Sometimes people who are associated with important or famous people are not mentioned in the real story. They are mere plot advancers and are not required in a story for everything to happen the way it is supposed to happen. Stories are changed, or bits and pieces are not mentioned. Sometimes, though, a minor person's story is told, to reveal what really happened.
One day, the story will be revealed. That day is today.
The Little One
The most beautiful things in the world are the most useless - peacocks and lilies, for instance.
John Ruskin
Chapter One
I remember those days when I was the little one. Everyone seemed to be so much older than me. Lily was ten, Petunia sixteen, Rose seventeen, and I was eight. Being the last, and the youngest, I was named after a small flower. Daisy. When I got older, I grew tired of the name, thinking how girlish it sounded to the human ear. I refused to be called Daisy in school, referring to myself as Dai instead. It sounded wonderfully neat, and I wished that my parents would call me the same. Rose and Lily would call me Dai, since they thought it sounded much more grown up than Daisy, and Petunia would laugh, pat me on the head, and say in a voice that one might talk to a two year old, "Aww, widdle Daisy is so cuute." I would scowl back and refuse to talk to her for days after.
Everything changed a year later. Lily went off to a special boarding school, my parents said something about Lily being special, she had magic in her veins and a brain atop her head. At the time I shrugged, it meant nothing to me, I was just nine at the time, I didn't understand what they were talking about.
Rose moved out, and I was left with Petunia. I spent more and more time in my room than normal after that, refusing to do anything with my sister who refused to say a kind thing about any of her siblings. She would sometimes come into my room and rant about how Lily was such a queer one. It was a year that I had to endure alone, and I hated every minute of it. I practically ran to school everyday, making sure I wouldn't have to see her in the morning, skipping breakfast, and coming home late.
I was relieved when summer came. Lily came home, and we heard all of her adventures at her new school. Her new friends, the classes she was taking, and all of the neat stuff the "Wizarding world" was experiencing. I was fascinated.
I had no clue what she was talking about at the moment, but yet I stayed fascinated, awaiting her letters that she promised to write. I read each and every one over and over again whenever I was bored. She was my favorite sister, and I wished that I could be doing what she was doing.
The next summer she didn't come home, since my parents sent her to a summer program for what she called "muggles." She wrote less and less often, as she became a teenager and had the problems of a teenager.
I was so wrapped up in her life, when she would write it was less about school and magical activities, and more about her love life or her friends. I began to throw away her letters in disgust and started to lay in bed all day, reading books about people who I wished I was. Heroines and adventurers. I could live all my life in that world of magic, if only I was magical.
It was that one day that I realized my destiny. It was nearing my birthday, I was eager about presents, my party, and being eleven. I practically counted down the days, and when there were no more days to count, I counted down the hours, minutes, and seconds. I was ready to be a year older, a year more mature. Petunia had already gone off to college, and my parents had to deal with only one small child.
It was three… two… one… and I was eleven. I bounced with excitement, but then I heard a soft tapping at my window. Surprised by the sound, I jolted forward, but steadied myself and made my way over to the window.
I knew about how Lily sent her letters, since she sent them so often, so I opened the window. A bright, white owl flew in. A snowy owl, Lily always said she wanted one, but she instead had a barn owl. He dropped a letter on my bed, sniffed indignantly, and then swooshed out the window.
My heart pounded and I felt flushed, almost in a sick way. I slowly picked up the letter, and read who it was addressed to. I read with awe, my own name, my own address, and the seal on the back, which was done with red wax, the crest of Lily's school. My heart was now in my throat as I lifted the seal, making sure not to tear it, and pulled the letter out.
I was accepted at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. I dropped the letter, and clutched my covers on my bed and brought them up to my chest. I was accepted? Me? I could barely believe it. I reread the whole letter again, and then once again sat on my bed, amazed. I leapt out of bed and hop-skipped around my room, then plopped back into my bed again. I threw the letter up in the air and did a small cry of joy. The excitement overwhelmed me, and I quickly fell back onto my bed, my breaths quick and painful. I coughed and then rolled out of bed, snatching the letter in the process, and ran out of my room.
My parents were as shocked as I had been. Lily wouldn't find out a week until school started, she had been sent to a summer school program, or what she called, "Muggle shit school." Basically, my parents decided that she should also learn the normal things in life. Lily wasn't very happy about the whole situation, but she was promised that she could stop the program after she was sixteen. Lily still wasn't happy, but she didn't want anymore of it, so she didn't complain.
It was a month until school started. My parents sent a letter to Rose, telling her the good news. She sent me a 20 pound note, and I clutched it in my hands as though I had found buried treasure. They also sent a letter to Lily, who didn't reply. I sighed, she used to be the best sister I had. Hopefully school would be different.
I celebrated my birthday with my parents. Let's just say that I wasn't the most popular girl in school, friends were not my specialty. My parents weren't rich, and my presents were few. I received a white gold necklace, a small pearl at the end of it, my Grandma had put it in her will for me before she died. Later on in the day, my parents took me out. The neighbor's black cat had kittens, and I got to choose one of them. I picked him out of the mound of black and white kittens. Out of the seven kittens, he was one of three boys. He was pure black, only a tiny white spot was on his right ear. I had hugged him tight to my chest, and he had reached up and smacked me on the nose. I laughed, he was perfect for me. Playful.
He was more of a friend than a pet, and I would have one-sided conversations with him late into the night. I guess at the time I felt like it was more two-sided, and he was just listening and every once in a while I would pause, waiting for his answer, and in my head think of his reply. It always was a kind thought or phrase. They were usually from a book or story that I had heard from.
A week before school started, Lily came home. She said she never received the letter, and it must have gotten lost in the post. From the look in her eyes, I knew she was lying. I guess she couldn't think of anything to say to me about the matter, but was always on the phone in her room.
Oh yes… the phone… I remember answering it once. I can't believe my ears survived the blast. "IS LILY THERE!?" It was like the person on the other end was thick or something. I would hold it out away from my ear and call for Lily, and she would always come running. She stayed on the phone a lot. It was her lifeline to the Wizarding world, without owling someone.
We went to Diagon Alley five days before September first. I bought all of my school supplies, and even a magical drawing set, which my parents said was an additional birthday gift. Draw whatever you want with the pen, and then whisper the magical words, while pointing your wand at the paper, and it becomes alive. Draw a stick person, and give it life, it walks around on your paper, thought bubbles occasionally popping up and (depending on how well you drew it) saying nasty things, nice, or romantic things to you or a blob on the paper. It amused me.
September first took a while to come, and I was eager to get on the train. I guess Lily wasn't, she seemed to be upset that she had to share her little getaway with me. I would shrug at the time, and remember all of the times she let me tag along with her and her friends. She would do the same, I knew it, even if she was a big bad Third Year, and I was a little First Year. I could be as grown up as they, probably even more.
When I tried to follow her into the compartment she went into, she just gave me one of those looks, and said in a sarcastic voice, "I'm sorry, this one's full." Sure, that made me feel wanted. It was full, but I could fit, I was small, I was Daisy…. I felt so unwanted that I wandered in a compartment full of new students, like myself, and sat in the corner of the seat and read my book the whole way there, purposely ignoring the questions they aimed at me.
I was being antisocial. I was an antisocial eleven year old.
Ferret3136: Okay, first chapter done. I've changed a bit in all of the chapters, it turns out a screwed up a few bits, but good thing no one really noticed.
