Chapter 4
Chapter 4: (Tw: mention of injuries/bullying)
August 31th, Elmwood institute, 7pm
Pandora, what a strange name. Somehow, it does suit her pretty well. Bellatrix heard about the Lestrange family, she knew they had a son, but never heard of a daughter. She doesn’t say anything else, so Pandora asks. “What is your name?”
Bellatrix answers shortly. “Bellatrix Black.”
She looks back at the books on the blonde girl’s bed, she feels like she has to make the conversation, which is weird, everything about this situation is weird. “What’s all that?”
Pandora's face lights up, she energetically grabs all the books to show them better. “Human psychology!! The human brain is actually amazing, I've been studying it for years!! Lately I’m mostly focused on the different types of mental illnesses and disorders. Did you know that-” Bellatrix cuts her off. “I just tried to be polite.”
Pandora's smile fades a little as she puts her books aside. “Oh…I see.”
Seeing her face, Bellatrix regrets a bit her words, not like she cared about other people’s feelings, she doesn’t. But right now, she realises that she was actually just happy to talk about it.
For the first time, Pandora doesn’t come up with anything to say, she just quietly looks at her books’ covers , which makes Bellatrix uncomfortable. She looks at the clock on the room’s wall, indicating 7:10, she hears Pandora’s voice, a bit quieter than before.
“We’re expected in the dining hall at 7:30.” Bellatrix turns toward her. “When did you arrive?”, “Yesterday, like everyone else.”, “And when does class begin?” Pandora raises an eyebrow slightly. “On Monday 3rd ?”
Bellatrix frowns. “What’s that look?”, “I’m just surprised you don’t know when class begins.” Pandora doesn’t say anything else, so Bellatrix tentatively asks. “Is there anything else I need to know?”
Pandora looks even more confused. “About the school?” Bellatrix rolls her eyes. “No, about your last date.”
Pandora frowns, as if she’s trying hard to make connections. “My last date? Why would-” but Bellatrix doesn’t let her finish “ Obviously about the school! Are you doing this on purpose?”
Pandora looks sheepish for an instant, but doesn’t say anything else, she just answers the question. “Did Miss Turpide not explain everything during the tour?”
Bellatrix thinks back about the tour, or at least tries to. All she remembers from it was her anger, she didn’t pay attention to anything until the dorms. She’s not gonna say that though. “I don’t know, I was focused on something else. Are you gonna help me or not?”
Pandora nods. “The school works like any other boarding school I guess? We have 3 different houses, Garden flowers, Wildflowers and perennials. For some reason they’re all flowers? Perennials are a kind of flower that blooms during spring and summer. The houses are not really relevant, it's just for the sense of belonging and a way to make us invested in class. When we’re good, we earn points for our house and the house with the most points wins at the end of the year. We don’t actually win anything though I don’t know why everyone is so obsessed with it. I’m in the Wildflower house, and you are too apparently.” She points at Bellatrix’s uniform hanging on the wall, on it, a little pin representing a bunch of different flowers and a capital ‘W’ in the middle. Bellatrix looks at her, unable to say something, she simply doesn’t have the time before Pandora continues. “You should put on your uniform by the way, you must wear it when we go to the dinner room. Apart from that, lights out at 10pm and everyone's up at 7am, except on week-ends we have until 8. Breakfast at 7:30, meal at 12 and dinner at 7:30pm, as I said. We’re only 11 in our year so we’ll be in the same class so don’t worry, I’ll help you find classes. I’m not 16 yet, my birthday’s on June 20th but my parents made me skip a year when I was 6, I learned how to read early and they thought it’d give a better image or something. I ended in the same class as my brother. He wasn’t really happy about it he spent the next years-” She trails off, her face darkening a little bit. Bellatrix opens her mouth to say something but before any sound can come out, Pandora shakes her head and gets her smile back. She continues. “Anyways, we also do sports, you have to choose between ballet and fencing. I chose fencing but I hate it, I usually don’t go to trainings. Mrs Turpide isn’t happy about it but I just…don’t like it. I think you know pretty much everything by now. Do you have any questions?”
