FAMOUS AUTHORS

Classic Bookshelf: This site has put classic novels online, from Charles Dickens to Charlotte Bronte.

The Online Books Page: The University of Pennsylvania hosts this book search and database.

Project Gutenberg: This famous site has over 27,000 free books online.

Page by Page Books: Find books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G. Wells, as well as speeches from George W. Bush on this site.

Classic Book Library: Genres here include historical fiction, history, science fiction, mystery, romance and children’s literature, but they’re all classics.

Classic Reader: Here you can read Shakespeare, young adult fiction and more.

Read Print: From George Orwell to Alexandre Dumas to George Eliot to Charles Darwin, this online library is stocked with the best classics.

Planet eBook: Download free classic literature titles here, from Dostoevsky to D.H. Lawrence to Joseph Conrad.

The Spectator Project: Montclair State University’s project features full-text, online versions of The Spectator and The Tatler.

Bibliomania: This site has more than 2,000 classic texts, plus study guides and reference books.

Online Library of Literature: Find full and unabridged texts of classic literature, including the Bronte sisters, Mark Twain and more.

Bartleby: Bartleby has much more than just the classics, but its collection of anthologies and other important novels made it famous.

Fiction.us: Fiction.us has a huge selection of novels, including works by Lewis Carroll, Willa Cather, Sherwood Anderson, Flaubert, George Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

Free Classic Literature: Find British authors like Shakespeare and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, plus other authors like Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and more.

TEXTBOOKS

Textbook Revolution: Find biology, business, engineering, mathematics and world history textbooks here.

Wikibooks: From cookbooks to the computing department, find instructional and educational materials here.

KnowThis Free Online Textbooks: Get directed to stats textbooks and more.

Online Medical Textbooks: Find books about plastic surgery, anatomy and more here.

Online Science and Math Textbooks: Access biochemistry, chemistry, aeronautics, medical manuals and other textbooks here.

MIT Open Courseware Supplemental Resources: Find free videos, textbooks and more on the subjects of mechanical engineering, mathematics, chemistry and more.

Flat World Knowledge: This innovative site has created an open college textbooks platform that will launch in January 2009.

Free Business Textbooks: Find free books to go along with accounting, economics and other business classes.

Light and Matter: Here you can access open source physics textbooks.

eMedicine: This project from WebMD is continuously updated and has articles and references on surgery, pediatrics and more.

MATH AND SCIENCE

FullBooks.com: This site has “thousands of full-text free books,” including a large amount of scientific essays and books.

Free online textbooks, lecture notes, tutorials and videos on mathematics: NYU links to several free resources for math students.

Online Mathematics Texts: Here you can find online textbooks likeElementary Linear Algebra and Complex Variables.

Science and Engineering Books for free download: These books range in topics from nanotechnology to compressible flow.

FreeScience.info: Find over 1800 math, engineering and science books here.

Free Tech Books: Computer programmers and computer science enthusiasts can find helpful books here.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

byGosh: Find free illustrated children’s books and stories here.

Munseys: Munseys has nearly 2,000 children’s titles, plus books about religion, biographies and more.

International Children’s Digital Library: Find award-winning books and search by categories like age group, make believe books, true books or picture books.

Lookybook: Access children’s picture books here.

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

Bored.com: Bored.com has music ebooks, cooking ebooks, and over 150 philosophy titles and over 1,000 religion titles.

Ideology.us: Here you’ll find works by Rene Descartes, Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, David Hume and others.

Free Books on Yoga, Religion and Philosophy: Recent uploads to this site include Practical Lessons in Yoga and Philosophy of Dreams.

The Sociology of Religion: Read this book by Max Weber, here.

Religion eBooks: Read books about the Bible, Christian books, and more.

PLAYS

ReadBookOnline.net: Here you can read plays by Chekhov, Thomas Hardy, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and others.

Plays: Read Pygmalion, Uncle Vanya or The Playboy of the Western World here.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: MIT has made available all of Shakespeare’s comedies, tragedies, and histories.

