Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter fifty-two

Nephera and Tony locked eyes, identical, snake-like smirks on their faces. She motioned with her head towards Peter and Ellie, and he nodded slightly to show that he agreed with the silent plan they had formed. 

"I think we should practice DADA, the practical, while they're working on Charms," shrugged Tony "Duels in the Room of Requirement for the rest of us?" 

The others all nodded, excited to have something to do other than stare at books for the entire afternoon. 

"Oh, I almost forgot!" exclaimed Ellie "There's a music festival in my town, at the end of June. The rest of my family will be visiting relatives, so they'll be out of the house, you're all welcome to come stay for a week," 

Tony, being the only one that had visited Ellie's house before, jumped in, "It's great there, there's a beach and everything. Nephera and I have already said we're going," 

"Count us in too," said James, motioning towards Sirius, who all of a sudden couldn't wait until the end of June and spending more time with the Slytherin 

"I'll be in France with Frank at the time," said Alice, pouting slightly while Peter made a joke about how 'Frank' and 'France' sound too much alike 

"I'll be there," muttered Marlene "Anything to get away from that piece of shit I have to call a brother," 

"Oh, come on he's not that bad," commented Lily, before promising to ask her parents about it

In the end, everyone, with the exception of Alice, promised to either be there or ask their parents first. Nephera was ecstatic, she would never admit it out loud, but the rowdy group of Gryffindors had grown on her tremendously over the year, and she couldn't help but think about how much different her life was now than it was nine months ago. 

All of a sudden, the same floating feeling returned, and someone ordered her to stand up on the table. She strengthened her occlumency, and locked eyes with the Headmaster, who was sitting at the center of the teachers' table. Shaking her head to show him that she wouldn't be doing that, she tuned back into the conversation. 

However, the slightly annoyed and concerned face of the wizard didn't escape her. There was no reason for Dumbledore to be either of those things unless of course, he wasn't happy with how easily she could resist the curse. 

That didn't make any sense, however, because it was his idea in the first place. if anything, he should be happy about it. 

"Neph?" muttered Tony from his spot next to her 

"I'll tell you later," she replied, and then turned back into what the others were saying "Sirius, I swear to Salazar, one more thing about your hair and I'll personally shave it all off myself," 

"You wouldn't dare," he gasped 

"Oh, but I would," she smirked 

"I wouldn't test her mate, she really would do it if you annoy her enough," added James 

Later that evening, everyone, except for Ellie and Peter, was in the Room of Requirement. At that moment, Lily was practicing stunning spells on James, since she had never been able to get the hang of them. Unfortunately, this entailed that James had to be thrown across the room multiple times. 

"Alright, I think you've got it," he grunted, standing up and rubbing his back 

"Not yet, we'll be asked to stun a dummy, you know. It has to be perfect," replied the redhead "Go again, stand in front of me," 

The curly-haired boy turned his gaze towards the rest of them, who had given up on casting spells and were now simply enjoying the sight of James falling down multiple times, "Can one you go?"