12. Apologies
Neither of the boys tried to sit at the Hufflepuff table the next day. They sat facing away from it, even that evening, speaking in low voices.
"They're back at it again," Sophia said. "I thought maybe after you yelling at them, they'd have the decency to at least not whisper in front of us. Why are they so far away, anyway?
"It's my fault."
"Don't be stupid, you apologized, didn't you? You said you would."
Daisy shrugged. "I did. But then we kept talking, and I told Sam I didn't want to be friends with him, and I wasn't sure about Jonathan either."
Sophia stared at Daisy, cereal slopping out of her spoon back into her bowl. She opened her mouth and shut it again without saying a word, and went back to her food.
"You won't yell at me?"
"Would you yell back?"
"No, why would I do that?"
Sophia shrugged. "You haven't been yourself lately. I'm half convinced Castle put some sort of charm on you."
For a moment, Daisy allowed herself to believe it was possible: Bella Castle, discreetly pointing her wand in Daisy's direction, muttering unknown enchantments. The daydream faded. Castle was only a second year, and a second year struggling with charms at that. She couldn't have done anything.
Quidditch practice that evening didn't offer the relief Daisy hoped for, either.
"That's the fifth time you've missed in a row, Dursley!" Margo Wood zoomed across the pitch on her broom, yelling the entire way. "Did you even try to block that last one, because it sure didn't look like it!"
"Sorry!" Daisy yelped, flying to her left just in time to miss the enchanted dodge ball they used as a practice bludger.
Margo circled the hoops twice before throwing the quaffle back into the field, where one of the reserve chasers caught it and flew off towards the other goal posts. Daisy let herself relax too soon. In a moment, chaser Alice Longbottom had snatched the quaffle and was heading back towards Daisy.
Daisy focused her eyes on the ball, watching as it flew towards her and got ready to block it with a well-protected arm. It hit where she'd planned, bouncing back towards the chasers and leaving Daisy thrilled with her accomplishment, even though it hadn't been a hard throw to block.
"That's better," Margo nodded, again holding the quaffle hostage from the rest of the team. Even after the praise, if you could call it that, Daisy felt Margo's eyes on her all evening.
That didn't change on the ground. Daisy sat sorting through her quidditch robes, preparing to have some of them washed, when Margo approached her.
"Anything I can help with, Daisy?" she asked. Margo and Daisy were the only ones left in the locker room, both back in their normal robes
Daisy shook her head.
"If you're sure." Eliza grabbed her bookbag, an old canvas thing covered in quidditch-related badges, and opened the door to leave. She paused, looking back at Daisy. "I'll wait, if you'd like to walk with me."
"No," Daisy said. "No, I'll be fine on my own." She already had enough drama without bringing in another person. She'd fix it herself.
"Sam?" Daisy said. Her words came out quietly, almost low enough Sam couldn't possibly hear. Maybe she hoped he wouldn't hear. Somehow, he heard her. His head lifted from his transfiguration textbook and turned to identify the voice.
"What?" he asked, realizing it was Daisy. His voice sounded flat, a facade of indifference attempting to cover the emotion revealed by stiff posture and pinched lips.
"Can I talk to you?" She gestured towards the door. Daisy preferred studying back in the Hufflepuff common room when she was on her own, but she knew Sam enjoyed the openness of the Great Hall and she needed him. Three days had passed, and as much as she didn't miss Sam's presence, she missed having a group of friends. Without Jonathan around, and with Lily and Gracie branching out on their own, it left her with only Sophia.
Daisy also knew she had to apologize, at some point, for Sam's sake, not just her own.
Sam tucked his papers into the book before closing it and standing to follow her. His footsteps, just barely out of sync with her own, echoed through the corridor outside the Great Hall until they reached the nearest empty classroom.
Maybe the distance was unnecessary, but Daisy wouldn't risk someone else interrupting and giving her an excuse to back out.
"I wanted to apologize," she said.
Sam stared. After a moment, he tipped his head. "So, are you planning on doing that?"
"What?"
"Apologize."
"I did."
"You didn't. You just said you wanted to."
"Right. Well, I'm sorry."
"For?"
"Yelling at you."
Sam waited a few more seconds before returning to the door. "If that's all then, I'll just —"
Heat rose to Daisy's cheeks as she frantically searched for something else to say. Saying sorry for yelling wasn't enough to change anything.
"Wait! I'm sorry. For yelling. For - for excluding you for no good reason, for ignoring your feelings. I'm sorry for not giving you the chance you deserved. And I hope that you'll give me the chance to be friends, even after all this."
Sam's defensive expression loosened, revealing the smallest of smiles. "
"Yeah," he said. "I guess I can give you a chance."
The walk back to her common room was a breath of fresh air. The butterflies and several frogs that had been sharing the space inside her stomach for the past week disappeared, leaving Daisy agile enough to block any quaffle that came her way.
Including Bella Castle.
The other second-year girl looked startled to see Daisy walking that hallway, even though Daisy had more of a reason to be there than Castle did. It was on the way to the Hufflepuff common room, not Slytherin.
At first, it looked like they would pass without confrontation. That was too much to wish for.
"Dursley."
"Castle."
They stood in the middle of the corridor, each waiting for the other to make the first room.
Then Castle did something surprising. She folded her arms over her chest, looking down at her shoes as opposed to her usual method of standing her ground.
"Did you, er, mean it when you said you'd trade Charms help for help in History?"
"Yeah," Daisy said without thinking. "Changed your mind about that?"
"I guess. I need the help. Almost failing charms was the reason I couldn't try out for Chaser this year."
"I need help with History too," Daisy said, even though she could probably have managed with her other friends, and wasn't at risk for losing her quidditch post. Castle was top of their class when it came to anything related to history. "Meet you tomorrow after I see you in potions?"
"Deal."
Poppy smelled of smoke — the good kind, like coming home after a weekend of camping and realizing all of your things smelled of campfire, or the smell that hung in the air after fireworks fired into the sky.
Poppy had not been camping, though, and her parents were less than pleased about the hole she'd burnt through her jumper.
"What do they have you doing at that place?" Anna said, holding the blue jumper in outstretched arms. "Lighting explosives?"
Poppy bit her lip, trying not to laugh.
Anna didn't notice, too absorbed in searching through her craft kit, but Dudley did.
"What was the excuse for allowing children to handle explosives?" he asked.
"They weren't exactly explosives, Dad. It was just for fun."
Anna jerked away from her kit, holding a ball of yarn similarly colored to the jumper. "Exactly? They weren't exactly explosives?"
"Charlie brought a set of exploding snap cards. It's a game!"
"This Charlie wouldn't be a Weasley, would he? Because 'Weasley' and 'explosive' are not two words I want connected anywhere near you."
"She, Dad, not he, and no, she's not a Weasley. She's an Anderson."
"I'll be adding Anderson to my list of wizard names to be wary of, then."
Poppy laughed. "I'm pretty sure there are a lot of Andersons. They're not all like Charlie."
Dudley raised an eyebrow. "And there are a lot of Weasleys. I'll assume mischief until proven otherwise."
Poppy didn't contradict him. It was probably a good rule to follow where Charlie was concerned.
Will be posting another chapter in a minute.