"S'up, Figgy?" I said, as Harry said, "What?" blankly. 

"He left!" Mrs Figg said, wringing her hands. "Left to see someone about a batch of cauldrons that fell off the back of a broom! I told him I'd flay him alive if he went, and now look! Dementors! It's just lucky I put Mr Tibbles on the case! But we haven't got time to stand around! Hurry, now, we've got to get you back! Oh, the trouble this is going to cause! I will KILL him!" 

"But -" Harry was spluttering. "You're - you're a WITCH?" 

No, she's a Squib -

"I'm a Squib, as Mundungus knows full well, so how on earth was I supposed to help you fight off Dementors? He left you two completely without cover when I'd WARNED him -"

Called it. I'd always had a feeling, all those times Harry, Dudley, and I were around at her house, when we messed around and she muttered certain things under her breath in exasperation, which made me think she was some kind of witch... 

"This Mundungus has been following us?" 

I knew that, too. Not this dude, specifically, but just that someone was following us. I could tell. 

"Yes, yes, YES, but today he was only following you. We know that you two are almost always together, but Kylie Ford's bodyguard was told to keep an eye on Daisy since you two were apart today." 

Harry smirked, turning to me. "Yeah, how was that, actually, Daisy?" 

"Shut up, Harry." I said. 

Mrs Figg tried to tug Dudley up, but he either could not or would not move. He remained on the ground, trembling and ashen-faced, his mouth shut very tight. I felt my heart squeeze in sympathy. I remember how it felt the first time I had an encounter with a Dementor. 

"I'll do it." Harry took hold of Dudley's arm and heaved. I grabbed his other arm, and with an enormous effort, we managed to hoist him to his feet. Dudley seemed to be on the point of fainting. 

We pulled Dudley's massive arms around our shoulders and dragged him towards the road, sagging slightly under the weight. I stretched my hand out, and made our bikes wheel themselves along behind us, on their own, with my Grace. Mrs Figg tottered along in front of us, peering anxiously around the corner. 

We managed to get Dudley home, after this Mundungus guy came back and Mrs Figg whacked him with her shopping bag and yelled at him to go tell Dumbledore what had happened. 

Mrs Figg left to go home, and Harry and I made our way up number four's garden path. I released my Grace, and the bikes fell on their sides in the front garden. The hall light was on. I rang the bell, and watched Aunt Petunia's outline grow larger and larger, oddly distorted by the rippling glass in the front door. 

"You three! About time too, I was getting quite - quite - DIDDY, WHAT'S THE MATTER?" 

I looked sideways at Dudley, and Harry and I ducked out from under his arms at the same time. Dudley swayed on the spot for a moment, his face pale green... then he opened his mouth and vomited all over the doormat. 

"DIDDY! Diddy, what's the matter with you? Vernon? VERNON!" 

My uncle came galumphing out of the living room, walrus moustache blowing hither and thither as it always did when he was agitated. He hurried forwards to help Aunt Petunia negotiate a weak-kneed Dudley over the threshold while avoiding stepping in the pool of sick. 

Dudley was sat down in a chair in the kitchen, and Harry and I explained what happened. A screech owl came from the Ministry and gave us a letter detailing how Ministry wizards would be coming to destroy our wands because we did underage magic, and that we were expelled from Hogwarts. I rolled my eyes as Harry blanched. 

"Dumbledore'll sort it out." I told him. 

Then an owl came from Fred and George's dad, telling us to stay put, but not to give the Ministry wizards our wands, and that Dumbledore was at the Ministry, sorting everything out. 

"Told you." I said to Harry. 

Then Dudley finally started to speak. Harry, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and I all quietened to listen. 

"All went dark." Dudley said hoarsely, shuddering. "Everything dark. And then I h-heard... THINGS. Inside m-my head." 

My aunt and uncle exchanged looks of utter horror. They obviously thought Dudley was losing his mind. 

"What sort of things did you hear, Popkin?" Aunt Petunia breathed, very white-faced and with tears in her eyes. 

But Dudley seemed almost incapable of saying. He shuddered again and shook his large blond head. After a little bit of encouragement, my cousin said, "I-I heard you guys talking about sending Daisy and Harry to boarding schools. A-away from me. Leaving me all alone. And t-the wizard people telling us that Daisy h-had been taken into the chamber-thingy. And was p-probably d-dead." Dudley put his face in his hands. "A-a-and then telling me that you guys h-had been kidnapped by that e-evil classmate of y-yours." 

