fallen angel

Henrie brightened a bit. “I love both of those stores! What do you like best, er, from both I guess?”

Daisy smiled to see Henrie open up a bit more. “Ooh, well I do love a classic chocolate frog, I have an amazing card collection at home from those. And honestly, I just love all the books from Tomes and Scrolls, the owner of the store knows me by name.”

“I don’t go around giving it away left and right, but if someone is having a bad day I like to share. Chocolate makes everything a little better, it’s hard to hate chocolate, and if someone does I don’t trust them- well unless they’re allergic then that’s just tragic.”  He stated with a chuckle. “It‘s tempting to spend all my money, and chocolate isn’t a bad way to do so. But I need  to drag it out a bit and let it last.” 

“I think that’s really kind of you though, Remus, really -- it’s nice to know that there are people who actually care about others out there.” Daisy couldn’t quite be sure if she was joking or not. “Oh, chocolate of course the best. Who doesn’t like chocolate?” She let out a light laugh. “Hmm, I’m sure my aunt would probably kill me if I actually spent all my money, but it’s just so tempting in here. I feel like I have ZERO self-control.”

Sitting calmly at the bar mostly lost in her own thoughts, Henrie was surprised when suddenly someone was excitedly talking to her. People didn’t usually involve her in conversation so she was unsure how to carry one on. “Y-yeah, I am.” She smiled, knowing that she must’ve been blushing. Oh geez, what do I say next? she wondered after an embarrassing pause. “So… uh… what do you…like best? About coming to Hogsmeade?”

Daisy turned to face Henrie, swivelling in her chair to engage her body in the conversation -- something about Henrie’s stance and stuttered conversation made Daisy think she needed to know she had her full attention. Her guarded and nervous stance reminded her all to well of the little girl Daisy herself used to be. “Hogsmeade weekends are some of my favourites,” she grinned. She turned quickly to grab the butterbeer the barmaid extended out to her, taking a sip and relishing in the taste she’d missed over the summer. “What’d I like best? Oh gosh, there’s too much...hmm...well I love Honeydukes, I’m a bit of a whore for candy. But I also love Tomes and Scrolls, I’m also an admitted book hoarder,” she laughed.

“If we get caught up thinking about our future selves, we’ll never really be able to get there, right? Being who we are now helps us build who we are in the future. There’s some philosophy for you.” It was Daisy’s perspective, fresh and open, that made Emmeline able to even want to engage in conversation, to engage in a friendship. They had been rooming together for years, but they’d still chosen to be close – as close as two people who kept their private home lives separate could be. Emmeline understood and she SUSPECTED that her sunshine demeanor was hiding horrors that Emmeline didn’t know about but could imagine and while she knew a good person would’ve pushed harder to be there for her friend – Daisy always pushed back in a way that she couldn’t reveal how she knew without revealing her own hand. Maybe one day, they’d sit down and let it all out but today was not that day.  For Daisy, she hoped she could be a better person, a rare feeling. 

The pause, she knew it too well, and Emmeline hurt for a moment, she hurt for Daisy but she didn’t push. It was one thing they didn’t seem to push each other one. “Well, we’ll be sure to see Fangs together sometime. I can ask Lorcan when the next show is? He’ll be THRILLED I’m sure. We can do each other’s makeup wild, have tons of fun, it’ll be great.”

Daisy smiled, pausing to mull on Emmeline’s words. The girl certainly knew how to throw a good life lesson her way. “Keep moving forward,” she mused. “That’s what my father always used to say. That’s more about forgetting the past then worrying about the future, but you can never have too many philosophical thoughts.” She smiled widely at her friend. It was so easy for Daisy to smile when it came to Em -- she was one of her oldest friends at Hogwarts, one of her most trusted. Emmeline made it easy to talk, easy to laugh and easy to have fun -- and so it made her one of the hardest people to keep her secrets from. She’d always questioned whether knowing that Emmeline was equally keeping something from her made it easier or harder to lie, but she’d never been able to come to a conclusion. Whatever the case, it was hard, and she’d never liked it. 

She smiled again and nodded slowly, pushing the thought of her lies to the back of her head. “Sounds good. Please,” she chuckled. “I always feel awful that I miss him.” Daisy genuinely laughed at the thought of doing each others wild makeup -- Emmeline was giving her too many ideas. “Oh yes please, my makeup skills are limited but surely that’ll make it more fun.”

She laughed easily, going along with Daisy, starting to walk in the direction of Honeydukes. “You know me too well, you knew what was in my heart. You have to let me buy you a load of candy though, PLEASE?”

Daisy fell into step with Emmeline as they made their way to one of their favourite places ( her small legs working overtime out of habit for keeping up with her friend ). “How could I expect anything else from you, after all these years,” she teased. “--Hmm...let me think about it...of course -- too much candy is never enough. It’s a weakness I don’t particularly care about fighting.”

