Bonded

Twenty

It seemed that most of the school took a dislike to Umbridge. When one overheard conversations throughout the school, it was not uncommon for those conversations to involve the students blatantly abusing Umbridge.

Rumours of her horrific detention methods spread through the school like wildfire, as did a sudden wave of 'sickness' which only seemed to affect students (predominantly younger Gryffindors) in Umbridge's classes. Calliope didn't doubt that the twins' skiving snack boxes were behind this.

Calliope's headspace had improved, as she tried to look ahead rather than ponder on what had happened the previous year, and as her mood had improved, so had Fred's. However, neither Calliope nor Fred had the time to think too hard about this, as they were both literally and figuratively drowning in school work. Despite all of the extra work Calliope had put in over the summer, there was still quite a lot for her to catch up on, plus the mountains of homework that the teachers were piling on the Seventh years all meant that Calliope spent a considerable amount of time in the library.

Fred didn't seem to like the idea of her going to the library by herself, so he accompanied her. With very little else for him to do, Fred also found himself working.

"She's a bad influence on you Fred," George huffed as he watched Fred had in a Charms essay for Professor Flitwick, "she's changing you! Making you work, I don't like it!"

But Fred was finding it difficult to be away from Calliope for too long, as an impending sense of dread seemed to fill him at all moments, the only thing that could soothe this being Calliope's presence. 

"Shut up George," Fred rolled his eyes.

"I'm serious Freddie," George joked, "if you're not careful you might actually pass one of your N.E.W.Ts."

"Yeah, like that's going to happen," Fred shook his head.

Fred didn't care much about his N.E.W.Ts. He knew that if he said this to Calliope or his mother that they would both berate him for disregarding education, Calliope with a mere look and his mother, no doubt, through the use of a howler. 

Calliope had mastered the use of facial expressions in a way that Fred had never seen before. Sometimes she fixed him with a look that made him want to blurt out the dread that he was feeling, and other times she could make him laugh with a just a simple raise of an eyebrow, he had never met anyone who could say so much with so few words.

Fred quickly found himself struggling to remember what his life had been like before the events of the previous year, as Calliope was now such a major part of his life that he was struggling to remember what it had been like before he knew her.

Of course, spending so much time with Calliope also meant he was spending a considerable amount of time with the ever-talkative Natalie Hughes, with whom George already seemed to share a close friendship. The two had sought solace in the other in Fred and Calliope's absence, as no one else seemed to understand what they were going through; George had lost his brother and Natalie her sister.

"I sometimes wonder why you all have ginger hair," Natalie told Fred one day a few weeks into term, "I mean a lot of things had to happen for all of you to be ginger, because I know it's a Weasley gene to be ginger, but your mum had to be ginger too, because- as my dad's muggle brother tells me- ginger hair is a recessive gene, meaning both of your parents have to be ginger for you to have a 100% chance of also being ginger. So did your dad meet your mum and be like 'this one is ginger, I want this one' or was it a coincidence?" Natalie looked at Fred expectantly. Fred had stopped pouring milk on his cereal, as he stared open-mouthed at Natalie.

"How on earth did you come up with all of that?" Fred asked.

"Hughes here thinks as she speaks," George patted Natalie on the back, "a talent that I am awaiting seeing in use against Umbridge."

"I don't think as I speak!" Natalie complained, "I speak what I think, there's a difference!"