Veraisy: Their Story

Daisy- I Think I'm Dying

I must have stood in that hallway, gaping like a fish, trying to remember my own name, for at least ten minutes. My face felt incredibly hot, like there was a blanket of pure heat around my head. My fingers tingled where Vera had kissed them. I kept looking at them, sure there was some imprint of Vera's lips on my knuckles, but nothing was there. Just the ghost of a touch.

I wasn't sure what to do next. She had just bent down and kissed my hand, like—like a prince in a Disney movie. But girls weren't supposed to do that. Girls were supposed to have their hands kissed by boys, not other girls. Right?

The fluttering in my stomach didn't stop, like there were hundreds of butterflies in there just flying around, and I didn't know what it meant. Maybe it was just nerves at meeting a new person. But I had never really been nervous around people before. Well, sure, I was kind of shy, but never like this.

And the way I had stumbled over my words? How I couldn't even form sentences when she had been here? What was that about? She probably thought I was stupid. I didn't want her to think that.

I couldn't stop looking at my hand as I made my way down the hall and back to the pile of barrels that concealed the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. It still tingled where Vera had kissed it as I knocked the shave and a haircut tune on the biggest one.

The barrel swung out of the way, revealing the small passage. I wanted to wait for my blush to recede so I wouldn't have to explain to Cedric that I was starting to think something was wrong with me, but every time I thought my face was going back to normal, I remembered how Vera had basically called me pretty and how she had kissed my hand before she left.

There was no use, so I let my hair fall into my face again and hoped Cedric wouldn't notice as I made my way into the common room.

He was in the same chair as when I had come downstairs from my dorm, still poring over the Standard Book of Spells, Grade Five. He looked up when I came in and smiled, like he knew what had happened in the kitchens. Or maybe I was just being paranoid.

"How was?" He asked, closing the book.

"Good," I said. "I mean—fine. I mean... It was good. Thanks."

Cedric raised an eyebrow. "Anything interesting happen?"

My mouth fell open again. He knew. How did he know? Was I that obvious?

"Your face is red as a beet, Daisy," Cedric said, smiling. "Something I should know about?"

"No!" The last thing I was going to do was tell him that something in my head was backwards and I was getting all flustered over a girl. He would think I was crazy. He would think something was wrong with me, and I was starting to think he'd be right. "Nothing."

Cedric tilted his head, his smile gone. "You sure? You can tell me anything, you know."

I tried for a smile, wrapping my arms around myself. "Nothing happened. The kitchens were just hot, that's all."

"Ok," Cedric said, though I didn't think he believed me. "You should head up to bed, then. Big day tomorrow."

Nodding, I quickly went up the stairs before Cedric could ask me anything else. Back in my dorm, I went straight for my bed, but I didn't think I'd be getting any sleep that night. Noodle was curled up around Meatball on my pillow and, not wanting to disturb the cat, I climbed into bed and only used the very bottom of my pillow. In the end it didn't matter, because Noodle got up and curled up on my chest, even though he was Carrie's cat.

***

I didn't know whether I was excited for Charms or dreading it. It was my first class of the day that was mixed with the Slytherins, which meant that Vera was going to be there. On one hand, I wanted to see her again, despite last night's disaster. She seemed like a cool person, and I wanted to get to know her better. On the other hand, I was scared of the way Vera made me feel, like a radish incapable of forming complete sentences.