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 A really big thank you to everyone who read / reviewed / favourited / followed / pm'ed, those are super encouraging when I get stuck on parts :D
One of the creative liberties I've taken is to have all four houses together in the classes because it just didn't make sense for one professor to teach 7 years worth of subjects for 2 or 4 classes per year multiple times a week, plus have time for class prep and any other responsibilities they have. Cheers!
Chapter 16: Unforgivable
Sophie was nearly late to her first class of the year, which happened to be Defence Against the Dark Arts. She had gotten sidetracked when she ran into Elliott Longbottom and had to endure awkward small chat with him about her summer holidays. The last time she had seen him had been at Harry's birthday party in July. Elliott prattled on about his summer holidays; he and Neville had been invited to attend the World Cup with the McKinnons and he wanted to ask if she had through anything through Sirius about the Death Eaters or the Dark Mark.
"See you around!" Elliott cheerfully said once they entered the classroom. He then left her to take the seat his friend, Myron McKinnon, saved for him.
Sophie stood awkwardly for a moment in the front of the class, scanning to see where her friends were sitting. There was usually some house division within classes and the neat little coloured lines were almost visible where the students sat. The cluster of Slytherins was in the right corner. Astoria was sitting with Nephele, and Kitty had taken a seat next to Blaine Manderly. She was flipping her hair and giggling a lot, something she suddenly did whenever they were around their male counterparts. Sophie sighed, looking around the classroom for an empty seat. She really hoped she wouldn't get stuck sitting next to someone like Romilda Vane or Lyssa Belby. Luckily, Romilda was next to her one of her usual lackeys, Nicole Chambers, while Lyssa was in the front next to one of the Ravenclaws.
She spotted an empty seat next to one of her fellow Slytherins, Jasper Peasegood.
"Do you mind?" She asked.
Jasper smiled as he indicated the empty seat and Sophie felt her heart flip. Jasper was rather cute, with his wavy, dirty-blond hair and his light, blue eyes. He had freckles dusted across his nose.
"It seems Blaine ditched me to flirt with Kitty," he said.
"I could probably say the same," Sophie said. She blushed as she corrected herself. "Or well, opposite I guess. Kitty was supposed to save me a seat."
They didn't have long to talk, because Professor Moody marched into the classroom just seconds after Sophie took out her notebook and her copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. His magical eye rolled around in its socket, glancing at each student in the classroom. Moody proceeded to pull out a parchment that presumably had the class rooster as he started to gruffly call out names. His normal eye never let the parchment, but the magical one swivelled to look at each person who answered 'here'. It was rather unnerving to have the eye land on her. It felt like she was being picked apart and that eye could see straight through her.
"Right then, Professor Lupin left me a letter detailing what you've already covered last year. Some basic counter-curses, shield and blocking spells and some pretty thorough ground on dark creatures," Moody informed them. "This year we'll be looking at curses and the worst that witches and wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you, and I don't trust the fools that will come after me to cover this properly. Some of your parents will surely complain. Some people don't think you're old enough to see what these curses can do. Some people don't even think they should be taught at this level. I've been instructed to leave the demonstration out and just give you the bare minimum with the notes. Complete griffin dung if you ask me!"
There was some rather nervous looks around the classroom. A few people - namely Elliott, Myron and their Gryffindor friends - looked rather enthralled as Professor Moody spoke because it was clear he was intending on breaking some rules today. Sophie wondered if he'd even last the full year, given his intent to anger parents, Hogwarts staff and no doubt the Ministry.
With that, Moody pulled out a small glass container from his pocket that held a spider in it. "Engorgio."
The glass container enlarged, and with it, the tiny spider grew to the size of a rat. Sophie crinkled her nose with disgust. Spiders were ugly enough when they were small, never mind when they were enlarged and every feature was even more visible.
"Today I thought I'd start with the very worse of them, the Three Unforgivable Curses. Using any one of them is enough to land you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. Now," Moody's eye swivelled in its socket, landing on Derek Goyle before the natural one looked at him too. "Mr Goyle, can you give me one of the three Unforgivables?"
Derek shifted in his seat. He wasn't as thick as his older brother, Gregory Goyle, but he didn't like volunteering answers in class. This was one of the few times Sophie had ever heard him speak. "The Imperius Curse. It forces the person to do whatever the castor demands them to do."
"Popular one back in the war." While Moody's magical eye looked at each one of them, his natural eye remained on Derek. "Especially after it. A lot of witches and wizards claimed to have been imperiused by You-Know-Who or one of his followers and only committed crimes because of it. Almost impossible to tell who was lying and who was telling the truth."
Derek looked at his hands; his cheeks lost their usual rosy colour and he looked a bit ashen. Sophie wondered if his father was one of the people Moody was talking about. She had heard rumours that Crabbe and Goyle Senior were some of You-Know-Who's followers.
"Imperius," Moody said as he pointed his wand at the spider.
