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The already loud platform was made even louder by a crack, a stiff looking woman appearing, holding onto the arms of her two sons, which she immediately pushed away from her, hands dropping to subtly wipe themselves off on her skirts.
As soon as they appeared, both Regulus and Sirius stepped away, wanting to get away from their mother as much as she seemingly wanted to get away from them.
Before they were out of earshot, she firmly told them “I better not hear of any mischief causing this year from either of you,” before apparating away, without so much as saying goodbye, not that the boys would have heard anyway.
As soon as they heard the crack of her disapparating, all of the tension was released from both Sirius and Regulus, and they both turned to each other and grinned.
Sirius was starting his final year, Regulus was just a year below him, but both were eager to spend the majority of the next nine months away from their parents.
They both started looking around, Regulus saw his friends, who he waved to, but he would see them all year, he was looking for others.
“Reg! Sirius! Over here!” They heard the shout, looking up to James standing next to his parents, waving at them like a loon.
Both boys grinned back, eagerly making their way towards them.
Regulus made it there first, and he didn’t even hesitate to walk right past a grinning James, right into the arms of Effie Potter. He was taller than her now, having grown a bit since the beginning of summer, and he had to duck a bit to press his face into her neck.
Effie just laughed. “Hello my dear boy. Ready to be back with civilized society?”
Regulus let out a watery laugh, pressing his face in deeper. “I already feel much more civilized, thank you.”
Behind him, his brother stood with his arms crossed, glaring at his Regulus, not so patiently waiting his turn.
Monty cleared his throat, one eyebrow raised, arms extended. “What am I? Chopped liver?”
Sirius’s face turned red, and he rushed into Monty’s arms, hiding his face against his collarbone. “No! Not at all! I, uh… just wanted to get hugging her out of the way so I could get to you faster, because you are definitely my favorite.”
Monty laughed, leaning down to press a kiss against Sirius’s temple. After a moment, he pulled back, resting his head against Sirius’s.
“You are a brat, and a horrible liar, but you know what? I’ll accept it as truth, no take backs.”
Behind them, Effie laughed, pushing Regulus away from her and towards Monty, who did the same but opposite with Sirius.
Affection craving satisfied, Effie and Monty stepped back and pulled out their wands, preparing to leave. “Have you both gotten your mirrors back? You’ll talk to us on the weekends, yeah?”
Both boys nodded, waving, and watched as the two adults disappeared.
Turning around, James was standing right there, arms still extended for a hug and a pout on his face. Behind him were standing Peter, Remus, and Marlene.
“What about my hug? I’m the one who called you guys over here,” James whined, and Sirius immediately went to hug him.
Regulus followed, stepping closer to the others, greeting them while his brother finished practically assaulting his best friend.
Jame released Sirius, turning towards Regulus. He reached out one arm, grabbed Regulus’s hand, and pulled him towards himself, eyes roving over the younger boy.
“Woah there, Baby Black. Looks like someone hit a growth spurt this summer. Not that I’m complaining,” James drawled.
Regulus just rolled his eyes, used to this from James. He reached out his free hand, adjusting the slightly crooked tie from where it had been messed up by Sirius. He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, his brother made a huffing noise behind them.
Sirius was standing there, arms crossed, one foot tapping out a beat. “Listen, we’ve talked about this. You two can’t flirt. You are both my brothers, it’s practically incest!”
Regulus dropped James’s tie and turned to Sirius. James wouldn’t let go of his hand, so Regulus had to twist his arm behind his back to stay connected.
“James and I aren’t related, so it isn’t incest,” he said, looking annoyed at his brother.
Sirius threw his hands up, “I guess you think that makes this okay?!”
Regulus made an aborted motion to cross his arms, but one was still being held firm. “Well, it certainly makes it not incest!”
Sirius’s mouth twisted into a sneer, and he looked James up and down as if James was something he found on the bottom of his shoe. “And what do you think Mother would think of you with a Potter,” he asked, spitting the name out with a sneer of disgust.
An evil smirk came across Regulus’s face. “I think she knows this is the closest either of us will get to marrying a pureblood, and maybe if I hold the possibility of grandchildren to further the Black line, she might even bless the union.”
Without waiting for a reply, he turned back to James, his mouth open to say something, before he froze. The grin that was spread across James’s face looked completely involuntary, and almost painful.
Regulus squinted at him. “What happened to your face? Why is your face doing that?”
While everyone watched, and after a visible effort, James got his face under enough control that he could speak. “When are we getting married? And kids? I’m down, absolutely. I’ll be the best stay at home spouse ever.”
Regulus’s mouth dropped open, replaying the words he just said to his brother, but before he could respond, he heard said brother screech from behind him.
“Excuse me?! I’m older! You can’t get gay married before I do! You are the sunshine child and I am the black sheep!”
