ink - sirius black

scents and thin bookshelves

February 9, 1977
11:45 am
Hogwarts Library

Remus was on the brink of saying I told you so the instant James and Sirius came back to the section of the Hogwarts library they had been in before they decided to sneak off under the cloak and eavesdrop against his advice.

Both of the boys had uncharacteristic, sallow expressions on their faces as they rounded the corner slowly, showing Peter and Lupin that things had most certainly not been a light session of fun spying as the two in front of them had anticipated and hoped for in their boredom.

"I'm not going to say I told you so only because both of you already look so damn depressed," Remus said with graciousness and sarcasm. "Now, what the hell did you hear? James, you look like you saw a dragon or something."

"Might as well have," Potter grumbled in response, sitting down heavily in an oak chair. "A is- actually, I don't think A would have wanted me to know in the first place, so I probably shouldn't be telling you."

"I mean, she definitely would have wanted you to know less than Remus and Peter," Sirius pointed out sourly. "You're worst case scenario, mate."

"And you?" Peter prompted. "I thought the worst case scenario would have been you, Pads. No offense."

"No, she already told me months ago," Black said with an air of pride. "Willingly."

James ruffled his spiky hair uncomfortably at the pointed comment directed at him even without a turn of a neck or eye contact.

"So just tell me already," Remus said, starting to get a bit irritated at their crypticness. "And stop dancing around what it actually is and competing over who knew first and spit it out."

"Anneliese doesn't have.. she doesn't have parents," James said slowly, seeing that Sirius wasn't going to say it from his miserable expression. "She's an orphan."

"That's not entirely true," Sirius cut in before Remus and Peter could react fully. "Her parents, as you know, were muggles. They didn't like that she had magic, or that she was more important than them in their eyes. So I guess they thought disowning her was the next best step for their happiness."

"So they're still alive?" Remus asked dubiously. "And they're fine?"

"I assume so," Black said with a frown. "Callaway's never mentioned them attempting to contact her or showing any signs of regret whatsoever. And with her little sister, I guess that they're well off."

"That's disgusting," James sneered, a repulsed look crossing his face. "Like, disgusting. I'm trying to imagine a thought like that even crossing mum or dad's mind, and I just can't. How inhuman do you have to be?"

"If there is some very unfortunate circumstance where I ever run into those people and know who they are, then I might actually kill them," Sirius spat. "No one should have to go through that."

The four boys spilled into a very aggressive bashing session of all the Callaways besides Anneliese, one that got a little bit too loud.

On their first week attending the school when they were only eleven, Madam Pince had automatically made sure that the library was as quiet of a place as possible and stayed that way. This rule had been enforced severely, meaning that if someone was having a loud conversation, half of the enormous wing could hear it travelling through the shelves.

By their sixth year of Hogwarts, the Marauders really should have learned this.

"There's no way that's true," a sixth year Hufflepuff told her friends. "You know the Marauders, they love drama."