Chapter 41
"How long did it take for you to become an animagus?"
McGonagall looked at Calypso, surprised. "A little less than two years."
They were transfiguration class and McGonagall was reviewing human transfigurations including animagi.
"Was it a difficult process"
"It requires a lot of precision and patience, Miss Lestrange"
Daphne poked Calypso's shoulder once they were out of class. "Are you seriously thinking of becoming an animagus?"
Calypso shrugged, "We're in the fifth year now, right? So if I start now, I can finish by the time I graduate. It would be helpful don't you think? And I could accompany Draco since werewolves are only dangerous to humans"
Daphne scowled, "Aren't you busy enough already?"
"Eh. I could make it work"
"Whatever."
"So you'll help me?"
"I'll think about it" grumbled Daphne. "What exactly are you going to turn into?"
"Well nobody knows do they?"
Daphne grinned, "Imagine if you were an ant"
"I wouldn't mind...that would be good for hiding"
"Yeah I guess…" said Daphne thoughtfully. "I'll try it to then"
"You will?!"
Daphne nodded, "I could do with some good hiding right now"
"Right, so we need mandrake leaves, untouched dew, and the chrysalis of a Death's Head Hawk Moth," Daphne said, flipping through an old thick book that Theo gave to them about animgi.
"What the heck is a death's head hawkmoth?" Calypso grumbled, flipping another old yellowish parchment. At the corner of each page, the Nott family crest was stamped. Whoever wrote these sure were narcissistic enough to stamp their name on each page, front and back.
Daphne pointed to a rather ugly picture of a human-like skull. "That thing"
"You can find some in Filch's office" offered Tracey who was just now entering the Slytherin common room with Theo. Tracey's lipstick was slightly smudged- Calypso wasn't even going to guess what they were doing. "I saw them when I was in there, the first year" Tracey continued.
"Are you sure it's still there?" Daphne demanded.
"Yes...I just saw them now, flying around his office. The recipe says you need a chrysalis right?" asked Tracey, leaning forward, her chocolate brown curls resting behind her ear.
Calypso nodded. "Yeah. Now, do you have any idea where we could find untouched dew?"
"I got it from the garden" Theo offered.
Everyone stared at him, "WHAT?!"
"Damn, I was supposed to keep it a secret."
Calypso crossed her arms. "WHAT?"
Theo morphed into a horse, in the process trampling a piece of paper that had fallen to the floor, and back. The horse looked familiar yet foreign somehow.
"I figured it out when a year before Hogwarts"
"What the fuck" Daphne demanded. "And you never told me!"
"Yeah well, there's like a death penalty to Azkaban for not registering yourself and I rather not have the Ministry track my every move"
Calypso looked around the empty common room carefully. "You're lucky there's no one else here."
"Duh there's no one else here"
"Hmm. Wait-" An image of the dark horse with pale blue eyes that she had seen on Hogwarts grounds in her third year flashed in her mind. "I saw you in our third year"
Theo smiled at her dryly. "Good job, you've figured it out. Would you like a gold sticker?"
Calypso rolled her eyes, "You're ridiculous"
"Do you want my help or not?"
"Yes" Calypso admitted, they needed all the help they could get if they wanted to successfully become animagi.
"Fine, so you should probably collect all the needed ingredients first."
"Okay, so mandrake leaf, that's easy enough. Just sneak into the Greenhouse and get it. I think I still have the invisibility cloak we borrowed from Potter"
"What?"
Calypso forgot that Tracy was still there. "Oh, in our third year, we got Potter lost this cloak that turns people invisible and we found it. And you know, finders keepers"
"But those don't work do they?" Tracey asked, her eyebrows furrowing.
"But this one does" Calypso assured her, "It's- it was the famous Boy-Who-Lived who used to own it after all"
Tracey nodded thoughtfully, "Fair point"
"Yeah. I'll show you"
With that, Calypso turned on her heel and ran up to the girl's dormitory, and threw open her trunk. She tried to be quiet but in her defense, she was in a hurry okay?
Within seconds, Pansy woke up, followed by Altaira and Leta but somehow not Helena. "What are you doing?" Pansy hissed.
