Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Marauders' Way

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It was nearly a week later when they saw Christine again on the 31st, the day to finalise their potion. Even though Sirius had been eliminated from the next round he came with Lily, James, and Remus to the final session. Christine said something about wishing them luck and reminded Sirius he wasn't a part of the group anymore before leaving them to create the potion they would be giving to the judges. Sirius had hoped she would have at least been chewed out by the professors for giving a student veritaserum, but it didn't seem like it. It was a bunch of PoppyCock. Since talking to Remus after the veritaserum incident things really had gone back to normal, better than before even. Sirius actually felt like Remus was opening up some and that whatever had happened the day they talked had shifted something between them. It wasn't until Peter had pointed out to Sirius over the weekend when the Black heir had been bragging to the others about how close Remus now was to him despite all the pushing, that apparently the werewolf had been extremely grateful for being saved from answering Christine and Regulus. All and all the (younger student competitions) YSC's had been a success in Sirius' mind.

Their disastrous last attempt at veritaserum was another story. The final batch turned out so bad that they all knew their group wouldn't pass when the results would be given on the 7th. But either way, Sirius didn't have to worry about Regulus advancing without him because Corbyn was the best. Sirius' favourite professor had kicked Regulus out of the younger student competition, which meant their last group together had been much more pleasant than usual. Sirius was in a great mood by the end of their final attempt to brew veritaserum. Lily offered to drop off their final product at the Great Hall where the panel of judges were. Once she left with the greyish-coloured veritaserum it was out of sight out of mind for him. He had more pressing matters to be bothered by. If only James and Remus felt the same way. James took to complaining loudly the next few days about how Christine had royally screwed them over and lamented dramatically about his loss at a chance of true fame and glory.

Remus was less obvious about his disappointment and it wasn't until he and Sirius were walking back the Saturday after turning in the veritaserum that he understood why. They had just been returning from seeing the wolves since it seemed Remus needed to cheer himself up after everything that had happened. Although it didn't appear to brighten the werewolf's mood at all. Even Sirius could tell after visiting a third time that the wolves grew more despondent each time they visited them due to the pollution of death in the Forbidden Forest. But at least it had given Sirius a chance to be alone with Remus. It was then that the werewolf admitted he was upset about them obviously failing the YSC's because he had been hoping to impress his dad. "I thought if I could show him I could do this he'd let me have friends, rather daft of me, I know."

Sirius wasn't sure he had convinced Remus it was not stupid and wished their private visits to see the wolves could continue. But James had been begging to come along and after much convincing Remus had folded and agreed to take all the Marauders next time. James hadn't understood why Sirius was upset about this and the latter didn't really want to explain. Somehow telling James "you're ruining my special time with Remus," made Sirius sound way too much like a poof in his mind. But it's not like the Marauders weren't hanging out together, they had been spending nearly every night checking on the Maapallo Krieger Ochrona to make sure it wasn't stolen and spent their days coming up with pranks to enact on the foreign students that Remus had determined were involved in trying to steal the orb. It was just that Remus, for whatever reason, didn't open up in the same way to the others as he did when it was just the two of them. Sirius could hardly believe the werewolf was actually answering the questions asked of him when they were alone together. It was in fact so unbelievable both Peter and James seemed to think Sirius was making it up.