Chapter 2 - First Meeting and the Letter
1989
Richard was not too happy at the moment. He had just been called away by his children's school because of a disciplinary incident that needed to be dealt with. They wouldn't even tell him which one of his children it was. As the car pulled up to the school, he stepped out without the car stopping. Straightening his suit and tie, he walked straight up to the doors, opening them and moving to the visitors reception. "Richard Armitage here to see the headmaster." He said swiftly. His irritation was clear in his voice, and the receptionist quickly stood and showed him the way to the office. He knocked and was invited in, to see Sophia sitting on a small chair in front of the desk. He looked at her disapprovingly, before sitting down.
"Mr Armitage, at lunchtime your daughter got herself engaged in a fight in the playground. The child whom she was fighting with has had to go to hospital." The headmaster was looking at Sophia, as was Richard. She was trying to look remorseful, though Richard could see her smirking at the floor. "Normally, I would have to expel her but given the, well, special circumstances surrounding her, I believe that we can do enough by just sending her home for today, then come back with a new attitude on Monday." The headmaster looked at Richard, smiling. But his eyes displayed his nervousness. Of course Richard had something on him. He had something on all the teachers here. He nodded.
"Yes, I believe that would be best. Of course, it would be good if there was no mark on her record about this indiscretion wouldn't it?" He asked pleasantly. The headmaster nodded.
"Of course, there's no need for this to permanently affect anything." The two nodded, and Richard proceeded to leave, Sophia following him.
Sophia sat quietly in the car on the way back, glaring at someone who had been like a father to her. "I'm disappointed in you Sophia Marie." Richard said to her, looking at a folder on his lap.
"He bloody deserved what he got." She said, her annoyed voice caused Richard to look up at her.
"Of course he did, and I'm not saying he didn't." He placed the folder down. "I'm simply disappointed that you were caught doing it." Sophia's annoyance slowly dissipated. "I think it's time for you to finally learn the tools of the trade. You'll be coming to my meeting tonight, along with George. You'll need the knowledge. You will be dressed formally and be ready to leave by six. Understood?" Sophia looked as she usually did, but Richard could see the excitement in her eyes. Sophia hardly ever showed emotion on her face, but if you knew her long enough then you could tell what she was thinking. It was usually only anger which could be openly read. Having to look after her for several years since he took her in from Vernon Dursley, he had learned to read her emotions well. As the car pulled up to the front door of the family mansion, Sophia ran out of the car and into the house. Richard shook his head. Sometimes she acted like a regular child, and others she was extremely cold. She switched between the two when around him and her brother.
That evening, Sophia was ready well before the six o'clock time that she was told to be ready for. Her brother, George, was sitting with her in the library in the east wing of the mansion. "You seem to be rather excited Soph." George said to her. Sophia looked up from her book, her black hair framing her face.
"I am, I get to see what these meetings of yours are." George scoffed at her.
"Oh please, nothing ever happens at these meetings. They talk about stuff, nothing else ." Sophia looked down at her book once more.
"I'm sure it's important enough, otherwise they wouldn't need to meet George." George got out of his own chair and started to pace the room.
"I'm not interested in it though sis. I don't particularly care about the business." He sighed as Sophia placed down her book. Further discussion between the two was cut short when their father opened the door.
"Time to go you two." Richard said. As Sophia walked past him. Richard held her back. "Stand behind me and stay quiet. Just take it all in." Sophia nodded, and followed Richard out of the house, and into the chauffeured car to London.
