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"I know, I'm a joy aren't I?"
─── ・ 。゚☆ *.☽ .* ☆゚. ───
All Regulus could hear was Barty muttering in his sleep and snoring, he would say it was normal - but they were in the middle of a class for Salazars sake. The sleeping boy murmured, causing a couple of people to turn and stare - including the teacher. Pandora, who sat in front of them, craned her neck to turn around and glared at the fast asleep Barty on the desk.
"Wake up you ox!" Pandora hissed and poked the boy with her quill, nothing happened.
"Crouch wake up you lazy twat." Regulus muttered and nudged his friend, nothing.
Evan watched in amusement from behind as the two tried to wake the boy, kicking him and flicking him and all sorts. "Let me try."
"Barty love wake up." Evan spoke softly and quietly, barely loud enough to hear. Barty stirred in his sleep and finally lifted his head up. "Ev?" He smiled and leant his chin on the palm of his hand and battered his eyelashes quickly.
"Oh for fucks sake." Regulus spoke to himself and gave an exhausted eye roll. "Get a room."
Giggling, Pandora pushed Barty's head away from Evan. "Don't be upset, we'll find you someone Reg." She twirled her hair, lost in thought as the girl next to her let out a soft gasp.
"I heard Emmeline Vance just broke up with her boyfriend, Nicholas I think his name was?" The Macdonald girl spoke. The dark haired girl sat beside Pandora in charms, Regulus barely knew her - he wasn't quite sure why she'd decided to just join their conversation.
"Nope, Reggie isn't into blondes." Barty patted Regulus on the back, instantly pulling away when he got the most withering glare from his friend.
"Eme isn't blonde, oh."
After she quickly turned back to her work, Regulus shoved his foot into Barty's shin under the table, causing he boy to yelp loudly and glare at his friend. Regulus raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, it was his famous I'm going to fucking kill you face. Barty huffed and gave an apologetic look before turning back to the professor, who had given up on trying to make the group focus a long time ago.
"Honestly mate, we'll find you someone."
"I don't need you to find me someone."
"Why? Someone already got your heart?"
"What- I- no." He stuttered and blinked roughly when the imagine of a certain brunette Gryffindor boy popped into his head. No, no. He's out of the question, Potter is not even gay - and even if he was... Merlin why was he even thinking this, because he didn't like him.
"You are bright red."
"Fuck off." Regulus grumbled while Barty sat beside him snickering and made awful, really just awful, jokes about who the guy was while making kissy faces. "There's no guy!" He hissed.
"Regulus if it makes you feel better, when our parents force us to get married you're allowed to cheat on me with him. But that goes both ways-" Pandora said as she turned around, earning a kick in the back of the leg from Regulus.
***
Lugging his broomstick onto the quidditch pitch after school, James prepared himself for practice. He rolled his sleeves up and brushed his hair out of his face before walking over to his team, who were waiting for him - Marlene with a cigarette between her lips.
"Marlene McKinnon! What did I say about smoking? You'll kill yourself before you're thirty at this rate, plus we need to stay fit for the upcoming game against the Slytherins." James spoke as he snatched the fag out of his friends mouth and flicked it over his shoulder, letting it hit the wet grass with a sizzle.
"Oh leave the poor girl alone, if she wants to smoke let her smoke." Leon Willis spoke from the side of Marlene, with an eye roll as he brushed his mousy brown hair away from his eyes. "Both of you need to stop sulking actually." He admitted.
Marlene snickered and patted the younger boy on the back. "Someday you'll understand what me and Jamie are going through young one."
"I'm one year below you Marlene!"
The rest of the team impatiently waited for the three to stop bickering before James finally decided to give up and hopped onto his broom. "McKinnon, go find that snitch. Willis and Crane, just train your beating skills. Me, Griffin and Rivers will be there." James pointed to three different spots in the air. "And Locks... just do your thing, I really haven't got that much to say on your part. Okay let's go!"
Taking off on his broom, James caught the quaffle and darted around in the air. He scanned the almost empty stands, Remus sat reading while Sirius sulked and watched - the poor boy still comes to watch James practice even since he got booted off the team. Peter watched happily and gave James a little wave as he flew up to talk to the boys. "Hey Pete! Moony, Pads, how's it going?"
"Aren't you supposed to be practicing." Remus spoke, without taking his eye off his book.
"Kind of, but-"
"POTTER!! Stop getting distracted!" Marlene flew over and shoved James away, before offering her other friends a sweet smile and flying away with James - waving the small golden snitch in her hand.
