Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter seven

October 3rd – Hospital Wing

James woke up with a groan and severe pains shooting up and down his back. He reached for his glasses, and only when he put them on and the room became clear did he remember what had happened the previous night. He was in the hospital wing, the bed on his right occupied by Remus, who looked worse than he had ever seen him before. The bed on his left had Sirius in it, who was starting to stir as he woke up as well, and on Sirius' right was Nephera, still sleeping.

"Prongs, what-" asked Sirius, unable to form a sentence as he groaned in pain

"It was a rough one last night, Moony and Winchester are not awake yet,"

Sirius's eyes widened as the events of last night replayed in his head. Ellie and Tony knew about Remus, Nephera was an animangus, a bloody panther at that, Moony attacking all of them trying to get to Ellie and Tony.

"Oh crap," he muttered, and James nodded in agreement

The two sat in silence, trying to digest all the new information and trying to come up with a plan, on how to talk to the three of them and ensure that Remus's secret didn't get out.

The doors burst open, and in ran Ellie, Tony, and an out-of-breath Peter. Ellie immediately moved to Nephera's bed, her eyes trailing over the girl's body and the new scars that peaked out from under her shirt. To everyone's surprise, however, Tony went and sat by Remus, taking the werewolf's hand in his own.

"Is he going to be okay?" he croaked, his voice sounding tired and distant

James blinked, trying to assess the scene in front of him. They had seen the two of them spending a lot of time together on the map, but they almost always met in the library, so he just assumed the two liked to study together. Yet, the way the Ravenclaw was looking at the boy on the bed clearly indicated that they were much more.

"He's- Yeah, he's going to be okay," he finally managed to say "It's always a bit rough after the full moon, but he'll be fine."

Ellie looked up to her Ravenclaw friend "Did you know Nephera was an animangus?"

"Wait, you two didn't know?" asked Sirius

"We had no idea, about any of it," muttered Tony "Why wouldn't he tell me, he didn't think I believed all that crap they say about werewolves, did he?"

Sirius decided to intervene at that moment, his protectiveness shining through as he struggled to process everything "Look, I'm sure Remus will want to talk about this himself, and I think we all need to sleep. So let's just meet at the Room of Requirement tonight and talk, alright?"

Tony opened his mouth to intervene, wanting to be there when his boyfriend woke up, but Ellie jumped in before he could say anything "Tony, they're right. We haven't slept at all either, and we all need time to process... everything."

The Ravenclaw reluctantly nodded and the two of them left with Peter after waving meekly at James and Sirius.

"Boys! You're awake," came the voice of Madame Pomfrey as the old mediwitch approached them "Drink these, all of them."

James and Sirius halfheartedly took the different vial of potions from the witch's hands and started to drink them, cringing slightly at the taste and swallowing thickly. Their attention shifted from the vile taste to Nephera's bed, however, as they heard slight whimpers come from it, whimpers that eventually turned to screams. They turned their heads towards the girl and found her thrashing in her bed, screaming for someone to stop whatever it was they were doing.