Whispers

Thirty-Seven

It was hours before Calliope was able to tell everyone that Harry, Ron and Hermione were okay. Fred banished everyone to the kitchen whilst Calliope listened to the whispers.

Silence greeted her went she entered the kitchen, but she quickly alleviated the tension by telling everyone that Harry, Hermione were okay and were at Shell Cottage with Bill and Fleur. 

"I'm going to go and get Molly and Ginny now," said Calliope, "they can't stay at the Burrow and the Death Eaters will be looking for them now that they know Ron is with Harry."

Calliope did just that. She hurried to The Burrow and told Molly and Ginny to pack the essentials and move to stay with Calliope, Fred and George. Both women were frazzled by the command but seeing the urgency with which Calliope dolled it out hurried to comply.

They were settled in to sleep in the spare room, whilst Lee would take a camp bed on the floor of George's room.

"Is Harry alright?" Ginny demanded the second that she got the opportunity. "What happened?"

"They got caught by Snatchers and taken to Malfoy Manor," Calliope said, "I think that they're okay, they went straight to Bill and Fleur's. I think it would be best if you went home to Tonks," she directed this last part at Remus, who was already halfway out the door, now that he knew more about what had happened. Kingsley was already gone when Calliope returned from the Burrow. 

"What can we do Callie," Fred demanded, feeling the need for some kind of action.

"Absolutely nothing," said Calliope.

So absolutely nothing was exactly what they did. For days they attempted to entertain themselves, waiting for any news of progress in the war. Molly spent her time giving the house a deep clean, complaining about how the twins weren't taking care of their place. She spent several hours trying to scrub away the scorch marks on the ceiling of the kitchen, which was the result of Fred and George's various experiments gone wrong.  Calliope, Ginny, Fred, George and Lee played numerous muggle board games to pass the time, along with conducting a league of wizarding chess, which Ginny was triumphant in.

The twins' 20th birthday was a rather subdued affair that year. They were unable to exchange gifts as they had been unable to go out and purchase anything. 

The days passed very slowly, more and more news of deaths trickling in through order members who stopped by to pass on information to those present. Having cleaned the entire house multiple times, Molly busied herself knitting Remus and Tonks' new baby Teddy Lupin various clothing items until the poor baby was wearing only knitwear. 

Remus proudly stopped by at regular intervals to show of pictures of his son and leave copies of these for Teddy's newly appointed Godmother Calliope. Remus had argued that it was only right to have both her and Harry properly inducted into his family and there were no arguments from either Calliope or Harry, although Calliope knew in her heart that she would never be able to set a good example to a child with her track record.

Living in a house full of Weasleys was interesting to say the least. The twins were running a mail order service for their shop out of Fred and Calliope's bedroom, which meant that random explosions would often rock the house when something was stored incorrectly, leading to Calliope taking over on the storage of all items to ensure they were properly stowed. 

"What's that?" Calliope asked Ginny, having just witnessed the younger girl pocket something very quickly when Calliope entered the kitchen which was empty apart from Ginny who was perched on one of the counters.

"Nothing," Ginny replied too quickly.

Calliope narrowed her eyes and cocked her head slightly, "Ginny I live with the twins, I'm very good at working out when people are hiding magical items. What is that?"

A staring match was started, Ginny was never one to back down easy, but neither was Calliope. Eventually Ginny realised that Calliope was not going to back down either, so let our a rather frustrated sigh and plunged her hand into her pocket, withdrawing a single galleon and dropping it into the hand that Calliope outstretched to take the object.

On first glance, it was a normal galleon, however, on closer inspection Calliope recognised it as one of the enchanted galleons that Hermione had given out to all of the members of the DA in order for them to communicate.

"Why are you carrying this around?" Calliope asked.

"We were using them for communication with the DA at school," Ginny said, "When I left Neville promised me he would call me in when... well when the battle happens?"

"Battle?"

"Well we figured that as soon as Harry goes back to Hogwarts, which he will, then we would be fighting off the Carrows and taking back the school," said Ginny. At that very moment, the coin burnt uncomfortably hot in Calliope's hand and the numerals around the edge changed. 

Harry is here, we're going to fight

Seeing the expression on Calliope's face, Ginny seized the coin from Calliope's hand and read the message. Without hesitating for a second the girl sprinted off to grab her wand, shouting to all of the other inhabitants of the house that it was time. 

It would all end soon.