This Story stems from me thinking that all the bloodshed Rowling did since book five is uncalled for and downright depressing. I mean Fred and Dobby of all people! Don't get me started on Sirius, I'm pretty sure she could have gotten the same reaction from Harry to chase after Bellatrix without offing his only chance at a parent.
Hence the choice to make a Slytherin that shows off our views (that we don't all enjoy a light salad of pushed up daisies and we're not crystal blooded) and bathe one of my favored characters in a different but suspect-able light. This piece will follow all the events in the books with a slight AU from book five onward, IF I choose to add more to this. In all honesty I might, for Sirius.
I apologize in advance to anyone who should happen to hate my OC, I really don't care what you people think of her or if you try to set me aflame chanting Mary Sue. Please don't be discouraged from reading, I have a reason for making her this way and presenting her to you in such a fashion. She is adequately normal as far as witches in Slytherin go.
Without further ado, I do not receive any monetary gain or anything of the sort by writing this. Harry Potter and all its canon characters belong to the literary goddess known as J. K. Rowling.
A dark hair boy sat on a swing in a deserted park, he sat there nearly statuesque save for the shakes in his bony shoulders and back as he cried. He held his face in hands to cover up the bruised eye. A boy at school had called him a faggot, he wasn't sure what it meant but he knew it was a bad word. The teacher had put the puncher in detention for saying it. At the end of the day the boy found him picking up his backpack and stuffing him notebook and pencils back in it after Dudley had knocked him over. There was a smack and Harry was on the ground again, clutching a hand to his left eye and sniffling. The boy ran off and Harry picked himself up and trudged toward the Dursley's car were he was yelled at for being late and then ignored the rest of the way home. For his short eight years of life, Harry was quite certain about what he was and wasn't. Faggot, whatever it meant wasn't one of them, or so he thought since he didn't know what it meant. It usually took more than a few words to make feel this rotten. The black eye however, made the Dursley's all too willing to poke and jab at him until tears began to well in his verdant eyes and he hid in the back of the garden until he could stop the tears. They didn't bother him laughing and catering to their son's every tantrum.
Harry had been hiding under a bush when he heard Uncle Vernon talking to Dudley, calling Harry a little faggot. When the fat child asked what it meant, confused and wanting in on the funny things they were saying about his cousin. His Uncle was more that willing to explain. The next words Harry would never forget, as the tear welled anew in his eyes.
"It means he likes to kiss boys; that makes him more of a freak and a sissy." He could hear the smile in his Uncle's voice and that made him feel sick. "That's what it means." Were his Uncle's words, instructing his whale calf of a cousin the he couldn't say that until he was older and in high school.
That had been that, Harry couldn't take it. He was out of sight but not out of earshot and so he snuck out and all but ran for the park. At first the solitude was welcome, but now his hear grew heavy. He felt that annoying tug at his chest, like the time his sternum hand been bruised only it came from behind that. His stomach felt empty and heavy at the same time, like his guts had become cement. The little boy had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't see the person approaching him. A shadow covered him up to the top of his head in bright late summer sun. It was too consistent to be a cloud, it was almost spring and few leaves littered the grassy playground, making it easier for his relatives to sneak up on him. Still oblivious to his observer he continued to cry, from his anger and his sadness.
"Are you alright?" a sweet voice asked, breaking the silence that had enveloped him and mixed with his hiccupped sobs, it was slightly annoyed finding the boy hogging its owner's favorite swing with his tears.
Harry new better than to ignore someone talking to him; there always was a lashing in it for him when he did. Green eyes glazed with tears met dark grey pools and he quickly wiped the small trickle of snot on his ratty long sleeved shirt. It was a girl, somewhere around his age. She looked at him with a corner of her mouth in a worried frown on cold reddened lips, her thin dark eyebrows where knitted in worry as she studied him close with those dark eyes.
"Some bully smacked you, huh?" she said took a seat on the swing next to him without an invitation.
"I'm alright" he said, fighting back a hiccup from his previous sobbing.
"Its okay, people like that are stupid." She shrugged, "Da used to get bullied at school." She paused to look at him and pressed on. "He said that its because they're not happy with themselves most times so they pick on people."
Harry didn't respond he only studied her, she wore a blue shirt and a pretty green pea coat. It was long enough to reach under the knees of her light grey jeans; the coat was a little big on her small frame. Probably intentionally so she could wear it for a few more years. He bashfully looked at the sandy ground and faked interest in her black sneakers, she poked him and he looked back at her. A mischievous smile played on her thin lips, her black hair waving in the chilly breeze. He caught sight of a dark green ribbon in her hair; her mother must have tied it there. For a moment as he studied her, Harry had thought she had spooked her off and would be left alone again since she had gotten up.
