Looong Chapter, or at least it was in my word document- 13 pages o.O
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
I barely noticed when February ended and March began. I did notice that I woke up in James' bed every morning since that first time. Much to the horror of Steven and to the confusion of the rest of Gryffindor. Well actually much to the confusion of the entire school, except Lilly who walked around with a smirk on her face. Rumors started drifting through the corridors at Hogwarts which I ignored completely. It really wasn't so bad until some girls, jealous I'm assuming, kept asking questions. Personal and annoying questions. I hexed the leader of the group, got my first detention in months, but was left alone about me and James afterwards.
Draco's will had been read the last weekend in February. Not surprising he split everything he had in half; half for me and half for Scorpius. We jointly owned Malfoy Inc., the Malfoy business that had been passed down several generations. The business that neither Scorpius nor I wanted. Luckily for us Draco had a few loyal people that worked for him that were more then happy to run the business for us and make sure we got our pay. Everything else we left as it was, where it was. We just aren't ready to doing anything yet.
I certainly haven't recouped yet. Especially seeing as the Auror department was ready to give up and Harry Potter was about to rip out all his hair. It was frustrating to say the least. I received a letter from Mr. Potter every Friday morning, and they always said the same thing: Sorry, no leads yet. We're still working on it.
I was just about ready to give up and just let it lie. What was the point? It wasn't helping me move on or anything. Actually all it was doing was aggravating me. How hard could it be? I mean honestly how hard could it be to find a killer when the Auror department supposedly did this all the time. Just talking about it irritates me and so I'm not going to talk about it anymore. Instead I'll talk about the rest of my seventh year and how ignoring all my problems is going to turn around and bite me in the ass. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so I digress.
March continued the same way February ended: in a rather monotonous boring blur. I was surprised when April rolled around. I had three months left of Hogwarts before I was done with school and out on my own in the world. It was kind of scary. I was stuck. I had no idea want I wanted to do with my life. I never really thought about it. I always figured that I could continue to live with Draco and Astoria until I decided want it was I wanted to do. Obviously that is no longer an option. So now I was at a loss. Of course I always had the Malfoy family business to fall back on. But who wanted to sit behind a desk and boss people around all day, I mean really?
"Bellina what are you staring at?" Scorpius' voice penetrated my deep life thoughts.
"Huh?" I said stupidly. We were sitting outside underneath the big oak tree down by the lake on this, surprisingly rainless, day. Albus snorted from behind his books.
"I said what are you staring at?" Scorp repeated calmly. I blinked at him. I wasn't about to admit that I was staring at James Potter from afar.
"Nothing in particular." Albus snorted again. I ignored him because I wasn't really staring at James. Okay well maybe I was but I wasn't thinking of him. I was thinking of my future…which isn't very promising at the moment.
"I was thinking of my future." I said aloud. I'm curious to know what they would say.
Scorpius and Albus gave me blank stares. Oh for crying out loud.
"You know. What I'm going to do after Hogwarts." The realization was slow to hit. And they complain that my head is in the clouds.
"I forgot." Scorpius said quietly looking at the lake, "Your graduating this year."
"So what are you going to do?" Al asked putting down his book. Apparently my future is more interesting then studying for his OWLs. Which I guess in a way it is.
"I don't really know. I've never thought about it before and so I'm kind of at a dead end."
"James is going into Auror training this fall." Al said smirking at me. And what is that supposed to mean you little bugger?
"That's nice." I drawled, "But I'm not really that interested in what he's doing." By this time both Al and Scorp were smirking at me.
"I heard Dragonii might be joining him." Scorp said.
"Well that just destroyed whatever slight and minimal interest I may have had." I said. The less I had to do with Steven Dragonii the better. Albus frowned.
"Yeah. They were talking about it in the common room the other night. I think they're joining together."
"How in the world do you know what the hell is going on in the Gryffindor Common room?" I asked incredulously. Al gave me a sly glance.
"I have my sources." He said. Scorpius snorted.
"What about dad's business?" Scorpius asked going back to our previous conversation. We really did get off topic didn't we?
