Or perhaps in Slytherin
You'll find your real friends
Those cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends
Belinda was smiling as she opened the curtain in her tiny room. It was the first morning she had smiled for over three months. Knocking. She walked over to the door and opened it.
"Good morning Belinda, how do you feel?"
"I'm fine great-grandfather."
"Good. We have costumers."
Belinda turned and grabbed her green sweater, pulled it over her head before running down the stairs to the tiny shop downstairs.
"Sorry I'm late."
"It's okay. Mrs Dawn."
Belinda opened another door into the storage room.
"Accio."
From the top shelf a tiny brown package flew off, and landed in her hand. Belinda closed the door and walked over to the semi-old lady. She carefully unwrapped the paper and revealed the silver tiara under.
"Pure silver, the stones are cut diamonds. All goblin made."
"Perfect. How much?"
"900."
"So worth it. My friend, Mrs Goh, bought a necklace from you last month and it will swear it has made her more beautiful and younger."
Belinda grinned and she took the money and gave Mrs Dawn her change. She knew why Mrs Goh suddenly looked prettier and younger and it had nothing to do with the necklace she had bought.
Mrs Dawn took her package and left and Belinda smiled and shook her head behind her. She loved working in the store wedged between Ollivanders and the second-hand robe store, but she was surprised to what kind of people she met.
The bell over the door rang.
"One moment."
She turned and her mouth dropped for a second. The man before her just looked tired.
"Uncle Bock, what are you doing here?"
"Your great-grandmother is dying."
Belinda thought she would be sad, if for nothing more that her grandfather's mother was dying, but nothing. She only felt compassion for her granduncle.
"She wants to meet you."
"I have nothing to say to her."
"Please Belinda."
He looked lost, and Belinda felt sorry for him. She sighed.
"I can be there at eight."
"Thank you."
--
Belinda looked up at the house. The pathway had never seemed so long as it did now. She slowly walked up, and by the time she reached the door Anja was standing in the doorway. Without saying a word she moved out of the way and with her head held high Belinda walked passed her and up the stairs, down the green and brown corridor and into her great-grandmothers bedroom. Not caring that her whole family was standing there, Belinda walked over to Sophia's side. The old woman opened her eyes and slowly turned her face to Belinda, thou no one had said a word.
"Belinda Sophia?"
"Yes great-grandmother."
"You look just like her."
Sophia closed her eyes for a moment and a rush of pain made her face twitch. Bock rushed to his mother's side and grabbed her hand. Belinda didn't even stir.
"Who great-grandmother?"
"Clementine. The woman that broke our family apart."
"Clementine didn't break this family apart mother, you did."
The room had been quiet to begin with, but now even breaths stopped being drawn. Sophia turned her face and looked shock at her son. Bock just looked away, his face clearly blushing. Belinda first looked, just as shocked as everyone else, at Bock, before a tiny smile formed at her lips.
"No, grandmother didn't break this family apart. She gave you every opportunity to react to her in at least a civil matter, and you refused just because she was a half blood."
"No. I never approved of her because of the scandal. Do you know you she was?"
"Yes. The love child of a Amina and Lexnog."
"Her mother, this Amina woman, was fooling around and became pregnant before she was of age. She refused to tell them who the father was so they sent her to London to live with some relatives. Her aunt and uncle I think. Scandal. Of course she died in childbirth, which was the only thing the story needed. More blood."
Belinda could feel her hands shake with anger.
"Stop talk about her please, or I will be forced to leave."
Sophia's face again just looked shocked.
"Belinda, don't talk to you great-grandmother that way."
She looked over her shoulder bout couldn't say who of the women had spoken. Their voices were very much alike. She looked at Bock before down at her great-grandmother.
"Why did you ask me here?"
Sophia turned her face slowly and looked at her with a grave mine.
"I want this family to be together when I die."
Belinda bit her teeth hard together, and looked down. Hours went and finally Sophia pulled her last breath.
"Maverick."
Then she was dead. Belinda turned and walked out of the house without looking back once.
--
Neville looked over his trunk one last time. He had packed it three times because every time his thoughts would wander to Belinda, and he would forget what he had packed and not packed. Then he had to take everything out just to realise he had packed everything.
He had looked for her the entire summer, but nothing. It was like she had vanished into the ground. He had contemplated that she might have taken her own life, but quickly pushed that out of his mind. He just couldn't see her doing that.
He looked down at the trunk and forgot if he had packed some books so he started to take everything out as a rapid series of knocks made him rise. He walked over to the door, pulled down the doorknob, pushed the door open, and just stared at her. Her face was paler, her eyes duller and her hair darker.
He looked at her for a moment before he pulled her into a hug. Three months. Three months of searching. Of waiting. Of being afraid. And there she was, on his doorstep. He was happy when she hugged him back, and for the first time in three months he could breath properly.
"I've missed you."
"I've missed you too Neville."
He let go of her and just looked at her. She looked happy, but sick.
"Are you okay?"
"My great-grandmother is dead."
"I'm sorry."
She shook her head.
"Don't be. I'm not. She meant nothing to me."
Her gaze wondered and landed on something behind his right shoulder. He turned, but there was nothing there. He looked back at her and now he was worried.
"Belinda, are you okay?"
Her eyes found him again and now she was smiling.
"What have James told you?"
"About Malfoy?"
She nodded, her smile smaller.
"James, and Albus, told how Malfoy kidnapped and used the forbidden courses on Albus. His arrested. Was he the reason you ran away?"
"That's one way of looking at it."
"His gone Belinda, he won't come back to the school. You can come back and finish."
She tilted her head and a small sick chuckle left her throat.
"I wouldn't go back, even if that was possible."
"What do you mean, even if that was possible?"
"I'm pregnant."
He looked surprised at her as he saw something over her shoulder. She turned and saw Rose, James and Albus.
