It was the last day before they went back to Hogwarts. Sophie and Sirius were sitting alone in the kitchen eating breakfast. They had made plans with their friends to go to Diagon alley together on their last day of the holidays. Sophie was super excited to see her friends again after their long time apart. It had been almost three weeks since she'd seen any of the others in their friend group. However, Peter and Storm weren't going to be joining them, as they were busy going on a date together. She did wish that they were coming but she was happy for them, they'd been trying to get together for so long now and she was happy it was finally starting to work out for them.
"We should get going soon", Sirius said to Sophie, pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Yeah", she replied, finishing up her breakfast and wiping her mouth with a napkin.
Sirius copied her action and the two of them made their way back up to Sirius's bedroom to get dressed. Sophie put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and Sirius got dressed into a similar looking outfit. As they were walking out of Sirius's bedroom she could hear his parents arguing in their own bedroom just down the hall. They both stopped in their tracks listening intently.
"Enough", she could hear Sirius's mother saying, "this task is too important for regulus to pass up."
"It's dangerous", Mr Black replied, "he shouldn't, if he gets hurt there will be no one to blame but ourselves."
"He can do it", Mrs Black assured him.
Sirius grabbed Sophie's hand and held her back so that they could keep listening. Her heart skipped a beat when their hands connected. She felt herself beginning to get nervous as their hands remained linked.
"I don't like it", Mr Black continued, "I should do it, not Regulus."
"Regulus is more than capable", Mrs Black snapped, "you're just looking to make yourself look good in front of the dark lord."
"I am not!", Mr Black shot back, anger evident in his tone.
"He won't be alone", Mrs Black reassured him, "he can do this. If he proves himself he'll be able to move up the ranks faster than we can."
There were a few moments of silence as Mr Black thought. Sophie barely dared to breathe as they listened. Her heart was pounding loudly in her chest as they stood. The mention of the dark lord made her want to shiver but she'd held back.
"I want to at least be there", Mr Black said finally.
"No, Regulus has to do this alone", Mrs Black told him, "we have to trust him."
Fear sunk into Sophie's chest as they listened. This was undeniable proof that Sirius's family were followers of the dark lord. Something big was about to happen and Regulus was going to be playing a part in it.
"Come on", Sirius whispered, pulling Sophie by their interlocked hands. The two of them ran past Mr and Mrs Blacks bedroom and down the stairs to the fireplace. Once Sophie was sure they were out of earshot she let out a large breath of air.
"Sirius", Sophie began.
"Not here", he cut her off quickly, "come on we've got to get out of here."
The two of them continued to run down the halls of Sirius's house until they entered the living room. Sitting on the couch, both with their school books open, were Jock and Regulus. As they looked up from their work Sophie involuntarily flinched. Regulus was a follower of the dark lord, a death eater, and here he was sitting on a couch with her brother. She had to warn Jock about Regulus and his allegiances.
"Hey guys", Jock said, smiling at Sophie and Sirius, "what are you two doing today?"
Sophie wanted to reply but she felt the words get stuck in her throat. Her eyes were glued to Regulus. He was staring right back at her and she felt as if Regulus was completely aware that Sophie knew his secret. He set his quill down on his piece of parchment without moving his eyes away from Sophie.
"Nothing really", Sirius told Jock quickly, "just meeting up with some friends in Diagon alley before going back to school."
"Hey us too", Jock said, "we were going to do some studying first, but why don't we just go with you guys now"
"Yeah that sounds good", Regulus agreed.
Sophie felt like she was going to be sick. Regulus was a death eater, she couldn't go anywhere with him. She felt absolutely frozen with fear. She'd never seen a death eater in real life before and the whole situation was terrifying her. If Regulus was a death eater, how many of his friends were death eaters too? It was one thing to have a petty school rivalry with some Slytherins, but if those Slytherins turned out to all be death eaters? Sophie and her friend's death sentences had almost definitely been signed.
"No", she said before she realised she was speaking. Jock immediately looked hurt.
"I mean", Sophie continued quickly, "erm, that you guys should keep studying, we're going to meet our friends so we wouldn't be able to hang out with you anyway."
"Yeah", Sirius agreed, "don't rush yourselves just for us."
