{James POV}
“Please just tell us who it is, Prongs!”
“I’m telling you, I don’t fancy anyone”
“and I’m telling you that I don’t believe you”
James sighs loudly. This is not the first time Sirius is going on about this, ever since James told them he no longer fancies Evans, Sirius has been thinking James now fancies someone new. He won’t listen to James no matter how many times he tells him that there is no one new.
“Leave him be, Padfoot” Remus finally interferes, James sends him a grateful look.“If Prongs doesn’t want to tell us, we shouldn’t keep bugging him about it”
James groans loudly “How many times do I need to tell you that I don’t fancy anyone?”
“You have fancied Evans ever since you saw her on the train, the first day. There’s no way you just stopped fancying her for no reason” Peter explained.
“Well that’s exactly what happened. Do you want me to take veritaserum to prove it?”
Sirius shoots up in his seat “you’re brilliant Prongs!” he exclaims.
“Thank you I know” James starts saying with a mock bow, or half a bow since he’s sitting down. “But what have I done?”
“A party!”
James looks at his best friend like he’s going insane “What does that have to do with anything”
“We can get Evans to help us brew the veritaserum and then we can have a party with all our friends. My brother and his friends could even join” Sirius starts excitedly.
Sirius and Regulus are trying to mend their bond again after everything. Sirius ran away 3 years ago and Regulus had stayed behind. Regulus had blamed him for leaving, saying Sirius had abandoned him there, but Sirius had said that he thought Regulus didn’t want to leave. It did take a while for Regulus to get out as well. Last summer he had shown up at their doorstep all bloody, finally asking for help. Sirius had almost immediately tried mending the bond between them and now almost a year later they’re close again. Sirius has told him, that they’re not as close as they were as kids, but he’s not sure they ever will be again, not after everything.
James gets startled out of his thoughts as Sirius continues talking “and then we can play truth or dare, but when you get truth you have to take veritaserum”
“What’s truth and dare?” James asks confused
“It’s a muggle game, Moony told me about it. It’s exactly what it says. Someone asks you ‘truth or dare,’ you then choose one of them. If you choose truth you get a question and you have to answer truthfully and if you choose dare, they’ll give you a dare and you have to do it.”
“Lets do it” James announces
“I’m in” Peter says excitedly
“Sure” Remus shrugs, continuing to read his book. “Good luck convincing Lily to help you though”
“I already have a plan for that” Sirius smirks.
“This is not good” Remus sighs. “Poor Lily”
“My moons, I’m hurt. you’re supposed to be on our side” Sirius says, clutching his chest dramatically.
Remus rolls his eyes, but James sees the slight blush cover his cheeks. Honestly maybe James can use tonight to find a way to make them realize their feelings for each other, because it’s honestly getting frustrating how painfully oblivious they both are.
*
Sirius kept up his word, he somehow got Lily to brew the veritaserum, he even got her and the other girls to join them.
Now they’re all sitting in the gryffindor common room; Lily, Mary, Marlene, Regulus, Pandora, Barty, Evan, Dorcas, Remus, Sirius, Peter and James.
James is sitting on one of the couches between Peter and Sirius, Remus is on Sirius’ other side.
“okay so now that all of you know the game, let's get started and thanks to the lovely Lily Evans for brewing the potion” Sirius says.
James sees Lily roll her eyes at Sirius. he’s pretty sure the only marauder she can stand is Remus. They’re pretty close friends, he’s often in the library studying with her.
“Who’s starting?” Marlene asks.
“You can” Sirius tells her
Marlene just shrugs as she starts looking around “Peter” she starts “truth or dare?”
“dare” he answers simply
“I dare you to make an impression of someone here, it’s your choice who”
Peter laughs as he gets up from the couch and does an, actually pretty spot on, impression of Sirius. Everyone laughs, except for Sirius who’s dramatically sulking.
“I don’t act like that” Sirius complains
“You do” Mary laughs
“You actually really do” James agrees
“Traitor” Sirius says to James which just makes him laugh harder.
