First off I'd like to thank
Lossenrhos
And
LatentBeauty
To Latent: Yeah I didn't realize I was calling Remus Lupin by Lupin, thank you for pointing that out to me, I do mean for him to go by Remus. Oh and with Peter and his crying episode on the train...all will be explained in due time.
Disclaimer: I don't own the original Harry Potter characters. J.K. Rowling does. Pity though, I'd like to have her money.
Breakfast went by quickly and as time progressed the mystery as to what the infamous Marauders were up to began eating at her stomach. As they plates disappeared, Sophia and Lily got up so that Sophia could grab her bag. The Head Boy and Girl room had finally been finished and Dumbledore had come up during the meal to tell James and Lily that the room was ready for them.
"I apologize for the inconvenience, late start I'm afraid." Dumbledore stated.
"Quite alright Headmaster. Thank you for informing us that the room is ready." James said in what the professors had begun to refer to as the "Potter Politeness," or a generous way of what is now referred to as "sucking-up" in order to gain a little trust from the professors to make up for his incorrigible behavior. Too bad Dumbledore was only the really one to accept it. Dumbledore nodded his head slightly and returned to the front of the Great Hall. "Hear that Evans? We're going to be sharing a living space." Potter said while he winked, pouring on his thickest charm possible.
"Great. Wonderful. Can't wait." Lily Evans said sarcastically, scoffing at what he thought was an attractive way of wooing a woman, and what Lily thought as a disgusting manner that repelled her. She did not quite understand how she could be attracted and repulsed by a man at the same time. Sophia nudged her friend in the ribs. Lily jumped and said, rather loudly, "Ouch. What in the world was that for?"
"In order for said lady to gain her said knight. Said lady must not be a...what's the word...oh yeah...bitch." Sophia whispered sternly, looking Lily dead-straight in the eye.
"Right, right, come on, let's go, we've got Potions, and I can't say that I am thoroughly excited."
"I am." Sophia stated happily.
"Yeah you would. You're actually good in that class."
"So? You're good in every other class. Allow me this one small victory Lil." Sophia said.
"Remind me why I put up with you as my best friend?"
"Because a) I'm smart, b) I'm cute, and c) I'm the only one who knows how badly you want James Potter." Sophia laughed.
Lily looked over to Sophia, grinned, and silently put a finger to her lips. "Secrets aren't meant to be told Princess."
"If I'm a Princess, does that mean I'll have a Prince ride in on a white horse. Or does it mean I'll have to kiss a thousand toads before my true-love reveals himself to me."
"I'm pointing toward the toad thing."
"You would." The two girls stopped in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Password?" She said in her snobbish voice.
The two girls stopped talking for a small moment and Sophia turned and quickly said, "Raspberry drop." The portrait nodded and opened revealing the grandeur of the Gryffindor common room. "Just a moment Lily, I'll be back." And Sophia hurried up the stairs. She walked over to her bed and sighed at the mess she had left around her bed. Usually she would blame Lily, but since the House Elves had moved Lily's stuff to her new quarters, Sophia could no longer point the finger at Lily. She began to pick up her clothes, then decided against it and grabbed her bag instead. She walked out of the upstairs girl dormitory and hurried down the steps to Lily. "Alright lets go." The two walked out of the dormitory and were stopped by another fellow seventh year Gryffindor, Giselle. "Hey Giselle, haven't seen much of you."
Giselle smirked, "We've only been here a day, and I've been, um, preoccupied, if you know what I mean."
"Unfortunately I do, and I did not want the scene placed in my head before naptime." Lily said.
Giselle and Sophia just looked at her and shook their heads in unison at the bad joke. They began walking away rather quickly leaving a confused Lily behind. She quickly snapped out of her trance and yelled to Giselle and Sophia..."Oi! Wait for me!" Giselle and Sophia paused for a second, looked at each other, and seemed to mentally debate whether they should wait or continue moving. Too bad they debated too long. The three girls walked down to the dungeon to where the Potions class was located. They immediately took the seats in which they always sat in that class. The middle table. Soon other students began filing in, and Sophia was the first to notice James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter, walk in. She nudged Lily, who in turn, turned around and groaned. She then faced the front once more hoping they would go back to their seats in the back on the other side of the room. Unfortunately for her, and to Giselle's delight, the group of boys sat behind them. Sophia had always known that Giselle had, had a secret infatuation with Remus since their third year. Sophia never truly knew if Remus reciprocated that same feeling, but she always had the feeling that he did. Lily turned to Sophia who had once again faced the front and slumped down in the seat. She placed her hand on Sophia's forearm and whispered into her ear. "Don't let it get you down, if Remus can't even find it in himself to be your friend, then he isn't worth your trouble at all." Sophia smiled slightly but once again turned her attention to the front. Sophia was quite surprised Lily had said that about Remus, those two were always on good terms. Meanwhile, the lovely Giselle had turned to Remus. The two held a steady conversation until Professor Garrett walked into the classroom and brought them to a halting silence. Well, actually, Giselle held up the conversation while Remus took the time to soak in her beauty.
