November 26, 1979
3:09 am
Callaway, Anderson, Black, and Lupin Home
"HE'S DEAD, SIRIUS!" Anneliese shouted, already past her denial and into her anger. "WE SAW HIS BODY! YOU CAN'T JUST KEEP FINDING EXCUSES TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER! FACE IT, FOR THE LORD'S SAKE!"
"Just shut up," Sirius muttered, head in his hands as he rocked back and forth in his chair. "Please stop talking."
"NO, YOU STOP DENYIN THE FACT THAT HE IS DEAD, SIRIUS!" Anneliese yelled, furiously pacing. "REGULUS IS DEAD! DO YOU THINK I WANT TO BELIEVE IT EITHER? NO! BUT I AM, BECAUSE ACTING LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED IS JUST GOING TO MAKE IT EVEN WORSE WHEN YOU WAKE UP AND REALIZE THAT IT DID! YOU CAN'T JUST SIT HERE AND WALLOW FOREVER! I'M TRYIN TO HELP-"
Black snapped. Fine. She wanted him to accept this and be angry? He'd show her angry.
"IS SCREAMING IN MY FACE YOUR DEFINITION OF HELP?" he shouted, standing up alarmingly fast and moving so close only a few inches were separating them.
"IT SEEMS LIKE IT IS FOR YOU, SO I'M JUST GIVING YOU BACK WHAT YOU GIVE ME!" Anneliese cried. "EVER HEARD OF THE PHRASE TASTE OF YOUR OWN MEDICINE?"
Regulus's body had been found with his sleeve rolled up to show his tattoo as the Dark Mark floated over the apartment building, a silent signal that he had never truly escaped his fate.
His apartment didn't show any signs of struggle, no bruises, cuts, or markings on his body. In fact, his wand was in a different room. Black had died peacefully, perhaps without even knowing that someone was ever even behind him before it was too late.
Sirius blamed himself, obviously. But there was a lot of that going around. Every single person who had been by the fire at the Burrow that night wished they had insisted on seeing their youngest home, the only one leaving alone.
But they hadn't, and now it was too late.
"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS BRING UP OLD ARGUMENTS THAT ARE ALREADY OVER WITH?" Sirius asked, hand tightening around his glass. "NOW IS NOT THE TIME!"
"I'M NOT!" she cried. "AND BEFORE YOU SAY I'M TRYING TO START ONE, ALL I WAS DOING WAS TRYING TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THAT DENYING IT ONLY MAKES IT-"
"WORSE?" Sirius interrupted. "NO, THE ONLY THING MAKING THIS WORSE IS YOU!"
"HEY!" Remus shouted, coming in from the kitchen and standing between them, shoving Sirius back. "SHE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"
"YOU ARE BEING SUCK A DICK!" Anneliese shouted as she pushed Lupin's hand off her, lacking a more accurate word and time to compose her thoughts into a more pointed insult.
Her usually sharp wit was being ripped to shreds by trying to argue and process and grieve all at the same time. She wished that her and Sirius could just lean on one another right now, but that wasn't the case.
They had both built up too much anger.
"What?" Sirius snapped, and Callaway repeated her words. "Oh. Sorry, I thought it was something actually important."
Anneliese let out a little laugh of disbelief, and Black raised a brow.
"Do you think this is funny?" he spat.
"I think it's hilarious that even when you need to stay calm the most to respect the memory of your brother, all you can do is keep making every single wrong choice you possibly can!" Anneliese spat right back. "I thought you had your shit together earlier tonight, but all it takes is one thing going wrong and you absolutely lose it!"
"His brother dying isn't just one thing, Anneliese," Leo snapped, just now getting back from talking to Myra. "And telling him Regulus is dead over and over again while screaming doesn't help at all. You're the one starting the argument here."
Callaway stared at her brother in disbelief.
"We don't need any extra conflict right now, Leo," Remus snapped, looking warily between Anneliese and Sirius. "Don't start another argument by making one between you and A."
"You know what," Anneliese said as she grabbed Black's leather jacket off the hook by the front door, a sense of betrayal shooting through her. "I think I should just leave."
Leo and Remus both turned to her in alarm, but Sirius just looked even angrier.
"Yea, go run off to James," he said, and Callaway failed to hide her shock that he had so easily guessed where she was planning on going. "Oh, don't look so surprised. I saw you two earlier tonight. And what exactly did he want you in that room for?"
"You're lucky that I'm ignoring that you just said that because I know you're going through a lot right now," Anneliese said coldly. "Please get a grip on yourself by the time I get back."
"You're not going anywhere," Sirius snapped, grabbing her wrist tightly as one hand went onto the door. "It's not safe. Did you already forget how Regulus died? Alone. He died because he was alone. The same is not going to happen to you, not on my watch."
"Let go of me," Anneliese said, looking down at his hand as she ignored his words. "Now."
"Not if you're just going to run away the second I let go," Black shook his head firmly, heart skipping a beat as he thought of losing her. "You are staying here, Anneliese. It's safe here. Don't leave. You can't. You can't just leave when things are getting hard. My brother just.. I need you right now."
Callaway couldn't look at him, because if she did, she would stay and do what was best for him instead of what was best for her. She had to get out of here. Anneliese was scared one of them was going to hurt the other, badly.
It was for both of their safety.
But Sirius had other plans whether he meant to or not, plans that just proved her right.
