My Gramps Jeremy likes to tell me stories.  He told me I'm the first of my kind and my kid sister Brenda is the second.  There are lots of us now, but we're the oldest ones.  We're hybrids.  Dad's a Homo Sapiens and Mom's a Homo Gul Akeer.  Brenda and I are just Homos - just humans.  We're both magical.  Most of us hybrids are.  All the Akeers are too and so are a few of the Sapiens, like Gramps Jeremy.  But not Dad.  He's a Squib.  And not Granny Marianne either.  She's a Muggle.

Mom never knew either of her parents.  They were Ghouls.  So was Mom when Gramps Jeremy found her and her mother in an attic belonging to Muggles.  He's retired now, but he used to work for the Ministry, in the Ghoul Task Force.  Ghouls aren't supposed to live with Muggles 'cause Muggles aren't supposed to know about magic; so he was sent to move them to a magical home.  She was just a baby then.  Her mother was already dead when he found her, and her body was covered with bruises.  He said she was probably beaten up by her mate; so she ran away to save herself and her baby daughter, but she died of her injuries soon after.

Gramps brought the baby home.  She looked like a pint-sized ogre with buck teeth and slimy skin and big hands and feet for her size, her legs were set far apart and she had an unpleasant smell.  Granny was so shocked that she screamed.  The noise startled the baby and she groaned.  Gramps said he'd try to find another home for the baby, but Dad, who was five years old, begged Gramps to let him keep her as a pet.  Granny didn't like the idea, in particular because of the baby's odour.  But Gramps and Dad helped her take care of the baby and they washed her every day, and then she didn't smell bad any more; so Granny quit complaining. 

Dad named the baby Alice.  He kept talking to her, pretending she could understand him.  One day, Dad called out to Gramps: "Come in here and listen to Alice!  She doesn't groan any more.  She babbles like my friend Mike's baby sister."

Gramps came in and listened for a while, and then said, "I guess she's imitating you, Bob. 
You've been ta..."

"Bob!" said Mom, holding out her arms towards Dad.  Dad picked Mom up and put her on his lap.

Gramps stopped talking in the middle of a word.  His mouth stayed wide open.  Finally he said, "That's amazing!  I've been working with Ghouls for years.  I've met more of them than I can count, and I've never heard one say a word until now.  Thousands of years ago, their ancestors used to talk. They were another kind of humans - the Akeers.  In fact, they were as smart as our ancestors, the Sapiens, and they could all do magic. They lived peacefully with the Sapiens until about forty thousand years ago.  Then the Sapiens attacked the Akeers and damaged their brains.  After that, they couldn't talk anymore.  They ran away from the Sapiens.  The Akeers born after the attack didn't get their brains damaged, but they never learned to talk because they never heard any humans talk.  Eventually they lost their magical powers as well and became the beasts we call Ghouls.  But they don't all have to stay that way.  You've been talking to Alice every day for months, and she's imitating you."

"Didn't anybody else ever talk to a Ghoul?" asked Dad.

"I guess they must have," said Gramps.

"Well, then, why can't any other Ghouls talk?" asked Dad.

Granny, who had suddenly warmed up to the baby when she heard her talk, replied, "People can only learn to talk if older people talk to them when they're babies.  If they don't hear anyone talk until they're adults, they don't learn.  There have been cases of people abandoned as babies and raised by animals and then found as grownups and brought back into human society, and they never learned."

"I guess up until now people have only talked to adult Ghouls, not to baby ones," said Gramps.  "Thanks to you, Alice is learning to talk."

"Talk," repeated Mom.

"Come to think of it, I shouldn't have been surprised," said Gramps.  "If a Ghoul that has become depressed because he misses human company is attacked by a human, he could evolve into a type of Ghoul who hates humans and kills as many of us as he can.  The memory of our ancestors' attack on theirs wasn't destroyed by the attack, only buried in their brains, and it can be revived by being attacked by a human.  Apparently our ancestors' ability to talk wasn't destroyed either, only buried, and it can be revived in a baby Ghoul by listening to human speech.  And to think: nobody ever thought of that until you – a five-year-old boy – discovered it!"

