hey guys - i just want to say that i literally do not read on wattpad. tons of people can attest to this. so if anything bears resemblance to another fic, then it is purely coincidental. there are dozens of commonly used headcannons, and no one has specific rights over those. i am not a person to copy from another fic, and i take great pride in my writing, so i know how shitty it would feel if someone copied me. on that note, enjoy!

March 7, 1977
7:56 pm
Great Hall

In the days after the cloak was 'stolen,' Sirius and Anneliese had landed on the silently unanimous decision that they weren't going to talk about what happened on the shore of the Black Lake.

Neither of them wanted to address their sudden pulling away from one another, although they were both secretly longing to know what had happened to the other to provoke the identical reactions.

They had worn the same expression of panic and breathlessness in those few moments, the one that made their hearts race and eyes go wide with concern of whatever had just inhabited their body that so clearly didn't belong.

Now that they were removed from the situation and looked at it in retrospect, they both minimized it to the stress of N.E.W.T.s and keeping their relationship hidden.

Nothing more significant than that, Anneliese told herself as she took a bite of a dinner roll. Don't overthink things, that's what Leo would tell you.

But still, every time that Callaway looked at Black now when he was against her skin, she just was reminded of that blurry and grey night.

It wasn't the gut wrenching sensation she had felt for the first time on the shore. No, now it had evolved into something much more subtle that was like a disease slowly seeping through her veins.

Just another sign to ignore.

Anneliese had never felt this way at Ilvermorny before, but she was pretty sure that it was just because she had never been as physically close to someone so often in America like she was to Sirius here.

She hadn't let it happen back there, but Black had broken right through that defense as easily as a rock through glass just like so many others she put up around herself.

The side of her body built to protect itself hadn't needed to come out as much until now, not until Sirius and her had gotten to this point.

Once it had been woken, though, Anneliese knew there wasn't much she could do to stop it until one of them pointed it out to the other. But the silent voice nagging in the back of her mind didn't ever relax fully.

Callaway was fighting against it for Sirius as much as she could.

In turn, whenever Black looked at Anneliese, he couldn't help but see echoes of his family in her.

Not that in any way Callaway was even a shred similar to the cruel, merciless Blacks. She had her dark moments, quite a lot of them, yes.

But never anything nearly as heartless as the torture they had put Sirius through.

No, this was because he didn't want to disappoint her. There was no way he could live with himself if he somehow managed to fuck things up so bad that they wouldn't talk anymore. Not some sort of petty argument, but deeply, truly messing things up.

Every glance was a beautiful reminder of how much he cared for Anneliese.

But it was also a reminder of what he could lose.

"SIRIUS!" James shouted for the eighth time in a row, snapping in front of his best mate's face. "We are trying to have a genuine discussion about the Anneliese Is Part Veela Theory, and you're just zoning out!"

"Veela are gross!" Anneliese cried back, eyes wide and mildly offended. "They transform into those weird monster things, and I am definitely not that!"

"Veela make me wet," Dorcas muttered to Marlene, who nodded in return. "So that just supports the theory that Anneliese is part one-"

"DOR!" Mckinnon shrieked, but she was laughing as well. "OH MY GOD."

Callaway's cheeks had turned bright red after James had spit out his water partly in shock, while Sirius was making no effort to hide his very knowing smirk.

"Well, technically, half or quarter veela only take in the good traits," Remus pointed out factually. "So you could still be an eighth or something and we would never know."

"I. Am. Muggleborn," Anneliese said, snapping her fingers with every word. "There's not a damn drop of magic in my blood going back for decades."

"Proof?" Lily asked with a raised eyebrow. "None. You can't have met every member of your family and traced it all the way back for sure, none of us can. For all we know, even my mom could be a squib or something and I would never learn."

For some reason, that causal statement hit Callaway deeply. What if her parents were somehow related to witches or wizards? She had never met all of her mother and fathers many siblings, and for all she knew, one of them could have magic that was simply hidden from their brother or sister.

Anneliese had no idea how she had never thought of this earlier.

Maybe there was a reason that her parents had been so appalled by her showing signs of magic. Maybe they had been harmed by it deeply, or were so scared of it from their own experiences and it wasn't just mindless hatred.

What if my sister has magic? she thought, slight panic rising in her. What if my parents dumped her at some other orphanage after I was and I would never even know? What if she went to another magical school somewhere? There are dozens all over the world, it's possible.

On the thought of siblings, another thoroughly disturbing thought hit Anneliese.

Why did we live so far out in the country away from everything and everyone? she wondered, skin starting to crawl. What if there was a reason I really only ever saw certain members of my family at certain times for a reason?

Everything around her began to fade into muffled noise and pointless sounds for Anneliese as her mind spiralled deeper and deeper into this tunnel that was seemingly unstoppable once it had started.

What if they were hiding from something, or someone?

Callaway honestly couldn't fully blame them. She herself had witnessed what magic could do to people, tearing them apart, pulling them down, and splitting bonds between family, friends, and lovers alike.

