Petunias • Daisy Dursley

3. The Train

"Were there really this many first years in our year?" Sophia complained as they passed compartment after compartment that was occupied by a young and nervous-looking eleven-year-old.

Daisy shrugged. "I don't know. It does seem kind of silly, though. So many of them get in on their own as if they think no one's going to have to share with them. There's only so much space on the train."

The two girls finally found a compartment to sit in when they reached Gracie and Lily.

"We saved you some seats," Lily said. "We'll probably get a few more people here too." She moved her things so that one more seat was open.

"Maybe we could join you?" Jonathan shoved a foot in the compartment door just as it was closing. "It's just me and Sam."

Lily nodded. "Of course. We've still got room."

Daisy shoved her luggage into storage and took a seat between Sophia and the compartment window. Connie, her barn owl, sat in his cage at her feet. The seating arrangement put Sam and Jonathan across from each other next to the compartment doors.

Daisy looked out the window. She couldn't see her family as the train pulled out of the station, but she knew they would be there until the train had disappeared completely. Her father would be standing next to Harry, most likely, because he still felt somewhat lost around wizards if one of the Potters wasn't nearby. Her mother would be next to him, and, if Poppy allowed her to, would have her arms around her younger daughter in a protective hug as younger children and their parents started to get in the queue that would allow them off of the platform.

Then they would wait however long it took - Poppy had told Daisy about law enforcement wizards that made sure not too many people left the platform at once through the brick wall - and then return home. Dudley would return to his office for work, and Anna would work on lesson plans while Poppy read a book.

Daisy knew more about what her family members would be doing in the next week than she knew about her own future.

"So, Sam," Lily began. "Sorry we didn't talk long in Diagon Alley. As a reminder, I'm Lily. Gracie," she pointed at others as she named them, "Sophia, Daisy."

"Thanks!" Sam said cheerfully. "I know it's a bit odd for a first-year to immediately start out by making friends with people in other years, but I was already really good friends with Jonathan because our mums have been best friends since they went to school here, so I thought I'd try fitting in here." He kept looking back and forth between everyone, eagerly checking for signs of approval. Daisy thought he looked quite a lot like an overeager puppy. When he, at last, looked towards her, she didn't give him the same polite smile the others had and he looked away, fingers twitching nervously.

Sophia looked at Daisy curiously, not missing her coldness towards Sam.

"What house do you think you'll be in?" she asked.

Sam's eyes lit up. "I hope I'll be in Ravenclaw. It sounds like the best place for me, and my whole family has been in Ravenclaw, mostly. Not that your houses wouldn't be nice, of course. Slytherin though - I think I'd keep the hat on until it gave me a new house if it tried to put me in Slytherin."

Lily frowned. "Slytherin Isn't so bad. It's just got a bad reputation from a few awful people."

"Yeah, but Slytherin -"

"My brother's in Slytherin."

"Oh."

Daisy looked across at Lily who rolled her eyes. She'd never seen her cousin get defensive of someone else's house before, but if it got her an ally against Sam being adopted into their group, then she was pleased with it.

And what if Sam was in Hufflepuff? Then she'd have to be all warm and welcoming around him all the time. She should be anyway. Hufflepuff's were supposed to be nice, and Sophia illustrated that point by continuing a conversation with Sam as if nothing had happened.

0o0oDaisyo0o0

By the time they reached Hogwarts, Daisy was emotionally exhausted. Sam was ten times more talkative than Jonathan, and even Sophia seemed to have trouble keeping up with him. He didn't have Jonathan's same analytical personality and seemed more like a typical Gryffindor than a Ravenclaw to Daisy. She dumped her muggle electronics in the bin assigned to her on the way off of the train and followed the rest of the older students towards the carriages that would take them up to the castle.

Sophia half skipped next to her as they neared an empty carriage. "These are so cool," she said. "When do you think we'll learn to enchant things like this?"

"You won't," Jonathan said.

Sophia took this as an attack on her personal ability. "Okay, I know I'm not that great at charms, but I'll work on it. Hard work, that's something my house is known for!"

"He meant that the carriages are pulled by thestrals. They're invisible, but it's not a spell pulling these carriages," Lily said.

When they reached the great hall, Daisy and Sophia left their group of friends to go sit towards the front of the Hufflepuff table and watch the first years walk in. Most of them entered the hall with wide eyes that jumped wildly between the starry sky shown above, the tables, and the hat. Besides Sam, Daisy only recognized Lucy Weasley among the group of new students.

But Edgecomb, Sam was sorted into Ravenclaw just as he had hoped and welcomed to the table by Jonathan.

"What do you think of him?" Daisy turned and whispered to Sophia.

"He's alright. He probably just says a lot of nonsense when he's nervous or something. Give him a few days, Daisy."

"Okay." She watched uneasily as Flint, Charles was sorted into Slytherin and did her best to ignore Sam's existence.

Lucy Weasley turned out to be a Hufflepuff and Daisy Cheered her on with the rest of her housemates and offered her a seat at the table next to her, but was all the while unfocused.

"Daisy?" Sophia tapped her fork on Daisy's empty plate once the food had arrived and Daisy hadn't responded.

"Mm?"

"Get some food."

"Okay."

This year at Hogwarts was supposed to be a good one. Even with Sam, she would make it a good one. She knew she could. But then, that was before she turned to look at the Slytherin table again.

Bella Castle caught Daisy's eye, smiled, and gave a little wave.

"Ugh." Daisy turned around again.

"What?"

"Bella's going to be particularly nasty this year, I can tell." 

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