The Lion's Roar
January 4th, 1992
"Jack! Sammy! Are you all packed and ready to go?" Belle called up the stairs.
"I'm ready to go." Jack smiled pulling his trunk down the stairs. He was smiling and excited.
Samantha hadn't come down yet or even made a noise.
"Where is your sister?" Ed, Belle's husband, asked curiously.
"She's up in her room crying." Jack said with a shrug, "She doesn't want to go back."
"What?" Belle asked before exchanging a look with Ed. He shrugged.
Samantha had been quieter than normal all Christmas holiday, but Samantha's quiet was everyone else's normal. However, there had been no other signs that she'd had a bad time at school.
"It's probably because she's got no friends at school." Jack said with a shrug. "She's in Gryffindor, so I can't help her."
Jack had been utterly devastated when his sister was sorted into Gryffindor. He'd apparently been very worried that he couldn't force anyone to be her friend. Belle had reminded him that forcing friendship wasn't healthy.
Belle shared another look with her husband. "I'll take care of Sammy."
Belle made her way up the stairs. She made it to her daughter's hot pink room. She was laying face down in her bed and crying profusely.
"Baby."
"I don't want to go back mummy." Samantha cried into her pillow.
"Why not baby? I thought you loved school." Belle asked concerned, she'd never cried about going back to Hogwarts. She used to be the opposite, she loved school.
"I'm not smart. I have no real friends and I'm still no good at doing my hair." She wined loudly.
"Let's talk through it, I'm sure we can find solutions. Which classes are you struggling with?"
"I'm rotten at Herbology. I keep killing all my plants." Samantha admitted with a huff. "Then I'm not good at potions like you or Jack. Professor Snape says I'm horrible, it doesn't help I have a horrible partner."
"How bad is your partner?" Belle asked with a chuckle.
"He is a horrid, rotten, lump of a little boy who's almost blown me up, twice." Samantha sat up and crossed her arms. "He's the dumbest boy in our year."
Belle chuckled, and didn't mean to. "Well you won't have any friends if you talk about your classmates like that."
"Well, I wouldn't tell him he's a lump. That'd be mean." Samantha's pout was hilarious considering she had such a small face. "I'm not mean like Jack and his friends."
"Jack isn't mean to you right?" Belle asked worrying how he acted towards her at school.
"No." Samantha shook her head, "He doesn't like it that I'm a Gryffindor, but he gets mad when others are mean to me. I think he scares people. So I'm just the loud girl with the scary brother who can't do potions and kills plants."
"Who said you were loud?"
Samantha grimaced, "Lavender Brown said so. She and Parvati laugh at me when they think I'm sleeping."
"Are they your roommates?" Belle tried to hold back the jab in her heart, she knew her daughter would deal with this eventually. Kids, especially girls, could be so cruel.
"Yeah, it's me, Lavender, Parvati, and Hermione." Samantha revealed.
"What about Hermione?"
"She doesn't say anything. They pick on her too."
Belle asked, "Do you two talk?"
"I try, it's just she's really, really, smart and I'm not as smart as her. And she's really good friends with Ron and Harry, so she spends most of her time with them." Samantha shrugged, "They saved her from a Mountain Troll at Halloween."
Belle decided not to worry about how a Mountain Troll got into the school.
"Besides, I heard Ron say I was louder than a mountain troll to Dean and Seamus, so I don't think I'd get along with him." Samantha wrinkled her nose. "Mum, I'm just loud and dumb. I'm no good at school."
"You are not dumb. I know there are classes you are good at." Belle surmised, Minerva had sent her a letter expressing her pride in Samantha's aptitude for Transfiguration already. She was one of the only students in her year to turn a match into a needle.
"I'm really good at Transfiguration and History of Magic." Samantha smiled a little. "It's really just Potions and Herbology where I don't understand things."
"See, you aren't dumb. You just have a loud voice and a lot to say with it." Belle honestly expressed.
"I don't know I'm being loud." Big crocodile tears began running down her face.
