Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Valuable Veritaserum

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Remus didn't really speak to any of them once he returned from the hospital wing, already having heard the rumours of James and Sirius losing Gryffindor hundreds of points. In hindsight doubling down on not telling the werewolf how the two boys had managed to land themselves in such immense trouble probably wasn't the best idea. Sirius supposed it was a rather cruel solution and had bickered with James about how it was better than the truth for nearly an hour. They practically had to threaten Peter into silence, after explaining what had happened during the whole Lupin's residence adventure. But by the time Remus returned from the hospital wing they were in agreement. At first it seemed to be purely spiteful of them, mostly Sirius, explaining they would keep a secret from Remus considering how many he had kept from them, but effective.

The young werewolf had been distant and avoidant but it was all something the other three Marauders had grown used to. But a few days later Remus received an owl and Sirius realized how utterly stupid he and James had been to not consider the fact Lyall might write to his son about the whole matter. To be fair, Remus' father had seemed to give very little interest in his son's life unless it was being mad at him, so Sirius had suspected Lyall would be as avoidant as their friend and simply not mention it. And even if Lyall wasn't as secretive and evasive as his son it seemed reasonable to assume Dumbledore would somehow silence the man. But whatever Lyall had written left Remus not just avoiding talking to them but vanishing every chance he got.

It wasn't until their last practice before the trial that Sirius actually saw Remus for more than a moment besides in classes. The Black heir knew he didn't even have any right to be frustrated at his friend's disappearing act and to a point knew he was so bitter because he just really missed Remus. He just wasn't sure how to fix what he had done, nor was he sure what Remus had been informed about. If by some miracle Sirius was able to speak to his mate he wasn't really sure what he'd say, not knowing how much was already known. At least James wasn't cross with Sirius, not much, which at first had made the troublemaker feel even more guilty but had later on just been a relief. It seemed no matter what, James would stick by his side and it was a wonderful feeling, he just wished he could say the same about Remus.

As Christine droned on and on about veritaserum and blah blah blah, Sirius tried to catch his friend's eyes but the avoidant werewolf was glued to Lily's side. Sirius caught Regulus watching everything with narrowed eyes and shot him a glare, annoying twat. With Remus dodging them at every waking moment, and non-waking – since as far as they could tell he wasn't sleeping in their dorm – the Marauders hadn't gone late night exploring lately. But Sirius was sure once they found the orb, though the weeks until summer hit were ticking by, that it would become clear the foreign school's ploy would have to do with Voldy and certainly not the Triwizard Tournament.

"Sirius, pay attention," James whispered and he shifted his focus to smashing pixie wings into a fine powder. Lily and Regulus were taking upon themselves the majority of the tasks while Remus hung back, also using his pedestal to pulverise the silvery leftover bits. Sirius pounded away on the ingredients, trying to stay present while wondering why he had even bothered showing up for the team meeting considering that, thanks to Dumbledore, he wouldn't be able to continue onto the next trials. But deep down he knew it was because he would see Remus if he went. He so desperately wanted to talk to his friend, to explain and apologise and try to make the werewolf see sense about simply letting them help him. There was an ache in Sirius' heart at the near total absence of Remus that left him not complaining about his punishment, perhaps for the first time in his existence. Of course, as soon as Corbyn had returned from being injured or sick or whatever the excuse was to hide the fact the man was helping the Order, Sirius had sought out his council about the matter.