A halfway twist of a knob. A hand yanked away, the other slammed down. A shout, a shaking crack, a jolt of terror in both of their stomachs. A frozen moment when Anneliese just stared at Sirius as he pinned her against the door by her wrist, a hand next to her head, while the other remained limp by her side.
Her breath was caught in her throat, her whole body frozen. Remus and Leo got to him before she could.
"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?" Lupin roared. "YOU PUT YOUR BLOODY HANDS ON HER? ARE YOU FUCKING MENTAL?"
Sirius didn't even get a chance to reply before a blow collided with his cheekbone from Leo. Anneliese ran forward, pulling her brother off Black and shoving him up against the wall instead with a remarkable amount of strength, sending Anderson stumbling off balance.
A painting crashed down as Leo's head and shoulder hit the wall forcefully enough to give him a concussion if it had been from a slightly different angle, the glass shattering all over the floor.
Callaway's hands shook with fear as a whimper of pain came from her throat, a sound far from the sweet melody Sirius was used to hearing. His stomach went cold. She clutched her wrist in pain, hands shaking as purple red marks started to form on her skin.
Black knew what he had done wouldn't go away so easily this time.
Anneliese grabbed a shard of glass off the floor.
The brief spurt of fear had changed to anger, but not just from now.
This anger had been building for a long, long time, longer than she had even realized. It was a different kind of rage, because while her anger that made her wear gloves and point guns was caused by forces outside of her walls, this threat had come from directly within her heart.
Vulnerability had been broken, right from within. It was a betrayal of trust, a betrayal of giving your heart to someone and begging them not to break it any further as they came down for another swing with a mallet.
It hurt. Every time, it still hurt.
Loving Sirius like this, Anneliese found, was the most exquisite form of self destruction she could have possibly wished for.
And that was what this was. Self destruction, eating her from the inside out.
Anneliese was losing the fact that it hadn't always been this way.
"YOU NEED ME?!" she shouted, shoving Remus away as well and pushing Sirius against the counter so violently that he cried out in pain. "YOU WANT ME TO STAY, SIRIUS? WELL YOU HAVE A PRETTY AWFUL WAY OF SHOWING IT, DON'T YOU?"
Leo clutched his shoulder from where she had bruised it by pushing him away, Remus out of breath as well from Anneliese sending him toppling against the back of the couch. She was too blinded by the red she was seeing to realize she had hurt either of them.
She was numb to anyone's pain besides her own, not caring who she harmed.
Callaway pressed the pointed end of the glass directly onto Sirius's throat, a bead of blood blossoming against his pale skin.
"IF YOU DON'T WANT ME TO LEAVE, THEN DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" Anneliese cried, face becoming stained with tears that had started from the moment he first raised his voice at her. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"
She didn't even realize how hard she was pressing, how badly she was hurting Sirius as pain flared up in a dozen different places for him, the most prominent from where the glass was slicing into his skin and the other bruising on his back from the angle of the counter.
This was far more than a few bruises on Anneliese's wrist. Callaway was hurting him, and she was hurting him badly.
It wasn't self defense anymore. It was just violence. Angry, vengeful, violence.
She was doing to him what she was terrified he would do to her.
"I DIDN'T USE TO BE LIKE THIS!" she shouted. "BUT NOW I HAVE TO BE, BECAUSE I AM SCARED ALL THE TIME THAT YOU ARE GOING TO HURT ME PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY OR EMOTIONALLY OR SEXUALLY! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?"
And like a thin blade slicing into his chest as the world began to cave in around them, Sirius finally made himself.
Because if he still wanted Anneliese, which he always would, then he didn't have a choice.
It had taken glass against his throat, his brother dying, and this bold, brilliant girl almost leaving him, but he finally understood the world he had been living in, the world that was destroying her so badly that they had reached this point.
This point when her skin had turned from gold to red to purple to yellow with bruises, his pale flesh marked with wet vermillion to sticky crimson to dried black with blood. They had reached this point where the mental pain turned to physical harm, the hurt to violence.
Sirius didn't understand how he had gone so long, so many days that added to weeks, months, to years of him treating her like an object, like she wasn't a person, like her only purpose was to him without karma catching up with him like it was now.
He didn't understand how she had forgiven him so many times, how she had held onto that hope that he would once again be the boy he used to be.
But he knew he had realized what he was doing, he just hadn't cared enough to change. But now, as he stood there in the kitchen, his insides were starting to curl up in horror with himself.
He now felt the fear of her she had felt of him, a sick sort of empathy that made him regret so many decisions, so many fights that it felt like the past four years of his life had been made up of wrong choices.
But Sirius knew that now, he had a chance to make the right one. He was being given one last opportunity, one last decision to get them out of this downward spiral that was going to kill both of them from the inside out if they didn't cut it off now.
Black didn't hesitate another breath before taking it.
"I'm sorry."
This apology wasn't the same as the empty ones he used as tools to get what he wanted.
It wasn't to get kisses stolen from lust instead of given from love, it wasn't to get her to stop looking so devastated so he could feel better about himself, it wasn't to guilt her into feeling sorry for him instead, and it most certainly wasn't the last resort he could think to say.
This apology was real and unselfish and true and expecting absolutely nothing in return.
His words hung in the air. The decision was up to Anneliese now to take them or leave them.
