────Summer Beginning 2021────

The Romero Household
Lancaster, England

thursday, july 1st 2021.
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The clock ticked towards eleven. Usually, the children wouldn't be allowed to stay up so late, but an exception had been made for Lucie and Tina's return from Hogwarts for their long awaited Summer holidays. Whilst Isabel, Sophia and Ezra (who all still had school in the morning to look forward to) had taken themselves off to bed the moment the girls arrived with their mother, robes exchanged for comfortable, Muggle clothing and trunks swaying around their ankles like Victoria schoolgirls, Patrick and Papa Marcos had waited up to make hot chocolate and help them unpack their belongings after an exhausting twelve or so hours on wheels.

This July was hot, especially for North Lancashire, but the presence of night-time made the high temperatures slightly more bearable. Outside of the living room window, darkness spread out across the sky like a glittery blanket, the moon shining elegantly through the blinds, an indication to just how late it was. Tina held the pink mug in her hands close to her face, slurping at the whipped cream on top and letting the warm air condense on her cheeks. She was barely able to keep her eyes open, and her tiredness made her uncharacteristically quiet.

"Luce was in a mood today," she said flatly.

Patrick, sitting next to her in the dim light, looked up from his own drink, black eyes glinting like beetles. He shrunk further into the squishy sofa beneath them. "I get why. I wouldn't want to leave either; Hogwarts sounds amazing."

"It is."

She sounded strangely wistful when she said it. The quiet normalcy of Muggle life - the forbidden spells and inconvenient transport methods, the expectation of endless work and the excitement at the small things, the modern solutions and the unnoticed nods to the existence of something more, everything - it was all so foreign to her now, and it gave her time to reflect on the things she'd taken for granted at the castle. This went both ways: the ridiculous traditions which she found irksome at bes, the unwillingness of some wizards to change and learn and the existence of creatures like Elizabeth Isaacs dwelling within the castle's walls became more apparent when she stepped back into the Muggle world she grew up in, which for all its flaws, seemed like the rather more grown up one.

"There's just so much to show you. You'll love the library. It's like, massive." Far too exhausted to gesticulate much, Martyna simply drank some more of her hot chocolate, taking a moment to pause. Over the past holidays and letters, she'd told Patrick everything she could, but it was much easier to show than it was to tell when it came to Hogwarts. Her admittedly limited vocabulary didn't suffice in bringing it to life. "Once you get your letter, you can come to the Summer Camp they do as well. I wish I'd gone when I was a first year. You don't even know your house yet which makes it sooooo much easier to talk to everyone I bet. Houses kinda suck."

"Really? I think they sound fun," Patrick replied, his eyebrows knitting together on his forehead. He quite liked the thought of being sorted into a group of likeminded peers based on his strengths, having competitions with the other houses and whatnot. It made the school unique and quirky, and gave people another motivation to work hard and band together as a team. Perhaps this view was optimistic (childish, even) but to him sounded like something ripped straight from a fantasy book he'd read, and that was wonderful.

"Well, I mean, they are kind of fun." Tina wafted her hand around in front of her face, all she was able to physically do. She was having a hard time expressing herself. She didn't want Patrick to get his hopes down before he'd even arrived, but the house system was pretty inconvenient. She'd have loved to have sleepovers with Starlee, but it just didn't work like that; she was stuck with the other Hufflepuffs every night. Tina screwed up her eyes. Her brain felt fuzzy. "Sorry. You'll see what I mean when you get there. You're right though."

"What house do you think I'm in?" he asked, curious.

"I don't know! Star is like, super smart, but she's not in Ravenclaw. Worse, she's in the same house as Lizzie, who's totally mean and nothing like her. I got put in Hufflepuff, and I thought I was definitely a Gryffindor..." Tina shook her head, taking a elongated drink of her hot chocolate and trailing off. It was almost frustrating to think about. Why was he asking her such difficult questions when she was just about ready to fall asleep where she was sat? "What I'm saying is, it's kind of dumb, and has a lot of flaws."

Patrick huffed. He was visibly disappointed with this answer. Tina was extremely oblivious to just how fortunate she was. He rocked himself back onto his feet, placing the now empty mug on the draws next to where he'd been seated. It would get washed up in the morning - she was not fuelling his inquisitive mind right now. Weirdly, he felt sort of heavy.

"I'm going to bed," he said after a moment.

"Why?" Tina asked.

"I'm tired."

Tina glanced up from her drink, confused. He wasn't looking back at her. "No you're not." Patrick began to traipse upstairs, his feet dragging behind him. "Well, you are, but that's not why you're going-"

"Night Tina."

