Be warned I have posted this elsewhere as well so yeah just in case you have seen it there too :) And yeah, I hope you enjoy it.
It was a few weeks before Halloween; so far George and I had gained a stack of detentions that may have been taller than us and most of which came from Toad face. We were sat in the Transfiguration courtyard, George was playing with a prototype of a Screaming yo-yo, and Lee was frowning at his latest homework assignment – yet another of those he had somehow got an extension on. Angelina and Katie were sat talking a short distance away from us and waiting for Alicia, trying to stay in the weak sunlight we had there. I was sat on one of the benches and watching as Sophia shocked a few pureblood first years with Muggle magic tricks.
I probably should explain a little about Sophia Dixon – not that she's that easy to explain – but I can give it a go. She has these large light brown eyes which could quite possibly melt any boy's heart if she just looked at them the right way – I'm pretty sure she's never tried it though ... well maybe on Lee once when she wanted to win an argument. She has a slight button nose, a few freckles splattered across it that make her look younger than she is, and a large smile is always on her face – even if the situation would make anyone else cry. She has these dark blue curls that she always knots up somehow and ... Anyway in short Sophia Dixon could get any boy to do anything for her on looks alone.
She however is quite possibly more mischievous than George and I on occasion but always gets herself out of trouble – the perks of being a Ravenclaw I guess. While people could look at her and say she is the popular kid she sticks to the shadows for the most part, only coming out of them to make random first years laugh or jink some Slytherin who's picking on a younger student. But in all honesty, however well she may hide it if she doesn't know someone, she has a heart of gold ... for the most part.
She finished the trick with the first years and then, after having been hugged around the middle by one of them, she wandered towards George, Lee and I with a large smirk on her face. It appeared all of us sensed trouble and George let the yo-yo roll away from him. Lee put his quill behind his ear as he sat up and I scratched the back of my head. There was a glint in our friend's eyes that always sent worry through us.
'No, Soph just no,' George said when she threw him the yo-yo back. Her eyes widened as if her attempt to show innocence but the three of us had learnt to read her actions, she was determined to be heard.
'Oh come on G, hear me out,' she whispered with puppy dog eyes. He sighed and sat on the bench next to me, Sophia had won again it would seem. She knew it too and giggled slightly. 'I was thinking of a party, a Halloween one for us lot that are in our last year – even the Snakes I guess, being civil and all that jazz,' she added the last part as an afterthought with an absent wave of her hand.
I shared a sceptical raised eyebrow with George before glancing at Lee, he was working on his essay again but there was a slight amusement in his eyes.
'There's more to it isn't there?' George asked after a moment.
Sophia gasped as she pulled her wand from her hair and slipped it into her robe pocket. She looked at us as if she was hurt by the comment. She rested her other hand on her collar bone and then turned away from us.
'Why do you always think I have other motives G?' she called, wandering towards the classroom without looking back at us.
'I dunno Soap,' Lee muttered as he finally stood up, realising he had no more time to do the work. 'Maybe 'cause you usually do.'
'And it usually ends up with us in trouble?' I added as I picked my bag up.
'Cleaning the cauldrons for Snape or cleaning portraits for Flitwick,' George rolled his eyes with a slight smirk at those detentions, as we entered the classroom and took our usual seats at the back.
The lesson moved sluggishly, Lee gaining a detention for not having done his homework. George had drawn a realistic picture of Toad face that I think McGonagall contemplated framing in the room before she gave him a stern warning about such things. Sophia had spoken to some of the other Ravenclaws, I was pretty sure she was trying to invite them to the party despite only ever having said hello to them once in the common room. I had managed to not get a detention – probably the first time I had done so in a fair while – and actually turned the table into a dog. Well, that may not have been what we were doing but at least I Transfigured something.
At the end though Sophia raced off, calling over her shoulder about needing to talk to a Puff about some paper people or something – how long had she been planning this party for before talking to us? And George, Lee and I wandered through the crowds towards the Hall for lunch.
'Watch it,' a cold voice cut through the crowd's laughter as I watched Lee back up a few paces. I looked at the person he had walked into and clenched my fists slightly. Nieve Blanche.
Nieve Blanche is Sophia's second cousin twice removed I believe and quite possibly the personification of evil. She jinked a fellow Slytherin once for not saying hello to her – the poor kid (never thought those words would come from me about a Snake) was in the Hospital Wing for a few days. I think she once tried to break Colin Creevey's camera when he refused to take her picture, the list goes on but those are really the only ones that spring to mind at first glance of her.
'Should've looked away from your mirror then,' I muttered while trying to make sure Lee was alright, his back had hit a stone bollard thing when he went backwards.
'It's not a mirror Fred, she broke them all,' George muttered in my ear. I tried my best not to laugh.
'What's that Weasels?' she asked, her group of friends – if that was really what you could call them – began to snicker slightly.
'Coming to our Halloween party cousin dearest?' Sophia asked as she raced up the corridor behind us, placing a hand on Lee's shoulder and squeezing it to make sure he was alright. She was smirking slightly, I noticed her wand in her other hand and felt a smile play on my lips.
'A party? You lot? Why would I do that?' Nieve asked, her voice seemed to soften though – what was happening?
'Suit yourself Nievie-pie,' Sophia smirked as she began to steer Lee away from the others, nodding curtly at some of the passersby that had stopped to watch.
'What was that about Soap?' Lee asked when we reached the Great Hall and sat down. Sophia sat at the Gryffindor table with us as usual and began to juggle some oranges.
'Being civil,' she shrugged before glancing around the Hall, what was she up to?