The Maroon Room
5 Minutes Earlier
You AND Reggie??? If you get this before I see you, meet me in the Maroon Room.
- Prongs
“Do you know if he’s here yet?” James asks the employee who had just delivered Sirius’ note informing James that he and his brother are coming tonight.
“I haven’t seen him yet, Your Majesty, but I will keep an eye out for him,” the employee says as James hands him the note.
“Thank you, Gideon,” James says, lost in thought, confused by Sirius’ note. Why would Regulus be coming tonight? He steps back and feels something under his foot behind him. There's a grunt of pain and James quickly jumps, turning to see who he has bumped into.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, James thinks.
“Shit! I –” he stutters, “I’m so sorry, Regulus. Are you okay?”
James reaches a hand out to steady Regulus, who is hunched over with one foot slightly off the ground. Regulus quickly looks at James, still looking pained, but also a little shocked. James is confused until he sees Regulus’ eyes shift to James’ hand on his arm. James pulls his hand away, silently admonishing himself.
“Sorry,” he says again, “I’m sorry.”
Regulus straightens himself, still looking annoyed and a bit skeptical.
“It’s fine, Potter.”
James is taken aback a little and intrigued by that. Potter?
“Are you alright, Your Highness?” Remus is suddenly there.
“It’s James , Remus.” He glances at Regulus whose eyes were twinkling with light amusement, “That goes for you too, Regulus.”
James smiles and Regulus rolls his eyes before walking away. He tries to stop him, but is interrupted by Sirius calling his name from a couple feet away. James’ heart skips a beat in excitement from the sound. He whips his head around to see his best friend with a very anxious look on his face. James is taken aback and quickly makes his way over to Sirius.
“What’s wrong?” Surely Sirius wasn’t upset about James stepping on Regulus’ foot, right?
“Who’s that?” Sirius asks quietly, nodding towards Remus.
James looks over his shoulder at him and says, “Oh that’s my new security detail, Remus.” He looks back at Sirius whose eyebrows are still scrunched up, “Wait – you recognize him too, don’t you! I knew I recognized him! Where do we know him from?”
Their eyes meet and Sirius’ mouth opens and closes as he seems to be searching for an answer.
“Can we go somewhere else?” Sirius asks. His jaw is clenched and his eyes are trying to silently communicate that he can’t explain now.
James hesitates, “I – can’t. I’m already so behind on these dances.” He tries to catch Sirius’ eyes, searching for a clue about what is going on. “Are you okay? Did he do something wrong or..?” James trails off, at a loss for what Sirius could be upset about.
“No!” Sirius says, firmly. He shakes his head and repeats, “No, I’m fine – he’s fine. Just – let’s talk about it later.” Sirius forces a smile and James arches an eyebrow at him in disbelief. “I’m good,” Sirius tries to reaffirm him. “But, uh,” Sirius adds, “don’t mention me to him.”
James’ confusion is plain on his face, but Sirius is his best friend and he would trust him with his life, so he accepts that Sirius will explain everything later.
“Alright,” James says, sighing, just as Mary comes up to them.
“Sorry, lads, got caught by a couple friends of my dad’s on my way over and had to do the whole small talk thing,” she smiles so brightly at James and he smiles back, pulling her into a hug. “Happy birthday, James.”
“Oh, please, we celebrated my birthday plenty back in March,” James grins at Mary, remembering the night at the club.
She laughs and eyes Sirius who is tapping one of his feet restlessly and keeping his eyes forward, as if he doesn’t even want to look at Remus standing a couple feet behind James.
“Well, I believe you are required to dance with me, James. What do you say we get this over with?” She cocks her head and James bows slightly, extending an arm towards the dance floor. Mary laughs, making her way onto the floor and James follows. He glances back at Sirius who meets his eyes briefly and then turns to go find Peter or Andromeda, presumably.
James and Mary get out on the floor just as the musicians in the corner of the room begin the next song.
“Watch the hand placement, James,” Mary teases with a smirk.
James can’t help but smile back. He has always liked Mary. She’s funny and there is always a relaxed air around her that he, and many others, find comforting. Mary is one of those people who comes off effortlessly cool. After years of being friends, James knows that she actually tries really hard, just like everyone else, but he thinks that makes her even cooler.
“What was that about,” she asks, nodding towards Sirius, who has now found Peter and a fresh glass of champagne.
