Chapter 20

The Art of Distraction

Poppy was at the end of a rather normal week. She had gone to school every day, did homework, went to softball practice, and talked with her numerous friends. The only small difference in her week was that Daisy wasn't there. Daisy hadn't been there for a month now, but Poppy still felt the emptiness her absence brought.

Poppy doubted that anyone, including Daisy, understood how big a change that was for her. Poppy had friends, and lots of them, being pretty popular at school, but she didn't feel that any one of them was very close like Emma and Daisy were. But she had looked up to her sister, trusted her with her secrets and feelings that most people shared not with a family member, but with an outside best friend. Without Daisy there, Poppy felt abnormally alone. She didn't have anyone to express her true feelings to, which left her feeling drained at the end of the day. She didn't want to hang out with friends as much after school, so much as stay at home. The thought that it might be this way for the rest of their lives if Poppy didn't get into Hogwarts was - well she tried not to think about it that much.

Slinking quietly through the house, Poppy attempted to get a snack from the kitchen without having to talk to either of her parents. She was unsuccessful.

"Oh, there you are Poppy," Anna Dursley said, picking a bottle of juice from the fridge. "I have an important meeting to attend in half an hour, would you clean up the wash room while I'm gone? And make sure to get any homework done."

"Yes of course mum," Poppy said with false brightness, taking a biscuit from the cupboard.

The door to their basement opened, and Dudley Dursley came out. "Where are you going?" He asked Anna.

"A meeting. Why do you look dressed to go somewhere?" She asked, her eyes landing on his polo shirt and jeans. Casual, but not what he would wear around the house on a Sunday morning.

Dudley tilted his head, and scratched behind his ear self consciously. "Er, I was just going to meet Harry. We still have a lot of catching up to do."

Both adults turned to look at Poppy. They'd never left her home by herself before, but now Daisy was gone, and Emma's sister off to college.

"If you're planning to be gone long, I'll call your mother and see if she'll come," Anna said.

"I think that would be best, thank you," replied Dudley, before exiting out the kitchen doorway and walking off down the street.

Poppy left as well, back to her room where she had been working on building a tiny castle for Albert to explore. She continued to glue together popsicle sticks, fabric, and wire together, even after her mother called up reminding her to do her chores, and telling her that Gran Petunia would arrive in twenty minutes.

Poppy was a bit annoyed that she hadn't just been left by herself, feeling that she was old enough to do so. However she was extremely thankful that it was her gran who was coming, and not Anna's stepmother, who had been lovely the first few years of Poppy's life, but turned out to be extremely strict. Once Daisy and Poppy were old enough, Nana had insisted they take lessons in music, which suited Daisy just fine, but that Poppy absolutely loathed. Since then, Nana had not given up, and had the girls perform for her on each of her visits. Now that Daisy was gone, Poppy would be performing on her own, she realized.

"Poppy?" Petunia called up the stairs.

"I'm here," Poppy called back, before coming to meet her grandmother. Petunia smiled at her as she walked down the staircase in denim shorts and a T-shirt. A braid twisted neatly from the front of her hair to a bun in the back.

"I thought we might do something outside today," Petunia said, holding the door open.

"I have chores," Poppy said.

"No matter, I'll talk to your parents."

The two Dursleys headed out, walking on the sidewalk in silence. It was quite pleasant, Poppy thought. A walk under the trees was just what she really needed. When they reached the neighborhood park, Petunia pulled out a set of watercolors and some paper.

"Let's paint."

Poppy knew then that this wasn't an ordinary walk in the park. Her Gran didn't paint. Poppy did, more often when she felt overwhelmed and wanted to be by herself. How had Petunia noticed what no one else had?

Poppy decided on painting an owl, using a tree in the park as a model for the background. She wasn't sure what her Gran was painting, it seemed to be abstract pink and green squiggles, although since she wasn't known for artistic skills, it could have been anything.

After more than an hour, they headed back home. Poppy's parents still were not there, but Petunia let Poppy get her chores done first before saying anything.

"Your Aunt Lily was an artist as well. She used to try and get me to join her, but after a few failed attempts, I gave up. I wish I hadn't," Petunia lamented.

"Hmm." Poppy leaned a little closer towards her sculpture, wiggling in her desk chair uncomfortably. She loved hearing stories about her family, and didn't really know much about Lily, but she didn't want to get a good story at the cost of Poppy herself having to share.

"We used to enjoy trying to interpret my drawings, as they were as abstract in appearance then as they are now. We would come up with the most interesting stories about what she saw in them. Sometimes, we would write them down. I'll try to find some of them, if they're still around"

Poppy couldn't manage to keep a smile hidden at this. She could picture a younger version of her grandmother sitting outside with her sister, giggling at a painting like the one she had just made.

"Just let me know if you ever need to talk, all right, Doodles? I know I'm not Daisy, but I can try."

"Thanks."

When Poppy got to her room, Constellation sat at her desk, curiously looking into Albert's cage.

"Hello, Connie," Poppy cooed. She read the letter he had brought, pulled out a piece of paper, and began to write.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Daisy was high up in the air on her broomstick. Ms. Johnson had chosen her to play keeper for their first practice match, so she hovered in front of the goal posts, facing the field. She could see Connell Aidair and Bella Castle jeering at her from the ground, as they hadn't been assigned a team for this round.

She watched as the quaffle got passed back and forth between her teammates - a mix of all the houses, but all wearing pink jerseys for team identification. Then she saw, in seeming slow motion, the quaffle slip from the boys hands, and into one of the enemy's.