Plays Online: This site catalogs “all the plays [they] know about that are available in full text versions online for free.”

ProPlay: This site has children’s plays, comedies, dramas and musicals.

MODERN FICTION, FANTASY AND ROMANCE

Public Bookshelf: Find romance novels, mysteries and more.

The Internet Book Database of Fiction: This forum features fantasy and graphic novels, anime, J.K. Rowling and more.

Free Online Novels: Here you can find Christian novels, fantasy and graphic novels, adventure books, horror books and more.

Foxglove: This British site has free novels, satire and short stories.

Baen Free Library: Find books by Scott Gier, Keith Laumer and others.

The Road to Romance: This website has books by Patricia Cornwell and other romance novelists.

Get Free Ebooks: This site’s largest collection includes fiction books.

John T. Cullen: Read short stories from John T. Cullen here.

SF and Fantasy Books Online: Books here include Arabian Nights,Aesop’s Fables and more.

Free Novels Online and Free Online Cyber-Books: This list contains mostly fantasy books.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Project Laurens Jz Coster: Find Dutch literature here.

ATHENA Textes Francais: Search by author’s name, French books, or books written by other authors but translated into French.

Liber Liber: Download Italian books here. Browse by author, title, or subject.

Biblioteca romaneasca: Find Romanian books on this site.

Bibliolteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes: Look up authors to find a catalog of their available works on this Spanish site.

KEIMENA: This page is entirely in Greek, but if you’re looking for modern Greek literature, this is the place to access books online.

Proyecto Cervantes: Texas A&M’s Proyecto Cervantes has cataloged Cervantes’ work online.

Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum: Access many Latin texts here.

Project Runeberg: Find Scandinavian literature online here.

Italian Women Writers: This site provides information about Italian women authors and features full-text titles too.

Biblioteca Valenciana: Register to use this database of Catalan and Valencian books.

Ketab Farsi: Access literature and publications in Farsi from this site.

Afghanistan Digital Library: Powered by NYU, the Afghanistan Digital Library has works published between 1870 and 1930.

CELT: CELT stands for “the Corpus of Electronic Texts” features important historical literature and documents.

Projekt Gutenberg-DE: This easy-to-use database of German language texts lets you search by genres and author.

HISTORY AND CULTURE

LibriVox: LibriVox has a good selection of historical fiction.

The Perseus Project: Tufts’ Perseus Digital Library features titles from Ancient Rome and Greece, published in English and original languages.

Access Genealogy: Find literature about Native American history, the Scotch-Irish immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries, and more.

Free History Books: This collection features U.S. history books, including works by Paul Jennings, Sarah Morgan Dawson, Josiah Quincy and others.

Most Popular History Books: Free titles include Seven Days and Seven Nights by Alexander Szegedy and Autobiography of a Female Slave by Martha G. Browne.

RARE BOOKS

Questia: Questia has 5,000 books available for free, including rare books and classics.

ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT

Books-On-Line: This large collection includes movie scripts, newer works, cookbooks and more.

Chest of Books: This site has a wide range of free books, including gardening and cooking books, home improvement books, craft and hobby books, art books and more.

Free e-Books: Find titles related to beauty and fashion, games, health, drama and more.

2020ok: Categories here include art, graphic design, performing arts, ethnic and national, careers, business and a lot more.

Free Art Books: Find artist books and art books in PDF format here.

Free Web design books: OnlineComputerBooks.com directs you to free web design books.

Free Music Books: Find sheet music, lyrics and books about music here.

Free Fashion Books: Costume and fashion books are linked to the Google Books page.

MYSTERY

MysteryNet: Read free short mystery stories on this site.

TopMystery.com: Read books by Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GK Chesterton and other mystery writers here.

Mystery Books: Read books by Sue Grafton and others.

POETRY

The Literature Network: This site features forums, a copy of The King James Bible, and over 3,000 short stories and poems.

Poetry: This list includes “The Raven,” “O Captain! My Captain!” and “The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde.”

Poem Hunter: Find free poems, lyrics and quotations on this site.

