My Brother's Keeper
by ChatterChick
Summary: Sophie Potter is the younger sister of the infamous Harry Potter. Her life at Hogwarts should be set, but things take an unexpected turn when she is sorted into Slytherin. Being green is never easy, especially when those cunning folk will befriend you just as fast as they would cut your throat.
A/N: Just a word of caution moving forward. Sophie's pretty observant and she reflects a lot on things, but she's not always right. (Like in first year when she thought that Remus got sick month a once because he had a weak immune system, when really that was his excuse for the Wolf Thing). I also glazed over a lot of the World Cup cause I don't like re-writing canon. Stuff still needed to happen though. Cheers!
Chapter 14: At the World Cup
James and Sirius were trying to coordinate the camping situation for attending the World Cup. Sirius, James and Arthur spilt the cost of a box that seated sixteen people and they were trying to figure out what to do with the remaining tickets.
"Hermione has permission from her parents to come," said James. At this point, Hermione had been practically adopted by their family. They usually tried to include her in things, showing her more of the wizarding world than just Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. She had been fascinated the first time James took her grocery shopping, and even tagged along with him on a shift at St Mungo's. Sirius was supposed to bring her for a tour of the ministry some time.
"Tonks said she'd be down, her and whatever the boyfriend's name was. So that brings us to fifteen."
James frowned, doing the math. "Nine Weasleys - "
"Eight Weasleys. Molly's not coming," Sirius laughed. "I think she's looking forward to getting them all out of the house for a few days."
"That leaves us with one more ticket then," James thoughtfully said. "Sophie, do you want to invite one of your friends to come?"
"Really?" She perked up from where she was reading in the living room. She hadn't been looking forward to this trip. For one, she wasn't really a Quidditch fan. For two, she didn't feel like spending that much time with the Weasleys. For three, Myron and Elliott were going to be there with Myron's mum, and Sophie wasn't too keen on being around them either. They acted like everything was fine and the three of them were as close as ever. The only highlight was that she would get to see Tonks.
It would probably be a lot better if she had someone she could hang out with. As it were, she was going to be forced to tag along with Hermione and Ginny the entire time and she wasn't really looking forward to that. Hermione had started giving Ginny tips on a boy she had a major crush on, but they usually reverted to some code name whenever someone else was around. As if Sophie didn't realize the boy in question was her brother.
Sophie wondered if Nephele had gotten tickets. Of all her friends, Nephele liked Quidditch the most. "Can I invite Nephele?"
"As long as her mother is fine with it, we have to be at the camp site early Monday morning, so she can come over Sunday. We'll be home sometime Tuesday afternoon," James replied.
Sophie was a little shy to write the letter to Nephele. Usually Astoria was the one who did all of the inviting, and the girls would get together at her house. Before that, James usually arranged with Marlene McKinnon or Augusta Longbottom for her to visit Myron and Elliott.
Dear Nephele,
Hope your summer holidays are going well.
I was wondering if you had tickets to the World Cup. My Dad said I could invite a friend to come with us and I was wondering, if you didn't already, if you would like to come?
Let me know either way.
From, Sophie
The next evening, Rumplestiltskin returned with an answer from the Rosiers. There was a pair of letters rolled up in a scroll, one addressed to Sophie and the other addressed to Mr Potter. She opened the one for her, and found Nephele's neat, although formal, writing.
Dear Sophie,
My summer holidays are going well, thank you for asking. Hope you are enjoying yours.
Thank you for the invitation to join your family for the World Cup. I would be delighted to join you. Mother has given me permission to attend, although she has attached a letter to your father to discuss the details.
Best regards,
Nephele
PS I hope you intend on cheering for a proper team. Ireland stands no chance.
Sophie brightened as she ran downstairs to give James the letters. Nephele and her mother arrived on their front step at promptly half-past three on August twenty-first. Just like Mrs Rosier's letter said they would.
Just at first glance, Sophie would have never guessed that Regina Rosier was old enough to have a child at Hogwarts. In fact, Sophie would have thought that the pair was sisters rather than mother and daughter. Regina had golden blonde hair, but her darker eyebrows gave away that that was the result of potions and not genetics. She had brown eyes rather than Nephele's grey ones, but had the same high cheekbones and angular face as her daughter.
"I've been dying to meet Nephie's friends, she's told me so much about them," Regina gushed. "We should really get together sometime; have some drinks so the girls can play."
Sophie caught the barely contained eye-roll Nephele had while her mother was talking.
"Okay, Sophie, why don't you bring Nephele's bag upstairs? Regina, would you like to stay for a cup of tea?" Sirius smoothly separated Nephele and Regina, sensing some of the tension.
