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afangirlwashere · 4 years ago

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james was the first marauder regulus met.

he was in his first year, james in his second.

it wasn't at the platform, nor in the train to hogwarts or at the sorting ceremony. they met near the courtyard. and sometimes he recalled the moment as serendipity. but sometimes it was a cruel curse.

regulus was a victim of the unpredictable moving staircase and now had been late to his first transfiguration class. he rushed through the arcade with books in his hands and almost stepped on his robes a thousand times, he wasn't used to the flowy fabric around his ankles.

he had been taunted by nightmares in his sleep all night. it wasn't unusual, he had struggled with sleepless nights and night terrors his whole life. he'd already been exhausted by those endless moving stairs and heavy books to carry. tired was a normal state for him.

regulus had been trying his very best to be good all week. every time he saw sirius along with his friends he took the first turn to avoid contact with his older brother. he had received plenty of letters reminding him what his mother had instilled in his mind all summer. he tried to obey her the best he could even against his own excitement and curiosity.

after what he'd heard from sirius when he came back from hogwarts he couldn't wait to meet his brother's friends. he made a point of remembering their names. that was before his mother forbid him to even acknowledge his brother's presence at school.

and then suddenly two older gryffindor students came around the corner and regulus tensed. they were at least fifteen and looked incredibly bored until they noticed the tiny slytherin first year. regulus had the same amount of pride written all over his face they had to jinx out of a different kid last year.

"oi, pipsqueak!"

their red and gold ties felt like gags in regulus's throat, not allowing him to say even the faintest hello. he prepared himself to walk past them, head held high as he was taught and told to all his life. but that was a wrong move to make.

regulus's hands flew to his back with aggressive force and were tied by a rope conjured from thin air by one of the boys. the brown-haired one with crooked teeth. the blond boy next to him with a pimple so big regulus could see it whilst they were meters apart laughed as regulus's books hit the ground.

"looks like we caught ourselves a tiny lost snake andrew." the blond said.

"let me go!" regulus demanded not ready to renounce and start yelling just yet.

"little prince thinks he can tell us what to do, does he?" smirked the other. "you are after all new here. so let me enlighten you, hm?"

the brown-haired student squeezed regulus's shoulder and bent forward to look him in the eye. his grip was rough, it meant to leave bruises. regulus flinched away which solved nothing because he had been forcefully pulled back even closer than he stood before.

"with us - gryffindors and slytherins - it's only a question of who gets to strike first. you're the other black aren't you?"

regulus hated how the boy's hot breath fanned his face but he hated being called that even more. he scrunched his nose in disgust which seemed to be enough of a confirmation.

"yeah, i can smell privileged gits from the dungeons anytime. you'll get a new taste of what it means today."

"if you don't let me go right this second you'll regret it!" regulus spoke again hoping his voice didn't tremble as much as his hands did.

pin-drop silence. both andrew and the blond had been able to only blink, very slowly. regulus resentfully thought they were so dim they had the capacity to do only one thing at a time. then they howled with laughter which would hopefully be loud enough to alert school staff. and someone did indeed emerge from the same corner.

"oi!" his voice was not much more grown-up than regulus's. "what you two chavs think you doing?"

andrew's eyes suddenly grew much hungrier when he looked at the boy. he had a smug smirk on his face as the boy said "don't you want someone more your size to fight? a first-year is lame even for you."

"potter, you fucken prick! you'll wish you had taken a different route to class." without hesitation he ran from regulus, chasing after the next best target who had taken off as well with a mischievous smile.

the blond stood in place confused. "but andrew! what about him?"

"push him!"

the blond nudged regulus and he fell and hit his soon-to-be bruised shoulder. then he tried to catch up with Andrew. what was left of them were heavy thumps and distorted shouts.

the wind picked up and brushed through regulus's neatly short hair as he wiggled his hands of the ground. he didn't expect to get out of this one that easily but to be fair, he wasn't out of the woods just yet. the knot was tied very tight, he could not release his hands no matter how hard he tried to pull on the ropes. standing up was also almost impossible just as Andrew had predicted.

"are you alright?" a voice near him said out of a sudden and regulus's soul almost left his body.

