May 8, 1977
6:22 am
Gryffindor Boys Dormitories
By the time that Sirius woke up, Anneliese was gone.
He could still feel her warmth against the mattress of where she had been laying for hours, which just made his sheets feel even more empty now that she wasn't in them with him. Black let out an enormous yawn before looking over to James's bed, only to see that it was also empty.
"Moony, where'd Prongs go?" he asked Lupin, who had mostly recovered from the last full moon and was now studying for N.E.W.T. 's on top of his bed like normal. "And did you see A leave?"
"I think she left hours ago," Remus replied. "As for James, he called an early quidditch practice because of an 'emergency,' so she's probably on the pitch as well."
Sirius stood up and tugged on a shirt to look out the tower window where if he tilted his head at just the right angle, he could see the quidditch pitch.
Sure enough, against the orange flushed early morning spring skies were the crimson streaks of the Gryffindor team along with even smaller dots that Sirius could barely make out as the quaffle and bludgers.
"I'm going to go see if they have breakfast out yet," Black said, pulling on socks. "Do you want anything? Pete? Frank?"
Pettigrew and Longbottom both muttered their groggy orders before falling right back asleep, and Remus just shook his head and gestured to the tea and chocolate he already had on his bedside table.
Sirius walked down to the common room, humming American Pie under his breath.
He was expecting it to be mostly empty at this hour of the morning, but Anneliese was already sitting on the floor next to the coffee table with her hair in a messy bun and small smudge of ink on her forearm as she added onto the notes about wandmaking from the book she had been reading last night.
"You're up early," he observed, sitting down by her on the carpet. "Did you get enough sleep?"
Callaway let out a tiny yelp as she jumped back slightly, startled by Black. She had been so deep in her notes that she hadn't even heard him come down the stairs.
Then, before Anneliese could answer that question, Sirius asked another, his mind going back to the quidditch practice he had just seen going on outside the tower window mere seconds ago.
"Why aren't you at quidditch practice?" he asked, suddenly concerned. "Did something happen last night? Is that why you came in?"
Black was about to ask is that why you were crying, but then remembered that Anneliese still had absolutely no idea that the dog she had laid with was actually him in animagus form, and he couldn't ask unless he wanted to reveal himself.
Callaway took in a deep breath and set down her quill before turning to look at Sirius.
She knew that the whole school was going to know in a matter of hours that she dropped off the quidditch team. There was no way they wouldn't with James having to look for a new one and her being in the stands during the next and final match of the year versus Hufflepuff.
Besides, Anneliese would rather Sirius hear it from her first and directly than the rest of the school's gossip so they could get things clear the first time.
"I quit the team," Callaway told him. "Last night."
"WHAT?!" Sirius exclaimed, eyes wide with both shock and horror. "A, you're the best chance we had at winning the Quidditch Cup this year! How could you be so selfish- this is about the whole Gryffindor house! It was one more match, for fucks sake, just carry through-"
Anneliese cringed at his response. She had been hoping that he wouldn't say anything like this, but she would also probably do the same if she were Black and without knowing the context.
"I- I didn't mean selfish," Sirius said, instantly correcting himself after his initial anger for the sake of their house, but he knew he couldn't take back his words anymore. "I'm sorry, but- just- just why?"
Anneliese was slowly realizing that he might be right.
James would have to find, train, and teach a whole new Seeker all of their formations and strategy in a matter of days on top of studying for N.E.W.T.'s. The circumstance that she had put him in wasn't fair at all.
"I don't know, Sirius," Anneliese muttered, rubbing her eyes with her hands. "I'm sorry."
"Yea, well, knowing James and the mood he's been in lately, there's no undoing it," Sirius sighed in turn, frowning slightly at Callaway. "I'm going to get some food if they have breakfast out, do you want me to get you something?"
He seemed eager to get away from her.
"Oh, no, I'm fine," Anneliese replied honestly. "I'm not very hungry."
