Chapter Text
James and Peter had this tradition of going to king’s cross together for every single first day of school, and their fifth year is not the exception. They basically grew up together, given the fact that they were the only two magical families in the area.
The boys were already at platform 9 ¾ when they saw Remus Lupin from afar, along with his mother.
Remus lived alone with his mother, who was a muggle. James had a serious amount of questions when he figured this out, given the fact that his friend was a werewolf. During their second year, Remus explained he worked along with madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, and Dumbledore before he was eleven and he could attend school. His mother requested it before his father passed away, because they both wanted their son to be safe, and to have a choice. She always took care of Remus despite everything, and James loved Mrs. Lupin for that. For taking care of his friend.
“Hey, Remus! How ‘ya doing?” said James, with a beaming smile towards his friend, who gave him a small smile in return.
“Hi James, Pete,” he said. “Have you seen Sirius?”
“He’s always late. You know his family,” says Peter.
Sirius’ family was always awful to him. And it only got worse since he was sorted into Gryffindor instead of Slytherin during his first year. He always had a rebellious personality and was against his family’s blood-purist and superior beliefs. He was James’ best friend. His brother. He wanted to take him out of Grimmauld place. His house, but never his home. But Sirius always resigned.
It was also true that the Blacks always loved to make a scene. They showed up just before the train had to take off, every year. Walburga Black was an extremely pale, tall, dark haired woman. She was extremely skinny, too. Same as both her sons after summer. Especially Sirius, who looked like he starved all summer, every single year. Since third year, James has packed a special extra meal for his friend.
“We need to get on the train now, or we won’t find an empty carriage,” said Remus. “I’ve already seen Lily, she’s already inside with Marlene and Mary.”
“The train takes off in ten minutes, we won't find an empty carriage, Moony. We should just join the girls.”
“You just want to be in the same space as Evans, James,” said Pete.
He decided to ignore that comment. He was trying to move on from her since he once had an actual serious confession last year and she brutally (but friendly) turned him down, and decided to be friends. Although they weren't that close because of her friendship with Snivellus, who he and his friends constantly pranked because he was an obsessed blood purist who looked like he didn’t shower more than once a week.
And to be fair, it was not like Snivellus did nothing to them either. He had a grudge against Remus for no reason, picked on Peter because he was easier to fuck up, and deeply hated James and Sirius. He cursed and hexed them plenty of times, and he constantly terrorised muggle-borns and (hypocritically, since he was one, according to Lily) half-bloods.
He tortured, too, their other friends, Marlene and Mary for that same reason. And even though both Mary and Lily were muggle borns, the redhead was always spared. The slurs, the curses, jinxes or hexes were never towards her.
No one in Gryffindor actually liked Snape, and for good reason. But Lily just couldn’t see the dark in her best and childhood friend. No matter how hard her house friends tried to show her otherwise.
When the three friends finally found the carriage where the girls were settled in, Remus and Lily immediately took off for the prefect patrol. Outside the carriage, Lily asked Remus for his badge, made of silver. She took off her wand and threw a spell on it, which most probably was a transfiguration spell. James smiled to himself. Lily was always such a good friend to Remus. The boy told her he was a werewolf at the end of fourth year, although she suspected it way before that. It was nice she was making these kinds of gestures towards him.
James and his friends had their own way of helping Remus. They were about to finish the potion to become animagus to be able to make company to him during the full moons. It would be finished by the time the first full moon came up on the 20th of that month.
“How was your summer, Mars?” asked James.
He always liked Marlene. She was a menace. They became friends quickly when they joined Gryffindor's quidditch team during their second year, her as a beater and him as a chaser. Marlene was absolutely convinced that James would be captain of the team as soon as Frank graduated, and she was right. He was called Cap that same year, since Frank graduated the previous year.
When he got his letter along with the badge, he honestly cried. He loved quidditch with his soul. He was extremely proud of himself. James trained all day as a kid, woke up at five during school days just to get better at it. He’d done it. He was the captain. His hard work had paid off, and now he had to prove he was worth it.
“It was nice, my sister took us to Italy now that she’s got a job,” she said. “About time honestly.”
“I always wanted to go to Italy, it’s so beautiful. I had a cousin that lived there, and every time he came to visit he told us such amazing stories,” said Mary.
“We should all go there sometime, then!” James suggested. “What do you think Pete?”
“You’re making future plans when we haven’t even sat for our OWLs, calm down.”
Peter’s comment earned giggles from the girls and an offended mock from James, who ended up laughing with the rest of them.
The train was about to take off as Mary was talking about her own summer, and how her siblings (younger and muggle) kept updating her about all the things that happened while she was away, when the carriage’s door swung open.
