Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter ninety-nine

February 24th - Courtyard 

Life had been awfully good for the past few days. There were no assassination attempts aimed at Nephera, they knew what Nott was trying to hide at Hogwarts, her friends were happy and she was happy. 

So, obviously, something was bound to go wrong soon. 

Currently, Nephera, Remus, and Peter were in the library working on homework. The Slytherin was busying herself with Potions, sometimes adding notes and corrections to the book, while Remus was trying to help Peter with his DADA questions. Nevertheless, despite the copious amount of books around them, the three teens were derailed by conversation once again. 

"Wormy, you run around with a werewolf once a month, how can you not know the basic differences between one and an animangus?" asked Remus exasperated, before turning to Nephera, "When's Sirius done with detention?" 

The witch checked her watch, sighing, "About ten minutes," she replied, "Where's James?" 

Peter shrugged, "The last thing he told us was that he'd try to smooth things over with Lily, that was a few hours ago," 

The Potter boy and his girlfriend were currently experiencing their first big fight, and it was centered around Nephera, something that the girl hated most of all. She never liked being the reason why her friends were fighting, much less the reason why James was angry at Lily, of all people. 

"I hope he does," she replied earnestly 

Remus shook his head, "Don't worry, they'll work it out," he reassured, "And don't worry about Lily either. You know how stressed this war has her," 

"I don't really care about Lily," snarked the Slytherin, "James is the only reason why we went along anyway, but I swear if she hurts him-" 

Peter cut her off, "Let's not start with those possibilities, please," 

Just then, they heard a commotion from the other side of the library, someone running. A few seconds later, Alice rushed to the table they were seated at, "Nephera, you need to leave," she said hurriedly 

Seeing the anxiety in the girl's eyes, all three teens shot up, alarmed, "What's going on?" asked Peter, eyebrows furrowed in concern 

"It's Lily-" the pixie-haired witch was cut off by someone shooting a spell at them, and Nephera put up a protective shield over her and the other three, an action that had become second nature by that point in her life 

Remus looked at the direction the spell was shot from, only to find a crying Lily Evans looking at them, her chest heaving up and down, "Winchester!" she yelled, gaining the attention of everyone at the library 

The sight was so shocking, that even Pince couldn't find it in herself to intervene. No one had ever seen the redhead so angry before, and they couldn't help but wonder what the other girl had done to warrant such a reaction. 

Nephera disarmed Lily quickly, not wanting any more spells to break out in the library, "Use your words, Evans, come on, like a good little girl," 

"Shut up you bitch!" cried Lily, "Shut. Up." 

Remus stepped forward, "Lils, what's going on?" he decided to take a more gentle approach than Nephera on the matter 

"What's going on?" repeated the redhead, "My parents are dead, Remus, that's what's going on! And little Winchester here could've protected them, but she didn't!" 

Humans were imperfect beings. Nephera knew that, for she saw those imperfections daily, even on herself. They never handled intense emotions well, particularly grief, and in a time of war, that fact only intensified. People often looked for the culprit, someone to blame, someone to take their anger out on.