The Second Task
The full moon had been a week after the Yule Ball which Remus was grateful for.
This years Christmas was the best he ever had as he spent it with his new best friends and a hung over cohort.
After their shared night, Sirius and Remus got closer. They had woken up to the sunlight streaming in and both of them only covered in Remus’s coat. They had giggled and kissed the morning away and Remus knew he was feeling something deep, something he shouldn’t be feeling since they’d probably never meet again after this.
James had to remind them of the unopened pearls after Remus recovered from the full moon. The boys hadn’t been as reluctant to fall for the ‘my mother is sick’ excuse again so Remus had to say his dad had returned and wanted to see him. Even though Lyall Lupin hadn’t been back since Remus was bitten when he was five years old.
“Welcome back Moony. I hope you had a nice break because for the next two weeks, we are not resting until we open this damn pearl.” James said, he was in quidditch captain mode and made the boys and their friends study for hours each day for something that could help them.
Igor Karkaroff had been missing since the Yule Ball. James and Sirius didn’t like him but Remus was worried, they had been friends since the start and he was one of the only people that didn’t make fun of scars when he was 11. Frank said he was You-know-who’s lapdog and Remus dislocated his nose with a fist.
“If had to open something that was stuck to a living creature what would you do?” Sirius asked a book who didn’t seem to know the answer either.
It was 5am and Remus couldn’t sleep. He had been studying all day and had read something about The Goblin rebellion of 1612 that couldn’t leave his mind.
“…due to the harsh weather on the days of the rebellion, many Goblins weapons froze in their hands. Weapons included pick axes…”
The Black Lake had been very cold that day and Merlin knows how long the oysters stayed down there. So what if they heated them up? Will the pearl unfreeze or maybe the oyster will stop suctioning onto it?
Remus shot up and ran down the stairs, he had his dressing gown wrapped around him in the hurry as he ran down the ancient halls to the Gryffindor Common Room.
“Sugar Quill!” He yelled at the Fat Lady.
James was fast asleep with dribble running down his chin when Remus shook him awake.
“James wake up! I’ve figured it out, I know how to open the pearl.” He whispered as his friend started to wake.
“Bloody hell Moony, it’s 2 in the fucking morning. What have you possibly woken me up for that couldn’t wait till morning?” He groaned, reaching for his glasses and wand.
“It’s actually 5 in the morning but I’ve figured out how to open the pearl!”
“Really?” James said, waking up now, “why didn’t you bloody say anything? Tell me, tell me.”
“We need to heat it up, it’s stuck to the oyster cause it’s frozen, or suctioned. But either way heat extracts moister yeah, so we need to heat up the oyster so it makes it less wet!” Remus explained with excitement, James whooped loudly and wrapped his arms around him.
“You genius you!” He said kissing Remus’s forehead.
“We need to get Padfoot, why didn’t you bring him?” James looked around for their friend.
“I can’t go into his dorm, the schools worried we’ll corrupt each other or something.” He chuckled.
James sighed and lay down with exasperation. “Now I won’t be able to get back to sleep.”
“Can I stay here tonight? I’m not in the mood to freeze my feet off again.” Remus asked quietly. Frank and Peter remained fast asleep and on of them was snoring.
“Sure thing Moons, come under here.” James lifted his blanket and Remus got in quickly.
“Gross, are my feet in… crumbs?” He complained, feeling something crunchy between his toes.
“Oh yeah, I like Jaffa cakes and mum sends me them for my birthday. Just ignore them, you’ll forget they exist.”
Remus snorted a laugh and brought his knees to his chin. “Night Prongs.”
“Night Moony.”
——
The Champions and a following group of fans were huddled in the Potions classroom.
James hadn’t been able to sleep after Remus told him his idea. It was so simple yet he would never have been able to figure that out. They told Sirius the minute they saw him.
Lily had knocked her fist to her forehead and cursed at her stupidity. “Why didn’t I think of that? That is so smart.”
Remus, Sirius and James got permission from Professor Slughorn to use the Potions classroom in honour of the tournament and put their oyster over a a stove looking device they found in a cupboard. The flames had turned blue and purple after an hour and the pearls were starting to sweat.
“Do you really think this will work?” Sirius asked after the hundredth time.
Remus hit his shoulder, “This is our only lead so far so it better work.”
