Dora sat at the dinner table making her family laugh. A pig snout, ears and pink hair got chuckles from her Dad, but hoots of laughter from her baby brother Davy. Moose antlers had him snorting rice out his nose! She loved it.
“All right, all right,” said her Mom, “let’s go into the sitting room and you can show us some of the practical magic you learned at Hogwarts. Davy, clean up the kitchen please.”
Davy watched them file out as his fingers twisted into a knot. “If I could just see more magic…” he thought to himself. He looked from the messy kitchen to the hall to the sitting room and back again, desperation rising enough to make a sweat break out on his brow. “I’ll do it later,” he said to himself, then instantly forgot. He snuck down the hall to where he could watch Dora get drilled by their parents.
Later, Davy’s mom came to kiss him goodnight. “Muuummm, I’m 10 years old! I don’t need to be tucked in anymore,” he said
“Well then I just wanted to thank you for doing such a good job on the kitchen,” she said, kissing his cheek. But he was already asleep.
A few days later, Easter Sunday dawned bright and cheerful with numerous friends coming by for brunch.
“Anything yet?” Asked “Uncle” Khanna of Davy’s Dad but with a sideways look at Davy so he knew he was the topic of conversation.
“What’s that? No, no news on the Cannon’s keeper trade yet.”
His Dad tried to cover, but Davy knew. 10 years, 11 months and 2 days and still no signs of magic. What if it never happened? What if no letter to Hogwarts ever came? A future opened up in front of his eyes… a bleak landscape of pavement, no friends, no family, begging muggles for food… Tears sprung into his eyes but he blinked them away and heartily joined the crowd around Dora changing her face and hair. It was easy to disappear around her.
After brunch the crowd moved into the garden for the annual dueling contest. Unlike traditional duels, the goal was to make your opponent laugh in whatever way possible. As Davy started to head outside his Mom stopped him. “Davy, would you be a dear and start the kitchen clean up? I’ll be in in a minute.”
“But maybe if I could try dueling…” he stammered.
She put her hand on his shoulder with a sad look, “I think we’ll enroll you in muggle school starting September, just in case.”
As she walked away Davy’s heart rate spiked and he clung to the wall to stay upright. His vision blurred. “Muggle school?!?!” It felt like every single muscle in his body clenched and released like a bell ringing.
He walked out to the garden with his head held high. Everyone turned to look at him, then his Dad said, “Game on!” And the first two started dueling.
A few minutes later the doorbell rang. His mother bustled off to get it. Davy followed, out of curiosity.
“Oh dear, Andromeda, thanks so much but you needn’t have…” said Ms. Bertha, the old witch who lived next door and took care of her orphaned grandson.
“Whatever do you mean Bertha?” Asked Davy’s mom.
“Well, clean our kitchen of course.”
At just that moment Mr. Tyler, who worked at the Ministry came up the walk with a hastily plucked bunch of tulips from his garden. “Happy Easter Andromeda!” He said cheerily.
“Well thank you Tyler,” said Davy’s mom. “But Bertha dear, what do you mean?”
“When I got up from eating our Easter brunch I found the kitchen clean as a whistle.” Said Ms. Bertha. “I figured you’d done it since I’ve got muggles on the other side. Just came to say thank you.”
“Well, I’m the same of course, very neighborly of you Andromeda.”
Andromeda’s brow was furrowed in confusion. Slowly, and silently she turned and walked into her own kitchen. The rest trailed after her.
Abruptly, she grabbed Davy and threw him into the air like he was a toddler and not an almost-man of almost-11. “Whhoooppp!” She exclaimed. “Davy, you've found your magic!”
Davy’s jaw hit the floor as his eyes grew large like Baby Yoda’s. “What?” He asked.
“I saw you outside with us, yet you cleaned our kitchen and the neighbors too!” She explained excitedly.
Davy started bouncing up, down and all around screaming with excitement.
“What's going on?” Asked Davy’s Dad who rushed in with alarm.
Andromeda grabbed his arm, “Davy’s found his magic….”
28 days later the letter from Hogwarts arrived and the family and neighbors celebrated.
Afterward, Davy cleaned the kitchen manually since he wasn’t allowed to do magic yet, but he didn’t care.