“I’m,” James hesitates, “not sure,” he sighs, looking back at Mary. “We think we’ve met my new security guard before, but I can’t figure out where. I think Sirius remembers, but he didn’t want to tell me here, for some reason,” James shrugs.
James has learned not to push Sirius too much.
“That one?” Mary nods towards Remus, standing to the right of them at the edge of the dance floor, watching. “With the scar?”
“That’s the one,” James nods.
“Hmm,” Mary hums and turns her attention back to James, “What happened there between you and Regulus?”
“Nothing, I just stepped on his foot like an idiot,” James frowns at the reminder of the interaction. He had wanted to offer to get Regulus an ice pack or something.
“Hmm,” Mary says, looking at James skeptically.
“What?” James asks.
“Nothing, you just seemed really… flustered,” she says it nonchalantly, but there is a twinkle of mischief in her eyes.
“Well,” James searches for a reason for why he had been so flustered, because she was right, he had been. “Yeah, I mean, I haven’t seen him in years . I was surprised to see him here. And I stepped on his foot. That’s all.”
Mary nods, but doesn’t seem convinced, “Did you see that their cousins are all here too?”
“I saw Andromeda, but not the other two,” James says and then freezes, causing Mary to clumsily stop dancing too.
“What?”
“Fuck,” he swears and begins to move them along to the dance again. “That means I have to dance with them,” he shakes his head, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath. The idea of spending a whole song this close to Narcissa, let alone Bellatrix, is painful.
After dancing with Mary, James finds Dorcas, or more like she finds him.
“How many more dances?” James asks, rolling his neck and his shoulders back. Dorcas pulls out a small notepad where she’s been keeping track of who he’s danced and talked with.
She counts the remaining names and answers, “Five.” James holds back a groan and leans over to look at the remaining names on the list; two of which are Bellatrix and Narcissa Black.
“What do you think?” he asks Dorcas. “Get them over with first or put them off until the end?”
Dorcas looks up from the notepad and shrugs, but after a moment of thought she says, “First.”
James nods and takes a deep breath with his hands on his hips, trying to steel himself. He looks around the room and spots Narcissa talking with Regulus. Of course , James thinks, but then he spots Bellatrix menacingly laughing at a nobleman she’s speaking with. He turns back towards Narcissa and Regulus and thinks embarrassing himself in front of Regulus again may not be as bad as facing Bellatrix right now.
As he crosses the room, James becomes self conscious and can’t shake the sensation that he is either walking way too fast or weirdly slow. James reaches a hand up to his face to push his glasses up his nose and is appalled to find his hand is a bit shaky. He shakes it out by his side and internally tells himself to chillout.
When he reaches the two cousins he stops in front of them and waits for them to pause their conversation and look at him, but they… just keep talking. Narcissa let a small laugh escape her in response to something Regulus says. He’s wearing that rare smirk of his and James’ attention gets caught on it, but not long enough to distract him from how awkward it is that he is standing there and they are ignoring him.
James clears his throat and they both casually turn their heads towards him. Narcissa cocks her head, Regulus raises his eyebrows, and they both look James up and down like they can’t imagine what he is doing there.
“Uh…”
James is panicking, and James doesn’t panic in these kinds of situations. He just doesn’t. He has always been able to charm people, he has always been a socialite, but here he is blushing in front of Narcissa and Regulus Black.
He swallows and tries to force himself to only look at Narcissa.
“Narcissa, I was wondering if you would like to dance?”
The sentence does not come out smoothly at all, but James keeps a smile on his face while internally cursing himself for showing his panic in front of them. Narcissa’s expression does not change at all, she… just keeps looking at him.
After an uncomfortably long pause, she finally deigns to respond, “No.”
James thinks Narcissa is walking towards him and is utterly confused until she passes him, close enough that they brush shoulders.
As she passes she says, “apologies,” with a small smirk.
James’ mouth had fallen open during the interaction and remains that way when he looks back at Regulus with a confused expression. Regulus, who had already been struggling, can’t take it any longer and bursts out with a laugh before stuffing his hands in his pockets and walking away shaking his head at the ground.
He’s always walking away , James thinks in astonishment. He looks to Dorcas across the room who seemingly saw the whole interaction and gave him a shrug. She had been wrong about nobody rejecting him, but no one could’ve predicted that the Blacks were going to show up.
James thinks he needs a minute before he attempts to dance with someone else, so he looks around the room for one of his friends.
