My Name Is Callie Swan

Explaining Magic

Callie's POV
We went back to the castle a little later than usual, sneaking past the guards. I felt like sleeping in my old room connected to Dumbledore's office so I carefully head that way. The Cullens followed behind me, they were also going to stay in a room connected from the office, to my dismay. It's not that I don't like the Cullens anymore, they have become like family, even Rose and I had started to get closer, I just am not in the mood to answer the millions of questions I know they have.
My thoughts are interrupted when we get to the office door.
"Password!" A bigger women who lives in the painted door calls. I roll my eyes, hoping he hasn't changed it since the last time I was here.
"Woah! Jas! Did you see that!! The painting talks!" Emmett yells, causing the whole family to shush him, I only laugh.
"Isn't it cool!" I respond and turn back to the woman,
"Butterscotch? Or has he changed it since the last time I was here, Mary?"
The woman laughs and the door swings open, revealing the huge, lavish office.
"It's a pleasure to have you back, Callie." I hear Mary say as we all walk in, I smile and nod to her.
"She knows your name?" Esme asks as the door closes behind us. I nod,
"Mhmm. Most of the paintings know me, it's one of the advantages of being raised here."
"How does she know your name? How does she talk?" Alice chimed in, looking curiously, I smirk.
"I will tell you guys but you're never going to believe me." I say in a very alluring tone.
"How??" Emmett asks, jumping in excitement.
I wait a moment, leaving them to guess and then whisper,
"Magic."
Eddie starts to laugh,
"Even though I wasn't reading her mind I saw that one coming." He laughs again and I join.
I walk into the main room of my grandfather's huge office and see him eating a bowl of butterscotches while reading a book. I smirk, and he looks up from the book.
"Ahh, my lovely granddaughter and her vampire friends, how delightful!" He says in a cheery mood.
I cannot help but chuckle and smile at the old man.
"Someone is cheery this evening." I smirk as I kiss the old man on the top of the head.
"Oh! Why should I not be! The moon is full and high in the sky and according to my horoscope, I will find the love of my life this month and have good luck with business. I am not  too sure about the first one but I look forward to the second!"
I laughed loudly, knowing my poor grandfather did not a change of luck in business, indeed.
"What did mine say?" I ask curiously, taking a seat across the desk. The Cullens are walking around the office, curiously looking at all the books Dumbledore has come into possession with over his long life, which is a lot.
"That you should listen to your grandfather."
I roll my eyes and smirk yet again.Grandpa always keeps me smiling.
"How was mingling with the other students?" He asks, changing the subject.
"I mean, fine. I just talked to Ced, Ivy, and the Cullens.
He nods in response and looks over to where the Cullens are now standing.
"How rude of us! We have company and here we are, chatting away. Come and sit, please! We will all talk, maybe some tea-" He starts but I make a coughing noise to remind him they don't drink tea.
"Ah! Silly me! Sometimes, I think old age will be the death of me."
"Wouldn't that be ashame!" I say dramatically and sarcastically.
The old man smirks, then turns back to the Cullens.
"Maybe some warm deer's blood would suffice?"
Carlisle smiles,
"That would be lovely."
Before anything else could be said, chairs appear for each of the Cullens and blood is being poured by itself into small tea cups.
The Cullens, even though they have seen a whole feast appear in front of them, still look in awe. Another smile forms on my lips.
They all sit down and start to drink their blood while I use magic to form a kettle of tea for grandpa and I.
"I am sure you all have questions." Dumbledore says, looking at the Cullens.  I bite my tongue, wanting to just go off to bed.
"We do have a few actually." Carlisle confesses. Obviously they do, how could they not.
"Go ahead, we will answer anything within our abilities."
They are silent for a moment, trying to think of things to ask. Finally, Jasper starts the list of questions,
"What is an unbreakable vow?" That was one question I hoped he wouldn't ask.
"Where did you hear of that?" Dumbledore asks with a raised eyebrow, "Callie? Have we been talking about dark magic again?"I cannot help but roll my eyes.
