Note: I apologize for keeping everyone waiting for, crap 12 years. Life got weird and difficult and then there just wasn't the inspiration to keep going.
I'm back, and I plan on continuing and finishing the Harry Potter stories I began. So, please accept my apologies, and thank you for reading.
I hope you enjoy what I have planned for Calligenia. Her story is one that I started prior to JK Rowling releasing any of the extras she has since. There wasn't The Cursed Child. Fantastic Beasts was still just one of Harry's textbooks. None of that will come into play in this story. It is simply based on the world we fell in love with through the original seven books. Her story will continue past the first six books, there may be some changes that are necessary to the narrative, but I do hope you will forgive me that.
Chapter 6: Second Year
Returning to Hogwarts was filling Calli with dread. She'd sent Dobby to find Harry, to warn him and barring his consent to sit Second Year out, find any means to stop him from returning. Perhaps if Harry Potter wasn't in residence, her uncle would stop the plan he put in motion.
Unfortunately, Harry was successful in making Hogwarts his home and he refused. Even Dobby holding his mail, making him question whether his own friends missed him, didn't work. Poor Dobby had to create trouble in an already troubled home. Trouble she'd hoped would keep him in his uncle's home, even if it was like prison.
She hadn't taken into account the loyalty of his friends. Ron Weasley and his twin brothers organized a great escape. Dobby informed her, and they made the decision to prevent him from making the train back to school. Dobby blocked Platform 9 ¾ . Instead of giving up, Harry had been trapped with Ron and they chose to make their own way to school.
Word spread before the sorting was complete. The flying car, Calli nearly groaned out loud, met the Whomping Willow. The heroic duo had made it to Hogwarts after all. When her Head of House in his yards of black and buttons in clear vexation, she knew that they had failed again. No hope for expulsion. No matter how hard she tried to keep this school safe, nothing worked.
She set Dobby a final task. Hurt Harry just enough to get him sent home. Or to St. Mungo's. Some place not Hogwarts. He was the key. Something about Harry was causing this, but she didn't know what.
It didn't help that anytime Calli found herself within feet of Harry she felt wrong. Strange and uncomfortable, knots formed in her stomach, and that strange burning in her veins kicked in. Stronger than when she'd been near Quirrell. What was it about Harry Potter that scared her? Maybe her uncle's belief that he could replace Voldemort was true?
She watched as Harry struggled with the attacks that Filch's cat and Muggleborns were enduring. Even when Dobby's attempts during the Quiddich game failed, he was focused on figuring it out. When Lockhart, the most useless teacher she'd ever met, announced the defense demonstration with her own Head of House assisting she'd assumed it would end badly. She hadn't a clue that that one afternoon would make Harry Potter as feared as she was.
Watching Professor Snape knock Lockhart silly was well worth the cost of being surrounded by undertrained witches and wizards about to be forced to duel for the crowd. Then her darling cousin and Harry took their places. Seeing the fear on Draco's face when Harry called the snake off was even better. She couldn't understand why the others were so upset. Harry had clearly tried to get the snake to back off. He'd told it so clearly that even a two year old would understand. Then Snape, while Draco stood useless as usual, made the snake disappear. No harm, no foul.
She listened to the mutterings. Parseltongue. The ability to speak to and understand snakes. Everyone was feeling incredibly scared of a boy who'd done nothing except stop a snake from attacking himself and others. So what if he could speak to snakes? Merlin's beard, it's not like he was shooting sparks out of his eyes.
Calli realized that she must be able to as well. She'd understood Harry perfectly. So had the snake. Chalk it up to one more thing that made her different from her peers. She could empathize with Harry, as she watched the days pass and more people steer clear of him. They kept their distance from her as well, and for the mere crime of her parentage. She wished she could tell him it would pass, but her isolation hadn't.
She started to investigate how rare being a Parseltongue really was, and what she found wasn't comforting. Salazar Slytherin had been one, it was the reason their house animal was a serpent. It could be theorized that his heirs would be more likely to be one as well, but try as she might, she couldn't find a link between her family lines and his. Black and Lestrange, neither intersected with Slytherin. Not even throughout the intermarriages, or when they branched out to include fresh blood. So why was she one? And Harry, what made him have this rare "gift"?
Severus kept an eye on Potter and Calli. Potter had a way of inviting trouble. Finding Filch's cat, lurking around missing meals. Then came the glittering fool, Lockhart's brilliant idea of teaching defensive magic to children. Calli, he'd noticed during the duel between Draco and Potter, had followed whatever it was that Potter said in Parseltongue and was nodding her agreement. Clearly there were two Parseltongue students in Third Year.
He watched as Potter became as shunned by his classmates as Calli had been from her first day. Only his two cohorts stayed by his side, more than Severus could say for Calli. Even her own cousin kept clear of her path. Any satisfaction he expected from Potter being seen as a dangerous student didn't come. It was too close to how he'd felt in the past. And it brought him full circle back to thoughts of Calli Lestrange.
She dealt with the same whispers and innuendo. The terrified looks, the wide berth they all kept. Instead of torturing her, she held her head high and feigned indifference. It had to be a front, Severus thought, no teenager could possibly feel nothing about being kept apart from her peers.
CHRISTMAS BREAK
Learning that Draco planned to stay at school over the holiday break made the decision to stay simple for her. Instead of pretending that they were a warm, loving family who spent far too much money to maintain their facade, she could stay at the school and have peace.
