Well, all brace yourselves for the next part of my badly-titled series.
Please fasten all seatbelts, and note the nearest emergence exit in case the pilot happens to fall into an unusually large plot hole or has a sudden writer's block attack. Note all vomit bags - we may hit turbulence when the pilot looses her bearings and plotline and becomes totally lost and disorientated.
Well, don't say I didn't warn you.
Remus was shocked and speechless. He had many improbable theories about why and how Calypso had ended up at his house, but none of them included her being a witch.
Calypso tilted her head to the side and gave Remus a quizzical look over the table.
"Never even considered it, eh?"
Remus found his voice and his wits.
"You can't be" he said finally.
Calypso raised her eyebrows.
"And why not?"
"You...you were totally affected by the befuddlement charm and the repellant charm on the road" he said triumphantly. "Any first-year would have recognized that they were under some sort of enchantment, and simply broken the spell with Fine Incantium."
"Any trained witch or wizard, you mean."
Remus gave her a blank look.
Calypso sighed.
"I 'spose I owe you an explanation. I am a witch, but I've never been trained. I don't really know a single spell. That's why I didn't know that there were spells on the road."
"H...how? You simply can't be a witch and not be trained!" said Remus disbelievingly.
"Well, I am."
Remus opened his mouth to protest again, but Calypso beat him to it.
"Shut up and let me speak. Look, there are certain reasons, private reasons, why I didn't go to Wizarding School. But just skip over that for a sec, and just accept the fact that I am a witch and I am here."
Remus wondered for a second what she had done to never be accepted to Wizarding School. He had a sudden flashback of the days when he himself was resigned to the fact that, because he was a werewolf, he would never be accepted, and felt a wave of compassion for the girl sitting across the table from him.
Calypso leaned back on her chair and sighed.
"Oh God, how do I start? Ummmm.......'spose you want to know why I am here. Truth is, I don't really know."
"Start from the beginning" said Remus helpfully
Calypso glared at him.
"I thought I told you to shut up. This isn't easy"
"Well, sorr-eeeeeee!" retorted Remus
The dog barked suddenly, breaking into the angry stillness that had settled over the table.
Calypso felt like a little girl that had just been scolded for bickering with her little brother.
"I'm sorry for being rude" Calypso said eventually. "It's just that ..." She chewed her lip, eyes downcast.
"Just go on. Why are you here?" said Remus warily.
Calypso looked up straight into his eyes.
"I 'spose it all really started just after Graduation. From Otago University, that is." she added, seeing the questioning look in Remus's eyes. "Bachelor of Science. Well, anyway, about a day after Graduation, I started getting this... sorta buzz in my head. At first I thought it was just a result of my hangover, but it didn't go away. It...I know this sounds crazy, but it wanted me to go overseas. It was like having a little voice in my head telling me where to go. Well, then I thought it was just my subconcious, you know, the kind of travel bug thing 18-year old Uni Graduates get - wanting to see the world. A big OE -all Aussies and Kiwis do it. But it was weird - I would just be daydreaming, and I would find myself walking into the travel agents. Or leafing through a book, and find myself staring at the bits about England. It was the buzz, it was controlling what I was doing when I was not concentrating hard."
Calypso looked hard at Remus.
"You think I'm mad, don't you?" she said despairingly.
"I thought you wanted me to shut up?" He replied smartly.
She glared at him, but in a lighter heart continued with her tale.
"So I didn't take up any job offers. I brought a plane ticket for America, and flew off about...oh... two months ago. I went to America because the Buzz told me to go Northwards and Eastwards. And America was that direction. I basically worked my way thought America to the East Coast, just following the Buzz. And when I got to the East Coast, the Buzz was still telling me to go North-East. So I jumped the next flight to England."
She paused for a moment.
"And?" Remus gently encouraged her.
"I landed in Heathrow....and the Buzz was all positive, so I knew I was in the right country at least....and I just let the Buzz guide me from there. And I ended up here." She said, loosing more composure with every sentence.
"How did you end up here though? That's what I am interested in." Remus said, leaning forward.
Calypso looked at the ceiling, and threw her arms up hoplessly.
"I don't know. I just followed what the Buzz in my mind told me. It would say things like 'get on the train' and 'get off the train' and stuff like that. Well, it didn't really say stuff. I just got the feelings....and yesterday morning it told me to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere and start walking down this road-y thing. So I did. And then I met you dog, and he led me here." She said miserably.
There was silence for a few seconds.
"D'ya believe me?" she said, with a beseeching look in her eyes.
There was a few seconds silence.
"I've heard stranger stories" Remus said slowly.
Slowly, Calypso's face broke into a huge grin.
"Oh......I was so worried that you wouldn't believe me!..."
But she was interrupted by the fridge, which had started to talk.
"Sooo can we act all normal again Sir? Please? I haven't not talked for a whole day since, blimey, since..."
"Shut your trap you stupid piece of whiteware! Gaah, what an idiot. You put enchanted household goods to shame. Ignoramus. Just because Sir believes her cock-and-bull story doesn't mean that his instructions don't apply! Why on earth he ever enchanted YOU is beyond me, I....." said the Pantry shrilly.
Calypso stared at them with utter disbelief, her jaw hanging open.
"Fridge, Pantry, please be quiet." Remus said evenly to the cowering fridge and the angry pantry.
They did so, the pantry still grumbling quietly.
Calypso swiveled back on her seat to face Remus.
"I knew it" she said excitedly. "I knew there was something weird about this whole house! It's all enchanted! And your dog too!"
Remus looked quickly at his dog, and nodded his head.
"So what, did you remove all the obviously magical stuff last night and put it all in the room at the end of the hall?"
"You're more intelligent than you look" Remus said, with a shrewd smile.
"I'll take that as a compliment" Calypso retorted dryly.
"Talking about intelligence, what kind of spell did you use on your dog? I've never heard of anything like it before!"
"Invented it myself - it's really complex" he replied smoothly
"I'd bet" Calypso agreed, with unrestrained admiration in her voice.
"We need more miiiiilkkkk!!!!" the fridge sung out.
"Learn when to shut up!" snapped the Pantry irritably to the fridge.
The dog sniggered.
"Sooo, now that we are telling the truth, what do you really do for a living?" asked Calypso
"I work for the Ministry - against Lord Vol...I mean, HeWhoMustNotBeNamed" he said evasivly
"Who? You mean old MouldyWarts?"
Remus looked shocked.
"You...know who he is? And you're not scared of his name?"
Calypso sighed.
"I have a bit more to explain. I'm a sage - a seer, a wisewoman, a fortuneteller, a futureteller. You know, the whole sch-bang. That's where I know your house from - I've seen it before in a dream."
Remus looked at her with a patronizing expression.
"No, I am! Really!" cried Calypso, exasperated.
"Stuff I see comes true! Or has come true! Or is happening! I'm no charlatan - and I do not write horoscopes for the daily newspapers or any bullcrap like that, if that's what you're thinking!"
There was a deathly quiet.
"Liar" sneered the pantry into the silence.
Calypso's face fell.
"Knew you wouldn't believe me" she mumbled, looking at the tabletop.
"Didn't I just say that I believed you? Don't listen to Pantry, it has constant PMS." Remus said evenly.
"That's it! No more food for you, you little bastard! See how much I care if you all starve! Ohhh, you'll all be begging for my forgiveness tomorrow at lunchtime, I bet! And you know what? I'll just laugh! Coz according to Sir himself here, I have PMS! So stuff you all, you ungrateful bastards!" the pantry screamed, doors crashing open and shut, before slamming shut and locking themselves with over-exaggerated clicks.
