Short chapter, not all that much happens, but I think it was worth writing/reading. Hope everyone's having a terrific start to their year.

11. Petunias

The Statute of Secrecy scared Emma more than she would ever admit. Someone could, at any point, turn up at her school just to erase her memories of her friend having magic? It was crazy. Everything she'd learned was crazy. And it made her wonder if it had happened before.

What if she'd figured out Daisy's secret months ago, only to be forced to forget and go through the whole thing all over again? Would Daisy hide that from her?

The scariest piece of the puzzle was Daisy's parents and sister — Emma had to talk to someone. She couldn't just wait for Daisy to return for the Christmas Holidays over a month away. Daisy's family, people she usually trusted, could easily turn her in to the people who would erase her memories forever.

Was Emma willing to risk starting over just to have someone to talk to?

She had all week to think about it, and by the end, she had her answer. Risks had never stopped Emma before (her parents constantly worried she'd go too far one day, even though Emma had never put herself in real danger) and they wouldn't stop her this time either.

This time, the lights were on when she arrived at the Dursleys house that evening, the glow highlighting the windows against the dreary weather outside. Emma had spent most of the day with her parents and her sister in celebration of her sister's birthday, but no one had protested her going out after the last gift boxes sat empty and alone on the sitting room floor. She wouldn't go far, they knew, and they knew where to find her. Her mother would text in a couple of minutes to make sure she was safely inside.

Anna opened the door when Emma knocked. It was perfect. Emma had been hoping for her or Poppy. After all, this magic stuff seemed to be from Mr. Dursley's side of the family. Hopefully, by avoiding him, she'd be avoiding anyone that would turn her in.

"Hello," Anna said. She looked curiously down at her, and Emma knew she had to be confused about Emma's surprise appearance. "Did you need something?"

"Can I talk to you?"

Anna hesitated, looking back into the house at something or someone Emma couldn't see. Then she stepped back, gesturing for Emma to come inside, but stay in the hall for a moment.

Emma slipped past her, removing her soaked jacket as she went. "Is everyone home?" She asked, again considering her options. She looked around, again pushing past Anna into the dining room where she'd glanced before. Poppy looked up from the game of chess, Poppy's grandmother only just noting Emma's presence before placing her focus back on the board.

"It's just the three of us," Anna said. "Daisy won't be back for a while, and Dudley's out this evening."

Emma took a seat next to Poppy, well aware of Anna's watchful eyes and the way Poppy adjusted her sitting position to block Emma's view of the game board. It didn't help her case — Emma still saw one of the chess pawns shuffle forward on miniature carved, but all too alive, legs.

"I'm not really in the mood for chess anymore." Poppy swept the pieces back into their box in one sweep of an arm, but that only made her situation worse as every single piece yelled in discontent.

"Watch it there, missy. I was about to win that game for you!"

"As if," a bishop mumbled. "I was perfectly poised to take him out in the next move if someone hadn't caused an earthquake."

The other three women stared, first at the board where the bishop and knight were now wrestling without regard for the rules of chess, and then at Emma.

"It's okay," she said, before the excuses started. She didn't need to hear whatever lie they would pull from thin air. The chess set wasn't robotic. It was magic. And she had to trust that none of them would report her to the magic government. "Daisy sent me an owl. On accident, of course, but she explained a lot after that. About magic, and her school." Emma looked over at Anna. "It's what I came over here to talk to you about. I thought that maybe talking to someone in person would make things more real."

Anna's face contorted into a pained smile. "That's… that's great. I was wondering when she would tell you. I'll be right back once I make a phone call to get things sorted with the rest of our family —"

"Wait. I know about the laws about secrecy. I won't tell anyone, and I thought I could trust you. Please." Emma grabbed Anna's hand before her fingers could wrap around the cellphone in her apron pocket. "Please? Aren't I family too? Haven't I been on family outings, didn't I stay here when things weren't great with my own parents, Anna?"

The room suddenly went from quiet to eerie, no one saying a word, not even the chess pieces.

Without saying a word, everyone was asking their own question, and Emma was first to get hers out loud, even as tears she hadn't been aware of threatened to fall.

"Shouldn't sisters know about this sort of thing? So we can support each other?"

It was as if Emma had somehow slapped everyone in the room at once. Anna pulled her hand away — both from Emma and from her phone. Neither Anna nor Poppy would meet Emma's eyes, while Petunia Dursley didn't take her Eyes off of her.

"You're absolutely right," Petunia said. She launched into a story Emma had never heard before, one that, as an ordinary muggle, she should never have heard. It was a story about two sisters torn apart by magic and jealousy. It was a story about the inevitable.

Emma's quest had been doomed from the start.

"I know you and Daisy aren't me and Lily," Petunia concluded. "You aren't sisters in the same sense of the word, and including Poppy, there are three of you. And, Anna, don't think this doesn't apply to you and your sister as well. It's never too late to patch things together again. I wish I'd known that."

Petunia clearly implied her last sentence: the best I can do now is warn you three and hope that the next three petunias will succeed where I failed so badly.