Calypso looked at all of them through the dark. "Sorry! Go back to sleep now"
Altaira grumbled a bit and rubbed her eyes. "Are you looking for something"
Calypso waved her hand, "It's fine, you guys go back to sleep!"
To her surprise, Altaira didn't even complain, she just fell back into the pillows, asleep before her head even hit the bed.
"Wingardium leviosa!" thought Calypso hard, concentrating on her luggage. Thankfully, luck was on her side and her trunk peacefully floated in correspondence to her wand. She directed it down the stairs, (there was some difficulty with the door) and walked down herself, only to slip on a ramp.
"Her- AHHHH!"
Tracey helped her up. "He tried to go up" she shrieked, poking Theo.
"I didn't know Salazar was so sexist" he scowled before changing the subject. "Have you found it-" then eyeing the luggage, "-I guess not actually."
Daphne walked up from the desk where she was about to fall asleep. "Accio Invisibility Cloak!" she whispered.
Nothing happened.
"Fuck"
Calypso rolled her eyes, "Real eloquent. It's got to have charms to prevent it from being summoned anyway. Just look through it"
…
"How much clothing do you have in here?" Daphne demanded after 5 minutes of running Calypso's neat, COLOR COORDINATED, stacks of clothes and shoes.
"Not much" muttered Calypso offhandedly. "Come to think of it, am I sure it's not at Lestrange Manor?"
"WHAT?!" Tracey demanded. "You mean to tell us that it's not even here?"
"I know" Calypso groaned. "You messed up my stacks for no reason!"
"Seriously?"
Theo sighed and waved his wand to clean up the mess again from where he sat, crisscrossed on the dungeon floor. "Do you have any firecrackers then?"
"WHAT?!" Tracey demanded for the second time in a few moments. "ARE YOU SUGGESTING WE BLOW UP HER HOUSE?!"
"No…" he said thoughtfully. "But we could do that too. I'm suggesting that since Calypso forgot her cloak, we need a diversion in our next Herbology class."
"Oh" Tracey pouted, "I think blowing up her place would be more interesting"
Calypso glared at them, "A few of my prized possessions happen to be in the said house!"
"So do you have firecrackers or not?" Theo interrupted.
Calypso shook her head. "I can get some from the Weasley twins though. How much do you think they would charge me?"
Daphne shrugged, "For a normal person, a few sickles. For you, since you petrified the lot of them, I suggest bringing your Gringotts key"
"Daphne…."
"Fine, a maybe ten galleons"
"I can do that," said Calypso easily.
"Okay, in Herbology, one of us can just cause a diversion and then pluck a few leaves off of the mandrakes in Greenhouse 3."
Turns out, that easy easier said than done.
First, she had to convince the Weasley twins to sell her firecrackers and they finally did, (Through a long line of well-placed contacts that may or may not have just passed it along, all claiming that they needed it with no one knowing Calypso was behind it.)
Then in Herbology, they were working in Greenhouse 5, which, as far as Calypso was concerned, was the furthest from Greenhous 3 which was right upfront.
"Right, I'll drop the firecracker" Calypso whispered throwing it under the table. "You run out and grab a few leaves!"
Daphne nodded.
"On my word" Calypso hissed, eyeing the firecracker, "three, two, one, now!"
The firecracker exploded in a burst, shooting sparks and quickly catching the nearest plants on fire. "Oh my god" Calypso whispered.
"EVERYONE OUT!" professor Sprout shouted, shooting water at the plants.
When everyone and everything had calmed down, Calypso could see just how much damage the firecracker had done. The entire left wing of the greenhouse was scorched and most of the plants were withering or exploding, except a few.
A minute later, Daphne ran in, panting, and stuffed a few leaves into Calypso's pocket.
"Oh, Salazar- do you know how far away that greenhouse is?"
Calypso didn't answer and just stared at the burning plants in horror, "What have we done?"
Daphne eyed the explosion, "It's nothing, chill. Even if anyone found out, Umbridge wouldn't expel you, you're her favorite?"
Calypso glared at Daphne, "What?"