"I don't know Scorp. I mean it's nice that he left us with something to do and some income but being the CEO of an investment bank is just not my cup of tea."
Scorpius nodded.
"Yeah me either. I don't know what we're going to do with that."
"It's fine the way it is now. We have time before we really need to figure anything out. I just need to know what I'm going to do right after I graduate. You know me, I'm not one to just sit around and do nothing."
"Isn't the head of house supposed to talk to students about their futures?" Al asked.
"Well yeah they are. But because of what happened on Valentines Day, the faculty have kinda been giving me some space." I said. My heart throbbed when I said Valentines Day. It still hurt when I thought about it.
"I'm tired of thinking about this." Al said. I snorted before looking down into my book. What was he going to do in two years when he would have to think about this for himself?
"Pettier wants a last minute practice before the finals next weekend."
Both me and Scorpius flinched. Neither of us had been playing very well for the past couple of months. Slytherin was hanging onto their lead by a mere ten points.
"Yeah that might be good." Scorp said sheepishly.
"We're playing against Gryffindor so we need to pick up our game. I won't have James rubbing it in my face all summer."
While Slytherin had slowly been getting worse, Gryffindor had been doing amazingly well since Christmas. The entire Slytherin team blames it on me. Why? I have no idea. They think I make James a better captain. How does that even make sense?
"Oh shit-fucker." Al said in wonder.
"Language." I snapped, looking up from my book. Then I saw the spells flying down at the edge of the lake.
"Son-of-a-bitch." I said jumping up.
"Language." Albus and Scorpius chorused.
I think I've mentioned before about how those two are a couple of smartasses…here's more proof.
I watched as Hagrid pulled apart the two students who by this time had dropped their wands and resorted to fist fighting. Professor Longbottom had picked their wands up and was standing next to Headmistress McGonagall. McGonagall was shaking with anger. I could tell even from where I was. Those two students were in deep shit.
I watched as the faculty walked the students to the castle, separately of course. The first student was Steven Dragonii. I was surprised. Steven is not the violent type. The second student that passed us was James.
"Whoa. Did we miss something?" Scorp asked. I should probably mention that he's been getting better as time goes on. Like me it still hurts but not as badly. I should probably do something nice for Rose Weasley one of these days.
"Since when does James and Steven argue, let alone fist fight?" he continued looking from me to Al. I shrugged. Those two had been best friends since first year. They never fought. Not even when Steven found out I've been sleeping in James' bed, and still am.
"Did you see that?"
"Dragonii and Potter were going at it."
"That was the best fight all year."
I stared blankly at Al and Scorp, listening to the voices around us.
"Maybe we should go see James." Al said, "He was limping so maybe he's in the hospital wing."
I didn't respond, I just grabbed my stuff. It took us twenty minutes-TWENTY MINUTES- to get to the hospital wing. It should have taken about five. That's how many students were lingering because of the fight.
There was a large crowd of students in front of the hospital wing doors, all of them trying to get in. Rose and Lily were desperately trying to prevent them.
"Oi this is a school not a fight fest. Move along."
"Move along yourself." The kid next to me sneered. I cuffed him on the back of the head so hard he went down on his knees.
"Next person who talks gets cursed short of oblivion."
The corridor went dead quiet.
"Now move it!"
The Slytherins were the first to go. They knew better.
"Oh thank you so much Bellina." Rose gushed giving me a hug.
"Is no one allowed in?" Al asked.
"Family is." Lily said opening the door. Me and Scorpius automatically stepped back. Rose took each of our arms.
"Don't be silly. You guys are family. Besides Uncle Harry might want to talk to you."
"Dad's here?" Al asked incredulously.
"Yeah and so is mom. She is pissed." Lily said in an undertone.
"How come they're here?" Scorp asked quietly as Rose opened the hospital wing door. Lilly just shrugged.
I followed the other four into the hospital wing making sure no one was following us in. On the farthest bed from the door sat an extremely pissed off looking James. His mother, Ginny, stood next to him looking just as pissed. Mr. Potter was sitting in a chair absently mindedly staring at the wall. No one else was around.
