April 11, 1977
6:59 am
Gryffindor Boys Dormitories

Sirius woke up to the very pleasant feeling of Anneliese's face buried into the crook of his neck, her warm breath and warm lips against his even warmer skin from having their bodies pressed together all right.

He could smell her fruity, light strawberry shampoo he had smelled in his amortentia what felt like years ago delicately moving into his senses, and the scent calmed him down so much that he wanted to fall right back asleep with her in his arms.

After a few moments of just absorbing her presence silently and with deep breaths, Sirius opened his eyes.

The dormitories were still mostly dark in the earlier hours of the late spring morning, and Black's bed being at the very back of the room added onto the dimness only broken by the warm light coming from near Remus's bed.

Anneliese's sleeping features looked like they were glowing to Sirius.

Her freckles had become more condensed and populous as the weather got warmer and the sun more bright as the year moved along, and her very easily tanned skin was becoming darker to contribute to that.

She was like the bright southern sun to his pale pureblood star.

As if Anneliese could almost hear him waking up, her eyes fluttered open to see Sirius's ridiculously gorgeous face inches away from hers.

"Mornin'," she whispered, softly pressing her lips against his for a few moments.

It was a simple kiss, not one loaded with complicated emotions and hands and the silent urge to scream as past traumas crept up slowly on both of them from behind like an imposter when you thought you were home alone.

When it ended after several seconds, Anneliese's lips felt empty.

"Is anyone else awake?" she whispered, turning over. "Oh- good morning, Remus."

Lupin was sitting fully dressed on top of his perfectly made bed while simultaneously finishing a Potions essay and a Herbology diagram, and there was somehow already a mug of tea made steaming on his bedside table.

"Good morning," he replied, not looking up from his studies at all.

Callaway just gave him a bit of a bewildered look before shrugging to herself.

"Is he always like that?" Anneliese asked Sirius with a small laugh, turning back around to face him so that their heads were next to each other on his pillow.

"That's Moony," Black said, but his grey eyes were more focused on her dark blue ones than his tongue on the words coming from his mouth.

Sirius gently moved his fingers forward, brushing away a few strands of golden hair away from her features, and tucking them behind her ear.

Anneliese shut her eyes and took a relaxed breath in as his hand moved to the back of her neck, pulling Callaway in for another kiss as they were both more at peace than they had been in a long time.

In the bleary, grey hours of first waking up, neither of them had enough time to start worrying yet as their minds just tried to prepare for the day with the basic, more simple things.

One of those basic things being the fact that they both deeply cared for the other.

Anneliese moved her hand on top of his where it was placed on the back of her neck, pressing his skin more against hers as one of her legs slowly wrapped around his waist from underneath the sheets and quilt.

Black moved his hand underneath the back of the same black shirt from last night, his fingertips quickly finding her spine and drawing slow, precise circles on the line.

"It's too early for you to be doing that, Sirius," Anneliese muttered against his lips so softly that he could barely hear her. "You know this."

Sure enough, Black did know good and well that every girl had their own spot. He hadn't really bothered to find out others before on one of his many one night stands.

But he had taken great care to learn Callaway's.

He thought that he caught onto it for the first time when Anneliese had left Herbology early one day during some of her first months at Hogwarts after both she and Dorcas had managed to accidentally get the highly toxic acid on their hands.

Anneliese had been hastily taking off her brown couldery apron when Sirius had given her a flirty wink and offered to hang it up for her. In the process, Callaway's shirt had tugged up a bit in the back, revealing a small patch of skin.

Black very distinctly remembered her reaction when his bare forearm from having his sleeves rolled up had brushed against the small of her back as she slid past him in the tight space to exit.

Anneliese's cheeks had blushed more than they had before on one of their many 'accidental' contacts, and Sirius had instantly noticed the goosebumps on her neck as she walked away.

Months and months later of them slowly falling for each other, Black had tested out his theory in New York City just to find out that he was completely right about Anneliese's spot being her spine.