Callaway's hands shook as she slowly let them fall down by her sides, the bloody piece of glass clattering uselessly to the floor.
He had forgiven her even though his skin was covered in blood because of her, his back bruised and his flesh pierced. He could see the hope, so she could, too.
She knew he had given that one last push, and even though she had given so much more than him for these past years, she still had to do one more thing. Just one more ounce of forgiveness in return for the amount he had just given her, one more bit of grace and they could do this.
They could do this, because this had all started for a reason.
Anneliese still remembered some of the first words she had ever said to him.
When there's a will, there's a way. And believe me, I have a very strong will about you, Grey Eyes.
That thrill, that comfort, that desire and peace around Sirius hadn't ever disappeared for Anneliese, only been locked away behind a glass door she could sometimes see through just enough to keep her going.
Callaway hadn't missed this man he had become, she had missed the boy who lay underneath.
But now that door blocking what they both used to be had been opened and they had stepped through it, even if it had taken the most violent swings of fists to break through and get back to where they were supposed to be.
And as both of them sank to the tile kitchen floor in each other's arms, they felt it again.
They felt the love that had been missing. Not the confusion of lips and skin for care and compassion, not the jokes that only provided temporary laughter and happiness.
The deep, steady rhythm of their hearts together, the force that could pull them together even if they were countries and oceans and locked cells apart.
This didn't mean no more arguments or no more fighting. It meant that they were going to try, and this time, they weren't going to fail their promise as they had failed their sixteen year old selves on the streets of New York City when they made the same vow so many years ago.
Because now, they had the new wisdom that time and death might take them at any moment, a wisdom gained from this awful, endless night.
If they were going to die young, they were going to die with good memories as their last ones.
Anneliese took in a deep breath of the smell of his leather jacket as her arms wrapped tightly around his torso, his hands fiercely cradling her waist and back as if she was going to turn to smoke and disappear from him at any second.
One of her hands went to the back of his head, tangling her fingers in his thick hair as she pressed their foreheads closer together. Both of their eyes remained shut, breathing each other in with shaking, unstable inhales.
They weren't afraid anymore, not of each other. That was over, over for good this time after the horror and bruises and glass that had just wracked through both of their shaking bodies.
"Welcome back," she whispered.
"You too," he replied softly.
Do you feel safe?
Anneliese finally had an answer, one that could never be more clear as they leaned on one another on the cold tile floor, each one bruised and bloody by the other's hands and words and then mended again by a grace too powerful to name.
Yes.
December 1, 1979
11:31 am
St. Jerome's Graveyard
Anneliese and Sirius were the last two standing there. Myra hadn't shown up to his funeral even after Callaway talked with her for hours about it in her office, no one having seen her step out of that little room since the night Regulus died six days ago.
He's up there with Mia and Fleamont now, Anneliese thought, her eyelids gently shutting as she pressed two fingers against her cross necklace. No one's going to hurt him anymore.
Callaway looked over to Sirius after a few minutes of prayer. His grey eyes were completely steeled as he stared down at the stone and upturned ground marking where his brother laid six feet below them, not blinking or even watering anymore.
A delicate, thin snowflake landed on his cheek. The second the coldness hit his warm skin made rosy and pink with the cold, it dissolved. Anneliese watched as it slid down his face, leaving a damp trail until the drop hung on his jaw, wavering and trembling until it lost its balance, hitting the ground and rejoining its kind.
Sirius stayed still as one of her hands slid into his pocket alongside his own, bare and absent of its normal glove to comfort him more. Anneliese pried his fingers apart with her own, interlacing their joints and pressing their flesh together gently.
Both of them stared at the grave, snow piling up on the soft arch.
Regulus Arcturus Black
February 22, 1961 - November 25, 1979
The One Who Showed Us All That As Long As One is Brave Enough, It is Never Too Late To Change
Anneliese looked behind her to see James and Lily watching them, her then making a small gesture that it was time for Black and Callaway to come back inside before they froze to death.
"You go," Sirius said softly, feeling her hand slip out of his. "I'll be there in a few minutes."
Anneliese looked at his face before with her lips parted in prepared speech before just nodding and understanding that he needed his space, James holding the door open for her as a blast of warmth hit her cheeks.
The Potters had opened their home and their community to Regulus's grave and his funeral, Godric's Hollow being his final resting place. He was buried near Fleamont and Euphemia.
The atmosphere of James and Lily's house was as somber as Callaway had ever experienced, only hushed conversation and creaky footsteps instead of loud laughs and chaos like she was used to whenever she visited.
"Can I help with anything?" she asked Lily kindly, who just shook her head and thanked her quietly. "Let me know."
Anneliese slowly wandered, greeting everyone she saw. After talking to Alice, Safa, Dorcas, and Marlene for a few minutes, Callaway found herself in the need of some space, just like Sirius.
All of this grief in one place with so many people packed together was seconds away from making her break down with the heavy reminder of what had happened, something she didn't want to do and make the whole affair even more depressing.
She needed to distract herself, something she could only do alone right now.
Anneliese quietly shut the door to a side parlor behind her with a small creak, sitting down heavily on the nearest couch. She bowed her as the record player scratched in the background, forehead resting on the backs of her hands as she took a deep breath in.
"Same thought?" a voice asked from the chair next to her asked, and Callaway immediately pulled out her wand in shock. "Merlin, A, just squeal or something like a normal person and don't pull your wand out."
