i. Three years later
Elizabeth stood her trolley against the wall, "Get out now, come on Peter..."
She glared at the cubicle door, marked on it in plastic was a strictly for men's use sign. Peter slammed the door open, tripping over his shoes and reaching down to pull a piece of wet loo paper off his shoe before reclaiming his trolley off of Ava, "Sorry mum."
Elizabeth sighed, Peter had changed, maybe it was his friends influences on him, could be hormonal too though... but at any rate they acted nice enough around her. As Marlene would call it, whom she'd closely bonded with over the past three years, 'they were nice enough to seem dateable'. That was typical Marlene these days, Bella had become more reserved and strayed away from the idea of dating and commonly a thing they liked to refer to as 'it'. It wasn't as though any of them liked to talk about it, it was more so the curiosity of the two combined subjects. If you wanted dating advice Sirius Black was your man.
Then again, she'd changed too, she was no longer the shy girl that always looked up at her older brother for conformation. In fact she was quite the opposite now, to such the point that if Peter did say 'No' she'd say 'Yes', and to the contrary if Peter said 'Yes' she's say 'No'.
It wasn't that they didn't get along, they got along perfectly. They just, as most siblings do, liked to keep a humanely distance between themselves.
***
"The Pettigrews!"
Sirius Black came running at them arms open and brought Peter into a tight hug. Elizabeth shook her head. Boys.
Peter winced causing Sirius to step back immediately, "Ow!"
This only caused Sirius to laugh, "Wrong friend." and patted him on the shoulder happily.
Through his laughter, Sirius gestured back at Bella and Regulus who were slowly making their way over, "Had to get away from them."
However, Peter noticed a smart little girl by their side, she could only be a first year by the size of her, "Narcissa?"
"No, that's Andromeada."
"Is she nice?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, no actually she's quite the rebel at home," then he leaned in and whispered, "Takes after me, obviously."
Ava handed Peter a jacket and flopped his hair around, "Nice to see you again Sirius!" she smiled eagerly just as her daughter did upon seeing Marlene tiptoe up behind Bella.
"Oh, sorry there Ms. Pettigrew, did not see you standing there, lovely as ever..." He forced a smile and instinctively began to flop his own hair around at the coming of Marlene and Bella. Peter on the other hand pushed his mother's freckled fingers away. Embarrassed.
Upon reaching the group, Marlene wrapped her arms loosely around Sirius and Bella's necks, "Look the Blacks all in one place, wonderful don't you say, Bella?"
"My god," Marlene continued gazing down at Andromeda, "You look just like your sister..."
Bella sighed and walked casually over to Ms. Pettigrew handing her a silk box, "Mother said thank you for the chocolate frogs but we don't need them." Ava tried to smile, the Blacks had always pestered her and though she'd non-verbally offered them her friendship countless times, they seemed to take pride in rejection. "Thank you Bella my dear." was the best she could manage, considering they'd also been so vain as to replace her handmade wrapping with some sort of silk finery.
Bella smiled, perhaps, Ava thought, had she not been raised in such a ludicrous household she might've been an exceedingly charming child.
She then passed the box to Marlene who undid the ribbon of the box, crouched down next to her trunk, and tied it around the handle.
Used to her sweet and yet rather peculiar manner, Elizabeth and Bella laughed making Marlene blush, a thin smile curling across her face, "I think it's pretty." She stood up from where she had crouched and admired it.
"You're weird Mckinnon."
"Why how absolutely cruel of you to say such a thing Sirius, I've caught you eating chicken in the toilet!" Marlene replied.
"And why, Marlene, where you in the boys lavatory?" Bella, being Bella, always had to pick up on the slightest of details.
"He! Was in the girls loo!" she rejected.
Sirius dramatically raised a hand to his mouth pretending to cry.
"Oh don't act like that!" Marlene teased taking hold of Bella's hand and grinning. Startled by the action, Bella turned profusely pink and pulled her hand away quickly.
Pressured under the tension between the two girls Elizabeth interjected, re-starting the conversation, "Peter?"
"Hm?" He responded politely,
"James and Remus?"
