May 29th, 1893 - Daff's Flat
@"Zinnia Potts"

Oh, if we break up, I'll be fine
But you'll be breaking more hearts than mine

Daff was struggling more than she would care to ever admit. She had done what she thought she could, got back into her own space, back into a rhythm with work and starting to think about Dahlia's wedding flowers, but something, someone was missing and it left an ache in her chest that left her breathless.

After gathering up enough courage to go to Elias' workshop yesterday, only to be met with defeat, left her in limbo. Miss Fawcett had been kind enough to make sure Elias got the flowers and to let him know Daff had stopped by. That left the next move in his hands and now Daffy didn't know what to do with herself. Having tea with Miss Fawcett had left her with a lot to think about. Mostly it made her realize she may actually need help. Or at least someone to talk to. She hadn't been able to write a letter, hadn't been able to talk to Elias and this was going to bubble over and wreck her if she didn't get it off her chest soon.

It had come down to very careful consideration of which sister to ask about this. Calla was too young; Dahlia too happy; she doubted Thistle would be able to sympathize, not for lack of trying; Senna had her own life and Ama had taken care of Daffy's medical problems a little too often lately. That left Zinnia. Zin who might be able to at least understand where she was coming from at any rate.

So Daff had invited her older sister to come over this evening to spend some time. Nervous for absolutely no reason, other than she was about to divulge secrets that she hadn't quite told anyone about yet, she had tea and dessert out and was anxiously awaiting her sister's arrival through the floo.

---

  

---

Zinnia was thrilled to finally see Daffy again, having not gotten a real chance to see her since their sleepover a few months back. They saw each other in passing, especially during the flower show, but there was nothing like being able to sit down and chat with her sister; it felt like things were changing quickly for the Potts family, and Zin wasn’t quite ready for that to happen. She wanted to hold tighter just a little longer.

The emerald flames danced in the hearth as Zinnia stepped through, finding herself in her sister’s flat a few moments later. She blew out a breath as she always held her breath when going through, before she turned bright blue eyes toward Daffy. She didn’t look exactly… happy, but Zin just smiled warmly at her as she stepped toward her, pulling her into a brief hug.

“I missed you. How have you been?” Zin stepped back as she appraised Daff. Part of wished she hadn’t moved to London, if she was proud of her, simply because she missed having her around.

---

  

---

Bee made me something beautiful<3

"Missed me? It's been a week." Daff chuckled as she squeezed her sister back. Just a little over a week since she'd gathered up her things and moved back into her flat even though it still terrified her a little bit. It wasn't particularly easy and she wasn't sleeping well, but with the continued use of Ama's dreamless sleep potion, she was getting enough so that she wasn't suffering from serious side effects anymore. Daff had learned to survive on less sleep than most a long time ago.

Motioning for her sister to join her in the cozy armchairs near the fireplace, she curled up in hers, pulling her legs up and reaching for the teacup she had already prepared with a little honey for herself. "How's everybody at home?" Hopefully Calla coming home in a few days would give everybody a good distraction from her abrupt withdrawal from the house. It was hard to believe this would be Calla's last summer between Hogwarts years. The fact that the youngest of them was graduating a year from now was sort of wild.

Daff took a sip of tea to give Zin time to answer. She was hesitant to just straight into her problems and bombard Zinnia with such a colossal wave of information as soon as her sister arrived.

---

  

---

“It’s just different, not having you around all the time.” In fact, it felt like everyone was moving out, and soon it was just going to be her, Mama and Papa… and Calla, when she was home from Hogwarts. Thistle was around, and Dahlia, but Dahlia would be moving out when she got married, so there’d be one less person there. Zin was used to a full house, and as they got older, it was becoming less full.

Happy to hold the warm cup of tea in her hands as she cuddled into one of the armchairs near the fireplace; it was warm against her skin and she closed her eyes to enjoy it for a moment. She opened though, a moment later as Daffy posed a question, and she sipped the tea. “Mama is happy Calla will be home for the summer soon. She’s in a frenzy making sure everything is perfect, although it hasn’t been too bad.” Zinnia wasn’t sure if Calla would be chomping at the bit to get back to Hogwarts or not; she certainly had been, but she’d also missed home terribly.

She wanted to ask how things were here, but Daffy didn’t look like she needed to be asked that right now.

---

  

---

Bee made me something beautiful<3

Daff chuckled weakly over her tea. She had promised to come home at least once a week for dinner after deciding to move back into her flat. Her father had sat her down for a discussion after the choice had been made. She knew they all worried for her after the break ins, but she hated feeling like a burden. Deep down she knew they didn't think of her that way, but it was hard to get past in her own mind.

"I'm sure Calla will fill the void." Their youngest sister sure knew how to light up a room and make a house feel like a home. It was strange to think she was finishing up her sixth year. Only one more to go and that would be it for them at Hogwarts. It would be up to Millie after that until Ama's children hit the school, which wouldn't be too much longer!