"Come on, I know a better place to hide from bullies." Her voice was cheery and lifted his mood as she held out her hand to him. He could only look at it and she wiggled her thin pale fingers at him, the boy summoned the courage to take hold of her hand and he got up. The small panic that had run through him earlier all but vanished when she gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
"'M names Harry" he said after a few seconds.
She smiled at him, knowing she had just earned a new friend. "I'm Sophie," she said with a slight grin on her face as she let go of his hand and ran off ahead of him while looking back, calling out "Catch me if you can!" as she headed for a forest not to far off. Harry could only grin back and follow her as they reached a row of trees.
He ran faster to catch up to her, using his height as best as he could to loop his arms around her. She would giggle and laugh as they ran in circular patterns in a clearing at the base of a small hill where a twisted tree with low hanging branches rested. She was a few inches shorter than her and would duck under his arms as he would try to catch her, she became distracted as she saw a white flower petals dancing in the wind. Harry took the chance and closed her arms around her middle; she let out a squeal of laughter that seemed to summon the very sun as grey clouds parted in the afternoon sky. He had never been so happy or played with someone his own age. They tumbled to the ground, bright grins on their faces and out of breath. In seconds she was up again, running for the tree. Harry took on the challenge and raced to the top of the small hill. He ended up getting there first and she grinned.
"Wow! You're really fast!" she said still chuckling when she reached the tree second. They sat down and an hour passed as they talked about particularly nothing and picked out shapes in the clouds lazily drifting by. They were calm and content, enjoying the rare afternoon sun until a squeak was heard among the tall grassy blades not far away. Both children scanned the hill, green eyes searched curiously while dark grey scouted the tall grass with apprehension. She really hated rats, the girl clutched her new friend's hand and he looked at her; knowing that look all to well on his own features.
"Wanna climb it?" he asked and looked up at the budding branches of the tree they rested on, he had never seen such a big tree.
"Mhm" was her only response as she stood and reached.
Again, Harry was able to climb faster. Sophia's fear or rats made her slower as she constantly looked down. She had been reaching for a branch when her footing slipped. They were nearly four feet above the ground and the fall would hurt. Harry caught the panic in her eyes and moved to grab her but was too far up. The only thought in Sophia's mind was "Merlin no, I'm falling and the rat's going to eat me!" She closed her eyes and braced herself but she never hit the ground. She opened those big grey eyes to find a stunned Harry with his hand stretched out not four inches away from her own. His mind was racing, if he didn't grab here why wasn't she falling? They weren't even touching hands! She didn't let him dwell on it as she reached and gripped his hand and then a branch with her free arm. Bracing his feet on the tree he hoisted her up as she regained her footing and climbed.
She looked at him with a silly smile and kissed his cheek, "My hero." She teased. Harry laughed nervously and she giggled.
After a moment they quieted and what happened sunk in, Harry had to ask. "Are you gonna tell?" Worry was written over his young face as she frowned. She didn't look mad and she wasn't, Sophia thought he was crazy.
"Tell about what?" she looked him up and down, biting her lip as she focused on a leaf the lay between them in the elbow of the mess of branches they had nestled themselves into. The leaf floated in to the air as if a single breeze had caught it and placed it in her hand. "That you stopped me from falling out of a tree?" she asked, already sarcastic this young.
The leaf had begun to change as she spoke. It separated and rolled in on itself at each end. Harry recognized the shape and a red and brown leafy dragonfly zipped out of Sophia's hand and into the air. It flew for a few moments in odd patterns before it popped back into a leaf between them. Harry's smile broadened and shy grin overtook Sophia's lips.
"I won't tell, never." She said as serious as she could get. "If a bully hears me I would feel really bad because they'd do something to you." Something funny erupted in Harry's chest, this girl he had met a few minutes ago had promised to keep this a secret to protect him from bullies. It was unheard of in his life; she caught his dumbstruck face and frowned.
"You alright, Harry?" she asked, clearly confused as she chewed on her lip.
"You don't think its freaky, then?" he asked, not really wanting to explain what happened to him when he did their weird things.
"We're special." She said without a doubt in her mind "Normal people might not think so, but we are" A shrug punctuated how she felt about those normal people. "Da says I'm not allowed to talk about being special but you're special too, like me." She grinned at him but after a while she cocked her head to the side like a bewildered puppy.
"You hungry?" she asked as he blurted out "I won't tell either." She looked at him odd and he repeated his promise.
"I promise not to tell either." He looked down; suddenly very shy from the smile she threw him.
"Cute." She said, teasing him again. "Let's get some food. Bet Da has something for tea already." Her face scrunched up, thinking about what her father had chosen for tea or if he'd even be there, he was a very busy man.
Harry's heart caught in his throat. What if her dad didn't want a freak like him spending time with his daughter, it had happened before. One of the Dursley's friends had a daughter and she wasn't allowed to play with him. He still followed her as she climbed down carefully and he jumped the short distance to the grassy hill. She giggled and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards the house beyond the tree line of the clearing. What he say shocked him, it was a tall house and the paint outside was a creamy white. It hadn't been painted in a while and looked very scary with its dark shutters.
