Chapter 30
Sophia sat in the Ravenclaw Common Room with Cho, Sylia, and her other friends. They were all doing homework or studying for one thing or another. Cho and Sophia were working on a difficult Potions essay in which they had to describe precisely how to make an anti-petrification potion using the powdered essence of Mandrake while Sylia was scrambling to study for the upcoming O.W.L.s. For once, Sylia wasn't going on about the next boy she thought was cute or wanted to date, and Sophia was glad.
At least she's not bothering me like she usually does about that stuff…I have more important things to worry about…Sophia thought, her mind drifting away from the essay once again.
Sophia kept thinking about what Draco had told her when he faked that he was George in the Astronomy Tower.
Why would Voldemort want my necklace? Sophia thought, fingering the necklace and looking at it, I mean, I always knew there was something to it when my scumbag father pushed it on my mother, but I didn't think it was something this big! And he obviously didn't know the significance of it until now since he gave it away in the first place. If nothing else, I have to make sure he does not get his slimy hands on it!
Thinking of her father always made Sophia angry, but she pushed the angry thoughts away. She needed to think about things clearly if she wanted to figure them out.
And where does Draco fit into all of this? Why exactly did he tell me what he knew? Is it some kind of trick to get me to do something stupid or to get me to trust him so that he can take it from me? Any sensible person would think that, but somehow I just feel like that's not why he did it. It's something else. When we last met, he wasn't the same…he was totally different. Maybe that was part of the act…but then if it was, why would he tell me everything the way that he did? I don't understand his motivation, but if he's against Voldemort, I'll have to trust him. Sophia thought grudgingly, feeling like she had no other choice.
Suddenly her mind flashed back to that weird prediction Violet had given her.
Does this have anything to do with that prediction that one of the Gryffindor Chasers gave to me? That Violet person? Sophia thought as she shuffled through her papers in front of her.
She had written down the prediction Violet had given her before she could forget it.
It is with you that lies the key…The necklace must be the key that Violet was talking about! So this all has to do with this Scepter! The necklace is the key to this Scepter! I have to find Malfoy right now and we need to go to Dumbledore! Dumbledore would definitely know how to protect it better than I can. Maybe we should find Violet and see what she knows too, if she knows anything…it's possible that she doesn't since people giving predictions don't often know that they are even giving them, let alone know anything about what they're talking about. Sophia suddenly thought, standing up.
Cho and Sylia looked at her in some shock.
"Where are you going?" Cho asked slightly suspiciously.
"I need to take care of something now." Sophia said, abruptly leaving the Common Room, not bothering to explain herself in any way.
Cho and Sylia stared after her, not knowing how to react.
"She's so weird sometimes, you know?" Sylia said, giving Sophia's back a weird look.
Then Sylia shrugged and got back to what she was reading. Cho kept looking at the portrait hole that Sophia just exited for a moment, and then made a note to ask her what her outburst was all about later. If she knew anything, it was probably about something to do with Lucius or Draco Malfoy.
As Sophia made her way out of the Ravenclaw Common Room, she realized she didn't know where to go to find Draco. She stopped walking and thought about where exactly he may be. Suddenly she remembered the Gryffindor/Slytherin Quidditch game, and knew he was probably still in the Hospital Wing. She quickly made her way to the Hospital wing from the fourth floor landing that the Ravenclaw Common Room was on. She sincerely hoped that Draco was alone since it wouldn't be the best idea for her to tell him what she wanted to if his Slytherin crones were around to overhear the conversation.
I don't even know why I'm rushing to tell him what I figured out about the prediction…just because he told me that he's not on Voldemort's side doesn't mean it's true. Given our track record, I have little reason to trust Draco at all. But there was just something different about him the last time we talked. I can't pin point it, but something about him makes me feel like it's okay to trust him. I hope that I'm not making a huge mistake and falling into a trap of some kind…Sophia thought worriedly and almost reconsidering, quickly approaching the Hospital Wing.
She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before she entered the Hospital Wing and quietly walked inside. She saw that the only bed occupied was the one at the very back of the Wing. As she approached the bed, she saw that Draco was in it and he was sleeping. Looking at his now peaceful face, she just couldn't see the person that she'd felt all that enmity towards before.
If only he was always this quiet and peaceful…Sophia thought slightly wistfully.
She hesitantly stepped forward and shook Draco's shoulder firmly. Finally, Draco slowly returned to consciousness.
"…Violet…?" Draco said groggily, his voice thick with sleep.
