Determined
"Jamey! Wake up!" A sing-song voice killed the peaceful quiet of a Saturday morning. James, of course, recognized it as one of his best friends, Sirius. His best friend of almost seven years, since their first day at Hogwarts. He had dark black shoulder-length hair. He always wore a leather jacket or occasionally a jean jacket. He'd also moved in with James that summer because he'd shown up at their doorstep, bloodied and beaten. He hadn't wanted to talk about what happened but reluctantly told James' parents.
"Oi! Pads, let him sleep! He was up all night doing homework!" And that was the voice of Remus. He's been best friends with them since the very start. He's a werewolf, he tried to keep it a secret, but the three friends found out about it in their second year. And quite the contrary to what Remus thought they'd think. They figured out how to become an animagus in the fifth year. So they could hang out with Remus while he was in wolf form. Remus is a very intelligent individual but spends his free time reading or playing pranks with the rest of the Marauders. And since he spends so much time reading, he always wears sweaters and loose jeans. Both of which all the marauders steal from time to time.
"Yeah, but he promised we'd play quidditch this morning! I stayed up too, but I'm awake." Sirius mumbles the last part. James mentally rolled his eyes. Sirius is also a clever person, but sometimes he acts like a real baby.
James rolled over and slightly opened one eye, looking at Sirius.
"He's awake!" Sirius said jokingly. He came over and sat down next to James. Sirius flopped down. So he was right next to James' face. James is so used to this behavior that he doesn't flinch.
"Hi," James said, his voice scratchy and horse from just waking up. "I'll play Quidditch with you if you let me sleep for five more minutes."
"Hmm, let me think," Sirius said like he was pretending he was thinking. "No. You told me we'd play this morning. It's already 9:00 AM!"
James grumbled and pushed Sirius off his bed as he slowly lifted himself from his nest of blankets. He looked around and saw that Peter was still sleeping. Peter was another one of his best friends. They had met before they even got to Hogwarts. No one expected them to stay friends, Because Peter was a small boy who wasn't very good at magic. Although something most people don't know is he is exceptionally good at art, All different kinds; poetry; pottery; painting; sketching; etc. And James was tall and athletic. He is also good at his classes, even if he doesn't try. But Peter is one of James' closest friends. James couldn't imagine Hogwarts without Peter.
"Are you going to play with me?" Sirius asked, sounding exactly like a small child.
James rolled his eyes. "Yes, my child."
"Thank you, mum!" Sirius said, playing along with the joke.
***
After James and Sirius' flying session, they met in their dorm to chill.
Marlene and Mary had joined them in their conversation.
"So, Prongs, any new tactics for getting Lilly?" Marlene mentioned conversationally. James saw Mary visibly tense at the mention of Lilly. No one else seemed to notice, so James just ignored it. Although he had noticed Mary always got flushed or uncomfortable whenever Lilly was mentioned or entered the room. James wondered if they had been in a row or something.
"Nah." James hadn't really been thinking of Lilly in the past two years. He assumed that once you've liked someone long enough, you stop thinking about them all the time. James still chats with her and enjoys her company a lot. He just isn't obsessed with her like he used to be.
"Wow! The James Potter isn't thinking of a way to seduce Lilly Evans?" Sirius joked from his spot on the bed, where he was leaning on Remus' shoulder. Remus was obviously flustered. Well, Sirius was blissfully unaware.
"Shut up. I suppose I haven't been focused on her the past two years." James admits, shrugging. Sirius looks a little baffled. Although, James doesn't see anything wrong with what he just said.
"James?" Remus asks tentatively. James looks over at him questionably. "Do you still have a crush on Lilly? Or have you moved on?" Remus offers.
"What?" Of course, he still likes Lilly! He's loved Lilly since he was Eleven! It's one of the things he is known for Being in love with Lilly. "Of course," James answered definitively.
Remus gave him a hesitant look. "Ok..."
James rolled his eyes and looked over to Mary, who had a hopeful look about her. Which only made James more confused. He felt like there was something that everyone knew but him.
"Anyway!" James said, making a stab at changing the subject. "Sirius, how's Regulus?" Regulus was Sirius' little brother. He was only one year younger than Sirius, but Sirius had always been protective of him. But last year, when Sirius had left, Regulus stayed at their "home." James had asked Sirius why his little brother hadn't joined him, and Sirius had only said Regulus was too scared to leave. And ever since then, Sirius had been borderline stalking his brother to make sure Regulus was ok.
"He's ok," Sirius had been extremely worried when, after the holidays, Regulus had come back with multiple new bruises and was much skinner than last year. Sirius had told the Marauders that his parents were most likely taking their anger out on Regulus. And James could tell this made Sirius feel deeply guilty.
