Chapter 43

On the train ride back to Hogwarts when the winter break was over, Theo showed me the time turner he's been working on after multiple requests and tantrums from Calypso.

"Ooooh"
Theo rolled his eyes, "Calm down, you're acting like a three-year-old."
"Wait….does it work tho?" Calypso wondered, twisting the top a few times absent-mindedly. When she stopped the world began to spin, and she gasped, "What the-"
"Oh, shit" Theo cursed grabbing Calypso's hand. "HOGWARTS!" he shouted.

"Wait what?" Calypso just had time to ask before they appeared on Hogwarts grounds. It was early in the morning.

"Where are we?" Calypso whispered.

"Hogwarts" he hissed back, looking around. "Look, those are the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang vehicles."
"Oh, so we're in our fourth year...hey look! That's a newspaper on the ground…" Calypso ran forward and picked up the propped paper on the ground. "I left this here last night, a year ago obviously. That means it's the third task today!"
"Oh I suppose it is"
"Theo! I just realized, can we please go stop Cassius from dying?" she pleaded.

He frowned, "You can't change reality miss. But we do have to do is send that letter to me on Apollo remember? The one Snape said not to mess with?"
"Wait...but I want to keep Cassius alive!"
He scoffed, "I said no. Come on now, quick before we run out of time"

Calypso barely had time to form a response before she sprinted after him to the Owlery to find Apollo. When she reached there, her golden owl was already off in the air, looking a little confused.

"Seriously Theo? Why did Apollo even let you-"
Theo rolled his eyes, "That owl was just eager for a job. And her too" he pointed to a snowy white owl, Artemis.

"I don't-"

"HOLD ON!" he shouted, suddenly interrupted me and thrusting a slightly warn time-turner into my hand.

The world began spinning again and before Calypso knew it, she fell back onto her seat on the train.

"So it works then eh?" she asked, still slightly breathless from the sprint up to the Owlery.

"I would hope so, but I wouldn't be so sure now"
Calypso handed the hourglass back to him, "Sorry. How much is Lucius paying you to make this?"
"If I finish it by the time I'm out of school? 5000 galleons"
"But aren't you done with it now?"
Theo laughed bitterly, "I wish. You know- well I don't suppose you do actually- when creating stuff like this, there'll be quite a few flaws.

"Oh? Like what?"
"Like how you can only stay back in time for five minutes as you may have just noticed. "
"Is that an issue?" Calypso wondered, it had been quite helpful back then, she thought they would have to stay there forever.
Obviously. Lucius wants that particular setback gone"
Calypso frowned, "You said it like there are others"

"There are. Such as if you don't meet the time limit, the time turner starts melting"
"That is an issue" agreed Calypso. "What if you can't fix it?"

"Then I get 2000 galleons"
"That's still enough to last you for years though! I mean, look at the Weasleys, they've gotten by with seven children and 5 galleons"
"I know, I just like completing goals if they're set already?"
Calypso leaned back into the train seat. "That's a nice outlook of life"
"Yeah?"

She looked out the window where the sun was setting and performed the animagus charm again, then slowly drifted off to sleep. The seats were nice and cushiony…

Then before she knew it, she was being shaken awake by Theo. "Wake up. Where here."
Calypso peered out the window, sure enough, it was dark outside and raining. "Oh yeah," Calypso rubbed her eyes and sat up. "How long was I sleeping for?"
Theo checked his invisible watch. "5 hours at most"

"Ahhh" Calypso muttered, standing up and stretching. "Let's get off the train now. And wait- is there lighting outside or is it just a regular storm?"
He rolled his eyes, "It's only light rain, you'll be fine"
"No, that's not what I meant- just if its a lighting storm, then I've missed the animagus date"
"Oh, well it's not a lightning storm so quit whining and come on"
Calypso huffed and followed him off the train onto one of the thestral carriages. In the dark and rain, his pale blue eyes gleamed brightly, and his dark hair was plastered across his forehead...no, calypso needed to snap out of it and just get on the bloody carriage.

The next morning at breakfast, Apollo delivered a newspaper to her from her mum.

"Who's sent you that?" Daphne asked, looking over at the roll.

"Er-" Calypso made up her mind. "My mum. I'm living with her now", she whispered.
"Why didn't you tell me?", Daphne demanded.

"Well, I didn't know how you would react…"
Daphne glared at her, "Whatever, what's the newspaper say?"
Calypso carefully unfurled the paper. It was all soggy and it seemed to Calypso like Apollo had flown through the rain to get to her.

MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN

MINISTRY FEARS BLACK IS "RALLYING POINT" FOR OLD DEATH EATERS

The Ministry of Magic announced late last night that there has been a mass breakout from Azkaban. Speaking to reporters in his private office, Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, confirmed that ten high-security prisoners escaped in the early hours of yesterday evening and that he has already informed the Muggle Prime Minister of the dangerous nature of these individuals.

"We find ourselves, most, unfortunately, in the same position we were two and a half years ago when the murderer Sirius Black escaped," said Fudge last night. "Nor do we think the two breakouts are unrelated. An escape of this magnitude suggests outside help, and we must remember that Black, as the first person ever to break out of Azkaban, would be ideally placed to help others follow in his footsteps. We think it likely that these individuals have rallied around Black as their leader.

We are, however, doing all we can to round up the criminals and beg the magical community to remain alert and cautious. On no account should any of these individuals be approached?"

"Glad they're not covering it up this time" Daphne muttered, "It took them months to finally admit that your parents broke out," she said bitterly.

"Look Daphne, I'm sorry for not telling you earlier alright?"

Daphne sighed, "No more secrets got it?"
"Got it," Calypso said, a little guilty since she TOTALLY wasn't keeping any secrets. "Dap-" she started, but she was interrupted.
"Right, what else is in here now?"
Calypso shut her mouth and pointed to the other folded page on the paper. "Look, my mum's marked out spots that we should read"

TRAGIC DEMISE OF MINISTRY OF MAGIC WORKER

St. Mungo's Hospital promised a full inquiry last night after Ministry of Magic worker Broderick Bode, 49, was discovered dead in his bed, strangled by a potted-plant. Healers called to the scene were unable to revive Mr. Bode, who had been injured in a workplace accident some weeks before his death.

Healer Miriam Strout, who was in charge of Mr. Bode's ward at the time of the incident, has been suspended on full pay and was unavailable for comment yesterday, but a spokeswizard for the hospital said in a statement, "St. Mungo's deeply regrets the death of Mr. Bode, whose health was improving steadily before this tragic accident. "We have strict guidelines on the decorations permitted on our wards but it appears that Healer Strout, busy over the Christmas period, overlooked the dangers of the plant on Mr. Bode's bedside table. As his speech and mobility improved, Healer Strout encouraged Mr. Bode to look after the plant himself, unaware that it was not an innocent Flitterbloom, but a cutting of Devil's Snare, which, when touched by the convalescent Mr. Bode, throttled him instantly. "St. Mungo's is as yet unable to account for the presence of the plant on the ward and asks any witch or wizard with information to come forward."

"But why would she want us to read about this?" Daphne wondered. "Do we know Bode?"
"I don't know...I've only ever seen him once talking to Lucius at the Ministry."

"Oh, why was he murdered then? He sounds like he's best pals with Lucius anyways"

"No...Lucius talks to everyone- OI DRACO!" Calypso shouted across the table.

"WHAT?!" he called back.
"COME HERE!"
Draco rolled his eyes but walked over, "What?"
"Have you heard who Bode is?"
"No…" he frowned, "Isn't he that bloke who talks to my father a lot in front of the Department of Mysteries?"
"Yeah, that's what I thought," Calypso said, thinking hard.

Daphne tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump, "So what's up with him then? Is he special?"
"Well I guess he's an unspeakable...they work in the department anyways."

"Wait, wasn't he a beater on your team for the first three years?"
"No...that was Bole"

Daphne frowned, "Oh, well that's boring", flipping through the paper once more, "Anything else important?"
"Nope, you can keep it by the way" Calypso added when she saw Daphne eyeing another article with interest. "I wonder if Snape would be willing to tell us anything about Bode?"

But no sooner than that exact morning had Umbridge passed another decree.

— by order of —

The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts

Teachers are hereby banned from giving students any information that is not strictly related to the subjects they are paid to teach.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-six.

Signed:

Dolores Umbridge

This marked the first time Calypso wished Umbridge hadn't passed a decree, with many more to come.

And you would think that the breakout from Azkaban might have humbled Umbridge a little, that she might have been abashed at the catastrophe that had occurred right under her beloved Fudge's nose. It seemed, however, to have only intensified her furious desire to bring every aspect of life at Hogwarts under her personal control. She seemed determined at the very least to achieve a sacking before long, and the only question was whether it would be Professor Trelawney or Hagrid who went first.

