Innocence

Chapter Four

Sophia and Adam spent the rest of their time waiting idly lying on the grass, watching the clouds in the sky and talking about the year ahead.

"What house do you think you're going to be in?" Adam asked.

Sophia wrinkled her nose and thought for a moment. "I doubt I'm going to be in Horned Serpent, I'm afraid." She said. "Sorry to disappoint you.'

Adam chuckled. "It's alright. In all honesty, I was pretty shocked myself when the Serpent's crystal lit up."

Sophia blinked. She knew about the sorting ceremony, of course, after having spent so much time asking her brother and father about it (she even knew a lot about how Ilvermorny's sorting process differed from the talking hat method that Hogwarts used in Britain, thanks to her time talking to her dad).

The Serpent's crystal.

At Ilvermorny there are statues of the four house creatures, who come alive if you have been chosen to be in their house. The Horned Serpent's crystal glows, the Pukwudgie raises it's arrow, the Thunderbird flaps its wings and the Wampus roars. Of course, unlike at Hogwarts, you can be chosen for more than one house, in which case you can choose. It is, however, very rare to be chosen by all four houses.

"Why didn't you choose Wampus?" Sophia asked after a while, knowing the story of how last year both the Wampus and the Horned Serpent came to life when her brother stood before them.

There was a short pause as Adam thought about it. "I don't really know." He began. "I guess... I had never considered the possibility of ever being in my house, so that when it was offered to me, I guess I considered it a foolish thing to do to turn it down when it was being offered to me."

"Do you ever regret your decision?"

Another pause.

"No. I don't think anyone has ever regretted their decision for what house they are in. After all, the house did choose you first, so you do belong in there, one way or another." Adam paused again before adding, "Plus, after a while your house just sort of becomes you. It becomes part of your identity. Part of your personality."

Those words did less to comfort Sophia than they did to make her more nervous about how important her decision was.

- - - - -

A few minutes later people began arriving.

Sophia and Adam jumped up, brushing grass from their robes as they saw their parents approaching them.

"Good timing." Percival said, smiling at his children. "People arriving just as we finish talking to your headmaster."

"What did he want to talk to you about?" Sophia asked.

"Doesn't matter." Percival said. "It has nothing to do with you, don't worry."

"Now you two have fun this year," Credence cut in, "and write to us as soon as possible telling us what house you are in Sophia, we want to hear all about it."

Sophia smiled, thinking about the owl that her parents bought her so that she would be able to get into contact with them whenever she wanted.

It was a beautiful barn owl, who she had decided to call Mark.

"I will, I promise." She said, hugging both her parents. Adam did the same, and Credence and Percival were just about to leave when someone ran up to Credence and hugged him from behind.

Credence flailed a bit before turning around to see who it was.

"Tina?" He said, astonished.

The dark haired woman stood grinning up at him.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" She asked, as a man also came running up to the two of them. It was Tina's husband, Newt Scamander. He had a briefcase clutched in one hand, and ahold of a gloomy looking boy's hand with the other.

"Credence. Graves." He said in greeting, smiling as equally as his wife. Seeing the two of them stood there, looking as happy as they were, made Credence feel more love towards them than he would have thought possible.

It is also worthy to note that it was also quite amusing to see that two of the happiest looking people he knew were capable of having one of the most grumpy children Credence had ever seen in his life (which is saying something seeing as Credence used to give out food to the poor when the Second Salemers were still a thing).

Newt noticed Credence looking at his son and sprang into conversation. "I want you to meet my son. His name is David, and he's starting out at Ilvermorny this year."

Credence smiled at the boy. "So I've heard." He glanced up at Newt who seemed confused before realisation seemed to hit him.

"Ah yes, Jacob said he ran into Graves and your daughter the other day." He turned to his son. "See David? I told you you can be friends with her."

Credence turned to Sophia with raised eyebrows and laughed internally at the mortification that was written on her face. However, he mouthed the words "be polite" to her before introducing her.

"Newt, Tina, this is our daughter Sophia. I'm sure she would be pleased to get to know your son. In fact," he said, glancing at Adam, "why don't all three of our children go in to the school together?"

"Great idea!" Newt said.

There was an awkward goodbye between David and his parents, with him trying to make it as quick as possible and Newt and Tina trying to drag it out a bit, even attempting to hug him. The three children then ran off together, watched slightly sadly by the four parents.

Once they had gone from sight, Newt looked around, saying, "Jacob and Queenie should be around here somewhere." He turned back to Credence and Graves. "I think it's time that we all caught up with each other, don't you?"

Credence smiled and saw from the corner of his eye that Percival was also smiling.

"So." Newt said, clapping his hands together and rubbing them, a glint in his eye. "Tea?"

"Delighted."

- - - - - - - - - -

Another chapter done!

So I'm just gonna casually mention here about the fact that we will finally be finding out who the next doctor is today and I am freaking out about it.

In my opinion, the doctor shouldn't be a woman (but I won't get into that here).