Suddenly, it was doing cartwheels and back-flips on his desk. Kitty screamed as it landed in front of her, before Moody caused it to leap to another desk and begun to tap-dance in front of one of the Ravenclaw boys. A few students giggled, but that just caused Moody to snap.
"Think it's funny do you?" He forced the spider to fling itself across the room, only to stop before it crashed against the window. "It is entirely under my control. I can force it to dance, do back-flips, kill its friends and family, and even kill itself if I wanted."
That killed any of the laughter in the class and immediately the mood shifted to a more sober one.
"What's the next curse?" Moody's eye scanned the class list. "Mr Selwyn?"
"The Cruciatus Curse, sir. It's the torture curse."
"Your father's Boreas Selwyn?"
For once, the usually haughty Zephyr looked nervous. "Yes sir."
"I remember him well. Tell him ol' Mad-Eye says hello." Moody gave a rather cruel smile to Zephyr. "Yes, the Cruciatus Curse causes the victim immense pain."
He levitated the spider back to his desk before saying, "Crucio."
The spider started shrieking and thrashing as Moody held it under the curse. Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the image of the spider shuddering, but she could still hear the inhuman screams. She heard the scrapping of chairs against the stone floor as one student in the front quickly stood up and left the room. When she opened her eyes, she noticed that it was Elliott who had stormed out.
The disturbance caused Moody to stop torturing the spider. Immediately it collapsed on the desk, curling into itself in the fetal position. When one of the Gryffindor girls, Demelza Robins, jumped up to follow Elliott, Moody choose to ignore her and continue on with his lesson.
"Ms Rosier, how's your father these days?"
Nephele looked murderous. "He's dead."
"Pity." Moody didn't look too sorry at the news. "What's the last Unforgivable Curse?"
"The Killing Curse," Nephele replied. Her back was straight, her eyes glazed and she sounded like she was quoting from a textbook. She probably was. "It's considered the most terrible curse in the Wizarding world. It instantly kills the person and is impossible to block. There's no known way to counter it."
"You are mostly correct. There is one known person to survive it," Moody slowly said. "I'm sure you're all familiar with Mr Potter and his story. The greatest minds of our generation are still puzzling out how exactly he survived."
Sophie's heart was pounding. So that was why Harry was so famous? Because he managed to live through the impossible?
Moody pointed his wand at the spider one last time, with a feeling of dread deep in her stomach, Sophie knew what was about to happen. As much as she wanted to close her eyes and not see it, some small part of her was curious.
"Avada Kedavra."
There was a terrible, emerald green light that hit the spider, before its entire body sagged. There was an acidic taste in her throat, and Sophie found herself wishing that Moody had respected the Ministry's wishes and left out the demonstration. The class was silent the rest of the period, copying out the notes Professor Moody wrote on the board about the three spells.
"Class dismissed," Moody told them with fifteen minutes left to the period. As they were gathering their things and packing their bags, he barked out, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Sophie jumped, whacking her knee against the desk. "Merlin's balls!" She hissed.
"Never heard that one before," Jasper replied with a smirk. "I like it."
"Um, thanks," she pushed a lock of her dark hair behind her ear and smiled to herself. It seemed that Tonks' ex-boyfriend was good for something after all.
The second years quickly left the classroom, the Slytherins especially eager to get away from Professor Moody. It was clear that he didn't think much of their house, especially by the way he signalled out certain students and asked about their parents. The staff was usually fair, regardless of a student's house. Sophie wondered if this was how the other houses felt when they had to deal with Professor Snape. Not that she ever got any special treatment for being a Slytherin, she knew he had no love for her father or godfather, and definitely had none for her or Harry.
"Can't believe Professor Dumbledore would let him teach students," scowled Nephele. "I'm glad he's gone after this year. People say the position's cursed, I bet he'll get what's coming to him."
"Wonder if he'll let us practice the Killing Curse on him, see if he can fend it off," Zephyr joined in. It was a rare day that Nephele and Zephyr agreed on something.
"Careful, we're not in the common room," cautioned Astoria. Usually they had a little more common sense than to openly say such things in the corridors.
Elliott didn't reappear for the next class, and the next time Sophie saw him was during lunch. She wanted to ask if he was alright, but he was surrounded by his usual gang of Gryffindors and she suspected she wasn't welcome. The most she could do was offer him a small smile as she walked by his table.
Later that night, Kitty talked endlessly about Blaine Manderly. She had sat next to him during the rest of classes that day, causing Astoria, Sophie and Nephele to rotate partners. Sophie sat with Astoria in Transfiguration and Nephele in English. She didn't mind being on her own in Potions though. Since Professor Snape assigned partners in the first class of the year, it meant Sophie got to be Jasper's partner for the rest of the year. If Kitty was going to try to get closer to Blaine, it didn't seem like too bad of a trade off that Sophie got to spend more time with Jasper.
