Chapter 6 – The Group Forms
Over a month passed since the incident with Ron Weasley and the outing of Sophia as the former Ms Potter. Sophia, Draco, and Daphne had formed a small group that kept itself away from the rest of Slytherin. Whilst most of the house still shunned her for multiple reasons, she managed to form a relationship with these two, which was that she was in charge, and they couldn't call her Potter. Hermione was often with them, despite the other two objecting in private to Sophia. They were currently sitting in Charms, Draco sitting next to Hermione, but behind Sophia. Unfortunately for all four of them, the Weasley boy was sitting right behind them. Even his presence was irritating to Sophia. She wanted him gone now, and she was certain he had something to do with the unfortunate incidents hitting her friends. The hair of both Draco and Daphne had been hit with some embarrassing incidents since Weasley had encountered his 'incident'. Only last week Draco's hair had been turned green again. Sophia was determined to find who did it. As she lazily levitated the feather, finding it almost too easy for her to be doing, she could hear Hermione trying to teach the Weasel how to do it properly. As Weasley kept rebuffing Hermione rudely, Sophia turned back to Draco, and gestured her head for him to give her some support. Draco appeared reluctant, but a slight glare from Sophia led to him turning around to face Weasley.
"She is helping you because she's competent you nitwit. Stop moaning and just do what she's telling you." Ron glared hatefully at Draco.
"Why don't you do it then?" He said, sneering at Draco as he challenged him. Draco drew his wand.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Everyone watched as Draco raised Ron's feather into the air. Ron glared at Draco as Flitwick looked over to them.
"Look at that everyone. Mr Malfoy's done it. Well done. 10 points to Slytherin."
The group of four walked out of charms, when Weasley pushed past them, followed closely by his friends.
"It's Leviosa, not Leviosah. The nerve of that girl. No wonder she hasn't got any friends." Sophia saw Hermione start to tear up, before leaving, pushing past Weasley and his friends. They started to laugh before Weasley saw Sophia in the corner of his eye. She walked up to him.
"I will get you back for this Weasley, you just wait." She set of in search of Hermione, followed quickly by Daphne and Draco. When they caught up with her, she had followed Hermione to the girl's bathroom. "Draco, hand me your parchment and quill." Draco looked at her strangely. "Today, if you don't mind." Draco handed some over from out of his bag. Sophia took it, before scribbling down a note. "I need you to message this to my dad. Do it quickly. Take Daphne with you." She handed it back to them, before walking into the bathroom. Curious, the two Slytherins opened the parchment back up, to find only gibberish written on it.
Sdh qinudqih alq djmlqtskt iqqskh. Mgisri rikh mspfsbi rivik
"What in the name of Merlin does that mean?" Draco asked.
"It's clearly a private matter. If her father understands it then that is all that is needed. Now come on." With that, the two headed off to the owlery on the seventh floor.
Meanwhile, in the forbidden forest, the hooded figure of the Duke was staring up at Hogwarts castle. His nature did not mean he faced too much bother from the sun, though it was a slight irritation. He heard his servant come behind him, almost too quietly.
"Anything to report?" He drawled, his tone suggesting that there should be no other reason for disturbing him.
"Yes, my lord Duke. It appears one of the staff will be letting in a troll sometime tonight, through one of the back entrances. We could make our way in through there without much trouble." The Duke nodded.
"Yes, that would be a more than sufficient way to enter the castle. What about the girl?"
"She is in Slytherin house my lord Duke."
"Naturally the one with the strongest protections. Even the door is hard to find." He looked up once more at the castle. "I feel we should enter tonight. And I shall begin the process of weakening the girl soon. We will take her the day before they leave for Christmas. That way, if all goes well, I will have her as mine before the year is out."
Back at the girl's bathroom, Sophia had found Hermione in the end stall.
"Hermione, come on out." She could hear the sniffles of Hermione trying to stop crying, but being completely unsuccessful in the venture. "You know what Weasley said isn't true. So come on." Sophia was almost at a loss as to what to do. She had never been in this situation before. As such., she really had no idea what should be done or what was acceptable here. The door of the stall refused to unlock. She knelt down, reaching to the sole of her shoe. "Last chance to open up Hermione." When Hermione still refused to open the door, she pulled a small knife out with an ornate handle. She stuck into the small space between where the lock met the wall of the stall, then pushed upwards. She did this for several minutes until finally, the lock moved out of place. She opened the door up to see Hermione, sitting on the closed toilet. She hid her knife back in her shoe as she approached Hermione. "You have friends Hermione. You know that." This was the scene that Draco and Daphne walked into when they returned from delivering the letter to Sophia's dad via owl.
"Sophia, how's it going?" Daphne said, knowing that the answer would be somewhere along the lines of not well.
"We've got to get going now. The feast will be on in the hall." Draco pointed out. Sophia looked at Draco witheringly.