“Okay my turn” Peter sits back down on the couch, before looking at Remus “Truth or dare Moony”
“Truth” Remus answers. He takes one of the small vials with veritaserum in, drinking it. “okay, I’m ready. Ask away”
James looks at Peter, who looks back. They nod to each other, before Peter turns back to Remus. “Who in this room do you mostly want to have a snog session with”
Remus blushes so hard, even his ears turn red. He mumbles something inaudible.
“What? We couldn’t hear you” James says
“Sirius!” Remus exclaims before hiding his face in his hands.
Both boys turn their eyes at Sirius to see his reaction. Their friend doesn’t seem surprised at all, he’s just looking away. James is confused at first, but then he puts two and two together. Thinking back to how they’ve been around each other lately, the fact that Sirius isn’t surprised. He knew. Here James has been trying to get them to realize they fancy each other and it turns out, they knew.
“Sirius, did you know?” James asks, he obviously knows the answer, but he needs Sirius to confirm it.
“Yes,” Sirius nods, still looking away.
“Well if you know that you fancy each other, why aren’t you together?”
“We are, Prongs” Remus answers him.
“What?!” James exclaims. “You are? Like you are together?”
“Yes, we’ve been together for a few months” Sirius explains
“Here I've been trying to get you together for ages and you’re telling me you’re already together. Why didn’t you tell us?” James asks them. There’s no blame in his voice, just confusion.
“We were nervous, we didn’t know what you thought about boys being with boys. We've never really talked about that stuff” Sirius admits.
“Oh Pads, I’m so sorry if I made you think you couldn’t tell me” James says.
“Yeah, me too,” Peter adds.
“No, no. It’s not your fault, we just had to be careful. I don’t want to lose you Prongs”
“You won’t ever lose me, I promise. You’re stuck with me Pads” James tells him, and gives him a hug, which is difficult considering they’re sitting very tight beside each other on a couch.
“This is really sweet and all, but can we continue?” Lily speaks up.
Sirius looks at her with a grin “Sure Evans, truth or dare?”
“Dare” she says without hesitation.
“I dare you to kiss the prettiest person in the room”
Lily gets up and looks around the circle of people. She’s clearly looking for someone specific, James can see that. It may not be clear to everyone else, but he has spent years chasing this girl, looking at every little thing she did. When she seems to spot the person she’s looking for, she seems to just stop and stare at them…
{Lily’s POV}
“Kiss the prettiest person in the room”
Lily swallows, before standing up and pretending to look around. Of course she knows exactly where the person is sitting, she always knows where they are. She has had a crush on them for 2 years. The reason she’s pretending to look around is to give herself more time to prepare. There’s a reason she hasn't told them about her massive crush yet, it’s because she’s terrified they won’t like her back.
She finally turns towards the person she’s looking for. Now she’s standing there in the middle of the circle, staring into the eyes of the most gorgeous person she has ever met, staring into the eyes of Pandora Rosier.
Looking into those crystal blue eyes, the whole world just seems to stop. Lily is frozen to the spot, she can’t move, she can’t breathe. She just stands there, staring.
She finally gathers her confidence and walks over to Pandora. She crouches down so she’s standing on her knees in front of the other girl, who’s looking up at her through her eyelashes.
“May i?” Lily whispers.
Pandora nods and with that, Lily uses one hand to cradle her face while she puts her other hand on her cheek. Pandora wraps her arms around Lily’s waist. Lily leans down and finally her lips are on Pandora’s. After a few seconds she deepens the kiss. Lily glides her tongue over Pandora’s bottom lip and Pandora opens her mouth, allowing Lily in. Lily feels like she’s in heaven. If anyone’s talking, she can’t hear them. The whole world seems to have gone quiet. After a few minutes – or maybe it’s been hours, she has no clue because time has seemed to go still – She finally learns back, glancing at Pandora’s lips one last time before getting up and walking back to where she was sitting before.
