(FOR THIS FANFIC TO WORK, REGULUS MOVED UP A CLASS WHEN HE WAS IN 2ND GRADE, AND IS NOW IN THE SAME YEAR AS HIS BROTHER)
The Marauders were sitting at their table in the great hall. It wasn’t their table, nobody had determined seats, but the marauders had sat at that table every day since first year, and every other Gryffindor knew better than to sit at that table.
A loud voice roared through the hall,
“Hello students! We are all aware of professor Slughorn being on important business outside the school at the moment, and with the upcoming Yule Ball we have decided that the mandatory dancing classes for the Slytherins will be held together with the Gryffindors” McGonagall announced over the hall. She had a powerful and scary voice that made people listen to what she had to say, despite her scary voice though she was the sweetest woman the Marauders had ever seen.
Loud complaining, muttering and booing roared through the hall from both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins.
“There is no way in hell I’m even getting close to a Slytherin” Sirius mumbled to the rest of them.
“At least we’ll get to see Snivellus make a fool of himself” James snickered.
Though, James knew that Snape wasn’t going to be the only one making a fool of himself, cause he couldn’t dance either. He knew it was better to tell the others than keep it secret.
“Though, I'm afraid he’s not the only one who’s going to make themselves a fool in front of the other house” James slammed his head down on the table.
“What do you mean?” Remus said, suddenly interested in the conversation they were holding.
“I can’t dance for the life of me” James groaned.
“I can teach you! They made us learn sophisticated dancing from an early age” Sirius mocked, James smiled at him.
“Good luck, I’m a lost cause”
They walked back to the dorm after dinner, Remus laid down on the bed with one of his muggle books, not paying any attention to James or Sirius.
“Okay so, place one arm on my shoulder and take your free hand in mine” Sirius instructed and James followed. Sirius placed his free hand on James’ hip.
“Follow my lead,” Sirius instructed. James focused at their feet, trying to keep us with Sirius’ lead.
“Ow, that's my foot dumbass!” he yelled as James accidentally stepped in the totally wrong direction, resulting in him stepping on Sirius’ foot.
“I told you I’m a lost cause!” James whined, laying down on his bed in defeat.
“You definitely are, I wish you all luck tomorrow at the dancing lessons mate, you’ll definitely need it.”
James groaned even louder, flipping onto his stomach and digging his face into his pillow.
The next day at breakfast was hell, every Slytherin and Gryffindor was pissed since they were having the first dance lesson after breakfast, and the entire feeling of the hall was tense.
“Do you think Minnie is going to put us up into pairs or can we decide for ourselves?” Sirius asked, stirring around in his cereal mindlessly.
“I think she’s going to put us up in pairs, but I wish we could decide the pairs ourselves” Remus said, Sirius groaned and slammed his head down on the table in defeat.
“That means we could be put up with a Slytherin!” James yelled out, flailing his arms up into the air.
“Knowing McGonagall we’re probably going to be put with a Slytherin as well, to ‘build bonds and character’ or some bullshit” Peter mumbled.
“Oh my god this is living hell” James sighed.
No one looked forward to the lessons, least of all James. He knew he would get relentlessly teased for his shitty dancing by the Slytherins.
The room they were supposed to dance in was surprisingly big with a high ceiling, the big windows casting light into the room. The room was very unused, proven by the light shadows casted in the air by the dust and the dusty wooden floor.
The Gryffindors sat down on one side, with the Slytherins on the opposing side.
“Right!” McGonagall broke the intense glaring between the houses, “I will see to no hexing, teasing or anything of sort. I will pair up pairs and I will hear no complaining, these will be the groups you are to dance in in the following week of practice”
Despite her warning words, most people groaned at the situation. She started listing up pairs nonetheless.
“Dorcas Meadowes and Evan Rosier, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin-” Both boys lit up glee, immensely relieved and happy that they wouldn’t be paired up with a Slytherin, even happier at the fact it was their best friend. McGonagall continued listing names “Barty Crouch Junior with Severus Snape-” Snape threw Barty a death glare, Barty groaned loudly. Despite both boys being of Slytherin, most Slytherins hated Snape, and Snape hated everyone in return.
James paid no attention to the other names until he heard his own being called out, “-with James Potter”
He snapped his head up, he hadn’t paid attention to the first name but he could see other people looking his way and whispering.
“Who was I paired up with?” James asked Sirius with confusion,
“Regulus, and he’s staring you down mate” Sirius said, looking over at the Slytherin side with an angry manner, presumably at the mention of his brother.
