I Will Follow You Into The Dark || Jegulus

58. Fruit Roll Ups

"D'you think we should tell Sirius about us?" James asked. He was lying in his bed, holding Regulus, who was trying to read a book.

"He's still a little upset that I haven't talked about me being 'friends' with you. I mean - only if you're okay with it- we can tell him about us dating." James continued.

"Probably better sooner than later. Especially since I guess I'll be around more often," Regulus whispered, "this is all a lot to get used to."

"What if we announce it to everyone at dinner?" James suggested.

"Can we do it the night before we leave for Hogwarts? If things go wrong I won't have to deal with being in the same room as Sirius."

"Of course love." James kissed his forehead, "I'm going to find Sirius. You get some rest" James got up and left, searching the house for Sirius. Remus had to go home, so Sirius was likely sulking somewhere.

James managed to find him. He was on the porch attempting to learn guitar.

"How's Regulus?" Sirius asked, very badly strumming an F major chord. His pointer finger didn't quite press down correctly to make the bar chord.

"He's healing. He's in my room reading a book right now." James said, "here, try angling your wrist like this" He maneuvered Sirius's left hand over the guitar at a more comfortable angle, "now try"

Sirius strummed it again, now playing a half decent chord.

"Y'know you still didn't really tell me how or why you befriended my brother." Sirius set the guitar down next to him.

"Oh, well its kind of a long story" James said awkwardly.

"I have all day." Sirius said, leaning forward in his chair.

James sighed, "Well I don't remember how it started, I was always just... intrigued by him" James was careful with his wording, describing how he thought he felt at the time rather than how he felt now, "any time I went near him, he would tell me to go away and he's yelled at me a good few times. At some point I was trying to get him to leave like you did. At the New Years party last year, he punched me in the nose, and then after we got back to Hogwarts he became my potions tutor, and trust me, he hated it more than you did" James explained.

"Okay so he hated you and you just - kept following him?" Sirius asked, "why would you do that?" Sirius asked.

"I guess I just had a feeling he wasn't as bad as he seemed and maybe I could help fix your relationship." James said, "anyway, there was this one night I found him in the astronomy tower crying. I walked him back to his common room, but just a little while later he ran out and was sprinting to the hospital wing. His friend Barty was injured and I helped him sneak in, and I guess since then, he wasn't fond of me, but started spending time with me and I even made him laugh a few times. It was just this year that we actually got closer." James said.

"So... you were trying to help us? Him and I?" Sirius asked

"Yeah. You two deserve to be brothers. I knew he wasn't who you thought he was. You both just have some misconstrued ideas of what happened, and the only person there is to blame is your mother, not each other."

Sirius nodded, "I guess I forgive you. You're still an idiot though." Sirius mumbled.

"You blew up a lot less than I expected you to. When you came down the stairs I almost had a heart attack. I was expecting you to kill either me or him." James smiled softly.

"I guess seeing him like that calmed me slightly. The anger issues I definitely got from my mother."

James chuckled, "you know I love you Sirius"