Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter one hundred and nineteen

An owl flew into the Great Hall, gaining everyone's attention since the post was typically delivered during breakfast, not dinner, and everyone watched as it flew right in landed right in front of Alice. The girl, who had a rather unstable temper all day, roughly tore the letter away from the bird and opened it, scanning her eyes over the words. 

Nephera recognized the owl as Frank's owl, and by the way, the pixie-haired witch was currently reading the letter, there were clearly some issues between the pair, "Ugh that wench," exclaimed the girl, gaining everyone's attention 

"Who's the wench?" asked Nephera, "And do I need to dispose of someone?" 

Alice frowned, looking as though she was really considering the offer for a second, "As much as I want to, I don't think having a hit ordered on my boyfriend's mother is a good idea," 

"Ah, troubles with the mother-in-law, then?" teased the Slytherin, "Oh don't look at me like that, you know you've thought about marrying him," 

The Gryffindor blushed slightly under Nephera's knowing expression, "Not if his mother has anything to do with it, she hates me,"

"So what, you don't need her to like you, you only need Frank," pointed out the brunette, "Although I don't know if I'm the best person to help with this, maybe go to Evans, she's the lovey-dovey one," 

Alice paused for a second, but then seemed to agree with Nephera, knowing that indeed, the Slytherin was not the best at relationship advice, "How do I get Frank's mum to like me?" she asked, turning to the redhead 

"Just be patient," suggested Lily, "You'll learn to work with her faults, everyone has them," 

"It's true," added Marlene, "Look at me, I'm attractive as hell, but I also lack the ability to takes things seriously," 

"And I take things too seriously," continued Lily, and then all three of them turned towards Nephera

The brunette, who noticed their glances, put her glass down, "Oh, crap, this is where I'm supposed to say my bit huh?" she mumbled, "Well, I uh, oh! I have a weird ego complex, where I hate myself, but I still think I'm better than everybody else," 

Silence followed after that, with Alice cracking a smile at the statement that was so characteristic of Nephera, while the two other Gryffindor girls rolled their eyes at her words, "What?" asked the girl, "It's true," 

Dinner was over soon after that, with everyone filing back to the common rooms exhausted after the long day, "Are you at least going to tell us the plan?" asked Sirius, his voice getting lost in the chatter of the people around them 

"Nope," replied the girl, popping the 'p', and then pressing a chaste kiss to his lips, "But you're so lucky to be dating me," 

With that, she ran ahead, catching up with Alice and looping her arms through the other girls'. Sirius huffed out a breath, his eyebrows furrowing, "What is it?" asked James 

"Nephera," replied the raven-haired boy, "Don't you think she seems a little too excited for this?" 

The bespectacled boy nodded, letting his eyes trail after his sister, "You know her, Pads, she loves it whenever she figured things out, it boosts her ego," 

Sirius nodded, but he was still unsure. It seemed like these past months, ever since she had escaped in October, she was chasing the high that came with winning. Like she wanted the adrenaline rush, relied on it to keep going, and if he was honest, he was deeply worried about that. 

More than that, she had never truly talked about what happened while she was held captive, nor did she like to talk about Ellie and Tony. Of course, he understood that people coped differently with things, and he knew that if it was him in her place, he wouldn't have been all too keen to talk about it either.