miscommunication and models

“Do you think Taylor Swift would like me?”

“Probably not.”

Scheming was boring. Long-term revenge plans were boring . Sure at first, it had all been a nightmare, filling his everyday life with stress so bad he could barely eat without feeling sick, now Sirius was used to that (especially since they actually had a plan now. (a plan he couldn’t really participate much in given the fact Jamie thinks he convinced the boys Sirius sucks. (fucker.))). What he was not used to was the waiting. In school they executed pranks swiftly and accurately, there was no shooting in the dark when they had an idea, and everything was thought through perfectly. They had plan Bs for their plan Bs. The satisfaction at the end was always the best part, but in his current situation, Sirius wasn't sure there ever would be an end to this all. 

And he was so bored of being bored.

“Harsh Peter, and why not? I’m a lovely person.” Sirius and Peter had been hanging out for a few hours, they had decided to take shifts going to P&M’s for meetings after a close call with Paparazzi almost ruined everything. Last week Sirius and Peter had met with the lawyer Regulus had suggested and had decided to hire her, this week James and Remus had gone into a meeting with the executives of P&M and their new lawyer to finish talking through the conditions of a hypothetical contract.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.” Peter was sitting opposite Sirius on the carpet, playing idly on his phone.

Sirius ran a hand through his hair as he watched his friend from where he was lounging on a loveseat. God, he was so bored.

“Hey, Pete?”

“No, we aren't going to egg his house.”

“That wasn't what I was going to suggest, how juvenile do you think I am?”

Peter eyed him warily with a scoff, “Please tell me what you were going to say then.”

“I was going to say it looks like it’ll rain soon.. instant mash potatoes on his lawn?”

“No.” Peter rolled his eyes, going back to aimlessly scrolling on his phone.

“Come on, we haven't done anything in so long,” Sirius whined, letting his head fall back dramatically.

“If you want to get arrested be my guest, but everyone will be pissed.” Peter looked up from his phone and shrugged, “Besides, he has cameras. Couldn’t do anything to his house if we wanted.

“I don't want to do it alone, what happened to Marauder's solidarity?”

“Get your boyfriend to help you, I’m not.”

Sirius groaned, “Remus never wants to help me, I already asked him.”

Peter hummed with a small smile that made Sirius suspicious, “I meant James, but good on Remus.”

Well, Sirius didn't have much to say to that, at least not anything that wouldn't embarrass him. He rolled his eyes as Peter’s grin widened and he pulled out his phone, pointedly ignoring him. How was he meant to know he was talking about James, it just didn't make sense. James. Remus. Peter the wanker.

*

It was getting increasingly difficult to keep everything a secret.

Going behind Jamie’s back, getting a lawyer, Marlene, Sirius...

It was all a big fucking headache. 

And to make matters worse they had been a magnet for Paparazzi lately. Everywhere they went there was a telltale sound of a camera's shutter, they had taken to staying at each other's homes when Paparazzi started to stay outside their buildings hoping for a glimpse. It was making everything so much harder than it needed to be, and to make matters worse he hadn't gotten to talk to Sirius in forever, the risk of the two of them being spotted outside or Remus spotted going into their building left very little time for talking about anything but the plan.

It felt like a fucking sign from the universe about how badly an idea all of this was.

And he wasn't talking about the plan.

He and James had been seen most by the public lately, which is surprisingly rare. The two of them usually prefer the others company in private places, so the second people had caught wind that they were out.. with each other, it had become a shit show. It didn't help that gossip site writers were like vultures and had decided that clearly, they were in a secret relationship.

Remus was really regretting his career choices.

The two boys were sitting outside of P&M, in their car, Remus was watching his reflection in the mirror. The car was quiet, the only sound the hum of the air-conditioning. James was toying with his phone, presumably texting Sirius and Pete, his face scrunched into a frown. It all felt rather solemn.

The tense mood was broken by an all-too-loud ringtone, knocking both boys out of their haze. Remus leaned forward to reach into his pocket and grab the phone, seeing the caller ID he turned and smiled at James before answering the facetime.