Calypso looked flabbergasted at the now obviously sulking pantry.
"It does like making a scene." said Remus, sighing.
"What a rude pantry! Why do you keep it?" asked Calypso, shocked
Remus shrugged.
"My mother liked it - I could never get rid of Pantry." He replied.
Calypso did not looked convinced.
"Anyway," continued Remus, 'We were talking before we were rudely interrupted. So why are you here?"
"'Told you, I dunno."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Ummm......"
"You can stay another night at least."
Calypso looked grateful and relieved.
"Tomorrow I rekon I'll scry a bit - see if I discover anything interesting. Maybe I'll get an answer - or a clue." She said, upbeat.
"Er...scry?"
Calypso shot him a withering look.
"You obviously slept through all you Divination lessons. Scry. With my crystal ball. You know, see into the future."
"But....you said you didn't know any magic" said Remus, confused.
"No, I said I didn't know any spells. Big diff. I don't know any charms, hexes, enchantments, curses and so on. The ministry can detect those ones. But I know quite a bit about Divination, Potion-brewing and Astronomy. They can't detect them." She said proudly. "I've got a crystal ball in my pack - that's why it's so goddam heavy."
Remus looked interested.
"What else can you do?"
"Ummm.....stuff like levitation - but it's really inaccurate - and lighting stuff on fire - and I can explode things if I am angry enough."
"Indirect magical application...." Remus murmured to himself
"What?"
"Indirect magical application. As opposed to direct magical application that requires a wand, like spells. There are certain things you can do without direct spells - like levitation. But it takes heated emotion, or lots of hard work......" Remus said slowly, eyeing the girl across the table from with renewed respect.
"Well, did you think I was just going to say, cool, I can't get taught magic stuff, that's fine with me? I'm good at Divination and Potion-brewing and Astronomy. Really good. I learned as much as I possibly could. And isn't there some spells that once you set them up, you don't need wands. Isn't there? Like apparation? And turning yourself into an animal? And locks and passwords and stuff like that?"
Remus was careful not to look at the dog sitting on the chair to his left.
"Yeah, how do you know all this stuff? You said that you...."
"I was barred from receiving any magical instruction and making contact with any magical persons. But there was this old witch down the road, Mrs. Wiremu, that I had known since I was little, and she took pity on me. She went and got me spellbooks - not that I could use them - and one day smuggled me into the wandstore and got me a wand. I've only ever used it three times though - on an airplane."
Calypso grinned.
"There are always loopholes in the law, even in magical law. When you are flying overseas, and you are crossing international boarders, there's a slight delay before the information that you are barred from performing spells is sent across and processed. So for about twenty seconds after I cross an international boarder, I can do spells and no-one can tell me off or detect it."
She suddenly stopped.
"Why am I telling you this? You work for the ministry. Which brings up an interesting question, why are you trusting ME? Huh?" she said suddenly.
Remus smiled and reached into the pockets of his pants and brought out....
"A spinning top. What the hell does a spin..."
"It's a Pocket Sneakoskope. If you were dishonorable, or anything like that, this would spin around, whistle and flash crazy colours."
Calypso peered at it with wide eyes.
"And also, my dog trusts you. You were right, he is very intelligent - well, for a dog that is." He added, glancing slyly at the dog, who growled.
"Also, my note said not to go into the room at the end of the corridor. You didn't - if you had tried the doorhandle, you would have found that you somehow you couldn't take your hand off it, no matter how much you tried."
Calypso laughed.
"Smart."
"Hmmm. I thought so too. But why do you trust me?"
Calypso gazed straight at him.
"Eyes are windows to the soul. I can look into people's eyes and see a helluva lot. From what I saw, I knew I could trust you."
This news visibly ruffled Remus.
"What did you see?"
"I didn't SEE anything in your eyes, just...felt emotions. Sorta." She shrugged.
Remus was interested, but was eager to change the topic
"What I'm really interested in is exactly HOW you saw this house. It's under a Fidleus Charm. You shouldn't have been able to see it at all."
Comprehension dawned in Calypso's eyes.
"Ohhhhhh......I didn't at first....but then it all sorta just materialized out of thin air. I think it has something to do with the Buzz in my head."
Thinking very hard, she began talking again.
"Your dog...guards the road, doesn't he....for any wizards or anyone that can get past the repellant charms on the road....and when he saw me, he ran off, coz he thought I would just eventually give up....I would have, but that damm buzz wouldn't let me.....and then he decided to lead me to you, so you could just place a memory charm on me....and just dump me in the village...."
"That was the plan" Remus said ruefully.
"...But I saw the house.....so you thought I must have been a witch or a messenger or something....but I was under the influence of the spells on the road, so you thought I couldn't be magical....and then I collapsed...."
"Leaving me in a very sticky situation when I got called into work last night." Said Remus dryly.
"...so the pocket sneak-y thing told you that I was trustworthy, so you moved all the obviously magical stuff to the room at the end of the hall...and left your dog to look after me....and those men on the road were wizards weren't they...what exactly do you do at the Ministry? Those men were after you, weren't they?"
Remus nodded.
"And they couldn't see the house coz it was under that charm."
There was quiet in the house while Calypso thought.
"I can't tell you what I do at the Ministry, it's classified information. But tomorrow I have to go back, there has been a major emergency, and........." Remus stopped in mid-sentence.
Calypso looked at the horrified expression on Remus's face.
"What's the matter?"
"I just remembered...I'm supposed to be cooking my girlfriend dinner tomorrow night, and Pantry is sulking....what am I going to do?" he wailed.
The dog started sniggering again.
Calypso cuffed the dog over his head gently, and looked at the shell-shocked Remus.
"It's OK, I'll go into the village tomorrow and get some stuff."
"You will? Really? Oh gosh, that fixes a lot of problems." He said, obviously relieved.
"Yeah sure" said Calypso, laughing quietly. "It's no trouble, especially after all you've done for me."
He grinned.
"Well, since you are not a muggle after all, I can put all the furniture back in place, can't I?"
Remus got up and walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Calypso went to follow him, interested, but a loud bang and a flash of brilliant pink light persuaded her to start on the dishes instead. Up to her elbows in soapy water, she was startled when suddenly large, heavy objects and furniture started flying across the kitchen and settling into place on the shelves, cupboards and floor. A grandfather clock landed with a thud, but the next object, a large chest, landed with a huge crash that shook the whole house. Rugs unfurled themselves, and paintings re-hung themselves on the walls. Walking over to the fridge, she saw that magnets and photos were now speeding through the open doorway and raining onto the fridge front.
They were wizard photos, she saw - the people were moving in them. There were also some press cuttings too - but it was the photos that interested her.
They showed pictures of a various assortment of people, all dressed in robes. The people were all waving, smiling and laughing. There was a few pictures of a younger Remus Lupin, surrounded by friends who were jostling to get into the camera frame and waving like idiots. Calypso squatted on the floor and looked at the mosaic of photos for a while - moving photos were a novelty.
When Remus came back onto the kitchen, she was still squatting there, oblivious to the pool of soapy water now on the ground from her dripping gloves.
"Spotted me yet?" he asked
Calypso nodded and pointed to a few photos.
"Well, you can use the bathroom now - I've taken the Grindylow out of the bath tub. I'm going to bed - I have an early start tomorrow."
Calypso started to laugh.
"You had a Grindylow in the bath tub? God. Oh, before you go, I still don't know your dog's name. I don't think he likes being called mongrel - he growls when I say that."
