"Calvin!" Calvin's mom exclaimed, startled at his sudden outburst. "We don't even know these people, we're a bit concerned with letting you spend the rest of the summer at some stranger's house!"
"You let me go to Hogwarts!" Calvin shouted, raising his arms in frustration. "What's the diff?"
"To be completely honest," Calvin's dad said, folding up his newspaper and setting it down on the table in front of him. "We're not sure we want you going back to that school. Especially after the letter we received from the headmaster telling us what you did at the end of the year!"
Calvin's jaw dropped.
"I helped save someone's life!" he yelled incredulously, slamming his fist down on the kitchen table where his dad sat, causing the vase that resided in the middle of the table to nearly tip over.
"While that may be," Calvin's dad said, struggling to maintain a steady voice. "There should be no reason a student would have to risk their life to save another's in a school! For Pete's sake, you go to school to learn!"
"And in some cases, that means learning by doing!" Calvin exclaimed.
"Calvin," Calvin's dad said, gritting his teeth and shutting his eyes. "Your mother and I will not be putting you in mortal danger year after year by continuing to send you to that school. My decision is final, now sit down and eat."
Calvin glanced back and forth at both his parents, who were both staring at him sternly in a way that told him to not press the issue further. He shot them both a piercing look and spun around, stomping off and abandoning his dinner.
"Come on Hobbes," He grumbled as he reached the stairs.
Hobbes glared at Calvin's parents, though they couldn't see it, stood up from the table, and followed the boy up the stairs.
As soon as Calvin disappeared from his parents's line of sight, the vase that sat in the center of their kitchen table promptly exploded, causing his dad to jump, and his mom to let out a small shriek.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Who do they think they are?" Calvin said furiously as he and Hobbes entered his bedroom, slamming the door behind them. "I finally found a place where I feel like I'm not some damn weirdo that no one likes, and they want to take that away from me!"
He punched the air and a large crack appeared in his full body mirror.
"Careful!" Hobbes exclaimed, eyeing the now cracked and distorted mirror nervously. "I think your magic is going a little wild."
"Oh, ya think?" Calvin exclaimed sarcastically, and one of the pillows on his bed immediately shot off at Hobbes, as if kicked by an invisible person.
Hobbes ducked just in time as the pillow smacked into the bedroom door behind him, loose feathers flying everywhere.
"Watch it!" Hobbes said, annoyed. "That almost hit me!"
"Big deal!" Calvin yelled, causing the lightbulb in his desk lamp to shatter.
"Okay that's it," Hobbes mumbled to himself before reaching out, grabbing Calvin's shoulders and spinning the boy around to face him.
"Hey- what the-" Calvin began.
"Listen to me!" Hobbes hissed in Calvin's face, quieting him down. "If you keep going on like this, you're going to destroy the house."
"Like I care-"
"Shut up!" Hobbes interrupted, causing Calvin to close his mouth once again. "If I were your parents, you destroying their things, unintentionally or not, would not give me incentive to let you go back to Hogwarts. It would make me think the place was making you destructive and violent. What you need to do is calm down and come up with a plan to get back to that school."
Hobbes felt Calvin relax in his arms and released his shoulders.
"You're right," Calvin said, sighing.
"Have I ever not been right?" Hobbes asked, chuckling.
"I plead the fifth." Calvin said matter of factly. "I need to send out a letter with Horus."
Horus was the name of the owl Calvin had received from his parents for his twelfth birthday. He was a strong tawny barn owl which Calvin had named for the egyptian god of the same name, who in egyptian mythology, was the god of the sky. Horus is often depicted as having the head of the falcon, and while Calvin's bird was an owl, he liked the name and felt that the meaning behind it suited his bird well enough.
Calvin spent the next 10 minutes writing a letter to Ginny.
Ginny,
My parents have gone insane! They don't want me to visit you guys like I'm supposed to, and on top of that, they're not going to let me go back to Hogwarts this year, they think it's too dangerous! I'm stuck and don't know what to do. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I'm desperate for anything at this point.
Sincerely,
Calvin Watterson, Boy of Destiny
Calvin spent the next few days sulking in his room with Hobbes, waiting for Horus to return. He only left for meals, the bathroom, and he didn't even use the television once, which his parents found quite alarming.
