Pretend.

chapter five

The following week was one of forgetting homework, getting detention, and getting shouted at by the Quidditch captain for not paying attention, but most importantly, dreaming about Marlene Mckinnon. Sirius and Peter often joked about it, but Remus kept quiet when they started about the topic.

James had decided not to ask Marlene out yet. He didn't want to hurt Lily or seem creepy. Monday meant potions again, so they'd be working on Amortentia again. James low-key hoped they would eventually test the potion on each other so that he'd get paired with Marlene. Then he'd have an excuse to be in love with her.

"Welcome class. Today we will be preparing our recipes for the Amortentia potion, which we will be brewing next week. You will work with the same person as last week. I want to have one recipe for each pair at the end of the lesson, so that I can correct it before you use it. You can start now."

-

The lessons were over before James could finish the planning of his and Marlene's wedding. He had Quidditch practice now. It was raining very hard, but knowing Wood, the practice would still just continue like normal. Marlene looked great. When James walked back to the dorm room, he passed some Slytherins. He overheard them talking. "So that fifth-year kid is going to serve the dark lord? Lucky him. My parents won't allow me to do that until I'm at least out of school. Absolutely bonkers."

James made a mental note not to tell Sirius. Regulus, Sirius' younger brother, was a fifth-year, and Sirius' parents probably could not wait until their youngest son would become a death eater. Regulus had always been the only person in the Black family Sirius truly cared about. Aside from Andromeda then. Sirius would surely blame himself if Regulus got the Dark Mark.

In the Gryffindor tower, he played some exploding snap with the Marauders, while looking at Marlene. Marlene was talking to some girl from their year. James believed her name was Yasmin. She was pretty. Oh no. James thought what if Marlene and she are together? No, of course not. Marlene had never said anything about being a lesbian. James suddenly imagined what the wedding of Marlene and Yasmin would look like. He would sit in the back, sad. But Marlene looked happier than she did when she married James. James choose to pretend he never imagined that.

-

It was on a Saturday night, a week or so before Christmas break would start, that the plot of James' life started to twist even more. The Marauders had agreed to all stay at James' house during the break. They were once again playing exploding snap, when Yasmin walked over to them.

"Some Slytherin guy is asking to talk to you." She said. Lily sighed. "Tell Severus to fuck off." She said.

"It's not Severus. And he's asking for you." She said, looking at Sirius. Sirius' eyes widened. He whispered something under his breath, which sounded a lot like "Reggie." He ran to the portrait and came in with his little brother. Sirius brought him to their dorm immediately, and signed for the marauders and the girls to follow.

On Sirius' unused bed sat the black-haired boy. He looked smaller than he had when James had run into him. He was shaking and leaning into Sirius' arms. His hair was messy, and his shirt wasn't tucked into his pants. He didn't look like the neat, perfect pureblood boy that should be respected. He looked, ... Bad. Like, really not good.

"Reg, what's wrong?" Sirius asked, in a voice he rarely ever used.

Regulus opened his mouth, but started crying again. Sirius hugged him tightly, and comforted him. Remus looked at Sirius, in love. Sirius always had a big mouth, but this was the other side of Sirius, the caring side, the one that only wanted to protect his little brother.

After what felt like hours of Sirius comforting his little brother, Regulus finally gathered up the courage to say something.

A/n
Cliffhanger!
I'm so evil.
Altho it's pretty easy to guess what he's got to say. Hope you liked it💚