Optical Illusions
It was the night of the season opener between Puddlemere United and Appleby Arrows when they managed to get together again.
Sirius and James had managed to convince Remus to watch the match with them, against all odds. They were always talking about how the NHL was so much better to watch than college hockey, but he had never relented, steadfast in his belief that the world would be a better place without either. James couldn’t completely disagree with him, seeing as it was one of the only sports you were allowed to just fight with your fists. The second the gloves came off, the ref’s wouldn’t stop you until one of you hit the ice. James always thought it was kind of grotesque, though you could always just keep your gloves on. If one of the players didn’t remove their mitts, the ref’s would jump in immediately.
And here Remus was, witnessing it all. They had been lucky enough to see two defencemen go at it during the first period. Sirius and James let out excited ‘oooohh’s, while Remus looked horrified.
“Why is no one stepping in, they’re literally punching each other bloody!”
That made both of them laugh. It wasn’t that he was wrong, James just found it funny every time he saw someone point out the ridiculousness of what he was taught to do. Of course, Euphemia and Fleamont would have never allowed him to do anything like that, no matter how angry he got, but he couldn't deny that it was a big part of the sport.
“It’s just the game, Rem.” Sirius chuckled, but Remus was not convinced.
“How?” he managed to spurt out in a rather impressively high pitch. “They’re assaulting each other out there!”
It wasn’t as if he was completely unfamiliar with the brutality of the sport, he’d been to enough of Sirius and James’ games, but the rules were a bit different in the NHL. For one thing, they had the concept of ‘dropping the mitts’. In college hockey, you’d see checking and roughing and some angry pushes, but fighting weren’t allowed. You’d just look dumb trying it.
“It’s more like a mutual assault.” James defended, but Remus huffed in response.
“That’s still assault, James.”
He shrugged. The fights were one of the things that made hockey hockey. The fans and players were a bit of a sadist when it came to that, cheers roaring every time gloves were thrown off. In the NHL, they weren’t even required to wear face shields, so the hits went directly to the face.
As the game progressed into the second period, James and Sirius had to cheer loudly. Jack Peters from Puddlemere scored the most beautiful goal they had seen in some time. All alone against three Appleby’s and the goalie, but he’s just too fast for them to catch up. Then he proceeded to backhand it in the goal skating backwards after a hit.
“Oh my fucking god!” Sirius yelled in joy, grabbing at his hair. James let out a maniacal laugh, feeling as happy as if the goal was his own. It was no secret that Peters had been his favourite player since he’d started college. The guys would sometimes call him James Peters to mock him.
“What a fucking beauty!” he groaned into his hands. Truthfully, it was like watching his very own dream. When he got out of college, his goal was to get straight into the NHL, playing for the Puddlemere United. Jack was the most brilliant left winger he’d ever seen, and it would be the biggest honour of his life to share the ice and position with that man.
“What just happened?” Remus asked as James and Sirius had quieted down. James couldn’t help but shoot him a sceptical look.
“What do you mean what happened, he just scored?”
Remus huffed out a laugh, and Sirius raised an eyebrow. Was Remus even paying attention? All this convincing just for him to sit and daydream about other things while watching. Disrespectful if you asked James.
He rolled his eyes. “Yes I saw that, but you didn’t get that excited for any of the other goals.”
“Well that’s because the other goals wasn’t that fucking beautiful.”
“Or Jack Peters.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “Or Jack Peters.” he repeated anyway.
During the game, James couldn’t help but notice Sirius checking his phone quite a bit. Yes, he could be a bit glued to the screen every now and then, but he never let it distract him from anything hockey related. He tried looking over, but he didn’t seem to sense the attempt at contact. He put his phone back in his pocket, and continued watching the game.
Though Remus and Sirius were as close as they got, James was fairly sure Sirius wouldn’t actually confess to anything if he asked now. He was too much of a closed off guy, and just wouldn’t speak about things when there were more people in the room. It was admittedly a strange mental block, but it was real for him, so James held off.
Three more goals down, and Puddlemere United took the win by two goals, making James and Sirius lose it again. Sometimes he thought about what he would do without his love for this sport. Where would he shamelessly scream in joy and anger alike without it? Would he still watch it if he didn’t play? It had taken over so much of his life, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret a single moment of it. The community it created, the shared highs and lows, the sense of being a part of something. He loved every single second, but he couldn’t say equally. The moments where your favourite team won was definitely one of his most favourite. Wasn’t it everyone’s though?
