Chapter 5
“And then you did what?”, exclaimed Sirius, almost falling out of his chair. Peter next to him was already half of the floor, laughing so hard that he couldn’t stand properly.
James sighed “I leaned on the wall and-,”
Lily in the back was dramatically acting out the course of events. James threw her an annoyed glare.
“Keep going, darling, don’t mind him!” said Sirius, sending Lily a pretend dramatic kiss.
“You were saying?,” he looked at James seriously. (“You mean, Siriusly?” Pete would say.) Sirius blinked with those big icy blue eyes that were always attentive when James was speaking. Even though all of this was just for a laugh. James has always admired that about Sirius. His ability to listen and to make people feel heard. Sirius says that he learned that from James, but James doesn’t quite believe that. It’s almost like Sirius was born with this ability and just didn’t notice he had it.
“and then I winked.”
Sirius took a slow breath in. “You winked?” he asked, trying very hard not to laugh.
Pete, who had managed to come back to a semi-stable seated position raised his eyebrows, “Like in a movie?”
James just nodded in agreement, biting his lip in embarrassment.
“How bad are we talking? Close-up shot, wind blowing, dramatic slow-mo?” Peter continued.
“Instead of dramatic, that just sounds tragic to me,” said Marlene, raising her eyes from her sketchbook, in which she had been drawing new tattoo designs. Marlene, having recently discovered her talent and interest in tattooing, sometimes went to Sirius’ tattoo salon after work to practice and help. Recently she has taken interest in the sketches themselves, which resulted in that old sketchbook in her lap right now.
“You really have to stop talking to attractive men while drunk, James, because this is just…sad,” said Mary, first pausing to find the right word and then scrunching her nose as if disgusted by the idea.
“Well I would use the word “hilarious”, but it’s your call,” said Marlene with a smile.
“Or it all can be sad and because of that hilarious,” Mary added, “I think we have ourselves quite a picture!”
Everyone nodded in unison.
“Hey! It wasn’t that bad, okay,” said James.
“It wasn’t James, don’t worry about it, we are just having a laugh,” assured Lily. “Or are we?” she winked, which resulted in a grunt from James and a wave of laughter across all the others.
They were all at James and Sirius’ place. All of them usually hung out there, since the apartment was the most spacious. Besides, it was warm and cozy, full of pictures with friends and family, soft blankets and music, always playing from the speakers. As a rule, it was Pete, who controlled the musical atmosphere of the place, since he had the most elaborate playlists, which catered to everyone’s wants and needs. Unless, obviously, James and Sirius decided that it was time for karaoke, which always meant hell for everyone else in the room. However, after the “it’s our apartment” card was used, everyone could do nothing but hopelessly watch and wait for it all to be over.
“So does anyone want tea,” asked Lily, gesturing towards the kitchen. There were a few grunts of no thank you’s and a few lazy hands going up. “Mary, Marlene, could you two help me out?” The pair raised their eyes in suspicion. Lily was always the one to make the tea and then insisted on bringing all the cups by herself, saying it calms her nerves, so to have her ask for help was very much out of the ordinary. “Please,” Lily sing-songed, throwing meaningful glares at Mary and Marlene. After that she disappeared into the kitchen and in a second was followed by her two very puzzled friends.
“What’s with the girl-scout team attitude, Lils?” asked Marlene.
Lily placed her hands dramatically on the kitchen table and looked at them with a pair of rather terrified green eyes.
“James is in love with Sirius’ brother.”
Pause.
“Bloody mother of-“
“Quiet, Marlene, they’ll hear us!” Mary whispered loudly.
“Bloody mother of fucks,” ended Marlene in a whisper. Lily looked at her in confusion. Mary just shook her head.
“What?!” Mary whispered to Lily, who was now aggressively nodding.
“That. Is. My. Question,” said Lily.
Marlene sat down on one of the bar chairs.
“What do you mean “James is in love with Sirius’ brother”? How did that even happen? How do you even know that?” Mary was almost stumbling over her own questions.
“That hot-dreamy-mysterious man James is all giddy and leaning-on-walls in love with is a survivor of the House of Black in flesh and blood, for fucks sake, because I saw him with my own eyes!” Lily was now shouting in whispers.
Marlene was the first one to get the situation in hands.
“Okay, miss Evans. Firstly, breathe. Secondly, I would like to hear a slower rewind.”
Mary nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah, we need a rewind, honey.”
“Okay,” Lily breathed, calming down but not sitting down just yet. Mary and Marlene were now both sitting on the kitchen bar chairs, patiently waiting for it all to start.
