James was quite possibly the happiest he had ever been in his seven years at Hogwarts. It may have taken seven years but he was finally in close proximity with one Lily Evans. He could feel her hair under his chin, and he had an arm wrapped around her waist. What a perfect day it was.
“I swear to god Potter if you don’t take your hand off my waist I am going to shove my wand so far up your —” Lily was cut off by the third member of their little group.
“Shut up, I swear to god if we’re caught because of you Evans I’m going to kill you, I don’t care how much James would cry,” Sirius replies, shoving her slightly under the invisibility cloak they were all hiding under.
Lily may have been a prefect, but even she couldn’t be out when not patrolling. Seeing as looking for her missing best friend would only get Pandora in trouble, she settled for ducking under the invisibility cloak with the two marauders instead. They had no such good excuse, and were planning a prank on professor Flitwick for the following evening, when Filch walked by the three gryffindors, forcing them to hide.
They were about to take the cloak off when a tall dark haired boy turned the corner walking away from them and entered a classroom at the end of the hall, looking surreptitiously around as he did. Why Regulus Black, Sirius’s slytherin younger brother, was walking around the corridors at night was anyone’s business, but the two marauders intended to make it theirs.
“Come on little Reggie’s up to something, probably on his way to torture some muggleborns,” Sirius snarked, with a disgusted look on his face.
Though James had never discussed it with Sirius, he knew that Sirius still cared for his brother. But after getting kicked out and Regulus doing nothing about it, James knew he would never be able to forgive little Regulus Black. Even Sirius was starting to realise Regulus was not worth caring for..
“I am not spending any more time with you two than I have to,” Lily whispered angrily, “I’m here to find Pandora, not spy on blood supremacists.”
Just as her words died, the blonde girl herself turned the corner and headed straight for the classroom the other sixth year had just disappeared into.
“What about now?” Sirius said, giving a quick shove towards the room in response to Lily’s gobsmacked expression.
The three of them managed to sneak through the door, and settle in a corner half hidden behind a desk, just before Pandora closed it and turned to face Regulus, who was sitting on a desk, gaze trained at the floor. James didn’t even know the two knew each other, and couldn’t imagine any reason for a late night meeting. Not that it was impossible for slytherins and gryffindors to be friends, but he was sure this specific relationship would’ve come to his attention. He was sincerely hoping they weren’t spying just for the two to exchange a few notes from some shared class. He turned to Sirius and Lily in turn, just to see both had their eyes fixed on the couple.
“Well, is it true?” Pandora said in an icy tone, initiating what was previously a stiff silence.
“I think you already know the answer to that,” Regulus responded, still staring at the floor.
“Will you not even look at me as you betray me, as you betray everything we stood for!” Her voice had started to rise, just as Regulus’s eyes rose to meet hers.
“What would you have me do, Pan!” He responded, just as loud as her.
James realised this relationship was much deeper than he could have imagined. If the possibility of betrayal wasn’t enough, the nickname slipping from the lips of one so stoic was. He could see Sirius and Lily were just as shocked by this familiarity as he was.
“I would have you talk to someone, or better yet leave! Leave that horrible family!” Pandora’s hands were gripped together, as if the only thing preventing her from reaching out and shaking the stubborn boy in front of her.
“Who can I talk to, Dumbledore?” Regulus replied, brushing off the last comment, “We both know how that would turn out.”
Pandora looked flushed with anger, “Of course I don’t mean Dumbledore, I’ve already tried, but he turned me away —”
“You mean he turned me away,” Regulus spat out, “And stop trying to help me Pandora, you’re just making it worse!”
“Making it worse! I can see you’re doing well enough on your own, otherwise you wouldn’t have that ugly mark on your arm.”
If the three witnesses to the conversation had been talking, all would’ve gone silent. James looked to Sirius in concern, but couldn’t glean a single detail from his face. A sure sign that he was concealing every emotion that wanted to burst from him, but his wide eyes betrayed his shock and anger, despite his best attempts to cover it up.
“You think I wanted this! I couldn’t help it!” Regulus replied.
This was news to James, who thought that every day the younger Black brother was counting until he could join the dark ranks of Voldemort.
“Just because you are too cowardly to stand up to your own parents doesn’t mean that it’s not possible Regulus! Look at your brother!” Pandora seemed to be growing more angry by the minute, and Regulus wasn’t far behind.
