Chapter 7 - Champion’s Dinner
"Hey, we're gonna head out- spice up the night a bit, wanna come?" Annalise quizzed.
Regulus knew she meant they were gonna get wasted and high- tempting- but he was ready to get away from the trio.
"No thanks, I'm good. Have fun." Regulus said as Annalise smiled at him, the three girls exiting the Great Hall.
Regulus himself exited too, found himself heading outside into the enchanted grotto of sorts decorated with rose bushes and fairy lights.
By fairy lights- Regulus meant actual fairies, hundreds of them sitting in the rose bushes and fluttering over the statues of Father Christmas and his reindeer.
Regulus relished in the quiet, gazing up into the night sky, glittering with stars.
Arms wrapped around his waist as he leaned back, wrapping his own around theirs.
James rested his head on Regulus' shoulder as he looked up at the stars with the boy.
"Ready for the dinner?" James questioned.
Regulus hummed turning around to look at the boy. He'd ditched the suit jacket, causing both boys to coordinate with cream and black.
Regulus intertwined their fingers, only supporting how much they fit together- unlike with Annalise's- in his mind.
"We should head on or Ivan'll think we had a quickie before dinner." Regulus joked.
James chuckled, pressing a kiss to the side of Regulus' head before pulling him back into the castle.
They headed up to the third floor, where the Room of Requirements was being used for the Champions dinner.
"Oh look, the lovebirds finally decided to show up." Evangeliya teased as James and Regulus entered the room hand-in-hand.
Her dress was probably Regulus' favorite that he'd seen all night.
It was a tan dress with all kinds of gold designs. The gold designs swirled on one shoulder as a sleeve, leading to the sheer tan cape-like part of the dress.
The dress was unique to all the ones he'd seen- in its own simplistic way. It was long and puffy out slightly, but not much at all.
Her dark hair was pulled into a high ponytail, with a piece of hair on her right left out.
Her eyeshadow was shimmery gold, matching her dress. And on her tan neck was a golden locket- Regulus had her with seen since she'd arrived.
"Eva, darling, how was Lockhart?" James asked with a knowing smirk.
Evangeliya groaned, "Absolutely dreadful. He loves talking about himself more than I do."
James chuckled, "I could've told you that."
"Technically, you did." Jacques quipped.
His hair done to perfection, like normal. He wore a baby blue suit- jacket, pants, and overcoat all the same blue color.
The only thing not blue was his white button up underneath it all, that he'd left slightly undone. A single gold chain around his neck.
Moments later Ivan and Claudette crashed into the room, looking more unkept and frazzled than when Regulus had left them.
"Now who had a quickie?" Regulus quipped.
"We did not have a quickie", Claudette spat trying to fix her hair, "We got caught in the commotion that was someone blowing up the punch bowls."
"Sirius." Regulus and James said at the same time before laughing.
"Who?" Claudette questioned.
"My brother." Regulus explained.
"You have a brother?" She quizzed.
"Oh yeah, they're not exactly on the prettiest of terms", Ivan explained, "Doesn't know his lil bros sleeping with his best friend either."
"How am I the last to know?" Claudette said pouting
"Don't take it personal. Regulus doesn't like to talk about his family, they're pretty much all terrible people- except for maybe Sirius, but even he has his moments." James assured the girl.
Regulus desperately wanted to drop the family conversation and was granted just that as a letter flew into the room and planted itself onto the beautifully set table.
Regulus took the chance to observe his surroundings, the room- much like the Great Hall- was decorated in icicles and layers of snow.
A white tablecloth draped over the rectangle table in the middle of the room.
Six chairs lined the table two at each end and two on either side.
In the middle was a set of two completely white, miniature Christmas trees.
Around the trees, down the entire middle of the table were tiny snowflakes scattered all around.
Also in the middle were two white candles on glass candle holders and small pine cones dusted in snow.
Each place was set up with white china- that was decorated with beautiful swirl designs- silverware, decorative napkins rings, and two glasses.
