Hey everyone! This story was brought to you by Forestry: Famous Forests assignment, Insane Prompt List, Valentines vs. Single Awareness, Herbology Club, and The House That Dobby Built on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Forestry: Famous Forests assignment: Task 3 - Write a Merperson!AU

Insane Prompt List: 766. (AU) Selkie

Valentines vs. Single Awareness: (Pairing) James/Regulus (AU) Enemies to Lovers

Herbology Club: (Tropes) Secret Relationship

The House That Dobby Built: (settings) Honeydukes

Warning for Merperson!AU, Selkie!AU, Romeo and Juliet!AU, and slight out of character too. Word count is 2,439 words. I hope you all enjoy the first chapter of The Tragedy of Regulus and James.

James knew Regulus for what he was the first time he'd seen him in Honeydukes sweet shop, that much was for sure. The dark stippling of Regulus's seal form dancing between the shelves stocked full of sweets.

It was known that the Merfolk and the Selkie folk were natural enemies which made the young selkie's presence here a strange thing to James. Didn't this fool know that he could easily be mistaken for an aggressor and start a war over this.

Swimming over, he cautiously approached the selkie. "What are you doing here?" he asked, making sure to appear non-threatening to the grey eyed selkie. "Don't you know that our kind is supposed to stay away from each other?"

"I do," the most beautiful voice said in answer to James's question. "But I also know that I am not the first of my kind to venture into your territory."

James made a startled noise. He wasn't aware that anyone else knew about his best friends' relationship. Let alone the fact that it was another selkie. James bristled at the new information. Did this kid think he was going to shock James into letting him stay in this territory by implicating not just Remus but Remus's boyfriend Sirius in whatever feud their people were having?

"Struck a nerve?"

James disregarded that question. What did it matter to this upstart of a selkie whether others of his kind had been here before or not? He swam around the selkie taking in his seal appearance. Nothing out of the ordinary besides the fact that this was one of the rare male selkies in existence. James had heard all his life that they basically consisted of women and that those women tried to steal everything from the merfolk. Including their men.

"What is your name?" James asked, noticing a striking resemblance to Sirius's selkie coat while he was in seal form. "Your coloring looks familiar."

James knew the question was a big mistake as soon as it had fallen from his mouth. That was how selkies worked their magic, while in human form. It was too late to stop it, one minute the dark seal was swimming in front of him, the next minute in its place swam a beautiful dark haired man with a shimmering green tail. James blinked his eyes and tried not to take in the toned abs and shoulders, and the way the grey eyes sparkled with mirth at the reaction he was having.

"See something you like, Merboy?" Regulus purred in his silky smooth voice that seemed much more powerful now that he was in this form.

James felt his cheeks heat up with color as he tried not to stare. "Merman," he corrected. "You aren't related to a Sir…"

"Sirius is my brother," the selkie interrupted James, with a knowing smile. "You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer mine either." James countered back folding his arms over his chest, trying to look more intimidating than he was.

"Regulus."

"Regulus?"

James had heard many things about this Regulus from Sirius. First and foremost, he'd heard that Regulus was the son of the ruling class of selkies. Second and most important, he did everything his parents told him to do.

"Did your family send you here to spy on us, Selkie?" James asked, coloring rising in his cheeks as he couldn't help but allow the selkie's beauty to overrun his mind. Regulus's beauty. Not the Selkie's. Regulus's.

"No." The answer was simple but many things were implied with that simple no. Many, many things.

"Then why did you come here?" James watched the intelligent grey eyes as Regulus thought about his answer. He'd never seen eyes that color that looked both gentle and like the rolling seas during a storm before.

Regulus's eyes weren't like his brother, Sirius's. Sirius's were always full of mirth and laughter. Sometimes serious but more often than not joking. Regulus's were like looking glasses into the very soul.

"I came because I was invited," Regulus said, holding out the parchment to James. "By my older brother no less."

James took the parchment envelope and lifted the invitation out of it, which sure enough it was. An invitation to the masked ball that his parents are holding tonight. He wanted to laugh and cry all the same time. In all reality he doesn't know how to react.

