Chapter 21: Everything is wrong except Remus

March 1977

"God I wish I could just run wild whenever it rains. I love it, the feeling of the grass between my toes, the water soaking into my skin, it's beautiful"

"Why don't you?" Fabian Prewett said starting to slip his shoes off. "It'll be fun."

"We're supposed to be getting back to the meeting soon."

"You know they'll wait for us Belladonna, we'll be quick" Gideon said starting to slip off his own shoes as he grinned at the girl.

"I'll race you to the tree with the knot that makes it look like its all swelled up." Bella didn't wait for the boys to respond before she barreled ahead laughing as she heard the twins protests. When she was halfway there she felt a tug on her arms and saw Gideon at her side she was confused until she saw Fabian bounding foreword and passing them.

"You cheaters!"

"That's rich coming from you."

"Gideon c'mon, if you let me go then we can both beat him."

"I'm not falling for that love."

"Okay. I guess we can let him win." The girl hung her head before stepping on the boys toes making him release her as she tried to catch up with Fabian. Gideon laughed loudly watching as the girl tackled his brother into the grass thinking to himself about how glad he was that he met the little ball of energy.

***

When the trio arrived at the burrow for the order meeting they were met with grim faces and a tense atmosphere.

"Why the long faces?"

"You may want to sit down." With that the trios giddiness was shot down and replaced with a growing feeling of dread that something had happened.

"As you know up until now Finlay Moody has been missing. We've recently made some discoveries and we have located him."

"That's great! Why do you all look so sad then?"

"Bells, you might want to shut up now."

"Why?"

"I don't think they found him alive Bells." The girl instantly shut up, her eyes going wide and looking to Alastor Moody, the mans older brother.

"Oh my god."

"We need to find a new way to insure our members safety while out on missions so we've devised a plan." Dumbledore kept talking but Annabelladonna couldn't hear him over the sound of her thoughts crashing about in her head. She was only seventeen, she shouldn't be caught in a war. When the meeting ended she walked out of the room, trying to look as nonchalant as she could but one girl could see the worry in her eyes all too well.

Alice Longbottom stalked after the girl, telling her husband that she wanted to talk to the teen. She found Annabelladonna about to lock herself in the bathroom, the poor girl was hyperventilating and it looked as if the gravity of the war just hit her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm just a little shaken. It's one thing reading about deaths in the newspaper but it's different when it's someone you know. It just all seems more real than before. He was so young Alice. Can you imagine how awful it must be, dying at twenty five. He had his whole life to live. He's only four years older than you."

"I know. Sometimes Bella, it has to be the young ones that die, because if it wasn't them it could be someone even younger whose lived less. It could've been you, or me, or Frank, or the twins. We've got to keep our eyes out Bella, make sure that this doesn't happen again."

"Yeah, we can make sure that no one else dies. We can protect each other, right Alice."

"I won't let anything happen to you or the others Bella."

***

Lucius Malfoy sat in Grimmauld Place with two worry stricken parents as he tried to convince them to give their daughter a second chance.

"Lucius I don't know why you continue to defend her, she attacked you." Orion said, his eyes darkened with a look of guilt.

"I merely spooked her is all, she wasn't expecting me to be there I can see why it gave her a bit of a fright."

"She held you captive in a closet."

"Yes yes she seems to be a feisty little girl, nothing that a little tough love couldn't fix."

"Oh bless you, our daughter is so lucky to have you act so kindly towards her." Orion said, blinded by the boys charming smile.

"That she is. Now I take it that you two can find a way to get her back."

"We'll get her back, don't you worry about it." Walaburga finally spoke, her voice just as irritating as Lucius remembered but he merely smiled and sent her a nod.

Annabelladonna was his last chance, even if she was now deemed a blood traitor by her family. He could fix her image and she could give him what he needs.

***
Annabelladonna was lying down in the astronomy tower with her head in Remus's lap when she received the letter from her parents. The girls eyes darken as she read over the page. Lucius thought that her parents would try to bribe her back but he was wrong. The letter was one big page of threats. Telling the girl that they would do horrible things to Regulus if she didn't return home during summer break. Remus of course discreetly read the letter too after he saw her face darkening, just like he had done before Sirius had left that bloody home.

"Bells is everything ok-" Remus started but was soon cut off by a pair of lips against his. Bella's kiss was aggressive and demanding, trying to distract herself from what she'd just read. Remus was more than happy to go along with it to help get his girlfriends mind off of her horrendous family.

Girlfriend.

The two had officially started dating on Valentine's Day, as cliche as it may be Remus found it adorable. Bella had been the one to ask him, she'd always been quite foreword towards him but she was a bumbling mess when trying to get the question out. When he finally had agreed she pulled him into a kiss by his tie, in front of the whole Hogwarts population. (Which included Peter who proceeded to make gagging noises while James and Sirius fake cried on his shoulders). Sirius swears that he saw Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick each handing Professor Mcgonagall and Dumbledore a few sickles but no one really knows whether to trust him on that or not.

Remus kissed his girlfriend back matching her level of intensity if not more until they broke apart and Remus went back to reading her a muggle book called Alice in Wonderland. But Bella was too buried in her thoughts of her parents and the war to be paying attention to his calming voice.

Some days it seemed like everything in her life way going wrong except for Remus and her relationship.

1294 words

A/N: so this chapter is kinda all over the place but I'm rather proud of it. Bella and Remus's relationship is finally in the works and we got to have some interaction between Bella and some Order of the Phoenix members.

To clarify I made Alice and Frank 21 here so they're 4 years older than Bella and Sirius and 5 years older than the other marauders (cause Bella and Sirius have a super early birthday so they're a few months ahead of the boys)

Also to avoid confusion I created Finlay Moody for the sake of this chapter idk if this book is gonna mention him anymore but he wasn't in canon Harry Potter.