Bella Potter

It was a windy cold night and Bella shivered in her worn-out clothes. The quiet towns calmness of the dark was broken by the sound of a fox darting from the bushes. Silent tears fell down Bella's marked and bruised face. Less than a day ago she had warm food, shelter and a friend. Now she has lost it all. Bella couldn't comprehend how Harry trapped Dudley in the snake's pen, but she knew he would be in deep trouble and took the blame. The look of utter loathing and disgust that spread upon Marjorie's face when she said that shook her to her core. She spouted about nonsense like magic, called her a freak, and kicked her out once they got back from the zoo. The only thing Bella regretted, walking down the chilly streets she didn't recognize, was that she didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Harry. It all happened so suddenly there was no chance of her saying goodbye. Bella has never felt more unsafe before than she is feeling now. Her bright red shirt that was two sizes to big fluttered with the wind and her long curly black hair kept getting into her eyes which were stinging from her salty tears, preventing her from seeing any danger lurking around. Her grey eyes widened in alarm as her eyes came across a large and imposing shadow... Which was just a cat. She sighed in relief.

The grey and white cat with black stripes and intelligent bright green eyes looked up towards her face and saw the swelling purple bruise as bright as day. The cat's tail wagged as it surrounded Bella, seemingly wanting attention. Bella was more than happy to oblige, and the cat seemed pleased and began to walk away. Bella felt a pang of disappointment in her heart, surprise being blatantly shown on her face when the cat meowed for her to follow. Are cats supposed to be this clever? Why was she even following it? These questions plagued her as she and the cat abruptly stopped at a shady looking bar. She entered the bar, and the smell of cigarettes overwhelmed her, the body order made her scowl in disgust and the smell of stale bear was strong on the stained carpet. She hurried through and tried to ignore the horrid smell of the charred wood burning on the fireplace. They entered a small snug in the corner of the establishment, a giant of a man with warm gentle eyes which reminded her of the doctor who personally took care of her which felt like an age ago from now. It felt like a distant memory after all that has happened since then.

The tall man with pale skin and long bushy hair that could rival Rapunzel's gestured for Bella to join him on the old dusty table. She sat down on one of the creaky chairs that could break any moment and looked downwards, anxious at meeting this new stranger and realising following a weird cat into a bar was not the best of ideas. Bella didn’t notice the concern flashing in the man's eyes at seeing the shockingly large hideous purple bruise on her face nor did she see the cat morphing into an elderly woman. She heard someone cough like they were clearing their throat, and she turned to see a grey-haired woman with sparkling green wise eyes that one couldn't help but feel drawn into their hypnotic charm. There resemblance to the tabby cat's eyes were uncanny, speaking of which “where did the cat go?” Bella questioned, crawling into herself and looking around the room. The old women let out an amused chuckle and replied that she's right here. What happened next was almost enough for Bella to faint, it was so quick that she could almost let herself believe that it didn't happen. It was over in a matter of seconds, the... shapeshifter? Reverting into a human again in the time it took for her to recover from the shock she was in.

“What the hell?” “Language!” The changeling chastised Bella. But how was she meant to react to something she once believed impossible? Her entire worldview had been shaken in a miniscule amount of time! The magical women let out a long sigh of frustration and sat down next to the ginormous man. “Come on Professor McGonagall, catch the girl some slack! She seems ter have had a very long day...” He wasn’t trying to be innocuous with the staring, probably, but it was getting on her nerves. Shes had enough staring at from her ‘family’ today. “I know Hagrid, I know, I just can’t help but think about those muggles her and Harry have been living with. I told Dumbledore they were the worst kind of muggles, but he wouldn’t listen!” McGonagall? Exclaimed. “Muggles?” Bella questioned, feeling extremely left out of the conversation. McGonagall looked towards her with realising eyes. “You don’t know...” “Know what?” Hagrid put a hand on her shoulder and let go when she stiffened in her seat. “Muggles are non-magical foak, Bella, that's what the Dursleys are.” She looked towards Hagrid in shock and wondered how he knew her name. It must have shown on her face because McGonagall went on to explain how they knew her.

