May came along faster than Daisy anticipated. With the arguments of the first term, she'd expected something out of the ordinary to tear through the second in similar fashion leaving her just as impatient for the summer holiday as she had been for the winter one.
Instead, everyone fell into a new kind of normal. Jonathan and Sam joined Daisy and Sophia, the way they would have from the start if Daisy had been friendlier. Sometimes, Lily and Gracie joined them.
Sometimes Bella joined them.
Sophia had accepted the Slytherin into their group with the speedy forgiveness only Sophia could offer. Everyone else kept their distance the first month, and awkward silences crept in whenever Bella sat with them.
The awkwardness paid off, with the entire group gaining points in History of Magic, and Bella guaranteed to pass charms.
"You know what this means, don't you?" she said. Bella and Daisy walked on their own, a rare occasion when Sophia and Daisy weren't together.
"You'll pass."
"And?"
"And you'll shower me with gifts for being the best tutor you could ever imagine."
Bella rolled her eyes. "Never. I'll pass charms easily enough now, which means I'll be clear to join quidditch next term. And Slytherin will destroy you."
"I think you're underestimating my ability as keeper, Castle."
"I think your past wins have given you a big head, Dursley."
And it was partially true. Hufflepuff was almost tied with Gryffindor — again. But most of Daisy's games had been good ones, with tons of older students congratulating her on some superb saves every time she left the quidditch field with her team. The fame of quidditch thrilled her much more than anything ever had. The amount of time she spent thinking about quidditch almost scared her into quitting. Almost.
Daisy's final match of the season was no different.
Margo led the team on foot to shake hands with the Slytherin captain. Fourteen players launched into the clear, sunny day. The conditions were perfect. Their team was perfect.
The elation of being on an amazing team, of ending the year as a normal student (a normal student known to be on a quidditch team, that was) whistled through Daisy's hair with the wind. A brief glance at the stands told Daisy her friends were watching and cheering her on. Bella wasn't with them, but why would she be when they were playing against her house?
The Slytherin chasers were no match to Hufflepuff. Daisy barely moved the entire match, only needing to block three throws, one of which never would have gotten through the goalpost anyway. She could just imagine Bella complaining about it later, saying how the team would change once she was on it. The team was due for new leadership too, with their captain graduating that year.
By the time the snitch was caught by the Slytherin keeper hours into the match, Hufflepuff had already won by a landslide.
"Good game, everyone." Margo did her usual lap around the locker room, shaking hands and giving congratulatory hugs and pats on the back. "We've done all we can."
"Do you think it will be enough?" Daisy asked.
Margo winced. "No. Gryffindor will still have the lead in points if they win their last match. We'll have to try again next year." She shrugged, glancing away as if it didn't matter. "No one's graduating. We'll have just as good a team next time."
The rest of Daisy's friends were waiting for her when she finished changing into her normal clothes: muggle jeans and T-shirt since it was a weekend and she didn't need her school robes.
"That was awesome," Sophia said.
Daisy barely registered the embrace that Sophia pulled her into, she was so focused on the people behind her.
"Did you get it?"
Sam nodded, holding up his camera. "Best quidditch shots I've ever gotten, I think."
"Can I see?"
"Not until they're developed, if you want them to move."
Daisy sighed. Magic saved so much time on so many things — taking photographs and videos was not one of them.
It was one of the first things she'd asked Sam if he could do once they were back on good terms. She hadn't noticed the camera before. She'd been determined to ignore everything about him. Once she had, she'd asked him to help capture the Hogwarts experience for her muggle family. Family, and one friend, but of course she didn't mention Emma who wasn't supposed to know about Hogwarts at all.
Once she got a hold of her phone, Emma had already asked about the game, not listing quidditch by name, either to remain discrete or because she had no idea how to spell it.
Daisy willingly relayed as much information as she could about the game, detailing all of her saves and several good passes made by the Hufflepuff team. She finished by saying she'd have to share some pictures of it sometime.
Can you? Emma asked.
When I'm back this summer, Daisy typed back.
There really are no more secrets then?
Not with you.
Not with anyone that mattered.
And that's it, folks! I know it was short, but there's only one more short chapter/epilogue left, that I will be posting today, and then I'll be marking this work as complete! You can still follow it if you'd like, as I will be adding excerpts of any other works that might follow. Alternatively, you can follow my account and see when I post any stories at all. If you're interested in Merlin (BBC TV show) you might want to follow me for that. My past fics also include a PJO/HoO fic and a short collection of Lunar Chronicles drabbles if you're interested, although I probably won't ever write for those fandoms again.
As a reminder, there are four possibilities for what comes next:
I don't return to this series, and this really is the end (if nothing has been added by December of 2023, this is probably what happened)
I jump into Daisy's year 3/Poppies year 1 in a story titled "Poppies"
I skip a few years so I can write about them when they're a bit older as 5th/6th/7th year students
MOST LIKELY I'll go back to before these characters were born for a story titled "Violets" which will be entirely or almost entirely in Pansy Parkinson's POV, and gives some background on Anna (Daisy and Poppy's mom) as well as Dudley.
There's also a possibility that I'll rewrite Daises at some point, but that would be alongside one of those previous options.
In conclusion, thanks for following along with this story. Not a lot happened plot-wise as compared to Daisies, and it will be a relief to get into something that has more of a direction to it. I've really lost my sense of who my audience is with this fic - I'm writing about kids, but how old are the people reading? The same age I was when I started Daisies? My age now? IDK. Either way, I'm excited to write something different.
If you've read this far, I'd love it if you left a comment and let me know how you found Daisies/Petunias and how long you've been following. Which of my four options would you most like to see? It probably won't impact my choice, but never say never where writing is concerned :)