Rough Waters |Sirius Black

Chapter Forty Five

Nixie sat across from her best friend, as the man before her looked full of guilt and grief as he stared down at the table before him.

"I could have handled that so much better." Remus sighed before hitting his fist lightly against the table. "What am I doing? I'm not fit to be a parent-"

"Remus, stop right there." Nixie cut him off with a wave of her hand. "You're being too hard on yourself, this isn't your fault. Maggie going missing isn't your fault-"

"Oh it isn't?" He looked up at her. "I was the one who was supposed to keep her safe! I'm supposed to keep her and Eleanor safe, and I've already failed. How is this not my fault?"

"It's not like you went and hand delivered her over." Moody said to him. "I hate to admit it, but those bastards were clever. They had us all focused on one thing and waited until we were distracted to make another move. Who would have thought they would have went after a muggle-"

"She's not just a muggle," Remus said sternly. "She's the mother of my child. My child who somehow has knitted clothing to prevent the worst of curses to occur. We should have known that they would be looking at her closely, they're already looking at Ellie! What do they do when they can't get to someone directly, they go right for the people that person cares about the most?  Or did we all forget that-"

Remus was kicked under the table hard by Sirius. The man looked up angrily to make a comment at him, but stopped as Sirius gave him a look and nodded his head in Nixie's direction.

Remus' face fell as he looked at the woman who was no longer involved in the conversation. He could see her picking at her nail bed, her eyes holding a distant look as she stared at the floor with a solemn expression.

Sirius was glaring at him from across the way as everyone around them knew exactly what Nixie was thinking in that moment. After a minute of silence, the woman quietly excused herself from the conversation and left the room. Tonks, who had been standing by her mentor, asked her if she needed anything, but Nixie left without another word.

Cursing under his breath, Remus rubbed his face as he had only added on to his stress and created a painful reminder for his friend.

Nixie ventured upstairs, unsure of what she really wanted to do in that moment. She wanted to visit her mother, but her mother wasn't expecting her company that day and she certainly didn't want to inconvenience Meri with sad thoughts of her late father. The idea of the Death Eaters using Eleanor's mother against the girl along with the order, brought back the painful memory of losing her father. Knowing that Tabitha had taken her father's life because she couldn't get to Nixie.

The horrible images of her father's lifeless body in the water, brought Nixie to choke back a sob unsuccessfully. She closed the door over of the room she occupied, not wanting anyone to hear. It had been quite some time since her father's murder, but the wounds of his death still felt as fresh as if Henry Dover had died just that morning. With her back against the door, she bit down on her knuckle to keep herself from crying out loud, but it was no use.

She admired how brave Harry was, to lose both of his parents and still remain the strong boy that he was. Not matter what was thrown in his direction, her godson always prevailed and he was only a teenage boy. There she was a grown woman, unable to control her emotions during the early morning hours.

The door suddenly tried to open, but as she blocked it, there was a struggle on the other end.

"Nini," she heard Sirius's voice call to her lightly from the other side of the door.  He knew she was there and she couldn't pretend he wasn't.

Slowly she pushed herself up and wiped at her eyes quickly, trying to make it look like she hadn't been crying, but in that moment in was impossible to conceal it. Sirius wasted no time in opening the door as he felt the release of pressure from the other end. Walking in, he quickly closed the door behind him and walked over to where she stood.

Nixie kept her back turned to him, trying to keep her composure. She was completely tired of crying and she knew if she met Sirius' gaze that she would find herself crying again.

"Nini," She felt his arms wrap around her waist from behind, pressing her back against his chest. His chin rested on her shoulder as he tried to get her attention on him. "It's alright."

"It doesn't feel alright." She whispered to him. "Nothing feels alright right now."

"I know." He sighed unable to come up with a better response. He turned her around to face him, but when she refused to look at him, he brought her into a hug. "But rather than dwelling on all the bad things right now, why don't you just think of good things?"

"What good things?" She sniffed before looking up at him.

"Well, how about that you're married to an incredibly handsome man, who had a beautiful sense of humor-"

She laughed and shook her head at him. "Sirius...I swear..."

"Solemnly?" He said with a teasing grin.

She covered her face with her hands to hide her smile from him, but he quickly took her hands into his.

"This will all be over soon enough, and then when we don't have to think about the other things, we can focus on the plans we made." he told her resting his forehead against hers.

"Remind me of those plans again." She said.

"Well for starters...we start our family...we have Harry, of course but...we still wanted to see if those merfolk genetics would continue, right?"

Nixie met his eyes. "You still want to start a family?"

"Of course I do. We'd make some very beautiful babies, Nini. Your looks, my personality. Perfection."

Sirius couldn't help the stupid grin that remained permanently on his face as Nixie continued to laugh. He was glad to hear her laugh and see her smile as he couldn't stand the idea of seeing her cry or even knowing she was sad.

"You're a piece of work." She told him but Sirius didn't answer her as he just pulled her into a kiss.

A small noise of surprise escape from Nixie as she hadn't expected him to kiss her so abruptly but she quickly returned the kiss. His hands moved up her sides and grabbed the sides of her face before he pushed her against the wall to deepen the kiss further.

"What are you doing?" She asked, slightly out of breath as he pulled away for a moment.

"I want to make you feel alright." He said and then proceeded to pull her back into him, trailing kisses across her collarbone.

"Down, boy." She replied in amusement as every part of her body tingled. 

"Come now, Nini, you know, I've never been known for my obedient nature."

"Yes, I know, you're always up to no good."

"So why don't we get into some mischief together?"

"Is that what you're calling it now?"

"If that's what you want me to call it," he smiled before give her neck a small nip. He could hear the sharp inhale of her breath causing him to chuckle. "Care to manage my mischief?"