"I don't think Hermione is in any state to be going to the feast tonight Draco." Daphne nodded in agreement.
"All this over something that Weasel said. He doesn't know anything. Let it slide." Draco said.
"I agree Hermione. He's jealous that you're better than he'll ever be." Daphne told Hermione, who looked up at them.
"R-really?" Hermione asked, at which they all nodded.
"I think it would be nice if we had our own feast right here, don't you?" Sophia said. Daphne rolled her eyes.
"On the dirty bathroom floor?" Daphne said sceptically. Sophia rolled her eyes, took off her robe, and laid it on the floor. Hermione gasped at the sight of the gun holster, whereas Draco merely looked at it with interest.
"Picnic style." Sophia said.
"Why do you have a gun?!" Hermione almost shouted at Sophia.
"My dad's work can get quite dangerous at times Hermione. And I've had cause to use it." The rest Sophia left unsaid. Especially with all the times she had used it, many of which she wanted to stay under wraps. Draco still looked confused. Daphne grabbed him by the arm.
"Come along Draco, we need to go and get some food." Draco shook his arm out of Daphne's grasp, before walking out behind her.
Whilst Draco and Daphne headed to the hall to get the food for the impromptu 'picnic', down in the bowels of the castle, the Duke was following a shambling troll and the person who was letting said troll inside the castle. He had decided to send his servant back home, so that he could start collecting the things that would be needed for the winter months when the final ceremony would take place. The teacher he was following looked completely incompetent, but none the less managed to get the troll to finally enter the castle. The Duke moved extremely fast, moving past the troll and the teacher before either of them saw him. Moving onwards with an expressionless face, he made his way looking for a space where he could not be noticed, as he made his plans to kidnap the Potter girl for his own ends, from within Hogwarts itself.
When Draco and Daphne arrived in the hall, the feast was in full swing. There was loud chattering coming from all corners, pumpkins floating in the air. Snape saw the two of them together and raised an eyebrow very slightly at them not being with their 'assigned' partners. They ignored Snape and moved to the Slytherin table, picking up a couple of plates of food each. Giving no regard to the objections of their housemates that they were seemingly just stealing the food, they begun to make their way back to the main doors. As the pair almost arrived, they burst open to reveal Quirrell run inside with frantic haste.
"Troll in the dungeons, troll in the dungeons!" He stopped halfway to the head table. "Just thought you ought to know." He fainted forwards onto the floor, and the hall, which had gone silent during his declaration, erupted in the screams of children. Dumbledore stood, but that didn't stop Draco and Daphne noticing Snape leaving via a side room.
"Silence!" Dumbledore roared, and the occupants complied quickly. "Prefects will escort the students to their houses. Slytherins will go to the library. Teachers, follow me to the dungeons." The students started filing out after their prefects, Draco and Daphne included. They were still carrying the plates when Daphne came to a realisation.
"Sophia and Hermione. They don't know." Draco grew worried, and so they started to hang back, deliberately slowing down. As the rest of the house passed them, they turned around and headed back towards the toilets, letting the plates of food fall to the floor. What they didn't notice, was a dark presence going the way of the other Slytherin students. Or the two redheaded twins sneaking along behind.
Back in the bathrooms, Sophia had finally managed to get Hermione to talk about other things other than Ron Weasley, or her surprise at Sophia carrying weaponry. Sophia, though mostly stoic as she always was, let out small bouts of amusement go through her mask as she listened to Hermione talk about all the times Ron Weasley made himself look like a prat. Sophia had also told her that Weasley would get his comeuppance for the way he had treated Hermione earlier in the day. Hermione seemed sceptical about 'punishing' Weasley against the rules.
"How are you even going to get into Gryffindor to do it at night anyway?"
"That's where you come in Hermione. You'll be opening the door for us when we do it."
"Do I have to?" Hermione asked. She was wary of being even more unpopular within her own house.
"Well the alternative is to fly up during the night on one of those school brooms, and I think we can rule out that idea for reasons that are commonly described as not wanting to die." Their flying lesson earlier that month had been horrific, with no-one willing to try out the flying anyway. The only one who did was the Longbottom boy, who had done it by accident and broken his wrist. After that, no student had wanted to go in the air at all. Before Hermione could answer, Daphne and Draco burst back into the bathroom.
"Sophia, we need to go." Draco said quickly, almost out of breath. Sophia stood.
"Why, what's happening?" The duo who had been sent to get food walked over to Sophia and Hermione.
"A troll is loose in the castle." Daphne informed them, picking up Sophia's robe from the floor.
"These troll creatures. Do they happen to be about twelve feet tall, green and brown, often carrying a club?" Draco looked at Sophia as Daphne turned around. He didn't notice the look of fear on Hermione's own face.
"How do you know that Sophia?" He asked.
