The Plan
It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us. The question is not what you look at but what you see.
Henry David Thoreau
[ — ]
James Potter was a lot of things. Charming, handsome, loving son, best friend, considerable stereotypical jog who, despite all odds, came in third once in a spelling bee in fourth grade, mind you. But one thing he was certainly not was being a planner.
Or a thinker, in that matter. He had not thought ahead of his actions in years, hadn’t wasted a single thought on worrying about the future because it would just cause him to stress. And while some of the “great minds” of their time believe that thinking ahead can save you some trouble or whatever, James did not share this opinion. He curbed his thoughts by living in the now and not by constantly worrying about what the future will bring or, as some crazy people seem to prefer, by thinking for hours about what would have been different if they hadn’t made this one decision. True maniacs, if you ask him.
So, James wasn’t a planner. But, shockingly, now he was — at least at the moment.
Sirius stared at the vision board in front of him with their next six weeks fully planned out in astonishment, his eyes wide and his mouth slightly ajar. James nodded with a grin, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he turned in his swivel chair away from his desk to face Sirius. “So?” he asked proudly, waiting for approval of his hard work over the last few weeks.
“So, what, you just planned our whole summer?”
“Yeah!” James said in an excited tone. He was probably a lot bouncier than he should be right now, but he didn’t reallu care. He waited months for the summer, actually he waited for the summer as soon as the last autum started, and now it was just a few days away! “Now that you moved in, the summer is gonna be the best. I just know it will! No more sneaking out of the house, no more getting in trouble, we’re basically free to do whatever we want now!” James looked back at the vision board. “Except do anything that’s not on the plan, we have to follow the plan.” Sirius chuckled.
He had put so much work in this little board, collecting photos to visualise it, making lists of places to visit, counting in a budget and trying to plan in all of their friends. He had even asked them in advance. Back during the last week before the summer hols he walked up to each one of them and had asked “Hey, do you have any plans during the hols? Any trips I should know of?” And most of his friends believed him when he swore he wasn’t going to stalk them (except Marlene, she was conviced he would show up in her room at some point over the hols). So, yeah. James had planned everything. Start to finish. Every person calculated and neatly sorted into his system.
As James observed Sirius, he saw how he slowly raised an eyebrow, looking back to the board and scanning it again, before meeting James’ eye. “What about Regulus?”
Oh. Wait, did James forget about him? Well, to be fair, it wasn’t like it was hard to forget the guy. He was never really there. Always locked up in his own room and if he was outside, then he wasn’t even talking to James. “Your brother? Oh… I guess, I, er, forgot to count him in. Does he even want to spend time with us?”
He kicked Sirius lightly in the leg as he started laughing loudly. “Sorry, I love you, Prongs, but you’re such a bad planner. Regulus lives under the same roof as you and you forgot to schedule him in?”
“Well, we’re not really friends, Sirius. I hardly know the guy! Name, address, age, school. Nothing personal, you know? How am I supposed to schedule him into our best-summer-ever fun times if he won’t even talk to me?”
Sirius frowned. “Is he ignoring you?”
“No,” sighs James. “‘Ignoring’ is the wrong word, it’s more like... I don't know, avoidance? The problem is that he doesn’t even show his face. He’s just holed up in his room! And if he’s not there, he’s in your room. And if he’s not there, he brews potions with my dad. My dad, Sirius! Even he’s managed to make friends with the man of stone."
“‘Man,’ he says,” Sirius snorted, lying down on James’ bed. “He’s a child.”
“Isn’t he sixteen?”
“Your point?”
Sirius propped himself up on his elbows and looked over at James, who just blinked at him for a very uncomfortably long second before giving up and saying, “Never mind.”
Sirius frowned at him for a moment before shrugging and lying back down again. James turned back round at the same moment and took out a sticky note, scribbling something on it, then pressing it to the top of the vision board. He smiled as he looked at Sirius again, waiting for a reaction. As James had just realised, Sirius, the git, wasn’t even paying attention to him anymore. He was idly lying on his back, his hand in the air, following the circles the ceiling fan was making.
James cleared his throat. “Sirius,” he said, trying to get the attention of his best friend.
The bloke looked up again. “Hm?” he hummed, his focus now fully back on his best friend.
James smacked his lips. “Notice anything different about the board?” he nodded towards the vision board and watched as Sirius tried to find a difference from how it looked two minutes ago.
“The picture of us next to that weird statue we found in the forest?”
James shook his head. “No, try again.”
Sirius looked at the board again, scanning it for a moment. “The extra hour for shopping on the 14th?
“What? No, that’s…” James turned back around to check again. “That’s not even on there!”
”Should be.”
“Sirius!”
Sirius laughed and then squinted his eyes, seemingly trying really hard, though the difference reallywasn’t that difficult to spot. “Alright, alright. The… uh, little pink note over there?”
“Bingo!” James grinned, proud of Sirius, who was already ready to perform some very unfortunate winner dance, but before he even got the chance to stand up, James was smart enough to speak up first and explain. “That’s my Regulus-note.”
“Excuse me?”
James’ eyes twinkled mischievously, his grin turning more into a smirk and his next words zero per cent thought through,
“I’m going to make Regulus Black love me.”