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“Excuse me?” James hears a timid voice from behind him. He, Pete, and his parents, turn towards the voice only to see a taller kid. He’s got fluffy brown hair and scars over his face. His chin is downturned and he seems a little nervous.
James smiles at the kid, probably his age, “What’s up?”
“How do we get to the train to…”
Effie smiles at him, hers nearly mirroring her son’s, “Are you looking for Platform 9 ¾?” The boy nods and she smiles at gestures at the wall, “It’s right over here, love. Do you need help getting to the train?”
The boy nods, “If you don’t mind.”
“Of course I don’t!” She smiles, “I’m Effie, this is my husband Monty. My son James, and his best friend Peter.”
“Remus.”
James practically bounds towards him, “Nice to meet you Remus!” He stops himself short of the boy and instead reaches his hand out. Remus takes it hesitantly and nods.
Shortly after that, the three boys get themselves on the train and settled in a compartment. Looking out the window, they can see the train station and on the train station stands two very stern looking adults with two kids, both looking about the same age as the three in the compartment--one is maybe a bit younger.
Remus’ eyes are immediately caught and he points at the family of black-haired people, “Who’s that? Do you know?”
James follows his finger and shrugs, “Those are the Blacks. The boy with longer hair is Sirius, he’s the same age as us. The other one is Regulus, he’ll be joining next year.”
“I heard they were super pretentious.” Peter shrugs, he looks at Remus, “They’re one of the oldest, richest, pureblood families in the wizarding world and they know it. They love throwing parties and stuff to like induct people to their cause.”
“Really? Sirius doesn’t look bad? I could see it in his parents.”
James nods, “They have parties about every other weekend and they invite almost every other rich pureblood family so they can get publicity. My family’s been invited every time.”
Pete gives him a look, “I know you mentioned that you’ve gone once before but every party? Why do they keep doing it if your family keeps rejecting?”
“Bad publicity is still publicity.” James shrugs.
But Remus is looking between the two of them, “Your family?”
James looks back at him, with a smile, “My family’s also a rich pureblood family. But we don’t follow most of the ideologies or beliefs of any of the other families. We’re not super well-regarded.”
“Peter said you’ve been to one?”
“You can call me Pete.” Peter shrugs.
But James nods next to him, “Mom and Dad decided that since I was starting here I should visit there and meet a couple of the families that have kids the same age as me, to get an upstart on the friends. It was stuffy and I really didn’t like it but I ended up talking to Sirius and Regulus a bit.”
“So you’ve met the Black kids?”
“Yeah, they weren’t all too bad. Sirius is fun and Regulus is a little stuffy but they’re not bad. I don’t think they like their parents much, but you didn’t hear that from me.” James shrugs, “But that’s enough about me, tell us a bit about you, Remus.” And Remus does, he talks a bit about his family and small pieces of his childhood. It comes up that he’s from a muggle-born family and didn’t grow up with a lot of money.
To which James smiles. He points outside the window back to where Sirius and Regulus are still standing around their family, more members of their family having joined them, “I saw you eyeing the brothers. If you can get with one of them, Remus, you’re rich.”
Pete nods, “Oh, super well off.”
“I doubt that I’d get with one of them, not with their family.” Remus shakes his head. He’s getting a bit more bold and James is more than happy he’s clearly more comfortable.
“Oh definitely not with their family there, but trust me. You get with them when they make it away from their family, their inheritance is incredible.” James smiles, leaning towards Remus, “You get with one of them, you’re rich. It’s just a matter of which one.”
Remus gets a small smirk on his face, “Sirius is attractive.”
James nods, returning his smirk tenfold, “You can have Sirius. I’m all for Regulus.”
“You were telling me you liked him.” Pete agrees, pointing at James.
To which James nods again, “He’s cute. Nerdy and incredibly smart, shy. Pretty.”
“You’ve only talked to him once, you can’t be saying things like that about him.” Peter rolls his eyes, pushing at his childhood friend.
“Who has he met once?” A voice asks from the door to the compartment. Apparently someone had opened it without the three noticing. When they turn, Sirius is leaning against the frame.
James shrugs, “You, actually. Wanna sit with us?”
“Sure.” Sirius agrees easily, sliding into the compartment and sitting next to Remus, across from Peter, “You’re James Potter, right?”
James nods, “Yeah, I was telling them about you and your brother.”
