Fall (Harry Potter/Next Generation YHMH)

Chapter Thirteen

Break was over. Bella was happy to be going back. As much as she enjoyed the free time and her family, she wanted to get back to school, desperately.

“How was your break?” was the first thing she asked Professor Addams the day she got back, during their next meeting.

“Very good, and yours?” he answers back, leaning back in his chair.

“I’m feeling… good,” she smiles. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, Bella.”

“Why does having this much power feel so good?”

Her smile was different. Her entire demeanor was different. She was no longer the sweet, sensitive girl that she was when she started this year. She was twisted, cynical. She was dark… Her soul radiated an aura of blackness and despair.

“Bella…” The blonde haired man sounded indifferent. His voice was neither harsh, disappointed, nor shocked. It was plain.

“Forget I asked,” she snaps, angrily standing up. “Sorry,” she sighs. “I’ve been on edge lately.”

Without saying anything to her, Professor Addams reaches into the lower drawer of his desk and throws her a flask. He winks at her and brings his index finger to her lips, signaling for her to stay quiet.

 

She leaves his office and heads to her favorite spot, the Dark Forest, where she can drown her problems away in the Firewhiskey that Professor Addams gave her.

Nick’s concern for her was growing. In the seven years that he knew her, he’d never once seen her eyes change color. And now? They were golden, red peaking through some parts. She’d become almost hostile. She was like a ticking time bomb.

He didn’t wonder where she was; he already knew. She’d be at the Dark Forest. Most likely drinking. Trying to drown her sorrows. He wished he could do the same.

But he could never drown his demons.

They knew how to swim.

“Nick?” The voice of Lana, one of Bella’s close friends, was behind him.

“Hey, Lana,” he replies, yawning.

“Can we talk?”

Nick was surprised. They’d barely even talked before, and now she wanted to talk?

 

The two of them walked, without a word, to an empty classroom. Feathers were still floating in the air from the first year’s lesson: they were trying to levitate things in Charms.

“Is Bella… okay?” Lana starts, leaning against a desk. “She’s been distant.”

“I know. I don’t know why though.”

“Have you tried talking to her about it? Because when I even ask her to talk she makes up an excuse as to why she can’t talk.”