ink - sirius black

drunk decisions and broken barriers

January 31, 1977
9:09 pm
Hogwarts Grounds

The day after Anneliese and Lily overheard what three of the four Marauder's very brief yet very telling conversation in the common room, Callaway had been struggling with what to say all day, or if she even should say anything in the first place.

There was the fact that she didn't want Sirius to think she was some sort of sneak like the rest of the school already did, if he didn't feel that way already. Then again, he had been the one stupid enough to spill his thoughts with her right there, even if she did appear to be sleeping.

Finding the right timing was one thing, but then so was finding the right thing to say.

Hey, so how about we just go on that motorcycle you apparently have and we have a mature discussion about us for once in our lives? Anneliese thought miserably, pressing a flask of firewhiskey to her lips.

Callaway thought she deserved the alcohol after everything that was happening.

And with the last day of the month, that day, being her seventeenth birthday, she also took it as a way to 'celebrate.'

She had mentioned the very vague time of the day while telling the story about Leo and the driver's license at Hogwarts, but that was it as far as the Gryffindors knew.

When she was very young, her family would celebrate the occasion with a strawberry cake and nine dollars for her to spend however she wanted at the candy store a few hour's drive away.

The nine dollars was because that had been her first word after seeing her father counting their nine chickens every day to make sure no animal had gotten them such as a fox or coyote, so it held deep sentimental value.

Obviously, that had all changed when she went to the orphanage.

Birthdays became such a useless thing when they only reminded her of another year from when her parents had given her up, another three hundred and sixty five days when they did not regret disowning their daughter.

January thirty first regressed to such a normal thing that when Anneliese had been asked by Leo for her birthday in their first year at Ilvermorny, she genuinely forgot for a long time until Violet pulled out a calendar and went through the days with her until one of them rang a bell.

I just changed my age at some point every year, she remembered telling him as the firewhiskey scalded her throat. Not that anyone would ever ask to remind me that I should know the answer to that question.

Leo and Violet had been sad when this was how she answered, but Anneliese honestly didn't mind much.

Now, at Hogwarts, Callaway had taken a silent cue from Sirius and grabbed some firewhiskey from the kitchens to celebrate or whatever she was supposed to be doing.

Everyone else was inside in the Great Hall eating dinner after the early winter sunset, but she had opted to just take some time to herself after the stressful day.

Her back was pressed against one of the oak trees by the Black Lake, the frosted over grass acting as her seat in the velvety blackness. It was so dark outside that she couldn't see her hand in front of her face, the mountains blocking out any light given off by nearby muggle civilization or Hogsmeade.

The firewhiskey in her hand was the only thing she had brought down with her along with her wand to penetrate the dense darkness temporarily while she climbed down, which meant that she was only using her hearing to take in the night.

The sound of the freezing winter air against the bare branches and twigs above her covering in ice almost sounded like the windchimes she and Ella Mae had hung up on their porch in Tennessee, while her shoes made a crunching sound whenever she adjusted her position.