Innocence

Chapter Two

During the months after receiving her acceptance letter to Ilvermorny, life got both more exciting and enjoyable for Sophia. Going shopping for school supplies became such a common occurrence that it became a tradition: going back because "Oh how could we have forgotten that? It must be the most important thing that I need!"

On such occasion (the fifth trip back to the shops to be specific), Sophia and her father were waiting patiently inside of the shop 'Fabian's Fabrics' to buy her school robes, when they heard the tinkling of the door bell, announcing the arrival of more people entering the shop. They ignored it, Percival not caring to have to potentially get into a mundane conversation with one of his Aurors (although sure that Sophia would be all too pleased to talk to their potential son or daughter), when a voice that he had not been expecting called out to them.

"Graves! God, I forgot how old Sophia would be, now!"

Percival and Sophia quickly turned on the spot to stare, confused, at Jacob Kowalski stood in the doorway of the shop, arm in arm with his wife, Queenie.

There had been a time when Credence and Percival had been very close friends with the couple, along with Queenie's sister, Tina, and her husband, Newt Scamander. However, after the two of them had another run in with the dastardly Gellert Grindelwald, they decided that Credence would have to learn magic at last, and decided that it was best to do it far from America.

It turned out that spending seven years in another continent with minimal contact wore the friendship down so much so that they hadn't even been able to rebuild it again in the eleven years since they had moved back to New York.

Sophia stood by, watching intently, as Percival smiled pleasantly and decided to speak to his old friends once more. "Jacob? Queenie? What are you doing here?" He asked. Evidently confused as to why a No-Maj would be stood in a wizards' shop, even if he were with his witch wife.

"Well it turns out that young Daniel here has made the family proud and been born with magical blood!" He said, clapping a hand firmly onto the shoulder of the boy stood grinning in front of him. "Not that we're not proud of Simon for other reasons or anything." He ammended under Queenie's glare.

Percival wracked his brain quickly, searching for the information and memories needed to both understand what Jacob had just said and formulate a sufficient answer to it.

Simon, first born of Jacob and Queenie, had turned out to have no magical blood, taking after his father. Percival knew that they had three children, but seemed to recall that the third was a few years younger than Sophia, so wouldn't have received her Ilvermorny letter yet even if she did turn out to be a witch. That left their middle child (called Daniel, it seemed), who must have taken after his mother and was also, apparently, the same age as Sophia.

"Congratulations." Percival said, smiling. "I knew you would get a child into Ilvermorny."

Jacob chuckled. "Yeah, that's what I told Queenie, although she was doubtful. Did you know that Newt and Tina's boy is also starting this year?"

Percival frowned. "Charles? But I thought he was a few years younger-"

"No no, not Charles. David, their eldest.

"So we all have a child going to Ilvermorny for the first time this year?"

"It seems that way." Queenie beamed. "How wonderful it is that they will have each other there."

Percival glanced at Sophia from the corner of his eye and saw that she was frowning slightly, looking at Daniel. "Yes well, we'll see, won't we?"

Percival was thankful when a shop assistant came around the corner, announcing that he was ready to take measurements from Sophia. As they began to walk away from the others, he turned back around slightly as he heard Jacob call out after him.

"We should all catch up again some time, Graves. We've missed you and Credence."

Percival was just about to decline when he suddenly thought back to what it had been like all those years ago when they had been friends. "I'll have a word with Credence." Were his parting words.

- - - - -

Shortly more than an hour later Percival found himself walking into his house and collapsing into a chair next to Credence.

"Sophia, darling, why don't you go and put on your new school robes to show your dad?" He asked and waited until his daughter had run from the room, up the stairs and slammed the door to her bedroom behind her before turning to his husband. "I ran into Jacob and Queenie today." He stated bluntly. "Their son got into Ilvermorny."

Credence frowned slightly and put the book that he was reading down, but didn't say anything.

"And Newt and Tina's son too. Both of them in Sophia's year. How strange is it that all three are going at the same time?"

Credence sat and thought for a couple more seconds before replying. "I guess it isn't surprising at all when you think about it. We used to be so close to them, what happened?"

"Distance." Percival said sadly. "And time."

"We need to change that. They were there for us when we needed them most. They helped us with Grindelwald for God's sake. We went to each others weddings."

"Funnily enough, Jacob suggested that we should all meet up again at some point." Percival smiled.

"Then we must." Credence said firmly, just as the sound of running footsteps announced the arrival of Sophia, shortly followed by Adam.

She stood there, spinning on the spot, showing off her new robes.

She scrunched up her nose. "I'm not sure I like the colour scheme." She said. "Or the clasp."

"But those are important to the memory of Isolt and James, Sophia. The Gordian knot clasp and the blue represent Ireland, where Isolt is from and James loved cranberry pie." Adam stated.

Sophia stood there, blinking. "Who are Isolt and James?" She asked.

"For someone who has waited their entire life to go to Ilvermorny you have a lot to learn." Adam sighed, shaking his head.

- - - - - - - - - -

I'm not quite sure why I'm publishing this chapter on account of the fact that only two people have read the first one but here you go.