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There used to be an order of things in Calisto’s life before she got her Hogwarts letter
. At fifteen, she believed herself to be a genuinely good person, with the best of intentions. The world used to be black and white, no shades of gray.
Calisto would grow up to marry a rich man of London and live her best life as a muggle lady, buying expensive gowns in the morning and hosting tea parties in the afternoon. That was all she was taught to expect. It was all she thought she wanted.
It was simple. A bit naive, mayhaps.
But it all went crumbling down the moment she used magic for the first time and the Hogwarts letter arrived - Four years later than it should’ve.
Her mother was amazed, thanking the heavens above that her daughter was not an actual squib, that Calisto had indeed been born with magic in her veins, but all the girl could feel at that moment was fear. What would be of her, now that her entire life was set to change?
The light feather fan was replaced with a eleven inch red oak wand, the fancy and ornamented dresses were left at home, making space in her suitcase for her school uniforms. Hopes of a quiet and peaceful life were out of the window when an enchanted dragon destroyed her flying carriage, setting her for an entire year of adventure and discovery.
It took weeks for Calisto to actually accept the reality of her situation, but having Eleazar Fig by her side made things immensely easier. With his patience and didactics, the adaptation process went smoother than expected, and the young witch was able to catch up to her fellow schoolmates in no time.
In truth, Calisto knew that she owed everything she had become to Fig. She only wished she had gotten the chance to properly thank him for it.
The heel in her shoe scraped the marble floor with a certain impatience, avidly waiting for Professor Weasley’s arrival in her own office. She had sent an owl earlier in the morning requesting a chat, right in the middle of the summer before seventh year, but failed to mention what it was about.
“I am so terribly sorry I am late” apologized Matilda, entering through the classroom, adjusting her skirt with the palm of her hands. “The Ministry has been pestering us with the upcoming event, their subordinate refused to leave the headmasters office.”
“And I imagine headmaster Black would not appreciate having a stranger in his office by the time he comes back, am I correct?” Calisto said, nodding her head. “Don’t worry, professor, I didn’t wait very long. ”
Her heels allowed the hufflepuff girl to appear a little bit taller than she was meant to be, almost as tall as Matilda herself. That way, she could clearly see the glint of doubt that surpassed her eyes when she claimed her day was vacant.
“I admit I am surprised to see you were able to meet with me, considering how busy you’ve been with your choice of summer activities. ” provoked the professor, in the same tone she used whenever she questioned someone over something she already knew.
Calisto knotted her finger against each other in the back of her light blue dress, trying to cover up her uneasiness with a faint smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“It appears that the wizard kind is all too happy to gossip about a traveling young woman.” she said, tilting her head slightly to the side.
A smile and an adoring phrase were usually enough to dissuade other curiosity, especially when they came from someone with Calisto’s angelical features. Her strawberry blonde hair was so shiny and her gray eyes so adorable that no man or woman could truly look at her for more than a second without being mesmerized. Unless, of course, their will surpassed the immediate adoration.
And Matilda Weasley had never been one to be easily swooned.
“Please, Miss DeClare, have a seat.” the professor indicated the empty chair in front of her desk, walking around it to take her own seat.
Even though she was hesitant, Calisto did as she was told, knowing better than to defy the older woman. It was one thing to break the law and school rules when no one was looking, but a whole other one to disobey one of the few people with authority she still respected.
Carefully placing her small blue hat on the table, the girl looked back to the transfiguration master, awaiting for her to lead the conversation.
“How is your mother faring these days?” Matilda asked casually.
“Perfectly. Tending to the high society's needs is not as stressful as one might think.” answered the girl quite simply.
But she knew that wasn’t what the professor meant. Of course she didn’t actually wish to know about what her loving and caring mother was up to. They had only met once last May, when all hell broke loose beneath Hogwarts. “I would imagine she would be quite stressed to know that her only daughter is up and about the country, hunting down ashwinders by herself.”
Ah,
there it was.
