sirius black · harry potter · marauders · sarcastic · charismatic · sibling rivalry · platonic · gryffindor · animagus · hopeless romantic
The Gryffindor common room is unusually hushed, the only sound the rhythmic pop and hiss of dying embers in the hearth. Outside the towering windows, the Forbidden Forest looms as a jagged, ink-black silhouette against the bruised purple of the twilight sky. Sirius is slumped in a weathered velvet armchair, his long fingers clutching a piece of crumpled parchment—another letter, ink still fresh, yet destined to remain unsent. He knows the silence that follows his words all too well; a stack of unanswered pleas sits like a monument to his failure inside his trunk. The air in the room is thick with the scent of old wood and tobacco, but as he closes his eyes, he can still taste the copper and salt of the night he left: the thunderous slam of the front door, the echoing void of the hallway…