The car pulled up to the headquarters of Armitage International at around eight. As the car pulled into the private car park which had just been installed, Sophia noted the large amount of expensive cars that were already in there. Stepping out of their car, Sophia and George waited for Richard. As Richard got out of the car, he pulled out two pistols and handed one to each of them. "This meeting has the potential to go very wrong. The guns are loaded, use them if you have to. These are not toys." The last sentence was said with him looking at Sophia, who was looking at the gun with wonder. Richard walked past them, and into a stairwell. But instead of going up as Sophia expected, they went down the stairs. After two levels of going down, they came to a solid steel door with a card reader. Richard took out a card from his suit pocket, and swiped it. The steel door lowered into the floor, and the three walked through the opening. A rectangular table was all that was in it. The chairs scraped as the fifteen people around the table stood. Sophia's eyes were drawn to one man on the right hand side as she was currently standing. He was looking rather nervous compared to the other men who were seemingly attending this meeting. Sophia decided that she would keep her eye on him. The three walked around the table to where a larger seat than the others were currently sitting at. Richard sat down, prompting the others at the table to take their seats once more. Sophia took up standing on her father's left side, so that she could keep an eye on the nervous one in the group. "I appreciate everyone coming here tonight. Usually we would be talking about our operation on the continent and further afield. However, I believe we have a serious problem that must be resolved." At her father's words, a murmuring broke out around the table. "I believe that there is someone within our organisation who is not happy with how we are run. He appears to be asking some of our contractors, who I will not be naming, and seeing if they will deliberately sabotage us for cash. If you are here, say your piece, no harm will come to you from me." Everyone around the table looked at the ones next to them. As the nervous man whom Sophia spotted began to stand, Sophia slowly and quietly made her way away from her father and around the side of the table. The man began to speak, taking away the attention of anyone who could have seen her in the dimly lit room.
"Mr Armitage, I am the one that you are speaking of. I don't believe that your management of our group is the best for us. You seem content to have work in the background instead of taking us truly to the world stage." There were a few murmurs of agreement. Richard had his hands behind his head, leaning nonchalantly.
"But how would you deal with the increased scrutiny of police forces. You were so nervous that my daughter probably saw that it was you." There were a couple of nervous laughs.
"Well Mr Armitage, there would of course be precautions to stop -" A bang went off. Everyone, including Richard, recognised it as a gunshot and dropped to the floor. After a few seconds of silence, everyone got up to see the man who had been talking still standing, a look of shock on his face. He fell forwards, hitting his head on the table and falling backwards. Right at the feet of Sophia. She lowered her gun, and faced her father.
"There can be no dissent father. It weakens you. He was weak." She looked around at the table, everyone was looking in her in shock, including her father and brother. "Does anyone else have any objections?" Even though she was only a child, the tone of her voice brooked no disagreement. With the exception of the others of the Armitage family, all heads shook their heads no. A sinister smile made its way over Sophia's face. "Good." She walked back over to her father, who overlooked anyone.
"So now you know what happens when you cross me. And I have kept my word. No harm came to him from me. Consider the future of this organisation secured. If anything happens to me, I want you to know, that Sophia will be taking over." Whilst everyone else nodded, George and Sophia looked at Richard, one in shock, Sophia's was merely a look of interest. Richard looked at his children, and smiled at them before turning back. "We can discuss the usual business another time. Everyone is dismissed. And tomorrow, back to work." The delegates who had not sat down since the shooting, slowly made their way out, followed by the Armitage family. As the three left, Thomas met them at the door. "No need to get your hands dirty Thomas, just make sure no-one finds the body." Thomas nodded, and the three headed home, Sophia and George falling asleep on Richard's lap in the car back.
1991
Sophia Armitage had just finished trying on her new school uniform. Having been accepted into St Mary's Girls School a week ago, she knew that she was going to enjoy it there. Her father was already working on making sure that there would never be any problems at the school. She was looking forward to her time at St Mary's, as there were a lot of quiet places for her to be away from people when they were being annoying, which was almost always. Her best friend was her brother, apart from him and her father, the only one she really confided in was her father's most trusted Thomas, and even then it was only rarely. It was now that she opened the window to allow a breeze rush through the warm room, gaining heat from the summer sunshine coming in through the windows. Even though she rarely felt strong emotions, she couldn't help a strong feeling of surprise come over her when an owl flew through the window, dropped a letter on her bed, and flew back out the window in one smooth swoop. She picked up the letter which piqued her curiosity simply by the way in which it was delivered.
Ms Sophia Armitage
The Third Bedroom
Rushmere Manor
Wiltshire
The strange way that it was addressed would make it seem that it was certainly not a stunt. Sophia turned it over, and found the wax seal which held the envelope shut. If she was not certain it was not a stunt before, she was now. This was an awful lot of preparation just to play a joke on her. Breaking the seal, she read the letter, and frowned at its contents.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards
Dear Ms Armitage,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
With letter in hand, she headed towards her father's office, intent on seeing if he knew anything about this. She was sure that at the very least, her father could help her write a letter explaining that she would not be going to this school.
