It's now 7am and not one member of my family is awake. I'm by nature, an early rise, only one of the many traits that label me as the black sheep of the family.

Summoning the Prophet I quietly sipped coffee taking advantage of the quiet while I could. In about 10 minutes the house will turn to chaos as my 3 older brothers scramble to pack for the train that leaves at 8:30 sharp.

"Hey kiddo." I looked up to see my father, hair every which way and wearing his Puddlemere pajamas. I slid a mug over to him and put down the prophet, nothing interesting today just some bank issues at Grignotts.

"We need to be ready in an hour. Should I go and wake them up?" I took a long sip of my coffee, patiently waiting for my father to realize that today we go back to Hogwarts.

My father hasn't always been the most responsible of parents. My mother died when I was 10 in a potions accident. After that my father was a mess. It took a while for him to pull himself together so I took the role of parent. He's much better now, but I still am the only one in the house who has an ounce of sense. Bloody nutters the lot of them.

"Merlin! We're going to be late!"

I sighed. It's the same every year. But unlike my father and brothers I've learned my lesson and I DON'T make the same mistake twice.

"I packed Jordan's trunk last night after he went to bed. Jake packed his already after I harassed him last night. I didn't dare go into Jesse's room, but I reckon I should wake him up now and make sure he's ready to go."

My father sighed in relief. "What would I do without you Dell?"

I ignored his question and straightened out my uniform. It's going to be a long morning.

"Jordan where are my gloves. I said you can borrow them not have them, practice starts—"

"I didn't take them! I gave them back to you!"

"He's lying Jake! Remember when he tried to hide your broom—"

"Enough!" Time to play peacemaker.

"Jake, you left your gloves in the bathroom yesterday so I took the liberty of packing them for you. Jesse, stop starting trouble, the broom incident was an accident. And Jordan…can you please act your age?"

"Aww lighten up Dellie." I rolled my eyes to Jake's nickname. Immature idiot.

Passing through the barrier, the five of us were met with the hustle and bustle of Platform 9 3/4. I placed my book in my bag and braced my self for the calamity that was sure to come.

My brothers are…very popular. All three of them are seventh years. My poor mum had Jordan first he's the oldest and was pregnant again almost immediately after his birth with the twins, Jake and Jesse. I came a year later as the youngest.

"I can't believe this is my boys' last year! Give em' hell, but try not to get into too much trouble alright?" My father, ever the supporter of my brothers' shenanigans.

"Yes sir!" Shouted Jesse and Jack simultaneously high-fiving each other and doing some weird handshake made up by their idiot group of friends.

"An try to look out for your sister." I scoff at the idea. My relationship with my brothers is not like most. You would think having 3 older brothers would mean being overprotected and sheltered, but no. Not my brothers.

If anything, they try to enlist my help in their ridiculous schemes. Of course I've never complied. I always did wonder how they managed to pull of some of the more complicated magic in their pranks but never bothered to ask. Perhaps Potter's cousin Rose Weasley helped, she's second in our class.

"Wood!" All four of us turned to the source of the voice. James Potter.

"Hahaha. Works every time! Hey Mr. Wood."

"James, nice to see you. How was the rest of your summer?"

"Nice. The usual you know, did a bit of traveling with the rents, Quidditch—"

And this is where I tune out. I give a quick kiss to my father's cheek and make my way to the train in search of an empty compartment. I spelled a quick locking charm, wandless magic of course seeing as I'm not of age yet, and unpacked my book. Sigh. Just two more years and I'll be free.

Jordan POV

"Where did your sister go? She didn't even say bye." It's the same every year and he just doesn't learn. Adella was never one for long mushy goodbyes or really anything emotional at all.

But as far as little sisters go, Dell is the best. Poor James, always chasing down the blokes after Lily. A tease that one is. Or hexing the gits that break up with Rosie and Dom. Dell mostly keeps to herself. I try my best to get her to come out of her shell a bit but it never works.

It's actually a bit strange. Dell isn't what I would consider shy, she's just…socially inept. Inept. The word makes me laugh. Ever summer Dell makes sure to educate us and give us a word of the day. She says we "talk like uneducated buffoons" and claims that a better vocabulary would make conversation between everyone easier, even Dad got roped into it. Last Friday's word was "inept", she'd be proud I remembered it. But I'll admit, now I can actually understand half the shit that comes out of her mouth.

