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Gryffindor Parties are really something – everybody will tell you so.
Especially when organised by Lily and executed by the Marauders.
While the party takes place in Gryffindor Tower, members of other houses are generally welcome. A new password is set up and passed on in advance.
When Sirius ran away from his family in his 6th year (he is in his 7th year now), he took his little brother Regulus with him -both live with James Potter now.
It’s no big surprise to see Regulus and his friends at a Gryffindor party now. Barty always brings booze, so he is very welcome. Evan and Pandora are funny and great company and Marlene specifically insists on Dorcas coming with Regulus to the Parties.
Regulus would never call himself a party-goer. He indulges Pandora at times and dances with her at the edge of the crowd. Usually, he sits or stands somewhere, drinks, and watches the people.
James is dancing unbothered next to Remus who watches him amused, sips on his drink and every now and then throws a look towards Sirius, making sure his boyfriend (who is currently dancing on a table) is still alive and unharmed (he has a habit of falling off said table at some point during the parties)
James has his eyes trained on the other side of the room, where Regulus stands next to Pandora, he smiles when she leans in to say something to him over the music.
„His smile is so beautiful,“ he says out loud without really meaning to.
Remus, who is staring over at Sirius, sighs, „Yes…“
They stare at their respective object of affection until Remus frowns and looks up suddenly.
„Wait, what? Whose?“
Remus tries to follow James‘ dreamy gaze and lands on Sirius, who is dancing suggestively, rolling his hips and winking in their direction.
„James Potter, you better not be staring at my fucking boyfriend.“
„Your boyfriend?,“ James says, looking at Remus now, „What – Sirius? No, no of course not – he’s my best friend! …. His brother on the other hand…“
Remus looks again, past Sirius, where Regulus stands.
„I take it back, please be staring at my boyfriend.“
James sighs and keeps staring at Regulus.
„James!“ Remus hisses in his ear, „What the fuck, that’s Sirius‘ little brother – your brother’s brother!“
James pulls a face, „No… no, that’s my sweetheart – don’t tell him I said that he would be -“ James starts giggling, „He wouldn’t like that.“
„That you give his little brother a pet name? Yeah, no shit he won’t like that.“
„No, not Sirius. Regulus. He doesn’t like it when I call him sweetheart – but he’s one, I swear he is.“
Remus is raking his fingers through his hair, „Fucking Hell, did someone put a love potion into your drink?“
„Nah,“ James says quietly, it gets almost lost in the music, he sips on his drink, „He wouldn’t do that. He is“ He chuckles „He is way too disappointed in himself for liking me back to do something like putting a potion in my drink. No, he’d ignore it if I wasn’t so bloody persistent – he’s said so.“
„He… what? Wait a fucking second there and go back – are you telling me there’s actually something going on between you?“
James turns to him, the dirtiest grin on his lips, „You remember those 3 weeks during the summer Sirius spent at your house instead of mine?“
„Of course – you mean, since then you two…“ He stares bewildered over to Regulus. Little Regulus Black, the ice Prince and golden child of the House of Black.
„Oh yes,“ He says as if deep in memory – very pleasant and likely dirty memory – „Best three weeks of my life, I can’t thank you enough.“
Remus looks down at him for a long moment.
„Sirius is going to kill you. You are aware of that, right?“
„Yes,“ James says dreamily and looks back to Regulus.
Regulus looks up as well and smiles at James through the room.
James promptly springs into motion and starts walking towards him.
Remus pulls him back by his arm, „Prongs, no, are you crazy? You need to stop this right now,“
James laughs at him, just straight out laughs at him, „Stop? Nah man, never. I’m not telling you to stop seeing your Black Brother, so why would I stop seeing mine?“
„Because my ‚Black Brother‘ isn’t my best friend’s little brother, James,“ He says sharply, „He will rip your eyes out - you know how he is with him, little precious baby brother and all!“
„He’ll calm down, plus he doesn’t need to know. Now, let me go, Reggie looked at me, I need to go over.“
Remus looks over, Regulus is watching them with a frown. Remus lets James go. Regulus smiles instantly when the idiot cuts through the crowd to get to him.
