What Lies Within

As the next week went by, Sophie and Draco spent every available minute on their brooms. Draco was surprised by how well she could fly and how great she was with a quaffle. They even started to have competitions where they would release the snitch and see who found it first. Sadly, Sophie beat him far too many times.

"I let you win." He would retort as they walked back to the castle. She would simply laugh and shake her head at him, knowing that he had tried his hardest to beat her.

"So do you think I'm ready for tryouts tomorrow?" She questioned him as they made their way through the dark castle, heading back to the Slytherin common room on the night before tryouts.

"Yeah, I really do. If Montague doesn't make you the last chaser then... I quit the team." He told her honestly, making her shake her head and playfully shove him.

"No, I wouldn't let you do that. This team is too important to you for you to quit just for me." He shrugged and looked over at her.

"You're important to me too." She stopped walking and turned to look over at him, making him stop as well. Before she could respond, or even think of what to respond with, they heard someone clear their throat behind them, they both jumped to see Professor Umbridge walking towards them.

"Professor Umbridge." Draco greeted, nodding at her. She came to stand in front of them, looking back and forth between the two, smiling softly.

"I'm guessing you two are out doing your prefect rounds?" She questioned them, making them both nod.

"Yes, of course." Sophie told her, smiling sweetly. "We were just finished actually so we were on our way back to the common room." She fibbed, starting to turn, Draco following her.

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk with the two of you." Umbridge said, smiling sweetly. Sophie felt her blood run cold. What on earth would a women like Umbridge want with her? "I wanted to do it out of earshot of the other students." She started.

"What is it, Professor?" Draco questioned, frowning at her. Sophie had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Draco could be such a teachers pet.

"Well... I've been given permission from the Minister to start my own patrol squad for the school, the Inquisitorial Squad. Your father offered up the two of you right away, saying that you two were of course prefects and were very dedicated to making this school ... better. So what do you say? Would you two like to join my Inquisitorial Squad?" She questioned, smiling at them happily. They exchanged a look quickly before looking back at the small women in front of them.

"What exactly comes with the title of this? What will we be expected to do? We are already prefects, what more could we do?" Draco wondered. Sophie wasn't sure she liked this 'Inquisitorial Squad' much. She was already a prefect, what more power could she need?

"Much of the same duties as prefect, but you answer to me instead of Dumbledore. You also have more power than prefects. You can now deduct house points from other prefects as if they were any other student" She answered proudly.

"What does Dumbledore think of this squad?" Sophie questioned, crossing her arms. She could tell from the look on Draco's face that he was already excited for the squad. He loved being in charge. It was then that she saw the old, arrogant Draco return. The Draco she had spent the week with was gone again. Well... it had been fun while it lasted.

"Come tomorrow morning, my dear, you will find that Dumbledore doesn't have as much power as he used to. So how about it?" She gave a small giggle.

"We're in." Draco answered for them, making Sophie glare up at him, knowing she couldn't say anything in front of a professor.

"Brilliant! I will have badges for you tomorrow when we make the official announcement of the Squad. We will be doing more recruiting tomorrow as well. I'm off to bed now, farewell." With that she turned and basically waddled off, disappearing into the dark shadows of the castle. Sophie immediately turned on Draco, seeing him smirk.

"What's got you all hot and bothered, Hill?" He questioned, still smirking. "We just got made the boss of everyone else in this school, including other prefects."

"I don't want to 'be the boss' of anyone else, Malfoy. You are going to abuse that power, just as you abuse your prefect power." She told him, glaring up at him. His face suddenly softened, showing the sweet boy she had spent every evening with. It lasted only a second before his smirk was back.

"What does it matter to you? I have no power over you." Now it was her turn to smirk. She took a step towards him so their faces were almost pressed together. His smirk fell as he stared down at her lips.

"That's right. I'm not like other girls in this school, Draco." She purred, smirking as she saw him gulp. "I don't fall over myself trying to get you to notice me." She stepped back, still smirking. "I could care less if you noticed me or not, in fact, I'd rather you didn't." With that she spun on her heel and walked off, leaving him standing in the hallway breathing deeply and wondering what had just happened.

The next morning was a bright and sunny one as Sophie woke in her warm bed, finding Pansy sitting up on her bed, looking as if she were about to cry. Sophie inwardly groaned before sitting up, turning to face her friend.

"What's wrong, Pansy?" She questioned, running a hand through her bed head.

