Outsmarted
Regulus (unfortunately) had all of his clothes intact when James and the other marauders entered the great hall.
The younger boy was sitting at the Gryffindor table with Pandora next to him and Barty and Evan sitting across.
Dorcas was no where near them but upon further inspection this was because she had cornered a very flustered looking Marlene who seemed to be right on the verge of exploding.
Pandora was talking with the brand new couple of Mary and Lily (who also both seemed to be incredibly excited and a little red in the face which seemed to be a theme going on today) while Barty and Evan kept trying to include Regulus into whatever conversation they were having while Regulus ignored them and they seemed to have resorted to throwing food at him.
James was amused to see Regulus roll his eyes and flick his wand and the piece of toast Barty had thrown fly back at him and squish itself into his hair.
”James are you coming?”
James quickly tore his eyes away to find Remus, Peter, and Sirius already halfway down the table and staring at him. James ran over to catch up with them and managed to reach the others just as they did. Peter sat down next the Evan and immediately began stuffing his face full of sausage while Sirius and Remus sat down next to Reg but left a space for James.
James quickly sat down in between the two brothers and tried to ignore how close he was sitting to Regulus. Instead he tried to focus on the other new students. He tilted his head as he took in the differences. He could admittedly say that every single student was incredibly hot. (He could also say that the hottest of all of them was Regulus but he’d never say that out loud for fear of being beaten to death with a stick by Sirius.) All the Durmstrang students had strong builds and broad shoulders while the Beauxbaton students were elegant and poised even in the way they sat.
Evan was dressed in a light blue button up shirt with dark blue pants with a matching vest and a light blue shawl that fell across his shoulders and tied across his neck with a ribbon.
Regulus was dressed the same and neither had a hair out of place. Pandora was pretty similar except she had a dark blue skirt and light blue tights. Her hair was in a long twist with blue and green and gold ribbons intertwined. All the other students from Beauxbatons were dressed the same except the other girls all had their hair in buns. Pandora was the only one with a braid.
However while the Beauxbaton students were dressed in blue, the Durmstrang students were in browns and blacks.
Barty had a pair of pressed black pants, fur trimmed brown boots, a brown overcoat with a high neckline and a row of gold buttons running down the left top side and a black belt with a silver buckle. Dorcas (from the corner where she and Marlene were getting closer and closer with each second) was wearing a similar shirt that was tighter around the waist that was tucked into a black pleated knee length skirt with a thick waistband that had three gold buttons matching the shirt and a pair of skin tight black pants with the same fur boots.
If anyone asked he could 100% say that the Durmstrang uniforms were hotter than both Hogwarts’ and Beauxbaton’s but that’s not to say that they weren’t nice. There was something about seeing someone with their house tie undone and their sleeves rolled up.
However he’d be lying if he said he didn’t wonder what’d it’d be like to mess up one of those blue uniforms. To wrinkle that shawl and unbutton that vest. To untuck that shirt and dig his hands into that dark curly hair. To look down at those sparkling multi-colored eyes. To run his hands up the smooth pale skin. To-
He was interrupted by his thoughts by a small cough from beside him and Sirius reaching across to poke at the boy who James had just been having some (rather inappropriate) thoughts about.
”Reggie aren’t you going to eat something? I know the food probably isn’t as fancy as it is in France but it’s still pretty good.”
”I’m not hungry.”
Evan sighed from across the table and looked at Regulus, exasperated.
”Come on Regulus let’s not do this again. You have to eat.”
Regulus glared at him and sat up straighter on the bench.
”I eat! I’m just not particularly hungry right now.”
”Uh huh. When’s the last time you ate.”
A heavy silence filled the group as Regulus furrowed his brow and open and closed his mouth like a fish. Barty rolled his eyes.
”Uh huh. Exactly.”
Evan and Barty went back to their conversation but Sirius wasn’t ready to give up.
”What that’s the end of it? He can’t remember the last time he ate!”
”We’ve tried basically everything to get him to eat. It never works. Eventually he’ll eat something on his own accord. He doesn’t starve himself for to long.”
”I don’t starve myself.”
Sirius turned to look at his brother and narrowed his eyes.
”Reg-“
”Sirius leave it.”
”Regu-“
”Leave. It.”
