- 10th April 2022, Sunday –

Lysander struggled to follow James down the train carriages because his legs were much longer. "James stop a second!" When he did, Lysander coughed from breathing in to fast.

"Whoops, sorry forgot ya have stubby legs," James joked as he apologised.

"No, you just have ridiculous stilts for legs," Lysander poked back once he levelled his breathing.

James shrugged, "how is that my fault?"

Lysander grinned and shook his head. "What did you want anyway, you couldn't ask like a normal sane person?"

James broke the widest mischievous grin that Lysander had ever seen. He had a feeling that whatever they were about to do was going to get them detention, but he couldn't stop the grin from forming on his face too.

As the Hogwarts Express pulls into the station, Rose feels the ball of stress pushing on her ribcage. Can people die from hyperventilating? She turns to Scorp his grip tighter then before as he looks at the platform.

"How do we want to do this? Holding hands? No contact?" Rose's mind is spinning and needs direction to be less stressed.

"Let's say goodbye still on the train and separate on the platform, that way neither of our parents explode in front of everyone," Scorpius suggested, trying to be matter of fact about the hurdle and hyenas outside the train. The press always follows their families to the station because they're famous, an unnecessarily stressful part of the trip home.

The train stopped with a jolt back, Al sees to grabbing down his and Mya's luggage. Mya waddles past the bags and gives Rose a hug, which she stands to receive. "We'll see you in a few days," Mya hugs Rose tighter than usual and longer. Before Rose could ask if she was ok, she pulled out of the hug and flew out the door, waving as she did.

"Definitely," Rose waves as Al follows Mya out of the compartment. Scorpius, already standing from having said bye to Al, bear hugged Rose and she hugged back just as tight. She looked up at the soft grin and half-closed eyes looking down at her. He looked down at her lips and she did the same. They leaned into the kiss with more desperation than expected. Rose felt the kiss untangle some of her nerves and could now face their parents without shaking like a maraca.

"Let's go," Scorp takes a big breath in and carries both the bags with him following Rose to the exit.

Al watches Rose hops down the stairs without her bag but then Scorp appears behind her with both, he passes her the luggage before lingering a moment. His hand rubbed the back of his neck as he said something to Rose, then parting ways to their families respectively. Ginny asks quietly to Al, "Is there something going on there?"

Al takes a minute to think very carefully about how to word this, "Well you'll find out soon for sure." Of course, his mother took this as confirmation and quietly winked to him with a nod.

Hugo was already standing with Ron and Hermione. "Rose what took you so long? Usually, you're ready to go home much faster than that." Her dad chuckles, luckily having noticed nothing. Her mum frowning in thought for a minute and then brightens.

"Was just saying bye," Rose replies in the most indifferent tone she can muster.

"Can we go home yet?" Hugo whines from Ron's side.

"Ok ok, we're going," Hermione ushers them to the car.

Scorpius approached his parents who were more cheerful than expected. Considering he could feel the stares on the back of his neck as he had passed Rose her luggage. It's not like they aren't cheerful people, but they don't show it as obviously. "How's school been? Keeping up those grades I hope," Astoria asks as she fixes stray hairs of his hair.

He gently swats her hand away and replies, "Yes of course, Mum." Rose had gone to see her parents and he could tell because he could feel Ron Weasley's stare burning holes in the back of his head. Resisting the urge to turn around a look, he smiled at his mother who had her brows frowned with concern. They saw the glare from the red headed father of two. Neither of them mentioned it as they relaxed and started walking to their car with Scorpius and luggage in tow.

Mya slid out of the car and closed the back car door. She sighed while looking at the road they just drove down. Her Stepdad got her extra bags out of the boot of their old car. Her brother, Joshua, bounced out the door, "Mya! Your home! How was mag—school?" He almost said magic school, which is what he normally called Hogwarts.

"Good same old," She said while walking up the front steps. He is ten years old now and is hoping for his own letter to come next year. As they walk through the front door, she notices how much taller her brother had gotten since she last saw him at New Years. Did time really move that fast?

She went down the hallway to the lounge room, where her mother was feverishly dusting. "Jemima, there you are, how are you?" She had a tired smile.

Mya tightened the grip on her backpack strap. "Same old, magic and assignments."

"Oh, that's good," Her mother walked over, gave her a quick hug and a kiss on her head.

After a deep breath, Mya asked, "How are you? You look a bit tired."

"Oh, work has been full on is all, nothing you have to worry about my dear." She paused, "Why don't you go put your bags down, we can relax with a movie after."

Hesitantly, Mya complies and goes to her room. Once she drops her bag at the foot of her double bed, she unlocks her phone again and rereads the text message. The contact title is 'Father':

"Hey Jellybean when you get the chance could you get your mother to give me a call?"

Mya pursed her lips.

Aria: Thank you for continuing to read this story. I know my updates are few and far between, but there is lots of content to still cover and I have been working on reviving my motivation for this story.

So again, special thanks to all those who continue to read. If you have any questions feel free to PM me and I'll do my best to reply.

Additionally, if you have ideas of special hints or previews that you want to see, please let me know that too.