Chapter 21: Sophie's Past

Sophie's eyes snapped open, her heart racing, it took a moment for her to calm herself and remember where she was and that Dumbledore had told her that Severus was safe and on his way.
She went to sit up but found moving to be quite painful. Hearing a creak she looked round and saw Severus putting a book down and getting up from a chair to move towards her.

"Hey Sev, you alright? What time is it?" Sophie greeted, happy to see him safe and sound.

"It's almost half twelve in the afternoon and I'm fine, thanks to you. How are you feeling?" asked Severus as he helped her sit up and pulled a chair closer to the bed.

"My whole body aches, I don't know how you're able to move about and teach a class like this."

"Experience, and I rarely got held under the curse for as long as you were."

"How did Sirius get the message to you? What's been happening at Hogwarts?"

"Well at Hogwarts the students are… revolting, fairly successfully, against Umbridge. Led by Potter's little rebellion club – which a number of Slytherin's have now joined, including Draco. Seems that blasted sorting hat has got the unity it's been calling for all these years. Black it seems has an enchanted mirror that he and Potter can talk through – he got a message through that way."

"Draco has joined up with Harry? Ha, never saw that coming in a million years! Oh - Narcissa. She's the one who got me out of the cell at the manor. She's gone into hiding and gave me a note to give to Draco so he can find her."

Sophie painfully reached into her pocket and pulled out the bag of floo powder which she handed to Severus. Severus opened it, pulled out the note and examined it – but it appeared to be blank.

Severus took out his wand and muttered "Reveleo" but nothing happened. "So Narcissa got you out... I'm afraid I'll need to return to Hogwarts later today, so I can pass this… note onto him. So how did you escape exactly, what happened?"

"I'd like to know that too" Said Sirius from the doorway "How are you feeling, kid?"

"You certainly gave us a fright when you showed up last night." Agreed Remus following Sirius into the room.

"I'm not feeling too great, but it's a lot better than being dead. Thank you both for last night - there's a lot of blanks after well, Sirius opening the door but I do remember you both carrying me up here and then Poppy was here and then Dumbledore."

Sophie then went on to talk about her time at the Ministry, Lucius showing up with Fudge, being taken to Malfoy Manor and meeting Voldemort. "I could tell he was trying to get inside my head and he was getting more and more frustrated that it wasn't working. In the end he just asked me where your loyalties were, Sev. I said with him… but he didn't believe me… then well, he wasn't very happy. I was trying to get out of that cell for ages and then Narcissa showed up, let me out and gave me some floo powder. She's gone into hiding now."

"Narcissa let you out? I guess she does still have some decency left..." Sirus said. "I bet I know where she's gone, I wonder if I could convince her to turn completely turncoat..."

"She gave Sophie this note to give to Draco." Said Severus and he handed the piece of paper to Sirius.

Surprisingly Sirius appeared to be able to read the blank piece of parchment without any trouble. "As I thought, she's gone to the Black safe house, only those with direct Black blood can enter the property or grounds – so Draco can enter - and they'll be safe from Voldemort - and Lucius for that matter, I don't imagine he'll be too pleased with her."

"Would Harry be able to enter the property?" Asked Remus curiously

"Yes, I think he would – his Grandmother Dorea was a Black and the magic might also recognise him as my Godson." Mused Sirius.

"Do you think you could manage some food?" asked Remus "You're also on bedrest for the next couple of days – Poppy's orders."

"I don't think that will be too hard, sitting up was painful enough. I think I should eat something, but I'm not very hungry – could I please just have something plain?"

"Of course, Sophie. Severus, would you like a sandwich or something?" smiled Remus

"Yes, thank you."

After Sirius and Remus had left Severus helped Sophie to the bathroom and then back to bed. When Remus brought up some lunch for them they ate and chatted, catching up on events and enjoying having each other's company again.

A while later Severus looked at his watch and realised he'd have to leave in about an hour at the latest. Whilst debating with himself as to whether he should bring up his visit to Raven's Rock just yet , Sophie asked "What you worrying about?"

Severus paused for a moment and then answered "I met someone yesterday at Raven's Rock Pub. He could tell I was wearing the necklace you gave me and said he was your brother, Elijah."

"Oh."

"Said he'd been trying to track you down for over a year and told me to tell you to come home, that your family miss you."

"Was he really tall and hairy?"

"Yes, he also was wearing a similar rune necklace"

"Yeah, that would be Elijah. He's one of my older brothers – he actually taught me how to make the runes, so I'm not surprised he could sense the amulet."

Sophie didn't meet Severus's eyes, she knew that he wouldn't press her, but she equally wanted to share with him about her family but also wanted to keep it to herself.

"My family and I have some rather different views on 'the outside world' and humans." Sophie began after a couple of minutes.

"My parents in particular just want us to live within Lunio society and told us that humans are nothing but bad news. Of course by banning their world, they just made it so much more appealing – my siblings and I would sneak away every so often and explore Muggle and Magical places. On one trip I made some muggle friends, and started hanging out with them whenever I could. My siblings didn't like that - they could rationalise us having an explore but agreed with my parents about not hanging out with humans."

Sophie paused and Severus didn't interrupt so she continued;

"They told me to stop seeing my human friends, I refused. So they went and grassed me up to our parents. We had a huge fight, it all came out about us sneaking off - the whole family got involved, no one wanted to hear my point of view - so I took off. At first I was just planning on staying away for a couple of weeks, but I was having a great time with my friends and just generally running amok. And before I knew it I'd been away for a couple of months. I didn't know it but there was a wizard who lived in the same area as my friends, and he'd detected my magic in the area. He started tracking me, worked out what I was and caught me. A few weeks later you bought me at Troikas Menagerie."

"It sounds like your family were trying to protect you." Said Severus carefully, trying to not chastise her for what she'd done.

"Well yeah, and I understood that at the time too. But I wanted to be able to explore and Lunio's have been hiding for centuries, nothing was going to change."

"That might be true, but from the looks of it, those who do leave to explore end up…"

"Being caught. I know – I learnt the hard way. And I know I should have been smarter about the whole thing, but they didn't even want to compromise a little. And If I hadn't left then I know I wouldn't have able to get out again, I'd have been watched all the time – I'd tasted freedom, I didn't want to just pretend it didn't exist."

"I understand. I've also learnt some lessons the hard." Said Severus, gesturing to his arm.

"Have you been revealed as a traitor yet?"

"No, He's going to summon me tonight. Which is why Albus wants me back at Hogwarts so that Pomphrey can be there to help numb the area around the mark - and so that I'm not out and about when the DeathEaters learn about me."

"What if it doesn't work?"

"In theory it should, and I developed a pain reliever specifically for this, just in case. I'll be alright, Sophie. You focus on getting better – you've been through quite an ordeal."

Severus rose to depart. "Albus is going to find out where the Ministry thinks you are. And hopefully you can come back to Hogwarts soon. Have a think about what you want to do in regards to your family – we're in a war. It's not the time to leave things you might regret till later."

And with a last gentle hug, Severus left for Hogwarts. Leaving Sophie to think about the future and what she should do.