Year of Miracles

Sophia, or Sophie Weasley sighed, looking over all her luggage. At last she would be going back to Hogwarts. The summer had been no fun for her, filled with her red-haired relatives. She was the only one with her looks in the family. Sophie had blonde hair, and big, bright eyes. One was blue, and the other was green. She was tall like her father, Ron.

Luckily, over the summer, the Potters had come over. Phiona, more commonly called Phi, Potter, was one of Sophie's best friends at school. She had even brought her cousin, also magical, who happened to be Sophie's crush. Sophie had had a crush on him since her first year. Kevin, her crush's name, was in Ravenclaw. Unlike the rest of the Weasley's, so was Sophie.

Flashback

"Sophie Weasley!" cried out Professor McGonagall. Sophie looked up eagerly, walked to the chair, sat down in it, and waited for McGonagall to set the sorting hat on her head.

Queer..., a little voice said in her ear, All relatives of yours have been put into Gryffindor, but that is not the place for you. Ah well...RAVENCLAW!!! This last word the voice said out loud. Sophie leapt up in joy, for this was the house she wanted. Her three older brothers looked at her from the Gryffindor table in shock. Sophie couldn't wait to tell her parents, especially her two younger brothers. They still looked like all the other Weasleys, but they seemed to understand her, at least better than her parents did.

Sophie ran to the Ravenclaw table, sat down, and looked at the other people in her house. Sitting right next to her was the most unbelievably handsome boy she had ever seen. His hair was black, and sort of bushy...and his eyes...oh his eyes...they were the most gorgeous blue eyes she had ever seen. He looked at her and smiled.

"Your first year?" he asked.

"Yep," she replied.

"Great! Mine too," he said, "Same with my cousin. Phi Potter. You know her?"

"Yeah! She's come to my house a few times, we're pretty good friends. She got sorted into Gryffindor, didn't she?" the boy nodded, just as the feast food blossomed on the table. Sophie smiled. It was going to be a very interesting year.

Indeed it was. Sophie made many friends that year, including Matilda, Rasha, and several other girls and guys. She also got closer to Phi.

Sophie hadn't gotten to see Matilda over the summer. Matilda Malfoy was the daughter of one of her father's greatest enemies when he had gone to school. Her father had gotten enraged when another of her parent's friends, Hermoine Granger, had gotten married to him. Rasha had not come, either. Luckily, the Potters stayed for most of the summer, and Sophie had gotten even closer to Phi and Kevin.

The only problem was, Kevin had a girlfriend. Sophie wasn't particularly fond of her, she wasn't exactly the nicest girl in Hogwarts. She was also in Slytherin. But, Sophie reminded herself, maybe Kevin would see that, and take a look at someone else...

The clock by her bed made Sophie jerk back into reality. It was past midnight, and she left for Hogwarts tomorrow. She was about to turn the light off when she heard two voices downstairs. Her mother, Lavender's, and her Grandmother. Sophie crept out of her room to listen by the stairs.

"Lavender, there is something wrong with that girl," said Sophie's grandmother, Molly.

"Oh, Molly, she's just different. There's nothing wrong with that."

"She's too different. She looks nothing like you or any other of us, only she is tall like Ronald. Sophie doesn't even act like any of us."

"Molly, please. We can't all be the same."

"True, but not as different as her. She's not even in Gryffindor. And she acts like I never know what I'm talking about."

"That's what typical teenagers do. Just give her time."

"Well, she's going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. Are they all ready?"

"All six of them." Sophie had five siblings, all brothers, all in Gryffindor.

"Good, good. Well, I should be getting to sleep. Good night, Lavender."

"Night, Molly. Don't worry about Sophie. She'll be fine."

There was no answer to this. Sophie sighed. She already knew what her grandmother thought of her. At least she would get to see her friends tomorrow.

