Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Nineteen: Operation Hatch the Egg

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"Wakey, wakey!" the far too chipper voice, hollering obnoxiously in his ear, could only belong to one obnoxious git.

Remus groaned, opening his eyes and flinching, finding James leaning over him anxiously and identifying the painfully loud voice in his ear as Sirius'.

"You're in the hospital wing so much mate I think you should have your own room," James grinned, looking relieved when Remus' eyes opened.

"Ha...ha...ha..." Remus replied dryly. "Ow," he added more out of annoyance than pain as James flicked his forehead looking cross.

"You should have said you were cursed!" James pointed out sternly. Remus could hear Sirius suppressing his snickers.

"I didn't know," Remus protested, feeling dread fill him. He knew his friends' chiding would be nothing compared to the matron's...

"But you were on the ground and you lied to me even after..." Peter trailed off as Remus shot him an angry look that must have actually looked threatening since the smaller boy gulped.

"Even after what?" Sirius asked immediately, always annoyingly quick to pick up when something was being hidden from him.

"Even after I asked him if it was the truth."

"It was the truth," Remus replied stubbornly, his head still aching. "Well some of it," he amended at the three disbelieving looks his friends shot at him. "Why are you wearing those?" Remus asked tiredly, finally noticing the very large badges on Peter, James, and Sirius' chests.

"Nuhu, you aren't changing the subject that easily! So what actually happened?" Sirius asked, settling down on Remus' bed.

"Yeah, mate, it sounds like quite the story," James added, joining Sirius.

"It really isn't. I overheard some students, they caught me...it's a little fuzzy but they must have cursed me. Then as I was walking back I lost my balance and tripped."

"But why didn't you say you had been cursed? We could have gone right to the hospital wing?" Peter asked, sitting at the foot of the big bed. Remus bit back a pained smile, it appeared that whether they were in their dorm or anywhere else they somehow ended up gathering on his bed.

"Well, I was really excited about the egg. I had to tell Gideon immediately. You can't tell me the three of you wouldn't have done the same thing," Remus replied, only half lying which he had found was the safest way to hide facts from his friends. Part of Remus wasn't sure why he didn't just tell them the truth but something about having his memories tampered with seemed humiliating, shameful, and extremely intrusive. Besides, then the awkward conversation would have to happen about Remus being with Greyback for a month...months? Remus swallowed down the revolting feeling and inhaled slowly through his nose.

"Well...yeah, I guess that's true...but still," Sirius huffed but said nothing more. As Remus suspected, his friends really couldn't argue with that sort of logic.

"So how many eggs has he collected?" the werewolf asked excitedly, sitting up slightly, glad to find he was feeling much better than he had been.

"That's what these are for!" Peter piped up happily.

"We were tailing you and the Prewetts...well sort of, someone took some shaking before he came to," Sirius stated pointedly and James' cheeks heated.

"But both of them were in our dorm at once! How could I not be shocked over that?" James defended himself quickly.

"Yeah, yeah but anyways they caught us!" Sirius went on, an eagerness to his tone.