Author's note: I've gotten some reviews and followers in the last few days, and I just want to say that it's very much appreciated. Thanks everyone! :)
Also, just in case anybody was put off by the last chapter, I'm not looking to turn Lupin into a pedophile. Callie's a thirteen year old girl with a crush on her teacher, and he was just trying to be nice and ease her embarrassment. (And Snape already has a negative opinion of him, so he was quick to jump to a wrong conclusion.)
18. Snape vs. Warbeck
Final exams came and went, and the following Friday was the last Hogsmeade trip of the year. Somehow Callie had managed to avoid getting this privilege stripped away, but unfortunately, Neville was still banned. As they sat together at the Gryffindor table looking miserable, Callie said, "I don't have to go. Not gonna be any fun without you there anyway."
"No, you go," Neville said. "You love the village. Plus you've gotta stock up on Chocoballs for the summer."
They both chuckled at that. Callie glanced up at the head table, setting her eyes on McGonagall.
"I'll be back," she said, rising from her seat. She approached the woman, who was deep in what seemed to be serious conversation with Flitwick. Not wanting to interrupt, Callie waited patiently.
"Yes, dear?" McGonagall said, turning her attention to the girl.
"Professor, I was wondering," Callie began, "seeing as how it's the last trip and all, and finals are over... and Neville got an E in Potions, maybe... you might... consider letting him go to Hogsmeade today?"
McGonagall glanced across the room at the boy, and before she could answer, Callie went on.
"I know he messed up bad with the password thing," she said. "But he's really sorry, and, well... I'd really appreciate it if you'd let him come with me, ma'am. Plus he helped me get an E in Herbology, so, I thought I could buy him a butterbeer as thanks-"
"All right, Miss Warbeck," the woman cut in, holding up a hand to stop her. "You've made your case." Pausing to look once again from the boy to the girl, she sighed and said, "Yes, he may go."
Callie broke out into a huge smile, practically bouncing up and down. "Oh, thank you, ma'am, thank you so much!"
Callie ran back to the Gryffindor table to give him the good news. Luckily, she hadn't stopped once at her own house's table, or her last trip to Hogsmeade might've been ruined.
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She came back with six boxes of Chocoballs, a miniature-sized grand piano that played itself (technically a gift from her father - she'd seen it in Dominic Maestro's during her first trip, and David had given her the money to purchase it over Christmas break), and three bottles of nail polish that magically changed color.
"Never knew you were so girly," Neville said in regards to that last purchase.
She echoed his words from all those months ago. "Everything about me surprises you, right?"
He grinned. "Right."
They had gone to their respective dormitories to drop off their purchases, then met back up in Myrtle's bathroom, where Callie was painting her toes while Neville buried the bulb of some plant or another in a pot of dirt.
"Good thing I don't have any friends back home," Callie said, watching the blue polish morph into purple. "Otherwise I wouldn't get to wear this."
"Why not?" he asked.
She gave him a look that said, Isn't it obvious? Then she smacked her head and said, "Oh, that's right. I keep forgetting you're not used to muggle things. Non-magical nail polishes don't change colors. Kind of like how pictures don't move."
He shook his head, "Blimey, that's so weird. Think you could bring one next term, a picture?"
"Sure. Any other muggle artifacts I can amaze you with?"
He thought about it, then asked, "What's a telephone?"
Callie had to pause what she was doing, as she was shaking with laughter.
"Sorry," she said, getting a hold of herself. "It's a thing you use to talk to people. You have one, and they have one, and you can hear each other talk, even from opposite sides of the world."
"Wicked," he said.
"No boys allowed!" Myrtle suddenly shouted from her toilet stall. The next second she had shot across the room, hovering over them with an angry look on her face. "This is a girl's room, and you're not a girl!"
"Think she might tell that to Crabbe and Goyle?" Neville joked.
"Myrtle, he's a good boy," Callie said.
"Good boys don't sneak into girl's toilets!" the ghost argued.
"He didn't sneak in, I brought him in."
"And good girls don't invite boys into the ladies room!" She paused, looking down at Callie's toes. "And your feet are bare!"
"So?" Callie said.
"I saw you lift up your shirt for Hermione Granger," Myrtle said. "Now you're barefoot with a boy!"