A bit comforted, Sophie climbed into her bed, closed her eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Sophie got up, about twenty minutes before everyone else. She dragged her luggage downstairs and put it by the car. Grabbing a light breakfast, she sat down on the couch and started reading a book.

After a few hours, everyone was finally ready to go. Ron got everyone into the car, Sophie in the back between her two brothers, and they were off.

On the way to the train, there was much talk of the new year at Hogwarts, (there were going to be a few dances this year, but the teachers insisted on calling them balls. Too formal, Sophie thought). About the only other subject that came up was Ron warning Sophie not to get into too much trouble. This was the only other thing she had inherited from her family, her uncles Fred and George, to be exact. She was just as much of a troublemaker as them when they were in school.

They arrived at the train station, and got their things on trolleys. Sophie put her owl, Losse, on top of her suitcase, and walked casually up to the wall between platforms nine and ten. When no one was looking, she slipped through the wall, and looked up at the Hogwarts Express. The rest of her siblings, Lu, Ben, Greg, Will, and Mike, followed shortly. Lu, Ben, and Greg were her older siblings, Will and Mike, the younger ones. Ron came after all of them, and helped them all carry their luggage on the train. Sophie said a hurried good-bye to her father, and ran on the train. Right away she saw Matilda, saying a few last words to Draco, her father.

"Matilda!" called Sophie, running to her friend.

"Oh! Hello, Sophie. I don't think you've met my dad yet," said Matilda, gesturing to her father, "Dad, this is Sophie. Sophie Weasley."

"Weasley?" he asked, arching an eyebrow, "You don't look much like one."

"Oddball of the family," said Sophie, "I'm not exactly the family favorite."

"Ah, well," sighed Draco, "It was nice meeting you, Sophie. Good-bye, Matilda."

"Bye, dad," waved Matilda, as Draco stepped off the train, "I'm surprised," she said, turning to Sophie, "I thought he might hate you, 'cause you're Ron's daughter, and everything." Sophie shrugged, and practically threw herself at the window.

"It's Kevin!" she cried, "Phi's here, too."

"You know," said Matilda, "He's never going to figure out that you like him unless you tell him."

"I can't tell him now," replied Sophie, "He's got a girlfriend. But, maybe if they break up I can tell him." Matilda sighed, and waved as Phi and Kevin came onto the bus.

"Hey, guys!" greeted Sophie, giving each Phi and Kevin a hug. Kevin and her had been on hugging terms for a while, they considered each other to be one of their best friends. Matilda nodded to each of them. She wasn't exactly the hugging type.

Before long, Rasha joined their group, along with Karyn, another of their friends. The six sat down together as the train whistle blew, and soon, the train started to move. Sophie smiled at the thought that she wouldn't have to go back home until the end of May.

The six started talking of various things, classes, teachers, and what they all did over the summer, before a ratty black-haired sixth-year girl with an unpleasant look on her face came and interrupted their conversation. It was Kevin's girlfriend.

"Oh, hi Kevin," she said, not paying attention to anyone else, "could you come and sit with me?" Sophie hated the way she talked, with a whiny, annoying voice that she would swear could penetrate the noise of a muggle traffic jam.

"Um...okay. See you guys later," said Kevin, waving to everyone and getting up. When they had gone. Sophie slumped down in her seat.

"Don't worry, Sophie," said Phi comfortingly, "Kev told me that he was getting a bit annoyed with Elaine." Elaine was Kevin's girlfriend's name.

"Besides," Karyn said, "You and him make such a better couple than him and Elaine. You're good friends already! I bet if you told him you liked him, he'd be yours in a flash."

"Yeah, I guess so," said Sophie, with a little smile, "I did spend a lot of time with him and Phi over the summer."

"Exactly," said Matilda, "and there's plenty of opportunities to ask him to go with you to one of the dances. We're having one every month, I think."

"Do you think Lance will go with me?" piped up Phi, "I'd ask him, but I'm too shy..."