James had been sitting so still in the chair across from her and Anneliese had been so distracted in her own thoughts that she hadn't seen him and realized she wasn't alone.
Everything about this was terrifying to James as well. Right as he and Lily had made the decision to not hide, one of their friends had been killed. It seemed like some kind of morbid sign that they had done the wrong thing, a sign that was only amplified by being around all of Regulus's mourners.
He needed a distraction as well.
"Yea, same thought," she muttered, apologetically tucking her wand away.
Potter watched carefully as she looked away, resting her chin on her knees like a little kid as she stared at the record player sitting on the table next to the couch. Anneliese just kept looking as the black disc spun as the first notes of Lonesome Town played, notes of a somber guitar plucking their way through the air.
James slowly got up, her gaze following him as he stood in front of her and extended a hand.
Anneliese looked at it for a few seconds, then to his eyes, then back down to his brown palm before accepting it. Her gaze remained off his face as he pulled her up, then finally met his eyes as James pulled them into the middle of the room.
Callaway's eyes remained watering and glassy as Potter slowly started to guide her arms back and forth, hers swinging limply as she silently stared at him.
James smiled slightly in hopes she would do the same, and Anneliese couldn't resist the force tugging at the corners of her mouth as he awkwardly spun her, bare skin catching on the short silk of her black gloves.
They slowly fell into rhythm as Callaway spun him instead, a surprising giggle coming from her mouth as she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach her arm higher than his, even when James had his elbows and knees bent to get to her height.
Euphemia and Fleamont both would have been smiling, watching their two kids dance their troubles away, halfway tripping over each other's shoes as tears blurred their eyes, the occasional laugh as they made eye contact.
The music gradually slowed down, Anneliese and James each resting their chin on the other's shoulder and slowly rocking back and forth.
A dance at a funeral seemed to be a rather good representation of their friendship.
There was a soft creak as the door opened up, Frank poking his head into the room. Potter and Callaway pulled apart to look at him, their hearts skipping a beat when they realized that his face didn't have calm, simple sadness like everyone else.
It had panic.
"It's Peter," Longbottom said breathlessly. "He's outside and he's.. he's.. it's bad."
"P-Peter?" James stammered in shock as his calm, peaceful mood immediately dropped, halfway out the door but still uncertain he wasn't hearing things. "Peter Pettigrew? He's here, right now?"
"No, Peter Dumbledore," Frank said dryly over his shoulder, urgently racing out of the room and hardly having enough breath to talk as well. "Now come on, let's go!"
"A, come on!" James said impatiently, standing in the doorway and staring at her frozen in place with shock. "What're you just standing there for- Merlin!"
Anneliese shoved past Potter as her daze suddenly broke, sprinting out of the room past him and outside to the front yard. She saw Sirius coming down the sidewalk, just now returning from the church's graveyard a few blocks away.
Black looked in alarm as he saw Callaway's expression, but Anneliese didn't see. Her mind was in total disbelief that Peter was really here after so long of searching for him, her eyes needing something tangible to believe other than just words.
She pushed through the circle of people that had gathered, getting right through to the middle.
And there he was.
Peter Pettigrew, bloodied and bruised as he was helped up by Lily Potter, a thin trickle of blood coming from his mouth and layering onto the dried crimson already on his chin, one of his eyes was swollen shut with dark, lumped bruises.
Anneliese couldn't believe Peter's nerve.
He had shown up at the funeral of the boy he had murdered.
Callaway stumbled back as James rushed forward to help Pettigrew up, the world swallowing her whole as all sound suddenly muffled around her. She felt her head go light, all of the people surrounding her suddenly turning too hot and pressing in viciously from all sides.
Dorcas did a tiny double take as she turned around and saw Anneliese, rushing over just in time to keep her from hitting the ground. Meadowes called out for Sirius, who was already running towards Callaway.
Peter looked through his eye that wasn't swollen shut back at her, fumbling to tuck his wand fully back into his pocket.
Pettigrew was finding that a very powerful Confundus Charm was always very useful when it came to controlling Anneliese from the very first time he used it on her the night of the Yule Ball to get her to kiss Sirius to now preventing her from making this a double funeral.
Callaway's eyes slowly fluttered back open as the fog cleared from her head, Sirius, Dorcas, and Marlene's nervous eyes looking down at her.
"What is it?" Mckinnon asked, eyes darting all across Anneliese's slowly hardening features.
Callaway got up fully, straightening her coat and pulling down the wrists of her gloves to tighten them. She knew the sensation of being confounded well enough by now, her initial shock and the charm curating into such a powerful panic that she had almost fainted.
"Peter should know better," was all she muttered in response, slamming the house door shut behind her.
"Where is he?" Anneliese demanded to the first person she saw once inside, and Gideon blinked a few times in shock at her severity. "Are you deaf? I asked you where he was, so answer me."
Prewett made a loose gesture up the stairs as the mutters and cracks of apparition of the guests increased, most of them leaving per the Potter's request. Regulus's funeral was clearly over, and they didn't want to be here while another stressful matter was dealt with.
The Gryffindor Class of 78 were the only ones left, all crowded into a spare bedroom with Pettigrew in the center.
Safa had gone back to Callaway Investigations via Anneliese's orders. The amount of work they had received and cases they were hired for hadn't slowed because Regulus had died. However much they wished it, one death didn't slow the world enough for them to get some rest.