Famous Poetry Online: Read limericks, love poetry, and poems by Robert Browning, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Lord Byron and others.

Google Poetry: Google Books has a large selection of poetry, fromThe Canterbury Tales to Beowulf to Walt Whitman.

QuotesandPoem.com: Read poems by Maya Angelou, William Blake, Sylvia Plath and more.

CompleteClassics.com: Rudyard Kipling, Allen Ginsberg and Alfred Lord Tennyson are all featured here.

PinkPoem.com: On this site, you can download free poetry ebooks.

MISC

Banned Books: Here you can follow links of banned books to their full text online.

World eBook Library: This monstrous collection includes classics, encyclopedias, children’s books and a lot more.

DailyLit: DailyLit has everything from Moby Dick to the recent phenomenon, Skinny Bitch.

A Celebration of Women Writers: The University of Pennsylvania’s page for women writers includes Newbery winners.

Free Online Novels: These novels are fully online and range from romance to religious fiction to historical fiction.

ManyBooks.net: Download mysteries and other books for your iPhone or eBook reader here.

Authorama: Books here are pulled from Google Books and more. You’ll find history books, novels and more.

It’s days like these that Sirius remembers what a perfect, amazing, giving friend he is.

“Five minutes,” he sighs, wishing he’d thought to conjure earplugs. “That’s all.”

Of course, James lights up like the bloody sun. “Really?”

“Four minutes and fifty-four seconds..”

“Padfoot,” the taller boy immediately jumps in, leaning forward like this conversation is the most serious thing they have ever talked about in their six years as friends, “he called me Jamie today.”

Because he’s such a good friend, Sirius is able to keep the vomit from escaping his mouth. “Lovely,” he mutters, grimacing.

“It was so sweet.”

He won’t laugh. He won’t. Even though ‘sweet’ and ‘Regulus’ do not belong in the same conversation. “That’s great, Prongs,” he sighs, trying to sound encouraging.

“And did you know,” James adds, eyes wide and features thrilled, “he’s got a tiny little freckle on his shoulder? Just the one? Like…a real beauty mark, you know? Absolutely stunning.”

Sirius can’t help but stuff his face into a nearby pillow. “Please, for all that is bloody good in the world, do not tell me how you know that.”

“Nah, mate. But I have to tell you the funniest thing Reg said yesterday…”

Sirius checks his watch: three minutes left. 

GO READ  Call me, beep me by @gajeelredfox

They are so in lovee, heeelp meeee???!! This is from the most ADORABLE FANFIC EVER call me, beep me   by @gajeelredfox I read it in almost one go and I literally could books and books about these dorks daily lifes.

Thank you so much for writing and sharing it <33 So this is my thank you gift for you! :D I have tons of fun reading it and i can’t wait for the next chapter ~ 

bonus:

“James fucking Potter, you utter arsehole!”

James, who was sitting with his friends in the Great Hall, looked up to see a completely livid Regulus Black heading his way, eyes flashing with fury. 

“Shit, mate. What’d you do?” Sirius muttered, chuckling a little.

But by the time he’d processed his new boyfriend’s ire completely, it was too late to run.

“Erm…hi, love,” he said with a faltering grin when Regulus arrived in front of him.

“Don’t ‘Hi, love’ me!” Regulus fumed. “You just decided not to tell me that it’s your birthday today? We’re dating, Potter, I’m supposed to know these things!”

James, who was having trouble deciding if he was scared, amused, or turned on, blinked. “Erm…we just started dating two days ago. I wasn’t expecting–”

“Doesn’t matter,” Regulus snarled, crossing his arms. “You think I didn’t want to know? You think I don’t care?”

He continued to gape, trying to decide how to approach this. “Erm…no, I guess–”

“Exactly. So. What’re you doing for lunch?” Regulus demanded with an irritated sigh.

There seemed to be only one answer in which James kept all of his favorite appendages. “Seeing you?” he ventured, giving Regulus a nervous grin.

The younger boy nodded, finally satisfied. “Yes. We’re going on a birthday date. Dress decently. Oh, and James?”