"who-who's there?" he whipped his head in every direction.

a hand appeared from thin air and pushed something which behaved sort of like a piece of fabric to the side. a head poked out and looked down at regulus. full of wild dark hair coming across his face, with subtle sunkissed freckles on his nose and light hazel eyes with obnoxiously thick eyelashes for a boy. he shot him a grin and regulus noticed a slightly crooked bottom tooth.

"oh..." the boy's smile fell as he looked at regulus's green and silver tie. regulus took a sharp breath and prepared to fend for himself again. "you're sirius's brother aren't you?"

the boy stuck his right hand into a pocket in his trousers and pulled out a wand. regulus shuffled his feet to get away even though it wasn't much help.

what if he starts screaming in pain from the spell and shows that he's weak? he's not supposed to do that. not according to the letters from mother. he can't fall out of line especially not in his first week. she'd be disappointed and he'd get punished when he got home for christmas break for sure. and he couldn't handle it like sirius. he felt tears already sting his eyes and tried to blink them away.

the boy lowered his wand with a surprisingly guilty expression and knelt down. "i won't hex you. promise. if you sit up i'll set you free."

using a very careful diffindo the ropes loosened up. regulus rubbed his wrists. he didn't dare to look in the eyes of the boy. this close he would undeniably notice regulus's tears.

the following silence was a space for thanks which never left regulus's mouth. instead, he gathered his brand new books which had now been damaged by the fall. regulus felt humiliated, crawling on his knees like a toddler for his toys, he kept trampling on his robes with them.

he stood up as gracefully as he could and realized he's half a head smaller than the boy who by some coincidence knows his brother. his savior didn't feel the need to wear his tie or robes today so regulus had no idea how to act towards the boy in a grey knitted v-neck jumper.

"how come you know him?" regulus asked. "my brother."

"he's only my best friend of course," he exclaimed with that confidence only children can muster and stuck his hand out, a playful grin back on his face. "james potter is the name."

so this is james potter. thought regulus. and it wasn't the only thought he had. james's name appeared in many if not all of sirius's stories from school. he was - according to sirius - the absolutely best at flying in their lessons. he gave a very animated description of how james caught their friend peter on their first lesson and how they sneaked out at night to teach another friend, remus, quidditch. james had no competition when he hopped onto a broom.

in the ten months, they had gone to school together they lived through various adventures, great and small. and before walburga gave regulus a lesson about how a correct representation of their family should look like, he thought sirius and james were wicked. he thought james was the coolest and hoped he'd get to have a fittingly spectacular introduction to him. but he didn't and it didn't matter because he wasn't allowed to befriend such people as james potter.

blood traitors were the worst of all. they weren't wizards like regulus or his ancestors, no no. they were ungrateful, spiteful, hideous, ill-mannered, thick-headed people. but one was standing right in front of regulus, trying to shake his hand and he was anything but that, especially not hideous, regulus thought and internally smacked himself for thinking about it.

regulus stood there with books in his hands, staring doe-eyed at james. there was no other life than the two of them near. no one would know he shook hands with a blood traitor and a gryffindor. so he did. mother always scolded him for having a weak grip. he tried his best to squeeze james's hand properly.

"you're reginald?" james asked mid-handshake.

"regulus."

"oh, sorry. so reggie."

regulus didn't like to be called that. his mother hated this nickname, it made her son sound like he was a muggle yokel. but for some inexplicable reason, it came out of james potters mouth not derogatorily but rather naturally. he decided to let it slide just this once.

james raised his left hand and added another book on top of regulus's pile. "this was still on the ground."

it was a leather-bound journal he had gotten from his cousin andromeda for his eleventh birthday. he hadn't skipped a single daily entrance since he came to hogwarts. in james's hands, it made regulus uneasy but he couldn't have read any of it this quick. besides that, he had noticed a large leather bracelet with something shiny on it. it hugged james's left wrist and poked out of the unbuttoned cuffs of his white shirt.

"why did you help me?" regulus asked.

"now knowing you're sirius's baby brother i'm glad i helped. he would be distraught if you got hurt."

"but you didn't know that before. why would you help then?" said regulus.

james took a second to ponder his answer.

"i do what i think is right." james said.

and if a butterfly can flap its wings thousands of miles away and help to create a hurricane, james potter could help to create a completely different fate for regulus black by saying seven words.

this was the sentence that stuck with regulus his whole life and guided him through his choices. each time he tried to choose the one which would make james proud of him. although the word tried is rather important to keep in mind.

