Eternal Patience

Belladonna's Promise

September first marked the beginning of another year at Hogwarts. Platform nine and three quarters boomed with activity as young witches and wizards made their final preparations for the journey aboard the Hogwarts Express. Owls of every color hooted in their cages as they were hoisted on to the steaming, scarlet engine. Students from first to sevenths years bustled about, some already changed from muggle garments into their black Hogwarts robes, reuniting with friends, grunting and loading heavy trunks on the train, and saying goodbye to their families.

Slightly apart from all the hustle, one party stood separated, motionless and quiet, a sharp contrast to the pleasant chaos of the rest of the platform. Barnaby Lee stood next to his grandmother, his body taught with excitement. Like a retriever eyeing its mark, he stared at the smoking engine, straining with impatience until he received the word to take off.

Belladonna surveyed the movements on the platform with her held high, looking down on the other families as if their laughter and smiles were shameful. Her dark eyes lingered on the families that obviously consisted of muggles, the parents gazing wide-eyed, as if they were on the surface of Jupiter rather than on a train platform.

"Pitiful," she said, cutting them a dirty look they didn't notice. "It's a pity Dumbledore doesn't take a leaf from Durmstrang's book and keep the muggle trash from entering the school. Yet another reason I shudder to send you here, though I supposed you'd be even more of an embarrassment at Durmstrang."

Barnaby was hardly listening. He was straining his neck over the crowd, trying to spot his friends. He glimpsed the Weasley family without much difficulty; their many red heads stood out amongst the crowd. He smiled to see that it looked like another Weasley brother would be joining Bill and Charlie at Hogwarts this year, a long-nosed boy with a very straight back and an expression not completely unlike the superior look his Gran often wore.

"I trust you don't associate with any of those mudbloods and blood traitors at school," said Belladonna, her gaze landing on the Weasleys with even more disdain than for the muggles.

"No," he said distantly, his eyes still scanning the many faces for his friends, searching for long, blonde hair in particular. He was so ready to board the train, to leave his grandmother until Christmas and be with the people he loved most. It was well worth the teasing and bullying he endured from Merula and Ismelda, the remarks from Snape about his stupidity that reminded him of home, and the embarrassment each time he botched a spell in class, to be in a place where he felt accepted, even wanted.

His grandmother wasn't finished with him, however. It had been a tense journey to the platform, as it had been for several years now. Barnaby's sole job at Hogwarts in Belladonna's eyes was to restore the family honor that had been lost when his parents had been captured for being in league with You-Know-Who and sent to Azkaban. He had apparently been failing miserably at this task.

"Low marks again this year, I see," she would say, glancing at his report at the end of the year in disgust. "I don't know why I bother to pay for this school. You are clearly unable to master even the most basic magical principles." Losing her temper, she'd throw the paper down and berate him loudly for the rest of the evening about how he didn't even bother to uphold the Lee family name, how it was all his fault her beloved son was in Azkaban, and how he was going to turn out to be even worse then his Uncle Cecil, whom she hardly even acknowledged as her son.

This summer, she had been particularly horrible to him on the grounds that the next year, this year, was his fifth year at Hogwarts and the year he would take his Ordinary Wizarding Level Exams. The results would determine which classes he could take for the following two years and which careers he would and would not be qualified for after school.