Richard finished reading the letter and placed it on his desk in his study. He looked at Sophia, and back to the letter. "It seems too well organised to be a joke. I believe it's a legitimate offer." He said.
"I've never shown any signs of witchcraft. How can this happen?" Richard shrugged his shoulders.
"I truly don't know. But you should write a letter. Use your personal stationary." Sophia nodded, and went to leave. "Hold on." Richard said, and picked up the letter. Sophia turned back to take it from his hand. "I see you've covered your scar well."
"Finally, it's taken me ages to finally get it right. At least I won't be looked at strangely in the street anymore." Richard nodded, and Sophia left the room. For nearly an hour, Sophia wrote and re-wrote her letter to this strange school, looking to strike a good tone between being inquisitive and firm rejection. When she finally finished, two problems came to mind. The first one was that Sophia didn't know how to address the envelope. She eventually wrote it directly to the person mentioned in the letter to her. The second was that she had no owl with which she could send her letter. That problem was resolved when she heard a tapping at her window, and turned to see the same owl that had dropped off her letter had returned. She left her writing table and moved to the window. After opening it the owl came in, picked the letter off of her table, and flew back out again. She stopped for a moment, before deciding that it wasn't worth worrying over, and went on to carry on her day as she had originally planned it out.
Albus Dumbledore was content. He was sitting in his office, only a few days after the letters for Hogwarts had been sent out. Owls were coming in almost by the minute confirming their attendance according to Minerva. It was around this sort of time that she came up to tell him the newest acceptances. As he was thinking about it, his wards detected a presence coming up the stairs. "Come in Minerva." Dumbledore declared before she knocked on the door, and it opened to reveal McGonagall, who was carrying a letter looking rather disheveled in her appearance. "My dear, what seems to be the matter?" Dumbledore asked. McGonagall handed the letter to Dumbledore's outstretched hand.
"This muggle-born is rejecting a place at Hogwarts." Albus looked at her in shock, before reading the letter that Minerva had handed to him.
To whom it may concern,
Having received your letter about a place at your institution, I must confess myself to be confused. Neither my father nor I have ever heard of your institution, nor was any application sent to you regarding a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
I also note that, unlike many schools seeking applicants, there was was no invitation to look around your school. As such, my father and I are unable to judge the suitability of your school for my education.
It is therefore that I am politely declining the offer of a place at Hogwarts School. However, I wish you and your institution the best of luck in the future.
Yours sincerely,
Sophia Armitage
Dumbledore placed the letter back on his desk and steepled his hands. It was not unheard of for students to sometimes decline a place at Hogwarts. However, it was only allowed in magical families, as it was muggleborn students were by convention only allowed at the school of their country of birth. So even though was not unheard of, to have a muggleborn reject them even before McGonagall went and spoke to them was bizarre. "I agree Minerva that this is most strange. Perhaps it would suit us best if we brought up the dates for you visiting muggleborns, so that this does not occur."
"Albus, you don't mean to suggest that we don't teach her magic?" McGonagall said with dismay. Dumbledore shook his head.
"I never suggested that we would not teach her. May I suggest that we both pay Ms Armitage a visit at her home soon I believe that this would be the wisest course of action." McGonagall nodded and turned to leave, when Dumbledore spoke again. "As for the Violet Potter situation, did you look at the list of letters?" McGonagall turned back around.
"Yes, her name was there."
"Do not worry Minerva, it may simply be that they changed her name to help her fit in. Alas, the book does not record name changes, but still sends the letters." McGonagall opened her mouth to speak again, but Dumbledore beat her to it. "I know what you are going to say, but the reason Violet Potter may not be on there may be that it recognises the muggle name change, but as they are still magically the same person, it did not see it as a new student. It could be anyone. But we shall see when they arrive here at Hogwarts." McGonagall nodded and left the room. Dumbeldore stood and moved to the window at the back of his office. Though he was concerned by Violet Potter not being on the list of letters, he was sure that she would turn up. Besides, the threat that Riddle has sent to Flamel was the current problem he was focusing on. Apart from the first obstacle which he was unsure of, the rest of the obstacles would change according to the intruder's ability. The children would be scared off by the Cerberus that was on the way, and Voldemort would be dealt with by the traps underneath. He only hoped that his last one would be enough to hold him, and that Voldemort would not attempt anything before it was ready on Christmas. But he was sure that finally, Voldemort would be defeated.