He raised his eyebrows hopefully, afraid to say the wrong thing.

Regulus’s expression warmed only slightly. “Happy birthday.”

James couldn’t help but stare, open-mouthed, as Regulus stormed off. “Fuck, I love him so much,” he moaned shaking his head.

Sirius, Remus, and Peter all just laughed.

“Barty told me you were talking to a girl today,” Regulus said to James lightly as he joined the older boy at the Gryffindor table. “The one who obviously wants to snog you?”

James, who had been busy making heart-eyes at his piece of cake, looked up as his boyfriend, the adoration only growing more pronounced. “Reg! Hi, love! What’re you talking about?”

“Belby,” he said with disgust, as if saying the girl’s name pained him. “You were laughing with her today?”

The Gryffindor looked so clueless it was almost embarrassing. Sirius, who was watching the whole exchange, sighed with disappointment. Normally, he would have allowed his best friend to crash and burn–it wasn’t like he adored the fact that his best friend and brother were dating and he admittedly lived for a bit of drama–but he’d had a long day and frankly, the two of them were slightly more tolerable when they were all lovey and gooey together than when they were arguing.

“Prongs,” he said with a sigh, interrupting what was surely about to be a rant from Regulus. “What was Belby wearing today?”

The girl in question had been wearing a jumper that even Sirius, who had recently labelled himself as Moony-sexual, could admit was tantalizingly tight. However, James just stared blankly back and forth between Sirius and Regulus in a way that was so confused it had to be genuine. “Erm…robes?” he answered.

“Right…” Sirius said with a grin. “And what was Reg wearing, say…two Fridays ago?”

The tallest boy’s eyes went unfocused for a moment before he lit up, his grin stretching across his whole face. “Oh! That black button-down with the gray buttons that brings out his eyes! I remember because you hit me with a jinx for talking too much about it while we were doing homework!” he recalled, beaming proudly.

Regulus just stared, clearly amazed.

Sirius, however, crossed his arms triumphantly. “So. Have we solved the problem? Can I go back to my dinner in peace, then?”

But then Regulus yanked on James’s tie, pulling him down for a kiss that was very close to being inappropriate for such a public location. James, of course, seemed thrilled by this chain of events, but Sirius just groaned, grabbing a piece of pie and standing up.

“M’going to go throw up now, bye!” he called with fake cheer.

When Remus had started at Hogwarts, his biggest fear had been that students would find out about his being a werewolf. The idea of rumors and people talking about him terrified him, so he did his best to stay completely off of everyone’s radar. Of course, looking back, he probably should not have chosen the very conspicuous friends that he did, but he had no regrets. He wouldn’t tell his eleven-year-old self to change anything….though he maybe might have warned him about other, more confusing rumors.

Because for some reason, many people in the school thought that Remus, who was very gay and very much a virgin…was some sort of sex god.

He had a feeling it was because he was friends with so many girls. Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Alice Fortescue, Mary MacDonald…they were all so sweet, and so easy to tell about his crushes. It wasn’t his fault that people assumed that he’d done stuff with all of them! But as he got older, the idea sort of got out of control.

“Remus, how d’you get girls to even look at you?” James’d asked him in fourth year after moping in his bed about Lily Evans for six hours straight. “Like…how d’you get then to want to be around you?”

“It helps if you actually listen to what they say,” he’d replied mildly, amused when James, shockingly, didn’t listen.

“Moony, where d’you put your hands when you snog a new bird?” Peter’d asked in fifth year, eyes wide and slightly terrified. “I feel like I want to touch…y’know…places…but that’s not good, so…”

He’d pondered this for a moment, reflecting on the things the Gryffindor girls had said in the past. “Stroke their cheek or play with their hair a bit. They like it, and it’s safe.”

But by seventh year, everything changed drastically. Because now, he and Sirius were dating. And, mid-snog on Remus’s bed, Sirius pulled back to chuckle a little and murmur under his breath, “Sorry if I’m acting weird. Bloody terrified I’ll be awful at this and disappoint you or something.”

