Mischief Managed Year One: Mayhem of the Moon

Chapter Forty-Nine- A Prize for the Winner and a Curse for the Loser

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

Remus still felt hurt by Sirius' action. Though he wasn't sure he knew why, he felt quite so hurt. It's not like Sirius' actions didn't make sense, not like he even particularly blamed his stubborn friend. Still, something about Sirius not trusting him, which again made sense, bothered Remus in a way it hadn't before. He felt really scared by how much closer all his friends had gotten to him and he wasn't sure why. Remus pondered this as he maneuvered his way down the bleachers towards the mass of people running around on the pitch.

It was because his friends knew, he realized. That was why what Sirius had done had bothered him so much! If Sirius assumed he was acting in Remus' best interests now, how many more times would it take before the foolish boy assumed it was "in Remus' best interest" to tell someone about the abuse?

Remus knew it was silly, that today's situation was entirely different. But ever since Peter and James had found out about both his past and Sirius' he had grown increasingly worried. Remus knew that he would keep getting hurt and ill, not because he was being beaten every time he "went home every month," like his friends currently thought. But because of his transformations. Not only was he worried his friends would tell an adult because of this, but he also felt terrible because of how much he was worrying them.

He had never considered more seriously telling his friends the whole truth than he had these past few weeks. Wouldn't it be easier for them to hate him rather than keep worrying about him? Wouldn't it be better for them not to be driven sick with worry like he had done to his mom? He could end up killing them too!

Tears filled Remus' eyes, and the field swam in his vision before him. He could hear the laughter as the Gryffindor students all kept trying to catch what he realized after a few minutes of overhearing snippets of conversation was an escaped snitch.

An older year bumped into him, apologizing immediately but jostled Remus into realizing someone could catch him crying. Not wanting to ruin James' birthday he quickly wound his way around the chaos as skillfully as he could, despite not being able to see much through the tears clouding his eyes. He managed to reach the stands again, this time the ones on the opposite side of the field.

Remus hardly took notice of the dark green banner labeling the Slytherin section as he ducked inside, planning to take the stairs up behind the stand to keep him hidden from the crowd below. He realized this might cause Sirius and his friends more grief, but rationalized it would take a while for them to notice he was gone. Everyone was trying to catch the snitch, especially with the reward of some mystery prize promised by one of the older students.

Remus fantasized rushing back outside, simply enjoying the moment, catching the snitch, and receiving a big pile of Honeydukes chocolates as a reward. It was so tempting he really would have gone back outside, but the tears kept falling down his cheeks. It didn't help that spring break was just around the corner.

The young werewolf had been doing a good job of pretending not to care about going home when he was with his friends, much like Sirius was doing a good job at the same thing. But Remus was getting more worried by the day. He honestly didn't know what his uncle had in store for him, to "put him in his place." He didn't want to find out.

"Ouch! Careful, Severus. You nearly stepped on my foot," came a hushed cry from further underneath the bleacher.

"It's hard to see in these hoods," the familiar voice of Severus shot back, sounding irritated.

"Yes well, do you WANT to get in trouble?" the first voice challenged.

Remus froze his building panic, now sinking into irritation. Slytherins. Why couldn't they leave things alone? Surely they weren't planning to ruin James' party? But as much as Remus knew Sev tolerated him, he knew the Slytherin loathed James.