James Potter had a reputation. A reputation for sneaking away with people at parties. For kissing his adoring fans after quidditch games in dark hallways and using abandoned classrooms to get up to all sorts of things. After he had finally given up chasing Lily, who was quite happy with Mary now, in his fifth-year speculation abounded that he now used his wooing skills to cast a much larger net over the whole of Hogwarts. Boys, girls, and a couple of the rumors even suggested a teacher or two, had fallen for his charms.
This was all well and good besides the fact that James had not actually done any of it. Hell, his first kiss had been with Peter on a dare and that had only been earlier this year. Turns out when you spend most of your time trying to convince a girl who won't give you the time of day to date you, it doesn’t leave much time for actual well, dating. He had spent so much time chasing Lily that he had never had the time to pursue anyone else, and after he finally got the message that he and Lily were never going to happen it never really crossed his mind that he should just go and be with other people because he could.
Especially because these days he found his eyes following a certain dark-haired Slytherin seeker around more and more often. His post-Lily life had been more about realizing that deciding the person you think you want to be with for the rest of your life at eleven rarely works out, more so when you happen to be much more attracted to mean brunettes. Then of course the rumors started.
At first, he had laughed them off, sure he thought it was strange that some Ravenclaw girl said they made out in a storage closet he had never even been to, but harmless really. The first few had been like that, false stories about kisses he had supposedly stolen. He had even played it up a little, at first, winked at the student who eyed him in the hallway and gave his most charming smile whenever someone asked him about the rumors, he did not want to embarrass the people who had started them after all. It was around two months ago, the rumors started to get a little more… Intense. He could still remember the conversation the day the first nasty one had cropped up.
…
“James! Did you really give that Hufflepuff beater a blowjob in the locker room after last night's game?!” Sirius had shrieked the question at him after bursting into their door room. Breathing hard from what was no doubt a long run from wherever he had heard this latest tidbit.
“What? No of course not, I was with you after the game yesterday you know that”, he had said. He had been surprised at the time about this particular rumor’s subject, they had never been about anything like that before.
“Arg! I know I know that which is why it's pissing me off that that asshole thought he could just say that about you! It's fucking creepy” he huffed out, pulling at his shoulder-length hair. James had to agree that this particular rumor did border on what he would consider unacceptable had it been about anyone else.
“Oh, you know how people are Sirius. I'm sure he didn’t mean any harm by it” James had laughed, despite the uncomfortable feeling in his gut.
“I do know how people are which is why this is not ok James! You are being way too nice about this whole thing, people are lying and saying some quite frankly weird stuff about you and what they had done with you, and it's all not true!”. James had remained silent, surely things had not gotten that bad right? No one ever said anything directly to him, he heard it all secondhand from his friends, so the rumors had always seemed harmless if a little embarrassing.
“I actually agree with Sirius on this” Remus’ quiet voice piped up from where he was sitting on his bed, the book he had been reading now cast aside as he too looked at James in concern.
“Thank you!” Sirius huffed at his boyfriend before bounding over and flopping himself on Remus’ bed, “I mean where do these people get off thinking they can just lie about doing shit with you, You’ve never even slept with someone!”.
“They’re probably just trying to seem cool to their friends Sirius. Not like what they say can hurt me or anything. It's really not that big of a deal”.
“Until it is,” Remus said, hand carding through Sirius’ hair, “Just, I don’t know, be careful if anyone tries to be… pushy about anything. If people think you are doing all these things, someone might think they can actually do the same kinds of stuff with you and the rumors could make it seem like you might be far more willing than you actually are. Just be careful James, people can be unpredictable”.
“Yeah and if anyone tries anything hex their junk to get warts!”.
…
At the time James had just laughed off Sirius and Rems’ concerns and gone about his life. Despite the ever-increasing colorfulness of the kinds of things he supposedly got up to. The couple of times anyone had approached him, they had all gone away after he explained that he had never actually done those things and was not interested. The only person he would actually be interested in maybe doing any of the things the rumors were about with had taken to glaring at him from across the Great Hall.
