Chapter XII

"Ding ding!" Charles shouted as he walked into the Pie Hole where Ned, the pie maker, worked his magic. Chuck bounced off her seat and ran to his arms. She had not seen her father in several years, though he had seen her fairly frequently.

"Dad, I wish you had given us a little warning. You know how Ned is."

"Yes," Charles replied, "Careful Ned. Paranoid Ned. Worried Ned. Well, I've lived in these bandages for years now, and guess what? Nobody cares. Ned is not in any danger."

They sat down in a booth, Chuck sitting across from her father. "Where is Ned?" Charles asked.

"He's back there," Chuck replied, gesturing toward the kitchen. "But where have you been? I had a wedding, Dad, and it would've meant the world to me if you had been there."

"I was there, honey."

"Why are you like that, dad? You didn't have to run off."

"Sweetie, I'm not going to be here long. Can we just skip the interrogation? I need to talk to Ned."

"You came home to talk to Ned?" Chuck was just a little indignant.

"Yes ma'am. It's important."

Chuck stared blankly at him for a moment, then went to the kitchen. Charles heard, "WHAT?" bellowing from behind the counter. Then Ned emerged—the one whose delicious pies were known throughout Papen county, the one who could bring dead things back to life. He emerged, and although no one had seen all the strange wonders that Ned had seen throughout his life, Ned marveled at the presence of Chuck's father. To Ned, Charles Charles was a loose canon, a ticking time bomb, his undoing. Ned did not intentionally keep Charles alive, but Chuck, in a desperate act of love, tricked Ned so that her father could stay alive. For many years, Charles had been unwilling to take the precautions Ned thought were necessary to keep the whole world, with their shovels, pitchforks, and torches, from knowing about his secret. It was a secret that Ned thought for sure would result in him being burned as a witch or flayed open and studied by government officials in white lab coats somewhere in Area 51 should it ever come out. Ned was quite understandably cautious and secretive.

"How ya doin', Ned?" Charles greeted him.

"Fine," Ned said. "Everything is fine."

"I'd hug you, but. . .well, you know."

Ned did know. After bringing things back to life, the slightest touch would re-dead them. That's why his mother died a second time when she kissed him. Once they were dead a second time, he could never bring them back.

"Sit down, Ned. I want to talk to you."

"Okay," and Ned sat down across from Charles. Chuck sat down beside Ned.

"I see you're still being careful not to sit too close together," Charles observed. "That's good. I worry about you two all the time. It must be hard, being married and all, not to ever touch."

Chuck almost explained how they got around intimate issues, but she stopped herself just in time. That was none of his business.

"Do you even have sex?" Charles asked.

"Dad!" Chuck scolded.

"Sorry, sorry," Charles chuckled. "That was inappropriate."

"Weird, too," Ned said. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Ned, you're not alone. That's what I'm here to tell you. You've labored your whole life to keep your secret—a secret even you don't understand—and you've thought you were alone. But you're not."

"What do you mean? There are others like me?" Ned puzzled.

"Sorta kinda."

"Sorta kinda?" Chuck interjected.

"There are people with abilities. They're not all like yours. In fact, I don't think any of them are exactly like yours. But there is a whole community of people out there who have all kinds of magical abilities. I've met them."

Ned furrowed his eyebrows, half in skepticism, and half in great curiosity.

"I've managed to befriend a few of them, and I want you to meet them."

"Out of the question," Ned said.

"Why not?"

"I don't know anything about these people. Why do you think they have magical abilities? Have you seen them do magic? My father was a magician. My two bothers are magicians. It's all illusions. Even if you did see something magical, how do you know you weren't duped?"

"I haven't actually seen any of them do magic."

"Oh my gosh!" Ned exclaimed. "So somebody told you they could do magic, and you come out of hiding to tell me there are people just like me? The world is full of illusionists. What on earth?"

"No, these people are not illusionists. I understand your skepticism, Ned."

"Do you?"

"Listen to me, Ned. First of all, you of all people ought to keep an open mind. Do you really think you are the only person who has ever lived who has had some supernatural gift?"

"It's a curse."

"Whatever. It's unlikely that you'd be the only one. These kids—there's four of them—didn't tell me anything. But I've been watching them and listening to them. They aren't trying to get attention. They don't go around talking about their abilities to try to get other people to believe them. Quite the opposite! They try to hide who and what they are. They talk quietly among themselves. And they are very specific about the kinds of magic they've seen and been involved in. I could tell you stories that would make your hair stand on end."

Ned listened while Charles went on to explain to Ned what he heard and how he confronted Harry and the rest with what he knew. When Charles got to the part about Harry's parents being killed and how Harry never knew his parents, but had to grow up in a home with an aunt and uncle who didn't love him, Ned felt a prick in his heart. Charles perceived that his words hit home with Ned, and he said,

"You can help him, Ned. You can give Harry a minute with his parents." Then he waited while Ned considered his words.

"What do you think?" Ned asked Chuck.

Chuck looked at her father. "Dad, what do they know about us?"

"All I told them," Charles explained, "was that I knew a guy who could raise the dead and that he raised me. I didn't tell them anything about who you were, but I'm not sure they believed me anyway. They said that even in the wizarding world, dead people don't come back to life."

"Ha!" Ned laughed at the irony.

"Ned," Chuck began, "what if you meet them in a neutral location?"

"Let me mull it over," Ned finally responded.

"In the meantime," Charles said, "could you bring me some chocolate cake?"

"We don't have cake," Chuck said. "We only have pie."

"Oh, that's right."