Frigus . Sirius Black (Mortem BOOK 2)

chapter forty-seven

November 20th, 1979 - Grimmauld Place 

Sirius and Nephera's anniversary had come and passed, as had his twentieth birthday, and Nephera had been home for a little under a month now, the two of them have fallen into a comfortable routine. Grimmauld Place still unnerved him, although, with Nephera there, he hardly had any time to think about the bad memories associated with the house. Instead, he got to return home to his girlfriend, who was typically waiting for him to talk about whatever ritual or potion she had read about that day. 

Indeed, death had not been kind to Nephera. Well, she supposed it could be worse, she could be actually dead, but in many ways, she was. She couldn't go to work, she couldn't venture into the wizarding world, she couldn't do anything. So, she filled her time with reading, practicing with the Tenebris wand, shopping, and getting new tattoos. A lot of shopping and new tattoos. 

Sirius wasn't complaining, other than the overflow of tops, jeans, shorts, and jackets that had taken over his closet, thankfully for both of them, Grimmauld Place was full of unused wardrobes. When he got back from patrols that night, the sun had long since set and snow was falling steadily on the ground when he walked into Grimmauld Place, expecting to find his witch in the living room, reading a book and listening to music as usual. 

What he found, though, was complete and utter silence, "Kreacher!" he called out, jumping when the elf suddenly appeared in front of him 

"What can Kreacher do for the heir of the Noble House of Black?" 

Kreacher and Sirius had reached an... understanding of sorts. Regulus apparently spoke a lot about Nephera, and so Kreacher liked Nephera. Sirius also liked Nephera given that the two have been dating for two years now. So, the two of them were civil after Nephera had asked them too. That did not mean that the blasted elf didn't find ways to annoy Sirius, such as calling him 'heir of the house of Black', something that he honestly resented, "Where is Nephera? Has she not been home all day?" he asked 

"Ms. Winchester told Kreacher she was going out at two, she said she was going on a walk," 

A six-hour walk? thought Sirius 

He had always worried about Nephera, even now that she wasn't been actively hunted, perks of everyone thinking she's dead. But, he had seen her die. He had seen her body fall on the ground, and even though he now knew it wasn't her, and it was simply Polyjuice Potion, he couldn't shake that image out his head, 'Mon coeur, where are you?' he asked through the bracelet 

He waited a few seconds before the reply came, 'I went shopping, I'm with Lyla now, getting my hip done,' 

He smiled in relief, shaking his head, 'You have an addiction, you know that?' he asked, 'I never would've gotten you started if I knew you'd spent more time with your tattoo artist than with me,' 

'The only thing I'm hearing is that you need to catch up,' 

He shook his head, walking upstairs to hop in the shower before she came back home. He passed in front of the curtains hiding his mother's portrait, being as quiet as possible, when he came across Regulus's room. The door had remained closed ever since Sirius moved in, even when James, Remus, Lily, and Marlene had helped him clean the entire place, Regulus's door had remained closed. 

He stayed there for a few seconds, contemplating what he should do. He knew he had to open the door at some point, face the music and whatnot, but he wasn't sure he was ready. Still, the only way to get past something was through, right? 

Pushing open the door, he was met with the smell of staleness of a room that had been closed off for months. That was the case, of course, Regulus had died in June, the room had remained closed from that day. He opened the light, wincing slightly as his eyes adjusted to the brightness. He had only been in Reggie's room a handful of times when he was living back in Grimmauld, but from what he remembered, he hadn't changed it ever since he was younger.