The door to he and Ezra's room clicked shut behind him.

saturday, july 3rd 2021.
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Things were tense. On one end of the sofa was Marcos, Tina's father, hands clutched tightly together in front of his mouth, cheeks blown out with stress and his eyes unmoving from the TV screen before them. Beside him sat a mystified young Ezra, followed by Tina, Issie, Sophia and finally Patrick, who was instead precariously perched on the sofa-arm (not keen on being crushed by his sisters) with his face propped up in his hands. It was a tight squeeze on their side, but no one dared invade Marcos' personal space at this moment. Nervously, he rocked back and forth, inadvertently moving the siblings up and down in their seats.

Sterling zigzagged his way through the other players, heading for Ukraine's goal.

"Dios mío! Dios mío!"*

Tina and Isabel took a collective breath, sinking further forwards over their knees to get closer to the screen. Ezra was far too focused on his dad to watch the real game (although Marcos' expressions were a good indicator of how it was going for the team they wanted to win) but outwardly, he was just as excited as the rest of them. It seemed to be going well for England, who were already up two goals against Ukraine. Sterling had just passed to Shaw, who passed to Harry Kane. The ball came flying through the air towards him. He jumped up to meet it, smashing it with his head towards Ukraine's net and-

He scored!

"YEEEEEEESSSSSS!"

Marcos leapt up from the sofa, almost crashing into the ceiling as he did so. The Romero siblings all backed away, a little intimidated by the sheer size of their father when he was in such a euphoric state. Ezra burst into disorganised clapping, cheers were erupting from the pub down the street and vague chanting could be heard outside. At this, Sophia and Patrick exchanged a knowing glance: they would not be getting much sleep tonight.

"Does that mean they won papa?" Ezra asked, still clapping. Marcos didn't look down at him, nor did he give a definitive answer, instead electing to jump up and down a little circle in front of the living room window, pumping his arms up and down dangerously close to the floor above them.

"ITS COOOOMING HOME! ITS COOOOOMING HOME!"

"I thought we were cheering for Spain this year?" Tina said, half-heartedly waving her makeshift England flag out in front of her. She was a little perplexed as to why her dad wasn't cheering for his home country as usual. To further this, she added, "Like we do every year?"

Martyna herself wasn't one for watching sport, but football was easy enough to understand; get the ball in the other team's goal and don't make purposeful contact with each other (although the players didn't seem to understand that one). She was grateful for the family bonding time however - which was few and far between these days - even when it meant feeling bad for all the Ukraine fans as the camera panned over all their forlorn faces among the stadium seats. Ouch.

At that moment, Lucie rounded the corner connecting the kitchen and living room, a fresh bowl of sweet and salted popcorn slung in her arms. "Didn't you hear? Papas work friends have converted him." She picked at a couple of pieces it before sauntering over dropping the bowl in Sophia's lap. The younger Romero didn't react, equally sleepy and bored out of her mind at this stage. "He's now a raging England fan. My guess is that bribed him with drinks."

"I'm cheering for both!" Issie proudly declared. As a demonstration, she waved the two homemade flags which she had in either hand like pom poms as though she was in an extremely aggressive cheerleading squad. Somehow, Issie alone had enough energy remaining to carry all of them through the rest of the game.

Ezra leaned over his sisters to reach the popcorn bowl, grabbing a messy handful and stuffing it in his mouth. "Me too-" he said, voice muffled. Sophia gave a lukewarm grunt in response.

"Can we turn it over yet?"

"Spain will be in the semi-finals too, so they might play each other," Patrick said, ignoring the request. His voice was flat and mechanical - clearly, he was not having a good time. At this stage, Tina's tummy felt painful whenever she was reminded of Pat's existence. He hadn't spoken to her since their first night back. If her suspicions were correct, he was mad at her, and Patrick had an incredibly irritating way of being annoyed at people. "I'll be cheering for Spain if that happens. England fans are super annoying."

"Nawww don't say that, mate. They're just pent up. They haven't won in ages, bless them." Secretly, Tina reckoned that Patrick was finding their father's behaviour quite grating, and that it was he who was the 'super annoying' England fan being referred to, but she didn't say anything. Marcos was ready to settle back down in his end of the sofa and grab himself some popcorn for himself, when he noticed Alana slinking her way up the stairs in the dark. He threw his hands up, excitement rejuvenated by her mere presence. "Alana! Come watch the football!"

Like a deer caught in headlights, Alana slowly turned herself around on the stairs, facing her family with wide, sheepish eyes. There was a moment of awkwardness before the guilty expression on her face was replaced by an amused smile. He was like a big kid, sitting next to them all. Despite this rather amicable reaction, Lucie's eyes narrowed, and it didn't miss Tina's notice. From what she could tell, she wasn't the only one having familial troubles: Alana and Lucie looked to have been in a silent war since they both returned from Hogwarts, and it was likely instigated by the latter.

"I don't think so, loves. Mum is tired," she finally said, folding her arms and leaning back against the wall. Marcos pouted, giving her his best effort at puppy dog eyes. Isabel followed suite, dragging herself and her flags over the back of the seat.

"Awww... Please mum!"

