Back to Basics

"Very good, Daisy!" Iris said as they stood in the backyard. Daisy had managed to produce a shield around Jamie and herself simultaneously. "Now… your other brothers."

Daisy looked to her left, seeing Alan and Remus standing and looking bored. She closed her eyes and reached inside, feeling the power swirling within her. She then pushed out with all the mental force that she could, imagining translucent orbs enveloping her brothers.

It had been a couple months now that Daisy and Jamie had been working with Iris attempting to harness the various abilities they now had. Both had gotten good at orbing and wandless magic by now – barely having to think about it. But creating shields was proving more difficult. They could protect themselves easy enough, but when it came to protecting others it got tricky.

They could do about two or so at a time, but Daisy was finding it difficult to focus. She could either produce a shield or fire off a hex, but not both at once. And she struggled to get more than two going.

Iris had taken to having Alan and Remus stand in so the two could practice shielding others. As it was often slow work, they ended up just standing there most of the time waiting for one or the other to envelope them in an orb of sorts. Iris did her best to keep both Daisy and Jamie encouraged, but she could tell Daisy was becoming more and more frustrated.

Having Remus make snide comments about how he'd rather be anywhere else but there certainly wasn't helping. He was becoming increasingly disgruntled with every lesson he was required to attend.

"Almost got it," she heard her mother say.

"How much longer do we have to stand here as guinea pigs?" Remus asked.

"Remus," Iris warned. Daisy could feel her hold starting to falter. "Just focus, Daisy. You're almost there."

"Kind of hard when Remus won't shut it," Daisy griped.

"Just, we don't have any special powers, so I don't understand why we need to waste time out of our days here," Remus replied.

"Remus!" Iris shouted. Daisy grunted slightly as she felt her hold come completely undone. She opened her eyes and glared at her brother. "I told you, we need you all to help them. They need to be able to create and hold multiple shields at once."

"Well, we're obviously not helping much," Remus said.

"Maybe if you stopped complaining so much I could concentrate. That would help loads," Daisy shouted.

"Oh? Maybe you're just not meant to get it," Remus shouted. Daisy's eyes flashed red.

"Remus, mate. I think you ought to back up a bit," Alan said softly, starting to back up himself.

"Christ, Alan. She'll throw a hex and Mum'll undo it. Nothing we haven't seen before," Remus said. Daisy felt something bubble in her as she began silently fuming. It started in her core and then quickly spread throughout her body.

"Just shut up, Remus," Daisy said, her eyes starting to glow unnaturally.

"Why, Daisy?! Because quite honestly I'm sick of all this," he said, starting to walk towards her.

"Remus, seriously, do you not see what she's doing?" Alan said. Jamie and Iris started moving towards her.

"She's fine, Alan," Remus shouted looking back at him.

"Daisy, darling, come back to us," Iris said cautiously.

"Stop coddling her, Mum," Remus said.

At that moment, something snapped inside Daisy.

"Remus just shut up!" she shouted. There was a rush of wind that seemed to fly from her. Remus turned to look at her just as it hit him, launching him about five feet into the air. Just as it started to reach Alan, Iris threw up a shield around him as he watched his brother fly passed him and hit the ground with a thud.

Iris, Jamie and Alan were silent as Daisy started breathing heavily. Her eyes returned to normal as she realized what she did. She looked up at Alan, whose eyes were wide with fear. She then looked over at her mother and Jamie, both worried. Jamie ran over to Remus and started to help him up. Tears started pricking her eyes as she watched Jamie try to take stock of whatever injuries Remus might have. Remus, on the other hand, just glared at his sister.

"You okay?" Jamie asked Remus. Iris started walking over to Daisy.

"Darling-"

"Don't touch me!" Daisy shouted. She then disappeared.

"Nice work, Remus," Alan said, glaring at him.

"What's that supposed to mean? She threw me in the air!" he shouted.

"Because you goaded her. Couldn't you just lay off a bit?" Jamie said. Remus scowled at him and stalked off into the house.

"Sorry. Didn't realize the little princess had such a short fuse," he called out behind him. Iris sighed as she watched him go.

"What are we going to do with him?" she muttered to herself.

"He's just… I suppose he's a bit jealous," Alan said. "He'll get over it soon enough."

"You think?" Jamie asked, looking over at Alan.

"We can only hope. Otherwise the flat's gonna get a mite too unbearable," he said. Jamie sigh.