James spots Narcissa standing with Lucius Malfoy, a Nobleman and Member of Parliament who is very open about wishing the Blacks had won the crown all those centuries ago. He has always had a distaste for Lucius, but it isn’t just the Potters vs. the Blacks thing – the man is hateful, prejudiced, and horribly entitled.
The Prince tries to keep a look of disgust off his face as he returns to his search. Finally, he spots both Sirius and Peter talking at a table and he can’t help but smile as he makes his way over to them.
“That, honestly, was probably your best case scenario though,” Sirius says.
“Yeah, you didn’t have to dance with her. If only that German Princess had rejected you,” Peter laughs.
Among the women James had danced with through the night, he hadn’t had many bad experiences. However, the dance with the German Princess had been difficult .
“She just didn’t seem to understand that I don’t speak German,” James explained. “I’m sure she’s a wonderful woman, but…” The three of them dissolve into laughter.
“Okay, but what was up with the teenagers you were dancing with when I got here?” Sirius said once they got a hold of themselves.
“Well, they asked and I felt bad saying no, so –”
“Uh oh,” Peter cuts James off, looking past James and Sirius with wide eyes.
James and Sirius turn to see what Peter is looking at and find Bellatrix heading right for them. Sirius claps James on the shoulder and grimaces.
“Good luck.”
James turns to try to follow Sirius as he walks away, hoping to play it off like he didn’t see Bellatrix, but before he knows it she has a strong hand on his forearm and is hauling him onto the dance floor.
“Well, well, well, Jamesy, I heard that you’re required to give every eligible woman here a dance. Too bad it’s only women, right,” Bellatrix nods at him with her eyebrows raised like they share a secret. James is so overwhelmed by being suddenly dragged out to the dance floor and having Bellatrix hint that she knows about James’ sexuality, that he doesn’t have time to formulate a response before Bellatrix continues.
“I was telling myself that you hadn’t asked me yet because you wanted to save the best for last,” she gestures to herself like this is an obvious conclusion. “But then Narcissa told me about how Lucius put her up to rejecting you and I realized you were just scared to ask me!”
Bellatrix’s eyes were gleaming with mischievous joy. She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying James’ discomfort. Though she did let it slip that it was Lucius’ fault Narcissa rejected him, which actually comforted him a bit.
James finds himself nodding in agreement with her, like she had some mind washing ability.
“So, tell me,” Bellatrix says, not missing a step as the two dance across the floor, despite James’ stiff stance. “Are you ready to be King?”
Now this is not what James was expecting. He isn’t sure what he was expecting, but it was not this.
“Um,” he clears his throat and tries to smile despite being painfully aware of Bellatrix’s malicious smile and tight grip on his shoulders. “I believe I will be ready by the time I’m crowned, yes.”
“So you’re not ready,” Bellatrix’s grin somehow widens.
“Well, no, that’s not what I meant,” James feels himself mentally stumbling. He hadn’t prepared for this kind of verbal sparring for tonight. But James has always been a lucky man and luck remains by his side tonight because before he can fall further into Bellatrix’s trap, someone comes to save him.
“Bellatrix,” Regulus is there, standing next to them.
“It’s rude to interrupt a dance, Regulus. I promise you don’t need to save me from Prince Potter.”
“I just thought you’d want to know that Rodolphus is here.”
Bellatrix freezes, “Where?”
“He just went outside. I suppose he’s leaving. Not sure how we missed him,” but before Regulus can finish Bellatrix is hurrying away.
“We aren’t finished with our conversation Jamesy!” she calls without looking back.
James cringes at the nickname and the idea of having to finish the dance with Bellatrix. Regulus gently grabs James’ arm and pulls him through the nearest door on the side of the room. He was supposed to meet the elder Black brother in the Maroon Room earlier, but it is the younger one who drags him in now.
As soon as they are in the room with the door shut behind them, Regulus lets go of James and puts a couple of feet between them. He looks around at the room that is top-to-bottom covered in maroon art, wallpaper, and furniture, while James is looking at him.
“You’re welcome,” Regulus says without looking at the Prince.
“Thank you,” James says reflexively. That’s when it really hit him what happened. “Wait, Rodolphus isn’t here. He doesn’t arrive until Sunday.”
“I know.” Regulus has that smirk.
“So,” James hesitates, moving a little closer. “Why?”
Regulus turns to James and falters seeing James’ approach. He recovers quickly, however, and forms a cool response.
