A few days had gone by and Sophia had done the same thing. On the first day, she had walked out of the forest and was absolutely starving. But she couldn't buy any food from Muggle places and wouldn't dare go into any Wizarding shops. She would just have to fight off the hunger for a while longer. She luckily had picked up a bottle from her house and had it in her backpack, allowing her to keep it full from the Aguamenti spell. But it never satisfied the monster in her stomach.

It had gotten to the forth day and the hunger was unbearable. She needed food in her and felt that if she didn't, she would drop dead and all this hiding would have been for nothing. This forced her to apparate (to which she did without splinching) to a Muggle street she knew of in Brighton. She casually strolled down the street and saw that a private grocer was displaying fruits and vegetables outside his shop window. Just the sight of the red luscious apples and appetizing bananas was enough for her to do the most irrational thing she had ever done (maybe tying with the time she went with her Father to the Department of Mysteries where she was then captured). She walked by and snatched an apple from the stand, rushing away and turning down an alley way to apparate.

Once she had appeared in the field she had previously been in, she threw her backpack down on the floor and devoured the apple. The poor fruit didn't stand a chance as it was finished within a minute, filling Sophia with immense joy. But as soon as she could see the core, she craved for another. She mentally punched herself for not grabbing at least two more. At least now she could walk on for a little longer.

She didn't know where she was heading. She didn't even know if the field she was currently in was still in Brighton or not. Maybe she had even gone past Hove. But it would be pointless to know as she had no idea where she was meant to be going. Her Father told her to just stay away from the Burrow and she presumed that she should also stay away from the Ministry and Hogwarts. That basically cut out all the places she knew. Where else could she possibly go?

Another day of walking mindlessly went by. Sophia craved for another bite to eat, a good night's sleep and a warm shower. She had been able to find a few forests for sleeping in but had come across times where there was no such thing in sight. She had resulted to sleeping among the grass fields for a couple nights and was occasionally awoken by sheep chewing on her hair or her clothes. She swore that it was the same sheep following her across the hills and into the occasional forests.

Hogwarts' term will have started now too. If she wasn't one of the most wanted people in the Wizarding world, she would probably be returning for her sixth year as she obviously missed last year. She could imagine herself getting back on the Hogwarts Express and having to be in the same classes as Ginny. But this wouldn't bother her at all. Although it would be odd to not have Fred and George there anymore. This brought her to think of the two twins she had left behind with the rest of the Weasley family.

She remembered the look on Fred's face when he saw her holding her wand and sending him a tearful smile. She hated herself for making him look so horrified and with the urge to stop her, only to leave him hanging as she disappeared right before his eyes. She never even got to say goodbye or even have a dance with him at the wedding. Hermione had pulled her away before she could even think about it. It broke her heart to think about him being left at The Burrow with no way of knowing where she is or if she was even alive. He must be worried sick.

But then the thought came to her.

"Diagon Alley..." she muttered to herself as she jumped up from the grassy field. The sheep that were eating around her jumped away from her sudden action and could be heard belching at her in disapproval. But she didn't care.

She grabbed out her wand and closed her eyes, thinking long and hard about the street she had known since she was eleven. The picture of the once colourful street full of shops and life was definitely not what she would be greeted with, but it didn't matter as it was the location that she needed. She flicked her wand and felt the hook feeling pull her through a whirlwind of colour and noise. Her feet touched the pebbled ground and she stumbled for a split second, immediately hearing a blaring alarm that begun to ring throughout the street.

The alarm sounded like the screeching of an animal and Sophia looked around to try and find where it was coming from. She took in the deserted street and recognised the old shops that were now boarded up and customerless. She had successfully made it to Diagon Alley but needed the particular shop that she knew would be her safe place.

"Is it Potter?! Or is it the Lupin girl?!" a booming voice echoed throughout the street as the alarm still blared loudly. Doors of shops began to open and Sophia was put into a state of panic, now running up the street towards where she knew her safe place would be.

Her stomach began to yearn for some fuel as she pushed her legs further up the street, but her hunger was overpowered by the joyous feeling of spotting the orange shop that she was searching for. Yells of commotion could be heard behind her as people came out from the shops and looked for the source of the alarm, forcing the adrenaline to leak into her system and run faster towards the front door of Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

She grabbed the brass door handle and shoved it open, the arrival bell chiming as she slammed it shut behind her and ducked down behind the side of Wonder Witch products that sat in the dark shop. Her heart was hammering against her chest and she sighed in relief as the alarm outside stopped. She prayed that the people who heard it thought that the alarm must be faulty as there was no sign of the people they were looking for. But this confirmed that they were looking for her and Harry. And they were looking hard.