James comes to a stop in front of Regulus.
„Hey,“ Regulus says over the music, „Everything okay?“
„Yeah, yeah, Remus just made a scene - you look beautiful.“
Regulus smiles and tucks his hair behind his ear. James reaches out at once and pulls the strand back, he likes it better this way.
Regulus smirks and shakes his head, „How pissed are you right now, James?“
„Just a bit,“ He says and nods, „Only had one and a half of these.“
Regulus takes the drink out of James‘ hand and takes a sip.
„That’s strong,“ He says, „Who mixed that?“
„Your friend,“ He shrugs.
„Of course,“ Regulus mumbles, it gets lost in the music.
James reaches for the drink, but Regulus keeps it away, „No, you’ve had enough of this. Barty’s messing with you.“
„You can’t tell me what to do,“ James almost stomps his foot.
Regulus cocks an eyebrow, he brings himself up to full height and looks intently at his eyes, „Oh, can’t I?“
James breaks immediately, he looks away and smiles, „Yes you can,“ He says and laughs and looks at him again, „Merlin, fuck, I would take a swan dive down the Astronomy tower for you.“
Regulus smiles mildly, „Please don’t,“ He pulls him in by his shirt, „I would be inconsolable.“
James‘ face lights up in delight, „You would?“
Regulus shrugs, „For at least a week.”
James grins and pokes his shoulder, “You do like me.”
“Unfortunately… maybe we should get you to bed.”
James’ grin turns dirty.
“Don’t be presumptuous. You’re pissed. You couldn’t fuck me even I let you,” he whispers to him, making sure the crowd around them doesn’t hear.
“You underestimate me, as usual.”
Regulus shook his head with a smile, “Let’s go.”
James turns with a terribly telling grin and almost runs into Remus who appeared out of nowhere.
“What is going on?” he looks from James to Regulus and back.
“Moony, how pissed are you? I’ve just told you-“
“James,” Regulus says, and James shuts up, just grinning at his friend, “Can we do anything for you, Lupin?”
“Yes, you could stop whatever you’re doing. Sirius is standing right there.” He indicates Sirius, having his back to them, his shirt is pulled over his head so he can’t see while dancing on the table.
“Yes, he’s a real threat right now. Let us through, I’m going to put this one to bed and make sure he doesn’t slip on the steps and splits his head open.”
James smiles warmly at Regulus, “I love how caring you can be.”
Regulus rolls his eyes with a vague expression of disgust on his face.
“James, Sirius will kill you once he finds out about this.”
“He can’t do that. Regulus would be inconsolable.”
“For a week.”
“At least,” James insists.
Regulus pinches the bridge of his nose, “You will hold that against me until the day I die, won’t you?”
“You think we will be together until we die?” he asks dreamily.
“Given that I’m considering drowning myself in the Black Lake before having to sit through another History of Magic class, yes.”
“You can’t do that. I’d be inconsolable for the rest of my life.”
James, as pissed as he is, says this earnestly. It warms Regulus' heart; it shows on his face and tugs up the corners of his mouth.
Regulus catches Remus’ gaze on him, and the smile drops in an instant.
“You should probably go check on your boyfriend, I predict he will fall within the next minute. James, you should tell him that you’re going to bed, then. I’ll wait for you by the stairs.”
Regulus leaves the men standing, walks by Sirius and ruthlessly pushes him off the table.
James joins him by the stairs three minutes later. Sirius is okay, Remus has to stop him from climbing on the table again.
Regulus takes James upstairs and to the Marauders’ dorm.
“My Sweetheart,” James mumbles and giggles while pulling on Regulus' clothes. Regulus pushes his fingers away, “You’re so gorgeous.”
Regulus smiles and pushes James down on his bed.
“Oh, I like where this is going,” James laughs.
