Hot & Heavy Under the Stage Lights

by the_Sonnets_of_the_world

Summary:

Regulus was 14 when Sirius ran away. He transitioned and came out three months after that.

He escaped his parent at the age of seventeen and then launched his music career with his friends and they are now one of the top three biggest bands of pop culture in Europe.

love, found family, game nights, interviews, the whole she-bang that celebrities experience.

Notes:

Hey guys! I you'll all enjoy this chapter, the first of many (hopefully) i'm rlly excited to share it w/ y'all. I'll do my best to switch POVS regularly but if i feel like one character needs a POV for the plot then that's what i'll do. the next chapter isn't written yet but i'll try to have it out within the next one to two weeks..... byeee enjoy the chapter and PLEASE PLEASE write comments! i wanna know what u think!

Chapter 1: Heartbreaker Season: First Night of tour

September 12th - First night of tour
REGULUS

Regulus was currently being sprayed and covered with so many chemicals that he was nauseous. Granted, it was for the sake of the show but still. His uncles were doing all of the band’s makeup and hair, Alphard was working on Pandora's braids and putting flowers in her hair. Giuseppe was switching between doing Dorcas’ eyes and Regulus’ hair

“ Reg, darling, look up. I need to see your face in the light.” Giuseppe instructed.

“I’ve been in this chair for hours, are you almost done?” Regulus' voice was whiny, but he’d never admit to that and nobody dared to bring it up.

“God, you’re such a baby” Barty was sitting up on the counter chugging an energy drink (he always does before a show)

Regulus gives him a look that could shoot daggers. “ says the one who can’t even sit still long enough to get their base done.” Evan muffles a laugh and Barty swats a makeup towel at him.

“Ok wait, we have like thirty minutes, do you know what that means?” Barty asks, not really waiting for an answer and starts singing off-key to the abc’s

Everyone groans in annoyance.

“You’re a drummer why the fuck do you need a warm-up, you dont even sing” Evan complains.

Yeah and I can see why.

“Maybe I just like to get a reaction out of you, Rosie,” Barty winks and Evan rolls his eyes.

Are you seeing this? He sends a look to Pandora, I know they’re oblivious, it’s ridiculous
Dora replies silently.

“Okay, all of you are ready.” Giuseppe squeezes his shoulder reassuringly.

“Good luck, petite etoile” Alphard says softly

The nickname makes his stomach feel warm and he steps up backstage.

