It was a normal day.
James had stayed the night in Regulus' dorm, much to Evan and Barty's distaste, and had successfully made it back to his room without alerting his dormmates. Well, he may have woken Remus up when he accidentally knocked a pile of books over, but it only mattered that Sirius didn't find out.
James had been dating Regulus for two months, but he was still absolutely terrified to tell Sirius. Especially after Regulus had come to stay with James and Sirius at the Potter's house and the Black brothers had rekindled their relationship,
Since then, Regulus had been invited to every Gryffindor party, along with his rag-tag gang of Slytherin friends. Plus Pandora, of course.
James' opinions on Regulus' friends were... alright, to put it lightly. He adored Pandora and Dorcas, meeting both of them because of the fact they were dating Lily and Marlene. Dorcas was the life of the party, and Pandora was one of the most genuine sweet people he had ever met. Even Evan was nice, sharing James' witty sense of humour. But Barty...
Barty seemed to hate James with every fibre of his being. James could not hang out with Regulus without Barty yapping with them, standing alongside them and shooting James dirty looks. He seemed to have a personal vendetta against James for no reason whatsoever.
Sirius and Remus found this hilarious, as whenever Gryffindor would host a party and Regulus' clique would show up, Barty would always find a way to be petty towards James. Whether it was spilling beer on his shirt, cornering him and challenging him to arm wrestles, it was always something with him.
Anyways, Remus' birthday was nearing, and it was coincidentally also the week after the Gryffindor quidditch team had beat Slytherin in one of the most brutal games of the season. Regulus, the Slytherin seeker, had been neck and neck with the Gryffindor seeker, a 5th year girl one year younger than Regulus, named Max. They had been speeding on their brooms, but in the end Max had caught the snitch and it had been declared a Gryffindor win.
It was the day of Remus' birthday, and James was buzzing with excitement for the party.
"It's party day!" James grinned as he waltzed into the common room where Mary and Marlene were studying while eating their breakfast, "Why are you studying?! It's party day!"
"Happy birthday, Remus!" Marlene called, not lifting her head from where she was scribbling notes into her Transfiguration book, "Its NEWT season, James. A girl's gotta pass to become a curse-breaker, am I right, Mary?"
"Yes," Mary replied, chewing a piece of bacon, "Happy birthday, Remus! Lily's getting ready, but she said when she comes down she wants everyone to give you their gifts. Is that good with you?"
"Thanks Marls, Mary. Yeah that's alright, me, James, Sirius, and Peter will just go and get food." Remus said, "Come on, guys."
James obediently joined Remus, Peter, and Sirius by the portrait hole and began to leave.
"Ah, I can't wait to give you my gift, Moony!" James grinned, turning to Remus, "You're gonna love it!"
At this, Sirius rolled his eyes, "Remus, you have to open mine first, I'm your boyfriend, so you'll like mine better than Prongs'"
"That sounds more like a threat," Peter chuckled as he opened the door to the Great Hall, "Let's compromise and say that Remus will like all of our gifts equally, right Remus?"
"Um, okay?" Remus replied.
"Happy birthday, Remus!" Pandora called from the Slytherin table, "Can't wait for the.." She looked around and leaned closer, mouthing the word 'party'.
Remus gave her a fond smile and a thumbs up, to which she beamed back at. It was one of the strangest friendships of the year, Remus, Lily, Pandora, and Regulus had formed a kind of study group and had become close through it. James had no doubt that they probably gossiped about him and Sirius, but it was up for interpretation.
"Come on, hurry up, Lily's probably ready already!" Sirius called urgently as he stacked two plates up with pancakes, "Oh no, Moony, don't fill a plate, this one is for you!"
James laughed to himself as he got himself food and turned to Peter, "Sirius isn't gonna let Remus do anything himself today, is he?"
"No," Peter whispered back, "I doubt Remus is going to be allowed to go to the bathroom alone."
James chuckled and turned back to the Slytherin table, where Regulus was talking to Pandora and nodding seriously at what she was saying. As if sensing his gaze, Regulus turned to James and gave him a covert wave, which James returned.
He was interrupted by Sirius grabbing his wrist and tugging him out of the room, all four of them running up the stairs to the Gryffindor tower.
They burst into the common room, where the girls were standing over a pile of presents.
"Remus!" Lily grinned as she caught sight of him, "Happy birthday! Here, open mine first."
"Hey, what about us!" Sirius complained, going ignored.
Lily shot the boys a smug smile as Remus began carefully peeling of the star-patterned wrapping paper of a flat, square-shaped figure Lily had just given him. It was an ABBA record, one of Lily's infamous favourites.
"Ugh, Lils," Remus groaned, "You don't get real music."
"You promised to listen to ABBA all the way in 5th year! You owe this to me, Lupin," Lily scolded, "Now open.. Mary's!"
Remus ripped open a package and grinned at the bottles of firewhiskey that was revealed.
"Now this is more like it," He said, kissing Mary on the cheek, "Perfect for this evening."
