Chapter 3
JAMES POV
James did decide to go to Sirius and Remus's flat that night.
When he appeared in the London apartment,he was on the fence about what he was going to tell them. it would have been very easy to say nothing,and let lily tell them the whole story instead. But maybe he didn't have a choice.
Remus and Sirius were sat incredibly close to each other on the sofa,Remus had his arm around Sirius,and Sirius's left leg was over Remus's right. The sight was so brilliantly cute. James smiled at the scene,but as soon as the two boys saw James,their faces were filled with concern.
"James,what's wrong?"
"James are you okay? Have you been crying?"
Oops. James hadn't looked at himself in the mirror before leaving. His eyes were definitely red and puffy. There was no doubt he had been crying.
As James hesitated to answer,the couple on the sofa parted,leaving enough space for James to squish between them. He did so gladly.
"James?" Remus pushed.
'Here we go' James thought. "Uh yeah. Me and Lily,well, we broke up."
There was a moment where Remus and Sirius looked at each other in shock. Then bombarded him with questions. There was so many and they came so fast that James could not understand a single one.
"Ssssshhhh!" went Sirius suddenly,as if he had not been doing the exact same thing as Remus,probably worse. "You broke up?"
"Yeah." James couldn't explain it,but for some reason, he started crying again. His lip started to quiver and his eyes filled with water.
"Hey,hey. It's okay" Remus soothed.
Two pairs of arms wrapped around his shoulders. Both of his friends were whispering comforting things in his ears.
They didn't even know the whole story! They didn't know that both him and Lily had wanted their relationship to end. That neither of them had done anything wrong. That both of them were experiencing slight crises of sexuality. That there was no reason for James to be crying right now.
He heard the sound of footsteps entering the living room,then they paused. He didn't want to look up because he knew who was there. He didn't want him to see him like this. He didn't even want Remus and Sirius to see him like this.
Next to him,Sirius did look up at the new person in the room.
"Are you wearing my socks?"
"Sirius! Look at James,is that the best time to get at your brother for stealing your socks?"
"He does it all the time Remus!"
Despite Remus's scold,James was laughing again. He had always found Sirius and Remus bickering (when its not about something serious) hilarious. And ever since Regulus came back into their lives,the enjoyment had doubled.
"Are you okay James?" Regulus hadn't reacted to the sock stealing accusation. He just stared at the tears on James's face as if they could harm him if he looked away.
James managed a nod,but not to look up from the ground.
"Lily's broken up with him."
"Hey! We broke up with each other!"
"Oh. So what happened?"
James paused,thinking before speaking so he didn't reveal anything that wasn't his to tell. Regulus spoke next.
"Sorry. That your relationship's over."
Then he left for his room.
Remus grabbed the back of James's head to make him look at him. "Tell us what happened mate."
He took a deep breathe and prepared to tell them what happened.
"I really don't know why I cried. Um right. So basically,she sent me and owl saying that we need to talk,so I went home. I was here looking for you guys. Where were you by the way? Nevermind, it doesn't matter. Uh, she told me that we need to break up. I can't tell you why,she'll tell you. It isn't my place to tell. But then I told her that I have also been feeling like I've fallen out of love with her."
"What?" Sirius exclaimed. "But you're James and Lily! Lily and James! You've loved her for years"
"Sirius." Remus warned. He was looking at James like he understood him. Moony had a way of doing that no matter what. Sirius stopped talking.
"We are going to stay living together,but I'm going to sleep in the spare room. We still love each other,just not like we thought we did. We are still good friends."
"That's good prongs" Remus smiled reassuringly. He looked at Sirius,widened his eyes.
"Yeah James. If you weren't happy then I'm glad you can be now."
James beamed for the first time since he arrived,"Thank you. We can both be happy now."
James decided to stay the night at their flat that night. He sent a letter to Lily to let her know,and tried his best to make it not seem like it was because of her. Which it slightly was. But James and lily had both stayed at the flat without the other countless times during their relationship,and James did have some order documents to go over with Sirius and Remus,so it shouldn't have been weird. But it was.
