As Though She Were Mine

"Calliope! You have a letter, dear," Mrs. Mulpepper called as she walked out of the lounge room's hearth. Calliope, from where she was laid out on the room's sofa reading her new book, sat up. Putting it aside, she popped up from the sofa and walked over to the old woman where she was draping her robe and hat on the chair of the desk kept beside the fireplace. Bouncing in place as she waited with open hands for the letter, she asked, "It's from Darla, isn't it?"

Mrs. Mulpepper only smiled at her. "You shall see, won't you?" she teased as she placed the sealed parchment in Calliope's palms.

Clutching it in her fingers a brief moment, she laughed. "It's her seal!" she said, delighted, before breaking it apart and opening the letter to read the contents. It said:

Dear Calliope,

I hope my letter finds you well. Are you still bored to tears? I must say I'm not much better off these days. At least if you whinge enough, I have no doubt our lovely Mulpeppers will find some type of outing to take you on.

I have no one to whinge to and no way to leave my temporary home. It's rather odd, but I spent time in a safe house during the first war and I don't recall it being this boring! I have to believe it is because I have forgotten or staying stuck in a house and its garden is not as dull when you are small and have not yet experienced the larger world. What do you think, Calliope? Have my memories faded or do you believe being stuck in a house is not so bad when you're small?

Though, I must confess I don't know how interested I would be in going out if I were given the option right now. I tire out rather easily at the moment. Not that you need to worry! I should soon be right as rain. Perhaps once I am a visit can even be arranged with you. How would you like that, Calliope?

Yours,

Darla

"I'm done reading the letter," Calliope told Mrs. Mulpepper, handing it off to the old woman. She felt happy to have received the letter and by its content, but sad as she watched Mrs. Mulpepper take out her wand, incinerate the letter with a murmur and then disappear the ashes with a vanishing spell. After its gone, she says, "Darla mentioned a visit between us might soon be able to be arranged. How soon do you think she means?"

Mrs. Mulpepper pursed her lips at this. To Calliope, it looked like the old woman was unhappy with this announcement. "Oh, I can't say," she replied. "Certainly not very soon. If things go well for Darla, I might believe in a month or so you two could spend an afternoon together."

Calliope felt dismayed at this hypothesis. She had been hoping in a couple of weeks she could see her aunt. A month or more seemed like forever from now. "That long?" she whined. "That's not soon at all!"

Mrs. Mulpepper sighed and reached forward to cup Calliope's face in her hands and wipe the tears that were spilling unwanted from her eyes. "I know," she soothed. "I know."

"And what does 'if things go well for Darla' mean? She mentioned she'd been tired lately too in her letter, but told me not to worry because she'd be better before I know it." Suppressing a sob she felt blooming in her chest, Calliope cried, "N-No one tells me a-anything anymore!"

"Oh, oh," Mrs. Mulpepper murmured as her hands fell away from Calliope's cheeks to only come and settle on her back where they urged her forward and into the old woman's soft chest. "I know this is all very hard for you," she soothed. "But what's not said is only for your safety."

"Then why does she say anything at all!" yelled Calliope.

Mrs. Mulpepper made a sad, apologetic noise. "I'm sorry," she said.

Suddenly very cross with no one and everyone, Calliope pushed away from the arms that held her and spat, "You are not! Or you'd tell me! I know you know! Everyone knows but me!"

"Calliope!" Mrs. Mulpepper said in a wounded tone.

She didn't care though. Instead, Calliope knocked a pile of parchment and miscellaneous items off the desk next to them before she ran to her room. She heard Mrs. Mulpepper start to follow so she then slammed and locked her door. A moment later, the doorknob rattled and Mrs. Mulpepper called, "Calliope!"

"Leave me alone!" she screamed back. "I don't want you!"

There was silence on the other side for a minute as Calliope continued to cry next to her door. "Okay," said Mrs. Mulpepper in a slightly elevated voice to be heard over Calliope's sobs. "I will be… Out here when you do."

Calliope just screamed in response, furious at the implication she'd ever want Mrs. Mulpepper. The old woman said nothing else and after a few minutes, Calliope had to believe that meant she'd gone back to the lounge room, leaving her alone. Throwing herself onto her bed then, Calliope wrapped herself around her pillow and wept into it until she fell asleep.

-o-O-o-

When Calliope next opened her eyes, her room was dark. So dark she knew it had to be the middle of the night. It confused her why she was awake. Sitting up in her bed, she realized that there was a light shining almost directly into her room. Calliope frowned. How could that be? She wasn't on the ground floor. Getting up from her bed, she scrubbed at her itchy, worn-out eyes and walked over to her window. The curtains were still drawn back from the morning. Looking out, she saw there was a light, probably a candle, shining in the other window. Squinting, she looked past the candle and saw behind it was a face. The child's face she'd seen last week.

Calliope covered her mouth with her hands. She hadn't been imagining! There was a child in the flat above McHavelock's! This caused a frown to pull downward on her lips. But… What were they still doing there a week later? The Mulpeppers said the woman who owned the shop had only a son and no siblings, so, therefore, no nieces or nephews. Who could this other child be then? And why were they awake in the flat now? Or shining a candle in the window? Calliope considered going to turn on a light but thought better of it. She didn't want to scare them off again. At least not before she tried to communicate with them. Walking over to the rocking chair in the corner of her room, she sat down and considered what to do. How could she talk to this child? Opening her window and yelling out would be a poor idea. That would wake people and draw attention Calliope doubted her or the child particularly wanted. Maybe…

She looked to the sketchbook on the table in front of her window. Getting up, she went and flipped it open to a fresh page. Reaching for a thick piece of charcoal, she wrote on the page in large, dark letters:

"'Lo! I'm Calliope."

