Draco walked through Kings Cross Station hand-in-hand with his wife Astoria. Two steps in front of the couple, Bethany Dokes and Lily Potter were talking about all of the different Muggles making their ways home from work. The girls made comments about how silly the men with briefcases and women in dress suits, wearing trainers and running to get on and off the trains looked. Lily seemed to be entertaining Bethany by making up little stories about the people who crossed their paths.

Draco and Astoria watched the girls as they led the adults to the pillar that was the entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. He marveled at how different the last five months had been while he had been outnumbered in his household by the two females. He couldn’t wait to get the two boys back from school so he would no longer be in the minority.

Draco returned from his reflection to see the two girls, without pausing, run through the entry way. Draco and Astoria looked around at the crowd and when no one was looking they stepped through. As they walked around the corner, Draco saw Harry and Ginny Potter talking to Gwenog Jones and her friend. Lily, followed by Bethany, ran up to her mother.

The Malfoys followed the girls to the Potters. “Good Afternoon,” Astoria greeted them.

Ginny Potter looked over at the newcomers and replied, “Afternoon. How were the girls? They didn’t try to play dress up with Krowker again?”

“No, we told them that if they bothered the house-elves again, there would be no dessert. It worked wonders,” answered Draco.

“So have you decided about the place?” inquired Harry.

“Well, we thought we had a deal on a house in St. Angus’ Watch near Blackpool. It had some acreage, in which we could have built a greenhouse and have grown plants for use in the shop. However, the widow changed her mind about selling the place. Also, Grimmauld Place is so centrally located, and with the elves, make it’s hard to beat,” Astoria answered. “If you could give us a couple of weeks - Scorpius has never actually been there - we’d like to see how he takes to the place and the elves.”

Harry nodded and Draco leaned conspiratorially toward him. “Potter, I was just wondering if you’d be willing to tell us how James got his black eyes?” he asked. “Scorpius only mentioned that it had occurred, but not how it happened.”

Harry pulled his head back in surprise and looked over to Ginny, who shrugged in return. “What black eyes?”

“That was Kaitlin’s doing,” admitted Gwenog Jones. “After they won the last match and the Cup something happened between the two of them and she broke his nose giving him the black eyes.” The woman’s tone was somber and almost apologetic, but her face wore a bemused look.

“Oh, please tell me that he didn’t try and kiss her again?” replied Ginny.

“I asked, but my brother refused to say,” admitted Gwenog.

“Ron, Hermione, over here!” shouted Harry and he waved his hand above his head to signal their location. Draco turned to see Hermione Weasley pointing toward Harry’s hand and then the three Weasleys moved past the other waiting families to join their group.

“Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley,” Draco said. He smiled and half bowed toward Hermione to see if it would bother Ron. Alas, it did not.

“Afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy. Wow, Astoria, what a lovely dress - is it new?” asked Ron. Draco fought to keep from looking at his wife. Was the dress new? And then he saw a smug look on Weasley’s face and knew he had been beaten at his own game.

Draco saw Hermione roll her eyes and guessed that his wife was doing the same behind him. To get past being judged by the women, Draco asked Ron, “So, we all made it through their first year. You don’t think it will be like our time at school? A crisis every year, I’m not sure I can take it.”

Ron Weasley nodded in agreement.

Hermione turned to Astoria and said, “I heard from Andris that good news was on the way. Have you received anything from the Dokes?”

“Yes, the letter arrived two days ago. It took an hour to convince Bethany to wait ‘til today so Jimber could hear the news at the same time,” replied Astoria.

“Didn’t you open it? So you would know how to cushion any blows?” asked Hermione, looking at Draco.

“Of course not, the letter is addressed to the children. It would be against the rules of guardianship to read their mail,” Draco replied, trying hard to act hurt. Hermione just raised an eyebrow. “Well, we may have peaked, but don’t tell our Witnesses of Guardianship. They might turn us in to the Ministry,” Draco added with a smile.

Suddenly, a rail-thin young man with the most bizarre hair style and coloring Draco had ever seen walked up to Harry and Ginny. The boy’s hair started out jet black on the left side of his head, slowly turned yellow as it gained altitude onto a row of spikes, then, in the valley between spikes the hair slowly turned from yellow to green until it started the next spike row where it became bluer as it reached the top of the peak and finally returned to the same black on the right side of the head. As Draco attempted to ignore the strange hair, he found that the young man’s face did look vaguely familiar.

“So what was your decision, Teddy?” asked Ginny Potter of the boy.

“I decided not to ask Victoire. What you said about letting her live some of her own dreams before we both build ours made sense,” said the young man.

“It’ll be better in the long run. Besides you’re both still so young,” Ginny replied.

“I’ve decided to wait till I graduate from my Auror training to propose,” Teddy Lupin confidently answered.

“If you graduate,” said Ron and Harry in unison.

