As Though She Were Mine

Five minutes before the clock struck one, Calliope went to the flat's door. Picking her shoes up from the floor, she held them tight against her chest and left the flat. Walking down the stairs as quietly as she could, Calliope reached the last step without incident. Sitting down on it, Calliope tugged the scuffed brown leather of her bar shoes over her stocking covered feet. Heart hammering in her chest as she stood back up and went to open the door that separated the stairwell to the flat from the apothecary, Calliope crossed her fingers.

Hopefully, Mrs. Mulpepper wouldn't see her come out. Opening it just a little, she peered into the shop. Her heartbeat slowed when she saw Mrs. Mulpepper was talking to a tall witch over by the selection of vials Mulpepper's sold. Hurriedly, Calliope opened the door as much as she dared and all but ran for the shop's door. She held her breath as she looked over her shoulder to see if Mrs. Mulpepper was still distracted. Thankfully, she was. The old woman appeared to be explaining the difference in crystal vials from glass ones to the attentive witch at her side.

Easing the door open, Calliope stepped outside. Quickly, she darted away from the door and the display window beside it and around the building's corner. There, she was just out of view of Mrs. Mulpepper, but still easily in view of McHavelock's Wizarding Headgear. She placed a calming hand to her chest and waited for her blood to stop thumping in her ears. This was her first time alone outside ever.

Looking forward to the street, she took in the people walking past with interest. None spared Calliope more than a passing glance (or a leer in the case of one scraggly-bearded wizard). The only children she saw was one little boy holding hands with a witch as they strolled past her onto some unknown destination and a pair of teenage girls (Essie's age, she'd wager) who looked to Calliope like they ought to be at Hogwarts, but weren't. She pulled a face when she saw them stop in front of the Betting Shop diagonal from the Mulpepper's Apothecary and start fluttering their eyes at every man who passed by them. What in Merlin's name were they doing? She shook her head. It didn't matter. She was looking for Sammy.

For the longest time, she stared at the tall, narrow building that housed McHavelock's Headgear and the flat above it. She felt the hope and excitement that had been bubbling inside her all morning start to fade. The child she'd seen in the window wasn't showing themself and Calliope knew if she went inside the apothecary and looked at the clock behind the counter it would read as almost a quarter after. Calliope counted to a hundred. Then two. Finally, three hundred before she sighed and made the decision to give up.

Glancing up at the window she'd seen the child's face in, she saw it was empty and felt worse. They probably never meant to come and meet her. They'd just invited her down to see if Calliope would. Probably because they thought she would get in trouble for it and they could have a laugh at her being scolded. Balling her hands into fists, Calliope went back inside the apothecary.

Luckily for her, Mrs. Mulpepper had her back to the door. She was busily wrapping the vials the witch she'd been helping decided to buy. The witch saw her, though, and smiled. She was maybe middle-aged and her brown eyes wrinkled at the corners as she said, "Why, hello. Who are you, little girl?"

Mrs. Mulpepper paused in her wrapping to turn around. Calliope stood stock-still, watching the old woman for her reaction. She was not exactly scowling, but she was also very not pleased. "This is my grand-niece. Aggie, I've told you before, you're supposed to stay in the flat while Uncle Eugene and I are working."

"I know," she said. "I'm sorry," she added, mind spinning for a question to ask, something to explain why she was disobeying. "I just wanted to come and ask what we're having for dinner tonight."

Mrs. Mulpepper's stare didn't soften and Calliope looked to her toes.

"I want pudding," she whispered.

The old woman sighed. "We can discuss it later, Aggie," she replied. "Go back upstairs now."

She nodded before running for the stairwell to the flat. Behind her, she could hear the witch who'd been buying the vials say, "What a pretty little niece you have. Is she staying with you long?"

"It's hard to say," she heard Mrs. Mulpepper answer. "Her parents are going through a rough patch…"

She gritted her teeth. Calliope didn't want to hear the lies. They were as bad as all of the hidden truths as far as she was concerned. Uncaring of her volume, she stomped up the steps and into the flat, slamming the door behind her. Calliope knew she would be in for a scolding when Mrs. Mulpepper came up, but she didn't care. She was just so furious. How could Sammy have done that to her? Why did she ever believe the other child when they agreed to meet? How could Calliope have been so stupid? Throwing herself on the lounge room's sofa, she buried her face in the cushions and shouted her anger into them. She hated everything!

-o-O-o-

Calliope looked up from the book she had propped on her knees when the door to the Mulpepper's flat opened. She frowned and glanced at the lounge room's clock. It was only three in the afternoon. The apothecary wasn't due to close for another three hours. When she looked back at the old woman, she saw she was wearing a very grim expression. "Calliope, we need to talk," she said as she crossed the room to sit on the other end of the sofa from her.