Once Sophia had caught her breath, she slowly rose to her feet and looked around the shop that could barely be seen in the dark. Making sure to lock the door first, she cast the Lumos charm and stared at the products and gimmicks that had been left unattended. It wasn't any different from the last time she had been here but it felt a lot different. It felt much sadder and unfulfilled as it hadn't seen a single customer or employee for at least three months now. It was sad to see all of Fred and George's hard work be left in the dark because of the threat of their safety. She knew how much they longed to stay open in order to bring a bit of laughter to the current dark times.

Sophia then realised that she had gotten through the front door with ease. She turned back to the front of the shop and stared at the door handle, wandering how on Earth she had gotten in. The boys wouldn't be stupid enough to leave the door unlocked on their most prized accomplishment. And she didn't remember them saying that they had charmed the lock to open at her touch.

Despite this issue, Sophia decided to wander up the staircase that lead up to the flat. She knew that there was a barrier around it and it would only let her, Fred and George through, and it gave her a small bit of security that she hadn't experienced during her past few days on the run. She walked freely through the front door and found that the flat was just as they had left it. It was clean from mainly her upkeep but had acquired a small layer of dust from its abandonment.

She put down her wand and backpack on the kitchen counter before hurrying to the fridge. She opened it to find that the milk that they had left had spoiled but everything else had been mostly left intact. She grabbed all the things that were still in date and edible and started shoveling it down her throat. Her moans echoed throughout the quiet flat as she filled her stomach to the brim, feeling a whole lot more energised than she did before.

After her much needed meal, she decided that she needed a hot shower. She headed towards the bathroom down the hall and stripped down to her bare skin and was momentarily distracted by the state of it. From the time her wounds had healed from their scabs, Sophia had resisted from ever looking at her whole body. She didn't want to see all the white scars that covered her from head to toe. But she suddenly felt like she needed to take them all in. She looked down and saw that not a piece of her skin was left untouched by the white lines and odd shapes. Her face had been the only one that had only about four scars while the rest of her limbs had at least twenty. But she somehow didn't cringe or feel disgusted by these scars.

Ever since Fred had persuaded her to let him pull the memory of her torture from her, she had viewed that portion of her life in a different way. It was still something that was quite painful to think about but it didn't make her feel afraid like how it used to. Letting Fred pull that memory away from her had been one of the best decisions she had ever made. And seeing all the scars now was the same. It was like she was disconnected from the memory and the scars didn't hurt anymore. They were now a part of her and showed that she didn't give up even under the dark magic that even Dumbledore couldn't explain.

Sophia took her shower and felt as if she had been reborn. Washing her hair had been one of the best feelings ever and she felt ten times better. But the warmth of the shower had reminded her of how tired she was and she drowsily forced herself to walk down the hall. Even in her drowsy state, she found herself standing in the doorway of the room she used to share with Fred.

The duvet of the bed had been left unmade as the time of their final departure had been quite the rush. She had only just gotten out of bed when the twins' said they would be leaving to the Burrow, so she had left the bed unmade while she focused on packing all her belongings. And of course Fred wouldn't do it. But it wasn't the unmade bed that made her stop and stare at the room. It was the photograph that was still taped to the wall above the nightstand on the left side of the bed. This had always been Fred's side and you wouldn't need to know him to know that, as the photograph that once sat lonesome on the wall was now surrounded by other pictures.

Sophia had forgotten that Fred had bought a Polaroid camera in the recent months she had moved to live with them and he had stated he would be taking more pictures. He had expressed that he loved the one picture he had of him and her on Christmas morning at Grimmauld Place, and set out on the journey to document most of their time living in the flat above the shop. But she had never taken the time to actually look at the small collage that now covered the space above his nightstand.

Momentarily forgetting about her drowsiness, Sophia walked over to the nightstand and sat down on the edge of the bed to look at the collection of pictures. In the centre, was the first one of her and Fred embracing on Christmas morning. She found herself admiring the big smiles on their faces and started to miss Fred immensely. It didn't help that the next few photos she looked at contained more smiling pictures of them.

One contained both her and Fred sitting on the sofa in the living room cuddling happily. Fred was sitting upright while Sophia leaned into his side with her head on his shoulder, beaming up at him as he smiled right back down at her. She guessed that George must have taken the picture and she adored the way the scene replayed of the two smiling at each other lovingly. The next photograph was one of her and George standing in the kitchen, making what looked to be a form of pasta. Sophia was seen to be teaching George something but he was only waving merrily at the camera with a bright smile, briefly making her look up and see she was being photographed. She gave a sarcastic smile before the scene replayed and Sophia moved on to another.

She loved every single one of them. There were ones of her and George, her and Fred, her and all the Weasleys when they went to visit at The Burrow, and her by herself. It wasn't hard to notice that every photo contained her and she couldn't help the bright smile that came to her face. She now missed Fred and George terribly, wishing that she could see them again. It was hard to think that they didn't even know if she was alive and she wanted nothing more than to grab Fred and kiss him like there was no tomorrow.

And with that thought, Sophia fell into a deep sleep on Fred's side of the bed.