The Girl Who Lived
Chapter Fourteen:
More than Meets the Eye
The alarm clock screamed like an inexperienced clarinet.
"Snooze, snooze," Daisy groaned. For once Hermione didn't have anything to say about putting off waking up in the morning. In fact, no one was saying anything. Squinting, Daisy grabbed her bedside glasses and shoved them on her face. "The alarm, Parvati," she moaned. No reply. Sighing loudly, Daisy stumbled across the room to subside the blaring racket.
Silence waved over the room as she switched the alarm off. Daisy glanced at her roommates' beds, irritated. Lavender's and Parvati's were empty. Hermione was sitting very still on the edge of hers looking pale and frightened.
"What's wrong?" Daisy said at once and sat down next to her.
"How could you have slept through it?" Hermione asked in monotone.
"What did I sleep through?" Daisy asked.
"It was so creepy," she said. "Even worse than the night at the Hospital Wing."
"What happened," Daisy asked again.
"Lavender, she went mad. I thought she was going to kill somebody," Hermione said. "I don't know what's going to happen. Parvati tried to take her to the Hospital Wing, but I don't know. It was over an hour ago."
"I can't believe I didn't wake up," Daisy said.
"That magical alarm clock is the only thing that can wake you up," Hermione said, suddenly joking. "You snore, too."
"I do not," Daisy said, but she reckoned that she probably did. Her parents used to say she did.
"Well," Hermione said, "I can't miss class for this. It wasn't that bad." She said, shuddering.
"I'm sure Lavender won't be there," Daisy assured.
And Lavender never did show up. For three weeks, she was missing. People were talking about disappearances again, too. But no one really thought that Voldemort was behind Lavender's. Daisy heard rumors about St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. That was the common belief of Lavender's whereabouts. There, in a room with white padded walls. The whole of the school thought that Lavender had cracked and Daisy didn't blame them. They were probably right.
Hermione didn't think to worry about Lavender for too long. She insisted, though it was only February, that she must start studying for her O.W.L.s and encouraged anyone who'd listen to study as well.
Harry and Ron thought this was ridiculous of course. "O.W.L.s aren't for ages and you don't even have to take regular exams!" This was true, as Hermione had won the dueling tournament. Daisy agreed. Not that she didn't need extra work on O.W.L.s, but she had third year exams coming up on March 15th. She needed to reserve her study time for practicing Cheering Charms and Confusing Concoctions.
Fred was always glad to help her with her exams, and took great pleasure in being cheered until the point of hysterical laughter. They spent many afternoons together doing homework.
The middle of March came fast, and Daisy hoped that she would pass her exams. She did extraordinarily well on her Charms after using the Cheering Charm on Fred so much, but her Potions exam could have gone better. She was so nervous her Confusing Concoction let out a rare boom. In Transfiguration, Daisy attempted to transfigure a teapot into a tortoise, but it still had a handle by the time she was through. In Herbology, she was required to replant Professor Sprout's Hydrangulas in the dry, caked dirt. The Defense Against the Dark Arts exam was to curse a dummy three times, but after helping Hermione practice for the tournament, Daisy knew so many curses it wasn't a problem. Overall, she had done well, but she wasn't sure about Transfiguration or Potions.
She walked down from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom to the Great Hall hoping to catch a late dinner when she heard two loud drawling voices.
"I don't need some stupid Dueling Team to protect me," said one of them. It was Alana Malfoy. Daisy ducked behind a statue of a one-eyed hag. "Besides, if what you said is true, then your father, or mine for that matter, won't be happy about this."
"This isn't about Father. And who says he's always right?" said Draco Malfoy. "Anyway, nobody's going to tell him, are they?"
Alana, sounding a tad scared, said, "Of course not. I'm just saying our family has always had good luck when we sided with the Dark Lord."
"Shhh!" Draco said hurriedly. He stared around, looking to see if anyone was there. Daisy hoped she wasn't breathing too loudly. Draco seemed satisfied that they were alone. "You don't want to go shouting that around the school. And on the subject, I'm not quite so sure that I agree with him anymore. I don't want him tearing down the walls of Hogwarts, and I'd help stop him if it came to that."