Sirius frowned and thought for a moment before huffing and turning completely to talk to Remus. Regulus sighed and looked down at his empty plate. James looked around but everyone had gone back to their own conversations. Rolling his eyes, James grabbed his own plate and placed two pieces of French toast, a few pieces of bacon, a piece of sausage and some fruit and began to cut the food into smaller pieces. Once that was done he shifted over closer to Regulus and put his full plate on top of the other boys empty one.
”Eat.”
The younger boy looked up and scrunched his eyebrows together rather cutely.
”What?”
”Eat. Or I’ll make you eat.”
Regulus blinked quickly and his voice got very quiet as he straightened up.
”I’m not hungry.”
James stared at him for a second before swinging his leg over the bench and scooting himself all the way over so he was right next to Regulus. He then picked up the other boys fork and stabbed a piece of French toast before holding it up to the other boys mouth.
”Open.”
Regulus pressed his lips together and shook his head. James frowned at him and before he could say anything the older boy reached up with his free hand and gripped his chin, quickly pulling open his mouth and pressing the bite of food inside. He then covered Reg’s mouth with his hand so he couldn’t spit any of the food out.
“Now chew.”
Regulus’s eyes widened and James watched as the boy slowly began to chew.
”James? What are you doing to my brother?”
James glanced over his shoulder at Sirius without moving his hand from the other boys mouth.
”Force feeding him.”
”Is it working?”
”So far.”
”Oh. Ok then. You do that.”
”Thanks Pads.” James turned his head back to look at Regulus to find the boy looking back at him with wide eyes. “Good boy. Now swallow.”
James didn’t even realize how that sounded until a bright red blush bloomed across Reg’s pale cheeks as he watched. James hurried to catch his tongue up with brain but before he could even begin to try to explain himself Regulus swallowed almost hurriedly without ever breaking eye contact with James.
Oh fuck.
Ok there was no way Regulus was going to be able to do something like that when him just existing was enough to make James want to scream. Also Regulus was Sirius’s brother! It didn’t matter if Sirius had technically given James his ‘blessing.’ That had to be a violation of some code somewhere that said this could never happen. There was absolutely no way…
In any way…
That anything could ever-
Regulus gently pulled down James hand from his mouth and lowered his voice so that only he could hear.
”Yes sir.”
Oh come fucking ON.
James swallowed quickly and was thankful his skin was dark so that the heat in his face was hopefully unnoticeable. He quickly picked a piece of fruit and shoved it in the other boys mouth and replaced his hand so he would just shut up and eat his food.
They managed to make their way through the whole plate without any other ‘issues.’ Eventually Regulus swallowed the last bite and James placed the fork down before slowly removing his hand. Regulus looked up at him with big eyes with his mouth open just slightly. James watched as the younger boy lick his lips slightly before abruptly forcing his eyes back up and giving Regulus a bright grin and then scooted back against the bench and digging into his own food.
He heard Regulus let out a breath and mutter something under his breath but James ignored him and instead looked across the table to find both Evan and Barty’s eyes on him with raised eyebrows. James just smirked and went back to his food.
James didn’t think it was possible to love Minnie anymore than he already did but once again he was proven wrong.
He had walked into the Transfiguration classroom with the other 7th years and the advanced 6th years and had immediately headed towards his seat when Professor McGonagall stood at the front of the class and began to speak.
”Wait Mr. Potter. Please do not take your seats yet class. Myself and the rest of the teachers have decided to place the visiting students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang with permanent Hogwarts students for this year so that they may become as best acclimated to this school as possible. These partners will be together in every class and will be working together in every partner and group project as well as sitting together in every class. Please note that these decisions were based on both how well you will work with each other and on personal relations. I will now read the list and then you may all go be seated. Pandora Rosier will be paired with Lily Evans. Evan Rosier will be paired with Remus Lupin. Bartemius Crouch Jr will be paired with Mary McDonald. Dorcas Meadows will be paired with Marlene McKinnon. Regulus Black will be paired with James Potter. Jonathon Harigan will be paired with-“
James could pretend he cared about anyone else but all he could hear was that he was going to be paired with Regulus Black. Him. James Potter. Would be paired with Regulus Black. Regulus. Black.
Oh Merlin James was going to have a heart attack.
”And that’s all. You may now take your seats.”
James looked over to Regulus to find the other boy already looking at him. James let a grin build across his face and stepped towards him before Sirius quickly stepped between them.
”That’s my brother.”
James looked at him confused.
”Um yes. I think I’ve figured that out Pads.”
