Mischief Managed Year Two Part One: The Poisoned Truth

Chapter Twenty-Two- At the End of the Year

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James did his best to tail Remus the next day. The chaser had really tried to track down his ornery friend who hadn't touched his breakfast, and who Sirius had made him promise to follow with the invisibility cloak since Black had to report to detention with Pettigrew. James had even heeded Sirius' unnecessary advice by trailing a safe enough distance behind Remus to avoid detection. But still he had failed. James had lost Remus in a crowd of students, and despite rushing one way then backtracking and running the other way he could find no trace of his friend. James had failed, and rather miserably at that. Failure was not something that James Potter was accustomed to!

Of course, Sirius had blamed it on Peter, not him. The former had made it clear as they sat awake waiting for Remus to return, knowing in their heart of hearts their friend wouldn't be back for at least two days. James had needed to repeatedly stop Sirius from insulting Peter, who was truly really sorry but who could only express it so much before the older boy just appeared to be acting a bit like a berk. Peter had a lot of work to do before Sirius would even look him in the eye again. James was upset that Peter had lied about an unforgivable curse being used on him, just not as much.

But Pettigrew had taken his apology very seriously. He had brought Black a bunch of snacks and had even offered to do his homework, which was silly since the oldest of the four boys got better marks than the youngest did anyways. However even after Remus returned, avoiding them with a renewed vigor that made James wish they could go back to their typically reserved friend's mischief and joking, Sirius remained adamant in his 'hatred' towards Peter.

James had put up with Sirius' grudge because he knew that Peter had really messed up. But when Remus returned he had treated Peter the same way he treated the rest of them, with a kind but polite distance. When Remus did not spout any insults, the chaser knew that his still bitter friend needed to get over it. James had pointed this out to Sirius. Perhaps a mistake on his part. In retaliation, Sirius had thrown in his face how the chaser had failed to tail Remus. James did not like being reminded of his failures so the air around him and Sirius had been tense for about half an hour before the two of them ended up egging eachother on with insults until they wrestled one another and made up.

"Why can't you just fight Peter and be done with it, Sirius?" James asked as they sat under a tree. Every boy knew that a good tussle now and then made everything better.

"Because he'd cry if I tried that," Sirius groaned scanning for signs of Narcissa. She had been avoiding her cousin with as much skill as Remus.

"Pretty sure he'd prefer that to you reminding him what a bastard he is all the time. It's nearly been three weeks now, Sirius. We were supposed to be coming up with an exquisite group name, not going all mental and barely hanging out anymore," James reasoned, sitting taller as once more he remained mature with his infuriating friends.

"Well...he just...I just..." Sirius grumbled, trailing off and idly smooshing one of the many crab apples that lie strewn around them.

"I know it was dreadful, but I think we'll need his help. Without him I'm not sure we can ever get Remus to return to our dorm besides at night once we're asleep, yeah?" James urged, since all of this was getting a bit melodramatic, even for him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. But I just want him to pay for it a bit," Sirius pouted, though the boy would never admit to doing such a thing.

"He is paying for it, or he did with detentions," James insisted. Getting in trouble with professors might have been just a typical day for the two boys sitting outside, but was something out of a nightmare for their other two more swatish mates.