Moonlark Rising

Omens

Keefe

Keefe sketched a plan diagram out, then took a look at his imparter. He had called Fitz yesterday and asked him to come over. He saw a flash of light, and a second later Fitz came to join him on the porch.

"You said you wanted to talk to me?" Fitz asked apprehensively.

"Yeah. I have a plan," he said, then in a whisper, "I know how to find Sophie."

A flash of surprise swept over his friend, then he asked quickly "How?"

Keefe explained "It's simple. We tell Silveny, she reaches out to Sophie, then if it's safe, goes to her. 

That way, even if she doesn't come back with Silveny or even talk to her, we still know she's okay and approximately where she is. 

Based on what we learn, we can form a new plan afterward. Are you in?"

Fitz paused for a second. "Yes. But we should wait a little while before talking to Silveny to make it less suspicious. I'll ask Grady maybe 2 weeks from now. That way," he continued, seeing Keefe's expression, "he doesn't suspect that we're planning to go with Silveny to convince Sophie to come back with us. 

I am assuming that phase two involves you going, right?" 

Keefe waited, expecting his friend to insist he was coming along. When he didn't, Keefe suspected that Fitz knew he had let him figure out how he felt about Sophie and  was now giving him the same courtesy. He had given up on dating her.

Anticipating his question, Fitz said, "Sophie and I decided we would focus on being friends and the best cognates we can be without our feelings getting in our way." After making some more small talk so Fitz's bodyguard wouldn't get suspicious, his friend leapt away. 

Keefe turned his attention back to the sketch of Sophie wearing the circlet the council had given her and an ice blue dress that looked a bit like flower petals. He again hoped that his plan would work. 

Fitz had agreed to it, but there were still plenty of ways it could go wrong. For now though, his friend was right. He would wait until it was the right time to talk to Silveny. He couldn't be rash this time.

Sophie

Sophie shuddered violently. That Umbridge woman was even worse than she had thought. Forcing Harry to write in his own blood? Awful. Just awful. 

Sophie had made a lot of progress on her knitted blanket, and she was hoping to decorate it with silver yarn in some sort of design. Sophie noted that Harry was falling behind in his classes and vowed to herself that she would help him study that night.

The teachers gave enough homework that other students would be swamped, but Sophie's photographic memory was a huge help. Instead of finishing her bowtruckle drawing by hand, she was able to project it onto the sheet of paper. It may have been cheating, but Sophie was definitely very busy. 

The detention session at lunch went exactly like the last detention, and Harry was able to go to Keeper tryouts. She was succeeding in everything. Several days passed, and Harry's detentions ended.

Sophie walked into the common room one evening, where Ron was asking Harry what was on the back of his hand. "Oh.. nothing."

Sophie plopped down into one of the armchairs. "Oh please, Harry. Your friends are not only smarter than that, they care about you. 

What that old hag is making you do is probably illegal. 

She makes him do lines with this crazy quill that writes... in the writer's blood. It scratches into the writer's hand, eventually leaving a scar."

Quick as lightning, Sophie grabbed Harry's wrist and held it there for Ron and Hermione to see. Hermione and Ron began making a fuss, and Sophie said sleepily, "Relax. I gave him a potion after every detention to help with the pain. 

I couldn't stop Umbridge without getting in trouble myself, but I did help."

After a bit more noise, they settled into a brief silence. Sophie carefully watched as Harry penned a letter to Sirius. His scar had hurt? Umbridge really was an evil hag. Sophie assumed that the scar was a danger warning system. 

She'd have to share her hypothesis with Harry, so he stopped seeing Voldemort at every turn. If Umbridge was helping the evil wizard, she was doing it unknowingly. Harry stood and sealed the letter. Sophie returned to her embroidery. 

Half an hour later, Sophie packed up her excess yarn and looked at the blanket. What she had thought were absent swirls and lines had become a stylized fox. But the fox had nine tails. A star fox against a background of midnight sky. A shapeshifter. The word resonated inside Sophie, and she shivered, wondering what it could mean.

Harry

Harry conferred with Ron and Hermione nervously. Members of the Order had been getting into scrapes with the Ministry, and Ron's first practice as a Keeper had gone sour.

Sophie walked into the room and sat down in one of the armchairs with a smile on her face that was so infectious Harry couldn't stop his smile from showing up. Hermione hurried off to do something or other, and Ron continued on with his homework. Harry was truly behind on his homework.

He watched Sophie, who was talking to Ginny and petting Crookshanks, who was actually purring, and knitting a hat in the shape of a cat's head. Maybe he could ask her for help. 

Seeing his expression, she waited for Crookshanks to leap off her lap and trail after Hermione, pointed to a spot on the astronomy charts Ginny was puzzling over and then made her way over to him. 

Sophie turned out to be an astronomy expert.

"I live in a pretty remote area, so the stars are out at night. Whenever I can't sleep, I watch the night skies. It's a great way to memorize things for astronomy class."

Suddenly, Hermes, Percy's owl, came up to the window and flew in. Ron began reading the note, and when he was done, Sophie growled, "The nerve of him! At this rate, we're the only people who actually will survive the coming war!" 

Her expression turned thoughtful. "Actually... I may have an idea for that. I'm going to brainstorm. I'll be back in a bit!"

Sophie jogged off to find Hermione, and Harry turned his eyes to the fireplace, where his godfather Sirius was watching him. They had a nice chat, then Harry went off to bed. The next morning when the newspaper arrived, Harry was almost flattened by the news. Hogwarts High Inquisitor? 

That new position gave Umbridge even more power, so that she could rival Dumbledore. Hermione looked like she was about to explode, but a quick glance from Sophie told them all to wait before reacting to the article. 

It was pretty smart, actually, to hide their negative reactions so as not to make more of an enemy of the horrid woman. They quickly exited the great hall after breakfast, and Sophie led them into a secret passage.

"Ok," she said quickly. "We don't have much time. We can't be late to classes or get detentions. Follow rules. 

Don't stand out. 

Those of us who understand the homework will try to explain it to those who don't. We can't not continue on like normal, but we can't let her win, either. 

I have part of a plan, but it might not work. Now, we need to go to class. We can talk later in the common room."

Sophie walked on, heading towards who knows where. Harry went towards Potions, where he learned that he had a P on his moonstone essay. He had a sinking feeling that if he hadn't accepted the tiny bit of help he had asked for from Sophie, he would have got a D. D for dreadful. He would ask her for help though. He needed to pass his O.W.L.s and stay at Hogwarts.

Wow, the chapters really do fluctuate in length huh?