Umbridge cleared out the Great Hall one evening and sat in Dumbledore's glorious chair, sipping her tea as Dumbledore's Army wrote lines with her retched Blood Quills. Sounds of suffocating grunts of pain were heard every now and again as the words engraved into their hands. Small droplets of blood littered the desk as the students used their own liquid to write, flickering their hateful gazes up to the woman who sat there as satisfied as a cat would be from its recent catch.
Some of the students had scabbing over scars on their hands already from past run-ins with Professor Umbridge, making it twice as painful. Sophia, being one of these people, sat there with a permanent cringe on her face as she wrote with the black quill. Her other hand was clenched in a tight fist as the past words 'I must not speak out to my superiors' were written over diagonally by new ones, causing the healing scabs to bleed once more. The nerves in her hand twitched in agony and she had to clench her teeth together in order to not make a sound. She couldn't imagine how Harry must feel right now as he had several scars on his hands from the week of detentions he received from Umbridge compared to her one night of lines. Along with this, he must be blaming himself for getting all the DA into trouble. He had been their teacher after all. It didn't help that Dumbledore was also gone, leaving Hogwarts in complete control of the Ministry.
Fred grimaced at the carving sensation in his skin, biting his lip hard enough to keep him from saying anything. Him and George had simultaneously looked up to send Umbridge the deadliest of glares but were left unsatisfied as she just sat there with a smile on her toad face. Fred went to look back at his parchment when he heard the quietest of sniffles come from next to him, making him turn his head to where Sophia sat. His heart broke at the sight of her teary eyes and clenched fist that was leaking with blood. He noticed her shaking hand as she forced herself to keep writing, wanting nothing more than to apparate her out of the hall and into the confines of the common room where he knew she would be safe. But he knew he couldn't apparate inside Hogwarts nor would he ever be able to escape Umbridge's repercussions.
Taking one hasty glance at the woman sitting at the front, he let his bleeding hand slip off the desk and hang by his side. He ignored the blood that started to drip onto the tiled floor and stared hopefully at Sophia's side profile, intending for her to sense his gaze and see his hanging hand. When she did, she looked at him puzzled until he motioned his eyes down to his hand that hung limply in need of holding. She let her own arm fall and thanked the heavens that she was part of the minority that wrote with her left hand and Fred with his right hand. The two reached out their bleeding hands and linked pinkies, cracking a smile at each other full of reassurance.
"Hem hem," the most hated voice in history sounded. Fred and Sophia tore their eyes away from each other and looked up to see Professor Umbridge standing there, her wand in her hands and eyes twinkling evilly down at their locked pinkies. "Eight inches Mr Weasley and Miss Lupin."
A spark appeared between their hands and it made the two flinch away from each other, an extra set of pain now occurring in their hands. The sitting students had looked over their shoulders to see what was happening, but quickly went back to their parchments when the Professor began making her way back to Dumbledore's chair.
And as she walked away in all her stubby glory, Fred knew that they had to leave. Hogwarts wasn't home anymore.
---
As if the torturous detention wasn't enough, the O.W.L and N.E.W.T exams were approaching fast. Sophia couldn't believe she could spend as much time in the library as Hermione did. She sat a table surrounded by books and parchments that she needed, feeling frazzled and overly stressed out. She wasn't alone though. Many other students looked the same whether it was in the library, the Great Hall, the courtyard, the corridors or in their common rooms. You would think a natural disaster had ripped through the school at the amount of students that sat on the floors or benches looking disheartened and exhausted.
She pushed the hair that had fallen from behind her ear out of her face, wincing at the twig of pain she felt from her bandaged hand. The mangled scars were now worn by nearly everyone at Hogwarts, including a few Slytherins'. Even they would get in trouble for something or rather. Sophia spent the night after the detention wrapping up people's hands with the bandaging spell she had learnt from Fred, helping first years who just so happened to have their own detentions that same day. She then crawled into bed with her Boyfriend and comforted each other for the rest of the night.
Speaking of Fred, the Weasley walked into the library looking around for the particular brunette and barely spotted her among the piles of books that littered the table. He made sure Madam Pince, the librarian, wasn't nearby as she had grown a disliking for him and his twin, before making his way over to Sophia and slipping into the seat next to her. She had barely noticed his presence and slowly blinked down at yet another book on Transfiguration.
