Chapter Two
GRANDMA'S TALE
"It happened about... sixty years ago. I was ten years old, then. I had this strange friend of mine, Clarissa. People always avoided her and her family, saying they were strange. And, somehow, they were. I had been friends with her since the age of six, but I had never been invited to her house, nor had I ever known what kind of work her father did. She was not good at school. Not at all. She didn't seem to realize what we were studying for. Now, as you know, my mother was a retired teacher, and so Clarissa sometimes came to me for studying. One day, she rushed in our kitchen saying she had to talk to me. She usually was a very educated girl, but that time she didn't even apologize for arriving so suddenly and uninvited. Anyway, we went in my room and she showed me... that letter," said Grandma, pointing at the letter with a thin finger.
"Then, she took from her pocket a... wand." She stopped a moment, just to create a bit of suspence.
"She said she could not show that to me, and that she was not even good at it, but she wanted her best friend to know. She pointed the wand to a book and said: 'Wingardium Leviosa!" I remember that as if it was yesterday. The book started... flying around my head."
Peter and Margaret had an umbelieving-consenting look on their faces, while Petunia was thinking she was right in considering grandma completely mad. Lily was astonished, her mouth falling opened.
"Ah, ah, ah! Mum, you should really get writing, you know? I mean it, you've got a great imagination!" Peter's exclamation sounded a little false.
"I'M NOT JOKING!!! You, stupid fool! It's fifty years that you know me, and you haven't realized yet when I am joking or not!" she paused, taking breath. Everyone was looking at her.
"Have you got an idea of what it meant to me? Clarissa said that sometimes even children from... I don't remember the term she used... children from families that do not have magical powers can be admitted. I waited until my eleventh birthday quivering, hoping to receive that letter. But it never came" Grandma stopped, looking down with a melancholy look in her eyes.
"And what happened to your friend?" asked Lily
"I've never seen her again. Nor heard. Her parents said she was attempting a school near London, but I knew they were lying. Then, one day they suddendly changed house and I've never heard about them anymore.
"I've passed all my life hoping for my children's eleventh birthday, but no post arrived. So, with the time passing through, I forgot about that. But now," she said, smiling at Lily, "We finally have a witch in our family!"
Lily could have never been happier. She believed everything grandma had said, without any doubt.
"Come on, mum. This... this is completely crazy. How can you pretend..." began Peter
"You probably haven't read this" said grandma handing the letter to her son
"Read at the end. Go on, what are you waiting for?" Peter looked at the paper in his hand, then his mother. Finally, he put his glasses on and began: "'For the Muggle families: we perfectly know it is something strange to accept, so we have organized a meeting in London on the 17th of August'" Then, it gives the address of a place... it looks like a pub or something... The Leaky Cauldron..." he looked his daughter, then his mother "Hey, you're not going to say it... you can't ask me to go, I... I have to work and..."
"It's for your daughter's future. You'll ask a free day" Grandma's tone admitted no denying.
GRANDMA'S TALE
"It happened about... sixty years ago. I was ten years old, then. I had this strange friend of mine, Clarissa. People always avoided her and her family, saying they were strange. And, somehow, they were. I had been friends with her since the age of six, but I had never been invited to her house, nor had I ever known what kind of work her father did. She was not good at school. Not at all. She didn't seem to realize what we were studying for. Now, as you know, my mother was a retired teacher, and so Clarissa sometimes came to me for studying. One day, she rushed in our kitchen saying she had to talk to me. She usually was a very educated girl, but that time she didn't even apologize for arriving so suddenly and uninvited. Anyway, we went in my room and she showed me... that letter," said Grandma, pointing at the letter with a thin finger.
"Then, she took from her pocket a... wand." She stopped a moment, just to create a bit of suspence.
"She said she could not show that to me, and that she was not even good at it, but she wanted her best friend to know. She pointed the wand to a book and said: 'Wingardium Leviosa!" I remember that as if it was yesterday. The book started... flying around my head."
Peter and Margaret had an umbelieving-consenting look on their faces, while Petunia was thinking she was right in considering grandma completely mad. Lily was astonished, her mouth falling opened.
"Ah, ah, ah! Mum, you should really get writing, you know? I mean it, you've got a great imagination!" Peter's exclamation sounded a little false.
"I'M NOT JOKING!!! You, stupid fool! It's fifty years that you know me, and you haven't realized yet when I am joking or not!" she paused, taking breath. Everyone was looking at her.
"Have you got an idea of what it meant to me? Clarissa said that sometimes even children from... I don't remember the term she used... children from families that do not have magical powers can be admitted. I waited until my eleventh birthday quivering, hoping to receive that letter. But it never came" Grandma stopped, looking down with a melancholy look in her eyes.
"And what happened to your friend?" asked Lily
"I've never seen her again. Nor heard. Her parents said she was attempting a school near London, but I knew they were lying. Then, one day they suddendly changed house and I've never heard about them anymore.
"I've passed all my life hoping for my children's eleventh birthday, but no post arrived. So, with the time passing through, I forgot about that. But now," she said, smiling at Lily, "We finally have a witch in our family!"
Lily could have never been happier. She believed everything grandma had said, without any doubt.
"Come on, mum. This... this is completely crazy. How can you pretend..." began Peter
"You probably haven't read this" said grandma handing the letter to her son
"Read at the end. Go on, what are you waiting for?" Peter looked at the paper in his hand, then his mother. Finally, he put his glasses on and began: "'For the Muggle families: we perfectly know it is something strange to accept, so we have organized a meeting in London on the 17th of August'" Then, it gives the address of a place... it looks like a pub or something... The Leaky Cauldron..." he looked his daughter, then his mother "Hey, you're not going to say it... you can't ask me to go, I... I have to work and..."
"It's for your daughter's future. You'll ask a free day" Grandma's tone admitted no denying.