Anyone who’d known Remus for even a short period of time in his life would know he tended to solve most of his problems with chocolate. He had a whole stash saved for bad days or when he had to console a troubled third year on prefect duty. “It depends on how much I end up sharing, if this is just for me I think I can stretch it. But if I end up letting others have some I might just run out.”  He mused. “I can beat anyone’s haul, but I probably shouldn’t try to because I don’t want to go through all my summer savings in one trip.” 

Daisy was all but in heaven with the shelves of candy that surrounded her. Chocolates and lollies and sweets galore, she was almost tempted to buy the whole store -- but Remus’ comments reminded her to stay grounded. “Hmm, now I know the phrase is technically meant to be ‘sharing is caring’, but in this case, I’m willing to debate,” Daisy smiled teasingly. “--Oh, who am I kidding, half of this will definitely end up in a sharing pile in the Ravenclaw common room.” She paused as she went to place the third chocolate bar in her basket, considering Remus’ point. “Maybe it’s a good thing I ran into you,” she spoke up. “I probably would’ve spent all of my summer savings in one go if you weren’t here to ground me.” She placed the bar back on the shelf and sighed. “Ah well, guess it will have to wait for next time...I’m just a tad bit excited, if you can’t tell, by the way.”

“Merlin, it feels so good to be back again”, Lily remarked with a bright smile on her roseate lips as she let her gaze wander through the village she loved so much. One of the best things of going to Hogwarts was definitely the Hogsmeade weekends. “I think I’m first of all going to allow myself a Butterbeer. Are you in?”

Daisy smiled as she fell into place with Lily. She’d missed this: quiet afternoons spent in the buzzing town, wandering around with her friends by her side. She’d really missed this. “Mhm, couldn’t agree more,” she sighed. “--Ooh, Butterbeer sounds lovely, I wouldn’t miss it.” Daisy looped her arm around Lily’s. “And then maybe we could head to Tomes and Scrolls. There’s a book I’ve been meaning to look for...”

“I wish I didn’t have to buy candy or something of the sort, it would be nice to just lay out here for a bit, but I can’t waste my weekend here, y’know? Even if it’s the last of the nice weather we’ll probably get.” 

Daisy squinted into the sun and shrugged lightly. “I think the nice weather’s telling us that buying candy is really the way to go,” she paused. “--sorry? What’s that clouds? You’re saying that candy is not a waste of time? I agree. C’mon Em, let’s go.”

It had been months since Hartley had wandered these streets, and after seven years they’d grown familiar. So when a new music shop had popped up over the summer he was drawn to it, glancing at the window display with awe in his eyes. “Some of these are muggle records.” He mumbled, reading the title of a few through the glass. “Merlin, I’m going to be broke by the time the day is over.” 

Daisy was excited that the first Hogsmeade weekend of the school year had finally rolled around -- ecstatic, even. There was something about the short weekend trips which thrilled Daisy, and though she had no one to roam with, she found excitement in just wandering the streets of the town. When she passed by Hartley, it was the word muggle which caught her attention. “Sorry? Muggle records? Blimey, I’ve been looking for those for ages. You think you’ll be broke, I’ll be at negative by the time I’m finished...”

Letting Remus into a candy store was a terrible idea, and letting him into one unsupervised was even worse.  He had a weakness for all things chocolate, and the kind woman behind the counter at Honeydukes was all too pleased with the commission she earned when Remus was in, constantly pointing out new kinds of candy in an attempt to sway him into buying it. By this point, he’d already gathered at least nine galleons worth of chocolate into his basket, and he was still reading the back of some new salted chocolate bar. “Do you think this is enough to last me a month?” He questioned, and despite his splurging on sweets habit he wasn’t exactly rich, instead he used the money he’d saved up over a summer job to afford his guilty pleasure.

Daisy loved Hogsmeade weekend’s. More importantly she loved Hogsmeade candy. You could even stretch as far as to say that the only thing which dragged Daisy through the month was knowing that eventually she’d get this one weekend to stock up on all her candy needs. Every month she entered the candy store with the intent of buying to save, and yet every month all the candy was gone by the time the next weekend arrived. She told herself once again as she entered the store make sure you save, Daisy, make sure you save...but it all just looked so tempting. At the sound of a familiar voice, Daisy turned to smile at Remus, inspecting his collection so far. “Is there ever enough to last a month?” She teased, picking up a basket for herself and putting in the first chocolate bar she saw. “Though I would say what you have is fairly substantial. Reckon you can beat my haul?”

There was one armchair in the library that seemed to be comfier than any of the other chairs. Today Emma was lucky enough to get the seat and has been sitting and reading for almost the entire day. As she flipped through the pages of her book she could feel a pair of eyes on her, glancing up to see someone nearby was indeed looking at her. “Can I help you?” she called out, bringing her eyes back to her book, “I haven’t finished with it yet if that’s what you want. You’ll have to wait your turn like everyone else.”