“It’s not going where you think it is. You’re lucky because of all the sweet things you say, I stay with you until you’re asleep.”
“Yes, please, will you let me cuddle you?”
“Ugh, fine, if I must,” Regulus says with feigned dislike and kisses James’ forehead, before dropping to his knees and unlacing James’ shoes.
Regulus wouldn’t describe himself as a person that habitually takes care of people. It is different with James. He’d do anything for James – except admit to this – and when he is pissed he is ready to show how he cares about him by taking care of him, kissing him, being as sweet and gentle as James is to him all the time. Regulus can bring himself to be like this every once in a while, mostly when he knows James won’t remember the next morning (or will have a memory so hazy, Regulus can gaslight him into thinking he made it all up)
Regulus undresses James, fighting off his advances in the process.
“No, I will not snog you, it can never be just snogging with you” “No, that’s not why I’m taking off your trousers.” “I will never get on my knees for you again if you don’t stop it.” “Yes, I am still attracted to you.” “No, I still will not shag you, you are drunk.” “Yes, you are.” “That’s why I always tell you not to accept drinks from Barty, he is cockblocking us.”
Finally, he has James in his pyjama bottoms, deciding the top is unnecessary. James crawls under his blanket and Regulus has to steal his glasses before he crushes them under his face.
“Come to bed with me, Reggie,” James mumbles. Regulus sighs and shrugs out of his own clothes. He closes the curtains around James’ bed and then crawls in next to him. James smiles warmly when he can wrap his arms around Regulus. Regulus closes his eyes and allows James to press him against his chest.
“Sweetheart,” James mumbles into his hair, Regulus hates it when he calls him that, but he indulges him when he is drunk, “I love you.”
Regulus’ eyes fly open. He makes himself go very still and doesn’t breathe until he has to. He breathes in deeply, slowly. James is drunk.
“What?” Regulus whispers.
“I love you,” James repeats sleepily and kisses the top of his head.
Regulus clenches his jaw. Okay. This is not how he thought this would go down. He doesn’t know what to do with that. Does he say it back, risking James won’t remember tomorrow? Does he just ignore it until James drifts off to sleep? His head is spinning.
James squeezes him, making an unhappy sound, “You have to say it back.”
Yep, Regulus is not getting out of that mess tonight.
He pushes himself up and slowly places a deliberate kiss on James’ cheek. “Tell me again when you’re sober.”
James makes another, unpleasant sound but nods. Regulus settles back against his chest and closes his eyes.
***
Usually, when Regulus accidentally falls asleep in James’ dorm, he can sneak out before any of the dormmates are up. Today he is woken up by the door being slammed and a very loud Sirius Black shouting, “Who of you fuckers left me on the couch?”
Regulus opens his eyes. He is trapped in James’ arms, James pressed against his back, of course he is. James sleeps through Sirius’ shouting, of course he does. The curtains are hiding him from Sirius’ view, at least.
Remus and Peter groan in response to Sirius.
“Love, please,” Remus grumbles, “You passed out on the couch and are fucking heavy. Now, shut up, come here and sleep.”
“No, I’m quite awake. The girls found me and gave me some of their hangover-stuff – the disgusting green stuff that makes you feel reborn.”
“Did you bring some?”
“No.”
“Then shut up.”
Regulus hears Sirius jump on a bed and Remus yelps and curses him.
“Please, shag sometime else, I can’t do this right now,” – Peter.
“We’re not shagging, I’m trying to sleep,” – Remus.
“You’re boring,” – Sirius, of course, “Hey, why isn’t James up yet. Didn’t he get up here last night?”
“No, he definitely got here last night. Was snoring when I came in already. But I think – “ Peter yawns for an exceedingly long interval – “I think, he’s not alone in there.”
“Not alone?” Sirius sounds on high alert.
Regulus elbows James in the stomach. James grumbles and pulls him closer. Regulus quietly curses his entire bloodline.