“They’re just too fucking good.” James clapped. He noted Remus observing them, but not saying or doing anything. He knew how big he was on letting people enjoy what they enjoyed, free of judgement, no matter his personal feelings.
Sirius was chuckling at the screen. James’ biggest betrayal in his entire life was Sirius admitting to him that the Montrose Magpies were his favourites.it had been like a knife to the gut, just the thought of them ever playing for rival teams. That had been way back in high school, but they were still arguing about it to this day. Their biggest issue was finding out which one of them they’ll want to go to, since they at least agreed on not being separated. He didn’t really think that would be too much of an issue, seeing as they were notorious for their quick communication with each other. You’d be foolish to try and get one without the other.
“Well, whatcha think then?” Sirius asked Remus with a playful look. If James had to guess, he didn’t like it all that much. He was a really big pacifist, actually. Would have been terrible at hockey, really.
Remus shot a grimace as he lifted his shoulder. “I like college better.”
All the anticipation built up in Sirius seemed to be deflated at that very second, and he slapped his hand down on the kitchen counter as he sighed. Mostly, this was Sirius’ fight.
They’d met Remus a little after they took the move down here. Sirius had been severely depressed, even skipping out on hockey practices. Along with having to take care of Sirius, James had been far too drained to properly get to know any people beside the new team players the first few weeks. There were these breakdowns where Sirius would go out of his mind, doing all sorts of crazy things, before then hitting a low where he’d barely get out of bed. At first this was almost every week.
James remembered every second of it, the terrified realisation that his best friend in the whole entire world was doing so awful. Sirius could go days not responding to anything. James remembered thinking that he wished that it was like seeing a completely different person, but it wasn’t. He didn’t ever think he could see Sirius for anything other than Sirius. What he saw was his best friend fighting for his damn life.
During a particular bad week where Euphemia had resorted to keep him home, James was left by himself. It was during that week that he realised that nobody there really knew him. Sure, he was James Potter, the overly cocky hockey player and the class clown, but that was just it. James wasn’t really any of those things. That was Sirius. It felt so unnatural to him, being the centre of attention. Without Sirius there as a reason to keep the attention on him, it got too much. He started going to one of the empty classrooms during lunch just to have a place of refuge from everything.
One of those days, Sirius had blown up on him when he tried to get him to come to morning practise, screaming at him in a way he had never seen him do before. He’d kept it together until lunch, but that was about it. He sat in that classroom, alone, with a sandwich in his hand and tears on his cheeks. He had been sure that there was nothing he could do to help Sirius any longer, no matter how much his mother tried to convince him that he needed him.
It was then he was interrupted by a small knock on the door.
James looked up from the crumpled up white paper that had once contained his lunch. At the door was a taller guy he’d seen sometimes during English. He didn’t wait for permission from James, just walked in, taking a seat right in front of him. James wiped at his face, sending him a questioning look, but the guy had ignored it, keeping his warm brown eyes locked on him.
“I’m sorry,” he said with a kind smile.
Much to his own surprise, James broke down on the spot. He had no idea who this guy was, but those words hit him in a way he didn’t think they would. If he’d asked him what was wrong, James would have probably deflected it by saying it was nothing, but this left no room for denial. It addressed James’ tears as a fact and not a question, making it impossible to lie about it. He held his hand as James let his tears flow.
After that, he and Remus became fast friends. They would hang out every lunch, and later on, hanging out after school. At first, Sirius had hated him for reasons James couldn’t understand, but he supposed there wasn’t really anything rational about him during that time. The work to build himself up again was slow and agonising, but it happened.
The moment James finally let his breath out after months, was when he’d gone to get some water after playing cards with Remus and Sirius, then returned to find them chatting and chuckling about something. He hadn’t gotten a breakdown in a while, but this was the first time in months he’d laughed with someone other than the Potters. It was the biggest step he’d taken in a while. Shortly after that, he’d returned to play hockey again, and everything took a sharp upturn from there. He’d made friends with the team, gotten some other people to talk to besides James and Remus, and he would voluntarily attend school again. This was not to say everything was perfect again, but it was better. Sirius was quickly filling in his own spot James had carved for him, and James could return to actually being himself.
Even though Sirius enjoyed making a spectacle out of himself in school, he’d always retort back to James Remus at the end of the day. Of course, since the very first time Remus had visited to see the small cup James had won for scoring the most during a season back in Britain, they had tried getting him to watch a few games with him. It was almost a routine, asking him only to be rejected. James had mostly given up, but Sirius had been adamant, refusing to accept that Remus didn’t like it.
