As Though She Were Mine

Getting up from the kitchen table, Calliope picked up her plate and Mr. Mulpepper's to take to the sink for future cleaning and putting away. As she placed them there to be dealt with after the old man finished his tea, Calliope caught sight of something interesting happening on the other side of the kitchen window's lace curtains. Pushing them aside, she saw that there were people running and wizards and witches throwing spells every which way. "Uncle Eugene, come look!" she called to him, barely glancing away from the window for even a moment.

The old man placed his half-finished teacup down on the table. "What is it, Calliope?" he asked as he got up to join her.

Pointing down at the street once he was beside her, Calliope said, "Look what's going on down there." Squinting, Calliope made out past all the running people that by the Betting Shop there was a duel going on. She said as much to Mr. Mulpepper, "There's a couple of wizards dueling a witch by the Betting Shop."

Together, the two of them watched as a couple of more witches and wizards apparated onto the street and started to target some in the fleeing crowds. At this, Mr. Mulpepper went rigid. She turned her face toward him and said, "Uncle Eugene?"

"Calliope step away from the window this instant," he told her.

She frowned. "What? Why?" she asked.

Eyes flashing, the old man ordered, "Calliope, now!" And when she still did not move, he grabbed her by the arm with a strong hand and yanked her back.

Stumbling over her own feet, Calliope just barely stopped herself from falling to the floor by grabbing onto a kitchen chair to steady herself. Too shocked to be hurt or cross, all she could do was whisper, "Okay…"

Mr. Mulpepper, now away from the window himself, appeared rather contrite about what he'd done. With the same hand that he'd yanked her with, he petted the top of her head before going into the lounge room and activating the floo.

Following after, Calliope watched from the threshold between the rooms as the old man stuck his head in and called, "Hello!" There was a beat before he continued with, "Ah, Emily. Would you please call Mrs. Mulpepper to room for me?" The person, Emily, on the other end of the floo call must have gone to get Mrs. Mulpepper as he began to tap his foot in impatience for a minute. When he spoke again, it was in a rush, "Maisie, dear, I want you to spend your lunch at the apothecary. There's ah, a commotion, going on by the Betting Shop." There was another bout of silence followed by Mr. Mulpepper sighing. "Yes, yes, she's fine," he said and Calliope knew it was her he was talking about and Mrs. Mulpepper had asked after. "I have her here with me," he told her before saying after a pause, "I love you. I promise as soon as one of these troublesome girls takes this business off our hands we'll move to Bora Bora." There were a couple of seconds of quiet then which Mr. Mulpepper followed up with a warm, "Goodbye."

Once the old man had pulled his head from the hearth, Calliope called, "Uncle Eugene?"

He looked at her, eyes sharp. "Calliope, I want you to stay right where you are away from the windows," he ordered. "I need to pop down and check on Elijah," explained Mr. Mulpepper. Lips quirking upward, he remarked, "I'm sure he's already secured the doors, but it doesn't hurt to double-check."

"Yes, okay," agreed Calliope, feeling rather meek and more than a little frightened.

Mr. Mulpepper walked over to her and gave the side of her face a soft caress. "Good girl," he praised before turning and leaving the flat altogether. Rooted in her spot, Calliope hardly even let herself breathe too deeply lest it lead to unwanted consequences. As she stood, waiting, the floo flared to life and Calliope watched, wondering who it would be that stepped out. Mrs. Mulpepper? One of her parents? Someone else? When Sammy came out, face a bright red and wet with tears, she couldn't help but gasp.

"Sammy!" she cried before darting over to her friend.

The other girl sobbed aloud at the sight of her. She then lunged forward and hugged her, crying, "Calliope, I don't understand what's going on, but it's scaring me!"

"I should bloody think so!" exclaimed Calliope, extracting her friend from her front. Hands-on the other girl's shoulders, said, "It's had Uncle Eugene tell Aunt Maisie he loves her." Sammy continued to weep and Calliope began to fear greatly for both of their safety. She couldn't let them stand here much longer. Mr. Mulpepper would be back at any moment. Reaching over and grabbing Sammy by her wrist, she pulled the other girl to her bedroom. "Sammy, I wish I could make you feel better right now, but you need to go hide in my room," she explained. Not able to keep her tone calm, she added, "Uncle Eugene will be back at any moment!"

"Calliope!" Sammy whimpered when she let her go upon entering her bedroom. From her room, the shouting outside could be heard quite distinctly. The Mulpeppers must have never bothered with putting sound-dampening charms in her room to keep out the noise from the street below.

She sighed. "Oh! Come on, you," Calliope half-chided, half-comforted. "It's going to be fine," she told Sammy, giving her a handkerchief from her robe pocket.

As her mate dried her wet face and wiped the snot off her lip, she whinged, "Stuff like this never used to happen when I lived with my mum and dad."

Calliope pursed her lips and was quiet a moment, just watching as Sammy made herself look more like a girl of eleven instead of a baby. "Well, it wasn't like this before the last couple of years, if that helps," she replied.

"Not really," the other sniffled, trying to give the handkerchief back to Calliope.

