Sophia was standing in the corridor when Pomona came out of the office.
She had positioned herself to one side of the door, with clear line of sight across both end of the hallways as she waited for Professor sprout to complete what she needed to do. She made sure that anyone coming here would not be entering the office and disturbing the professor before she came out.
As Pomona came out of the office, Sophia looked past her as she saw Mrs. Alden slumped on her desk, as if in sleep.
"What did you do to her professor? Apart from making her sleep."
Closing the office door behind her, Pomona replied, "I used a memory charm dear, it's called Obliviate." Taking a pause, she looked at both ends of the corridor, making sure that no one was listening to their conversation. Giving Sophia a small smile, she continued her explanation saying, "She won't remember the conversation that we had in the room or much of what happened today morning after she wakes up. She will remember that she had a meeting this morning with a boarding school professor. And the fact that you are going to a boarding school on scholarship for your intelligence. Something that I had told her as a cover story, before um… you know… my slipup. Haha." She gave a light laugh to hide her embarrassment at the slipup.
'So, she will remember me going to a boarding school, but not what kind of school it is. That's weirdly helpful but also terrifying' Thought Sophia, as she imagined scenarios where she could use this memory wiping for much nefarious purposes.
"Well, what are we waiting for now? If you are ready, we can get going."
"Before we go professor, I still have some questions to ask." Sophia said, looking at Pomona. Turning around and making a 'follow me' gesture, she started to walk towards her dormitory room saying, "It would be best if we talked in a more private setting. My room is upstairs."
When they both came to the dormitory room, it was empty of any other presence. Mrs. Alden made sure that in mornings of each day, everyone had some kind of task to do in the orphanage. It was a rule of hers as she always thought that work justified life. Anyone who ever failed to do their work was not given food as punishment, same for anyone who ever opposed her.
Locking the door to her room, Sophia offered Pomona one of the two chairs from the study benches in the room and sat on the other. "So… I am a witch." Said Sophia as she looked Pomona straight in her eyes, her face betraying none of her emotions. "And there are others like me, witches and wizards… and there is a school to teach us how to use our magic." She continued, raising a hand to stop Pomona from speaking and interrupting her. "You know that is a hard pill to swallow, right?" Pausing and taking a deep shuddering breath she averted her eyes from Pomonas face to ground, as she tried to suppress any of her escaping emotions to not appear on her face— and failed, as she continued—her voice breaking slightly, "Till yesterday, before I received your letter, my biggest concern was somehow getting a scholarship slot allocate to the orphanage, even though Mrs. Alden seems to utterly despise me. And saving enough money for any emergency case when I would require it." Saying so, Sophia lifted her head, "Now… I have no idea what to do. Though the fact of magic explains a lot of unexplainable things in my life till now, it does not give me any idea as to what to do now. I have no knowledge of magic. I do not know anything about magical world that I am supposed to enter, neither do I know if I can even pay the tuition for the magical education, not to mention the books and materials. I am just lost… I do not know of what to do." Saying so, Sophia covered her face with her hand—lowering her head as if looking at the ground.
Listening to Sophia speak, Pomona wanted to interrupt her and comfort the child in front of her. But she was stopped by the hand Sophia had raised. She allowed the child in front of her to just let all of her emotions out. As she heard Sophia speak, Pomona kept getting the distinct feeling as if she is listening to a grown adult breakdown after their world got shattered by an incident. And this made her come to a conclusion about the child in front of her.
Sophia was much smarter and more mature than those of her age — far more than what you would expect from a child naturally gifted. This might be because of how the head caretaker — Mrs. Alden had treated her, or just her circumstances making her to grow and mature early than any other child her age should.
Standing from where she sat, Pomona came near Sophia and gave her a hug. After a few seconds of holding her, she felt the trembling calm down significantly as she looked at Sophia, removing her hands from her face. Wiping the tear marks from her face as she gave her a warm smile saying, "Child, you don't need to think so far. You did not know of the muggle world the day you were born, did you? No. It's the same for the magical world as well. You will be the part of it by the time you leave Hogwarts. And if you ever needed any form of help, just come to me, ok. I might not be able to help you in all of your problems, but I am sure I can help you in many ways, so don't ever hesitate to ask for help." Saying so, she hugged Sophia again in an attempt to make her feel secure and assured.
As she hugged the older woman, any emotion on Sophia's face died down as it was replaced by a small cold smile. Her eyes flashing with a satisfied glint. 'A child breaking down in front of an adult would cause most of the people to console them or at least make some form of pity in their hearts. But I was not expecting her to respond this emotionally. Even still, this should make it easier for me to get a positive reply from her when I ask her of anything. Though I would still need to take her own opinion for those things into consideration.'
"Oh, and Sophia, you don't need to stress over how you are going to pay for the tuition. Hogwarts does not require any fees—it is a free school. Though students are required to pay for their own school supplies, but as you are an orphan from muggle world; you are eligible to get student stipend—money given to students like you, so that you may acquire your school supplies."
As she heard Pomona speak, the satisfied glint vanished from Sophia's eyes, slowly replaced by pure confusion as the words Pomona said repeated in her mind again and again. Breaking the hug, she looked in Pomona's eyes, searching for some sort of sign that what she heard were empty words, spoken to ease her mind of any worry. But she did not find any of those in her eyes. Instead, Pomona's eyes were filled with sincerity and care as she looked at her, expecting Sophia to be happy knowing that she needed not to care for her tuition for learning magic.