 

~~~~~~~

He could hear it. There were so many people out there it was astonishing. Sometimes he forgets how he did this, he still feels like the boy trapped in that house with no escape. He got out. He got out. HegotoutHegotout. Just like he promised himself he would.

“You ready?” Dorcas is smiling and her brown eyes are wide and bright, thanks to the purple eyeliner that Alphard did.

“ Yeah ‘course just-”

“Lost in thought” Dorcas finishes.

“Alright, how's everyone doing tonight?”

The crowd is going mental, there’s signs everywhere and people screaming while wearing elaborate outfits. There’s a girl with a sign that says Dorcas could step on me and I’d say thank you! In bold with pink stars around it.

“First night of the tour! Are we excited?” Dorcas yelled from Regulus’ right.

A chorus of yelling and cheering went up through the crowd and people were waving their signs, screaming song names and shouting things at them.

“Okay so the first night of the tour is a big deal, as we know,” the crowd is cheering even louder now “ and lucky for you we have an awesome setlist ready so we’re gonna start off the tour with a bang!” Barty is trying to get the crowd even more hyper, which seems impossible in Regulus’ opinion, their setlist was a mix of indie, upbeat songs and slower melancholic songs.

“This first song is a way of life per say, and a mindset I developed after I started dating and we all know how that went…..” Regulus trails off and the crowd is chuckling and laughing, some of
them going feral because they know which song it is.

“You ready?” The crowd responds enthusiastically, some getting their phones out and ready to record.

Rule number one, is that you’ve gotta have fun, but baby when you’re done, you gotta be the first to run

Rule number two, just don’t get attached to, somebody you could lose

So le-let me tell you,

THIS IS HOW TO BE A HEARTBREAKER!!!!

Dorcas and Pandora start combining and harmonizing their voices with Regulus and the music.

Boys the like a little danger, We’ll get him falling for a stranger, a player, singing I lo-lo-love you

Regulus makes eye contact with a random person in the crowd, winks and then looks away.

HOW TO BE A HEARTBREAKER

Boys the like a little danger, We’ll get him falling for a stranger, a player, singing I lo-lo-love you
At least I think I do

Regulus winks on the last lyric and turns upstage.

 

* * * *

 

DORCAS

Dorcas was tired. Not just from the concert but from… pretending. She was tired of pretending that she wasn’t worried about Evan and Barty, tired of pretending she didn't see all of the misogynistic hate on her songs, she was just tired.

“WOOOO! HOME SWEET HOME, BABY!” Barty was booming as he walked through the front door with manic eyes.

“Oh my god, can you shut the fuck up for five minutes” Evan complains and brushes his hair back, away from his eyes.

Barty does, in fact, shut the fuck up but he rolls his eyes and there’s a hint of blush on his cheekbones.

“We’ve got interviews and a premiere tomorrow, so we need to go to bed early tonight. I’m looking at you, Barty” Regulus sounds like a mom when he speaks like this, Dorcas thinks.

Everyone grumbles and walks to their respectives rooms in the apartment. Regulus grabs his shark plushie off the couch and walks to his room. Dorcas lets a soft smile develop on her lips at the sight. Fuck, she had a premier tomorrow, which meant other people in the industry would be there and furthermore, McKinnon. Fuck, she hated her. She was obnoxious and loud and hung out with Regulus’ older brother whom she already has a grudge against. She also was really pretty. Like it was ridiculous. She’d recently gotten pink high-lighted tips on the ends of her shaggy bleach blonde hair. It annoyed her that she looked that good. If she wasn’t such an asshole, Dorcas might flirt with her but her personality ruins everything. She plays guitar well, she’ll give her that, but everything else is just…. Idiodic.

Well, life will be hell tomorrow.

******
September 13th 11:30 am
“ Excuse me! Miss!”

“Hello?”

“Over here!”

“Look this way!”

Dorcas was being called 24/7 at this premier. It wasn’t even hers! She didn’t know why but appreciated the attention and it distracted her from all the… thoughts in her head.

“Miss Meadowes who are you wearing tonight? You look absolutely stunning by the way.” A reporter asked with a microphone that she was shoving in Dorcas’ face. She was young, but older than Dorcas, maybe late twenties.

Dorcas smiled and turned to face the camera. She looked good, and she knew it.

“Thank you, that’s so kind of you to say! My bag is from Dior, my suit is from Valentino, and my
top was custom made by the wonderful Giuseppe Black” Dorcas voice is calm but confident and she looks directly into the camera before she leaves for more photos.

Dorcas was the epitome of confidence. She just took the attention of everyone in the room and always did something meaningful with their focus. She was wearing a black suit that shimmered against the light, and she had on a custom top that fit her really well. It was a nude color with black accents and glitter laced through the blouse. She also had on black stilettos and her hair was in a high ponytail and her braids were falling loosely along her shoulders and upper body.

She answered and was interviewed a few more times before exiting the carpet and making her way over to the drinks and hors d'oeuvres table.

Ughh. The very reason she hated these events. Marlene McKinnon.

She was talking loudly and using her hands with every word. Obnoxious. And of fucking course she was talking to Sirius Black. She hated him. He left Reg, her Reg, alone. She has to admit, they do look rather similar , Sirius and Reg she means, the stormy eyes, high cheekbones and dark hair is all the same except for the length. Sirius’ hair was quite a bit longer than Reg’s and their eyes were slightly different shades.

McKinnon was…. different. While she could admire a man’s beauty and bone structure she could never fall for a man. But Marlene. She had lovely freckles doused on her cheekbones and she had the most gorgeous blue eyes… but no. Dorcas hated her. She was 100% sure that she despised her very existence.
Marlene turned her gaze and it found its way to Dorcas.

Fuck.

She was staring.

Marlene looked her up and down, winked, and then shifted her attention to the host, Minerva Mcgonagall, one of the most respected managers in the industry.

“Attention everyone! We have some exciting news and I’m sure you are all excited for the reveal of this premier so without further ado, please welcome The Valkyries onto the stage!” Minerva had a powerful voice and everyone in the room had their eyes on her. They all clapped when she finished speaking.

“Hello, Hello everyone! I’m Marlene McKinnon”

“I’m Mary MacDonald”

“And I’m Lily Evans, and we’re here to present our new album: Pretty Girls Don’t Cry.
It will be released in two weeks, on September 27, and we are excited to share with you and all have a listen today! “ Lily was shorter than both Mary and Marlene, around 5 '3, Dorcas guessed.

“Thank you all for coming! Are you ready for the first song?” Marlene is engaging with the audience and waiting for an answer. The crowd all screams in agreement and the intro starts to play.

It's got a nice beat and Mary and Lily's vocals are overlaid nicely. It's still the beginning of the song so the main lyrics haven't started yet.

OHMYGOD.

Her music is heavenly.

Terrible.
Terrible. She corrects herself.

It’s really…. up beat.

Not the lyrics but the music all of it just comes together and she imagines Marlene’s fingers strumming her guitar and-

No.

NoNoNoNoNo.
She just likes the music. Right? Yeah. Yeah she does.

Because if she likes…

No. Not an option.

She just has to beat her for best rising artist of the year and she’ll forget about all of this.

But that’s in February. It’s September.

Fuck. Well, she’ll just avoid her until February, if that’s possible.

The song closes and Dorcas blinks, trying to get herself to focus.

“Unfortunately that’s all we’re allowed to share with you all, but please check out the album when it premiers on the 27th!” Mary says while Marlene and Lily take to exiting the stage by the stairs. Mary quickly follows and Dorcas notices a little bounce in her step. She must be excited then.

“Thank you ladies, that was wonderful! Please feel free to walk around and mingle. There will be drinks coming around and hors d'oeuvres are on the left hand side.” Minerva finishes her speech and leaves, all while in platforms even though she’s well into her fifties.

Dorcas turns her head and finds Barty and Evan goofing off by the hors d'oeuvres table and Barty fails to catch what Evan, currently cackling and squinting his eyes, threw. Idiots.

“What are they doing? I swear if we ever get kicked out, it’ll be because of them” Reg says, startling Dorcas because he’d been silent the whole time and she’d forgotten he was there.

“ At least they’re not pestering me” Dorcas sighs

“Give them two minutes.” Reg deadpans and takes a sip of his champagne.

Dorcas rolls her eyes but sure enough, the two idiots waltz over with wobbly steps, probably due to the alcohol.

“Cassieeee” Evan slurs, hand on Barty’s shoulder to keep him steady, as if it would work.

“Cassandra the fourth please grace us with your attention,” Barty puts on a posh accent and bows slightly.

Dorcas simply rolls her eyes “Neither of those are my name, what do you two want” she replies
“Can you please be a dear and get us two glasses of champagne” Barty pouts his lip and bats his lashes. His green eyes look glossy and he tries to make puppy dog eyes.

“Pretty sure you guys already have that handled”

“Well, we did but the hot bartender kinda… cut us off” Evan answers pointedly looking away from her.

 

“Yeah and for a good reason, you’re more than tipsy, I can smell it “ Dorcas looks for the “hot bartender” in question , ah Dorcas recognizes him it’s a Prewett twin. Gibson? Garret? No- Gideon. Yeah that’s it. They’re not wrong, he’s got good eyes and cute freckles Dorcas thinks not my type though.

Her type is sea color eyes, freckles, shaggy blonde hair and-

No.

No.

nonononononono-

Her type is nothing actually. She’s gonna push that down as far as it goes.

“Morning, Meadowes” Speak of the devil. She looks at Dorcas with a glint in her eye. Dorcas wants to comment on it but decides not. We’re avoiding her remember her brain reminds her.

Right.

“It’s almost twelve o’ clock Mckinnon.” Dorcas quips back

“Well it’s not afternoon yet”

“Midday then”

“ Did you know that when you argue you get a crease in your brow, it’s adorable” Marlene’s voice sounds airy which is unusual for her.

“Why did you come over here?” Dorcas says, pointedly ignoring her comment, she’ll deal with that later.

“Maybe I just wanted to talk to you, besides Mcgonagall said we’re supposed to mingle and it’s my premier after all, gotta set a good example.” She pops a grape and then turns to look at something over Dorcas’ shoulder.

“Sirius, a pleasure as always. Have you two met?” Marlene gestures between Sirius and Dorcas.

No. fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever had the chance, no” Sirius replies, wearing an easy smile.

“Nope.” Dorcas replies to Marlene stiffly. It was one word but still, Marlene noticed. She gave Dorcas a look but didn't comment on it.

“Nice weather today, no?” Marlene asks seemingly trying to relieve some of the tension in the room.

“We’re inside, Marlene.” Dorcas reminds her, there’s no patience or playfulness in her voice and she’s purposefully not looking at Sirius.

“Ah, first name basis is it now, Meadowes?” Marlene has a hint of a smirk on her face when she says it.

Shit. She let that one slip. The worst part is that Marlene caught it. She can’t mess up again or Marlene- Mckinnon she corrects herself- will notice and suspect that they’re friends which they are not.

“Actually, you’ll have to excuse me, I need to find my friends” Dorcas thanks herself for being quick on her feet and being able to get her out of there because she might’ve let reg’s name slip and that would be bad. She pushes through the crowd trying to find everyone. Good thing Pandora stayed home so she doesn’t have to find her, she’s a wanderer especially at parties. She only needs to find Reg, Barty and Evan which shouldn’t be too difficult because Barty and Evan are practically attached at the hip.

Ah. There they are. Barty and Evan are laughing with The Valkyries manager, Emmeline Vance.

“We need to leave. Now.” Dorcas’ voice is low, trying to not draw unnecessary attention, but still firm.

“We’ve only been here an hour though” Evan complains, his words were slurred and he was swaying without music.

“Sirius is here and we need to find Reg before Sirius finds him first.” She explains getting straight to the point, there was no time for thorough explanation.
“Last we saw him was talking to some red head by our table” Barty offers, distracted with keeping Evan standing right-side up, even though he’s no less drunk.

They all scan the room looking for Reg and just like Evan said, he was making small talk with Lily.

“Um, wait Dorcas! You dropped your bag!” Sirius calls from behind them.

No. No. No, please don’t come over here. Don’t see Reg, please.

She turned around fast, grabbed the red clutch and turned swiftly, her eyes immediately landing on Regulus. She mutters a thanks over her shoulder and grabs Regulus.

“We need to leave, like right now” Her voice is stern and low, safe from prying ears.

“But you guys just got here! I haven’t even gotten to introduce you guys to Mary yet.” Lily complains, they’ve all known her the longest in the industry besides each other.

“Sirius is here, we’ve got to go before he sees you” Dorcas says this mostly to Regulus but still loud enough so that Lily can hear.

Regulus simply nods and says “Ok that’s fine, text you later, Lils?” His voice is blank, neither good nor bad, which is a sign itself.

“Yeah I will, sorry about that though” Lily responds waving goodbye and Dorcas doesn’t hesitate to grab Regulus’ arm and rush out whisper yelling at Barty and Evan to hurry up.

They end up catching an Uber out of there and she texts Pandora to let her know they're on their way home.

She looks out the window for the rest of the drive, running over the past conversation with Marlene, before Sirius came over. She remembers the music and how she felt it in her bones and not just her ears. She thinks about Marlene’s flirty demeanor, which isn’t unusual for her but made Dorcas’ heart flutter nonetheless. Stop this won’t happen, stop thinking you have a chance.

She’s grateful when their apartment complex comes into view.

Pandora welcomes them in, clearly just getting back from her interview. Her steps are floaty and makes sure all of them are inside before shutting the door.

******
Pandora
September 13th 4:00 Pm
It’s been about an hour since Dorcas brought the boys home. She explained what happened with Sirius and him almost seeing Reg, but it’s nothing to worry about. Regulus has been gone for almost two years now, they don’t have to worry about his family anymore, Sirius is completely oblivious.

Regulus seems completely fine, or as fine as he ever is after seeing Sirius.

“You okay Reg?” Evan raises his eyebrows at him.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” He narrows his eyes when he answers.

Pandora has known Regulus the longest out of the four of them. She knew him from a shoot they did when they were kids and they always got casted for the same jobs. She knew him best even though they’d all argue and say they all knew him equally well. So, she knew when he was projecting, which is exactly what’s happening at this moment right now.

He’ll be fine, it wasn’t the first time they’ve almost ran into Sirius at an event. They all need to cool down and get ready for tomorrow, they have their Edinburgh show and after they’re going to Reg’s uncles, which is really the whole band’s adoptive family, and sleep at their house.

She doesn’t end up responding to Regulus’ question, although she’s mostly sure it was rhetorical. Instead she talked to Dorcas whom filled her in on what she missed at the premiere. It seems like she’s leaving a detail or opinion out of the story though, her eyes are shifty and she’s rambling but she stops in the middle of a words-or no, a name.

“Yeah and then Mck—” Dorcas stops short, closes her mouth and opens again, looking at the couch cushions instead of making eye contact “—um I mean… the bassist! Yeah, it was her song that was played at the preview. The lyrics were pretty good, but we don’t need to worry because Regulus beats anyone in that department, and the beat is a real nice even drum with the girls’ vocals over it. They’re not a threat —yet— but we should definitely…” The rest of her sentence isn’t registering to Pandora, it’s like she’s on low volume in a crowded space. Why did Dorcas correct herself, is there something she’s hiding or did she simply misspeak? Well she’ll discover it soon enough, she always does.

They stay up until it gets black outside, and then they all retreat to their respective rooms in the flat.
*****
Pandora loves her room. Not even in the it’s familiar and comfy kind of way, she loves it because it looks like hers. All of their rooms are like this, Regulus made sure of it. She remembers him saying You all can do whatever you want to your space, as long as you don’t knock down any walls and that they did.
It’s one of the many times she’s grateful for the large sum of money they all make that allows them to live so comfortably. They all have their own rooms (as well as a guest room) and they didn’t have to live in two separate places. A six bedroom flat is very atypical in London, but luckily they make over 4 million a year each, along with extra if you record solo songs, and they are always smart enough to put “necessities” over luxuries, and then save what they want to after everything’s paid for. It pays off to have a genius as a friend.

Her room is colorful, but not obnoxious. It’s filled with old maps and paintings, along with photos, newspaper clippings, quotes, lyrics, you name it. She has lights and strings that hold up stars, butterflies and jellyfish. She has a handmade quilt on her bed (almost identical to the one on Evan’s bed) that she received on a childhood Christmas one year. Hers is warm toned with oranges and crimson reds and bright yellows and soft pinks and browns where as Evan’s quilt is cool toned, patched with indigos and violets and soft greens and steely blues. She has all her jewelry hanging from a skeleton hand on her wall and a curtain guarded her bed and billowed when she left the window open. She has a few lamps around her room, illuminating the space with red and purple lights. Her books rest on the shelves of a brown nightstand and a flower lamp lay on top, aiming its light at her bed.

She loves her room and wished she has enough energy to take advantage of its comfort and play a song on her ukulele before bed, but she’s much too exhausted. She, as well as the band, have a big day tomorrow and they need all the rest they can get.

Chapter 2: Couldn't Look Away Even If I'd Wanted

Notes:

heyy long time no see huh?👀

I know it's been a month but in my defense I had a lot going on w/ school and halloween and stuff. BUT the good news is that this chapter is quite a bit longer than the last!

I literally had like all of it written except the last pov like a week after the first one and the last POV took me like three weeks...

