Chapter Text
James is sitting on his bed curtains closed, silencing spell activated looking at the map in front of him, waiting to make sure everyone is asleep.
He can hear Peter softly snoring Remus just put his lamp off and closed the curtains half an hour ago, he heard Padfoot go to bed an hour ago but just to be sure nobody follows him, he waits a little longer.
He is bored staring at the map,
waiting for the right time he can sneak out of the dorm to go for a walk in the castle.
Most people are in their dorms sleeping or doing who knows what,
He can see Filch patrolling the grounds, Albus Dumbledore pacing in his office, Minnie is in the teachers room with Slughorn.
Putting the map away he softly opens the curtains around his bed to look at the time. He sighs seeing it’s just half past twelve, he closes the curtains and sits back opening the map once again.
Half an hour later.
He’s about to close the map when he sees a name slipping out of the Slytherin Dungeons, being bored and not knowing what to do he decides to see where they go.
He puts on one of Moony’ sweaters and a random pair of loose Black pants from his bed, quickly putting them on, checking the map to see where they went.
He grabs his wand and the map muttering a quick “mischief managed” and puts the map in the back pocket of his pants and pulls Moony’ sweater over it.
He slips out of the dorm as quiet as possible checking behind him to make sure everyone is still in bed and asleep, he takes out the map and grabs his wand “i solemnly swear that i am up to no good” he whispers, opening the map to check that everybody is in their dorm’s. Also quickly checking where all the teachers are: Filch is on the other side of the Castle, Mrs Norris is in the dungeons, so he closes the map back up and walks down through the common room the fireplace lowly burning the light is dim, opening the portrait he climbs through it and it closes behind him.
Walking through the castle at night is literally magical, the moon shining through the windows into the corridors. The castle is very old, almost all the portraits are asleep, only a very few are awake but it isn’t hard to get past those.
After about 10 minutes of walking he comes to one of the secret passageways Moony found in his first year. Going into the passageway the opening closing behind him, he quickly grabs his wand and mutters a quick lumos causing the tunnel to light up, ‘good thing i’m not afraid of spiders’ he thinks. This tunnel looks like it hasn't been opened or at least entered in years, it’s dusty and the floor is cold and slightly wet, there are spiders and spiderwebs everywhere you look and go.
Shivering from the cold he puts his wand in his mouth to make sure he can still see something, he crawls through the tunnel until he reaches the end. He reaches for the map and brings it out, opening it, finding himself and checking to see if there are no teachers or other students around. Seeing nobody he decides to seek the boy he’s looking for, finding him where he was walking towards 15 minutes ago in the astronomy tower, he deactivates the map and puts it back using his hands to open to end of the passageway.
He quickly climbs out and puts his wand out making sure not to alert any portraits or professors, fixing his pants which have ridden up his legs and clearing them of dust, pushing his fingers through his brown curly hair taking out a few spiderwebs luckily there aren’t any spiders in his hair. Checking himself over to make sure there aren’t any spiders anywhere else, seeing none he starts walking towards the tower which is only a minute away from the ending of the tunnel so he arrives there rather quickly but now he has to go up the stairs ‘yeah this is gonna take a while’ he thinks as he starts walking.
Finally arriving on top of the astronomy tower out of breath he takes a moment to get his breath back. He might be the quidditch captain but the stairs are a real competition in this castle.
Finally catching his breath he opens the door,
Walking through he sees the boy sitting on the tower with the starlight hitting him making him look like a bloody Angel, his black slightly curly hair getting blown by the wind.
He slowly makes his way towards the boy, he hasn’t noticed him yet and if he has he hasn’t shown it.
He’s staring up at the sky looking at the stars. The sky is clear, the stars are bright and visible and yet he can’t keep his eyes off the boy in front of him.
Now standing closer watching the boy in a way he knows he shouldn't.
