Adoption and Goodbye?

Another year had gone by, and both Ophis and Sophia had turned nine years old by now.

The two of them had made staggering progress in magic.

Sophia, at a mere nine years old, was able to create and manipulate small amounts of fire with her hands. Ophis, although much slower than Sophia, could only levitate things and control them.

However, one thing he had an advantage in was his unique ability. He could manipulate things in a lot of ways.

His own body had grown significantly as he made himself quite taller and more muscular.

In Sophia's words. "That is completely cheating."

He was able to manipulate his height, weight, and some parts of his body. He didn't even have to worry about any side effects, since when he changed his height, his organs would also automatically shift in size.

They had discovered this due to Sophia noticing that his Magic muscles were larger whenever he got taller.

However, this ability wasn't too strong, as he could only make himself a foot taller at his maximum and around ten kilograms more or less.

One thing he really liked, though, was that he could freely control his hair size and color. He had quickly changed his hair from a platinum blonde to a normal blonde shade in spite.

"Man, I wish I could change my hair into any color I wished." Sophia would always complain.

On the other hand, he was able to turn other objects into a variety of things. Their shape could be changed with a single flick of his hand. Although it would be quite hard, he was able to change the material as well.

However, this did not work as he always planned. After all, he couldn't make a boulder into solid gold. A rock, sure, but a boulder was a no-go. Although one thing he had noticed was that he couldn't really make swords and other sharp things as well as he would've liked.

<>

Ophis was holding an abnormally long stone in the shape of a sword.

"Damn it, why the hell won't it sharpen." he spoke in frustration.

"Maybe you have to see the thing first before being able to turn things into it." Sophia tried to think of a reason.

"I've seen a knife, I should be able to make things sharp." he said in annoyance.

"Weird, try to make the stone into a knife then." she told him.

Ophis put his hands inside of the stone. He thought about a knife that he would occasionally use to cut vegetables and fruits.

"See, it worked." Sophia said with a smile while sitting on a swing.

Ophis touched the stone knife with his finger and felt the sharpness of the blade.

"If I need to see the things first, this is going to be annoying." he muttered.

"It's still completely broken. I mean, you can create anything you have seen. Who knows, one day you might be able to turn a chicken into a phoenix." she said in slight envy.

"I won't turn other things into something they aren't." said Ophis.

"Oh, come on, a chicken would love to become a Phoenix." she told him, grumbling.

"It's inhumane." he told her off.

Ophis looked at the time, and it was already 7 p.m.

"Let's get going." he told Sophia.

"It's seven already?" she asked in shock.

"Yes, now let's go." he started to walk towards the group of kids from the orphanage.

"All right, all right, I'm coming." Sophia quickly got off the swing and made her way to the group as well.

<>

"Ophis, could you please come with me." Mrs. Comse called for Ophis as they entered the orphanage.

"Uhh, all right." he started to follow her into her office.

"Ophis dear, this is Mr. and Mrs. Flaming." Mrs. Cole pointed at the two people.

They looked young, but the wrinkles on their skins said something else.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Flaming." he greeted politely.

"My, don't you have good manners. Although in your picture, you had platinum blonde hair; they look more like normal blonde to me." Mrs. Flaming said with a smile.

Thump! Thump!

Ophis felt his heartbeat increase.

"Oh, yes, about that, over the years Ophis has grown quite a lot, and his hair also seemed to change in color." Mrs. Cole answered for him.

"Oh well, it doesn't really matter." Mr. Flaming said.

"So, uhhh, why was I called here?" Ophis asked the question.

"Well, Ophis, Mr. and Mrs. Flaming have decided that they wanted to adopt you." Mrs. Cole dropped the bomb.

"Oh!" was all he could say out.

"I know that it's out of the blue. I mean, usually you would at least meet them before you get adopted. However, Mr. and Mrs. Flaming were extremely adamant that they adopt you." she said with a smile.

"Thank you!" Ophis said while looking at the two people in front of him.

When he had first arrived at this orphanage, he had never thought about getting adopted. Even in the years after, he still didn't even think about getting adopted. All he wanted to do was to get stronger. His entire mind was set on revenge.

The only time he frankly wasn't thinking of revenge was when he was with Sophia. It was one of the reasons he was always with her; she always made him feel less lonely.

"So when are we going?" He asked, still in a state of shock.

"We were thinking now; we have the documents signed." Mr. Flaming told him with a smile.

"Ophis, you can go say goodbye to your friends." Mrs. Flaming saw that the boy was in shock.

"Maybe he doesn't want to leave his friends." was what she had thought.

"Uhh, yes, I'll tell them." Ophis left the room and slowly made his way to the room that he had lived in for more than half his life.

He opened the door and found Sophia peacefully reading a book.

"What was that about?" She asked, still reading the book.

"I'm... I'm getting adopted," he said in a low voice.

