"Jake! Get down here quick, mum and dad have gone loopy. They think they can do magic!" Edie shouted from the bottom of the stairs, her sister held forcefully by her side.
"Stop shouting Edie, you're brother's getting dressed and then he'll be down. In fact I think you pair should do the same. And run a flannel over you're mucky faces, you've got jam all over you." Ayla said. "That means you too Rae."
"Yes mum." they chorused, taking the stairs arm in arm.
Ayla walked back to the kitchen, where Marcus was waiting with an ecstatic grin stretching his face.
"You know this is one of the best days of my life?" he asked.
"Better than playing in the World Cup?"
"Yup."
"Better than our wedding day? Jake and the twins being born?"
"Hmm comes a close third I'll admit. But it's in the top five. It's like we're even more of a family now."
"We've always been a family." Ayla said, clearing the breakfast things away.
"I know." Marcus replied as he pulled her into his lap. "But now, well it's all complete." He took the crockery from her hands and placed it back on the table.
"Yeah I guess." Ayla said sighing.
"What's wrong?"
"Everything's going to change. Jake's gonna go off to school. Edie's already eying up his room. And in a few years the twins will join him and we'll be alone."
"Best get started on some more kids then eh?"
"Is that all you can think about?"
"You and our family? Yeah it is. Don't you want any more kids?"
"I think three's enough, for now. They aren't even teenagers yet. We've got that to look forward to."
"And eventually we'll have grandchildren." Marcus added.
"Oh Merlin, when we're old and grey!"
"Well darling I don't like to say this but you've already got some grey hairs coming through love."
"Oi! I do not."
"Only two, I call 'em Fred and Ginger."
"You're crazy."
"Finally someone agrees! Mum, I'll help you take care of dad. Don't worry." Edie said, resuming her seat at the table. "So, about this magic?"
"When your brother and sister come down." Marcus said.
Ayla got up and walked over to her daughter. She tucked Edie's wavy brown hair behind her ears, running her fingers through the length of it.
"You sure you washed your face young lady? And brushed your hair? I feel some knots."
"It's always knotty mum. And of course I washed my face I'm not an animal."
"Mmm."
"Come on, come on. We've got loads to tell you." Marcus called as he heard Jake and Rae coming down the stairs.
The two took their seats also, there was a very Marcus like gleam in Rae's eyes.
"Ok well Hogwarts was founded by two wizards and two witches-" Ayla started.
"I thought you were going to show us some magic!" Rae burst out.
"What do you want us to do?" asked Marcus.
"I don't know." Rae squealed.
"Oh for crying out loud." Edie muttered.
"Something of that trans, transwhatjamacallit you said about earlier." Jake offered.
"Over to you darling, you were always better at Transfiguration than me."
"Ok, then you can apparate for them." Ayla replied with a mischievous grin.
"You're on."
Ayla spent the next twenty minutes changing objects around the kitchen into various animals and back again. The kettle became a rabbit, the toaster a tortoise. Neither parent could decide who's eyes were the widest. Finally Ayla moved to change the rabbit back into a kettle.
"Oh no mum, leave him. We don't drink that much tea anyway." Rae pleaded.
"I can't sweetie, look he's got steam coming out of his ears. Poor bunny."
"Oh alright."
"They're going to teach me that at school?" Jake asked, completely awestruck.
"And more." Marcus said. "Lets see there's Transfiguration, Charms, Athrimancy, Ancient Runes, Potions, Divination, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures..."
"Quidditch?" Jake ventured.
"Yeah! Son I can't wait to see you on a broom, you'll love it."
"What's Quidditch?" Edie asked.
"Well it's a sport-"
"Boring! Mum tell me about Potions."
"No I want to hear about the Magical Creatures lesson."
The family talked well into the evening. By bedtime all three children were exhausted, and excited. The prospect of visiting a magical street the next day filled them all with a nervous energy. It seemed almost impossible to Ayla and Marcus that they would ever get their children to sleep. Eventually, after many threats, the house quietened down, and the couple collapsed on the sofa in the living room.
"Merlin that was a long day." Marcus croaked.
"Your voice sounds as sore as mine feels." Ayla said.
"Shh, no more talking. Just quiet. Until morning."
"Mmm sounds good to me."
They settled into silence, holding each other and listening to nothing more than their own breathing and heart beats. There was a knock at the door. It was so sudden and unexpected that the two jumped, shocked from their thoughts.
"Oh no. Silence. No talking, please no more talking." Marcus mumbled.
"I'll get it." Ayla said, pulling herself up from the sofa.
Marcus listen from where he sat. He could make out little of what was being said until:
"Sure come in. What did you want to know?"
"Oh Merlin." Marcus groaned clutching his face. "More talking, more questions!"
"Marcus, this is Karen. She's going to be Jake's Transfiguration professor." Ayla said, leading a petite woman into the room. Marcus stood and shook her hand.
"Nice to meet you." he said.
"You too. McGonagall said you both went to Hogwarts. You don't mind me coming over do you? I know its late. But I feel like I might be in over my head. I only went to the interview so I could see the school. And now-"
"I don't envy you." Ayla said.
"I'm not sure what to tell you either. We've been free for years. Nearly two decades. Merlin now that that makes me feel old."
"Marcus likes to talk like it was a prison but it was and is a great place. He was so excited when Jake got his letter this morning."
"Aren't all schools like that? Hell, while you're there at least, but they're some of the best years of your life after you've left." Karen asked.
"That's Hogwarts." agreed Marcus.
"To a tee." Ayla added. "You'll want to be prepared though. I mean we went to school around the same time as Harry Potter, so something was always happening. But I can't imagine it's any different now."
"Yeah I'll bet there's some kids causing chaos there even now." Marcus added.
"Oh cheer me up why don't you?" Karen said, laughing.
"It's just that, well, with Dumbledore gone it's hard to imagine anyone else being able to control things so completely. Even when you thought the whole place was going to hell, he had his hands on the wheel. Steering us to safety."
The three became quiet, lost in their own thoughts. While Karen had never met the great Albus Dumbledore, she was not unaware of the affect he had had on the magical community.
"Do you think it's safe there?" she asked after a while.
"Hogwarts'll always be safe. It just depends on how you define safe." Ayla answered quietly.
Ok first of all you have no idea how long I spent trying to figure out how to spell Athrimancy. That was the hardest part of this chapter!
And I also promise to be a bit more regular about posting. I'll try for at least once a week, hows that?