Chapter 17
Draco sat in the Great Hall with his house one week before the Hogsmede visit. He was still no closer to devising a plan to find things out about Sophia.
I'm not exactly sure what I can do to find things out about her, but I think the best case would be to go to one of her close friends and ask them things about her. But which one of her friends would actually do that? Draco thought hopelessly.
Draco glanced to the Ravenclaw table and noticed a girl staring at him from there.
Oh great...now one of those idiot Ravenclaw girls is staring at me...but wait! She's sitting by McArthur! Oh, I can't believe my luck! Draco thought, a devious smirk crossing his face.
Sylia then noticed that Draco was looking back at her.
"You guys! I think Draco is checking me out!" Sylia said, totally interrupting the conversation Cho and Sophia were having.
"Look! I think you should just stay away from – " Sophia started.
"Oh my god! He's walking over!" Sylia said excitedly, cutting Sophia off.
"Hello, ladies." Draco said smoothly, sounding a lot like his old self.
"What do you want, Malfoy?" Sophia asked coldly.
"I just wanted to know if this lovely lady would like to introduce herself and spend some time with me today." Draco said snobbishly, as if there was nothing else that Sylia might want to do.
"My name is Sylia and I would lo–" Sylia started, sounding a bit star struck.
"Look, Malfoy. She doesn't want anything to do with you!" Sophia said angrily.
"Why don't we let her decide that for herself?" Draco said forcefully while narrowing his eyes slightly.
Then Draco turned to Sylia, put on a slick smile and said, "Would you like to accompany me to the lake, Sylia?"
"Sure!" Sylia said with excitement, "I'll see you guys later today, okay?"
With that, she walked off with Draco and left Sophia and Cho looking after her.
"She's making a big mistake." Sophia said, looking at Draco angrily.
"Look. You know what she's like...she'll be over him and liking a new guy before we know it." Said Cho.
"I hope so." Sophia said, "But Malfoy is a complete scum bag. I know that he's just using her for something...since when do people in Slytherin, especially Draco Malfoy, date people out of their own house?"
"I don't know...Sylia can be a bit of a ditz sometimes..." said Cho.
"She doesn't know what she's getting involved with!" Sophia said bitterly, "Let's just get back to the Common Room, shall we?"
Sophia began to walk away.
"Hey, wait up, will you?" Cho said, running to catch up with her.
She's always like this whenever Draco Malfoy comes up...I wonder why? I know that he is scum, but that's no reason to get worked up like this every time...I think that there's something else going on here too...Cho thought as they walked to the Ravenclaw Common Room.
While Sophia and Cho went there, Draco and Sylia walked down to the lake from the school. Sylia chattered on about something or another while Draco tried his very best to sound interested.
Oh god! This is going to be a long day...Draco thought.
Dear Sirius,
Our next Hogsmede visit is this coming Saturday. All of us really are looking forward to seeing you. We will bring food. See you soon!
Harry
Now I've got to find Hedwig to get her to deliver this for me. I think Ron, Hermione, Violet, and I can go to the owlery after breakfast, Harry thought, folding up his letter to Sirius and putting it in a pocket in his robe.
Harry sat in the dormitory mid Sunday morning, and Ron was still asleep. He and Ron were the only people that were still there.
I think I'd better wake Ron up so that we can get down to breakfast already. I bet Hermione and Violet are already waiting for us in the Common Room...Harry thought, getting up from his own bed and shaking Ron.
"Stop missing those Bludgers, George! How are we going to win the game at this rate?" Ron mumbled, still half asleep.
"Ron, wake up!" Harry said while shaking Ron some more.
Finally, Ron let go of his sleep and said, "What do you want at this bloody hour?"
Harry laughed and said, "It's morning already! Breakfast must already be half over! And anyway...I've got a letter to Sirius I want to send him about our next Hogsmede visit."
"Okay...I guess we'd better get going then..." Ron said.
When Ron and Harry got down to the Common Room at last, they found the Quidditch team and Hermione all talking.
"It's about time the you two of you joined us! We were just about to send someone to get you guys. We're having another emergency team meeting." said Katie.
"Oh no! Not more bad news!" said Ron.
"Actually, this news is something that will work in our favor. Since in our first game we were forced to play Ravenclaw instead of Hufflepuff, Slytherin and Ravenclaw will play next game while we play Hufflepuff next." Katie said.
"I'm glad. Now as long as we don't have to play in a storm, I'm all good." Violet said, sarcastically.
Everyone laughed.
"But Ron will be here to look out for you!" said George.
Fred grabbed Ron into a headlock, gave him a noogie, and said, "Isn't that right, Ronnie?"
