Finding Regulus was easy enough. Somehow, the Slytherin boy always managed to find an empty compartment on the train. James always wondered how he managed that, but he pushed the question from his mind. For now, he had more important matters to tend to.

"Any particular reason you're here, Potter?" Regulus asked, peering up through his black hair, a smirk on his lips. "Shouldn't you be surrounded by your stupid partners in crime?"

James snorted, eyes rolling as he adjusted his glasses. "You know we're alone, right?" He sat beside the younger boy, grinning. "We don't have to pretend."

Regulus relaxed, but only slightly. "Good. Will you marry me?"

"No."

The Slytherin shrugged. "Shall we be enemies, then?"

James shook his head. It was complicated to love Regulus. The House rivalry was too great, and they so often found themselves stuck in an endless cycle of being cruel to one another, only to overcompensate by being a little too nice later. There never seemed to be any balance between it. Some days, James wondered why he bothered at all. It felt like a chore, a headache.

Regulus' grey eyes sparkled as he leaned in. The upward curl of his lips was beautiful; James thought he would never get over how perfect Regulus was when he smiled. "Why so serious?" he asked, fingertips ghosting over James' cheek. "I don't actually want to marry you."

"Good."

It wasn't love. James cared for him deeply and with a wild passion that he couldn't explain, but he knew it wasn't love. Even if everything about them wasn't taboo, he knew they would never have a chance for a future together. It was nice to dream and play pretend, but it just wasn't in their stars.

Still, that didn't stop him. Again and again, he found himself running back to Regulus. It was almost like an addiction.

"You haven't seen me all summer," Regilus pointed out. "Are you just going to stare at me, or are you going to do something?"

And so he did. Their lips met, and James held him close, whispering sweet little nothings into his mouth.

It wasn't love. It was little more than infatuation.

But it still got him by.