April 6, 1974
Calandra looked around the Ancient Runes class for Lupin. Class was getting ready to start and there was still no sign of him. They had to present today. Twelve lines of translated runes and their origins, and she really only knew about eight of them since they'd split the work again.
Professor Ratsel walked up to his desk and faced the class. He had a pile of parchment in his arms and held lots of small chunks of stone in his hands. He looked out at his students from over the tops of the parchment sticking up in his face.
"Presentation day, class!" he announced. "I have your assignments here, and the stones you deciphered. If we work quickly, we can get through all of you today."
He dumped the parchment on his desk and pulled his wand from his pocket. A swish and twirl later the chunks of stone grew to ten times their normal size and floated in the air. Calandra looked over her notes and tried to memorize all the details of the first four lines of Runes from her sparse notes. If she'd have to give the presentation by herself, she needed to know them to get a good grade.
"Alright." Professor Ratsel called. "Who's up first? Any volunteers?"
No one raised their hand. Professor Ratsel pursed his lips and glanced down at his attendance roster.
"We'll go." A voice called from across the aisle.
Sirius Black stood up and motioned for Johnathon Aster to follow. Johnathon looked surprised but rose from his seat, gathering his materials. Black pulled a sheaf of parchment from his desk and followed Aster up the aisle. He slid a folded-up parchment on Calandra's desk as he passed by.
The two boys took their place at the front of the room and Professor Ratsel positioned the stone they'd worked on front and center so everyone could see it. They started talking about translations and origins of the runes, but Calandra tuned them out.
She unfolded the parchment and scanned the words there. Neat lines of Lupin's handwriting filled the page. Descriptions of the runes they'd translated; origins, comparisons, and more. Someone had underlined the main points of the translations and added a summary at the bottom.
She read the lines and re-read them, trying to burn them into her memory. Professor Ratsel called up other groups and the presentations continued. Calandra glanced toward the front of the room every so often, murmuring the translations of her own rune stone over and over to herself.
"Lupin and White." Professor Ratsel called. "Or rather, Ms. White. Mr. Lupin is absent today."
"I'm afraid we can't wait until Monday, Ms. White." Professor Ratsel frowned. "Your homework for the weekend moves on from these runes. Otherwise we could wait until your partner is present."
Calandra gathered her things and walked to the front of the room. Professor Ratsel waved his wand and sent the rune stone she'd worked on to the front of his desk. Calandra glanced at the professor and started speaking at his nod.
"The markings on our stone are Elder Futhark Runes, some of the earliest runes we've studied. The first eight lines on the stone make up a sort of poem. It was very difficult to translate these lines, because Futhark Runes can either represent sounds, words, or complete ideas depending on the context."
Professor Ratsel nodded and Calandra went on.
"We've worked out that the poem was probably written by a witch from a rural village in the North. Here's what we've worked it out as saying:
The men drove me out,
Into the mountains and the snow.
Though all I've done is give,
They fear what they can't control.
I was sent out here to die,
They expect me to expire.
Foolish they are, these men,
I won't freeze when I have fire."
Calandra stared down at her paper; at the notes Lupin had written.
"We think it was a woman who was accused of witchcraft who was sent to freeze to death as her punishment. If that was the case, it turns out she was a witch. A witch who knew how to conjure fire."
"The last four lines were a bit tricky to translate." She said. "They weren't as difficult as the poem, but it took us a while to figure them out."
"The first two are guides." She said waving her wand and making the runes glow. "On how to conjure fire, but the markings in the middle aren't runes at all; they're wand movements."
"How did you come to that conclusion?" Professor Ratsel looked impressed. "Who figured it out?"
"Both of us." Calandra said. "We kept going over the different alphabets trying to figure out what it meant. Nothing made sense. We found a couple runes that looked a bit like the Greek alphabet, but the rest of the runes in that line were Germanic. Lupin mentioned that the markings looked too fluid to be runes. They're almost curved."
Professor Ratsel nodded.
"So, we started wondering if they were something other than runes. We started writing down everything they looked like."
"What made the list?" Professor Ratsel asked interestedly.
"The wishbone to a roast turkey was the first thing we wrote." Calandra said.
The class laughed and Professor Ratsel smiled.
"It does look rather like one, doesn't it?" he said. "Go on."
"We thought it might be a compass; the kind you use to draw circles. Or maybe pincers, but it never made sense. It wasn't until I thought back to Professor Flitwick telling us our wand movements needed to be more fluid that it clicked. I mentioned it and we went over each spell in the book until we figured it out."
"Very good." Professor Ratsel nodded.
"So, the whole stone reads from top to bottom as a poem about the witch who carved the runes, the steps it takes to conjure fire, and a warning for if you do conjure it."
Professor Ratsel marked something on his parchment and nodded.
"Good work." He said and turned to the class. "This weekend you'll need to read chapter eight. I expect a summary of the differences and similarities between magical runes and Nordic runes on Monday. Ms. White please stay after class for a moment, I'd like a word."
Calandra swallowed and glanced at the rest of the class. She walked to her seat and remained seated while the rest of the students filed out of the classroom. Professor Ratsel surveyed her from where he stood in front of his desk.
"Ms. White." He said. "It seems that you've borne the brunt of the assignment you presented today."
