Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter eight

October 4th – Room Of Requirement

Tony woke up with a headache, feeling a warm arm around him. Glancing down, he saw that those arms belonged to his boyfriend, making him smile slightly. Glancing around the room, he saw Ellie curled up in one of the armchairs, Sirius sprawled out on the one next to her, Peter sitting on the floor, sleeping while leaning on the table, and a large stag sleeping in the center with a panther curled up next to it.

For a second, the poor Ravenclaw panicked, seeing the two wild animals, until he remembered everything that happened last night, albeit his memory was a little fuzzy. Untangling himself from Remus's arms, he walked up to the two animals and gently tapped them, waking them up.

James woke up when he felt a light tap on his shoulder, and he looked around the room confused. His questions were answered, however, when he looked down and found out he was still a stag, and he moved away from the panther next to him before shifting back into himself. He then watched as Tony tried to wake up Nephera, who woke up with a start, snapping her head up and leaping into a defensive position. It bugged James, the way the girl always seemed to be ready to defend herself from some imaginary threat, although the boy figured it wasn't always imaginary.

"Woah, relax, 's just me!" whispered Tony, so as to not wake up anyone else

The panther nodded and looked as though it was ready to shift back, but then it cocked its head to the side, and its eyes narrowed. The two boys watched as Nephera, still in the form of a panther, neared the armchair where Sirius was passed out on, and jumped on top of him, growling.

Sirius yelled and fell off the chair as he woke up to a panther on top of him, but reality quickly settled for him and he scowled in the panther's direction. The second Nephera transformed back, she, James, and Tony burst out laughing, holding onto each other for support at the sight of the normally relaxed boy.

"Yeah, yeah, it was bloody hilarious," grumbled Sirius

"Oh, it was Pads," wheezed James "The way you flew out of that chair,"

The three of them continued laughing, waking the other three up, who looked around confused, not realizing what was so funny.

"What happened last night?" asked Ellie, rubbing her eyes

"The last thing I remember is Potter here challenging me to a shot competition,"

"Yeah that probably wasn't the best idea," muttered James

"Oh no, it was incredible!" exclaimed Peter "Watching you guys race, and then Winchester rammed into the wall because she couldn't stop herself, Merlin it was amazing!"

"So that's where that bruise is from," said Nephera examining the bruise on her shoulder

The seven teens left the room laughing about last night and their drunk antics, and then they all went their separate ways to shower and go to breakfast since they had over two hours before class started.

James found himself smiling slightly as he remembered the way he ran around the room in his stag form with Nephera as a panther next to him. It turned out that, as always, Remus was right, and the Slytherin was actually really fun to be around once she warmed up to them a bit. However, the nightmares, the way she always grabbed for her wand or for a way to defend herself reminded him too much of Sirius, and the Gryffindor found himself worrying about her.

Remus was content with the fact that most of his friends seemed to have a good time with Tony and his friends, despite what had led to all of them being in the room of requirement together. He wasn't worried about how Tony or Ellie would get along with the marauders, but about how Nephera would act around them. Yet, he was pleasantly surprised with the way the brunette and James were laughing through the entire night.