Callie tightly clutched the blanket covering her and James. They glided through the long corridors of the Hogwarts castle, being as silent as they possibly could. The hallways were empty; the classes were starting but the four Gryffindors weren't in them.
Careful not to bump into anything, Callie kept herself close to James as they strode in perfect unison.
Outside the blanket, no one could see them. No one would suspect that there was a stranger who got into Hogwarts. No one would suspect that the stranger alongside a Marauder was going outside the castle. All thanks to James’ Invisibility Cloak.
Their destination was the Shrieking Shack. They believed it was the safest place to discuss the plan Callie had been talking about. It would also keep them from being caught. If Remus’ fury problem was never discovered, how could she?
They couldn't afford to answer tons of questions with the likes of who was Callie, how did she get there, what was her business, et cetera. They had to keep her existence a secret, at least for now. And the Shrieking Shack was the perfect place to hide.
Bringing down Voldemort seemed to be a near impossibility; the boys saw it like that at first. But Callie had this determined look that even if they had doubts, they agreed with her. It wouldn’t hurt to try right? Right?
The plan was to bring all of them inside the shack through the Whomping Willow. They would use James' invisibility cloak to not be spotted. James and Peter would go back and forth to take the three with them.
Peter and James went first so Peter could paralyse the tree. Then James went back inside to retrieve Sirius. Then it was Peter’s turn to pick up Remus. And lastly, it was James' turn to take Callie.
As they got closer to the tree, they could see Sirius' head poking in the entrance. Quickly, James kicked his foot to the ground so Sirius would know that they were near. The Whomping Willow was still paralyzed allowing the two to slip down inside after Sirius moved out of the way.
Callie yelped as she slid down as if she was riding a roller coaster. A loud thump echoed when her behind hit the hard ground. The speed and impact caused her to bounce a few times before finally landing on the dirt-filled ground.
"You alright there?" Sirius mockingly asked with a playful smirk, offering his hand. In a way, making fun of her was one of his petty revenge for the chaos she ensued inside.
He knew she didn’t mean those awful events to happen to them, but still. She brought the news. His anger was displaced on her despite her innocence. But after talking to Remus, he calmed down and realised she wasn’t who he should pour his anger out on.
"Thanks for the concern," Callie replied sarcastically, grabbing Sirius' hand and standing up with a loud groan. She dusted off her robes and palms which were unfortunate enough to be in contact with the dirt on the ground.
"All clear, Prongs!"
Soon after, a sliding noise was heard followed by a louder thud. Unlike Callie, James landed on his feet perfectly as if he was used to the practice. He was. After all, he had been sliding in the willow for years now.
Callie looked around. It was just rocks at first just like in a cave. But there was a stone stair leading upstairs just like what she saw in the movies. She immediately knew where it would lead.
"Ladies first," said Sirius, acting like a gentleman. The playful smirk was still dancing on his face as he motioned his hand to the stairs.
Callie, with a smile, shook her head and headed upstairs. The two boys followed her behind. Her head still craned around, eyes wandering throughout the place as if the dull rocks were the most fascinating sight she had ever laid eyes on.
A creaking wooden foyer welcomed her. Her smile even went wider as she climbed up the next flight of stairs leading to the room upstairs.
A dusty room welcomed her with Remus and Peter standing like two awkward statues. Their anxious eyes watched as she entered with the most captivated look they had ever seen.
It was…unusual, of course. Who would take a liking to a room that looked like it was trashed by a tornado?
The furniture was as if it would break if one would just put their weight on it. The mattress on the four-poster bed was ripped and so were the pillows that the feathers could be seen poking out. The curtains around the bed were also torn like rags. The piano was still working but some of its keys did not.
All of these were because of Remus' transformation.
"This isn't much but we hope it will be fine for you to hide for the meantime. It just needs a little bit of cleaning," said Remus coyly. As if an actual small amount of cleaning can compensate for the mess of the room.
"Oh no, you have no idea how this is more than fine to me. I'm in the Shrieking Shack!" Callie replied gleefully, her eyes gawking about.
The boys couldn’t understand. Not even a little bit. Callie only needed to speak a language that didn’t exist in this world before they considered her an alien.
A girl from a different world, who looks at a dishevelled place as if it were paradise and speaks an incomprehensible language; yes, that sounds pretty much like an alien. Callie was just missing the last criteria.
But they wouldn’t understand fangirls like Callie. How this place was a dream destination for her. And now, she would be staying in that place whilst they execute their little plan. If she was dreaming, she wouldn’t dare wake up.
And speaking of plan...
"All right, let's start discussing now, shall we?"
"It’s time you tell us what’s in that little head of yours?" Sirius asked behind her, leaning on the doorframe, hands in his pockets and legs crossed.
James was leaning on the wall adjacent to him, arms crossed.
"Well," Callie started, clasping her hands together as she paced around the place. "I sorted the plan in my head on our way here. It isn't complicated, so don't worry."
"Not complicated?" asked Remus. "I don't think we can bring down You-Know-Who that easily. Not that I'm doubting your plan, of course," he added quickly so as to not offend the girl.
"I said the plan isn't complicated, not the execution itself. Of course, defeating Voldemort won't be as easy as I will explain it. We will need a ton of luck."
None of the Marauders spoke so Callie took that as a prompt to continue.
"There are three steps to accomplish the objective — which is to kill Voldemort for good—"
"Three steps?" Peter interrupted. "Just three steps?"
"Yes, but with a lot of sub-steps and sub-sub-steps."
"Sub…sub-steps?" asked James in confusion.
"Yes, like step 1.1 and step 2.1.3. Something like that." It earned confused looks from the boys but neither of them spoke so Callie proceeded. "For the first step, we will need a weapon. Next, we have to make Voldemort completely mortal. And last, we kill him—" Once again, Callie was interrupted, this time by Peter again.
"’Completely mortal’, what do you mean?"
"Do you know what a Horcrux is?" she answered his question with another one.
The boys shook their heads, all except for Sirius who fell into deep thinking. "My father might have mentioned it when I was young. But I couldn't completely remember what it was." His seriousness felt like a new air for Callie. Maybe because she depicted him to be playful and sassy. That was what some fans predicted his young behaviour would be.
"It's something or someone where a wizard would put a part of their soul to be immortal. That's what Voldemort did. So in order for us to completely defeat him, we would need to destroy these Horcruxes and eventually his souls as well."
"Do you know how? Where are these things?" asked James.
"Of course,” she answers in a ‘duh’ tone.
"How about home? Don't you have a plan to go back?" Remus' question wiped the smug smile Callie had just plastered.
She wanted to go home, for sure. She couldn't be gone for too long, her parents and sister would be worried sick if she hadn't returned home by sunset. But how could she?
Callie had not even the slightest idea how she got there, what more how to go back. Even more so, she had put herself in a situation she couldn't just walk away from. She couldn't just bid her farewell to the Marauders after dropping them one bomb after another, could she?
Lastly, she was given an opportunity to make the lives of the people who had made her feel loved, who comforted her whenever the world was turning its back on her, and who painted a smile on her face, better.
She knew the moment she realised they were very real that Callie would do absolutely anything to give them the life they deserve. The life they could not afford.
With an assured smile painted on her lips, Callie replied, "Home can wait a little bit. We have a dark wizard in need to be defeated."
°°°
Originally published: 01.22.22