The Potter boy huffed and flew to the floor with his friend. "I'm supposed to be the one yelling at you, I'm the captain!" He stuck his nose up arrogantly as Marlene elbowed him in the side.
"Maybe if you stop being so incompetent and I might be a bit nicer."
"Yeah yeah- come on, round two!"
After setting up the practice for a second time, James flew into the air and saw a recognisable figure sat in the corner of the stands. Black curls fell across the boys forehead as he read, he looked extremely relaxed and gave small smiles as his eyes skimmed the book.
Regulus lifted his head from the book and locked eyes with the boy for a moment, tilting his head slightly. James watched as the younger boys eyes widened and averted to the side of James. Blinking a couple of times, the older boy looked to the side to see a bludger flying at him with full speed. He ducked under it, not noticing Regulus covering his mouth to hide a laugh in the stands.
"Shit sorry!" Crane gave an apologetic look to his teammate as he flew past him. James grumbled under his breath and looked back over to Regulus, who covered his mouth with his book - but James could still see him smiling from his eyes. The older boy flipped him off, watching Regulus chuckle and flick his eyes back down to his page, a red flush forming on James' cheeks.
***
After the Gryffindor team had finished their practice, Regulus watched observantly as the group of teenagers walked towards the changing rooms. More like he watched the Potter boy very closely as he lifted his shirt up to wipe his face, revealing his abdomen. fucking hell. Is it normal to look that good while literally sweating buckets?
"Reg!" Regulus turned his gaze away from the quidditch pitch and looked towards his older brother, Pettigrew and Lupin. "What are you doing here?"
"Ah, team captain asked me to observe the practice." Technically Hannah Crooks hadn't asked him to do shit, but they don't need to know that. "If it makes you feel better I was barely even watching the practice, I'd rather read."
Lupin proceeded to look down at the book in Regulus' hands, still open on the very first page. The werewolf nodded and made a humming sound while Regulus got up and left, giving a brief goodbye and then turning bright red as he walked away.
The boy hadn't even got past the first page of Pride and Prejudice, too many distractions he might say. He walked towards the black lake, spotting a tall tree sat nearby the water. Regulus propped himself up against the tree trunk and opened his book again, attempting to actually read it this time. Curse Andromeda for giving him all of these romance books, the thing is - he can't stop now. Plus he was just waiting for some sort of saviour to sweep him off his feet and save him from his god awful parents. That was most certainly not happening.
Pandora had crocheted him another bookmark, he had bags full of them back at his dorm - but it made her happy when he used the new ones. He removed the bookmark from the pages and started to read, with his knees drawn closely to his chest.
Five chapters in, about twenty minutes later, Regulus heard a rustling sound come from behind him. He snapped his head around and was faced with James Potter leaning on the side of the tree next to him.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people Potter." Regulus spoke with a sigh as he placed his book down and reached into his pocket for a cigarette.
"I wasn't sneaking, that makes me sound creepy. I was just coming to say hi!"
"Okay? Hi back." The younger boy placed a cigarette between his lips and lit it with his wand, inhaling then blowing out the smoke. James coughed dramatically and folded his arms as he slouched onto the floor next to the Slytherin. "Oh come off it, it's just smoke." Regulus spoke as he blew more smoke into the older boys face.
James' gaze travelled away from Regulus and towards his hand, he had a ring on every finger and a burning cigarette between his fingers. He stuttered before speaking again and looked towards Regulus.
"I see you came to watch me practice." He spoke with a playful smile.
"I came to watch your team practice, orders from the team captain."
"Nope, you were watching me."
"Self centred prick."
"Well aren't you a little ball of fun."
"I know, I'm a joy aren't I?" Regulus spat sarcastically.
Rolling his eyes, James looked towards the book that Regulus had resting in his lap. "Pride and Prejudice. What's this?" He grabbed it, his hand brushing over the younger boys knee slightly. He flicked through the book as he traced his fingers over the cover of the book.
"It's a book."
"Yes I know that you bloody idiot, I mean what is it about?"
"Not too sure, I'm only five chapters in."
"Weren't you reading during the whole of our one hour quidditch practice?"
"I- uh. Long chapters."
James hummed and placed the book down on the grass, causing Regulus to wrinkle his nose and pick it back up from the wet floor. "Anyway, have you read much of the book you stole from me?" Regulus asked, a small smile playing on the side of his lips as he brushed a black curl away from his face and turned his body to face the older boy.
