What I like about you, you hold me tight,
Tell me I'm the only one,
Wanna come over tonight, yeah.
Keep on whispering in my ear,
Tell me all the things that I wanna hear,
'Cause it's true (that's what I like)
That's what I like about you (that's what I like)
Once Regulus left, James waited a few minutes resting on the door, and finally headed out to his dormitory, it was early, the sun had barely dawned, the castle was silent, even the paintings were asleep. Not a soul could be heard, except James' shoes colliding against the cold stone, and the stairs changing lazily.
James trotted up the stairs to the Gryffindor dormitory and stood in front of the fat lady's portrait.
"Gooselbumps," he whispered, and, with a huge yawn, she let him in.
"Merlin!" he choked, seeing Lily Evans crouched over on a puffy armchair, next to her was a slender boy with hard features. Remus, his scars were glistering over his face.
She turned her head as soon as she heard him, so fiercely, James couldn't figure if she'd actually snapped her neck. The redhead stared at him with a slight blush for a few seconds, till Remus broke the ice.
"Prongs, good morning," he greeted, barely looking up of his book, "we were going over Arithmancy, you can never study enough with the Owls coming up, right?"
"Erm, right. What hour s'it?"
"Around six, I reckon people'll start getting up soon."
"Alright, I'll head upstairs then, see you lot in a minute," he awkwardly said, antsy to get away from Lily's infuriating gaze. He nodded to Remus for not bombarding him with questions, and headed off.
Without waiting for a response, he climbed up the stairs, and entered the dormitory, the smell of chocolate frogs and broomstick polish immediately sweltered him, he wobbly started walking around the room, till he ran into something firm, but fleshy. He turned around just to see Sirius' opal black hair remarking his diamond shaped face, he was staring at him menacingly, dressed up in his robes, but still sitting in his bed.
"Sorry, Padfoot, I'll just go to the bathroom," he deferentially mumbled, but Sirius grabbed his sleeve when he tried to walk away.
"No. We've gotta have a talk."
James chest filled with a disembodied thrill, he nodded. He sat on Sirius' side, their knees touching, he stayed silent for a few minutes, until their eyes finally met again.
"You realize that you've hurt me. You betrayed my trust, and you deliberately broke our vow," he said with a hoarse voice.
"Friends never lie to each other," James sighed, narrowing his eyes, bowing his head.
"That's right. You lied to me, to us. The one person I thought I could trust with my life, deceived me about my own brother, do you know what that feels like?"
"No, and I'm sorry, about everything."
Sirius took a deep breath.
"You weren't wrong, about all of it," he mustered, James looked up at him with a slight head tilt, "I was vexed about the mark, I didn't see my brother, I saw... something evil. A reminder that this isn't even the start of the war. A reminder that people are dying...you know?"
He stared at James, his eyes were glassy, he was fidgeting with his slender fingers, rubbing his black nails.
"What I'm trying to say..." he sighed, running his hands through his hair, "what I'm trying to say is that I didn't want to believe that Reg was one of them, but he is. And I chose to neglect him, even though I knew I could still help him. I deserted my own brother, and I can't forgive myself for it."
James wrapped a hand behind his back.
"You can still help him, you still have time to be his older brother. He needs you now more than ever, he needs all of us, you know he can't do it alone."
"I doubt he wants to speak to me, after what I did," he said, crestfallen.
"I know you don't believe that."
Sirius gave him a faint smile of gratefulness.
"Can we be the marauders, once again? No more secrets, no more hanging out with my little brother behind my back," he stifled a laugh.
"Really witty," James rolled his eyes, but joined Sirius' laugh a few seconds later.
Sirius pulled James into a brotherly hug, "I'm so glad we're friends again," he mumbled, his words muffled in James' shoulder.
"I've missed you too, mate."
***
James couldn't stop smiling the whole time, neither could Sirius, the four of them stormed to the great hall receiving thousands of sweltering stares, but they didn't care, they were the Marauders once again, nothing could stop them.
