November 1976

Remus Lupin, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew had been wondering where Sirius had disappeared to so they decided to check the map. They found Sirius's name in a usually abandoned corridor on the first floor. Their mischievous friend wasn't alone though. He was accompanied by two people, one they had never met, and one they had so gracefully avoided. Regulus Black was known to obey to his parents. He reported back seemingly everything to his parents which had landed Sirius in trouble more times than he could count. The Gryffindor boys were always cautious if he was around so the fact that he and Sirius we in the same room together was a big red flag. They grabbed the invisibility cloak and rushed out of their room. Three boys creeped out of the Gryffindor common room and down the stairs, being especially weary of the noise they made. When they reached the first level they stopped in front of the corridor, preparing themselves for the worst. What they saw was certainly not what they expected. Their best mate was hugging, and crying on, a complete stranger while a pale Regulus slowly walked away.
"What."
"The."
"Fuck."

The boys spoke in turn as if they shared one brain cell (Remus must've had it the most).

"Uhhhh guys.. meet my sister."

The boys were flabbergasted, they expected her to be Sirius's cousin or something, not his sister. James had recognized her from somewhere, he didn't know where as he could barely see her.

"Anna meet Remus, Peter and James." Sirius was grinning like a mad man. He already could picture her joining their group and if she was anything like him she'd fit in perfectly.

"Wait James? Potter?"

"Oh my god Donnie!" James popped out from behind Remus, who was so tall he fully covered James. James absolutely adored the girl he so vividly remembered. She light up every room she walked into. He didn't know how he didn't guess she was related to Sirius. She was like a clone of him but prettier and kinder.

"How the bloody hell do you two know each other?"

"His family stayed with my fami- um, the Cardells for a while. James, Apollo, Ares, and I hung out a lot." Bella has gotten so used to referring to the Cardells as family because in her mind that's who they were. She always stayed with them during the summers when she didn't wanna go black to Grimmuald Place.

"Oh my god Donnie! Remember that night, the one when we had to hide from the muggle auror people."

"You mean the police?"

"Yes! Them! Oh you guys should've seen it they had sirens on their cars. It was bloody brilliant mate."

"Why the bloody hell were you running from the police." The boy with the sandy blonde hair and the scarred face said.

"Well you see, we kinda got in a drag race and it got a little out of hand."

"How out of hand? And how were you two driving, don't you need to be 18 in France to get your license?" The sandy haired boy said again, his nose scrunched adorably in confusion.

"Well technically you can ride motorcycles at 16 as long as they're under 130cc and you have your license. Ares and I already had licenses so we each took a bike and Apollo and James rode on the back. It was like 3am so the streets were almost completely empty and we only got caught after we almost crashed."

"You two are so irresponsible." Remus shook his head and he almost seemed like a mother scolding her children.

"He sounds like Floria and you mother did when we got home." Bella has to stand on her tippy toes to reach James's ear. Floria Cardell was certainly meant to be a mother. She had perfected the stern yet soft voice that made her children listen and her glare could frighten even the dark lord. James snorted causing Remus's gaze to fall upon them once agin. Bella shrunk back so that she was hiding behind James. The scarred boy made her nervous for a reason she couldn't quite decipher. She could feel herself starting to get anxious from the way his eyes focused in on the scar on her cheek. She turned her head so that he couldn't see the scarred side of her face anymore.

"I'm gonna go find the Hufflepuff common room now... Goodbye James, Sirius, nice meeting you Peter, Remus." With a stiff nod of her head she strolled off. She didn't like the way Remus had looked at her scar, like he knew what it meant. Of course he had dozens of scars to match her singular one. She had a very strong guess as to why he had them but she didn't want to make him uncomfortable by staring, she just wished that he shared the same notions.

"Donnie the Hufflepuff common room is the other way."

"Right, thanks Jameson."

"Why don't I walk you there Anna? You can tell me what France was like." Sirius chimed in with a cheery tone, he genuinely didn't know anything about how France was for her. He never read her letters so he didn't really know if she'd tried to tell him anything about her friends. Most of the letters she'd sent to him throughout the years had ended up in the fire, he never had the urge to read any of them. He'd regretted that now. He knew that Regulus at least opened the letters. Reg had always looked up to Bella like she was the smartest person in the world which may be true, at least to him. That's why Reg felt so betrayed when she went to France.

Sirius started in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room hoping that Bella would follow and she quietly trailed behind him. She didn't know where she stood with him, he'd acted welcoming before but maybe that's just because Regulus and the boys were there. He could suddenly decide he hated her again if he wanted to, it was all up to him. It sucked that they were separated for so long and for a while she blamed herself. She thought that maybe if as a child she followed the rules more then they wouldn't have sent her off but she soon realized that wasn't the case. Her parents were grooming her, sending her to Beauxbatons in the hopes that she'd become an obedient housewife someday. How wrong they turned out to be.

1130 words

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