. Oh, and you all will get off days and hours, they should be on your schedules. Honestly, I don’t know why I go to the effort to schedule everything when you all will just move it around how you want.” Minnie huffs and ushers them outside. They all laugh and give their goodbyes.
“Me and Moony are together!” Sirius announces as soon as Minnie leaves. Damn, there goes two possibilities.
“Yes, I got Frank!” Peter counters and James’ shoulders sag. Three possibilities*
“Who did you get, Prongs?” Sirius skips over to him.
James unfolds the paper and his heart falls to hell. No, it can’t be. Anyone else would be great.
Regulus Black.
Is written in bold letters so they aren’t misread. James can’t room with the boy he has been hopelessly in love with since he was 13.
He hasn’t seen him in years and likes to tell himself that he is over it. Till Sirius brings him up and his stomach twists.
He doesn’t even know what he looks like but still itches to see him every day.
But Regulus hates James. James isn’t sure why. At first, Reg just seemed to be really annoyed by James. Then, sometime around ten years old, he hated James, and couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him.
To this day, James has no clue why.
“Yay! You got Reggie! He is a tad mean in the morning so watch out for that, but like scary clean, so that’s good!” Sirius takes Remus’ hand and walks to their cabin with him, Remus gives James a pitting look and follows his boyfriend.
“Ouch, that’s a harsh one. You’ll be fine man really, just keep your eyes closed when he changes.” Pete pats him on the shoulder and winks.
“He despises me and I don’t know why.” James sighs and starts walking to their cabin, 18. They are with the foxes apparently which are ages 7-8. James really didn’t have a specific age group he wanted, they all sounded fun, the youngest being 7 and the oldest 16.
“It’ll be fine, maybe some humbling will be good for you.”
“I will be working with 7-year-olds for two months, I will have plenty of humbling.” James laughs.
“And now you have more! How great is that! Okay, I’ll start. I think your haircut could use some-“
“Shut it.” James cuts Peter off mid-sentence.
“Ouch, just some constructive criticism. But be serious dude, don’t even say it. Asshole. Be for real dude, it has been, what, like two years since you last saw him? How could he still hate you?” Pete knows them too well because James was very close to making a ‘but I am James?’ joke.
“He once told me that my accent makes me sound like a two-year-old learning how to read, don’t laugh!” Peter stifles his giggles at James reminiscing.
“Sorry, but that is really funny. How old were you guys?”
“Around 14, 15,” James says.
“On the bright side, you sound less Brazilian than you did, you know with all that time in London. But he still sounds quite French.”
“But French is hot!”
“So is Portuguese!” Peter counters, smiling. “He does have a hot voice, got all deep and stuff.” Peter wiggles his eyebrows. James just glares at him. “I am sure it’ll be fine. I gotta go get ready, you gonna be okay?”
“Yeah.” James sighs.
“Great, see ya, Prongs!” Peter runs off to his cabin leaving James a sulking mess. He runs his hands down his face and walks to his cabin.
He opens the door and sees no one in there so he makes his way in. Regulus must have already been in because his bed is nicely made and clothes folded. He hums at the neatness of his books and notices a cat on his bed.
Ever since they were kids Minnie always had a bunch of cats that just roam around, and many of them took a noticeable liking to Reg. This small black one seems to have already found him.
“Hi, little one.” The collar says Pheobe. “Pheobe, why hello.” He smiles and then goes to put his stuff away.
When he is done it doesn’t look quite as nice as Regs but good enough. He changes into jorts and a camp tee shirt he was given. It has a cartoon fox on the front and Godric’s Hollow written in large letters.
James goes to open the bathroom door but is beaten. He looks down to see a freshly showered and changed Regulus, dark curls still wet and the smell of mint wafting around them.
When did Regulus get so fit?
He is still lean but definitely not the skinny little kid James remembered. His tee shirt is slightly tighter on him and James can see the multi-colouring of his skin make its way down his arm, James never learned what the name of that was. His eyes were still the same, big and dark green and grey. He got more piercings, and the summer sun had made the freckles around his nose darker.
If James thought he was gorgeous before, he definitely is now.
“Hi.” Jane breathes, Hi? Can’t he think of anything else? Oh, god. James is still taking in all that is Regulus. He is wearing low-rise black sweatpants and James can see a small tattoo on his hip bone. It looks like two roses?
"Sorry, umm I didn't know you were here yet." Regulus clears his throat and his eyes meet James’, how can he speak under these circumstances? Fuck.
"Oh, yeah. Umm, where are you going?" James hasn’t been this nervous in forever, he isn’t even comprehending the words as they come out of his mouth. He is sorta just hoping for the best.
"We are supposed to meet in the mess hall to meet everyone and stuff." God, this is uncomfortable.
