November 1976

Sirius had been asking Bella questions about France like how Beauxbatons functioned and how she ended up staying with the Cardells at the same time as James. When he started asking about her friends her face lit up.

"Well my best friends are named Asher and Apollo and they're the best. We would always get sat next to each other because they would sort us in alphabetical order. Asher and Apollo are probably the two funniest and kindest people I've ever met."

"Tell me more about them. Like what are they really like."

"Well Asher has a bit more of a mischievous side but Apollo is a huge adrenaline junkie. In our first year Asher took a polyjuice potion to look our headmistress and he just messed around with people all day, surprisingly he never got caught. Oh and once Apollo made us sneak out and go to America, that bloody connard (connard means jerk/ asshole in French... at least I think it does)."

"He made a polyjuice potion in your first year?"

"Yeah, didn't you learn to make polyjuice potions in your first year?"

"No, that's an advanced potion, Asher must be really smart."

"He really is, he'd always help me with my transfigurations homework, I really am not good at transfigurations. He's also really good at charms. He figured out a way to remove the charm on the dormitories that blocked people of the other gender, he got treated like a god after that."

"Asher sounds like the type of guy I'd be friends with."

"Oh you definitely would, everyone's friends with him. He's the type of guy that everyone wants to know, I mean so is Apollo but he's a little bit more reserved."

"What about you, were you as popular as them?"

"I wouldn't refer to myself as popular but I knew everyone that they did. We barely went anywhere without each other. It's hell not being with them, they just make everything so much better."

"Yeah I get what you mean, I don't know where I'd be without James, Remus, or Peter. It's weird to think about a living a life without them in it, I'm gonna make sure that doesn't happen."

"It's definitely strange not being around my boys, I've seen them everyday since the first day of school and honestly I'm half expecting to turn around that corner and see them smiling at me." With that last sentence Annabelladonna realized that they had come face to face with a stack of large barrels in a nook on the right hand side of the kitchen corridor. Sirius tapped the barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, in a rhythm Bella didn't recognize, and the lid will swing open.

Bella stepped into her new common room and she instantly felt comfortable. There was something about the room that soothed her, it was like she belonged there. She said goodbye to Sirius and wandered further in. Amos and Julia were sat on the chairs surrounding the small coffee table, they were gossiping excitedly and their smiles grew larger when they saw Annabelladonna enter.

"Annabella guess what!!! Ickle Amos over here got a girlfriend!" Julia said, she was talking so fast Bella could barely understand her.

"Aww what's her name, what is she like?"

"She's amazing. Her name is Emmeline Vance. She's a Gryffindor, she's a year below us. Top of her class, I'm not surprised, she's very intelligent. She's very beautiful too. Used to be dating Preston Fawley, fat git, glad that's over now. Now that I'm dating Emmeline people have started to notice me even more, I didn't it to be possible that I could get more popular. She's rather popular, friends with Marlene Mckinnon and her crew, they do seem rather close though I don't know what way it's in. Marlene has been known to swing both ways."  Bella really didn't like the way Amos was talking. At dinner he had seemed really nice, albeit very proud and he had a tendency to brag, but he spoke as if Emmeline was a prize that he won. She couldn't take that for much longer so she decided to excuse herself.

"Hey I'm feeling rather tired I think I'm gonna go to bed, do either of you know where I'm rooming.?"

"Oh yeah, you get your own room because all of the others are filled up. Let me show you the way." Julia led her up some stairs and to a small corridor, cozy rooms were spread throughout the hallway. Julia finally stopped at the end of the hallway and opened the door. "This is your room, I'm in the one right across from yours. If you ever need anything you can just ask me."

Annabelladonna's room was what she could only describe as warm. A small fireplace hid along one of the walls and next to it stood multiple different logs to make the fire change colors. There were circular windows lining the wall and due to the shine of the sun the whole area was cast in a golden hue. There were four poster beds with yellow curtains and there was a vanity set up against one of the walls. Bella quickly found that it held a stack of yellow and black sweaters all ranging in different sizes. In the corner of the drawer was a yellow and black scarf with the Badger pin to represent her new House. Another one of the drawers held piles of socks all with different patterns and colors. In the last drawer hid  a small handheld mirror, and a few books on self care. It seemed that every corner held potted plants. The room was much like their common room and it gave off a sense of comfort. It was almost as if the room was alive because it was so connected to the outside world and it was almost as if there was a rhythm to the room. A steady clicking of a clock could be heard, which according to Hogwarts: a History the clock shouldn't work but Bella guesses that it was enchanted so it could be used.

"Are all of the rooms like this?"

"Only the Hufflepuff ones, it was Helga Hufflepuff's idea. The other houses don't know about it but new stuff generates in the drawers once they've been taken. You can take everything at the end of the year, sometimes if you're having a bad day and the house-elves know about it they'll make your favorite foods and some hot chocolate appear on the desk."

"That's amazing, we had similar things at Beauxbatons but it was mostly make up that they gave us."

"That's really cool, I'm going to go to bed now but if you need anything you can always come to me."

"Okay thanks for everything Julia, I really appreciate it." And with one last smile Julia was gone and Bella was once again alone. Bella usually didn't mind being alone but that day all she wanted to do was be with Asher and Apollo. She sat down and put her head in her hands, she knew she shouldn't be so attached to them but it was hard not to be. They were always there for her when no one else was. They were her family, and no one could replace them. She flopped back onto her bed and sighed. One thought was ringing through her head, this is gonna be a long year.

1286 words

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