Hey everyone! This story was brought to you by Necromancy: Little Known Facts assignment, Our Tangled Webs, Hogwarts Bingo Party, Valentine vs. Single Awareness, The House That Dobby Built, and Herbology Club on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Necromancy: Little Known Facts assignment: Task 1 - Write about a long lived practice or tradition.

Our Tangled Webs: Regulus/James

Hogwarts Bingo Party: I4 Hogsmeade

Valentine vs. Single Awareness: Team Valentine James/Regulus (AU) Arranged Marriage

The House That Dobby Built: (settings) Three Broomsticks

Herbology Club: Plot 3 (Tropes) Arranged Marriage

Warning for slight out of character, especially on the part of the parents. Word count is 1,609 words. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of Accidentally in Love.

The Potter family had been making arranged marriages for their children for as long as there was a Potter family to make arranged marriages. His parents had told James this his whole life and he hadn't ever questioned why until now.

"You are kidding, right?" James asked in abject dismay as all thoughts of being with Lily were dashed to the ground. "I've been arranged to marry someone since before I was born. Without even getting a say in the matter?"

"That's how it works son," Fleamont said sorrow lacing his voice. "I had an arranged marriage with your mother. My father had an arranged marriage with my mother. The same with his father before that and so on and so forth down the line."

"Is that supposed to make this any better?" James asked, folding his arms across his chest. "Do I even get to meet this girl before I marry her or is she going to remain a surprise until then?"

As he spoke the door chime over the door of the Three Broomsticks went off. The tinkling spell of his doom more than likely or more like the doom of his life with Lily.

"They're here now," Euphemia said, looking towards the door where Walburga and Orion Black stood looking around them. "I'll go bring them over and you, young man, will be on your best behavior. Understood?"

James didn't answer but watched in dread as his mother made her way through the crowd to get to the door. If the shocked look on her face was any indication of something wrong, James didn't pay it any mind. He didn't pay much mind to anything around him except for the sinking feeling of dread in his pit of a stomach right now.

"There must be some mistake," Fleamont said, clearly confused by something that James hadn't noticed. "Where is the girl?"

"There is no mistake," Orion said in a terse voice as he sat down motioning for his wife and an identical copy of Sirius to join the table. "We made…"

"There is a mistake," Euphemia scolded Orion. "You promised a girl in marriage to our son, not a boy."

"The exact wording of the promise was that your son would be wed to our second born," Walburga said, folding her arms over her chest. "We made the promise when we first found out I was expecting another child, remember, Euphemia?"

James watched as his mother nodded her head. He hated the fact that they were talking about himself and this other boy like they weren't even there. Most of all he hated with a fiery passion that they were talking about the boy like he was chattel to be sold at market. Especially seeing as when it happened he wasn't even born yet.

"What is the point of bringing that up?" Fleamont asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched Walburga Black warily.

"People have tried to back out of marriage agreements to our family before now," Orion said matter of factually. "When we made the agreement with you we made it a binding agreement."

"A binding agreement?" James asked, finally finding his voice in the whole situation at hand. "What does that mean?"

"James," Euphemia scolded.

"It's alright, 'Mia," Orion said, using one of the nicknames from Hogwarts he knew that Euphemia hated the most. "He's just curious to find out what his parents have gotten him into, aren't you boy?"

James nodded warily, looking between his parents and this boy's parents. Sirius's parents too. The carbon copy of Sirius was staring at him in awe almost. He must not have heard about this arrangement or binding nature of it either.

"We put an Unbreakable Binding charm upon the arrangement," Walburga informed them with an unsettled tone to her voice. "Which we regretted as soon as we found out that our second born wasn't the girl we thought it would be."

"We looked for recourse to get out of the arrangement," Orion took up where his wife left off, "but there is none. The spell was pretty through. The only way for our children to get out of the arrangement would be for one of them to die."

"That isn't an option," Fleamont said in shock. "I guess we should start planning a wedding then."

