For those of you curious about Pansy's connection to Anna, I may post her story after I finish Petunias. If I do, it will be called Violets, and be a post war story, mainly Pansy's journey if you're interested. It will probably be more of a romance than anything I've posted so far (wlw!) and also have some of Dudley's story, and how he and Anna met. Once I'm done with Petunias (Aiming to be done before May 2022) I'll take a break and assess to see if I want to/am able to continue this series, and if the answer is yes, I'll be working on Violets or on Poppy's story (taking place in Daisy's 3rd year).
To the guest that said they're more invested in Poppy's story than Daisy's, I have to admit I'm more fond of Poppy's character as well. She has tons of potential and I love writing her chapters.
The letter describing the details of Daisy's detention arrived a few days later at breakfast. Why sending an owl was necessary when she would see Professor Patil later in Transfiguration, Daisy didn't know, but several owls arrived carrying cream colored envelopes marked with Patil's narrow penmanship.
Sophia ripped her's open before noticing the outside details, groaning when she saw what it was.
"You got one too? For tomorrow in her office?"
Daisy ripped open her own envelope and unfolded the letter. She skimmed through the writing, ignoring everything except for the noted time and the location: 6:00 that evening, meeting in Professor Patil's office.
"Mines for today. I guess we won't be doing them together."
"Probably for the best. If we're all individually doing detention that means Castle won't be with us either."
Daisy figured she'd rather have Castle there too if it meant she wouldn't have to spend two hours bored without Sophia by her side, but she didn't mention it. Sam ruined Sophia's theory anyway.
He stuck his head between the two of them, peering over their shoulders to read their letters.
"Daisy! We have our detention at the same time!"
"What?" She thought back, trying to remember a reason Sam might have been issued a detention. He hadn't been at the duel and he never acted out as far as Daisy knew. He grinned at her, waiting for her response. Daisy pulled her face back, suddenly noticing just how close he was and finding it more disturbing than friendly, even if he had the best of intentions.
"I got a detention for breaking some things trying to use a spell for a prank during class. I'm glad I won't have to spend the time without a friend. What do you think she'll have us doing? Lines?"
"Dunno," Daisy mumbled. She looked to Sophia for help, but she was staring over at the Slytherin table where Bella Castle was opening her own letter.
"If I have to spend my two hours with her, I'll scream," she said.
Daisy looked for any visible reaction from Castle or Aidair, ignoring Sam taking a seat next to her. Jonathan followed, sitting on his other side, but he didn't seem concerned about the detentions.
"It's not as if you didn't do anything," he pointed out. "You all broke the rules, you all got detention. Whether you're paired up with someone you like or someone you don't, it has to be done. You'll get over it."
"Yeah. My prank was irresponsible. And I'm glad Patil was able to find you before you started the duel. I was worried she wouldn't find you."
Sophia and Daisy snapped their attention back to the table.
"You were worried… about what now? It almost sounds like you were the one who ratted us out!"
Sam quickly looked away, leaning across the table to grab a slice of toast. "But, she did find you, so nothing bad happened!" He said, as if Sophia hadn't said a word. His exaggerated smile faded when he saw avoiding the topic hadn't made it go away. "It's better that you didn't have the duel. Because no one got hurt. Right?"
"Right," Daisy said, standing to leave. "Better than just staying out of a fight that wasn't any of your business. Honestly, can't you take a hint and stop following us around? Go make some first year friends."
Sam's face went red. "Daisy…" he started to say.
"Don't bother. I don't care about your excuses. I'm sure Jonathan will, though, why don't you just talk to him next time the two of you are ignoring the rest of us."
"We don't ignore the rest of you, Daisy. Sam just wanted to make sure you were safe. We're your friends."
Daisy snickered, more cruelly than she had envisioned in her mind. "Maybe you were, Jonathan, but he never was."
Daisy's feet carried her out of the hall before she'd fully comprehended her own words, and she hadn't even listened to Jonathan's. Once she had, she almost turned around to apologize. Her guilt and relief at expressing her irritation with Sam battled it out, searching for an answer. She'd yelled at Jonathan too — that hadn't been part of the plan.
