"To Try Again"
They lost, again.
Slytherin won again.
With all that it was worth, the Gryffindor team was great.. but Slytherin was better.
Dorcas Meadowes as a chaser.
Barty Crouch Jr as a keeper.
And Regulus Black as a seeker.
They were unstoppable.
James and the others tried and tried over and over again, to beat the Slytherins, but they couldn't.
Dorcas was too fast at scoring the quaffle.
Barty was way too good at keeping quaffles out of the ring.
Regulus was too skilled a seeing and catching the snitch.
It drove James mad.
And it didn't help that James couldn't seem to take his eyes off Regulus either.
With how graceful and just pure hot he was on a broom- or anywhere really; James found himself staring at Regulus more and more.
He couldn't help how fucking hot Regulus was to him.
The Gryffindors would try to beat Slytherin, they tried every game, but they seemed unbeatable.
James was going to try again to tell Regulus how he felt, for it couldn't go any worse than a their last game together.
And last time he tried, he just ended up hyperventilating midsentence, then running off.
James walked down to the Great Hall for lunch, trying to take deep breaths to keep from hyperventilating; which was kinda working.
He walked all the way over to the Slytherin dinner table, to where Regulus was sitting next to Barty Crouch Jr and Evan Rosier.
James didn't like those boys too much.
And they did not like James either.
James cleared his throat, trying, and praying, his voice wouldn't crack or anything.
"I um, hey, Regulus-"
"What the hell do you want."
That was Rosier, his voice sounded cold and unfeeling, which James supposed, was how all of Slytherin sounded, at least to him.
"Aren't you supposed to be with the Gryffindors? Why the fuck are you here in the presence of royalty, also known as the house of Slytherin, when you are so clearly unworthy."
And that was Crouch.
'Fuck, I- I shouldn't have come here, fuck-'
"Both of you, that's enough. Potter, what do you want?"
James looked up from the ground to look at Regulus, who wasn't kind in the slightest, but seemed like sunshine and rainbows compared to Barty and Evan.
"I um.. I want to talk to you.. is it okay if we can like go somewhere to talk..?" James asked, his voice nervous and timid.
James wouldn't admit it, but fuck he was scared of Rosier and Crouch; who wouldn't be though.
"Umm sure? After dinner, I'll come find you. Okay?" Regulus asks, ignoring the looks of pure distaste on Rosier and Crouch's faces.
"Yeah, um yeah that works," James agrees and quickly leaves first chance he got.
No way in hell was he going to be around Rosier and Crouch for any longer than necessary. Just something about them made them scary; he had this strange feeling that they'd turn out real bad for someone.
* * *
"Really, Reg? You can do a thousand times better than little Mr. Sunshine."
"Shut up, Evan."
"Fine, but you don't get to complain when me and B kiss anymore, you apparently gay bastard."
"Whatever."
"That's the spirit, Reg, you need to just say whatever more; the more you say it, the more we're allowed to do," Barty says with a smirk.
Regulus ignores them both; it didn't bother him in the slightest, they were best friends, this is how they talked, he was almost smiling. Almost. And Regulus continues to ignore them as they not so subtly kiss and make out with each other before leaving the dining hall to do god knows what.
Regulus loved his friends, even though he didn't show it much.
. . .
James and Regulus met up after dinner, Rosier and Crouch no where in sight to James's relief.
"So, Potter, what do you want to talk about-"
"I like you."
James just blurted it out, internally screaming; his face reddening.
Regulus stands there, processing the words James had spoke.
"You.. you what now?"
"I. Like. You. In a nonfriend way."
James said it nice and clear.
But god did James feel stupid as hell.
"Potter.. why?"
"Why what?"
James asks, perplexed by the question and feeling stupider by the minute.
"Why would anyone, especially you of all people, like me."
"Because you are smart and you are nice and all of you is just incredible and well your looks are far from just 'fine' you are fucking hot, and you are good at everything you do and like why wouldn't anyone like you?"
James said it all in a quick rush, but Regulus caught every word.
James's face was getting redder and redder with every second word he spoke.
Regulus is nice and quiet for a long moment.
"You think that? About me?"
"Uh.. yeah?"
Regulus doesn't know what to say.
In his eyes, he was never worthy enough for love.
He didn't want to feel love.
He didn't want to have to have his heart broken because he loved.
In his mind, no one would ever love him for long, once they knew him.
"I need a minute."
Regulus was trying to straighten out his racing thoughts.
Because, well, for one, James Potter was out here confessing his love for him and Regulus was looking more and more stupid.
And two, his freaking crush was out here confessing to him-
"I have a lot of boundaries, I have a lot of secrets I don't ever feel comfortable to share, and I can guarantee you won't love me by the end of the month if even gets that far. But I guess.. maybe.. we can give this thing a trial run."
Regulus finally says after five very long minutes of just silence.
"Really??"
"Yes."
Internally, James was jumping for joy, and shouting how fucking lucky he was, but out loud he just says,
"I would love to give us a shot, Regulus."
Regulus nods, very unsure of his feelings because they were there and they were strong and he didn't know what the fuck any of these feelings meant.
"So um, like, wanna hang out sometime..?"
James mumbles very hesitantly.
Regulus hesitates before saying, "Okay, sure."
James's face lights up, he didn't expect any of this to be going this well.
Regulus was very unsure of his feelings right now, but he hadn't a moment to try to figure it out when Evan yelled for him.
"Reg! Come on! We're gonna be late to practice!"
Rosier is heard yelling for Regulus to join him, Regulus mumbles a simple goodbye for walking off to join the others.
Gryffindor might not have been able to beat Slytherin, no matter how many times they tried.
James might not be able to beat Regulus in Quidditch, but James, he was walking on air knowing that he'd be able to hang out with Regulus.
That was worth a lot more than any Quidditch win.
And boy did it feel good.
-
[Word count: 1085]