Alana had nothing to say to argue that. "Just be careful," she said. They left Daisy's portion of the hall so she slipped from behind the statue and down to dinner.
Daisy had her opinions of Draco, but maybe she'd judged too early. She wasn't sure if her friends would forgive him so easily. Apparently, he'd been horrible to them over the past few years. Daisy didn't want to give him too much credit, even if he was shaping up.
Fourth year classes were excruciating. Daisy wasn't sure how'd she'd gotten this far. Every Potions lesson, Snape seemed to want to test the potions on someone. Transfiguration was endless spells, and nothing seemed to work in Charms. She was amazed at how much time Hermione had to study for O.W.L.s when Daisy could barely finish her homework. Daisy knew she would have to start studying for those at some point, too. She was sure she wouldn't get any if they referred to "Ordinary Wizarding Levels," but she would try. She always would try.
One particular essay for Charms was giving her quite a bit of trouble. She worked until nearly midnight before realizing that she needed sleep if she was to get anything done. She borrowed Hermione's wristwatch from Hogsmeade that had a magical personal alarm clock feature, so that she wouldn't bother anyone by waking up at three in the morning and fell fast asleep.
It seemed that the three hours passed in no time before the magical alarm clock woke her up. If it was possible, she was more exhausted than she had been before she went to sleep, but there wasn't anything to help it. She still needed to finish her essay. She lugged herself out of bed and went back down to the common room where her half-written report was waiting.
She was nearly finished two hours later, when she heard someone coming down the spiral staircase.
"Katie is mad. Practice at five in the morning?" said a voice Daisy recognized as Alicia Spinnet, a girl on the Quidditch team.
"I hear you," said another chaser, Angelina Johnson. "I just can't help thinking about Fred. This practice is going to be awkward as usual." Daisy was sure they hadn't seen her yet. She was in a corner with only a candle for light. No one had lit the lanterns and the sun hadn't yet risen through the window.
"Why," asked Alicia. "Did something happen?"
"Of course not," Angelina said. "I just don't understand why he's doing this. If it's to make me jealous, it's working. And that poor fifth year, Daisy, I think," she said. Daisy's ears pricked at the sound of her name. Something was starting to sound suspicious. "We had only been broken up two months before he went to Yule Ball with her."
"It's so sad he's using her like that," Alicia said. Daisy nearly fell out of her chair. Fred had used her? And why was she unaware that Fred and Angelina had once been something more than friends?
"I know. It's just obvious. Everyone knows it except for her. Why does he keep it up, though? She obviously really likes him," Angelina said. "He's just going to end up hurting her. That's why I broke up with him, so he wouldn't hurt me."
Daisy felt a tear sliding down her cheek. She really thought Fred had cared about her. None of it was real. He was a good liar and he was sneaky, she'd always known that. But, she didn't think he would be so low. Why did she ever trust him? How could she look at him ever again? She wanted to take his broomstick and smash him in the head with it a few times.
Angelina and Alicia finally left the common room still chatting. She knew that the other team members would soon be coming down if practice were at five. She grabbed her stuff and ran back upstairs to her room. Unfortunately, she collided with Harry on the way, her books and papers scattered, and her ink bottle smashed.
"I'm sorry, Daisy," Harry said. "I didn't see you coming. Let me help." He bent over to help her collect the salvageable items and saw that she was crying. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Daisy snapped, quickly wiping her tears, mortified.
"Sorry," Harry said. He said a spell to make the ink disappear when someone else started down the stairs. It was Fred.
"Good morning," he said yawnily. "Need any help?" Daisy's blood boiled. How dare he pretend to care? "No, I don't need anything from you," she said icily, and then added, "George." She picked up her books and stalked off to her dormitory. She didn't think her essay would get done now. How would she concentrate?
She positively steamed as she lay in her bed. Hermione wouldn't be up for a while, and Parvati was out cold. Daisy couldn't believe she had been tricked so easily. She never even suspected him.