"Did you tell Draco that I like him?" She questioned quietly, giving Sophie puppy dog eyes.

"What?" Sophie questioned. "No, of course not." She lied. "Why?"

"He's just been acting really weird to me lately. I was just in the common room with him, trying to do some homework and I was saying that with the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend, maybe we could go together or something and he just sort of yelled at me that he didn't like me, that there was someone else." Pansy's eyes welled up with tears as Sophie frowned.

"Oh well, he and I haven't really talked about who likes who." Sophie responded as she felt that now familiar pang in her stomach as it was mentioned that Draco liked someone else.

"Well you two run off together every evening. How can he like someone else if he's always with you?" Pansy suddenly looked up, an even more sad look in her eye. "What if he likes you?!" Sophie actually laughed. She stood up then, bringing her arms above her head, hearing the satisfying pop as her body stretched.

"Pans, Malfoy does not like me. We've known each other forever, it'd be too weird for us to be together." Sophie reassured her before she grabbed her clothes for the day and began to get ready. "Now come on, we need to get down to breakfast." Pansy nodded, still looking sad. She got up and the two finished getting ready before heading down to the common room where they found Draco still pouring over his homework that was due today.

"You aren't finished yet?" Sophie questioned, walking over to look over his shoulder at the essay for McGonagall that he was working on, she had finished it the night it was assigned, knowing she wouldn't find any other time to do it.

"No, I almost am. One more paragraph and the conclusion. This essay makes me want to pull out my hair." He groaned, rubbing at his tired eyes. "I've been up since before the sun trying to finish this. I didn't sleep very good last night either." Sophie sighed, thinking that she may have been the reason for his not sleeping well. She pushed the thought aside, as it easily could have been this mysterious girl that he had a crush on, whoever she was.

"Stop stressing, it'll be fine." She brought her hands up to his shoulders and started to massage. He had done the same thing the past few nights when she would start to stress about the tryouts. Sophie felt his shoulders relax under her touch as he gave a sigh of relief, his eyes closing.

"I just don't know what to do. I've already written everything I can think of." He answered, his head leaning back against her stomach, his eyes still closed. Sophie leaned forward a little more, still massaging his tense shoulders, as she read what he had in his essay.

"Well, you forgot about vanishing charms. You could easily get one more paragraph about that." She told him. His eyes snapped open as he reread his work, realizing that he had in fact forgotten that.

"Oh yeah, thanks, Soph!" He said, grabbing his quill and quickly began to write. Sophie smiled and stopped massaging his shoulders as she watched him work.

"We are going down to breakfast, do you want to join us?" She asked as he finished up his conclusion.

"Yeah, I'm starving." He packed up his things quickly so they made their way out of the common room and towards the Great Hall. Pansy met Sophie's eye and slightly raised her eyebrows at her, silently questioning her but Sophie just shook her head. "You nervous about tryouts?" Draco questioned her.

"Yeah, a little bit." She responded honestly, making him smile and wrap his arm around her shoulders.

"Don't worry, you will do fine. Montague would be crazy to not let you join. Besides, you and me, we add the perfect amount of sex appeal to the team, because let's face it, without us the team would be the ugliest bunch of brutes anyone as ever laid eyes on." Pansy shrieked with laughter while Sophie simply laughed a little, nodding.

"That is very true." Draco nodded and released her shoulders as they entered the Great Hall. "I'll be right back, save me a seat." She told them, making them nod. She made her way over to the Gryffindor table and sat between Ron and Harry, smiling brightly.

"What's got you so happy?" Hermione asked, laughing a little.

"I'm trying out for the Slytherin team tonight. They need one more chaser and apparently Draco has been putting in a good word for me with Montague, and he has been training me every night." She told them, taking the piece of toast that Ron offered her.

"We saw you two with his arm around you. You also call him Draco now, instead of Malfoy, is there something going on between you two?" Harry questioned her a bit rudely, making her frown.

"He's been training me, that's it. We're gonna hopefully be teammates, it's better if we don't exactly hate each other." She told him, shrugging.

"Oh my god!" Hermione suddenly gasped, making them all jump.

"What?" Ron questioned, frowning at her. She simply held up her Daily Prophet for them all to read:

MINISTRY SEEKS EDUCATIONAL REFORM
DELORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED FIRST-EVER "HIGH INQUISITOR"

"High Inquisitor?" Harry questioned as Sophie felt her heart begin to race. This is what Umbridge had been talking about the night before. "What does that mean?" Hermione sighed and read aloud.

