April 4, 1975
"Hey, White. Have you finished the Muggle Studies assignment yet?" Sirius Black asked walking up the table she shared with Alice.
"Almost." She replied. "I'm working on it now. Why? You need help?"
"Are you offering?" he smirked.
Calandra rolled her eyes.
"Well." She said. "Do you need help or not?"
He pulled a chair out and sat in it.
"I can do it on my own. I just have a few questions." He said, propping his feet on another chair.
"Ok." Calandra said, turning back to her assignment. "About what?"
"Muggles." He said.
"Right. I gathered that." Calandra quipped. "What about them?"
"So they can't use magic to run their machines. They use explosives." He said.
"Well, in a sense. They use petrol for cars and electricity for lights." Calandra nodded.
"How do they cook with it?" he asked.
"What?" Calandra laughed.
"They use that stuff for cooking right?" he said. "I get that the stuff runs their machines, but how does it cook the food?"
"Oh." Calandra put down her quill. "Well it happens two ways. The stove is either heated up by gas and you cook on a metal ring over a flame or the stove is heated by electricity and you cook on a metal ring that heats up on its own."
"So they do use fire to cook." He said.
"Some do. Ours is a gas range. It works better with the magic in the house." She said turning the page in her book.
"What about the electric ones?" he asked.
"What about them?" she asked absently.
"How to they get hot enough to heat the pots?"
"It's all about the energy we went over this term." Calandra flipped a page and continued. "Some places have windmills, some places use water, a lot of places use things like petrol. All the energy that comes from those things makes the electricity."
Sirius rested his elbow on the table and put his chin in his hand. Calandra flipped to another page in her book. Alice looked between the two of them and fought back a smile.
"The electricity makes the stove heat up. And when you put a metal pot on the metal part of the stove that heats up….well, obviously the pot is going to heat up. Just like if you put a pot over the fire it will heat up. The whole stove doesn't get hot. Just certain parts."
She looked over at him.
"Did that help?" she asked.
"Oh, er, yeah." He said.
"Mary has an electric range at home." Calandra said. "And her dad works on them. She could tell you all about them if you need more help."
He shook his head and smiled.
"No thanks. I'm good."
"Are you doing your assignment over electric stoves?" she asked interestedly. "I went with something much simpler. We have to break it down into steps and that's just too many steps for me."
"Maybe." He said. "I haven't decided yet."
"Oh!" she said, surprised. "Well, you better look through the book and pick something out. It's due this week. If you need any more help just let me know."
"Will do, White." He grinned and stood up.
"See you ladies later."
Calandra lifted a hand and turned back to her book. Alice smirked.
"A whole conversation and he didn't use a single insult." She mused. "Imagine that."
"What?" Calandra glanced up from her book.
"Nothing." Alice said with a smile. "Just he's gotten friendlier here lately, hasn't he?"
"Yeah." Calandra nodded. "I suppose so. He's much more palatable this way, don't you think."
Alice bit back a smile and nodded her agreement.
April 27, 1975
Alice sank onto Calandra's bed and flopped onto her back. Calandra pulled her feet up and set her sketchbook aside. Alice turned her head toward Calandra.
"I'm exhausted." She said.
"It's almost dinnertime." Calandra said.
"I don't even want food." Alice said rubbing her hands over her face.
"I stayed up until midnight last night finishing the homework for Transfiguration." She said.
"I offered to help you with it." Calandra said, swinging her legs off the side of the bed.
"I'll never learn it on my own if I let you help me with it." Alice said, sleepily.
"Come on." Calandra pulled her friend's arm. "Get in bed. Take a nap. I'll bring dinner to you."
"Would you?" Alice yawned rolling onto a pillow.
"Of course." Calandra pulled her duvet over Alice. "Get some sleep."
"Thanks, Callie." Alice murmured and snuggled down in the bed.
Calandra smiled and set her sketchbooks on her desk. She pulled Alice's shoes off and set them under the bed. Then, she extinguished the lights and crept out the door.
