five; BLUE

Harry had just turned five when Daisy began to notice signs of magic occurring around him and it had been quite easy to cover up at first but when her sister had given him the absolute worst haircut of all time and all of it had regrown in a single night, magic could be the only explanation.

Daisy was quite quick to cover up some mishaps but with Vernon searching for signs of his nephew's magic at every turn, it was near impossible and incidents often slipped through that Daisy either couldn't find a good enough explanation to or she wasn't around for.

It also worried her because she had been told by Lily that magic often began to be seen in children around the ages of seven and eight, unless they were quite powerful and Harry was five which concerned Daisy to no end because she didn't know how to help him control it and she certainly couldn't tell him why all this weirdness occurred around in.

Not without somehow risking Vernon finding out exactly what she had done.

Reluctantly, she had to give brother-in-law credit. He was exceptionally persistent in his quest for normalcy in his life and the same went for her sister whose relationship with Daisy grew more and more strained with each day that Petunia did nothing when Vernon punished Harry or grounded Daisy for defending him.

Daisy wasn't sure what to do about anything related to Harry's magic and the only living magical person she knew, Emmeline Vance, hadn't responded to a single one of the many, many letters that Daisy had sent her pleading for her help with her magical nephew.

In fact, Daisy hadn't received a single letter since November 1981 when she had given her the details of Lily and James' funeral and Daisy found herself quite bitter and resentful because she didn't have magic. She was desperate to help her nephew but she didn't understand the world he had been born into, it didn't matter that she had known about it since she was baby and her only magical connection hadn't responded to any of her many letters.

It was September 10th, a little over a week after the school year had begun and Daisy had been home after her class had been released early when the phone rang, the person on the other end was from Harry and Dudley's school and looking for someone to come in about an incident regarding Harry. Daisy had never been more thankful that she was the only person home and that she was listed as an emergency pick up and could attend meetings with his teachers because Vernon didn't care enough to do it himself.

So, there she sat, in a too small chair across from a woman who she knew that neither Harry nor Dudley liked very much, struggling not to laugh at the mop of blue curls atop the woman's head while her nephews sat at a table behind her, one concentrating on his drawing and the other looking worried as he stared at the front of the room while his teacher raved about what had happened while she had been berating Harry.

"I'm sorry." Daisy finally cut in when Mrs Thatcher paused to take a breath, her beady eyes narrowing what she deemed to be a sign of disrespect, "Are you trying to tell me that while you were berating my nephew for 'needing to use the bathroom', your hair turned blue and that is somehow Harry's fault?"

Mrs Thatcher's face heated up and her eyes seemed to narrow further on the blonde girl who had only recently turned seventeen and she spluttered as she attempted to form a response to Daisy's logic, "W-Well, n...no but how else would you explain this?"

Daisy pursed her lips so she wouldn't laugh at the woman as she pointed wildly at her hair and while she absolutely knew it was Harry's fault, she wasn't about to let Mrs Thatcher know that.

"Is it possible that you have an atrocious hairdresser?" She questioned, her lip twitching when the teacher's face became a much darker shade of red, "I just don't see how a five year old could have done this to you, do you?"

"I, uh, see your point." Mrs Thatcher finally said after Daisy wouldn't look away from the glare she was being given, "He can't have done it."

"Great, are we able to go now?" Daisy questioned as she got to her feet without waiting for an answer and she beamed at the angry woman, "Thanks for your time. Come on, loves."

Harry gingerly got up from his seat while Dudley launched himself to his feet and they met Daisy in the doorway where she had moved to and the three left the classroom without another word to the fuming woman with blue locks.

"I promise I didn't do anything, Aunt Daisy," Harry exclaimed after a few moments.

"I know, sweetheart." She lied gently, "Mrs Thatcher is just rather silly."

"She's so mean!" Dudley complained and Daisy frowned, "To everyone."

"That's not good at all." She spoke softly, "How about we get some milkshakes on the way home, yeah?"

"Mummy says that would spoil dinner," Dudley said sadly as Harry's hand tightened around Daisy's.

"Maybe just a small one and then we can go to the playground." Daisy responded thoughtfully, "Or we could walk to the store after dinner and get one."

It wasn't long before they had reached the playground and the two five year olds had run off while Daisy settled into one of the few benches that wasn't occupied by other parents and she pulled a magazine from her bag and pretended to look busy reading it so that none of them would wander over and attempt to strike up a conversation with her.

She'd skimmed a few of the more interesting articles when she peered back up and watched as Dudley stomped around the sandpit with a few other children and Harry swung by himself on the swingset when a man caught the young woman's attention, not even due to the robes he was wearing, but because he had appeared from nowhere and was staring right at her.

Sparing a glance at both of her nephews to ensure they were still where she had last seen them, Daisy quickly got to her feet and made her way over to the man who she knew with absolute certainty was a wizard.

"Daisy Marissa Evans?" The man questioned when she stopped a foot from him warily.

"Who are you?" She asked, not confirming his question.

"Gerald Irons, ma'am." He responded kindly, "I work for Gringotts."

"The wizarding bank?"

"That's correct." Gerald confirmed, "A letter was brought to our attention almost one month ago, addressed to you from one Lily Evans-Potter."