That was true. Ever since she had thrown up the previous night, her appetite hadn't returned.
"Alright," Sirius said shortly, standing up and trying to hold in his irritation for her at quitting. "I'll be back in a few minutes if you need help studying."
The portrait hole slammed shut in a way that told Callaway that Black wasn't going to be as inclined to help her study as he had just made it sound.
Anneliese is not a quitter, a voice in the back of Sirius's head said, refusing to go away and stop bugging him. She did this for a reason. But what could have possibly happened after I left her?
Black thought again of going on a short run around the grounds as Padfoot to get some of his energy out before returning to bed, wondering what could have possibly happened in that short time frame between then and Anneliese climbing into his bed.
Sirius didn't even think of the possibility of James being the problem.
Black couldn't help but jump to conclusions about Regulus. His younger brother had news clippings around his headboard about Voldemort's latest attacks like some kind of sick alter, for fuck's sake, was he supposed to learn how to get along with that?
And Sirius had tried, so many times, after he ran away to reach out to Regulus, but he would always have absolutely none of it.
There was the saying don't give up on family, but there was also family is forever.
If the most noble and ancient house of Black had proved one wrong, Sirius felt that he might as well assume that both were gone beyond home for his sake of mind.
James had become his chosen family, and in some horrible way, Potter had replaced Regulus. The youngest Black had watched this happen at Hogwarts before his eyes, only making him grow to hate Sirius even more.
So with the idea of that deep trust in mind, Sirius didn't even slightly think that James had done anything that would make Anneliese quit the quidditch team.
Meanwhile, Remus's attention was wandering away from his N.E.W.T.'s the longer that he turned the events of the past few weeks over in his head.
Lupin could feel the confusion rising in his mind, like he was missing an incredibly crucial piece to the puzzle of the sixth year Gryffindors, or many pieces, that would make everyone's actions suddenly make sense.
Black hadn't exactly been quiet down there, he knew that Anneliese had quit the team. Remus's eyes flicked over to James's bed as he thought of the way Potter had been acting lately.
James was still deeply in love with Lily, there was no doubt about that.
But the way Remus had seen him acting around Anneliese was different. Instead of trying to woo her and win her over as he did with Evans, Potter just looked like he was desperately trying to help her and really didn't know how to.
Which then in turn, would make him very angry, wouldn't it? Remus thought, slowly setting down his quill. Which is why whenever he sees A with Sirius, he gets angry because he thinks that he could do better.
Lupin knew that was bullshit, though.
Sirius and Anneliese, despite the troubles that they were having right now which might take them ages to recover from, were incredibly lucky to have found each other against all odds and oceans separating them.
Remus had seen the way Black looked at Callaway from the very beginning, and knew that even if Anneliese fell second and not quite as hard as Sirius at first, they were going to end up together at some point very soon whether they liked it or not.
Their personalities complimented each other, it was as simple as that.
Sirius Black wouldn't go chasing a girl across continents for just anyone, and even if they were lost on their path now, Lupin had faith that they were going to find their ways back to each other, even if it was messy.
Remus had turned over the idea of James and Anneliese in his head a few times, but then just found too many flaws for that to ever possibly work.
For one, Potter had proved on several occasions that he was simply too oblivious and insensitive to Callaway to ever be with her. Things just slipped out of his mouth, ones that would have made Anneliese very angry if she weren't too busy already talking to, of course, Sirius.
Like when he asked how desperate someone would have to be to get a summer job, Remus thought with a slight frown and wrinkle of his nose. And then didn't even apologize after.
That was probably the smallest offense as well, which said a lot about the things James had said around her without realizing that they were wrong.
Lupin knew that this extension of privileged ignorance would also extend to the trauma that he had no doubt Anneliese was carrying.
Sirius knew what it was like to be scared, scared out of your mind and disappointed by your family and simply unworthy to everything in a way that James never would be able to with his indulgent parents and being loved by nearly everyone he met.