Remus choked back some laughter.
"Really? He didn't like it? Well, erm....his name is... Snuffles."
Calypso looked at him with distaste.
"That is the worst name I have ever heard for a dog like him. Snuffles? Why not poochy-kins? Damm that's terrible!"
Remus grinned.
"Oh, but I do like poochy-kins..."
The dog snarled and glared at Remus.
Remus grinned even more at the dog.
"Cmon poochy-kins! Off to bed-dy byes!" he sang in a mocking tone.
If animal looks could kill... Calypso thought. Snuffles got up, jumped down from the chair, streched and walked huffily out the door.
Remus sniggered.
The fridge startled Calypso again by suddenly piping up.
"Er...Sir....Pantry was supposed to tell you, but since she's not speaking to you...ummm...an owl arrived for you a few hours ago, it's outside."
"Thank you Fridge. I'll go read it, then go to bed. Goodnight" he said.
When Remus had left the room, the fridge said spoke again shyly.
"Ummm...would you like some Chocolate Mousse?"
Later on, snuggled down in her bed, Calypso realised that she was, for the first time in ages, feeling at home. But why? She thought. I know hardly anything about where I am or who Remus Lupin is. Why did you tell him so much, you dumbnut? He knows too much now. She continued mentally scolding herself for a few minutes, until she started googling at the new furnishings in her room.
There was a large bookcase, filled with interesting-looking tomes, a mirror over the chest-of-drawers, a locked chest, and numerous posters of wizards on broomsticks on the walls. The thing that most captivated Calypso was that like the photos on the fridge, the wizards (and witches) were moving, making very interesting watching. So interesting, that she was still watching one wizard in purple robes do a loop-the-loop when she fell asleep.
In the room opposite her, the dog, Snuffles, had wriggled under the blankets of the double bed, and was fast asleep, snoring a little.
But in the room down the end, Remus was still awake. He had a lot to think about. Calypso's story was very strange, yes, that was true, but it could be checked out with a few owls. And if she was a true seer, she could become very useful to them all....
Remus wondered again what she had done to get barred from Wizard School - but, Remus reminded himself, that wasn't all. She said that she was barred from receiving magical instruction and making contact with magical persons!! Even though Remus initally had thought, as a young boy, that he could never attend Hogwarts, he had always known that he could learn magic through correspondence, with his parents teaching him, and he was always around magical people, and visiting magical places. What had she done....? But she seemed trustworthy, and she obviously didn't have any other place to go, and she was good company.... His thoughts kept him up late, and it was near midnight when he finally dropped off to sleep.
Calypso was awoken in the morning by something wet on her cheek.
"Geroff, Commando, I'm tryi....."
He brain woke up and she realised that Commando was on the other side of the world.
With a well-placed elbow jab, Snuffles fell off her bed with a thump.
"Yeeruch. Thanks for the wakeup, but I like mine a little less wet." She leant over the side of the bed and rubbed his ears consolingly.
From the noises outside the room that seemed to be coming from the kitchen, Remus was obviously still here. She got up and, pulling on the last of her clean clothes, a t-shirt and jeans, walked into the kitchen. Remus was finishing up his breakfast, and looked up when Calypso strolled through the door into the sun-splashed, warm kitchen.
"Morning" he said between chews
She nodded, and pulled up a chair.
"What time do you expect dinner to be at?" she asked
Remus furrowed his brow with thought.
"There's no way to be sure, could be anything from 5 till 8, depends on how work goes today." He said eventually.
Calypso shrugged her shoulders.
There was silence for a few seconds.
"I think I owe you some proof. I mean, I was thinking about it last night, and my whole story seems real shady, so the least I can do is show you that I really can do divination. That's about all that I can prove though."
"You don't need to prove anything - remember, I said I believe you." Remus replied, but his eyes lit up. He had never seen anyone do real divination - his teacher at Hogwarts had a total of 11 predictions in her lifetime, and none of them he had witnessed.
Calypso smiled at his obvious excitement, and went and got her crystal ball and sat it on the table.
Remus peered at it.
"It's all cloudy"
"Of course you idiot. What did you expect, it to be perfectly clear....oh....you had a bad teacher for divination didn't you? Crystal balls are supposed to be cloudy - did you always use clear ones?"
Remus nodded.
"No wonder divination has such a bad rep" Calypso grumbled as she walked around the kitchen, opening up every window she could see, much to Remus's puzzlement.
"Where's your incense?"
She snorted with disgust.
"Clean, fresh air, with a breeze is best."
"Oh."
Calypso settled herself into the chair and crossed her legs.
"OK, let's go." She leant forwards, propped her elbows up on the table and rested her head in her hands. She looked at the crystal ball, which was about as big as a shot put and supported on a little wooden base. Her eyes seemed lazy and unfocused, her head tilted to the side. and she looked to Remus like she was just daydreaming. Then, to Remus's surprise, the cloudy contents of the ball suddenly swished like they had just been stirred, flowed around, and vanished, leaving the ball perfectly clear. Remus, intrigued, glanced at Calypso, to find himself frozen in place. Her eyes.........
The pupils were no longer black, but a dazzling white. She was focusing on something far, far beyond the ball, and her hair was blowing around in the breeze. Remus quickly decided that he had never seen anything so eerie. Little chills ran up his spine like cold electric currents. Daring not to breathe, he slowly got up and, not taking his eyes off the immobile girl at his kitchen table, started walking backwards to the door. But Calypso suddenly sat up, eyes normal once again and looked at him with a distressed look on her face.
"What? What happened?" she asked
Remus stood there, not knowing what to say.
"You went...weird. Your pupils went white..."
"Yeah, creepy aye?"
Remus nodded his head emphatically.
Calypso gave a sad smile.
"D'ya wanna know what I saw? I saw a man with a metal hand, and he was reading something."
Remus's eyes opened wide.
"That means something to you?" Calypso asked curiously.
"More than you think" mumbled Remus.
"I have to go now......I'll be late for work."
He walked outside, and with Calypso and Snuffles watching, disappeared in thin air.
"I 'spose that's Apparating. Cool." Calypso said to Snuffles.
She wondered what had affected Remus so much - she knew she looked weird when she used her crystal ball, maybe it was that, or maybe it was what she had seen.
Bad idea to tell him, she decided. Why did she trust this guy so much?
It was about a 45 minute walk along the road to Peachgrove Village. Calypso set off with Snuffles after she had done the washing - or, more to the point, had given her dirty clothes to the washing machine, who had eagerly started washing them for her. Calypso thought she should invest in one of those - it could save a lot of work.
In Calypso's shoulder bag was some money and a dogcollar and leash. Once they hit the village, she would put Snuffles on the lead. She was sure he wouldn't like that too much. She was right.
The Village was actually quite large - larger than what Calypso had expected. Than again, she had expected a few thatched huts and a pub. There was a pub - actually there was three. And a Supermarket and a few shops.
As Calypso and Snuffles came towards the end of the road, it gradually became skinnier and by the time it met the road, it was nothing but a little lane. To Calypso's surprise, all the people walking past it never even saw her until she was on the bubble-gum littered pavement. Their gaze simply slid straight over the entrance to the lane like it simply did not exist. She wondered for a few seconds what kind of charm it was, but then concentrated on finding the nearest supermarket.