“Took you long enough.” Hope Lupin's voice travelled through the phone, a smile in her tone, “How could you just leave your poor mother here, waiting for her darling only son to answer.”

“Harsh Remus, no respect for you elders,” James said, shaking his head as he grinned at the phone.

“James! Hello my boy, how are you?” Hope’s faux expression of hurt slipped off her face as she redirected her attention to the other boy, Remus rolled his eyes.

“I'm spectacular, Hope. Just lovely.” 

“Sarcasm isn't your strong suit love, but that's alright, your pretty enough not to need it.” Hope nodded solemnly, and Remus cleared his voice, which Hope ignored.

“Mum?”

“I said what I said love, now you on the other hand..” 

“Goodbye, mum.”

“Wait I’m kidding! You have your father's looks, thank god for that. Remus John, I swear if you hang up on me. Turn your camera back on!”

Remus sighed as he turned his camera back on, his mother’s face staring back at him in joy. 

“Now, I called for a reason.” Hope's voice suddenly shifted into something sterner, “What do you think you are doing not answering your mother's calls? I haven't heard from you in almost a week, for all I know you could've been dead in a ditch, and TMZ would know before me!” 

“Someone’s in trouble.”

“Shut up, James.” Remus playfully shoved his friend, and James stuck his tongue out at him, gleefully watching the two Lupins. “I meant to call you-”

“I’m sure, but I have to find out from Twitter that you and the boys are quitting. Darling, what is going on? If you and your friends have gotten into a fight, I’m sure it's something you can fix.”

“Technically we also found out from Twitter.”

“What do you mean?”

Hope was looking at her son with a concerned look, both James and Remus swapped a glance to the other, not knowing how to explain. Remus didn't know if he should tell his mother the whole story, he felt oddly ashamed of how much he let Jamie control his life. 

“I can't really tell you everything but we're not quitting. Something happened with Jamie and the contract, and were..” He struggled to find the right words for the situation, “considering other options for the future.”

“Well, that's not confusing at all. Just please tell me you and the boys are still doing music?”

“Yes, mum.”

“You aren't fighting at all?”

“No mum.”

“James?”

Remus couldn't help but roll his eyes, but he couldn't judge her for asking James. Remus had never been one to worry her, and she knew her son too well.

“No, Hope. We're not fighting.” James took the phone from Remus's hand.

“So.. something happened with that Jake boy?”

“Jamie, mum,” Remus interjected though James spoke right over him.

“Yeah, something bad.”

Hope hummed, “Always thought he was a bit of a cunt.”

“Mum!”

“What! Are you going to tell me I'm wrong?” Hope had raised her eyebrows at him, in the same manner, he caught himself replicating whenever his friends had said something extra annoying, he just shook his head at his mother while James struck up a conversation about her new garden. Remus went back to looking out the window, now with a smile on his face.

*

marlene mckinnon made a groupchat

marlene mckinnon added Peter Pettigrew to the groupchat

marlene mckinnon added James Potter to the groupchat

marlene mckinnon added Remus Lupin to the groupchat

marlene mckinnon added Sirius Black to the groupchat

marlene mckinnon added Dorcas Meadows to the groupchat

marlene mckinnon changed the name of the groupchat to ‘P&M’s golden children.’

marlene: since your switch to P&M is inevitable, I've decided to bite the bullet and make a groupchat.

marlene: you're welcome.

remus: inevitable. big word for you.

marlene: bite me.

marlene: how’d the meeting go??

remus: awful. we're fucked.

marlene: well thats shit

sirius: and get this

marlene: ?

remus: our lawyer thinks it would be beneficial if we continued our contract with Jamie until after the tour, and then leave. 

marlene: but jamie wants to get sirius out of the band?

remus: exactly.

marlene: oh shit

james: so clearly we don't want to do it, but it would mean never performing our new album unless we can convince jamie to let us buy it in a few years, which i doubt he would do.

peter: and we're running out of time to decide what to do, the album releases next week.

peter: and we keep having to go back and forth to P&M and to Phoenix, its fucking

peter: idk I'm just so over this

dorcas: wait I haven't been filled in

dorcas: what the fuck is going on

dorcas: all I’ve seen is from twitter.

