ephemeral ~ bellatrix black

chapter 11

It was the first of October, and Rhapsody walked slowly down the endless corridors, her books clutched tightly to her chest as she made her way to her common room after a long day of classes. She looked up at the paintings, her thoughts spiralling as she pondered each face's life. They stared down at her, confused at what she was doing, but she didn't care. Eventually Rhapsody got bored of this, and she probably looked incredibly stupid anyways.

So now she thought of Halloween, which was approaching quickly and not very shy of a month to go until the holiday. She wondered if maybe the Ravenclaws could play one of their games of hide and seek that evening. Or maybe all the houses could join! Rhapsody was getting very excited with this idea that hadn't even been put into plan yet. She reminded herself there was still a month before Halloween, so she needn't worry yet. Distracting herself from these anticipating ideas, she tried to focus on other things. Like her second year at Hogwarts!

Rhapsody was having a rather rough time with her second year so far. Not the work, school was easy and she got excellent marks. The part Rhapsody was struggling with was the Slytherins. Well, she got along with Rodolphus just fine now, and she supposed that other lad Selwyn was alright seeing as he didn't partake in the consistent teasing that his housemates directed towards Rhapsody.

The main problem was Sutherland and her group. Every chance they got, they'd snap a rude comment. The only three people with enough guts to try and hex Rhapsody were Sutherland herself, as well as Cadmus Carrow and Bellatrix Black.

Only quite recently had Bellatrix started to take on her friend's antics. It had come out of nowhere, actually. Not even a few weeks ago, the curly haired Slytherin had been minding her business and simply watching or listening to Rhapsody get humiliated. But suddenly she was actually partaking in these events, and would even do so little as narrow her eyes in disgust any time the two crossed paths.

Instead of simply disliking this girl, Rhapsody loathed her. Before, Bellatrix had just been being her regular, arrogant, snappy self, to going over the top and tormenting her using every chance she had. It'd went from Rhapsody wanting to be friends with her, wanting to be her, to Rhapsody only disliking her because she had to, because if Bellatrix hated her, she had to hate her back, right? And then it went to this. To whatever the hell this was. Maybe Bellatrix was trying to fit in, trying to prove herself to her friends and housemates that she wasn't a traitor. At least Rhapsody liked to think that. Although she didn't know why she was even bothering to care.

They were twelve years old! Surely twelve year olds shouldn't have enemies, right? Well, maybe enemies was an overstatement, but still. Rhapsody would much rather not have someone to hate. So from now on she'd simply ignore Black and Sutherland and their stupid friends. Or Rhapsody would fight back, but only if she had to. She decided she'd put up with this no longer. Maybe, if she wanted to be mature, Rhapsody would talk to them about it. Ask why she's being picked on.

She shook her head, a frown on her face as well as an expression that could be taken as disgust. She told herself firmly that she wouldn't stress over this any longer. She shouldn't think this much about who likes her and doesn't like her. It didn't really bother her that much. Rhapsody was fine with only having Rowan, Vivian, Oscar and Rodolphus as friends. She would rather kiss a basilisk than be friends with those other Slytherins. So Rhapsody swore to herself that anytime she thought about this, about this entire situation, she'd do everything in her power to shove those thoughts away. She wasn't going to waste her time on this matter any longer.

Ah, and now she was back at the Ravenclaw common room, just as she'd wrapped up her mental conversation with herself. Rhapsody went and joined a group over by the fireplace, of which included her three best friends. She smiled in greeting before plopping down on the floor next to  her housemates, tuning in on the lively conversation. 

"You okay?" Oscar mouthed, his eyebrows raised as he glanced at Rhapsody discreetly. 

She nodded curtly with a small smile, thankful to have good friends that cared for her. And she'd responded honestly, because for the first time in a very long while, Rhapsody felt truly happy. Despite the few things haunting her mind, which in reality didn't really matter. Her problems were solvable, and once she'd rid of them, she'd be on top of the world. 

A/N

holy crap this is mostly a filler chapter, but i am genuinely so sorry for not updating, ive had so much going on with school AND very extreme writers block :((  i promise ill try and update more often

- e