Something could have happened, something to make them want to give me away, she thought, hope rising. Maybe they really did love me, maybe it was hard for them and for their own good.

And then, more just a moment, Anneliese let herself bask in that fantasy.

The fantasy that her parents had wanted a life for her where she wouldn't be contaminated by magic, and that in some sort of desperate haze, they thought that giving her away would help that. The fantasy that at some point, she really had been loved.

At some point, she had a perfect family on that little farm with the blue glass windchimes.

But maybe I'm making up excuses, she reminded herself. Stop being such a hopeful idiot. Your parents hated your magic, and there was nothing else to it. They hated you, and now they're gone.

And so, Callaway slammed that door of her mind shut and locked it with as many mental keys and barriers as she possibly could without letting loose other things she was holding back.

Black's voice brought her back to reality.

"Idea that Anneliese is a veela added on evidence," Sirius said, definitively pounding his fist on the mahogany. "Also, they're always blonde and very attractive, so-"

"Okay, but they're also from Bulgaria," Anneliese said, southern accent becoming more pronounced. "Do I sound like I have a damn Bulgarian accent to yall?"

"Love how you didn't deny the very attractive part," Black said with a slight laugh.

"It's because she is hot," Lily said with an exasperated roll of her eyes, then turned to the girls all around her. "Right guys?"

"Very much so," nodded Alice, setting down her fork to give the statement her full attention and emphasis.

"Definitely," Marlene added after Alice, completely honest and not just joking for the sake of the conversation.

"You already heard what I said earlier," muttered Dorcas, and Marlene gave an additional two thumbs up with a playful bite of her bottom lip.

Anneliese blew each of them a kiss and turned back to Sirius, a small smirk on her face.

"Yea Black, it's because I am hot," she repeated to him with a bit of mischief in her eyes, running her tongue over her teeth jokingly. "Deal with it."

Oh, I will later, Sirius thought, shifting slightly in his position sitting on the bench.

Meanwhile, Remus was too busy thinking about Black's last words to even feel a heat in his cheeks from being uncomfortable about the conversation going on around him.

Love how you didn't deny the very attractive part, he repeated to himself in his head. Love.

For most other people, this one word difference wouldn't be a very big deal. They would just skim past it like it was nothing, because it was a pretty commonplace verb coming from the lips of almost any person.

But for Sirius, it wasn't.

The only person that Remus had ever heard him say the word love in relation to before was James, not even Fleamont and Euphemia.

And his motorcycle, but that didn't really count.

Having been raised in such a place with a lack of love, Sirius put a lot of weight into that word, not just the casual 'I love you' like many families said to each other on a daily basis. It was a bit of a taboo for him, meaning that whatever he was saying with that word, he really meant it.

Remus didn't want to jump to conclusions, so he just kept on listening and waiting as he had been doing for the past weeks now.

"I'm going back to the common room," James declared, standing up from the table. "You ladies are slowly becoming too much."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily asked, both red eyebrows raised with a slight threat. "Be very careful with how you answer this, Potter."

"Uhm, it means that.." James trailed off, looking to the rest of the boys around him for help.

Sirius was frozen in the middle of chewing his dinner roll now that Anneliese was glaring at him as well, Frank's eyes were nervously darting to Alice and back to the ground, while Remus and Peter were thoroughly unnerved by how straight Marlene and Dorcas had made their faces go in a split second.

"Go, go, go!" James said, suddenly swinging his legs from out of the bench.

In less than a second, all five boys were literally sprinting out of the Great Hall and causing as much of a scene as possible. They had been sitting very close to the head table, meaning that they had quite a long way to go.

The five girls exchanged an amused glance before sprinting after them as well.

At this point, the entire Great Hall was watching the boys shriek like toddlers as the girls gradually got closer to them, all with huge smiles and laughs making it even harder to breathe with the breath already being stolen from their lungs by running so fast.

"Oh dear," McGonagall sighed with a shake of her head. "Those poor boys are in for it."

They went like this all the way to the common room, until the Fat Lady seemed very alarmed at the expressions on the boys faces as they roughly opened the door, trying to slam it shut behind them so that they could get inside first and delay the girls.

Anneliese caught the portrait by the frame.

All of the Gryffindors already in the common room were thoroughly alarmed at the panic that the boys ran in with, eyes going wide when they saw who was chasing them.

The two groups of five were in an intense stalemate as they stared at one another, both lines breathless and failing to keep the amusement off their faces. Half the common room had turned to look at the scene.

"THE FLOOR IS LAVA!" Sirius shouted all of the sudden, and jumped onto a couch quickly.

Lily and Alice both let out a squeal as they scrambled to hop onto the nearest chair, while Frank, James, and Peter all managed to clamber onto the coffee table closest to the fire. Dorcas and Marlene literally sat on top of each other on a very tiny ottoman.

Remus and Anneliese were both just standing there with disbelieving expressions.