"Oh my god," Lily kept muttering over and over again as Peter repeatedly coughed up blood into the towel Leo had grabbed for him. "God, Pete. What the hell happened to you? Where have you been this whole time?"
"Death Eaters," Pettigrew choked out, wincing in pain at using his throat that was raw from the screaming sobs he had endured the past few hours before this. "I'm not as smart as the rest of you, I-I couldn't get them off my trail, and I didn't want to lead them to you."
Remus's eyes widened in alarm as a hacking cough came from the back of Peter's throat, more blood coming out, this time thicker and darker.
"But then they finally caught up to me, and I couldn't think of anywhere else safer to go than with all of you," he said weakly, head lying back onto the pillow in resignation. "I'm so sorry, I just didn't want any of you to get hurt like this, s-so I tried to stay away-"
"You're safe now," Alice whispered kindly, brushing off the hair that was plastered to his feverishly clammy forehead. "Merlin, you're burning up."
"You're safe now, don't worry," James said kindly, accepting a washcloth from Lily and gently dabbing at the sweat while Leo fixed his eye so that it was no longer swollen. "And god, Pete, you really are so much less smart than us."
They all laughed in steady relief as Potter echoed Pettigrew's previous words, even Peter managing a small wheeze as they knelt down by his side.
Anneliese was impressed. That performance had been so real that she almost believed it.
Almost.
"Could I have a word with Peter?" she asked softly, voice easily breaking through the conversation already going on with gently applied yet still forceful power. "Alone. I have some questions so maybe we can catch whoever did this to him, but all investigations are supposed to remain confidential."
Peter was impressed with how quickly she came up with a cover like that.
"I think he needs to rest right now," Lily said in a nervous voice. "He's clearly not in the best state to speak to someone like that quite yet."
"No," Anneliese breathed, shaking her head as she never broke eye contact with Peter. "I think that he'll agree with me here, don't you, Peter?"
"It's fine, guys," Pettigrew said, heart pounding out of his chest as he realized that talking alone would be the best option for him. "We'll be done in a few minutes."
"You heard him," Anneliese said as they all began to stand up. "We'll be done in a few minutes."
Sirius and Lily were the only ones who heard the menacing layer underneath her otherwise sweet, caring tone. Black stared at Anneliese for a few seconds before quietly clicking the door shut behind him, a chill going through his gut.
"Let's get some hot chocolate," he said in hopes to fill it. "They can meet us down there."
They all went downstairs.
"So," Anneliese started in a leathally quiet voice, sitting down in a chair next to the bed as Peter sat up as well so that they were on the same eye level. "How did you really get beat up?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Pettigrew said, wiping the little remaining blood from his chin with the back of his hand that James hadn't gotten. "Death Eaters did this to me. Were you not listening?"
Anneliese blinked as she understood. Voldemort had so little care for the harm of others that he probably had ordered Peter to be hurt like this to get some genuine empathy and therefore trust from the rest of his friends.
"How could you?" she whispered, voice momentarily softening in pain as she saw this boy clearly for the first time. "How could you, Peter? I trusted you- it was my fault for believing every word you said- but just.. how?"
"Anyone can betray anyone," Pettigrew replied in an equally quiet tone, turning away from her as his eyes began to uncontrollably water, even just a few tears for now. "I've been fighting a losing battle since the first time I got a taste of it. I can't stop it now, A. I can't. I wish I could be brave like you are, but I can't undo this now. I can't."
"A taste of what?" Anneliese asked, voice cracking.
They both knew that one of them was going to have to hurt the other at the end of this conversation. They both knew too much, too much that was incredibly dangerous if revealed.
Callaway knew exactly how she was going to kill Pettigrew and get away with it, the gun sitting heavy in her pocket. She had a year and a half to plan it all out while waiting for the opportunity, and that meticulous patience had paid off.
But she wanted more closure than a bullet.
She wanted to know why he had betrayed them. She wanted to know if he felt any remorse, if he knew what she had gone through because of him. Peter feeling guilt wouldn't change her killing him, but it would make both of them rest easier.
A life for a life, Anneliese thought, Regulus's laugh flashing through her senses. His death will not go unavenged.
Callaway didn't care if he would have wanted her to do this or not. Peter was only going to keep hurting the longer he was among his friends, and she couldn't allow that. She had to protect all of them, no matter what it took.
Anneliese wouldn't allow another Regulus to happen on her watch.
"A taste of fullness," Peter said, snapping Callaway out of her thoughts. "You have no idea what it's like to have constantly been in the shadow of James and Sirius my whole life, Anneliese. I was the most loyal, supportive friend they could have asked for, and you know what they did?"
Anneliese's brows knitted themselves together, eyes going wider in disturbance of how hurt Pettigrew's voice sounded.
"They laughed at me, constantly excluded me, left me in the dust," Peter spat.
"It is not a crime for two friends to be closer than others," Callaway said slowly.
"Yes, but it is a crime for them to act like they have done nothing wrong," Pettigrew said. "James would laugh and smile with me like he was my best friend seconds after making me sob in the boy's bathroom because I felt like I wasn't good enough for him!"
Peter grabbed his wand, throwing a Muffling Charm at the door so that neither of them could be heard. Anneliese had been expecting this, a tiny bit of gratification going through her as one of her hands slipped into her pocket with the gun.
