Chapter 13: 13. A Visit
Days went by slowly. Nothing much occurred in Magnus' interesting life. His magic stayed stuck to the level it was when he learned to produce smoke from his palm. It had been 6 months since then.
Little Magnus did not know about reaching the magical maturity age which was 11. He tried hard to produce fire from his palm but all he got was farts. For now, he was just a strong, smart walking microwave. And he absolutely loved it. His food never got cold now no matter where he was.
Also, he never got tired now so he was full of energy all the time. He was now learning Karate, learning 7th-grade syllabus from his dad in the evening, then he would read some book or try to make a fire and then go to sleep.
The school was pretty easy for him so he didn't find any challenges there. The award ceremony for George Cross was going to take place in 3 days. As going to Buckingham Palace was already decided, he could not ask his parents to take him there before that.
Life went on for him. That was until two guys came to his home. Both had dark black hair and were of nearly the same height. It was Sunday so his family was at home.
"MAGNUS... YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE." Grace's voice came from downstairs.
"Friends? Who did Bobby bring along?" He questioned himself and went downstairs.
When he reached the place, he saw the same boy he met in front of the dark building months ago when he went to ride his bicycle.
"Hey there, Magnus." The taller, curly-haired boy waved his hand. The shorter one, possibly his brother, seemed confused.
"Mag, invite them in. I just baked some cookies for you. Take them to your room if you want, I will bring them there." Grace warmly welcomed them.
Magnus nodded to the two boys, suggesting that they follow him. The two brothers silently followed him. Soon, they were in and he closed the door, but he did not lock it.
"How did you find my place?" Magnus asked.
The two brothers looked at each other's faces as if he had asked something ridiculous.
"Mate, your face was plastered on the newspaper nearly a few days ago. It's not that hard to find you." The taller one said.
Magnus nodded, and there was nothing to worry about anyway. "I went to your house some months ago but couldn't find you there."
"Yeah, muggles can't access it. Even wizards can't access it unless they have permission." The tall boy answered.
Magnus was not able to understand all these terminologies. "Wait... Muggles? What is that? By the way, I don't even know your names."
The tall boy smacked his head for forgetting this, "Haha, I forgot. I'm Sirius Black and this is my little brother Regulus Arcturus Black. We are from the so-called The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Anyway, muggles are folks who can't do magic and are usually kept away from the knowledge that magic exists in our world."
Magnus' mind exploded with that. "Magic as in, my making my hands hot? Or making falling glass hover in the air?"
"Wait... you're a muggle too? Of course, it explains everything now. Do they know about your magic?" Sirius asked.
"No, they have no idea and I'm not telling them anytime soon." Magnus firmly said. He'd rather not make his parents worried because his abilities were too mysterious, and when they won't be able to find any answers they would get worried and tensed.
"No problem, you'll get your letter from Hogwarts when you turn 11. Oh, you don't know. Hogwarts is a school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. All children with magic when turning 11 go there, well, most of them. There is a whole secretly hidden magical world out there, Magnus. There are dragons, goblins, magical creatures. Magic is a wonderful thing, though I can't really perform much at the moment. Before turning 11, our magical powers stay in their infancy." Sirius explained.
The more Magnus heard, the more excited he got about the future. The magic was real, the magic school was real and so much more.
Sirius continued speaking, "I'm a fan of yours now, Magnus. The way you saved all the kids and your teacher on that bus. You are one hundred per cent Gryffindor material."
"Gryffindor? What's that?" Magnus inquired.
"It's one of the four houses where one can get shorted into. Gryffindors are known for their courage, chivalry, and determination. Slytherins are the nemesis of Gryffindor as they are known for being ambitious, shrewd, cunning and simply bad people, they are bad folks mostly. Then there is Ravenclaw, they are just bookworms and then the Hufflepuff who are just known for being loyal but they are very secretive." Sirius gave him a crash course of Hogwarts.
*KNOCK KNOCK*
Grace came in with a place full of cookies. She gave it to them and left. Although she had never seen the two kids before, she still refrained from asking him about them.
Once she was gone, Sirius requested something. "Hey, I brought my brother here because he wouldn't believe that you can make flames. Show him will you? That will shut him down."
"You dragged me here, Sirius," Regulus argued meekly. There was actually a reason for why he was like this. It was all thanks to the abusive family with which he grew up with.
One time they had brought an injured bird to their home, hoping to secretly nourish it back to health. But, as it got better, its chirping was heard by Orion, their father.
Orion decided to take this opportunity to teach his sons an important lesson about how certain emotions can make a person weak. As Blacks, they were not meant to be weak, but superior to all other things. So, Orion broke the bird's wings one at a time to urge a reaction out of the boys.