Stressed was too little of a word to describe Adhara’s feelings. The woman had all but fainted when she first returned to the Newton Manor late in the night, covered in mud and bruises from the latest fight she caught herself in the middle of. Calisto won it in a landslide, but that wasn’t enough to quiet her mother’s fears.
“I thought it best to go after them before they got to me.” answered the DeClare girl, shrugging as if it was nothing. “Ashwinders hold quite the grudge these days.”
Surprisingly, Weasley smiled at her, almost amused at her sense of humor when speaking of such serious things. “Well, I would expect no less. You did tear down their operations and had the aurors going after them like starved dogs.”
It was almost a beautiful way to look at it. With Harlow's capture by her and Natty’s hands, it was a fast fall for the Ashwinders, and when Calisto defeated Rookwood in the middle of Hogsmeade for all to see, their reign of terror was set to end once and for all.
And then, one tiny mistake put that in jeopardy. “Yet here we are.” the younger one said painfully, looking down at the wooden table, analyzing its patterns. “If your purpose with this conversation was meant to discourage me from going after them, I’m afraid it was to no avail. There’s no way I will sit at home while
he
is still out there.”
Matilda sighed, out of frustration, mixed with a bit of something indistinguishable - pity, maybe. “Victor Rookwood is not your responsibility, Miss DeClare. We are all grateful for your services to the wizarding community in the past, but you were never supposed to be burdened with such tasks. You helped most villages in the Highlands and stopped Ranrok, there’s nothing more anyone could ask of you.”
She didn’t want to come off as disrespectful by laughing, so she bit the inner side of her own cheek. Calisto knew that Weasley was trying to be nice, a good and responsible adult, who didn’t wish to see her student distracted with such intense affairs. Still, the deputy headmistress had no idea what she was talking about.
No one truly understood that it was, indeed, her responsibility; no one understood what it meant to be the bearer of Ancient Magic. Everywhere she went, Callie could see the traces, hear the little whispers of magic left behind calling to her, demanding to be acknowledged.
How could anyone truly grasp at how it felt to hold such a power? Fig, her companion since the very first, had done his best to relate to her, but still couldn’t fathom her experience, nor did he ever claimed he could. Percival and Isidora were the only ones she could relate to and they were both out of reach.
Pulling herself out of her own thoughts, Calisto raised her head again, looking her professor right in the eye as she said, “I appreciate you saying that, I really do” with a tight smile on the lips. “But it doesn’t change the fact that Rookwood is only waiting for a chance to get to me, or that he has the strength to put his army back together.”.
Part of DeClare hated to see the defeat in Matilda’s face, but she was also immediately relieved that there would be no more resistance in that topic. “I imagined you would drive a hard bargain… But that leads me to the reason why I wished to see you today.”
“Oh” Calisto mumbled, a bit surprised. “Well, what is it then?”
The older woman was hesitant again,putting her hands on top of each other on the wooden desk. “When was the last time you spoke to Mister Sallow?”
Calisto could’ve sworn an ashwinder had just burst through the door and cast a Glacius spell on her, given the way her entire body went cold in a mere second. The faint smile on her face completely disappeared as she stared at Matilda with wild eyes and a slightly open mouth, but her thoughts lingered only on that name.
Sebastian Sallow.
His face was still very clear in her memories, his chocolate eyes and the freckles that adorned his face. His brown curls and how he would pass a hand through them whenever he was nervous or bothered. His raspy voice and the sarcastic comments he always had at the tip of his tongue.
The tingling feeling that his hands left on her skin, a burn she could not quite get rid off even now.
“At the Hogwarts Express, last June.” she answered after a silent moment, feeling a bitter taste in her mouth.
“I assume you haven’t been in touch with him lately?” Matilda raised an eyebrow, almost in an accusatory way.
A shuddered breath escaped her. “No, I haven’t.” she answered, lowering her head. “Why?”
“Because as it turns out, the two of you have very similar ideas as to how to spend your summer vacation.” she suggested, adjusting her glasses up her nose. “His latest activities have caught the aurors attention as well as mine.”
Taking a deep breath, Calisto’ s eyes wandered widely through her face, not even attempting to hide her own confusion. “His latest activities?” a hint of worry in her voice was easily distinguished.