"Don't worry," said Regulus jokingly, "I won't show up in my other form. I promise."

"That isn't funny," James sighed. "Do you know what would happen if anyone found out…"

"You merboy's worry too much." Regulus smirked swimming backward in his merform. "I've got it covered, loverboy." He picked up a box of taffy off one of the shelves. "Don't forget to save me a dance," he called back as he swam to the counter and paid for his purchases before leaving the store.

"You seem tense, James," Remus told him as they stood watching people enter the ballroom. "You don't think anyone is going to…"

"I would hope that no one would come here looking to start problems," James said, mind still firmly on Regulus, "but you can't be sure with sel…"

"Sirius is one of them," Remus pointed out. "He hasn't started one problem since he's gotten here, has he?"

James shook his head. "But…"

"Sirius said he vouched for Regulus and I believe him. If Sirius says he didn't invite Regulus here to start a problem then he didn't invite Regulus here to start problems."

James held up his hands as Sirius swam over to join them. Sirius had become like James's best friend and it hurt him that he started to doubt his ability to trust Sirius.

"Don't worry, James," Sirius said, laughter in his soft grey eyes. "I told Regulus to be on his best behavior tonight. He promised he would."

Sirius opened his mouth to start speaking but James didn't hear what came out. He was distracted by the beauty of Regulus in his mask. He recognized him even from this distance. Regulus had a bearing about him that scream of both hypnotizing beauty and powerful intelligence. A deadly combination if used against someone.

"I'll be right," James said, interrupting Sirius mid-sentence. He couldn't help swimming over to Regulus. It was like some magnetic pull was activated or something and the only thing he could do was go with it.

"Hello," Regulus purred as James stopped short in front of him. "Fancy meeting you here, loverboy."

James rolled his eyes. "You knew I would be here," he said. "Sirius must have told you when he invited you."

Regulus nodded. "I did."

James watched Regulus taking in the glittering ballroom full of merpeople dancing and chatting animatedly. He saw Sirius and Remus head off towards the dance floor.

"Do you want to?" Regulus asked noticing were James looking.

"Want to what? James asked not understanding the question.

"Dance. You were looking longingly at where my brother and his…" lowering his voice to above a whisper he continued. "Boyfriend just went, right?"

James stuttered for a few moments in answer. How did you tell someone that you didn't want to dance with them for fear of it being discovered that they shouldn't be here? He watched the young selkie watching him.

"We don't have to go on the dance floor if you don't want to," Regulus informed him. "We can dance right here. Behind this pillar. It'll be fun." He began to sway to the music swishing his blue green tail back and forth.

James felt enticed to dance with Regulus. Not because of the selkie's power mind you but because James really wanted to. Just as James started to sway to the music the fast pace song switched to a slow song.

"A slow song," James pointed out.

Regulus nodded. He looked around awkwardly. He could see Sirius dancing with Remus on the distant dance floor. He wished he could be as bold as Sirius was. That just wasn't how Regulus was though.

James watched Regulus's eyes watching the slowly dancing duo on the dance floor. He could see the longing to dance on Regulus's face. Without thinking what he was doing he held his hand out to Regulus.

"Would you care to dance?"

"I would love to," Regulus said, allowing himself to be pulled against the firm chest of the merman.

They swayed and they spun and they swayed some more. James didn't know how long he'd been dancing with Regulus but soon the party was ending. But the strangest thing of all was that he didn't want it to end. He wanted to spend more time getting to know Regulus and talking to him.

Sirius walked over and walked Regulus out of the ballroom. James watched the two dark haired selkie brothers walk out of the door chatting animatedly. He then turned to find Remus standing by his side.

"What can you tell me about Sirius's and Regulus's family besides what Sirius has already told us?" James asked, wonder coloring his voice.

"I can," Remus sighed. "I'm sorry to say that their parents are the mortal enemies of all merpeople kind. Sirius and Regulus are the crown princes of the selkie kingdom. The enemies of your lady mother and lord father."