remus: our manager fucked us over and was trying to figure out if we can switch record labels and still own our music.

sirius: jamie’s a cunt.

peter: our manager is a dick and we have held back from committing arson.

james: jamie is not to be trusted.

marlene: well

marlene: loving the variety in answers and all

marlene: but should we be concerned

remus: yes.

peter: no.

dorcas: if jamie’s house burns down i heard nothing.

sirius: :) 

marlene: ok back to all this shit

marlene: if you decide to do to the tour,

marlene: what does that mean for you sirius?

sirius: if we can't convince jamie to finish my contract with the band for the tour, than I’d be out of the job for a year.

sirius: and since we’d still be trying to get with P&M and not attract attention from jamie

sirius: i wouldn't be able to say anything online and we really couldn't be seen together in public

marlene: that sounds awful

james: very.

james: we don't know what to do

marlene: you’ll figure it out, some guardian angel or some shit

sirius: with our luck it would be a devil in disguise.

*

Sirius was in his room scrolling through the latest gossip post about him on Rita’s blog when someone knocked on his door. Peter (the wanker) had left only a few minutes before, and he really didn't want any more company. He considered just staying in his room and waiting for whoever was at the door to leave, considering his friends had a set of keys to his house and no one had texted, but James had a habit of losing his key and Sirius would rather not leave his best friend out in their hall if it was him.

Throwing his phone on his bed, he groaned as he pulled himself out of bed and towards the front door. He was preparing to deal with a sheepish James as he opened the door but was baffled when it was pushed forward and a figure pushed their way in, the long coat flowing behind them. 

“It's all quite obvious, I don't know how you didn't see it.” 

“Regulus? What the fuck-”

Regulus had turned to look at his brother, who was leaning against the wall, trying to avoid being squashed by the door. Regulus had a focused look in his eye as he ran his hand through his hair, and took to pacing back and forth in the small entryway. He didn't stop for even a second, words spilling out of his mouth at a startling speed.

“I mean after getting the whole story I was able to figure it out in less than an hour, honestly Sirius..”

“How did you get my address?”

“It's basic manipulation tactics, though quite dumb to try it on you- actually maybe not you didn't really pick up on it-”

“ How did you get my address?”

“-but it has been years since you’ve dealt with it hands-on, so that gives you a bit of grace, but not much because come on… It is so apparent! I just can't believe you spent.. four? five years? With him.” Regulus had taken to walk further into the apartment, taking his scarf off and holding it as he sat on Sirius’ couch, looking at the boy with a disapproving look. Sirius had closed the door, his mind not quite catching up to the situation yet, and followed his little brother, standing in front of him.

“Regulus.”

“Hm?”

“How the fuck did you get my address.”

“Oh.” Regulus grinned at Sirius in the same terrifying way their father use to, a knowing gleam in his eye. “I have ways.”.

Never fuck with a Black, Sirius thought to himself. He was a bit proud, honestly.

“Thanks, Regulus, that tells me so much. Now, what the fuck were you rambling about?”

“Jamie, obviously.” Regulus rolls his eyes, “Clearly he's trying to manipulate you all. I mean by telling everyone else you plan to switch contracts, without telling them, he's planting a seed of betrayal. I wouldn't be surprised if he were hoping they would drop you for being a ‘liar’ so you’ll accept his contract.”

“Who told you about that?”

“Like I said I have my ways.”

Sirius was starting to think his ways had something to do with his other loud mouth brother.

“Yeah, we realised that about last week.”

“Took you long enough. I thought you were meant to be smart.”

“Regulus, I swear to god-”

“-Anyways, that's not all that I came here to talk about.” Regulus once again got up, taking up the pacing again, while Sirius took his spot on the couch. “I got a copy of your contract-”

“Regulus what kind of shady people do you know?”

“-And I was reading over it because there had to be something in there you can use, I couldn't get it out of my mind.” Regulus turned to his brother, running a hand through his hair, “But I just couldn't find a loophole, so I looked into the company.”

