Disclaimer: Anything your recognize from the Harry Potter works is not mine.

Author's Note: Here we are, Chapter 16! And while I saw snow when I looked outside during my seminar today, it's time for summer holidays in the story! Warm thoughts to all of you!

Chapter Sixteen

Thursday, June 30th 2022

Platform 9 ¾, King's Cross Station, London, England

The crowd around them is thick and fills the air with a thousand excited shouts as people find their families. Grace feels some of that excitement herself, she's missed her parents and her grandmother, but she also knows that she will miss her friends just as much, so her excitement is somewhat tempered.

Still, when she spots her mother through a gap in the crowd, she smiles. "I can see my mum," she tells Eva, who is holding her hand.

"Where?" Lysander asks. He and Lorcan are walking ahead of them and Grace nods in the direction where she saw her mother.

"Somewhere over there," she says and before anyone can say anything else Lorcan has turned and started heading in that direction. She watches him quietly as she lets Eva pull her along after him. His mood has been a little gloomy all day and she's invested more energy than she cares to admit in trying to make him smile. If Eva and Lysander have noticed, they haven't mentioned it.

"Grace!" someone calls suddenly and she finds herself stumbling against Eva as her sister careens into her side. Ashlyn is followed by a blonde blur that latches on to Lorcan and, once moving more slowly, is easily identifiable as Leigh. Following the two girls at a more sedate pace and with the long suffering expression of older siblings everywhere on his face is Scorpius. Albus Potter is as faithfully beside him as always.

"It's not as if they didn't see you yesterday," Scorpius drawls and Grace finds herself smiling faintly even as Lorcan shoots his younger brother a glare.

"Leave them be," he hisses, before turning to Leigh to listen to what she has to tell him.

"Merlin's beard what crawled up his arse?" Scorpius says under his breath only to be promptly admonished by Albus.

When Georgiana Pemberton floats onto the scene and laughingly demands to know if Scorpius is being snarky again, Grace returns her attention to finding her parents. They're still moving in what she thinks must be the right direction but the larger their group gets the more sluggish their pace becomes as they try to push through the masses. Lorcan is still in the lead, now with Leigh by his side and Lysander has dropped back to walk with Eva, Ashlyn and Grace herself. Scorpius, Albus and Georgiana bring up the rear.

It seems to take ages until they have finally made it to where Grace's parents are talking to the Malfoys and then it takes no time at all for Grace to be swept up in her mother's arms. Ashlyn is pulled from her side, presumably by their father, but Grace is too busy hugging her mother to care.

"I missed you, Mum," she says softly.

"I missed you too, darling."

Mothers, Grace thinks, are a wonderful kind of people, because in the arms of her mother she will always be at home.

And then Ashlyn takes her place and Grace is hugging her father, and Timothy shows up and Grace loses track of who she is hugging and whether she is telling them hello and I missed you or goodbye and have a wonderful summer until she finds herself standing beside Luna, who takes her hand with one of those slightly absent smiles and focuses incredibly piercing eyes on her. "It's lovely to see you, dear."

Grace returns the smile with one of her own. "You too," she says.

Luna Malfoy has been one of her favorite people since the day she first met her. She has never been anything but warm and welcoming, even if her choice of jewelry and some of the things she likes to talk about take some getting used. Grace loves that she walks barefoot almost everywhere and that she paints the unlikeliest things, Grace adores the Malfoy's grand piano for more reasons than the fact that it has an absolutely gorgeous sound, after all.

"I'm afraid we have to be going quite quickly, Grace," says a voice from beside them and Grace turns to look at Luna's husband. Draco Malfoy is rather more distanced than his wife, not as open with his affection and certainly not the person she would expect to marry Luna, but somehow every time she sees them look at each other she is reminded how silly her expectations are.

She nods in reply to his words and turns to the couple's children. Eva is currently hugging Ashlyn goodbye, Lorcan and Lysander are talking to Timothy and Scorpius is being squished by Georgiana while Albus looks on in amusement, several of his cousins standing at his shoulder (and when they got here, Grace has no idea), so she turns to Leigh, who is already looking at her expectantly. Grace opens her arms and Leigh rushes forward to hug her.

