Mary aggressively wiped away the tears from her eyes. Merlin, she can't believe she'd been crying. She was Mary MacDonald for merlin's sake! She never cried over boys, why should girls be any different?
She had been so sure Lily liked her back, all those lingering touches and stolen glances. It felt almost comical, but she should’ve known better, she should've never made a move on her, she should've never kissed her. Because now her best friend has been ignoring her for two days, Mary doesn't know how much longer she could've handled.
She was planning on talking to lily after dinner, to apologize, tell her that it was all a misunderstanding. But of course that was all before James Potter had to go and ask her out in a stupidly obnoxious way like always.
Well, if Mary's being honest it isn't really like always. He had stopped doing that since the beginning of the year (which was part of reason Mary made a move on lily, James was still her friend she wasn't going to go and kiss the girl he liked). Actually, the whole school had been wondering what happened, and even lily seemed a little confused, And Mary could've sworn she seemed relieved, but turns out she was wrong because Lily had actually said yes to James. And well Mary didn't stick long to see what happened after that. Reluctantly she found herself going to the astronomy tower. She doesn't come here a lot, at least not as much as James, now that she thinks about it.
"Oh." She breathes out as she realizes who's sitting on the ledge of the Astronomy Tower, clearly drunk.
Denebola black--- oh, wait it was Regulus now.
The whole thing had been quite a scandal back in the summer. Everyone had heard about it. How the Black's youngest had announced that he was transgender. How they had kicked him out. How he showed up at the Potter's manor bruised and bloody. How they took him in with no hesitation. How he and his brother had been slowly mending their relationship ever since then.
Mary was happy for him, and for Sirius too of course, but she certainly didn't expect seeing him here out of all people.
"Shit, sorry to interrupt baby Black I wasn't expecting any one here"
Mary could tell he seemed shocked. He continued to stare at her for a few minutes, before he said. "Fuck it I'm too drunk to care, you can sit if you want."
Mary was a bit taken back for a minute. She hadn't expected that. "Thank you?"
She sat down next to him on the ledge, but they didn't talk. Eventually the silence started to kill Mary so she decided to try small talk. "So, do you come here often?" He sighed and handed her the bottle of Firewhiskey he'd been drinking "Just take it I'm not gonna finish it all by myself anyways."
"Oh, I mean if you insist." she should've realized he wasn't the type for small talk.
She hesitated "I'm sorry for everyone finding out about y'know." everything that happened in the summer
He only glanced at her before looking up at the sky longingly "No need." he said. "That's only one of the reasons I'm here." He then smirked "getting pissed" He said in a sing song voice.
Mary let out a chuckle
"How about this." She said "I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours"
He nodded his head "Deal"
"Alright" She started. "I won't give you many details."
"My best friend and I have always been really close, but lately there's been this sort of pull .A force that's making me want her in a non-platonic way. And for a while I thought it mutual, and I know she doesn't really take the initiative in this sort of thing sooo," Mary realized she'd been rambling for a bit. Regulus was looking at her with his eyebrows furrowed, like he was connecting puzzle pieces. "I kissed her but then it all became weird."
"And now she's dating the guys she 'hated' and I don't understand her."
Regulus seemed to regard her for a moment. "You kissed Lily Evans?" He asked.
Mary felt her cheeks burning, she gave too many details. "You figured that out by yourself okay?" She said with a glare.
"Fine, fine." He huffed.
"It's ironic you know, I'm here because of him." Somehow Mary knows that the 'him' is referring to James Potter. "We weren't dating per se, but we've sorta been dancing around each other. Then, one day he kissed me, and I was surprised, But before I could talk to him about it he went and asked Lily out, I think he was scared.”
What? James likes (liked?) Regulus? Then why did he ask out Lily? Is he playing with her feelings? Oh Mary is gonna kill him if that's true. If really liked Lily then why did he kiss Regulus? Was he playing with Regulus' feelings? No, James wouldn't do that. Mary had a million questions. "That's shit." Was what she settled for.