She can feel everyone’s eyes on her, but chooses to ignore them as she continues. “Dorcas, truth or dare?” She asks, looking at the slytherin.
“Dare”
Lily thinks about it for a few moments, she needs to find a good dare. If Dorcas gets a good dare, maybe everyone will forget what just happened. “Give your girlfriend a lap dance” she finally says, laughing. Lily turns towards Marlene to give her a teasing look.
Dorcas smirks before getting up and giving Marlene a lap dance, everyone cheers her on and laughs. Lily’s plan worked, she finally eased the tension away with a good dare.
When Dorcas finished she kissed her girlfriend and flopped back down in her seat beside Marlene.
“Truth or dare, Reggie” Dorcas asks
“Don’t call me that,” Regulus grumbles. “Dare”
“I dare you to stand on the table and scream out a song of your choice”
Regulus groans, clearly just as dramatic as Sirius. it must be in the Black family genes, Lily thinks to herself.
Regulus gets up from the chair he’s sitting in, standing up on the table and starts singing ‘hey Jude’ by the beatles.
When the song finishes, he sends Dorcas a death glare before sitting back down, curling up in his chair. He pulls his legs up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them and resting his head on his knees.
He looks at Pandora “Truth or dare Panda”
“Truth” she says before taking up one of the vials with veritaserum and drinking it. She looks back at Regulus, waiting for her question.
Lily is holding her breath and she sees Regulus almost smirking at Pandora.
“What did you think about Lily kissing you?” He asks.
“Oh you already know the answer to that Reggie”
“Yes, but she doesn’t”
Pandora looks straight into Lily’s eyes before admitting “I’ve fancied her for ages, so it was a dream come true”
Lily blinks, waiting for it to all be a prank. Of course Pandora wouldn’t joke about that though. Lily’s been too much around the marauders. A smile sneaks up on her lips.
“I’m in love with you, Pandora Rosier,” Lily tells her. “Do you want to be my girlfriend?” she asks, waiting anxiously for the answer.
“Yes. I’d love that” Pandora answers, before getting up and walking over to her. She leans down and kisses her and without missing a beat Lily kisses her back.
When the kiss stops, instead of going back to where Pandora was sitting before, she sits down on Lily’s lap. Lily wraps her arms around Pandora’s waist and lays her head on the blonde's shoulder. At this moment Lily feels like she could burst from happiness.
“Truth or dare, Barty,” Pandora asks her friend.
“Dare, obviously. I’m not boring”
“Call it what you want, but I got a girlfriend out of it” Pandora teases back. a proud smile forms on Lily’s lips as she kisses her girlfriends neck. Wow she has a girlfriend, it feels insane. She really hopes that this isn’t all just a dream. “I dare you to” Pandora continues, but stops to think of a dare. “Eat a whole pack of Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans” she dares him.
“Does anyone even have that?” Evan asks confused.
“I have some in my dorm” Peter says before jumping up and running up toward his dorm.
A few minutes later he comes running back with a pack of Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans, giving them to Barty before going back to the couch where he was sitting. He doesn’t sit back down again though and Lily sees that Sirius has put his legs up where Peter’s seat was, smirking at him challenging.
“What’s wrong Wormy?” Sirius asks, mock confused.
“Move your legs pads or I’ll hex your ass so you can’t sit down for at least the next week” Peter answers
“I wan-” Sirius starts, but he doesn’t get far before Remus nudges his shoulder, sending him a look. He sighs before removing his legs from Peter’s spot.
“Thank you Moony” Peter says before sitting down.
“You’re both boring,” Sirius complains.
“Can we go back to the game?” Regulus interrupts them.
They all turn back to Barty, who downs the whole back. He quickly chews it and drinks his soda to get rid of the taste.
When he sees everyone looking at him, he just shrugs and says “None of you said how i had to eat them”
{Regulus POV}
The next hour there’s more dares and truths, Regulus feels himself getting tired and wondering if he should leave soon.
