"Are you sure she has to leave?" Sirius asked Jane for what felt like the hundredth time, about fifty as soon as Jane had woken up, but still did not cease to convince his friend to not send Florence back home. Jane sighed, annoyed, "Sirius, don't make me go grizzly bear on you. And yes, we are. Whether you like it or not. She has friends, you know, who will be suspicious if she's gone for the whole summer. Plus, she's bored. She told me not to tell you."

"Boring?!" Sirius feigned an offended scoff, "The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black? Boring? Never. We have a great game called Shut Up the Banshee That Is My Wretched Mother. How could she possibly be bored?"

"Aw, you already miss me when I haven't even left yet," Florence chuckled as she walked in to the room to witness Sirius' complaining, "Don't worry. I'll write to you. Every other day if you want me to."

"Fine," he caved in, "As long as you promise to do that. And you take care of yourself, young lady. I'll be asking for updates from time to time."

"Merlin, he sounds like a detective." Florence said, before hugging him tightly, "Stop worrying about it. I'll be fine. And I won't be alone in the house while mum works. I plan on starting my sleepover with Nic and Xander the minute I got home. I already told them to pack their stuff."

"Stop hogging the hugs, Sirius," Remus cleared his throat, "You're not the only one who's going to miss the girl."

"Wait your turn, Moony." Sirius remarked, giving her one last squeeze before letting go. "Florence," Remus smiled, "I'll see you very soon, darling. Take care." he said, before taking her in to her arms.

Sloan and Julien were not present to see her head out, but the promise of future visits to the Manor was still there. Molly had snuck a whole batch of her homemade fudge into Florence's belongings, saying how incredibly nice it was to have spent time with her. Fred and George were restraining themselves from hiding her in a closet so that she wouldn't have to go home.

"Don't be ridiculous," she said pointedly, "After a few weeks, I'll see you two on the train." Florence hugged George, "Love you, Georgie."

"And me?" Fred scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest at the lack of affection. Florence had an impish grin on her face, standing on her toes to pat his head, "I'll see you in a few weeks, gingerhead."

"That," he pointed out, as Florence sashayed away from the pair, "Is not fair. Is she really leaving without a kiss?"

"Seems like," George laughed.

Jane, Florence and their house elf Emmy, walked a few blocks away from Grimmauld Place, before apparating in a rather vacant alleyway. There was a familiar crack, and Florence felt herself being sucked through time and space, the scenery changing before her eyes within seconds. "Ah, home sweet home," Florence smiled, taking her bag from Emmy's arms, "It's okay, I can carry it."

"Word of warning," said Jane, as soon as they were within the gates and by the front porch, "Nicolai and Alexander are inside—"

"FLORENCE!" They heard someone shriek, as soon as the door cracked open a bit. An overly enthusiastic brunette tackled her to the ground, the two toppled over with a terrible crash. "Ouch," Florence groaned, "I think you broke one of my bloody ribs, Nic."

"Oh who cares," she said dismissively, "You left me with Xander for two bloody months. He's been torturing me with being excessively boring." Nicolai huffed, getting on her feet before pulling Florence up from the floor.

"Speaking of which, where is Xander?"

"Oh, he's raiding your pantry for some marmalade—" they heard a harsh clattering noise from the kitchen, making Jane sigh, "I'm going to have to leave you lot alone, as I have work in a few hours. Please clean up whatever messes you make."

They gave her a brief salute, before rushing over to the pantry to see what Alexander had gotten himself in to. Nicolai had opened the pantry door to find him sprawled out on the floor, his head inside an empty box, and the last jar of marmalade secured in his left hand. Florence wrenched the jam out of his grip, "I will not make the mistakes that I made during the past summer, Xander. This is good jam. For bread. Not just for eating out of the jar with a spoon."

"Your pantry shelves are too high up," was all he said, removing the box from his head, "Considering that I'm taller and even I can't reach it, how can you and your mum manage?"

"It's called magic, Xander." Florence rolled her eyes, helping him up, "You do realize that you've been of age for a few months now."

"Right," he muttered, feeling stupid, "Oh well, what's done is done. So, brunch? Nic and I are starving."

"On it," Florence nodded, gravitating towards the refrigerator. Nicolai and Xander grabbed the plates and silverware, setting up the table and watched Florence as she maneuvered herself around her workspace to cook. Nicolai loved to sit on the countertop, handing Florence the ingredients and utensils that she needed while she chatted away about the better part of the summer in which she was allegedly overseas. As soon as she had finished whipping up omelettes and a good batch of chocolate chip pancakes, the three feasted over them.

"So," Nicolai asked, spearing a piece of her omelet with a fork, "How was Italy? Did you guys do a lot of sightseeing or something?"

"Sightseeing? Yeah, a bit." Florence replied rather shortly, not really knowing what else to say, "The canal district was lovely."

"Oh really?" asked Xander, a skeptical look on his face, "So was the Big Ben then, I presume?"

Florence paused in mid chewing, looking from Nicolai to Xander, who looked as if they were thinking the exact same thing, "But the Big Ben isn't in Italy, Xan. It's in Greater London."

"I know," he replied nonchalantly, "What I, I mean we— as in Nicolai and I—don't know is why you told us you were in Italy when infact, you were in Greater London all along."

"W-What?" she said, to be followed by a fit of coughing which she had stopped with a huge gulp of milk, "What do you mean I was in London? I was in Venice, the whole time, just ask my mum."

