part II
Twitter, January 2024
STREAM EAC ★ @thatmraudrsfan
all men do is lie
[Video of James, Peter, Sirius, and Remus leaving a restaurant together, closely followed by two security guards. Voices blend in together, and multiple clicks are heard from different directions. A voice stands out, as it asks a question.
Person, off-camera: James, any comments regarding your relationship with Regulus Black?
James: What are you talking about? That’s Sirius’ little brother
Peter begins snickering, and gets whacked in the head by Remus
Person: You guys were seen together last weekend
James: (hums) I think I would remember something like that
Sirius: I don’t think Regulus and James even know each other
The guard signals for people to stand back as he leads them to their car. The video cuts when the door opens, Peter can still be heard laughing]
│
STREAM EAC ★ @thatmraudrsfan
mind you, this was them last weekend
[Paparazzi picture of James and Regulus taken from afar. Their foreheads are pressed together and their noses are touching. Regulus has his arms wrapped around James’s shoulders]
│
sonny @fluorescentadol
tbh i will happily let them gaslight us. i feel like it’s pretty obvious that they’re together w the amount of pda they do, if they keep denying it people dont ask more questions about it
│
STREAM EACA ★ @thatmraudrsfan
fr! don’t get it twisted i’ll never complain abt them defending their privacy, i just think this is so funny
Texts between James and Funeral Grey , January 13th 2019
[7:41 a. m.]
good morning :)
i hope you slept well
i just woke up, i’m about to have a shower
[9:36 a. m.]
just met up with my boss, he’s being the worst, how’s ur morning going
[12:35 p. m.]
is everything okay?
[2:09 p. m.]
everyone seems to be mad at me today
are you james potter?
what? how do you know my full name?
because you’re famous apparently
I know your last name the same way half of london does
oh shit
how did you find out about that
so you have been hiding it from me?
i haven’t been hiding it, it just never came up
please forgive me
in all those conversations about how much your job stresses you and how your boss is such a fucking asshole it never came up that you were a famous musician?
i’m sorry
why did you lie to me?
well i don’t even know your name
i like you, but how is it fair that you get to hide your name and never want to meet, but demand to know this about me?
maybe the reason i didn’t want to tell you this is the same reason you don’t want to tell me anything about your life
don’t talk about things you don’t understand
you first
Texts between James and Funeral Grey , January 15th 2019
[3:21 a. m.]
i’m really sorry
i never meant to hide anything
it’s just that you are the only person i’ve ever met to have never expected anything from me and i didn’t want that to change
i don’t want to be dramatic but being James Potter is literally the source of all my problems
i think i just wanted to be some pretty guy you met outside a bar
[9:46 a. m.]
my name is regulus
that’s a lovely name
I have something else to tell you
oh?
it’s about sirius
James Potter’s House, March 2021
Regulus wakes up with a gasp and a pounding heart, and the first thing he notices within his panic is James’ absence. Sue him, he’s gotten used to the warmth of another body sleeping next to him.
He is no stranger to nightmares, over the years he’s gotten used to waking up with screams on the back of his throat, fighting his memories even in his sleep. He knows how to deal with them on his own by now, but he would be lying if he said waking up next to James didn’t make grounding himself a hundred times easier.
He looks around the now-familiar room. Everything is right where it should be. The photos, the broken alarm clock on top of the dresser, the dirty mirror sitting in the corner of the room. Everything is there, except the guitar.
It’s only after that realization that he notices the strumming coming from the other room. Now that he’s noticed, he wonders how he didn’t hear it before. It’s not loud, but it’s constant.
He slips out of the room, not consciously trying to be quiet. It’s more of a habit at this point, James is a really light sleeper, whenever he gets out of bed to go the bathroom he tries not to wake him. Still, when he reaches the living room and James doesn’t acknowledge him he makes no efforts to alert him of his presence.
He hears him murmur words to himself, as he strums his guitar softly.
“ Now I’m mad and I don’t know why
All I know is that this isn’t fun”
James stops strumming and sighs in frustration
“Now I’m mad and…I’m mad… and and and… fuck”
The guitar drops on his lap as he runs his hands through his face. Regulus takes the temporary silence to make his presence known.
“Writing something?” he asks. The second he speaks James freezes up and when he turns to look at him his face is tense. He relaxes quickly, but not quickly enough for Regulus to forget it.
“Hey,” the other boy greets with a soft smile, “I thought you were sleeping.”
“I could say the same to you.”
James sighs again, “This song just refuses to sound right.”
“Maybe it’ll sound better tomorrow, why don’t you sleep on it?” he suggests, only to be met with immediate refusal.
“I can’t sleep right now, I need to finish this.” He says, then he picks up the guitar from his lap and resumes his strumming without waiting for a response.
“Why do you need to finish it?”
James pauses abruptly, “I told Sirius I almost had it yesterday, I–it should be done today.”
“Why?”
“Because this is important!” James snaps. He almost looks regretful, but he doesn’t apologize, he doesn’t even say anything.
The tone almost makes Regulus jump back, almost makes him leave. It was not yelling, not really, but it was a lot colder than he had ever heard him be. It’s not something he expected from the warmest person he knows.
He takes in James’s tense posture and the almost desperate tone of his voice, remembers the way he jumped when he snuck up on him. James isn’t acting like himself right now because he’s not okay. Regulus has never been the best at dealing with other’s emotions, but for James he thinks that he can try.
“Do you mind if I sit?”, he asks.
James shakes his head, and when he sits across from him, he squeezes his hand.
