Brooke: Hey, peeps! I'm SO sorry for that bad quality of the chapter. I didn't edit it. :( Anyways, thanks so much for the -

Will: Cut the crap. Nobody cares.

Brooke: Ugh, whatever. At least Tessa is here. Tessa! Hit it with the disclaimer!

Tessa:...What's a disclaimer?

Will: Just say that Brooke doesn't own us. Mundanes seem to not understand that these idiot fanfiction writers don't and won't ever own us.

Brooke: Hey! We aren't idiots! *hits Will*

Will: You'll pay for that! *hits Brooke with seraph blade*

Tessa: Brooke doesn't own us...?

~A Book Without Words~

A TID fanfic by

Marie E. Brooke

Sophia Collins scrubbed furiously at the linoneum floor, determined to polish it up to the point of perfection. Mortmain was very strict about the welfare of the palace, and demanded every nook and crevice to be rid of even the tiniest dirt smudge. Sophie grumbled to herself, plunging her overused sponge into a bucket of soapy water. The work was tedious and allowed her only a small bed and a morsel of the leftovers in return, but at least it was better than being employed by Timothy.

She shuddered, thinking of when she had first stepped into the grand manor. Her family was poor and in serious debt, and she, as the eldest of the three children, dropped out of school so she could find a job. She had visited almost every place in town, desperate to earn enough money to keep the food on the table. After much door-slamming and jeering, she finally managed to land a job at the local inn as a maid. From then she had worked seven hours a day on minimum-wage, cleaning up dinner tables and furnishing rooms. She met many new people, and was very well-liked at the small inn. She worked hard to maintain a cheerful façade, and she was responsible and never spoke a sour word about anybody. Soon, she became known as that "sweet little maid at the inn" or the "responsible girl who knows what she's doing" or even the "most sweet and helpful gal on the planet."

It wasn't long before she started getting job offers from all around. Everybody wanted that "responsible girl who knows what she's doing" to work for them. Sophie gladly accepted all the job offers, happy at the money she was earning for her family by working multiple jobs.

And then the letter came.

It was sent on a Tuesday, Sophie remembered, and was artfully slipped under the broken door of their small cabin so when one opened the door, the letter would fly into the air and land in the surprised person's hand, who in this case, was Sophie. The envelope was closed with a bright red seal ingraved with an elaborately carved T. (Sophie felt like there was something familiar about it, but she couldn't quite place it.) Sophie opened it, careful to break off the seal slowly as to not cause the envelope any damage. Inside the envelope was a crisply folded paper, made of cardstock and smooth to the touch. Sophie unfolded it and scanned the elegant script. It was a job offer, judging from the first sentence, which was the only thing that she bothered to look at before losing interest. Sophie, who already had one too many jobs, was about to throw away the letter when she noticed the signature.

Timothy Torin.

Sophie blinked in disbelief, rubbing her eyes, and peered at the paper again, wondering if she was going crazy from retiring to bed at three o' clock in the morning. Timothy Torin was a well-known businessman that inhabited a faraway village. He was rich, successful, kind, famous...and apparently, he wanted to employ her. She rubbed her eyes once more and stared. It was still there. The curling letters of the signature stood out starkly against the blurred background of the creamy paper, but the signature was still there. Sophie reread it with a renewed vigor. The job had excellent pay, and she was to live there and work as a maid. Since she was to live there and work fulltime, she had to quit all her jobs. That was okay with her. The pay alone was worth more than all her jobs combined, and she wouldn't have to pay for lodging or food. Sophie was starting to think that it was all some elaborate hoax - but, running her fingers over the twisting patterns of the wax seal, she knew that it was a legitimate job offer.

"Mother!" she cried, racing over to the kitchen where her mom was making dinner. "Look what I got!" She eagerly showed her mom the letter.

Her mother sighed and read the letter. Her eyes widened, recognizing the signature."Oh my goodness," she said, clutching the edge of the counter and fanning herself. "I'll tell your father. You go get ready!"

