Chapter 42
Daphne and Calypso were huddled outside under the full moon's bright rays.
"Ready?"
Calypso nodded, double-checking that the chrysalis was in a muggle bag- a Ziploc or something. "Ready"
They both waved their wands, "Finite Incatantem" and the mandrake leaf fell out. "Put it in the vial" Calypso whispered to Daphne, handing her a smile silver vial.
"Now a piece of our hair" Calypso used a severing charm to snip off a piece of her long black hair. "Hand me the dew" Calypso whispered.
Thank gods it was November and the fine drizzles created good, untouched morning dew.
Calypso poured in a silver teaspoon of the condensation, then dropped a little piece of the chrysalis in. "done"
Daphne nodded, holding up the vial to admire it in the moonlight. "It's beautiful"
Calypso stared at the saliva soaked leaf, white lump, the string of hair, and dew. "Beautiful? Hah. We need to put it somewhere safe now".
"Oh yeah"
Daphne followed calypso into a hiding spot that they had agreed on a few hours ago on their way out. It was right beside the castle, on the other side of the shrieking shack in the dirt. They dug a deep hole, and Calypso went first, carefully climbing in and placing the mixture in the dirt. "Your turn"
Once Daphne put in her mixture as well, they levitated the dirt back into its place carefully. "Done"
"Now every sunrise and sunset, we have to chant the incantation until a lightning storm."
"Got it."
From then on, every morning and night, they had to recite the incantation. It annoyingly but into a lot of random trivial things. For example, she was asking Professor Flitwick about Fidelius charms and if the secret keeper could protect themselves with the same charm before realizing that the sun was setting and rushed out. To this day, she still hadn't gotten the answer to her question.
On the bright side of her monotonous schedule, Draco was getting accustomed to his monthly changings- if one could call that a bright side.
One morning, after doing the animgus incantation (Amato Animo Animato Animagus), she and Daphne found out that the half-breed was back and working.
"I wouldn't worry about it," Daphne said sympathetically. "Umbridge'll have him sacked in no time. You just have to ask"
"Oh, right," Calypso said absentmindedly, wondering when a thunderstorm would arrive.
When they all trudged down through the snow to Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid was there with quite the cow over his shoulder and lead them into the Forbidden Forest.
"We're workin' in here today! A bit more sheltered! Anyway, they prefer the dark. . . ."
"What prefers the dark?" Draco asked her sharply, "What did he say prefers the dark- did you hear?"
Calypso shook her head while attempting to clip her hair back. "Don't know, let's stay near the edge of the forest through…"
"Ready?" said Hagrid happily, looking around at the class. "Right, well, I've been savin' a trip inter the forest fer yer fifth year. Thought we'd go an' see these creatures in their natural habitat. Now, what we're studyin' today is pretty rare, I reckon I'm probably the only person in Britain who's managed ter train 'em —"
"And you're sure they're trained, are you?" said Draco, his voice on the edge o panic. "Only it wouldn't be the first time you'd brought wild stuff to class, would it?"
Everyone around them nodded in agreement, including a few Gryffindors who seemed to think he had a fair point.
" 'Course they're trained," said Hagrid, scowling and hoisting the dead cow a little higher on his shoulder.
"So what happened to your face, then?" demanded Draco.
Calypso whistled appreciatively, he was bringing up good points today, five points to Draco!
Unfortunately, Hagrid didn't think so.
"Mind yer own business!" said Hagrid, angrily. "Now if yeh've finished askin' stupid questions, follow me!" He turned and strode straight into the forest. Nobody seemed much disposed to follow except for the 'golden trio' who walked ahead eagerly.
That shouldn't count for anything though, they had long proven themselves to have a death wish.
They walked for about ten minutes until they reached a place where the trees stood so close together that it was as dark as twilight and there was no snow on the ground at all.
Hagrid deposited his half a cow with a grunt on the ground, stepped back, and turned to face his class again, most of whom were creeping toward him from tree to tree, peering around nervously as though expecting to be set upon at any moment.
"Gather roun', gather roun'," said Hagrid encouragingly. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me. . . ."
He turned, shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face, and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird.
Nobody laughed; most of them looked too scared to make a sound.
Hagrid gave the shrieking cry again. A minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of whatever it was that was coming. And then, he called for the third time, then fourth.
Theo inhaled sharply from beside Draco.
"What?!" Draco demanded.
"Thestrals…"
"What?!"
Thestrals...thought Calypso. "Only dead people can see them right?"
