Gideon Drake and the Fire Within (Harry Potter Sequel/Spinoff)

Chapter Five: The Painful Truth

Gideon had the dream every night for over a week. At first, he wanted to talk to his mother about it. However, she had been unusually preoccupied of late. On top of that, he recalled how she had reacted when asked about his fit on the last day of school.

Gideon didn't know if she had lied or simply hadn't wanted to talk about it, but either way, he was sure she would have remembered the bus incident. Instead, he had asked his brother. Anthony claimed not to recall what happened, though.

Gideon would have put this down to how young they were at the time, but the fact that Anthony then offered to play with him, something he rarely did these days, made him wonder if his brother was being truthful. That said, Anthony's idea of playing together was having Gideon lob balls at him in the garden while he practised flying.

Ultimately, Gideon had decided he didn't need to hear how sickly he was for the umpteenth time, which he was sure would be the response his mother would give if asked. He resolved to forget about the dream and enjoy his summer. The summer, however, was not enjoyable.

Gideon ended up spending more time than usual in his bedroom. Granted, he usually enjoyed the solitude when he wanted to read or draw, but it was more out of necessity than choice, that he was shutting himself away so much.

The rest of the family had begun to act very strangely. Gideon seemed to be interrupting whispered chatter and arguments all over the house. Whenever he entered a room the conversation would grind to a halt, and his appearance would even cause alarm. It happened so often that Gideon was beginning to feel like a stranger in his own home.

On the few occasions he had asked what was going on, he would be told off for things like eavesdropping, or in his grandmother's words, "sneaking around like a goblin short of a Galleon". Soon, the family started to avoid each other altogether, Gideon included, since he'd had quite enough of their peculiar behaviour.

Mr Maxwell spent more time in his study while Mrs Maxwell spent a lot of time cleaning—much to Tilly's dismay. Jennifer insisted she had design work to do in her room and wasn't even drafting Gideon to model for her, while Anthony was always in the garden on his broom. Their grandmother rarely appeared at the dinner table anymore, opting to stay in her large corner of the house, where she had the house elves wait on her.

When the family did spend time together in the lounge or the dining room, they usually did so in near complete silence. Gideon's attempts at using the heating vents to get to the bottom of this oddness were, of course, futile now that nobody was speaking. He was furious with himself for not having tried before, but it was so rare that they argued that he was taken by surprise.

Somewhere deep down, Gideon wondered whether he might be the cause of the bad feeling in the house, but he couldn't see how, and more than that, he didn't want to. Rather than confront those kinds of thoughts, he chose to distract himself.

His parents had always forbidden him from learning anything about Hogwarts, or anything to do with magic for that matter, while he was underage. They claimed to not want anything interfering with his Muggle schoolwork for one thing. They also said that surprises were supposed to be part of the experience of becoming a wizard, and apparently, they had done the same with Jennifer and Anthony when they were younger.

Even so, Gideon wanted to get a jump on his studies. Whatever was going on, he wasn't going to let it ruin the excitement of his first year at Hogwarts. Since Anthony was spending so much time outside, Gideon took the opportunity to sneak into his brother's room and borrow one of his old spell books.

He climbed into bed that evening with the book and his handheld crystal Glowglobe, a gift he'd once received from his grandmother. He shook the small sphere gently to activate the light charm inside. Tiny glowing orbs appeared rapidly until they filled the sphere with enough light for him to read The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 under the covers. Gideon read with fascination into the night, practising wand movement instructions with his index finger while sounding out the various incantations under his breath.