Bella is back

You just know

Bella hadn't seen James since the night of the party. She had gone back to her dorm after dropping off Starla to find Lily and Sophia passed out on their beds. Soon after she found herself drifting off thinking about him. That's all she really did for the next week. Thought about James. Even as she tried to study for her upcoming exams.

By the end of the week she had spent 10% of her time studying, 10% eating and 80% thinking about him. She thought about Sophia's words from before they all went out. Sophia was still convinced James was into Bella, more than he was letting on.

Lily had tried and tried to get a confession from him but he never let on. It was beginning to frustrate Bella. If she just knew the answer, she didn't even care if he still loved her or not, she just needed a little respite.

Her first exam was Potions. She walked with Lily and Sophia to the great hall that morning freaking out. What if she stirred it too many times? What if she forgot an ingredient. Lily seemed to sense her fear and reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"It's theory first, you can forget about the practical for a while." She said. Bella just smiled, some part of her was convinced Lily was a mind reader. The other part just knew that lily knew her better than anyone, and that she could write pages and pages on what a specific ingredient could do to a potion, but as soon as she had to put it into practice she was stuck. Her dad had tried to help her but nothing ever worked. She was fine in first and second year but as soon as the potions got harder she couldn't keep up, especially since she missed an entire year and had to make it up in two months.

The hall was already full of fifth years in everyday clothes. So had taken their seats, others were milling around the doorway chatting. Bella went straight to her seat and pulled out a sheet of notes she had hastily scribbled on her way out the dorm that morning. Lily went to see Starla, who was currently in a state of panic and Sophia wandered off to find Arron. The two had been going well for the past few months and we're now not doing much to keep the PDA to a minimum. At this particular moment they were sharing "good-luck kisses" and Sophia was sorting his tie. It almost made Bella feel nauseas, then again that could just be the baby.

Being 5 months along it was getting harder and harder to hide the growing bump, but for the most part robes worked quite well. She had also been regularly visiting the church in Hogsmeade and the priest she spoke to the first time. He was helping a great deal. Despite her never telling him who's he was it was quite obvious from what she told him. No one else she knew of had been kidnapped by their grandfather, impregnated by Voldemort's son, and dumped by their fiancé in the space of about 6 months. Her weekly confessionals has become rather a comfort for her. A way to be cleansed of her "sins". And the priest kept ensuing her that she would be forgiven in the eye of God, to be honest she was starting to believe in the whole thing. She even considered converting but the thought was quickly put out of her head by her Aunt Lucia, who she had started seeing for tea and biscuits after church on a Sunday. Lucia was the only one who she spoke to about all that. The girls knew she went but also knew better than to pry. Only prying when she gave them the signal that she wanted them to.

"Right students!" Bella was rolled from her thoughts when the potions professor banged the gong at the front of the room. "Who's up for a little exam then?" The room went silent. "Well then, no matter, take your seats and we will begin at nine on the dot. Now I have a few rules to go through but I'll wait until you're all seated." He paused for a while before picking up a bit of parchment when everyone had sat down. "No mobile devices, if you have them on your person please surrender them now and you will not be punished. No notes or cheating of any kind, please put all pieces of notes in your bags at the back of the hall. No chewing, eating or drinking anything other than water, no pencil cases on the desks, please take out what you need and place the case on the ground under your desk (true rule. Trust me) If you are found to have broken any of these rules then you will be removed from the exam hall and you may lose your award for that or all exams. You may begin."

****

"What the fuck was question 11?" Arron asked as soon as Bella left the hall. He was left a little while before and so had Lucy. The two were sitting chatting in the hallway and Bella slid down the wall to join them. "What happens when you add too much Ashwinder Egg to Amortentia? How am I supposed to bloody know if they won't let us make it??"

"You simply have to read the text book. All the questions are from there. Hey don't care if you've made it or not, all the care about is the fact that they gave you the recipe and told you what happens." Bella said with a smile.

"So what does happen?" Lucy asked, "I didn't read the book either, only the ones we made in class."

"Well the question had two parts. A if you add 2 eggs and B if you ad 3 eggs. If you add 2 eggs then the Amortentia turns grey and murky but still worlds as a regular love potion without the whole 'smell what you truly desire thing' and if you add 3 eggs then the potion looks exactly same as it's supposed to but will do absolutely nothing. It will simply be liquid in a caldron."

"Really? Where did you read that?" Sophia asked, none of them noticed she had even come out the hall.

"It was in a book about potions in the library, I skimmed over it yesterday but didn't think I actually retained any information." She confessed, watching as Sophia went to sit on the floor beside Arron. By this time a few other students were leaving but no sign of Starla or Lily.

"What were you thinking about instead may I ask?" Lucy teased, a grin growing on her face.

"Nothing. Just daydreaming I guess." Bella replied.

"No! It may be dark in here but I can tell when you're blushing!! You were daydreaming about your fiancé!" Sophia crawled along the floor towards Bella.

"You know that's not a very flattering thing you could be doing." Bella said, taking out her phone and trying to ignore her prodding friend.

"Do not change the subject future Mrs Potter. What were you thinking about? You're wedding? Your children?"

"We aren't having children. This is a marriage of convenience and he is kind enough to go through with it." Sophia slumped back, unsatisfied, and huffed.

"You know that's not true." A new voice joined the conversation. "My son loves you, even if he wont admit it yet." Harry. Bella looked up in shock. "If he truly hated you why would he go through all of this trouble for you? A bond that could get him killed if you died? A death threat over his head? He wouldn't do that for just anyone."

"Isn't he just a nice person. A hero, like you?"

"He likes to think he is and that the only reason he's doing this but I know better. He may be trying to be a hero but he is to self centred to go this far, for anyone else he would find a new way that didn't so obviously risk his life, he values it too much. But perhaps not as much as he values your life. You maybe the first person he would throw himself in front of a killing curse for."

"How-" Bella choked a little, trying not to cry. "How do you know that?"

"I'm his dad. When you know someone, you just know."

And just as quickly as he came he left.

Bella sighed in relief.

"What?" Sophia asked her, concern lacing her eyes.

"My question has been answered. He does still love me, and I'm going to do everything in my power to get him back."

"But you're getting married. You have him already." Lucy said.

"No, I mean fully, wholeheartedly, grand gesture, I love you so much back. I don't just want an engagement, I want a fiancé. And I won't stop until I get it."