When Ron finally got out of Fred's grip, Ron looked at Violet and they both blushed.
"Well, that's all I wanted to tell everyone. See you all at practice." Katie said, adjourning the meeting.
"Let's get down to breakfast. I'm starving!" said Ron, eager to get out of the Common Room so people would stop staring at him.
"Hey, Ron! Wait up!" said Violet, starting after him.Harry and Hermione followed.
Remus and Sirius sat in their cottage playing cards, since there was nothing much else they could do as the man they were after was killed by Voldemort and the Scepter and Violet were safe at Hogwarts. They now waited for Dumbledore to contact them and give them a new assignment.
"Royal Flush. I win." said Sirius, showing his hand.
"I don't know how you do it!" said Remus, folding is own hand.
"Maybe I just have a magic touch." Said Sirius, grinning.
"Ha, ha. Very funny..." Remus replied sarcastically.
Then Remus happened to glance outside the window and saw a white owl flying towards it.
"Hey, look! It seems as though Harry's finally sent another letter." Remus said, pointing to the window.
Sirius opened the window to let Hedwig in, let her sit on his arm to take the letter off of her leg, and said, "Hello, Hedwig. Thanks for coming all this way! Do we have anything for her to eat, Remus?"
"Well, there is some meat left from our dinner last night." Remus said after shuffling around the cabinets in the kitchen.
Sirius took the meat from Remus and gave it to Hedwig. She took it gratefully, gave them a little hoot, and flew off. Sirius then opened the letter and read it.
"What does it say, Sirius?" asked Remus.
"Harry said that his next Hogsmede visit is this Saturday. It will be so great to see him after all this time. And also I look forward to seeing my...niece. Wow, me an uncle...I still can't get over the fact that Dalon has grown up and even had a family. My little brother..." Sirius said.
"Yeah...I find it hard to believe too...Dalon used to be a little brat most of the time!" Remus said with a smile.
Then Sirius put on a serious face.
"My parents died thinking that I was Voldemort's right hand man and my little brother was left wondering for so many years what happened to me. My parents were so ashamed of me, that they even left England and the wizarding world forever. I couldn't even tell them all that I was innocent..." Sirius said bitterly.
Remus put his hand on Sirius's shoulder in an attempt to comfort him.
"When I finally get my hands on Pettigrew and clear my name, I've got to hang on to what family I have left." Sirius said with conviction.
"Sirius! Remus!" a voice called.
Remus and Sirius turned their heads abruptly to the fireplace. They found Dumbledore's head there.
"Albus! We have some news for you. Sanford was indeed in Voldemort's inner circle." said Remus.
"Is that so?" Dumbledore said thoughtfully.
"But we could get no more information on any of Voldemort's plans or his whereabouts since what information we did get about Sanford was through one of Harry's visions." Said Sirius.
Dumbledore thought silently for a moment and then said, "Then this makes our situation more dire than I had expected. Severus is in a bad way and I am tending to him."
"What?! Snape?!?" said Sirius.
"What's wrong with him?" asked Remus.
"I'd prefer if you could join me and see for yourself. I don't want to give more information out than necessary. We must take precautions in case this Floo network has been tapped in any way. We can never know who could be listening..." said Dumbledore.
"Have you put on any tea?" asked Sirius very seriously, as this was code to identify Dumbledore's location.
"Yes, I have." Replied Dumbledore, "But it would be wise if you both come when some days have past. We don't want to alert too many Muggles of our presence."
"Yes. We will meet you in three days then." said Remus.
Dumbledore gave them a slight nod and disappeared from the fire.
"Wow...I never expected something like this to happen..." said Sirius.
"Yeah...we need to be extra careful of what we do from now on. If a Death Eater gets wind of our plans, we're all finished. Who knows what they could have gotten out of Snape." said Remus.
A dark expression crossed Sirius's face when he said, "I guess we'll get to know that in three days."
On Sunday evening, people in the Ravenclaw house sat in their Common Room just chatting or finishing any homework last minute before Monday. This is what Sophia, Sylia, and Cho were doing as well. But Sophia and Cho were the only ones really doing homework while Sylia just had her Potions book open in front of her while she daydreamed about Draco. Cho glanced up from her Arithmancy book ever so often and realized that Sylia was looking at Sophia and her somewhat expectantly. Cho wasn't sure if Sophia noticed this since she seemed to be ignoring both of them completely.
She must want one of us to ask her about her date with Draco...eww...this is disgusting, but then again, this is Sylia...if the guy is at least half way good looking, that basically does it for her...I don't know how anyone can stand to be that shallow! thought Cho.
