wanderlust ☆ n.longbottom

.:16:.

Daisy waited and waited by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. She had assumed Neville would meet her there and they would walk to the first official DA meeting together. But, he had not shown. He was deliberately avoiding her. It stung. They had never fallen out like this before. She was desperate to speak to him about what happened with Vivienne.

Once she reached the Hogs Head, she was actually nervous to step in alone. She wasn't used to not having Neville by her side. Would he speak to her? How would he react when she mentioned his kiss with Vivienne? Or had Dean and Seamus already spread it around the school?

When she entered the room, the whole group turned to stare at her.
"What?" she hissed, glaring back. Paranoia spread through her body; she was worried they didn't think she deserved to be there. She caught Hermione's eyeline, who then nodded a bushy brown head at Dean. The tall, dark haired boy was huddled in between several balloons. A big, toothy grin spread across his face, a bouquet of lurid pink flowers shaking in his hand. His face lit up when he noticed Daisy had arrived.

"What's all this?" she spat. Her eyebrows knitted together to finalise her sour expression.

"An apology," Dean announced proudly, thrusting the flowers into her hands.

"What for?" Daisy snapped. She threw the flowers on the empty seat next to Seamus.

"You know..." Dean mumbled.

"No, I really don't. What could you have done to warrant this...spectacle?" Her mouth fell open at the shock of all the balloons that read: Daisy I'm sorry.

"Saying that Neville was in love with you." Dean dropped his voice low. "And our argument about it. I should've believed you when you said otherwise."

Neville, who had leant in to listen, spoke up in a wavering voice. His chiseled face flushed red. "Why did you think that?"

"Glad to see you're speaking to me now," Daisy snarled, turning to view Neville fully.

"I heard my name," Neville spat back.

"This doesn't involve you!" shouted Daisy.

"I think Dean involved the whole bloody group when he decided to bring the decor of a children's party to the DA meeting!" Neville said, matching Daisy's tone. "No offence, Dean, the flowers are actually very nice."

"Thank you," grinned Dean happily.

"Do you think I want this, Neville?" Daisy quizzed as she tugged the string of one of the balloons.

"I don't know what you want anymore," Neville admitted quietly.

Daisy ignored his comment and turned to view Dean. "Will you please take all this outside?"

"But-" Dean began to protest, his smile fading fast.

"Or I'll do this," continued Daisy. She grabbed her wand and popped every single balloon, Dean and Seamus watching in horror. She didn't stop her destruction of the kind gesture there, she then grabbed the flowers and changed the colour to a deep, velvety black. "I hate pink." With one final glare at everyone, she then slotted herself on the other side of Neville. Dean was left looking solemn,  one of the deflated balloons laid limp in his hand. It was the visual representation of the car crash of his relationship with Daisy.

"This is way more exciting than anything Harry would've planned," Cho whispered to her auburn haired friend. Marietta nodded in agreement.

"When are you going to start then?" demanded Daisy loudly to Harry.

"We were kind of waiting for you guys to stop having a domestic," said Hermione, her eyes narrowing like a hawk.

"Luckily for you we've stopped now." Daisy flashed Hermione a fake smile.

"Good," replied Hermione in a business-like manner. She looked at Harry, encouraging him to take the lead.

"Erm...well... I guess...We will start with...Questions! Does anyone have any question?"

A few shaky hands appeared in the air. One by one, the group began questioning Harry about what happened that night at the graveyard.

"Has everyone just came to ask me about that night?" roared Harry once he had finally lost his patience.

Daisy suddenly felt the familiar twang of sadness. Grief spread made her body ache; like a full body bruise. Everyone just wanted to know about Emmeline. They were intruding in her death when they paid no attention to her life. It was none of their business. Guilt washed over Daisy because she was too caught up in her own issues than to realise this whole meeting would be about Emmeline.

"Everyone who has just came to ask about Emmeline and what happened that night can get up and leave now!" Ron ordered angrily, breaking his silence for the first time this meeting.

"Go on! Go!" Hermione bellowed at a few of the students who had pried. Sheepishly, a few students got up to go and Hermione tutted at them as they left. She then addressed Daisy. "I'm so sorry that happened, Daisy." She said it carefully and sympathetically, expecting Daisy to explode again.

To her surprise, Hermione managed to catch the girl's watery gaze and a soft smile played on Daisy's lips. "It's okay, I can imagine she would've loved this attention if I'm honest." She laughed and the noise sounded foreign to her friends.

"I always found her rather shy," Luna said delicately.

"She was, but that doesn't mean she didn't love the attention, especially if it was from boys...I remember when we were younger, she was around ten at the time, we went camping. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. We both hated it. It was always freezing, and spooky on a night. I'd give anything to be back there. It's funny how you don't realise what you have until it's gone.... Anyway, there was a boy in the tent opposite and she thought he was simply beautiful. He was quite plain, I always thought, but Em was obsessed. She made him a mud pie to confess her undying love to him and he took a massive bite out of it because he thought it was chocolate. He ran away crying." Daisy's face was alight with nostalgia until the story faded and she burst into tears. Neville opened his arms and she fell into them, smudging her eyeliner on his white shirt. Hermione dived out of her seat and handed her a tissue.

"I'm sorry," she sniffed. "How embarrassing."

"I mean, it's no more embarrassing than when you popped all those balloons infront of us all," Luna point out dreamily as she fiddled with a loose strand of wool on her lilac cardigan. She received a sharp elbow to the ribs off Hermione to silence her, but this only left her confused.

"It's not embarrassing, you're hurting," Hermione reassured her.

"If anything it just reminds us why we wanted to start this," Neville added, gently stroking Daisy's hair until she lifted her head up.

"Thanks," was all she said. "I think I'm going to go."

"I'll come," offered Neville. He had expected her to decline but she nodded.

"I'll find you later and let you know what we discuss today," Hermione told them before they left.

The bitterly cold air found Daisy's bare skin and it cooled her red and puffy face. She really thought she was managing the grief. But it never leaves. It comes back when you least expect it.