“Victoire Lupin… It does have a nice sound to it,” chimed in Hermione, her voice supportive of the boy.

In the distance, a chugging sound could be heard and all of them turned to look up the platform. The hissing, smoke-belching monster came roaring into the station. Finally, the ear piercing sound of metal scraping on metal filled the platform and the train came to a halt. The platform became almost unbearably hot as jets of steam escaped from the engine.

As students began to step down from the cars, Draco craned his neck to look for a familiar face. A Weasley or a Potter should signal the probable car to search for. In the second car back, the tall Head Girl stepped on the platform. She turned toward the group in which Draco was a part and shouted, “Teddy! Over here.” As the young woman waved her hand, the young man rushed toward her and the blue in his hair miraculously changed to red and an orange stripe was now visible down the middle of his skull. Teddy Lupin lifted the tall girl and as they spun, he kissed her.

Draco heard a sigh, but he could not tell which of the women had uttered it. For some reason, he hoped it hadn’t been Astoria.

After about five minutes, Draco saw Kaitlin Jones and Rose Weasley step off the same car together. The boys were not visible. Draco found that a bit odd. Ron Weasley stepped forward and levitated both of their trunks over to the waiting adults.

Kaitlin and Rose followed Ron back. “Rose Weasley, this is my Aunt Gwenog and Giselle.” Rose smiled at the two women. “Giselle, did you make all of the arrangements with Aunt Gil?”

The tall woman looked down at Gwenog, smiled at her and finally spoke to Kaitlin. “Yes, you have the Harpy’s practice pitch for the first ten days in August. And she will be glad to help your friend.”

Rose bounced on her toes with an enraptured ear-to-ear grin on her face.

“What did you ask Gillette to do?” asked Gwenog Jones.

Jones comments were almost drowned out by Hermione’s question, “What have you two planned that you didn’t tell us about?”

The two girls started to answer, talked over each other, and stopped. Finally Kaitlin motioned for Rose to explain.

“Well, it’s all Scorpius’ fault actually. He saw that Kaitlin was having trouble keeping up with her school work and that she was in danger of not being able to stay on the team. So he tried to get me to help teach Kaitlin how to be a better student. Of course, being a boy, he sort of bungled his explanation and we both sort of yelled at him. However, at breakfast, I realized that Kaitlin and I could help each other. I organized Kaitlin’s studying like she was getting ready for a Quidditch match, not an exam. We game-planned test schedules and scouted for possible questions. She took to it like Thestrals to raw beef. Now, I want to be the next Goal Keeper for Gryffindor. I love the position; it’s a real thinking player’s position. So, in return for my help, she promised to have her Aunt Gillette Pierce, former Harpies Keeper, give me some lessons during the summer. The position will be open next year. Wood was a seventh year.”

“And you were going to ask for your parents’ permission -- when?” asked Ron to his daughter. However, the smile on his face let Rose know she already had his support.

Suddenly, Kaitlin bellowed, “Malfoy, Dokes, Albus, and Panda Boy, come here.”

The whole group of adults turned to see the four boys exiting the same car as the two girls had. As James approached, the slight outline of his almost-completely-healed black eyes was just visible on his face.

“First ten days of August. Be there or forget making the house team next year. Understand?” she ordered the boys like a drill sergeant.

James’ face turned as red as part of Teddy Lupin’s hair. “You’ve got no say about who makes the team next year. You won’t be the captain. It’ll probably be Freddy or Thistlecrowne. They’ll be senior to you.”

“Thistlecrowne! He will lose his position to you, Albus or Scorpius,” replied Kaitlin to James.

James turned and shouted over to his cousin. “Freddy! Kitty-Kat has already kicked Thistlecrowne off next year’s team and set herself up as the next Captain.”

The whole group watched as Freddy Weasley detached himself from Angelina’s hug and walk over to their group. “I’ll be a seventh year and you’ll be a second,” Freddy Weasley said, attempting to use his over a foot of height advantage to intimidate the girl. “So, I’ll be wearing the badge next year, not you.”

“Fine, wear the stupid badge if it comes in the mail. However, I’m going to be reorganizing the whole team. We need a full reserve team of seven players as back up to the starters. So, in case of injury, we don’t have to scramble. Also we need a developmental squad of three or four first-year players, who can learn by practicing against the starters. The developmental players can imitate the stars of other teams, making practices more realistic and competitive. After I’m done with the team, Gryffindor will win the cup every year for a decade.”

Draco shook his head a bit to re-focus his senses; he could have sworn the girl had grown a half a foot in height during her lecture. Draco also saw that James seemed to be the only true objector among the younger boys to Kaitlin’s plan.

Freddy Weasley threw up his hands in disgust and turned to join his parents, George and Angelina Weasley, in loading his trunks onto the trolley. As Freddy walked, his loud mumbling could still be heard over all of the other noise of the platform.