"I'm sorry professor, but can you repeat what you just said—Hogwarts is a… free school. Like I don't need to pay any tuition?"
"Yes child. Hogwarts is a completely free boarding school for anyone who is admitted there. Though you are required to buy your own school supplies but, as I said earlier; you can claim a stipend for next coming 5 years till you pass your O.W.L exams. I will tell you about it later."
This threw Sophia completely off as she lost her calm face—her brows furrowed as her mouth opened in utter bewilderment as she tried and failed to understand what she had heard just now. For all that she remembered of her last life, education had always been a very expensive undertaking. But here, Pomona was saying that magical education was free. 'What does she mean by magical education being free? She just demonstrated some time ago what magic is capable of. And if anyone who has magic can learn how to do that, why would people want to teach such knowledge for free?'
Seeing the shock on Sophia's face, Pomona was confused. She did not understand why was Sophia making a face as if she could not understand what she had just heard.
"Sophia… do you want to ask something? You look like you have a question."
"No, no. I am just unable to wrap my head around the concept of free schooling, that's all." Sophia quickly composed her expression, returning to her normal blank—slightly smiling face, though a faint frown still lingered as she continued "You see, here in the muggle world, there is nothing as free schooling. Even in government schools, there is some amount of money required, then we also have the school supplies. So, the concept of free school is somewhat hard for me to grasp. Not to mention I am also getting stipend due to my situation, and that is something that I did not even think was possible. You know free schooling and yearly stipends. Anyways, we should go right, we still need to buy all the supplies. Though I don't know where can we even buy them, or how to enter the magical side of the world."
Finding no faults with the answer she received, and not wanting to elaborate much on muggle world, Pomona agreed with Sophia as she took her to show where the entrance to the wizarding world is located in London.
Walking through the streets of London, Sophia noted all the landmarks that they passed since leaving the orphanage. It was a habit she had developed in this life, meant to be familiarize herself with places she visited and paths she took. As they kept walking, Sophia noticed many shops, restaurants and cinemas pass by.
'If I remember correctly, the entrance is supposed to be behind an old and dingy pub somewhere." Thought Sophia as she looked at clean, well-kept stores around her. 'Though it is hard to expect any magical place located in the midst of ordinary people, it is also the most logical place to hide it. Afterall, the best place to hide something is where everyone can find it, but will never look for it.'
"Here we are. The leaky Cauldron."
Sophia's musings were cut short as Pomona stopped in front—as she expected— a small and dingy pub that everyone around her seem to be ignoring. Or more accurate to say they did not even notice it and were subconsciously moving past it without acknowledging it.
To Sophia, this was another terrifying display of what magic could do. As before Pomona said that they had reached their destination, Sophia was also about to subconsciously ignore the place much like other muggles. But the statement seems to act as some sort of anchor as now Sophia was able to sense a foreign magic leaving her mind. This magic was the so-called muggle repelling charm at work. It made sure that muggles did not notice the place the charm was placed around. Even if they did notice the place, then the charm would make them subconsciously forget about the place.
After a moment, Pomona turned around and said, "Follow me Ms. Scarlet, and make sure not to leave my side and wander off. Many muggle born students who wander of usually forget why they were here before entering Diagon Ally."
Sophia noticed the seriousness in professors' words, and the fact that she was using a formal manner of speaking made Sophia understand the importance of the matter as she followed Pomona and entered the pub.
The pub was much darker and dustier than what Sophia had expected it to be. Perhaps because of the morning, the pub was much empty with only half a dozen people present. Some were seated around the bar, while others were having their morning meals.
Passing through the bar, Sophia followed professor Sprout to the back and entered a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.
Drawing her wand, Professor sprout pointed it at the brick above the trash bin and said, "Alright Ms. Scarlet, count with me and remember this three up from the bin… and two across." Pointing at the brick with her wand, professor Sprout turned around and asked Sophia, "Did you get that or do I need to repeat."
Moving her head up and down, Sophia indicated that she understood what was done just now.
"Good, now after this, tap on this brick three times." Tapping on the brick she was pointing with her wand three times, professor sprout moved a step back from the wall as the bricks on the wall started to shudder. A hole opened in the brick that had just been tapped as it spread open, forming an archway. As the archway was complete, professor Sprout took Sophia's hand and walked across to the other side of the archway.
Entering the archway, Sophia felt that she was walking through some form of invisible layer. As she reached the other side of the archway, the magical scene of Diagon ally came in Sophia's eyes.
Ever since meeting Pomona, Sophia had expected the magical world to be different from the normal world she was familiar with. But seeing the clear division in dressing and mannerisms of people around, made her feel as though she watching a real-life painting. A painting where someone had tried to mix in everything but the technology from 16th to 19th century, as if making some sort of a mixed era salad.
The street of Diagon ally were lined with many shops, each selling different variety of items or services, as various owls flew overhead carrying letters and parcels around. As Sophia looked at various shops surrounding the streets, she saw apothecaries, pet shops, stationary stores, eateries and book stores. Along with shops selling cauldrons, weights, telescopes and various other items. Whatever Sophia could think she might need in the magical world, there was a shop already present there for it.