Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter nineteen

December 15th – Marauder's dorm

The infamous group of troublemakers, as well as Marlene, Lily, Dorcas, Alice, and Frank were all sitting in the marauder's dorm, sipping on firewhiskey and celebrating Gryffindor's win against Hufflepuff in the Quidditch match earlier that day.

Marlene and Dorcas had started to date, in secret, after Nephera's interjection, something that Marlene had very reluctantly thanked her for. The two Gryffindors were now sitting on one of the armchairs in the boy's dorm, sharing a blunt and laughing quietly amongst themselves.

Similar to the pair, Lily had now officially admitted to herself that she liked James Potter, and even though they weren't dating yet, it was undeniable that it would happen sometime in the future. The redhead had figured out that, although James had no idea about Nephera's plan, the Slytherin had never intended for James to lose interest in her, but rather for her to see him in a new light and admit that she liked him, and it had worked.

"How did you four start hanging out with Winchester anyways?" asked Alice, interested to find out more about the peculiar friendship that had emerged at the beginning of term

"I started dating Tony," started explaining Remus "She knew, of course, and then-" he stopped, not wanting to reveal his secret

"Then we all found out on our own," continued Peter "Which led to us spending more time together, and Prongs here got drunk with her one night-"

James felt Lily stiffen beside him and rushed to correct his friend's mistake, realizing how it must've sounded "We just had a shot competition, and then we passed out, but I realized that she's very funny, once you get to know her,"

"I doubt that." Stated Marlene "She's always been a bitch to everyone, why do you think she stopped now? Not to mention the fact that she's practically famous for using people,"

"Come on Marls, she got us together, didn't she?" tried Dorcas

"Oh yeah, so one good thing is enough to erase six years of torment?"

Sirius felt a flash of anger behind his eyes, however hypocritical it might've been. It was true that he had said those things multiple times to his friends himself, and of course the blonde was justified, Nephera didn't have the best reputation when it came to her treatment of people, but he still didn't like Marlene talking about her that way. He felt as though he and the Slytherin shared a specific connection, as though they were the only two people who could understand each other because they were the only two people who knew what it was like to have one's parents turn against them. And by that point, his attitude towards Nephera came from nothing more than stubbornness, the Gryffindor not wanting to admit that he had been wrong this whole time. So, he was happy that Dorcas had decided to intervene, or else he would've said something, which would only raise more questions from the other marauders, just like that day in the Knight Bus.

"Look, I know that you guys have no reason to like her, not yet at least," said Remus "But Nephera's a great person!"

"Yeah, and we all really like her," added Peter "Even Padfoot, though he won't admit it,"

"Don't put words in my mouth, I've told you time and time again that nothing good can come out of your friendship with her,"

"At least one of you has common sense, I'll admit that I'm happy that she got us together," said Lily, gesturing between her and James "She's a Slytherin, and Marlene's right, one good thing can't erase six years of hexing,"

James furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth to respond, but to everyone's surprise, it was Sirius who spoke up "You were friends with Snivellus for years, quite hypocritical of you Evans."