-Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling

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Sorry, I know it's been forever since I updated. I will try to do better!

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Correcting Mistakes II: Daisy's Choice

Chapter Two

Annie

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Daisy smiled in anticipation as she stopped at the door of a small blue house in the village of Hogsmeade. Of all the visits she had made in the past week, this was the one she had been looking forward to the most. Inside was the girl who was her best friend, her sister...so close their father had taken to referring to them as twins...even though they technically weren't even blood sisters.

To those who knew them, it was hard to believe that Daisy and Annie had gotten off to a terrible start. A start so terrible in fact that Daisy had left the encounter badly shaken, and Annie, so angry that she had gone back to Australia, where she had lived at the time, so angry that she had fervently hoped she would never see the little blond upstart ever again.

But during the following summer, Daisy and Annie had discovered that they shared something vital in common...both had had parents who had divorced over the past year, and both were in terrible pain over it, though for different reasons.

Annie and her brother Freddy had never known a time when their parents hadn't been fighting constantly. The fights were horrible and always resulted in their father leaving and not coming back until the next day. Still, when they had separated, Annie had felt like she was losing everything that she had known. Right away they had moved far away, their mother had married within months and their father was dating the woman their mother had blamed for their fights.

Daisy had watched while her mother was horribly abused by her birth father, even tortured under the unforgivable Cruciatus curse. Daisy was used as a pawn, more or less kidnapped by him to force her mother to return to where they had lived in Greenstown. Unlike Annie, Daisy was happy when her parents separated. But that didn't end things. Her birth father had only become worse, tormenting her mother and had even attempted to take Daisy...and then, he hurt her one time too many. Luna had finally told the truth and Rolf Scamander had been arrested and sent to Azkaban. More importantly for Daisy, he lost his parental rights and she gained a new identity....Daisy Lovegood.

Annie's father had built a huge house and though Daisy was fairly sure that he would have married her mother on the spot, it was far too soon. Instead, they lived side by side. That first summer was difficult for the girls, they were wary of one another at first, the memory of their first disastrous meeting still ringing in their memories.

It was thanks to James and Freddy that the two became friends. George and Luna had agreed to watch Albus and James while Ginny was in the hospital giving birth to their new sister Lily, and it became quite awkward from the moment the two cousins lay eyes on one another...both were competing for Daisy's affections.

-Flashback-

"Look who's here!" George said, a small grin twitching his mouth. He had been looking forward to this for sometime, knowing how Freddy and James both were besotted with Daisy . He had figured it would be quite entertaining...in a twisted sort of way.

Freddy looked up from the table where he was teaching Daisy to play wizards chess. "Dad...what's HE doing here?"

Daisy looked up, her face spreading into a wide beaming smile. "James!" She shot up from the table and tackled him in a crushing hug.

"Hey Daisy!" James said excitedly "Guess what? I'm staying for three whole days!"

"THREE DAYS?" Freddy yelled "DAD!"

"Yeah Wedge?" George smirked

"He can't stay..." Freddy protested "We don't have room!"

Luna shot George a warning look...a look he ignored. "I know...that's why James and Al are kipping over at Luna's, in the spare room."

James smirked and turned to smirk at Freddy "Sounds good to me."

"You farthead!" Freddy glared back "I'll kick your arse!"

"Freddy..." George warned and Freddy backed away, properly cowed.

James stuck his tongue out as he picked up his bag and followed Luna to the other side of the house. Freddy followed, bellowing out orders to James about where he was and was not allowed to go. Annie looked across the room at Daisy and couldn't resist a small grin.

"Cool" She giggled and set to putting away the chess set "This is going to be fun."

"They won't hurt each other...will they?" Daisy asked nervously

"We can only hope." Annie giggled and caught Daisy's eye. Her smile wiped from her face when she saw how afraid Daisy was. "They won't really hurt each other, will they Daddy."

"Nah." George picked Daisy up and gave her a gentle squeeze "They're boys...tough you know? They might squabble a bit, but, they'll be fine."

"See?" Annie smiled "If Daddy says so, it must be true...cause Daddy never lies. Right Daddy?"

"Right you are." George grinned. Daisy nodded nervously as George set her back on the floor. "Why don't you two go break in that pool?"

"C'mon" Annie took her hand

-End Flashback-

They'd spent the next few days rolling their eyes at James and Freddy's squabbles and the whole four weeks laughing at Freddy's attempts to impress Daisy...which even he would admit these days... were pretty lame. But as the relationship between James and Freddy went south, the relationship between Annie and Daisy grew until when the day came that Annie had to go back to Australia, both girls had wept sadly.

