Chapter Text
Ours
Chapter One: Daisy Martin
During the summer in the Muggle world, most teenagers are out with their friends, not having a care in the world about anything, glad for the freedom, glad that school is over. Most teenagers do not shut themselves in their tiny room, feverishly flipping through the Daily Prophet for news, or sneaking down to the sitting room and listening in on the news whenever their aunt and uncle are watching it.
Then again, most teenagers in the Muggle world are not wizards. Most teenagers don't know who Lord Voldemort is, nor do they care, and therefore they do not know or care that he's returned.
But I am a wizard, I do know and I do care, and since I'm living in the Muggle world and have no connection to the wizard world, I'm forced to read the Daily Prophet, which is filled with irrelevant rubbish and cruel jokes about Harry, and listen in on the Muggle news for anything that could be traced to Voldemort, which is just as useless as reading the Daily Prophet. I would be getting updates from my friends, except their letters are becoming more and more useless, to the point that even Fred constantly calling me 'love' and 'babe' doesn't make me very happy any more. All it does is annoy me, at this point.
One evening, I'm in the entrance hallway, trying to listen to the news, when Candy comes through the door, and upon seeing what I'm doing, smirks. The kind of smirk that makes me realize I'm screwed.
"Hazel, are you listening in on the news again?" she asks, loud enough for the Martins to hear in the sitting room, I grimace.
"Fuck you," I hiss at her, which is all I have time to say before Uncle Gabriel bursts through the door, looking furiously at me.
I straighten up, face him squarely, show no expression on my face. I refuse to let him think I'm scared.
"What was that you said, sweetie?" he asks of Candy.
"She's trying to listen to the news, Dad," she repeats, her smirk widening.
The reason the Martins hate me listening to the news so much is because I'm a wizard. I'm not keen to tell them the real reason why I'm listening - because the most powerful Dark wizard of all time has returns and I'm trying to see if any abnormal thing on the news could be linked back to him and anything he may be doing now that he's back - so I've just told them I'm interested in their world. Obviously, they didn't buy that for a second, and are now convinced that I'm a spy for some wizarding cult that's dedicated to bringing the Muggle world down. Don't ask me why they think a wizarding cult would be asking a fifteen year old girl to be spying for them, I'm still trying to make sense of that myself.
"I was," I snap. "Until you lot decided to interrupt."
Then I bite down on my tongue. That was a big mistake. Uncle Gabriel turns to face me, his eyes narrowing. Whenever he does that - in fact, whenever he makes a lot of facial expression - he looks positively comical, but it loses its humour when he starts hitting me. He takes a few steps forward, so that he's uncomfortably close to me.
"What did I tell you about listening to the news?"
"What did I tell you about personal space?" I retort, taking two large steps back, but Candy pushes me back toward him. Realizing that this is a losing game, I stand my ground this time, even when he takes a step forward.
"Now you listen here, girl, and listen well," he says, pointing a threatening finger at me. "I've put up with a lot of shit from you, I've sacrificed a lot for you. Driving you from King's Cross and picking up your disgusting little boyfriend along with you, I've fed you, clothed you, I've given you and that stupid owl of yours a lot of freedom, I've done everything. But if you're putting my life, my family, my world in danger, don't think I'll hesitate for even a second to kick you out. Don't think it for one second."
He grabs hold of my wrist, squeezing it so tightly I'm sure it'll leave a mark. I try to fight out of his grasp, but it's useless.
"Let go of me!" I shout. "Let go of me now!"
But all he does is hold on tighter, and when I continue to fight against it, he slaps me in the face, and it's his grip on my wrist that keeps me from falling over.
"Stop it! Stop struggling, you useless, pathetic girl!" he hisses, and when I still do not stop, he punches me in the jaw, and finally I stop, blinking quickly.
"You'll stop meddling, you'll stop eavesdropping, or I'll leave you out on the streets without a second thought," he whispers. "Is that understood?"
When I defiantly do not say anything, he punches me again, this time in the stomach.
"Is that understood?" he repeated, his tone almost deadly.
"Ye - yes," I mumble.
He slams me in the face again.
"What was that? I can't hear you,"
"Yes," I repeat, louder this time. "It's understood."
He releases me at once, and I collapse against the wall.
"Good," is all he says, and without a second glance at me, returns into the living room.
"Better luck next time, Knight," Candy hisses in my ear, and I lose it.
I reach for my wand, and point it at her throat.
"Not. Another. Word," I say in a quiet, threatening tone.
For what feels like ages, we stare into each others, my wand pointed at her throat. Despite the pain, I'm completely still my body tense, never shaking or wavering. My face is set and my gaze hard, while hers is more scared than I've ever seen her. The news is on, like background music in my ears, but I'm not listening, I don't care any more. All I'm thinking of is getting the revenge I've so longed for ever since - well, ever since the Martins took me in, really.
Then finally, Candy lets out a long, loud, piercing shriek. I realize she's screaming for Uncle Gabriel, and my anger and bitterness turns to fear. My instinct is to run, but I don't have time to run, barely have time to point my wand away from her throat before both Uncle Gabriel and Aunt Daisy burst through the door.
They look from the wand in my hand, to the terrified expression on her face and shaking body. It's not all that hard to figure out. Aunt Daisy lets out a scream like Candy's and hurries over to her daughter, but Uncle Gabriel's attention is solely on me.
