ghost stories - h. potter

Thirteen

It was only a week later when the Christmas holidays arrived and Belle was packing her things to head back home for the break. Both Luna and Pansy had been invited to stay with her during the break, though only Pansy had accepted the invitation. Luna, though kindly, had said that she would spend the break with her dad, especially seeing how anxious he was about her decision to return to Hogwarts after being captured by Death Eaters two Christmases before.

She had also accepted the invitation to stay at the Burrow for the final week of the holidays. She would spend the first with Pansy and her family and the second with her new friends and the rest of the Weasley family. Fred had become ecstatic at this and had had a pillow thrown at his face by Sirius, who was the third spirit in the group to show signs of a strengthening soul. Cedric had been the second, who had accidentally pushed Belle off her bed by pulling on her covers the day after Emilia had visited.

During the week that she had left, Belle did whatever she could to help other students that were still suffering from the after-effects of the war. She stayed with the second-year Ravenclaws at night when they woke up screaming from nightmares and handed out dreamless sleep potions to elder students who couldn't bring themselves to fall asleep as the threat of bad memories loomed over their heads. She had even found herself sitting with Pansy and a few of her Slytherin friends during breaks, slowly but surely making herself known as the girl who wanted to help everyone. She spent breaks with Hermione and Ron in the library and evenings with Harry in the Astronomy tower. Everyone had noticed the change in the girl. To those who did not know her before the war, they experienced Belle becoming someone who smiled at people as they passed her in the hallways in the hopes of brightening up their days. They watched as Belle would help other students if they were struggling with something and they experienced the twinkle in her eye shining brighter and brighter with each day that passed.

To those who had known her before the war, however, they watched Belle as she reverted back the person who she used to be, and not the person she had become. With the arrival of snow and the nearing of Christmas, everyone's spirits seemed to have lifted, especially as their final week of classes came to a close.

In Care of Magical Creatures, Belle's dragon, Pippin, had begun showing signs of her fire glands developing. Hagrid had informed her that by the time she returned to school after the break ended, Pippin would most likely be able to to start setting things on fire. Their wings would start developing not long after that.

Slughorn had them making complicated concoctions in Potions class that would be ready to continue when they returned from the break and, to his surprise, Harry's grades had been the best that they had ever been without the help of the Half Blood Prince. It seemed as though he and Belle's late-night Astronomy-tower-meet-up study sessions really were doing him some good. 

They'd managed to hold a proper duel in Defence Against the Dark Arts without Harry worrying about whether or not he would end up hurting Belle. He'd even managed to stun her without apologising, something that he had been congratulated on by Clarice, Belle and Hermione. 

At that very moment, however, Belle was by herself as she headed down to the Hogsmeade station to meet Pansy. She was running late as she was saying goodbye to Hagrid and Pippin, who had tried smuggling herself into the pocket of Belle's coat. It had taken her ten minutes to convince the small dragon to stay with Hagrid who was laughing greatly at the peculiar sight, not having seen a model dragon take such a liking to anyone before. It made him wonder how Norberta was and after Belle had informed him that she was to see Charlie Weasley over the break, he had politely asked her to inquire about the Norwegian Ridgeback while she had the chance. Belle had only laughed and promised she'd get Charlie to send him photos when he could.