Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Forty-One: Dinner Date Disaster

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James had realized it was much harder to be mad at Sirius Black when his mate was so angry himself. There could only be so much bitterness in the dorm room without there being severe consequences and Sirius had enough frustration for all four of them combined. Of course, James couldn't really blame his friend who had four nights ago, very loudly, filled the rest of them in when he had first returned about what had transpired with Regulus. This meant that Remus folded on the cold treatment he had been giving Sirius since their moronic friend had failed to mention his new girlfriend. But even Remus talking to him again didn't seem to cheer Sirius up in the slightest. They pretended to have no clue what else was adding to the Black's foul temperament but it didn't take many mutterings of 'stupid mum,' under Sirius' breath to guess the dinner date he was being forced to attend must be around the corner.

James wished Sirius would talk to him about it, that way maybe the greatest friend to ever live could sneak in under the invisibility cloak and rescue the poor lad from his date. But Sirius didn't say a word, preferring to brood in silence. James suspected Remus would have been confided in already but the boy hadn't completely forgiven Sirius. Perhaps a better way of describing it was the werewolf had a renewed weariness around the angry Black. This seemed to stem from a lack of communication between Remus and the most infuriating friend ever who still had not cleared up the misunderstanding about why he hadn't told Lupin about the new girlfriend. There was still a part of James that didn't get why Sirius was quite so upset about the dinner date, which was probably why the storm cloud boy didn't confide in him. The way James saw it, though he tried not to, Sirius had a girlfriend he had been dodging lately and a dinner date with the same pureblood girlfriend. That had been the majority of the reason Sirius had started dating her after all.

"Hey, mate, you uh...got anything planned for tonight?" James asked slyly, coming up beside Sirius as he actually put a tie on.

"Piss off, Potter," Black snapped and tightened the piece of fabric around his neck so tight he was worried the moron would choke himself. "I'm going to be a good circus monkey if you must know," Sirius added, after loosening the tie and glowering at himself darkly in the mirror.

"Well you look like a very nice circus monkey," James attempted and Sirius swatted at him, though with less hostility than had been in his movements lately, and there appeared to be a smile being held back. "We just need to teach you a little dance and I'm sure you'll be swimming in galleons by night's end." Sirius actually cracked a smile which James rightfully took as a massive victory.

"Maybe it...won't be as bad as you're fearing? I mean you know Wanda well enough and I know a proper date isn't your style or anything but I'm sure it won't be awful," James stated in an attempt to be helpful, though quickly realized his mistake.

"How the bloody hell do you know about that?" Sirius asked in an angry growl. James panicked, not usually needing to outright lie to his best mate.

"Remus and I overheard you. Uh, but not on purpose it was an accident, honest," he replied quickly and Sirius smacked his own face.

"You absolute twats! So this whole time you were just pretending to have no clue why I was bitter?" Sirius asked in disbelief. James felt 'bitter' was putting it lightly, but he wasn't about to start a brawl with Black.

"We thought you'd tell us when you were ready. Blimey, Sirius, I would expect this secretiveness out of Remus, but not you," James countered defensively.

"Because none of you understand!" Sirius shouted, dramatically ripping the tie he had been struggling with off of himself in frustration. "You all get to live your life, you aren't some sort of prisoner."