"You'll actually write to me this year, then? Twice a week, like you promised?"
"Of course I will," Daisy Dursley said for what felt like the millionth time that morning. Her and her father were standing on the muggle side of Platform 9 ¾ saying their goodbyes, which were turning out to be as taxing as usual.
"I'll believe that when I see it," Dudley muttered, before he let out a sigh and pulled his daughter in for a hug, which Daisy hated. Still, she held on for a few moments, before his grip became near suffocating.
"Come on dad, I'll see you in a few months," she protested weakly, finally pulling away from his grasp and smiling wryly. "And I really will write."
He smiled back warily, but nodded his head. "Alright then, off you go."
She was more than ready to push her trolley through the gateway and be back in the Wizarding World, but she caught the lonely look on her fathers' face and she felt a pang of regret. She took a quick step towards him, and wrapped her arms around his neck one last time.
"I love you," she said quickly, pulling back before he actually had a chance to respond.
"Right then," he replied, his posture stiffening slightly at the sentimental tone the conversation had taken, "Have a safe trip."
Daisy nodded her head once and smiled at that, and then turned away and walked straight into the solid brick wall, successfully crossing over to her world.
She immediately saw her extended family standing in the middle of the crowded station. Her Aunt and Uncle were saying their goodbyes to James, Al, and an excited looking Lily, and Daisy considered stopping by to say hello. That thought left her head the moment it entered, as she realized that they were standing in the middle of Weasley pack, with Molly right beside them.
As much as Daisy appreciated the elder woman's fussing, she really didn't think she could handle any more hugging in one day, so she opted to head straight for the train and wait for her friends in a compartment.
She realized quickly that most of the rooms were occupied, either by bags left behind to save seats or by groups of people ready to depart. She was considering moving somebody's bag out of a compartment and taking it over for herself, but decided against it a moment later, knowing that Roxanne would disapprove.
Instead, she kept walking down the hallway and eventually came across an empty room. She stepped inside and struggled for several moments, before she finally got her trunk safely stored in the overhead unit and heaved a sigh of relief, collapsing onto the bench.
While she waited for her friends she pulled out her phone to distract herself, and was pleased to find that she still had service. She checked Facebook and then sent a final goodbye message to her father ('Does this count as letter #1 for the week?'), and then opened Candy Crush. No matter how great magic was, she'd never understood why wizards refused to adapt muggle technology.
A few minutes after the train's horn rang out signalling its last call, the door to her compartment flew open courtesy of James Potter, who was using his wand to levitate his trunk behind him.
"Whatever happened to 'no magic outside of school'?" Daisy asked, eyebrows raised as she watched her friend levitate his trunk effortlessly into the same storage unit that she'd struggled with earlier.
"We're on our way to school- its close enough," James shrugged, dropping down into the seat across from her and snatching the phone out of her hands in the process. "You mind?"
"Do I have a choice?" she retorted, though she ended her protesting there. She knew how amazed he was by muggle technology, and she found it infinitely amusing.
Before he actually had a change to answer, the compartment door swung open again and an out of breath girl leaned against the door. "Thanks for the help James, really," Roxanne Weasley said, directing the sarcastic comment towards her cousin, who didn't even bother to look up.
"You've got a wand- you're just too chicken to use it."
"Some of us plan on graduating before we get arrested," she said, before turning to Daisy with a mock-stern expression on her face, which was usually reserved for imitations of her grandmother. "Honestly, he would be in Azkaban by now if it weren't for us."
"Possibly even dead- or at least locked up in St. Mungo's," Daisy agreed, returning her best friends smile and ignoring James' protests, before standing up and wrapping her arms around the girl. It was the first time she'd seen Roxanne in months, so the occasion warranted a hug.
"Neither of you hugged me," James pouted, as they parted and Roxanne sat down beside him and rested her feet on the bench beside Daisy. "Glad to know you care."
Roxanne said, "I saw you last night," at the exact same time that Daisy said, "We don't."
"Thanks guys, really."
"I've seen you almost every week this summer," Daisy said, rolling her eyes slightly at her friends' dramatics. "Roxanne's been in Romania. There's a bit of a difference."
"I went to Romania as well," James said indignantly, looking back at forth at the two girls with an incredulous look on his face. "I just had to leave after a week. I had other responsibilities. We can't all spend out summers running around dragon conservatories, now can we?"
"Responsibilities? Is that the nice way of saying that you had to babysit Al and Lily?" Daisy asked with raised eyebrows. James matched her expression, the way he always did when he felt he was being challenged.
"Yeah well, seems you've been quite busy as well," he smirked, before flashing her the screen of her phone, which was currently opened to a conversation. "Who's this Will Fitzgerald bloke?"
