Loverboy

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

The sound of the Hogwarts Express stopping in King's Cross station was jarring. Remus looked up from his book, Ollie still leaning her back against his shoulder. Sirius stood up, stretching his spine with a loud pop. James sat up straight and looked out the window of the train.  Peter scrambled up from the floor, peering out the window as well.

Ollie pushed off of Remus, picking up Cinnabon and putting back in his basket. He was growing quickly, but seemed, oddly, not to mind being placed in the basket or on beds or laps. He curled up in the basket as Ollie scratched his head gently.

James stood on the seat, taking the trunks from the over racks while the rest of them got up and gathered up their belongings strewn around. Being a chaser, James was always enthusiastic to help carry his friends' trunks. He said it helped build strength. It probably did, what with all the things stuffed inside.

They heard kids getting off the train, so Ollie carried her cat and Remus's three books, each of the boys took their trunk, and James carried Ollie's- he insisted. After making sure there was no trace of them in the compartment, the five teenagers got off the train to meet their parents.

"Olivia, darling!" Ollie's mother called, probably only seeing Remus's tall figure and guessing her child was with him. Mrs. Lupin was beside her and Mr. Sato, with James's parents and Peter's mother standing with them as well. The kids all went to the group of parents. 

Each of the mothers doted on their child, with warm hugs and welcomes. Sirius stood there, his mother not in sight, but probably with his brother. As he pictured his mother squeezing Regulus and welcoming him home with open arms, imagine his surprise when he felt arms squeezing his frame just like how his friend's mums were. When the person pulled away he saw Euphemia Potter's face smiling at him.

Mrs. Potter was the slightly taller than Sirius, and rather plump. Her skin a little bit darker than her son's, her eyes a deep brown, and her nose fairly pointed and narrow. Her hair wasn't curly like James's was, but wavy and black, pulled into a loose bun at her neck. The fabrics of her dress were fancy, and the way she carried herself showed that she was wealthy. Just looking at the two of them beside each other, it was easy to see that she and James were related. They shared the same eye shape, same nose, same smile.

"Sirius," she said. "You can come over whenever you like, okay?"

Sirius looked like his greatest dreams just came true- not too surprising as they just did. "Really?" The uncertainty in his voice was disheartening.

"Of course. In fact, all of you can come visit whenever," Euphemia declared.

"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Potter!" Sirius exclaimed, wrapping her in another hug. After he pulled away, a grin on his face, he turned to his friends. "Remember; July sixth is Andy's wedding. At Ted's parents' house."

"We'll be there!" Peter said, grinning. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Wouldn't dream of skipping it," Ollie agreed.

"It'd be a crime to not go," James said.

Remus grinned. "No chance of missing me there."

"Good. It's in, like, two weeks," Sirius said, with a small laugh. "See you guys then."

"Sirius," a woman's voice said from behind him and a bit apart from the group. It sounded like the voice of someone with an unpleasant taste in their mouth, or someone who would leave such a taste behind. Sirius's smile faltered and he turned to the woman.

She was tall and pointed, her face sharp with an expression like something foul stuck under her nose. Her hair was black and pinned in a tight bun, her features somewhat exaggerated, with a haughty composure. Her fine black silks and loads of jewelry glinted in the small amount of sunlight filtering through the clouds. Her eyes were small and dark.

"Coming, Mum," Sirius said, his excited demeanor dropping. He gave his friends one last wave goodbye before his mother started away. He followed her, his head ducked and his gaze to the light grey concrete. The pale but abundant clouds began to shift to cover the whole sky, darkening somewhat as a light drizzle began to fall.

In the sudden shift of light, Ollie hugged Remus goodbye, and bid Peter and James farewell, too. Lily, Marlene, Mary, Alice, and Ava all came over to wish their friend well for the summer, and after a few more goodbyes and bode wells, Ollie and her parents went out to the main platforms of King's Cross station.

Surrounded by Muggles in the bustling train station, the family pushed through, hailing a taxi and going to the Leaky Cauldron. They told the man they were going to the shop next door to it, and Ollie's father payed him with a twenty-pound note. They arrived at the pub, getting out and waving the man goodbye. When he drove away, the three of them entered the pub. Mrs. Sato grabbed her daughter's arm and she and her husband Apparated to their suburban London backyard with a loud crack.

Ollie hated the suffocating tunnel-like feeling it, but every year she would tolerate the side-along Apparation. So, when she saw the back of her Muggle house, with its faded yellow siding and faded trim that once was a vivid red when her sister was a small child, she couldn't help but grin.

Because home was where her heart was, and that was with her friends, but this place was definitely a close second. So she ran toward the faded red back door, pushing it open and breathing in the familiar yet foreign scent of her mother's cinnamon perfume, her father's strong coffee, the scent of the burnt out fire. The smell of her house. 

Not quite home, but the next best thing.

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Part 47!! Chapter 44 of the non-prologue parts! And... not even a third of the way done. Do you guys think I should maybe split it into multiple books? Or just have one with like, 200 something chapters? For the sake of navigability I think I should pick up the next part of the story in a next book, but at the same time I like having it all in one book. What do you guys think? I mean, this started for me as a hobby to just have something to do two summers ago, and then people started reading it, and now, even when I have writer's block, I still push out chapters so that you all have something to read. As my readers, you guys mean so much to me, and I really value your feedback, ideas, requests, and so on. If you've made it this far, I just want to thank you for sticking through with Ollie for her fifth year- a lot has happened in the last couple months for her, and for me, the past few years have been... Wow. I started as a girl exploring her sexuality, whose only followers were her girlfriend and a few friends from the My Hero Academia English wiki forum page. And now I'm a queer guy with 21 followers, multiple published stories, many drafts, and a small base and almost 600 reads on his story! And that's all thanks to you. So thanks for sticking around and staying with me this long, and hopefully for however long it takes until we finish out. That may be years, I might even graduate before the story's over.

I know; two paragraphs in my authors note? Usually if it's long its just one big block of text. But I want to give a shout out to my friend @Theboredsimp because not only are they just really fun to talk to now and again, but one of our mutual friends handed her account over to them for personal reasons that are, well, personal. But if you were familiar with her story set in the original golden trio era, it was actually connected with this one! As far as I'm aware, @Theboredsimp is continuing that story as well as planning to start another connected story! And I'm so excited for that to come into my story fairly soon and if you think you'd want to see what happens later on in this version of the Harry Potter world, I'd suggest checking out the stories and giving them a follow. Anyway the author's note alone bumped this up to 1413 words. Wow

977 words