Author's Note:
Hello! This is my first Harry Potter fanfic. It primarily involves original characters created by GinnyWeasleyRocks, as seen in her beautiful stories Love and Glory and its sequel Pride and Joy, both of which I find thrilling and incredibly inspiring. If you haven't read them, you should! I'm reusing some of her OC's with permission in my own short tale, which is an amalgamation of characters and themes from both of those stories, but with my own unique twists. Not everything will be explained in this story, like the setting, which is just a "house" for the tale I want to tell.
Disclaimer: Copyright to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 1: The Plot
Daisy Abbott was being led by the hand by a wizard she did not know. She had read about him and seen his picture in the Prophet during the Truthseeker era of course, but that was a distant knowing. This was different. Her soft, gentle hand was held fast in his prison roughened grip, and while she wasn't being roughly tugged along, his grasp brooked no argument about where she was going.
But where was she going, Daisy wondered? He had said only that she must come with him and his girlfriend and that she would be safe and sound. The other witch's name was Butterby? Or perhaps it was Weatherby.
"This way," said the broad-shouldered, dark haired wizard Daisy had tentatively named Cole. Steering her to the right, Daisy was now walking down a corridor lined with shiny suits of armor and was reminded of all her creepy detentions polishing trophies with Mr. Tomgallon. Yet, she thought to herself as they passed suit after suit of proudly erect armor, she would much rather be climbing a ladder polishing only the highest trophy cabinets while that creep watched her then be here with two strange violent Azkaban escapees. Where are they taking me anyway, she wondered?
Taking a flight of steps down a level, Daisy realized they appeared to be traveling a normally quieter way down to the Great Hall. Distant shouts and the bangs of spells echoed through the corridors and rooms of Hogwarts as aurors and staff fought with a group of traitor aurors whos real loyalty Daisy had no knowledge of, other than according to Weatherby she and her boyfriend were on the side of the rebel aurors. But so far, the trio had avoided any overt trace of this fight.
After a couple more minutes of travel, they descended one last set of steps and entered the Great Hall. The house tables and benches all appeared undisturbed, so Daisy concluded that there had been no fighting here either.
Continuing to tug her along, the mysterious Cole or was it actually Bole, Daisy wondered, steered them behind the staff table and into a room she had never seen before. From the stone ceiling hung two iron-wrought chandeliers, graced with flickering candles. The wizard brought her to a rectangular wooden table in the center of the room and motioned for her to sit on the bench before it.
Doing as directed, which was her polite Hufflepuff way of life, Daisy sat on the corner of the bench nearest the door. Perhaps if the opportunity arose, she could bolt like she did as soon as Daphne Greengrass released her that horrible night in the cottage in Hogsmeade. Although she thought, that might make her situation worse this time. These were truly violent people, unlike Tobias' mother, who's attack while very painful and terrifying, hadn't caused any lasting physical damage nor had it been meant to.
"I'll be right back," said Cole, who moved off back towards the door, passing a cupboard in the far left corner of the room as he rounded the table, which Daisy hadn't noticed before.
"And we'll be waiting, Bole," said Weatherby brightly, a wide grin on her face.
Daisy winced. Well, she thought, at least she hadn't actually called him the wrong name to his face, like she had with Meena Kapoor.
"Do you like it here at Hogwarts, Daisy?" Weatherby suddenly turned and gently asked her, as if they were old friends.
Daisy was a bit unnerved by this question, mainly because she hadn't told them her name, but it was a friendly question wasn't it? Oddly, it even seemed as if it was meant to be comforting.
"Yes, I love it here at Hogwarts, not that things have been easy for me," said Daisy in a calm voice, with a hint of pleasure. "I hated the muggle school I used to go to, Ashmole Academy."
