February 1, 1977
5:34 am
Gryffindor Boys Dormitories

The first thing Anneliese noticed when she woke up from her very deep sleep was how the scent filling her senses was very different than usual.

Normally, she could smell Lily's rose conditioner wafting over from the bed next to her, along with some form of cologne that Marlene used way too much of because she said 'perfume was too boring.'

Instead of these familiar ones, the most prominent scent was sharp, rich smoke from a cigarette.

She recognized it from somewhere she couldn't quite place, and not just a certain boy.

The smooth, cool fabric pressing against her cheek only amplified the smell, making Anneliese very confused. She hadn't smoked at all last night, and her pillowcase had never smelled like this before even if she had done an entire pack, which was rare but still an occurrence.

After the smell, the other thing that hit her was how cold her nearly bare legs were.

They weren't tucked under the scarlet, soft quilts, pillows, and sheets like normal, but instead exposed to the cool winter air of the tower.

Anneliese could feel her black uniform skirt hitched up her leg, and immediately hoped that it had reached that level of exposure from tossing and turning in her sleep, not something else.

Not a single voice could be heard in the background like usual such as Alice and Lily having their morning tea, nor Dorcas and Marlene trying to figure out whose bra belonged to which one of them after getting them mixed up for the hundredth time that week.

Instead, there was only someone breathing from the left of her bed that she had never heard before.

Letting her dark blue eyes flutter open to try and solve the mystery of why everything seemed so different and who the hell was next to her, Anneliese felt a pit shoot through her stomach at what she saw.

On the stone floor below her, Sirius was fast asleep in what appeared to be a very uncomfortable position with his side pressed against the hard surface.

His jet black hair still somehow looked perfect even after spending the night on the floor, while his light pink lips were just barely parted to let his breath flow in and out more easily. It was the most peaceful Anneliese had seen him in a very long time.

The tiny smile that had tugged at the corners of her mouth because of seeing him like that suddenly disappeared once she realized what his presence there could mean.

I am in the boy's dorms, she thought with panic, tugging down her skirt. And Sirius Black is lying right next to me on the floor. And I am in his bed. And I was very drunk last night. What the hell did I do?

Anneliese quickly propped herself up on her forearms, which she immediately regretted from the intense pounding in her head that started with this motion, only emphasizing her very low alcohol tolerance she had betrayed last night.

Glancing to either side of her, Callaway saw Frank fast asleep on one side of her and Peter on the other in their beds. Neither of them seemed like they had a particularly traumatic night, and neither would also let her do something stupid while she was drunk.

Right? prompted Anneliese to no one in particular. Shit, shit, shit.

Doing another glance to make sure that they were all asleep, she looked down the neckline of her shirt, making sure that her bra was still perfectly in place.

Much to her relief, the light blue lace was still securely fastened around her shoulders and ribs, not adjusted at all in her sleep. Anneliese took in a sharp inhale as she lifted up the waistband of her skirt to check the matching, delicate fabric underneath.

The proper placement once again told her nothing had happened.

Unless someone had somehow managed to perfectly place clothes back on, Anneliese thought sourly. Wouldn't be a first.

To be honest, she was a bit surprised at the boy on the floor. Not because Sirius would have done something, but because her thoughts of him last night had been very visual, and she wouldn't have been shocked if her drunk mind made it very vocal that she wanted them carried out.

Okay, try to remember, Anneliese told herself, staying calm to the best of her ability. You were by the Black Lake.. then you went back up. Then what?

The blonde sat up all the way, rubbing her forehead with a deep sigh after only a few seconds of trying that already told her the effort was hopeless. There was no way she wasn't going to remember without a bit of provocation in the right direction, and she needed to remember.

"Black," she whispered sharply, leaning over the edge of the bed to face him. "Wake up."

He showed no signs of moving at all, and Callaway didn't know why she was even surprised. Groaning in frustration, Anneliese grabbed a glass of water from the mahogany bedside table that someone must have poured her last night.

And dumped it directly on his chiseled features.

Black blinked with shock at the freezing liquid on his face, the feeling a stark contrast from the deep sleep he had been in after involuntarily staying up until three in the morning just thinking about the girl next to him.

Sirius couldn't help but feel like he was the reason she was drunk.

Before she had found the bet, Anneliese would have turned to him when she was upset to smoke or talk to, but with that not being an option, she must have turned to a flask instead. That with everything that had been happening directly involving him, he was even more guilty.

Black had no way of knowing it had been her birthday, yet he was still very accurate in his thoughts.

At the beginning, it had just been for her birthday, but one the images of Sirius started, firewhiskey was something that could either kindle the fire or douse it.

Unfortunately, it had just kindled the flames when they found her.

"I said wake up!" Anneliese repeated, snapping Black out of thoughts and making him realize that he had shut his eyes while thinking. "Are you deaf?"

