The library was empty. Regulus was studying for Herbology with Pandora, Dorcas, Evan, and Barty. Although, Evan and Barty weren’t doing much studying. They were all sitting in a corner surrounded by shelves, so they were secluded from the rest of the library. Dorcas was lounging in a beanbag chair, while Regulus and Pandora were sitting at her feet. Evan and Barty sat on the couch, kicking at each other's legs. They tried to muffle their laughs, but it did not help keep the library quiet.
They had originally come to help study, but they didn’t get much studying done. As soon as they sat down and Pandora started quizzing them, they stopped paying attention. They spent more energy flirting with each other than they did actually trying to answer the question.
Determining all attempts futile, the other three focused their energy on asking only Regulus the questions. Dorcas was there for moral support, but because she was a year above them she proved herself useful.
Regulus has always struggled with Herbology, much contrary to James and Pandora, who excelled. Normally, Regulus would shove everyone out of his dorm and he and James would study together. In turn, Regulus would help James with potions. They had a routine, James would ask Regulus a question, then Regulus would ask James. If they both got their question right, they would get ‘ rewarded’. They found this style of studying to be extremely beneficial, although it took quite a while.
But, James was at Quidditch practice for the afternoon, so instead, he is studying with Pandora. As much as he does enjoy studying with James, Regulus does, as he loathes to admit it, like his friends. With everyone preparing for OWLs and Dorcas getting ready to graduate, they haven’t been able to be in each other's company as often now.
It was… nice.
Regulus looks out the library window, which conveniently overlooked the quidditch pitch. Easily, Regulus was able to identify James. They were scrimmaging, and James just scored for his team and was doing the stupidest victory dance. It was the victory dance that when James showed Regulus, he threatened to break up with him. James only laughed and kissed his cheek before grabbing his hand and spinning him around the dorm, proclaiming he was jealous for not coming up with it first.
He looked ridiculous, pumping his hands in the air, he would be wearing the lopsided grin Regulus was sure was permanently on his face. Excitement would have been dancing in his eyes, Regulus has that looked memorized. That stupid, ridiculous, beautiful look.
Regulus puts his focus back on Pandora, who had questions about the terms they studied, medicinal and protection plants. Pandora looks at him, knowing she caught him drifting as they like to call it, fixes him with a look, and asks him her question.
“What herb could you eat to heal shallow wounds?” Pandora asked, looking down at the flashcards in her hands.
“Dittany,” Regulus answers.
“Correct!” Pandora says enthusiastically. She moves to place the card next to her side, moving on to the next question.
“What tree will protect anyone touching its trunk from all dark creatures?” Pandora asks.
Regulus hesitates, so Dorcas answers for him, “the Wiggentree.”
“I would have gotten it eventually, Dorcas,” Regulus lets out with a huff, Dorcas only dignifies him with a smirk. Regulus responds to this with an eye roll. Dorcas gives him a challenging look and they spend the rest of their time competing.
~
“Bubotubor!” Reglulus shouts, shooting Dorcas a glare.
Pandora pauses, letting the tension fill the air before finally announcing, “Correct!” Regulus falls back with a smug grin while Dorcas closes her eyes with a groan.
“I’ll get you next time Black,” Dorcas says as she starts to pick up her textbooks. It was getting time for dinner.
“In your dreams Meadowes,” Regulus responds, following her by sitting up and offering Pandora a hand. She takes it gratefully and begins to gather her notes. Regulus turns to Evan and Barty, who seems to have fallen asleep together on the couch. They were laying opposite of each other, with Barty hugging Evan’s legs and drool rolling down his chin. For a moment Regulus thinks to wake them up, but decides against it, because he doesn’t have a death wish, and moves to grab his stuff with Pandora and Dorcas.
As the three were about to leave their corner of the library, the other two still snoring on the couch, they heard voices behind one of the bookshelves.
Normally, Regulus wouldn’t eavesdrop, but the three girls said a name that he recognized.
