#yes callisto is more on the flighty side compared to her older sisters mia and tia (hey she's three years younger)

[carewyncromwell]

“You are shameless -- A shameless flirt! Showing some interest couldn't hurt! Some? You show the maximum. And you'd prefer I act like you? Afraid to show interest -- afraid it's taboo?”

~“Vaudeville: Leave Me Alone” from Sideshow

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brief mention of Kaari Arcano @kathrynalicemc​

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Once Jacob Cromwell passed all twelve of the NEWTs he sat for with flying colors in the spring of 1991, he left Hogsmeade village to travel the world. Mia was very glad to see him go -- those months of having to see his stupid, smiling face behind the bar of the Three Broomsticks had been an absolute headache to get through. And for the next few years, Mia didn’t collide with Jacob Cromwell once -- something she was very grateful for.

That didn’t mean that she didn’t hear anything about him, in those years. Rosmerta still received letters from Jacob and so spoke of him frequently (and fondly) to Jenie and Ambrosius Flume. There’d be times Mia would overhear some of the Hogwarts professors discussing Jacob, on their trips to Hogsmeade -- talking about how he’d been invited to lecture at Beauxbatons or some such and sounding pleased that he’d turned his life around for the better. Then of course there was the stuff Mia heard through her younger sister Callie.

Callisto “Callie” Flume was the youngest of the Flume sisters, and easily the most outgoing. People warmed up to her very quickly for her sense of humor and amiability, as well as her pretty smile and bold, slightly cheeky attitude. There were those who considered her a total flirt (Mia included), but that didn’t make her any less successful at the Wizarding Wireless Network, where she made her living as a radio host. Although yes, she primarily introduced each song played on the network and announced Network-sponsored contests and products, Callie also tried to arrange and broadcast interviews with well-regarded and/or famous wizards, to spice things up. Some of the interviews she’d arranged -- such as talking to the Irish National Quidditch Team when they first qualified to compete in the 1994 Quidditch World Cup -- had been rather fun to listen to, but others were far less so. Mia had to pause in her work and stroll to the other side of the kitchen so she could switch off the radio playing Callie’s interview with the Weird Sisters’ front-man Myron Wagtail in utter exasperation, after hearing her sister do little but pepper him with pointed compliments for nearly twenty minutes. 

One of the people Callie liked getting input from as a contributor, though, ended up being Mia’s sworn enemy, Jacob Cromwell. And yeah, Mia didn’t care for that at all. She was sure to remind Callie of that after she heard her younger sister had once again hosted Jacob on her radio show last month to ask him about the history of the Triwizard Tournament, in anticipation for the climatic Third Task. 

Callie, true to form, laughed the whole thing off. 

“Oh, come on, Mia,” she teased. “You’re not still all bent out of shape about Jacob, are you? Really, you snap your jaws so much whenever anyone brings him up, one would think you two are bitter exes or something...”

Mia shuddered in utter disgust. “Ugh, the idea! Who in the world would want to date that prat?” 

“Quite a few people, actually,” said Callie amusedly, adjusting her glasses on her nose with her middle finger. “Myron Wagtail, for one. And Kaari Arcano, at least casually.”

“Kaari Arcano?” scoffed Mia. “Why am I not surprised -- he’s always been a total flirt -- ”

“There’s nothing wrong with flirting -- get off your high horse,” Callie scolded, her voice dusted with rather cool passive-aggressiveness. “Kar’s a sweetheart: just look at him with his dragons. I frankly think whoever wins his heart for the long term will be very lucky.”

“Love isn’t a sport,” said Mia coolly, “so it’s not about ‘winning’ anything.”

At that moment, Madam Rosmerta came over to the two girls’ table and dropped off two mugs of butterbeer.

“Hello, Callie -- Mia,” she greeted pleasantly.

“Hi, Rosmerta!” Callie said brightly. 

She then lowered her voice a bit. 

“...I don’t suppose...you’ve heard anything from the school lately, have you? I’d love to have some contributors on about what the Daily Prophet reported, about Albus Dumbledore’s declining mental state, but I wondered if the professors have been ‘round much...”

Rosmerta frowned. 

“No, in fact, they haven’t. But frankly, given the intense criticism the Prophet has been lobbing at Dumbledore, I can sort of understand why.”

There was something faintly disapproving in her voice. Callie clearly noticed it too.

“Do you think it unjustified?” she asked. “The criticism Dumbledore has faced, in the light of Cedric Diggory’s accidental death?”

Madam Rosmerta’s lips knit together a bit more tightly. 

“Professor Dumbledore has certainly earned his fair share of criticism over the years,” she said solemnly, “but I think it’s a bit tasteless, for people to use someone’s death as ammunition against the Headmaster. Cedric Diggory is not a weapon to be used against others -- he was just a boy, and he deserves to be remembered as such.”

Callie’s eyes had brightened significantly. 

“That’s a lovely sentiment,” she said, sounding almost a little too eager for Mia’s liking -- rather like an obnoxious journalist, rather than sounding the least bit empathetic or gentle. “I don’t suppose you’d want to come on my show tomorrow night, to discuss the matter?”

Rosmerta’s expression cooled slightly as she rested a hand on her hip. “Thanks, hon...but I think I’ll pass. I’d hardly consider myself any sort of expert contributor, on this matter.”

