Here is another one, enjoy. Oh and thank you to Harry's Marauder Chick.
Bellissia woke up Monday morning feeling extremely refreshed. She was excited for her first Potions class at Hogwarts. Potions was one of her favorite subjects back at her old school, and she expected it to be pretty much the same here. She was placed in NEWT level on the recommendation of Professor Marietta, her old Potions Mistress. She was such a sweet old lady. Bellissia had been by no means the best in the class, but Marietta had said she thought she was capable of continuing, so here she was. Well, currently, she was eating breakfast with Annie and Remus. The rest were still asleep. Typical.
"Do you two have potions first?" she asked them.
"Yes, unfortunately," replied Annie.
"What do you mean?" Bellissia asked, slightly worried looking.
"Oh, don't mind her, it's just that Professor Grimm can be a bit harsh sometimes, but it's a wonderful subject," Remus said enthusiastically.
"A bit harsh? Is that what you call someone who made me cry because I didn't understand the project?" Annie asked, exasperated.
"Oh, come on, you were in first year, and he had said the directions through twice already," Remus argued.
"Well, I don't like him, but Remus reckons he's just misunderstood," she said, rolling her eyes. "Just keep your head down and try to get a good partner."
"Hey, shouldn't the others be up by now? I mean classes start in just fifteen minutes," Bellissia said, looking around.
"Oh, yeah, I should probably go check on them," Remus said, but just as he rose from his chair, three very sleepy looking boys waltzed into the Great Hall followed by one very annoyed looking red-head. "Never mind! Morning everyone!" he said cheerfully. The boys murmured their greetings. "Er, thanks, Lily," Remus whispered.
"You owe me big Remus," she said, but she winked at him. Meanwhile, Sirius, James, and Peter had discovered the food and were proceeding to stuff their mouths with as much toast and eggs as could fit. Annie giggled.
"Well, girls, would you like to go ahead towards class? I think I would rather not witness this," Annie said, gesturing towards Sirius. Right at this moment, a piece of bacon fell out of his mouth.
"Yeah, let's go," Bellissia said, hurriedly. Lily looked at the food longingly. "Oh, just put some in a napkin and eat it on the way," Bella told her. Lily nodded and grabbed a piece of buttered toast and glass of orange juice.
As the girls made their way to the dungeons, they talked about—What else?—boys.
"Well, of course, Remus asked me to go with him on the Hogsmead weekend coming up," Annie said.
"You are so lucky!" groaned Bellissia.
"What are you talking about? Why am I lucky? I mean, ew, you're cousins!" she said, with a repulsed look.
"Oh gross! That's not what I meant! Never mind." The truth was, Bellissia was about to tell the girls about her and Sirius. They all hung out now, but she still didn't completely trust them.
"What about you Lily?" Annie questioned. "You've been awful quiet." Lily suddenly turned as red as her hair and mumbled something from behind her hands.
"What?" Bellissia asked. Lily moved her hands to her cheeks.
"I'm going with James," she said quietly.
"Potter! Oh my GOD! I knew it!" Annie shouted.
"God, Annie, not so loud!" Lily whispered urgently.
"What, are you ashamed of him? Lily, he's a hottie," Bellissia said with a smile.
"When did this happen and why haven't you told me?" Annie demanded.
"A couple of days ago while we were doing patrols together. He just seemed so sincere, I just thought 'Oh why not?'" she said.
"Lils that's awesome! Now we can double!" Annie squealed. Lily grinned in spite of herself. Bellissia sighed. Too bad she and Sirius couldn't do any of that. She immediately regretted sighing when the two girls looked at her.
"Now we just have to find someone for Bella to go with!" Lily said.
"Oh, you don't need to—" she started, but Annie cut her off.
"We definitely need to find you a date! Otherwise you'll be stuck with Sirius and Peter!" Annie said.
"What about your brother, Annie?" Bellissia said innocently.
"Oh, ha ha. I fear more for you than for him. Poor little guy would wet his pants with glee," she said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh don't be so hard on little Johnny," Lily said. "What about someone from Ravenclaw? Like Gavin!"
"Gavin Donovan? That hot seventh year? Isn't he going out with Rachel George?" Annie asked.
"They broke up last week," Lily said.
