Eva stood beside the gate to Platform 9 and ¾ at Kings Cross Station with her arms crossed as she tapped her foot impatiently against the concrete. Occasionally she'd see other families already darting through the barrier towards the Hogwarts Express, which just made her even more restless.

The blond in front of her paced back and forth, kicking the ground with each step. "How long does it take to park a car?" he grumbled.

Eva sighed. "Your father's a perfectionist, but also doesn't know how to leave a situation alone. He'll be here in a minute, Scorpius."

Scorpius was the spitting image of his father. He had the same white blond hair, and honestly everything about him was identical except he had his mother's emerald green eyes and small button nose.

The name Scorpius had been Draco's idea, of course, but Eva had managed to persuade him to agree to give him the middle name 'Cedric'. Funnily enough, the boy had Cedric's personality nailed almost perfectly, a constant air of kindness around him—when he wasn't waiting to go to school, that is.

"What took you so long?" Eva called over to Draco as he entered the station and approached them, stowing the car keys away in his pocket.

"Some woman took my parking spot," he sneered. "She almost took my number plate clean off due to the way she swerved in front of me. Sometimes I wonder how these people earn a license at all."

'Maybe you shouldn't have taught him to drive after all,' Hecate teased.

"Dad," Scorpius whined, "we're gonna be late. I don't want to be that guy on the first day, the guy that somehow missed the train that comes at the same time every year."

Draco rolled his eyes and checked his wristwatch. "We have plenty of time, son. Now, where did your sister run off to?"

Glancing up from her phone screen, Eva's eyes scanned the crowd in front of them. Eventually she spotted the small 4 year old crimson-haired girl a few metres away, staring at a train in awe as it rolled into the station.

With a faint roll of her eyes, Eva darted forwards and took her hand, leading her back towards the other two. "Luna, what did we say about wandering off?"

Luna had been the child the couple really hadn't been expecting—accident wasn't quite the word, but definitely a surprise. Unlike her big brother, Luna was a carbon copy of Eva, minus the fact that she had inherited many of Draco's facial features such as his cheekbones and nose.

Unlike either of them, however, Luna had a nonexistent attention span. They'd had her checked out, admittedly, but apparently it was normal for children that age to be so easily distracted. In many ways, she was a lot like Luna Lovegood, although their daughter was slightly more boisterous and loud.

Draco had decided her middle name to be Narcissa, after his mother of course. Eva had been pleasantly surprised at how great of a grandmother the woman had been, so having her as a namesake didn't bother Eva too much.

"'Don't wander off b'cause otherwise you'll get lost'!" Luna repeated proudly.

Eva sighed. "Very good, honey, but that means you have to make sure you stick with us so that we can keep an eye on you, okay? Remember what happened last time you got lost?"

The girl glanced down and nodded. "I just wanted to look at the trains."

"I know, and you can look at them later once we've gotten your brother on his train for school." Eva held her hand and tugged her back. "Ready?"

Scorpius was now leaning exasperatedly over the handle of his luggage trolley with the hood of his hoodie covering his white hair. "Can we just leave already? I want to go to school for goodness sake."

Draco yanked his hood off his head. "Excited for school? Darling, our child is a nerd," he teased. Eva would never quite get over Draco making dad jokes.

"Dad," Scorpius whined yet again.

"I'm kidding," he responded as they both entered through the gate, their voices becoming increasingly distant, "really son, loosen up, it's only the first day . . ."

"Now Luna, once we-"

Before Eva even had the chance to finish her sentence, Luna pulled her hand away and skipped straight through the gate, humming to herself as she went. With a quiet laugh, Eva followed after her, rejoining her family who were already gathered beside the gleaming red steam train, the Hogwarts Express.

Without even giving her son a chance to react, she pulled him into a very tight motherly hug. It was scary to think that they were already almost the same height, yet he was still only 11.

"Um, mum," Scorpius patted her shoulder, "you can let go now."

Eva stepped back and blew out a breath, fanning her face with her hands. "I promised myself I wouldn't get emotional. Here," she pulled a paper bag full of sweets out of her pocket, "take these for the journey, and if you want any more from the trolley then your father's given you your allowance already. You're gonna love it in Hogwarts, I promise-"

"Mum?" he asked. "I . . . I don't know if I want to be in Slytherin, or if I will be anyway. What if I get put into . . . Gryffindor? Or Hufflepuff even?"