“With no one around to supervise him ever sice his uncle’s death, Mr. Sallow has been seen lurking around Rookwood’s Castle, the Forbidden Forest and the Hogshead.” told Weasley, with a very knowing tone. “I imagine you can see the connection between those locations.”
“Victor Rookwood’s last known locations.” Calisto closed her eyes and shook her head. “But, I thought no one knew…”
“ No one’s
supposed
to.” corrected Matilda. “Did you truly not know that Sebastian was hunting Rookwood as well?”
How was Calisto supposed to? It’s not like he was answering any of her letters, and she’d sent plenty of them over the weeks. Sebastian had cut off contact with both her and Ominis, except that Ominis had been equally avoiding his best friend, incapable of properly talking to him ever since… everything.
She shook her head, fidgeting with her nails. “No. I had no idea.”A heavy sigh escaped her as she backed away in her chair, feeling a lump form in her throat as she thought of the Sallow family.
The day Solomon died was still very fresh in her memory, not that the deputy headmistress would know that - no one did but Callie, Sebastian, Anne and Ominis. She had been there to see as the green lighting hit him the chest and sucked the life out of him and to see his niece desperately cling to his corpse.
Calisto had been there for it all. Except for the aftermath of the school year, when the boy had to return to his empty home and learn to live by himself for the very first time.
For almost two months, DeClare had stopped herself from pestering him too much, taking his silence as sign that he needed space and time to collect himself, to come to terms with what he did, so se did just that. She sent letters, but didn’t visit, waiting for his move.
Not for a second did it cross her mind that Sebastian would start hunting down Rookwoods followers, now knowing that a wizard was responsible for his sister’s curse, not a goblin. An optimist guess, as Victor was meant to be locked away for good. She should've known better.
“If that’s the case, if you did not know” the professor pulled her out of thoughts, with a very stern and worried look in her eyes “I urge you to talk him out of whatever “heroic wish” he has, seeing as auror Singer’s words were of no use to him. Maybe he will listen if it comes from a friend.”
Friends. Could they still be called that?
“I don’t think my words will do much, professor. Sebastian is… Very determined.” Calisto argued, knowing first hand what the boy looked like when he put something in his head.
“The two of you have that in common, then.” the Weasley woman arched an eyebrow, unpleased. “Now that I know what you are capable of, Miss DeClare, I understand that there’s very little I can do to keep you out of trouble, but Mister Sallow does not have your power. I would not like to see him get hurt.”
Calisto struggled to find the proper words. Even if Rookwood was no Ranrok in terms of abilities and brute force, he still had tricks up his sleeve and a small army to back him up. The mere idea of what trouble Sebastian could be getting into sent a shiver down her spine. “I know, I… I’ll figure something out.”she mumbled.
It was not the first time someone asked her to keep the boy out of trouble, in fact, Matilda was the fourth person to urge her to lead him into a safer and more righteous path, which was what made that promise so difficult to make, so Calisto didn’t promise.
Their circumstances had proven more than once that Calisto just couldn’t say no to Sebastian Sallow and his irrefutable points, even when she terribly wished she could. “ I don’t him to get hurt, either” her voice sounded weak as she said it, but it was still the most honest she could be when it came to Sallow.
“I know you don’t.” agreed Matilda, face softening a bit. A shadow of a smile appeared in the corner of her lips. “The two of you seem to have formed quite a bond last year, up and about the highlands side by side. Your classmates had quite a lot to whisper about.”
If it wasn’t for the gloom in her chest, Calisto’s face would’ve heaten up at that, knowing exactly what those whispers spoke of. The wizarding society was more tolerant about the good costumes than muggles were, but that did not mean they took rumors of indecency lightly.
Even if they tried their best to be discreet, Adelaide Oakes had caught Calisto and Sebastian past bedtime returning to the castle more than once, and Eric Northcott had once commented about how they were weirdly synchronized in duels, almost as if they could read each other’s minds.
One rumor led to the other, and suddenly, the whole school was theorizing on whether they were courting or not.