Sirius watched his father destroy the bird, maintaining a cold stare throughout the incident, slowly starting to hate his father and mother to the point he felt disgusted. But Regulus, only being 6 years old at the time, began to cry as the bird whimpered in pain. Orion yelled at Regulus to get his emotions in check before snapping the neck and ultimately killing the bird.
Regulus tried to swallow his cries to avoid further punishment. As the bird lay mangled and lifeless on the table, Orion turned to Sirius. Enraged, Orion slapped him across the face with his bloody hand, reprimanding him for bringing the creature into the house and for teaching Regulus attachment. That was the point that made Sirius hate his family and Regulus fear them.
Magnus didn't know this. If he did, he would have tried to make the two happy. "I want to make flames but I can't. Only smoke comes out of my body."
He showed them a demonstration and soon, his palm farted out some smoke.
"No no, you produced fire from your mouth that day." Sirius pointed.
"Then maybe it was accidental?" Magnus shrugged and ate.
"By the way, Sirius. What should I do to prepare for Hogwarts?" Magnus inquired.
"Ummm... we are premature so we can't really perform magic. But we can learn the spells and their correct hand moments before school so we can have an edge. All right, I will bring you some old books, Magnus. Because my family likes to act like kings, they never let us reuse the books. They just get thrown in the basement. Two of my sisters are about to complete Hogwarts so I can get you their books." Sirius suggested.
"That would be amazing, Sirius. I have an excellent memory, so I think I can memorise most of the common stuff before school." Magnus was excited.
"WOAAAH... WHAT IS THIS?" Regulus suddenly exclaimed.
Magnus turned to look and saw him fiddling with the radio. "That is a radio, you can hear music on it."
"How does this work?" He asked.
Magnus went to him and switched it on. "It works on radio waves. We can't see them but they are around us."
Immediately a song started playing. It was Honky Tonk Women by Rolling Stones.
Regulus looked at it in shock as if this was some kind of forbidden magic. "This... is so... magical..."
Magnus laughed, "Haha, no, Regulus. This is technology. With each year, it gets better. Humans never stop improving ourselves."
"Only if wizards were the same," Sirius said with a sigh. Then he picked up a cookie but it was cold now and not as much fun to eat.
"Wait, let me heat it up." Magnus offered.
He used his hand to heat them. Soon, they had cookies like fresh out of the oven again.
"That is so damn convenient," Sirius exclaimed seeing his ability.
"Why? Can't you do it too?" Magnus asked.
Regulus quickly spoke, "Of course not. We can't even control our magic yet."
"He's right. We're as weak as any other 9 years old right now. You can probably break our necks easily if going by the fact that you bent metal on the bus." Sirius said.
Magnus didn't ask anymore. He didn't want to end up speaking too much. After a bit more chatting, the two got up to leave.
"Our mum would kill us if she found out we were here. We need to return now. See you later, Magnus. I will bring the books the next time." Sirius and Regulus waved their hands and left.
As soon as they left, Magnus turned to his mother. He knew what she wanted to ask. "They are my friends from the park."
"You should have told me earlier. Anyway, get ready to go to the Police Station today. They said that the Police Chief and the Mayor want to award you." Grace told him.
In the past 6 months, he had given some interviews and had saved nearly £1,151 (£16,350 today).
"Mummy, are you sure they are not just using me for their election?" Magnus asked smartly.
"Mag... but that's not important. You should get these awards. When you grow big and go for a job interview, just an award certificate will hold a lot of weight. They will hire you even if you are unqualified because they will expect good work ethics from you." Grace advised him while combing his hair.
"I'm sure it will be very boring. They will give their long speeches. I don't wanna go." Magnus threw some childish tantrums.
Grace looked at him seriously. "Are you sure? So I should tell them to give the cheque prize to someone else."
Magnus' eyes shot open and all his defiance vanished. A smile of a true businessman appeared. He ran to the main door and put his shoes on.
"MUMMY, what are you doing? We'll be late. I can't reject them honouring me, or else it will make them sad." He rushed.
Grace laughed, "Haha, yes yes, let's go."
At the ceremony, Magnus was given a fake gold medal, a certificate calling him a hero and a huge cheque for £750(£10,653). Only the city could have given away so much money.
Magnus thanked everyone as a happy child and returned home with his mother. They were going to cash the cheque the next day. Now, he had a total of £1901(£27,003).
"I can finally help Bobby." Magnus thought happily. But then he suddenly realised something that made him sad.
~Bobby does not have magic. We will be separated soon. I need to teach him to stand up for himself.~ He decided.
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