Exams were over and James felt empty. He never thought that he would say that but it’s true. It was his last year at Hogwarts and he didn’t want it to end. The past seven years had been the best of his life and he had no desire to see where he ends up next and how he gets there. He had just gotten up to the common room when Sirius came pounding down the stairs holding two bottles of firewhiskey with Remus and Peter trailing behind him with apologetic looks on their faces. The girls had been talking on the sofa in front of the fire but when they saw Sirius on the stairs they let out whoops and shouts of excitement which caused the others in the room to look over at them. When they caught sight of the boy stomping down the stairs they groaned and went to leave. Everyone knew that their drinking games were exposing and none were willing to take part.
“Who wants to celebrate the end of the year with never have I ever?” Sirius asked as he finally reached the bottom step. The girls looked at each other before nodding.
“We’re in Black!” Marlene shouted, signalling for her and the other girls to get up and move to the middle of the room.
“I invited Reg too but I’m not sure if he’s coming,” Sirius said, moving to sit with the girls. James’ heart fluttered at the mention of the younger boy.
“His last exam is tomorrow so he may not want to play,” James said without thinking.
“How do you know that?” Sirius asked, furrowing his eyebrows a bit. That's when James realised what he had said and his cheeks flushed a bit.
“Oh. Uhm– we talk sometimes, I guess,” he stuttered out. Sirius gave him a weird look but didn’t press any further. “Let’s get on with the game then.” They all sat on the floor in a circle, James sitting in between Lily and Sirius.
Once they had all situated themselves in a circle Mary summoned shot glasses and gave each person three. They lined them up in front of themselves and filled them with whiskey. Just as they had finished doing that the portrait opened to reveal Regulus who was standing there awkwardly.
“Reg! Come in! We were just about to start playing though apparently you may not want to get drunk because you still have an exam tomorrow?” Sirius said. Regulus snuck a glance at James who was just sitting there, awkwardly avoiding his gaze. Regulus just sighed.
“I’ll drink, I have a high enough tolerance not to get drunk off of, how many do you each have? Three? That’ll barely get my tipsy,” he scoffed. Mary tried and failed to cover a laugh.
“How do you know how many shots will get you tipsy?” Sirius asked, lifting an eyebrow.
“Sirius, I’m 16, not 12. I’ve gotten drunk before. Now move over so I can sit,” he laughed, walking to sit in between him and James. They get him three shot glasses and fill them up, emptying the first bottle of firewhiskey.
“Alright, who wants to go first?” Remus asked. They all looked at each other before Peter spoke up.
“I guess I will,” he said, sighing. “Never have I ever… snogged someone in this room.” Everyone groaned. In the first round James, Remus, Sirius, Mary, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, and even Regulus took shots. “Really?” Peter asked in disbelief. “Everyone except Alice and I? How in the world?”
“I’ve snogged James, Remus, Sirius and Lily,” Mary said.
“James and Mary,” Lily admitted.
“Dorcas,” Marlene said. “Obviously.”
“Marlene,” Dorcas added.
“Sirius, James, Mary, and Lily,” Remus sighed. Everyone stared at him. “What?”
“You’ve snogged four different people in this room,” Marlene said, baffled.
“I think James has snogged more,” Lily said, amused.
“I’ve snogged Remus, James, and Mary,” Sirius said.
“Does snogging someone when you were like five count?” James asked.
“Sure,” Peter said, shrugging. “Mostly because now I’m just curious.”
“Fuck, then add James to my list,” Marlene said, sighing.
“Then I’ve snogged Sirius, Remus, Lily, Mary, and Marlene,” James said. And then after a moment he laughed. “I’ve snogged half of the people in the room right now.”
“Reg, who did you snog?” Remus asked, raising an eyebrow. “No one here said your name.” James knew that Remus knew. He had guessed who James had been meeting but Merlin was James happy that he hadn’t said anything.
“Probably because they would get beat up by my brother if they had said something,” he sighed. “So to keep that from happening, I’m not saying who.”
“That’s fair,” Alice said, cocking her head. “Who wants to go next?”
“I will,” Lily said. “Never have I ever gone to class drunk or high.” Remus, Regulus, Alice and Marlene all took shots.
“In my defence,” Regulus said to the face that Sirius was making at him. “I hadn’t intended to do so. Evan had made brownies and I hadn’t realised that they had pot in them until the middle of potions.” Lily made a sympathetic sound and winced at the idea of it.
