The Amortentia Potion

“Fun fact; You naturally are unable to digest human flesh, but if you consume enough of it, your body will start to adapt and you will begin to digest yourself from the inside out, having an incredibly painful and slow death.”

Those were the first words Regulus Black spoke to James Potter after they’d – the sixth years – been randomly assigned fifth years to work with for a potions assignment. Slughorn said it was a test demonstration to see if the upperclassmen could teach their underclassmen. Sirius said it was because Slughorn was to be absent when the fifth year Slytherins, Slughorn's favourite class, is originally supposed to learn this. Either testaments could be true, or maybe they both were. 

Either way, Regulus hadn’t allowed James to do much of anything in regards to the potion, claiming he would attempt to ruin this for the Slytherin. It wasn’t even Regulus’ damn class!

So, James is standing behind Regulus, watching as he works on the Amortentia potion all on his lonesome. And James was standing there, rather comfortable with the silence. Until Regulus went and said THAT. 

“I beg your finest pardon?” Those were the first words other than an ‘okay’ to come from James’ mouth to respond to Regulus. 

A scoff from the Slytherin, followed by, “I said–”

“No, I heard what you said,” James, who was leaning on the table behind him, stands up straight and walks right next to Regulus. He turns his head down slightly to look at the boy, the latter not making the same effort in any way, shape, or form. “Why, perchance, are you reminiscing on the facts of digesting human flesh when in half an hour, you’re to hand me or drink an Amortentia potion?”

Another scoff. “WHAT IS SO ANNOYING THAT HE KEEPS SCOFFING!?” James wishes to say. But he doesn’t. He simply thinks it. 

“I was simply thinking that if you allow me to make a fool of myself while I’m under this Amortentia potion, I will feed you your own flesh… raw.” Okay, and maybe that got James’ attention. Maybe it even frightened him a little that the voice that spoke those words was deathly cold and so verily serious. 

“Then simply let me drink it?” That sounds far more plausible and with way less terrible outcomes to potentially exist. James made a fool of himself every year, nearly every day actually. Everyone in the school knew about his huge crush on Lily Evans. He announced it at least twice a week, or so people claim. Well, he did before this school year. James has, in fact, barely thought about Lily Evans this school year. He sees her all the time, forgets she’s there, and then remembers when someone points it out. Point being, James making a fool of himself under an Amortentia potion would not be unfathomable. It would also not lead to him digesting his own flesh. 

He used to be extremely aware of Lily's existence, but something more important consumes his time nowadays. That something was Sirius Black, who’d run away from home just before summer’s end. He’d spent the entire duration of the school year consoling him and cheering him up, trying to restore his happiness. Remus was the most successful in that, though. 

“And why would I let filth such as yourself come anywhere near my potion?” That nearly made James scream. It wasn’t even meant to be Regulus working. It was supposed to be James working and Regulus jotting down notes and pretending he doesn’t know what he’s doing even though everyone in the school must know that Regulus is a fucking potions prodigy at this point. 

During Regulus’ first year at Hogwarts, he’d been Slughorn’s ‘little bitch’ as some Ravenclaw had said before briefly being punched in the face by Sirius. Regulus was continuously pulled from his other classes, who had no issue with him being removed because he excelled with all O’s, even then– even now. He was pulled to be a demonstration to his upperclassmen. James can’t even count the number of times he’s seen Regulus working on a potion and gaining points from it when he was supposed to be in literally any other class at the moment. 

“You do know you’re forcing me to lose house points because you’re forcing me to piggyback on my own potion, right?” 

“I am? Unfortunate.” 

James simply sighed and let the boy continue working. He watched him the entire time. From the slender hands which were far to boney than they should be, to the slight neck movements and repetitive four inch foot movements, he watched Regulus work. 

Every time he tried helping, Regulus would promptly hex him and it would go unnoticed by Slughorn, conveniently. And yes, James did in fact lose five house points for not helping Regulus. 

A bell rang. Ah, right. 

Regulus, at the beginning of the lesson, set a timer and a bet to be the first student done with the potion. The bet was on how perfect it would turn out, the timer was on the completion. So, a singular breathy chuckle escaped him. Literally, a breathy “ha” is what escaped him, except his mouth was closed. It was directed to Evan Rosier, who was glaring at him from the other side of the room, directly across from the two. 

Evan was working with Remus. Remus was clearly not done, and Evan was the one piggybacking the potion. “Well, good for Remus,” James thought. 

Regulus poured some of the potion into a medium-sized vial instead of the small one that most people would use, and turned around, facing James for the second time throughout this entire encounter. The first was when he was demanding James move out of his way, at the very beginning. Except Regulus had to look at James for his version of the potion to work, because it made the victim of the potion fall in love with the first person they locked eyes with, something Regulus never did with James. Or, at least that’s what Regulus told him, which James was choosing to blindly believe and not at all think for a second that Regulus just wanted to look at him. 

