Chapter 1
“Honestly, Marls. I can’t understand why you insisted we take this project on so badly. It says we’re not to turn our backs to them and... We have to curtsy?” Lily’s tone was verging on disbelief, her voice rising in pitch with every word. “We’ve got to call them SIR? or MA’AM?
“Sure.” Marlene was practically vibrating with excitement, barely paying attention to her friend. “It’s protocol.”
Sirius scoffed, “as if you would know anything about proper behaviour in front of a royal, Mckinnon.”
He was acting like a child, he knew, but the walk through the corridor felt interminable. Sirius was debating whether or not to ask for a break, it was too early in the morning to go through tapestried walls and security checks upon security checks and too many, very red, very judgemental, very straight backed, silent guards. He felt grumpy and in severe need of a cup of the strongest beverage he could find. He could see the double doors right there at the end of the walk, but they seemed as far away as the sun in that moment. Couldn’t Lily levitate him until this was over?
“She’d know more than you, at least the rest of us knew there was a Royal Family before fourth year,” quipped Remus. Lily laughed, Sirius protested. “And how do you know that all those etiquette rules aren’t useless before a muggle royal?” he continued, just as they arrived to the end of the corridor.
The thought hadn’t occurred to Sirius. Maybe the muggle aristocracy had different rules of etiquette. There were the obvious ones, such as never touch someone else’s wand without permission and never comment on how someone’s magic feels like, but were there others? Maybe it was in bad manners to sit on the arms of chairs all the same, but what about not excusing himself to sneeze or something? Sirius was not usually one to care for how he was perceived, especially by privileged arseholes, but he did like knowing what rules he might be breaking whenever he did so.
Marlene groaned, “who cares. Just do whatever they do and” she turned to Sirius and pointed at him threateningly, “don’t flirt with them.”
“I’m not going to f...” The doors opened and across the room sat the most beautiful person Sirius had ever seen. He looked like the sculpture of a god. Or one of the men in Sirius’ filthiest dreams. “... fucking hell”
Marlene turned around and suddenly she was a blur of blonde hair flying past Sirius, throwing herself at the man with a resounding shriek. Sirius barely had time to catch the man’s widened eyes before both man and blur fell to the floor and started... fighting?
No. Marlene was fighting. She was also speaking very rapidly and not quite as loudly now. The man seemed to be defending himself confusedly. “Oh, gods,” said Lily, distressed. “Was this all a ploy to overthrow the monarchy?”
That got the guards to spur into action. They approached the pair to apprehend Marlene, who was straddling the man and apparently winning the fight, when they were stopped by the man himself. “Marls, I missed you,” he said in the sweetest voice. Next thing he was embracing her like one would a rabid teddy bear.
“JIMMYKINS!!!” Marlene returned, hiding her face in his neck, holding on to his shoulders furiously.
“So...” Remus said.
“You know each other.” Lily interrupted him. She was staring between the pair disbelievingly. “You didn’t tell us you knew each other.”
Remus and Lily were sat on one of the sofas. Across from them sat Marlene and His Royal Highness, James, Prince of something. Sirius hadn’t paid enough attention to remember that, he had been too preoccupied with the way the prince’s hands (oh Merlin, his hands) held onto one of Marlene’s as if it was the only thing keeping him from being dragged through hellfire.
Marlene simply rolled her eyes in response and continued speaking to the prince in low tones. The prince, however, looked rather startled by Lily’s scathing tone. Or maybe it was being addressed directly by someone below his rank. Sirius couldn’t be sure of anything anymore. The person in charge of maintaining protocol had been dismissed by the prince after almost having a conniption as a result of Marlene’s “shocking lack of respect, decorum and overall decency.”
Sirius stood next to them, staring intently, his previous exhaustion lost to those beautiful eyes. Really, he thought, you could hit him with a stinging hex and he wouldn’t stop wishing for those eyes on him. Better yet, those hands (those hands) on him. What were they supposed to be doing? Suddenly the prince jumped and looked to Lily. Evidently, she had addressed them once again.
“Right,” he said, standing up. Should they stand up as well? They didn’t. Oh well. “I apologise. I wasn’t expecting Marls to show up, is all. All I was told was that I was to prepare for a meeting of sorts this morning. Shall I call for some tea? Oh. It’s here already. I wonder when that happened. I’m a little out of sorts at the moment I’m afraid. Have we made introductions yet? I’m sure that–”
“James, it’s alright. They’re friends,” Marlene stopped him, her hand still in both of his. Her words were dismissive but she looked at him with concern. The prince's eyes narrowed at Marlene’s face for about a second and then he relaxed all at once, falling backwards onto the sofa.