“That may be one of the worst classes to go to while you’re high because of all of the smells and shit,” she said.
“Yeah, it wasn’t a pleasant experience whatsoever,” he said grimacing.
“My turn!” James said, smiling. “Never have I ever gotten caught snogging someone in a broom closet.” He had looked directly at Remus as he said this. He scoffed but rolled his eyes. Remus, Peter, Sirius, Lily, Mary, Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice all took a shot. “Wow, you guys need to be more careful.”
“Well you won’t exactly let Moony and I–”
“Please, for the love of everything good and green do not finish that sentence,” Regulus groaned.
“I'd like to clarify,” James spoke up. “I don’t let you because I don’t believe that you’ll do it on one of your guys’ beds. I once found you guys snogging on my bed so it’s a justified fear.”
“That’s fair,” Peter said, shrugging.
“I need more firewhiskey,” Remus said. “And so does Marlene I believe.”
“Yup,” she said, popping the ‘p.’ Sirius summoned the second bottle and poured their shots. “Whose turn is it now?”
“Mine,” Regulus spoke up. The room was quiet for a moment to allow him to think of one. “Never have I ever had a crush on James’ mum,” he said, smirking. He knew that at least two people would be taking a shot and it amused him immensely. Seeing James’ face after he saw Marlene and Mary take shots was even more amusing.
“My mum?” He shouted.
“Effie is a great person,” Mary said, nodding.
“And she’s very attractive,” Marlene added, making James groan and Regulus laugh.
“I need more,” Mary said, motioning to her empty shot glasses. Sirius rolled his eyes but refilled her shot glasses. He then made the decision to just refill everyone’s empty ones to save time.
A few rounds later Remus had needed a refill along with James and surprisingly to everyone, Peter. Which now that James thought about it, made sense. Yeah, Pete was as close to James as everyone was but he kept a lot more to himself than the others.
It had been revealed that Alice had been walked in on in a broom closet with Frank, both James and Lily had snuck out to meet someone before, Peter, Marlene, Dorcas, and Regulus had all gone skinny dipping at some point in their lives, Mary and Lily had run from the police over the summer, Sirius and Remus had hooked up in a bar bathroom once, and more. Let’s just say that Regulus knew too much about his brother’s relationship and, he hated to say it, his sex life.
“My turn,” Remus said, grinning like he had just won the lottery. “Never have I ever snogged someone in the Black family who isn’t Sirius.” Oh James hated Remus. Sirius was staring at Remus with his eyebrows raised before whipping his head around to look at each and every one of them. When Sirius had moved his eyes from James to Alice, who had reluctantly taken a shot, James took his chance and downed a shot, almost positive that no one had seen him except for Remus and Regulus who were both smirking at him, but for completely different reasons.
“Alice?” Sirius yelped. “Did you snog my brother?” Alice made a face.
“Ew, no. Wait, that sounds mean, sorry Reg,” she said, grimacing.
“I wouldn’t want to snog you either, don’t worry about it.”
“Who have you snogged then?” Alice sighed.
“Narcissa,” she said, wincing at the look on Sirius’ face. “In our fourth year, her fifth.”
“Why in the everloving fuck did you kiss her?” Sirius asked, a horrified look on his face. At the expression on Alice’s face Regulus suddenly felt bad for the girl. She looked genuinely sad for a moment.
“Sirius, lay off a bit,” Regulus said quietly. “She doesn’t need to tell you why she did something.”
“Because I liked her,” Alice shrugged. “We were friends before she went off and married Malfoy. I wanted her to be my first kiss so she was.”
“That’s…” Sirius paused, looking for the right word. “Actually really sweet.” Alice just smiled and nodded.
“Did no one else notice that James took a shot?” Marlene asked, looking immensely amused at the situation. Sirius stared at her for a moment before slowly turning his head to look at James.
“You took a shot?” He asked, in a very quiet and collected voice. It honestly worried James.
“According to Marls I did,” he replied, shooting a death glare at the girl in question.
It wasn’t that James and Regulus hadn’t wanted Sirius to know that the two of them were together, actually, no, it was exactly that. James knew that Sirius would feel like James picked Regulus over him even though he hadn’t, but Jmaes didn’t want him to feel like that so he decided to keep it to himself. He also just didn’t want to get punched by Sirius for ‘defiling his little brother.’ So yes, James and Regulus had been purposely hiding the fact that they were seeing each other.