"It's certainly much quieter here." Which sometimes she liked and sometimes she didn't. Daff loved having her own space to do what she wanted with, but it was lonely sometimes. At night it was almost unbearable, but she was sleeping. Not as much as she should, but it was far better than it had been before the flower show.

---

  

---

Zinnia nodded in agreement. It would be nice to have Calla permanently home soon, and maybe the shop would be a little less lonely; she could only wonder what her sister would do — work in the shop? Find a job elsewhere? Or, the least likely, although still plausible, focus on being a debutante. At least she truly hadn’t lost Thistle or Dahlia just yet, even if Dahlia would be moving in with Quin after the wedding. Everything was changing so quickly.

“Well, I’ll visit as much as I can.” Zin did like London. It was a lot more hustle and bustle than Hogsmeade, but it wasn’t a bad thing. “How are things here? I worry about you here all by yourself.” Just like the rest of the family, but it wasn’t like they could talk Daff out of living here, especially now that she had her own shop to look after.

---

  

---

Bee made me something beautiful<3

Daff nearly bristled at the worry. It sent her back pin straight and her teeth on edge, but she knew now, with better understanding, why everyone was worried. She managed to settle herself quickly and took another sip of her tea. She would like for Zinnia to visit more often, she could use the company. Daff wondered if she should put more of a conscious effort into finding a roommate. That would help, certainly.

"The shop is doing well." It was her that was the mess, but how to lead into it gently? Maybe there was no gentle in this anymore. "I'm, well, I've been better." She admitted finally, glancing at Zinnia over her tea and then up at the carnations on the mantle. Another popped into existence and she sighed softly. "I think," Daff stumbled over how best to articulate her problems but struggled to put to words anything she could think of. It was the same with the letters. There was just so much to explain and she really needed to just get it all out.

Realizing she'd left the sentence hanging, she peered at Zin again. "I think I may have made a mess of my courtship and it's killing me." It was eating her from the inside out and she didn't know how to fix it. But Merlin did she want to. She wanted to explain everything and apologize over and over again, but she didn't know if she would get the chance.

---

  

---

She knew her sister well, and could instantly tell she had said something wrong, although Zinnia racked her brain for which part it was. None of it was a lie — they were all worried about Daffy living here, and even if she lived in a guarded castle with the best spells in the world that were considered impenetrable, the worry would not change. It translated to all of their sisters, from Calla being away at Hogwarts (Merlin, what if she needed them and they couldn’t get to her because of the Headmaster’s barrier) to Amaryllis, who had a husband to look out for her. And she was a healer; if something went wrong, she would be the one who would be able to fix it. But Zinnia didn’t offer the explanation as her little sister settled.

A small smile appeared on Zinnia’s lips at the shop doing well. There wasn’t any surprise there, Daffy always did have a good head on her shoulders when it came to knowing how to run a shop. Of course she was out here having success! Zin couldn’t ever imagine leaving the Florist Potts, it was her home away from home and she spent a lot of her free time there. Maybe one day it would be her shop, mainly, although she wouldn’t change a single thing about it. Blue eyes blinked at her little sister at her admission, although she found that Daffy didn’t want to hold her gaze. It broke her heart that she was struggling so much to tell her, but Zinnia didn’t interrupt her thought process. She took a sip of her tea and hummed quietly, watching Daffodil.

Finally she spoke, but her words didn’t make much sense. Zinnia lips parted, confusion written cleanly across her. “I don’t understand,” she finally whispered, head tilting to the side as she gave Daffy all of her attention, tea abandoned on a table nearby in case she needed to rush over and hug her. “What happened to make you think that?” Zinnia didn’t want to pass judgment without having all the facts in front of her, but without even having all of them she’d already decided whatever happened (happens), she’d side with her sister.

---

  

---

Bee made me something beautiful<3

Daff had held it together for so long that Zinnia's question had everything spilling out. "It's been a string of things I should have handled better. I wasn't sleeping after the break in, and I didn't tell Elias how badly I was struggling." Hadn't told anyone. It had gotten better for a little bit since, Ama had forced the sleeping potions on her, which was good. But in the wake of her argument with Elias and the workshop fiasco, her grip on her sleeping habits was slipping again. She was getting some sleep, but still not nearly enough. She regretted not telling him, she really did. She just hated to worry anyone, most of all him.

"That's why I landed in the hospital." Did she bring Noble into this now? Surely she had to, even if he wasn't really a factor, it had been a piece of the puzzle. "Remember when Calla asked if we'd ever kissed somebody before? I wasn't talking about Elias." Not at the time. They'd hardly been friends by then. Merlin, it felt like forever ago at this point. "I'd been seeing someone else, for a while, long before Elias. I broke things off, but he was the one who took me to the hospital." Noble had seen her go through the sleeplessness before, knew what it did to her. It had been awkward certainly and she still hadn't explained that to Elias either. Just one more thing she needed to figure out how to make up for.

