Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Forty-Nine: The Charity of Chocolate

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James had experienced his best birthday at Hogwarts so far. Better yet he hadn't gotten homesick this year, which he took as a personal victory. Remus was acting strange since the party and had been trying to convince James and Sirius to drop the younger student competition which Peter was whole-heartedly all for. Of course, both Sirius and James shot the idea down, despite the former's disinterest in the team. Then on the 28th, after being distant and lost in his thoughts for a while Remus told them what had happened during James' party. James had been oblivious of the problem in their dorm during the commotion. He had been far too swept up in the excitement and the competition that had ensued between him and Sirius about if James could get one of the pretty Hufflepuff third years to kiss his cheek. 

The chaser had failed, but apparently, while James was enjoying the party to the point of nearly passing out, Remus had nearly gotten himself in trouble...again. Sirius did not take kindly to the news but James couldn't tell if it was because Remus or Wanda had been in danger, or because their friend had fallen asleep waiting for the party to be over and hadn't told them until halfway through the next day. Sirius shouted at Remus about always attracting trouble which James knew he had a point about, but still hardly seemed fair. Peter and James had come to Remus' defence immediately and assured the downhearted werewolf that Sirius was just worried about his recent ex-girlfriend.

Sirius had then left to find out if Wanda was alright and Remus had replied coolly that he didn't care what their ridiculous friend said and that maybe this would lead to Black appreciating who has a crush on him like he ought to. James agreed with Remus, though wasn't sure why that meant their friend had to be frosty to all of them. Even when Sirius apologized for spouting off and filled them in that Wanda had been fine and apparently didn't remember anything, Remus still insisted on them dropping out of the YSCs, but that argument went nowhere. James wasn't going to drop out and Sirius now wasn't going to drop out unless Regulus did. That meant Remus wasn't going to drop out because then James and Sirius would be left alone to face what the rather paranoid boy had taken as a threat from the older student who had dragged Wanda off.

It wasn't until Sirius suggested maybe their swot friend had gotten ahold of some firewhisky, after their concerned mate had been adamant about not being about to recognize any detail from whoever the older guy had been, that Remus dropped the whole thing entirely. The matter soon became forgotten since with it being about four days since James' birthday the lot of them only had eight days until the start of spring break. There had been talk about the younger students competing in the YSCs staying at Hogwarts, which would have been a terrific solution for Remus and Sirius. But enough parents threw a fit considering their children hadn't been home for Christmas Break either, that the idea was dropped. 

The compromise was that competing students could return from Spring Break early- coming back Monday the 16th instead of Thursday the 19th. Sirius pointed out heatedly, this didn't do a damn lick of good for him as his mum would resort to chaining him to the floor before letting him return early. Of course, James at least didn't know if the increasingly gloomy friend of theirs was exaggerating or not. Remus' going pale at the statement was willfully ignored by the two boys who had loving families to return to.

Their other mate with a problematic home life had assured them that his dad would let him return early to practice for the competition, even making a joke about how his father would know Remus could use all the help he could get with potions. This seemed to help Sirius' mood slightly, though not as much as James would have wished. He was left with the sobering realization that the extremely satisfying prank they had pulled on the Slytherins and foreign students could have cost Sirius a tremendous amount of pain. This left James feeling uncomfortable around his best mate though he tried to hide it, doing his best to keep Remus and Sirius' minds off the unavoidable trips home.