For the next several days, Calli became extremely good at being busy.
If she was working, she wasn't thinking.
That was the theory, anyway.
She buried herself in N.E.W.T. preparation, essays and Head Girl duties. She volunteered to finish patrol reports she'd normally have left until morning. She reorganised two weeks' worth of notes. She spent an entire evening correcting an Arithmancy assignment that had already been perfectly acceptable the first time.
Anything was preferable to lying awake thinking about June.
About her father.
About Theo.
About Fred and Cedric occupying the same sentence.
Unfortunately, Umbridge had made avoiding unpleasant thoughts considerably more difficult.
A week's worth of detention alongside Harry had finally ended, but the evidence remained carved across the back of Calli's hand.
The old words had never completely disappeared.
Now the repeated detentions had left the skin angry and sore again, the newer punishment crossing through what remained of the first until the lettering was difficult to distinguish.
Fred had been furious when he'd seen it.
Calli had informed him that if he earned another detention attempting to avenge her detention, she would personally hex him.
He had argued that this was deeply hypocritical.
She'd agreed.
It had still worked.
By the following weekend, however, Calli had finally run out of excuses to keep herself constantly occupied.
Which was how she ended up sitting on the floor of a disused bathroom surrounded by fireworks, fake sweets, parchment, boxes and three of her favourite people.
The disused bathroom had gradually stopped resembling a bathroom at all.
It had become headquarters.
Or, as Fred insisted on calling it, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes: Hogwarts Branch.
Calli smiled from where she was sitting cross-legged beside a collection of small cardboard boxes.
Stella occupied the space beside George, a ledger balanced across her knees.
"Headless Hats." She read. "You've sold..."
George leaned over her shoulder.
"That many?"
Stella moved the ledger away from him.
"Do you want me to keep your records or not?"
"Desperately."
"Then stop breathing over my shoulder."
George immediately leaned farther away.
"My apologies, Healer Addington."
Stella's quill paused.
"You've sold loads of Headless Hats." Stella continued. "And even more Skiving Snackboxes."
Fred looked delighted.
"People appreciate quality."
"People appreciate getting out of History of Magic." Calli corrected.
"Exactly. Quality."
George reached across Stella for another sheet of parchment.
Their hands brushed.
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...
