Chapter 22
After the Halloween feast, things quickly settled back into normalcy. Daisy went to class each day, afterwards heading to the Tech Center's common room or Owlery to work and send messages to her family and friends.
Emma had been pleased to see Daisy's Halloween costume even more so than Poppy. Her parents and Gran Petunia had been mostly indifferent to the occasion, but smiled and nodded when they saw how much it meant to her. Vernon Dursley still hadn't contacted Daisy in any way, and Daisy felt an anxious twist in the pit of her stomach every time she remembered she would have to see him over Christmas break.
Just after things calmed down, however, students anxious for a distraction from their studies turned to Quidditch. The first match, Slytherin against Gryffindor created excitement as the beginning of November grew near.
As they had been told at the beginning of Flying Lessons, first years had been chosen for backup teams, earning resentful glares from older students who had also tried out. Daisy, after receiving permission from her dad through a permission form sent by her Head of House, tried out for Hufflepuff's extra keeper. She almost bounced with glee when she was called onto the pitch, as she had been unsure if either of her parents would approve.
The tryout had been in game form. The rest of the spares had already been chosen, and Margo Wood, Hufflepuff team captain, as well as the rest of the Hufflepuff team watched as Daisy blocked shot after shot from a serious-faced third year and his fellow chasers. As soon as any keeper trying out had failed to block three shots, they ceded to the next contestant. The person with the most saves won, assuming they were willing to prioritize Quidditch over other things. Daisy successfully blocked the most throws, and landed herself in the backup keeper spot for the Hufflepuff Team.
"Extremely good job, Daisy," Margo had told her when the game was finished. "I didn't expect to actually accept any of the first years, but I got you as keeper and Regina as seeker! Eliza's going to be so jealous." Margo directed Daisy to talk to Accalon Applebee, a friendly, square-faced seventh-year boy who was the actual Hufflepuff keeper, and now her trainer during practice on Sundays.
As well as the good excitement, fights regularly broke out between Gryffindor and Slytherin students. Among the first years, nothing more than taunts occurred, but to them, it felt like a full-blown fight. Bella Castle had quickly switched gears from teasing Daisy about being muggleborn, to sneering at Lily, who had failed to become backup for the Gryffindor team - while Bella herself had made it into a chaser position.
"It would seem that the famous Potter girl isn't keeping up with the legend," Said Bella during one Transfiguration lesson. "I wonder how you inherited such a small amount of talent. The Gryffindor team wouldn't take you over anyone - even if that mud- that muggleborn cousin of yours had been in your house. How pitiful."
"And the Slytherin team only let you in 'cause they're so bad that someone as bad as you is better than the whole team!" Lily retorted back.
Daisy was a bit taken aback when she thought about this later. It did bother her a bit that Lily never stood up for their kinship, but it bothered her even more that Daisy herself did agree with Castle to a point. Lily held herself on a pedestal because she had famous parents. It wouldn't be bad for her to realize that she couldn't depend on that connection every once in awhile.
When she had mentioned the events to Sophia, who had not been near enough to listen in on the conversation, the only thing she caught onto was what Castle had said.
"That imbecile, how dare she! I'd bet all my chocolate frog cards that she isn't even pureblood!"
"She isn't," A voice said from behind them. It was Albus Potter who had spoken, walking with Scorpius. "The old pureblood lines have almost died out though. The Castles, however, consider themselves to be the next round of pureblood families, simply because I they haven't been able to trace back their family to a muggle member for generations more than the average wizard. That's why Chloe Castle and her sister in your year are so stuck up."
"Speaking of the Castles, there they are," said Scorpius, pointing to the Great Hall Entrance. Six students stood, four of which sported some sort of injury or charm. One boy Daisy recognized as one of Gryffindor's chasers lay petrified on the floor, while a girl opposite him whimpered, cradling her arm which had sprouted squid-like tentacles.
Chloe Castle stood over her sister, uttering a countercurse, when someone's yell of anger crashed through the halls, making everyone nearby flinch.
"How could you - how dare you - just, why the hell was this necessary! Castle! You were probably the provoker, am I right?" Daisy hadn't yet recognized the speaker, a Gryffindor girl with short brown hair. "Nevermind, it doesn't matter. The fault lies with every one of you that cast a spell. If I were a prefect, I would take points from all of you," She looked pointedly at those from her own house, letting them know that they were not omitted from this statement. It was then than Daisy felt extremely lucky to have met the calmer twin first, because Eliza Wood, Gryffindor Fourth year, and Quidditch captain, was a foreboding figure.
"Someone help me get these three up to the hospital wing," she asked the growing crowd of bystanders. A couple of people stepped forward and supported the three students as a path was cleared to the staircase. In their place stood the headmistress, slim and commanding, an older version of the Eliza they had just seen.
The group of bystanders, including Daisy, Sophia, and Jonathan, dispersed, heading to their house tables as Albus stayed behind to tell Professor McGonagall what had happened.
0o0o0o0o0o0
The day of the most anticipated quidditch match of the season was still and dreary, with temperatures not expected to rise more than fifteen degrees above freezing. For Daisy, it was all excitement as she followed the rest of the school down to the quidditch pitch and took a seat in the stands with the other Hufflepuffs.
