Detention with Thorfinn and Sophia
Sophia and Granger bury the hatchet and share a prank on Thorfinn. Thorfinn takes his revenge. The dust settles. Friendship wins the day! A decision is made and a package is sent.
A/N: I thought quite seriously about making the girls enemies but finally went with my original intention of making them friends.
Sophia and Granger walked into the potions lab, along with Thorfinn. Professor Snape was waiting for them. Knowing she wanted to make the most of this opportunity with Granger, Snape had a special punishment planned for Rowle. It was a technique that he only reserved for when the young Beater had been especially naughty or when he wanted to be sure he was really paying attention.
It was a well-known fact that Thorfinn Rowle was constantly moving, even if it was just tapping his fingers or jiggling his knee. The boy could not hold still! He waited until all three were standing in front of him before he spoke the punishments. "Granger, Sophia, you will take turns washing all the cauldrons out, without magic." Sophia laughed as Granger gasped. "Before you take issue with the fact that I didn't name Rowle." Here he leveled a glance at Granger." He gets a different punishment, one especially suited to him."
Rowle was eyeing him warily. "Mr. Rowle. You will sit at this desk. You will put your hands and feet together and you will supervise these girls." Sophia couldn't help but laugh again. It really was a unique punishment, forcing Rowle to do the one thing he truly hated, be completely still! "I will hold all three of your wands until the end of detention." Sophia giggled, knowing he'd given Rowle that sentence to give HER more time to try to work something out with Granger.
"What?!" yelled Rowle. "No fair! I didn't teach her to cuss, I didn't even know she was behind me! I swear!" he argued. 'Merlin, why had he agreed to help her with that stupid, harebrained plan to get in detention TOGETHER with Granger?!'
"Nevertheless, Rowle, this is your punishment. Unless you wish to do another detention, during Quidditch practice, you will now sit down. Your time starts now. I will check on your progress periodically." They handed over their wands. He waited until the boy had seated himself, then he headed to his office, leaving the door cracked in case he needed to run interference. He could almost guarantee that when he came back to check on them, Rowle would be slumped over, either half or mostly asleep!
The three students stared at one another. More accurately, Rowle glared at both girls as he sulked about the punishment he'd been given. Sophia went and hugged him. "Cheer up, Rowle! It could have been worse! He could have sent you trudging all over the castle with Mr. Filch!" He thought of that particular action. 'Yeah, that would have been a disaster in the making. The old fogey would have definitely sparked his temper and he'd have stuck him to a wall somewhere and gone back to the common room!' he had to smile, on the other hand, he might actually have preferred that punishment! ANYTHING was better than just sitting here, not moving!
"Before we do anything, Granger, there are a few things we need to straighten out." Sophia said sternly, crossing her arms. Granger stared back at her mutinously, crossing her arms as well. "First of all, you owe Rowle an apology for calling him a beast. He's not a beast and you had no right calling him that. Please apologize to him." Sophia politely requested.
Granger sighed looking ashamed of herself. She approached the desk. Sophia spoke again. "His name is Thorfinn." Granger looked at him. "I'm sorry for calling you a beast, Thorfinn. She's right. I was rude to do that. If my mother had been here, she would have scolded me even more than Professor McGonagall did. I'm truly sorry." Rowle inclined his head to her but didn't speak.
Next Sophia came around the desk and held out her hand. "Hi, my name is Sophia Snape. I'm in your Potions class. I think we got off on the wrong foot. Can we try this again?"
Granger stared at her hand hesitantly, then she reached out and took it. "Hi, my name is Hermione Granger. I'm pleased to meet you. I'm sorry I've snapped at you a couple of times now. I'd like to try a fresh start. But,,, how do we do this? You are in Slytherin and I'm in Gryffindor. Our houses are natural enemies or so I'm told."
"Who told you that?" Rowle suddenly spoke up.
Granger jumped and looked at him. "Ron told me. His brothers told him."
"Really. Slytherin house has been given a bad reputation. You've no doubt been told also that EVERY wizard that ever went bad was in Slytherin. Not to say we HAVEN'T had more than our share of bad wizards but there have been bad wizards in EVERY house. You don't hear about these, only the ones from Slytherin." Rowle snapped. It w obviously a sore point for him.
Granger was nodding in agreement. "Yes, Ron told us that, too.
"Who is US?" asked Sophia. Granger turned around to look at her earnestly. "Me and Harry Potter. He's in Gryffindor, too. I try to help him with his homework and sometimes he'll even let me, when Ron isn't there."