“I was sent by Dumbledore, the headmaster of a magic school named Hogwarts, to give you and Harry your Hogwart letters. Normally our letters are sent in the mail or by owl but due to the... Unique circumstances of yours and Harrys living situation he felt it best to send me.” McGonagall slid a sealed envelope towards her, and she hurriedly opened it. The pale letter described all she would need on her witchcraft journey and said the term would begin on September 1st. The word witchcraft stood out to her “I'm a witch?” something about being a witch just felt right, and she could have spent an hour or two daydreaming about all the magic she would be able to use if Minerva McGonagall didn’t bring her out of it. “Yes, you are a witch, Bella Potter.” McGonagall said with a gentle smile. Bella felt her good mood drop at the mention of her suppose last name.

“Professor, you should know I'm not actually a...” Bella trailed off, not knowing how to broach the subject. “A Potter?” McGonagall questioned with clear amusement in her eyes. “Yes, Bella, I know you’re not really a Potter. It was quite simple to put together from the known information we have.” Bella sighed in relief, glad that she wouldn’t have to explain everything about how she came to be a Potter. That relief had been short lived, for Hagrid went on to say, “we have no clue who your actual family is, but we will try our bes’ ter find ‘em.” The thought of her real family brought conflicted emotions. If she had any, why didn’t they try harder to find her? Why had she been left with a family who only took care of her for money? She tried her best to push these emotions now, she did not want to be vulnerable around strangers again. The next 30 minutes went by rather quickly, she learned the differences between muggle-borns, half-bloods (which Harry supposedly was) and purebloods. They worked off the assumption that she was a muggle-born and told her the basics of the magical world- which Harry would need to be told as well. Apparently the Dursleys were meant to be telling Harry these things and considering their response to anything they consider out of the ordinary it was clear they hadn’t. McGonagall told me Hagrid would be the one to inform Harry in her stead. She made her displeasure of how the Dursleys treated me clear and Harry and was completely appalled at finding out he slept in a cupboard under the stairs and promised justice. After questioning why McGonagall wouldn’t be the one telling Harry, she confessed that she wanted to personally make sure she had a place to stay and was safe, which warmed her heart.

Bella and McGonagall said their goodbyes to Hagrid and wished him luck at handling the Dursleys. They existed the snug and the smell of the bar felt a lot less heavy than before. They made their way out of the bar relatively easily, with only a drunk elderly man trying his shot at McGonagall stopping them. The warmth of the bar dissipated, and the chilly air embraced them, she watched Minerva stick her wand out and what happened next shocked her. A purple three-story bus hurriedly made their way towards them and a man with bright brown hair and blue crystal eyes was standing on the edge at the back of the spectacular bus. “Welcome to the knight bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard, my name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor for this evening “He said in an obviously rehearsed and monotone of voice. He put the piece of paper he was reading of off into his dark purple jacket pocket and looked towards the pair of witches, eyes widening at recognising McGonagall. McGonagall went up the buses stairs and gestured for Bella to do the same, she followed McGonagall like a lost duck and entered towards a rather peculiar scene. There was a row of beds with red blankets, reminding her of the hospital beds that were always lined up like this. All the beds were empty, which Bella assumed was a stroke of luck, she and McGonagall made their way across the room to the front and got their tickets. Shunpike had a brow raise at McGonagall travelling with a random child but was smart enough to not say anything.

