Bonded

Twenty-Eight

The first quidditch match of the season was to take place on the second Saturday of November. It was Slytherin Vs Gryffindor, so naturally, the Hufflepuffs had all turned out in support of the Gryffindors, but none quite as loudly as Natalie.

The girl screamed, stamped her feet and cursed the Slytherins every time they scored, which was quite a lot, as Ron was not exactly the best Keeper that Hogwarts had ever seen. His skills were not helped by the song that the Slytherins had composed 'Weasley is Our King', which seemed to be designed specifically to put Ron off, and it was working splendidly.

The score was forty-ten to Slytherin when the crowd let out a great gasp as Harry and Malfoy both dived for the snitch. Harry pulled out of the dive with the snitch clutched in his hand, holding it aloft- wham- Harry was hit in the back by a bludger, and tumbled off his broom landing on the ground just a few feet below.

"Who hit that?" Natalie demanded, "That is so against the rules, once the snitch is caught the game is over! It was Crabbe, wasn't it! I hate those Slytherin fifth-years, they're so entitled. He should get banned from playing for that foul! It was completely illegal-" Natalie continued to rant about how disgusting the foul was, but Calliope stopped paying attention, as a jolt of anger coursed through her body. 

This sensation felt removed from her own emotions, and it wasn't until she spotted Fred, George and Harry giving Draco Malfoy murderous looks. Calliope quickly put two and two together and realised that the jolt of anger was Fred's and he was about to kill Malfoy. He was being restrained by all three of the Gryffindor Chasers, whilst Harry restrained George from jumping on Malfoy.

Before she knew it, Calliope was on the pitch, standing right in front of Fred. George and Harry had just jumped on Malfoy and were hitting every part of his body.

Fred broke three of the girls and started forwards before he spotted Calliope and stopped in his tracks. Their eyes met, and Calliope didn't need any words to tell Fred to stop, to think about what he was doing.

"Impedimenta!" Someone yelled Harry and George were pushed away from Malfoy.

"Callie!" Natalie shook Calliope's arm as she returned to her own body, "you okay Callie? You totally zoned out there, you missed it! It was great, Harry and George beat Malfoy up, muggle style!"

"C'mon, we have to go," Calliope got to her feet. Grabbing Natalie's arm she hurried out of the stands and onto the pitch. The shouting and jeering of the crowd was still loud as Harry and George marched off of the pitch, ordered away by Madam Hooch who had been the one to cast the Impedimenta charm.

Fred stood in the same position that Calliope had left him, still glaring at Malfoy (who was being tended to by Madam Pomfrey) and still shaking with rage. Angelina, Katie and Alicia were regarding him as if he were a bomb that was about to go off at any moment. Calliope could almost feel the anger radiating from him, and she knew that there was only one possible explanation for Fred being this angry. Malfoy had insulted his family.

Calliope approached him warily and touched his arm. Fred's gaze moved from Malfoy to Calliope. He visibly seemed to relax at her touch.

"I'm going to kill him," Fred told her.

"No you're not," said Calliope.

"No I'm not," sighed Fred, "but I'll damn well bring him close to death."

********

Fred, George and Harry were all given a life-long ban of Quidditch. This left both of the twins fuming for a few days, and it wasn't until Friday that Calliope and Fred finally came upon the topic of the realization Calliope had made when Fred was about to beat Malfoy up.

"Why did you let him get to you so much?" Calliope sighed. She and Fred were sat on a windowsill in an empty corridor and Fred had just finished complaining about Malfoy again, "you were so angry, I could feel it radiating off of you-"

"You what?" Fred frowned.

"I know it sounds strange, but it was almost as if I could feel your anger, but I was detached from it, which is how I knew it wasn't my own emotion," said Calliope.

"It doesn't sound strange," said Fred, blinking as he registered what she was saying, and how it explained a lot of the strangely detached emotions that he had felt in the past few months, "I think I've been feeling your anxiety. Every time that I'm away from you I have this strange detached feeling of anxiety..." he trailed off, realising that he had just accused Calliope of feeling anxious whenever they were apart. There was nothing wrong with this is in his eyes, after everything that Calliope had been through it wasn't a shock that she needed support.

Calliope nodded and seemed lost in thought, as all of the moments that she had these detached emotions surfaced in her brain. Annoyance over the summer when Fred and George were fighting with Molly, excitement when Fred played or practiced Quidditch and countless other examples.

"Everytime that one of us feels a particularly strong emotion.." Calliope started.

"The other feels it too" Finished Fred.

"This bond is going to be the death of us," said Calliope.

"I hope not."