"Honestly," Nephele grumbled on the way upstairs, "It's like she thinks we're five."
Sophie avoided Nephele's eye as she showed her to her room, not quite sure what to make of her first encounter with Regina. It was no wonder Nephele often went to great lengths to avoid introducing them to her mother, slipping off without a goodbye at the platform or taking the floo by herself. Nephele's cheeks had a tinge of pink in them when Sophie finally turned to her.
"Call me Nephie," she darkly muttered, "And I will kill you in your sleep."
Sophie immediately bit her tongue, hiding the grin that was threatening to break out. She showed Nephele where she could put her bags and they hid upstairs until James fetched them so Nephele could say goodbye to her mother.
Nephele seemed shy around Sophie's family. It was odd, because while Nephele wasn't talkative, she was never afraid to speak her mind when she wanted. She was overly polite at dinner, but did little talking outside of responding to questions.
"I remember your father, he was the same age as Reg, so he was around often as kids," Sirius told her. "Didn't keep in touch after, but I could tell you what I remember."
"I'd like that," Nephele quietly responded. "Thank you."
Sirius then regaled them with some childhood memories involving his younger brother, Regulus, and Nephele's father, Evan Rosier. It was something that Sophie had never heard him do before. Usually he pretended that his life didn't exist before Hogwarts.
That seemed to melt the ice and Nephele was more relaxed around Sirius at least.
The next morning, their portkey was scheduled to leave at ten in the morning. Sirius had been given a portkey just for their family, as they were the only wizards in the surrounding area. Luckily, they didn't have leave so early in the morning. Most of the portkeys were staggered throughout the day so that hundreds of people wouldn't be arriving at the same time. The Weasleys got stuck with one of the earlier portkeys, so they would get there before the Potters.
James had apparated over to Hermione's home in London to pick her up around nine, giving them just enough time to get back and wait for the portkey to activate at ten. One of the muggles who worked at the camp site took their money and gave them directions to the where they would be sharing with the Weasleys. It seemed that Arthur and the boys had already sent up the two tents, having arrived a few hours earlier. There was a larger tent that all the wizards were sharing, and a smaller one for the witches.
Tonks appeared at their camp site later that day, with a wizard she introduced to them as her boyfriend. Usually once or twice a year, Tonks would bring someone new to meet her family. They never lasted long though and while Andromeda hoped that Tonks would meet a 'nice young wizard or muggle and settle down', she seemed relieved that Tonks hadn't settled down with any of the current lot.
This one had his hair shaved at the sides, and royal blue hair that was sticking up in three, foot-long spikes down the middle. He had an earring on his left eyebrow, and his muggle jeans looked like they were in need of a good reparo around the knees. He had a green t-shirt that was missing its sleeves, with a picture of a Leprechaun that kept giving them a rather crude hand gesture.
He seemed oddly well matched for Tonks, at least in appearance. She had changed her hair to a bright green in support of the Irish and was wearing a long sleeved shirt that had the stripes of the Irish flag along the sleeves, and a shamrock in the middle of it.
"Maddock Cooper, but you can call me Mad," he introduced himself, enthusiastically shaking Sirius' offered hand. Mad's attention wavered, catching sight of the Weasleys. "Merlin's balls, is that Bill Weasley? I haven't seen him since we left school!"
James' mouth fell open in protest of that particular phrase, while Sirius could barely contain his laugh. Mad wandered off to say hello to the older Weasleys, leaving James and Sirius free to tell Tonks exactly what they thought of him.
"Every father's dream," James sarcastically muttered.
"Really?" Sophie innocently asked. James glowered at her.
"I bet Andy hates him," Sirius said, with a small note of awe in his voice. "Good girl."
Tonks laughed, "I don't choose my boyfriends to piss off Mum, believe it or not. Just works out that way. He's a softie anyway, once you get over the blue Mohawk."
"Tell him to change the shirt and clean his mouth," James warned. Normally he was much more relaxed about Tonks' choices, but this one seemed to annoy him."Or I've got a scourify with his name on it."
"Sorry, the t-shirt was behaving before we left," she looked apologetic on her boyfriend's behalf. "I'll tell him to watch his mouth in front of the kids."
Luckily there were no further problems with Mad, and he cheerfully removed the offending shirt and painted his chest green. Fred and George, of course, thought he was brilliant and joined him. They tried to convince Percy to follow suit, although it was a lost cause.
"Everyone from the ministry is here," Percy scolded them. "What would Mr Crouch say?"
