Chapter 2
James had made the executive decision not to tell Sirius about his interaction with Regulus. He didn’t see the need to honestly. It was such a small interaction there was no need to bother Sirius with it. But in reality, James had not been able to stop thinking about the younger Slytherin since. James was laying down in his bed, unable to sleep. He sighed and pulled back the curtains around his bed. Peters was closed. Sirius’ were open, but Remus’ were closed. James grabbed the map from under his bed and whispered the incantation, tapping his wand to the paper and folding it open, scanning his eyes all around the castle. After a few minutes of searching all around near the Slytherin common room, James frowned. Regulus Black was nowhere to be found. James sighed again, slipping out of his bed and grabbing the invisibility cloak before sneaking out. He wasn’t looking for Regulus. Of course not. Because that would be weird. He was just going for a walk around the castle to clear his head. He just so happened to also be looking on the map to make sure he didn’t run into anyone he didn’t want to run into again. A perfectly reasonable excuse as to why he had the map on a walk. If he got caught anyway. James was about to give up on looking when he caught a glimpse of Regulus on the map. He was in the astronomy tower. James smiled to himself a little bit before making his way across the castle and up the stairs leading to the tower. He was halfway up the staircase before it hit him. How the fuck was he supposed to play off that he just to happened to be at the same place as the younger Black brother at midnight? Before he could even think of an inkling of an excuse, he was walking through the door and there he was. Regulus Black, sitting against the wall by the railing, face buried in his silly little French book and a cup of tea on the floor next to him. “So French huh?” James said with a small smirk, leaning up against the door frame. Regulus jumped so badly James thought he would fall right off the tower. Regulus’ eyes shot up with a death glare.
“What the fuck are you doing here Potter?” Regulus snapped, closing his book shut and standing up.
“Nothing. Couldn’t sleep. Went for a walk. I could ask you the same thing Reg.” James shrugged and walked over to the railing, leaning his back against the bars. Regulus’ glare did not fade.
“Don’t call me that.” He said simply before grabbing his book off the ground and spinning around to leave. James frowned and watched as he was on his way out.
“Okay! Look I’m sorry okay? I didn’t mean to scare you or intrude or anything. I really couldn’t sleep and just went for a walk. You don’t have to leave Regulus.” James explained. Regulus stopped in his tracks, taking a moment to think before turning around to look at James, giving him a look the taller boy couldn’t quite read. Without another word, Regulus walked over to the other side of the tower, sitting back down against the wall and pulled his book out. James bit his lip and slowly strolled over, sitting across from the other boy on the adjacent wall. The two sat in silence for a few minutes before James decided to speak up.
“So…French?” He asked quietly.
“Yes. French.” Regulus responded in a monotone voice, eyes not leaving the page.
“What’s the book about?” James asked slowly. He didn’t want to push Regulus’ buttons but on the other hand, he didn’t want to just sit in silence either. Regulus just signed in response before looking up to meet the other boy's gaze.
“It’s a book of poems. Les Fleurs du mal. It means the flowers of evil.” Regulus said before letting his eyes drop back down to the page. James just nodded a little bit and tried his best to peek over and get a look at one of the pages.
“Can you tell me some? I didn’t even know Sirius knew French.” James mumbled. It was true. He had never once in their five years of friendship heard Sirius Black speak a lick of French. There was that one week Barty Crouch Jr jinxed him to only speak in pig Latin for a week but James didn’t think that counted for anything. Regulus ignored his request and kept on reading silently to himself before he shrugged.
“We only spoke French at home. We didn’t actually learn English until we were five and six.” Regulus mumbled, waving his wand silently and making another hot cup of tea appear next to him before picking up the cup and taking a sip. James never actually noticed it before, -mainly because he never truly had a conversation with Regulus- but now that he was listening, truly listening to the other boy talk, he could hear the slightest bit of a French accent when he spoke. It was hardly there, but if you listened close enough you could hear it in the way he pronounced certain words. The way in how he enunciated words. Sirius never had that.
“Sirius was six when he learned how to speak English?” James asked. Regulus only nodded, still not taking his grey eyes off his book.
“He didn’t want kids to make fun of him when he went to school, so he put in a lot of practice to not have an accent for when he came to Hogwarts.” Regulus mumbled. “What exactly do you want, Potter? You have the whole castle to roam around yet you insist on butting in where I am and start asking me questions about things that do not matter.” Regulus groaned, slamming his book shut and once again giving James that oh so famous Regulus Black glare. James frowned and shrugged.