No sound, no gun heart firing.
"And then I realized that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be one of them," Peter said, tears now coming from his unstable blue eyes. "I would never be up to their level, always standing behind them as the Marauder's most pathetic member. I began to realize that the only thing I would get from them in the long term was protection and the occasional, brief happiness. They would never realize how much they hurt me."
"So you found a new person to protect you, Voldemort this time," Anneliese whispered in horror as she understood his logic, and Pettigrew fervently nodded. "Peter-"
"NO!" Pettigrew shouted manically, standing up as she did the same. "Not Peter anything! You are on the losing side, Anneliese! You have nothing to gain! You think this happiness they give you is real? Do you really think that you're going to survive this war?"
Callaway stumbled back as he pointed advanced on her, nearly tripping over the back of the chair she had just been sitting on.
"The power the Dark Lord gives me is like nothing you could ever experience!" Peter said, breathing heavily as his eyes turned crazed, wild. "I didn't realize what I was missing, but now I have it. I simply had nothing to lose by joining him, but now you can lose everything."
"You said now you felt full, and that you had nothing to lose," Anneliese said, blinking away tears. "But you're losing the thing that could have filled that hole in your heart with something other than this hatred. You're losing your friends, Peter! Hell, you killed one!"
"I HAD TO IN ORDER TO KEEP WHAT I HAVE GAINED!" Pettigrew roared. "HE WAS JUST AN OBSTACLE THAT WOULD HAVE BLOWN MY COVER IN A SECOND!"
"NO, HE WAS A BOY!" Anneliese sobbed. "HE WAS A BOY PETER! HE WAS BARELY SEVENTEEN AND YOU KILLED HIM!"
"SHUT UP!" Peter shouted, his wand pointed at her. "YOU COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND-"
"YOU SAID THAT IT WAS A LOSING BATTLE THE SECOND YOU GOT A TASTE OF THIS POWER, FULLNESS, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT!" Anneliese cried, eyes stinging with tears. "BUT YOU DIDN'T EVER EVEN FIGHT IT AT ALL! YOU GAVE INTO THE DARK SO EASILY! FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE PETER, STAND FOR SOMETHING BESIDES YOUR OWN COWARDICE!"
"DID YOU NOT HEAR ME SAY THAT I WISHED I WAS AS BRAVE AS YOU?" Peter exclaimed, pushing her farther back with the tip of his wand on her collar. "MY FEAR IS WHAT'S KEPT ME ALIVE AND BEEN KILLING ME AT THE SAME TIME, BUT IT'S WHO I AM!"
Both of them stopped all of the sudden as they met eyes, breathless. Neither of them had planned on this being such an emotional affair, instead something professional, clean, simple that would go down without too much tears or struggle. But that wasn't who they were.
They were two emotional kids who just wanted everything to be how it used to be, no matter what sort of gloves or masks they put on to try and make themselves steeled and older.
They both just wanted to be happy.
But the times wouldn't allow that. The real losing battle had started the second the first person disappeared to Voldemort, when people slowly started to take sides, when they were all thrown into this war that was showing their truest selves.
And in the end, war tore people apart. Maybe in another universe, they could have all been the closest, truest of friends. But that wasn't here. Here, they were helpless to prevent how bad things had gone. Here, two sides had been chosen.
Here, they were the young ones.
"What are you going to do now?" Anneliese whispered, voice choked with tears as her fingers closed around the handle of her gun. "Kill me like you did Regulus?"
"No," Peter shook his head, the last tear falling from his eye as a sick sort of smile took over his face that sent a shiver down her spine. "No, I'm not going to kill you. None of us can. We have specific instructions from the Dark Lord that he wants to do that himself."
Anneliese swallowed heavily at this piece of information, brutal flashes of memory going through her. She would kill herself before she let him touch her again.
Pettigrew removed his wand from her skin, and Callaway couldn't stop herself from coughing slightly in an attempt to get all of her breath back. The pressure Peter had been applying to her windpipe certainly wasn't light.
"Then I think you know what I have to do," Anneliese said, pulling her gun from her pocket and holding it up to him, knowing he would freeze with fear like he was now. "I can't let you hurt anyone else, Peter. I'm going to go tell them everything, and your death is going to be an accident. I'm sorry."
But right as Callaway was about to pull the trigger, ready to finally end this all for good, Pettigrew did something unexpected that made her finger freeze.
He laughed.
Anneliese's eyes widened, darting back and forth from his face to his fingers. as he slowly placed his hand on the top of the gun and pulled it down to his chest. She could still kill him with this angle just as well, but something about Peter's confidence gave her the terrifying feeling that he knew something she didn't.
The boy who just admitted to fear being his ruling quality is laughing when I'm about to kill him with a gun pointed to his chest, Anneliese thought, head pounding. He's an actor, but not to this extent. Something's wrong.
"Oh, by all means, do it," Peter said with a simple shrug, smile still in place. "But you should know that in taking my life, you would lose some of the last true family you have left."
"What are you talking about?" Anneliese asked in a hushed tone.
"Put the gun down, and I'll show you," Peter said, and she slowly lowered the weapon. "There you go, A. See, that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Callaway watched his hands incredibly closely as Pettigrew pulled out a series of photographs from his pockets, setting them all down on the bed for her to see clearly. Her stomach dropped in horror as she realized who they were of, not thinking as she quickly picked one up with a gloved hand to hold it closer to her sight.
