Calla

This time I felt good about things. I didn't think love was supposed to be miserable, though a lot of people seemed to think it should be. I guess being miserable makes things interesting but I'd rather be boring and happy. I told Hans that the next day and he just smiled dumbly at me like I was simple or something which rather confused me.

"What?" I asked him. "Am I not supposed to be happy?"

"No, nothing like that," Hans said. "But you're fooling yourself into thinking that people change. They don't. Not at the drop of a hat. You know nothing about this man and his past."

"I know enough," I sniffed. "He's not stupid, Hans. He knows that if he doesn't do something, he loses me."

"And then what? Do you think that's enough for him? Did you ever stop and wonder if losing you was a big loss to him?"

Now that stung. I seriously wanted to slap Hans for that. How dare he make me question my self-worth? I did enough of that on my own, thanks very much.

"What the fuck is your problem, mate? What's your issue? You don't even know the guy."

Hans seemed to realize he'd said the wrong thing and that it could quite possibly cost him his job. I suddenly realized I needed to stop with the boss-is-your-friend thing and man the fuck up and be a do-your-fucking-job-with-no-shit-or-else-you're-fucking-sacked boss.

"I'm sorry, that was out of line," he said stiffly. "But I just don't want to see him pull one over on you and you get hurt."

"What happens to me, happens to me, got it? If he does pull one over on me, it's my doing. I'm perfectly able of taking care of myself. You on the other hand have yet to restock the prenatal care section which I told you to do the other day," I said with my best scowl.

"The shipment didn't come in," Hans said with an icy glare.

"What do you mean the shipment didn't come in? Do you know those herbs are our top sellers? Do you know how many pregnant women there are around here? Lots! People depend on those herbs to take care of themselves!"

"It's beyond my control, Madam Bigsby."

"Beyond your control? Beyond your control? You can investigate it, can't you?"

"No disrespect intended but you're the one who orders the stock, not me. I haven't the slightest on where it even comes from. I'm here to stock the shelves and to take the money."

"Oh." I said, realizing what a twat I sounded like. "I'm sorry, Hans. I don't mean to be so...bitchy. I swear it's not that time of the month...I'm just stressed."

"I understand," Hans said with a small smile. I smiled back at him.

"I guess I should go figure out what the fuck is going on with my stock, huh?"

"There are alot of pregnant women in the village," Hans said in a mock-business tone. "It's our duty to supply them with what they need to take care of themselves."

"Right you are."

After a sufficient amount of rifling through the tremendous piles of inventory order forms and shipment statements, I was able to determine that the shipment had not in fact come in when it was supposed to and that we were almost out of all of our prenatal herbs and tincture mixes. No inventory at all meant no sales at all which was not good. It was supposed to have come three days beforehand, two days after I'd placed the initial order. It took me a while to find the copy of the order form I'd made but eventually, I found it in the pile of parchment under my desk. I told my self for the five millionth time that I really needed to get organized.

"This is no good," I muttered. Since I did not get the order like I was supposed to, there must've been some sort of mistake at headquarters in frigging Italy. If I wanted to straighten this out, I had to Floo Hum Tate in frigging Italy and International Flooing took for goddamn ever. I sighed,lit a fire in the fireplace there in the back office, tossed some Floo Powder in, stuck my head in and five minutes later, my arse was in England and my head was in Italy.

Sitting in my grandmother's receptionist office was my arch enemy, Elyse. She was sitting behind a desk with her nose buried in a magazine.

Now, I've got to say something about Elyse. She was a cunt in the worst sort of way and not to mention the sycophant from hell. She moved with my grandmother from England to Italy when she moved Headquarters. Her nose was stuck so far up Hum Tate's arse that they were almost conjoined twins. And Elyse hated me. Don't ask why, but from the first time she met me, she put a target on my head. Not that she was openly aggressive but she did her damned best to make my work life a living hell and I'd bet you five to nine she was behind me not getting my shipment on time.

"I need to see my grandmother," I said, I was trying to sound some what professional but the truth was the sight of the brunette bimbo really made me want to hurl. She was wearing bright pink robes, something I thought my grandmother would never approve of, and loads of carefully applied make up. Don't get me wrong, she was reasonably attractive but it looked like she was made of plastic. She didn't look real.

