𝐶ℎ𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑅𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑏𝑜𝑤𝑠

XXVII

Harry pov
We were at the platform now, along with maybe three hundred others, and all were waiting for the train to arrive. Luckily it was only the first to sixth years who were coming, so that brought down the parent count by around a hundred.
The seventh-year graduates would first be arriving tomorrow as the annual graduation party was to be tonight. The one time during your Hogwarts years when you were allowed to drink.

The train pulled into the station and gave me, like every other time I saw it, déjà vu with its iconic red colour and steam coming from the chimney.
I nearly shed a tear as I saw all the students come out of the train, I missed that feeling.

Finally, a speck of teal hair appeared and looked around before finding us amongst the people. The kids ran towards him for a big hug and together they all came over.
There was another boy there too, he looked around Teddy's age.

"Hey Harry, I've invited my friend to our house for the week. Is that okay?"

"Of course, what's your name?" The boy looked starstruck, that happened sometimes.

"Roman Wood, nice to meet you Sir." Ah, must be Oliver's kid.

"Okay then, everybody hold on and we'll go home." They all did, and soon after, we landed in our courtyard.

Teddy and Roman were quickly off to his room, Scorpius and Albus had run to the garden to look after nargles. Luna's doing, obviously.
Then there was Draco, James and I left.
"What do you want to do James?" It was Draco who'd asked, he looked around for a bit before answering.

"I want to go swimming; can you coach me again?" Draco nodded as I gave him a look, he hadn't mentioned anything about coaching James. I hadn't seen them doing it before either.
James had already run inside the house, most likely to find his swimwear.

"Coaching?" I laughed a little as I said it.

"My mother was very serious about me learning proper swimming as a kid, her cousin did drown you know and I refuse to let that happen to my kids." Oh right, Regulus was his mother's cousin. He didn't exactly drown though; he was killed but I guess some truths are best left hidden.
It was cute that he saw James as his own, I would be hurt if he didn't but it feels nice that he sees James as much a son as I do Scorpius.

Draco went to coach James in swimming, I went to watch them. It made me feel weird that I actually didn't know how well James swam, all my kids can obviously swim but James is excelling.
Maybe we should sign him up for a team in town, he is competitive so it might be good for satisfying that urge to win.

It felt a bit weird having Oliver's kid in my house, he must've had him young if he's Teddy's age. Teddy has just turned 15 in april and he was born in 1998, and well Oliver is 4 years older than me but he was still just 22- okay maybe that's a pretty normal age. Nevermind everything I just said. My parents were just 20 when they got me so they're not any better.

Right on cue, Roman and Teddy come out wearing their swimsuits and quickly jumps under the shower before doing cannonballs in the pool nearly crushing James underneath them.

"Teddy! Watch out next time, you could've hit him." It was Draco who shouted, as he should.

I didn't even get time to think about where Scorpius and Albus might be before they came running from the maze, a jar in their hands filled with- nothing?

"Look Daddy, we found nargles!" Oh god, Luna what have you done.

Draco kept swimming with James, Teddy and Roman while Albus and Scorpius searched for more nargles, and they kept going like this till around 7 pm where I'd made some dinner.
It felt weird having 2 additional people at home, the house felt comfortably full, we could've never have been this many at Grimmauld Place.

It reminded me that I actually hadn't been to Grimmauld Place in years, not really since we moved into Malfoy Manor. It probably looks like shit over there by now, I should probably go over there sometime and tidy the place up.

"Dad!" James was shouting at me, a bit rude even if I wasn't paying attention.

"James, watch your tone." He sank into his chair sulking.

"Love, he was just trying to get your attention. Keep going James, he's listening now." Now I feel a little bad.

"Can I visit Mom?"

A fork was dropped as my glass fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces.

"No. And don't ever ask that again." I had to quickly excuse myself in order to keep it together in front of Roman, there was no way I would let a guest in my home see me fall apart.
I could only keep it together for so long; as soon as the bedroom door closed, the waterworks took over and unravelled something which had been buried deep inside my thoughts.
I hadn't thought about Ginny these past 3 and a half years, jeez was it nearly 4 years already?
Maybe I'd been naïve, I hadn't talked about her to the boys ever and that was probably wrong of me too. 

No, it's too risky having her see them. I can't risk it- I just can't!

Word Count: 895