"Da and I don't spend much time here" she said as they walked. When she noticed that Harry wasn't following as the house looked like something out of a horror movie the Dursley's had forced him to watch.
She stopped to reassure him with a giggle and a slight taunt "Its not haunted, silly." As though she had read his mind, she continued to pull him along and Harry worry and curiosity taking over began to ask questions.
"Do you really think he won't mind me being here?" he asked and she didn't look back as she responded with another giggle.
"No, silly Harry!" she said, her voice airy and light as if he was completely barmy.
"What's he like?" he asked next. The answer she gave him made him wish he hadn't been stuck with Dursleys.
"He's very funny and smart, gives the best hugs but doesn't like it when I don't behave or do my school work. I think it's because he's teacher." She whispered the last part. To all eight year olds, teachers weren't the nicest of people. "People say he's too strict and a git, but he's not." She shrugged again and walked up the steps to the porch.
"What about your mum?" he asked and she nearly stopped dead, and opened the door still pulling him along.
The living room they entered was furnished with ancient pieces, a chocolate French style couch and two cozy well stuffed blue and green armchairs. Hardwood floors covered by a few creamy rugs and huge fireplace done in glazed over brick. There where a few paintings of landscapes hung on creamy white walls and a tapestry with a wolf and bat was hung on the wall facing the door; it struck Harry as strange having a tapestry with a white wolf and a very big black bat hanging in the first room someone saw with coming into the house.
"It's our coat of arms." Sophia explained when she caught him staring; she still seemed uneasy about his question about her mother and was misdirecting him as best as she could for her young age. Without any further ceremony she guided him to the kitchen, Harry glanced over his shoulder to the strange tapestry and notice the bookshelves filled to the ceiling with thick hard covers and the two resting on the dark finished coffee table. He could have sworn he saw someone move up the stairs when he looked back to the kitchen. Maybe they had a dog? The kitchen was nothing like the living room, the whole place was in light soothing colors. The windows where wide and tall, covered by lacey curtains, the work surfaces had marble tops and a table for six was claiming the swirling green and white marble tile with its dark wood gleam. On it a tray of sandwiches and some kind of juice was in a wooden pitcher. He couldn't tell what they had to drink, but he really wanted a glass. He didn't really take in the appliances, all black with touches of steel, until Sophia went to the icebox and took out a piece of lemon meringue pie for the two of them.
"It's kind of yucky when it's cold so, um." She sat down on of the simple wooden chairs and motioned for hair to sit next to her. "I'm gonna answer your question, on one condition." She bit her lip with her stormy gaze downcast and her hands gripping the edges of her seat for dear life or courage, Harry couldn't tell which. He took a seat next to her and took hold of her hand; they had traveled to her lap and balled into tiny fists.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want" he recognized the look from when a teacher had heard Dudley making fun of him because his parents had died.
She wouldn't look at him as she worked up the strength to tell him how she ended up with Da. "My parents are in heaven," he started, he hoped they were in there after everything Aunt Tuney had said about them. Well after he slipped up and called her Aunt Tuney, he knew now to only call her Aunt Petunia or else it was a hard slap and more insults against him and his mum and dad.
"I live with my Aunt and Uncle." He said, then realizing she might not know them he took a stab in the dark and clarified, "the Dursleys." He had to suppress a grimace as he said the name in such a happy place.
Sophie in turn didn't, she knew the Dursleys, and seemed to sneer for the two of them. She had been at the park when they were with their son a few months back during the summer when she was on the swings, the ugly fat boy had been mean to her and stolen her red ribbon. That ribbon had been Mama's and she would tie it in a bow in her own dark red hair since Sophie could remember. She had gotten so mad she broke the rule her Da had set about doing special tricks around normal people. The boys had dropped the ribbon as if it had burned his hand and she had said some very mean things to him and he had just stood there frozen, shocked that a girl a few years younger and that small had yelled those things at him.
She smiled a little as she remembered. "So we're even more special, then?" she said to Harry. She thought of how she had called his cousin an arrogant brat, a stupid pig faced bully who had nothing better to do than get fatter and then telling the pea brained cow to move so she could get her ribbon back. She had practically screamed at him to move and she walked right up to him, looking him dead in the eye as she picked up her ribbon and walked back home in the worst mood. When her Da found out she wasn't sure if he was mad, upset or proud of her. She felt bad remembering her parents, she was sure Harry felt worse having lost his too and having to live with Walrus, Horse face and Whale, she frowned a little at his rotten luck but Harry mistook it for her being upset at having to remember her parents.
