Gideon had the dream every night for over a week. At first, he wanted to talk to his mother about it. However, she had been unusually preoccupied of late. On top of that, he recalled how she had reacted when asked about his fit on the last day of school.
Gideon didn't know if she had lied or simply hadn't wanted to talk about it, but either way, he was sure she would have remembered the bus incident. Instead, he had asked his brother. Anthony claimed not to recall what happened, though.
Gideon would have put this down to how young they were at the time, but the fact that Anthony then offered to play with him, something he rarely did these days, made him wonder if his brother was being truthful. That said, Anthony's idea of playing together was having Gideon lob balls at him in the garden while he practised flying.
Ultimately, Gideon had decided he didn't need to hear how sickly he was for the umpteenth time, which he was sure would be the response his mother would give if asked. He resolved to forget about the dream and enjoy his summer. The summer, however, was not enjoyable.
Gideon ended up spending more time than usual in his bedroom. Granted, he usually enjoyed the solitude when he wanted to read or draw, but it was more out of necessity than choice, that he was shutting himself away so much.
The rest of the family had begun to act very strangely. Gideon seemed to be interrupting whispered chatter and arguments all over the house. Whenever he entered a room the conversation would grind to a halt, and his appearance would even cause alarm. It happened so often that Gideon was beginning to feel like a stranger in his own home.
On the few occasions he had asked what was going on, he would be told off for things like eavesdropping, or in his grandmother's words, "sneaking around like a goblin short of a Galleon". Soon, the family started to avoid each other altogether, Gideon included, since he'd had quite enough of their peculiar behaviour.
Mr Maxwell spent more time in his study while Mrs Maxwell spent a lot of time cleaning—much to Tilly's dismay. Jennifer insisted she had design work to do in her room and wasn't even drafting Gideon to model for her, while Anthony was always in the garden on his broom. Their grandmother rarely appeared at the dinner table anymore, opting to stay in her large corner of the house, where she had the house elves wait on her.
When the family did spend time together in the lounge or the dining room, they usually did so in near complete silence. Gideon's attempts at using the heating vents to get to the bottom of this oddness were, of course, futile now that nobody was speaking. He was furious with himself for not having tried before, but it was so rare that they argued that he was taken by surprise.
Somewhere deep down, Gideon wondered whether he might be the cause of the bad feeling in the house, but he couldn't see how, and more than that, he didn't want to. Rather than confront those kinds of thoughts, he chose to distract himself.
His parents had always forbidden him from learning anything about Hogwarts, or anything to do with magic for that matter, while he was underage. They claimed to not want anything interfering with his Muggle schoolwork for one thing. They also said that surprises were supposed to be part of the experience of becoming a wizard, and apparently, they had done the same with Jennifer and Anthony when they were younger.
Even so, Gideon wanted to get a jump on his studies. Whatever was going on, he wasn't going to let it ruin the excitement of his first year at Hogwarts. Since Anthony was spending so much time outside, Gideon took the opportunity to sneak into his brother's room and borrow one of his old spell books.
He climbed into bed that evening with the book and his handheld crystal Glowglobe, a gift he'd once received from his grandmother. He shook the small sphere gently to activate the light charm inside. Tiny glowing orbs appeared rapidly until they filled the sphere with enough light for him to read The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 under the covers. Gideon read with fascination into the night, practising wand movement instructions with his index finger while sounding out the various incantations under his breath.
He couldn't believe the things that he would be learning and doing in just under a month. Once his eyes became too tired to continue, he placed the book and Glowglobe in his bottom drawer, and he blew up yet another animated frog with a press of a finger on his magical calendar. As he observed it, he smiled, realising that his Hogwarts letter would be arriving any day now.
Gideon woke with a start every morning of the next week. Each day he would jump out of bed, throw on his dressing gown and charge downstairs to await the morning post delivery. Tilly and Tolly worked around him without a word of objection as he paced backwards and forwards across the kitchen, staring out the window.
Each day, his excitement would peak suddenly and then drop just as quickly, as he realised only one post owl could be seen in the distance, undoubtedly bringing the Daily Prophet. It wasn't until Thursday that he saw two shapes hovering above the trees, heading towards the house.
This was it, the moment that would change Gideon's life forever. The moment he would take his first steps towards becoming a real wizard. Two brown owls clipped the top of the nearest ferns and swooped down in unison. They glided gracefully through the kitchen window and settled on the delivery perch.
