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It had been a pretty shit day in James' opinion, he'd managed to fuck up every spell he attempted all in front of Snivellus. It wasn't James' fault he had a lisp, yet a lot of the professors seemed to take it as incompetence. All he wanted right now was to see his boyfriend. But unfortunately for him Regulus was at Quidditch practice, which wasn't due to finish for another hour. So he decided to go with the next best thing and annoy Sirius instead. He walked along the corridor getting lost in his own head. He thought about the transformation homework he had yet to start, and the potions essay from Slughorn that was due tomorrow. He thought that he could get part of it done at least while he waited for Regulus to finish. Then maybe he could help with the rest. His boyfriend was amazing at potions. He wanted to be a healer when he's older, so he really ought to be. James thought about Regulus and how much he loved him. They'd be dating for almost a year now, it had honestly been the best year of James' life. Regulus never made him feel self conscious about his lisp, and he always listened to him.
He was about to turn the corner to get to the Fat Lady, when he bumped into someone, knocking his glasses off. He'd been so caught up in daydreaming about Regulus he hadn't been looking where he was going. He bent down to pick up his glasses, so he could see who he'd crashed into. But when he looked up he realised with horror that it was Snape, the one person he really didn't want to see. "If it i-thn't Jame-th Potter." Snape sneered with the fakest lisp James had ever heard in his life. "Fuck off Th-nape." He retorted trying to sound more confident than he felt. "Oh wow I'm th-o th-ared." Snape said continuing his annoying lisp. James tried to shove past him, but Snape grabbed his wrist. "Rushing to your boyfriend Potter." Snape practically spat. James shook his head, not trusting himself to speak, and tried to shove past him again. Snape continued to hold him back. "Not so fast Potter. I'll let you last of you tell me what's going on with that pale friend of yours." It took James a second to realise who he was talking about, the he understood it was Remus. He didn't care how badly he wanted Snape to leave him alone, he would never tell him Remus' secret. He instead decided to go with the lie they'd come up with together, "He'th ill, everyone know-th that." James said adding a muttered idiot at the end to make it more convincing. Snape looked momentarily convinced before hissing, "You and I both know that's true." James didn't know what to say. "I-thn't that Lily Evan-th." He shouted. Everyone in the school knew of Snape's obsession with her. Snape looked up, giving James enough time to shove past him. He ran through the rest of the corridor, until he stopped outside of the portrait. "Password?" The Fat Lady asked. "Draconi-th." James said quickly, stumbling slightly. The painting swung open, and he rushed in.
"James are you alright?" Remus asked, looking slightly concerned for his friend. "Ju-tht ran into Th-nape." James replied. "I'm sorry, love." Remus said looking at his friend pityingly. "It'th alright, he'th an a-th what'th new?" James said, not wanting to tell Remus that Snape was on to him. "How come you aren't with Regulus?" Remus asked, changing the subject. "Quidditch." He started to do his Potions essay desperate not to talk anymore, knowing that if He was studying Remus would leave him alone. He felt embarrassed, like he always did after an encounter with Snape. He hated his lisp sometimes, it made people not take him seriously. They treated him differently, and he hated it. Don't get him wrong, he wasn't always embarrassed by it. Having a lisp was part of him. He'd had it since he was little, but most kids grow of it. He didn't. Now he was fifteen, and still talking like a five year old¹.
He sat there for a while just staring at the blank (except for the one hurridly scrawled sentence) parchment. Until he heard a knock at the dormitory door. James walked over feeling reluctant to open it, because it would no doubt be someone here to talk to him, something he really did not what to do. However when he opened the door he was pleasantly surprised, because standing there was Regulus. "Hello, darling." Regulus said in his slightly posh accent. "I thought you had Quidditch." "We got off early." Regulus replied. James didn't want to say anything else, instead deciding to wrap his arms round his boyfriend, to show that he'd missed him. Regulus dragged him onto his bed and pulled James closer to him. "Bad day?" Regulus asked. James nodded into Regulus' chest.
The two sat there content, Regulus was running his hand through James' curls. Suddenly the door burst open, and Sirius entered, "Guess what happened!" "You won a million galleons." Regulus said sarcastically. "Snivellus got detention from Minnie!" "Why?" Regulus asked. "Um he was uh making fun of James, and Minnie caught him." Sirius said, a lot less enthusiastically. James turned away from Sirius, and once more buried his face in Regulus' chest. Regulus stroked his back comfortingly. "I'm sorry James." Sirius said, but James didn't reply. "I'm gonna go find Remus." And Sirius hurried out the door.
"Oh darling," Regulus said, "Today's not been a good day for you." "It'th not fair Reg. Why doe-th he hate me?" " Because he's an asshole." Regulus said simply. "I know it's not fair darling, but unfortunately that's the way things are. Is it getting any better." "Doe-th it th-ound like it'th getting any better!" James snapped. Regulus shifted away slightly, looking uncomfortable. Normally Janes would apologise immediately, but he was too pissed if to think rationally. "That's not fair James." Regulus said somewhat sternly. This seemed to get through to James who apologised, and Regulus moved closer. "It'll all be alright tomorrow." Regulus whispered in his ear.