It felt good to be back in civilization - even though she didn't miss the cars and their sickly fumes, and the blaring of televisions mingling with the radio announcer's voice, and the yells coming from no. 33 Pembroke St, who were having, by the sounds of it, a domestic. But people....people were walking down the street, and up the street, and it felt good for Calypso simply just to have people around. Snuffles tugged on the leash and dragged her forward into the flow of people, and she just let him lead while she had a good look at the village. It was quite charming, despite the neon signs and concert posters tacked up everywhere. She stopped Snuffles outside a giftshop, and looked at the things inside the window.
"I'm gonna buy some stuff, OK?" she said to the Snuffles quietly, so that the passers-by couldn't her her talk to a dog.
Snuffles sighed, but sat down on the hot pavement. Calypso tied him to the nearest parking meter and went in to the giftshop, returning a few minutes later with a large bag swinging off her arm. Snuffles did not look impressed - he was hot and bored. He was even less impressed when Calypso repeated this exercise at many other shops, and even growled when she spent half an hour inside a naturalistic shop looking at crystals and other such hippy stuff. When she went to stop at the next shop, Snuffles just kept ploughing ahead, despite Calypso tugging on the lead, and dragged her straight to the supermarket. Calypso was a little annoyed, but knew that the poor dog was hot and bothered, and, like any male, was bored by shopping. So she tied him to a tree in the shade, and went into the supermarket.
The supermarket was air-conditioned, and Calypso enjoyed pushing the trolley lazily around the aisles. She had filled the trolley about a quarter of the way up when she went to the checkouts and started unloading her groceries onto the conveyer belt. She loved the sound of the checkouts - it brought back so many memories.
Just as she was chatting away to the checkout girl about the weather, she started to feel that familiar tingle along the back of her neck and the racing of her pulse that signaled a vision coming on. She took a deep breath as she felt strength leak out of her legs and her vision become blurred. Frantically, she turned to see if there was any place she could sit down, but there was none. She slowly collapsed onto the floor, and dimly heard the checkout girl's cries of alarm as she slid down the side of the checkout and started shaking.
She saw.....
She saw.....
She was high up in the air, looking over a model of a town, no, it was a real town, she could see little moving things that must be cars and people - they all looked like ants in an ant farm. She swooped lower, and lower, and the buildings became larger and clearer, until she could see...she recognised the town - it was Peachgrove Village, and she was dropping towards what must be the Supermarket. Lower and lower, until they were about 50 metres above the roof. Then she moved slightly to the side, and looked around her. To her shock, she saw three robed men on broomsticks hovering in mid air- two from the road the day before, and another, the one she had seen that morning, the man with the metal hand. He opened his mouth and said something, but Calypso's vision was devoid of all sound. What happened, though, explained to her the gist of what the metal-handed man had said. All three of the men pulled wands out of their pockets and pointed them down towards the supermarket and shopping district. The metal-handed one cried a word, and the others followed suit, and beams of orange light shot out of their wands and raced towards the shops. It touched, and.....exploded.
It was like TV - the shockwave, the collapsing buildings, the little ant-people running around, terrified, the burning, the heat, the destruction....and the manical gleam in the wizards eyes. The leader, the metal-d one, laughed broadly, and lifted his wand into the sky, and bellowed something. Green light slithered out of the end, and flowed out into the sky to form a huge image....then they all wheeled about on their broomsticks and fled into the horizon.
16 minutes to go.
Calypso opened her eyes.
A large, wrinkled face was right in from of her. She blinked.
"Are you okay Honey?" the wrinkled face asked, worried.
Calypso blinked.
"Yes, yes.....Oh my God I'm so sorry, I forgot to take my pills this morning, sorry to give you all such a big fright...."she said quickly, for she was aware of the crowd gathered around.
She took the arm offered by the matronly, wrinkled checkout lady and scrambled up, dusting down her clothes and still making apologies. People slowly looked away.
After assuring the checkout ladies that she was fine, and the best thing for her to do was to go home and rest.
Paying for her groceries, and handing over pounds to the still concerned checkout girl, she knew she only had 14 minutes.
She grabbed her bags and scurried out the door. As soon as she got outside, she scanned the street for a phone booth. Breathing raggedly, Calypso power-walked over the Snuffles, who had fallen asleep. Her fingers shook as she tried to untie his leash from the tree. Slow and steady wins the race, she thought. When it was untied at last, she grabbed the end and hauled poor half-asleep Snuffles roughly across the parking lot towards the phone booth. Snuffles barked, not accustomed to being treated in such a rough manner. But Calypso was beyond caring. Reaching the booth, she dropped the lead and bags on the ground and went into the booth.
"Guard" she snapped to Snuffles.
Grabbing the phone book - thankfully, it was there - she flipped through the pages until she found the supermarket's phone number. Inserting a few coins and dialing the number she waited, listening to the phone ring.
11 minutes.
There was a click as someone picked up at the other end and started talking in a cherry voice.
"Shut up" said Calypso in a deadpan, deep, male, British voice.
There was stunned silence at the other end of the line.
"Listen to me. There is a bomb in the building. It will go off in under eleven minutes. I suggest you evacuate the building - fast. And probably the rest of the street. This is not a hoax. Ask yourself - do you feel like dying today?" she continued in the same voice, before placing a finger smartly on the little plastic bit that hangs up the phone.
But she didn't put the receiver down - instead, she had a one-sided conversation with 'Marge', and slouched against one side of the booth, all the time watching the supermarket entrance.
To her great relief, with in a few seconds she heard a siren, and confused and scared people started flooding out of the supermarket.
Within another five minutes, police cars came scrambling up the road, lights flashing, and police in heavy armor started running everywhere. One officer ran towards Calypso in the phone booth.
"Mam, please step this way, we have had a bomb threat phoned in targeting this vicinity" he said, panting, after opening the booth door.
Careful to look scared, Calypso grabbed her bags, Snuffle's lead and ran out of there as fast as she could. Dodging police barricades, she joined other people doing the same thing - the jostling, terrified crowd poured down the streets, yelling and screaming. She heard the tinkling of breaking glass and the wail of burglar alarms. It was turning into a riot. A knot formed in Calypso's throat. She was scared, too. She couldn't resist looking at the sky over the supermarket behind her - but she saw nothing. Good, she thought, most people should be gone before they get here.
The crowd was picking up momentum and Calypso found it hard to break free, especially burdened as she was. She started to panic, as was the crowd. It was Snuffles that managed to drag her over to the side of the mob and into the lane that was the road back to Remus's house.
Panting and weak with exhaustion, Calypso doubled over and tried to catch her breath. Breath in control, she flicked her head up to the sky, and saw three specks over the supermarket's sky. Before she had time to react, there was a flash of brilliant orange light and a kaboom and a whoosh...
Then the shockwave hit her - picking her up into the air like a ragdoll, and throwing her across the lane, flooding her senses with violent, angry, rushing energy, her ears screaming with the extremity of it all. She hit the fence body first, with a thud, limbs whacking the wood afterwards with a sick cracking noise, and was pinned there for a few seconds before falling to the ground, unconscious.
Well, there ya go.
Disclaimer - The usual. All JK Rowling's stuff belongs exclusively to her.
Thanks to all those wonderful, enthusiastic people who reviewed - nothing like reviews to motivate and inspire. So take that as a not-so-subtle hint.
And, yes, I know, I spelt all the spells wrong. And many other words. But you know what they are, right?
So cmon, I spent a few hours writing this, the LEAST you can do is spare a few SECONDS of your measly time and write a review - I don't care if it's only three words. But I do like longer ones. Hint hint. And flames too. So write. I really really appreciate it.
Thank you for flying Air Sorceress - please come again soon. Out next flight will be departing sometime after the pilot's Calculus Exam, which she is shitting herself over. Have a nice day!!!!