As he stood before a blond boy with slicked-back hair and a greasy smile who had just asked if he wanted to go upstairs with him he couldn’t help but wish he had taken his friend's worries more seriously. Lionel- the blonde in question- had been following him around their traditional Gryffindor post-quidditch victory party all night. James hadn’t minded, at first. Truth be told despite being in the same house James did not know the older boy all that well and he was glad for the opportunity to try and get to know him better. Right up until the looks the boy was throwing him started to come off a little more like leers and his hands lingered for just a bit too long on James' back and shoulder to be a casual touch.
“Well what do you say Potter? Fancy celebrating tonight on your knees? I've heard you like that sort of thing”.
…
Regulus Black had never had anything against blonds until this very moment. His best friends Pandora, Dorcas, and Evan were blond and he had never thought much about hair color outside of the fact that he liked it when people had messy brown curls that made you want to run your fingers through them. As he glared at the slimy sandy-haired boy lingering far too close to James Potter though, he decided all blonds had to go, friends be damned. He also decided that if the boy didn’t take his hand off James’ back right now he was gonna commit a homicide. At this point, he would probably prefer Azkaban over having to hear about James’ newest hookups every other day.
“Potter up to his games huh?” Barty said as he casually slung an arm over Regulus’ shoulder. Regulus clenched his jaw, unable to force his eyes away from James and the boy who was now laughing at something the curly-haired boy, who should have been over here with Regulus, had said.
“He does get around these days, doesn’t he. Did you hear about what he did in the hallway on the third floor last week? Honestly I'm kind of impressed”. Maybe Regulus should add Barty to his homicide list. At this point, it was getting pretty long anyway thanks to James so might as well tag the bastard on the end.
“This is killing you isn’t it” Barty cackled as Regulus finally peeled his eyes away from James and the soon-to-be-dead blond to turn his harsh glare on the boy who, a minute ago, had been one of his best friends.
“How is this fun for you” he hissed.
“How it what fun? Ohh do you mean how is taunting you about the boy you’ve been mooning over since you were thirteen finally getting over his log-standing crush only to apparently decide to sleep with more people in a couple of months than I’ve managed to my entire time here at Hogwarts fun? Because if you mean that then the answer is I like to see you suffer”, Barty had a smug grin on his face as he spoke about the very thing that had caused Regulus to start his murder list, which he was definately now on.
“Are you doing this because I told Evan you cried watching that muggle movie last month?”.
“Don’t ask stupid questions. Of course, I'm doing this because you told Evan I cried watching that muggle movie last month. He hasn’t stopped giving me shit and it's interrupting my attempts to get into his pants so now I'm mad about it”, Barty did actually sound a little pissed off, as if it was Regulus’ fault he had wept when the dog had died in the stupid movie. Did he have to give Evan a full 20-minute run down of exactly how pathetic Barty had looked weeping into his blanket? No. He had anyway though.
Even fond memories of making fun of Barty could not keep him distracted for long, however, and Regulus soon found his eyes straying back to the two boys across the room in the Gryffindor common room. He about pulled out his wand to fire off a curse when he realized the hand was still on James’ back, touching what Regulus wanted to touch.
“If I promise to talk you up to Evan will you help me kill someone?”.
“Oh I’d do that even without you talking me up to Evan, always down for a murder Black. I don’t know why you don’t just go talk to him though. You guys are like friends sort of now that things are cool with your brother. If rumors hold up you could probably drag him back to our dorm in the next hour. Your way hotter than Lionel fucking Beardsworth”.
“Oh, Regulus doesn’t want to just drag Jamie back to his dorm for the night,” Dorcas’ voice said from somewhere behind him, evidently having found the drinks she had gone looking for. “No little Reggie wants to look into James’ eyes and have them declare their undying love for one another, then drag him off somewhere to shag his brains out”. She said the sentence matter of factly like she wasn’t speaking quite loudly about one of Regulus' dark secrets here for anyone to overhear as she shoved a shot glass in his hands.
“Shut up,” he said as he threw the burning glass of what he identified as fire whiskey down his throat. “I'm gonna go talk to him”.
“Yeah, Reg! Go get your boy!” Barty whooped as he too turned, no doubt in search of Evan with Dorcas rolling her eyes and trailing after him. Their entire group had all started coming to these when Regulus and Sirius has begun to mend their complicated relationship after Regulus had left their parent's house to go live with Pandora. Gryffindor parties were always rowdy, not usually his scene, but they gave him an excuse to be near certain dark-skinned brown-eyed chasers so he had started to go to them religiously. Even if he ended up watching the boy he came to look at usually end up either causing trouble with his brother all night, or, like now, having his attention stolen by some desperate loser who wouldn’t treat him half as well as Regulus could. Time to go interrupt a conversation.
…
“You're not listening to me Lionel, those are just rumors,” James said, again, growing exasperated as the boy in front of him continued to not get the hint. “I am not interested in doing anything with you, so please take your hand off me and leave me alone”. He had been saying variations of this exact same sentence since the boys earlier… offer to leave the party with him. But the think-headed idior just wasn’t getting the poi-
“Ahh come on James stop playing hard to get. I know you give it up for anyone, ill make it good promise. You’ve been giving me eyes all night”. The point, not getting the point. This last bit was accompanied by another attempt by Lionel's hand to drift lower on James' back. Sick of it James grabbed the hand in his own before throwing it back at the boy. Even his patience had limits.
“I said fucking no Lionel. Now fuck off before I make you”, James rarely ever used his height to intimidate anyone, but at this very moment, he found himself glad that he was able to look slightly down at the greasy-haired boy.
“Merlin what a fucking cock tease you are. What finally learned to say no after whoring it up for the rest of the school Potter”.
“What the Fuck did you just say,” an angry voice said from behind James, he turned to see dangerously calm-looking Regulus Black behind him. Oh, perfect, just his luck that his crush was now witnessing some asshole calling him a whore, no wonder Regulus never seemed interested what with how together James obviously had his life. No one spoke for a moment, both James and Lionel surprised at the interruption.
“I asked what the fuck you just called James”, the same note of barely contained anger was still in his tone as his grey eyes looked at the boy standing in front of James with unwavering focus.
“Oh Merlin, sorry you had to witness this Reg, it's fine really. Just go back to the party everything is ok here” James rushed out, hoping Regulus would turn around and pretend he had never even walked over here. Merlin how embarrassing. James wanted to sink into the floor and never come up. He wasn’t foolish enough to believe Regulus had not heard the rumors about him, but he had hoped he might not believe them. After this though? How could he not?
“No it's not ok James, he doesn’t get to speak to you like that”, his grey-blue eyes turned to stare into James’ now, and looking at his face James saw for the first time just how mad Regulus seemed to be. He was practically vibrating with rage. James wondered why, had something happened to make him angry before he came over?
“Look whatever man, take your slutty boy toy, I can wait my turn for a piece I guess,” Lionel said, sounding for all the world like someone had snatched a piece of cake he had really wanted to eat. What an asshole. Before James could much more than open his mouth in protest, Regulus’ wand was out and a hex was flying directly at Lionel's chest. James watched in open-mouthed shock as every blond lock of the boys turned grey and burnt-looking before falling off of the boy's head like dust.
Lionel, needless to say, started screaming
…
Regulus could still feel the anger in his stomach trying to rip its way up his throat even now after the party had ended and he sat alone with James in the common room. Sirius and Remus merlin knew where after his brother had stomped off in a fury when James had told him what happened. People had pretty quickly emptied out after he had hexed the hair off the fucking loser who had been talking to James.
How dare he say those things about James, how dare he try and push something that, from what he had heard of their conversation before he interrupted, was very much not reciprocated by the boy who was still staring at him with wide brown eyes from where he was sitting in the common room. Great, he probably thought Regulus was some kind of psycho now.