"Oh, it's you," Elyse said dully when she finally looked up from her magazine. "Madame Tate is rather busy. You'll have to try back later."

"Oh come off it. She's my grandmother. How do you know this isn't a family emergency?"

"Is it?" She raised a thin, drawn in eyebrow.

"It could be for all you know."

Elyse sighed with annoyance, stood up and entered my grandmother's office. I smiled smugly though she wasn't around to see it. Getting the best of her was the icing on top of one fuck up of a weekend. I was supposed to be relaxing and taking the piss was just as good if not better.

"Stupid cow," I said out loud just as Hum Tate came in.

"I beg your pardon?" Hum Tate asked in an apalled tone. From behind her, Elyse made a face. Immature girl.

"Oh, I wasn't talking to you, sorry Gran," I said with a wince. "I was cursing myself because I just realized I've gone and left my oven on."

"What's the problem, Calla? I'm busy."

"Yeah, Elyse told me. I just have a small problem. Some of my items didn't get shipped to me like they were supposed to and well, it's rather important that I get them soon because my stock is almost completely gone. It's the prenatal line that I always order on the twenty-eighth of the month."

"Oh, Calla, why didn't you say something sooner?" Hum Tate asked. "I told you, if there's a problem you need to report it immediately!"

"Well, I would've but I've only just realized. We can sit here and place the blame on me or we can do something about it."

My grandmother was pretty formidable and speaking to her like this under any other circumstance was likely to get me killed but when it came to her business, she was all about results. And this honestly was not my fault. Hum Tate realized this. Instead of chewing me out further, she turned to Elyse.

"Go pull last month's shipping orders from Hogsmeade, Miss Blackwell. I want to know what's happened to it and why it didn't make it."

"Please do, Miss Blackwell," I said sweetly.

"Calla," Hum Tate said with an edge of warning in her voice. She knew perfectly well about the animosity between myself and Elyse, she just chose to ignore it, but when it got in the way of business, she did care about it.

"Sorry," I muttered though inside I was weeping with joy at the look of pure hatred on Elyse's face when she looked at me again. God, that felt so good.

Hum Tate took a seat behind Elyse's desk and casually leaned back, something I hardly ever witnessed. I knew I was about to get some sort of talking to.

"Calla," she said once more, though her tone was much softer and just a tiny bit maternal. She placed her withered yet elegant brown hands on the desk of almost the same color of brown in front of her. Since I was just a wee bit stoned, I noticed this and it made my head spin slightly. "When is the last time you spoke to your mother?"

"I...haven't had the slightest. I've written her a few times."

"She's worried about you. She says you don't write often or ever come to see her since you left Hogwarts early. I think she thinks you're going through some sort of crisis."

"Merlin, I'm not about to off myself, I've just been busy, that's all. Running a shop isn't exactly a day at the beach."

"Well, I told her that and that didn't seem to satisfy her. So I casually mentioned that maybe you'd met a man," Hum Tate said. I nearly shit a brick. "She seemed to think that idea was completely ridiculous."

"Well, that's because it is," I managed to choke out. "Me? A man?"

"Right well, she also is under the impression that you like women."

"Why does everyone assume that?"

"Which I told her was completely stupid. You're a beautiful girl and quite frankly, I see the way you interact with my receptionist. No woman-loving woman would look at a girl as attractive as Miss Blackwell with as much disgust as you do," Hum Tate explained. "And besides that, I'm not blind."

"Pardon?"

"That week you took off because you were ill? Well, I decided to stop over personally to make a wellness check on my granddaughter." I held my breath because I knew exactly where this one was going. I was fucked. "And well...I'm rather ashamed of myself for this, but I peeked through your window to make sure you were home and there you were, in bed, asleep, with a man."

"Christ, Gran," I groaned. "You didn't tell Mum that did you?"

"Of course I didn't! I mean if you've hardly seen fit to introduce her to him in the first place, what business of mine to tell her? She's my daughter. I'm allowed to keep things from her." She gave me a big wink and I grinned back.

"So how come you didn't sack me?"

"I'll be honest, I thought about it. I was angry at first but then I remembered what it was like to be young. I figured it was probably just a fling and that you just needed to get it out of your system."

"God, you're a lot cooler than I gave you credit for," I said.