"Oh yes," Daphne said earnestly, "You should hear her talk about you to the other staff, 'She's just lovely, asks the best questions, blah blah blah'"
Calypso frowned, "Two things. One, why are you listening in on the staff meetings, and two, the only question I ever asked was if I could use the restroom!"
"Hmmm. Well to answer your first question, I don't remember actually...I just went to the kitchen to get some whisky, then somehow ended up in the staff room, then I walked out as everyone was walking in"
"Daphne! Stop drinking" Calypso scowled. "But we got the leaves!"
Back in the common room that night, they stayed huddled up in the corner over an old Nott book on the precise steps.
Thou shalt put thee mandrake leaf in thy's mouth for one month. Precisely from one full moon to the next. If thee moon is clouded then thy will have to start over.
"Wow. The next full moon is on October 8th. That's tonight"
"WHAT?!" Calypso demanded.
"Mhm, look" Daphne tapped an astrology chart. "That means we have to keep the mandrake leaf in our mouth now for a month right?"
"Yeah… let's use one of those sticking charms. There are no rules against it…"
Daphne shrugged. "Sure" she put the leaf underneath her tongue, "Exposimise right?"
Calypso nodded.
"Exposimise!"
"Good?"
"Yeah…" Daphne wiggled her tongue to demonstrate. It's stuck now!"
"Great, my turn, Exposimise!"
Sure enough, the leaf stuck onto the bottom of her tongue. "Okay…" It felt a little strange to speak, but hopefully nobody would notice.
Daphne frowned, staring at Calypso's tongue. "Should we put disillusionment charms on it?"
"Why? Is it noticeable?"
"Kind of" Daphne admitted. "It's like there's something green at the bottom of your tongue"
"Oh"
"So more charms it is" Daphne decided, waving her wand a bit more. "You know, the cloak would be helpful though. Maybe you should ask one of your house elves to send it to you"
"Right," Calypso said hesitantly. She forgot that Daphne still didn't know that she was living with her mum. "Yeah, I'll write to them tomorrow. For now, we should get some sleep"
The charms turned out ot be tricky business, every morning, it had to be recast for it to last for the day. And it was incredibly difficult to sleep with something stuck to the bottom of your mouth.
It was one Saturday morning, and Calypso woke up to get ready for Quidditch practice. She just finished re-sticking the leaf as it had been floating around her mouth that morning and got up. It would be their last one before the match. Never had Calypso wished for Flint to be here but now she did. Who knew making different strategies would be this hard? But it was certainly helpful that Professor Snape booked the Quidditch pitch almost every day for them.
"Ugh" Calypso groaned, looking out at the sky. "I wish a month was over already, it looks like there's going to be a thunderstorm tonight"
Daphne glanced up at the clouds. "Yeah...well good luck. I have like three hundred essays to finish. Meet you in the library after practice?"
Calypso shrugged. "Sure."
Once Daphne had disappeared into the castle, Calypso shouldered her Nimbus 2001 and walked down to the Quidditch pitch to wait for everyone else, having already changed into the uniform.
"Hello Draco"
He glanced at her mouth. "What's the green thing there?"
"Oh my god-" Calypso mentally cursed herself for forgetting to cast the disillusionment charm this morning on it. "Sorry, that's nothing you have to worry about. Let's get started everyone"
Draco glared at her but didn't say anything as he told everyone to line up.
"The Quidditch match will be on the day of the full moon" Calypso suddenly realized, jumping up. "DRACO"
Draco turned from across the Slytherin room, annoyed. "What Lestrange?"
"DO YOU KNOW WHEN THE QUIDDITCH MATCH IS?!"
Draco sighed, "November 6th why?"
Calypso rolled her eyes. "COME WITH ME RIGHT NOW DRACO!"
She stomped across the room, grabbed Draco by the arm, and dragged him out. "November 6 is the day of the full moon you idiot"
Draco gasped, "You're joking"
"No absolutely not," Calypso said grimly. "Please say your drinking the potion?"
"I am...I thought the full moon was November 7th"
"SERIOUSLY?" Calypso demanded. "Well come on! You are going to come with me and we are going to tell Snape to change the date"
"Fine" Draco groaned.
Ten minutes later, they were standing in front of Snape's office. (They had to take a few detours due to the nasty poltergeist)
'Knock knock knock"
"Come in" Professor Snape's voice drawled from inside.
