Caught Red Handed, Sort Of
Exams descended on Hogwarts like a storm.
The library was packed at all hours, students hunched over parchment, ink-stained fingers flying as if writing faster might somehow force the information to stick. Even the common rooms had gone quieter, conversations replaced with muttered incantations and last-minute revisions.
Calli was in her element.
Snape, however, was doing everything in his power to make things as difficult as possible.
He had been ruthless.
Docking points for the smallest mistakes.
Hovering behind shoulders like a shadow.
His voice cutting through the dungeon classroom with sharp, biting precision.
"As if he's taking his personal misery out on us." Lucy had muttered after one particularly brutal lesson.
Calli hadn't disagreed.
She'd just worked harder.
Pushed further.
Slept less.
Which was how she found herself now half-buried in books.
"Calli?"
She didn't look up.
Hermione.
"Do you know any defensive spells? Or books? Anything that can help."
Calli grabbed a scrap of parchment without lifting her eyes from her notes and scribbled quickly:
Protego
Expelliarmus
A couple of advanced defensive theory books beneath it.
She shoved it toward Hermione.
"Those. Start there."
Hermione blinked.
"Thank you!"
But Calli was already gone again, mentally at least, and back into her work.
Hermione hurried off, the parchment clutched tightly in her hand.
Calli didn't notice.
"Hystrifors." She muttered sharply, scanning her notes again.
Her jaw tightened.
"Porcupine into a pincushion." She repeated, more forcefully this time. "Hystrifors."
Again.
"Hystrifors."
"I give up." Lucy groaned from across the table, dropping her head into her hands. "I actually give up."
Calli didn't respond.
"Maybe I don't need to work in the Ministry." She continued dramatically. "Maybe I'll just live in a cave. Far away. No exams. No responsibility."
Stella didn't even look up from her notes.
"Please do." She said calmly. "It would be quieter."
Calli huffed a quiet breath, something between a laugh and exhaustion, finally dragging a hand down her face.
Her eyes burned.
Her head throbbed.
But she didn't stop.
Couldn't.
Not now.
Not when she was this close.
YOU ARE READING
Callidora ☆ Fred Weasley
FanfictionCallidora Nott has always known exactly what is expected of her. As the daughter of one of Britain's oldest pure-blood families, her future has already been carefully planned; alliances, power, and a life shaped by tradition she never chose. At home...