I hope y'all like this chapter!! We get to meet a lot of new and fun characters!!😉

REGULUS
September 14, 7:48 am

Regulus woke up to the blaring sound of his alarm, tired and groggy but ready to get up (unusual for him, he knows). He pulls off his duvet and slips out of gray joggers and into black jeans and a navy button up and he grabs his navy docs to finish it off.

When he gets to the dining room everyone is already either eating breakfast or grabbing bags and shoes.

“Have a good night’s rest, sleeping beauty?” Barty asks with a mouthful of pancakes in his mouth.

Regulus rolls his eyes at the comment but doesn’t reply, instead reaching for a banana and a glass of cran-grape juice.

“I still don’t get why we don’t just get regular grape juice” Evan comments, eyebrows furrowed.

“Because regular grape juice isn’t as good as cran-grape and it tastes like chemicals” Regulus replies, not looking up from cutting his banana.

“I thought you ‘loved chemicals til’ the day you die’” Barty mocks

“Yeah well, that’s only when it’s in form of caffeine”

“Guys, we really have to get going, we have to be at the interview at 8:15 sharp or Cissa will kill us” Dorcas is busy applying a plum lipstick and mascara, so her mouth is fully open while she says this.

“Why did we let your demon of a cousin be our manager” Barty groans

“Because no one else is competent and if anyone’s the demon here, it’s you, Bartemius” Cissa is standing in the doorway with an annoyed scowl on her face, she’s similar to Regulus that way.

“Eughh not the full name” Barty is collapsed on the couch with half a banana in his mouth.

“You guys should’ve been on the road ….7 minutes ago” Cissa looks at her watch.

“We’re going, we’re going, Regulus just needs to hurry up!” Dorcas shouts

*****

They arrive at the interview on time, surprisingly and they take their seats in front of the camera. Barty and Evan are playfully bickering and Dorcas is busy talking to Narcissa with Pandora listening intently.

“Ok, we are going to start filming in a few minutes, is everyone clear on how this will go?” The director, Dave (?), says. A chorus of agreements go about, and they all start getting ready for the Action! that’s bound to come any moment.

The interview is supposed to go like this: Each person will have a handful of questions that are hand picked from the company and the other band members will try to answer by pressing a buzzer, similar to a game show except the questions will be about a person instead of a topic.

Narcissa tells them that Regulus will be the one that the company would like to go first.

There’s a bowl of questions that have been previously set up and placed on the table dividing the black chair from the mauve sofa that Pandora, Dorcas, Evan, and Barty all sit on.

Regulus pulls out the first paper “What is your favorite of the band’s songs?”

He speaks again, this time towards the people behind the camera “Wait, does it have to be one I’ve written or just anyone’s?”

There’s a few murmurs and then a clearer voice answers and says “Out of anyone in the band, including yourself ”

He nods but then the green buzzer is slammed down by a dark, accessorized hand.

“Is it Doomsday?” Dorcas asks, hand still hovering over the buzzer like she’ll block anyone who tries to get an answer in– she probably will actually, since she’s the definition of a hypercompetitive person.

“No, but that’s one of my favorites” He bites his lower lip and tries to pin-point his very favorite.

Another buzz.

“Habits?” Barty asks, quirking up his left eyebrow.

“Maybe…” His face is in his master planning stage, as Evan calls it.

“WAIT! IS IT It’s Called: Freefall -BUT THE ACOUSTIC VERSION?” Evan is leaning half way off his seat and his voice is almost yelling, but not in a mean way.

Regulus’ eyes light up but they all snap their heads to the buzzer which Pandora’s slim, blue nail polished covered hands are lifting up from.

“Exactly what Evan said but I pressed the buzzer so it’s my point” She has a slight smile on her face that fits perfectly with the pale pink lipstick she had put on earlier.

“But that’s not fair!” Evan groans

“Yes it is! The rules were whoever pressed the buzzer first and got it right, got the point.” Although she was a fairly kind, and free soul, she had an stubborn streak, as did her twin.

“But I said it first!”

“Ok you guys, it’s Dora’s point because she pressed the buzzer but Evan you can get a half point for saying it first” Narcissa calls from the back looking smug because her and Pandora had built a secret alliance of sorts, over the past few years.

“And also because she wrote the damn song” Regulus mumbles, although not as upset as his words made him sound.

“Really that’s your favorite?” Dorcas asks, head tilted and almost like she’s hoping he might change his mind if she can convince him.

“You're just mad because you lost the point” Barty says while he nudges her boot from his seat next to her.

“So are you!” Dorcas whips her head around to look at him

“Ok can we just get on with my explanation already, you guys are acting like nine year olds” Regulus rolls his eyes.

“Oh yes, please tell us why my song is the best of them all!” Dora fake swoons with one hand over her forehead, which is thrown back, and Evan elbows her beneath the ribs.

Regulus’ mouth quirks up and he sighs, “Actually I think it’s a tie between that and Bruno Is Orange but it’s because they both have a really deep, and cool meaning that’s very special to me. Freefall is really special to me because it was almost a wake-up call, when Pan played it for me, the first time and it helped me get out of a bad headspace and then Bruno Is Orange because I wrote it for someone I was really close to a long time ago, and it’s helped me heal a lot from that period of my my life, even if that song knocks the wind out of me when I perform it” He chuckles at the last part of his little explanation.

His friends, plus Narcissa, all give him a look of understanding because only they know how much Sirius leaving that house affected him.

“Ok next question… What age did you have your first sip of alcohol?” He covers his eyes with his hands as he sets the paper down.

“Oh! I know this one” Cissa smirks and leans back on her heel with her arms crossed.

“Wait, whisper it to me!” Barty whisper-shouts

“No, that's cheating!” Dorcas shouts

“Oh because you're such an honorable sport?” Barty quips back

“Hey!”

Regulus watches the interaction with a smug look for two reasons: firstly, none of them will get it right and secondly, they’re both significantly (?) older than him and still act like kids.

“Ok guys, let’s actually guess or we’ll get kicked out of the interview” Evan chuckles.

“Ok, well Reg was seventeen when our album dropped and we toasted with champagne at the release party… So seventeen?” Barty asks, eyebrows raised and head tilted.

“Nope, earlier than that. Also, so we won’t get yelled at for drinking underage, most people at that party were at least eighteen, including Barty and Dorcas, and I was only a couple weeks shy of seventeen so don’t cancel us for underage drinking.” Regulus is facing the camera now, and talks a tiny bit with his hands, an annoying habit he has tried to break and (almost) succeeded.

“Oh yeah thanks, Reg, but can we backtrack, you said earlier than seventeen?” Evan asks a little shocked, but not much since it’s Regulus they're talking about. That doesn’t mean he’s a party animal but he’s been known to have an eccentric reputation especially from his early teen years.

Narcissa gives him a knowing smile and motions for him to spit it out.

“I was seven actually.” He shrugs and moves his hand up to push his curls back.

An employee of the set crew, probably an intern, chokes and coughed out his coffee after hearing Regulus’ answer. A few dropped jaws were seen about the room, including Pandora and Barty. Evan is surprised, but only a little. Dorcas, well she’s about as much of an ‘It Girl’ one can get, with her pouty lips slightly apart and her paused twirling her braids as she turns her head slowly, posture not wavering a millimeter, and looks at Regulus with the most stunned expression he had ever seen.

“Ok, obviously, I didn’t understand it was alcohol at the ripe age of seven and I spit it out once it got into my mouth, the taste was terrible if I remember correctly.”

“How did you even get your hands on alcohol that young?” Evan asks, looking exasperated.

“My cousin asked if I wanted to try some and I thought it was grape juice” He shrugged.

“Cissa! Really you had to give a child wine at such an early age!” Pandora says voice light and endearing, that was one of the things Regulus admired about her, she was unapologetically herself even if she was ‘odd’ or ‘spoke like a child’ or ‘has such creepy facts stored away’ like many had said before, she had never changed, ‘not for anyone but herself’, she had told him long ago.

“Hey, it wasn’t me, wrong cousin.” Narcissa holds her hands up in defense.

“Then who was it?” Dorcas looks pointedly at Regulus.

“It was Andy, actually, and I ended up spitting it out over the white satin table cloth, which Mum and Dad were not too happy about…” Everyone laughs at his joke, even though he was being completely serious and they did give him a good ‘lesson’ for it.

Eventually they move on and do a bit more questions before the director yells cut and bids them farewell, promising they’ll finish it later this week.

***********

September 14, 6:49 P.M

 

The car slowed to a stop as they pulled into the drive and then clicks from unbuckling seat belts made its way through the car.

They all cross the cobblestone drive and go up the porch steps.

The house is big but very dissimilar to the manor the Blacks had lived in all of Regulus’ childhood. No, this house was warm. There’s a bright red door with a golden knocker, a small garden with flowers and vegetables in the front yard, a lime tree with a worn swing dangling from its branches and a tall glass window with blue shutters and a fresh pot of flowers on its shelf.

So no, this is not Regulus’ family home, but it is Regulus’ family’s home. His chosen family.

This is the humble abode of Alphard, Giuseppe, and Aurora ‘Rori’ Black.

Barty ignores the golden knocker, as always, and knocks with his non-jewelry adorned hand.

It takes only a moment until someone is trudging down the stairs with heavy footsteps and opens the door.

“Dad! Papa! Reg and his friends are here for dinner!” Rori yells over her shoulder.

Rori had been adopted by Giuseppe and Alphard about ten years ago,when she was 4 ½ . Regulus was barely ten and Sirius was eleven going on twelve. They would go over as much as possible when she was little but Walburga banned them from their house for two years because they were “corrupting” her children with their “lifestyle”. Eventually Regulus got back into contact with them when he was thirteen, and she was eight.He ended up living with all of them for three months after he had run away.

They were closer than the blood they shared that runs beneath their skin, they are connected through their hearts. They simply get each other, Rori and Regulus had somewhat developed a brother-sister relationship over the years. Rori would tell him about her crushes, annoying teachers, even just deeper things she had planned to do for her first year of Highschool.

The rest of the band was rather protective of her too, and she would come over to the flat if Giuseppe and Alphard were busy, either practicing her makeup with dorcas, learning her star signs with Pandora, or making ramen– that they burn, which doesn’t seem possible– with Barty and Evan.

Tonight, they were here for their weekly dinner, and Pandora had brought chocolate moose, which Regulus thought would be terrible but was actually quite good.
“Oh, you lot know by now that you don’t need to be invited inside, please come in!” Giuseppe is carrying a bowl of fruit salad to the dining table and his straight brown hair blocks his hazel eyes a bit.

They walk in and all take off their shoes by the door, as Regulus made them because it was simply proper hygiene, having no dirty shoes in the house.

“Dorcas I’m having a crisis” Rori says from the door, closing it behind Evan.

“How can you already be crisis-ing, school only started a couple days ago” Dorcas replies playfully, snagging a piece of watermelon.

“I have absolutely no idea what to be for Halloween”

“Why does that matter? Halloween is like over a month away” Barty is reaching for a piece of the Chocolate moose before Pandora slaps his hand away.

All three girls gape at him.

“Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“Halloween is like the funnest holiday of the year! How do you not plan ahead!” Rori exclaims.

 

“Funnest isn’t a word…” Regulus grumbles and Pandora slaps his shoulder.

“I dunno,I sort of just do my costume last minute and then go to a bunch of hot people's parties” Barty shrugs.

Rori rolls her eyes at his response and goes to her phone to try and find some example pictures for Dorcas of a few possible costumes.

They end up finishing dinner with easy conversations and warm smiles flowing about. They get tired of the wooden chairs, and move to the sofa in the living room.

Rori is sitting with her legs crossed and her mousy brown hair being braided by Dorcas and her nails being polished by Pandora “So, can I come to your next show?”

“If your parents are okay with you being three hours away with five nineteen year olds” Evan replies, with his blonde hair in between Barty’s fingers and head in his lap. Honestly, how do they think they’re just friends?

Giuseppe and Alphard nod, giving their permission while cleaning up the last few items on the dining table.

“Reg will take take of her, I’m sure”

“Yeah, well it would be a scandal if a minor died by my hand” Regulus rolls his eyes.

“Awww guys he does care!” Pandora smiles and looks up from her spot on the carpet. Regulus throws a small pillow at her in response.

Regulus, although he’d never admit it, is appreciative of these small moments. He never got to have this sense of security as a child, his job took up too much of his time and his Mother’s expectations were so heavy he didn’t have enough space for accidents. He couldn’t afford to mess up so he avoided anything that was risky, even if it meant he wasn’t himself for most of his life, but he’s getting it back– reclaiming what he lost, of some sort.

Eventually the sky got darker and Dorcas doesn’t like to drive in complete darkness so they headed back to the flat.

They made the fatal mistake of letting Barty have control of the aux.

“Why is Jojo Siwa playing at 9 PM at night?” Evan groans from the back seat and he looks out the window.

“1) Time is irrelevant and I think you should be able to enjoy music at all times of the day 2) It’s the deluxe version of Boomerang! How dare you and 3) I do it for attention” Sarcasm drips from his voice during the last “reason” and he bats his eyelashes in the mirror, since he’s sitting in the front seat and can’t look at Evan directly.

Evan ignores him and goes back to looking out the window and the music fills the car, regardless if it’s good or not.

***********
PANDORA
September 15, 9:34 AM

“So, we have our next show tomorrow and we have to be there by 6 PM but our morning and afternoon is pretty much free” Pandora closes the cabinets and fills her glass with Regulus’ Cran-Grape juice.

“Lily is having a few people over and they’re going to drive out to the Forbidden Forest and have like a tailgate thing and do promo pictures there” Dorcas is eating a yogurt and sitting at the island in the kitchen.

“How do you know that? Ooooo are you stalking so you can see dear ol’ Mckinnon again?” Evan teases

“What?! No, Lily texted me and asked if we wanted to tag along, but I didn’t answer because I wasn’t sure. I hate Mar-Mckinnon, why would you even say that!” She swats him with a nearby dish towel.

Evan rolls his eyes and all heads turn to Regulus.

“What, why are people looking at me like that…” He comes back to the conversation, having been previously distracted by his phone.

“Becauseeee you always make the final decisions and I don’t wanna have to think” Barty sometimes acts like he’s still twelve, especially when he’s sleep deprived.

“Yeah sure, as long as Sirius and his groupies aren’t there” Regulus gets up and goes to finish his eyeliner in the mirror beside the door.

“I don’t know, the blonde one is actually an okay guy and the other one- I forget his name Finn?”

“Frank” Evan calls from somewhere

“Yeah, well that guy quit so they had to find a new guy, I haven’t heard of him” Barty continues, gesturing with his vacant hand.

“Well, if Sirius and the moron of a human that is James Potter will be absent then count us in”

“Ok cool, we’ll leave in like an hour or so early though, so we can make it to the venue on time” Pandora cleans her plate and retires to the couch.

They all hum in agreement and continue eating or whatever else they were doing.

*********
LILY
September 15, 10:08 AM

Lily borrows Mary’s maroon truck for the tailgate and they have plenty of food and drinks for a few hours.

Their new photographer, Xenophilius (he goes by Xeno), is also Regulus and the rest of the Emrald Skittles photographer/videographer and has filmed all of their promos for their past album. He’s very nice but also young, only eighteen but Lily can’t judge, she’s only been twenty for a few months.

Ding!

Reg :))

Hey we’re actually going to tag along if that’s okay?

Yes ofc! Get here soon if u wanna ride tho we’re leaving soon xx

Lily’s happy to have Reg and everyone going as well, it’ll make the shoot more of a fun thing rather than work.

“What’re you all smiley about?” Marlene has a cherry lollipop that she keeps switching from her fingers to her red stained lips.

“Regulus and his friends are coming along. I texted Pan a while ago but she wasn’t sure about it, you’ll like them. I know you haven’t met everyone, Marls, but I think you know Dorcas right?”

“Wait Dorcas... y-you mean Dorcas Meadowes?” Her pupils cover her entire eye now and that only confirms Lily’s suspicions, Marlene like-likes Dorcas. Ew don’t ever say like-like again that makes you sound like a seven year old.

“Something wrong, Marlene?” Lily smirks and sees Mary walk out of their front door.

“Um yes, huge problem! She hates my guts!” Marlene has this thing where when she gets passionate while talking she’ll turn her entire body towards the other person and she gets really animated about the topic, it doesn’t even matter if the topic is negative or positive.

“Who hates whose guts?” Mary says and she’s tying a scarf around her curls.

God she’s beautiful. Lily means from a purely objective perspective of course, someone would have to be blind to not recognize Mary’s beauty.

“Dorcas! She absolutely hates me for no reason!”

Mary snorts at that and takes the keys out of her mouth. “Well I’m sure she has a reason, Marls”

“I literally haven’t done anything bad to her! She just hated me from the moment we made eye-contact, I’m serious!”

“Whatever you say, Marls” Lily walks up to Mary and opens her hand expecting the keys.

“What do you think your doing? I’m not lettin’ you near my truck, I’ll drive” Mary grew up in America and moved to London when she was thirteen, she still has a little bit of an accent but it’s mostly neutral. Lily loves when she accidentally lets a y’all or a darlin’ slip. Just because it’s funny, that’s all, no other reasons…

“But you said I could borrow it!” Lily argues