It wasn't until Saturday morning three days later when Calvin was awoken by a familiar tapping on his window. It was barely dawn when he heard it, shot up from his bed, jumped out in his pajamas and ran to the window, where he saw Horus standing outside, a letter clutched in his beak.
"Good job buddy," Calvin said as he let the owl in, beaming at the bird as it nuzzled his hand affectionately and dropped the letter on his desk. "Hey Hobbes!"
"Hmmpgh?" Hobbes grunted sleepily, slowly opening his eyes and glancing at Calvin. "Whazzup…?"
Calvin turned to Hobbes and held up the letter triumphantly as Horus made his way into his cage for a nap.
"A response!" Calvin exclaimed with a grin.
At this, Hobbes sat up, immediately looking more awake.
"What are you waiting for?" He asked excitedly, sliding out of the bed and stumbling over to Calvin. "Open it!"
Calvin tore the top off the envelope and pulled out the letter.
"Dear Calvin," He read aloud. "I'm sorry to hear about your predicament, that is very unfortunate. I told my dad and I think we've figured out a solution. Gather your things and stand by your fireplace with them at exactly 12am Monday morning. Best Regards, Ginny."
Calvin set the letter down on his desk and scratched his head.
"And I thought Dumbledore was cryptic," he said, glancing at Hobbes. "What do you make of that?"
"I think," Hobbes began, stroking his chin. "That we should do what Ginny says."
"Well duh," Calvin said with a shrug. "But what do you think she's planning to do with our fireplace?"
"I don't know, maybe she's going to come down our chimney like Santa Clause."
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Calvin and Hobbes spent the next two days in the bedroom packing in secret so that Calvin's parents wouldn't know they were up to something.
"Should I pack the night light?" Hobbes asked, holding up a small plastic bulb with a wall outlet plug on the end.
"Hobbes, we haven't used that thing in years!" Calvin exclaimed as he attempted to shove his toboggan into the already overstuffed trunk.
After dinner on Sunday night, Calvin and Hobbes waited in the bedroom wide awake. They didn't leave with their stuff until they were sure Calvin's parents were in their bedroom fast asleep.
"Careful," Calvin whispered as he crept slowly out of his bedroom, carrying his trunk, Hobbes behind him carrying the cage that held a sleeping Horus. "Don't want to wake them,"
"Could we at least turn a light on or something?"
"Do you WANT to get caught?"
"No, but it would be nice to know where the stairs were."
"Oh please," Calvin hissed mockingly. "I've memorized where the stairs are, don't even-WHOOP!"
Hobbes winced as several loud thuds echoed throughout the silent house, signaling that Calvin and his trunk had fallen down the stairs.
There was a moment of silence, and it wasn't until the two had silently agreed that by some miracle, Calvin's parents hadn't woken up, that Calvin spoke again.
"See?" Calvin whispered, groaning slightly in pain as he laid on the ground, his trunk next to him.. "They're right there."
Hobbes simply rolled his eyes and carefully tiptoed down the dark stairs.
After Hobbes helped Calvin up, the two made their ways to the dark living room where the fireplace was located.
"And now," Calvin whispered. "We wait."
After a good 20 minutes of sitting on the couch in the dark, Hobbes spoke up.
"What time is it?" he asked, glancing at Calvin.
Calvin lifted his arm so he could see his watch, and squinted at it in the dark.
"11:59," he said, glancing up at the fireplace. "Should be any minute n-"
Calvin was cut off as a quiet stone scraping sound began to emit from the fireplace.
Calvin and Hobbes watched in awe as their fireplace began to enlarge, manipulating the environment around it in order to fit. After 30 seconds or so, the fireplace had grown large enough for a tall adult to walk into and stand up comfortably.
"What do you think that's for?" Hobbes asked incredulously, staring slack jawed at the now massive fireplace.
"I don't know…" Calvin began. "Maybe it's a portal of some so-"
Calvin was interrupted by a loud FWOOSH, and a bright green light, both of which had come from the fireplace.
"Agh! What the-" Calvin exclaimed as he shielded his eyes from the light.
After a few seconds, the light dissipated and Calvin cracked his eyes open.
