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The Girl Who Lived Chapter Seven: Postal Emergency

Daisy stepped into the office, dimly lit with candles and looked around. Hanging on the walls were portraits of old headmasters, some snoring, and some peering curiously from their frames. A large red and orange plumed bird clung to a perch a few feet from an ancient oak desk.
Professor McGonagall and an old woman with a crooked nose were sitting in a two of the chairs in the room.
"Hello, Professor," Daisy said, unsure. At dinner she felt it would be a great escape to see the headmaster's office, but now she just felt very uncomfortable.
"This is Professor McGonagall," Dumbledore said, gesturing at her, "she is your new head of house." He paused, then said in an old wise voice, "Now I won't lie to you Miss Peterson, this year you will have to work very hard to catch up to your classmates. If you have any questions please feel free to ask Professor McGonagall." Professor McGonagall nodded.
"Also, we are aware that your powers aren't as strong as most student's. But, you do you have some. You may be a squib, but you can still learn magic. Sometimes several highly dramatic experiences in a lifetime will jolt magical powers. That may be why the quill put you down this year."
Daisy thought that perhaps the death of her parents had been the reason for her sudden magical capability. Then she reflected on Dumbledore's last comment. "What quill?" she asked. This time McGonagall answered her.
"The Hogwarts selection quill," she said, "makes a list once a year of the new students to be accepted. Usually they are in alphabetical order, but your name, for some reason, your name was last, a week after the rest. Not to mention four years late. Still, we couldn't ignore it."
"Yes," said Dumbledore. Suddenly he was staring at Daisy like he hadn't seen her there before. Like she was familiar. "Did your parents attend Hogwarts?" he asked.
"I don't know," Daisy told him. "I was adopted by muggles."
"Oh," he said, his face surrendering. "I'm sorry. The mind must be getting fuzzy in my old age. Now I'll introduce you to Madam Pince," he waved his arm towards the hooked nose woman who had been listening carefully.
"Hello, Miss Peterson," she croaked.
"Madam Pince is the librarian here at Hogwarts," and then with a wink of his blue eyes he added, "You'll want to try not to cross her." Then he smiled, and Daisy nodded to show she was listening. "She's also a trained instructor of the Kwikspell course," he said this part extra sensitively. "As I said before, you are a squib, so I think this basic training will help you along the way. You're first few days of school will be just Kwikspell course with Madam Pince.
"Alright," Daisy said.
"After that you will attend classes with the Gryffindor first years. Hopefully around the beginning of November you will start second year lessons. If things go as planned you will end this year with a fifth year education."
"What about exams?" asked Maggie., "She'll need to take O.W.L.'s"
"Oh, yes," said Professor McGonagall, "She'll just have to do her best."
"Excuse me. What's an O.W.L.?" Daisy asked.
"Ordinary Wizarding Level," Maggie said.
"Oh, no," Daisy sighed.
"Don't worry, Daisy," Dumbledore said warmly. "Now there's one thing left we need to discuss. Voldemort," he said solemnly.
This was the name that Daisy had feared, the name she'd never heard anyone else say out loud, this was You-Know-Who.
"You said his name," Daisy said surprised.
"Yes I did. I believe that not saying his name just creates more fear. I think you know about what happened last year involving Voldemort?" he said.
"Yes, with Cedric Diggory," Daisy replied.
"Yes and Harry Potter. Voldemort is back, and I believe he's in London. I need to ask you what happened that night you first came to Diagon Alley."
"Well, I didn't really know where I was going, and the farther I went, the longer I walked I got more and more tired. It was like someone was pushing down my eyelids. I could barely stay awake."
"But not right at first?" Dumbledore clarified.
"No, I didn't feel it at all; when I first got outside I met Hibou."
"Hmm. Others apparated into London and would fall asleep at the spot," Dumbledore explained. "Something just doesn't match up." Daisy shrugged.
"Well, that's all I need to tell you for now, Daisy. Do you have any questions?"
"No," Daisy said. A few hours ago she would have been asking questions all night, but now she couldn't think of a single intelligent thing to say at all.
"Then off to bed," Dumbledore suggested, then gave a long, deep yawn. "Lessons tomorrow!"
The company said goodnight and Daisy and Maggie were about to leave when Professor McGonagall cried,
"Oh! Professor McKinnon! Sandpiper. It's sandpiper, don't forget."
"Thank you," said Maggie.
A confused Daisy stepped onto the moving flight of stairs and inquired, "What's sandpiper, Mag- I mean, Professor?"
"The password to your common room, Gryffindor Tower. It's this way."
Two tapestries, four staircases, and five corridors later they arrived in front of a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.
"Password, please," she requested. By now, things like talking pictures didn't phase Daisy. She had seen lots of strange things over the summer.
"I can't go in," Maggie said. "Teachers who are not head of house are not allowed. Remember to go to the fifth year girl's dorm."
"Goodbye, Maggie," Daisy said, she suddenly started to feel a little scared of going in alone.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Maggie said, forgetting to tell her off for not addressing her properly. She pulled Daisy into a hug, surprising her a bit. She realized she hadn't been hugged like this since her mother.
She squeezed her eyes then turned to the fat lady.
"Sandpiper," she offered, and the lady swung forward exposing a hole through which she could see a warm looking room brightened with a roaring fire. Big, red armchairs which Daisy thought looked awfully comfortable were positioned around the room. She turned back to Maggie who gave her an encouraging smile.
Daisy climbed through the hole and the fat lady swung back, concealing the hallway. No one was left in the common room. She saw a spiral staircase, which was probably where the bedrooms were.
Before she ventured up them, she decided to look around. Suddenly, with a 'pop', something appeared by the fireplace holding a log poker. It was an elf like creature with ears the size of cloth napkins.
When it turned and saw Daisy, who had been standing and staring frozen to the spot, its face fell.
"Topper is sorry, Miss. I is leaving now. I is sorry to have bothered you," she squeaked.
"Oh, that's okay," assured Daisy. She hoped the elf thing wouldn't burst into tears as her tennis ball eyes seemed to be threatening to do, and wake everyone up. "You don't have to go."
"What is m-mother going to say? House elves is, is not supposed to be seen," she sobbed.
"Don't cry, um, Topper," Daisy said trying to be comforting. She made a mental note that unstable elf creatures with large eyes and tidying supplies were called house elves. "I'll just go to bed now. Don't feel bad."
"Yes, Miss. Topper is so, so sorry!" she said shakily.
"No problem," Daisy whispered carefully then took off for the stairs.
At the top the hallway split into two parts. Daisy followed the one whose sign indicted "Girls." She read the plaques adorning maple doors until she found the one she was looking for: FIFTH YEARS.
She grabbed the doorknob and pushed it in. There were six four poster beds. Red velvet curtains hung around them. Three of them were already occupied.
The curtains moved and Daisy saw the face of Lavender's blond friend. She hadn't thought about this, but since they were the same age, Lavender would be her roommate.
"What are you doing here?" she asked hostilely.
Before Daisy could reply that she lived here, another girl opened her curtain and said, "Oh do shut up, Parvati. Professor McGonagall told us we were getting a new person." It was the bushy-brown haired prefect from the train. She turned to look at Daisy.
"Sorry about her. I'm Hermione Granger," she said. Daisy thought she was nice enough.
"Daisy Peterson," Daisy said smiling. Hermione pointed at something furry at Daisy's feet. She hadn't noticed it.
"That's Crookshanks. Watch out for him. He's been known to, er, jump on people's heads, but at heart he really is nice." Daisy backed away a little.
"Yeah, sure," Parvati said skeptically. Daisy noticed Lavender hadn't said anything. She must have been sleeping or pretending to be.
"You can have whichever bed you want because we really should go to sleep," Hermione suggested. "I want to be wide awake for arithmancy tomorrow!"
"Know-it-all," Parvati said, failing miserably to hide it within a cough.
Hermione chose to ignore it. "I'm so glad to finally share a room with someone of substance."
"Me too," Daisy said. She got her trunk, which she had just noticed was already in the room, and brought it to the foot of the bed to the left of Hermione's, closest to the door and farthest from Lavender.

