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“Please Remus,” James stresses, “I will get on my knees if it means you’ll take me with you.”
“Don’t do that,” Remus shakes his head, rolling his eyes.
“Only I’m allowed to do that,” Sirius hums triumphantly, crossing his arms and sticking his chin up. James makes a face.
Remus rolls his eyes again and shakes his head, but nonetheless focuses on James, “You know that going to the muggle bookstore is my sacred time. I mean, how long did it take for me to start letting Sirius come with me? And he’s my boyfriend.”
Sirius nods, “And he made me swear to not say a word for the first, what, ten times that I went.”
“I promise that I’ll be quiet, I just…” they shake their head, “I just need to be able to go to a muggle bookstore with someone that… knows how they work.”
Remus sighs, and James can tell that they’re weathering him, “Why do you even want to go to the bookstore with me? You’ve never had the interest.”
“I read more than Sirius.” Sirius scoffs, but concedes to their point.
“You do, but you read primarily wizard-made books and muggle books that your dad sends you.”
“Which is why I need someone that know their way around muggle books.” James hums, getting increasingly desperate, “And I… I can’t tell you right now why I want to go. I promise, if you let me go with you, I’ll be quiet, I’ll get the books that I want, and I won’t complain or anything.”
“We’ll talk about this later,” Remus shakes his head again, “I have a class.”
“Just consider it.” James sighs. Sirius leaves with his boyfriend, leaving James alone in the dorm.
Pete comes out of the bathroom, apparently having heard their conversation, “What’s the real reason that you want to go to the bookstore.” James hums, suddenly bashful. They walk over to their bedside table and grab a small piece of parchment from it, handing it to Pete. He takes it and takes a moment to look over it before looking up at James, “What’s this? Some of these aren’t your handwriting.”
James hums, looking down at their feet as Pete hands it back to them, looking over the parchment and gently running their thumb over the ink, “The first couple ones are book recommendations that Re- someone wants me to read… He gave me the list one day because I kept forgetting what books he had told me to read. The ones in my handwriting are the ones that he’s told me that he wants. Some of them he’s read and just wants a copy of, and others are on his reading list.”
“You can just tell me who it is, Prongs.” Pete hums, coming to sit on James’ bed with them, “We’ve known each other long enough, you’d think I’d be able to figure out that you’re… pining for? Dating? Regulus.”
“Of anyone, you and Marlene would know.” James hums, smiling without realising it at the thought of their boyfriend.
Pete smiles, knocking their shoulders together, “So, are you two dating?”
“We are, yeah.” James hums, still not looking up from the note with their boyfriend’s pretty handwriting. Then their shoulders deflate and they finally look up at their childhood friend, “I want to surprise him with something nice, but how do I convince Remus to let me go with them?”
Pete shrugs with one shoulder, “Get him alone and tell him. You know how Remus is.”
“And if he does let me go with them because he knows the reason, who's to say that he won’t tell Sirius? I mean, Sirius will be so fucking confused and constantly pester us for answers that I won’t be able to give him.”
“Why can’t you give him them?”
James shakes their head, “Regulus doesn’t want to tell him yet. He hasn’t told me why, but I’m going to trust him and respect his wishes.”
Pete nods and, after a couple seconds, hums, “So don’t tell Remus the details. Just get him alone, because we know that Sirius will pester you about your crush or possible relationship depending on what you say, and tell him that you’re… trying to impress someone if you don’t want to tell him that you’re dating someone, and they like books.” Pete lets out a huff of a laugh, “You do have a type, Prongs. Moons will believe you.”
“Either way I’m going to be pestered by Sirius, aren’t I?”
“That’s the nature of having a hidden relationship when your best friend is Sirius.” Pete smiles, patting them on the shoulder in mock sympathy.
“I just really… I really want to do this for him.”
Pete smiles, “Regulus will enjoy it.” With that, he pushes himself up from James’ bed, “Ready to go to class?” James nods and tucks the piece of paper safely into their bedside table again, standing up as well. The two of them take off.
James catches Remus alone the next day, studying in the library. And they do feel bad about bothering him during his sacred study time -- Remus has a lot of ‘sacred’ times, now that James thinks about it. They figure he needs it when dealing with the Marauders.
Either way, they sidle into the chair across from Remus, smiling apologetically at the look and sigh that he gives in response. Remus doesn’t even break stride with what he was copying down from his book when he hums, “What did you want, Prongs?”
“I-” James clears their throat, “I wanted to tell you the reason why I want to go with you to the bookstore.”