"Stole is a strong word." James shrugged. "I'm about half-way through I'd say? I actually quite like it, which is surprising because I never read. And-" He turned to look at Regulus, who watched him with a soft look on his face. "Sorry I'm ranting."
"No, go on. I'm a good listener." Regulus smiled as he gestured for James to go on. Which shocked the older boy, most people normally just ignored him or shut him down. Beaming, the older boy carried on as he talked to Regulus about the book.
"I can't tell you that I'll spoil it!" Regulus giggled as the older boy huffed.
"Fine. What do you think about..." James continued as the two boys sat together by the lake and watched it get dark. The sun set, turning the sky a beautiful shade of red and orange. The sky then turned dark and the stars came out, looking brighter than ever.
***
"I can't believe you memorised where my star was." Regulus muttered, snorting as James turned an odd shade of pink while they walked back through the castle.
"Hey! Don't be too flattered, I know where the Sirius one is." James huffed as he jogged slightly to catch up with Regulus. "Merlin you walk fast, do you want to get away from me that badly?" The older boy said as he fell into step with the Slytherin, who gave a shrug and short nod as he started to speak.
"Yeah, I do actually.
"It was a rhetorical question you prick!"
Regulus covered his mouth in attempt to stifle a laugh, he failed to say the least. James looked down at the younger boy with a soft smile on his face as Regulus tipped his head back and gave a soft laugh while his curly hair fell away from his eyes. The Gryffindor watched as Regulus looked up towards him and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Like what?" James tilted his head and gave a playful smirk.
"I don't know, I-" Regulus huffed and rolled his eyes after seeing James start to laugh, the younger boy was well aware that his cheeks were staring to heat up. "Don't laugh at me!"
"No enlighten me Reggie, how am I looking at you?"
"Merlin you are unbelievable."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It's not, and just stop looking at me like that!"
"But what if I want to look at you?" James watched as Regulus pursed his lips and looked towards the floor, hiding his flushed expression in the strands of black hair falling across his face. The older boy bit back a grin at the way he'd made the younger boy blush, feeling rather proud of himself.
"Oh shut up James." Regulus grumbled as he folded his arms and looked to the side to see an overly grinning James Potter. "Oh no."
James let out a loud gasp and clutched his hand to his chest. "James! I'm James now!"
"Well it is your name, isn't it Potter?"
"No wait! Go back to James." The Potter boy grumbled.
"Potter."
"James!"
"Fine, James."
The older boy smiled widely as he ruffled the Slytherins hair, who instantly glared at him - looking flustered while he flattened his hair down quickly. Regulus continued to glare as he looked up and locked eyes with the older boy. James normally would have looked away, but he held it and gave a slight head tilt. Both boys heads snapped away when they heart the shuffling of footsteps and saw a blonde girl running towards them.
Pandora skidded to a halt in front of the two boys and looked at James, then back at Regulus and blinked a couple of times. "Uh- we've been wondering where you went love."
Cringing slightly, James felt a pang of jealousy. 'Love.' Love? What was that supposed to mean? Platonic love, please for the love of Merlin be platonic love. Now why was he that jealous, in reality, he shouldn't even give a shit about the younger boys relations.
Regulus gave a short nod and shrugged.
"Why are you with Potter? I thought you hated him."
"You talk about me?" James said with an innocent smile.
"You really need to get that ego checked." Pandora scoffed and grabbed Regulus' arm while he laughed slightly at the comment. "Come on Reg, my prefect duties are over." She yanked the younger boys arm and gave a brief look towards James, who was staring at Regulus. She raised and eyebrow and coughed loudly, the Gryffindor gave a sheepish smile and wrinkled his nose while he bowed his head.
"See you tomorrow Reggie?"
"Probably not."
"Hm, probably. I'll take that as a yes, see you!"
"Like I said, get an ego check." Pandora muttered with a snort while her friend gave a short eye roll and spoke a quick goodbye as he walked arm in arm with the Slytherin girl. "What the fuck was that Reg?" She said, giving him a suspicious look.
He shrugged and avoided looking at the girl. "What was what?"
"Salazar, come on and stop blushing."
"I'm not- Pandora!" He grumbled as she burst out laughing and wrapped an arm around the shoulder of the boy, who hid his face in his hands after giving her a brief hit on the shoulder.
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a/n:
Pandora, our favourite cockblocker!
Also if I wrote a band au with the Slytherin skittles would anyone actually read it? It would be like mostly Jegulus but with background ships dorlene, pandalily, rosekiller and wolfstar.
2722 words.
-Marls <3