Once she believed in fairy tales.
On cold nights her mother would pull Isabella into her arms and hold her close and tell her stories. Isabella already knew about magic. Her daddy was a wizard and he said that she had magic too. But her mummy told her about a different kind of magic, one that didn't require a wand, and that needed no spell. A magic that was powered by one soul recognizing its missing parts in another.
"When you find that magic Isabella," her mother would whisper, smiling, "when you find your prince, you must hold onto him? Yes? Fight for it."
"Yes Mummy." Isabella would say, and she would cuddle closer to her mother's heart.
Once she believed that it would all be alright.
When she heard that Voldamort was back at the end of her fourth year, it was hard to be scared. Her Daddy wasn't scared and he worked at the ministry. Her mother wasn't scared because she was a muggle. And anyway, even if it was true, Dumbledore would be there to protect them.
Everything would be fine, she thought. She had nothing to fear.
Once she believed that good was stronger than evil.
She knew that Voldamort was alive, no matter what the papers said. She could feel it in her bones, smell it in the air, see it every time she caught Harry Potter's eye, read it in the ever deepening lines in Dumbledore's face. There are a few of them in her house that think so. Ravenclaw is full of skeptics, but Isabella knew their logic is flawed.
He thought the same as she did. Even though she's in Ravenclaw, and he's in Hufflpuff, she had never felt more connected to anyone as she felt to Stephen.
They couldn't join the D.A. Their father's work for the ministry and it's too risky. But they undermine Umbridge at every turn, determined to make a difference where they can.
With Stephen Cornfoot at her side, they watched Umbridge run from the school. Isabella believed in that moment that there was nothing that good couldn't accomplish.
Once she believed in promises.
She promised her parents that she wouldn't fight.
She promised her friends that she wouldn't resist the Carrows.
She promised Stephen that if she could, she would always save herself.
She kept those promises. She watched her parents get taken away to Azkaban. She watched her classmates get tortured at the hands of her teachers and said nothing. She pretended that she didn't know Stephen when they had caught him recuing a third year from the dungeons.
Yes, Isabella kept all her promises, right up until it was her turn to step through the portrait to safety. And then she turned back.
Because Isabella knew she had found the missing parts of her soul and all she could do was fight for him.
Once, Isabella Dustan and Stephen Cornfoot were destined for a happy ending. Once.
They were found inches apart in the Great Hall, reaching for one another as if to embrace. Because war has a habit of erasing destinies, and 'once' is sometimes not enough.