Chapter Text
The Sunday car ride to Hyde Park was always a disaster. James would pack a squirming Harry into the car while Lily would run around with snacks and blankets and try to remember everything they needed to bring for match day. Hectic, to say the least.
When Lily was pregnant with Harry she swore that Marlene and James would never get her baby into football. She swore that he would be like Remus, calm bookish and maybe slightly mischievous but never an athlete. That was until James convinced her to sign him up to the local football team and she became the worst football mum to exist. Lily had the raw enthusiasm that came from love of her son and not the sport. That meant she was the loudest roar when Harry was fouled or the biggest cheer when he scored. She was the one who bought his England kits with Potter across the back.
They picked Marlene up on the way as the routine goes. She waited on the curb outside her flat with two chocolate bars in her hands each time dubbed winner’s chocolate, one for her and one for Harry. The car ride was never a sombre trip even in its chaos. James had the radio under control and they sang Harry’s nerves away under the sun beating through the glass windows. Despite the outlandish nature of their journey to the park, Harry made it in time to chat with his friends before they started their warm up. Lily helped him into his little boots and pushed him gently towards his teammates lining up on the left side of the pitch with a kiss.
Marlene winked at him as he jogged off calling for Ron and turned to help James fiddle with the blanket they brought for the grass. “Who’re we playing today?” she asked, rubbing her hands together as she plopped down onto the floor beside her cousin.
James’s expression turned serious and the two of them surveyed the other team just arriving. “Slytherin. They’re good, but I heard they’ve got a new player so it might shake them up a bit”
The little boys toddled along in their oversized jerseys still holding their parents’ hands. Lily raised her eyebrows behind her sunglasses as she opened a can of Coke and rested back on her elbows. “You know this is under 7s football right? Not the Premier League”
Marlene scoffed and jolted her so the coke slammed against the can walls. “As if you’re not ready for a pitch invasion at any moment.”
Parents had started to arrive all around them and Marlene groaned internally. They were taking seats or leaving their bags to claim spots in the sun. She wasn’t the biggest fan of talking to people who she only knew to the limits of small talk. It was embarrassing and dull and , to her, pointless. But here she sat with two of the most talkative people she’s ever known: Lily, who had an endless heart, and James, who had an endless aim to please. So in an attempt to avoid eye contact with any parents and make them look too busy to talk, Marlene made a desperate effort for conversation.
“So what’s going on with this party, Potter, you haven’t told us anything”
“Why don’t you ask Dorcas? You stalk her account enough to send a message” James rolled his eyes but still watched Harry intently from their place on the blankets. He was running about with Ron as Bill overlooked them behind stylish sunglasses, both of their heads thrown back with carefree laughter.
“Why can’t you ask Regulus? He emails you enough!” Marlene shot back with reddening cheeks.
Lily burst out into a cackle of laughter. It was true. James had been routinely checking his emails at an acceptable (though Lily thought obsessive) rate waiting for Regulus to send the latest update on Hedwig. The first had come as a surprise. One morning James had been scrolling through his work emails surviving off of coffee and making the most of the quiet morning Harry had decided to gift him by sleeping in. He hadn’t expected a note from Regulus in his inbox explaining how he’d gotten the address off of his brother and how he’d like to update Harry on the snake if he didn’t mind. James would never admit the message gave him a soft blush.
From then on, James checked his inbox for photos of the snake hoping for a reflection of Regulus in the glass or a more friendly sign off than usual. He was often left slightly disappointed by the formality but his son was enamoured. The photos Regulus sent were printed on his wall and he told his whole class about the project.
“Those are for Harry!” he exclaimed and tried to dodge Lily’s hand coming up to ruffle his hair.
“That’s why it’s so pathetic when you cream your pants every time you get a notification”
Lily’s head was so thrown back with laughter she didn’t realise Bill was jogging over until the sixteen year old cleared his throat with an awkward look. He was standing with his hands in his pockets in line with the sun, kicking the grass for something to do with himself. James was mortified.
