Author's Note: Sorry this one is on the shorter side - and also a day late! I was trying really hard to keep up a consistent "post every weekend saturday/sunday" schedule, but some life stuff came up and I hit a bit of a rut and I'm sorry! I tried but this is all I got, so I just had to push this one out as is! :( I hope it's okay! I know it's not the greatest. But I promise great things are to come, I just need my mojo back!

End of AN.

In late October, Daisy strode into the Great Hall in early morning.

She fixed a wide smile to her face as she went and sat down at her House table - right next to one very specific person (a daily routine by now).

"Did I miss the part where we were friends?" said Edith, scathing in the immediate.

A person who seemed determined to throw off the routine.

Daisy turned to her in her seat, broadening her smile even more. "Yes."

Edith stared back at her, unflinching. "No," she said flatly. She leaned over her breakfast and buried her face in it.

Daisy held back a sigh as she glanced around the Great Hall. The decorations for the holiday were nice. You could almost forget this was a mandatory school for indoctrination of youth in an oppressive regime. Almost. Muggle studies made that really difficult - and so did a lot of the other students in the school.

Daisy's gaze drifted to the doorway, just in time to see Rigel walking in; the pale, thin girl was nursing her arm, and she had a big, ugly black and blue spot on her face. One of her eyes was swollen and ugly. Daisy got to her feet and was about to intercept her when someone else approached her from another table. No, not her - Edith.

"Hey! Edith!" came the calls as the girl approached. A familiar and unwelcome sight: Jessica Henwich. First year, Ravenclaw - and incredibly irritating in her arrogance. "I've been learning a new spell and I want you to help me practice at it." Jessica aimed her wand at Edith, spitting out, "Revelare Dignitatis!"

Edith suddenly clutched at her forearm, over her sleeve, her face paling. Her eyes flew left and right, and her mouth fell open.

"What did you do to her?" Daisy snarled, drawing her own wand and aiming it at Jessica. She leaned over toward Edith, grasping for her arm swiftly. "Edith, are you okay - let me take a look!"

"Hands off, princess!" Edith struggled, but Daisy was too persistent.

Daisy yanked Edith's sleeve up...and she blinked. Where Edith's flower and thorns tattoo once was, there was another in its place. A burning red image of a broken wand encircled by a serpent. No, not in its place...

"It was always there?" Daisy murmured. "You were hiding it under the other one?"

Edith pulled free at last, her expression blank as she tugged her sleeve down. "If you're done making a spectacle out of me, princess-"

"I was just-"

"I can't believe you tried to hide your mark," Jessica said gleefully. "You know what happens to mudbloods who try to hide it? Especially with plain, boring muggle tattoos?"

"I'm half-blood, not muggleborn. But even if I was, I do know what happens - and it doesn't bother me," Edith said, in an incredibly flat voice. But Daisy saw the flush to her cheeks, saw the way her breath quickened, the way her eyes jittered about as she pressed her legs together in her seat. "None of these moronic detentions have bothered me either. Sooner or later they'll have to learn to stop handing them out."

"Do you hear her?" Jessica said, rounding on Daisy, eager and expectant.

"Yes."

"Well? Aren't you going to-"

I've had enough of you! Jessica's superiority complex over having a high ranking Auror for a mother was one thing, but this? Today? This was too far - and enough.

"To what? Do you think you can just tell me what to do?" Daisy cut her off coldly, narrowing her eyes and curling her lip. She raised her chin at the girl and stood from her seat, facing Jessica directly.

Jessica's expression faltered. Flickered. Doubtful - fearful. "She's- she's a marked half-blood traitor; she's spent time in the camps! Even if she's here now, she still can't just-"

Daisy's lower body exuded black smoke, and she lifted from the floor and flew toward Jessica in an instant, getting in her face. "I heard!" she hissed out. She cast a glance at Edith with a roll of her neck. "I'll punish her for it later - but it's not something for you to worry about. Do we understand each other?" she continued, in a low, dangerous voice, trying to sound like father did when addressing his Death Eaters (or anyone, really).

