A/N This started out as a joke with a friend of mine, and it sort of got away from me. I'm not serious (not very, anyway). I hope you like it!
"Incendio!" The floorboards burst into flame at the curse, coming closer to singing the feet of the man she was dueling. She couldn't see anything through the smoke but the light of the spells rushing through the air, hitting and missing their targets.
She couldn't help but think that this was what she was made for as she dodged a wayward Killing Curse, sending one out herself that would most likely miss, and serve to frighten the pitiful members of the Order of the Pheonix. And, if it hit some fellow Death Eater, so be it; especially if it managed to hit her vagabond good-for-nothing husband. There was no one she needed but the Dark Lord, nothing she wished to do but serve him.
"Stupefy!" The spell almost hit her, but she managed to put up a shielding charm before it did. Laughing, she hit someone with her Cruciatus Curse. The Order was so noble, hoping to save lives by casting stunning charms. It was almost funny, how naïve they were. There was only one thing worth living for, the Dark Lord.
Or at least, that was what she thought. Just then, she turned her head, and in a gap through the smoke she sees the beard of Albus Dumbledore. She sees the rest of him, too, but she only truly sees the beard.
Eleven-year-old Bella watched as the Headmaster sat down in the Great Hall. To any regular passerby, her dark eyes would seem bored, and her expression nonchalant as she buttered her toast, never taking her eyes off of Dumbledore.
It was weird, she knew. Others had a crush on fellow students (of course, not in Slytherin—not openly, anyway—but in other houses young girls were quite enamored with Amos Diggory, a handsome Hufflepuff), and if one were to have a crush on a teacher, it was more often than not the Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. But to have a crush on Dumbledore was almost unheard of.
It was the beard, she decided. It was long, far longer than any beard she had ever seen before, longer than her father's stubble, longer than her mother was tall. It was the beautiful, beautiful beard that caused her to have an unwarranted crush on the Headmaster.
She should have a crush on Rodolphus Lestrange, the boy she would (hopefully, if all went according to her mother's plan) someday marry. Or even on Lucius Malfoy, the clever boy she sat next to in Potions. Even the Defense teacher—A mudblood!—would have been better than Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
"What are you staring at?" Rodolphus asked, sitting next to her. This was new. Rodolphus Lestrange didn't sit next to Bellatrix Black, first year. To others, unaware of their mothers' plot to wed the two, the sight of them was a shock. But Bella wouldn't allow herself to feel anything but mild distaste towards Rodolphus, who wasted no time shoveling food into his mouth like an animal. Dumbledore ate calmly, with the grace it took a hundred years to master.
"Nothing," she replied, walking out of the Great Hall, where she bumped into none other than the object of her fantasies, Albus Dumbledore himself.
"Pardon me," he said with a smile as he walked away in the opposite direction from the Slytherin Common Room, Bella's destination. But not before she had felt his beautiful, soft beard.
The memory ran through her head as if it was yesterday. Shaking her head to clear it, she shot an Unforgivable at an unsuspecting attacker.
"C'mon, you can tell me!"
They had been so young. So innocent. So—
It was no time to be reminiscent. "Incendio!" The flames licked the tips of her shoes, but quickly moved on to its intended target.
"He has the most beautiful beard. Best of them all."
"Amos Diggory! I knew it! Don't wrinkle your nose at me, Bella! I know who you like!"
"Diggory's a Hufflepuff!"
"Slughorn, then!"
They had laughed so hard, imagining Bella with the beardless Horace Slughorn. Back when they were allowed to have fun. A long, long time ago.
She pushed it to the back of her mind, but was unable to cast anything much more harmful than a stunning spell, something for which she had just mocked the Order. As soon as she could, she Disapparated away, wishing for the days when she could see the beautiful beard and all would be okay.
"Whatever did happen to your crush?" Cissy asked, in the dead of the night. Bella was getting married in the morning. It had been a surprise to no one when Rodolphus went on one knee to propose—it had been fated since childhood. But Bella had taken a liking to the man, and was contented, or at least as contented as she would be. "You know, the one you told me about when you were a first year? You never told me who it was. Lucius, perhaps?"
Bella laughed at the absurd question, before realizing that Cissy was worried. Cissy and Lucius had been dating for a few months now, and it was natural that her sister would feel a bit worried whilst dating the man who had dated everyone else in her dorm when they were back at Hogwarts.
"No, I never liked Lucius. He only really had eyes for you, Cissy." Bella wasn't trying to be nice, only stating fact, and Cissy smiled at the nonchalant way her sister said the words that mattered so much to her.
"Well, then, who was it?"
"Never mind who it was! I'm getting married in the morning—and anyway, he had a rubbish beard." That wasn't true. He had a beautiful beard. Snowy white and long, longer than Bella's thick, sleek hair. Cissy giggled though.
"Oh, don't tell me it was our Defense teacher! Bella!"
"I'm not saying a word. I was eleven," This elicited more giggles from her sister.
"Good-night, Bella."
"Good-night, Cissy."
Bella fell asleep next to her husband whom she didn't love, pictures of a sister she couldn't speak to hidden in her closet. She wished she could go back in time, and tell herself that Dumbledore would be a better match for her than the man she accepted.