And based on knowing that Anneliese's parents had dumped her at the doorstep of an orphanage the second they were sure she had magic, Lupin had no doubt that Callaway felt something very similar about her family.
Well, besides her sister, Remus thought, frown changing into a tiny smile. A seems to have a soft spot for talking about her. Which makes sense, because she didn't do anything. The adults were the issue, as always.
Just those two enormous differences between James and Sirius were enough to make Remus know that Anneliese obviously belonged with Black, and that was saying a lot since he was the one who had seen her cry that night when everything changed.
So James thinks he can do better, Lupin reminded himself, getting his thoughts back on track. Which is.. no. And then that on top of him getting rejected by Lily constantly probably isn't very good for his attitude towards women in general.
Potter was used to making big moves on Evans, and Lily in turn was used to it as well.
Out of context, him asking her to kiss him if he did something insanely stupid like see how long he could hold his breath in the Black Lake without magic was a more than mildly offensive thing to approach a girl with, but they all expected it by now.
Threatening to put himself in danger, and then essentially putting his health in the girl's hands if she didn't kiss him, was something only Lily could possibly have the patience to deal with.
James had built up the nerve to go to great lengths to get the girl, which was a dangerous habit to create at such a young age.
Remus knew that Potter really wanted to help Anneliese. He proved it every day when he shot concerned glances in her direction and asked Lupin if they could do something to interfere yet.
If Remus combined that concern with just Anneliese in general, he could see why James thought that he liked her.
Callaway was a very easy person to fall for. She was remarkably attractive with everything from her freckles to sweet accent, and equally talented Seeker, as well as bold in a way that made you laugh so hard that your stomach started to hurt.
Sirius had just fallen for all those things at first, but the difference between him and James was that Black had gone even deeper.
Sirius knew her flaws and her past and the worst things about Callaway more than Potter ever could, and he still loved her unconditionally even if she wasn't showing any of those flaws right now.
Remus had seen Potter checking out Anneliese on more than one occasion, and he had stared at that bra for just a little bit too long.
Hell, even Lupin himself had been physically attracted to Callaway at first, but it faded away the second he got to know her as a person and put her personality immediately above her appearance.
But not everyone could be as mature as Remus was, and James was certainly no exception to be the kind of guy to think about his best mate's girl in the shower.
There was a difference between loving someone like James loved Lily and wanting to help them along with thinking that they're a brilliant person to be with all around like Potter felt about Anneliese.
All of this on top of the fact that James was a teenage boy who was constantly rejected by the girl of his dreams, Remus assumed that Potter had probably found a breath of fresh air in Anneliese that he could help when he was helpless to do anything about Lily.
And then there was the enormous arrogance that James Potter possessed.
He assumed that Anneliese would want his help, that Anneliese would want him, because who wouldn't besides Lily?
He was James Potter, quidditch star, in line to graduate as one of the smartest members of his class, incredibly popular among all his peers and professors, prank god, and you were blessedly lucky if he chose you as one of his friends.
Remus was starting to get nervous that James had done something, but how the hell was he supposed to ask that? And would James even tell the truth to spare his precious ego?
Lupin just sighed and buried himself back into his studies. Those, at least, he could rely on.
Potions formulas didn't change, history didn't change unless some idiot got too cocky with a time turner, and the charm to change a needle into a match didn't change.
But to Remus, it seemed like everything else was.
May 15, 1977
3:42 pm
Hogwarts Grounds
Anneliese was overwhelmed. She kept telling herself just two more weeks and then it's all over and you can get some relaxation during summer.
Nearly all of the Gryffindors were absolutely furious with her.
They had actually stood a very good chance for winning the Quidditch Cup this year until the stupid southern new girl quit the team for reasons that she would disclose to not a single person.
Not that many people, not even Peter or Marlene, bothered to ask her about why even if she was willing to share what James had done.
