Chapter 4
James is ecstatic as he makes the brave venture back to his dorm. He feels like he’s floating.
He enters the common room, and the door barely closes before a lantern turns on. From the light, he can make out a figure sitting on the couch.
“Bloody idiot.” Peter whispers, “What the fuck are you doing, getting back so late?”
“Crikey, sorry mum, it won’t happen again.”
“Don’t you know how dangerous it is to explore school by yourself? Where did you even go? How did you not get detention ?”
“With my cloak?” James whispers, as if it was obvious.
Peter smacks his face, exasperated. “James. You idiot. You weren’t bloody invisible when you walked in. Where’s it at?”
Oh, how could he have left it up there? He can’t go get it now, and risk being seen by Filich or Mrs. Norris.
“The astronomy tower.” James grumbled, embarrassed at his moment of stupidity.
“You walked from the astronomy tower, with no map or cloak, without getting caught ? That’s actually concerning on the school’s behalf.”
James stares at him for a moment, “I’m going to bed.”
“Don’t you walk away from me, young man!” Peter jokes around, before grabbing his arm to stop James. “I’m telling Moony on you.”
“Oh no, don’t tell Moony! Anything but that, please!” James murmurs, both of them trying to keep their laughing silent.
Once they reach their dorm, Peter stops, “Just be careful, James.”
“Yes, Wormy, when am I not? Night.”
“Night Prongs. Oh, and get the cloak. I may need to borrow it soon, if that’s alright?”
“Of course, Pete. Find someone to shag?” James asks teasingly.
“Good night, Prongs.” Peter sighs, walking back into his bed.
James is running on very little sleep, and barely makes it through Quidditch practice, and practically throws himself onto his seat for breakfast, sitting between Peter and Marlene.
“Up all night, were you Prongs?” Marlene asks, judging how James is lazily buttering his toast and falling asleep in between bites.
James yawns, “Maybe a bit.”
“Doing what, exactly? Or I guess, a matter of who, perhaps?” she asks, taking a bite of her toast, doing her best to act innocent.
“I wasn’t doing anybody,” James states, rolling his eyes.
“All I’m saying is a certain Slytherin is looking here, and has been all morning.”
“Who?” James asks, looking around at the Slytherin table, but only really noticing that many of them are absent, including Regulus, and that Dorcas is obviously sneaking looks at Marlene.
“Dorcas. Obviously. She can’t really think that she’s being subtle, right?” Marlene replies, jealousy seeping through her words.
“I mean, I think she’s looking at you, Marls.” Peter adds in, taking a sip of his tea.
“No she’s- do you really think so Pete?”
Peter nods his head quickly.
“There’s no way. How do you know for sure?” Marlene continued, making James grin at her excitement she’s failing to hide.
“I mean, It's pretty obvious. It has been since the start of term. ” Peter says with a smile.
James laughs, “This is brilliant. Go talk to her, Marls!”
Marlene grimaces, “Absolutely not, I’ve learned my lesson. I’ll just watch from afar, and if she wants something, she has to come to me.”
There’s really no changing her mind after that. When Marlene has made up her mind, it’s best to let it play out for her. Which is usually always in her favor.
Sirius and Remus finally arrive, looking thoroughly pissed at each other. Remus, it seems, is trying to talk to Sirius, but it looks like Sirius wants nothing to do with him.
“I already told you, Sirius, I really am sorry.” Remus is saying, as they’re getting closer.
Sirius sits down with a huff, sitting across from James, looking away from Remus as he sits down next to Sirius. James shoots him a questioning glance, curious to know what happened.
“Well, my own boyfriend has brought it to my attention that he hates my beautiful hair. He basically said he wanted me bald.” Sirius glares at Remus, and gets one back from Remus.
Remus rolls his eyes, “All I said was a trim would be nice.”
Marlene groans, “You said that to Sirius? Of all people? I think your hair is lovely as it is, Sirius. Never change for your stupid boyfriend.”
“Thanks Mars. I’m about two seconds away from leaving him for you.”
“I’ll be waiting for the day, Sirius.” Marlene blows him a kiss, before noticing Remus’s glare, causing her to flip him off.
“James, I’ll be waiting at your front door the second he’s out of my hair.” Remus states.
“Oi!” Sirius shouts, looking between James and Remus.
James laughs loudly, “You have no idea how genuinely flattered I am right now, Moony.”
“Well, now I just feel left out.” Peter adds with a fake frown.
“Don’t worry Pete, we have room for three.” James winks.
“Oi! There would be no three!” Sirius exclaims defensively.
“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure Sirius.” James teases, blowing both Moony and Wormy a kiss.
Sirius shoots him with such a deadly glare, that all James can think about is his brother, causing him to remember the night before, and the fact he left the cloak in the astronomy tower.
“Oh shit,” James says all of sudden, sitting upright, “I forgot to get the thing.”
“What thing?” Peter asks.
“The thing .” James replies pointedly at Peter, watching realization form in his eyes.
“Oh.”
Sirius looks offended, “I still don’t know what this thing is.”
“Peter will not tell you.” James says hastily before running away to the astronomy tower as quickly as he can, not wanting to deal with Sirius when he finds out he left behind one of their most prized possession.
As he enters the tower he finds Regulus, looking so ethereal as he is sitting on the bench with his knees pulled into his chest, looking lost in thought.
Which, once again, James doesn’t want to dwell on the fact that James can’t breathe just looking at Regulus. Or, the fact that James studies his face, mesmerized, longer than he probably should be
He watches Regulus jump, look up with wide eyes, just for him to settle with an annoyed expression when he realizes it’s James.
