17. Cauldron
Bella was in the dormitory, trying out a new potion her cousin had sent her. It was supposed to draw the rain to wherever you drenched the ground – or floor.

Suddenly, there was a sizzling, cracking noise. A long, thin crack had wormed its way down the side of Bella’s cauldron.

“Stupid cauldron!” the unfortunate girl muttered angrily as it fell apart before her eyes. The half-finished potion spread across the floor.

A few minutes later, there was a croaking noise.

“What the – ” Bella worried aloud, afraid of the uncompleted potion.

A rain of toads landed on Bella’s head.

86. Daring
The potion to bring rain had been risky, but Bella was prepared to try something even more daring: creating a potion to change your hair color.

It was ready, cooled and complete. Bella placed a red maple leaf in the potion. It dissolved like it was in acid. Taking a deep breath, Bella closed her eyes and downed the entire tiny cauldron in one gulp.

Opening her eyes slowly, Bella found a mirror and stood in front of it. Where black hair had been before, there was now a fire red color.

Maybe she had been a bit too daring.

36. Muggle
Bella was walking down the halls one day, hiding her unnaturally red hair, and overheard a conversation that reminded her of things she had seen the past summer. The two girls were complaining that their parents were forcing them to straighten their teeth the Muggle way, with braces.

The summer before, Bella had been walking down a street in a large Muggle city and passed a Muggle’s dentist office. Muggles kept on coming out the door with odd metal things on their crooked teeth, looking like blocks with colored rims. Muggles did the strangest things to themselves, in Bella’s opinion.

10. Arithmancy
Arithmancy classes were confusing, especially to someone like Bella, unable to calculate in terms of magic. In her mind, magic should be simple, logical, and straightforward – the opposite of life.

A wad of paper came flying through the air and hit Bella square in the face. Frowning, she opened the paper, which was as crumpled as dry leaves, and looked at it. The words kept scrolling up the paper, so it took a little while before she registered what it said. It was from Matt, telling her to meet him in the hall behind the library. She smelled a trick.

59. Ignore
Bella, against her better judgment, went down to the requested hall, wary of traps. All she saw was Matt, sitting on a bench and reading.

Slowly, she approached him, saying, “Matt? What do you want?”

He didn’t move except to turn the page of his book. Bella walked even closer, then hesitantly poked his shoulder. “What did you want me to come her for?” Matt still didn’t move, and when he didn’t even acknowledge her Bella finally realized he was ignoring her.

Angrily, she stomped away, not turning around. If she had, she would have seen Matt dying of laughter.

21. Veela
Matt, Bella decided the next morning, could not go unpunished. She sent an urgent message to her aunt, a woman who had a way with mirrors.

The mirror soon came. It was silver backed, and in it danced an attractive Veela. Bella smiled grimly, then placed it in Matt’s desk before potions.

Matt saw it. Bella watched, laughing, as he took out the mirror and looked longingly at it under his desk. The mirror was spelled so the Veela would have the same effect as if she were in the room. Matt was continuously attempting to jump through the mirror.

26. Quill
Bella knew that the mirror simply wasn’t enough in terms of revenge. She did not like being ignored.

The package arrived later than she expected. Nonetheless, Bella took the quill and slipped it into Matt’s book bag.

It was Astronomy when he finally took it out. Once the tip touched his parchment, it began dripping a foul smelling pus. Matt foolishly leaned down to look at the quill tip and it squirted him in the eye.

Flying into the air, the quill wrote above his head: “Matt secretly thinks frilly pink dresses are the cutest things ever.”

Bella giggled uncontrollably.

50. Boggart
The uneven rattling noise caught Bella’s attention as she passed the unlocked classroom. Tentatively, she opened it – and jumped back in horror. There was a fist-sized bottle of Veritaserum, enough to cause her to give information she herself didn’t even know yet.

Through her fear, she noticed something: the bottle was floating and quivering slightly. Pulling out her wand, Bella licked dry lips and whispered, “Riddikulus.”

Here Boggart banishing spell had always been strong; the bottle suddenly exploded like a popped balloon. She forced out some jerky laughs. “Stupid Boggart!” Bella hissed. Still shaking, the terrified girl fled the room.

82. Careful
Being careful didn’t come naturally for Bella, but when in a dark room, dealing with Devil’s Snares, one had no choice.