James was catching and letting go of the snitch he stole from his first quidditch match. Lots of their fans were getting bored and decided to leave, but the few remaining never stopped looking expectantly at the pearls.
Lily groaned and put her head on the table, Mary was behind her braiding her hair. “It shouldn’t take a bloody hour for a pearl to unstick, we’d be cooking the oyster if we wait any longer.”
“Food?” Marlene asked. Peter perked up and ran to the kitchens for something to do.
“Get those caramel slices we had yesterday please?” Remus yelled out, getting a positive reply from the hallway.
James looked at the pearls and saw his one start to crack. He gasped and the whole room woke from their faze.
“Something's happening, I can’t believe it.” James gasped in relief, the other boys saw that theirs were starting to crack too.
“Moony it really worked you beautiful genius!” Sirius said, kissing the taller boy on the cheek.
“Is something happening?” A 2nd year asked, her eyes big and glassy.
“Shit, Marly give me back my notebook, I need to write this down.” Remus rushed, he got the pencil from behind his ear and jotted something.
“It’s happening, don’t panic!” Sirius dramatically yelled, so loudly a group of students that heard from the hallway ran in to see what was happening.
After another two minutes of slow cracking the black pearls broke in half to reveal a scroll wrapped in a red ribbon.
James grabbed his scroll and hurriedly unrolled it to reveal ancient runes instead of words.
“Fucking fucks sake.” James swore, kicking the desk and putting his hands in his hair.
“This is going to take weeks to translate!” Remus groaned. The parchment was about 12 inches long, the ancient runes taking up most of it, leaving an inch between the sides.
“Can we just guess what the next challenge is and hope it uses spells we already know?” Sirius suggested. Lily was looking at his scroll, her green eyes observant.
“No that is not an option. Does anyone at this school study ancient runes?” Remus said hurriedly. Lily pointed to herself and Mary was about to speak before she was interrupted.
“You called?” Dorcas smirked widely, standing in the doorway with Peter under her arm who was holding a large plate of caramel slices.
Dorcas strutted over and grabbed the scripture from Remus, reading over it with a frown between her brows.
“See that rune there, thats a lion and it’s next to a rune of an eagle. I’m not very good at care for magical creatures but I bet its a Griffin.’ Dorcas explained.
James took deep breath at the stern look on Dorcas’s face. “They’re usually used to guard treasure or something of extreme importance. Maybe you have to take something from them and hope they don’t eat your arm off.” Dorcas said with amusement.
“They fly though, would we have to fly?” Remus asked, looking over her shoulder at his scroll.
“I recognise that one,” James pointed to one rune on their parchment, “thats the rune meaning flight, it looks like a broom, thats how I remember it.”
“I guess so.” Dorcas says with a shrug. “I can translate it for you if you guys want. It’ll only take a day or two, but I demand 24 hour service of kitchen rans when I ask.”
“Agreed.” Sirius sighed in relief, giving her his scroll.
——
The day of the second task was perfect. It was February, the chill of winter was still there but the sun was out more.
Remus was holding his borrowed broom tightly as the students cheered at them.
He had never been good at flying a broom, the wolf probably preferred the ground and therefore made Remus feel like vomiting whenever he went higher than 5 feet.
Dorcas had finished translating their scrolls after two days, the boys had been at her beck and call as they gave her everything she asked for. Starting from pizza buns to a bouquet of roses.
The scripture said:
‘For the second challenge, you must manage,
The fear of loosing one you love,
They will be in danger, not used to the stranger,
Magic you will have to think of.
They will be well guarded, in a tall stone tower,
Looked over by an eagle half lion,
He is very fierce, and will leave you forever pierced,
So be quick when you fly in.
To get to the tower, you must leave at witch hour,
And pray on your life you don’t sneeze.
Retrieve your heart, and think very smart,
Not to steal any-thing.’
Remus had mentioned his discomfort for flying to James and Sirius, they had promised to teach him everything they knew.
They made him get up and meet them at ridiculous hours in the morning to practice flying techniques. He was quite good at skidding to a stop and swooping low to the ground, but actually going faster than 60 km/hr was a challenge. Sirius and James could fly faster than 200 when they wanted to and this made Remus predict his failure in this challenge.
“Since when was flying something we should be tested on?” Remus complained one morning.
“You know flying on brooms is literally part of a wizards personality.” Sirius joked doing 360’s around him.
He was too tired for this.