And that seems to get his attention, even if he puts up the facade of annoyance. James can read through it, “What is it?”
“I-” they clear their throat again, trying to decide a way to go about this, “I… fancy someone. And I’m trying to impress him and… he really likes reading and sometimes I feel like he just deserves someone doing something good for him sometimes, because he’s not really had that for most of his life. I have a list of books, both of books that he wants me to read and that I want to give him. But they’re muggle books, so I can't get them normally.”
Remus furrows his brows, “Him?”
“Have I-” James gasps, “Oh my Merlin, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realise I hadn’t told you… I fancy blokes too.”
“I hope you didn’t think you had to keep that from me.” Remus shakes his head, a fond smile on his face.
“Not at all,” James defends, quickly pausing to check their volume, “I just… it apparently slipped my mind. You know that I’m forgetful.”
Remus’ smile grows a bit and he looks down to glance between his book and his parchment, writing something else, “I’m happy for you, then, James.” He’s silent for a couple minutes before he takes a deep breath, “If you promise to be quiet and not bother me, I’ll take you to the bookstore. Also, if you tell me what his reaction to it is.”
James smiles softly at the thought of Regulus’ reaction, something that he hopes Remus doesn’t quite see, “I won’t give it to him all at once, just whenever he’s down or I decide that I want to give him something. And the books that I read, I’ll just tell him about it as I read them.”
“Either way. You can join us. You’re also going to deal with Sirius’ questions, not me.”
James nods, “I can do that. And I’ll just… get my books and sit outside the bookstore or something to wait for you. I just need you to take me there, I can figure out the rest.”
“You’ve convinced me, James. You don’t need to keep ‘sweetening the deal’.” He shakes his head. James nods and thanks him, slipping out of the chair and the library so they're not bothering him further.
…
“How did you convince him to let you come?” Sirius whines as they’re walking through one of the passageways to Hogsmeade. James hums and shrugs, making Sirius groan, “Ugh… you’re so annoying.” James just smiles at him, fingering the small parchment in their pocket. They’ve decided that the best approach for dealing with Sirius’ nagging is for them to just… follow Remus’ orders and shut up.
It works for most of the trip, and by the time that Sirius is starting to get really insistent, they’re at the bookstore, where Remus has strict rules on how often Sirius can talk. James sends a nod towards his friend and slips from the two of them, making their way across the bookstore to get distance and starting to look for their list of books. They grab one of the book baskets that the bookstore offers and takes off against the shelf, crossing off the titles as they grab books.
When they finally have their books and are looking for the last one, that’s when they run into where Remus is standing with Sirius nearby, looking at a couple books and several others in Sirius’ hands. From the number of books with them, he’s nowhere near done with this bookrun, so James just sidles up to them and searches the shelf quickly to grab it.
“The Fault in Our Stars?” Remus hums, voice low, “Why that one?”
James shrugs with one shoulder, straightening themself, “Because he wants to see what’s so good about it.” And with that, before there’s any other questioning, they stalk off to the cashier and check out, heading out of the bookstore when all their books are bagged up.
They take a moment to look over the list that they brought with them, once again running their thumb over the ink. They don’t know how long it is before Remus and Sirius are emerging from the bookstore with bags full of books in hand, having gotten distracted thinking about Regulus. About how he’ll react to the books, about how he gets so passionate and talkative when talking with James about their books.
“Ready to go, Prongs?” Remus hums, bringing them out of their reverie with a hand on their shoulder.
James quickly tucks the note into their pocket and stands up, looking at their friends, “Yeah, let’s go.”
Remus nods and the three of them start walking, “Did you get everything that you needed?”
They nod, “Yeah, thank you for letting me come along.”
“You behaved.” Remus shrugs, “I’m glad that I was able to help you. Remember our deal.” Once again, they nod, leaving Sirius looking between the two of them rapidly. Neither of them answer his questions as they go into the secret wizard shop in the middle of downtown London, using the floo to head back to Hogsmeade and making their way towards the passageways.
They make it back to the castle and their dorm in record time, sneaking through the halls that they know so well. Pete is lounging on one of the couches in the common room, his arm hanging down to where Marlene is holding it in their lap with a bottle of neon pink nail polish in hand. He pulls his other arm from where it was resting over his eyes to look at the three of them entering, humming, “How was the bookstore?”
“It was good,” Remus hums, brandishing his several bags of books that he’s now unshrinking, “I’m going to need to find another spell to make more space in my trunk.”
“At this point I’m sure that you have enough books to make an entire library.” James hums.