Sirius stood up smoothly from the floor despite his aching back, wanting to get everything clear in case she didn't fully remember and had assumed something had happened that most certainly hadn't with either him or another boy.

"Why the hell am I here?" she asked rapidly, standing up as well and not allowing him a second to adjust back to full clarity and consciousness. "What happened?"

"You were drunk," Sirius replied honestly. "I think you were down by the lake? And then we ran into you, and you said-"

Her freckled cheeks were already burning as the memories slowly came back to her, rage melting away to shame and fury.

"Uhm, you said that you just wanted me to take you back and none of the others," he further explained, a blush creeping up his pale neck. "And you couldn't really make it up the stairs alone, and everyone else was at dinner."

Anneliese noticed the flush against his skin, and tried her best to ignore that and the fact that his black shirt was very good at showing off his figure.

"So you just slept in here. Nothing happened besides that, I promise," Sirius continued. "Ask James, Remus, or Peter if you want. That's the truth."

She silently trusted him enough to know she didn't have to ask anyone else, even though she would never say it to his face on purpose.

But apparently maybe I would if I was drunk, she added on bitterly to herself as the entire night began to come back with very vivid focus.

"Shit," Anneliese muttered aloud. "I'm so fucking selfish, look, you had to sleep on the floor-"

"Woah, okay, first of all, no," Sirius cut her off. "You weren't selfish at all. I would rather-"

"You be safe than me sleeping," interrupted Callaway, locking eyes with him. "Yes, you've said that before. It's still stupid."

Both of their minds flitted to when Sirius had said the exact phrase before after she had also come back to the common room drunk, except this time the alcohol had hit her much harder.

"It's just true," Black countered. "Just.. you need, I need you to stay safe, alright?"

I need you to stay safe, even from me, he corrected silently.

"Well you're clearly not going to let anything else happen," Anneliese replied. "Thank you for.."

Her mind trailed off, not sure of what to say.

"Thank you," she finished. "I, uhm, I'll be getting back to the other dorms now, sleep until eight or so."

"Oh, yea, of course, me too," Sirius said, deftly opening the door for her to snap himself out of thought. "Sleep well."

"You as well," Anneliese replied, and the door clicked shut behind her.

Callaway was still trying to think of where she had smelled that exact cigarette smoke before as she walked back. The scent had hit her before on Sirius's clothes, but never as strongly as it had been just then.

Black let out a long exhale as her steps faded away, pressing his back against the wood of the door and running a hand through his hair. He knew that things could have gone much worse, but that certainly wasn't amazing.

The combination of awkwardness and tension hadn't left the room with her as he hoped it would.

James opened one eye from where he had been listening on his bed, a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth in amusement.

"Do you reckon she remembered the part where she called your motorcycle hot, or-"

Sirius whipped around and threw a pillow and Potter in a split second, making the boy with glasses fall off his bed dramatically with a loud thud.

"Shut it," he said, but he was smiling at his best mate still as he clambered back onto the bed from the stone. "And I hope she does."

Black's negativity was already fading.

"You know, I think this is the first time that you've had a girl in your bed that you didn't have to lock and soundproof the room for," James said contemplatively, only partly mocking. "Congratulations."

"Also the first time that I've had a decent conversation with her in a month," Sirius pointed out. "Progress, right?"

"She was drunk," Remus grumbled, his head flat in his pillow from another bed where he had been listening as well. "Now will you all let me sleep?"

"Not this morning," Black retaliated, not even phased with him eavesdropping at this point. "She actually made eye contact with me and not from across a room. That's good, Moony."

"Eye contact, how seductive," Lupin muttered sarcastically into the cushion. "Shut up or I swear to Merlin I will kick all of you out."

In response, Potter and Black both climbed onto his bed.

"No, Pads is right," James told the back of Remus's head. "This is progress. Who knows, one day soon they might actually relieve us all of the waiting and snog one another. That would be good, right?"

"I think eye contact and snogging are very far apart," the pale boy replied. "And if it took a month to get a conversation in, then you have quite a bit to go."

Remus hesitated for a moment as another thought crossed his mind. He didn't want Sirius's ego to become too large, yet he also wanted to remind him of something so that his mate's spirits could rise from how they had been before the last night.

"She did say no, I want you, not them when you said that James, Peter, and I should take her back to the common room instead of you. That had to have meant something, even if she was drunk. Those kinds of truths don't just come out of nowhere."

And those kinds of words coming from Remus gave Sirius the reassurance that he had been hoping for.

"So you think that she really started liking me again?" Black asked with wide silver eyes. "Even after the hex and the broom and everything the school's been doing to push us apart?"

This time, Remus didn't hesitate before replying.

"I don't think she ever stopped."

Little did they know, Anneliese had a sudden realization just as Lupin said these words from across the tower away.

She had just managed to place her finger on where she had smelled that smoke before, and it both alarmed her and made a pleasant rush go through her stomach.

Amortentia. 

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