“Did you hear something?”
“Huh?” James questioned not having heard what Regulus said.
Regulus pulled his head back, trying to get James to stop kissing his neck, “I mean it, James. Just- wait, listen.”
“Mmm, what is it?” James whispered, lifting his head and looking into Regulus’ eyes.
“I heard something.”
“You heard something?” James continued whispering, Regulus nodded in answer, “What did you hear?”
“I- I don’t know, James. I just heard something.”
Smiling slightly and tilting his head, the older boy nudged the younger teasingly. “Are you scared?”
Scoffing and rolling his eyes the younger boy answered, “No, but I doubt either of us wants to get caught in this position.”
“What position?” James raised his brows, “We’re just standing.”
“In a broom closet, after curfew,” Regulus deadpanned, “What if Sirius has realised you’re gone and is looking for you? What would you do if your best friend caught you snogging his brother in a broom closet?”
“I don’t even want to imagine that,” James frowned, “He’d kill me.”
“Exactly,” Regulus huffed, softly pushing James further from him, “Let’s see what the sound was.”
Before Regulus’ hand reached the doorknob James stopped him, pulling him back to his chest and pressing his face into the shorter boy's shoulder. “Why are we going after the sound if we don’t want to get caught? Let’s just stay here, we were having such a good time.”
Brushing his fingers through James' hair Regulus whispered, “And when someone opens the door?”
“We’ll lock it.”
“And if someone knocks on it because they heard something?”
James sighed into Regulus’ shoulder, “We’ll put up a silencing charm.”
Regulus smiled softly, “No matter how much I enjoy this, James, I won’t be able to relax if we stay.”
“Mmm,” James whined, “Fine, we’ll leave. But can I at least come with you?”
“Of course,” Regulus scoffed, “We’re going to look for that sound.”
James’ head shot up, “What? No, I meant to your dorm.”
Regulus backed away and opened the door behind his back, “You can go to my dorm if you want. I am going to check out what that sound was.”
-
“I don’t want to sound boring, but can we please go to your dorm?” James whispered a few minutes after catching up to Regulus. Having decided he couldn’t leave his boyfriend wandering the castle alone at night.
“Why?” Regulus looked at James with a teasing smirk, “Are you scared ?”
James scoffed, “No, but I don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
“Me neither,” Regulus stopped and turned, looking at James with mischievous eyes, “Makes it all the more fun, doesn’t it?”
James stared at Regulus with determination, “I’m glad you’re having fun, love. But I really want to go to your dorm so that we can continue snogging.”
The shorter boy stepped closer and raised a brow, “Really?”
“Mhmm,”
“That sounds nice,” he said, softly stroking the red and yellow tie the older boy was wearing, “But I’m not leaving here without answers.”
James didn’t even have time to react before Regulus started walking again, leaving James alone staring down at where Regulus' pale hand had been.
Soon enough James caught up and started complaining again, “You can’t tease me-”
His whining was interrupted by a hollow sound, like wind pressing through a crack. Both boys stopped dead in their tracks and looked at each other.
Regulus smiled excitedly, “Scared, Potter?”
“Piss off, Black,” James spat, “What was that?”
“A ghost!” Regulus gasped sarcastically.
“What?”
“Don’t you know?” Regulus questioned at the confused face his boyfriend was wearing. “That’s how muggles think ghosts sound. Like howling, scary moaning, ohhh .”
“Why would they say ‘Ohhhh’ if they can just talk?” James asked.
“I don’t know,” Regulus shrugged, “Ask the muggles. Or Lily, she was the one who told me. She described it as sounding like wind on a very stormy night.”
“Oh, but now that we know what the sound was, can we go to your dorm?”
“Hm, what do you mean?” the shorted boy frowned.
“The sound,” James stated as if it was apparent, “Now we know it was the wind. Can we go to bed?”
Regulus smiled, “It wasn’t the wind, James. Look outside. It’s completely calm out there.”
James did look, and not a single sign of wind anywhere. He sighed, “Fine, let’s continue searching.”
Regulus’ smile brightened, “Really? Will you stop complaining?”
James grabbed Regulus’ hand and pulled him closer, “I will stop complaining. Now, lead the way.”