"In a surprise move last night the Ministry of Magic passed new legislation giving itself an unprecedented level of control at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Hermione sighed before continuing to read. "This is an exciting new phase in the Minister's plan to get to grips with what some are calling "the falling standards" at Hogwarts. The Inquisitor will have power to inspect her fellow educators and make sure that they are coming up to scratch. Professor Umbridge has been offered this position in addition to her own teaching post, and we are delighted to say that she has accepted. The Ministry's new moves have received enthusiastic support from parents of students at Hogwarts.

"'I feel much easier in my mind now that I know that Dumbledore is being subjected to fair and objective evaluation.' Said Mr. Lucius Malfoy, 41, speaking from his Wiltshire mansion last night. 'Many of us with our children's best interests at heart have been concerned about some of Dumbledore's eccentric decisions in the last few years and will be glad to know that the Ministry is keeping an eye on the situation.'" Hermione then read about a few people apposing the appointment before she finished, looking up at the other three.

"This is.. outrageous." She said, making Ron and Harry nod but Sophie simply shrugged as she finished her piece of toast. "You don't think it is, Sophie?"

"Well..." She started. "Hogwarts could use some changes." She said simply, shrugging again. "There's something I have to tell you though..." The three frowned at her. She then told them about the conversation with Umbridge the night before.

"That's ridiculous. I can't believe you agreed to that, Sophie." Harry told her, his eyes wide.

"I didn't, technically. Draco answered for me." She defended, making him roll her eyes. The other two stayed silent.

"Whatever, Sophie. You are turning into a carbon copy of Draco. Why don't you go back over there? You don't belong at this table." He growled at her. Her eyes popped open.

"What? Harry... don't be like that, please." She reached out to touch his arm but he jerked away from her, making her frown. She couldn't believe Harry was treating her like this.

"You are just a Slytherin, I thought you were different, but you are obviously on their side." With that Harry stood up and grabbed his bag and stormed off. Ron gave Sophie a sympathetic look before following him.

"Sophie..." Hermione started but Sophie shook her head and stood up, wiping at her eyes that had become full of tears.

"He's right. I don't belong over here. Good bye, Hermione." She turned and rushed off. Instead of heading to the Slytherin table, she left the Great Hall, going down the hall. After she was far enough away from the Great Hall, she fell against the wall and began to cry into her hands.

"Sophie?" She heard down the hall, making her look up and see Draco approaching her, a frown on his face. "Is everything okay? I saw Potter yelling at you and then him storm out and you crying. What did he say to you?"

"Nothing, Malfoy. Leave me alone." She told him, wiping at her tears. Draco ignored the fact that she had called him Malfoy and sat down beside her.

"Come on, talk to me. What happened? What did he say that has you so upset?" He pushed, making her sigh.

"He found out about Umbridge and us being on her Inquisitorial Squad. He said I don't belong with them. He's never been mean to me. He said I'm turning into you." She told him, still wiping at her tears.

"Ouch, I feel like I should be a little hurt that you are so upset about being like me." He joked, making her smile a little. "There's that smile. So come on, it's just Potter. You know he overreacts. You two have been friends for too long, he'll apologize and you'll be fine again." Draco reassured her, making her nod.

"I've just always stood by him, even if it went against what my family wanted, even if it made me an outcast in my own House. I always went with him, and now he just shuts me out all because I've made new friends." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, feeling the tears return. Draco frowned and held his arms open.

"Come here." He said, making her smile and shake her head. "Oh come here." He said again before reaching forward and grabbing her arm, pulling her into his arms. She nestled her head under his chin and rested into his body, finding that it was actually really comfortable as he wrapped his arms around her. "He'll see how you've always stood by him, how much courage that took because just as you said, you went against you own House for him. I know he's a prat, but he'll realize that he's in the wrong." He told her, making her nod. "We should probably get to class." He said a few minutes later but she shook her head.

"I want to stay here. I can't go to class right now. Can we just ... not?" She asked him, lifting her head up to look at him, making him smile and nod.

"We can stay here as long as you want." He told her, making her grin. So they stayed like that, sitting together and talking, all the way until break, missing Transfiguration and Herbology, when they met up with Pansy in the courtyard.

"Where have you been?" She questioned them both when she spotted them.

"Just relaxing." Draco answered, smiling softly at Sophie who grinned back, making Pansy narrow her eyes at the both of them.

"Yeah... sure."