Innocence

Chapter Twenty Four

Sophia opened her eyes, although instantly regretted it. Her head was pounding and it took her a few seconds to realise that she was in a bed in the hospital wing; a room that she had so far luckily managed to avoid.

Turning her head to the side she felt her heart plummet into her stomach as she saw that Blackrose was sat in a chair next to her.

He smiled coyly.

"Don't worry I'm not here to hurt you." He said. "But I will if you ever try getting in my way again. You will stay out of the way regarding the issue that your Father is looking into and you will certainly never contact him again about that sort of thing. If I ever find that you've been sending him letters containing anything to do with things that don't concern you then... Well let's put it this way... Your Father will be needing to buy you a new owl." The man stood to leave, but stopped fast in his tracks when Sophia spoke up for the first time.

"I could tell people what you've done. No one would want a Headmaster who abuses and threatens his students running a school."

"No, you're right." He said softly, turning his head back to face her. "Unfortunately for you, though, people may not want such a headmaster, but they've got one. Do you really think, that in all my years of holding this position, that you are the first student to get in my way? You're not. And yet, there have been no accusations against me. No one speaking out. Nothing. You would do good to consider why that is." And with that he left the room.

A few seconds after he left, David and Adam came bursting in through the doors.

"Sophia!" David cried. "Oh thank goodness you're alright, I was so worried when we saw you like that. What happened? Blackrose is saying you attacked him."

Sophia blinked and thought for a second. She couldn't possibly tell her friend what had really happened. Truth be told, she was terrified of Blackrose now. "He's saying that because it's true."

"What?!" David's voice rose by several octaves. "Why would you do that? When Adam and I left the room we just waited out in the hallway, planning on returning a little while later to make it seem as if we had done what Blackrose had told us to do. Adam kindly refused to dual me. But then after a little bit we heard you shouting and then we felt like we had to check what was going on once we heard crashing. When we burst into the room, we found you on the floor, unconscious, and Blackrose with his nose busted."

"I... Don't know what came over me." Sophia lied. "I was just mad about having to do the detention, I guess. I just saw red and punched him. I don't know enough magic to dual him properly."

"That's not like you." Adam said softly.

Sophia could barely look at her brother. But when she did, she felt confused. She was expecting him to look angry or disappointed, but instead he looked concerned.

"Would you mind leaving us alone for a second?" Adam asked, turning to David. "I want a word with my little sister. Alone."

David nodded and quickly shuffled from the room,with Adam watching him go. Once he was out of sight, Adam turned back to Sophia.

"I'm gonna have to be careful about the way that I say this." He began, before stopping to think for a second. "I know you. I know that you're not a violent person. I have also been at this school longer than you. I know how things work better than you do. You have to understand that Blackrose looks better in this. He was attacked and acted in self defence but still had the heart to let you stay at the school. That will be the story that you will have to live up to." He leaned in close and whispered. "No matter how many... Inaccuracies there may be in that story, you have to live as though that is the absolute truth. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Sophia looked deeply into her brother's eyes and was alarmed to see almost desperation and panic in them. It made her feel slightly better though that at least one person appeared to understand her situation, although not know all of the details.

She nodded. "I understand."

"Good."

- - - - -

Sophia spent the rest of the day trying to get over the thumping in her head. The following day, she was allowed back into school routine, with her bandages removed and spare pain medication tucked away inside her robe pocket.

Walking between lessons with David at her side proved to be difficult. She kept noticing other students giving her looks as if she were disgusting. It was a very large and unwanted contrast compared to what it had been like at the start of the year. While she had hated it then, Sophia would've given anything to have people stare at her in awe for being David's friend.

David was trying to take her mind off of it, and distract her from the people around them, which she was grateful for. But even he couldn't protect her from the way that the teachers were acting.

They would loudly exclaim to the class whenever she made a mistake, and whenever she put up her hand to either ask or answer a question, they pretended that she didn't exist. By potions, which was just after lunch, she had given up and resolved to just keep her head down and do her work, attracting as little attention as possible.

She was miserable, and hoped that once Blackrose's nose healed people would forget about it and move on. Or, in the very least, she hoped that people would have forgotten it by the time they returned from Christmas break, which was still about five weeks away.

She hated to admit it, but it seemed as though Professor Blackrose had beaten her. Why he had wanted to in the first place, however, still remained a mystery.

- - - - - - - - - -

Another chapter done. It's been a busy week. Felt like a year. My niece was born on Saturday and oh boy is she difficult to live with 😂. Though she is fairly cute. If there are any grammatical errors in this one it will be because I've barely slept all week.