Disclaimer: I am not JKR.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Thursday, September 29th 2022
Black Lake, Hogwarts, Scotland
"So how have we still not managed to ride the squid?" Eva lets herself fall onto the blanket next to Grace with a dramatic sigh and Grace laughs. "I'm kind of disappointed in us, I really am."
"Evie, you decided that when you were 11, and no one else said they'd do it," Lorcan points out from his spot on a large rock where he is throwing bread to the squid.
"Gracie did," Eva retorts immediately, before turning to Grace, "You did say that! I remember it; don't even try to deny that you did." She crosses her arms in front of her chest and lifts her chin, which looks a little bit ridiculous, because she is still lying on the blanket.
Grace laughs again. "Before we graduate," she says finally, "we will at least go and say hi in person, yes?"
Lysander chuckles and jumps out of the tree he was sitting in. "You should take that, dearest sister. I think that's the best you're gonna get." He sits on the blanket and rummages through the picnic basket. "Lorc! Are you feeding all of our bread to the squid?"
"We already ate, Ly," Lorcan points out, "You had twice as much as everyone else."
Eva giggles and pokes her eldest brother in the side, "Are you hungry again?"
"I'm a growing boy! I need to eat," Lysander protests.
"Oh please, don't grow anymore. You're all ridiculously tall as it is," Grace closes her eyes to feel the warm September sun on her face. Summer will be over very soon; this might be one of the last warm days they get before fall is upon them with endless hours of howling wind and so much rain that it turns the grounds into a mud slide.
"No worries," Lorcan's voice is closer than it was and it comes closer still as he speaks, "that's just Lysander trying to justify why his stomach in a black hole." There's something between her and the sun for a moment and she opens one eye to see Lorcan sit down beside her. "I mean… Mum is barely taller than you, Gracie, I have no idea how we ended up this tall."
"It must be our awesomeness," Lysander comments from somewhere by Eva's head. "And Dad's genes."
Eva laughs, "It's totally cute though, our height differences, I mean. I love that one picture with all of us, where you're in the middle Gracie and we're all around you and you're so tiny."
"I am not tiny!" Grace protests, but she is smiling. She loves that picture too, she has it framed and keeps it on her nightstand here at Hogwarts and puts it up on the piano when she is home.
"You are," Lorcan says and she is sure he is smiling from the sound of his voice alone, "But Evie is right, it's very cute."
She opens her eyes and smiles slightly. "I'd say you guys are cute too, but you're rather too tall for that."
Eva laughs next to her and they don't speak for a while. Lorcan is sitting next to Grace in a tailor's seat with the picnic basket next to him and he's throwing grapes for Lysander to catch, who does so with great enthusiasm. Sometimes he just barely manages not to fall onto either Eva or Grace or even both of them, but they don't really mind even if they make a great show of pushing him off and giggle into each other's hair, while Lorcan runs out of grapes and moves on to blueberries. It's a lovely afternoon that rapidly turns into evening as Eva and Grace point out clouds to each other with their joined hands and Lorcan and Lysander grow tired of their game and join the girls in their cloud watching. There's no need for grand gestures or moving speeches. This right here is all they need.
But because everything has to come to an end, Lysander sits up at some point after the clouds have started turning pink and orange and looks at them. "There's… something I need to do," he tells them. "I will see you tomorrow." The other three smile and nod and stay for a little while longer, but soon they start gathering up the blanket and the basket and make their way back inside.
Eva is walking ahead, spinning in circles and laughing and just looking wonderfully, blissfully happy and Grace holds the blanket a little bit tighter. She loves seeing Eva like this. When they reach the entrance hall, Lorcan offers to take both blanket and basket to give them back to the house elves and Grace tells him she'll help, because it was Eva and Lysander that organized the picnic in the first place. They tell Eva good bye quietly and she kisses both of them on the cheek before she dances up the grand staircase.
Grace finds herself glancing at Lorcan a lot on the way to the kitchen, but they still don't speak. It's a nice kind of silence, she thinks, there is no need to fill it, no need to break it, there's just companionship and she rather likes it.
"I'll walk you to your common room," he says softly when they've returned their picnic supplies and she agrees with a smile and a nod. It's something she could get used to, this walking a little too close to each other thing.
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