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“What do you mean you didn’t get costumes?” Regulus yelled.
“Last year you said you never wanted to go again!” James tried to defend himself.
Every year, Evan and Barty host a big Halloween party that doubles as a costume contest that they somehow always manage to win. It’s become tradition amongst their group to try and beat Evan and Barty but nobody has ever managed it, Sirius and Remus came close two years ago, but it just wasn’t enough.
“Why would I ever say that? They are my best friends, of course we are going to their party, you idiot!" Regulus huffed.
James keeps his mouth shut despite vividly remembering last year when Regulus had convinced himself that he had gained so much weight during his pregnancy that he would never get his old body back and Barty had oh so sweetly asked him if “the extra stuffing” was part of his costume, this resulted in Regulus crying until Dorcas hexed Barty into apologising. No matter how many times James had tried to tell Regulus that he was beautiful at any size it never gained him better than a sharp “Shut it, Potter” and a nasty hex at worse. Probably best for James not to bring up this particular incident right now.
“I have an idea!” Reg declares while marching off to his half of their wardrobe.
“Do you still have your old quidditch jumper?”
“Yeah?” James answers uncertainly.
“Great, we’ll go as each other!” Reg shoves his old green and sliver jumper in James’s direction. “Harry can be our snitch. Give me the one you are always fiddling with and I’ll transform it into a costume for him.”
James’ hand protectively clutches at the snitch that had previously been residing in his pocket “But that’s our snitch”
An eyebrow slowly crawls up Regulus’ forehead as an amused smirk dances at his lips “Our snitch?”
“Uh yeah. Do you remember when you were helping me study for my OWLs and I was really stressed about the DADA exam so you gave me a snitch for good luck?” James confesses.
“That’s the one you always play with? You kept it all these years?” Reg asks, astonished.
“Well yeah, I’ve kept everything you’ve ever given me”
“You’re such a sap” Reg laughs but places a soft kiss on James’s cheek. “If I’d have known you were going to keep them then I would have given you every snitch I’ve ever caught”
“Now who’s a sap?” James chuckles as he pulls back to give Regulus a real kiss and then hands him over the snitch.
James watches in awe as Reg turns the little golden ball into a full-size costume for their son. Regulus’ magic as always been so wonderful to watch, back in school when they were supposed to be studying together James would just be mesmerised by Reg practicing spells.
A few hours later, dressed in each other quidditch gear with Harry in tow, they arrived at Potter Manor.
“Oh, just look at you! Monty, get the camera” Effie welcomed them into the house with her typical warm smile ever present on her ageing face.
Monty chuckles when he sees them and then instructs them into some ridiculous family poses that James knows Reg only goes along with because of how much he adores Monty. Eventually his husband reaches his limit and they sit down for a cup of tea instead. Effie brings over her favourite blue, China tea set and Monty opens a fresh box of biscuits. Its already past Harry’s bedtime but he is adorably half asleep cuddled up on Reg’s lap that nobody is in a rush to move him.
“So how come you decided to go as each other? Not that I don’t think it’s a strong contender for your little contest or anything” Monty asks as he hands a few choice biscuits to Regulus before offering the box to James.
“Oh easy. Your idiot son forgot to get us anything to wear so I had to improvise last minute” Reg informs them which pulls warm laughs from both his parents.
James fondly rolls his eyes at his husband; it really shouldn’t warm his heart the way it does every time Reg calls him an idiot, but he’s always loved it when Reg is mean to him. It reminds him a little of his parents dynamic where his mum teases his dad relentlessly and he just dopily smiles back at her. Back when Sirius first introduced them on the train in Regulus’ first year, James held his hand out for Reg to shake but the boy just sneered at his offering and James had been hooked on him ever since.
“But look how well that turned out! You know I’ve always loved seeing you in my clothes” James kissed his cheek and he know that Reg was trying his damn hardest to fight off the blush that took over his whole face at James’ comment. It was nice to still have this effect on his husband after all this time.
“You two should probably head off, I’m sure you are late enough as it is. I’ll put Harry to bed” Effie stood, kissing them both on the head before gently taking a sleeping Harry from Reg’s arms “Say goodnight to you dads Harry”
James wrapped his arms protectively around Regulus as soon as the door swung open to reveal a grinning Barty. Evan and Barty have been together for years and so have him and Reg but before that Regulus and Barty had kissed, a fact that Barty never fails to rub in his face. Evan and Regulus find Barty’s flirting funny but James finds it infuriating which only seems to add too the three Slytherins fun.
