Ella let out a loud squeak, her excitement rising. She knew what was coming, so she chose to respond in gleeful sounds instead of words. Without moving from his chair, as he continued to play with his sister, he ran his hands over her smooth, fluffy hair and looked at the food in the bowl.
"Ella say ahhh"
He willed some of the mash in the bowl to lift from its place. After that, he focused on the separated portion of the food and used his 'intent' to change its shape. Ella's eyes never left the mash as it rose from the bowl and slowly changed from a clump into a small wagon that resembled the front engine of a train.
Henry willed the mash train to move around Ella, and she cooed out in joy when it floated around her in a circle.
"Choo Choo," imitated Henry. He didn't know the magic to help make the train noises, so he had to manually say it, for now.
This wasn't his first time feeding his sister using magic. He had started a couple of months earlier, when he lifted the water jug to pour himself a glass. After Ella had seen that, she wanted her food with the side of magic.
His parents were aware of his aptitude with magic, although they didn't know the extent of his capabilities. It would have been hard to hide magic if he wanted to practice when he was at home, so he used simple magic like levitation openly.
It often became a common occurrence in the Augustus household to see things flying about, so Mr and Mrs Augustus slowly got used to the magic.
It, of course, took a long time for them to be sure it wasn't just a fluke and that he had enough control, but almost two years of practice showed his mastery of levitation magic and gave his parents enough confidence that he was capable of feeding his sister with magic.
A tug on his shirt broke him out of his thoughts. He looked down and saw a pair of teary blue eyes looking at him. Ella had her lips quivering, her eyes shining, and her tears almost ready to spill over.
Lost in his thought, he never noticed the train of mash that was circling around her head, while she kept her mouth open to catch the food that never came.
Apparently, she had gotten tired of keeping her mouth open and was smart enough to go to the source of the grievance, her brother.
Not wanting to make his sister cry, he quickly distracted her by gently feeding her the mash.
"Look, Ella - another train," he pointed to the bowl where another clump was forming itself to another train carriage.
He exhaled a sigh of relief as that was enough to shift her focus.
As he continued to play and feed his sister, his mother walked into the dining room with lamb chops, roasted vegetables, and mashed potatoes, all floating behind her.
"That looks great - doesn't it, Ella?" said Henry as he finished feeding Ella the last portion of her food.
Mrs Augustus, hearing her son's compliment, beamed at him and said.
"You are so sweet, I could just gobble you up."
She set the food down in the middle of the table and came to Henry and Ella's side.
Ella, upon seeing her mother, immediately made a pick-me gesture with her hands raised high.
"Are you full, Ella?" she asked, making conversation while she picked up her daughter.
She waved her wand around Ella, and all the numerous stains cleaned themselves while the bib detached from her neck and floated to the kitchen, where Henry was sure it was going to clean itself in the sink.
"Did you enjoy your big brother feeding you?"
In response, Ella gave a quick nod and a wide smile; Henry wasn't completely certain that his baby sister understood the question, but he was ecstatic nonetheless.
Soon, his father came down the stairs in a fresh set of clothes, and dinner began.
The conversation was kept to a minimum as the Augustus family ate dinner. Henry spent the whole dinner thinking about whether magic made food taste better.
'Magic has to influence the taste. No way British food is this good.' Henry thought in disbelief once again at the standard of his mother's cooking.
The plates floated to the kitchen to clean themselves as soon as the dinner was over. The table mats gave a little wave as they too, followed the dirty dishes onto the table; next the cutlery, and then the glasses.
As Mrs Augustus made a circle motion with her wand over the kitchen table, everything that was left on the table was cleaned and tidied.
Soon, the whole family was sitting at a clean table.
"Ready for desserts?" she asked no one in particular, but everyone answered nonetheless.
"Yes, dear."
"I am ready mummy"
"Yeah!" even Ella chimed in.
She chuckled at our excitement, mostly Henry and Ella's.
She went into the kitchen and came out carrying a chocolate cake. It had seven lit candles on top of the cake, and the letters that read 'Happy Birthday Henry.'
She set the cake down in front of Henry and went back to the other side of the table to join her husband.
"Happy Birthday, son," they both wished together.
Henry briefly wondered if they had practised synchronising their wishes, or if it was something all magical husbands and wives could do.
Ella was too busy trying to reach the cake from the high chair to wish her brother a happy birthday.
"Wish your big brother happy birthday," his mother said as she guided his sister to say the words.
After a couple of times, Ella was able to repeat her mother's words.
"Happy Birthday!" she said in a choppy voice; it was the best she could do, and Henry found it absolutely adorable.
She was still in the phase where her words didn't come out clearly.
"Thank you, mummy, thank you, dad, thank you, Ella," Henry thanked everyone.
He had tried to get by calling her mum instead of mummy; however, she quickly put a stop to that with her wet eyes, complaining 'her baby boy was growing up'.
After that, he never attempted to call her mum again.
"Ready for your present, my boy?" his dad said as he took out his wand. It was rare to see his dad use magic at home. In fact, he couldn't recall more than a couple of times when he even saw his dad's wand.
His mother was much more liberal with her wand, and his dad mostly used it, if at all, at work.
She used it mostly for housework, cleaning after Ella, and for general convenience.
Henry often thought that magic meant much more to her than her husband.
"Accio Henry's present," came a clear voice.
Henry felt the magic before he even ever saw the present hurdling towards his dad.
His own magic simmered inside of him with the desire to burst out, and he felt a little warmer.
'Not yet, magic-kun.' he gripped his knee and took a second to cool his magic.
In these two years, he had gotten pretty good at bringing his magic to the surface and letting it sink.
As the present came to a full stop in front of his dad, his dad waved his wand again, and the gift paper began to unravel.
Henry finally got a good look at the present as it stopped in front of him, floating in mid-air.
"No way!"