Personally, Calypso hoped it was the half-breed.

Every single Divination and Care of Magical Creatures lesson was now conducted in the presence of Umbridge and her clipboard. She lurked by the fire in the heavily perfumed tower room, interrupting Professor Trelawney's increasingly hysterical talks with difficult questions about Ornithomancy and Heptomology, insisting that she predict students' answers before they gave them and demanding that she demonstrate her skill at the crystal ball, the tea leaves, and the runestones in turn.

It did add quite the interest to these boring talks though.

By February, another annoying decree was passed banning students from having the Quibbler. Which usually, was quite nonsense but it had just published an article about her mum and other death eaters including Theo's father in which all the facts were astonishingly accurate.

They found out about the magazine the day after a Valentine's Hogsmeade visit. Last year, she went with Cassius, the year before that, Adrian. This year, she went with Theo. Gosh, she needed to stop getting into the habit of going with people she liked. Well in Theo's case, she likes it. Except she can't tell anyone that obviously, but the trip was an excellent excuse with Daphne using the time to do homework and Tracey doing only Salazar knows what.

"So...where do you want to go?"

Calypso shrugged, "I've only been to Zonko's once before I think"

"Well, we could go if you want to. But the Weasley twins are usually there. They would very like to attack you right now and I'm afraid that won't be an illusion" he said dryly.

Calypso hated to admit that we was right. Besides, Slytherin had another match coming up soon again Ravenclaw. "Where do you want to go then?"
"It doesn't matter to me, anywhere I suppose"

"Oh well...oh! I'm gonna follow Potter."
"Seriously?!"
"Yup! And he's going with Chang, let's go"
Theo rolled his eyes, "Fine"

"Yay!" Calypso grabbed his hand and pulled him to where Potter was going.

"Madam Pudifoots" he grumbled.

Calypso glared at him, "You don't like it there I'm guessing?"
"Obviously not"

Inside, it was cramped and steamy as usual but Pudifoot had decorated it for Valentine's Day.

Several golden cherubs were hovering over each of the small, circular tables, occasionally throwing pink confetti over the occupants. It also had lots of pink frilly bows as usual, just like Professor Umbridge.

They sat down at the last remaining table next to Potter and Chang who were staring at anyone but each other awkwardly.

"Fancy seeing you here," she said, breaking the silence between the two.

Potter looked mildly relieved to talk to someone until he saw it was her. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh well, you see, it's Valentine's Day. Where else would we be?"

She took Theo's hand from across the table, determined to make Potter embarrassed because why not.

Potter stared at them for a moment before Madam Pudiffot came bustling up. "Anything I can get you two?"
Calypso glanced at Theo, "Two coffees please"
She rested her head on her palm. "So what are you two doing here?" she asked after Madam Pudifoot left.

Potter turned red, "Er-"

After a few moments of silence Chang mentioned Umbridge and they talked about it awkwardly for a few minutes before they fell silent again.

Potter glared at them, "Don't roll your eyes at us like your so good at everything. You're sitting in silence too, at least we're talking!"

Theo rolled his eyes and leaned forward to kiss Calypso.

Her eyes widened in surprise but quickly hid it, kissing him back and smirking at Potter.

"Er-" Potter interrupted, ". . . listen, d'you want to come with me to the Three Broomsticks at lunchtime? I'm meeting Hermione Granger there," he told Chang.

Calypso scoffed and stared at Potter again. He had got to be stupid to mention that in the middle of their 'date'.

Chang raised her eyebrows, "You're meeting Hermione Granger? Today?"

"Yeah. Well, she asked me to, so I thought I would. D'you want to come with me? She said it wouldn't matter if you did.", Potter said awkwardly.

"Oh . . . well . . . that was nice of her," Cho Chang said coldly, her expression clashing with her words.

A few more minutes passed in total silence, in which Calypso began snogging Theo once more.

"He asked me out, you know," Cho suddenly said in a quiet voice. "A couple of weeks ago. Roger, and Theo too. I turned them both down, though."

Calypso stared at Theo and mouthed, "What about Tracey?"
He rolled his eyes and mouthed back, "We broke up"
"Oh" Calypso tried to go for a sympathetic look but by Theo's scoff, she must've failed.

"I came in here with Cedric and Cassius last year," said Cho.

Calypso had no clue who the hell 'Cedric' was but she couldn't believe Chang was bringing up Cassius now of all times.

