January 18, 1975
Alice read aloud from the newspaper she had spread out in front of her. They were sitting on Calandra's bed in the dorm, putting off their homework and waiting until it was time for dinner.
"There's a sale on Sleakeazy's." Alice murmured. "Madam Malkins is expanding."
Calandra flipped a page in her book and hummed in reply.
"The Warbecks are playing next month in London."
"That's not music." Calandra scoffed. "That's just noise."
"You could do that, you know." Alice said, running a finger down the page. "You're much better than they are."
"Yes." Calandra said. "Let me announce to the world where my voice comes from and see how fast they flock to me."
"Maybe one day you can." Alice shrugged.
"Maybe one day McGonagall will get drunk and dance the Rhumba with the Queen." Calandra rolled her eyes.
Alice giggled and flipped the page.
January 21, 1975
Remus Lupin slid onto the bench in front of Calandra and pushed a piece of parchment across the table at her. She swallowed the bite of pudding she had in her mouth and read the parchment. Her eyes widened in appreciation.
"How'd you figure out that rune?" she demanded. "I've been searching for over a week on its origin."
Lupin sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I wish I could take credit for it." He said. "But I can't."
"What?" Calandra asked, reading the page.
"Sirius figured it out." He said.
"His royal hairdo figured out this rune?" Calandra asked. "All by himself?"
"It's French." Lupin said, as if that explained it.
"Right." Calandra said. "And I suppose he knows French."
"Yeah." A voice answered from behind her.
Sirius Black reached over her shoulder and grabbed the page.
"I do. And I'll thank you to not steal my homework anymore you traitor." He glared at Lupin.
"Who helped you when you were stuck on the Baltic set?" Lupin said pointedly.
Calandra snorted. "I was the one who translated that set. You picked the Sanskrit ones."
"Yes, well." Lupin pulled a plate of jam tarts toward him. "I was the one who pointed this poor creature in the right direction."
Black shook his hair back and sat down beside Lupin with an exaggerated eye roll. Calandra pointed her spoon toward the parchment he held.
"How'd you figure out it was French?" she asked.
"I recognized some of the runes." He said with a shrug.
"From where?" Calandra wondered. "We haven't had any with French origins so far. I didn't even know there were French Runes."
He shrugged again cut into an apple crumble.
"My family has runes as part of our wards." He said. "We'll probably learn about them next year."
Calandra chewed her lip and thought about that. She didn't even know if her own home was warded. She knew wizard families used them to protect their homes, but as far as she knew all that it took to get into her house was the key she kept in her trunk.
"How does that work?" she asked.
Lupin looked up from his tarts.
"Wards?" he asked.
"No, runic wards." She said, stirring her pudding. "Do you just carve them into the door frames?"
Lupin looked to Black.
"You can." Black said. "Most people carve them into stones with magic abilities, though."
He peered at her with a puzzled expression.
"Don't your family use wards?" he asked. "They're not muggles."
"No, they're not muggles." She said. "But I don't know if we have wards up or not."
He shrugged and turned back to his food. Lupin cleared his throat and spoke to Calandra.
"Anyway." He said. "Now that we know the origin of the rune we can work from that to decipher those markings on the Rubis Stone. Bloody stupid of Ratsel to have us looking at markings that aren't even in the book."
Calandra nodded, lost in thought. Wards kept people out, but could they also be used to keep people in? What if her father tried to do that?
February 2, 1975
Alice held the magazine above their heads. Calandra tilted her head up and looked at the photos. She hooked a hand behind her head and read the article. Alice's eyes scanned the pages.
"And who is this?" Alice asked, pointing to a picture on the page.
Calandra smiled.
"The Who." She said.
"They sing the song with the Irish name." she said.
Calandra nodded.
"And this is the American that Mulligan is mad over." Alice said. "I recognize that hair."
"Yeah." Calandra said.
"My Gran calls those hats billycocks." Alice said and snorted. "What an awful name."
Calandra laughed.
"His hair is rather long though." Alice said, surveying the picture.
"Dumbledore has hair longer than both of us." Calandra pointed out.
"Yes, well." Alice said. "I meant long for a muggle, don't you think?"
"Not especially." Calandra shrugged. "Lots of muggles have long hair. There's a man on my street whose hair is longer than mine. He wears little green tinted glasses."
