ink - sirius black

tally marks and purebloods

January 1, 1977
6:45 pm
Gryffindor Common Room

Ever since Remus had declared that he was going to go try and find Sirius and Anneliese from the library, the rest of the Marauders and Lily had retreated to the common room by the fire to wait on him.

They were all expecting for the three of them to come back in some form of good graces, even if they were angry they could have at least gotten all of their emotions out in a calm way.

What they weren't expecting was for Sirius to be bleeding.

All of their heads whipped around in shock to see Black with a small cut just below his jawline with dried crimson all around it, as well as a few still wet, glistening patches.

"What happened?" James shouted, standing up furiously. "Remus?!"

They all turned to Lupin, knowing that he was going to give them a more accurate picture of the scenario that he had walked into rather than an over dramaticized and emotional one by Black.

"Well, I heard shouting all the way up the stairs," he said, a bit sheepishly. "They seemed really angry."

Sirius sat down on the couch without a word, just a cold expression lost in his own thoughts as he stared into the fire with narrowed eyes and crossed arms.

"And then I opened the door, and they were just throwing spells at one another," finished Remus truthfully. "You're going to have to tell us the rest, Sirius, but it seemed very-"

"I cast a spell first."

Once again, none of them had been expecting this.

"She was just defending herself," Sirius muttered, still just staring into the fire. "I shouldn't have done it in the first place."

"Well why the hell did you?" Lily said in as calm of a tone as she could manage. "What could she have said that was that bad?"

"She called me a disappointment," he told the redhead. "And that word.. it just doesn't rest well with me, and it's just a reflex to pull my wand out when it's said to me."

Only James really understood.

"Well everyone's going to be having a field day with this," Peter grumbled, glancing around the common room. "Look."

Sure enough, almost everyone in the common room was looking over their shoulders the Marauder's way. As soon as the sixth years turned around, they all avoided eye contact and retreated into their huddles, still gossiping about whatever they thought had happened this time.

"You know, sometimes I wish that I wasn't so popular," Sirius said in a low tone. "That way none of this would be public, and I could just mind my own damn business and them theirs. Honestly, think about how much easier all of this would have been if it weren't for everyone talking about it!"

"Yea, well, we can't always get what we want," Marlene interjected from across the room. "And maybe you should talk a little quieter if you don't want things repeated, Gryffinwhore!"

Black rolled his eyes while running a hand down his face, but he knew that Mckinnon was right. If he wanted to keep this calm, then he couldn't run his mouth.

By the time they got to the Great Hall for dinner, though, it was already too late.

Anneliese was sitting down at the Gryffindor table next to Dorcas and Alice with a stone like expression, still in a state of mild shock.

Sirius had tried to hex her like she was anyone else.

Like she was no one.

And then she had done the same back to him.