Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter eighteen

December 3rd – Great Hall

The seven friends were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating and chatting between themselves. Tony's birthday was the next day, and they were all trying to agree on what to do.

Despite being Nephera's friend and so he was quite popular, the Ravenclaw never liked to host big parties for his birthday, simply wanting to gather his friends and get drunk together.

"What about Hogsmead?" asked James "It's Friday tomorrow, classes end early."

"How are we getting to Hogsmead exactly, there's no carriages." Pointed out Ellie

"You underestimate us, Puff," said Sirius "You really think we wouldn't have found a way?"

"Leaving behind the slightly ominous tone of that sentence," drawled Peter, bringing a laugh out of Tony and Nephera "How about we go to that muggle village, about two hours out of Hogsmead?"

"Oh yes, I've grown tired of Hogsmead after six years," exclaimed Ellie "And I've heard that there's an awesome club there,"

"Club?" asked Nephera, having no connection with the muggle world whatsoever

"It's nice, you'll like it." Replied Tony "I say we go to the village for a couple of drinks."

The rest of them agreed, leaving how they would actually get to the village for later, and went back to eating their breakfast. That is, until James spotted a familiar head of red hair walking into the Great Hall.

"Lily-Flower, care to go out with me during the Hogsmead trip?" he said, a wide grin on his face and a hopeful look in his eyes

"And why on earth would I go out with your arrogant ass?" snarled Lily, before turning around and sitting a few seats away from them, with Marlene and Alice

The Gryffindor's face fell immediately, and his hopeful expression turned into an absolutely miserable one. Nephera, who was sitting opposite him, felt her blood boil at how crestfallen the curly-haired boy looked. He really did care for the redhead, even though she had treated him like nothing more than a stain in the back of her shoe. The Slytherin had noticed, however, that despite the red head's cruel treatment of James, he had started to grow on her, if the laughter she tried to conceal whenever he made a joke was any indication. So, even though she knew that James could find someone much better than Lily, she stood up and made her way towards the redhead.

"Nephie where are you-" asked James, seeing his friend stand up

"Don't worry about it," she shrugged

Marlene saw the Slytherin approaching them, and nudged Lily and Alice, gesturing towards the brunette coming towards them. Lily looked at her friends with a questioning and slightly alarmed look on her face, Marlene mirroring the same expression. Alice, however, simply shrugged The pixie-haired witch had always been the more understanding of the three of them, and she had spoken to Ellie a few times too. Because of the short interactions she had with the Hufflepuff, she had come to the conclusion that Ellie was a sweet girl, and so Nephera couldn't be so bad either, since the two were best friends.

"Evans, we need to talk." Said Nephera with a roll of her eyes, not wanting to spend any time with the Gryffindor, but willing to do so for the sake of her friend

"Why?" asked Lily, recoiling in her seat slightly

"Don't ask so many questions, we just need to talk."

"She's not going anywhere with you," spat Marlene, staring at the Slytherin with disgust

"McKinnon, I suggest you go talk to Meadowes and leave me and Evans here to chat."