Discussions

Romulus' Office, March 13th

"You wanted to talk to me, father?"

Glancing at his daughter from behind his desk, Romulus Rosier smiled. "Please, have a seat. How have your classes been?"

"Good. Professor Cherny approved of my spell creation project."

Romulus nodded. "Yes, he mentioned it. Some kind of illusion charm. I look forward to seeing the final product."

Calypso remained silent. Her father was not the kind of man to call her into his office to talk about her academic progress.

"What can you tell me about Mr. Potter of late?"

Doing her best not to give anything away, Calypso said, "His Charms project is really starting to take sha–"

"I mean personally, Calypso."

"Nothing that I can thi–"

A stinging hex smacked into Calypso's knuckles causing her to shriek in surprise.

"Don't lie." Romulus chided.

"I don't know. Something happened. I-I don't know what. He's different now," Calypso said, struggling to explain herself suddenly. "When he's not using Occlumency, he's... well, he's not really nervous or scared, but he's..."

"On edge," Romulus supplied thoughtfully. "I've noticed, though I had hoped you would know what caused it."

"I don't," Calypso said, feeling her father's Legilimency reaching out to confirm her truthfulness. "Harry always has his wand either drawn or easily accessible now, even when he's walking between classes. There was an accident in spell creation the other day. This girl was showing Professor Cherny her final project idea when there was an accidental explosion. Harry had a shield around himself before anyone else had their wand out, and the way he was looking at the girl who was responsible.... I've never seen Harry look that angry before, but in a blink of an eye he was seemingly back to normal and getting back to work. Whatever is bothering him, he's using Occlumency to hide it."

"How long has it been going on?"

Calypso shrugged. "I don't know. A few weeks at least. I tried asking about it a few times, but he just closes off behind his Occlumency."

"Have you done anything?" Romulus asked.

"No," Calypso said emphatically.

Romulus leaned back in his chair. "His spell work has improved of late."

"I heard about his last duel," Calypso said, sensing that was the true reason behind her father's interest.

"Yes, he was very good..." Romulus trailed off in remembrance. Harry Potter had always been among the top duelists in Dark Arts; however, after two years, Romulus felt confident that he had the young man's style pegged for the most part. Typically, Potter would use his superior knowledge of spells to weather any initial attack, and then counter with everything from curses to Transfiguration. However, his last duel ended in a matter of moments. It was quick, brutal, and rather unexpected.

"You need to figure out what caused this change," Romulus said. "The other professors have begun to notice something is amiss with him, though they suspect it stems from the threat on his brother's life at Hogwarts."

Calypso fought the urge to roll her eyes. "I've tried, father. He doesn't want to talk about it. I can only hope he'll tell me when he's ready."

"This isn't a request." Romulus narrowed his eyes angrily at his daughter's reaction. "You are to find out and report back to me. We will speak every week at this time until the end of the semester. I expect to keeped up to date on your progress. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir." Calypso angrily stood up and left the room without waiting to be dismissed.