Sirius Black was at the door.
As on every first day, he was starved-skinny, with a tired face, shorter hair and fancy clothes. James went with him to get dressed into his muggle clothes he would use most of the time on their way to Scotland. Peter said it made no sense to change from his “rich clothes” into muggle clothes and into his robes later, but James knew how much it meant for his brother to get those clothes off, to change into his true self. So he never pointed it out. And Sirius didn’t care that he had to change that many times.
“What did I miss?” Sirius said when he and James came back.
“Not much, summer talk.”
“Cool, hope yours were good,” he said. He looked around the carriage and noticed one of them was missing. “Where’s Moony?”
“He’s with Lily,” said Pete.
“Prefect stuff,” Marlene clarified.
If Sirius tried to hide his disappointed face when he realized that Remus would in fact not join them today, he completely failed.
James was a hundred percent sure both of their friends fancied each other, but were too scared to confess, despite it being obvious that they were into the other and that James tried to set them up more than once.
He understood that they were afraid. They were mates, both blokes. Most people were conservative about queer love.
James didn’t care.
Love was something incredible, and it didn’t matter who loved who. The fact that there was love was the important thing. So far, he only had girlfriends, but he did have a crush on boys a couple of times (Remus may have been his gay awakening), and wouldn’t mind being with a bloke, either.
He wished he could show his friends how much they clearly fancy each other and for them to finally be together. He may have failed last year, but he will succeed this year.
The ride to Scotland was long and tiring. But he couldn't help but enjoy it every single time. Sirius was already looking better after a nap and eating something. James loved Sirius so much. He never hated anyone in his life, until he met Sirius and knew about his parents, and what they did to him, to his brother.
His friends were laughing and sharing stories, telling jokes, Mary and Sirius smoking by the window, Peter and Marlene spoke about quidditch, it was perfect. Yeah, Remus and Lily were missing, but they’d join soon enough.
An hour before they arrived at Hogwarts the prefects finished their jobs and joined them. Remus took the seat next to Sirius unconsciously and Lily the one close enough to the door, next to Marlene.
Joy filled the room. This was just the first day. They still had years ahead of them. And James would enjoy every single one of them to its maximum.
***
The sorting ceremony was going to be long this year. For some reason, there were a lot of first years this term. Way more than usual.
He sat down looking towards the Slytherin table, putting a fist on his jay, bored. After four years, he couldn’t care less about the sorting. He would meet the Gryffindor first years either way.
James looked around the Slytherin table because his friends (except for Remus, who was reading) cared about the sorting, so they wouldn’t establish any conversation while it was happening. There was nothing interesting until his eyes caught the sight of..
Oh fuck.
Regulus Black.
He looked different. More.. vivid.
Black was not as pale as Sirius on the train, yeah he was pale because that’s a Black thing, but he had more color than the previous years at Hogwarts. He looked stronger, determination running in his grey eyes. His dark curls were outstanding, with perfect volume, and length.
Since when was Regulus Black… hot?
Oh my god.
He was staring at his best friend’s brother.
No.
Off limits.
James tried to focus on the ceremony for the first time since second year. Praying to Merlin that no one noticed that he was staring and prayed harder that if they saw him staring they didn’t realize who he was staring at.
He looked around, and it seemed like everyone was minding their own business, luckily for him. Until Remus, who was next to him, made their shoulders brush.
“Everything okay, Moony?” he whispered, giving him a nervous smile, when he saw his friend had a malicious knowing smirk on his face.
“Oh I don’t know… you tell me about it.”
James knew Remus was gay because he told him. And when he shared his secret, James confessed he liked boys too. But he actually didn’t care about the gender of the person he’d date. Moony told him that was such a “James thing” and laughed.
He shared these kinds of knowing glances and smirks whenever they knew the other saw someone they found attractive or their crush.
Remus got a lot of those, all the time. They shared a room with Sirius, after all. James was the only one that certainly knew that Remus liked Sirius, and only him and Lily knew about his sexuality. So naturally, every time Sirius did something that looked attractive (which was plenty of times since Moony would find most of the things Sirius did hot), he got a playful smirk from James, or a raised eyebrow, or a nod. Remus blushed and looked away all the time.
It was exhausting not to see them together, but it was adorable to see Remus so in love with his best friend.
So also naturally, James panicked when Remus gave him the look and tilted his head towards the Slytherin table and more specifically where Regulus was sitting along with his friends.
“We will talk later. Not. now,” whispered James. “Don’t you dare to say a word.”
Remus could only chuckle at his friend.
And for Merlin’s beard…
James was in trouble.