19. Birds and Bees and Ice Cream

Summer came and went, and Callie and her father were back at Florean Fortescue's for their back-to-school ice cream tradition. Every time they did this, Callie tried a new flavor, but David always got a dragon fruit milkshake.

"You're boring," Callie teased. "Why don't you mix it up a little?"

"Muggle shops never have dragon fruit," he explained. "Only place I ever find it is Florean's."

"Well, why don't you buy yourself a pint?"

"I do every time I come for work." David did a lot of business with Gringotts Bank. His job was exchanging muggle money for magical and vice versa, acting as a liaison between Gringotts and several muggle banks. Of course, no one on the non-magical side of things knew anything about the wizarding world, and a fake name was given for Gringotts.

"How much time do we have?" Callie asked, practically inhaling her bowl of white chocolate raspberry.

Checking his watch, David said, "Forty minutes. Slow down, we've got plenty of time."

Callie shrugged. "Just wanna make sure we don't miss the train," she said.

"When have we ever?" David asked, and then he broke out in a smirk. "You just can't wait to see the Longbottom boy."

Callie could feel her cheeks going red. This wasn't the first time her father had teased her about her "new beau." She'd made good on her promise to send Neville a phone as a birthday present, and had spent so much time chatting with him that David quite literally forced her out of the house at one point, saying, "Go get some sun on that pale arse of yours."

Then they had met up in Diagon Alley the previous week, where Neville had bought her a redwood beater's bat. "For getting the aggression out," he'd said.

"That's actually perfect," Callie had replied. "And it matches my wand." Callie's wand was also made of redwood.

Presently, David teased, "Wonder what he'll gift you this time."

"The bat was a birthday present," Callie reminded him. Her birthday, like Neville's, had also been in July.

"Thought the bracelet he sent was your present?"

Callie looked down at the real gift she was currently wearing, a silver chain set with three tiny emeralds (the representative stone of Slytherin house) alternating with two equally-sized diamonds.

"Bloody hell, Neville!" she'd exclaimed over the phone the day she received the gift. "I can't have this, it must've cost a hundred galleons!"

"Trust me, it wasn't that much," he'd replied. Then after a pause, "Got it at a second-hand store."

Currently, Callie fiddled with the bracelet as she said, "Well... I get two because he got two."

"What do you mean?" David said, cocking a brow.

"The phone and the pleasure of talking to me," she replied. David shook his head, smirking at the girl's remark.

"You know," he said after a moment, "whether or not you two fancy each other, I think it's about time we had a little talk."

"If you're planning on giving me the birds and bees lesson, don't bother," Callie said. "Mum handled that long ago."

"Don't worry, this isn't about sex."

"Thank God."

"It's about who you choose to spend your time with. Be it Neville or anyone else."

"What do you mean?" Callie asked, looking puzzled.

Sighing to himself, David said, "You're fourteen now. And apparently you've got quite a bit of admirers." Callie had told her mum all about the stares and the flowers and being asked out by two boys the previous year, and the woman had, in turn, told her dad. "I imagine the older you get, the more attention you'll receive from your male classmates. And I won't be around to size them up."

Callie understood where he was going, and smiled. "Don't you think I have my own standards when it comes to boys?" she asked. "Trust me, I wouldn't go out with some sod."

"Yes, but I, too, have my standards for any boy wishing to court my only daughter," he said. "For example, he ought to worship the ground that she walks on."

"Oh, I agree," Callie said.

David went on. "Be respectful, a gentleman," he paused. "Willing to lay down his very life for her."

"Blimey, dad, you take that white knight thing quite seriously, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," he replied, "when it comes to you."

She considered his words for a moment, thinking of the "respectful gentleman" who was more keen on looking at her eyes than her arse. The one who had paid enough attention to remember a throwaway comment she'd made about her favorite flower.

"So," she asked, "supposing I did fancy Neville... would you approve?"

Again, David smirked. "Well, he does seem to be a nice enough boy," he said after a moment. "However..."