May 2, 1975
"I thought you, of all people would understand!" she threw her parchment into her school bag.
"Why do you think I'm having this conversation with you?" he said evenly.
"I don't know. Because you're tired of me coming to you with my problems? Because Alice put you up to it? Because you're tired of hearing me complain about myself when you have it so much worse?"
She shoved his schoolbooks toward him.
"Alice hasn't put me up to anything." Remus said reaching down and plucking up a spell book. "And I don't think I have it worse than you."
She gave him a withering look, "You don't have to lie, Remus, I know how you really feel."
His shoulders slumped.
"Ok." He conceded, "Sometimes I do feel that way, but look. I transform once a month. It's awful, truly, and exhausting. But for the other few weeks I can pretend nothing's wrong. That I'm just a normal bloke. When's the last day you just did something normal without worrying or hiding?"
She grabbed a handful of quills and threw them in the bag.
"My parents are there for me. I don't have to worry about them using me. You don't have that luxury."
She glared at him, lips turning down. He went on.
"And I have friends who don't care. For some reason, they don't give a fig about it. You have Alice. One person who you can truly be yourself with. At least I can go back to my dorm and speak freely. You have to hide everywhere."
He held out the spell book to her, "Are you going to hide the rest of your life? Going to turn to your husband when you're forty and say, 'Oh, love, sorry I forgot to mention, I'm a Siren. How about shepherd's pie for supper?' are you?"
"Isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black." She jerked the book from his hand. "Besides, that won't be an issue and you know it. I'd never have children and who's going to want that?"
He just sighed and nodded.
May 2, 1975
"I'm sorry, you know."
She turned from her perch on the rock by the forbidden forest. Remus Lupin stood there with his hands in his pockets. The wind tossed his hair up and his shirt collar flapped.
She nodded and turned her attention back to the forest. She'd been watching squirrels climb through the trees.
"Are you going to talk to me, or are you just going to ignore me?" He asked.
Calandra sighed.
"I don't really want to talk." She said.
"Well, you can listen to me, then." Remus said jovially, and came to sit beside her on the rock.
"I didn't mean to make you upset. I honestly was trying to help."
"Yeah, I know." She said, watching the trees sway.
"I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have said some of those things, it wasn't fair to you, and I'm sorry about it."
"How'd you know where to find me?" Calandra asked.
"I had a bit of help." He said, after a pause.
Alice must've ratted her out.
"Look, I won't bring it up again after today, ok?" Remus said. "It's just…. sometimes people surprise you."
"Yeah, well, maybe you're the exception." Calandra said. "Maybe that only extends to you because your mates don't have the self-preservation God gave a Grindylow. Not everyone is like them, you know."
"Alice is." Remus pointed out.
"Who else would be, though?" she asked. "Who else would keep it to themselves? Do you trust anyone else with your secret besides the three stooges?"
"You." he said.
She laughed. "There's a nice little security blanket there isn't there, though? I have a secret, too. If I tell yours, you tell mine."
"That's not why I trust you." he said. "Is that why you trust me?"
She thought for a moment and shook her head.
"No. It really isn't. I didn't even think about that when I told you. I just trust you because…well…you understand."
He sighed.
"So, look." He said. "Maybe you can't trust other people like you do Alice or me, but you don't have to run away from everyone."
"I don't run away." She contradicted.
"There are other people who want to be your friends, you know," he said exasperated. "I hear it all the time. But, other than polite conversation, you don't give an inch."
"How am I supposed to know?" She said turning to him. "I've read the books. I know what I am. I'll never know if they're being around me for me or because of me."
He didn't say anything. She didn't either. They just sat together in silence. The wind whipped through the trees and birds called to one another. Calandra wrapped her arms around herself and took a breath.
"I don't have a clue what people hear in my voice. If they hear the things they want to or if they just hear words. I can't even find anything in the library about it because who no one wants to talk about it, let alone write about it."
She drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.
"And it's not like I can ask anyone, can I?"
"It's just words. Your voice is nice and soothing even when you're going a bit spare, but that's it." He replied. "Why didn't you just ask me, if that's what you're worried about?"