“What about me and my brother?”
“Just who you guys were. My friend Remus here wanted to know more about you.” James informs him with a knowing smile, gesturing to where Remus is sitting awkwardly next to him.
“Oh, what did you want to know?” Sirius asks, whirling towards Remus.
The rest of the train ride the four boys spend their time talking, getting to know each other, talking about their excitement for their time at Hogwarts. Then they get off the train, all get sorted into Gryffindor--much to Sirius’ relief--and end up in the same dorm.
<><><><><>
And years later, James hasn’t forgotten the conversation. Even though he fell in love with Lily, he’s been starkly aware of the attraction he had originally felt to Regulus, the one that made him make that comment all those years ago on the train.
And it seems that Remus hadn’t forgotten it, either. Because the day after Remus and Sirius came out to Pete and James about their relationship Remus sits himself on James’ bed with a smirk, “I kept up my end of the bargain.”
“What are you talking about Moony?”
“First year, on the train?” Remus clarifies, “I got with the Black brother I wanted on the train, what about you?”
James rolls his eyes, “I’m surprised you remembered that. Don’t tell me that’s the only reason you got with him.”
Remus shakes his head, “Of course not.” He rolls his eyes but James can see the love in his expression, “I really genuinely like him. But I was thinking about it the other night when Sirius asked when I fell in love with him.”
“So did you tell him about the conversation?”
Remus smiles at him, “I did. He knows about what you said about Reggie.”
James groans and throws himself over Remus’ lap, “Why would you do that?”
His friend laughs and starts running his hand through James’ hair, “If it makes you feel any better, he seemed pretty happy about the idea of you getting with him.”
“That’s good.” James rolls his eyes, “If only Reggie thought the same thing.”
“So I take it things aren’t going well with him?”
“Don’t even get me started.” Remus laughs and pushes James off his lap, throwing the man onto the ground in front of his feet.
“Let’s get to class.”
<><><><><>
A year later, James’ luck just so happens to amp up and Regulus finally agrees to date him, on the condition that they tell Sirius the first chance that they get.
And that chance arrives when Remus finds them snogging in a broom closet near the library. Apparently he had heard a noise and wanted to check it out, only to find the two of them. Remus smirks at him and he tilts his head, “Hello you two. What’re you doing?”
James rolls his eyes and pushes out of the closet, “You know what we were doing.”
Remus’ smirk grows more into a smile, “I do. Did you want to talk to Sirius about it?”
James looks at Regulus, who nods, then turns to Remus, “Sure.” Remus nods and the three of them start walking to where Remus thinks his boyfriend is--probably their dorm.
While they’re walking, Remus smirks back at his friend, “And there’s your end of the bargain.”
“It was never a bargain.” James rolls his eyes once again, shoving at his friend.
“What bargain?” Regulus asks, interrupting them.
“When we were in first year,” Remus starts, glancing at Regulus, “We saw you and Sirius on the train and started talking about you guys. James told me that if I could get with one of you, I’d be rich. I had been attracted to your brother and he wanted you.”
Regulus turns to James, “You genuinely wanted me? You’re not doing this because of that conversation?”
James shakes his head, “I had met you at your family’s party, remember? I thought you were interesting and figured it was just admiration or something. Turns out it wasn’t…” James rubs the back of his neck, an awkward smile on his face, “It’s just a funny thing that both of us ended up with the people we joked about ending up with in first year.”
“Does Sirius know about that?” Regulus asks, “I’m not sure he’d enjoy hearing after this long of you two being together that that’s a founding of your relationship?”
Remus nods, “He knows. I’ve told him. And we were just finishing that conversation when he walked into the compartment so…”
“And I assume you’ve told him about James’ end of the ‘bargain’. That way he won’t be too shocked by the announcement.”
“Sirius knows.” James smiles at his boyfriend, grabbing his hand. The three of them make their way to the Gryffindor’s dorm and James and Regulus tell Sirius and Peter about their relationship. It goes well and Sirius gets a bit too enthusiastic and talks about how them and him and Remus should go on a double date to Hogsmeade sometime.
And when Sirius drags Regulus out of the room for some reason or another, Peter walks up to the other two in the room and nudged both of them, “You’re rich.”
“How do even you remember that, Pete?” James groans. Though it’s half hearted. It makes the other two laugh.