Juvia was sitting on her bed, cross-legged and looking over a picture frame with a very troubled expression. The photo inside the frame, was of a beautiful woman in her twenties, dressed in a blue sundress with her long, blue hair styled into a French-braided crown, and her matching blue eyes were looking downward at her swollen belly. A baby bump which her hands had been gently caressing while a smile adorned her lovely face. Even through a mere picture, you could see the radiant glow of expected motherhood that illuminated from her at the time this photo was taken.
Knock-knock!
"Go away." Juvia said.
"Now don't be like that Juvia." She heard her father's voice plead from the other side. "Let me in, I wanna talk to you."
Juvia sighed and reluctantly went to open the door. When derek saw the picture his daughter was holding, he made a very sad smile.
"I still remember the day I took that picture." He chuckled softly. "I woke up one morning and I just saw her standing there and she had never looked more beautiful, I just had keep that image with me always."
"Please don't try to change the subject." Juvia said. "I'm mad at you, why didn't you ever tell me?"
"Oh Honey, we wanted to tell you sooner but the witch's council has reservations about who finds out about magic and who doesn't. They insisted we wait until we knew for sure that you'd be like your mother."
"What if I hadn't of been like her?"
"Then you would have never known. Mortals aren't supposed to know about this whole magic and monster stuff period."
"Then how do you know about it?"
"When I asked your mother to marry me, she didn't want any secrets or lies between us. So she broke the rules and told me everything."
"And you just accepted it?"
"Well it was a little tough to accept at first. I mean I was shocked and I needed some time to think things over. I mean it's not everyday you find out magic is real and that the love of your life is a witch. But after a few days I realized that witch or not, I loved your mother more than anything in the world and that I wanted to share my life with her."
"I just can't believe this...It all seems so impossible. I mean...If Mom really did have magical powers, why couldn't she use them to save herself from dying the night I was born."
"Oh my Darling girl." Came the soft voice of Anna who had come upstairs to check on them. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Your mother wasn't a healing witch, at least not one for physical pain and injuries. Her powers were only for love and emotions. Nothing more, nothing less. And even so, she used every last drop of her magic that night to ensure that you would be born healthy and strong."
"So it is my fault she died." Juvia said.
"No!" Derek said sternly. "No Juliana! It's no one's fault your mother died. It just happened."
"It's one of those tragdies that just couldn't be prevented, Dear." Anna said. "And you know, I promised her on her death bed that I'd look out for you just as I looked out for her and her sisters."
"Sisters?" Juvia said. "What sisters? I thought Mom was an only child?"
"Yes well there are some other secrets about her that we haven't gotten around to telling you." Anna said. "Your mother had two sisters, an older and a younger one, they're witches too. They both married warlocks and they both had daughters. Your cousins, and recently it has been decided that your cousins will be in my care for a year."
"Wait, what?" Derek said. "When did this happen?"
"Why you?" Juvia asked.
"That brings us to family secret number 3, I'm not really a nanny or your mother's old friend. I'm acutally her grandmother and your great-grandmother."
"Okay now I know that's a lie, there's no way you're my great-grandmother. You would have to be like eighty something and you look the same age as my father."
"Actually I'm three-hundred, twenty-two. One of the perks of being a witch is that your aging process is very slow. Think reverse dog years." She explained. "Anyway, now that it's clear that you have magical powers, it's only natural that I begin to train you just as I trained your grandmother, your mother, and your aunts."
"Train me for what?"
"Why to be a proper witch of course. You don't think that you just go out using your powers all willy-nilly, do you?"
"I didn't think I had any powers out all! I thought I was normal!"
"Believe me Juvia, you were never normal. Even as a child you showed incredible promise."
"What are you talking about?"
"Think back Sweetie, did anything unusual ever occur in your life and there seemed to be no explaination for it."
Juvia did as her apparent great-grandmother suggested, she closed her eyes and thought back to particular memory from childhood that still haunted her to this day. She was about ten years old, and the air conditoning had gone out one cold January day. Gajeel had fallen asleep in her back-pack, desperately seeking warmth and forgot to wake up before she left for school. Imagine her horror, to open up her bag in class and out pops a black cat.
Her teacher at the time thought this was a prank by her and was not amused, she hit her desk with her ruler and commanded Juvia to rid the class of "That Revolting Beast!" Gajeel hissed at the teacher and started to jump about the class when she tried to grab him. He proved himself too quick and swift for her, so she angrily marched out of the classroom and went to fetch the janitor.
One very nasty boy in the rear of the room, had stolen a pack of matches from his father that day and took this opportunity to set Gajeel's tail on fire. The scent of burning fur quickly filled the room, even before he began to scream. Juvia ran to the cat, without stopping to think, she knelt and smothered the flames with the skirt of her blue dress.
"I hope something awful happens to you!" She had told the boy who'd set Gajeel afire. She had stood up, the cat cradled in her arms like a baby, her face and dress dirty with soot. "Let's see how you feel when someone does something bad to you!"
Without thinking again, she had pointed her finger at the boy and suddenly his skin broke out into red, itchy, blotchy, rashes. He had an instant case of chicken pox. The other children either screamed or looked at her with their mouths agape. Juvia was suddenly frightened and guilty, with Gajeel in her arms, she ran home that day.
