Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Responsible One?

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James was feeling better after taking a nice long nap after a dinner that Sirius had been absent from. It was bad enough that Remus habitually skipped meals. James knew he wouldn't be able to stand the not eating of his friends any longer if Sirius started doing so semi-regularly. James swung himself upright in bed and Sirius let out a snicker as he walked into the dorm pointing to the chaser's bed hair.

"Piss off, Black," James groaned, smoothing the hair down.

"I thought you were going to sleep through Operation Solve the Second Task," Sirius commented lazily, taking a bite of a sandwich he must have nicked from the kitchens.

"Where were you at dinner?" James asked, figuring if Sirius was content to forget their disagreement in Charms then he could as well.

"In the library. I totally forgot about dumb Regulus wanting proof. I've been looking into his made-up story about some of the foreign students being bloody cheaters. If I show up empty-handed yet again he might look into it himself," Sirius tsked, coming over to sit by James.

"Did you find anything?" James asked excitedly, hoping if one of the other schools had been cheating there would be more support for Gideon. Sirius gave him a mildly annoyed look and James shrugged. "Well, there's really no harm in it."

"No harm in it? Are you a bleeding idiot, James, he almost got himself killed," Sirius shot back angrily.

James thought this was a gross exaggeration considering the only one who had gotten severely hurt had been Davey, but he was beginning to catch on to the weird protectiveness Peter and Sirius had about their little brothers unless taking the mickey out of the younger boys came from the older brothers themselves. So James just nodded and let Sirius rant about it a bit longer before the chaser realized it was time to meet up with Remus and made up an excuse about having a stomach ache and needing to go to Madam Pomfrey.

"Brilliant, I'm heading that way anyway, I'll come with," Sirius offered, giving James an infuriating smile as he let the dreadful deceiver flounder about, trying to come up with an excuse before adding, "you're a piss poor liar, James Potter. If you want to go pine after Lily then don't let me stop you just don't be late for our marauding later. I've got to meet with Regulus anyways so I won't be bothered by you being a git," Sirius taunted.

"At least I'm not caught hanging out with my brother," James teased lightheartedly, not at all upset to have been giving such a convenient and believable lie. So believable that James would have actually gone to visit Lily in the library if he hadn't needed to talk to Remus. Although James wasn't entirely sure that he needed to talk to the werewolf again considering Sirius' current behaviour.

"At least I'm not wasting my time stalking some girl instead of trying to help one of my mates," Sirius shot back with just enough edge that he made up James' mind for him about talking to Remus. He didn't even bother replying to that, knowing it would lead to more bickering. Instead, he punched Sirius' arm just hard enough to hurt, warned him about being wanker, and left quickly before the lad could physically retaliate. 

James took the stairs down the boys' dormitory tower two at a time but luckily Sirius didn't chase after him and he was able to make his way towards the library at a less neck-breaking speed. There was at least an 80% chance Remus was in the library so it was the best place to start. James didn't even bother to feel bad he had slept much longer than he had told Remus he would since he was nearly certain finding his friend would be easy. Sure enough, he caught Remus just as he was leaving the library, waving as the doors swung closed behind him.