"Yes, but it's very fun to watch you try and keep quiet," Sirius murmured back with a smirk. "And darling, is it ever too early?"

Anneliese didn't reply as Black's hand slowly moved around her back until it was resting on her side underneath her shirt. Her lips parted as she shut her eyes, just focusing on the warm feeling of his smooth skin against hers.

But as she became more and more awake with her senses increasingly alert because of his touch, Callaway's hands were itching to be somewhere besides his silky hair and firm stomach.

And as Sirius's fingertips brushed against the line of her underwear, she couldn't possibly prevent her hands from moving down to check it anymore.

Black's eyes opened back up again in alarm as he felt Anneliese's fingers move all around the band of her underwear, but not actually moving the elastic at all.

Her eyes were no longer delicately shut with pleasure as they had been seconds before.

Now they were instead severely squinted shut as if Callaway hated what her own hands were doing, but at the same time was helpless to prevent it from happening like her body was on autopilot.

Black didn't like that look on her, it reminded him too much of himself when he checked how his cuts and bruises were healing from his parents when he still lived at Grimmauld Place.

After doing their two fingered rounds, Anneliese's hands then started to move to the strap of her bra before Sirius's hand suddenly closed around her wrist.

"Anneliese, what are you doing?" he asked, eyes silvery with concern. "Is everything alright?"

In the bed next to Black's, Potter's eyes flew open.

"It was- I was just- I don't even know, it's just a dumb habit, Sirius-" Anneliese stammered.

She was shocked at how quickly Black had picked up on the physical action while he couldn't seem to grasp her mental ones.

"What kind of habit is that?" Sirius asked back, eyebrows furrowing in concern. "Are you expecting to find fucking snakes in your waistband-"

Callaway nearly slapped him across his perfect face, but she pushed down that anger almost immediately as it surfaced.

"No, Sirius, I'm just checking to make sure everything is in place," Anneliese retorted honestly before she could stop herself.

The words that had just slipped from her foggy mind and lips loose with the comfort of his sheets and his body were ones that Callaway regretted so quickly that she felt a pit shoot through her stomach.

She didn't even want to see Sirius's reaction as she sat up all the way in his bed, pulling her legs out from under the covers and tugging back down her shirt from where Black's hands had moved it up a few inches against the cold tower air.

"Woah, woah, what?" Sirius asked, sitting up as well with a very severe expression. "Why the fuck woud everything not be in place?"

His mind flashed back to the day on the shore of the Black Lake when Anneliese had pulled away from him at the same time he did, that bit of fear in her eyes they had never discussed afterwards.

What the hell are you hiding from me? Sirius silently wondered, his eyes darting all over her face, looking for an answer.

"Speaking of things not being in place, I'm going to go get that damned parchment and the cloak before we decide to keep them forever," Anneliese muttered feebly, standing up all the way. "One second."

Black didn't verbally push the question any farther as she walked away from his bed, yet he doubted her slip would leave him mentally, even if it was in the very back of his mind and he briefly forgot about it, for a long time.

"Morning, James," Callaway muttered as she walked over to his bedside table and snatched the glittery pink Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm a Witch book off it. "I'll be taking this back, unless you still want it?"

The ever-so-arrogant James Potter pulled the covers over his torso all the way, suddenly self conscious now that Anneliese was looking at him when he was shirtless just below the sheets.

"Uhm, yea, Dorcas probably needs it more than I do," he replied, looking at Callaway with a bit of a wary expression as he turned over her brief conversation with Sirius in his mind. "Is everything-"

Before Potter could finish his question, Anneliese had silently predicted what he was going to say, and was out of the door before James could say quidditch.

Potter and Sirius exchanged a bewildered look with one another as they both came to their full senses. At this point, Black had just assumed that James was listening to the end of their conversation and he had heard everything he did as well.

"Don't look at me like that," Potter said as he sat up as well. "I don't know either."

