Curse Breaker (or how to find answers)

We will all end up at the bottom of the Black Lake - pt.1

"I can't do this anymore," James whispered to his reflect in the mirror.

"James! What are you doing?" he heard Sirius' voice muffled by the bathroom door. "You've been inside the bathroom for forty minutes already, what are you doing!"

James' heart thumped in his chest. Sirius' voice startled him. He hoped he didn't hear him talk to himself. He took his hands off the sink, and took a step back. He was a mess, his hair looked like crap, as usual, and his fucked-up sleep schedule started to be visible on his face. James thought taking a shower might help him to think about something else than Regulus, but it didn't.

Was it all a dream? What happened in the Astronomy Tower, a week ago? The more James thought about it, the more it seemed it was all coming from his imagination. And James was thinking a lot about it. It was on repeat on his mind.

Regulus didn't go to the Astronomy Tower anymore. The night after the full moon, James checked the Marauders' Map at night, to see if he could join Regulus. But the Astronomy Tower was empty. He waited for hours, not sleeping for a bit, and Regulus wouldn't move out of his dorm. It was the same the next day; James almost didn't sleep. Was he avoiding him? The next day, and the day after again, Regulus didn't show up to the tower. James wondered why he stopped going, all of the sudden.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting out," James said, putting on a white shirt, that got wet because of his hair.

Then he added a shirt, he quickly buttoned it up, before adding a red jumper, and his warmest pants. The brown velvet ribbed ones.

Winter was getting closer and closer. The first Quidditch match too. There was one week left before the beginning of November. On Saturdays, they had practice, and James came back of this one covered in mud and all wet. They'd have to go against Ravenclaw, and even if they'd won against them plenty of times already, the team was still a bit stressed out, for the beginning of the season.

As the captain, James had to organize the strategy, and the practices, so they'd be ready to face Ravenclaw's team. They weren't better than them; they were less dynamic, and less cooperative within their team, contrary to Gryffindor's players. But they had fine players as individuals, and they were quick on brooms. Not to be underestimated. But he knew his team had enough potential to win.

James opened the door, under Sirius' fake-annoyed tone, while he had one sock on, and was in the middle of putting the second one on his foot. Sirius had been banging at the door for the past minute.

"C'mon, you're not able to wait for a bit?" he said to Sirius.

"You twat, it's been forty five minutes already!" He answered, incredulous. James smiled.

"It's because I need to take care of that handsome body of mine," he said, smirking, showing off his body, and posing. Even if he didn't had big muscles, James was still thicker than Sirius, thanks to Quidditch. "You can't really understand that, don't y–"

James didn't get to finish his sentence because Sirius tried to hit him with his towel. James laughed, and Sirius cursed at him, trying to hit him like some sort of mad mother, mad because he spent too much time under the shower. Once he got out of the bathroom, dodging Sirius, the latter looked at him in the eye, smirking too.

"Next time, I'll charm the water to be deadass cold, so you'll stop checking you out in the mirror for forty minutes," he said, trying to sound menacing, but there was a smile in his voice.

As Sirius closed the door, James shouted, "And I'll charm your shampoo to make you go bald, Sirius! With love!"

"Lame!" Sirius yelled back.