Chapter Text
”Mr. Potter can you please stay for a minute?” James froze. McGonagall never asked him to stay back. Maybe it was because he kept throwing paper at Snivellus’ head. Or that him and Sirius kept laughing throughout the lesson, but that would be too weird since she didn’t ask Sirius to stay behind.
But James did as he was told. He clapped Sirius on the shoulder and gave his usual “I’m sure everything will be alright” smile and went up to McGonagall’s desk. “You wanted to talk with me Minnie?” he smiled and leaned against the desk.
“Yes Mr. Potter.” She sat down in her chair. James looked at her.
“Have I done something wrong?” He looked at McGonagall who pulled out papers. Which seemed to look like test papers.
“Yes, but not intentionally I believe.” She laid the papers in front of James who looked down at them then up at Minnie again. She nodded at the papers for him to take a look. And James did that. He looked through the papers.
“Mr. Potter what does all of these papers have in common?” She had now folded her hands in front of her.
“Eh… they’re all mine?” James looked up from the papers and looked at Minnie.
“Well… Yes Mr. Potter they are all yours. But that is not what I was thinking about.” She looked at him and James started feeling weird.
“Then what is it, Minnie?” James pushed his glasses further up on his nose.
“You have been getting a lot of N’s lately Mr. Potter. I’m scared of what will happen to your future when you leave Hogwarts if you’re grades does not improve. So, I have decided to set you up with a tutor.” She looked at him. he looked at her. James couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“What? A tutor? Who?” James was a little offended that Minnie thought he needed a tutor, but his curiosity for knowing who his tutor is was even bigger then the offended feeling.
“Mr. Black.”
“Sirius?” James frowned. He knew that Sirius was getting good grades in all his classes all the time even though he never did the homework till moments before his class even started, but still, it didn’t make sense that his best friend would be his tutor. Minnie would never do that. She knows they would find a way to ignore the studying and focus on making fun of Severus.
“No, Regulus.” Minerva took the papers from James’ hands and put them back in the drawer.
James stared at her. Regulus Black? Prince of Slytherin? His best friends’ little brother? Seeker of the Slytherin quidditch team? And an absolute prick who’s like the rest of his family?
“Say that again?” James wasn’t sure he had heard correctly.
“Regulus Black” Minnie repeated herself and James just blinked. “You may now go Mr. Potter.” She nodded to him and gave him a caring smile.
James nodded and left the classroom. Outside Sirius was waiting for him. “Mate what did she say to you?” Sirius looked at James as they walked down the corridors.
“She says my grades are bad and that I need a tutor.” James’ head hung a bit.
“Damn. Did she tell you who the tutor is?” Sirius was not invested in this.
“Your brother.” James looked at Sirius and Sirius stopped walking.
“My brother?!” Sirius just stared at James. His mouth hung open and his eyes were wide. James just nodded and looked at Sirius. “Is she mad?!”
“Sirius! That’s Minnie you’re talking about!” James looked down at his friend with a disappointed look on his face and crossed his arms over his chest. “Be respectful.” Sirius held up his hand and started walking along with his friend.
“Regulus is no good. He might be the top of his year, but he is not a good person. He’s just like the rest of them.” Sirius has talked about how his brother is just like the rest of his family over a thousand times, and now he was starting again. “Watch and see Jamie, he’s probably going to get the dark mark. Can’t you ask Minnie for a different tutor?”
“Well like you said he’s the top of his year and Minnie really want me to get better grades, she chose him for a reason. But if nothing good comes out of it, I will ask her for a different tutor I promise.” James looked at Sirius and Sirius nodded in agreement.
“But be careful mate. He’s a dick. Just like the lot of them.” Sirius looked at James. James pushed his glasses up.
“He’s a kid, what harm can he do?”
“You have no idea mate.
“Besides I’ll pull the ‘respect your elders’ card if he tries anything.” James gave Sirius is usual cocky smile. Sirius just rolled his eyes and tucked some hair over his shoulder.
“Oo! Theres Moony! Bye James, see you in the great hall!” and with that Sirius ran towards Remus leaving James standing alone in the corridors. James smiled and shrugged. Setting course towards the great hall to get lunch. James was so deep into daydreaming about the wonderful French toast he was about to eat, that he didn’t notice he was walking towards someone until he walked right into them.
“Watch where you walk Potter!” Regulus back had landed on his butt on the cold corridor floor. He looked up at James with an angry look on his face. James looked down at the boy, his black hair that looked just like his older brothers just shorter hugged his face perfectly in a way Sirius’ hair didn’t hug his face. his icy eyes looked up at James and his brows were frowned together, he looked like he was biting his cheek. Well to say the least. Regulus Arcturus Black looked pissed.
James just cracked one of his well-known smiles at the boy. “Sorry Black, didn’t see you down there.” James waved his hand over his chest to show the height difference between them.
