No, I have not died.
Sorry about the big gap between the last chapter and this one, but I have a good reason. It's a long story, beginning with relatives arriving and ending with relatives leaving. And me visiting beaches, and having fights with my dad and getting banned from the computer.
I have an announcement to make – I got %55 in my Calc exam! As %45 is a pass, I am thrilled! Yaaaay! Thanks to everyone who wished me luck – bless your souls, it must have brought me that extra %10.
So tomorrow I am flying off to Summer School at Otago University for a week to play around with the Uni Science equipment. Cue evil laughter Muhahahahaha! I'm doing Microbiology, which sounds cool – we iscolate bacterium and stuff like that, I think. And tour the region, party, visit local factories and stuff like that. I hope I go to the CookieTime factory. Yummmmmmmmm...
Thank you again to Allylupin for beta-ing for me yet again, and changing all my tenses and erasing all those extra 'and' s I have in one sentence. For your patience and for taking the time out of your classes to go over my stuff with a flea comb, a thousand brownie points, a big bag of fairy dust and my eternal gratitude. Yes, I know all that is worth nothing in paper money.
Some people that pay attention to detail (also known as nitpickers) may notice that the spelling of Monohan changes to Monahan. That's because I spelt it wrong before.
It's actually the last name of one of my brother's friends, and I chose it because it sounds nice and evil. The funny thing is, the real Monahan is an absolute teddy bear. His nickname is 'Sloppy', and he is immortalised in the yearbook as 'most likely - to get his hand stuck in a vending machine'. And trust me, that is an accurate observation.
Anyway, enough with my idle blathering, on with the story. That's why you clicked on this link anyway, wasn't it?
DISCLAIMER – all of JK Rowling's stuff belongs to her. I could never create anything that good, and I don't pretend to. All the rest belongs to me.
She was too shocked to speak. Or move. Or think even.
Slowly, one by one, the cogs in her brain started to lurch onto gear.
They were right.
Six months.
I have disappeared for six months.
Where the hell was I?
According to my memory, a week ago I got off the plane at Heathrow, and bussed and trained to Remus' house.
According to the calendar, that journey took me six whole months.
Six months.
Half a year.
Whoops.
Suddenly she was back in the real world again.
"Calypso, what is going on?" Remus demanded.
She looked up at his brown eyes, which were tired and worried.
"I just went and called home."
"Yes, and what happened?"
"They all think I am dead."
There was a stunned silence. Even Snuffles stopped panting.
"According to them, I have been gone for nine months. According to me, three months. There is a whole six month discrepancy there." Calypso said, blinking.
"What do you mean?" Maria asked softly.
"I mean, when I got off the plane at Heathrow, it was the 18th of January. I traveled for a week, and spent a few days here, and now it's the 29th of JULY!"
"Erm...what?"
Calypso looked Remus in the eye.
"Between the time I got off the plane and I arrived here, there is six months I can't remember." She said slowly. "Six months I can't account for. I KNOW that only a week ago I called home from L.A airport and talked to Mel about her new job. But Ian said that the last time they heard from me was six months ago, when I phoned from L.A airport and had that same converstation with Mel."
Remus looked quickly at Maria.
"Memory Charms, do you think?"
Maria walked over to Calypso, sat down on the bed beside her, and pulled out her wand. Suddenly, Calypso found it easy to believe she was a doctor.
"Open wide" she commanded.
"Your eyes, not your mouth."
Calypso tried not to blink as Maria shone the end of her wand into her eyes and peered around. She eventually sighed and muttered 'Nox'.
"No, no memory charms. I didn't expect there to be - Dr. Cortex would have picked it up straight away." Maria looked tired.
"Then what the hell did I do for the last six months?" Calypso said, racking her brains for answers that did not come forth, and blinking to try and rid herself of those bright little dots in her vision.
You slept, mostly. Said a very familiar voice from the back of her head.
"Oh don't tell me you had a hand in this!" Calypso yelled, shocking all else in the room
If you don't want me to say I did, I won't then.
I didn't.
Happy now?
Don't be smart with me. So you did then? Why? Whywhywhywhy?
Because I didn't want you in the South Pacific. Or running around in England just yet.
WHY?
The buzz made what could be translated into a sigh.
I have my reasons which I don't feel like sharing with you. Okay?
No, not okay. At all.
Can you stop being so emotional and just try and co-operate here for a few, ensey-weensey seconds?
Co-operate? Co-operate? How about YOU co-operate and get the hell out of my head?
Now, be nice. You slept a lot, and then at other times I borrowed your body to visit some places I used to live, and organize some things to happen at certain times.
YOU WHAT!?!?!?!
Borrowed your body, it continued, unruffled. Nice body to possess by the way. Very pretty and very fit. Reminds me of myself in my youth...
Bet you were a fat old pimply couch potato with no friends.
Be nice!
Get the hell out of my head, and don't you dare use my body again!
Babe, the buzz said rather harshly, I am running out of patience with you. I need you, and you need me. I am older, and very much wiser than you. I know what's going on, and you don't. I am in charge.
Not if I have anything to do with it.
Oh, so what are you going to do? continued the buzz, quite amused. Cut your own head off?
Shut up.
Listen, girly. We need to work together to defeat old Voldy.
What if I don't want to?
Then he wins, and we all die. It snapped.
And with that, the buzz became silent.
Calypso opened her eyes.
"Well, I know what I did for the past six months. I slept, and that parasite in my head took over my body and went sight-seeing." She said calmly.
Maria and Remus looked at her, and then stared at each other.
"Erm..."
"Calypso, you sure you didn't get too much sun today?"
"Just ASKING!!" Maria quickly defended herself as Calypso gave her an evil look.
"No, I didn't get too much sun or anything like that."
Calypso sighed. "Look, you believed me before when I didn't expect you to, so I guess I'm asking too much for you to believe two completely off-the-wall stories within a week." Calypso said tiredly.
"It's not that we don't believe you..."
Maria leant forward and looked Calypso straight in the eye. "It's just that there have been cases of people having spirits that they communicate with in their heads, and they were very very rare indeed. But no documented cases of those spirits taking over the person's body."
"Oh great, so this is all new to everyone."