Nicolai sighed, turning to Xander, "She is such a terrible liar, isn't she Xander?"

"Couldn't agree more."

"Okay, you two," Florence began, "Stop talking about me like I'm not here. And where are you two getting at? Why would you think that I lied about my whereabouts?"

"We don't think you lied, we know you lied, Flo. You weren't in Venice." Xander said again, a rather permanent looking frown on his face, "Honestly, do you really think Nic and I are that easy to fool?"

"Long story short, we went to the owl post office to deliver our presents," explained Nicolai, "But the thing is you really didn't say where in Venice you were staying. So the kind man behind the counter offered to look you up on the registry, since, you were still two days shy from your 17th, and you still had the trace on you. He told us you weren't in Venice, but in a muggle residential community in Greater London."

"Well, shit." Florence breathed out, panic now rising in the pit of her stomach for getting caught in a lie. "Why didn't you just drop my present at my mum's office? And wait for me to open them when I get back?"

"Oh please, if we did that, you'd probably think that we've forgotten about your birthday. And what kind of friends would we be if we did that?" Xander said, "But that's beside the point. What were you doing in London that you—and your mum—had to lie about your whereabouts?"

"And the truth, please," added Nicolai, "Don't even try to lie to our faces."

Florence knew she couldn't really tell them the truth, but if she didn't then it was a possibility that Nicolai and Alexander would feel bad. So she opted on telling the truth, but not the whole truth. After all, that still counted, right?

"I met some relatives of mine," she explained, waiting for the two of them to look her straight in the eye to determine whether or not she was lying about it, "I did, really. I swear... Well, it wasn't an aunt, it was an uncle. My dad had a brother. And I also met a cousin, too."

"Well if that's all then why lie about Venice?" Xander pushed, "Why not tell us about relatives in London?"

"Do you remember Julien Fransson?"

The two nodded.

"Remember when Alanna told us that he was going to be moving to London for Auror training and to meet some of his relatives over the summer? Well, here's the thing. He's my cousin. Julien Fransson is my first degree cousin."

"No way," Nicolai gaped, "Are you serious?"

"Way serious," Florence chuckled, "Shocker, I know, which was why my mum thought it would be best to keep it a secret for awhile. But, since, you know, I can't really keep anything from the two of you...here we are."

"Wait," Xander interrupted, still trying to process the new information, "So does Alanna know that you're related to her brother? Did Julien know you two were related while he was at Hogwarts?"

"Alanna knows...She even sent me something for my birthday. And yes, Julien admitted to knowing about me even when he was at Hogwarts. But he knew it wasn't the right time yet."

"That's an amazing discovery, though. I mean, if you think about it, now you're not the last heiress to the Price name." said Xander, "You've been an only child for almost all your life, now you have something that's closest to a brother."

"And a very attractive one at that," Nicolai added with a slight smirk, "I knew there was something very familiar with him the first time I saw him...That's probably why I couldn't stop staring."

Xander rolled his eyes "Yeah, sure, it wasn't because you were drooling over him at all."

"What can I say? I swing both ways." Nicolai stated rather happily, before sipping on her cup of chamomile tea.

--------

"Stupid, stupid, fold up bed." Nicolai grunted, as she wrestled with the thin mattress in hopes of laying it down on the floor the right way. Alexander had finished his about five minutes ago, and was now fastening on the bedspread and arranging his pillows.

"So glad we still had time to do this," said Xander, "If you think about it, this is the last pre school year sleepover that we're having in out whole lives."

"Yeah," Florence let out a ragged breath, "And its going to be our last year at Hogwarts as well. Then we'll be..." she paused, shuddering slightly, "Adults"

"We already are adults. 17, remember?"

"But that doesn't quite count since we're technically still in school. We don't have adult-like responsibilities yet. Like, you know, a job."

"Oh no," Nicolai sighed, "We're going to have that career selection day this year... And I still don't know what the hell I would want to do after Hogwarts."

"Security Troll Trainer," Xander suggested jokingly as Nicolai shot him a menacing glare, "What? It's a very honorable job. Has good pay too, as I've heard. Or if you want to be in the more dangerous field, then maybe you can be an Auror, or a Hit Witch."

"A Hit Witch?"

"They're kind of like Aurors, but they deal more with dangerous criminals than dark wizards. Plus they're highly trained. Like the team who put Sirius Black in Azkaban in the 1980's." Alexander explained.

Florence went rigid, "But I thought Aurors arrested him?"

"Yeah, a couple of them came along, as my dad told me. But I think Hit Witches and Wizards could be Aurors too. Just with higher ranks."

"Sure, I can do that," said Nicolai, "That is if I'd want my mum to have near heart failure experiences every other night. They're already so horrified with Penny working overseas, I'm sure they'd love it if I chased around danger for a living."

"Being an Auror doesn't sound too bad," said Florence, "My father was an Auror too, you know. So is my uncle...And Julien's training to be one."

"Dunno, Flo, you look more of a professional Quidditch player to me." said Xander, who fluffed up his pillows before laying his head down. "Massive paycheck too," he whistled admiringly.

"Do they pay people to eat ice cream? I heard that's a job in the muggle world." Nicolai butted in, "Ice Cream Tasters. They have their taste buds ensured for hundreds of thousands of muggle currencies."

"And speaking of ice cream, maybe we could head to Diagon Alley first thing tomorrow? My treat." Florence offered, Nicolai and Xander nodding their heads almost promptly.

"See, the words my and treat are my favorite words ever, especially when used together."