Power and Persecution [1] || Harry Potter x OC x Draco Malfoy

105. Keep It

She didn't have a name, let alone a face, to grieve over.

Now she had so much more than that.

She had a sense of the amazing person Willow Brodwick had been.

And it ran through her veins, saving her from darkness each and every day.

It was because of the information Bel now had; she could grieve.

And it hurt.

It was painful for her mind to think of such things.

Which was only all the more motivation for Bel to decide to take up Occlumency lessons from Snape.

To help her miss her mother a little less.

To help her hate her father a little less.

To help her pick herself up and dust herself off, knowing that there would still be more danger lying ahead.

"May ... have you seen that yellow top I leant you in first term?"

Tia's voice snapped Bel from her thoughts.

Bel had involuntarily started to weep as she stared out the window, as always occurred when she started to feel grief for her mother.

It had been something that she simply couldn't hide from those in her dorm room, as it happened every night.

Something Bel hated. She was like Tia in that sense.

Perhaps not as good at hiding her emotions, but Bel didn't like it when people saw her as broken.

She wasn't allowed to be broken.

"Oh, May", Tia whispered with sympathy as the two girls met eyes.

The very loyal and deeply caring friend approached Bel on the windowsill, snuggling up to her and wrapped her in a tight hug.

"Thinking about your mum again, huh?" Tia whispered as she held onto her.

Since it was an impossibility to hide just why Bel was reduced to tears every night, she had caved and told her closest friends that she discovered who her mother was.

She lied and said Dumbledore had found out.

She also lied and said that there was still no information on her father.

All they knew was that Bel's mother was called Willow Brodwick and had died in the war.

"I miss her, Tia", Bel whispered back, trying to get her tears under control.

Before Tia could reply, someone burst through the door.

"May ... Ollie was wondering when Dumbledore was going to let you take some days off so that we –"

Riley came to a very abrupt stop upon seeing the two girls huddled in an embrace by the window.

As an empath of sorts, Riley pretty much immediately burst into tears herself, running over to them and joining in the hug.

"Have you been looking at that letter again?" Riley asked.

The letter from her mother.

The only thing Bel had directly from her.

It had been removed many times over the past few days from that little box.

She hadn't planned on it, but Bel had initially opened it to put the feather from Buckbeak in there when her heart just couldn't help itself.

The letter was now joined in the box by Willow's obituary.

Bel wished she had something more.

Like a book of pictures that Hagrid had given to Harry.