Minerva McGonagall closed her eyes tightly and counted backwards from ten, it was too early in the year to deal with things like this, Minerva decided.
She opened her eyes and reread the quick and lengthy note that Remus Lupin—she was very proud of her ex-student—had sent her, her lips thinned as she read about the Dementors boarding the train—something that Albus had told the Minister in no-uncertain terms was not happening—of them then opening the compartments of the students and terrorising them before a lone Dementor came to the compartment Remus was in with several students—Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and Calypso Tonks, it seemed, something that did not surprise her—and made the mistake of using its fear-inducing power on the second-and-third years.
It wasn't even that much of a surprise that more than one of those children had a bad reaction to them, it was surprising how violently Calypso Tonks reacted to the threat and fear—killing a Dementor, it was almost unheard of—and it was unsurprising how she reacted in the aftermath—Minerva could still see eleven-year-old Calypso Tonks sat in the middle of the corridor and crying as she stared at the still-form of Justin Finch-Fletchley—and she grimaced at the request she had asked of Remus.
She wanted her sister, it wasn't surprising, and was the cause of Minerva's blooming headache.
Nymphadora Tonks would not hesitate to come, Minerva knew that, and she also knew that the elder Tonks wouldn't come alone—they were going to invaded by the Blacks, she realised.
Minerva sighed, thinking wistful of the bottle of scotch she had hidden in her room, before handing the letter to a curious Filius.
His lips thinned, his eyes narrowed in fury as he read.
"I'll Floo her family then," Filius told her after a moment, carefully folding the note and handing it back to Minerva. "And the aurors."
Her short colleague turned sharply on his heel and made his way to his office, Minerva didn't envy him one bit as he would have to deal with concerned and angry Blacks.
Minerva straightened her shoulders and made her way towards the Great Hall—Albus needed to be made aware of recent events.
Briefly, Minerva hoped that he would allow her to sit in on the meeting he would no doubt be having with the Minister—she had a few words for the fool that she would like to share.
It took quite a bit of time before Calypso could be convinced to move from her position on the floor, but she refused to let go of Harry's hand, she held on for dear life as if he was going to disappear if she let go.
Hermione attempted to appeal to Calypso's logic—reminding her that the Dementors were gone, that she had killed it, and there was no reason to hold on to Harry because he wasn't going anywhere—under the growing harsh gaze of Luna until Harry finally silenced his best friend with a firm look—sometimes, Harry thought, Hermione was as insensitive as Ron—and Neville's equally firm 'Hermione, enough,'.
She sat beside Harry, one hand gripping his tightly while she held Desdemona in her other arm, and Luna sat on her other side, a comforting hand on Calypso's knee as she began to gently and dreamily talk about the latest issue of the Quibblier—Hermione's snort of distain was firmly ignored.
Neville had crouched himself in front of his cousin, keeping his balance when the train began to move, and mopped up her tears with his hanky as she began to regulate her breathing almost forcefully.
"Do you want some more chocolate?" Ron offered, only looking slightly awkward as he held out the last chocolate frog from the collection Harry had purchased for them earlier.
Calypso, sniffling and teary, nodded in a subdued manner that Harry found himself disliking greatly as Ron handed the opened frog to Neville who fed Calypso the chocolate as she still refused to let go of either Harry or Desdemona—it was almost odd for her to hold Desdemona for comfort when Harry could remember her telling him how much they disliked each other.
Calypso may be quiet—when she wasn't annoyed by stupidity and such—but she had never really been subdued in all the time Harry knew her.
Calypso was blunt and honest words, fearless when it came to other people's opinions. She was protective—sometimes to a violent degree—and curious enough to walk straight into danger without a second thought that she would then regret but was too stubborn to leave.
She wasn't loud sobs, choked hiccups and subdued nods in Harry opinion, and if he didn't like Dementors enough already—a woman's scream echoed in his head, desperate and pleading, painfully familiar and horrible—then he downright hated them for making Calypso react like this.