Please fasten all seatbelts, and note the nearest emergence exit in case the pilot happens to fall into an unusually large plot hole or has a sudden writer's block attack. Note all vomit bags - we may hit turbulence when the pilot looses her bearings and plotline and becomes totally lost and disorientated.
Well, don't say I didn't warn you.
Remus was shocked and speechless. He had many improbable theories about why and how Calypso had ended up at his house, but none of them included her being a witch.
Calypso tilted her head to the side and gave Remus a quizzical look over the table.
"Never even considered it, eh?"
Remus found his voice and his wits.
"You can't be" he said finally.
Calypso raised her eyebrows.
"And why not?"
"You...you were totally affected by the befuddlement charm and the repellant charm on the road" he said triumphantly. "Any first-year would have recognized that they were under some sort of enchantment, and simply broken the spell with Fine Incantium."
"Any trained witch or wizard, you mean."
Remus gave her a blank look.
Calypso sighed.
"I 'spose I owe you an explanation. I am a witch, but I've never been trained. I don't really know a single spell. That's why I didn't know that there were spells on the road."
"H...how? You simply can't be a witch and not be trained!" said Remus disbelievingly.
"Well, I am."
Remus opened his mouth to protest again, but Calypso beat him to it.
"Shut up and let me speak. Look, there are certain reasons, private reasons, why I didn't go to Wizarding School. But just skip over that for a sec, and just accept the fact that I am a witch and I am here."
Remus wondered for a second what she had done to never be accepted to Wizarding School. He had a sudden flashback of the days when he himself was resigned to the fact that, because he was a werewolf, he would never be accepted, and felt a wave of compassion for the girl sitting across the table from him.
Calypso leaned back on her chair and sighed.
"Oh God, how do I start? Ummmm.......'spose you want to know why I am here. Truth is, I don't really know."
"Start from the beginning" said Remus helpfully
Calypso glared at him.
"I thought I told you to shut up. This isn't easy"
"Well, sorr-eeeeeee!" retorted Remus
The dog barked suddenly, breaking into the angry stillness that had settled over the table.
Calypso felt like a little girl that had just been scolded for bickering with her little brother.
"I'm sorry for being rude" Calypso said eventually. "It's just that ..." She chewed her lip, eyes downcast.
"Just go on. Why are you here?" said Remus warily.
Calypso looked up straight into his eyes.
"I 'spose it all really started just after Graduation. From Otago University, that is." she added, seeing the questioning look in Remus's eyes. "Bachelor of Science. Well, anyway, about a day after Graduation, I started getting this... sorta buzz in my head. At first I thought it was just a result of my hangover, but it didn't go away. It...I know this sounds crazy, but it wanted me to go overseas. It was like having a little voice in my head telling me where to go. Well, then I thought it was just my subconcious, you know, the kind of travel bug thing 18-year old Uni Graduates get - wanting to see the world. A big OE -all Aussies and Kiwis do it. But it was weird - I would just be daydreaming, and I would find myself walking into the travel agents. Or leafing through a book, and find myself staring at the bits about England. It was the buzz, it was controlling what I was doing when I was not concentrating hard."
Calypso looked hard at Remus.
"You think I'm mad, don't you?" she said despairingly.
"I thought you wanted me to shut up?" He replied smartly.
She glared at him, but in a lighter heart continued with her tale.
"So I didn't take up any job offers. I brought a plane ticket for America, and flew off about...oh... two months ago. I went to America because the Buzz told me to go Northwards and Eastwards. And America was that direction. I basically worked my way thought America to the East Coast, just following the Buzz. And when I got to the East Coast, the Buzz was still telling me to go North-East. So I jumped the next flight to England."
She paused for a moment.
"And?" Remus gently encouraged her.
"I landed in Heathrow....and the Buzz was all positive, so I knew I was in the right country at least....and I just let the Buzz guide me from there. And I ended up here." She said, loosing more composure with every sentence.
"How did you end up here though? That's what I am interested in." Remus said, leaning forward.
Calypso looked at the ceiling, and threw her arms up hoplessly.
"I don't know. I just followed what the Buzz in my mind told me. It would say things like 'get on the train' and 'get off the train' and stuff like that. Well, it didn't really say stuff. I just got the feelings....and yesterday morning it told me to get off the bus in the middle of nowhere and start walking down this road-y thing. So I did. And then I met you dog, and he led me here." She said miserably.
There was silence for a few seconds.
"D'ya believe me?" she said, with a beseeching look in her eyes.
There was a few seconds silence.
"I've heard stranger stories" Remus said slowly.
Slowly, Calypso's face broke into a huge grin.
"Oh......I was so worried that you wouldn't believe me!..."
But she was interrupted by the fridge, which had started to talk.
"Sooo can we act all normal again Sir? Please? I haven't not talked for a whole day since, blimey, since..."
"Shut your trap you stupid piece of whiteware! Gaah, what an idiot. You put enchanted household goods to shame. Ignoramus. Just because Sir believes her cock-and-bull story doesn't mean that his instructions don't apply! Why on earth he ever enchanted YOU is beyond me, I....." said the Pantry shrilly.
Calypso stared at them with utter disbelief, her jaw hanging open.
"Fridge, Pantry, please be quiet." Remus said evenly to the cowering fridge and the angry pantry.
They did so, the pantry still grumbling quietly.
Calypso swiveled back on her seat to face Remus.
"I knew it" she said excitedly. "I knew there was something weird about this whole house! It's all enchanted! And your dog too!"
Remus looked quickly at his dog, and nodded his head.
"So what, did you remove all the obviously magical stuff last night and put it all in the room at the end of the hall?"
"You're more intelligent than you look" Remus said, with a shrewd smile.
"I'll take that as a compliment" Calypso retorted dryly.
"Talking about intelligence, what kind of spell did you use on your dog? I've never heard of anything like it before!"
"Invented it myself - it's really complex" he replied smoothly
"I'd bet" Calypso agreed, with unrestrained admiration in her voice.
"We need more miiiiilkkkk!!!!" the fridge sung out.
"Learn when to shut up!" snapped the Pantry irritably to the fridge.
The dog sniggered.
"Sooo, now that we are telling the truth, what do you really do for a living?" asked Calypso
"I work for the Ministry - against Lord Vol...I mean, HeWhoMustNotBeNamed" he said evasivly
"Who? You mean old MouldyWarts?"
Remus looked shocked.
"You...know who he is? And you're not scared of his name?"
Calypso sighed.
"I have a bit more to explain. I'm a sage - a seer, a wisewoman, a fortuneteller, a futureteller. You know, the whole sch-bang. That's where I know your house from - I've seen it before in a dream."
Remus looked at her with a patronizing expression.
"No, I am! Really!" cried Calypso, exasperated.
"Stuff I see comes true! Or has come true! Or is happening! I'm no charlatan - and I do not write horoscopes for the daily newspapers or any bullcrap like that, if that's what you're thinking!"
There was a deathly quiet.
"Liar" sneered the pantry into the silence.
Calypso's face fell.
"Knew you wouldn't believe me" she mumbled, looking at the tabletop.
"Didn't I just say that I believed you? Don't listen to Pantry, it has constant PMS." Remus said evenly.
"That's it! No more food for you, you little bastard! See how much I care if you all starve! Ohhh, you'll all be begging for my forgiveness tomorrow at lunchtime, I bet! And you know what? I'll just laugh! Coz according to Sir himself here, I have PMS! So stuff you all, you ungrateful bastards!" the pantry screamed, doors crashing open and shut, before slamming shut and locking themselves with over-exaggerated clicks.
