I heard a car stopping at the front door, and Mrs. Huper's hurried voice bidding farewell to my mother. It was around six in the evening when my mother returned from the church choir. She left her coat in the hallway, and we eagerly awaited her entrance into the kitchen, where my father and I were waiting with cookies and her favorite melissa tea. Upon seeing us, she smiled and came running to hug me, planting a kiss on my forehead and then embracing and kissing my father.
- What a beautiful table, you even took the trouble to put my melissa tea with my favorite meringues! The choir did wonders for my mom, making her forget a bit about the stories from the night before. While she was out, my father and I finished organizing the attic and all the mess we left in the living room, besides finding the Floo powder that Gui had given to my father.
We savored the cookies, moved to the living room after dinner to discuss our trip to London the next day. Everything was going very well. My mother didn't question us about why we stored all those boxes before she finished the story, but deep down, she knew that my father had done a good job finishing the rest.
After planning the route for shopping in Diagon Alley, the atmosphere in the room was quite pleasant. Penelope purred in my lap, my father made some notes in his planning notebook, and my mother embroidered bromeliads on a towel. I was finishing the novel I was reading by Machado de Assis, whose intriguing plot involved a character trying to find out if the love of his life had betrayed him or not. A thought crossed my mind: "I'm not going to leave my parents waiting until the next day to know which school I will choose. Unlike this book, which after so much mystery I ended up not unraveling anything, I will reveal which school has captured my interest!"
I closed the book somewhat abruptly, attracting my father's attention over his glasses. I stood up and said:
- I've already decided which of the letters I'm going to accept!" My parents exchanged glances, eager for my answer. I tied up my hair and revealed the name of the school with a big smile on my face.