"All three of you realize of course," Dumbledore said. "That in the past few hours you have broken about a dozen school rules."
Calvin, Harry, and Ron all hung their heads in shame as they stood before Dumbledore's desk, morning sunlight pouring through the windows.
"Therefore, it is only fitting," Dumbledore continued, "That you all receive special awards for services to the school!"
Calvin's jaw dropped and he exchanged a bewildered look with Harry and Ron, causing Dumbledore to smile warmly.
"Mr. Weasley," Dumbledore said, glancing at Ron. "I'd like to have a word with just Mr. Potter and Mr. Watterson alone for a moment."
Ron scowled and slowly stood up and walked toward the door, shooting Calvin and Harry one last annoyed look.
"First of all," Dumbledore began, turning his head to Calvin. "You must've shown true loyalty down in the chamber. Nothing but that could've called Fawkes to you."
He lifted a hand to stroke Fawkes, who was perched upon the left side of the desk, and nipped Dumbledore's finger affectionately.
Calvin blushed, remembering his little show about yelling for help and how soon after that, the phoenix had arrived.
"Honestly sir, I think it was more desperation than loyalty," Calvin said sheepishly.
Dumbledore smiled and stroked Fawkes again.
"Evidently, Fawkes didn't see it that way," he said with a smile.
Calvin glanced at Fawkes, and could've sworn that the majestic bird winked at him.
"I also want to applaud you on your quick thinking with the diary," Dumbledore said warmly. "Destroying it with that basilisk fang."
Calvin shrugged.
"Well," he said with a grin. "I am a misunderstood genius!"
Dumbledore simply chuckled.
"That is all for you, Mr. Watterson," he said. "Now I would like to just speak with Harry."
Calvin nodded and made his way to the door, waving at Harry, and exiting the office.
As he walked the halls, he couldn't help but smile. Sunlight was shining in through every window, the temperature was warmer, and the victims of the basilisk had been successfully unpetrified. It had been so long since there wasn't a constant aura of despair in the school, that Calvin had forgotten the mystical wonder the castle seemed to have when everything was safe.
As he made his way towards his dormitory however, he came across a rather peculiar sight.
"Keep up, Dobby," Lucius Malfoy said sternly as he walked through the empty corridor in Calvin's direction. At his feet was a rather odd creature with large pointy ears and great big bulbous eyes. The creature barely stood as tall as Lucius's knee, and was wearing nothing but a rag to cover his body.
"Sir…" the creature said in a shaky voice, staring up at Malfoy with a pleading look in his massive eyes. "Please…"
"Shut up, elf," Lucius said, glaring down at the creature.
Calvin couldn't help but gawk.
"What are you looking at?" Malfoy growled as he and the creature walked past Calvin.
Calvin just raised his hand to his chest in a "Who, me?" gesture, and spun around and kept walking down the hall, Malfoy glaring at him until Calvin finally left his sight.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Can you believe they're still giving us exams with the way things are right now?" Calvin groaned as he, Ginny, and Hobbes made their way to the great hall later that morning.
"Calvin, please," Ginny said, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. "You've been talking about this all morning!"
"Yeah," added Hobbes. "It's starting to make my tail curl."
"I'm serious!" Calvin exclaimed. "People could be traumatized, and they're giving exams!"
"That's your reasoning? That people could be traumatized?" Hobbes asked incredulously. "Believe me Calvin, if anyone was so mentally scarred that they wouldn't be able to do exams, I guarantee that they would've been sent home already."
"Yeah but what abou- OOMPH!"
Ginny had grabbed the back of Calvin's robe to prevent him from moving any further, as this topic had gotten him so heated that he seemed to have forgotten to pay attention to his surroundings, and was about to walk straight into a wall.
"Ah," Calvin said matter of factly as he regained his balance and saw what he had almost done. "Thanks,"
"Anytime," Ginny said, rolling her eyes. "The great hall is that way, dummy."
She pointed down the corridor to the left.
"Of course," Calvin said sheepishly. "Uh… let's go then."
The three spent the rest of their journey arguing about more random things before finally reaching the great hall.
"I'm telling you," Calvin exclaimed as he pushed open the massive doors to the great hall. "In an all out war between muggles and wizards, muggles would totally win because- what the…"
The three simply stood there for a second stunned at what they saw in the great hall.
"Y'know," Calvin began, "I've accidentally worn my pajamas to school before, but I've never been the only one to be wearing normal clothes."
