ink - sirius black

smashed crystal balls and slammed doors

tw: one drunk angry mf

May 21, 1977
10:13 pm
Hogwarts

"Anneliese, Marlene didn't mean it," Sirius said as he stepped outside after her, Callaway's back and golden hair to him. "She's drunk, they all are, they're not thinking straight-"

Black was shocked to see that when Anneliese turned around, she didn't have a calm, reasonable expression on her face like she usually did when someone said something about her in the past few months.

Not even when her old broom had been brought back out did she look like this, and that was the time if any that she should be truly angry.

Instead of just barely raised eyebrows, blinking a little too often, and slightly parted lips ready to open to talk and change the subject away from her, this look made Sirius's heart sink.

Anneliese's features were all completely broken, like somebody had taken a hammer to her heart and none of the pieces were fitting into a neat puzzle of a fake smile anymore like they had for too long.

Callaway's brow was furrowed as her eyes became wide and unblinking and full of watered down blue that just seemed faded and tired instead of their normal dark vibrance. Her light pink lower lip was trembling as she struggled to take breaths in.

The past few months had started as a way to make her feel better. This had all started so that Anneliese could be perfect for herself and hold onto Sirius. But now, she realized that that facade had become much more than a facade to everyone around her.

It had become who she was.

If anyone remembered the loud, somewhat dramatic, and incredibly short tempered girl that Anneliese used to be, then they certainly didn't show it.

Now all anyone seemed to know was this girl who never spoke about her own problems, always listened to others and put their needs before her own, and would do whatever it took to make sure that she stayed well liked by everyone, but mainly Sirius.

And those were all good traits to have, but not when they were her only ones.

Anneliese didn't know when things had gotten so silently out of control, but her best guess was when Remus and James saw her kissing Black in the hallway.

That night had been the time when she felt most like she was going to implode into dozens of pieces that could never be fixed, and it had also been the time when she forced herself to go through that alone.

The most help Callaway had ever sought was sharing a bed with Sirius, and the only reason she even allowed herself that was because she knew that he enjoyed it too, therefore making it not selfish.

When she had quit the quidditch team, Anneliese thought, was when things had started to go uncontrollably downhill.

That was when her exhaustion had started to overtake her, that was when she saw her classmates only during class and meals while spending the rest of her time alone working on her essay or with that black dog who had become her lifeline.

And now, that exhaustion was preventing her from doing something very important to Anneliese in the past months. She just simply didn't have enough energy to do it anymore, and she found that in a sudden rage, she no longer cared either.

Callaway was done with pushing aside her anger.

"Oh, this is golden, isn't it?" she spat to Sirius, eyes narrowed and one finger against his chest. "Don't act like you suddenly care, Black. Just say that you don't and go have fun at your stupid little party, maybe talk some shit about me while you're at it-"