Daisy winced internally. She shouldn't have told Weatherby she didn't like Ashmole Academy. After all, the other witch was a violent criminal and who knows what she might be willing to do to the muggle girls there if she knew they had wronged one of her magical brethren. At once though, Daisy realized how silly that thought was. Of course this strange witch wouldn't take it upon herself hurt someone under the premise of helping or avenging Daisy.
"If you don't mind me asking Miss, could-"
"Ottelby," interrupted the other witch.
"Yes, if you don't mind me asking, Ottelby, could you please tell me why you and Bole brought me here?"
"Don't worry your pretty little head, Daisy. Your perfectly safe with us and you'll see why you're here soon enough. And trust me, you won't be disappointed."
Ottelby finished speaking by flashing a slimy smile at Daisy that was so foreign to the innocent Hufflepuff, her white face got paler still. Why did her smile frighten Daisy so?
"I enjoyed my early years at Hogwarts, but by sixth year, I was ready to move on to bigger things. And I did," said the dark witch silkily.
"How interesting," said Daisy levelly.
"It must be very hard for you here, ever since the Scamander scum published that rubbish article in The Quibbler about how you got magic. Like you'd help kill someone to take their magic for yourself."
"Yeah, it has been," mumbled Daisy. "Lu was my friend to. I can't believe she'd give such an awful statement about me, to be spread around all of Wizarding Britain. You can't imagine the amount of hate mail I've gotten. One envelope even contained bubotuber pus - it spurted all over me when I opened it and burned my hands and face. I was in the Hospital Wing for three days recovering, but at least there was no scarring."
Placing her hand on Daisy's back, Ottelby gently said, "It's alright. We know you're not a bad person. And we have something in mind that'll be sure to cheer you up about all this."
"Thank you, Ottelby."
The girls exchanged smiles, but Daisy was uncertain as to what the other witch meant, and was painfully aware that she was a dark witch while she herself wasn't. Maybe it won't be anything to worry about. Perhaps it'll be something fun and innocuous, like a toy for her owl, Beren.
She had gotten his name from one of her many books. He was a great hero of Men who along with his true love, did the impossible against a very different Dark Lord then Voldemort, to win the right to marry from his loves legendary parents, who were leaders of a great realm.
"Do you have any siblings?" asked Daisy, to break the silence that had stolen over the room.
"Yeah, a sister named Iris. She's a Slytherin first year, but I haven't seen her in over a year. Being in Azkaban will do that."
"Were you close with her?"
"Yes and no. She was my little sister, so yes, but the age difference between us being seven years, no, we weren't."
"Hmm, I have two sisters, but we only found out we were sisters a few months ago. Aaaand while Enid Longbottom has warmed to being my sister, I'm afraid I can't say the same for Alice, though she tries to hide it."
"Well, I guess it's better to have a good sister and a disappointing sister then no sisters at all."
"Yeah, I guess so."
At that point, Daisy trailed off into her own thoughts and Ottelby let her be, as she seemed lost in her own thoughts as well.
The two witches continued this way for some minutes, until a sound of scraping shoes and snickering came from somewhere beyond the door leading to the Great Hall. As it drew very near, Daisy Abbott realized there was something else mixed in there to. Was it whimpering?
As if decreed from Heaven, the door opened at once and in marched Bole, who was dragging Lucinda Scamander with him roughly by the arm. Her hands were bound behind her back, but with what Daisy couldn't tell.
Lu's cheeks were wet with tears and there was terror in her hazel eyes. Her school uniform seemed ruffled from whatever confrontation had taken place between herself and Bole, and then the wizard unceremoniously threw the witch across the room. She rolled a few times on the floor, before losing momentum and coming to a stop face down. The floor of the room was quite dirty from disuse, and her clothes were now covered in dust, and her heaving breath caused an updraft of musty dust to coat her face.
Daisy looked on as her old friend coughed and retched from the dust, and saw that Lu's nose had started to run down her face. Pity tugged at Daisy's heart.
Daisy Abbott pretends to be a normal schoolgirl and to be kind to everyone, but that's just a disguise.
