“Mum!” James yelled through the house, Sirius wincing a bit, since James happened to be standing only a foot or so beside him. “We’re off to the village for a bit, be back later!”
Euphemia stepped out of the sitting room, removing her glasses from the bridge of her nose, “No need to shout, dear, I wasn’t far off.”
“Sorry. Well be back, yeah?”
“Before you come back, pop into Threads and Things. They phoned this morning and said my order came in. You both have outgrown all of last years pants, and could probably use a new robe or two. Too much ankle showing at the bottom of the ones you got off the train in.”
Both boys nodded, kissed her cheek, before heading out the door, James nearly running into the doorframe as usual. Euphemia snorted. He definitely got his spatial awareness from his father. Chuckling to herself, she walked back into the sitting room, thankful for a few hours of peace with her book before the boys fumbled their way back through the door.
—
It was only a brisk twenty minute walk to the local village, and James always had the energy to spare, so they both made good time to the shops down by the village.
James ducked into the corner store first, needing to replenish his stock of gummy bears for the upcoming Hogwarts year. Sometimes they were the only way he could get back into Remus’ good graces after a prank where they all got caught and got detentions.
After finding the candy aisle, the shop had done some rearranging since the last time he was in, and grabbing nearly every bag of gummy bears, and even a few of some brightly colored gummy worms, he turned to the front of the shop, expecting to see Sirius standing behind him still.
However, he was not.
Looking around the shop, it was only a few aisles wide, he didn’t spot him still, so he walked down to the end of the aisle he was in, peaking around the corner to the next aisle, first in one direction, then the aisle to the other side, before finding Sirius crouched down in front of a display.
Getting closer, he noticed the various types and colors of eye liners in front of the boy. James smiled, crouching down next to him and cheerfully asking “How can you even decide? There is only like three colors, but there seems to be twenty different brands. I can’t even fathom how girls can just know.”
Sirius was silent for a moment, kind of confused that James didn’t make fun of him. “Lilly put some liner on me for a party last year, and I remember seeing this kind of brand logo on the pencil,” he said pointing to one of the brands that seemed to have a few more varieties in colors than the rest. “I remember it was really easy for her to apply, she just kind of gently dragged the tip where she was putting it, something about a line of water, but she did say that some brands take a bit more pressure to apply, so I think I would get this kind? I think? Ya know. If i were into that sorta thing…” He trailed off, trying to play it off like he didn’t actually want it.
James studied him for a second. He knew his best friend, and he also knew his best friend hadn’t looked at him since he crouched down next to him, not looking away from the display once. He then picked up a black liner that boasted no sharpening, just a twist up, and held it up to Sirius temple, using gentle force to turn Sirius’ head towards him.
“I’m sure this color would look great on you. Is this all you want, or would you like to look at some others?”
Sirius’ eyes lit up, “No, just this for now. I might look at other things if I get good at the liner.”
James brought up their purchases to the front, pulling out his wallet and handing over the bills since Sirius was still a bit rubbish at muggle money. They would have to work on that.
The boys bounced around to a few other stores, not really needing much, just kind of wanting to get out of the house today.
Each holding a couple small bags, after a fun trip into a charity shop, James headed them to the hobby shop to pick up Effies order. James walked over to the counter, patiently waiting behind an elderly lady who was chatting with the cashier as her order was typed in.
James looked over his shoulder, seeing Sirius was looking at the wall of patterns. He turned back around as he saw the elderly woman leave out of the corner of his eye, stepping to the cashier and giving his mums name. The cashier walked into the store room behind the till, and Sirius stepped up to James.
“Find anything good? Mum is always looking to try new patterns. Says boys are boring and only need the same things.”
Sirius was holding a couple patterns in one hand, but raised his hand to the back of his neck, giving off a small nervous giggle and flicking his eyes away from James, not wanting to actually look him in the eyes.
James held out his hand, “No judging here, mate. I can even tell you if it looks good or not! The girls are always asking if their outfits look good.”
“James. You would never tell them their outfits looked bad, even if it was the most horrendous thing you’ve ever seen.”