“And I’m not replacing anybody. I’m the Gryffindor Seeker. You’re just the one of the team’s Chasers, Jones. Get use to it,” James said in a slow, simmering voice.

Jones turned to the trolley and reached into a large, lumpy bag. Out of the bag, she pulled a Quaffle and threw it at James’ face. He batted it back at her. James’ anger was growing.

“You can throw all the Quaffles in the world at me, Kitty-Kat, and I’ll still be the Seeker and you’ll still be a Chaser next year.” And with that pronouncement James turned on his heel and walked over to join Freddy.

Kaitlin placed her hand on her hips, stamped her left foot on the platform, shook her head and made a little growling noise in her throat while glaring at the back of the retreating boy.

“Uh, Oh. I’ve seen that little act before. Did you ever see it, Ginny?” asked Giselle.

“Yeah. First practice my last year, right after Georgette Tawbel had told Gwen to stuff it,” Ginny answered. looking back to Giselle. “For James’ sake, I hope it doesn’t mean the same thing with Kaitlin as it did with Gwen.”

“She gave me that same reaction after I told her my client wasn’t going to re-sign with the Harpies for her pittance. The next day, she asked me out on a date.”

Ignoring the adults and James, Kaitlin turned toward the remaining boys. “Now, for the first time, the World Cup will have a junior division championship. I want us to practice this August, so, in two years Team Gryffindor will represent Britain.”

Draco saw Scorpius’ face light up with imagined glory. A quick look around at Rose and Albus revealed the same far off smile on their faces. So much for a quiet summer spent at home.

“Bethany?” Draco yelled, letting his voice find the erstwhile girl.

“Here,” she replied, stepping between Albus and Hugo.

“Jimber? We got a letter from your parents. I think you should read it to your sister. And afterward, I’d like to let everyone here know what they wrote. After all, they all care about you and your parents.” Draco reached into his inside suit jacket’s pocket to pull out an envelope. He extended the packet toward his foster son.

Jimber greedily took the envelope, walked over to Bethany and pulled open the flap. Draco saw their faces light up as they read what was written. About three or four minutes into the letter, he saw both Dokes children steal glances at their friends. When Jimber was done, he hugged his kid sister. The two siblings seemed to cling to each other for a long minute. As he watched them, Draco felt Astoria’s slip her arm around his and they grasped hands.

Jimber walked back to his friends and handed the letter back to Draco. Draco turned to the group and, without referencing the letter, announced, “The Island’s government has dropped its charges against Isaac and Rebekka.”

A wave of relief passed through the adults. The children began to cheer and then stopped when he continued, “Justice Shaman Andris and Rebekka are currently trying to get the charges dropped against Isaac’s father. Ka-Sich Korhogo has left the Island. It seems that he was the one behind the thefts of a number of the artifacts from the school and other government buildings.”

Harry Potter made a comment to Ron Weasley that was lost amid muttering of the adults and the cheering of the children.

“The Ruling Council of the Island has asked Rebekka to return to the Island and resume her former post as the Priestess of Justice. They also have given approval for Isaac to reopen the Island’s magical school. He thinks it will be two years before it can start having classes. So they want Jimber to stay with us and return to Hogwarts for school next year.” The kids all cheered.

“I’d like to read this part of Rebekka’s letter.” Draco said. He opened the letter and, with his index finger, located the passage.

“We of the Island have kept ourselves apart from the other magical peoples of the world for far too long. We saw outsiders as possible oppressors. We must change that. When our family journeyed from home, we found a group of people who not only befriended us, but were willing to make sacrifices to help us. It is time for all of us to step forward and take our place in the wide world. We must all learn to forgive others for the sins of the fathers.”

Draco finished reading and carefully placed the letter back in the envelope. “So, Jimber will be staying here with us until school starts. Just before school begins, Isaac and Rebekka will come here to pick up Bethany to take her back with them. And while he’s here, Isaac also would like to set up an exchange program between his school and Hogwarts. So we can all learn from each other.”

The Jones’ left the platform first. Gwenog had a public appearance to prepare for. As they left, James had to defend himself from a second thrown ball. Kaitlin yelled, “August first, be there or face the consequences, Panda Boy.” James answer was lost in the bustle of the crowd.

As the children talked and chased each other, the parents organized the luggage on the trolleys. Calling out the children’s names, the three families made their way back to the portal to the Muggle train station. Just before they reached the place, Draco turned to the Weasleys and the Potters and said, “There is this little Muggle coffee shop up the way. How about joining us there for a coffee and a sticky bun? Our treat.”

Draco stared wide-eyed looking at the group; the invitation had not been planned. The offer just seemed to slip out.

The Potters said they would go, but only if they could pay their own way food. Ron and Hermione both nodded. And the three families left the platform to begin the next chapter of their adventure.