"Maybe you should go patch him up, Alan? Don't think he'll care too much to see me," he said. Alan nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to him," he said before walking into the house. Jamie looked at his mother, whose brow was furrowed.

"I've never seen him like this before," she said softly. "He's always been so… happy-go-lucky. Where is this anger coming from?"

"Years of everyone overlooking him and Alan for me and Daisy, I suspect," Jamie said. Iris looked at him.

"And here I thought once you all became adults I would worry less about you," she said with a sigh.

"Please, Mum. We both know there's no way you'd ever stop worrying about us," he said with a smile. Iris chuckled and looked back towards the house.

"Suppose I should go check on him. Can you go see to your sister? Make sure she doesn't blow up the flat or something," she asked. Jamie nodded.

"Don't worry, I'll calm her down."

Daisy reappeared in the middle of flat and immediately started pacing.

"Oh, there you are. Thought you guys were supposed to be back about 30 minutes ago," John said, walking out into the living room. Daisy stopped pacing and stared at her boyfriend, shocked. She had completely forgotten he was coming over for dinner that night.

"Ah, I'm so sorry. Must of slipped my mind," she said. John sighed.

"Where are the triplets?" he asked.

"They should be coming soon," she said. "I think, anyway."

"Where are you guys always popping off to?" John asked.

"Just, ehm, helping Mum out with some stuff," Daisy said, walking over to the kitchen. John studied her and then grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face him.

"Where did you get that bruise?" he asked, looking at her cheek. Daisy's eyebrows flew up and she touched her cheek gently. She hadn't realized she had it, but must have been from when she was working with her mother and Jamie. Her mother had Remus and Alan throwing things at them, thinking it would help quicken their reaction time with creating shields.

"Must have gotten in it practice," she said, shaking her head and turning to walk to the fridge. John sighed.

"As I recall, you weren't working with the beaters today," he said.

"Well, I'm sorry. I'm not sure how I got it," she said, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge.

"What sort of thing were you helping out with?" John asked, leaning against the fridge.

"Just stuff. Clearing out the garden and the attic," Daisy said offhandedly.

"You've been going over there after practice nearly every day for the past couple of months," he said. "Can't imagine she would have that much work for you to do."

"It's a big house," Daisy said, starting to get annoyed.

"You sure there's nothing you want to tell me?" he asked. Daisy sighed.

"I don't understand why you're acting all suspicious," she said, walking passed him and towards the living room.

"Let's see… ever since the accident you and your family have gone all hush hush. You keep running off to your parents' house. And you won't say anything about it. Sorry if that makes me a bit suspicious," he said, tersely. Daisy sighed and spun around.

"I'm sorry I don't inform you of all the minute details of my family life. How's this? Mum had us degnome the garden and one of the buggers got me in the cheek. Jamie got bite twice while Alan and Remus challenged each other to gnome-off. There. Now you're informed," she said harshly.

"Right. If that's what happened then why didn't you just say so from the beginning? Need time to concoct your story?" he asked.

"Merlin, this is the last thing I need right now," Daisy said, starting to pace again.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't realized degnoming a garden was so stressful," he shouted.

"You have no idea what I'm going through right now."

"I know, because you won't tell me!"

"You don't have to know everything, John!"

"Well apparently Lila gets to know, so forgive me if I'm left here wondering why the woman who tried to destroy your family twice gets let in on the big secret but I have to stay in the dark!"

"How many times do we have to have the same damn argument over and over!" Daisy shouted, starting to lose her cool again. Behind her the windows started to shake slightly as her eyes flashed between green and red – almost as though they were some sort of possessed Christmas lights.

"Until you tell me what's going on!" John shouted back. "I thought I was close to your family. Don't I have a right to know?!"

"I told you I don't want to talk about it!" Daisy shouted. Suddenly the windows all exploded in, showering the living room in shards. John jumped back, his eyes wide as they fell on Daisy.

"Did you do that?" he asked softly. Daisy looked at the windows, finding it hard to breath. She looked back at John, silent. "Your cheek is bleeding." Daisy put her hand to her cheek and quickly ran passed him to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

"Daisy! Let me help you!" he shouted as he walked back and pounded on the door. "Daisy!"

A muffled "Leave me alone" came from within.

"Blimey? What happened?"

John stopped pounding and walked back into the living room, seeing a confused Jamie standing there, looking around at the mess. John sighed and shrugged.

"We got into another fight and then… the windows exploded," he said. Jamie sighed.

"She's been under a lot of stress lately," he said.

