Lust or More

“Robes,” I look up from my list.
“Yes.” My twins nod.
“Books,” I read the next thing on the checklist.
“Yes.” They repeated.
“Your new shoes,” I gave Leo a pointed look.
“Come on, Mum. This is our second year packing our stuff.” Leo whines.
“Did you forget fourth year so fast? You both forgot half your school supplies. I’m not going to send your new pair of shoes this year, Leo. You will have to wear last year shoe, I don’t care if there too small.” I glare at my Gryffindor son, who was a lot like his father. Sometime I love that fact and other time it frustrated me, like right now. He always had to argue his point.
“Give us the checklist, mum. We’ll go over it ourselves.” Scorpius suggests. My Slytherin son who was like me in the way that he knew how to use logic and reason to calm a situation.
“Love, you’re not ready yet. Are you planning on going in your pajamas?” Draco walks into the living room, where I found the boys with their trunks. I look down to see that I was still in a pair of fuzzy shorts and a tank top.
“No mum, don’t go in that. I don’t want my first impression to be ruin. People are going to talk about my insane mother.” My dramatic 11 years old daughter, Cassiopeia, whines from behind her father.
“I’m going to get ready, now. So you can finish the show drama queen.” I roll my eyes at her. “I’m not sending anything if you forget something. I don’t mean just school supplies or clothes. I’m talking about sweets and money.” I gave my checklist over to Scorpius. They both stare down at it making sure they had everything.
I hurry to my room and change as fast as I could. I put on a peach a-line dress that had black along the bottom and around the torso. I wave my wand to give myself pink lips, blush and eye shadow that had a hint of brown in it. I form some of my hair into a bow on the back of my head with the rest of it in waves. I slip on gold bangles and two gold triangle necklaces. I put on a pair of black strappy wedges. I look myself over in the mirror when I heard a scream from downstairs.
“Nicole, you’re crazy niffler is at it again.” Draco voices boom through the whole mansion.
I ran down stairs to see Nathan on top of Cassiopeia’s head trying to get the golden hair clip from her hair. “Nathan!” I scream. He stops pulling on her hair to turn and hiss at me. I raise my arms in the air to make my golden bracelets shine in the light. He jumps off her to launch himself at me. He happily lay in my arms, playing with my bracelets and necklaces.
“My hair,” She tries running a hand through it only to run into knots.
“It improves your looks.” Leo jokes, making her hit him in the arm repeatedly.
“Enough.” Draco grabs hers. I wave my wand to fix her hair. “Now that’s fixed, let’s get going.” He let go of his daughter to levitate their trunks to the car. I put down Nathan and gave him a bracelet to play with. He ran off to where ever his new hiding place was.
We all got into the fancy muggle car that Draco brought. He drove towards the train station. “Dad, do you think next summer you could teach Leo and I how to drive?” Scorpius leans between the two front seats to ask.
“How come no one is asking me to teach them?” I turn back to look at them. They were all smirking at me. “I’m not that bad!” I yell.
“I’ll teach you boys. Nikki, you can’t teach anyone when you still don’t have your license.” He laughs at my pouting face.
“I’m a witch. I don’t need to drive a stupid muggle car.” I glare at the automobile I was sitting in.
“What house are you hoping for?” Scorpius asks his sister.
“I was thinking Ravenclaw or Gryffindor.” She answers.
“I hope Ravenclaw. I don’t need you cramping my style.” Leo teases, laughing when he got the reaction of her red face.
“I hoping no one will find out you’re my brother.” She rolls her eyes at him.
“I hope for the same thing every day, but unfortunately he has my face.” Scorpius laughs. Cassiopeia beam at her brother taking her side. Leo gasps, clutching his heart like he was in pain. I smile as I watch them from the rearview mirror.
Draco reaches over to give my thigh a squeeze. “We’re doing well with them.” He smiles.
“I think so.” I smile back at him. We listen to the children go back and forth, until we turn into the train station.
After getting every kid their own cart, we walk to the wall that would lead to platform 9 ¾. “Mum, when can I get a pet?” She stares at Leo’s owl and Scorpius’s cat.
“Next year. I want you to focus on your studies and making friends for your first year.” I promise her for the millionth time since the boys got their animals in their second year.
“Watch the boys. You’re going to have to do it on your own.” Draco told her.
She did as she was told, watching Leo and then Scorpius run through the wall. “I don’t have to say any kind of spell.” She looks nervous to have to do this alone. I almost told her that I would do it with her, but she was going to have to get use to doing things without us.
“There no need for spells, the wall is magically it knows that you are too.” He explains to her. She took a deep breath, before running through the wall. I smile as I imagine she was jumping up and down in excitement on the other side.
“Come on, we have to see our last child off.” I let out a sigh as I grab his hand. We ran through the wall. Nostalgia always hit me as I look at the Hogwarts Express. The excitement that use to fill me as a child for the new school year still fill me now, except now it’s for my children.
“Took you guys long enough,” Scorpius rocks on the heels of his feet. He was anxious to get to his friends.