They were racing in her direction, and Daisy's eyes never drifted from the ball. She was going to block the goal perfectly when thwack the bludger punched her, centering itself in the middle of her stomach and speeding her off her broom and into the air -

Daisy shook her head and continued writing the letter to Poppy, finishing the sentence with: 'and quidditch is really fun!' In real life, the bludger hadn't hit her, it had missed. It had only been a charmed dodge ball, not the real thing. Why couldn't she stop thinking about it?

She was currently sitting solidly on the ground, not on a broomstick. Her classmates sat at desks around her, the scratching of quills on parchment echoing around the room. For that English class, they had a day to work on writing assigned from other classes. The only thing was they had to write it in quill, and show Professor Ryder a sample of their writing before class was over. Daisy had already shown him her finished Transfiguration essay on switching spells, and had decided to use the last ten minutes to reply to Poppy's most recent letter.

When she was finished, she folded the paper and slipped it into an envelope to put in her book bag.

"English was actually useful today, wasn't it?" Sophia noted, as they headed to their next class. Daisy nodded, but her thoughts were on halloween. Since the first day of October, a new decoration had been spotted somewhere in the castle each day. Even as they walked now, Daisy saw a few suits of armour charmed to look like skeletons, and strings of orange maple leaves hung on the ceilings. And of course, she thought, we've already got plenty of ghosts!

"Do people at Hogwarts dress in costumes?" She asked.

Sophie frowned. "You mean for Hallowe'en? I don't think so. I don't think I know anyone who has."

"That's too bad. My sister and I have always really enjoyed thinking up costume ideas for our cousins in America, and watching movies. Last year, we made our own costumes. Hogwarts should -" Daisy started to say what she thought they should do, but stopped when she saw someone ahead of them. "Tobias!" She called loudly. Her face flushed as a few people turned to look at her. Fortunately, one of them was the Hufflepuff prefect, Tobias Sanders.

"Did you need help with something?"

"Um, sort of," Daisy stuttered. She should have thought this out a little bit more before calling out like that. "I was thinking that our house should have some kind of Halloween party, where people can wear costumes and, and, just have fun I guess."

Tobias looked at her thoughtfully. "That's an interesting idea. I'll see what I can do about it, and get back to you sometime soon, okay," He hesitated, trying to remember her name, "Daisy?"

Daisy nodded, and they continued to find their way to charms class.

"Lucky we ran into Sanders, isn't it? Maybe we'll start a new Hogwarts tradition," Sophia said.

"'We'll?' I was the one who thought up the idea, and who put it into action!"

Sophia laughed. "Fine. You'll start a new tradition, with the help of Sanders, then."

They kept talking about Halloween in charms class, now joined by Jasper, who had been getting medicine for his cold during English, and Jonathan, the only Ravenclaw to bridge the gap and make close friends in other houses.

"What do you think you'll wear?" Jonathan asked.

"I don't know. I've never participated in any Halloween activities. My mother doesn't approve," answered Jasper. "She doesn't like the idea of magic. It took her forever to accept that I would be learning any. She still doesn't like it, even though she let me come."

"That's too bad. I'm sure she'll come 'round eventually. I'll be a cat, no question though," Sophia put in.

"Well, now I can't pretend to be a witch, cause I am one. Maybe I'll be someone from a muggle movie or something," Daisy told him. "I wish it could be a whole school event so that you could be there, but I guess it's probably good to start small."

"You're really determined to start that school tradition there, aren't you?" Sophia joked. She accidentally sent the feather she was trying to charm into flame because she wasn't paying attention.

Daisy turned back to her feather, about to raise her wand and say 'wingardium leviosa,' but she didn't have to her feather was already in the air! She looked at everyone near them in the room, but no one was paying attention, and when she looked back at the slim white feather, it was back on the table.

"Wingardium leviosa," Daisy whispered, without raising her wand. Nothing happened. She waved her wand in her second try, and the feather rose for a few seconds before it fell.

"At least you've gotten yours to react," muttered Jasper, and Sophia nodded in agreement. Jonathan was grinning, as his feather finally flew above his head.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

After classes, the four friends headed off to the Tech Center to hang out and finish homework.

"We've just started to learn how to use Google in Muggle Life class," Jonathan tells them. Apparently this is important to learn now, so that we can type out some of our assignments in Google Drive, or Mickysoft World."

"It's Microsoft Word, John," Sophia responds.

"And it's Jonathan, not John," Jonathan retorts, faster than anyone else could think of something to say.

The other three looked a bit startled at Jonathan's response to the nickname, but after shrugging it off, they chose a spot at computers next to Lily, Gracie, and Wyatt, who were also working on homework from the Muggle life class.

Leaving her belongings at her computer, Daisy went to take her phone out of her locker. There were a few texts from her gran, showing her pictures that she and Poppy had painted that weekend. Daisy scrolled through her texts with Emma, knowing that Emma wouldn't be there to talk to because she had gone on a field trip somewhere. Since the beginning of the school year, the two had been a bit distant, Daisy could only hope that when they saw each other in person, everything would just click into place and they would have the same connection as they had felt before.

Both of them had also gotten Instagram accounts, Daisy a bit hesitantly as she wasn't sure she was allowed to, but she didn't ask for permission. It had helped a bit, because Daisy could see a bit more about Emma's life, and Emma could see what went on in the tech center. Even so, it would be good to get back home for Christmas.

Thanks to those of you who stuck with me through all of my 20 chapters! I hope you keep reading.

Do you celebrate Halloween? How, and what do you think you'll dress up as this year? Even though I live in the US, I've only dressed up for Halloween 4 times, as my family is not from here and doesn't celebrate (and for a while wouldn't let me do anything) I was only allowed out if my friends invited me.

Please leave a review, I love hearing from people.