Moonlark Rising

Music heals

Harry

Harry felt a hand on his shoulder, and jumped. Sophie was there, looking at him carefully.

"Are you okay? You look rather pale to me."

Harry shook slightly, and as they entered McGonagall's office, he said "I... I had a nightmare. A snake was attacking Mr. Weasley. Then, another snake came up and stopped the first one. The second snake turned into a person, then helped Mr. Weasley."

"Really?" Sophie said in surprise. "What perspective were you looking from?"

Harry felt a shiver. "The attacking snake, at first, then just... floating there."

Sophie let out a puff of breath, then said, in a voice that caught everyone's attention, even though it was barely more than a whisper, "I understand now. Dark dreams like that hurt the dreamer. I was a victim of them once, until a gnommish friend of mine sang a song for me to ease my pain. Would you mind if I sang it for you?"

To Harry's surprise, Professor McGonagall said, "That would be very nice, Miss Ruewen. The near escape Mr. Weasley had tonight definitely scared us all."

Sophie closed her eyes, and began singing a song in a different language. The song reminded him of shadows playing across the Great Lake, and the night sky, and all of the different good forms darkness could take. 

The possibility in darkness, just as with light. He let out a sigh, which was mirrored by one from everyone else in the room.

Professor McGonagall said suddenly, "Thank you. As Harry said, a friend of a friend helped Mr. Weasley. 

He'll be fine, and looks just like normal. Whoever it was is very good with elixirs. I had to tell you all, but now you should head off to bed."

As they walked through the hallways, Harry realized that Sophie was still in her uniform. Based on how she sat back down into an armchair and began her knitting, Harry assumed she would not be sleeping that night, unless she nodded off in front of the dying embers of the fire.

The next morning, Harry passed several Slytherins who were humming some tune. Following the three feet regulation Umbridge had placed, Hermione and Sophie walked up to Harry and Ron.

"Why are the Slytherins humming If You're Happy and you Know It?" Hermione asked. Sophie smiled mischievously.

"Actually," she said, "It's the Stressy Depressy song. I asked Dobby to put a disk of the song in the Slytherin common room. I figured they could use something to laugh about."

Harry did think that all of the Slytherins looked happier. The next few weeks passed well, but both Umbridge's changes and Harry' occlumency lessons were blights on his time. If he didn't have DA meetings, he would have gone insane.

Umbrige had begun to crack down. The Quibbler was banned, Harry had even more detentions, Trelawney had been fired and replaced with Firenze, and more horrible decrees lined the halls. On the plus side, he was currently watching the many patronuses flying around. He did a double take when he saw Sophie's nine-tailed fox turn into a phoenix and fly up to the roof.

Sophie turned pale, then said, "Umbridge is coming." Turning on the spot, she opened a tunnel, allowing several members to run out that way. Hermione made her way out just as Umbridge began to crack the door. 

Sophie closed the tunnel so that all Umbridge saw was Harry, Ron and a handful of the most loyal of the DA. Harry wasn't mad at all. Sophie had saved the others, and Harry was grateful for that. 

Their club was extinct, but the others had escaped. When Umbridge took him into her office, he realized that Marietta had snitched, and gotten a series of purple pustules on her face that read TRAITOR. 

Luckily, Hermione had taken the list of people, so Sophie, Hermione, Ginny and the rest were safe, as long as nobody else snitched.

But then, it went sour.

Dumbledore had left. Been replaced by Umbridge. Despite Harry's fighting, she had won. Sophie came up to him in the hallway, standing far enough that it looked like she hated them now. 

However, her voice floated through Harry's ears, breaking the funk he had been in for the past few weeks fueled by Umbridge's disdain at Harry's desire to be an Auror and her stupid detentions.

Keep your chin up. She only truly wins if you let her. This method of communication can't be traced. If I have any plans that are feasible, I'll pass them on to you. Otherwise, I'm only going to talk to you in the common rooms. 

I'm not a member of the Inquisitorial Squad, but I don't want to lose the advantage we have over her.

Then, Hermione's voice floated through Harry's head, followed by Sophie's reply. How is this working?

It's telepathy. I'm basically passing the thoughts between you, Ron and Harry. I need to go now.

Harry was surprised by that new bit of information. What else did he not know about Sophie?

Keefe

Keefe walked through the halls of Foxfire. Usually, he would be laughing and planning pranks, but everywhere he looked he was reminded of Sophie. He thought about her so much. 

Suddenly, her voice floated through his head, and he almost thought he had imagined it. Except, it couldn't have been imagined.

Happy Birthday, Keefe. I'm sorry I can't be there now. I'm fine, but I won't be coming back quite yet. Tell Grady and Edaline I miss them for me, OK?

Keefe vaguely remembered mentioning his birthday once, and even though he knew Sophie had a photographic memory, he was still touched she had remembered. The presence was gone as soon as it came. 

Keefe continued, but his stride was broken now. Instead of going to the cafeteria, he veered off into the principal's office. Headmaster Leto looked surprised to see Keefe. "Are you in trouble, Mr. Sencen?"

"No." Keefe breathed. "Sophie contacted me."

Headmaster Leto called Grady and Edaline, telling Keefe to tell them what happened. Eventually, he was let out with the instructions to keep it a secret. Not even the Council would know about it. 

Keefe didn't care about one more secret. Foster had reached out to him, and that caused a little ember of joy to burn in Keefe's heart.

She didn't blame him for the attack, or his mom's mistakes. And, Sophie herself expected to come back. Not quite yet, but eventually. That was enough to put Keefe in a good mood.

A lil' bit of fluff for y'all :D