“Thank fuck,” he breathed out.
Sirius was struck with the idea that these two were more than ‘friends who meet once in a while out of obligation’. The way that they seemed to understand the other one in such little moments and communicate through short lived glances, such as this... He never would have understood that Marlene was in earnest with just one small look in her eyes. Further, Marlene rarely acted concerned for her closest friends, always joking away if something happened to go wrong. She was a great person to have when someone needed cheering up, Sirius just had very rarely seen her be soft for anyone, let alone a simple friend.
Memories of Marlene with her father by her side that awful day at Mungo’s flooded Sirius’ mind. He shook his head a little and focused on the conversation at hand. It’d certainly be more entertaining.
“Yes. Friends. As you seem to be as well. Will someone please explain what on earth is happening?” Lily’s tone had lost none of its bite, but now she had added her scowl. Clever, Sirius thought. Not even Marlene was immune to the effects of that scowl.
Brave Marlene tried to fight it, however.
She caved about five seconds in. “Fine. We know each other. It’s been a while. I’ve been worried about him,” she looked at him reproachfully, the prince faced the floor, properly chastised. “Then we receive warnings from his house? I thought that if you knew, you’d never allow me to form part of the project. I couldn’t let that happen. What would you have done?” she finished, rather desperately. Remus caught Sirius’ eye, then gestured toward Lily meaningfully. Quite right he was. She did look rather murderous.
“Oh leave off, Lils. She was worried about her friend,” Sirius said, rather bravely, if he did say so himself. The prince finally looked at him when he spoke, just not in the way Sirius had hoped. He was obviously startled, eyes widening, mouth falling the littlest bit open. Sirius wished he could say it was his good looks and charm that had prompted such a reaction, but he seemed more upset than pleased. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, however. There was a Lily Evans to appease first. “I propose we explain our reasons for this audience and discuss private matters at a more convenient time.”
Remus’ eyes said ‘look at you go!’ Sirius thought. Or perhaps they said ‘your funeral’. Hard to tell. Sirius chose the first one and answered with a smirk and a wink in his direction.
Lily faced him, outraged. Marlene watched on, amusement dancing across her face now that the danger faced another person. Sirius sent a bit of a prayer to Merlin and Morgana both but stopped halfway because, when had they helped him before? He started running through every escape route that the room offered instead. He was trying to figure out whether the fall from a three-story-high window was worth it or not when the beautiful voice of one Remus Lupin interrupted that thought process.
“Thanks, Sirius. This may be difficult to process at first, sir,” he addressed the prince. The word ‘sir’ seemed to taste bitter in Remus’ mouth, “so i will just state the facts first and answer any and all your questions later. Is that alright with you?” The prince nodded, so he continued. “We are Remus Lupin, Lily Evans, Marlene Mckinnon and–“
"And Sirius."
“–er, yes. And Sirius. The four of us work for the Ministry of Magic, at the Healing and or Education of the Lonesome Project, founded by miss Evans, under the tutelage of the Department of Improper Use of Magic. By this I mean we work with magical and non-magical folk, such as squibs, who form part of our community but have received no incorporation into the British Wizarding World whether by attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry or any other formal or informal magical training. Our goal is to offer physical, psychological, social and or financial aid to whomever may need it for reasons within the scope of our work. In your case, sir, the Ministry has been made aware of uncontrolled bouts of emotional magic from your–“
“Alright, that’s enough.”
Credit where credit is due, the prince had listened far longer than Sirius had expected and, judging by the look of them, longer than Remus and Lily had expected as well. Marlene smirked at him, smug.
Remus started to explain about magical folk and Hogwarts when he was interrupted once more.
“Ministry of Magic?” asked the prince, stunned.
“–er. Yes. The Ministry of Magic. Let’s see. Have you ever done or seen anything unusual happen? Some things that many people will dismiss as fantasy or outright lies?
“Yes.”
“Things such as objects disappearing out of nowhere, or transforming into other objects?”
James didn’t quite roll his eyes, but it was close. “Yes.”
“Well... those incidents are not just in people’s imaginations. They’re real, and they are the work of magic. Spells, potions, fantastic beasts. They all have a place in the world. The Wizarding World.”
