After the strange outburst of hate from my mom, Dad led me out of the house. Picking up the torn letter and tucking it into my pocket, I then followed him, grateful to get away from this situation.
He took me to an ice cream shop that was a couple minutes away, smiling to me as he held the door open.
"Thanks," I said, keeping my gaze tied to the square floor tiles of the shop.
We went up to the counter, my dad ordering double chocolate and ordering strawberry for me. Walking up to a table, we sat down holding our ice cream.
Finally looking up, I stared intently at my dad. "So what was that about?" I asked slowly. "How did I... steal magic, and what's a Squib?"
My dad sighed. "First of all, you didn't steal any magic. That truly is not how it works. And a Squib is someone born from a magical family who doesn't possess magic."
"So Mom doesn't have any magic and she thinks that since I have magic, I stole it from her?" I asked, something deeper than annoyance entering my voice. "How can she think that? She literally gave birth to me!"
People around us started to turn and stare at me. An embarrassed expression lit my face and I looked down at the table.
Did I seriously just yell: She gave birth to me?
Wow...
My dad gave a slight chuckle as he looked at me and my red face. I smiled back a little, forgetting a little about all that had just happened. This was more normal, me doing something embarrassing and my dad laughing at me.
I shook my head, as people turned back to their treats. "Okay, but seriously I thought..." my voice dropped slightly and something else entered my tone. "I thought she loved me."
My dad's eyes rounded and he gave a sad smile. "She does, A. I promise. She'll get over this. It's just something that still hits her hard, okay?" he reached over the table and put his hand on my shoulder, "You know how you've never met anyone from her side of the family?"
I nodded my head in response.
"Well, that's because she broke off from the wizarding world, from her family. She was hurt... everyone else in her family has magic and she doesn't, Aelynn. It just hit a sore spot, that's all."
I nodded again, this time I actually started to understand. She was just hurt and a little bitter about it, and now hearing about it... it was understandable.
Wait... there's still one thing that doesn't make sense...
"So... are you a wizard then?" I asked, taking a bite of my ice cream. "Because you seems to know a lot about magic."
I made sure to keep my voice down, just to make sure people didn't start staring at me again.
My dad laughed again. "Nope, definitely not. Muggle through and through." he looked at my confused expression and clarified, "Muggles are non magical people."
I nodded once more, then my eyebrows furrowed. "So, everything you know about magic is from Mom?" I asked, taking my ripped letter from my pocket.
It was his turn to nod as he ate some of his own ice cream. "Yep."
"So then, do you know how to get this stuff-" I pointed to the torn up list of items on the second sheet of parchment. "From this place?" I pointed to one of the only whole words in the second part of the letter...
Diagon Alley.