"I had to rewrite three whole letters because someone's toad ate them," Zeta said, before sticking another chocolate in her mouth. "The second time, they were shorter." She was much better at drawing than at writing.

Her Dad got the 'parents are strange' look for his comments about Kesali, but the analysis of the next drawing distracted her quick enough. "I try to study in the library, too. Once, I fell asleep on my transfiguration book." She blushed a little, and licked a tiny smear of chocolate from her fingers.

"Must not snore, though. No one woke me up for hours." Or it had seemed like hours. That was weeks ago and she couldn't remember. "Wasn't comfy though, not like here."

Home meant no studying, too. She curled up a little and yawned. "Any purple ones left?"

"...Once, I fell asleep on my transfiguration book."

"That's not hard," her father assured her with a chuckle, "but don't make a habit of it, transfiguration's important."

"Must not snore, though. No one woke me up for hours. Wasn't comfy though, not like here."

Monty smiled to himself.
"I remember when you were little, and you used to fall asleep in the nook of my arm. Your sister used to tickle your feet with curiosity that you were still alive because you slept so soundly." He squeezed his daughter's shoulder, "I didn't want to put you back in your cot when you did, you were so very cute." He looked round, a smile across his face and eyes twinkling, "You still are that beautiful little thing, only you're too big to fit in the nook of my arm these days, and one day you'll be so big you'll leave home." His voice changed from affection to mock upset and he pulled his handkerchief comically and pretended to mop his eyes.

"Any purple ones left?"

Flicking his wand and tapping the box, he held the tin to Zeta, only every single one was purple, despite the shape.

"Mm, plenty."

"You say that all my school work is important. I'll have to pick soon, though, don't know what all I want to take for NEWTs." She turned her head to look up at her dad, expression half suspicious, half pleading. How could she pick if they were all so very important.

She rolled her eyes as he started to mop his eyes. "Dad! I'll still come over. I'll need somewhere to practice my drawing and learn from the best. Plus, chocolates." She snatched a...well, they were all purple. That didn't help. "Mum's never going to believe that we weren't in these, now. You'll have to buy another thing of them."

Which meant she could eat more of these! So she grabbed a handful and wriggled under his arm. "And then we can eat those. Or some of them."

"Of course I have to say schoolwork is important, I am your father, your mother would hex me, if she had a wand. She doesn't need to, remember, she's a woman, she has ways." He teased Zeta and gave her an affectionate squeeze at her protests that she'd still visit him.

"Oh dear, won't that be a trial, buying yet more chocolates." He chuckled, picking up another of the now uniform coloured chocolates and unwrapping it before discovering it was a strawberry one.

"As for your NEWTs, well, what might you want to do when you become a big scary adult?" He asked his favourite daughter. "Theta was pretty clear she liked to write for the paper or invent things like Uncle Francis, whether that was clocks or time turners or broomsticks, it didn't matter. So she did all the fiddly magic." He chucked the other half of the chocolate into his mouth and munched, his moustache wriggling like a giant caterpillar.

"But I don't think anyone's ever sure at your age, or even twice it. What would you like to do? Your art?" He cocked his head to regard his daughter with serious thought. "You could always come design cars, or do the custom designs - you might like that, perhaps I can arrange for you to try it over summer - oh, yes, we'll probably go over as a family then so you can all see what I was up to."

"She has sense," Zeta said, teasing back and gently poking at her dad with her elbow. "But chocolates are more fun." Since they were going to buy more, might as well eat all of them. So she grabbed herself a whole nice big handful. Two of them got unwrapped and put into her mouth at once.

Making her next words a bit muffled by chocolate. "I don't want to be scary. Or to invent things. But I like drawing." She paused to think about that. And to sneak a few more of the chocolates. Giving them all purple wrappers didn't make some of them taste any better, but they were still chocolate. "Will I be good with cars? I haven't drawn them much at all. Are they hard to work with?"

And then the thought of cars brought back everything she'd been trying not to think about, and she frowned, looked away from her father but didn't move. "I don't want to go over there! You're already old."

"I won't get any older for going back...?" Monty explained, confused. "It can't happen again, sweetheart." He patted her arm.

"Besides, in comparison to you, I'm always going to be old hmm?" Her father stroked his beard and cocked his head. "I'll always be here for you, and it doesn't bother me that you don't want to invent and you just want to draw. You're a daughter in my own footsteps. As long as you're happy." His eyes found his daughter's.

Upstairs, Eta's feet were on the move, she'd heard the voices downstairs perhaps, and was on her way to join them, he wasn't sure. Either way, the two of them paused, hands in the chocolate tin.

"It would be nice for you to come with me one day - and you'll be super. You always are."

He opened his arms to give her a proper hug.

"You're really really sure?" Zeta gave her dad a curious look, trying to figure out  if he was being placating. Didn't seem like it. Parents. "I want you to be old for a really long time to help me eat chocolates and be silly." He was good at silly.

"We'd better get more chocolate before Eta sees us eating it!" She'd heard the footsteps too, and didn't want to be caught sneaking them. Or to have to share. There weren't many chocolates left at all.

And she couldn't help blushing at her dad's compliments. She buried her face in his chest and hugged him as tightly at she could. Still didn't feel tight enough. "You'll always be around? Always?" Her voice was muffled with her head pressed against him, but not enough to make the words incomprehensible.

Despite her teenage years, Zeta could still revert to childhood at the drop of a hat with him. He loved it, because parents always missed their children being so very little as they grew up so very fast.

"You'll always be around? Always?"

"Just try and stop me." He assured his middle daughter, and squeezed her back tightly. "I couldn't wait for time to pass to get back to you. I swear, I Octavius Montgomery Pepper will always be around for as long as is physically possible." He inhaled the smell of her hair.

"And after that, I'll bother you for the rest of your years in paint, how's that?"


Wrap up?

"Only if you let me paint you." Zeta pulled her head back enough to nod and smiled. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. And maybe she wouldn't need to eat all the chocolate.

Maybe she'd eaten enough. "You should go talk to Eta. I think she could use hugs too. And chocolates." There were some left. A few. More than five. "And you're the best dad ever. But you can't yell from the paintings for years and years."

But she was going to not worry about that. Yet. Just about presents and things. That was enough to worry about.

End