“If only I was rich,” Remus solemnly nods.
“Don’t worry,” James shrugs, “Sirius is rich, I’m sure that he can cheese his way into getting his inheritance when his parents kick the bucket and buy you a nice house with a giant library that you can fill with all your books.”
“How romantic.” Pete hums, looking directly at James, as though he knows that this is a promise that James themself has made for Regulus, “What about you James, did you get everything that you wanted?” James nods with a small, private smile. Pete smiles back.
“Should we do a little book haul?” Lily asks, walking closer to them after she finishes talking to a second year that probably got her attention to ask her something or other.
Mary nods, sitting up from where she’s been sprawled over the carpet the entire time, “That would be fun.”
“That will take forever.” Sirius whines.
Remus hums with a smile, leaning to press a kiss to Sirius’ lips, “You don’t have to stay for it.”
“No, I will. I’m curious about what books James got.” And with that, Mary and Lily move to curl up on one of the lovestas and Marlene moves closer to the couch that Pete is laying on, but continues focusing on the nail that they’re currently painting on.
Remus and James splay on the carpet, Sirius moving to sit right against Remus’ shoulder and back, crowding himself around his boyfriend. James pulls out their books first since they have less than Remus and puts them into their two piles, going through all the books and giving a brief explanation without revealing too many details, though they don’t miss the look that Lily gives them at them pulling out The Great Gatsby. She knows that they’re close with Regulus and she knows that he’s upset that only she and Barty have read it. She’s a smart girl, James wouldn’t doubt that Lily is connecting some dots in her head.
It’s possible that Remus is too, from what he knows about James ‘want to impress’ a guy and Regulus’ own personal opinions and tastes on books. They notice Sirius’ eyes lingering on The Fault in Our Stars for a while before James tucks it back into its bag while Remus starts pulling out some of his books that he got.
…
Despite their plan to give Regulus The Fault in Our Stars first, they can’t help but pull out Fahrenheit 451 when they’re talking, hidden away in one of their alcoves, about something that Regulus read in the paper about some of the Sacred 28 families petitioning to ban certain books that have begun to work their way into the spotlight and a mass burning that happened just two nights before.
The look that Regulus gives them upon gently taking the book from their hands is indecipherable at first. Then he mutters, “Thank you… you didn’t have to.”
“I didn’t,” they shrug with one shoulder, “But I wanted to, because I want to buy things for you and you get this cute little smile on your face when I get things for you.”
“You’re horrible, why do I even like you?”
“Because I get you muggle books?” James tries, leaning into their boyfriend’s space. Regulus gives them a soft smile and goes to press a kiss to their lips, the book held tight between their bodies when James pulls him towards them.
When they pull away, Regulus gazes softly down at the book, “How did you even get this?”
“Remus does a thing once a month where he goes to his favourite muggle bookstore and I convinced him to take me with him.”
“How did you do that?” He furrows his brows, looking back up at them, “He’s incredibly cagey about his bookstore time, according to Sirius.”
James grins, leaning down to Regulus until their lips are a mere hair’s breadth away but not closing the gap for a moment before they pull away and grab Regulus by the wrist, bringing him to sit down with them, “Simple, I groveled for a while, then told him that I was trying to impress someone.”
“And he bought it?”
“Of course he did, he thinks that I’m pathetic and he knows that I like nerdy book people.” They shrug with one shoulder, “I promised him that I would be quiet and wouldn’t bother him, so he took me to the bookstore, I got a couple books and left.”
“A couple?”
Again, they shrug with one shoulder, “I got a couple of the books that you recommended to me and I’ll start reading them soon, and just a couple other ones.”
“I swear to Merlin if you got me more books, James Fleamont Potter.”
“Hey! Don’t full name me, I can spoil my boyfriend if I want to.”
Regulus shakes his head, “No, you can’t. It’s not allowed.”
“Just because you can’t accept gifts because your parents are shitty,” James hums, letting their head fall back against the wall behind them, “doesn’t mean that I’m not allowed to get you things. If you want to buy me or make me things, then you’re more than welcome to. If you don’t, then don’t.”
“I just-”
“I’m doing things like buying you gifts and spending time with you because I want to, Reg.” Their head lolls to the side so they can look at their boyfriend, “You’re not forcing me to do anything, you don’t have to do anything to return it. You should know by now that I like doing things for people in my life, and that includes you. I never expect or want retribution.” They pick up their head and look at Regulus head-on, feigning seriousness, “Let me spoil you.”
