wanderlust ☆ n.longbottom

.:07:.

Daisy was doing her best to avoid Umbridge. It proved more difficult than she had anticipated and the new teacher had demanded she attended a detention that night or else she would risk being suspended. She decided she better attend, it wasn't like she was doing anything else that evening. On her way, she bumped into Harry. He pulled he to the side to speak to her. He just stared at her, shuffling his feet and it looked as though he was searching for the right words to express his thoughts.

"Please don't start singing to me, I haven't quite recovered from the Dean saga," she sighed, hoping her glare would encourage him to elaborate on the blank stare he was giving her.

"Detention with Umbridge, it's..." Harry hesitated, causing Daisy's frown to deepen with the heightened impatience.

"Spit it out Potter, I don't have all day."

Professor Flitwick bustled over to the duo, a purposeful look wrinkled onto his face. "May I have a word, Miss Walshaw?"

"I really did do that homework, Professor, but a house elf ate it," Daisy insisted.

"A house elf ate your homework?" echoed the Charms professor. His pursed mouth was propped open in disbelief.

Daisy nodded frantically. "I saw one of them running off with it. I really tried hard on that essay as well!"

"I'm not here to speak to you about your homework," Flitwick dismissed. "It's about your detention with Umbridge. She's had to go back to the ministry to complete an errand."

"Will she be gone forever?" Daisy gasped as she and Harry exchanged a look filled with hope.

"No, just this evening. So I will be taking your detention. You will meet me in the Charms class tonight. And you can finish that homework whilst you're there!"

"I hardly think that's fair - it's not my fault a house elf ate it!"

"Just be there on time," pleaded Flitwick weakly. Daisy nodded. Though she was relieved she didn't have to spend the time with Umbridge, curosity regarding what the detention would entail still bubbled inside of her. She had observed that Harry had been very quiet since his detention.

"What was it you wanted to tell me?" she pressed as her eyes surveyed Harry's anxious twitching.

"Nothing."

"Are you sure? Because it seemed pretty important before?"

"I need to go, I have to get to Potions."

"We're in the same class, Harry."

"Oh, erm, yeah I forgot. I'm walking a different way to you though."

"How did you know which way I was going to go?"

Harry's eyes rounded and, without another word, he bolted in the opposite direction.

"I'll see you in class then, yeah?" Daisy called after him. Why was he acting so weird? Daisy shrugged and began making her way to Potions.

When she reached the classroom, she asked Neville if he would let her copy off his Charms homework. Neville immediately declined, suggesting she should try and do the work on her own. How else would she learn if she just copied off him all the time? She wouldn't be able to do that in her O.W.Ls. Daisy was adamant she didn't need exam results to be successful. She wanted to be an artist. Artists didn't need good O.W.Ls.

The duo's bickering concluded abruptly when Snape glided through the room, his cloak producing a thin flurry of wind with each menacing stride. The whole room replicated Daisy and Neville's fall into silence. The now frosted air stilled as the Professor began his lesson. Although Daisy didn't exactly keep her behaviour pristine in school, she certainly tried to repress any disruptions she may want to cause in Snape's lessons. She, like many other students, was terrified of him and since she was a Gryffindor she knew she was in the firing line of Snape's insults.

The lesson dragged on and the adrenaline fueled by her fear of Snape calling on her kept her alert. Eventually, Snape dismissed the lesson and the relieved class scuttled out. Neville was about to ask Daisy to revise with him in the library but he was interrupted by silence: it became apparent that Daisy had other arrangements. Dean had appeared, a giddy expression pasted on his face as he intertwined his hand with his girlfriend's. They walked off, leaving Neville alone in the gaggle of students. He desperately tried to convince himself he would be better off revising without the distraction of Daisy.

Hermione spotted Neville alone and felt sympathy. Her intuition combined with her observation skills made it near impossible for Neville to conceal his secret from her. Hermione had gathered Neville liked Daisy more than friends and could easily see he had became jealous and lonely since the addition of Dean. She knew the toil of loneliness all too well and was desperate to ensure the boy knew he could confide in her.

"You can come and study with us if you would like?" Hermione offered brightly, surveying Neville's face that was twinged with sadness. His eyes were glazed over and fixated on the spot where Daisy had just exited his eyeline.

"He can?!" Ron blurted out, earning him a sharp elbow to the ribs from Hermione. "I mean yeah, of course you can."

Neville nodded and the four of them began making their way back up to the Gryffindor common room. They were exchanging thoughts surrounding their mutual hatred for Snape but both Ron and Harry were desperate to discover more about Daisy and Dean's unlikely relationship.

"So, how's things going between Daisy and Dean?" Harry pried once they were settled on a sofa in the common room.

Neville swallowed. "Good. I think."

"I didn't think she would say yes after Dean's performance. Daisy's face was a picture," chuckled Ron, his freckled face alight with the memory.

"Dean won't stop going on about how it was your idea," Harry commented.

"Yeah, I guess I know her better than anyone." Not anymore he didn't. Daisy was slipping away. She was becoming a stranger to him, right infront of his eyes. Maybe he should've just told her the truth?