The group was frozen. They stood, staring at the spot in the trees where the girl had disappeared, bright red tail feathers the last they saw. None of them spoke, but merely stood in the gathering snow, watching, waiting. Waiting for the beautiful phoenix to come bursting out of the trees, turn back into the dark haired beautiful girl, smiling at them, apologizing for leaving. But they soon realized, that that was not going to happen, she was not going to turn around and rush back to them, arms open, because lets face it, that just isn't Callie's way. Another figure joined their silent group, tall, brooding. Dumbledore, finally shaken from his thoughts, turned to the man, who nodded once and took off, black cloak billowing out behind him. The group watched again as the man cleared the gates, and disappeared with the smallest of pops.

"Professor? What just happened?"

The group turned to fix their eyes on Hermione, who was staring apprehensively at all of them, scared that her outburst may have warranted some kind of explosion of emotions. Dumbledore's blue eyes gazed into her own, for once, not having their usual twinkle, that little spark that made him seem so much younger than he really was.

"What just happened, Miss Granger, is we just gave Voldemort means to destroy the world."

The group looked at him in surprise. Harry's mouth was open slightly, and Ron looked like he had been clubbed.

Draco Malfoy, on the other hand, had decided this was all some big joke. Putting his usual smirk in place, he cleared his throat, every eye turned to him. With his usual sneering drawl, he scoffed at Dumbledore,

"Do you mean to tell me, sir, that one overly emotion girl is the one thing that the Dark Lord needs to full fill his plan? Did it ever cross your mind that, maybe, if that was true, he would have already had her on his side?"

Dumbledore was frowning slightly, looking at Eric and Dakota. Dakota gave the smallest of shakes with his head, while Eric remained stoic.

"Ah, well, Mr. Malfoy, Voldemort-" there was a collective wince that went through some of the students. "As I was saying, Voldemort already had her on his side. But once again, Tom's in ability to see the greatest power of all thwarted him once more."

Draco rolled his eyes,

"Dear God, not love again! No offense, ah, professor, but a mere emotion is not capable of this."

Dumbledore looked steadily at Draco,

"Oh, Mr. Malfoy, you'll find it is. You'll find no strength like the one of someone guarding a broken heart. But I think we should be getting back, there are many curious students dressed in the finest waiting for their dance to continue. Eric, a word please."

The group exchanged curious looks before walking off through the snow.

"Ah, Eric, would you care to indulge what happened?"

Eric, shrugging, relayed the past events, watching in annoyance as Dumbledore's stern look got harder and harder.

"Well, Eric, I do believe you have succeeded in touching a nerve with that girl, a feat, mind you, that is rather fatal. Well come, we have work to do, she will be there any minute now, and we must get her back as soon as possible."

Dumbledore took off across the grounds, but stopped when Eric scoffed, he turned to see the young man sneering.

"What makes you think I want to help her? She's done nothing but hurt us since we met her. She cares for no one but herself, always on guard, always on the offensive, yet defensive at the same time. The number of times that girl has opened up is negative! Why, Dumbledore, should I help her when she will only throw it back in my face?"

Dumbledore stared at the boy, lost for words for a moment.

"Did it ever cross your mind, Eric, that she opened up, and none of you were brave enough to look. That she would have let you in if she thought you could bare to see how broken and scarred she truly is? Tell me, did it ever cross your mind that, from a young age, she was taught that to love was a weakness, then lived a thousand heartaches, and then, was still willing to acknowledge friendship in those she could find it in? You are very mistaken when you say Callie did not love you, because she did, with all that is left of her heart, but she pushed you away, because she knew that she would never be able to love any of you as much as she wanted to and she couldn't let you live through the kind of pain she did. Did you ever think of that?"

Dumbledore stared, coldly, at the boy who was staring right back. They locked eyes for mere seconds before Eric dropped his fiery gaze.

"She won't come back Dumbledore, we'll never have her fully, because those pieces of her heart are still with him. He will take them to the grave, and what then, how will she live when they are gone?"

Dumbledore nodded sadly,

"If I know Callie, I do not think she plans on surviving that war."

Eric nodded, and the two set off through the snow, towards the dimly lit castle, there was much work to be done.

Callie was numb, everywhere, her mind, her body. She twisted in the air, trying to releave some stress, and yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that gripped her. She should have been happy, she was finally free, free to go back home. But it wasn't home anymore, it wasn't where she wanted to be at the end of a long day, it wasn't where she wanted to go to relax. And it definitely wasn't where she would go for comfort.

"Ugh!"

She dove towards the ground, taking escape in the moments of exiliration she got from watching the ground slowly rise to meet her head on, slowing slightly, she morphed, tumbling on the ground and rolling, until finally, she was flat out of her back, slightly bruised and scraped, but over fine.

She stared up at the twinkling stars, and, much to her displeasure, the thought, what is Selena doing right now? Crossed her mind. She growled and sat up. What was wrong with her? No attachments, that was a rule she had been able to live by for so long, and now, a bunch of people had completely messed her up.

She jumped up as the sound of soft feet of snow reached her ears, scanning the dark trees, she found herself staring into two large purple eyes. Sighing, she made a clicking noise, and Midnight bounded across the snow to her side. She watched the cat wind its way around her legs, rubbing it's snow covered head against her shins. Callie sat back down, and Mimi jumped into her lap, circling, and then settling down, staring up at Callie with large curious eyes.

"Don't look at me like that! You know perfectly well what happened!"

Mimi seemed to give her a slightly reproachful look, and then nestled her head down, her bright eyes closing. Callie absentmindedly stroked the black fur, not noticing the purring of the black cat.

Callie's eyes looked over the vast expanse of mountain, forest, and field in front of her, 22 more miles, and she would be at the edge of the manor, her first home. Sighing, she got up, dumping Mimi on the ground, who glared slightly, and watched her pacing owner with a twitching tail.

"What the hell am I suppose to do!" Callie nearly yelled, "I can't go back! I don't want to go back! But if I go back to him, well, then I'll be stuck with him for the rest of my extremely painful, pathetic life. Really, I have no idea why he obsesses over living forever, death seems like a pretty nice escape right around now."

Mimi hissed slightly, and Callie threw her a dirty look,

"You can't seriously blame me for what happened, his fault intirely! If he could have just left me alone, all of them! Why did they have to come with me anyway? I never wanted them with me!"

Mimi, stretching, walked over to her owner and sat at her feet, gazing out over the landscape,

"What do you think Mimi?"

The cat seemed to shrug, and then, with a determined look, took off north, pointing with her nose.

"Good, that was my choice to."

And as Callie took off into the sky, her dark brown eyes flashed red, and old part of her being taking over, the good part giving up without so much as s struggle. Callie was gone, pushed into the corners of her own mind, and she was replaced with an evil, dark, brooding girl, who guarded her heartbreak with a hard exterior.

**Okay:

So this is chapter 16 or 17 I think. I've been getting some really nice reviews from Musik Drache, you are completely awesome! Thanks for the reviews. But just to give a little background on Callie, cause there seems to be some confusion:

She is not some troubled soul, well she is, but not in the sense that she wants someone to come save her from her broken hearted misery. She is perfectly fine with being the bad person, because, growing up she was. It wasn't until she was 11 years old she met Dumbledore, and he converted her, or persuaded her more like, into becoming one of the good guys. But she always slips, because she finds it easier to be bad than good. So, that's callie. And I would like to apologize for killing carter, but I couldn't think of what to do with him… Anyway, keep reviewing please!

Yours forever,

Trickstersqueen1