“You mean our Prongsie hooked up with someone last night?” Sirius sounds delighted, “My, my, who is it?”
“I don’t fucking know and don’t fucking care.”
Regulus turns in James’ arms and clamps his hand down on James’ mouth before kicking his leg, hard. James startles awake and stares at Regulus. Regulus puts his finger against his own lips and then takes his hand off James’ mouth.
“Do you reckon it’s Lily?” Sirius asks, “Did Prongs finally get her into bed after all, good for him.”
Regulus glares at James, who only slowly grasps the situation they’re in.
“I don’t think so, Lily was dancing with Mary all night, I didn’t even see him talk to her,” Peter says. Remus is blessingly quiet.
“Right, right, no, I saw her downstairs. So, it’s not Lily, Mary or Marlene. Do you think it’s Alice?”
“Alice wouldn’t cheat on Frank,” – Remus now buds in, “Let it be, love, come to bed. You can pester James about this later.”
“I literally will never find peace again if I don’t find out who is in bed with him right now.”
James, finally, looks as horrified as the situation calls for. Regulus wonders whether he can make it plausible that he was just in here because he is an annoying menace who wanted to disturb James in his slumber and possibly smother him. He would have to be dressed for that. Where did he leave his clothes?
“Ah ha!” Sirius exclaims and James flinches, “Look at this, discarded clothes. We get closer to the solution.”
“Can’t you just open the curtains and look?” Peter asks exasperated.
“Oh, Pete, you are truly lacking a flair for drama. Let’s see, these belong to James, also James, these, oh, this is not James’ shirt,” Sirius chuckles and Regulus can hear him striding through the room, “Black, expensive – who wore black yesterday?”
“Everyone?” Remus mumbles, “Get off me.”
“Okay, we will put this aside. These trousers are definitely too small to fit James.”
Sirius pauses, then, puzzled, continuous: “They’re boy’s trousers. That’s a bloke’s shirt, too. Oh, by merlin’s balls James hooked up with a bloke!”
“You will be thrilled when I explain to you how bisexuality works, again.” – Remus. Peter is chuckling quietly.
“Okay, let’s stay calm-“
“We are calm”
“And think about what bloke would be James’ type. One of the Prewetts maybe, because of the red hair? Gideon or Fabian – or, both? What if James had a threesome last night? Can you imagine?”
“I don’t want to.” – Peter.
Regulus is glaring at James again. James looks at him apologetically.
“Who else is there? Someone from the team? No, none of them would fit into these. He has to be a spindly thin bloke with freakishly long legs.”
Regulus is going to kill them all. He makes sure to convey this with his eyes.
“Ah, oh, oh fuck, look at this!”
“Sirius! Don’t hold fucking old socks into my face, I’ll break up with you!”
“Tsk, Moony, they’re green! What if – I can’t even say it –“
“Then don’t.”
“What if he hooked up with a Slytherin?”
There is a slow pause. Remus says: “Slytherins aren’t the only ones with green socks. I have green socks. I’m not in James’ bed.”
“Don’t act like I’m stupid. They’re Slytherin socks, they have the emblem.”
James frowns at Regulus. Regulus rolls his eyes. James’ wardrobe consists mainly of hoodies. He will not let this man judge his socks.
“Well, James hooked up with a Slytherin bloke who was at our party last night,” Remus says, Regulus hates him, “I wonder who that could be.”
Sirius gasps, “Barty!”
James exhales slowly against Regulus’ neck.
“Oh, I can’t believe it! James cannot hook up with that bloke. Didn’t he also give him those drinks? Oh, I will kill that fucker – he probably made James pissed and then took him upstairs. Merlin, Reggie will be so hurt by that. Can you imagine? James sleeping with Reggie’s – friend? Ex? Or are they even together at this point? I can never tell. Barty seems to be dating everyone he talks to.”
Regulus hears the creaking of a bed.
“Anyway,” Sirius exclaims, “This was fun, lads, let’s see if I am right, shall we?”
