Before reading, please listen to the song "Strawberry girl" by Blackmore's Night. Thank you.

'Be nice boys, go and pick some berries in the forest' our mom told us. I took one basket, handed Rabbit another and we left. Of course, our parents were tracking us with some spells. The forest was safe; no wild beasts were seen there, but mom was afraid we could get lost. Ha! None of us was ever lost. We are Lestranges, we are smart and we can always find our way back home. I dashed to the forest, with Rabbit just a few steps after me. The day was very warm and the air seemed heavy and filled with sweet scents. I love summer.

Rabbit got me in about halfway and pulled me down. We fought, as often – come on, we are brothers. I am stronger – two years difference would make it – but Rabbit is very fast, and it's his advantage. The fight result was a tie, so, laughing, we stood up and continued our way. Rabbit is still a little afraid of darkness, so he wanted to stick to me when we got to the forest, but it wouldn't help us with finding fruit.

'Rabbit, if we split, we could search a bigger area at the same time' I persuaded, honestly I sometimes was tired with my little brother's constant company. I just wish we could play with other kids, but nowhere near us there were pure-blood families with children in our age and our parents didn't like us playing with half-bloods or muggles. It's just no fair, everyone I can play with is Rabbit.

Finally Rabbit agreed to split, and we decided that if any of us finds berries, he would call the other to pick them together. This would be much faster. I went to the right, Rabbit – to the left. I almost crawled, trying to spot any fruit, but I couldn't see any. After about fifteen minutes I heard Rabbit's voice. I ran to him.

'You found berries?' I asked, but he hissed "Ssh!" and pointed at the ground. I looked down and saw berries indeed. They were in a basket, lots of different berries: blueberries, wild strawberries, blackberries, raspberries… and some forest flowers.

And next to the basket, there lay a sleeping girl. She was wearing a dress, she had some flowers woven in her black, curly hair and her expression made it sure that she was just having some nice dreams.

'Who can it be?' I asked. Rabbit shrugged.

'Anyone' he said. 'I know as much as you do. Should we wake her?'

'Well, maybe we could play with her a little…'

'If she's not a pure-blood, then our parents will be mad.'

'They don't have to know… sometimes I need someone else apart of you.'

'But it's a GIRL.'

'I noticed' I nodded, pointing at the flowers in her hair. Rabbit winced.

'Girls' he snorted. I knelt next to the girl and shook her shoulders. The girl didn't react, so I shook her stronger. She opened her eyes and yawned.

'Hello' she said with a blush. Well, Rabbit is right – girls ARE weird. Blushing… flowers… dresses… I rolled my eyes. But a girl is better than no company…

'Hello' I replied, smiling. 'I'm Rod… Rodolphus Lestrange. This moron behind me is my little brother, Rabbit… Rabastan. And you?'

The girl smiled at me and shook my hand.

'I'm Bella – Bellatrix Black.'

I winked to Rabbit. Our father told us about the Blacks, that they were pure-blood. If Bellatrix was their daughter, our parents wouldn't mind us playing with her.

'What are you doing here?' I asked and blamed myself for stupidity the very moment I said this. Of course, she was picking flowers and berries, got tired, most probably because of the weather – it was hot and humid, and fell asleep.

'I was picking berries' Bella said, not giving any hint that she thought I'm stupid. 'I was looking for them, and found this' she reached to her basket and showed us a small pendant, 'I liked it a lot, so I picked it up, and next moment I was there' she pointed direction where Rabbit had been heading, 'and there were lots of berries, so my basket was full soon – and then I wanted to go home, but it's not a familiar place – so I stayed here, it's not far from path, and I knew someone would find me… and I fell asleep.'

'So can you show us the place you found all these berries?' Rabbit asked. Bella nodded.

'Sure, Rabastan – or should I call you Rabbit?'

'Rabastan is fine' Rabbit said, giving me an evil glare, saying you're going to pay for this. Bella giggled – another annoying girly habit – and leaded us through the forest. The little clearing was indeed full of berries. Bellatrix helped us to pick them. We were chattering all the time and soon we knew a lot about each other. I learned that Bella had two younger sisters.

'You know, Andy and Cissy are quite nice, we play together a lot' she admitted. 'But sometimes I'd like to play with someone else, someone in my age… even if it would have to be a boy.'

As soon as the words left her mouth, she blushed and said quiet "sorry", but we barely heard it, as we were laughing our lungs out.

Seemed that even though girls were weird, Bella was at least weird in funny way. She was eight – just between my and Rabbit's age – and I hoped she'd choose to play more with an older boy rather than the younger. She was not very talkative as for a girl, which means only a little more talkative than Rabbit, who is very talkative as for a boy. I had no idea how to show her way back home. Plus, I didn't really want to leave her yet…

'Bella' I said, 'maybe you'll go with us? I mean, I don't know where you live, and our father will help you for sure…'

Bella agreed, and we all grabbed our baskets and went home. I heard her singing, the tune was very pleasant, and I caught myself humming it soon.

'Blue skies of promise opened before us, here in her eyes are the dreams of the world…'

'Mom, we're back!' I called out loud, putting my basket on the table. 'And we've brought someone!'

'Who can it be?' mom asked and came to us.

'Mom, it's Bellatrix Black' I said. 'We met her in the forest.'

Mom just nodded and then she told Whiny to make hot chocolate for all three of us. The house elf did so and soon we were sitting together, drinking chocolate and laughing at many funny stories and jokes we told each other. Mom made a Floo call – later I got to know it was to Bella's parents, who were panic-stricken about her disappearance and had sent an elf to look for her, but calmed down almost immediately after they knew she was at ours.

'Bella, your father will be here soon to pick you up' mom said and I whined. Just when I made a friend, just when I thought that my dreams came true, someone was going to take her away from me…

'Don't worry, Rod' Bella smiled to me and put a berry in my mouth. 'I'll come here to see you sometimes. And you can come to me too.'

When she Disapparated along with her father, I smiled. Dad says often that the times are uncertain, but I'm still happy with simple things. Maybe we need such simple things like making friends, eating berries and going to the forest.

Maybe it's simple things that we need the most.

As always, please leave a review, for it makes me more eager to write!