Jessica shrank from her, pale and shaking. "I- uh- y-yes, right- of course! I do, I- I'm sorry!"

Daisy reached a hand up to touch the girl's face, broadening her smirk. "I forgive you. Now go, and leave this one to me. She's my pet, not yours."

Jessica stumbled back before turning and fleeing.

Daisy let her feet touch down, and turned back to Edith.

The girl looked completely flabbergasted - and more than a little anxious herself now. She avoided Daisy's gaze, hand still clasped over her arm. "I knew you'd show your true colors at some point..."

Daisy's smirk evaporated. She shook her head, trying to make her face as compassionate as possible. "No, listen, it was all an act - I just thought it would get her off your back! You don't need that - neither does Rigel. I'm going to see about helping her next, too..."

"That was an act? It was pretty convincing to me," Edith muttered.

"Just an act," Daisy assured firmly. "You wouldn't make a very good pet, Edith; you're always acting up something awful, and ignoring my commands. And I don't think any amount of punishment could change that about you. That's...why I like you," she finished hurriedly, willing her cheeks to remain normal temperature. "Like I told you after we first got sorted: we're two loony peas in a pod here."

Edith looked down at their hands, her mouth open and her face flushing deeply. She jumped out of her seat and spun away from Daisy, putting her back to her. "Well then, in the future could you give me a little warning before you start the full on, authentic psycho act? It freaks me out when I can't see it coming..."

"Yes! Of course. I'll warn you next time! I promise!" Daisy called.

But Edith didn't respond - she just walked away, right on out of the Great Hall. Very, very quickly.

Daisy dithered a moment, but decided to let her go, and headed for the Slytherin table instead. She had another friend to take care of right now (someone who needed it more, by the looks of things).

Rigel flinched, predictably, as Daisy descended on her. Winced when Daisy grabbed her arm and pulled her from her seat at the Slytherin table. Ducked her head and made her body slack as Daisy dragged her out of the Great Hall, all the way out into the Entrance Hall.

"Rigel, what happened to you?" Daisy asked quietly, after pulling the girl into a secluded corner. She drew her wand - ignoring the girl's look of terror - and started casting all the healing spells she knew (father might never have cared what state he left her in after a dueling session, but at least her mother had; the woman had taught Daisy how to care for her own injuries afterward, a small token of motherly compassion).

Rigel shook her head, looking down at her feet.

Daisy gazed at her. A thought struck her. She took the girl's right hand and turned it over, exposing the underside of her forearm. Exactly as expected, the same red mark that Edith had was there on Rigel's arm, too. Daisy felt sick. She had seen so many newspaper articles over the years about this (she remembered, in fact, the first time she had ever been allowed to know such an awful truth by her daddy), but to see it in person...to see people she went to school with bearing these burning marks on their flesh, people from these terrible places...

Daisy breathed, and schooled her features into compassion and sympathy. She squeezed Rigel's hand and reached up to her face - to tilt her head back again. She passed her wand over Rigel's face, healing more of what she could - pleased with herself over her progress at it. "Rigel, please...who did this? If you can tell me who hurt you, I can make sure they never do it again. I promise. So please just tell me."

"W-w-why would you- d-do that for m-me? A m-mudblood?"

"Because everything I said on the train, the first day we met - I meant it," Daisy said firmly. "I wasn't lying, I wasn't trying to trick anyone. I...I was taken away from my family too, okay? And I hate the things I've seen, and been- forced to do. But if I can help people now...then I'll do it. So please, let me help you. I don't care about anyone's blood status - but I do care about my friends."

Rigel shut her eyes - her swollen one trembling. Daisy continued to heal her, in the long silence that followed. A silence so long Daisy thought she'd never actually answer her. But, eventually, she did. "It- it w-was some s-sixth year g-girl...Ellena w-was her n-name. Ellena- Birch. S-she said...e-even if I'm a l-legal mudblood-"

"Legal?"

