Chapter 4

"Professor!" Bea beamed, entering the greenhouses mid-afternoon on Saturday, her light brown hair tumbling down her back whilst she sported one of Remus' stolen jumpers that acted like a dress to her. Whilst Remus stole his height from his father, Bea not so, fortunately, got her lack of height from her mother, she was under a foot smaller than Remus, which was hard to believe to most people until they saw them together.

It was almost a habit for Remus to lean his elbow on her head - much to Bea's annoyance.

"Oh, Phoebe!" Professor Sprout gasped, jumping away from the baby mandrakes in their pots which Bea soon rushed to help with, grabbing a pair of earmuffs from the table beside Professor Sprout, "do what do I owe this pleasure?"

"I finished my report on Flutterby Bush," she grinned, rummaging through her bag before bringing out a report on the plant, "I was wondering, of course, if you have the time Professor, I wouldn't want to take away any of your time, but if you could, maybe would you look over it for Monday? I want to get started on Fanged Geranium but wanted to make sure this was alright first."

"Oh yes, of course, don't you worry dear I'll have that marked and ready for Monday morning!" Professor Sprout spoke cheerily, "I actually wanted to talk to you, Bea, thank you actually!"

"Thank me?" Bea repeated, her eyebrows furrowed, soon jerking her hand away from a baby mandrake who had taken to biting her finger, "why, Professor?"

"James Potter has been improving," she grinned, "of course the sessions must continue if he has any chance of passing his O.W.Ls, but at the rate, you are teaching him it seems that he will be able to pass with an outstanding!"

"That's wonderful!" Bea nodded, trying her best to share in the Professors enthusiasm, "I'm glad I could help - it really isn't a bother at all, he's not as bad as I thought he would be."

"Now as a thank you, Phoebe-"

"Oh, Professor, there is no need to thank me," Bea furiously shook her head, watching the Professor wave her off.

"There is a book on Herbology in the library, Phoebe, only thing is - it's in the restricted section," Sprout trailed off, handing Bea a small piece of parchment containing her signature and the name of the book, "I trust you enough to just get this book, Phoebe, I'm sure you will enjoy it very much - it is simply fascinating."

"Oh, I bet!" Bea grinned widely, her excitement bubbling in her stomach at new material to read on the subject, "I'll go there as soon as I can - thank you, Professor, really!"

"Oh, it's not a problem, now it's a lovely day Phoebe, please go out and enjoy yourself, don't let me stop you!" she laughed, bidding Phoebe a goodbye who couldn't help but laugh as she waved herself, watching as Professor Sprout exited the greenhouses at the other side whilst Bea stuffed the piece of parchment into her bag quickly and soon exited the classroom.

"Can you believe the know it all goes to class on a weekend?!" Bea almost froze to her spot when she heard the voice behind her, it was familiar to her, not familiar enough that she was able to identify who it was but when she turned around, she could feel her stomach bubble with nerves at the group of people.

"Can I help you?" asked Bea, trying her best to stop her voice from shaking too much, changing her stance in a best attempt to feign confidence when she was shaking on the inside, she wasn't one for confrontation, nor was she ever one to be mean. She knew if she really wanted to get away then she could easily transform into her animagus but it wasn't that simple, she was unregistered, and well, she was sure none of the group in front of her would make any exceptions to keep her secret.

"Your little friend isn't here to defend you, now is she?" a girl scoffed, stepping forward and leaning her elbow on the boy's shoulder, she was sure the boy was called Craig, and he was in her Potions class, so she wasn't entirely sure why he was calling her a know it all when she really didn't know a thing in that class.

"Well I don't see her," Bea shook her head, running a hand through her hair, she was thinking of spells to help her in this situation but it seemed the group had a different approach when one of them quickly grabbed her bag, whilst one held her back, ignoring her protests for her stuff, "let me go!"

"Lookie here!" the girl exclaimed with a smirk, "so many books, so much crap, why do you even bother with this stuff?" Bea bit her lip when the girl poured the contents of her bag onto the floor, quickly bringing up her foot and stepping on the flowers she had picked for Violet in her bag to crush them, allowing the petals to fall to the ground, and the seeds she was going to plant outside to crush under her foot.

"Maybe if you had more than two brain cells you would understand why I bother with this stuff," Bea whispered under her breath, wincing when one of the boys stepped forward, grabbing her face and soon slapping her.

"Why don't you learn to keep your mouth shut whilst my friends and I are talking to you," she growled, pushing himself up whilst Bea struggled to get free, glaring at the group. She felt entirely helpless against them but she wasn't exactly surprised.

It wasn't the first time she had been targeted, alone without Violet she was sure to be a victim at some point, and hiding black eyes and bruised wrists from multiple bullies wasn't the only thing that Bea had mastered, it seemed some people didn't exactly like cheery, and well because of that, they didn't like her.