"Hello Professor"
He looked up, "Oh hello Miss Calypso. And Mister Malfoy. Can I help you?"
"Er..you see, the Quidditch match is on the night of the full moon, so we were wondering if it could be rescheduled?"
Snape stared at her. "You'll have to take it up to the High Inquisitor."
"Fine, thanks anyway"
Professor Snape nodded and returned to grading papers.
"Let's go to Umbridge-"
"No!" Draco shrieked. "She can't know!"
Calypso narrowed her eyes, "And why not?"
"Because she hates werewolves! And-"
Calypso sighed. "Fine...what should I tell the rest of the team then?"
"I'm ill will a disease," Draco said promptly.
"Ugh, you're lucky I'm so nice. Let's go then"
Understandably, the rest of the team was not pleased that their captain had fallen ill a day before the match.
"I'll be playing seeker" Calypso sighed. "Theo, your playing chaser, no complaints!"
Theo glared at her, "I told you, NO!"
"Come on love" Tracey begged. "It'll be fun!"
"No!"
Geez, he could be stubborn sometimes.
"PLEEEEEASE"
"I told you no"
"Come on!"
"No"
"Please Theo" Calypso pleaded. "Please. I'll pay you", she added.
"No"
"50 galleons" Calypso offered.
Some other people in the room looked up. "Pay me 10 and I'll play"
Calypso scoffed at all of them. "Come on Theo, please!"
"No"
"60"
"No"
"75, that's my final offer"
Theo tilted his head. "Fine. I'll play"
"Yess!" Calypso cheered.
The morning of the match dawned bright and cold. Although Draco wouldn't be participating, he still had a few surprises in stock. Once they got to the Great Hall, he began handing out little silver, crown-shaped badges. 'Weasley is our king'
Calypso stared at it, "What the? Draco, did you stay up all night making these?"
"Maybe"
"You need to rest!" Calypso shrieked.
"Eh, the first one was the worst. I don't even feel that tired today. Now come on!" he aggressively shook the box of badges in her face until she took on and pinned it next to the Slytherin crest on her robes.
After everyone got some breakfast, they all walked down to the Quidditch pitch. "Captains shake hands," ordered the umpire, Madam Hooch.
Calypso shook hands with Angelina sinch Draco was unable to.
"Mount your brooms. . . ." Madam Hooch placed her whistle in her mouth and blew. The balls were released and the fourteen players shot upward.
Almost immediately, Calypso had to remind herself that she was the seeker now, her job was to catch the snitch and watch Potter.
She aimed her broom higher, closely following Potter who seemed to be trying to shake her off by doing loop-de-loops.
"And it's Johnson, Johnson with the Quaffle, what a player that girl is, I've been saying it for years but she still won't go out with me —"
"JORDAN!" yelled Professor McGonagall.
"Just a fun fact, Professor, adds a bit of interest — and she's ducked Urqhart, she's passed Nott, she's — ouch — been hit from behind by a Bludger from Crabbe. . . . Nott catches the Quaffle, Nott heading back up the pitch and — nice Bludger there from George Weasley, that's a Bludger to the head for Nott, he drops the Quaffle, caught by Katie Bell, Katie Bell of Gryffindor reverse passes to Alicia Spinnet and Spinnet's away —"
Lee Jordan's commentary rang through the stadium and Calypso listened as hard as she could through the wind whistling in his ears and the din of the crowd, all yelling and booing and singing —
"— dodges Vaisey, avoids a Bludger — close call, Alicia — and the crowd are loving this, just listen to them, what's that they're singing?"
And as Lee paused to listen the song rose loud and clear from the sea of green and silver in the Slytherin section of the stands:
Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why Slytherins all sing:
Weasley is our King.
Weasley was born in a bin,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley will make sure we win,
Weasley is our King.
"— and Alicia passes back to Angelina!" Lee shouted, "Come on now, Angelina — looks like she's got just the Keeper to beat! — SHE SHOOTS — SHE — aaaah . . ."