“Fine if you want to try driving it that’s fine, you’ll give up before we hit the highway” Mary shrugs and gives her the keys, opening the passenger side door.

Lily would definitely not give up before the highway, she’s not a quitter.

Xeno rolls down his window from the back “Are we going or not?”

“Yep! One sec, I have to check if they’re meeting us th-”

“”Oh, Lils, Pan called and she said they’re going to meet us by the creek, don’t worry” Mary cuts her off with a reassuring smile and clicks her seatbelt.

“Okay then, let’s get this show on the road! Everyone’s buckled right?” Lily puts the key into the ignition.

“Ugh yes Mum can we go now” Marlene’s voice is a little slurred due to the lollipop in her mouth.

Lily rolls her eyes and pulls out the drive. She can do this. She’ll prove Mary wrong and they’ll be fine.

She hits a curb, Woah okay, maybe not fine hm? This voice sounds a lot like Petunia’s Shut up, we’re fine, see? No one died.

She grips the steering wheel until her knuckles turn white, but they get to the freeway.

“Lils? Are you doin’ okay?” Mary gives her a concerned look from Lily’s right.

“Yep, I’m doing just fine actually” She grits out.

Mary rolls her eyes, and goes back to staring out the open car window.

“Lily! Stop swerving, you're making me nauseous!” Marlene complains from the back, and rightfully so because she looks a little green.

“You try driving a vehicle that’s 3 ½ feet off the ground! It’s hard” Lily bites back, but doesn’t look– too afraid she’ll hit something if she breaks concentration.

Mary chuckles and Xeno gives a small smirk.

They eventually make it to the creek without getting into an accident or pulled over.

********
DORCAS

Xeno gets his gear from the bed of the truck and the girls are busy scoping out which place they should film first.

“Hey guys! Look who’s here!” Mary yells under the shade of a tree.

Barty jumps down from the car while yanking on Evan’s hand. Regulus and Pandora get out evidently with more elegance than the former duo and Dorcas is already waving at four behind her so they can get started.

Lily is the first to greet, as always and she takes her time hugging each of them (even Regulus because no one can resist a Lily Hug for long). Lily hugs Dorcas last and the thing about Lily is that she’s always warm. Everything about her is, her hugs, her smile, even her voice for heaven’s sake. She never loses her freckles, even in the depths of winter, and is one of the best people Dorcas knows, truly. Lily is if spring was a person. She doesn’t know what anyone would do if the world lost the lovely Lily Evans.

“Don’t worry guys! The party has arrived and we can really get things started!” Evan shoves Barty so hard that he staggers a few steps. “Ow Evan! You wound me with your sudden acts of violence!” annoying Evan is one of Barty’s favorite past-times, and Evan is so used to it that he just rolls his eyes in response.

“Okay so where are we thinking of starting?” Xeno sneaks a shy look at Pandora after he speaks, which the latter doesn’t catch but Dorcas sure does.

“Maybe by that little stream, there’s a lot of natural light over there” Marlene’s tongue is stained red, surely from some type of candy.

No one says anything but they all walk over to where Marlene’s finger had pointed.

“Okay, so how’re we going to do this?” Regulus is right behind Mary, who are both already at the aforementioned place for the shoot.

Xeno sets up his camera without looking up when he responds “I was thinking maybe we could have one of them in the stream?”

Lily raises her hand. “I’ll do it! I don’t mind if I get this dress a little dirty, I’ve had it forever.” She toes off her shoes and socks and steps into the water.

“Maybe we could have Marlene in that tree to the right of Lily?” Pandora suggests.
Dorcas sees Regulus, Pandora, and Xeno all discussing who should go where and then Barty and Evan being so enraptured in one another without the other’s knowledge. Eventually she gets bored of watching them and turns her head back to the stream. The sight of Marle–Mckinnon she corrects herself, pulling herself up a tree with muscles popping through her overalls and shirt was not what Dorcas was expecting to see when looking over.

Dorcas does not lose her breath at the sight of it. She certainly doesn’t gape like and idiot when Marlene succeed in lifting herself almost nine feet off the ground and she definitely did not flush when Marlene found and returned her stare with even more hunger than Dorcas.

Marlene pulls the sucker’s stick from between her teeth and puts it between her fingers. “ See something you like Meadowes?”

Dorcas glares daggers at her so sharp they’d cut through steel.

“Don’t flatter yourself, I was just looking at the tree for so long I lost my focus.”

“Ah, so you admit you were staring then?” She smirks a little and then runs her fingers through her shaggy hair.

“Wow, you can’t even comprehend a full sentence. I said I was looking at the tree, not you.” She says the last word with so much emphasis it leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.

Marlene holds her arms up in surrender. “Okay fine, whatever you say babe”

Dorcas’ brain snags on that last word. Babe. That's a term of endearment, something you call someone you care about, someone you love.

That’s weird of her to say then, they don’t even like each other, much less love.

She tries to forget it, she really does but that word doesn’t leave her mind. She can’t stop picturing Marlene’s red stained lips shaping the word, the way her voice had said it so purposefully.

The day goes on and the sun starts getting higher and higher in the sky.

“Mary, can you look a little to your left please?” Regulus waves his hand in the said direction.

She does and Dorcas trips over a twig when trying to walk over to Barty and Evan. Marlene bursts out laughing and throws her head back which means she was watching Dorcas.

“I think we got it!!” Xeno yells looking down at his camera.

Lily jumps out of the water and everyone else crowds the camera.
Dorcas doesn’t know why she does, but she waits for Marlene to jump down from the tree before walking over.

“Aww you waited for me?” Marlene pouts her lip.

Dorcas pays her “no mind” as her mother would say. She simply rolls her eyes and tries to get a better look at the picture.

“Oh my god Xeno, that looks amazing!” Pandora stares in awe at him with a small, genuine small upon her lips. Dorcas notices, but doesn’t comment–yet that is, she’ll probably work it out of Pandora on the ride home.

The picture does look amazing, he happened to take it exactly when Marlene had her head thrown back in laughter, Lily had bent down and run her hands through the water and Mary had her head looked toward the left with an excited expression on her face.

Everyone praised Xeno for his brilliance and then Barty and Evan ran to get the drinks.

“Let’s celebrate!” Evan holds up cooler and Barty has multiple sodas for people that would prefer sobriety.

They each grab a beverage and find a spot in the bed of Mary’s crimson truck.

Easy conversation flows and soon they’re all laughing.

Turns out, Marlene is actually a really funny person. She’s very witty and her humor matches Dorcas’ so well she’s never not laughing.

A phone ringing tears Dorcas from her laughter and bends to pick it up, as she’s the closest to it.

“Oh, that’s mine. Who is it?” Marlene takes a sip from her drink

Dorcas' smile drops clean off her face as she reads the name.

Sirius 🐾

Dorcas doesn’t respond, she hands Marlene the phone and looks the other way as she goes to take the call somewhere else.

This was the day that Dorcas almost forgot what it was like to hate Marlene Mckinnon.

Almost.

Notes:

End notes LILY. WE GOT LILY. I REPEAT LILY HAS ENTERED. I love that woman so much oml. I hope I did her justice with my characterization. I hate that she's so underrated despite being so important to the fandom itself. She's so ughhh. I love her.

also Dorlene 👀 hmmmm i wonder....

MARY. MARY AND HER HOT ASS MAROON TRUCK. 🙏

I hope y'all liked the interview scene, it rlly shows their dynamic and how they act more like family, than friends. AND REG AND HIS FAMILY OML. I feel like so many people focus on Sirius and his story after he got out and how he found his family with the Potters and the Marauders but not a lot of ppl focus on reg and what happened after (if he did) get out. I tried to showcase that here and that Reg's family can be both blood and not, because he gets to choose now.

I'll try to more frequent with updates but I can't promise it, bc of school and stuff

I couldn't figure out the italics bc every time I copy it with my docs it just disappears same thing w/ bold text and it makes me sad bc italics are my fav form of grammar/writing 😔

🚨🚨ALSO I made a tiktok acc for this fic, its @14lines10syllables it has a spiderman pfp so it shouldn't be too hard to find, I rlly hope yall check it out!!

As always please write me comments! they motivate and make me so happy to read!

xoxo,
sonn💜

P.S. the notes below this are from last chapter, I've tried to delete them from this one but idk it's not working so you can ignore if you want!

Chapter 3: Try to Walk Away but I Come Back to the Start

Notes:

Hiiiii ik i said i'd be faster but... life got in the way and i got heavy writers block lol, I'm trying to set things up but i rlly just want to get to the cool stuff yk? anyway hope u like this chapter!! pls yap in the comments!!

REMUS

September 13th, 6:43 AM

 

Remus thought two things when walking into the studio doors:

 

1. It was way too early for this.
2.   Holy shit that guy was pretty.

 

Look, Remus has seen a lot of fit guys in his life, but that guy wasn’t just fit he was ethereal. Like hot guys usually are pretty muscular, tall, etc that kinda thing but pretty guys are an entire different ball game. Whoever this kid was he was pretty as fuck. Porcelain skin, raven curly hair shaped into a longer mullet and the most gorgeous pair of silver eyes Remus has ever scene in his life. 

 

Yes, it was barely past sunrise and he was only half-awake but he was pretty sure about this.

 

Prettyboy, and two other guys are sitting on a brown sofa. The tallest of the three smiles warmly at him and gestures for him to sit down.

 

“Quite early isn’t it?” The guy greets him and Remus immediately likes him. He’s not fake-nice like some people are upon meeting; he seems genuine and if there’s anything Remus learned from his mam, it’s hospitality. 

 

“Yeah, I’m not used to waking up before the sun but autumn sunrises are quite pretty so it was worth it, I guess.” Remus takes a look around before focusing back on the group. The studio is nice, not like the dingy one he’s used to back in his hometown.

 

“You’re Remus right? Nice to meet you, m’ name’s Pete.” A short blonde guy shakes his hand–Pete– and he also seems cool. Not stuck up or arrogant like a lot of famous people are. He seems alright.

 

Remus isn’t used to people like this, he’s got Lily but they’ve been friends since they could read so it’s not like he was starstruck in kindergarten. Lily’s actually the reason he’s here, they’ve both loved music for as long as they can remember and Lily started producing songs with her band only a year and a half ago but they’ve really taken off. Lily’s bandmate, Marlene, is friends with some guy named Sirius and they needed a bassist so Lily offered Remus up on a silver platter. Obviously he was grateful but being up at the crack of dawn as usual outweighed his gratitude.

 

“Yep, the one and only” He’d almost forgotten to respond to Pete’s question, lost in his pre-caffeine thoughts.

 

Prettyboy snorts and rolls his eyes. The first guy, gives him a warning look, well so much for none of them being arrogant.

 

“Pads” The first guy says. Huh, that’s a weird name. His parents must’ve had it out for him to name him something as odd as ‘Pads’. Maybe it’s a nickname, but what would that even be a nickname of? Paddle? No that’s an object… hmmm, Paddington? Well, that was all he could come up with so this guy will share the same name as a talking bear until he introduces himself. 

 

“I just don’t get why we need someone else, we were fine before Frank and we’ll be fine now, we don’t need someone to muck it all up” Paddington says and rolls his eyes looking away from his bandmates. 

 

The tan one ignores him and instead says, “Remus, have you brought something particular you’d like to play?” His smile is warm and his eyes are caring, he seems sorta like the Sun. Aha, Sunshineboy, that’s what he’ll call him. It’s kind of annoying that only Pete has introduced himself with a name but he actually likes these ones better than if they’d told him at the start of the conversation.

 

“Yeah, I just have a song with a basic beat” He pulls out the sheet of paper and swings his case off his shoulder. He opens the ebony case and pulls out a blue and light brown bass guitar.

 

“Okay cool, start whenever you’re ready, man” Sunshineboy’s focus turns back to Remus and Paddington still seems to be pouting. 

 

Remus takes a deep breath and starts to play. It’s one of his favorites because of his mam. She loved music, which makes sense because she was the one who taught him how to play. She probably would be thrilled to hear he was pursuing music but…

 

Shit . The music is ending so his thoughts have to as well. He looks up to Sunshineboy, Pete, and Paddington all sharing a look.

 

“Well, I owe Marlene £5.” Paddington grumbles from his seat on the sofa.

 

Pete rolls his eyes. “Welcome to the Marauders, mate.”

 

**********

 

BARTY

September 27 7:42 PM

 

It’s the day of the Valkyries album release and honestly he doesn't know why everyone’s making this such a big deal.

 

Okay, yes , he understands why it’s cool that they’re releasing their third album in two years but it’s just an album release. This doesn’t warrant Lily’s pale face starting to match the color of her hair or Marlene chewing her fingernails to the bone. Everyone needs to chill out. It’s not that deep.

 

There’s a slight buzz in his system but not enough to be drunk. 

 

The girls’ apartment is cozy, not in a small sense but in comfy kind of way. The white curtains on the windowsill are embroidered with all sorts of flowers and designs. 

 

Honestly he’s only here because Evan wanted to come. 

 

Fuck this honestly.

 

Evan is his best friend. Regulus is too, but it’s… different. Barty doesn’t feel like that around Regulus. Not to say that Regulus isn’t hot but…

 

It’s not even about looks, despite Barty wanting to play off his dilemma by pretending it’s just a shallow ‘I think he’s fit’ kind of crush, he knows deep down that’s not it. 

 

Dumb crushes don’t make Barty want to run his hands through their hair.

 

Dumb crushes don’t make Barty’s stomach dissolve.

 

Dumb crushes don't make Barty blush redder than a tomato.

 

All evidence point to the fact that Barty is now deeply, and wholly fucked.

 

Barty feels this unnerving desire to be gentle. He sees Evan and all he wants to do is hold . To just hold onto him because he can’t handle Evan leaving like everyone else. Barty has been described as violent and destructive, maybe that’s the part that comes from his father. He doesn’t care. He is loud and destructive and violent, but who cares? He spent so much time being told what he could and couldn’t do that it just doesn’t matter. So what if the hands holding him have blood on them? At least he’s being held. He’s being noticed and that’s enough, if it hurts on the way out then so be it.

 

He can’t handle hurting Evan. To see pieces of him shattered like the others before. A deep, selfish part of his mind thinks Do it anyway. You said you could be gentle so try it.

 

He can’t. 

 

Can’t or won’t?

 

As much as he wishes he could have him, he can’t. He won’t be selfish this time. Not to Evan. He can’t lose Evan.

 

He’ll watch from afar, and get as much of Evan as he can. 

 

He won’t be selfish, but that doesn’t mean he won’t savour every bit of him he can get.

 

*******

Marlene

September 27 

 

To say she was excited was the understatement of the century.

 

She loves music. She does and not in a ‘oh I love my job haha’ kind of way. 

 

Everything about music leaves her in awe.

 

Sounds cheesy, but it’s true. 

 

The vocals, the drums, soft melodic strums of guitars, bows dancing on violins, just everything.

 

She’s struggled to find a passion for a long time. Even music was hard for her to feel safe enough to love again. After her mom died it was rough, to say the least. She just completely shut down. It didn’t even occur to her that people could just… die. Unexpectedly, no warning signs, just gone. Obviously, when you’re six you’re not thinking about your parents' days being numbered. She wasn’t alone, not really, just lonely. Marlene has six brothers, older and younger. 

 

 Michael–Mikey– 27, The eldest and a now police officer who just got engaged.

 

Christopher–Chris–  25, An electrician and self- proclaimed “Cat Dad” (Marlene thinks this is ridiculous by the way)

 

Thomas–Tommy– 22, One of Marlene’s closest brothers who’s graduating college to become an engineer. 

 

Marlene was born after Tommy, she’s going to be twenty-one now come June 16th.

 

Then comes the twins, Finn and Will who will turn seventeen in November, Finn working at the aquarium and Will working to get an art scholarship for university applications.

 

The youngest Nathan– Nate– just turned 15 in July. He was not even two when their mum died so he doesn’t even remember her despite looking almost exactly like her. Same hair, eyes, and nose.

 

And then obviously, there’s her dad. Who’s great, by the way, he really tries for all his kids but it’s a lot– seven kids, a full time job and being a single parent. Difficult is an understatement. They all help out, Mikey and Chris especially. 

 

Marlene tries to help out with money as much as possible, she’s very grateful for her fame and that she can live comfortably. A lot of people think she’s cocky or obnoxious, which she can be at times, but she’s just sure of herself. She’s confident in who she is and doesn’t need to hide behind some fake idea that all women should be insecure and fragile. 

 

Things are good. Really good.

 

For the first time in Marlene’s life she’s… happy.

 

Not to say she was unhappy or depressed before, it’s just she can’t remember a time where she was happy about everything; her friends, her appearance, her career, her family, her friends.

 

All of it is just…

 

There isn’t a word to describe it really.

 

Good feels repetitive and not sufficient and perfect feels like she’s taunting the universe to mess up her life.

 

Yeah, no thank you. 

 

She’s struggled a lot with embracing who she is. Growing up as a girl without a mom and being surrounded by boys was a little tough, to be honest. As a kid she just felt so out of place. Like she wasn’t enough of one thing or another. She wasn’t boyish enough like her brothers (even if she said she was), she wasn’t girly like her classmates which was fine but… lonely.

 

While the girls were off whispering about boys they liked, Marlene was in the corner with kickball playing two-touch by herself. Obviously she found friends as she grew older, Mary and Lily as proof of that. She also found her best friend– Sirius– through the music industry. They act like siblings and he’s just like another brother to Marlene and she’s like the sister he lost. Marlene won’t tell you about that, it’s Sirius’ story to tell. 

 