Remus nodded.
In the silence that followed, Calypso thought hard for a few moments.
"Uh...Remus? I think the Death Eaters that broke out of Devil's Island are coming to England."
Remus just gazed at her in a very schoolteacher-ish way.
"Why would you think that?" he said evenly.
Calypso swallowed.
"Well, it stands to reason, doesn't it? Voldy is supposed to have his base somewhere over here, and they would all come to visit and re-affirm their loyalty and have some catch-ups and ritual animal sacrifices and stuff like that, right?" she said a little too quickly.
Maria nodded.
"That's what we reckoned as well, minus the ritual animal sacrifices."
Remus was gazing at Calypso in a way that unnerved her to no end.
"Any other reason?" he said, offhandly, but not taking his eyes off her.
She twisted her hands in her lap under the t-shirt she was holding. What should she say? 'Why yes Remus! In fact, I met one today and he chased me through London but then I smoked some pot and got away. I can give you his name, description, phone number and date of birth if you want. I knew him quite well.' Uh no. Instead she felt her jaw opening and her voice, sound unconvincing even to her own ears saying,
"I had a dream last night about it."
Remus and Maria looked skeptical.
"Why didn't you tell us before?"
"Because I wasn't sure you see. I wanted to wait and see what was going on, read the papers and stuff before I said anything."
Maria seemed satisfied, but Remus wasn't. He kept looking at her with thoughtful, suspicious eyes. Eventually he looked away, but Calypso knew he wasn't convinced.
"You know, Calypso, if you had told us before now, we might have been able to do something about the breakout." He said accusingly.
"Oh, and you don't think I don't know that? You think I feel real good about that too?" she snapped back at him. She hated being nasty to Remus, but as the old saying goes, the best form of defense is attack.
He suddenly looked sad.
"I'm sorry" he said apologetically.
Calypso felt awful.
"No, don't be, I'm the one who should be sorry. God, I'm such a bitch sometimes..."
He gave her a lonely smile and patted her hand.
"Don't worry about it." He said, and followed Maria out of her room.
Calypso was frustrated. How do I manage to screw up every conversation I enter? She wondered to herself. Aaaaaah, dammit. She got up off the bed, and started sorting out the mess she had made only a few minutes earlier, taking the time to think.
********
Remus beckoned Maria into the Lounge. Puzzled, she followed. Remus shut the door after them and turned to face Maria.
"She's not telling the truth." He told her.
Maria rolled her eyes. "Of course she's not. If she was, I'd be worried."
"What do you mean by that?"
Maria gave him one of those knowing looks. "She's running from something, that's obvious enough."
Remus gave her a blank stare.
"But as you are a male, it probably wasn't obvious enough for you." She continued with a sigh.
"How do you know?"
"I'm a female. We see things that you slobs don't." Maria said, needling him.
"So, female-supreme, what is she running from then?" he asked.
"And why didn't you say anything back there?"
"The answer to your second question is...tact. Another virtue females have that males are sadly lacking in. And as for you first question..."
Maria looked at the closed door.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know for sure. But with the Death Eaters from Down Under loose things could get interesting."
"So are you suggesting she has ties with that crowd?"
"No, just thinking. Remus, there are so many things you don't notice. Dinner will be ready soon, and you just watch her. She's like a paranoid schizophrenic at the moment, looking behind her back and out the windows. Sneak up on her and tap her on the shoulder and I'll bet she'll jump out of her skin." Maria declared. "I don't know what she got up to in London today, but I'd bet it was interesting."
Remus thought for a few moments. "So, what should I do?"
"Nothing. Press her and she'll probably take off. Just wait, and I think she'll tell us in time. Whatever it is, I'm sure it has something to do with why she wasn't admitted to Wizarding School." Maria looked at the door again. "Gosh I want to know why. It nags at me when I go to sleep - what did she do?"
"Or didn't do" added Remus sagely.
Maria nodded. "By the way, when are you going to tell her about Sirius? It's sort of mean leading her on like this."
Remus sighed. "Probably at the meeting on Thursday night. It's a long story, and since we have a few other new recruits I'll tell her then. I hate telling the tale over and over."
Maria raised one eyebrow. "She's not going to be happy when you tell her."
"Why?"
Maria threw her arms up in exasperation. "MEN!"
"No, why would she be upset?"
"Just think about it for a while, Remus darling. Just think." Maria said slowly, shaking her head.
Remus walked over to the window, looked up at the inky-blue sky littered with pin-prick stars, and gave a morose sigh. Maria gave his back a concerned look, and walked silently over to wrap her arms around his waist and lean her cheek on his shoulder. They had all been working too hard lately, ever since Dumbledore sent that first fateful owl to each of them, but the stress of their workload was beginning to show, especially on Remus.
"What's the matter, luv?" she asked, feeling his heartbeat resonate through his chest. Thub tub. Thub tub.
He gave no answer.
"Hmmm? Remus?" she inquired again
He gave a small, suppressed shudder.
Maria took her head off his shoulder and looked out into the night sky.
There, glowing eerily in a distant sun's gaze, was the moon, nearly full.
Maria stood silently for a few moments.
"It's tonight, isn't it?" she asked quietly.
Remus didn't reply, but only gave a small nod.
"Snape sent me the potion. I drank it a few hours ago. Filthy stuff." He said eventually.
Maria closed her eyes and pulled Remus close to her, breathing in Remus' musky smell. Yes, it would be tonight, she though. That wolf-ish scent was getting stronger.
********
Remus followed Maria's suggestions and watched Calypso closely as they ate dinner - some spicy Italian dish with volumes of pasta sauce, one of Maria's creations - and saw that Maria was totally right. Again.
Calypso was jumpy. She was constantly flicking her eyes to the windows and the door between mouthfuls of food. Conversation was not strained, but maniacally fast and sharp.
"Sympathetic nervous system getting into gear" Maria whispered into Remus' ear. Remus didn't understand, but nodded anyway.
"She's taking deeper breaths, her hair is standing on end, she's sweating, focusing on distant objects, and her pupils are dilated." Maria finished, and leant back on her chair, like a doctor satisfied with making a good diagnosis.
