Moonlark Rising

Harry is sus(picious of Sophie)

Harry

Harry looked over the landing at the blond girl who had removed her hood and stepped into a patch of light. He only caught snippets of conversation. Something about a Council? 

And what was that about Lost Cities? 

How could a city be lost? 

Then, Harry's breath caught in his throat. The girl with the brown eyes had looked right at him, almost through him.

Her voice had raised enough to hear her tell Mrs. Weasley, "We might want to move to a different room to discourage eavesdroppers." 

How? How did she know where he was? Did she? Harry slipped back into the room and threw the invisibility cloak off himself onto the couch.

"What did you hear, Harry?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"Not much," he replied glumly. "Something about a council, and lost cities. The only part I could really hear was when she called me out on eavesdropping."

"But you were invisible! How did she know?" Ron gasped.

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "Luckily, she didn't call me out by name or anything, but still, she shouldn't have known I was there." Then, he heard footsteps on the stairs outside, walking up to the parlor they had been hanging around in for the better part of the morning.

"Hello, dears!" Mrs. Weasley called as she stepped into the room. The blond girl sidled in after her, then met his eyes again for a split second.

Mrs. Weasley spoke again. "This is Sophie. She's a transfer student from the other side of the world! Dumbledore asked us to host her on the behalf of the Council. 

Since her school has slightly different grouping and training methods, she will be staying in Gryffindor tower this year. I'll let you all talk to each other for a bit before we have lunch."

Sophie stood there awkwardly for a moment before walking up to them. "Sorry if I'm a bother," she said awkwardly.

"Not at all!" Hermione half-squealed. "I have so many questions about your school! Tell us all about it!"

"Okaay..." Sophie said, tugging out an eyelash. "The school is called Foxfire Academy. We're sorted by levels. 

Each level is named after a magical creature. After you pass level six, certain prodigies get to go to the elite levels. 

Each person has mentors based on their talents. Honestly it's a lot like Hogwarts, except all the students go home at night, unless they manage to knock themselves out during one of their sessions."

Harry saw many reasons to worry about the 'knocked out' thing, but Ron beat him to the punch. "So, wait a minute. How exactly would someone get knocked out at a school?"

"Oh, lots of ways." Sophie said in an unconcerned tone. "I myself got knocked out playing a game in PE when I got thrown against the wall. One of my jinxes reacted badly with one of my friends, and we both got knocked out. 

It's kinda a risk of being at any school, let alone an academy for magic. There are gonna be injuries, but that's what the healing center is for, amiright?"

"Honestly, Ron! We've been into plenty of scrapes at Hogwarts too!"

Harry quickly butted into the conversation and told Hermione, "Don't scare her! We want her to feel comfortable at Hogwarts!"

"Eh. It's fine," Sophie said, heading back out the door. "I'm not scared of danger." She disappeared into the house, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione to continue what they were doing before the crack of thunder interrupted them.

Sophie

Sophie went downstairs early in the morning, easily locating the kitchen. Taking out the necessary supplies, she began making Blitzenberry muffins. 

She began baking the delicious puffy pastries, then sank onto a chair for a moment to relax before she would have to get up again to set the table, as well as make the bacon, eggs and the cinnacreme mugs.

She always found shopping exhausting, and she suspected that Diagon Alley would be both very distracting and very full of people. Taking the advice of Sandor, she would stick a tracker in the three friend's cloaks once they got them, just in case. 

She got the feeling those three were just as reckless as she was. Swirling away from the chair, she began cleaning the kitchen and preparing the rest of the meal.

Just as she had predicted, the smells of fresh food drew some of the other inhabitants of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. She started to hand plates and mugs to the people who began wandering into the kitchen, making sure to smile at Lupin when he walked by. 

The surprisingly shy man had been a bit scared of her at first, but when she told him about how she was an outcast too, he had relaxed a bit. Sophie knew what it was like to be unwanted or even hated. She understood him well.

Mrs. Weasley hustled into the kitchen, then did a double take when she saw Sophie. "You didn't have to do this, dear! I would have made something!"

"It's okay, Mrs. Weasley!" Sophie insisted. "I woke up early, and since I was able to find the ingredients for some of the recipies Mom taught me, I decided we could all use a sweet treat, right?"

"That's very true, dear," Mrs. Weasley agreed warmly, taking a plate. Once everyone was served, she made herself a plate and went out to the table.

When Ron saw her, he called out, "Blimey! These muffins are really good! What are these fruity things in them though?" 

Sophie laughed at the sight of him talking with his mouth full, then told him "Those are Blitzenberries. They're really fizzy, so they're even better than coffee!" They laughed their way through the meal. Sophie couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt. Having fun while Keefe was still unconscious... didn't feel very good.

At the end of breakfast, Sophie cleared the table and then followed Harry, Ron, and Hermione to the fireplace. Sophie cringed a bit at the green flames that leaped from the coals to meet her when she threw the powder in the ashes, but she stepped forward into the light, and declared in a much braver voice than she thought possible, "DIAGON ALLEY!"

Harry

Harry stepped through the flames into Diagon Alley after Sophie, stepping out of the way so that the rest of the group could join them. In what Harry was quickly recognising as a nervous gesture, Sophie reached her hand up and tugged out an eyelash. Now that he thought of it, she looked rather pale.

Mrs. Weasley noticed it too. "Are you all right, dear?" she asked kindly. "You're looking a bit pale."

"S'ok." Sophie mumbled. "Don't like fire, though..." Seeing the shiver behind those words, Harry wondered if there was a dark story explaining why. The haunted look that briefly washed over her eyes stopped him from asking about it, though.

Mrs. Weasley led the group towards the tailor's shop. "Harry, Ron, Hermione," she said in a slightly bossy tone, "You go get your new cloaks, okay? Sophie and I will go get your books."

"Wait a minute!" Ron complained. "Why doesn't she have to go get her robes?"

Sophie tilted her head slightly, then spoke. "I get to wear my Foxfire uniform. Not quite sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, though." She walked off with Mrs. Weasley, and Harry dragged Ron into the store. It was surprisingly empty, so they were in and out pretty quickly. They met up again in front of the apothecary. Sophie tugged out another eyelash.

"I'm about done with what I need to get, so I'm going to head back," she told them.

"Don't you need potion supplies?" Harry asked.

"I actually don't have potions class," she explained. "I'm really bad at brewing things. If you ask me later, I'll tell you about a few of my explosions. Anyways, since I'm going back, I can carry all of your things with me so you don't have to juggle them around." 

Mrs. Weasley looked immensely relieved. After handing her his cloak, Harry followed Mrs. Weasley into the store, his mind already elsewhere.