Wherever Sirius goes, James does too. All six feet and one inch of him is full of love and kindness. He’s compassionate, empathetic, selfless, energetic, really just a good person. He’s not perfect, mind you, he can be rash and egotistical at times but he’s a good person. 

 

She hopes whoever ends up with him treats him right. 

 

Speaking of people ending up together this leads to her current dilemma. Dorcas.

 

Dorcas hates her. This is a problem for three reasons...

 

• Dorcas is really pretty and makes Marlene turn to goo once she looks her way.

 

• Marlene doesn’t do well with people disliking her so she’ll react and then it’ll make Dorcas hate her more.

 

• Lily asked Marlene to try and be friends with these people and she’s making it really hard, which is going to piss off Lily and that’s… not good.

 

Dorcas is very headstrong and competitive, which are admirable qualities (to Marlene at least) and she did not warm up to Marlene very well, or like at all.

 

Dorcas did not like Marlene.

 

Did you notice that ' did' , yeah, Marlene has moved up to Tolerated Status now.

 

Pretty cool, right?

 

Yeah, she knows, not as impressive when she’s retelling then it was in her head, nevermind.

 

As much as Marlene would love to speed this along and snog Dorcas’ mind out– she can’t.

 

Not until they can hold a solid conversation without insults.

 

She’s got a lot of work ahead of her but she’s in for the long run.

 

Dorcas doesn’t know it yet but Marlene is already planning their first date.

 

********

 

Regulus 

 

September 28 12:17 AM

 

The party is winding down and the music was shut off a couple hours ago. 

 

Barty and Evan decided to break out Uno and all hell broke loose. 

 

“Hello?! Are you stupid? You can’t stack a +2 on a +4 that’s illegal!” Barty’s face is red and his pupils are blown, likely from the yelling.

 

“Yes, you can you fucking dumbass!” Dorcas waves her cards around while yelling back and Regulus swears he sees Marlene blush in the corner of his eye.

 

“Read the fucking rule book you twat” Barty, then proceeds to throw the rule book in Dorcas’ face (not a wise move on his part).

 

“Oh that’s fucking it, you are so lucky this is a cards game because the board would be so flipped right now!” Dorcas gets up from her spot on the carpet and marches right over to Barty and slaps him right on the back of the head.

 

Unfortunately for a situation this comical, it’s very dangerous to laugh– Marlene, it seems, was not aware of this.

 

Marlene lets out a soft chuckle. 

 

No one breathes or moves.

 

“You got something to add, Mckinnon?” Dorcas’ gaze shifts to Marlene. 

 

Big mistake. Uno means war in this household (it’s not even their house but still) and Barty and Dorcas are usually the main two opponents.

 

“No! Nonono, I was laughing at Barty not you!” Marlene’s face mirrors the expression Barty had only moments ago.

 

“Fine, whatever. Uno is done, all of you are idiots and I’m going to the bathroom.” Dorcas grumbles, grabs her phone, and shuffles to the bathroom.

 

“Bye Cassieeeeeee!” Barty bats his eyelashes

 

The door slams.

 

“Well, that was fun.” Lily clears her and Mary’s bowls from their ice cream and rolls her eyes.

 

“Aw, no that’s just how she is, trust me. Besides, it’s past midnight and being around Dorcas and Barty for this long will make anyone insane.” Barty shoves Evan at his slight jab and Evan rolls his eyes.

 

“So then we’re probably heading out.” Regulus speaks up for the first time in a while 

 

“Okay, cool; thanks for coming, by the way, I know it was a bit anticlimactic but it was nice seeing you guys again” Mary goes in to hug Pandora and then ruffle Regulus’ hair (hugs aren’t on the table for them right now).

 

Eventually they say their goodbyes and leave with Dorcas and Barty in the back of the car, arguing over how Uno is played.

 

The car ride back is short and uneventful. Barty and Dorcas still bickered but that was the only sound besides the quiet hum of the air conditioning. 

 

Evan unlocks the door and Regulus is the first to step inside. 

 

He goes straight to his room and shuts his door.

He goes to the edge of his bed and pulls out his box. It’s a yellow box with crimson ribbon  tied around it but it’s not the box that’s important, it’s the contents inside.

 

He carefully lifts the lid and inside are letters.

 

He doesn’t know how many there are, maybe twenty-five? Well, it’s less than forty but more than fifteen. 

 

All of them are addressed to the same person. 

 

Sirius.

 

His brother.

 

Every time something “big” happens he pulls out a clean sheet of paper and starts a letter.

 

He’s written many over the last five years and it used to be a way to catch him up when Sirius would eventually come back to get him.

 

Sirius never came back.

 

He doesn’t believe he will anymore, there’d be no point anyway, Regulus is out. He’s done.

 

He honestly doesn’t know why he still does it, maybe it’s the force of habit, maybe he just misses his brother, okay?

 

He will not be admitting to which is true.

 

He’s been writing them ever since he left .

 

Nobody else knows. He’s not ashamed of it, alright? It’s just… personal. Nobody else besides him will ever get the chance to read these letters, not even the intended recipient.

 

He hasn’t written one in a while, not since the tour started and he doesn’t have a solid reason to anyway— that doesn’t stop him from pulling out a sheet of paper, his green pen, and an envelope.

Sirius,

 

Hey it’s been awhile, not a lot’s happened but I felt like talking— or writing I guess, today. 

I started tour, but I guess I already told you about that. I just got back from Lily’s place. Her, Mary and Marlene just released their album tonight but you’ve probably already heard all about this from Marlene so I won’t go into too much detail.

I’ve been thinking of going to see Bella. Remember when I told you how she’s been in rehab for a few months? I don’t want to bring up bad memories or anything but I think it’ll be good to see her again. 

 

Right?

 

Well you can’t respond so I might as well just give up that approach. She’s been diagnosed with Anorexia and I think she should have someone from our family who’s not an abusive asshole with her. At least for a bit, you know?

 

Well despite what you say, I’m going tomorrow. Cissa’s been really worried about her so maybe I’ll go with her. Have a big sisters reunion, well except for Andy. 

 

How is Andy by the way? I know you’re in contact with her, I’ve seen you talk all about her in your interviews. Cissa misses her. I do too.

 

I miss you. You won’t ever read this but I think it’s good for the universe to know, maybe you’ll feel it I don’t know. I’m not an expert in the universe’s ways, that’s Dora’s job.

 

Your brother, 

Regulus 

Regulus folds up the letter and slides it into the envelope, he seals it, addresses it and puts it into the box.

 

That letter will never be read but it brings Regulus comfort anyway.

 

He sighs, turns off his lamp and makes his way to his bed.

 

That night, he dreams of his brother.

Notes:

ahhhhh i actually have been waiting to write that regulus POV for sooooooooo long I hope yall liked it!! that will def be important laterrr.... I also really loved marls pov and getting to sorta meet her and know more about her since we've only ever seen her thru Cas' POV! we will only get a select few of people that are in the marauders band bc im evil and don't want to reveal everything (atleast not yet) i also i looooooved barty and like HIM WANTING EVAN BUT NOT LETTING HIMSELF BE SELFISH FOR ONCE 😐. not cool dude (i say as i literally wrote the damn thing)

ummm also guys WE MET THE MARAUDERSSSSS!!!! YAYAYYAY the moment we've all been waiting for \, honestly after next chapter things get rollin'

ALSO GUESS WHO FIGURED OUT THE FORMATTING/ BOLD & ITLAICS *two thumbs pointing* THIS GUYYYYY

I'm not planning on this being super long maybe like 8-10 chapters? maybe twelve(?) idk yet but I hope you guys like it!!

as always please yap in the comments and lmk what u think!!

xoxo, sonn 🫶

Chapter 4: Led Me to the Floor Even Though I'm Not a Dancer

Notes:

Hi y'all! I'm not gonna make an excuse on why this is so late... again.

I really hope y'all like this chapter and as always you'll see me yap in the end notes and yapping back in the comments is always welcome!

enjoy!!

xoxo, sonn

PETER

October 4,  8:29 AM

 

Honestly these daily morning arguments were getting old. 

 

“I’m just pointing out the obvious fact that he’s awful!” Sirius slams his closet closed.

 

“Mate, you’ve literally got no reason to dislike him, besides the fact that you’re a territorial asshole.” James runs his fingers through his hair, pulling it this way and that before he seems to decide that it was the best it was going to get and leaving it alone. 

 

“I have plenty of reasons, one, um… uh- oh! He’s 6’2 and people that are six feet are always arrogant, incompetent idiots. Two, he-”

 

“Dude! I am over six feet tall!” James glares at him through the bathroom mirror.

 

“Case in-point.” Peter shrugs and tries to avoid the hand towel thrown at him from the bathroom. He doesn’t and it ends up splattering on his entire face.

 

“Thank you Pete! C’mon, up top!” Except Peter’s eyes are still covered by the towel so instead of smacking Sirius’ hand he hits him square in the jaw.

 

“Ooo, that looks like it hurts. Anyway, the car is going to be here in… six minutes so you guys  have to hurry up” Pete looks very pointedly at Sirius on that last part. 

 

They were meeting with Remus and their agent, Alice, to discuss the legal aspects of adding him as a member, and how they were going to announce to the public that Remus was the newest addition to the Marauders. Peter was actually relatively excited for the meeting, he liked Remus and Alice never made meetings last too long anyway so he wasn’t too worried.

 

Peter is a great judge of character, he can tell your intentions in a nanosecond and hide his quite well, not that he needs to anymore but the option is always there. 

 

That is the very reason he can tell that Remus is going to be a very good thing. For the band. For them. He can feel it.

 

*******

 

Alice pulls out a creme folder with a multitude of documents inside.

 

From across the table Remus raises his eyebrows at the heavy stack. Peter gives him a small smile of understanding and a tilt of his head. He turns to find Sirius full-on eyeing Remus with disdain of all things. Ugh, he needs to buck up– seriously.

 

“So Mr. Lupin–” Alice starts clicking her ballpoint pen and flips the pages. 

 

“Uh- just Remus is fine.” 

 

Alice softens just a bit “Remus, you need to sign this, it basically says that you will not leak any information about future albums, music or any projects without discussing with our team, you won’t converse with any of the Blacks without Sirius’ consent, and you have to be at all rehearsals, recordings and other events with the band unless you discuss prior why you cannot make it.”

 

“Sounds good. Do you have a pen?” Remus asks and James hands him a blue ballpoint pen.

 

The rest of the meeting is just filling Remus in on certain rules and him signing forms so Peter zones out for the rest of it, nothing catching his attention.

 

Soon enough Alice was closing her folder and shaking Remus’ hand. “It was great to meet you, I can’t wait to get started on some new projects together, but I got to run, see you Remus” She nods goodbye to the rest of them before making a swift exit. 

 

“She seems nice, very determined though.” Remus seems a little… shifty? Peter doesn’t really know how to explain it but his eyes keep shifting between the three of them and he won’t stop twisting his silver rings. 

 

Huh. 

 

Remus doesn’t really strike Peter as the nervous-type, honestly. He’s tall, broad shouldered, although his posture could use some work but that wasn’t abnormal, Sirius has unusually good posture because of all the etiquette lessons the Blacks bestowed on him, so everyone looked like a sloucher next to him. Remus has tawny curly hair that sat atop his head and a moon shaped scar on his left eyelid.

 

Oh shoot. Peter was staring and probably looked like a maniac.

 

Well, he couldn’t look down super fast without drawing attention so…

 

“So Remus, have you ever recorded a song?” Thank god for James really. The miracle-worker had shifted the attention away from Peter so he wouldn’t look like an absolute idiot. 

 

“I’ve written some, but I’ve never recorded, no.”

 

“We’ve been trying to get something recorded for a couple weeks, do you want to go today?” James asks. 

 

“Like right now?”

 

“Like right now, Remus.” 

 

A soft smile takes over Remus’ face when he says, “Let’s do it.”

 

******

 

REMUS 

October 4, 11:49 AM

 

It’s not what Remus expected.

 

The studio isn’t all glitz and glamour, there’s no blacktop desk with a man in a tux waiting for them when they enter. 

 

It’s not what Remus expected. 

 

Instead of the aforementioned man in a tux waiting behind a desk, there’s a woman with wild curls and at least six necklaces on.

 

“Hey boys, Peter. Are you recording something today?”

 

“Hey Syb, this is Remus. He’s our new bassist so we’re going to see if he wants to show us some of his own songs.” Peter claps Remus on the back.

 

“Cool, nice to meet you Remus. I’ll get the booth ready.” She offers him a warm smile before wandering through the back hallway.

 

Remus takes a look around, the place feels loved. Posters hang on the walls, some names he recognizes, some he doesn’t. The walls are a dusty blue, and the furniture are all warm browns and reds.

 

Remus is lucky he carries his notebook everywhere, he pulls it out of his pocket. It’s not big, about four inches long and a light shade of green. 

 

“I’ve got a couple in here, if I can find ‘em.” He flips through the worn pages until he finds what he’s looking for. 

The View Between Villages

 

“Ah, here. This is called ‘The View Between Villages’ and I wrote it a couple months ago. I wrote it with a more acoustic style in mind rather than electric though so beware.” The girl from the lobby– Syb?— hands him a guitar.

 

“Sorry, we would’ve brought our own but this trip was kinda unexpected” James apologizes to her with a bashful look on his face.

 

“S’alright, wasn’t expecting you either so it’ll be fine just this once.” She gives him a wink and then turns to Remus. “Let’s see what you’ve got kid.”

 

He takes a breath and starts strumming. 

 

“ Air in my lungs

 

Til the road begins

 

As the last of the bugs

 

Leave their homes again

 

And I’m splitting the road down the middle

 

For a minute the world seemed so simple

Feel the rush of my blood

 

I’m seventeen again

 

I am not scared of death

 

I’ve got dreams again

 

It’s just me and the curve of the valley

 

And there is meaning on Earth, I am happy

 

Oh, Oh, 

 

Oh, Oh,

 

Passed Algerbrook road

 

I’m over the bridge

 

A minute from home, but I feel so far from it

 

The death of my dog, the stretch of my skin

It’s all washing over me, I’m angry again

 

The things that I lost here the people I knew

 

They got me surrounded for a mile or two 

 

The car’s in reverse, I’m grippin the wheel

 

I’m between villages and everything’s still”

 

The strings of the  guitar quiet down and he opens his eyes to find silver ones staring back at him. The same silver eyes that have been glaring at him for the past three weeks, look… almost sad? He startles and his silver eyes return to harsh glares.

 

No, come back.

 

He saw it though.

 

There's Something more.

 

Sirius is hiding something and Remus is going to figure it out.

 

*******

 

MARLENE

October 6, 1:12 PM

 

Before Marlene even knocks, Sirius opens the door. “Hi Marley! C’mon in, James has some cookies that Effie made in the kitchen. I need to eat before spending two hours near chemicals.” Sirius has an old band t-shirt on and the top half of his hair tied up into a loose bun. 

 

They sit down at the kitchen island and eat their respective cookies. Effie always sends James home with some sort of food when he visits and that woman’s cooking is heaven on Earth. Like seriously, maybe it’s just because Marlene never had cookies from her own mom before, but these were the best she’s ever tasted.

 

They clean up their mess and walk to the bathroom. Once they’re inside, Sirius starts grabbing towels and a few bowls from under the sink.

 

“Alright so what are we doing today?” Sirius starts running the faucet and fills a spray bottle with water.

 

Marlene toys with the ends of her hair “I was thinking maybe a re-bleach and then dye my tips again?” 

 

Sirius hums and then looks at her through the mirror, “We’re not cutting anything today, right?” 

 

“No, I don’t think it’s long enough for that yet.” 

 

“Good, because I don’t have my hair scissors in here and I don’t want to have to run and get them. First we’ll re-bleach your roots, m’kay?” He grabs a bottle of bleach and starts mixing it into the stained bowl (which he hasn’t scrubbed the leftover dye off of in years). 

 

Marlene simply hums in response as he sits behind her in the bathtub and starts separating foils. 

 

All that’s on her mind is Dorcas. 

 

Dorcas. Dorcas. Dorcas. 

 

dorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorcasdorc—

 

“What is up with you today? You’ve been pretty much silent the whole time you’ve been here and normally I can’t get you to shut up. What’s going on Marls?” Sirius breaks her overwhelming thoughts and she realizes he’s almost done with the bleach already. That usually takes about forty minutes but it felt like two. Had she really been so spaced out for that long. 

 

God, Dorcas is going to be the death of her. 

 

“Ugh, I’m sorry I know. It’s just this– girl…” She trails off.

 

“The same one from the premiere back in September?” Sirius grabs a piece of foil and wraps a bleach-covered piece of hair in it.

 

“Yeah, she just… ugh I don’t even know how to explain it. It’s like– I think we’re doing well and then she’ll just go cold and mean again.” 

 

“Maybe she’s just awkward or nervous around you and being mean is her way of covering it up, I don’t know. Romantic advice is not my forté."

 

“Trust me, she’s not nervous. She hates me, like if I got into a car accident and died she might throw a party.”

 

“Remind me again why you like this girl if she wants you dead?” He pauses with the bleach and takes a second to raise his eyebrows at her in the mirror. 

 

“But when it’s good, it’s so good. She’s amazing when she forgets about whatever vendetta she has against me. Like the photoshoot! After a little while we were just talking and flirting and it was nice. She was being nice to me. I think she actually blushed one time when I smiled. Blushed. Sirius, that's huge!” She turns her head to look at him but Sirius moves her head back to where it was before, grumbling about ‘never stays still’ and being too antsy.

 

“God, you’re so whipped. Was she nice the whole day then?”

 

“Ugh, no. I wish. It was so weird. She was literally laughing not even a second prior and then my phone rings, she chucks it at me and it’s like she suddenly remembered she hated me.” As Marlene recounts the memory she suddenly remembered the person that had called her.

 

The same person who was slathering bleach all over her scalp, currently. 

 

“Sirius…” Marlene starts tentatively.

 

“Hmm?” He replies, distracted with distributing all the bleach evenly.

 

