the problem
On a normal autumn day, Hogwarts might be full of the sound of students, but on this day, it wasn't.
Lily Evans was speaking a thousand times louder and angrier than usual-more like yelling-so the whole castle, except for her, fell silent and, unsurprisingly, listened to the drama.
"No James, no! I said no seven years ago, I'm saying no now! Why can't you accept a fucking no? I beg you to stop and find someone else! Why can't you see my signs? I told you in 4th grade that I wasn't interested in you and that hasn't changed! In fact, now I'm starting to think you're disgusting. So now shut the fuck up and get your disappointing and disgusting face out of here, because I've had enough!" she put her hand over her mouth after her last sentence, as if she had shocked herself.
The air around her went cold after her words. The only thing that could be heard was the quiet sobbing of James. It was even more surprising. In all these years, no one had seen him cry except his friends, who now came to his aid and dragged him away. Before they were out of sight Sirius turned around, opened his mouth as if to say something, but eventually just shook his head and hurried after his friends.
The people slowly dispersed, leaving Lily alone. She held back tears as the people around her said mean things to her, and after listening to them all, she took a deep breath and left.
Meanwhile, James was crying like a baby, Sirius was stroking his back kindly beside him, Peter was lying on the floor and Remus was rolling a cigarette and starting to talk.
"I love you James, you know that, but it was really deserved. She told you so many times that she was not interested in you, but you just ignored her. Of course, that's not the way she should have handled the whole situation, but maybe I would have done the same in her position, so I don't blame her."
Hearing this, James started crying even more dramatically.
"James the dramatics are my thing, calm down it's not the end of the world. And Moony what the fuck? One of your best friends just got his heart broken and you're taking Lily's side. I gotta admit, I'm a little bit disappointed. James was always there for you, even when you weren't right, and this is how you thank him. Sometimes you should shut up for a few hours!" said Sirius to Remus.
"First of all, I'm not taking sides, I'm just telling you what I think and in case you haven't noticed, I'm currently here and not with Lily. That means something, don't you think?" jumped up Remus.
"You only came up here for the cigarettes! You're always thinking about yourself. You don't even notice that other people have feelings too." Sirius nudged him.
"Not that you notice hah. Let me ask you something. When was the last time you spoke to your brother?" he raised an eyebrow, but Sirius just stared at him with wide eyes, his face showed how much it hurt him.
"Not to interrupt, but I just had my heart broken. Can we please just focus on me for a moment?" sniffled James, hurt.
"Yeah, sure James," Sirius smiled forcibly and turned to Remus one last time. "Just so you know, I spoke to him in person yesterday, and before that we had a correspondence. But I guess you're the only one who didn't know that."
Remus turned around annoyed and walked out of the room. James felt it couldn't get any worse. He was wrong.
"I don't know if this is the best time to mention this, but the map says Remus is with Lily right now." Peter said.
"I can't fucking believe it! Why am I in love with this man?" Sirius covered his face with both hands.
"'Don't worry about it, it doesn't bother me." James wiped away his tears and smiled. No one knew he wasn't being honest.
***
James spent the next few days walking the corridors like a ghost. There was no sign of his perpetual cheerfulness. On top of that, Remus and Sirius were not willing to talk to each other except when they were arguing. The only sign of reconciliation was that Remus kept rolling two cigarettes. To himself and Sirius, but that might have been out of habit.
Peter made it his priority to keep Lily away from James and James didn't mind that at all. In fact, he was glad not to have to look at her regretful look on her face.
Lily tried to talk to him several times, but Pete always stepped in.
"Peter, please let me talk to him. He needs to know that I'm sorry and I didn't mean what I said."
"'No, you can't. Right now I'm the only friend dealing with the situation, I can't let you hurt him."
"Pete..."
"I'll give him your message, though I think he can hear you now." Peter turned away from her and then took James by the arm and started pulling him. "I've had enough! Lily keeps pestering me so she can talk to you, Sirius and Remus can't say a good word to each other, and you're always whining. Do something! I want the revengeful James back! You always take revenge when someone does something bad to us or to you. Do that again!"
"Oh Wormtail don't think I haven't thought of something, but I need the others for this so get the map and find them!" said James. He feels like he's becoming himself again
A few minutes later they were sitting together on James' bed, waiting for him to speak.
"Okay, so I don't know if this is a good idea, but I want to make Lily jealous or at least show her what kind of relationship she's letting go. The main thing is that I need someone to help me with this. It's important that it's someone who also benefits from it."
"That's a terribly bad idea." Remus said pointedly.
"Of course you don't like it Lupin. Who would have thought?" said Sirius rolling his eyes.
"Don't do this now please, help me out instead. I really need a person with whom we can mutually help each other."
Peter and Remus both immediately turned to Sirius as if they knew what was about to happen.
"No! Nah-uh! Definitely not! My brother is off limits! Even if it's all fake, I'm not going to drag him into this." Sirius put his hands up defensively.
"Regulus?" asked James.
"My little brother recently broke up with his boyfriend and also his biggest goal right now is to piss off our parents. He'd be the best person for what you're looking for, but he wouldn't agree anyway. And neither would I!"