“I, uh, I just wanted to check Harry wasn’t allergic to anything” he said avoiding everyone’s eye contact as Lily and Marlene continued to laugh beside James. “Mum packed Ron a lunchbox to share and they’re trying to eat early”
And while Lily and James started their parental fussing, Marlene turned her head to people watch. She loved Harry deeply but she loved him in a fun aunt way not in the more boring parenting way. Marlene tuned them out and surveyed the Slytherin parents. Her older brothers had made up a game for her when she was a little girl to stop their mother from snapping at her for her boredom and fidgeting. She would watch strangers and attribute personalities for them. What they liked to eat, what their families were like, where they were going, what their jobs were. It kept her quiet and gave her mind something to do with itself. Even as an adult without a tight lipped mother breathing down her neck, it was the first thing Marlene thought to do when she needed quiet. A remnant of her brothers. So she scanned the parents and wondered what they were whispering or what their plans were after the game, easily coming up with her own answers. Until she landed on one particular family.
“James!” She grabbed his arm, jolting him out of the conversation he was having with Bill. “James look”
Standing in the shade of a tall oak tree was Regulus Black. Sun glasses pushed his hair back from his angular face and his slender frame was hidden in a dark green jersey that looked exceptionally similar to the Slytherin one. She recognised him from Dorcas’s socials, the scowling man cropping up often. He held a small blonde boy on his hip with one handed ease and had an elegant woman tucked into his other arm. They hadn’t noticed them, both Regulus and the mysterious woman whispering to the little boy with a shared fondness. James felt heat creeping up his neck from chest.
“Who do you reckon that is?” he said with a strained voice and casualness the girls and Bill could see right through.
Marlene squinted. “Is he the type of guy to get a matching dye job with his girlfriend?”
Regulus set the boy down and pressed a kiss to his head with the same gentleness James had seen him handle Kreacher with. Unbridled affection. He pushed him towards the woman and stuck his hands in his pockets, glaring protectively at the little kids on the pitch as though he was calculating their talents and the threat they’d have on the kid in the woman’s arms.
“You didn’t mention he had a son, Potter. Maybe that’s why he’s so good with Haz. Seems your shot’s blown though.” Lily mused. She dug in her bag for a moment, retrieving a Spider-Man water bottle. “I’ll get this to Harry before the match kicks off.”
As Lily walked away, Bill followed James and Marlene’s eyes. He looked between James’s downcast frown and the man’s glare and he laughed with recognition. “Wait, youse two are talking about Reg? That’s not his girl, that’s his cousin Narcissa Malfoy. I’m guessing that’s her kid, Draco, though I’ve never met him. Reg!”
James almost got whiplash how fast he turned but he was pretty sure Regulus caught him looking anyway. Marlene didn’t bother hiding it. She just waved with her fingers as Bill beckoned Regulus over and James scrambled to assemble himself into a position he deemed ‘cool’ enough to be found in. After James had gotten home to an empty house the night Peter had proven Regulus right, he was at a loss for what to do. While he had said he was going to talk to Sirius, he couldn’t imagine how to even begin phrasing that to a business associate so he decided to wait until the party to concede. Seeing Regulus made him feel as though he was hiding a dirty secret however, and no matter how much he wanted him to come over he felt a weight on his chest from it.
Regulus offered his arm to Narcissa and they walked over with Draco in tow. The three of them looked entirely reluctant but they offered Bill an easy smile of familiarity anyway.
“How is Charlie? I haven’t seen him in a little while” Regulus asked. He’d opened his doors to Charlie before at the zoo after Tonks had mentioned how interested he was in Komodo dragons one night over dinner. While Regulus was hardly a social man, he was fond of people he shared interests with so whenever there was an internship or programme in the field he used his influence to guarantee Charlie that spot. He thought of him as his casual apprentice and genuinely liked seeing him whenever his niece brought him to family gatherings.
Bill shrugged with an easy smile. “Ah, he’s been a bit busy with football. People are telling him to go pro but y’know he’s happiest with you at the zoo. Tonks has been dragging him out with her on her adventures too and you know he can’t say no to her.”