A second later, the lady with the trolley of snacks came. Everyone got enough food to hold them until the feast, including a bit they planned to eat during the sorting. It always seemed longer when you were hungry. Sophie held up a chocolate frog, remembering...

Flashback

It was four days before the Potters were leaving. Everyone had gotten back from shopping at Diagon Alley, and were quite hungry. Sophie sat with Kevin on one side of her, Phi on the other. After dinner, there was a plate of chocolate frogs for desert. Kevin opened one, and tried to catch it before it jumped. Unfortunately, it got away, and jumped on Sophie's shoulder. It's one good jump used up, Sophie caught it, imprisoned it in her hands, and held the frog out to Kevin. He put his hand on hers to take back the chocolate frog. They both sort of froze for a moment, and then Kevin took his hand away, quite embarrassed and peeked at the frog. It was still now, so he popped it into his mouth. Phi snickered on Sophie's other side, and she gave her a light kick to shut her up. But why would he be embarrassed to touch her hand if he didn't like her in that way...

"Sophie!" said Phi, shaking her lightly.

"Huh?" asked Sophie. Phi sighed.

"I said...who do you think the defense against the dark arts teacher will be this year?" asked Phi.

"I don't know...and don't really care, as long as it's not Lockhart," said Sophie.

"I couldn't stand him," agreed Karyn. It was dark out now, and Sophie looked up at the stars. It was very clear out tonight. Out in the distance, she could see the shadow of Hogwarts castle.

"Guys! We're almost there!" Sophie said excitedly. She got out her robes and threw them on. Her friends did the same. Soon, they were at the castle. Everyone except for the first years got into carriages, and were herded into the Great Hall.

After the sorting was performed, Dumbledore gave the usual speech on Hogwarts rules, and the feast began. Sophie sat with her closest friends in Ravenclaw, which were Karyn and Rasha, and looked around at everyone. Kevin was sitting with Elaine and a few of his other friends. He spotted her and waved. She waved back, and they both continued with their meals.

When the feast was over, everyone went up to their dorm rooms. Sophie rearranged her things to her liking, and said goodnight to Karyn and Rasha. They all fell asleep, ready for the next day's classes to begin the next day.

For the next few weeks, everything went pretty smoothly. The defense against the dark arts teacher was a fairly nice old man, also fairly interesting. He always wore sunglasses, at all times of the day. Before Sophie knew it, the first dance was drawing near. When the next Hogsmeade trip came, all of the Hogwarts girls went shopping for their dresses. Sophie chose a marine blue dress, quite shimmery, and quite sparkly. She had a pair of shoes to go with it, luckily, which saved her a few galleons. Phi ran up to her, a black and white dress in her arms.

"I can't wait to wear this one!" she cried, almost jumping up and down, "You find a dress?"

"Yep!" smiled Sophie, holding up her blue one, "Let's get them and grab a butterbeer. I'm thirsty..."

Sipping their drinks, Sophie and her friends showed each other their purchases. Sophie had a great time joking around with them. After a while, Kevin came in. He was with Elaine, who was acting very possessive of him, as usual. Sophie felt a pang of jealousy. Kevin pointed in Sophie's direction, and apparently was asking Elaine something. She reluctantly nodded, and they headed over to where Sophie and her friends were sitting. Elaine didn't like Sophie much, and the same went for Rasha, Phi, Matilda, and Karyn.

"Hey!" said Kevin, pulling up a chair, "You guys been dress shopping?"

"Yep," nodded Matilda, "We're all done." Elaine rolled her eyes.

"I've been ready for ages," she said, "I got my dress over the summer."

"Oh," said Rasha, "We wanted to go shopping together. It's more fun that way." Elaine shot her a look.

"So..." said Sophie, trying to change the subject, "We've got a pretty decent defense against the dark arts teacher this year."

"You're right," agreed Kevin, "best one we've had in a while." McGonagall interrupted their conversation.