"Terminology, my dear grandfather. I would never talk about dark magic to newcomers, who do you think I am?"
"My granddaughter. I raised you, remember that." I grin and he begins to answer the question. "Well, Mister Jasper, An unbreakable vow is very dark, very serious business. I would not advise you to agree to one unless it be totally necessary."
"Why is it so bad?" Emmett asks, looking to Dumbledore. The old man looks at me, motioning for me to explain from here.
"It's like a dark pinky promise." I begin, trying to compare it to something they might understand. "I mean, there is a little more to it than that. It usually happens in darker forms of magic, but basically, it's a promise one makes to another, if the promise is broken by one of the parties, that party dies."
Jasper seemed to look even more pale when I mentioned death, something that was such a close reality in this world.
"So good wizards don't do unbreakable vows?" Carlisle asked.
If this old ma-
"Actually, I know of a good number of good witches and wizards that have done such a thing. Don't you Callie?"
I go red. He had to go there? Didn't he?
"Callie and Ivy?" Eddie asks in disbelief, reading Dumbledore's mind.
"What?' Jasper and Alice shrieked at the same time.
I hear Dumbledore laugh and looks back over to me to explain, I give him an evil glare.
"Thanks." I mutter before explaining. "There are wizard comics, you know, like humans have superheros? Well, Ivy and I use to be really into them when we were small. This one centered these two witches who were best friends. When they were in trouble, they made an unbreakable vow never to leave one another behind, Ivy and I mimicked it. We didn't know the implications of what we were doing, we weren't in proper wizard school yet. However, I can assure you there is nothing to worry about. That was when we were eight and it's already been ten long years."
"And I haven't left you behind yet, mate." I hear from the doorway.
I look up to see Ivy dressed in a matching pick pajama set with kittens printed all over it. I smirked, I had gotten her those for her birthday last year.
"Probably a good idea not to from here on out. Unless you want to break the vow." I chuckle as I say it. Even if we weren't bound together by this vow, I doubt things would be much different between Ivy and I.
She smiles at me as she plops down in a leather chair in the corner of the office.
Alice looking warily at her.
"There is nothing to worry about, love. I am not going to leave Callie behind anytime soon."
Alice stares at her for a moment, trying to decide if she can really relax. She sighs, stands up, and skips over to Ivy, sitting on her lap.
"Ah, young love." Grandfather smiles fondly at the two girls and I join him.
"Are there any exceptions to this promise? What if one of you has to leave the other one behind? I mean, you're always saying what dangerous times we live in. What if it can't be helped?" Esme asks, she is a smart one.
I sigh, looking to Ivy for the go ahead to tell them, she nods. She clenches onto Alice, hoping to help her through this part.
"So, like I said, we were young, but you're right Esme, these are dangerous times. When Ivy and I were younger, the dark times were just starting to take full effect, so we did make one small loophole to the vow." I looked to Dumbledore, the only person who knows the loophole we so expertly created at the age of eight. "If there ever is a situation where the other person must be left behind, like captured or some other dangerous situation, the only way that vow can go without being broken is if the person captured was to die." I tried to explain as clearly as possible.
"So a scenario, say a deatheater was to capture me," Ivy starts and both Alice and I wince, " If Callie could not get to me, if all hope was lost, I would have to die in order to save Callie." Everything is silent, "Which I most certainly would."
I can't help but smile at the girl I call my best friend.
"I would too."
Dumbledore smiles at the two of us,
"The model of what a Gryffindor would do, my sweet darlings."
"I have another question," Jasper says. We all look at him, hoping this one would be easier to answer.
"What is with the houses? Why the four seperate ones?"
We all sigh in relief.
"Oh, that one is easy mate. The four houses reflect the most prominent trait of the wizard."
"What's Gryffindor?" Alice asks, curiously.
"The house of the brave, of course." I sing, and Ivy laughs.
"What about the Slytherin house that Malfoy kid is in?"