After weeks of early morning practices, Remus got the gist and could fly fast enough to miss a curse if one was coming at him. He trained trying to pick up objects from the floor and learnt that looking down was what made the wolf so sick, so he looked forward or at specific objects. He felt less sick looking at a stick on the ground that the actual ground if he were more than 5 feet in the air.
After his first time going 50 feet in the air and not feeling like he could throw up, Sirius rewarded him with kisses.
Remus really wanted to kiss him but the minister was getting ready to talk to them. And James was there but Remus thinks he knows about them.
The boys for this challenge were wearing quidditch robes. Remus’s ones were blood red and pale brown like everything else he wore for this tournament, it had a cape that swished around his ankles. Sirius had a pale blue one on and James’s was red and gold. They each had their surname on the back.
The minister gestured for the champions to surround him. “Your second challenge is of no surprise if you opened the pearl and translated the scripture. But if you are unaware I will explain.”
He sighed deeply. ”Your task is to retrieve something from a Griffin we have placed in a tower. We will not tell you which one, but when you find it you will find the person you care for most. Do not worry, they are not conscious so the Griffins will not harm them-” This did not seem to make the boys any less worried “-your task is to retrieve them from the Griffin. They are known to be fierce protectors.” Clapping his hands with a small smile, “now then, try not to let the room take you and good luck boys.”
“What the fuck did he mean by that?” James whispered.
“ Do you mean the ‘Try not to let the room take you’ or everything else?” Sirius said with a small laugh.
The Champions walked into the arena and was met with a loud applause. The sky was getting dark as witching hour grew closer.
The Durmstrang students were shouting ‘Lupin’ over and over with posters and tiny flags. Remus smiled and waved at them, August whistled loudly.
Sirius and James were pale but smiling at their classmates as they screamed their names.
“I hope the Griffin plural was just an accident.” Remus said to them before they got on their brooms and flew off.
“Shit do you think there’s more than one?” James asked while they were in the air.
“Ugh we are so going to die from doing this.” Sirius groaned, Remus tried to laugh but it was weak.
“You better not die doing a stupid tournament Padfoot.” Remus demanded.
“Stop being a worry wart.”
James circled around the first tower, saying this was the Gryffindor Tower.
“Nothing here!” He yelled at them.
They circled the Ravenclaw Tower, James said it was called to also find it empty.
The next tower was the Divination tower and inside was a Griffin. It was staring at them with hunger.
“Fucking shit!” Remus screamed as the Griffin snapped at them but it stayed in its tower, because behind it was a tower of gold.
“Look at all that gold though.” James sighed, his eyes seemed to glaze over a bit and he edged his broom closer.
“What the hell Prongs, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Remus snapped, he grabbed the back of his friends broom and pulled it backwards.
“Crap, sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” James shivered. Remus and Sirius looked at him with concern but moved forward.
They checked the owlery which had two Griffins in it. They seemed to be befriending the owls. They were sitting on a pile of gold as the owls flew around squawking at them.
In the Astrology Tower were four Griffins. And behind them were three unconscious people laying on diamonds and gems.
The first person Remus noticed was Marlene. Then he saw Regulus who was next to Lily.
“We need to get them. Now.” Sirius demanded as Regulus stirred.
“We can’t face four Griffins on a bloody broom.” Remus mumbled, he tried not to look down but his broom was swaying in the breeze.
“Then let’s get them!” James said strongly, he moved forward slowly with his wand in his hand.
They moved closer and immediately back when two of the Griffins snapped at them. Sirius was a bit spontaneous and used Expalliarmus on the closest Griffin who opened its wings in response and… roared at them, Remus thinks, like a lion would. It flew at them and chased Sirius around the tower. It would have been funny if Sirius didn’t look so frightened.
Sirius got a set look on his face as he came up with a plan. He flew around the tower twice more before going on a sharp right angle and zooming up to behind the sleeping hostages.
He grabbed his brothers hand and woke him up quickly but softly to not alert the other Griffins. Regulus got on the back of his broom and when they went to fly off, the Griffin that was chasing Sirius appeared in front of them. It roared again and snapped at Sirius’s feet and he yelped in pain but got moving in the other direction. He flew off in the direction of the arena and Regulus waved at the boys. The Griffin shook its head in frustration and sat facing the hostages.
“Great, bloody great. Now we have to do that too.” James groaned. He gestured for Remus to follow him and he flew behind the building where the hostages were. Two more Griffins sat facing them with a daring glint.
