Chapter 54

The rest of the summer passed quickly and before she knew it, she was back on Platform 9 ¾. Theo kissed her goodbye before she headed off to the prefect's carriage with Blaise.

"So, how was your summer?"
"Fine, I've bought my place now", Blais replied excitedly.

Calypso smiled at Blaise. " that's wonderful."
"Yeah..well with the war coming up, I thought I could use it as some kind of shelter...but you'll be supporting You-Know-Who won't you?"
"I guess so," said Calypso sadly. "It's not like I have much of a choice anyways"
"No, you don't" Blaise agreed. "Congratulations anyway"

"What?"
"You and Nott," he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh well thank-"
The compartment door slammed open. "Calypso, I need to talk to you"
There stood Daphne, arms crossed and positively raging.

A dread-filled Calypso's stomach. "Sure…"

"Right" Daphne led Calypso out of earshot from Blaise and glared at her. "I thought we were done keeping secrets from each other?"
"Y-yeah?"
"So my two best friends dating doesn't count?"
"That's...different" Calypso stammered.

"How so?"

"I-"
Daphne cut her off with a roll of her eyes. "I don't want to hear it. Come find me once you've got your priorities sorted straight" and stormed off.

Calypso groaned and went back to find Blaise and see who the new head boy and girl were. If they were Gryffindors, that would just be the cherry on top of her melting life.

Turns out, old Dumbly had chosen a Gryffindor boy and a Ravenclaw girl. Not too bad.

They were just to patrol the hallways, then Calypso could go find her friends.

The first compartment was filled with firecrackers whizzing around the place and three Gryffindors. "Detention" she growled before moving on.

Next was one with Potter, a random cuckoo girl, and Longbottom in it. Potter was covered in green slime and Longbottom was holding a rather dangerous-looking plant embarrassingly.

"Give it here" she snapped.

"Leave him alone!" Potter shouted, standing up. The green slime splattered everywhere including his new girlfriend's magazine.

"Sorry, Luna-"

"It's alright," she said in a dreamy voice.

Calypso crossed her arms and cleared her throat. "Hand over the plant Longbottom or I'll have to put you in detention"
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!", Potter shouted, clutching his wand.

"What is going on here?" Granger demanded as she slid open the door. "Oh hello Calypso"
Calypso smiled tightly. "Tell Longbottom to give me the plant. It's dangerous"
Granger fidgeted nervously. "Are you sure?"
"Yes"

"Oh alright, Neville, can you please give her the plant to check"

Longbottom sighed and finally handed it over.

Potter glared at Granger. "YOU KNOW THAT-"

Calypso quickly backed out before Potter tried to jinx her since she didn't think she could resist the temptation of murdering him.

Then she decided to just go find Draco and Theo instead of making herself more enemies. But she couldn't find Theo anywhere so she settled on the former.

"Heyy"
"Oh you're finally here" Draco complained. "Now...what is it I hear about you and Nott?"
"Not you too. We're just dating- my god"

"JUST DATING? JUST?"
"Yeah, do you have a problem with it?"

"OBVIOUSLY"
Pansy sighed. "Well I'll let you know that I'm very happy for you"
"Me too" added Blaise as he entered the compartment.

"YOU GUYS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ON MY SIDE" Draco complained.

"Yeah yeah. Thanks, guys"

Pansy flashed her a smile before returning to stroke Draco's hair lovingly. Bleh.

A minute later, the compartment door flew open to reveal a small boy panting. "Is Blaise Zabini here?"
"Yeah, that's me"
"Oh! Well, this is for you" he said and handed Blaise an envelope before running back out, cheeks bright red.

"What is it then?" Draco snapped, obviously miffed at not receiving an invitation of any sort.

Calypso leaned over and plucked it out of Blaise's hand.

"Blaise...that's you" Calypso added helpfully.

Blaise rolled his eyes. "Obviously. What does it say?"

"I would be delighted if you would join me for a bite of lunch in compartment C.

Sincerely, Professor H.E.F. Slughorn. Someone's quite a fan of you" Calypso laughed.

Draco pouted. "This Slug kid has no taste then"
"Sureeee. Go on then Blaise."

"Can you come with me?"
Calypso hesitated. "I guess…"

"Good"

When they reached Compartment C, it was clear that:

1. The 'slug kid' was an old professor who looked a little bit like a walrus and

2. Blaise was not the only one invited.

"Ahh, , welcome. And you are?"

"She's my girlfriend," Blaise said, but it came out as more of a question.

"He INSISTED I come with him" Calypso added, glaring at him.

"No problem, no problem, have a seat" and Slughorn drew up an extra chair. "So tell me, who are you?"
"I'm Calypso...Calypso Lestrange"
Slughorn frowned. "Mm, you wouldn't happen to be related to Bellatrix Lestrange do you?"
"Er- yes?"

"Aunt then?"

Calypso raised an eyebrow. "I'm her daughter" she spat.

Slughorn promptly turned away from her and struck up a conversation with a seventh year named Belby.

