I Will Follow You Into The Dark || Jegulus

31. The Prettiest Star

"If it isn't the birthday boy!" Barty came up from behind James on his way to class. It was strange being seen in public with him, but James liked Barty.

"you guys still coming to the party today? I'm sure Marlene invited you." James asked

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. We might have to force Regulus to go though." He

 He wished he could articulate to Lily how much help Barty has been to him. Maybe he still could. He held onto the hope that Lily could see the good in this group of people. He spent all day thinking about her, and the first moment he got, he hunted her down.

"What do you want." She crossed her arms. The glare she gave him hurt his heart.

"Lily, I have to explain things to you, please listen." He begged. He loved her. He needed her, but he needed Barty, and he wanted Regulus and Evan to like him.

"You have five minutes." She said. They decided to go out to the courtyard and sit down.

"I... lily I don't feel comfortable saying what's wrong with me right now, but Barty has been helping me when I have breakdowns, he has genuinely helped me so much mentally when I felt like I had nobody, and there's no therapists on campus; he's the closest I have to one - I don't want to hurt you or any of my friends, but I need him." James said

"You could talk to me, or Sirius. Or I'm sure Remus could make a good therapist."  She offered.

James shook his head, " I barely got the confidence to tell Remus, I can't bother him with my problems, he has so much going on. But I think the Slytherins are coming to my party, please give them a chance" James grabbed her hand pleadingly.

Lily sighed. "If they do anything." She scoffed, "I'll kill them."

"You'll love them I promise" James grinned. "I have to go help set up the common room for the party, wanna come?" He offered, and she nodded.

𝄽

"Why are we going to the Gryffindor common room?" Regulus asked, already rolling his eyes. A party with those idiots sounds like torture.

"It's James's birthday silly!" Pandora said.

"And since when do you even know him?" Regulus asked.

"I know enough from you guys." She said and skipped ahead of the group. Dorcas was already there, she and Marlene went to help the Gryffindors set the party up.

When the group got there, the party was already in full swing, someone managed to sneak in some alcohol, and James was already completely shit faced.

James wobbled as he tried to get Lily to dance with him, who just sat next to her friend and laughed. Regulus had rarely seen James interacting with Lily, and whatever he did see always seemed to be James trying to get Lily to do things with him. Regulus hoped it wasn't really the way it seemed. James deserved someone who wanted to spend time with him.

"Are you James Potter?" Pandora approached him. Regulus tried to cover his face with his hand to shield his embarrassment. "I'm Pandora, I've heard so much about you" she smiled.

"You look too nice to be evil" He said with a wonky grin on his face. 

"That's because I'm not." She smiled.

James left and went to the middle of the room with a stupid look on his face. Regulus noticed a new song had started playing. The Prettiest Star by David Bowie.

He was standing on a table with a drink in his hand, dancing in a way Regulus had never seen, his hips moved with he music. As much as he tried, he could not keep his eyes off Potter.