Calandra's brows furrowed.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I mean you did most of the work, correct?"
"No." Calandra shook her head. "Just the presentation, but that's just because Lupin was absent. We split the work. He even volunteered to take the more difficult lines."
"Mmmm." Professor Ratsel intoned. "Very well."
Calandra held her schoolbooks to her chest.
"Is that all?" she asked.
He nodded and she grabbed her things and hurried out of the room. Someone was turning the corner as she emerged from the door. She breathed a sigh of relief that no one was in the corridor and walked toward the dorm.
April 17, 1974
Calandra and Alice sat on the Quidditch bleachers watching Dorcas spin and twirl in the air. Her father had bought her a new broom and she was so excited to fly on it, she'd talked the other girls into going down to the quidditch pitch with her.
Calandra watched as Dorcas dipped down toward the ground and pulled up on the handle of the broom. She shot up into the air and spun in a circle. Alice pulled a book out of her bag and flipped through it, but Calandra watched Dorcas.
Flying was so much fun; being up in the air with nothing closing in on you. It was so freeing. Calandra had wanted her own broomstick since the very first time she went flying but her mother thought they were dangerous, and her father…well her father thought anything that gave Calandra joy wasn't worth the money or effort. So, she was stuck on the ground.
Dorcas flew over and hovered beside the stands.
"Want to give it a go?" she asked.
Calandra perked up but didn't make any move to rise.
"You sure?" she asked, a bit apprehensive. "It's new, and probably cost a lot."
Dorcas rolled her eyes and swung her leg onto the bleachers. She hopped off the broom and held it out to Calandra.
"They're made for flying." Dorcas said. "You like flying. Go on, try it out. It's smooth."
Calandra took the broom and stood on the very top bleacher bench. She gave a little jump and pulled up on the broom handle. The broom shot forward and Calandra leant back as she floated through the air. Dorcas was right, it was pretty smooth. She leant forward and zipped past the bleachers.
This feeling was one of the best in the world. Cold wind on her cheeks, the wide-open air, her hair flying out behind her. Calandra felt free up here. She never wanted to come down.
Dorcas clapped her hands and cheered for Calandra. Calandra laughed and spun in and around the goal posts. She spun the broom around and weaved back through the right hoop when a tug almost jerked her off the broom. She coughed and held onto the broom with her knees.
"Your scarf!" Dorcas called.
Calandra pulled at the material with her hands and tore it from her throat. She looked back and saw that one of its trailing ends hand wrapped itself around one of the goalposts. Calandra shook her head, disgusted with herself and unwound the scarf from the goal post. She folded it as she nudged the broom back toward the bleachers and hopped off.
"Bloody thing tried to kill me." She said tossing it in her school bag.
Dorcas laughed.
"Imagine the Prophet article." She said. "Student Strangled by Stole."
Calandra chuckled and held the broom back out to Dorcas. Dorcas hopped back on and flew laps around the Quidditch pitch. Calandra sat back against the bleachers next to Alice and watched.
"You're pretty good at flying, you know." Alice said. "You should try out for the Quidditch team next year."
Calandra scoffed.
"I'm not nearly good enough to do that." She said. "Besides, I only like flying. I don't care about any of the other bits."
Alice pulled a face.
"Yeah, I wouldn't want to have to fiddle with Quaffles or Bludgers while handling a broom."
"The flying is fun, though." Calandra said. "Dorcas's broom is a good one. She'll probably try out next year."
"She'd love it." Alice nodded.
"We'd have to come to all the matches." Calandra said. "If she made the team."
"We already go to them all anyway." Alice said.
"No." Calandra shook her head and grinned. "We only go to Gryffindor matches. If Dorcas made the team you know she'd drag us to all the matches to get a feel for her competition."
"Oh." Realization dawned on Alice's face. "You're right."
"Still, I hope she makes it if she tries out," Calandra said.
"Yeah, me too." Alice said.
May 6, 1974
Calandra duplicated her Arthimancy notes and gathered her schoolbooks. She shoved her quills into her bag and left the classroom with the other students. She caught up to Sirius Black a little way down the corridor.
"Hey, Black!" she called.
He turned around and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Here's the notes for Arithmancy." She said holding out the parchment and shoving her books into her satchel. "Give them to Lupin for me, will you?"
He wrinkled his nose at the papers she held in front of him.
"Why?" he asked.
"He missed today. He missed a few weeks ago, too. I already do it with our notes in Runes so he doesn't fall behind. It's not hurting me to do it in this class, too."
"You're not partners in this class." Black pointed out.
"Well, no." Calandra said, feeling foolish.
"I'm in this class, too." He said. "He can just use my notes."
"Did you even pick up your quill once the entire class?" It was Calandra's turn to arch an eyebrow.
"Shove off, White." He said turning to walk away. "We don't all need to write everything down to learn it. Remus is fine, I'll give him the notes."
He walked away from her and she was left standing there in the hallway, holding an extra set of notes and feeling wrongfooted. Why did they all have to be such prats. Lupin was less obnoxious than the others, but he was still in the thick of all their shenanigans. Just last week he'd glued all the doors to the girls' loos locked with magical super glue. McGonagall had been furious. She shoved her notes down in her bag and went to find Alice wondering why she'd even tried to be civil to them in the first place.