Starry Nights

Home Sweet Home Pt 1.

"It's so awesome that your mum is letting you stay with Cathleen for Christmas," Erin says, staring outside the window of the Hogwarts Express and watching the snowy hills roll by as they get closer to London.

"And that your dad's are letting you have a friend over for all of break, a guy friend especially, it's pretty cool," Izzy adds.

"It is, except I didn't specify it was a guy friend really, although I'm certain that it doesn't matter either way. Which is why I extended the offer to all of you, to come stay at my house for a night or two during break, the Lupin House sleepovers are legendary."

"I hope I'm able to take you up on your offer," Cleo says, "I'm excited to see my family and all but I'll miss you guys."

Everyone smiles and Erin and Nora who are on either side of Cleo, barricade her in with a hug.

"I feel the same way," Nora says, "It's so weird being away from my family but being at Hogwarts, with all of you, has a sort of familiarity and comfort about it."

"Definitely," Oliver agrees, "I'll ask my parents about staying, but I don't have an owl, I should probably get one, maybe I could convince my parents to get me one for Christmas, because how else can I get in touch with any of you."

"I have a telephone," Cathleen interjects. "Here I'll write the number down." She pulls out her school bag to get a pen and parchment.

"Me too, I also have a telephone, well, obviously," Nora says with a giggle.

"I do too, actually, most of my family are muggles," Cleo says.

"My family doesn't have a telephone but our owl will stop and wait for correspondence," Erin says with a smile, "So you don't necessarily need your own owl if you want to use mine for a return letter."

"Same thing here, my family has an owl, but now I'm thinking I'll have to ask about getting a telephone line installed though, seems much more convenient," Izzy says, and with that Oliver is reassured that he'll have ways to communicate with all his friends during breaks.

Eventually they fall into a comfortable silence, Cathleen plays some music on her cassette player. Erin, Izzy, and Oliver all fall asleep, but they don't nap very long as within an hour they're pulling into the station at Platform 9 3⁄4.

When they exit the train, they stand there for a moment huddled up, trying to locate their parents, but it's a bit difficult being that most of all the other students walking around and mingling in front of them are taller than them.

They push forward, Oliver sees his parents first. He waves at them and catches their attention before turning to his friends to say goodbye.

"I'll call as soon as I can and let you know what my parents say about me coming to stay for a sleepover." He smiles brightly and waves at them before bolting off where he'd seen his parents at.

Walking through the crowds of people, they find Erin's parents, and Erin introduces them all, after which by that time the crowds are clearing ever so slightly and their families start to find them.

Izzy's name gets called by a deep voice that sends her running towards it.

"Mano," she calls jumping into the arms of this guy, her brother, Cathleen assumes, "I thought mami and papi were coming to get me."

"Change of plans, you're stuck with me for the day, who are your friends?" Her brother asks.

"Well, this is Joseph, this is Nora, this is Cleo, this is-"

"CATHLEEN!" A chorus of little voices yells.

Cathleen has barely turned around and all three of her younger siblings have enveloped her into a big group hug. She can see her dad's making their way over from across the platform where her Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted are standing, still waiting for Dora to finish saying goodbye to her friends, as well. Thankfully neither of her dad's are running and making a scene like her siblings had.

"That's Cathleen," Izzy finishes.

"I missed you guys too," Cathleen says, hugging all her siblings tightly until they finally let her go, and then ruffling Harry's hair.

"Um, I see my parents over there, waiting for me, so I'll give you guys a ring later okay?" Nora says, hugging Cleo and Joseph first who are standing close by her, then Izzy, and finally Cathleen.

"I also see my dad waving over there," Cleo says, "which is my cue, my mum and sister are probably waiting in the car, but rest assured, I'll be in touch."

"We also need to be going Izzy," Izzy's brother says, throwing his arm around her shoulder so as to guide her away.

"And then there were two," Joseph comments with a laugh.

Izzy rolls her eyes fondly and starts waving at them as she's ushered away, "Bye Cathy, bye Joseph. Not sure why this doofas is in such a hurry." She directs the last part at her brother but Cathleen doesn't hear what his response is and because finally her dads make it to their little party.

Remus gets to her first, longer legs and all, pulling her into a short-lived hug, because after five or so seconds Sirius is grabbing her arm and pulling her into his arms for a hug and scolding Remus, "Stop hogging her, other people want hugs too, Moony."

Remus rolls his eyes and opts to wrap both Sirius and Cathleen into a tight hug. Joseph stands there a bit uncomfortable as Cathleen's siblings size him up. He can only smile awkwardly until Cathleen pulls away from her dads' hug to introduce him.

"Everyone, this is my best friend in the whole world, Joseph Carter."

Her Papa frowns, "I didn't know that your 'friend' was a blo-"

Remus elbows him in the ribs.

Sirius coughs, "Nice to meet you, Joseph."

"I thought you said in a letter that Cleo was your best friend," Ariella says smirking.

"I did not-"

"Oh, is that right?" Joseph says, in mock offense. "If Cleo's your best friend then.. Izzy's mine."

"Oh, not Oliver?" Cathleen smiles cheekily at him.

His face turns red and he goes silent.

"See that's what I thought."

"Who's Oliver?" Harry asks genuinely.

Sirius smiles then, pulling a comb from his shirt pocket, "Now, now Harry, let's wait til we get home before you bombard them with questions."

"Is that a portkey?" Cathleen asks curiously, gesturing to the comb Sirius has.

"Yes," Sirius taps on his chest, right above his heart where there's a tattoo that shows the current moon phase, and Cathleen can see, through his slightly unbuttoned shirt, that the moon's almost full, which explains why they're not just doing side-along apparition, it always makes her dad a bit queasy this close to a full. "Everyone grab on."

(A/N)
Been sitting on this chapter for a while. I wanted to add more to it for a longer update but I decided to go ahead and post it bc why not? Trying to get back into writing now...so hopefully I won't leave you guys hanging too long.