Disclaimer: Harry Potter and characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Not me, although I wish I did own them.
"Bidelia?"
"Yes, Miss Cole?" Bidelia looked up from her packing.
"It's time I told you something of importance." Miss Cole looked apprehensive, and slightly nervous.
Sweat stained the pits of her dress, and her graying brown hair was frazzled as if she had tried to tear it out. "I wouldn't even be telling you this if it weren't for certain... er... things."
"What certain things?" Bidelia dropped the small pile of scarves that she was in the process of transferring to her trunk and sat on her pitiful excuse for a bed.
"Er... the headmistress of your school... McGrengindell, is it?"
"McGonagall."
"Yes, that's the one. She sent me a letter, a rare occurence, that is, and expressed a wish for you to know your... erm... backgrounds."
"My backgrounds?"
"Yes. She felt that it is necessary. She knows all I know, got into a deep conversation about it on the day she came to tell you the news."
"And?" Bidelia had an anxious expression across her face. "Why didn't you tell me all you knew?"
"I felt it best, dear, that you didn't know. But apparently this McGoogle-"
"McGonagall."
"McGonagall woman feels that you should know. So I'm going to tell you all I know." Miss Cole took a deep intake of breath. "The woman that brought you here, she was very beautiful. In a weird, skeletal way. She looked like she had been locked away and starved. Her eyes were very scary, she seemed like the kind of woman that would harm you if you did anything against her will. You were only a baby then, and a very beautiful baby. I don't understand why someone would want to give up such a beautiful baby."
"You're off subject, Miss Cole."
"Right you are. Anyway, I remember her telling me that if she kept you, you would be in great danger. That a good deal of people would love to see you dead if they knew about your existence. I thought she was lying, of course, any woman trying to rid herself of a child will spin any tale they can think of as long as it gets the child gone. But I stopped thinking she was just lying to me when I glanced up at her face. Her eyes were tearing up. It seemed that she didn't want to lose you, especially not so soon after getting you." Miss Cole reached over and gently squeezed Bidelia's shoulder, a weak attempt to comfort her. "That's all I can think to tell you right now. Best finish packing, it's almost time for me to take you to the train station."
Bidelia watched Miss Cole's small-heeled shoes tap with every step out of the door. She reached up at her eyes and wiped away the moisture that had gathered there, refusing to cry, and shoved the last remaining articles that she needed to pack into her trunk.