"A bad lady came while we came home from France, when I was seven and she did really bad things. Papa and Mama had talked to a lawyer person before and Da takes care of me know, they signed a paper making him my guardian." She really wanted to say more but she couldn't instead she told him her greatest nightmare and didn't mention why the bad man had done those things. "After that I hated even matches, Da's really good at chasing away nightmares though." She said as her soft voice grew quiet, she didn't want him to hear her hiccups and sniffles. He did however and pulled her into a hug, she hugged him back and buried her face in his ratty shirt. Harry was really good at giving hugs too, she concluded as she started to feel better.
"Do you remember them?" he asked, wanting to make her feel better but just as curious. He thought maybe a happy memory of them would make her a little less blue.
"Mhm" she paused and held back her tears effectively as she looked up at her new friend. "I miss them, though." A flurry of happy moments ran past her mind's eye before settling on the last day she was with them, she knew she could trust her friend to understand that it wasn't easy.
"Do you remember yours?" she asked him, just as curious as Harry.
"Not really I was just a baby." She furrowed her brow and Harry could feel it through the threadbare shirt, his heart raced a little.
"Oh" she said and pulled away a little but held his hand, quelling and fears that he had done something wrong by felling butterflies. It was really weird; he didn't really like her that way.
Instead he studied her face and caught her chewing on her lip again. "Well there's a good part to that." She said her voice still quiet and soft as she reached for two sandwiches and handed one to Harry. "Since you were too little, you can't really remember and it's harder for it to hurt as much." She said, hoping she hadn't insulted her friend. Harry only shrugged and she gave him a kiss on the cheek so he knew she hadn't meant to be rude. She did that a lot, he thought and so he asked.
"Da says I'm just very affectionate, because it hurts to not have Papa and Mama around so I make sure everyone feels happy." She put down her food and licked some ketchup from the corner of her mouth. "Some people aren't shown enough love so I make a point to show them some." She shrugged and continued eating.
Harry chewed around a mouthful before asking her two more question. "How do you know that and where is your dad?"
She poured them juice as best as she could and answered. "Da says it because of my name. Sophia Dallas Pierce, basically it means I'm smart and a rock, I'm sure of what I do and read people really well." She shrugged and handed Harry a glass of now revealed apple juice before taking a sip of her own. "He probably doing work at the school, summer's almost over."
He didn't ask about his name and they continued to talk and laugh at silly jokes until it was time for Harry to leave and she guided him back to the park through the trees. They kept meeting there or at the tree every weekend to talk and play some more, she even brought food with her a couple times and never asked him to bring anything. She knew so many stories that Harry couldn't stop asking her about Dragons and stories about Mermaids. They were nothing like the stories he had heard bits off at school or at the Dursleys. Sometimes Harry would go over to the tree alone during the week and stay up there for a while feeling safe and happy. One day he found Sophia crying in the tree and she wiped her eyes and stopped sniffling before he could climb up. Harry could only hug her close; she was so upset, more than when she had talked about her parents. As he held her she gave him the worst news a child could hear from their friend. She was moving away.
They still talked and playing in the chilling autumn air as August ended, under a sunny sky much like the one on the day they had met. To cheer her up Harry focused on one of the leaves in the flat juncture of branched they shared. The red-gold leaf became a bird and it flew around them, Sophia turned a still green leaf into the same bird and they watch them fly around and off into the sky as the deep voice of a grown up called for Sophie in the distance. She gave Harry a small smile and a kiss on the cheek once they had climbed down; he in return hugged her tightly and whispered "I'll miss you."
She giggled, her voice being reclaimed by sadness and pulled back looking into his bright green eyes. "See ya around, Harry." Trying to convince both of them that this wasn't goodbye; the two nine year olds parted ways and Sophia finally let herself go and tried to rub the incessant tears away as her Da came out of tree line and gathered her in his strong arms.
She looped her tiny arms around his shoulders and buried her face in his neck. Da had one arm seating her so her spindly legs could help her cling to him and she continued to cry. Holding onto his black coat like a lifeline. The other rubbed soothing circles on her back as he pressed a kiss on the mop of black hair, much like his. Save for the red satin ribbon. They stayed there for a while as she didn't say a word and only cried, she was so small in his arms and weigh practically nothing despite her ravenous appetite. He realized that his strong and reseliant little girl was just that. A little girl, one who was now crying as another person walked out of her life. She missed her friend so much already. He hoisted her up to smooth her red plaid skirt and she clung to him harder, blunk nails making a scratchy sound against his coat, thinking he might let her down. Though she knew very well Da would never leave her alone when she felt to rotten.