Regulus huffs a laugh, rolling his eyes, “I’m rich, James. I don’t need you to spoil me.”
“Oh I think there’s a lot of spoiling out there that money can’t buy. Money can’t buy you a gift from your partner, it can’t buy you something handmade, it can’t buy you a random gift given to you just because the giver wants to see you smile. Money can’t buy love, Regulus.”
“When did you get so wise?”
James grins at him, their head falling back against the wall once again, “I’ve always been wise, I just hide it and wait for the perfect opportunity to attack with it.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You love me.”
Regulus hums, his head falling back as well, “I guess you’re alright. And you buy me books.” At the looks that James gives him, he smiles softly, putting the book down on his lap and reaching up to cup James’ face with both hands, “Yes, I love you. So much, James.” And with that, he pulls them into a kiss with him, which James smiles into like a dork. Regulus says as much, which makes them beam at him. Regulus just pushes their face away with one of their hands in response, a smile of his own blooming on his face.
…
It’s not long after that does the topic of The Great Gatsby come up, for some reason. And Regulus gets talking about it and, for the first time, James adds in, “I think Nick was in love with Gatsby. Or at least had some sort of… admiration for him that was much more than just a low-level new friendship.”
And the look that Regulus gives them at their input in one of pure shock, and James is hardly able to hold back a laugh. It takes him a minute to recover before he furrows his brows, “What?”
They shrug, “I read the book a couple days ago. Was a quick read, really, only took me a couple nights.”
“I knew that you were reading Dracula, but I didn’t even tell you to read that.”
Once again, they shrug, “Dracula is a lot at once, so I took a break from it to read The Great Gatsby.”
“Again, I didn’t tell you to read it.”
“You didn’t,” they shake their head, “but I know that you were upset that you didn’t have people to talk about it to, so I figured that I would pick it up and read it.” They shrug with one shoulder, “I can see why you like it, but it wasn’t my favourite.”
Regulus shakes his head, “It’s not super high on my list as well, but I like Fitzgerald’s use of metaphors and colour symbolism. It’s also an interesting show of rich America versus rich Europe.” He shakes his head again, “You said that you think Nick is in love with Gatsby?”
James nods, “Yeah, I mean… there’s a lot of reasons behind that.” And they talk about their opinions on the book, bouncing back and forth with their boyfriend, for hours. And when they finish, Regulus gives them a proud smile and thanks them for reading the book for him to have someone to talk to and debate with without feeling like he’s going to ‘tear out his eyeballs.’ James is all the more happy to do it in the future if it means that they’ll get his pretty smile directed at them again.
…
Over the next several weeks, James delights in surprising Regulus with their gifts and their new knowledge on some of the books that he likes to talk about.
By far, their favourite reaction of his is when they gave him a brand new, collector’s edition copy of Perks of Being a Wallflower. It’s a book that Regulus loves but his own copy got ruined, which he had been torn up about and so James got them matching copies, one that they kept for themself and one that they gave to Regulus after they had finished reading it. The fond smile on Regulus’ face as he stroked his thumb over the golden inlay of the letters and the gold-edged pages was enough to make James’ heart swell and stomach explode into fireworks.
Then, he looked up at them, his smile brighter than before, “Thank you so much, Jamie.”
“It’s no problem, really.” James shakes their head, “I’m glad that you like it.”
“I love it.” Then his face falls a bit, “Please tell me that this is the last book you got me?”
And James gives him a bit of a grin, “It might be, it might not be.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
And it’s not long until James is giving him the last book that they bought for him -- for now, they do plan to spoil him like this in the future. He always gets these cute little smiles on his face when they give him new books. Regulus and James are sitting in the Astronomy Tower once again, watching the stars and talking between themselves when Regulus gets talking about books and mentions the book that he really wants to read, The Fault in Our Stars, “I just… I mean it’s just a popular book, like… what’s it all about? Why is it so popular?”
And it’s honestly just perfect, so James pulls out the book from where they had it hidden in the folds of the invisibility cloak, handing it to Regulus as soon as they have his attention. Regulus takes it from them with shaky hands, “I hate you. What the fuck, how do you have so many books.”
They shrug with one shoulder, “This is the last one, I promise.” James grins, leaning to kiss his cheek, “I know that you’ve really wanted to read it for a while so…”
Regulus gingerly sets the book aside and moves to fully face James, “I love you, thank you so much for getting all of these books for me. But no more surprises or buying me random gifts for several months after this.”
“I guess if you’re that insistent about it.” James grins, pulling Regulus into their arms.