Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter eighty-seven

December 27th - Muggle London 

Remus and Sirius were sitting in a muggle pub in the middle of London, wanting to get away from the wizarding world for a day. James was at Lily's, having dinner with her parents, and Peter and his mother were visiting family in Scotland, while Nephera was with Ailani and Regulus. 

The raven-haired boy had been talking a lot with his brother through the bracelets Nephera had given them, Regulus's was only connected to the one of Sirius and Nephera's. Their talks weren't exceptionally deep, mostly consisting of the Gryffindor cracking jokes to try and help his brother through the abysmal holidays at Grimmauld Place. 

The werewolf had seen that his best friend seemed happier these days, and wondered what the reason was, although he had a general idea, "You seem happy," he teased, 

"Why wouldn't I be?" asked the other boy 

Remus only hummed, taking a sip from the beer in front of him, "I don't know, it's weird, almost giddy, I'd say," 

Sirius choked on his beer, "I am not giddy, and if you ever say that again, I'll drag your little werewolf ass through the Forbidden Forest," 

"I'm not judging," replied Remus with a small laugh, raising his hands in surrender, "But you can admit it's because of Mortem, you know," 

The werewolf was right, it was because of Nephera, a large part of it at least. The rest lay with the fact that he had reformed his relationship with his brother, but Sirius couldn't tell him that. 

"And what if it is?" challenged Sirius, "Weren't you the ones telling me we should get together?" 

"Trust me, it was a long time coming," Remus huffed out a breath, "I think Moody and McGonagal had a bet, actually. I saw him slipping her some galleons after you two first kissed," 

The raven-haired boy flushed red at the memory, sharing a passionate kiss in front of people he considered his parents certainly wasn't how he imagined it would've gone, but alas, fate has an interesting way of unwinding, "Yeah, well, everything worked out, didn't it?" 

The werewolf chuckled, "Thank Merlin for that, I don't think how much longer I could've taken the two of you pining against each other," 

"There was no pining!" 

"Oh yes there was Padfoot don't lie to yourself!" snapped the taller boy, "A boy couldn't be within ten bloody feet of her and you'd go batshit," 

"That was once, with Prewett, and I was drunk," 

"Same difference," 

Over in the magical world, in Kockturn Alley, an unlikely trio was lounging in Ailani's sitting room over her shop, talking. At first, Regulus had his reservations about meeting the Hawaiian witch, not wanting anyone else to find out about the fact that he was working against Voldemort, but Nephera assured him that the woman was trustworthy. 

The brunette found the interactions between the two very interesting. Regulus, much like her was a man of logic, of proof, while Ailani was the complete opposite of that. Yet, the unlikely pair seemed to click together rather well. 

"Wait, wait," sputtered the boy, "So you're telling me that the two of you-" he glanced between the two women in front of him, "-met because Nephera wanted to kill her father?" 

"Pretty much," nodded Ailani, "I mean, it's certainly an attention grabber, isn't it?" 

"It is, I just- I never thought Nephera would be one for spirituality and all that crap," 

The older witch swiftly dropped her cup of tea, turning to look at the boy, "It is not crap!" 

Nephera sighed, "Here we go again,"