Nessa Black
I run towards the dorms as soon as Snape turns back to his office and lets me do so. He asked Draco to stay a little longer because they had to discuss something privately. And this was a relief for me as I wanted to return to the dorms as soon as possible, without any distractions. And walking alongside Draco is perhaps the biggest distraction for me.
I enter the room and spot Bella painting her nails on her bed.
'Oh, Ness, finally', she looks towards me with a wide smile.
'I started thinking that you were kidnapped or something.'
I laugh as I get close to my bed and lay over it.
'Don't kill me for saying this, but it seems that you enjoyed your first detention.'
I can feel Bella's eyes on me, but I am not looking back at her as I am trying to keep a serious expression on my face.
'Enjoyed is kind of exaggerated', I say.
'Then what?', Bella asks.
I shrug my shoulders.
'It was not as bad as I expected.'
It would have been if it wasn't for him and you know it.
Bella chuckles and that makes me lift myself in a seated position.
'What? Why are you laughing?', I ask.
She smirks at me and shakes her head.
'I mean, I can't pretend I don't see it. I am your best friend.'
My heart starts racing in my chest.
'See what?', I can't hide the panic in my voice. Not from her. She'll spot it even before I've spoken.
'You. And him', Bella responds as she paints her toenail with a second layer of pink nail polish.
I suddenly start feeling dizzy. Why does it have to be so hard to talk about my feelings? It has ever been that way. I am always open to hearing about other person's emotions and giving them advice and support, but it's a total mess when it comes to me. I am so scared of showing my vulnerable, emotional side. Even to the closest people in my life. There has always been a barrier I've maintained in time. Should I break it now?
Bella starts talking before I collect the courage to do so.
'I don't want to force you...'
'Where's Pansy?', I interrupt her with a question, and at first, she seems kind of surprised.
'Oh, she must be in the boys' dorm with Crabbe and Goyle', Bella says.
'Zero clue', she adds as she sees my surprised expression, and we both laugh.
'So..', I begin as we calm ourselves down. 'You've noticed something.'
'I did', Bella noticed. 'You know me, Ness. I am really observant.'
'You are', I confirm.
'It's impossible to not see it, especially if you are a woman', she says while leaving the nail polish on the nightstand.
I am watching and listening to her carefully. I needed a third-party evaluation of the situation and now I might get it. I am determined to get this to the end.
Bella understands that I am listening to her closely so she continues speaking.
'If I have to be honest, I started paying more attention when Pansy began acting strange after the last party in the common room. And then, after her incident, I became even more watchful.'
I gulp and start playing with the bracelet on my left wrist. Remembering the incident with Pansy disturbs my thoughts and emotions every time. Regardless of her unacceptable and fucked up attitude I still feel some sort of guilt for what happened to her.
Bella coughs as if she noticed that I've spaced out for a while.
I glance back at her.
'My assumptions were 100% confirmed the night when he brought you to our room.'
'He did what?', I am suddenly shouting so loud that my voice is probably echoing through the corridor of the girls' dorm.
Bella is visibly entertained by my reaction.
'I thought that you were aware', she says.
I shake my head.
'I am not aware of anything. Go, tell me.'
'It was several days after Pansy's incident, perhaps around midnight. I was sleeping when Malfoy knocked on the door and scared the shite out of me', Bella rolls her eyes and her funny expression kind of eases the stress, stuffed in my body.
'When I opened the door', she continues. 'I saw him carrying you bridal style.'
Bella suddenly stops talking as she can't stop the incoming burst of laughter.
My cheeks are burning hot right now. I don't even want to know what I look like.
'Oh, Merlin, so many thoughts went through my head in a matter of seconds', Bella explains. 'But he said that he found you sleeping in the common room and honestly it was obvious that he was saying the truth.'
Now I clearly remember that night. I tried to follow him in the corridors during my regular prefect patrol and then decided to wait for him in the Slytherin common room. Now as I think of that night, I really don't remember going back to our room.
Such a shame!
And such a shame that he hasn't said a word about that! I feel so embarrassed right now.
'Stop it!', Bella suddenly lands on my bed.
'What?', I ask.
'Stop blushing, your cheeks are about to burn up.'
Yeah, thank you for saying that. Now I am probably going to blush even more.
'It's so strange', Bella says as she observes my face. 'Now I realize that I know nothing about this side of you. But I want to make myself clear again, I won't force you to share anything and...'
Bella stops talking as she sees me sobbing. Almost immediately her tiny hands land on my shoulders.
'Hey, cheer up. That's nothing to be sad about', she really tries to encourage me and that melts my heart. She is the best friend one could ever ask for.
'It's too complicated, Bells', I say.
He's not just my cousin, but he's a Death Eater as well. And besides that, my ex-best friend was and probably still is head over heels for him.
Bella pulls me in a warm and comfortable hug, and it's the exact thing I need at this moment.
'It's complicated now', she says. 'But it won't be like that forever, okay?'
I hope so.
'Yeah, I suppose', I mumble.
'But I don't know if I can even talk to Draco about this. It's too strange even bringing up the matter', I say.
Bella moves away and watches my face closely. Her gaze is fixed on mine as she speaks.
'Ness, have your ultimate confidence and determination taken a break or what? You are Nessa Black, remember?'
I can't help but laugh at her words. And to be honest, it appears pretty funny as I am laughing, because my eyes are full of tears from earlier, which eventually come out as I start laughing. A total mess, I already told you.
'It's mutual', Bella's voice brings me back to reality. 'That's what matters in the end.'
'You believe so?', I ask shyly and bite my lip.
'Don't do this', I hear his voice in my head. I'm insane.
Bella punches faintly my left shoulder as soon as she hears my question.
'Oh, come on! You know it, don't you?'
I cackle at her boldness.
'I do.'
We burst into laughter once more and at this point, the muscles on my stomach hurt, but it's a sweet pain. One you can't get enough of.
'Bloody Draco Malfoy!', Bella shouts out and shakes her head.
'Who would have thought? That Malfoy could like someone, I mean', she explains.
Ouch.
'It sounds rude but yeah, spot on', I say.
'But still, the fact that we're cousins still concerns me a whole lot', I add.
Bella rolls her eyes, already beyond fed up with me. If she wasn't so small in size she would have beaten me up already.
'Nessa, you know that pureblood families are pureblood for a reason. At some point you run out of options. Besides, you are second cousins, come one. I don't even know my first ones.'
I suddenly realize that she has a point. She is completely right actually. Then what is my problem? Perhaps is not the fact that we are cousins. It must be something else. Way deeper than that.
As I am about to speak the door of the room opens and Pansy comes in with an arrogant expression on her face.
'Did I interrupt something?', she asks.
'I'm not sorry about it.'
Her devilish laugh echoes throughout the room as she gets closer to her bed on the farthest side of the room.
'Pansy, you're such a dangerous woman', Bella says as she stands up and returns to her bed.
'I am. But many people seem to underestimate me', she responds and I swear I can feel her eyes piercing through my body.
'Don't care so much about people underestimating you, but about you overestimating yourself', I say before entering the bathroom.
Hey, babies <333 I hope you liked that chapter. It's kind of a filler one, but it was needed to see the situation from another person's perspective. And besides that, I love Bella, and I wanted to give you some Bella content.