Giselle was very different from Lily and Sophia in looks, which is perhaps why he liked her so. She had long, silky, ebony hair, that reached about mid back. She rarely ever put it back, and no matter what she did to it, it always ended up in the same beautiful form. She had a tanned complexion that never faded, perfect white teeth, and dark indigo eyes. She was not exactly the most intelligent person out of the three, that was a war to be waged between Sophia and Lily, but she knew enough. She played Quidditch with James, and that is really how Remus began to know her. He really did not know if it was "the real thing" or just some common teenage boy fantasy. However, she was definitely one of the most wanted girls in school, other than Sophia and Lily of course. Lily and Sophia looked a like in many ways. They both had ranging degrees of red hair and were both fair complicated. However, Lily was shorter than Sophia by a few inches. Sophia had aqua-marine blue eyes, where as Lily and green, and Sophia had the long-legged look, where as Lily had an average body type. All were exceptionally thin, but not in a sickly manner, they all worked to keep their bodies in shape. In that time and age they had too, the dark powers were growing steadily stronger, and everyone feared of meeting face to face with the Dark Lord himself. Lily was probably the smartest, but Sophia was not far behind. Lily wanted to be an Auror, Sophia wanted to be a healer, and Giselle wanted to be...well that changed as much as the tides do. They were all very kind, and the only reason anyone disliked them was unfortunately purely discriminatory reasons. Lily was a muggle-born, Sophia was her best friend, and Giselle was a half-born. So even though there was a pureblood in their group, she was labeled sometimes as the "mudblood lover." The only reason Sophia was offended by this was because Lily could curse any witch or wizard into oblivion upon given the chance. No one deserved the treatment Lily endured, and yet she went through all of it with her head held high. As Lily said, "Screw them. One day I'll be the one to catch them and send them to Azkaban, and where will their idle threats hang then."
The Potions class started and Giselle quickly turned around to pay attention leaving Remus leaning back in his chair grinning. The Professor began asking about what the Randorius Potion did. Sophia quickly raised her hand and awnsered the questions being asked. She was then asked to brew the potion. "Of course Professor." She walked up to the front and began throwing in the ingredients as specified until the top was misting a light green color, and let off a sweet scent.
"Very good Sophia, 5 points to Gryffindor, take your seat please."
Sophia nodded and walked back to her seat. Sirius and James winked at her, and she pretended to blush. Sophia was the only Gryffindor able to gain points for their house. Everyone else began brewing the potion while Sophia sat and watched. She occasionally intervened when needed. (James and Sirius had almost added too much aspen root.) And Remus once again found himself thinking about her. She impressed him greatly all the time. Yet for some reason he could not get the past the feeling of anger. Perhaps it was jealously, or perhaps it was because back in their third year, she had embarrassed him tremendously. Obviously he did not know, and neither did she.
"Hey Parker, what's up?"
"Hey Sophia." He seemed to blush a little bit, "Can we um, can we talk?"
"I thought that was why we were here." Sophia said laughingly.
"Right." Parker seemed really uncomfortable which concerned Sophia, Parker was never like this.
"Parker, are you alright?"
"Yeah, listen, Sophia, you've known that I've liked you for a while right?" Sophia nodded. "But since you were with Eric, I didn't think it would be appropriate to um, make any advances." Once again Sophia nodded. "But now that you and Eric are no longer together, I was um hoping if you'd like to get together sometime."
Sophia looked up at him for a few moments, he obviously had gone out on a limb and Sophia felt bad for her friend. "Okay, we'll go on one date and see if that leads us anywhere." Parker seemed relieved. "Well hey, I need to go. See you later?"
He nodded, "Yeah, see you." And Sophia left the library seriously debating whether she had just done the right thing or not.Around 9 o'clock, every one headed to their dorms. Lily and James said their goodnights to their group and walked over to their dormitory. James said the password, "Phoenix blood." And the door opened. "Ladies first." Lily rolled her eyes and walked in.
"Good night Potter." She said sarcastically.
"Good night Lily." He said sincerely. She stopped in her tracks and turned around.
"Potter, why do you continuously do this?"
"Do what?"
"Be nice to me. I know how you really are, and yet you put up this façade of friendliness obviously hoping I'll buy into it."
"I would ask about how I really am, Evans. But you've made that known to me numerous times. I'm friendly to you because I chose to be, and I know you're bitchy to me because you choose to be. But instead of being an overbearing judgmental wench about how I am, maybe you should take a look in your own mirror." James said angrily before walking into his room and slamming the door. Lily sighed dramatically and walked to her own bedroom and shut the door silently.Back in the Gryffindor dorms, everyone had gotten ready for bed. At least that's how it was in the girl's dorms. Everyone had seemed ready for bed, and the lights went out when, at Sophia's window something began scratching. She got out of bed and pulled open the window and a white owl hopped in stretching out its leg. Sophia took the parchment from his leg and handed him a treat, as she opened the letter, the owl flew once again out the window. Sophia lit a candle and began reading.
Sophia,
We regret to announce to you that in a raid tonight at one of the Death Eater's quarters, your parents were murdered. We are sorry for your loss. We have written to the Evan's household and they have agreed to take you in over the summer if you so wish. The loss of your family to the ministry will be missed.
Lorainne Sumnter.
Ministry of Magic
By the end of the letter, the ink had began to smear dramatically due to Sophia's tears. She walked quickly, but silently, out of the girls dorm as to not disturb anyone. She walked in front of the fire and sat on the floor, where she began to sob uncontrollably.Remus Lupin realized that for some reason he would not be able to go to sleep that night. Quietly he snuck out of the boys dorms and was at the top of the stairs when he heard something. Was it...was it someone weeping? Remus walked over to look down and sure enough, in front of the fire, sat a girl weeping. He walked down the stairs trying not to disturb her and when he got a closer look he was surprised. Sophia Burnham sat in front of the fire crying as though someone had ripped away the very seams of her life. Little did he know that in a way, someone had.