"Yea, I know," John replied. "What I don't know is why."

"Look, you just have to trust us on this. We'll tell you when it's time to know," Jamie said. "In the meantime, could you please try and take it a bit easier on her?"

"Should have figured you'd take her side," John said. Jamie scowled at him.

"She is my sister," he said, his voice going cold.

"Whatever. I'm out of here," John said before turning and leaving through the front door.

"What the bloody hell happened?"Alan asked as he and Remus appeared. Jamie sighed.

"John was waiting when she got back. They fought and apparently this happened," he said. "Help me clean it up?" Remus started to say something, but Alan scowled at him and hit him in the arm. Remus frowned at him and then sighed.

"Shouldn't take long with the three of us," he said. They made quick work of cleaning up the glass and replacing it in the windows.

"Reckon one of you should talk to her. She probably won't be too keen on seeing me at the moment," Remus said, glancing between Jamie and Alan.

"Let's both go," Alan said. Jamie nodded and the two of them walked back. Jamie lightly knocked on the door.

"Come in," Daisy said. Jamie pushed the door open and he and Alan stepped in. Daisy was sitting on her bed, hugging a pillow in front of her. Her eyes were bloodshot and her cheeks wet. "I'm sorry about the windows," she said, sniffling. "I'll clean it up."

"It's alright. We've taken care of it," Alan said, sitting next to her on the bed.

"Oh… sorry again," she said.

"Daisy, you don't have to be sorry. We know that you're struggling to control it," Jamie said softly. Daisy gulped.

"But I shouldn't be," she said. "You don't break stuff when you get angry."

"Thank Merlin for that," Alan muttered. Jamie shot him a look as Daisy appeared even more miserable.

"I just… I don't know why it happens. I try to stay calm and keep it under control, but something just… snaps," she said. She looked up . "Did I hurt Remus too badly?"

"A couple bumps, but he's fine," Alan said. "Git deserved it. He was being a prat."Daisy looked over at him.

"But I could have seriously hurt him," Daisy said. Alan chuckled.

"His head is so thick, I highly doubt you'd of done much damage," he said. "He's out in the living room now, doing just fine."

"He must hate me, though," Daisy said glumly.

"He doesn't hate you, Daisy. None of us do," Jamie said softly. "Think you could come out?" Daisy nodded and stood, putting the pillow back on the table. She followed Jamie out, with Alan falling behind her.

Once they stepped out into the living room, Remus looked up from where he was sitting on the sofa. One look at how miserable Daisy was, and whatever anger he had felt earlier seemed to have melted.

"Come here, Pix," he said, motioning her over. Daisy ran over and threw herself on her older brother.

"I'm so sorry, Remus!" she said, starting to cry again.

"There, there, Pix. I'm not not hurt," he said.

"I shouldn't have gotten so angry!" she wailed, causing Remus to chuckle.

"Well, I shouldn't have been snipping at you," he replied. Daisy looked up at him, her eyes a dull gray. "From here out, let's try and be a bit nicer, yea?" She nodded as she hiccuped slightly.

"Evening, Woods!" Wills shouted as he waltzed into the apartment. "What's this? What have you done to upset my dear Pixie?"

"Nothing, just a small sibling spat, but seems to have been dealt with," Alan said, smiling. Wills nodded.

"Where's John? Though we were all doing dinner here?" he said, looking around.

"I don't remember inviting you," Jamie said, smiling slightly.

"You didn't. I invited myself. What are we eating?" he asked, grinning.

"Ehm, how about Remus and I go get some takeout?" Alan said. "We're all a bit beat and I don't think anyone is in the mood to cook." Remus nodded and stood.

"Sounds good to me," Wills said, walking over and sitting next to Daisy. "Shall we watch a movie while we wait?" She smiled and nodded as she mopped her face.

"What do you want to watch?" she asked, reaching over to pick up the remote.

"Something funny," Wills said, making himself comfortable as swung an arm around Daisy's shoulder. She settled in next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder and started to scroll through various movies.

Jamie watched the two as they chatted about different movies.

"You ever think Pix never formed a connection with John because she's meant to have one with him?" Alan asked softly. Jamie looked at his brother and chuckled.

"That would be a hilarious twist of fate," Remus said.

"But I doubt it," Jamie said, looking back at them. "Though if it is, Dad is going to be pissed."

Another chapter. I honestly don't know how I do it, but I'm nearly finished. If only I could write articles this fast...

As always, thanks for reading, following and reviewing!