The Keeper of the Keys
Another loud boom on the door, the house shivered again, and a few family portraits fell from the walls and the fireplace "Beneath the table Luz!" Camila ordered and slowly walked towards the door, a third boom and the door was blasted off its hinges and hit the floor "Galloping Gargoyles, I’m sorry" Luz heard a man's voice outside and peeked to see.
"Pero que..." Luz said after seeing the man, he stood an impressive three and a half meters tall, with a thick black beard and shaggy mane of hair, his eyes were like shining black beetles on his face "Who are you?! What do you want?! I am calling the police!" Camila threatened with the knife she was going to use to cut the cake.
"Whoa, whoa, easy there, I ain't here to cause problem to yeh, just to talk and deliver something," The giant man raised his hands to the skies, "Sorry for your door, I forgot how frail yours are" The man tried to squeeze his way inside, but the doorframe was too small "Couldn't yeh find a way for me to get to the backyard?" He asked.
"The garage could fit him," Luz said, approaching Camila, "Luz?! I told you to stay beneath the table!" The woman was shaking, her breathing was intense, but she was starting to recover from the scare "I promise I won't hurt yeh, and I will fix the door" Luz held Camila's hand "Fine... But I warn you! I have a friend in the police".
The man smiled, picked up the door, and effortlessly put it back on its frame, a few minutes after the three were in the Noceda's backyard, the man tried to sit on a chair near a birdbath but it broke "Great... Sorry again miss" The man apologized and set on the floor, but even then he was taller than Luz.
"Nice to meet yeh Luz and you too er---" The giant said rather happy "Camila" Luz said gently but her mother raised his voice "Who are you?! And how you know us?!" The woman demanded "Right, my name is Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. Oh right, a very good birthday to you Luz, here for you" The giant said as if they were friends at some point in time, he then took, from an inside pocket of his overcoat a box and placed it on a table on the yard.
Luz carefully yet happily opened the box to find a pair of ebony earnings, Luz was baffled, she had classmates she studied with since she can remember who never given her a lollipop but this man she has never seen in her life had given her something so thoughtful "Tha-tha-thank y-y-you" She managed to say and smile and Hagrid held out his enormous hand and shook Luz' whole arm "Do you want some tea?" The girl asked.
"Of course, and I wouldn't say no to something stronger if you got inside" He replied and Luz rushed in and brought tea and a silver flask Camila hid behind the sugar "Thank you, young lady, aren't yeh going to join us miss?" Hagrid asked Camila who stood over 2 meters away from him, she carefully approached the man, and Luz had already sat on one of the remaining chairs.
No one said a word, Luz brought the cake and the giant ate a quarter of it in a single bite and when was apparent that the silence wasn't going to end spontaneously Camila spoke "Okay, mister..." ---- "Hagrid, everyone calls me that" ---- "Right, Mr. Hagrid, we still don't know who are you and how you know us" The man wiped his mouth with the back of his hand "As I told yeh, I'm the keeper of keys at Hogwarts, you know about it and it's about it I came here".
"What's Hogwarts?" Luz asked and the man, noticeably shocked, looked at Camila "Yeh didn't tell her?" Luz looked at her mom "Tell me what?" She asked confused "Hogwarts, where your father learned it all" This time Luz was the one who asked, "Learned what?". The man stared at Camila like a teacher trying to get the truth out of a child but to his surprise, Camila's face wasn't one of fear but one of anger and confusion "Yeh don't know...?" He said when reality hit him.
Hagrid scratched his beard and started to mumble "They don't know anything... How? Did she know? Why didn't tell me..." He shook his head "No it's impossible, yer famous, yer father is famous" Luz gasped and Camila slammed the table "If my husband was famous I would have known!" Camila shouted "So... Yeh don't know what he was... What yer?" Hagrid concluded, "He never told yeh... He hid it... He kept it from yeh...".
"Kept what from us?" Camila and Luz asked one angry and one confused, Camila didn't believe her husband would hide something from her, that man had to be lying. Hagrid knew he had a delicate situation in his hand but he couldn't just leave so he took a deep breath and said "He was... A wizard... And yer, Luz, a witch".
Silence filled the garden "What... Did... You... Just... Called... My... Daughter?" Camila asked and with every word her voice raised "My dad was a magician?" Luz asked confused "No, no, a real wizard, and please, I didn't insult yer daughter," Hagrid said in an attempt to prevent Camila from jumping on him. He then took an envelope from his coat and gave it to Camila "Please read it, and I'll do my best to explain it to yeh" Camila pulled the letter out of the envelope and read it:
" HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Hieronymus Bump
(Order of Azura, First Class, CHF. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump)
To: Miss Luz Noceda
The second bedroom
7 Gravesfield Street,
Gravesfield
Dear Miss Noceda,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
The term begins on 1 September. We await your crow by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Edalyn Cawthorne
Deputy Headmistress "
The Noceda's heads were exploding with questions and disbelief and Luz could not choose even one question of the numerous questions on her head but after minutes of silence Luz asked: "What does it mean with 'my crow'?".
"Galloping Gargoyles! That reminds me" Hagrid reached inside yet another pocket in his overcoat and pulled a crow. A real, breathing, rather ruffled-looking, crow, he gently scratched the bird's head and it opened its beak, the man cleared his throat and said to the bird "Dear Mr. Bump, I've given Luz her letter, will take her to buy her things, the weather is fine, hope yer well, Hagrid".
