Day Off
Remus clutched his coffee to his chest as he avoided a very quick moving older woman with a huge pushchair. The woman barely seemed to even register him as he narrowly saved his toes from being crushed. He pulled out his phone and yet again checked his map app to make sure he was walking in the right direction. The walk from the small stand where he had gotten coffee in Union Square to the Strand Bookstore was supposedly short, but this area was even busier than by his school and dodging people was certainly adding many minutes to his trek.
Finally he spotted the huge red sign. He breathed a sigh of relief as he walked into the bookstore. The store was large, bigger than any bookstore he had previously been in. But surrounded by books Remus felt more at home than he had since he had stepped off the plane. He quickly made his way to the large board telling him what was contained on each of the three floors (three floors!!!). Remus made his way toward the back of the store where the books on theatre and film are kept.
“Hey! Remus!” As soon as he turned into the script aisle he was greeted by the ever enthusiastic Peter.
“Hello Peter,” Remus said somewhat reluctantly. Peter seemed alright enough, but Remus was looking forward to his time alone; just him and his books.
“Are you also looking for the script analysis play?” Peter asked, searching the aisle with a somewhat frantic energy. “I didn’t realize they’d be organized by author. I mean who remembers author names?”
“Thonrton Wilder” Remus moved further into the aisle, searching for the W section.
“Who?” Peter looked utterly baffled. “Oh! Is he that stuck up American dude in the section? I’m always forgetting his name.”
“No, Thornton Wilder is the playwright of Our Town,” Remus pulled out a copy of the play, passing it off to Peter. “Josh is the stuck up American.”
Peter burst out laughing before examining the play in his hands. “This is so much longer than I thought it would be. I bet Josh has read it like five times already.”
Remus held in his commentary on the fact that he himself had read the play multiple times since receiving their reading list; also holding in telling about his many very detailed notes. Peter just wasn’t the type to understand that. Instead Remus busied himself with looking through the more contemporary section of plays.
“I already have a copy. I bought all the books before the year started,” Remus said, not really focused on the boy next to him. “Didn’t wanna end up not able to find a copy at the last second.”
“Ah, so you remember names and you’re prepared,” Peter nodded sagely, “I will store this information for future plans.”
Remus snorted, but before he could continue this clear banter, Peter had begun walking away. Which was a bit puzzling. If it wasn’t a joke… What plans was this guy up to? What had Remus gotten himself into by remembering the name Thornton Wilder?
Shaking his head, Remus put the strange interaction behind him as he read the description of a play that had caught his eye. Something about a werewolf and a wizard in love. Not necessarily his favorite type of writing, but he had to admit he had a guilty pleasure of reading gay fantasy.
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James stared at the ceiling, trying to organize his jumbled mess of thoughts. James’s head was like a bunch of trains that all carried different thoughts and ideas and the trains had a habit of crashing into each other, knocking each other full off the tracks into oblivion or joining together to form one big mega train… Ok maybe trains didn’t do that stuff very much. Maybe his thoughts were more like a pile of knotted up string or like fireworks or maybe trying to think of a metaphor for what his thoughts were was not helping at all with solving the problems currently plaguing his thoughts.
The problems revolving around the two other British people in his section and for completely different reasons.
Starting off with Lily Evans, a fiery red head who he’d be meeting up with in her dorm room in an hour. A girl who was funny and bold. She was the type of person people think of when they say that shit about “they light up any room they walk into.” Before repetition James had thought Lily was beautiful, gorgeous even. And the way she spoke and the way she carried herself, he found himself very intrigued by her. But repetition had turned up any feelings that may have been brewing to full volume. Something about staring into someone’s eyes and trying to allow them to see you fully was intoxicating to James. And Lily didn’t hold back. I mean in class he supposed she held back initially. Until her comment on his hair came out and suddenly it was like she was given freedom to say whatever she thought. And Lily Evans had a lot of thoughts. In these rehearsals she’d call him out for being cocky, she’d call out when he was insecure or hiding something, she’d call out if he was being too drawn into his own head. She somehow saw it all, never missing a single moment. And James couldn’t get enough.