"Oh, Dudders." I said sadly. 

"How come you fell over, son?" Uncle Vernon said, trying to change the subject in an attempt to get Dudley's mind off what he had heard, in an unnaturally quiet voice, the kind of voice he might adopt at the bedside of a very ill person. 

"T-tripped." Dudley said shakily. "And then -" 

He gestured at his massive chest. I understood. Dudley was remembering the clammy cold that filled the lungs as hope and happiness were sucked out of you. 

"Horrible." Dudley croaked. "Cold. Really cold." 

"Okay." Uncle Vernon said, in a voice of forced calm, while Aunt Petunia laid an anxious hand on Dudley's forehead to feel his temperature. "What happened then, Dudders?" 

"Felt... felt... felt... as if... as if..." 

"As if you'd never be happy again." I supplied, reaching out to take Dudley's hand, giving it a squeeze. 

"Yes." Dudley whispered, still trembling. 

"So what the ruddy hell are these Demenings, again?" Uncle Vernon turned to me and Harry. 

"They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban." Aunt Petunia said. 

Two seconds of ringing silence followed these words before Aunt Petunia clapped her hand over her mouth as though she had let slip a disgusting swear word. Uncle Vernon was goggling at her. 

"How d'you know that?" Harry asked her, astonished. 

Aunt Petunia looked quite appalled with herself. She glanced at Uncle Vernon is fearful apology, then lowered her hand slightly to reveal her horsy teeth. 

"I heard - your father - telling your mother about them - years ago." She said jerkily. 

Another letter came from the Ministry, saying that they had reversed their decision and wanted us to attend a hearing instead. 

The Dursleys were still talking as Harry and I read over the letter and low-fived. 

"Why were these Dementoids in Little Winging if they're supposed to be guarding some weirdo prison -" Uncle Vernon was saying. 

He's right. Why WERE they here? Only two people would want to hurt me that bad, and they're both on the same side...

"He must have sent them." I said quietly. 

"What's that, kiddo? Who must have sent them?" 

"Lord Voldemort. Tom Riddle." I said. 

"Lord - hang on." Uncle Vernon said, his face screwed up, a look of dawning comprehension coming into his piggy eyes. "I've heard that name... that was the one who -" 

"Murdered our parents, yes." I said. 

"But he's gone, pet." Uncle Vernon said gently. "That giant bloke said so. He's gone." 

"He's back." Harry said heavily. 

"Back?" Aunt Petunia whispered. 

She was looking at my twin and I as she had never looked at us before. And all of a sudden, for the very first time in my life, I fully appreciated that Aunt Petunia was my mother's sister. I couldn't say why this hit me so very powerfully at this moment. All I knew was that Harry and I weren't the only people in the room who had an inkling of what Voldemort being back might mean. Aunt Petunia had never in her life looked at me like that before. Her large, pale eyes (so unlike her sister's) were wide and fearful. 

"Yeah." I said, talking directly to Aunt Petunia now. "He came back last year, when I got kidnapped at the Quidditch World Cup. I saw him, also when I got kidnapped again in June." 

Aunt Petunia reached out and clutched my shoulder. 

"So." I sighed. "That means... if he's sending these things after me... he still wants me. It means I have to leave." 

Everyone in the room blinked at me. 

"Daisy - no. You can't leave." Harry said firmly. 

"I have to, Harry. I can't let him hurt my family." I told him, equally as firm. 

"Daisy, p-please don't -" Dudley stammered. 

An owl suddenly swooped in, and delivered a Howler on top of Aunt Petunia's head. 

"Let go of it, Petunia!" Uncle Vernon roared. "Don't touch it, it could be dangerous!" 

"It's addressed to me." Aunt Petunia said in a shaking voice. "It's addressed to ME, Vernon, look! 'Mrs Petunia Dursley, The Kitchen, Number Four, Privet Drive -" 

She caught her breath, horrified. The red envelope had begun to smoke. 

"Open it!" Harry urged her. 

"Get it over with!" I said. "It'll happen anyway." 

Aunt Petunia's hand was trembling. She looked wildly around the kitchen as though looking for an escape route, but too late - the envelope burst into flames. Aunt Petunia screamed and dropped it. 

An awful voice filled the kitchen, echoing in the confined space, issuing from the burning letter on the table. 

"Remember my last, Petunia." 

Aunt Petunia looked as though she might faint. She sank into the chair beside Dudley, her face in her hands. The remains of the envelope smouldered into ash in the silence. 

