Glitter coated the entire room. The shimmering powder was spread over every possible surface and had slipped into every nook and cranny available, burying so deeply into the carpet that James knew he was still going to be finding it ten years down the line. Even with the numerous cleaning charms at his disposal, glitter had a habit of sticking around for the long run, especially if before it was spread everywhere someone thought it was a good idea to charm it to magically move around.
The clean-up to come would be worth it however, tonight had been a night to remember and one they would be trying to top for years to come. Although he couldn’t be sure of the entirety of the night's events, after Padfoot had arrived it was mostly a drunken blur to the pair of them, the memories of the evening flickered through his head. A never-ending, forever-repeating blur of images and voices, laughing, talking and getting drunker and drunker as the night wore on.
It had been freeing to mess around again after so long. The past few years hadn’t gone in favour of any of them, and the feeling of kicking back, a drink in hand and no worries for the next seven or so hours was liberating to all. He couldn’t remember the last time he saw Marlene smile like that, or Peter dance like that or Remus make jokes like that. It stung when he saw them and realised he hadn’t seen them like this since they were seventeen, but it was also warming to know they hadn’t completely changed yet and that the war hadn’t crushed them as much as it would like to.
Remus and Sirius were much more open after a few drinks were in them, a bit too open if James' table or James had a say in the matter. Making out in the middle of the room less than a minute after arriving, the pair had continued this way until it struck midnight, where they decided kissing wasn’t enough and it was time to go home now. Or more accurately, Remus decided it was time to go, and Sirius was more than happy to follow after him. Moony gripped onto Sirius' sleeve like he was going to be torn away from him as they entered the floo, eye narrowing at anyone who came too close, teeth just slightly sharper than they should be. James was the only one who had managed to get a hug, sideways and barely lasting a second, before they were off. It was better they go home early than him having to burn another sofa, James thought with a shudder. Although with the amount of glittering covering the thing it might be quicker than cleaning it.
Mary and Lily hadn’t exactly helped to curb the pair and their chaos either, instead choosing to cheer them on while making joking comments to each other about ‘How come you never do that with me?’ They also didn’t help with the glitter situation. Upon seeing the several small tubs, each filled with a different colour of the shimmering substance, Mary and Lily had proceeded to spread the stuff around the entire room with a pair of conjured gusts of wind, while Marlene, who showed up an hour late and therefore missed the initial spreading-of-glitter, maliciously dumped a tub, red mixed with a bit of gold, over James' head. He could still feel it in his hair, scratching away at his scalp and falling down into his clothes and occasionally his mouth. Even after nine cleaning charms and three banishing jinxs, it remained, leaving him with little to no hope for the carpet or for the couch.
Peter had also shown up later that night than expected, but no one could bring themselves to mind when he presented them with the several large bottles of fire whiskey he somehow managed to snag. The golden liquid was incredibly rare these days with production rates decreasing as the war evolved into a more vicious, less forgiving thing causing more workers to be pulled away from the job and be moved into Ministry ranks. How he had managed to get some, they never knew. Even after consuming almost an entire bottle for himself, Wormtail remained tight-lipped about the whole thing, grinning as they tried to pry the knowledge out of him.
The bright memories of the night continued to linger on as he made his way through the mess of the lounge room and out into the equally messy hall. Candle wax had melted down their sticks and onto the hardwood floor, mixing with the escaping glitter and a few photos from the muggle camera Mary had brought. Most of the photos taken were stacked somewhere in the lounge or placed in someone's pocket, but a few had drifted from the camera, or from pockets, to the floor and were now covered in glitter and more memories than the photos could show.
Leaning against the chipped door frame, he could hear the murmuring of his few remaining friends echoing down the hall from the foyer where they were getting ready to leave, gathering coats and bags. A smile came easily to him as he listened to their voices, happy and alive and free, even if it was just for tonight. Carefully making his way down the hall to see them off, he made his way around small piles of cooling wax and glitter, trying not to slip over onto the hard floor.