They continued their walk down the corridor hand in hand, heading straight toward the place they had heard the foreign sound coming from. As they got closer to the corner they started slowing down, quietly checking to see that no one was standing there, then continuing onward.
As they got closer to the door of an old abandoned classroom the sound got louder, James could feel his heart in his throat and wanted nothing else but to turn back. But Regulus didn’t stop.
“Reggie,” James whispered and tugged on his hand slightly, “Do we really need to go inside?”
Halting his steps Regulus turned around, “Wha- wait, are you really scared?”
James didn’t meet his eye.
“Oh,” the younger breathed, stepping closer to his boyfriend and stroking his cheek, “James, it’s okay. What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
“I don’t know,” James mumbled embarrassed, “But- I really don’t like this.”
Regulus sighed and pulled him into a hug, “Okay, that’s completely okay. We’ll head to my dorm.”
James quickly leaned back and looked at Regulus with confusion in his eyes, “What? But it’s right there.”
“Yes,” Regulus smiled, “I could reach out my hand and open this door, and then we’d know what the sound was. But you really don’t like it, and I don’t have to know. And it’s stopped now so we’d probably not find it anyways.”
“I love you,” James whispered softly, “Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me,” Regulus said, lifting James’ hand and barely brushing his lips against it, “I love you too.”
-
On the other side of the door sat a disappointed boy, sulking over the fact that their plan hadn’t worked. They’d made sure everything was perfect.
Wormtail was going to scratch on the door of the broom closet they were in to attract their attention, when they were out in the corridor Padfoot would make a sound that they were going to follow.
They’d continue making sure the two boys were following them down to the old classroom the tallest one was waiting in. And then they’d hide and wait for them to open the door where the tallest would scare them. Then the other two would march in and confront the two boys about their secret rendezvous.
-
The eldest of the three sped around the statue he’d been hiding behind throwing up his hand in a defeated motion. “What the fuck?”
The two boys startled and turned around. “Sirius?” said the younger one.
“You were supposed to go inside!”
“You were the one who made the sound?” the scared Gryffindor asked.
“We all were,” said the short boy after turning back from being a rat.
The door opened to the abandoned classroom and the tallest boy came walking out, with his arms crossed and a disappointed expression on his face.
“Why would you do that? I’m so confused.”
“Me too,” the Slytherin agreed with his boyfriend.
The eldest sighed and took a step closer to the couple, “I wanted to scare you. Because you’ve been going behind my back doing- doing-” he motioned between the couple, “whatever the hell this is.”
“You know?”
“Of course, I know,” the eldest sighed, pulling on his hair before putting it up in a bun, “We all know! You’ve been so obvious about it.”
“Yeah, but we only thought you were like snogging, not- not, uhm,” the rat squeaked.
“We didn’t think there was love involved,” the dog mumbled, “What the fuck, Prongs?”
Prongs frowned, “Padfoot, I- what?”
“How long have you been… in love?” Padfoot looked disgusted.
“Don’t look so disgusted,” the Slytherin spat, “Three months.”
“Three months?!”
“Bloody hell.”
“Since Christmas?”
“Okay,” the boy with the hair said flatly, “You and your little snake are coming back to our dorm and you’re going to tell us everything.”
The five boys started walking in silence, the only sound heard in the corridors were their steps and the low mumble of two brothers whispering to each other.
“Are you mad?” the younger mumbled.
The elder sighed, “No, I’m not.”
“You sure?”
“Nope,” the younger pulled his hair, “Ow! I- I just want you to be happy. So… I guess- if you’re happy I guess I’m fine with it.”
“ Thank you. ”
Further down the corridor, a cat was sitting, having heard the voices she’d hurried to try to catch them. But when she arrived they weren’t happy. The cat was curious.
She’d listened to the conversation, not understanding what they were discussing.
The rat and dog had spoken, and the werewolf had stayed quiet.
The stag smelled anxious and the human was frustrated.
When they left the old cat stayed, listening to their echoes from further down the corridor.
The rat’s outburst made its way to her ears and the cat sighed.
“You’ve been shagging Sirius’ brother for THREE months, Prongs!”
Mrs Norris let out a breath, turned around and started walking back to her bedroom. She was too old for this.