"It's no problem," Regulus said, smiling at them and standing up, "just give us a minute to tidy up our things and we'll be ready to go."
Sophie felt her entire body go numb. She looked over at Sirius, he didn't look frightened at all of his brother, instead, anger was almost radiating off of him instead. Sophie however, could barely keep her breathing steady. Without thinking he reached for Sirus's hand and gave it a small squeeze before letting go of it. Sirius sent her a smile and then pulled her over to the fireplace. He grabbed the vase of floo powder and poured some into Sophie's hand.
"You go", he told her, "I'll be there in a minute I promise."
Sophie couldn't help but give in to her desire to leave. She threw the Floo powder into the fire and stepped inside. Sirius was smiling at her reassuringly, but she'd known him long enough to know that his smile was fake.
"Diagon alley", she said. The flames flared up swallowing her up and obstructing her vision of Sirius and the living room. She felt her feet float off the ground and get spun around wildly as she travelled. The sensation was then gone and her feet touched the solid ground. Stepping out of the fireplace Sophie could see the bustling streets of Diagon alley before her. She could see many Hogwarts students, here for their last-minute school supplies before heading back to school.
Sophie stepped out of the fireplace and stood a few meters away from it waiting for Sirius. She thought about what she'd overheard in Sirius's house. Regulus was a death eater and so were Sirius's parents. She had been staying in the house of followers of the dark lord for weeks. What could Regulus's task be? It was clearly a big task as Regulus's parents had been arguing about it.
She heard the sound of her friends approaching as she stood.
"Sophie!", She heard a voice exclaim from behind her. She spun around to see Remus and Lily running towards her.
"Lily!", She replied excitedly, they embraced in a hug smiling brightly.
"Hey Remus", Sophie said as Remus walked over to them. They hugged as well and then the three of them stood in a small circle waiting together.
"How was your Christmas?" Sophie asked.
"It was okay", Lily replied, "my sister was awful as usual. But it was really cool showing my parents everything we'd learned so far this year."
"What about you though?", Remus asked, "how was staying with Sirus."
"It was pretty great", Sophie told them, feeling a brush paint its way across her face.
"Really?", Lily asked, looking surprised.
"Well Sirius's family basically ignored Sirius and me the whole time", Sophie explained, "so Sirius and I just spent most of our time hiding together in his room."
"Ohhh", Lily teased, nudging Sophie suggestively.
"Nothing happened", Sophie replied, feeling her face turn an even brighter red. The three of them continued to catch up for a few minutes talking about what they'd done in the holidays and what Christmas presents they'd received. With every passing minute, dread was growing in Sophie's stomach. Why hadn't Sirius come out of the fireplace yet?
Eventually, after several nerve-wracking minutes, Sirius emerged out of the fireplace.
"What happened?", Sophie asked him quickly walking towards him.
"Nothing bad", he assured her, accepting her hug, "mom and dad just wanted to talk to us about catching the train tomorrow. Jock and Regulus are going to stay at home and keep studying."
"Thank goodness", Sophie sighed. She went to go walk back over to Lily and Remus but Sirius caught her arm.
"Hey", he said, "would you mind keeping what we heard just to you and me for now."
"If that's what you want", Sophie agreed. She understood where Sirius was coming from. If it had been her brother she wouldn't want her friends knowing either.
Together the two of them rejoined their friends and then headed over to their first stop on their shopping. They decided that if they were going to find their friends anywhere they were likely to be in the quidditch shop. As they walked down the streets they could see several of their school friends shopping for last-minute supplies as well.
Eventually, they found their way to the quidditch shop and Sophie could overhear Stella whining about something James had just said.
"Prongs", Sirius called, grabbing James's hand and giving him a pat on the back.
"Sophie!", Stella cried. They embraced in a hug along with Lily. Stella began to tell them about her dates with Mathew Peters that she'd been on over the summer.
"He's just so great", she was telling them, "so sweet and understanding. It's like he really gets me in every way."
"I'm so happy for you", Lily told her.
"Me too", Sophie agreed.
Once Sophie had greeted James as well and given him a hug (Lily refused to talk to him). Their group left the quidditch shop and went to get some ice cream. Once they'd arrived at the ice cream shop Sophie opened her pouch and discovered that she didn't have nearly as much money as she thought she did. This meant that she would have to stop by her Gringotts vault in order to grab some more. She ordered her ice cream and paid for it with the galleons she had left and then asked the group if they'd want to come to Gringotts with her.