She muttered a spell at a creeping plant, and bright blue flames appeared at the end of her wand. The plant shot back as though burned. In a way, it had been.

Feeling a tight hold on her arm, Bella saw a plant had grabbed her. Sighing, she prepared to perform the proper spell, but someone got there first. Matt watched as his spell forced the plant to release her.

“You need to be careful!” he taunted, scurrying away.

83. Fearful
]Ever since she was little, Bella gave others the impression that she was never frightened, but fear was a common feeling for her. Being fearful of mice, lightning, spiders, and large dogs had never made Bella proud. They were weaknesses, and common ones at that. She could name at least ten people who were frightened of all those things.

So Bella found a way to combat her fears. It was the Boggart-banishing spell that had inspired her. Whenever she feared something, she thought to herself, I am a witch, and a smart one at that. Nothing can overcome magic. Nothing.

19. Wand
Bella was walking along the hall when her foot hit something. Her arms pinwheeled as she lost her footing on the stone corridor.

Thankful no one was near to see her fall, Bella picked herself up and investigated what she had stepped on. It was long, cylinder, and made of wood: clearly a wand. But this wand felt strange to her. Empty somehow.

A boy came stumbling down the hall, searching the floor. He saw the wand in Bella’s hand and snatched it up, mumbling apologies. He slipped away, waving it, with no result. Bella realized he was a Squib.

94. Allergic
It was Valentine’s Day, and as a treat, the Transfiguration professor was having the class turn daisies into roses. Bella stopped dead when she entered the room. This was not good.

Before she could get to the door, her throat clenched unbearably tight, her eyes turned red and overflowed with tears. Bella slumped to the floor, gasping for breath. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, and all she could think about was how humiliated she was.

“Poor girl,” the professor murmured. “It must be allergies.” A potion was forced down her throat, but Bella felt no better. Her shame was suffocating.

8. Potions
Potions class was one of the few places Bella felt comfortable. She knew more about potions than any other subject.

Today, the potion they were brewing was a Sleeping Draught. The heavy fumes pulled at Bella’s eyelids, trying to lull her into a deep sleep. Bella resisted the urge and continued stirring.

She had always made an excellent Sleeping Draught, but as her potion’s steam swept through the room, she saw it was a bit too strong. Several thumps and faint splashes were heard throughout as the smaller students fell asleep, arms slipping into their cauldrons. The professor was livid.

64. Nap
Naps had never been on Bella’s list of things to do when bored, but it apparently was on Matt’s. There he was, slumped on a bench with his head against a stone gargoyle. He had one of those Muggle baseball hats down over his eyes.

Bella saw an opportunity, and took it. Creeping up behind him, wand in hand, Bella muttered “Densaugeo”. She only had to wait a few seconds for the charm to take effect. Bella watched in great amusement as Matt’s teeth stretched longer and longer. Bella made a mental note never to take a nap in public.

97. Dictionary
A dictionary was not an ideal source of entertainment, but Bella had no choice. She was still in the “C” section, with four thousand more pages type to go.

She had received a note that morning from her Transfiguration professor: find all Muggle words in a standard dictionary that referenced magic, or fail the class. Bella hadn’t been able to keep her mind on classwork recently. She was paying for it.

The word “charms” popped out at her, and Bella wrote it down. She had to finish! The wrath of her parents if she failed was not a pleasant prospect.

39. Duel
Bella stood with her wand facing a faceless opponent. So far, three curses had been cast, all by the enemy. This duel was not going as planned.

Taking a deep breath, Bella waved her wand, prepared a voiceless incantation and –

Wham!

All the air was knocked from her lungs as she was flung backwards, her head hitting the hard stone wall behind her. Blackness was taking over her mind, she couldn’t think…

Shaking and sweating, Bella rocked back and forth, finally awake. The duel was exactly the same as before, except that before she knew whom she had been dueling.

89. Past
It was one of those few days when the three sisters were actually trying to play a game together.

“I want to play Blind Man’s Bluff!” little Andromeda said, stamping her foot on the ground.

“That’s a Muggles game!” whispered Narcissa in horror. Bella just laughed.

“And how would you know that, Cissa?” Bella hissed. “Why don’t we make one of us run and see who can hit them with spells?”

