Innocence

Chapter Twenty Two

Walking away from his daughter, Percival felt conflicted. He was happy that he had managed to get the true story of the night's events from Sophia, although it seemed that not only was the issue expanding, but the person who had employed him in the first place for the job was starting to get in his way.

"Wait!" He heard a voice call from behind him.

He turned on the spot and saw Sophia chasing to catch up with him.

"What is it?" He asked, worried.

"Oh, it's nothing important..." Sophia trailed off, suddenly feeling very self conscious and a little bit silly. "I just need to talk to you about something. I need your advice."

Percival smiled. "What's the matter?"

Sophia took a deep breath. "David and I haven't actually been talking for quite a while. We only started talking again today, actually."

"How long is a while?"

"Two or three weeks maybe."

Percival blinked, confused. "That's not like you though, Sophia. Why?"

"It's a bit complicated but we basically had a misunderstanding. Because I don't like his cousin and he does. Obviously. The only issue is... I don't know why I don't like him. I've just always had a bad feeling about him since we first saw him at Fabian's Fabrics. I had the same issue with David, but I managed to get over it so quickly. I'm just really confused."

Percival chuckled slightly, and Sophia glared at him.

"What?" She asked.

"Your issue is that you're too much like me." He continued to explain once he saw that Sophia was only looking at him with perplexion written across her face. "You take after me. A lot, actually. And because of that, sometimes you mimic things that I do without meaning to. So, for example, you saw how I was a standoffish with Daniel's Father that day, and so you picked up on that and instantly had a dislike towards Daniel himself. And it's stuck because you haven't seen how close I've gotten with Jacob since then. However, when you first met David, we were with your Dad as well, who did the talking. So you picked up on that instead, and were able to make a really good friend. Forget about me, Sophia, and get to know Daniel for yourself."

Sophia thought about this for a short while, before eventually nodding. "I think you're right." She whispered, before giving her Father a hug.

"I'll see you soon." And with that, the man turned and walked away again, back the way he had come from.

- - - - -

Upon arriving at the door to the headmaster's office, Percival merely barged straight in, not bothering to knock. Blackrose seemed startled out of his wits by the sudden intrusion, sending papers flying as he almost tipped off the back of his chair.

"Do you know what's strange, Professor?" Percival asked as he reached over to grab a handful of Floo powder as he passed the desk, his voice bitter.

"No?" Blackrose asked, concern written across his face as Percival threw the handful into the flames and then went back for another handful.

"The fact that my daughter's owl managed to reach me before your supposed letter to me was even sent." And with that, Percival stepped into the flames, dropped the powder in his hands and was whisked off home on command.

- - - - -

The following day, Sophia felt as if she had a spring in her step as she walked through the common room to leave for breakfast. She was a bit earlier than usual due to being quite hungry after not having had dinner the night before.

However, she felt a bit taken aback as Jasper pulled her to the side for a second. She looked at him worriedly.

"Miss Graves, I would like it to be known that what you did last night was the right thing to do, however you must be more careful." He said quietly.

Sophia furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"I can't explain, but I'm sure that you'll be able to figure it out for yourself by the end of the day."

"Okay..." Sophia was starting to feel really uneasy.

"I'm just telling you this because I care about you." Jasper said, though he continued more firmly. "No one can know that I've told you this or that I hold those opinions on the subject of last night. Promise me you will tell no one else, not even Mr Scamander."

"Of course, Jasper. The last thing I would ever want to do is get you in trouble."

Jasper smiled softly at the girl stood in front of him.

"You're a good person, Sophia. Remember that."

And so Sophia left for breakfast, feeling slightly wary and wondering what Jasper's words could've meant.

She soon found out though.

As she was leaving the hall to go and get her books for the day's lessons, she was aware that Professor Blackrose left at the same time as she did. She had walked no further than about five feet from the room before she heard him call her name.

"Graves, I want a word." His voice was cold and calculated. Sophia turned to see anger pouring out and around the man like a curtain in the wind.

"Yes, sir?" She responded, trying to appear more innocent than she felt, although she had no idea what she could've done wrong to make the headmaster so angry.

"What time did you and Scamander go to bed last night?"

"I don't recall, sir."

"Oh don't you? Well I have reason to believe that the two of you only went back to your common room well after midnight. That is unacceptable behaviour."

Sophia started to panic for a second, but her mind flicked back to something Adam had told her over the summer holidays. Halloween was famous at Ilvermorny for it's late night parties. Although there is a curfew, teachers have always turned a blind eye to people going to bed late because of them.

"But sir... It was Halloween last night."

"You think I don't know that? That's no excuse for disregard of the rules. Both you and Mr Scamander will receive a detention for this. You would do good to make sure that something like that doesn't happen again."

Sophia wasn't certain, but she thought there might have been a second meaning to all of his words.

- - - - - - - - - -

Pew pew another chapter done. Although no one has actually read the last two chapters I put out so whoops whatever. Have fun if you happen to ever read this in the future.