Sirius had been correct, Regulus was staring at him with a silent deadpan expression. It made it even scarier, he knew it was a look of immense hate considering it’s Regulus and he’s James , But you couldn’t exactly tell.
“Shoot me” James whispered in defeat, he wasn’t even exactly sure if he was joking or not.
It was one thing that he couldn’t dance, and if he was paired up with a Gryffindor then he could probably play it off. But he was paired up with a Slytherin, and not just any Slytherin, Regulus Black.
After McGonagall was done listing names she urged the pairs to stand up and grab their partner, James felt like melting into the floor.
He found Regulus on the other side of the room, looking just as annoyed as James as he walked over to him.
“Let’s just get this over with” He sighed, “fair warning, I do not know how to dance”
“Really? The James Potter doesn’t know how to dance?” Regulus said, a layer of amusement in his voice.
“Mhm, so watch your feet” He warned.
“Do you know anything about dancing?” Regulus asked once they were on the dance floor.
“Nope” James answered with a proud grin.
Regulus took a deep sigh before continuing, “I’ll take the lead, you follow it. I don’t want this any more than you do Potter”
Regulus placed his hand on James’ hip and they started moving, the place where Regulus had his hand felt like it was burning. He could feel the tracings of his long fingers pressing into his side harshly, it was almost overwhelming. James narrowed his eyes at Regulus, for which he received a confused look back.
“Are you hexing me?” James asked, he could feel himself growing hotter.
“Wha- OWH JAMES, PUTAIN DE MERDE” Regulus yelped loudly as James accidentally stepped hard on his toe. He had been too focused on Regulus to watch where he was going. James folded over with laughter as Regulus grabbed his foot.
“I’m so sorry, I warned you!” James said, still chuckling and slightly teary eyed. He wasn’t sure why he was laughing that hard.
James had almost missed how Regulus had called him “James” and not “Potter”, but only almost. It was probably just a slip, but it made James feel warm inside for some reason.
The rest of the students had stopped dancing and looked at them curiously, though neither James or Regulus paid them any thought of mind.
Regulus looked up at James who was still laughing, and James noticed how he almost started laughing as well. The corner of his mouth quirked up slightly, and he could see how he was holding himself back. This made James feel even warmer inside, his smile was so nice.
James wasn’t sure how he hadn’t noticed the boys' emasculate features before. James wanted to grab his beautiful hair, touch his jaw, just do something. He had to do everything in his power not to move the hand laying on his shoulder closer to his neck. He wasn’t sure what to do with these feelings, he felt like he could just grab the sides of his face and kiss him- kiss him??
“Earth to J- Potter?” Regulus said irritated, waving his hand in front of his face.
“I- Yes”
“You disappeared there” Regulus replied, slightly amused.
“uh yes- I-” James said, slightly wide-eyed and flushed.
“Did I break you?” Regulus laughed, “Alright, let’s retry it”
“mhm!” James nodded his head, still trying to process the new information.
- He was gay.. or something
- He was gay for his best friend's little brother who he was supposed to hate.
James placed his hand in Regulus’ again, and Regulus placed his hand on his hip. They started moving in a slow manner, James focusing intensely on their feet. It was going surprisingly good,
“Don’t put your focus down, you’ll mess it up” Regulus said.
“Where else should I put it then?”
“On me?.. I don’t know, just not on our feet”
James knew he wouldn’t be able to keep eye contact with him. His eye contact was different from others, it felt like he could see inside of him and it creeped him out, it felt overwhelming. And not to speak of his eyes in itself, they were ice blue and just so pretty.
He knew he was going to melt if he looked up, despite that he couldn’t say no to Regulus.
He looked up and immediately locked eye contact with him, he could feel his cheeks growing hotter by the second.
He wasn’t coming out of this alive, Regulus surely knew by now that he was struggling for some reason, maybe he had already figured out the reason.
James accidentally let his eyes slip further down onto his lips for a nanosecond, and his head felt like it was blowing up. He looked down immediately in embarrassment.
Regulus started.. leaning in?
“Focus on our hands James” he whispered in his ear, he looked away immediately. Regulus squeezed his hand a bit harder for a split second, as to signal James about something.
“You called me James again” James whispered back, leaning in so that he could reach his ear.
“I know”
The world stopped, it must have, James was sure it did. He looked up again to see Regulus cheeks tinted slightly pink. Both of their mouths were slightly open, and they continued to stare at each other. They eventually remembered that they were in a class full of people and looked away, both boys embarrassed.
James felt a streak of boldness from nowhere “Astronomy tower tonight?” He whispered. That must’ve exploded Regulus’ ability to speak as he only nodded as a response.
They continued dancing slowly, now standing a bit closer than before.