Cho's voice was rather higher when she spoke again. "I've been meaning to ask you for ages. . . . Did Cassius — did he m-m-mention me at all before he died?"

Calypso scoffed, "Why would he? When the Dark Lord wants to kill someone, he's not going to let them say their last wishes…"
Cho sniffed loudly, "But surely you would understand why I asked? You went out with him too last year didn't you?"
"No, I didn't," Calypso said coldly. "We were merely friends. He had a girlfriend back then you know, Selena Black"

Cho dabbed at her face with a frilly napkin, tears streaming down her face.

Potter looked at the steamy windows awkwardly, evidently not sure what to say.

Erm . . . so . . . d'you . . . d'you get to see a lot of Quidditch in the holidays?" Potter finally said, "You support the Tornados, right?" His voice sounded falsely bright and cheery.

What an idiot, Calypso thought.

Chang didn't answer, instead of sobbing rather loudly into the napkin.

"Look," Potter said desperately, leaning in so that nobody else but basically everyone since the shop was so quiet, could hear. "let's not talk about Cassius right now. . . . Let's talk about something else. . . ."

"I thought," Cho said, tears spattering down onto the table. "I thought you'd u-u-understand! I need to talk about it! Surely you n-need to talk about it t-too! I mean, you saw it happen, d-didn't you?"

Calypso took a sip of her coffee, watching Potter intently.

He must've been desperate- he even looked at her for help.

She sneered back at him and returned to her coffee. It was quite bitter, to be honest, but it felt good to drink something so warm on a rainy day. She vaguely wondered when an electric storm would come. As of right now, there was only heavy water pouring from the sky, no lightning.

"Oh, you'll talk to Hermione Granger!" Cho suddenly said shrilly, her face now shining with tears, "But you won't talk to me! P-perhaps it would be best if we just . . . just p-paid and you went and met up with Hermione G-Granger like you want to!"

"Cho?" Potter said weakly.

"Go on, leave!" Chang said, now crying into the napkin. "I don't know why you asked me out in the first place if you're going to make arrangements to meet other girls right after me. . . . How many are you meeting after Hermione?"

"It's not like that!" said Potter, laughing harshly.

Cho sprang to her feet. The whole tearoom was quiet, and everybody was watching the two now.

"I'll see you around, Harry," Chang said dramatically, and hiccuping slightly she dashed to the door, wrenched it open, and hurried off into the pouring rain.

"Cho!" Potter called after her, but the door had already swung shut behind her with a tuneful tinkle. There was total silence within the tea shop. Every eye was upon Potter now.

He threw a Galleon down onto the table, shook pink confetti out of his eyes, and followed Cho out of the door.

"Well…" said Calypso awkwardly to Theo, "Where do you want to go now?"

He wiped the mist off the window and looked out towards the High Street. "It's raining rather hard now, we can go back to the castle?"
"Yeah...we probably should" agreed Calypso pulling out her wallet to pay.

"It's fine, I'll pay" Theo interrupted, throwing about 5 galleons onto the table. "Let's go"

The next Saturday, Gryffindor played against Hufflepuff, losing by 10 points due to Weasley's abysmal goalkeeping skills.

Since Hufflepuff also beat Ravenclas earlier that year 210:60,

The week after that was their match against Ravenclaw.

"Please welcome, Lestrange, Urqhart, Vasiey, Crabbe, Goyle, Bletchley, and Malfoy!" Jordan announced.

After Madam Hooch blew her whistle, Calypso seized the Quaffle immediately and flew towards the Ravenclaw Keeper, and dodging Davies, passing to Urqhart who passed it back and scored.

4 hours later, Slytherin had scored about 20 something times and Ravenclaw 10 times before Chang and Draco both went after the snitch. When the two seekers pulled up, Calypso saw that Draco was smiling- always a good sign.

The final score turned out to be 370 to 100 since Draco had caught the snitch. Now, all they had to do was beat Hufflepuff by at least 130 points to win the house cup if Calypso's calculations were correct.

That was no problem then, all Draco had to do was catch the snitch as long as they weren't behind by more than 2 goals.

Every time she saw Daphne, her brain burned with guilt, and several times she was on the verge of telling her before interrupted by something. Then the sudden urge would go away and she would find herself hoping that Daphne would never find out that Calypso had kissed Theo thrice now.

She lay in bed thinking this before her mind slowly closed down and she fell asleep.

The next morning, she and Daphne entered the Great Hall for breakfast at the same moment as the post owls on Monday morning.