Everyone was too busy being angry to care for the exact reason that they were no longer going to be able to win at least the Quidditch Cup when the House Cup was already completely out of range simply because of the Marauders and their pranks losing hundreds of house points.
Even McGonagall seemed bitter towards Anneliese for the loss of glory for her house that she so much enjoyed being the head of.
Callaway couldn't seem to catch a break wherever she went inside the castle.
It was either Gryffindors giving her biting glares as she walked by them or any of the other three houses thanking her dramatically for essentially forfeiting the Quidditch Cup.
So instead, Anneliese was shutting herself off from everybody, because she knew that if she stayed inside with them much longer than necessary, she was going to snap in a second.
Well, almost everybody.
That black dog was all of the sudden popping up more and more around the grounds, following Anneliese whenever she went on one of her many walks around the forest when she couldn't stand being with anyone else.
Callaway had chosen not to tell Sirius or Lily or anyone about her furry companion, mainly because she the dog seemed to be her only break from everyone, something separate and distant that wasn't contaminated by the pains and people of this stupid school.
Now, she was sitting against a large tree on the edge of the Black Lake with books spread out all around her on the soft, lush moss, working on her essay for Ollivander's apprenticeship.
At first, it had just been a way to spite the Ravenclaws if she did get it, but now Anneliese found herself genuinely interested in the magical art of wandmaking.
Callaway had already accumulated quite a bit of knowledge about the roots and larger concepts of magic when she had used that green notebook everyday, and she found that wandmaking actually wasn't that different from creating spells.
You were just creating the instrument instead of the music.
She found it fascinating how even the smallest elements of a wand could affect how it was used for magic, and thoroughly enjoyed looking at her own wand with a new admiration for its craftsmanship.
As Anneliese did with nearly everything, she was also finding many holes in the concepts that Ollivander infamously used. Why did he just use three cores? What happened if she used another? Or two cores within one wand, hell, three?
Those were the kinds of questions that had always gotten Callaway in trouble, but she jotted them down in the margins of her rough draft to ask him if she did get the apprenticeship.
Since she did have so much more time when nobody wanted to be near her because of her quitting the team, Anneliese was pouring all of her energy into the essay. At this point, if she didn't get the spot, she would be shocked.
The black dog had it's heavy head resting on her thigh as she jotted down yet another one of these questions, staring up at her with those big brown eyes.
It started to whimper after a few more seconds as Callaway ignored him, and she sighed and gave in after marking a blotchy dot to finish the end of her sentence.
"What is it, buddy?" she asked, setting down her quill and scratching behind the dog's ears. "What's going on in that furry head of yours?"
The dog whimpered a few more times before nudging a thick sheet of parchment with its nose, knocking it against Anneliese's toned calf.
Curiously, Callaway picked it up only to see that it was her schedule and she was twelve minutes late for Herbology.
She didn't know what the hell was so different about this dog or if it had been a complete accident and he was just very attention needy, but she greatly appreciated the sign none-the-less.
Anneliese hastily packed up all her things into her bag, only to look up and see that the dog had trotted away silently with padding feet so soft against the moss that even her sharp hearing hadn't detected it's exit.
When she pushed open the door to the humid greenhouse, she was met by the noisy commotion of the entire class scrambling to partner up with a friend for a particularly difficult replanting that required more than one pair of hands.
Sirius looked completely out of breath, like he had sprinted to class, and he was about to say something to Anneliese before he was whisked away by Peter asking Black to be his partner.
Callaway just sighed, wishing she could be back on the shore with that dog and writing her essay instead of in this muggy greenhouse with people who were angry with her.
Her dark blue eyes scanned the room for an empty space or somebody without a partner, only to see that James was left alone because Lily had already claimed Remus.
Sprout seemed to notice this at the exact same time.
"Callaway, Potter, partner up," she said, gesturing towards the two with a gloved hand. "Consequences of being late if you don't want me to take off points, neither of you get your first choice of a pairing."
