Screams

Twenty-Four

Fred Weasley's head snapped up. He had been laughing with his brother and  Lee Jordan. But the moment that the scream escaped Calliope's lips, Fred was staring right at her.

As soon as Calliope stopped screaming and opened her eyes, she spotted Fred. He was quite hard to miss, as he had gotten to his feet and was staring straight at Calliope.

Of course, it was only Fred and Calliope who knew that he wasn't staring at thin air, the rest of the hall just thought that Fred Weasley had finally lost it.

Fred Weasley himself also thought that he may have lost it because Calliope Doge was sat at the Hufflepuff table talking to Natalie Hughes, but she was also standing beside the Hufflepuff table looking right back at Fred.

Calliope couldn't believe it. At first, she thought that it was just a coincidence. That Fred was looking at a particularly interesting fly. But when the two made eye contact, they both realised that they couldn't possibly be imagining something so strange. Because even Fred Weasley's imagination couldn't dream up something this odd.

It was a minute or two before either of them shook themselves back to reality. George and Lee had been giving Fred strange looks and pokes the entire time. It was only when George blew into Fred's ear, that Fred looked away from Calliope and towards his brother.

"Are you going mental Fred?" Lee asked, clearly not spotting the stricken expression on Fred's face. George however, noticed it immediately.

"Freddie are you alright?" George asked, "do you need to go to the hospital wing?"

"Yeah," Fred swallowed, "I'll see you later." Fred got to his feet, despite protests from George and Lee, and began making his way out of the Great Hall.

Seeing Fred leave, Calliope immediately darted after him, not fazed by the fact that she was sprinting straight through tables and people.

"How can you see me?" Calliope demanded as they exited the loud Great Hall into the Entrance Hall.

"How am I supposed to know!" Fred muttered under his breath, wary of the few people dotted around the Entrance Hall who could overhear.

"Well, I don't know how you can see me. No one else can! It must be something that you did."

"Why does it have to be something that I did?" Fred demanded, slightly louder this time, "why can't it be something that you did?"

"Because I know that I didn't do anything!" Calliope insisted.

"Yeah, because you know everything don't you clever girl," Fred rolled his eyes, "maybe it was because you screamed like an absolute weirdo."

"I screamed because I thought that it was my only chance to get someone to see me!"

"Well, good news I can see you!" Fred was now getting some very strange looks from passers-by, as he appeared to be having an argument with thin air. "What the hell is going on here?" Fred asked, "why are you in two places?"

"I'm not," Calliope sighed, "if we go somewhere away from prying eyes, then I'll explain everything to you. When do your lessons finish today, we can go after-"

"We can go now," said Fred, "lessons don't matter."

********

"So, explain," Fred said, when the two found themselves an empty classroom and sat down (Fred having pulled some overturned chairs off of desks so they could both sit).

"I'm a banshee," said Calliope, "well half banshee. I have a certain set of abilities, I can sense when there's an imminent threat of danger or death-"

"Like a spidey sense?"

"What?"

"Muggle comics. My dad loves them, there's one about a guy who gets bitten by a spider and becomes spider-man. He can sense danger and stuff with his spidey sense," said Fred.

"Yeah, I guess it's like that," Calliope frowned and got lost in thought for a moment, trying to think of how she could explain how she felt when there was imminent danger, "I hear whispers in my head. They used to overwhelm me, but now I can understand what they tell me. Also when I scream..." she trailed off.

"People die," Fred said nonchalantly, "I know what a banshee is Clever Girl."

"Yeah, well. After I found out that Peter Pettigrew was alive, and was going to help Voldemort," Fred winced slightly, "gain his powers again, I knew that I had to do something. I tracked Pettigrew to a forest in Algeria. But I was too late because he had already found Voldemort," another wince, "he possessed my body, and somehow I got kicked out of it. And here we are."

"So let me straighten a few things out," said Fred with a frown, "You Know Who isn't dead. He is, in fact, alive, and at Hogwarts pretending to be you." Calliope nodded her confirmation, "and no one can see you? Not even You Know Who?"

"Apart from you, no one can see me."

"Well that leaves me in a bit of a tight spot doesn't it," said Fred.

Calliope bit her lip, "yeah, sorry about that."

"What are we supposed to do? We have to tell someone about You Know Who!"

"There's only one thing to do," answered Calliope, "we have to go to Dumbledore."

Did anyone suspect that it would be Fred? 
Why do you think Fred is the only one who can see Callie?
Remember to vote, comment and be amazing!
~Em xx