"I could use a top-up too", Remus agreed. The rest of the group decided to come with them and so they set off towards the large wizarding bank. Gringotts was a huge white pillared building made of marble. A sign that hung just above the entrance to the bank bore a warning.
Enter, stranger, but take heed of what awaits the sin of greed, for those who take, but do not earn, must pay most dearly in their turn, so if you seek beneath our floors, a treasure that was never yours, theif, you have been warned, beware of finding more than treasure there.
The sign gave Sophie goosebumps. She'd heard of the horrible things that happened to those who tried to steal from gringotts bank and had never been heard of again. The group of them walked into the bank and Sophie walked over to a goblin sitting behind a desk.
"I'd like to make a withdrawl from my bank", Sophie told the goblin. The goblins face showed no emotion as he looked down on her from his tall stool.
"Your key ma'am", the goblin said, extending his hand.
"Right", Sophie muttered. She reached into her money pouch, where she kept the key to her vault. The small silver key was missing from her pouch.
"No, no, no", Sophie muttered. She couldn't believe she'd lost the key to her vault. She tipped out the contense of the bag onto the bench. Out fell only a few shillings and no key. The goblin smiled cruely at her.
"I'm so sorry ma'am", he told her, "no key. No entrance."
"But I need to get into my vault", Sophie pleaded, "can't I give you some other form of identification?"
"Like what?", The goblin asked, "how do you expect us to open the door to your vault, without the key to the door?"
"Erm", Sophies stomach was doing flips. Speaking to goblins was already uncomfortable and this goblin appeared to be a particularly nasty one.
"You alright?", Stella asked Sophie, coming over to her.
"I've lost my key", Sophie told her. Stella looked surprised.
"You never lose things Soph", she told her, "wheres the last place you had it?"
"In my pouch", Sophie told her, "i've never taken it out unless i'm at the bank. It always lives in my pouch, I don't know what I could've done with it."
"Do you think it's possible someone stole it?", Stella asked her, "you've been staying with the Blacks all holidays, it's possible one of them stole your key."
"The blacks don't need any money", Sophie told her, "their already rich..."
The more she thought about it though, the more she wondered if Stella was right. Sophie was always so careful about where she left her key.
"Can you report the key stolen?", Sophie asked the Goblin, "so that if anyone tries to use it then you'll know it's not mine?"
"It's possible", the Goblin told her, "it's quite the lengthy process to get your vault opened again after your keys been reported stolen."
"Do it", Sophie said.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see Remus following a goblin down into the vaults. She and Stella walked back over to the others who were standing to the side of the rows of goblins.
"What happened?", Lily asked.
"My keys gone", Sophie told them, "and we think someones stolen it."
"Really?", Lily gasped. Sirius gave Sophie a look and then gestured towards one of the desks with his eyes. She turned to see someone with a gray mask covered in swirls currently speaking to one of the goblins. The Goblin himself seemed unphased by the mask but others in the bank were shifting away from the masked person uncomfortably.
"Oh my goodness", Lily gasped, looking scared of the masked person.
"Who is that?" Stella asked, clearly just as confused as Sophie.
"That's a death eater mask", James whispered to them, reaching his hand into his robes for his wand, "they only wear their masks in public if their planning to do something against the law."
Sophie felt her gut wrench, a death eater was another word for a follower of You-know-who. They were known to be cruel and heartless wizards who caused mayhem and death whereever they went. Sophie pulled out her own wand. The masked person handed over a small silver key, clearly trying to access a vault. The goblin accepted the key and examined it. Several people had now left the building and some were even running out. Sophie and her friends remained in the corner along with a few other witches and wizards, all of whom had their wands out.
The goblin examined the key and then looked back up at the wizard. The goblin then glanced over in Sophie's direction and looked down at the key again. Suddenly the goblin brought his hand down on a large red button sitting next to him, an alarm went off blaring loudly. The doors heading down towards the vaults snapped shut and large metal bars crossed in front of the doors, clearly letting no one in or out.