"Oh, yeah I'll be right there." James quickly puts his stuff down and follows Regulus out. He feels like a desperate puppy. "Did you have a good drive here?"
“Yeah,” Regulus say quickly.
“The car was being so weird for us, it’s not used to driving for so long. I guess we should probably take it out of London more. Or really just use it more, we walk most places so the car doesn’t get used often. Do you guys have that issue? What car do you have? Because we have a BMW, well I do we drove my car but Sirius called dibs on driving so.”
Oh god, why is he talking so much? All the words just spill out of him in a nervous fit and he can’t stop them. He stands there in horrified shock after all his words finish flooding out of him. Why can he just be quiet, he is always too much. It is embarrassing.
“Oh, umm…umm, I have a Volkswagen, a beetle. But we drove Evan and Barty's car, they also have a BMW.” The words Reg says barely process in James’ mind, his brain shut down midway through his rambling monologue, that was basically a soliloquy, because no way Regulus was listening to him.
“Cool,” James mutters as his bones feel like they are crumbling from the weight of his embarrassment.
They walk silently the rest of the way to the mess hall.
This is going to be a very, very long summer.
-
“Okay! Okay! Quiet down please!” Minerva's voice echoes through the large mess hall. “Today we are going to do some icebreakers! Don’t complain I am paying you. Okay please get in your assigned groups.” James looks up at the board, group 5.
Remus Lupin
Marlene McKinnon
Barty Crouch Jr.
Arthur Weasley
James Potter
Emmeline Vance
Sebastian Cross
Fuck.
James and Regulus both make eye contact and both appear to be dreading whatever is coming. They all get into a group and walk out to the lake to see ten platforms on the water, James knows what is coming.
“Okay, you will need to get your team from platform one to ten without getting wet and before the other teams. Please get on platform one!” Minnie announces. They all do as told.
“No way we can all fit on some of these,” Sebastian complains.
“How are we going to get across?” Marlene asks.
“Jump?” Remus shrugs.
“No way we are making that jump.” Regulus counters.
“No way you are making that jump, little legs” Barty says getting swatted by Reg.
“Okay how about tall people go first and then we will help you get over.” James reasons and Remus jumps first, as he is the tallest. Then Barty, then Arthur, then Sebastian. Emmeline jumps, she stands an expressive 178 cm. Then James jumps leaving a sulking Regulus and Marlene.
“I think this is just created to be mean to us.” He heard Marlene say and Regulus laughs. Marlene stands no more than a centimeter taller than him but apears to be making it very clear.
“Marls I got you!” Emmeline shouts and grabs Marlene to pull her onto the platform. The platform shifts slightly on the water but steadies itself.
“Stella cmon you’ll be fine!” Barty shouts and Reg just frowns. Don’t think about how cute he is, don’t think about how cute he is, do not think about how cute he is.
”Reg, I got you. I promise!” James adds on and Regulus’ frown deepens but he jumps. James grabs him by the waist and pulls him in. Regulus hits his chest and steadies himself.
“Thanks, I really don’t like this.” Regulus says.
“Yeah, let’s get this over with.” Remus says.
They get through all of the remaining platforms and find themselves at the final one.
“It’s tiny we will never fit!” Barty shouts.
“Figure it out!” Minerva counters, they are ahead at least two platforms so they do win if they hurry up.
“Okay I have an idea, a bad one. Remus jumps, then I do and get on his shoulders. Barty jumps and Marlene gets on his shoulders, then James jumps and Regulus gets on his back. Then we should have room for everyone.” Emmy explains.
“You’re right, that’s a horrid idea.” Regulus huffs.
“But it is our only idea so let’s get to jumpin, gang,” Barty says and ushers Remus to jump.
They all jump till it’s is only James and Regulus who are left.
“Are you okay with this?” James whispers in his ear.
“Doesn’t really matter does it?” Regulus counters.
“Let’s hurry this up.” Sebastian sticks his head between them. “We get acsess to the campfire if we win and I have at least five bottles of vodka and even more bottles of Malibu.”
“Okay, umm, James go on I guess.” Regulus says, so James does.
“Come on, Stella!” Barty shouts, Marls on his shoulders.
Regulus jumps and gets brought in by the waist by James again.
“You okay? Alright can I?” Regulus nods and James brings him into his shoulders, hands gripping his thighs so he fall and Regulus’ hands in his hair.
Fuck.
“James.” Regulus’ voice breaks his thoughts.
“Yeah?”
“Your nails are digging into my skin.”
“Oh, fuck, I’m sorry.” James losens up a bit.
They are announced the winners and try to figure out how to get off. They can’t.
“You all are so weird.” Minerva mumbles and shakes the platform from her boat. They all tumble into the water fully clothed. The cold water shocks James’ skin as his head breaks the surface.
