Heavenly Waters||Sirius Black

Chapter 8

Gwen stands silently, staring out of her window at the sunrise.

Beautiful. Hogwarts had always been beautiful. Her eyes burn from lack of sleep, her back aflame with pain that seeps through her skin, into her bones, and takes root in her soul. Sleeplessness had only increased since word of Sirius escaping Azkaban. Sleeplessness induced by fear, anticipation. Longing.

What would she do if he were here, right now. She wasn't sure. She wasn't even sure that the man she'd fallen in love with all those years ago still existed in the way he once had. It scared her, terrorized her when she tried to sleep at night. It was eating away at her. Not even two days in and she was yearning for the freedom of her beach. But it had become a prison in its own right, her freedom had been used against her.

Her eyes drift down to her bare arms, eyes burning more at the familiar dark symbol burned into her skin. Amalgamation. Another weapon used against her, the tattoo she shared with infamous murder Sirius Black. Her love, her partner. Her damnation.

Her eyes trace the ink surrounding it wistfully, tattoos she'd collected along the journey to try and find her freedom again. Fruitless. Freedom had been killed alongside Lily and James Potter.

So she stands, staring out across the rolling hills and towering mountains, the waters that used to remind her of her home. She stands silently, stands vigil until the sky has turned light blue and her stomach reminds her that she's yet to eat anything this morning.

Her trek down the corridors and stairs is quiet, her arms covered by a maroon turtleneck despite the summer air she knew was lingering outside the stony walls of the castle. She didn't want her skin to show. Questions she wasn't ready to answer were written across her body, starting with the line that had never faded across her throat.

Her eyes linger on the portraits as she makes her descent to the great hall, her eyes crinkling at the joy on some of their painted faces. She waves, resolving herself to speak to them later. Students are beginning to appear, looking as tired and hungry as she feels. She smiles at them plainly, her eyebrows quirking at the gawking she receives. Being isolated had her forgetting that her appearance was jarring. She hopes her eyes aren't too scary.

The portraits protest when she walks by them, some desperate to speak with the Veela of Hogwarts.  Her affection for the seemingly inanimate objects was growing, easing the tension in her chest and her arms. It wasn't all bad. There were still things here that she liked, things that liked her too. Though it's not the portraits or the statues or the suits of armor waiting to greet her at the entrance to the Great Hall. It's something better.

Gwen pauses, staring solemnly at the pair lanky boys with auburn hair staring up at a rather familiar nonbeing.

The boys notice her first, stopping their hurried discussion to gape silently at the Veela. By their hair, she'd guess them as Weasley's. She's too busy to ponder that however because an old friend is now facing her.

Gwen blinks, her lips twitching when one of the boys hurriedly stammers to the impish nonbeing, "Wait! Don't—"

The boy is interrupted, his words completely drowned out by a shout that echos off the walls of the corridor, reaching the portraits down the way that are trying their damndest to not smile. They'd never got along with Gwen's peculiar friend, but they couldn't deny the ripple of excitement that coursed through every nook and cranny of the castle at the reunion.

"WITTY WHITLOCK!"

Gwen erupts with laughter, the sound bubbling up from deep within her, a place untouched by joy and light for nearly twelve years. Peeves the Poltergeist, speeding her way with compete abandon, flying through the air and knocking her off her feet.