Before long, they were making their way to the pitch. Salesmen lined the path, offering various souvenirs for the game. A few had betting booklets, although James strictly forbid them from doing any gambling. Sophie used some of her pocket money to buy a large green rosette to pin to her robes. Nephele bought a pin that changed from Krum's scowling face to the logo of the National Bulgarian team. She was one of the few from their group who was openly supporting Bulgaria.
"He's wonderful," Nephele spoke in awe as she told her about Viktor Krum on the way to their box. She was wearing one of those replica Bulgarian jerseys. It was scarlet with a white seven on the back, which was always the seeker's number. "Easily the best seeker in the world."
Ron also seemed to share Nephele's sentiments, although the two hadn't exactly conversed about it. Nephele had managed to neatly dodge all of the Weasleys, sticking close to Sophie and her family the entire time they had been at the camp site. She did, however, seem to get on well enough with Hermione. The two had made polite, if a bit awkward, conversation earlier about one of Hermione's electives.
The box next to theirs began filling with ministry officials. Percy was more than happy to give them a running commentary about who each of the people were.
"My boss, Mr Crouch, Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation," Percy boasted. "He's been working around the clock to put this on with Mr Bagman, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Among other things, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Oh, and that's the Bulgarian Minister for Magic – "
The next group of people climbing up to the box needed no introduction. Lucius Malfoy escorted his wife, Narcissa, up the steps and they were followed by their son, Draco.
"It's lucky you have such generous friends like the Potters," Lucius sneered at Arthur. "Box seats like these would cause your family to go without for months. Although I daresay they're used to that."
Not much else was exchanged other than some heated looks. The last time Lucius and Arthur had gone at each other in such a public place was two years ago in Diagon Alley, when they got into a fist fight in the bookstore. Sophie hoped they didn't resort to something as childish as muggle duelling again. It would look poorly on all of them, especially with so many to witness it. Lucius held out his hand to his wife, to help her into their box.
Narcissa paused for a moment, regarding Sophie and Nephele, before giving them a polite smile. She then pulled Draco along before he could volley some insults at the Weasleys as well.
The game begun shortly after that, putting an end of any conversation as everyone quickly became absorbed with the match. Sophie took more interest in watching the mascot displays on the sidelines. Being at the World Cup was not as exciting for her as it was everyone else in the box. She had been dragged along to one too many of these events and they all seemed the same to her. It also wasn't her first World Cup either as her family had attended the last one in Japan. That had been exciting, although it was also Sophie's first time out of Europe and they stayed for three weeks. This time was just a quick camping trip in England.
"I don't understand, why did he catch the snitch? He knew they were going to lose." Sophie asked Nephele on their way back to their tent.
In a surprise ending, Viktor Krum had caught the snitch and ended the game with a loss for Bulgaria.
Nephele shrugged. "They were going to lose anyway, their chasers sucked. I think Krum wanted to make it a closer score. Plus, now people will talk about him. He's the better seeker, why should Lynch get the pat on the back?"
Everyone around them was laughing and celebrating the win for Ireland. People let out green sparks from their wands, and the air looked like fireworks were going off.
The celebrations only continued once they reached their camp site. They sipped cups of hot cocoa as Ron and the twins re-enacted highlights of the match and did a little impromptu singing of their own. They could hear the boisterous laughter and singing coming from the surrounding camp sites or as people walked by.
It was well past midnight before the adults decided that everyone should start quieting down and heading to bed. Tonks was in charge of the girls' tent and more or less making sure they were all accounted for. Mad had been sent to the other tent, to try to make nice with Sirius and James. Something which had gotten increasingly hard for him to do over the course of the day.
It was difficult to settle in, as the camp site was still alive and many adults were drunk and still celebrating. Sophie tried to block out the noise, but came to accept that they wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight. She whispered back and forth with Nephele, who had the bunk below hers. She could hear Ginny and Hermione having their own hushed conversation too.
Suddenly, the singing turned to screaming.
"What in the blazes - " said Tonks. "Everyone up!"
The five of them left their tent, finding the guys had came outside to investigate too.
A group of wizards dressed in long black robes with silver masks covering their faces were parading through the camp site. They blasted tents out of the way, and a few caught fire. People were running, abandoning their camp sites in fear. Green lights were shot into the air, but unlike the earlier sparks that were released in celebration of Ireland, these ones looked menacing.
The worst par though, was the fact that the wizards had four people suspended in the air, twisting and contorting into unnatural positions. Sophie recognized one of them as the muggle camp site owner, and the other three looked to be his wife and young children.