Two years later, when Freddy was ready to start his first year at Hogwarts, Annie and Freddy had moved to Hogsmeade with their mother, step father, and new brother. From that time on, Annie and Daisy spent every weekend together and when the time came for them to attend Hogwarts, though they had been sorted into different houses, Annie to Gryffindor, Daisy to Ravenclaw...they had become closer than ever...a closeness that hadn't abated in the slightest when Daisy had moved to Scotland.

Daisy shook herself as she reached for the bell.

"Daisy!" Angelina Jordan smiled widely and pulled Daisy into a hug. "Annie told me you were back!"

"Angelina! It's so good to see you." Daisy felt warmth spread over her. Angelina Jordan was one of her mothers best friends. It hadn't always been that way...she had once hated Luna bitterly, but time and healing changed that until Angelina was like an aunt to Daisy.

"Come in dear."

Daisy stepped inside as Angelina closed the door behind her. She looked around, but saw no sign of Annie anywhere.

"Oh, she's in the loo." Angelina grinned "The first trimester isn't being very kind to her I'm afraid."

Daisy stifled a laugh. She too had spent the majority of her first trimester with her head buried in the toilet.

"Please, sit. I just made tea."

"I do hope she's not too sick." Daisy said as she took the offered seat at the table. " I could come back..."

"Not at all." Angelina waved her words away "She's been wanting to see you, but, well...to be honest..." Angelina grinned "She's avoiding your father at the moment."

"Ah." Daisy laughed softly "Yes, daddy isn't very happy about her plans...or maybe I should say, lack of plans."

Angelina sighed and sat down across from her. "I admit, I would like to see her do the traditional thing myself. But, I don't blame her for being skittish about the whole marriage thing. Her memories of your father and I are very much in tact." Angelina looked so sad, as if she were carrying the weight of the blame on herself.

"You shouldn't blame yourself Angie." Daisy shook her head

Angelina grinned "You sound like your father."

"Well, it's true. Daddy always says that he was as much to blame as you."

"So tell me." Annie said from the doorway, a sick but happy look on her face. "Did you really come to see me, or did our well meaning daddy send you to talk some sense into me?"

Daisy was up in a flash and she nearly knocked Annie over with the force of her excitement as she hugged her.

"Not so tight." Annie laughed. "Unless you want me to vomit on you."

"Sorry." Daisy grinned as she let her go.

"I made you some medicinal tea dear." Angelina said, getting up and fetching a smaller kettle from the stove."This worked wonders for me when I had your younger brothers and sister."

"What's in it?" Annie looked at the cup suspiciously

"Muggle-grown herbs actually." Angelina said as she sat down again "Pop found them in a shop when he was visiting the US."

"Oh...how is Lee?" Daisy smiled. Annie's stepfather, aka "pop" was Lee Jordan, one of Daisy's favorite people in the world and her fathers best friend and the longtime announcer for the Hogsmeade Hexers.

"He's well. Off on another trip, the Hexers are playing Canada this week, he promised to swing down and get more herbs if these helped."

"If I can keep them down." Annie groused as she hefted the cup and sniffed gingerly. She took a cautious sip, then downed the whole cup. "Wow...that's actually pretty good mum."

"Better?"

"Yes, I think so... " Annie smiled her first true smile since Daisy had arrived "...better tell Pop to bring back more."

Angelina promised she would, and then she looked at her watch and gasped...her youngest children would be wanting lunch...and she dashed out the door.

"You look much better." Daisy observed

"I do feel much better. It's amazing … maybe granddad has it right, messing with all that muggle stuff after all."

Daisy giggled. "Don't let Gran hear you say that. Just yesterday she was chewing him out for leaving his bucket of spark plugs all over the living room."

"I hear you went to see Freddy." Annie said as she went to the fridge for something to eat.

"Yes, I felt so bad...I hadn't even met Sylvia yet."

"Sylvia's great." Annie said as she sliced bread "What she sees in my idiot brother...I'll never know."

"Really Annie." Daisy grinned "Freddy is a wonderful person."

"If he is so wonderful..." Annie said as she sliced onion "Why didn't you marry him?"

"You KNOW why." Daisy said stubbornly

"Yes, I know why." Annie layered the onions thickly on one side of the bread, then to Daisy's horror, began slathering peanut butter on the other.

"ANNIE!" Daisy gasped "You are not going to eat that!"