It was Ella Mae, the Delacours, all laughing in their living room. The photo had been taken through bushes, the subjects clearly unaware of the camera watching them. Anneliese watched as her little sister picked up the child she knew to be Fleur, dread shooting through her.
"What- how?" Callaway whispered in terror. "These can't be real."
"Oh, yes they can," Peter said, scooping them back up and tucking them into his coat pocket, forcing her horrified attention back onto him. "And if you don't believe me, don't be surprised when going through my possessions after you kill me, the address of your sister's home is found with instructions to kill her that will without doubt be carried by the right, or wrong, I suppose, people out if I list her as a threat."
Anneliese stepped back in horror, not understanding how things in this room could have gone so badly so quickly.
"You're very good at protecting yourself, Anneliese," Peter continued, stepping towards her. "But your mistake is that you failed to realize that I have been writing letters to your friends all this time, that I have been gradually gathering information by asking all the right questions about those you care about most, the easiest targets."
Callaway was certain this was a nightmare. This couldn't be happening.
"And it isn't just Ella Mae," Pettigrew said menacingly. "Safa Chopra, Myra Trusty, Mitchell Morales, Cliff Hutchison, Violet and Queenie Goldstein? All it takes is a little research and one spell for them to be gone the second you try and tell a soul about me."
"I-I'll warn them," Anneliese stammered, at a loss for words. "I'll tell them. They'll hide."
"No they won't, you idiot," Peter laughed. "Lily and James aren't hiding when a prophecy was made about their son being a threat to Voldemort, and you think that one of your friends or sister will give up their whole life to go into hiding because you said so?"
Anneliese wanted to scream. She was stuck in a room with a psychopath. A crazy, deranged, unstable psychopath who somehow still thought he was the victim in all of this.
"You know, you really are lucky that I'm not sharing this leverage with the Dark Lord himself," Peter said, as if he was somehow being generous and righteous in all of this. "For now. You can still be of use to me. If anyone can make sure that James and Lily trust me, it's the very person who they were going to make their Secret Keeper."
Callaway didn't understand how he knew so much, each new bit of information a new blow. She was still in frantic denial.
"So, here's what's going to happen," Peter said lethally. "We're going to go downstairs as if we realized that the Death Eater who did this to me obliviated me, so no one can be arrested. We're going to be on good, perfect terms with one another. I won't reveal that you just pointed a gun at me and threatened to kill me."
Pettigrew slid his wand back into his pocket.
"Life is going to go on as if you never made that notebook, very impressive, by the way," Peter said casually. "But it's in the Dark Lord's hands now. It would be rather suspicious if you all the sudden dropped in your arrest numbers or stopped fighting against Death Eaters, so I will allow that. But a single word against me, and all the people I listed will be dead on the backs with the Dark Mark over their house the next morning. Do you understand?"
"You're a rat, Peter," Anneliese sobbed. "You're a filthy, disgusting, murderous rat."
"I know," Peter said, and she looked at him in horror. "But I asked you if you understand."
Callaway couldn't let her friends die because of her. Agreeing would buy her some time. She would find a way to get out of this where they all got out of this alive and no one had to get hurt, she knew she could.
But you're going to have to do it alone, a voice in the back of her mind said. You can't ask anyone for help in this battle, Anneliese. Even if you just got Sirius back. You can't.
I've been alone before, she thought back. I can do this.
Anneliese nodded. Peter smiled, the gratification of his sick victory soaring through him.
"You look like a mess," he said as he scanned her tear stained face. "There's no need to seem so tragic, Anneliese. You're the brave, courageous hero of your story, remember? All heroes have to make some sacrifices, go through some struggle. I'm sorry to be your villain."
"You're not a villain," Callaway sobbed, shaking her head as she squeezed her eyes shut. "You're a pathetic foot soldier who gets too drunk on his own power."
"I may be pathetic, but I run your world," Peter whispered, grabbing her chin and forcing her to look into his eyes. "And I would advise that you not forget it."
Anneliese's stomach turned at the feeling of someone besides her sibling or Sirius's skin on her own, memories slamming violently through her with every tortuous second the flesh on flesh contact lingered on.
Pettigrew in turn looked down at her and where their skin was meeting in disgust, moving his hand away so forcefully across her face that she stumbled to the floor as he wiped her tears off on the hem of his coat.
Anneliese cried out in pain, holding her cheek as her side hit the floor. It was a small, horrible sound barely muffled by her tears. Peter steeled his emotions from letting it effect him.
She had to know that he was the one with the power here.
"Now get up and get a grip on yourself," he ordered as he scanned her shaking form. "We have some friends to spend time with and comfort for the tragic loss of Regulus Black, do we not?"
Sirius dumped another three marshmallows into his mug, poured in about two tablespoons of cinnamon, frowned, and then added an enormous scoop of sugar to balance it out before topping the whole thing off with another few marshmallows.
"That is disgusting," Marlene said with a wrinkle of her nose and shake of her head. "Please tell me you're not about to drink that- oh my god. Anyways. I'm scared."
A few soft laughs went through the room, grateful for the classic Mckinnon and Black ability to lighten the mood of almost any situation. Sirius slowly sat down by James, snuggling against Potter's shoulder, who wrapped an arm around him.
