Apricity

James had not been able to think about anything else for nearly a week. His mind had been completely consumed by the thought of Regulus and Barty. It made him angry, but he could not seem to figure out why.

Had it been because Barty was bad for him? No, he had asked around and found out that Barty was actually a decent person. Perhaps he had just taken some of Sirius's older brother duties. So he was just hating Barty on principle.

James was in a chair in the common room, desperately trying to catch up on some homework, but none of the words seemed to actually seep into his head.
Frustrated, he looked up, to see if anything exciting was going on around him.

Firstly he was met with Peter, clearly struggling with writing a charms essay. James hated seeing people he cared about struggling like that, but he was honest, he would probably do more harm than good, if he even tried to help Peter.

He then turned his gaze towards the couch.

Sirius had placed himself, as close as humanly possible to Remus. James smiled to himself when he noticed that Sirius was simply admiring Remus as he read.

“Anything I can help you with love?” Remus had turned towards Srius, who now had turned fifty shades of pink.

“N-No, just uhm… what are you reading?” Sirius asked him nervously. Remus smiled adoringly, he reached up tucking a piece of hair behind Sirius' ear “Homework”

The way such simple things had made someone as confident as Sirius, crumble completely. James was impressed with Remus, the boy sure had charisma, or at least when it came to Sirius.

Then his thoughts were flipped. Had Barty ever made Regulus as flustered as this? Was Regulus even able to get that distracted? Or had James just never seen it?

As the thoughts were filling up his head, he felt his heart racing suddenly.

“James?”

He looked up, and was met with Lily, looking incredibly concerned at him. He looked down at his hand, and saw that he had been squeezing the nearest pillows dangerously tight, even his knuckles were white.

Embarrassed, he instantly let go “Yes?” he smiled at Lily, as she took the spot beside him.

“You just looked a little lost, everything alright?” she had placed a comforting hand on his arm.

Had this happened last year, he would have probably turned as pink as Sirius, but he found himself unable to react.

“Yeah everything is fine”

That night, James spent hours trying to fall asleep. He ended up just laying flat, and staring at the ceiling.
He could not stop think about the whole thing with Barty and Regulus:

Why had the thought of them made him so incredibly angry? He hadn't felt that angry in a long time.

As he laid there, he started to wonder if he himself had actually ever been that distracted or flustered by simply looking at someone.

The first thing that had popped into his head, was that one quidditch match. He had found himself being so insanely distracted by watching Regulus play.
The way he was so god damned good at playing, and James had somehow never noticed before. They way he never even looked slightly out of balance, on his broom.
The way his hair had been the perfect length, to not bother him in the wind. And even when he did have to fix it, he had made it look so effortless.
The second thing that had popped into James' head, was the hallways. Of course Regulus was still not speaking to him, for some unknown reason, but they still ran into each other.

Whenever James would catch a glimpse of him literally anywhere in the school, even for a second, he would feel as though the wind had been knocked out of him.

He still hadn't been able to figure out why this was happening, which was incredibly frustrating. Was it simply because he was a bit annoyed with Regulus for not speaking to him?

There had even been a couple of times, where the mere sight of Regulus had gotten James' heart to skip a beat.

Oh

Wait.

Was he- no.

Could he actually be?

James was so shocked by the revelation, that he had sat up abruptly in his bed, with a gasp, causing poor Peter to wake up.

“Sorry Pete” James whispered, and Peter just rolled over falling back asleep.

James then got out of bed, and tiptoed downstairs.

He continued to sit in front of the fire for hours, contemplating the fact that he might actually like Regulus Black as more than a friend.

—---------------------------

Regulus had ended up having almost exactly the same revelation as James, though it had happened a bit differently.

He liked Barty, he really did. Just not in the way that Barty liked him.

He had figured it out about a week or so, into them being a thing. He had started to feel sort of bored by the whole idea. Barty was his best friend, and they used to have the best times together. But ever since they had included an occasional make out into their relationship, that had all gone down the drain.

They were fighting constantly, over the most mediocre things.

Then Regulus had figured out, that the reason he was even with Barty, had simply been a distraction from his stupid crush or whatever on Potter.

He had felt so crushed, watching him snogging Evans, that he simply fallen into the arms of the first person he saw.

He realised that this was not at all fair to Barty. As he had found out through Evan, Barty was starting to have actual feelings for Regulus, which meant he had to end it.

He had told Evan, and had managed to get Barty in the dormitory alone.

“Merlin Reg you're kinda scaring me. I dont think ive ever seen you look that serious around me” Barty chuckled as he sat down.

“Well actually this is kinda serious”

“Oh”

“I have just been feeling off lately. And I feel like it's not at all fair to you. I don't think we should have become more than friends. I love you I really do, just not in the way that you'd like me to. And I am so sorry about that, I completely understand if you're gonna hate me forever. But i don't think we should be together anymore”

Regulus felt incredibly relieved as the words had left his mouth, but only until he saw the look on Bartys face.

“Fine”

He got up, walked out, and slammed the door behind him.

At first Regulus regretted it instantly, but then remembered that it had to be done. But it had also felt like he had just lost his best friend in the process.

Why did he have to feel like this? Why did stupid Potter even have to come into his life like this? Things were perfectly fine before. Well not fine, but manageable at least.

Regulus wasn't even sure he had any actual feelings for Potter. He had just thought he was fit enough to almost bloody cry at the first sight of him snogging someone else.