Which came to the problem. Where his thoughts turn toward Regulus Black, the other member of their section that had utterly captivated his thoughts for an entirely different reason. And Lily had somehow caught onto that too.
They were rehearsing in Lily’s room, as they did for half of their rehearsals. They swapped back and forth. Lily’s room happened to be right next to the common area. Where it just so happened Regulus was chatting with Lily’s roommate. And after a rather loud laugh from Regulus could be heard through the door, Lily took in James’s expression and very bluntly said:
“You have a problem with Regulus.”
“I don’t have a problem with Regulus,” James said.
“You’re defensive about something,” Lily returned.
You see the thing about repetition they had learned is you only say what is true. And truly James didn’t have a problem with Regulus, at least not for anything Regulus had done. Regulus just happened to have a pretentious star themed name and his last name was Black and those two facts together made James a little… uneasy. Sirius had never talked about a Regulus. It’s possible it was all coincidence and Regulus and Sirius had no connection at all. But James couldn’t stop wondering and thinking and feeling like there had to be some connection there.
Now of course James could put a stop to all this spiraling and train exploding thoughts. He could just ask Sirius if he knows Regulus. He should just ask Sirius if he knows Regulus.
But Sirius hates talking about his family. He doesn’t like to even think of his family if he can avoid it. The only one he ever spoke of with any kindness was his sister, and even then it was always tinged with a sadness and guilt.
So when Lily calls him out for being defensive, James just replies:
“I’m being defensive about something.”
And then very quickly and awkwardly ends their rehearsal session. So now he has to see Lily again in less than an hour and time is slipping way too quickly. And he hasn’t sorted any of these feelings or thoughts out, hasn’t found any way to stop the trains from running out of control, has instead just ignored it as best he can until this moment when it all comes right back again to remind him it’s all still there unsolved.
So when the door opens and Sirius walks in James immediately sits up and blurts out, “Do you have any cousins named Regulus?”
“What?” Sirius looks bewildered at James’s frantic energy. It was admittedly not as smooth as he had hoped this questioning would go.
“Do you have any cousins named Regulus?” James asks again, this time taking care to make sure he’s speaking slowly. “I just- there’s this guy in my section. And I’m a bit worried he’s… from that lot.”
James stared at Sirius as the boy thought through his family tree (more like family bush, the branches all seemed to connect to each other in a very alarming way). Finally Sirius said, “Nope. Never met a Regulus. I mean maybe there’s someone from the french side of the family, but I didn’t really hang out with the people from France.”
“Well he’s definitely English, very posh,” James said, “So you’re absolutely certain there’s no Regulus in the family?”
“Yeah, especially if he’s around our age,” Sirius shrugged. “Would’ve had to hang around him at all the stupid parties they threw.”
James breathed out a sigh of relief. Regulus Black and Sirius Black had no connection. Just two separate blokes with the same last name. An unfortunate coincidence. His mind finally able to find some semblance of peace. Now all of his energy could just focus into how amazing Lily is. Oh, and his studies of course.
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“I swear they’re either going to kill each other or fuck each other by the end of term,” came Regulus’s whispered voice as he sat next to Pandora on the couch.
Pandora pondered this, her gaze falling on Barty and Evan. The two were arguing with each other. Again. Being in their section, she was used to this sight. It’s not that the two didn’t get along, in fact they were two of the closest people she had seen meet at the school thus far. About half the time it was like they could read each other’s minds. The other half went a bit more like this.
“Panda will you please tell Evan he’s being a complete idiot,” Barty stared at her imploringly.
“Pandy will you tell Bartemius to pull his head out of his arse,” Evan quipped back, earning himself a smack on the arm.