He knew better than to say anything, better than to try and comfort her with empty words and false promises, so he only placed the hand previous on her back to the back of her neck, his mass of black hair tilted against her's as he held his ward close. His eyes closed shut tightly, he wish he could take this sorrow from her too young heart, he knew what it was like to lose a friend so dear. He knew very well she'd never forget those green eyes even if her feelings for her friend weren't like his when he was her age. Once she had calmed down enough and looked at him with her tear-stained face he could only offered a small smile, it spoke volumes to his ward. She was really good at reading people. Most of all him and he was a closed book, spelled shut in a locked trunk somewhere in a dank cellar. She was such a strong little girl and he was proud of her, what's more he understood. He only nodded with the same warm smile on his thin lips and she blinked at him, her gaze then trained on a button of his coat. A silent conversation; was she ready? Yes she was but she was still sad. He placed a quick kiss on her small upturned nose, she giggled the slightest bit and with a quiet pop they disapparated to the grounds outside of the Hogwarts wards. He didn't set her down until they were inside the castle. Cautiously he cast a silent Notice me Not charm on both of them as they passed the Defense part of the dungeons, she arched a brow before it took full effect and he chuckled. What other habits would she pick up?
Harry wasn't so lucky. When he got home, still sniffling, he was met by an anger clouded beady stare. By morning he had a hard time remembering what Sophie looked like. All he knew was that he had a friend and they'd never meet again. As the years went by Sophie became a dream. He could have sworn he had seen her around the school, remembered a voice say "Sophia" during the sorting but had been too distracted to pay attention by housemates and Snape. As fifth year rolled in he was more than sure she was around somewhere.
Seamus, after a particular nasty detention from Umbrage had given them, mentioned a Slytherin in the back rows glaring at the Defense teacher with a look that would've torn her to shreds.
"A what?" asked Ron around a mouthful of chicken, Hermione only looked at Seamus with a curious look before letting it get the better of her.
"Really? I didn't even notice a Slytherin in detention with us." She frowned; disappointed in herself that she hadn't been as aware as she should have been.
Seamus nodded earnestly, and looked at the rest of the Great Hall suspiciously before leaning in and talking to the Golden Trio. "She got there by mouthing off to the toad." He said watching that Umbrage wasn't paying attention to them and she wasn't. The ugly pink toad was eyeing the Slytherin table and Harry couldn't make out who it was, a bunch of Slytherins were covering up the other side of the table. "She was talking with a Ravenclaw after Potions and Umbrage started snipping about her delaying her departure for Defense." Seamus couldn't help the grin that took over his lips as he recalled the strange snake's reply.
"The girl told her that she wasn't late and Defense wasn't that far off. She could spare a few minutes to offer a fellow student tips on brewing." The Irish boy said imitating the girl tone, Seamus took a sip of pumpkin juice before continuing the grin had become a full out smile. "Our dear professor of course would have none of it and said she'd take house points if a smart young Slytherin like her didn't stop prattling in the hallways with a Ravenclaw." He sniggered, like that would inspire any positive action from a Slytherin. The Weasley twins, flanking Seamus, began to laugh.
They could practically image the fifth year girl glaring at the horrid little woman, interested in the tale they prodded and asked in unison. "So, spit it out. What'd the slimy snake say?" amusement was gleaming in their eyes, such a thing as a rebellious Slytherin was never heard of and wildly entertaining. Maybe that wormy lot had a backbone for more than picking on others after all?
The boy took another swig of juice and swallowed, "She was smart, saw right through what Umbridge meant. Told her to sod off and not lump her in the safe bag as Malfoy. She could bloody well tell the time and that she could talk to people outside her own house." The twins outright chortled at the comment and caught the eye of the professor in question.
"S'not the best part though" his Irish accent thickening with uncontrolled amusement. "The toad was so outraged she tried to grab her!" The twins eyes grew wide and so did the trio's "Pierce moved fast enough the toad stumbled into a door! Luck smiles on the strangest ones." The group burst into laughter, so that's why she had been so uptight in Defense, well aside from Harry's outburst. "She said goodbye to Luna and then told Umbrage that she should know a mature adult didn't go around throwing fits and manhandling students." This time their eyes widened in amazement and were accompanied by minute grins.
Harry was next to speak, he felt he knew that particular type of reply and the name Pierce had caught his attention. "What's her name again?" he asked, thinking he might have missed it during Seamus tale of a strange Slytherin.
"All I know is that her name is Pierce, the toad practically screeched it when the snake was walking away, fuming, giving her detention for disregarding school schedules and disrespecting a teacher." He shrugged and kept eating; it had been interrupted by his recollection of the encounter he had witnessed.
"She was talking to Luna?" Ron questioned, his eyebrows practically disappeared in his orange-red hair. A slimy snake talking to Looney Luna, "Thought I'd seen everything." He scoffed and took another large bite off his second drumstick.
As if summoned Luna plopped herself next to Fred and took a carrot stick, taking a bite and looking at Ron. "You mean Sophie?" she asked in her air light voice. "She's really nice, helped me look for my earrings at the start of term when some gruebenstork pixies snatched them." They whole group looked at her like she was mental, Harry smiled a little. Unfazed, she then moved on and asked Hermione a question, "I'm taking her to Hogsmeade next weekend. No one'll hex her, right?" she smiled when he nodded, a little confused.
