ink - sirius black

moral obligation and confundus charms

November 30, 1977
10:31 pm
Dumbledore's Office

"BECAUSE HER NAME LEFT THE FUCKING MAP!" Sirius shouted, slamming the parchment in front of Dumbledore. "DOES THAT NOT CONCERN YOU?"

"Maybe your Map is incorrect," Dumbledore said calmly. "It is entirely possible, especially considering that tracking is incredibly complicated magic and you have all not graduated yet. Have you considered checking the places you would usually find her?"

He was met by the ten disbelieving, furious stares of Lily, James, Peter, Frank, Alice, Dorcas, Marlene, Sirius, Remus and Leo.

"HAVE WE CHECKED THE PLACES WE WOULD USUALLY FIND HER?!" Marlene repeated back in a roar. "NO, WE JUST STUMBLED AROUND BLINDFOLDED AND HOPED THAT WE WOULD RUN INTO HER!"

"Well, Miss Callaway is quite the loud one, is she not?" Dumbledore prompted, and Leo's fist curled. "I'm sure that if she was in any trouble, she would have made quite the scene of leaving and we would all know."

"She was getting something she left down by the Black Lake, and everyone is in the Great Hall," Sirius snapped, eyes flaring. "We wouldn't have been able to hear her if she screamed at the top of her lungs."

"Please, remind me how long she's been missing for," Dumbledore said.

"Forty seven minutes," Leo said after checking his watch. "And Anneliese would never just leave without an explanation. That's not the kind of person she is."

"Yea, even when she went to New York that one time, she told us, actually yelled, I think, where she was going," James added, running a stressed hand through his spiky black hair. "She would make us feel bad before she left if we deserved it."

"Well, then perhaps none of you were the issue here," Dumbledore suggested, just a tad bit too confidently for Leo's comfort and trust. "She has a world outside of you ten."

"What the hell aren't you telling us?" Anderson snapped, standing beside Sirius with his hands flat on the desk and leaning towards Dumbledore. "You know something about this that we don't, don't you?"

"Or you're just a shit headmaster that doesn't care if one of his students went missing," Black snapped. "Maybe you're even happy based on how much you dislike her and the fact that she figured something out you didn't."

"Of course I care, Mr. Black," the headmaster replied. "I just believe that you should let the adults worry about this if there is reason to worry at all. The ball is to go on until midnight, if I'm not mistaken. That's still another hour and a half to enjoy yourselves-"

"ARE YOU FUCKING JOKING?!" Alice shouted, pounding her fist down onto his desk. "ENJOY OURSELVES WHEN OUR FRIEND IS MISSING? YOU THINK WE'RE HEARTLESS?"

Peter shrunk away from the argument. He was feeling dread, but for a different reason than the fear of Anneliese's safety with the fact that she was missing.

Things in his plan had been going perfectly until now.

"Miss Callaway is not missing," Dumbledore said firmly. "She has been gone for less than an hour, and all ten of you are making a much bigger deal out of it than it is. It is highly possible that she could show up any moment and this all could be for nothing."

"Yea, well it's also highly possible that she won't," Sirius said, leaning forward so that his necklaces were dangling apart from his chest. "You know better than anyone that she has a target on her back, professor."

"You would do well to let this go for the night, Mr. Black," Dumbledore said. "I am aware about your two's dance, but that is not a cause to be so upset. I will update you in the morning if anything is wrong."