The Godson

☆~The Best of Magic~☆

I was walking down the street towards Linn’s Cottage. Today was a lucky day; maybe, all my wishes would be realized. Just maybe.

Even before I reached it, I saw Nick jump over the threshold and run in my direction.

“Well, did you?” He was panting excitedly.

“Yeah, Nick. I did.” I shouted back. “Only today!”

He stopped midway. He was grinning ear to ear, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes, the way it usually did. I knew what was bothering him.

“Don’t worry, Nick. You’ll get it. Believe me”, I told him eagerly. “My owl got injured on the way. Maybe, yours did too.”

“No, Teddy. It’s already nine days since my birth day”, he replied, dejectedly. “I won’t get it. I’m a Muggle.”

I didn’t know how to convince him. I wasn’t convinced myself. “Let’s go to the park”, I proposed, unable to think of anything less shallow. Holding hands, we started towards the only park in the colony.

We were sitting in our favorite spot- the seesaw under the peach tree, from where we had a good view of the swing. We liked to watch the sunset from here, and play wizards. More than anything, it gave us privacy from prying ears. So, we could talk of the stuff we shouldn’t.

Nick began the conversation with a grunt. “I can’t believe it, Ted.” I stayed silent.

“What about Aunt Margo?” He coaxed.

“Yeah, I’m thinking about it too.”

Our favourite pastime leisures, other than sitting here, hidden from the world, had included nothing much except countless typical wizard kid conversations and games.

Gran had been furious when she heard this. “How can you be so irresponsible, Teddy?” She had chided. “Don’t you know that the number one rule of wizarding world is to keep it hidden from Muggles? What were you thinking?”

“But Nick is my friend, Gran!” I had protested.

“But he is a Muggle, Teddy”, she told me kindly. “I understand he is your friend. But this might endanger the security of our world! 

I might have to do a memory charm. I hate memory charms.”

“Gran! I think Nick might be a wizard”, I had announced, excitedly. “You said some Muggles receive their Hogwarts letters too.”

“What?” Her expression was full of disbelief

“We were going through his family albums”, I began. “He found an old picture of his aunt. Aunt Margo, his father’s sister. She had gone missing when she was eleven. Nick’s father tells him that she was a bit unhinged, seeing things and making strange stuff happen. Then, she disappeared and never came back. Isn’t that what wizards do, Gran? Maybe she was a witch and went to Hogwarts.’’

She didn’t reply but looked weary.

“Nick is related to her. Maybe he’s a wizard too! He is as excited about his Hogwarts letter as we are for mine.”

I could see his pocket was bulging. Before I could guess what it was, he took out a small glass jar inside which were several things. I could see the stray crayon we had once fought over, the cardboard galleons that we had made, the chocolate frog cards that I had collected for him and several crumps of paper.

“Happy eleventh birthday, Teddy”, he told me. “Here are all the memories we had together. You’ll need them in Hogwarts. Each paper has a memory. They’ll make you miss me.”

It was then that it occurred to me how much I would miss him. Hogwarts might have been my dream, but nothing could replace Nick. I would remember our games and wizard hunts, playing dummy Sorting with his scarecrow hat in their shed.

More than anything, I would remember the look of bewilderment on his face when I had first told him about our world. The glitter in his eyes when we had unearthed the mystery of Aunt Margo. Our eager waits for our eleventh birthdays.

“I’ll miss you, Nick”. I hugged him tightly.

“Will you? I’m just a Muggle! You’ll make lots of wizard friends there.”

“Shut up, you sound like a Slytherin”, I told him. We laughed together.

Later in the evening, we hopped along towards New Tonks Cottage for my birthday feast. A delicious smell of steak greeted our nose.

“Welcome home, Nick”, Gran said from the pantry, as we settled on the couch. “Had fun, Teddy?”

We nodded.

“Clean up, you two. I’m serving dinner.”

Nick had cheered up a bit at the sight of the huge chocolate pie on the table. He loved wizard food. Gran always kept aside the biggest share of sweets for him. Today was no exception.

Our appetite was huge but the plates kept refilling themselves. To quench our thirst, she took out a fair share of her favourite butterbeer from Madam Rosemerta’s. On ordinary days, this would stay well hidden and out of my reach (much to my disappointment).

But today was no ordinary day.

The warmth of the butterbeer made us crave for more, but Gran had put a spell on the glasses which stopped them from refilling. I knew there was no use coaxing her for more, so we receded quietly to sherbet lemon.

“I’ll miss this”, I ended up saying, when our meal was over.

“Me too.” Nick joined in.

Gran held us together in a bear hug and told Nick kindly, “Don’t forget, Nick. The best of magic lies within us. Not in our wands.”