The man grabbed an insect that was on the leg of the table and presented it to the bird that ate it and then fled quicker than any bird Luz had ever seen in her life. The giant turned around as if it was as normal as talking on the telephone "Where was I?" He asked.
"Hold a bloody minute, are you expecting us to believe any of these things you said to us?! Magic?! Wizards and Witches?! If you think I am letting my daughter in the hands of some crazy man? You got another thing coming!" Camila shouted, "Do not talk like that of Bump!" Hagrid shouted back, any man would have cowered in fear but Camila stood up, barely reacting to the man's face.
"Calm down! Please" Luz yelled and the two adults lowered their tones "I ain't lying to yeh, magic is real, and I can prove it" Hagrid reached in his pocket for a pink umbrella he held not in the handle but the tip, he tapped the charts of the chair he broke and had the umbrella in slow circles.
The jaws of both Camila and Luz fell as the pieces floated and spin in the air and after a few seconds the chair was as good as new and then the man pointed it at the broken front door and its hinges rebuilt themselves "See? It's very much real" Hagrid said with a proud face. Camila gasped in shock "Magic is real" Luz said but with a smile forming on her face.
"Why... Why did he never tell me anything? ... He didn't trust me? Why..." Camila teared up, the love of her life lied to her for years, was it because she talked too much? Too little? Was it because she was always more skeptical than most people? "Wait, please don't cry, I... Am sure he had his reasons... Don't think less of him, he was such a nice boy" Hagrid pleaded.
"Does dad's... Fate has anything to do with the magical world?" Luz asked on an impulse and Hagrid lower his head "I... Never expected this... When she told me that... I didn't think yeh knew so little... I'm not the right person to tell yeh... But someone has to... Yeh deserves it" He gulped and the Nocedas set down, knowing something bad was coming.
"I can't tell yeh everything... It's a great mystery, parts of it... It all started with a person... Named... But it is- it is incredible you don't know his name... Everyone in our world does..."-- "What's his name?" Luz asked -- "I don't like to say his name... Like many others... I am... Still afraid... Gulping Gargoyles this is hard... He was a wizard who went bad... But as bad as you can go, and then even worse... His name was...".
The Nocedas waited for about a full minute before Hagrid finally said the name "Belos..." He whispered and a chill went down everyone's spine there. Belos meant nothing to the Nocedas, only 'Handsome' in some Iberian languages, but only the way Hagrid said warned them that he wasn't someone you wanted to be anywhere near.
"This wizard, about 20 years ago, rose to power, with numerous followers... Some out of fear, others wanted a bit of his power... Dark days they were... He gained such power that people started calling him Emperor Belos... Dark days... Didn't know who you could trust, terrible news every day... He killed any who defied him. Hogwarts was the only truly safe place... There were the only two people the Emperor was afraid of... He didn't dare approach it".
Hagrid took a sip of tea, everything just now was only the context, the truth went after "Now... your father was as good of a wizard as I ever knew, an example and... Well, he stood out a lot... So, as you can imagine, the Emperor reached him, but he never accepted... He just wanted to live a good, honest life" He paused, and tears fell from Luz's eyes "One day... 10 years ago... The Emperor showed up in the village he lived with you and... And... And... It was a miracle you weren't there miss" All three cried emotions floated as the end of the story was clear as day.
"The Emperor killed him... And then, and this is the mystery of the thing, he tried to kill you, Luz... But he failed! The mark on your forehead, that's what you get when powerful dark magic touches you... Your house and your father couldn't resist... But you did! And that's why you are famous Luz, you survived what some of the best wizards and witches of the age couldn't, you lived".
Luz's head was hurting, in her mind a blinding flash of green light followed by a cold and cruel chuckle repeated in a loop. The three sobbed in silence for a few minutes, a closure to her husband's death was what Camila wished for every single day ever since that night and now she finally had it, but it didn't make it easier to accept it.
"What happened to Be- I mean the Emperor?" Luz broke the silence with one of the hundreds of questions she had "None knows for sure, some believe he died, I wished... Don't know if he had enough human left in him to die... Some say he's out there buying his time... most of us reckon he's too weak to carry on but still out there... Something happened that night, you had something going on that stopped him" He said proudly and with respect.
"That's impossible... I can't be a witch... Especially not a great one... I can barely survive my school days without being pushed around" Luz said sadly "Oh cariño" Camila hugged her daughter tightly and rubbed her hair. But to their surprise, he chuckled at her "Not a witch? So you never did things disappear or happen when you were scared or angry?".
Neither Camila nor Luz thought something could surprise them again, and yet, there they were with their jaws open "Yer just a child Luz, but in Hogwarts, the finest school of witchcraft in the world, under the guidance of the greatest teachers of this country, you will be with youngsters of yer own sort for a change" Hagrid said with his arms wide open.
Luz turned to Camila excited, she had the biggest smile ever on her face, waiting for Camila's response. It hurt to imagine her daughter gone the whole year to a place she could never visit, but that beautiful smile, Camila would die for it, no questions asked, she could face the world for her daughter, so she happily nodded in response.
"Oh yeah! Baby" Luz jumped in the air, happier than ever before, a new chapter would open in her life, full of mysteries and adventures she couldn't wait to see and live. Sunday they will buy Luz's school material in a place called: Diagon Alley.