"Who dumped who?" Annie asked.
"Rachel dumped Gavin."
"Hmmm. I'll work on it," Annie said. Bellissia shook her head. It was better to just let them carry on. They would get tired of it eventually.
By this time, the group had reached the potions classroom and they were waiting outside for the Professor to unlock the door. Other students soon began filtering in, most of them from Gryffendor, but some from Ravenclaw and Slytherin. There was only one from Hufflepuff. She was a small girl with mousy brown hair. Bellissia felt bad for her. It would suck to be in a class without anyone from your own house. She was suddenly very thankful she was there with Lily and Annie. She turned to look at some of the other students when she spotted James, Remus, and Sirius walking towards her and the girls. Lily and Annie immediately started smoothing down their hair and putting on lip gloss. She snickered. The guys could totally see them. Besides, it's much better to make him think he likes you much more than you like him. It keeps him interested.
"Hey Lily, er did you have a good breakfast?" James asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, it was fine. I had a nice chat with the girls," she replied, winking at Bellissia. Sirius also winked at her.
"Did you have a good breakfast?" Sirius imitated as soon as Lily and James had stepped into the classroom. Bellissia hit him on the arm.
"Be nice! He was sweet," she said. She looked around for Annie and Remus, but they seemed to be in a deep conversation, or at least acting like it. So she took Sirius's hand and led him in the room. As soon as they were inside, they let go, but not before he gave her hand an extra squeeze. She brushed past him to sit with Lily and winked at him over her shoulder. He grinned and followed her. Lily and Bellissia sat together and Sirius and James sat together, with Lily and James on the inside, so Sirius and Bellissia were the farthest apart. Annie and Remus sat directly behind them when they finally came inside.
The bell rang and a tall, thin man came out from one of the three doors near the front of the room. He had no hair on his head and wore thick glasses. He would have looked quite comical if he had not looked so intimidating. His long mouth was stretched across his face much like the mouth-slit of the sorting hat, though he held none of the hat's whimsical charm. Slowly, he strode over to the large wood desk and sat behind it. He folded his arms.
"You are now at your final year of Potions at Hogwarts. Or should I say, those of you still brave enough to come back are. If you thought last year's class was difficult, you are in for a rude awakening. That class was a cakewalk compared to my seventh year class. I hope you are up to the challenge." He now stood up and tapped the blackboard with his wand. Immediately, many white, chalk drawn words appeared. "The assignment is on the board. At the end of the period I want it bottled and labeled with your name and what potion you think it is. Points will given for correctly identifying it and correctly brewing it. There will be no need to talk. Begin."
With that, the class began frantically slicing up ingredients and fanning their fires. Bellissia set out her cauldron and started a fire underneath. She then squinted at the chalkboard. The first step was easy enough.
"Carefully slice six mandrake leaves into long strips across the leaf approximately one half of a centimeter across." She pulled out some leaves and her brass knife and began cutting them up. She put those in the cauldron. She then proceeded to complete the fifteen steps without a hitch. Then it happened. She caught the professor glaring at her as though he didn't believe she deserved to be in NEWT level potions. Then she looked at Lily's cauldron and saw that Lily was already on step twenty-seven of the thirty steps. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Remus was already finished and was bottling his potion and labeling it. She gulped and looked at the board. It was getting difficult to read. She squinted. The m's kept flipping and becoming w's. The b's and the d's all looked the same. The p's and the q's all blurred together. She panicked. It was happening again. She stared at the next step. She thought it said to cut up something that started with a b. She just guessed and picked up some bromelaid roots. She proceeded to do the same with the rest of the steps. The words kept jumping around the board and mixing up the letters. So, she hurried even more. The sooner she got out of that class the better. Professor Grimm called that they had five minutes left. She just started shoving things into her cauldron.
When she finally bottled her potion, it was a delicate mint green. Unfortunately, every one else's was some various shade of red. Lily's was red-orange and James's was a deep burgundy. Sirius's was a true red. She sighed. She also had no clue what potion it was (or in her case, supposed to be). She just flipped through her potions book and wrote down the first potion she saw, shrinking solution. Just at that moment, the Professor slowly walked towards her. She shrunk down in her seat.
