Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Breaking Silence ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

Dear Investigator,

I love potions. There's just something about it that I can't quite express. At first, it seems that all you do is follow directions, but after you figure out the trick, it's so much more! What would happen if I added just a little more of this? What would happen if I stirred it just a little longer? It's a big game of what if that I fell in love with my first year.

As you can imagine, this sort of rampant curiosity and absolute disrespect for procedure isn't the safest. I frustrated the Potions Master my whole first year. He couldn't figure out how someone who seemed to always be causing small explosions and losing eyebrows, both theirs and other peoples, would always turn in a correct potion at the end of the day. It would really freak him out when some of my potions were better than his. If it wasn't for Headmaster, I think I would have been kicked out. Instead, I was put into advanced potions courses. Occasionally they would ask me what I did differently, so they could improve their recipes. I can't express how happy I was the first time it happened. I had gone from this troublemaker to someone who was useful and more importantly, wanted.

In an effort to stay as honest as possible, I think I need to talk about Charms. Charms, as you may or may not know, escapes me completely. Its too rigid, no room for adjustment, for innovation. It's stone. It must be this perfect spiral motion with this perfect incantation. I'm a decent transfiguration student, but getting the movement with the words, it doesn't… work for some reason.

Yours,

A Lady

P.S. Am I to assume that the beards that appeared on all of the Slytherins are your gangs doing?

Dear Tessie,

I miss you even more than you miss me! Yes your new saying is quite dramatic, fits you very well. Mother is fit to be tied over it isn't she? I would love to see that!

How is everything else at home? I never hear what you do when I am away, by the time I return you've forgotten everything and you're onto the marathon of what you did five minutes ago. No, don't scold me Tessie dear, I love that about you.

This is so wonderful that we can talk more. Oh and I'll be home for Christmas this year! I know you were upset last year when I ended up staying at school. I promise I will be there this year, and I have all of Hogsmeade to browse to find your present. You'd better be good so I feel more inclined to spend all of my money on you as I always do.

Your darling older sister who's about to expire from her dramatic younger sister,

A Lady

Sophie

Dear Lady,

Ha! Now I know that I looking for a potions master, who's horrible at charms, who may or may not have eyebrows. Well thank you! That narrows it down quite a bit, especially the whole no eyebrows thing.

For my next question, I ask what house are you in? No, I'm not stupid enough to think I'll actually get an answer, but it never hurts to try. Consider my reasoning, if you're part of Slytherin…Well it's going to be tough to pull pranks on them when I could unwittingly be pranking you. If your part of Gryffindor, I'm just going to kick myself for having missed you for this long.

My first question that I actually expect an answer for is most revealing. What, is your favorite color? Also, what is your favorite time of the year? Try not to injury yourself responding to these questions. Their tough, I know.

Your man of a thousand questions,

Lupin

P.S. I think this goes without saying but, if you're THE potions master, please just stop writing because I don't think I could ever recover from that.

Dear Remus,

You sick, evil, man! How dare you ask so many questions, and such personal ones at that! Well fine, I will give in to your coercions, there seems to be no stopping you. If you could see me, I am fainting dramatically with a dainty hand pressed lightly to my forehead; the imagery was too good to pass up do to of a letters lacking facilities.

To answer your penetrating question, my favorite color is forest green. There's something soothing about it. It conjures up the feeling of wet leaves, and damp earth that been wiped clean by a good storm and everything's bathed in a green hue caused by the sun filtering through the dense leaves.

I love the smells and colors of spring, and I love the sights of winter. Winter, when everything's covered in snow transforming the landscape into a different world entirely, but it's too cold. Autumn would have to be my favorite. The time when the air first gets that edge of coldness that caress' you, taking away the unbearable heat of summer and leaves you with that slightly sharp pain in your lungs when you breathe in deeply. And the brilliant colors! Every shade of red, yellow, and orange, the hint of green pine both in color and in the smell of the air. It's peerless.

Yours wringed dry of information,

A Lady

P.S. I forgot about summer. Summer, in my opinion, is just another name for hell-that-only-last-for-a-few-months. That's all I have to say.

Dear Moony,

Please stop writing to your ladylove and sighing while your waiting for replies. We love you too! We're worried you're going to need an intervention soon...

Talk to your real friends occasionally would ya?

I shouldn't have to be doing this,

Padfoot

Dear Lady,

You tease me again. You can't possibly be anyone of my acquaintance, I should be able to recognize someone with as gilded a tongue as yours, at least when you are describing the things you love. I've only known one other person with such a gift, and you could not possibly be her. I don't really know her that well, maybe you do. Her names Sophie Naldeg. She was the girl I spoke of the one I yelled at. She took it remarkably well.