This made Remus gape. “What, what?” he asked his new boyfriend (!) sitting up on his elbows and furrowing his brows. “Sirius, first of all, you’re…fuck, you’re perfect. You could never disappoint me. But why would you?”

The shorter boy, who was currently distracting Remus by being shirtless on his lap, shrugged. “I mean…you have a lot of experience, right? I’m obviously not completely innocent, but I feel like the advice you give about dating always seems so…dunno…wise. And now I’m dating you, and–”

He couldn’t help it. He burst into laughter. “Sirius, the only experience I have is when I dated Benji for that one week last year, and some snogs during Truth or Dare! People just…ask me questions so I do my best to answer!” he exclaimed, feeling giddy with amusement and joy at being here, with the most amazing person on Earth.

Thankfully, Sirius’s face split into a huge, unguarded smile. “Oh, fuck. That’s such a relief,” he admitted, leaning down to kiss Remus. But then he paused. “But wait…do you know how to conjure a condom? Because I’ve never…” he trailed off, frowning.

Remus sighed, frowning as well. “Well. Shit.”

“Absolutely the fuck not!”

Regulus’s loud voice caused Sirius to drop his copy of the Daily Prophet, standing from the table and quickly running into the sitting room of the Potters’ house. He found Regulus and James sitting on a couch there–James grinning, Regulus looking scandalized.

“What?” he demanded.

“Potter! Tell him what you told me!” Regulus spat, gesturing wildly at James, who was chuckling.

Sirius narrowed his eyes. Even after a few years, it was weird enough that the two of them were dating…he wasn’t sure he wanted to know what dirty things James had said.

James, however, didn’t look abashed. He just smiled as he said, “I said I want six kids.”

Sirius nearly fell over. “Six?”

“Exactly! Absolutely not!” Regulus agreed, glaring at James. “I am not allowing six children to take over my life. Maybe two, but–”

But Sirius had other issues with the idea. “You want to have sex with him six times? I think the fuck not!” he yelled, voice high-pitched and raspy.

Now James and Regulus both stared at him, looking very concerned.

“Pads,” James said slowly. “You know that it doesn’t work like that–”

“And even in a word where it did, we would not just be fucking for that reason,” Regulus cut him off, smirking widely. “Just to be very clear. Six times? More like six times a week. A day, if we’re feeling ambitious.”

“Mister Black, can I speak with you for a moment?” Professor McGonagall asked him with an odd expression, interrupting his low conversation with Barty, Evan, and Pandora.

Looking up nervously, Regulus nodded.

Pulling him to the side of the group of Hogwarts graduates, McGonagall began to whisper. “Mister Black, I just wanted to let you know that we had to move your family from the front row. They were…erm…causing a bit of a commotion, and some other people complained–”

“My family?” he gaped. Never in a million years would he have predicted that Walburga and Orion would show up to his graduation, not after their falling out at the end of last year. They were here? What awful things were they doing? He tried not to panic, clenching his fists.

Unaware of his terror, McGonagall continued. “Yes. Potter, Lupin, and Sirius were setting off fireworks already, I think they have a whole display planned for when you walk the stage. Even Euphemia and Fleamont–”

Shocked, Regulus couldn’t help but interrupt. “They–they’re all here?” he asked, amazed.

She paused. “Why–yes. Of course. Who did you think I meant?”

A small smile formed on his face. He’d thought James could come, maybe Sirius. But Remus? James’s parents? He couldn’t stop smiling. “No, I–sorry. Okay. Tell James if he doesn’t get his act together I’m staying at Remus’s for the summer.”

The Professor grinned. “I think that will be very convincing.” As she turned to leave, though, she looked back. “Congratulations, Mister Black. On the diploma and everything else.”

The two men's texting styles were on completely opposite ends of the range.

James sent memes, pictures, and emojis religiously. Every message was an essay. There were a million exclamation marks in every conversation. Regulus, on the other hand—the longest text he'd ever sent was the address to a pub.

