Innocence

Chapter Forty

"I don't understand what we're doing." Sophia said, hurrying to catch up with Daniel and David as the three of them began walking in the opposite direction away from the quidditch pitch and deeper into the school.

"I'm sorry, it's hard to remember everything that I need to explain." Daniel said. "I've been working with Adam for a short while now, collecting evidence that points to John."

"John?" Sophia asked in disbelief. "But Adam always goes on about how John is too stupid to be able to pull something like this off."

Daniel shook his head. "Well he must have changed his mind since then because we've managed to find a lot. Now we don't have much time to sort all of this out, so please only ask vital questions."

"But-" Sophia began again, and Daniel stopped abruptly in the middle of the hallway and turned to face her.

"Sophia, please." He begged. "Adam and I know what we are doing. You have to understand, if we don't manage to do this right, then we probably won't get another chance like this again. Your Father won't solve his case and my Father won't allow me to come back to school next year."

Sophia took a minute to think about everything that her relatively new friend had said, her mind racing. She was confused beyond belief and had hundreds of questions, but knew that while she found it hard to trust what Daniel was saying, many people that she cared about might get hurt if the situation that had been going on at Ilvermorny all year wasn't sorted out soon. She thought about her parents and the stress that they had been in, especially her Father. She thought about the divide that had been caused between her brother and the rest of their family. She thought about Daniel, lying on the grass that terrible morning, covered in blood and broken all because of what she had said and done. Because of what John had done. She decided that if the boy stood in front of her was giving them all a way out of the hole they had found themselves in, she was going to take it.

"Alright." She said at last. "Tell me what you need me to do, and I will do it."

Daniel smiled in relief and looked towards his cousin, who nodded once firmly in agreement.

"Thank you." Daniel breathed, looking as though a whole burden had been lifted off of his shoulders. But worry soon crept back over his features again as he started thinking over the plan that he and Adam had come up with. "I need the two of you to get your Father, Sophia, and Tina. I am going to go to the Horned Serpent common room, take everything that Adam and I have found and hide them around John's belongings in his dormitory. Then I will get out of there, hopefully before you finish your part. While I am doing that, I need you to take Percival and Tina, and convince them to search the place after I am gone. You will have difficulty getting in, but you will have to find a way around that. It may also be difficult to convince them to do this, but you've got to be persistent. Hopefully though, because he is your Father, it will be easier for you to do it, Sophia, than say David by himself. When they search the place, they will then be able to find the stuff that I will have hidden, and be able to use it as evidence against John."

"And then this will all be over." Sophia said softly.

"Exactly. So do you remember the whole plan?" Daniel checked.

"I think so." Sophia said. "Come on David."

"Wait, we don't even know how to get to the common room." David pointed out.

"Oh yeah, whoops." Sophia said. "I guess I'm so excited I jumped ahead a little bit.

Daniel rolled his eyes jokingly before turning and leading the way again.

- - - - -

Sophia took a deep breath before knocking on her parents' door. There was no reply. The two children looked at each other in confusion before a sound came from behind them, and they turned to find Tina facing them, a look of confusion on her face as she closed her door behind her.

"Hello, Mother." David said stiffly.

"David... What are you doing here?" Tina asked, reaching out a hand to tuck a stray piece of hair behind David's ear.

David flinched away from the contact. "We came here to speak to Mr Graves. It's very important."

Tina glanced at Sophia. "Is this so?"

Sophia nodded firmly. "We think we have a good idea about who's behind everything, so we think that Father should probably do some investigating."

"Well I'm sure that he will be able to do it when he gets back." Tina said.

"But where is he?" Sophia asked hurriedly.

"He's at the quidditch match with Credence. They went down to support Adam."

Sophia and David looked at each other in horror.

"Sophia, what's the matter?" Tina asked, getting worried.

"You have to trust us when we say that it needs to be done now." Sophia said. "We have to go and get him right now and take him to the Horned Serpent common room."

Tina frowned. "I don't know, Sophia. This all seems a bit quick-"

Sophia sighed in frustration and turned to start hurrying off towards the quidditch pitch. Although this would take more time on their part, she hoped that this diversion would at least mean that Daniel would be able to sort out his part of the plan and be able to get out of there long before he could get a chance of being caught.

- - - - -

"Father please, you don't understand, you have to come with us right now!" Sophia hissed as she tugged on Percival's coat sleeve.

"Sophia! What is all of this about?" Percival asked, looking bewildered.

"I'm sorry, Percival. I tried to convince  her to wait until after the match to speak to you but she seemed determined." Tina sighed, having followed the two children out of the school.

"Sophia I can't come with you now, I want to watch your brother's team win the cup."

"Trust me when I say that Adam would rather you come with me than stay behind." Sophia said.

- - - - - - - - - -

We're into the last five chapters!

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