Chapter One
'I'm a freak.'
Summer 2075
My name is Darwin Damon Riley, but you can call me Damon because I don’t like being called Darwin and I only get called that by my family and Brooke Radley, but that’s okay because she’s my bestie-for-life-with-no-takesies-backsies-or-swapsies and I have known her since I was four.
I’m ten years old (yeah, ten! One-zero. TWO numbers) and I’m a wizard. I only found out today and apparently nine (because I’ve not been ten for long) is late to start showing magical powers.
I hope that doesn’t mean I’ll be a rubbish wizard.
There again, being a rubbish wizard is probably better than being… whatchacallit? A Muggly.
Although Mugglies aren’t
all that bad. I mean, my mummy and daddy and Oskar my brother are Mugglies, and they’re nice. My sister Emiline isn’t nice but Brookie and I think that she may be evil!Magik anyway. Brooke’s magic, too, by the way, but she didn’t tell me until today. And she only told me that because I thought I was evil.
It all started when we went to the park after school. We go to the park a lot, but not the BIG park that we’re meant to go to, that’s opposite my house and opposite school. There’s a little playground around the corner that’s been forgotten about; all of the swings and the slides are rusty, and you have to get to it through a hole in the fence, but that’s okay – it means that no one else goes there, and so it’s our special place. I think we may be the only people small enough to fit through the hole, and I don’t want to think about where we’ll have to go when we grow up, but that’s a long time away, so back to today at the park.
“What time have you got to be home?” Brooke asked me when she arrived at the fence (we sometimes race, and today I WON! How cool is that?).
“Half past five. And if I’m not home by then, Mummy said she’ll send Emiline out.”
“OOOH that’s cool, but if she sends Emiline out won’t you get in trouble when she doesn’t find you at the park opposite school?”
“I think that’s why she’s sending her now. I think she knows that’s not where we go,” I replied. I scratched my head a little bit, being all thinky. “’Cause she usually sends Oskar, and he just waits there until I turn up. But I fink that she’s getting s’picious.” I prefer it when it’s my brother waiting because he doesn’t ask me any questions, and he plays on the jungle gym with me in the BIG park on the way home, or he brings his camera from school and shows me all of his films.
“Oooh. Mommy gets super worried if I’m not back. I think she knows, too, she keeps asking me why I’m coming home the wrong way… I’m not a good liar.” Usually we try to be REALLY honest, but we wouldn’t be allowed to come out so we couldn’t tell our Mummy’s and Daddy’s where we really were. It’s only a little lie. A white lie. “That’s prolly ‘cause Oskar’s cool,” she added, and she was right.
“Maybe we should go early,” I suggested with a nod. I’m good a good ideas now. “Then you’d have a chance to go the looong way and Mummy Radley might not get s’picious.” It’s LOGICAL. Which is a new word that I learnt last week. “He is. And I… well, I think – don’t tell anyone – but I think Emiline’s eeevil.”
“That’s a good idea -” Of course it was, I’m GOOD at good ideas. “- and then your mummy won’t get suspicious either, and Emiline won’t find out about our special place.” Brookie was smiling, so I smiled back, and we sat down in the park. “I pwomise to tell no one. I fink she’s scary.” I had kind of guessed already because she always hid from my sister whenever she was at my house.
Now, I’m not going to tell you the middle of our conversation because it was very long and I can’t remember all of it other than that we were talking about being rich enough to buy a Spiderman car, and Ryan stealing my skateboard, and how Brooke wasn’t allowed to be a dancer like her sister because she’d have no more time to play.
“… Brookie? Can I tell you somefink else?”
I was worried because I could make stuff come to me from the other side of the room without getting up, and I could make the swings move when I wasn’t on them and there was no wind. I’d been worried for three weeks and I wanted to tell someone, and Brooke was my best friend and I told her everything.
“…Dar-ie. Course you cannn.” She smiled at me, and I felt all horrible inside.
“Y’know we said we thought Emiline was eeevil? Like magic eeevil?”