"We have company." Sophia pointed to the new occupant of the bathroom. The troll was looking right at them. Sophia drew her gun.
"It won't work Sophia, trolls have magically resistant skin." Daphne said. She had heard Sophia drawing something, and despite knowing she had a gun, had assumed it was her wand.
"Move out of the way." Sophia ordered them, and all three turned to see Sophia holding the gun, aiming at the troll. As the moved behind her, the troll roared and moved towards them, raising its club. Two shots rained out, penetrating the thick skin of the troll. It roared again, this time in pain, as the bullets penetrated its chest. But it continued to move. Sophia took aim again, this time shooting at the arm that carried the club. The next shot missed as the troll raised its arm higher, the metal burying itself in the stonework. The next shot hit true, piercing into the troll's hand. It dropped its club and grabbed its own arm. It looked again at Sophia, with a look that ranged between primitive anger and fear. She shot twice more, this time at its motionless legs. It went into the knees, forcing the troll to the floor. As it tried to raise itself, the troll looked up and saw Sophia looking down at it.
"Foolish creature." Sophia said in disdain, before shooting her final round between the eyes. The head slumped to the floor, surrounded in the blood of the troll itself. Sophia turned around to the three behind her. They were looking at her in a mix of amazement and fear.
"You, you just killed it when it was defenceless." Hermione said in horror. Sophia grew an angry look and moved threateningly towards her.
"Would you rather be dead, because it can be arranged." The three were taken aback by Sophia's tone. "I just saved your lives. You all owe me them." The three looked at each other, before turning to Sophia.
"I can be happy with that." Daphne said.
"I can as well. Better than being killed by a troll." Draco merely acknowledged. Hermione took a few breaths, the others looking at her, waiting for her own response.
"I didn't need the threat. I will stand by you, whatever happens." And with that, the four solidified their relationship.
The teachers who had previously been down by the dungeons ran as fast as they could down the corridors of Hogwarts. They had been told by the Weasley twins that the troll had followed two Slytherins into the toilets. They hadn't thought to ask about why the twins hadn't been going to their common room. Their primary concern was the safety of the students. Dumbledore led the small group as they moved through Hogwarts. They had loud bangs echoing through the halls, and they picked up their pace. They went on with some regularity before they stopped completely. Becoming even more worried that they were now too late, they finally arrived outside the bathroom. It was completely quiet in the corridor, and it was with no small amount of dread that Dumbledore pushed the door open. The floor was covered in blood, and that was before he had walked in. He did not want to enter further, but that is what he needed to do. He entered the bathroom, the others staying back, and audibly sighed in relief. The other teachers filed in to see the two students they had been told about, along with two others. It was surprising for the teachers to see three Slytherins willingly associating themselves with a Gryffindor. Dumbledore looked down at them in horror.
"Which one of you killed this creature?" He asked softly, saddened that one of these children was certain to have taken a life. It was Sophia who turned to face him.
"I see no problem with stopping something that was trying to kill us. In case you hadn't realised headmaster, there wasn't exactly any way you can negotiate with it." Snape had just arrived, and quickly looked around the room, before examining the troll. As he squatted down, Sophia saw some blood bleeding down his leg. Before she could examine it further, he closed the robe up, hiding the cut.
"Headmaster, these are not spell wounds." He reached into one and pulled out a piece of metal. "This is muggle weaponry." Dumbledore nodded to Snape and stretched his hand to Sophia. Knowing she was caught, she took the weapon out of its concealed position, some of the other professors gasping, and handed it over.
"Given the circumstances, I feel that no other actions are needed tonight. I suggest you all head to your common rooms for bed. Ms Granger, professor McGonagall will escort you back."
In a mansion down south, Richard Armitage was looking over a trading report. Whilst they still had an advantage in the black markets, their legitimate weapons division was still struggling to compete. He didn't want to remove that part of the company, he had something special in mind for them. Thomas was making a few notes on the opposite side of his private office desk, when an owl tapped at the window.
"I sure hope that isn't Sophia in trouble." Thomas said. Richard made no comment opening the window. The owl landed on his office lamp, and he saw a piece of parchment. He managed to unwrap it. Reading it, he knew immediately that it was a coded message, and he started to decode it. Examining the real contents of the short note, he spoke to Thomas.
"I need you to head into the office I'm afraid. I know Kate was expecting you, but this is very important." He handed it to Thomas, who scanned it before handing it back over.
"Package 7? It's that important?" Thomas stood and grabbed his coat.
"It's probably she wants to make an impression. Plus, a second weapon comes in handy." He paused a moment. "Place the Luger in the package." Thomas nodded, and made his way out to head to London. Richard sighed, taking a lighter out of a desk drawer and burning the parchment. "Sophia, what have you gotten yourself into?"
A/N For any questions relating to this or any other of my works, please head to the forums, a link to which is on my profile page.