The trickling thrill of dread that crept down James's back like the slow movement of an iceberg couldn't dull the pain in his heart. How would he tell Lily and his friends that all the plans they'd made were now suddenly thrown out the window? How could he tell Lily that he couldn't marry her like they'd planned for days now? This all wasn't fair.

"This isn't fair," a voice from next to James voiced the exact sentiment James was feeling at the moment. "Why wouldn't they wait to see…"

"I don't know." James looked up to find the boy, Regulus, he recalls the boy's name being, looking at him. "I guess it's family politics on both sides of the quarter."

"It's weird, though," Regulus murmured quietly as sipped at his butterbeer.

"What is?" James asked as he stared into the caramel colored depths of his own.

"Being engaged to my older brother's best mate. We don't really talk much and I don't really know the first thing about you besides that."

"Besides what?"

"The fact that you're my older brother's best mate." Regulus looked around the Three Broomsticks and then back at James as their parents began to plan out the wedding ceremony. "Perhaps we should get to know each other better. We are going to be married to each other after all."

"Yeah," James said, eyes trained on his butterbeer. "Maybe we should."

Regulus jumped up suddenly gaining the attention of everyone at the table. He grabbed James's hand and pulled him up.

"We're just going to go get some air," he told his parents who were looking at him like he'd just sprouted an extra head.

"You should have an escort," Walburga called after them as Regulus pulled James through the crowd of the Three Broomsticks to the door.

But James didn't care about whether they had an escort with them or not. He was just so happy to get away from the talk about the wedding. He allowed himself to be pulled along by Regulus no questions asked.

"I'm going to take you to my favorite place in all of Hogsmeade," Regulus told him, as they weaved their way through the congested streets of the small town. "I've come here since the first day I was allowed to come here. It always makes me think of better times with ..."

"Sirius?" James asked.

Regulus nodded, looking towards the destination that they'd finally reached. "He told me all about it when we were still talking," Regulus said in a far away voice. "It made me feel like he wanted me to be a part of his life, you know?"

James nodded. He did know. Sirius had always wanted to take Regulus away from his parents. Get the younger boy out from under their power or spell or whatever you would call it. Make him see that there was a better way than the Pureblood way.

The Shrieking Shack in front of them, with snow falling down around them, made for an almost pretty picture. That is if James was inclined to think that way but he wasn't. He was still very much angry at his parents and Regulus's for doing this to them.

"I know this isn't what you want," Regulus said, breaking James away from the poisonous thoughts running through his head, "but I just had a thought."

"Go on," James said, seeing the plan form behind Regulus's grey eyes.

"We marry…" Regulus began before being cut off by James.

"That would be giving into them though."

"Just hear me out. We have no other choice but to marry, unless you want to end up dead. Do you?"

James shook his head.

"Can I continue with the plan?"

James nodded.

"We marry and, for the contracts sake, we try to make it work for a year. At the end of the year no one said we had to continue being married to each other. We could very easily get a divorce and go our separate ways if you want to. What do you think?"

James gulped. Heart pounding in his chest. This plan was almost foolish enough that it could work. He could give up the year of his life just so afterwards he would be free to do as he wanted.

"I think your plan has merits," James said, going over everything in his mind. "But what about the wedding night?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," Regulus said, feeling the heat of a blush creep up on his cheeks at the thought of the wedding night. Not that he was prude or anything. He just never figured on having to talk about sex with anyone besides Sirius. "Are you in or are you out?" He held out his hand to James, taking in the look in the hazel eyes of his intended husband to be.

"I'm in."

"Good, because here come our parents," Regulus said, pointing towards the quartet making its way towards them. "Make it look like you're happy, darling."

Screwing on a fake smile, James couldn't wait to tell Sirius about how rebellious a nature his younger brother truly had. As he and Regulus made their way towards their parents, James finally resigned himself to his fate. He was going to marry Regulus Black and there was nothing else for it.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Accidentally in Love as much as I enjoyed writing it.