"You," he spits hatefully. "You!"
He takes a fistful of the fabric of my shirt in each hand, picks me up, slams me against the wall.
"What have I told you about using that in the house! What did I just tell you, you worthless piece of shit!" he screams at me, punching and slapping me again and again and again. "I told you not to use it in the house! I told you not to threaten my family. I told you, bitch, and look at what you did!"
He throws me to the floor, kicking me over and over.
"That's it! That is it! I'm done, I'm not going to take this any more!" he yells. "You're out of here, I want you out of this house now!"
I stare at him in shock, my ears ringing. I want to move, I want to stand, but I can't. Whether it's from shock or the pain, I can't tell.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go!" he yells, kicking me in the side. "Pack up your stuff and go!"
It registers that I have to move. I have to keep going, no matter how much it hurts. I've just managed to sit up straight when Aunt Daisy speaks up.
"No, Gabriel! The girl can't leave!" she says, her voice shaking. "At least, not yet."
The hallway becomes so quiet that you can hear a pin drop. Aunt Daisy, the woman who announces daily how much she despises me and how much she wants me out of the house, who always murmurs insults whenever I walk by, who insists that I'm just another burden in life, who curses the day that I ended up under her rood - defending me? Wanting me to stay?
Uncle Gabriel is the first to speak.
"Daisy - come now - Daisy, please - she just - she hurt our daughter!"
"Didn't even do anything," I mumble.
"I understand what the girl did," she says stiffly. "But she still stays."
"But why - why would you even - you hate her - we hate her! She almost killed your daughter, and you want to let her off?" Uncle Gabriel says, at a loss.
"I never said I wanted to let her off," Aunt Daisy shakes her head. "Punish her all you'd like, do whatever you want, I don't care, but she stays."
"Daisy, please, see reason-"
"The girl stays, Gabriel."
"Could you at least explain why-" Uncle Gabriel begins, but Aunt Daisy cuts him off.
"Fine, how about this: if she goes, I go," she says, and my eyes widen.
Why is she so intent on keeping me here, so intent that she would take such a risk?
"Daisy!"
"Mum, what are you doing?" Candy asks, and that is the first time she speaks ever since I put my wand to her throat. Aunt Daisy ignores her.
"Daisy, please, you're being ridiculous!" Uncle Gabriel insists.
Aunt Daisy doesn't seem to care that he thinks so.
"It's your choice, Gabriel." she says firmly.
"Daisy, please - please don't-" but he realizes that Aunt Daisy isn't going to relent, and sighs, saying, "Fine. The girl - the girl stays."
"Good," Aunt Daisy nods.
"But I can still punish her?"
"As much as you like," Aunt Daisy replies, and walks back into the sitting room, Candy right behind her.
When the door closes, it hits me that Aunt Daisy did not look at me once.
Uncle Gabriel looks at me, hatred clear in his eyes, and I know what I'm really in for it now.
***
What could be hours or days later, I limp back into my room, closing the door behind me, collapsing into my bed, allowing myself to cry more freely than I did before. I try not to let my sobs sound too loud, but when my attempt at restraining myself does not work, I bury my face in my pillow to muffle the noise.
When my sobs die down to quiet choking noises, and the pain subsides to something bearable, I raise my head. My pillow is soaked. I let out a sigh, sit cross-legged on my bed, running my fingers through my hair.
I know I should inspect the damage, try to see how to cover up all that has happened to me, but I can't bring myself to stand up and look at myself in front of the mirror when I'm in such a horrible state, and all I can think about is how much I hate the Martins. Candy for starting all the shit that just happened and Uncle Gabriel for being an abusive pig and Aunt Daisy for caring a suspicious amount one second, then being ridiculously indifferent the next and I hate Voldemort even more for killing my parents and getting me stuck with these people because right now I could be with my parents and I could be happy.
I hate everything.
Just then, there's a knock on the door, and Aunt Daisy walks through the door. Whenever she enters my room, she always does this - knocks and then walks in anyway. It's as though she's mocking me, pretending to be giving me respect and privacy, then cruelly reminding me that I'm never going to get that around here.
I wipe the tears on my face quickly, but it's no use. She knows I've been crying - everyone in the house knows I've been crying.
"What d'you want?"
She glares at me. "I'm just here to let you know the reason I've made it so that you can stay."
I just look at her. I realize that I'm much more curious than I'm letting on.
"It is not because I care about you, so please never fool yourself into believing that I do. I do not care about you. I have never cared about you, nor will I ever care about you. I hate you; always have, always will."
I still don't do anything but stare at her.
"It's because of your mother, my sister," she continues, and my brow furrows slightly, the first sign of expression I've shown. "When I found out she was a witch, I was jealous. So jealous that I shut her out of my life, started treating her cruelly. But I still loved her, I always did, I always will. She's my sister, how can I not? When she died, I was devastated. So, when those - people - showed up and left you in her care, I swore that I would keep you safe while you are under my roof. Until you're seventeen - that's when you lot become an adult. I will not act like I love you or care about you, but I will keep you safe until that time. For Jasmine. Is that clear?"
I answer her question with another. "Does Uncle Gabriel know that?"
She stares at me for a long time, her green eyes boring into my brown ones. Finally, she looks away from me, turns around, walks out of the room, closing the door behind her without answering my question. But from the way she looked at me, I could tell the answer was no.