Extract from: 'The Marauders' Share Their Truth in Tell-All Interview. Released on December 2023
James: …It’s definitely better to be by ourselves, but I feel like I can’t get over the idea that I should be writing all the time. Even without someone breathing down our necks, unlearning some behaviors is still a work in progress
Sirius: We actually–Can I tell people about this? The break, I mean?
James: (shrugs) You can tell people anything you want
Sirius: We actually–thank you—we had to take a break in between writing the album, because James got too into it and was overworking himself again. It was only like half a year but it was the most important thing we did during our hiatus as a band.
James: I…wanted the comeback album to be perfect, I didn’t want to disappoint anyone. I did realize during our break that that just wasn’t possible, and–
Sirius: And thank god for therapy!
James: And (chuckles) yeah! Therapy is the best! Because…ever since I was fifteen I’ve been trying to write a song that was better than the last. I’ve been trying to prove to everyone that I deserve to be here. And whenever we received any negativity I took that as proof that I hadn’t done a good enough job, proof that the only reason we were here was luck. But…it really is impossible to make all of you happy and trying to do that was killing me, it was killing us . I think Comeback is the first album where we’re not trying to make people happy, it’s just an album for us. I’m happy to share it with all of you, but if this album bombs and nothing comes of it, I know we love it
Studio, October 2022
“Can I show you something?” James asks hesitantly.
Sirius nods but is confused, James hasn’t been nervous about showing him something he’s been working on in years.
“It’s not–” James says, but then he pauses and starts his sentence over again, “It doesn’t have to be released, it’s very angry.”
“So was ‘Numb’ .”
“This is…let me just show you. I recorded it ages ago.”
James Potter’s voice notes, December 29th, 2019
(playing ‘LIKE IT’ on guitar)
I feel cursed on tour with a big smile on
Do I do this for a living or a death?
Because I want to get away
but I’m always in situations
where instead of being creative
I’m making business decisions
And Albus and Warlock keep fucking us over
This is all such shit! How am I expected to stay sober!
Studio, October 2022
It’s not what Sirius had expected, and as much is clear on his face when the recording is over.
He’s about to say something, anything to break the silence that had taken over the room, but Sirius interrupts. “We need to release this.”
“Really?” he asks.
“Yes, James, this is fucking amazing. We need to finish it and we need to release it.”
“So you like it?” he asks hopefully.
“Like it? I love it.”
Twitter, October 4th 2023
The Marauders Official @themarauders ✓
are you guys free december 1st?
│
lucy @themarrauders
WHAAAAAAAAAT
│
koi fish @thatmraudrsfan
always available for you bbgirls
│
sonny @fluorescentadol
OH WE ARE SO BACK
James Potter @jprongsp ✓
i’m so so ready for all of you to finally hear what we have in store. if all our previous albums have been like our children, this one is my favorite baby! and he’s such a good one! EPIC, AWESOME COMEBACK comes out worldwide at midnight on december 1st and i am BUZZING
[picture of Sirius cross legged on a carpeted floor with a guitar on his lap and his chin resting on top of it] [picture of James and Sirius with their faces pressed up side by side, James is wearing clunky headphones]
[picture of James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all curled up on a sofa, sleeping]
│
James Potter @jprongsp ✓
i hope you’re all as stoked for this as i am, we really have some of my favorite songs we’ve ever written on this record+you get an extra og feel because this is the second record in our career where ONLY sirius and i wrote the songs (1st one being our 1st)
│
James Potter @jprongsp
i know sirius loves it as much as i do, and so does everyone that worked on this album. it’s good to finally be free to release things we wouldn’t have thought about releasing before. cover reveal coming soon. ANYWAYS DEC 1ST BE THERE OR B SQUARE. PRESAVE NOW
│
DOLLY ⚞•⚟ @doll_pr1ncess
OH RAMBLY JAMES TWEETS HOW I MISSED YOU
│
Miles @whothefckismiles
i WILL be reading all that and i am so happy this happened
Sirius B. @spadfootb ✓
‘EPIC AWESOME COMEBACK’ is our most honest, sexiest, angriest work so far. it’s going to come out december 1st at midnight, and i had the pleasure of writing it with my lovely best friend james, and having it produced by my gay boyfriend remus and not gay best friend peter. it’s available for presaving right now.
[Picture in the studio of Remus holding Sirius’s face, James is in the background with his face pressed up against the glass of the recording booth staring at them, Peter is fiddling with the mixing desk]
│
James Potter @jprongsp ✓
why this picture :(
│
sheets @gae_yah
living for the energy going on in this picture
│
Marlene McKinnon @mmckinnon ✓
why are perer anf remus not called lovely
nick is dead @sexylilswine
as an early (old) fan, james’s latest tweets is making me feel emotional. he used to post tweets like that for every single youtube cover the marauders posted, and he did it for the ep and then he stopped. we have our boy back yall we did it. after nine years, after everything, it’s still him
Marauders Updates @marauderssource
The Marauders have announced their fifth studio album, titled “EPIC, AWESOME, COMEBACK”
│
bean @worlddevastator
these boys have never been serious about anything idk why i was expecting them to be serious about a new album title
Tiktok, November 1st 2023
[Video description:
Sirius and James are sitting next to each other in a conveyor belt. Sirius is holding a keyboard, the intro to Dream Boy begins to play and he starts smashing random keys that don’t match the music, then James begins singing
James: Am I the boy you dreamed of?
The video cuts abruptly, just as James begins to sing another sentence]
themaraudersofficial DREAM BOY OUT AT MIDNIGHT TOMORROW X