"I know." Regulus replied.
Suddenly Mary had an idea, a crazy one.
"Hey." She said. "We could do something like extremely funny y'know."
---------------------------------
Regulus has done a lot of stupid shit in his life.
Sure not as much as his brother or his friends, but he has his fair share of dumb decisions. For example that one time he, Barty and Evan found weed in one of Slughorn’s drawers while they were in detention, and decided to smoke it. Naturally, one hour later Horace Slughorn walked into his office to find three Slytherin boys high off their arses, without getting any of their work done, and instead of admitting it was his weed, he gave them more detention.
Regulus swore to himself that day he’d never do something that stupid ever again.
Yet here he is, agreeing to Mary Macdonald’s stupid plan.
“What are you doing?” Regulus asked as Mary ruffled his hair after smearing some lipstick on his lips.
“This way it’ll looked like we snogged.” She responded.
“Uh huh, what are we supposed to be doing anyway?”
She looked at him before she sighed.
“Come on black, we’ve been over this. Right now it’s early morning which means there aren’t too much people in the Great Hall, but enough people to make sure that if something happened it would spread. Perfect time to announce a relationship.”
He stared at her blankly “So?” He asked.
She rolled her eyes “we’ll walk in there do some couply shit, and then we go our separate directions and you let me deal with all the questioning”
He continued to stare at her blankly before sighing and saying “ This isn’t going to work, I don’t even like women”
“Well, they don’t have to know that now do they?” She replied
“This isn’t going to end well.”
“Stop being so pessimistic and come on now will you, we’ll never know unless we try.” She proceeded to grab his hand and drag him along to the direction of the Great Hall.
Well, here goes nothing.
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James Potter was the luckiest man in the world. He was Captain of the quidditch team, he has wonderful grades, friends, family, and today he’s supposed to be going on a date with Lily Evans. He should be happy right? Yet he can’t help but feel that something is missing.
Regulus
James looked up when he walked into the Great Hall. He could always sense when Regulus was near for some reason, like he can hear the beating of his heart from miles away.
It was only a few weeks ago when Regulus ran away after James kissed him on the Astronomy Tower. James was devastated after that, yet when he took some time to think for himself, he realized that maybe he didn’t have feelings for Regulus. Instead he diverted his attention to Lily Evans, of course everyone knew about the embarrassing crush he used to have on her, since he was always loudly declaring it. So, yes, James asked her out, and surprisingly enough, she said yes.
This morning they were all sitting, having breakfast at the Griffindor table, except Mary, which Marlene had been continuously whining about since Mary had borrowed her favorite cherry lipstick and still hasn’t returned it.
“There she is!” yelled Marlene far too loudly.
That’s when James realized Mary was standing with Regulus, and they were holding hands. What?
“What’s Sirius’ brother doing with Mary?” said Peter, voicing out everyone’s confusion.
“No idea mate.” Said Sirius with his eyebrows furrowed, something James knows Remus finds cute.
That was when Mary leaned and kissed Regulus’ cheeks before waving goodbye to him. Huh? Now James was really confused.
He glanced at lily, she seemed confused just like the rest of them, yet there was a hint of curiosity in her eyes, and something else James couldn’t name. However, before James could think about it too long, he was knocked out of his thoughts as Mary sat down next to them.
“Good morning everyone.” She said, a bit too cheery.
“Good morning-“ Moony tried to respond before Sirius cut him off jumping straight to the point.
“What the hell were you doing with my brother?”
Mary gave him an annoyed look.
“What? Am I not allowed to hang out with him?”
“No, I just want to know why.”
“Well if you’re dying to know, I just wanted to say goodbye to my boyfriend before school starts.”
What? Regulus and Mary were dating? How? When? And why was James’ heart beating so fast because of it?
He glanced at lily again only to see the same panic and confusion in her eyes.
What? James wanted to yell, but Sirius beat him to it.
“WHAT!”