Whispers

Prologue

Natalie and George exchanged a look as they returned to the flat above the shop after a long day's work of putting the finishing touches to the shop and found Fred curled in the same spot on the sofa that he had been in that morning. The plate of food that Natalie had laid on the coffee table for him to eat remained untouched and even his eyes stared at the same patch of wall that he had been looking at that morning.

It had been three weeks since the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Three weeks since the ministry of magic finally accepted that Voldemort had returned. Three weeks since Arthur Weasley died.

It had been two weeks since Arthur's funeral, which was the last time anyone had seen hyde or hair of Calliope Doge. She left Fred's side at the grave and by the time the twins returned to the flat all of her belongings were gone and she was nowhere to be found.

It had been around a week and a half since Natalie had essentially moved into the flat after a blazing row with her parents. She was supposed to be sleeping on the sofa, but as Fred occupied that spot almost 24/7 she found herself sleeping in Calliope's vacated room.

Fred was just getting progressively worse. George remembered the small amount of time that Fred and Calliope had been apart from each other the previous summer and how sick it had made Fred. He couldn't begin to fathom Calliope's reasons behind this disappearing act, but he was sure that she was in a similar state to Fred, so he was sure it would only be a matter of time until she returned. 

What he didn't count on was how stubborn Calliope was.

After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries Sirius was cleared of all of the charges against him and was finally a free man. The very first thing he did was purchase a house and move swiftly away from Grimmauld Place, vowing never to go back there. It was no secret how much he hated the house, and no one else was particularly fond of it either. With a lot of work, the Order had convinced Dumbledore to move the headquarters of the Order to Elphias' heavily protected house, meaning that Grimmauld Place was completely deserted, even Kreacher having moved out with Sirius. It was the perfect place for Calliope to hide, to isolate herself so that she couldn't hurt anyone else. 

To her surprise, she didn't suffer illness as badly as Fred did. Perhaps it was because she knew that he was physically okay, or perhaps it was because on several occasions she had given in to the urge to check that Fred was okay and in the dead of night visited him in her astral form, just long enough to see that he wasn't physically injured, before retreating back to her solitude for fear that he may wake and see her.

Calliope was never fully alone. The whispers tormented her, showing her visions of muggles and wizards alike being killed and tortured. She struggled to remain afloat in the sea of despair that they bought with them, but fought to keep her emotions in check because she knew that everything she felt would have an impact on Fred.

"We need to do something," Natalie murmured to George as she removed the plate of food from in front of Fred and spread a blanket over him.

"Do what?" George asked.

Natalie shrugged, "anything other than let this happen."

But all they could do was wait.