Innocence

Chapter Twenty Six

Sophia woke later than she would've liked on the first day of Christmas break, meaning that she had to have a very hurried breakfast. Just as she was hurrying from her table, intent to make sure that she had packed everything she needed, someone called her back.

Turning, she saw that it was Professor Ward, her head of house. She was worried for a second, but saw that she wasn't angry. She walked back over to where the woman was waiting for her.

"Yes, Professor?"

"May I please have your wand, Miss Graves?"

Sophia blanched. "Excuse me?" She asked, concerned.

Professor Ward tutted. "Come now, Sophia. I would expect that type of reaction from a student who has come from a non-magical household, certainly not someone with two magical parents and an older brother at the school."

Sophia stared at her in confusion until finally something clicked in her mind. "We have to keep our wands at school over the holidays." She said at last. "We aren't allowed to take them home."

"No. You most certainly are not." Professor Ward said, a hint of amusement in her voice. "So may I please have yours?"

"Ah but Professor please may I have it just for a bit longer? I was hoping to use it to pack my bags you see, it would be a good opportunity to practice that kind of thing."

"And why on Earth did you not pack pack your bags last night?"

"I was... Busy staying up revising." Sophia continued as she saw the woman's disbelieving face. "It's never to early to start revising, Professor."

Professor Ward sighed. "Fine. You can have it to pack your bags. But I will be telling Jasper to take it off of you before you go. It's very important that you ensure it doesn't go home with you. Is that understood, Miss Graves?"

"Yes, Professor." Sophia said, turning and walking away briskly before the other woman had the opportunity to change her mind.

Back up in the common room, David was already sat by the fire. Walking over to him, Sophia saw that he was burning more posters.

"How many this time?" She asked softly, although the boy still jumped at the sound of her voice.

He grumbled. "Three. And you really must announce that it's you next time. I thought for a second that I would have to explain what I was doing to some random third year or something."

"Sorry." Sophia smiled softly. "At least we won't have to deal with any of this for the next couple of weeks." She said, motioning to the pile of burning parchment.

She stayed with him until the posters were unrecognisable, before walking down to her dorm.

She felt bad for lying to her head of house, although not entirely. While Sophia had already packed last night, she did plan on just checking that everything was where it should be, and to do that, it would be much quicker and easier with magic.

After a flick of her wand she confirmed that nothing was about to be left behind. She put her wand back in her pocket, deciding that Jasper would come to her when he needed it back.

She decided to spend the rest of time before the parents showed up hanging out with David.

At the top of the stairs leading from the dormitories to the common room, however, she locked eyes with Jasper on the other side of the room. She began reaching for her wand in her inside pocket, but froze when she saw the slightest shake of the pukwudgie's head. Confused, she stood still for a couple of seconds trying to understand what had just happened, before going to sit with David again.

Only twenty minutes had passed before it was announced that parents had begun arriving and there was a mad scramble for everyone to grab their bags and exit the common room.

David and Sophia were two of the last to leave, and steadily made their way out of the school, the crowds becoming bigger and moving slower whenever another House of students joined the path. By the time the two of them got outside, many families had already left, making it slightly easier to see Percival's stern figure near the back. Walking closer, Sophia was glad to see that her parents were stood with both the Scamanders and the Kowalskis. Adam and Daniel were already stood waiting with them. Beckoning David over to her, the two of them set off at an unsteady run, finding it somewhat harder to drag their heavy bags behind them.

Before they got too far, however, David was bowled down by his brother, who had sprinted over to them and hurled his entire body weight at him. Sophia ignored this and ran straight into her Dad's arms.

"I can't believe we get to be together again for a full two weeks!" Credence said excitedly.

A bit of time passed as Sophia met Charles and said goodbye to David and Daniel. The parents talked among themselves as one of Newt's bowtruckles decided to make itself a home in Daniel's hair. Sophia was about to walk over and join the conversation that Adam and David were having before she caught a glimpse of Jasper walking hurriedly out of the main entrance to the school.

He soon caught sight of the group, and looked relieved to see them. An awkward silence fell amongst the group as he was moving straight towards Sophia.

"What's Jasper doing?" Percival asked, slightly confused. "It's very rare to see him outside of the common room."

"I think he's here for me." Sophia said softly.

"Well in that case, I think we should go now." Jacob said, plucking the bowtruckle out of his son's hair and giving it back to Newt. There was a mutter of agreement, closely followed by promises to meet up over Christmas.

The Scamanders flew away on some kind of invisible creature, which was in no doubt an idea of Newt's, while the Kowalskis apparated away, with Daniel clinging onto one of his mother's arms and his dad clinging to the other.

"Good morning, Jasper!" Percival called, walking forward to meet the pukwudgie.

"Good morning, Mr Graves." Jasper said as he shook the other's hand. "I am only here to take Sophia's wand off of her."

Credence frowned. "Sophia? You almost left without giving your wand back?"

Sophia, confused, glanced at Jasper, who winked at her subtly.

"Err.. yes?" She replied. "I'm sorry." She reached into the inside of her robes to retrieve her gold and blue wand, handing it to Jasper as her Dad grumbled in the background about how unorganised she was and how lucky they were that Jasper had managed to catch them in time.

"Thank you, Jasper." Percival smiled before turning to the rest of his family. "Come on now, Credence. Children. I think it's time that we should be getting home."

- - - - - - - - - -

I thought, seeing as the last chapter was published a day late, I should publish this one a day early!

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and had a good new year!

Feel free to vote, comment and follow me if you want to, I would much appreciate it :)