Word Count: 2,847

Former Word Count: 1,920

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What Might Be Called Wishful Thinking

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[July 27, 1994: Number 12, Grimmauld Place]

Three days spent stuck in Saint Mungos had finally passed, and Callisto Azalea was more than tired of the sympathetic smiles from the Healers, the constant questions of the Ministry workers, and the fawning, the people who got in and whispered gratitude and celebrated her for being a hero, for saving them. They'd forbidden her from seeing her friends for some reason that hadn't been explained to her, which just made everything so much worse. Every day, one of the aggravating Healers had brought her a copy of the Daily Prophet, and every day there was a brand new article about her.

How did Callie Potter defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? Azalea had no idea, and she hated that nickname. Life before Hogwarts: Callie Potter. No, she wasn't trained by Dumbledore, what? Callie Potter's Friends and Foes speak out. Azalea really didn't count Draco Malfoy as a "foe," though to be fair she also didn't count Hermione Granger as a "friend." Callie Potter: her Hogwarts Experience. So far, she'd nearly died every year, so honestly, it wasn't that great of an experience.

She was tired of reading them, tired of being lied about at every turn. Azalea could say with certainty that the thing she wanted most was to just go to Grimmauld Place and sleep in her bed. Finally, when the Healers had decided that she was recovered enough to go home (on bed rest, and prohibited from casting spells for the next two weeks) Sirius had practically abducted her from the hospital, fleeing to Grimmauld Place without so much as a farewell. Remus had almost immediately drugged her with a sleeping draught and dropped her in her room. Once upon a time, it had been Regulus,' but as Sirius had said, "the both of you were the best thing to ever come out of this family."

When she'd first gotten it, Sirius had offered to change the green accents to red ones, but they were gentle on her eyes and Azalea had liked most of the decoration. The bed was nice, and there was a pretty writing desk to one side that was full of ink of every color and high-quality parchment. The bookshelf was half full of alarmingly supremacist pureblood books, and the rest had year after year of textbooks and notebooks that had belonged to Regulus.

She'd spent much of the first day unconscious, but at some point on the second day at home, Remus had mentioned something about Sirius taking his seat in the Wizengamot and properly making Azalea his technically-daughter and heir. Her name would properly be Callisto Azalea Potter-Black. While she liked the name, the idea in general just sounded bad. Sirius, as much as Azalea loved him, was unhinged some of the time and shouldn't be put in a position of any kind of authority. Now, with him obsessively reading books—there were literal stacks of books that were taller than her in the hallways and piled up on tables—she could say that she was glad she wouldn't have to deal with him for more than two months.

That was a whole other issue, though. The Minister and Headmaster's scheming was… better this time than it usually was. She could vividly remember the conversation the five of them had. Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge had shown up the day before she was released, both smiling delightedly and looking a little like Christmas had come early.

/ "Miss Potter!" Minister Fudge had cried jovially, "It is good to see you on your way to recovery, my dear!"

'Just wonderful,' Azalea thought miserably, 'He's picked up on Dumbledore's creepy habit. Maybe I should have hexed him the first time he used it?'

"...have done the Wizarding World a great service, Miss Potter. An incredible service." Fudge rambled, "If you could, Miss Potter, we would like you to participate in one more thing, all for the good of the Wizarding World, of course. Do you know what I mean?"

'Does he even hear the things that come out of his mouth?' Azalea wondered, though she nodded and smiled, hoping she looked a little intrigued. "Only if it's for the good of the Wizarding World, Minister Fudge," she said agreeably, though she heard Sirius' muffled scoff. 'That was laying it a bit thick,' she thought, glancing quickly at Sirius, who avoided her gaze as he smiled in amusement.

"Oh yes, my dear girl," Dumbledore spoke up, "We have it all planned out, no need to worry. We have planned an exchange program with another school, and 12 of our fifth-year students will be spending the year with them."

"An exchange of students?" Azalea asked, surprised, "To what school? Beauxbatons? Durmstrang?"

"Neither, my dear!" Fudge said delightedly, "With the Altair Institute of Magic, of course!" Remus made a very pained choking noise at that. Apparently, this Altair had to be of some importance and prestige. "They have been… generous enough to allow an exchange program. That school caters to all sorts of magical creatures, dark ones as well, unfortunately. Werewolves, vampires, and veela. Even those ghastly Naga beasts!"

'A what?' Azalea wondered first, 'Wait, he wants to put the likes of Draco Malfoy or Ronald Weasley in the same school as a vampire, or even a werewolf? Were they trying to improve relations, or did they just want the Hogwarts students to get killed? Wait, there's a school for non-humans? This might be incredible.'

"That sounds like an interesting plan, Minister Fudge," Sirius said loudly enough to cover up Remus' growl at being referred to as a dark beast. "Who have you selected to go?"

