Prolouge
JAMES
James had everything he ever wanted: money and fame, friends and family. But love? Not so much. It wasn’t for want of trying—he'd gone out on dates, looked for the one who’d sweep him off his feet—but nothing ever stuck. He believed in soulmates, in true love, but he was beginning to wonder whether the universe had given up on him.
Not that it mattered today. Today, the Marauders were about to face the one worse than heartbreak: Rita Skeeter. The interview was scheduled for noon, but James already dreaded it. Last time, she’d spread a rumor that he was secretly married to a model he’d only met once.
"Prongs!" Sirius’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. James looked up to see his best friend posing dramatically in the doorway.
"How do I look?" Sirius asked, spinning in a maroon suit jacket with matching pants. The black button-up underneath was partially undone, and a gold necklace glinted against his collarbone. He looked like the rock star he was.
"Stunning," James said, smirking. "Gimme a spin."
Sirius obliged, and James couldn’t help but notice Remus, standing quietly in the corner, staring like Sirius had hung the moon.
"Moony," James said, biting back a grin. "What do you think of Padfoot’s outfit?"
Remus blinked, snapping out of his trance. "He looks... beautiful. Very beautiful."
Sirius beamed, and James rolled his eyes. They're so gone for each other, he thought quietly in his head.
***
Once they arrived at the interview, they were immediately greeted by Rita Skeeter and a bunch of cameras. James could feel his eyes burning, but how bright the lights in this room were, it was almost blinding. Rita was wearing a white button-up blouse with an on-the-knee grey pencil skirt and her usual cat-eye glasses.
"Welcome, gentlemen!" Rita exclaims, her white curls bouncing around with every step she takes. "It is a pleasure to have you all here! Please follow me."
They all follow her and find themselves in front of an off-white sofa, a matching lounge chair, and a huge camera in front of them.
"Please take a seat, gentlemen," Rita instructs.
The four Marauders sit on the sofa, Peter next to James and Sirius next to Remus.
"We're going to start rolling in 3.... 2.... 1. Action!" Rita yells out. James hears a few clicks, which he thinks are the cameras starting to record.
"Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of 'The Buzz with Rita Skeeter'. Today, our special guests are your favorite boy band,
The Marauders!" Rita exclaims. "So, gentlemen, I will be asking you a series of questions that have been asked by your fans. Are we ready?"
"Yes. We're ready. Hit us with it!" Peter says excitedly.
"Perfect! We're going to start with the basic questions, and then we'll start the fun ones." Rita explains."The first question is, How did your band come together?"
If there was any question James Potter loved, it would have been that he loves to speak about his friends and how amazing they are. All his friends were so bloody amazing, and James couldn't live without them, so whenever he got the chance, he would always gush about them.
"Well," James began, leaning forward with an easy grin. "We used to go to school together, and ever since then, we became inseparable. As we grew up, we started to love music; it started as just messing around on weekends in my garage—loud, chaotic, and off-key. But eventually, we started to get a little serious about it, and now, here we are."
After a few more basic questions, Rita says with a wicked gleam in her eyes, "Well, now we're done with the basic questions. Time for the fun ones."
"Alright! Go on." Sirius, being the one to never back down from a challenge, says with a grin.
"There’s been speculation about tension between you and The Valkyries. Care to comment?" Rita asks with a smirk.
"No, there isn't one bit; they are the loveliest ladies ever, and we've been friends since school, and we adore them so much," Sirius says, sounding a bit offended that she would assume such a thing.
"Aw, well, isn't that cute?" Rita says with a smile James isn't sure is fake or real. "Next question. There’s a lot of chatter about Peter Pettigrew leaving the band. Can you confirm or deny?"
"Deny," Remus says without a second thought. "No one is leaving the band."
Rita pretends to let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. That would have been awful." She says as if that wouldn't bring her a fresh batch of gossip. "Let’s address the elephant in the room: Is there bad blood between you and The Emeralds?"
James leaned forward, narrowing his eyes at Rita’s sudden change of tone. He knew she was always digging for something spicy, and that question was just her way of fishing for a scandal.
Sirius was the first to speak, his jaw tightening ever so slightly. "There’s no bad blood," he said, his voice firm but with an edge. "We’ve got a lot of respect for them. Sure, we’re rivals, but that’s just part of the game. We push each other to be better, but that doesn’t mean we hate them."
Remus chimed in next, his expression calm, but his eyes flickered with a hint of frustration. "Yeah, rivalry is one thing. We’re all professionals. There’s no hatred."