"So. So. You are the new girl. You are the new girl that thinks she is ready for my potions class. I don't know what they were teaching you at whatever place you came from, but it was not potion brewing!" he bellowed. "What even is this garbage? Don't bother bottling it," he said when he saw her attempting to attach a label to her bottle. "Evanesco," he said, and vanished her potion from her cauldron. He took the bottle out of her hand and vanished it as well. He looked at the label that was left sitting on her desk. "A Shrinking Solution?" he asked with disgust. Snape snickered. Sirius glared at him held up his wand, threateningly. "Perhaps you should talk to your Head of House before you continue here, hm?" he said in a smug manner. She felt her blood boil. How dare he. She knew her potion was crap, but that didn't mean he had to vanish it and tell the whole class. He took up all of the other bottles of potion. The bell rang just as she was leaving with the others, he coughed.
"Miss Lupin," he said, incorrectly guessing her name. "Tsk tsk. It seems looks are not everything." Sirius and James had to each hold one of her arms to keep her from lunging at him. She just wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. Unfortunately for her, they were much stronger and led her out into the hall.
"Asshole!" she said, the minute the door closed.
"I agree, that old bastard has gone too far!" Sirius roared.
"He'll be sorry he ever messed with us," James put in.
"I can't believe he said, Bella! What's that supposed to mean, 'Looks aren't everything'?" Annie said.
"That was completely out of line," Lily said. They all stared at Remus.
"What?" he said.
"Come on, she's your cousin, what are you going to do?" James asked.
"Well, I mean it was a pretty crappy potion," Remus muttered.
"Remus!" Bella exclaimed. "I know it was, but that doesn't give him any right to refuse to grade it and insult me! I can't believe you." She glared at him.
"Well, I've Arithmancy, so I'm leaving," he said finally. Bellissia watched him open mouthed as he disappeared down the hall.
"Yeah, I've got er…stuff to do in the library," Annie said as she scurried off. James and Sirius muttered that they had a break and wanted to go get some more sleep.
"Lily, how about going to the restroom with me?" Bellissia said at last.
"Sure. There's one on the second floor nobody uses, so it won't be too crowded," she replied.
"Perfect," Bella said as they started walking.
"Look," Lily said, "If you want, I can help you with potions, you know so you can get some extra practice."
"What like a tutor?" Bellissia asked.
"Well, not necessarily…" Lily began, uncertain.
"Oh, well I think I need a tutor."
"Ok, then. I'll help you," Lily said with a smile.
"Really? You don't mind?" Bella asked.
"Of course not! It'll help me as well!" she said.
"Thanks, Lily."
When they reached the bathroom, they pushed the door open and stepped inside. Bellissia heard an all-too-familiar sound.
"Urg, sounds like someone's sick," Lily said as she went into one of the empty stalls. Bellissia sighed. Not again. She hiked herself onto one of the sinks, leaning back against the mirror with her knees bent up so her feet could rest on the sides of it. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her pack of cigarettes. She lit one with her wand and inhaled deeply. She sighed as she blew out the smoke towards the ceiling. Unsurprisingly, Annie soon emerged from one of the stalls. She stared at her.
"Again?" she asked as she blew out more smoke. Annie glared at her.
"I love how you think you can guilt me into quitting when you're sitting there smoking!" she said. The toilet flushed and Lily came out and joined them.
"Oh hi Annie! Bella, do you really have to do that?" she asked, disapprovingly.
"Why, do you two want one?" she asked, with one eyebrow raised in question.
"No," they both said quickly.
"Figures. You two are both good girls," she said.
"And you, obviously, are not," said an unfamiliar voice. Lily groaned.
"Oh, go away Emalie," Lily said.
"Ouch, from the head girl?" a new voice said.
"Lay off, Kate," Annie said. The voiced emerged and Bellissia saw her three favorite people, Kate, Emalie and Marion.
"Oh my god, Bella, is it true you failed your first potions assignment?" Kate asked mockingly.
"What's it to you?" Bella replied, coldly, sliding off the sink and outing her cigarette.
"I mean I knew you were probably pretty stupid, but I didn't think you were a retard!" Emalie said, with her eyes wide in fake shock.
"Lay off, you slag!" Annie shouted in defense.
