Mortem . Sirius Black

chapter fifty-five

June 20th - Potter Estate 

Sirius was practically jumping with excitement, the thought of seeing Nephera again making him happier than it should. He had been longing to talk to her again, to listen to her rant

James, of course, had picked up on this but decided against saying anything. It was rare for Sirius to be so excited about something, much less a girl, and he was being honest, he wanted to see the two of them together.

Remus had arrived that morning, apparating just outside the door with his trunk in hand, and they were now waiting in the living room for Peter and Tony. 

"Ellie wrote to me," said the werewolf, "Apparently you'll be sleeping in a dog house, Pads," 

The raven-haired boy scoffed and rolled his eyes, he had already endured a week of teasing about that from James, "it was sorted out, I'll be sleeping in one of the hammocks," he grumbled "We can't all be part of the happy couples that get the beds," 

James laughed at his friends' expense, "You could just fess up to Nephie and then-" he was cut off by a pillow sent his way by Sirius, while the unmistakable crack of someone apparating sounded outside 

Remus stood up and opened the door, letting Peter collapse on the couch next to James, "Where's Tony?" he asked, looking around 

"He's not here yet, but I'm sure he won't be long," replied the werewolf 

It turned out that Tony was, in fact, rather late. It had been twenty minutes since Peter's arrival, and the boy still hadn't made an appearance. 

As they were waiting, the four marauders easily fell back into the cycle of teasing each other, first by attacking Peter's obvious crush on Ellie, then by taking on James and how much he had been whining the past days, while he was missing Lily. 

"Nephera wrote, she found a place," explained Remus "Over in Diagon Alley," 

Over the past few days, Nephera and Ellie had been apparating in and out of Diagon Alley, working on the apartment. Most of her belongings, except some clothes and a couple of books that were still at Ellie's had been moved there, while Ailani had insisted on finding the furniture. 

Nephera, of course, had no problem with that. In reality, she had been dreading going furniture shopping the most, so when the Hawaiian witch offered to relieve her of that, the Slytherin agreed immediately. 

At the moment, the two girls were at the beach in front of Ellie's house, laying in the sun. For the first time in her life, the brunette didn't have to think of anything else, her mind was completely void of any thoughts concerning Voldemort, the war, alliances, and plans. 

It was hard to think of anything negative when she was lying in the scorching sun, listening to Ellie trying to guess her middle name. The blonde had taken to listing every single name that starts with an 'L', in hopes of guessing it. 

"Lara," 

"Sirius is the dog, not me," she replied nonchalantly, flipping through the pages of a book on ancient runes 

"Lucinda," 

"Hot name, but no," 

The Hufflepuff let out a sharp breath, flipping from her stomach to her back, "Leanne," 

"Do I look like I bake cookies for a living?" 

"So it does have something to do with your personality, interesting," smirked Ellie 

Nephera felt her eyebrows rise, "Look at that, I have taught you something after all," 

"I've known you for six years, I was bound to pick up on some stuff," she replied, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, "Lydia,"