Fifteen Minutes in London - Magic is Real!

Magic is Real!

A Sunday in early spring. It wasn't exactly warm, but at least sunny and, for a change, dry. Half of London seemed to have decided to spend the day in Hyde Park. Every bench was occupied, children ran around, playing and screaming and barking dogs were everywhere.

Amidst the turmoil, a dark-haired seven-year-old boy was sitting on the grass next to Serpentine Lake. He was part of a group, but he sat apart from the others. He preferred to be alone, or more precisely, he was glad they weren't teasing him right now. Instead, they were trying to catch and torture a duck. The duck was too quick for them, though. He rather admired it for being able to stay just an arm's length out of reach. Perhaps he should ask the duck to teach him.

An ant had managed to crawl onto his hand. Carefully he put it down on the ground next to him, then stepped on it. It hadn't died at once and he watched how it struggled on for a while. Then, he got bored and looked around. There was an old man sitting on a bench nearby feeding pigeons. Two boys wearing sailor suits, were sitting on another bench next to their parents. they looked thoroughly bored. The seven-year old snorted. They should be happy. They had parents spoiling them. Something he could not say about himself.

Suddenly, a young couple caught his attention. She was about twenty years old and had blond hair, that went down to her hips. Had the boy been older, he would have described her as beautiful. The man was a little older and had short, black hair. They were wearing, well... some kind of cloak.

"You cretin! How dare you! I should have known you're a git. You're a Slytherin after all," she screeched at the top of her voice.

Slytherin? The boy had never heard that word before.

Suddenly, the man was pointing a wooden stick at her."Don't you dare insulting the Noble House, you unworthy vixen!"

"Put your wand away! In case you haven't noticed, we're in a park full of Muggles! You'll get into..."

Before the woman could finish her sentence, even before the boy could start to wonder about the words wand and Muggles, a flash of light shot out of the end of the sick and the the woman. The next second, a rope that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, had tied her up and silenced her.

The little boy jumped up in shock. What was that? How did he do that? It was like magic. But magic didn't exist. Or did it? He suddenly remembered how a boy that tried to punch him flew across the room without anyone having touched him, and how the tea he had once spilled on the freshly polished wooden floor, had vanished before anyone had seen it and punished him. And then, there was still the unsolved matter of him appearing back in the classroom in front of his teacher's desk, when ha had been outside just a second before. Did magic exist after all? Was he a wizard?

An older woman, accompanied by ten or twelve people, had appeared next to the couple.

"Mr. Black! You again! That's the second time this week," she shouted angrily.

"Ah, I'm so sorry," the man replied sarcastically.

The older woman pointed another wooden stick at the tied up woman and mumbled something. The ropes vanished.

The boy pinched himself. No, he wasn't dreaming. This was real! How would it change his life? Was he really a wizard? Yes, that was the only explanation. He could show those other boys.

Deep in his thoughts, he did not notice the older woman walking towards him. However, he looked up, when he heard her say "Obliviate!". The boys' eyes slid out of focus. When he could see again, he stared at her blankly.

Strange, Tom thought, where had she come from?