The sun was close to setting by the time the train pulled into King’s Cross. Olivia, Evangeline, and Pearl got off the train and walked through the large crowd of people. Evangeline soon saw her mother waiting for her by the barrier. Before Evangeline departed, Olivia gave her a hug and told her goodbye. Olivia then walked with her sister to get their baggage and they both went through the barrier. Their father was waiting for them on the other side.
“Daddy!” Olivia and Pearl both shouted. They each threw their arms around their father, who gave them both a large hug and a kiss on their foreheads.
“How are you girls doing?” Mr. Rainford asked, picking up some of their bags.
“Good,” Olivia and Pearl both said together.
“How were your first few months at Hogwarts, Pearlie?”
Just as Olivia predicted, Pearl spent over an hour excitingly telling their father all about Hogwarts. Not only did she explain the things that she learned in class, but she practically explained every little thing about Hogwarts to the very last detail. Because Mr. Rainford had gone to Hogwarts himself, he already knew about at least half of the things that Pearl talked about. But he still loved hearing about her experience nonetheless.
The Rainfords traveled back home by floo powder. Before doing so, Olivia let her owl, Rupert, out of his cage so that he could fly back home himself. Rupert hated traveling by floo powder.
After arriving home, the Rainfords walked out of the fireplace and into their living room, which was very clean. Sure enough, Aunt Margot was in the kitchen waving her wand several times to make sure that the house was spotless.
“Hi, Aunt Margot!” Olivia and Pearl said together.
“Hi girls!” Aunt Margot said, hugging both of them. “How are you?”
“Good.”
“Hi, Margot,” Mr. Rainford said. “Did we get any mail today?”
“Yes we did,” Aunt Margot walked to the living room table and picked up a closed envelope. “You got a letter from Massengill’s House of Wands.”
“Massengill’s?” Mr. Rainford said. “That’s unusual.”
Mr. Rainford opened the envelope and pulled out a letter. He read it and froze.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Olivia asked.
“M…Ma…Massengill wants to pay me a visit. Tomorrow.”
Aunt Margot looked surprised. “Massengill himself?”
Mr. Rainford nodded.
“Why? Does he need to talk to you about something?”
“He wants to come over for dinner.”
Aunt Margot now looked confused. Olivia herself was very confused. Why would Massengill from Massengill’s House of Wands want to have dinner with them? The Rainfords weren’t even a well-known family.
“Daddy, who’s Massengill?” Pearl asked.
Mr. Rainford sighed.
“Mr. Massengill is the owner of Massengill’s House of Wands. He’s a very rich man. Probably one of the richest men in the wizarding world.”
“Massengill’s House of Wands?” Pearl asked. “What’s that?”
“It’s where we bought your wand,” Olivia said.
“Oh, that place. Yeah, I remember. It was really big.”
“Have you met Massengill?” Olivia asked her father.
“Yes, I have,” He answered. “I did about two years ago. I was doing an interview with somebody from the House of Wands and then Massengill walks in. As soon as he sees me doing the interview, he wants to take part in it.”
Mr. Rainford worked as a writer for The Daily Prophet. When Olivia first began Hogwarts, he wrote an article explaining how excited and happy that he was about his “little girl growing up so fast.” Although the article totally embarrassed Olivia, she couldn’t help but smile whenever she read it. The article was now torn out and hanging over Olivia’s bed.
“I decided not to publish that article,” Mr. Rainford said.
“Why not?” Olivia asked.
“Because Massengill…well…let’s just say that he’s not very professional. Most of the comments he made were totally unethical. For instance, at one point he said that he didn’t think we really were true wizards because ‘wands do all the hard work for us,’ even though that is totally not true. Every time I told him I thought he was wrong about something, he called me an ignorant fool. Needless to say, I wasn’t very comfortable doing the interview.”
Olivia felt a little angry. What gave Massengill the right to talk to her father that way? Especially since he was nice enough to write an article about his store? Olivia couldn’t believe that Massengill had the nerve to want to come over for dinner after saying all those things.
“That’s not even the worst part,” Mr. Rainford continued. “Massengill was not the least bit happy with me when I decided not to publish the article. He ended up setting up another interview with another journalist who wrote for the magazine, The Unthinkable. This journalist happened to be a good friend of Massengill and was willing to publish just about anything for him. Anyways, the journalist ended up publishing an article called “Ignorant Fool,” which was nothing but Massengill insulting me in some of the most heinous ways possible. I haven’t had a very good reputation since then.”
Olivia had never heard of the article as she did not read The Unthinkable (The Unthinkable was banned from Hogwarts due to its content), but hearing about it made her even more angry at Massengill.
“Thankfully, the worker at the House of Wands agreed with me that Massengill is a jerk and we were able to at least buy a wand for Pearl. But girls, please never let anything happen to your wands. I never want to associate myself with Massengill again.”
“Don’t let him come to our house!” Olivia said. “Write a letter to him and tell him to stay away!”
“I can’t do that, Honey,” Mr. Rainford said. “If I do, he might write have another rude article written about me. Possibly one that is even worse than the last. My reputation has been tarnished badly enough and I’m not willing to let it get even worse. At this point, the only thing I can do is be as nice to him as much as I possibly can. Maybe I can stay on his good side at least while he’s here.”
“How did he even get our address?” Aunt Margot asked.
“I have no idea,” Mr. Rainford said. “I’m sure he found it somewhere.”
Olivia walked over to her father and gave him a large hug.
“Everything Massengill said is bunch of garbage,” She said. “You’re a wonderful man. You’re the most wonderful man that I know. Massengill is the ignorant fool, not you.”
“Oh, Olivia,” Mr. Rainford said, patting her back. “I’m only the most wonderful man you know because I’m your dad.”
“So what?”
“Once you get married, your husband is going to be the most wonderful man you know. I’ll then be the second most wonderful.”
“Daddy!”
Mr. Rainford chuckled and opened the window for Rupert, who had already made it home (Rupert was a very quick traveler). Rupert flew in and settled on top of the living room table.
“Maybe Massengill isn’t even angry with me anymore,” Mr. Rainford said. “Perhaps Massengill has finally put the past behind him and would like to have dinner with me as a way to show that we’re at peace now.”
“Or maybe he’s just using this ‘dinner’ as another opportunity to insult you some more. That sounds more likely to me.”
“Olivia, that’s enough.”
“Why don’t we get our minds off of all this?” Aunt Margot said. “How about some dinner?”
She wove her wand a few times and after about a minute, plates of roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans were all at the table.
“Yeah!” Pearl shouted. “Mashed potatoes!”
Olivia wasn’t sure that dinner was enough to get her mind off of all the horrible things that Massengill said about her father. However, once Massengill was gone, they could all forget about him and just think about how Christmas was right around the corner. Olivia could hardly wait to spend another Christmas Day with her family.375Please respect copyright.PENANACOxa0U9cJ2