Harry Potter and the White Conference

* sorry, I couldn't think of a good title, I'm sure it'll come soon, but for the moment it'll remain. Guess who makes an appearance, thats right Sirius! Will Snape get jealous?

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Chapter 8:

After Sophia had eaten a delicious meal of fruits, cheeses and some very dark liquid that resembled wine, she and Frodo talked for quite awhile about her world. Frodo expressed interest in learning about her way of life, but seemed quite concerned when she mentioned the war against Lord Voldemort.

“What’s the matter, Frodo? You don’t think that our evil Voldemort has anything to do with your Dark Lord, do you? After all, you destroyed Sauron long ago,” she asked.

“I’m not sure, Sophia. But, I am sure Gandalf will know what to do.” They turned the discussion to lighter matters and quite enjoyed one anothers company until Sophia felt a sweet and peaceful cloud descend upon her, and her eyes began to feel extremely heavy.

“I am sorry, Frodo. I do not know what is wrong with me, but do you have somewhere that I could rest a bit?”

“Of course, Elvish wine always has that affect on humans. Gandalf and Elrond will be a few hours yet. A chamber has been prepared for you.”

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Sophia slept for many hours while Gandalf learned about the war against Voldemort from Dumbledore’s crystal of wisdom. He and Elrond discussed the matter late into the evening. They both agreed that the pure evil of this Voldemort reminded them too much of the Dark Lord Sauron, and something must be done. As such, Gandalf thought aid should be offered to Professor Dumbledore, but Elrond thought the matter should be left up to the Order of the Phoenix to deal with.

Sophia awoke on the bed (which was actually a leaf elevated above the ground by some unseen force) and opened her eyes to a beautiful sight of millions of brilliant stars. She could hear soft voices singing in the distance. She sighed softly, ‘I definitely do not want to go home,’ she thought. She turned her head to the side and saw Gandalf speaking softly with Frodo just outside the entrance to her small chamber (which Sophia now noticed was hollowed out from a huge tree). He was crouched down on his knees with his hands on the smaller man’s shoulders. Sophia could not tell what they were talking about, but she did not want to interrupt what appeared to be a private moment. She clamped her eyes shut again and tried not to move.

“And now, my dear boy, it is about time that we include Sophia in our discussion,” Gandalf paused, “do join us, Sophia.”

Of course Gandalf, like Dumbledore, would be aware of things that the normal senses could not perceive.

“Was Dumbledore’s gift acceptable, Gandalf?” she asked.

“More than, my dear girl. But I would like to speak with your Professor Dumbledore myself before this meeting. Do you think that would be agreeable to him? I must admit, I’m getting a little bit restless here,” he winked, “it is time for me to get back into the world of men.”

Sophia grinned, relieved. That must be what Snape gave her the extra potion for. “Dumbledore would love to meet you, Gandalf. In fact, that was precisely what he said to me before I left.” She described the technique of potion-travelling to Gandalf and they agreed that he would come to Hogwarts for a visit. ‘Perfect,’ she said to herself, ‘just in time for the Yule Ball!’

“Perhaps you could wait 24 hours after I leave so that I can alert Professor Dumbledore of your arrival?”

Gandalf eyed the small phial that Sophia had given him. “This will take me to your world? Hmph, quite strange. That is acceptable, dear girl. Now let me watch you take this travelling potion so that I know how it is done.”

Sophia smiled and patted him on the shoulder, “don’t worry, Gandalf. It is incredibly easy.” She took the stopper out of the phial and raised her hand to Gandalf and Frodo, “cheers, gentlemen!” she said and downed the contents.

She opened her eyes and she was once again in Dumbledore’s office. The slumbering sounds of Hogwarts’ previous headmasters, all sleeping in their portraits, surrounded her. She quickly moved through the half-darkness to his great desk and left him a note detailing about her safe return. She made her way down the spiral staircase and tried to go back to her room as quietly as possible. Unfortunately, she was a little too quiet and upon rounding a corner collided with none other than Severus Snape. Once again, her hands instinctively reached out to grab ahold of any support she could get.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her hands still resting on his arm.

“The same could be asked of you. I happen to be on hall duty, Miss Aristides. Are you not supposed to be somewhere else?” he answered, putting a slight emphasis on the last word. “Now, would you mind removing your hands from me, and telling me why you have not informed Dumbledore as to the status of your mission?” Sophia looked down at her hands and dropped them to her side in embarassment.

She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, “oh my goodness! I forgot to mention to Dumbledore that Gandalf is coming here tomorrow! Dashitall, why did I have to travel in the middle of the night...”

