Chapter 2: A Meet Cute

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

1975

James had heard about Regulus Black, of course, he has, he's been sharing a room with Sirius Black for 6 years, but he'd never actually met him. Of course, he hadn't, they run in very different groups, they're in different years, and they're in opposing houses, the only time James really saw Regulus was in Quidditch games. He hoped that one day he'd be able to meet him, Sirius likes him well enough, and James, the bleeding heart he is, would love to get every child out of that family's reach. But he didn't expect to meet him for the first time by literally running into him headfirst.

"Sorry! Oh, you're Sirius' brother right?" James helped Regulus up, picking up his dropped bag. James looked up to see Regulus' face completely drained of all colour and his grey eyes wide in shock,

"Hey, you alright?" James asked, Regulus truly looked terrified.

Regulus' face immediately lit up in a bright red, and he let out a wounded noise, then turned around and practically ran in the other direction.

"Uh ok," James said, to absolutely no one, and then turned to walk back to the tower.

~

Regulus ran the whole way down to the dungeons. He didn't stop running until he was in his dormitory, and by then he was out of breath and his legs were burning.

"Woah mate, you look like you just ran across the castle, where's the fire?" Evan and Barty had been bent over some transfiguration books and a piece of parchment each. Regulus nods.

"Wait, you actually ran across the castle or there's a fire?" Barty dropped his quill and dumped himself onto Evan's bed, the one next to Regulus'. Regulus raised one finger while digging around for a piece of parchment.

'I ran from the third floor near the Gryffindor dorms'

"Well, why'd you feel the need to do that?" Evan sat down next to Regulus and read over the parchment, when he was done Regulus turned it so Barty could read it.

'I just met my soulmate, 3 guesses who it is.'

"Your soulmate?" Barty finally relented and moved to sit on Regulus' other side. Regulus nodded.

"If you were near the Gryffindor dorms, it was probably a Gryffindor right?" Regulus nodded at Evan.

"It was Potter wasn't it?" Barty, always good at bullshitting his way through life, got it in one.

'I'm so dead if my parents ever find out.'

"We'll keep it quiet when Wilkes is around." Enoch Wilkes, their fourth roommate, was pretty much a spy for them all, all three of them knew that he was being paid to tell their parents what they were doing in the privacy of their own dorm, so they were always on edge when he was around.

Regulus nodded and set fire to the paper so Wilkes couldn't use it to sell their secrets.

~

James continued up the stairs to his dorm, still confused by his interaction with Regulus.

"Oi, Padfoot, your brother, is scared of people or something?" James sat on his bed and started pulling his outer robes off.

"Um, no not exactly, why?" Sirius sat up from his bed, looking at James oddly.

"I just ran into him and asked if he was alright, and he just ran off in a full sprint." James threw his tie onto his floor, it was a Friday, and he wouldn't need it for a few days.

"Oh, well he can't talk, but I've no idea why he ran." Sirius rolls off his bed and flops onto James'

"He can't talk? What do you mean?" James falls back onto his bed, lying down with his legs dangling off.

"Yeah, Mother Dearest spelled his vocal cords away when he was a baby and didn't bring them back right, so he can't talk." Sirius recounts the story with a face like he'd been force-fed a bucket full of lemons.

Whilst James is mulling over the new information, Remus and Peter get back from the library, and quickly distract James from his thoughts on Regulus.

Later when James sat down to do the Potions essay they'd been assigned that morning, his thoughts wandered back to Regulus. The boy had seemed so scared and shocked? James had no idea why Regulus had seemed so surprised by James.

"Hey, Lily?" James gave up on writing his essay, he couldn't concentrate like this.

"Yes, James?" Lily looked up at James from across the table they'd taken over. Their relationship had changed quite a lot, James still adored, and he'd always love her, but it lacked the romantic part of the relationship James had been harbouring since first year. She'd come to him last year and told him she fancied girls, and asked him to stop asking her out. James had immediately agreed, and they'd stayed friends since then.

"Am I intimidating? Or Scary at all?" James put his quill down, leaning back on his chair with a pout. He didn't want to scare anyone, definitely not his best mate's brother.

"Absolutely not, I've seen pygmy puffs scarier than you." She said this with a face of complete seriousness, the smallest quirk to her mouth and amusement lighting her eyes. "Why do you ask? Did a firstie run away from you or something?"

"Sirius' brother, he looked terrified when I spoke to him in the halls." Whilst Lily wasn't privy to all of what happened in The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, Sirius had told her enough to know the brothers didn't have the best of lives.

"Regulus? He doesn't seem the mean type, I've never heard him call anyone - names." Her hesitation on the last part of her sentence told James what she meant, Regulus has never called someone a Mudblood. James just hummed in response, it wasn't his place to tell her about his disability, if he just wants everyone to think he was quiet then James won't stop him, but it still irked him how fast Regulus ran away, like he was worried someone would hurt him.

He tried to ignore the thought and get his work done, but it clung to him and he ended up falling asleep with no better answer to his worries.

Notes:

Shakira (my cat not the singer) rolled around on my keyboard and then this was written thank you Shakira