Remus took another bite of his dinner and kept a close watch on Calypso, marveling at how Maria could spot tiny things like hair standing on end.
********
Lying on her bed in the sticky summer night, Calypso reflected on how badly her afternoon had gone. It was totally clear that both Maria and Remus knew something was up - well, she hadn't made it half obvious, Calypso thought glumly. Stupid idiot. Getting all paranoid and worked up, she must have just screamed 'I'm worried about something' to all the others in the house.
Calypso battered her top sheet off and lay spread-eagled on the bed, sweating freely and staring at the ceiling.
Things had come to a climax - no, more accurately, a pit, a large, deep pit - when she was doing the dishes. Remus had crept up behind her and grabbed her shoulder, and she had over reacted. Calypso cringed as she thought about it.
She couldn't help it, the sudden clasp on her shoulder froze her blood in her veins and her heart gave a sudden kick of panic. All she thought of was Monahan - well, it didn't help that she happened to be mulling over that very subject in her mind before Remus had touched her. Every nerve in her body screamed 'fight!' and without breathing, without thinking, without looking over her shoulder to see who it was, thanks to years of drilling and practice she had found herself automatically attacking Remus. It was quite easy - she simply had grabbed his shoulder and rammed his head into the edge of the sink.
"Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I am so incredibly sorry..." she had started to say, looking fearfully at the shell-shocked, dizzy Remus.
"Uhh..." he had said groggily, and turned his head to look around the room.
Calypso dragged him to his feet, blabbering away apologies hysterically.
"Holy crap!" Maria declared, running over. "What the hell did you do that for?" she accused Calypso angrily, checking the dazed Remus for injuries.
Calypso looked heartbroken. "I... I... I just... oh I'm so sorry" she finished lamely, face fallen. " I just overreacted I guess."
Maria looked up from her ministrations to give Calypso a look she did not particularly care for. It was not a look of hatred, anger or anything like that. Just a closed, knowing, somewhat pitying look that unnerved Calypso, who sat down to rid herself of a bad case of the shakes.
********
Calypso tried to find a comfortable spot on her bed, and failed. The air in her room was heavy and warm, thick and suffocating. She thrashed her arms around impatiently, but found no relief. Sighing, she sat up, blonde hair tumbling everywhere, and peeked out the window.
Outside, the night was cool and fresh. A slight breeze picked up seeds and played with them, while the inky blue sky sparkled with stars. The moon was dazzling bright, and illuminated the whole countryside.
Calypso turned and listened hard, trying to hear any noise from the other occupants of the house. It was as still as a tomb.
That was it. Calypso put one foot experimentally on the floor. Safe so far. She slowly transferred weight onto it, and quickly slithered out of bed to stand in her nightie in the middle of her room. She took another silent step - and another - and ano...
A loud groan reverberated throughout her room and Calypso snatched her foot back, only for another miserable creak to be produced. She crouched over, grimacing, waiting for the alarm to be raised...
But all was silent. Breathing sighs of relief, Calypso took a few more careful steps over to her door and placed her hand on the doorknob. She waited heartbeats, listening for any sound in the hallway, but none came.
Slowly, inch by inch, she turned the brass handle, begging it not to squeak. Well oiled as it was, it rolled around smoothly and she swung the door open gradually, peeking out into the rest of the dark house.
Nothing.
Smiling to herself, she confidently reached out a leg to take a step out of her room, and
walked into something solid.
The sudden, unexpected collision sent her reeling backwards, just about tripping up over the crocheted floor rug. Regaining her balance and her breath, she took a step back over to whatever had obstructed her. She reached out her hand and waved it around ahead of her as she reached the doorframe, and her fingertips brushed against something smooth and cold.
There, Calypso thought, and moved closer, running both hands curiously over the glossy surface. It seemed to be suspended in the doorframe, flowing from one edge of the wood to the other without any gap or crack. Calypso placed a palm upon the mystery substance and slowly leant her body weight upon it.
The invisible material stretched and flowed, letting her hand sink in, but not through. Where it was warping around her hand, it was reflecting silver moonlight in silken patterns, and then spat her hand out. Try as she might, Calypso could not break the semi-liquid barrier in her doorway.
She tried karate kicks, throwing her whole body against it and trying to burrow underneath it, only each time to have her limbs swallowed by the material and then bounced back out. It was like, she thought, someone had suspended an invisible trampoline in her doorframe. Or a spiders web.
She stood there in her nightie, facing what appeared to be a wide open doorway and unable to get through it. Dammit, she thought. I want to get out of here and roam around outside!
Oh well, she added brightly. I'll just use the window.
Re-crossing her bedroom floor, avoiding the creaking floorboards, she opened the window as far as it could go, and threw one leg over the windowsill. Her toes dug into the rough red bricks cladding the outside of the house and Calypso got a single toehold in the mortar. She was just about to swing her other leg over and slither down when a sudden whisper broke through the still summer air.
"Psssst! Psssst! Hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
Calypso froze. Aaaah, shit. Snapped, she thought. She looked around, trying to find where the voice was coming from.
"Here! Here... I'm the mirror!" It whispered excitedly.
Calypso turned to face the mirror she had preened herself in front of that very morning.
"Hey, what's up? You talk?" she whispered back, curious.
"Yeahp." it replied with vigor. "Hey, don't try getting down that way, you'll only loose your toehold and take all the skin off your shins, knees, palms, elbows and chin. And you'll never get back up. It's a long way down" the mirror confided. "What you want to do is stand up in the window, lean out and reach across so you can grab the rope, use that to balance you as you walk along to the other side of the window, and shinny down the drainpipe."
Calypso scrambled up to stand on the windowsill, and leant out. There, swaying in the breeze was a raggedy piece of rope. Calypso grabbed its frayed ends and looked back inside to the mirror.
"Excuse me, Mirror, but how exactly do you know all this?" she asked suspiciously.
"My name's Rorrim. How do I know? Oh gosh, all the times I saw Cain sneak out of his room to meet some girl or go riding his broomstick, and then I told Epsilony when she got old enough, and she went clubbing every night, or so it seemed, and..." Rorrim said, over-dramatically.
Rorrim, Calypso decided, was a cliché blonde. Gossipy, brainless, tactless, but well meaning. Have to talk to this mirror when I get back.