“Damn Reg, I was hoping you’d be in something skimpier if I’m honest” Barty winks.
“Well, my body hasn’t quite bounced back from having a baby yet” Reg shrugs.
“Oh Baby, you know I think you look sexy at any size” Barty says as he gestures for them to follow him into the house.
“You really are too kind Bart” Regulus simpers much to James’ annoyance.
“How come you’ll listen when he tells you that but not me?” James demands.
“Shut it, Potter” both Reg and Barty snap at the same time which only annoys James further.
“What’s Evan dressed as?” Reg asks and for the first time James looks at Barty’s costume and sees him dressed as a snake with very detailed scales adorning his face and body.
“You aren’t the only one with a lion of their own tonight, Reg my love” Barty waves over to where Evan is dressed in a Broadway calibre lion costume doing shots with Gideon and Frank who are dressed as cowboys with their hands happily intertwined.
Barty slowly looks Reg up and down before giving an approving whistle just to rile James up before heading to the dance floor where James catches a glimpse of Emmeline, Emma and Benjy dressed as the three musketeers.
“There you are!” a familiar voice calls out to them and before each other them can answer him, Sirius has an arm draped over both of their shoulders. “Nice costumes, not very inspired”
“Remus hiding somewhere dressed as an angle?” James nods to Sirius’ red jumpsuit and devil horns.
“I suggested we do it the other way around, you know because I love him in red, but he said it would be too unrealistic if I was the angle! Can you believe that?” Sirius slurs, clearly already enjoying the party.
“Yes” James and Regulus reply in unison before sharing a smirk at Sirius’ horrified expression.
“Well little brother, if you fancied going as a Gryffindor player, you should have at least picked a good one. I would have happily given you my jumper.” Sirius sticks his tongue out at them both.
“Oi! I was captain” James points out.
“Yeah, and we didn’t win a single game against Slytherin the entire time you were” Sirius laughs.
“Well, that’s because their seeker was just too good” James can’t help the lovesick smile that takes up near permeant residency on his face whenever he looks at his husband. Quidditch was one of the first things they ever bonded over and James isn’t too proud to admit that Regulus is a slightly better player than he is, only slightly.
“Please, you are SO whipped” Sirius states matter-of-factly.
“Sirius!” Remus’ voice calls from the kitchen where he is stood with Alice and Narcissa who are wearing matching bubble-gum pink dresses and giggling while placing sloppy kisses all over each other’s faces.
Sirius head shoots up like a dog being called by its owner, not too far away from the truth these days, and calls back “Yes, baby?” before trotting off to his boyfriend.
“And I’m whipped” James laughs and pulls Reg into his chest. Regulus rolls his eyes and sends him a look that tells him exactly what he’s thinking.
Regulus leads James over to where Pandora is sat on a sofa with Lily, Mary, Marlene and Dorcas. Pandora is dressed as Santa Claus and the other girls are dressed as ABA with Mary and Marlene sporting fake beards and everything.
Reg detaches himself from James and sits next to Pandora before instantly placing a loving hand on Pandora’s heavily pregnant belly, she’s due any day now but that wasn’t going to stop her from having fun before her daughter comes along. James knows they never found out the sex of the baby, but Pandora seems to think it’s a girl anyway and she was right about Harry being a boy, so James is inclined not to doubt her.
“Where’s Xeno?” Regulus asks her.
“No idea, lost sight of him as soon as Evan took him off to do shots. He’s dressed as the Easter bunny but according to Barty neither of us understood the theme. It’s a costume party, how is this not a costume?” Pandora argues in that soft, whimsical voice of hers that lightens most situations.
Dorcas and Reg share a knowing look before Dorcas says “It is a costume sweetie, don’t listen to Barty”
“Why would anyone ever listen to Barty” James mumbles but still manages to catch some attention from the other end of the sofa.
“Bit early in the night for you to be jealous isn’t it, Potter?” Lily asks from where her head is resting on Mary’s shoulder.
“Aw, has mean old Crouch been flirting with your husband again?” Marlene coos at him.
“He’s always flirting with my husband” James huffs.
“Probably because you are so good at keeping up a strong poker face every time, he does it” Mary winks.
“I hate him” James pouts.
“Big words, Potter” Dorcas chuckles.
“Reg! The mean lesbians are all bullying me!” James calls out for his husband for help.
Regulus fights back a giggle as he walks over to James and gently takes his hand, placing delicate kisses on each of his knuckles.
“The mean lesbians. Hmmm, I like it!” Lily declares.