“I’m not evil. Although I’m sure you’ve heard otherwise from my darling brother.”
“Sirius doesn’t think you’re evil,” James says immediately.
The implication worries James and he finds himself wanting to fix it – to tell Regulus everything Sirius has said about how much he loves him. He knows it isn’t his place though, so he bites his tongue, even when Regulus looks like he doesn’t believe him and scoffs.
Regulus begins to head for the doors and James panics because gods, why won’t he just stay put for a minute?
“You didn’t answer my question.” It comes out quickly like James doesn’t even understand his point until it is coming out of his mouth. “Okay, you aren’t evil, so you saved me from Bellatrix by distracting her from our dance with a lie–”
“A fib,” Regulus corrects.
James nods in assent to the correction and continues, “But that doesn’t explain why you dragged me in here.” James raises his eyebrows and cocks his head at Regulus as a smile grows on his face. Does Regulus like me? James isn’t sure, but whatever game they’re playing feels fun, so he’s running with it.
“She was going to come back to finish the dance. I got you out of there.”
“This is my home, I know how to slip out of every room in this place.”
“But you wouldn’t have. Dorcas Meadowes tells you what to do and you do it.”
Hmmm , James thinks.
“Why do you have to dance with all of these women anyways?” Regulus asks before James can reply to his last comment. Apparently, everyone has heard about James’ dancing requirement.
“Something about how they could all be possible future queens,” James says, brushing it off like it’s inconsequential.
“You have to marry one of them?”
“Uhh,” James looks for an answer, bobbing his head from side to side. “My options are including, but not limited to the women I’ve danced with tonight.”
“And you’re…” Regulus hesitates, but his blue-gray eyes are boldly dissecting the sight of the Prince. “Satisfied with that?”
“Of course not,” James sighs. “I mean they’re all great, amazing women,” Regulus raises his eyebrow in skepticism, but James continues. “But I want to fall in love. I want the romance of not really looking for love, but finding myself deep in it.” He pauses to imagine it. James loves love. He can’t wait to marry the love of his life, whoever they are, and stand by their side through thick and thin. James thinks that once he’s in love he’ll probably do anything for them, which reminds him of Regulus’ earlier comment about Dorcas. “And despite my charmingly positive attitude,” he looks at Regulus, trying to express his sincerity, “I don’t like someone else making the choices for me.”
“Soon you’ll be King. Then no one can tell you what to do.”
James scoffs at this idea that a King can do whatever he wants, although he bets he will be able to have a bit more choice in who he dances with. Who do I want to dance with? James is the type of guy who always has crushes. He’s had his class crushes, his bar crushes, his coffeeshop crushes, and always a celebrity crush or two. But as his last school year came to an end, he had hit a bit of a dry spell. And now he’s home and the first time he’s felt that swirl of sparks in his stomach is because of Regulus Black’s smirk. It didn’t hurt that he also acted as a knight in shining armor by interrupting his dance with Bellatrix. Before he can think it through, before James’ mind can even formulate the word “crush,” he is impulsively diving into the challenge of charming Regulus Black.
“I think the first thing I’ll do when I’m King is throw a ball like this one and only dance with the person I’ve been wanting to dance with all night.”
James knows where his mouth is leading him, and that is where it often leads him, which is into trouble.
“And who’s that?” Regulus asks.
His face looks bored , James thinks. He has no idea that that response was the go-ahead his mouth needed to reach its destination.
“You.”
James says it and he watches Regulus react. His eyes widen slightly and then squint in suspicion, despite his cheeks flooding with blush. Before James can dive any deeper into trouble the door from the ballroom begins to open. The two men don’t realize how close they had gotten during their conversation until they are simultaneously jumping away from each other just in time for someone’s head to peek in.
Narcissa sees James and Regulus standing five feet apart, looking frozen in poorly masked panic and her eyebrows shoot up. She looks between the two before she settles on Regulus.
“We’re leaving,” Narcissa says with a smirk, “and Bellatrix is angry with you.”
Regulus’ rigid stance breaks a little and he settles into a facade of bored annoyance. He rolls his eyes and follows Narcissa back out into the ballroom without looking back at James.
When the door shuts completely, James lets out a breath that he didn’t realize he had been holding. It comes out more like a laugh than a sigh. He runs a hand through his hair, absentmindedly looking around the empty room, trying to process the events of the night – trying to decide if luck really is still on his side or not.