“Okay, here goes,” Lily stared, “he had been going on and on about that guy for weeks, right?” Mary and Marlene nodded. “I mean, he even told me the whole sappy, but quite cute actually, story about the book and the writing, and it all was quite funny, and I was really excited for him and for his writing inspiration, and he said that that guy was gorgeous and funny and amazing and I was really thrilled for James, so when we went to that bar I kind of joked that his mysterious lover might be there too, which, what are the chances, you know?” Lily stopped breathlessly and raised her eyebrows at her friends.
Mary and Marlene nodded again.
“Still with me?” Lily asked.
“Never been more with you, Lils,” Marlene replied, seriously clasping her hands together.
“Okay,” Lily inhaled again. She always lit up when was passionate about something. In times of that much enthusiasm she really lived up to her bright-red and fiery-haired demeanor. All of her friends loved that about her and sometimes she thought it was the reason she and James were drawn together. Two burning suns clashing into each other. Little did they know it was more of a platonic draw than it ever was romantic. She’s glad both her and James know and appreciate that now.
“So, when we got to the bar, James started looking for that guy all around the place. Eventually, he was also a little drunk, which neither helped his vision, nor his ability to communicate with people in a manner that would do him justice, you know?”
Marlene and Mary nodded.
James was known for embarrassing himself quite often when drunk, which included dancing on tables and unsuccessfully flirting with random people, so the fact that he was flirting with a hot guy in a club wasn’t totally unexpected.
Lily then continued, “And then I saw him talking to someone, or rather, trying really hard to flirt with someone, so I went to either investigate or just have a laugh at James, didn’t know which one it was yet, you know?”
Mary and Marlene nodded again.
“And there he was!” Lily exclaimed.
“Sirius’ brother?” clarified Mary.
“Yes!”
“How do you know that it was him though, Lils?” asked Marlene, “Knowing that half the population these days are leather-jacket-wearing sassy show-offs”
Mary giggled at the noteworthy comparison.
“Well he looked exactly like Sirius,” Lily explained, “except he was smaller… and meaner… and looked like he could turn you to stone if you look him in the eye.”
“So basically Sirius at 7am?” Mary suggested.
“Exactly,” said Lily, nodding in agreement.
“And James has no idea?” asked Marlene.
“From what I saw – not a clue,” Lily replied.
Mary looked at Lily and Marlene with her eyebrows raised.
“But how does that happen?” she asked in confusion, “I mean, wouldn’t have Sirius told James about his brother so that he could, you know, not fall in love with him?”
Sirius and Regulus’ relationship was surely a complicated one. For them, that is, so for their friends it was a riddle they eventually stopped trying to solve. After running away to James’, Sirius kept in contact with Regulus and eventually helped Regulus to run away too. Sirius kept on living with the Potters while Regulus settled at their uncle Alphard’s place, who was probably the only somewhat sane Black family member. (“Not entirely sane, that's for sure,” Sirius would say, “the man owns a bloody antique shop.”) They kept in touch and would meet once or twice a year, however the memories that came with them being together were not always ones they liked remembering. That’s exactly why they kept each other separated from their friends and agreed to live their own lives in peace, without intertwining the two. (“If there is more than one Black in the room, it’s all about to get truly mad,” Regulus had said once. Sirius agreed.)
“I mean, we know that Sirius doesn’t mention his brother much,” said Lily.
Mary and Marlene nodded in agreement.
“And when he does, it’s just bits and pieces from the rare times they hang out together,” Lily continued, “Besides, James has told me that after years of offering Sirius to talk about his brother, he eventually just had to stop asking, because Sirius simply wouldn’t budge.”
“I mean, you can not talk about your brother, that’s all fine,” Marlene started,”but a name, to join the pieces together, would be nice. Or is James just completely clueless about the fact that Sirius’ brother probably also has some stupid fancy star-related name?”
“Well Sirius never calls his brother by his real name though, does he?” Mary pointed out, “just some nickname he made up when they were kids.”
Lily gasped, “That’s it! Sirius calls his brother “Reggie” and James hasn't told anybody the guy’s real name to not jinx it, so both of them have zero clue that the names could match!”
Marlene plopped her hands on the table.
“Let me get this straight,” she said, “James is in love with Sirius’ brother, but he has no idea that he is Sirius’ brother, because not only James’ hasn’t seen the infamous Baby Black, but he also doesn’t even know his real name to begin with. Plus, Sirius has zero clue that James is in love with his brother, because James, being the hopeless romantic he is, hasn’t told anybody the guy’s real name because he’s silently manifesting a bright future?”
“Pretty much, yeah,” said Mary wide-eyed.
“So,” Lily gestured, “what do we do about those fools?”
“You’re talking about us, aren’t you?” James stuck his head into the kitchen.
The girls paused.
“Yep. That’s it,” said Mary, nodding seriously.
Another head appeared near the cabinet.
“We just came to check on the tea,” said Sirius.
The girls shared a glance.
“Oh, it’s hot,” declared Marlene, “the tea is truly hot.”