Keefe
Waiting was hard. Enough said.
Sophie
There was a large sign posted to the notice board, and it made Sophie's blood boil. Clubs disbanded? Now she knew they were doing the right thing. They were still going to have the club.
Harry, Ron and Hermione continued on with their day. However, the next night, Sirius Black almost got caught by Umbridge, giving Sophie a scare.
What she had previously assumed was going to be an easy assignment was now getting harder. The Ministry was suffocating them.
She knitted faster, waiting for the fire to die down so she could go to the meeting spot. Suddenly, there was a crack, and a house elf appeared, holding Hedwig.
"The owl is all better, sir!" he said, then did a double take. He looked frightened to see her. "You aren't Master Potter!"
"It's okay, I won't hurt you!" she said. "Why are you awake so late? And why are you talking to Dobby? Most wizards don't talk to Dobby."
Sophie smiled. "My name is Sophie, and I'm not most wizards. I'm an elf too." It felt good to say it out loud.
Dobby let out a surprised squeak, and almost toppled over. "You're... a lost one? But your eyes..."
Sophie smiled despite her slight annoyance. "I have a bit of alicorn blood... You said your name was Dobby, right?"
At the house elf's nod, she continued, "I have an idea for a great prank. Could you take this disk to the Slytherin common room for me?"
Dobby studied it curiously. "What does it do?"
"It plays a song. It's like If You're Happy and you Know it, except about being sad. I thought they'd like it." Yup. I wanted a sweet prank that would maybe cheer my Slytherins up :D
Dobby smiled. "Miss Sophie is right! Dobby will do it!"
Sophie said goodbye, then crept out into the hallway, leaving Hedwig to perch on one of the armchairs. When she got to the Room of Requirement, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were already there, trying to resolve it into a training room.
Sophie put a hand on one of the walls and thought. It bloomed, growing bigger and providing all sorts of training equipment.
The others trickled in, and Hermione said "Before we get started, we should elect a leader."
Sophie quickly replied,"Harry's the leader, Hermione."
Ginny frowned. "We should vote on it. Maybe you should be the leader, Sophie."
There was a quick vote, in which Harry and Sophie tied. "Harry can lead us officially. I'll take over some of the classes, but spying on Umbridge will come first. We'll need to know her plans if we're going to pull this off."
Everyone in the room agreed to that plan. Next, they picked a name. Dumbledore's Army, for the Ministry's worst fears. They began practicing disarming spells, and Harry was walking by her to check on everyone.
Smiling to herself, she silently disarmed him. His wand flew out of his hand into Sophie's, and she threw it back to him with a smile. Their session ended well, with everyone being able to disarm their partners at least once.
The D.A. kept meeting. On the fourth date, Sophie told everyone that they would be learning wandless defense next week. Some people grumbled a bit, until Sophie threw a dagger at one of the target dummies.
They had special Galleons to tell them the dates and times of the next meeting. Professor McGonagall was lightening up on Harry and Ron for the Quidditch season, so Sophie was able to help them more with their other homework. Things were starting to look up.
Harry
Sophie's DA session was amazing. Harry had been put with the first time dagger learners. Sophie had split them into groups, one group throwing daggers at targets, one group doing a parkour course and when they mastered both like Hermione had, throwing daggers and parkour.
Hagrid had come back, and Harry had gotten an invite to come down to Hagrid's hut for tea after most of the castle emptied for Christmas break. Ron, Hermione and Sophie had been invited to come too.
On the walk down, Harry was lost in thought. The DA meetings were working, actually working! Hagrid hadn't been thrown out yet, which was good. Harry finally remembered to warn Sophie about Hagrid's rock cakes.
They got down to the hut, and Hagrid walked out to meet them. Fang bounded up to Sophie first, and began licking her face repetitively. Sophie was laughing as she shoved Fang off her and stood up, placing a hand on the friendly dog's head.
Sophie smiled good naturedly, but her smile broke off into a bewildered, almost afraid expression as a crack of thunder and whoosh of wings announced the arrival of.. something.
"No... what is she doing here?" Harry thought he heard her mutter, and he followed her gaze, letting out a gasp when he saw what she was looking at.
OoOoOh, who might it be?
Keefe
Keefe walked up to Silveny, Fitz trailing next to him. Silveny snuffled at his hand. Grady had thought asking the sparkly flying horse about Sophie was a great idea.
Fitz said softly, "She's asking about Sophie." Keefe's heart broke a little more. The mama alicorn had no idea, did she...
"Sophie's gone. She's been missing for a few months now."
Silveny let out a concerned, almost angry nicker.
Fitz quickly continued Keefe's sentence. "We were wondering if you could try to find Sophie. She can't block you, and once you see where she is, you can teleport to her and see if she's okay!"
Silveny looked extremely excited about that. She wheeled around and took to the skies, teleporting who knows where.
Hopefully, to Sophie. Twenty painful minutes passed, then Silveny came back. Without Sophie. She touched down next to them and dipped her head playfully.
"Where's Sophie?" Grady asked, coming up behind them. "Is she okay?"
Keefe held his breath as Fitz replied, "Sophie's ok... but all Silveny will say to any of my questions about where she is and why is the word secret."
Keefe let out a breath, then said shakily, "Ask her why it's a secret."
