Panicked Meetings
James Potter has always had anything he could ever ask for in life. He has the most loving and supportive parents ever, who spoiled him rotten as they had him later in life after many years of fertility issues. He had the best friends in the whole world, having met them all at his posh boarding school on the Scottish Countryside. He was incredibly athletic, as well as being incredibly good looking. His life seemed to be perfect, he had girls and guys alike fawning over him everywhere he went, the best parents in the world, the best friends he could ever ask for, and played his favorite sport for a living. He had anything anyone could ever ask for, all he had ever wanted since he was a little boy.
The one thing he didn't have?
Reggie.
James had been in love with Reggie since the moment he laid eyes on her, he knew he wanted to marry her from that moment on. They had a special sort of bond from the beginning, they flirted with each other just to get under Sirius' skin even if the older Black was hoping that they would get together while he watched them. They would sit in the library for hours, Reggie actually working and snapping at James for being annoying and trying to distract her, even if she secretly enjoyed all of his attention being on her. They loved each other, that much was obvious to anyone who looked at them. Everyone watched them grow up and fall more in love with each other, waiting for the day they would get together. At the end of the boys final year of school, they all went to the Potter household to celebrate the boys leaving for University, not knowing that in a little less than two months they would seemingly lose Reggie forever.
James is sitting in a crowded bar, his closest friends and teammates all around him, staring into his beer bottle lost in his thoughts which are all centered around rich black curls and cold grey eyes. He would never mention this to others, as the mention of Reggie to them makes them incredibly upset and angry, having loved her for the majority of their lives. James slips his phone out of his pocket, scrolling down through his messages until he finds the contact he's looking for, before clicking on the name and scrolling to the very top. Whenever he's drunk and missing Reggie, he finds comfort through reading their messages, almost being able to hear her voice in his ear. It always manages to bring a smile onto his face and tears to freely roll down his cheeks, normally ending off the night by curling up in his bed and holding the lion stuffed animal that Reggie had gotten him for their first Christmas after they met.
It's Christmas morning at the Potter's house, all of the children; James, Sirius, Reggie, Remus, and Peter rushing over to Effie and Monty's room to throw the door open and jumping on the bed excitedly to wake them up before dragging them downstairs to the Christmas Tree. All of the children excitedly rip open the presents that were laid out under the tree for all of them, loving all of the new gifts that the Potter's had given them before skipping off to play with their new toys and gadgets. When James is about to run out of the room with his friends, he feels a tug on his shirt sleeve, looking back and seeing Reg looking at the floor with a blush spreading across her face as she refuses to make eye contact.
"Reggie?" the boy asks with furrowed brows as he looks at the younger girl, his lips pulling into a small frown as he looks down at her.
"I-I got you a present, but I didn't want to give it to you in front of everyone. I wanted it to just be us when I gave it to you." the little girl says timidly, her bottom lip tugging between her teeth, her eyes briefly flicking up to meet his.
"Y-You got me a present? Oh Reggie!" he exclaims happily, wrapping his arms around her and lifting her up, spinning her around as she sputters in surprise. Her hands start half-heartedly smacking his shoulders as she giggles, telling him to put her down so she can give him her gift.
She grabs onto his wrist and pulls him over to one of the bookcases on the far wall, reaching behind one of the rows of books and pulling a small box out. She shoves the box into his hands as she starts anxiously twisting her fingers while she watches him rip open the box, pulling a small lion stuffed animal out of the box, his eyes lighting up as he sees it.
"I know its not much but I saw it in a shop a few days ago when I went out with your mum, and I thought you might like it." she mutters as she looks at him, her already big grey eyes wide as she watches him, waiting to see how he reacts.
His smile gets even bigger and brighter, before yanking her into a tight hug, he face burying into her soft curls. His smile gets even bigger when he feels her arms curl around his waist, holding him just as tight as he's holding her, with her face buried into his shoulder.
"It's perfect, I love it Reggie. I'll keep it forever I promise, one day it'll sit on our bed in our home when we're married and have a few little kids running around." he mutters into her hair, chuckling a little when he hears her shocked choke on air, pulling back a little as he grabs her hand to lead her into the dining room so they can all have Christmas breakfast.
James smiles at the memory, thinking about how they were so young and how they thought they had a whole life together ahead of them. His smile fades from his face as his stomach clenches in remembering that he has not seen or heard about Reggie since she disappeared in the middle of the night. Not a day has gone by where they haven’t tried to find her, Sirius was beside himself for months after, not that James was any better himself.
“... isn’t that right Prongs?” Sirius says, a broad grin on his face with his arm slung around Peter’s neck.
James startles back into reality, jumping a little when he hears his name being called. He shakes it off and plasters on a broad smile, one to match his best friends, shaking his head slightly as he takes a sip of the slightly warm beer.
“What am I supposed to be agreeing to Pads? The last time I blindly agreed to something you said, I ended up naked in the Atlantic!” James exclaims, pinning his friend with a pointed glance.