"That is one of the reasons that we are here, Mr. B-Black," he actually stuttered on Sirius' name, how sad. Apparently, having once held the title of a mass murderer and escaped convict, Sirius was scary. "We actually wanted to know if Miss Potter had any input. She is, after all, an important member of our society."

While wide-eyed and more than a little alarmed, Azalea took the opportunity for what it is, "Thank you, Minister Fudge! I don't really have any suggestions-I only really ever spoke to Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott… but, Minister…" she hesitated, not even exaggerating much. Was this a good idea? It could turn out terribly.

"Yes, Miss Potter?"

"I don't know if it's possible, Minister. I mean, I know she'll only be a fourth-year, but… my best friend, Luna Lovegood? I know that she'd just love the opportunity to go to… you said Altair, right?" Azalea looked to the Minister for correction, "She'd just love to be able to go to Altair, even if only for a year. She's my best friend, minister, I wouldn't want to be alone there."

'More because if I'm without her and Susan I'd go crazy,' Azalea thought darkly, imagining all the tension that would arise from Weasley and Granger spreading their irrational prejudice in a school full of non-humans.

"Oh," Minister Fudge said, pondering for a moment. Of course, he couldn't have the savior on her own and upset. He exchanged a slightly concerned glance with Headmaster Dumbledore, "I am sure that this could be arranged, Miss Potter." he decided, "Her parents will have to give their permission though, and I need to be assured that she will not be overwhelmed from the classwork."

"That's more than reasonable, Minister!" Azalea agreed. This actually sounded somewhat interesting. It might fail spectacularly, but "All for the good of the Wizarding World, right? I'd love to participate!" /

Thinking back on it, Azalea wasn't so sure about her easy agreement. Neither of them had ever taken the time to explain why it was that they had agreed to this exchange (or proposed it, as it were). With how elite Altair Institute of Magic was, there was no good reason for them to accept the proposal either. No doubt, there's some sort of underhanded plot by one of the groups, but until the time it was revealed, Azalea figured she'd just enjoy herself and the education she was being offered.

When Sirius and Remus had finally realized that she'd been serious in her desire to go to the Altair Institute of Magic, then they had to make sure she knew about all the people that she might meet there. According to Remus, there were far more than just Werewolves in the branch of Werefolk. There were all sorts of animals that shifted under the skies ("Not all of them shift at the full moon, some shift on the new moon, or on solstices, or different points when magic is strong for them") and there were even more that seemed to be blends of animals. Fauns, for instance, were hyperactive half-goat, half-man people, that were related somehow to Fae, who were just… Fae. Then the Naga, with serpent tails and the upper body of a man—also, somehow, related to Fae.

Though it was certainly more than she had ever learned at Hogwarts, Azalea couldn't help but think that the information she was being given was based on wizard interpretations of the beings. It just… didn't sound quite right to her.

It wasn't just history lessons she got—though that was certainly the entirety of the first few weeks. Once the healer's ban on her practicing magic was up, Sirius and Remus made sure she reviewed all of the spells she'd learned up until then. Azalea had struggled more than a little with some of the spells, but when they'd moved on to fifth and even sixth year spells it had been easier. Dueling practice was a pain, despite most of it being adapting regular spells into combat— apparently, being thrown around by two fully grown wizards hell bent on teaching her how to survive leads to a lot of bruises.

It was mostly miserable for Azalea, despite the fact she was learning and spending a lot of time with her dogfather and werewolf uncle. They'd tried to keep to the Marauder tradition of pranking each other and coming up with new spells—fun, but a struggle and pain for Azalea. They'd had a lot of conversations about culture and treatment of all of the "non-human" magical races—valuable, but it led to the realization that Azalea knew next to nothing about wizarding culture and that they had 15 years to catch up on.

Most of all though, Azalea had looked forward to today: her two best friends Luna Lovegood and Susan Bones were coming to visit.

Luna and Susan were the best thing to happen to Azalea. It had more than a little to do with what happened to one's confidence after being constantly belittled their entire childhood. The sheer amount of compliments and positive physical touch that Azalea had received from the two of them had overwhelmed her at first, but it was very, very, necessary. It had made Azalea who she was—and it had made her a little dependent on the two of them.

It left her waiting anxiously by the fireplace, waiting for the flare of green flames that signaled the arrival of her friends. It had taken nearly two months for them to be able to come, but Sirius had finally cleaned out the majority of the cursed objects left behind. The red turned to green—

"Callisto Azalea Lilian Potter-Black!" Luna called out delightedly, stepping out of the fire. She had an odd habit of always greeting people by their full name, so with matching enthusiasm, Azalea returned the greeting; "Luna Selene Lovegood! I missed you!"