"Don't mind her, Emalie," Kate said, "She's just in a bad mood because the only one who will ask her out is that freak show Lupin." That did it. Before anyone knew what was happening, Kate was on the floor. It seems both Annie and Bella had punched her in the face. One got her in the eye, as it was now bright red and swelling, and the other got her nose, which was gushing blood.
"You can insult and threaten me, but don't you ever talk about my cousin like that! And if I catch you near my things again, you'll be sorry you ever heard of Bellissia Angenelo," Bella screamed at her.
"BITCH!" screeched Emalie as she leaned down to help Kate up.
"I don't care what you call him, Remus is one hundred times better than you!" Annie shouted.
"You're going to pay for that, both of you!" Kate said, but, as she was clutching her nose, it came out more like "Nor gonin do pay for dat, bode duf do!"
"Come on, Lily, give them detention or something!" Marion pleaded.
"You know what, Marion, I think Kate got what she deserved," Lily said quietly. With that, Lily led Annie and Bellissia, who were both massaging their right hands, out of the restroom.
Later in the common room, Annie was retelling the story of how she and Bellissia punched Kate to the boys.
"…And then, Lily refused to get us in trouble or anything!" she finished gleefully.
"Wow, Lily I'm impressed," James said, as he turned to look at her. Lily blushed and smiled, pleased. Sirius caught Bellissia's eye and raised an eyebrow.
"I'll tell you later," she mouthed to him, and he nodded.
"Seriously, though, Bella. One of these days you're really going to get into trouble! What with potions and punching girls…" Remus began.
"Don't worry about potions, Remus. Lily offered to tutor me," Bellissia said, proudly. Sirius snorted, which he quickly turned into a hacking cough.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Hm? Oh, nothing, nothing. I'm sure you'll be a great teacher," Sirius said, trying to sound sincere.
"I'll show you! By the time I get done with her, she'll get an E on her NEWTs!" Lily said, determined.
"Uh, Lily—" Bellissia began, worried.
"Bet you five galleons!" Sirius said.
"Lily!"
"Done!" She said as she shook Sirius's hand.
"Lily what did you do? I'll be dancing in circles if I get an A! You know I suck at potions, how could you do that?" Bellissia said, her eyes wide.
"Oh, come on, I know you'll get better. Besides, it's my money, not yours," she said. Bella just stared at her with her mouth open.
"Let's go get dinner," she said. "Remus and Annie already left." They all consented and walked down to the Great Hall. Bellissia spotted McGonagall.
"You three go ahead, I've got to talk to her for a second," Bella said. They nodded and went inside.
"Professor?" Bellissia asked.
"What? Oh Bellissia, what can I do for you?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Well, I've been having some trouble in potions…" Bellissia began.
"Yes, Professor Grimm told me about today's events," she said, her lips rolled in, until they disappeared.
"Er, I asked Lily to tutor me and I was wondering if you knew of any place for us to do that?" Bella asked timidly. McGonagall's lips reappeared to form a smile.
"Well of course! You may use my classroom, if you like, so long as you clean it up. I'm proud you are taking the initiative to ask for help. Miss Evans is a wonderful student and I'm sure she will be a lot of help."
"Thanks, professor," Bellissia said, surprised. Wow. That was kind of weird. She walked into the Great Hall and headed toward her friends.
"Hi, I don't believe we've met," a deep voice said as a handsome brown-haired guy stepped in front of her. She fought the urge not to roll her eyes. "I'm Gavin. Gavin Donovan."
Back at the Gryffendor table, Remus was staring intently at Gavin and his cousin.
"Someone needs to go over there and get her away from him," he said, urgently.
"What? Why?" Annie asked.
"Why? Because Gavin is an untrustworthy person and I know he has bad intentions."
"Oh come on—" James began.
"No, I'm serious. James, go pretend you're her boyfriend or something," he said.
"No, um, I'm kind of going out with someone right now," James said, awkwardly. Several seats down, Lily quickly began eating her chicken at lightning speed.
"Alright, you do it, Sirius." Sirius swallowed a chicken bone. Unfortunately, it got stuck in his throat and he began choking. It took James several hard hits on his back to dislodge it. Even chickenless, Sirius still looked sick.
"Why can't you do it?" he coughed.
"Gross! She's my cousin!"