The next morning, Daisy's eyes popped open at the sound of an alarm clock.
"I got it," someone yawned.
"Hit snooze," another voice suggested hopefully.
"No, we can't be late on our first day!" That was definitely Hermione. Daisy was getting the impression that she was nice, but also overly, if not obsessively responsible.
She opened her velvet curtain. Light was pouring in from a single window across the room. Hermione already had her robes on, but Parvati was just sort of rolling around in the sheets. Daisy sat up then got out of bed. She wasn't tired at all. She opened her trunk and pulled out clean robes and her wand.
Lavender had already taken the bathroom so Daisy brought them back to her bed and drew the curtains. A few moments later she reappeared, fully dressed. She grabbed her hairbrush and started running it through her hair.
"What time do classes start, Hermione?"
"Nine, but breakfast goes until eight fifty," she said. Daisy glanced at the clock. Seven fifty-eight it said.
They finished getting ready and started to leave. Parvati had just gotten out of bed and Lavender was still in the bathroom.
They walked down the hall and stairs to the common room. Thankfully, it was house elf free.
"Hermione?" Daisy said.
"Yeah," she replied.
"I saw the weirdest thing last night. I was just walking in when this thing, I think it said it was a house elf." Hermione humphed and frowned. "Anyway, it was really surprised. She acted like she'd just killed her own puppy just for letting me see her."
"I can't believe Dumbledore still has house elves. He must be my second favorite person in the world, but still."
"Who's your favorite?" Daisy asked mischievously.
Hermione blushed pink and said quickly, "Er, nobody. We should get moving."
Daisy chuckled and said, "If you say so."
The Great Hall was packed. Daisy saw Davey and headed over. Hermione followed. It was an interesting feeling, Daisy decided, to be followed. She had been trailing others since yesterday and no one ever followed her at her old school.
"Hi, Davey!" she called out.
"Hi," he replied. He was sitting next to another first year boy. Daisy noticed that they had a clear view of the Ravenclaw table and Jasmine Ali.
"How was Dumbledore?"
"Good," Daisy said vaguely. She thought he'd probably been better, what with Voldemort running free. She decided that she would at least mentally if not verbally refer to You-Know-Who with his proper name.
"She's great isn't she?" Davey mused. Daisy raised her eyebrows while poor confused Hermione stood there.
"Who's your friend?" she asked Daisy.
"Oh!" Daisy said, remembering that she had forgotten her manners.
"Davey, Hermione. Hermione, Davey," she said, gesturing to them in turn. "Who's your friend?" she asked Davey.
They boy next to Davey, also blond but more of a golden shade, looked up at them.
"This is David," Davey said.
"Well that's kind of cute," Hermione said. "Kind of confusing though, too. David, Davey, Daisy." She trailed off a little.
"Hmm." Daisy said. Davey's eyes wandered back to the Ravenclaw table. "See you later Davey." They moved to the other side of the table and grabbed some toast, Daisy sitting on one side and Hermione on the other.
"I wonder where Ron and Harry are," Hermione said.
"Who?" Daisy asked just as a boy with flaming red hair started to sneak up behind Hermione. It was the boy Daisy had seen Hermione with on the train. He put his fingers to his lips to signal, "Don't tell."
Hermione didn't suspect a thing so when he grabbed her shouting, "Boo!" she nearly fell of her chair.
He sat down in a chair next to her. A black boy across from him was laughing hard with his friend.
"Smooth, Hermione," he said.
"That was great, Ron!" said his friend.
"That wasn't funny," Hermione insisted. "You shouldn't do things like that, you know, these days. What would Harry say?" Ron's grin faded a little. A boy with messy black hair and glasses came up behind them.
"What would I say about what?" he asked.
"Nothing," Ron and Hermione chimed together. Harry stared at them. Hermione turned to Daisy. "This is Daisy, she's a new student."
"Hi," said Ron.
"Hi," said Harry, looking into Daisy's eyes. There was an odd scar on his forehead, but his eyes held Daisy's attention. They were green and sparkly, painfully familiar, but she couldn't figure why. He was also looking at her perplexed.
"Do," he said, confused, "do I know you?"
"I don't know," Daisy said. She was also sure she'd seen him somewhere. "I grew up in Godric's Hollow."
"Oh, Little Whinging," Harry said. "It's just you look so familiar. Something in the eyes."
"Me too," Daisy cried. She finally took her eyes off Harry and noticed Hermione and Ron were looking at them like they were crazy.
"Earth to Harry," Ron said. Harry looked at him blankly. "We've got Divination, so we better go." A disgusted look came over his face.
"Alright," Harry said. "See you at lunch, Daisy."
"Yeah, bye," Ron said.
"Bye," Daisy said. Then she looked at Hermione. "We should probably go too. Do you know where the library is?"
Hermione laughed.