It was James’ turn to rub at his neck. “Well, yeah. But they are always so pretty! And they should be told,” he said with a huff. “I mean, I tell you you’re pretty too. Wrong brother, but both equally as pretty,” he finished, shrugging.
Sirius handed James the patterns he picked out. One was just a simple skirt pattern for a school uniform. The second one was for a skater dress. Simple t-shirt like top connected with a skirt part that would be fun to swish around in. James could see Sirius wearing this, by himself, just swishing the skirt part back and forth.
James handed them back to Sirius. “Good choices. Mum always over orders with cloth, so she will probably have plenty left for the skirts at least.”
At that point, the cashier walked back to the counter, laying down the order. A good portion of the cloth was the black used for the school uniforms, made of a slightly heavy fabric, because living in a stone castle in Scotland could be kind of cold at times. There were also a couple more colorful fabrics.
James pointed at the other fabrics. “She might be able to use these if they are colors you like.”
Sirius slowly nodded, and making eye contact with the cashier, straightened his back as if preparing to be looked at weird, handed over the patterns. “Can you ring up these too, please.?”
She glance over at him and nodded her approval, definitely not one to kick a man while he was expecting to be kicked. A young man buying these patterns was the least weird thing she had seen in her shop that week.
Packing up the order, making room in the sacks they already had, instead of asking for another, they waved goodbye and heading out the door, turning down the road to make their way back to Potter Manor.
Barging in through the front door, James dropped all the sacks in the foyer, starting to unload them right there.
“Why are you pulling out all the gummy candy, if you are just going to put it back to take it upstairs to pack in your trunk?”
James paused. He did make a good point. Without even acknowledging Sirius was right, he just started packing the gummies back into the sack.
Euphemia sighed. There went the peace in the house. Walking out to the foyer, she was handed an unpacked and repacked sack with just the fabric in it. Sirius also had the two patterns in his hand, wanting to hand them over, but not quite sure how she would react.
James took that burden off his chest though. “Sirius picked out some new patterns at the store too, mum. I know you’ll like them too, since you are always complaining how boring we are.”
“Oh don’t tease, Jamsie. Boring is the last word I would use to describe you two, right above the word quiet.” She held out her hand to Sirius, reaching up to her hair to get her glasses back down. “But you are right, these are lovely. Looks like a school uniform skirt, Sirius, so I’ll need to measure you really quick, so it is school appropriate and you aren’t giving everyone a show every time you forget you are wearing a skirt and you sit like you normally do.” She waved her wand, summoning a measuring tape and pen from her sewing room, measuring from his waist to about his knee, and jotting down the number on the pattern envelope.
“I’ll make a couple of these, but if you find you like wearing them more often than the pants, and I can send off some more after you start back to classes. Now the other pattern, I did pick up a few other colored fabric, did you see any you would especially like in this dress?”
Sirius nodded, a bit flustered that she was taking this so casually. “The navy blue color? It reminds me a bit of some jumpers someone at school wears.” He didn’t name them, but James and Effie didn’t need a name to know exactly who he was talking about.
“Right. No problem, I’ll set up the room to get working on these patterns, but you both still need to do the dishes from lunch, so go run up and put your shopping into your rooms, and then head back down. I’m not your maid, you know!”
Sirius had never done a dish in his life before leaving home, but he was more than happy to help out the Potters at every chance he got, and their family was an equal opportunity for all to do chores. As Monty would always remind them “Why make your mother do something that we are perfectly capable of doing ourselves.”
—
A few days later saw the boys both hugging Effie and Monty goodbye on the platform and meeting Remus and Peter, already sat in a compartment with Lily, Regulus, and Pandora. It was a tight fit, but James would rather be no where else when he was squished next to Regulus.
Sirius was wearing the new black eyeliner, and Lily was just happy he was taking that leap. He had always liked it when she put it on him, and she was happy to see him doing something for himself. Even Regulus was curious about it. They both had the same color grey/blue eyes, and Regulus was kind of curious to see if it would have the same effect on himself. The only problem was, he was still living in Grimmauld Place with their parents, not willing to leave until he was seventeen and could access his trust vault to take with him. Until then, he was a silent part of the house, not going against their parents, nor agreeing with anything they said either.
