𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝

- 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗶𝗿𝗹 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱 -

{ BOOK ONE: PHILOSOPHER'S STONE }

Mr and Mrs Lewis, of number 7, Magnolia Crescent, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.

Mr Lewis was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Lewis was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Lewis's had a small son called Ryan and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Lewis's had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Riddles. Mrs Riddle was Mrs Lewis's sister, but they hadn't met for several years, in fact, Mrs Lewis pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good for nothing husband were as unLewisish as it was possible to be. The Lewis's shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Riddles arrived in the street. The Lewis's knew that the Riddles had a small daughter, too, but they had never even seen her. This girl was another good reason for keeping the Riddles away, they didn't want Ryan mixing with a child like that.

When Mr and Mrs Lewis woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Lewis hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Lewis gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Ryan into his high chair. None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.

At half past eight, Mr Lewis picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Lewis on the cheek and tried to kiss Ryan goodbye but missed, because Ryan was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.

"Little tyke", chortled Mr Lewis as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number seven's drive. It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr Lewis didn't realise what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Magnolia Crescent, but there wasn't a map in sight.

What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr Lewis blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr Lewis drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Magnolia Crescent — no, looking at the sign, cats couldn't read maps or signs. Mr Lewis gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr Lewis couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the get ups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by.

They were whispering excitedly together. Mr Lewis was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all, why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr Lewis that this was probably some silly stunt — these people obviously collecting for something... yes that would be it. The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr Lewis arrived in the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills.