Pas de Deux

She'll say I'm not so tough

Just because I'm in love with an

Uptown girl

She's been living in her white-bred world

As long as anyone with hot blood can

And now, she's looking for a downtown man

That's what I am

March 19, 2025.

James’ class with Regulus on Monday felt a lot different. Regulus was practically fuming with anger, cursing under his breath every so often. Even with James he was a lot more severe, making sure he executed each move precisely how it needed to be done. Fondu was an absolute hell for Prongs.

“Ok, no, stop. This won’t do, not ever.” he clicked his tongue, glancing at James with a visibly disappointed look on his face “For the millionth time, keep your elbow up! Fingers relaxed, shoulders down, and now don’t squeeze your fucking shoulder blades together they shouldn’t be poking out!” Regulus exhaled aggressively, rubbing his face with his palms.

James, well, he just tried to do what he normally did. The corrections just seemed to intensify today. 

“Head up and don’t sink in your demi pointe like that, and squeeze in your fifth God damnit!” Regulus was basically shouting by now, the great acoustics that the room had made his voice ring in James’ ears for long after he stopped talking. “Squeeze in your belly from the sternum! Cross your leg that’s not a fondu in the back it’s fucking diagonally!” his french accent became so noticeable whenever he spoke, making Regulus sound even scarier.

James was already exhausted. He has been slacking off for these past couple of days so him being out of shape didn’t exactly help. Whatever happened to Regulus earlier in the day must have been pretty darn awful. 

“James when I told you to straighten your knees I didn’t mean it as a suggestion! It’s very clear that you’re interpreting it that way, very avant-garde of you!” his insults were starting to become rather creative, it took James quite the willpower to not even smile at what Regulus said. 

By the time he managed to pull through fondu, Prongs was already panting, short of breath. He was too shy to say anything, the bold, confident and extroverted James Potter took the Long Island Expressway to give Regulus plenty of time to be as mean as he needed to. 

Though his friends never agreed to him doing this, James was always okay with letting people take their anger out of him. When he was little he considered it manners, his tiny 7 year old brain twisted his parents’ words one day and he never changed. Prongs learnt from a very early age that people will be mean for several reasons, and that everyone is allowed to have a bad day. He will gladly not say anything to those who are rude to him, because sometimes people are allowed to feel that way. He will gladly stand up for his friends, or family, or even strangers, but never for himself. 

James’ Potter's abundance of empathy and maybe even kindness will never allow him to do it. 

Regulus seemed to realise he wasn’t being himself. He would apologise every once in a while, maybe in between exercises. Nothing more than a short ‘sorry’ , but still, James appreciated the thought. 

The torture stopped for a mere moment, two short exercises during which Prongs enjoyed himself. Of course, nothing good lasts for long, Adagio ruined any ounce of happiness left in James. 

“That passe is rubbish. Oh, my apologies, perhaps you’d like to reinvent ballet as a modern jazz fusion with that parallel turnout of yours. That didn’t cross my mind sooner, how silly of me.” Regulus’ sarcasm was definitely admirable “I wish you could see how you look right now, your leg is barely at ninety degrees. Wouldn’t want to intimidate the ceiling now, would we?” 

It took every last bit of willpower left in James to not laugh. His chest was shaking, the corners of his mouth slowly curling up into a smile. Regulus wasn’t even amused apparently because Prongs fell behind as the music began to speed up. 

“Do you need a calendar to remind yourself to stay on music?” Regulus walked closer now, adjusting James’ fingers “Relax your hand a bit geez.” his tone was a bit softer this time, but still rough nonetheless.

After the very excruciating barre that James had to go through he obviously couldn’t ask for a break, he had to earn one. Regulus didn’t say anything, he just gestured towards the center of the room, snapping his fingers together so James would move quicker. 

“Plie, passe up, close fourth, pirouette en dedans, close fifth, same thing to the left, then two eight counts of fouettes en dehor. Keep up with the music, I don’t care how many pirouettes you do, if you fall behind I will have you do them again.” he sounded cold, the usual warmth in his voice was nowhere to be heard. 

James stood in position, waiting for the music to start. While Regulus was searching for a song, someone walked in the room. Prongs would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a sense of relief when he saw Pandora, at least he would get to catch his breath. 

“Hi Reggie! Minnie said I would find you here!” her tone was bright and happy, she practically skipped into the room, smiling widely “Oh hi James!” she turned to wave towards him.

Regulus looked up, he didn’t seem too pleased to see her. He walked towards Pandora nonetheless, giving her a hug. 

“Still pissed I suppose? Barty will sort things out with Blondie, I still don’t understand why you’re this mad, class wasn’t even that bad!” She looked up at him as Regulus rolled his eyes.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” the corners of his mouth started to rise, Regulus seemed to relax a bit. “Gimme a sip!” 

Pandora was carrying some sort of drink with her, still full. Regulus practically snatched it out of her hands, rushing to try it.

“Found this new matcha place, even closer to the theatre than the last one! Tastes a bit better if you ask me” Pandora didn’t complain, she just waited until Regulus handed her the drink back.

“See, I would have suggested going with the whole group, but I can’t do that now. I’ll be mad forever, he’ll need to apologise profusely.” 

“Anyway,” she took another quick sip of her drink “Minnie said that we need to learn a few new lifts for Don Q and that we should start early, apparently she wants to change the show a bit this year. You would have known this yourself except you missed morning rehearsal to fight with Blondie boy!” Pandora was already setting her stuff down under a barre “She said I’d find you here!” 

“Do you know which ones? I didn’t feel like dancing right now but I suppose it won’t hurt.” Regulus caved.

“Yeah! I’ll show you I found a few references!” 

“Alright hold on just a sec.” Regulus walked back to James, signaling for him to ready up.

Prongs sort of let his body do the work, there was one tiny speck of detail that began to bug him. How did Pandora know his name?  

“Dont sickle when you lift the passe in preparation.” Regulus’ tone snapped him back to reality, making James focus again.

The music was quick, he paid attention to what Regulus said about not falling behind. He only managed 3 en dedans pirouettes, and they were really quick too. The music was a lot worse than he expected. 

“Decent, double the counts for en dehor if you think you can pull off a lot.” Regulus was a bit kinder now, so James took the opportunity.

Doubling the count meant he could fit in a decent quad, maybe more. The preparation for the turn felt fantastic, so Prongs decided to try.

He gained a lot of momentum, panicking for a moment because he never quite pulled that off. His first instinct was to count:  ‘one, two, three…wait what?’ He couldn’t quite do that either. 

“Now fouettes, 16 counts.” 

James managed to catch a small glimpse of Regulus’ expression before starting the turns again, he was smiling, which was definitely good. 

“Focus on your spotting” 

James did feel a bit dizzy now that he thought about it. Maybe a bit more. Counting each turn was difficult, if it hadn't been for the years of piano studies that he did he might have failed at it. He ended the turns with an alonge, since Regulus made a note on that last time. 

“Well done, you can take a break now, sorry I was a bit mean.” Regulus apologised but he kept up his attitude. Perhaps he was set on being a little strict with James from now on.

As James sat down to take his break, Pandora approached Regulus again, smiling widely as she usually does.

“I thought you were kidding when you said he could turn!” Her eyes were wide, she was visibly surprised “He’s told us plenty about you, y’know!” She turned to wink towards Prongs, which caught him by surprise. 

James didn’t respond, he didn’t even know what to say. He just shook his head politely in an attempt to not make the atmosphere awkward. Regulus was quick to respond, doing what Prongs assumed was cursing Pandora. James didn’t quite hear what he said. 

“You’ll need to wait for a moment, I’m not warmed up properly.” Regulus glared at Pandora before turning away to stretch. 

“No worries! Do you have the keys to the costume room? I want to go grab a practice tutu meanwhile!” Pandora was already walking to Regulus’ bag to search. “Found em’! I'll be back in a sec.” she skipped out of the room with a bright smile on her face. 

Regulus waited until she closed the door fully to turn to James for some sweet gossip. 

“Sorry about Pandora, she’s uhh very– energetic?” Regulus chuckled, “Do some stretching while we practice, don't just stand by!” he suddenly stiffened again, his tone changing. 

“Oh yes of course!” James knew it was a bad idea, but he just needed to tease Regulus a bit “Told your friends about me haven’t you? I’m that amazing I suppose…” James grinned widely, watching as Regulus visibly turned red, looking away.

“I’m murdering Pandora when she comes back.” he responded. 

“No I quite like her actually, she seems fun!” James definitely found Pandora interesting, her personality and looks both drawed great attention to her “Bold yet bright personality, she stands out.”  

“She doesn’t stand out, she's just russian.” Regulus cursed under his breath yet again “And annoying.” he added. 

It took Regulus a bit long to form his sentence, since Pandora was already back by the time he finished speaking. She was carrying a white, plain tutu on her shoulder, walking quietly behind Regulus as he finished what he had to say. 

“Annoying you say? Very well then, Minnie paired us together for class but I suppose I can talk to her to bring the original pairs back, Barty is pretty good at lifts anyway.” She rolled her eyes, kicking Regulus as she walked past him to grab her bag “I suppose you won’t mind partnering with Emmeline.” 

Regulus mimicked a gagging motion while bending forwards to stretch his hamstrings. He did it with so much ease, James couldn’t quite comprehend it. Regulus was, most definitely, unusually flexible, even for a dancer. 

“Put the keys back in my bag or Minerva might just kill me in my sleep.” He switched from the stretch he was doing before to an even more impressive one. He opened his legs , leaning forward. His hips opened perfectly, his tummy laying flat on the floor. 

“Yeah yeah sure.” Pandora spun the keys twice before tossing them inside Regulus’ tote. “You have two minutes left while I put on my pointes and we’re starting.” 

Regulus didn’t respond, he just nodded, wincing slightly as he switched to a different stretch. James’ eyes drifted to Pandora as she took out a pair of pointe shoes from her bag, Prongs had always wanted to see a pair up close. 

Pandora banged them on the floor a few times, which caught James by surprise. She took out a small roll of blue tape from her bag along with some tiny bandages. Prongs noticed her tights had a hole at the bottom of the foot, which she used to expose her toes to bandage a few of them up. She hissed as she prepared her right leg, especially when she needed to bandage her pinky. 

“Did your toenail grow back yet?” Regulus chuckled as he stood up to sit a bit closer to her “They look so much worse than they did yesterday!” his expression totally changed to nothing short of disgust “I’m so glad we don’t have to wear pointes, I’d kill myself.” 

“Ugh spare me this pair is still new, Gaynor Mindends take so much longer to break in and it’s only causing me pain, I’m switching back to Freeds!” she responded. “Hand me my toe pads will you?” 

James watched Pandora finish wrapping up her big toe. She then proceeded to put on some sort of covers for all of her fingers, the ones Regulus handed her. After finishing the whole thing, she put her tights over her fingers again, sliding her feet into the shoes and tying the ribbons together really quickly. 

“I wouldn’t be so sure about not having to wear pointes for much longer though, rumor has it they’re flying a new choreographer in for a contemporary piece. He’s from the states, Minnie said he might want the boys to go on pointe for it too.” she tied the other shoe without even looking, instead paying full attention to Regulus’ face as his jaw just fell open in surprise. 

“Absolutely not, I’m not coming to contemporary classes any longer. Nope.” he shook his head desperately, standing up and waiting while Pandora did a few jumps to get used to the shoes. 

James wanted to listen to Regulus and stretch while he and Pandora worked on whatever they had to do, but he felt a bit silly. He just decided to stand in the corner and watch for as long as he could, if Regulus would say something again then he will give in. 

“Okay first one is like, arabesque, then throw, then sort of a sissone y’know what I mean, then catch and turn.” Pandora showed everything with her hands as she spoke, and somehow Regulus managed to understand “It’s similar to the one from the current show, but my legs have to almost touch the ground as I go down, mostly just timing.” 

Regulus nodded, turning to the mirror as Pandora got into position. They communicated easily, James noticed, there was no need for a lot of explanations or talking, they just understood each other. 

Once Regulus nodded, Pandora got up in a beautiful arabesque, and Regulus lifted her up just right until his shoulders, before letting go as she opened her legs up in the air even more, Regulus caught her quickly, rolling Pandora in his arms before holding her up for a bit longer in a different pose. It all looked very effortless. 

“Mmm not quite, I think I need to catch you later.” Regulus rolls his shoulders aggressively “I’m so out of shape I’ve been slacking off lately” 

“You’re too rough on yourself.” Pandora grazed his shoulder lightly “Minnie said you’re doing well!” 

“Yeah well I’m falling behind, still need to lose some weight.” Regulus put his hands on his hips, looking at himself in the mirror.

“You’ve been saying that since I met you! You look fine.” Pandora did a few releves to exercise her calves.

“Fine, but I could always look better.” Regulus had a sharp expression his face, James had never seen him this determined.

Prongs recognised this side of Regulus easily, it was the most him thing he said in a while. The usual perfectionist attitude never left his body. Pandora didn’t even respond, she just got ready to do it again. She huffed as Regulus threw her in the air, letting her fall until she basically reached the floor.

“Nice!” She cheered “Was I turned out in the jump?” 

“Not quite, try to not touch my elbow so much as you roll, you know I’m all bruised up.” Regulus took off his shirt to take a quick look at his back, James also assumed he was hot given how much Regulus was sweating. 

“Not my fault you throw yourself on the floor during every routine, let’s go again and then I want a break since I forgot the other ones.” Pandora’s russian accent would slip every once in a while, her voice changed completely. In a way it suited her face better. 

Regulus just nodded, taking a few deep breaths before lifting Pandora up again, this time, she quite literally flew. Regulus put a lot more force into it, and she caught her just as she was about to hit the floor, the whole lift seemed perfect from James’ point of view. 

After Regulus set Pandora down carefully she turned to whistle playfully clapping her fingers together. 

“Nice Reggie! Ok you do something while I search for the other ones!” She ran to the corner, her tutu bouncing up and down as he ran. 

Regulus turned to James and he signaled for him to come over. 

“Want to learn a new jump?” Regulus looked up at Prongs, who was already nodding in excitement. “Alright” Regulus chuckled “What did I show you last time?” 

“This one” James closed fifth as tight as he could before doing the jump “Assemblé I believe.” 

“Well I want to start giving you combinations” Regulus was lost in thought for a moment “Give me a sec.” 

Regulus moved around the room, doing some sort of moves with his hands. 

“Pands pay attention for a sec.” He turned to Pandora who looked up from her phone “Sissone, sissone, glissade jete, glissade jete, assemble, passe and turn en dehor.” he only moved around quickly, lifting a leg every once in a while “Think it’s too difficult?” 

“What type of sissone?” she asked, “It’s probably fine.” 

Regulus demonstrated a jump, basically flying up then landing without a thud. 

“Yeah it’s good! Call me over when he does it. I want to go too!” she winked before looking back at her phone, which James immediately took notice of. She had lots of stickers on her phone case, all in pastel colors, along with a strawberry charm hanging from the side of her phone. It was really cute. 

“Ok James so,” Regulus took a small pause to clear his throat “this is a glissade, from fifth you do a sort of jete with the leg in the back then switch the weight with a small jump, you have to be sort of tense but also relaxed, you’ll understand if you try.” he put his hands on his hips and he turned to watch James. “Just hold your hands on your hips for now.” 

So James did just that. He did the jump a few times, trying his best to squeeze fifth position after landing as tight as possible. Overall it was fairly easy, especially since it was just a short motion. Soon James understood the hands too, which sort of came naturally to him. 

“Now a glissade jete, they’re actually two separate jumps but you should remember them as a whole for now since there’s many types of jetes out there. From the glissade you jump, holding the active leg up and sort of bending the other one in a coupe.” Regulus made a bit of a funny face when explaining, it definitely entertained James “then when you jump you land on this leg first.” 

“Okay sure.” James gave it a try, at first he was a bit wobbly, especially with the landing, but he got it relatively quickly “What about the hands?”

“Err” Regulus looked around the room in an attempt to find his words “Just look at me I can’t really explain” 

Regulus did the jump a few times, going from left to right. After a bit of observing, which Prongs is really good at doing, he could now do the jump himself. As for the sissone, Regulus had showed it to him once, and he still remembered it. 

“Ok now just a brief marking before you do the actual thing. Starting in fifth facing this diagonal.” Regulus took position in front of James, doing the exercise while explaining “You do sissone, then the second one, and you should end in fifth with your right leg in front.” Regulus turned around to make sure James was positioned properly “Now you go towards the left when you do the jump.” Regulus put his hands on his hips to look at James as he did the glissade jete himself.

“Now I assume I go the other way?” James did a small motion with his hand and Regulus nodded, so he did the same thing. “Now assemble?” Regulus nodded again, and James finished the combination himself with the turn. 

“Yeah you got it, then close fifth with the other leg in front of you to do the same thing to the opposite side, then you finish with an alonge, got it?” Regulus didn’t even look up from his phone, he was busy searching from the music.

James felt pretty confident in the combination, he just hoped the music wouldn’t be too quick so he would have time to think. 

Luck wasn’t on his side today. 

“Yeah I like this one, c’mon Pandora if you want to do it too.” he told James to turn towards the mirror as Regulus went and sat in front “Don’t forget to reverse it, don’t rush in the pirouette and stay on music.” 

James wasn’t exactly sure where he should sit, so we waited until Pandora got up and she positioned herself. 

“James in the front.” Regulus was back to his scary tone. “Okay, aaand.” Regulus did a little thing with his hand before playing the music. 

The song didn’t intimidate James quite as much. Maybe it was his years of piano that helped him, but he didn’t struggle with the musicality at all, it was actually quite fun. He took his time with the sissones, taking two counts for each, then two counts for each glissade jete, which he had to think rather quickly for, then the rest eight counts for the assemble and turn, landing a very beautiful quad. The assemble was a bit tricky to do after the coupe, but he managed. 

“Very good! Push more in the sissone, focus on opening your hips!” Regulus was smiling, like actually smiling. He looked proud of James, which sort of just melted his heart. “Now squeeze the fifth in the assemble, yes!” he was eager to teach, Prongs could just feel it.

Turning to the right was a bit hard for him, only landing a double. 

“Well that was disappointing, I expected more.” Regulus pouted playfully as James suddenly relaxed to take a breather. “Go again I want to do it with you and film!” Regulus was smiling again, going to grab Pandora's phone “I like to track progress.” 

James worked on his breathing, so he could pull through another set. The exercise itself wasn’t so bad, he just felt a bit nervous dancing alongside Regulus and Pandora, it was like the universe was set on James making a fool of himself. 

“C’mon go!” Regulus ran next to James, leaving some distance between them so they wouldn’t run into each other “It’ll start in a bit, Pandora your arches are lovely but if you don’t turn out already they’re worth nothing.” he teased.

Pandora just stuck her tongue out, being a bit surprised when the music began, nevertheless they were all ready just in time. 

It was definitely a lot more fun then when James did everything alone and Regulus just watched, they were all smiling and having fun and it really felt good. All of the fear that James sort of felt bottling up in him before starting just disappeared, he got to enjoy the moment thoroughly. 

He could see Regulus in the mirror, and he found the height he gained in his jumps a bit ridiculous. Both James and Pandora’ jumps ended up looking mediocre when they danced next to Regulus, he just springed up and never seemed to touch the floor again. 

When it came time to turn, James absolutely dominated, landing a quintuple en dehor and a triple en dedans.  He could have sworn he saw Regulus trip a bit when he turned to the left, but it might have just been the wind. 

“That was lots of fun! Grand allegro next time please!” Pandora’s voice was ridiculously high pitched as she said that, making James audibly chuckle. 

“I hate when she does that. And yes we are doing grand allegro next because I will rip you both to shreds.” Regulus teased, switching to his wannabe intimidating tone. “Oh you turned really well here James! Didn’t even sickle!” Regulus’ eyes visibly widened as he rewatched the video they took. 

“Considering how you tripped en dehor, of course he did great!” Pandora patted him on the back playfully “Wait you took it on my phone? Perfect!” 

Regulus glared at her, before giving Pandora her phone back. 

“Can we rehearse the bedroom pax once? Please?” Pandora asked, “I messed up during the last show, I don't want to do it again.” 

“Don’t feel like rehearsing Romeo and Juliet right now…” Regulus went quiet again.

Pandora just did something completely unexpected next, she just switched to russian, smirking widely at Regulus. 

"Что, боишься, что твой парень увидит, как я тебя обнимаю?" she said, her voice changing again. 

Regulus tried to glare at her, but he just blushed, visibly blushed. 

"Un jour, je te tuerai." he responded, this time in french. James was able to catch on to that bit, Regulus just said she’d kill her. 

“Sure then, let’s do the Pas. Just don’t be surprised when I accidentally drop you.” he teased back. 

Pandora rolled her eyes but she walked towards Regulus nevertheless, waiting for the music to play. 

James liked their dancing, it was fluid and beautiful and they both understood each other without actually having to speak. Pandora and Regulus were, with no doubt, a great pair. He analysed the performance yet again, comparing it to the show he watched not too long ago. A difference that was definitely noticeable was Regulus refused to kiss Pandora towards the ending of the variation. Once they finished dancing Pandora was already quick to complain. 

“Minnie said that you’ll get used to not doing it and you’ll forget during the show too!” She complained “It’s not like it means anything.” she rolled her eyes. 

“I won’t forget during the show, I’m a professional for God’s sake.” Regulus was mad again “I told you I won’t do it in practice anymore.” he panted, sitting down to rest from all the lifts he and Pandora had to do. 

“Alrighty then, when will you tell me more about that not-so-little crush of yours hm?” Pandora smiled, a light flickered in her eyes. 

Regulus ignored her, he rolled his eyes and he sat back up.

“James we have some more time before class, anything else you want to do in particular or should I choose for myself?” he said.

Prongs had a short debate with himself about whether or not it would be better for him to pick. He trusts Regulus so he just signaled for him to choose. 

“I’m not exactly sure what would help you at the moment, you’re not flexible enough for grand allegro yet so I can’t really do that.” Regulus was lost in thought, fidgeting with his rings absent-mindedly. “Do you remember the saute combo from last time? Just do that.” 

James nodded and he sat in the same spot as last time, legs in first position. He did the jumps which were definitely just as tiring as last time, his calves and toes weren’t as sore as they normally would be by the end of it though. Regulus gave him a few corrections, but he wasn’t as mad.

After everything both James and Regulus began to quietly pack up their things to move to the other room for class. Pandora looked confused for a while before she picked up on what they were doing.

“Reggie?” she asked.

“Mhm?” Regulus was busy looking for something in his bag. 

“You have to teach now right?” She looked nervous, as if she was about to ask something.

“Yes.” he turned around to see what Pandora wanted. 

“Can I come watch pleasee!! I’ll help, I swear! I’ll correct them or something!” She jumped around begging, sitting back down after she finished making her request.

Regulus looked James dead in the eye as if he was the one who needed to decide. Pandora whispered another please as James just shrugged smiling and Regulus finally gave in with a sigh. 

“If you’re not helpful I’m kicking you out.” Regulus took one last look at her before sitting up and walking out. 

James was sort of left behind with Pandora so she waited for her as she packed up, thinking of ways to talk to her since he enjoyed getting to know those around him. Luckily he didn’t need to do much more thinking since Pandora knew plenty of conversation starters herself. 

“So, what do you study James?” she asked while she was taking off her pointe shoes. 

“Oh I um went to Oxford to study english, more branches together really. I graduated both high school and uni early so I’m already working as a book editor.” 

“Well Reggie did say you’re smart but I didn’t exactly expect this!” she smiled up at him “And how old are you exactly?” she raised an eyebrow. 

“I turn 24 on the 27th, I’m getting old.” he smiled, clicking his tongue in a sarcastic way.

“Ah, so a year older than Regulus! Had no idea!” Pandora finished packing up, grabbing her big light pink bag and carrying it on her shoulder “Let’s hurry or he might just be pissed” she smiled.

James smiled back, he enjoyed Pandora’s company. She was a very bright and optimistic person, she and Prongs were quite similar.

*

Class with Regulus was a lot more different than usual, he was meaner, definitely. Pandora would occasionally walk around, offering some tips and corrections, especially for James. She would joke about how authoritative Regulus was every once in a while and Prongs ended up chuckling every single time. They had to stop once Regulus noticed that James wasn’t concentrating properly during Adagio, so Pandora just pouted and she went to sit and watch in a corner. 

James has been building a lot of stamina ever since he started ballet. It wasn’t easy, ballet is actually quite demanding on the body, more demanding than any other sport James has ever attempted. He found himself in pain during breaks, either his calves being unusually sore or just some throbbing pain in his hips or toes. 

After class he hurried home, having loads of work to catch up on. He saluted Pandora before leaving and he gave Regulus a hug, patting him on the back as he usually would, then, he rushed out of the theatre.

*

*

*

James’ birthday was unusually close, so it was time for his favourite game throughout the whole year. 

Prongs knows his friends are planning something, a party, a gift, either way they are working on something in secret. Their group is disgustingly educated on how to successfully keep something a secret, so every year James tries to figure out when or where the party will be by looking for clues. 

Last year for example, he sort of saw it coming. Sirius asked James to meet him somewhere to discuss something about Remus, obviously Prongs saw right through that and he was right, it was actually a surprise party.

This time however, after days of searching James still had no idea what his friends were up to. The group chat functioned normally, just the regular occasional bickering and random hangouts that they always do. Even Remus and Sirius acted normal, coming over to see James frequently and not saying a word about his upcoming birthday. If Prongs didn’t know better, he might have just assumed his friends didn’t prepare anything. 

James let time pass as he waited, living his life normally.

One particular moment that stood out from the rest of his usual routine was the increase in James’ screentime, who has recently re-discovered his instagram addiction. He had always liked watching what people are doing, how others live their life, and now since he met yet another person he just had to find out some more stuff about them. 

In other words, James looked at most of Regulus’ instagram posts. Pandoras’ too, though she didn’t even have half as many. 

On Saturday James was especially bored, and that’s exactly when he got the idea. He opened his instagram to look just at pretty much anything, only to see Regulus posted something on his close friends account. 

James smiled like an absolute fool at his phone when he saw the picture– it was the photo he took when Regulus came over. Of course there were some others, it was a March dump! as Regulus captioned it, but the one James took definitely caught his eye. The rest were Regulus being genuinely happy, which was sort of a relief for Prongs. Regulus posted some pictures of him, Pandora and a few other dancers before and after the show along with some pictures of food and drinks from when they all hangout together. 

Of course this wide variety of photos weren’t enough for James, so he did a bit more of what he likes to call research. Regulus’ main account has loads of followers, especially since he’s pretty well known among the ballet enjoyers. It’s full of pictures from shows or snippets from different classes that Regulus attends, it’s a very professional profile, just like James’ main. Every picture was calculated, and Regulus looked unfairly good in all of them. 

Regulus’ close friends account has a lot of posts, mostly pictures of him smiling or doing stupid things while dancing. James scrolled pretty absent-mindedly through most of them until something snapped him back to reality, Regulus knows Evan. 

It took Prongs quite some time to notice, but Regulus and Evan are friends, since he appeared often in his posts. Mostly from when they were out drinking with Pandora and another man, who James assumed to be Barty. 

Prongs took this piece of information and he decided to remember it, considering it pretty important. He would ask Regulus about Evan as soon as he gets the chance, especially since he barely considered the possibility of the two of them knowing each other. 

*

After the long wait until his birthday passed, James found himself leaving ballet on the 26th, just the day before. He walked back to his flat, enjoying the smell of rain that lingered outside, and then he noticed something, the small slip up that always helped him figure out what his friends planned. Someone was looking out the window from his flat. He saw the silhouette just out of the corner of his eye, so he didn’t have the opportunity to figure out who it was, but he immediately knew this was his surprise. 

He walked up the stairs slowly, just for the sake of building suspense, and as soon as he opened the door a very expected thing happened, his friends were in fact waiting for him inside, ready to celebrate his birthday. 

All of his friends cheered for him, taking turns to give James a hug and say a few words. He felt like a kid again, walking in on the best birthday party he ever had. Remus and Sirius were the last ones to come greet him, each of them hugging James for a bit longer, just to let the message sink in. 

“Happy birthday mate, we ran out of ideas so my extra set of keys practically started calling out for us! This was the only way for us to keep the party a surprise!” Sirius leaned in to whisper, making James a bit emotional. 

Their friend group didn’t have the usual set of boundaries, that was most definitely gone years ago. The usual person might consider this a huge invasion of privacy, but James just felt lucky to have friends like his. 

And oh, oh how lucky he is. Birthday blues already seemed to hit him, since James couldn’t really say anything, his cheeks just got a bit warmer as his eyes watered just a little. Everyone cries on their birthday at least once right? 

The core of the friend group, as Peter likes to call him, always lets himself be vulnerable on his birthday. James is more than grateful for his friends, who actually love him no matter what. 

He is used to helping people, pretty much everyone, without expecting something in exchange. Perhaps this became a bit of a habit for him since James has been helping anyone with anything since the day he learned to walk, and with time they stopped asking for help, since most people took advantage of his kindness. 

Being shown this affection and love by his friends means the world to James, it always will. 

He’s always been the giver, the Sun, the core of the group, but tonight, his friends make sure he’s the one held. For every birthday, James gets to relax and let the others take care of him.

So, he took advantage of this opportunity. He accepted every drink Marlene or Sirius or even Mary handed him and he finished it in seconds, maybe even reaching for another one. He rambled for hours about Wes Anderson and how important his movies were to him. He put on all of the jazz in the world, dancing around to the more up beat songs as Dorcas and Peter were doing something stupid like they usually would. He accepted the cigarettes Remus handed him, smoking one or two, letting Sirius brag about how James has been missing out this whole time. He let himself kiss Lily on the cheek with no remorse when the inevitable Do I wanna know? by Arctic Monkeys played. He let himself sing Hamilton lyrics out of nowhere when Remus suggested they watch it.

Prongs let himself let loose, he put all of his trust in his friends and he had fun.  Waking up with a throbbing and horrible headache afterwards. 

*

All of his friends fell asleep in the living room, everyone besides James just scattered across the floor. Prongs got to sleep on the couch, since it is his birthday after all. He got up, making a quick stop in the bathroom to puke. He’s not really the type to feel particularly sick after drinking a lot, but he will always vomit once, just to flush the alcohol out of his system.

Remus was already up, smoking in the kitchen and reading a pretty old newspaper. He greeted James, stubbing out the cigarette as soon as he walked in. 

"Good morrow! How dost thou fare? Art thou beset with the vile aftereffects of drink?" of course Moony had to greet him in Shakespearean english, they were both english majors after all. 

"I am parched and do crave a morn’s repast." James replied, cackling at his own response. 

“Your phone’s been buzzing non-stop, no doubt it’s happy birthday messages.” Remus handed James his phone, who was left in the kitchen from last night.

Unlike most people, Prongs loves birthday texts. He loves having to reply to hundreds of people, some that he even forgot, just because they texted him happy birthday. 

James grabbed himself some water in a cup and he sat down next to Remus to analyse every message he got. 

James’ all time favourite part was the instagram stories. The only time of year when he allows his main account to not look professional is obviously his birthday. James reposted stories from about 18 authors that he worked with, all of them thanking him for his help. Most of the photos were of the author and James holding up the book on release day, he took these pictures quite frequently. He also reposted a lot from his professors, even some of his highschool teachers wished him happy birthday, which just made James’ heart melt. Overall he was important enough to have a lot of well known people reach out to him for this occasion, having to repost just 30 stories from that alone.

“What a snob, didn’t this dude threaten to fail you?” Remus pointed out a story from one of James’ old professors. Mr. Merlin, probably the most famous English literature professor, teaches at Oxford. James was with no doubt one of his favourite students, only after the man threatened to get James expelled if he didn’t double down on his reading.

“I liked him actually, I wouldn’t have gotten this far without him!” James mentioned. 

In his first year of university he contributed to writing the script for a very well known series, based off of a book. On his time there he met the actors, hanging out with most of them. They all made quite big names for themselves and somehow still remembered to wish Prongs a happy birthday. 

Of course, the stories from famous people didn’t really mean anything to James, what mattered most were the ones from his friends. 

Marlene posted a clip of James, Lily and her performing Candy Store from Heathers musical, it was a very hilarious moment and James did actually sing really well. The memory made him crackle every single time. 

Mary chose a lot of pictures of her and James, especially from when she dressed him up. Remus and Mary collaborated together every once in a while to do James’ makeup and dress him up all nicely, it was hilarious and they definitely had plenty of fun memories.

Dorcas posted pictures of James helping her revise, adding a special thank you message since she got through her midterms with great success. James’ favourite was when he and Dorcas were sitting down with papers and textbooks spread around them in a circle, even though Prongs was not interested in the medical field he still managed to help her. 

Lily opted for pictures of her and James from when they were younger, along with a few funny more recent ones. She obviously played their signature song by Arctic Monkeys in the background, just for the vibes. 

Peter didn’t do much, as he normally would. He posted four pictures of him and James from different events, all of them looking really good. 

Remus posted two stories, one of James losing his mind over a piano piece he was trying  to teach Moony, absolutely crashing out because Remus was very bad at sight reading. The other story was a collage with about a hundred pictures, it was so full you could barely tell what was happening but James took a screenshot of it before reposting it, just to take a better look at it later.

Lastly, Sirius went all out, as per usual. He started with some pictures of them when they were young, writing Happiest of Birthdays to my all time best friend and probably platonic soulmate!! for the first story. James didn’t even remember half of those photos, he has no idea where Sirius even found them. The next were just funny pictures of James, like the one time he had to cook shirtless because both him and Sirius were too lazy to get up and grab a t-shirt, or the time James just moved into his apartment and he was trying to set up his bookshelf. Lastly, Padfoot ended his sequence of instagram stories with a video of James braiding his hair while humming to some David Bowie playing in the background, Prongs remembers the moment as if it was yesterday, it was the most peace he had in a while back then. 

Lastly, to finish it off, both his mum and dad posted a picture of James, writing a short message about how proud they are of him. Prongs got all emotional again as he rewatched the almost 100 stories that he reposted, reminding himself of how loved he is. Not only that but he is now 24, before he’ll know it James will be all old and shriveled up so he was sort of determined to live his life to the fullest.

He ended the party with the cake that he refused to eat last night because he would have puked it out in the morning. Sirius got him his favourite, red velvet cake with loads of toppings and fruit on top. They didn’t go together, but that’s the fun about it. 

Peter offered to film as everyone sang happy birthday for James. He blew out the candles, making a wish, the same wish that he has chosen for years: to be loved unconditionally, just like I do. Then, he felt Sirius’ and Remus’ hands at the back of his head, just above his neck. He knew it was coming, so he didn’t say anything, he let his face be pushed into the cake, because well, it was fun. James’ glasses and hair were now full of cake, but at least he got to feel the texture of frosting on his nose. 

This year, his birthday was once again a great success. He reminded himself of how he got his nickname once again, because everytime he thought about it James remembered how loved he actually is. 

His friends were making fun of him for how head over heels he was for Lily, when Sirius made the comparison to a deer and headlights. Of course James liked the idea of being a deer better, so after a bit of bickering they settled for a stag. Stag was a pretty bad nickname so after a while they came up with Prongs. 

They soon got used to it, and everytime James would cry, or have a meltdown he would always end up surprised at how kind his friends are to him, despite his feelings. Remus always reminded him of the same thing: 

"A stag does not ask the forest to shelter it, yet still, the trees stand tall around him." he said.

This little thing stuck with James for years, and he reminded himself of it for every single birthday he had.