There hadn't really been a plan, though. It had only been a dream, where everything went back to the way it had been before Sam turned up, before any students had disappeared, back when things had been normal.
Except back then, it hadn't been normal, Daisy considered. It had all been new, and she hadn't wanted to be there, she'd only wanted Emma.
As the rush of students signaled class was about to start, Daisy pushed in the direction of the one person that could give her a sense of normalcy. She'd sent Emma an owl, but Connie had to have flown back to Hogwarts already. Emma had probably already texted Daisy. She'd be confused, and betrayed, yes, but their friendship could survive it. It had to. Jonathan's friendship with her might have been fragile, but he'd had Sam to fall back on. Daisy had Emma. Skipping class would be worth it.
Pulling out her phone, Daisy expected a slew of texts from Emma.
Instead, there were a couple of photos from her Gran Petunia's garden, and a longer text from her mum explaining that there was magic on her side of the family too. While that message was interesting, and she did send a text to her aunt explaining her excitement, it wasn't what she'd wanted.
Daisy pulled up her conversation with Emma. Nothing new. What if Emma hadn't even received her letter? Should she send a text assuming that Emma knew a little bit about magic, or not? She stared at the screen, and then decided to forget about caution and just send something.
Daisy: I sent you a letter the other day, have you gotten it?
It took less than a minute to get a response.
Emma: Couldn't have just sent it by post, could you? That bloody bird almost scared my roommate to death. How'd you train it to do that, anyway? You don't even know what room I live in.
Daisy sighed, relieved she didn't have to do any explaining even though Emma knowing was, well, illegal.
Daisy: Sorry. I forgot I could just text you — everybody at this school of mine uses owls. No idea how they're trained, Connie could find people like that when I got her.
Emma: Because owls are magical beasts?
Daisy: Sort of, I think. How did you find out about those? I know my letter probably confused you, but I wasn't expecting magical beasts to come up.
Emma: Found a book in Poppy's room. And her pygmy puff
It must have been when no one was home. Emma had been there often enough on such occasions, volunteering to water plants or feed fish when the family was out for a while. As far as Daisy knew, she'd never just gone in uninvited though and the thought of Emma searching around her sister's room, or even her room, without them knowing didn't sit right.
She shook the feeling off. They'd both done regrettable things recently: secrets, and spying.
Daisy: Should have known you'd keep on snooping. You're not mad are you?
Emma: Of course I am. Why would you keep this from me?
Daisy: The law. Wizards have their own magical government, and there's this national statute of secrecy that prevents us from telling muggles about magic unless they're immediate relatives or going to be married to someone with magic.
Emma: So what changed?
Daisy: Nothing. I needed my best friend, and I just forgot. We used to tell each other everything, so it felt natural to do
Daisy: Em?
Emma: I was in class, almost had my phone confiscated when I was caught texting you. Where are you anyway? You don't usually text during the day
Daisy: Skipped class. The building with technology is kept away from the school bc magic and tech don't work well together so I can't text in class, even if I wanted to
Emma: Aww, perfect student Daisy skipping class? For me?
Daisy: Yeah, don't expect me to do it again, k?
Emma: as long as you answer my questions honestly from now on, I'm good
Daisy: I will. But you can't tell anyone you know this. They've got spells that can erase memories if anyone finds out. Even my parents.
Emma: they wouldn't really tell, would they?
Daisy: Better not risk it. Even if they just told my dad's cousin, you'd be back where you started.
Emma: Okay.
Daisy locked away her phone again once it was clear Emma had left, and headed back up to the castle. There weren't many people around, only a couple older students, probably going to work on some computer assignment. A couple people lounged around the lake, either having a free period between classes or, like Daisy, skipping class entirely. At first, Daisy didn't recognize anyone. Then she saw Bella Castle seated under one of the willows, holding what looked like their charms textbook.
Daisy paused, watching as Castle repeatedly pointed her wand at something on the ground, getting more frustrated by the minute. Her dark hair frizzed with each incantation, forming a halo of static that only added to her crazed look.
Surely she had some other class to be in now, and she was trying out charms instead?
If not for the prefect, Daisy might have stood their watching until the next class.
"Any reason for being out here by yourself?" the prefect, a girl from Slytherin, asked.
