ink - sirius black

hot sauce and wet hair

May 1, 1977
8:03 am
Great Hall

In the hospital wing with Sirius, Anneliese had been her own kind of drunk. Not on firewhiskey like on the tower with Regulus, but on some kind of happy high that was probably just because she was so hungover and not in her proper senses.

Still, it had felt good, incredibly good, until she woke up the next morning feeling cold again.

Callaway was having a hard time sleeping because of Peter.

She was having an overwhelming sensation of guilt about him nearly every night, terrified of what her own body had done to him when it had gotten very briefly out of control. Whenever she shut her eyes for too long, his whimpers would come back into her brain, turning her stomach.

The words of Dumbledore in New York were echoing along with Peter's cries, the ones about her being oddly similar to.. him.

The perfect student exterior that fooled even her closest friends, with a much darker side lurking below, ready to snap and ready to show no mercy to get, or keep, who she wanted.

Even now as Anneliese walked into the Great Hall, looking at Peter was hard for her, and she knew that she really needed to apologize for both of their sakes.

If you apologize and he's not scared of you anymore, then he's going to go running his mouth, a voice in the back of her head said. So it's up to you, be kind and risk everything or be cruel and do what's right for yourself.

"Peter!" she called, raising a hand and gesturing towards herself with her wrist.

Pettigrew muttered a few words to Sirius before standing up and jogging slightly towards Anneliese at the entrance of the Great Hall.

"I didn't say anything," he said in a trembling voice as they stepped just out of view of the wide doorway. "I promise-"

"No, I wanted to apologize," Anneliese cut him off, smiling and shaking her head. "You heard.. you heard what you heard and I should know to just trust you and that you won't say anythin. I can trust you, right?"

"You can trust me," Peter replied with a firm nod. "I promise."

Callaway exhaled in relief, rubbing her forehead from exhaustion. There had been quite a bit of commotion in the common room at four in the morning the previous night, and that on top of worrying about Pettigrew hadn't earned her much sleep.

"That's.. it's your business, I guess," Peter continued. "But.. are you okay? Regulus was right, you know, you really don't have to keep acting like this if you don't want to. We all still love you without you doing this to yourself."

Anneliese just gave Pettigrew her best attempt at a grin and a tight nod. There was no point of convincing him otherwise.

Sirius smiled gently as he watched Callaway and Peter joke with one another, but his eyes were, as always, more focused on Anneliese. The drunkenness hadn't yet worn off for him as it had for her.

"Mornin," Anneliese said to the table, and they all said their half mouthful greeting back at her. "How'd everyone sleep?"

"I would have slept better if someone hadn't been setting off a bloody bomb in the common room last night," Marlene whined, splashing around her milk in her cereal bowl. "How many pieces of furniture can you knock over literally just walking up the stairs?"

"I know, you'd have to be like half dead," Dorcas added as she wiped a crumb from Marlene's lip with her thumb. "There you go, love."

Anneliese was about to agree with them before her eyes scanned Lupin's face from across the table and her mind faltered with concern.