Everyone who sat in the great hall had seemed to have chosen to not get dressed that morning. Messy hair and plaid flannel pajamas in all sorts of colors were everywhere Calvin looked.
"You accidentally wore your pajamas to school once?" Ginny asked, giving Calvin an odd look.
"Oh yeah," Calvin said, waving away the question. "Happens to most muggles at least once in their lifetimes."
"No it doesn't," Hobbes whispered, leaning down to the side of Ginny's head. "Calvin's just a special case."
"I heard that, fuzz face!" Calvin exclaimed, glaring at Hobbes.
Ginny just giggled, enjoying their banter.
"Morning, gents!" said Calvin with a grin as he, Hobbes, and Ginny sat down in a seat across from Harry, Ron, and the recently unpetrified Hermione. "All right there, 'Mione?"
"Please don't call me that," Hermione said, rolling her eyes.
"Fine by me, Hermy!"
The rest of the feast was filled with surprises. Hagrid had walked into the hall a few minutes after Calvin had sat down, and given him such a crushing hug that Calvin could swear that he felt several of his ribs snap. Even better than that, as the feast was about to end, Professor McGonagall announced that as a school treat, exams had been cancelled, causing Calvin to do a sort of deranged happy dance in the middle of the aisle between tables and making people stare at him like he was mad.
After the feast, there was only a few weeks of school left, which were spent enjoying the warm weather of summer, as the cancelled exams had left the teachers with nothing to teach their classes. Thus, the castle was stress free.
Calvin was also pleased to hear that Lucius Malfoy had lost his position as a school governor, and was even more pleased to see Draco Malfoy sulking around the school because of it.
"How's the family, rodent man?" Calvin exclaimed with a smirk as he and Hobbes passed through him in the halls one sunny afternoon.
"Why you little-" Draco looked like he was ready to kill.
He lunged at Calvin but was stopped in midair when Hobbes reached out a paw and caught him by his shirt collar, holding him so that he and Hobbes faced each other.
"Unhand me this instant!" Draco exclaimed angrily, struggling in Hobbes's grip.
"Or what?" Hobbes asked, an evil grin forming on his face.
"I'll uh…" Draco trailed off, and turned his head to his two ape-like bodyguards, a nervous look on his face. "Crabbe, Goyle, do something!"
Unfortunately for Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were too busy gawking at Hobbes to do anything at that moment.
"Not so high and mighty now, are we Mr. Pureblood?" Calvin asked with a chuckle.
"My father will hear about this!" Draco shouted, struggling against Hobbes's grip even more.
"What's he going to do?" Calvin asked, letting out a maniacal laugh. "He was sacked, remember?"
Malfoy turned a deep shade of purple and began to kick at Hobbes, a homicidal look on his face.
All the commotion had caused a crowd to form around the boys and tiger, much to Calvin's glee and Draco's dismay.
"Clear off!" Draco bellowed, glaring at the crowd as he continued to try to wrestle out of Hobbes's grip. "My father…"
"Watterson!" a familiar voice shouted from down the hall.
Calvin swore as he turned to the sound and saw an incredulous looking Professor McGonagall frantically pushing her way through the crowd and into the clearing.
"Watterson, what on earth are you doing?" McGonagall asked, staring dumbfounded at Hobbes, who was now shaking Draco around like a maraca and chuckling.
"Well Professor," Calvin said innocently, coming up with an explanation. "I just asked Draco here how his family was doing, and he tried to attack me, so Hobbes here is just defending me!"
Hobbes didn't even look at McGonagall but simply nodded in agreement as he began to spin Draco around like a baton.
"Put the boy down, Hobbes," McGonagall said sternly, shaking her head at the tiger.
Hobbes sighed in disappointment and let go of Draco, who fell to the floor in a heap.
McGonagall then turned to the crowd.
"Can any of you vouch for Watterson's story?" She asked the crowd of students.
As Calvin's story wasn't exactly wrong, the crowd let out some murmurs of "Yeah," and "Uh-huh."
McGonagall sighed and turned back to Calvin.
"As I have no evidence that your story was incorrect," she began, "And that Malfoy is er… occupied right now…" she gestured to Draco, who was currently vomiting out the window. "...I can not punish you, but I must impress on both of you that torture is not an appropriate way to respond to such situations!"
Calvin and Hobbes just nodded along as she spoke, but as soon as she left, they burst into laughter.
"Did you see his face?" Calvin laughed as he and Hobbes made their way out onto the castle yard.
"How could I not?" Hobbes chuckled. "I was staring at him the whole time!"
