They dashed down a hallway, skidding slightly at the corner, still going at full speed.
They split up, Alex going up, Mira and Harry going down.
They heard voices.
They ran faster, their boots thumping loudly on the slightly uneven stone.
The voices became louder, but they couldn't clearly hear what was said.
They flew through another corridor, Mira turning around slightly to see if they were behind them.
A light.
They forced themselves to go faster, so much so that they ended up just jumping and turning at the next corner, their momentum carrying them through.
Down a set of stairs, now there were no more windows, just torches.
Down, down, down, past familiar places from their earlier daytime wandering.
Past the Potions classroom, they were getting closer to the common room...!
They saw someone there, and they didn't know what to do.
They braced for impact, or something to hit them, or anything.
Nothing.
They had tried to stop, and they had.
They were now in the middle of the Slytherin Common Room, having fallen right off a table.
They picked themselves up, dusting off their clothes.
"Bye, see you in the morning," Mira whispered.
"You too," Harry whispered back.
As Harry lay down to sleep, he didn't see the pair of gray eyes watching him across the room.
They split up, Alex going up, Mira and Harry going down.
Alex ran as fast as he could, skidding around corners and dodging furniture.
He didn't see anyone following him, but that didn't give him any comfort.
Damn these stairs...
Two at a time, he made his way up the stairs to Gryffindor Tower.
He heard his heartbeat pounding in his ears as he reached the top.
He paused at the door, pressing his ear up to it.
No sound.
Silently, he entered, having almost inaudibly entered the password under his breath.
The Fat Lady gave him a disappointed look before swinging open.
He crept up to the dorms and fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.
"WHAT THE (BEEP)!" Alex yelled when he fell off the bed.
He turned to see seven pairs of eyes staring at him.
"Um, hi?"
Chairs turned when the siblings entered the Great Hall.
Needless to say, they looked terrible.
Mira and Alex had bags under their eyes, Harry was stumbling around and mumbling something about evil professors, and all of them had messier hair than usual.
Alex almost faceplanted into his food, but Mira stuck out her arm to stop him, Harry sleeping with his head on her shoulder.
"Seriously? I need some coffee..."
Wait.
No.
It couldn't be true.
"THERE'S NO COFFEE?!"
Mira wailed in despair, reaching toward Alex.
Alex let her cry into his shoulder.
"It's okay... we'll get through this."
"...'m tired..." Harry mumbled.
"It's okay, sweetie, just sleep a little more."
Alex turned around to look at her, "We need to turn off your motherly instincts now."
"Not my fault he's adorable."
"What about me?!"
"You are too... until you open your mouth."
Alex slumped over sadly.
Mira stuffed a pancake in her mouth and chugged her orange juice.
"At least it's the weekend," Alex said, lounging on a couch.
"I think I heard something about some place called Hogsmeade that people get to go to on weekends?"
"... WE STILL NEED TO SEND OUR LETTERS!"
At the owelry, (after interrogating a prefect to find out where it was,) they folded their letters and put them in envelopes, tying them to Hedwig's foot.
Of course, they heard that they needed permission to go to Hogsmeade, so they scribbled it down at the bottom of their letter.
Harry fed Hedwig a treat while Winter playfully whacked Venin with her paws.
By the end of their children's letters, Andrew was laughing so much that he cried.
"It's not funny! They broke a rule." Lauren said, stirring the soup in the pot.
"It isn't school without some rulebreaking!" Andrew finally said after catching his breath.
Lauren huffed, "Leave me alone to cook in peace."
She turned off the heat and took the pot off the stove, splitting the soup into two parts.
She sat down next to her husband and began eating.
"It's kind of empty without them here," Lauren said after a minute of stirring her soup absentmindedly.
"No yelling, no jumping on the bed to wake us up... No drawings."
They thought back to everything that had happened in their lives since their children appeared...
Andrew and Lauren watched their children's competition.
"I bet you five dollars that I can swing higher than you!" Mira shouted as she ran to the swings.
"No way!"
"Yeah, way!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yeah-uh!"
Mira scooted back, standing on the tips of her toes, the swing held out behind her.
She jumped, her arm pulling the swing with her.
She stuck out her tongue at them when she reached the top..
"Foood!" Alex yelled, racing past Mira to get to the kitchen.
"Wait for meeeee!"
"No! You just have to run faster. Not my fault your legs are short."
Mira pouted and crossed her arms...
"Mommy!" A five-year-old Mira cried, running up to her mother.
"Mommy! Look what I drew!" She yelled, shoving a piece of paper in Lauren's face..
Lauren looked down tiredly at the small bundle in her arms.
"He's beautiful..." She whispered, holding the baby closer to her chest...
Mira's lip quivered as she looked at the cookie she dropped.
Alex noticed and crawled over, giving her a hug and the rest of his cookie, Lauren and Andrew halfway out of their chairs, ready to comfort a crying baby...
"C'mon, Mira! Say Mama for me!" Lauren encouraged, looking at her children.
Alex, say Dada!"
Mira and Alex looked curiously between their parents, who were giving them hopeful looks.
"Sissy." Alex said, reaching chubby baby hands toward his sister.
"Buhbuh." Mira babbled, pulling her hand out of her mouth.
Her parents looking in shock at them and then each other before laughing...
"I miss them," Lauren whispered.
"Me too," Andrew whispered back, looking at his wife.