Two long perilous hours later, the main alarm went off. As usual, Hermione woke briskly and Parvati woke up gloomily. Daisy was already dressed and washed and ready, but she was sure she looked a wreck anyway. The ending of her essay was shaky and probably very confusing, but it was done. Hermione caught sight of her after a moment and her expression changed from ready-to-learn to very concerned.
"What's wrong, Daisy?" Hermione asked. "What did I sleep through?"
"Nothing I was supposed to hear," Daisy said. "Just the fact that Fred is using me to make Angelina jealous."
"He said that?" Hermione asked dramatically.
"Well, Angelina and Alicia were talking about it and I overheard them."
"Are you sure they were right?" Hermione asked.
"They seemed pretty confident about it," Daisy said. "They're all on the Quidditch team."
"So is Ron. He's never said anything about it and they're brothers," Hermione said.
"But it all makes sense this way," Daisy said miserably. "I wish I'd never met him." Hermione put her arm around Daisy's shoulder.
An oblivious Parvati suddenly got up. "The bathroom's mine," she howled and raced to shut the door.
Daisy wasn't sure how she got herself out of the dormitory that morning. All she knew was that she had sat through a horrible Charms lesson and now she was brewing an antidote to something or another, but she couldn't concentrate. Every time she added an ingredient, she couldn't help pretending it was Fred's head about to fall into the boiling pot of liquid. This, of course, resulted in fantastic booms. Fun for the Slytherins who were watching her lose points after every ingredient, not so fun for Daisy.
"If I hear one more boom..." Snape warned. Daisy hardly had to use her imagination to fill in the blank. She had several ingredients left to add, so she tried to clear her mind. Ultimately, she failed, because the next sound she heard was another boom.
"Detention!" roared Snape. "Stop that noise you insufferable squib!" Daisy froze along with the entire classroom. Her face turned a bright shade of scarlet. Daisy could tell by something in Snape's expression that he knew he had gone too far. Still, she wouldn't take that from anyone. She grabbed her books, got up and walked towards the exit.
"Get back here, Ms. Peterson or it will be a week's detention!" Snape snarled. The door of the dungeons slammed shut.
The alarm clock screamed like an inexperienced clarinet.
"Snooze, snooze," Daisy groaned. For once Hermione didn't have anything to say about putting off waking up in the morning. In fact, no one was saying anything. Squinting, Daisy grabbed her bedside glasses and shoved them on her face. "The alarm, Parvati," she moaned. No reply. Sighing loudly, Daisy stumbled across the room to subside the blaring racket.
Silence waved over the room as she switched the alarm off. Daisy glanced at her roommates' beds, irritated. Lavender's and Parvati's were empty. Hermione was sitting very still on the edge of hers looking pale and frightened.
"What's wrong?" Daisy said at once and sat down next to her.
"How could you have slept through it?" Hermione asked in monotone.
"What did I sleep through?" Daisy asked.
"It was so creepy," she said. "Even worse than the night at the Hospital Wing."
"What happened," Daisy asked again.
"Lavender, she went mad. I thought she was going to kill somebody," Hermione said. "I don't know what's going to happen. Parvati tried to take her to the Hospital Wing, but I don't know. It was over an hour ago."
"I can't believe I didn't wake up," Daisy said.
"That magical alarm clock is the only thing that can wake you up," Hermione said, suddenly joking. "You snore, too."
"I do not," Daisy said, but she reckoned that she probably did. Her parents used to say she did.
"Well," Hermione said, "I can't miss class for this. It wasn't that bad." She said, shuddering.
"I'm sure Lavender won't be there," Daisy assured.
And Lavender never did show up. For three weeks, she was missing. People were talking about disappearances again, too. But no one really thought that Voldemort was behind Lavender's. Daisy heard rumors about St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. That was the common belief of Lavender's whereabouts. There, in a room with white padded walls. The whole of the school thought that Lavender had cracked and Daisy didn't blame them. They were probably right.
Hermione didn't think to worry about Lavender for too long. She insisted, though it was only February, that she must start studying for her O.W.L.s and encouraged anyone who'd listen to study as well.