"Well that's why I insisted you hire someone. That way if you wanted to lounge around all day with a man, there would be someone to mind the shop. I'm not going to lose business. You're lucky you are my granddaughter. Anyone else would've been sacked."

"Right, and it won't happen again."

"I know it won't," Hum Tate said and then leaned forward slightly. She had a slight twinkle in her eye. Who knew my ice queen grandmother was a sucker for romance? "So, how and where did you meet him?"

"Why are you so curious?"

"You know, when I was a young lady, I never got along with my mother but my grandmother and I had a special bond. I could tell her things that I couldn't tell my mother and she understood when my mother didn't. I will always cherish that and wanted to have that with my granddaughter someday, but that never happened. I suppose it's my fault that I was never able to grow close to you."

"Ah, Gran, don't worry about it."

"No, but there's always still a chance. You're my only granddaughter, Calla. I want you to be able to talk to me."

"I do talk to you," I said. "I'm talking to you right now."

"No, I mean on a personal level. Business is business. So, where did you meet this man?"

I bit my lip. "I'm not sure that you'd approve."

"Try me."

"He was one of my teachers at Hogwarts. He's sort of the reason I left to begin with."

I couldn't read the expression on her face. I couldn't tell if she was surprised, shocked, angry or what. She had an incredible poker face.

"I see," she said. "How serious is it?"

"I'm not sure, actually. We sort of got into it the other day and had a major row. I tried to patch things up but it's sort of touch and go right now."

"Well," Hum Tate replied. "My only advice is to be careful. I'm not sure I'm keen on a man who consorts with his students."

"I'm not his student anymore."

"Which is also true but am I correct when I say that it started at school, while you were a student, regardless if it was sexual or not?"

"It did and it wasn't sexual until after I'd left."

"Still," Hum Tate shook her head. "Be careful. That's all I can really tell you."

At that moment, Elyse came back in, looking rather flustered and rather curious looking. I stiffened, realizing that maybe she'd just heard that whole conversation. It wasn't like she could use it against me as blackmail because Hum Tate knew everything but I still didn't like the cow knowing such things about me.

"I've figured out what went wrong, Madam." Elyse addressed Hum Tate. "The Hogsmeade shipment was sent to Hollshire instead."

"Aren't you in charge of addressing the shipments, Elyse?" I asked.

"Yes," she said slowly as she narrowed her eyes at me, daring me to say anything else. I kept my mouth shut, knowing it would give her satisfaction to get a reaction out of me. "I'm sorry Madam, it won't happen again."

"What can we do to fix this?" Hum Tate asked.

"Well, there's good news and bad news. The bad news is that our next harvest won't be until a week from now but since Hollshire received extra, I was able to contact them. Luckily they hadn't stocked yet and are preparing to send their extra inventory to Hogsmeade."

"Thank you, Miss Blackwell," Hum Tate said. Elyse might have been a huge bitch but I'll give her credit. She was an expert at smoothing things over.

"Yeah, thanks," I added because I actually was half way grateful. "I guess I'd better get back to the shop. Thank you again, Gran, Elyse."

Gran waved her fingers though Elyse said nothing. I didn't expect that she would. Some bitches would never cease to be bitches.

Kalinda

For the following days, I felt restless. I had an itch to draw, but I was avoiding doing so at all cost; not so much because of Pandora reminding me of Professor Bell, but because my visit to see my brother seemed to cause this dreadful need to draw her a million times. I simply refused to sketch her, which is not as simple as it sounds. Every time I passed the bookshelf on which Pandora rested, I felt my fingers twitch. Every time I entered my room or when my mind ran off, my eyes unconsciously turned to Pandora and thoughts of sketching her broke into my mind, and the twitching in my fingers seemed to increase and for some reason my skin felt like it would heat up. It was like I was going into withdrawal.

However, I could not allow myself to draw her obsessively to my hearts content, because I didn't know when that would be. I felt this frightful fear that I'd never be able to stop drawing her, because she was becoming this legendary or mythical figure that I was becoming unsure of ever existing in my life.

Drawing her, would not make her anymore real; would not prove that she had really existed in my life. More than that, it would only serve to make my longing for her worse. If I filled Pandora with sketches of Professor Bell, she would haunt me all the more. Every time I looked at the sketch, my heart would ache to the point that I would long to destroy Pandora to escape Amelia Bell, but in my heart of hearts, I'd never be able to bring myself to destroy something I created.