Regulus let out a long sigh, his head bowing down for a moment before he stood up straighter and squared his shoulders, whispered “yeah, okay”, and once again turned to face his brother. This time, he brought his and James’s connected hands around his front so James was closer, and leaned back against James, going for a casual look.
“I don’t know, brother. It seems as though I have a fiancé and you don’t, so maybe for once, I’ll be the ultimate disappointment,” Regulus said with a falsely sweet tone.
Sirius’s jaw dropped for a second, before snapping closed, his eyes turning to slivers. “Fine.” He looked around, looking at Peter, Marlene, and Remus still standing there with rapt attention.
Looking at Marlene first, he cringed a bit, his eyes roaming over the other two before settling on Remus’s face.
“Oi, Remus. We are getting married. Gotta beat him to it too,” he said, sending a glare at his brother. Peter let out a stream of air and looked relieved.
Remus just sighed. “I feel like we missed some steps, like, all of them, but I also think they did too, so, yeah, sure, whatever.”
Sirius made a triumphant noise, sticking his tongue out at Regulus. “See? Still the disappointment. We’ll just get married before you do.”
Regulus finally detached from James’s hand, and the two brothers clashed at each other in a fight that was more slapping and hair pulling than actual fighting, while the rest just stepped back out of arm swinging range.
Peter learned over so he could see both James and Remus and asked, “So did you two just get engaged?”
James and Remus looked at each other before shrugging.
“Probably. You know these two idiots won’t back out of their word now,” Remus said.
James turned to him asking, “Best man?”
“Of course, Prongs. You?”
“Yeah. As long as these two don’t want a double wedding or something,” James said, shrugging.
Peter, Marlene, and Remus all turned to him with equally incredulous faces.
Marlene, concerned James didn’t understand, “Do you really think these-“ her voice rose here “-brain dead conceited drama queens-“ she quieted again as the brothers flipped her off mid fight “-would allow that so they would have to share the spotlight on their special day?! Do you know them at all?!”
“Yeah, right as always, Marls,” James said, watching the brothers as they slowed down, both looking slightly haggard.
Regulus ran his hands through his hair, stepping up next to James, who took a moment to tuck away some loose curls before claiming Regulus’s hand again.
“Besides,” Regulus said with a huff. “You’ll never get her to agree with you marrying a half… blood. At least James and I could dangle children in front of her.”
Sirius, eyes blazing, opened his mouth to retort, but Remus cut him off first.
“Don't worry, Baby Black. I’ll make sure to reassure her we are trying, every night, but just nothing has stuck yet,” Remus said, his voice low and his eyes on Sirius, whose face had gone bright red, and they could see his jaw working under his cheeks, unable to actually form words. Sirius gave up and just put his hands up to his face with a drawn out groan, and Remus laughed as he stepped up to him and gathered him into a hug, letting Sirius hide his still very red face.
Regulus pretended to gag, “Well, on that disturbing note, I shall be leaving to ride with my friends.”
He attempted to take his hand back from James, but James just held fast and waved at his friends, cheerfully calling “I’ll see you back at the castle, yeah?”
“James,” he said fondly, “you don’t have to ride with me, I know this was just for a laugh for Sirius.”
“Nonsense. No take backs. We are engaged now. All of your Hogsmeade weekends are now to be spent on dates with me, where I buy you shiny things and we go to the Hogs Head and sit on the same side of a booth alone together, whispering soft nothings.” James seemed very proud of this, like it was all his idea.
Regulus pulled James’s hand, halting their walking, and James swung around so they were face to face, almost touching.
“Dates? Like actual dates?”
James grinned a bit shyly. “Yeah? I always thought that’s where we were headed with this flirting anyway? It just got started before I could actually ask you. What do you say?”
Regulus barely even let him finish before he said yes.
“Good,” then James leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Regulus’s forehead before turning them both back towards the train.
“Have you got your trunk? I didn’t see you or your brother holding one when you got here.”
“Yeah, Sirius shrunk them before we left because Mother didn’t want to be bothered to deal with them whilst bringing us here, even though it was her own fault as she refused to let Sirius apparate us here himself.”
James nodded, concerned, but didn’t respond, he knew how their home life is, and knew Sirius would never leave Regulus to come live at the Potters, no matter how many times they’d offered.
Finding the compartment where his friends were, Regulus opened the door, pulling James in with him.
James looked around. Dorcas and Pandora were seated on one side, Barty was seated in the corner by the window, snoring against the balled up robe tucked between himself and the wall, with Evans’ head in his lap, and Evan was laying, eyes closed taking over the rest of the seats.
James waved at the girls, who murmured greetings back, and unshrunk his own truck, heaving it up into the racks, doing the same for Regulus’s, before standing over Evan.
“Rosier,” James said.