Calypso smiled as her keeper saved the goal, Theo caught the quaffle from her, playing remarkably well for his first time ever, and flew towards Weasley-
Weasley is our King,
Weasley is our King,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley is our King-
Calypso watched Potter abandon his search for the snitch and fly towards Weasley to help save the Quaffle. That would give her more time to search, but where the fuck was the snitch anyway.
Calypso decided she much preferred being a chaser, seeking was boring.
"— and it's Nott with the Quaffle, Nott heading for goal, he's out of Bludger range with just the Keeper ahead —"
A great swell of the song rose from the Slytherin stands below:
Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring . . .
"— so it's the first test for new Gryffindor Keeper, Weasley, brother of Beaters, Fred and George, and a promising new talent on the team — come on, Ron!"
But the scream of delight came from the Slytherin end: Weasley had dived wildly, his arms wide, and the Quaffle had soared between them, straight through the central hoop.
"Slytherin score!" came Lee's voice amid the cheering and booing from the crowds below. "So that's ten-nil to Slytherin — bad luck, Ron . . ."
The Slytherins sang even louder:
WEASLEY WAS BORN IN A BIN,
HE ALWAYS LETS THE QUAFFLE IN . . .
"— and Gryffindor back in possession and it's Katie Bell tanking up the pitch —" cried Lee valiantly, though the singing was now so deafening that he could hardly make himself heard above it.
WEASLEY WILL MAKE SURE WE WIN,
WEASLEY IS OUR KING . . .
Calypso smiled at the green and silver-clad crowd before resuming her search for the snitch.
WEASLEY IS OUR KING,
WEASLEY IS OUR KING . . .
"— and it's Nott again," bellowed Lee, "who passes to Vasiey, Vasiey's off past Spinnet, come on now Angelina, you can take him — turns out you can't — but nice Bludger from Fred Weasley, I mean, George Weasley, oh who cares, one of them anyway, and Vasiey drops the Quaffle and Katie Bell — er — drops it too — so that's Urqhart with the Quaffle, Urqhart takes the Quaffle, and he's off up the pitch, come on now Gryffindor, block him!"
Calypso didn't even bother to watch, a cheer from Slytherin showed they won, and she kept on flying across the stadium.
WEASLEY CANNOT SAVE A THING . . .
There was another groan from the Gryffindors and a cheer from the Slytherins, they had scored another goal. But none of that would matter if Potter caught the snitch…
THAT'S WHY SLYTHERINS ALL SING:
WEASLEY IS OUR KING.
Soon, they were leading 50 to nothing and the snitch was still nowhere in sight. Even Potter seemed to be on the edge of panic.
Gryffindor finally scored once, good for them, then Slytherin scored- yay- and finally, the snitch was at the left end of the pitch.
Calypso dove to the goal post, and a second later, Potter was diving too.
The Snitch skirted the foot of one of the goal hoops and scooted off toward the other side of the stands; its change of direction suited Calypso, who was nearer, she reached out with one hand- they were going to crash, she had no clue what the fuck Potter was doing, he was standing on his broom, and his fingers closed around the golden ball. Calypso's fingernails clawed at the back of Potter's hand desperately, but he held the golden snitch tight.
Catching the snitch was just one obstacle though, now she had to avoid getting flattened, both her and Potter and flying towards the ground at a high velocity, her broom was pulling up, but not nearly fast enough.
She jumped off her broom at the last second, the Nimbus skidding to a halt around the stadium.
Suddenly, there was a shrill whistle and an uproar of angry voices. She turned around to see Potter unconscious on the floor, it looked like a bludger had hit him square in the back, oh she could hug whoever hit it at him right now.
Calypso sneered at Potter as he slowly got up, her face white with fury.
"Saved Weasley's neck, haven't you? I've never seen a worse Keeper . . . but then he was born in a bin. . . . Did you like our lyrics, Potter?"
"Shove off" hissed Johnson.
Calypso snarled, well aware that all the teachers were watching. If only she could get Potter to attack…
"We wanted to write another couple of verses!" Calypso called, as Katie and Alicia hugged Potter.
"But we couldn't find rhymes for fat and ugly — we wanted to sing about his mother, see —" Calypso sighed. The truth was, she hadn't even known the existence of the song until the Slytherins sang it.