I knew this for a fact, because it had happened before. Hawthorne, the sketchbook I had for the second half of my fifth year and most of the summer after, most of its last pages were filled with sketches of my first. Before I started my sixth year, I bought a new sketchbook to replace it, though there were still several pages in Hawthorne that were blank. I named that sketchbook Apollo. The name changed after my first Potions class. Apollo I renamed Hades and guess who starred in more than half that book?

There are still many more sketches in Andaleeb of Snape, and even several of Professor Bell. Anytime I look through Hawthorne, Hades and Andaleeb, I wish to burn them until they're nothing but ashes, but I could never bring myself to actually do it. As painful as they can at times be, as nostalgically bitter-sweet as they make me feel... I could never do it. The actual thought of them disappearing make me feel ill.

However, keeping myself from sketching... I felt it akin to a drug addict going through withdrawal. It made me restless and sick. I couldn't eat, I could hardly even think. I felt as though I was slowly suffocating, or that I would burst in any moment. I tried to busy myself by doing other things, like gather all the school things I did not plan on keeping; or reorganizing the things on my shelves, and tidying my room. However, by the fourth day back home I was done with all that and beginning to seriously crack. I mean I kept reaching for my sketchbook and smacking my forehead for doing so.

I thought perhaps I should get out of the house, but I didn't take to walking around my neighborhood as I would usually do because that would only increase my desire to draw. So for several days, I took to going down to my local library.

When the weekend came, I was rather surprised to find that Henry came over for dinner one night. Actually more than surprised, I was annoyed. Not with Henry, but my mother. I felt like she was pushing into my life and I didn't much appreciate it, especially not as she seemed to be trying to play cupid or match-maker with me and Henry. It made for a bit of an awkward dinner, although Henry seemed rather amused.

However, things rather seemed to get boring again after Henry's visit. But at least my mind was now once more under control and I allowed myself to draw a bit. On Monday morning, once more had me answering questions to my mum about what I would do with my life. To appease her and get her off my back for a while, I told her I was looking into teaching, but wasn't sure yet. She wasn't greatly ticked by the aspect, but she didn't say anything.

Being once more, bored out of my mind, I decided I should visit Calla. Though a part of me still loathed the thought of making the first gesture, I felt that not making it would mean that I would probably never talk to her again. Besides, I was more than a little curious about what she was up to and it wasn't like I really had anything better to do.

Grabbing my wand, I apparated to Hogsmeade's main street. Once there and tucked my wand into the left sleeve of my sweater. Being that it was tight, I didn't have to worry about it slipping around in there or falling out. Sure that my wand was secure, I looked around where I was and tried to remember what exactly Snape had said and remembered that he only said something about her being in an Apothecary.

I walked around a bit, until I finally spotted it and walked in. I hardly paid any mind to the apothecary itself, as I was rather more invested in finding Calla. I had hardly taken more than a couple steps inside when someone walked up to me. "Hello, can I help you find anything today?" a man asked, with a bit of bit of an accent in his voice. German from the sound of it.

I stood for a moment and wondered if I should just out and ask. After all, she was working and what if I got her in trouble. However, I doubted this guy was like a manager or owner, so I thought no harm could come from asking. "Calla, I heard she works here, I'm an old school mate of hers," I said, trying to sound somewhat polite and not cold.

"Oh. So you're a friend of hers? Have yet to meet a friend of hers. She's in back. I'm Hans by the way," he said, pointing towards the back and then extending his hand to me. I shook his hand, a bit grudgingly as I prefer not to be touched by strangers or in general really.

"Kali," I said simply and then pulling my hand from his rather large hands as I heard something fall in the back followed by some cursing. I felt the corner of my mouth twitch in amusement. "She hasn't changed at all, has she? Do I just go back or..."

"Yeah, straight through there," he said, pointing. I nodded and merely heading towards the back room. When I got there, Calla was scrambling around, trying to gather up the things she dropped while still cursing.

"Hello Calla," I said, trying to keep the amusement from my voice and wiping the smile from my face before addressing her. At the sound of my voice, she jumped a bit and when she looked up kinda looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Kali, uh... what are you doing here," she asked. Her voice sounded an octave or so higher than normal. It almost sounded like panic. However, she was once more picking up all the stuff that she knocked down. I watched her movements for a moment, they were kinda rushed and a bit jerky and I wondered if she had always been this jumpy or if this was more jumpy than her usual.

