Memento Mori - Sirius Black

Chapter 32

December 23rd, 1975.

Morgan had spent the last two days hiding in her own house. Which was rather pathetic of her. The ground floor was constantly filled with workers preparing the house for the ball. There was a lot of cleaning—magically and traditionally—the setting of decorations, and the orchestra that would have spent hours testing the acoustics of the ballroom, even if they had been hired for the last two years, still, they insisted on coming to get everything perfect. In the kitchen, Morgan hadn't dared set foot in, the elves were going berserk already preparing everything that could be done in advance.

Her father had disappeared, spending more time in the Ministry than usual, in avoidance of his wife. A wife who turned into a complete monster when the ball was right around the corner and he knew it. So Morgan had been avoiding her as well. She helped with what she could, directing some of the people with the decorations and testing a few of the plates. But everything was double-checked by her mother anyway so she didn't bother doing much. That Morning Morgan had been giving instructions for the setting of the massive Christmas tree that would be between the double set of stairs that led to the ballroom. The three Gaunts hated Christmas decorations so the giant thing would be taken down the day after the affair. But it would've been stupid to have a Christmas Ball without a Christmas tree. At least it was a pretty one.

This year, thankfully, Alexis had a new person to torment. Morgan had taken to avoiding Sirius from the moment she came back from Milan. Which wasn't hard considering that their rooms were very far apart and that with her parents going to work early they never had a shared breakfast. Or lunch. And during dinner, Morgan had made up some excuses not to go with them. She felt kind of guilty about feeding Sirius to the wolves that were her parents, but oh well.

During the day, Morgan knew her mother had been driving Sirius mad with instructions on how to behave and what to do during the ball. She'd seen their favorite dressmaker on the house yesterday, probably to do a fitting for Sirius and his new robes, which would have to be done in record time. After all, he wasn't a guest anymore. Oh no, he was part of the shit show now. And he should look the part.

But today had been her last lucky day because her mother had skipped work and told her to put on some heels and go to the dancing room on the second floor where Morgan did her dance lessons as a kid. And not wanting to cause her more stress, she did exactly that.

She walked in and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Sirius leaning against the wall right by the window. He looked her way and pushed himself against the wall, starting walking toward her. He was in jeans and a collared knitted blue jumper that made his gray eyes look a bit more blue as well with his hair falling rebellious like always.

"Done avoiding me?" He asked with a dry smile.

Morgan sighed as she silently cursed her mother for being late. "I wasn't avoiding you. I just thought you might not be so happy to see me,"

"And so you avoided me," he settled with a taunting look.

The witch didn't bother with a reply, she just went to the window and looked at the people decorating the garden outside. The ones on the main entrance to the Manor.

"Has my mother bothered you too much?" She asked after a few seconds of silence but kept looking outside.

"Well, yes," Sirius admitted with a laugh. "But she's actually really nice. Your father too. He showed me around, gave me the most beautiful broom I've ever seen that he had 'just lying around', and told me to go outside a test it out if I wanted... Not that your mother gave me much time, but I appreciate it." Then he repeated as if he couldn't quite believe his words. "They're very nice,"