Tilly went to collect the deliveries, but Gideon beat her to it. He cast aside the day's Prophet and hastily took the letter from the second owl's talons. There it was, the Hogwarts crest. He excitedly flipped the letter over, and comprehension dawned on him.
Mr A. Maxwell
Maxwell Manor
Shaftesbury
Dorset
This wasn't his Hogwarts letter. This was Anthony's letter. Gideon swore loudly for allowing himself to get caught up in the moment, scaring the birds and causing Tilly to fold down her floppy ears. He had known that Anthony would be getting a letter as well, but the anticipation had made him forget. Although, he had expected it would arrive on the same day as his.
'Master Gideon's letter must be coming tomorrow,' Tolly reassured him.
Gideon was rather grumpy for the rest of the day. He couldn't face eating breakfast with the family, especially after feeling something undoubtedly solid inside of Anthony's letter, which he felt certain was only going to vex him further.
Gideon's suspicions were later confirmed when Anthony opened his letter to find a shiny new Quidditch Captain's badge. Gideon tried to ignore the happy noises in the next room as he watched a programme on the lounge Telecrystal. When he heard his father congratulate Anthony and tell him, 'That's my boy!' Gideon turned the volume up considerably.
Anthony put the badge on immediately, wearing it for the rest of the day and drawing attention to it whenever possible. Gideon would have liked to think he didn't begrudge his brother this honour, especially since he knew that academics were not Anthony's strength, but secretly his insides were burning with jealousy.
It wasn't just that Gideon had thought today would be his special day. Anthony's achievement was just another sign of how different they were. A very shiny, visible sign at that. Gideon thought his brother might as well have been wearing one of those "I'm with stupid" t-shirts with an arrow pointed at him.
They didn't even look alike. Apart from Gideon's obvious flaws, his siblings both had light brown hair and brown eyes like their mother. Gideon, on the other hand, supposedly took after his father's side of the family, at least that was what he had been told. However, given his father and grandmother's grey hair and Gideon's odd eyes, he couldn't make a proper comparison.
Gideon had spent the rest of the day sulking, but when he woke up on Friday his excitement had returned, and it was just like every previous morning that week. He launched across the bedroom, into his dressing gown and towards the stairs. As he approached the top step, he stopped on the landing, distracted by the distant sound of raised voices.
Gideon thought It was unusual for anyone else to be up just yet, let alone having an argument. The voices seemed to be coming from the direction of Jennifer's room but as Gideon reached the end of the corridor, he realised they were coming from the heating vent, which apparently, had been left open in a convenient way.
Gideon crouched down and put his ear to the grate to listen. 'We can't let this go on any longer, Marcus,' he heard his mother yell at his father, 'we have to tell the truth!'
'The truth? That's out of the question and you know it!' Mr Maxwell snapped.
'Well, some version of it, then!' Mrs Maxwell responded. 'We can't all continue on as we have been around here. Everybody's on edge, nobody's talking to each other for fear of saying the wrong thing. We can't even have a proper celebration for Anthony. It's not fair to him, to any of the kids, to keep this up!'
Mr Maxwell paused before replying, 'Sarah, I know it's been difficult, but we discussed this. We agreed on how to handle it, didn't we?'
'Things have changed. I just don't want the truth to come out the wrong way. You know what your mother is like, she can't hold her tongue. If she were to let something slip...'
'Aaaagh! What are you doing, midget!' cried Jennifer, who had emerged from her bedroom to find Gideon huddled in the corner.
Gideon lurched with fright and instinctively changed the dial on the heating vent. 'It's cold! I was just adjusting the vent!' he snapped at her angrily as she stormed off towards the bathroom. Of course, he wasn't angry with his sister for the name-calling. It was because she had just interrupted a very interesting conversation, and at a crucial point.
What with being unable to get the vent to work the way it had been, and Jennifer's imminent return, Gideon reluctantly gave up. He replayed his parent's argument in his mind as he slowly made his way down the stairs. His parents rarely quarrelled, and when they did, it was just over little things.
This argument had been about "the truth". Gideon's parents were lying about something, or to someone, and it sounded like it was the source of the Maxwells' current family troubles. Was this why everyone was so jumpy? Did his grandmother know something? Gideon was more confused than ever.
It was a while before he remembered where he was going. When he did, he trotted off to the kitchen. 'Anything yet?' he asked Tolly hopefully as he sat down at the kitchen table.
'Not yet, Master Gideon,' the elf answered as he brought over a glass of fresh orange juice. Gideon accepted it gratefully and turned his attention to the window. As he scoured the distant sky in search of owls, he tried not to think of what he had overheard or the events of the last few weeks. Gideon couldn't shake a feeling of foreboding, but he knew that it wouldn't last.
