James had thought of an excellent prank while doing his Charms homework on colour-changing spells. Since he had spotted Peter earlier sneaking off with some Hufflepuff, there was no use in telling him about it now. Sirius on the other hand was most likely still where James had left him in the dorms two hours prior. He had made a funny face when James had said he wanted to go to the library to study but had neither offered to tag along or made fun of him. And if James was honest with himself, the only reason he actually went to the library was to ogle Regulus while he studied. Sirius tended to get in the way of that, since he could not spend more that five minutes sitting still without annoying anyone. While leaving the library James cast one last longing glance Regulus' way who was so absorbed by his book that he completely missed it. Evan Rosier, who was sitting next to him, raised a single eyebrow at James when he caught him staring. James made a hasty retreat.
Taking two steps at a time James rushed up the stairs to the dormitory and burst through the door. What he found was Sirius and Remus. Naked. On his bed.
“Are you fucking serious. You promised. No more fucking on my bed.”
Sirius just giggled trying to hide under Remus' larger body. Remus turned bright red. That didn't stop him from spewing absolute filth at poor unsuspecting James. “Well I was, now if you would kindly get out, so I can get on with it.”
“But, but, my bed.”, James stuttered helplessly. “Prongs! Get out!”. Sirius more moaned than yelled while trying to lob a cushion in James' general direction.” And for the second time that day, James fled.
—
Two days later Regulus sat down for breakfast at the Slytherin table between his two best friends all he wanted was his coffee and a scone. What he did not want was his hair to turn a rather horrible shade of crimson red, Gryffindor red, if you may along with the rest of his house. Evan, who had auburn hair by nature, didn't seem to mind that much, if Regulus had to be totally honest it kind of suited him. Barty looked as though he couldn’t decide between wanting to hex every single Gryffindor he could get his hands on or maul his ridiculously attractive boyfriend. He did not even want to think about what he looked like. most likely the crimson clashed horribly with his skin tone. Regulus glared at the Gryffindor table, narrowing his eyes suspiciously at his brother Sirius who was howling with laughter along with his friends. On top of seemingly getting the ultimate kick out of this childish prank all four Marauders looked extremely smug. Now Sirius was pointing at him while clutching Remus arm, so he wouldn’t fall off the bench, he was laughing that hard. Remus just grinned and looked fondly down on the collapsed heap that was Sirius.
Regulus pushed back from the table and started marching over to the Gryffindor table sporting a murderous glare. He duly ignored Barty, who had thrown himself at Evan as soon as Regulus had gotten up. “You!”, he hissed as soon as he reached the table pointing an accusing finger at his brother who had started hiccuping and had tears of laughter streaming down his face. “Stop this utter nonsense you dickhead this is not funny!”
Regulus was practically yelling at this point, which in turn attracted quite some stares. “On the contrary my dear Reggiekins this is extremely funny, but alas I am not the mastermind behind this very entertaining prank.” Sirius was still hiccuping slightly while talking, grinning like a loon. “You see this is a prank engineered by the one and only James Potter!”
Regulus shifted his murderous stare from Sirius to James. He tried to ignore the way his heart fluttered at the sight of him, and how good his hair looked styled into a tousled heap. James grinned at him and Regulus' resolve melted a little. James grin on him felt like bloody fucking sunshine. “You!”, he blurted out, still furious at the utter humiliation he felt. James leaned forward in his seat and murmured, “Yes, Reggie. Me!"
At this point Regulus was so flustered that his brain refused to work, the only thing it came up with was yelling. Unfortunately what Regulus yelled was, “ Are you fucking serious.”
Opposite of James, Sirius looked as though Christmas had come early. He had already opened his mouth, undoubtedly wanting to make a rather stupid pun when James started talking.
“Of course not, that's disgusting. Quite like incest. And besides, that’s Remus' job!”
Sirius started laughing uncontrollably again while Remus turned bright red and tried to hide his face in his hands. Regulus was completely thrown off course by this turn of events that he completely missed that James had gotten out his wand and had ended the blasted spell that had gotten him in this position in the first place.
When Regulus looked back at him, shiny black curls around his face once more James smiled at him. “Shame really”, James whispered, “I happen to think you look good in red.” And if Regulus replayed that exact moment in his head more times than it was healthy for the next two weeks that was nobody's business.
—
When Regulus showed Sirius his engagement ring years later Sirius was speechless. It wasn’t that he hadn't known that this was coming. Hell he had helped James set it all up, but seeing his baby brother actually wearing the ring was something else entirely. “..and anyway”, Regulus was saying, “we were thinking a September wedding.”
James, who had an arm around Regulus' waist had a blissed out look on his face, undoubtedly imagining Regulus coming down the aisle. He had been making that face ever since Regulus had said yes.
Remus came through the door of the living room levitating four mugs of tea, setting them down on the coffee table. Then he sat down next to Sirius, resting an arm on the back of the sofa behind Sirius' head. “Have you decided who your best man will be?”, he asked mildly, idly playing with one of Sirius curls.
“Yess, ", Regulus said excitedly, “ I am going to ask Barty, because if I ask Evan Barty will make a huge fuss over how I was his, and how could I betray him like that.”
Sirius, who had been expecting to hear his own name, was shocked. “I’m sorry, did you just say you are going to ask Barty to be your best man?” His voice kept getting louder throughout the question but Regulus just looked at him unimpressed.
“Yes, brother, that is what I said.”, he answered primly while sipping his tea. Sirius could not hold it in any longer. “Are you fucking serious?”, he roared. James tried and failed to not burst out laughing. Regulus managed to look even more unimpressed. Next to him Remus chuckled and turned his head to whisper into his ear. “Here was I thinking that that was my job, love. And besides, why do you think he chose Barty over you, mmh?”
James eyed that exchange with interest, suddenly making sense of the situation. “You plonker, Sirius. Reggie didn’t want you to be his best man because you’re gonna be mine!”
And if Sirius nearly cried like a baby when he saw Regulus walking down the isle from his prime spot next to James, Remus, appointed ringbearer, just had to take a photo. As evidence. Or as an inspiration. For their own wedding.