Theo glared at her, "I'm not dead thank you very much. Only people who have seen someone die can see them"
Calypso clapped her hand to her mouth, feeling immensely guilty. "Oh my god- sorry!"
Daphne frowned- or at least Calypso thought she did, it was too dark to tell- "Why can't I see them then? I saw his mum die-ish. I just saw her drop to the floor…"
"That must be it then" Calypso whispered back. "I've seen people die too...why can't I see them either?"
"Who'd you see die?", Daphne asked sharply.
Calypso shook her head, "You don't know her"
"Oh.." said Daphne softly, her tone changing in an instant.
But Calypso knew why she couldn't see the thestrals. She hadn't seen her friend die, the adults had only told her afterward. She was unconscious at the time.
Theo glared at the air in front of them with great distaste. "You're not missing out on much. They're disgusting"
That snapped Calypso out of her daze and eyed the pieces of meat disappearing. "What do they look like"
He shrugged, "Black and withery I-"
"Hem, hem. "
Professor Umbridge had arrived, thank god.
"Hem, hem," she repeated at Hagrid who was evidently under the impression that the thestral nearest to him had made the sound since he was staring at it worriedly.
"Oh hello!" Hagrid said, smiling, having located the source of the noise.
"You received the note I sent to your cabin this morning?" said Umbridge, in a nice loud voice to make sure he understood. "Telling you that I would be inspecting your lesson?"
"Oh yeah," said Hagrid brightly. "Glad yeh found the place all right'! Well, as you can see — or, I dunno — can you? We're doin' thestrals today —"
"I'm sorry?" said Umbridge loudly, cupping her hand around her ear and frowning. "What did you say?"
Hagrid looked a little confused. "Er — thestrals!" he said loudly. "Big — er — winged horses, yeh know!" He flapped his gigantic arms hopefully.
Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows at him and muttered as she made a note on her clipboard, " ' has . . . to . . . resort . . . to . . . crude . . . sign . . . language . . .' "
"Well . . . anyway . . ." said Hagrid, turning back to the class and looking slightly flustered. "Erm . . . what was I sayin'?"
" ' Appears . . . to . . . have . . . poor . . . short . . . term . . . memory . . .' " muttered Umbridge, loudly enough for everyone to hear her.
Calypso giggled with the rest of the Slytherins, most of whom looked like Christmas had come a month early.
"Oh yeah," said Hagrid, throwing an uneasy glance at Umbridge's clipboard, but plowing on valiantly. "Yeah, I was gonna tell yeh how come we got a herd. Yeah, so, we started with a male and five females. This one," he patted the first horse to have appeared, "name o' Tenebrus, he's my special favorite, firs' one born here in the forest —"
"Are you aware," Umbridge said loudly, interrupting him, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'?"
Hagrid merely chuckled. "Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ, they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy them —"
Calypso cringed, she had never met someone who liked violence, and Umbridge seemed to be thinking along those lines as she muttered, " ' Shows . . . signs . . . of . . . pleasure . . . at . . . idea . . . of . . . violence . . . ' ", scribbling on her clipboard once more.
"No — come on!" said Hagrid, "I mean, a dog'll bite if yeh bait it, won' it — but thestrals have jus' got a bad reputation because o' the death thing — people used ter think they were bad omens, didn' they? Jus' didn' understand, did they?"
Umbridge did not answer; she finished writing her last note, then looked up at Hagrid and said, "Please continue teaching as usual. I am going to walk" — she mimed walking — "among the students" — she pointed around at individual members of the class — "and ask them questions." She pointed at her mouth to indicate talking.
"So Miss Calypso. Do you find that you can understand what he is saying?" Calypso giggled and took a deep breath through a fit of laughter to eye Hagrid with hatred. Anyone related to those foul murderers deserved to be fired. "Well, no. No . . . because . . . well . . . it sounds . . . like grunting a lot of the time. . . ."
Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard, nodding.
"Er . . . yeah . . . good stuff abou' thestrals. Well, once they're tamed, like this lot, yeh'll never be lost again. 'Mazin' senses o' direction, jus' tell 'em where yeh want ter go —" continued Hagrid.
"Assuming they can understand you, of course," said Draco loudly, and Calypso collapsed in another fit of giggles. Draco was making good points today.
Professor Umbridge smiled indulgently at them and then turned to Longbottom. "You can see the thestrals, Longbottom, can you?" she said.
Longbottom nodded.
"Whom did you see die?" she asked, her tone indifferent.
"My . . . my grandad," said Neville.
"And what do you think of them?" she said, waving her stubby hand at the horses, who by now had stripped a great deal of the carcass down to the bone.
