The Boy // A Harry Potter Story

4

I couldn't just hang around with my sisters at school; or at least, I had to make some friends.

How I got my first was a bit strange. We were walking to our first class, Transfiguration, when a young girl with black sweeping, glossy hair and bright, big big big blue owl eyes and round sparkling glasses grabbed me on the shoulder.

"Don't move!" she squeaked.

"Oh, uh, why?" I asked.

"Behind you.... It's the Bloody Baron and I didn't think you'd fancy walking through him." she replied. I turned around and saw nothing, expecting to see the Baron.

"Um, he's not there though," I told her.

"He is. You can't see him. I can." she insisted.

"What? How?" I asked, interested and barely believing.

"Yeah. Most people don't believe it. Dad tried to send me to therapy for my version of second sight. But Mum knows. She's the Divination teacher, actually. She understands the burden of doubt people weigh us with." she sighed.

"I'm Sapphire Simberly," I held out my hand, assuming the poor girl would probably not get many friends if she could "see" ghosts.

"Calliope Magnolia," she smiled and shook.

"Cool name," I commented. 

"Thanks," she grinned. "Calliope was my grandmother's middle name. She told me so herself."

"Oh, cool, is she a seer too?" I asked.

"She was. She's dead though, now. She talks to me though. You know, second sight," she tapped her head knowingly.

"Oh." I said. What a weird girl. Did I believe her? I dunno. "Hey, if your sight is real, tell the Bloody Baron to knock over that vase.

"You could have told him that but ok," Calliope shrugged. "Baron, knock over that vase for Sapphire so she believes. Please."

CRASH. The vase knocked over. I clapped my hand over my mouth. No way.

"You're cool," I said.

"Aww, thanks." she smiled. "Wish everyone else thought seeing ghosts is cool."

And that's how I befriended the Divination teacher's second sight daughter, Calliope Magnolia.