Or until Snape decided to break them up anyway. She should probably try to look a little more miserable being Jasper's Potions partner. That might encourage Snape to keep them together out of spite.
"Oh, and Blaine was saying - " Kitty gushed, launching into some other story.
Astoria was on her bed, giving herself a silver-tipped manicure and having all the right reactions to Kitty's story-telling. Nephele was at her desk, mostly ignoring the girl-talk as she flipped through a paperback novel about some famous Quidditch player.
"What do you think of Jasper Peasegood?" Sophie asked once there seemed to be a loll in the conversation.
"He's cute, if he wasn't a half-blood I'd go for him," Kitty commented, "ooohh, you should, it would be perfect since - "
"Kitty - " Astoria tried to warn, casting a futile glance in Lyssa's general direction. Like Sophie, Lyssa was a half-blood. Unlike Sophie, Lyssa thought Kitty was a snobby, entitled pure-blood and got annoyed with her rather quickly.
Astoria's warning was entirely lost on Kitty though. "You're both half-bloods so your father's not going to care that much and you don't really care that the Peasegoods aren't high society anyway. I mean, his father's just an Obliviator at the Ministry. Marrying a Potter would probably be the greatest thing that's ever happened to their line."
"Oh Merlin," Astoria silently cursed. "Here we go."
"So what you're saying is that you're some sort of niffler, this really is the House of the Ambitious, isn't it?" Lyssa interrupted.
A niffler was a rather rude nickname for a witch who married a wizard for his gold. Kitty's cheeks turned pink, but she snootily replied. "Well, I am pretty, and a pure-blood, I expect I'll have some really good offers in a few years. Why should I settle for less?"
Lyssa huffed, and gathered her things to go read in the common room after that. It was not as disastrous as Sophie thought, and she wondered if Lyssa was just fed up and trying to pick her battles with them. It was hard to be sympathetic these days when she started most of them.
Kitty giggled at everyone's exasperated expressions. "What? I know my worth."
September passed quickly as Sophie got back in the routine of being in school. Nephele's birthday was near the end of the month. Whenever someone in Slytherin celebrated a birthday, Fiona would ask one of the house-elves to make a cake and they'd sing happy birthday in the common room. Given how many students there were in the house, there was usually a celebration every week or so. When they were sure Nephele was upstairs in their dormitory, Sophie, Astoria and Kitty decorated a table in the common room with green and silver balloons, along with a banner that read 'Happy 13th Birthday Nephele!' They also had presents they'd give to Nephele afterwards in their dormitory.
"I'll go get her," Sophie volunteered once they were finished decorating. She knew Astoria and Kitty were planning on asking people to sing and she was still uncomfortable approaching most of the older Slytherins.
Nephele was sitting in her bed when Sophie found her. She had her knees tucked up to her chin as she read a letter, a gentle smile softening her face. A shiny black broomstick was next to her, Nimbus Two Thousand and Two was written in gold writing on the handle.
"Your mother got you a broom?" Sophie asked. It was the top of the Nimbus line, its speed rivalled only by the Firebolt. She had been dragged along to the Quidditch store over the summer when Harry went to check it out.
Nephele's cheeks had a tinge of pink. "Well, um, not exactly - it's from my dad."
She must have read Sophie's confused expression, because she elaborated a little more. "He wasn't sure if he'd be around for my birthdays, so every year I get a letter and a birthday gift. I think he must have arranged it with the shops?" Nephele's eyes fell back to the letter. "He says now that I'm in my second year, I should have a better broom at school."
Sophie felt a tiny spark of sadness for herself. She always felt a bit of a bond with Nephele, since they had both lost a parent young. Nephele was lucky her dad thought to write letters out in case he died. Sophie didn't have much from her mum, aside from some mementos like personal items, photos and jewellery.
"It's a nice broom," Sophie commented. "I bet everyone's going to go crazy when they see it." As much as she didn't enjoy Quidditch or flying, Sophie could recognize that this was a very gorgeous and well-designed broom. "Are you going to try-out for the team next year?"
The Quidditch House Cup wasn't being held this year since the Quidditch Pitch was being used for the Triwizard Tournament. It had been to the annoyance of most of the school, especially the Quidditch players.
Nephele grinned in response. "Naturally. Draco better not get lazy or he might just get replaced."
A/N: Figured I'd explain what was going on earlier. Moody's signalling out the Death Eaters' children (Goyle, Selwyn, Rosier). Goyle and Selwyn escaped Azkaban so impostor!Moody isn't impressed with them. He probably thought Rosier escaped too since he never went to Azkaban. Canonically, the real Alastor Moody killed Evan Rosier, so that exchange was all kinds of messed up.
Sophie gets her first crush here. Jasper's not end game, I don't even know if they'll go on a date, but I wanted her to have some crushes / dates / boyfriends before I eventually pair her off ;) Any guesses? I'd love to hear your thoughts where things are going :)