Work Text:
AU! No Voldemort
Submitted for The Houses Competition Forum - Round 6
House: Ravenclaw
Subject: Potions
Category: Standard
Prompts: (Trope) Mutual Pining! AU, [Character] Harry Potter
Word Count: 1918
James Potter squinted into the sunshine and adjusted the wool scarf wrapped three times around his toddler’s neck. Harry, age two and built like a puffskein in a jumper three sizes too big, waddled ahead of them with single-minded glee.
“So,” James said, hands shoved into his coat pockets, “you said you had news? Something big?”
Sirius nodded, practically vibrating with the weight of secrets. “Big news. Monumental. The sort of thing that could alter the course of your life forever.”
James squinted. “You sound like you're about to sell me a cursed goblet from Grimmauld Place.”
“I might be!” Sirius said, grinning. “But no, Siriusly , it's—”
“Siwius! Look!” Harry interrupted, pointing at the sky with pudgy fingers. “Birdie tweet-tweet!”
Sirius gasped like someone had announced a Quidditch ban. “Did he just say my name? Say it again, Harry. Say ‘Sirius.’ Come on, for me.”
“Siwius!” Harry chirped, cheeks flushed pink with delight.
“I knew I was his favorite,” Sirius beamed, turning to James as if he’d just won the Triwizard Tournament. “He loves me. Tell Lily I win.”
He was still grinning like a man unburdened by dignity when— CLANG.
Sirius smacked full-force into a lamppost.
He crumpled like a stunned Bludger, legs folding beneath him as he sprawled across the cobblestones.
James doubled over. “Oh my Merlin—Pads—!”
Harry gasped and toddled over, eyes wide with horror. "Siwius hurt?”
"Only my pride," Sirius muttered.
Harry placed two tiny hands on Sirius' cheeks and declared with solemn determination, “I kiss your boo-boo,” before delivering a slobbery smooch right on Sirius' reddened temple.
James was wheezing.
“Worth it,” Sirius murmured from the cobblestones, dazed. “My dignity is gone, but my heart is full.”
Still laughing, James crouched and waved his wand, muttering a quick healing charm.
“You were saying something before the lamp post tried to murder you?” he asked, smirking.
“I… was I?” Sirius blinked. “Something… scandalous… Re—”
“Daddy!” Harry gasped, reverent. He pointed with the full-body awe of a man witnessing divine light. “Wook! Pwetty!”
He was pointing at Honeydukes, glittering like a sugar-coated temple in the sunlight.
James followed his gaze. Classic distraction. As he leaned down to suggest they go in, an elderly couple passed. The gentleman accidentally bumped Harry, who squeaked and immediately hid behind James’ legs.
“Oh! I'm terribly sorry,” the man said.
“He's so shy!” the woman cooed. “What a sweetheart!”
“He'll be a Gryffindor through and through,” James said proudly.
The man chuckled. “Looks like a Hufflepuff to me.”
James smiled through gritted teeth. Sirius looked like he’d tasted something sour.
The couple moved along, and Sirius turned to James. “Dare time?”
“Dare time,” James agreed. They swooped in and sandwiched Harry between them.
James said, “Alright, Prongslet, I've got a mission for you.”
Harry's eyes widened, and a solemn look crossed his face. “Okay.”
James pulled out a coin pouch and crouched. “Twenty Galleons. Go into Honeydukes and bring back the prettiest thing you can find. That’s it. That’s your quest.”
“Pwettiest?” Harry blinked his long lashes slowly.
Sirius ruffled his hair in encouragement and crouched beside James. “Yes. The prettiest thing. Of course, you won't find something prettier than me,” he said as he fluffed the ends of his curls dramatically and made Harry giggle, losing the tension in his tight shoulders.
“Can you do that?” James asked Harry in a solemn tone.
“Yes, Daddy,” Harry said, just as solemnly.