"Students!" she said, "We're leaving for the school, now! Finish your refreshments and shopping!"

"Well, let's go then," said Matilda, getting up. Everyone else followed suit. Sophie gave Kevin a playful push and dashed off, with her dress out of the ground's reach. He didn't catch up until they reached the school, and he grabbed her arm. They both started cracking up. McGonagall gave them a look, and they stopped immediately. As soon as she looked away, they were laughing again.

"All right," said Kevin, giving her a hug, "We better get some sleep. Classes tomorrow." Sophie nodded, hugged him back, and walked into her dorm. Karyn and Rasha had already fallen asleep. Sophie sighed, threw on some pajamas, climbed into her bed, and closed her eyes.

Something was wrong.

Everything was dark, and there was always screaming...screaming...

Sophie stumbled over something...no...someone...she knelt down to the ground, and turned the body over...it was Kevin. He was still breathing, but it was ever so shallow.

"At last, we meet," said a voice from behind her.

"What did you do to him?!" demanded Sophie, supporting Kevin's head.

"Oh, he's not dead," said the voice, coming from a robed figure, that managed to be darker than the darkness Sophie was already in, "Yet." Sophie started to tremble. Kevin opened his eyes.

"Run..." he whispered, "Get away from him..."

"Enough!" cried the voice, and shouted something Sophie couldn't interpret. A bright green light shot at Kevin. A second later, he was limp.

"No!" screamed Sophie, and ran at the figure, "How could you!" The voice said something else, and Sophie was still screaming, but now in pain. Horrible, white hot pain. It was unbearable! All she wanted was for it to stop...

Sophie woke, sweating. It was still twenty minutes before she had to be up, but she got ready anyway, as fast as she could, and ran down to the common room. There was no one there yet. But Sophie had made up her mind. She had to tell Kevin she liked him. What if he died without knowing?

Fifteen minutes later, people started coming down the stairs. Out of the boys dorm stepped Kevin, talking to another of his friends. Sophie ran up to him.

"Kevin, I have to talk to you," she said. He shrugged.

"All right. See you at breakfast," he called to his friend, and then turned to Sophie, "What is it?" Sophie looked around, to make sure no one was listening. Then she threw her arms around him, and he jumped a little in surprise.

"Sorry," she said.

"That's okay," he replied, "what's wrong?"

"Well, last night," she began, "I had a dream. There was a lot of screaming, and it was completely dark. I tripped over someone, and found it was you. You were nearly unconscious, I don't know why. Then this voice said, 'at last, we meet,' as if it knew me. You told me to run away from him, and it got impatient with you, and killed you, with a spell. After that I tried to hurt it, I was so mad, but it cursed me, with this horrible pain. Then I woke up, and I just had to tell you something I've been meaning to tell you for a long time."

"What's that?" asked Kevin, giving her a comforting smile.

"I...really...really...like you," she managed, "a lot."

"Well," he said, "I like you too, Sophie, but...not in that way." Sophie looked at the floor. "It's just...Elaine and I...you know." Sophie nodded.

"I just had to tell you," she said, "that dream scared me so much..."

"It was just a dream," Kevin said, "just a dream."

"You're right," Sophie smiled, "okay, then. Should we get some breakfast?" Kevin nodded. As they walked to the Great Hall, Sophie felt a little relieved, but empty. Kevin knew...but he didn't like her back. The way she liked him, anyway.

It was the morning before the dance. All the first years were acting incredibly flirtatious to everyone that passed them. Most of the second years, and a few of the third years, too. You had to laugh at them; it was hilarious. They didn't get that this was just to have fun. A few of the girls started getting ready in the morning, and didn't finish until early afternoon. Most of Sophie's friends, including herself, started about an hour before the dance began, and still had a few minutes to spare.

