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IS - Chapter 156: Bella's Feelings
🕑 Added 2025-07-11 10:06:36 +0000 UTCDisclaimer:
Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
“Dialogue”
‘Thoughts’
-Author notes-
Chapter 156: Bella's Feelings
A week later, Chamber of Secrets
“Lower the heat. It's going to burn,” James indicated to a frustrated Bella.
She went to grab the switch at the side of the tube but ended up touching the tube itself by accident and burning her fingers.
“Ouch!”
James sighed and turned off the fire himself. “What is going on? Your skills seem to have deteriorated since the last time you were here.”
He looked at the girl sitting beside him. Her attitude had changed so much that he could barely recognize the old Bellatrix Black.
“Kyu?...” Primum flew to her side and stared at her with concern.
“I’m fine, Prim. I just burned myself a little,” Bella tried to smile.
“Here.” James handed her a recipient with a white paste inside. “It's a healing balm. It will calm down the pain.”
“Did you make this too?” She took the recipient. “How do you have time for all of this while also attending class?” she asked.
“You would know if you were paying more attention.” James moved aside and pointed at the other part of the laboratory.
Bella’s eyes opened widely when she saw another James Potter working on some potions in the distance.
“You are using that potion as well?” Bella still had a few doses of the cloning potion that James had made for her.
She used it to make a copy of herself when she wanted to come here, so people wouldn’t wonder where she was.
Not that she had to worry much about that anymore. Now that she was no longer Rabastan’s fiancée, no one was following her around to see where she went.
“You told me that potion was very expensive and hard to make. Are you sure it’s fine to use it like that?” Bella asked.
“I’m not using the potion. This is a spell that produces a similar effect,” James responded. Not that money was an issue any longer.
Although he still had to pay a visit to the goblins to exchange all the gold he had been accumulating and get some Galleons.
Most businesses didn’t just take raw gold for safety reasons, so you had to use the legal coins.
“Why didn’t you teach me the spell instead?” Bella asked.
James raised an eyebrow. “Because it takes years to master. And I figured that you wanted to dedicate your time to learning something else instead. Although that is not going too well either, from what I can see.”
Bella glanced at her ruined potion. The Draught of Living Death was truly complicated and required her full attention during the whole process. After all, it was not a NEWT-level potion for nothing.
“About that…” she had to admit she’d had a hard time concentrating on brewing as of late.
And the reason for that was sitting next to her, making it even harder.
“Is there something troubling you? Maybe we should deal with that first, so you can go back to concentrating,” James said.
“There is, but… can I ask you something first?” Bella’s expression had turned serious.
“You can ask whatever you want. But I cannot guarantee that I will answer,” James said.
“Rodolphus’s death… were you the one behind it?” she inquired.
“What makes you say that?” James returned another question.
“It’s just… a hunch. No one is really suspecting you or anything.” She had heard many rumors and theories about what had happened to Rodolphus during the break.
It had happened a week before classes started. The boy went to sleep one night and never woke up again.
“The strange thing is…” Bella continued. “The healers who were trying to figure out how he died said they found traces of venom inside his body… basilisk venom.” She glanced at the basilisk skeleton still hanging from the ceiling of the chamber.
“Mmm, how curious.” James feigned ignorance.
“Come on, James,” Bella insisted. “I need to know, please.”
James returned her look. It was extremely rare for her to use that word...'please'. So this must be really important to her.
“I did, yes.”
Bella’s eyes opened widely, and a smile appeared on her face. “I knew it!”
That was not the reaction James was expecting, but then again, this girl was not exactly normal.
A more sane person would look a bit more horrified if a classmate confessed to a murder in front of them.
But what Bella did next surprised him even more. She got up from her chair and launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him into a tight hug.
“You are amazing! You have no idea how much I had wanted to kill that bastard.”
“Ehm… you’re welcome?,” James looked confused.
“Don’t worry, I won’t say anyw—” Bella stopped as she suddenly realized she was holding onto James in a very intimate manner. Their faces were only inches away.
There was a moment of awkward silence after that.
“Master, are you going to kiss that female?” The silence was broken by a fairy who was hovering above them.
“Nyx, go back to your duties. And mind your own business,” James huffed.
“Of course, Master. But if this is going to devolve into something primal as I’ve seen in those books, I must remind you to be careful around the volatile materials tha—”
“That’s enough! Go away,” James told her.
'I should never have allowed her to read those erotic novels...' Now he was regretting that, but the fairy kept asking and he just wanted to be left alone.
“Kyu?” Primum asked.
“Yes, you too.” James promptly sent the chimera away.
“What about my mother’s family?” Bella suddenly asked.
“Excuse me?” James wasn’t sure what was going on anymore. Bella was still holding onto him and didn’t seem like she wanted to let him go.
“The Rosiers. We just found out that they were all exterminated very recently. Mother has barely said a word since we heard the news,” Bella said.
“Oh, those… yes. That was me, I suppose. Although I was told that someone called cousin Felix was not present at the time, so it wasn’t exactly all of them—mmm!”
James was not allowed to finish his sentence, because Bella had crashed her lips against his.