A chill fell over Daisy at this man's words and she stepped back slightly, wondering if she'd be able to scream loud enough to garner attention.

"Lily has been dead for almost four years." She finally responded, her eyes narrowed at the man who nodded.

"Yes, this letter was written in August of 1981." Gerald responded, noting the suspicion in Daisy's eyes, "Topped with a note that read that in the case of her death, this letter should be given to you on your seventeenth birthday."

"I turned seventeen last month." Daisy found herself responding, her eyes latching onto the envelope that the strange man had pulled from his pocket.

"We had to ensure that it wasn't dangerous or contained any damaging spellwork," Gerald told her almost condescendingly.

Daisy withheld a snort of amusement at the thought of her big sister leaving her a letter riddled with jinxes, not wishing to annoy the wizard, "Right, what does it say?"

"We couldn't open it to read it," Gerald responded and Daisy's lip twitched upward at his obvious frustration when he deposited the letter into her outstretched hand and stared at her with expectant eyes.

"Well, thanks." Daisy spoke quietly as she eyed the outer parchment where her name was written in that painfully familiar handwriting that she never thought she would see again, outside the letters she had kept hidden or the backs of the moving photographs that she'd also stuffed into the loose floorboard in her bedroom, "Bye then."

She quickly turned on her heel and rushed away from the man toward the playground, ignoring whatever it was that he had shouted at her and she gently slid the heavy letter into the pocket of her bellbottoms as she called out to her nephews that it was time to leave.

✦❀✦

The clock by her bedside read that it was well past two in the morning and Daisy was seated cross-legged on her desk chair, wide awake as she stared at the letter that lay dauntingly in front of her.

A soft sigh caught her attention and she looked to her right in time to watch as Harry grumbled something softly in his sleep and rolled over and she smiled softly before she turned her attention back to the envelope.

Slowly, she reached for it and turned it over, breaking the wax seal with a certain ease that amused her considering that the man who had given her the letter could not open it himself. Finally, she pulled the heavy, yellowing paper from the confines and slowly unfolded the parchment, revealing two pieces.

Dear Daisy

If you're reading this letter, and I am truly hoping that you will never ever have to then it would mean that I'm dead

Daisy took a deep, shuttering breath as she stared at the first half of the sentence and she blinked furiously as her eyes began to water.

She hadn't realised just how much she missed her sister's letters and how she had almost forgotten how Lily managed to somehow ramble in a letter.

and some Ministry or Gringotts Official has brought this to you on your birthday.

If this is the case, happy seventeenth Daisy Bee, by the standards in my world, you'd be of age but in our world, you still have another year. Annoying, I know.

Hopefully, if it's me who is dead, Harry and James are alive and you still see them all the time and are taking care of Harry just as well as you did when you thought I wasn't watching, singing him lullabies and running around with him atop your shoulders and telling him stories that are even crazy by magical standards.

I also hope that if you're still living with Tuney that Vernon isn't treating you horribly anymore.

Merlin, I really hope this letter is never given to you. Sorry to ramble again but if you do happen to read this, I just really want you to know that I love and adore you and I'm always cheering you on.

All my love,

Lily

Daisy sniffled as she got to the end of the note and her stomach churned because she wasn't taking care of Harry as well as she had been when Lily was alive, he'd be so much happier if she was standing up to Petunia and her idiot of a husband.

Instead, she had to pretend that Harry was a mere nuisance whenever they were around Vernon which she knew he understood but she could tell it upset him immensely, she had to sneak him up to her room every night so that he wouldn't have to sleep in that dingy cupboard and get him back before either her sister or brother-in-law woke and found him upstairs, the guilt of not taking care of him properly ate away at her every single day and seeing this letter did nothing to soothe and when she looked at the letter once again, she frowned when she noticed a few more words below where Lily had signed her name.

P.S. James wishes me to let you know that he solemnly hopes you are still creating havoc and mischief at least thirteen times a day and I am truly hoping he's not serious about that because that is far too excessive.

Daisy giggled into her hand so as to not wake Harry as she read the last part of the letter, remembering how Lily used to shake her head in exasperation whenever she found her husband and sister pouring over muggle pranks and just how fascinated James was by them.

Wait.

"Thirteen times a day." Daisy murmured to herself before she quickly got to her feet, wincing as she knocked a pen onto the ground where it made a flattering sound, "Mischief."

Quickly, Daisy rushed to the loose floorboard and gently pulled it up to reveal countless pieces of parchment and moving photographs and she scoured through them until she found the scrap piece of paper James had given her one of the last times she'd seen him and Lily.

"In case you need it." He'd told her sternly and seriously, two things she'd never really associated with James Potter and with nervous hands, Daisy grabbed the piece of parchment from the space in the floor and read it for the second time since it had been given to her.

Mischief House
Thirteen Day Road
Finsbury, London
In case you ever need it.

"James, you brilliant bastard," Daisy whispered as she glanced up at her sleeping nephew and a wide smile spread across her face.

══════════════════

and we've finally reached the turning point.

this leads up to exactly what i've been working toward in the book which i love because i've been working on this chapter for ages now but it never quite turned out the way i wanted it to but now i'm finally happy with how it is and i hope y'all enjoyed it!

next chapter should hopefully be out sometime in the next week.

thanks for reading!

~r