“Have you ever met Dorcas? As soon as she saw your name she went back to her usual scowling self. And, come to think of it, she only was rude to me at the premiere after I had spoken to you…” Marlene tries to think of a time where she met Dorcas at a public event that didn’t also involve Sirius. She comes up with nothing.

 

“Can’t say that I have, why– are you accusing me of ruining your chances with a pretty girl who wants nothing to do with you?”

 

“Hey! Sorry, I was just saying anytime that you're not around and I’ve spoken with Dorcas, it's gone pretty smoothly. Maybe you’re bad luck or something”

 

“Me? Bad luck! As if. If anything, I would think that I’d help you get girls; what with my amazing wingman skills and ethereal beauty.” He draws out the last two words and she knows he’s quoting an article that blew up a few months ago which said: ‘Sirius has such ethereal beauty and confidence that it has fans swooning. His charm and charisma shines onstage as he performed his latest hit single, Bourgeoisieses a play on the word…’ Marlene had stopped reading after a bit but she remembers Sirius running around the flat and making up random dances in the kitchen with James, the night after the article was released and Sirius had read it.

 

“Ugh, shut up. I swear that article gave you too much confidence, now you’re just cocky and unlikeable.” Marlene grumbles.

 

“Hah, I think you’re just salty that you didn’t get called ethereal and charismatic” Sirius waggles his eyebrows on the last one and Marlene playfully knocks his hand away.

 

Sirius turns on the faucet and flicks his hand under the water a few times to make sure it’s warm enough. “Marley, tilt your head back. Good, now I have a secret to tell you but if you get all marbly about it then I won’t tell you.” 

 

“Okay I promise I won’t get all ‘marbly’ about it, hurry up and tell me.” She uses air-quotes around the word Marbly, which Sirius rolls his eyes at.

 

He turns the faucet off but makes sure her head stays over the tub ‘So you don’t get water all over the damn tiles’  he had said a while back when she’d asked. 

 

“So… d'you remember that guy that we were going to look into after Frank left?” Sirius fills his cheeks with air and then lets out a raspberry blow. 

 

“Hm, oh yeah! Remus, right?” 

 

“Yeah,” Sirius lets out a tired sigh. “Remus.”

 

“What’s up, is he an ass or no?” Marlene’s hair is still damp but dry enough to not drip everywhere, so she sits up and moves her hair to her right side, so she doesn’t get yelled at by Sirius for dripping all over him.

 

“It’s uh… complicated he’s just–”

 

“New? Shy? Hot? I can’t read your mind dude, that’s James’ job.” Marlene cuts Sirius off and tries to study his face, he’s unfortunately better at hiding his emotions than the average joe, but if you look hard enough you can usually spot something that gives him away. 

 

He speaks before she can find anything worth mentioning.

 

“All of the above, unfortunately.” He sets the applicator down on some foil and moves to grab a bottle of shampoo.

 

“Do you have a photo?” 

 

“You haven’t met him? I thought he was supposed to be Lily’s ‘soulmate’ or whatever.” Sirius rolls his eyes and motions for her to tilt her head back again so he can rinse the bleach out.

 

“I mean yeah, but she said he was at school all last year for music so we never really met him.” Marlene’s hair is short but the water makes it feel like it weighs a million pounds. 

 

“I think James gave me his insta I’ll show you in a sec,” Sirius says, too focused on getting all the soap and leftover bleach that didn’t stick out of her hair. 

 

He turns the faucet off and throws a towel at Marlene so she can wrap her hair up. “Uh… oh! Here it is.” He gives Marlene his phone.

 

Now mind you, Marlene is the most lesbian a girl can get but…

 

Remus is not an average looking guy and she can see the reason for Sirius’... dilemma.

 

“Woah, he’s fucking hot.”

 

“I know! That’s my whole predicament. He’s hot but a total prick.” Sirius flings open his cabinet and starts rummaging for what she presumes is dye.

 

“Okay… what’d he say?” From what Marlene knows about Remus (via Lily’s stories) he’s an awkward, musically gifted, book addict nerd. He doesn’t really strike her as someone who’s particularly asshole-ry.

 

“He didn’t have to say anything, it was the way he acted, he just seemed like he was somewhere else, like he wasn’t fully focused and that pissed me off.” Sirius sighs and drops seven bottles of dye on the counter. 

 

“Sounds like you’re just looking for reasons to not like him. He’s actually really nice from what I hear from Lily and he’s also fucking hot. At least try to be friends with him if you’re not gonna shoot your shot.” Marlene ruffles her hair with the towel, trying to get most of the water to stop dripping. 

 

“Okay we’re not talking about this anymore. You are not helping my case.” Sirius rolls his eyes and then turns towards her, “Alright we’ve got to figure out a color. I’ve got red, maroon, teal, purple, light pink, hot pink, and neon green. Take your pick.” 

 

“How about the purple and teal? Like we highlight the ends of my hair with both colors?” She grabs both of the tubs of dye off the counter and flips them over so she could see the label. Voodoo Blue and Electric Amethyst . Both of the bottles were about ¾ full.

 

“Yeah we could do a split dye? Or like both colors blended on both sides, like alternating each piece?” Sirius grabs black gloves from under the sink and slips them on.

 

“Ooo, definitely the second one, I’ll look so cool on tour. Do you think Dorcas will say anything?” Marlene bites her lip, she really hopes Dorcas will at least notice.

 

“About you changing your entire look? Probably, but she might be too busy eye-goggling you to say anything…”

 

“Ugh! She does not eye-goggle me!” She whips him on the shoulder with a towel. “She doesn’t even like me!”

 

“She doesn’t have to like you to acknowledge the fact that she thinks you’re fit.” Sirius shrugs and starts sectioning off her hair.

 

“Oh, and you would know all about that…” Marlene rolls her eyes and Sirius starts to apply dye on a strand of platinum blonde hair.

 

*******

 

Regulus

October 8th 11:19 PM

 

Regulus knocks lightly on Pan’s door. He’s met with silence and he knows that’s not good.

 

“Pan? Can I come in?” He tries to make his voice soft and he waits for an answer.

 

The only one he gets is her creaking open the door a smidge. He carefully pushes it open and finds Pandora sitting on her rug. She’s staring straight at the wall and doesn’t bother to acknowledge him when he sits next to her. He knows she’s not being rude, she just needs to be on something else so things don’t come crashing down on her. The wall is her focus point and is she looks away things will go awry. He’s not saying it’s logical, sometimes things to have to be to offer comfort– sort of why kids will have imaginary friends; they likely know it won’t do anyhting if their pretend best friend is there or not but it makes them feel safe and who is he to question it? He would absolutely hate it if someone started questioning why he still writes the letters. He may not understand it, but he respects it and Pandora does the same for him.

 

“Pan? You’re kind of scaring me. What’s going on?” He’s careful to make his voice quiet, having some small notion that if he speaks too loudly or too forward she’ll kick him out. 

 

“Do you ever feel empty?” She looks so still that if he hadn’t heard her speak he would’ve thought she hadn’t heard him after all. 

 

“Empty?”

 

“Like… like you’re floating outside of your body and nothing is real.” Her voice is hoarse, like she hasn’t used it in a while.

 

He doesn’t answer her. What would he even reply? Sometimes people aren’t looking for advice or even for you to understand. They just want to be listened to. They just want to be heard.

 

“Sometimes I feel like none of this is real.”

 

“This?” Regulus repeats. She could mean a lot of things; life, their careers, anything really.

 

“Life. Existing. I mean, I–” She pauses and tries to stifle a sob, takes a shaky breath and continues, “Everything feels scripted. Like all of it is fake and it just doesn’t matter. I feel stuck.” She never tears her eyes away from the wall. 

 

“It feels like I’m watching someone else live their life. Like I’m just a spectator from outside the glass.” 

 

It’s a few moments before she speaks again. “And then other times, I feel like I could never live any other way. I’m so happy I can’t imagine anything else. I don’t remember any of the floating. I feel stable. I don’t know which version is the real me and that’s scary.”

 

“Can’t you be both?” He hasn’t spoken for a few moments and her expression changes to surprise– like she almost forgot he was there.

 

“What?” She doesn’t turn towards him. Doesn’t look at anything except The Spot. Her eyebrows have smoothed back out and she looks eerily similar to her twin brother in this moment. 

 

“Can’t you be both?” He repeats, “Can’t the real you be floating and also stable? People aren’t just monotonous, no one can be the same all the time, it’s statistically impossible.” 

 

“I know that. It’s just– why can’t I be here all the time?” Her question is rhetorical, she’s not looking for an answer. “I’m not asking to be happy all the time. I’m asking to feel conscious and in control of my life. I feel like I’m spiraling out of control. Like I’m in a car and the steering wheel  doesn’t work anymore, I’ll just go wherever and I can’t stop the inevitable crash. I can only watch it happen and brace for it.” Tears start streaming down her face and if Regulus wasn’t staring directly at her and searching for any microexpression she lets through, he wouldn’t have noticed them. She’s a silent crier. 

 

Regulus doesn’t respond and he knows that Pandora is waiting for one.

 

In the end, he holds her. He carefully hugs her and cards his fingers through her blonde hair. She lets the hot tears run down and face and her body goes limp, like all the fight left in her goes out and she collapses into Regulus.

 

She never looks away from that spot on the wall.

Notes:

whew. This was a rough one for my fav platonic duos...

Okay so from the top:

Peter. My boy. My fav underrated marauder (from the core 4 obvi) he is honestly just so over everyone's shit. He's so funny and awkward I love him. Him and Remus are such an underrated duo that I don't often see and most of the time that i DO see them, they're dynamic is very dissimilar to how i picture them. (heavy on most, some people *cough* artemis *cough* *cough* do a wonderful job writing them both) Peter definitely knows a lot, I feel like he's a very empathetic/observant person and he picks up on a lot but doesn't share (he's a king for minding his business ngl) He and Remus are so special to me (can you tell i'm a freak for platonic soulmates?)`

Then Remus and the hints of Wolfstar👀 like okay Mr. 'I'm gonna figure out his secret' Lupin and Sirius 'i have no reason to hate him I just do' Black

Speaking of my favorite drama queen... him and Marlene literally give me life. I've always hc that he and Marls were like SUPER close just like Remus and Lily are yk? Like he's just another one of her brothers and Marls is like the sister he never had (bc he never rlly had a sister to begin with...) and Sirius def dyes her hair and Marlene does his piercings, I don't make the rules I just write what they tell to

ANDDDD lastly. Pandora and Regulus. These two mean the world to me, I think it's bc they remind me so much of me and my bsf bc we both kin them but idk. Ugh, Pandora my love 🫶 she'll be ok guys she just needs to heal and recover, pinky promise. Their dynamic is so interesting to me because a lot of ppl make it so like Reg is the one with all the problems and Pandora is the one to help him and she's somehow perfect and one-dimensional with no trauma or anything to worry her in the world and I feel like that's so unrealistic. No one is perfect and no one is trauma-free as much as I hate to say it. That's why characters that are 100% evil are unrealistic, there is good and bad in everyone even fictional people the same goes for Sunshine characters, not to say that people can't be bubbly and a happy person just that they need more dimension. My version of Pandora and Regulus is very much an equal give and take relationship, they both are messed up and they both lean on one another for help. Reg and Pan feel safe with each other and understand one another in a way the other Skittles can't. They may not fully be able to know what the other is going thru but they can both empathize and help them.

anyway that's kinda it for this chapter lmk what y'all think!

Next chapter is Remus+Skittles meeting, Emrald Skittles concert, Rori again and something else... heheheh

Chapter 5: How could I deny it, A diamond in the rough

Notes:

Helloooo! I am back! Ik its been a while (i say this every time, what's new?) I think it's actually double the usual amount of time (2 months, yeesh) But! I bless you all with an extra long chapter! about 7.5K words!!

I'll see y'all in the end notes!

Enjoy xx

Remus 

Friday, October 23 9:57 PM 

 

Marlene– One of Lily’s friends– had asked Sirius to bring the marauders to a party and obviously the arrogant prick that Sirius Black is, said yes. Lily had assured him that she’d be there and she would go with him if he wanted to leave after an hour. Reluctantly (and stupidly) he agreed. 

 

So now, he’s sitting in James’ car driving to a random party sitting next to a guy that has decided to hate his guts.

 

Right. That.

 

So here’s the deal. This guy– Sirius (previously known as PrettyBoyTM) hates him. For no reason he might add. He won’t look at him, they don’t talk at the studio, and God forbid Remus try to start a conversation. He mostly acts cold towards him, which is quite jarring considering how he acts with the other band members. Honestly, Remus doesn’t even know what he did to the guy– he has said some not-so nice things to a lot of people so it would make sense if he’d insulted him, but Remus has been nice. Like out of his way nice, not just following common courtesy like usual (not to say he’s usually mean, but he takes a bit of warming up to get used to new people).

 

He apparently hasn’t realized how lost in his head he’s been because James starts parking the car by the curb. 

 

Also, if he wasn’t so lost in his head during the car ride, he would’ve noticed a certain silver-eyed bloke staring at him the whole drive over. But, of course, he didn’t notice.

 

The car jerks to a stop and the five of them jump out of James’ car. 

 

The house is nice. Which isn’t a super astounding observation, given that the owner is a multi-millionaire. The owner being Emmeline Vance, the manager of The Valkyries and a close friend to both them and the rest of the marauders. Remus has never met her but he’s sure it’ll be fine, she can’t be that awful if she’s friends with Lily. 

 

Soon, they wind up on the front porch and Peter knocks on the door. It’s hardly even a second before a girl with purple and blue hair swings the door open. 

 

“Hiya! C’mon in,” The girl says, swaying a little on her feet.

 

Sirius steps forward, “Woah, hey Marls! Your hair is holding up pretty well.” 

 

“Yeah thanks, c’mon I’ve got someone I want you to meet!” She all but yanks him inside and the two rush off.

 

The remaining four– Peter, Remus, James, and Alice (their manager) walk in with slightly less chaos than Sirius had. 

 

The party’s not abnormally huge, but it’s not a small get-together either. There’s probably around sixty-ish people there. 

 

He quickly skims over the crowd and searches for long red hair. 

 

He rushes over as soon as he spots her. 

 

“Lils!” He puts his hand on her shoulder.

 

“Rem! I’m happy you made it! This is Mary.” She moves a little to her right so Remus and a girl with light pink dress could see each other better. 

 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Remus.” He holds his hand out for the girl– Mary– to shake. 

 

She shakes his hand and offers him a kind smile, “Yes, I’ve heard so much about you from Lily! How’re the guys treating you?”

 

“They’re good, Peter’s amazing at chess and he’s hilarious and James is the best cook.” He says, remembering the other night when James had made samosas and chicken tikka masala– which he’d said was one of the more mild meals that his mom had taught him. 

 

“And Sirius? Has he shown you his old CD collection? I swear he’s got every 90’s rom-com known to man.” Mary rolls her eyes.

 

Remus isn’t sure how he should respond. There really is no ‘good’ option here: 1) He could lie and say that they were friends and play into whatever she says next  2) He could admit that they weren’t really friends and the only conversations they have had weren’t exactly pleasant. Or 3) He could give a dry, vague answer that would probably stop the flow of the conversation.

 

He takes a breath and looks at his best friend. In the end, he chooses a sort of mixture of all three. “No, I have yet to hear of this famous collection. He hasn’t really gotten around to showing me it yet. We haven’t spoken a whole lot yet, so…” He trails off and rubs the back of his neck.

 

“Well, I’m sure you guys will get along great, he’s probably just missing Frank, they were pretty close before Frank flew off to America.” Thankfully, she doesn’t comment more on the topic and Lily starts talking to him about how she’s thinking of repainting her room.

 

He zones out for a bit, mindlessly nodding along and humming so he’s not sure how long it is until he bumps in someone. 

 

That someone has awfully familiar raven black hair, light eyes, and chiseled cheekbones.

 

He can’t quite place it, but there’s something there, he can feel it.

 

“Oh sorry, I didn’t see you! Wait– you’re Lily’s friend right?” The boy asks.

 

“Yeah, I am.” He offers his hand, “Remus. Remus Lupin.” 

 

“Nice to meet you.” He shakes Remus’ hand. “I’m Regulus.”

 

********

Pandora

 

They haven’t been at the party for an hour and she’s already lost Regulus. Honestly, it’s like he just disappears into thin air. Ten minutes ago he went off to get them both drinks and he never found his way back, oh well, she’ll just catch up with him later. 

 

Dorcas ran off a while ago with a pathetic excuse and Pandora couldn’t help but notice that Mckinnon had followed, not long after in the same direction. She’ll definitely be interrogating Dorcas later.

 

Music plays through the speaker and people dance and it all looks very bright. There’s no other way to describe it, everyone’s face is lit up, people move with so much passion and laugh as if there are no worries in the world. Because there’s not, not tonight at least. Tonight they are weightless. 

 

Ugh, if only she could find Regulus and drag him out to the dance floor. 

 

She scans the room. The five of them already greeted Lily, Mary, and Marlene and the former two were already engrossed in a conversation that seemed very passionate, even though all she could see from across the room was Lily’s wide green eyes and Mary’s intense hand gestures. 

 

She goes through the list in her head: Dorcas and Marlene– gone. Barty and Evan– probably trying to figure out how to set the champagne on fire. Regulus– poofed into thin air. Lily and Mary– too busy flirting. That leaves Pandora alone. 

 

Well. 

 

She searches the sea of dancing people and her eye snags on a platinum haired boy. 

 

Xenophilius. 

 

She scampers over, a little wobbly because she’s got more than a few sips in her system. 

 

