Innocence

Chapter Thirty One

"So do you think she'll say anything to your Father?" David asked Sophia as they walked to dinner that evening.

"I'm not sure, but at the same time I'm not willing to try and push it any further." Sophia said. "All we can do is hope that she does something about it."

David was silent for a moment before speaking uncertainly. "I still don't see why you can't do anything about it."

"David please we've been over this a hundred times before. I understand that it's frustrating, but I'm begging you to let it go. It's not safe for me to act on this."

"Well then why don't I-"

Sophia cut him off instantly. "No. You can't do anything about it either. I won't risk it. If it's too dangerous for me, then it's too dangerous for you. I'm sorry David, but I don't want you getting hurt either."

David sighed. "Alright then." He said begrudgingly.

- - - - -

Over the following few weeks, Sophia kept a close eye on Professor Thrain. The woman's attitude towards her marking didn't seem to improve, and Sophia risked to stay behind after class and talk to her about it as often as she dared, which only translated to about once every one or two weeks.

Within the course of a few weeks, Professor Thrain seemed close to tears as she explained the latest development in the situation to Sophia.

"I'm now getting it from all of the year groups." She explained. "I'm lucky if I manage to get a set of work that doesn't at least have one piece of insulting writing."

"Can't you punish them? Threaten them with detention if they write about that kind of thing again."

"It's not quite as simple as that, Sophia. They can just easily pass it off as expressing an opinion on the topic. Everything they've written is backed up with evidence. They've written proper essays on the topics I supply, but they've twisted it into something sinister."

Sophia thought for a bit. "But surely this kind of thing helps in a way? It must have been one of those people who were behind what happened at Halloween."

"Or maybe they're behind the posters."

Sophia said nothing, wondering if she'd finally got through to her teacher, but then her heart plummeted as Professor Thrain sighed and shook her head.

"Though I'm not so sure. After all, there are so many people doing it now that I think it's almost become fashionable. And besides... Some of the kids who are doing this..." She tailed off.

"What about them?" Sophia asked, encouraging her.

"Let's just say that some of them who have been handing me this work are the sort of kids you would have never expected this from."

The woman refused to meet Sophia's eye for the rest of the conversation.

- - - - -

Valentine's Day was the day that Sophia finally broke down a little and decided to take a bit of a risk. She waited until after the quidditch match between the Horned Serpents and Pukwudgies and snuck into the changing rooms rather than heading back to the castle with everyone else.

"Adam!" She called softly, not wanting to grab anyone else's attention. "Adam!"

Adam's head popped out from around a corner, his wide grin vanishing when he saw who it was. Turning his head quickly to check he wasn't being watched, Adam quickly jogged over to where Sophia was standing, pulling her into the shadows behind a discrete corner.

"What are you doing here?" He hissed. "If anyone else sees you..."

"Adam I really need to talk to you. I think something is going on. Something that Father needs to know about."

"Yes well, whatever it is, he's going to have to find out by himself, isn't he? You know what we all agreed to."

"But more people are getting involved. People who you'd never expect."

"And who's that then?" Adam looked genuinely concerned for a second.

Sophia blanched. "Well... I mean... I'm not entirely sure yet but apparently it's people from all years now. The popularity of the anti No-Maj movement must have started spreading in order for it to involve that many people. Professor Thrain has been telling me about all of these nasty things that people have been writing-"

"And do you know specifically what they've been writing? What are these nasty things?"

"Well I don't know, she hasn't told me. But-"

"So what you're telling me is that you have no idea what people you don't know are writing?" Adam scoffed. "Sophia, listen to yourself. You're getting too involved in all of this. No wonder Professor Blackrose saw you as an issue."

Sophia was taken aback. "What do you mean by that?"

"Look. All I mean is, if you just learn to forget about all of that stuff going on, and just focus on living your life and having a good year at school, you might find that life can be enjoyable. Stop digging." Adam sighed. "I need to go, Sophia. The rest of the team will be wondering where I am and I've got a celebratory party to go to."

Sophia said nothing as she stormed away, anger flaring up inside of her.

"You know for a second there I thought that you might have come to see me to congratulate us for winning the game." Adam's voice called from behind her.

Back in her dormitory, Sophia felt terrible. She was still incredibly angry, but she was confused as to whether she was angry at Adam as she had first suspected, or actually angry with herself.

- - - - -

Sophia decided to take Adam's advice and see what happened. She stopped speaking to Professor Thrain after class and even stopped collecting posters to destroy. Whenever David questioned her about this, she merely changed the subject or brushed it aside, explaining it away with various forms of half baked excuses.

By the time March rolled around, Sophia was beginning to agree with her brother. She felt less stressed than she had in a long time,and found that she noticed less issues when she wasn't looking for them. She had faith that her Father would be able to deal with it by himself.

This pleasant situation managed to maintain itself until one Wednesday when Sophia found herself being asked to stay behind after class by Professor Thrain.

"I just wanted to apologise to you for not taking your advice and telling your Father what has been going on." She said, looking a bit stricken. "Because now I am afraid that if I had done so before, I wouldn't need to do so now, and I fear that you may hate me for it."

Sophia blinked. "I'm sorry Professor, but what are you talking about? If you're happy to speak to my Father about what has been happening then I have no issue with that."

"It's not just that, Sophia. I've been getting less of those anti No-Maj essays when I collect in the homework-"

"Well that's good, isn't it?"

"I've been getting less because some people have stopped coming to my lessons entirely."

Sophia thought for a long moment. "And why would that make me hate you?"

"Sophia... One of the students doing all of this is your brother."

- - - - - - - - - -

Wow I really did nearly forget to publish this chapter. I keep forgetting now that I have a job. However, I really enjoyed writing and reading over this one.

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