“Yes.”
Remus closed his mouth so quickly that his teeth clicked. He was disconcerted. Marlene was still smirking smuggly. Sirius felt the corners of his mouth lift a bit. Whether the prince’s actions were a prank played by Marlene or he was truly genuine, it was entirely too funny to interrupt.
“Right,” he floundered for a bit, “Well. Let’s see. The Ministry of Magic. I mean. What I’m trying to say is–“
“What he’s trying to say is that the Ministry of Magic is a governmental organisation in charge of keeping the secrets of the Wizarding World, namely it’s existence, from the public knowledge of muggle, non-magical, communities. Does that answer your question, sir?”
“I cannot recall you telling me there was a Ministry of Magic, Marls,” the prince stood and addressed the rest of the room, eyes lingering on Sirius for a little too long. He seemed lost in thought but he continued seemlessly, “It’s not important, however. As you can see, my magic is quite under control. Thank you for the visit. Now, if you’ll excuse us–,“ the prince was obviously ready to finish this meeting. Sirius couldn’t blame him, but still he wanted just a little more time to appreciate his face and his voice and his hands (his hands).
“James, stop. We’re not leaving yet. We’re here to teach you to control your magic and understand it as well. If you don’t learn to channel your emotions, it is going to hurt you. Don’t you dare interrupt me or deny it. We know for a fact that there’s been severe bouts of emotional magic inside of your home and you’re the only magical being in the house. So shut up and listen. You’re going to sit there and learn how to transfigure a match into a needle and how to differenciate between a too-strong tickling charm and a too-soft stinging hex, and everything else just as the rest of us had to learn. We’re not leaving until you’re ready. Do I make myself clear?”
The prince looked mutinous. Sirius was preparing himself for another rather thrilling physical fight between the two old friends. This was an exciting morning indeed. In the end, however, there was no such luck. Still, Sirius couldn’t say he was disappointed, for what happened next was just as entertaining.
"Why would I do that? That's quite stupid if you think about it. If i wanted to change something into something else then i'd do it big." While he spoke he took one match from a little metal box. "A match into a needle? Please. Have some respect." He lay the match on top of the table and placed both his hands in the air above it, palms facing down. To no one's surprise, the match shook a little and then stopped. Nothing had changed. Of course nothing had changed, Sirius thought. He didn't have a wand, for one thing. He may be fairly talented, though uneducated, in the art of wandless magic, according to the brief rundown they’d been given at the Ministry, but transfiguration? It was rare, almost impossible, to achieve transfiguration through sheer force of will. At most, Sirius expected, the prince would be able to light a few candles or levitate some small objects.
Everyone seemed to be exasperated or amused now. Nobody had expected anything different from a privileged prince. Of course he'd think he could do anything.
"Ah, there we go," the prince said. And so they saw it.
The match was no longer a match, nor was it a needle. It slowly transformed into a rough wooden sculpture of a red nosed deer. The antlers were still forming an intricate design when Sirius focused on the prince. It was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore his facial expressions when they showed so much of his inner thoughts. James had a look of concentration in his face, as if he was trying to solve a difficult puzzle inside his brain until very suddenly his face cleared, and he smiled. Sirius felt his eyes open just a tad too much. James' face was filled with pride for a task well done and it was the most beautiful sight sirius had ever seen. Merlin, he thought, I barely even know him. But he couldn’t deny that the look of satisfaction on James’ expression felt warm inside of his chest.
Gasps from his three friends brought Sirius' eyes back to the sculpture. Except now it wasn't a sculpture. It was nine liquid metal creatures moving fluidly in the air, transforming as if randomly into different animals. This shouldn't be possible. Sirius doubted half the people in this room could make one of these dancing figures as well as james had, even with wands and years of training behind them. He knew he could, of course, as could professor Mcgonagall, but to transfigure a single wooden matchstick into that liquid material, multiplying it’s mass and dividing it into individual figures as well as controlling the movement and form while maintaining the overall structure of each one of them? It was impressive. For the first time in his life, Sirius Black was impressed enough to be rendered speechless. Of course, Sirius is Sirius, and if one thing is known about him is that he doesn't really do silence. The figures danced and twirled around, never stopping, ever fluid, ever beautifully mesmerising. He didn't want the show to stop, which it would if he distracted the prince, but even so. Questions had to be asked.
