Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl. Yuletide Shorts
DISCLAIMER: Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling, Wizarding World and Warner Brothers. I own neither franchise and neither expect nor deserve any financial compensation for this work of fiction. I am writing for my own amusement and ego gratification.
Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl
Daria walked back to the Warings' in a cheerier mood. It was nice to finally talk to her family again. She was touched to realize that everyone missed her and relieved to learn that everyone was all right. She told them that she was enjoying her stay with the Warings and that they were treating her well. Her Mom was still busy with at the law office, her Dad was still at his job, and that several people back in Highland had asked how she was doing. Her sisters were both doing fine: Quinn was now in the fourth grade while Veronica was halfway through kindergarten. Her Mom and Dad told her that they wished her a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and that they looked forward to seeing her when she came home in June.
Her parents might have hung up except that Daria handed the receiver to Anahita. Anahita was at first non-plussed as to how to deal with more than one Morgendorffer at a time, but was able to say hello, chat briefly, and wish Daria's parents a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
"I hope my parents didn't freak you out," said Daria after she hung up the phone.
"Interesting people," Anahita said afterwards. "They're a bit mental but I can tell they love you very much."
-(((O-O)))-
The Warings went to another Christmas party, this one a dinner party held in the evening. It was a pleasant evening: the food was delicious and for the first time Daria worried about her clothes getting too tight. The conversation among her peers was about friends and school, and, for the girls, about music, games, and other distractions. Daria learned that while some of the witches and wizards her age listened to Muggle music, many of them listened to bands she'd never heard of. The board games sounded interesting: although a couple of them sounded like wizarding knock-offs of games she'd played at home.
The atmosphere stayed pleasant until an hour or so after dinner. Daria don't know who started it, but one of the adults had had too much to drink and said that while the Dark Lord was a murderous extremist, Wizarding Britain did need to be purified from Muggle influence. The room went silent. The host, a Mister Caldwell, quietly told the offender that politics were not a topic for discussion at the dinner table. When the drunk replied that he could talk about anything he wanted, Mr. Caldwell told the drunk that he should go home. Daria was not in a good position to see everything at the adults' dining table but she was later certain that several people had surreptitiously drawn their wands in case Oswald Bascomb didn't settle down. Bascomb left but the party atmosphere had died. The Warings and the other guests left shortly afterwards.
-(((O-O)))-
The Warings finally opened their Christmas presents on Boxing Day. Daria received a couple of small gifts: books, something she appreciated. One was a travelogue about Magical Britain written over a century ago while the other was a guide to customs in Magical Britain. She also received a couple of pairs of thick woolen socks to go with the rubber boots she'd gotten from Mrs. Wiggams.
Daria got a chance to try out her new socks later that morning. Mrs. Warings announced that they were going to go beat the bounds.
"What does that mean?" said Daria.
"We're going hunting," said Dana.
"For what?" said Daria. "Nargles, pixies, boojums?"
"Plastic trash," said Mrs. Waring. "For all the talk of Wizarding Britain being a separate world from its Muggle counterpart, we do share much of the same countryside and the breezes blow across both of our worlds. So we take care of it."
"How?" said Daria. She already knew that plastic trash could be a problem for livestock from her visits to the Penricks' Ranch and her conversations with Mr. Skein. She'd met people whose ponies and goats had choked to death on the stuff. "Do you gather it up for recycling or something?"
"No, we transfigure it," said Mrs. Waring. "I'm not sure what you Muggles made it from, but I turn it into organic matter and let it decay and return to the earth."
Ho-kay, thought Daria. On the face of it, Mrs. Waring's idea sounded nuts but when she thought about it, it made good sense.
"So, shall we be off?" said Mrs. Waring.
They returned an hour or so later, chilled but feeling triumphant. Daria composed a new verse to an old childhood song and she and the Waring sisters were singing it when they returned to the house.
"A-hunting we shall go,
A-hunting we shall go,
Heigh-ho, the darry-o,
A-hunting we shall go!
A-hunting, A-hunting, A-hunting,
A-hunting we shall go!
We'll chase a plastic bag
We catch it on a snag
Hopefully we'll charm it once,
And then away we'll go!
A-hunting, A-hunting, A-hunting,
A-hunting we shall go!
-(((O-O)))-
Mr. and Mrs. Waring threw another party that evening. It was pleasant enough, but Daria felt an air of foreboding when she and Anahita turned in that evening.
"You know those writing assignments we got just before we left school?" said Daria.
"Yeah," said Anahita.
"It looks like we'll have to start writing them tomorrow," said Daria.
Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl
Author's Note: I apologize for the long delays in updating this story. I am trying to finish two of my incomplete stories before the end of June, so when I'm not working on Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl, I'm working on Daria: Winter Is Coming, a crossover between Daria and A Song of Ice and Fire.
In regards to Daria Ravenclaw and the canon Harry Potter timeline: I intend to have Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl end at or shortly after the end of the 1990-1991 school year at Hogwarts. After that, I'm planning to start work on a much shorter story covering what Daria does over her summer vacation, then start writing Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Unicorn, when a certain canon dark-haired boy boards the Hogwarts Express for the very first time.