James slumped down on the counter, feeling the alcohol work its magic (after barely half a glass). “I just don't understand,” he whined, his words slurring. “Did I text too much? Does he not like how I text? Should I text all posh and proper, like—” He began speaking in an exaggerated accent, “How do you do, my good sir, the weather is simply remarkable today, is it not?”

“Your accent is horrible,” Sirius (his default drinking mate) told him. “And why am I forced to listen to your whining about snogging my bloody brother?”

“It's not about snogging, Pads. It's about—” James made a wild gesture with his hands. “Communication. And I don't know if I'm doing this right. See? See?”

James shoved his phone towards Sirius's face, displaying a conversation between him and Regulus.

Most of the screen was taken up by James's blue chats. At the end, Regulus replied with a single: “Noted.”

“With a full stop, Pads,” James said miserably, his hand dropping onto the counter. “A full stop. He hates me, doesn't he?”

On the other hand, Sirius looked quite surprised. Then he threw his head back and laughed.

“How dare you,” James complained. “I'm serious!”

“Hi Serious, I'm Sirius.” Sirius sniggered, wiping his eyes. “Christ, Prongs. Do you want to see something funny?”

“What?”

Sirius pulled out his own phone and unlocked it (with Moony's hand as his wallpaper, the pervert), then proceeded to swipe through some photos. “I'm sure I have it somewhere… Hah.”

He showed James a video.

The angle was odd, like Sirius was recording in secret. It showed Regulus curled up on the sofa, staring at his phone screen as it buzzed constantly in his hands, alerting him of one message after another.

Regulus was grinning. Not a light quirk of his lips, not eyes simply softening. Grinning, like some lovesick idiot. Like James did every time he saw Regulus's face.

James's heart immediately melted. “Oh.”

The video, as expected, ended with Regulus screaming the moment he noticed Sirius recording, Sirius cackling like a Disney villain, and Regulus throwing a cushion directly at Sirius's phone.

“It's bloody disgusting, by the way,” Sirius said, tucking his phone back into his pocket. “He's become an idiot since he started dating you.”

James couldn't care less. His smile stretched from ear to ear.

“He likes my texts.”

“Yes, Prongs, he does.”

“He loves them.”

Sirius sighed. “I despise you.”

James cradled his phone in his hands, like it was a physical evidence of Regulus's love.

James's messages doubled in amount from the day right after.

Word Count: 433 - @wolfstarmicrofic

"'M'fine!" Sirius whined, his voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. He scrubbed at his nose with a tissue, before tossing the crumpled thing at the growing pile on his bedside table. "I don't get sick."

"And I don't turn into a ferocious monster once a month." Sirius glowered at Remus. He shrugged in response. "What? I thought we were saying things that weren't true."

James shot Remus a reproachful look through the mirror, fixing his tie as he spoke. "Oi, lay off him, Moony! He's sick."

"I'm not sick!"

"Besides," James carried on, "shouldn't you be dressed by now?"

"No," came Remus' blunt reply. He returned to his trunk, practically climbing inside the thing in his quest to find something.

"No?" Peter whipped around in surprise. "No? Remus Lupin, in nearly seven years of Hogwarts, you have never missed a day of school. Don't tell me you're ruining your perfect score now."

"Well…" James started.

Remus lifted his head from his trunk and raised an eyebrow at Peter.

"It's hardly perfect," Sirius croaked.

"Still," Peter protested, now stood by the door beside a fully-dressed James. "You're really not coming?"

Remus shook his head. The door clicked shut and he was left alone with Sirius.

"You're not going to classes?" Sirius eyed him suspiciously.

In lieu of a response, Remus stood up from his trunk, at last, and marched towards Sirius' bed. A chunky, knitted blanket was spilling out of his arms. Piled on top of it were several tattered books, ones Sirius had seen Remus pore over innumerable times. Precariously balanced on top of those were a handful of chocolate bars, straight from Remus' coveted collection.

Remus dumped the lot of it on to his bed.

Sirius sniffled weakly while Remus busied himself with wrapping the blanket around him. The pile of tissues by his bedside were vanished away, replaced instead with a fresh box. A mug full of steaming, honey tea was made and, finally, Remus sat down.

