Chapter Text
One evening he decided to go down to the library, like any regular night, when he bumped into James Potter.
“Pardon,” he mumbled, looking up from the book he was reading as James mumbled a similar apology.
“Ah, my bad- wait, aren’t you Sirius’ little, uh, little brother?” James asked, stopping him in his tracks.
Regulus rolled his eyes, of course Sirius always had to be brought up.
“Yes, I am, thank you. Now, if you’d excuse me, I’m headed to the library.” James quickly moved out of his way and mumbled another apology.
On his walk to the library, Regulus pondered. James seemed like less of a prick, of course that was one very short interaction, but he seemed so much more respectful than other times, less mischievous, if that was possible.
As he sat down and began writing, poetry as usual, he thought some more. James looked a lot more… how to put it? Put together? Less of an eyesore? Attractive?
No. He would not admit James Potter was attractive. Because he wasn’t. He was… average, normal. A regular guy. Nothing to make a big deal out of.
But as he mindlessly wrote away, he found himself scrawling down poetry that was suspiciously James coded.
Bright as the sun,
lighting life after darkness
Warm as a fireplace,
burning away at logs in the hearth
But after time, when not controlled, destruction you bring
Some day the sun will explode, everything near, gone
And after some time, a stray ember will light the floor, and bring the house down with it.
As beautiful as you are now, nothing lasts forever
“Reggie!” Barty got him out of his thoughts, calling his name much too loudly, other students in the library whipping their heads around.
“Merlin’s beard, Crouch, you scared the shit out of me!” Regulus whisper-shouted.
“Ok well I have news!” He lowered his voice and broke into a genuine grin. “Me and Ev got back together!”
“Again? I don’t know what I expected from you two, honestly.” Regulus sighed. “Well, I’m happy for you, but don’t come running to me if you break up again.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Barty waved him off. Evan and Barty were on and off constantly, basically any small argument and they were separated, but in the end they always got back together.
“What’cha writing?” Barty snatched the book Reg was writing in, eyes scanning over the page as Regulus tried to get it back without making a scene, to no avail.
“Give it back, Crouch!” Regulus pleaded, pulling the book back towards himself before getting jerked forward into Barty again. There was no reason for him to be embarrassed about his poetry, he let Barty and Evan read it all the time, hell, he often read it aloud to Pandora when neither of them could sleep. But this felt different.
“Ooo, this about anyone in particular? I bet I can guess!” Barty smiled, shutting the book and putting it down on the table.
“It’s not!” Regulus yelled defensively, when Barty raised his eyebrows knowingly. “No one, really, just trying to write something different.” He explained, trying to be more convincing.
“Fine, fine.” Barty put his hands up in innocence. “C’mon, dinners soon.”
Regulus and Barty walked to the great hall, sitting down with Evan and Pandora, Dorcas soon joining them after talking to Marlene.
“Traitor.” Barty laughed while nudging Dorcas’ arm.
The rest of dinner was fine, other than the fact that Regulus kept finding his eyes wandering to the Gryffindor table.
Many hours later, as Regulus was tossing and turning in bed, he thought of James Potter. He thought of what it would be like to write poetry about him. He thought of what it would be like to be friends with him. He thought about what it would be like to kiss- nope. Not going there. And so he drifted to sleep with James Potter on his mind.