Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter twenty-six

February 15th - Slytherin Common Room

Nephera woke up that Sunday morning in an unusually pleasant mood until she remembered that it was her birthday and so her attitude was justified. When she was younger, that day was nothing more than a fancy ball with all of the purebloods after having lunch with her parents, and so she grew up despising it.

After she started school, however, and she became friends with Ellie and Tony, that changed. The three of them had always celebrated their birthdays together, either in the room of requirement or in Tony's dorm.

This year though, now that the group had grown to include four new Gryffindors, they had decided to head to the Three Broomsticks that evening for some butterbeer.

The Hufflepuff had been the one to insist on not drinking anything stronger, denoting that they should avoid any drunk mistakes, which typically happened when the seven of them were together.

Since it was Sunday, the brunette decided to stay in bed for the morning, beginning to read the book Remus had given her. Thankfully, her dormmates had decided to leave early that morning, leaving the dorm empty for her.

Upstairs in Gryffindor tower, the marauders were just waking up as well, James being the first one as usual. He sat on his bed for a few minutes, trying to conserve as much sleep as he could before finally giving up and heading to the bathroom.

Remus walked into the dorm not long after that, having spent the night at Tony's as was evident by his messy hair and the fact that he was still wearing his clothes from last night.

"Fun night, Moony?" teased James, raising an eyebrow

"Shut up Prongs, and move over, I need to brush my teeth," he replied, voice still scratchy from sleep as he grabbed his toothbrush

"We're headed to Hogsmead today, right? For Nephie's birthday?"

"Yeah, at five this evening," murmured the werewolf through the toothpaste, before washing off his mouth

"Do we wake them up before breakfast?" asked James, hesturing towards the two sleeping marauders

"Let them sleep, Godric knows Pads is not a morning person, come on,"

The pair got dressed and made their way towards the Great Hall, stopping to greet different students as they walked. Taking a seat in their usual places at the Gryffindor table, they sat in silence for a few minutes, simply drinking coffee and trying to fully wake up.

The morning mail came in, the Potter owl swooping in and delivering a package to the curly-haired boy.

"What's that?" asked the werewolf

"Nephie's present for today, she'll probably kill me when she sees it but it's worth it,"

Remus deemed it best to not ask, knowing that he would find out later that night. His attention was drawn to Lestrange, who had just received a letter as well, and was reading it with a frown on his face. After the Slytherin had read it, he nudged Nott, who was on his right and shakingly handed it to him, looking at the people sitting around them to ensure that no one had seen its contents. Nott, in turn, scanned his eyes over it and then handed it to Mulciber, Avery, and Snape who read it as well.

After all five of them had read it they exchanged uneasy glances before turning around and staring at someone else in the room, although Remus couldn't tell who.

"Mate, don't turn around," whispered the werewolf "But Lestrange and the rest are acting weird, very weird."

"Weird how?"