"For our own good," the twins said together. "We promise not to prank her" George spoke first and then Fred finished without missing a beat, "If we can." They grinned and Luna raised her eyebrows looking at the twins, they had a suspicion that she could tell who was who. "You'd be surprised." The girl said and walked away with a sandwich in hand. When she had nabbed it, no one knew. It was a Luna thing.
-HPHPHPHPHP-
By then Harry was more than curious, up until the date they had set to meet in Hogsmeade he searched each day to find any trace of the mysterious girl. His friends had begun to notice and they ganged up on him the common room after everyone had left or was buried in a textbook.
"Harry, you okay mate?" Ron asked around a chocolate frog.
He turned his head to look at him and stopped halfway, how would he explain it? I'm just keeping an eye out for a girl I met when I was eight and was a close friend of mine who could be a Slytherin now. And, oh, did I mention she found me crying in a swing after a bully called me a faggot? That wouldn't go over too well. He looked off into the fire and Hermione interjected.
"Nervous about tomorrow?" she helpfully pointed out.
Of course he was bloody nervous! Half the school saw him as some wonder child and expected him to slay a mad man! While the other wanted him dead or thought he was an outright liar and a nut.
"I bet it's the Slytherin Luna plans on bringing." His friend commented. Partly it was that, he was nervous about how his hopes would plummet after finding out the Sophia Pierce wasn't the same Sophie he remembered. That the girl in a green pea coat was a dream, like he had thought all along. In five years he hadn't seen hide nor tail of the girl when she was clearly a witch, he weighed his options on what to answer and could come up with anything that wasn't telling his friends the truth.
As he worked up the courage, Hermione smacked Ron's arm. "Ron!" she hissed, sounding a lot like Mrs. Weasley. "Don't be so prejudice! If she's friends with Luna she probably nice." The last part was said with a level voice and confident even if it was slightly prejudice itself.
His friend groaned, "Not you too." He said, and then added "Luna is off her rocker and now you're going there too, 'Mione" he whined when he said her name, probably because he had earned himself another smack on the arm.
Harry could only snigger until he felt it best to just come out with it or his friends would really get into it. "She's right you know." He said getting up to hit between them, should Ron's arm sport a hand shaped bruise by morning.
"I was almost a Slytherin, there could one that isn't a complete git." That word almost pushed back his choice to tell his friends. A few days ago he had chickened out when 'Mione had seen his hand.
"Er, there's something I've got to tell you. Promise you won't think I'm insane." Ron's lips pulled to a side of his face, firmly closed shut. 'No promises' written over his freckled face, though Harry knew Ron would still stick with him to the end. Hermione on another note gripped the scarred hand and nodded, over the years they'd learn to tell when it was a really personal matter Harry was about to share. They had heard him come clean about the Dursleys once he and Ron had made up in fourth year, there were virtually no secrets between them. Or at least not any that would really matter; never in his life would he tell Ron that he had feelings for Ginny. "Well I've been having this dreams, or rather memories from when I was eight or so." He started, immediately Hermione cut in once more.
"So it's not, um, him making you remember last year again?" He shook his head, both in answer, to stop his thought train from derailing and drifting back to the image of Cedric lifeless mere inches from him.
"No, it's not nightmares. I just started remembering things after Luna talked about bringing Pierce with her to Hogsmeade." His voice threatened to waver slightly, betraying the nerves that were eating away at his stomach.
Again Ron scoffed and Hermione silenced him with a quick glare, his friend shrugged and Harry pushed on. "I knew a Sophia Pierce when I was little, we were the same age and she would take me to a tree and we'd play. She was a witch but, she didn't say so then. She just said we were special."
He was interrupted by Hermione, "that's so sweet Harry. I can just imagine you in a tree doing little bits of magic with a little girlfriend." She giggled.
"She wasn't my girlfriend!" he said alarmed but chuckled after.
He really did feel eight years old now. Hermione chuckled sweetly and Ron smirked.
"Sorry, must have been nice to have someone like that around what with your relatives being idiots." Ron's eyes went as wide as saucers as she said this, Hermione insulting anyone was shock. Well Malfoy didn't count, he deserves every last jibe.
"Well it's not like we just did magic just because. Sophie, that's how she introduced herself, was scarred of rats and we heard one squeaking around so we climbed the tree we were under." Ron interrupted with a sneer.
"Damn right she should've been." Harry only looked at him, they all agreed that a fear of rats was perfectly logical, whether you're eight or fifteen.
