Strange Magic

Prologue

"Grandma, Grandma! Look what I can do!"

The toddler, accompanied by her brother, ran over to where her parents and grandparents sat in the backyard. It was a summer day in London, and the family was outside enjoying the heat.

"What have you got there, Jane?" her grandmother smiled, looking at the girls hands, which were cupped together.

Jane turned to her brother, the two of them giggling.

"C'mon love, don't keep us in suspense." her mother coaxed.

Jane's brother smiled widely, looking at the young girl. "Three...two..."

"ONE!" they finished together.

Jane spread her hands open, revealing a dead apple blossom that had fallen from the nearby tree. As the four adults watched, the flower's colour returned as it's petals and stem became strong and it stood upright in Jane's hands. Confusion swept over the her mother's face while her father and grandparent's faces were showing a mixture of anger and horror.

Jane frowned, glancing at her brother before turning back to the adults. "Do...do you not like my trick?"

"Of course not!" her grandmother suddenly snapped. "You're a freak!"

"Petunia!" Jane's mother exclaimed, "Don't speak to her like that!"

Jane's grandfather stood up and went into the house, only to return moments later and throw a set of car keys at his son.

"I think it'd be best if you took your family back home, Dudley." The man said coldly.

"Fine, Vernon." Dudley said cooly. "Give me a call when you stop acting like a scared child."

Vernon's face turned red. "Get the bloody hell out!"

Several hours later, Dudley sat his kitchen  with his wife, who'd just put their children to bed. He looked up at her, opened his mouth and then looked away, unsure of how to say what he needed to. She waited patiently, and eventually he came up with something to say.

"Vanessa, there's this...condition...that runs in my family. I think that Jane, and maybe even Eric, have picked it up."

"okay," Vanessa took a deep breath, wondering why her husband had never mentioned this 'condition' before. "What is it called?'

Dudley looked to the floor and mumbled.

"What?"

"MAGIC, Vanessa. I said...magic."

"Dudley, why are you doing this? I can take the truth, you know I can. Just tell me..."

"It is the truth! I know I sound crazy, but I'm dead serious! If you saw and experienced the things that I've seen, you'd believe me! You'd believe in magic!"

"You're being crazy!"

"No, I'm not. And I can convince you of it."

"How?"

"I'll tell you why I believe in it. And you can ignore me if you want. Call me crazy, kick me out of the house, end our marriage and take the kids. But that won't make what I'm about to say any less real."

Vanessa crossed her arms. "I'm listening."

Dudley took a deep breath. "When I was younger, my aunt and uncle died, and my cousin Harry came to live with us."

"The Harry Eric is named after?"

"The very one. We didn't treat him well at all. He lived under the stairs and I taunted him constantly. I didn't have a reason, I just knew that my mum and dad seemed to hate him, so I hated him too."

"Why did they hate him?"

"Because they knew something that no one else did. My aunt and uncle weren't deadbeats who died in a car crash. They were wizards, and they were murdered, by a man whose name I'll never say."

"Wait, what? Who killed them?"

"From what I understand, a very dark wizard. The night he killed them, he left a lighting scar on Harry's forehead. My parents hate magic and anything to do with it. They were also certain that Harry was going to turn out just like his parents. They tuned out to be right. A lot of weird stuff happened while we were kids, and once, when we went to zoo, he accidently made the glass disappear from a reptile cage and trapped me in there."

Vanessa let out a laugh. "Accidently?"

"Yeah." Dudley chuckled. "Kids can't control their magic very well. Anyways, when we were 11, and owl delivered a letter to Harry. It was for a free magical boarding school. I think most magic kids go there, for their magic and stuff."

"That's a great story, Dudley, but how do I know that you're not just making it all up?"

Dudley sighed. "Ok, remember, how in school I was a terrible, awful person, and was just mean to nearly everyone?"

"Of course I remember. It's why I wouldn't go out with you. But you figured yourself out, you changed."

"I changed because of Harry. Not everything about magic is good. The summer after 9th grade, me and Harry ended up alone in the park after my friends ran off. There was a storm of sorts that had shown up out of nowhere. Harry started freaking out, and running. He grabbed my sleeve and pulled me along with him. The street lights were going out, and it got really cold. It looked like Harry was running from something...something that I couldn't see. I learned later that the thing was called a dementor, but that's all I know about it. So we were running, and all of a sudden I felt so cold, and sad, as if I'd never be happy ever again. And then, I saw myself, for the first time as I truly was. A spoiled bully. And I didn't want to be that person, So I changed."

Vanessa sighed. "You know, in 10th grade, Holly Jenkins said that your transformation was like magic. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now..."

"I know it's a lot to take in. And if you don't want to talk of it ever again, we won't. But in 7 years our kids are going to receive their school letters, and we'll have to do something when that time comes. But I think not sending them to that school would be a big mistake."

"Dudley, this is all so strange for me."

Dudley kissed his wife on the forehead. "I know."

"We can make this work," Vanessa said suddenly, standing up. "Just promise me that you won't tell them about harry or any of this nonsense, and I'll get rid of those letters when they arrive. They'll never know, but they'll be happy. Our children can be normal."

Dudley let out a heavy side. "If that's what you think is best, that's what we'll do."

Vanessa smiled. "We can have a life free of this strange magic."