James couldn’t help but grin, feeling the familiar warmth of his friends’ unspoken solidarity. "We’ve got bigger things to focus on than petty drama," he added, throwing a knowing look at the others. "We’ve got music to make and crowds to rock, not wasting time on gossip."
"Alright then, moving on," Rita says, pretending not to be bothered by the fact that there isn't any gossip for her to use. As she leans forward with a wicked smirk. "Fans are dying to know, Who is single and who's taken?"
Peter pipes up and says, "We're all single, actually."
"Oh really?" Rita lifts up an eyebrow. "Why is that? Have your eyes on someone? Just got broken up? Unrequited love? Heartbreak? Tell me everything."
"Oh, well," Remus says, letting out a dry chuckle. "There's no reason, not that I know of. But we have no reason to date, so we aren't." Remus says if James and Remus hadn't been best friends for years, James wouldn't have been able to clearly tell that he was uncomfortable.
"But you don't have your eyes on anyone?" Rita asks, trying to get the most gossiping out of them.
"That's not something we're willing to share, thank you very much." Sirius says, stepping up to shut her up respectfully.
***
After a few more questions, the interview ended, and James couldn't be happier. That woman had pissed him off so fucking much, and he could tell Sirius was disturbed by the question about The Emeralds. It was Regulus' band, Sirius' younger brother. They haven't met in years, not since Sirius ran away from that abusive household and left Regulus behind. To this day, Sirius regrets it, but he can't be blamed; after all, it was Regulus' choice to stay behind; Sirius had offered, but he refused. Sirius ran away to James' home, and his parents, Fleamont and Euphemia Potter (mostly known as Effie and Monty) took Sirius in and treated him as if he were their son, which is exactly what the public thinks.
The public doesn't know anything about Sirius' relationship with the Blacks, not even the fact Regulus is his brother. James is secretly surprised that they haven't pieced it together yet; it was kind of obvious. People do understand that Sirius isn't blood-related to James, but they don't know who else could be Sirius' family, so they have somewhat accepted it.
Something that James doesn't understand is how the fuck Walburga and Orion Black allowed Regulus to become a music artist. Wouldn't they want Regulus to have a 'good' career? Aren't they traditional people? It confused James so much, he never thought about asking Sirius about it, and that was probably for the greater good.
James had to admit. Regulus Black is the most gorgeous man ever.
REGULUS
Normal people get to wake to the birds chirping, their alarm, or the beautiful sunlight. Normally Regulus would too, but not today.
Regulus was peacefully sleeping until he heard screams. What a great start to his morning.
"What's going on?!" Regulus yells from his room, throwing off the blanket and throwing on his silk robe. He leaves his room and goes to the little circle his friends, which are Barty, Dorcas, Pandora, and Evan, had formed. And then Barty says what must have been the dumbest thing Regulus has ever heard in his whole life: "THERES A SPIDER! SAVE US REGGIE!"
Regulus sighs deeply, pulling his slipper off and holding it in his left hand. "Where is it?" He asks exhausted. Pandora points with her slender finger to a tiny spider. Regulus slaps his slipper onto it, and in a matter of 2 seconds, the spider was dead.
"That tiny ass thing is what you woke me up for?" Regulus says, ready to murder all of them for waking him up for such a foolish thing.
Barty, still wide-eyed, says, “You’re a hero, Reg! You saved us!”
Regulus deadpans. “I saved you from embarrassment, maybe. There’s no heroism in killing a spider that could fit on the end of a pencil. I'm going back to bed.” Regulus walks back to his bedroom. As soon as he gets to his bedroom, Regulus immediately jumps back into bed and snuggles under his blanket. He knew that he couldn't go back to sleep anytime Now that he was fully awake, it didn't mean he had to start his day already. He grabs his phone and scrolls on X (Twitter). As he scrolls, Regulus sees a post about The Marauders getting interviewed by Rita Skeeter. Regulus would feel bad if he cared about his brother and his little found family.
"REGGIEE!! GET DRESSED, WE'RE GONNA GET BREAKFAST, AND WE'LL STOP AT THE LIBRARY FOR YOU!" Dorcas yells out from outside his bedroom.
"ALRIGHT!!" Regulus yells back, getting up and heading to the bathroom to take a shower and get ready.