"Do you want me to read to you, Pads? Or shall I let you sleep once you've had your tea?"

Sirius felt a familiar, warm tug pull at him. He felt almost feverish with it, and he might have mistook it for one if he hadn't felt that same, warm tug a million times before.

Remus looked at him expectantly.

What would have happened if Regulus survived that cave? I don’t know any better than anyone else, but here’s a fluffy little guess.

650 words, James Potter/Regulus Black, Jegulus, starchaser, fluff, Voldemort is dead, everyone lives.

James was moving into Grimmauld Palace today.

Never did he imagine that, one day, he’d be happily hopping into the very house his best friend had escaped from. But after Walburga died, and Sirius was restored in the family tapestry, Grimmauld Palace had become surprisingly… homely.

It was all thanks to Regulus. He’d discarded every dark object in the house, ripped out all the dusty curtains, and even allowed the house to become visible to Muggles. The last time James visited, he’d noticed Regulus having a chat with the elderly couple next door, a pleasant smile on his face.

Not even Sirius had opposed James’s decision to move into Grimmauld Palace.

James slumped down on the sofa, exhausted after trying to unpack all his stuff with a very prominent distraction in his range of sight—which was, of course, Regulus Black with his sleeves rolled up, his curls sticking to his sweaty forehead, his biceps flexing every time he lifted a box.

“Kreacher, prepare a cup of tea for James, please,” Regulus called out, then moved to settle down next to James. “How many boxes do we have left?”

We. James loved that word. He kissed Regulus on the cheek, not minding the sweat at all. “Only two, three more? Not much.”

Regulus groaned, leaning his head down on James’s shoulder. “We’ve been unpacking the whole day. The house’s possessions will have doubled today.”

James laughed. “We could always use magic.”

“No, the process is quite… enjoyable.” Regulus stood again, stretching his limbs before heading for the nearest box. “Let me move this to the—”

James’s eyes widened, realising which box that was. “Wait, Reg—”

Regulus opened the box and froze.

James’s face went Gryffindor red.

The box was filled to the brim with envelopes. While some were relatively new and white, most were in multiple shades of brown. On the back of every envelope, James’s address was written in Regulus’s neat cursive.

“Wait,” James hurriedly got to his feet. “Wait, Reggie, I can explain—”

Regulus wordlessly began digging through the box, eyes wide as they scanned every piece of paper his hand brushed against. He lifted his gaze to rest it on James, who stood there, too embarrassed to speak.

“For how long?” Regulus asked, almost in awe.

“Since—well, third year summer,” James admitted, resisting the urge to shift into Prongs and gallop out of the door.

“I sent my first letter in your third year summer.”

“…yes.”

The corner of Regulus’s lips quirked. Then he straightened up, the box of letters in his arms, and planted a kiss on James’s lips.

“You’re a fool,” he said, his voice laced with affection. “I’m taking this to my study, to its rightful place next to the stack of your letters.”

James stared after Regulus as the younger boy left the room. Then the words hit him.

His face broke into a stupid, lovesick grin. “You kept all of mine, too?”

Regulus’s laugh was an answer enough.

Whenever Regulus did something even remotely affectionate, James looked at him like he hung the stars and the moon and everything else in between. A hug, a kiss, a flirty word whispered here and there—anything.

But he never blushed.

Regulus found that infuriating.

Every drop of the blood in his body seemed to flush to his cheeks every time James did anything. It was mortifying. Even more so when his nightmare of a brother was there to witness it. Even more so when it happened at the dinner table with James's parents present as well.

“He's incapable of it,” Regulus complained, then shut his book and threw it at Sirius's head. “Stop laughing, you mutt!”

Sirius dodged the book easily, snickering. He was lounging on the sofa opposite of Regulus's armchair. The Potters were out for a few hours, so it was just the two brothers in the house. “An impossible task, I'm afraid. This is hilarious.”