“Remus, you get Marlene while I distract them.”
Remus shook his head, “no, I distract the Griffins and you get Lily. I have an idea, please just do it and don’t wait for me.”
He really didn’t have a plan but he felt bad for James coming last the first time He was going to figure something out.
“You sure or are you just being selfless?” James said.
“I’m sure.” Remus said sternly before flying up and putting a stinging jinx on a Griffin, it roared and opened its large wings to follow him.
Remus took off and flew away from the tower, not too far that the Griffin would turn back.
“Go James, go!” He screamed at the other champion who already had Lily on his broom but was watching Remus.
James looked pained to leave but did, he flew fast and Remus realised he was absolutely fucked.
He decided to exhilarate his broom but the Griffin flew to his speed. He was about to die.
Remus rolled his eyes at himself as he flew for the middle of the Astronomy Tower where the three other Griffins were waiting and Marlene was sleeping. He swooped low and picked up Marlene from the pile, she woke up and smiled happily at him. Before they could exchange pleasantries, he now had four angry Griffins following him.
Marlene went to the back of his broom and whooped as Remus flew vertically faster than he ever had before. Two Griffins were now following him and before he hit the bottom, he pulled up quickly and swerved out the way. Marlene looked behind them and cackled.
“Look at you facing your fear of heights.” She yelled in his ear, he smiled at her and she hugged his waist.
He looked back at the tower which was now vacant of Griffins. The gems looked very big and expensive and Remus thought of a million things he could do with them, like buying his mam an actually liveable house. The gems glittered and looked so tempting that he moved towards them, he went to reach out and take one when Marlene slapped him.
“What the fuck Marly?” He pouted rubbing the side of his head that she slapped.
“No, more like what the fuck you? The scroll specifically said and I quote “Retrieve your heart, and think very smart, Not to steal any-thing.’ And what are you fucking doing? Stealing. This is all part of the tournament, they’re meant to look tempting but as champion you’re meant to be better than that. Now let’s go before I push you off myself.”
Remus flew back feeling guilty. James and Sirius hadn’t been tempted - except for the owlery fiasco with James but that was different. James and Sirius were rich and didn’t need to steal any gems, but Remus wasn’t. His mam could barely afford the rent on their house and he had to do jobs over the summer to help. The boys didn’t need the prize money from this tournament as much as Remus did. And now he felt even more guilty for thinking all that.
The crowd cheered when they came into view, the arena looked like a cinema with a large screen that showed him and Marlene coming down.
Sirius and James jumped to hug him tightly. Sirius was sniffling softly and James was thumping his back.
“Good Godric, for someone who doesn’t like flying you sure have some skills.” James praised.
Sirius remained hugging him tightly like they did at the ball as the crowd cheered for them.
“Tu étais incroyable. Tu es toujours incroyable.” Sirius whispered.
“You know I can’t understand you.” Remus muttered but hugged a little harder.
“Lupin my boy, you had it in you. I knew you did!” Arnoldi boomed. He patted Remus hard on the shoulder.
“You came last but you were selfless. Brilliant boy, like your father.”
Remus hated that Arnoldi thought it was a compliment.
The crowd raced down when the horn echoed across the arena. Sirius was lifted into the air by his Beauxbaton peers and smiled widely at them. James was getting congratulated by Hogwarts before Lily hugged him so hard that he tripped and some students had to push them up.
“I thought they had you, Lupin.” August shouted, he pulled Remus into a hug and slapped his back.
Behind him was Igor Karkaroff who was grinning and ruffled Remus’s hair.
“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since before the ball!” Remus asked angrily, putting his hands on his hips.
“I’ve been meeting some important people. I’ll tell you later.” He explained. Remus slapped his shoulder and grinned at his friend.
“Congratulations champions. We have discussed your marks,” Dumbledore yelled, everyone quieted down. “In first place we have Sirius Black.”
Sirius smiled widely and put an arm around his brother who looked proud. The Beauxbatons crowd cheered loudly.
“In second place, we have decided to draw with James Potter and Remus Lupin. Although Potter came second, Lupin is rewarded for bravery and selflessness.”
James grinned at Remus and shook his shoulders.
“Congratulations once again. The night is young and you are free to do as you please.”
---
The party in the Gryffindor Common Room was one that will be talked about for nights after. But Remus had been sitting in quiet guilt for the past hour with a full cup of alcohol in his hand.