"Of course not." Annie rolled her eyes "Not without the summer sausage."

Daisy tried not to gag as she watched Annie finish piling thick summer sausage on the peanut butter.

"Anyway..." Annie shook her head and took a large bite. She rolled her eyes in absolute pregnant womans bliss for a moment. "...I get it...you didn't want to make a choice between the idiot git Freddy and incurably sweet, incredibly sexy, James...who is totally off limits to me because I am related by blood, while you...sigh...girl, I don't know what you were thinking."

"Robert was a wonderful person." Daisy said sadly "You just never had a chance to get to know him, we moved away right after we were married."

Annie wasn't about to argue, she loved her sister dearly. But the truth was, she had never liked the man Daisy had married. Oh sure, he was kind in his way, and good looking, and polite...but Robert Hollingsworth III had struck Annie as being very cold and distant towards her sister. He had never taken her hand as they walked together, or put his arm around her and at the small reception the family had thrown after their elopement, Robert hadn't kissed her...not even once.

"Daisy, I know you think the moon rose and set for Robert...but..."

"Annie...please."

Annie looked like she wanted badly to argue, but she backed off. "You have to admit Daise...you blew us all out of the water." Annie said "We all expected you to marry James...I think even Freddy expected you to in the end. You two were ALWAYS together."

It was true. Daisy and James had been inseparable from the moment they had first laid eyes on each other at the age of five. Their shenanigans both at home and school had come to the point that it rivaled the legendary Fred and George Weasley. But under all that was the constant pressure Daisy felt in the ever-simmering rivalry between James and Freddy.

"I couldn't have chosen one without hurting the other." Daisy said with a small shrug "It was better that I chose neither."

"It didn't do any good you know." Annie shook her head "They still act as if they can't stand each other."

"Maybe so, but at least it isn't because of me."

Annie laughed "If you honestly believe that, you are totally delusional."

"Am not." Daisy said defensively.

"Whatever." Annie shrugged as she finished off the last of her sandwich, looking at the counter as if debating a second. "So tell me ...why haven't you gone to see James yet?"

Daisy was brought up short. She didn't know how to answer...even she didn't know why she hadn't gone to see James. She had been back for over a week now, and still...she hadn't been able to bring herself to visit even though she wanted to see him badly. She had been excited about seeing him when her father had first told her that James was back, but every time she thought about seeing him...she became scared. She couldn't help remembering the last time she had seen James, the last time she had made the trip home for Christmas just after RJ was born. James had become furious over a comment Robert had made and the resulting fight between the two had been horrible.

"You're not still mad at him for hitting Robert are you?" Annie looked exasperated. "That was three years ago, and besides, he had it coming."

Daisy paled, thinking of her mother and biological father. "There is never a good reason to hit someone."

"He called you a fat cow Daisy!" Annie's eyes went huge "In front of Gran and everybody...he said he wouldn't touch you again until you stopped resembling the side of a barge!"

"Well...I was fat."

"Yeah, and you'd just had RJ three weeks before." Annie rolled her eyes "Anyway, you shouldn't be mad at James...he was just defending you. Daddy even said he would have hit Robert if he'd heard what he'd said. If you ask me, Robert was damned lucky Daddy, Uncle Harry, Uncle Charlie and Uncle Ron were outside playing with fire."

"Well I expect it of daddy, he's my father. But James..."

"James is just the guy who's been in love with you since you were five years old!"

"Yeah, "Daisy said, her temper rising "But he doesn't respect me."

"Of course he..."

"No, he doesn't." Daisy said angrily "He told me so himself. That day...he said 'I can't respect someone who doesn't respect themselves.'

"I know he said that...but...you were both angry...I'm sure he didn't mean..."

"Yes. He did." Daisy put her face in her hands "You didn't see it...the way he was looking at me when he said it. He looked like he hated me."

And as she spoke it became clear to her...the reason she was unable to see James now.

"What if he still looks at me that way?" Daisy looked up, tears streaming down her face. "I couldn't stand it...I've already lost Robert, what if I go to see James and find out that I've lost him too?"

Annie reached across the table, taking Daisy's hands in hers. "I know it's difficult Daise...but...if you don't go, you'll never know. In the end, you'll have lost him anyway."

Daisy gave Annie's hands a squeeze as she nodded. Annie was right...she had to go see James.

She had to know for sure, one way or another.

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-Chapter Three Preview

Daisy visits James

their visit forces her to see some truths about

her marriage to Robert.

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