Sirius didn't have the energy to ask how Regulus was doing this anymore, at this point he was going to assume it was a perk of his surname and leave it at that.

“And I got it.”.

“Got what?”

“A way for you to buy your music.”

*

With all of the stress of the recent weeks, James was all too thankful to Lily. It seemed she always had the right thing to say to take his mind off of the stress, and she was just fun to hang out with. They never had those awkward silences or ran out of things to talk about. James and Lily could sit in silence and be content, it was like he had known her all his life.

Lily had invited James to her recent shoot, and he accepted, excited to see Lily at work. They didn't really get to hang out, which he expected, but he got to sit in her dressing room and sit with the other models and watch Lily as she got her photos taken.

He had struck up a conversation with one of the models, who had recognised him off the bat. The boy had explained he had met Sirius before, and that had been the basis of their conversation. He had later learned his name.

Alexander was a fast friend.

*

James Potter was not shocked much. He really couldn't be with the amount of shit he had pulled in his school years, and with a roommate as impulsive as Sirius, he had been insensitive to the most shocking of things.

Regulus Black in his apartment though...

That shocked him.

He had just taken off his coat when he caught sight of the two boys, both sitting on the floor of his living room papers strewn across the floor. Regulus’ back was to him, but James could see where he was hunched over a paper, vigorously writing down notes. Sirius was sitting just across from him, a pen in his mouth as he read over a piece of paper, a bit of blue ink was on his forehead.

James slowly put his coat on the rack and stepped into the living area, waiting for either to notice him. He watched them both for a while, every now and then Sirius would look at Regulus as if communicating silently and write something down. After watching this exchange a few times, he cleared his throat, and both boys looked at him, eerily in sync. James thought they looked scarily alike.

“So.. What's this?”

The brothers looked at each other.

“Sit, James.” Regulus turned his head back to the papers.

“So-”

“Sit.”

James did.

*

Peter had met the Longbottoms very unexpectedly, he had been at P&M’s at James’ request, something about forgetting his phone and Peter had already been near the studio... So he went. It took far too long to find it, despite James telling him which meeting room the whole place was a maze of and asking one of the receptionists felt rude, and he just really didn't want to, so he went to find it himself.

When he had gotten to the conference room there had already been people in there, so he had awkwardly waited outside, cursing his friend and himself for trying to be nice. He had lingered outside of the conference room for almost ten minutes and was considering just texting James that he needed to buy a new phone because Peter couldn't find it when Alice and Frank Longbottom stepped out. 

Peter quickly stashed his phone and gave a quick nod, quickly lowering his eyes feeling a bit awkward. At first, they walked past him, but Alice stopped short, turning on her heel.

“I'm sorry, are you Peter Pettigrew? The Marauders?” Alice asked, putting a strand of hair behind her ear, and smiling sweetly. She was a very pretty person, with a variety of piercings that looked out of place on her soft features, two in her nose, and one on her lip that was nervously fiddling with. She had on a long cardigan that reached the end of the brown skirt that she was wearing, and a flowy white shirt. Her hair was short and layered, with bands hanging slightly in her face, strangely enough, she reminded Peter a bit of Hope.

“Uh, yeah, hi.”  Peter smiled at her, giving a non-commital wave, even after all these years being recognised was a bit of a shock.

“Hi! Alice Longbottom,” She extended a hand, which Peter shook, “and this is my husband, Frank.”

Frank was a bit taller than Alice and was dressed in a scracty-looking green sweater, and ripped jeans. Peter noticed that like his wife, he had a few piercings too. Frank simply smiled at Peter, putting his hand up in hello.

They talked for a few minutes, and Peter started to relax in their company, they even helped him find James' phone. By the end of the chance meeting, they had agreed to meet up again.

“I feel like I'm just collecting you guys!” Alice joked as they walked out of P&M towards the carlot.

“What do you mean?” Peter grinned at her, a bit confused.

“Well, I’ve met two out of four of the marauders, four out of six if you count the girlfriends of the band.”

“Oh? I didn't realise. Who did you meet?”

“Well I– we ran into Sirius at a bar a while ago, when we first got in to record with P&M, he really hit it off with our friend.”