It only got more intense after Remus got an interning position with their team's PT in Gryffindor, Sirius taking this as a sign from above that he secretly enjoyed it. Of course, James had been aware from the start that they didn’t even get to pick out where they would intern, but Sirius seemed to be purposefully living in denial.
“Of course you like college better, you little pacifist.” Sirius complained, drawing laughs from both James and Remus.
“Well, I like that you only passively try to give each other brain damage.”
Sirius snorted at that. “That’s just James, the rest of us are just waiting for our chance.”
Actually, James had acquired the nickname ‘the pacifist’ for his refusal to be too hard on people on the ice. James in the penalty box was a rare occurrence to say the least. You might think that was a good thing if you were anything like his parents, but it was actually his current biggest obstacle to getting in the NHL. He’d been compared once or twice to Jack Peters because of his speed and puck control, but unlike him, James refused to hurt anyone on purpose, even if it would help their team win. For scouts, that was unattractive. They wanted someone that would defend their team with tooth and nail, not only score, someone like Sirius. James just didn’t have it in him.
“Well, at least one of you is being slightly reasonable then.” Remus concluded, sending a sly look over at James. He liked thinking he was being reasonable, but he couldn’t help but fear that it might one day be the thing keeping him away from the NHL.
“Everything for you, darling.” he teased with a wink and an exaggerated accent, earning him an eye roll. During one of the instances where they had actually managed to get Remus drunk, he’d confessed to James that his accent was hot, and he hadn’t gotten a break ever since.
“You disgust me, James.” Sirius accused with a finger pointed up at him. “Using moony’s biggest secret against him to get laid. Classless.”
James scoffed at him. “I don’t need my accent to get laid by him.”
Remus protested this. “You absolutely would, I’m sorry.” before taking a gulp of his water like it was beer.
“Ha, you’re just unfuckable, James.” Sirius mused much too confidently than he should have.
“Well, he didn’t say anything about whether he would fuck you.” he smiled wickedly, turning his head towards Remus. He rolled his eyes like he’d seen this coming five miles away.
“I value my health.” he simply said, making James completely drown himself in laughter.
It was probably his favourite thing about their trio, the way they always joked and made fun of everything. In some ways, that was how they knew they were accepted by each other. They would joke about the fact that Remus was into guys, Sirius being into quite a lot of people, and James’ adhd. It was all in good fun, but it was so important to James. He knew all of these jokes were made out of love and acceptance, and he found something beautiful in that.
“I’m clean, dickhead.” Sirius scoffed, but had the shadow of a smile plastered over his face. “And I wouldn’t fuck you either, for the record.”
James giggled. “That’s a first.”
They spent a bit more time talking at the kitchen counter before Remus insisted he needed to get going. Sirius looked to be heading off as well, but James stopped him just before.
“What’s up.”
Sirius frowned at the question. “What do you mean?”
Of course, he wasn’t about to just hand out sensitive information. When it came to Sirius, you had to be direct, not let any room for denial. In a lot of ways, that was probably why Remus was the one to usually take these conversations. “You were all caught up in your phone.” he said, but he could already sense failure from a mile away.
“Nothing, just talking to Regulus.” he said before turning his back to the cupboards. Glass tattled as he took out a cup and turned on the sink.
James leaned down on the counter. “Everything ok?” he asked.
He only saw the back of him, but he could tell it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about. His stiff shoulders pulled up in a shrug. “Yeah, it’s nothing.” he said, before filling up the cup.
If there was one thing James knew, it was that Sirius would only talk when he was ready. If you pushed too hard, you only risked pushing him away. He decided to do neither, giving him the room to deal with it himself.
That Monday, James had spent an extra fifteen minutes lathering his foot in chafing patches to get him through training.
He’d had this problem ever since he first put on skates, sanding his feet down to the bone practically. His mother had once said that his feet looked much like a ballerina’s, but Sirius had come back with “you’re being harsh on the ballerina’s feet”. During the last couple of weeks though, the problem had only increased, and James was sure that it was because of his increasing focus on his speed. It had taken him a long time to figure out his strongest asset, but once he did, he was on it like a hawk. If the scouts were going to be iffy about his refusal to fight, he needed to give them something that would make up for it. Unfortunately, it was more painful than James could handle without losing all of his dignity.
