Ruby Red Tears

Chapter 2, Friends?

1967

I hurried towards the dungeons. I was late, as always. Strings of my amber waves whipped me in the face. It was my fifth year in Hogwarts and being the last one to enter a lesson became a habit of mine, the only ones that were able to top that were The Marauders, real troublemakers. As I arrived the classroom for potions, Professor Slughorn ignored me and I just murmured a silent "Sorry". I plopped down on a chair in the corner of the classroom and let out a sigh. "Is the thought of having a lesson with the snakes so awful?" a raucous voice besides me asked. I turned my head and looked right into the deep dark eyes of Bellatrix Black, the hated cousin of one of my Gryffindor peers Sirius Black. I raised an eyebrow and simply answered "maybe", without taking my eyes of her, she smiled slightly and turned back to her caldron. I indeed didn't like the Potion class: a teacher whose only goal seems to support and befriend famous students, James Potter and Sirius Black always trying to start a fight with Severus Snape and Bellatrix who always seemed so inscrutable.

"Today, class" Slughorn started talking "we will try our best to brew the Amortentia potion, does anyone know what this potion causes?" Snape began to speak, potions seemed to be one of the only classes that seemed to occur his interest-but I stopped listening and instead focused onto the lines on the dark wood of our table. A table made out of dark wood almost as dark as the ebony curls of my seat neighbour and with many scratches such as her voice has them.

I put the last ingredient for the potion into my caldron and steam started to rise in spirals the potion itself became a mother-of-pearl sheen exactly as it was written in the description. "Now, someone please tell me what they are smelling, how about our late comer-Mrs Violette?" Professor Slughorn addressed me directly. I tried to smell something which wasn't easy, considering that Bellatrix stood right next to me and the smell of her Hyacinth soap was pretty strong. "Well Professor, I smell freshly brewed coffee, the forest after rain, old books, freshly cut grass and I'm sure it would smell like a lot more but someone in this room tends to use a lot of flowery soap." I heard Bellatrix raw laugh for two seconds until she held her hand in front of her mouth and went back to being silent."Uhuhuu" James Potter shouted through the whole class "Who here smells like soap and bewitched our Ffur? You know that people smell what they're most attracted to?" "At least I can say for sure that it isn't you Potter, because even though you're sitting on the other side of the room I can tell that you haven't washed yourself in days" replied I laughing and shook my head. It often surprises me how that kid and I ended up in the same house. I packed my things and again was one of the last ones. I held the reputation of 'the daydreamer girl' for a reason. As I left the classroom Bellatrix brushed me in passing and dropped a small permanent paper by accident. I picked it up and wanted to return it to her but she was already gone. I looked at the paper and saw words written in scrawl handwriting. I was curious and opened the paper to see what the words said <6pm, owl tower>.

I fore sure was a dreamer but on the other hand I'm a Gryffindor and very curious and I always wanted to seek out mystery. Bellatrix Black was one of those mysteries. At 5.30 pm I left the Gryffindor common room with the pretext to send a letter to my parents. As I reached the owl tower there was already a petite figure. She stood with her back turned to me and looked over the estates of Hogwarts. "I already thought you'd stood me up" I attract her attention. Bellatrix turned around and asked "Why would I, it was me who invited you". I remained silent and she kept quiet too. So I simply stood next to her and looked down to the forbidden forest. I felt her eyes on my face but didn't look up. After minutes of silence I asked her "why did you wanted me to come? " Bellatrix seemed to search for the right words and finally answered "I don't know.", I raised my left eyebrow "maybe because you make me laugh and I wonder what's going on inside your head? „She continued her sentence and I didn't know how to reply. We sat on the steps of the tower for a while I lost my understanding of time but it was already dark outside when I returned to my dorm. Luckily my roommates were already sleeping so I had no need to explain myself.

Lying in bed I thought back to my conversation with Bella -no Bellatrix-. We talked a lot about school and family. But as soon as I addressed hers she blocked, all I got to know about them was that they're all Slytherins, purebloods and very focused on that kind of things. Other than I expected Bellatrix herself didn't seem to value those things a lot-she didn't even asked me about my blood status which surprised me because the things I heard about her and her sister Narcissa from Sirius sounded pretty different. I'm usually not someone to make up my opinion on people based on their reputation but I was surprised about how 'normal' Bellatrix acted.
As we were talking I looked at her again and again and recognized some of her little tics, like pulling a strand of her thick black curly hair back over and over again even if it's not hanging in her face anymore. The way she slidely nods when listening to me or how she bites her lower lip while thinking about what to say next.

Two weeks later

I walked through the lands after a potions class again and recognized Bellatrix following me. In the past week we went from staring at each other to secretly talking whenever we find a quiet spot. I knew that she was afraid if any of her family members or Slytherins might see us together but she still acted quite friendly even if they were around. And by quiet friendly I mean that she stayed quiet.
We became friends and I started to enjoy the time with Bella, Bella- a name that sounds sweet and sour at the same time-Bella, my new friend.