She shook her head. "No keep it." Sammy hesitated, but balled up the kerchief and pushed it into the front pocket of her jeans when Calliope kept her hands fixed at her sides. Nothing in her hands, Sammy wrapped her arms around herself. It looked to Calliope as if she was trying to bring herself comfort with a hug and sparked an idea in her mind. Turning away from her friend, she went to her armoire and threw it open.

"What are you doing?" asked Sammy as Calliope got on her knees to search through the suitcase she'd brought with her to the Mulpepper's last spring.

"Ah-ha!" Calliope exclaimed when her hands wrapped around the familiar, lumpy softness of the stuffed animal she was looking for. Standing up again, she held the toy out to Sammy to take. "This is my No-Ears," she told the other girl. "He's a stuffed moon-calf. I used to take him everywhere ." Smiling, Calliope suggested, "Why don't you hug him in here while I go back to the lounge to wait for Uncle Eugene." She knew a stuffed animal was poor imitation for the warmth and hands of a person, but it was better than having nothing to hold on to. Even so, Calliope swore, "I'll come get you when everything's safe."

Sammy finally took the Moon-Calf plush and wrapped her round arms around its middle. "Thanks," she said.

"It's no trouble," assured Calliope, fingers twisting in her shirt. "I wish I could do more for you right now," she said, anxious.

"You've done plenty," Sammy said, smiling for the first time. "You weren't cross with me for coming over when we didn't agree to a visit and you're giving me your teddy to hold," she told Calliope like it was some kind of huge favor instead of the least possible she could have done for Sammy. She opened her mouth to argue, but Mr. Mulpepper's voice rang out through the small flat:

"Calliope!"

"Uh-oh!" she yelped, "I'm caught!"

Sammy pulled a face and apologized, "Sorry!"

She rolled her eyes at her friend. "This isn't your fault," she huffed before dashing to her bed and grabbing the afghan Mrs. Mulpepper made her off it. Wrapping it around herself like a cloak, she ran back to the lounge room, calling, "Uncle Eugene!"

"I told you to stay here, Calliope!" he scolded, hands on his hips.

"I'm sorry," she said, lowering her chin into her chest. "I just wanted the blanket Aunt Maisie gave me to huddle under." Softer, she told him, "It's scary listening to the screaming."

He sighed and came forward to hug her. "I know," he said as he started to stroke her hair.

She tipped her face up to look at the age-worn countenance of Mr. Mulpepper. His eyes were attentive and Calliope decided now was the time to try to get answers. "Uncle Eugene?" she started.

"Yes?" he replied, continuing to pet her hair.

Calliope asked, "What's happening?"

His hand stopped its ministrations and he averted his eyes. "War," he answered in a dark, short tone.

She pursed her lips, displeased. That was hardly an answer at all. "War?" she repeated. "What does that mean," she complained.

He exhaled. Eyes still looking away from her, he explained, "Elijah suspects the Snatchers are doing a round here in Knockturn." He glanced down at Calliope then, looking to see how much she understood, she suspected. Though she only had a vague idea of who the Snatchers were from occasionally seeing it on the newspapers Mr. and Mrs. Mulpepper read, she did not let it show. Instead, she continued to stare at Mr. Mulpepper, urging him on. "It's not actually too difficult to get by around here without a wand," he told her. "For Muggle-borns and other enemies of the Ministry, pitching their wands and coming to Knockturn Alley to lay low likely seemed like a good way to survive the war."

She frowned as she finally understood what was going on outside. There were Muggle-borns and dissenters of the Ministry being rounded up like criminals to be shipped off to Azkaban. "That's terrible," she said.

Mr. Mulpepper nodded. "It is," he agreed.

A thought came to Calliope then. If they were doing this once, would they do it again? And if they did, would they start demanding to search in shops and flats? She bit her lip. "Do you think they will do this regularly?" asked Calliope.

Mr. Mulpepper gave a helpless shrug. "I don't know."

Thoughts still on Sammy, and on her sister now too, she said to Mr. Mulpepper, "I heard some Muggle-Borns went on the run, do you think they're safer than those hiding here?" She hoped they were. She hated to think that the reason Sammy's sister and Mrs. Whittaker's son hadn't come back was that they'd been caught like those people out in the street.

The old man blinked at her, clearly startled. "You heard—" he sputtered, only to stop and narrow his eyes. "You've been reading my papers while we're gone, haven't you?" he questioned.

She hadn't. Newspapers were quite dull in general in Calliope's experience, but it was a better explanation than anything else (especially the truth). "Well…"

He chuckled. "I suppose it's my fault," Mr. Mulpepper admitted. "I never said you shouldn't." His hold on her tightened slightly as he said, "I would prefer you to refrain in the future. The information in the papers is not very honest these days and the stories are…" he trailed off, a furrow coming between his brows. Mr. Mulpepper shook his head a moment later and said, "Well, it's something a girl your age shouldn't bother yourself with."

Calliope couldn't help the irritation that rose in her chest. Pulling away from the old man, she argued, "I'm ten! That's plenty old." Scowling at him, she reminded Mr. Mulpepper, "I know Darla actually saw and went through worse when she was half my age."

