Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Cheater

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James wasn't entirely sure what had happened while he was winning the game for Gryffindor. Technically the seeker; Timothy, won for them, but James had helped a bunch. Peter filled in James a little, who questioned Sirius on why he hadn't told Remus his news right away. Sirius had been unusually squirrely and kept clumsily changing the subject. Luckily for him, James had to focus on the beginning of the younger student challenges; YSCs, for those below their fourth year starting on March 1st. These were taking place because of so many younger students complaining about not participating in the Triwizard Tournament. So, apparently, the headmasters talked and agreed that there could be a secondary group of three challenges that would determine the students that they apparently needed to help out in the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. Everyone had wanted to participate obviously, though Sirius had been adamant about ignoring the whole 'ploy to get students to study.'  

That meant spending a lot of time with Remus brushing up on charms, as they had been told that is what their first trial would consist of. They had spent a lot of time looking, and failing, at casting fourth-year spells and charms, since Remus was convinced they would make it nearly impossible for first and second years to participate past the first round. Lupin was under the impression that this was more to keep all the younger students whining about not having gotten a chance to even try out for the Triwizard Tournament quiet. James didn't really care why, he just wanted to have a go at it and get a piece of some of that eternal glory that Gideon would get when he no doubt won the Tournament. The way James saw it, if a student was going to help out in the third Triwizard Task they would be famous throughout Hogwarts. The chaser was already quickly becoming so because of his skill at Quidditch, but having a second claim to fame certainly wouldn't hurt matters.

When the day for the first YSC came, Professor Flitwick ran the Charms lesson as he usually would, though it was considerably less productive. The dancing feet spell, tarantallegra, resulted in many students kicking themselves rather than dancing, and Gary, the poor sod, nearly twisted his ankle as Dorcas accidentally made him do the splits. The timing of trying out the dancing feet spell on humans rather than inanimate objects, as they had been doing for several weeks, was rather unfortunate, since many minds were jittery with anticipation at what the trial would be. James had expected earlier classes to let what the trial consisted of slip out, but apparently, no one was willing to help a potential competitor.

"Alright, everyone wanting to participate in the trials please come to the front of the class," Professor Flitwick called in his slightly high-pitched voice as he climbed his little staircase and pulled out a shiny gold sheet of paper. James didn't want to be labelled a swot so he carelessly strutted forward, unlike Lily and Remus, who were both obviously excited. But it helped that Lily was looking especially lovely today, as she hooked her arm with Remus'. The two of them were whispering like a pair of excited girls over what the trial would be, despite soon being about to find out anyway. James was so caught up in watching Lily, that when she turned to smile at him (at him!) he nearly tripped.

"Careful there, James," Sirius laughed, grabbing James' elbow as Dorcas came to the front of the classroom, it clearly being her Lily had been smiling at. Thank Merlin he hadn't waved at her like some moron!

"Wait, one second, why are you following me?" James asked in astonishment as Sirius let him go and sauntered towards the front of the room beside him.

"Figured I might as well try, right? I mean how hard can it be?" Sirius replied casually, not looking concerned at all.

"Sirius, you haven't practiced at all, why would..." James trailed off realizing the git wasn't paying attention, he was instead looking at the front of the class with a smirk on his lips. Confused, James followed his gaze to find Remus looking aghast at Sirius joining in impulsively. There was something a little strange about how much joy Sirius seemed to get in taunting Remus; it was hard to put his finger on it but something about it just felt a little different than when the obnoxious boy was teasing James or Peter. But at the moment, James was just thrilled that Sirius and Remus seemed to be getting along, despite the former's pretty recent attempts to "fix the werewolf". And so James let the strangeness of the whole matter be. After all, Sirius Black was about as strange as you could get.