REBOOT COMING IN 2019. Progress updates are posted on Tumblr.
Author's note: I don't own Sofia, all characters of the story except for OCs are property of Disney, so on and so forth... ((With the reboot coming, I'm restoring this version to its original form. Please be patient if you notice something missing, it'll be back soon.))
Spells, thoughts, animal speaking
Sofia's entire body ached. She checked the mirror to make sure the puffy purple dress she had picked out would cover all the bruises that littered her skin. That's when she noticed that her eye was starting to swell and turn dark. She fought the urge to cry again.
Think, Sofia. You can't go down to breakfast like this. She considered her situation carefully. I know, maybe Mr Ceedric can help me. He can use magic to get rid of the bruises. It wasn't a great option. She really didn't want to tell anybody about this. But she couldn't see any way around it.
"I wish to be small." She said, clutching the purple amulet she always wore around her neck. The magical amulet transformed her into a tiny version of herself, and she entered the castle's hidden corridors through the little round entrance in her room. She'd have to thank Clover again for pointing that door out to her. Once inside, she asked the amulet to return her to normal size. She made her way through the familiar twisting corridors, being sure to get as close to the royal sorcerer's tower as she could before exiting back into the castle's inner halls. She looked all around to make sure that the coast was clear. Sofia moved as quickly and quietly as she could to the sorcerer's room. She gathered her courage and knocked on the door.
"Mr Cee-dric." She said, barely above a whisper. There was no answer.
"Mr Cee-dric!" She repeated, a bit louder and even more urgently. She tried the knob and found that the door opened easily. She entered the tower, making sure to close the door behind her.
"He's sleeping!" Wormwood, Cedric's black crow familiar, gave an unhappy caw. Sofia ignored him and slowly made her way across the room to Cedric's bedside.
Cedric was fast asleep. Sofia looked over the man's dark hair with white bangs, and his handsome face with a prominent pointed nose. She'd never seen him sleeping before, and under other circumstances she would have liked to watch her friend a moment. I'll tell him as little as possible. I just need him to do the spell so I can go.
"Mr Ceedric, please wake up. It's very urgent that I speak with you." She pleaded, her voice a normal volume now that she was safely within the confines of his tower. Cedric gave out a groan and rolled over, still fast asleep. Sofia was beginning to panic. She couldn't be late to breakfast, and she couldn't go down like this. She didn't want a single person to see her like this, but coming to Cedric was the only option she had. She reached her small hands out timidly and placed them on the sorcerer's pale, slender shoulders.
"Mr Cee-dric, please. Wake up!" She shook him slightly at first. When that didn't work, she shook him harder.
"Huh, wha-?" He muttered sleepily. He opened his eyes just a tiny slit, and spotted the blurry outline of the youngest princess. He shot upright, startled completely out of his slumber.
"Princess! What in Enchancia are you doing? Don't you know better than to go around waking people in the middle of the night? And why don't you EVER kno-" His sentence was cut off as he got his first clear look at Sofia's face. He felt like the air had been let out of his lungs. He took stock of the young girl's features. It was clear she hadn't slept, at least not enough. And she had obviously been crying for a good long time. Finally, he rested on her black eye. It looked just awful.
"Princess?" He asked, bewildered.
"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr Ceedric. I really am. I just need you to do a spell." Sofia explained, tears welling up in the corner of her eyes again. Cedric slowly reached out and wiped a tear that had escaped and was making it's way lazily down her cheek.
"Come now, Princess. Tell me what you need, and I'll do what I can." Cedric replied softly, surprised at the gentleness in his own voice. Cedric was not exactly a kind man, at least be didn't consider himself to be.
"I need you to make my eye look better, Mr Ceedric. Please, I can't go down to breakfast looking like this." She explained.
"No, that certainly wouldn't do, would it?" Cedric mused, partly to himself. Normally, Cedric would come up with a way to twist things around so he could get at her magical amulet. Right now, he was too stunned by her appearance for it to even cross his mind. He went to stand, but realised something embarrassing.
"Princess, I need you to turn around and close your eyes for a moment." He said sheepishly. Sofia finally noticed that the sorcerer was shirtless and practically jumped.
"I'm so sorry, Mr Ceedric!" She said spinning around quickly and squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as she could without the injured one hurting. Cedric began to dress himself, glad for the heavy black blanket that had kept her from seeing just how much of him was bare.
When he finished putting on his large sorcerer's robe, Cedric lifted his eyes to Sofia, ready to let her know he was decent. Two more bruises were visible from behind. He studied them for a second. One was just peeking out from the top of her dress, and one on her arm, just above her elbow. The second one looked like fingers, he realised, looking at his own fingers as if to confirm this. What happened to you, child? Cedric chased away some unpleasant thoughts about his own youth. That's impossible. Everybody loves Princess Sofia.
He tried to remember anything relevant. Some clue to what had happened. She was supposed to come up for a magic lesson yesterday, he recalled. But she went straight to her room after school. She told a servant she was ill and wanted to be left alone to sleep. Someone who worked in the palace had informed him that she would be missing her lesson. He hadn't paid much attention at the time, as he had mostly been glad to be able to spend the evening in his tower with his books instead. Has she been crying alone in her room all night? He hated to think of it. He cleared his throat.
"Alright, Princess. You may open your eyes, now." He stated, trying to maintain a normal tone. He stood and went to his spell book. Here it was, a glamour spell to hide the bruises. He wished he had something that would heal them, instead, but those spells were trickier and he knew for a fact that he didn't have the proper ingredients on hand. He positioned the little princess just so, picked up his wand, and made sure his arms were held properly.
"Imperfectum Indicernicus!" He recited, aiming the wand at Sofia. A soft light came out of the tip of his wand and arched at her body, making her glow for a second before the magic light disappeared completely. Sofia dashed to the only mirror Cedric had in his room, and studied her face. Not only was the bruise missing, but she looked as if she had slept well and never shed a tear all night.
"You did it, Mr Ceedric! You really did it!" She exclaimed, running back across the room to hug him around the waist. He quickly pulled the child away, embarrassed at the display of affection.
"It's not a very good spell, I'm afraid. The bruises are still there. They are simply hidden. It will get you through the school day, but then you must come back. It has to be done about every 6 hours." He explained the spell's limitations to her quickly as she bounded towards the door, waving behind her.
"I guess I'll be seeing you a lot, then, Mr Ceedric." She said, turning to give him a bright smile before leaving for breakfast.
"I guess you will, Princess." He muttered to the empty room, studying his fingers again to make sure he'd seen what he thought he did.
Thank you, Mr Cedric! You really are my best friend. She thought happily to herself as she made her way down the halls.