"...and there was this time that Epsilony came home at six in the morning, and just as she was climbing up the drainpipe her mother was walking down the hallway to get her up for breakfast..." Rorrim was still talking away, not noticing that Calypso wasn't listening, but inspecting her escape route.
It looked sturdy enough - she could do it, and admittedly it was better than her plan.
"Thanks!" Calypso whispered politely to Rorrim.
"No problem! Just one condition." It replied.
"And what's that?" asked Calypso, suddenly suspicious.
"You tell me ALL about what you got up to when you get back!" Rorrim said, in a happy, bubbly voice.
Blonde, Calypso thought scathingly. "Yeah, sure." She called out, and took a step out of the window, balancing carefully on the windowsill.
Edging along the sill was harder than it looked, and Calypso was eternally grateful for the rope, which she held onto for dear life. Three steps got her across to the other side of the window, and she reached out a hand to grab the spouting and gave it a shake. It seemed sturdy enough, she thought, and wrapped her leg around it and let go of the rope, which swung back and hit her in the head. Calypso swore quietly, threw the rope away from herself angrily and silently climbed down the drainpipe. She reached the ground right behind a large peach tree, and grabbed a large fruit to eat, as she was hungry.
Remus had said she could help herself to food many times, but getting more food meant dealing with Pantry. Unused to living appliances, Calypso had in fact forgotten that Remus' kitchenware was enchanted, and had ambled into the kitchen and opened the pantry door to grab a bite to eat. Pantry, however, had not forgotten Calypso, and had promptly jammed her hand viscously in the door.
Calypso rubbed her injured hand as she remembered, and took another bite of peach.
Fridge had offered her ice for her hand as she had hopped around the kitchen, hand between her knees, eyes watering. Hearing the kindly suggestion, Pantry had let rip with her tongue and gave poor Fridge a dressing down for offering assistance to the 'little foreign whore'. At that, Calypso kicked Pantry's left door hard and broken one of the louvers. Doors rattling, Pantry had shut up, but not for long. Every time Calypso entered the kitchen, ominous grumbling had resounded from over Pantry's corner of the room, which were ignored by all.
Being outside felt good, but she needed to get further away to avoid waking up Remus and Maria. Calypso stalked silently along the edge of the house until she was at the overgrown back lawn. Wading through the thigh-high grasses and dock plants, she carefully climbed the style over the hedge, and started dodging prickles and piles of sheep poo in her bare feet and nightie flapping around her knees.
Calypso thought hard about the members of the household as she walked to the top of the next hill in the dark.
There was Remus - strange, sweet, fun, honest, secretive, haunted, yet loveable Remus. The guy who had given her a home after she had collapsed on his doorstep, no question asked. Who had taken her to hospital after the explosion at Peachgrove Village, visited her there, hooked her up with a job - with the illustrious Albus Dumbledore, no less! He had believed everything she had said, let her do anything, lent her his broomstick, taught her how to fly...but had locked her in her room tonight. And asked, if anything, too little questions.
Maria - laid-back, sarcastic, funny, full of life, yet sad and worried. Intelligent too - and Calypso knew she wouldn't like to be on the receiving end of Maria's tongue. The woman who radiated confidence, elegance and class, yet had a Coronation Street accent, with various Italian swear words and phrases thrown in when she got angry or frustrated.
Snuffles - the most humanoid dog Calypso had ever come across. And the most fun, too. Calypso didn't know what to make of Remus' dog. Or Remus' relationship with Snuffles. It totally bamboozled her.
And now her. Calypso - the strange, temperamental, secretive Australian with impossible stories to explain incredible events. The Seer, now a Phoenix - well, as of Thursday. An uneducated witch. Banned from using magic, and she wouldn't tell anyone why.
What a madhouse.
Panting slightly, Calypso reached the top of the hill and looked out over the land. Illuminated in the moonlight, it stretched out for miles, rolling hills and hedges, bathed in a creamy glow. Calypso noticed what had to be a forest a few kilometers to her right. The sky was strewn with stars in a long milky band, twinkling and blinking cheerfully. To Calypso's horror, she could not identify them - the Northern Hemisphere stars were different from what she had studied every night from her bedroom window. She suddenly felt far from home.
Sitting down and staring at the sky, Calypso slowly orientated herself with the stars. She was very confused until she remembered that she had six months missing from her life that she was not accounting for. Once she had realized that, she found she could name many of the constellations.
Aries the Ram, Orion the Warrior, Centaurus the Centaur, Cygnys the Swan - ohh, the Northern Cross - Canis Minor the Lesser Dog, Cassiopeia the Lady in the Chair, Auriga the Charioteer, and ... that must be the Big Dipper! Calypso was pleased with herself.
The darkness and silence was relaxing, and the fresh breeze tempting. Calypso could hear the woosh of grasses and the moans of trees as she sniffed the wind.
She guiltily glanced over her shoulder to the house nestled in the hill behind her. It was as quiet, homely and inviting as ever, and she felt a pang of regret at having to tell Remus and Maria all those lies. Oh well, she thought. Get on with it.
She took a few deep breaths, and relaxed as much as she could, closing her eyes and listening to her heartbeat. She let out a long sigh, and tried the spell.
Nothing happened.
She was stupid, she knew. At the end of a long day, trying the spell she had failed miserably many times before when she was fresh and energetic? Idiotic.
She tried again.
All of a sudden, she felt a rush of tingling magic through her body, but it petered out as she messed up the spell in the surprise of it actually working.
She opened her eyes, closed them, took a few more deep breaths, and tried again.
This time she was successful. A wonderful rush of sparks filled her veins, and ran from her fingers and toes, cascading through her arteries, up her arms and legs, flowing through her stomach and running up her neck. With a small cry of delight, the magic raced up the back of her neck, over her scalp and delightfully over her face. Her whole skin hummed for a mere instant, and the magic vanished.