"You shouldn't have done that, Regulus," Sirius chided his younger brother. "You shouldn't have gotten to know him."

"Why is that?" Regulus asked, arms folded angrily over his chest.

"Because to know James is to love him and to love him could easily spell your doom. You are too easily led by your feelings. Don't you remember that just a few days ago you were pinning over some selkie lad, named Barty?"

"But Barty seems like a distant memory at this point."

Sirius sighed. Didn't Regulus learn anything from watching him? Didn't Regulus know that this road would only cause them pain and heartbreak in the end? "At least Barty was one of our kind. Do you really think mother and father will accept a merman into the family? Do you remember what they did when they found out about Remus and I?"

He watched Regulus's eyes cloud up with tears. They both remembered fully well that Sirius had been disowned by his parents when they found out about his relationship with Remus. He didn't want to see his younger brother doled out that heartache. Regulus was a mother's boy and to have their mother turn her back on him, like she had done to Sirius, would surely kill Regulus. He couldn't let that happen.

"Maybe it won't be the same?" Regulus answered. "Maybe they could learn to accept a merman into the family?"

"They won't and you know that. You just don't want to accept that maybe you will have to choose between your loyalty to them and loyalty to someone else."

A red hue tinged Regulus's cheeks as angry rose in him. Sirius could tell that Regulus was angry because the angrier he got the more it looked like he would break into tears. He was about to reach out and comfort Regulus when his younger brother swam angrily away from him.

"Regulus," Sirius cried out trying to follow after the younger selkie but losing track of him before he could catch up. "What have I done?"

Regulus didn't know where he was going but he knew one thing for sure. That was that Sirius didn't get it. He couldn't help how he felt about James. He also couldn't help that he ended up feeling in such a way in such a short time.

Regulus kept swimming until he heard a voice coming from behind the wall of a tall garden. He looked to find himself floating in front of the wall of a very tall palace like house. The greying bricks playing tricks on his mind as the crest of James's house swam before his vision.

"Why?" James's voice called out from within the garden. "Why are the gods or whoever is in charge of our fates so cruel?"

Regulus swam closer, going carefully over the wall of the garden. He wanted to see James again and most of all he wanted to hear him talk. He swam closer staying in the cover of the sea kelp. The strange thing was he couldn't see James in the garden but he was sure he'd heard the merman's voice come from within.

"Regulus," James sighed from above him, he leaned against the banister of the balcony he was standing on.

"James," Regulus called up startling merman above him.

"You shouldn't be here."

"I know. I just wanted to see you again, is all."

James smiled and swam down from the balcony to join Regulus in the garden. "I wanted to see you again too." James swam closer wanting to feel Regulus close to him.

"Would it be alright if I did something?"

James cocked his head to the left and looked up at Regulus. Why would Regulus want to know if...His thoughts were interrupted by Regulus pressing his lips fast and hard on James's own. The merman returned the kiss hungrily, relishing the feeling of Regulus's hand in his hair.

"Can we do that again?" James asked.

"As many times as you want."

It seemed like the next morning came way too soon for both James and Regulus. They'd spent the night talking, and kissing, and talking some more. It felt like they'd told each other everything that there was to know about each other.

"What's wrong?" Regulus asked James, seeing the disappointed look in the hazel eyes of the merman he'd come to love in the span of a day. "Can I fix it in any way?"

"I don't want you to leave," James said sadly. "I want to keep you in this garden to myself all day. How does that sound?"

"I wish that could happen too."

James sighed.

"But I can come back later. Maybe at the same time as last night? How does that sound to you, my love?"

James nodded. "I would love that," he said, pulling Regulus into another hot and heavy kiss before letting him go. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Regulus swam away James a lot on his mind. If everything went right he would soon be able to call that merman his husband.

That is if everything went according to plan. But unbeknownst to the happy, oblivious couple they had been watched all night long from the palace balcony. A certain rat-like merman would make things much more impossible for the happiness of the new couple.

I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of The Tragedy of Regulus and James as much as I enjoyed writing it.