“Attaboy,” James said and slapped Harry's shoulder before nudging him toward Honeydukes. “Go on then!”
With all the determination he could muster in his tiny little body, Harry walked off like a knight ready to face a dragon. James and Sirius leaned against the wall nearby, waiting patiently for Harry to return.
Sirius crossed his legs at the ankles. “I’m calling it now—he picks a rainbow lollipop and names it Mr. Pretty.”
“No, he’s been obsessed with Tongue-Taffy lately. Loves seeing his tongue go red.”
“See? That’s my godson. Excellent taste.” Sirius paused. “Speaking of good taste, that reminds me. The news I was going to tell you. You might want to sit down for it—”
“You said the same thing about Turkish delights being out of stock.”
“That was a major crisis, Prongs! My precious Mooncakes had to go all the way to the other end of the world to get that for me!”
“The question here is... why did he have to go and get it when you could have done that too?”
“He's my husband,” Sirius replied in a matter-of-fact tone. “That's literally in his job description.”
“And what's your job? Stand there and look pretty?” James teased.
“Mine is to bend over and look pretty, which, as a matter of fact,” Sirius declared loudly and tossed his hair over his shoulder, “I'm great at!”
James guffawed heartily when a couple of older witches standing nearby shot Sirius disgusted looks and crept away from them. “Don't scare people away, Pads.”
“It's not my fault they're jealous.”
James was just about to say something when the door of Honeydukes jingled merrily as it swung open.
And Harry came strutting out like he’d just pulled Excalibur from the stone.
“Wook, Daddy!” he beamed. “I got the pwettiest boy! And he was fwee!”
James blinked.
Harry was dragging a person. A tall, dark-haired, bone-structure-gifted person.
James choked. “Reg?”
“Oh, now that's a pretty boy right there,” Sirius teased from beside him, but James couldn't even laugh now.
Regulus Black—ex-boyfriend of exactly zero but so close it hurt , purveyor of lingering gazes, owner of that one stupidly soft scarf James still sometimes dreamed about—was being pulled by the hand out of Honeydukes by a very proud toddler.
“I thought I recognised that awful mop of hair,” Regulus muttered loudly enough for James to hear, but the words didn't hurt. They never had when it came to his appearance. The ones that did hurt... Well, those were a different story altogether.
“What are you doing here?” James blurted out.
“You know the pwetty boy, Daddy?” Harry asked hopefully, his hand still tightly wrapped around Regulus' slender fingers.
Regulus looked mildly horrified. “I was trying to buy licorice bats and your son abducted me.”
“He’s very persuasive,” James said weakly. “He used to do the same thing with gnomes.”
“That's my brother—Regulus,” Sirius explained as he stepped forward and tried to get Harry to let go of Regulus' bloodless hand.
“Ooh, like Dwaco's my bwother? Like that?” Harry blinked up at Regulus and then beamed, his toothy smile shy and awkward yet so bright that Regulus' tense jaw softened and his shoulders slumped just an inch.
James' heart stuttered in his chest at the sight.
Merlin's beard... Regulus was back....
“Something like that,” Regulus muttered, glancing down at Harry’s tiny hand wrapped around his fingers.
His voice had the same clipped dryness it always did, but his expression—the tiny twitch at the corner of his mouth—looked suspiciously like a smile.
James’s brain had fully melted.
It had been years. Hogwarts years, almost-kisses, long stares in the Astronomy Tower years. And then suddenly, he was gone. Regulus had finished his final year, given James one parting look that screamed unsaid things, and disappeared to Japan for “a fresh start.” Meanwhile, James got heartbreak-drunk, Lily got equally heartbreak-drunk (Narcissa Malfoy, arranged marriages, it was a whole thing), and now they were happily co-parenting Harry as best mates.
Which made Regulus’s reappearance… a little like being run over by a rogue Hippogriff.
James finally snapped out of his stupor when Sirius didn’t rush to meet his brother. Whirling to face Sirius, he cried, “Wait. You knew he was back?”
