ghost stories - h. potter

0.1

【𝐎𝐍𝐄】

· 。ﾟ☆: *. ☆彡

Death.

No one really knew what happened after death. Was there a bright light? A dark one? A grim reaper perhaps? Or maybe just nothing but pure blackness?

It was one of the world's most frustrating questions, for no one could answer it. Well, no one except a dead person, of course. That was why Belle Frenche knew exactly what happened after death. How did she figure it out exactly?

Well, it's quite a simple answer, really.

She asked a dead person.

Belle was constantly surrounded by death - one of the many cons that came with the title of being a Clairvoyant. There were spirits nearly everywhere she went - Hogwarts, her backyard, the library and even the train station that she currently stood on.

The young woman sighed heavily as looked away from the three spirits that roamed Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. One of them was an elderly lady, the second a middle-aged man and the third a young child - something that Belle found hard to look at when she realised he had died on the platform. It had been just over a year since she had last step foot inside the train station, as Hogwarts had been closed the previous year. After the war, the castle was in ruins and it was in no way at all safe to attend just four months later. When she had received the invitation from Professor McGonagall only a few weeks earlier to return so she could finish her seventh year properly, she had considered refusing the invitation at first, knowing that even a year after the war had taken place, it would be difficult to live in the castle where so much tragedy had happened. She eventually changed her mind.

As she turned her gaze away from the dead and towards the living, she realised that it definitely wasn't as busy as it had been over the past seven years she had attended Hogwarts, though it was nothing that she hadn't expected. Belle had barely been able to pull herself out of her bed that morning, wanting to stay wrapped up in her warm sheets and avoid the rest of the world, but she knew that going back was the right thing to do.

Anything was better than falling asleep in an empty room that had once held so much life, but now held old memories that brought Belle nothing but pain.

"Hey." A soft voice snapped Belle from her thoughts and she looked up to see her mother smiling gently at her. Collette pushed a lock of curly, brown hair behind her daughter's ear and kissed her forehead gently.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Belle sucked in a breath and nodded, her fingers fiddling with the locket around her neck. The cool surface of the locket sat delicately upon her dark, coffee-coloured skin, reminding her of its presence every time it bounced in unison with the steps she took.

"You know I have to," Belle replied, voice quiet amongst the chattering of other witches and wizards that surrounded her. Collette Frenche smiled sadly at her daughter.

"I know you do, but I wish you didn't."

"I'll be okay, Mum," Belle said, in an effort to comfort her mother. She knew it was difficult for her to watch both of her daughters return to the place where they had both suffered so much loss, but she couldn't tell them that they couldn't go. She knew better than anyone why Belle hoped to return to Hogwarts. "Clarice is already at school, so you know I won't be completely alone."

"That's the special thing about you, my love. You're never alone." Collette pressed another kiss to Belle's forehead. She couldn't help but worry about Belle, who had been exceptionally quiet since the renown 'Battle of Hogwarts'. The girl had barely said a word to anyone who fell under the 'living' category, and either spent most of her time reading, working at the pet store in Diagon Alley so she could make a little money, or conversing with people only she could see in the upstairs spare bedroom of their small house. She found it too difficult to stay in her own room as it held memories of people she loved that were no longer with her.