"V-vouched for," Rigel mumbled, an incredible shame flooding her voice. "A m-magical relative over in a-america...g-got me r-registered with the Ministry this s-summer. L-let me come h-here. O-otherwise I'd b-be...s-still back in the c-camps. T-they c-call us legal mudbloods, I guess. B-but it d-doesn't c-change much for how we're t-treated, a..a-apparently." A tiny wisp of a laugh, a wobbling lip.

"Oh...alright." Daisy hesitated. "Rigel, were you and Edith- at the same camp?"

Rigel shook her head. She paused, then shook her head again to cancel out the first. "I- I d-don't know. If we w-were, I n-never saw h-her."

"But you know she has the same mark as you. Have you known since the first day on the train?"

Rigel simply nodded. "It w-wasn't for m-me to...t-tell. Esp-especially a-around..." she trailed off quickly, flushing.

Around the Dark Lord's daughter. Right...

"Okay. So...Ellena. Sixth year. A Slytherin?" Daisy said softly.

"Uh-huh..." Rigel confirmed.

"You won't have to worry about her ever again," Daisy said quietly, giving Rigel's hand another squeeze. "If you still have problems after, though, I might just have you move into the Tower with me. You could sleep in my bed."

Rigel opened her eyes. "Y-you...c-could d-do that?"

"I'm the Dark Lord's daughter - I can do anything I want here," Daisy assured. "And nobody would care if I took a muggleborn for myself," she added, forcing the words out and ignoring the distaste they brought to her lips.

Rigel nodded. "I g-get it...t-that's r-really- s-s-smart...and you'd r-really d-do it for- for m-me?"

"Yes," Daisy said firmly. "Promise."

Daisy wanted nothing more than to kill this Ellena girl and toss her out into the forest - but that wasn't her. It couldn't be. It wasn't! She...she had magic, there were other solutions, other methods! She didn't have to kill to get rid of a problem! In fact, she could think of a dozen other things she could do to this girl that would satisfy her own morally struggling mind. Though, another part of her spoke up softly, this wasn't about what she could do to the attacker, was it? It was about what she could do for the victim.

Daddy had told her something like that once, hadn't he? That your focus shouldn't be on getting revenge on the ones who hurt people, but on helping the ones who had gotten hurt.

That was goodness, that was compassion, that was empathy.

That was what a nice, normal, kind girl would do.

A girl who had not killed people, nor tortured them, nor was planning to kill at least one more again to become immortal (even if for the sake of the good of the entire country)...

Wonderful, beautiful, good girls didn't do revenge.

Daisy let out a long breath, and she lowered her wand. "You look just about as good as new to me," she told Rigel warmly. "Does everything feel okay?" she added.

Rigel looked down at herself in wonder. She moved her arm, flexed her wrist without nary a gasp. She reached up to touch her face. Her head came up, and a small smile was on her lips. "I- I t-think so. T-thank you..." she breathed, eyes glistening.

Daisy hesitated, then she stepped in and she hugged the girl. Simple, gentle - brief. "You're welcome. I don't...see as much of you as Edith, but- I do want you to know you can...count on me, okay? I'm always here. I'll do anything for you. We're friends."

Well, no, good girls would do it even if they weren't friends - they would help strangers just as much, wouldn't they? But that was besides the point.

Rigel just nodded, looking overwhelmed by emotion.

"Okay," Daisy spoke kindly. "Now, let's get you back in there. You can eat your breakfast - and point out this Ellena girl to me. I'll take care of her."

Rigel gave another nod, this time a bit more nervous.

Daisy grabbed her hand and led her friend back into the Great Hall.

"Which one?" she asked quietly, as they strode the length of the Slytherin table.

Rigel's gaze flitted about, before landing on one person alone: a tall, curvy, older girl of sixteen. The girl's dark hair was done up in a bun, and there was an abundance of makeup on her face. Her brown eyes were carefree, full of mirth as she laughed with some other girls about some joke or what have you. A funny anecdote?

How could someone make Rigel look the way she had and then just...go and act like a normal girl?

Well, how can you? a voice spoke in Daisy's mind.

Shut up, I'm different, she retorted. Oh, she was different, all right. Talking to head voices now...