Jasper asks, looking to me.
This time, Dumbledore is the one to answer. His face goes a little dark as he replies,
"The house of the clever, a very important one if you ask me. Some great wizards have come from that house, terribly great."
Ivy shutters as he talks about Voldemort. I do not flinch an inch, I never have been afraid of the name, or of him. Now that I know I am an Evans, it is even more crucial that I do not show any sign of weakness.
Dumbledore stroke his beard in thought, finally snapping out of his thinking, he looked over to me. 
"I think that is enough questions for today, what do you think?" He asks, I can see the scared and concerned faces.
"Finally something we agree with." I whisper. The Cullens all nod as well, not wanting to hear anymore today.
Dumbledore excused himself for bed, as he had an early start in the morning. It was Ivy and I's last year, so we only had two classes in the late afternoon, something I was very thankful  for. I didn't feel like sleeping yet.
We all just sat there for a moment, the Cullens sipping their blood in silence.
"Can we ask you guys some more questions? We don't mean to be a bother, we are just curious." Ivy sighs but nods and I wait for the questions to come.
"Voldemort?" Eddie asks, looking towards us.
"He's a bad man." Ivy whispers.
"No. He's not a bad man." I start, "Bad men kill a person, or rob a store. Voldemort shouldn't be insulted to be put with that lot. Voldy is the worst."
Carlisle looks interested.
"He kills army's, children, parents." I pause for a second, realizing I had just referred to Lily as my parent for the first time, Eddie catches onto this, reading my mind.
He walks up to me and pats my shoulder,giving me a small smile. I like him, he seems so familiar to me, I have no idea why.
I smile at him in return, then carry on with explaining,
"Uhh, so you guys know a lot about history, as you guys have lived it. Imagine that Hitler dude, but like seventy times worst." Ivy says, trying to show the severity of our situation.
"He can't be that bad." Rose says, I smile at her a little. Her and I have gotten a bit closer since our first meeting a few weeks ago, even when I came back to Hogwarts, I kept contact.
"I wish he wasn't. Unfortunately, he seems to have a bit of a problem with my family. Well, my mom's side anyways."
"So why does he kill people? Like what's his motivation? Alice asks in a small voice as she holds tightly to Ivy. I feel bad for what she's about to hear. I feel bad for the role life has given Ivy.
"Blood status." I say simply, getting confused looks back. Ivy sighs and follows with an explanation.
"There are pure bloods,"
"People like Harry, Ron, and Ced." I give examples, Ivy nodding wildly.
"Then there are half bloods,"
"People like me. One magical parent and one muggle."
"Muggle?" Rose gives another confused look, starting to look irritated about all she doesn't know. I know how she is feeling.
"Human."  I clarify, which gets a nod.
"Then there are people who are born to two muggles, like me." Ivy states,
"So neither of your parents are wizards?" Jasper asks, clearly shocked. Ivy is an amazing witch, many think she is a pure blood. However, if Hermione proved one thing it's that sometimes the best witches come from not so magical backgrounds.
Ivy nods in response.
"My mum is a hairdresser in London, she is quit good, if I do say so." I laugh but nod, agreeing with her, "Dad works for an advertising company."
All of the Cullens nod.
"Pure bloods get all the hype. Their families are usually rich, like super rich. The Malfoys own this huge mansion and probably have like half a dozen vaults at Gringotts." I explain as I lazily slump on the comfy chair by Jasper.
"What's his problem with you anyways?" Emmett asks, I shrug.
"He doesn't like non pure bloods. I'm a half blood, so Malfoy things I am below him."
"Which you're not." Jasper says, he says it like it is a fact.
"To some, I am. No matter how good of a witch I am. Blood is everything to some people."
"So you're a muggle born witch?"
Carlisle asks, looking to Ivy. She nods.
"Yes. Like I said, both mum and dad are muggles. Voldemort is trying to get rid of people like me. I'm supposedly unclean." She explains.
They all give small nods and are silent.