“You willnever,” believe what James did,” the girl giggled.
Regulus pauses at the name, his shoulders tensing up. He knows James is one of the most popular people at Hogwarts, he knows that, but that doesn’t mean he likes it.
James is always under the spotlight, everything he does is criticized or idolized. He can’t have a personal life without other students distorting it and spreading rumors, which is one of the reasons they decided to keep their relationship a secret. Their friends know, but they haven’t told anyone else.
Regulus knows what would happen if they ever let anyone know they were dating; he knows how horrible it would make life for the both of them. James has everyone wrapped around his finger, a small wink and a sly smile send most people down on their knees (Regulus included).
If people ever found out James got into a relationship, with Regulus of all people, the student body would be upset. Sure, some people are still expecting him and Lily to get together, even if their hearts would be broken by the golden boy being taken. There would be an outcry if they ever found out it was Regulus that had managed to capture James' heart. People would be furious at the thought of Regulus, Slytherin, sarcastic, and quiet got with James, Gryffindor, warm, and friendly.
James has told him he doesn’t care, and let the people talk. But Regulus knows he doesn’t mean that. He thinks he means it, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t realize the impact him dating Regulus would have on his reputation, and regulus wouldn’t let him do that to himself.
So Regulus sucks it up, no matter how unhappy it makes him, he lets himself fade into the background, lets himself become a shadow to the sun. There he will stay, forever basking in the light, hidden.
Regulus relaxes his shoulders and continues to grab his quill. He moves towards the exit when the same girl speaks again, “You wouldn’t believe the things we got up to last night,” She whispers. Regulus’ entire body freezes. Pandora and Dorcas look at him, hearing it too, and send him a look as if to ask if he is okay. He relaxes his body again, shaking his head before rolling his eyes. He looks at them, as if to say whatever, and continues cleaning up his things.
Regulus knows that whatever they were about to say wouldn’t be true. James spent the night with him, bodies entangled, trading drunk kisses. It wasn’t possible, James was there when he fell asleep and he was there when he got up. Yet none of that knowledge quelled the ugly feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.
“I ran into him sneaking out to go to the astronomy tower,” She starts, and her words are quickly followed by the giggles of two other girls. They haven’t realized that Regulus was there, or if they did they didn’t care. They had no idea who he was. They had no idea how he knows every bit of James like the back of his hand, how he can imagine the feel of his skin underneath his palms. They don’t know how James loves when Regulus reads muggle books to him, loves when people play with his hair, how he loves to take care of people, but, loves even more when Regulus takes care of him.
They will never know James like Regulus knows him, and that fact helps the feeling in his stomach a little, satiating it for now. “Come on Reg, we shouldn’t listen to this, you know it’s not true,” Dorcas begins, placing a hand on Regulus’s back trying to usher him away.
Against Regulus’s better judgment, he says, “It’s okay Cas, I want to hear what they have to say.”
Dorcas just shrugs and moves to sit back in her bean bag chair. Pandora gives him a sympathetic look and sits on a chair next to the couch with Evan and Barty. She reopens a textbook and begins to read through the passage, her notes open on the side. “When I got in there, he was sitting by the edge, his legs hanging off the side, dangling in the air,” She continues,
As she talks, giggles are followed after every sentence. It makes Regulus' stomach lurch.
“He looked so handsome looking up at the stars, he had to have been the most attractive person I have ever seen. He didn’t even notice me come in, so I sat next to him. He turned around, and oh, the look in his eye. I can’t do it justice, it was magical,
“I can hardly remember what we talked about, the next thing I knew he was on top of me, and he was kissing my lips. The rumors don’t lie, he is an amazing kisser,” She giggles. Regulus clenches his fist.
Regulus was used to this, rumors were constantly being spread about James and his nonexistent one-night stands. Some of the things people come up with was repulsive, so extreme that it makes even Regulus blush.
“What happened next!” One of the girls asked enthusiastically.
“Well, he started to put his hands up my shirt, slowly, and then he–” The girl was interrupted by a cough. A cough from Regulus.
