ink - sirius black

containment and touch

February 25, 1977
7:09 pm
Hogwarts Library

The weather was still so frigid on the Hogwarts grounds that the sixth year Gryffindors couldn't study outside as they usually would during sunset, which meant that the library was far from quiet with their presence.

The round table holding the chaotic group of ten teenagers was covered in so many papers that the mahogany underneath was no longer visible and none of them could tell whose notes and textbooks belonged to which one of them.

Anneliese and Peter had successfully knocked over two glass pots of ink each within the first half hour of studying, to the point where all of them gave up on having clean hands free of the excess ink.

The scratching of quills and adjusting of papers mingled with the crackling of the oil lamps on the shelves around them, making the lights dim and them all have to squint their eyes to see the writing against the parchment properly.

Even though the sun had just set a few hours ago, all of the Gryffindors were getting drowsy with the relaxing atmosphere of the library.

Every few minutes, one of them would ask either a deeply thoughtful or completely ridiculous question to the group, which was in turn either met by a glare or equally elaborate response that matched the absurdity of the question.

"I'm going to fall asleep," James declared with a yawn, leaning his head into Peter's shoulder. "Wormy, you make a good pillow."

"I just don't understand why we have to know all seventeen phases of venomous tentacula growth," grumbled Frank. "My mind is going to burst."

"You need to get through Herbology if you want to be an auror with me," Alice replied with a smile. "Come on, I'll help you memorize the acronym that I came up with."

"I need it as well," Dorcas said, scooting her chair closer around the circular table. "But I can't focus because Marlene keeps stealing my notes so that I can't come up with one of my own."

"You have better handwriting than me!" Mckinnon exclaimed emphatically. "We both know I can do a lot with my hands, but penmanship is not one of them-"

"Not while we're studying!" Lily exclaimed, holding up a hand to the couple as she pressed her eyes shut. "Save it for the nighttime, ladies."

"It is night," Anneliese pointed out with a mischievous grin from where she was sitting next to Sirius. "The window says so."

"Well we all know you already have a dirty mind, A," Remus said from directly across the table to her. "So everything says so with you."

"Yea, because I am so sure that those letters you and Leo send back and forth to one another are fully innocent," Callaway countered. "Don't think I haven't noticed that you've started wanting to be alone while you read them."

"And you're always blushing after you come back," Dorcas added on from down the table. "You're not slick, Lupin."

Remus's cheeks blushed furiously as he simply returned to a diagram for the lifecycle of a thestral that was suddenly the most interesting thing in the whole castle.

"You know, I was looking in the muggle section of the library," James said with a mischievous grin as his hazel eyes flitted across the shelves. "And I found this really interesting genre."

"Do we even want to know?" Lily asked, but she had looked up from her notes as well to hear the rest of what he was saying.

"Well, Sirius and Anneliese, I think you will find this very interesting," Potter said with a meaningful glance at his two friends. "Very interesting."