"Yeah, you have to spend time with us if you're going away soon!"

It was true: at the end of the month, Alana would be travelling down to Borehamwood, a town near enough to London that it would be convenient to take Tina (and hopefully, Patrick) down to Kings Cross so that they could attend the Hogwarts Summer Camp. She was going for work purposes, as per usual, and would be meeting with Daichi, a man Tina was gradually becoming more and more familiar with. At Tina's comment in particular, Alana seemed to soften, almost pulling away from the stairs to come join them. Tina prompted further.

"Come on! Even Sophia is watching. You can't possibly hate football more than her."

"I don't hate it! Its just boring and they keep attacking each other-"

"She doesn't need to do anything," Lucie said, cutting off Sophia's defence so sharply that the girl could only stare at her older sister in bemused annoyance. Tina glanced between her mother and Lucie. They were definitely fighting. "Just go to bed mum."

"I'm gonna go too. I want to fall asleep before the extremely loud celebrations begin." Patrick said, slipping off the side of the sofa and grabbing his book from the coffee table. From what Tina could tell, it was something boring and likely way too heavy for his age, but Pat did have unusual interests. Part of her wanted to stop him and ask if he was really still angry with her, but she let him go, watching as he passed Alana on the stairs and ventured towards he and Ezra's bedroom.

"Awwww, come on guys! Just wait till the end," Marcos called. Tina presumed that there would be little change in result during what was left of the match, not that Patrick would care anyway, so this effort was futile. Not wanting her dad to be disappointed, Lucie perked up.

"It's okay papa! The rest of us will stay, right Sophia?" Sophia groaned, but didn't do anything more in protest, allowing herself to drape over the new space created by Patrick's absence. Lucie side-stepped out of the view of the TV, heading back towards the kitchen. "I'll go make you a tea."

"Thanks sweetheart," Patrick said. He turned back to Alana. Hoping to reassure her, and perhaps remove the dejected expression from her features, he continued, "It's okay if you're tired, darling. I'll join you in bed in a bit."

Tina gagged. "Gross!"

Ezra and Issie giggled, but Marcos batted her over the head with a newspaper.

* oh my God!

sunday, july 11th 2021.
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"I just can't believe it."

It was the third time he'd said it. Marcos rubbed the lower half of his face, tired and disappointed. After scoring a goal within the first four minutes, England had just lost to Italy during the penalties. Some of the fans were already hauling abuse at the boys they'd been praising mere minutes ago. Tina felt bad for them: this was, according to her more sport-savvy siblings, the best England had done in years and yet the people watching were angry at their players? Alana had wrinkled her nose when she heard a swear word and walked over to zap the TV screen off, scolding Marcos for letting Ezra and Issie hear it - with some giggles from the latter.

Football was so silly. Tina still wasn't sure why she was watching; maybe she just needed t0 spend some proper time with her family, having spent most of last year away from them. She rolled onto her stomach and took a sip of her hot chocolate. "Cheer up papa!" she chirped, "At least we can talk about my birthday now!" At that, Ezra let out a loud wail.

"Oh my God why are you crying?" Lucie snapped.

"Yeah, Ezra, don't cry!" Martyna added, pouting her lips. Little brothers were always so keen to draw attention away from their older sisters, weren't they? He divulged through blubbering sobs that he was upset over England losing the match, but Tina secretly believed he had no idea what was going on. Patrick caught her attention as he sighed into his hands, grateful that there wouldn't be some massive celebratory gathering outside his bedroom tonight, and she tensed up, carefully glancing over at him before Issie leapt onto the sofa and smothered him.

"It's Patrick's birthday soon too!"

"Ack! Yep, it is, now get off me! Please!"

It had been over a week since she'd done... something to upset him, and their relationship had yet to repair itself. At first, Tina had tried talking to him like normal, hoping to coax him out of his sour mood with her own brightness, but this only made him more all the more adamant to ignore her. Realising that this wouldn't work, she'd decided to play the game his way, refusing him the luxury of sanguine smiles and hesitant eye contact, all under the pretence that he might start taking on her earlier strategies, leading them back to a comfortable sibling friendship on his own.

This hadn't happened.

So she was stuck in phase two of her plan, with no back-route. She'd spent a of hours yesterday trying to figure out a different approach, but had come up short. In her desperation, she'd even tried asking Lucie if he'd confided in her, but all she'd gotten in response was a smart 'surely you know', and then a condescending 'well, it's certainly not up to me to tell you, Martyna' at her bemusement.

"Ah... but are you two as important as the football?"

It was Marcos' cheeky smile that brought her back to the present. "Papa!" Tina whined, not noticing that Patrick had joined her in chorus. He chuckled.

"Only kidding. C'mere, Tine', tell me if you feel like a twelve year old yet..."

They were joined by a onesie-clad Sophia some time later, who remarked about the football and was promptly swatted away by Lucie, not wanting her to ruin the mood.