Calypso looked flabbergasted at the now obviously sulking pantry.
"It does like making a scene." said Remus, sighing.
"What a rude pantry! Why do you keep it?" asked Calypso, shocked
Remus shrugged.
"My mother liked it - I could never get rid of Pantry." He replied.
Calypso did not looked convinced.
"Anyway," continued Remus, 'We were talking before we were rudely interrupted. So why are you here?"
"'Told you, I dunno."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Ummm......"
"You can stay another night at least."
Calypso looked grateful and relieved.
"Tomorrow I rekon I'll scry a bit - see if I discover anything interesting. Maybe I'll get an answer - or a clue." She said, upbeat.
"Er...scry?"
Calypso shot him a withering look.
"You obviously slept through all you Divination lessons. Scry. With my crystal ball. You know, see into the future."
"But....you said you didn't know any magic" said Remus, confused.
"No, I said I didn't know any spells. Big diff. I don't know any charms, hexes, enchantments, curses and so on. The ministry can detect those ones. But I know quite a bit about Divination, Potion-brewing and Astronomy. They can't detect them." She said proudly. "I've got a crystal ball in my pack - that's why it's so goddam heavy."
Remus looked interested.
"What else can you do?"
"Ummm.....stuff like levitation - but it's really inaccurate - and lighting stuff on fire - and I can explode things if I am angry enough."
"Indirect magical application...." Remus murmured to himself
"What?"
"Indirect magical application. As opposed to direct magical application that requires a wand, like spells. There are certain things you can do without direct spells - like levitation. But it takes heated emotion, or lots of hard work......" Remus said slowly, eyeing the girl across the table from with renewed respect.
"Well, did you think I was just going to say, cool, I can't get taught magic stuff, that's fine with me? I'm good at Divination and Potion-brewing and Astronomy. Really good. I learned as much as I possibly could. And isn't there some spells that once you set them up, you don't need wands. Isn't there? Like apparation? And turning yourself into an animal? And locks and passwords and stuff like that?"
Remus was careful not to look at the dog sitting on the chair to his left.
"Yeah, how do you know all this stuff? You said that you...."
"I was barred from receiving any magical instruction and making contact with any magical persons. But there was this old witch down the road, Mrs. Wiremu, that I had known since I was little, and she took pity on me. She went and got me spellbooks - not that I could use them - and one day smuggled me into the wandstore and got me a wand. I've only ever used it three times though - on an airplane."
Calypso grinned.
"There are always loopholes in the law, even in magical law. When you are flying overseas, and you are crossing international boarders, there's a slight delay before the information that you are barred from performing spells is sent across and processed. So for about twenty seconds after I cross an international boarder, I can do spells and no-one can tell me off or detect it."
She suddenly stopped.
"Why am I telling you this? You work for the ministry. Which brings up an interesting question, why are you trusting ME? Huh?" she said suddenly.
Remus smiled and reached into the pockets of his pants and brought out....
"A spinning top. What the hell does a spin..."
"It's a Pocket Sneakoskope. If you were dishonorable, or anything like that, this would spin around, whistle and flash crazy colours."
Calypso peered at it with wide eyes.
"And also, my dog trusts you. You were right, he is very intelligent - well, for a dog that is." He added, glancing slyly at the dog, who growled.
"Also, my note said not to go into the room at the end of the corridor. You didn't - if you had tried the doorhandle, you would have found that you somehow you couldn't take your hand off it, no matter how much you tried."
Calypso laughed.
"Smart."
"Hmmm. I thought so too. But why do you trust me?"
Calypso gazed straight at him.
"Eyes are windows to the soul. I can look into people's eyes and see a helluva lot. From what I saw, I knew I could trust you."
This news visibly ruffled Remus.
"What did you see?"
"I didn't SEE anything in your eyes, just...felt emotions. Sorta." She shrugged.
Remus was interested, but was eager to change the topic
"What I'm really interested in is exactly HOW you saw this house. It's under a Fidleus Charm. You shouldn't have been able to see it at all."
Comprehension dawned in Calypso's eyes.
"Ohhhhhh......I didn't at first....but then it all sorta just materialized out of thin air. I think it has something to do with the Buzz in my head."
Thinking very hard, she began talking again.
"Your dog...guards the road, doesn't he....for any wizards or anyone that can get past the repellant charms on the road....and when he saw me, he ran off, coz he thought I would just eventually give up....I would have, but that damm buzz wouldn't let me.....and then he decided to lead me to you, so you could just place a memory charm on me....and just dump me in the village...."
"That was the plan" Remus said ruefully.
"...But I saw the house.....so you thought I must have been a witch or a messenger or something....but I was under the influence of the spells on the road, so you thought I couldn't be magical....and then I collapsed...."
"Leaving me in a very sticky situation when I got called into work last night." Said Remus dryly.
"...so the pocket sneak-y thing told you that I was trustworthy, so you moved all the obviously magical stuff to the room at the end of the hall...and left your dog to look after me....and those men on the road were wizards weren't they...what exactly do you do at the Ministry? Those men were after you, weren't they?"
Remus nodded.
"And they couldn't see the house coz it was under that charm."
There was quiet in the house while Calypso thought.
"I can't tell you what I do at the Ministry, it's classified information. But tomorrow I have to go back, there has been a major emergency, and........." Remus stopped in mid-sentence.
Calypso looked at the horrified expression on Remus's face.
"What's the matter?"
"I just remembered...I'm supposed to be cooking my girlfriend dinner tomorrow night, and Pantry is sulking....what am I going to do?" he wailed.
The dog started sniggering again.
Calypso cuffed the dog over his head gently, and looked at the shell-shocked Remus.
"It's OK, I'll go into the village tomorrow and get some stuff."
"You will? Really? Oh gosh, that fixes a lot of problems." He said, obviously relieved.
"Yeah sure" said Calypso, laughing quietly. "It's no trouble, especially after all you've done for me."
He grinned.
"Well, since you are not a muggle after all, I can put all the furniture back in place, can't I?"
Remus got up and walked out of the kitchen and into the hallway. Calypso went to follow him, interested, but a loud bang and a flash of brilliant pink light persuaded her to start on the dishes instead. Up to her elbows in soapy water, she was startled when suddenly large, heavy objects and furniture started flying across the kitchen and settling into place on the shelves, cupboards and floor. A grandfather clock landed with a thud, but the next object, a large chest, landed with a huge crash that shook the whole house. Rugs unfurled themselves, and paintings re-hung themselves on the walls. Walking over to the fridge, she saw that magnets and photos were now speeding through the open doorway and raining onto the fridge front.
They were wizard photos, she saw - the people were moving in them. There were also some press cuttings too - but it was the photos that interested her.
They showed pictures of a various assortment of people, all dressed in robes. The people were all waving, smiling and laughing. There was a few pictures of a younger Remus Lupin, surrounded by friends who were jostling to get into the camera frame and waving like idiots. Calypso squatted on the floor and looked at the mosaic of photos for a while - moving photos were a novelty.
When Remus came back onto the kitchen, she was still squatting there, oblivious to the pool of soapy water now on the ground from her dripping gloves.
"Spotted me yet?" he asked
Calypso nodded and pointed to a few photos.
"Well, you can use the bathroom now - I've taken the Grindylow out of the bath tub. I'm going to bed - I have an early start tomorrow."
Calypso started to laugh.
"You had a Grindylow in the bath tub? God. Oh, before you go, I still don't know your dog's name. I don't think he likes being called mongrel - he growls when I say that."