The group fell into a somewhat uncomfortable silence. They sat like that for a while before Marlene broke the silence,
"Well, I'm going to go down to the library. Anyone wants to join?" Remus stood up, letting Sirius fall to the bed with a whine.
"Why are you going to the library? It's only the third week!" Sirius grumbled as Peter sat up as well.
"Because we don't wait for the last second to do our homework! I know you also have homework. You just aren't doing it." Remus said. Sirius frowned.
"Well, do you wanna play chess, Prongs?" Sirius asked, turning away from the group going to the library. James shrugged and grabbed the chess set.
***
A few days later, James did indeed find himself in the library, studying. Because he had, like Sirius, waited until his homework was due the next day. But, unlike Sirius, James was not by the lake having a "not a date" date with Remus.
"Uhg-" James hears a small crash and a groan. He looked to see Regulus getting up from the floor. Papers and books scattered around him. James quickly got up to help the poor Regulus. James started to give Regulus the books he'd dropped. He looked at Regulus and suddenly realized that this was the closest he'd ever been to the boy. Regulus was the definition of beauty. His thick curly hair was shoved idly behind his ears, his nose was shaped perfectly and sat right in the middle of his face, His lips were the perfect amount of plump, and he had small freckles that you wouldn't notice if you weren't up close like James was, and his eyes, oh- his eyes. They were strangely gray. But James noticed that one of his eyes (the left) had a blue corner that contrasted gorgeously with the rest of his pail complexion. James quickly acknowledged he was staring and hastily shoved the books into Regulus's arms.
"Hi..." James Muttered, now looking at the ground. Which, in hindsight, probably just made it more obvious that he'd been staring.
"Goodbye," Regulus said coldly and swiftly walked away.
James stared at him as he walked away. He felt slightly offended at his passive 'greeting'. James shook his head slightly as if he was trying to toss the thought of Regulus out of his mind. He slowly sat back down to continue his homework. Now, a little spiteful.
***
Walking back to the Gryffindor dormitory, James still could not squash the thought of stupid Regulus out of his stupid head. He knew it was nothing. Regulus didn't matter. He was just Sirius' baby brother. But, What did he do wrong? James hadn't said anything to Regulus except "hi"? Why did Regulus not like him?
"Hey, James." James looked up to find that, somehow, he'd made it to the Gryffindor dormitory. He swears his legs have a mind of their own. "You ok?" Remus questioned.
"Uh? Oh, yeah, I just- you know." James answered. He really didn't know why Regulus was bothering him so much. He supposed he didn't like not being liked. But he didn't care when Snape didn't like him? Maybe Snape's a special case. He doesn't like Snape, so maybe that's why? But he doesn't like Re-
"I don't, though," Remus said.
"Wha?" James said quite stupidly.
"I don't contain the information that you do in your brain." Remus reiterated. James rolled his eyes and flopped onto the couch. His head landed in Remus' lap with a soft thud. Remus didn't even blink.
"I don't think Regulus likes me," James said, sounding horribly like Sirius when he was whining. Remus arched his eyebrow.
"And, does that bother you?"
"I don't know. I just- I want him to like me! Not like in that way, but- Why doesn't he like me? I'm a perfectly lovable person, aren't I, Moony?" James rambled. Remus huffed and shifted till he was in a more comfortable position.
"Well," Remus took a long pause. "You are a very lovable person. Otherwise, I wouldn't be friends with you." Remus joked. "And, I don't think he doesn't like you. He's just- He's going through a lot right now." His voice softened considerably. "Do you remember how closed off Sirius was at first? I think, Regulus is going through a very similar time, and he doesn't have Sirius with him now."
"But he could've gone with Sirius!" James said, sitting up. He didn't understand. Why would Regulus want to stay in that wretched place? "Does he like living there? He can't! Sirius said he was a reasonable person. And coming from Sirius, that means a lot."
"Well, James, he's scared." That shut James's mind up. Regulus scared? It didn't seem possible. Regulus was prideful, confident, assured, and very brave. Never scared.
"But- but why didn't he leave?" James's voice had gotten very small compared to his normal, almost yelling tone.
"Because- James, he was- is scared. Scared People don't make the best decisions. They don't always think. Regulus feels stuck, and maybe that's comforting to him in some way. He feels like the outside- freedom is scarier than being stuck." Remus explained as if he was telling some terrible secret.
James has to help Regulus. He can't let Regulus be scared, stuck, or any bad thing! He needs to get Regulus to be somewhat ok with him. James has to help.
"I need to help him."