Joining them in the foyer, James was greeted with the sight of an extremely intoxicated Lily attempting to remove her shoes while her girlfriend held her own pair above her head like a trophy.
Laughing viciously, Mary shoved her sleek black shoes proudly under Lily’s wrinkled nose as she groaned in defeat, fingers slipping against the sides of her boots, and shouted, “Ha! See that? I win!”
Mary’s laugh was as infectious as it always was, and along with the hatred that Lily was trying and failing to summon into her eyes, it caused James' grin to grow even wider on his face, nearly ripping as he laughed along. Joining Mary in her nearly hysterically drunk cackling, Lily’s face broke out into a grin while her eyes shone with mirth. Slowing in his joy but still grinning he asked, tired, and drunken, mind figuring out the words after he had already spoken;
“Not that I don’t love beating Lily in something, I have to ask. What is going on right now? Mary, why are your shoes off?”
“Don’t know anything, do you Potter?” Mary sniffed, waving her free hand around while her shoe-full one precariously dangled over Lily's head, “Heels are awful to walk in, it's better to take them off before attempting that thing you call a path!”
James nodded in agreement, frowning slightly at the insult towards his homemade cobblestone path that led not only up to his front door but around his whole yard, still the curiosity remained, something wasn’t quite clicking here. “Aren’t you getting a muggle taxi home?”
“Yes? What does that matter, we still have to walk over that rocky monstrosity!” Lily chimed in as she continued to struggle with her left boot, now having successfully removed the right. Thumbs digging in the material behind her heel, trying to pull the boot from her skin.
Still frowning at the insults towards his path, James realised what wasn’t making sense; “Lily, you’re in boots.”
“So?”
“They’re flat… There's no heel Lil’s.”
Mary doubled over and resumed her cackling, now at ten times the previous volume, as Lily stared open-mouthed at her left boot having just managed to wriggle her foot out.
⋆⋅☆⋅⋆
James closed the door behind him as he returned from walking the girls to the gate. The two witches were more than capable of getting home alone after a late night of drinking but traversing the path he had made was another thing when drunk. As much as he adored his rocky creation, he could recognise why not everyone appreciated it.
Heading down the hall back to the lounge, James knew he would have to clean up the party's mess now rather than later or else he might never get around to it. Sweeping up a few photos from the floor and removing the wax that covered them with a flick of his wand, he made his way down the hall. Straightening portraits and photos as he went, as well as collecting a handful of cups that seemed to be left out from the party, all were empty so thankfully there was no chance of spillage as he balanced them in one arm while the other straightened a vase that belonged to his mother from where it had been knocked back against a wall, thankfully unbroken.
A flash of green from the lounge, along with the sound of the Floo activating, made him spin, wand in hand. The collection of cups he had gathered were hastily dumped onto the side table next to the vase as he crept forward, wand outstretched. It wasn’t likely that a Deatheater had somehow made their way into his house, it was more likely to be Marlene or Peter returning for something they left behind, or Sirius and Remus coming back to join that party that had already ended. But the fear was there as he crept over the little rivers of escaping glitter and around into the light that flooded out from the lounge.
James froze at the entrance, right at the edge of where the glitter was creeping out from the doorway, the chipped door frame to his right and a figure in black in the centre of his vision. He inhaled sharply as the figure who stood in the room swivelled around from where it had been examining the framed photographs that lined the bookshelf to meet his gaze. Grey met brown and Regulus Black frowned at him.
Regulus was in his lounge room. A man James hadn’t seen since his sixth year at Hogwarts, at least, not as closely as he was seeing him now, only managing to catch glimpses of him in bustling hallways and during meals. His mop of black curls fell over the left side of his face, longer than they’d ever been in school, ends disappearing into the dress shirt he wore. He always overdressed for every occasion, so much so that this felt like he was underdressing. His hands were twisting and turning around each other, fingers pulling on rings that didn’t exist as his light grey eyes watched James, scanning him for any sign of something James couldn’t even remember.
