Espresso

iii

Wednesday, August 31 1994

Nova fiddled with the sleeve of her shirt, "Stop fiddling with your sleeve," Narcissa slapped her hand away from her sleeve, and Nova straightened her back.

"You two have everything?" She asked it was directed towards Draco, who nodded. She looked at Nova who was now fiddling with her hair. "Nova, you have to stop that," Narcissa sighed and Nova dropped her hair.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Narcissa, I'll miss you," she smiled at her aunt who frowned, "Okay. Get on the train before you miss it," Narcissa ushered towards the train. The two kids started walking away, but Nova turned around and hugged Narcissa.

"What are you doing?" Narcissa asked, "I know you don't like me, but you have to at least pretend," I told her and she scoffed. "Never hug me again."

Nova ignored her comment and got on the train, "she does like you," Draco said as they walked through the train, "yeah, yeah. Totally, the Blacks are famous for loving their kids," she replied and Draco stopped at the compartment with his friends.

"You're being dramatic," he said opening the door, "yeah, I'm the dramatic one," she ruffled his hair and walked further onto the train until she found the kids she was with earlier.

"Hey, Nova," Violet was the first one to greet her and then the rest of them mumbled hi's.

As Nova sat down the door flew open and Lorenzo ran in and threw his arms around Nova, "You're back! Draco said you were back at the beginning of the summer and I didn't believe him. I thought you were still in France!" He said quickly.

"I owled you, multiple times. You never came to visit!" Nova answered and he sat down next to her, "Dad dragged me to Ireland, I tried to come back. How come you never came to visit?" Lorenzo huffed.

"Aunt Narcissa would barely let me leave the house, scared I'll do something she doesn't approve of," she replied he smiled and told her everything he had been holding in since the beginning and then he left to go back to his friends.

"I sometimes forget that you're related," Violet said, as she pulled out a book from her bag. "What was he doing in Ireland?" Nova asked.

"Uh, business," Liam pointed to his right forearm and Nova nodded, understanding what he meant. "They were also in the quidditch World Cup, did you hear?" Daphne asked.

"We were there, me and Draco. We had to hide in the forest for a while," Nova explained, "moving on, I heard they are making changes this semester," Adrian said. "Why?" Daphne and Violet asked together.

"Uh, triwizard championship," Nova said and everyone turned to her, "what do you mean? They stopped doing that years ago," Liam pointed out.

"They were choosing contestants at the end of the term, a group of people who would come to Hogwarts, they had to give people forms and stuff for the summer to make sure everyone who came was qualified to speak and learn in English while still good at fighting, I was one of the finalists," she explained.

"So you were going to come to Hogwarts either way?" Violet asked and Nova nodded, "hey, isn't that funny, we were all destined to meet again," she laughed and they all stared at her.

"The French have corrupted you, you're a little crazy," Liam said, "The French or the Family tree?" She asked and everyone laughed.

"Exploding snaps?" Liam asked and everyone sat down on the floor, he handed the cards out, "Classical, patience or Bavarian?" He asked.

"We'll play a game of all three," Daphne suggested and everyone agreed. They started with the classic version.

Nova won, "when did you get so good? Last time we played, you would always singe off your eyebrows," Daphne laughed.