Regulus’ eyes were a mushy blend of green and grey. He supposed they should be dull and bland with how empty Regulus seems inside, but they glimmered a bit, and James liked to think that was an effect only James himself had on the boy, on Sirius’ younger, cold-hearted brother. He had to keep reminding himself that Regulus was a monster in emotional form, that he was the demon and bad guy in Sirius’ story, not even his parents, but Regulus, who–

James blinked and watched as Regulus parted his lips, placing the potion between them, tipped his head back, and swallowed. He swallowed the whole thing. That was probably not for the best, not with how much was in it. Nonetheless, James was choosing to trust the boy blindly. He watched it with ingrained detail, something that would likely stain the back of his eyelids later, but refused to think about now. Refused to acknowledge, because this was the boy who almost tortured his own brother simply because he was told to by his cousin, because this was the boy who watched on the sidelines as–

Someone was singing, no is singing. Who’s singing? 

James blinks again. This time, he looks around the room, where he promptly sees everyone looking in his direction. Literally everyone. Sirius, Remus, Evan Rosier, Pandora– who isn’t even supposed to be here, Dorcas Meadows, Barty Crouch, Slughorn, and the rest of the class. Not a single soul, out of them, is singing. So–

James turns his eyes to Regulus. “Oh. My. Merlin.” 

Regulus Black is singing. 

Regulus Black is singing. 

Regulus Arcturus Black is SINGING. 

And not just singing. He’s singing a muggle song. A muggle LOVE song. AND DANCING. Regulus Black is singing ‘Love Will Keep Us Together by Captain & Tennille’ while dancing to it. To a fucking muggle song. And who, per say, is he singing to? JAMES FUCKING POTTER. Regulus is staring directly into James’ eyes with each word that comes out of his mouth. And can James just add that Regulus isn’t a bad singer? He’s not out of tune, nor is there a hint of a bad singing voice. His voice is perfect. It was practically meant to be used for singing.

“You.. you.. You belong to me now,” Regulus takes a step closer. James is frozen. What is he supposed to do? Sing back to him? NO. Regulus and Sirius would both kill him. “Ain’t gonna set ya free now~”

James just stands there frozen as the song goes on, because really, what is he supposed to do? Regulus is singing, without posh or properness, without perfection, and it's making it even better. It's such a sight to behold.

He listens as others start laughing, loud or muffled, just laughing. He looks around again, and he sees all of Regulus’ friends terribly mortified and laughing, at their friend no less. Sirius just looks horrified. No amusement. Just horrified. And then the more lyrics catch James’ attention:

“Just stop, ‘cause I really love you

Stop,

I been thinkin’ of you~”

And then he promptly dies. James, that is. James dies. 

And well, that’s because Regulus Black’s lips are on his. James counts exactly how long it occurs, even with his impending death and the boiling heat that’s consuming his face, no doubt caused by Sirius. He dies for ten seconds. Ten seconds where he feels the perfect softness of Regulus Black’s lips on his, until Regulus stops, because he apparently needs to continue singing, to which he does. 

“When the others turn you off

Who’ll be turnin’ you on?

I will, I will, I will, I will be there to share forever–” and he kisses him AGAIN. Except this time, it’s fast and hard. He’s pushing his mouth against James’ and biting James’ lips for entry. James, weak and touch starved, lets him in. He lets him in, mind fluttering and blurry. He can’t think. 

All he knows is that there’s a tongue in his mouth that doesn’t belong to him and it feels so perfect, but his neck hurts because he has to lean down to kiss whoever’s kissing him, to allow the tongue further into his mouth. Because it’s so warm and nice, and the lips are so warm and soft and nice. It’s perfect and he can’t even think with proper grammar anymore. 

It’s just mind fluttering. It’s perfect, he doesn’t want it to stop. There are hands around his neck, but then they’re in his hair and pulling it. And so, naturally, James moans in response. How could he not? It feels so wonderful. And so he returns the favour. In return, he gets a matching moan. 

James could die like this, breathless and twisting tongues with— 

“James, what. the. fuck!?” And the kiss is gone. James is the one who pulls away, removes the mouth away from his, that perfect mouth.. He pulls away because he realises who he’s kissing. He realises that he’s in a classroom full of people and he’s moaning into the mouth of Regulus Black, the nightmare, the monster of Sirius Black. 

He pulled away because Sirius just screamed at him. Because he’d just made out with Sirius’ little brother. The boy who hates James with his soul, the boy who ruined James’ brother’s life. Because that’s what Sirius was to James, his brother. 

But his eyes don’t go straight to the voice that called him. No, they go to the lips that were just on his. They go to the swollen, bitten lips of Regulus Black who’s usually perfect hair is now a mess and dishevelled. The boy looks dishevelled altogether and he can see the markings of a hand on the left side of Regulus’ neck before his stomach drops and realises he was probably putting a lot of force into keeping Regulus’ mouth on his, through his neck. 

Regulus is eyeing him with what could never not be considered love, but James quickly closes his eyes and remembers it isn’t real. James is also not a poof, and neither is Regulus. Yet, when he closes his eyes, all that flashes through his mind is Regulus’ hands, his throat when he swallows, and the feeling of his lips. So, he opens his eyes. 

He opens them and darts them over to Sirius, who looks at him with rage. Pure, and utter rage. 

So– wow, James thinks ‘so’ a lot. Anywho, James darts. He fucking runs out of that room. He barely registers the noise of Regulus attempting to follow him but being stopped by Slughorn, and footsteps which must belong to Sirius and Remus, who are chasing after him with vigour.