5
-----"Is it New Years Eve already?"-----
==Regulus==
For the next few days, the only humanly contact Regulus has is James´ Mom who brings him Potions to ease his pain and to bring him food. At first he doesn´t talk but the more time passes he starts talking, not a lot but it´s progress. Mrs Potter doesnt pressure him but is happy that he starts talking on his own. He starts saying "please" and "thank you" , at first because he remembers to be polite but then because he means it. The next things he talks are mostly answers to Effies questions but as soon as she starts talking about the house, to be exact about their home library, Regulus sits up straighter and even asks if he could visit the library as soon as he feels better to which the woman laughs and assures him that he will soon be able to visit it.
The next day, he waits for Euphemias daily visit as usual and when someone knocks he shouts " Come in." But who comes in isn´t Mrs. Potter but her son, a tray of food in his hands. He must have noticed the younger boys confused face because he hastily closes the door and explains. " Mom and Da- My Parents are having a party tonight and my mother is rather busy so... here I am." Regulus nods understandingly then asks: " Is it New Years Eve already?" James confirmes with a nod and thats the moment Regulus realises how long he´s been there . He arrived on the 24th, a day before Christmas Eve. Out of pure curiosity he asks the older boy : " Who is coming?" As James rattles down the names of countless people, Regulus perks up at a few names, Pandora Lestrange for example, is one of the few people at school who he didn´t hate, they got along quite well. Sometimes they would study together and even though she is a Ravenclaw his parents were ok with their friendship, considering she is a Lestrange after all. There were other names he reconised, like Remus Lupin, one of James´ best friends, a tall, lanky boy with a lot of scars on his face and his neck, which he usually hides under big, oversized sweaters that look like they belonged to his great grandfather, Peter Pettigrew, a chubby boy with the loudest laugh he has ever heard , who constantly walks behind james like a lost Duckling , walking behind his mother. Marlene McKinnon, a chaser , the female version of his brother- a ladys magnet , though she was rumored to be in a relationship with Dorcas Meadows, the next person on the list. Regulus didn´t know much about her, only that she punched Snape in his 2nd year. Mary MacDonalds a loud, nosy girl who knows all the gossip is coming as well. James finishes the list with a dreamy expression. " And of course Lily is coming as well." Ah, thats who he forgot. She and James have been THE couple of Hogwarts for the past 3 months. If Regulus was honest, he didn´t understand, James has been pining over her since the first time he set foot on the school grounds and ever since he has tried to win over her heart, without much success, she rejected him every time though he didn´t seem to mind for he tried over and over again. Regulus didn´t get why she so suddenly decided she was interested in him but there has got to be something. It seems like they got together over night without further do , there never were signs from her side that she was interested in him, merely annoyed.
James set down the food plate and made to leave. "Wait!", Regulus called behind him. "Would you mind if I came to the party? If it doesn´t trouble your parents?" James smiled and told him " Not at all, my mother told me to ask if you´d want to come. Do you need clothes? I could lend you some of my dress robes?" Regulus nodded gratefully nd James left the room, only to come back a few minutes later with a simple set of black dress robes. Regulus goes into the bathroom and tries them on, they fit perfectly, must have been some of his older ones because he is sure he´d never fit in new ones, their bodys were far to different. James was muscular and tall with broad shoulders, Regulus was skinny and smaller. he exits the bathroom to show himself and James approves.
A few hours later, the party is about to start. Regulus combed his hair back, wore the robes and went down the stairs. There were a lot of people there, Dumbledore who he was sure wasn´t mentioned by James. or maybe he just didn´t pay attention, he honestly didn´t know. There was music playing in the background though he couldn´t really identify what exactöy, the people were talking too loud. He made his way towards a familiar face- Pandora. She was standing on the other side of the room with her longterm boyfriend Xenophilius Lovegood. Apparently they were already elopoed and were rumored to be marrying as soon as Pandora finishes school. As soon as Pandora notices Regulus she waves and beckons him to come to her. She ws a really nice girl though some people say she´s crazy, she tells everybody that she is a seer and is able to see peoples future, which is a little spooky when you think about it. They start doing smalltalk but the conversation soon comes to a halt when they hear Sirius shriek.. Regulus starts and at first he thinks something has happpened but when he looks towards the direction of the scream, he sees a woman with long brown curls, a man by her side. She was about 20 years old and had a kind smile on her lips. Regulus would recognise her everywhere- his Cousin Andromeda and her husband Ted. Andy as they called her, got disowned for being in a relationship with said man and got burned of the family tapestry, just like Sirius. Sirius used to say that she was the only sane person apart from them. Sirius runs up to her and pulls the woman in a bone-crushing hug. She laughs and holds him tight while stroking his hair. Regulus slowly steps forward, in the direction of them both. When he gets closer, Andromeda sees him and you were able to see the shock and confusion on her face, she had yet to learn that Regulus left home . She let go of Sirius and walks towards the younger boy. She stops in front of him ,looks him up and down as if to check if it´s really him, then she suddenly hugs him as well. She holds him tight and whispers into