“Okay, one last turn” Sirius says after he finishes his dare. Regulus sighs, that means he can leave soon. He can’t wait to get back to his bed, maybe read a book before going to sleep. He just has to stay for one more turn and then he and his friends can go back to the slytherin dorms.
Regulus sees Sirius look at James “Truth or dare, Prongs” He asks him.
“Truth” James shrugs before taking a vial with veritaserum, emptying it.
“If you don’t have a crush on Lily anymore” Sirius pauses, probably for dramatic effect. Regulus rolls his eyes at his older brother's antics “then who do you fancy?”
“Your brother” James says, but the words don't really register in Regulus' brain.
“My- You fancy Regulus?” Sirius asks and it must apparently not have registered for James either, because it’s first in that moment that his eyes widens, almost comically.
“I- what?” James asks, confused.
That's when Regulus finally realizes what’s going on. He has never gotten up so quickly in his life. He feels everyone looking at him, but before anyone can say anything he has run out of the common room.
He runs through the corridors as quickly as his feet can carry him. He runs past students who look at him questioning. He keeps running, he doesn’t stop until he reaches the slytherin’s common room and there he only stops to give the password so the door can open. He runs through the common room, all the way to his dorm.
As soon as he gets into his dorm, he slams the door behind him and sinks down to the floor. He sits there on the floor with his back against the door. His legs are pulled up to his chest, his arms wrapped around them and his face is facedown on his knees.
Why did he run, he’s really stupid, he’s such a bloody idiot. He has had a massive crush on James ever since he saw him on the train in the first year. He have cried over James chasing Lily. He has been thinking for all this time that James could never like him back… And then when he finally does, Regulus is an absolute idiot and runs away.
Regulus groans loudly, into his knees.
He feels someone try to open the door behind him, but it won’t budge since he’s blocking it with his body.
he lifts his head, “Go away!” He says to whoever’s on the other side of the door. He doesn't feel like talking to anyone right now, he just wants to be alone.
“Reggie please let me in”
Except for Pandora, she can stay. He moved away from the door, so she could open it. He’s now sitting against the wall instead.
He hears the door open and close again and when he looks up, he sees Pandora crouching down in front of him.
“Are you alright?” she asks him, but he just shakes his head “Tell me about it and then we can decide if we’re going back to the others or staying here, okay?”
With that Regulus nods and starts telling Pandora about everything. Regulus is not a very open person, he doesn’t really tell anyone about his thoughts or feelings, he even has a hard time showing his friends he cares about them. Luckily they know he loves and cares about them and he doesn't have to say nor show it. There’s one person though, who Regulus can tell everything to, one person he can open up to and that person, is Pandora.
{James POV}’
No one has said a word since Regulus ran out the door. Pandora left mere seconds later, but since that everyone has just been staring at the door in silent shock.
No one’s more in shock than James though. He has no idea what just happened. There must have been a mistake when Lily brewed the veritaserum, there’s no way James has a crush on Regulus Black… he would have known- wouldn’t he?
James looks at Sirius who’s looking back at him. If looks could kill, James would have dropped dead minutes ago. Honestly maybe death would be easier than what’s to come. He needs to have a talk with Sirius and Regulus… and he doesn’t even know what all of this is himself yet.
He, James Potter fancies Regulus Black? How did he not realize this? Now that he’s thinking about it, it shouldn’t have surprised him. He always tries to be around Regulus as much as humanly possible. He gets butterflies everytime he hears his laugh. He always sneaks glances at him.
Regulus is the most beautiful, incredible person James has ever met and he has ruined everything. Regulus surely hates him now, it’s clear on the way he sprinted away. He’s never going to want to talk to James again.
James sees Sirius nod towards the corner that’s furthest away from everyone. James takes a deep breath, before following him over there, hesitantly. Honestly it wouldn’t surprise him if Sirius killed him now. Sirius is very protective of his little brother, especially after Regulus ran away. He’s also a very jealous person and hates when his worlds mix. He wants to keep everyone separate from each other, because he’s scared of losing them to each other. Sirius will never lose James though, he means too much to him. The only way Sirius could get rid of him would be by death
There’s a long stretch of silence, where Sirius is just looking at James and James trying to avoid his look.
