Callisto

6

She wasn't sure what had made her suddenly so popular. People had barely looked at her in her first few weeks, but now that she sat with Sarafina and Louisa in class, they looked at her all the time. Callisto thought she liked Sarafina. She was upfront and honest, if a little mean at times. Most of the girls gossiped about Adeke, about her clothes or how she hung out with the guys. Callisto stayed silent. She still liked Adele, no matter what the other girls said about her. And since the message on the beside table, she had felt more sympathetic. She knew what it was like to be called names like that. She encouraged Adele to tell the other teachers, but her friend refused, saying she knew who it was, though she wouldn't tell Callisto.

The Halloween feast came quickly, and they all gathered outside in their House groups to welcome the other schools. There was a vicious breeze, and Adele shivered.

"Perhaps you would be warmer, Miss Rosenbluth, if you had a skirt instead of a scrap of cloth," Snape said coldly. "And fix your tie, please. Need I remind you all that you are representing the school?"

Adele stuck her tongue out at him as he turned his back, and deliberately loosened her tie even more.

"And Miss Booth, please do something with your hair. You look like a scarecrow."

Louisa turned red and quickly tied her hair back.

"I've heard you sit with them in class," Adele murmured. "Her and Dearheart."

"Yes. I like them."

"They're okay, I suppose," Adele said slowly, just as some of the first years started pointing at the sky and yelling at the shape that was hurtling through the darkness.

The carriage, powder blue and pulled by massive horses, came gently down to earth. They stood watching with bated breath, and then the door opened and one large high heel stepped out. Callisto's eyes went up the woman's long, long legs to her torso, her shoulders, and finally her head, and when she stopped, she towered above Dumbledore.

"Jesus Christ," Adele murmured. "Somebody's been eating her weetabix. How tall is she? Eight feet?"

She had to be at least that. She had to bend to speak to Dumbledore, who was not by any stretch of the imagination a small man. And Professor Flitwick, when he came up to shake her hand, looked like a toddler in comparison.

Her students began to exit their carriage, about a dozen boys and girls in elegant silk robes. And she heard the murmur through the crowd as the last girl stepped out, and Adele gasped.

"What is it?" Callisto asked, craning her neck to see. The girl didn't look like anything special to her. She was tall, slim and willowy, sort of girl who never had to worry about her weight or appearance.

Adele made a low strangled noise in her throat as the girl turned dark blue eyes framed by long golden lashes to the castle.

"Is it that girl? Adele?"

"You straight people," Adele said faintly. "You never know what you're missing."

Once Durmstrang arrived, they gathered in the Great Hall to eat. The Beauxbatons students, to Adele and many of the boys' disappointment, sat at the Ravenclaw table, where she started talking to Jaron.

"Figures," Adele said. "I'd say even McGonagall thinks he's hot."

"Don't be disgusting," Callisto said, but she laughed.

The Durmstrang students sat with them, and Adele nudged her sharply as a boy with heavy eyebrows took his place beside the Bloody Baron.

"That's Viktor Krum!" She hissed.