October 2, 1998
Calandra folded the duvet and placed it on the end of the bed. Her head hadn't hurt since that night. She sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled the memories forward. They came easily now; she could sift through them at will with no resistance at all.
She knew them by heart, the memories. She knew every single detail about each and every one of them. They'd been her haven for the past two years. When the grey walls overwhelmed her, she'd get lost in those memories.
A sound came from the door and Calandra opened her eyes. The knob turned and the healer came into the room. Calandra waited for her to fill the vials of potion and leave them on the bedside table, but the old witch didn't. The healer cast her eyes nervously around the room and waved her wand over Calandra, performing her diagnostic spells.
The healer nodded and bustled back out of the room, quickly. Calandra's forehead wrinkled in confusion. That was odd. The healer always left the potions. She chewed on her lip as possibilities whirled through her mind.
Perhaps they were releasing her. Perhaps her father had had a change of heart. Calandra snorted and shook her head. That was unlikely. Perhaps the healer knew her magic was getting stronger. Even with the suppressants Calandra could make the stone walls change color or turn on the taps to the bathtub if she said the spells loud enough.
She'd been practicing for over two years with her magic. She couldn't do any great damage or open the door, but it was there. She could feel the hum of it in her veins. Perhaps the healer knew that, and they were figuring out a larger dose of the purple potion. Calandra felt her throat close at the thought. She'd just gotten her magic back and they were going to take it away from her again.
Calandra ground her teeth and shook her head.
Not again. They wouldn't do that to her again. She'd figure out a way.
October 10, 1998
The healer glanced around the room nervously as she cast her diagnostic spells. Calandra watched the old woman's eye twitch and wondered what was going through her mind. She swallowed the potions the healer gave her and looked about the room, following the old woman's gaze as it darted back and forth across the walls.
The healer didn't say a word. She just waved her wand over Calandra and chewed on her lip. Then she turned on her heel and walked out the door. Calandra stared at the door long after the old woman was gone. What was going on?
She chewed her thumb and puzzled over the healer's anxiousness. Calandra had seen her restless and full of agitation many times over the years, especially the past couple. There were days when the healer wouldn't bring the potions in until after dinner, looking rushed and harried. But she always seemed preoccupied with something else. Now it seemed like whatever it was that she was worried about dealt directly with Calandra.
Calandra propped her elbow on the bedside table and twirled a strand of hair around her finger, mulling over the healer's actions.
October 19, 1998
Calandra leaned against the edge of the bed, her arms crossed over her chest and her foot tapping a familiar rhythm against the stone floor. The healer hadn't been in for the past three days. Calandra hummed to herself and smiled at the thrill that rushed through her. In the absence of the purple potion, her magic was getting stronger every day. If they were going to try to do something to her, they should've kept giving her the potions.
She could levitate the table now. She couldn't make the bed do more than shake and rattle, but it was a start There were wards up to keep her in the room, but she'd always known there would be. She could apparate to the bathroom and back if she focused hard enough, though.
Calandra stood there; eyes focused on the door. It wouldn't unlock or open for her, no matter how loud she said the spells. But it would have to open at some point. The healer would have to come back in eventually. When she did, Calandra would be ready for her.
October 21, 1998
The doorknob creaked and Calandra's head jerked up from where she'd been tracing her feet along the floor. The door swung open and the healer shuffled into the room, carrying a roll of parchments and levitating a few different vials. She set all her things down on the bedside table and turned to Calandra.
"Here are your potions." She said, waving a wand over the vials and filling them with liquid.
"What's all that?" Calandra gestured toward the parchment.
The healer glanced at the papers on the table and Calandra noticed the old woman's throat bob. The healer held the potions out to Calandra and shrugged her shoulders.
"Just some paperwork I'm having to process. Here," she pushed the potions closer to Calandra. "Drink up."
"Paperwork about what?" Calandra asked, narrowing her eyes on the old woman.
The healer glanced toward the door and sighed. She pushed the potions into Calandra's hands and turned back toward the bedside table. Calandra stared down into the inky purple liquid in the larger vial. Her hand shook and she had to steady her breathing.
