(2) The Other Potter (D. Malfoy)

Chapter Three

There is light coming from beneath the bathroom door and Harry's bed is empty. But that is not what woke Daisy from her slumber. The pain in her wrist is what woke her. A burning, stinging pain that was strong enough to wake her straight up into full consciousness, bringing tears to her eyes. It's been a while since her scar has hurt like this. Not since their first year has it been this painful. She's had moments over the last year, especially after nightmares in which she does wake with an ache in her wrist, but not the same searing pain she is currently feeling. In her bedside draw she fishes out a tube of cream from among the hair scrunchies, glittery gel pens, and cat toys. She squeezes out a small splodge of the cream and then sets the tube back down. Using her thumb she rubs the cream into her scar. With every sweep of her thumb, the pain does start to ebb away. Harry leaves the bathroom and notices that Daisy is awake now. The fairy lights on the

"Did I wake you?" He asks as he closes the bathroom door behind him. She shakes her head, pressing her thumb into the scar on her wrist.

"Oh, no" She answers and shakes her hand out. "My, urm...my wrist hurt"

"Your scar" He corrects and she nods. "Mine too" He admits as he sits at her side on her bed reaching out to take her hand so he can look over her scar. It's exactly like his only she is lucky enough to have hers on her wrist. Long sleeves, bracelets, and gloves, they can all be used to cover it up. He wishes he could hide his. She grabs the tube of cream from her bedside table.

"Here" She sets it into his hand when she pulls her hand back from him. "I've been using this" He turns the tube around to read the front of it. "I don't know if it actually works or if it is all in my head but...."

"Scar relief" He reads, and she nods.

"Our scars are magical in nature, so the cream won't make them fade like it would a normal scar, but sometimes I find that it helps with the pain or maybe it just distracts me from it" Harry still opens the tube despite her warning that it might not do anything. He's willing to try anything that might help. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"What?" He asks her, surprised by her question.

"Your nightmare" She answers. "That's why your scar is hurting, isn't it?" He hums in agreement as he massages some of the cream into the scar on his head.

"I can barely remember it" He admits. "Just that it was a dark room....and there was a snake" He sighs a little as he tries to remember more details. "V.." He stops and glances at Daisy. "Voldemort" He manages to get out through his teeth. She nods. She figured that much. The scar thing is only a thing with Voldemort and well, honestly, it hasn't happened all that often. Daisy's own scar seems to be more in response to Harry's scar and not Voldemort. Not that she knows why it is that way. Just that it is. "And...Wormtail and a muggle man.....He..He killed...." Harry suddenly leans forward, fighting off a wave of nausea as he flashes back to the nightmare. Daisy shifts closer to him and touches his back.

"Maybe you should write to Sirius about it" She offers. He nods a little, scratching at the back of his hand.

"How do you deal with your nightmares?" He asks. "The ones from Riddle's diary..." Daisy looks down at her fingers. At where her fingers, from the tip to the DIP joint, have darkened due to the dark magic she siphoned from Riddle's diary. The change to her hands took her a while to get used to and it took a while for the people around her to get used to. Normally she can use her metamorphmagus abilities to hide them, but not all the time. They are a reminder that she did that. That she took in that dark magic. That it causes her nightmares still.

"I take a deep breath" She answers. "Then I write about it" She glances at her journal on the bedside table.

"And that makes you feel better?"

"Not always" She admits. "Sometimes I have some chocolate or a shower, or I study" He gives her a look. "Studying distracts me" She defends. Studying takes her mind off of her nightmares and gives her mind something else to focus on until she feels like going back to sleep. Harry nods a little and lets out a breath.

"Do you have any chocolate?" He asks, she chuckles and nods before she leans over to open up the box on her bedside table to reveal it to be full of snacks. From the box, she takes a mini-chocolate bar.

"It has dried strawberries in it..." She warns as she holds out a mini-bar.

"That's okay" He assures her as he takes it from her. He's not surprised though. He knows she has a love of the fruit and he would be more surprised to find that the chocolate didn't have strawberries in it.

......

Hedwig and Harry's trunk were brought over a week after Harry himself arrived, using the same service that takes Daisy's belongings and Goldfish to Hogwarts every year. It wasn't the original plan for him to stay for the whole of August, but Magnolia had assured him that it was okay. That they would make sure he got to school. Of course, Harry said yes, to put off going back to the Dursleys. Daisy grabs her cardigan from the end of her bed and pulls it on as she passes behind Harry sitting at her desk. She makes kissy sounds towards Hedwig where she's perched on the window waiting for Harry to finish writing his letter to Sirius about his nightmare and his scar. Taking Daisy's advice to do so. He might even talk to Magnolia about it. She's a healer. She might have a spell or a potion that will help him. Or at least some advice to help. Hedwig coos back at Daisy before the young witch leaves the room.