"Mum?" Lilly said hesitantly going to over to Mrs. Potter. Ginny Potter is the only one that can actually scare Lilly. Which makes sense in a way.
"Hello dear. How are classes going?" Ginny Weasley immediately put on a smile for her youngest children and their friends. Then she glanced at James and scowled.
"Um why are you here?" Albus asked ignoring his mother's question.
"Just in the neighborhood. Then Professor McGonagall told us what happened out by the lake." Mrs. Potter's scowl deepened. Ok, why in the world were they in the neighborhood?
"Oh. Bellina. Perfect timing." Harry Potter suddenly came out of his thoughts to find the five of us standing in front of him. I raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. I kind of knew what this was going to be about.
"Come over here. I need to talk to you." I followed Mr. Potter to the other side of the room, where we wouldn't be overheard.
"I checked out the Malfoy vault at Gringotts after you gave me permission last week." He paused to take something out of his pocket, "Nothing out of the ordinary except this. It's addressed to you."
Mr. Potter handed me a folded piece of parchment and then stared at me expectantly. I opened it to discover a small pendant and Draco Malfoy's handwriting.
"Just a letter." I said looking at it, "And a gift."
Mr. Potter nodded.
"Well if you find anything important in there let me know."
I watched as Mr. Potter walked back to the others where Mrs. Potter's voice was slowly increasing as she scolded her oldest son. Albus and Scorpius were watching in amusement and Rose was shaking her head. Lilly caught my eye and walked over.
"What's that?"
"A letter. From Dad." I responded quietly, "Let everyone know that I need some alone time."
Lilly nodded as she watched me leave the hospital wing.
The corridors were empty now, as the students had all returned outside to study and enjoy the weather. I walked to my favorite place, the astronomy tower, with the letter and pendant clutched to my chest. I find it strange that Draco left something to me personally and not to Scorpius. After all I'm only an adopted child and even then both me and Scorp were always treated equally and given the same amount of love. Once at the top of the tower I made myself comfortable and read my short little letter. It went as follows:
Bellina,
If you are reading this then that means I'm either in hiding or not around anymore. I will keep this short and to the point since I don't have much time to write. You might not know this but for the past several years I have been doing some side work for Harry Potter and the Auror department. I won't go into details about what I've been doing here but it is top secret and not even Potter knew exactly what I was doing, only the Minister who assigned this to me. And this leads me to my request. With this letter is a pendant I know you recognized. I need you to go to the Italian mansion and get something from the vault. It will explain everything. Tell Scorpius that I love him, and know that I love you and always will.
Draco
P.S. Please be careful from here on
"Hmm." I said aloud. Well isn't this interesting.
"Bellina?" I jumped up at the sound of my name, my heart beating in my chest. James was standing at the door looking curiously at me.
"Jeez James. Did you really need to scare me like that?"
James smiled and walked over to me.
"Sorry. And here I thought it was impossible to sneak up on Bellina Black."
"Don't be a smartass. Albus and Scorpius is enough for me to handle." I growled. I stuffed both pendant and letter into the pocket of my robes and then crossed my arms over my chest.
"What do you want? I told Lilly I wanted to be alone. And how did you find me?"
"Lilly did mention something like that. And it was just a lucky guess that I found you here." James opened his arms out to me. I hesitated for a second before stepping into his embrace.
"What were you and Steven fighting about?" I asked burying my face in the crook of his neck.
"You." I looked up at him in surprise.
"He still wants you back and he's pissed at me for taking you."
"We're not even dating." I said slowly. To be honest I don't know what me and James are. On one hand we barely speak during the day and never hang out during free time. On the other hand I wake up in his bed every morning and I haven't gone a day where I didn't wear the gifts he had given me. James stared at me, face blank, eyes filled with… pain? What the hell?
"James?"
"I know we're not going out and I know we probably never will. But –" I placed my hand over James' mouth stopping the rest of his sentence.