“What” he snapped, needing James to speak or leave cause he could not deal with the staring any longer. This whole night was a fucking nightmare.
“Why did you do that Regulus?” the question came out of James' mouth quietly, almost timidly. Regulus hated it, James was not a quiet person he should be smiling and loud and happy, not sitting here in awkward silence because of some asshole and Regulus’ inability to control his own temper. Even now Regulus almost wished they had been in a more private place earlier so he could have done something a little more permanent to the now bald boy.
“Why did I do what”, he said back still looking at James' face and his lips and his everything.
“Why did you get so mad?”
“Because people shouldn’t fucking talk to you like that, people shouldn’t talk to anyone like that. It's an outdated mindset, people can do whatever they want with whoever they want and it doesn’t make them anything other than themselves”. Regulus rolled his eyes back and shut them as he said this. He felt like a hypocrite as the words left his mouth. He believed what he said he really did, but he would give anything for James to not want to do anything with anyone but him ever again. Only kiss him, only look at him with soft brown eyes, only moan his name when he- yeah he needed to end that train of thought before the awkwardness of this conversation took on a more personal note.
“I haven’t though. I-I mean obviously your right people can do whatever they want and it doesn’t mean people can say stuff about them. I have nothing against whatever anyone wants to do as long as everyone is, ya know, into it. I-I haven't though, you know that right?”, Regulus’ eyes snapped back open as he looked a James. The other boy had a small nervous smile on his face as he gazed unwaveringly at him.
“I- what?”.
“Well, I know there are a bunch of rumors about me and that I’ve- well about me” James' hand came up to card anxiously through his own hair and Regulus wanted to replace it with his own and make him feel better, “But none of them are actually true. I don’t really know why people keep on spreading them, it was kind of funny at first. But now it's really not, especially after tonight. I mean seriously, I've only ever kissed one person you know and that was on a dare so it doesn’t even really count, and I just wanted to make sure you knew that I haven’t well ya know. I have someone that I like and I wouldn’t-”
“James, not that it matters because it doesn’t, but are you saying that all the rumors about you hooking up with people have not been true this whole time?” Regulus almost wanted to cry in relief.
“Yes! Or No! No, they aren’t true. Not that there would be anything wrong if they were, but I like y- er someone and I would hate for them to think that I'm just running around kissing anyone who will let me when I really only want to kiss them”. James was practically shaking with nerves, very unlike his usual boisterous self and Regulus straightened his spine. It almost sounded like James was trying to say that he liked, well him. Regulus. Taking a deep breath Regulus met the other boy's eyes before standing up and slowly walking over to stand in front of James.
“I, tell me if I'm wrong James, but it kind of sounds like your saying. Well is it me? Do-do you like me?”, he whispered, hoping beyond hope that the answer was yes. That his horrible jealousy all this time had been for nothing and that he really was the only person James wanted to kiss.
“Yes” also whispered out, “Do you like-” Regulus surged forward before James could get the question out and did the thing he had wanted to since he had seen James walking through the halls at thirteen and pressed his lips to the soft ones before him. When James immediately pressed back into Regulus' lips with his own and let out a soft moan Regulus felt a surge of happiness and possessiveness so strong he almost staggered. He took a moment to separate from James' lips and suck at his neck until the dark skin purpled with what was sure to be an impressive hickey in the morning. Shoving his fingers into the soft hair he had fucking dreamed of tugging on to make James’ head tilt at the perfect angle. Regulus took a moment to admire his work and continue to kiss James’ jawline before taking a step back to look into eyes that had almost gone black with want.
“I'm sorry I should have asked”.
“No no, it's perfect,” James said with a smile before tugging Regulus back into James' space until he was practically sitting in his lap on the chair and attacking his lips once more
Needless to say, there were no longer any rumors of James pulling anyone but Regulus into abandoned classrooms. And if the people who had started the rumors woke up one morning to discover their food turned into sand every time they tried to eat it, well Regulus just figured that would teach them the lesson of keeping other people's names out of their mouths.