She shrugged, ruffling his hair lightly. "Then that's who you are, but your father and I will love you all the same."

"But be sorted into Slytherin preferably-"

Eva elbowed Draco. "What your father means is you come from a long line of Slytherins, but that means nothing, because that's not who you are. Harry Potter was in Gryffindor," Draco scoffed quietly, "one of the greatest people you could ever want to meet. Cedric Diggory, the man you're named after, was hands down the most courageous yet kindest boy to go to the school, and he was a Hufflepuff. What I'm saying is, there are great people in every house, and so whichever you get sorted into isn't important at all-"

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me?"

Eva turned around slowly and found a girl standing behind her, seemingly in her fourth or fifth year. In her hands were a copy of Eva's CD from a few years prior and a black marker pen.

"Sorry, can you sign this please?" the girl requested as Eva quickly took the pen and scrawled her signature across the CD cover. "I'm your biggest fan, I've listened to all your songs, and I've watched all the music videos."

Eva laughed under her breath and handed the pen and CD back to her. "Of course, have a good day!"

"You too!" the girl called excitedly as she rejoined her friends.

When Eva turned back to face her family, Scorpius was looking somewhat nervous as he eyed the other children his age while Draco was plainly unimpressed at the constant attention his wife seemed to get everywhere she went.

Gazing into the crowd while Draco said his goodbyes to Scorpius, Eva spotted Pansy in the distance, with her husband, ex. Durmstrang student Erik, and their daughter, who'd unfortunately inherited every pug-like feature of hers rather than Erik's pristine face. Pansy glanced up at her and nodded slightly in polite acknowledgement, while Eva did the same in return.

"Okay, well," Scorpius clapped awkwardly as he began to back up towards the train, stowing his hands in his pockets, "I'm off, I guess. See you at Christmas. Probably. Maybe. Maybe not if I'm lucky."

"Oh, you're coming back for Christmas, mister. You're not leaving your sister to deal with the family feuds alone," Eva laughed. "Have a good year, baby!"

Both Eva and Draco waved as Scorpius climbed onto the train, giving one final timid wave of his hand before disappearing behind the doors.

Eva sighed heavily. "That's it. That's our first born gone. There's nothing else we can do now."

Draco placed his hand on her shoulder soothingly. "One down, one to go. Speaking of the other nightmare on legs we produced . . ."

Eva closed her eyes briefly and pinched the bridge of her nose when she realised that Luna had more than likely wandered off yet again, too excited over novelty of their new setting to pay attention to her parents. When Eva spun around again, Draco was carrying Luna under his right arm, softly reminding her to keep an eye on where she's going and to concentrate at all times.

"Daddy, those people keep looking at us but then turn 'round again." Luna pointed into the crowd further along the platform. "Who are they?"

Curiously, Eva peered over too. She almost gasped when she saw Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Harry all stood together with their respective kids. After all, the last time she'd met up with them, Scorpius was only a baby, and it was for one of their kids' birthday parties, though she felt just slightly bad that she couldn't remember whose.

"They're not important-"

Eva nudged Draco. "No, they are important. Come, let's say hi."

"Darling, maybe that's not such a good idea," Draco shouted over the noise as she approached the group. "Your mother is too friendly for her own good, sweetheart."

"Mummy said you can never be too friendly," Luna argued.

He sighed amusedly. "Did she now?"

Eva greeted each of the others with a hug. "Hi, so good to see you," she squealed like an excited teenager all over again. "You remember Draco, of course," Draco approached the group somewhat hesitantly with Luna's head resting against his shoulder, "and this tiny monster is Luna."

"Another Infernum-Malfoy? We're gonna be overrun by you lot," Ron joked. "Hey, Luna."

Eva rolled her eyes light-heartedly. "Luna, this is Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Harry, and," Eva paused at the two ginger children, "and who are you two then?"

"I'm Hugo," the boy answered, standing close to Ron, "and that's my cousin, Lily." The ginger girl, another Weasley, waved shyly.

"And contrariwise, Ronald McDonald, we're going to be overrun by gingers," Eva humoured.

The train suddenly whistled loudly, jolting Luna slightly who had been dozing off against Draco. It slowly but surely chugged out of the station and towards Hogwarts. Eva just caught a glimpse of Scorpius through one of the windows and waved at him as they all disappeared out of the platform.

At least the kids are unlikely to die this time around.