Screams

Fourteen

"There's something here that keeps nibbling through my socks," Calliope pulled out another pair of socks from her trunk, only to find that it had a large hole in it like all of the other socks she had found, "why is it only my socks?"

"Maybe whatever it is has a foot fetish?" Natalie said from her bed, where she was flicking through a copy of the Quibbler.

"I got it!" Calliope pulled a rather underweight and dishevelled looking rat out of the very bottom of her trunk.

As she held the rat at arm's length, dangling it by the tail, she felt a funny sensation in the pit of her stomach.

"Uh, Callie get rid of that thing. I hate rats!" Natalie had jumped up and was standing up on her bed with her hands over her head.

Calliope continued to stare at the rat, the funny fluttering feeling in her stomach not going away. It took her a few moments to identify it, as she had never felt it before, but she remembered having it described to her by the banshees.

Magical concealment was something that banshees had a talent for detecting. And this rat was concealing something.

Calliope got to her feet and hurried out of the dormitory at top speed, ignoring Natalie's protests. Calliope knew that there was one person in the castle who she could take this to, one person who knew about the dark arts and knew about her powers specifically. Remus could help her.

She clutched the rat tightly in both hands as she hurried through the castle, many thoughts running through her head all at once.

After a while, she burst into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, which was mercifully empty. She hurried through the empty classroom and kicked the door to Remus's study in way of a knock, as she didn't want to take either of her hands off of the rat, which was squirming uncontrollably in her hands.

The door was pulled open by Remus, who looked tired and ill but brightened up the moment he saw her.

"Calliope?" Remus asked, but was quickly distracted by the rat's loud squeals and increased writhing. Remus stared at it in shock, as if he somehow recognised it.

At that moment, Calliope loosened her grip slightly. The rat took that opportunity to bite her finger and escape her grip.

Calliope quickly whipped out her wand, "immobulus!" She cried the rat froze, "Accio." The rat flew back into her hands.

She stood in front of Remus holding the rat for a few more moments, until he suddenly broke out of his surprised stupor, and ushered her inside the office, closing the door tightly behind her.

"Where in the world did you find that rat?" Remus asked in an almost accusing voice.

"In my suitcase!" Calliope defended herself, still clutching the immobalised rat, "it was nibbling through my clothes, and there's something not right about it. It's a banshee thing, I can sense when things are being concealed by magic, and I can tell you that this rat is not a rat. But I think you already know that, don't you?"

Remus stretched out his hand out for the rat, and Calliope passed it to him. Remus made his way over to a small cage, placing the rat in it, and locking it with his wand. He picked the cage up and placed it on his desk, sitting himself down on the chair behind it. Calliope didn't wait to be offered the chair across from him, she simply sat.

"Yes I do know that this rat is not a rat," Remus said eventually.

"How?" Calliope asked, desperate to understand, "what is it really?"

"That rat is really a wizard named Peter Pettigrew," said Remus tiredly, "he is an Animagus and had supposedly been dead for almost twelve years."

"What?" Calliope frowned.

"I think it would be best if I start at the very beginning so that you can properly understand," Remus seemed to be thinking out loud now, "it all started when I became a werewolf."