"No," James said firmly and without a split second of hesitation, shaking his head as he didn't even look at Anneliese. "I'm not being partners with her, professor."
Several students looked up, including Sirius and Remus, both very either aggressive or confused expressions on their faces.
"Listen, you two are going to have to get over your little quidditch feud and be big kids," Sprout said with a sigh. "You're in your sixth year, I don't care who quit what team who was the captain of, pot the damn plant together unless you want a detention."
"I'll take the detention," Potter replied with a cold expression, not budging on his point. "Just as long as it's separate from hers."
"James!" Sirius exclaimed from across the table, looking at him with wide eyes. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you? She's your friend!"
But Black doubted his words even as they left his mouth. Callaway and Potter had barely been able to look at each other for the past week or so, and Sirius just like everyone else assumed that it was because of quidditch.
Anneliese simply couldn't even watch James talk from across the dinner table without feeling his lips against hers again, and then in turn feeling like she was going to empty her stomach.
And Potter couldn't either without feeling two very strong emotions of fear and guilt.
Guilty that he had ruined their already dwindling friendship with the way he had been acting so angry all the time and the mess of emotions that even Remus understood better than him.
And fear that Anneliese was going to say something.
Callaway had the upper hand here whether she knew it or not. If she let even the tiniest thing slip, then Potter's reputation, his relationship with Sirius, and his chances with Lily would be absolutely demolished in a second.
Serves me right, James thought miserably, completely zoned out. I broke her trust because of my stupid emotions that I can't even work out. Who the hell do I think I am?
"Mr. Potter!" Sprout said loudly, snapping him violently out of thought. "That is quite enough! Two day's detention, ten points from Gryffindor, and get over yourself and be partners with Miss Callaway unless you would like me to write a letter home!"
Oh she really just brought Mia and Fleamont into this, Sirius thought with a frown. If he says no now, I swear to Merlin, I'm going to hex this moron-
James just nodded tightly after a few seconds, and Black let out an exhale of relief for more Potter than himself.
If Euphemia had received a letter home saying that James was so stubborn he refused to be partners with a girl because of quidditch, then Potter might as well have fallen off his broom on purpose to get the pain over with.
The two boys both then turned their heads to look at Anneliese to see her reaction.
Only to realize that Callaway wasn't there anymore, and the greenhouse door was swinging. Somewhere in the flurry of everyone only looking between James and Sprout, she had left.
Anneliese was strong, but this act of being perfect while hurting so much inside was pushing her limits more than anything else ever had. It was all too much and too tiring and too hard to deal with anymore.
Callaway simply sat down in the middle of her bed, sobbed her eyes out, and then faded into unconsciousness at only four o'clock.
Anneliese was so exhausted mentally, emotionally and physically that her body didn't even know the difference between late afternoon and one in the morning anymore.
When she was with people, she could still maintain that perfect, caring exterior, but the time that she could spend with them was slowly dwindling down to only a few hours at a time.
"Where the hell is A?" Sirius asked Lily as they sat down for dinner. "James has the Map and I can't find him anywhere either to check it."
Black had also just run around as Padfoot for a half hour looking in all the usual places where he usually found Anneliese, but that effort had been fruitless as well.
"I went to the dorms after Herbology and she was passed out on top of her covers," Lily replied with a small frown. "I think she needs to go to Madam Pomfrey when she wakes up."
Sirius wished for what felt like the thousandth time that the girls dormitory stairs didn't slide when their male counterparts tried to go up them.
May 21, 1977
10:09 pm
Room of Requirement
The end of the year party that the Marauders had invited all the sixth and seventh years to was originally intended to be a celebration for Gryffindor winning the Quidditch Cup along with the last time to have a bit of fun before their N.E.W.T.'s.
Unfortunately, now it was just a time for the Gryffindors to drink away their loss of the most important match their house had seen in decades.