Regulus tossed a cushion at him. Just as infuriatingly as James's incapability to blush—no wonder the two were friends—Sirius dodged yet again.

As Regulus picked up a second cushion, Sirius raised his hands in surrender. “Before you decide to murder me with your weapons,” he said, “I'd like to offer advice.”

Regulus's ears perked at that. “Do tell.”

“Not for free.” Sirius smirked. “Ten galleons.”

“Seven,” Regulus said. “And your life.”

“Done.”

It was dinnertime. Sirius kept raising his eyebrow pointedly at Regulus throughout the main dish, and, by pudding, Regulus gave into the urge.

He leaned closer to James, then placed a subtle hand on his thigh. “Pass me the tarts?”

Before James could oblige, Regulus added in a whisper, “Jamie?”

Immediately, James's face flushed red, the colour deeper than his maroon jumper.

His brain and body seemed to malfunction for a moment, freezing in place for a moment. Then he shot to his feet, his limbs stiff and awkward.

“I have to—” His voice was a helpless whimper. “Go.”

With that, he hurried out of the room.

“Daddy?”

James smiled at his son, who was toddling towards him as he cooked dinner. “Yes, Prongslet?”

“We have a problem,” Harry declared, but his lisp made it quite funny.

James turned the stove off and crouched down to Harry's height. “And what might the problem be, my little Marauder?”

“I don't think Papa loves me.”

That made James's heart sink. “What?”

After their separation, Lily and James had both tried their hardest to ensure Harry grew up never questioning whether he was loved. They stayed in friendly terms, still had family outings with Harry, and spoiled Harry to the extent of concerns by their parents. That didn't change even after Lily moved in with Mary, and James with Regulus. If anything, Harry was ecstatic that he had double the number of parents to love him.

But now Harry was… questioning it.

“Of course Papa loves you, Harry,” James said, trying to sound as convincing as possible, because he knew Regulus adored Harry. That man had gone through a full week's worth of breakdowns in a single hour before Harry's first visit to Grimmauld Palace. “Why do you think he doesn't?”

James waited with baited breath for his son's reply.

Harry pouted. “Because he isn't telling me what he wants for Father's Day!”

James blinked. Then he laughed.

He had a habit of loudly declaring what he wanted for Father's Day. Then Lily would take Harry out for shopping and get him his gift. Harry thought that was the norm.

“Harry, Harry, Harry.” James hugged Harry tightly, then kissed his messy hair. “My little Prongslet. What do I do with you?”

“I'm serious!” Harry said indignantly. “You're laughing!”

“I'm sorry.” James cupped Harry's cheeks. “But guess what? I know exactly what we can give Papa for Father's Day.”

Harry's eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Of course, Daddy's a genius, he knows everything.” James lifted Harry into his arms, his grin wide. “Time to go shopping, Prongslet. Let's get dressed.”

Regulus knew something was up when he saw his husband's cheery grin during breakfast. Of course, that was James's default expression, but this was too smiley, even for him.

Harry wearing the same expression did not lessen his suspicions.

He slowly laid down his fork, eyeing the man. “James,” he said slowly, “what did you do?”

James exchanged a look with Harry. Those little reminders that James and Harry shared a connection he could never dare to intrude on… it made him feel undeserving of the title Papa. And he tried very hard to be worthy of it.

James grinned at Regulus. “We really were planning to wait until dinner.”

Regulus blinked. “What?”

“Nothing to worry about, love. Harry, go and get it, please.”

Immediately, Harry hopped off to his room, then hurried right back to the dining table, his green eyes bright and full of anticipation.

“For you!” He thrust a small box towards Regulus, wrapped clumsily in emerald green paper and silver ribbons.

Regulus took it, surprised. “Thank you,” he said, uncertain, and began to unwrap the gift.

It was… a mug.

With big bold words printed on it: #1 DAD!!!

Regulus's breath hitched.

“Happy Father's Day, Papa!” Harry said with glee. “I love you!”

Regulus stared at James, who was pretending to wipe a tear from his eye, looking like a proud parent. Then he looked back at his stepson.

His son.