"You know, it's easier on everyone if you take them yourself, Ms. White." The healer said. "I haven't had to stun you in quite some time to get you to take your potions."
"Maybe I'm through with making it easy on you." Calandra bit out, meeting the woman's gaze.
"Ms. White." The healer sighed. "We really don't need to do this."
The old woman swallowed and glanced at the potions in Calandra's hands. Calandra studied the healer. What was she waiting for? She'd never hesitated in stunning her before. Calandra tossed the potions on the bed.
"I'm not taking them." She said flatly.
The healer's eyes grew round.
"You know you have to." She said, pursing her lips. "If you don't take them yourself, we'll just have to stun you and give them to you that way."
Calandra's eyes caught the movement of the healer's hands, clenched tightly around the parchment. She lifted her chin and flexed her hands at her sides.
"Stun me, then." She said.
The healer's nostrils flared. Calandra stood ramrod straight and stared the old woman down.
"If you leave me no choice…" the healer sighed. "I'll have to. Last chance, Ms. White. Take your potions."
The healer waved her wand over the vials on Calandra's bed. They shot up into the air and floated by Calandra's shoulder. Calandra stepped around them and stood face to face with the old woman.
"Go on." She snarled. "Stun me."
A muscle in the old woman's jaw twitched and Calandra saw fire behind the healer's eyes.
"Scared to face me, now that I have magic?" Calandra sneered. "Scared of the big bad Siren."
The healer's eyes immediately went cold and flinty. Calandra quirked an eyebrow and waited to see what the woman would do. The healer drew herself up primly and straightened her robes. She spread the parchment out on the table and conjured a quill.
"If you take your potions I'm willing to negotiate the terms of your stay here." The healer lifted a brow. "That all depends on your cooperation."
Calandra felt the breath leave her lungs. She glanced down at the parchment on the table and back up to the healer.
"You'd…let me go?" she asked numbly. "He'll let me go?"
"That is not what I said." The healer said. "I said, I would negotiate. Compromise. If you take your potions, you can be allowed a visitor. I'll also allow you the use of an owl once a month."
Calandra forced herself to breathe. She could see Alice. They'd let her see Alice. She could send letters to Sirius. Surely the owl could find him, wherever he was. She could make sure he was safe. They could petition the Wizengamot to hold a trial for him.
Calandra took a step back and swallowed. She reached for the potions, still floating beside her, then caught the look of relief on the healer's face. Calandra paused. She turned back toward the healer and narrowed her eyes.
"Why are you willing to negotiate the terms of my stay now?" she asked.
"Would you rather things stay the way they were before?" the healer sidestepped the question.
"No. That's not what I asked." Calandra swallowed. "What changed? Why now?"
The healer glanced at the parchment spread out on the bedside table. The bottom of the roll was flat on the table, large blank spaces ready to be filled in with terms and conditions of her treatment and a place for a signature. But the top of the parchment was still tightly rolled up. Calandra saw the healer bite the inside of her cheek.
"This is the documentation necessary for such changes to occur, correct?" she asked.
The healer sighed and nodded.
"And in order for it to be official my next of kin has to sign it. My father."
The healer glanced at the document.
"They require the signature of the responsible party, yes." She finally said.
"Can I read it?" Calandra asked bluntly.
The old woman looked up at the ceiling.
"Yes."
Calandra snatched the parchment up and unfurled it, looking for snares and traps that would make her life even more suffocating than it already was. It had to be a trick. Her father would never grant her any freedom. She'd be trading the use of an owl for some potion that made her forget who she was or something of the like.
She quickly read over the page, eyes stumbling over words that shouldn't have been there. Her brow furrowed and she felt something drop in her stomach. Calandra drew a ragged breath and read back over the paragraphs.
It was admission forms regarding her stay. Admission forms with the day's date.
She read over payment options and dietary restriction options and her eye caught on a clause tucked away in the jumble of medical jargon and legal phrases.
Obligation of Responsible Party.
It was a clause outlining what her father was responsible for with her under his care. But his name was not listed under the heading.
Calandra looked up to find the healer watching her with a cool expression. She swallowed and held the paper tightly in her hand.
"Why isn't there anyone listed as my next of kin?" she asked.
