as i'm thinking of bringing back marcella, here's something small i wrote as a flashback:
Lavender Brown leaned closer to Parvati, voice dropping. “Look at her wrist.”
Parvati followed her gaze across the Great Hall, toward the Hufflepuff table. Marcella Beaumont sat beside Clementine Pembroke, listening intently, her chin resting on her hand. The gold bracelet at her wrist caught the light — thin, elegant, etched with tiny runes.
“That’s not school-issue,” Parvati whispered.
Lavender shook her head. “That’s not normal.”
Seamus Finnigan glanced up from his toast. “What’s not normal?”
“Beaumont,” Lavender said, as if that explained everything.
Dean leaned back. “Ah. Her.”
Harry looked between them, confused. “What about her?”
Ron stared at him. “You don’t know the Beaumonts?”
Harry frowned. “I barely know the staircases.”
Neville hesitated. “Gran says they’re… very old. Important.”
Hermione closed her book. “The Beaumont family predates Hogwarts. They’re referenced in multiple historical and economic texts. There are entire books written about them.”
Seamus blinked. “About a family?”
“Yes,” Hermione said calmly.
Harry glanced back at Marcella. She laughed softly at something Clementine said, completely unaware of the attention. “She just seems… normal.”
“That’s the point,” Ron muttered. “She wears expensive things like they’re ordinary.”
Lavender sighed. “She had emerald studs yesterday.”
“Goblin-wrought jewelry is common among old families,” Hermione added.
Dean rubbed his temples. “And I wore a jumper with a hole in it to Herbology.”
Across the hall, Marcella stood, smoothing her robes, gold and silk briefly catching the light before she and Clementine walked away.
Harry watched her go. “She doesn’t even know we’re talking about her.”
Hermione nodded. “Why would she?”
And just like that, the table returned to breakfast — leaving the name Beaumont hanging in the air, quiet and heavy all at once.