"That's the other thing I wanted to speak to you about. Listen, Granger, I'm not saying this to be mean but you have no friends, not even in your own house. Play your cards right though and you might walk out of here with two of them. I'll be your friend and so will Thorfinn. Of course he will no doubt irritate you to death by never using your name." Sophia glanced at Thorfinn and smirked. He smiled back mischievously. "His favorite nickname for me is 'firstie'! As for the Slytherin/Gryffindor thing, isn't that what the headmaster is always taking about, inter house unity? Why, we'll both be setting a good example for the rest of the students, right? Besides who needs friends in Gryffindor when you can have more friends in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw."
Sophia looked at Thorfinn. "Should I tell her the rest?"
Thorfinn nodded. "Kids are cruel. Best to get it all out in the open, baby girl, especially if you and I are supposed to lead the charge."
Granger noted the new nickname with a raised brow. Sophia waved it off. "There will be people, Granger, who will reject you purely for your blood status. Both your parents are Muggles, right?" Granger nodded. She had sat down and was listening to Sophia earnestly, as if this were a serious class with a pop quiz at the end. Any moment now, Rowle fully expected her to pull out a parchment and quill and start taking notes! "So you're a Muggleborn witch, which is becoming more of a common occurrence now than it did years ago. But some people will not respect your mind and they will make fun of you purely because of your blood. There's a derogatory term you may hear them call you, it's Mudblood. I myself was raised saying it. Basically they're saying you have dirty blood, tainted blood. I'm sorry, Granger, I can't change those people's minds about you. But the people who aren't biased will follow mine and Rowle's example and get to know you for you."
"Be warned, however, it doesn't matter if I'm friends with you or not. I stick all firsties to the wall at some point. I've already stuck little Sophia to the wall! If you're lucky, next time, I'll stick you up there with her! That's just my thing!" Rowle warned her.
"It really is! I asked Yaxley about it, Thorfinn has been doing this ever since he was a first year!" Sophia jumped in. Granger looked as if she wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at being told she WOULD end up on the wall.
"Ok, now that we have that settled, let's get to washing some cauldrons. Oh, about Rowle's punishment being different from ours, let me just say, Rowle DESPISES sitting still. Note the surly frown he still wears every now and again. So, we have to keep him cheered up. Every tenth cauldron, we have to come over and hug him." Sophia smiled as Granger actually giggled. Upon hearing that, Rowle grinned and rolled his eyes.
The girls quickly scampered over and began washing the cauldrons. Granger had begun quizzing them on things she had read about, mostly pureblood traditions, Rowle was able to confirm them for her. The more she learned, the bigger her smile got. It was clear that the quest for knowledge wasn't just so she could rub in it in people's faces, the girl honestly enjoyed learning new stuff!
Sure enough, every tenth cauldron, they would go over and hug Thorfinn. Even so, they could see what the effects of staying still was doing to him. He was slowly but surely slumping forward and close to going to sleep. When they finally had every cauldron washed, dried and put up, he was slumped forward in his chair, sprawled across the desk, sound asleep. Sophia got a mischievous look in her eye and whispered to Granger, who capped her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing and waking him up.
Professor Snape came in, took one look and almost burst out laughing at the sight before him. The girls had evidently finished the cauldrons after Thorfinn went to sleep. Bad mistake on Thorfinn's part! They had begun playing around with Sophia's make up and Granger's hair ties. Once they had each other made up, they had turned their attention to the sleeping fourth year. They had outlined his eyes in black eyeliner all around then filled in the shadows with a mix of pink and purple with a bit of blue mixed in. They had used glittery pink lip balm to outline his lips! His hair wasn't very long in the front or on the sides but he did let the back grew out long enough to reach his shoulders. Granger had divided his hair in the middle and put it all into ponytails. They had fastened little unicorn fasteners to the end of each braid!
When he came in, they had evidently just finished making up poor Thorfinn and were trying to figure out the best way to tame Granger's hair. Sophia pulled out a bottle of Sleek Easy conditioner and gave it to Granger. "My mother had the same big, fluffy hair as you, Granger. I took my sleek hair after my father, obviously, but this still comes in handy on mornings I don't take the time to properly brush it. My mother swore by this conditioner! You can have that one. I have plenty more with me. When you need more, just let me know."
"Well, I can see this has been a very productive detention." Snape said, barely holding his laughter in. "Mr. Rowle? Mr. Rowle, you might want to wake up now. Unless, of course, you are planning to sleep in here tonight."
Rowle jerked awake and sat up, yawning widely. He went to run his fingers through his hair and froze when he encountered the braids. Then he jumped up and went over to inspect himself in the mirror beside the door. THAT'S when he saw the makeup. His brows snapped together and he growled angrily as he whirled and chased two screaming first years out of the Potions lab! They all grabbed their wands, in passing, from a wildly amused Potions master who immediately ducked into his office, locked the door and laughed himself silly at their antics.
