Chapter Text
This year, James Potter had two goals. Get his act together in school (his parent’s had given him a kind, but stern talking to about this), and finally confess that he had a crush on Regulus Black, to Regulus Black. The first thing, getting better in school, was easy. He just had to get his grades up, no sweat.
The second thing however… he still didn’t know how he’d accomplish that.
Right now? He was late for divination. Hopefully their teacher, whose name he still didn’t know, hadn’t realised he was missing. It was only the second week, and he’d already stuffed something up. At least he had a reason for being late though, he’d needed to run back up to his rooms to grab his divination books, which he hadn’t had room to pack this morning.
The corridors were deserted, everyone had already gone to class. Usually he wouldn’t be this worried about ditching the first ten minutes, especially of divination, but this year he was determined to do better. He sped up his pace slightly, which was why, as he rounded the corner of the corridor, he almost ran into the last person he expected to see. “Hey, Regulus!” James called in surprise.
“Go away, Potter,” Regulus snapped. He looked as beautiful as James remembered as he shoved past him. His curly black hair framed his pale face, flushed slightly from hurrying to class, his mouth curving down into a frown.
“What’d I do?” James asked, hurrying to catch up with him as he continued walking.
“Weren’t you going the other way?” Regulus asked.
“Eh, I can skip a bit of divination. I didn’t finish my homework anyway.” He shrugged, swinging his arms as he walked. Okay, so that was a lie, and maybe this wasn’t the best start to getting his act together in school this year, but Divination wasn’t important anyway.
“Of course not,” Regulus muttered, adjusting the books in his arms.
“Want me to help you with those?” James asked, gesturing to how Regulus was struggling to lift them. “Why don’t you have a bag for them anyway?”
“My bag ripped,” he said shortly. “And I don’t need your help.”
“You sure?” James asked. Regulus only glared in response. “Okay, okay.” He raised his hands in surrender. “But those potions books look heavy.”
“I’m not that weak, Potter,” he scowled. “And why are you even talking to me?”
“Am I not allowed to?” James asked. “What’ve you got next anyway? I can walk you to your next class if you want.”
“No thanks,” Regulus sighed, trying to speed up his pace.
“Wait, hang on. I’m sorry, I don’t think you’re weak,” James said, hurrying to catch up. “I know you’re not weak. Your school bag is always packed, it must weigh a ton, and I see you flying all the time in Quidditch practice, and you’re way faster than our Gryffindor seeker.”
“You see me practicing Quidditch?” Regulus asked, pausing to turn to him.
“Uh…” James froze. “I mean, like, in the school matches and stuff. I’m usually a bit busy being chaser but–”
“You said during Quidditch practice,” Regulus insisted, narrowing his eyes.
“No! I said during the school matches,” James insisted.
“Go away, Potter.” He rolled his eyes, walking away again.
“See you around!” James called out after him, but he had already disappeared around the corner, out of view.
Frowning slightly, James turned around, starting the long trek back up to divination. What was with Regulus? Why did he hate him so much? Was it just because he was in Gryffindor?
Ugh, this was going to be harder than he thought.
He entered the classroom, Sirius clapping him on the shoulder as he sat down. He was half draped across Remus, both of them already comfortable on the squishy chairs. Thankfully, the professor was facing away, focusing on whatever weird new fortune telling method she’d come up with, so she didn’t notice James entering late.
“What took you so long, mate?” Sirius asked. “Professor is mad at me cuz I forgot my homework. I should have gone and gotten it with you.”
“I just had to go to the bathroom,” James lied. It didn’t help things that Sirius had no clue James had ever looked at his brother, let alone spoken to him. If he ever found out that James had a crush on Regulus… he didn’t even want to think about what would happen.
“You listening, mate?”
James startled as Sirius nudged him. Had he accidentally said what he was thinking out loud?
“What?” He asked. Sirius cleared his throat, gesturing to the front of the classroom. Shit. The professor was glaring at him.
“Do I have to repeat myself a third time, Mr. Potter?” She snapped.
“No! No, sorry, professor. The answer is, um…” There was nothing in front of him to indicate the answer, let alone what the question had been in the first place. He glanced sideways at Sirius for help, but the bastard only smirked at him. Betrayal. James narrowed his eyes.
“Um, could you please repeat the question professor,” he asked. “I just want to make sure I’ve gotten it right.”
“Seriously?” Sirius snorted.
“What was that, Mr Black?” She turned her beady eyes on him.
“Nothing,” he protested.
“All right, you answer the question then.” She glared, and James held back a laugh.
“I don’t know the answer,” Sirius admitted sulkily.
“Detention, both of you,” she snapped, and they both straightened up in shock.
“But professor, I have quidditch–”
“It’s the start of the year–”
“Quiet! Two days of detention, starting this evening.” She turned away from them as if they were too unbearable. Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius’s distraught face.
“You’d think you’d be use to getting detention by now,” he muttered to Sirius. “And you owe me money Peter.”
“What?” Sirius exclaimed, quickly quietening when he got another nasty look from the professor. “Why does Peter owe you money, Remus?”
“I made a bet with him that you’d get detention in the first two weeks of school. He didn’t think you were capable of it,” he said, rolling his eyes again. Sirius pouted.
“I’m not that bad,” he muttered.
“Your current situation says otherwise,” Remus said disapprovingly.
“Come on Moony.” Sirius grabbed his arm.
“Nope,” Remus said, pulling away and making him fall over slightly. “My boyfriend is not getting me detention this early in the year.”
Sirius pulled away, pouting to hide his smile at Remus calling him his boyfriend. They really were detestably sweet together, James thought, as they both blushed.
The professor droned on about something unimportant, and he drifted off into thought as the heat of the stuffy room heightened, and the comfiness of the plush chairs relaxed his muscles– sore from quidditch practice.
Dammit, he shouldn’t have said that stuff about Quidditch to Regulus. James hadn’t really been watching him practice anyway, it was just that sometimes, especially over the previous year, he’d gone down to the quidditch pitch for a fly, and Regulus had already been there, practicing with the rest of the Slytherin team. He hadn’t meant to spy, of course not. It was just that if any of the rest of them found out he’d been there, they’d accuse James of cheating by spying on them. He just didn’t want to go back to the castle because they might have seen him walking back, so he hid behind the stands, watching Regulus play the seeker and waiting until they finished their practice.
He was damn good at it as well, James could admit that, but then again, maybe that wasn’t such an impressive thing to admit, seeing as how he thought everything Regulus did these days was incredible.
Dammit. James needed to get his act together and start coming up with a proper plan to ask Regulus out.