Chapter 2: Home
Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
I landed just outside our mansion at 12 Grimmauld Place.
I dragged my trunk with me to the porch steps and knocked on the wooden door.
I guess I knocked just a little too hard because my old Grandma Walburga's portrait woke up.
I heard somebody running and pulling at the curtains to shut her up.
Just then, my favorite Uncle Sirius opened the front door.
"Bella!" he exclaimed.
"Hello Uncle Padfoot, miss me?"
"I sure did, you little devil you. Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" he asked.
"I wanted to surprise all of you. Where's…?" My sentence was cut off by the voice of a woman who asked: "Did somebody say Bella?"
"Yes, Molly, Bella's back!" Sirius said.
"Oh, Bella dear, I missed you so much. How have you been?" Aunt Molly talked so fast I barely caught all her words.
"Just fine, Aunt Molly. I missed you, too. Where's mom and dad?" I asked.
"They're upstairs, Belly, doing who-knows-what." Sirius said, chuckling.
Just then, my cousins Fred, George, Ron and Ginny came up from the kitchen holding snacks.
"Bella?" they asked, shocked.
"The one and only. Who else?" I said, grinning at the expressions on their faces.
"Bella!" they exclaimed, dropping their sandwiches.
I was suddenly gasping for air because they are all hugging me fiercely all at the same time.
"Hey--guys—need—to—breath!" I managed to choke out.
"Sorry!" they said, all at the same time—again.
"You should have seen your faces! Since when did you lot start to talk at the same time?" I asked, laughing so hard I need to lean on the wall to keep from falling.
After a second's realization, I thought: "The first genuine laugh since—"
But I stopped that thought right there because I couldn't break down in front of my family.
I would never let them see my pain and let them suffer because of me.
With that, I told them that I'll go fix my room and levitated my trunk upstairs and walked until I reached the sixth floor of the mansion.
After that, I silently walked another flight of stairs to my parents' room.
I couldn't hear a sound so I slowly opened the door and was horrified with what I saw.
(A/N: Cliffhanger! What do you think are Bella's parents doing? Thank you very much to all those who reviewed, namely tinkerbear10 , Beertjes, ECISLove2010. You helped me write this chapter. I am putting up a poll after I post this as to who will end up with Bella. The button below makes magic happen. I might write longer chapters and update sooner.)