The Game

"I just lost The Game." Snape drawled as he passed the Gryffindor table, superiority etched into his smirk. Usually, failure would be no event worth celebrating, but this was different. This was The Game.

"Dammit." James growled, glaring ferociously at the Slytherin's receding figure and at the same time, received quite the confused glance from his best mate.

"Dammit? Snape loosing is a good thing, remember?" Sirius, not exactly getting why his best mate was so upset, grabbed a piece of toast and began munching noisily. James, not noticing the food or question, continued glaring. Sighing, the Black turned to his left. He'd try Plan B.

"Hey, Moony, what's up with James?" Remus, reading who knows what, simply shook his head.

"You don't want to know."

"I'm pretty sure I do." Annoyance was clear in his response. He wanted to know why loosing the game was so bad and he'd figure it, one way or the other.

"The Game."

Sirius turned once more, surprised. James had spoken, but the anger in his voice had disappeared. It had been replaced with shame.

"I lost The Game." He said mournfully, before banging his head against the table. When finished, he didn't pick it back up. Watching James go mad, Sirius had gotten even more annoyed.

"What the bloody hell is The Game?"

"It's a muggle mind game. The whole point of it is to not think about The Game. When you do, you lose and then you're supposed to say 'I lost The Game.' " Remus shrugged and continued reading his book; however, Sirius's curiosity hadn't been satisfied.

"So, you're winning The Game when you don't know you're winning."

"Pretty Much."

"and everyone in the world is playing the game, they just don't realize it."

"Yup."

"Man, that's screwed up" Remus nodded, and Sirius, lost in thought, didn't speak until he finally declared it.

"I lost The Game." With that, Remus laughed.

"There isn't exactly a way to win it."

Peter, who had been enjoying a good bowl of porridge at the time, didn't understand a bloody hell what any of his friends were talking about. Little did he know, he was winning The Game, but then again, he didn't know it, so could you really qualify that as a win?

In the end, Remus was right. You can't win, no matter how hard you try.