The song above has no relation to the story but it kinda describes anxiety and really resonates with me... not sure if that's bad or not but anyways that's the end of this A/N
Harry
Harry was rather surprised to learn why Draco was so mean to everyone. He relayed what he had learned to Ron and Hermione, who were just as surprised as he was, if not more.
Sophie really was perceptive. She had barely known Draco, and she understood him better than Harry had after four years of going to the same school. He had to start watching people more carefully. Anybody could be anyone. He had so many enemies that he probably needed to get a bit better at reading people.
Idly, he wondered if Sophie could teach him some tricks for recognizing enemies. Although to be honest, he wasn't sure whether her response would be sarcastic, silly or sincere. She was somehow always kind to everyone, even when they were annoying her, so he wouldn't know if his questions were bothering her.
She was even able to tolerate the constant Apparating and Disapparating of the Weasley twins without batting an eye.
The snack trolley rolled up outside the door and the kind old lady leaned into the doorway and asked, "Anything from the trolley?" Harry bought a few cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs, then the trolley moved on.
Sophie appeared in the doorway, wearing an emerald green skirt-tunic-half cape combo that made her look a bit like a wandering shrub. She walked over to her seat and plopped down, pulling a tupperware container from one of her bags. "Ugh. You're really lucky you get to wear black. I look like I just came from a planting."
Ron spoke exactly what was on Harry's mind. "What do you mean, a planting?"
Sophie also looked confused for a nanosecond, then she laughed. "It's a special tradition," she explained. "Our funerals are more about celebrating life, so we wear green, the color of life. They're called plantings because we plant a tree."
Harry thought that was a good tradition. It made sense to celebrate the great things people did in their lives. Harry found his mind wandering, wondering about the other traditions Sophie's home country had. She unclipped the lid of the container in her lap and pulled out a shiny pink square, holding the container out to Hermione.
"Here, have a ripplefluff. They're really good!" Hermione reached out and took one, biting into it with a noise of surprise.
"Careful! I probably should have mentioned that they're really oozy." Sophie said, stifling a laugh. Harry took one as well. He was almost at Hogwarts, one of the few places that truly felt like home. He had a group of his closest friends, and a new friend who was quickly becoming part of the group.
Harry now had Sophie's optimistic pessimism, and her way of always doing the right thing, sometimes completely by accident, like when she practically stumbled over the chest full of old cursed artifacts that Sirius had promptly gotten rid of when he saw them.
The sight of the familiar landscape through the window caused a smile to spread over Harry's face. He was going back to Hogwarts.
Keefe
Keefe was sketching Ro, who was leaning up against one of the shelves full of elixirs, picking at her nails in a bored fashion. He heard voices outside the door to the healing center. A few seconds later, Dex, Biana, Tam and Linh had swept into the healing center, with Elwin trailing after them.
Biana could barely contain her excitement as she leaned slightly towards Keefe. "We heard you figured out what your new ability was, but Elwin wouldn't tell us what it was!"
Keefe laughed slightly, and drew a quick sketch of a paper chain, then pulled it out of the sketchbook, pressing the opposite end of the chain back into the book. His friends watched in awe as the chain finally settled back as a sketch on the paper. Tam was the first one to snap out of it and begin asking snarky questions.
When his friends left that afternoon, he was feeling a bit better. Seeing the sketch of Sophie being held down by that dwarf he had made to help him remember the battle brought the horrible feelings back. He hated that she had been hurt. That she might be hurt right now. He had the vague starts of an idea... but he wasn't sure if it would work. He began to draw up a new plan. A plan that, if it worked, would help find Sophie.
Sophie
Sophie stepped out of the train, looking around the platform. It was a bit chilly, and Sophie was glad she was able to regulate her body temperature.
She heard Ron whispering to Harry, "How is she not cold?" but she ignored him, continuing to one of the carriages which was being pulled by a black, twisted version of a pegasus.
Hoping that they would help her, Sophie reached her mind out to the nearest one. Its mind was surprisingly kind, but tinged with the sadness of death.