"Just had to pick up some notes from my laptop, I'm going back to the castle now."
The girl's eyes narrowed, even further emphasizing her sharp expression. "Make sure you get back to class then, instead of hanging around on your own."
"Of course," Daisy said, speed walking to the nearest doors into the castle, barely even glancing back at her almost-dueling opponent.
Daisy didn't even understand why Professor Patil had all the books in her office when they clearly didn't get much use. The shelves were covered in dust, with the occasional clean speck where someone had wiped away the dirt with their fingers. If the books needed to be kept at all, why couldn't they just get sent to the library?
She didn't dare ask though, not when this was a detention.
Daisy stood several feet in the air on a ladder, handing a couple books at a time to Sam, who took them and set them in piles on the ground. Their job was to catalog them, as well as to dust the shelves off.
Professor Patil herself sat at her desk, grading transfiguration work done by some older students. She hadn't told them when they could stop.
Daisy climbed down from the ladder, having taken down enough books to continue helping with the actual cataloging portion of their assignment.
"It's been an hour," Daisy whispered. "How long do you think she'll keep us here?"
Sam shrugged. He'd said barely a word to her in that entire hour. It was Daisy's fault, she knew. She'd lost her temper, and he'd decided to hold his tongue. A couple times he'd found something in a book he wanted to share, but each time, he hesitated and changed his mind.
It was worse than listening to him talk nonstop.
And she had to keep working with him for almost another hour before they could leave.
To Daisy's surprise, he walked with her instead of taking his own path away as soon as he was able to.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"You're what?" Daisy said, entirely surprised.
He grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry. For interfering like that. I should have talked to you first, it's what a friend should have done."
"Oh. It's okay, I understand why you did it. I shouldn't have yelled at you."
The silence after those few sentences was even more painfully awkward than before.
Sam cleared his throat before going on a minute later. "And about talking to Jonathan. I didn't mean to make it seem like we were keeping secrets from the rest of you. We weren't. I mean, we kind of were."
Daisy glanced at him, somewhat alarmed, and more than a little bit curious. It sounded like Sam would tell her everything, maybe without her even asking.
"But it wasn't anything important, not really, it's just me. And you. I mean, I read about you last year, of course."
That much wasn't surprising, but Daisy didn't see how it connected to anything.
"And after talking to Jonathan, I guess I got this stupid idea in my head that the three of us would be the next special trio. Stupid, I know. And then I met you, and I really liked you. And that only, y'know, increased. So I've been trying to figure out a way to talk to you more, but you're always pushing me away. So I talked to Jonathan. About you. About fancying you, about trying to actually get you to see me as a friend even if you'd never like me back."
She'd wanted to know what was going on between them, but the more Sam spoke, the more Daisy wanted him to take his words back. She didn't want him to even be interested in her friendship. She definitely didn't want to feel guilty. Looking at his impish smile, the way he tapped his fingers together when he was nervous — she wondered if maybe she could be friends with him. Laugh, like Sophie did, when he made a joke, bring him into potions discussions like Jonathan did.
But she didn't want to.
He'd only wanted a chance to talk to her, and she still wanted nothing to do with him.
"So, I'm sorry if it came across all wrong, but now that you know what was going on, maybe we can actually be friends?"
"Wouldn't it be better for you to spend less time around me? To forget about me?"
Sam's hesitant smile shrank. "No, I just thought, since you're friends with Jonathan anyway, I can't avoid you. I don't want to, either."
"Well I'd rethink that decision," Daisy whispered. "I'm not really sure who my friends are anymore."
She left Sam standing with a stunned expression on his face.
You shouldn't have done that she thought. Sam hadn't done anything wrong, it was all her fault. She was the bad one, here. It was probably that thought that prompted the words she blurted out to Castle when they ran into each other.
"I can help you with your Charms homework."
"What?"
"Charms. I saw you were having some trouble."
Bella's face went red. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"It's okay, I need help too. History and Defense Against the Dark Arts, mostly. But Charms, I'm really good at. I can help."
"Don't be stupid Dursley. I don't need help, especially not from you."
The rejection stung more than it should have, coming from an enemy.