Darcy Mint had a growth spurt. Little Alastriona Breen was not happy with this revelation as she'd not grown even a single centimetre since the holidays had begun and was stuck at barely 5 foot.
Their summer holiday away from Hogwarts was coming to an end and the two girls had spent their time at Alastriona's grandparents house in the Scottish Highlands in the small town of Lothbeg. And over the weeks Darcy Mint, Alastriona's best friend, had grown and was now a full two heads taller than Alastriona.
Maeve Breen, Alastriona's grandmother, was a short plump woman with greying hair and a big heart, her loving green eyes were currently glazed over with unshed tears, "I'm going to miss ye so much, deary!"
"I'll miss you too, nana!" Alastriona mumbled into her nana's cardigan, the knitted wool was making her nose itch but she'd never complain about a hug from her grandmother. "I can come visit over Christmas!"
A large hand fell upon Alastriona's shoulder and she pulled away from her nana's comforting arms to look up into the vivid green eyes of her Uncle Finn, "Afraid you won't be able to this year, lass, you'll be busy at Hogwarts."
Alastriona looked over to Darcy but she only shrugged with wide eyes, Alastriona met her uncle's eyes, "Why?"
"I'm afraid that's a secret for now." Finn would later regret saying anything as he was going to spend the next few hours trapped in his car with Darcy and Alastriona pestering him for information.
Alastriona finished up teary-eyed goodbye's to her grandparents, Sloane and Maeve also giving big farewell hugs to Darcy as they'd grown rather fond of the girl over the holidays. The two girls had their heads out the car window and waved until they couldn't be seen anymore and only then did they sit back down properly and relax in the backseat of the car, Arwen in between them for the long trip back to London.
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"You've got everything you need?"
"Yes, Uncle Finn." Alastriona answered her uncle.
He ran a hand over his faded red beard, it was sprouting some silver strands of hair now and was just past his neck. "Your new books, new uniform?" He got a nod from Darcy at this and an eye roll from Alastriona, "Wands, quills, parchment, I feel like you're forgetting something."
Alastriona and Darcy only smiled at him and hugged him tightly from either side, they were leaving before the 1st of September this year as they were headed to the Quidditch World Cup.
Blaise, one of their dearest friends, had managed to get the girls and Theo tickets to the brilliant game, Ireland versus Bulgaria!
Alastriona knew that Finn, while unbelievably happy for them, was upset at not being able to spend the full holiday with the two Hufflepuffs. Darcy pulled away from the hug and picked up Alastriona's camera and took a quick photo of the uncle and niece, they pulled away at the flash and grinned at Darcy, it made for a beautiful moving picture.