"Aunt Maisie? Isn't it still business hours?" she asked as the woman smoothed out her baroque-patterned skirt.

"Yes," answered Mrs. Mulpepper in a clipped tone. Eyes now trained on Calliope, she told her, "I had Elijah pause his brewing to mind the front of the store a little while."

This made Calliope frown. She'd heard Mrs. Mulpepper grumble more than once over her stay about how Mrs. Mulpepper wished he would learn to be a little less critical of others as it made it hard to leave him in the shop's front alone to handle customers. "He's not very good with people, though?" she said in a hesitant tone. "That's what you've said."

She sighed. "He isn't ."

Calliope put down her book and scooted closer to the old woman. "Is what we have to talk about that important?" she asked.

"I believe it is, dear," Mrs. Mulpepper answered, eyes gentling around the edges.

That was a good sign Calliope thought. It meant even if Calliope had done something wrong (well, more wrong than she already had), the scolding wouldn't be scathing. "Okay," she said.

Mrs. Mulpepper reached over and pulled her against her side. She decided to allow it and began to hope that whatever they were going to talk about wasn't bad news. "Calliope, you don't seem to truly grasp how important it is you stay up here," said Mrs. Mulpepper as she began to stroke Calliope's hair.

She tilted her head upward to look at the old woman and mumbled, "I said I was sorry…"

"You did, but it's not enough," Mrs. Mulpepper replied, stopping in her ministrations. "That customer I was with? Her name is Mrs. Fawcett," she told Calliope. "Thankfully, Mrs. Fawcett is older than your father by almost a decade and I reckon she's never been seriously acquainted with him before. Her son and daughter were both Ravenclaws. Now, here's the important part to understand, Calliope, that will not always be the case. Some of our customers will know your father. They were his students or classmates and that means they could recognize you as his child from being a student or by seeing some of your father in you—"

Calliope decided to cut in then. Maybe they'd recognize her from around Hogwarts, but she really didn't look a whole lot like Sev. Even if they did share a nose. "—Edie says I don't really take after him," she said, "I look a lot like Darla and kind of like Edie—"

"—Nevertheless, someone is bound to recognize you," Mrs. Mulpepper declared, speaking louder to drown out Calliope's protests. "That could end quite badly. There are some people who are not happy with your father, which I'm sure you can understand. If they see and recognize you, they may target you. They could hurt you or worse."

Calliope crossed her arms. She didn't quite believe Mrs. Mulpepper. "If that's really what you're worried about, why do you take me out in the evenings sometimes?" she questioned, narrowing her eyes at the woman in her doubt.

Mrs. Mulpepper gave her a small, sad smile. "Asking you to stay out of the shop is us trying to negate the risk, dear," she explained. "We realize we can't end it entirely, no matter how much we may wish to. At least if we're just taking you places on occasion during the evenings and you are recognized, no one is going to immediately think you're staying with us. Even before everything went bottom-side up, you and your sisters often would visit us during our time off. It looks like things are relatively normal if we go out together. I know your parents appreciate us trying to keep up appearances as well. The way things are right now…" she trailed off, a troubled furrow coming between her brows. "It's a good thing."

"You want me to stay up here for my safety?" repeated Calliope slowly, trying to grasp this new idea. It did make sense sort of to her.

"Yes, dear, that's why," Mrs. Mulpepper said.

She looked to her lap and admitted, "I thought you just didn't want me bothering you while you were working."

"No, Calliope, if we could, I would love to have you in the shop with me," enthused Mrs. Mulpepper, her hands once again running through Calliope's hair. "I'm sure you could be quite the help! Checking our ingredients to make sure they haven't expired, manning the counter for me, charming customers…"

She grinned up at the old woman. "I would do all of that really well," she said, certain in her abilities to manage the tasks Mrs. Mulpepper had listed.

"I know," Mrs. Mulpepper replied warmly.

"Okay, Aunt Maisie. I will stay in the flat unless it's really an emergency," she promised.

Mrs. Mulpepper hugged her. "Thank you, Calliope."

-o-O-o-

Reaching the end of her book, Calliope closed it. She'd liked it, but she was also disappointed it ended on the wizard character planning to propose to his girlfriend instead of on him having proposed to her. Looking up, she saw Mrs. Mulpepper was dozing on her end of the sofa, the embroidery she'd been working on laying in her lap.

Mr. Mulpepper, from his armchair next to the sofa, glanced at her as he turned a page in the potions magazine he was reading. "Going to bed, my girl?" he asked

"Yes," she said. Lifting her hand, she yawned into it. "I'm tired."

He nodded. "See you in the morning," he said.

