The little brown-haired girl clutched her book of tales close to her chest as her eyes traveled up and down the large steam-train that was docked in Platform 9 and 3/4. Her mind swirled with possibilities of everything that could happen in her next seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Who would she meet? Would she find her prince charming? Or would she be destined to be an ugly step-sister? The girl begun to grow nauseous at the thought of everything that could go horribly wrong.
"Belle, dear, you have to board now." Belle's mother urged, her fingers lightly pushing her daughter towards the train. After many minutes of hugging and kissing goodbye, Belle and her parents now stood before the train, waiting. The two parents had let their daughter process everything for a few minutes, but it was beginning to drone on.
"Your mother's right, Belle, its about to leave. We know its a lot and all, but you'll get there. Trust me." Belle's father, smiled, kissing his daughter on the forehead once more before nodding towards the train. Belle sighed, clutching her book tighter before nodding, pushing all the fear and doubt far from her mind. You can do this Belle. You'll be fine.
Belle gave her parents one last nervous grin before stepping onto the train just as the horn sounded from the front. The yells of parents hurrying their children onto the steam-engine became louder, and Belle found herself being pushed into the hallway. She huffed after stumbling to catch her footing, glaring at the boy who had pushed her.
"Sorry." The boy mumbled before pushing past the girl and beginning his search for an empty compartment. Belle rolled her eyes, and went the opposite direction, already feeling lost in the gigantic train. The book in her arms was starting to get heavy, and all she wanted to do was sit and read, a past time Belle had grown to love over the years.
Soon enough, Belle found a compartment with only one other girl, who looked as young as Belle did. She had bright red hair and dazzling green eyes that seemed to radiate happiness and confidence. The girl sat with her legs crossed beneath her, and she too reading a book, but not the type of book Belle enjoyed to read, no, the girl was reading a blasted textbook. Belle crinkled her nose at the book, before knocking rather loudly on the window. The young girl jumped, her book falling out of her hand and onto the floor. Belle mentally cursed herself, knowing how much she would be annoyed if her book fell, and immediately rushed to pick it up, only to hit heads with the girl who was also reaching for the book. They both lurched back quickly, groaning.
"I'm so sorry. I always manage to hurt someone everywhere I go." Belle sighed, rubbing her aching head.
"It's fine." The girl laughed weakly, copying Belle's actions. "I'm Lily."
"Brielle. But people call me Belle."
"Brielle? Isn't that french?"
"Probably, my mum always wanted to go to Paris." Belle giggled back, and before they knew it, the two had forgotten their aching foreheads and begun a conversation, together, on the floor of the train compartment, both eager to start their magical lives at Hogwarts.
-- -- -- --
Both Lily and Belle groaned at the school uniform they were now both wearing.
"I feel exposed." Belle sighed, pulling her skirt down as far as it would let her. Lily did the same, buttoning the top button of her robes together and fixing the hood.
"Its a skirt, Belle, not a pair of knickers." Lily shook her head, her hands on her hips as she glanced at Belle, who was struggling to fix her tie.
"I like shorts, pants- heck, even dresses. Just not skirts." She sighed as she failed yet another attempt at her tie. Lily smirked before reaching out to help her. She quickly fixed it, leaving Belle in awe at how on earth she managed to figure the bloody thing out.
"Hope for Ravenclaw, yea?" Belle smiled, taking a deep breath as the train slowly pulled into Hogsmeade.
"Yea. We'll both get in, just you watch." Lily smiled, before linking arms with Belle and pulling her out of the compartment, making Belle lunge to grab her book before following Lily.
"Wonder how we're gonna get there." Belle muttered as they wove their way through the crowd.
"In 'Hogwarts: A History', it says we go by boat over the Black Lake." Lily informed, trying her best to avoid being trampled by the looming seventh years who seemed thoroughly annoyed with the younger children.
"Wonderful." Belle groaned, gripping onto her book so tightly her knuckles turned white.
"What's wrong? It's said to be stunning." Lily looked back at Belle to see her pale and nervous, her face almost as white as the white part of her eyes. Belle was pale, but not that pale.
"I can't swim." Belle blurted, feeling idiotic. She was eleven and she couldn't swim. How pathetic can she get? Lily's face morphed into amusement as she finally spotted the crowd of first years gathering near the water side with a large man. She led her and Belle in that direction.