Between where Frank and Peter were both still very loudly snoring, Remus was no longer fully focused on his studies.

"You two..," he started, but hesitated as he stared down at his Potions book.

Both Black and Potter looked over eagerly at their much wiser friend for answers, and saw that his green eyes were no longer moving to read the volume in his hands as Lupin thought.

Although Lupin had no doubt in his mind that Sirius had been through a shit ton before he ran away to Potter Manor, he also knew that the muggle world presented very different struggles for a girl than the wizarding world did for a pureblood boy.

As for James, well, he hadn't been through shit in his life, not enough to even guess.

Remus wasn't even sure of his own theory, and he sure as hell didn't want to say something like he was about to unless he was completely sure it was the truth on top of it really being Anneliese's place to say something in the first place.

"Nevermind," he said after a few seconds, still not looking up as the back of his neck started to ache from slouching it so much. "Continue whatever conversation you were having before."

For the second time in a span of about five minutes, Sirius piled on another worry to the corners of his mind.

"Are you going to give A her bra back?" James asked as he adjusted his glasses. "Because-"

Once again, Black's mind very selectively chose what dots he connected.

This time, it was the fact that the bra in his black leather bag could have belonged to any girl in their year, yet Potter somehow knew it was Callaway's.

"How'd you know it's hers?" Sirius cut him off. "James?"

Potter's cheeks turned dark and flustered as he moved his glasses across the bridge of his nose yet again even though they were already perfectly in place.

"It's her thing, the light blue lace, you know?" James said.

He had no idea if he was helping his case here or digging himself into a deeper hole from the completely unreadable expression on Black's face.

"Yes, obviously I know," said Sirius, shaking his head slightly in irritation. "Continue."

"Uhm, well, a lot of guys have noticed it, it's not like she exactly wears the most modest things all the time like Alice or something.."

Sirius didn't know why this felt like such an invasion of privacy. He had been uncomfortable with the whole school talking about her bra the second that the rumor had started, as anyone would.

But now knowing that 'lots of guys' talked about the color of her underwear as a casual subject made his heart quicken in a very unpleasant way.

Yes, Hogwarts had worked against Anneliese in many ways that drove her mad, but that didn't mean that literally dozens of students didn't find her incredibly physically attractive.

From her golden hair tumbling down her back in smooth waves to rich southern accent, they all found something uniquely appealing about her.

Among the rumors about her and Sirius's fight, boys would slide in sly mentions of her appearance with cold smirks much unlike Black's warm, humorous one.

Of course, they never had the nerve to say it around Sirius himself knowing they would get hexed into oblivion, but they still did behind both of Black and Callaway's backs.

But Black wasn't stupid. He most definitely had gathered that if she put her mind to it, Anneliese could pull almost any guy in the school, unless he was a particularly bitter Ravenclaw.

Unknown to him, Callaway had carried a bit of a I-know-I'm-the-hottest-of-all-of-you-here reputation around with her at Ilvermorny.

Anneliese had the experience to do virtually whatever she wanted, even though she had never shown much interest in anyone for longer than a year or so. Even then, it was just casual kisses and dates to parties.

The same went for Black with him being a total player, along with both of these things fading the longer the pair spent together.

Nothing before had ever even remotely matched the intensity of Anneliese and Sirius.

So even though Black might have been the one to start the rumors about a girl he hooked up with's underwear before he met Callaway, this made him absolutely furious the longer he thought about it.

"Show some respect, would you?" Sirius spat, looking at James with narrowed eyes. "She's a person with a mind and a heart and emotions and not just a body, for fuck's sake."

"I don't talk about her like some guys do, all I did was notice," Potter said back with a small sneer. "And besides, all of us notice things about Anneliese that you don't, or that you just ignore."

Black's eyes widened at this sharp, passive aggressive statement, the kind that James was repeatedly making ever since he learned about him and Anneliese a few nights ago.