There are very few times when Peeves the poltergeist was upstaged in his hijinks but the sight of a made up, furiously angry, roaring Thorfinn Rowle, chasing after Sophia Snape and Hermione Granger, made even him hover in the air, open mouthed in shock. The Slytherins, just leaving the Great Hall, were treated to the sight of their popular Chaser, cursing a blue streak as he chased two screaming little girls who ran into the Great hall and straight down to the teachers table.
"Professor McGonagall, help us, help us!" they screamed in unison, laughing as they ran away from the angry boy. Professor McGonagall hopped up and hurried around the table in time to catch the girls against her. Rowle skidded to a stop, glaring at them. "You can run and hide behind her for now, firsties, but you can't hide behind her forever! I'll be waiting for you!" he whirled and stormed back out.
Professor McGonagall looked down at them. "My dears, did you-did you put MAKEUP on Thorfinn Rowle?! AND you braided his hair?!" she wasn't sure whether to be horrified or amused by the antics of the first years. They grinned cheekily at her, knowing they were probably looking at another detention.
For the next week, Hogwarts was a battleground between them as Thorfinn stuck the girls to the wall in various places all over the castle, every chance he got! They, in turn, recruited Peeves to throw paint and water balloons at him, every chance he got, leaving Thorfinn both drenched and covered in pink paint many times! The other first years breathed a sigh of relief, knowing it would be only temporary but glad of the break they were getting.
Cory and Tony, howling with laughter, would run around behind him, attempting to keep him from killing the girls. They both decided that, even though Sophia was just a first year, Thorfinn really just needed to kiss her and get it out of his system!
Finally, the girls grew tired of trying to outrun him all the time. The day came when he was chasing them down the hall. Suddenly they reversed directions and ran directly at him! Caught off guard, he fell back when they both jumped up on him. They landed on his chest as he ended up flat on his back in the middle of the hallway.
"We love you, Thorfinn, please forgive us, please? We'll carry your books and your broom and your book bag! We'll even carry your Quidditch equipment for you! Please forgive us? We love you! Please? Pretty please?" the girls chorused together as they wrapped their arms around his neck. Thorfinn looked at Cory and Tony desperately.
"Nope, they are all yours, Thorfinn." Cory laughed, holding up his hands. Behind him, Tony sniggered also backing away. Thorfinn Rowle rolled his eyes and waited for the girls to quieten down. He sat up and regained his feet as smoothly as he could with two first year girls, hanging onto him for dear life. He staggered over to the wall but, instead of sticking them there and leaving as he'd done for the past week, he turned, leaned against it and slid down until he was sitting with both girls in his lap.
Cory and Tony left once they figured out the war was over. They knew he wouldn't harm the girls now. They went back to the common room, knowing he and Sophia would show up sooner or later. They knew he'd been missing Sophia all week. He'd be reading and reach out, blindly searching for her. She'd been banned to sit with the other first years. They'd look over and see her peeping sadly over at Thorfinn.
"So we're finally done, firsties?" he asked. They both nodded, delighted that he wasn't pushing them away. "Good, I was getting tired of chasing you two!"
They laughed out loud. Sophia spoke first. "I told Granger about the giant squid. She wanted to know if you'd take her out there sometime and let her see it."
Thorfinn looked at Granger, her eyes shining eagerly. "Of course, I will, firstie. Just come down to the Quidditch pitch tomorrow with my other little firstie here. We'll go as soon as Quidditch practice is over."
Granger nodded eagerly. "Thank you, Rowle. I've been hearing about it ever since I've been here. I tried standing on the shore to see it but I didn't see anything."
As it happened, this was the end of the school day. So there was no hurry for them to get up and race to another class. Thorfinn sat there, relaxed as he held the girls. He'd missed his little firstie, sitting beside him doing her homework. He still wasn't used to having Granger as his other firstie. He hugged them close and kissed the top of their heads.
For their part, Sophia was glad he was speaking to her again. Maybe now, she'd be allowed back on 'their' couch. Granger was too thrilled at being in his arms to even talk much.
Present time
He thought long and hard about his decision. He knew once she accepted the gift there would be no backing out, no escape short of death! He was fully prepared to accept the consequences, even if it was her rejecting the gift. He put several charms on it. Then he rewrapped it and put it with the larger presents. But he also put a note with it. He knew even Potter wouldn't give it to her without a note.
"For you, sweetheart, I'll see you soon. Until we can meet again. All my love, Finn. P. S. Cory and Tony send their best."
He took the package to the Owlery in Hogsmeade. There, he sent it on to Harry Potter to give to Hermione Granger. Then he went to Quidditch practice, hoping this would be the day he came back to hear she'd made it back safely.