***
The whole group comes to the small café near their shared house, a haunt they frequented so regularly that the barista always gave them a look of recognition. It was small and cozy, and just out of the way enough that it felt like their own secret spot. As the scent of fresh coffee and warm syrup greeted them upon entering, a gentle hum of quiet conversation and soft indie music hummed in the background.
They slide into a booth in the back corner, their favorite seat, the vinyl upholstery well-worn by years of devoted customers. The group orders on autopilot without even looking at the menu. Regulus orders a stack of pancakes and a black coffee—no sugar, no cream. Barty, the complete opposite, orders waffles smothered in syrup, likely already thinking ahead to when he will ask for a side of whipped cream, mid-meal. Pandora selects her favorite fruit bowl with extra strawberries, never leaving them out. Evan already eyeing her bowl now grins as he orders a club sandwich no doubt planning to steal at least one of her strawberries. Dorcas orders an English breakfast: sausage, bacon, beans, and toast claiming she needs the energy to deal with “all of you idiots.”
As they all wait for their food, they all start to chat.
"So, do we have any plans for today?" Pandora asks, stirring her tea.
Regulus looks up from his coffee and replies "Rehearsal, probably. Unless Barty has another brilliant idea, like waking me up for a spider.”
Barty grins unapologetically. “Hey, it was a big spider.”
“You mean the size of a coin?” Regulus deadpans, earning a chuckle from Evan.
“Well, someone has to protect us,” Barty counters dramatically, placing a hand on his chest as if he’s just declared himself a knight.
“You mean Regulus has to protect us,” Dorcas corrects, raising an eyebrow. “Because we all know you’d just scream and run again.”
Pandora leans in and playfully digs her elbow into Barty's side. "I don't really think we have any other plans except band stuff. Unless anyone actually wants to do something fun for once?" she asks.
Evan smirks, leaning back against the booth."Define fun. Because if this is about dragging us to some other yoga class, I'm out."
"It was Pilates," Pandora corrects with a mock glare.
"I loved the yoga,"Dorcas chimes in, smirking." Watching Evan try to touch his toes was the highlight of my week."
"Oi! I can touch my toes," Evan protests, leaning forward in mock indignation."I just choose not to."
"Sure," Pandora teases, rolling her eyes.
As the group dissolves into laughter, the waiter serves their food, balancing plates with practiced ease. The table quickly fills with the smell of freshly cooked breakfasts. Evan being Evan tries to steal a strawberry from Pandora but he smacks his hand away. "Get your own." Pandora scolds though there's no real venom in her voice.
“This is mine now,” Evan quips, popping the strawberry into his mouth with a cheeky grin.
Regulus shakes his head fondly as everyone continues with their food. Even if they drove him crazy most of the time, mornings like this reminded him why his friends were worth it.
As they finish their breakfast, they all receive a text from Alastor Moody, their manager. "Be in my office in 10 minutes."
Pandora opens her phone and says "It's Moody" She reads aloud: “Be in my office in 10 minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” Evan groans, sliding his phone back onto the table. “He couldn’t have told us earlier? We’re not even dressed for whatever drama he’s about to throw at us.”
“Moody doesn’t care if we’re in pajamas,” Dorcas says dryly, pushing her empty plate aside. “If he wants us in his office, we’d better go.”
“Great,” Barty mutters, shoving the last piece of waffle into his mouth. “Nothing good ever comes from a ‘10-minute warning’ text.”
“You think it’s bad?” Pandora asks, her voice tinged with concern.
“It’s Moody,” Regulus says flatly, draining the rest of his coffee. “It’s always bad.”
The group exchanges glances the lighthearted atmosphere from earlier gone. Whatever Moody wanted, it was bound to be important—and probably frustrating.
“Alright,” Dorcas says, standing up and grabbing her jacket from the back of her chair. “Let’s get this over with.”
They file out of the café, Regulus trailing behind as he thinking whether he should’ve ordered a second coffee. The crisp morning air hits them as they step outside, and the walk to Moody’s office feels far too short.
As they approach the building, Pandora turns to the group with a weak smile. “Maybe he just wants to talk about rehearsal schedules?”
“Or maybe we’re all getting fired,” Barty quips, earning an eye-roll from Evan.
“Let’s just go,” Regulus says, pushing open the door. “The sooner we deal with whatever this is, the sooner I can go back to bed.”
Whatever They were expecting once they got to Moody's office doesn't truly compare to what they saw inside.
Inside Alastor Moody's office were The Marauders, The Valkyries, and Moody.
"What the actual fuck is going on here?" Barty spits out.