With that, the ghost turned away and fled off to her toilet. They heard the splash as she dived in.
Silence filled the room for a moment, before Neville said, cocking his brow, "'Lifted your shirt for Hermione?'"
"That wasn't nearly as... well, gay as it sounds," Callie said. "I was showing her my boobs." A pause. "Wait, that doesn't sound any better!"
She explained everything to the boy, who of course blushed the whole way through and refused to meet her eye.
When she was done, he said, "That's what girls do when they're alone with each other? Blimey, I'd never go up to Seamus or Dean and whip out my-"
How was it possible for human skin to turn that red?
"Well," Callie said, "you don't have to worry about all the girls staring at your... wand."
Neville got an exasperated look on his face and said, "Bloody hell, I told Dean and Seamus to stop doing that!"
"Stop doing what?" Callie asked.
He hesitated, then said, "Looking at you... like that."
Callie gaped at him. He'd been defending her honor this whole time? He knew they'd been staring, and therefore, why they'd been staring?
A small smile curled her lip. "You never stare at girls?" she asked, amused.
"No!" he said, and then in a quiet, rather embarrassed tone, "I'm not blind. Sometimes I notice... but I don't stare."
He still couldn't look at her, but something about his expression made her think he'd been referring to her, specifically.
Maybe he did look at her. Not just her eyes, but all of her. Knowing that all the others boys did had made her feel somewhat... sleazy and embarrassed. With Neville, however, it only made her feel good.
"Anyway," he piped up, changing the subject entirely, "here." He'd finished potting his plant, and he slid it over to her.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"I got it for you," he said. "As a thank you for all your help this year."
"You didn't have to do that," she said. "But what is it?"
"Daffodil," he replied. "You said you liked daffodils."
She did, but...
"When did I say that?" she asked.
"Couple months ago in the greenhouse," he replied. "I was showing you how to defang those geraniums, and one of 'em bit you, and you said, 'Damn it, I hate plants.' Then I asked if there was any plant you do like, and you said daffodils."
She stared at him, the conversation coming back to mind. "You remembered that?" she asked.
He nodded, then said, "I remember everything you say."
Finally they were eye-to-eye, and for once he didn't feel the need to look away. Her eyes drifted down to his mouth, just for a split second, and Merlin's beard if she wasn't this close to kissing him.
Then the bathroom door banged open and Hermione was standing before them, breathless.
"I thought I'd find you in here," she said. "Lupin's gone."
"What do you mean?" Callie asked, she and Neville rising to their feet.
"I mean he's resigned."
"Why?"
"Because," she began, pausing. "Because he's a werewolf!"
"You know?" Callie asked.
"You know?" Hermione shot back.
"Whoa, wait a minute," Neville cut in. "Lupin's a werewolf?"
"Yeah," Callie said. "But you can't tell anyone."
"It's too late," Hermione said. "Everyone already knows."
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It had been a good couple of weeks. Only one person could've ruined her mood, and damn it, he just couldn't pass up the chance.
From what she'd been told, on the morning of the Hogsmeade visit, Snape had let slip to the Slytherins that Lupin was a werewolf. Of course, a man with such tight lips would never let anything slip, and Callie knew the son of a bitch had been deliberate in outing her now-former teacher. She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Lupin.
"Stupid! Vile! Evil! Prick!" With every word, she bashed a beater's bat into a tree.
"Bloody hell," Ron Weasley exclaimed behind her. His brothers were at his side. "You're right, she would make a good beater."
Quietly, so the others couldn't hear, Hermione said, "I know how you felt about him. I'm sorry."
"Ugh!" Callie groaned, "This is my fault!"
Hermione did a double take. "How could it be your fault?" she asked.
Callie told her all about the chocolates, and Lupin kissing her hand, and Snape walking in on them and getting the wrong idea.
"No," Hermione said, shaking her head. "This had nothing to do with you."
"How do you know?" Callie asked.
Hermione looked like she had something she wanted to say, but couldn't.
"Out with it!" Callie snapped.
"All right. Lupin and Snape went to school together. They were in the same class - with Sirius Black."
Callie was taken aback, but said, "And?"
