Happy New Year everyone! Sorry for the later update, I've had a busy time lately! Well, without further ado, on with the show- and before I forget AGAIN, here is the disclaimer: In no way do I own any recognisable thing or character in my story. I am just a bored almost 19 year old girl with a lot of time and imagination on my mind, and this is my way to vent it. I make no profit on this story and no matter how much I wish it, Fred and George do not belong to me. However, Daria and Abigail DO belong to me and if anyone tries to borrow them without permission I will hunt them down ;).
Anyway, enough of that- please read and more importantly, enjoy!!!!
The months passed quickly, and Daria soon found that she had a talent for magic that she never would have believed. She soon began to excel in her subjects, often leaving her at the mercy of Fred and George's teasing. She saw her first quidditch match, and immediately couldn't wait to try it for herself. Her first flying lesson went well, again showing that she had natural talent. By the end of the lesson, she found herself confidently chasing Fred and doing a spin over him to grab the hat he was wearing. Though she had been scolded for doing so, madam Hooch had also hinted that she had the skill to try out for the team the following year.
Before she knew it, a form was posted up on the Gryffindor notice board for people to sign if they didn't want to go home for Christmas. Daria looked at the list one morning and noticed with surprise that Fred, George, Charlie and Percy's names were all written down. She kept it in her mind as she headed down to breakfast. As she entered the great hall, she immediately spotted Fred and George, but there were no empty seats next to them. In fact, the closest seat she could get to them just happened to be next to Percy, so with a slight sigh of defeat, she moved over to the annoying boy and sat down next to him.
"Morning Percy."
Percy looked at her for a moment in mild surprise, then saw that Fred and George were a few seats down the table and realised she was only there because it was the nearest seat to them.
"Good morning Daria"
George heard Daria's name and quickly looked up, sending her a grin and a wave as he caught sight of her. Fred too saw her and when he saw who she was sitting with, he burst out laughing. Daria gave him a look that told him he would be paying for that later, and he gulped knowing full well that she actually would do something. Ignoring the twins now, she turned to her plate and began to place food on it. She had a few mouthfuls then turned to Percy again.
"Hey Percy? I saw that you guys have your names up to stay here for Christmas. How come?"
"Mother and Father have decided that this year they would like to take my two youngest siblings to Scotland as they've rarely been able to have any special time alone with them, especially with the twins to look after."
Daria frowned, not liking the way he spoke about the twins, but she decided against saying anything about it and turned back to her food. A few minutes later, Percy left the room, and within seconds of him leaving, the seat next to her was now occupied and she looked up to see Fred grinning at her. She groaned and continued eating.
"Wow, you don't seem happy to see me."
"Making fun of the fact that I was sitting next to Percy is bound to make me not like you right now" She bluntly stated.
Fred looked at her, not sure of what he should do, and he eventually moved to stand up and leave, but she grabbed his arm and pulled him down again.
"Just don't do it again, or I WILL punish you, got it?" She warned.
Fred gave her a mock salute.
"Got it ma'am"
Daria rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything, the post arrived and a small owl landed in front of her carrying a letter with her mum's handwriting on the envelope. She quickly took the letter and gave the owl some scraps of bacon, then quickly opened the letter with a large smile on her face. As she read it though, her smile slowly dropped, and by the end, she felt tears in her eyes.
"What's wrong?" Fred asked.
"It's my Gran. She lives in America and is very ill, so my parents are going to spend Christmas with her. The only problem is that they can't afford to take me as well, but they don't want me to be alone..."
Fred cut her off.
"Well, stay here with us! Then you won't be alone!"
"I agree. You need friends around you, and that's definitely us!" George added as he joined them.
Daria smiled warmly and pulled the pair of them into a hug. They all started laughing and she put the letter in her bag before linking arms with them both and heading off to their charms lesson. As soon as she had the chance, she ran up to her dorm and quickly wrote a letter to her mum to let her know that she would be staying at Hogwarts for Christmas. She also asked her mum to buy her presents for her friends, as she knew she wouldn't have chance to get out and buy them for herself. Just as she finished her letter, Angelina came up into the room with a large excited smile on her face.