Remus choked back some laughter.
"Really? He didn't like it? Well, erm....his name is... Snuffles."
Calypso looked at him with distaste.
"That is the worst name I have ever heard for a dog like him. Snuffles? Why not poochy-kins? Damm that's terrible!"
Remus grinned.
"Oh, but I do like poochy-kins..."
The dog snarled and glared at Remus.
Remus grinned even more at the dog.
"Cmon poochy-kins! Off to bed-dy byes!" he sang in a mocking tone.
If animal looks could kill... Calypso thought. Snuffles got up, jumped down from the chair, streched and walked huffily out the door.
Remus sniggered.
The fridge startled Calypso again by suddenly piping up.
"Er...Sir....Pantry was supposed to tell you, but since she's not speaking to you...ummm...an owl arrived for you a few hours ago, it's outside."
"Thank you Fridge. I'll go read it, then go to bed. Goodnight" he said.
When Remus had left the room, the fridge said spoke again shyly.
"Ummm...would you like some Chocolate Mousse?"
Later on, snuggled down in her bed, Calypso realised that she was, for the first time in ages, feeling at home. But why? She thought. I know hardly anything about where I am or who Remus Lupin is. Why did you tell him so much, you dumbnut? He knows too much now. She continued mentally scolding herself for a few minutes, until she started googling at the new furnishings in her room.
There was a large bookcase, filled with interesting-looking tomes, a mirror over the chest-of-drawers, a locked chest, and numerous posters of wizards on broomsticks on the walls. The thing that most captivated Calypso was that like the photos on the fridge, the wizards (and witches) were moving, making very interesting watching. So interesting, that she was still watching one wizard in purple robes do a loop-the-loop when she fell asleep.
In the room opposite her, the dog, Snuffles, had wriggled under the blankets of the double bed, and was fast asleep, snoring a little.
But in the room down the end, Remus was still awake. He had a lot to think about. Calypso's story was very strange, yes, that was true, but it could be checked out with a few owls. And if she was a true seer, she could become very useful to them all....
Remus wondered again what she had done to get barred from Wizard School - but, Remus reminded himself, that wasn't all. She said that she was barred from receiving magical instruction and making contact with magical persons!! Even though Remus initally had thought, as a young boy, that he could never attend Hogwarts, he had always known that he could learn magic through correspondence, with his parents teaching him, and he was always around magical people, and visiting magical places. What had she done....? But she seemed trustworthy, and she obviously didn't have any other place to go, and she was good company.... His thoughts kept him up late, and it was near midnight when he finally dropped off to sleep.
Calypso was awoken in the morning by something wet on her cheek.
"Geroff, Commando, I'm tryi....."
He brain woke up and she realised that Commando was on the other side of the world.
With a well-placed elbow jab, Snuffles fell off her bed with a thump.
"Yeeruch. Thanks for the wakeup, but I like mine a little less wet." She leant over the side of the bed and rubbed his ears consolingly.
From the noises outside the room that seemed to be coming from the kitchen, Remus was obviously still here. She got up and, pulling on the last of her clean clothes, a t-shirt and jeans, walked into the kitchen. Remus was finishing up his breakfast, and looked up when Calypso strolled through the door into the sun-splashed, warm kitchen.
"Morning" he said between chews
She nodded, and pulled up a chair.
"What time do you expect dinner to be at?" she asked
Remus furrowed his brow with thought.
"There's no way to be sure, could be anything from 5 till 8, depends on how work goes today." He said eventually.
Calypso shrugged her shoulders.
There was silence for a few seconds.
"I think I owe you some proof. I mean, I was thinking about it last night, and my whole story seems real shady, so the least I can do is show you that I really can do divination. That's about all that I can prove though."
"You don't need to prove anything - remember, I said I believe you." Remus replied, but his eyes lit up. He had never seen anyone do real divination - his teacher at Hogwarts had a total of 11 predictions in her lifetime, and none of them he had witnessed.
Calypso smiled at his obvious excitement, and went and got her crystal ball and sat it on the table.
Remus peered at it.
"It's all cloudy"
"Of course you idiot. What did you expect, it to be perfectly clear....oh....you had a bad teacher for divination didn't you? Crystal balls are supposed to be cloudy - did you always use clear ones?"
Remus nodded.
"No wonder divination has such a bad rep" Calypso grumbled as she walked around the kitchen, opening up every window she could see, much to Remus's puzzlement.
"Where's your incense?"
She snorted with disgust.
"Clean, fresh air, with a breeze is best."
"Oh."
Calypso settled herself into the chair and crossed her legs.
"OK, let's go." She leant forwards, propped her elbows up on the table and rested her head in her hands. She looked at the crystal ball, which was about as big as a shot put and supported on a little wooden base. Her eyes seemed lazy and unfocused, her head tilted to the side. and she looked to Remus like she was just daydreaming. Then, to Remus's surprise, the cloudy contents of the ball suddenly swished like they had just been stirred, flowed around, and vanished, leaving the ball perfectly clear. Remus, intrigued, glanced at Calypso, to find himself frozen in place. Her eyes.........
The pupils were no longer black, but a dazzling white. She was focusing on something far, far beyond the ball, and her hair was blowing around in the breeze. Remus quickly decided that he had never seen anything so eerie. Little chills ran up his spine like cold electric currents. Daring not to breathe, he slowly got up and, not taking his eyes off the immobile girl at his kitchen table, started walking backwards to the door. But Calypso suddenly sat up, eyes normal once again and looked at him with a distressed look on her face.
"What? What happened?" she asked
Remus stood there, not knowing what to say.
"You went...weird. Your pupils went white..."
"Yeah, creepy aye?"
Remus nodded his head emphatically.
Calypso gave a sad smile.
"D'ya wanna know what I saw? I saw a man with a metal hand, and he was reading something."
Remus's eyes opened wide.
"That means something to you?" Calypso asked curiously.
"More than you think" mumbled Remus.
"I have to go now......I'll be late for work."
He walked outside, and with Calypso and Snuffles watching, disappeared in thin air.
"I 'spose that's Apparating. Cool." Calypso said to Snuffles.
She wondered what had affected Remus so much - she knew she looked weird when she used her crystal ball, maybe it was that, or maybe it was what she had seen.
Bad idea to tell him, she decided. Why did she trust this guy so much?
It was about a 45 minute walk along the road to Peachgrove Village. Calypso set off with Snuffles after she had done the washing - or, more to the point, had given her dirty clothes to the washing machine, who had eagerly started washing them for her. Calypso thought she should invest in one of those - it could save a lot of work.
In Calypso's shoulder bag was some money and a dogcollar and leash. Once they hit the village, she would put Snuffles on the lead. She was sure he wouldn't like that too much. She was right.
The Village was actually quite large - larger than what Calypso had expected. Than again, she had expected a few thatched huts and a pub. There was a pub - actually there was three. And a Supermarket and a few shops.
As Calypso and Snuffles came towards the end of the road, it gradually became skinnier and by the time it met the road, it was nothing but a little lane. To Calypso's surprise, all the people walking past it never even saw her until she was on the bubble-gum littered pavement. Their gaze simply slid straight over the entrance to the lane like it simply did not exist. She wondered for a few seconds what kind of charm it was, but then concentrated on finding the nearest supermarket.