"I take it you already knew about magic and were trained in an informal capacity?" Three of the figures separated from the others and made their way to Sirius. "Where have you trained? Or with whom? This is fairly advanced transfiguration, mid to advanced charm work. It's... beautiful. The artistry alone is–" he cut himself off. "What are those creatures?"
He had expected James to stop the animation to answer him but when he looked at the prince, he had already turned away and was half way through a scone, searching for something on the table, unconcerned as may be with his creation. Swallowing roughly he answered "Creatures? Well, now they're dolphins.” At Sirius’ puzzled look, he continued, “You don't know them? Oh my Lord are you aliens? I promise I will help you go home. Phone home? Where is your home? I shall assist in your quest to communicate to your... Planet? Place of origin? Via telephone." He didn't even breathe through his speech. Sirius had to supress a laugh and saw that Remus had retreated to a corner of the room, shoulders shaking in silent giggles. The prince was looking between all four of them and continued, "Although Marls isn't an alien, I know for a fact her place of origin is not far from here. And she would have mentioned extraterrestrial friends. I think?" At this Sirius cackled, though he would never refer to his 'cool punk rock laughter' as 'cackling'. The prince looked at Marlene pleadingly but to no avail. She had her head thrown back in laughter. Even Lily was finding it difficult to maintain composure, Sirius noted.
Remus recovered first, "An excellent display, sir–"
"James, please."
"James. But the fact remains, you need to learn to channel your magic in moments of severe stress or intense joy as well," Remus took his wand out of his holster, "for ex–"
"James! What's wrong?" cried Marlene. The prince had taken one look at the wand and flinched so hard he hit a table behind him and was now frozen in place, eyes as big as they could go. Every dolphin had turned a dull grey colour and solidified, falling to the floor with echoing thuds, one by one.
Sirius acted on instinct, he knew fear when he saw it. It reminded him of Regulus, cowering in front of his mother. No matter how different James and little Regulus were, physically, the fear in their eyes was the same. And Sirius’ instinct to protect, to save, to comfort was the same. The same but different. This was not Regulus. James was already chuckling something about being startled. James wasn’t small and fragile and hepless in front of a cruel monster brandishing a wand. Still, Sirius grabbed Remus' wand arm and yanked it down, taking the wand and throwing it on the sofa for good measure.
As if nothing had happened, James kept making conversation with everyone, though he did look paler and his speech was more rapid and muddled than before. Lily, as usual the level-headed one, took this in stride and explained that it had already been organised and settled with James' handlers that they would be staying at the palace so as to have an intensive course of study, but still be able to complete any and all other duties for work such as keeping an eye on other subjects for the H.E.L.P.
Sirius couldn't be distracted with work so easily though. He exchanged a look with Marlene, who looked troubled, and one with Remus, who seemed to be thinking rather hard. They'd have to confer later. What had made James so afraid? It was impossible to let it go.
The rest of the day passed pleasantly enough. At lunch Sirius made it his personal mission to flirt with James with as much innuendo as he could without arousing the suspicion of Marlene. She had, after all, warned him not to flirt with James, and Sirius had learned not to dismiss Marlene’s warnings the hard (painful) way. This wasn’t as difficult as he thought it might be, for Marlene was too distracted observing James’ behaviour to notice Sirius’ very cool and very charming flirtations. The prince, in turn, looked startled every time he was addressed by him, and it always took a few seconds of silence, but then he laughed nervously at each remark, as if he wasn’t sure Sirius knew he’d made a horribly obvious come-on. James, Sirius noticed, would have his eyes fixed on him more often than not, with the expression of someone solving a difficult arithmancy combination. Sirius couldn't be sure why, but he had the feeling that James expected him to be somebody else.
James declined one of the servant’s offer to show his guests/teachers the palace, taking the task upon himself.
The tour lasted about a million years to Sirius, but he wouldn’t have asked for a break after seeing how much Remus and Lily were enjoying every nugget of history etched upon it’s walls and furniture and what seemed like every painting in the world. Remus looked his age, for once, and didn’t seem tired. James seemed to notice Remus’ slight limp though, and slowed his walking considerably but not all at once. Sirius felt a rush of something, affection or admiration for his new acquaintance. The prince hadn’t even mentioned it, he was doing it with no need for thanks. Still, Lily made sure to stop the group regularly in front of rooms and paintings and sculptures to admire them, but stealing glances at Remus, exchanging looks with Sirius.