When Mom started playing outdoors, the other kids in the neighbourhood called her a freak 'cause she looked different from them and she couldn't run as fast as they could 'cause her legs were too far apart.  But she didn't let it get her down.  She could swim better than they could, she was smarter than they were and she had magical powers too – and besides, she had Dad to protect her.  They got on his case too, for hanging out with "that freak", but that didn't stop him.  He was a loyal friend.

When Dad turned eleven and didn't get a letter inviting him to Hogwarts, Granny said he should go to a Muggle school 'cause he'd make more friends there.  She'd been teaching him at home up until then.  But he said, "I won't leave Alice alone.  I'm the only friend she's got."  Gramps was proud of him – a chip off the old block, he called him.  Granny just sighed.

When Mom turned eleven, she did get a letter from Hogwarts. Dad knew he'd be apart from her for ten months each year; so he agreed to go to a Muggle high school.  Mom thanked Dad for his help and hugged him.  Then Gramps said, "Congratulations, Alice!  You're as smart and as magical as any of your Akeer ancestors.  Other Ghouls can achieve the same things if enough of us help out.  I'm going to propose to the Ministry that we reclassify Ghouls as Potential Beings instead of Beasts.  That will motivate some magical people to talk to baby Ghouls.  Some of them may become smart like you, and then we'll have restored the Gul Akeer species.  Since the Homo Sapiens were responsible for the downfall of the Akeer people, we owe it to the Ghouls to make the effort."

A few days later he said, "My proposal met with opposition from some of the members of the Ministry, who argued that the Akeers would remember the way our ancestors mistreated theirs and wreak revenge on us like the Djinn Ghouls.  I said, 'That sort of argument has been used to justify keeping people down forever.  Some witches and wizards have used it against Muggles, Muggle-borns and House Elves, and some Muggles have used it against witches, wizards and other Muggles of different races.  It's a self-serving argument, unworthy of ethical people, and it has no validity because Ghouls don't evolve into Djinn Ghouls unless they are attacked by humans.'  After some debate, my proposal was accepted." 

The next day that decision was the top story on the front page of the Daily Prophet.  In that story Gramps told how Mom got smart and magical and he asked the magical community to follow Dad's example to make up for the damage done to the Akeers by the ancient Sapiens.  After that the kids on the street stopped calling Mom a freak and a couple of them even made friends with her.  Other magical people started talking to baby Ghouls.  Most of them learned to talk, and some of them became smart like Mom.  Gramps is proud of himself.  He keeps boasting that he restored the Akeers, but he gives Dad credit too for showing him it could be done.

A few days after Mom left for Hogwarts, an owl flew in a window, carrying a letter from her.  It said she was sorted into Hufflepuff and she already made a few friends.  Every summer and every Christmas break she'd come home and tell Dad about the magic she learned and the new friends she made.  And he would teach her some of the things he learned in school.  After finishing high school he went to university.  He learned all about animals there, just like Granny.  Mom did well in all her subjects, especially Care of Magical Creatures.  She said the stuff he taught her helped her in that subject.  Most magical people didn't know that stuff.  After she graduated from Hogwarts, she helped the Care of Magical Creatures prof care for the magical creatures on the Hogwarts grounds until he retired.  Then she became the new prof.  Dad became a prof in a Muggle university, teaching about animals.  And then they got married and had me and Brenda.  Some of the other Akeers also married Sapiens and had other hybrids.  There are some in our neighbourhood.  The Sapiens, the Akeer and the hybrid kids in our neighbourhood all play together.  Gramps keeps boasting that he was right and the Ministry people who said it'd be dangerous to turn Ghouls into Akeers were wrong.

When I turned eleven I got my letter from Hogwarts and I was sorted into Ravenclaw.  I'm in third year now.  I like all my courses, especially Care of Magical Creatures.  Most of the other kids like that course too.  Mom's a great prof.  Brenda'll get her letter from Hogwarts next year.  I hope she's sorted into Ravenclaw too, but even if she isn't, it'll be okay.  I have lots of friends, some in Ravenclaw and some in other Houses, mainly Hufflepuff.  Some of them are Sapiens and some of them are Akeers.  When the other hybrids are old enough to go to Hogwarts, I'll make friends with them too.  Then it'll be my turn to tell stories to Gramps.