"Well," Hermione went on, "Lupin and Black had been friends, and Snape didn't like either of them. So, all this year, Snape was convinced Lupin had been helping Black into the castle."
"He wasn't," Callie insisted, though the idea of Lupin and Black being friends was a hard pill to swallow.
"You know that and I know that," Hermione said, "but Snape is... well... you know how he is."
"Yes, and he knows how I am," Callie said. "I'm gonna give that foul son of a bitch a piece of my mind." She marched off toward the castle, Hermione in pursuit.
"Callie, don't, you'll only make trouble for yourself!"
"I don't care."
The Gryffindor girl tried to stop her the whole way to the castle, and into the Great Hall. It was lunchtime and half the students were present, along with most of the teachers. Callie marched right up to Snape, no sense of self-control holding her back.
"What in God's name is the matter with you?" she demanded.
Immediately rising to his feet, he snapped back, "Little girl, if you want to walk out of this castle in one piece you'll never approach me that way again!"
The whole room had already fallen silent, and she knew everybody was watching them. But she didn't give a damn.
"What, did he steal your girlfriend when you went to school together or something?" Callie said. "Why do you hate him so much, and why did you tell everyone he's a werewolf?"
He came out from behind the table and stood before her. He was a fully grown man and he towered over her, but she wasn't intimidated. In fact, she'd have loved for him to try something, just so she could get him back.
"Just because you have a little schoolgirl's crush on the animal doesn't make him God's gift to wizardkind!" Snape spat. "He's been aiding Black all year, helping him get in. He's scum and he'd have been perfectly happy to see everyone in this castle cut up like the Fat Lady. Including you."
He turned to storm off, but Callie wasn't done with him.
"Rubbish!" she yelled. "You just don't like anyone who's not one of your precious Slytherins."
He stopped in the doorway and turned back to her. "Incorrect, darling," he said. "You're a Slytherin and I absolutely loathe you."
"Severus, be quiet!" Professor Flitwick called out indignantly.
"No, let everyone see what a miserable prat he is," Callie said.
Suddenly McGonagall appeared at Snape's side, coming in from the entrance hall. "What's going on?" she asked, glancing from one to the other of them.
Looking as though he were about to explode, Snape explained, "Warbeck is having some kind of a fit. I don't know what's gotten into her. Perhaps Longbottom finally discovered the back-talking swine is more trouble than she's worth and got rid of her."
"Severus!" McGonagall exclaimed in shock.
Hermione came up behind Callie and grabbed her by the arms. "Callie, come on, let's just go!" she pleaded.
But the Slytherin girl threw her off and got right up in the vile man's face. "Back-talking swine, am I?" she said. "Better than being a worthless, deplorable, slimy bastard!"
Nobody could've predicted what happened next - Snape barely flinched, but McGonagall slapped her across the face. A collective gasp rang out.
"Now enough!" McGonagall shouted. "Both of you!" To Callie, she said, "Warbeck, my office." To Snape, "Severus... just go."
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The woman was more shaken than Callie was. "I shouldn't have done that," she said, trembling. "Callie, I'm so sorry."
"You don't need to be," Callie said. "Kinda crossed a line, I did."
"No, I did," McGonagall countered. "He did. He had no business speaking to you that way."
She handed Callie an icepack to hold against her swollen cheek. "Neither did I, to him," Callie said. "I'm just so mad at him, Professor."
"I know. Trust me, the feeling's mutual. Professor Lupin was one of my students. He was always a fine boy, and now he's a good man."
Callie thought back on his kindness towards her, his help and support with the Boggart, his smile, the chocolates, the kiss on her hand. Even their very first encounter on the train. Sorry, love, he had said as he brushed past her. God, even then her heart had fluttered a bit when he said that.
McGonagall's door opened and Dumbledore came in. "Professor McGonagall," he greeted with a nod. "Miss Warbeck. I heard you had quite the lively discussion with Professor Snape a short while ago."
Callie was surprised to see that he didn't look particularly upset. But then again, she'd never seen him look upset.
"Professor Dumbledore," she said, "I am so sorry."
He held up a hand. "My dear, if somebody called me a swine and told me they loathed me, I imagine I'd be angry too."
"I shouldn't have caused a scene," Callie said.