Daisy knew exactly where she was headed when she made her way to the library. There was always that one chair tucked into the corner that everyone wanted. Daisy had been rather hoping that today people would’ve been more inclined to head to Hogsmeade than to sit in the library, and so when she saw Emma Vanity sitting in the chair, you could only imagine just how deflated she felt. “I think you can imagine that I was rather hoping for the armchair, actually,” she responded, her voice flat and monotonous ( she hadn’t prepared herself to argue for the chair ). “But since you’re clearly offering the book, I guess I’ll take that too,” she added with a touch of sarcasm.

Comforted absolutely by Daisy’s sweet tone, it soothed her frazzled nerves and Mary almost seemed to melt into the soft grass as she returned Daisy’s smile warmly. “Don’t be silly. I’m the one who turned herself into a tripping hazard by falling asleep all willy-nilly. Come join me instead,” Mary pleaded, already tugging gently at the girl’s elbow and collecting up her things so she would be more inclined to sit for a moment. “Unless I’m keeping you from something important?”

Daisy softened at Mary’s smile; the warmth of the gesture engulfed her so she didn’t feel quite so guilty anymore ( though of course there was still guilt there -- how could there not be? ). “You certainly looked quite cozy,” Daisy smiled, shifting herself so she was sitting on the grass next to the Gryffindor who was tugging lightly at her sleeve. “Me? Important? I don’t think I’ve been involved in anything important for a while,” she joked. “And even if I did have somewhere to be, there’s always time to sit and breathe, I reckon.”

                               daisy hookum: the fallen angel

1. someone who has fallen from a high point in their life

The sharp tug as Daisy’s unsuspecting foot tangled in the hem of her robes sent Mary startling awake. She sat up with a jolt, winded as if she had sprinted from the castle’s front gates. A light hand fell to her chest and she drew in a slow steadying breath, eyes darting from the girl picking up her books and a quill’s quick race to the water’s edge. “y-yes, I was just…” she glanced toward where she had been laying a moment before, disorientated and confused by the unexpected wake up call and tucked a thick, dark tendril of hair behind her ear. “goodness, you gave me quite a scare.” she laughed anxiously, before shifting to grab another elusive quill just beyond the blonde’s reach.

Daisy crouched down so she didn’t feel as though she were towering over poor Mary ( though her short stature probably only realistically meant she was a foot taller when standing over her ). She felt awful for waking the poor girl -- she’d seemed to peaceful. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated, flashing Mary the smallest of apologetic smiles. “I’m a total clutz. Didn’t mean to scare you so much -- well, I didn’t mean to wake you at all really. Honestly just tuck yourself back up and you can go back to sleep, we can pretend I was never here.”

gwenog sat at the desk closest to the bay of windows at the front of the classroom, where she was awash in afternoon sunlight. NEWT-level classes meant lots of study periods, and while she relished the fact that her head of house allowed use of the charms classroom as a quiet place to complete her assignments, her mood wasn’t very merry. homework long-discarded on the table, gwenog held a necklace out in front of her and attempted to enchant it with a shield charm. 

the gold chain and small diamond pendant glittered with every shift of the light and cast small prisms on gwen’s notes, spread out in front of her and covered with her rough, scratching script. she sighed, twisting the strands of hair on the nape of her neck in an effort to concentrate, before picking up her wand to proceed. 

“protego maxima–” -–she heard footsteps in the doorway, but made no move look at the intruder or to stop what she was doing - this was an intricate little bit of magic that required concentration. “If you’re looking for flitwick, kindly fuck off over to his office, yeah? i booked the classroom until 2:30.”

Daisy was tired. She was exhausted, actually. There was only so much pretending a girl could do in one day, and it was hardly past midday by the time she gave up on her positive facade. The school load was getting to her, the people were getting to her, the memories of her aunt’s harsh words from summer were getting to her, and she just needed to let it out. She needed to pause the act for even just a moment, or else she might snap.

And so she headed for the classrooms. No one ever understood why, but it seemed Daisy’s only way to let out was to study and to practice. To study and to practice meant her mind was focused on anything but the world outside, and all she had to do was focus on her own skills to get her through the hour. In finding an empty classroom, Daisy could almost always calm herself down after a rough day.

Unfortunately for her, Daisy was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t even check to see if her regular classroom was actually empty. Despite what Gwenog clearly would’ve preferred, Daisy just waltzed on into the room, not a care in the world. She stopped at the other girls words. “Oh, shit -- uh, I mean...” she fumbled. “Um...I didn’t realise anyone was in here, sorry. I just wanted to practice. --Actually, uh, I was thinking of working on my charms spells, it would be a great way for me to study if I could just help you, maybe, um...if you want.”