Fitz closed his eyes again, then opened them. His expression was so conflicted, Keefe wondered what Silveny had said.
"Well..." Fitz said reluctantly. "It could be a coincidence... but she said secret mission. If the mission was from the Black Swan, Mr. Forkle would tell us. So that leaves..."
Keefe felt sick. "The Council," he whispered. Grady looked furious.
"And," he added in a dangerous tone. "If we confront them about it, they'll assume that Sophie told us and get her in trouble. We can't do anything."
Keefe actually had an idea of something they could do. "Actually, we can. We know Sophie's safe. Did Silveny make some sort of deal with Sophie about calling her if she's in danger?"
Fitz's expression cleared. "Yes." he breathed. "Silveny, Keefe, you're both geniuses."
Keefe continued his plan. "If Silveny gets a distress call from Sophie, one of us can go with her to help, and hopefully she'll go back with us, or at least talk to us."
Grady agreed with his plan, and Keefe left feeling lighter. Sophie was safe. She hadn't left because of him. She would come back.
Sophie
What was Silveny doing? The alicorn was swooping down, landing in front of her and blowing air onto Sophie's head.
"Sophie! Safe! Come! Home! Miss! Sophie! Keefe! Foster-Keefe!" Keefe had clearly been talking to Silveny.
I can't, she transmitted.
"WHY? WHY? WHY?"
Sophie's heart broke a little more. It's a secret. I can tell you, since I know you'd just steal it from my head anyways, but you have to promise not to tell anyone else.
"SECRET! PROMISE! SECRET! PROMISE! SECRET! PROMISE!"
Sophie took that as a yes. I'm on a mission. Protecting Harry and his friends from Voldemort.
"EVIL? BITE! KICK! BITE!"
Sophie laughed slightly at that. It's okay, I'll hit him for you.
"SOPHIE SAFE." Silveny said stubbornly. "SOPHIE SAFE. PROMISE."
Ok, Sophie said, knowing it was the only way out. If I get in trouble, I'll call you.
Silveny nickered in satisfaction, then flew off, splitting the sky again. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hagrid all had the same, awestruck expression. Hermione snapped out of it first.
"Sophie! WHAT WAS THAT?!?"
Sophie tried for nonchalance. "Silveny. She lives at Havenfield most of the time. Apparently nobody told her I was coming here this year, and she's really overprotective of me.
If she ever goes mama alicorn like that again, make sure to be at least six feet away... she bites really hard."
Ron's mouth opened and closed like a fish's.
Hagrid said excitedly, "That's... an alicorn. Yer have an alicorn?"
Sophie smiled. "Not really. Silveny chooses to hang out at Havenfield because she thinks of me as one of her foals. It's a bit weird, but cool."
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Hagrid began asking more questions about Grady and Edaline's animal rehab center.
That night, Sophie snuck into the Ministry to search for Horcruxes. She watched around a corner in fox form, waiting for an opportunity to sneak by Mr. Weasley, when a large snake came by. Mr. Weasley stood to drive the snake off, and it attacked.
Turning into another snake, she pleaded with it, Do not bite the man. He is not your enemy.
The other snake replied He stands in the way of my orders.
Sophie thought before answering You are a snake. Your only master is the code.
She let out a gasp. The snake was giving off the same energy a Horcrux did. She knew from when she destroyed the watch and the diadem. When Harry destroyed the diary, he had likely felt the same way.
It was poison. Venom.
You have the scale rot! Sophie said. Scale rot was no joke, killing thousands of snakes. The snakes who got infected were encouraged to leave, going out into the world where they would be eaten.
The other snake hissed in alarm and left, slithering into the fireplace room, where the sound of a Horcrux being destroyed emanated from soon after. Sophie turned into an elf again, thanking the stars she was wearing one of her black cloaks.
Trying her best to mimic Mr. Forkle, she said "Relax. I have something to heal you."
Mr. Weasley groaned. "Who... Who are you?"
Sophie almost faltered in surprise. Her mimicking was so much better than even Keefe's now, all because of her shapeshifting.
"A friend of a friend. I flew here to help a fellow revolutionary." She held out the elixir she was glad to have. "An antivenom. It also contains bone mending and cut healing components. Drink it all, then I'll bring you to the safe house."
Mr. Weasley sputtered slightly. "You..know the location?" he said after drinking the elixir.
"Yes. I am an ally of the Order. I'm disguising my voice so nobody notices me."
Mr. Weasley slumped to the ground, and Sophie levitated him, then turned around and opened a portal, landing on the roof of number 12 Grimmauld place. Sophie left him there, then called Kreacher, who appeared instantly.
"Why is she calling Kreacher? Kreacher is not helping the nosy girl who is taking the locket." He muttered something inaudible, most likely some new insult.
Sophie sighed. "That locket was a Horcrux. I had to destroy it. Now, one elf to another, could you please get someone from the order to help him? Without mentioning me?"
Sophie turned to the now-unconscious Mr. Weasley, then pulled out a marker and a piece of paper, writing I found him at the Ministry just in time to help. He was rather badly hurt, but a few elixirs patched him up again. Be careful. From a friend of a friend.
A friend of a friend was the way that the Elven council had told her to sign any letters to the Order. Sophie made it back to their common room just in time to follow the procession of Weasleys being led by Professor McGonagall and Hermione and ending with Harry.