Pandora, for her part turned toward Regulus and sagely said, “Fuck. Definitely.”
The boy next to her snorted, making her smile warmly. She’d been slowly breaking him out of his shell. Barty and Evan turned out to be very useful for this. Pandora could either be withdrawn or entirely too much she had learned over time. She never was great at finding the exact frequency people expected her to tune herself into. But Barty and Evan were always at top frequency. They were a bit like a hurricane; and she and Regulus had managed to find their home as the eye of the storm. So these hang outs in her common room had become common place.
“What are you two even arguing about this time?” Regulus asked.
“Barty thinks Shakespeare doesn’t exist,” Evan says. “Like not even that it’s an alias or something like that. Just that like a bunch of random blokes wrote some plays and later historians decided they were by Shakespeare.”
“So you just fully believe everything historians tell you? Because never has anyone been wrong, no one has ever lied,” Barty argues valiantly.
“I could see Shakespeare being a woman,” Pandora said, thinking it over in her brain. “But I mean, if you actually read Shakespeare it’s all very clearly by the same writer. They’ve got a very specific style, and loads of references within the plays to each other-” Pandora was going to continue on, prepared to bring out a bunch of examples to back up her point, but was cut off before she got the chance.
“No, no, no. That’s just what they want you to think,” Barty cut in, as if he was dropping the biggest bomb anyone had ever said.
“Do you guys see what I deal with?” Evan said, turning to her and Regulus. “It is genuinely constant.”
“Barty, I say this very genuinely,” Regulus sat forward on the couch. “The fact you made it into an acting conservatory believing this is baffling to me. The fact you’ve gotten this far in life with everything that comes out of your mouth is a true accomplishment.”
Suddenly all four were a puddle of giggles and laughter. Evan picked up the remote to the tv and collapsed to the otherside of Pandora on the couch, Barty following shortly after. Upon finding no room he decided the only possible place for him was clearly to lay across the other three’s laps; head in Evan’s and feet splayed over Regulus. Evan began searching through netflix, the argument of Shakespeare’s identity evidently put on the back burner until the next time Evan and Barty wanted to fight.
In the end Great British Baking Show is put up on the tv, allowing the four to just relax to the sound of Paul Hollywood discussing perfect bakes. Over time Barty dozes off. Pandora pretends not to notice the way Evan smiles down at the boy and plays with his hair. Pandora notices a lot of things, but it is not always polite to point them out; or at least that’s what she’s been told.
Lily steps out of the elevator, pausing for a moment to take in the scene of the common room before continuing toward their shared room. But then she stopped. And she lingered for a moment. And another. Suddenly the red haired girl made her way over.
“Do you mind if I join you guys?” Lily asked, keeping her voice low for Barty’s sake.
“Please, feel free,” Pandora said excitedly and perhaps a bit too loudly. “The more the merrier.”
And then there were five, Lily taking a spot on the floor in front of Pandora’s legs. Pandora tried to keep her focus on the show, she really did. But sometimes with Lily it was like her focus was just drawn to the girl. Probably because they live together in such close quarters, her mind is bound to tune itself in to Lily. So she notices at the other girl continuously puts her wild hair behind her ears, only for it to fall out of place again. And before Pandora’s mind is aware of what her body is doing she has taken the soft green scrunchie off her wrist and held it out in offer to the other girl. And Pandora notices the way her green eyes light up as she mouths ‘thank you’ and pulls her hair back. And Pandora notices a strange feeling in her stomach that she doesn’t quite know how to place.
Regulus is giving her a knowing stare as if he can somehow also sense the strange sensation she is experiencing. Pandora puzzles for a moment over what his look could possibly mean before deciding to shrug it off. Who knows, maybe Regulus is more skilled than her at noticing things that others don’t. If he wants to explain it to her he will. When the time is right. So she pulls her attention back toward the tv as the timer runs out for contestants on their show-stopping bakes.