“Of course she has” Narcissa muttered under her breath. She let her eyes flick over James and Marlene and turned to her cousin. “Qui sont-ils?”
“Partenaires d’affaires” came Regulus’s tight lipped answer and the hand grasping Marlene’s wrist showed James found it as sexy as she did when the cousins spoke in French. Their accents were different from when they spoke in English. The tones were lighter, more musical. Regulus switched back to English and rocked on his heels, getting ready to go.
“Well, Bill, it was nice to see you. Tell Charlie to check his emails this week, I might have something for him. We’re expecting a Burmese python in a few weeks and they’re quite rare so it’s a good opportunity.”
“Yeah course” Bill smirked, then turned to James with a mischievous look before he left. “He’ll be happy. James ain’t the only one who gets excited at the idea of an email from you, Reg.”
The Blacks raised their eyebrows, Narcissa’s lips pursued at James’s blush and Marlene’s cackle. Draco was growing restless so Regulus swung him back up onto his back and James tried not to stare at the way his muscles bulged as he did so. James couldn’t help but want the ground to swallow him up as his cousin laughed raucously as if they were in secondary school and he’d been faced with his crush. Lily jogged back over, immediately aware of the awkward atmosphere that Bill had happily created. She wiped her hands on her trousers and dived in with that social comfortability Marlene had been grumbling over.
“Hiya” she said brightly, smiling especially at Draco from his place hiding in Regulus’s hair. “I’m Lily. I’m Harry’s mum. I won’t pretend I don’t know who you are, Regulus. I’m secretly jealous, Harry’s declared you his favourite adult”
Before Regulus was forced to engage in small talk, Draco sat up suddenly, frowning at Lily. “He’s my Uncle, so he has to be my favourite!”
Narcissa rolled her eyes and pinched at her son’s cheeks. “Welcome to the club, Lily. Reg here makes all mothers’ efforts go unappreciated. I bought him his new jersey, drove us across London to get here, promised him ice cream afterwards as a reward, and all Regulus has to do is turn up and he’s grown up of the year”
James was incredibly aware that Regulus had hardly spared him a glance since he came over besides Bill’s embarrassing remark. It just wouldn’t do, and Marlene seemed to notice, cutting him smug laughing looks as he continued to stew in silence while his ex-wife stole all the attention.
“So you’re the new player that has our Gryffindors nervous” Lily said with exaggerated wonder in an attempt to appeal to the sullen boy who had retracted back into his uncle. “I wondered when he’d turn up. Everyone’s been nervous about the new striker”
It only took a moment for him to pop back up, this time with an easily confident smirk that was reminiscent of Sirius’s, James noticed. “They should be. Uncle Reg has been practising with me all weekend and he’s the best at football!”
All eyes flickered towards Regulus and he seemed disgruntled with the attention. James’s heart warmed at the thought of him taking the time off work to support Draco, taking the time to teach him and instil him with confidence. He was so different here to the way he was in the meeting. Remus had gone on about how much of a dick he had been, how rude, how unprofessional but James had worked with these kinds of people before. They weren’t capable of the warmth Regulus possessed here and James secretly thought that, if he went so far to protect Dr Vanity, he wasn’t all that different to Remus anyway. Just because Regulus was capable of being a Black heir didn’t mean he had to be all the time. And if he even found the heir aspect sexy, nobody needed to know that.
“That’s enough out of you” Regulus said, throwing Draco in the air and making him laugh. He set him down onto the ground. “I think we’d better get you over to the warm up, eh?”
Draco nodded easily and took his uncle’s hand. Narcissa smiled gently at them as they walked off towards the mass of green jerseys but she stayed where she was to their surprise. She looked down at James’s disappointed look watching them leave without a goodbye and held back a snort. “So you’re the businessman that made such a strange impression on my cousin. You’re not what I expected.”
Lily leant forwards with interest. She beckoned for Narcissa to sit, and she did with all the grace of a ballerina. “What did you expect?”