Prior to break, some weeks before actually, she had witnessed the trio of Potter and friends steal from Potion's class. She was curious. Granger tended to stay on the straight and narrow, so why would she chance it? Then she stayed for the break as well.
After the Christmas feast, Calli watched as they snuck into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Good on them if they could stand that poor ghost's issues. Clearly they were doing something illicit. Shrugging she realized that if they were caught her curiosity would be satisfied, and the likelihood of that was high given their past trials.
Sitting in the common room, reading by the fireplace she barely noticed when Draco and his two cronies entered. Then she felt it. Something she only felt near Harry. That wrongness, the knots in her stomach, she glanced up and saw no one aside from her cousin and his 'friends'. She focused on the two boys with Draco. Why were their images flickering? Keeping her eyes on them, she nearly gasped when she realized they were Harry and Ron. Somehow taking on the bodies of Draco's pals. Contemplating how it was accomplished took a back seat to what they were doing in their common room.
Calli listened and nearly chuckled. They were interrogating Draco. Did they honestly think her moronic cousin would be the source of this mess? He could barely get out of his bed without help from house-elves. Spoiled brat. He was telling them about the Chamber being opened before and how he hoped Granger would die. For Merlin's sake, Draco, she thought. Why not try harder to be an ass?
As they two ran from the room, their disguises failing subtly, Calli focused on how they'd managed to become Crabb and Goyle. She knew that glamours existed, but this was too full of a change. That left Polyjuice potion. She'd read about it in her independent studies over the summer. The only good part of being part of a family of dark wizards was having access to books that other people didn't. So that's what they were stealing from potions. Ingredients to make such a complex potion, and the timeline worked. It took some time for it to mature. Where was Hermione, she wondered?
Christmas break ended and she found out where Hermione had been. The hospital wing. Her transformation hadn't gone as smoothly as the boys apparently. Calli had suspected that she'd stayed away simply because she was the brains behind the operation. Never would she have suspected such a clever witch to be brought low by her own potion.
The attacks continued. Lockhart, a braggart Draco should be envious of, continued his nonsense that he could find the culprit. Calli rolled her eyes at the thought. He was lucky he could find his way through doorways without a map and aid to lift his massive ego.
The only thing more confusing to her than why anyone would care to listen to his waffle, as she looked around at the cupids shooting confetti over the breakfast table, was why anyone found Gilderoy Lockhart attractive. This pompous, grinning buffoon was less useful as a teacher than the confetti that littered the food. And yet, her classmates found him amazing. Ugh.
Screw Muggleborn intolerance, she thought as she scraped the confetti from a slice of toast. Let's take up stupidity and vapidness intolerance.
The shock came when Hermione was petrified. Hagrid, the kindly half-giant Keeper of the Keys, was arrested. Why anyone would believe that Hagrid, that sweet man would be the cause of this mess was beyond her. Dumbledore being forced out was another blow. Losing Hagrid and Dumbledore's presence made the school feel dark. So it came with little surprise when someone was taken into the Chamber. Ginny Weasley, the youngest of the Weasley clan.
Locked in their dorms, Calli wondered if Dumbledore's presence would have prevented any of the current mess. Her uncle, she knew from letters from her aunt, was instrumental in having him removed from his post. Could a wizard known for such greatness have stopped whatever horrors her uncle had set in motion? Clearly even he hadn't seen the future as clear as Calli had. Then again, she'd been privy to insider information.
She retired to her bed and pulled the curtains closed. Creating a free floating ball of light so she could read without being disturbed. Being trapped with no other alternative, she tried to keep her mind off of Ginny Weasley and whatever horrors she was dealing with somewhere hidden in this school. Hoping the morning would bring good news for a change, she focused on her book.
Only hours into her reading, she felt the now familiar burning in her veins. Forcing herself to remain calm and quiet through the onslaught of pain, she wondered what this pain more intense than before could portend. It lasted for what felt like an eternity. And then, as fast as it hit her, it was gone.
She didn't have to wait long to learn that once again Harry had prevailed. Ginny had been rescued, even as rumors swirled that she'd played a larger part in the story than just victim. Dear Merlin, had her uncle used a Weasley to unleash the horrors of his plans? Lockhart was being removed to St. Mungo's for his irreparable brain injury.
She learned that her uncle had stalked into the school demanding answers. Instead he'd lost Dobby to freedom. The elf had popped into her room before leaving, hugging her and saying goodbye. She wished him well on his new life. His servitude to her family had been unbearable to watch. Worse still when he would punish himself for a perceived wrongdoing. She'd miss him, but if anyone deserved freedom it was Dobby. Freedom from her family, what a wonderful gift.
Leaving for her aunt and uncle's house was bittersweet. Her uncle would be as insufferable as Draco. Her aunt would tut and agree. And darling Draco would rant and rave about Harry Potter and Dumbledore and all that wouldn't bow to his pale wonder. Exhausting before, without Dobby in residence, it would be even more unbearable. Thankfully, she had enough books and enough money to buy more.
The ride home was abuzz with gossip. Ginny Weasley. The Chamber. Harry Potter. All of it rehashed over and over.
Severus was concerned. Twice now Potter had saved the day. Both times had been attempts by the Dark Lord to resurrect himself. Following Dumbledore's request to keep the boy safe was proving nearly a full-time job. For once he hadn't been able to spare a thought for Calli. He wondered when the Dark Lord's plans would bear fruit. He would rise again and there would be a horrifying reckoning for anyone deemed disloyal. His mark, long dormant, burned from memory. He feared when it would be visible and the burn was real.