The fifth year Seeker James had barely managed to get was absolutely nowhere near Anneliese's skill level, and Hufflepuff caught the snitch ten minutes in with a crushing defeat of 170 to 10.
How's that for revenge, A? Potter thought sourly as he downed his eighth shot of firewhiskey in the past five minutes. Are you happy now?
"Woah, slow down on the alcohol, Prongs," Remus said over the loud music blaring from all directions. "It's barely past ten, we still have all night to get as drunk as you need."
"You don't understand," James droned miserably. "I lost everything in that match. They beat us by one hundred and sixty points. That's humiliating. Even my mum's going to be disappointed in me."
"Oh, don't be dramatic," Dorcas said, sauntering over to the punch bowl with Marlene. "You didn't lose everything. You just lost.."
Meadowes trailed off as she realized that James was fairly right in his dramatic statement. Quidditch and his pride were his everything, and they had both been lost in the defeat.
"It's really all A's fault," Marlene said, firewhiskey loosening her lips to fill the awkward silence as James glared at Dorcas. "If she hadn't been such a selfish idiot and quit the team, then this party would be the celebration that it was supposed to be."
"Okay, wait," Remus said, holding up his hand with narrowed eyes and trying to contain his anger. "She quit for a reason, can't you all just respect that?"
Lupin had been expecting this sort of thing from other Gryffindors maybe, but certainly not Anneliese's closest friends.
He didn't know if the alcohol was blurring their thoughts into a very angry picture or bringing the true yet unspoken ones to light, but he didn't like them being said so bluntly either way.
Anneliese was kind to all of them, hell, she was one of the best things that had ever happened to their year. She listened to them rant and gave advice and never complained and never asked for anything in return, and they had the nerve to pull up with this?
She would never talk about one of them with the other Gryffindors like this, so directly turn on them in such a harsh way over such a small thing like quidditch in the larger scale of life.
A sport was not worth the relentless coldness they were showing her now.
All Callaway was doing was trying her best, and this is what they did to her? This was the kind of thanks she got?
Lupin was disgusted.
"I think I would respect her decision more if it didn't cause disrespect to our entire house," Frank said with narrowed eyes, stepping into the conversation as well. "We're going to be the laughingstocks of Hogwarts, and it's her fault."
"It was just another two fucking weeks," Dorcas added as she took another shot. "She could have carried through, for all of our sakes."
"Well I see why none of you are in Hufflepuff," Remus said with revulsion as he looked between friends. "Get some loyalty for fuck's sake, she can't be perfect all the time. People make mistakes."
Lupin looked at Potter to back him up on this, but James was just silent as he listened to the insults unfold in front of him.
Even though James wasn't about to say it, he was silently enjoying all of the Anneliese slander. The firewhiskey had brought out the most twisted, arrogant part of his mind that told him that Callaway deserved it.
She had incredibly selfishly quit the team, after all. It was just one kiss, she needed to get over it already.
And it wasn't a bad one either until she slapped me, Potter thought, and his cheek seemed to sting all over again as the horrific realization of his own mind took over him. I can't believe I just thought that-
"Yea, well this is a rather large mistake, isn't it?" Cresswell asked, joining their rant along with a few other players on the team. "She cost us everything for herself."
"Shut up, Black is walking over," Fletchy muttered, eyes flicking behind James. "We can't get heard talking bad about his precious Anneliese unless we want to get hexed into snails and stepped on."
Sure enough, Sirius had seen the hostile expressions on all of their faces and come over to neutralize the situation, which he had no doubt was about Anneliese whether they said it to his face or not.
He walked towards the group with his usual confident, vaguely arrogant demeanor with half the buttons of his black silk shirt undone to reveal his toned chest, but there was a certain type of threatening glint in his silver eyes that told you that you didn't want to mess with him right then.
"How's everything going?" he asked with a false smile, wrapping one arm a little bit too tightly for comfort around Cresswell's shoulder. "All good things, I hope."
