Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter thirty-six

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he got up and prayed that the brunette was finally awake and fine. When he opened the door, however, he saw her panicking in her bed, mumbling under her breath and pulling on her hair, trying to ground herself. 

"Nephera?" he asked, trying to get her attention, "Nephera!" he took hold of her arms tightly, and finally her eyes focused on him and she stopped talking, "What happened?" 

"Why didn't he kill me?" was the only thing the girl said 

"What?" the Gryffindor truly was at a loss for words 

"Hades, I saw him. Although it was probably my subconscious, but, Sirius, why didn't he kill me?" 

The boy quickly realized that she was spiraling, her mind working too fast for her to follow, and he moved his hands from her hands to her shoulders, "Nephera, look at me, you're spiraling. Relax, love," 

"No, I have to figure this out. He didn't kill me, why, he's planning something, that much is obvious, but what? Oh Salazar, what if I'm imperioed?" 

"You're not under the imperius curse," he spoke in slow and steady sentences "If you were, you wouldn't be saying that, would you?" 

Nephera looked into his eyes, the stormy grey slowly bringing her back to reality, "No, I suppose I wouldn't," 

"Exactly. And maybe he has a plan, maybe he doesn't, but you don't need to figure that out tonight. You've been through a lot, so go back to sleep so I can yell at you tomorrow for almost killing yourself," he added playfully, brushing her hair back 

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep," she said "My minds' working too fast," 

Sirius laughed for the first time since he left Hogwarts, "Leave it up to you to be trying to plan right after almost dying," there was still something nagging at the back of his mind, though, "Why did you go in there?" 

"They would've killed her, I just, I couldn't let my father hurt another person," 

Sirius then thought of something, he wasn't sure whether the girl knew that they had all looked into the pensieve, and he knew he had to tell her now, lest her find out later in some other more unconventional way, "Nephera, when you gave your memories to Moody we-" 

"You all looked, I figured," she sighed, and he rolled his eyes, Of course she knew "I knew you'd most probably force your way through, it was a risk I had to take, I suppose," 

"Always one step ahead," he mused, but his tone was rather somber "He's a dick," he spat, referring to her father and drawing a laugh out of the girl, the sound bringing a smile to his face  

He knew Mia and James would probably talk to her in-depth for what her father had done, but he also knew that she didn't need that. She needed someone to look at her without feeling pity, or that they should be walking on eggshells around her. 

"A dick that's stuck in Azkaban, courtesy of yours truly," 

"You really are incredible, you know. The way you spoke to him, looked like a true Gryffindor," 

"Don't insult me," she spat in mock offense 

"You really were, I swear, even Moody's slightly scared of you after seeing that," 

"As he should be," she replied smugly, making room for him to sit more comfortably on the bed

She then put on her most innocent doe-eyes, the ones she used on Adam whenever she wanted him to do something for her, "Play cards with me?" 

He knew it was all an act, the innocence she was portraying simply a way to trick him into doing her bidding, but it had worked nonetheless. Besides, he supposed it was impossible to say no to her when she was looking at him in such a way.