Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER TEN —— wreck the halls
( London, England )
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The morning of the twenty fifth of December, Verity awakens to the view of an elderly woman glancing at her from above, her brown hair tickling Verity's forehead as she checked to see if the teenage girl was indeed awake. The Bellova girl shrieks, moving backwards only to bump into and crash to the wall behind her, putting a hand to her back in an attempt to ease the ache that comes with it. Her mossy green eyes are wide with terror as she glances at the woman in front of her, before recognizing the greying hair and knitted sweaters over collared shirts, jumping straight out of bed still in her pyjamas and crashing into the woman as she pulls her into a enormous hug.
"Grandma!" The woman laughs with Verity, hugging her tightly. For a grandmother of a fifth year witch, Belle Valencia does not look a day over forty — her black curls that resemble Verity's mother's and her own so much have begun to grey, and her smile is surrounded by a few wrinkles, but they just make Verity's grandmother look all the more beautiful. She smells of peppermint and old books, and when Verity hugs her she smiles at the smell, feeling a sense of home she had not in quite a while — not since she had appeared at Grimmauld Place, at least.
Belle smiles, taking a seat on Verity's bed and patting the bed to sit down next to her — despite the loud shriek, Hermione is surprisingly still asleep opposite the room and Verity and Belle both take notice, quieting their voices down. Her grandmother gives her a side armed hug, keeping her arm around her. "Happy birthday, my darling," She smiles brilliantly, her laugh lines becoming visible once more. "How does it feel to be sixteen?"
"The same as fifteen, I suppose," Verity shrugs. Truthfully, she's surprised to see her grandmother here — but then she remembers that Belle had been a part of the original order before her husband (Verity's grandfather) had been killed right near the end of the first war. She supposes Belle still keeps in contact with some of the order in some way, at least. "When did you get here?"
