A/N: I'm really really really really horribly sorry about a) the delay in updating and b) the lack of both quality and quanitity in this chapter. I typed it up at work, and am about to flash edit. Thank you for reading, following, reviewing. Please continue to give feedbak. I promise to put more time and effort into the next chapter. I honestly just needed to update it. It's been several months. Thank you so much! Love, Becca.

Try not to misunderstand; I love my mother. We were once very close, but after my dad passed away, she made herself very busy. She got two new jobs in addition to her position as a receptionist, and she took on quite a bit of volunteer work. I didn't mind, really. After all, it hadn't been that long. My father passed away halfway through my sixth year. I was lucky, at least, that I hadn't entirely lost her to depression or something like that. She just needed some space. It was probably good for me, too.

But she had taken the afternoon off to celebrate my birthday. We didn't have anything special planned. We were going to eat leftover turkey sandwhiches and have cake and play Scrabble, although she always beat me by at least 100 points.

She arrived at the house around 2:00 in the afternoon, her arms were loaded down with a cake from the grocery store, candles, and matches. My mum is a pretty, thin woman with tired eyes, a gentle smile, and long, pin straight blonde hair. Unfortunately, I inherited both my dad's angular jaw and dark, unmanagable curls. "Happy birthday, Daisy!" she breathed. Clearly, the cake had been more than she could handle. I took it from her hands and carried it the rest of the way into the kitchen. "I got chocolate with strawberry filling this time. Vanilla icing, like always."

I flashed her a noncomittal smile. "Sounds great. Say, Mum. I got a letter from James today. You know James. Messy hair, incredibly full of himself."

My mother paused in removing the plastic top on the cake to consider it. "The one with the nice smile?"

James, if nothing else, knew how to charm a woman with his smile. It had caught even me off guard on occasion. "Right. Exactly."

She smiled a strange sort of smile. "Yes. He and his mother have been over before." The Potters had been quite fond of my dad. They would visit quite often when he was still around to entertain. My dad lived for entertaining other people. "Lovely people. What did the letter say?"

"Well," I said, chewing my lip, quite unsure of how to pose the question. I didn't want to hurt my mother, just in case she had suddenly come round and wanted to be my best friend again, by asking to leave on my birthday, but I also really really wanted to see James's home. Not to mention the prospect of seeing all of my closest friends. "His mother is coming by today. To pick me up. I mean, if that's alright with you," I supttered. Really, I'm no good at asking for things. I'm shit at it; awkward as all hell. "He's having a sort of get together at his house for a few days. It would just be through the weekend."

For a moment, I thought that I had lost her. My mum had this almost startled, but distant look in her eyes. But then something in her clicked, and she laughed. "Of course you can go, Daisy. You shouldn't be so nervous to ask."

I must admit. I was pretty blatanlty ecstatic and anxious while we waited for Mrs. Potter. My excitement didn't seem to bother my mum, but I tried my best to hide it anyway. We were on our second game of scrabble and third pieces of cake when there was a loud knock at the door. I had it open within seconds, I swear.

Lucille Potter was a graceful woman. She was tall and slender, and her hair and make-up were always perfectly in order whenever she came to the house. I wasn't entirely sure if things were the same when she wasn't around muggles, but I suppose it didn't matter. She wasn't drop dead gorgeous or anything, but there was a certain air about her that made her alluring. She flashed me a smile and I was reminded, once again, that James's charm was passed down to him rather than naturally acquired. "Daisy Miller!" she explained. "A fully grown witch! It's nice to see you, Love. Happy birthday." She produced, from within the pocket of the heavy black coat that she wore, a small silver box.

"Um, thank you. Come in. We have cake, if you'd like some."

She handed me the box, then swept past me into the kitchen to kiss my mother on the cheek, declaring, "It's so nice to see you again, Camilla. How have you been?" Their voices faded to background noise as I concentrated on the box. My heart swelled with love for Mrs. Potter. It was incredibly nice of her to even remember my birthday, much less get me a gift. I took the top off of the box with nervous hands. Inside was a necklace; a dark blue stone with spots of light that made it resemble the night sky set in a golden pendant, on a long gold chain. I guessed that the stone was opal. The pendant seemed to tingle in my hand, and I thought back to something in James's letter...No, he wouldn't have had anything to do with this.

I don't know how long I sat staring at the necklace before Mrs. Potter was behind me, clasping it around my neck. She turned me around to face her with a soft, motherly smile. She almost looked apologetic. "It's very old, and charmed to protect you from mild physical injury. James mentioned that you're quite reckless." I heard my mom giggle.

"Thank you," I said, quitely, still in awe. I knew it was almost a joke, but it still meant a lot. It was a gorgeous necklace. I tucked it inside of my shirt and hugged Mrs. Potter. I almost cried, but I somehow managed to keep it together.

My mum and Mrs. Potter talked for about an hour and a half. We said goodbyes, and departed via side-along apparition.

It was several moments, once we landed, before I could understand what I was seeing. Everything, I men everything, in the Potters' living room was white. And all of it sparkled. At least, I suppose it was a living room. I'm not entirely sure.