A few minutes after the bell, Madam Pince looked down at Daisy from her hooked nose. She hadn't yet acknowledged her existence.
"Are you to ready to begin Miss Peterson?" she asked.
"Yes," Daisy said.
"First some history on Kwikspell. It is generally taken as a correspondence course, but it can also be completed in a few days of intensive training," she said. "You, obviously, will take the intensive training route." She breathed and cleared her throat. "Squibs like you usually have trouble grasping the basics. Our first lesson we will cover holding the wand."
After three hours of intensive training Daisy had learned about holding a wand, flick and swish movements, and enunciating a spell. Daisy took a lunch break.
In the Great Hall she met Hermione, Ron, and Harry.
"How was Arithmancy and Divination?" she asked.
Ron looked at her and said, "Let's just put it this way, never take Divination."
"I've always said," reminded Hermione, "drop Divination and take up Arithmancy. Professor Sinastra is brilliant."
"I'd rather not," Ron said. "At least we didn't get any homework."
"I can't take any extra classes this year, anyway," said Daisy.
Harry was sort of staring into his ham sandwich. He always seemed to be lost in thought. He looked almost old, like he'd been through a lot.
The trio had Transfiguration next so Daisy headed back to the library for her next Kwikspell lesson, but she was ambushed by Hibou.
"Hello," she said. They were all alone. "How come you didn't show up at breakfast with the other owls?"
"I had a postal emergency involving your emergency post. You got a letter from a convicted killer. Do you happen to be in touch with Sirius Black?"
"Yeah, I guess. He was a friend of my biological parents," Daisy said, she felt a little confused. "Did you say he killed someone?"
"Yes!" Hibou exclaimed. "He escaped the wizard prison, Azkaban, and is wanted by the ministry. He killed a wizard and a load of muggles right after You-Know-Who came out of power. He was one of his followers."
"No!" Daisy said, horrified.
"Yes. You should show the letter to Dumbledore as soon as you get it," he advised.
"Where is it?"
"In the owlery, I had to snatch from this rough looking owl," he said, shuddering.
"I'll get it later," Daisy promised. "Right after this lesson."
"Okay," he agreed, "I'll hunt you down if you don't."
"I'm going to be late!" Daisy said, looking at her watch. She hustled to the library, arriving just in time.
She tried to concentrate on saying a spell in the right tone and aiming her spells, but it was apparent she wasn't focusing really. She ended up having to write a page long summary of what she had learned and a list of eight tips to remember spells. As soon as class was over, she tracked down Hermione and asked to see the owlery.
They got there and the sun was just setting. Long shadows were cast all around, and beams of colorful sunset light were pouring through the loose boards of walls. The rafters and rafters of owls hooting softly made the whole place seem eerie.
"Do you need to send a letter?" Hermione asked.
"Actually I'm expecting one," Daisy replied.
"Owl post usually arrives in the morning at breakfast," Hermione said knowingly.
"I'll just check," Daisy said, looking for her own brown owl. "Hibou?" she called, and then just in case she added, "I brought a visitor to see you."
From the shadows, out glided Hibou carrying the envelope in his claw. Daisy quickly took it from him and covered the address. She didn't want Hermione to think she was involved with a magical criminal.
"Who's it from?" asked Hermione, she seemed very surprised that Daisy had actually gotten her letter.
"Er, nobody," Daisy said quickly, almost too quickly.
"Oh I see," Hermione said slyly. "You don't have to tell me." At first Daisy thought she actually knew that she was corresponding with a fugitive, and about had a heart attack, but then she realized that Hermione thought she had a boyfriend. She let her think what she wanted to.
"I, um, kind of want to read it privately," Daisy tried.
"Okay," Hermione replied in a secretive type of tone. She didn't seem hurt or insulted, just really happy to be let in on something like this. "I'll just see you back in the common room. Can you find your way back?"
"I'll manage," Daisy said and grinned. "Thanks."
Hermione started down and Daisy took the letter from its envelope. There were two pages. She unfolded them. Hibou settled down on her shoulder as he habitually did when she got a letter and Daisy read:

Dear Daisy,

I said I would be in touch so here I am. I found out that
you've gone to Hogwarts; that will make explaining all of this much
easier. First, as you might have heard, I am an escaped prisoner of
Azkaban, but I am innocent. Dumbledore knows and trusts me; you can
ask him if you don't, but before you do please finish this letter.
I need to give you some information about yourself. I was
trying to tell you at the funeral, but I saw someone I knew so I had
to leave before he recognized me.
As I told you, your parents were murdered. But it was Voldemort
who did it. After he attacked I assumed you were dead as well, and
no one else knew to look for you. This is because of a Fidelus
charm. If you haven't heard of the Fidelus Charm it is a spell that
hides a piece of information inside a Secret-Keeper. No one can find
out the secret unless the Secret-Keeper dies or willingly reveals
it.
In your case, I was the Secret-Keeper, as well as your
godfather. Your parents were enemies of Voldemort when you and your
brother were born. They decided when they found out that you were a
squib that they would hide the fact that they had a daughter so
Voldemort wouldn't have any extra reason to hurt you or the family.
That information has been kept inside of me ever since. It wasn't
meant to be hidden for this long and you deserve to know who you
are, but now more than ever I think you should keep it to yourself.
Dumbledore, I'm sure, has told you that Voldemort is back. You could
be a prime victim because of your ability and identity. I don't want
to scare you, but I'm worried for you. If you and I keep the secret
from everyone, and I mean everyone, the spell will keep anyone else
from figuring it out and you will be safe.
Now when you read this it may seem obvious, but the spell never
fails. You're parents are James and Lily Potter and your brother is

Daisy flipped the page.

Harry Potter.

From,
Sirius

A/N: Now she knows, and you know, and no one else knows. That's
great, just great!
Please review, please. Thank you!