“I’m sorry,” Marlene said, not sounding sorry in the slightest. “I assumed that he was aware that you’ve snogged someone in his family besides him. But I guess he doesn’t. I can’t imagine why you wouldn't tell him unless–”
“Marlene,” James groaned. “Shut the fuck up please.”
She was quiet for a minute before saying, “Yeah alright.”
“Who have you kissed then?” Sirius demanded. James’ eyes flitted to Regulus and apparently that was all that Sirius needed to blow up at him. “You’ve snogged my baby brother?”
“I’m not a baby Sirius,” Regulus retorted, glaring at him, making Sirius gasp.
“Oh my god you have snogged him! How dare you? I can’t believe you’ve defiled my baby brother!” Sirius shouted.
“He didn’t defile me,” Regulus snorted. “I’ve been with people before you know.”
“I did not know and I did not need to know,” He grimaced. “When in the world did you even kiss?”James and Regulus shared a somewhat amused look.
“Do you want to tell him or should I?” Regulus asked, smirking.
“I say we let Remus tell him since he’s the one who got us into this mess,” James replied, glaring at the boy in question who paled a bit at the thought of doing that.
“I don’t think that’s the best idea,” Remus started but Reg cut him off.
“I actually think it’s a fantastic idea,” he said, staring at Remus with an unreadable face.
“For the love of everything good please someone just fucking tell me already,” Sirius snapped.
“I think they’re fucking,” Marlene said conversationally. “But that’s just my grasp on the current situation.”
“Marls,” James started. “Please stop talking.”
“Fine,” she huffed. Sirius had taken to staring at the two of them as soon as Marlene had suggested that they had been together and it was making Reg feel like he had to tell him.
“McKinnon isn’t wrong,” Regulus grumbled, cracking under the pressure of his older brother’s stare.
“What?” Sirius yelped, jumping up. “You guys are fucking each other?”
“You and I both know that isn’t how that works,” he replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Reg, you aren’t helping the situation here,” James hissed, glaring at him. Regulus just shrugged helplessly.
“He was going to find out eventually.”
“Yeah but you’re making it sound like we’re just fuck buddies,” he replied which made realization flit across the younger boy’s face.
“Oh yeah, no,” he assured Sirius. “We’re like, actually together, as in dating each other. Not just fuck buddies. That’s my bad and I apologise for the miscommunication.”
“That was oddly formal for apologising to his brother,” Mary whispered to Lily. The girl just shrugged.
“They have a very weird relationship.”
“You’re dating each other?” Sirius asked, his face morphing into something that resembled disgust.
“Yes,” James started slowly. “We’ve been together for around a year, a bit longer.” Shock flitted across Remus’ face which was basically mirrored in everyone else’s faces as well.
“You hid it for over a year?” Lily asked. “That’s impressive.”
“Thank you!” James yelped. “I think so too!”
“You’re dating my brother?” Sirius said, his voice eerily calm. “And you have been for a year and you didn’t tell me?”
“...Maybe,” he replied, grimacing. “But we only didn’t tell you because we were scared of how you would react.”
“Why would you be afraid of my reaction?” Sirius asked, tilting his head to the side a little, looking a bit psychotic.
“Because you look as though you’re going to murder Prongs,” Pete spoke up.
“Let’s move on with the game, shall we?” Remus said, his voice a bit worried. “Pads, I think it's your turn.” Sirius had a blank look on his face before a smirk settled on his lips.
“Fine. Never have I ever fucked a Black,” he said, smirking at Remus and James making them groan. Remus and Mary both took a shot immediately but before James could Reg stopped him and whispered something to him making James turn red and put the shot down. “James, take a fucking shot.” James turned a brighter red and mumbled something so that Sirius couldn’t hear. But of course, Remus, with his werewolf hearing and the full moon being this week, heard it and bursted out laughing.
“You’re playing a dangerous game Prongs,” he said in between laughs, making Sirius confused.
“Huh?” Lily and Mary caught on and started laughing.
“Sirius, think about the wording of your question,” Lily said, snorting. It took him a few minutes to get what she meant but when he did he fake gagged.
“You guys are disgusting,” he said, a gross look on his face.
“As if you and Remus aren’t worse,” Regulus retorted.
“He has a point, love,” Remus admitted shrugging.