serendipity - r. lupin

THIRTY THREE

Mary smiled, the corners of the same green eyes Gen had inherited wrinkling the tiniest bit. She pecked the top of her head softly, inhaling the scent of lavender that stuck to her daughter for the last time before letting her take her leave finally.

"I love you!" Mary called out to Genevieve before she got lost in the crowd of people and away from her eyesight.

"I love you too!" Genevieve shouted back before the people around her submerged her into their own cluster.

As Genevieve walked through the crowd of people, she was barged into at least five times. The grip on her luggage was slowly growing away as it threatens to be knocked out of her hands.

"Careful. Wouldn't want you to get trampled on, would we?" A familiar voice warned from behind her, a hand being placed on her shoulder.

A smile brightened Genevieve's face before she had even turned around, but once she did it only got bigger. "Nice to see you again too, Toby," Genevieve teased.

Toby laughed and gave her a quick side hug, not wanting to spend too much time waiting around for greetings due to the crowd. "How have you been? I would know if I had gotten any letters from you all summer," he asked.

"I'm not too sure you know this, Toby, but when a persons travelling and you're not exactly sure where they are it's kind of hard to send a letter."

Toby rolled his eyes in fake annoyance as they boarded the train. "So that was sort of my bad."

"You mean it was your bad?" Genevieve retorted and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, but moving on," Toby dismissed. "Did you happen to see Bradley anywhere?"

Genevieve gasped, pressing a hand to heart as she looked at him in offence. "Are you bored of me already? Is my mere presence not enough to satisfy you?" She asked, her fine dramatic.

Toby rolled his eyes again. "I enjoy your 'mere presence' but I enjoy Bradley's more."

"Or you just like him-" Genevieve's eyes went wide as Toby slapped his hand against her mouth while making violent shushing noises that caused more noise than her actually talking.

"What if he's around here and he heard that?" Toby murmured so nobody else could hear them.

Genevieve snorted and peeled Toby's hand from her face. "I don't think he would be too bothered," she asserted.

"Good." Toby nodded. "It's not like it's true anyway so," he vouched although he kept his eyes trained on his shoes instead of looking at her.

Genevieve pursed her lips but didn't argue back. "He might be on the train already," she tried.

Toby hummed. "I suppose he could be," he said. Placing one hand on Gen's shoulder so he didn't loose her among the other students, Toby looked over the top of the heads surrounding them in hopes of seeing floppy brown hair belonging to an unusually short boy. He didn't have to stand on the tips of his toes due to his height.

Bradley was around the same height as Genevieve, so when Toby (who was nearly the same height as Remus, however just under an inch smaller) stood next to them he made them look like measly gnomes while he was a giant.

"Or he's too busy making friends with some random old woman," Toby grinned, his eyes focusing on two figures a bit away laughing together as if they had known each other their whole life.

Genevieve squinted her eyes, letting her vision adjust to see Bradley smiling with an old lady who matched his look perfectly. She wasn't surprised, Bradley tended to have that affect on strangers.