James felt hot under Narcissa’s shrewd surveillance. She watched him like they were at the business table, like she could see through him. There was no doubt she was a Black. Her eyes lingered over his mess of curls and unbuttoned shirt, no doubt with dismay. “A business man. Not someone who comes to watch his son’s football match and drools over my baby cousin like a dog who’s seen a steak”
James cleared his throat, intensely aware of himself as the women on the blanket deemed it necessary to gang up on him with mocking laughs and murmurs of agreement. “Can’t I do both?”
Narcissa nodded vaguely. “Yes, but not many men are bothered to”
They watched as the two teams gathered into a pep talk, two small makeshift huddles at either end of the pitch. The kids all had the seriousness of a Wembley final. It would be adorable if the adults weren’t too. James couldn’t count the amount of times Marlene jumped up for fouls or find a number for Lily’s heart rate from the first whistle to the last. They were a football family, sure, but Harry’s little matches held all the importance. James could tell Regulus felt the same across the pitch by the way he crouched down and gave Draco some final advice and words of encouragement.
“I know you might think I’m acting on behalf of my cousins when I say this, Potter, but invest in that zoo.” Narcissa continued, getting ready to rejoin Regulus as he came back to her. She spoke authoritatively, like it was a command, and James found himself wanting to listen. “When myself and my husband are working, Draco practically lives there. And not just with his Uncles. Every zookeeper there is kind to him, professional about their work, and have a real passion about teaching conservatism to the children. You can’t imagine the amount of times Draco’s lectured me on conserving when we go to feed the ducks. From what Reg has told me about him, I think Harry would really love spending his time there. I’m being purely parental here, I’m not wearing my Black hat”
James nodded, feeling reinforced in why he had chosen it in the first place. “That’s really helping my decision, Narcissa, thank you”
“You’ve all talked it up so much I reckon I’m due a visit!” Lily added. “Harry especially. He loves Hedwig so much, it’s really sweet”
Narcissa winked. “And if I were being an interfering older cousin I would tell you Regulus doesn’t put as much effort in keeping parents updated as he does with Hedwig. If it was Sirius I’d think he’s being a suck up, but something tells me that’s not it”
“And something tells me, we shouldn’t stay to watch Draco in the away end before we leave with black eyes” Regulus said drily. James noticed he had a penchant for sneaking up on people. He tugged at Narcissa’s arm, pulling her away from the picnic blanket, and leaving sharply. James had all but lost hope at any sort of recognition from the man until he said loud enough for him to hear as he kept walking. “See you at the party, James”
If James fell onto his back with a smile on his face, that wasn’t anyone’s business either.
The match kicked off soon after, Bill blowing the whistle and letting the Gryffindors have the first kick. Harry was off to an energetic start, running down the line and waving his small arms for Ron to pass to him. Despite his enthusiasm, the game was quite uneventful in the first half. The two teams were quite evenly matched in their skill, all the players having short, easy to trip with legs and sharp bursts of energy. As half time came, James watched as Draco toddled over to his family. The Slytherin boys were very individual. They came alone and stayed alone, not indulging in friendship. Draco simply walked off the pitch to where his uncle was waiting and took the outstretched juice box thoughtfully, listening to Narcissa’s praises and accepting the kisses she peppered on his head.
The Gryffindors stayed with their team, listening to the coach’s encouragement and advice and leaning on each other. While Ron and Harry giggled together in the huddle, they all paid attention to the coach’s speech and looked to each other with a confirmation of team spirit.
James wondered as the game started back up again whether that was emblematic of business. Some wanted to go it alone, focus on individual personal performances and believe that if everyone tried their best the team would be the best. Others knew work began and ended with the team, always. Maybe, Sirius was right. Maybe, James had been blinded by the zoo’s ambition and forgot to see that that very quality had borne a staff of people who worked tirelessly towards a shared motive. It was clearer now why they wanted to protect Emma and clearer still that James had a little something to learn from Harry’s football team.