As soon as his letter arrived, the uneasy feeling would go away. Once his letter arrived, the arguments wouldn't matter anymore. He would be going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A letter from Alex Grimsby would surely follow, and he would meet his new friend at Diagon Alley, the wizarding shopping district, to begin their magical journey together.
At last, Gideon would learn how to do magic. He would learn about spells, potions, and all kinds of magical creatures. He would learn to fly! He would study hard and make his father proud. He would finally make some friends.
But Gideon's letter didn't arrive that morning. He didn't expect it to arrive on the weekend. When it hadn't arrived on Monday morning, the feeling in the pit of his stomach grew like a slumbering dragon waking from a deep sleep. When the letter still hadn't arrived on Tuesday morning, the dragon rose to its feet and began to growl menacingly.
It was okay, though. Gideon reminded himself that Alex had promised to write once they received their letters. He hadn't heard from him yet, so he, too, must still be waiting. That thought sustained Gideon through to Thursday. However, when the Daily Prophet arrived in the talons of a lone tawny owl on Friday, he began to despair.
He tried desperately to rid himself of the thoughts racing through his mind. The whispers, the arguments, the secrets and lies, his dreams, his illnesses. Together, they all seemed to add up to something that Gideon simply wasn't ready to face.
Gideon took the newspaper into the dining room so his father could read it with his breakfast. He was surprised to find his father already sitting there with his mother, both fully dressed, with two mugs of coffee in front of them. He was momentarily relieved that they did not seem alarmed by his presence for once, but seeing them together like this, perhaps waiting for him, did nothing to ease the feeling in his gut.
'I didn't expect you up yet,' Gideon said as coolly as he could. 'Here's the paper, Dad.'
'Oh, thank you,' Mr Maxwell replied.
Gideon made to leave the room, all the while knowing somehow, that he wouldn't reach the door.
'Why don't you sit down for a minute, Gideon?' suggested Mrs Maxwell.
'What for?' he asked quietly.
'Your dad and I would like to speak with you,' she answered.
Gideon complied and took a seat while the dragon in his stomach flexed its wings. 'What about?' he asked, avoiding direct eye contact with either of them.
'Well, we wanted to talk to you about your next year of school,' his mother stated.
'Oh, do you have my Hogwarts letter?' said Gideon in a fleeting moment of hope.
'No, Gideon,' his father answered flatly. 'We need to make some decisions about your education. Where you want to go to school, what you want to study and such.'
The dragon was starting to claw at the walls of Gideon's stomach now. 'But I haven't had my Hogwarts letter yet,' he asserted weakly as his father looked down at his hands and his mother's kind expression changed to one of pity.
'Oh, Gideon,' she said with sorrow in her voice, 'I'm so sorry, honey, but I don't think you're going to get a letter.'
And there it was. The thought that Gideon had avoided confronting for weeks now. Everything was beginning to slot into place. This was it. This was "the truth" his parents had been hiding, and he was the one they had been hiding it from. Somehow, he knew. He knew what was coming. But he needed to hear the words.
Gideon's bottom lip quivered, and his voice cracked as he asked, 'And why wouldn't I get a letter?'
Mrs Maxwell took a moment before she answered, 'I... I don't think you're magical enough, sweetie. We think that... That you might be...' His mother couldn't finish her sentence. She couldn't bear to break the news to her little boy.
Mr Maxwell took her hand as she pressed the other against her mouth. He turned to Gideon and in a softer tone than he was accustomed to, he told him plainly, 'You're a Squib, Gideon.'
As the words that would shatter his life sunk in, the dragon inside Gideon finally stretched its wings and released an almighty breath of fire. He didn't know how to process this. It all made sense now. But it wasn't fair. He was suddenly consumed by so many thoughts and feelings, including the distinct feeling that he might be sick. Instead, he did something he hadn't let himself do in a very long time. He cried.
Gideon slumped out of his chair and broke down completely. His hopes, his dreams, his future. They were all gone, and he couldn't hold back anymore, even in front of his father. As his world crumbled around him, he barely even registered that his father was still in the room, or that his mother had rushed to his side and was holding him tightly.
Gideon was so lost in emotion that he didn't immediately understand what happened next. His mental anguish became physical agony, his sobs became screams, and his body began to thrash uncontrollably in his mother's arms. Once again, a pain like no other took a hold of Gideon, and soon after, rendered him unconscious.