History of Magic (N.E.W.T.)

"That could have been any other guy." Sophia replied firmly. "But the point is that Potter needs to stay out of government affairs, and should go around enforcing good like he should."

"Is he not enforcing good as an official?"

"No, he's not. I'm not sure if you follow the newspaper-SEE, EVEN THAT DAMN NEWSPAPER IS GOVERNMENT RAN!-But anyway, he's doing more mistakes than good... he's not fulfilling his original duty! Your arguments are futile, Hugh. And no rhyme intended."

"Will you stop rambling on about something you don't know about?" A girl asked from the row in front of Sophia. "I mean, honestly-- People cannot run themselves! They need a strong government. Look at what happened so long ago in tribal Africa! They had absolutely no government and they were happy- but they got taken over and made into slaves. Do you want us Brits to be taken over by Germany, and then have another Hitler age? Honestly!"

"I think you're both hysterical," said Hugh.

"Quiet Hugh, you hive minded drove." Sophia said turning back to the girl. "And I am not worry about the entire country of Britain! I am talking about US as wizards!"

"The word is Drone," The girl corrected, rolling her eyes. "Well, if we wizards went ungoverned, what would happen? People'd be killed daily from the Unforgivable Curses, muggles worldwide would figure out about magic.. A strict government is what's necessary! Without it, us wizards and witches would be free to do whatever we wanted- and with magic, and the Harry Potter business would start again- except with no Potter to save us."

Sophia rolled her eyes, and shook her head, as an act to seem she was so much smarter than the other girl. That poor, silly, Hufflepuff.

"I understand we need some sort of governing body to keep us stable, but to the point we're being observed, always watched, and have everything government run is ridiculous and Orwellian."

The girl scoffed. "The only reason everything is government run is because ordinary wizards couldn't handle the stress of keeping a magical newspaper in circulation, or monitoring magic. The government is well-run, and it has the manpower to do it. We should be happy that the Ministry is there. You're much too ready to see a conspiracy when there isn't one!"

"You're underestimating us as people!" Sophia exclaimed. "I'm sure we're more than capable of circulating our own newspaper or taking charge of a hospital! We're smart enough to take care of ourselves." Sophia slumped back into her chairs, with her arms cross. Right there, she decided that when she became wealthy enough, she'd open her own private academy for wizards.

"Where would we get the funds for a public hospital?! What you're saying doesn't make any sense financially. You have all these spectacular dreams that will never come true because you're BROKE, Sawyer!" The girl said, sneering.

Sophia jumped right out of her desk, pulled out her wand from her robe pocket, and pointed it straight at the girl's nose.

"Avis Oppugno" She shouted, and instantly an angry flock of blue jays flew straight out of her wand, and began to circle around the girl, pecking at her her hair and clothes and school materials.

As she watched the birds in action, Sophia leaned back, glaring at her. "Someday, you will come crawling back to me." she growled.

"EEEEK!" The girl yelled, covering her face. "STOP IT, SOPHIA!" Her screams were really, really obnoxiously shrill. "Ow-oww--" She said, shaking her head, trying to clear the birds away.

"Only if you promise to never insult me or my family again." Sophia replied coolly.

Professor Binns just kept teaching to the one student who was actually bothering to pay attention. Might as well not fight in a losing war...

"YES! I didn't think you would take it that seriously, I was just trying to prove a point, I promise, now get these damn birds off me!" The student wailed, still covering her face.

"Okay, just stop blubbering." And Sophia swished her wand, and the birds disappeared into specks of dust. She set aside her wand, and pull out her parchment and quill again, preparing to continue to take notes.

The girl turned back to the lesson angrily. That Sophia bitch was so.. so.. dumb. And cruel. And why did she hang around that freaky guy anyways?

"Was that really necessary?" asked Hugh later on into the class, once most everything had passed.

"Yes, it was." Sophia said seriously. "Hugh, if you had a sense of pride, you would have done the same thing."

Hugh had shoved himself off in the furthest corner of the room he could -- in the front row, albeit, but it was still a corner. He stared at the window pane with a void expression, the other hand mindlessly flipping through his textbook in search of the specified page for that day.

Ah, the class where it had all began.

"Hello, Hugh."

It was Sophia, looking as lovely as ever, in her own, Sophia-ish way. Her cheeks were bright and red from the cold, making her mole show up more prominent then ever, and his hair was wavy and tangled from the cold wet weather, and she had her scarf tied tightly around neck for warmth.

She carefully sat down next to him, smiling slightly at the corner of her mouth.

This sent a flurry of nerves through his spine, though not a single muscle was moved. "Hey," he murmured.

"How are things?" Sophia reached over, and patted Hugh on the hand. Her soft hand, on his rough one. "It's kind of strange to think how the school year is going to be ending soon, and we'll have to move on..."

Hugh shrugged. "Yeah," he replied with rather blatant indifference. "I guess..."

"Oh, come on!" Sophia exclaimed impatiently, giving him a gentle slap on his arm. "Wake up! We haven't talked in a long time!"