Chapter 19

Keeping in Touch

The rest of the school week seemed to pass far too quickly according to Daisy. It was already Saturday morning, and they had passed the point of school were they received no homework. All of the first years had some from every class, and it was clear that most of them hated it.

But homework wasn't the only thing that happened. There was much more going on that made attending Hogwarts worthwhile. Every day they had their choice of delicious dishes at every meal (a big deal for Daisy), they learned extraordinary things about magic, even if there was homework, and simply being on the Hogwarts grounds was amazing.

That morning Daisy got her first owl reply. Her owl, Constellation, who she now affectionately called 'Connie' landed on the breakfast table with the dozens of other owls delivering the post.

"Oh, hello," she said, reaching out for the letter attached to the owl's leg. Daisy opened the letter and began to read.

Dear Daisy,

I'm glad that you seem to be enjoying yourself at Hogwarts. From what I've heard, I think that I agree with one on the idea that I would be in Gryffindor.

Right after you left, Gran and Grandad visited. I think Gran is proud of you for going to Hogwarts, or at least she will support you. We'll have to see about Grandad though. I'm sure when he sees you in person he'll be much more willing to hear what we have to say.

I have named my pygmy puff! His name is now Albert.

Speaking of Albert, he got out of his cage the other day when I had a friend over. I told dad, and he and I took turns distracting my friend, and trying to grab Albert before she saw him. It was quite a scary situation at the time, but afterwards we both laughed about it. Mum couldn't see what was funny, though. Tell me more about your classes in your next letter!

Love 3

Poppy

Daisy could almost imagine the chaos Albert had brought to the household, especially her mother, but just as she was about to wander further into her daydream, she felt a sharp poke at her wrist.

"Ow," She said unintentionally. When she looked for the culprit, it turned out to be Constellation, who had turned away again to nibble at some of Daisy's bacon. Daisy made a face. How sanitary could this be? Yet students all over the hall were feeding owls from their plates. Daisy pushed a few pieces of bacon to one side of her plate, keeping hers separate from Connie's. Choosing not to take anymore food, Daisy waited eagerly for her friends to finish.

"What's the rush?" Sophia asked. "It's the weekend, yet you're bouncing around in your seat as if we might be late to something."

"I'm just really excited," Daisy replied.

"For what?" Jasper had finally looked up from his crossword puzzle to join in the conversation.

"I don't know, but it's the weekend, so we could do anything!"

"Anything, as in homework," Sophia muttered.

"You're overreacting," Jasper said. "We don't have anywhere near the amount that the seventh years have, and they still have a bit of free time."

So, with Daisy and Jasper's persuasive skills, the three of them ended up working on their homework under an alder tree near the black lake. By midday they had finished everything except Herbology and Wizarding Culture.

"I almost wish I had taken the class about Muggle Life instead of this one just so that I could have used pencils and a notebook instead of this quill!" Sophia complained. She had just spilled some ink from her inkwell, and as none of them had learned to clean it up yet, much of the ink was wasted.

"I don't blame you. I only just started using this stuff, and I already can't see why most wizards still use quills and parchment." The three turned to see Jonathan as he sat down next to them.

"I thought you were a half blood. Don't you usually use Muggle items?" Asked Jasper.

"No, my dad likes the magical world better, even though he can't fully participate," he said. "I know everything about Muggle transportation, which happens to be our first class topic, but I don't know much about other events in the Muggle world."

At that point they were interrupted again, by the sound of splashing coming from the lake.

Two girls, a Slytherin and a Gryffindor were standing at the edge of the lake, laughing, as another girl toppled into the cold water, and tried feebly to scramble up the bank.

Where Daisy sat, you couldn't hear the smaller voice of the girl in the water, but you could hear the ones laughing at her.

"Is that the best insult you've got Perry?" yelled the girl closest to Daisy.

"Of course it is - oh look, she's finally learned to swim!" exclaimed the other girl, as 'Perry' scrambled out of the water, coughing. "Remember the time when -"

She was interrupted by Albus Potter. "Shut up Chloe, the joke stopped being funny long before Brooke actually fell into the water."

Both girls that had been laughing backed away, looking wary as if they expected an attack from their opponent. Now that Scorpius had joined him, and Albus had helped Brooke Perry onto the land, a fight would be three against one. Chloe gestured to her friend to follow her back into the castle, only turning back once to glare at Brooke, who stood shivering in her Slytherin robes.

As both groups walked away from the scene, Daisy turned back to her friends sitting next to her.

"Any idea what that was about?" Jasper asked. Everyone shook their heads. Clearly there was some history leading up to this that they would have to find out later.*

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Emma sat in a chair in her dorm room, tapping the screen of her phone. She stared at the letters she had typed, before ultimately deleting them, and going back to playing candy crush.

She'd never imagined that she and Daisy would be separated before they went to college. She hadn't the faintest idea of how to keep up a friendship in which actual personal conversation was not held. She didn't know what was going on in Daisy's life, and Daisy didn't know what was going on in hers. Looking at herself in the mirror, she realized that Daisy didn't even know that Emma had had her hair styled into a pixie cut, when it had been grown out to her shoulders before.

Emma almost jumped when her phone rang.