"Well, you're not exactly normal, are you?" she asked gesturing to him.
He laughed. "Fair point."
She sighed and grabbed a leaf that had fallen onto the rock. She twirled it in her fingers, deep in thought.
"Would it be so bad?" he asked softly. "If people liked you for what you are? I mean, it is a part of you."
She ripped the leaf slowly in half.
"Yes." She said.
"Why?" he asked.
"Where's my choice in all of that?" she asked slapping her hand on her thigh. "I say a few words and people want to be near me? Well, what if I don't want to be near them?"
"Then you leave." He said.
"As if it's that simple." She laughed. "As if they wouldn't follow."
"Well. If they follow maybe it means that its more than just the Siren stuff."
"You're romanticizing it." She shook her head. "I'm being practical."
"What's wrong with looking at it glass half full?" he asked.
"I know where that future ends. Me, married to someone who doesn't love me, wishing I would've never spoken to him."
"You don't know that." He said.
"I do." She answered bitterly. "I've watched the scene play out once before; I don't care for an encore."
May 10, 1975
She sat with Alice in the common room in front of the fire. Alice flipped through a magazine while Calandra leant over a sketchbook. The fire crackled and students filtered through the common room, killing time before supper.
"You're looking less ferocious today, White." Sirius Black said, walking by with James Potter. "You and lover-boy get over your spat?"
"Which one?" she asked without looking up.
"What?" Potter asked.
"Which lover-boy?" she deadpanned. "I've got them queueing up, you know."
Potter scoffed. Alice giggled.
"I think they're talking about Lupin but it could be that Slytherin fellow." Alice said with a smirk.
"Ahh, you ruined it Alice." Calandra wrinkled her nose. "I'd go with a Hufflepuff before a snake."
She turned toward the two boys.
"You should know better than anyone else Remus is my mate, nothing more. He's got eyes for Elise Conners."
"What?" Potter's mouth dropped open.
"You didn't know?" Calandra laughed.
"He has class with her." Potter said. "They do homework together."
"Right." Calandra said tapping her pencil to her chin. "They have one class together, which he also shares with all of us, and he chooses to do homework with her."
The two boys looked at one another.
"Four days a week." Calandra added.
"He does homework with you and I'm in your Runes Class and your Arithmancy Class." Black pointed out.
"We're partners in Runes. We do homework together Tuesdays and Thursdays and half the time you're there now, too." Calandra laughed. "When's the last time either of you joined in on one of his other study sessions?"
Black and Potter looked to one another flummoxed. Calandra flipped a page in her sketchbook and hurriedly drew lines across it. She bit back a smile and rubbed her pencil across the page.
Alice looked between the two boys.
"You're really saying you haven't noticed, Black?" She asked. "You're always sweet talking some witch, figured you'd notice."
"I'm not very well trying to do homework with them, Fawcett." He scoffed.
"Maybe she's really good at Charms." Potter wondered.
Alice laughed and flipped a page in her magazine.
"I'd say she is, but not the kind you learn about in class." She said. "And Callie's got top marks in Flitwick's class."
Calandra gave a self-satisfied grin. The portrait hole swung open and Remus Lupin ducked inside. He called out to his friends and cocked his head.
"You coming to down to dinner?" he asked. "Pete's waiting for us."
"Where have you been?" Potter asked.
"Going over homework." He said.
"What class?" Potter narrowed his eyes.
"Charms." Remus said, looking between Potter and Calandra.
Potter rolled his eyes and shook his head, disgusted. He and Black crossed the room muttering to each other. Remus looked at Calandra confusedly. She smiled and held up her sketchbook.
"Isn't their reaction priceless?" she asked.
"Their reaction to what?" he asked staring down at the sketch of his two friends.
"Your torrid love affair." Alice said.
Remus's face grew red and he shook his head. Calandra smiled and put her things away. She hopped off the couch and motioned for Alice and Remus to follow her.
"Come on!" she said. "It's dinnertime!"