She tucked the tray she’d brought their mugs out on under her arm. 

“You could always reach out to Jacob about it, though,” she added with a dewy smile. “He should be around, for the interim.”

Mia choked on her butterbeer. 

“What?”

“Jacob’s back in Britain?” asked Callie, sounding delighted. “I had no idea! He usually only stops by briefly for the holiday season!”

“To make sure Father Christmas drops off the proper coal in his stocking, I suppose,” Mia said rather coolly.

Callie turned to Mia, her mouth open and fully prepared to correct her, but Rosmerta had pressed on.

“He came back just about a week ago. Said he wanted to come home so he could take some time to reconnect with his family...his sister’s been working at the Ministry, you know -- she’s a fine lawyer...”

“Ah yes, Carewyn!” Callie said brightly. “Jacob speaks so fondly of her...give him your ear, and he’ll talk it off about her!”

“Give him your ear and he’ll talk it off, period,” Mia said dryly.

Callie shot another slightly irked frown at her sister, but Rosmerta paid Mia’s snark no mind. 

“He’s found himself a flat in London and he’s just been getting himself settled in. I’m sure if you wanted to talk with him about what happened at the Triwizard Tournament, he’d have some valuable insight on the matter.”

Callie beamed. “Oh, most definitely! Jacob always does seem to have an exciting take on things. Thank you, Rosmerta!”

Rosmerta nodded to the two girls, before heading off to deal with the next round of orders. Mia returned to drinking her butterbeer, rolling her eyes off toward the far corner.

So Jacob Cromwell was back. Great. 

Now I have all the reason in the world to avoid London, she thought dully. 

Callie turned to Mia, her mouth fixed into a girlish pout. 

“I just don’t understand why you’re so determined to pile on poor Jacob,” she said. “Sure, he got into trouble at school...but you know, he really has turned his life around, since then! He’s really been very well-regarded for his Potions lectures -- not to mention the cursebreaking expeditions he’s helped with, for Gringotts! He’s doing a lot of good work, for people...”

“Good work would involve him settling down and getting a real job so he can support his family, rather than running away from them,” Mia said coldly. 

Callie gaped. “Running away from them? Oh, Mia, that’s just not fair!” 

“What else would you call wandering the world aimlessly by yourself like a homeless man and leaving your family to wonder where you are at any given time?”

“Spreading your wings, perhaps? Traveling, exploring?”

Mia sniffed contemptuously. Callie crossed her arms, resting them down on the table between her and Mia as she fixed her older sister with a reproachful eye. 

“Mia, Rosmerta said the whole reason Jacob’s come back to Britain is to reconnect with his family. Does that sound like someone who’s running away? No!”

“It does sound like someone who knows he has been running away, though,” Mia said dryly.

“It sounds like someone who loves his family!” Callie shot back hotly. “Just because he didn’t wimp out like you did and decide to never chase any dreams in the outside world doesn’t mean he doesn’t care!”

Her gaze hardening significantly, Mia put her mug down with a harsh clank.

“Dreams are for sleeping, and I’m not going to sleep while I’m awake,” she shot back harshly. “Dad’s become frailer than ever, in case you haven’t noticed. You don’t think it would break his heart if we weren’t there for him, when he needed us? He didn’t have any family, before he married Mum. He didn’t have anything, before he went to school -- got his job here at Honeydukes! He needs us -- and even if you’re the type to swoon over some bloke for his romantic-sounding adventures, I’m not.” 

Callie flinched ever-so-slightly, but she didn’t break. Instead she and Mia stared each other down coldly from across the table. 

“Choosing to support your family isn’t wimping out,” Mia said lowly. “It’s taking responsibility. And that’s something the likes of Jacob Cromwell doesn’t know anything about.”

She turned away from her younger sister and took a very long sip of butterbeer. 

Callie, meanwhile, had gone very red in the face. She looked like she was having trouble not screaming. 

“You’re -- you’re so judgmental, you know that?” the youngest Flume said petulantly. “Honestly, it’s no wonder everyone at school liked Jacob more than you!” 

Callie slammed her still largely full mug of butterbeer down on the table with a loud clank of her own and then swept right out of the pub, her kitten heels clacking harshly with each step. 

Mia watched her sister go, her sharp green eyes narrowed and her lips tightly knit together, and she took another long sip from her mug, trying hard to ignore the sick, hurt-stained anger twisting her up from the inside. 

#my writing #hermia flume #callisto flume #jacob cromwell #madam rosmerta #myron wagtail #kaari arcano #albus dumbledore #cedric diggory #ambrosius flume #my fanfiction #fanfiction #yeah jacob's not in this section but I wanted to write out some ficlets fleshing out mia's inner circle #next up we'll get to meet someone else important to mia -- florean fortescue! #all of this will also help pave the way for mia's involvement in the second wizarding war #because yeah as you can see right now...mia and callie are following the prophet's narrative of cedric's death being an accident #jacob however for sure is not #jacob's real reason for returning to britain is to support and protect his family since he's sensing what's really going on #yes callisto is more on the flighty side compared to her older sisters mia and tia (hey she's three years younger) #but that doesn't mean she's a complete idiot #she does sometimes have a rosy view on people hence the lockhart interview #but she's rather like galinda upland in the sense that she's also able to disarm people easily and prompt them to show their best to her