Of course, they had no idea that whenever they left the castle together, it was to either explore an abandoned catacomb or to take down a goblin mine. Not very romantic of courting like setups.
They weren’t around to see that Sebastian's focus was always solely in finding a cure for Anne and that it was all that he could think about. Calisto often wondered if had even caught word of the gossip around them.
“Yeah, we… We’ve been through a lot together.” she confirmed, as vaguely as she possibly could, trying to suppress the memories that dared to come out of their hiding places.
Because before Solomon , before the relic and before the goblin mines, Calisto was just the new girl at Hogwarts and Sebastian was just a boy who got detention for breaking into the Restricted Section. And that
should
have been enough.
But it never
would
have, she thought to herself.
..
About five miles east of Hastings, the Newton Manor ruled over the shores as if it were the Sun to the dozens of other houses in the surrounding area. People longed to stare at its giant walls and wealthiness, dreaming to one day get a glimpse of the inside and have a look at how the DeClare family spent their wealth after spending four years setting up their new home.
It was located very close to the cliff, but that wasn’t a problem seeing as there were no babies living there and the view of the sunrise was simply divine. The mansion’s red walls had something of a warm nature that complemented the enormous maze that its garden was, with the most adorable species of trees and flowers; most of which should not be allowed to grow in English soil.
Having lived there since she was seven, Calisto supposed she ought to be accustomed to the view as soon as she apparated in between the nearby trees, not wishing to be seen by any muggles, but the truth was that after almost an entire year away, she had a feeling of seeing her childhood home for very first time when she returned. A certain warmth took hold of her body as she walked through the grass towards the front entrance.
As soon as her feet walked past the threshold, however, she did not linger around the house, dreading the thought of one of the staff servants wishing to inform her of any visitors she had while she was away. She had enough of them about a month ago, when they swarmed the ballroom with empty conversations and hushed gossip.
Calisto did not care who the Duke was marrying or what lady was said to have lost her purity to a French man. In another life, she would’ve found it all very entertaining, but in this one, she had much bigger problems.
Out of all the places the young woman missed the most while she was at school, was her bedroom. It was fun to share bunk beds with Poppy and the Room of Requirement could quite literally take any form she wished it to, but none of that came close to the feeling of being home. In her bedroom, every piece of cloth or paper represented a little bit of her soul. From the sip miniature in the wall, to the ghastly crow painting she purchased in London, just for the fun of it.
There, she was home. Which meant that Calisto did not need to care about the mess she was leaving in her trail, tossing her hat onto the floor along the low heeled shoes.
Her bare feet led her on a straight line towards the table turned to the window, where an absurd amount of parchment and pencils were tossed around, alongside a couple books and opened letters. It was her very own little study, that her mother insisted on calling “a giant mess she should take care of”.
Settling into her chair, Calisto hunted down an empty piece of parchment and an usable quill, dipping it into ink before the words she had been rehearsing would slip from her mind.
“Dear Ominis,
I hope this letter finds you well, unlike all the others we have exchanged. Have you managed to make any progress with your parents yet?”
Whereas Calisto was glad to be home, the same couldn’t be said for her Gaunt friend. Seeing as he and Sebastian were on the outs, the boy took the brave decision of going back to his parents house and to try to persuade them into a less prejudiced worldview.
It was a futile wish, they knew, but Iminis just desperately wanted to get his head away from his guilt, as did DeClare.
“Professor Weasley called me into her office today and I must admit, I was very nervous. We all know she is more of a headmaster than Black ever will be, so there’s something very scary on knowing she wished to talk to me about something that couldn't be said over a letter.
A ministry employee was there, by the way. Something about an upcoming event and that Hogwarts is involved in it, somehow. Care to share any information you might have on that?
But back to the matter at hand, Weasley wanted to talk to me about Sebastian.”
She imagined if his heart would stop the same way hers did at the mention of that name, if his mind would also be flooded with worry and fear that they had been caught.
“ Weasley thinks he has been following Rookwood’s trail, after auror Singer spotted him in some specific locations. She wanted me to speak to him, talk him out of his “heroic wish”. I never told her, or anyone else, that it was Victor Rookwood, the one responsible for our ‘headaches’.