Before either of the two boys could go at each other any more, the door clicked open as Callaway stepped in with the cloak and Map in hand.

Her eyes darted between Sirius and James with both of their aggressive postures, and the smile on her face momentarily flickered before she forced it fully back on.

In turn, Potter and Black both gave each other falsely happy looks that said don't be fooled, we both know this isn't over before they both walked up to Anneliese to take back the objects lifted from them.

Callaway hated touching the Map. The feeling of the rough yellow parchment against her skin just triggered the memories of what it had said to her under all their nicknames, triggered the events of that silently catastrophic night.

But Anneliese didn't say anything, because she wanted to be a good friend and not make someone else return it to the boys and be selfish.

"Is everything alright?" she asked with raised eyebrows, looking between the two boys as James took back his cloak. "You two seem a bit.. tense."

"We're brilliant," James said as if they hadn't just been discussing the rumors boys spread about the color of her undergarments. "Just don't steal these again."

"Don't make them so easy to steal," Anneliese replied with a wink to Sirius as she slid out the door. "See yall in class."

"See you," James and Sirius called in unison, both of them with small, much more real smiles on their faces at even the short span of her presence.

Anneliese had the ability to calm Black deeply, and much of his anger at Potter melted away with the reminder that there were more important things to hold onto than small, tired morning grudges.

Lupin watched as Potter looked down at the cloak as if he had never seen it before. James ran his thumb along the silky, cool fabric a few times back and forth, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Is it broken or something?" Remus asked sarcastically.

Sirius turned as well, looking curiously before Potter answered.

"No..," James said slowly. "It just smells like her."

Sirius couldn't help but hold in a chuckle at the boy he had been arguing with moments before as he changed into his uniform shirt.

"Smelling your Lily flower even in your cloak," Black teased with an amused expression. "Remind me to annoy you about that about eight times today until you feel as embarrassed as you should."

James blinked a few times until he laughed as well.

April 23, 1977
10:56 pm
Astronomy Tower

Anneliese had taken Marlene's advice to clean out her flask, but Mckinnon probably wouldn't have wanted her to fill it back up with firewhiskey.

Since it was nearly an hour past curfew, Callaway had assumed that not many other people would be out unless they wanted to risk being caught and thoroughly scolded by a professor or particularly uptight prefect.

She herself didn't mind getting caught. Most of the authority here seemed to hate her enough that not much more damage could be done.

Today had been particularly exhausting for Anneliese to maintain her facade. A bunch of kids had thought it would be funny to find that old carved into broom after Callaway helped Gryffindor beat Ravenclaw in a practice match as a form of a petty 'joke.'

See, she's not even mad, one seventh year had said to a very angry Sirius. None of us actually think those things anymore, she got the joke. Why can't you, Black?

Another stream of heavy sobs shook from Anneliese's shoulders as she thought of the words carved. For fuck's sake, she was Gryffindor's Seeker for a reason.

She wasn't blind enough to not notice that orphan was freshly inscribed as well.

Callaway had dismissed Sirius's feeble attempts to help her, and he hadn't pressed much further with that Gryffindor determination he was supposed to have.

Or that Gryffindor determination he does have, but just doesn't care to use, Callaway thought miserably as the alcohol infiltrated her mind.

The firewhiskey burned her throat like someone was pouring gasoline into her insides and throwing a match down her tongue, but Anneliese enjoyed it.

It was a reminder that she could still forget about some kinds of pain, if only for split seconds at a time.

She pressed her forehead against the cool stone of the short wall bordering the Astronomy Tower, letting the hot tears move down her cheeks and onto the frigid floor from the late spring night air.

Callaway could barely catch her own breath, and it didn't help much when a pair of footsteps sounded from the stairs.

Out of routine, Anneliese ran two thumbs under her eyes, muttering scourgify minor, to get the mascara off. She hoped that she could blame the redness of her nose on the cool night breeze when one of the Marauders walked through that door.

Because that was who it was