ink - sirius black

understanding and forgiveness

November 4, 1976
7:59 pm
Great Hall

Since Leo had gotten the general perspectives from two sides of the story and deal between Anneliese and Sirius, he was now noticing things that he hadn't before.

First of all, there was an enormous amount of tension between the split genders of the Gryffindor table that he hadn't picked up on before. It was obvious that the two sides usually sat with one another, but the two arguing were separating them.

Then, there was the fact that Black would longingly glance over at Callaway every few minutes or so and then quickly dart his eyes back to the conversation, hiding his hurt and anger with a cocky, lighthearted attitude that Leo instantly spotted as fake.

That short interaction had told him a lot about Sirius, but the main thing was that he seemed like the kind of guy who would run away from his problems until they exploded violently.

"So are you guys just never going to look at one another again?" Leo asked as he took a bite of his first treacle tart. "Anger is just going to build if you don't address it."

"He's right, you know," Lily said, inclining her head to Anderson. "Even if it takes a screaming match, you two need to get it out somehow."

"I would only need to get it out if I cared," Anneliese contradicted them. "And I don't."

"I call bullshit," Marlene declared, slamming her glass of pumpkin juice down loudly for emphasis. "You do care. An immense amount."

"And what makes you think that?" Callaway asked with a raised blonde eyebrow. "I need evidence."

"Maybe the fact that in every one of the literal dozens of letters you have sent me, he's been in every single one of them."

All of the girl's heads turned to Leo, who innocently just took a sip of his water.

"It was bad stuff," Anneliese muttered halfheartedly. "Nothing good."

"Lies, Anneliese Callaway!" Leo exclaimed, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Last time I checked, you wrote about how easy he was to talk to and how-"

Callaway promptly threw a dinner roll at his face with a surprising amount of force, and Anderson raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Alright, all I'm saying is that maybe you should consider not giving all that up for one mistake," he said, his tone becoming serious. "It would make you happier in the end."

"Yea, it's that simple when you say one mistake but that one mistake of breaking a guy's nose out of spite or jealousy or whatever is a pretty fucked up mistake," Anneliese replied factually. "It's not like he just called me annoying or something small like that."

"Okay, try to put it in perspective," Leo said, having no idea why he was defending Sirius. "If you had been pining after someone, let's say Violet, for a few days and then all of the sudden, I dunno, Mitchell or someone like that comes and hits on her. Wouldn't you be angry?"

"I already hate Mitchell," Anneliese said firmly, thinking of the infuriating Horned Serpent. "So yes."

"And adding on that Sirius had already been a bit prickly around Fabian," Lily cut in, starting to understand Leo's point. "And that your little thing, not a relationship, I know, had been going on for like two months, not just a few days."

"Thinking about it like Sirius, I would be pretty mad as well," Alice mused mildly, twirling her fork in one hand. "Obviously not nose breaking mad, but very angry."

Anneliese looked warily between her friends.

"Did he tell you guys to defend him or something?" she asked with a small voice. "You're making me want to forgive him."