~ROAC~ (incomplete)

~THREE~

"'I don't know, Angel, you do it so much better than me'?" James raised his eyebrows, the motion implicating the interrogative 'really?'. "With any other girl, you'd have said something as smooth as- as- what's that love potion McKinnon was all about last year?"

"Amortentia."

"-as smooth as Amortentia, but with Bell..." The best Seeker Gryffindor had seen in years shook his head wryly. "I'm shocked she hasn't caught on yet."

"James, we're not even at Hogsmeade Station. Leave him be."

The compartment door slid open right behind Peter and Sirius and both of them jumped- a usual reaction to a sudden occurrence for the former, but a peculiar reaction from the latter.

"Did Snape come by? C'mon, James, it's our last year, why don't you try to leave him be."

"Eh..."

"She may be right, Prongs," Remus said, slipping past Bell back into the compartment to grab his carry-on bag.

"Of course, I always am." Up went Bell's hand for a high five as she spoke, which Sirius quickly returned, and as she dropped her arm, she nudged him with her other elbow. "That was for Remus, silly," she teased, raising an eyebrow, but he played it off with a laugh and a reply of "I knew that", implying that he'd stolen the return of the gesture as a sort of joke. Bell was clearly confused, but through that confusion, she apparently found no reason to linger on the subject, and so let it go.

As the corridors grew more populated with students eager to get off the train, the group realized one by one that the train had stopped, presumably because they had arrived at Hogsmeade Station. Remus was the first to notice this, judging by his movement to get his bag, and the others quickly discerned the same. Smiles spread across the faces of all five friends, and as they nudged their way through the halls toward the nearest exit, taller than most of the second and third years who'd spent the ride in the other compartments in this car, the familiar whistle of the Hogwarts Express gave its shrill cry four times.

They were almost there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jostled by two eager first years as she stepped onto the platform, Bell wrinkled her nose at both their poor hygiene habits and the fact that it was still raining heavily. Professor Kettleburn stood waving frantically at every smallish student, trying to gather all the newcomers- Peter was beckoned at, like every year, and James teased him about it, like every year -and the enclosed carriages waited on the road, pulled by absolutely nothing- at least, that's what most students saw.

Bell gave a shiver, not from the chill the rain brought, but from seeing those winged, skeletal beasts for the seventh year in a row. No one else she knew could see them. When she'd asked Remus about it last year, trusting that he, of all people, would know something about the creatures and, if he didn't, wouldn't make fun at her for seeing things that weren't there, he'd furrowed his brow and asked her to describe them. That was one of the reasons Bell and Remus were such great friends- neither of them judged each other to any degree, unless the matter was dangerous.

"Well, they're sort of black and bony, and they've got these big but thin wings, and their eyes are almost like... well, like you're staring into death."

That very afternoon, after a short time spent in the library, Remus had approached Bell in the Common Room after lunch- it was a Sunday, therefore they had no classes -and pulled her aside for a private conversation.