He paused, and Callie prodded, "Yes?"

"Couldn't you find a nice lad with no hands?"

"Oh, Merlin's beard!" Callie exclaimed, rolling her eyes. "This is about sex, isn't it?"

"No, of course not," David said breezily. "You're fourteen, you're my daughter, and obviously you're too focused on your studies to even think about the subject. Why should we speak of it?"

Callie got the not-so-thinly-veiled hint. "Right," she said, smirking. "Don't worry. Won't be any pitter-patter of little Longbottom feet any time soon."

"Ugh," David groaned at the unsavory idea of his fourteen-yea-old daughter... reproducing. "Now that that's out of the way, let us never speak of it again."

"Deal."

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Twenty minutes later they were standing on platform nine-and-tree-quarters. Callie craned her neck over the crowds to look for Neville, finally spotting him searching for a free compartment.

"Neville!" she called out, catching his attention. She pushed her trolley in his direction, her father in tow.

The boy greeted her with a smile and said, "You cut your hair."

"Yeah, it was too hard to manage," she explained. "Practically down to me ar-" noting Mrs. Longbottom at his side, she censored herself "-er... here." She indicated her lower back. Now her dark-brown locks came only to her shoulders.

"It looks nice," Neville said, then bowed his head as his cheeks pinkened up.

Callie turned her attention on the woman. "Good to see you again, Mrs. Longbottom," she greeted with a nod. The two had met back in June when she and Neville returned from Hogwarts. After all she'd been told about the woman, Callie's opinion of her wasn't exactly positive, but she had bitten her tongue and tried to be polite.

"You too, dear," the elderly witch replied kindly. Then she nodded to Callie's dad. "Mr. Warbeck."

With a smile he replied, "Mrs. Longbottom," taking her hand and kissing it. Callie and Neville exchanged a glance.

"Oh, my!" Mrs. Longbottom exclaimed, looking rather giddy. "Quite the gentleman. See, Neville, this is how one ought to approach a lady."

The boy became even more flushed, and then David turned to him and said, "Keep an eye on my daughter, won't you? Try to keep her out of trouble." Then to Callie, he added, his voice full of warning, "Wouldn't want a repeat of last year."

"No, Daddy," Callie said. Oh, the discussion they'd had when she came back from Hogwarts and told her parents what had happened with Snape. She'd have preferred to endure another slap from McGonagall.

"And remember what I said," David went on. "I'll be inquiring about it later this week."

"Yes, I know," Callie said.

She and Neville bid her father and Neville's grandmother goodbye. As they boarded the train, Callie heard the man ask the woman, "Would you care to join me for a cup of tea, madam?"

"He's a real charmer, your dad," Neville said with a smirk as they made their way down to an empty compartment. "Never seen the woman so flushed. Eh, what was that thing he was going to inquire about?"

As they stowed away their luggage and sat down, Callie explained what had happened when her parents found out about the incident with Snape.

"Christ, I've never seen my mum so angry," she said. "Tried to tell her he deserved what I said, but she wouldn't hear it."

"He did deserve it," Neville argued.

"You know that and I know that. Think everybody knows that," Callie said. "Still, 'How dare you speak to a teacher that way?' she said."

"What about your dad?" Neville asked.

Callie sighed. "He has a way of being scarier when he's silent. Let my mum do most of the talking, though he said if I ever did something like that again, he'd get his belt." The man had never once laid a hand on her in anger, but she wasn't so willing to find out if he'd been bluffing.

"What about McGonagall and Dumbledore?" Neville asked. "They ever show up?"

"Oh, yes, the day after I got home. McGonagall must've apologized a hundred times for the slap, but my mum only said, 'I hope you put your back into it.'"

Neville chuckled, then said, "Oh, the inquiry. Where does that come in?"

Callie shook her head at the one thing that bothered her about the fallout. "He wants me to apologize to Snape," she said bitterly.

"No, you can't!" Neville argued, affronted. "He's not gonna apologize to you, I'm sure of it. And you didn't do anything wrong."