“Yepp. …What about it?”
“You won’t want to be my friend anymore,” I said, and I remember that my voice went all quiet and sad. “I think I’m magic!eeevil, too.”
“Of course I will! We’re besties. For ever and ever with no takesies backsies or replacies.” I don’t know what she thought I was going to tell her, because she didn’t tell me, but she looked all confused and I felt mean because I didn’t want to be evil. “But you’re too awesome to be evil.”
“…W-watch,” I said, and then I looked at the merry-go-round and it began to squeak around and it was weird because the merry-go-round was really rusty and we’d never been able to get it to move before because we weren’t strong enough. “I-I-I’m a freak.”
I thought that Brooke might run away and not talk to me ever again or that she’d tell me that we couldn’t be friends anymore because she didn’t like evil people, but instead she gave me a hug and was all happy, and that made me even more confused. “You’re nottt! You’re a wizard! Like Chester!” That’s her brother. “I’m a witch, but SHHH. You’re not allowed to tell Mugglies because they will think we’re weirdooos. S’why I never tolded you before.”
“What’s a wizard? And what’s a witch? And a Muggly?”
Brooke looked at me as if I should know what a wizard is, but I didn’t and so I didn’t say anything. “A wizard is you.” She said instead. “You have magical powers. Which is a wizard. A witch is the girl version, which is me. Which is a witch. …Look.” And then she made her book bag fly across the floor, and I felt better because it was so awesome and cool and exciting.
“So is CeCe a witch? And Britney?” They were her sisters, although I didn’t really see CeCe a lot because she was only ever home at Christmas and Easter and summer. “Yup, CeCe is, but Brit isn’t. She’s not cool enough to be,” Brookie said.
And then I had to say something that had started bothering me ever since the two minutes that I’d known what I was. “What do I do now… that I know? I don’t know how to use my magic.
“Can I tell my mummy?”
“I dunno. I don’t know how to use it either. There are some special schools where witches and wizards go. Like Hogwarts! That’s where CeCe goes, but you hafta get a letter. I want one.” Brookie sighed, and I knew that I wanted a letter, too. “I think so,” she said, meaning about my mummy. “I’m not sure. Maybe I should tell my mommy first. Because she’s one, too; a witch. But Daddy isn’t. I’m not sure if you’re allowed to tell your mommy ‘cause like… she’s not one, is she?”
“If CeCe goes, then you’ll prolly get a letter! But… I won’t, will I? Because all of my family are Mugglies.” It was then that I decided that I’m going to write to Father Christmas and ask for one. “Would you? Because I don’t think my mummy would know what to do, would she? No, I don’t think so. She’s a drama teacher.”
And I can’t remember what else we spoked about, except that I started my letter to the Headmastery of Hogwarts because I wanted him to know that I was a wizard and that I wanted to go to Hogwarts. The letter read;
Quote:
Dear Mr. Headmastery of Hogwarts (or Headmisstrisy, sorry),
I’m MAGIK but mummy and daddy are mugglies so can I please come to Hoggywarts? I want to go with my bestie-for-life-with-no-takesies-backsies-or-swapsies (her sister goes and her mummy is magik so she will probably be going, too.) Brooke Radley and I don’t want to stay behind and go to Muggly School with Ryan because he is mean. If I don’t go to Hogwarts I will have to be a Muggly but I have powers and I want to learn spells and potions and FLYING because it all sounds so completely exciting and not boring like Literacy and Numeracy. Can you please write back and tell me if I’m allowed to tell my mummy because I want to but I don’t know if she’ll believe me.
Yours sinseerly,
Darwin Damon Riley.
I really hope that I do go to Hogwarts because I’m magic. If I don’t I’ll have to go to school with Ryan, and I don’t like him. Or I might have to go to Mummy’s school with Oskar and Emiline. But I still don’t think that that would be as good as going to do magic.
Mummy’s asked me to go and put a letter in the post-box at the end of our road so I’m going to do that now and then put the one that I have written in as well.