That being said, I wondered if maybe you could stop by Feldcroft anytime soon? I know it’s hard for you to get out much, with your father always looking over your shoulder, but I don’t think I should talk to Sebastian by myself…”
A sigh. Calisto dragged a firm line over the last phrase.
“ but I think he would listen if the both of us talked to him.”
A lie. Another firm scratch over the parchment.
“but I could use the company.”
Vague and simple. But enough for Ominis to understand her concerns.
Writing down her signature by the end, she folded the letter and fitted it into one of the already-made envelope’s. As soon as her owl, Athena, returned, she could send the message out to the Gaunt boy. His address had become a very familiar one over the summer.
It was a bit funny to think of it, in a certain way. When Calisto had first met Ominis, she was sure he could only ever despise her, having yelled at her in the corner of the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor after she left the Undercroft. In their next few interactions, he implied her to be an attention seeker and a bad influence over their shared friend.
Never would Calisto have imagined he would become one of her closest friends. When she was brought back from the map chamber and had to spend days in the infirmary to heal from the countless injuries, he had been there at her bedside, keeping her updated on what everyone was talking about.
It was Ominis, Poppy and Natty, keeping her company during the entire day, only leaving her be at night or during class.
In the darkest hour, however, it was him who showed up.
The witch groaned and buried her face in her ink stained hands, rubbing her forehand vigorously, as if to try and erase her own memories. Maybe she should get a pensieve, somewhere to store away all of the memories she wished to forget and no one could ever reach.
But Calisto already had enough secrets as it was. What happened with Solomon. Her reasons to hunt down Rookwood. The repository.
No. She needed her memories, so she could always be reminded of the decisions she made that led her to where she was right now. Every win and every failure. To protect the world. To honor Fig.
An ivory colored owl bickered at the window, asking to be let in, its feathers looking a bit rifled and dirty from last night's storm. As a true wild being, Athena did not enjoy spending her nights at the safety of the Newton Manor, preferring the surrounding trees to form a nest.
Lifting from her seat, DeClare popped the window open and passed her fingers through the animal’s head in a loving manner.
“Hello, my dear. How did you fare?” She offered some food that was separated on the top of her desk for that exact occasion. “I have a request for you.”
And so, after Athena feasted on the dry meat that was offered to her, her feet clawed over the letter and she flew out the window, heading north to the Gaunt Manor.
Calisto settled back on her seat and stared at the surrounding woods. As soon as Ominis got her message, he would have an idea as to how they should approach the situation and it would be solved.
Or,
an evil voice whispered at the back of head,
you will make things just as you did last time. None of this would’ve happened if you weren’t so scared of your own abilities.
“Shut up.” DeClare shook her head, her heart rate going up.
You know it’s true.
the voice laughed at her.
If you hadn’t denied him, Sebastian never would’ve plunged into the dark arts as hard as he did.
“I couldn’t do it.” she argued. “It’s not right, taking someone’s humanity is not the solution…”
Even if had ridden dear Anne of her pain? Or spared Sebastian his own humanity? You know he will never be the same.
“You don’t know him!”
Oh, but I do. Just as I know you, Calisto.
the laughter became even louder.
Just take a look in the mirror, we are the same.
Her head snapped faster than it should have towards the other end of her bedroom, where a full length mirror laid. In its reflection, Calisto saw herself and her own glowing red eyes, taunting her with the aftermath of her own choices.
“Get out of my head, Isidora!” she commanded her own image, feeling a wave of bubbling rage flow through her veins.
With pleasure.
The voice went away, as did the red in DeClares eyes, but the feeling did not even waver, causing the witch to throw a punch on top of the desk, shaking it as a whole.
Almost making her chair drop to the ground, Calisto got up and marched toward the exit, waving her wand across her own body to turn her once beautiful and delicate blue dress into a more comfortable black get up, perfect to sneak around and duel.
There had to be an ashwinder camp around that she hadn’t blown to pieces yet.