The healer raised her eyebrows and motioned toward the parchment rolled up alongside the one she held. Calandra unfurled it to find a certificate of death. Blood rushed to Calandra's ears as she read the name on the page.
Johnathon Nicholas White
Deceased: October 15, 1998
He was dead. He was gone. Calandra swallowed and tried to keep herself from smiling. Her father was gone. He couldn't keep her in a box anymore. She felt tears behind her eyes and read the rest of the parchment. He was gone. He couldn't keep her there anymore. She could leave.
"Well," Calandra said, straightening up. "I don't think this will be necessary."
She tossed the parchment back on the bedside table.
"Being as I have no next of kin to oversee my treatment, the chore falls to me." She took a deep breath. "And I won't be needing admission forms."
"You're not in charge of your own care." The healer said, raising a wrinkled brow at Calandra.
"What?" Calandra laughed. "Of course I am. I have no other relatives."
"Well, you would be," the healer smirked. "If not for your…unstable…disposition."
Calandra clenched her teeth together and snatched the paperwork back up. She read down the forms and jabbed a finger at the parchment.
"It says so right here." Calandra said. "The responsibility of the patient shall fall to the patient in the case of next of kin responsible party's passing, given that the patient has no other living relatives to oversee care."
She hit the parchment with the back of her hand.
"I'm in charge of my own treatment, now."
"Only if a healer signs off on your mental health." The old woman quipped. "Did you forget about that?"
Calandra saw red. She crumpled the parchment and threw it at the floor, stomping over to stand toe to toe with the healer. Calandra stuck her nose inches from the old woman's face.
"You are not keeping me in here." She seethed. "Whatever Dumbledore is bribing you with, I'll match it. Top it. I've just inherited an obscene amount of gold and you can name your pric-"
She was cut off by the healer's laugh; cold and cruel.
"You think Dumbledore is the reason you're still here?" she asked. "He died years ago. No one's bribing me with anything."
Calandra felt rage simmer beneath her skin. The old man had died. And she was still stuck here. She leaned in close to the healer and clenched her fists, cracking her knuckles under her thumbs.
"Sign the forms." She said through clenched teeth.
The healer laughed and Calandra felt her whole body tremble in fury. She reached out and grabbed the healer's wand and snapped it in two. The healer's eyes grew wide and she made a move to rush around Calandra but Calandra's voice stopped her in her tracks.
"STOP!"
Calandra swallowed and brought her eyes back to the healer's.
"You've kept me here. Locked away. For years. I haven't seen the sun in almost two decades. You took away everything that I..."
She shook her head and took a deep breath to steady herself.
"And now you're going to sign the paper saying that I am capable of my own care."
The healer lifted her chin defiantly, but Calandra paid it no mind.
"Because, if you don't." she clenched her fists. "I'll kill you right here in this room."
The healer's eyes grew round and frightened. Calandra forced herself to breathe.
"I have magic." She said. "You know I do. And I'll use every last drop of it to get out of this place. So you can either sign those papers and let me walk out of here myself, with you alive. Or I can walk out of here in Auror binds, with you cold on the floor."
The old witch swallowed.
"Either way." Calandra said. "I'm getting out of here."
Calandra flung her hands out wide and the furniture in the room flew to the walls, splintering into hundreds of small pieces. The sink and the toilet and the bathtub swirled into the room and crashed against the grey stone, sending porcelain shrapnel hissing through the air. The healer flinched and trembled in front of Calandra. Calandra summoned the parchment and quill to her without ever taking her eyes off the healer. She smoothed out the page and held it out.
"Sign it." She said.
The healer reached out a shaking hand and scribbled her name on the parchment. It flashed gold before returning to black. Calandra turned around and strode to the door. She pulled it open and stuck her right foot forward. She smiled as her foot passed the threshold.
Calandra turned back toward the healer and motioned her to come closer. The old woman shuffled forward and glanced at Calandra.
"It would be in your best interest to leave." She whispered. "Because the next time I see you, I can't guarantee that there won't be any accidental outbursts of magic."
The healer drew in a shaky breath.
"You know, unhinged Siren that I am." Calandra smiled and walked out the door.