Harry and Ron thought this was ridiculous of course. "O.W.L.s aren't for ages and you don't even have to take regular exams!" This was true, as Hermione had won the dueling tournament. Daisy agreed. Not that she didn't need extra work on O.W.L.s, but she had third year exams coming up on March 15th. She needed to reserve her study time for practicing Cheering Charms and Confusing Concoctions.
Fred was always glad to help her with her exams, and took great pleasure in being cheered until the point of hysterical laughter. They spent many afternoons together doing homework.
The middle of March came fast, and Daisy hoped that she would pass her exams. She did extraordinarily well on her Charms after using the Cheering Charm on Fred so much, but her Potions exam could have gone better. She was so nervous her Confusing Concoction let out a rare boom. In Transfiguration, Daisy attempted to transfigure a teapot into a tortoise, but it still had a handle by the time she was through. In Herbology, she was required to replant Professor Sprout's Hydrangulas in the dry, caked dirt. The Defense Against the Dark Arts exam was to curse a dummy three times, but after helping Hermione practice for the tournament, Daisy knew so many curses it wasn't a problem. Overall, she had done well, but she wasn't sure about Transfiguration or Potions.
She walked down from the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom to the Great Hall hoping to catch a late dinner when she heard two loud drawling voices.
"I don't need some stupid Dueling Team to protect me," said one of them. It was Alana Malfoy. Daisy ducked behind a statue of a one-eyed hag. "Besides, if what you said is true, then your father, or mine for that matter, won't be happy about this."
"This isn't about Father. And who says he's always right?" said Draco Malfoy. "Anyway, nobody's going to tell him, are they?"
Alana, sounding a tad scared, said, "Of course not. I'm just saying our family has always had good luck when we sided with the Dark Lord."
"Shhh!" Draco said hurriedly. He stared around, looking to see if anyone was there. Daisy hoped she wasn't breathing too loudly. Draco seemed satisfied that they were alone. "You don't want to go shouting that around the school. And on the subject, I'm not quite so sure that I agree with him anymore. I don't want him tearing down the walls of Hogwarts, and I'd help stop him if it came to that."
Alana had nothing to say to argue that. "Just be careful," she said. They left Daisy's portion of the hall so she slipped from behind the statue and down to dinner.
Daisy had her opinions of Draco, but maybe she'd judged too early. She wasn't sure if her friends would forgive him so easily. Apparently, he'd been horrible to them over the past few years. Daisy didn't want to give him too much credit, even if he was shaping up.
Fourth year classes were excruciating. Daisy wasn't sure how'd she'd gotten this far. Every Potions lesson, Snape seemed to want to test the potions on someone. Transfiguration was endless spells, and nothing seemed to work in Charms. She was amazed at how much time Hermione had to study for O.W.L.s when Daisy could barely finish her homework. Daisy knew she would have to start studying for those at some point, too. She was sure she wouldn't get any if they referred to "Ordinary Wizarding Levels," but she would try. She always would try.
One particular essay for Charms was giving her quite a bit of trouble. She worked until nearly midnight before realizing that she needed sleep if she was to get anything done. She borrowed Hermione's wristwatch from Hogsmeade that had a magical personal alarm clock feature, so that she wouldn't bother anyone by waking up at three in the morning and fell fast asleep.
It seemed that the three hours passed in no time before the magical alarm clock woke her up. If it was possible, she was more exhausted than she had been before she went to sleep, but there wasn't anything to help it. She still needed to finish her essay. She lugged herself out of bed and went back down to the common room where her half-written report was waiting.
She was nearly finished two hours later, when she heard someone coming down the spiral staircase.
"Katie is mad. Practice at five in the morning?" said a voice Daisy recognized as Alicia Spinnet, a girl on the Quidditch team.
"I hear you," said another chaser, Angelina Johnson. "I just can't help thinking about Fred. This practice is going to be awkward as usual." Daisy was sure they hadn't seen her yet. She was in a corner with only a candle for light. No one had lit the lanterns and the sun hadn't yet risen through the window.
"Why," asked Alicia. "Did something happen?"