She then tore the page from the book and with a glance at the window to make sure the child was still behind the candle, crept out of her room and picked up a candle the Mulpeppers kept in the lounge room and brought it back to her own with a pack of matches from the kitchen. Pressing her message to the window with one arm, she used her free hand to strike the match and light the candle. Calliope lifted her gaze then to stare out over her message and into the other window. To her relief, the candle there continued to burn brightly. However, the face was gone.

She started to dismay, thinking she had scared them off for a second time. But then something came in front of the candle and she realized it was a message like her own. She grinned, delighted. Leaning forward, she read their message. It said:

"Hi. I'm Sammy."

She mulled this name over. It could be the name of a girl or a boy. Calliope hoped it was a girl like herself. She loved all the boys in her life, her Sev, Harry, Mr. Mulpepper, Professor Dumbledore, Stephen, and George, but it was the girls she missed so keenly these days. Bringing her message down, she wrote a new one in her sketchbook and tore it out to hold up like the last one. It said:

"Nice! Meet downstairs?"

Calliope knew that was probably a bad idea. Knockturn Alley wasn't a place for children to wander during the day. At night? Well. If they were swept up the moment they put a toe outside she wouldn't be surprised. Yet… She had to at least ask. She wanted to see this Sammy. She wanted to speak with them, learn who they were, how they came to be staying above the hat shop. Most of all, she wanted to know if they would be her mate.

Sammy's first message disappeared and a new one replaced it.

"Can't," it said, "Tomorrow? At One?"

Calliope laughed, breathless. Letting her old message flutter to the ground, she wrote a new one. It read:

"Yes!"

The message Sammy was holding up disappeared and their face appeared next to the light. If Calliope squinted, she could just make out them waving before the candle went out altogether. Calliope let her last message fall down and blew out her own candle. Going back to her bed, she pulled back the duvet and crawled beneath. She didn't know how yet, but she was going to sneak outside and meet Sammy. How she'd know it was them, well… The fringe should be a good way to spot them, right?

Oh, she hoped they'd sort of recognize her too when she went out to meet them. Closing her eyes and turning onto her side, she frowned to herself. She would have to apologize to Mrs. Mulpepper at breakfast in the morning too. She'd been terribly cruel after she brought her Darla's letter. It wasn't the poor old woman's fault everyone was so tight-lipped with Calliope (even if she was sort of condoning it by not saying anything herself). Sev and Edie would be very cross if they heard about what she said and did. The Mulpeppers were doing a very, very big favor allowing Calliope to stay with them and watching over her too. With this thought in mind, she began to think of different ways to apologize until she was asleep once again.

-o-O-o-

The next time Calliope woke it was daylight. Laying in her bed, she recalled the night before and the short conversation she exchanged with Sammy across the street. Sitting up and suppressing a yawn, she hoped it hadn't been a dream. When she swung her legs over the edge of her bed and stood up, she glanced over to her window and saw the lounge room's candle was on the table and her messages were scattered around the floor. Calliope grinned. It'd been real.

Walking over, she cleaned up the mess she'd made lest it was found by the Mulpeppers later. Picking up the candle, she deliberated whether she should take it out with her or leave it. In the end, she put it back down. She would return it after the Mulpeppers had gone to work. Hopefully, they hadn't noticed it was missing already. Looking down on her rumpled clothes from the day before, Calliope wrinkled her nose and made the choice to change into something new and then fix her hair in the room's mirror. When she finished, she walked out and down the short corridor into the kitchen. There, she saw Mrs. and Mr. Mulpepper sitting at the room's little table sharing tea and porridge between them.

She fidgeted with the hem of her sweater in the doorway, uncertain of what to do. Mr. Mulpepper cleared his throat and she looked at him. He had his paper held up high, blocking his face from Mrs. Mulpepper, but not her. He made an exaggerated gesture with his eyes to his wife and Calliope sighed. She knew what the old man was telling her to do and she agreed. Saying sorry was the first thing that had to be done this morning.

Feeling unusually timid, she called, "Aunt Maisie?"

The woman looked from where she was stirring a lump of sugar into her tea and to Calliope. "Yes, Calliope?" she said in an uncomfortably neutral tone.

Calliope turned her gaze to her stocking-covered toes and said, "I'm sorry. I said a lot of cross things I didn't mean to you yesterday. I'm just really upset I can't see anybody and that's not your fault and it was bad of me to be such a baby and yell at you like it was."

There was a silence that dragged on so long that Calliope couldn't resist looking up after a while. Mrs. Mulpepper looked a little teary-eyed, but she was smiling at her. "All is forgiven," she said. "Would you like a hug before I get your breakfast?"

Calliope nodded. When the old woman opened her arms, she sprinted over to throw herself in them. "Thank you, Aunt Maisie," she mumbled into her front. "You're the best aunt anyone could ask for."

The old woman chuckled and ran a hand over the top of Calliope's head before she let her go. "I appreciate that, dear," she said. "Don't ever say that in front of Darla, though, understand?" she teased.

Calliope grinned back at the woman and laughed. "Of course," she agreed. Taking her usual seat in the open chair between the couples' seats, Calliope turned to Mr. Mulpepper and asked him, "Is there anything interesting today, Uncle Eugene?"

How do you feel about this chapter? Darla's letter to Calliope?

Thank you very much for reading!