Then she remebered the incident with Minerva and the toilet, and many other incidents that came before that one. Somehow, someway, she caused something odd to happen without seemingly doing anything. Like magic.
That's when it finally became clear to her. Why everyone in town much veiwed her as a freak. It was because she was a witch and she had unknowingly shown them her power on several occasions.
"But I don't want to be a witch!" Juvia said. "I don't want to be different! All my life people have either ignored me or harrassed me because I was different! I want to be like everyone else!"
"Juvia no one is like everyone else." Anna said. "They may act like it, but they're not. And it may not seem like it now, but you've been given a wonderful gift. You have magic and with my guidance, you can use that magic to help people. Just as your mother did before you."
"Would Mom have wanted me to be a witch like her?"
"Your mother would have wanted you to choose whatever it is you want to be. If being 'normal' is what you truly want, she would have accepted it. But that means not being who you are and not embracing your talents, and she wouldn't have wanted that. She would have wanted you to learn how to love yourself and spread love to others." She placed a gentle hand to Juvia's cheek. "I'm not going to tell you how to live your life and if you really don't want anything to do with this, we'll leave it alone. I'll leave you to live life as a mortal, magic free. But at least give it a chance?"
"Why do you want me to be a witch? Is being a mortal really so bad?"
"No Darling. There's no shame in being a mortal, but there's no shame in being a magic-user either. You're half of each and both halves are who you are. I just don't want you to cut off one half of yourself. I want you to embrace all parts of who you are, and your mother wanted that too."
Juvia thought long and hard about what Anna said. She didn't feel like she was being pressured into becoming witch, she felt that all her nanny was trying to do was get her to understand and love every aspect of herself. And if Juvia really did have the freedom to choose which kind of life she wanted to live, she supposed that learning about magic wouldn't hurt.
"Alright." She said. "I'll give it a chance."
Anna smiled sweetly at her great-granddaughter and hugged her tight.
"Now are there any other magical secrets you've been keeping from me?"
"Nope. That's all of them."
"Ahem!" They heard a cough and in walked Gajeel who jumped on to the bed.
"Oh right. One more thing, Gajeel here isn't really a cat. He used to be a warlock but then he tried to takeover the world, the mortal world to be exact, and the witch's council turned him into a cat for a hundred years."
"Wait a minute." Juvia said looking at the black cat fearfully. "You mean all this time, that cat is really a grown man? Oh my God! He has slept in my bed with me!"
"Oh calm down, you know I never went under the sheets." The cat said.
"You better not have!" Derek said with a threatening glare.
"Oh come on Derek, you know I don't do jailbait and if I was a perv for minors, Anna would have never chosen me to be Juvia's familiar."
"My what?" Juvia asked.
"A familiar." Anna explained. "A creature to serve as a magic-user's companion, and to do their master's or mistress's bidding. Every witch has one, and he's yours."
Anna picked up Gajeel and placed him in Juvia's arms.
"From now on Gajeel, you're to keep an eye on Juvia when I'm not around to help her."
"Yeah, yeah, I know." He drawled before turning to look up at Juvia. "Just remember this kid, I am not your pet."
"You know I think I liked you better when you didn't talk." Juvia said.
"We all like him better when he doesn't talk." Derek said.
"You never liked me period." Gajeel replied.
"Well I am a dog person after all."
That earned him a hiss from Gajeel.
"Now that we have all that settled, Anna what's this I hear about you caring for two other witches?" Derek asked his grandmother in-law.
"Oh yes, I meant to tell you about that." Anna giggled nervously. "Well Derek, you remember my other grandson in-law Jude and my other granddaughter Irene, don't you?"
"You mean the snob and the hot-head?"
"Yes. Their daughters are going through a bit of a rebellious phase and my old friend Porlyuscia, who I may remind you talked the witch's council into allowing you and Ondina to marry, has asked me to allow the girls to live in the Mortal Realm with me, to give them proper gudiance."
"Let me get this straight, there are going to be four witches in my house? Two who happen to have been spawned by people who hate me?"
"If it's any consolation, Erza and Lucy bear no ill will to mortals like their parents do."
"And you're just telling me this now?"
"I'm sorry Derek. I just didn't know how to tell you. You don't react very well to news like this. Ondina always said that the day she told you about being a witch, you passed out."
"I did not pass out! I just had a little dizzy spell! And I am not housing two more witches! Especially not teenage ones!"
"But I'll be responsible for them, not you. Food, clothing, education, all of that I will provide."
"Oh yeah? And what if they try to torment me like Irene did? I still have nightmares about the time she turned me into a frog and tried to sell me to the French."
"Erza and Lucy would never do anything like that." Anna assured him. "At least not to you, you're family. I give you my word, they will cause you no trouble and Juvia does need friends. Friends who are female and not a cat."
"What's wrong with me?" Gajeel asked.
"Well I highly doubt you would ever want to go the mall or have a slumber party,"
"Fair point."
"Fine." Derek relented. "But if get changed into an amphibian even once, they're out of here."
"Wonderful! I'll tell them it's okay to come in now."
"They're here already?" Juvia said.
"Yes and just wait til you meet them!"
Anna took Juvia by the hand and excitedly led her downstairs to meet her cousins.