"Never will." I echoed. James cocked his head at me.
"After the last six years I'm still surprised you even talk to me, let alone anything else that's been going on."
Why must guys be dense? Did he not understand the last few months?
I sighed and pulled away from him.
"I have to go talk to McGonagall." I said. I left him standing at the top of the tower with a confused look on his face. What an idiot. But I'll deal with him later. Right now I had a request to fulfill.
"Bellina we really shouldn't have came." Rose whispered.
"You didn't have to come, Rose." Lilly whispered back.
"Would you two be quiet." I snarled. Both girls pouted and looked away.
"Should have done this myself." I grumbled.
The Italian Mansion was quiet but it was still giving me goose-bumps. Definitely an eerie quiet.
"Why are we here again?" Lilly whispered.
"I told you. Your dad found a letter for me from my dad. He left something here for me."
"So why are we sneaking around? Isn't this your mansion?" Rose asked.
I didn't answer. How could I explain that my summer home felt like enemy territory?
"We're here." I said suddenly, stopping in front of a door that looked like all the others. Lilly gave me a skeptical look before opening the door to reveal a study. I pushed the girls inside, closed and locked the door behind us.
"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Rose asked looking around. The study was furnished with a desk, multiple bookshelves and filing cabinets, a couch, some chairs, a fireplace and a few small tables.
"Don't worry. That's the easy part." I said stepping over to the only picture hanging in the room. It was a muggle painting of Hogwarts castle and grounds. I pulled the Hogwarts crest pendant from my pocket and stared at it for a moment.
"What are you going to do with that?"
Again I didn't answer. Instead I took the pendant and placed it into the niche in the painting where the castle doors should have been. The pendant clicked into place and gave off a sudden flicker of light. When the light faded the painting shimmered then disappeared, leaving a muggle wall safe behind.
"Wow." Lilly breathed. Her eyes were lit with excitement.
"It's a 3 number combination lock; do you know the combo Bellina?" Rose asked while inspecting the wall safe.
I simply stared. Did I know the combination? Draco seemed to think I would.
"Hey look at this." Lilly was now standing next to the desk, a picture frame in her hand, "Aww! It's a little Bellina."
"That's from eleven years ago. My first day in the Malfoy household." I said softly. In the picture I stood next to a pouting 4yr old Scorpius with Draco and Astoria standing behind us. Draco's hand rested on my shoulder.
"Rose."
"Yes?"
"Try 7-11-9."
"Huh?"
"The combo, try 7-11-9."
Rose walked over to the wall safe. After a few seconds I heard a click.
"Rose?"
"It worked." She whispered. She opened the safe door and pulled a single item out: a file.
"This is it." She said handing it to me. I plopped down on the couch, the file on my lap and still closed.
"Hey how did you know the combo?" Lilly asked sitting down next to me. Rose sat across from us.
"July 11, 2009. The day I was adopted by Draco and Astoria."
"Well what's in the file?"
I opened it to discover handwritten papers, newspaper clippings and photos.
"What is all this?" Rose asked in wonder.
"Death Eater activity and names." I responded after a moment. My voice was emotionless.
"All within the last 5 years. Looks like Mr. Malfoy was keeping an eye on them." Lilly said looking over a list of suspected death eaters.
"But why?" I muttered. Draco's short letter and this file was giving me more questions then answers.
"You don't think these people were the ones that…?" Rose's voice trailed off and she shifted uncomfortably.
"Could be." I responded my voice still emotionless. I knew what she was about to say. These suspected death eaters could very well be the reason I didn't have parents anymore.
"James." Lilly said suddenly.
"Huh?"
"James' owl." Lilly walked to the window, opened and let in a snowy owl. The owl soared in and landed on my shoulder. I note was attached to it's leg.
"What does it say?" Rose asked as I read it.
"Wants to know where we are. Really worried. With the headmistress." Panic now laced my voice as I continued to read, "Scorpius and Albus are missing."
I really don't like cliff hangers…..and yet here is a cliff hanger…..sorry (drops head in shame)
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