Roxanne made a noise that was somewhere between scandalized and excited, while Daisy's eyes widened slightly as she realized what James had been reading. "Give me that," she demanded, lunging for the phone a moment too late, as James had already handed it over to Roxanne, who held it out of her reach mercilessly.
"He's cute, I guess. Not really my type," Roxanne shrugged after a moment, before finally handing the phone back to Daisy, smirking slightly. "And he's going to miss you."
"What-" Daisy cut herself off, glancing at her phone and realizing how James had found out about the boy in question. He'd sent her a text a few minutes ago.
Will Fitzgerald, 11:07- Daisy, would you just return my messages already? I hate to end things the way we did. I just want to talk.
"It was nothing," Daisy said quickly, though one look at her friends told her that they didn't buy it. "He lives down the street from my dad and we… reconnected this summer, is all."
"Just how much reconnecting did you do?" James asked, getting a shove from Roxanne as a response.
"That's none of your business," Roxanne defended her, though the glance she threw Daisy's way was more than a little bit curious.
Daisy shrugged. "We went out a couple of times- mostly just made out. He's not the best at conversations- or much else that involves having a brain, I suspect."
James snorted at that. "What's he mean, 'I hate to end things the way we did?'" he asked, showing just how thoroughly he'd read her messages.
"Suppose he thought we were soulmates or something. He was a tad upset when I broke it off," Daisy said, brushing over what had actually occurred. She'd liked Will more than she was willing to let on. She'd had fun with him during the summer and it hurt her to break up with him, but she knew how badly muggles handled the news of magic, and she knew that he couldn't know about Hogwarts. Instead of elaborating on the situation, she turned to Roxanne. "It was all dreadfully boring, really. Please tell me Romania was more exciting."
Roxanne's entire face light up at that. "It was fantastic," she gushed, "Uncle Charlie is so cool- I mean, I got to hang out with dragons every day."
Daisy smiled at that, and nodded for Roxanne to go on. It was obvious that the girl was excited, and seeing Roxanne get excited was like watching her come to life all over again. Daisy was more than happy to sit back and listen to her friend gush on about dragons, deterring the occasional joke that James made with one of the many snide comments she had resting on the tip of her tongue.
They were interrupted an hour or so later when Roxanne's older brother Fred poked his head into their compartment. He was already donned in his robes, with his Ravenclaw prefect badge shining on his chest and his typical, serious look on his face that melted when he saw his sister.
Daisy was always surprised by how nice his smile was, on the rare occasion that he let it show. Unfortunately, it disappeared when his gaze fell on her and James, before he cut straight to the point. "Have you lot seen Hugo anywhere?" he asked, glancing around the compartment as if he expected the boy to appear at any moment.
"Have you checked with Lily?" James asked, lacking the concern that was clearly present in his older cousin.
"They're in a fight, apparently," Fred replied, in a voice that said he had learned far more about the eleven year old's drama than he'd ever wanted to know.
"What about?" James asked, either not picking up on Fred's irritation, or choosing to ignore it. Either way, it made the situation a lot more amusing for Daisy, who enjoyed nothing more than watching the Weasley-Potter children squabble.
"Apparently they have differing opinions over which houses they'll be sorted into, and retain the idea that you can't be friends with people outside of your house," Fred said evenly, before he turned his level gaze on James. "Do you have any clue where they got that idea?"
"None at all," James replied quickly. The smile he was fighting off said differently. Daisy distinctly remembered James spreading the same rumors the summer before Al had started Hogwarts, and wasn't at all surprised that he'd done the same again.
Still Daisy couldn't help but jump in, taking James' side easily. "I didn't realize that official prefect business involved policing the thought of eleven year olds," she commented, earning a smile from James and a much more petulant one from Fred.
"Normally it doesn't, but seeing as how you three haven't attempted to tear this place apart yet, I've found myself lacking any real work to do," he replied, keeping his tone overly pleasant but dripping with sarcasm.
James and Roxanne laughed at the older boy's deadpan, but Daisy desperately didn't want to give him that satisfaction. "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said, feigning innocence as she stared up at him with wide eyes. It only took a moment for him to let out a snort and roll his eyes, before looking away.
Being best friends with Roxanne meant that her and Freddie had spent a lot of time together over the years, but it definitely did not mean that they got along. Roxanne knew that all too well, and she took pity on her brother for it. "Why are you looking for him anyways?"
"His mum asked me to check up on him. Apparently he's not a fan of trains."
"Funny, I just saw him on his way to the roof- something about Al daring him to ride atop it? He didn't seem particularly scared then," Daisy chipped in, smiling innocently up at him and getting another eye roll in return.
He then ignored her entirely, which didn't surprise anybody.
"If you see him, let him know I'm in a compartment down the hall," he said, directing the comment towards Roxanne, before retreating from the room.