"i don't usually leg it from andrew and gryffin so quick, but i really dodn't feel like sitting in detention today, it's too sunny for that don't you agree? anyway," james went on keeping a light one-sided smirk on his face. "i swear, three classes with the head of our house in transfiguration and you will learn how to handle these dim-wits!"

james couldn't help but notice regulus staring at his left hand as he energetically gestured. he realized he had been looking at his bracelet and remembering the horrors he's heard from sirius he guessed regulus might feel like it's not his place to ask about it. james easily took off his buckle bracelet and handed it to regulus.

"you want to look at it?"

it took the younger boy a few seconds to think. it was normal to him but not to james who had been making his decisions based on first instinct.

regulus accepted the bracelet. its heaviness surprised him. the shiny thing catching his attention turned out to be a sumptuous golden head of a lion with one eye filled with a tiny red gem. the other one had obviously fallen out since there was an empty hole instead of the gem. a half-blind lion.

"it was my mum's. when i got my acceptance letter she let me choose a bracelet for good luck."

james grew curious of regulus. he's met shy kids before, first-years especially but that wasn't the word he'd describe regulus with. he would have rather used reserved, thoughtful or mysterious.

besides his thoughtfulness, he looked rather unwell. sickly pale face, dark eyebags under grey eyes with a constant frown, and black hair which he had known could be so curly, vibrant, and lively has it not been cut too short and choppy as if someone had not cared about him enough to do a good job.

regulus seemed to be in his head way more than a regular eleven-year-old thrust upon the magical school of witchcraft and wizardry. james's curiosity quickly developed into interest because whatever was happening inside regulus black's mind must have been impeccable compared to reality. remus, james thought hopefully, he's a bit like remus. maybe they'll get along.

"you want it?" james asked and regulus looked up and blinked. "i don't have any siblings so sirius says i'm not used to sharing and that i'm avaricious. but if you like it you can have it. i'm going to stick it up to your brother! james potter can share! the boys don't have to help me understand how to."

"but you said it belongs to your mother."

"it did. but she gave it to me. and now it's yours." said james and fastened the lion bracelet to regulus's left wrist.

regulus stood stiff as he watched sun rays fall on the one-eyed golden lion. "you shouldn't have given it to me. you'll be punished." his voice quavered a bit and regulus pinched himself in his thigh through trousers. being worried about a blood traitor's fate, such a thing would get him punished.

"what?" james scrunched his nose in confusion. "my mum would never punish me for giving someone a gift. besides that, it was a good luck charm and i've had the best of it with finding friends. and if all goes well even a pretty girl." he stuck a hand through his already messy hair and made it even more disheveled.

"well, then you should take it and give it to the pretty girl. shouldn't you gift jewelry to people you fancy?" regulus said as he struggled with the buckle. if he was caught wearing something like that... he didn't want to think of the consequences.

"well that might be true," james scratched his head. "but lily doesn't like it. she called it garish once."

that had been the main reason why james wasn't reluctant over giving it up. regulus had realized that much much later though.

"you think it can do it again?" regulus asked in a hushed tone.

"do what?"

"do good again? like... bring amazing adventures and friends?"

regulus prayed james wouldn't think he's a sissy for asking for reassurance. and although james potter had enough confidence in himself for doing that all on his own - creating phenomenal adventures, making wonderful friends, and attracting pretty girls - he understood what regulus really asked him about. what sirius's brother needed right now.

james had an ego the size of the hogwarts castle but he had the heart to match it. appease was thankfully something he excelled at alongside transfiguration and quidditch.

"i know it can. it will bring you all that and a pretty girl. the bracelet has done it once hasn't it?" james winked at regulus and strode next to him. "maybe it will even protect you from such wankers as andrew and gryffin."

regulus had no idea what a wanker was but considering it had been used to describe his bullies it couldn't have been flattering.

"you know, here at hogwarts you can start a new life without your parents."

"i don't want a new life." said regulus grudgingly.

"that's fine too," said james while throwing a hand over regulus's shoulder. "you can keep yours. you'll just be allowed to live it more like you."

regulus stared at him, again, taking all of his vim and vigor in and trying to make his peace with the fact that this is the most sincere conversation they'll ever get to have.

he broke the silence with a new question. "shouldn't you be at a lesson as well?"

"nobody likes a clever clog reggie." james retorted.

regulus allowed james to call him that. but only this once.