Daisy shook her head, releasing Rigel's hand. She touched her shoulder, gave her a confident smile. "Go on. Don't worry about her. Or anyone else."

Rigel moved away from her with extreme reluctance, and took her seat at the table once more.

Daisy watched her, then strode back the other way, coming to a stop across from the sixth year girl named Ellena. "Hey - Birch. Get up. Come with me. Now."

The older girl gave her a blank look. Then she laughed, shaking her head. "No firstie is going to order me around. Get lost, girl."

Daisy raised her wand, shoving it out and giving it a hard flick; Birch was yanked up from her seat and dragged across the table, spilling onto the floor at Daisy's feet - along with a mess of trays, plates, glasses, and food and drinks. Daisy gave her wand another quick flick, her mind focused, and a long, dark wand flew out of the older girl's robes and into her free hand.

"It wasn't a request," she said coolly. "You can either walk, or I'll float you out with me. There's your option. But there's no option where you don't come with me."

"Who the hell do you even think you-" Birch scrambled to her feet, staring at her - at the wand aimed at her chest. She turned to look up the length of the Great Hall, to the staff table. Several of the Professors had already gotten to their feet - but Snape rose too, and drew his wand on them.

"Walk," Daisy told the girl, jerking her head toward the doorway. "No one's going to help you."

Birch remained rooted to the spot.

"Fine..." Daisy muttered. She swished her wand, concentrating. Birch was lifted into the air, and as Daisy turned and stalked out of the Great Hall, the older girl drifted along behind her helplessly. Something her father had often done to her when she was uncooperative - something that felt so good to do to someone else for a change! But good, nice girls didn't take pleasure in that sort of thing, of course.

None at all.

Daisy marched into the Entrance Hall and gave her wand a harsh flourish; the wooden double doors slammed shut behind her with a definitive echo that she rather liked. She flicked her wand at Birch, dropping the girl flat on the floor on her rear.

The girl sat there, staring up at her with wide eyes now. Realizing it now...

"The girl with the white hair and the freckles in there," Daisy began. "Rigel Newton. You hurt her last night?"

"What do you care? She's a mudblood, and you're..." Birch started. Her eyes dropped.

"She is," Daisy agreed simply. "But she's my mudblood. You touch her again, you take even a hair off her absurdly cute head, and I'll...well..." She paused, and then she spoke on in Parseltongue. "You don't want to find out. Just how much I want to rip you apart, burn every inch of your...annoyingly attractive body, and leave you out in the woods for the monsters to eat!"

Birch was appropriately afraid now. That was all that mattered. "Alright, yes, I- I can leave her alone, I wouldn't- sure! Sorry, I'm...sorry."

"You had better mean that," Daisy said lowly. "I'd hate to have to tell my father that I have a little problem here that needs taking care of."

Birch gulped, shaking her head furiously. "I mean it, I- she's yours, I won't make that mistake again! I thought she was just some...but she isn't, so I won't!"

"Good," Daisy hissed. "Oh, and if anyone else tries to hurt her, too, I'll hold you responsible for it." She waved her wand at the doors to the Great Hall, then tossed Birch's wand onto the floor and strode back inside.

God, how did father keep that act up all the time? It was exhausting!

Exhausting, but...pleasurable. But it wasn't worth it, in Daisy's eyes. Not for that feeling alone - that fleeting feeling. The only worth to come out of it was that it would hopefully keep her friends safer. Make their lives easier going forward.

That was what mattered: protecting them.

These people who had probably gone most of their lives so far...not having anyone to look out for them. No protection, no safety, no guarantees.

Well, Daisy was going to guarantee it for them. As much as she could, whenever she could!

Because that was what good girls did.

Not awful, psychopathic, broken, murdering pieces of utter shite.

After a long day of lessons the day after Halloween, Daisy accomplished two important things for herself: one, she successfully used the Summoning Charm in Gryffindor Tower to bring several thick, old tomes on darkest magicks to her hands (right through the window!); and two, she wrote and sent off a short letter to her father asking about secrets of Hogwarts akin to the Chamber of Secrets that he might know about - and want to share with her.