"Of course we will- it'll let him know what area to avoid if he wants to have any fun," Daisy called after him, enjoying the sigh he visibly let out, and the way he shut the door just a little bit harder than necessary. Once he was gone, she turned to her friends. "I see the healers haven't managed to remove the stick out of his ass yet."
James roared with laughter, while Roxanne pursed her lips. "He's not that bad," she insisted. "You just manage to bring out the worst in him."
Daisy beamed at her. "It's a talent."
"Is that what you're calling it these days?" Roxanne asked, though her serious expression gave away to chuckle moments later.
"You haven't seen him all summer; of course you can tolerate him now," Daisy insisted, "Normally come September you're just as ready to kill him as the rest of us are."
"Well maybe I'm trying to change; no more teasing," Roxanne said, with a determination in her voice that slipped a second later, when James raised an eyebrow in appraisal. "I said trying, alright? I didn't say that it'd actually work..."
The conversation flowed easily from there, and they approached Hogwarts faster than anybody had realized. Eventually, Daisy excused herself to change into her robes.
On her way back from the changing cart a flash of familiar red hair caught her eye, and she turned to see a sick looking Hugo Weasley sitting in a compartment by himself. She didn't know the boy well- she'd seen him at a family gathering or two though they'd never really talked- but she didn't want to leave him alone, so she let out a sigh and knocked on the door.
She let herself in when he looked up, and forced a smile on her face. "Hello there," she said, her voice sounding unnaturally gentle, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," he said quickly and insistently, but the way he bit his lip and hugged his arms around his center told Daisy differently. She remembered her first trip on the Hogwarts Express and she remembered feeling the same way.
Still, he'd said he was fine and she was half tempted to leave it at that, but then his bottom lip started to quiver and she cursed inwardly. "You know, Freddie was looking for you earlier; he's just down the hall- I can take you there, if you'd like," she offered, continuing when the boy looked hesitant, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind the company."
That seemed to seal it for the boy. He nodded his head and stood up, reaching for his trunk which Daisy ended up helping him with. "This thing must weigh twice as much as you," she commented as they made their way down the hall, before stopping abruptly in front of the compartment that she assumed was Fred's.
"Go on in then," Daisy prompted, but the boy's face blanched and he froze in place. Assuming that he was simply shy, Daisy stepped around the trunk and peered into the compartment, only to find that Fred Weasley was definitely not alone.
Daisy had heard the rumors that him and Stephanie Vane were interested in each other, but she hadn't realized just how much truth there was to them. The amount of face sucking going on in the compartment left little to the imagination.
She made a mental note of the entire thing, knowing that it would make good blackmail material in the future, before she turned away to face Hugo. The boy was looking more traumatized by the minute, which Daisy sought to fix. "Right then, I guess you'll be coming back to my compartment."
The uncertainty was back on his face, but when she bent to pick up the trunk they'd dropped he grabbed the other end, and then they were back to walking down the hall and back to Daisy's friends.
"Freddie was a bit occupied," Daisy said as way of explanation, dropping back into her seat and waving for Hugo to take the spare one, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Roxanne sent her a questioning look at that, to which Daisy simply shook her head in a way that said 'you don't want to know.'
When the train pulled into the station a little while later, the group of friends opted to avoid the rush, and waited for everybody else to get off before they began to. Hugo, on the other hand, ran ahead of them, running off to find Hagrid with the other first years.
When they finally did get off the train, Daisy saw Fred directing the traffic around the carriages and couldn't help but smirk. This was by far the first time she'd known him to do anything that didn't fit his perfect reputation, and she was going to cherish it for as long as she could.
They got on a carriage eventually and rode it back up to the castle, which was lit up beautifully and looked as welcoming as ever against the backdrop of the cool evening.
As always, Professor Flitwick was waiting at the gates to record their names.
"Hello Professor," Roxanne said amicably, though the aging man didn't return the warmth.
"Names?"
Instead of pointing out the obvious fact that Professor Flitwick had known the three of them for five years, James bowed elaborately. "I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister of Magic and all around very cool person. These are my body guards."
"Impersonating the Minister is a crime, Mr. Potter," the teacher said, finally looking up from his scroll and tisking impatiently.
"I'll tell him that next time I see him. He'll find it hilarious," James said, never above name dropping, as usual. Still, Flitwick looked even less impressed then he had when the conversation started, so Roxanne jumped in and gave him their names.
"Right then, get going," the man dismissed them, turning back to his scroll and leaving the three students to enter the castle.
Daisy was always amazed by how extravagant the place was, though her friends' bickering did cut down on that.
"Honestly, everybody you meet doesn't need to know that you know the Minister," Roxanne chastised, swatting at her cousin's arm, which he easily dodged.
"Well then what's the point in even knowing him?" James protested, prompting a smirk from Daisy, while Roxanne only rolled her eyes.
