Mischief Managed Y2 Part 2: The Truth of the Tournament

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Roles to Play

.................................................

Remus had spent a good chunk of the night playing games with Peter and helping him with his work. The youngest Marauder had been downcast since upon returning to the dorm, Sirius had beckoned James and the two of them had hugged as if they hadn't seen each other in months. Then the two had disappeared under the cloak without a word of acknowledgement to the other Marauders. Remus wasn't too concerned, he was more amused than anything. It wasn't until Peter explained that Sirius had been in the common room with Patricia prior that the abrupt disappearance of the two made more sense though.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Peter. It's probably just Patricia making them jump through some hoops. I reckon they'll be back after lights out, all proud of themselves," he had explained to his anxious friend. That had seemed to alleviate any fears Peter had about Sirius being mad at him. Sure enough, the two troublesome boys returned close to two hours after lights out, all grins and joking around with each other. Remus was just extremely grateful that it was clear James had agreed to completely keep Ryan out of telling Sirius about the day's events because the heir didn't seem to cross with him at all. It was such a relief! Though after they all talked for a bit, as odd as it was, it almost seemed like Sirius was a little nervous around the werewolf. As if Sirius was expecting Remus to be angry for some reason.

But if the other two picked up on anything they didn't show it, not that they stayed long. In no time at all, James and Peter had disappeared to get snacks because the former had picked up on the latter's not-so-subtle hints that he didn't want to be the only Marauder who hadn't gotten one on one time with the chaser. The second reason the two had left to get snacks under the invisibility cloak, was apparently because they were all going to stay up as long as it took to finalize the pranks they would put in place the following night. Sirius seemed convinced they didn't have to rush it and would be able to beat Reg and his lot at placing the traps because they had the invisibility cloak. It was true that the younger Black brother didn't seem to have the same disregard for rules the older one did. Remus found it rather strange that Sirius of all people wasn't pushing to set the traps tonight but found himself more preoccupied with the worried glances the boy kept casting at him.

"Why do you keep looking at me like that? Did you do something I wouldn't approve of?" Remus teased, masking how fed up he was upon catching his friend's guilty eyes on him for the tenth time. It was distracting him from reviewing his study plans for the upcoming end-of-year exams.

"Always," Sirius smirked. That seemed to get rid of whatever ridiculous worry the older boy had about if Remus was cross with him. Of course, it left Remus a little self-conscious. All too soon he grew distracted by second-guessing the past week's interaction with his friend. "Hey, Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you... do you think it's possible you were wrong about Fiona?" Sirius asked hesitantly, on his bed with the scribbled-on parchment. The crumpled paper had been serving to hold their ideas from the past few weeks about how to booby trap the path to the orb.

Remus frowned slightly, wondering where this had come from. "I suppose it's possible. But she seemed pretty genuine when she warned me about blackmail. And with her being an animagus, probably an unregistered one, it would make sense. Why the sudden interest?"

"No reason," Sirius shrugged, sounding completely nonchalant. It was only because Remus was so good at reading his friends that he could tell the Marauder was lying. But before he could consider digging into the matter more, James and Peter returned. Then Remus had to devote all his attention to keeping the booby traps for tomorrow non-lethal.