The masked wizard roared in outrage and pulled out his own wand. Sophie was about to fire a spell at the masked wizard but she was thrown off her feet by a huge blast. Her and all her friends were thrown to the other side of the room. Sophie landed painfully on the hard concrete floors of the building. Feeling dazed she got to her feet. She could see that there was a large black scorch mark on the floor where she and her friends had been standing. In the doorway of the bank, stood about ten other masked death eaters, all brandishing their wands.
Sophie looked at her friends, all of whom were still lying on the floor. Stella's eyes were closed and she wasn't moving, there were large burn marks on her front. The others were stirring, but it looked like Sophie had gotten off easy. She was the only one without any burn marks on her, as the others must have taken the heat of it. There were about 6 other witches and wizards in the bank and thankfully none of them had yet been attacked.
The large group of death eaters ran into the building and began firing at anyone they could see, witches, wizards, and goblins. Sophie stood by her friends making sure that none of them could be further harmed. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her chest she knew that everyone must be able to hear it.
One of the wizards fired a spell at her which she quickly blocked. Then they fired another, and another. It was all Sophie could do to block the spells, the attacker continued to advance on Sophie and her friends, firing endless spells. Sophie knew she had to do something. She dropped her shield and rolled out of the way as the death eater fired another spell at her. Sophie looked around at the other people in the bank. The death eaters had somehow managed to find a way to seal the front doors to the bank so that no one could go in or out. Most of the people inside had been overwhelmed by the death eaters. Some of them were dueling two or three people at once, some of them were stunned or tied up. Most of the goblins were huddled in a corner and surrounded by death eaters.
She fired a spell towards the death eater attacking her. He blocked it and sent back a spell towards her. Sophie ducked and sent a stunning spell towards the attacker. Her spell hit the death eater in the chest before they could react and they fell forwards unmoving. Sophie took a deep breath and ran back over to her friends and examined them. Sirius, Lily and James seemed to be alright they were all burnt but not as badly as Stella. James' eyes were even open and he looked like he was trying to stand.
"Can you stand?", Sophie asked him, extending her hand.
"I think so", James replied. He took her hand and slowly she pulled him to his feet. As soon as he got to his feet however Sophie saw a death eater fire a curse at James' turned back. She pushed James out of the way causing him to yell in pain as he landed on the floor. The spell collided with Sophie instead and she felt her vision faded into black . She yelled as her eyes began to sting painfully. Dropping her wand she covered her eyes with her hands trying to minimize the pain.
She could hear yelling and spell firing but when she opened her eyes again she could see nothing. Everything was black. Something or someone pushed push her and without her vision she fell to the ground.
"Sophie!", She heard, what she thought was Sirius's voice.
Her eyes felt like they were on fire, they burned an almost endurable amount of pain. She was clutching her eyes desperately almost trying to rip them out and end the pain. It was hard to think straight with the sounds of people screaming and spells being fired in every direction. All of a sudden someone grabbed her by the arm and dragged her across the floor. She couldn't see where they dropped her but someone was screaming her name. Her eyes were in to much pain to remove her hands.
Sophie tried to picture what was happening. She imagined her friends lying on the ground in tremendous amounts of pain. The poor witches and wizards who'd happened to be at the bank would be scared out of their minds. The death eaters holding the Goblin bankers in the corner of the room. Some of the older witches and wizards were still trying to fight the death eaters. She could feel a pair of boots pacing around close to her and the sound of a mans laughter was echoing now around the room.
She could hear the sound of shouting coming from outside the bank. The Aurors had been called and were trying to get into the barricaded bank. Sophie could barely think straight from all the pain in her eyes. The curse that had hit her must have been very dark magic, she'd never heard of any spell that could do this.
"Grab this one", she heard one of the death eaters hiss, "It's in her vault that its stored."
She could feel someone attempting to pull her up by her arm. She shook them off as best she could and tried to crawl away from them, but without her sight she had no idea where she was going. She could hear the death eaters laughing at her as she struggled desperately. Her back hit a wall and she pressed herself against it as hard as she could.
She could sense the death eaters approaching her, more than one set of footprints. They dragged her too her feet and pulled her away. They walked away from the wall and over to more death eaters.
"Grab one of them too", the lead death eater instructed, "one that can stand preferably."