Mr. Mulpepper nodded. "That's true, she did experience much worse," he agreed with a distant look. "That doesn't mean I or anyone else don't wish she hadn't. If we could have saved her that pain and fear…" he stopped and sighed. "We just want you to have it better, is all."

Calliope nodded. It was nice of him, Mrs. Mulpepper, and everybody else to want her to live a more carefree life, but it wasn't what she wanted. Calliope knew she couldn't expect to know everything they did or be allowed to do as much them, but she still felt she deserved to understand more than she did now. "Uncle Eugene, I'm still going to read the papers," she told him. Or she would be now, anyway, now that she knew how valuable they really were. "No one wants to talk to me about what's going on," she said, "maybe it's not all true, but it's the only thing that even gives me a little idea of what's going on outside, what my parents, Eileen and Essie are experiencing."

His face twisted briefly, but the old man's shoulders quickly fell and he replied, "I understand. If you have questions, do ask myself or Maisie. We will answer as well as we can."

She smiled, feeling quite victorious. "Thank you, Uncle Eug—"

A knocking sounded at the flat door, drowning out Calliope and making her jump. Mr. Mulpepper looked away from her and to the flat's door. He gave her one last squeeze before letting her go. "You're welcome, dear girl," he said. Then, walking to the door, he remarked, "That must be Elijah. I told him to come up and knock when he felt it was safe." Then, as if to prove him right, when he opened the door, on the other side was the apothecary employee. Mr. Mulpepper greeted him warmly by taking ahold of one of the man's hand. "Elijah, young man, what do you have to report?" he asked.

Elijah looked from Mr. Mulpepper to Calliope to back to him. "I think the worst of it is over, Mr. Mulpepper," he said. Slanted eyes back on Calliope, he told Mr. Mulpepper, haltingly, "They're just… cleaning up. I would suggest your niece stay away from the windows for a while longer."

"Of course, thank you," replied Mr. Mulpepper, finally letting go of Elijah's hand. "I will come down and help you go through the closing procedures." He chuckled without mirth and commented, "I reckon no one will want to come to the apothecary anymore today."

"All right," agreed Elijah, his shoulder-length black hair falling into his face as he nodded. "I will meet you downstairs." Elijah then stepped back and walked away. When he was out of sight, Mr. Mulpepper turned to Calliope.

"Calliope, I want you to come down with me— Just in case," he said.

She frowned and forced herself not to look back to her room, to where Sammy was waiting for her. "I won't look out the windows," she promised.

"I'm sure you won't," replied Mr. Mulpepper, "but I would feel better having you close by."

Calliope desperately tried to think of a reason why she shouldn't go with him, but couldn't Relenting, she mumbled, "…Okay. Just let me put my blanket away."

He smiled. "I'll be right here."

When Calliope walked into her room, Sammy shot up from the room's rocking chair, No-Ears still in her arm. Eyes big and hopeful, she said, "Calliope?"

She took the afghan off her shoulders and folded it back up to lay on her bed. As she did so, she explained, "Uncle Eugene is insisting I go downstairs with him while he closes up the shop for the day." Lips trembling, she said, "I wish I could stay with you, but I can't. It's mostly over, at least. Go back to Whittaker's, okay? You can come over tomorrow at two for a little bit and we can talk and stuff then."

Sammy sagged in place, looking both sad and disappointed. "Okay…"

"I'm really sorry I haven't been able to help you more, Sammy," Calliope told her friend, blinking back guilty tears.

Her friend offered a wobbly smile. "It's not your fault," she assured.

Calliope supposed that was true, but she still felt bad. "Also, stay away from the windows for a bit," she advised. "They're still out there cleaning up the streets. You wouldn't want to be seen right now I don't think."

"Thanks, Calliope."

"You can take No-Ears with you if you like," Calliope told her still very forlorn-looking friend. "Just be sure to keep it hidden from Mrs. Whittaker." A new thought coming to her, Calliope snapped her fingers and told Sammy, "Oh! Also, help yourself to an apple or pear from the fruit bowl on your way out. Aunt Maisie bought them yesterday and they're really good."

Her friend's wobbly smile turned stronger and she said, "I will, thank you for not being cross with me and letting me have your Moon-Cow for the night."

"It's what mates are for," Calliope said, leaning in to give the other girl a quick hug.

"Calliope, what's taking you so long?" called Mr. Mulpepper from the lounge.

Going stiff, Calliope quickly pulled back from Sammy and ran for her open armoire where she pulled out her navy blue robe with the gold diamond pattern on it. "Sorry!" she yelled back to the old man. "I just wanted a robe and couldn't decide which one."

"Silly girl, it doesn't matter," he called back. "It's just me and Elijah downstairs. I reckon the customer we had before the commotion has left now that it's safe."

Her robe now on, she gave one last wave to Sammy before stepping out of her bedroom and into the corridor. Her heart lept to her throat when she saw Mr. Mulpepper was at the mouth of the corner and not where she left him near the flat door. Forcing a weak smile, she said, "I guess you're right…"

Thoughts?

Thank you very much for reading