Apparently, he hadn’t done a good enough job hiding his extreme discomfort, because after practice, Coach called him up. It wasn’t unusual for him to have someone hang back a couple of minutes to work out a quirk he’d seen, so James internally cursed. All he wanted right now was to get these skates off his feet and peel those bandages off.
“Yes?” he asked, stopping in front of him with a ever so small spray of snow.
“Are you injured?” He said it more like an accusation than anything. In hockey an injury was probably one of the worst things you could experience. If you managed to make it bearable enough to play, someone on another team would check you into oblivion, and you’d be worse off than when you started.
“No, just some chafing, it’s fine.” he defended, dreading having to go see Fry again. She would have him hanged for not telling her about the socks she recommended not working.
Coach’s stare was still suspicious, like he didn’t believe a single word of what was being said. “Have you seen McGonagall about it yet?”
James lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “The figure skating coach?” What on earth was she going to do about it?
“You ever tried wearing one of those skates? Brutal pieces of shits.” Coach explained. “She’ll have something for you to try.”
To make a long story short, James was on the left side of the building twenty minutes later, hair damp, and his pocket light where his car keys used to be. It would have been a lost effort to try and get Sirius to walk the thirty minute walk home, so he’d given him the car.
In a weird way, everything seemed pretty much the same on the figure skater’s side of the building. The halls looked the exact same, and the rink even looked like a replica, with the exception of the dasher boards. No use for them when the audience didn’t have flying pucks to fear for, was there?
When he walked in, he passed a few people leaving, bags in hand. A duo of girls looked him up and down suspiciously, so he shot them a smile. They only half way returned it.
The room was filled with some classical music, and the metallic sound of skates on ice. James was sure he’d heard this melody before, but he wasn’t sure where.
He stepped around the corner where the stands covered the rink, and was met with the sight of a girl flying over the ice. In a split second, James finally understood that he’d never understood figure skating, ever.
He’d thought that hockey was magic while figure skating was an optical illusion.
That was not what he felt seeing this bloody fool risk her life on those damn poor excuses for skates. It was a violation to everything about ice, like hockey but for clinically insane people. They weren’t even allowed to have a good squaffle in the rink, no civility.
It wasn’t that he had never seen figure skaters before, he remembered going to a few meets with Sirius to watch Regulus, or waiting in the hall for him to get done with his practice.
This was not even the same universe as that.
A few spins was the most impressive thing he’d seen Regulus do, but what this girl was doing should have been outlawed long ago. His ex was a gymnast, and he’d get his heart in his throat each and every time she flipped up in the air or let go of that damn bar. Figure skating looked kind of similar to that, but they decided to put some knives under their feet because it would be cool.
It was not cool.
James felt like he was going to sweat, wondering when the first drop of blood would spill. The girl on the ice was doing her absolute best to disappoint Newton, doing all sorts of spins and jumps. She was too pretty to be risking her life like that.
How she didn’t get dizzy was beyond him. Sometimes his head spun after turning around too fast. He supposed he would have to get sick enough for the both of them.
The music eventually cut, and she less gracefully skated off the ice to meet professor McGonagall. She was showing something to the girl with her hands and upper body, which the skater attentively replicated a few times. James decided to wait for her to finish her practise, as it looked like she only had a couple of students left. The girl that just finished, and some boy already heading towards the rink.
To James’ surprise, a familiar head of black curls skated onto the ice. It was late and he was probably tired, but Regulus looked so energetic the second his skates started gliding. When he reached the middle, he settled into a relaxed position.
James remembered seeing Regulus’ performances a few years ago, back when he hadn’t properly taken anything the boy did seriously. Of course, Sirius was proud of his brother for just existing, but James found the whole ordeal insufferable. He’d been forced to sit there with Sirius’ obnoxious parents the whole meet, and the performances weren't even that good. The most impressive thing he had seen someone do, was when this girl jumped up on one foot to land on the other in the opposite direction. Other than that, it just looked like a bunch of children playing around on the ice with no motive.
The music started, and Regulus was on the move.
The first thing that surprised him was the jazzy and playful tune. For about two half seconds, James thought that this was going to be a disaster, like forcing Sirius to do some fancy swan lake dance. Regulus was just not jazzy.
Then Regulus’ moves really started to catch up to him.
If the music was playful, it had nothing on the way Regulus was moving. He was gliding smoothly and confidently, doing these little switches where he ended up going backwards and stuff while his body was free and telling.