Calypso got to her four padded feet and stretched luxuriously, yawning widely to show ivory fangs. She sniffed the wind. This time the breeze was not just carrying a few smells - the night air was alive with scents. Her vision had gone from poor to as though she was wearing night-vision goggles. It was as clear as daylight to Calypso the Wolf. The hills were alive with movement and life. There was a flock of sheep far over to the left, but she was not hungry, thanks to the peach, and she ignored that scent. The breeze ruffled up her fur as she stood alert on the top of the hill, and filled her with vigor. She bunched muscular hindquarters and leapt, bounding down the hill and racing off into the night, silent as the wolf she was.
********
Panting, she reached the top of a ridge many miles from where she had changed form, and sat at the top imperiously to take in the view, plumed tail thumping the ground happily.
She had only mastered the Animagus spell one month before her 17th birthday, but she still considered it her greatest achievement so far. It was difficult - incredibly difficult, actually. She would have never been able to do it without Ian, Ben and Mariyse's help. She could vividly remember sitting around the cauldron that last time and trying the spell, Ben coaching her through each step. They had all transformed for the first time in the last half-hour - all of the group but herself. And suddenly, after so many failures, the magic running through her body, she found herself with the fur and fangs of a predator. Namely, a Timber Wolf. Or a Grey Wolf. So fitting, she thought.
Her fur was matted with grass seeds that had become ensnared in her glossy, silky coat as she was leaping around in the long grass, chasing moths and snapping at dandelion seeds, which were now stuck in her teeth. She had stalked a mouse for about half an hour just for fun, but did not move in for the kill. Even in wolf-form she still had some of her human thoughts, and she knew she would not appreciate digesting a mouse when she changed back.
But loosing some of her human mind was the whole point. It was the other thing Calypso could do to hide from Monahan and his disgusting talent. Calypso looked around again to see rolling hills, waving grass and swaying trees all painted in a range of browns, navy-blues and grays. Her domain, and no-one to threaten it.
Calypso threw her head back, exposing a soft, creamy throat and let loose a joyous howl.
"AAAAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!"
Letting the note die from her throat, she lowered her head and, ears pricked, proudly listened to the breeze carry her song, echoing eerily off the hills for a few moments.
She leant back her head to repeat her performance, when an unexpected sound broke the stillness of the night.
"AHRROOOOOOOOOOW! ARR-AHHAROOOOOOOOOOOOL!" echoed off the hills.
Startled, Calypso crouched close to the dusty ground, ears flattened, and listened to the replying howl closely. She slowly got up to all four paws and tentatively gave an inquiring howl.
"ARROWWW?"
"HARRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!" was the friendly answer.
Invigorated, curious and mystified, Calypso continued howling back from the ridge, and the other wolf answered back eagerly.
It was male, middle-aged, Calypso thought. Alone - it was a sole voice in the summer night air. That was until she heard a bark.
Wolves don't bark.
A wolf with a dog? She though.
Curiosity overcame her sense of caution, and she started trotting down the ridgeline towards the forest, the source of the howls.
********
Sirius was somewhat worried. He knew that there was something wrong about having another wolf howling on the skyline, but his dog-ish brain could not work it out. He shook his head, frustrated. I'll work it out when I change back, he thought to himself. And besides, the howling had stopped and they had heard no more for the last ten minutes.
He turned around just in time to see a wolf leap out of the bushes behind him, and quickly bounded to the side. Remus was fun to play with, now. Snape's potion, he had to grudgingly admit, was excellent. Over the last year, he had refined it to the point where Remus would change for a single night only, and then he would transform into a playful wolf, not an angry monster.
Sirius returned the lunge, and knocked Remus over onto his back and tussled with him for a few minutes, snarling and growling good-naturedly. Soon it was apparent that the wolf had the upper hand in this little play-fight, and Sirius leapt out of the fray and galloped off, dodging trees and shrubs, Remus following.
Suddenly Remus broke off the chase, nose in the air, sniffing. He lowered his snout and started moving off to the left, nose to the ground.
Sirius felt a pang of apprehension. If Remus had picked up on a human scent, this game could turn nasty quite quickly. Sirius ran to reach Lupin's side, and muscled in on the trail. The wolf snapped at him, but it didn't matter.
Sirius sighed with relief at the rabbit-scent. Even with Remus drinking Snape's Wolfsbane potion, Sirius knew he could still be a handful if a human got too near.
Sirius decided to stalk the rabbit, too. In dog form, he enjoyed all the things dogs did - being patted, going for walks and chasing rabbits. In fact, chasing rabbits was absolutely brilliant. Nothing humans did compared to it, really. Humans didn't experience the thrill of the hunt often.
Remus, as a wolf, had a better olfactory system than the dog and so led the way, Sirius close behind. Silently they stalked the unsuspecting rabbit over a few rises, in and out of trees to the edge of the forest. Sirius could feel his dog-blood fill with adrenaline as they closed in on the small mammal.
The wolf's haunches ahead of him suddenly tensed, and his ears pricked forward. Lupin was staring intently on a small, brown rabbit, sitting serenely on the other side of the bush, cleaning its ears with neat, delicate movements. Sirius slowly lowered his body to the ground, ready to pounce, waiting for the wolf to take the lead.
The rabbit heard a small movement, paused from it's grooming and looked over to where Sirius and Remus were crouched. Sirius could hardly contain himself, watching the rabbit wrinkle its nose, whiskers waggling in the air. Suddenly the rabbit saw a flash of luminescent eyes from behind the bush, and realized its predicament. Without hesitating, it leapt forward to flee.
That was the signal. Remus pushed off hard against the ground with powerful back legs, sending him flying over the bush and hard on the rabbit's heels. Sirius followed within split seconds. The rabbit dashed over the grasslands, zig-zagging madly to try and throw off the wolf behind him. Sirius ran out to the side, paws pounding over the dry grass, jumping thistles with ease. The rabbit dashed, panic-stricken to the nearest hedge and burrowed under, the canine pair swiftly following over the top.
Sirius was panting madly, heart racing, blood adrenaline-charged, and he was having the time of his life. Blood lust filled him, and he reached out his legs farther. The rabbit was getting the better of the dog and wolf, as it raced erratically over the fields with experience. The thrill of the hunt may have empowered the canines, but for the rabbit its life was on the line. That motivated more than adrenaline ever could.
