Several days later, Ezra had tasted many foods that he'd never enjoyed before and had also enjoyed several children's activities. Luckily, it was the schools' summer-break or he and the boys would have to learn instead of having fun. Now he was going to finally see their magical book that they unimaginatively called 'The Book'.
"Are you ready, Son?" asked Terrence, as he stood in the bedroom's doorway. Ezra shared a room with Chris while he was staying there. The Potters were sure that they'd find Maude soon, then she could take Ezra home. They would keep a close eye out to make sure no more demons attacked them. The demons would soon be too scared to go after them if enough of their number were killed by the Potters.
"There is no need to call me 'Son'. I am not and will never be that to you, Mr. Potter." Ezra hated that title and wished they would call him by his first name instead.
"He always calls boys that, it's just his way," explained Gloria, hoping that Terrence wasn't hurt by Ezra's words. She was now standing beside Terrence. "Now, put that comb down - you're going to pull all your hair out with all that combing."
"Yes, Ma'am. I'm very eager to see 'The Book'."
Ezra placed the comb down on the chest of drawers and followed the Potters to the special room where their magical book was kept.
The Potters stood aside so Ezra could enter the room first. The boy stepped forward slowly while Gloria and Terrence remained watching from a distance.
Ezra gasped at the large book that lay upon the table, closed. He marveled at the strange magical symbol on the front cover. He noticed that four parts of it stood out from the rest; they shone while the others were almost the same dark color as the book's cover.
"There is a lot of past knowledge stored in there, Son. More information magically appears after some events happen. After Chris was rescued, a brief history of his family appeared. The same happened for Josiah before that, but at that time he was the only boy we'd rescued so we didn't know the same would happen for Chris. Have a look and see if your family is in there."
Ezra opened the book and started turning the pages. Several turns later, he stopped and stared. Sketched pictures of his mother and father were slowly appearing on the facing pages. He watched as the sketches finished being drawn by unseen hands and writing was slowly added. "Wow!" he exclaimed.
"What is it, Ezra?" asked Gloria, walking to the boy.
"It was drawing my mother and father and now it has started writing about my family," answered the boy excitedly.
"Magic will never cease to amaze. Terrence and I are going downstairs. Why don't you have a look through The Book and see what you can learn? The information contained in it could prove useful to you in the future."
"Thank you for allowing me access to this - it's incredible. I will see what I can learn."
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
Once downstairs Gloria and Terrence had to intervene to end an argument between Chris and Josiah; Chris could be very disagreeable at times - perhaps caused by what he had witnessed when demons destroyed his home and family. The arguments were often about silly things and Chris always took them too seriously.
Gloria sent Chris to his room to calm down, and Josiah went to scry for Maude Standish again.
"Are you sure it's safe to leave a half-demon alone with The Book?" asked Terrence, still not sure if they could trust the half-demonic boy.
"There is a lot of good in him; I don't think he'd dream of stealing it to give to demons. He has spent his young life among humans, not demons, so he hasn't embraced his demon side much - except for using fireballs," answered Gloria, who had every faith in the boy to stay on the side of good.
"What if he starts casting spells though?" asked Terrence. "You know that spells cast for the wrong reasons result in consequences."
"He's a smart boy - you can tell just from the way he talks. No six-year-olds talk like him unless they're super-smart. He won't try any spells."
"I hope you're right, Gloria."
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
Chris looked up from his magazine upon hearing a bark. "That's strange, we don't have a dog," he said aloud to himself. The small white dog standing in the room barked again, as if in answer.
"Where did you come from?" asked Chris, looking at the unfamiliar dog that sat on the carpet near his bed.
The dog barked again - several continuous barks this time.
"Are you trying to tell me something?"
Chris picked up the dog and carried it to the room where The Book was. He didn't know Ezra had been left there to look at their magical volume, so didn't notice that the boy wasn't there anymore.
Chris walked to the book and started turning the pages. "Aha! 'To understand animals'; I knew it was here somewhere."
The dog barked several times again, but Chris had no idea what it was saying.
Chris went to the corner cupboard and took out the magical ingredients he needed for the spell. "I just need a small clump of fur from you now."
The dog started to back away, not wanting its fur to be plucked.
Chris noticed some fur on the ground and took that - the dog was getting fur everywhere! Chris took the fur back to the table and started making the potion; once he'd finished mixing it, he threw the potion on the floor then stepped in the puddle it had made. A loud bang was heard, and Chris found himself enveloped by a cloud of smoke. Chris closed his eyes to avoid getting smoke in them.
"That was an unwise move, Chris. Now you are the same as me!" said Ezra, annoyed at Chris.
"Huh?" asked Chris, finally opening his eyes. Then he got a big shock - thanks to the old mirror that he was in front of - he was now changed into a small white dog, identical to the one he wanted to understand.
"I tried to warn you - I was aware that the spell would do that. I knew what I was doing when I cast a spell to change into an animal. I know exactly how to change back whenever I want. Why did you have to get curious about what I was saying? All dogs bark and no-one cares what they're saying."
"You sounded like you had something important to say. I didn't know it was you under a spell!"
"I was merely delighting in my first successful spell," explained Ezra. He was annoyed because he had the feeling that because of Chris changing into a dog as well, they would be found out by the adults.
"WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?" asked an angry voice.
Chris ran under the table in fear, closely followed by Ezra.
"It's no good hiding, I know exactly what you've done, and you're both in BIG trouble. Ezra, don't try to tell me you did it by accident; you knew exactly what you was doing and you must know it's wrong to use spells just for fun," scolded Terrence, as he looked under the table at the two white dogs who he was very angry with.
"Did you know that, Ezra?" asked Chris - Ezra was only six, and Chris remembered he had misused spells at that age.
"Of course I knew that," answered Ezra. "I've never cast a spell before and wanted to see if they would work as well for me as they did for full-witches. Obviously being only half a witch doesn't make spells any less effective for me."
"How did you learn to talk so well for a six-year-old?"
"I was taught by books, television and relatives. My mother felt it important that I be able to pass myself off as an older child to disguise myself from demons."
"Boys, come out from under the table, so I can change you back," requested Terrence, having found a spell to transform them back in the book. Ezra had memorized the animal spell and the reversal one, then craftily flicked the pages of the book over, so no one would be able to tell which spell he had used, so Chris hadn't seen Ezra's spell when he'd looked in the book.
Both dogs obeyed, not wanting to upset Terrence further.
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
One month later, Terrence called a family meeting after dinner. Not long after, the two boys and three adults stood in the magic room.
"Ezra, we are still unable to find your mother," informed Terrence. "We have decided that you should remain here with us, so that we can take good care of you whether your mother ever returns or not. It may be against the Elder's wishes for us to look after a half-demon, but they don't know you half as well as we do - we know that there is so much good in you, that we cannot send you away simply because of what you are. We'll start turning the spare room into a bedroom for you, but you'll continue to share a room with Chris until then. Welcome to the family."
Ezra smiled - he would be glad to stay there; at least then he wouldn't be left with any more witch relatives or friends of Maude while she was fighting demons somewhere. He had been left with other adults as far back as he could remember, but they weren't always very kind to him.
"I've baked a special cake for you, Ezra," said Gloria with a friendly smile. Terrence used one of his half-Whitelighter powers to orb the cake onto the table, which was covered in their special tablecloth for the occasion. The cake had white candles arranged around the edge in a circle, and in the middle, in blue writing, it said "Welcome to the Potter family, Ezra."
Ezra grinned; his mother had never even bought him a cake - things were certainly looking up for the half-witch, half-demon boy.
To be continued in Part 6: The Fifth and Sixth Sons