Calliope could not remember sitting through a longer night than that one. No one moved from the kitchen table, no one slept or talked apart from to ask what the time it was. After hours upon hours of sitting Calliope finally broke the silence.

She had been continuously listening to the whispers, which were slowly fading away until they grew very quiet and faded to their usual background noise.

"He's okay," Calliope said, "He's not going to die."

The tension in the shoulders of all of the Weasleys visibly deflated, and Calliope felt Fred's emotions change to relief.

Around an hour later Molly Weasley showed up, confirming what Calliope had told them, Arthur was going to be okay. He would have to spend a month or so in St Mungos, but he was going to be okay. 

Sirius provided them all with breakfast and offered for the Weasleys to stay at Grimmauld Place to be nearer to the wizarding hospital, Molly immediately took him up on this offer, telling her children that they could visit their father later that day and that for now, they all needed to get a good night's sleep.

Before going to bed Calliope had to do one thing, she wrote a letter to Natalie, apologising a thousand times for the fact that they would not be able to spend Christmas together. It was not possible for Natalie to come to headquarters, Calliope knew this, there was no way that Dumbledore would allow it.

Calliope felt a heavy sense of guilt for condemning Natalie to spend Christmas with her family, and this wasn't helped by the fact that she herself was the reason Natalie hadn't been getting along with her family.

Calliope sent this letter off with Harry's owl Hedwig, who had arrived not long after them. Harry and Ron were sending Hermione a letter, so Calliope just added her's on.

Once Hedwig was gone Calliope found her way back to the bed she had slept in over the summer and fell into a restless sleep, full of dreams about snakes and weapons that Voldemort's hands reached towards endlessly.

********

As the Weasleys and Harry all left later that day to see Arthur, Calliope felt very strange not to be going with them. Although she was close to Fred and George, she didn't know their father awfully well. She was also satisfied that he was okay, as if he were anywhere close to death she would be able to sense it. Calliope hadn't seen her grandfather or Remus in months, so she had asked to spend the rest of the day with them at Grimmauld Place.

It would be refreshing to spend some quality time with the parental figures in her life, as she had missed them both for the last few months. She hadn't been able to properly transcribe her worries to them either, as letters were being checked as they made their way in and out of the castle.

"Calliope!" Elphias said in a hushed tone (so not to wake Mrs Black) when she let him and Remus into Grimmauld Place, he smiled and swept his granddaughter up in a hug. 

"Let's head downstairs," suggested Remus after hugging Calliope, "we can talk more."

Once they had seated themselves in the kitchen, and each had steaming cups of tea in front of them, Remus began to question Calliope on how things at Hogwarts were going.

"Not very good," Calliope admitted, "Umbridge is foul, she keeps putting out these stupid educational decrees which stop us doing everything!"

"We've heard," said Elphias grimly.

"And she gives out detentions in which she makes people use this cursed quill that uses your own blood as the ink and carves the lines into your skin-"

"What?" Remus and Elphias both demanded, looking scandalised. 

"Did you not know?"

"Has she used it on you?" Remus asked.

"She tried," admitted Calliope, "I write the lines and everything, but the cuts on my hand healed really quickly, and then they appeared on Fred's hand, isn't that strange? I mean we have this strange bond, but that was one thing that I definitely have no hope of ever explaining." Calliope attempted to pull a Natalie and over-explain something so that she could get away from the topic of the cursed quill. Both Remus and Elphias were worriers, she didn't want to burden either of them with this, she could handle anything that Umbridge threw at her.

"Don't change the subject Calliope," Elphias said seriously, "she used a device of torture on you?"

"Yes," Calliope said flatly, "but there's nothing we can do about it. Educational Decree Number Twenty Five gives Umbridge authority over all punishments."

"Calliope, if Dumbledore had known..." Remus started.

"And give her the satisfaction of thinking she'd got to me? No way." Calliope said stubbornly.

Remus let out a sigh of defeat, once Calliope had her mind set on one thing, no matter how stupid, reckless or dumb, she would carry her idea through. She was not going to budge on this matter.

"You know," all eyes were drawn to Sirius who had been standing in the doorway, unseen by Remus, Elphias or Calliope, "I specifically remember Isaac saying that exact same sentence after Marlene pranked him in the sixth year."

"It's a common Doge trait," Remus smiled at the memory of his late friend.

"What is?" Elphias asked the two younger men.

"Stubbornness," said Remus and Sirius at the same time.

"Stubbornness?" Calliope repeated, glancing at Elphias, "I'm not stubborn!"

"Neither am I!" Elphias protested.

Remus and Sirius glanced at each other and burst out laughing. They could almost see Isaac in the middle of his daughter and father also complaining about how he wasn't stubborn.