"Erm," said Longbottom, nervously glancing at the intimidating half-breed. "Well, they're . . . er . . . okay. . . ."
" ' Students . . . are . . . too . . . intimidated . . . to . . . admit . . . they . . . are . . . frightened. . . .' " muttered Umbridge, making another note on her clipboard.
"No, no, I'm not scared of them — !" he stuttered dishonestly.
"It's quite all right," said Umbridge, patting Longbottom with a nice, understanding smile.
"Well, Hagrid," she turned to look up at him again, "I think I've got enough to be getting along with. . . . You will receive"
— she mimed taking something from the air in front of her —
"The results of your inspection"
— she pointed at the clipboard —
"in ten days."
She held up ten stubby little fingers, then, her smile wider and more toadlike than ever before beneath her green hat, she bustled from their midst.
"That's a nice hat" Calypso complimented as Umbridge left, and she truly meant it, it matched nicely with her little jacket and showed her Slytherin pride.
Umbridge looked at her, smiling, "Thank you dear" before leaving with a happy stride in her steps.
"You're too nice for your good you know. I thought it made her look a bit like a toad" Daphne whispered to her an hour later as they headed back to the castle.
Calypso waved her off, "What is it that Weasley is saying?"
Daphne shrugged and followed Draco towards the trio.
"Yeah, Weasley, we were just wondering," Draco said as they got nearer, "D'you reckon if you saw someone snuff it you'd be able to see the Quaffle better?"
Everyone laughed before starting to sing 'Weasely is our King' again.
She didn't know why Weasely was so bothered, he should be proud to be their king. Then at least he would have enough gold to buy himself some decent dress robes.
December arrived, bringing with it more snow and a positive avalanche of homework for the fifth year. At least Blaise mostly covered the prefect duties with Justin, the Head Boy. ("You've got enough to do with Quidditch practices") he explained, trying to look at though he was enjoying supervising the Christmas decoration.
He wasn't fooling anyone though, she had heard him complain to Draco, "You try putting up tinsel when Peeves has got the other end and is trying to strangle you with it," or when he had to watch the first years spend the break inside, "And they're cheeky little snotrags, you know, we weren't that rude when we were in the first year", or even worse, when he had to patrol the corridors with Filch, "He's got dung for brains, that one,".
She was buying him a nice present for Christmas, and Justin too.
The day before Christmas, she got a letter from her mum, signed anonymously of course.
"Please stay at Hogwarts dear, and Merry Christmas!"
"That's cheerful" groaned Calypso, throwing the parchment into the fire.
"You don't want to stay at Hogwarts then?" guessed Theo from behind her.
"What- oh I don't mind."
Calypso was in a very bad mood lately, her patience wearing extremely thin from having to say the animagus incantation every morning and night.
"Well if it makes you feel any better, you can stay over at Nott Manor"
"Is that your idea of cheering me up?" she groaned, throwing an empty bottle of ink across the room into the rubbish bin. "Because it obviously will, since it's got be the most cheerful place I've been to," she said sarcastically.
Theo glared at her, "Is it that bad? Besides, my father won't be there. He's off on some secret mission to find giants"
"Not a very well kept secret by the looks of it"
"It is though" Theo argued, "the Dark Lord already got the giant's on our side, Macnair went over the summer. My father hasn't even told the Dark Lord of his plans yet, he just left, at least that's what Zeren said. But I may have misinterpreted the code…"
"Oh, I guess I'll stay over then. It's bloody cold in the castle and bloody warm in my house. You better hope that your place is a nice temperature if you like your nose the shape it is"
Theo smirked, "I'll take that into account"
"Aren't you worried that the giants are going to kill your father?"
He stared at me, "I am, but-"
"You wouldn't mind if they did?"
"Yeah basically"
"You're a horrible person"
Theo rolled his eyes, "Whatever. Have you finished packing yet?"
"Oh right" Calypso jumped off the couch.
The next morning, everyone was on the train getting ready to leave. Daphne was going to say at Hogwarts with Astoria since their mum needed time to sort some things out and Draco was staying as well because his father didn't want a werewolf in the house or whatever.
"How long of a ride left" Calypso muttered about halfway through.
"Three hours left. But don't get your hopes up, Zeren might not be here to pick us up until midnight"
"Seriously?"
"Well I hope you brought something to do"
Turns out, Zeren was very punctual and was waiting on the platform for us.
"Hello Theodore, and you're Calypso?"
Calypso nodded, "Hi"
Zeren crossed his arms and glared at Theo, "It's polite to say hi back"
"I know"
"One day father will finally understand what a lost cause you are" Zeren muttered under his breath.