“Sirius is going to be so mad that he can’t be a part of this” Marlene adds.
Regulus leads James out into the kitchen to see Sirius, Remus, Narcissa and Alice with a small smile on his lips that James just wants to kiss off.
“Aw cute, you two came as each” Narcissa smiles at them and wraps her arms around Alice’s waist.
“What could be scarier” Sirius adds before Regulus sends a nonverbal stinging jinx at him.
“Heard Pads tried to talk you into letting him be the angel” James pokes Remus’s shoulder, ignoring Sirius’ pained whimpers.
“Yeah, the irony was rather lost on him” Remus quips.
“Well has always been rather slow on the uptake” Regulus smirks a little and ducks behind James as Sirius tries to hit him.
“My point was, that if my sexy little Moony wore this outfit then it might have finally been the year that we smoke those little shits” Sirius whines.
“They haven’t sone anything exactly ground-breaking this year” Narcissa mentions.
Sirius lights up at this “See we could still win!”
“Guess where Pete is” Remus smirks at him, ignoring Sirius in his attempt to swap costumes.
“OMG where you guys not here when that happened?” Alice giggles and leans back in Narcissa’s arms.
“When what happened?” Regulus asks.
“Fabian finally confessed his feelings to Peter, and they’ve been in the bathroom together ever since” Sirius excitedly squeals.
“No Way!” James gasps.
“It was rather sweet” Narcissa adds.
“He stood up on that table and told the whole room that he was desperately in love with Pete and refused to go another second without him knowing” Remus tells him.
“It was so romantic” Alice sways in Narcissa’s arms who places a long, slow kiss on her temple in response.
“About bloody time as well, they’ve been into each other since Hogwarts!” James says.
A huff of startled laughter comes out of Narcissa “Like you are one to talk. How long did it take you guys to get your shit together?”
Regulus sends her a pained glare “It didn’t take us more than a couple of weeks after he started liking me”
James turns him around, so they are facing each other “Um yes it did. It took years from when I first started liking you” he reminds his husband.
“No, you didn’t start liking me until me and Sirius moved in with you and we kissed for the first time a few weeks later on the train to Hogwarts.” Regulus tells him like he’s stupid for not knowing when their first kiss was.
“Thhhat’s nottt when I started liking youuu” James stutters.
Regulus looks so shocked by this “When did you start liking me then?” he asks as if there was a single second in the entire time, they’ve known each other that James’ heart was Regulus’ to keep.
“As soon as Sirius introduced us” James confesses earnestly.
“What? No way!” Regulus blurts out, his wide, grey eyes searching for any trace of a lie in James.
“Isn’t that when you started fancying him, Reg?” Narcissa cuts in.
James can’t make sense of what he’s hearing “You liked me back then? But you were always so rude to me”
Regulus just rolls his eyes “I’m always rude to you”
James can’t contain the wide grin that overtakes his face as he picks Reg up by the waist and starts dolling out rapid kisses all over his scrunched-up face as he pretends to protest but wraps his legs around him securely “Oh yes you are, my beautiful, little, rude husband”
“I am not little” Regulus huffs but James kisses his mouth before he can start pouting.
“Hey! There is family present” Sirius calls out, but James doesn’t relent in his duty to kiss Regulus.
“Leave them be, Sirius” Narcissa laughs.
“Easy for you to say, you didn’t have to sleep in a dorm with them for years” Sirius sighs and leans his head onto Remus’s shoulder who just laughs at his dramatics, used to it after all these years.
“Can we please have everyone’s attention!” Evan calls from where he and Barty are now stood on the stairs. James pulls away from kissing Regulus but doesn’t relinquish his hands off him.
A cloud of bright purple smoke momentarily takes over the stairs before vanishing and leaving Barty and Evan stood in the same positions they had been previously only instead of their snake and lion costumes they were currently dressed as Salazar Slytherin and Godrick Gryffindor. The whole party breaks into begrudging applause, there’s no denying they have won their own competition yet again.
Well, there’s no denying it unless your name is Sirius Black “I’m telling you Moony, we could have won this year if you wore this instead of me!” Sirius pouts.
Regulus’s hands grab at James’ face and turn him back to look at him again “Your parents have Harry for the night”
“Let’s get you to bed then, seeing you in my jumper has filled my head with all kinds of dirty thoughts” James’ hands slide down to squeeze at Reg’s bum through his tight fitted quidditch trousers.
Regulus giggles at him before demanding “Take me home, Potter”
And James is more than happy to comply.