Forgotten

8 | The Hogwarts Express

Bella walked into the train with her brother at her side, she still hadn't seen Barty since... he came to her room. Knowing he was going to be sitting with them for three hours made her want to go find Rodolphus and stay with him instead. She would rather sit with bloody Potter than her brother and Barty. It was going to be catastrophic. The most important thing was that her turtleneck was high enough to cover the marks he left on her skin. Nobody else needed to know.

"Bella, come on, stop falling behind." Evan said, looking back at her from where he was walking off down the corridor waiting to get to his usual compartment. She didn't understand why he was always in such a rush, they were on the train and would be sat down long before it even began to set off. He was just being dramatic as usual.

"The train's not going anywhere Evan. Stop rushing." She was stalling, trying to take as long as she could to get to her seat because she knew Barty would already be inside. He was always one step ahead.

"You're so slow." He groaned, stopping and waiting for her to catch up to where he was stood. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her forward until it came into view, "see that wasn't so hard was it?" 

"No" She muttered, the walking wasn't the hard part. It was seeing the person inside, every instinct in her body told her to run in the opposite direction and find anyone else to sit with but she knew that wouldn't be an option.

By now she had no way of getting out of it, Evan was already inside with her wrist still held with in his surprisingly strong grasp.

"Barty! I was looking everywhere for you." Evan exclaimed rushing to sit opposite his best friend next to Regulus, leaving the seat next to him for Bella, of course I would end up with him, she thought to herself.

 "Where have you been? You said you were going to the toilet and just disappeared." Evan continued, she knew exactly where he had been but didn't plan on telling anyone.

"I wasn't lying, I just got caught up with someone on the way back." Barty's eyes lifted to her own, his gaze penetrating. There was something else there, she just couldn't pinpoint what it was. "Bella, you can sit down you know. I don't bite." Liar, that's why she had a this shirt on to cover the marks on her neck that he left.

She couldn't exactly say no without raising suspicion so she settled into the seat smiling at him, a teasing smirk painting his features perfectly. "Thanks." She said, trying to hide how flustered she was. 

Conversation and laughter filled the room as the train eventually set off, a comfortable atmosphere surrounding them. Even Regulus didn't seem as closed off, at least compared to how he was with Bella. She didn't know if he was always like that.

"Anything off the trolley, dears?" The trolley witch asked as she looked at each of us, her head only just poking through the narrow gap in the door.

"I'll take Bertie Bott's every flavour beans and 5 chocolate frogs." Evan told her, ordering for all of them, "Oh and fifteen liquorice wands and a pumpkin pasty." Not even Merlin knew how he managed to get that much money off of his parents. Bella could never convince them of such a thing. They were served quickly, the table becoming a war zone of sweets and chocolates. And as soon as the door was closed again they all grabbed handfuls of sweets.

"I think I should get 2 chocolate frogs Evan, after all you bought one too many and I am the favourite of us all." Bella said, already reaching for the frogs before anybody else could grab them.

"I don't think so. That money came out of my pocket so I get two of them." He had them in his pocket before she could steal them off of him.

"Greedy fucker." She mumbled under her breath. "It's not even your money, my guess is that it's from father's pocket because you would never get that much out of mother."