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October 16, 1976
12:57 am
Hogwarts

The instant Sirius stepped out into the torchlit corridor, before he even had time to pull on the cloak, the Fat Lady pointed him in the right direction.

"You chasing after that poor southern girl?" the plump woman asked in a gossiping tone, having been lacking entertainment recently. "She went down that corridor."

"I am not chasing after her," Sirius called out behind him, but the Fat Lady just gave him a disbelieving humph.

How did she get so far so fast? he asked himself, his socks moving faster into a jog against the carpeted corridor.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Sirius muttered, tapping his wand to the parchment.

Ink blossomed from the rough, yellowed surface like it was rising up from where it had sunk, creating an incredibly detailed map of the corridors. He unfolded the segment to where he was standing, and then scanned the area all around him.

There was a tiny ribbon in the Owlery that read Anneliese Callaway in black lettering that was completely still, not even pacing.

He shoved the Map back into his sweatpants pocket after locking it, sliding the cloak on in case any professors or Peeves decided it would be a good time for a midnight stroll. His legs burned as he climbed up the outdoor staircase, the cold air hitting him with refreshment from the stuffy corridors.

Upon entering the circular, drafty room with windows void of any glass so that the owls could fly in and out freely, Sirius saw Anneliese with her back pressed against one of the strips outlining the windows.

The wind was blowing in on either side of her, and if she moved over even slightly, she could easily fall out of one of the open air squares. Her wavy blonde hair was swaying around her shoulders as she pressed her forehead against her knees, which she had hugged into her chest to either stay warm or comfort herself.

Sirius had seen her angry, but he had never seen Anneliese truly upset.

It bothered him more than he expected it to.

"Lumos," he muttered, the room almost completely black before the spell.

Not having heard his quiet arrival, Anneliese whipped her head up in alarm to see him standing there with wide grey eyes and his wand next to his face.

She noticed for a few moments how the dark shadows cast made his already chiseled face and high cheekbones even more prominent than normal. For some people, the angle of the lighting would have made them look like a gaunt skeleton, but for Sirius, he just looked even more attractive than usual.

"Go away," she muttered halfheartedly. "I don't walk to talk about it."

"Who said I was here to talk to you?" Sirius asked with a slight grin. "I'm here to send an owl."

Anneliese looked at him without amusement before just giving up on getting him to go away, too drained for even an argument with him. She placed her forearm on her knees and buried her head in them once more, just like he wasn't standing a few yards in front of her.

Sirius was fully alarmed at her lack of protest that he was there.

Quickly sitting down with his feet apart and elbows on his knees, he leaned against a barrel of owl feed with his wrists dangling and wand in one hand as he looked at her with concern.

"This is the second time you've had a nightmare and you've been awake," he stated, trying to get her to talk. "That I know of. Something is clearly bothering you."

Anneliese tensed up a bit as the freezing wind cut through her tight top, making goosebumps form on the small of her back where it was riding up a bit.

"No shit, Grey Eyes," she replied, the response slightly muffled as she talked into her legs. "I don't want to talk about it."

Sirius paused for a moment, letting the wind whistle and blow up his hair slightly.

"Sometimes.. sometimes talking about it is good," he told her hesitantly. "To get it off your chest."

"The last person I would want to talk to is you," Anneliese said back, lifting up her gaze off the straw covered floor to him with narrowed eyes. "All you would do is judge me or insult me, and believe me, that is the last thing I need right now."

"I wouldn't," Sirius said firmly, not a hint of joking on his features. "Believe me."

Anneliese eyed him skeptically in the wandlight, not trusting this boy who had been nothing but a problem to her so far.

"What's your angle here?" she asked in a slightly accusatory tone. "Still tryin to win whatever little competition you've placed on yourself to be cooler than me? Trying to find my weaknesses?"

Blinking a few times in surprise, Sirius slowly shook his head. He knew firsthand that this kind of distrust she was showing him came from being betrayed by the people you were supposed to call family, and it disturbed him.

Because he knew exactly how she felt.

"No, I'm not trying to hurt you," he whispered in a low, genuine tone that surprised him to hear coming from his mouth. "Obviously not."

"Oh, it isn't obvious at all," Anneliese scoffed with a sour smile. "Think about it, what have you done to make me trust you?"

Sirius faltered for a few seconds, realizing he had no reply.

"I just want to prove you wrong," he whispered with wide, metallic eyes in a way he had never looked at anyone like before.

"Prove me wrong about what?" Anneliese asked slowly, but silently already knowing what he was getting at.

"That I just see women as objects to sleep with," he replied blatantly. "You have minds and feelings and so much more and.. and I'm trying to prove to you that I know that."

Callaway thoroughly disliked the tiny increase of her heartbeat at him stating the bare minimum.

"I don't think you would understand," she replied, defenses going back up after he had temporarily lowered them, catching her off guard.

Sirius was thankful that she didn't ask why he cared, because he wouldn't have known how to answer that any better than her.

But this answer wasn't any good either.

"I would," Sirius said firmly.

"You wouldn't," Anneliese snapped suddenly, yet they both recognized that it sounded like she was trying to convince herself.

"I think you really would find that I will," Sirius repeated, his voice lowering back down. "Trust me."

The light on their faces and reflecting on the open air window flickered as his cypress wand rolled a bit with the powerful wind making both of their clothing and hair flutter a bit.

