ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏᴜʀᴛʜ ᴡᴀʟʟ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀꜱ ᴇʀᴀ

xxxiii. under the thousand stars

It was in the middle of the night. An owl cawed and it resonated around. Callie watched the stars sprinkled on the sky. She had been awake for a few minutes now. She couldn't count how many but probably for half an hour.

She assumed everyone was asleep. James was snoring as she had expected. Sirius as well.

As quietly as she could, she sat up and looked around. They were spread out on the ground just beside their burnt tent. Callie sighed. What happened just came back to her.

The fire, Bellatrix, the Death Eaters.

She shook her head as she tried to wipe the event off. She didn't want any memory of that stuck with her 'till the end of her life. Especially Voldemort's message to her.

She had no idea what time it was. And her deadline was sunrise. She had to be at the Manor by sunrise. She had to decide what to do now.

Callie pushed herself up only to feel a striking pain in her abdomen. She hissed with as little volume as possible and sat back again. She put her hand on the painful part of her stomach and looked down at it. It was dark but the moonlight helped her look at it.

She raised her shirt and saw a purple swell right where it hurt. Right, when Bellatrix attacked them, they fell and she hit a rock.

Great.

Biting her lip to try to ease the pain, Callie tried to get up again. She had to think. She couldn't with all the noise James and Sirius were making. God, so young yet they snore like old men.

Callie managed to get up dismissing any pain only to fail. She looked for her bag and immediately found it on her makeshift pillow— was that the blouse Regulus gifted her? Never mind.

They must've taken it off her while she was asleep. Falling asleep from crying so hard was so different from fainting. Callie liked neither.

She wandered off but made sure she knew where she was going. She took her wand and lit it up to find her way.

Without her knowledge, someone followed her.

She found a nearby area, just a few walks away. It has three to five trees cut right before their roots. The place should be enough for her to do any thinking.

Callie sat on the trunk of the tree. And sighed. Her shoulders dropped and she looked up at the skies.

"What should I do?" She tried making patterns, connecting the stars as though they were dots, trying to find any answer hidden in the galaxy. "Mom, Dad? Bria?" Her lips quivered, knowing who she'd call next. "Bubbles?"

Bubbles was always her to go before and after his death. Callie always talked to him whether he heard it, understood it, or not.

And so, she put her hand in her bag and searched for a small stone. The Resurrection Stone.

Callie felt it and took it out. The stone was small in her hands, unbalanced as if it didn't belong there. Or rather, she didn't belong to it.

She stared at it and asked herself, "Should I do it? Should I hold onto someone who no matter what can't come back?"

But she knew she needed Bubbles more than ever. She needed someone to help her decide the best course of action. Should she or should she not surrender to Voldemort?

So Callie closed her eyes and pressed the stone on her palm it almost hurt. And she thought of Bubbles, his bark, his soft, golden hair, his weird smiles. Callie laughed at the memory.

Then a bark again. She thought it was just part of the memory but Callie knew she heard it. So she opened her eyes. And in front of her Bubbles sat, wagging his tail with that weird smile of his.