“I hate that game!” Andromeda complained.

“Why don’t you go first?” Bella shoved her sister in the back, and Andromeda ran for the house as fast as she could.

100. Homework
Bella was sitting in the library, struggling with her load of homework. Andromeda and Narcissa were sitting close by doing their own. Her sisters owed her a favor.

“Andromeda…Cissa…I can still turn you in to father for going to that Muggle village. And I will, unless you do my homework,” she whispered.

“But I didn’t go!” Narcissa whispered back, fearful.

“You covered for the bratty sibling there. And besides, think of it as a favor. You each only have to do half of it. And I better not get lower then an E.”

Satisfied, Bella left to enjoy her evening.

4. Ancient Runes
It was one of those days. The text on the thick pages was blurred and floating. Any sentences Bella did manage to actually read bounced out of her brain like a rubber ball. And the class she was currently in, Ancient Runes, was not a class to be misreading text.

“Miss Black, could you please tell us what the rune on page 712 represents?”

Bella gazed mournfully at the squiggly lines. “Um…it means that you’re a kleptomaniac.”

The professor gave her a strange look. “Actually, it is the name “Zeus”, who I hope was not a kleptomaniac in the least.”

37. Animagus
Bella was looking at the Slytherin notice board with some concern. Someone had put up an add for a missing Animagus. It read: “Tim is an Animagus spider. Please do not squish. If found, leave him on the mantle. ”

Throughout the day, a clump of first-year girls could be seen throughout Hogwarts, searching everywhere. If a spider was found, it was placed in a jar. Bella shook her head at their antics.

As Bella ascended the stairs that night, there was a crash. A multitude of spiders poured from the shattered glass that had recently been on the mantle.

52. Bore
It was one of those days when everyone around you appeared to be having fun, but you couldn’t seem to enjoy it. This was such a day for Bella, who sat on a small boulder, watching life go by in a blur of colors. Everything seemed to bore her. Even preparing false plans of world domination held no interest for her bored mind.

Boredom, as Bella found out a second later, made people crazy. She pulled a small notebook from her pocket, titled it “Results of Boredom”, and proceeded to list whatever words came to her mind. Bubblegum… cheetah… princess…

16. Dragonhide gloves
It was just another day in potions class. Bella meticulously added ingredient after ingredient, clockwise stir after clockwise stir. So intent was her focus on the task that she didn’t noticed the strange burning smell until it was too late.

Black flames were rising from the table, completely engulfing an object: her dragonhide gloves! The gloves had been made of the finest hide; a fine silvery-scaled creature had been painstakingly killed to make them. Bella was sure she knew who the one responsible for their destruction was: Matt. She glanced in his direction, but he looked as shocked as herself.

78. Author's Choice (Packing)
Bella was packing for the Big Move. There were boxes of her school supplies, robes, her personal possessions, and there was another wall of shelves to empty.

Bella thought she would go insane. How did ever get so much stuff? She knew what Nymphadora would do – donate to some orphanage – and what Narcissa would do – keep it all although she hated it. Bella was not one for charity or making herself unhappy. She thinned out the boxes, leaving her with only three boxes, not fifty. The rest of the things she moved outside, setting them on fire.

She felt better.

15. Room
Bella imagined what she would do with her new room. It was bigger, but there were so many nooks it was easy to get lost in. Still, the house was new, and the room untainted.

Bella could see it filled with but with her minimized collection of possessions this was hardly practical.

A week later, her room displayed a new approach that not even she could understand. It was pure white, floor, walls, and ceiling. Her few possessions were on stark black shelves, her black bed simple and unornamented. It was a new start, one that could not be destroyed.

30. Feast

Odors wafted around the room. Eyes closed, Bellatrix inhaled them all deeply, imagining – salty, sweet, greasy, crisp, spicy…She could just see it now, her first feast at Hogwarts: golden plates piled high with chicken and bread and vegetables galore. It had been a surprise even though she knew what would happen – empty plates, no smells, and suddenly WHAM! Smells and sights that filled your stomach before eating a bite.

Bellatrix opened her eyes disappointedly. No golden plates, no pumpkin juice, no familiar Slytherin faces. Just her family sitting unhappily around the table, waiting for Bella to join their gloomy feast.