I see you conveniently skipped over the discussion of houses. Well my theory is that you're in Ravensclaw. You're not mean enough to be in Slytherin, not ordinary enough to be in Hufflepuff, I would have noticed if you were in Gryffindor. Thus you must be apart of Ravensclaw. I don't think you can convince me other wise.

You made a comment in your last letter describing your theatrical fainting; you don't have to. Look, there's a masquerade ball for Halloween.

Go with me.

. Please, you can wear a mask the entire time, change your hair, change your voice, change anything you want! Gwen isn't going to be there—she'll be going home for the holiday weekend. Please. Just come and meet me. I want to know your real, even if I can't see the real you.

Remus

Sophie stared down at the letter in her hand. She wasn't sure how to respond.

That scared her. She should say no, she should write to him now, be her normal happy self, and brush this off. Maybe say she'll going to be out of town. Sophie didn't want to though. What she wanted was to send an owl to him now saying 'meet me at the center of the ballroom at midnight'. What she did do was slam her head against her hands and call herself ten sorts of idiots.

The bells tolling signaled her to rise and go though her day in a haze. What's wrong with wanting to have my own Cinderella moment? She mused. Why can't I transform myself for one night, be the real me. How nice it would be to not worry what anyone thought, not her classmates, not her family, not even Remus. She could worry about what he thought because she wanted to not because she had to.

What about her family though? If he recognized her or Joseph figured out who she was, she couldn't lose her family, not yet at least. All she had to do was stick it out one more year, one year then her family could disown her. She would have an education, and Tessie would be getting hers, and Sophie would be an adult, she would find a way to see Tessie. Somewhere deep in her being, Sophie knew that if the truth came out too soon, her father would find a way to stop her from going to school. He would do his best to crush her. Sophie had to ensure she could stand before she let go of her family. But would one night of whimsy really ruin all of that?

Sophie was much too preoccupied trying to suppress the urge to rip out all of her hair to notice who was sitting at the table she flopped down at later in the library.

"Well, that was quite a sigh." Sophie almost squeaked in surprise. "Something on your mind? My ears are open. With all of the grief I've caused you, I should do something to make amends." Sophie looked at him from her hands, the concern she saw in his eyes and the accompanying smile made her stomach twist.

"It's nothing." She stated lightly-he didn't believe her. "Truly! it's just a letter from home. They want me home for the holidays is all."

"So you're sighing over not getting to go to the ball with Joseph?" his smile was still there, just stiffer, his whole face was in fact.

"No!" Sophie fairly shouted, shooting out of her chair.

"Is everything alright Miss Naldeg?" Mrs. Farahey, the librarian, poked her head around a bookshelf and turned her stern gaze on Remus.

"No! No. Mrs. Farahey, it's my fault. I'm sorry and I'll be more quite." Sophie smiled at her, trying to act normal as she sat back down.

"You never have out bursts like this, Sophie. Are you sure everything is fine?" concern colored her tone. Sophie nodded her head violently and the librarian hesitantly left.

Remus let out a barking laugh. "Why Sophie Naldeg, do you have all of the staff watching out for you?" Sophie looked at him and his astonished expression and laughed. "Mrs. Farahey normally likes me well enough, so does Professor Hull. Yet when you're seen with me they all fall over themselves to make sure your okay."

"It does seem that way when I'm with you now doesn't it?" she flashed him a smile.

"I'm not going out with Joseph, ya know." She kept her head down. "To be perfectly clear, I hate him. I don't know why exactly he pulled that stunt, but it makes my skin crawl when I think about him." Sophie shuddered at the reminder of him touching her.

"I don't think he hates my friends; we haven't done anything to him off of the field. We rarely prank the Ravensclaw. I would say he might be jealous, but that was one of the few times we've met in person. Plus, it's well known I'm dating Gwen." Sophie flinched.

"I'm not exactly sure." Sophie could feel her cheeks getting red from lying to Remus so boldly.

"Well, if he messes with you again, tell me. Between me and my mates, well let's just say he will be taken care of." Remus gave her a dazzling smile. All she could do was try not to swallow visibly at the prospect of Remus retaliatly for her. Joseph would surely tell her father if Remus did anything to him, including looking at him wrong.

"Oh that's not necessary." She hasted to add. "He hasn't bugged me since, I'm sure he won't again." Well as long as I keep my mouth shut, she added silently, looking at the table.

"So are you?" he looked at her expectantly.

"Am I what?" Sophie asked perplexed.

"Oh sorry, there I go again being vague again. Are you going home for the holiday? It is only a three day weekend." Sophie sat and thought. She had already lied and said his letter had been from her family, would she lie and say she's going away for the weekend?