Black was practically daring them to say something about Callaway to his face, and none of them were that drunk yet.
Well, all of them besides Marlene. With her already too loose lips when it came to the secrets and gossip of the school and firewhiskey combined, her minuscule filter had been reduced to absolutely nothing.
"Well, if it isn't the girl of the day," Mckinnon droned drunkenly as Anneliese tentatively walked into the room. "Come to apologize for being such a selfish twat or come to join us and act like nothing happened?"
All heads nearby turned towards Anneliese to see her reaction to Marlene's very loud words that had managed to carry over the blaring music, who froze at all the cruel glares in front of her.
Callaway's dark blue eyes darted around and then landed on Sirius and just Sirius from across the room for a few seconds, instantly picking him out from the crowd.
She parted her lips like she was going to say something to him before doing one last sweep of the room and seeing that it was very obvious from all of the angry expressions aimed at her that she was in no way welcome here.
Anneliese just turned around and slammed shut the door behind her, out of the party as quickly as she had come.
There were a few mutters of either people being thankful for her exit and continuing to slander her behind her back or others feeling slightly guilty about making her feel so unwelcome, but no one made a move to go after her besides Sirius.
"Well now you've really done it, haven't you?" Black spat at Mckinnon before running out the door after Anneliese.
"What the actual fuck, Marlene?" Remus exclaimed to the very drunk girl, who just gave a careless shrug. "Can you just learn how to keep your mouth shut for once in your life?"
James had a horrible expression on his face, like he was going to break down in tears, throw up, and scream all at the exact same time.
"I didn't say anything that wasn't true," Marlene said lazily, barely stringing the words together. "Come on, James, you agree with me, right?"
"I'm a horrible person," he muttered with a small shake of his head to clear the fog, taking yet another shot. "But so is she for quitting the team like that, so I guess I agree with you or whatever."
And that was when Remus realized that James wasn't talking about being a horrible person for losing the match. He wasn't talking about not defending Anneliese just then. He wasn't talking about being such an angry prick to all of them for the past week.
He was talking about something much bigger that Lupin should have picked up on much sooner.
All of Anneliese's sideways glances at Potter's lips. All of the times she cringed whenever someone just brushed against her, all of the times that she gritted her teeth and said nothing when someone sat too close.
And then James's emotions he had deciphered weeks earlier, along with his arrogance and stupidity they had all known about from the very beginning.
Remus looked at Potter with horror, like he barely knew the person slouched against the table in front of him. But then before Lupin could say anything, Dorcas, Marlene, James, and Frank all started walking towards the door.
They must have had some kind of conversation about following Anneliese while he was zoned out in his own thoughts, one that he hadn't heard over the pounding in his ears.
From across the room, Lily, Alice, and Peter all noticed all the students from their house and year walking out with mild alarm at what they were doing.
"Should we even follow them?" Peter asked warily, like he really didn't want to at all. "Or is it just going to be even more of this quidditch bullshit?"
"I don't like the way any of them look," Alice muttered, eyes focused on Frank. "I think we need to follow them, no matter if we want to or not."
And that was that as Lily and Peter followed behind Fortescue, pushing through the cramped room and not making any apologies.
There was an odd feeling about the night, one that had been building up for too long and had grown far too large. It was the kind of gut instinct that told you to run, because something bad was going to happen.
It was the monster in your closet that you dismissed as a foolish story told to children or that shadow in the corner that seemed to move on its own or that chill down your spine when you walked alone for too long even in the heat of the summer.
It was dread that you had failed at something big, dread at your own blindness to the one thing you should be seeing, and dread that nothing was going to be the same or certain anymore.
It was anger at yourself for being so stupid and ignorant, anger at someone else for being selfish and hurting you, anger at the word for failing you over and over again.
In simpler words, it was your breaking point.
And just outside in the hallway, Anneliese Callaway had finally reached hers.
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