He knows Violet! Sophia thought in surprise as Draco woke up.
As Draco strained his eyes to find out who had awakened him, he was surprised to find Sophia in front of him.
"McArthur!" Draco asked in surprise, all the grogginess leaving him.
"Malfoy, we need to talk." Sophia said, jumping right into the conversation, "You know how you told me that your father sent you after this necklace? There was another thing I knew about it that I didn't tell you before."
"What?" Draco asked curiously.
"Do you remember the first game of our Quidditch season between my house and Gryffindor? One of the Gryffindor chasers, Violet Black, had fallen off of her broom." Sophia started recounting.
"Yeah…yeah, I remember that…" Draco said.
"When I caught her and brought her back to the ground, she gave me some sort of prediction." Sophia said.
"What?" Draco said in surprise.
"I think she's some sort of seer." Sophia explained.
"Like Trelawny? But Trelawny's just a quack." Draco said with disbelief.
"That's probably true, but I'm sure Violet is the real thing. I mean, it was a real prediction, and she went into the traditional Divination trace and everything. Here is the prediction. I wrote it down since I didn't want to forget it." Sophia said, handing Draco the piece of parchment where she had written down the prediction.
Draco read it, but he still couldn't believe it.
Violet is a seer? But why didn't she tell me? Draco thought, feeling slightly confused.
"But whenever we were together, Violet didn't seem – " Draco stopped his sentence abruptly, knowing that he had given Sophia too much information about Violet and himself.
The comment caused Sophia to look at Draco with her eyes narrowed.
"How well do you know her anyway?" Sophia asked very suspiciously.
As Sophia looked at Draco suspiciously and expectantly, he knew that there was no way he was getting out of this.
He sighed and said, "Pretty well actually. It was her who put that truth telling spell on me and made me make an ass of myself."
The more he talked, the more information tumbled out of his mouth.
"Although that was not pleasant, it made me realize the ideas that had been pounded in to me since I was young about mudbl – I mean muggle borns, were probably wrong. But, she ended up giving her word to that good for nothing Weasely because I didn't tell her the complete truth about me and my family. God, I think I love her!"
Both Draco and Sophia were quite surprised at how open he was being with his feelings. Draco figured it was because he didn't have anyone to talk to regularly, and it was just nice to talk about his problems and feelings with someone, even if it was Sophia. Sophia looked at Draco in confusion, wondering why he was telling her all of this.
Geez…he musn't have anyone to talk to if he's telling me all of these things…And, he's a Slytherin and Violet's a Gryffindor…that would never work out. But wait a second here! Just because he's telling me all this stuff, it doesn't change things between us. He's still that pompus ass he always was, no matter what he says. He's just opening up to me now because he's weak. When he gets better, things will just go back to the way that they always were. Sophia thought, stopping herself from feeling sorry for Draco, Knowing the way that he is, Violet's probably better off having choosen Weasely anyways…
This abruptly brought her mind to George. She quickly pushed those thoughts of him out of her head since this was not the time to think of those things. She looked back at Draco and thought of what she might say to him.
"Look, this is not 'tell your personal problems to Sophia' day! Whether you believe it or not, Violet is a seer and she gave me that prediction. You told me that Voldemort was after this necklace! It fits the prediction perfectly!" Sophia said.
Draco read over the prediction. Then he looked at Sophia.
"We can't let Voldemort get this necklace. Who knows what will happen once he gets it." Draco said.
"What about this scepter that the prediction mentions? What if Voldemort already has that?" Sophia said.
"I really don't know what Voldemort has." Draco said.
"We have to go to Dumbledore and tell him about this! He can protect the necklace much better than we can! We don't stand a chance against the Death Eaters or Voldemort." Sophia replied.
Draco was about to agree, but then he remembered how deeply his father and himself were entangled in this.
"We…can't." Draco said hesitantly.
Sophia looked at him in confusion and said, "What do you mean we can't?"
"Because…how are we supposed to explain how we know we found everything out? We'd have to tell him that Voldemort sent me to spy for him! Do you have any idea how that would look?" Draco said.
"You're willing to sacrifice countless people's lives just for your pride! I don't believe you! Actually, what I don't believe is my coming to tell you about this! You're not really on our side at all! You're just in this for yourself!" Sophia said, getting angry and storming out.
Draco tried calling out to her, but he knew it was no use.
