Chapter 2
Three Years Ago
“You will not believe this,” Dorcas said, showing the rest of the band what was on her phone.
“What are we looking at Meadowes?” Evan said. He was the only one who still had a thick British accent. The rest of them still had it as well but it only came out in certain words.
“It’s the lyrics to one of The Marauders' songs,” Pandora answered instead.
Upon further examination Barty realized he had written the song. “You’re fucking joking."
“Nope and look at the writing credits.”
“Written by Regulus A. Black and James F. Potter,” he read out loud, clenching his jaw. “What the fuck.”
“That’s like actually illegal,” Evan mumbled.
“No shit,” Barty snapped. “Are there any others?”
“Not that I know of.”
Barty wants to scream. He wants to find Regulus and fall to his knees and ask him why he had done this. Not just stealing their song. A song Barty very vividly remembered writing. They had been thoroughly making out when Barty pulled away abruptly with a song idea Regulus then helped him write it then and there it had taken them all night but it had been by far the best song they’d ever written. Barty remembers that night. Kissing and drinking and laughing and arguing over verses. Now he rather pathetically wants to cry. He doesn’t. He can't. He shouldn’t. Not over this. If he had got by the past three years having only shed a small tear over Regulus he could get past this.
Except he couldn’t. “Excuse me.” He got up and went to the bathroom. He slid down to the floor. He had tried to forget Regulus he really had. Tried to pretend he never existed. Tried forgetting that Regulus wasn’t Barty’s best friend since they were six years old. He tried to forget that at one point he had considered Regulus to be the love of his life.
His knees were pulled to his chest, his hands were shaking and he tried his hardest to not begin sobbing uncontrollably. He did end up stopping though once an idea hopped into his mind. He would make sure Pandora’s Slytherins would surpass The Marauders he would make Regulus see how much he fucked up.
They all somewhat hated Regulus. Not for leaving them but for not keeping contact and for leaving them for Sirius. For leaving without much of a goodbye. There was no closure, no reason, nothing that had made sense. They couldn’t hate him though not really but they all truly wanted to.
Barty wished he could be mad. He wasn’t really. Everyday he woke up with the small hope in the back of his mind that wanted Regulus to come back to say that he had made a mistake. But The Marauders were now a very popular band and everyday that went by Barty new that was less and less likely.
“Are you ok?” Pandora said from the other side of the door.
“Yeah,” Barty was lucky that when he cried there were no long lasting effects. His eyes didn't get puffy or red and snot didn’t run from his nose he didn’t become a sniffling mess he was grateful for that. It meant no one could ever tell if he had been crying which meant that no one ever felt bad which meant he never got asked those sorts of questions.
“So what's the plan?” Evan said still consuming fucking edibles.
“Evan, stop eating those.” Pandora said, taking the bag of gummy bears away from him.
“But they taste so real,” he practically whined.
“The plan is we're going to finally get our shit together as a band and take those Marauders down.”
“Our shits are already together as a band,” Dorcas said defensively.
“No they're not, we haven't played at a gig since you were starstruck seeing Marlene Mikinnon and threw up on stage in front of 2 thousand people. That was three months ago.”
“I have stomach issues, I wasn't starstruck.”
“Sure you weren’t.” He smirked.
-
Three Years Later
Marlene and Dorcas had gotten together. They adopted a dog and a cat together and lived together and were getting engaged right now.
They’re both crying happily and Dorcas is now in the process of showing off the ring to every person in the room. It’s the release of Pandora’s Slytherins latest album. They had dropped it secretly right when fan choice awards were in voting so they were nearly guaranteed to win.
Evan and Barty scrolled through twitter reading all their fans' tweets about the album in live time.
“Our fans are the greatest aren't they?”
“They really are.” Barty laughed, he had been the happiest he’d ever been these past months. Their tour had ended and they had been in the studio recording all of their new music. He loved interviews. Especially when they now asked about The Marauders now that the whole world (or most of their fans at least) knew Regulus used to be in their band. He hoped The Marauders watched those interviews. He hoped Regulus watched them.
Barty never spoke poorly about Regulus, none of them did. Yes, they had signed non-disclosure agreements but even then they wouldn't have dreamed of bad mouthing him publicly. Barty hoped the interviews and the nice–or not mean things–he said about Regulus and The Marauders came across in the way that said we never needed you but we kind of miss you and it's okay that you left.
Regulus wasn’t the kind of person you could forget. In Barty’s mind fifty years could pass and he would never fully be over him. Over the past few years Barty had gone through some soul searching and some therapy and he is happy where he’s at, he really is. He accomplished what he had set out to accomplish three years ago, the band which is his entire life is doing amazing, he’s sober, he's happy. But he can’t shake that small hope he had in the back of his mind for the longest.
Regulus.
He can't help but think about being where he is now, but with Regulus. It's silly really because it's been six years and he left with barely a goodbye and from what Barty knew of, Regulus couldn't care less about him or the band. But looking at Dorcas and Marlene from afar. They are overjoyed with the near final step to the rest of their lives together and they love each other and everyone knows and they don't care and they truly, truly, love each other.
And as one sided as it may have been Barty had had that with Regulus. They weren’t engaged or all that public with their relationship but they could’ve been and none of that mattered because they loved each other. Barty loved Regulus and a big part of him still does. Regulus. . . Well, Regulus had loved Barty once. He was sure of that.
Then why did he leave? Why didn’t he at least keep in contact? Why had he left a sketchy voicemail and fallen off the face of the earth just to resurface months later with another band? Why had he taken their song and turned it into some pop-y bullshit? Why. . . Why. . . Why . . .
And why the fuck was he dating James Potter who–last time Barty checked–was in love with Lily Evans. Marlene’s best-friend. Lily Evans who spoke outwardly about James Potter in both occasions he had met her. James Potter who talked about her in eleven out of twenty-seven interviews he had done in the past four years. James and Lily who flirted on twitter daily. #Jily who had six million posts under their hashtag. Or #Jily that was trending number one worldwide just two weeks ago when Lily called Remus “the hot one” in an article and then clarified a couple days later that that was “ according to fans”.
You see, Barty wasn't one to read into conspiracies like that but it has been a thing for four years and it still is even though James and Regulus are together, publicly. Barty sees the way Regulus looks at James. He knows that look. Its the I think I like you but you're fucking stupid and I'm sure it wont work out. It's the same way he'd look at that one bloke from year 8 who Regulus had a crush on.
Where the Jily Shipper's conspiracies true? Was James and Regulus' relationship a stunt? Barty was desperate to know and he felt completely idiotic for it. But who was Barty to say or think anything? It didn’t even matter. He was a twenty-five year old in one of the most popular bands in the world. It wasn't his place to speculate about things like that.
The point is Barty is still irreparably in love with a guy he hasn’t formally talked to in six years, how pathetic is that?