He is sitting on the side of the tower, legs curled up underneath himself wearing a dark green oversized sweater and Long Baggy black pants with a black belt which looks too big on him, his long slender fingers with at least one ring on each finger wrapped in his lap.
He moves slightly putting his hand through his hair but Merlin’ sake those hands-
‘Pads is going to kill me’ he thinks not because he isn’t allowed to find guys attractive, no that wasn’t it, just this specific boy he wasn’t allowed to find attractive.
His best friend's little brother.
“Do you like what you’re seeing Potter”
His eyes widened slightly in shock, staring at the boy's back who is still staring at the stars. He straightened himself, his heartbeat slightly elevated, looking for the words to say but he can’t find any. He hears a annoyed sigh and some rustling,
The boy turns around facing me, the moon light reflecting in his pretty stormy grey/blue eyes.
“What are you doing here Potter” he says in a annoyed tone
I finally gathered myself again, I feel my heartbeat slowing down and finally I'm able to find my words again.
“Out for a walk, you?”
Rolling his eyes “sitting here looking at the stars which you know since you have been staring at me for the past 10 minutes.”
Swallowing feeling the blood rushing to my face,
I watch him stand up and grab his shoes. I hadn't even seen them standing on the floor, sitting back down on the side of the tower slowly putting his shoes back on. After he puts his shoes on he looks up at me, while he stands back up grabbing his wand and putting it in his pocket.
He starts walking away when i quickly blurt out “Regulus wait”
Regulus sighs coming to a halt and turning around.
“What do you want Potter” he says with almost pure annoyance
“I don’t WANT anything” i say “i would just like to ask something” i add quickly.
Looking up at Regulus to make sure he hasn’t walked away yet.
Regulus is looking at me with an annoyed look, putting his hands in his pockets leaning on his left leg staring back at me.
After about 15 seconds he looks at me with a face that silently speaks 'are you going to continue or not because if not i'm going'
So i quickly decide to speak up “like you said i saw you staring at the stars”
Regulus slightly nods his head like saying ‘yes and?’ his hair softly moving with his movement as a few pieces dangle in front of his face, his eyes reflecting the stars above us.
“Is Regulus the Star currently visible??” He looks at me for a second with a confused look then seems to realize something rolls his eyes and answers the question with a sigh “yes it is, it’s on the left in the Leo constellation” he says turning around walking away opening the door and leaving the tower and the door falling closed behind him.
The sound of the door closing snaps me out of the fact that I had just shamelessly been staring and talking if that's what you would call it to my best friend's little brother.
He sighs walking back to where Regulus previously had been sitting, putting his hands on the railing and looking up at the stars,
It was easy to find Sirius it was bright in the sky and also Sirius had shown it to him on multiple occasions, he looked more to the left looking for Regulus but having no idea where to look,
really looking to the left still left him with a handful of stars he had no idea of, not being good with astronomy and never paying attention, so not knowing which constellation is which maybe also has its reasons.
He sighs opening the map seeing Regulus walking back towards the dungeons,
He notices how he’s grown quite tired and decides to make his way back to the dorm knowing it would be around two at night right now and having class in merely a few hours. I check where the teachers are not wanting to get caught.
Quickly making my way back down the tower and towards the passageway,
Coming out on the other way of the passageway i see Mrs Norris just around the corner who looks me straight in the eyes with those bright red eyes,
Meows loudly and quickly runs away probably to go get Filch, the second Mrs Norris is out of Sign i starts sprinting my way back to Gryffindor tower.
Quickly muttering the password under my breath I quickly jump through the portrait and quickly but quietly make my way back to my dorm.
I quietly open the door to look inside making sure everyone is in bed and everyone’s curtains are closed. I sneak back in and put the map back on the nightstand, switching into pj's, opening the curtains and climbing into bed and underneath the blankets.
Sleep quickly falls over me. I put my wand on the nightstand, close the curtains and let the night take me.
Last thing I see before I completely fall asleep is Regulus under the light of the Stars.