"We need to talk about your maturity," Callaway muttered, slowly shaking her head.

"Pretty stupid words for someone standing in lava," Sirius countered. "Do you want to burn to death when you're only seventeen?"

Anneliese just narrowed her eyes slightly before slowly turning her head to Remus. They both seemed to have the exact idea at the exact same time, and gave one another a tiny nod of confirmation.

Then, before any of their friends could even move, James was tackled by Remus so that now he was the one on the carpet. Anneliese in turn jokingly pushed Sirius off the couch, and he stayed on the ground laughing for quite a few seconds before getting back up.

Then, all chaos let loose. Or hell, depending on who you asked.

James immediately grabbed one of the pillows from the chair where Lily was sitting, making her and Alice fall off, and then started hitting Remus with it.

Meanwhile, Dorcas and Marlene had taken it upon themselves to target Peter and Frank, who were currently running around the common room with throw blankets enchanted to trip them biting at the feet.

Anneliese and Sirius were engaged in a furious battle of throwing entire couch cushions at one another, barely dodging the heavy objects with laughs. Callaway threw one so hard that Black couldn't dodge the soft object, and it hit him directly in the chest, making him fall back.

Making his eyes go shut, Sirius didn't get up from the floor behind the couch and dramatically just laid there like he had been hit by a dozen stunning spells.

Behind the couch, only she could see where he was, blocked by the rest of the room.

Anneliese just laughed at first, but when he still didn't get up for a bit too long of a time, Callaway was nervous that he had hit his head against something when he fell. Rushing over, she knelt down by Sirius.

"Are you-" she started with genuine worry, and a small smile began to twitch at Black's lips. "YOU MANIPULATIVE-"

Before she could finish that sentence, Sirius quickly sat up and flipped Anneliese over so that her back was flat, kissing her against the floor of the common room.

A thrill went through both of them at the daring of it all, their lips against one anothers, that adrenaline of trying not to get caught with their dirty little secret but still having fun along the way.

"Sirius!" Callaway shrieked, propping herself up with a bit of reluctance. "We-"

"No one saw-" Sirius said with a smirk, holding out his hand to her as he stood up. "Look."

Anneliese accepted his hand as he pulled her up with a swift motion, dark blue eyes scanning the common room.

The fights had only intensified, and now Lily and James had teamed up against Dorcas and Marlene. The redhead didn't seem even mildly upset to be working with Potter, even looking his way whenever she laughed.

Frank, Alice, Peter, and Remus were all very close to the fireplace as the hexed pillows to knock the others over, but they didn't seem to notice because of how much fun they were having.

The sounds of the laughs, shrieks, and crackling of the fire filled the common room with its own kind of music, the kind that warmed anyone listening to it to their very core.

All of Anneliese's worries about her family and Sirius were completely forgotten as they both exchanged a grin and grabbed a pillow of their own, running right into the destruction of the previously neat common room.

Sirius in turn didn't even think about what he could lose when he looked at Callaway dodging a blanket from Alice, only saw the playful, happy girl that he loved so dearly and got such a thrill from.

To them in those minutes, they were both just finally home with the people that they cared for all around them, and everything was perfect.

Unfortunately, all of this making eyes at one another didn't let Black realize that his blanket had caught on fire when he swung too close to the fireplace.

"SIRIUS!" Frank shouted, and he looked at everyone with pure panic. "YOUR BLOODY BLANKET IS ON FUCKING FIRE-"

Sirius let out a high pitched squeal as he saw that Frank was right, and quickly just dropped it on the floor and ran away from it.

"WHY DID YOU JUST DROP IT?!" Anneliese screamed, half laughing and half furious. "YOU FUCKING IDIOT!"

All of the sixth years watched as the fire began to move across the carpet, all of their smarts suddenly completely gone from their brains as they watched with sheer panic.

"SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!" James giggled, doubling over from laughter. "OH MERLIN, I ALWAYS KNEW WE WERE STUPID, BUT THIS IS JUST-"

Hands shaking with how hard she was laughing, Anneliese pulled out her wand and thought of the spell that Sirius had helped her with. For a second, his hand was on hers again as they sat on the shore of the Black Lake, helping her concentrate.

Black watched it shock as water streamed from her wand, dousing the fire effortlessly.

"I take complete credit for teaching you so well-"

"I SMELLED SMOKE FROM THE GREAT HALL! WHAT IN THE NAME OF EVERYTHING GOOD IS GOING ON?"

All of the common room froze to see a very upset Minerva McGonagall standing with her hands on her hips at the entrance of the portrait hole.

The sixth years suddenly seemed to realize what they had done.

Nearly the entire room was completely covered in blankets, pillows, and cushions. All of the furniture was moved from where it had previously been. There was still a smoldering patch of carpet.

And the teenagers themselves were all completely wrecks with messy hair and enormous grins.

And that night would go down in Hogwarts history as 'That One Time When Those Idiot Gryffindors Almost Set The Entire Castle on Fire with a Pillowfight.'

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