James looks panicked now. Regulus is past that. There is no escaping this anymore. He can only try to get out of it with as much grace as possible.
Regulus sits up in the bed and waits for Sirius to pull the curtain aside. He has his elbow on his leg and hold his head in his hand, almost looking bored.
A moment later, Sirius’ head appears between the curtains, staring straight at Regulus. His face turns white.
Sirius pulls his head back out.
“What? What is it?” – Peter.
Sirius slowly looks back into the bed between the curtains. Regulus smiles and waves with his fingers.
“What – What on – How – Reggie!” Sirius shrieks and pulls back out, pulling the curtains aside. Then he sees James lying behind him, staring at him in horror.
“James, what are you – what is going on – did you fucking – I will kill you!”
Sirius stomps around the bed and pushes the curtains away there too.
“What is this? Are you defiling my little brother – while being fucking drunk?!” he yells, “Get out here!”
James scrambles out of bed.
“You are fucking my little brother? My baby?”
“Your what?” Regulus exclaims somewhere between anger and disgust.
“How fucking dare you?! How dare you putting a hand on him? That is a child!” Sirius is walking towards him, pointing at him, James is walking backwards.
“I’m sixteen.”
“Tsk, child! James, are you out of your fucking mind? I am your best friend – what makes my little brother in your bed naked?”
“I’m not even naked.” Regulus has borrowed Pyjama bottoms from James last night.
“See, he’s not even – and last night nothing happened, he just helped me into bed-“
“And why did he fucking stay there?”
James hits the wall with his back. His face almost completely drained of colour.
“Well, he’s –“ James looks helplessly at Regulus.
Regulus sighs, “He’s my boyfriend.”
Sirius’ head whips around to him, his long hair almost hitting James’ face.
“Your what?”
“Boyfriend,” Regulus says with intent, “The whole thing with all the disgusting shit you do with yours, minus the embarrassing public displays of affection.”
Sirius processes this. Then his face turns horrified, and he turns around to James.
“All the things Remus and I are doing you do to my brother?”
James flinches in front of him.
“Sirius that is a box you don’t want to open,” James says, “No one needs to compare that. Please, calm down.”
“Calm down? You’re defiling my brother and I’m supposed to calm down?”
“What is your deal with this defiling – he wouldn’t be able to do that if I asked him to,” Regulus rolls his eyes, “And I’ve hardly been a virgin before him.”
“What? Who touched you?”
“Sirius, I am a person who can decide for himself whom he lets touch him where. And you’re a person who doesn’t have any right to know any details of this.”
“Well, I disagree.”
“Well, I don’t give a fuck,” Regulus mimics Sirius’ pose and tone, “Now back off, you’re scaring him half to death.”
“Good! Good, I will scare him until he never gets an idea as whacky as hooking up with my little brother!”
“Sirius, please, calm down. We’re together,” James insists, “This isn’t about hook ups or sex or-“
“Or about you, for the matter,” Regulus says, “You have no right to an opinion here. Now, leave him alone. Better be happy your brother shags that honourable idiot instead of Barty or Snape. Or do you want me to change that? That gonna make you feel better?”
Sirius pauses. He squints at James, then looks back to Regulus. An entire battle takes place on his face.
“Well,” he mumbles begrudgingly, “You can’t exactly do better than James.”
“Thanks.”
“But James, you can’t just go around snogging my little brother behind my back. How could you keep this secret from me? How could you do this without asking me first?”
“He doesn’t need to ask your permission, only mine.”
“Wrong,” Sirius insists, he seems calmer now, “You’re both my brothers, of course you have to ask me.”
James sighs, “I’m sorry, Sirius. I really am, I was worried you might react… well, like this.”
Sirius rolls his eyes, “Fair.”
“But look, I’m treating him well, right, Regulus?”
“Yes.”
“See, I’m treating him well, you don’t have to worry. And I’m not disrespecting him or you – I promise.”
“That’s true, he doesn’t even hit me when I ask him to.”