"Girl... hear me?" the voice asked hesitantly.
Sophie replied mentally, "Yes, Auntie. I understand most animals." A rush of confusion flooded the creature's mind. "Auntie? You... thestralblood?"
Sophie smiled. "Not quite, Aunt Thestral." She sent an image of an alicorn to the beast, which shivered in appreciation. "Hello, Sophie. My name Aunt Tress."
The voice of the thestral sent a shiver down her spine. Sophie looked back at Harry, who was staring at Aunt Tress. He could see her. Looking back on what she had learned about thestrals from her new friend, that meant Harry had seen death, just like she had.
Harry called carefully to Hermione and her, "What's that pulling the carriages?!"
Hermione and Ron looked at him like he was crazy, and Hermione said carefully, "Harry... the carriages pull themselves. Are you ok?"
Sophie replied for him. "Harry's fine. Seeing a thestral for the first time is a bit of a surprise. They're harmless, but they get a bad reputation because unless you've seen death, they're invisible. I can see them too."
Harry looked relieved that he wasn't broken. Hermione climbed into the carriage after Sophie and began asking a million questions about thestrals.
Harry cut into Hermione's stream of questions and asked Sophie carefully, "You said that you can only see thestrals if you've seen death... Who... what happened?" he finished numbly.
Sophie thought of the few, but yet so many deaths. The many people she knew. The first death she had witnessed.
Its violence.
In a partially broken voice, she replied, "My mentor was the first to die in front of me. One of our high security prisoners had broken out and attacked him. His partners had set off an explosion, bringing the entire building down around us."
Sophie turned around in her seat and looked down at the scenery flashing by. Sticking a hand in one of her larger pockets, she put her hand on the circlet. She was supposed to wear it briefly when Dumbledore asked her to come up and speak to the crowd.
She began rehearsing her speech in her head, and how she would simultaneously impress the teachers and students, but not scare anyone or seem stuck up.
By the time she entered the Great Hall and looked up at the star-covered ceiling, she had her speech planned out. She took her seat at the Gryffindor table by Hermione and Ginny, Ron's younger sister, who smiled at her kindly.
Everybody in the Order of the Phoenix was so nice. They didn't tell Harry, Ron and Hermione anything really, but at least they weren't being cryptically vague or withholding anything important.
She sat through the sorting ceremony, intrigued by the hat with the ripped seam mouth. She wondered what it would think of her. What house she would be in if she had been a normal Hogwarts student.
Dumbledore stood up at the podium and prepared to talk. In a loud voice he introduced the newest Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher... Dolores Umbridge. Harry went pale at the sight of the woman who looked rather like a pink toad.
"She's... from the Ministry," Harry mumbled. Sophie mentally cringed. If the ministry was sending this vain, petty pink toad who kept interrupting Dumbledore to make sickly speeches that were obviously fake, she knew they were going to try to interfere with Hogwarts. Making her job harder.
She dragged her attention back to Dumbledore, who said in a loud voice that could be heard clear across the hall, "And now, one last thing before we all eat. I'd like to welcome our new exchange student from Foxfire Academy, Ms. Sophie Ruewen!"
Sophie slipped her circlet on her forehead, then walked towards Dumbledore, feeling every eye on her. Then, she launched into her practiced backflip routine.
And... stuck the landing a few feet in front of Dumbledore, dropping into a kneeling position. She pushed herself up gently. Dumbledore looked towards her serenely.
"Would you like to say a few words, Ms. Ruewen?" Sophie turned and faced the others in the hall, focusing on finding the faces of her new friends, then spoke.
"Thank you for inviting me to represent Foxfire Academy at your school, Professor Dumbledore. I look forward to learning new things and hopefully teaching something to my friends here too."
Smiling at everybody, she walked back towards her seat, ready to get out of the spotlight, and...tripped over nothing, barely catching herself. She slid into her seat before she could embarrass herself further and yanked her circlet off, shoving the offending piece of jewelry deep into her pocket.