"On such a freezing day, we just had to be high up in the air, didn't we," Sophie grumbled. "Should be a good game though. I brought binoculars - here, take a look."
Daisy took the binoculars from her friend, and looked down at the field where the Gryffindors and Slytherins were approaching Madam Hooch where she stood in the middle of the field. After she said a few words, Eliza Wood shook the hand of the Slytherin captain and both teams took flight.
Most team members, Sophia pointed out, flew on Nimbus 2000's, which was the model of all of the school brooms, but the Slytherin seeker had a Golden Arrow, one of the top models of the day.
A Hufflepuff fifth year was doing the commentary - as Daisy had found out, the commentator had to be from a house not participating in the match, or Fred Weasley would have taken a turn.
"Aaand the game begins!" Bernard yelled into the magical megaphone. "Quaffle quickly snagged by Slytherin chaser, Brooke Perry, and she's passing to Charleston - Ooh, and she missed, quaffle taken by Gryffindor's chaser Spinnet, and he's almost halfway across the field now - narrow miss there from McLaggen's bludger, looks like he's improved from last year, Spinnet shoots - GRYFFINDOR SCORES!"
There was an enormous roar from the Gryffindor end of the pitch. Banners raised higher, and some people were chanting.
About two hours into the game, Slytherin lead by ten points. Daisy got up. "I have to go to the loo," she said politely to her friends, inching her way between the people seated in their row. A set of temporary toilets had been set up on the grounds so that watchers would not have to reenter the castle. On her way back, she accidentally ran into a couple of ravenclaw students. Daisy blushed. "Sorry," she muttered.
"It's fine," said the girl. She and the boy she was walking with were both older students heading back into the castle. Probably weren't interested in quidditch when it wasn't their house playing.
When she arrived back in her seat, Daisy saw that the score wasn't any better for Gryffindor. Slytherin was 20 points ahead now, and Eliza had called for a few minutes to talk to her team. She paced back and forth, furiously trying to inspire her team to a win.
And that's exactly what happened. In only five minutes after the break, the Gryffindor seeker waved the snitch in the air and triumphantly hugged her teammates on the ground. She and James were whooping joyfully and waving at the crowds.
"That'll be you someday," Sophia joked, knowing that such a loud yell was unlikely to come from Daisy.
Daisy just laughed and left the stands to join in the celebration.
0o0o0o0o0oo0o0
Dudley Dursley sat in the park only a short walking distance from his house. Where he was, it was a bit chilly, but not too windy or dark to enjoy being outside.
Crack. Harry walked out from behind a tree, straightening his jacket, and, well, trying to flatten his hair. "Afternoon, Dudley," Harry said.
"Afternoon," Dudley replied. This would be the third time he and his cousin had met to chat, and for Dudley to learn about everything he had missed in Harry's childhood. "Before you start year three, tell me more about Quidditch." He had signed Daisy's permission form after asking Ginny, who had been extremely excited that Daisy had wanted to join. However, his only basis for how dangerous it could be was the game played at the Weasleys, when he hadn't really thought about the safety of the game.
"As you now know, I played through most of my years at Hogwarts," Said Harry.
"Most?" Asked Dudley.
"One year there was no Quidditch, you'll learn about that later. But I think it's alright. It's dangerous, but injuries are usually things that can be fixed overnight with magic."
"Sprained wrist?"
"Madam Pomfrey would fix it in five minutes."
"Broken bones?"
"Still only an hour or so."
Dudley nodded. Although it wasn't the safest sport, no one had to face extreme consequences for long in the wizarding world. "Onto year three, then. This is the year you came back telling us you had a godfather, wasn't it?"
"Yes, although it took some time to figure that out. After all, he was a fugitive," Harry nodded.
"That part I don't understand," said Dudley
"Ah, well, due to an arrangement of circumstances he was given no trial, no time to tell anyone that he was in fact innocent."
"And that's why you never went to live with him."
Harry nodded.
Dudley listened as Harry went on to describe his year. Knowing ahead of time that Black never intended to hurt Harry made it extremely interesting - as Dudley could not, however hard he tried, figure out why the man was so determined to make it to Hogwarts.
Hearing about the Marauder's Map, he asked about it. "Do you still have it?"
"No, I gave it to Albus, as the invisibility cloak went to James," Said Harry, breaking from his story.
"And you think it's ok that they're probably sneaking around the castle with that?"
Harry grinned. "Not really. I'd be more concerned if they were closer friends, but neither one of them has both the cloak and the map at the same time. And, as you've seen, if they go searching for a mystery, I'm sure they'll find a small one, and when they do, they'll be able to keep safe."
When Harry got to the part where he had overheard that Black had been the cause of the death of his parents as well as Peter Pettigrew, Dudley's bewilderment deepened. How could a man be framed so perfectly?
As Harry's words drew a picture of him and Hermione following Ron under the whomping willow, Dudley's eyes widened, but he said nothing. Listening to Harry's stories was amazing, like reading a fairy tale about a hero, or a novel about an amazing child detective. Dudley didn't want to miss a single word, especially when it involved time travel, and a mysterious Patronus-casting figure that should appear in only a moment.
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