"I talked back to him and cursed at him," Callie said. "Doesn't matter what he said to me, or why I did it." She paused. "That's what my parents said, anyway. My dad - he apologized to Dumbledore and McGonagall, for having raised such a disrespectful child." That had hurt worse than the slap in the face.

Neville looked at her with sympathy. "I'm sorry," he said.

Callie shrugged. "It's okay. Mum said I inherited my dirty mouth from him, after all."

Neville chuckled. "Merlin's beard," he said. "I'd love to hear a conversation between the two of you, if that's the case."

Callie smiled to herself as an idea came to her. "Maybe you could visit me next summer," she suggested. "If your gran's all right with it."

He looked away from her, slightly bashful, but then a small grin curled his lip. "Yeah," he said, "I'd like that."

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"Snape wants to see you in his office after the feast," Astoria Greengrass informed Callie in the Great Hall that night.

"Oh, this oughta be fun," Callie said, rolling her eyes. She herself had meant to meet with him at some point to offer that damn apology, but thought she'd at least have one night to relax.

"What was it you called him again?" Astoria asked with a devilish grin on her face. "'Worthless, slimy bastard?'"

"Don't forget 'deplorable,'" Callie reminded her, smirking. Despite the fact that the second-year girl's sister was an arrogant bitch and one of Pansy's cronies, Callie actually liked Astoria a little. She wasn't so high on herself about her pureblood status, and didn't seem to share her sister's prejudiced views. Actually, she had quite a fascination with muggles, and had pestered Callie the previous year with questions about them, asking her for stories as through they were some sort of mythical race.

"Eh, still taking Muggle Studies this year?" Astoria asked.

"Yes, and I have a new book as well," Callie informed her. "You can read it if you want."

"Thanks!" the girl replied excitedly.

After the feast, Callie went down to the dungeons, bypassing her common room and heading toward Snape's office. Taking a breath, she knocked on the door. "Come in," he called out from the other side.

Callie remained silent as she approached him, taking in his contemptuous expression when he saw her.

"What a shame," he said coldly. "I had hoped that McGonagall had left a lasting mark."

"No," Callie said, "but you ought to be happy to know that it did hurt a lot."

"That does bring me great joy," he said. "And I must say, I don't think I've ever had such good laugh as I did that day."

Callie kept quiet.

Coming out from behind his desk to stand before her, he said, "I've had ten weeks to think up a suitable punishment for you, girl." He paused, before continuing, "But after all that time, I've come up short on the best permissible method of torture."

Before he could go on, Callie spoke up. "I don't expect this to make any difference on what you decide, sir. Nor do I think it matters to you, but... I'm sorry."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Trying to weasel your way out of punishment, are you?" he said with a smirk.

"No," Callie said honestly. "I know I was out of line. I just didn't care at the time." He didn't respond right away, so she added, "Besides, if you hadn't forced Professor Lupin to resign, who knows what might've happened to him."

Curiously, he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, look at Quirrell and Lockhart," she said. "One of them's dead, the other's a nutter now. What with the curse on the Defense teacher job, it could've been worse if he hadn't left when he did."

Snape simply stared at her a moment, then said, "Yes, he got quite lucky, didn't he? Unfortunately, your foolhardy attempt to stand up for the... man... has left you deprived of such good fortune. I hope you enjoyed your freedom this summer, as you're going to be spending the next several Saturdays in this office, and your Hogsmeade privileges are revoked for the rest of the year."

Callie's jaw dropped open at that last part. No Hogsmeade for the entire year? "I thought you said you couldn't come up with anything bad enough?" she almost shouted.

"I couldn't," he said. "I'm still working on it. However, the rest will suffice in the meantime."

"That's not-" Callie began, but stopped herself. He didn't need any more reason to punish her. "Fine, sir. Whatever you think is best."

"I don't remember asking for your approval," he said. "Now get to bed. And try not to piss anyone off for the night."