"— We couldn't fit in useless loser either — for his father, you know —", she added as an afterthought.
The Weasley twins both turned towards her, the rest of the Slytherins were landed by now as well.
"— But you like the Weasleys, don't you, Potter?" she said, sneering. "Spend holidays there and everything, don't you? Can't see how you stand the stink, but I suppose when you've been dragged up by Muggles even the Weasleys' hovel smells okay —"
"Or perhaps," said Calypso leering as she backed away from Potter and the Weasleys who was threatening to jump out her, "you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it —"
Suddenly, Potter and the Weasley's both charged at her.
Calypso yelped, throwing them back with a shield. Yes...she thought contempt, they were done for now.
Crabbe and Goyle stood protectively in front of her, just back from getting chewed out by Madam Hooch.
Potter and the Weasley's were still trying to break through Crabbe and Goyle and her shield-
"IMPEDIMENTA!"
Madam Hooch stormed forward. "What do you think you're doing?"
"I've never seen behavior like it — back up to the castle, both of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"
Calypso smirked as Umbridge came over to her. "Are you okay dear?"
Calypso nodded, "I think so..but lucky Madam Hooch noticed, or else-"
"It's okay dear. I'll make sure they're kicked off at least, come on. Nott, Vasiey- take her to the hospital wing just in case"
Vasiey took her broom from her, "I'll take it back to the common room"
"Thanks"
Once Umbridge was out of earshot, Calypso pushed Theo away. "I'm fine" she hissed. "We need to get changed. Oh, I hope Potter is expelled" Calypso snarled.
"He probably will, did you see Umbridge's face?" Theo said. "She loves you like your her daughter"
Calypso shrugged, "Nice playing today"
"I hate Quidditch" Theo muttered.
"What, why?"
"It's so…" but whatever he wanted to say about it, she would never find out because just then Daphne and Tracey ran towards them.
"Hello! Oh, you did amazing!" Tracey shrieked, hugging Theo. "And you too Calypso! Are you okay?"
Calypso sighed, "I'm fine. Did it look that bad?"
Daphne nodded. "From where we were sitting in the stands, it looked like you were getting attacked!"
"But they didn't even touch me," Calypso said, confused.
"Yeah about that…" Theo said softly.
Everyone wheeled on him. "What did you do?!"
He waved his hand, shrugged, "I saw this spell, it creates an illusion to everyone around you"
"What?!" Calypso demanded.
"I didn't know if it worked or not…"
"It did" Tracey interrupted. "You're brilliant, I love you so much!"
Daphne crossed her arms, "Come on Calypso."
She dragged her back into the castle where Urqhart was gloating. "Did you hear! Potter and the Weasley twins have all got lifelong bans!"
Calypso laughed, "That's great. Excuse us for a moment-" she added as she watched Daphne's stony face, and dragged her into the library around the corner. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Daphne said, shaking out of her daze. "Tonight's the full moon right?"
"Oh yeah!" said Calypso jumping up. "We need to go find some of that chrysalis. Tracey- sorry- she said it was in Filch's office right? We can go now while he's cleaning up the entrance hall"
Daphne nodded and jumped up, "Yeah let's go now!"
"Are you sure-"
"Yes!"
With that, she ran out of the library, Calypso struggling to keep up in her Quidditch uniform.
They ducked into Filch's office together. "Where can they be?"
Calypso pointed to a cage at the opposite side of the room, "Do you reckon those are them?"
Inside the cage was a group of disgusting looking moths, surrounded by white cocoons.
"Yeah" Daphne nodded, miming throwing up, just take some white things and-"
"Hide" hissed Calypso shoving open a closet door. There were a few mops inside, but it was plenty of room for her and Daphne. Just as she closed the door again, she could hear Filch come into his office.
"Cleaning supplies, cleaning supplies" Filch was muttering. "I think they're in the closet-"
Calypso's eyes widened, staring at Daphne who looked equally horrified.
His footsteps were getting closer, and- BOOM!"
There was a loud rock from upstairs, and Filch's footsteps grew quieter once more.
"Thank Salazar" she whispered, snatching up a few chrysalis thingies and running out again, Daphne close behind.