He was still perfect.
James regretted a lot of things from his life, a lot from his school days especially. How he had treated some of his supposed friends was one, another was the way he treated the Slytherins, mainly Snape, yet another was buried in fifth year along with memories he hoped to never think of again. But his worst, and most important one, sat in the astronomy tower at the end of his sixth year. Maybe that's why he spoke first, the regret and pain he had felt ever since he had turned Regulus away suddenly bursting out in words that should have been spoken years ago.
“I’m sorry.”
Regulus’s face went slack, turning away slightly to look at the doorframe past James' head. His jaw had a new scar on it, just to the right of his ear, paler than his skin. It stuck out sharply in the candlelight, James wondered what had caused it. When he turned back, he didn’t see the present James anymore. Regulus was seeing the James who had left him on top of the astronomy tower after spilling every secret he held, he saw the James who ignored him for weeks, for years.
At that moment they weren’t in the Potter family house anymore, instead, they were thrown back onto a smooth stone floor, with the stars flickering over them and the breeze blowing their hair into their eyes. Parts of him that James had tried to hide came rushing out, crushing him in their need to be heard after so long, memories of a decision he’d wanted to change the moment he’d made it came flooding in. The decision to leave Regulus there, with a black stain on his arm, a mark he never wanted and a heart that he had shattered with a few words.
James knew Regulus, he knew him better than anyone. Because when he looked at Regulus he didn’t see the man that everyone else now saw, he didn’t see the man who was now on the cover of the Daily Prophet nearly every day along with the caption about the latest attacks, he didn’t see the harden Deatheater who had likely tried to kill him and his friends multiple times over the last few years, he didn’t see any of that.
What James saw was the boy who he had left on top of the tower, the boy who joined him nearly every night for a year, who looked at the stars with him, who laughed with him, who kissed him. He saw someone who he had a hand in destroying flicker through Regulus at that moment, a brief flash of someone that James knew wasn’t there anymore but his heart told him was.
“Okay.”
Regulus spoke as if there was nothing more to say, his voice empty and smooth. As if everything was forgiven like none of it had even happened. There was so much more to say though, the words finding themselves at the tip of James' tongue before being hastily swallowed back. It wasn’t forgiveness, Merlin, it wasn’t even an acknowledgement. But the way James felt his heart leap at that single word was more than he could ever hope for from Regulus and he would shatter if he ruined it.
They were back in the lounge room, the past slipping away again, cups piled on the floor and glitter slowly making its way up into the bookcase and into the books. They weren’t kids anymore, they probably hadn’t been kids for a while, but as James crossed the room, dodging the coffee table as he did, to stand in front of Regulus, they might as well have been. They stood about a metre apart, but it felt so much closer, like James could reach out a hand and touch him. He was still short, hardly growing since they had last seen each other, and he lifted his head up slightly to keep contact with James' eyes as James approached.
He lifted an eyebrow at James, a silent challenge or a silent request, before speaking in the same empty tone as before;
“Well?”
James closed the distances between them, looking down more at his own feet than at Regulus. There was so much more to say, so much more they needed to talk about. So many things had happened, and they had both done so much in these last few years. It wasn’t going to be fixed tonight, not while he was this drunk, it would take longer than that. Months, years maybe and so many fights were to come. James could feel them already buzzing beneath his skin waiting to lash out at Regulus for all he had done, for all he had heard he’d done, just like last time.
But this time, James swore in his head, it would work, and even if it didn’t, they had forever to fix it. No matter what was thrown at him, this time he wasn’t going anywhere, he wasn’t going to leave. Regulus and him would be together and be okay, in the end. No matter how long it took or how hard the path was.
James Potter leaned down and kissed Regulus Black for the first time in three years, four hours into 1979.