Sirius narrowed his eyes at him but before he could say anything Regulus was suddenly there and fixing his brother with a slight glare.
”Is anything wrong Sirius?”
Sirius stared at him for a moment before leaning in to whisper in James’s ear.
”We are discussing this later.”
And then Sirius was storming away to go and sit in the back leaving a slightly flustered Durmstrang student to follow him. Almost immediately after they had sat down the Durmstrang student had tried to start a conversation but Sirius looked like he was having none of it. Not to mention Remus was glaring at them from across the room while Evan just laughed.
James turned his gaze away and smiled when he found Regulus’s full attention on him. Regulus blinked once and readjusted his dark blue bag strap before heading over to a desk up against the wall in the back row and sitting in the chair closest to the wall. James hurriedly followed him and sat down next to him, quickly pulling out his transfiguration textbook and his wand.
He glanced over at Regulus to find the boy had already arranged two pieces of parchment, two different quills in different sizes, three different colored inks (black, blue, and green) a brand new transfiguration textbook in English as well as the French version and his wand.
“That’s a lot of stuff.” Regulus just glared at him until James swallowed and tried again. “Your um. Your wand.”
”Yes? What about it?”
“Um. What- What is it?”
Regulus stared at him for a long moment before rolling his eyes and turning his attention back to the front of the class. James sighed and looked back to McGonagall who was explaining to the class about how transfiguring living things to objects was going to be harder than transfiguring objects to living things.
She also explained about how they would be learning more about Animagi and how they now have two Animagi to learn about different processes (at this she gave a very approving look towards Regulus who glanced down at the desk bashfully and rather adorably) and how it effects everyone differently.
Before he knew it class was over and Regulus was packing up. James started and realized he hadn’t even taken any notes. Whatever he could just get it from Remus later. He stuffed his supplies into his bag and hurriedly stood up, following Regulus out of the room.
However apparently Regulus was not in the mood to be followed. The moment James stepped outside the classroom the only way he could tell that the other boy had been there at all was the tail end of a blue shawl disappearing around the corner.
James sighed and ran after him, not even caring that his friends would still be in the classroom as well as Regulus’s friends. Once he had made it down the hall he turned the corner and found the corridor empty.
Grumbling, he hurried down the hallway while pulling the map from his bag. He scanned the map annoyed and found his own name on the corridor. Looking around it he rolled his eyes when he saw Remus Lupin and Sirius Black in a broom cupboard. Then he just straight out laughed when he saw Evan Rosier and Barty Crouch Jr. in the cupboard five down.
Peter Pettigrew and Lily Evans walking together with Marlene McKinnon, Pandora Rosier and Dorcas Meadowes walking behind them.
Regulus Black… directly behind him.
James whipped around to find a wand pressed to his neck right as his back hit the wall.
”Why are you following me Potter?”
Regulus’s eyes were sharp and scrutinizing as he glared up at him. James swallowed and tried to tuck the paper behind his back.
”We um. We’re going to the same class.”
Regulus narrowed his oh Merlin stupidly beautiful eyes and pressed the wand tip in further.
”What’s that.”
”What’s what?”
”That paper.”
”What paper?”
”Don’t be stupid Potter. I can literally see it.”
James moved the paper further behind his back.
”No you can’t.”
”Ah so you admit there is a paper?”
”Did I? I don’t remember that.”
”Is that so? And here I thought there might be some brains in that pretty little head of yours.”
James eyes widened and he felt his face heat.
“P-pretty?” James hated how his voice was unnaturally high. He coughed and tried again. “Sorry did you say pretty?”
Regulus smirked and James felt weak just looking at it.
”Did I? I don’t remember that.”
Regulus leaned in closer and ran his eyes over every feature of James’s face.
“Oh Merlin.” Regulus let out a little huff that sounded dangerously close to a laugh and James’s eyes widened. “Shit did I say that out loud?”
And then Regulus smiled and James was forgetting literally everything that just happened.
”Hm I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
And then Regulus was pulling away and walking down the corridor and off to class. James watched him go and let out a breath once he couldn’t see him anymore.
He let his head fall back against the wall and closed his eyes.
He can’t keep doing that. Regulus is Sirius’s little brother. Well, Sirius’s extremely hot little brother but his little brother none the less.
He can’t believe he let himself actually get that close and all because of the-
Fuck.
The map.
Which was now gone.
Which means Regulus took the map.
Oh come ON.