She pointed towards two boys pushing their trolleys slowly along Kings Cross platform, that being said it could've only been Remus seeing as the other trolley was filled so high you could barely see the pushers face but the tornado of unruly curls poking out suggested it was in fact, James Fleamont Potter and Remus John Lupin making their way over to the group.
***
"Hey,"
Elizabeth heard a small voice behind her, "Hey."
Regulus, like the other Blacks had been dressed for etiquette, although he, unlike the rest of his family possessed a rather innocent charm, he certainly wasn't unpleasing to look at, he just looked smaller, younger, something like that. Either way, despite his upbringing he was sweet, less of a rebel like Sirius and more of someone who could be easily pushed around. Maybe this was purely because Sirius had taken it into his responsibility to shield him from the world leaving Regulus more vulnerable than he would have been but indefinitely sweeter. He was a friend, that was all that mattered.
He tilted his head gesturing to the train which chugged along the rails, the wheels making a loud screech before coming to a stop.
Elizabeth watched her mother pull Peter towards her chest only instead of walking over to her to do the same she kneeled down in front of Sirius and took his hand.
They seemed to be exchanging whispers but it was hard to tell. Ava looked extremely serious but Sirius seemed to smile and not in his cocky manner, rather in a genuine way. Her eyes drifted towards Regulus and Elizabeth then she turned back to Sirius and nodded.
Elizabeth couldn't remember a time when her mother had actually wanted to talk to the Blacks far less Sirius who she had expressed multiple negative opinions on claiming he was a bad influence and such.
"Be a good girl." Ava planted a kiss on her head and ran a hand through her hair, "Go, go!"
Waving, Elizabeth boarded the train with Bella and Marlene, Peter and the other boys close behind.
Much to their joy a tall blonde haired girl stuck her head out of a compartment, "Marls!"
"Mary!" Marlene giggled and ran towards the compartment dragging Bella with her.
Mary Mackdonald was miraculously tall, in fact she outright refused to wear heels in fear of being any taller than she already was. That wasn't to say she hated her height and didn't take advantage of it. It was quite a common situation to see her standing on tiptoes taunting a group of first years which obviously, had earned her multiple detentions in the past.
"Elle, come on!" Marlene smiled back at her, "God, you really are slow!" Marlene grabbed her wrist and began pulling her over to the compartment, earning her a sympathetic smile from Bella who caressed her own wrist implying Marlene had done he same thing.
"Did you make a special arrangement so I could sit here?" Bella mused as Elizabeth found her way to a seat,
"Bella no, of course not," a girl from the opposite end replied, "Lily's just-"
"She got her role as prefect, not that any of us didn't expect her to we just-" Mary interupted the girl but was cut off immediately,
"Took advantage of the situation, hoping Lily wouldn't be mad but deep down we know she will be and we're so sorry Bella!" The girl slumped down in her seat,
"Oh Alice don't be silly!" Marlene soothed the girl,
"No Marlene, she's not being silly that's really what we actually did..."
Bella frowned, her first impressions had left quite a mark on more than a few people, her pureblood mania raisings had taught her nothing else and even Sirius had said a few harsh things at his sorting, people were just more inclined to accepting his apology because he looked nicer. Actually, it had taken them all, including Regulus at least two years to stop using the phrase mudblood on instinct.
There'd been a few rough nights between her and Lily during Bella's first year and not just idle words being thrown around it had escalated to quite the extreme. Although, technically speaking if Marlene hadn't insisted Bella meet her 'childhood' friend none of that would have happened.
"Is Dorcas in here? And do any of you know where Remus is?" Lily popped her head into the area,
"Oh..." And she glanced at Bella who had gone quite pale and terribly still.
"You know what," Lily shook her head and exhaled, "I'm Lily Evans nice to meet you..."
The girls turned their heads away, "Re-introduce yourself Bella, she's trying to be nice." Marlene whispered through gritted teeth nudging Bella.
"Bellatrix, but you can call me Bella." She took Lily's hand and shook it, "Let's start over okay?" Lily smiled, "It's a new year and honestly I should've done his ages ago it wasn't your fault, I mean it was but that was just your way and you know what hi that's all I'm going to say before I mess this up again..."
She received a nod from Bella, "Well it's our fifth year and your fourth," She finished addressing Elizabeth Marlene and a still slightly startled Bella, "Should be..."
"Different."