"Cause I was thinking, if you stayed for the ball, you could hang out for a while with me and my gang. I wouldn't ask you to leave your friends or anything like that, but at least come and say hi?" he continued.

Sophie thought of her options. Should she say she was leaving and let A Lady meet Remus? Should she say she was staying and turn him down as A Lady? The simplest and smartest option would be to say no with both personas, but she just couldn't. Despite all of the danger, she wanted to see Remus with an intensity that scared her. She found herself hoping to run into him in the library, and on her way to the Owlery. Heck, some days she even wants him to startle Duchess again just so he has to spend some time with her, at least the walk to the hospital wing.

"I'm going home sadly. My sister is all by herself, besides my parents of course, and really misses me. I haven't been able to deny her anything since she was born." Sophie tried to smile and sound like she believed what she was saying. Talking about Tessie made it a little easier.

"Oh, well who am I to deny a little girl her older sister?" his smile was tight. The bell chimed dinner and both persons stood from the table.

"Well I need to run back to my room before dinner so I better get going. It was nice talking to you again Remus."

"The pleasure was all mine Sophie, I hope to see you again soon." He executed a bow, making Sophie giggle.

"As do I Master Lupin." And with an over dramatic curtsy Sophie quite the room.

"So who were you talking to today in the library Moony?" asked James. Sirius perked up from shoveling food into his mouth to look at his friends.

"Sophie Naldeg." Before he could say more Sirius cut in.

"A Naldeg ah? Their almost as bad as Blacks when it comes to being judgmental and elitist." Sirius commented disdainfully. "I've met them on several occasions, only two I really could tolerate were the two youngest. Forget their names but the older of the two looks nothing like her family cept maybe the mom. She was a real black sheep, you could tell. She only talked to her younger sister. The youngster would just go on and on and on about anything and the older sister would just smile and laugh. The mother wouldn't let them be together for long, always called the younger one away. The look on that girls face was remarkable without her little sister, it was like her soul left. She would always become dead and unresponsive, the rest of her family really didn't seem to care." Remus looked at him confused.

"I don't know how that could be Sophie, she always speaks fondly of her family. She's even missing the ball to go home to see them. The time when I startled the owl and injured her was when she was sending a letter home to her family." he paused in his talking so he could untie a letter from an owl's leg that had landed in front of him. He put off opening it, the regal barn owl before him was demanding a treat like some noble; Sirius went on in his silence.

"I'm pretty sure it's Sophie. There are two other Naldeg daughters but there much older. Hey, I could be wrong." He said with a shrug. James made a choking noise.

"Padfoot! You wrong? I've never heard of such an obscene statement!" Sirius growled while James snickered.

"Hey no fighting! We are all going to have a nice, battle free dinner, you hear me?" Grace ordered from the end of the table.

"Ai mother." James and Sirius chorused, their own fight momentarily forgotten given the chance to rib someone else, especially Grace. Grace threw two rolls at their heads and went back to eating as the miscreants grinned and ate the thrown baked goods. Remus shout of joy brought all eyes to him.

"She said yes! She's going to in some form show up!" he smiled widely at them all, waving around a small piece of parchment.

"Good." Sirius stated. "Now we can finally figure out who she is so you can be a little less obsessed with her." Remus looked at him puzzled.

"What do you mean? It's a masquerade, I'm sure she's going to take great lengths to hide who she is." Sirius sighed.

"That's fine, we will use the map! You can't fool the map, not even with magic. So all we have to do is wait for her to show up, one of us checks the map and BAM! We know who she is! Come on Remus, how could you, the brains among us excluding mother, not think of this?"

"I forbid it Sirius." Remus said firmly. "I want her to tell me. If I figure it out it will be without magic. It's more important to me for her to tell me. If I know to soon I won't be able to hold out." he looked stricken.

"Why does that mean I don't get to know?" Sirius said. James nodded in agreement.

"No Sirius, none of you are allowed to look. You all won't be able to contain yourselves. You will let me do this my own way." Sirius looked ready to protest again, so did James.

"You two will let him." Grace's green eyes flashed as she regarded her friends. "This means a lot to Remus, let him do it his way."

"Ai mother." They chorused again earning them two more rolls to the head.

Two tables over under a blue banner Sophie sat mulling over her decision. She was lying to herself and saying that this wasn't going to end badly. She couldn't help it. Guilt gnawed at her like some hungry beast that could not be sated. She could share as much as possible with Remus this way. At least that's the lie she kept telling herself.

She wanted to go with him, wanted it more than she knew she should. A Lady was just the easiest persona. She could completely invent what A Lady looks like, hide who she was better, and still see Remus.

"Well I guess we'll see how everything going to pan out in a week." She muttered to herself while staring at the stars.