James knew that this was why Regulus had stayed behind when Sirius ran, why Sirius resented his brother so much. For never having the guts to stand up to their parents. For being sorted into Slytherin instead of Gryffindor. For Pandora to say it to Regulus’s face took either extreme courage or desperation, James bet no one had ever said it to him before.
“You think I have the freedoms he had? You think I wouldn’t if I could? Do you think that’s why I joined!,” Regulus shouted, “It was for you, you idiot!”
Pandora’s anger seemed to cool, though it didn’t disappear, “How could you becoming a death eater possibly benefit me Reg? How?”
Regulus ran a hand through his hair, in a shockingly similar way to Sirius when he was anxious. James agreed with the blonde, wondering how Regulus could convince himself of such a statement.
“She took me to your house Pan.” He finally looked back up into her eyes, a haunted look shadowing them, “Bellatrix took me just outside your house and told me to pick, she could kill you then, or I would serve faithfully. I don’t even know how she knew …. I don’t —”
The boy seemed to fracture before them, and collapsed into Pandora’s arms, who quickly moved forward to embrace him, a shocked look on her face.
James broke his eyes away and looked into Lily’s eyes, she turned to stare back at him with tears running down her face; from the injustice, the deceit from her closest friend, or the shock of it all; James didn’t know.
James heard a sniffle and looked back up to see Regulus’s cold exterior back in place, a look of determination.
“But it’s okay Pan, I’m a good occlumens, I’ll be able to hide from him, it’ll work.”
“Regulus what are you saying,” Pandora said, the first signs of fear creeping into her voice, despite spending her night arguing with a death eater.
“I can get you information, Dumbledore trusts you even though you tried to convince him to help me,” Regulus said, a note of steel creeping into his voice.
“Reg, you’re being crazy, you can’t be a spy, it's too dangerous,” Pandora said, gripping his arms tighter.
James privately agreed, as realisation at the suggestion dawned on him. Spying on Voldemort, who was said to see into his followers minds, was a dangerous game indeed. Sirius let out a choked sound, which was only covered by Regulus sliding from the desk to embrace Pandora.
“I have to do something Pan, I’m not about to go down without a fight,” He smiled down at her once more before she leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, and sobbed as their faces pressed together.
This time Lily was the one to react, and James just managed to put a hand over her mouth, covering her choked sob.
The two exchange quiet words of love and friendship that even in the small room, the trio could not make out. Pandora was the first to leave, James could see the tears rolling down her face as she hurried out. But Regulus stayed for a minute longer staring at the door she had just exited solemnly, until he suddenly grabbed his left forearm in a jerky manner, and swiftly followed in Pandora’s footsteps. But James knew he would be turning left and exiting the castle to apparate outside of the grounds instead of following his friend back to his respective dorm.
As the silence echoed around them, James finally pulled off the cloak. Sirius stood still as Lily walked over to sit in the spot next to where Regulus just was. She put her clasped hands up to her mouth and bit the knuckle, looking at Sirius. It was no secret that Lily and Sirius never got along, always the prefect and troublemaker, so it came as a surprise when Lily was the first to speak.
“Sirius, are you okay?” she said softly.
James was wondering the very same but couldn’t bring himself to be upset with Lily for asking first. Sirius looked like he was close to tears. James moved in front of him, pulling him into a seat at a desk near Lily’s.
“Sirius, do you want to talk about it?” James finally asked, knowing this could go in a number of directions if Sirius didn’t open up quickly.
Sirius finally looked into James’ eyes, “I left him there.”
“You heard him, there wasn’t a choice, he wasn’t going to leave anyway Padfoot.”
“I spent every year since he got sorted into slytherin treating him like a disgrace. And he was just getting the same from our parents. He had no one to tell him he had a chance.”
James couldn’t argue with Sirius on that. It seemed even someone as close to Regulus as Pandora wasn’t able to get him to leave that home. And now it was too late.
Once more Lily was the one to offer words of comfort, “When someone has their mind set on something, it is difficult to change it,” she looked at Sirius with tears in her own eyes, “You are only human Sirius. You can’t change yourself, even if you think it benefits someone you care for. Helping him when he wasn’t willing would only mean bringing more harm to yourself in that house.”
James could tell that Sirius didn’t believe her, but he was willing to pull himself together for now. Suddenly James remembered the other member of the conversation, Lily’s best friend, and commended her ability to push her own feelings aside in favour of supporting Sirius. While he didn’t know what they would do with their newfound information, James knew this was changing everything. The knowledge that two students, younger than the three sitting in an abandoned classroom, were so deeply entrenched in this war, was proof of how much their existence was about to change.