"Tonks!" Sirirus called over. "Get the kids to the woods!"
Tonks looked ready to insist that she could stay and help, but decided against it. She took Sophie's hand and pulled her along. "Come on you lot," she told the underage group. "This way!"
As Tonks pulled them towards the forest, she deflected a few blasts that had been aimed towards the crowd.
"Protego!" She shouted, and a magical shield went over their heads, one of the spells bounced off it and hit a tent, causing it to burst into flames.
In the chaos, the rather large group out broken down into smaller groups. They were pushed and jostled among a crowd of frightened people. Sophie noticed a trio of red-heads just in front of them as Ginny, Fred and George got pushed aside. Sophie had no idea where Harry, Ron or Hermione had disappeared, as she lost sight of them. Soon enough, it was just Sophie, Nephele, Tonks and Mad together at the edge of the forest.
"Mad, take Sophie and Nephele deep into the forest, I've got to go see if they need another auror. Someone will come get you when all this is over, okay?"
Mad agreed, leading the pair of them into the forest. She was a little nervous, but Tonks trusted him so that was enough for her. Both she and Nephele had their wands in hand, just in case.
They slowed down as they got deeper in the forest, as there weren't as many people here. Most had disapparated once they got past the anti-apparation jinx that surrounded the camp site. The lanterns that had lit the path earlier were out, leaving them stumble around in the darkness. Sophie and Nephele nervously clung to each other as they followed Mad's brisk pace.
Like a firework, a single beam of green light exploded in the sky above them. Nephele looked pale beneath the greenish glow and Sophie felt a horrible chill go down her spine at the sight of it. She had no idea what it meant, but it was terrifying after seeing the masked wizards at the camp site.
Above them, a greenish skull hung over the camp site, a snake slithered out of his mouth as if it were a tongue. The snake twisted around, until it was curled in a figure-eight.
Mad hoarsely gasped, "No!" before he immediately disapparated at the sight, abandoning Sophie and Nephele in the forest.
"I know that symbol," Nephele weakly said. Her eyes were wide as she stared at it, as if trying to place where she had seen it before. "Dad had a tattoo like that on his left arm."
"What is it?"
Sophie didn't get to find out what the symbol meant, as they were interrupted by another voice, screaming their names. "Sophie! Nephele! Mad!"
"Tonks! We're over here!"
Tonks was frantic as she caught up with them. She frowned seeing just the two girls. "Where's Mad?"
"He's, ah, gone," Sophie told her, sharing a look with Nephele.
"Gone?" Tonks echoed, her hair starting to darken.
Nephele had seemed to recover her composure. "Disapparated that moment that thing went up in the air."
Tonks let out a string of curses, none that Sophie would ever repeat in front of James.
"I'm going to kill Maddock when I find that stinking coward," Tonks fumed. Her hair had gone from its usual bubblegum pink to a fiery red. "Can't believe he ditched two kids in a time like this! I should let James have a go at him whenever I find what rock he's hiding under."
She sent out a wisp of silver smoke that disappeared off through the forest, in the general direction of the camp site. Then, the three of them waited in the forest for what seemed like an entirety. Tonks said it wasn't safe to go back just yet, as the ministry officials were trying to figure out who had put that symbol in the sky. She had been with James and Sirius when it went up, and the three of them separated to try to locate the kids.
"The Dark Mark," Tonks explained. "It was You-Know-Who's symbol. Usually the Death Eaters cast it whenever they killed someone."
"Death Eaters?" Sophie asked. Nephele tensed beside her.
Tonks never got around to explaining just what she meant by that, as a silver stag appeared in front of them. Sophie instantly recognized it as the same one that had appeared on the grounds in June. "Dad?"
The stag spoke, in James' voice, "The ministry has things under control. You can come back now."
The three of them quietly made their way back to the camp site. Other people were starting to emerge from the forest, poking at what remained of the camp sites. There was smoke rising in the air as people extinguished their tents. The Weasley tents had managed to escape untouched, and they rejoined the rest in the boys' tent. They were the last to arrive, as everyone else was already back. Some of the adults looked worse for wear, James was fixing a rather deep gash on Charlie when they walked in. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked fine, although pale and shaken. Ginny, Fred and George had some scratches from the trees.
James hugged her, crushing her when she walked in. "Are you alright? And Nephele?"
"Where's Mad?" Sirius asked, he was holding up the green leprechaun shirt that they had made Mad change out of earlier.
"Disapparated once he reached the woods," Tonks huffed. She promptly set the shirt on fire and Sirius quickly dropped it. "I don't plan on seeing him to return that."