ghost stories - h. potter

Thirty-Two

What Belle and Harry hadn't realised was that they had no way of returning to the school through the tunnel, due to the fact that Honeydukes was closed. Neither one of them felt like entering the room of requirement as the wounds were still too fresh for both Harry and Belle. Belle, because she had seen so many injured and near-dead students come in and out of that room during her time there before the war and for Harry, it was the simple matter of nearly dying and seeing one of his fellow classmates die, despite the fact that Crabbe had been nothing but rude to them during their school years.

"Can we make it back through the front entrance?" Belle asked, remembering the night when they had snuck out of the castle to go flying.

"We may get caught by the prefects, but it's worth a shot," Harry replied and with a nod, the pair set off through the empty Hogsmeade streets and back up to the large, brightly-lit castle in the distance.

Ever since seeing the Tonks lookalike, a sense of guilt had overtaken Belle, making her realise that it wasn't fair of her to allow Harry to tell her everything about himself and what had happened during the perilous year that lead up to the final war and in return, she not tell him about the only secret she had ever kept from anyone. She sucked in a quiet breath and told herself that she would have to do it soon because the longer she waited, the harder it would be for him to understand and keep a rational head about what she was saying.

"Everything okay?" Harry asked, noticing the small crease on Belle's forehead. She blinked and looked up at him, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Sorry? Oh, yeah - yeah. Yeah, everything's fine. I was just thinking about that girl who worked in the ice-cream shop," she replied and Harry immediately understood what she was thinking off. He glanced over at her, only to see the Ravenclaw was staring right back at her and he smiled weakly, hoping to reassure her.

"She looked like Tonks, didn't she?" Harry said quietly and Belle inhaled sharply, before nodding.

"Yeah, she did."

"I'm sorry," Harry apologised.

"If I had've known-"

"No, it's not your fault. It just made me realise that other than what she looked like, I barely knew anything about her and she saved my life. I mean obviously I knew R - Professor Lupin a little better because he was our teacher in third year but... what was she like? When she was alive, I mean."

Of course, Belle knew exactly what Tonks was like. She knew that she was friends with Charlie Weasley and she knew that it had been her dream to be an Auror ever since she was young. She knew that she enjoyed changing her hair colours to bright, crazy ones but her favourite would always be the bubblegum pink and she knew that she had a habit of tripping over everything in her past. She never knew what Tonks was like before the war, however, and Harry did.

"She was great," Harry started plainly.

"We weren't close, but she was still fun to be around, especially during dinner times. She'd change her nose to mimic animals ones," Harry explained and Belle's lips curved upwards in a smile.

"She always wanted to help, whether it was with dinner or the Order or just walking us to the train station, she loved being around people. She was great at flying, but never ended up trying out for quidditch, because she was too clumsy. Tonks loved Remus, despite the fact that he was a werewolf and she forgave him when he tried leaving her to come with Ron, Hermione and I during the year we were away because he was scared. I wish I had have spent more time around her and I wish you could have too," Harry finished. Belle pulled her hand away from Harry's to wipe her eyes, sniffling gently as she cleared her throat.