Daisy Black | Semper Pura ✓

Chapter 11: Family Holiday

~summer 1999~

~Holiday from the Walking on Sunshine movie~

Daisy POV

"Darling, all I am saying is that you should listen to me."

"Darling, all I am saying is that you should read the map correctly." mum snapped back, her gaze fixed on the highway in front of us. Dad chuckled lowly which earned him a smack on his thigh. Harry and I nearly bursted into laughter, which quickly died down when I met mum's glower through the rear mirror.

"The next turn is left." Dad placed his finger down on the map when mum practically whirled the car left, shaking all of us inside. Mum was basically perfect at everything—safe for driving. I held tightly onto my seatbelt, mum turning the stirring wheel in her hands.

Dad huffed loudly and Harry held onto my upper arm. "Stop whining, this was just a faster turn. As I said three out of the four of you could have gotten your drivers license already and you haven't. Now, stop complaining about my skills." Now dad's terrified gaze met mine through the rear mirror and I huffed a loud laugh. Mum had a point though.

"I would never complain about your skills." dad expressed, his hand moving to mum's thigh and squeezing. Rolling her eyes, she chuckled only and then hit the gas pedal once again.

In hindsight I wondered how we had even made it to Italy. We had been driving for what felt like ages. Down England first, then we took the ferry and then we went through half of central Europe and finally landed in Italy. A holiday. Actually mum and dad's honeymoon, but they decided to make a family holiday out of it since it had been years for me that I had been on holiday and Harry had never been in his whole life. Neither had Oscar but he was a toddler who now happily slept in his child car seat. The content of my stomach still made jumps, but apperently Oscar was not at all affected by mum's excellent driving skills.

"Thank Godrick, we are now at least on the right side of the road." Harry whispered to me, chuckling. I dipped my chin, sniggering and remembering how that one man nearly had to jump of a bridge when mum suddenly forgot that we were no longer driving on the left side of the road.

"We are nearly here by the way." mum chirped from the front and all of us escaped a relieved sigh. The corners of Harry's mouth moved even further up and he grinned at me, then at my father who turned around and looked at us over his shoulder. Bliss sparked in his eyes when he gave us a warm smile.

Harry was as happy as I had hardly ever seen before. I knew it meant a lot for him that mum and dad asked him to come with us and that we were actually going on holiday as a family.

The car moved through an archway of palm trees, rather slowly, which surprised me but came to a sudden und harsh halt which made us all tumble forward. "We are here!" mum expressed happily, turning off the car and clapping her hands on the stirring wheel.

"Thank Godrick." And with that dad earned himself another smack. He simply leaned over and kissed mum's cheek.

Softly I woke Oscar when Harry moved out of the car. Then dad helped my little brother out and finally I also stepped outside. I was met with the warm summer air, a sea breeze blowing through my hair. Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply. Arms wrapped around me and a tiny peck was placed to my cheek. "The last time we were here was when you were eight. I don't know if you remember, but—"

"I do remember." Smiling I turned to mum whose expression mirrored mine. I had been so little and had no knowledge of who my father was or anything that was about to happen in the coming years.

Oscar now holding onto Harry's hand while chewing on a jelly slug watched dad unload the car and finally my father handed us all our suitcaes. Obviously we were not allowed to use an extension spell and just take a small bag with us because we had to fit in with the Muggles. And speaking of Muggles, upon entering the resort mum once again told us how we had to act.
"Oh, and we have to behave totally Muggle, remember? This is a resort for Muggles, so no whipping out your wands when you feel like it or doing," —mum's gaze met mine— "any wandless magic." Grinning, I nodded my head. "Never, mum."

And then we checked in, got our keys and were ready to go to our rooms. Mum, dad and Oscar got a room with a doubled bed and a small couch. Adjoint Harry and I were sleeping in a room with two beds. And mum and dad had gone over the top with the rooms—spoiling us with rooms that were actually suits. Now that my parents had helped so greatly in the defeat of Voldemort, all ministry restrictions had fallen against my father, he was no longer under monitoring and neither mum nor dad had to pay the fines any longer.

"One hour is enough to get ready?" dad asked, upon entering their room.

"Half-an-hour. We want to go to the sea." Harry and I said in unison, already hurdling inside. The last thing I heard was that dad told mum to hurry as we, him included, wanted to go to the sea.

With a grin on his face and his eyes closed Harry let himself fall back onto the bed. "I cannot tell you how happy I am."

I smiled at him, trying to open my suitcase. "So am I."
"This is my first family holiday." Harry continued and sat up. He smiled at me. "Mine as well. At least with this family. When I was younger it had been just mum and I and grandmother and Andrew." I told him, feeling warmth spread throughout my whole chest.

Both using the bathroom to change we soon were done and more than ready to head to the sea.

Mum's sunhat was ginormous and in that moment I knew she had used an extension spell on her suitcase. With towels in our hands and in our swim wear, Harry, Oscar and I were more than beach and sea ready. Excitedly jumping from one foot to the other, I clapped my hands while we waited for dad. Only Godrick knew what he was still doing, but he also appeared soon with a basket in his hands. "Not my fault, your mother told me to bring snacks and drinks and everything."

"Sunscreen?"
"Is packed, darling."

Mum grinned under her sunhat and in the next moment told me to also put something on my head. She told me I could get a heatstroke and when I told her that I did not bring a hat, she obviously pulled out four more hats and also caps. "I thought we should behave like Muggles and not use magic?" I reprimanded, raising my brow when we entered the elevator.

"Yeah, you. I never talked about myself." To that she grinned wickedly and I shook my head at mum, but still grabbed a hat. Harry was forced to wear one too, but opted for a cap. Dad protested enough to get out of it and Oscar anyways had no choice. The same had probably happened with sunscreen since my little brother was glowing like he had bathed in oil and was as pale white as the wall in the lobby.

Once we arrived at the beach, a feeling of pure bliss flooded at me and I once again had to jump around and cheer. Holy Helga, was I happy to be here. And to be here with my amazing family. We quickly headed to our assigned daybeds and put all our things down.

"Sea. Sea. Seeeeea. Turtles." Oscar cheered and dad quickly told him that there might not be turtles which Oscar couldn't care less about as he still believed he would see some.

"We are going into the sea!" I told mum who was lying down on the day bed with a content smile on her face. "Of course, you go. I will stay here for now and enjoy the silence and peace." Grinning, mum waved us goodbye and so Harry, dad, Oscar and I hurdled into the water.

It probably was one of the most amazing days in the last years, filled with so much fun and laughter. In the water we mostly swam and splashed each other, ducked each other under the surface and got mouthfuls of salty water.

When the evening came we all went to dinner and later fell asleep with broad smiles on our faces, knowing that we would still have many more days like this coming.