Shunpike knocked on the wall twice and said “take her away yeah” Bella backed away in fear and a bit of confusion at seeing a bodyless green head repeat the same thing. The bus started and Bella instantly fell unto the closest bed (McGonagall somehow managed to stay upright and was unaffected by such reckless driving.) “Where are you and the girl heading to on this fine evening, McGonagall?” “Were heading towards King Cross Station in London” Their seemed to be a level of respect for McGonagall, for nobody made any remark of their destination. Bella was smart enough to assume the muggles couldn’t see them, surely, she would have heard of a bus going over speed limits so recklessly. Due to the speed, they arrived at the Station quickly and Bella felt like kissing the ground once they got off that god forsaken deathtrap they call a bus. She had never been into a train station before and found the experience overwhelming, McGonagall said they would be heading to platform 9 and ¾... but she was 90% sure that normal train stations don't have such platforms. They ended up at the brick pillar with the numbers 10 and 9 surrounding it, McGonagall then went on to explain that there was a magical secret entrance- because of course there was- to the train leading to Hogwarts. They walked towards the pillar and to her Bellas great surprise they passed through and didn’t just hit their heads. Magic was still new to her, so she was allowed to have her doubts! They went onto a large black train with the number 5972 on it. To her fortune an exception was made for her, and she was allowed to stay in the compartment meant for the teachers. Not that it mattered, with the train empty because all the students have already left for the holidays, but it was still a win in her books. Most students probably could not say they were allowed in the teacher's private quarters. That and with all the revelations made today, she had almost forgotten the hatred of her adoptive aunt and uncle was still temporality on her face. It was McGonagall who reminded her by asking if she would prefer going to the headmaster dumbledores office or the school nurse Poppy Pomfrey.

“I would like to visit nurse Pomfrey first, please” Bella said politely, it would be better to get healing her wound out of the way first. That and she was still nervous on what Dumbledore would say to McGonagall’s suggestion of making her a ward of Hogwarts. McGonagall explained to her while they were making their way onto the warm cozy train with blinding lights that she would suggest to Dumbledore to let Bella stay in Hogwarts before the school year starts. She said it was quite common for Dumbledore to be the magical guardian of the muggle-borns at Hogwarts, but Bella should be prepared for Dumbledore becoming her primary guardian to be more challenging. She looked out of the window and saw the moon shining ever so brightly in the darkness of night “It’s alright to go to sleep, Bella, I will wake you up once we arrive” Bella felt like McGonagall had read her mind, after saying thank you she leaned onto the wall. She found her eyes feeling weary and found herself slowly drifting off to sleep thinking about the day's events. She opened her eyes again and found herself on a soft and sumptuous bed, she saw a Gryffindor house emblem on a banner from the corner of her eyes and saw a fireplace at the end of the bed she was on with strange looking artifacts on top of the mantle. A man with wavy black hair and a short beard entered the room, he looked towards her, and she instantly recognises his eyes as identical to hers. “Have the sleeping draughts been helpful?” The unknown man questioned; words slipped out of her mouth before she even processed what he meant “Yes, thank you Rab” Rab? Looked at her with a wave of anguish so clear on his face, reminding her of the emotions that had been present in her own when she first arrived at the Dursleys. She pushed the most important question she had to Rab to the front of her mind and questioned “who am I?” Rab gave her a sad gentle smile and sat down at the edge of the luxurious bed. “You're my family, that's all what matters now.” He pulled her into an embrace, and she felt it was only right to enjoy the love she felt radiating of him. Before she could ask any more questions, she heard a voice bringing her back into the waking world.

“We are here, Bella” She heard McGonagall say and she did her best to destroy the fog that was surrounding her mind after being asleep for so long. She... didn’t know what to think about her dream, for the past year she's been unable to remember them and always wanted to know what her dreams were about. Now that she knows... she doesn't feel any closer to knowing who she is. All she knows is that whoever Rab is, he's her ‘family’ and to be honest, she doesn't have a good track record with people claiming there her family. She does feel like Rab is being truthful, but that leaves the question on why he would abandon her if he truly cared for family like he claimed. Was he forced to leave for her safety? Was it all a facade? She was pulled out of her thoughts when they existed the train and arrived at Hogsmeade Station. McGonagall guided Bella through the town, and it took around 20 minutes for them to walk from Hogsmeade to Hogwarts. McGonagall explained on the way that Hogsmeade is the only all-wizarding village in Britain which surprised her that such a place existed. She looked at Hogwarts in amazement when they came towards it, it was the most marvellous castle she had ever seen before. She hoped that this time, this home could be permanent.