Late July 1989, Upper Nyack, New York, USA
It was mid-morning on a beautiful Saturday in late July. Robert was in his office with Toby in a playpen, while Karen did some housekeeping.
Karen carried a basket of clean laundry upstairs and knocked on the closed bedroom door.
"Sarah? I have clean laundry."
Shrugging her shoulders, when she got no reply, Karen opened the door, dropped the laundry basket, and screamed
"ROBERT!"
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Meanwhile, Sarah was dreaming of all the friends she made in the Labyrinth. Upon which she was immediately woken to Karen's scream and fell from mid-air back onto her bed with an umph.
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"Karen? Sarah?" Robert called as he rushed upstairs with a disgruntled Toby, because his very important conversation with Mr. Bear aka 'Lancelot' was interrupted.
"What's wrong? Karen?" Robert looked at his wife with concern.
"Sarah...floating…air...Sarah…floating… Oh my!" Karen babbled.
Robert and Sarah scrunched their eyebrows as they tried to make out what had Karen so frazzled.
"Sarah, I'm going to take Karen back downstairs for a cup of tea. Come join us in the kitchen when you are ready." Robert said, guiding Karen back downstairs along with Toby.
Reaching the kitchen, Robert led Karen over to a chair and plunked Toby in his highchair. Bringing over a cup of tea, Robert waited for Karen to gather her thoughts.
"Robert, she was floating. Sarah was floating mid-air above her bed. And she was glowing! Glowing, Robert!" Karen explained after drinking the entire cup of tea.
Robert's eyes widened. "Sarah is giving off excess magic."
"But how? I thought you said that when Sarah was five, her magic suddenly vanished?" Karen asked, shocked.
"I don't know. So many things happened that month. She had magic and then she didn't. Well, she couldn't use it. It was like her core was constantly empty. But whatever happened, something changed." Robert said confused, but hopeful. "I'll message Severus and Amelia."
Their conversation in hushed voices stopped at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Dad? Karen? What was all the screaming about? Is everything ok?" Sarah asked, rapidly firing questions at the adults as she entered the room.
"Karen was startled. That's all." Robert paused. "How are you feeling by the way?"
Sarah gave her father a strange look, "I'm feeling fine. Dad, what is going on?"
Robert sighed. "Do you remember when you were five and we took that trip to London?"
"Yes, it was the year before Grandma and Grandpa died. You had just found out about Mother's affairs. And Uncle and Aunt had just had a baby." Sarah replied, scrunching her face in concentration, as if the idea that if she focused hard enough more memories would come.
"Do you remember anything else?" Robert asked gently.
"They were mad at grandpa and grandma about something and I got hurt. And then everyone was even more angry. Linda took me somewhere…" Sarah paused, biting her lip. "Something happened. I don't remember what. But it hurt. And then we came back to London. And Uncle gave me a train, which hurt me. I remember lots of yelling and then Uncle and Aunt were gone. And Grandma cried." Sarah said, confused.
"No one was quite sure what happened, but something on that trip occurred and your magic vanished." Robert stated.
"When we came home my lessons changed. But no one would say why. And then Linda left and Sev came to stay with us." Sarah stated, giving her father a look.
Robert sighed, "After the second accident with your Uncle, we found that your magical core was empty. You had one, but the magic levels in it were practically non-existent. Other than that you were a perfectly normal child. No healer could tell us why. So your grandparents and I decided to teach you everything else but the practical side of magic. But this changes everything."
Robert hugged Sarah close.
Sarah nodded. "I've always felt like something, a part of me was missing. And when I got up today, it's the first time I could remember that the hole wasn't there. Was that my magic?"
Robert sobbed and hugged Sarah tighter. "Yes. Yes! I always felt like I failed you. My sweet girl."
Sarah's stomach growled loudly.
"More talk later, breakfast first." Karen said, watching fondly from across the table.
"MAH! MAH! Bephmb brebrbrbbrb." Toby commented, vibrating his lips together as he smacked the tray with hands.
Sarah and Robert stood up and chuckled. "We will talk more later." Robert told Sarah, giving her a kiss on her head.
Sarah smiled back.