She could hear one of the boys grunting as they too were dragged to their feet and forced over to where Sophie was standing. She was being held steadily where she stood by two death eaters, each holding her by her arms. She could hear grunting from her right as another person was forced over to their group. The Aurors outside were still banging on the door casting spells at it. However the door had clearly been spelled, as nothing was making a dent. The doors of the Gringotts bank were inpentritable.
"Open the door", she heard the lead death eater instruct.
"I won't", came the voice of the goblin Sophie had been speaking too only minutes ago. There was a loud slapping noise and the Goblin yelped in pain.
"You'll do as your asked", the death eater spat, "or we'll start causing some real destruction in here. Starting with the lives of your little filthy goblin friends."
Sophie wriggled in her captors grip, she couldn't let the death eaters get into the vaults. Whatever they were after was definitely filled with dark magic of some kind. But there was nothing in her Gringotts vault except money.
The Goblin gave no reply, but Sophie could picture him giving the death eaters a filthy look. There were footsteps as he walked over too the door heading down to the vaults. With a jolt she remembered that Remus had been taken down there only moments before the door was locked. This meant he was probably standing on the other side of it, un aware of what was happening.
"Remus", she yelled, as loudly as she could, "there's death eaters in here! They're -"
A hand clamped over her mouth tightly and another hand slammed into the side of her head. Both death eaters holding her had made efforts towards getting her to stop talking. Her eyes watered with pain and the side of her head was throbbing. There was a loud and long scratching sound which Sophie assumed came from Goblin running his finger down a crack in the door causing it to open. She could hear spells being fired and suddenly she was thrown out of the way by the death eaters holding her. People were yelling and spells were being fired. She landed on the ground again and she felt someone grab her arm.
"It's okay", she heard them whisper in her ear, "it's Lily."
As the spell firing continued Sophie felt Lily press a wand to Sophie's temple. Her vision began to clear. Not fully but she could now see the people in front of her and the battel that was unfolding. Her eyes still were stinging but the pain had decreased a significant amount. Remus, along with several other wizards were battling against the death eaters and they were winning. Her looked at her own friends. James was awake and sitting up, but he looked like he would never be able to stand without help, Sirius was lying down his eyes open but he wasn't moving, there were huge burn marks covering his right side. Stella was un moved from where Sophie had seen her last. Her front was badly burned and her eyes were still closed. Lily seemed to have recovered alright she was supporting herself on her elbows.
Together the two girls helped each other up and ran into the fight. Sophie sent a stunning spell towards a death eater cornering a goblin. The death eater froze up and fell sideways allowing the Goblin to flee towards the door. Sophie caught him before he could get too far.
"You need to open the front door", Sophie told him, "once the aurors get in here the death eaters will stand no chance."
The Goblin roughly pulled himself out of Sophie grip looking digusted, however he looked at the door determined. Sophie spotted some of the other Goblins huddled in the corner still trapped by death eaters. Lily had joined in the battle and was fighting off one of the death eaters alongside another guard. Sophie sent a stunning spell towards one of the two death eaters in the corner. He blocked it and sent a disarming spell back towards Sophie. The spell missed and hit the wall at the other end of the room. The other death eater fired another spell at Sophie which she was able to block. She ran towards them sending spell after spell at them. Her vision was still blurry but she could see clearly enough to aim her spells accurately. She was able to hit one of the death eaters with a disarming spell.
However, at the same time the other death eater hit her with a disarming spell. Her wand flew out of her hand and landed by the door to the entrance. Immediately afterwards she was hit again by a spell she didn't know. Her chest seared with pain and then she collapsed onto the concrete.
*
When she awoke it appeared that the battle was over. James and Sirius were kneeling next to her Sirius's wand was in his hand and they were both looking much better. His side was still burnt but it had been healed by magic already. Some healers where already over by her friends helping them. Remus and Lily were standing talking to an Auror who was writing down notes on a piece of parchment.
"What happened?", Sophie asked Sirius, sitting up. Her eyes were still burning and her hands were covered in blood.
"The bloods from your eyes", James said, "that curse that hit you caused you eyes to bleed non stop. It was so scary to watch, blood was just pouring out of you."
