CHAPTER 9
"What? I'm not normal, what are you saying mom?"
"Your father and I we're… we're… God, I don't know how to say this.
Maria,
honey, we have magic in us. We're wizards. "
Maria stood there frozen. Then she burst out laughing.
"Oh my god mom. Haha! you expect me to believe that?
That you and daddy are wizards? Ok I
thought the letter was weird but Mom, I think you should tell me the
truth".
Ms. DeLuca looked at her daughter. "Maria it is the truth".
Maria was dumbfounded. "So you decided to keep this from me all
these
years?"
"I was and still am trying to keep you safe."
"Safe from what?!"
"I'm keeping you safe from Volde-, You-Know-who."
Maria stared at her mom. What was going on. Who or what was her mom
talking about? She had a really bad feeling about all of this. She
didn't
know what to believe, the things she'd been told her whole life or this new
truth that was unfolding.
"Mom stop giving little clues or whatever and just tell me the whole
story."
"Maria sit down, you too Liz", said Ms. DeLuca taking a seat at the
kitchen table, "There's a whole other world that normal humans without
magic,
Muggles we call them, know nothing about. Some people are born with
powers to do magic. Sometimes a normal human with normal parents can have
magic in them, other times wizards come from families that are centuries old.
Hogwarts is the best school of wizardry there is. A man named Albus
Dumbledore, is the headmaster of Hogwarts, sort of like a principle. That's
who you saw in the water. Your father was a good man, a great wizard.
When
you were five he went to London countryside to help defend people against an
evil wizard named--" she seemed to hesitate, "Voldemort. Please
don't make
me say that name again. Anyway, when your father came back, he was…
different.
He wasn't the same man that I fell in love with. He began to drift
further
and further away. He began disappearing for days, coming back with no
explanation. This went on for two years.. One day he just left.
Later I
found out that he had become one of Voldemort's followers. There was no
way
to get him back."
Liz and Maria stared at Ms. DeLuca. None of this seemed real.
"So where is daddy now?"
"I don't know. You-Know-Who vanished a couple years ago and all his
followers scattered."
"Mom, if this Voldemort--"
"Don't say that name!"
"Ok, if You-Know-Who was so powerful and evil and stuff, then how come he
just didn't take over the world?"
"A boy, a baby actually, he-- well, no one actually knows how he defeated
You-Know-Who. But his parents, James and Lily Potter, were hiding in a
village
and somehow, You-Know-Who found them, and he killed them. He tried to
kill
the boy, Harry, but couldn't. Some say that afterwards he was too weak and just
vanished."
"Ok gotcha so far. What about this Hogwarts school? Am I going
there
next term for school or something?"
"No! No, you are never going to set a foot in the wizrding world ever
again! After what happened to your father because of magic, you think I
would allow you to follow the same path?!"
"Mom, I'm not saying I really want to go but wouldn't you give me the
benefit of the doubt or trust me to decide for myself to decide to go or not?
I mean so there's evil magic, isn't there good magic too? Show me
some mom."
"First off there is good magic, but I'm not going to risk you. Plus
we're not allowed to use magic in the normal or muggle world."
"Why?"
"Because it's the rules, muggles aren't suppose know about magic at all."
"Then why did you let me know?" asked Liz who hadn't yet said a word.
"Liz, I let you know because.... you're a witch."
"Hey! I thought sometimes you didn't like me but you don't have to
call
me a witch!"
"No Liz! YOU'RE A WITCH, as in magic, powers, the whole enchilada, just
like Maria."