"Belle, we are at a magic school. I'm pretty sure the boats won't tip. Just don't stand up." She shrugged, smiling at a boy with greasy, chin-length, black hair that fell like a curtain over his pale skin. His dark eyes brightened when they spotted Lily, and a small smirk came over his lips.
"Serverus!" Lily greeted, pulling the boy in for a hug. Serverus awkwardly patted her back, glancing at Belle. Belle tried to give the two their moment, shifting her book around in her arms and shuffling her feet through the dirty sand they were standing in. Lily seemed to remember there was another person with them, so she pulled away cleared her throat.
"Serverus, this is Brielle. Brielle, Serverus."
"Nice to meet you Serverus." Belle smiled at him, pleased to know someone else already.
"Likewise, Brielle." He muttered back. His voice was high-pitched and scratchy, but had some personality to it. It had depth, something Belle thought was quite honorable when it came to what someone was like.
"Call me Belle." She nodded back, before the large, bearded man spoke up, telling the first years to get four to a boat. Serverus immediately followed three other boys, finishing off a boat. Lily frowned, but said nothing, linking arms with Belle and pulling her to an open boat with two seats. There were two other people in the boat, a boy with dark eyes and hair, in desperate need of a hair cut, and another with circular glasses. They both adorned boyish grins and turned quickly when the two girls entered the boat.
"Hello, ladies." The boy with the black hair greeted. His friend nodded, as they both turned themselves fully around to talk to the pair.
"Uh, hi." Lily huffed, narrowing her eyes at the two. Belle knew what the girl was thinking, and she couldn't agree more with her. These boys screamed trouble.
"What're your names?" Glasses questioned, tilting back his head a small bit.
"Lily Evans." Lily grumbled, crossing her arms. Saying her name aloud made her put her guard back up, enough to where she could spit out a comeback if one of the boys decided to get cheeky. Both of the boys nodded. The boat lurched forward, causing all of them to steady themselves. Belle latched onto her book, staring at the water with unease.
"And you?" Belle looked back up to see glasses looking at her, eyeing her book.
"Brielle Roux. Everyone calls me Belle."
"Isn't that French?"
"Probably." She shrugged, curious as to why everyone was so enthralled by the origins of her name. The boys smirked at her before puffing out his chest.
"I'm James Potter."
"And I'm Sirius Black. Lovely to meet your acquaintance." Belle took notice of Sirius's last name. Black. The Black family was one of the most pure-blooded, closed-minded families out there, everyone knew that. Her father and mother had warned her about certain families to avoid, and the house of Black was one of them.
"L-likewise." Belle stuttered, shivering as a cold wind flew past the boat. Everyone was silent as it grew awkward, the boys exchanging glances very so often. Belle, begun to open her book, careful not to make any jerky movements so the boat didn't sway.
"What houses all of you hoping for?" James asked, raising his brows.
"Gryffindor." Sirius said confidently, making Belle frown.
"I thought you'd be going for Slytherin." She chuckled, directing her gaze towards Sirius.
"Why would you think that?" He grew tense, his posture straightening. His face grew stiff, as if he just swallowed a tube of super glue, making Belle wonder what she'd done wrong.
"Aren't the Black family all Slytherin?" She asked, leaning a bit back as Sirius was deadly still, making even James frown. Lily, sitting in the middle of Sirius and Belle, looked very uncomfortable with the whole situation.
"Yes."
"But you're different?"
"Yes."
"So it doesn't matter if I said I was muggle-born?" Belle asked, causing Lily to look back at her with utter bewilderment. On the train the two had discussed blood-purity, and Belle had admitted she was a pure-blood. She didn't care at all the Lily was a muggle-born, and that made Lily more excited than before, so the redhead wasn't exactly sure where she was going with the topic.
"No." He broke from his trance, crossing his arms and staring Belle down. For an eleven year old, he was pretty intimidating.
"Good." Belle smiled, before opening her book and turning to her marked page. Everyone stared at the peculiar girl as she completely dropped the subject entirely and begun to read. James leaned over to Sirius, eyeing the peculiar girl.
"Wait, so is she muggle-born?"