What am I going to do? McArthur is right…we can't do this alone…but if we tell Dumbledore, my family could get in so much trouble. My father definitely deserves getting what he will, but I don't want to drag my mother into this…I wish things didn't have to be this hard…Draco thought, feeling frustrated that he had no control over the situation.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Violet sat in the Common Room preparing for their Herbology O.W.L. Violet was too distracted by her problem with Ron to really retain much of anything. She knew that she needed to talk to Ron very soon since Ginny could tell him about what she saw at any time herself.
"Hey, guys! The last Hogsmede visit this year is on this weekend. I really think we ought to write to Snuffles about this." Hermione said, startling Violet from her thoughts, after taking a look at the bulletin board in the Common Room.
"Okay, I'll get on that right now." Harry said, taking out a fresh piece of parchment.
Dear Sirius,
Our next Hogsmede visit is this weekend. Hope to see you there! We will bring food.
Harry
Harry then located Hedwig and attached the letter to her claws.
"I hope Snuffles gets the letter soon enough." Harry said, watching Hedwig fly out of the Common Room window.
"I bet Hedwig will get there quick enough. How about we take a break now! We've been studying for hours!" Ron said in a slightly whiny voice.
"I guess." Hermione said grudgingly, "But we haven't even gotten up to Saber Roots and their effect on – "
"Save it, Hermione…I don't really care right now." Ron said, sounding a bit grumpy.
Harry intervened before it turned into a fight.
"Yeah, I really think we all need a break." Harry said.
Ron looked at his watch and said, "Bloody hell, Hermione! You almost made us miss dinner with all this studying! Let's go eat!"
Violet was glad to stop pretending she was studying.
At least eating is something that I can easily concentrate on…Violet thought, wondering how she could break to Ron that she had made a mistake in giving him her word.
"Yeah, let's go." Violet said, getting up from the couch.
Just then Ginny came down the stairs from the Dormatories.
"Hey, Ginny. We were just about to go down to eat. You want to come with us?" Hermione asked.
Ginny looked at all of them and her eyes lingered on Violet a moment longer than everyone else. This made Violet very uncomfortable.
"No, I don't think so. I might come down to eat later. I suddenly lost my appitite." Ginny said, glancing at Violet once again.
Violet just wanted to get out of there before Ginny had a chance to say anything else.
"Okay, then. Let's get going." Violet said, walking quickly out of the portrait hole.
Ginny looked after Violet a second and then sat down in the Common Room with a book she had brought down with her. Ron, Harry, and Hermione looked between each other, wondering what exactly had just happened, but they decided they would just find out later since they were all tired and hungry as well. They hurried to catch up with Violet.
Since the big blow out between Sirius and Snape, things had quietened reasonably in the cottage. Snape and Sirius always made sure they were at least at a five foot radius from each other, and Snape tried not to eat meals with Remus and Sirius as well. Although he did not talk to Snape or Remus about it, Sirius had done a lot of thinking after that huge fight. At this moment he sat on the porch of the cottage alone.
I hate admitting it, even to myself, but Snape was right, at least in part. James and I were jackasses to him when we were all at Hogwarts. He is a slimy human being, but he didn't deserve to be treated the way that we treated him. Sirius thought regretfully, I never knew that it was our fault that he became a Death Eater…Lily was right to try to stop us…if only we had listened to her. But it's really too late now to make amends. With all that has happened, Snape and I can never be friends.
The thought of Snape and himself being friends made him laugh wistfully.
I would never want to be friends with that snake anyways. Sirius thought, trying to talk himself out of feeling bad for Snape.
As Sirius tried hard not to think of the mistakes he made when he was young, a medium sized brown owl fluttered up to him and hooted, bringing him out of his thoughts. Sirius looked at the owl and saw that it was carrying a parcel and a small card. He removed the parcel from the owl's legs and gave the owl a few sickles as payment for the delivery. With that, the owl flew off, leaving the parcel with Sirius. He took the card from on top of the parcel and read that first.
Dear Mr. Lupin,
Enclosed are the items you requested from Mr. Black's vault along with Mr. Black's vault key.
Gringotts
Finally they're here! Sirius thought as he opened the parcel, glad that he could finally get his mind off of his past and his current problems with Snape, I hope they didn't wonder why Remus had my key and all…I'd have gone myself, but risking another trip to Gringotts is just asking to get caught.
Sirius then emptied out the contents of the parcel into his hands. He examined the eight shiny stones in his hands. There were two blue stones, two red stones, two green stones, and two purple stones. At that moment, Remus came outside of the cottage and saw Sirius with the stones.
"So the package finally arrived?" Remus asked.
