Sophia Brandt and the Brooch of Isolt Sayre

Arrival of the Aurors

Sophia was in the middle of potions class when the aurors arrived.

Her head was resting on one of her hands and she'd nearly fallen asleep when a flash of movement outside caught her attention. The potions classroom looked out onto one of Ilvermorny's grassy courtyards and the long stone hallways running alongside it. A group of adults walked by the window, quickly enough that no one else in her class saw them.

They wore long coats and carried briefcases, which meant two things--they didn't belong at Ilvermorny, and they meant business.

Sophia's stomach began to churn, but she wasn't sure why.

Her next class was charms, and she hurried over there to meet Rosie inside. Her friend wasn't there yet when she arrived so she sat there anxiously awaiting her for a few minutes. When Rosie finally arrived, her dark brown eyes were unusually wary.

"Have you seen the MACUSA aurors?" Rosie asked her immediately, before putting her backpack down and sitting in her desk. "They're all over campus."

"That's who they are? I saw them walking outside my class."

Rosie nodded. Then, her conspiratorial tone turned more serious. "I think they're here to investigate the missing brooch. That's what everyone's been saying."

Sophia's eyes widened.

"Your mom finally decided to do something about the brooch, then. That's good!"

"Not good." Rosie looked expectantly at Sophia, but she didn't understand what that meant. She quickly clarified. "This means we can't keep investigating."

"We aren't doing anything that will get in their way," Sophia said, somewhat defensively. "I don't see why we shouldn't keep up our own investigation."

"But they're aurors. It's their job to investigate stuff like this--if anyone's going to find the brooch, it's them."

Sophia shook her head stubbornly at her best friend. "That's where you're wrong. They're adults-- and if we're right about a student taking the brooch, then they're never going to figure out who took it. They don't think like us."

Their charms professor suddenly walked into the classroom in a hurry, stacking her books onto the desk and shuffling through a stack of papers for her notes. Rosie gave Sophia a look, and she knew exactly what it meant--they'd talk about the aurors later.

Sophia sat down with a huff next to Callum at their designated lunch table. She'd just spent all of potions class thinking about the aurors. Rosie was obviously worried about what their arrival meant, but all she could feel was a sense of...excitement?

Although her parents had both been renowned zoologists, Sophia had always been drawn to the lifestyle of an auror. She was good in her defense against the dark arts classes and loved potions. And besides—she'd helped stop a lunatic professor who was trying to resurrect the fountain of youth last year. That definitely couldn't hurt if she decided she wanted to become an auror.

"This is bad, right?" Rosie asked Callum and Noah, hoping someone would agree with her. "If the aurors find out we've been trying to investigate the missing brooch, then we'll be in trouble. And even worse: they'd have to tell my mom."

Callum looked skeptical. "We haven't really found anything, Rosie."

Sophia had to agree with him. In the few weeks since the brooch's disappearance, their student theory was all they'd come up with. It was a good theory, but it wasn't something that the aurors couldn't figure out themselves.

"But I know the two of you!" She protested. "You always stick your noses where they don't belong."

"It's true," Sophia replied sheepishly, a slight smile tugging at her lips.

Callum rolled his mischievous blue eyes. "You never let us have any fun."

"Nothing about the aurors is fun," Noah said, more seriously. "They're raiding our dormitories today, starting with the first years."

Sophia knew what that meant--the aurors had figured out already that the thief was likely a student. Although...they probably hadn't gotten much further than that, if they were going through all the student dormitories at Ilvermorny. 

Her smile soured, and then her face grew pale as she suddenly remembered the wand she'd stuffed in her pillowcase.

It wasn't against school rules to have two wands, surely, but she couldn't imagine explaining why she had a second wand hidden beneath her pillow. Oh, it's just my mom's wand. She went missing years ago and hasn't come back for it yet, so I'm keeping it safe.

That would be a fun story to explain to the aurors.

She looked up and saw that Noah was staring at her, a curious look in his eyes. He did that a lot. She wondered if he knew something that he wasn't letting on yet. 

"Well, there's no point then, is there?" Callum asked dejectedly. "They're going to figure it out on their own." 

He looked at Sophia, waiting for an answer. "We'll see," she replied coyly. 

But she wasn't really worried about their investigation anymore. 

She hurried back to the second years girls dormitory soon after her last class. Sophia had heard rumors that the aurors had already searched all the second year dormitories, but had stopped for the day--almost as if they'd found something. 

Her hand trembled as she opened the door to her dormitory, but she mustered her strength and pushed it open slowly. Everything looked the same as it had in the morning, but she could tell that there was something off about the space. The aurors had searched it. 

There was no one else in the dormitory, so she quickly made her way over to her bed and reached under the pillow. To her relief, her mother's wand was still there--tucked into the bottom of her pillowcase. 

She pulled it out to admire it for a moment, and a wave of emotion hit her. She'd tried so hard to put off worrying about her mom and dad while she was at Ilvermorny. They could be coming back any day, she'd reasoned. 

But it had been so long...

Sophia tucked the wand back into its spot and sat down on her bed for a moment to collect her thoughts. A little while later, she headed down to the common room to find Callum and do their homework together. 

That night, Sophia couldn't wait to fall asleep. It had been a long day and now that she was sure they hadn't found her mother's wand, she could focus on what would become of their investigation. 

She tucked herself into bed and closed her eyes to think. 

"He finally asked me to be his girlfriend!" 

Sophia's eyes opened at the sound of her archenemy, Maeve Braithmore. She'd entered their dormitory with her friend and had some news that, apparently, she hoped everyone would hear. 

"How did he ask?" Her friend persisted. 

"Who's your boyfriend?" Another girl asked. The lights in the dormitory flickered back on now that everyone was awake to listen to the gossip. 

"His name is Eustace Gaunt, but you probably wouldn't know him," Maeve said proudly. "He's a third year." 

Her friend shook with jealousy. "Did you kiss him?" 

Maeve's head whipped around. "No!"

There was a round of giggles, and Maeve's cheeks reddened. "We held hands and sat together on the bench outside. He's such a great listener, Heather. Someday, maybe even you'll have a boyfriend that you can talk to."

Sophia rolled her eyes, and threw her head to the other side of her pillow. Maeve continued to tell her friend--and anyone else who would listen--about Eustace, but Sophia really didn't want to hear any more. She remembered the itching powder she'd put in Maeve's shampoo last year, and that finally brought a smile to her face and helped her fall asleep.