After these tasks were finished with, Daisy committed to one final thing, late in the evening. A decision brought about by weeks of intense thought.

"Edith, if I told you I knew somewhere secret in the castle where you could be yourself - muggle things and all - and where you could be safe...would you come with me?"

Edith gazed at her in the girls' dormitory, surprised. Then, searching and critical. "If you're looking to lure me away to some secret place where you can torture me for laughs - or information-"

"No! I mean exactly what I'm saying!" Daisy said firmly.

Edith turned her head away. "No you don't."

Daisy held back a growl, digging her nails into her palms. "I've tried to be nice for weeks now, I've been nothing but nice-"

"Really? You have a funny definition of 'nice.' Were you trying to be nice when you blasted me out of my seat in our second Transfigurations lesson?" Edith retorted. She paused. "Oh, I'm sorry, that was your first - because you're hopeless at it."

Daisy drew and released several deep breaths. "Okay, that's fair - but I've apologized for that almost every day now!"

"And no matter how many times you do, it's never going to mean I have to accept it - if it's even real."

"And. That's. Fine," Daisy gritted out. "Perfectly fine! But it's also besides the point. Can you please just- take me at fucking face value for once? Please? I defended you against Jessica, for god's sake! Has she bothered you in the last few days? No! Because of me!"

"You probably set it up with her beforehand just to make yourself look like a knight in shining armor for me," Edith replied coolly. "Guess what, princess: it didn't work on me. But good effort."

"There's no winning with you!" Daisy cried, throwing up her hands. "I can't help you, I can't be nice to you, I can't protect you - no matter what I do, you always find a way to make it into something bad!"

"Oooh, look out: she's learning!"

Daisy whirled away, took out her wand and thrust it at the nearest window; the window exploded outward, glass shards to fall hundreds of feet down from the exterior of the tower.

Edith froze up on her bed, almost instantly, her eyes fixed to Daisy's wand.

Daisy sighed, and stowed her wand away again. She dropped straight to the dormitory floor, landing hard on her rear. "What do I have to do to make you believe me? To just- trust me? To be my friend?"

For almost a minute, Edith didn't move. She just sat there, in that rigid and awkward pose, her eyes moving wildly, her mouth trembling. Daisy wasn't even sure the girl had heard her at all.

"The last time someone got me to trust them..." Edith spoke, in a quiet, emotionless voice. "We didn't have a nice little tea party together. It wasn't even a Death Eater, or a Ministry worker - it was another Camp Omaresh resident. He lived in the crap house right across from mine. So excuse me...for not wanting to let the most obvious, red flag, has-glowing-signs-pointed-at-her-about-how-messed-up-she-is girl - the Dark Lord's own kid - worm her way into my heart. I'm never going to be that easy again; it's never going to be a tea party."

Daisy pressed her lips together. She nodded. "Okay," she said simply. "If you really want me to...I'll just stop trying, then."

"Wow, it only took you two months to get a clue."

Daisy stood, ignoring the barb. She waved her wand to repair the window, and she left the dorm room.

She had been being so selfish, she saw it now. She had been wanting Edith to befriend her because she missed having friends. But that wasn't right, was it? It was ignoring Edith's wishes, her boundaries, her autonomy. Daisy wasn't respecting her with this - with trying so hard.

A good, kind, and understanding girl would have stopped weeks ago. Daisy supposed she was just awful at being a good person, then. For her, it wasn't natural - it was effort, it was forethought, it was deliberate and considering. It always had been. Something always had to make her think, take a step back, realize...

She really was messed up inside, wasn't she? Something in her was well and truly broken. Wrong. Different from other people.

And she hated it.

Hated, even more, that she was going to have to break herself even more, soon enough. Her very soul. Father wished her to do it, expected it of her - and so there was no other choice. In the end, Daisy knew he would force her into it, even if she tried to refuse now. No matter what she told herself, how it meant she could help with the war, or end him, or anything like that...she was kidding herself if she thought she actually had any real say in it. After she tore her soul apart, how much worse would Daisy be inside?

On that day, she would be someone truly worthy of being called evil.