In the beginning, it was amazing. James actually found himself completely drawn in and mesmerised by the movements. Regulus was kind of just dancing around, kicking his feet once or twice and doing a little spin.
Then the boy decided to try and get himself killed.
His backwards skating was getting a bit faster, and then, he did this jump where he was spinning like a goddamn spinning top.
From there, it was awful, and James hated it.
There were a few of these poses with his leg extended back, and a whole lot of spinning. A few of the moves he didn’t even bother trying to explain to himself, it was just completely mental.
When he finished, James finally felt like he could breathe again, free from worrying about witnessing a brain damaging injury. He took to skating towards his coach, but then seemed to catch James gaping behind her. He took a double take with narrowed eyes like he wasn’t completely sure if he was seeing something right.
“James?” he asked. That seemed to catch McGonagall’s attention as well. She turned her head to have a look at the intruder.
“Mr Potter, is it?” she asked with a clear and punctuated voice. She was an older woman, but the years were treating her kindly. The white streaks in her grey hair almost looked intentional. He was almost sure that it had been a trend a while back.
“Congratulations on your victory, I’ve heard all about it.” she smiled, and James nodded.
“Thank you.” he smiled. She then turned back to Regulus.
“You know what I have to say, keep those legs nice and tight during the jumps, I don’t want to see them flapping around.”
He had a hard time believing that all she got out of that routine was his ‘flappy’ legs. After all of that, James felt an intense need to hang up his own skates for good, but each to their own.
Regulus only nodded at the feedback, and McGonagall turned her attention back to James again. “Was there something I could help you with, or are you here for Regulus?”
James' eyes snapped open slightly more. “No, no, Coach sent me here.”
It seemed that this was a more common occurrence than James would have thought, judging by her reaction. Her eyes rolled back, which admittedly was a bit uncharacteristic from someone her age, but she got the point across. “Let me guess, you’re suffering from chafing?”
James nodded. “Unfortunately.”
The woman sighed, zipping up her jacket. “I’ll tell you the same as the rest, try putting an extra pair of soles in the skates, and come see me if it doesn’t work.”
James thought it seemed way too simple, but he was not about to argue. Honestly, he was just really desperate to not have his feet hurt as much anymore.
McGonagall did not wait for an answer from him, but started walking away with a tapping sound. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Regulus.” she said without even looking back. The black haired boy looked after her with long cast eyes.
In the light of the arena, his features seemed so exaggerated, like he was some cut out version of himself. All the smooth lines turned angular and accentuated, and the shadows made him look more mature. Maybe he hadn’t been completely off basis with the comparison of figure skating and optical illusions. Maybe the lights were playing all kinds of tricks in there.
“That was an impressive show.” he said, and Regulus smiled. For a few seconds his head was still turned towards the door McGonagall had left through, and James got to see it from the side. He rather liked it, actually.
“You looked like you hated it.” He had the slightest hint of mockery in his voice.
James couldn’t help but grin. “Oh I did, but it was impressive nonetheless.” Mostly, it had felt like some morbid fascination, like watching a horror movie even though you knew it was going to scare you. There was just something about watching something you didn’t want to, sort of. Like looking at a plane crash in slow motion, but being unable to tear your eyes off the screen.
“Well I should hope so, if it’s going to get me to worlds.” James could tell that he was drawing out the time, likely waiting for James to leave. His skates were still on his feet, so he probably planned to stay there after practice.
It was one of the things James had taken the longest to get acquainted with. Regulus was no longer the boy that stood up for himself, that spoke his mind when there was something he had to say. He had been a lot like Sirius in that regard, which had turned a lot of things into a much bigger argument than it had needed to be.
“You’re being lame.” Regulus had complained, rolling his eyes. He had just turned Seven, and had learned what an attitude was. Sirius had found it absolutely infuriating, but James thought it was funny how he didn’t see that he was just copying his older brother.
He had taken to trying and acting all confident like Sirius, but he wasn’t doing too good of a job at it. The differences between them became too obvious once you paid a bit of attention. Sirius was a bit of a pessimist at times, always bruting and complaining about something, while Regulus was such a happy child. Every time he saw someone he cared about, his face would practically light up.
“Stop being so dramatic, we just don’t want to play hide and seek anymore.” Sirius had shot back with just ast much attitude.
“I'd love to, actually.” James said. Regulus' eyes snapped to him, big and hopeful.
“Really?” he said with so much enthusiasm it had made him laugh.