“Reggie-“ James hisses and flushes. Sirius’ gaze turns homicidal again.
Regulus waves the words away. “You’re a little late to worry about my chastity, Sirius, but you won’t be able to find a boyfriend who’d treat me better than him.”
“I could try,” Sirius grumbles.
“Hey! I’m standing right here. … And I’m not letting him go. I’m his boyfriend, no one else.” James crosses his arms in front of his chest, the fear from before replaced by offense.
Regulus smiles at him.
“Don’t smile like that, Regulus. Since when are you into possessiveness – don’t answer that.” Sirius looks from his brother to James and back.
“Are you going to try standing between us for the rest of time now, or will you move so he can get back to his bed.”
“I will once you leave this dorm.”
“Fat chance. You’re not telling me what to do. James, come here.”
“James, stay there.”
James frowns, “Last time I checked, I wasn’t the dog here.”
Both brothers look at him intently. James squirms under identical grey eyes. Finally, he moves along the wall and quickly crosses the room to Regulus, where he snakes his arm around him and shifts, almost using Regulus as a body shield.
“See, he likes me better,” Regulus teases.
“Traitor.”
Remus stirs in his bed and sits up, “Are you three fucking done? Some people are hungover and want to sleep.”
“See, how about you take care of your hungover boyfriend and I take care of mine?”
“Oh, no, we’re not gonna do some cute-ass brothers and their boyfriends thing. Forget it. You two will refrain from any boyfriend-business when I’m around – that is an order.”
Regulus’ eyebrows fly up. With the defiance only a little brother is capable of, he grabs James’ face and kisses him deeply. When he pulls back he looks at his brother and sticks his tongue out to him.
Sirius gagged theatrically.
“Go on, give me another order, see what happens.”
“Please stop,” James mumbles, “Sirius, you can’t win this. You’re just going to make us all uncomfortable… can’t you give us your blessing and then we can all go to sleep?”
“My blessing? About you shagging my brother?”
“About us… being together…” James looks at Sirius, almost pouting.
“Don’t get ideas, Sirius. We don’t need your blessing, we won’t stop.”
“I’d really like to have it though,” James says unsurely, “We’re still friends, right?”
Sirius, arms crossed and squinting, growls in his throat. “Yeah, still friends. But you better treat him right. … And Regulus, don’t you dare taking advantage of his soft heart and lack of self-preservation.”
James looks like he isn’t sure whether that should offend him.
“Even if it’s fun?”
The look he gave Regulus would have made any man squirm, Regulus merely smiles.
“Sure, if that calms you,” he says and then directs James to the bed.
“Stop, stop, stop, what are you doing?”
“He’s got pissed last night and now chased through his dorm, he’s going back to bed.”
“But you won’t go with him.”
“Yes, I will. And this time, you will stay out of it.”
Remus now, with a groan, pushes out of his bed, grabs a jumper and his shoes and then pulls a protesting Sirius on his wrist out of the dorm.
“Come get breakfast with me, you yappy dog.”
Regulus throws a glance over to Peter, who is still sleeping.
He crawls into bed next to James and draws the curtains again.
“Well, that could have gone better,” James mumbles, while Regulus is settling in beside him.
“What do you mean? He gave us his blessing and admitted that you’re good for me. The rest is just theatrics, don’t let it distract you.”
James hums and pulls Regulus close.
Regulus looks up at him and kisses his cheek. “Hey, do you remember what you said last night?”
“Last night? Love, I was pissed, I barely know how I got into bed.”
Regulus swallows down his disappointment, he kisses his cheek again and then settles back down, draping the blanket over both of them.
About three minutes later, James suddenly sits up with a gasp.
“I told you- Oh, I told you…”
“Yes, you did. You remember what I said?”
James looks down at him, his face flushed. He is sober now. Regulus looks at him expectantly.
“I love you,” James says, not quite looking at him.
Regulus pulls him down and kisses him.
When he breaks away, he smiles up at him.
“I love you, too.”