"Make sure they all enjoy themselves. Will you, Leigh?" she asks the only one of the Malfoy siblings that is still shorter than she is.

"Promise," Leigh smiles brightly and then she goes to say goodbye to someone else without another word.

Grace watches her demand a hug from Albus' sister Lily for a moment before tapping Georgiana on the shoulder. "Do you suppose I could have a turn?" The younger girl laughs and releases a decidedly ruffled-looking Scorpius from her grasp. She shoves him into Grace's waiting arms without so much as a word and embraces Albus much more gently.

"Just please try to let me breath, yes? I could see my life passing before my eyes there," Scorpius laments dryly, looking down at her.

Grace laughs, because they both know very well that her way-too-tight hugs are reserved for his older siblings, and wraps her arms around him lightly for a moment before letting go and taking a step back. "I'll see you around," she says.

"If I survived Georgie's goodbye," he grins. "You should go hug my sister now, she's getting impatient."

And sure enough, Eva is standing behind her, arms crossed and tapping her foot impatiently. But she is smiling widely and only moments later she holds out both arms in Grace's direction. Grace lets herself fall into them and the hug really is way-too-tight, but it's not like she cares.

"I'll miss you," Grace says almost at the same time as Eva and they both laugh a little at that. "You're going to have a great time," she adds. "Don't take the boys shopping too many times."

Eva pulls away a little. "Oh, but so are you. Italy sounds great." Grace thinks she looks faintly disappointed, but at what she isn't quite sure so she just smiles.

"And we'll see each other soon."

The smile on Eva's face is absolutely radiant at that. "We will."

And then Grace leans against her friend again and she feels her arms tighten around her just as she tightens her grip on her friend. "I really will miss you."

"I'll miss you too, Gracie."

"Me three," says Lysander next to them, before plucking Grace out of Eva's arms and spinning her around in a circle several times.

She's a little dizzy when he puts her feet back on the ground, but she is smiling. Lysander laughs and wraps a strand of her hair around his finger. When she raises an eyebrow at him, he just laughs louder.

Grace rolls her eyes and turns to Eva. "Where's Lorcan?"

"He took his gloomy little self over there," the blonde replies, pointing to where her brother is standing.

Grace nods and smiles at her friends. "You two have a great vacation, alright?" She hugs Eva again and looks at Lysander. "I'd like my hair back now."

"But it's so soft," he grins at her. She rolls her eyes again, but she can't help her fond smile.

"I'd still like it back."

"Fine," Lysander sighs dramatically and he lets go. "Come on, Eva, we should save Molly from our other brother."

The two of them turn and take the few steps toward Molly, but Grace pays them no mind. Lorcan is standing a little ways away from everyone else and Eva is right, he does look rather gloomy. His shoulders are slumped and he is looking at the ground. This, Grace thinks, is Lorcan when he doesn't want to be noticed. She walks over to him and takes one of his hands in both of hers'.

"Are you okay? What happened?" she asks quietly.

"It's fine," he shakes his head. "Just some stupid rumors, that's all." His smile isn't quite convincing and she's sure her own isn't either, but she tries anyway.

They stand together in silence for a little, until she asks. "Do you suppose I could get a goodbye?"

"No," he tells her softly. And then, before she can so much as wonder why, she finds herself in his arms, her feet lifted off the ground again. She wraps her arms around his neck and smiles.

"And why is that?" she asks.

"Goodbye sounds so final," he says simply. Her smile widens just a little.

"In that case… see you in Paris," she replies.

"See you in Paris," he puts her back on her feet gently.

She looks up at him and touches his cheek. "I'll miss you, Lorcan."

His smile seems a lot more real this time, even if it's somewhat sad. "And I you, Gracie. And I you." He brushes a strand of hair out of her face. "I should go now."

She nods. "Paris."

"Paris."

She watches him walk toward his parents, sees them call for his siblings and sees them all take hold of each other. And then the entire family vanishes with a pop that is too quiet to be heard from where she stands.

Grace turns and goes to find her own family. Just before they, too, disapparate, she whispers "Paris," once again.

And that was chapter sixteen! Please leave a review! Especially if you're curious about something/someone or have a question, I'm happy to discuss just about everything with you :) let me know, what you think :)

A wonderful day to all of you!