“Pandora! I had know idea you were coming!” His eyes light up when he spots her, and his face morphs into a warm smile.

 

“I could say the same to you! How are you? I haven’t seen you in over a month!” 

 

“I’m good, yeah! I had a really fun time that day.” He seems almost sheepish when he adds the last part. 

 

“Me too. It’s nice to see you again.” She says softly.

 

He bites his cheek to hide a smile (which doesn’t work too well, the smile peeks out anyway). “D’you maybe want to dance?” 

 

“I’d love to.” She grabs his hand and pulls him all the way to the mosh pit. 

 

She found a dance partner after all.

 

****** 

 

Regulus 

 

“Reg! There you are, c’mon we have to leave and figure out wherever the fuck Dorcas went. Let’s go, Evan and I already said goodbye to the girls, c’mon.” Barty complains, with Evan in tow. 

 

“Yeah, one sec, I just have to finish something up. I’ll meet you outside, yeah?” Regulus says, turning back to Remus. 

 

Remus someone, he’s only just met and he already likes him better than half of the people here. 

 

“Um, I have to get going, but we have a show coming up. It’s on Sunday– the 25th. You should go, if you want you could text me and I could get you a couple tickets, feel free to bring someone if you’d like.” Regulus adds on the last bit a little late. Is it weird to invite someone you just met alone to a concert? Well. The stupid words already left his mouth so there’s no turning back now.

 

Thankfully, Remus doesn’t give him an odd look and just smiles, “Yeah, that’d be great. Could I get your number so I can text you about tickets?” 

 

Regulus all but rips his phone out of his pocket. He really needs to work on acting normal in front of new people. They exchange numbers and Regulus finally gets a grip. 

 

Remus looks over Regulus’ shoulder. “Have fun with the lunatics.” He scoffs, nodding to Barty and Evan, who were now falling more than walking. 

 

Regulus lets out a soft chuckle. “See you around, Remus.”  

 

Now he has to deal with the nightmare that is drunk Barty and Evan. 

 

Great. 

******

 

Remus 

 

Remus watched Regulus exit, and then figured it was a little pathetic to keep standing there, so he went to find the rest of the band. 

 

It was late anyway, they all should be on the road by now. 

 

He walks into something that he’s sure he wasn’t supposed to see. The sight he’s talking about, of course, is Sirius Black frantically looking through the crowd and… oh god? Was that a tear? Shit, he definitely wasn’t supposed to see this. 

 

Okay, Remus isn’t an absolutely terrible person. Sure, he can be a wanker at times (some more often than not) but he’s not like– evil or anything. So, decides to at least turn around to give him at least a little privacy. Common decency is not a trait Remus Lupin lacks, however neither is curiosity. 

 

Sue him. He’s a little intrigued in why the ever-so confident Sirius Black looks distraught. He might not be able to see him, but he can still listen. He knows Sirius is hiding something, after all. 

 

A soft voice whom Remus thinks belongs to James, speaks first. “Pads, c’mon. She’s not here. You know she’s not, and besides, why would she be at Marlene’s party of all places?”

 

“I- I know. I just… I don’t know. I could’ve sworn I heard her laugh. I’m probably just hallucinating or something, I don’t know. I’m crazy enough right–” He breaks off and Remus hears a sniffle. Shoot, he really was crying. Well, now Remus feels like a wanker. What kind of person eavesdrops on a crying person? So much for common decency, Remus.

 

“You’re not crazy.” Remus can almost feel the silence after James spoke. “Okay, I take that back… but you’re not being crazy about this. It’s okay to mourn, y’know?” James treats this with so much care and practice, it’s almost like this happens regularly. Maybe it does, if the way he was able to calm him down so quickly means anything.  

 

“I’m not mourning. It’s not like she’s dead.” Okay, so another clue for Remus, this person was still alive somewhere. “I just… I dunno. I miss her.” 

 

“That’s okay too. C’mon I think Pete’s waiting for us.” James leads Sirius to the front door and Remus waits a beat before following. 

 

Who this ‘ she ’ is, Remus does not know. 

 

Is it really that bad, if he wants to find out?

 

******

Regulus

October 24, 1:23 PM

 

“Are you sure you still want to do this? It’s not going to bring up any bad memories for you?” Cissa’s wearing a black longsleeve and a checkered skirt. Is this important? Probably not, but Regulus would rather focus on his cousin’s fashion choices than walking through those double doors. 

 

“I’ll be fine.” He says, and Narcissa gives him a pointed look. “Really, I will be. Promise. I wouldn’t come with you if I thought I wasn’t fully recovered. I’m fine.” He was not fine. 

 

Nevertheless, he walks through the double doors.  

The sterile scent gives him a wave of nausea.  White walls, long corridors, free of any decoration– save for a few plants at the front desk. 

 

Bile raises in his throat. He wasn’t ready for this. Not yet. Being back here it’s like–

 

“Can I help you?” A portly woman with pointed glasses and a scowl asks. 

 

“Yes, we’re here to visit a patient.” Narcissa, thank god, speaks up. Regulus is sure he would vomit if he tried to open his mouth. 

 

“Last name?” The woman drawls, clicking the keys on her computer. 

 

“Black.” Narcissa answers, and the word makes his blood run cold. 

 

“Ah, I see. Fill out these forms, and I’ll send you on down.” The woman hands them a stack of papers and returns to her clicking on the computer. 

 

They go and sit in those awfully stiff blue chairs and wait. Well, Regulus waits and Narcissa completes the form. 

 

He waits.

 

And waits.

 

And waits.

 

Until finally, Cissa springs up from her chair, her shoes clicking as she walks over to the counter and returns the form. 

 

She reappears at his side and puts a hand on his shoulder. “C’mon. Room 402.” She doesn’t wait for him to get up, already scampering down the long corridor. He quickly follows, jogging a bit to catch up with her. 

 

She stops short in front of a white door with the number ‘402’ on a blue plaque next to it. 

 

He watches her take a deep breath before opening the door. Wow, they are really doing this. Okay, here we go. 

 

The door creaks open. 

 

His shoes squeak on the shiny tile. He takes a look around, but it doesn’t take long. There isn’t much to see in a rehab room usually. White walls, no mirrors or photos in sight. A window to his left, though he knows it can’t open. He takes note of the decorations in the room, or more like the absence of them, before turning to look at the subject of his dread. 

 

Bellatrix. 

 

She looks small. Her cheeks are hollowed rather than the chiseled look they normally have and she looks pale. Well, paler than she is naturally. Her dark curls have become mangled and her lips have lost their color and her eyes look droopy. Not tired-droopy, more like restless. They look empty. 

 

She looks like his mother. The same dark hair and silver eyes with a haunted look to them.

 

“Hi, Bella.” Narcissa says softly, heels clicking as she walks to her bedside. 

 

Bella, the prick she is, scoffs. “What, they tell you I’m in the loony bin and come and pay your good deed for the day?” 

 

Regulus rolls his eyes. “How long have you been here? We only got word about a month ago." He wrings his fingers inside and out, cracks his knuckles, twists his rings, counts the creases in his finger joints. One. Two. Three. Fou– 

 

“Almost seven months, I think. Can’t figure out how to fix me. Says it’s ‘chronic’, ‘bet they figured some quality family time and a heart-to-heart from my sister would make me normal again.” Her voice is hoarse and it lacks the posh accent their family had drilled into them. He can feel her gaze on him. He doesn’t look up. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Si–

 

“C’mon Bels, you know we’re not here for that. We want to help you.” 

 

“Bullshit.”

 

“Don’t be like that. It’s not fair.” 

 

“You wanna know what’s not fair, Cissy?” Bellatrix sits up and leans closer to Narcissa. “‘You got up and left me in the middle of the night, and took Reg with you just like Andy and Sirius did.” She practically spits on her, eyes darkening and face turning from a scowl into something worse. Something cold. 

 

“That’s not how it hap–” 

 

“And you!” She cuts Regulus off. “You and I are the same, you know. We are. Don’t act like you’re different just because you got a shrink to tell you something you already know and now you’re ‘fixed’. Just because you went off and to try and live in some magical sunset world, where everyone is happy, doesn’t mean you’re any less fucked in the head than I am. You’re still sick.” 

 

His leg bounces and his hands shake. Count again, he thinks. One. Two. Thr– He finally finds his voice, which is trembling, “You’re wrong. I’m not sick. I’m better. I’m not like you, I got help. I’m recovered.” 

 

“Recovered.” She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “ People love to throw that word around. If you’re recovered , tell me that you don’t ever think about it. That you don’t ever look at yourself in–” 

 

A slap echoes and no one moves. 

 

“Did you just slap me?” Bellatrix turns to Narcissa, fuming. 

 

“Yes. Yes, I did.” Narcissa answers in her traditional sarcastic and cool tone. “You had no right to speak to Reg that way. I came here to help you. You’re my sister, and I love you, but I can’t just stand by and watch as you destroy yourself and try to take others down with you. If you’re not going to at least try, then there’s no reason for us to stay any longer.” She spins on her heel and grabs Regulus. 

 

Regulus stands up, his legs still wobbly beneath him. Before they exit the plain room, Narcissa freezes, her hand still on Regulus’ back. 

 

“I really wish you would try.” She gives her a look. Not a smile, but not pity either. More like longing. Longing for a person that no longer existed. 

 

Narcissa walks away, heels tapping the floor as she rounded the hallway. 

 

Regulus was still in that room. Alone with Bellatrix, just like it used to be. 

 

Bellatrix’s eyes are trained down at her cloth hospital blanket. Her voice comes out small, almost scared. “I’m sorry.”

 

Two simple words make Regulus want to take it all back, to pull her out with him and force her to cut ties with them.  

 

He can’t, though. Afterall, what’s the use in daydreaming about the past? It gets you nowhere. 

 

He doesn’t respond to her apology. What was he supposed to say? That it was ok? That the last two and a half years weren’t hell, because of everything they went through and the stuff she introduced him to? He doesn’t answer that question anyway. He simply takes a breath and locks eyes with her.

 

“I love you, Bels.”

 

And that was that. 

 

******

 

Marlene 

October 24, 8:49 PM

 

Marlene is currently lying upside down off the edge of her bed. Don’t ask. Or do. 

 

The thing is, Marlene can’t stop thinking about it. 

 

What is it you may ask? Dorcas Motherfucking Meadowes dragging her down a secluded hallway and snogging her senseless. 

 

Okay, let’s back up. It makes a lot more sense with context. 

 

The Party – 

 

Marlene was currently standing by the fruit bar, laughing with Mary as she threw a grape into her mouth. The grape she almost choked on when she saw Dorcas walk into the room . Now, normally Marlene has a little more charm, but seeing Dorcas in fishnets rewired her brain chemistry. 

 

“You okay there, Marls?” Mary asked, brown eyes now clouded with concern. 

 

“Yeah– yeah. Sorry, what were you saying?” Marlene doesn’t look back to Mary, eyes still locked on Dorcas, who was making her rounds around the party and greeting a few of their mutual friends. 

 

“Careful, you’ve got a little drool on your–” Mary says and laughs when Marlene’s hand snaps up to wipe the non-existing drool on her chin.

 

“Not funny.”  Marlene scowls and rolls her eyes. 

 

“It was a bit, c’mon what’s got you so worked up?” Mary says, lighting hitting her on the arm in encouragement. 

 

Marlene’s eyes find Dorcas again and Mary makes an ‘ ah’ sound. 

 

Nudging Marlene’s shoulder, Mary says, “Go talk to her, for all your talk, you’re rather shy about love.” 

 

“That’s because this is real. I don’t want to fuck it up.” Marlene admits, finally averting her eyes into her lap.

 

“You won’t. Promise.” Mary gives her shoulder a quick squeeze. “Now go, put your relentless flirting attitude to good use, for once!” And with that, and a quick swig of her cocktail, she heads off to do just that. Put her charms to good use. 

 

“Dorcas! Fancy seeing you here!” Marlene says, waltzing right up to her side.  

 

Dorcas’ eyes, adorned with the purple eyeliner she always wore, rolled to the back of her head. “Mckinnon. What are you on about? You literally invited us?” 

 

“Yeah, but it’s always a pleasant surprise when my guests actually show.” She quips back.

 

“Ah, right, I guess you aren’t used to that.” Dorcas retorts, punctuating the ‘you’ in a way that makes Marlene sure it was meant as an insult. 

 

“Oi! What’s that supposed to mean?” Marlene smiles playfully. 

 

“Don’t worry about it.” Dorcas hides a smirk by sipping her coral colored beverage. 

 

“What’s that?” Marlene points to the drink in her hands.

 

“Dunno, Lily made it.”

 

“Ah, careful then, she always makes the best drinks and before you know it, you're drunk drooling on a bathroom floor.” 

 

Dorcas smiles, “Speaking from experience then?” 

 

Marlene sputters, trying to find a way to redirect the conversation from her drunk and drooling on a bathroom floor . “Uh- hold on! I think one of my friends just walked in. Stay right there, I have someone I want you to meet.”

 

Marlene luckily just heard a few voices out on the porch. She all but sprinted to open the door. Almost yanking the door off its hinges, she visibly sighs in relief as she sees the familiar figure of Sirius Black and his worn black boots in front of her. 

 

“Hiya! C’mon in,” Marlene says, rocking on her heels eagerly.

 

Sirius steps forward, “Woah, hey Marls! Your hair is holding up pretty well.”  

 

“Yeah thanks, c’mon I’ve got someone I want you to meet!” She drags him across the smooth floor and they rush over to Dorcas. 

 

“Woah! Where’s the fire?” Sirius chuckles at his own joke, the bastard. 

 

“Quit it, you twat.” She slaps him in the ribs and he pretends to fall at the contact. 

 

“Ah, you’ve wounded me. Please I beg for your mercy!” Sirius tries to kneel down and actually beg on the floor, but Marlene yanks him up by his collar. 

 

“None of that.” She brushes him off a bit before continuing, “Remember that girl I was telling you about?”

 

“The hot one that hates you?” 

 

Marlene rolls her eyes, “Yes, that one.” 

 

“What about her?” Sirius’ eyes then get really big and he abruptly stops and turns to her, “Oh my god, is she here? Is that why you were running like a crazy person?”

 

Instead of responding, she grabs Sirius’ hand and brings him over to the bar that she and Dorcas had sat at earlier. 

 

She stops in front of the long-haired girl and gestures between her and Sirius. “Sirius, this is Dorcas. Dorcas, this is my best friend Sirius.”

 

“Nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard so much.” He says, emphasizing the word in a way that makes Marlene elbow him in the ribs again. 

 

Dorcas quirks an eye at him. “All good things, I hope.”

 

“Oh yes, of course. I like your eyeliner, by the way.” Sirius says, pointing the purple swoop above her eyelids.

 

“Oh- thanks, I like your boots.”

 

They keep up the small talk and Marlene can’t help but notice the guarded look Dorcas has with Sirius. Of course, everyone's a little uncomfortable with new people, it’s natural, but she hasn’t seen Dorcas look this closed off since… well since never. 

 

Suddenly Sirius gets up, excusing himself with a quick, “Sorry, James just texted me.” He disappeared in a matter of seconds. 

 

“Are you alright?” Marlene asks, softly, which is unusual for her. She’s worried she’ll scare Dorcas off into being completely guarded, and that is the opposite of what she wants. 

 

Dorcas snaps out of her daze, her eyes refocusing on Marlene. “Yeah. Yeah, sorry.” She shakes her head, as if shaking off the cloudy feeling she had before. 

 

Marlene watched her push away her stool and walk towards a secluded hallway. Marlene sits, frozen, before regaining control of her muscles and following her quickly. Dorcas is already a good waze away from her and her steps are far from slow. Dorcas shoves and weaves her way through the crowd, with Marlene struggling to keep up.

 

“Wait! Dorcas!” She runs a little before continuing again.  “Wait! Dorcas, hold on!” 

 

Dorcas freezes, but doesn’t turn around, choosing to instead wait in the solitary corridor for Marlene to catch up. 

 

Atleast, Marlene hopes she’s waiting for her to catch up. Marlene collapses her chest onto her knees, panting. “God, you’re– really fast. Jesus. Whew.” She regains her breath and stands up straight. 

 

Marlene doesn’t have time to react as Dorcas whips around and pulls her face in for a kiss. 

 

Yes, you read that right. Dorcas Meadowes was kissing her. 

 

Marlene melts a little, before kissing back and letting her hands rest on Dorcas’ neck. Marlene feels like she’s on fire, every cell in her body heating up and every hair standing up straight like a rod. 

 

Unfortunately they have to come up for oxygen, a stupid obstacle is you ask Marlene. She’d gladly give up breathing if it meant she could stay in Dorcas’ arms for as long as she wanted. 

 

Dorcas rushes back, her hands brushing up to her lips. She glances back to Marlene, as if she’s not sure if what just happened was real or not. 

 

“Um, I have to go.” Are the only words spoken to Marlene before Dorcas rushes out and twists around the hall, back to the party.

 

Marlene, in her shock, didn’t have the sense to respond, verbally or physically. She simply leaned against the nearest wall and tried to regulate her breathing. 

 

She didn’t find Dorcas again for the rest of the night.

 

*******

 

Remus

Morning after the party, October 24 9:38 A.M

 

Remus was fiddling with his chessboard. It was the one he’d gotten from Lily on his eighteenth birthday, she’d customized it. Instead of traditional black and white, the squares were a warm brown and lively green. 

 

“Our colors!” She squealed with excitement. Remus had crinkled his eyebrows in confusion. “They’re the colors of our eyes, silly.” She explained, tousling his hair. 

 

He smiled at the memory, Lily has always known him best. Nothing could get past her, she saw you for everything, and loved you for it. 

 

He picked up a dark green bishop, inspecting it and admiring the flower designs she had made from the flat bottom of the piece. 

 

A knock on his door interrupts him, but he doesn’t mind much.It’s not like he was doing anything important anyway. He hollers a quick, ‘Come in!’ and James pokes his head through the door. 

 

“I know, I know. Before you yell at me, I come bearing hangover food.” He says in defense, even though Remus likely wouldn’t have yelled at him anyway, he’s not going to refuse breakfast.

 

“”It’s alright, bring it over.” Remus scoots up on his bed, making room for James and the mug of tea and plate of pancakes he’s holding. Normally, he doesn’t like eating in his bed. He thinks it gross, crumbs get everywhere and it brings ants, but he’ll make an exception because he’s quite interested in why James Potter is in his room so early in the morning. 

 

