Innocence

Chapter Seven

Adam led Sophia down winding passageways before finally coming to a long full length mirror on the wall.

"Just walk through it and then you'll see a ladder. Climb up it to get to your common room." He said, already beginning to walk away.

Sophia was startled for a second.

"Why don't you come into the common room with me? I can introduce you to David again if you like." She asked pleadingly, not wanting to be alone in this strange place for even a second, and not wanting to to be left by her only true friend for who knows how long.

Adam's eyes widened and glittered at her words and Sophia became calmer again. Maybe she had managed to convince him to stick with her. Maybe he, too, liked the idea of not being separated from her again. But the look was gone almost as quickly as it had come. Adam shook his head.

"Sorry Sophia, but only a Wampus can pass through the mirror. You'll be fine, I promise." And with that he turned once more and walked away, but this time Sophia didn't try and stop him.

Taking a deep breath, Sophia resigned herself to her situation and stepped through the glass. It felt like walking under a tiny waterfall, and she touched her hand to her head, half expecting her hair to have been soaked. Her fingertips came away dry.

Sure enough, there was the ladder that Adam had been talking about. She leaned backwards, gazing up and failing to see the top as it just carried on up for so long it became lost in darkness.

"Brilliant." Sophia muttered to herself. "Climbing up a very long ladder in total darkness."

She climbed the ladder as quickly as she could, willing herself not to look down. Upon reaching the top a bit quicker than she had expected, she reached a closed door. She pushed on it, but it wouldn't budge. She then tried looking around for a handle, but saw that there wasn't one. Panicking slightly, she knocked on the wood.

She'd only knocked on the wood twice with her knuckles and was about to again before the door was suddenly yanked forward and a creature was stood gazing down at her.

"Oh." She said, blinking in surprise. She was confused. This was a pukwudgie, similar to but not the same as the one Adam had shown her earlier in the day. Although knowing what Adam had said about this common room, she was suddenly worried if somehow he had been wrong and accidently taken her to the Pukwudgie's common room instead of her own. After all, she thought to herself, he was a Horned Serpent, how much did he know about her house to begin with?

"I'm sorry." She continued, looking up into the wrinkled face. "Am I in the right place?"

It blinked back at her with beady little eyes and panic once again surfaced as she wondered whether pukwudgies could talk, or even understand, English.

"My dear, you are in the right place if you are looking for your common room." And then he reached out a paw to helped her up off of the ladder.

Gratefully taking the help she thanked the pukwudgie and was finally able to see what her home away from home for the next seven years would be. She was stood in a huge circular room, where around the walls house paraphernalia was hung, including a huge tapestry of the house crest hanging beneath a stained glass circular window on the opposite side to the entrance. In the centre of the room the floor fell away to nothingness, with a pair of staircases leading down to what Sophia could only assume were the dormitories. An assortment of comfy sofas and chair were dotted around the rest of the room, with two fireplaces at the most left and right points of the space which were at that point cold and unlit.

She was thankful that no one appeared to have noticed her absence or late arrival, that is until she locked eyes with the steely gaze of someone sat a few feet away from her and everyone else.

David.

'Well.' She thought. 'This is as good a time as any to talk to him as Adam wanted me to do.'

Walking over to him, she was the first to speak.

"Appears you never seem to drop that scowl of yours. Is it a fashion statement?"

"Appears you think it's fashionable-" he spat out the word, "-to be late and go wondering off by yourself."

"I wasn't by myself." Sophia said, offended on Adam's behalf. "I was with my brother."

"Good for you."

Sophia stayed silent for a moment and realised that she was getting better at looking past the hatred in this boy's eyes and seeing hurt, and looking past the scowl towards tension and worry. She sat down in the chair next to his and raised an eyebrow at him as his expression turned even more sour. "What? Do you want me to move?"

A second past and David sniffed before muttering an incoherent "No" under his breath. Sophia beamed at him.

"Good!"

They sat in a comfortable silence for a few more seconds during which Sophia took another look around the common room, focusing on the people in it this time. She noticed that a lot of people were looking in their direction.

Some were casting curious looks at them. Some were scowling back at David, though their expressions were nowhere near as professional as his. And some, Sophia realised with shock, were glaring at her with a look of jealousy written all over their faces.

David appeared to notice Sophia noticing everyone else, so she learnt closer to him, not wanting the people nearby to hear what she was saying. She lowered her voice, just in case.

"Why is everyone looking at us like that?"

David sighed and rolled his eyes, frown deepening. "A lot of people have been trying to come up to me and figure me out. They want to know why I'm apparently so special and why I chose this house over the others. I told them very firmly to leave me alone. They're jealous because I've allowed you to stay with me."

Sophia felt a tiny bit special at that, and wondered if Adam would be proud that not only had she managed to get a bit close to David (she guessed she couldn't yet call him a friend, and doubted he would appreciate being called that at all), but that she was the only one who was able to do so.

"You were rude to them?" She asked.

"They were rude to me." He put simply, but then decided to elaborate. "They needed putting in their place."

- - - - - - - - - -

Another chapter done. It's a shame that only a couple people read these because I'm finding that my writing has gotten quite a bit better than it was two years ago. For example, I'm currently writing a draft for chapter 15 and it is nowhere near done, which means that I've finally managed to write something long enough to be considered acceptable.

I know that OC stories can be annoying, but I hope that one day people can look past that and find a good story in here. I've been planning it out and in all honesty I think what I've got planned for this is far more coherent and well put together than my other three stories.

Chapters published every Friday.