"Hmmm." Alice hummed. "I don't know if I'd like it. Imagine marrying someone with great long hair like that. What if I tried to kiss them and the wind whipped it straight into my mouth?"
Calandra laughed.
"The bloke you marry will have to deal with that with you, you know." She said.
"I guess so." Alice admitted. "What about you?"
"What about me?" Calandra asked.
"Does the future Mr. White have hair to rival Dumbledore's or is he a close-cropped fellow?"
"I shouldn't think it matters." Calandra said. "He doesn't exist."
"We're not talking about now." Alice said seriously. "We're talking about a future perfect world where you and I get neighboring houses and plant gardens muggles take pictures of."
"Oh, that world." Calandra said, laughing. "In that case, I don't suppose it matters either."
"You're not even trying, Callie." Alice admonished. "This is a perfect world we're talking about. You could marry that bloke from the color band you like."
"Pink Floyd?" Calandra deadpanned.
"That's the one." Alice nodded. "Humor me."
Calandra sighed and stared past the magazine Alice held and up at the ceiling.
"I don't know." She said. "I've never thought about it."
"Well, is Mr. White a very tall fellow?"
"Taller than me, I guess." Calandra said.
"Well, does he lean more towards this bloke?" she pointed to a photo in the magazine. "Or this one?"
Calandra studied the photos.
"I don't know, Alice." She shrugged. "That one? My hair's long and curly, a bloke like that would understand it. Wouldn't complain when I shed on the furniture like a bloody cat."
"Hmmm." Alice hummed. "That's true, but you don't sound very convinced."
"What does his hair matter for?" Calandra asked. "Who gives a fig about it?"
"I'm just trying to get a feel for the fellow. Paint me a picture, Callie. You know you can." Alice said.
Calandra looked back to the ceiling. She let her mind travel to Alice's perfect world.
"I don't much think about how he'd look." Calandra said. "But I'd want someone who could make me laugh. Who doesn't take life too seriously. I do that enough for two people."
"What else?" Alice asked quietly. She put the magazine down and stared at the ceiling with Calandra.
"Someone who likes being outside." Calandra said. "I don't think I would like being with someone who likes staying at home all the time."
Images of beaches and mountains and deserts flashed in Calandra's mind.
"I'd like to be with someone who likes to travel. We could go to all sorts of different places. There's so many things I've never seen and would love to."
"You plan on catching a rich bloke?" Alice joked.
"Nah." Calandra said. "I don't care about that. We could travel the world in a tent for all I care. As long as I'm not stuck in a box."
"I'm guessing he'd have to be a bit proper." Alice said.
Calandra furrowed her brows and Alice continued.
"He'd probably ask your father's blessing." She said. "I can't imagine he'd give it for just anyone."
Calandra scoffed.
"I wouldn't need it." She said. "Who wants some proper ponce with no brains and no sense of humor?"
"Right." Alice said. "So, a funny bloke who likes being outdoors and will travel the world with you. Who doesn't care about your father's blessing."
Calandra laughed.
"Pretty much." She said.
"Well, I'll keep my eyes open." Alice said. "Maybe you'll catch a dragon trainer."
Calandra shook her head.
"We're talking about your world, remember?" she said. "Not this one."
"Yeah." Alice echoed. "I know."
February 13, 1975
"I found it!" Calandra said, slapping a paper down in front of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.
They looked up at her and Lupin slid down on the bench to give her room. She sat down and pushed the sleeve of her robes up. She held the page up and tilted it just a bit to the right and pointed at the rune she'd scribbled.
"It matches!" she said proudly. "It's from the Marcomannic set. Means power. It isn't the Greek alphabet at all!"
Lupin reached for the paper and Calandra turned to Black, excited. He looked at her with a puzzled expression.
"Now we don't have to try to figure it out this weekend." She explained. "We can go to Hogsmeade or whatever. It's done!"
"Why are you telling me?" he asked. "Remus is your partner."
"But I did tell him." She said. "I just showed the both of you."
"Right." He said.
She turned to Lupin and pointed at the rune in the upper left-hand corner of the page.
"This one is Marcomannic, too." She said. "If I had to bet, I'd say all of them are from that alphabet."
