ink - sirius black

arrivals and smudged eyeliner

November 4, 1976
11:03 am
Gryffindor Girls Dorms

The sixth year girls were becoming increasingly concerned about Anneliese the longer that she refused to leave their room. For the past two hours, she had been either reading, writing, or just lying in bed, not getting up even down to the common room.

"Come on, you have to eat something or get up," Lily sighed, sitting down on the edge of the blonde's bed. "It's not healthy."

"I would be happy to, but I just don't want to see that moron," Anneliese groaned, sitting up all the way to look at the redhead. "This is one of the few places that he won't be. And I think if I see his face, I'm not going to be able to stop myself from breaking it."

"Yea, maybe it's best for Sirius if we don't let her leave," Marlene pointed out. "An angry A wouldn't end well for him."

"I'm not angry at him, I'm angry at myself," she replied, standing up and pacing heavily around the room between beds. "I was stupid for thinking he was a better person than he is."

"Okay, love, I think you need to stop thinking about him, you've already done it all night," Lily said gently, taking her hand. "Come on, let's go get some food into your system. And then maybe we can go to Honeydukes and get you some candy or something."

Anneliese reluctantly stood up to follow her friend, but all of their eyes caught on what she was wearing before they went down to the common room.

"Uhm, maybe you should change out of his shirt," Dorcas said with a loose gesture. "I mean it's up to you.. but.."

The southern girl quickly looked down, having forgotten that she was even wearing it because of how comfortable and right it felt to have something on that was so him. Anneliese hated how bare she felt without it all of the sudden, even when she put on a Gryffindor sweatshirt over her shoulders.

She hadn't realized how much she needed it until it was gone.

"Let's go," she muttered, walking down the stairs and praying that Sirius wouldn't be there. "Oh, hallelujah."

The common room didn't have any of the Marauders on it's couches, much to her relief. With every turn around the hallway, a jolt went through her stomach that he might be there, but every time, it was a false sense.

That was, until they went into the Great Hall.

"Sirius is right there," Lily whispered from the doorway. "We're all going to stand on either side of you and just act like they don't exist, okay?"

Black looked up from his untouched food he had been staring at for the past half hour when James nudged him in the side.

"A's here," he said in a low tone. "If you care."

"Obviously I care," he hissed back, changing his gaze back blankly to the mahogany table in front of Remus. "I just don't think either of us want to speak right now."

Lupin watched as Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, and Alice arranged themselves so that Anneliese was surrounded by her friends on all sides with a small smile.

He knew that Sirius had been a total idiot and incredibly toxic, and if A didn't want to talk to any of the Marauders right then, he completely understood. Remus was just happy that his fellow Gryffindors were so close to her so that she had a back up system away from Sirius.

"I don't think I'm going to be able to look her in the eyes for a month," Black grumbled, snapping Lupin out of his thoughts. "I'm such a prick."

"Yes, I agree," Remus said mildly, and then saw the glares directed at him. "Don't look at me like that, Pads said it first."