Bellatrix remains speechless, in the past 2 minutes she probably got all the information Mrs Turpide gave earlier in her 30-minute-visit and even more. She tries to put everything into order in her mind. Houses, flowers, points, she looks at the pin on her uniform, ‘Wildflower’, schedule, Pandora skipped a class? Was that relevant? Anyway, she has the information now. And eventually, sports. Ballet or fencing. Ballet… Bellatrix remembers the literal hours she spent as a kid with her ballet teacher. Practicing again and again and again until she couldn’t feel her legs anymore, because for some reason she had to be perfect at it. She wasn’t, so she had to practice even more, late at night, early in the morning, her mother could make her spend 8 hours straight practicing if she weren’t satisfied. No, there’s no way she'd put one foot in a ballet class ever again.
Pandora gets her out of her thoughts. “You’re okay?” Bellatrix nods absently, and thinks back about everything Pandora said. “We’re only 11 in 6th year?”
Pandora nods. “With you, yes. We’re not a lot, in total with all years combined we’re 79, counting you and your sisters.”
Bellatrix frowns slightly. “Is everyone sleeping here?” Pandora nods. “Are all dorm rooms for 2 people?” She nods again. “And you can’t choose your roommate?” She shakes her head. Bellatrix frowns a little more. “Then why didn’t you have a roommate before my sisters and I arrived? You were 76, you should have been 2 in this room.”
Literally no one would have noticed that, but Bellatrix feels frustrated about it. If Pandora was sharing a room with a random other girl in the school, she could have had her own room.
Pandora’s expression darkens a little bit again, she looks down and shrugs. “I just liked the loneliness.”
Bellatrix doesn’t believe her. “Then why am I here?”
Pandora looks through the window on the wall between their beds, she doesn’t say anything for a moment. “I don’t know, because you didn’t get the choice.”
Bellatrix raises an eyebrow. “Because the others do?”
The blonde girl sighs, not looking back from the window. “Let’s say that no one fights to be my roomate. Somehow they manage to choose when it comes to being with me.” She shrugs. “It’s fine, they always did.”
Bellatrix opens her mouth to say something else, but Pandora cuts her off, again. “I don’t really want to discuss that anymore. Can we just…not?”
Bellatrix closes her mouth and just nods. And without another word she stands up and grabs the uniform hanging on the wall. She goes to the bathroom and closes the door behind her.
She takes off her clothes and looks into the mirror at her arms. The angry welts are still there, more visible, red and swollen. She tentatively puts her hand on them and winces as she does so. Eventually she gives up and tries her uniform on.
When she gets out, Pandora is back into her reading. Bellatrix doesn’t say anything, she looks at the clock and sees that she still has 10 minutes left, so she starts to unpack some things from her suitcase.
Eventually, it’s 7:26. Bellatrix is about to go but she sees that Pandora is not stopping what she’s doing. She doesn’t even seem to notice the time. Bellatrix thinks about going and leaving her to whatever she’s doing, after all she doesn’t own her anything and she’s not her mum.
She grabs her blazer and goes to open the door. But she stops and turns around, rolling her eyes. “Are you coming or not?”
Pandora doesn’t even look up. Which gets on Bellatrix’s nerves. She calls out again. “Am I transparent?” Nothing. “Pandora!”
The girl on the bed jumps in surprise and looks up. Bellatrix points at the clock now showing 7:29 and watches Pandora quickly get up and put her shoes on, muttering a “sorry” and hurrying outside followed by Bellatrix.
Pandora leads her to the dining room, it is a large room with long tables forming a “U” placed at the center. Mrs Turpide is already sitting at the table facing the door, as well as a couple of other adults.
Bellatrix scans the room and finds her sisters, she hurries to join them and sit down. Letting out a sigh as she does so. When Narcissa notices her sitting next to Andromeda she smiles widely. Andromeda looks at her, looking a little worried. “How is it?”
Bellatrix shrugs. “I’m stuck with some sort of weird girl obsessed with psychology. Could be worse, she’s not too annoying so far.” Bellatrix looks back to the door, trying to find Pandora, eventually she finds her, sitting alone at the end of the table. “I don’t know, I’d rather be with you, but she’s okay I guess.”
Andromeda raises an eyebrow. “Are you saying that you like her?”
Bellatrix turns back and answers defensively. “What? No I don’t. I’m just saying it could have been worse. That’s all. I’d rather not have to deal with her at all.”
Andromeda rolls her eyes. “You should try being nice with someone for once. It’s not that bad. Who knows, you might even like it.”
Her sister mumbles. “Shut up.” And looks down at Andromeda’s uniform, wearing a little pin, like hers. Only this one represents a little flower adorned with the letter “G”. She looks at Narcissa's, the same pin.