The rabbit was gaining ground on the wolf and dog, and had worked out that the dog was on it's right hand side, so it made tracks for the left, up a hill littered with rabbit holes like Swiss cheese. The wolf and dog were just about to concede defeat as the brown rabbit expertly made for the closest habitable hole, when a large dark shape leapt soundlessly to land in front of the chosen rabbit hole, causing the rabbit to skid to halt, hastily reconsidering its options.
The sudden arrival of another wolf had both Sirius and Remus stunned for a few moments. Adrenaline had clouded their brains, giving the rabbit a few vital seconds to dash between the pair, quickly followed by the new wolf. As the pair dashed between them, Lupin and Black slowly got their canine brains into gear, and turned to follow them.
The new wolf was setting a furious pace, and was lithe enough on its feet to stay sufficiently close to the rabbit to make occasional snaps at the poor prey's back. This sent the rabbit into a frenzy - it was going flat-tack along the ground, the whites of its eyes showing.
Lupin and Black were off to the sides, and harried the rabbit back inwards whenever it made a desperate dash off at an angle. The new wolf, Sirius realized, was herding the bunny down a slight incline, and had managed to get quite close behind it. With a sudden snap of its jaws, it had grabbed the rabbit's back and tossed it, head over heels, down the slope.
Sirius chuckled dog-ishly to himself. The wolf was playing with the rabbit.
The game lasted until the new wolf, puffed, pulled up to a trot. Remus and Sirius wheeled around, slowing down and forgetting about the rabbit, to face the newcomer with interest. The new wolf cocked its head at them, puzzled.
The rabbit dashed to the nearest hole and thanked its lucky stars that the canines were only toying with its life.
Sirius gave the new wolf a hard look.
It was a timber she-wolf, gray in color. Her back was a steel gray, which faded to a snowy gray on its stomach, legs and throat. She would have been a beautiful specimen, but for the scars that littered her glossy coat.
The most impressive of those were a line of four clawmarks on the left side of her face, running from her ear to jowls, over the top of the eye and narrowly missing the eyeball and muzzle.
The wolf thumped her tail on the ground and cocked her head to the other side. Black-rimmed eyes gave the dog and wolf an appraising look.
********
Snuffles! Calypso thought. What's he doing here? The giant black dog had always mystified her with his bizarre behavior, but this was ridiculous. In fact, she though, this whole situation was ridiculous. Why did she think that? Her wolf brain couldn't work it out. Dealing with Snuffles gave her a wolf-headache, so she turned her attention to his companion.
A large wolf was looking back at her. Brown and cream, it looked familiar. Her wolf-brain couldn't work it out again. A sudden thought-memory floated back to her. It was from when she was lost on the road and had first met Snuffles.
There are no wolves in Britain nowadays, she had though ironically.
Her wolf-brain struggled with the implications of this revelation, but failed.
Musta been wrong, then. She finally came up with, satisfied.
Snuffles got to his feet, waving his tail in a friendly fashion. So did the brown wolf.
Calypso heaved herself to her paws and came cautiously over for a sniff.
********
It was nearly sunrise when Calypso finally sat down, only to be jumped from behind by Snuffles. She quickly rolled around on the grass, pinning him down, but instead of playfighting, she got off him and went a few meters away to sit down again. She was admittedly exhausted - she had an early start in London, a day of intense shopping and flying, and she had spent the last seven or so hours chasing small prey and rumbling with two other energetic canines. Her bed suddenly looked inviting. She let out a wolf-y sigh, and noticed that Snuffles was looking at the skyline. The sun was almost up.
Calypso flopped onto the ground, sending dust and grass seeds flying into the ever-lightening sky. She could still feel her blood pump around her body. She had lain there for a few minutes when a distressed cry from close by made her prick her ears up. Puzzled, she listened carefully.
All of a sudden, a miserable moan came from her left, followed by a howl of intense pain. Calypso leapt to her feet, startled. Again, there was another distressed cry coming from her right. Calypso had to help. She jogged over the lip of the hill to the animal in agony, and stumbled numbly to a halt.
There, writhing around on the grass was the brown wolf, Snuffles sitting close by, watching, with a sad look on his face. The thing that stunned Calypso was what was happening to the wolf. His skin was twitching, his limbs seemingly disjointed, and as she watched, he let out another mournful, choking howl. Then, in the space of an instant, his fur seemed to melt into pinks and blacks, his body grow and lengthen. Paws became hands, muzzle shrank into a nose. The howl morphed into a deep yell of agony. Calypso couldn't believe it. Liquid fur snapped taught into skin and plain black robes, and before her lay a rather white Remus Lupin.
She was frozen still, bottom jaw hanging open.
Remus was a werewolf.
A werewolf.
No!
Her sweet Remus? A werewolf? Couldn't be!
But the proof was moaning on the ground in front of her paws.
She shook her head furiously, fur flying. But more shocks were in store. For Snuffles had gotten up off the ground and walked over to the now silent Remus. And suddenly, Snuffles wasn't standing there anymore. A large man was, with his back to Calypso. She made some choking noises, and the man turned to face her.
"Shoo!" he said in a clear British accent.
Sirius Black.
Calypso, estranged from the magical community as she was, still recognized the most wanted man in recent history. Shoo-ing seemed to be a very good idea. She wheeled around and took off at a run, mind still boggling from what she had just seen, nearly falling over her own paws.
********
Sirius knelt over Remus and shook his shoulder tentatively.
"Moony?"
His reply was a groan.
"You allright, Remus?"
Remus opened his eyes and blinked a few times, and let out another moan.
Sirius slipped an arm under Lupin's shoulders and heaved him into a sitting position carefully. "Talk to me." he demanded.
Remus stared at the ground for a few moments, and Sirius was suddenly worried. Had this batch of wolfsbane potion gone bad? He wondered silently.
"I feel like I have the world's worst hangover" Remus finally said, and put a hand to his forehead, before letting out a laugh.
Sirius let out a laugh, and his shoulders slumped. He hadn't realized how tense he was. "You feeling well enough to fly back?" he asked, giving Remus a hand as he struggled to stand up.
Remus groaned again. "If we go really slowly." He said, with emphasis, still clutching his head.
