Belle sauntered up to the castle, a string bag dangling from her fingers. She had spent the morning picking up shells on the beach and she was dressed for the weather in shorts and a singlet, with a light sweater over the top. She was a little warm after the long steep walk from the beach, but she didn't like to take it off. She was still getting used to what certain female relatives would have referred to as her 'attributes'.
Her hair was tangled a damp with sea spray and hung, long, loose and dark over her shoulders, and there was a touch of pink in her cheeks as she walked up the hill back to the castle. She had found some good shells, she thought, already imagining how she was going to make her mum's birthday present. She might need an hour or two in the Potions classroom, but she didn't think anyone would mind.
She was surprised to find, as she came up to the doors, a boy - well, a young man, really - standing there with his trunk and a caged owl as though he'd just got off the Hogwarts Express. Of course, she supposed, he just might have. "Hi!" she said, waving cheerfully. "Are you new?"