Dell's wicked smart. Like genius smart. She's the only one in the family in Ravenclaw, even mum was a Gryffindor. She's also top of her class. Drives Jame's cousin Rose crazy. Rose is a bit of a pushover really. James says she made prefect. Just last week over at the Potter's Rose tried to ask, subtly, if Adella got prefect. I just laughed in her face and asked her who in their right mind would make Della prefect!

I don't like they way Rose talks about Dell. My sister is far too isolated to know that people envy her intelligence and looks. I gotta look after her sometimes.

Dell takes care of us. Ever since Mom died Dell has been taking care of the four of us. As the oldest I feel a bit guilty. I fell apart when Mum died, a true Gryffindor I wear my heart on my sleeve. But Dell, I didn't see her shed a tear not once.

I've never seen Dell cry. As far as I can remember I've never seen Dell shed a tear. A couple months after Mum's death I asked her why. There we all were, my father, brothers, wallowing with puffy eyes and broken hearts. Dell made us food, kept us busy, she took care of us all.

Flashback

"Dell, aren't you sad that Mum died? I haven't even seen you cry."

Little 11 year old Dell stopped pouring the tea and looked up at me with her big blue eyes, mum's eyes. I could barely look into the without tearing up. My brothers and I look just like Dad, but Dell, she was all mum.

Dell looked me straight in the eyes and took a deep breath. Looking far too composed to be 10 years old. She sent a small smile my way.

"If you're going to ask me why I don't cry, then I'm going to ask you why you do. People die Jordan. They die all the time. And maybe Mum is not here physically anymore, but I still feel her and I have her in my memories."

As she said this she clutched the bracelet on her wrist, the one mum gave her when she was seven when they went on their excursion to some wild Forrest in Asia looking for rare herbs. Dell was just like mum, hated Quidditch and loved to learn. They went on little trips all over the world all the time while dad took us to Quidditch games.

"I did cry you know. I have feelings too. It's just…" she looked away a small frown on her face.

"I have better control of my feelings than you. My mind is different than yours. I can't explain why I don't cry. I am sad I suppose, but everyone dies. It's a fact of life Jordan. Many people will die in my lifetime, assuming that I live to be old."

"But is was MUM Dell, she was so young. It wasn't her time yet."

She gave me a sad smile, "And who decides when its time for someone to die Jordan? People just die, and its better to focus on the time they were in your life rather than how they won't be in the future."

"I just miss Mum." I started to cry again while Dell just sat there and held my hand.

Suddenly Dell flashed me this wide smile, a rare sight lately.

"Remember when she argued with Hermione Granger about House elf rights?"

I thought back on the memory fondly. Mum should have been a lawyer not a potions master. She publically out-argued Hermione Weasley, the brightest witch of her age, on house-elf rights. Ron Weasley had to pull take his wife's wand to stop her from hexing mum.

I chuckled thinking of the memories fondly. We spent all night remembering our fondest times with mum and after that, I was okay again.

"Hey Jordan! Remember when Dell told that waitress at the leaky that she was a daft bint for and I quote "initiating intercourse with a man whose children are closer to her age than he is!" I returned to the conversation at hand recalling that particular memory. Dell is good entertainment.

"Your sister is a bit of a spitfire isn't she."

I turned quickly to glare at James and clenched my fists tightly to reign in my anger. I wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing.

"Don't fucking talk about my sister Potter. I don't talk about yours." I tried to play it off like I was joking but James knows me too well.

"Relax mate, I didn't mean anything by it!" Dell has been a sore subject with James as of late.

James, Jesse, Jake, and I are all in Gryffindor and are best friends. We've all known each other since we were six and we make up over half of the Quidditch Gryffindor team.

But the twins are really close and spend most of their time together so it left me and James together a lot of the time. He's my best mate. I can tell James anything. Merlin I sound like a girl. But James knows pretty much everything about me. But there's one thing James has never understood, and that's my relationship with Dell.

No matter how many times James has been over to my house I think I can count on two hands the number of times Dell has said anything to James. And to James, well he tries to reign in his curiosity.

I started to notice around 5th year that James developed an unnatural curiosity for everything Adella related. Around her 4th year, Dell started coming into her looks a bit more. I wasn't blind to the looks she was getting. With long amber hair, big blue eyes, and a slender figure Dell was starting to attract some attention. Luckily she's awkward as hell and that alone repelled all the hormonal males.