There was quite the number of owls around Potter, she noticed, and there were also at least ten more owls than usual swirling around the Slytherin table.

Frowning, Calypso plucked one out of the air, addressed to her, a howler. It screeched quite a bit about how she should be ashamed to have her mum as her mother, then turned to Theo, then Draco, and so on in turn.

"What the fuck?" Draco demanded, setting one of the other mysterious envelopes up in flames, causing a yelp from the owl carrying it. The rest of the Slytherin table joined in, and soon the letters were reduced to a pile of burning ash.

"Potter's got something to do with it" Theo muttered.

Calypso stared at him, "Why?"
"Just look"

Potter had also received quite a few letters but contrary to the Slytherins, he was grinning as he read them.

Calypso followed Draco and the rest of the Slytherins to Potter's table, where the bunch was reading a Quibbler of all things.

Umbridge soon joined them, "What is going on here?" she asked. "Why have you got all these letters, Mr. Potter?"

"Is that a crime now?" said Fred loudly. "Getting mail?"

"Be careful, Mr. Weasley, or I shall have to put you in detention," said Umbridge. "Well, Mr. Potter?"

"People have written to me because I gave an interview," said Potter. "About what happened to me last June." For some reason, he glanced up at the staff table as he said this.

"An interview?" repeated Umbridge, her voice thinner and higher than ever. "What do you mean?"

"I mean a reporter asked me questions and I answered them," said Potter. "Here —" And he threw the copy of The Quibbler at her.

Calypso caught it and stared at Potter's face for a moment before handing it to Umbridge.

"Professor if I may" she interrupted.

"What is it dear?"
"He's spread all sorts of lies about me! And my parents too, I know HE isn't back, I think they're just rallying to Black!" she shrieked.

Professor Umbridge nodded and patted her. "Well , I have tried again and again to teach you not to tell lies. The message has still not sunk in. Fifty points from Gryffindor and another week's worth of detentions. When did you do this?"

"Last Hogsmeade weekend," said Potter.

"There will be no more Hogsmeade trips for you, Mr. Potter," Umbridge whispered. "How you dare . . . how you could . . ." She took a deep breath and she stalked away, clutching The Quibbler to her chest, the eyes of many students following her.

Calypso glared at Potter once Umbridge was out of earshot. "Didn't mummy ever tell you not to spread lies about other Potter? Oh wait-" she laughed harshly, "She never got to because she was dead before you could walk"
Potter made to stand up, his fists clenched but Crabbe and Goyle stepped in front of her protectively.

"Careful Potter" she smiled gruesomely, "I, unlike you, am a perfect" then she stalked away with the rest of the Slytherins back to the table as McGonagall came up, probably hoping to take a round of 50 points from them to make it even.

By mid-morning enormous signs had been put up all over the school, not just on House notice boards, but in the corridors and classrooms too.

by order of —

The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts

Any student found in possession of the magazine The Quibbler will be expelled.

The above is in accordance with

Educational Decree Number Twenty-seven.

Signed:

Dolores Umbridge

At first, she didn't mind, at least that was fewer people to know about Potter's foolish lies right? Wrong.

Somehow, banning the magazine made it even more popular and now Calypso couldn't even openly talk about it or correct people about it without admitting that she had read it.

Heck, she hadn't until Daphne gave her a copy over lunch break.

HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST:

THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN

That was the title printed on the cover, along with Potter's ugly face. "Do you mind if I send this to my mum?" Calypso asked, "I don't think she's seen it yet, most respectable wizards don't read nonsense like this"
Daphne nodded, "Yeah, it makes me sick, having to see Potter's face every time I want a quill or extra piece of parchment from my bag"

She was starting to hate the Educational Decree by the end of the day when a random second-year Hufflepuff came up to her and asked if she and Theo were death eaters just like their parents.

And neither of them could even confront her without admitting that they read the Quibbler.

The next morning, she had to do her duties though since Justin's father was in some kind of trouble with the Dark Lord and he wasn't feeling well.

"So we just watch the first years right?", she asked Blaise during the break.

"Yup- WOAH WATCH IT!" he snatched a dangerous-looking pill from one first-years hand.

The little boy looked from Blaise to Calypso in fright and promptly burst into tears.

"Er-"
Blaise sighed, "Does my hair look okay?" he asked, ignoring the first year.

"Yeah?"
"Well, breaks almost over, I can take it from here"