Tenebrous ❆ Sirius Black [2]

Chapter Fifty Four

Nadia felt slightly uncomfortable with the amount of people either looking at her or even coming up to her to express their sorrows for the wedding, or tell her how sorry they were about Eloise. She knew their intentions were kind, but she wished they would just go about their business as usual, like in any other Order meeting before everything happened. It was Nadia’s first since coming out of the hospital.
At first, Sirius had tried to convince her to take some more time; that she didn’t need to return so soon. And while Nadia knew she wasn’t ready to jump back into the fight just yet, she knew she could handle a meeting. And to prove the point, she remained standing tall, Sirius’ arm wrapped around her shoulders while the rest of their friends sat at the table or stood around them.

“Volkov! Good to have you back with us!”

“Or do we call you Black now?”

“I recon could get a bit confusing, don’t you Fabian?”

Fabian and Gideon, like a ginormous ball of energy, suddenly appeared amongst their group, wide smiles on their faces. They spoke one after another without even a pause between their respective sentences that Nadia’s eyes jumped from Gideon, to Fabian and then back to Gideon within a couple of seconds.

“It’s still Volkov.” Nadia said, a small smile stretching over their faces. It was impossible not to smile in the presence of the Prewett twins. Their happiness seemed to be contagious, and Nadia welcomed it with ease. She was tired of the gloom and doom everyone else seemed to be expressing.

“Well I guess all that matters is those rings on your fingers." Fabian observed their intertwined hands with a wide smile on his lips.

"Good thing you managed to find them in the end, isn't it mate?" Gideon asked as his brother finished speaking, his eyes focused on James and the words making Nadia and Sirius spin in his direction to fix him with a questioning look.

"You lost the rings?!" The newlyweds exclaimed in shock, making James send a glare towards the twin that had gotten him in trouble before replying to his friends.

"Not lost, just misplaced for a moment before the ceremony and then found them again later. As is obvious by the fact you're wearing them right now." The Potter quickly defended, his hands high in the air in a sign of surrender. Gideon was right, he found them in the end, isn't that what matters most? Nadia and Sirius glared at James for another few seconds, however, before either could make up their mind on whether to kill him or to thank Merlin the rings weren’t actually lost, the call for attention from the front of the room provided their minds something else to focus on as Professor Dumbledore started to address the crowd.

“I am glad all of you could come on such short notice. With the majority of the Order here, I believe it is time to focus on a subject we have so far avoided. It’s nature makes it easy to choose the path of ignorance, however, for the sake of our safety and the safety of the many people we choose to protect, it must be addressed.”