"You know what is also loud?"
"What?" Samantha leaned into her mother's shoulder.
"A lion." She laughed, "And remind me what house is my beautiful daughter in again?"
"Gryffindor, where our animal is a lion." Samantha smiled a little.
"And Gryffindors are leaders. When Professor Dumbledore gives his big speeches, is he quiet or is he loud?" Belle asked.
"He's loud so everyone can hear."
"He's a leader. He leads the school. People who are loud are meant to lead." She kissed her daughter's forehead. "The rest of the world just doesn't understand quite yet. You are meant to be a leader someday Sammy."
Samantha nodded.
"And maybe you just haven't met the people you are meant to be friends with." Belle kissed her forehead again. "But maybe you will. Maybe you will meet friends who will like you for your loudness. Patience my little one. Maybe join a school club."
"They don't have any writing clubs." Samantha insisted. "I wish there was a school paper or something."
"Maybe you should lobby for one, you never know." Belle touched under her daughter's chin. "Now come on my little lion, let's get going or we will miss the train."
"Ok mummy."
She never wanted her daughter to feel like being herself wasn't good enough. She would make friends, time was always known to cause change. Belle knew that perfectly well. The people she thought would be her friends forever, often turned out to be quite the opposite.
September 1st, 1971
That summer had been the best in Belle's young life. It was a difficult two months for her Animagus training but the rest of it was wonderful. The hardest part was when she spent an entire month with a mandrake leaf beneath her tongue. It made speaking and eating somewhat difficult, but she managed.
Even in silence, she was able to explore the castle, sketching everything to her heart's content. She had painted landscapes of almost everywhere she could. McGonagall began showing her how to transfigure the paintings to move.
She was able to take full advantage of the library and read anything she desired at any point. Madam Pince worked there even in the summertime, but she was kinder when it was just Belle.
Professor Sprout would often steal her help in the Greenhouses. They'd water and tend to plants in the summer sunlight.
Headmaster Dumbledore would occasionally invite her along with the four remaining staff for tea in the Headmaster's office. They'd gossip about the students in a way Belle couldn't have imagined. They never named names with Belle present, and she wasn't one to presume, but she enjoyed it like a good dramatic book. The best time was when they made bets on the romantic prospects.
The letters from home had been more proud than normal. Her mother kept expressing how proud her whole family was that Belle would be so dedicated to their family business. Her new skill would be most useful to them and it could make for a fun conversation piece.
The day she transformed for the first time was absolutely incredible. Transforming was quite comfortable surprisingly. She was quickly used to having feathers instead of hair and wings instead of arms.
She was not allowed, being underage, to leave the castle grounds, but flying above the Forbidden Forest was just incredible enough for now. She wouldn't be allowed to transform when the other students were present, so as the air became crisp, she took a few more farewell flights as a Vulture. Soaring between the castle towers and perching with the owls.
It was odd to not be taking the Hogwarts Express and to instead meet her friends at the Hogsmead Platform. She had been allowed to accompany the horseless carriages as a Prefect. After performing her duties, she greeted her very good friend Cissy Black with open arms.
"Oh dear Belle, I was worried when I didn't see you all summer at your family's estate." She exclaimed as she climbed in beside her, "But your mother said you were taking special classes. How exciting for you?"
Belle admitted in a whisper, "I'm supposed to keep the special classes a secret though, so don't tell anyone, if you don't mind."
Belle had known Cissy since she was a little girl. They'd both grown up in pure blood families that crossed paths quite a bit when their families would spend time together. As two girls of the same age, they had gravitated towards each other immediately. Cissy was in Slytherin but it never stopped Belle and Cissy from being friends. Cissy had platinum blonde hair and striking bright blue eyes, she was truly a beautiful girl.
She had two older sisters, Andromeda who was in Seventh Year and Bellatrix who had graduated when they were third years. Bellatrix was not the nicest creature, but she was even more beautiful than both her sisters. Andromeda was as sweet as sugar, but was considered the more plain of the Black sisters.
