Frigus . Sirius Black (Mortem BOOK 2)

chapter eighty-six

a/n: to those of you still here after all this time and all the breaks in uploading, thank you 

February 15th, 1981 - Grimmauld Place 

It may have been Nephera's birthday, but it was anything but festive at Grimmauld Place as Nephera recounted her conversation with James from a few days ago. She had been mulling it in her head for the past week since the conversation had taken place, wanting to have some kind of theory, some kind of idea of what was actually going on before she brought it to the rest of the group, to no avail. 

"That- why would he take the cloak?" asked Remus 

"I don't know. I've been trying to work it out on my own, I didn't want to just tell you-" the witch dropped her head, taking in a deep breath, "I didn't want to bring this to you guys without any theories, without anything, but-" 

Sirius got up, lighting a cigarette, "Brick wall," he finished for her 

"Exactly," 

Peter shook his head, "I think you're looking too much into it, again," he grumbled, "If the cloak is actually the cloak-" 

"It is, Monty told me," Nephera's patience had long since started to thin where Peter was concerned, "Are you on about this again? You cannot seriously tell me I'm being paranoid here, Wormy," 

Peter stayed silent for a beat, seemingly at war with himself, "Alright, no, I'll admit, this is weird," 

"Thank you!" said an exasperated Nephera,  happy to finally have Peter see what she had been seeing for the past few months 

Sirius and Remus looked at each other, both sighing in relief, the last thing any of them needed was another Nephera-Peter blowout ending up with the latter walking away and going radio-silent for a few days. The last time that had happened, they hadn't heard from Peter in almost a week, all of them fearing him dead for a couple of days when he'd stopped responding even when they contacted him through the bracelet. 

Peter Pettigrew could admit that Dumbledore asking for the cloak was weird, but he still thought that Nephera had a tendency to overreact to things. Lately, he'd been feeling as though her mask had fallen, at least in his eyes. Long gone was the image of the woman who was always right, always ten steps ahead, always to be trusted and looked towards for leadership. Where had Nephera gotten them? How had anyone, who had ever been friends with Nephera, ever benefited from it? 

Ellie and Tony had died simply for being her friends, they had no stakes in the war, none, they got killed to send her a message. 

Ailani had gotten killed because she had taken polyjuice potion to look like Nephera. Had the older witch never met the younger one, she would still be alive and well in her shop in Knockturn. 

Fabian and Gideon, for all Peter knew, had died because they happened to be where Nephera was that night. 

Marlene and her family had been targeted because of articles Nephera had pushed her to publish, and Dorcas had been forced to go into hiding as collateral too. 

And James, Lily, and Harry...  Even Frank, Alice, and Neville... The only reason why the Dark Lord even knew their names, knew who they were, was because of Nephera too. 

The more problems Nephera solved, the more she tended to create, for everyone but herself, and Peter would be damned if he let her fuck with his best friends and their child's lives because of her overreactions. 

"So what?" Remus's voice pulled him out of his thoughts, "Do we confront him about it?" 

Nephera shook her head, "No, for whatever reason, Dumbledore didn't want us to know. The fact that we do is an advantage," she said simply, "The question is where do we take it from here?"