Skill and Seclusion [2] || Harry Potter x OC x Draco Malfoy

166. Fifteen

DISCLAIMER

I do not own Harry Potter ... but if I did I wouldn't have to worry about the train prices in the UK

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Bel wasn't certain which part made her cry first.

The sprinkle of cinnamon in her hot chocolate that Gus had remembered she liked even after all these years.

The dazzling display of all her favourite foods on the kitchen table – from green apple sweets to chocolate ice cream to warm cookies to buttered toast.

The decorated cake that read 'Happy 15th Birthday Bel' which had clearly been put together as a joint effort given the splotches of flour and icing still present on the Weasley's and Hermione.

The evident lack of any documents or books to do with magic, school and the Order which turned headquarters into just a simple house at first glance.

The living room that had been transformed into a room from her dreams – purple balloons and various coloured flowers dotted all around that reminded her of the serenity of her clearing.

The gifts that had been given to her after everyone had gorged themselves on the breakfast feast. Gifts that included a very recognisable hippogriff feather from Sirius with a note that said: Don't worry, sweetheart. You'll see him soon.

Not to mention the gift from her godfather – a moving picture of Remus Lupin and Bel's mother during their school days. Both dressed in their Gryffindor and Hufflepuff uniforms, sitting underneath a certain willow tree Bel knew so well.

"Your father took that photo", Remus explained once Bel had stopped crying, only resulting in more tears.

But as for when they first started, it might have been when she first entered the kitchen.

Before she took a sip of her hot chocolate, saw the incredible feast, or opened any gifts.

It might have been when she walked into the room and saw Harry Potter standing with the rest of her friends, smiling at her like nothing had happened.

Without anger or distance between them, just like he used to do before summer had started.

Yes, that was the trigger. Everything else was a means to keep them flowing.

Bel had never had a birthday like it. Filled with so much love and care from people who she could call friends and family.

It was something she never thought she would ever experience, and grateful doesn't even begin to describe it.

And before she could try and find the words to convey how much everything meant to her, she was told by Remus to not even try.

"It's the least we could do", he explained. "Willow would have had my head if she had known her daughter wasn't being given a proper birthday celebration."

That was the first of many little bits of information Bel begged the older members of the Order to give her about her parents. Both her parents.

Anything, absolutely anything she could learn about them that went beyond the note her mother had left her still locked away in her 'don't think about it' box upstairs was cherished and remembered.

Dumbledore may have been able to reveal the secrets she needed to know first and foremost. The horrifying truth of their deaths.

But he had been right when he had said that he wasn't the person to tell Bel about the wonders of their lives.