"Screamer, you've got to calm down," Fred shook her shoulders slightly, "I know that this Umbridge woman is a mythic bitch, but that doesn't mean you're allowed to kill her."

"I don't want to kill her," Calliope jolted back to reality, looking straight up into Fred's face, "why would you think I want to kill her? I don't want to kill anyone."

"Well, the look on your face suggested otherwise," said George who stood with his arms crossed beside Calliope and Fred.

"And the things that she was saying warranted me giving her that look," Calliope replied, "But that  doesn't mean I want her dead, I just have a brilliant death glare."

"Callie, I don't think you should use that death glare, I genuinely thought you were going to kill her," Fred sighed, taking his hands away from her shoulders.

"As I said, I don't want her dead," Calliope repeated, "maybe just seriously injured or in a coma. Maybe brain dead-"

"No, you are not allowed to threaten people," said George, shaking his head, "you're too small and sweet to be threatening people."

Calliope blushed slightly, "I'm not small!"

"Callie, you are kind of small," Fred reasoned.

"I'm not sweet."

"You're too sweet for your own good," Fred responded quickly. George frowned and looked between Fred and Calliope, who had begun bickering back and forth now as Calliope attempted to argue that she was not sweet or cute but that she was terrified and a force to be reckoned with, the question on George's mind as his brother and the banshee bickered was how on earth are these two not dating yet?

********

"I don't like her!" Lee Jordan passed Calliope, Fred and George their bags when the lesson finally finished and the group headed down towards the Great Hall for lunch together.

"Well, Fred and I were thinking that we really ought to give her the proper Hogwarts welcome," said George with a sly grin.

"I don't like what that implies," Calliope said.

"Then don't listen," Fred shrugged, "anyway, we were thinking that we should test out those telescopes that we've been working on."

"But aren't they the ones that gave me that massive bruise that Madam Pomfrey had to jinx off?" Lee asked.

"Exactly," George winked.

"I have absolutely no part in this," Calliope told the twins and Lee.

"We plant it in her office, then as soon as she picks it up to have a look at what it is, it punches her and she has to walk around with a massive bruise for days," George continued, ignoring Calliope.

"Simple, yet effective," Lee grinned.

"Is it too simple though?" Fred wondered, "we want to show her that we mean business, maybe we should start with something a bit bigger? We could test out the Nosebleed Nougat on her, we still can't get rid of those blisters and I'd love to see her hobbling around with blisters on her-"

"I really don't want to to know where the blisters are going to be, I'm about to eat lunch," said Lee, shaking his head.

"Well mate, they'll be on her arse," George grinned, "they'll be slap band on her arse, which, let me tell you, will make sitting on a chair a right pain in the arse, literally."

"And with that, I'm going to eat with Natalie," Calliope had spotted Natalie sitting alone at the Hufflepuff table as they entered the Great Hall, "I'll see you lot after."

Calliope made her way over to the Hufflepuff table and sat herself down opposite Natalie, who was prodding a piece of bread around a bowl of tomato soup and reading a long letter that was making her frown darkly.

"Who's the letter from?" Calliope asked as she grabbed a plate.

"My parents," Natalie finished reading the letter and screwed it up in a ball, she jumped to her feet and hurried over to the large fireplace  (which was at the opposite end of the hall) and flung the balled up parchment into the flames. The act showed clearly how angry Natalie was, as she was not one to willingly move from her position in the hall, especially seen as she had bagged herself a seat at her favourite spot on the table (right beside the large platter of sausages).

"Are you okay?" Calliope said as Natalie sat back down with a loud sigh.

"Oh I'm great," Natalie pursed her lips and stabbed her floating piece of bread with her fork and began eating it.

Now Calliope really knew that something was up. If there was one thing Calliope had learnt about Natalie in their years of friendship it would be that a silent Natalie was not a happy Natalie.

"What's wrong?" Calliope asked after a period of awkward silence.

"Nothing is wrong!" Natalie's voice was becoming slightly shrill.

"Natalie, what's the matter?" Calliope asked again.

"Those spineless gits!" Natalie stabbed a sausage with her fork and began to viciously cut it into smaller pieces, "those utter cowards think they can tell me what to do!"

Calliope was confused about which utter cowards Natalie was referring to, but it seemed that now Natalie had started talking, she wasn't about to stop anytime soon.

"He doesn't even have his own opinions, he just goes along with whatever Mum tells him," Calliope now realised that she was calling her parents utter cowards, "listen to your mother Natalie, don't speak to your mother like that, Natalie your mother was talking to you don't walk away!" Natalie imitated her father, "and the worst thing is that her opinions are stupid so I don't want to listen to them! If she had justified opinions then I would listen, but her opinions aren't justified, they're ridiculous and- gah!"

Natalie began angrily eating the sausage that she had been viciously cutting up and was now in pieces so small that a newborn baby could have easily swallowed them.

"What is she saying?" Calliope asked Natalie quietly, not wanting to further aggravate her friend.

"She has banned me from seeing you," Natalie growled, "which is stupid because she must know that there's no way I'm going to stop seeing you! But she threatened to pull me out of school and homeschool me instead unless I promise to leave you alone. I swear as soon as I turn seventeen in January I'm not going back there, I'll be a free woman Callie, and when you win your Order Of Merlin First Class for curing Dragon Pox or something I'll be stood right next to you on the front page of the Daily Prophet making this gesture at my mum." Natalie made a rude gesture.

Calliope stared at her friend, a little in awe of how she was placed above Natalie's own family in her mind.

"Natalie, I don't want you falling out with your family because of me," Calliope said in a small voice, "I won't take it personally if you don't want to sit with me anymore."

"Stop," Natalie suddenly looked very stern as she placed down her cutlery, swallowed her sausage and looked Calliope straight in the eye, "Callie, you're my family. You're practically my sister! You put up with more of my rambling than the entire rest of the world, I don't know where I'd be without you. If my parents can't see how much you mean to me, then I don't care what they think."

Calliope's mouth hung open as she continued to stare at Natalie. But she couldn't fault the girl's logic. Natalie was the closest thing to a sister that Calliope ever had, and she didn't know how to describe the relationship that they shared other than that of sisters.