Finally, it was time for the dance to start. Sophie walked to the Great Hall with Rasha, Karyn, and Kevin. Rasha had a date to the dance, another Ravenclaw named Oris. Matilda also had a date with another Slytherin, Tom. Of course, they had been going out for a while now. Phi had been asked by Lance, her crush, and was incredibly nervous. She almost ran behind a table when she spotted him.

Kevin spotted Elaine, and ran off to talk to her. Sophie sighed and shook her head. Why was he so interested in a girl that was so mean?

A fast, exciting song started, and Sophie and her friends got in a circle. They all started to dance, with one of them or another going into the circle and doing something quite outrageous. It was a lot of fun. After a few more songs like this, there was a slow dance. The group of girls sat down in a few chairs, laughing. Out of the corner of her eye, Sophie spotted Kevin and Elaine dancing. She chose to ignore that, and turned back to her friends. They got a few drinks, and waited for the song to be over.

This basically went on for the entire night. At last, it was the last song before everyone had to go to their dormitories. As usual, Kevin and Elaine were dancing. But this time, Sophie couldn't keep her eyes off of them. Elaine looked over at her, shot Sophie a smirk...and gave Kevin a kiss on the cheek. He looked at Elaine and gave her a small smile. Sophie fumed silently. How dare she?! Elaine had done that only to make her jealous, she knew. Elaine knew she liked Kevin, although Sophie had tried to avoid that tremendously. Now what?

Karyn noticed Sophie breathing heavily, and put a hand on her shoulder.

"What's wrong, Soph?" she asked.

"That...idiot...Elaine...just gave Kevin a kiss on the cheek! She knew I was watching! She did it just to make me jealous! I can't stand her!" Sophie tried to keep quiet, so only Karyn could hear her, but it was hard.

"Come on, Sophie, it's okay."

"No, it's not! She knows I like him!" Karyn sighed.

"Well, at least you know that what she did wasn't out of what she feels for him. It's out of her need to make you feel jealous."

"Kevin won't think so."

"You know he'll find out eventually." Sophie paused at this.

"Karyn...you're right," she said, and noticed that people were starting to leave, "Um...I guess we should go." Karyn nodded, smiled, and walked back to the Ravenclaw dorms with Sophie.

For a few weeks, everything was pretty normal. But one day, in the Daily Prophet, a sighting of Voldemort had been reported. This was the subject of the majority of the conversations. Matilda was actually excited about this.

"I can't believe everyone's scared," she said.

"Everyone's wondering why you aren't scared," replied Sophie, getting out her books and starting on her homework.

"Well, I don't like the fact that he kills so many people and everything, but I still think he's awesome." Sophie shrugged.

"You know what," she said, changing the subject, "I was looking through a book on animagi yesterday, and I found out something really weird."

"What?" asked Matilda.

"Well, a few days ago, I completed the steps everyone has to go to. I chose a dolphin for my animal."

"Surprising," said Matilda, sarcastically. Dolphins were Sophie's favorite animals.

"But that's not the weird part. The course took me about four months."

"And?"

"The average is three years."

"Oh," Matilda looked puzzled, "Um...maybe you should talk to McGonagall or something. She's an animagi."

"I did. She's stumped, too."

"That's is weird," said Matilda.

"Yeah," agreed Sophie. Just then, Elaine walked into the room.

"Sophie!" she said, in her usual snotty way, "I need to have a word with you."

"And I should care?" Sophie replied, rolling her eyes. Elaine shot her a nasty look.

"Just get over here!" she said. Sophie shook her head and walked over to Elaine.

"So, you like Kevin," smirked Elaine.

"I don't see what business it is of yours."

"Well, you do. Obviously, he made the better choice between the two of us."

"When you kissed him on the cheek, it was only to make me jealous, nothing more!" spat Sophie, "I can't believe he's with someone like you! I'd be surprised if you really liked him at all!"

"He is quite handsome," said Elaine, "So I'll stay with him." Sophie's mouth hung open. How could someone be so cold-hearted?