Remus Lupin hesitated outside the door of the compartment, steeling himself for what was coming, and opening the door with a kind smile.
Lily's green eyes shot straight to him, gaze wary in a way that made his heart clench, and James' face was set in a frown—a frown that would have looked out of place on James' face, but seemed to suit Harry's. Harry, Remus decided, would not be good for his heart or his mental health—he looked too much like his parents.
His gaze skipped away from the son of his dead friends, away from Neville with Alice's kind round face and Frank's eyes, and to the subdued form of Calypso Tonks.
She looked like her mother, Remus noticed, she looked like a Black, she looked like Sirius, and Remus felt some relief that her eyes were the same dark shade the norm for her family, the same dark shade of her mother's eyes, and not the grey eyes that set Sirius apart from his brother and cousins.
"I really shouldn't be giving you this back," Remus told her as she looked up with teary eyes which caused his mind to flash back to when they caught Sirius crying after another vitriol-filled letter from his mother in their first-year—and reached out his hand with her dagger—clean from Dementor blood—in his palm and its hilt pointed to her.
For a moment, Calypso just stared at it and then slowly, oh-so-slowly, she relaxed the grip she had on her cat—Siri-Black would be horrified, Remus surprised himself by thinking almost fondly—and reached for the dagger as the blue-furred cat climbed up and wrapped itself around her neck like a living scarf.
"He's not a Death Eater," she told him quietly, firm despite her hoarse voice, and took the dagger back.
Remus swallowed harshly, smile slipping, and Calypso looked up at him with all the defiance of Sirius Black despite her pale face, red nose and eyes, and tears slipping down her face.
"He's not a Death Eater," she repeated louder, her grip tightening around the hilt, "he was your friend and he never deserved to be surrounded by those monsters."
Remus stared at her, speechless and hurting—it seemed that Calypso would be worse for his heart and mental well-being.
"He's not going back there," she declared with strength as she slipped the dagger back into the sheath attached to her skirt. "I won't allow it."
"We won't allow it," Harry declared from next to her, hand tightening around hers—not as shaken as Calypso by the Dementor encounter, better composed, and just as firm in resolve—and Remus couldn't look at him, couldn't look at James' face firm in conviction, Lily's green eyes bright and fierce.
"Miss Tonks…." Remus trailed off with a sigh, he didn't know what to say. "He is a wanted criminal."
Her chin rose stubbornly, a trace of Sirius Black's arrogance filtered across her features.
"I'm a Black, Mr Lupin," she told him bluntly, "we've never concerned ourselves with petty things like laws."
He huffed out a laugh despite himself—he shouldn't be so amused, shouldn't feel a hint of relief at her words.
"No," he said ruefully as he shook his head, "I don't suppose you do."
Remus shouldn't have believed her, but he did—and he hoped, hoped dearly, that she was right, that Sirius had not betrayed them by becoming a Death Eater, that Sirius had not betrayed Lily and James willingly.
There was a group of red-robed aurors waiting for the train at Hogsmeade Station, something that caused a bit of a stir—not as much as the news that Calypso Tonks had killed a Dementor which had spread up-and-down the train like wild-fire—and they were given looks as students were herded to the carriages by a pinched-face Professor Sprout and the first-years were called over by Hagrid—poor little sods, they had to cross the Lake in the rain.
The platform had emptied quite a bit by the time Calypso and her friends stepped down from the train with Lupin at their side.
The startled squeaking screams from the Luggage Compartment informed those who had remained behind, despite Professor Sprout's efforts, that the House-elves had found where Lupin had banished the remains of the Dementor.
"Ah," Lupin said sheepishly, "perhaps I should have chosen a different place to store it."
Kris snorted as she peeled away from the rest of the aurors, they made their way towards the Luggage Compartment while Kris headed towards them.
"Look at you," Kris smirked at Calypso. "Dementor Killer, the family will be so proud—once they stop being furious."
She wrapped one arm around Calypso's neck and pulled her close, pressing a kiss on the top of her head.