“Potter,” Evan said without opening his eyes or moving slightly.
James reached down, swatting Evan’s legs off the bench, Evan yelping as the momentum almost had his body on the floor, too.
James sat down in the newly opened space, pulling Regulus down into the seat beside him next to the door.
Evan pouted and went to sit next to his sister, who patted his cheek placatingly, before going back to drawing patterns on Dorcas’s skin with brightly colored ink.
Barty snorted awake, first reaching down for Evans’ head, and finally lifting his head when Evan wasn’t there. He blearily looked over at Evan on the other side, before looking over and seeing that they had been infiltrated.
“Potter,” Barty slurred through a yawn. “What brings you to the snake pit?”
“Oh, the usual, just wanted to spend some time with my fiancé before we got to school,” James casually said, and Regulus silently counted to four in his head before chaos absolutely erupted from his friends.
It took many long moments of shouted questions that went unanswered, because James and Regulus were laughing too hard, before everyone quieted, looking at the pair expectantly.
Many long minutes later, wheezing through his laughter, James finally concluded, “And now we are engaged first, dating second, and Sirius is playing gay chicken with Remus, so maybe they’ll finally kiss or something about it, so it’s a win-win-win situation!”
Pandora finished on Dorcas’s arm, using her wand to dry it and set it in place until Dorcas wanted it off. Before she could start again, Dorcas stood up.
“Well, I for one, can’t let Sirius win this gay chicken marriage, so I need to go find Marlene,” then she walked out the door without another word.
Pandora turned to her brother, grabbing his arm to try and find a clear spot for her to draw in between the tattoos Barty had been giving him for years. Barty just balled up his robes again, falling asleep within seconds, making James jealous, his brain was too much for quick sleeping.
Without even looking up, Pandora slyly said “Has Reggie told you about his thoughts on baby names?”
Regulus turned his eyes to Pandora, and if looks could kill, she would be frozen in a block of ice right now. She didn’t even flinch.
James reach out his hand, one finger slowly rubbing up and down Regulus’s cheek. “Awww, Baby Black. You’ve already thought about our kids' names?”
Regulus’s glare turned towards James, but it softened at the edges immediately. “Not our kids specifically, just baby names in general. They have to fit the vibes right, and those vibes need to piss off my mother to the best of their ability.”
James gave a soft smile, “Oh? Care to share your thoughts? Maybe we can find something that fits the bill.”
Regulus sighed, then shifted in his seat, putting his back toward the wall beside him, and throwing his legs over James’s, his feet landing in the empty seat next to James. Regulus claimed his hand back, folding his hands across his stomach, and James started tapping his fingers to some unheard beat on Regulus’s thighs.
“Well. First off. Even if we decided to go completely low contact with her with the kids-“
“Which I will fully back you up on if you decide that,” James interjected.
Regulus nodded, continuing “-We already know she won’t be able to keep our child’s name out of her mouth. She would brag about them to whatever high society women she might call a friend. So I want our child’s name to be something she absolutely hates to say. Something informal, not a name where she could make it sound regal, I want a name that sounds weird coming out of her holier than thou mouth.”
James hummed, finger tapping his chin, “So like a nickname name. Like you can get Reggie from Regulus, but instead, legally being named Reggie instead?”
Regulus nodded. “Exactly.”
James hummed again. “Right. So when I say I’ve always wanted to name my son after my grandfather Henry?”
Regulus shook his head, “Absolutely not, my mother would be able to make that sound so formal. However, Harry coming out of her mouth instead would make her cringe every single time.”
James smiled, turning over the name in his mouth. “Harry. I like it. Harry Potter. No, wait. Harry James Potter. She would lose her mind over that name!”
Regulus’s mouth dropped into a circle, sucking in a breath as he stared at the opposite wall above Barty’s head. He blinked back to aware, and had to clear his throat a few times before he could speak.
“Oh. Yes. She would hate it, we could work with that,” he said, trying to sound unaffected.
James saw right through him, grinning, “Well that’s settled then. Hopefully the first one is a boy.”
Regulus just nodded, eyes unfocused, thinking.
Later on in the ride, James wandered off to the loo, and Pandora leaned forward, grabbing Regulus’s hand.
“I saw that look earlier. You like the name you both picked out?” She asked, already knowing the answer.
Regulus put on the most serious face he could muster. “Pandora. He spoke that name into existence, and even though we are years away from that point, I already can’t wait to hold tiny little Harry in my arms. I am physically aching right now in want of our baby.”
Pandora giggled, patting his hand, “Me too, love. You’ll both be great dads. And I’ll be the best Auntie Panda ever. Just make sure you both get through school first, wouldn’t want a scandal on our hands, do we,” she asked with a wink.
Regulus rolled his eyes, and James chose that moment to walk back in, settling back in next to Regulus, ready for the school year to begin.