From then on, everything was a blur of goodbyes and clothes and worries and all those trivial things that came with moving into a house to work for a priceless amount of money. Her family was ecstatic at the good news, if not very teary and clingy. Her younger sisters had volunteered to help her pack, while her mother and father set out to book a carriage for the next day.

Her younger sisters had been vastly unproductive when helping her pack, and had instead insisted upon lounged around her room - much to Sophie's annoyance - chattering excitedly about the prospect of living in the Torin Manor, while Sophie bustled about, gathering her meager belongings and folding them carefully into her small, worn suitcase.

"Do you think your room will be elegant and comfy?" asked Mellie, one of her favorite younger sisters, giggling as Sophie shook her head at her.

"No, Mellie," she said, a tinge of exasperation evident in her voice. "For the last time, I am working there as a maid, not staying there as if I was a wife or something."

Clara, another one of Sophie's sisters, waggled her eyebrows. "Are you sure about that?" she said cryptically. "Maybe he wants you for more...lustful reasons." The little girls immediately exploded into peals of laughter and began talk about things rather...inappropriate for their age.

"Oh, for Christ's sake, will you stop it?" snapped Sophie. The girls only laughed harder. Sophie clenched her fists, slowly and deliberately turning her back on them. She managed to tune out their frivolous (and very vulgar, she thought with annoyance) chatter and instead turning her attention to packing. Excitement bubbled up inside her, reality hitting her like a freight train. She was going to work as a maid for a famous businessman and stay in his manor and get paid a lot of money. She almost burst at the thought...and then facepalmed when she heard a crash and an oops! from her sisters. She turned to see the remains of a shattered vase scattered on her worn rug.

"OK, who did it?" she demanded.

"She did!"

[-]

The next day, she bid her family farewell with promises to send back some money, and boarded the carriage, the wind whipping at her chestnut hair as she waved happily to her family, whom she watched until they were merely black specks on the horizon.

Sophie eagerly bounded out of the carriage when they arrived, stretching out her sore arms and cramped legs and breathing in the cool, fresh air. She turned to face the iron-wrought gate in front of her, which was of course ingraved with a large T. A maid rushed to open the gate after Sophie had finally located and rung the small doorbell that was almost completely obscured by ivy.

Welcome to your new life, Sophie.

Brooke: And...cut! So...how did you like it? Did you like Sophie's story? (I had to split it into two parts cause I was having a bit trouble with it, so sorry for the short length.) How it differed from Cassie's? (This may be important, guys, so watch out.) Did you like Tessa's entrance? I hadn't updated in quite awhile, and my writing muse was a bit preoccupied, so yeah. I'm so sorry about that, by the way. Anyways, I've posted like 5 new one-shots (at least) and I think they're all really good. They're all Harry Potter, by the way, and feature various different pairings.

Will: *scoff* First you reference the A/N, which isn't even part of the actual story, and then you start shamelessly advertising about your other one-shots!

Brooke: #shamelessselfpromoting

Will: And now you're speaking in hashbrowns!

Tessa: *takes notes* Constant bickering...egoistic Will...procrastinating authors...I don't see how that can all be part of the acronym "A/N."

Brooke:...#review4updates

Will: Wait..what is that giant font that's coming - AHHH!

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PEAK!

(shhh….)

*note: these may be taken out of the next chapter due to editing

Snippet 1#: Dragging her dirty little suitcase behind her, she couldn't help but gawk. A huge fountain spouted shoots of water, birds perched on top of it but safely out of reach from the water. Assorted flower bushes lined the cobblestone path that led up to the house. Well, it hardly seemed worthy of the title "house." It was…

Snippet 2#: She had been delighted to work in such a renowned household, and immediately worked to be the best maid, scrubbing furiously at every nook and crevice.

[-]

So...do you want more random snippets? Don't like them? Love them? Please say so in the reviews! I hope you enjoy! Think of this as my little gift to you guys for reviewing a lot (and of course, for being super-duper late in updating.)