"Thank you, Uncle Eugene," Calliope said. Going over to the old man, she hugged him around the shoulders.

He patted her arm and she released him. Walking into her bedroom, Calliope went toward one of the room's wall sconce and motioned at it, activating the lighting charm on it. Once the room was a dim yellow, Calliope began to hum to herself as she went and pulled her jimjams from the room's armoire. As she pulled them out, she saw her curtains begin to light up and darken as if there was a light flashing outside. Briefly, Calliope was confused. Then she realized it must be Sammy from across the street. Annoyed, Calliope decided to ignore it and got dressed for bed.

However, after she turned her room's light off, the flashing continued. She scowled at her window. It was even more bothersome now that her room was dark. Making a decision, she went and grabbed her sketchbook and wrote out a very angry "Stop!" and lit the candle she'd forgotten to put back from last night. Throwing back her curtains, she was going to hold up her message, but Sammy had beaten her to it and had one up themselves. It read:

Sorry!

Calliope frowned. Sorry for what? They had to be talking about today. As hope rose in her chest, her mind started to race. Had something happened earlier? Was that why they hadn't shown up as they agreed? Oh, Calliope hoped Sammy was okay! She tore out her angry message and began to write, "What happened?" but Sammy's apology disappeared and was replaced with a new message:

Couldn't leave!

Calliope began to ponder this. Had Mrs. Whittaker stayed in today? Her shop looked open earlier, though. Calliope was going to finish and hold up her message, as it was just as relevant as it had been a minute ago, but again Sammy beat her to it yet again:

Invisible wall stopped me!

Calliope blinked at this. Invisible wall? What in Merlin's name was that supposed to mean? Throwing aside her old, incomplete message, Calliope wrote and presented to Sammy:

Invisible wall?

A beat later, a series of new messages were shown to Calliope by Sammy:

Yes!

Her second one read:

Between flat door

Followed by a third message:

And landing

Her last message said:

to shop below

Calliope puzzled over this series of messages a few minutes. She didn't know why Sammy was calling it an invisible wall. To her, it sounded like some kind of spell. A familiar spell, actually. Writing out a new message, Calliope asked Sammy:

Could it be an age line?

Sammy shortly replied with their own question:

What?

She rolled her eyes. Why was Sammy playing obtuse? Age-lines were perfectly normal to see all over the place! There had been one during the Triwizard Tournament around the cup to keep underage students from entering (not that it worked very well in the end for Harry) and she knew lots of families used them too. Mostly to keep young children away from dangerous things like stoves or cellar potions labs, but other things as well. For a brief moment, Calliope dropped her sign. Then, she put it back up for Sammy, emphasizing her original question.

In response, Sammy took down their "What?" for a half-second before holding it up again with an additional question mark. Calliope sighed. Putting down her sign, she wrote a new one. It asked:

Runes around door?

Sammy continued to hold up their "what?" sign.

Calliope nearly put out her candle. She was growing cross with Sammy. Was this kid really so bloody dumb they didn't know what runes were? Where in Merlin's name had they grown up? The Muggle world? That thought gave Calliope a pause. Could Sammy have? Then what was she doing in the flat above McHavelock's Wizarding Headgear? Hadn't all Muggle-borns been forced on the run or into Azkaban? Extremely curious, but knowing better than to ask now, she decided to continue with her line of questions. Re-writing her inquiry so maybe Sammy could answer one way or another, she asked in a two-part message:

Funny letters?

Around doorway.

Sammy was quick to hold up a sign that said:

Yes!

Satisfied with the answer, Calliope made a choice. She would just have to go up to the flat. They could meet each other, her on one side of the doorway, Sammy on the other. Maybe they could figure out a way for Sammy to get out of the flat too with a bit of thought. Calliope knew some type of workaround must exist. She wrote a new message for Sammy:

I'll come up tomorrow.

Sammy wrote back:

At one?

Calliope held up a sign that read:

Yes.

Sammy's old message fell and they appeared in the candlelight, waving at Calliope. She put down her reply and returned the wave before blowing out the candle altogether. Sammy quickly did the same. As she got beneath her duvet, Calliope rolled onto her side and began to think. Her and Mrs. Mulpepper just talked about how important it was Calliope stay in the flat. But… She had to go.

Not only was Sammy another child like her who she could befriend, but they were also a mystery she had to now solve. One visit would have to be okay. She'd learned from today. As long as she was really careful (even more than she was earlier), neither of the Mulpeppers would have to know. Calliope closed her eyes and breathed out. Yes, no one would ever have to know. She could do it.

Did you enjoy this chapter? Calliope and Mrs. Mulpepper together? Are you excited for her and Sammy to finally meet next chapter?

Thanks for reading!