The water hitting the rocks and shoreline of the beach was loud and crisp. It was a slightly cloudy day and there was a breeze at the beach. Bellatrix Black walks down along the beach searching for rocks that look like they have something to discover inside, and starts to think about her life and her job as a fossil collector. Bellatrix's life has always been a bit boring because of all the walls she put up due to getting hurt so many times in the past. She didn't want to go through pain and suffering again like last time. Her job was very fun at first but now all her hard work gets taken from male fossil collectors who claim her work as their own.
As she continues to walk down the shoreline of the beach looking for anything that she can excavate, something catches her attention on a cliff to her left so she starts to walk in that direction. When she gets to the cliff she looks up to the middle at the rock that's bulging out. Bellatrix has always worked alone because she is so closed off and she doesn't want others' help. Working alone always made it hard to dig out rocks that were in hard places to reach just like this one right now. She starts to think of what she can do to get up to the middle of the cliff and dig out the rock.
She decided to lift the bottom of her dress up and tie it into her trousers that she is wearing underneath. Once that was done she started to climb up the cliff which was muddy from the rain they had the past few days. As she climbed up she almost lost her footing from the mud but was able to regain her balance. When she got to the rock she muttered to herself "How am I going to get this out of here?" Lucky the rock was surrounded by mud and she was able to dig around it to loosen the rock so she could move it. Bellatrix pulled at the rock to try to pop it out and when she did the rock was a lot heavier than she thought and it slipped out of her hands and made her drop it down the cliff as well as herself slid off the cliff on her back.
When she hit the bottom of the cliff she laid there for a few minutes thinking about what just happened and remembered the rock should be near here somewhere. She got up and saw the rock was broken open from hitting the boulder that was sitting behind it. Bellatrix sighed and flipped half the rock over and saw that it was an Ammonite that was inside the rock she found. But it was half broken now so she decided to bring the half she flipped back with her to her store.
Her store which was quite small sat on the corner of the street Grimmauld Square. There are two long winds on both sides of the front door with a light blue colored curtain that was drawn open. The store sign was a small rectangle with the name "Black's Fossils and Things" hanging from the window on the door. In this small town all the buildings all look old and ran down so there wasn't much going on with the outside of the store that Bellatrix owned.
Bellatrix sat on her stool behind the counter in her store working on the half broken Ammonite she found on the beach earlier today. The Ammonite sat on a smaller rock which acted like a stand so it could be propped up high enough for her to clean it. As she was cleaning and chiseling the rock she started to see the details of the Ammonite more clearly and started to think about her day so far. She continued chiseling the rock for about fifteen minutes before her work was interrupted by someone opening the front door to her shop. When she looked up she saw a tall man and a lady standing at the front door looking at some of the fossils she had on display.
The man walked up to the counter where Bellatrix was sitting and looked over to see what she was working on. "Is that a Belemnite?" he asked looking at Bellatrix with an excited look on his face.
Bellatrix looked up at him a little irritated and said "Ammonite. A broken one."
Then there was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Bellatrix spoke up again "Is there something I can help you with sir?"
"I'm sorry let me introduce myself. My name is Ronald Weasley. Ron for short." he said while extending his hand out to shake Bellatrix's.
"I am in awe right now because your reputation is often something I hear in the geographic society back in London. Your skills are legendary and I was hoping that you could show me around and let me watch you work."
Bellatrix looks at him and gets up from her stool and walks to the doorway to grab another tool that she needed and says "It would be customary for you to write to me to make an appointment first sir."
Right when Ron was about to reply Bellatrix sees the other person that was in her store touching a fossil she had on display "Could you not touch that." Ron then realizes that his wife is in the store with him and he goes and grabs her arm and brings her over to where he is standing talking to Bellatrix. "Sorry this is my girlfriend, Hermione Granger" he says and walks back to the counter where Bellatrix was excavating her Ammonite.
Bellatrix looks at Hermione for a few seconds and walks to where Ron is "Sorry sir I don't do guided tours anymore."
"I can pay a premium if you could take me out to the beaches with you so I can learn from you" Ron replies back.
"Very well then" Bellatrix replies back. Ron extends his hand out so she could shake it and then turns to leave the shop with Hermione behind him.
The next day Bellatrix is already out on the beach looking for anything that she could excavate. Ron appears and walks towards her and says "Miss Black am I late? I went to your shop and no one was there so I came to the beach to hope to find you." Bellatrix looks up over where he is walking and looks back down at what she is doing.
"The sun was up early and the tides were low so I decided to start early before it rises again" Bellatrix replies while picking up rocks and checking them to see if there was something inside them.
About thirty minutes later Ron comes back to Bellatrix and shows her what he has found and asks her to see if there is anything inside these rocks that was worth keeping. She took a look and found one rock that was rather interesting and told him that it was fossilized feces. "We better start heading back. The tides are going to be heading in soon.
When they got back to the shop Bellatrix bid Ron goodbye and went inside. Ron headed back to the hotel he was staying at with Hermione to tell her what he found today. When he got back to his room he found Hermione lying face down on the bed. "Hermione we can't keep doing this. I need to get you out of this room." He grabbed her dress and told her to get dressed so they can go out. Hermione took her time getting dressed and opened the door when she was ready and found Ron waiting in the hallway for her. They start to walk along the street and Ron looks over and Hermione who looks like she doesn't want to be here right now. "Hermione you can't continue like this, you're like a shadow and it won't do us any good if you stay like this when we go abroad tomorrow. It seems like you need more time to cope with whatever it is that you are going through and I think that you should stay here until I get back. You were told to rest and get some ocean air." Hermione looks at Ron and says "I don't want to be alone. I don't like the water." As they continue to walk down the street Ron looks at Hermione and says "Why don't you go back to the hotel and I will meet up with you in a bit." Hermione nods and heads back to their hotel. Ron then makes his way to Black'f Fossils and Things.
Ron gets to the shop and enters to find Bellatrix sitting behind her counter again working on smaller rocks. He approaches her "Miss Black, do you have a minute. I have something to ask." Bellatrix looks up from her work "What do you need this time sir?"
"I was hoping to ask you to see if my wife Hermione can learn from you while I travel abroad. She is suffering a mild melencolia and I think she should stay here while I travel. And I think you taking her out to the beach with you will help her."
"Sir I am not here to look over someone I don't know. I am also not looking for an apprentice."
"She will be staying at the hotel but I just want her to go out to the shore with you and get some fresh air. It will only be for four weeks, or five weeks. No more than six. And I will be able to pay you for this as well."
Bellatrix looks at him and contemplates this to herself in her head but then agrees to this because she can really use the money from this.
As Bellatrix and Hermione walk along the shoreline of the beach they hear the water crashing into the rocks as it flows in towards the beach and wind that is blowing. Bellatrix doesn't know why she agreed to take her with her because she has always worked alone. But she needed the money so she had to do this. As she walked along the beach she was a good five feet in front of Hermione who was slowly walking behind her. Bellatrix walks up to a big boulder and puts her bag down next to it and takes out the bread she had so they can eat. She peeled a piece and went to give it to Hermione who took a seat on a rock a few feet away from herself. Hermione doesn't even acknowledge that Bellatrix is offering her bread and just keeps staring out into the ocean waters. Bellatrix takes the bread and eats it herself and walks back to where her bag is. She looks at Hermione for a few seconds before she looks out into the water as well.