"Okay...I know you're dying for one of us to ask you how your date with Draco went. So, how was it?" asked Cho, curious what a date with someone like Draco would be like in spite of herself.
"It was great!" Sylia said happily, glad that someone finally took interest in her date.
"Really...?" Cho said in disbelief.
"Yeah, totally...but he did ask me a lot of questions about you." Sylia said, pointing to Sophia.
This caused Sophia to pop her head up from her book.
"What?!" she said in surprise and suspicion, "What kind of things did he ask?"
"Hmm...I don't really remember...But you guys will never guess what else happened!" Sylia said, brushing Sophia's question aside.
"What happened?" Cho asked with curiosity.
"Draco asked me to the Valentines Ball!" Sylia said in absolute excitement.
"Really?!?" Cho asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I know! I just couldn't believe he asked me either!" Sylia said.
"Wow, it seems like you actually got what you wanted..." Cho said in disbelief.
"Did I ever! I can't believe I got asked to the Valentines Ball by someone as hot as him! I'm surprised girls aren't all over him!" Sylia said.
That's because anyone with half a brain wouldn't want to date that sack of scum! Sophia thought angrily, And why was he asking her questions about me?! What exactly is he trying to pull here?
Sophia knew Draco well enough to know there had to be some ulterior motive other than just wanting to date Sylia. Then this led Sophia to a startling line of thought.
Could he know about his father and my mother? That would explain him asking questions about me...and it couldn't be a coincidence that he just suddenly decided to date a girl out of his own house that also happens to be one of my close friends! I just hope this isn't the case...because if he does know, our lives are going to change...Sophia thought.
Sophia decided that she didn't want to deal with any of that now.
"Hey guys...I think I'm going to get to bed now...See you both at breakfast." Sophia said, slightly downtrodden, while she got up with her things and went to the dorms.
"What happened now?" Sylia said, slightly annoyed that Sophia wanted no part in her excitement for getting a date with Draco to the Ball.
Cho looked at Sophia walking up the stairs puzzlingly and said, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out. But I'll wait until she's in a better mood first."
Usually she's angry whenever Draco is mentioned. Now she was sad...I don't understand this at all! Could she possibly have a crush on Draco and now is jealous of Sylia? No, that doesn't make any sense...I know she likes Fred Weasley. I just don't what to think about this at all! Cho thought, wondering how she should approach Sophia about Draco.
"Hey, Cho! I still didn't give you all details about my date with the unbelievably good looking Draco Malfoy!" Sylia said, breaking Cho's line of thought.
Cho took her mind off of Sophia a moment and turned to Sylia.
"Alright. Go ahead. I'm listening..." Cho said.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Violet were now counting down the last days till the next Hogsmede visit, as they spent another late night in the Common Room studying. The Common Room had long emptied out for the night, and the group decided that it was finally time to stop studying. (For the most part...Hermione was still willing to go through another chapter in History of Magic, but the rest stopped her).
As everyone gathered up their stuff to go upstairs to the dorms, Harry said, "I just can't wait to see Snuffles after such a long time! It must be so hard to live on the run like he does...not knowing if anyone has seen you and will turn you in –"
"And not having enough food! I don't know how he does it at all!" said Ron, cutting Harry off.
"Yeah...we really need to remember to bring him food from the Great Hall the night before we go." said Hermione.
"What I still can't believe is that I have an uncle like him! And I thought some of the people on my mom's side of the family were crazy..." Violet said with a smile.
"I think we should all get to sleep already...I'm tired..." said Harry.
"Yeah, let's go." said Ron, leading the way up the stairs.
Ron didn't talk much to Violet because ever since he read the letter that her friends sent to her, he felt extra nervous around her.
I just can't believe for all this time that I've had competition for Violet...And who could he be? This guy has to be someone that I know, because Violet doesn't hang out with people that I don't know...At least I think she doesn't. But who?! Could it be someone close to me? Like Harry?! No way...Harry fancies Hermione, not Violet...Maybe Fred or George? No...it can't be either of them...they hardly talk to Violet, let alone fancy her. Then who?!? I always thought that she fancied only me...Now I really have to do something before I lose her to him...Ron thought, slightly dejected.
Finally they reached the top of the stairs and then the girls went up to their dorms while the boys went to theirs. As Ron and Harry began to get into bed, Ron remembered about the Valentines Ball that was coming up.
Maybe I can ask her to that! That is, if the other guy didn't already ask her first...Ron thought, I think I'll find out if Harry asked anyone yet.
"Hey, Harry. Did you ask anyone to the Valentines Ball yet?" Ron asked.
"Oh. That. Yeah, I did." said Harry, slightly shyly.