"So that he can bail you out of prison when you inevitably land yourself there."
"Come on Roxie, you sound like a broken record," James complained, looking to Daisy for back up.
For her part, Daisy just shrugged. Having Harry Potter as a sort-of-uncle, and a distant one at that, had spared Daisy from the lime light that her cousins had grown up in. It also meant that she couldn't relate to a lot of their feelings on the matter, and mostly stayed silent when it was brought up in conversation.
Still, James rarely accepted defeat that easily and looked like he were about to continue on his argument with Roxanne, but was cut off when they arrived at the entrance of the Great Hall, finding that it was already packed. Luckily, there were a few spots near the end of the Gryffindor benches that hadn't been taken up, and that suited Daisy just fine. She sat on the very end, across from James and beside Roxanne, and enjoyed the extra space that the empty seat on her left side allowed her.
Not long after they'd sat down McGonagall tapped on her glass, the sound echoing out across the room and silencing the students almost immediately.
"It's a pleasure to have you all back here this year," the headmistress spoke, her voice carrying across the hall effortlessly and drawing the attention of everybody there. In particular, the first years standing at the front, waiting to be sorted, looked entranced. "Before we can begin the feast, the Sorting Ceremony must commence. Professor Longbottom?"
The man in question stepped forward, pulled out a scroll, and began reading from a long list of names. Daisy grew bored of the whole thing quickly, and took to looking around the room. Nothing particularly interesting was happening, though she did notice Freddy making eyes at Stephanie, and made a mental note that she really would have to bother him about it later.
Eventually Lily Potter's name was called and she was sorted into Ravenclaw. Shortly after that they neared the end of the list, and Hugo Weasley's name was called. The boy looked twice as nervous as he'd been on the train, which was definitely saying something. Professor Longbottom offered him a reassuring smile before he sat on the stool, and then the hat was placed on his head. It only sat there for a moment, before it called out 'Gryffindor,' in a voice that sounded almost bored with how obvious the choice was.
The boy looked shocked, though the expression quickly grew into a pleased one as the entire table burst out into applause. In particular, James and Roxanne and the rest of the Gryffindor Weasley's whistled and whooped loudly, welcome their cousin to the house.
Once the room had quieted down and the hat had moved on to the next student, James leaned in. "You know, I'm happy that he's Gryffindor, but I could have sworn that one would've been Hufflepuff."
Roxanne rolled her eyes at that. "Just because he's quiet, doesn't mean he's a Hufflepuff, really."
"He's not just quiet," James protested, "The boy's afraid of his own shadow, for Merlin's sake."
"That doesn't mean he's not brave; or that he doesn't value bravery," Daisy pointed out, "I mean look at you; you had nightmares for weeks after I showed you The Poltergeist, and you're still Gryffindor."
"Oi- don't say that so loudly; I've got a reputation to uphold," James said, running a hand through his messy hair and looking around to make sure that nobody heard, prompting amused snorts from both his cousins.
"Do you? I hadn't heard," Daisy teased, smirking at the exaggerated gasp that James let out.
"Well then, I'll have to work even harder on it this year."
"I'm sure McGonagall will be pleased to hear that."
"She loves me, I swear! I keep her job interesting," James insisted, and looked like he was about to continue, but it was that moment that the food appeared on platters in front of them, distracting him from whatever else he had been about to say.
They helped themselves to the gratuitous amounts of food, stuffing their faces and leaving little room for conversation. However, Daisy excused herself a little while after that, wanting to get back up to her dorm and beat the crown that normally ensued when one tried to leave the Great Hall after a feast.
Rather than going straight back to the Gryffindor common room, she decided to take the long way back. It involved cutting across the yard, stopping by the owlery, which was one of her favourite places in the castle.
Especially late at night, it was quiet and empty and peaceful. The view was fantastic, and not many people ventured up there without need. She found herself leaning against one of the glassless window sills, staring out at the grounds and breathing in the fresh air, and she felt more at peace than she had all summer.
By the time she made it back to the common room, nearly everybody was in their dorms. She waved to James and a few of the other boys in her year who'd gathered around the fireplace, but didn't stop to talk.
She entered her dormitory quietly, and found that her roommates were already asleep, or getting ready.
She smiled at Alice Bell and Imogen Brown, who were both preparing for bed, and tiptoed past Olivia Perks, who already seemed to be asleep. Her trunks were waiting for her by the bed in the furthest corner, by the bed beside Roxanne's.
She briefly considered unpacking, but the second she sat down she knew that it wasn't going to happen. Her bed was warm and welcoming, and she was asleep within five minutes.
AN- If you're enjoying this story and you want to hear more please let me know! It's a lot of fun to write, but I've never really written characters that are (essentially) OC's before, so I would love all of the feedback I can get!