"Oh man that was worth it!" added Calvin with a snicker.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
The month went by quickly, and before Calvin knew it, the day the Hogwarts express would take them back to London had come.
"Some year, huh?" Calvin asked as he, Hobbes, and Ginny carried their trunks down the path to the train station from the carriages.
"You could say that," Hobbes said, rolling his eyes. "Having multiple people almost die does tend to make for 'some year.'"
Ginny snickered and shook her head.
"How do you think they got those carriages to pull themselves anyway?" Calvin asked as he dragged his trunk onto the train.
"Magic," Ginny said with a chuckle. "I thought we'd been over this already."
"Well no duh it's magic!" Calvin exclaimed, raising his arms. "But how? What spell?"
"It's not a spell," said a dreamy voice from behind them. "There's real creatures pulling them."
Calvin jumped, startled, and whipped around to where he heard the voice.
Standing there in the train aisle behind them was a rather peculiar looking girl. She had long wispy blonde hair that was messily tied back, was wearing a red and blue striped sweater with pink polka dots scattered on it at random, and was wearing a skirt that seemed to be made out of some kind of reptile skin. The weirdest part about her however, was not what she was wearing, but the look in her eyes that made her seem like she was in her own world.
"Uh… right," Calvin said, raising an eyebrow. "And who exactly are you?"
"Luna Lovegood," the girl said sleepily. "Enchanted to meet you."
Calvin glanced at Ginny, who looked just as confused as him.
"Well um, nice to meet you too, Luna," Calvin said cautiously, slowly reaching out a hand for her to shake.
"Oh I don't shake hands," Luna said, glancing at Calvin's outstretched hand quickly. "That's how wrackspurts get spread."
Calvin raised his eyebrow even higher, if that was possible, and slowly retracted his hand.
"Well I think we should get going," Calvin said nervously, gesturing for Hobbes and Ginny to get moving. "We have... um… very important things to discuss."
"See you on the other side," said Luna with a lazy, over exaggerated wave.
"You too," Calvin said nervously. "I think."
And so they walked off.
"Does Hogwarts have rules against drugs?" Calvin asked, glancing at Ginny.
"What are drugs?" Ginny asked curiously.
"Never mind."
"Ginny, Calvin, Hobbes, over here!" a voice to their side called.
The two kids and the tiger turned toward the voice to see Ron leaning out of a compartment and gesturing for them to come in.
"Salutations," Calvin said with a grin as he entered the compartment, seeing that the twins, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already sitting there.
"Watterson!" the twins chorused joyfully.
Calvin chuckled and sat down across from them. Ginny and Hobbes followed him and sat down on either side of him.
"Some year, huh?" Harry asked the group as the train lurched and began to slowly move away from the station.
"Hey, that's what I said!" Calvin exclaimed.
"Anyone up for a game of exploding snap?" asked one of the twins.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
The ride back to London was great fun. The Weasley twins taught him how to play "Exploding Snap," a wizarding card game in which each player had a hand of cards, which they would lay out. If there were any two matching cards, you would have to tap both of them with your wand as fast as possible. If you do it in time, you earn a point. If you fail to do so, the cards literally blow up in your face.
"Deal me," Calvin said with a mischievous grin as he watched the twins shuffle
"With pleasure," said one of them.
They handed Calvin his cards, who promptly laid them out. Seeing two matching cards, he raised his wand and went to tap it on said cards, but he accidentally hit his wand on the compartment wall, a fatal error.
Seeing that he was in trouble, he immediately scooped up the two cards, stood up, and flung them out the compartment door.
"GRENADE!" He called out into the aisle before slamming the door closed. A moment later, a muffled boom and a scream echoed from outside the compartment.
Calvin burst into laughter and sat back down.
"I wish you would stop doing that," Hermione said bossily, looking up from the book she was reading. "It's not very nice, you know."
"Okay mom," Calvin exclaimed, crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at her, causing Ron to snicker.
Hermione simply scowled and went back to her book.
"Ginny," Harry said suddenly, looking up from the window which he had been staring out of for most of the train ride so far. "This is sort of off topic, but I'm curious. After you came to tell us something in the great hall last month, Percy said you saw him doing something that he told you not to mention to anyone. What was he doing?"
Ginny began to smirk and the whole compartment went silent, eager to hear what she had to say.
"Oh, that," she said with a giggle. "Percy has a girlfriend!"
Ron, who had just taken a big sip of pumpkin juice, promptly spit it all over his lap.