"Who? Hermione?" asked Ron.
"How'd you know?" Harry asked puzzlingly.
"Lucky guess." Ron said, smiling.
Harry felt his face reddening slightly. He decided that now there was no point in keeping his crush on Hermione a secret anymore since Ron so obviously knew anyway.
"I'm really glad that she said that she'd go with me...I'd hate to end up dateless at a Ball like this one..." said Harry, "I assume you're going with Violet?"
Now the smile faded off of Ron's face.
"You know...I don't know..." Ron said.
"I thought you two were together...you went out on a date and all..." Harry said, slightly puzzled.
"I thought we were too, but now I'm not so sure she feels the same way." said Ron.
"What makes you think so?" Harry asked, now curious.
"I think she fancies someone else too..." Ron said, slightly hurt.
"Really? How do you know that?" asked Harry, in surprise.
"Well...I read part of the letter her friends in the States sent her...just as I was going to find out who the other guy was, she saw I was reading it, so I just stopped." said Ron.
"Wow...tough break." Harry said.
"What do you think I should do, Harry?" Ron asked.
"I don't know...But you'd better ask her to the Ball quick, before the other guy does." Harry answered thoughtfully.
"I guess...but maybe she doesn't really want to go with me...what if she wanted to go with that other guy more?" said Ron, slightly unsure of himself.
"Of course she'd want to go with you if you ask her first! And...get her flowers or something...I think girls like that sort of thing." Said Harry.
"I guess you're right." said Ron, "I'll try to ask her to the Ball soon."
"We should try to find out who this other guy is so we can know who the competition is." said Harry.
"I know that it's gotta be someone that we know. Violet spends practically all of her time with us...we've got to have seen this guy." reasoned Ron.
"Well, that is if she hasn't been meeting him on the sly..." said Harry.
"You think that every time that we're not with her, she's with him?!" Ron said.
"At least some of the time, but it's not like she'd really tell either of us when. I know she hasn't told you anything about this because she doesn't want to hurt your feelings, but maybe she's told Hermione or Ginny about this. I mean, they're all girls, and I bet they talk about this stuff all the time." Harry said.
"You think? But if Violet told Hermione, she'd tell us about it, wouldn't she?" asked Ron.
"I'm not so sure about that...girls have this weird secretiveness about guys they're with or going to Balls with. Remember how Hermione wouldn't tell us who she was going with to the Yule Ball?" said Harry.
"You're right! I'm going to go ask her about the other guy Violet fancies right now! I bet she knows and is just holding out on us!!" said Ron, feeling agitated and getting up from his bed ready to take this up with Hermione right then.
"Ron, sit down. It's probably not such a good idea to ask her right in front of Violet. We'll just have to get her alone for a moment and ask her about it then." said Harry, sensibly.
"Yeah, that's probably a better idea..." Ron said, sitting down, and feeling sheepish.
As they sat silently for a moment, a separate thought came to Ron.
"Well, enough about me. I want to know about you and Hermione now." Ron said, smiling at Harry suggestively.
Now it was Harry's turn to feel shy.
"What do you want to know?" Harry asked shyly, deciding to finally come clean.
"Are you guys together or what? I've been trying to figure that out since the school year started. And if you guys are together, why didn't you tell me?! I thought I was both your best mate!" said Ron.
"What makes you think that Hermione and I are together?" Harry said, wondering how obvious he had been about liking her.
"Well, you did spend the summer at her house..." Ron pointed out.
"That was only because you went to Romania to visit Charlie!" Harry said defensively, "I'd rather be anywhere rather than at the Dursleys!"
"That is true." Ron said, "Well...how about the way you guys acted when you stayed for Winter Break over at my house? After all of that, don't tell me that you two aren't together."
"Look, Ron. I think that she's just being nice to me since we're friends. I don't even know if she likes me back. I really don't want to make a fool of myself..." said Harry.
"Well...she invited you to her house for the summer, you guys seemed to be acting all lovey-dovey around each other at my house during Winter Break, and she said she'd go with you to the Ball. I'm pretty certain that she fancies you." said Ron.
"What if she's only going with me because I was the first guy to ask her?" asked Harry.
"Why don't you just put a move on her at the Ball and see if she responds? Then you'll know for sure." replied Ron.
"Are you sure she'd be okay with that?!" asked Harry.
"The worst that can happen is that she'll tell you she only wants to be your mate." said Ron.
"I guess you're right." said Harry, thoughtfully.
"Maybe we should get to sleep now." Ron said.
"Yeah...good night, Ron." said Harry.
"Good night, Harry." replied Ron.
Both of them got in their beds and went to sleep.