Sirius cooked some lasagna. He has become quite the cook ever since getting a flat and deciding that the human body needs sustenance other than takeaways.
They didn't talk about the breakup again. There was no need to.
As they ate,they opened a bottle of red wine and ate on the floor. They spread out some files on deatheaters had sent them. They needed to look over them and find what links them together, and to the recent muggleborn attacks.
"So Krump and Davis are cousins. That links them. What about literally everyone else?"
James was biting on the tip of a pen,two more biros where behind his ears like a builder. There was a black spot on his lip.
"Uh well... The Mr and Mrs face tattoo over here. Or Mr and Mrs Crabbe." Sirius said, picking up two papers.
Remus didn't look up from his plate. "Ugh. I ran into them once. Nasty pieces of work."
"Hmm. Right, how are we actually meant to find anything out about these people? All these papers say is their known relatives! This isn't going to help!"
"What are you guys doing?" Regulus walked into the room. Sirius had knocked on his door ages ago to tell him food was ready,and he was only just coming to get it. He was looking at them and their papers strewn across the floor like they were mad.
The three boys looked at each other. They had been careful to not talk too much about deatheaters around Regulus. They weren't sure how he would react to it all. He stepped over to them when they didn't say anything,grabbing the full wine glass that Sirius has just poured. "Hey!"
After looking at a couple of the files,Regulus found out what they were. He sat between James and Remus. "What are you trying to figure out?" he asked.
His brows were drawn and his mouth slightly down turned, but he looked mostly calm. his hand or shoulder gave a small twitch every so often. He took a swig of wine,somehow so elegant in his anxious state.
Remus was the one to speak. "We're trying to find links and stuff. Anything that will make it easier to take them down." He paused. "What do you know?"
Sirius looked at him worriedly,then Regulus.
Regulus chewed his bottom lip for a second then pointed at a piece of parchment. "Well he's dead."
"What?" James exclaimed, picking up said file. How could they have missed that? "How?"
Reg shrugged. "I don't know. His body just showed up one day. I never spoke to him."
Remus wrote on a piece of paper. "Know anyone else?"
"Yeah."
Regulus looked through the papers,telling him everything he knows about the people he recognizes. Eventually, he came to one which made him pause. James,being sat next to him, could see the name on the paper. 'Evan Rosier'. He couldn't think why the name sounded familiar. Suddenly a dirty blonde head of hair with broad shoulders and heavy boots came into his head. He could see the boy sitting on the Slytherin table next to Regulus,being one of the few people in Hogwarts to make his mask break.
Regulus took a shuddering breathe. His hands shook as he moved the paper slightly to the side,and revealed another familiar name. The picture of Barty Crouch junior was slid from under Evan's file. Everyone in James's year and the one below knew Barty. He was notorious for picking on students in the hall and causing trouble. Not the kind of trouble caused by James and Sirius,but the kind where people got hurt. He had always been a little insane.
Reg looked troubled. James could see the battle taking place behind his eyes. "And they don't want to be there." His voice was a whisper. The room was quiet. Regulus looked up at his brother with determination. "They could help us."
Everyone looked at each other skeptically. Sirius met Regulus's eyes. "Are you sure? How do you know they can be trusted? They're death eaters."
"So was I!" He rolls up his sleeve to show the graying dark mark. James had been yet to see the tattoo,he didn't know that it had started to fade after his betrayal of Voldemort. " They don't want to be there. I know they don't. They must think I'm dead,if we show them I'm alive, we can offer them safety with the order!"
"What if we show them you are alive, and they try to kill you?!"
Regulus slammed his hand down,surprising everyone. "They won't! I know them!"
"Okay." Sirius scoots forward over the papers and put his hands on Regulus's shoulders. "Okay. We will look into them okay? We will find a way to do it safely. I am not loosing you again."
"We'll do it." Added Remus.
"We trust you." Came from James.
Regulus nodded. For a moment,it seemed like that was all that would happen. Then Sirius said "Oh come on! Give us a hug!"
He pulled him in and Regulus went happily into his shoulder. Remus and James both put their arms around both of the Blacks. The group hug was warm and they all smiled.