Along with their hearts as they looked at one another.

"You've asked me to trust you and believe you in the matter of minutes," Anneliese pointed out, still reluctant. "These types of things don't come that fast, Grey Eyes."

"We have to start somewhere, don't we?"

The two of them stared for a few seconds, stormy grey meeting stormy blue in a sea of distrust and confusion and longing.

Anneliese blinked a few times as she realized what was happening, a sickening feeling suddenly flooding her stomach that she had never felt until now.

The moment was broken.

What am I doing here with this boy? she asked herself furiously. Why is he so hard to not trust?

"Did- did I say something wrong?" Sirius fumbled as she stood up abruptly, his fingers brushing against the straw as he grabbed his wand.

"I just need to get to bed," she told him. "I can't be wandering around at night."

"You aren't just wandering around," Sirius said persistently, quickly descending the steps behind her. "You're with me."

"Only emphasizing my point that I should be getting to bed," she replied, continuing to not turn back and look at him. "And you too, Grey Eyes."

Sirius took a large jump down to the small stone landing they had reached before the next set of stairs starting, the Black Lake glistening in the starlight next to them from the high viewpoint.

He quickly grabbed her wrist before she could keep moving away from her.

Anneliese whipped around at his touch, the first time both of their skin had touched one another without fabric in the way, even if it just was fingers to wrist.

Both of them could feel the tension.

Sirius pulled her closer strongly, the softness in his eyes hardening.

The assertiveness made her stomach flip and fly at the same time.

"Why won't you just call me Sirius?" he asked with narrowed, steely eyes, strawberries filling his senses. "My name is Sirius Black, not Grey Eyes."

Anneliese swallowed heavily, and his eyes flickered down to her neck for a moment.

"I have my reasons," she whispered, his hand still around the wrist with a lion and a thunderbird. "I wouldn't think too much into it."

Their faces were inches apart.

Sirius could see the exact shade of her eyes better than even as they reflected in the pale light of his wand. They were a dark blue that almost looked like the Black Lake when a thunderstorm was being reflected into it, with perfect layers that showed depth and emotion much deeper than he could have ever thought.

The freckles flecked across her face started to mingle with a slight blush that could be easily blamed on the cold wind.

But both of them knew better than that.

"I-I think we need to get to bed," Anneliese whispered, her pink lips slightly parted even after she finished speaking.

Sirius realized with a sudden jolt of his mind what he was doing, the haze that had provoked him to grab her wrist gone just as quickly as fog when the sun came out.

"Yea, we should," he muttered back.

The way back to the common room was completely silent and a bit awkward, neither of them able to express the sudden flurry of emotions that had just occurred on the landing.

James, Remus, and Peter had been waiting on them to come back either separate or together, their heads all turned as Anneliese avoided eye contact with any of them and hurried up the stairs to her dorms with soft footsteps.

Sirius sunk into a chair with a loud sigh as soon as he heard the steel hinges of the door click shut, running his hands down his face and slumping his back.

"What did you do?" Remus asked in exasperation as he set his book down on the coffee table. "Please tell me you didn't do something stupid like kissing her or something."

"What?!" Sirius cried, sitting up straight again. "That's mental, obviously not!"

The combination of the dubious looks his friends were giving him and the flutter he had felt when his hand was around her wrist made him reconsider that the likelihood was low he would have kissed her.

And then the thought of kissing Anneliese throughly distracted him.

"Earth to Pads," James said, snapping his fingers in front of his friend's face. "What did you do, spit it out."

"Couldn't've been that bad, at least she wasn't crying," Peter said hopefully. "Right?"

"No, I don't think I did anything wrong," Sirius said, lighting a cigarette from James's pack. "I thought I was actually getting somewhere with her, actually, and then she just shut down."

This scenario was very familiar to James.

It reminded him of when Sirius himself had first arrived at Potter Manor.

Maybe they're more similar than I thought, James mused to himself, taking a cigarette as well in thought.

"These things take time," Remus said comfortingly.

"Yea, sure, but what if she doesn't want to give that time?" Sirius asked. "Then what?"

Out of all his teenage years so far, Black had his fair share of woman lining up to him, and he was confident he could charm any one of the females at Hogwarts if she wasn't gay in some way.

It had always been which one next and not if I can get that one.

And now, the one time that it wasn't easy and the female actually didn't think he was some sort of god, Sirius found himself thinking about her all the time.

Whether it be anger for her friendship with James or this unknown Leo, more anger that she wouldn't be friends with him like she had for all of his mates, concern when she was upset, or a sour sort of happiness when she was laughing, Anneliese was on his mind.

And, of course, that feeling when they were physically close.

"Then you can't do much about it, mate," James said, snapping Sirius out of his thoughts. "If she doesn't want to spend her time on you, then she doesn't want to."

"Says the boy who forces himself into Lily's life twenty-four seven," Sirius pointed out.

A small smile tugged at the corners of Remus's mouth as an idea hit him.

"I propose an idea to go along with our other bets," he declared, leaning forward with his forearms on his thighs.

"What is it?" Peter asked eagerly, and the other two boys turned their heads in his direction as well.

"The Anneliese Black bet."

this is my fav chapter of this book so far

also the hairblowng gif really just *fits* this chapter

2.3k words

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VOTE! - it rly helps

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