"Good girl," Kris told her, "Vindictam suam ad plenissimam."
Yes, Calypso supposed her actions were fulfilling the Black's old motto—revenge at its fullest.
"I got work to do," Kris released her, "and I know I'm not the person you want right now."
"Caly," Dora called from further back, and Calypso immediately dropped Harry's hand and threw herself towards her sister—dislodging Desdemona, who leapt into Harry's startled arms.
Dora grabbed her, pulling her close and holding her tight as fresh tears prickled at Calypso's eyes.
Her sister was warm, breathing, she was alive and holding her, her hair was a vivid blue and her dark eyes were filled with worry.
"Dora," Calypso whimpered, holding her sister tighter and burying her face into the crook of Dora's neck.
Dora rocked her, shushing her tears and holding her as tight as possible, so tight that Calypso could feel Dora's heart-beat, something very reassuring.
Akira wasn't annoyed or even angry, he was enraged! And Jun-kun was stopping him from unleashing his rage on every bastard that was involved with Calypso's encounter with the Dementors.
"Get off me!" Akira shouted, voice muffled by the floor.
"And what? Allow you to turn the Ministry into a massacre?" Junior asked with a snort, rather comfortable despite the awkward position he got Akira pinned by the arms, legs and body. "The Blacks haven't caused a massacre since Aunt Cassi was away at war."
"They deserve it!" Akira attempted to trash in his cousins hold.
"Yes, yes, they do," Junior calmly agreed before shouting over his shoulder. "Where's the Calming Draught?"
"Do you know how many potions Cynthia's got stored?" Jared shouted back from Cynthia's lab.
"It's the blue one!" Junior grunted as Akira tried to buck him off before attempting to become an eel.
"There's a lot of blue ones!" Jared shouted, frustrated. "Unless you want me to accidently kill your cousin, you will hold him!"
"Don't tempt me," Junior grumbled as he forced Akira to remain still.
"So-chan would never forgive you!" Akira shouted at him, still fighting against him. "Just let me go! I'll only slaughter them a little!"
Junior snorted, amused despite himself.
"You don't have the self-restraint," Junior told his cousin bluntly.
Lord Arcturus Black swept through the atrium of the Ministry with purpose, ignoring the babbling idiot that sat at the security desk and towards the golden lifts.
"Level One," he snapped at the conductor-elf, who paled and did as he was told.
As the lift went up and paused at each level, the waiting wizards and witches would take one look at Arcturus' face and smartly take a step back to wait for the next lift.
"Level One, Minister for Magic and Support Staff," a cool and calm female voice intoned, and Arcturus stepped off the lift.
There were gasps, stares and even a startled squeak or two as Arcturus strode through the corridor and towards the Minister's office, ignoring all those that got in his way and they threw themselves out of his way, plastering themselves to the walls.
Arcturus didn't even bother to knock as he opened the Minister's office door.
"What is the meaning of this?" a rather toad-like and stout woman squawked as Minister Fudge paled behind his desk.
"Minister," Arcturus greeted him with a cold smile, "shall we discuss your attacks against my family?"
Arcturus strode in the room like he owned it, ignoring the woman that was puffing herself up in outrage.
"Lord Black," Fudge greeted quickly, sweat beading on his forehead. "What a surprise."
"Surprise, yes, that what I felt when I heard that Dementors had attacked my heiress while she was on her way to Hogwarts," he drawled as he almost prowled towards the desk. "Then, can you guess how I felt?"
Fudge's gulp was satisfying loud in Arcturus' opinion.
AN: Yeah, it's mostly a filter chapter, but I hope you like it all the same.
A reviewer was worried I was going to kill Calypso off before I completed all seven years, I will state now that I have no intent of killing her off anytime soon and my intention is to do the whole seven years.
I'm also know going to wow you with my imagination when I reveal Calypso's next name, drum roll please *insert drum noise*, she will be called Kallisto Black!
Yeah, so review and tell me your thoughts please!