ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏᴜʀᴛʜ ᴡᴀʟʟ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀꜱ ᴇʀᴀ

iv. discoveries

The Marauders didn't stay in the shack for too long. Callie eventually dismissed them and told them to attend their classes even if James and Sirius refused to.

They wanted to do Step 1 already but Callie told them it won't be as easy as grabbing a book in the library. And with Remus' encouragement, the two gave up and made their way outside the shack with heavy feet and disappointed grunts.

They were unsure at first whether it was a good idea to leave her by herself. But Callie assured them it was. No one would be able to come inside so her existence will remain as it is-a secret. Only Professor McGonagall could if she suspected a thing.

After they left, Callie started cleaning the room, but not after she got her selfie all over the place. Even in the cave-like entrance of the shack, she had a photo of her smiling widely as if she won the lottery. She even had so many blurred photos because of jumping around, her chestnut hair hiding her face.

She couldn't just pass the opportunity to take a picture inside the Shrieking Shack, could she? But Callie must remind herself not to use her cellphone too much. If it died, she wouldn't be able to use it anymore. There might be information there that they could use to their advantage.

After taking her pictures that she planned to put in a physical photo album once she got home (and maybe make a shrine out of it), she looked for a broom and rags to clean the place. She would stay in the shack for quite some time, she would need to clean it. She still had to even if it would ruin its original image.

Callie couldn't bear getting sick. That was the last situation she wanted to be in. Fortunately, she found a barely working broom and chose to use the feathers peaking out of the pillows as a duster.

The place wasn't too big but it was covered in thick dust. Some places were even thicker. Callie concluded that maybe no one had touched the area that was why. She had to take off her robe and hang it somewhere where it wouldn't be dirtied. Her phone, wand, and the map were just beside it.

She was then in her trousers and black shirt designed with a footmark of a stag, a dog, a wolf, and a rat, with the Marauders' nicknames in white.

She kept her chestnut hair in a half bun so her bangs wouldn't get in the way. Lucky for her, she had a hair tie around her wrist. Girls never knew when you would need a hair tie so always keep one in hand.

The cleaning took hours until every corner of the room was as clean as she could. She had dusted off the bed and pillows-they made her cough nonstop-and so did the furniture. The curtain around the four-posters even though ripped, managed to somehow look eye-pleasing. The pillows managed to still be puffed and soft, though they weren't as long as they were.

The furniture that was missing a part or two looked still functional. The piano was dustless, some of its keys she couldn't save but it still worked. If she could play, she already did. Unfortunately, Callie wasn't gifted with such talent.

This is what Callie would love to call, the Callie Magic; the ability to turn the most trashy thing into a still functional object. When she didn't know Hogwarts existed (however her situation now was possible), she would make up things as her magical ability, such as this one.

Tired, she let herself fall on the bed with a loud huff. No dust could be sighted, not even the slightest.
She let her mind process everything that happened just within a few hours. It was surreal, to say the least.

Being in the world she could only see through movies, imagine through reading books. It felt too surreal; too good to be true. Callie even had to pinch herself to prove that that wasn't just a dream. To her glee, it wasn't. She couldn't describe the happiness flowing through her system.