James also happens to notice the dark circles under Regulus’s eyes, as well as the fact that Regulus is wearing the same thing he was wearing last night.
“Holy fuck, not this again.” Regulus grumbles, his hands sliding down his face.
“Fancy seeing you here, little prince. How are you doing on this marvelous morning?”
Regulus looks at him, surprise written all over his face.
“They haven’t said anything, have they?” Regulus asks, though it was more towards himself, not something James could answer.
“No of course they wouldn't,” Regulus continues, “The stupid fucking snakes, of course they’d keep that a secret.”
“You doing alright, Regulus?” James asks, concern apparent in his voice.
Regulus laughs, but it's hollow, “Oh, I’m just peachy.”
James inches closer, slowly “Talk to me about it then, yeah?”
“Piss off, Potter.”
James gets closer, he’s so close he could sit on the bench, which he does. “Listen, I have no clue what happened, Regulus, but I can listen to you. I want to listen to you, Regulus. I’d listen to anything you had to say.”
Regulus stares at him for a moment before looking at the ceiling, “For fucks sake, you need to stop with all the good words, Potter.”
James is internally beaming at that, but he keeps a neutral face, “I’ll be ready whenever you are, Reg.”
And James sits there with Regulus and he waits. Regulus takes a few minutes, probably waiting to see if James would leave, but he doesn’t.
He stays.
“I don’t know why I’m going to be telling you this, but promise me you won’t tell anybody this. Okay?”
“I promise you, Regulus.” And James means it.
“I, um, don’t really like when people are fighting. It’s not something I really enjoy. Which is highly unfavorable, considering that fighting is constant among Slytherins. And it’s not like I’m going to die if people are fighting, it’s just when people are fighting at me, which is expected considering how I grew up,” Regulus scoffs at that, “Anyway, recently, as in last night, there’s been lots of yelling at me, so I stayed up here.”
“Yelling at you? Over what?” James curses himself, internally, for trying to ask such a personal question, “Sorry, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“It’s fine, I do want to. I trust you,” Regulus grimaces at his two confessions, “And it’d be nice, in a way, to tell someone other than my close friends. And this you cannot let anybody know, alright?”
James nods, “I promise, Reg.”
"Few weeks back, Snape caught me with some bloke in a broom cupboard. He promised he wouldn’t tell anybody, but he did tell Mulciber and Avery, the stupid git. Anyway, I walked in yesterday, after I left here, and they were pissed. Them two yelling at me, it’s normal, I can deal with it. But, they made everyone gather in the common room, and, um, outed me to them. There was absolute chaos. Which is so fucking stupid, because they act as if I have a choice in being gay. They were acting as if I could control it, or something, I don’t know.” Regulus looks at James right in his eyes, and James feels and sees every emotion hiding in there.
Regulus pulls his hands over his face, “Shit. I shouldn’t have told you all that. Fuck, that was, that was probably too much for you. I’m sorry.”
James tries to find his eyes again, he wants to put his hands on Reg’s cheeks to make him look James in the eye, but he decides against it, “Regulus,” James says softly, gaining his attention, “I meant what I said, alright? I wanted to hear what happened, okay, I decided that. It wasn’t too much for me, I promise you, alright?”
Regulus nods, and James can see how much pressure Regulus is holding on his shoulders. James can see how much he’s hiding; he can see how much effort Regulus is putting into not letting himself show any emotions.
“Fuck, I’m sorry.” Regulus repeats, squeezing his eyes shut.
“You don’t need to apologize, god, you have nothing to be sorry for. You don’t deserve any of it, just because of who you love. Regulus, you need to know that. You didn’t deserve the absolute hell they gave you.”
A tear rolls down Regulus’s cheek before he quickly wipes it away, “You don’t really know that. I’ve done some bad things you don’t know about, if anything this is pure payback for what I’ve done.”
“I don’t need to know any bad you’ve done to know that this wasn’t your fault. There’s nothing you could do that meant that this was justified in any way. I’m sorry that this happened to you, I wish I could’ve been there, or I could have made things easier.”
There’s a few beats of silence, the two of them just looking at each other.
“I should go.” Regulus says abruptly, standing up.
“You shouldn’t go back there, lots of Slytherins weren’t at breakfast today. Good chance they’re waiting for you.”
Regulus sighs, before sitting back down, “Lovely.”
“Lucky for you, I have an idea,” James begins, causing Regulus to raise his eyebrows.
James gets up and goes to where his invisibility cloak is hiding, away in the back corner, sitting behind crates.
“This is my child. The love of my life. My pride and-”
“It’s a cloak.” Regulus interrupts.
James tuts, “Regulus, you wound me. It’s not just a cloak. It’s an invisibility cloak.”
James places it on Regulus’s lap, letting him inspect it all he wants.
“I knew it,” Regulus says astonished, “This is how you lot do your stupid pranks.”
“Yes, and this is also how I’m going to help you. We are going to stand under this and walk all the way to my dorm. Then, you are going to sleep. Then, we will think of what to do next.”
“I am not going back to your dorm.” Regulus says immediately.
“Well, you are certainly not going back to yours. You can, of course, but I’ll be staying with you until tomorrow morning. It’s your call.”
“Fine.” Regulus finally responds.
James grins, “Where to, babycakes?”
Regulus glares at James, “Your dorm.” he grumbles.
“Lovely.” James beams brighter, if that was even possible, and puts the cloak over him and Regulus, as they begin their expedition to James’s dorm.