Daff felt like she was rambling, a bad habit of hers, but she couldn't stop now. "I went to the workshop to explain myself afterwards, but Elias was having an important conversation with a friend." The oversimplification was astounding her, but she couldn't drag anyone else's name into this. "I didn't want to eavesdrop, so I was just going to leave the flowers I brought, but I dropped them and I cut myself. Naturally they heard, and I don't know what he thinks, but I hadn't wanted to interrupt and I tried to leave, but they kept insisting they help and I finally lost it and said some things I shouldn't have and I fled." She sighed, almost too weary now to fight the tears that welled up in the corners of her eyes.

"Things were bubbling already, but now the cauldron's spilled over and I can't put it all back or clean it up and it's miserable." She rubbed her eyes, trying to rid herself of the threatening tears, but it was no use. "I messed up over and over and he's been so patient with me and I should have done it all so differently." The tone of her voice was pained, putting sound to the ache in her chest. "I don't know what to do. I took some flowers to the workshop two days ago, but he wasn't in. I left them with his colleague, but there hasn't been so much as a whisper and I don't know what to do." What else could she do? She had extended the olive branch, tried to bridge the gap and now she just had to wait, but it was killing her slowly.

---

  

---

Listening to her sister speak made a soft frown twitch at the corner of Zinnia’s lips. She wished that Daff would have reached out to her because she would have come to stay with her so she’d feel a little safer or tried to coax her home until she was sleeping better. Cuddled her, slept closer to the door or the window, whichever her little sister would have preferred, hell, she would have put the wards up herself. But Daffy had always been independent, much more than she was, so it didn’t shock Zin that she didn’t reach out to anyone. But what’s done is done and there was absolutely nothing Zinnia could do to change that, so instead of voicing her concerns, she pursed his lips together, although her thoughts were written across her face.

She nodded. They’d all had their own first kisses, probably with boys Zinnia didn’t know the names of or hadn’t met before, although hers was nothing to write home about. She tilted her head curiously because Zin couldn’t recall Daff ever seeing someone else… she must have hidden it well, the question of how long and why she never mentioned him sat on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed the questions. Her sister needed someone to lean on, and hopefully she’d let Zinnia be that person now that she was opening up. “I’m glad that someone was there for you,” she whispered. She had no idea that Daffy struggled with sleeping and it broke her heart that she hadn’t ever seen it before

Zinnia leaned forward, her hands wrapping around the warm tea as her sister continued to explain her situation. She blew out it to help cool it down because she’d burnt her tongue one too many times on hot tea. It gave her time to digest what she was saying, although it sounded right on par for her sister to hurt herself when she didn’t mean to — it must run in the family, although the two of them hoarded the bulk of it. “Daffy… I’m so sorry. I know how it must feel, just wanting to leave when you felt you weren’t supposed to be there in the first place. I’m sure they would both understand why you lashed out and wanted to leave.” Of course she didn’t ask if she had reached out already… but it was Daffy, and if her sister was good at one thing it was soothing situations. Her sister was the sweetest person she knew and it was so hard to stay mad at her.

Zinnia gently nudged her sister’s foot with her own when she saw the tears prick at the corner of her eyes. “He’ll come around,” Zinnia said as she nodded, more to herself than to Daffy. “It’s only been a couple days, and maybe he’s busy, or working up a big gesture to prove to you that he forgives you.” She sighed softly. A big gesture sounded so romantic and of course she believed in being swept off her feet. Daffy deserved the same kind of love. “And if he doesn’t, a good old sticky charm to root you two to the floor until it’s resolved sounds just like the perfect solution.” Zinnia might not have a single prankster bone in her tiny body, but she would pull out some spells as long as it helped her family. It was either that or threaten Mr. Grimstone herself to stop breaking her sister’s heart, although Zin doubted that would go over well with… either of them.

---

The following 1 user Likes Zinnia Gallagher's post:1 user Likes Zinnia Gallagher's post
   Daffodil Grimstone

---

Bee made me something beautiful<3

Zinnia's soft support was reassuring. Daff still felt like a fool and she still wasn't vey certain about the outcome of this whole fiasco. She felt liked everything was spiraling out of her control again and she was going to be alone again. She eyed the broom that she'd hung back over the doorway to the stairs and sighed softly. Somehow she didn't think Zin was right about being busy or working up to a grand gesture. It was all just crumbling and Daff couldn't pick up the pieces fast enough to fix it.

She didn't have the heart to say as much though, was too tired of it to truly try and rationalize it otherwise. Zin was a romantic at heart, and as optimistic as Daff tried to be, this was dulling the shine. "Maybe," she conceded, thinking that after that long explanation, there wasn't much else to say on the matter. Curling further into her seat, Daff tried to force a smile. Sticking them together would not do, not if he wasn't ready to talk to her, or if he didn't want to talk to her at all.

"Do you think you could stay tonight?" Daff was tired of being alone. Even if all they did was relax in one another's company, she could use someone else around, aside from Winston's snoring.

---

The following 1 user Likes Daffodil Grimstone's post:1 user Likes Daffodil Grimstone's post
   Zinnia Gallagher