"She nearly fell out of the damned tree and I sorta stopped her in mid air." he looked them questioning. He still didn't know how to explain it. "I was bloody terrified that she was gonna tell someone but she didn't run." He smiled a little remembering how she teased him and they made a promise not to tell. "She turned a leaf into a dragonfly and then we just talked. She even took me to her house." Hermione had her brows knitted in thought and both boys looked at her, she had something on her mind and it was probably complex. They waited for her to synthesize it to it was condensed into a simple question.
She looked at them and gave a sheepish smile, then her question made it out of her overworking brain. "Harry, how is it you didn't know about magic after that? I mean, her parents must've told you something right?" he could tell this had been on her mind from the beginning of his story.
"Um that's the thing. She said her Da, that's what she called him, was really busy and probably not home. But if he was that I shouldn't worry because he was really nice and wouldn't mind." He chuckled a little remembering her answer. "I asked if he would mind me being there and she said No, silly Harry." Ron snorted and unwrapped some candy for the three of them; it was the last of their stock. "Anyway, it only lasted for a year. She had to move away next fall." Hermione gave his hand a squeeze and Ron limited himself to a pat on the shoulder.
Childhood friendships were tough, "That is worst thing you could ever hear at eight, mate. Sucks." He said and Harry felt the lump of anxiety in his stomach grow heavier.
"I really missed her, she didn't even want to say goodbye. All she said was that she'd see me around. I think she knew we'd end up here." Then a thought hit him. The man she lived with wasn't really her father, just her guardian. "Mione, do you know of any witches or wizards with the name Dallas or Pierce?" Ron nearly spit out his chocolate when Harry asked.
They heard a gasp from the common room door and all three heads turned toward person only to find themselves with one Remus Lupin accompanied by a big black dog, looking severely stunned. He probably heard the last bit of their conversation. He looked at the only other student still up who was nearly drooling on her charms text. "Why do you go sleep, I'm sure Flitwick'll get it." he said and the fourth year only nodded and headed up to the girls' dorms.
Once he was sure the girl had left he turned to the Trio and took long strides to an armchair sitting down looking intently at his former student. "How much do you know about the Dallas Pierce family?" he asked, not even saying hello.
Half on his face lit up by the dying flames in the fireplace, the other half was doused in blue silver light form the crescent moon outside smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Both contrasting sides equally stern and somewhat frightened, something really big must have been attached to the name if Lupin had forgone any type of greeting. Both of his friends looked at Harry and he swerved his head around to look at them both, the twin expressions told him that Remus needed to know and that they'd back him up.
"Er, I might have met their daughter- um, seven or something years back. I think, she said her name was Sophia Dallas Pierce." Lupin visibly calmed, though the saddened look on his face wasn't an improvement from the outright horror and then anger when he had asked.
He rubbed his tired amber-gold eyes and looked at the golden trio with a slight smile. "Sorry for startling you three, but this a very touchy subject." He began and three understanding smiles answered him. Ron even offered him the last chocolate bar he had stashed in his pocket.
Lupin took it with a grin and Padfoot poked at his hand with his muzzle, "Dogs can't eat chocolate, you'll go blind." He joked and Padfoot got up and jumped on the couch between Harry and Ron, resting most of his frame on his godson's legs, clearly offended.
"Gwyneth Pierce was a witch in our year, a Slytherin." Things didn't look so good this far until Remus pushed on. "A lion hearted snake if you will, she married a muggle Andrew Dallas. Her father believed his blood line came directly from one of Slytherin's youngest daughters, Morgana, he sent a werewolf after them and Dallas tried to defend his wife and newborn daughter." Padfoot made a noise and Harry was sure it was "slimy little prick" Remus gave him a look and he continued
"He ended up bit and his wife killed the wolf, they went into hiding and became part of a pack in France." He smiled, maybe he had met them, Harry thought. Remus talked somewhat like he did about Lily and James. "His wife was a white wolf animagus and would run with them during the full moon, to shepherd them around some safe parts of a valley they would set camp in once it was near and kept any muggles or wizards away from them." Padfoot began to wag his tail and Harry stroked his back, a few minutes later he nuzzled Hermione's hand so she could scratch his head.
"So she did what Snuffles did for you back then?" Ron asked, he had been extremely curious about animagi since they had met Snuffles. He had even managed to convince his friends into looking up books with potions or spells so they could be ones too. Hermione was laughing for weeks, the sight of Ron Weasley intently reading a book and staying nearly to dawn reading in his bed was hilarious.
"They were killed weren't they?" Harry asked, already knowing the end of this tale before Lupin could get to it. Sofia had told him already, "She told me someone came and killed them, she was there and that's why she ended up with her guardian, someone who worked or works here." Remus looked at him quizzically, that girl trusted Harry a lot it seemed.
He had seen her after the events at the gathering and she wouldn't so much as look at him, she did hug him and tell him that his friends were okay now. Nothing would hurt them and they were in a better place. The strength that girl had had shocked him. "Brave little girl, isn't she?" He smiled, knowing Harry had seen just how strong she was.