Luna ran to Azalea, flinging her arms around the older girl's neck with a delighted laugh. Azalea lifted her, spinning in a wobbly circle. Azalea was barely taller than Luna, making it more than a little awkward, but they'd been greeting each other with a hug since Azalea's second year.

"Azzie!" Susan called happily, joining Luna in her attempt to smother Azalea through hugs. The three laughed together, smiling brightly. It was the first time they'd seen each other since before the Third Task, and though they'd exchanged letters, Luna and Susan still studied Azalea for any marks of exhaustion.

"Hey Susan, Moonbeam," Azalea laughed warmly as the two detached themselves. Susan and Azalea had become quick friends in the first year, despite being in different houses, not long after Azalea's realization that neither Ron nor Hermione were kinder than they were annoying.

Susan and her lifelong friend Hannah Abbott had practically attacked her in their insistence that Azalea should join their group of friends, and Azalea almost immediately fit right in. After they'd seen little first-year Luna Lovegood being bullied by older Ravenclaws, they adopted her, too. Every winter break, they'd go to either Susan or Luna's home. Sometimes, the Lovegoods would insist on taking them on a "creature expedition," and even though they'd looked, they had yet to find a crumple horned snorkack or blibbering humdinger.

Azalea kind of thought that Luna's creatures might have been her way of coping with an ability to See more than she should, and that because it was something she had inherited from her mother that had gone unexplained—it was the Sight's way to preserve some of Luna's sanity. She'd never brought it up, though. Luna's dad seemed sure everything she saw was real, and Luna just looked terribly happy each time Azalea went on an expedition with her.

They were so much better than Granger and Weasley had ever been. Neither had ever encouraged her to go on any foolish or unsafe adventure to save something or someone that Azalea had no real business helping. The three of them always looked out for each other. Azalea would always be the one to protect Luna from her own absentmindedness and make sure that she didn't accidentally hurt herself. Susan was the one who kept them on track, turning in homework and balancing it with snowball fights and competition.

They'd especially been helpful after Granger and Weasley had abandoned Azalea during the Triwizard Tournament. They believed Azalea when no one else did. It was what made Azalea finally call it quits on trying to turn Granger and Weasley into people with any social skills whatsoever. And here they were, saving her again, though this time it was from the psychotic duo—Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

"Girls! You've got to meet my godfather and… god-uncle, I suppose! Presenting Sirius Black and Remus Lupin!" Azalea declared as she guided them to the kitchen, where Sirius was sat on top of the counter, talking animatedly at Remus, complete with wild hand gestures and exaggerated facial expressions. Remus glanced over when they entered, though he mostly looked like he was ignoring Sirius to drink hot chocolate.

"That awesome teacher in the third year?" Susan asked, peering at Remus.

"Thanks for the compliment," the werewolf grinned back at her, even as Azalea snuck forward to try and take his drink. Remus had the distinct advantage of height and arm length though, and it wasn't long before Azalea was pouting, saying; "Unfair, Moony! You know I love hot chocolate!"

"Moony!" Sirius wailed, waving his arms wildly at Remus to catch his attention, "You aren't listening to me!"

Remus only raised his eyebrow, flicking a Somnus spell at the animagus, who slumped back onto the counter, his head smacking roughly into the hardwood. "Sorry," he said gently to the girls' startled laughs, "he's not quite ready for polite society yet. Also, Azalea-" he reached over, pointing at the three mugs of hot chocolate that were waiting innocently under a warming charm, "I did make you hot chocolate earlier, you were just too anxious to hear me."

Azalea took one eagerly, not paying attention to the vibrant purple her hair turned in her eagerness to drink it. Susan and Luna both giggled, and Luna reached for a hot chocolate, hoping for a fun color to match Azalea with. Sure enough, her hair turned to bright, bubbly pink. Encouragingly, Luna looked over to Susan, though she was more than a little hesitant.

"Azzie," Susan hedged warily, "you do know that your hair is now purple, right?"

With widening eyes, Azalea tugged on a strand of hair in front of her eyes, looking at it for a moment before smiling brightly, "I rock purple, don't you think?" she returned plainly, though she eyed Remus mischievously. The werewolf looked alarmed and stood quickly, setting his mug in the sink before rushing out, leaving Sirius splayed unconscious on the counter. Susan laughed, remembering all the mischief that Azalea liked to cause before drinking as well, hair turning a rather fetching blue-green.

"Come on, girls!" Azalea grinned, taking out her wand and absently flicking a few charms and innocent hexes at Sirius, whose clothes turned to a violently orange dress and whose skin became marked with neon green dots, as well as curling his hair into a frizzy mess. Sure, Sirius would plan for payback, but Azalea was good enough that the hexes would stick a few days at least. "We have quite a lot to talk about, don't we?"

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a/n: edit 04/12/21 - minor formatting change