He nodded and continued studying the page. Calandra reached for a piece of toast. She spread jam on it and bit off the corner.
"Were the two of you working on them?" she asked, gesturing to the pages on the table.
"A bit." Lupin said, pushing the pages toward her.
She studied them as she munched on her toast. A series of markings at the top of the page caught her eye. She tilted her head and tried to make sense of them.
"What are these?" she asked. "I've never seen them before."
"Mer-Runes." Black said. "Runes the Merpeople use."
"Wow." Calandra breathed. "How do you know? They aren't in the books."
"Books?" he asked.
"Yeah, I got one of the older students to let me look through the Runes book for next year and the year after. They're not in there."
"Why'd you do that?" he wrinkled his nose.
"I wanted to see the other French Runes." She said. "There were only five though. I couldn't find anymore. Are there more?"
"Yeah." He said absently.
"I wonder why they're not in the book." She said. "Are they Dark Runes?"
"Why would you ask that?" he asked, affronted.
"Why else wouldn't they be in the book?" she asked, surprised.
"What are you saying?" he asked with a sneer.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Why'd you automatically think they were Dark Runes?" he demanded.
"I can't find them anywhere." She said and thought back to trying to find answers about herself; Alice by her side, flipping determinedly through spell books.
"If you can't find something, it usually means people want to hide something dark." She said a bit wistfully.
"Well, they aren't." he said. "They're just Familial Runes."
"Your family has its own runes?" she asked.
"All pureblood families do." He rolled his eyes. "Yours probably does, too."
Calandra thought about asking her father about their Familial Runes. Not very likely.
"So, where do they come from?" she asked. "If they're only for your family, how do you know that the translation from the other day is correct?"
Black rolled his eyes again.
"They're not only for my family." He said. "My family just kept the record for them. They used them for their own wards and somewhere down the line they started calling them by the family name. They're really just runes made up by a French wizard hundreds of years ago."
"So, anyone could use them." She said.
"Of course." He replied.
"Then how do you ward your house with them?" she asked. "Couldn't just anyone get in if they cast a spell to reverse the rune?"
"They're blood wards." He said. "If you're not a Black then the wards expel you. Unless someone grants you entrance."
"You soak your runes in blood?" she asked with a wrinkle in her nose.
"I don't." he said. "And they've been set for over a hundred years."
"So, this one." Lupin leant toward her and pointed to a different rune. "This one could be the marking for life or birth."
Calandra turned her attention to the page in front of her and went over a few of the different possibilities. She took a swig of pumpkin juice and turned back to her left, to ask about the Mer-Runes, but Sirius Black wasn't there.
February 18, 1975
She sat in the Transfiguration classroom with Alice and went over her notes. They were transforming their inkwells into iguanas and Calandra just couldn't get the last bit of it right. She muttered the spell to herself and chewed her thumbnail.
She scribbled a formula on her parchment and worked through it, making sure it would work and focused back on the inkwell. She flicked her wand forward and the inkwell glowed and grew to the size of a Quaffle.
Calandra stuck her tongue between her teeth and concentrated on the image of an iguana in her mind. Students chattered all around her and she tried to tune them out.
"Mate." A voice came from the table next to hers. "I'm telling you, we could conjure up a harness for the giant squid and ride it."
Calandra flicked her wand upwards to finish the transfiguration. The inkwell glowed brightly and turned into an animal. But it was the wrong animal. An octopus lay on the desk where Alice's inkwell was moments before.
Calandra gasped and turned to look in her book. As she did so her wand sent the octopus straight into the next table. Black ink spurted everywhere and students all around the tables shrieked and jumped away from the creature.
"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall's voice rang out fiercely.
"I've never seen such a mess in my classroom." She said. "Detention! You and Mr. Black, both."
"Professor." Calandra said, but Professor McGonagall didn't hear her.
"I suppose this was your idea of a practical joke." She said waving her wand to vanishing the octopus. "I, for one, do not find it very funny."
"Professor..." Calandra repeated.
"This ink will have to be scrubbed out." She said. "Students, you're dismissed. Spend the ten minutes of class you're missing studying the Transfiguration book please. I'll have no repeat performances of this."
Alice pulled Calandra from the room and they made their way up to Gryffindor Tower. Calandra felt horrible. She sat on the common room couch with Alice and chewed her thumbnail, nervously.