"That's gay," Leo muttered, once again lightening the mood from the line that had made all of them laugh since seventh year with it's ridiculously immature irony.
Maybe they would have looked up to the ceiling above them if the floors didn't have so many rugs and the room hadn't been silenced, understand that something deeply wrong was going on and rush up to stop it.
But they didn't, because just like the dark side had planned, everything appeared to be as normal as it could possibly be in times like these.
"Finally," Dorcas groaned as she leaned her head back against the edge of the couch so that she was looking at them upside down when Anneliese and Peter walked downstairs. "What took you two so long?"
"The Death Eaters who got him must have obliviated their faces somehow," Anneliese said as she sat down heavily next to Sirius, forcing her voice to be steady. "I can only ask so many questions if he doesn't remember anything."
"What?" Remus asked, brow furrowing. "You can't target obliviation that specifically. If they did obliviate him, it would be the whole attack and not just their faces. It doesn't work like that."
Callaway's insides froze, but one warning look from Peter and the memories of her sisters and friends she held so dearly forced her to improvise.
"We know that they stole my book," Anneliese said as quickly as she could. "I had a spell that I never finished in there for more precise obliviation, and they could have used that on Peter-"
"No you didn't," Black shook his head. "We went through the spells that you've made a dozen times together when you were first starting up Callaway Investigations so that you could have a larger advantage, remember? One like that definitely wasn't in there."
Lily and James exchanged a glance.
"Well, they still could have figured out how," Anneliese said firmly, trying not to blink more than normal. "But this isn't even the point, alright? The point is that Peter's back. I'm sure I'll get the Death Eaters who did this soon enough anyway."
"Or we will," Frank said only half playfully as he referred to the Order and aurors office. "Recruitment in aurors has gone up, and we know the numbers will get even higher for applications when this next group graduates."
"Or they'll come to me," Anneliese suggested with a raise of her brow, forcing herself to relax against the back cushion. "Time will tell, I suppose."
Sirius was the only one who didn't speak. He carefully studied Callaway's face, watching as her eyes flicked to Peter a little too often. She wasn't acting natural, and Pettigrew coincidentally forgetting the Death Eaters who attacked him was a little bit too conventinet for his taste.
Something was wrong.
Every word that came from Anneliese's mouth was paining her more than she could possibly explain even if she was allowed to without so many of her loved ones' lives being put in danger because of her honesty.
An invisible knife was being pressed into her back, a gun to her temple as she was terrified that a single wrong word would lead to her sister and friends dead, all because she couldn't keep her mouth shut.
Yet she just smiled, desperately concealed her pain as she realized what Peter might do to each and every person in this room. Sixth year had given her enough practice to fool all of these people around her.
"What the hell is going on with you?" Sirius asked aggressively the second they got back to their apartment, closing the door to their room behind him. "It's painfully obvious when you lie, Anneliese, so don't you dare do it to me again now if you know what's good for you."
Black internally cursed himself, immediately making the move to correct himself as he understood a second after the words left his mouth how cruel, cold he sounded.
But realization was progress, and Anneliese felt herself calm slightly as he began to talk again.
"What did you and Peter talk about that left you so shaken?" he inquired, tone much softer and less hostile, assuming the worst in her. "And why are you lying about him not knowing who the Death Eaters who hurt him are? What's going on here?"
"I really don't know who the Death Eaters are, Sirius," Anneliese said truthfully. "He never told me. And nothing's going on, I'm just really, really stressed. With Regulus, and Peter just returning all of the sudden.. it's a lot. Surely you can understand that?"
Black didn't know how he could argue anymore without regressing into his temper.
"Okay..," Sirius said slowly, racking his mind for something that would both make her feel better and give him some time to think. "Do you want to just watch a Disney movie or something?"
Anneliese nodded, then pulled the blanket tighter around her as she sat on the couch while Sirius queued up Alice in Wonderland. Remus shortly joined them after he and Leo had changed into their pajamas, the four all huddled together on the couch.
The movie lit up the dark room, voices of the characters mingling with Lupin constantly correcting the movie's differences from the book.
Anneliese wasn't really watching. Her eyes were too blurry to see a single thing, a crippling reminder slowly sinking into her for the first time as she watched the Queen of Hearts use a flamingo and hedgehog to play croquet.
I'm not going to kill you. None of us can. We have specific instructions from the Dark Lord that he wants to do that himself.
Sirius looked over to her face with a wide smile that quickly fell in concern as he saw Anneliese pressing both her legs and eyes shut.
He wants to do that himself.
Black made the tension ease from his shoulders as she rested her head on his chest, gently wrapping an arm around her to pull her even closer. Sirius hoped she couldn't hear too clearly how fast his heart was racing, his mind moving rapidly, settling on one firm decision.
I'm helping her.
It would be easier not to, to just ignore the signs and let whatever was happening continue to go on. Sirius had done it before for months at a time, he could do it again.
But they had just made the promise to change, and he had every intention of fulfilling it.
So the second the movie was over, Black pulled out a quill and some parchment ready to take the first step forward to both help them and get to the bottom of this.
Dear Peter,
we had the classic dancing all the troubles away moment yall but james and a to lonesome town instead of harry and mione to o children (copycats tbh)
9k words (wooho)
what do u wanna see?
VOTE! - it rly helps