“What? The White Wizard is coming here? Tomorrow? We must inform the headmaster.” He looked at Sophia, expecting her to share his concern. He frowned. ‘There is something different about her,’ he said silently. ‘She does not carry the same lines of worry that she had before. And why does she appear to be glowing?’ He continued to frown at her.

“Why are you looking at me as if I brought back a plague,” she said, “don’t worry, they did not send back a copy, it is still me.” His eyes narrowed even further.

“Okay, let me see, how can I prove it to you... Bordeaux’s are blended crap wines, even if you do have the patience to wait 30 years. There, that better?”

“Okay, agreed. But you have a strange silver aura. What did they do to you?” he asked.

“Do to me? Nothing...” she looked for her reflection in the window, “Blimey! You are correct! Wow, is that ever fantastic. Hmm.... it must’ve been the Elvish wine. Frodo said something about it affecting humans differently.” Snape looked a bit confused.

“Elvish wine? I do hope that it was better than a Syrah?” he had a small smile in the corner of his mouth.

Sophia laughed, ‘did Snape actually make a joke?’ she said silently to herself. “Much better,” she said out loud, “now, let us go find Professor Dumbledore! I am sure there is much that he wants to do before Gandalf’s arrival.”

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She had been right, Dumbledore was eagerly anticipating Gandalf’s arrival. He had some of the staff assembled in his office in the middle of the night when he was due to arrive. Sophia stood between McGonagall and Hagrid, stifling her yawns, and waited for the White Wizard. There was a familiar shockwave and suddenly Gandalf appeared in Dumbledore’s office. He looked around at his intact body, patting himself in surprise.

Sophia moved towards him, “Welcome, Gandalf. I am pleased that you made it here safely. How do you feel?”

“Fine, fine, my dear girl. That was quite impressive!”

“Please, allow me to introduce you to Minerva McGonagall and Rubeus Hagrid, both professors at Hogwarts.” Gandalf nodded to each of them in turn. “And this is Severus Snape, he developed the potion that you used to get here.” Gandalf smiled warmly at Snape and grasped his shoulders in his large hands, “my compliments,” he said to him. Snape looked a little surprised, but pleased with himself.

“And this, Gandalf, is our Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore.” Sophia brought Gandalf in front of the greatest wizard that she had ever met.

“Of course you are. Greetings, Professor Dumbledore. My name is Gandalf the White. But please, do call me Gandalf.” Dumbledore nodded his head and said something softly to the wizard beside him.

“Gandalf and I have a lot to catch up on. Perhaps it is best if everyone else went back to bed, and we can finish the introductions tomorrow?” Dumbledore said to his staff, not taking his eyes off of Gandalf. Everyone nodded and quickly went back to their rooms. Sophia was dying to tell Hermione, Harry and Ron what was happening, she hoped that she ran into one of them in the hallways. But they were actually obeying the curfew rules and remained in the Gryffindor dorms.

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The next morning Sophia was still anxious to tell her young friends about Gandalf, and so she sent Harry an owl asking them to meet her in the Western gardens. She sat on a bench thinking about the beautiful land of the Elves. Strange how there was a great wizard and hobbits in the Grey Havens, she mused while she waited for her friends. As she was pondering, she heard a quiet snuffle from the other side of a large rose bush. She pulled out her wand and slowly crept around to see what it was. In front of her was a large, slightly scraggly black dog.

“Well, hello there, boy. What brings you to this place? Are you lost?” Sophia held out her hand for the dog to sniff. He nuzzled her hand, obviously starved for attention.

“Are you hungry, fella?” the dogs ears perked up when Sophia pulled a couple of pumpkin pasties out of her rucksack. “It isn’t much,” she said, “but you are welcome to them. You look like you could use them more than me.” The dog gobbled down the pasties while Sophia scratched his ears.

“You are a loveable pup. Do you have a name? Hmm, you certainly are a handsome dog, perhaps we should call you Pulcher? Or Canis Niger? Too long? Hmm, I thought so too. Or Canis Major?” the dog jumped up at this last suggestion and started hopping around playfully.

“But that is long too, you silly dog. How about just Blackie?” Before she knew it, the dog had grabbed her rucksack and was running off with it.

“Hey, get back here, crazy mutt! Blackie!” She could tell the dog just wanted to play. He’d obviously been on his own for awhile. The two played a game of chase for awhile until Sophia was too tired to continue.