“I don’t want anything from you Reg. I just-” James started but stopped. He couldn’t exactly come up with any excuse or reasoning for doing what he was doing. He came up here on purpose. He knew Regulus would be up here. In his defence, James never put much thought into his actions before executing them. “Look I’m sorry okay? I didn’t mean to butt in on….well whatever you're doing up here. Like I said, I was just going for a walk.Just figured I’d try and talk to you after I bumped into you in the hall. You’re my best friend’s brother, just thought I’d try and get to know you a little is all.” James sighed, running a hand through his hair and standing up. Regulus scoffed and shot up, taking his wand out and walking right up to James, holding his wand right against his chest.
“First of all, HE is not my brother. Not anymore. Not since he ran out on me and to YOU. He hasn’t been my brother since the day he came back from school first year, so don’t you dare sit there and try and tell me you just want to get to know me just because I'm Sirius’ brother. You have no right coming up here and trying to ask me questions! You practically stole my brother from me and I want nothing to do with you.” Regulus spat out, not moving his wand an inch. James backed against the wall behind him, hands shooting up in the air and staring down at Regulus with wide eyes. James knew Regulus wouldn’t think twice before trying to hex him. He’s seen him do it before. On first years that bumped into him in the hallway. Or simply just because he wanted to. Now that he thinks about it, James has seen Regulus hex people for doing less than he was doing right now.
“Regulus…I really am sorry..” James started slowly, trying to read the shorter boy's face for anything. Yet, he found nothing. “I-I’m sorry okay? I didn’t mean any harm, I promise.” James frowned. “And I didn’t mean to steal your brother from you..” He said. He kept watching Regulus’ face, and for a split second James could see a twinge of pain flash across the younger boy's face before the mask he always had on was back up. Regulus slowly lowered his wand and just stared at James for a moment before grabbing his book and leaving. James frowned, watching the younger Black brother go out the door and down the stairs. He groaned and slid down the wall, head in his hands. “I am such a fucking idiot.”
The next few days went by so painfully slow, James thought he might throw himself off the astronomy tower. The only good thing he had to look forward to was the first Quidditch game of the year. The Slytherin vs Gryiffindor match was about to start and James could practically feel his body vibrating with excitement. He paced around the locker room as Sirius went on and on about his new fight with Remus.
“I mean I just don’t get it! He’s so impossible sometimes! All I did was move his book and he freaked out!” Sirius groaned, leaning up against one of the lockers. James shrugged, throwing and catching the silver snitch Lily had got him.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much Pads. You know how he gets around the full moon. He’s just on edge.” James said “Just try and relax mate.” He smiled, walking over and nudging Sirius’ shoulder. “C’mon it’s almost time for us to go out. No boyfriend drama during Quidditch! You know the rules!” James yelled, jumping up on one of the benches. “FIRST GAME OF THE YEAR!” He shouted and laughed, grabbing his broom and followed the rest of the team out onto the pitch.
The crowd was going crazy as both teams filed into the pitch. James smiled, looking up at the bleachers at everyone who came to watch the game. The feeling before a game was like no other. It was intoxicating and addicting. The crowd screaming and how fast paced it was. Everything about the game made his bones vibrate with excitement. James Potter was an addict. Not for drugs but for adrenaline. He was a pure adrenaline junkie through and through. To James, there is no better feeling in the world.
As the game started and all the players flew up in the air, James caught a glimpse of the curly black haired boy who yelled at him just a few days ago. James would be lying to himself if he tried to say Regulus didn’t look good. The way the sunlight shined off of his hair and how the sun made his grey eyes almost blue. James was almost too caught up in looking at the Slytherin he almost got hit with a bludger whipping past his head. James shook himself from his thoughts and flew into action.
Half way through the game Gryffindor was up by 20 points. James and Sirius were flying around the pitch to make a victory lap. The crowd screamed, but before James and Sirius could give each other a high five, the announcer spoke over the speaker. “Regulus Black has eyes on the snitch!” James looked up, just in time to see Regulus shoot up, practically vertical and grab the snitch. “And he catches it! Slytherin seeker Regulus Black has caught the golden snitch! Slytherin wins!” The entire Gryffindor team groaned, all starting to fly back down to the pitch as the Slytherin team went wild. James just kept looking at Regulus. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen the boy smile before. Not a real genuine smile. But there he was, hoving above everyone else, smiling at the snitch in his hand. That’s when James realised, he would do anything to see Regulus smile like that. That’s also when James realised he was in too deep.