“You okay?” James holds Regulus because he was struggling to reach the floor.
“Yeah, fuck it’s cold.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” James laughs and swims away, Regulus follows.
They both pull themselves out the lake and James tries his hardest not to stare at the wet tee shirt hugging Regulus’ figure. James can see the faint lines on his torso and his muscles roll as he pulls himself from the water.
Sirius forgive him.
“You okay, Potter? Cold got to you?” Regulus’ voice brings his eyes back up.
“Oh yeah sorry, let’s go changes out of these clothes.” Regulus rolls his eyes and walks off. James runs to catch up.
“For someone barley pushing 150cm you sure walk fast.”
“I am not 150cm!” Regulus argues back scoffing.
“Whatever you say, love.” Love, love, love? God why can’t he just use his brain. But Regulus just rolls his eyes and walks into their cabin. They stand in silence as Regulus takes a change of clothes and walks into the bathroom. Coming back with different clothes.
“Do you think we could find Cokes before tonight, because unlike Sebastian, I am unable to just drink vodka and Malibu.” Regulus’ voice is so unexpected it causes James’ head to snap up.
“Oh, umm, well I have never really had that issue but I’m sure we can find something.” Stupid, stupid, stupid. But Regulus just rolls his eyes, a soft smile playing at his lips.
The dinner bells rings loudly, James forgot how annoying that thing was. They both walk out the door and walk to dinner. Regulus goes and sits with his friends and James falls into the bench next to Peter.
“Still down bad?”
“Yup.”
“Damn, that sucks. Here’s some garlic bread.”
-
Regulus has probably had a few too many drinks and the time keeps ticking by. Fuck, James is making my it really hard to hate him. With his tall stature and big arms. Hands that wrap around his waste and stupid glasses. Messy hair and tan skin. Soft eyes and kind words. It’s not fair. Really isn’t fair.
“You are so dramatic, he likes you! Talk to him!” Emmeline argues after he finishes singing the song of his woes.
“No, no, he is only nice because he has to. He has to! He is my brothers best friend he has to be nice. He doesn’t like me like that.” At his words Em puts her hand on her hip and eyes him. “What!”
“For a very smart man you’re an idiot.” She says and walks over to Marlene. Regulus sighs and goes to get another drink. He did in fact find Coke and has drunk a worrisome number of vodka cokes, and a small drink of Malibu which was rancid. So he decided not to do that again.
“Fuck.” Regulus whispers as he spills vodka all over the table.
“Need help?” Someone comes up behind him.
“No, this is probably my sign to stop.” Reg turns around to see James looming over him looking scary good. Fuck. James reaches over him and hands him a Diet Coke. “Ah, thanks, mate.”
Mate? Mate!?
What!? He isn't your mate, who are you talking to!?
“Umm, yeah.” James fake laughs and grabs a beer. They stand there in a very awkward silence for a few long moments. “Uh, are you ready for first aid training tomorrow?” James is the one to break the silence.
“Yeah, I guess. Doesn't sound very fun though.” Regulus sighs, he is horrible with blood, always has been.
Ever since the first time his parents drew blood on him and his brother, he remembers being so horrified that Sirius had to calm him down. He always overthinks what will happen, he just assumes the worst.
A paper cut turns into an infection.
The world has never given him a reason to think otherwise.
“At least we arent life guards, we will just have to deal with cuts and puke.” James laughs at the grimace that pulls at Regulus’ face. “Oh, come on it won't be that bad.”
“Im not amazing with blood.”
“Well, then make someone else handle it. Hear, okay, you can send all of your bleeding kids to me, deal?”
“How is it a deal if it's one-sided.”
“Oh my god,” James rolls his eyes. “You send your bleeding kids to me I send my kids that cant sleep to you?”
“Deal.”
“You're so annoying.”
“No, you just don't understand what a deal is. Not my fault you got it wrong.” James just rolls his eyes and laughs. He just stares at Regulus after and it makes him extremely uncomfortable. “What are you staring at, Potter? Im not some painting.”
“Yes you are.”
“You've had too many of those.” Regulus points at the beer in his hand and walks off.
“Reggie! Wait!” But Regulus is already gone, walking back to his cabin.
“Idiot.” Emmeline remarks and shakes her head turning back to Marlene.
“Gay men, what are we supposed to do with them,” Marlene smirks.
God, he really is an idiot. Why cant he just speak to James? He got over that crush years ago. And, sure, James is now hoter, taller, fitter, but that is nothing. So is Regulus, kinda. He hasnt really grown up since he was 14 but thats not a big deal.
He isnt 14 anymore, he is a man, he thinks. And men dont get crushes.
Oh, fuck.
He has a crush.