Lady Lion [Sirius Black] [DISCONTINUED]

XVI

Similar to her parents, Callie's day was made whenever she received letters from them. They were always sending things back and forth, at least a letter each week, but Callie still missed them dearly and appreciated that they could still talk through their letters.

Looking over at the rest of her friends, Callie realized that she was the one in the group who received the most letters from her parents. While Callie received and wrote a letter at least once a week, Mercia, Remus, and James received letters once or twice a month. Peter and Lily received a letter once a few times ever since the beginning of the year. Sirius has not yet received one.

Months have passed since Sirius and James discovered that Callie had a secret, but nothing came of it. Callie had no clue whether or not it was an empty threat to discover her secret, or if they truly have not been able to. They have indeed questioned her about it, but after three weeks of her not giving in, they simply gave up.

The girls hatred for the boys was slowly going away, and the more they hung out with the boys the more became a part of their friend group again. Mercia's constant questioning on why they were hating them so much made Lily and Callie realize that maybe, just maybe, they were overreacting. There certainly weren't going to forgive the boys for bullying Severus, but they realized that maybe Callie's freak out on them was extreme. Besides, ever since she yelled at the boys, she had not heard from them or Severus that an incident between them happened again. Who knows, maybe they were trying to change ever since Callie called them out.

"Oh, guys, my mom reminded me, the full moon is coming up!" Callie announced to the group.

"Tonight." Remus replied. It came out as barely a whisper, but Callie had heard him.

"Really? I know what I'm doing tonight then!" Callie said, smiling.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I have no clue how you can stare at that thing for hours. Does it do a dance for you or something?"

"I like admiring it, Sirius. It's really pretty." Callie told him. "I'm surprised you don't like to look at it too; you once told me you like astrology and space as well."

"Just because I think it's cool doesn't mean that I want to spend my time looking at a still sky for a period of time."

"Whatever." Callie told him, taking another bite of her breakfast. "Someone should join me tonight. Lily?"

Lily didn't look up from the book she was reading as she answered Callie. "No offense, but it seems boring." Callie knew Lily was just going to spend the night reading that same old book as she had been the past few nights- her parents had just sent her a muggle book as a gift, and Lily was unable to put it down ever since.

"How about you, Remus?" Callie asked.

Remus didn't mutter a word, he only shook his head as he stared down at the table. Something was bugging him, but nobody really seemed to notice as they carried on with their conversation.

"Peter?" Callie asked, knowing that he was her last option. Mercia was too hyper most of the time to just sit and appreciate the full moon with her, and the Devastation Twins were not options she really wanted to consider.

Peter quickly looked up from his food, looking back and forth between the Devastation Twins and Callie. "Um, no, it seems boring." he told her, then began eating again.

"Fine, I don't need you guys to do it with me anyways!" She said teasingly as she stood up, beginning to walk away to the common room.

"Hey, wait up!" Mercia said, grabbing her apple and heading after her best friend. Lily didn't have to say anything, she just stood up calmly with her book in hand and walked out of the Great Hall to be with her two friends.

James watched the girls leave, then turned to his friends. "What is it with girls and always needing to be in groups?"

Callie sat in the nearly empty common room in peace, completing some of her homework. Lily sat in the chair across from her as she finished up her book, and Mercia was quietly doodling little designs on her parchment; the most recent drawing was of a werewolf under the full moon. The boys of their friend group were nowhere to be found. Most likely they were in the dorms thinking of new pranks- they have taken to pranking other students lately.

Callie put down her quill, shaking her hand to seize the cramps that were beginning to appear. As she looked up to the window, she saw beautiful shades of orange and pink painted across the sky. Callie smiled at the sunset, admiring the designs the clouds created with the beautiful colors the sky had become. Soon the sky would be a whole new kind of beautiful as it would be lit up with a full moon.

She was so caught up in gazing out the window she nearly didn't notice Remus pass, but she snapped out of her trance before he reached the exit of the common room. "Hey Remus, where are you going?"

He looked started at her question, before quickly answering, "I-I'm going for a walk."

Callie began to stand up, pushing her homework to the side. "Care if I join? A walk sounds really nice right now after doing homework. I could use some fresh air." She said.

"Um, well, I-I'm not actually going for a walk." Remus told her, his voice nervously trailing off at the end of his statement.

"Oh, well what are you doing?" Callie asked curiously.

"My mum!" He answered quickly, as if he had just thought of it. "She's sick. I'm going home to visit her."

"Oh, I'm sorry Remus. Tell her that I said to get well soon!" Callie said, not quite sure of what else to say. She was confused on why Remus didn't mention his mother being ill in the first place, but Callie let that thought go as quickly as it came.

"Right, well, I should be good. Goodbye!" He said. As he quickly glanced out the window at the lowering sun, a fearful look spread across his pale face. It was a look that had some familiarity to Callie, but before she could think about where she had seen it before Remus had exited the common room.

"Goodbye!" She called to him as the portrait closed, sitting down to resume her homework. The girls were so involved in their own activities for the next while that they had hardly noticed the other boys come down the stairs of their dorms.

"Calista Huntingdon, little Calista Huntingdon." James said, a song-like tone to his voice. The boys all had mischievous smiles on their faces, making the girls worried as they looked up at them.

"Yes, boys?" She answered.

Sirius leaned down, his face becoming only inches from hers. "We know you're secret, Miss Huntingdon."