Chapter Text
JEMMA
“Jemma, dear, can you please get the door?” Jemma’s head finally popped up out of her book at the sound of her mother’s voice. The knocking had gone right over her head, as she’d been wrapped up in her history textbook from school. She was particularly interested in the subject this year and did a lot of extra reading (though that wasn’t new).
“Got it!” Jemma put her book down on the coffee table, still open so she wouldn’t lose her place, and darted over to the door. She made it just as whoever it was began knocking again. Without checking to see who it was through the window first, Jemma slung open the door in a rush to deal with or let in whoever it was so she could get back to her book.
It wasn’t one of her parents friends or anyone Jemma recognized. It was an older man dressed in what, to her, looked like ridiculous clothing. He was wearing robes and her jaw fell open a bit. Her first thought was that this was some solicitor or religious person.
“Uh, Mum-!” Jemma called out behind her for help. Her mother started walking to the door from the kitchen as the man spoke.
“You must be Jemma Simmons. It’s a pleasure to meet you! We have a lot to discuss.” The man pulled a wrinkled envelope out of his oversize sleeve and handed it to her. Even though Jemma knew not to talk to strangers, her mom was coming and she was too intrigued by the envelope to pass it up. There was a thick red wax seal on the back that said “Hogwarts” and sure enough, her full name was on the front with their address on it.
“Who are you?” Jemma’s mother asked when she got to the door. She put a protective hand on Jemma’s shoulder and pulled her to stand somewhat behind her.
“I apologize!” The man exclaimed. “My name is Professor Phil Coulson and I teach Charms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” Coulson introduced himself.
“What is all of this nonsense?” Jemma’s mother asked. While they conversed, Jemma had torn open and quickly read through the contents of the letter.
“Mum, they think I’m a witch or something.” Jemma’s nose scrunched up at the possibility. Magic wasn’t real, this had to be some kind of weird scam. Jemma hadn’t even believed in the tooth fairy because it hadn’t been backed by science, how was she supposed to take any of this seriously?
“I assure you, my dear, that you are a witch.” Coulson smiled at her. Jemma shied away and moved another step behind her mom. Coulson pulled a wand- an actual wand- from his robes. Her mother seemed about ready to close the door on him, but he pointed the wand toward a few leaves on the porch. “ Avifors ,” the leaves suddenly transformed into loudly chirping birds and flew into the house in formation, did a circle around Jemma, and flew back out of the house before popping back into leaves and falling to the ground.
“How did you do that?!” Jemma questioned. Her mother seemed dumbstruck.
“I told you, we have much to discuss. May I come in?” Coulson took a step inside the doorway. Jemma’s mother let him.
_________
“You’ve made the right decision. I assure you Jemma will be under the best care at Hogwarts and will be given more opportunities in this world than you ever could have dreamed of. I will send another professor on August 31st to retrieve you to take you to Diagon Alley to collect supplies and send her off to school.” Coulson gathered his paperwork from the table and stuffed it somewhere into his robes. Jemma still sat at the end of the table, completely lost on how her parents had come to this arrangement. He had convinced them that one, magic was real; two, Jemma was a witch; and three, that she needed to attend a magical boarding school.
“I trust you’ll make good use of this.” Coulson pulled a large textbook seemingly out of nowhere (only further convincing Jemma that magic was real) and placed it on the table in front of her.
“Hogwarts, a History?” Jemma read the title aloud.
“The favorite of a brilliant muggle born witch not unlike yourself.” Coulson winked. Jemma stared at the moving cover in awe at the castle and the lightning surrounding it on the bluffs.
“Thank you,” Jemma murmured as she opened the cover. She had so much reading to do.
DAISY
“It’s a prank,” Hank Heron, Daisy’s current foster father, dismissed. A letter had come for Daisy and she had only just finished reading it when the Heron’s nine year old had snatched the letter from her hands and ran to her parents.
“Who would care enough about her existence to create a prank so elaborate?” Hank’s wife, Mara, snapped. They looked at Daisy every so often as they pondered over the merits of this strange letter and the strange way a giant owl delivered it.
Daisy’s brow furrowed in concentration. She had been invited to attend a private school of witchcraft and wizardry? Her foster mother was right – what kind of weird prank was this?
“It’s not real, it doesn’t matter.” Mara finally made the decision. She snatched the paper from Hank’s hands and tore it into multiple pieces. “Well don’t just stand there gawking, don’t you have work to do?” Mara snapped at Daisy.
Daisy startled and quickly dashed off to get out of sight, out of mind, jumping right back into the muscle memories of all the chores that had been passed along her way.
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“Answer the door,” Mara gave Daisy’s shoulder a shove. Daisy dried her hands on a dishtowel and turned the sink off. She wiped her hands and headed for the front door. She undid the chain and then flipped the deadbolt and the lock on the handle. She tugged the door open and looked up at the man on the other side of the threshold.
“Hello,” Daisy said politely though she looked the man’s attire up and down. He had on a grey suit that had a mismatched bow tie, and bright red dress shoes. “C-Can we help you?” She arched her eyebrows as the man took off the out of place bowler hat he wore and settled it back on his head.
“Hello, miss.” Coulson gave her a flourish of a bow. “Might you be Miss Daisy Johnson?” Even though he asked the question and punctuated it with a small smile because he already knew the answer, or at least he thought he knew. Frankly, she was very disheveled and very gaunt and in need of fitting clothes and some good meals.
Daisy hesitated. Was she about to be plucked from this foster home and brought to another? Sometimes Daisy preferred the devil she already knew to a potential new fresh hell. “Yes,” she answered. “I’m Daisy.”
“Oh, excellent!” Phil grinned.
“Who are you?” Mara appeared at the door behind Daisy.
“My name is Professor Phil Coulson,” Phil beamed a grin. “I teach Charms at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m afraid there was a bit of a mix up in the way we tried to get in communication with Daisy here regarding her acceptance to Hogwarts. I was sent to collect you and your belongings so we can be on our way to Hogwarts.” Phil turned to Daisy.
Daisy blinked. “I don’t have any belongings,” she shrugged. “This is all I have.” She held her empty hands up as if to show she really only had the bedraggled, oversized clothes currently on her body.
“I don’t know who you think you are,” Mara began to say as she pointed two fingers into Phil’s chest to punctuate each word.
“I’m Professor Phil Coulson,” Coulson repeated with a cheery smile.
“You’re not taking food out of the mouths of my other children just so you can go cosplay around the city,” Mara said. Each foster child came with a stipend and they weren't going to give up a golden goose, no matter how measly the sum of loss it would entail.
“I don’t much care for the way you are speaking with me, ma’am.” Coulson said. His tone was polite but something in his face darkened as he fully took in Daisy's appearance and the situation before him. “What’s going to happen is that I’m going to collect Daisy and take her with me. You and your husband will not stop me.”
Daisy’s eyes widened.
Within an hour of Phil Coulson’s initial knock, Daisy was following the man out of the house and to the sidewalk. Daisy by no means trusted this stranger, necessarily, but she'd made a calculated decision to join him in the hopes that he would indeed lead her to something better than her current circumstances. She had no idea where, exactly, she was going to follow this stranger, but the man with her was a wizard and apparently so was Daisy. Or, well, Daisy was a witch, rather.