Innocence

Chapter Nine

Their first lesson was meant to be Care of Magical Creatures, but when they finally got to their classroom, their teacher immediately led them back out of the room and into a spacious room, near the back of the school. They were told to line up in neat rows according to their houses.

Sophia and David were around halfway along the line of first year Wampus students, which was slowly moving forward. Sophia poked her head over the shoulders of those in front of her and saw that each person was being given something small before being walking off to join a longer line which people from all houses were a part of. After that, she couldn't see what was happening.

Upon reaching the front, she was handed something small and metallic. Looking down, she was alarmed to find a ring which had the Wampus crest pressed into it. At the back of her mind she could imagine Adam only keeping his own Horned Serpent ring in his pocket. He wasn't a big fan of jewellery, and so could imagine him not even considering to show it to her. But if she had never seen his, and didn't even know that it was a tradition that existed, why did the circular band seem familiar to her?

She joined the longer line, lagging a bit so that David was able to join right behind her again. Fitting the ring onto her ring finger on her right hand, she wasn't surprised in the slightest to find that the metal shifted to fit her perfectly. She cursed herself slightly, as she ran her thumb over the metal work and realisation hit her like a brick wall.

The ring was recognisable because she had seen it before. Not her ring, obviously, and not even Adam's, but her Father's. On the hand of her Dad. Her Father must have proposed to him with his own Wampus ring. Pride yet again flared in her chest for being chosen for such a house.

It took a lot longer for them to get the front of this new line, but when they did, Sophia knew it had been worth the wait.

She had almost forgotten about her wand.

She was called to step away from David, and look at a variety of wands laid out before her, side by side. Some were very plain, while others were jewelled and elaborately coloured. As she was instructed, she started to pick them up, one by one and give them a flick to see what would happen. After several minutes, dozens of wands and at least three pauses in order for a professor to clean up the mess she had caused, she finally found the wand that wanted her.

Or so she had been told, it was a bit hard to tell if a wand liked you or not. She came away with a beautiful seven and a half inch wand which was colored blue and decorated with a gold diamond pattern. It was made from willow and contained unicorn hair.

By the time everyone else had collected their rings and found their wands, it was time for their next lesson. David and Sophia made their way down to transfiguration with a few other Wampus and Pukwudgie students, all the while David was complaining about having missed a lesson of what was sure to be his best subject. He was clutching a plain looking black wand with strips of silver laced into the wood, which was made from Ash and contained dragon heart string.

The rest of the day flew by quickly, and before she knew it, Sophia was sat in her windowless room, surrounded by six other empty beds. It was early evening, so most people were still upstairs in the common room, but Sophia was sat by a floating candle, trying to finish her letter to her parents before she would no longer be allowed to go to the owlery in an hour's time.

She wrote:

Dear Dad and Father,

You'll never guess what! I was chosen by Wampus. That was the only house that wanted me, so I'm afraid that I didn't get to choose. But thank goodness at least one of the houses wanted me, and how great is it that it was Father's old house!?

I haven't made many friends yet, and I've barely seen Adam all day. Although he did convince me to try and see if David Scamander would be a good choice of company, and I think he might be right.

I do feel sorry for David though.

Sophia then considered writing about what had happened at the sorting ceremony and explaining the way that people were treating him because of it, but then decided strongly against it. She doubted David would appreciate her talking about him like that to anyone, even if it was just her parents.

I think he misses his family. I can understand that as well, of course.

I look forward to writing to you about everything later!

Lots of love,

Sophia.

Sophia folded the letter up as carefully as she could and stuffed it inside an envelope, pressing the wax seal with the Wampus crest on the ring that she had been given.

She had meant to ask Adam about the rings at dinner, but she was unable to find him.

Climbing the stairs up to the common room, she glanced around and soon found David, and waved the letter at him in order to let him know where she was going. Just as she reached the door that led to the ladder, she passed the pukwudgie again, who opened his mouth to speak.

"Please be aware, Miss Graves, that you need to be back within the hour in order not to miss curfew."

"I know." She put simply. "I won't be very long at all. Just a quick visit to my owl Mark."

"Very well then." And the pukwudgie opened the door for her and offered his hand to help her down, which she gratefully took.

She paused at the top of the ladder for a second.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's your name?" She asked shyly.

"Jasper, Miss."

"How long have you been here?"

"Let me put it this way, Miss. I had seen more children pass through their time in Wampus house than I could be able to count by the time a certain Master Percival Graves had first stepped foot in here when he was eleven."

Sophia grinned.

- - - - - - - - - -

Another chapter! Not very interesting but whatever. It gets better (at least in my opinion). Currently halfway through writing chapter eighteen. And I would say that I'm at least halfway through the story, if not further. So that gives you an idea for the length of this.

Hope you enjoyed it. Vote, comment. All that jazz.