Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Sixty-One: Not Made of Glass

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James had noticed Remus seemed quieter lately, not avoiding them, just sort of...down. The chaser was pretty sure Sirius hadn't noticed because Remus either honestly seemed to cheer up when the oldest Marauder was around or, most likely, was trying to convince them all he was okay. And no one paid attention to Remus as much as Sirius did. Only James had begun to after realising his family couldn't help his friend and since seeing first-hand how hurt Remus could get every month. It had been so awful that James had experienced several nightmares about the mangled body of Remus just crawling towards him crying while at the same time telling him to stay away. Since Sirius was in such a good mood lately despite all odds, James had told Peter about the dream instead. 

The smaller boy had admitted he had similar type dreams himself which made the chaser feel better, sort of. How Sirius could act like everything would be fine because there was a slim chance the lot of them could become unregistered animagi, if the slim chance animals could be around werewolves worked out, was simply beyond him. Though he supposed Sirius had to hold onto something since it was already the second week of June and the Hogwarts Express would be arriving to take them back at the end of the month whether they managed to save Hogwarts or not.

At least James had the Third Triwizard Tournament Task to look forward to! He was incredibly grateful that backing out would be too suspicious to do so otherwise he would have looked like a massive prick for not doing so when Remus did. Well, maybe he would have followed his friend's example but it might have been the hardest choice James Potter would ever be faced with. So he was certainly glad to dodge that hex. But even the sheer joy of the Triwizard Tournament's big finale was dimmed in the light of the upcoming full moon, summer, and how sad Remus appeared to be. The chaser had hoped it was just because they had all been a tad bit cross with the werewolf for checking on the orb without them. But they all knew how anxious Remus got, which was why he had checked on the orb in the first place, despite having made up the rule about it being too risky to do so himself. Predictably, the werewolf had been very apologetic, throwing himself into finding out a way to track Fiona.

Or perhaps Remus' down mood was because the boy had run into Regulus, brought up the basement, and had pretended Sirius was coming in order to get the younger Black to go away. While it was rather devious for their friend it wasn't like Sirius had been upset, if anything he had been impressed. The Black heir had started laughing uproariously once Lupin nervously came clean about the altercation and had stated proudly, "maybe that will teach him to shut up. I bet it's killing him I told you, what with you being 'muggleborn' and all. That's bloody brilliant, that is." If Sirius had actually been being sarcastic, which by how pale Remus got was an option, then James had missed it. Of course Regulus finding the orb, or getting considerably closer to it and Remus informing them Daniel had gotten to the same point as the Slytherin at the very least, left them unsure what to do next. It was Peter out of all of them who had pointed out the glaringly simple solution they had all glossed over.

Operation Best Prank Storm was back on! This made Sirius' mood better and Remus' worse, though it was hard to tell as the quietest of the Marauders hardly ever complained. There was also the nagging suspicion he and Peter now had to contend with, about how young Remus had been when he was bitten, thanks to Sirius' slip-up. But neither of them wanted to think about that at all.

 So James brushed off the solemn werewolf's sadness, mostly because he had no idea what he could do about it. James convinced himself he couldn't help, since he was scared to try after how badly he had upset Remus last time and how guilty he still felt over knowing his parents most likely wouldn't help his poor friend. But upon waking up early for Quidditch practice, because even with the season being over they needed to train for next year which James was all for, he found Remus sitting in the common room staring blankly into the fire.