Innocence

Chapter Twenty Three

Sophia and David forgot all about their detentions for the rest of the week, as they were more concerned in finishing the mountains of homework that they had received.

However, they came back to reality with a bump when an owl flew over their heads and dropped a letter into Sophia's hands as they were walking across the lawns on the way to herbology.

"It says here that our detention will be this Saturday." She said, fuming and crumpling the letter as she went. David tutted at her when she threw it over her shoulder. "I still don't understand what that man's problem is. How dare he give us detention? He didn't even say that someone actually saw us out of bed, he just said that he had reason to believe we were. That's hardly evidence."

"Why don't you write to your parents and tell them what's happened? They must be close to the headmaster, maybe they can convince him to let you off?"

It was Sophia's turn to tut. "No. Somehow I think that's the last thing I should do. I think it would give us more trouble."

"What do we even have to do for the detention?"

"The letter didn't say, it just said to meet Blackrose in the hall after dinner." Sophia said, scrunching up her nose to think. "Though Adam told me once that detentions were awful. He said that they make you dual a teacher, and that they write it off as extra lessons or something like that, when really it's just a chance for them to put you in your place."

David's jaw stiffened. "That sounds less than ideal."

"Look. Don't worry about it, okay? At least we'll be together."

- - - - -

So the following evening Sophia and David waited behind for everyone else to leave the hall until it was just them and Professor Blackrose and another student that the headmaster had called back when he had tried to leave. Sophia felt a little less on edge when she realised that it was Adam.

Blackrose whispered something in his ear before the two of them walked over to where Sophia and David were stood.

"For your detention today we will be practicing duelling skills." Professor Blackrose declared. Sophia glanced at her brother worriedly, and locked eyes with him for a moment. She couldn't read his expression. Blackrose continued. "So we will be partnering up for the next few minutes."

Adam stepped forward. "I'll go with Sophia then and-"

"You will do no such thing, Graves." Blackrose cut Adam off. "I'm not having you go easy on your younger sister. You will go with young Scamander, here. Take him to the armoury and show him the ropes. Miss Graves and I will do fine here together."

Adam seemed a bit startled but composed himself again quickly, shooting a backward glance at his sister before walking away, David following quietly.

Turning back to her headmaster, Sophia was startled to see a glint in the man's eye and a smirk creeping along his face. He turned and walked away from her, so that the two of them were stood on opposite sides of the hall. He gave a single flick of his wand and the tables and chairs throughout the room started levitating and moved to the sides, out of the way, and stacked themselves on top of each other.

"Now we're going to skip all of the usual polite requirements of a dual." Blackrose began. "All of the bowing and flourishes that go into a fair fight."

"A fair fight?" Sophia could see anger radiating off of the older man again, and she clutched her wand in fear. She barely knew any spells, and could actually do fewer still.

"Yes. A fair fight." Blackrose was speaking slowly as if she were stupid. "But you wouldn't know what one of those is, would you?"

"Yes I do-"

"-Because if you did, you would know that what you did on Halloween wasn't fair in the slightest."

"Going to bed late?" Sophia was very confused by this point.

"No!" Blackrose shouted as he suddenly flung his arm up and over his head, a lasso of fire forming from the tip. "I'm talking about you running to your Father and sticking your nose in where it doesn't belong." He brought his arm back down, the fire surging through the air, straight towards Sophia.

Sophia, realising that neither 'Lumos' nor 'Alohomora' were going to help her in such a situation, forgot about her wand and put it away back inside her robes before launching herself across the room and ducking behind the wall of tables. Not a second had passed before her protection suddenly flew to other side of the room, leaving her exposed again. Blackrose stood above her, wand still raised.

"I know magic better than you ever will, little Graves. In fact, silent incantations is quite a hard skill to master, but you should know that already what with your Father being one of the best our world has to offer, but his filthy husband being nothing more than a shadow of the power that he once possessed."

"How dare you speak about my Dad in such a way!" Sophia shouted. Finding her courage, she launched herself off of the floor and straight at her headmaster. She might not have known enough magic to be of any use to her, but she did know how to fight. She managed to plant a bone-crunching blow straight onto the man's nose before she suddenly lost all control of her body, and felt her feet lose contact with the floor.

Blackrose was stood below her, one hand holding his wand, keeping her hovering in the air and unable to move, and the other clutching at his nose. Sophia felt a bit satisfied when she saw the blood gushing out from between his fingers.

"If you had just minded your own business and let me deal with the situation and your Father, this wouldn't have needed to happen. You would do good to stay out of my way." His voice wrung cold and hollow, before he flicked his wand one final time, causing Sophia to go flying back against the wall. She felt her head make contact with the solid surface, a blinding pain, and then nothing.

- - - - - - - - - -

Whoop whoop. Friday the 13th. Watching the election results.

Though some fun news: my niece is going to born any minute now. Cool times.

😂 I don't think anyone reads this anymore.

Thanks if you're reading this in 2963.