"Yeah, now I can give Harry, Violet, Hermione, and Ron one each." replied Sirius.
"I'm glad you finally found a use for those things. They were just sitting in your vault not being used." Remus said.
"Yeah, and we can also keep track of all of them better. No telling what can happen to them in these times." Sirius said morosely.
Remus was about to reply, but then both of them saw a white owl flying toward them from the distance.
"Oh, there's Hedwig. I bet she's bringing news of when the next visit to Hogsmede is." Remus said.
Sirius put out his arm and let Hedwig land there.
He unwrapped the letter from her legs and said, "Remus, get a snack for Hedwig, would you?"
While Remus went inside to do that, Sirius read the letter from Harry.
As Remus was feeding Hedwig, Sirius said, "The next Hogsmede visit is this weekend. I'll give them the stones then."
Sirius got out a quill and quickly scribbled on the back of Harry's letter saying that he would meet him at the same spot they always met. He tied the reply back on to Hedwig's legs and sent her on her way. Then Sirius thought for a moment and got out a sharp pocket knife. In the blue stones, he carved in Harry's name, in the red stones, Ron's, in the green stones, Hermione's, and in the purple stones, Violet's. As he etched the names in the stone, the carvings glowed brightly for a moment and then quickly faded away. Once he was done, he found a small sack to put the stones in until the visit to Hogsmede.
When Sirius was making his plans to meet Harry, Hermione, Violet, and Ron at Hogsmede, Snape took a walk in the forest to keep the distance between himself and Sirius as much as possible. As much as he wanted to forget about it, he kept thinking about his days at Hogwarts with Sirius, Remus, and James and how horrible it was.
Black and Potter walked around like they owned the place, and for some ungodly reason, everyone listened to them. I could probably count on one hand all the people that were nice to me thanks to them. Snape thought, his mood souring further, There was Lily of course, and that one girl Catherine that was her friend. I don't believe that no one else saw through them the way that I did. I guess I can't blame Lily for falling for that selfish, arrogant, good for nothing, Potter, especially since he fooled her into thinking that he changed. I doubt that he ever did.
This brought Snape's mind back to his school days at Hogwarts. One of his worst encounters with Sirius and James came to him. He was walking out of his Transfiguration class when he felt someone pushing him hard from behind. Since he was carrying a few heavy books in his hands, he toppled over forward and fell to the ground, scattering his books and parchments all around. He rolled over and looked up to see the sneering faces of James Potter and Sirius Black looking down at him. He stood up warily.
"What is little Snapey up to today?" James asked him derisively.
"I bet he has a hot date with his Potions book." Sirius said, his voice dripping with scorn.
They laughed cruelly as Snape gave them a defensive look and tried to pick up the books he had dropped.
"Not so fast." James said, kicking the book Snape was reaching for at the time out of Snape's reach.
"Who do you think you are, following James's girl around?" Sirius said while pushing Snape against the hallway wall.
Snape narrowed his eyes at them and turned to James and said, "I don't follow Lily around. And she's not your girl."
"And what do you think you are to her? You're nothing." James said with a smug smile.
The abuse might have continued longer, but Lily's friend Catherine happened to come down the hall and see the confrontation.
"Leave him alone!" she said, standing beside Snape.
"Oh, look, it's Snapey's little side kick Bucktooth." Sirius said, turning his scorn to Catherine now.
She stared Sirius down with narrowed eyes.
"What are you doing defending this scumface anyways? You obviously aren't a true Gryffindor, hanging out with this snake from Slytherin." James said.
She then faced James and said, "A true Gryffindor doesn't go around bullying other students. A true Gryffindor stands up for what is right."
Sirius and James then looked at each other and then decided to leave. Catherine helped Snape pick up all of his things.
"Don't listen to what they said, Severus. You know that they're just two big bullies." she said, angry at the way Sirius and James were behaving.
"But they're right about one thing. I do mean nothing to Lily…" Snape said, feeling like he lost a battle.
Snape suddenly shook his head and came out of his memories.
And Black is still exactly the same…Snape thought wistfully, boastful and good for nothing.
Snape decided to push the memories out of his mind. Deep down, he wished that things could have been different, but he knew well that the past could never be changed. He could not be friends now with Sirius Suddenly he thought a bit about Catherine.
Catherine…I do wonder what happened to her…she tried so hard to be my friend, but I just kept pushing her away. It's probably for the best though. In my life, it's just a liability to have friends or companions. It would just lead to more pain than I wish to deal with. Snape thought a little bitterly, turning around and making his way back to the cabin.