Sirius jumped out of harm’s way. “I was going to tell you! Right before I concussed myself, remember?”
“You could have told me! I could've prepared! I look like Harry threw up on me! He looks like he just stepped off a Parisian runway!” James wailed as he chased after Sirius, smacking his arm repeatedly.
“Technically,” Sirius said with a laugh, “Harry did throw up on you this morning.”
James smacked his arm repeatedly. “He looks amazing and I look like I lost a bet with a Kneazle!”
Regulus raised a brow. “You’re still loud, I see.”
James flushed. “You’re still smug.”
There was a moment of tense, awkward silence. Harry sat cross-legged on the cobblestones, humming to himself, completely unaware that his father was having a full-blown cardiac event.
Sirius clapped his hands. “Alright. Enough faffing.”
He whipped out his wand.
“What are you—”
Snap.
James and Regulus were suddenly hip-to-hip. Glued. Like two angry barn cats in a box.
“PADFOOT.”
“I’m taking Harry on a very important mission,” Sirius said, sweeping the toddler onto his shoulders. “Let’s go do literally anything else while Daddy and Pretty Boy make up."
“Make up?” Harry asked.
“Or make out,” Sirius said loud enough for them to hear.
“WHAT?”
“BYE!” Sirius waved as he jogged away, Harry bouncing on his shoulder, his fingers clutching onto Sirius’s dark hair.
Regulus sighed. “It’s like Hogwarts all over again.”
James chuckled and relaxed a little. “Remember when I tried to kiss you in the Astronomy Tower and you panicked and hexed my shoelaces together?”
“You fell down three flights of stairs.”
“You sent me chocolate frogs in the hospital wing.”
Regulus smiled faintly. “You still like those?”
“Always.”
They stood there, glued together, inches apart. Hearts thudding.
James swallowed. “Why’d you leave?”
Regulus looked away. “Because I thought you didn’t want me… Why didn’t you come after me?”
“Because I thought you didn’t want me,” James echoed the sentiment, his voice hushed, for he was sharing a secret he hadn’t voiced to anyone else.
“I did,” Regulus whispered. “I still do.”
“Then maybe,” James whispered shyly, his heart thundering against his ribs so loud that the sound echoed in his ears, “we try again?”
Regulus nodded, ducking his head, his ears tinged pink. “Yeah. Yeah, I think we should.”
They were still glued at the hip, standing awkwardly in the middle of the road.
Then Regulus extended his hand, which was no easy feat considering they were still glued together at the hips and wobbling like a pair of awkward newlyweds in a three-legged race.
“Shall we, Mr. Potter?”
James stared at the offered hand like it was a cursed artifact. Then, very gently, like it might vanish, he took it.
And immediately turned the shade of a Gryffindor banner left out in the sun too long.
“I think I’m having a stroke,” he whispered. “My ears are sweating. Why are my ears sweating?”
Regulus tilted his head, amused. “Perhaps it's the side effect of finally holding hands with your long-time crush. Or the glue.”
“Merlin,” James muttered, barely holding it together. “This is worse than falling down the Grand Staircase.”
Regulus grinned and squeezed his fingers. “Well, maybe this time we land somewhere better. Say, on our feet? Or in each other’s arms, if you’re still clumsy.”
James wheezed, embarrassed by Regulus’ smooth flirting.
“That’s not helping, Reg,” he said, somewhere between a squeak and a sigh.
“Oh, good,” Regulus replied dryly. “Because I was trying to be extremely unhelpful.”
James laughed, helpless and soft, and bumped their joined hips on purpose. Regulus didn't even flinch this time. And just like that, James realized he could get used to this. To the ridiculousness. To the closeness. To Regulus.
Maybe especially to Regulus.
Their fingers stayed twined.
And, for once, James didn’t feel like he’d fallen.
He felt like he’d finally landed.