KNOWING ME KNOWING YOU ⇒ jegulus one shots

LITTLE BLACK

The marauders do this almost nightly. It has become a routine to practically scan the marauders map while huddling up in one of their extremely, almost criminally, narrow beds. They're nosy, gossipy boys, after all.

"Oi! Look that flirty Ravenclaw boy is in the Slytherin girls dormitory!" Sirius squeals with widened grey eyes. Peter chuckles.

"Didn't see that one coming!" He laughs.

James' eyes scan the map. They land on Regulus Black's name. Sirius' brother seems to be in an area of the school that is not used very frequently. He frowns. "And what's the little Black doing on a disused area at three in the morning?"

"Don't call him that," Sirius blabs, wrinkling his nose.

"What? Little Black?"

"Yeah." Sirius answers firmly. James squints. Sirius has never been protective of Regulus, so James questions it.

"Why not?"

"Because there's no big Black," Sirius snaps. "He is not my brother-" He cuts himself off. "He is the only Black, okay? Now do me a favor and don't mention him at all."

James gives him a long sigh before nodding, calmly.

"Come on, close that thing, who cares what he is doing?" Sirius urges moodily, moving to sit on his own bed, as he pulls his hair into a messy bun, it sits atop his head and he gently grabs at the stray strands to tuck behind his ears.

"Maybe he is up to something?"

"Up to what? A prank?" Sirius scoffs. "For Merlin's fuck Prongs, he is lame and boring and worthless, and he is doing something probably lame and boring and worthless, just forget it. Besides, I told you not to mention him anymore," He scowls.

"I mean, yeah, but as a head boy, I think it's within my duties to investigate....." James trails. He isn't going to give this up.

"Let's go to sleep already, okay?" Sirius grits, already beginning to draw his curtains.

James wants to say something else, but Remus shakes his head, sending him a significant look, and James decides that it'd be better to drop it. Remus knows his own boyfriend best and James won't be the one to challenge that instinct.

If Remus thought it best to leave it go, then he would. For now, at least.

"Yeah. Let's go to bed." Peter adds as he clambers off of Remus' and crawls towards his own.

But James can't. He waits patiently, glancing at the map every few minutes as if to surveillance Regulus. He waits until the clock reads almost five in the morning, until he's certain the others have drifted to sleep; having long forgotten the conversation about the younger of the Black brothers.

But James has not.

He simply has to know what Regulus is up to.

He has no idea why he has such a burning desire to figure out what it is his best friend's little brother is taking part in at five in the morning, but he'd like to be a part of it in some strange sense.

And so, James gently eases himself out of bed and grabs his invisibility cloak before slipping out of the room, his mates snores filling the silence. He follows the map all the at to the closed off area. An old classroom door is ajar and James recognizes it to be an old Divination classroom.

He removes his invisibility cloak and steps inside. "Erm," He clears his throat.

Regulus looks up to face him. He's sitting in the window sill of an open window, legs hanging and dangling out the window as he puffs at a cigarette that he holds between his long fingers. There's a bottle of fire whiskey sat next to him.