“So we’re not even in the same house. Right. Perfect.” She sinks back into her chair and crosses her arms. Narcissa tentatively reassures her, or at least tries to. “It’s okay, houses barely mean anything anyway. It’s not that bad.”
Bellatrix doesn’t answer. Obviously, she always knew it would end like that. Her father would succeed. Andy and Cissa would always be together, and she’d be by herself. She doesn’t say anything, until a brown haired girl comes to sit next to her. One of those insufferable phoney smiles on her face.
“You’re a Black, right?” Bellatrix looks at her up and down but doesn’t bother to answer. The other girl continues. “My name is Cressida Malfoy. Me and my twin brother Lucius are the heir of the Malfoy family. Our parents know each other. I-”
Bellatrix cuts her off. “What do you want?” Cressida keeps her fake smile and resumes. "If I don’t get it wrong I’m the same age as your sister and-” “Which one?” The brown haired girl’s smile falters with irritation slightly. She looks behind Bellatrix a little. “Andromeda, right?” Andromeda nods warily. But the girl keeps going. “I figured you’d like to hang out with people from your status, and I am the best person to do so. Your parents already know me and appreciate us.”
That’s it, Bellatrix already can’t stand her. “Look Cressia. ”, “...Cressida”, “Whatever. Look around. This school is full of rich girls whose families paid a lot of money so they wouldn’t have to bother with their education themselves. If I want a rich friend, I have the choice. Now go lose yourself somewhere else. And take your groupies with you.” She gestures at the 2 girls who have been waiting expectantly behind her all the conversation.
Cressida remains speechless and baffled. She angrily stands up and asks the two girls to follow her. They go sit at the table further away, the Malfoy girl complaining about how “her father is gonna hear about this”.
Bellatrix turns back towards her plate. She’s used to people wanting to get close to her because of her family. They often are the worst kind of people possible. Anyway, she doesn’t want anyone close to her. Andromeda knows about those people too, so this time, she doesn’t say anything about Bellatrix’s tone.
A couple of minutes later, Mrs Turpide announces the beginning of the dinner and the 3 sisters quietly eat their food, occasionally talking about how the lessons are gonna be or when they will have free time.
20 minutes later, the headmistress dismisses the students who all quietly stand up and start to leave the room.
In the hall leading to the dorms, Bellatrix and her sisters hear Cressida's high-pitched voice coming from the next corridor. She rolls her eyes and continues her way to the dorms until she hears another familiar voice.
“Give it back, please!” Bellatrix can recognise Pandora, don’t give yourself any idea, she has a light and quiet voice, very recognisable, nothing about Pandora… Obviously.
For some reason, she turns around to the corridor the voices are coming from. Narcissa and Andromeda look at each other and quietly follow her.
In the hallway, Cressida is holding a journal, going through the pages, keeping it away from Pandora a few meters away, held back by the 2 girls with Cressida. “What the heck is that? Psychology? Are you trying to find yourself weirdo friends?”
Bellatrix looks at the girls strongly holding Pandora. “Let her go.” Cressida turns toward her, smirking. “What? You want to have fun too?”
Bellatrix walks toward her. “That’s how you have fun? Pathetic.” The brown haired girl frowns, closing the journal. “What do you want then? Save your new best friend? That’s what you hang out with? No wonder you’d rather stay alone.”
Pandora stopped trying to free herself and now observes the girls in front of her.
Suddenly, Bellatrix pushes her against the wall, holding her by the shoulders. “Say that again?” Cressida’s eyes widen at the sudden movement.
A few steps away, Narcissa whispers to Andromeda. “That usually doesn’t end well does it?” Andromeda shakes her head. Narcissa asks again. “Should we stop them?” Andromeda keeps staring at the scene before her. “How?”
Since Cressida doesn’t say anything, Bellatrix grabs the journal from her hand and pushes her on the floor. She turns toward the other girls. “I have other things to do, let go of her.”
The 2 girls holding Pandora look at each other then at Cressida who reluctantly nods. Eventually, they let her go.
Bellatrix gives her her journal back and turns around, walking back towards the dorms. No one else says a word. Andromeda and Narcissa go after Bellatrix and Pandora quickly do the same.
On the way, Narcissa whispers to Andromeda again. “I guess it didn’t go too bad.” Andromeda looks behind at Pandora then back at her little sister. “Don’t talk too fast, the year hasn’t even started yet.”