"I came to see you, see how you've been doing," I replied.

"Ah... good... or well fine I guess," she replied causing me to stare with a furrowed brow. I'm pretty sure she was being jumpier than usual. Almost nervous she seemed by me being there. It was bizarre. "Wait, how did you know I was here?" she asked, straightening up and finally really looking at me.

I shrugged. "Snape."

To which, she kind of seemed to blanch. For a moment, I saw her hands clench a small box she was holding in her hands. A series of emotions seemed to fleet across her face. Shock, guilt, apprehension, anger, disgust and finally settling on Calla's version of vague interest and curiosity. Or well it seemed a version, because it kinda looked like she was trying too hard what with her face kinda being pink.

"You still see him?" she asked. I raised a brow at this. It rather seemed to me like she wasn't over him, and considering I knew Snape had seen her, it kind of made me wonder. It wouldn't be far fetched to think there was something between them now, would it? I mean I know he'd seen her. And the castle wasn't very far from here. Besides, her reaction would make sense.

The Slytherin part of me kind of wanted me to fuck with her. However, she was my friend, it wouldn't be very friendly of me. Besides, if she were with Snape in some capacity, and considering how much of a prick he was, I was sure she had more than enough suffering on her plate in store, if not already.

"No. He owled me," I replied to which she nodded. However, she was still a bit tense.

"Oh... so he keeps in touch with you?" she asked. I stared for a moment, wondering whether or not I should respond. I should, because obviously she seemed on edge, waiting to be relieved or... not. However, with my suspicions, I felt I needed to ask. Especially as she looked away and went about the task she was doing once more, avoiding my gaze.

"Well he said he'd like to, I hoped he wouldn't. Why all the interest? Do you still have feelings for him?" I responded off-handed and with the question only curious.

"Why? Why do you ask? What have you heard?" she asked jumping and looking at me, her brows furrowed over her eyes which stared at me, narrowed with suspicion.

I raised a brow at this, a part of me wanted to crack up laughing. I couldn't really take Calla all that seriously sometimes. "Is there something to hear?" I asked to which she kind of whimpered and fidgeted at. "I guess there is. Sooo... let me guess. You've started seeing Snape?" she pursed her lips and looked scared for a moment, which was confirmation enough. "Calla, I'm over him, I don't see what you're worried about. And if you think there's something going on between him and me, don't be. He only owled me once and it was just to tell me you were here."

This seemed to make her relieved as she visibly relaxed and any anger she felt, seemed to melt away. However, almost immediately she seemed to look guilty. Before she started apologizing, I went on and asked her how long she had been working at the shop.

"The shop is Hum Tate's, she's my grandmother and she put me in charge of this shop. I've been here for like two months," Calla responded, seeming a bit more at ease. I nodded at this in response. I was sort of curious about her and Snape, but honestly I felt it would be weird to ask. Besides, I didn't think I would be greatly comfortable with it.

I mean it's one thing to be over Snape and be ok with him being with a girl that you were friends with and who he happened to have technically cheated on you with. However, it's another thing entirely to want details on the subject. And I wasn't sure if Calla would entirely be able to distinguish the difference. She could be ditsy at times.

"So this is what you've been doing since you left school?" I asked curiously.

"Yeah," she replied as she finished picking up the last of what she dropped. "What about you? How's your life?" she asked, seemingly a bit more at ease.

"I finished school, I dumped Snape as you must know, I travelled most of the summer, and I've only been home about a week, not doing very much of anything," I said with a shrug, disinterested in the subject of me. Calla seemed to twitch for a moment when I mentioned Snape and grimaced a bit.

For a moment, I wondered if I should not mention Snape. He was kinda starting to become the giant albino Hippogriff in the room, so to speak. "Oh," she said. She opened her mouth for a second, before closing it and chewing on her lip. "Ummm, so what are you gonna do now? Like career-wise?"

