It was strange, she thought, walking down to the carriages—what pulled them?—with Star on one side and the Weasley twins conspiring in a little huddle with Lee Jorden on her other, that it had only been four months since she'd first gotten on the train to begin with, and now she was heading back to King's Cross where her father would be waiting for her...at least, she hoped he would be. She'd sent him an owl when she'd found out what day they were leaving to come home, and told him what time the train was meant to be arriving, but just like her first letter there had been no reply. Ever managed to shove the thoughts away—her father wasn't much of a writer, of course he would be there, he'd want to see his daughter, wouldn't he?—and looked up at Star. The blond forced a little smile.

"I wish you were coming with us," said Ever, grabbing his hand and squeezing gently. He shrugged, sliding his free hand into the pocket of his robe.

"I'll probably be better off here, if I'm honest. More to do. Not as much time to sulk about."

"I'll send you an owl as soon as I can find one."

"They've got post offices all about, if you know where to look," said Star, stopping in front of the empty carriage the twins and Lee were climbing into. "You said you lived in Cardiff, right?" She nodded quickly, pulling her coat around her to keep out the wind. "It shouldn't be too hard to find one, the city is huge, and the muggles won't be able to see it. Ever seen a building or something that didn't look like it ought to be there, before you came to school?" The girl thought about it a moment before nodding slowly.

"There's a place not far from my house...I always thought it was a fairy house when I was little, 'cause it had ivy growing up the walls and flowers growing in the boxes in the middle of winter, and there was always smoke in the chimney on the hottest days, but it didn't smell like smoke, it was sweet..." Star managed a weak grin, nodding.

"Probably just a little healer. Treats things like colds and bad headaches, like Madame Pomfrey does for us, only the healer there wouldn't have our greenhouses so whoever it is would have to grow their own. If you can't find a post office, go ask, they'll probably be helpful enough."

"Come on, Ever, the carriage is about to pull off!" said Fred—or George, she wasn't sure which—and when she looked down the line, the first of the carriages were indeed moving. The witch threw her arms around Star's waist quickly, hugged the boy tight, and turned to let Lee pull her into the carriage.

"Why are you crying?"

"I...didn't realize I was," Ever murmured, but when she put her hands to her cheeks there were tears there, only just started. She forced them to a stop quickly, shaking her head. "I'm just going to miss Star and the castle, that's all."

"S'alright," said Fred easily, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "It's only for a couple of weeks."

"And then you'll be right back here with us!" said George, squishing her between himself and his brother. Lee grinned and flopped down on the floor of the carriage, throwing his arms around her legs. Ever rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to miss you three, too."

It only took Ever a few minutes to find her dad; he was tall—taller than Star, and last time she'd asked he'd told her he was six foot five—and he was holding a big sign with her name on it, painted in different colors. The twins hadn't yet found their mother—or so they said; Ever suspected they were avoiding a bustling red-haired lady that she'd seen just after they'd gotten off the train—and decided to tag along with her to meet him, after bidding Lee Jordan a cheerful goodbye. Ever grabbed the handles of her cart and ran over to him, and in a moment she was swooped up into her father's arms in a tight hug.

"I missed the hell out of you," mumbled the man into her shoulder.

"I missed you too!" As he put her down, Ever stared eagerly up at her dad's face. He looked just the way she remembered! For some reason, she had expected him to have aged a lot more in the past four months, but she looked much the same as she'd left him four months before...she had his eyes, the same shape, the same shade of green, the same dark lashes...and something about the set of his mouth was in her face too, she knew, or people had told her...but other than that she had her mum's face, and oh, was that why he was looking at her like that? The man looked like his heart was going to break just from looking at her, even behind how happy he was to see her, and abruptly she felt more tears flood her eyes—and how much was she going to cry this week exactly?—and she threw her arms around him again, clinging close to his waist. His arms wrapped loosely around her back, but his attention was no longer there, and after a quick glance she found him staring at the Weasley twins and directed her attention at the two of them.

Fred was grinning; it wasn't his usual wicked grin, the one that said that he was planning something. There was something softer around the edges of his eyes, and after a quick look exchanged between the two red-heads, George mirrored the expression. Ever grinned at both of them, grabbing her dad's hand and tugging him forward—with no real force; it wasn't as if she could've moved him, even if she'd wanted to—and positioned him in front of the boys for a formal introduction.

"Dad," she said grandly, and the twins' grins widened, took on a little air of their normal mischief as she swooped her arm in their direction. "Fred and George Weasley. Fred and George Weasley, my dad, Aaron Moore."

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Moore," said George dutifully.

"And great job raising your daughter," added Fred, hands behind his back. The two of them were the picture of innocence, and Ever was suddenly very glad the two of them couldn't do magic outside of school. Mr. Moore looked between the two of them, bemused, and leaned down to whisper in Ever's ear,

"Which is which?"

"Fred is on the left," said Ever, "and George is on the right." The twins blinked at her, and then at each other.

"Where'd you learn to do that, then?" asked Fred. Ever grinned, shaking her head.

"You never tell me anything. A girl needs to keep her secre—"

"Oh, there you are boys! I thought you were going to be waiting on the platform..." The red-haired lady Ever had seen earlier—definitely their mother, then—was scuttling up to the four of them. The two oldest Weasley boys were on either side of her, with Percy behind, attending to two younger children with the same exact shade of flaming ginger hair.

"Fred! George!" the little girl shouted, throwing herself at the two, and both of them caught her under one of their arms.

"Ginny!"

"Have you been a good girl while we've been gone?" asked Fred.

"No! I put newt eyes in Ron's soup while he wasn't looking at dinner at yesterday!"

"That's our girl," said George. Their mother, looking more tired and used to this treatment than embarrassed, sighed and looked around, catching Mr. Moore's eye.

"Mum, Mum, this is Ever Moore, the girl we wrote you about," said Fred.

"No, no, you've got to do it right," said George, pulling his mother forward. "Mum," he continued, gesturing just as grandly as Ever had, "this is Ever Moore, and her father Aaron Moore. Mr. Moore and Ever, this is our mum, Molly Weasley."

"It's lovely to meet you both—"

"Mum, where's Dad?"

"He's gone to get the floo powder, dear." Mrs. Weasley smiled again at the two of them, looking decidedly harried, and put the boys to work getting their carts ready. "I'm sorry to dash away on you," she told the Moores, "but we've got to get the boys home and their things put away and Ginny and Ron need to be put to bed soon—"

"But mum, we're not tired!"

"Yeah, we wanna stay up and see the boys!"

"I understand," Mr. Moore said, with a grin especially for little Ginny. She smiled sunnily back. "We'd better be going too, Ever, it's getting late..." Ever nodded, grabbing on to her cart.

"Well...see you in a couple of weeks then," she murmured with a little wave. Fred and George scoffed and let go of their carts a final time, grabbing her up in a big group hug.

"Write us, tell us about your holiday."

"Be good, don't get in too much trouble," she retorted. The boys grinned their identical wicked grins and winked at her before turning to catch up with their mother.