One day, when Grandpa Black was feeling particularly awake and talkative, he told us a longer story than usual. From start to finish his voice sounded sad and was filled with regret. To the best of my memory, this is the story that he told:

Once upon a time, most people lived without fear. It was a time of great thoughts and ideas. People were learning about everything around them and making tools to improve their lives. There were two types of people, wizards and muggles. The only difference was the ability to perform magic. The wizards wanted to protect their magic from persecution, and the muggles were afraid of the unknown power. So, the two types of people lived on the same planet, but in two different worlds.
One day, a bad man started building up an army and attacking the good people to gain power. He was a wizard, unfortunately. He would kill many people even if they were children or elderly. That was the first age of terror. It went on for many years until the bad wizard tried to kill a very good family. He killed the mother and father, but when he tried to kill their infant son, a miracle happened. The spell did not work on the baby, but destroyed the wizard.
Happy times came to the entire world. There was no need to fear any more. Everything was at peace. For almost twenty years, children were allowed to play outside; couples got married; great thinkers were listened to; even better tools were built. Safety was not a major concern.
Unfortunately, there is a saying, "All good things must come to an end." The infant son that killed the bad wizard grew into a young man of excellent potential, but the bad wizard had not been completely killed. It took about fifteen years before he was able to be healthy enough to rebuild his army. This was the dawn of our second age of terror.
The good wizards and muggles had a grand army to fight the bad wizard's army. The first battle filled the good side with pride as they won with very little loss of their own troops. The bad wizard, though, had released poison at the battle. His troops had been immunized, but not the good troops. The bad side was slowly winning the battles that followed. The poison was not noticeable until a month after the battle, when the people would feel very sleepy often and then fall asleep without waking up. However, the evil wizard wanted to kill more people faster. He and his most powerful followers would gather unsuspecting muggles in large masses and wipe them out in one swift stroke. It did not take long before there were no muggles left. Their tools were no match for magic.
In the greatest battle of the war, all of the most powerful good wizards gathered on the grounds of a school. There were no children there, but it was a good place to defend. They had figured out the poison and been immunized and were ready to destroy a good portion of the army. They were lead by a great leader, although he was rather young. His name was Harry Potter. He was my godson. I was never more proud of him. Very early in the fight, though, he was taken capture. After he had been taken, the good wizards lost focus for a short time. During their confusion, the evil wizard struck hard and destroyed the entire castle that had been the school and all who were inside it. I was at that battle, but I was leading a band into the woods to rout out some wizards hiding there. We heard a tremendous bang. When we turned around, there were dead people everywhere and the castle had become a huge crater.
After that battle, the good wizards were put into enslavement, killed, or hid. You children are very lucky to be alive. I know that not all of you have parents, but always remember that the effort it took to keep you alive was great. Until a miracle happens, it is important to keep the hope alive. In the deepest caves around here, it is ok to laugh and play. You are precious. Now, be good and run along.



Thanks for reading! Hope you like it!