It had taken Alex an embarrassingly long time to stop crying over moving to England – it was only embarrassing because she never cried in front of people, especially when the situation was entirely her fault. Her parents -well aunt and uncle since recently- had just last week received a letter from Professor Crumbs informing them that Justin, Alex and Max were no longer welcome at WizTech and would need to find another school to further their magical education. This had upset all the Russo's, particularly Justin who hasn't spoken to his sister ever since. Alex on the other hand, believed she'd be glad to finally escape their muggle high school -Tribeca Prep- but when the time finally came to leave, and she realised this meant not seeing Harper or Dean or even Mr Laritate she'd changed her mind. The siblings had been told they would all be going to live in England with Alex and Justin's godfather Lucius Malfoy. The news of an English god family sparked a new conversation about Alex and Justin's parents. While they both knew Theresa and Jerry weren't their real parents, something they'd only discovered when Alex found the name change documents while searching for her phone that had been confiscated, Justin had made sure that she didn't ask them about their biological parents. Now though, they were told willingly, about the war that had happened in the late 70s and Jerry's sister Cassandra, and her husband, convicted murderer Sirius Black. What they weren't told was what had happened to Cassie because she'd been assumed dead although there was no funeral or explanation.
Theresa had wanted to take a plane, but a plane was expensive and time consuming and she had married into a wizard family. Jerry had finally managed to convince her that flashing there made the most sense; or apparating as the British said. In truth both adults had been dreading their visit to the Malfoy house and were prepared to leave as soon as the children had settled, though they knew they'd most likely have to stay. Lucius and Jerry had never gotten on, mostly because of how the other Russo's had treated Cassandra while they were in school, Jerry had always been their perfect son up until he'd given up his powers to marry a muggle but by this time Cassie had already distanced herself from them. Both Lucius and Narcissa looked down on Theresa as they did other muggles and had only reluctantly agreed to let their son Max join Alex and Justin at Hogwarts. It had already been established that the Black name could not appear back at Hogwarts without suspicion arising especially after the events of last year. For this reason, Alex and Justin were continuing to go by Russo which was only slightly less stigmatised.
Leaving Waverly Place was difficult for the whole family, even if it didn't have to be forever it would be for a long time. Their arrival at Malfoy Manor was long and difficult, for some reason they hadn't been able to flash immediately into the mansion and instead found themselves having to navigate the acres of land that surrounded the house. Malfoy Manor was by no means the largest pureblood house, but it still surpassed anywhere else the Russo's had been. Finally reaching the door Alex stepped forward to press the doorbell that sat in the mouth of a stone carved snake. She and her brother were greeted with bright smiles from Lucius and Narcissa before the couple glanced behind them only just hiding their disdain, "Welcome to the manor, it's nice to see you after all this time." The tension was palpable, but the teenage girl tried to ignore it as she and her family followed the Malfoys into their new home