"After the alarm was triggered the Aurors think it must have been about 30 Death Eaters who broke into the bank", Sirius began, "one of the death eaters sent a curse towards the five of us causing the explosion."
Sirius looked back towards the large black scorch mark on the marble floor. Stella was lying down five meters away from that with several healers surrounding her. Looking at where Stella was positioned Sophie realized that they'd really all been blasted quite far.
"After the explosion I passed out a bit", Sirius confessed, "I got burned pretty bad, no where near as bad as Stella, but the Healers think she'll be okay."
"You were the only one who wasn't burned in the explosion", James continued, the Aurors said that the Death Eaters were targeting you and that's why you weren't hurt in the explosion while the rest of us were. They needed to take out the rest of us, while making sure that you were okay."
"They said its really dark magic", Sirius added, "the burns that we got are going to take a really long time to heal."
Sophie looked at the two boys. She could see angry red blisters on Sirius's arms and neck while James's left arm was already heavily bandaged.
"Anyway", Sirius continued, "long story short, after you were hit with that curse the death eaters tried to take you, James and a Goblin down to your vault. But you warned Remus and the guards behind the door and they were able to capture most of the death eaters. It was absolute chaos in here. The death eaters have got this power, no one knows how it works. They can sort of fly without brooms, they get picked up by this black smoke and they can fly around. Anyway, during the battle you were hit with the same spell Regulus used on you back in the duel, I guess you must have already been exhausted because you just collapsed in the middle of the room."
Sirius stopped talking abruptly.
"What?", Sophie asked.
"There was this voice", James said, "It sounded like it was coming from everywhere. It was so loud and horrible. It told the death eaters that they'd failed him, it said... It said they needed to take you back with them and to get him what he needed another way."
Sophies heart did a summer sault.
"What happened?"
"They all started disappearing in the clouds of black smoke", James continued, "one of them made you float up in the air... Sirius tackled them and made them drop you back down before they could disappear."
Sophie looked over at Sirius. He'd saved her life. There was no doubt in her mind that if the death eaters had taken her she'd never have returned. No one returned from being captured by death eaters. Sirius didn't make eye contact with her, and she couldn't stop staring at him. Sirius Black had saved her life.
Once they'd been interviewed by the Auror and given their accounts of the accident, Sophie was checked over by the healers who cleaned the blood off her and fully restored her vision. Stella, who's injury's were far worse than the others, had to be sent to st mungo's to heal. The others were given some healing potions and magical burn cream to take care of their wounds.
Deciding that they were all no longer in the mood to go shopping, they said goodbye to the others and Sophie and Sirius walked alone together back to the floo network.
"Sirius", Sophie began.
"Yeah?", He asked.
"You don't think that this is what your parents were talking about this morning, do you?" Sophie asked him.
"I don't know", Sirius replied, "we'll need to find hard proof before we jump to any conclusions. But it is definitely a possibility that he was involved."
The two of them arrived back at the floo network and Sophie paid for two handfuls of floo powder. This time Sirius left first. He stepped into the flames and soon he had vanished. After he left Sophie followed him into the fire and felt herself lift off the ground and away from Diagon alley.
Once at Sirius's home they quickly ran up to Regulus's bedroom. It was abandoned no one was inside. The two of them hurried around the house looking for any signs of Regulus or Jock. They found no one, not even Sirius's parents were at home.
Sophie couldn't help but worry. Where was her brother? They'd said they weren't going to go out today and yet here they were no where to be found in the house. Eventually the two of them retired back into Sirius's bedroom. They sat down on Sirius's bed together and lay down. Despite all she'd been through today her heart still started to race when their shoulders touched. Sirius gave her a glass of sleeping draught, they'd both been instructed by the healers to sleep when they got home. She downed the glass and immediately felt her eyes begin to droop.
"Hey Sirius", she said, looking up at the paint chips in his celling.
"Yeah?"
"Thank you for saving me today, without you I'd probably be dead by now."
"Please don't say that."
Sirius turned his head to look at her, when she turned to face him their noses were almost touching.
"Of course I saved you Soph", he whispered, "I don't know what I would do without you."
"I don't know what I'd do without you either."
She couldn't keep herself awake any longer. She allowed the potion to overcome her and she drifted off to sleep. Sirius's words ringing in her ears.