Chapter 3 – Hogwarts Oddball

In between Tonks and Moody was a girl, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, that he did not notice. She was seated, but somehow, Harry knew that she was more or less his height, and she was pole-thin. She had very white porcelain skin – one would think that she was either of Chinese descent or part-Veela – and it made a startling contrast with her jet-black hair that was wavy and fell to her shoulders. Her eyes were almond-shaped and dark brown – almost black – partially hidden behind bangs, and under a pair of black eyebrows. She also had an indistinguishable expression in her eyes. They didn't have the same twinkle in Dumbledore's, nor did they have the same manic glint in Snape's. She had a mixture of two contradicting expressions; one was submissiveness, the other, defiance. Her aura was also contradicting; it was a like a fusion of the same warmth he felt whenever with Dumbledore, and the same cold he felt when he would hear the voice of Voldemort. When he thought about this, he felt an odd rush of emotions. He looked at the girl's eyes and felt her presence, and, for a reason he could not understand, knew that this girl was hurting. He somehow knew that she was going through incomprehensible pain. It was as if he felt it too. He felt something he could not understand. One thing he did realize, though, was that this girl was beautiful. Not pretty, like Cho or Parvati or Lavender, but beautiful.

"Sophie is your guard Harry," he heard Tonks say. "She will also be teaching you Occlumency this summer. She's a superb Legilimens. She's in your year and house in Hogwarts."

Harry was surprised when he heard this. He had never seen the girl in Hogwarts.

"Er, is she new?" he asked, then reddened, knowing that he sounded a tad bit stupid, not to mention tactless.

He saw the corners of the girl's mouth twitch slightly, he took that as a smile, and she averted her eyes. "I'm not new," she said, then she fell silent once more.

Mad-eye's magical eye looked as though it was attempting to read her expression, but failed. "Well," he growled, "I hope that you, Ron and Hermione can make her feel welcome. She's supposed to be on holiday, but she came here just for you –"

"Not that I mind, of course," Sophie said quickly. He looked at her and saw her dark eyes were gazing at his green ones. They stared at each other for a moment; Harry was the first to break the stare. He averted his eyes and instead looked at the table. The Order exchanged looks that Harry couldn't read. He was, at this point, getting quite irritated, for he knew practically all the people here, yet their actuation, he felt, was like that of a total stranger. Sophie sensed this, however, and stood next to Harry.

"Well, I think I can perhaps give Harry a gist of what's happening, and maybe we can make progress before the day ends," she said, a tad bit too brightly for her appearance and expression.

There were murmurs and nods when she said this, and one by one, everyone left the study.

"Hey…er, how come I never see you around Hogwarts?" Harry asked, trying to start a conversation with Sophie.

Sophie again gave Harry the same wry smile she had given him a moment ago. "Well, for one thing, I don't take Care of Magical Creatures or Divination, so I don't see you in those extra classes and I never recite in our other classes."

"Oh. Why?"

"It's hard to explain. I won't be able to explain it without sounding arrogant. Anyway, that's not important."

"Okay. Er, how come I never see you at the Great Hall for meals?"

"I don't eat in the Great Hall. You won't be able to understand. Maybe some other time when it's more convenient for me, I'll tell you more about myself."

"Er, alright. Erm, why don't we go to Hermione and Ron? Maybe we'll be able to talk about stuff with them."

"That sounds lovely. I'll just," she said, then waved her wand a couple of times, conjuring a sketchpad and a charcoal pencil, "get these and let's get a move on, shall we?"

Sophie and Harry met up with Ron and Hermione. Harry introduced her to Ron. Hermione knew who she was, having shared a dormitory with her since the first year. They introduced her to Ginny, and now, everyone knew everyone, so they began to talk and tell stories. Sophie, Harry noticed, did not seem to be paying attention to them at all. Instead, she busied herself over her sketchpad, drawing things she permitted no one to see. But nobody seemed to mind, so they carried on with their conversation.

About an hour later, Mrs. Weasley called them out to help with dinner. Hermione and Ginny helped cook, while Ron and Harry helped set the table. However, when Sophie did not offer to help, Mrs. Weasley did not bother forcing her, and just gave her a pitying look. Only Harry noticed this, and he guessed that something rather unfortunate had happened to her.

Everyone sat in the kitchen, eating in silence. This was quite unusual, since usually, everyone ate while chattering happily. Harry then knew that he was not the only one who missed Sirius' presence. Everyone wasn't eating much, Sophie wasn't even eating at all. She was still sketching on her sketchpad and for some odd reason, it irritated Harry. She was very engrossed in what she was doing that she seemed oblivious to the fact that the rest of the people felt quite gloomy. In fact, it even seemed like she didn't care at all. She was just sketching on and on and on.

Dinner ended quite early, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Sophie made their way to their rooms. Sophie got a room to herself for some reasons they were very much unaware of. Harry and Ron were in their pajamas when they began to talk about Sophie.

"She's kinda weird, isn't she?" said Ron, lying down on his bed.

"Yeah. All she did was sketch on her sketchpad and look at us."

"She had this weird way of looking at Hermione. She looked like she had something against her."

"Well, maybe there's something she dislikes about her. I 'spect it's 'cause she's shared a dorm with Hermione for long, maybe she's got something against her."

"Well, maybe, yeah. But That look was so weird. It was as though she was telling her off because she did something wrong. It's the kind of look that McGonagall gives us whenever we're late."

"I dunno man. I wasn't really paying attention."

"I wonder why we've never seen her before."

"She told me that she hasn't had a meal in the Great Hall during her entire stay at Hogwarts. I don't think that's normal."

"Hermione told me that she'd never leave the dormitory unless she'd go to the loo. She's pretty scary, actually. Why is she here anyway?"

"I dunno. They said she's supposed to be my guard and tech me Occlumency."

When Ron had heard this, he sat up. "You mean," he started, "that she'll be hanging around us for the entire year?"

Harry who hadn't thought of this, felt an unsettling feeling. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah, I suppose so."

"Well, it could be interesting. She hasn't told us much about herself. Maybe she's a much more interesting person than we think she is."

"I tried to ask her a couple of questions about her. She answered them, but stopped me from asking her some more and said that 'maybe some other time when it's more convenient for her, she'll tell me more about herself.'"

"Weird," Ron said, lying down on his bed. "Well, 'night mate."

"'Night."