She pulled out a bottle of hand sanitizer and cleaned her hands before reaching out for one of the vegetarian dishes that had appeared on the table in front of her.
Harry
Harry watched in disbelief as Sophie stood and began her routine, flipping and twirling over the paving stones, landing in a perfect kneeling position at Dumbledore's feet. T
he slightly clumsy, kind girl who cared for animals and only practiced with daggers at her father's insistence and would never hurt anyone was replaced by a cunning, strong person who looked like she had no weakness and would fight for her friends and what she thought was right down to her final breath.
She scared Harry a bit, with that circlet that winked at him, glowing blood-red in the light. He thought it was a ruby, and it was embedded in a silver base that reminded him of moonlight. Her speech was perfectly delivered, and her brown eyes that seemed to know everything swept across the room.
She made her way back to the Gryffindor table, her green cape out of place among the red, gold and black. The dishes appeared on the table, and Harry turned his attention to them. Ron had already piled his plate high with all kinds of things. Harry's friend turned to Sophie, holding a dish of pork.
"These are really good, Sophie! You really have to try them!" She looked startled for a moment, and almost offended, then burst out laughing. "What?" Ron said. "They are pretty good!"
Sophie smiled in amusement, then replied, "I'm a vegetarian. You just offered a meat dish to a vegetarian." Ron's ears blushed slightly, and he was quiet for a bit.
Sophie seemed to think over something very difficult for a second, then she spoke. "It's okay. I honestly don't blame you. I never said anything, and I probably shouldn't have assumed you'd guess."
Looking across the table, she smiled faintly. "Is it always so loud in here?"
Harry found himself smiling back at her as Hermione began explaining the schedule for lunch or something close to that. He began to relax slightly, letting himself be drawn into the conversations nearby.
He happened to glance at Sophie several times over the course of the meal, and every time something about her made Harry think she was still listening for, almost anticipating, attack.
Harry's mind wandered back to the froglike woman who had taken the position of teacher for DADA class. Dolores Umbridge. She struck him as the kind of person who would do anything to get her way, and he wasn't sure how good she would be at her job.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was usually his best class, but he got the feeling that Umbridge didn't like him and would try her very best to flunk him, or even worse, get him expelled.
The plates on the table disappeared, replacing themselves with puddings of every type Harry could think of. Sophie reached for a tray of what looked like either cake or brownies and cut herself a large slice. The inside looked rather like a marshmallow chocolate cake.
Hermione asked her curiously, "Is that made of vegan marshmallows?" Sophie nodded and swallowed her bite before replying "Yeah! It's mallowmelt. Try some!"
Hermione took a smaller piece than Sophie had, and despite his hesitations Harry followed her example. He took a bite and surprising delight spread through him at the taste.
Seeing the faces of Hermione, Ron and him after taking a bite, Sophie said in an excited voice, "I know, right! Isn't it the best thing ever?!"
The dishes disappeared a few minutes after Harry finished, and Harry watched as Hermione and Ron took the lead, guiding the first years and a very confused Neville to the dormitories.
Harry began following them at a distance, and he was so lost in his thoughts that he jumped slightly when Sophie walked up next to him. A chilly breeze was blowing her half-cape around her, but she barely shivered.
Harry wondered what her trick was, and before he could think better, he asked her. Sophie smiled at him.
"It's called body temperature regulation," she said, matching her stride to Harry's. "It's a pretty easy and useful skill. Maybe I could teach you and Hermione sometime."
Harry thought back to when she explained the thestrals to him. "Thanks for reassuring me that I wasn't crazy. I thought for a second that the thestral was a sure sign that I was going insane."
He navigated through the hallways to where the tail of first years was disappearing through the portrait hole. Stepping through the doorway into the common room caused Harry to let out a relieved breath. He was truly home now.
It is a head canon of mine that although Sophie is not a full germaphobe she is concious about hygine and would use hand sanitizer after touching dirty substances, thus the hand sanitizer.