"What is this?" Uncle Vernon said hoarsely. "What - I don't - Petunia?" 

Aunt Petunia said nothing. Dudley was staring stupidly at his mother, his mouth hanging open. The silence spiralled horribly. Harry and I watched our aunt, utterly bewildered, my head throbbing. 

"Petunia, dear?" Uncle Vernon said timidly. "P-Petunia?" 

She raised her head. She was still trembling. She swallowed. 

"You will have to stay, Daisy." She said weakly. 

"W-what?" I said. 

"You stay." She got to her feet again. 

"I can't, Aunt Petunia." I said. "I'm putting you all in danger." 

"I don't care, you will stay here, and that's final -" 

I turned on my heel and hurried for the front door. My aunt, uncle, and brother chased after me, yelling my name, but I burst out into the street, and after one second of breathing in fresh, open air, something grabbed me by the waist. 

"What the fuck?" I screamed, shocked, and within seconds I was swooped away across the fabric of time. 

~~~ 

My eyes blinked open. I was standing in between two guys, in the middle of what seemed like a giant cave. It was almost unbearably warm. I swayed. 

"Woah, there, sis." Gabriel, my brother, caught me, steadying me. 

"What the absolute fuck, guys?" I said weakly, glancing between them. "Why did you have to snatch me right outside my house and scare me like that? You know a very dangerous dark wizard and a demon are after me, right? And where even are we?" 

Gabriel sniggered as Castiel looked solemnly at me. 

"Because you were endangering yourself by stepping outside like that. We do know dangerous people are after you; that's WHY we took you from a potentially dangerous situation." Gabriel informed me. "You dumbass." 

"Fuck off." I glared at him. 

"And to answer your last question," Castiel spoke up as Gabriel smirked at me, "we are in Hell." 

"Huh?" I blinked, looking around me. The cave was glowing slightly at the other end, and its rocks were glistening. The heat was making the air in front of us shimmer. "Why?" 

"It's time you met someone." Castiel said. 

"Who?" 

"You'll see." Gabriel cackled, taking my hand and leading me towards the end of the cave. Castiel followed. "I always love doing this. Just to see the look on your face. It gets me every time." 

Completely bemused, I followed Gabe and Cas through the cave and out into a vastly larger, fiery place. A wide stone path led us through a massive pool of lava, and I gazed around as we dandered over it. Fire was burning up the walls of the cave; thousands of different holes in the rocks led off into darkness, with hauntingly bloodcurdling screams emitting from them. Monstrous creatures with horns and strangely warped tails scurried between the holes, slipping in and out of them, sometimes covered in blood and guts, sometimes carrying an armful of knives, corkscrews, and different kinds of torture instruments. What looked like actual people were frequently running between them, but with similar horns sprouting from beneath their hair, and with bright, gleaming red eyes. 

"This isn't all of it; if you ever desire to visit your dad after this, he can give you the tour." Gabe sniggered. 

"My DAD?" I said, appalled. "But James Potter wasn't evil! What?! Why would he be in Hell?" 

"Not your human dad, dumbass." 

"Stop calling me that, freak. What dad, then? Is my dad not the same as yours?" I growled. "You know, seeing as we're all angels?" 

"Er - not exactly." Gabriel glanced at Castiel. "You'll see in a mo. Anyway, how's the pranks going? You invented any more weird sweets? I heard you and your friends were testing them out." 

"Yeah, I tested our Fainting Fancies the other day." I said casually. "Harry and Dudley had to revive me after. They nearly had to call Fred and George over, it took me six hours to wake up the last time. And we've just started taking out ads in the Daily Prophet. Wait - stop trying to change the subject! Who's my dad?" 

Gabriel and Castiel led me through a small passageway in the rocks at the end of the stone path. I clutched onto their arms as I couldn't see a fuckin' thing in the dark. We were walking for at least five minutes in the darkness, me stumbling and cursing, and at last we emerged into another dim cave, two fires contained in cages at the other end lighting up a large throne, and the many stone steps leading up to it. The golden throne gleamed at me as I looked at who was sitting in it. 

What looked like a normal, young, handsome man with a messy mop of black hair was lounging lazily on the huge chair, large, silky black wings draped over the arms of the throne. His bright red eyes widened as he spotted me, and he stepped cautiously off the throne, leaping off the steps, his wings allowing him to drift right down in front of us. 

"Sweetheart?" He said breathily, a huge, happy grin breaking out on his face. 

Gabriel turned to me, grinning too. 

"Daisy... meet your real dad, Lucifer."