"What's up?" Daria asked.
"I've been told by Madame Hooch that I'm good enough to try out for quidditch in our second year!" she squealed excitedly.
Daria stood and gave her friend a hug, feeling just as excited. She too had been told by Madame Hooch that she was talented, and so had Katie Bell, who was Angelina's other best friend. The door opened once again and Abigail walked in. She ignored the other two girls, quickly putting her bag down and leaving the room again. Daria wasn't very fond of her, but only because she seemed very rude. Angelina was her best female friend by far, and Katie was a good friend, but Daria wasn't overly happy about Katie's habit of gossiping. Alicia was also relatively quiet, but she still liked to join in when Angelina and Daria were having a laugh about something. Daria told Angelina that she had to go and post her letter, and soon she found herself heading up to the owlery. On her way, she bumped into someone and quickly apologised. She looked up to see Oliver Wood smiling at her. She only knew who he was because he was the keeper on their house quidditch team. The only other thing she knew about him was that he was in his third year with Percy, and already everyone knew that when the current captain, Kyle Brody left, Oliver was the number one choice to take his place.
"It's ok, you just need to look where you're going" Oliver joked, accepting her apology.
She chuckled slightly and he offered to walk with her up to the owlery. She agreed and soon they were walking along, and Oliver was teaching her everything she needed to know about quidditch. Once they reached the owlery, he grasped her hand and gently kissed the back of it. She blushed slightly and as she stepped backwards, she tripped and ended up sitting on the floor, blushing even further with embarrassment. Oliver didn't laugh though.
"Oh, are you ok? Here, let me help you."
He helped her up and once he was sure she was ok, they separated. Daria quickly moved over to a small barn owl and attached her letter to its leg. It stretched its wings and flew off into the sky, eventually becoming a tiny speck. She watched it go, a small smile on her face. A loud bell rang through the school, and she quickly ran back down to the dungeons for her potions lesson, with none other than the Slytherins. She barely made it in time and dropped into her usual seat next to Lee, who gave her a thumbs up at her timing. She grinned back and pulled her parchment, quill and book out just in time for Snape to walk into the room, who immediately took five points from Gryffindor because Fred was smiling too much.
Christmas came quickly. Before anyone knew it, it was the last day before students went home. Lessons finished early and parties broke out in all of the house common rooms. All of the girls in Daria's dorm were heading home. In fact, she was actually the only female in the whole house that was staying behind that year. The only males staying were the Weasleys and Oliver, and as far as she knew, the rest of the houses also only had a handful of people staying too. When she asked Oliver if it was like that every year, he nodded.
"Yeah. It's quite rare to have more than about thirty students stay each year. During Easter holidays though there's usually more people, mainly fifth and seventh years studying for their O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S. They're the exams needed to graduate from here."
"Oh, similar to GCSEs and A-Levels in the muggle world?"
"Yeah, it is." Oliver said, not actually knowing at all.
Daria giggled, knowing that he had no idea what they were, before she moved up to her room to go and collect the present she bought for Lee. While she was up there, she saw Abigail packing her suitcase.
"Hi Abigail."
Abigail looked up in surprise and gave her a quick nod of acknowledgement before returning to her packing. Daria shrugged and pulled out a small packet for her roommate.
"It's not much but I got you a small present. Happy Christmas"
Abigail looked shocked for a moment, but quickly composed herself and took the present, smiling her thanks. As Daria was about to shut the door, she spoke.
"Thank you. And, I prefer to be called Abi."
Daria smiled and continued shutting the door. She found Lee sitting by the fire in a chair next to the twins. She dropped his present in his lap and he quickly opened it, grinning when he saw that she had bought him a muggle whoopee cushion, and one whoopee cushion that she had charmed so that it made animal noises when someone sat on it. He jumped up and hugged her, making her giggle and squirm out of his arms. His present for her were a pair of ear muffs that played music. Later that night, she gave the rest of her dorm mates their presents and they all hugged and squealed together as they were opened. She too received presents from each of them. Alicia bought her an enchanted hairpiece that kept the wearer's hair sleek and glossy, Angelina bought her a scarf that adjusted its thickness depending on how cold the wearer was, and Katie bought her a small ring that changed colour depending on the mood of the user, but unlike muggle mood rings, this one was exactly accurate. She hugged all the girls and thanked them all, before they then all headed to bed.