Elaine simply turned up her nose at Sophie and walked away. She then saw another Slytherin guy come up and started to talk with her. Then another thought struck Sophie. Was it possible Elaine was even cheating on Kevin, also?

Sophie found out a few weeks later. Another sighting of Voldemort had been reported, and this one was nearer to the school. Kevin had rushed into the Ravenclaw common room, eyes all red and puffy. Sophie had been talking with Rasha and Karyn, but rose to stop Kevin before he ran into his dorm.

"Sophie, please," he objected, trying to push her aside. She refused to budge.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I just...need to be alone for a little bit," replied Kevin, trying to hide his face and get past her again.

"You'll feel better if you talk about it," said Sophie. Kevin paused for a moment, and slowly nodded.

"But not here," he added. Sophie agreed, and they found an abandoned classroom. There was a window seat, and the two sat on it, looking out at the sky, which was full of dark, gray clouds.

"So...what's wrong?" asked Sophie.

"It's Elaine," said Kevin, eyes starting to fill again. Sophie put a hand on his shoulder.

"What about her?" Kevin took a deep breath.

"I saw her...with another guy. She was supposed to meet me before breakfast, and I was a little late. They were talking, and I wanted to see what it was about, so I hid behind an open door. The guy said, 'So when are you going to tell him?' she told him, 'pretty soon, but he's going to be here pretty soon. You'd better go,' and kissed him. I almost gagged, it was so disgusting. As soon as the other guy left, I ran up to her and told her that I knew what was going on. She was actually happy. I barely got through my classes today, I was so upset. I was just running back to my dorm, when you stopped me." He looked as if he was about to start crying again, and Sophie hugged him.

"It's all right..." she said, gripping him tightly. He dried his eyes on her shoulder. After a while, she added, "besides," kissed him on the cheek, and whispered in his ear, "I still love you." She then let go of him, and walked out of the room, leaving Kevin to think to himself.

It was two weeks after Kevin and Elaine broke up. Another dance had passed, and Halloween was nearing. Sophie was having a great time pulling pranks on all the teachers. They were only small ones, but enough to send Snape off in a rage the day before Halloween, threatening that the person who did this would have detention for a month. (Sophie had sent his cauldron spewing whatever it made into Snape's face. Everyone had a good laugh).

Sophie and her friends were all laughing about this Halloween morning, when Kevin asked if he could talk to her.

"All right," replied Sophie, smiling. Karyn, Rasha, Phi and Matilda all started to smirk at her. "Oh, shut up!" she said to them, and walked away with Kevin. They all started cracking up.

"Um...Sophie?" said Kevin, once they were out of sight.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I've been thinking since Elaine...you know."

"And?"

"I think I'm starting to realized all I missed out on."

"What do you mean?"

"I was so into Elaine, I didn't notice...how wonderful you were. And if I had paid a bit more attention to you...I would've seen...anyway. If you can forgive me...do you want to go to the next dance with me?" Sophie smiled.

"I've liked you...since our first year," she said, "And that whole time, I was waiting for you to ask me this."

"So..."

"All right." Kevin laughed, and pulled her into his arms. Sophie laughed with him, as she suddenly felt an empty space inside her fill.

Miles and miles away from Hogwarts, Voldemort was talking to one of his most prized Death Eaters.

"Lucius, are we ready?"

"Nearly, my lord. We will have her within weeks."

"Hurry! They are all scared to death of me, there should be no resistance. Besides, They have no idea that I am actually there, among them every day. I have been all this year."

"But, why do you want the girl?"

"She is no mere witch. She has a few...properties...the others do not have. Dumbledore does not have the wit to see it, so I shall get her first!"

"Wonderful plan, my lord."

"Of course it is! Now, get to work!"

"Yes, of course."

Voldemort smirked to himself as Lucius walked away. Everything was in order, and nothing could stop him.

Nothing.