6
After the sorting and the meal, everyone left the great hall and the younger years- years 1 to 4- were all expected to go back to their common rooms.
This meant that the marauders were free to do as they wished for 2 hours. Sirius and Remus, however, claimed that they were “tired from the journey” and “just want to rest”, which meant that James and Peter could not go back to their dorm even if they wanted to- Sirius and Remus were not resting, they were doing anything but.
James made up some dull excuse about wanting to send his parents a letter and therefore needing to go to the Owlery. It wasn’t farfetched, though, as he actually did send his parents a letter every September 1st. But tonight, he was just trying to get to the Owlery before 8 o’clock- he had five minutes.
As James made his way up to the roof of the owlery, James hoped that Regulus hadn’t forgotten or gone to bed. He clambered up hap-hazardly and relaxed as soon as soon as he saw the back of Regulus’ hair, illuminated by the late evening glow as the sun was slowly making its final descent behind the Scottish hills and mountains.
He got onto the roof and steadied himself, as not to fall off, and walked over to Regulus. As he got closer to Regulus, who was on the other side of the roof, he could smell the thick scent of cigarettes wafting over to him. “Those things could kill you, you know.” He joked as he came up behind Regulus. James had clearly startled Regulus a little, but not enough that he stamped it out like he had with Lupin, in the summer.
James came and sat down next to Regulus, he plucked the fag out of Regulus’ fingers and sucked on it. Regulus shot him a look but didn’t complain, he actually thought it was kind of hot. They sat there and shared the rest of the fag, and then another, in pure silence. Eventually, Regulus’ eyes drifted down to James’ school jumper, where he saw two little metal pins sitting just under the collar. They read “Captain” and “Prefect”. Regulus rolled his eyes and smirked, “Of course you got both captain and prefect.”
James just looked at him and shot him a signature cheesy James smile. “Yeah! If I want to do professional Quidditch- which I do- then this was, like, essential. And being a Prefect is a load of fun! I get to do patrols at night which means I get to be out of bed later, and I do patrols with Evans!” Regulus visibly tensed at the mention of Lily Evans. James clearly noticed and knew he needed to reassure him. “Don’t worry, Reggie, I don’t like her anymore- I don’t think I ever actually did, I think I liked the idea of liking her, but we’re still proper good friends.”
“I don’t like it, but I trust you, James.” James leaned over and kissed Regulus, he tasted like cigarettes and roast beef and potatoes. James smiled into the kiss- Regulus had eaten, at least a little.
Pulling out of the kiss, James clapped his hands together, “Right! We’ve got just over an hour and a half until we have to leave to walk back to our common rooms- we don’t want to get seen by a prefect, especially not as I am one now- so that’s an hour and a half of snogging my perfect boyfriend.”
Regulus rolled his eyes- Merlin, was James sappy- but he secretly loved it. “Yeah, yeah, whatever, you’re okay too, I guess.” At that, James gripped Regulus’ face and smashed their lips together. This kiss was so passionate, so desperate.
James gripped Regulus’ hair and suddenly pulled on it, hard. This evoked a loud groan to come from deep in Regulus’ throat. Startled, Regulus froze and pulled back, wide-eyed. James smirked at him. “Wha- h-” Regulus had no words, what had just happened?
“You like having your hair pulled!! I had a feeling!” James was laughing at Regulus, which made him feel embarrassed. “Is that a bad thing?” James seemed shocked by that, “What? No! Of course it isn’t, in fact, it’s brilliant.”
Something dawned on Regulus, “How did you know I’d... react... like that?” James was looking deeply into Regulus’ eyes, almost staring.
“I mean, I realised I was different during my 4th year and I went to Remus for advice. He was my first kiss y’know- he said I could kiss him if I really thought I liked boys- and he said I should experiment. I found out that a lot of the boys in mine and your years have a thing for having their hair pulled. It’s quite normal, especially if you have a delicate scalp. But I promise, you can trust me, Reggie, you’re all I want.”
“Oh.” It hadn’t dawned on Regulus that James would have done... stuff... with other guys, he thought James was just one of the gay boys who had been straight all their lives until they met someone, but apparently James is more developed in the sexuality department than him.
“Wait. Boys in my year?” Regulus suddenly remembered Barty mentioning “getting it on” with a 5th year Gryffindor last year. He hadn’t believed him of course, but...
“Yeah, mostly Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, but there was one rather nice Slytherin, he had dark brown hair, dark eyes, pale skin, a weird name...” Regulus panicked, “Barty?” James snapped his fingers, “Yeah! Barty! Why? Do you know him?”
Regulus scrubbed his hands down his face, “I share a dorm room with a guy who’s shagged my boyfriend.” James’ eyes widened, “Oh, shit, Regulus I’m so sorry, I had no clue.”
James felt really bad, but he seriously had no clue, and... “By the way, we never actually shagged, we just made out and he gave me a shit blowjob, I think he was high.”
“Oh my god, that is perfect! He’s been bragging about shagging a Gryffindor boy for so long!” Regulus gave a massive smile, and James melted.
“Has anyone ever told you you’re adorable and the most precious thing on this Earth?” James asked. Regulus simply just stared at James. “Shut up.” “No, it’s true.” James smiled, that’s how Regulus knew he was telling the truth.
Regulus still couldn’t stand James’ smile- literally, it made his knees weak- he shined like the sun. To cover up his blushing (and to stop his knees from actually collapsing), Regulus kissed James.
James wrapped one hand around Regulus’ waist and tangled the other up in Regulus’ hair, but didn’t tug on it- this kiss was gentle and sweet, not hot and full of passion like earlier.
Soon enough, the full hour and a half had passed and James and Regulus found themselves climbing back down from the Owlery roof and making the trek back to their common rooms.
Regulus now knew a few things:
1. He was fucked, truly and irrevocably fucked
2. Sirius could never find out
3. He had a lot to tell Dorcas tonight
and
4. Whoever said homosexuality was a sin, clearly hadn’t experienced James Potter tugging on their hair whilst snogging their brains out. 10/10, he recommends, it will change your outlook on life.
“Come on,” James said, “I’ll drop you off at your common room, I’ve gotta meet Evans for my prefect rounds anyway.” Regulus knew there was no point in arguing with James when he had his mind set on something- so he rolled his eyes and linked his fingers into James’.
They walked to the entrance of the Slytherin common room in comfortable silence. Once James had dropped Regulus off at the entrance to his common room, he made his way over to where he was meeting Lily for patrol.