Two days later, it was Christmas Eve, and Daria found herself unable to sleep. This was her very first Christmas away from home, and being completely alone in her dorm left her feeling extremely lonely and homesick. Eventually she couldn't take anymore, and she pulled her jumper on before heading up to Fred and George's dorm. As she knocked on the door, she heard more voices than theirs speaking, and she was surprised to see Charlie opening the door. He too seemed surprised to see her as his eyes widened in shock.
"Daria? What's wrong?"
She swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to blink back her tears.
"I'm just a bit homesick and don't want to be alone" she said.
Charlie suddenly found himself being nudged out of the way, and the twins each grasped one of her arms, pulling her into their dorm and seating her on one of the beds. She smiled her thanks and they both grinned back before handing her a bottle of butterbeer and returning back to their game of exploding snap. She looked around the room and noticed that Oliver and Percy were also there, Oliver looking out of the window, Percy reading a book.
"You seem to have set up a small base here."
"Yeah, we decided to borrow the other beds and the floor and camp here." Charlie grinned.
Oliver looked up at that point and waved a greeting to her. She waved back before watching the twins, who then offered to show her how to play. She nodded and within the hour, she had beaten them seventeen times, much to their horror. Eventually they all decided to turn in for the night and she reluctantly stood to go back to her room, only to have Charlie stop her.
"Hey, you can have Lee's bed. Don't worry about McGonagall; she never comes up here at Christmas."
Daria thanked him and quickly ran back to her room to gather the presents she bought them all. When she returned, Oliver, Fred and Percy were already asleep, Charlie looked ready to sleep at any moment, but George was wide awake, waiting for her. She nodded to him and placed everyone's presents on their beds, surprised when they vanished.
"They'll reappear in the morning, along with the other presents you'll get." Charlie sleepily said.
"Oh, cool."
She lay down with a smile on her face. Maybe her first Christmas away from her parents wouldn't be as bad as she once thought.
The following morning, something bouncing on her bed woke her up. She peered her eyes open to see Fred's face less than an inch away from her own. She yelled and sat up quickly, her head colliding with his. Everyone else sat up and looked over at them, seeing Daria clutching her forehead and Fred clutching his nose that had started bleeding. Charlie rolled his eyes and quickly fixed his brother's nose, before turning to the pile of presents at the bottom of his bed and beginning to open them. Fred returned to his own bed and also began to open his presents. Daria's eyes widened as she saw the pile on her own bed. She received a book on quidditch, outlining all the rules and naming all the main teams and legendary players from Charlie. Percy bought her a large box of every flavour beans and the twins bought her a pack of her own exploding snap cards, as well as a wizarding chess set that had been personalised with her name. She hugged them and thanked them all. Molly sent her a pale blue hat and scarf set, knowing that was her favourite colour, as well as a box of homemade fudge. Even Oliver bought her something, a set of miniature brooms that were made to show the differences in each make. Finally she began to open her presents from her parents. She received a new pair of jeans, and new pair of boots and another new journal.
Once everyone had opened their presents they realised it was time to get dressed and head down to lunch. Just as she was leaving the room, there was a tapping noise on the window, and everyone turned to see a beautiful barn owl there. Percy opened the window and it swooped onto Daria's shoulder, dropping a letter into her hands before softly nibbling her ear affectionately. Daria opened the letter and almost squealed in happiness.
Daria,
Your father and I know that you currently use the school's owls to send letters, so we decided to buy you this owl for your main present. We know you love barn owls so we made sure to get her for you. Hope you like her!
Love,
Mum and Dad.
She looked at the owl on her shoulder and told the others that she was hers.
"What are you going to call her?" Fred asked.
"I think...Sakura is a great name."
Sakura made a clicking noise and nuzzled her face again before swooping out of the window, probably to the infirmary. Daria smiled again before going back to her room to change. Laying in bed that night listening to the soft breathing and snores coming from the males in the room, she decided that this was probably the best Christmas she'd ever had.