“Sorry, Blackie. I don’t have as much endurance for running as you do. Perhaps I shouldn’t have stopped exercising when I came to Hogwarts...” the dog quickly trotted back to where she was sitting and plumped down on the grass beside her. He immediately yawned and rolled onto his back for a belly rub. Sophia laughed, what a strange animal, but she obliged him.

“Sophia, what are you doing?” Hermione, Ron and Harry were coming down the hill.

“Sirius!” Harry cried.

“Do you know this dog, Harry? I was just calling him Blackie, but Sirius is definitely a nicer name.” Sophia scratched his ears and the dog closed his eyes and leaned into her hand. Hermione started giggling.

“Something wrong, Hermione?” Hermione couldn’t contain her giggling and Sophia continued “I was a bit worried about the dog, I was just about to take him to Hagrid, when you arrived. But if you know him then he should be okay. What is he doing here, Harry?”

“Blimey, stop petting him! That's just weird!” Ron exclaimed. Harry joined Hermione in her fit of giggles.

“Would someone please explain to me what is so funny?” Sophia was quite confused.

“Okay, okay. Let’s take her somewhere secret so that she can be properly introduced to Sirius,” said Hermione.

“The Shrieking Shack?” Ron asked.

“No, Ronald. We will get in so much trouble if we leave Hogwarts! How about just inside the Dark Forest behind Hagrid’s hut?” Hermione said. Everyone nodded.

“Why do we have to go somewhere secret?” Sophia asked.

“You’ll see,” Harry answered.

They snuck into the Dark Forest, hoping no one had seen them. Once the castle was hidden by the thick forest, Harry jumped down and gave Sirius a big hug.

“You are crazy, Sirius. What do you think you are doing coming here in broad daylight?!”

Sophia looked at Hermione and Ron, ‘why didn’t they find this strange?’ she thought.

“Um, this may be a little bit of a surprise,” Harry said, standing back from Sirius. “Meet my godfather, Sirius Black.” Sophia jumped back as she saw the black dog take the shape of a fully grown (and thankfully fully clothed) wizard.

“What the hell...!!” she started, quite disturbed.

“I apologize for deceiving you, it was not intentional. I was just unsure who you were... Thanks for the food, by the way,” Sirius said sheepishly.

Sophia stared at him, horrified, “I’ve been rubbing your belly for the past half hour!” she exclaimed. Then she remembered playing chase with him and started laughing at loud. Everyone joined her.

“This place is nuts,” she said through her tears of laughter.

“Sorry for coming without any notice, Harry. Dumbledore has been keeping me up to date on Sophia’s work for the order, and I decided that I needed to come to Hogwarts to meet her and her new friend myself.”

“What? Sophia’s been working for the order??” Harry asked.

“Er, thats what I wanted to meet with you to tell you about.” Sophia then proceeded to fill everyone in on the details of her journey, and the new guest.

“So that explains why Snape kept talking to you! And here we thought he was trying to poison you, but really he was working on a secret travelling potion...” Ron stated.

“Fascinating...” Hermione mused.

“Watch out for that one,” Sirius said, his eyes clouding over, “he is not to be trusted.”

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Meanwhile, back at the castle Severus Snape was watching someone outside a window in a third floor corridor. His face was dark and his eyes were flashing in anger. The White Wizard came up beside him and followed the line of his gaze.

“Ah, delightful girl, isn’t she,” Gandalf said, “what is that she is doing out there in the garden??”

Snape was about to give a snide remark about the black dog that she was playing with, but remembered whose company he was in, and held it back. “She is playing with a dog,” he said instead.

Gandalf was quiet for a few moments. “She looks quite happy, why do you not like her playing with this dog?” he asked Snape softly.

Snape found it hard to be angry at this wizard, who so resembled Albus Dumbledore. He sighed inwardly, “because she does not realize that she is not playing with a dog.” His eyes narrowed into an even deeper glare as he saw Sophia begin to rub the dog’s belly.

“Come, Severus. I am eager to learn more about potion-making. It sounds like something Elrond would be most interested to learn about.” Gandalf put a hand on the other wizard’s shoulder blades. Snape, surprisingly, did not recoil at the physical contact, but instead was comforted by his touch. Snape looked up into Gandalf’s soft eyes and his dark feelings of hatred towards Sirius Black were lost as the White Wizard’s smile was contagious. Snape led the way to the potions classroom, without looking back at Black and Sophia.

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okay, I'm making a lot of typos, so I think it is time to call it quits for now. Please tell me what you think!

Updates will unfortunately be slightly delayed because I have visitors whom I need to play tour guide to and show them my lovely country.