Bella Longbottom stared into the teary eyes of her mother. At nine years old, she was used to the tears and the cloak of sadness that enveloped her mother. She hated these moments and didn't understand why her mother was so unhappy all the time. Wasn't Bella enough? She knew of the terrible things that had happened to her father and that her mother had loved him very much, but didn't understand what would make her still so sad after all the time that had passed. She wanted to be as far away from her mother at that moment. She didn't have the strength to be the loving dutiful daughter she always was. She wanted for just one day to know what it was like to be a happy normal family like her Uncle James and Aunt Alice and their children.

Seven year old Harry James Potter the Second and his five year old sister, Ariana were in Bella's opinion the luckiest children ever born. They had it all; a mother and father who loved them and were happy all the time. Their grandparents, Ginny and Neville Longbottom and their other grandmother, Hermione doted on them like they their own children. Even though the Longbottoms raised Bella the first two years of her life, she still felt that it was the two Potter children, her grandparents loved more.

She often heard Ginny say that Harry looked like the grandfather he was named after. The look of love would radiate from her onto her little grandson, while Bella watched in the wings, wishing that just once her grandmother would look at her the same way. Instead there was always fear in her eyes whenever the looked at Bella and Bella could sense she was unwanted. Only her mother loved her, when she wasn't busy crying and moping through the house, just like she was doing at that moment.

She threw her arms around her mother once again and rocked her until the sobbing stopped. "Please don't cry, Mum," she whispered, just as she had always done. She kissed her mother's hair and took her hand with her own.

Tess squeezed her hand. "It's alright, Pet." Bella squeezed back. "I'll be okay, soon."

Bella picked up a picture from the spread, which lay before her mother on the floor. "Is this my Dad?" The man in the picture waved happily and blew a kiss. His black eyes twinkled with happiness.

"Yes, that's your father, Bella." Her voice was still shaky as she showed Bella another picture of the man and a very young Tess.

"Wow! You were so young, there!" Bella exclaimed, studying the picture of her mother and father.

"I was. Your father was my first ever love." ...and my last, she thought to herself, but she didn't say it. "Everyone said he was far too old for me, but I loved him. I was almost thirteen, when we took that picture."

"I was born not long after, wasn't I?" I asked.

"About a year passed before you were born. They had stopped me from seeing your father by then." Tess explained.

Bella knew the story of her mother and father, for Tess had told her many times, but there was one thing her mother had never told her. "Did he ever know about me?" I asked.

She nodded, sadly. "I owled him the day you were born. I sent pictures occasionally, but I never heard from him. Too scared of being caught, he was. I stayed away because I knew what would happen to him if they found out about us, but I guess none of that matters now...." Her voice trailed off. Bella knew what she meant. It was the reason her grandparents didn't look at Bella the same as Harry and Ariana. She heard her mother fight with them over it many times.

"One day will you take me to visit him?" Bella asked. She knew it was possible for people to visit their family in Azkaban and often wondered why her mother never did.

"One day, when you're a bit older, we'll go. Azkaban isn't a very nice place for little girls." She explained, but the panic in her voice was evident. It was true. Azkaban wasn't a nice place to take a little girl to visit her father, but that wasn't the whole reason Tess didn't commit to taking Bella to see Regulus. Tess, herself, wasn't ready to see Regulus. It was just too painful to contemplate. Not a day went by that she didn't think about Regulus and wish that things had turned out different. Every time she considered going to see him, her stomach would knot up. She wasn't ready to face how terrible Regulus looked in that place. In a small way she was scared that it hadn't been Voldemort's voice that had urged him to kill Harry. She didn't want to know if it was the true reason.

"Okay, Mum," Bella agreed, hoping that one day when she was old enough would quickly come. Changing the subject to hopefully cheer her mother up, she asked, "Mum can you teach my to fly, today?"

Bella knew Tess had been a terrific flyer in her school days and an even better quidditch player. She hoped that one day she would be just as great at quidditch as her mother and her grandmother had been.

Tess saw the glimmer of hope in her daughter's eyes and knew she needed to spend more time with Bella doing something they would both enjoy. "I will, but first, we must buy you a broom." She linked arms with her daughter and apparated into Quality Quidditch Supplies, the one stop quidditch shop where Tess knew she could buy Bella a broom. Brooms of all shapes and sizes lined the walls and Bella was drawn to the one made from the wood of a pine tree. The bristles were thing and wirey pine needles and the top of the broomstick, the letters glimmered gold. "THE NIMBUS ULTIMATE," she read aloud, beckoning her mother to take a look.

"I wish I could, Honey, but its way too expensive and you're only learning to fly." Bella's face fell. She would not be walking out of the store with the Nimbus Ultimate.

"Perhaps this one would be more in your price range," A white haired wizard's voice broke into the moment. His grey eyes bore into Tess' as he handed over a Cleensweep. "This broom is probably the most suitable for a young learner. Are you starting Hogwarts soon?"

Bella shook her head. "Not for another two years." Tess pained for the broomstick and they left. They apparated back to the Burrow, where they stood in the meadow, Bella Eagerly awaiting her first flying lesson. The broomstick lay in the grass beside her and Tess was giving her the command to use to pick it up.

"UP!" Bella repeated after her mother, holding her hand over the broom. It began to float upwards, but only as far as her ankles before it dropped to the ground.

"Again, Bella, but with a bit more force." Tess stood back and watched while her daughter shouted the command again.

"UP!" In an instant, the broomstick flew up to her hand and Bella caught it. Under her mother's instruction she mounted the broomstick and tilted the end upwards. In response, the broomstick lifted off with Bella on board. She hovered above the ground.

"Now lean forward," Tess instructed and Bella did as she was told. The broom shot forward and Bella squealed with delight.

"Mum, I'm flying!" Bella was giggling hysterically as she whipped around in the air.

Alice, Harry and Ariana ran out of the house to see what the commotion was. Ariana pointed upwards at her cousin. "Bella's flying!"

"I wanna fly too!" Harry shouted, crossing his little arms.

The next day, Harry was boasting about the new Nimbus Ultimate his grandmother had bought him. Bella slunk away crestfallen. Once again the Potter children were given what Bella craved. Bella knew it would always be the way.