“Was someone scared?” Leo made a smug face at his sister.
“No more than you were in your first year.” I gave him a look letting he know to lay off Cassiopeia.
“Look the Potters are over there.” Scorpius points out to Leo. They both look over at us, asking silently if they could go over.
“Go ahead; we’ll be over in a bit.” I told them. The boys rush over to their friends.
“Those people,” Draco sighs.
“Play nice.” I smack him in the shoulder. The boys somehow manage to make good friends with the Weasley and Potter children. Leo made good friends with Fred Weasley and James Potter. I’m always getting letters from the school about their pranks. Scorpius became best friends with Albus Potter despite being a couple years older than him. Both of them were quiet manner boys who enjoy the others company.
Almost all the adults in both families put their differences aside when we realize how much the friendship meant to our kids. The only lingering tension was between Ron and I. Scorpius had an obvious crush on Rose Weasley, while the girl seems to dislike him from the start. I knew that dislike came from her father telling her about Draco and I insulting their family. I didn’t appreciate my son paying for my sins.
“Cass, do not make friends with them. We are already tangled up with them enough as it is.” Draco looks over at his daughter. I smack him in the shoulder.
“Don’t listen to your father. You can be friend with whoever you want.” I pat her shoulder. “Let’s go over, so we can see all of you off at the same time.” I grab her hand and we made our way over to them.
“Hello Nicole, Draco.” Hermione greets us. I smile at her. I appreciated the extra effort she put in, especially since her husband didn’t put any in at all. We all went through the polite greeting to each other.
“Who is this?” Ginny ask, seeing my daughter.
“This is Cassiopeia, it’s her first year.” I pull her from behind me.
“It’s Lily and Hugo first year too.” Harry points at the two youngest redheads in their family.
“I like your hairclip.” Lily stare at the butterfly clip that flutter it wings once in a while.
“Thank you. I’m lucky to still have it, my niffler tried to steal it this morning.” She touches the accessory they were talking about.
“You have a niffler.” Hugo eyes fill with excitement. Three of them began talking about all the magically creature they admire.
“Just great,” Draco scoff under his breath.
“I don’t want so many letters this year.” Angelina told her son, Fred.
“Don’t worry. They’ll never beat my record.” George puff out his chest. He leans over to brag to his son, James, and Leo, “350 letters in one year.”
“That sounds like a challenge, dad.” Fred smirks at his father.
“The things I have to put up with.” Angelina throws her hands in the air.
“We have a lot to live up to since the best prank last year was from Mrs. Malfoy.” Fred smiles at me. All the adults look over at me curious.
“I made toothpaste cream puffs for Leo after he told me I was getting too old for shorts.” I glare my son, who was glaring back at me.
“Toothpaste cream puffs, that’s good. What else can you put in cream puffs? Nicole, you should come over so we can brainstorm.” George had that mischief look in his eye.
“Sure, I’ll have to do something now that I have a temporary empty nest.” I pout, thinking about all my children being gone.
“I think you look amazing in shorts, Mrs. Malfoy. You could take up modeling now that your nest is empty.” James winks at me. I laugh as my sons and husband glare at the boy.
“James!” His mother scolds him.
The whistles on the train blows letting us know to say our goodbye and get the children on the train. I hug Scorpius, who was the closest to me. “Have fun this year. I want you to come home with stories like your brother.” I whisper to him.
“You sure about that, mum.” He laughs.
“Not exactly like your brother, but I want to hear something other than I read a good book.” I pull back to let his father tell him goodbye.
“Come here, you punk.” I open my arms for Leo. He looks back to see that his friends were saying goodbye to their parent too, before giving me a hug.
“Don’t worry mum, I’ll defend your honor and get James back.” He hugs me tightly.
“Just don’t get caught.” I laugh, letting him go.
I kneel down to be face to face with my youngest. “I know your first year can seem daunting, but you’re about to start some of the best years of your life.” I smile fondly at my daughter.
“What if people don’t like me?” She whispers, staring down at her feet.
“I’m not going to lie to you, not everyone going to like you but you don’t pay attention to them. You pay attention to your friends and brothers.” I gave her advice I wish I had as a child. If I focus on the positives I wouldn’t have been such an angry teen.
“If someone bothers you, let me know I’ll take care of it.” Draco kneels beside me.
“Yeah, because that’s what you want to say, my father will hear about this.” I mock him.
“If I remember correctly, you use my name to scare first year into leaving you alone.” He gloats, making me regret telling him that.
“I’m going to miss you both.” She pulls us into a hug.
The train let out another whistle, hurrying us along. We both stood up after she let us go.
“Take care of your sister.” I told my twins, who promise they would. All the children climb into the train. We wave to them from the compartment they were in, until the train was out of sight.
“What are we going to do now?” I look over at Draco.
“I can think of a few things I want to do with no kids in the house.” He grabs me by my waist to give me a kiss.
“Let’s get back to the house.” I whisper in his ear. He grabs my hand and we ran back to the car laughing.