“My baby brother, really?” Sirius finally says.
“I promise Pads, I didn’t know. Anyways, it doesn’t matter. He clearly doesn’t fancy me, seeing the way he couldn’t get fast enough away from me when I said it”
James finally looks up at Sirius to see his reaction. Sirius seems to be searching his face for a lie. James is an absolute horrid liar and it’s easy to figure out when he’s lying, which is probably why Sirius sighs and gives him a small nod.
Before Sirius can say anything, James sees his eyes flicker to the entrance and James turns around just in time to see Regulus walk in behind Pandora.
James' heart skips a beat as he lays eyes on the younger black brother. how did he not realize? It was painfully obvious how completely and utterly in love with the other man he is.
He turns around to look at his best friend, asking. When Sirius catches James' eyes and nods his head, James turns back around to walk toward the younger black.
“James” Sirius' voice makes him stop in his tracks and he turns around. Did Sirius change his mind? Is he going to tell James to stay away from his brother? but instead the words that come out of Sirius mouth is “If you hurt him, I’ll hurt you. You may be my best friend, but don’t forget that I come from Walburga and Orion Black”
James swallows harshly. Not that he even could hurt Regulus, but if he could… he would never do it. Honestly James would rather get tortured than hurting him
He sends Sirius a small, nervous smile before he yet again turns around and this time makes his way to Regulus without being stopped by anyone.
Regulus looks at him and James has no idea what to say. Now that he’s standing in front of the black haired boy, he regrets not thinking more about what to say in the upcoming conversation. All he can do is hope it’ll end alright
Regulus is the first to speak “Want to go to your dorm and talk about… everything?”
James, who's apparently gone mute from nerves, just nods and turns around to lead the way.
When they get into the marauders dorm, James closes the door behind him to get some privacy. He sees Regulus look around as if it’s the first time he’s in there, even though he has been in this dorm around a million times this year to hang out with his brother.
“I-” Regulus starts, slowly.
“I’m sorry” James blurts out “I’m so so sorry, Regulus. I didn’t mean to say that in front of everyone, I didn’t even know it myself to be completely honest with you. I swear, it wasn’t on purpose”
“James”
“And then you ran out because I was a complete idiot and embarrassed you in front of all your friends and even your brother”
“James”
“And I’m just scared that I ruined everything. You’re one of my best friends and I’d hate it if you didn’t want to be friends with me anymore. I really don’t want to lose you. Of course if you don’t want to be friends anymore, that’s completely okay too. I’d really miss you but I don’t want to force you to be friends with me”
James feels cold hands on his cheeks, but he continues rambling “And I know you don’t like me back, but-” suddenly he’s getting pulled down and he feels Regulus lips on his. First he freezes in shock, but only a few seconds later he starts kissing him back. James puts his arms on Regulus' waist and pulls him even closer, so their bodies are flush against each other. Regulus moves down to James' neck and starts kissing him there, before pulling back and looking into James’ eyes.
“What was that for?” James asks. He touches his lips with the tip of his fingers, where he can still feel the tingle from the kiss.
“Shutting you up” Regulus shrugs.
“That was a very effective way, I must give you that”
“So are you ready to shut up and listen now?” Regulus seems to wait until James nods in agreement before continuing. “If you hadn’t started rambling, I would have told you that I ran because I freaked out and not because of anything you said. I just needed time to think. Pandora followed me and she talked to me, before I came back” James holds his breath, still not knowing where this is going. Regulus kissed him so that must be a good sign, right? “James, I’ve been in love with you since third year and have fancied you since I saw you on the train in the first year.”
“Really?” James asks, too scared to hope that this may be true.
“Really” Regulus confirms and with that James kisses him again. He have never been happier than he is right now