"You alright, Moony?" James asked loudly as he sat with a humph.
"Yeah I'm fine Prongs, just doing some thinking."
James chuckled, "what, about if you're going to go up to that boy whose been eyeing you the whole night or if he's going to come to you?" Remus looked for the first time to a tall black boy, he had no hair and was talking to Frank. He sneaked a glance at Remus and saw he was looking. The boy smirked and held eye contact.
"Who is he?" Remus asked, still holding eyecontact.
"That's Kingsley Shaklebolt, he's a Hufflepuff and the best damn flyer I've ever seen. Other than myself of course."
Kingsley looked like he was going to come over but in that moment, Sirius decided to prance over with a determined grin and a half empty cup. He looked Remus up and down before sitting gentlemanly on his lap, he kissed Remus's cheek and chugged the rest of his drink.
James winked at Remus and went over to Kingsley. "See you later, mates." He had said.
“What’s up with you Pads? You look kind of drunk.” Remus said with a laugh, putting his hands on the boys hips.
Sirius looked at him through his lashes and put an arm around him. “Can I not enjoy the company of a very sexy male?”
Remus blushed and pushed his head into Sirius’ shoulder, the shorter boy laughed loudly and kissed his curls.
“You are so easy to fluster, I love it.”
“Hate you.” Remus mumbled into the shoulder, he felt Sirius shake with laughter and tug on the golden curls like he did at the Yule Ball.
“Tell me, how do you feel about a dance. Bowie's about to play next, I recommended it.” Sirius continued to play with his hair as he waited for an answer.
“Hmmm, I was rather comfortable here. I’ll watch you dance if it makes you feel better.”
Sirius lifted Remus’s head by the chin and looked him in the eyes, looking rather earnest. “Did you want the Shaklebolt kid to dance with you instead?”
Remus shook his head and laughed, “no Pads, but he does look rather agile don’t you think?”
Sirius sucked a breath in and removed his hand from Remus’s chin, Remus looked up with concern and instantly felt bad for joking.
“I was joking, please stop pouting. I’d only ever want to dance with you, you know.” He sounding solemn.
Sirius chuckled and kissed Remus lightly between the brows, earning a wolf whistle from Marlene and Dorcas who were across the room.
“We look extremely obvious.” Remus said, rubbing his hands up and down Sirius’s sides.
“Let us look obvious, I want to kiss you till you can’t remember your own name, mon chéri.”
“Ugh I can’t stand when you speak French.” Remus sighed and hugged him close, Sirius put his arms around his neck tighter and they sat like that for ages.
“You know this is a party, not a pda snog fest.” Mary joked, sitting next to the hugging boys and ruffling Sirius’s hair.
Sirius yelped and smacked Mary on the hand, “No one touches my hair unless you’re over 6,2, have curly hair and can do the splits without stretching.”
“And we weren’t snogging Mary, that was a hug.” Remus blushed as he said snogging.
“Why are you always such a prude?” Marlene asked, sitting on Dorcas’s lap.
“What you should be asking is why you’re mad at us for pda when James and Lily are literally snogging in the middle of the room!” Remus explained, pointing to their embraced friends.
“Yeah, are ya’ll homophobic or something?” Sirius said kissing Remus’s cheek again.
Before their friends could answer, Igor and August walked over to the couch and Igor sat between the hugging couples.
“Lupin! Good job with the task today.” He said with a strained looking smile. Sirius sat snugger into Remus’s lap.
“Thanks Karkaroff, bit worried I was a goner but…” Remus replied with a shrug at the end. His dorm mates laughed and August looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows.
“Comfortable Black?”
“The mouse on the couch wishes he were me.” Sirius said, his chin pointed.
“Oi Igor, what did you want to tell me? You said something before the challenge.”
Igor looked surprised and looked at August with wide eyes. “Not important, enjoy your party and we’ll leave you with your… company.”
Remus frowned at his friends hard faces when they left, their sticks thumping the ground with every step.
“Everything good Moony?” Marlene asked, looking just as concerned.
“They’re mad about something, don’t worry about it.”
Sirius grinned and put his hand in Remus’s hair. “But they’re right! Enjoy this party and get drunk on chocolate cake.”
Remus started laughing loudly and kissed Sirius’s chin. He did indeed get drunk on chocolate cake, very much indeed.