Immediately their whispers are quieted, and they start shushing each other frantically as if that would do anything. Dorcas and Pandora look at Regulus, who only shrugs and walks out from behind the bookshelf and faces the three girls. He doesn’t recognize any of them, and he doubts James would either.
“Don’t let me stop you,” Regulus says, sending a pointed look at all three of them.
“Oh, we were talking about nothing, it’s whatever,” the girl in the middle says, who he recognizes as the girl telling the story.
“No, please, it just started to get interesting. So, his hands were up your shirt?” Regulus prompts, raising an eyebrow at her.
She visibly shifts her feet, feeling uncomfortable under his gaze. He was trying to intimidate her, and it was working. “Well, um, next thing was that he,” she hesitates for a second, looking at Regulus before continuing, “Well he took off my shirt and started leaving hickeys down my chest.”
“Did he know? What else?” Regulus asks. He crosses his arms over his chest and stares into her eyes. She swallows before nodding her head. He can quietly hear Dorcas laughing from behind the bookshelf.
“Well, we just sort of paused for a moment, taking everything in. We stared at each other, and he looked so good with his messy hair and swollen lips. It was a beauty I have never seen before,” And oh, Regulus knows how true those words are.
“He stared into my eyes, bringing his gaze all down my body. It made me feel special. He had a way of looking at me like I was the most delicious food to a starving man, that I was a million dollars teasing the homeless on the side of the road. It was so intimate, I don’t know if I’ll ever be looked at like that again,” She proclaims.
The way this girl describes it if he knew there was no possible way for her to be telling the truth he might have believed her.
“That's strange, did anything else happen?” Regulus says.
“Why is it strange?” The girl asks, fiddling her fingers. She looks into his eyes’ and Regulus watches the moment it all makes sense to her. Missing pieces of the puzzle finally fit into place and a deep blush begins to creep up her neck. She knows he knows she’s lying. She knows that he knows the entire story is bullshit, and she is sending him a look, begging him not to tell her friends. As if he would ever do that for her.
“As I recall, he was in bed next to me the entire night,” Regulus flashes her a sardonic grin, “But maybe for the brief moments that I fell asleep after I fucked him he snuck off into the astronomy tower and did, whatever it is he did, with you,” Regulus suggests with a shrug of his shoulders. “Seems improbable though.”
Regulus ignores Pandora and Dorcas’ laugh, truly how they did not hear them before he could be astonishing, and looks out a different window to see the Gryffindor quidditch team leaving the pitch. James would be looking for Regulus any second now.
The color drains from her face as she quickly becomes defensive, “you have to be lying, I would never make something like that up!” She responds, giving him a glare.
Her friends are quick to back her up, “Yeah, she wouldn’t lie about that, your just jealous that James doesn’t give you any of his attention and would rather get with anyone else than a Slytherin. Now go crawl back to your dungeon.”
Regulus stares at her and begins to laugh. Confusion passes over the three girls' faces, and they stay there waiting for Regulus to calm down. “Okay,” He says with an easy smile, before making a point to look around for a clock as if he needed to check the time. “James just got out of quidditch practice, which means he should be looking for me, you know, to decompress,” Regulus responds with a laugh. This is when the girl's faith seems to waver in their friend's stories.
As if on cue, James walks through the door, still sweaty from quidditch.
God, he was a sight.
Sweat lined his brow and he had an easy smile on his face. It should be criminal that he still looked good after spending the past three hours at practice. His practice jersey hung off his body, but you could still see the muscles hidden away underneath. For a brief moment, Regulus entertained tearing it away and dragging James to his dorm.
He pushes those silly notions out of his head and tries to catch James' eye.
James finally looks at Regulus, but he hesitates after he sees who Regulus is with. To anyone else, his expression wouldn’t be any different, but even from far away, Regulus can see the question in his eyes.