Regulus stood up and brushed dust off his ropes. “Careful with your words Potter. I’m going to be your tutor; I could just teach you the wrong things.” Regulus walked closer to James and looked at him, leaned back a bit and looked him up and down for a few seconds before snorting and turning to his friends and continued walking down the corridors with them.
James looked after them. His ego was a tad bit hurt; he’d never been looked at that way, but for some reason he liked it. While it was hurting his ego, he also found it insanely attractive.
After getting over the look he had received from the younger Black, James walked into the great hall and sat down at his usual spot. Peter was already sitting at the table eating a piece of bread with an egg on top. “Ooo that’s new Pete, you usually eat plain cheese” James smiled and looked at his friend. Peter looked at his bread then at James. He smiled and moved his piece of bread to the side with his knife and fork revealing a small stack of cheese. James laughed and reached over to mess his hair up. Peter laughed as well.
“Minnie told me to tone it down with the cheese, so I took a piece of bread while she was watching and took cheese when she wasn’t” Peter happily poked the cheese with his fork and ate a piece.
“Oh, you sneaky cunt.” James smirked at him. he reached over and took two Croque monsieur and placed them on his plate. He picked up the top one and took a bite, the melted cheese started to drip from the side turning down. James catched Peter staring at the melted cheese and put the toast down on the plate. “No way Peter. You have your own cheese.” James smiled and Peter rolled his eyes and went back to his bread and egg. James happily finished the first toast.
Just as James picked up his second toast Sirius fell down on the bench next to him and Remus sat next to Peter. Sirius’ hair looked a bit more messy than usual, and his tie was looser then normal, but James paid it no attention. What James did however pay attention to was Sirius reaching out to take the toast from James’ hands.
“Hey no! That’s my toast! Get your own!” James held the toast out of Sirius’ reach. Sirius just whined.
“You took the last one! Give a Croque monsieur to your brother! Plus, that’s a Croque monsieur, and I am French so technically it’s disrespectful to France if you don’t give a French person a Croque monsieur.” Sirius smiled at his statement about the Croque monsieur. He threw his hair over his shoulder and hit James in the face with it.
“Ow. And no, you’re not getting my toast, get your own damn toast Sirius.” James spit some of Sirius’ hair out of his mouth. And with that he took a bite of the Croque monsieur and started chewing it in Sirius’ face.
“You are a sick bastard, James Potter.” Sirius stared at James and crossed his arms. Peter was trying to hold back his laugh but failed quickly and Remus just shook his head. “Moony back me up here!” Sirius looked at Remus expectingly.
“James eat your Croque monsieur. Sirius stop whining, we should just have gotten here before James did if you wanted the Croque monsieur.” Sirius groaned and James smiled.
“Thanks mate” James looked at Remus and continued to eat his Croque monsieur. “I ran into Regulus on the way to the great hall.” James explained with cheese in his mouth, then frowned and looked back at the Slytherin table and didn’t see Regulus. “Sirius why isn’t your brother eating lunch?” James frowned even more and turned to look at Sirius who just groaned and rolled his eyes at the mention of his brother.
“He’s probably in his dorm studying so he can please mother. Fucking mama’s boy.” Sirius looked at James who looked a bit offended. “Not that there’s anything wrong with being a mama’s boy James, you’re my favorite mama’s boy. It’s just he’s always up her ass. He never has an original thought, I swear his entire vocabulary at this point is just ‘Yes mother.’ ‘Sorry mother.’ ‘Won’t happen again mother.’ He’s not even his own person!” Sirius threw his hands in the air like he was giving up on his brother. Remus ate a grape and looked at Sirius.
“I think it’s great he has respect for his mother, I mean she did birth him. But I see where you’re coming from Sirius. I mean me and my brother had completely different vie-“ Remus stopped himself when he realized he had said brother. All three of them stared at Remus.
“I thought you didn’t have any siblings Remus?” Peter said after several minutes of silence.
“I don’t. It- it’s just a family friend from my mum’s side I grew up with, haha, we grew up thinking we were siblings. I have to pee, bye.” Remus got up and left the great hall. Leaving the three of them behind unsupervised.
“Did I say anything wrong?” Peter looked at James and Sirius. Sirius shook his head and smiled at Peter.
“You could never do anything wrong Peter, you’re perfect.” Sirius smiled at Peter and so did James. James finished his Croque monsieur.
“Well. As always it was a pleasure eating lunch with you two, especially you Pete. But I have a tutoring lesson to get to with someone’s little brother.” James got up from the bench and messed up Sirius’ hair. Sirius gasped.
“Don’t touch my hair, James! You’re ruining it!” Sirius slapped James’ hand and started brushing his hair with his fingers. James laughed and left the great hall.
He walked towards the classroom Minnie had saved for them and walked inside. He was early so he found a chair and sat down on it and planted his feet on the table. After a few minutes Regulus walked into the classroom and walked down towards James, he rolled his eyes and moved James’ feet off the table and whipped it clean. Little did either of them know what they’d be using that table for in the future.