“Morning, Remus. D’you have fun at the party?” James seems quite nervous, fidgeting with his sleeves and never staying still, but that could just be James. It seems like he wants to ask something else, but he can’t work up the courage to do it. 

 

“Yeah, I did…” Remus trails off, taking a sip of his tea. It’s awkwardly silent for a few moments, before Remus has had enough. “Ugh, just spit it out! What do you want to ask, James?”

 

James looks up, startled by his outburst. “Nothing! Why do you say that?” 

 

Remus rolls his eyes at his poorly told lie. 

 

“But now that you mentioned it… there is something I wanted to ask you.” James says, taking a breath and waiting for Remus, as if he needs some sort of permission to even ask the damn question.

 

“Well, go ahead.” Remus motions for him to keep going.

 

James laughs at his snarky response and takes a long exhale. “Okay. So there’s this person I saw you talking to last night and I wanted to know what they’re like.” 

 

“I talked to quite a few people last night, you’ll have to be more specific.” He takes another big gulp of his tea. 

 

“Right. Well, his name is Regulus. He’s got black curls, pale skin, silver eyes. He was wearing a dark green silk dress shirt? You couldn’t miss him if you saw him.”

 

Remus’ mind flashes with recognition. “Oh, yeah, Regulus. Him and I actually talked for a while, what about him?” 

 

James snaps a finger at Remus, “See, that’s the thing. Regulus hates us. Well, he hates me and Sirius. Peter, and Frank too, I guess, he tolerates. I can’t figure out why he doesn’t like us so much!”

 

“Did you do anything to piss him off?” Remus suggests.

 

“No! That’s exactly why I’m so confused! I’ve barely spoken to him and the few times I have, he acted like I’d murdered his cat or something!” 

 

“Did you?”

 

“What? No! Why would you ev– Nevermind. What I’m getting at here, is what did he say?” 

 

“Well, he was avoiding getting grabbed by his friend and pulled to the dance floor and we kinda hit it off. He’s actually not as mean as he looks, it’s all front he puts up.” Remus turns and sets his mug on the sidetable. 

 

“So he doesn’t hate me?” James looks so hopeful about this. By god, Remus almost feels bad. 

 

“Oh, no. That’s one hundred percent real.” At Remus’ words James practically deflates.

 

“Oh.” James clears his throat before continuing, “Did he say anything else, you guys were talking for a while.” He seems to try and cover up his hurt reaction. Remus feels a little sorry for him. 

 

“Yeah, he did. He actually, um…” Remus isn’t sure if he’s allowed to tell James, especially knowing how much Regulus despises him. 

 

Remus tells him anyway. “He invited me to his show tomorrow night, free of charge.” 

 

“He what!?” James looks like he’s about to explode. “He got Sirius and I blacklisted from any of their events and met you for two hours yesterday and then proceeded to invite you to his show. ” 

 

“Well… when you put it like that…” Remus coughs, and rubs the back of his neck bashfully.

 

“Are you going to go?” 

 

“I mean… a free concert is a free concert. Yeah, I probably am.” Remus admits. An idea sparks in his head. “James, he did say I could bring a plus one, do you want to go? Lily is already going to be there, so I don’t have anyone else in mind…”

 

“Yes!” He yells, before collecting himself, and clearing his throat. “Um, I mean, yeah sure… I have to check my schedule so…” 

 

“Right.”

 

Remus isn’t expecting it, honestly he should’ve known better, but James dives forward and wraps his arms around him, in a bear hug. Remus is stiff for a few moments, before softening and hugging his friend back. 

 

Hopefully, his new acquaintance won’t be too mad about his special guest. 

 

*******

 

James

October 25, 8:56 PM

 

James was feeling jittery. 

 

He and Remus had just gotten out of the car and were waiting by the queue to enter the stadium. 

 

“Did we atleast get good seats?” James asks, peering over Remus’ shoulder before he gets swatted away. 

 

“Obviously he wouldn’t invite us, and then give us shitty seats.” Remus gives him a condescending glare, which is sort of justified, as James has been pestering him for the last twenty minutes. 

 

They get past security and make their way down the stairs , to the main floor. The pit. Regulus had given Remus pit seats after just meeting him, and he gave James glares whenever he’s in a ten foot radius of him. So unfair. 

 

The rest of the crowd bustles in and settles either behind them or in the few rows in front of them. 

 

The lights start to dim and the people behind him start screaming. It’s so odd to be on the other end of concerts, normally he’s the one people are screaming for. Not that he’s never been to a concert before, he just hasn’t been since he, Peter, and Sirius snuck into one when they were fifteen.

 

Remus nudges him and whispers, “It’s starting, get ready for your dream man to pop out any second.” James chuckles at his joke and then a shiver of nerves courses through him. He doesn’t know why he’s nervous, it’s not like he’s performing. Still, he feels the chills and the jitters as the cheers begin to grow louder. 

 

Green lighting covers the stage and a person walks out waving. 

 

Not just a person. Regulus. 

 

He’s angelic. His curls fall perfectly around his face, maybe some would disagree about his angel like appearance, but James is sure. No mortal could be that beautiful. 

 

James shakes his head, urging the thoughts away. He hates you. Remember that. But how could he ever try to hate someone so bright? He’s heard others describe Regulus as cold, or with a dry sense of humor, however, James only feels warmth when he thinks of him. 

 

“Hello, Hello!” Regulus greets the crowd, waving. He takes a look back at the door he came through, looking for his bandmates. “Sorry, I’m just waiting for Evan and Barty to get out here!” He yells the last bit, probably annoyed at his friends for being late. 

 

Two guys rushed out almost immediately after he finished yelling. One was covered in tattoos and piercings, and the other was the complete opposite, except for a few pieces of jewelry here and there. 

 

“Alright, now we can get started.” Regulus laughs a little into the mic, it’s endearing. 

 

No, Brain. Stop that. 

 

“We’re so happy to have all of you here! Tonight’s first song is a little bit about a lot of things. Mainly, it’s about being with someone, romantically or not, and being manipulated. It’s about how sometimes you don’t feel like you're in control of your own life.” Regulus speaks slowly and carefully. He makes it seem like every word he says is special, like it’s a part of the song too. 

 

Loads of hollers go about the crowd, some getting antsy for the song, because they know which one it is and others excited for something they haven’t heard yet.

 

“Alright, Alright” He shushes the crowd, “This is Doomsday I hope you like it.” He whispers the last words, like it’s a secret. Something that slipped through the cracks in his mask. 

 

A steady beat starts. 

 

Pull the plug in September, I don’t wanna die in June. 

 

He knocks his head along to the beat, matching the drums that Barty plays in the back left. 

I’d like to start planning my funeral. 

 

Those words hit like a punch to the gut. James doesn’t know why he’s so hurt over them, he doesn't even know Regulus well enough to be worried about how easily he talks of death. Maybe it is the delivery, the way he sings the words like they’re casual, and not piercing through the very veins of his heart. 

 

James falls into a trance, swaying to the melody and the beauty of Regulus’ voice, which was now harmonizing with the two girls next to him– Pandora and Dorcas.

 

Suddenly, the beat gets louder, the music gets more intense. This is the chorus, James thinks. 

 

Doomsday is close at hand 

 

I’ll book the marching band

 

To play as you speak.

 

I’ll feel like throwin’ up

 

You’ll sit and stare

 

Like a goddamn machine

 

Regulus stares blankly into the crowd, as if he’s looking for something that isn’t there. He seems so vulnerable. The press describes him as distant, closed off, alluring, all things that may be true when interacting with the public. But here? On stage? The lyrics feel like he poured his soul into them, like it’s the only time you can really trust what he’s saying. 

 

The music continues, he feels so riveted and tuned in to the performance, that he doesn’t realize the tear, slowly falling over the boundary of his eyelid. 

 

Bridges are always his favorite parts of songs, they always feel like the heart of it. 

 

The death of me was so quiet 

 

No friends and family allowed, 

 

Only my murderer, you, and the priest who told you to go to hell

 

And the funny thing is, I would’ve married you, 

 

If you’d have stuck around

 

I feel more free than I have in years, 

 

Six feet in the ground. 

 

He hears the way Regulus’ voice sings the words, broken and mournfully, but still beautiful. Almost like the flowers on a tombstone, sad yes, but beautiful. 

 

The beat picks up again and he repeats the chorus, before pausing, and waiting for guitar and drums to shift the tune. 

 

I’d have liked to plan out my part in this

 

But you’re such a narcissist

 

That you did it on Halloween.

 

I’d had no choice in the matter

 

Why would I? 

 

It’s only the death of me. 

 

The words feel so final, that’s why it hurts. Regulus, or whoever is the object of this song, knows that they can’t find a way out of it. James wasn’t expecting to get this upset over a song, but can you blame him? It’s a sad song to start out with, but a good one, if he’s forced to admit it.

 

Regulus wipes his cheeks, and sniffles a bit while the last notes ring out. “Thank you everyone, that was Doomsday. Ugh, I forgot how sad that song is! I wrote it so long ago, I was sixteen, maybe seventeen?” He trunks to Pandora for confirmation, who nods, and then returns to the audience. 

 

Sixteen?! That’s insane to write that amount of emotion into a song at sixteen. You’d have to have been through hell and back…

 

Oh. 

 

Suddenly, James doesn’t feel the pettiness he did when he walked in. No, he feels much more knowing. Like he’d been too quick to judge and now was the time to learn. To collect as much information as possible, to know him. 

 

James is hungry for it. To know him, and what made him this way. To see if James can help him. He wants to know him. Like really know him. To know how he laughs when he’s indescribably happy, to know how he takes his tea or coffee in the morning, to know him so well he can read him like a book. 

 

James wants. 

 

This is a very dangerous thing, if James wants to know or help something or someone, he will do just that, regardless of the burns he gets in the process. 

 

Well, the short story is: He’s fucked. 

 

And he didn’t even get through the first song without shedding a tear. 

 

Yep, he’s absolutely fucked. 

 

“Okay, we’re gonna pump y’all up after that one. It was a little bit sad, I know, so we’re going to get jumping!” Evan yelled, untwisting his guitar strap on his shoulder. 

 

The next notes that play are, obviously, different from the last. They’re faster, less gloomy. 

 

Pandora, Dorcas, and Regulus all step up to their respective mics and begin humming. It’s low and smooth, just barely there over the baseline of the drums and the blast of the guitar. 

“Regrets collect like old friends

 

Here to relive your darkest moments

 

I can see no way, I can see no way

 

And all of the ghouls come out to play

 

Dorcas’ voice rings out, it’s so strikingly different from the two others that are paired with it. Hers is strong and sharp, and Pandora’s is a little more floaty, but no less mesmerizing. 

 

And every demon wants his pound of flesh

But I like to keep some things to myself

I like to keep my issues drawn

It's always darkest before the dawn

 

Regulus shuts his eyes and sways a little, their voices mixed together give James chills. He excuses it because of the weather, it is October after all. 

The second verse starts and James looks over to Remus. His taller friend was staring at the stage, eyes locked, just as James had been a moment ago, except he lacked the yearning look that James had fostered. Is that what it is? Yearning?

It’s fine. Everything is fine. Nobody knows about it. 

He does a once-over of his friend.

Correction.  

Remus knows. 

Well, fuck. There’s not much else he can do about it, except not mention it to anyone else. Actually, this might be better. It’ll be good for him to confide in someone. He hasn’t told anyone else, not even Sirius or Peter. It wasn’t like he was trying to avoid it, okay? It just never came up…

His attention is called back to the stage because the instrumental becomes more intense. The chorus for the song is about to start. 

“Okay, I know you all know this part!” Regulus says, quickly, in between the lyrics. 

 

Shake it out, shake it out

Shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa

Shake it out, shake it out

Shake it out, shake it out, ooh whoa

 

Pandora starts to grab both Dorcas and Regulus’ hands, swinging about the stage and singing into the mic, which she now holds in the same hand that she holds Dorcas’ in.  

Regulus tilts his head back and laughs, then rushes to his own mic, pulling Dorcas and Pandora in tow. 

“Okay, everyone needs to find someone, at least one, and dance! If you’re here alone, either dance anyway, or find someone else and dance with them!” Regulus shouts, before turning back to his two friends. He continues dancing, taking a couple seconds to twirl both Drocas and Pandora before laughing and tripping over a wire. 

All three of them return to their mic stands and sing the last verse. 

And I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't

So here's to drinks in the dark at the end of my road

And I'm ready to suffer and I'm ready to hope

 

It's a shot in the dark aimed right at my throat

'Cause looking for heaven, found the devil in me 

Looking for heaven, for the devil in me 

But what the hell, I'm gonna let it happen to me, yeah

 

Dorcas and Pandora sing the harmonies along with the lyrics, letting Regulus do all the belting. 

Figures that the self-centered prick would want to be the only one in the spotlight. 

Ah, see. His regular thoughts have returned, now he can stop drooling over Regulus. 

He’s never seen him so carefree, though. Even in the small glimpses he sees of him during events, when he’s usually with his friends, he always looks like he’s waiting for someone to jump out  and say ‘Gotcha! You were showing human emotion!’ and send it to the paps or something. He’s always guarded, at least in public, he doesn’t know how he acts when he’s alone with friends. Some people are completely different around the right kind of people. Sirius is like that. It’s not as obvious as Regulus, of course, but he’s different when he’s around the public. It’s not like he closes off per say, he puts up a front. He presents this glammed up, bubbly, yet still rebellious shell of himself that he somehow thinks is more digestible for strangers. 

He wishes he was able to go back to when Sirius first showed up on his doorstep, ask him for directions to the Black Estate, and beat the shit of Walburga and Orion. 

Actually, he takes that back. He’d send Effie and Monty. Effie for the insults and Monty for the physical part, they’d probably jump for the opportunity. 

James, lost in his thoughts about his parents fist-fighting his best friend’s parents, missed the next song. 

He sighed and looked over at Remus, who was fully engaged in the show. Deciding he didn’t want to miss even more of the concert, he refocused his attention on the illuminated stage.

Notes:

Whew.

Okay, that was a lot.

Okay, I know I said that I would bring Rori back for this chater, but I just couldn't fit her in!! I love her so much, and we'll def see her next chap, I've got lots of plans for her character dw

ANYWAY

The party! I love it, ive been planning this for a while, and i loved how it turned out!!

Pandora and Xeno! Ugh they make me soooo soft. They're one of the only ship (if not the only one) that will not have angst. They're just perfect and wonderful, that I can't do that to them yk?

Platonic Moonwater!! Love them. They are the best duo ever. Liv laugh love sarcastic introverted hotties

AND the wolfstar bits!!! HELLO Mr. 'Is it really that bad that he wants to find out' Lupin!!! ugh gorg.

And also who was Sirius talking abouttttt hmmm?? Who is 'she' hmmm i wonder...

DORLENE. RAHHH. they kissed. I couldn't not do that to them, okay? I wasn't planning on it, and then marlene pulled up and I was like, why not? Aww and then dorcas ran away. She has superrr complicated feelings about this and we'll get that next chapter. Ugh and i love stupidly awkward marlene. Lke she's flirty when it doesn't matter but Dorcas? No, that girl makes her NERVOUSSS

The hospital. Okay, so i'll be honest, this was the hardest part of the chapter for me to write, and im still not 100% happy with it. it's def the reason this took longer, oops.The black family has so much complicated shit, like they are so fcked up. Remember that tag about ED? Yeah, that was for bella and reg. Bellatrix is very sick, not just physically, but mentally. The sad thing about it is that some people don't want to get better. It's sad, but true, if you don't choose recovery for YOURSELF, it will either never find you, or you won't stay recovered. Regulus is obviously dealing with a lot, he's recently recovered (he went thru rehab when he was 17 for those wanting a timeline) and alos has other issues that can bring him back to that. So, for all of y'all that might have struggled in the past/ or are struggling now, you are not alone. It's okay to ask for help, you're not weak, I promise. Much love to you all!

THE CONCERTTTT AHHHH.

YAY. we got a james pov!! That man is down bad, and he is trying so hard not to be. UGH and remus and james' friendship is so important to me, they have their own best friends, but they are still very close and that means the world to me.

Also. Songs for this chapter! (i forgot to do it in chap 1's concert too oops).

Doomsday by Lizzy McAlpine

Shake it out by Florence+ The Machines

 

We will se Reg's reaction to remus bringing james next chapter!! Ah im so excited!

Those of you that follow my tt, know that I'm working on a time-travel fic! The first chpater is coming out Tmr or Mon. depending on how fast I write/ edit!! Please check it out!! I'm very excited for it!!

As always, please comment! I love to know what you think, it also helps me write faster (wink wink)

xoxo, sonn

Notes:

heyyyyyy how're we feelin'... i actually am really excited to continue writing this and i have a lot of things to introduce so you'll meet some more characters or meet them "formally" (not just mentioned) next chapter!

I don't think reg's POV is really in character and i was gonna change it but then just revised it a lil instead so hopefully its better now

ALSO do we like panda's room??? i love it soooooo much i might do descriptions of the others' rooms but maybe not-

I LOVELOVELOVE HER ROOM the whole ceiling with the jellys, and things hanging and her controlled chaos is sooooooo HER. ok that's it for today but PLEASE write comments i love them :)

xo,
sonn