Disclaimer:

Please do not read this story if you don't want to. My reason for writing it is simply that I like these characters and felt like writing about them. Please do not read any more deeply into it than that. You are more than welcome to skip it. I have no desire to get into a discussion about anyone's opinion on Rowling or anything to that effect.

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"Padfoot," James said; "come here."

Early evening. An empty classroom at a deserted corridor, distantly sounds could be heard of students somewhere outside, while the lawn lay illuminated by dying rays of sunlight; the words had hardly left James' lips before Sirius had come to him, James was sat casually on one of the desks and dangled his legs idly. Sirius stepped obediently between them while James got his hand on his mandible, he pulled him close and seized his mouth. It was what Sirius had badly desired, when it came he reached for James with anticipation he could hardly endure; James paused with one hand on Sirius' jaw and regarded him for some seconds.

"I've got it," he said, there issued from Sirius a sound of frustration while he restrained himself visibly, the desperation with which he wanted to reach forth the rest of the way was practically tangible; for James, however, he would hold himself back. "What," he paused and swallowed hard, his breath came hot in the small space between them; "what is it?"

"I know what we're gonna do, Pads." James' thumb moved over Sirius' lower lip while he spent a moment in thought; Sirius kissed his thumb eagerly, his eyes looked upon him with combined impatience and adoration. "There's that party coming up at your parents' house, isn't there?" James asked; there passed through Sirius' eyes a flash of distaste. "Prongs…" he started, but James held up one hand. "Have I ever let you down?" he asked. "Just hear me out."

A week earlier, while the two of them had been sneaking out to Hogsmeade they had the displeasure of discovering Lucius Malfoy there together with his fiancé, Sirius' cousin Narcissa— as well as a few friends whose faces they couldn't quite see; this was very unusual considering Narcissa and Lucius resided in London, and apart from this the nature of the meeting seemed suspicious overall. Hidden beneath James' invisibility cloak, James and Sirius had only caught bits of the conversation, and it had certainly sounded like more than the usual blood purity nonsense: for one, Narcissa had distinctly spoken of ingredients for something called the Drink of Despair, which she said she had trouble procuring.

Before Sirius and James could hear much more Narcissa had shot a glance directly at where they had been concealed; she had had just raised her wand before the pair had managed to get away as quietly as they could. Lucius and the others had definitely noticed, by then a number of Narcissa's friends had turned in the direction where James and Sirius stood just a short while earlier, they all had stopped talking; since that day Sirius had been troubled by the things they'd overheard, he and James had tried to figure out the best way to find out what the lot had been up to. The Drink of Despair, they had found, was dark magic indeed.

Vague sounds of students shouting out on the lawn.

In the pause after James had spoken Sirius tried to kiss him, but James said casually, "Padfoot, restrain yourself; you want to hear the plan, don't you?"

Sirius watched him reverently, aware that any plan involving his parents' party sounded distasteful but that James was a genius whose ideas were incredible almost without fail. "So," James said; "your parents' party. Narcissa is bound to be there with Lucius. Clearly they're up to something, and clearly they won't be dumb enough to talk about it out in the open where anyone could hear; they'd only talk about stuff like that to people they trust— prats like themselves, you know."

"Yeah?" Sirius asked, uncertain where this was going.

"So," James was now twirling his wand in his free hand; "we just need to make them trust one of us."

Sirius gave a snort of laughter; "Oh," he said, "of course, that's the obvious solution."

"What's the matter?" James grinned smugly; "Don't think that's too likely? Your cousin trusting one of us?" He leaned back casually and used his wand to slowly nudge Sirius' shirt higher along his abdomen, and at this Sirius already was scrambling out of his robes so that James could get his shirt off the rest of the way; he asked, "How do you propose that we persuade them to do that?"

James took a moment to regard Sirius in his trousers and shirt; James was, for all intents and purposes, extremely straight. He very openly fancied Lily Evans. He did everything you expected a bloke to do, except a thousand times better; what James did was cool by definition, so if he decided to snog his best mate, then that was cool by definition too. Sirius, after all, was his only exception. He was special.

And James was Sirius' entire world.

"Drink of Despair," James said thoughtfully; he hardly needed to use his wand to nudge Sirius' shirt farther up because by then Sirius was hurrying impatiently to get out of it. "They fancy themselves pretty good at brewing dark potions, do they?"

Sirius had pulled his shirt over his head and paused with it crumpled forgotten round his elbows, he watched James uncertainly; "Of course," James continued, "we won't try anything like that. We just need to perfect a much simpler potion, something to change our appearance."

Sirius tugged his shirt off his arms; his dark, silky hair fell in his face with elegance that James' hair never could manage. He asked, "Like polyjuice?"

"Nah, not polyjuice," came the reply; James appeared for some seconds deep in thought. "Not something that makes you look like someone else, something that changes your appearance into someone new entirely. I think I might've read about a potion like that…"

His eyes moved over Sirius' naked chest; he had a regal, aristocratic build, slender and distinctly male. "I won't have you take the potion," he said with possessive finality. "Maybe I'll take it myself, come to that party like I'm someone new…"

"They're not that stupid, Prongs."

"Not to worry," James replied, unbothered; "I'm clever enough to pull it off."

That Sirius was absurdly handsome was well-established fact; witches had fancied him in all four houses and a few wizards too, and he had a history of dating a bit of both— but it was James he really wanted. They both were aware that when Sirius dated someone it was because he couldn't have James.

"I'll look into it," James said; "it'll be kind of fun— nah, I take that back, getting into a conversation with anyone in your family would pretty much be the diametric opposite of fun. Still though, the real challenge would be to see if we could actually manage to deceive them— I'll bet we could pull it off— now that would make it fun."

At last he leaned in and took Sirius' mouth, and now that permission came Sirius' fervor issued forth unrestrained; he had at James like an animal that could not be subdued. "Prongs," his voice echoed humidly on his lips. "What do I do? What's my part in this?"

"Your part?" James asked, now letting Sirius have what he wanted; "I'll let you know."

(On to Chapter 2)

xx

Some notes:

As I'm in my 40s, I did not read Harry Potter in childhood (as I was first made aware of the books when I was already in university); I had briefly started reading the first book sometime around my early 20s but didn't get into it and put it down without getting very far. It wasn't until I was in my early 30s that I tried reading the books again, and this was simply because, like everyone else who casually watched the films, I was moved by the bit toward the end with Snape. It was then that I picked the books up again, and started reading beginning with the fifth one (because this was where the films became a bit confusing to me). This time I was completely blown away by how amazing they were and by how much better they were than the films. I read through to the end of the last book and then went back and read the first four.

In the process of reading (this was about a decade ago) I had fallen completely in love with Sirius and his deep adoration of James, maybe if I had read them in order and without having watched the films first I would have been enamored by Sirius/Remus like a lot of other fans, because I can see how the third book would lend itself to that. It has been a long time since I've written about these guys but I've had a deep fondness for Sirius and James for a long while.

As I wrote my previous story, Naked, nearly a decade ago, I felt that what readers had wanted was Sirius/Remus— because the comments I received had heavily suggested this. While I like a lot of stuff about how I had designed that story, I ended up feeling conflicted between what I felt readers wanted versus what I wanted to write. I do like Sirius/Remus, it has its charm too— but James/Sirius is what I really fell hard for. I hope that maybe this time I can convey myself a bit better.

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