“Did he now?”

Say what you want about Peter Pettigrew but he was not as unobservant as everyone seemed to think he was, and he knew damn well Sirius Black had been in love for many years. Knowing the before mentioned fact, there was one major thought in his mind; ‘What the fuck is he doing now?’.

“-met you, and I met Marlene in passing at a charity event about a year or two ago. I went to school with Lily-”

“You know Lily?”

“Yes! I was her roommate, she use to help me write music.” Alice’s face had lit up at the mention of Lily and Peter spotted a weird look in her eyes, not unlike the look James got whenever Sirius left for a really long time, but this one had more..

Huh, Peter was learning a lot today.

*

Both Remus and Peter had seen each other at the same time, surprisingly only seconds apart from showing up at James and Sirius’ building. Remus had raised his eyebrow at the other boy, who shrugged back which Remus took as ‘don't ask me.’.

He could only assume that Peter had gotten the same cryptid message from Sirius, ‘Come over. ASAP.’, and while this text could just have been normal Sirius behaviour and his love for dramatics, the punctuation had worried him into taking it seriously.

The boys walked into the building side by side, neither saying a word. They traded a few looks when they reached the door of the flat, noticing they couldn't hear anyone inside. After a few moments, Peter knocked.

James had been the one to answer the door, his hair in even more disarray than usual, and he quickly ushered the boys in. “Let's go sit, yeah?” James asked, leading them into the open living room.

The first thing they noticed was the weird whiteboard in the middle of the room, replacing the spot the tv, god knows how they got it. The second was the fact Regulus black was standing in front of that whiteboard in clothes that look thoroughly rumpled, his brother in a similar state. The two brothers both had papers in their hands and looked so alike it left Remus uneasy.

Both he and Peter took a tentative seat on the couch, while James threw himself on the ground by their feet. Regulus and Sirius stood side by side, and shared a look as if they could say a thousand things and never open their mouths.

“Hello.” Regulus started. “As your new lord and saviour, I say we get the thank you’s out of the way now.”

“Serious, Black?” James asked, shaking his head, but he had an easy grin on his face.

“No, that's him.” Regulus pointed a finger at Sirius, not bothering to look at James

“That's not what I-”

“While you four have made messes of your lives, I have come up with a plan.” Remus was starting to wonder if everyone in the Black family was born with a dramatic flair. “You can't buy your own music.”

“Yeah that's our problem,” Peter said, looking sceptical. 

Regulus gave an unimpressed look, “You can't buy your music, but no one said anything about a third party not being able to.”

“What do you mean?”

“The music doesn't belong to Jamie, it belongs to Phenix Records, who are notorious for selling their music. If someone were to offer a big sum of money, there is almost a 100% chance they would take it. If there were a company out there who bought it, there would be no problem with you buying it back from them, or them selling it to P&M.”

“But it's not like we can start our own company, if they find out it was ours they'd never sell it, they don't want us to buy it so we stay in their company.”

“I never said you would buy it. They won't let P&M either, but I don't see anything stopping them from selling it to Black Corp.”

“Forgetting one thing there.” Peter was looking very confused, “The Black family hates us.”

“Not all of them.”

“Stop being a dramatic little shit, Reg. Your starting to sound like me.”

Regulus looked applauded at that, glaring at his older brother before rolling his eyes. “Alphard left behind money for both Sirius and Andromeda. Andy and her husband started a business a few years ago, using a similar name to the one that's been in our family for generations. With a last name like ours, they would be idiots to not want to sell. Plus it would be good for Andromeda’s company if you let her continue to use the music and collect royalties alongside yourself of course, once she buys it.”

It was silent for a long time, all of them just soaking up the energy.

“You really thought this through?” Remus asked, looking at Regulus and Sirius.

“Of course. I wouldn't have brought it up if not.” Regulus nodded.

“And Andy.. is interested?’

“Surprisingly yes,” Sirius answered that time, a soft smile on his face as if he also couldn't believe it.

“Holy shit.” Remus smiled back, looking at James and Peter, “We're finally getting rid of Jamie.”