"Hi Belle, Hi Narcissa!" Alice Flume, a pretty but nervous sort of creature exclaimed to the two girls, interrupting their conversation as she entered the carriage. She was a Hufflepuff in their year and she was convinced they were all friends. Belle thought she was sweet, but she knew Cissy talked behind her back.
Alice was followed by Cissy's sister, Andromeda and her secret boyfriend, Ted Tonks. It wasn't a secret to the student body, but it was a secret to her parents. He was muggle born and Cissy often whispered that Andromeda would have to break it off eventually.
"My father said he's taking on student employees again. If any of you are interested." Alice's father owned and ran Honeydukes. He insisted Alice work there to make her extra money.
She was smart and hardworking, she was so smart, she'd even been given early acceptance into the Auror program at the Ministry. However, when it came to anything outside of academics and discounts at Honeydukes, she was almost completely and utterly clueless. She'd been trying to get other students to come work with her at Honeydukes for years.
"No thanks Flume, Dromeda and I don't exactly need the pocket money." Cissy responded with a roll of her eyes. The Blacks had a lot of money and they liked flaunting it.
"Not to mention we have NEWTs." Ted reminded, "And I'm head boy so I won't have the time."
Belle suddenly realized, if she planned to run away in two years, she'd need money. Obviously her family would cut her off. Maybe, this could be how she'd start saving.
"I'd like to maybe work there, Alice." Belle mentioned softly.
"Really?" Alice's eyes lit up and she sat a bit straighter.
"Yeah, when would it start?" Belle asked as the carriage began the journey.
"Next Saturday and it's every other week." Alice explained with a smile. "I'll help you fill out the application and I'll help you get the special permissions form."
"That would be wonderful." Belle replied before turning to Cissy who had a raised eyebrow. "I like free candy."
Cissy simply shrugged in response. "And I like discounts, so maybe it can be fun for you. Just don't make it that you miss any Slug parties. It'd be dreadfully boring without you."
"Oh no, my dad would make sure she didn't miss. Especially since I'm in the club too." Alice insisted.
Belle laughed before whispering. "I wonder what poor saps were invited to join Slug Club this year."
"Same crowd of course, but can you believe somehow both Longbottom and Prewett got in?" Cissy remarked.
Belle's heart dropped, she'd have to see Gideon Prewett. He was her ex-boyfriend. She hadn't quite gotten over him. She'd thought about him a lot over the summer, and considered writing him to say she still had feelings. She thought better of it, if she were to escape she couldn't be tied down.
"Frank made it into the Slug club?" Alice asked sitting a little straighter. She'd had a crush on Frank Longbottom since first year, and no one could understand why. He was a pompous and hotheaded git, just like most of the boys in Gryffindor. Not to mention he wasn't much to look at, giant ears and he slouched.
Alice on the other hand was pretty, soft blue eyes and light brown hair.
"Yeah, he told me on the train." Ted admitted with a nod, but looked over at Belle, "He and Gideon apparently had really good grades last year in potions."
"I heard they both plan to get into the Auror program. But not everyone can get in early like you Alice." Andromeda said kindly.
Cissy nodded and smirked, "Could be your chance Alice. Finally ask Longbottom out. Maybe you two can go to the Christmas party together."
Belle was sure Cissy meant that as a dig towards them both.
Alice gulped, mostly out of fear. Her shoulders went into her ears. "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Oh, let the poor girl alone Cissy." Andromeda glared at her sister.
Cissy rolled her eyes but whispered to Belle, "You and I obviously won't have any trouble getting dates this year. I'm thinking Quidditch players."
"Cissy, that party isn't until Christmas. It's only the first day." Belle laughed.
"So? You've got to think of the future Brenna."
Belle's heart jumped into her throat. She'd been thinking about her future a lot lately and she realized that her days with Cissy could be numbered. If Belle ran away, what would she think? Would they even stay friends?