"Of course not," Angelina said. "I just don't understand why he's doing this. If it's to make me jealous, it's working. And that poor fifth year, Daisy, I think," she said. Daisy's ears pricked at the sound of her name. Something was starting to sound suspicious. "We had only been broken up two months before he went to Yule Ball with her."
"It's so sad he's using her like that," Alicia said. Daisy nearly fell out of her chair. Fred had used her? And why was she unaware that Fred and Angelina had once been something more than friends?
"I know. It's just obvious. Everyone knows it except for her. Why does he keep it up, though? She obviously really likes him," Angelina said. "He's just going to end up hurting her. That's why I broke up with him, so he wouldn't hurt me."
Daisy felt a tear sliding down her cheek. She really thought Fred had cared about her. None of it was real. He was a good liar and he was sneaky, she'd always known that. But, she didn't think he would be so low. Why did she ever trust him? How could she look at him ever again? She wanted to take his broomstick and smash him in the head with it a few times.
Angelina and Alicia finally left the common room still chatting. She knew that the other team members would soon be coming down if practice were at five. She grabbed her stuff and ran back upstairs to her room. Unfortunately, she collided with Harry on the way, her books and papers scattered, and her ink bottle smashed.
"I'm sorry, Daisy," Harry said. "I didn't see you coming. Let me help." He bent over to help her collect the salvageable items and saw that she was crying. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Daisy snapped, quickly wiping her tears, mortified.
"Sorry," Harry said. He said a spell to make the ink disappear when someone else started down the stairs. It was Fred.
"Good morning," he said yawnily. "Need any help?" Daisy's blood boiled. How dare he pretend to care? "No, I don't need anything from you," she said icily, and then added, "George." She picked up her books and stalked off to her dormitory. She didn't think her essay would get done now. How would she concentrate?
She positively steamed as she lay in her bed. Hermione wouldn't be up for a while, and Parvati was out cold. Daisy couldn't believe she had been tricked so easily. She never even suspected him.
Two long perilous hours later, the main alarm went off. As usual, Hermione woke briskly and Parvati woke up gloomily. Daisy was already dressed and washed and ready, but she was sure she looked a wreck anyway. The ending of her essay was shaky and probably very confusing, but it was done. Hermione caught sight of her after a moment and her expression changed from ready-to-learn to very concerned.
"What's wrong, Daisy?" Hermione asked. "What did I sleep through?"
"Nothing I was supposed to hear," Daisy said. "Just the fact that Fred is using me to make Angelina jealous."
"He said that?" Hermione asked dramatically.
"Well, Angelina and Alicia were talking about it and I overheard them."
"Are you sure they were right?" Hermione asked.
"They seemed pretty confident about it," Daisy said. "They're all on the Quidditch team."
"So is Ron. He's never said anything about it and they're brothers," Hermione said.
"But it all makes sense this way," Daisy said miserably. "I wish I'd never met him." Hermione put her arm around Daisy's shoulder.
An oblivious Parvati suddenly got up. "The bathroom's mine," she howled and raced to shut the door.
Daisy wasn't sure how she got herself out of the dormitory that morning. All she knew was that she had sat through a horrible Charms lesson and now she was brewing an antidote to something or another, but she couldn't concentrate. Every time she added an ingredient, she couldn't help pretending it was Fred's head about to fall into the boiling pot of liquid. This, of course, resulted in fantastic booms. Fun for the Slytherins who were watching her lose points after every ingredient, not so fun for Daisy.
"If I hear one more boom..." Snape warned. Daisy hardly had to use her imagination to fill in the blank. She had several ingredients left to add, so she tried to clear her mind. Ultimately, she failed, because the next sound she heard was another boom.
"Detention!" roared Snape. "Stop that noise you insufferable squib!" Daisy froze along with the entire classroom. Her face turned a bright shade of scarlet. Daisy could tell by something in Snape's expression that he knew he had gone too far. Still, she wouldn't take that from anyone. She grabbed her books, got up and walked towards the exit.
"Get back here, Ms. Peterson or it will be a week's detention!" Snape snarled. The door of the dungeons slammed shut.