********
Calypso sat on the ridge above Remus' house, watching the proceedings angrily through wolf-eyes. Remus and Snuffles - no, correction, SIRIUS BLACK, CONVICTED MASS MURDERER!!!!! - had just flown in very slowly on broomsticks, and met by Maria at the door, who had promptly bundled Remus off outside. Sirius, however, had paused just before entering the house and scanned the dark skyline. Without his dog vision, he could not spot Calypso nestled into the long grass. Spotting nothing, he turned around and closed the door behind him.
She got up stiffly and walked along the top of the hill.
Of course those two canines weren't real animals. They were chasing a rabbit uphill - a big no-no. Even pups knew that rabbits, with their powerful hindquarters, had the upper hand running uphill but tripped and stumbled running down.
And their method of hunting - pitiful. Real wolves work in relay teams.
Their behavior upon meeting her was bizzare - no signs of aggression, no signs of dominance.
She should have realized it, she though morosely. Snuffles was an Animagus. Of course. Now that she knew, it was completely obvious. She growled to herself.
She had even commented to herself that Snuffles was the most human-iod dog she had ever come across. That was because he WAS a human!!!!
Calypso gave a wolf-ish sneer, and lifted her head to howl again.
"ARRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!"
She lowered her head and looked at the house. A window was torn open and Maria's alarmed head popped out, looking around. Calypso felt somewhat sneakily satisfied, and loped off out of sight.
********
Maria carefully poured three drops of Strength Potion into the phial and held it at eye level, watching it slowly swirl around in the orange Rejuvenating Potion, before finally vanishing and turning the mixture purple.
"Right, drink this." She commanded, handing the phial to a still very pasty-looking Remus.
Remus sniffed the little bottle cautiously, and took a hesitant sip. He screwed up his face.
"Urrrrgh! This stuff tastes bloody awful!" he commented.
"Drink it all!" Maria warned him, eyebrows raised imperiously.
Remus sighed, and then winked at her, and threw the contents of the phial back and swallowed them in one single gulp, and slammed the phial down on the kitchen table.
Maria gave him a shifty look, and Remus wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and gave a fake belch.
"Wherever did you learn to do that?" she accused him
"I taught him well." remarked Sirius craftily from the windowseat.
Fridge gave a small giggle.
"You aren't seriously intending going to work tomorrow are you, Remus?" Maria said, concerned, taking his temperature.
Remus nodded. "Honestly Maria, I don't know what Snape did with this batch of potion, but it's great. I just feel tired and a bit like I'm getting over a cold."
Sirius sighed. "You have to hand it to the man - he's good at what he does. He may be an absolute asshole, but he can brew potions like nothing on earth."
"Never thought I'd live to hear you compliment Snape, Sirius!" exclaimed Maria, taking the thermometer out of Remus' mouth and reading it. She sighed.
"Well, I'll see how you are in the morning. You don't have a temperature, but I don't want you getting ill. And you need a good night's sleep, too."
"Yes Mummy" said Remus smartly. "Can I have a kiss goodnight?"
Maria clipped him around the ear playfully.
"He's cured!" declared Sirius melodramatically, throwing his hands up into the air.
"That's it. You ARE going to work tomorrow." Maria said, chuckling. "You can annoy your workmates, and not Calypso."
Remus grunted happily, and winked at Sirius.
********
At that very moment, Calypso was standing on the window ledge, holding onto the drainpipe with one hand and frantically waving the other one around, trying to locate the rope, which was nowhere to be found.
"Aah crap." She said quietly. She had just spotted the rope - hooked up on something way over to the other side of the window. When it had thumped the back of her head when she was climbing out, she must had thrown it at just the right angle to snare itself on a little bit of nail poking out or something.
Calypso screwed her face up in disgust. She was stuck outside, when she was supposed to be inside, and morning was breaking. She let out a long breath, and knew she would just have to walk along the window ledge, rope or no rope.
She was just inching along the ledge on the tips of her toes, arms spread wide, cheek pressed hard against the cold glass, when Rorrim let out an muffled shriek.
"Hey! You'd better get in quick! They're up!" she hissed happily.
Calypso tried to ignore her as her fingers wrapped around the edge of the open window, and hung on for dear life. Slowly, she side-stepped her way over to the end and leapt inside. Brushing her hair from her face, she took a few moments to regain her breath.
"OI! Someone's coming down the hallway!" Rorrim silently screamed, bursting with excitement.
Calypso didn't stop to look, but just threw herself straight into her bed and pretended to be asleep. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure open her bedroom door a crack, look around, and then close it. She was just going to breathe a sigh of relief, when someone else came and did the same thing.
Pretending to be asleep is very hard work. You have to totally relax, keep your eyelids all fluttery, keep your mouth slightly open, slow the speed of your breathing, make those little sleepy grunty noises, and thrash around disjointedly at random intervals. As it is such hard work, it's surprising that Calypso actually fell asleep while pretending to be asleep before the second person had even shut the door.
********
She was sitting on the back of the same dapple gray horse, on the sandy, savage beach again. The wind picked up her hair and threw it around tauntingly.
Calypso was confused. I'm dreaming and I know it, she though to herself. Wonder if I should pinch myself.
She turned her horse around to see if that swirling mass of fear and loathing would come up the beach again, at the same time seeing the purple-black clouds looming overhead.
There, far in the distance was that rolling ball of misery and terror. Calypso wheeled her horse around and spurred it up into a gallop.
Ha ha, fixed you, she thought. With a headstart like this, it'll never catch me.
Galloping calmly down the hard sand, waves crashing on one side and echoing off the cliffs on the other, she risked a glance over her shoulder to check on where the terror-fog was.
She couldn't believe it. It was only a few hundred meters behind her.
"GO!" she screamed in her horse's ear, panic kicking her in the stomach like a donkey.
But just like last time, the swirling mist caught up, even faster than before. It just reached out a hand, and this time grabbed her by the scruff of the neck, and pulled her backward off her horse.
********
Calypso sat bolt upright in bed, sweating.
What is going on here? She though to herself. Oh well, write it in.
She reached out and fumbled sleepily with her book and ballpoint pen on her bedside table. Flicking it open to the correct page, she absently scribbled in her latest entry, and then slammed the book shut, and dumped it unceremoniously back on the table.