his ear: " Merlin , how you´ve grown it´s incredible. What are you doing here Reggie?" At first Regulus stiffens in her arms but then he hugs her back and hides his face in her hair. " I´ve missed you so much Andy. It´s good to see you again. You can say I ran away from home, well not really ran away I think I´m no longer welcome there. " "I´m so sorry you had to go through this as well Reg. I promise they can´t hurt you anymore , you are safe here and if you need anything at all you can always floo me or write to me." Regulus pulls away and smiles gratefully, he never really appreciated her kindness but now he realises how much you need someone like her in your life. out of the corner of his eye he could see sirius , standing there with his arms crossed, looking at the interaction with a look of disgust and envy in his eyes. Mrs Potter comes rushing out of the kitchen and pulls Andromeda away from them, to the other guests. After this, the party really began. The music got louder , the people happier and the alcohol more. James´parents even allowed the boys to drink a bit. Little did they know that Sirius hid 3 bottles of firewhiskey in his room for after the party. Soon, it got closer to midnight and most of the people got ready for their new years kiss with their significant other. James held Lily close , Marlene looked like she wanted to do the same to Dorcas. When the countdown started everyone counted down from 10 and at exactly midnight they kissed. The single people in their friendgroup, basically everyone exept for Lily and James were hugging each other and wishing the others a happy new year while James tried to tie Lily and his tongue together, thats what it looks like at least. When they broke off, james was smiling like he just won a million galleons while Lily was blushing furiously at the attention the young couple got. Regulus held himself in the background , looking at the friends having fun but then James came sauntering over to him, put his hand on his shoulder and said with a smile " Happy New Year baby Black". " Don´t call me that or do you want to lose your pretentious hair?" " Oi! Anyway, do you want to come to my room after the party? I think the other guests will be leaving soon and we want to play some partygames, we even have some alcohol?" "Who´s we?" "Oh, you know, Sirius, Remus , Peter, Lily,Marlene,Dorcas, Mary,my gorgeous self." " Then not." " Oh come on don´t be boring it will be fun, you don´t have to participate in the games but at least be present. Please? " james look at him with big doe eyes, patting his lashes at him. Regulus could swear that if James were an animal, he´d be a deer or something like that. In the end, he agrees and assures him that he will not drink anything alcoholic. At two am, the last guest leave and James´parents agree to let James friends stay over and even allowed them to stay awake for a bit, on one condition: "You have to be quiet , there are people that want to sleep. " Mr. Potter says with a smirk on his face. They agree and eventually everyone participating was sitting on the floor in James´bedroom. It was just like Regulus expected, red and gold with a ton of quidditch stuff on the walls, old brooms, trickots and a wall with polaroids of James and his friends. The pictures weren´t moving so regulus assumed that they have been taken with a muggle camera. On every picture they were all smiling and laughing and bhaving fun, there were pictures of Sirius, James and Marlene on brooms, the rest on the stands of the quidditch stadium, cheering them on. Regulus remembered that game. It was against Slytherin in 1975, marlene got hit by a bludger and in the end Slytherin won, Regulus caught the snitch, only because James dove to save McKinnon from falling so the Slytherin was able to catch the snitch. And then there were pictures of them all on a beach, Remus still wearing his usual sweater and the others wearing bikinis and swimming trunks. Regulus pulled his eyes away from the walls and focused ont the explanation of the first game called "Spin the bottle", "So basically you spin the bottle and whoever it lands on you have to kiss" ,was the explanation of Mary who seemed to have played this game a lot already. So naturally , Mary went first and spun the bottle which landed on a very shocked looking Peter. He blushed bright red and tried to protest but Mary quickly shut him up with a quick peck on the lips. Next was Marlene and to her delight the bottle pointed to Dorcas who smiled smugly and crawled a bit forward so Marlene was able to reach her. They closed in on each other and when their lips met, the whole circle errupted into cheers, the people who cheered the loudest were-of course - Sirius and James. Their kiss lasted a lot longer than the one before and when their lips finally parted they stayed close to each other for a while, still with closed eyes and they only snapped apart when Lily cleared her throat awkwardly. The game continued for a while, Remus and James shared a very awkward kiss, Sirius and Remus snogged the living daylight out of each other, though they are "just friends", Lily kissed Mary, and Dorcas gave Sirius a peck on his lips. Finally it was Regulus´turn. He spun the bottle and it landed on- Sirius. Loud protest errupted from him and he had to spin again because it doesn´t matter how drunk they were,sirius was sober enough to know that kissing your brother wasn´t the best. The next time he spun it landed on Peter. He didn´t necessaryly have a problem with that, he didn´t have a problem with kissing blokes, its rather the contrary. He has known that he is queer for almost 1 year now although he didn´t tell anyone. So he crawled over to the now really disturbed Peter, leaned over and pressed a kiss on the other boys lips.
==James==
His mouth gaped open at the sight of Regulus kissing one of his best mates. Seeing him kiss someone brought a weird feeling to the surface. He couldn´t quite identify it but it wasn´t a good feeling. He tried to distract himself by pulling Lily closer to him. She smiled up at him and the weird feeling subsided.
-----"Is it New Years Eve already?"-----