Chapter 18: Sisters, Through and Through

The drive home was just as short as the drive into the city had been. When they neared their neighborhood, Delilah passed their street and turned down another familiar street.

"Are we going to Mary's, Mum?" Bella asked excitedly.

Delilah nodded as they pulled up next to the small house they passed by the day before.

"I'm gonna go home, alright? I have to do some things before you get home. You can bring Mary by, as long as her grandpa says it's okay."

"Okay Mum," Bella said as she hugged her over the console. "See you later!" She was out of the car and running up to the house before Delilah even had the doors locked again. She waited a few moments after ringing the door bell on the door step before the door was opened and there stood a light haired girl only a little younger than Bella.

"Bella!" Mary exclaimed as she tackled her best friend in a hug. "Come on in," she told her as she dragged her inside. Bella managed to wave good bye to her mother before shutting the door behind her. Delilah drove home smiling at the girls' behavior.

Inside the house, Mary was questioning Bella all about her new school.

"So how was your school? Is it weird living there? Why didn't you write? How long do you get to stay?" she got out in a single breath. Before she could continue, Bella grabbed her in another hug.

"I missed you lots and lots," the raven haired girl said as she pulled back.

Mary smiled. "I missed you lots and lots too. Come on, I wanna show what I did to my room with Gramps," she said as she took her friend up the stairs.

On the second floor were two rooms. The smaller one was used for an office for Mary's grandpa while Mary had the bedroom to herself. Inside there was a loft bed with a desk under it and posters all over the orange painted walls.

"Wow," Bella said as they came into the room. On the other side of the room was a dresser with stuffed animals on top of it and above that was a shelf with books stacked precariously on it.

"Gramps says we can build a new bookshelf over spring break when its warmer out. He also says I've got too many books but I think he's joking," she laughed as she climbed up into the bed. "When I went digging in the garage, I found Dad's old radio," she told Bella as she showed her a rectangular box with dials and a speaker on it. "Billy down the street helped me fix it," she told Bella bashfully as she came down the ladder.

Bella smiled. "You mean "Silly" Billy Bartleby from school?" she asked slyly.

Mary stuck out her tongue. She had liked Billy since they were all in primary school together and now she was pretty sure he was starting to notice.

"That's really cool Mary," Bella conceded after a moment of silence. "Does it work?"

Mary nodded. "It sure does," she said as she flipped a switch and turned one dials. Immediately the static that started up when the radio was switched on disappeared and was replaced by the gentle lulling sounds of an orchestra.

"Awesome," Bella told her friends as she kept changing the frequency until they came across some Queen.

"Girls, are you upstairs?" Mary's grandpa called from downstairs.

"Yes Gramps!" Mary answered. She grabbed Bella's hand and they went back downstairs. "Gramps, can we go outside and play in the snow?" she asked her grandpa with a puppy dog look on her face.

Mr. Stanton merely nodded with a smile on his face. "Go ahead but don't leave the yard," he told them as they rushed out of the kitchen and to the front door.

Within in minutes they were both in the yard building a snowman to rival their past year's one.

"So how is your school?" Mary asked as they finished on the subject about Quentin Sterling and his gang of bullies.

Bella shrugged her shoulders. "It's not horrid but it's definitely not Devonshire. I miss Ms. Jo too."

"Yah, but anyone would miss Ms. Jo, she's the best. Besides, you get to spend months away in the country side," Mary continued. "What's the school like?"

Bella smiled as she began describing the castle. "It's huge and there's this lake really close by so when it's warmer we can swim. But we're not allowed to go in the forest because of the Dark creatures."

"Dark creatures? Sounds superstitious if you ask me," Mary commented as they made a face for their snowman. They both stood back to admire their handiwork. "I'll get Gramps' camera," she said as she ran back inside the house.

This gave Bella a few minutes to think about what she wanted to tell Mary. She won't believe me, part of her mind told her. But she might if I show her, the other side of her mind defended her.

"Got it!" Mary cried. "But Gramps said only two pictures; one for you and one for me."

Bella nodded as she moved away from the snowman.

"No, get in the picture. I want you in mine," Mary told her as she got the camera ready to take the photo. Bella moved back next to the snowman and put on her most honest smile.

"Now it's your turn." Mary handed the camera to Bella. "Do you want me in it?"

Bella nodded enthusiastically. Mary took her place beside the snowman and made bunny ears for it. Bella took the picture just as Mary started to laugh.

"Let's go back inside, it's a little chilly," Bella suggested as she gave Mary back the camera.

"Okay. Maybe Gramps will make us some hot chocolate," Mary answered as they both went into the house.

When they came inside they found Mary's grandpa already putting a kettle on to boil.

"Thought you two would be cold after being out for so long," he told them with a knowing smile. He pulled out two cups and broke pieces of chocolate into them. While they waited for the milk to boil, the girls ran up to Mary's room again.

"So you still haven't answered my questions," Mary said as Bella looked at the books that had nearly doubled since she had been there in August.

Bella turned around to her friend. "What didn't I answer?" she asked, knowing where the conversation was eventually going to go.

"Why didn't you write?" Mary asked a little sadly.

Bella came over and leaned against Mary desk. "I wanted to but you probably would've thought seeing an owl was a little weird, especially if it gave you a letter," Bella answered.

"I'm serious," Mary replied indignantly.

"And so am I," Bella countered. "That's the only way we can send letters at Hogwarts."

"Well that's a little stupid, isn't it? How do you even know the dumb animals even get to where they're going?"

"Owls aren't dumb! They are amazingly intelligent and absolutely wonderful familiars," Bella replied getting slightly angry.

"What are you talking about? What's a familiar?" Mary asked back becoming confused at her friends slowly diminishing control. The last time she had seen Bella get angry was when Quentin Sterling had thrown his lunch at them in the second grade and had ended up suspended for punching him in the gut. Twice.

Bella closed her eyes. She knew Professor Snape, not to mention her mother, would be angry if she lost her temper again, especially without a proper reason. She took several deep breaths until she was sure she was in control again.

"A familiar is an animal that agrees to become a companion to a witch or wizard. A lot of my friends from school have owls as their familiars. Mum and I have a cat as our familiar," Bella explained as calmly as she could.

By the end of Bella explanation, Mary was gawking at her. She pinched her arm in hopes of waking up from whatever dream she had fallen into but it didn't help at all.

"Let me get this straight. You're a witch and so's your mum. You have a cat that's a familiar, and you get mail by owls?" Mary questioned Bella slowly.

Bella merely nodded.

Mary opened and closed her mouth a few times. Finally she settled on two questions. "How long have you known?" she asked first.

Bella sighed as she answered. "I've known about Mum since I was little but she never wanted anyone to know," she added at Mary's betrayed look. "I only found out about my magic at the end of June and my teacher said I wasn't allowed to tell normal people about magic."

Mary nodded acceptingly. "Can you prove it? That you're a witch, I mean."

Bella bit her lip. "Well, I can't do magic yet cause I'm not of age but I think I'm allowed to show you my school books," she said at length. "Do you wanna go to my house after hot chocolate?" she asked tentatively.

Mary thought a moment. "Yeah," she said. She gave Bella a hesitant smile and then headed to the door. "Gramps is probably wondering why we didn't come back down," she told Bella as she motioned for her to follow.

The girls left the room, closer than when they went in.

Hey everyone. Sorry this chapter is late but I got caught up in the holiday stuff with my family that I don't get to see very often and just didn't get a chance to post on Saturday or yesterday. So happy/merry beladed Christmas/Hannakah/Kwanza/holidays. See you guys next week, hopefully. And I'm only publishing one chapter a week from now on. Night everyone.