"James! Daisy is here!" There was the noise of two pairs of footsteps bounding down stairs to my right, and then, from a door concealed in the wall, emerged James and Sirius, both grinning wildly.

"Diz! You made it! I thought your mum might have said no," James said, hugging me ferociously. "I was so worried," he sobbed dramatically, pretending to cry. I tried to shove him off of me, to no avail.

"That was a nice letter of yours," Sirius told me. He seemed a bit off-kilter, with his hands shoved deep inside his pockets. There was something dark behind the pleasantness in his eyes. I wondered if he and Cass were doing alright. "I particularly enjoyed the name-calling and the obvious allusion to your virginity."

I was about to reply, when James seemed to realize something and pushed me out at arm's length with an abrupt force that would have knocked me over had he not been holding on to my shoulders. "You aren't wearing it. Why aren't you wearing it? Didn't she give it to you?"

"What? What aren't I wearing?"

"The necklace!" Oh. Of course. "How incredibly ungrateful. My mother-"

"James," I interrupted. "I am wearing it. It's under my shirt for safe-keeping. For fuck's sake, let go of me, you bloody ape." He did, this time smiling with relief.

"One may wonder," Sirius observed, "why Dizzy's favorite insults always involve animals. And here I thought she was very clever indeed."

I ignored him. "Is Cass here, yet? Has she told you at all when she might be expected to swoop in?" Cass is very melodramatic. She also has no respect for time whatsoever. She comes and goes as she pleases. No one's ever really thought to question why she feels entitled to do so. It's just accepted.

"She arrived a few hours ago, actually. But we haven't actually seen her since then," James said, as though it had only just occurred to him that a young and often troublesome witch was wandering about his home."We should go and find her. She did say that she wanted to see you quite badly."

So off we went to find Cass. Honestly, I think that the vast majority of our time is spent looking for her. We only ever get in trouble because we happen to find it on the way. That's my theory, anyway. Everything is Cass's fault.

"I can't believe you have a greenhouse," I grumbled, poking my head inside to see if Cass had decided to spend time with some magical plants. "Honestly, James. I thought your parents were never home. Who could possibly make use of any of this?"

"We've got elves. I'm sure they make use of it when no one is home," he answered cheerfully.

"Right. And is that before or after they finish polishing your family's ridiculous collection of naked statues?" Sirius inquired, opening and shutting a door in the corridor we were traveling in. I have faith that James knows his house better than I do, but I honestly think that we've been down the same hall at least a dozen times.

James shrugged. "Dunno. I suppose the first thing they do, since you've moved in, is brush your mangy coat for you."

"Oi," Sirius exclaimed, defensive, "you have no clue how good that feels. Besides, I think some of them honestly think you've adopted a dog."

"Have you idiots lost your fucking minds?" Ah. There's Cass. We all turned to face her. She was dressed in a purple sun dress, but seemed to have lost her shoes. Her white ringlets hung looseley around hair, all the way down to her waist. "I've been looking everywhere for you." Cass was often confused on the fact of who had lost whom. She had the strange notion that we had the habit of ditching her whenever she got distracted. "Oh! Dizzy!" She suddenly broke into a smile and pulled me into her chest for a hug. Cass was taller than me, even without shoes. So tall, in fact, that my cheek was squished against her small but perky boob. She didn't seem to care. "I've missed you so incredibly much," she wailed. "I hate the summers. I never get to see any of my friends." She pulled away from me and pouted, bu tthen her mood seemed to switch from anguish to cheerful in a nanosecond. "How are your sisters?"

"Well, Dana is about to begin her last year at university, and Delilah just moved to America last month for some acting job in New York." My sisters were older, beautiful, and incredibly succesful in the muggle world. We weren't particularly close.

"Enough boring girl talk," Sirius whined. "I'm bored. Let's play Truth or Dare! James and I have been talking about it all day, honestly. Lead the way back to your room, Mate."

"Christ, Sirius. You're a vagina. Truth or Dare is for children and drunk teenage girls," I snapped.

"No, no!" he insisted. "It'll be fun." He sent me a slow, deliberate wink. "You've never played with the marauders before. It's bound to get wild. Especially without Mummy Remus around to spoil the fun." Remus wasn't exactly a spoil sport. At least, he didn't often actively debate against any of our plans. He simply refused to participate which, as far as James and Sirius were concerned, was exctly the same thing. They often referred to them as their mum. He found it annoying and immature, but they did it anyway. I agreed with his sentiment, but only in private.

James gleefully showed us back to his room which, despite everything I had imagined, was very normal. It was a normal size, with normal teenaged boy furnishings. Nothing was very fancy, except for his broom and the accompanying kit that sat on a window sill. It was on the ground floor, and there was a single glass door leading out to the lake. It was also incredibly messy. I guessed that he either refused any of the elves that tried to clean it, or his mother was trying to get him to do it himself.

James flopped onto his bed, Sirius and Cass found a small section of the floor to sit on together, and I hopped up onto his desk, swinging my legs back and forth.

"Alright. Who's first?"