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Fuck. Filch was quite literally chasing after James down the hallway at a sprint. He really wished that he hadn’t let Sirius and Remus run off with the invisibility cloak, but the past was the past. James raced around the corner and found himself in a corridor of classrooms. His best bet was to hide in one of them. James easily cast a disillusionment charm on the door which made it so Filch would never even think to look in the room. It was rather cruel for Hogwarts to hire a squib to be the caretaker for a school full of teenage wizards, but James didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth.
After slamming the door behind him and catching his breath, he finally took a moment to look up at who else was in the room. Sitting at a desk was none other than Sirius’ estranged brother, Regulus Black. The boy was glaring at James with red puffy eyes. He had clearly been crying just a few seconds earlier.
“Can you please leave!” The boy shouted. The words were in the form of a question but the tone made it a demand. James was fairly certain that if it weren’t for the Black's strict tutelage, the demand would be significantly less polite.
“No,” James said a bit nervously. “I really can’t.”
“You can have any other classroom. Just not this one.” Regulus snarled. He had a loose curl fall into his face. This was strange since Regulus was nothing if not well-kempt. It was actually rather cute- fuck again. James was not allowed to be attracted to Sirius’ little brother. Why did James’ fancies all have to be so damn inconvenient? First with Lily Evans, the girl who loathed him. Then Remus Lupin, one of his best friends and the love of Sirius Black's life. Then awkwardly, Frank Longbottom and Alice Fortescue, who are married but were dating each other at the time. Most recently, James had found himself fancying Pete’s older sister, which lead to the only time that Pete had actually yelled at James. If he was being honest, it was really scary. But if James started to fancy Regulus Black, it would take the cake for least convenient.
“I can’t go back out there!” James exclaimed, “Filch is out there, yelling about hanging me from my toes!”
“That is not my problem,” Regulus stated rather unkindly.
“You wanting me to leave isn’t my problem!” James argued back.
“I could make it your problem,” Regulus threatened.
“Okay then- give it a go,” James said with a wink. Fuck a third time. No flirting with the little Black. Though physically speaking, he really wasn’t so little. Regulus was actually a couple inches taller than James. He was also rather muscular, in a very lean way. While James was checking Regulus out, Regulus was staring back at James with wide eyes.
“Fine, you can stay,” Regulus muttered abashedly.
“Really?” James blinked.
“Did you not hear me the first time?” Regulus sassed.
“Was it the wink that changed your mind?” James asked.
“It wasn’t.” Regulus huffed.
“I don’t believe you,” James smirked.
“You can believe whatever you want,” Regulus said, “actually, no. You can’t. It absolutely was not the wink and I cannot have you going around thinking it was.”
“It most definitely was.”
“I will curse you.”
“Whatever you say,” James winked at him again and watched as Regulus’ once pale cheeks turned pink.
“You can stay- I will leave,” Regulus said as he tried to walk past James towards the door. Before he could make it, James reached out and grabbed his forearm. Immediately, Regulus winced in pain. “Unhand me.”
James froze as he made the connection. It didn’t take a lot of guesses to figure out why the pureblood Slytherin’s arm would hurt. Regulus had the Dark Mark. “You have it.” James snarled.
Regulus wrenched his arm away from James but remained silent. James was gearing up to yell or lecture. He had so many friends that Voldemort, the cunt, wanted to kill and for Regulus to proudly wear his symbol was revolting. But before he launched into his speech, he noticed Regulus was shaking. Head to toe shaking. His breaths were coming faster and he was clearly on his way to hyperventilating.
“Are you okay?” James asked stupidly. It was obvious that Regulus was far from okay.
“Do you think I like being a fucking Death Eater?” Regulus bursted. “You’ve never seen him, the Dark Lord. Did you know he is practiced at legilimency? You can’t lie to him. You can’t hide from him. His followers- there are more- so many more than you think. His cause is ubiquitous. There is no getting away. Sirius took the last lifeboat, so there was no escape for me. I had no choice!” He said hitting himself in the chest. “I had no choice. I had no choice. I had no choice.” Regulus repeated over and over again as he crumpled to the ground.
James had no idea what to do. He was well- he had never been delicate enough to be good at these sorts of things. But he kneeled down on the ground next to Regulus. “Can I see it- the mark?”
Regulus took a second to look James in the eye. He wasn’t sure what Regulus was debating in his head, but after a few beats, he reached down and pulled up his sleeve. The Dark Mark was truly vile. It had a snake curled around a skull, but the image itself wasn’t the most horrific thing about it. It was the sheer darkness that radiated from the mark. It made you want to vomit and run away. Before James had to look at the mark any longer, he grabbed a piece of parchment from his bag and transfigured it into a type of gauze. James wrapped the cloth around Regulus’ arm so that the mark was no longer visible. Then he took out a small paint brush he had been carrying for the prank he had just completed (Inspired by a book Remus Lupin had just finished, whenever someone looked at a mirror in the third-floor bathrooms, the word “redrum” would be painted on the mirror.) and he began to paint.
Now James couldn’t claim to be a particularly talented artist, but as he looked down at the bouquet of daisies he had attempted to pain and thought it looked a whole lot better than the stupid skull and snake. “It's supposed to be flowers?” Regulus asked.
James scoffed, “obviously. Are you going to insult my painting skills?”
“No,” Regulus said sheepishly.
Looking into his eyes, James asked quietly, “Do you like it?”
Regulus leaned forward and kissed James on the cheek, “I do.”
Now it was James’ turn for his cheeks to become bright red. There was no getting rid of his crush on Regulus now. “I know you have no choice. I don’t want you to die, but when you do eventually get a chance to choose, can you make sure you make the right choice?” He asked quietly.
“I- I’ll do my best,” Regulus said before getting up and walking out of the room.
3 years later, on October 31st, 1981
James heard a knock on the door- that was odd, he wasn’t expecting anyone. At first, when he opened the door and saw familiar, long raven hair and grey eyes, he assumed it was Sirius, but at a second glance, he knew. Regulus Black, the death eater who had been missing for three months and assumed dead, was standing on his doorstep.
“I made the right choice.” Regulus blurted. “It was terrifying but at a certain point I knew living wasn’t worth it if I hated who I was so when I got the chance, I took it.”
“Wha-” James started, but apparently it wasn’t his turn to speak yet.
“I killed him. Voldemort is dead.”
“Are you sure?” James asked with wide eyes.
Regulus glared, “yes. I was there- I killed him.”
“So we’re safe- the war is over?” James asked.
“I’m sure there will be some residual effects of the war, but generally speaking, yes.”
“So I can kiss you without it being treason?” James asked.
“Yes.” Regulus smiled. “That’s why I came to tell yo-” Before he could finish, James crashed his lips against Regulus’. To think James had originally thought his crush on Regulus was so inconvenient. Crushes can never be inconvenient when the other person is willing to stop a war for you.