They sat on their usual places of the long, Gryffindor table, Sirius right beside James, and in front of them, Peter and Remus. The girls, —Lily, Marlene, and Mary, sat adjacent to them, and engaged in a fun conversation, all of them happy for the sudden reuniting, although nobody mentioned it, in fear of jinxing it.
James was about to bite into a sausage, when a sudden shiver made him put down his fork, he looked around, nobody had seemed to notice it, his gaze mechanically went to the Slytherin's table, where a pair of blue eyes were staring at him, Regulus.
He grinned subtly, and James returned the smile. Regulus went back to his friends, Barty Crouch and Evan Rosier, who were bugging one another, strangely close together, James noticed how the younger Black made a false gag and stifled a laugh.
"Watcha' laughing at, Prongise?"
He turned his head to Sirius, who was squinting in his direction, raising a suspicious eyebrow. Thankfully, a Gryffindor girl sat next to Remus, and blocked Regulus out of the view.
"Nothing, Pads, just watching how you can't take your eyes off Moony when he chuckles," he teased.
Sirius turned a bright red, and elbowed him.
"Shut up."
A set of giggles and 'stop's!' coming from the girl's side of the table caught James' attention.
"What's going on over the gal's section, eh?" he asked, his charisma restored, along with his confidence. It seemed like being with Sirius made him be who he actually was.
Lily giggled even louder until Mary gossiped something the Marauders couldn't catch, after that she flushed like a tomato, her mouth shutting close.
"C'mon, tell us!" Sirius jumbled.
"No way!" Lily denied, plunging her head into her hands.
Marlene rolled her eyes, designating her attention into a book. Mary on the other side grinned maliciously.
"Lily thinks it'd be nice to play a little game with our dear James here," she teased, chewing on each word like she was some sort of presenter.
James could've sworn he blushed a bit, Lily had never been quite the direct sort of person, not for that matter. She elbowed Mary, and seeing she wouldn't stop, she limited to plug her ears with her palms.
"What sort of game?" He innocently asked.
Mary smiled widely. Marlene side-eyed her.
"This is so stupid," the blonde sighed, Mary elbowed her to shut her up, and her gaze returned to James.
"Close your eyes," she prompted.
The Marauders, and everyone who was eavesdropping, laughed loudly, Sirius louder than anyone, like usual.
"Alright," James let his eyelids drop closed, he shrugged, "now what?"
With a shuffle of robes, he felt a brush on his knee, and right after, soft, plump lips meeting his and a loud, 'Whoooo!' coming from everywhere at once. The kiss was fierce, and it did feel wonderful, but he opened his eyes and pulled away as fast as he could, he didn't know why, but he felt guilty. Everything happened really fast.
He instantly searched Regulus with his eyes, but he was gone, and when he came back to the table, everyone was staring at him, frowning, or with their eyebrows raised. Lily was paralysed, she was staring at her shoes, flushed like James had never seen her before.
"Uh, Erm," James couldn't find the words, everyone was waiting for a response, but his head was empty.
"I knew this was a bad idea," Lily covered her face with her hands, and James felt a sudden wave of pity regarding his friend.
"No, Lily, it was alright, I'm just, not in the mood for it, yeah?" he tilted his head, licking his lips, tasting Lily's strawberry chapstick, she smiled, clearly finding that extremely attractive, and a signal that James definitely wanted more, although he didn't realize nor mean any of it.
Lily got up with a smile and grabbed her bag.
"I'll head to charms, see you lot later," she cheerfully announced as she hoped away.
"Who's gonna tell her that charms isn't our first class today?" Remus frowned, looking sort of tired with his dark eyebags, which seemed to drive Sirius crazy, as he couldn't take his watercolor eyes out of his boyfriend for more than a minute.
"I'll go with her," Mary giggled, the rest of the girls joined her.
"Us next, James!" sighed a few girls in unison, melting for James' mouth, himself, melting at all of a sudden attention.
"Erm, right. I've got to go?" He said, coming off as a question, he got up and rushed away from the chuckles of the Gryffindor table.
***