Daisy had also been thinking of keeping in touch with Emma. Although she couldn't say that for a while, it had been nice to have a completely different life, she wanted her best friend to be with her. Conflicted feelings about not telling Emma the truth about Hogwarts were eating away at her concentration. If only Emma had been a witch too.

Even though she didn't have any Idea what they could talk about, Daisy opened her locker door and took a deep breath in preparation for the call she was about to make.

Emma looked her phone screen. It was a facetime call from Daisy. Finally. Emma picked up the phone and pressed the answer button.

"Hi Emma!" Daisy called. She looked the same as ever, cheerful and unorganized in appearance.

"Hey!" Emma answered.

"You got a haircut," Daisy observed. "It looks good. You should add highlights." Daisy really did think the haircut was a good choice for Emma, and might even tame Daisy's own hair. But she loved having Poppy braid it too much to ever allow anyone to cut it that short.

Emma laughed, and nodded. There would never be a day when Daisy didn't care about other people's hair, even though hers was always a tangled mess, with the tips dyed a variety of colors on any given day.

"Maybe you should cut yours too, it would look good!" Emma told her. Seeing the look on Daisy's face, she guessed what she was thinking. "You wouldn't have to cut it all, You'd still be able to braid it."

"I guess," Daisy agreed. She had thought about it a couple of times, but never had gone through with it. Since she didn't have any other hair-related topics to talk about, she changed the topic. "Here, I'll introduce you to some of my friends, ok?"

Emma nodded in agreement, and watched Daisy's camera view flip, so that Emma was now looking out at some kind of common room.

"This is Sophia… and Jasper," Daisy pointed the camera at each person, and they waved. "Here's Jonathan," Jonathan didn't wave, he continued reading his book, and Daisy sighed. "Anyway, you were wondering about my cousins. Here's the youngest, Lily. She's our age."

Emma was shown another girl, with brown eyes and short red hair with bangs, that looked nothing like Daisy at all. You would never had guessed they were cousins.

Emma smiled and waved at the screen, even though she did not feel happy about meeting Daisy's 'Cousin.' As far as she was concerned, she and Daisy were sisters, closer than some random relative. "So, how many cousins go to this school again?" she asks.

"Three. There's Lily and her brothers, James and Albus," replied Daisy. She had gone a little ways across the room so she wouldn't bother her friends by talking to loudly. "So, do you like your classes so far? You didn't get Mrs. Williams as a teacher, did you?" Daisy and Emma had heard about Mrs. Williams from another student a year older than them. Supposedly she was the strictest teacher ever.

"No, fortunately, I don't have any classes with her. My favorite class is still, and will always be Math."

"We'll see about that," Daisy laughed. She had no love for math herself.

"What class do you enjoy most?" Emma questioned.

"Probably Science," Daisy had decided that was her codename for Potions. "We did some interesting experiments this week. Choir and Band start next week though, so those will definitely be good." Daisy didn't actually know if she was going to participate in either of those activities, even though she loved music, but she figured if her fake school was focused on music, she'd better mention it.

"You'll have to send me a video of your performance then." Emma genuinely enjoyed seeing all of Daisy's musical accomplishments.

"Er, yeah, sure," Daisy gulped. Did Hogwarts have musical performances? Wouldn't they be in school with no electronic devices allowed? Why had she agreed?

Emma and Daisy sat, or stood in Daisy's case, in an awkward silence for a moment before someone called Daisy's name. She looked towards someone that Emma couldn't see on her screen.

"Sorry Emma, I have to go back to my room now. I'll talk to you later."

"Bye," Emma said, before the screen went black.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Walking back into the castle, Daisy was still thinking about Emma. She'd known it would be different between them when she left, but she didn't think it would be this strange. Now that she thought about it though, the relationship between Emma and herself had hung on shared experiences, which they could no longer have quite so often.

"Do you have any friends outside of Hogwarts?" She asked Sophia and Jasper who were sitting in armchairs across from her in the Hufflepuff Common Room.

Sophia shrugged. "Not really. My Muggle family always moved around a lot, so I didn't have time to get super attached to anyone. Recently, I haven't really tried to make any friends, not until I came here."

Jasper shook his head sadly. "I usually hang out with my older brother - he's not a wizard - and his friends, but I'm not that close to them."

Jonathan, however, nodded. "I have a friend, Sam Edgecombe, that I see sometimes. He'll be coming to Hogwarts next year. Just barely missed the deadline, he'll turn eleven next week. I also have a couple pen pals, because I think it's interesting to hear about different wizarding cultures."

"That's cool. How have you been keeping in touch since you came to Hogwarts?" Daisy asked directing her question just at Jonathan this time.

He looked at her strangely. "Through owl, of course. I don't have any fancy Muggle gadgets like you do."

Daisy blushed, feeling as if she'd said something rude. "And that's enough? Just writing letters is enough for you guys?"

"Isn't it for you? I saw you writing a letter to your sister this morning. It's like that. Even if it feels different, we'll still be great friends when we see each other again."

Daisy frowned. Her friendship with Emma was nothing like that. Should it have been? Either way, she was going to have to put in a lot more work if she wanted to remain friends.

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