A/N: This chapter is a bit short, and it hasn't been beta-d yet. I apologize for the mistakes ahead of time.
For the next two weeks, Sophie slept soundly; every seven days she received a new vial of sleeping draught from Professor Lupin. Classes continued slowly- Sophie eagerly anticipated her Muggle Studies and Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons. Her feelings about the latter class had changed since the beginning of the school year. That was, until Professor Lupin decided to teach a unit on the Unforgivable Curses.
"Today class, you will be learning about the Avada Kedavra Curse," began Professor Lupin. Avada Kedavra. The words stung Sophie's heart and pained her stomach. A hand shot up at the back of the room. "Yes, Padma?"
Professor Moody taught us about the Unforg-" Padma began, but Professor Lupin cut her off.
"If I recall, Miss Patil, it was not Professor Moody who taught you in your fourth year, but a dark wizard posing as him?" Padma nodded as her cheeks coloured. Professor Lupin smiled good-naturedly and continued speaking. "Then you won't mind if I go ahead and teach you about them again?" Padma grinned timidly and shook her head in reply.
" The Avada Kedavra Curse is, as you know a killing curse that can only be produced if the witch or wizard casting the curse truly feels the hatred required to kill a person." Simply hearing the curse described caused tears to well in Sophie's eyes. "The curse is generally only produced by Dark witches or wizards, and there is no counter-curse for it." There is no counter -curse.Sophie felt like there was a knife being twisted about in her heart as the words rang in her ears. Even if I could have gotten to him, there was nothing I could do… She concentrated on a crack in the table she was seated at and tried, for the first time, not to hear what her professor was saying. She could feel tears pooling behind her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep them there. It didn't work. In a flash, Sophie was out of the classroom and running down the corridor towards Ravenclaw Tower.
"Miss Featherblade….Miss Featherblade!" she heard her Professor call after her, but she kept running away from the words that haunted her dreams-Avada Kedavra.
Once she was safe in the dormitory, she climbed onto her bed, shut the curtains around it, and buried herself up to her chin in the rich and warm navy colored bedclothes that covered it. She grasped the chain that hung around her neck, under her blouse, and pulled the silver heart that hung from it. She hesitated for a moment, then opened the locket, revealing its contents.
From inside the locket, Sophie's parents looked up and smiled at her, waving. Her mother gave her father a kiss on the cheek, and as she did, he laughed, and although the photograph did not make a sound, Sophie could hear his laughter ringing in her ears. Sophie smiled and a single tear rolled down her cheek. She closed her eyes and saw them- her mother staring blankly in front of her, slumped on the floor next to the kitchen table, her father's limp corpse face down in front of the cupboard she was stuck inside. Sophie quickly opened her eyes but she was soon blinded by tears. She rolled over onto her side and cried herself to sleep.
" Do you think we should wake her? It's almost time for dinner."
"I don't know…she ran out of class quite flustered, and she is sleeping…she looks like she feels better after she sleeps. And it's not like she'd eat dinner anyway…" Sophie squinted as the light coming through her now-open bed curtains hit her open eyes. She couldn't see the girls faces, but she recognized their voices as belonging to Padma Patil and Orla Quirke.
"Don't bother debating anymore," said Sophie in a rather grumpy voice. "I'm already up. I need to eat something anyway." Sophie sat up and kicked her feet over the edge of the bed.
"Are you alright?" asked Padma. Sophie nodded her head, but Padma didn't look pleased with that as an answer. "I'm not just talking about what happened today," she continued. "You've been like this since the beginning of the year, and I understand that you will be doing some grieving, but you're just not the same girl you used to be." Padma walked over to Sophie and sat down next to her on the bed. "Now, I know we've never been really close, but I'm worried about you. You are my housemate, and if you have a problem, it's my problem too." Padma timidly put her hand on Sophie's and squeezed it. Sophie looked at Padma; the girls simultaneously smiled at one another. At that moment, Orla walked over to where the two were standing, placed her hands on her hips and grinned.
" Sophie, I'm here for you too, but I'm quite hungry, and if we plan on eating tonight, we need to get down to the Great Halll."
That night, Sophie dined, not by herself, but with Padma and Orla. It felt good, not to be the outcast- to have people willingly talking to her. The two girls really were quite kind, and very interesting. They were beautiful too- Padma had long black hair and rich brown skin; her eyes were a dark chestnut colour and rimmed with ebony colored lashes. Orla had shoulder-length curly red hair, green eyes, and a peaches-and-cream complexion. Sophie felt slightly intimidated by the beauty and willingness to talk, but at the same time she felt excepted and slightly happy for the first time in a very long time.
As Sophie entered Defense Against the Dark she noticed that Padma was conversing with Professor Lupin behind his desk. Shortly after seating herself at the back of the classroom, Padma headed toward where she and Orla sat and motioned to Sophie for her to join them. Sophie spent the class doodling on a scrap of parchment, ignoring a lesson on the Cruciatus Curse. As she got up from her desk to leave the classroom after the lesson, Professor Lupin stepped in between her body and the door.
"Miss Featherblade, we need to talk. Please step into my office." Sure that she had been caught not paying attention in class, Sophie sighed and followed her professor. Once inside, he motioned for her to take a seat in an arm chair next to his desk, and he shut the office door before seating himself.
"I do not understand why this was brought to me and not your Head of House, but it has, and I intend to attend to the problem." Sophie let out a sigh of relief. It's not about the doodling…
"A problem, Sir?"
"Yes, it has come to my attention that several of your fellow students are worried about your well-being.-not about your physical state- though you do look quite overdrawn, but your mental state. I'm going to try and help."