"What about—" Sirius began. They both looked at Peter who was currently making exploding noises as he poured gravy down his mashed potato volcano. "Yeah, I see. Ok I'll do it." Sirius couldn't believe the things he got himself into. He just knew Remus was going to think he was being too believable and do something drastic, like kill him. He walked over to Bella and Gavin.
"So, I was thinking, you're beautiful, I'm beautiful, why don't we just mate?" Gavin was saying.
"Uh, excuse me?" Bellissia said, disgusted.
"Date, date. You know, like go to Hogsmead together," he quickly covered.
"Well that would be difficult, because I'm already mating-er-dating her," Sirius interjected, sliding his arm around her waist. Bellissia raised her eyebrows.
"Yeah, you know how it is. I'm sorry Gavin," she said.
"I don't believe you!" Gavin said, suspiciously.
"Don't believe us?" Sirius said, accusingly. "Does this make you believe us?" he asked as he planted his lips on Bella's. They kissed for several minutes before they broke away.
"Baby, I'm so glad you're here to protect me," Bellissia simpered. Sirius fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"No, baby, I'm just glad you agreed to move in with me this Christmas," he said with a smirk. He got her back.
"No, you don't understand, I'm glad I'm having your baby!" she said, hugging him.
"A little too far!" Sirius whispered urgently in her ear. He was just praying Remus couldn't hear their conversation. Bellissia had now pulled away and stuck out her stomach.
"I think we should call him Sirius Jr.," she said, patting her belly. She had tears in her eyes.
"Yes, I've always wanted a little Sirius," Sirius said as he fought hard to keep a straight face. He was fighting a losing battle.
Gavin now had a very odd expression on his face, somewhere between shock and disgust.
"And we can dress him up in little robes and teach him all about Hogwarts!" Bellissia said, her eyes wide.
"Yes, well, I really think I must be going…" Gavin said hurriedly. Bellissia grabbed his hand and put it on her stomach.
"If you feel in just the right spot, you can feel him kick!" she exclaimed. Gavin wrenched his hand away and ran out of the Great Hall. Sirius looked around to see if everyone else found it as funny as he did. They were standing near the Ravenclaw table. Every person within hearing distance was staring at them. Sirius was shaking with silent fits of laughter as he placed his arm over Bellissia's shoulders and let her back to the Gryffendor table. Everyone there was howling with laughter.
"Oh my God Bella, that was classic!" James said as he wiped a tear from his eye.
"Now everyone's going to think Sirius knocked you up!" Remus said, but the effect was lost as he was still laughing.
"Yeah, that would be awful, I think it would really be the worst thing to ever happen if Sirius got me pregnant," Bellissia said seriously. Sirius elbowed her.
"Careful! You'll hurt Sirius Jr.!" Annie exclaimed and they all started up laughing again.
Back in the common room, Sirius and Bella were the only ones still up. She was sitting in his lap and he was absentmindedly stroking her hair.
"What if you really were pregnant," Sirius said. "What would we do?"
"Well we certainly wouldn't announce it for everyone to hear in the middle of dinner," Bellissia replied.
"Obviously. I could support us, you know. I've got a pretty good sized inheritance from my uncle and we could always live with my cousin Andie for a while," Sirius said.
"Why are you so worried about it? I promise you, I'm not pregnant," Bellissia said.
"I know. I was just thinking," he said. She leaned her head against his. "You are quite the actress, you know?"
"Well I was in theater back in the city. I got to be Maria in West Side Story," she said softly.
"That explains a lot." She kicked his ankle. "I was thinking about what you said, how sons are just like their fathers, and I disagree." She looked at him.
"Luca or whoever was a bastard, like my father. I would never hit you or hurt you in any way. You know that, right?" he asked.
"I know, baby. I was mostly just talking about Luca and his father. I know you are nothing like your family. I trust you," she said.
"Good. I mean it though. I would kill myself before I hurt you."
"I know," she said softly. "Come on, we should get to bed," she said pulling him up. They were both standing when Sirius stared at her.
"Jesus, how tall are you?" he asked.
"I dunno, like six feet."
"Damn, I thought I was tall at six two. Don't wear big shoes around me," he joked.
"Don't worry, I won't. Shorty," she said.
"Hey!"