"What? Congratulations!" Sophia quickly got up and hugged him.

"You're not mad?" He asked.

"What, no way, why would I be mad at all?" She asked.

"I mean, you'll be alone from now on; who knows if we ever meet again?" He said in his shock.

"You idiot, did you forget we'll be in Hogwarts in two years?" She looked at him weirdly.

Hogwarts. He had forgotten about that in his shock.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess we will. Anyway, I guess this is our goodbye for now." he muttered.

"Oh! You're going now?" Her voice turned low.

"Yeah." he answered.

"Well, I guess goodbye." she gave a forced smile. However, Ophis could see through it.

"I don't have to go, you know." he told her.

"What, don't stay here because of me; plus, I can stay strong for one and a half years." Ophis could see that she was sad.

"I really don't have to-" He was cut off.

"You idiot, don't stay here because of me; you can have a family now." she told him angrily.

"You're like my sister; I can't just leave you like this." Ophis told her.

In the past years, she was the only one who would ever talk with him. She was also like him; they both had magic, and she was his first friend.

In less than two years, they had grown an extreme bond together. A bond that was quite visible to each and everyone at the orphanage.

After all, who wouldn't notice the quiet and loner hanging around with the girl that everyone liked?

"What?" Sophia felt tears fill up in her eyes.

She hadn't cried in a long time. Hell, she hadn't even cried when she saw her family die. She didn't have the time too; after all, she was sent to this place in less than an hour afterward.

She saw her Mom, Dad, and her brother all get killed by the group of masked men.

She started to cry; the dam that had been closed for almost two years now broke open.

"I don't want to be alone, not again, please. Please stay with me." she sobbed.

When she first arrived here, she thought that she would become a loner, who would hate the world.

But then she saw him, the kid who wasn't late for breakfast.

She hadn't been interested in him at first, but then she saw him do magic.

Her thoughts were, 'Is he like me?' She felt like she had recognized him.

Her speculations had come true the same night.

It was Ophis Malfoy, the same boy who had given her a flower at the ministry ball and the same one who had made friends with her over four years ago. Although for some reason, he couldn't seem to remember it.

That was when she knew that she wouldn't be alone. He was what she had thought she would be when she first arrived.

However, she saw him change when she was with him. Even Mrs. Cole had called her over for that one day.

<>

"Sophia, please come with me; I would like to talk to you." Mrs. Cole called her.

Sophia made her way to her office.

"Sophia, what do you think of Ophis?" The Matriarch asked, confusing Sophia.

"He's my friend." she told her clearly.

"Really?" She asked doubtingly.

"Yeah, why can't I be his friend?" She had asked her.

"Well, over the years, Ophis has made a few friends. All of them have gotten adopted or have run away. One of them even disappeared." she told her.

"So what?" Sophia asked.

She, however, found it weird that Ophis had friends when he had told her that he had always been alone.

"It's just that you're a nice girl, and I can see him being happy. It's like a curse that every kid he ever talks with always has to leave him. It's one of the reasons he is so gloomy all the time." Mrs. Cole explained.

"So what? Do you want me to not be friends with him because you think I will get adopted?" Sophia asked annoyed.

"No, it's just that I want you to not become too close with him. He's become very quiet since the first day he had gotten here." the matriarch said.

"Yeah, whatever." Sophia was definitely not going to stop her from being friends with him.

<>

This incident happened a few months ago. When she had gone to ask Ophis about it, he had told her that he indeed did not have any friends.

The situation had puzzled the two for quite some time, but they decided to just leave it be after realizing that they would get nowhere with it.

"Alright. I'll tell them I'm not going." Ophis opened the door and made his way back to the room.

"So, are you ready?" Mr. and Mrs. Flaming asked.

"I'm not coming." Ophis said with no hesitation.

He expected to get scolded. Perhaps they wouldn't even listen to him, but he didn't care.

"Hahahaha." Mr. and Mrs. Flaming both started to laugh.

"I guess you were right, Mrs. Cole. May I ask why you won't come, Ophis?" Mrs. Flaming asked.

"My friend, I won't leave her." he told them flatly. He turned around, getting ready to leave.

"Your name is Sophia, right? Sophia Roper. Well, to be honest with you, Ophis, we are going to adopt you both."

He turned around and looked at them with shock. His eyes widened when he saw another similar document as to his, but instead of his name on top of it, it was Sophia's.

"Now, why don't you call over your friend?" Mr. Flaming told her.

Ophis was once again baffled by the situation.

He left the room without saying a word and made his way to Sophia's room.

"So are you going?" she asked, wiping the tears off her face.

"Um, no, but there's a problem." he said.

"What happened?" she asked quickly.

"They are going to adopt us both." he told her.

"Huh?" Sophia looked at Ophis in shock.

"Let's go?" he asked, extending his hand towards her.

"Uh, yeah." she replied.

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