James fell into step with Sirius while the rest examined what appeared to be a music room.
“You seem unimpressed. Are you bored with grand, rich halls and rooms in general?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not the size of this place I’m unimpressed by. Size rarely matters to me,” he winked at James.
“I don’t think Marls appreciates your attempts at flirting, you know?” was James’ surprising response.
“I wasn’t aware you could pull off arrogance, sir,” returned Sirius, batting his eyelashes.
“Not in front of Marlene I can’t,” he laughed, big brown eyes sparkling. Sirius felt himself swoon, “She keeps me humble, bless her.”
“That she does. She should make it a profession.” Sirius was hoping for another laugh out of James. He wasn’t disappointed. “Hold on,” he backtracked, “attempts at flirting? I’ll have you know, I am renowned in the art of flirting. Sir,” he added at the end.
“James, please. And of course you are.”
Sirius pouted at this, but instead of the amused smile he was expecting, James’ whole demeanour changed. He seemed suddenly guarded now, nothing like the open and carefree man from a second before. His face betrayed something, but Sirius couldn’t tell what. The prince looked as if he was connecting dots, reaching some conclusion, or at least a suspicion.
He cleared his throat, “shall we continue, then?”
An hour later and Marlene looked as bored and tired as Sirius felt, which surprised him, given her love of paintings and the many works displayed around the palace, until he remembered that she’d probably been here many times before. Even though her exhaustion was practically tangible, Marlene didn’t speak on it once. She had her eyes fixed on James, studying her friend intently, clearly still worried about him.
Sirius didn’t hate historic buildings only because he’d grown up in one. If he was honest, he rather admired them. Marlene and him had that in common. Hogwarts was a sight to behold, for one thing, and they’d spent many an afternoon exploring it’s passages. But while Marlene and him had grown up in two of the oldest buildings in the country, their upbringings made the difference. Marlene had been raised in a loving home, where mistakes were not punished, not even barely only forgiven but expected, where heirlooms were to be shown and used and manipulated and admired and studied, not kept in cupboards and venerated for their former glory, where laughter wasn’t smothered by harsh words and where friends were invited and made comfortable instead of criticised and made felt inferior. Sirius, on the other hand, was raised in quite the opposite environment. It was a battle, he admired historical artefacts and hated the memories they brought him, he was weary of them but had a self destructive need to touch them.
James droned on all afternoon but by tea time he begged pardon and all but dismissed them. Sirius felt a pang of disappointment. The prince hadn’t made any further attempts to chat with him again. He had even looked away when Sirius spoke to the group at large.
The prince showed them each the rooms they’d be living in, starting tomorrow, for the foreseeable future, and accompanied them to the front doors on their way out.
Marlene had her fingers dug in James' arm hard enough that it looked painful, obviously hoping to get him alone, and dragged him away from the entrance hall among hurried goodbyes for everyone else. Still, James apparently had a death wish, for he turned around and came back before they'd gone more than a few metres, ignoring Marlene's outraged expression.
"Goodbye, Remus, Lily, lovely to meet you," he shook each of their hands rather quickly. Then, he grabbed Sirius' hand and perhaps unconsciously, pulled him slightly closer. The distance between them was enough to be considered proper, but close enough that Sirius could just distinguish freckles on the other's cheeks, as well as a slightly discoloured scar, hidden by his eyebrows.
"Your eyes are blue," said the prince softly, head slightly cocked to the side, as if this information did not compute with his idea of Sirius.
"You have freckles," Sirius blurted out, effectively ruining the moment. Sirius wished he could kick himself when the prince took a step away from him, huffing a breath that might have meant something between amused and relieved. Sirius' hand was still held by his.
His voice was quiet when he next spoke, "goodbye, Sirius." And turned away. Sirius' hand felt too heavy, too cold without James' holding it.
Sirius waited until Marlene and James disappeared behind a door and turned to a very amused looking Remus and an exasperated looking Lily. There was no doubt in Sirius' mind now. He would find out everything there was to find out about Prince James of wherever. He would get to the bottom of the weird inspecting looks he threw his way, and more importantly, he would make him like him. He told the other two this.
“Why? What do you intend to do? Steal him from Marlene?” chuckled Lily.
Remus snorted, “good luck with that one, mate.”
“I intend to make him mine, i think.”
Both his friends froze for a second, then sent him twin looks of doubt.
“Oh, and do the job and all that. Yeah. Can’t forget about the project, ha.”