Her head moved to the side when she heard the familiar voice of James Potter, though he hadn't noticed them yet, and the group in front of her didn't exactly care about him, "oi, Evans!" his voice boomed, Bea could practically hear the smirk as he spoke, her eyes on him as he tried to talk to Lily.

"Are you not listening to us?!" the boy - Craig, she was sure, asked harshly, ignoring her loud groan when he swiftly punched her in the stomach, knowing that Dumbledore would easily be able to track any spells going on in the castle, he didn't want to get caught.

And he knew Bea wouldn't go running to tell.

But it seemed as though the groan that tumbled from Bea's mouth had peaked the interest of James who turned at the commotion, his face contorted to anger when he saw Bea struggling against the group, a glare in her eyes and soon in his too. Lily was just about to tell him to piss off when he actually did, picking up his pace as he moved down the hallway.

"Oi!" he exclaimed, clutching his wand in his back pocket in case he would need it and seeing the look on Bea's face, he was almost certain she didn't want him here.

Or rather, she didn't want him to see her in the middle of her embarrassment.

"What do you want, Potter?" Craig asked, stepping forward, Bea watched his shoulders subtly slump when James stood a lot taller than him, looking down at him with a very intimidating glare that Bea hadn't seen on his face before.

"I want you to let my friend go," he spoke, his eyes quickly glancing to Bea to make sure she wasn't completely hurt, but he was able to see her eyes glazed with tears at the impact of Craig's hand in her stomach, and James was sure he was about to explode with anger.

"Well sometimes we all don't get what we want," Craig tutted, shaking his head with a small smirk, "so your little girlfriend is going to watch as we show her what happens when you get in our way."

"Oh yeah?" asked James, his eyebrow raised, "did she get in your way or did she just happen to pass you in the hallway, and you and your little gang thought you could pick on someone much smaller than you are because you're too coward to go looking for a real fight, I'm really not sure what Bumb- Bea has got anything to do with you, but if you hurt her again, I swear to god I will come for every single one of you and I won't stop hurting you all until each and every one of you are lying in the hospital wing with injuries so bad you're gonna have to go to St Mungo's."

Craig's face had quickly fallen as he looked over the anger on James' face, stumbling backwards, he spoke, "it was just a joke, we were-"

"Just a joke?" James cut him off, pushing him hard against the wall whilst his friend quickly let go of Bea who pushed through the gang to get to James, watching with wide eyes as he punched Craig in the face, and then the stomach, "don't look at me like that, mate, it's just a joke!"

He slammed his body against the wall once more, almost ready to punch him again when Bea's voice rang through his ears, "James," she trailed off, she was much smaller than he was and had to roughly pull his arm away in order for him to stop, but it wasn't hard to notice that he had visibly softened when he saw the look on her face.

"They hurt you, Bea, look at what they did to your stuff!" he exclaimed, seeing her glare harden and finally did he let go of Craig who ran the other way with his friends in tow, leaving the two of them alone, "why didn't you let me hurt them all?!"

"Why would I?" she asked, her arms flailing everywhere, "they aren't worth it, James, not them - not Anthony who you pranked, or the many, many others who have targeted me, I don't care about them or the hurt that they caused me, I can take it-"

"You shouldn't have to!"

"Well they shouldn't hurt me, but they do, and I've still to figure out why but I can handle myself," her voice cracked as she looked up at him, knowing that if she did truly try to handle herself then she wouldn't be the wreck she was, she wouldn't have a throbbing pain in her stomachs, her arm muscles wouldn't be aching from having being restricted from moving, and her belongings wouldn't be crushed on the floor.

"Bumble," James whispered, taking a step forward, but Bea took one back, quickly turning away from him and to the floor where her stuff sprawled around, quickly stuffing everything into her bag, she felt terribly embarrassed that she needed James to come to her aid in order for the bullies to back off, and whilst she was incredibly grateful - and incredibly confused as to why he was so angry - she was also incredibly humiliated.

"I'll see you tonight for studying, James," she whispered, seeing the look on his face, he looked like a lost puppy, wondering why she wasn't over the moon that the bullies wouldn't hurt her again, and so as she tried to walk away, he quickly grabbed her arm.

"Why aren't you relieved, Bumble, that they won't hurt you again?" he frowned, "because I will make sure they won't, I will-"

"So, does Vi, James, Vi makes sure that no one hurts me when she's around, and now you, and soon enough probably everyone that I'm friends with will make a promise to protect me because I'm too weak to protect myself!" she exclaimed, "thank you for helping me, James, but I'm a target whether I like it or not, they come if I'm sad, or happy, or cheery, and I can let myself be miserable over it or I can accept it."

"No, Bea!" he almost shouted, "you can't just accept the fact that people are going to hurt you!"

"Yes, well it's happened all my life so why stop now!" she snapped, roughly yanking her arm from James grip and hurrying away from him.

James didn't exactly know what she meant by that, meant by people hurting her all of her life, but he knew that if he could do anything, it would be to find out.