Standing in front of the fireplace, covered head to toe in soot, were Ron Weasley and the twins.
"Muggle decoration sure is something, eh Fred?" One of the twins asked the other, surveying the room with his eyes."
"You said it, George!" The other twin exclaimed. "Personally, all this 'technology' stuff gives me a headache!"
"Woah is that what they call a telly-vision?" Ron asked incredulously, gaping at the TV on the wall.
"Uh yeah," Calvin said, standing up from the couch and alerting the Weasley's of his presence.
"Watterson!" The twins chorused joyfully as they spotted Calvin.
"Hey guys," Calvin said, glancing between the three brothers, a shocked look on his face. "How did you…?"
He trailed off.
"Oh uh… Floo powder," Ron said awkwardly.
"Floo powder?" came Hobbes's voice from behind them.
The four boys turned to the voice and saw the top of Hobbes's head poking out from behind the couch.
"Oh for the love of-" Calvin groaned, rolling his eyes. "Get out here you big sissy!"
Hobbes sheepishly crawled out from behind the couch and made his way to the four boys.
"Floo powder is a way wizards travel," Ron began. "Through fireplaces. Quite convenient, really."
"And you can just go to any fireplace?" Calvin asked, many mischievous ideas forming in his head.
"Sort of," Ron said, scratching the back of his neck. "You have to be connected to the floo network, which is how it knows where to send you. Most Wizarding homes are connected to it, but you're not supposed to hook a muggle home up to it."
He said this last part embarrassedly.
"But," Ron continued. "Dad was able to find some loopholes and bend some rules for us to connect your house for one night after he heard what your parents were doing."
Calvin and Hobbes exchanged a puzzled look.
"Also, this is also practice for us," Ron said. "We have a feeling this won't be the last time we have to do this."
"Hurry it up Ronniekins!" exclaimed one of the twins.
"Yeah, we don't have all day you know!" the other one added.
Ron scowled and shook his head, and Calvin snickered.
"Anyway," Ron said. "This is the floo powder."
He held up a bag of what looked like ashy gray sand.
Calvin leaned down to look at it and accidentally inhaled a bit, causing him to sneeze.
Hobbes chuckled at this and Calvin shot him a glare.
"What you want to do," Ron continued, "Is take a handful of floo powder, step into the fireplace, and say very clearly where you want to go…"
Calvin noticed that Ron seemed to place extra importance on the fact that you need to speak clearly, almost as if he'd had some kind of bad experience with it before.
"Then," Ron continued. "You drop your handful of floo powder onto the ground of the fireplace, and you'll travel to the place you want to go. A bit of a warning though, it's a rather weird feeling."
"I'll demonstrate!" exclaimed one of the twins, reaching into the bag Ron held out and grabbing a handful of the "floo powder." After doing this, he skipped over to the fireplace and stepped in.
"The Burrow!" the twin exclaimed before dropping the powder onto the fireplace floor.
Calvin watched in shock as green fire magically rose from the fireplace, consuming the twin. As the fire died down, Calvin noticed that the twin was nowhere to be seen.
"He just killed himself!" Hobbes exclaimed incredulously.
"He's fine," Ron said quickly. "He's just been sent back home, though the transportation does look a bit violent, doesn't it?"
"My turn," Calvin said, grabbing a handful of the powder from the bag, grabbing his trunk and walking towards the fire.
"You're eager," Ron said, staring at Calvin with a somewhat surprised look on his face.
"Believe me," Calvin said. "I want to get out of here as soon as possible. If mom wakes up and sees all the soot you guys tracked onto the carpet, she's going to have a conniption fit."
And with that, he stepped into the fireplace.
"The Burrow!" He bellowed, before dropping his floo powder to the fireplace floor.
A/N: So I got the next chapter out WAYYYY earlier than I usually would. This is because I had forgotten that I am visiting family starting tomorrow until Sunday, and most likely not have time to work on a chapter all week. So I banged this one out in one day! Anyway, as always, favorite and follow, and leave a review if you have any suggestions or critiques for the story! Every time I get a review I proceed to jump up and down with happiness!
Spotify Playlist- Calvin and Hobbes Go To Hogwarts. Creator of the playlist should be j3400