“Yeah, I love hide and seek.” he smiled. There wasn’t a day that went by without James remembering Regulus hulking out the words ‘then why don’t you wanna hang out anymore?’. He’d promised to never do it again, and James didn’t break his word if he could help it.
“Regulus, you have your own friends, stop trying to steal mine!” Sirius yelled angrily, making James jump. It was at this age that he’d started shoving himself as more nuanced than what he initially let on.
“He’s my friend too!” Regulus defended. James wasn’t sure whether or not he should have interfered, but he didn’t want to make things worse. He quickly learnt that fighting was just a part of being brothers, but they had never fought over him before.
“You can’t have everything that’s mine!” Sirius said before storming off.
Regulus had started sniffling, dangerously close to crying. James didn’t want that, so he had quickly diverted his attention. “Are we playing hide and seek, or what?”
Regulus' eyes had widened in joy again. Turning the weather was rather easy when it came to him. When someone mostly just wanted to be in a good mood all of the time, they just needed the slightest push in that direction.
They played round after round where James would try his best and scare Regulus while he seeked, and Regulus’ giggling and running off when James found him during his turns. Every now and then, James would try to be clever by changing his hiding places, but Regulus had sharp ears. The second something moved, he snapped around to locate it.
“Yeah, it’s getting you to worlds, alright?” James chuckled. He was no expert (or even someone who knew a fair amount) in figure skating, but there was no way there were people actually doing anything better than that. At least he hoped that there weren’t, because he didn’t think he could handle that.
“Maybe, maybe not.” He tilted his head back and forth a couple of times, like he was doing that ‘ish’ movement of the hand, only with his head.
James could almost laugh. He wasn't sure if Regulus was just being humble or had no faith in himself. “Well, I certainly wasn't expecting it at least.”
He furrowed his brows and slightly tilted his head, though he made no move to ask a question. James decided to answer it anyway. “It’s just, you weren’t this good in middle school.” It was probably stupid, but it was really the only thing he could compare it with. The last time he’d seen him skate was a couple of weeks before James moved to the US, and Sirius ran off with him. Regulus didn’t want any of them there, but they had come anyway. He’d been decent, doing a couple of cool tricks, but nothing even near the scale that James had seen him do today.
“Well, did you just expect me to suck?” he asked, with a light tug on the corner of his mouth. It had been a long time since Regulus had carried their conversation this way, steering it the direction he wanted it to go. Drowning in something like nostalgia, James decided to follow his lead, completely blind.
His face grimaced lightly. “Well I wouldn’t use the word suck, per se..” but Regulus cut him off with a light shove. There was something glinting in his eyes, something humorous, and James finally felt like he could recognize him fully. He hadn’t even realised that Regulus hadn’t looked quite like himself, that there had been something missing in the equation.
“I’m gonna start showing up at your practices and tell you that you suck.” he chuckled.
James shook his head and pulled his shoulders up. “But I don’t suck!”
“Well neither do I.”
“Touché.”
Regulus had the exact reaction he’d expected, just like the one Sirius would give; the most unimpressed eye roll you’d ever see. Those French snobs were never impressed with anyones attempt. “Have you ever even watched figure skating beside my old meets?”
“Well, no.” he confessed. “I thought it was a bit boring.”
Regulus’ eyebrows shot up. “Boring?” he said in disbelief.
“Just ice hockey for really scared people.”
“Really scared people?” he repeated.
In hindsight, he realised that this had been incredibly stupid. James was probably the only scared one. He couldn’t picture anything worse than being forced into those monstrosities with fangs on the end, just to then jump up in the air.
“Hockey is more like figure skating for people that weren't talented enough.” Regulus claimed boldly, and James' jaw dropped.
“Hockey is hard.” he defended. He could accept being scared, but he drew the line at calling hockey easy. “You have to have control over the puck, and you have to be fast.”
Regulus snorted. “Don’t lie to yourself, you people are slow.”
He practically gasped at that. If there was one thing James knew on the ice, it was speed. “We’re faster than you at least,” he countered with a too confident tilt in his head. “You’re being slowed down by that chainsaw hell on the tip of your blades.”
Regulus folded his arms like he was sizing him up. “Is that so?”
“It is.”
Regulus seemed to get a mischievous look in his eyes. They travelled down from James’ eyes to where his bag hung heavily at his side. “Are those skates?” he asked, and James couldn’t help but immediately break out into a grin.
“Oh, you are so on.”