"It was me, Alice." Calandra said. "They shouldn't have gotten detention over that."
"They still probably deserved it." She said.
"Still." Calandra said. "It wasn't very fair."
She sat there watching the fire for a moment, then got up.
"I have to go tell Professor McGonagall." She said. "I'll tell her it was an accident."
Alice nodded and pulled a jelly button from her bag.
"I'll meet you outside Charms." She said, popping the sweet in her mouth.
Calandra climbed out of the portrait hole and walked toward the Transfiguration classroom. She chewed on her lip at the thought of what Professor McGonagall would do. She turned the corner and ran into someone.
She stumbled back and rubbed her forehead. James Potter stood in front of her rubbing his mouth. She grimaced. Of all the people to meet right now.
"I'm telling McGonagall it wasn't you two." She said in a rush. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to make the octopus fall on you."
"Did you mean to make the octopus?" Potter asked.
"No." Calandra shook her head. "Is Professor McGonagall still in the classroom?"
"Nah, she's going to find Filch." Potter said. "Don't worry about it White. It's no big deal."
"Yeah, but you have detention." She said.
"All she's having us do is practice our Transfiguration." He shrugged. "Hardly a detention is it?"
Calandra glanced at him and looked toward the end of the hallway.
"You don't care?" she asked.
Potter snorted.
"Please." He said. "Give me your notes for our next Charms class and we'll call it even; I didn't do mine."
She laughed.
"Deal." She said.
March 17, 1975
Calandra walked with Dorcas, Alice, and Cecilia Marpole toward Ravenclaw tower. They'd been up at the astronomy tower, watching the meteor shower and lost all track of time.
"See you guys tomorrow." Cecilia said and turned toward the door that led to Ravenclaw common room.
"What has a neck but no head?" a voice came from the door.
Cecilia thought for a moment and looked at the door.
"A shirt." She said softly and the door swung open.
Calandra and the other two girls hurried back down the staircase and through the corridor toward their own dorms, muttering under their breath at one another.
"I'm glad we don't have to worry about any of that rubbish to get into our dorm." Dorcas muttered.
"What if you don't know the answer?" Alice whispered.
"It probably isn't so bad." Calandra said.
"Oh yeah, and would you have thought of a sodding shirt for that question?" Dorcas asked.
"I'd have said a nobleman after the bloody guillotine." Calandra said. "I wouldn't be wrong."
Alice giggle and they heard a laugh sound from down the hallway. All three girls turned quickly to see who it was. No one was there. They looked at one another and hurried on down the hall.
"That didn't sound like Peeves." Alice whispered.
"As long as it wasn't a professor or a prefect who cares who it was." Calandra said and rushed to the Fat Lady's portrait.
March 29, 1975
"Well, if it isn't the dark horse herself." Lupin smiled as she sat next to him in Runes.
"I'm never telling you anything ever again if you keep it up." She warned.
"Who else would you tell all your secrets to?" Lupin asked.
"What secrets you spilling, White?" Sirius Black leant against their table. "If you've got any particularly juicy ones, my ears are primed and ready to hear. And I'm much better at keeping my mouth shut than this lug."
"I doubt that." Calandra said.
"And why's that?" he asked.
"Because I've told Lupin a few choice things and you haven't given me a hard time about any of them. So, by the looks of it, he's a pretty good confidant."
Lupin smirked at him. Black rolled his eyes.
"Like what?" he scoffed. "You only worked ahead two chapters instead of three in Arthimancy?"
"No." Calandra rolled her eyes. "Like Alice and I snuck into Ravenclaw Tower and charmed all the banners to flash red and gold instead of blue and bronze at the Quidditch match."
"That was you?" he asked surprised.
Calandra gave him a look.
"What's got you both so fired up over the Quidditch match? Fancy a bloke on the team?" he asked.
Lupin rolled his eyes and snorted.
"No. The opposite, actually. Alice can't stand Roberts." Calandra shrugged.
"Well." Black raised his brows. "Never pegged you for a rule breaker, White."
"Some of us know how to keep from getting caught." She smiled.
"Maybe I'll come to you for pointers next time I try to sneak into a different dormitory." He said and sauntered back over to his seat.