It was a few more weeks into term before the parties started again, giving people a bit to get settled into their routines before disrupting them.
This week was Ravenclaws turn to host, which meant that Regulus could join in, claiming Pandora as their link to get together.
Unfortunately, Severus Snape somehow got an invite to this party, too.
And even more unfortunately, this was the night that Sirius decided to debut his new dress from Effie. He had worn the skirts a couple times during school days, and even had a couple students, both older and younger, approach him to thank him, telling him they had owled out to parents to send for their own skirts.
Sirius was dancing around the party, talking with and hanging onto anyone who wouldn’t push him off. Which was no one, because everyone was loving this more confidant Sirius.
James knew he should have been watching him, knowing their were some of the bad snakes amongst them, but Lily had pulled him over to where Regulus was, and started a game of who could come up with the dirtiest pick up line, and whoever was voted the worst line that round, would need to take a sip of their drink. James was quickly becoming the least sober of the three, because he always got flustered around these two, but adding dirty pick up lines to the mix just didn’t seem like it gave him a fair chance. He was an absolute goner for these two. It didn’t help that Regulus flirting was devastating on its own, let alone adding Lily’s also devastating flirting to the mix.
Looking around while sipping on his drink, after losing yet another round, he spotted Sirius, which made him smile for a second before he processed what he was actually looking at.
Sirius was leaning one shoulder against a wall, his back towards a majority of the room, arms crossed in a defensive position. He was not smiling like he was last time James caught his eye. He wasn’t smiling at all. As James watched, he saw Sirius reach up on hand and rub at under his eye, wiping something away, then looking at his finger to make sure he didn’t smudge his liner.
“Code red. Something happened to Sirius,” he said to his companions, all three of them jumping up the make their way over to the boy.
“Pads! What happened, mate. You were smiling a few minutes ago. Who have you been talking to?” James had an eye out on the crowd, looking for someone who was watching and had the ability to do this to Sirius.
Sirius shook his head. “Im fine. Nothing happened. Can we all just drop this,” he pleaded, looking uncomfortable in his own skin. Regulus reached out, pulling his older brother to his side, and Sirius just melting into it, resting his head onto the younger boys shoulder, unlike when they try to pretend like they don’t speak, in case it got back to their parents. This worried James most of all.
Remus joined them, looking murderous. “I’m going to kill him. What did he say to you?”
James straightened up, catching a slightly sobering moment in sharing in Remus’ anger. “Who was it,” he demanded.
“Snivellus,” Ground out Remus, not taking his eyes off Sirius. “He was perfectly fine, chatting with everyone he hasn’t caught up with yet since start of term, and walking between groups, when Snivellus grabbed him by the arm, talked at him very harshly for a few seconds, and walked away. Listen, Pads, I don’t care what he said, he was wrong. No one deserves to make anyone feel bad about something they love, so I need you to tell me what he said, so I can figure out how severely to make him regret his life.”
Sirius was quiet for a moment, chewing on his lip. “He told me that I look stupid, and I am stupid for thinking a few guys wanting to try skirts too, had anything to do with me, and I was just a gay boy was just looking for attention.” He turned his head, burying it into Regulus’ neck. Regulus was holding him with one arm around his shoulder before, but brought up his other arm to pull his brother into the tightest hug he could, Sirius arms reaching out to hug him back.
Remus looked up to lock eyes with Lily. “Lily, light of my life, we haven’t had a breakfast gab fest in ever so long. Meet for breakfast tomorrow?” His voice was still kinda growly, which even James could admit was kind of hot.
Lily matched his tone, and James was lost again. “I would love to bestie. We have so much to catch up on.” The glint in her eye was not messing with James’ head at all. James figured he wasn’t as sobered up as he was initially after seeing Sirius.
