Crescent Moons ; J.S. Potter

33. howling howlers.

The conversation where Daisy had to tell her twin brother that she had a boyfriend had been extremely uncomfortable, to say the least. It had happened last night after he had served his detention for the April Fools' prank and James and Benjamin had gone up to their dorms.

"You are not dating Greengrass," he had said in disbelief. "You're lying, right? How are you dating someone? And how is it not James?"

"He's really nice, Thomas," she had assured him. "Please, just be nice to him. Also, let's never talk about this again."

"Agreed," Thomas had nodded. "Fine, I'll be nice. If that bastard does anything, tell me right away."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I haven't figured that out yet."

"Oh, and you can't tell Ben or James," Daisy had warned. Thomas had raised his eyebrows. "I'll tell them in a few weeks, but you know how they are. They'll freak out."

Now, she was sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall to the right of James, enjoying her breakfast. Since she had told him to come find her during breakfast, she purposely left a space free to the right side of her.

"How was the first detention of fourteen?" asked Gwen. James chuckled darkly.

"We had Slughorn yesterday," he said. "He made us clean out the disgusting Potions cabinets which looked like they hadn't been cleaned in years."

"Still think it was worth it?" asked Daisy. James turned to her and raised his eyebrows.

"Of course, I do!" he replied. "Minnie said she's going to send letters to all of our parents. I asked her to leave out the part involving the Firewhiskey, but she just rolled her eyes at me."

The group burst into laughter. Daisy was taking a bite of her syrupy waffle when somebody sat down next to her. She glanced over to see Miles smiling at her, making her grin.

"Hey!" she greeted, feeling a slight blush rise to her cheeks. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her five friends staring confusedly at Miles.

"Hey, Daisy," he said, taking a quick, yet noticeable glance at her lips. Daisy thought he did that quite a lot.

"You actually found me, huh?" she asked, feeling flattered that he had followed through with her request. She felt an urge to give him another kiss on the cheek or at least a hug, but James and Benjamin were sitting right beside her and she had told Miles that she wouldn't be telling them the news for a few weeks.

"Of course," he said. He then leaned over and whispered into her ear, "Hope I could give you a little kiss but Potter's glaring again."

She looked behind her to James who was, indeed, glaring. She shot him a look.

"James, don't glare at him," Daisy said. James frowned.

"Why's he even sitting here?" he asked. Miles pulled out a muffin from behind him and placed it down on Daisy's plate. James looked furious.

"To give Daisy this," Miles said, shooting her a smile. "I'll be off, then, since it seems I'm not welcome here ... see you, Daisy!"

He walked off as Daisy smiled into her muffin. Marlee and Gwen looked like they were about to burst into laughter again. Thomas looked deeply uncomfortable. Benjamin looked confused. James looked very angry.

Just then, an owl swooped through the Hall and Daisy recognized it at once. So did James, apparently.

"What's Aura doing here?" he wondered out loud. Aura was Antheia Potter's old and calm owl. She was the owl that the Potter children received all their letters from their parents, which meant that Daisy had seen her many times before.