DISCLAIMER Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter and its characters are the creations of JK Rowling and are the property of JK Rowling, Universal, and Wizarding World. I own neither franchise. Nor do I expect or deserve financial compensation for this work of fiction. I am writing for my own pleasure and ego gratification.
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Harry Potter Morgendorffer: A Toy Story
Daria Morgendorffer didn't do many sleep-overs. She wasn't that popular with her peers: most kids thought that she was weird. It wasn't just that she read a lot, or that she made her dolls do weird things like being a school librarian instead of being prom queen or ninja assassin instead of being a cheerleader, but that she thought that a lot of the things her schoolmates thought about were dumb, and wasn't afraid of saying so.
Daria did even fewer sleepovers with wizarding folk. There weren't all that many living around Ruskin, and not many of those knew that her family was magical and that she was in the loop. Still, she'd managed to impress Martha Sanger, one of the MACUSA-approved sitters her parents hired when they went on date night, but also Martha's cousin Karen, a girl around Daria's age. So much so that she and Karen became friends.
Not that they became close. Karen already knew that she was a witch, and so far as both girls knew, Daria was either a Squib or a Muggle. That Daria couldn't do magic wasn't that much of a problem; Daria already knew about magic and Karen was too young to possess a wand. It also helped that Daria could recognize magic and magical creatures at least as well as many witches two or three times her age.
Karen also knew that the Morgendorffers had a cousin named HJ who lived with them and whom both Daria and her younger sister Quinn saw as a brother. HJ was related to Mrs. Morgendorffer somehow, although she didn't know the details.
Not that she thought much of HJ one way or another. HJ was a guy, and Karen didn't see the male tribe as being that interesting. She did know of a couple of girls who were already thinking about boyfriends, but she wasn't one of them. As far as she was concerned, boys were obnoxious, gross, and uncouth whether they were wizards or not. HJ might be a wizard, he might be OK for a guy, but he was definitely one of them.
Daria, for her part, liked Karen. She was smart, friendly, curious about the No-Maj world and lacked the snobbery that some wizards and witches her age were already showing. The Sangers also weren't people to wave their magic in people's faces, which was something for which Daria was secretly grateful. Although the Sangers weren't compulsive neatniks, they kept their magical books, tools, and supplies carefully stowed away and out of sight of any passing No-Maj visitor.
Today, though, Mrs. Sanger had left a couple of boxes of what looked like childrens' toys out in the breakfast room. "What are those?" asked Daria.
"We're having a toy drive," said Karen. "My older sister and I are gathering up things we don't play with anymore to give to kids who don't have anything."
"Can't you just give to Goodwill or something?" asked Daria.
"Nope," said Karen. "A lot of these toys are magical. We're trying to keep it secret."
"Doesn't HJ have some stuff he doesn't play with? Maybe he could donate?"
"My cousin had some magical toys, but he lost interest in most of them," said Daria. These days, he's about as happy playing with No-Maj toys that use batteries."
"Anything in particular?" asked Karin.
"Video games, radio-controlled cars, slot cars, typical guy stuff," said Daria. "My dad's trying to get him interested in Legos or model trains, but it doesn't seem to be taking."
"No motorcycles?" said Karen
"I've heard him say that he dreamed about a flying motorcycle a couple of times, but he doesn't want one," said Daria.
"So if you're being raised No Maj, I bet you've never seen anything like this before," said Karen.
"Probably not," said Daria, "at least not if they were meant for girls."
"Let's have a look," said Karen. "I doubt Mom would mind if we're careful and we pack the stuff back in the boxes after we're done."
Curious, the girls started opening the boxes and pulling things out. There were some No-Maj toys that Daria had seen before; she set them aside as boring.
There were some things that weren't. "Interesting," said Daria with a smile. "What's this? I've never seen anything quite like it." It was a green-skinned hag standing over a cauldron and using a stirrer as big as a canoe paddle.