Calypso yawned, and squinting, looked dazedly out the window. It was well into the day, the sun was shining, birds were singing, but she couldn't care less. She closed her eyes again, flopping jelly-like back onto her bed, promptly going back to sleep.
********
Calypso was awoken again many hours later by her very hot right cheek. She tried opening her eyes, and found the sun had moved to shine into her bedroom, roasting her face.
"Guuuuurg." She groaned, and threw up an arm to shield her face, but it was too late. She was awake.
Reluctantly she dragged her bruise-covered body out of bed, stood in front of the mirror, picked up her wristwatch, flicked a sleepy glance at the time and did a double-take.
"WHAT? 2.28 PM?" she hollered.
"That's what you get for partying all night long!" said the mirror in a superior tone.
Calypso jumped in fright, dropping her watch. She had forgotten all about Rorrim.
"Oh shut up. I don't need someone telling me what I should have and should not have done right about now!" she snapped back irritably. Calypso grabbed a handful of clothes and marched into the bathroom to have a shower, leaving Rorrim spluttering with indignation.
********
Remus sat at his desk, surrounded by scraps of parchment and a wastepaper basket piled with screwed up balls of paper. He ran his hands through his graying hair and chewed on the end of his eagle-feather quill. He was frustrated beyond belief - tied to the desk for two weeks, doing paperwork and trying in vain to break codes.
"I hate paperwork!" he declared, throwing his quill down in exasperation.
"So do I!" A cherry voice rang out from the other side of the otherwise deserted room.
Remus sighed as Sirius sauntered over the room to his desk, carrying a whole stack of folders.
"What's up, Moony?" he asked, dumping his armload on Remus' desk, making it rattle.
"I just can't break it!" he said angrily.
Sirius craned his neck around, trying to read what was on the scrunched up piece of yellowed parchment.
"I would like to help, but since I'm bloody awful at this sort of stuff, I won't." he said helpfully.
"Thanks, Sirius. It's just that..." he tailed off, sighing again.
"What?"
"I'm sure I've got it right - on the first line, at least. See? It makes sense. But as soon as you get to the next line, it's all utter balderdash." He said passionately.
Sirius studied the parchment for a few seconds, face blank.
"Look Remus," he said eventually. "You are the best at this sort of stuff. If you can't break it, no-one can."
Remus gave him a watery smile. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
"Put it in the 'too hard for anyone' tray, Lupin." Sirius said.
Remus picked up the parchment and dropped it with a flourish into a folder with many other similar pieces. He reached over and took another piece of paper off the top of his in-tray and set it down on front of him.
"Hey Sirius." He called, without looking up.
"Yeah?" Black replied, busy orchestrating six quills simultaneously writing out duplicates of reports.
"Need any help?"
Sirius shook his head. "I could do this with my eyes closed" he replied, not taking his eyes off the swishing quills.
It was all quiet for a few minutes, until Sirius had finished and laid his reports out to dry. He got up off his chair and came back over to Remus' desk, perching on the side.
"You know last night..." he began.
Remus nodded his head.
"That was a wolf we met, wasn't it?" he asked.
"I think so." Remus said slowly. "But..."
"...Wolves don't live in the wild in Britain any longer." Sirius finished for him.
They both thought for a while, silent. They could hear the faint hustle and bustle coming from Diagon Alley below drifting up through the stifling, unmoving air.
"You know what I reckon? I think that wolf was another unregistered Animagus." Sirius said eventually.
Remus gave Sirius a quick look. "It's possible, but the chances..."
"The amount of unregistered Animagi must be huge." Sirius continued. "The Ministry has had better things to do in the last twenty years or so than round up Anamagi."
"True" admitted Lupin.
"And you know what else I reckon?" Sirius said slyly. "Laugh if you will, but I think it was Calypso."
Remus didn't laugh, but looked thoughtful.
"Apart from Maria, she was the only other witch in the region, but we have three problems with that theory."
"Which are?" Sirius shot back.
" A: She doesn't know any spells. I know there is a complex potion brewing element, but another large part is transfiguration, remember?
B: How could have she gotten out of her room? I had that barrier charm over her doorway to stop her running into me while I was transformed.
And, finally, C: That wolf was severely scarred. That means the witch was scarred as well, and I know as well as you do that Calypso has near perfect skin. Well, no claw scars on her face, anyway."
Sirius mulled it over for a while.
"You are right with B and C, but I think she knows more spells than she's letting on.
********
Calypso emerged from the shower feeling much better than she had fifteen minutes ago. She wondered (belatedly) for a second if Remus' bathroom had any enchanted objects in it - being perved at by a tap fitting didn't appeal to her at all.
She wandered into the kitchen and went to put her hand on the pantry door to get a bite to eat, and then snatched it back, remembering what happened last time. Pantry gave a sigh of disappointment as she walked over to Fridge.
"Anything to eat?" she inquired hopefully.
"Geez, you're up late!" Fridge exclaimed.
"Lazy bitch!" Pantry hissed quietly.
"But anyway, yeah, there's corned beef, salad stuff and bread in here if you want a sandwich." Fridge said, ignoring Pantry.
"Weird place to keep your bread, in the fridge." Calypso remarked as she dragged food from the fridge.
"Remus put it there. He realized you and Pantry don't really get on." Fridge said apologetically. "Oh, that's right! He left you a note on the kitchen table!"
Dumping the food on the bench, Calypso sat down to read Remus' letter.
********
Hi Calypso.
You are still asleep, so we have already left.
Help yourself to whatever you can find. The Comet is by the front door if you want to go back to London or just muck about on it.
Will be home about sixish or so. Would you mind putting tea on if you are back in time? And Maria is having a colleague over for dinner as well, so cook for 3 plus Snuffles.
See ya later.
********
Calypso grinned wickedly.
The rest of the day to do whatever she wanted.
Letter still in hand, she stretched luxuriously.
She knew what she was going to do.
So, yes, I know that is a weird way to finish off, but it leaves me with many options for the next chapter.
Thank you to all those great people who review – one day I will get around to mailing you all to tell you how wonderful you all are – but I can't see it happening any time soon.
So, make my day, or week by writing just a little bit about what you thought about my fic. Pleeeeeze!