Marlene's gift was a muggle CD of the moon landing, which they all laughed at the irony of. (Get it? Remus is a werewolf!) Peter's present was a potion, that was revealed to be the Felix Felicis potion Peter had brewed in his Potions tutoring with Slughorn. Remus was especially pleased with Sirius' gift, which was an enchanted tattoo gun designed to give moving tattoos. The Slytherin group had also left a joint gift for Remus, a huge box of Remus' favourites sweets and chocolates from Honeydukes. Last was James' gift, which was a 4-book set of a book series about a group of bandits in an imaginary universe, stealing magical artifacts.
"Thanks guys!" Remus grinned as he put on the Bowie t-shirt that the Gryffindor seeker - Max- had given him, "You guys beat any other year with the gifts, congratulations."
"Only the best for our Moony," Sirius smirked, smacking a big kiss on Remus' cheek, "Now, towards Transfiguration!"
**
After a very long day of birthday wishes and singing at Lunch and Dinner, it was finally time for the party. Remus himself had chosen all the music, being too much of a snob to let anybody else. However, James had been enlisted by Lily to sneak ABBA into the playlist, and he had been successful.
Now, everybody was trickling into the room, including Regulus and his friends.
"Reg, Dora!" Remus cried, making his way to the door with a bottle of firewhiskey in his hand, "Come in, come in! Marlene mixed the drinks, they're top notch." Then, leaning closer, "Sirius made some too, don't drink the Firey Lupins, they're killer."
James laughed to himself and went to where the music was playing and covertly switched to the ABBA song, sending Lily a wink and a thumbs up from where she was talking and laughing with Pandora. She winked back and began grinning as 'Lay All Your Love On Me' began playing.
James then spotted Regulus across the room, drinking alone. So James stumbled forwards, smirking.
"Come here often?" He asked, tucking a brown curl behind his ear.
Regulus rolled his eyes and leaned closer, "No, show me around?"
James grinned and gave Regulus a kiss on the lips and began leading him around the common room, "This.." He gestured to the couch where Emmeline Vance and Mary were giggling, and Gilderoy Lockhart was passed out, "Is where the drunk kids pass out or the girls flirt and end up making out."
Regulus nodded, obviously holding back a laugh, "Wow, James! Anything else you want to show me?"
"Look, it's your brother!" James cried, "Hey Sirius, over here!"
Sirius unlatched his hand from Remus' and whispered something in his ear, then came over to James and Regulus. James giggled, and whispered in Regulus' ears, 'I think they're going to kiss later'.
Regulus pursed his lips, trapping his laughter in his mouth.
"Hey there, Pads. Kissing Moony again?" James teased, "Try not to let them alone together, right Reg?"
"Right," Regulus nodded solemnly, "Can't have that."
"Oh please, Mr. No Bitches," Sirius laughed, "At least I'm dating someone!"
"I am dating someone!" James frowned.
Sirius looked very amused, "Who, Lily? Hate to break it to you, but she doesn't like bo-"
"No!" James rolled his eyes, "Reg!"
Sirius went silent, and his eyes widened as he looked between James and Regulus. He let out a strained laugh, "Ha... Funny joke, Prongs."
"Yes," Regulus glared, "Funny joke, James."
"Uh oh," Peter whispered very loudly to Barty and Evan, "The cat is out of the bag."
James, who had realised his mistake, rubbed the back of his head, "What cat, Peter? It was just a joke, wasn't it Reg?"
Regulus opened his mouth, but Sirius beat him to it. Literally. By punching James right in the nose. James' hands immediately went to his nose, which was terrifyingly crooked and bleeding.
"James, run!" A drunk voice came from behind him. Mary? He was too high for this.
So James, still clutching his nose, began running from his best friend. He ran out of the portrait hole, ignoring the indignant huffs of the portraits he ran past.
"How - Dare - You - Defile - My - Baby - Brother?!" Sirius shouted from behind him, "You pervert!"
"He's only one year younger!" James cried, ducking past a terrified First-Year, "Run for your life, there's a Padfoot on the loose!"
James ran for his life. Right into Professor McGonagall in her infamous tartan pyjamas.
"Minnie!" James cried, "Save me!"
"What is the meaning of this, Mr. Potter?" She asked, raising an eyebrow, "Ah, Mr. Black, how nice of you to join us. What's this I hear about a 'Padfoot on the loose'?"
"Er, a boy with sanitary pads stuck to his feet? None of us though, Miss." Sirius replied.
"Yeah, not us," James nodded angelically.
"I find that very hard to believe. But I will make an exception, just this once. It's my favourite student's birthday today!" She winked, turning around and back into her resting quarters.
"Favourite student? Moony!?" Sirius scoffed, "He doesn't even turn up half the time!"
James smiled, "I mean, he is a werewolf. And your boyfriend. Are you jealous?"
"You don't get to talk, brother-fucker. When did it start?" Sirius scowled as they began walking back to the common room.
James paused, then sighed, "About... Two months ago."
"Two mon- Wait! That was when you were finally starting to get over Lily!" Sirius responded, "Now it all adds up!"
"Well, you can't get mad at me, because you dated Moony for six months before you told me. You told Marlene before me!" James said, "Truce?"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Truce. But no more secrets, except what you and my brother do. I'd rather not know about that."
"We had sex."
"Shut up, James!"
"We-"
"The wound is too fresh."
"Fair enough."
THE END! (Finally)