"No," he agreed. "But perhaps a private conversation with your head of house would've led to more bodily harm. At least this way there were witnesses."
"You actually think he would harm the girl, Albus?" McGonagall asked in disbelief.
"I was talking about her," he replied, nodding to Callie.
Sighing, Callie said, "Good thing I didn't have my wand on me."
But Dumbledore countered, "Sometimes you don't need a weapon," eyeing McGonagall. "Are you all right?" he asked Callie.
"Yes," she replied. "It wasn't Professor McGonagall's fault."
The woman looked so devastatingly ashamed of herself, Callie couldn't bring herself to be angry with her.
"I'm sorry, Albus," McGonagall said.
Dumbledore placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I understand it can be quite overwhelming when caught between two warring Slytherins," he said. "Particularly those as immensely stubborn and as ruthless as Severus Snape and Calista Warbeck."
Ordinarily, Callie would've taken that as a slight - both the comment about her stubbornness and the comparison of her to God damn Snape. But somehow she was unbothered; something about the way he'd said it was... not as offensive as if it had come from anyone else.
Dumbledore went on, "We must let young David and Dr. Warbeck know what occurred here today, Minerva. You understand."
"Yes, I do," she said in a small voice, bowing her head.
"Perhaps you and I ought to schedule a visit to Gloucestershire. A conversation such as this may be best to hold in person."
"Professor Dumbledore?" Callie spoke up.
"Yes, dear?"
"Can I be there too? I want to make sure that my parents don't blame Professor McGonagall for the slap."
"Certainly," Dumbledore said with a nod, turning to leave. "Then I suppose I'll see you at the end-of-term feast. Good day, Miss Warbeck."
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"Still can't believe McGonagall slapped you," Neville said as they rode the train back to London a few days later. "I mean, she's tough, for sure... but I didn't think she was that tough."
"I'm just thankful she didn't make me apologize to Snape," Callie said. "To that I'd have had to refuse."
"Wouldn't have made any difference, I suppose," Fred Weasley said. "Seeing as he 'absolutely loathes you' anyway."
"And he's a 'worthless, deplorable, slimy bastard,'" George added. "That kind isn't real big on forgiveness."
For the last couple days of the term, Callie and Snape's row had been the talk of the whole school. While her housemates, of course, had completely sided with the latter, people had been coming up to Callie, admiration in their eyes, slapping her back in approval or asking to shake her hand. The Weasley twins had gotten a particular kick out of Callie telling Snape off, literally rolling on the floor laughing when they heard about it.
"You're my hero, and my muse," Fred said, gazing into her eyes longingly. "Buy you something off the trolley?"
"Sure," she said. "But nothing with peanut butter. I don't like peanut butter."
He and George both went off to track down the trolley witch, leaving Callie and Neville alone in the compartment.
"Didn't I tell you his bark is worse than his bite?" Callie asked, and he knew she was referring to Snape.
"He called you a swine," Neville reminded her. "I might've hexed him myself if I'd have been there."
She shot him a smile. "My night in shining armor. Heard you gave Seamus and Dean what for." From what she had heard from Hermione, Neville had threatened to hex them both if he ever caught them leering at Callie again.
Sheepishly, he replied, "I wasn't being noble or anything like that. I just..." He trailed off.
"Yes?" Callie prodded.
"I don't know," he shrugged. "It bothered me."
No one had treated her as well as Neville had the past year, and she was quite sad that she wouldn't get to see him for the next two and a half months. "Hey," she said, perking up. "I've an idea." Pulling out a pen and paper, she wrote down her phone number and said. "I'm gonna send you a telephone. Consider it a birthday present. On the phone, there'll be buttons with numbers on them." Handing him the paper, she continued, "Press these numbers, in that order, and you'll hear a ringing sound. If me or my mum or dad don't answer, wait a couple hours and try again. This is how a telephone call works."
"Just press on the buttons with these numbers and that's it?" he asked.
"Right. Tell me your address."
She wrote it down and pocketed it. By the time she was done, the twins had returned with their arms full of treats.
"All right, I've got chocolate frogs, pumpkin pasties," George said, "chocoballs..."
"They have chocoballs?" Callie said excitedly. George tossed her one, and she savored every bit of it, as well as her last few hours with her new friends.