Regulus looked up at James. “Suddenly I need something I’ve forgotten in my house, here, take this will you?” He loosened his grip on his brother, and hefted him over to James, who stumbled over the new weight to try and balance. Sirius accepted it and just settled in for a hug from his best friend. Regulus quickly walked away, soon making his way out of the common room entrance.
The other four, knowing they probably wouldn’t be seeing Regulus again tonight, slowly started making their own way out of the common room, having had enough for the night that had been going so well anyway.
Lily hugged them all goodnight before heading up the girls staircase, for once not worried about one of them turning the staircase into a slide halfway through her ascent. The boys then made their way up to their own room, getting ready for bed before sitting up chatting for a bit, trying to cheer Sirius up. It was halfway through the night when James felt Sirius crawl into bed with him, unable to take a full breath without shuddering out a sob. James just pulled him into his arms, running his fingers through Sirius’ hair, and giving head scritches before they both fell back asleep.
The next morning, they both slept in, too comfy in the warm bed, and slept right through the Sunday morning breakfast, and halfway to lunch. Both getting dressed, Sirius pulling on a jumper of Remus’ they made their way to the common room to wait for their friends to get back. James sat at one corner of the couch, but instead of sitting next to him, he sat on the floor right in front of the empty spot on the couch.
At one point, Lily and Remus came bounding back to the common room, Lily running up the stairs without even saying hello, and Remus waiting near the bottom of her stairs. She yelled “Do it!” From the top of the stairs, and Remus put a foot on the bottom step, turning the whole staircase into a slide, where she came zooming back down, bouncing back to her feet and shoving a bundle in his arms.
Remus headed up to the boys dorms. James and Sirius made to follow, but Lily told them to stay put, he’d be back in a bit. Lily perched on the arm of the couch next to James, keeping her balance by leaning her arm on his head as her own personal armrest, and as far as James was concerned, he would happily accept that duty.
A couple minutes later, Remus stepped up behind the couch. “Well, I’m off the beat the living daylights of Snivellus. I’ll be back later.”
Sirius sighed and brought his elbows onto the couch behind him, using it as leverage to hoist himself up before turning around, prepared to tell him that wasn’t necessary, when every single word that he had been about to say, immediately dried up and was forgotten to him.
Before him was Remus, wearing a dress they have all seen Lily wear in the past, a black strappy dress which would hug curves if he had them, and with some slight adjustments made for his taller frame and broader shoulders. Sirius didn’t think he would be able to speak if he tried, so he didn’t.
Remus reached down to where Sirius had thrown his leather jacket, “Mind if I borrow this? I think it complements my eyes, and works with this dress,” Sirius could only nod his head dumbly. “Cheers. Be back later.” He leaned over until he was inches from Sirius’ face, slowly eyeing him up and down. “Keep borrowing my jumpers. They work for you, and I might have a bit of a possessive streak on what is mine.” Then, boldly, he kissed the tip of Sirius’ nose, Sirius going cross eyed, and by the time his eyes could focus again and he could take a breath, Sirius’ borrowed clunky, black Doc Martin boots were stomping their way out of the common room entrance. It was another few minuted before Sirius’ brain came back to life, and he raced out of the common room too, Lily and James hot on his tail.
Stepping down onto the main floor landing, he just managed to ask another student “Where?” And the student just pointed out to the courtyard.
Stepping out the front doors, James could see Remus getting into a good old fashioned fisticuffs with Snivellus, who was for some reason wearing pajama pants beneath his normal button up with tie.
Seeing Regulus off to the side, James and Lily both went over to him, while Sirius stepped further towards the pair, mouth open and eyes not leaving Remus.
“I spelled all of his trousers into skirts after I left the party last night. Permanently. He managed to charm his pajama pants the right color, but it still looks off.”
James swung an arm around his shoulder, pulling his head closer and pressing a smacking kiss into his hair, while Lily on the other side put an arm around his waist, nuzzling into his shoulder. Regulus just basked in the attention from his two favorite people.
Off in the distance, Snape ran away, and Remus ran after him, but he had rucked up the dress enough that it was about to get inappropriate, so James ran after him to attempt to slow things down before teachers got alerted by Snapes friends.