Regulus gives him a soft smile, one reserved only for James, and then makes a motion for him to come over. Regulus can feel the girl's stare burn into his back, intrigue, and anticipation dancing in their vision.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
“Hey, Reg, who are your friends?” James asks, looking between the three girls.
All of the color drains from the storyteller's face, “Don’t you recognize her?” One of her other friends asks.
“I’m sorry, no, do we have a class together?” He asks, giving her a sympathetic smile.
She buries her face in her hands while Regulus gives her a smug smile. The two friends exchange looks of disbelief while Regulus speaks next, “Are you sure you don’t recognize her from last night, James?”
James immediately blushes. “Well, you know where I was last night, Reg,” James says giving him a wink.
“You didn’t visit the astronomy tower?” Regulus asks to clarify, he could hear the girl quietly groan into the palm of her hand.
“Not unless I’ve been sleepwalking,” James responds with a smile, before turning his head toward the three girls. This is when James seems to realize why he needed to clarify his whereabouts from the previous night.
Regulus laughs and looks at the three girls, all varying degrees of distrust on their faces. Regulus realizes that in order to fully convince them, and get the message across, he would need to do something drastic.
No matter how opposed to this he was, part of him found it relieving. They wouldn’t have to sneak around anymore, they could be open and be themselves. Of course, Regulus is worried about how this could affect James. The thought is prominent in his mind, but he knows it will work out. He knows James has been wanting this.
Without a warning, Regulus turns to James and pulls him into a kiss.
James gasps in surprise, making it perfect for Regulus to slip his tongue in. He hears the storyteller inhale sharply, and he hears Dorcas and Pandora laugh quietly under their breath. He also hears Evan squawk in disbelief, meaning that both he and Barty have woken up at all the noise that was being created.
Regulus moves his hands around James' neck, while James wraps his arms around Regulus' waist. James grins, making it incredibly difficult to kiss him, so Regulus pulls away. They remain in each other's arms, and James asks him, “What was that for, love?” He hears the other girls gasp at the pet name.
James was staring at him so intently he wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot the three other girls were there staring at them.
“Nothing, just haven’t seen you all day, and I needed some encouragement to study,” Regulus responds, giving James a sly smile. James instantly perks up, standing a little straighter before nodding excitedly.
“I need to study too, you know,” James says, giving him a dazed smile.
“Perfect, I’ll tell Barty and Evan not to come into the dorm for the next couple of hours,” Regulus laughs.
Now, all of Regulus’s friends come out from behind the bookshelf, “don’t worry, we won’t come in. We know what happened last time,” Barty says, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I would have joined, but that shit was freaky.”
They both laugh again and Regulus turns to the other three girls, “Sorry, forgot you were there for a second,” Regulus smiles at them condescendingly. James also mutters an apology, and the three girls quickly shuffle out of the library, whispering quickly to each other. Regulus didn’t care what they were saying, he kept his focus on the things that mattered: James.
Regulus pulls him into another kiss, he hears Evan fake vomit, and when they pull away Dorcas gives him a wink. “See you tomorrow, loverboy,” She says.
Regulus rolls his eyes at the nickname but doesn’t retort. He lets them walk out of the library before turning his attention back to James. “Now seriously, what was that about Reg?” James asks, giving another smile to Regulus.
James is smart, and he is observant. He has to be. He knows why Regulus was acting like this, he knows about the rumors constantly being spread and the way people treat him. He knows how much it gets on Regulus' nerves.
He knows why Regulus acted the way he did, but part of him wanted Regulus to tell him, only to stroke his ego. “This is stupid,” Regulus says, rolling his eyes and trying to leave James' grasp.
James lock his arms, using his strength to keep Regulus close to him, “I don’t think so, come on Reg, why did you do that?” James asks again. With a cocky grin on his face, he pulls Regulus closer, so their lips were almost touching. “Come on, Reg, why?”
“You know why.”
“Do I?”
“Yes, you do.”
“Tell me anyway,” James whispers.
“You’re mine, not theirs. Mine.”
James surged forwards and finally connected their lips.