By the time their lunch meeting had ended, Calypso was quite sure Slughorn hoped to never see her again...unlucky for him, she was 99% sure she was going to have him as a professor in the OWL level of Defense. Unlucky for her to, she'd already been with him for about the entire afternoon. (Besides at sunset when she'd excused herself to perform her daily animagus spell)

"That was interesting wasn't it?",
"No, not really. But I'm your girlfriend now?! Really?!" she demanded. "The last thing I need is-"

Blaise clapped his hand over her mouth. "Don't tell Malfoy"

"Of course I won't"

"Good," he said happily and opened the door for them both to enter the compartment.

As he tried to shut the door, it got jammed about 3 inches from the end.

"What is wrong with this thing?" Blaise asked angrily as he repeatedly tried to slam the door closed.

Suddenly, the door flew open, throwing Blaise into Goyle's lap, and Calypso couldn't help her laughter anymore. That is until she saw a flying shoe disappear into the luggage rack.
"Did you see that?" Calypso asked sharply, narrowing her eyes at Pansy's glittery pink suitcase.

Draco shrugged. "You're probably imagining it...just like the fantasy that you and Nott will somehow work out"
Calypso grumbled and leaned down to help Blaise up from when Goyle had shoved him onto the floor.

"Thanks" he muttered.

Calypso nodded, stood up on her seat, and pulled down Pansy's suitcase. "Do you have anything in here...that's unusual?"
"N-n-no" Pansy muttered nervously.

Calypso looked at her suspiciously and opened it. Oh, what a great decision that was.

Inside were badly edited photos of Pansy and Draco kissing and holding hands, taped onto the cover with heart stickers.

Quickly she slammed it shut again and threw it back onto the luggage rack.

"What the fuck Pansy?" Blaise sniggered.

Pansy crossed her arms and huffed. "We're almost at Hogwarts, we should get changed"

"Fine"

…

When they finally pulled up, everyone got up and grabbed their luggage. Except for Draco.

"You guys go ahead" he waved, "I need to do something"
Calypso shrugged, "Fine" and pranced off the train happily to go tease Pansy some more.

Back on the carriage, Draco arrived with a rather lot of blood on one shoe...
"Did you murder someone?"
"Hopefully," said Draco proudly.

"Who?"
"Potter" Draco spat. "He was eavesdropping"

"Ahh," Calypso said. "I'm still not sorry about seeing pansy's trunk though"
Pansy stuck her tongue out at Calypso and turned away to view the 'beautiful' scenery of rain outside.

Back at Hogwarts, Potter walked in 30 minutes later, not so fashionably with the dry blood around his nose.

"I thought you killed him?" Calypso hissed.

Draco looked downright glum. "I thought I did"
"How do you mess the killing curse up like that?" Calypso demanded.
"I didn't" Draco snapped.
"Then what did you?"
"I kicked him", Draco admitted.
"I-" Calypso turned away from him and scanned the table up and down for Theo, who was sitting next to Crabbe, explaining his comic book to him. Wonderful. She would just have to go back to teasing Draco or Pansy then.

After the feast, Dumbly-dor stood up to make a speech with a satisfyingly burnt hand. But couldn't that person have burnt his whole body instead? Well nonetheless, she wondered who did it so she could send them some flowers.

"Now . . . to our new students, welcome, to our old students, welcome back! Another year full of magical education awaits you . . .and Mr. Filch, our caretaker, has asked me to say that there is a blanket ban on any joke items bought at the shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Those wishing to play for their House Quidditch teams should give their names to their Heads of House as usual. We are also looking for new Quidditch commentators, who should do likewise. We are pleased to welcome a new member of staff this year. Professor Slughorn is a former colleague of mine who has agreed to resume his old post of Potions master."

Oh even better, Slughorn was in luck today. Calypso had considered dropping defense (learning to defend herself from herself seemed a little repetitive) but there was no way she was dropping potions.

She couldn't imagine the LOOK of disappointment on Snape's face to see her waste her money and talent to something else besides becoming an alchemist

"Professor Snape, meanwhile," said Dumbledore, raising his voice so that it carried over all the muttering, "will be taking over the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Now, as everybody in this Hall knows, Lord Voldemort and his followers are once more at large and gaining in strength."

Calypso rolled her eyes and poked Draco with her fork.

Dumbledore made it sound like the Dark Lord just was born this summer….ridiculous. He'd always been around.

"I cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous the present situation is, and how much care each of us at Hogwarts must take to ensure that we remain safe. " continued Dumbledore. "The castle's magical fortifications have been strengthened over the summer, we are protected in new and more powerful ways, but we must still guard scrupulously against carelessness on the part of any student or member of staff. I urge you, therefore, to abide by any security restrictions that your teachers might impose upon you, however irksome you might find them — in particular, the rule that you are not to be out of bed after hours. I implore you, should you notice anything strange or suspicious within or outside the castle, to report it to a member of staff immediately. I trust you to conduct yourselves, always, with the utmost regard for your own and others' safety-"

"Ow!" Calypso shrieked, tapping Draco on the head sharply with a fork. "That's just plain rude now"

"-But now, your beds await, as warm and comfortable as you could possibly wish, and I know that your top priority is to be well-rested for your lessons tomorrow. Let us therefore say good night. Pip pip!"

Calypso gave Draco one more poke with her metal utensils before getting up to lead the first years back to the Slytherin common room with the password, "Defense"

Boy was Snape excited to get the job...