Regulus figured the two glasses were just the usual setup even though they'd probably not be using both.
While Regulus was in his head, James dragged him towards the table.
Claudette and Ivan sat in the chairs across the table from the two boys, while Eva and Jac sat on opposite ends.
"Who wants to read it?" James asked his fingers grazing the envelope.
Jacques plucked the envelope in his grasp, ripping it open, before reading it.
"Champions, the second task draws near and with it- in arms reach- eternal glory. Enjoy the night full of new friendships and Yule Tide cheer. Eat up, Dumbledore." Jacques read to the group.
With that the table filled with all kinds of foods, from mashed potatoes to escargot to sarmi.
"Before we eat, I have brought something." Evangeliya explained.
Her hands went under the table before pulling up a bottle of Firewiskey.
"I heard this is strong and that I couldn't receive the entire Hogwarts experience without it." Eva laughed.
"What would we do without you Eva?" James chuckled as she popped open the bottle pouring it into the empty glasses before passing it to James.
James poured it into his glass before Regulus' then passed it to Jacques.
Regulus kissed the side of James' head as the boy placed his hand on Regulus' thigh.
"I'd like to make a toast." Eva started as the bottle made its way back to her.
The group picked up their glasses.
"To James and Jacques, my good friends. To our support group", Eva announced looking to Regulus then Ivan and Claudette, "And lastly to eternal glory!"
"Cheers!" They all laughed drinking the liquor.
Everyone around Regulus coughed at the burning liquid as he practically drank it like water.
James had always been a lightweight so it didn't really matter how many times he'd drank the liquid, he still had the same reaction.
"Oh god, that's awful." Ivan huffed.
"Can't hold your liquor, Angelov?" Regulus teased with a laugh, unfazed.
"I've had some pretty strong stuff before, but this definitely takes the throne." Eva explained with a grimace.
The group dug into the food after that, chatting about all things under the sun while getting progressively more and more drunk.
"Any of ya figure out what they stole?" James question slightly slurring his words.
"I think they're waiting- till the task. Because I'm not missing anything yet." Jacques explained logically.
"Me either." Eva shrugged with a hiccup.
"Please, Eva, you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached." Ivan scoffed.
The group of wasted teens broke out in a fit of laughter, whether or not they actually found it funny.
"Okay I'm heading out." Jacques chucked as he stood from his chair.
Regulus smirked knowingly as he slid his hand further up James' thigh, resting his hand by the zipper of James' pants.
"Us t-too." James stammered as he jumped up.
Regulus gleamed victoriously as James clutched onto his wrist, he waved as James began dragging him out of the room.
"Use protection!" Ivan called after them.
James roughly dragged him across the school to the Gryffindor tower, desperately eager to have his hands on Regulus in the best and worst ways.
The duo was practically shirtless by the time they reached the empty dorm.
James pushed the boy back onto the bed as he giggled.
After he closed the curtains both boys attached their lips to one another.
James could taste the firewiskey on his breath as his tongue traveled around the smaller boys mouth.
Regulus was busy fumbling with James' pants as they melted into each other's touch.
Regulus flipped them, straddling James as he kicked off his bottoms.
Pulling away, they both gasped for needed oxygen.
Regulus was fast to remove James' boxers, eliciting breathless moans from the boy.
There was soft footsteps, though neither boy showed any sign of hearing the sound.
James' fingers were deeply imbedded in his dark curls as he continued on.
"Prongs?"
James' blood ran cold at the voice.
"Yea?" James muttered weakly.
Against Regulus' better judgement, he didn't stop. Which was not surprising since Regulus tended to be a reckless drunk.
"Do you have company?" Sirius quizzed.
"No", James started causing Regulus to swirl his tongue, "ah- yea- yeah, we'll be quiet."
"Stop that." James hissed.
Sirius figured they'd placed a silencing charm after that, being that the room was dead silent.
Sirius' stomach churned.
Not because he'd heard his best friend intimately vulnerable, but because he'd wished Lily a good night moments prior.
So who the hell was James sleeping with?