"Oh, those," said Karen, rolling her eyes. "They used to be popular when Tina was a kid." Tina was Karen's older sister.
"How do you make it work?" said Daria.
"You make it work by concentrating and think about it working," said Karen. She passed her hand over it, the hag started cackling, then started stirring whatever was in the cauldron.
Daria knew that there were similar toys out in the larger world, but none of them were—quite—like this.
"Can I try it?" she said.
"Go ahead," said Karen, "But don't get too upset if they don't work for you. You're a Squib, aren't you?"
"Yeah," said Daria.
Still, she liked the hag and the cauldron. Maybe she could get it to work. She looked at the toy, then closed her eyes and concentrated. Just as it did for Karen, the hag started cackling, then began stirring its cauldron.
"Whoa," said Karen. "I didn't think you could do that."
"I didn't think I could either," said Daria.
"Let's try a couple more of these," said Karen. The girls started going through a couple of the other boxes and setting out a couple more toys that Karen knew were magical. One of them was a toy wand.
Daria recognized it. In case she'd forgotten, it had the words Special Agent raised on its handle. "Is this the one kids for Aurors and Robbers?" she said.
"Yep," said Karen. "I'm surprised you know about that one."
"HJ used to tease me with one," said Daria. "I'd be trying to read or something and then he'd start shooting cotton balls at me. I'm glad he got tired of it; it was a pain in the butt."
The bombardments stopped after her Dad had had a long discussion with Mrs. Kettler, their MACUSA social worker. He then laid down the law about wands. He told HJ that he should never, ever point a wand, even a toy one, at people while he was living at home. Daria suspected that Dad's edict probably had something to do with what happened at Buxton Ridge.
Karen was still holding the wand.
"Could I see that, please?" she said.
"Sure," said Karen.
Daria took the wand from Karen, taking care that it wasn't pointing at her. She took aim at the fireplace; sure enough, the wand started firing cotton balls. Daria noted that this time there were no hiccups or false starts; the wand fired off cotton balls as smoothly as HJ's toy wand had done for him.
"Oh, boy," she said, and started worrying.
Daria recognized accidental magic; she'd seen Harry and a couple of other young magicals perform it a couple of times. It was a little disconcerting to see it happen. She also knew that seeing HJ do it made her a little jealous because she couldn't do it. That didn't bug her that much. He was magical, she wasn't. She never thought of herself being a witch; that was not in her game plan. She wanted to become a writer. If she couldn't become a movie director, she wanted to be a screen writer.
"Could I try another one?" said Daria.
Karen handed her another toy, an attractive witch astride a broom.
"I gather it flies?" said Daria.
"You got it," said Karen, fascinated by the fact that her non-magical friend could make these toys work. She didn't think that non-magical people could.
The witch doll rose in the air and started flying in circle. Daria watched the doll in amazement, then started worrying again. Once was an accident, twice was a coincidence, the third time was…(censored!). This was so going to mess with her plans for her life.
Despite her worry about Death Easters, she didn't want magic for herself. She was willing to concede the wizarding world to her cousin and the people who wanted it. In fact, she'd hoped that only HJ had magic.
"Oh, boy," said Daria.
"What?" said Karen.
"I think I'm going to have to talk to Mom," said Daria. ?I also suspect that we probably pack this stuff back up again.
Mrs. Pickett, Karen's Mom, came in when the two girls were just about finished putting the toys away.
"Girls," she said, "you know those toys are for the toy drive," she said.
"I know," said Karen, "but I wanted to show them to Daria. She'd never seen anything like them. I showed her a couple of them, and she could make them work, too."
"She could?" said Mrs. Pickett. "Oh. My."
That, Daria wrote much later, was the sound of the dropped shoe hitting the floor.
That afternoon, Mom was alone working on stuff she'd brought home from the office. Daria was grateful that Dad was on the golf course and that HJ and Quinn were with friends.
"Mom," she said.
"What is it, Sweetie?" said Helen.
"We need to talk," said Daria. "There's something I have to tell you…"