Once more, I shrugged. I had a feeling that's not what she really wanted to ask, but I had a feeling that perhaps I should make an effort to steer to conversation elsewhere. Before things got really awkward and I regretted coming here. "I'm not sure, I'm trying to figure it out, nothing appeals to me very much and the only things that do... well they probably won't allow me to make enough to live on. So far the only career to me that seems vaguely appealing and earns decent pay is teaching. But the idea of being boarded up in a school year round, when I've only escaped is a bit of a deal breaker. I'll probably look into schools where boarding on school premises isn't necessary."

Calla's expressions, which had gone from relaxed and interested looked a bit tight again. I wondered for a moment until I realized the obvious. Fucking Snape. He's worse than an albino Hippogriff. There is just no getting away from the prick. "Teaching?"

"It's just a thought. I really have loads of time to think. Most school's have already started. Unless a school is hiring late, I probably won't be teaching anytime this year," I replied with a shrug. "If I have to chuck the idea though, I'm at a fucking loss because I have no clue."

I had just barely got through the sentence when Calla suddenly blurted something. I didn't quite catch what she said as it kind of mixed with my own words, so I had to ask her to repeat herself. She kind flushed a bit before responding. "Do y'know why he wrote you? I mean to tell you I'm here?"

I merely shrugged disinterestedly. "I don't know, don't see how it matters. I imagine just to inform me where you were, if I cared to see you."

Calla bit on her lip a bit. "You know I didn't plan it. It just happened," Calla said suddenly, with a shrug. It took a second for me to understand what she was talking about. But she seemed in a rush to tell me. "You know how I feel about him, that hasn't changed and I just ran into him and he said he wasn't with you anymore and things just kind of went from there, hasn't been long-"

I tried to keep grimacing at this. "Calla," I said putting up my hand to stop her. "I already told you-"

"I know... but I just want to make sure there's not like, bad blood between us, y'know?"

I nodded at this, suddenly feeling kind of hot. I don't really know why, but my stomach felt like it was in knots. "Well I already told you, it was fine," I said, trying to sound perfectly fine with it. Really I was, but hearing about it... it was just odd. I didn't really want the details or anything. Fearing that if I stayed any longer that would be exactly what would happen, I decided it was time to go. "Anyway, I have to go, I'm supposed to meet a friend for lunch," I said, lying through my teeth. Really there was no one I had to meet or anything for me to do for the rest of the day, but I felt I needed an excuse for suddenly leaving.

"Oh, all right" Calla said, trying to smile but not succeeding very well.

"I'll write," I said, flashing her a small smile as I started to back up. She merely nodded and I turned to calmly leave at a normal pace so she wouldn't think I was running off. As I crossed the shop, the man, Hans said farewell to which I merely waved before stepping out of the shop and disapparating home.

XX

I spent the following days alternating between watching tv and numbing my mind or reading while listening to music. After a few days, my mum said she had enough of me staying at home, so she started dragging me to work with her and showing me around, like I hadn't seen the Ministry most of my life.

However, I suppose there was a difference, as she actually let me stick around and see what she tended to spend her time doing. She also pawned me off on more than one occasion with friends of hers that would do her the favor of letting me shadow them in their department and see what they do. I'm not an idiot. I know what she was doing, and I would have been aggravated with her as I told her very clearly already that I didn't want to work in the ministry, but I suppose I was that bored of being at home that I really didn't mind it so much.

Besides, I was amazingly enough lucky not to run into Mr. Malfoy and I was able to actually spend some time with Henry on a daily basis, as we'd meet up and go out to lunch together. Though, that didn't mean that I planned on staying in the Ministry. By the time the end of September started rolling around, I was rather bored with it, and had checked out all the departments and made up mind that the Ministry was definitely not the place for me.

Though, some jobs peaked my interest... I knew it wasn't enough for me to really wish to stay. Much to the disappointment of some people.

"Oh come on Kali, stay," Henry nudged me one day as we were on our way out of the Ministry. He had ditched the robes he usually wore and had a pair of gray slacks and a long sleeved black shirt underneath. As we made our way down the streets of London together to a nearby cafe, I wondered what people ought to think of him. Not many young men dress up very much these days. Honestly, you see them walking around with very tight often ripped jeans and leather jackets and...

"No thanks. The Ministry is just not my thing, too cloistered and political," I said with a shiver of disgust.

"And you think you won't encounter that becoming a teacher?" he asked with a lopsided grin as he cast a sideways glance at me. I rolled my eyes at him, wondering why I even spoke to him. Sometimes he honestly infuriated me.