"Woah Soph you don't look so good," Fred grimly offered and she turned to look at him with a half-hearted glare.
"I don't feel good Freddie. I'm so exhausted," Sophia propped her cheek against her fist, knowing how messy her hair probably looked and how sickly her skin appeared.
"Then go to bed, no one's stopping you," he looked at her with an expression that non-verbally said 'duh'.
"Everything's stopping me!" she cried but quickly looked around frantically in embarrassment, knowing Madam Pince would kick her out if she was too loud. When she saw the coast was clear, she dropped her face into her hands and huffed out a sigh. "I can't sleep knowing that I suck so badly at Transfiguration as well as Care for Magical Creatures. Not to mention the fact that my hand hurts all the time and that I've been treating Harry like the plague because of what Dumbledore said-"
"Wait what did Dumbledore say?" Fred stopped her and displayed a look of concern. "Did he tell you to ignore Harry like you have been?"
"Ugh nevermind, I don't want to talk about that right now..." she brushed off. She hadn't meant to tell Fred so freely about what Dumbledore had instructed her to do, but she didn't really care right now. She was too riled up to worry about whether Fred knew or not. Luckily for her, Fred suppressed the urge to ask further and decided to let it go for the time being.
"Look love, if you're having trouble sleeping-" Fred reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a familiar looking sweet, placing it on the table and sliding it to sit in between her and the book she held. "-have a Fainting Fancy. You'll be out like a light and I'll just give you the other side when you need to wake up again. At least then you'll be able to relax for one night."
"I can't Fred... I need to study," Sophia shook her head sadly, leaning back in her chair in a position of defeat. The only way to understand what she didn't know in her lessons was to study them until she got it. And right now, Transfiguration theory and Care for Magical Creatures theory were her weak points. The continuous worrying about these subjects had stopped her from having a peaceful sleep, and the fact that Harry wouldn't even look up when she would sit down at meal times in the Great Hall wasn't helping.
"You haven't stopped. I'm pretty sure Granger doesn't even study this much," he forced a humourless laugh but was concerned for Sophia. He had initially come into the library to tell her about him and George's plan to leave school early and start working on their shop. They had had enough of Umbridge's reign over Hogwarts and weren't prepared to suffer through her much longer, planning to bring forward their grand departure to during the fifth year's O.W.L exams. He had planned to ask her to come with them, take her away from all of this that he knew she was growing to hate. Take her away from the exam stress and pressure of always staying hidden in fear of You Know Who's return. And seeing her so exhausted was just pushing him more and more towards doing it sooner than they already had planned.
"Come on, just one," Fred tapped at the sweet in front of her, offering her a reassuring smile.
"Fine..." she sighed and Fred beamed, happy that she was finally going to get some sleep.
"Great! Let's go back to the- wait don't take it now!" Fred stood up in a rush when Sophia grabbed the sweet and immediately bit into it. He watched as she slouched in her chair and started to slip sideways, completely unconscious.
"Bloody hell Lupin," he pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh. "You may be smart but you sure are dim sometimes."
None the less, Fred crouched down and slipped an arm under her knees and around her back, lifting her up from the chair and kicking it back under the table. The girl had started to slide out of the chair and towards the floor, her head heading for the table leg that was conveniently nearby. If it wasn't for Fred, she would of wacked her head real hard on the wood.
"Saving you once again," he mumbled to himself once she was steadily in his hold. He turned away from the piles of book and left them there for some other poor sod to clear up, giving Madam Pince another reason to hate the Weasley twins. Carrying Sophia's limp body through the corridors was definitely a sight to see, but he was only focusing on taking the less populated halls in order to avoid Umbridge. He was so sick of her eight inches distance rule between boys and girls that he thought he would scream if she said it once more.
He went through the portrait hole and walked into the common room, catching the attention of Lee and George who sat at the table in the corner. The two had just been discussing some product designs when Fred had appeared carrying a completely knocked out Sophia, making them stand up and walk over with amused grins.
"You convinced her then," Lee observed.
"Yeah in the middle of the bleeding library," Fred rolled his eyes, hoisting Sophia into a more comfortable position in his arms. "Nearly got a concussion by heading for the floor as soon as she took the Fancy."