"You've said that for years"
Zeren sneered at Theo before grabbing both of their hands to apparate them to Nott Manor.
"There. And to your room, I don't want to see you till dinner. Your girlfriend can do whatever she wants"
Surprisingly, Theo didn't even bother to correct him. "And what are you going to do if I don't stay in my room?"
"Then I'll lock you up"
"Rude"
"Should've been thinking about that a few minutes ago" Zeren retorted.
Theo rolled his eyes and looked at me, "You can put your stuff on the third floor."
"Which room?"
"Doesn't matter" Zeren interrupted. "Take your pick. Or you can use all the rooms. Girls have a lot of stuff"
"How would you know?" asked Theo. "No girl has even come near you on their own without their wand raised in defense"
"Okay, STOP!" Calypso shouted, stepping in front of Zeren who had just grabbed his wand. "STOP! Theo go to your room! And Zeren, you too!"
To her surprise, they both left. It was so shocking to see that she stayed glued to her spot before a house-elf appeared. "Would miss like anything to drink?"
"What?" she said, snapping out of her daze. "Oh uh, I heard Daphne talking about this thing- bubble milk tea...can I have that?"
"Of course miss." and the house-elf scurried away.
Once he was out of range to be accidentally knocked out by her luggage, Calypso levitated them up to the third floor.
The ceiling was made of stained glass and she could see the sun through it- which was strange since most Manors had more than 3 floors, and there was a long hallway straight down the middle to a balcony with rooms on the left and right side of it.
She directed her stuff into the first room on the left, there was a queen-sized bed with dusty sheets that looked like it hadn't been touched in ages. She supposed the house-elves didn't normally clean this layer of the house.
After settling in and getting house elves to clean the place up, she began exploring the place. The last time she was here, she only got to see the basement so this time, she was determined to find out what other mysteries this manor had with no one to stop her.
Turns out, it was similar to every other place she'd ever been to, a few studies, a few bedrooms, a grand dining room, and the left-wing was reserved for the elves.
Finally, she decided to go find Theo.
It took a while, but she finally found the basement door, which was wooden with gleaming silver nails on either side.
Calypso raised her fist to the wood and knocked three times sharply.
"Yes?"
"Can I come in?"
Calypso suspected he just groaned behind the door. "Help yourself, it's not locked"
"Oh" she pushed harshly on the door and it opened with a slow creak. "Hello"
"Hi...I suppose you had a reason for coming to visit?"
"Well yeah," Calypso blinked at his ability to see right through her. "How did you-"
He rolled his eyes, "You're mind is incredibly easy to read when you're distracted"
Calypso glared at him, "Get out of my mind!"
"As you wish. So you want to ask me why I didn't tell Zeren you weren't my girlfriend?"
Calypso threw a book at him that was lying on the floor. "I told you to get out of my mind!"
"I did," he said with an innocent look that wasn't fooling anyone.
She decided to ignore his last statement, "But why didn't you?"
"Well, two things. One, it would annoy Zeren and I love doing that-"
"Of course you do"
"Don't interrupt me. And because if he tells father, he can't even complain because you're a pureblood Slytherin with death eater parents and all that lovely stuff"
Calypso frowned, "What about Tracey?"
"It's what I just said, isn't it? Her parents are death eaters and she's half-blood"
I crossed my arms, "So I'm your cover-up?"
"You make it sound like a bad thing" Theo scowled.
"It is! Poor Tracey, honestly. Do you have to break every girl's heart?"
"Who's did I break?"
Calypso counted them off on her fingers, "Celestia's probably, and Tracey's if she finds out, and Daphne's obviously-"
"Daphne?"
"Yes, Daphne. The poor girl"
Theo raised his eyebrows, "'Poor girl'?"
"Not as in she doesn't' have money!" Calypso shrieked. "As in her feelings are getting hurt. She's fancied you for the longest time ever and you're just over here dating everyone but her!"
"Sorry?"
"Sorry?!" demanded Calypso. "Don't say sorry to me! And not her either, that'll make her more upset."
"Then what do you want me to do?"
Calypso sat down and rubbed her eyes. "Why are love lives so complicated?"
"Oh gee I don't know," Theo said sarcastically.
"It was a rhetorical question!" Calypso snapped. "I need some food"
Theo waved in the direction of the kitchen upstairs, "Suit yourself."
Dinner that night was awkward, Zeren was in a very foul mood and Theo was being his usual self, all unsociable and grumpy. All in all, she couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts, though the temperature was nice in the Nott Manor.