Sirius shakes his head at James, his loud and boisterous laugh filling up the bar as some people glance their way, most of them are puck bunnies trying to score with a pro-hockey player. Not that Sirius could be swayed, as he is very gay and very in love with his fiancee, Remus Lupin. Who decides, at that moment, to grace them all with his presence. He limps through the crowd towards their table in the back, cursing under his breath to try not to slip on the wet floor from people spilling their drinks. Before he can even speak, Sirius jumps up from his seat and drags him in for a hug and a slightly too provocative kiss for being out in public.
James and Peter start gagging behind them, prompting the two lovers to flip them off without breaking their kiss. They eventually break apart before sliding into their seats, waving a server over to order Remus a drink. When she walks away to go put it in for him, he sags back into his chair and starting on his usual rant that has been an ongoing topic for the past two and a half months.
“I don’t understand what’s wrong with him. He’s been on a roll for six and a half years, and now he hasn’t turned any new material in for months. It also won’t help that I can’t even get a meeting with him, he always sends his agent. While I love Lily to death, it's so frustrating that I can’t get through to him. Not even on the phone!” he huffs frustratedly, muttering a quick ‘thank you’ to the server when she sets his drink down on the table.
“My moonage dream, worrying this much about this writer is not good for you. So what if he’s been in a slump? Then his deal will be up and that’s that! It’s not worth making yourself sick over.” Sirius says gently, rubbing his hand across Remus’ shoulders.
“But he’s too good to lose this deal, Pads, he’s the best writer Hallow has had in decades. We can’t afford to lose him as a writer, he’s been the best selling author for years but he never shows his face. Nobody but Lily has ever seen what he looks like, or what his real name even is. This is going to be bad once Albus finds out.” he drops his head into his hands, pressing his fingers into his temples.
“Well, what if we find him? Try to see what’s going on? Or you could go through Lily, tell her that an in person meeting with him is essential for the sake of his career. That if he doesn’t come to this meeting then you will have no choice but to terminate his publishing deal.” Peter says, staring into his glass almost bored, circling his finger around the rim.
“That’s brilliant Wormy! That will surely work won’t it Moony?” James says, putting his elbows on the table as he leans forward.
“It might work, but he is the most stubborn person I’ve ever had to work with, his stubbornness rivals Sirius’ sometimes. I can try to call Lily and see if she can arrange a meeting.” he pulls out his phone, presumably to send a text off to Lily. He places his phone back into his pocket before they all settle into idle conversation. Letting everything else fade into the background.
***
Regulus startles awake by the sound of frantic knocking on his door, scowling and mentally cursing whoever woke him. He begrudgingly drags himself out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he turns the doorknob. He barely manages to catch himself as he stumbles back, barely catching the sight of flaming red hair rushing past him into his apartment. He sighs as he shuts and locks the door, following Lily into his living room and flopping ungracefully onto his couch as he watches Lily pace the length of his living room while chewing on her lip.
“Lily, is there a reason you barged into my apartment this early in the morning?” he says tiredly, raising his eyebrows at her with his arms crossed over his chest.
“First of all it is not the morning, it’s 11 o’clock at night no need to be dramatic. Second, Remus emailed me requesting a meeting. With you.” she says, coming to a stop in her pacing to look over at him.
“Regulus, he said that if you don’t come to this meeting, that they might terminate your contract. Which they are well within their rights to do as per your contract.”
“That’s impossible, it’s in my contract that I don’t ever have to meet with them. That all of our meetings can go through you.”
“It is, as long as you meet your deadlines. And you’ve missed your last two deadlines, so they are well within their rights to request or demand to meet you in person. Regulus I know you don’t want them to find you, but they won’t. You don’t even have to tell them your name, it’s been a long time since you’ve seen them. He probably won’t recognize you.”
“Lily I don’t even want to chance any of them recognizing me and if any of them will it would be Remus. He’s the smartest out of them all, even if it has been 7 years since I’ve seen them.” he shifts uncomfortably, picking at the skin around his nails.
Lily stares at him sadly, walking over and squatting down in front of him. She takes his hands in hers, rubbing small circles over the backs of his hands. “Regulus, I know you don’t want to do this, and if it wouldn’t cost you your career then I would tell them all to fuck off. But this is your career on the line Reg, no other company would go for blindly signing a writer that they’ve never met. I’ll be with you the whole time and we can keep the conversation away from your personal life. Remus knows when to not try to ask things that clearly don’t want to be given out, as you very well know. We can get through this Regulus.”
His jaw clenches tightly, nodding but not saying anything. Lily clicks her tongue at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulder and cradling the back of his head with her hand. His arms wrap tightly around her as he burrows his face into her shoulder, feeling his body relax as he breathes in her comforting scent of lavender and some sort of incense that is Pandora’s doing no doubt.