"Percy got a girlfriend?" Ron exclaimed, his jaw dropping. "That stiff?"
Ginny nodded quickly, still smirking.
"Penelope Clearwater," she said. "I walked in on them having a rather intense snog session in an empty classroom."
The twins and Calvin exchanged evil grins.
"You guys won't make fun of him, will you?" Ginny asked.
"Oh no," said Fred, an evil grin plastered across his face.
"Wouldn't dream of it," added George, raising his eyebrows and smirking.
"Of course not," Calvin said, rubbing his hands together and doing his signature triangular smile.
"Oh no," Hobbes groaned.
"If you'll excuse me," Calvin said with a smirk, "Nature is calling."
He stood up and exited the compartment, shutting the door behind him.
"Oh PERCYYYYYYY!" came Calvin's muffled voice from just outside the compartment.
Hobbes simply shook his head while the twins burst into laughter.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"That was quite the chase you gave Percy," Ginny said, dumbfounded as she, Calvin, and Hobbes made their way off the train, followed by the twins, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Calvin shrugged.
"I've had better," he said. "I once led my mom on a run around the neighborhood in the snow in an attempt to avoid going to school."
"I remember that," said Hobbes with a chuckle. "Her screams of rage woke up half the neighborhood."
"Still," Ginny said. "It was quite impressive to see Percy lunge at you like a wild cat."
"His form was all off," Hobbes said matter of factly. "If one were to pounce like that continuously, it could result in torn shoulder muscles."
"Why am I not surprised that you're an expert in pouncing technique," Ginny said, shaking her head and chuckling.
"Because you've seen him do it to me far too many times this year," Calvin grumbled, glaring at Hobbes.
Ginny opened her mouth to say something but was interrupted when a large round woman with identical red hair to her ran over and pulled her into a crushing hug. Calvin figured this must've been her mom.
"Ginny!" the woman exclaimed, letting go of Ginny, who fell into a coughing fit. "I know we met you after you escaped that… place… but I need to know, are you okay?"
"I'm fine mum!" Ginny coughed.
The woman sighed in relief and then turned to look down at Calvin and Hobbes, who were now standing sort of awkwardly, watching the situation.
"You two must be Calvin, and um… Hobbes," she smiled warmly at Calvin, but gave Hobbes a nervous look.
Hobbes simply gave her a goofy grin, which seemed to reassure her.
"My husband and I have heard all about you two from Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, still smiling at Calvin.
Calvin noticed Ginny blush out of the corner of his eye.
"We also heard what you did to help save her this year," Mrs. Weasley continued. "And well…"
She stopped speaking and immediately pulled Calvin into a hug.
"Woah!" Calvin exclaimed, startled.
"Thank you," Mrs. Weasley said sincerely. "For helping to save my little girl."
Ginny buried her face in her hands.
"Um…" Calvin began, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly as Mrs. Weasley finally let him go. "No sweat,"
"I just wanted to say that both you and Hobbes are welcome to come visit our family for the last few weeks of the summer," Mrs. Weasley said happily. "No time before that though, we have some things planned!"
Calvin glanced at Ginny, who smiled at him and shrugged.
"Yeah, okay!" Calvin exclaimed with a grin, turning back to Mrs. Weasley. "That would be sick!"
Mrs. Weasley looked slightly confused at the context in which Calvin used the word "sick" but shrugged it off.
"Excellent," she said with a wide smile. "We will send an owl to your parents this summer to let them know and make plans."
And with that, Mrs. Weasley left to go greet her other children.
"Fantastic!" Ginny exclaimed as she, Calvin, and Hobbes made their way to the barrier. "You're coming to visit, oh I can't wait to show you everything!"
"I'm excited," Calvin said, smiling at her.
"How do you think your dad will take the owl post?" Hobbes asked.
"Oh he'll figure it out," Calvin said with a smirk.
And with that, Calvin ran through the barrier, feeling the happiest he'd ever been.
A/N: So that's a wrap, Calvin's first year at Hogwarts is done! It was a bit of a shorter chapter than usual, but that's due to the fact that it was more of a wrap up than anything really to add to the plot. As always, leave your thoughts and suggestions for the story in a review. Every time I get a review I do a happy dance! I will try to get the first chapter of Calvin's next year up next Monday on this same story. Speaking of which, I'm going to try to upload a chapter every week, Monday mostly. Also, I want to thank everyone who has stuck with this story, and I am excited to continue it. Peace out!