It felt good to be back in civilization - even though she didn't miss the cars and their sickly fumes, and the blaring of televisions mingling with the radio announcer's voice, and the yells coming from no. 33 Pembroke St, who were having, by the sounds of it, a domestic. But people....people were walking down the street, and up the street, and it felt good for Calypso simply just to have people around. Snuffles tugged on the leash and dragged her forward into the flow of people, and she just let him lead while she had a good look at the village. It was quite charming, despite the neon signs and concert posters tacked up everywhere. She stopped Snuffles outside a giftshop, and looked at the things inside the window.
"I'm gonna buy some stuff, OK?" she said to the Snuffles quietly, so that the passers-by couldn't her her talk to a dog.
Snuffles sighed, but sat down on the hot pavement. Calypso tied him to the nearest parking meter and went in to the giftshop, returning a few minutes later with a large bag swinging off her arm. Snuffles did not look impressed - he was hot and bored. He was even less impressed when Calypso repeated this exercise at many other shops, and even growled when she spent half an hour inside a naturalistic shop looking at crystals and other such hippy stuff. When she went to stop at the next shop, Snuffles just kept ploughing ahead, despite Calypso tugging on the lead, and dragged her straight to the supermarket. Calypso was a little annoyed, but knew that the poor dog was hot and bothered, and, like any male, was bored by shopping. So she tied him to a tree in the shade, and went into the supermarket.
The supermarket was air-conditioned, and Calypso enjoyed pushing the trolley lazily around the aisles. She had filled the trolley about a quarter of the way up when she went to the checkouts and started unloading her groceries onto the conveyer belt. She loved the sound of the checkouts - it brought back so many memories.
Just as she was chatting away to the checkout girl about the weather, she started to feel that familiar tingle along the back of her neck and the racing of her pulse that signaled a vision coming on. She took a deep breath as she felt strength leak out of her legs and her vision become blurred. Frantically, she turned to see if there was any place she could sit down, but there was none. She slowly collapsed onto the floor, and dimly heard the checkout girl's cries of alarm as she slid down the side of the checkout and started shaking.
She saw.....
She saw.....
She was high up in the air, looking over a model of a town, no, it was a real town, she could see little moving things that must be cars and people - they all looked like ants in an ant farm. She swooped lower, and lower, and the buildings became larger and clearer, until she could see...she recognised the town - it was Peachgrove Village, and she was dropping towards what must be the Supermarket. Lower and lower, until they were about 50 metres above the roof. Then she moved slightly to the side, and looked around her. To her shock, she saw three robed men on broomsticks hovering in mid air- two from the road the day before, and another, the one she had seen that morning, the man with the metal hand. He opened his mouth and said something, but Calypso's vision was devoid of all sound. What happened, though, explained to her the gist of what the metal-handed man had said. All three of the men pulled wands out of their pockets and pointed them down towards the supermarket and shopping district. The metal-handed one cried a word, and the others followed suit, and beams of orange light shot out of their wands and raced towards the shops. It touched, and.....exploded.
It was like TV - the shockwave, the collapsing buildings, the little ant-people running around, terrified, the burning, the heat, the destruction....and the manical gleam in the wizards eyes. The leader, the metal-d one, laughed broadly, and lifted his wand into the sky, and bellowed something. Green light slithered out of the end, and flowed out into the sky to form a huge image....then they all wheeled about on their broomsticks and fled into the horizon.
16 minutes to go.
Calypso opened her eyes.
A large, wrinkled face was right in from of her. She blinked.
"Are you okay Honey?" the wrinkled face asked, worried.
Calypso blinked.
"Yes, yes.....Oh my God I'm so sorry, I forgot to take my pills this morning, sorry to give you all such a big fright...."she said quickly, for she was aware of the crowd gathered around.
She took the arm offered by the matronly, wrinkled checkout lady and scrambled up, dusting down her clothes and still making apologies. People slowly looked away.
After assuring the checkout ladies that she was fine, and the best thing for her to do was to go home and rest.
Paying for her groceries, and handing over pounds to the still concerned checkout girl, she knew she only had 14 minutes.
She grabbed her bags and scurried out the door. As soon as she got outside, she scanned the street for a phone booth. Breathing raggedly, Calypso power-walked over the Snuffles, who had fallen asleep. Her fingers shook as she tried to untie his leash from the tree. Slow and steady wins the race, she thought. When it was untied at last, she grabbed the end and hauled poor half-asleep Snuffles roughly across the parking lot towards the phone booth. Snuffles barked, not accustomed to being treated in such a rough manner. But Calypso was beyond caring. Reaching the booth, she dropped the lead and bags on the ground and went into the booth.
"Guard" she snapped to Snuffles.
Grabbing the phone book - thankfully, it was there - she flipped through the pages until she found the supermarket's phone number. Inserting a few coins and dialing the number she waited, listening to the phone ring.
11 minutes.
There was a click as someone picked up at the other end and started talking in a cherry voice.
"Shut up" said Calypso in a deadpan, deep, male, British voice.
There was stunned silence at the other end of the line.
"Listen to me. There is a bomb in the building. It will go off in under eleven minutes. I suggest you evacuate the building - fast. And probably the rest of the street. This is not a hoax. Ask yourself - do you feel like dying today?" she continued in the same voice, before placing a finger smartly on the little plastic bit that hangs up the phone.
But she didn't put the receiver down - instead, she had a one-sided conversation with 'Marge', and slouched against one side of the booth, all the time watching the supermarket entrance.
To her great relief, with in a few seconds she heard a siren, and confused and scared people started flooding out of the supermarket.
Within another five minutes, police cars came scrambling up the road, lights flashing, and police in heavy armor started running everywhere. One officer ran towards Calypso in the phone booth.
"Mam, please step this way, we have had a bomb threat phoned in targeting this vicinity" he said, panting, after opening the booth door.
Careful to look scared, Calypso grabbed her bags, Snuffle's lead and ran out of there as fast as she could. Dodging police barricades, she joined other people doing the same thing - the jostling, terrified crowd poured down the streets, yelling and screaming. She heard the tinkling of breaking glass and the wail of burglar alarms. It was turning into a riot. A knot formed in Calypso's throat. She was scared, too. She couldn't resist looking at the sky over the supermarket behind her - but she saw nothing. Good, she thought, most people should be gone before they get here.
The crowd was picking up momentum and Calypso found it hard to break free, especially burdened as she was. She started to panic, as was the crowd. It was Snuffles that managed to drag her over to the side of the mob and into the lane that was the road back to Remus's house.
Panting and weak with exhaustion, Calypso doubled over and tried to catch her breath. Breath in control, she flicked her head up to the sky, and saw three specks over the supermarket's sky. Before she had time to react, there was a flash of brilliant orange light and a kaboom and a whoosh...
Then the shockwave hit her - picking her up into the air like a ragdoll, and throwing her across the lane, flooding her senses with violent, angry, rushing energy, her ears screaming with the extremity of it all. She hit the fence body first, with a thud, limbs whacking the wood afterwards with a sick cracking noise, and was pinned there for a few seconds before falling to the ground, unconscious.
Well, there ya go.
Disclaimer - The usual. All JK Rowling's stuff belongs exclusively to her.
Thanks to all those wonderful, enthusiastic people who reviewed - nothing like reviews to motivate and inspire. So take that as a not-so-subtle hint.
And, yes, I know, I spelt all the spells wrong. And many other words. But you know what they are, right?
So cmon, I spent a few hours writing this, the LEAST you can do is spare a few SECONDS of your measly time and write a review - I don't care if it's only three words. But I do like longer ones. Hint hint. And flames too. So write. I really really appreciate it.
Thank you for flying Air Sorceress - please come again soon. Out next flight will be departing sometime after the pilot's Calculus Exam, which she is shitting herself over. Have a nice day!!!!