“Do you want me to text the group and have them come over? We can stay in or we can go out and drink our problems away. Whatever you need Reg, we’re here for you.” she says, her voice muffled by his shoulder.
“Yeah, you can call them. Can we just stay in and drink though? I’m not in the ‘going out’ mood.”
“Yeah of course, we’re going to get through this Regulus. I know we will. Alright, now go shower and I’ll call everyone and tell them to head over here with alcohol.” she grins at him, shooing him off towards his bathroom while pulling out her phone.
He shuts and locks the door behind him, turning on the water and peeling his clothes off and tossing them into the basket. He climbs into the shower, standing under the hot rays of water, rubbing his hands down his face. He presses the pads of his fingers into his eyes, huffing out through his nose as the water slides down his face. How did he end up here? How is this his life? He slips his hands off of his face and starts washing his body, so many thoughts running through his head.
What if he recognizes me?
What if he doesn’t recognize me?
What if he tells Sirius?
What if he tells James?
He freezes at the last thought, the name of the boy who he thought he would marry when he was a child. The same boy who would probably never look twice at him now, now that he wasn’t…
No, he isn’t thinking about this. Not now and not ever.
He’s Regulus fucking Black, esteemed writer under the name James Grimm. He cringes at his pen name in his head, taking the name of his childhood crush as a pen name may not have been the smartest thing he’s ever done, but he was 17, stupid, and heartbroken. He quickly washes the rest of his body and hair, stepping out of the shower to grab his towel. He dries quickly before hurrying into his room when he hears the quiet hum of chatter coming from the living room, meaning his friends are all here. He throws on the first clothes he sees, an old band t-shirt he thinks is Barty’s and a pair of his joggers and some socks before running his hands through his hair. After he looks presentable enough, he takes a deep breath before stepping out of his room to go greet his friends.
As usual, they have made themselves quite at home in his living room, having already started drinking without him. He plops down onto the floor in front of Pandora, who instantly starts fiddling with his freshly washed hair. He leans his head back into her as his eyes scan across the room at his friends.
Barty and Evan are lounging in one of the arm charms, all wrapped around each other and bickering as they normally do. Smacking each other on the back of the head between their twisted sense of flirting and trying to rile the other up for whenever they get home.
Pandora and Lily are seated on the couch behind him, curled around each other and staring lovingly at one another while they think the other isn’t looking. Then, beaming when they catch each other staring and sharing a short and sweet kiss. Looking so happy and in love it is nauseating.
Dorcas and Marlene, a new addition to their regular hangouts, are on the other side of the couch. Marlene resting her back against Dorcas’ chest seemingly in a quiet heated debate, about some sport probably since that’s the only thing that can really get them arguing like this, while staring at something playing on Marlene’s phone.
He just sits and watches them all in silence for a little while, content with just doing this all night as he picks up the closest bottle to him and takes a swig straight from it. Leaning his head back against Pandora’s legs. His peace doesn’t last long however, as Barty seems to notice his presence finally.
“Well, look who has decided to grace us with his presence. Now, while I am more than happy to get absolutely trashed for no reason,’ he points an accusatory finger at Regulus’ you are not. So, what is the reason for this summons to your humble abode dear Regulus.” he says, his eyes slightly narrowed as he stares at him.
“My publishing company called for a meeting, practically demanding I have to be there or they will withdraw my contract.” he says, not moving from his current position or saying anything else.
“Well, I know that you are a bit of a recluse, and I say that with all love, but why does it warrant us bringing loads of alcohol over to your apartment late at night?”
“Because not only does his publishing office want to meet with him, but his acting representative at the publishing company is requesting this meeting. He has to meet with Remus.” Lily explains, filling in any gaps that Regulus purposefully left open because he can't even bring himself to admit it out loud.
Everyone in the room seems to collectively stiffen, knowing what this could possibly mean for Regulus and asking now further questions on the matter. They sit in silence for a few awkward moments, nobody even knowing what to say, before Barty shrieks. Causing the rest of them to jump and look at him like he’s crazy, before bursting into peals of laughter at the bird that had flown in through the open window. Then, once they have their wits back in order they all run around the apartment trying to get the bird back outside, bickering the whole time they do.
***
Somewhere in a crowded bar in downtown Boston, four friends are drinking and laughing their night away, oblivious to the group of seven doing the same in New York, one of their phones buzz in their pocket. Curious as he shouldn’t be getting any texts, pulls the phone out and reads the email through slightly hazy vision.
Remus,
My client and I have talked it over, and we agree to a face to face meeting. I shall be in the room throughout the entirety of the meeting and wish to keep Mr.Grimms personal business out of the meeting as much as possible. We can finalize details over the phone in the morning, but I assumed it would be better to answer now and worry about specifics later.
Have a nice rest of your night Remus, we’ll chat again soon.
Lily Evans-Lovegood
James Grimms Agent and Personal Assistant.
Hallow Publishing, New York City Branch.