Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter two

September 1st – Welcoming feast

Nephera was sitting at the Hufflepuff table next to Ellie, waiting for the sorting to finish and the feast to begin. As always, the long train ride had increased her appetite and she wanted nothing more than to dig into the food and drinks, before she left early to prepare for her annual welcoming party in the Room of Requirement that was to take place at Midnight, just like it did every year.

If there was something that the students of Hogwarts knew, was that, no matter how scared they were of the girl, her parties weren't something they should miss. In fact, they were only rivaled by the parties thrown by the marauders, even though the two were drastically different. In true Slytherin fashion, Nephera's parties were dark, with lights flashing around creating a truly mesmerizing atmosphere. Drugs and copious amounts of alcohol were always involved, as well as the expected amount of sinning that came as a result of the combination of the two. The marauder's parties, on the other hand, were bright, loud and cheerful, with upbeat music and big smiles plastered on people's faces.

"Ravenclaw," muttered Nephera to Ellie after observing the girl sitting on the stool with the sorting hat on her head

"There's no way you get another one-"

"Ravenclaw!"

"It's slightly creepy, you know that?" whispered Ellie bitterly, but placed three galleons on the girl's outstretched hand nonetheless.

"You attend enough pureblood balls, you learn how to read people,"

And it was true. After her multiple years of practice in balls, first-years were practically open books. Future Gryffindors typically approached the hat with excitement, ready to start their journey at Hogwarts, with a wide smile and twinkly eyes. Hufflepuffs almost always looked around the room with wide eyes and excitement, but that shrank the second they felt everyone's eyes on them. Ravenclaws approached the wooden stool slowly, obviously lost in thought overthinking the probabilities of being sorted into each house. Slytherins were the most difficult. The pureblood ones approached the hat with a set expression, certain that they would be a serpent by the time the sorting was over, but their eyes flashed with fear at what their families would do if they got sorted into another house. The non-purebloods approached the hat with the necessary caution, but not stopping so as to not appear weak in front of everyone.

"Still throwing the party tonight, Winchester?" asked a random Hufflepuff seventh-year that Nephera couldn't bother to remember the name of

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked, staring at the girl making her recoil slightly in her seat

"What Nephera means to say," intervened Ellie, knowing that Nephera was even more temperamental when she was hungry "Was that of course she's going to throw the part tonight, just like every year."

The other girl nodded and then went back to her previous conversation. Ellie shot Nephera a look to which the Slytherin only shrugged in response before going back to observing the first years.

On the other side of the Hall, at the Gryffindor table, the four marauders were also in deep conversation with each other, the topic of which was a specific Slytherin that Sirius Black was currently shooting daggers towards with his eyes.

"How does she get them all right?" asked Remus, referring to the girl's way of knowing which student would be sorted where

"I don't know, but it's creepy. It's like she takes one look at someone and she just knows things about them." Replied Peter

"Maybe she's a Legitimens?" added James

"There's no way mate, we would know if she was," snapped Sirius "Mainly because the bitch would've used it against us by now."