ink - sirius black

sharp quills and overheard statements

September 2, 1976
6:34 am
Hogwarts

There was always the fact that for some stupid, inconvenient reason Hogwarts had moving stairways to get one Anneliese's already very short temper nerves first thing in the morning.

The letter to Leo in her hand was going to get torn directly in half if she clenched it any tighter with her freckled hand, and that seemed like a highly likely possibility if things kept going at this rate. No one asked if she needed help because she walked so confidently, but Anneliese simply had no idea where she was going.

Lily had given her instructions from Gryffindor common room, but the castle seemed to be working against her. Callaway would normally be able to tell what direction she was facing based on the sun, yet of course she had taken the only route possible not to have seen a stained glass window for ages.

Letting out a loud groan, Anneliese turned up a spiral staircase in hopes that it would lead her to a point where she could see all the towers and identify the Owlery from there, but she ran directly into someone while making the sharp turn.

"Lost, are we?"

Grey Eyes was looking back at her with an infuriatingly attractive smirk and raised eyebrow.

"We are nothing," she said back, shoving past him in the narrow stairway. "I was previously lost with all of these ridiculous moving stairs, but I know how to get there now."

Sirius glanced down at the letter in her hand, and a sudden curiosity overtook him as to who she was writing to.

"Headed to the Owlrey, then?" he asked. "I can just show you the way, no need to climb the tower to try and get a better view and find it."

Anneliese briefly wondered if he was a Legilimens for how quickly he had guessed her thought process.

"Don't you have something more important to do?" she asked, her thumb moving back and forth against the envelope. "Need to go maintain a reputation?"

"Nah, everyone already loves me," Sirius grinned as they started to walk. "Who're you writing to?"

"Grindelwald."

"Thank you for the direct answer," he said, the grin still on his face as he pointed the correct direction, which Anneliese begrudgingly went in. "Actually, who?"

"You see, back home, we had these things called boundaries," she said back, starting to climb an outdoor staircase as the cool breeze hit her in the face with a slight shiver. "I've known you for a day, and I have no desire to further do so."

"Why did you get expelled?"

This question made Anneliese freeze. She had never told him or anyone else in this crack castle why she had transferred. Sirius instantly saw the puzzled expression on her face with a satisfied smirk that he finally had gotten something out of this girl.

"I killed somebody," she replied with a simple shrug, not letting him get to her any further like he wanted to. "It was very messy."

"Will you just not be difficult for a second?" he asked, annoyance creeping in his voice. "I want to know the person that I plan on hating."

"How gentlemanly," Anneliese said as she walked into the room full of hooting owls and tucked hers under the beak of a jet black one in the section labelled Hogwarts Owls. "But I don't plan on us getting to know one another."

An odd thought hit her as she watched the owl fly away like a streak of ink on the cloudy grey sky.

"How did you even find me?" she asked with a creased, tan forehead. "You had no holy business being up this early and going back and forth in random towers. Especially for us to run into one another in a castle this big."