"Well cloistered, and primness yes, but I think the political element will be significantly downsized. Besides, I don't think it's fair to use Hogwarts as basis for comparison. I'm sure all schools are not the same," I said and grimaced slightly, considering a certain aspect of the relationship between myself and our Head of House, there wasn't much prim and propriety there.

"I suppose," Henry conceded. "I'll sure miss you though."

I rolled my eyes at him. "You act like I'll be falling off the face of the planet. I'm still gonna be around. You can owl me and see me, just as before, nothing's changing," I said, shaking my head at him. Honestly he could be so melodramatic. The boy would probably have been a fine actor.

"I suppose," he said a little moodily before suddenly perking up and suddenly adding a bounce to his step. "That reminds me. I have an invitation for you," he said, suddenly stepping in front of me and halting our progress. I stared at him with a raised brow as he took one of my hands in his while putting the other at the small of his back. "Miss Allen, I would be delighted if you attended with me the Opening gala to an art expo in Diagon Alley," he said, bowing over my hand and looking up at me with his puppy dog eyes.

"An art expo?" I asked with interest. However, I frowned slightly as I remembered he said gala. Usually that type of thing meant formal attire. "Would I have to wear dress-robes?" I asked with a slight frown, to which he nodded quickly. "I don't know Henry, I don't really like dressing up."

"Oh come on, Kali! It will just be one night. Besides it will be fun," he assured me, straightening himself.

"Just as friends, right?" I asked.

He furrowed his brow a bit and dropped my hand. "Of course. Why would you think-"

I blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed as I shook my head to stop him. "No, no. I just wanted to make sure that my mum wasn't giving you any ideas," I replied.

He laughed lightly at this. "No, she didn't put me up to this. I just thought it was something you'd enjoy," he said, suddenly grinning at me devilishly as he stepped up to me. "Although, if you have other things in mind, I wouldn't mind in the least."

"OH Henry, shut up," I said, shoving him away. He merely laughed once more and strung an arm around my shoulder, getting us to start walking.

"You need to lighten up, Kali-girl," Henry said, laughing. I rolled my eyes wondering why he always found it so easy to laugh at my expense. The answer was like stubbing my toes or biting the inside of my cheek. It was so easy for him to laugh at me because I bloody well let him get away with it.

After Henry's invitation, I decided that I needed to go shopping. I had plenty of robes that fit me, however, I hadn't gotten dress-robes in quite a few years. Besides I felt that I rather needed new ones. However, shopping for robes, specially the formal kind, meant going with my mother. I'm not sure why, but I felt the prospect of shopping for robes daunting. I suppose it had a lot to do with the fact that I rather thought that I needed my mother's opinion, which really isn't childish, is it?

I mean girls usually need the advice from another female, an impartial one, meaning one not selling you the article of clothing, to tell you weather it looks fine of not. And though my mother at times vexes me to a great degree, she isn't a bad judge of fashion. Besides, considering she's someone that always wants me to look my best... I can certainly trust her judgement.

However, I didn't much look forward to the prospect of asking her as then I would have to explain why I needed them and after I would have to explain to her for an endless amount of time that Henry and I were just friends. I suppose it had to be done though. As predicted, mother wouldn't let me hear the end of it. All through shopping for the dress, which had to wait until she had time off, and fitting it and all, she badgered me about my relationship with Henry. She didn't want to believe it was strictly platonic. It was very vexing.

Grueling as the experience was, I got my new dress robes for the gala. Now I had to wait for the day to arrive. I was rather of split mind on the entire thing. On the one part, I rather wanted to go. Art was … well my one real passion in life. I loved to see the works and creations of others and marvelling at their talent and ardor.

But... I never cared much for having to dress up or appearing at formal affairs. Everything was just so... rigid. You had to behave a certain way... it meant being on your guard. Besides, who all were attending? Other Ministry officials whom you had to weary of stepping on their toes? The rich and elite purebloods of England? The thought was a huge turnoff. I'd have enough of all that in my childhood. It wasn't something I wanted to become a part of.

But who was I to pass up this opportunity? And I couldn't deny that there was a part of me that was gravely tempted. Besides it wasn't really as I had anything better to do.

TBC...