Maria and Liz quietly shut the front door

Maria and Liz quietly shut the front door. The T.V. was on, but there was no sign
of Ms. DeLuca. The whole house was dark, the only light coming from
the kitchen. Maria's mom was standing over the sink. It was filled with
water. There was a funny white steam rising from the water. It looked like Maria's
mom was talking to the sink.


Maria looked at Liz and made a face. She held up a finger to her lips.
They began listening to Ms. DeLuca.


"No. I'm not sending her. I want nothing to do with your kind."

Then another voice arose from somewhere near the sink, though Maria and Liz

couldn't tell exactly where.

"She needs to be educated. She's going to be experiencing changes and getting

power the likes of which you could never dream of. She needs to learn
how to control and harness them. With the right training and knowledge
she may be even stronger than You-Know-Who."


"No I am keeping her safe. She is my daughter and she is going to have a
NORMAL life. I lost my husband to this and I WILL NOT lose my daughter the
same way." Ms. DeLuca said to the sink.


Maria crept up behind her mother and peered down into the water. Her heart
stopped for a second and she gasped. There was an old man's face in the
water. It looked like a reflection. He wore half-moon glasses, and had a
long, shining, silverish beard. The image faded faster than Maria could

blink. Her mother spun around.


"What are you doing home!"

"What is going on? What is that?!"


"What is what?"


"That!" cried Maria pointing at the sink.

But now there was nothing there. Only soap suds and water.

*I am not seeing things. I KNOW something was there*


"Ms. DeLuca, I saw it too" said Liz from the kitchen doorway. Maria's
mom glared at her.


"You girls must be…be on drugs or something" she stuttered.


"Mom! WHAT ARE YOU HIDING FROM ME?! " yelled Maria, "First the letters,
now this?! What can be so bad that you can't tell? And what were you
talking to? What are you keeping me safe from? And what did we lose daddy
to? And what the hell is with this letter from a school called Hogwarts?!"


Maria's mom looked scared and angry all at once. She backed up to the
sink. She clutched the jade pendent that hung from the gold chain around
her neck.


"How did you get the letter from Hogwarts?"


Maria shook her head, "An owl? I was at Frasier Woods and it
was tied around its leg." She walked to her mother and looked her in the
eye.

"Mom I deserve to know the truth. What is going on? Please mom? Please."

Her mother looked up with tears in her eyes.

"You're not like normal people".