But with James it was less attraction and more curiosity. One day at lunch I caught James staring at Dell as she walked into the Great Hall. And well…it worried me. If there was one thing James loved it was a challenge. And Dell was the perfect challenge.

After a week of observation I finally confronted James. He told me he was only curious and nothing more. But since then, Dell has become a sensitive topic. I know from my brothers that James occasionally asks about her but he's done nothing wrong so far. Maybe I'm reading into things. But James isn't for Dell.

I love James like I do my own brothers but, he's got…issues. James has got a lot of anger and a lot of …we'll call them identity issues. Even worse, he goes through girls like boxers, a new set ever day. But that's just James, always searching for the next challenge until he gets bored.

As long as I've known him I can't say that I understand James, he's an enigma of sorts and unlike everyone else I know better than to assume him stupid. If James is good at one thing it's getting what he wants. And this time what he wants is something I'd die for. He better stay away from Dell.

Oliver Wood POV

Most fathers would be happy that their daughters aren't overly emotional. I mean, Harry tells me about how horrible it is now that Lily has taken an interest in boys. And Dean, who has three daughters visits me about once a month when all four women in his house are PMSing at the same time.

They all envy me. Dell is easy. Never takes hours shopping. Never does the whole "does his make me look fat?" thing that other girls do. Never gets overly emotional, even when she..uh…has her monthly visitor.

I've heard it countless times, I know I got lucky with Adella. But sometimes I worry for her. I'll be the first to admit that I haven't been the best father. After Lydia died I fell apart and left it to my 10-year-old daughter to pick up the pieces. I'll never forgive myself that, but in all honesty Dell has always been like that.

Dell, when she was growing up, often left Lydia and I at a loss of what to do. Most children start speaking when they're about a year old but mostly words like "mama" and "dada". But Dell didn't speak, not at all until she was four years old.

And Dell's first words weren't "Dada" or "Mama" like the boys'. No. Dell's first words were "Mommy, Daddy, why do muggles not have magic?"

Flashback

Lydia dropped her mug of tea while I just sat there my mouth hanging open surely looking like an idiot. We had been to countless healers they threw out words like "psychological blocking", "slow development", "post-traumatic distress", and all this other crap. We were worried about her lack of speech.

Lydia knelt down to Adella's height and stared in her eyes until she finally asked, "Sweetheart, why have you never talked before?"

Dell pulled on her mother's hair affectionately and what she said shocked me.

"I never had anything to say mum." I smiled at my daughter's voice.

"Well, she's definitely your daughter." I said to my wife.

"Of course she is. I carried her for 9 months how could she not be?" My wife looked at me like I was crazy. She never did know how to respond to such jokes. Like mother like daughter I suppose.

I was torn back to reality by the sound of Jesse's voice. "You know how Dell is Dad. Probably trying to find a compartment to lock herself in."

At Jesse's words I saw James Potter turn his attention to the conversation. For whatever reason, James Potter has found himself enamored with my little girl. And to be honest I'm not quite sure how to handle it.

About a month ago I caught him spying on her as she read at the table. I gave him a knowing looked as he looked away guiltily. A part of me wants him to go for it; I think a little male attention other than her brothers' would do her good. But the other part of me knows this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Harry tells me all about his son's exploits. James Sirius Potter II definitely lives up to his namesake. While most of what he does is just harmless fun, James has got himself quite the reputation with the ladies. Dean's daughter Shirley dated James for a week and came crying to her father the next. Dean took it well.

And me. If James Potter made my girl cry, son of the savior of the wizarding world or not, he's dead.

I returned my attentions to the twins. "If you get her into detention I'll give you each 100 galleons. Merlin knows she need to live a little." I was only half-way joking. It's not that Dell always follows the rules, only that she couldn't be bothered enough to break them. An introvert at heart.

Introvert; to direct partly to things within the self. Last Thursday's word of the day, courtesy of Adella.

"She lives plenty Dad. Vicious little thing sometimes. One word Dad, 'Leaky Cauldron'". Jake sent a devilish smile my way. I sigh. Definitely my son.

"That's two words. Merlin, Dell is right you are an idiot." Jake punched his brother playfully in response to the jab.

"Hey Jordan! Remember when Dell told that waitress at the leaky that she was a daft bint —

Sigh. I love my kids.