"She didn't even cry, at least not in front of me and I told her about my parents not being with me either." Harry said, wondering just why she always wanted to seem strong in front of others. A slight frown adorned his features. How in the seven layers of hell did a girl that brave end up in Slytherin of all places, maybe it was her mum's blood. But regardless, Snuffle's whole family had been in Slytherin and he had been sorted into Gryffindor.
"She said the woman who found her parents when the came back to London did really bad things to them. What did she mean; I mean how bad was it?" Remus' face slipped a few signs of sorrow, loss and even resentment. He took a bite of the chocolate Ron had given him and then looked at the occupants of the couch.
"Sophie's grandmother found out her daughter had had Dallas's child and meant to kill the three of them, she missed one.." He said with a grimace. "She had to watch the whole thing from the tree line, she ran into the forest and hid there for nearly a week." Padfoot wanted to interject and curse the only bat with words that could make Voldemort himself blush.
Remus sent a glance at Padfoot and he only groaned resting his head under Hermione's palm again, she petted him reassuringly and Snuffles held up his dog form. "She was even brave at seven, nearly bit her grandmother's fingers off and ran like the devil." He chuckled, everyone in the room wondered why she was put in Slytherin and Ron, somehow surviving without a brain to mouth filter decided to voice them.
"Why the bloody hell isn't she up here with us then!" The redhead slumped into the couch and Padfoot's tail wagged madly, approving the wording.
"Because she's cunning as well as brave, Ronald." Remus said with a slight chuckle. "She ran off into the woods and they couldn't find a single trace of her, her footprints stopped at a stream and on the other side they could only find animal tracks. They -" Hermione giggled and they all looked at her.
She quieted herself and only said. "If we ever make her our friend you can ask her yourselves. It's not my secret to tell." Snuffles jumped up and licked her cheek the nuzzled her shoulder and she petted him more before he settled back on Harry's legs. The warmth of laughter and Snuffle's cheery bark dispelled some of the gloom that had set in with this particular talk.
Remus gave her a curious look and nodded knowingly, Harry and Ron were once more left out of the loop. Ron's mouth fell open and Harry only frowned slightly. "They lost track of her and I found her a week later, I took her to Dumbledore and he sent her off with her assigned guardian. The Dallas-Pierce couple knew with things the way they were that they would need someone to watch over their child. I don't even know who it is." Another question came forward as they started talking about what Sofia might be like and who her guardian might be.
"Well we can count Snape out; he doesn't seem like the kind to take care of anything but a potion." Ron said and Remus chuckled, amused at the honest disbelief in his former student's voice.
"I'll have you know Snape takes more care of his Slytherin than you might think. It's not easy being there during these times." Then he reconsidered. "Though taking care of a troubled student is not the same as taking on the role of 'Da'." He said thoughtfully, yes Severus was not part of their list most definitely. "Especially not how you described her saying her guardian was." The four others agreed, Padfoot with a quiet bark and the Trio with a solemn nod. They went through a whole list of past professors and none seemed make the cut. Maybe the person didn't work at the school anymore they agreed. Hogwarts had changed a few professors in the last couple of years and not just in Defense.
Ron began telling them about how horrible Umbrage was and their plans to secretly set up a group to learn something real this year and not Ministry bullocks. Hermione reached around Harry and smacked his sore arm again for his choice of words. A little while later Remus and Snuffles left, with Remus telling Harry that he should try teaching them how to summon a Patronus and not let anyone turn Sophia away from their clandestine lessons if she showed up. That is, if she was really at the school as Luna had suggested. With a promise to drop by soon as their mission was over the two surviving Marauders stepped through the portrait and after a round of wizard's chess the Golden Trio went to sleep. Harry was now even more anxious for tomorrow, it was a split feeling. He was anxious to see if Sophie was really here with them at school but the anxiety he felt about trying to convince the people that might show up to join a secret study group was closer to dread. He didn't see this going over smoothly, not with the utter rot the Prophet was spilling about him these past few days. He'd go mad if this kept up, with some of Hermione's batch of Dreamless Sleep he let his conscious be locked up in a for once, restful sleep.
Not to hard to get through I hope. I felt my writing skills slipping near the end of it. Its nearly seven thousand words, I'll have you know. Most of which was written past two in the morning. I've gone as far as dig up books five and six at the local library and pour through my own copy of book seven to get a grasp on writing the characters better. I hope.
For those of you who figured out who her guardian is, help yourselves to some licorice wands and sugar quills. If you haven't, it's going to be revealed soon and you're free to have some sweets as well. If I plan on continuing, as my fics tend to lose their plot along chapter five, I will need some suggestions from my readers.
Next stop, a retelling of the meeting at the Hogs Head and the first few DA gatherings.
Reviews and constructive criticism is most welcome and highly encouraged.
Until the next chapter,
The lion hearted Snake. A.W.H