"Who could ever learn to love a beast?"
"No matter what you become, I will still love you to the end."
"Love doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be true."
"We're together now, everything's going to be fine, you'll see."
The story of Brielle Roux a...
"Of course." Flitwick nodded. Lily grasped Belle's girls arm before she was able to stand. Belle looked even more nervous than McGonagall, her face had paled and her eyes had become distant. She looked at her friend, swallowing the lump in her throat. Lily did not say anything, just tightened her grip before letting go, in a reassuring gesture. Belle let out a shaky breath before following McGonagall out of the Charms classroom and down the hall.
"Where are we going, Professor?" Belle managed to ask after a minute of silence.
"To Headmaster Dumbledore's office." She replied with a much softer tone than she usually has.
"Why? Am I in trouble?"
Belle had never hoped to be in trouble so much as she did right now. Getting a detention, which would've frightened her to no end in the past, now seemed quite favorable over the other situations running through her head.
"I'm afraid not, Miss Roux." The two were quiet again as Belle processed everything.
"Oh."
Once they had arrived at the Headmaster's office, McGonagall opened the 'door' for her but did not follow. The brunette climbed the stairs, each step feeling like a mountain. She knocked three times on the door and stood back as it swung open before her to reveal Dumbledore, sitting on the edge of his desk. He straightened when he spotted Belle, looking distressed; a look Belle had never seen on the old man's face.
"Professor?" Belle asked, not bothering with a greeting. She could care less about formalities right now.
"Good afternoon, Miss Roux. Please leave your bag here and take my arm, if you will." He didn't bother smiling and his eyes didn't twinkle, causing the nausea in Belle's stomach to intensify. Maybe her mother got better and her father wanted to celebrate. Yea, that's it. That's why he hasn't been sending letters. Belle took the man's left arm after disposing of her bag by a full bookshelf near the corner, gritting her teeth as she knew they were apparating. It seemed if every time she apparates it's for something bad.
The sickening feeling of traveling through space and time gave the girl a headache as they appeared at St. Mungos. The receptionist took a glance at Belle and frowned, knowing the familiar brunette after her many days here over the summer.
"Hey Susie." Belle greeted, giving the woman a half-hearted wave.
"Hello, Belle. Same room as always." Susie the receptionist said, watching as Dumbledore sat down in one of the waiting chairs. Belle felt a string of deja-vu as she ran through the halls yet again, climbing stairs and pushing past people. When she arrived at her room, the door was closed and the voices of many people were heard. Belle twisted the doorknob and instantly the voices stopped, many doctors and nurses eyed her with sadness and pity. Belle did not meet their eyes in fear of figuring out something she shouldn't.
It was then when spotted her mother.
She was on the same bed, in the same position as always, but the smile from her face was gone and her eyes were half-closed. Her mouth was still parted, though, but now looked less familiar than it had before. Her hair was thin and spread out above her head like a wave. The heart monitor that levitated in the air showed a slow, unsteady beat.
"Papa?" The girl whispered, noticing her father gripping her mother's hand. "What's going on?"
"Belle, come here." The man croaked, letting his daughter come and sit on his lap before turning to her. "I'm going to treat you like an adult, okay? You deserve to know..." He cleared his throat, "Your mother's organs are failing, very quickly."
"What does that mean, Papa?" She stuttered, her eyes filling with regretful tears. She shouldn't of left for Hogwarts that year.
"She's dying, baby. She won't make it much longer." Belle head spun, as she looked at her mother with the eyes of a terrified daughter craving the warm hug her mother had once given her when she was scared.
(A/N : I recommend listening to Safe and Sound by Colette Butler and Callie Moore (A cover) or Say Something by A Great Big World while listening to this. It also works out because Colette is loosely what I pictured Belle's mother looked like.)
And so the two sat in silence as the doctors slowly left, leaving the father and daughter alone in the room. Belle's eyes never left her mother's face as her father fell asleep, Belle in his arms and tears on his face. Every once and a while, Belle would hiccup, which would make her father stir, but not wake up.
Belle's mind flashed back to all the times she shared with her mother, dancing and signing while her father was at work, the times the two laughed together when Belle would do something silly. She would do it just to make her mother laugh, just to hear the melodic sound and knew she made someone smile. She would stare at her mother while she brushed her hair, hoping to one day look like her and to be as confident. She followed her mother around all day just to see her loving face. The nights Belle would have nightmares and her mother would come rushing in to fall asleep with the child in her bed, even though it couldn't of been comfortable.
Then her mind drifted to all she'd done to take advantage of the kind woman. All of her fits that she threw over not getting her way and the names she would call her mother when she wasn't aloud to do the things she wanted. All the times she told her mother she'd hated her when in reality she was just upset that she wasn't an adult yet. All of the times she gave her silent treatment for not making a dinner she liked. All the times she'd turned down her mother's offers of spending time together just to go play with her dolls upstairs.
All of the missed opportunities to make good memories.
Belle regretted not spending more time with the person she trusted most in the world. She hadn't been a good daughter to the woman who'd dedicated her life to being a wonderful mother. She'd taken advantage of everyone she had, and all she wished was one more moment to tell her mother how much she was appreciated and cared for.
"How does a moment last forever?" Belle whispered, afraid to disturb the serenity of that one second.
It seemed as if the universe was against Belle in that moment as the monitor droned, letting out a long, never-ending sound. Belle jumped, shaking her father awake as yelps left her throat. Her father jerked awake, noticed the noise and ran to get a doctor, leaving Belle to run to her mother's side. She grabbed onto the woman's arm, squeezing it as hard as she could as she pleaded, pleaded for her to wake up, to say something. Anything.
The doctors pushed Belle aside as they worked machines and stuck needles in her mother. Belle crumpled to the floor, sobbing. Her father took hold of his weeping daughter and wrapped his arms around her. He wasn't going to deny today that he was crying as well.
"I know, pumpkin. I-I know." The two sat there sobbing as the doctors stepped back from the woman, who lay there cold as ice, the dull sound of the heart monitor still ringing through the room.
Colette Roux was dead.
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