#cromwells

Ok so this theory/headcanon/whatever you want to call it primarily starts after the second film. Between the first and second, Dylan is still very much in denial about his own powers. He hasn't actually seen any concrete evidence after all. Sure, his family beat Kalabar after he joined in, but that could have easily been more of a timing thing than a him-having-magic thing. And he had easily denied everything else in front of his eyes until that point, what's a few sparks?

After this, he doesn't knowingly use magic. I believe that he inadvertently helped Sophie fly the broom in the second film. I don't think he meant to, but I think his desire not to crash may have stabilized it a bit. Not much, but enough so they got there in one piece.

No his conscious use of magic begins right at the end of the second film. Luke convinces him to free Benny from the Gray Spell. After some stalling and excuses, he does. He says the spell and it works. And he is genuinely shocked. He has spent all this time denying the possibility that he could have powers, but there it is, right in front of him. Nobody else was saying that spell. He wasn't joining in a team effort this time. He cast a spell. On his own. With magic. His magic. And he has to cope with this.

I believe that he stews on this for a while. The idea kind of haunts him. Until eventually, he sneaks one of Marnie's spellbooks. He has to be sure. He needs to know that it wasn't a fluke. He chooses a simple spell, recites it. And it works. He spends the rest of the night flipping through the spellbook and trying a couple more. For science.

After having spent some time with Marnie's spellbook, he realizes that magic, in a way, is it's own form of science. It requires technique and precision and studying. He doesn't understand how it works, but that makes it all the more intriguing. He wants to understand. He wants to break it all down until he can explain what it really is. So he studies.

I think this is confirmed (for me at least) at the beginning of Halloweentown High. Marnie is trying a construction spell and just by looking at it Dylan says "That doesn't look like a level 1 spell". How would he know what a level 1 spell looks like if he hadn't studied them himself? He'd have to know something about magic in order to surmise that, and I think he knows a lot more than he's letting on.

"But Star!" you say. "He spent the night on the ceiling! If he knew how to get himself down, why didn't he?" Easy. Pride.

You cannot tell me that Dylan Piper is not one of the most prideful characters ever. This man would absolutely spend the night on a ceiling to avoid letting his family realize he's been studying magic. He's created this reputation for himself as a "man of science" and he intends to keep it.

So much so that even when he finally does admit to using magic in the fourth film, he claims he only ever used it for reading. Again I ask, how did he learn how to do that? How on earth is that the only spell he knows? I'm not buying it. By that point, I honestly believe he is probably better with magic than Marnie is. (Not nearly as good as Sophie, but that's besides the point. That kid's a prodigy.) But he still refuses to admit that he's studied it. He's studied hard. He knows more than a thing or two and honestly could have gotten himself out of more than one tough situation if he were willing to admit it.

This brings us to the future, where my fanfic would take place if I ever actually write it. Dylan and Marnie are in their 30s, Sophie in her late 20s, and Grandma Aggie sadly passed away 10 years ago. The Cromwell kids have grown distant since then, but Gwen calls them to a reunion to try and bring everyone back together. There's only a small issue: Dylan hasn't told his new family that he's a warlock. Or that his sisters and mother are witches. Or that they come from the most powerful magical family across two worlds. While he attempts to keep everyone to a normal family reunion, a minor (see: major) magical emergency might just bring secrets to the surface and force the Cromwells to band together in ways they haven't in over a decade.