"Well, well, well," said Ottelby. "Look what we have here. The wretch who had that fake story about our friend Daisy run in The Quibbler."
She's really a magic stealing murderer.
"Indeed," said Bole. "You're going to regret what you did, Scamander. I told you I was saving the fun for when we got here."
She even wanted to sing at the Requiem Ball in honor of James Potter, despite knowing he was murdered by her own father and had his magic stolen the same way she helped steal someone else's magic before killing them.
"Well, let's finish this shall we. Ready love?"
Squib Daisy Abbott is a sadist with a sick sense of humor and should be locked up at once, not allowed to continue going to Hogwarts using stolen magic.
"Ready, Torrance," said Ottelby silkily, and Daisy looked away from Lu for a moment to see that they then exchanged slimy smiles together.
While watching her old friend cough and retch, Daisy had been replaying Lu's quotes from The Quibbler article the Scamander's had published about Daisy. The pain and loneliness Lu had caused Daisy the past two months had been excruciating. Daisy had felt like an outcast at Ashmole Academy, and now she had most definitely become an outcast at Hogwarts, thanks to that bogus news article.
"Don't worry. Scamander, since Daisy's a nice girl, we won't be torturing you before we do the deed. Remember this, your only about to die because of your own cruelty. If you and your family of oddities hadn't published that rubbish about Daisy, this wouldn't be happening right now."
Daisy watched Lucinda Scamander silently quake in terror, her face still coated in dust and muddy snot continuing to run down her face like wet dirt on a muggle car.
As Bole and Ottelby raised their wands in unison, Daisy Abbott felt herself rise at once from the table and rush in front of Lu, while holding her arms out at her sides protectively.
A surprisingly un-shocked Bole and Ottleby lowered their wands somewhat, so that they were no longer pointed at Daisy, but were not pointed down at their sides either.
"Daisy," began Bole gently, "She deserves this. We know what you did to protect Toby after his mother attacked you, but that was different. He never meant for you to get hurt. She did, and she didn't even have a just reason to be angry with you. You never did anything bad to her. Please move. We're doing this for you, you know?"
"I know that I didn't hurt her myself, but please hear me out," rushed Daisy.
"She and her family couldn't possibly have come up with that story on their own. There was too much truth mixed with the lies. How could they have ever figured out all on their own that Anthea Moribund gave me a card with her name and address in Knockturn Alley, and that I traveled there one night to accept magic."
"Then the lies started, that I helped steal another wizard or witches magic like what happened with James Potter, and then helped kill them to hide what I had done. The truth picked back up again that I have a white half-moon scar on my right palm that was part of getting magic, just like Potter had on his body. They couldn't have come up with this story on their own and Lu wouldn't have wanted to. We were friends."
"Someone else had to have told the Scamander's that vilified story knowing after what happened to their son and brother, in their pain they would publish it with little thought, and isn't that the real person who hurt me? Someone took advantage of the Scamanders' pain, and as hard as it is to accept, Lu is a victim in this to. I'm very grateful you wanted to help me, but hurting Lu Scamander will not make me feel better or undo the damage that has been done to me. Please let her go. Without any further harm."
A stunned Bole and Ottelby turned and exchanged a significant look, before turning back to Daisy and lowering their wands all the way.
The dark witch and wizard stared back in silence at the blonde magical squib, before Ottelby finely spoke.
"So be it," she said gravely.
Lowering her arms and sighing in relief, Daisy Abbott turned around and gently took hold of a no longer cowering Lu's arms and pulled her to her feet.
A/N: Hope any who read this enjoy! Thanks again Miss. GinnyWeasleyRocks for sharing these characters with me. I hope you enjoy this tale! Life has gotten a bit hectic of late, so I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out, and I also don't think it will read correctly until after chapter 9 of P&J is published. While reading this chapter and each of however many that follow, the song "Stand By You" by Rachel Platten is worth listening to, as it helped inspire this story. R&R.