“He’s just being a little girl because his channeller isn't what he hoped,” said Graham. “He’ll get over it.”
Magisteer Partington bounced into the classroom with a flick of his brown robes beaming around. “Hello! Hello! How are we all? Good summer I trust?” he moved around the table and shook each of our hands. He looked much the same, rosy red cheeks, square shaped head with a triangular brown hat perched on top, short receding brown hair and a kind face, pinched like an owl. “It looks like everyone made it through the summer,” he said silently counting heads.
I really liked Partington, he was genuinely kind and a patient teacher, which I supposed you had to be if you were tutoring first years. “Second year!” he clapped. “The best of all the magic years.”
“Really?” said Dawn greedily. “Why’s that Sir?”
“Well, not really… just an expression I use sometimes,” he backtracked. “It’s a good year, you’re using what you learnt in first year as a foundation to push on and learn much, much more, with many excellent Magisteers. Of which I shall announce soon, for you shall be going in partly mixed classes. They are not ability based, they are random classes so you’ll get to mix with other forms, which is exciting isn’t it?” he smiled round hoping we would too. A small gurgling in my stomach told me that no I wasn’t excited, I was nervous. Why couldn’t it just stay like this? I knew these people.
ACHHOOOOO! Hunter sneezed the most gigantic sneeze your ever likely to hear. Poor Partington jumped for the door, Ellen’s glasses fell on the floor and Simon dropped his channeller which he was closely inspecting. “Well it’s definitely broken now isn’t it,” he muttered slamming it down and proceeding to stare upwards at the ceiling with a right face on.
“It’s the dust in here Sir,” Hunter sniffed, taking a big tissue that Partington made appear out of nowhere.
Partington wrinkled his own nose as he judged the dustiness of the room. “Yes, I suppose, it is a little… You know, I think the ghosts have forgotten to come and clean up here during the summer. Lazy so-and-so’s…”
I ran my finger along the table and thick grey dust came up. “Ewww,” I said, chorused by others around me who did the same.
“Perhaps they’re on strike!” called Jake waving a fist.
Partington waved his hands impatiently. “Doubt it. Anyway, don’t worry about all that now, I’ll get some ghosts up here soon to give it a quick once over. We’ve got a lot to get through.”
The room we were in was high up the middle and tallest school tower. Up about a hundred flipping stairs too, round and round in a spiral, it felt so high up you could literally feel the air getting thinner. Out the mullioned windows behind us encircled silent, white bobbing clouds. Messy piles of books teetered around the outside of the room, along with instruments under grey cloths that were indistinguishable. The urge had never taken me to see what they were.
“Hold on,” said Partington pointing at someone in between Dawn and Jess. “Who are you? You weren’t in this class last year.” I craned my head round to see who it was.
“It’s me Sir, Dennis?”
“What?” said Partington unconvinced. “You look nothing like…” he stopped. Robin and I nudged each other and laughed. So did the girls. Jess and Florence creased with laughter at Partington’s perplexed frown.
“It is Dennis Sir!” said Jess through giggles. “He’s just changed a lot over the summer.”
Partington stared for ages, until it became slightly uncomfortable, then he seemed to come to himself. “Yes, of course, of course you are… my goodness, how you young things change.” We laughed again, which eased the tension and poor Dennis’ embarrassment. “So your timetables…” said Partington reading from a sheet he now had in front of him. “Form is with me every morning. Monday morning’s you have Mental and Physical Training with Magisteer Simone—” he stopped as muttering broke out. Magisteer Simone was infamous for being the most evil Magisteer in Hailing Hall. She was very tall and wide with one eyebrow and was as mean as they come.
“Why her?” said Simon whining.
Jess and Florence dropped their heads too, they had a run in with Magisteer Simone last year. Whereas Graham, Joanna and Ellen shrugged at each other, they had no idea.
“Oh she’s lovely when you get on her good side,” said Partington.
Hunter slapped the desk. “Good side? It will take us all year to find that!”
Partington smirked slyly, before carrying on. “Magisteer Wasp will take you for your studies of the AstroMagical chart. Magisteer Commonside for Numerology, Magisteer Yearlove for Spell-craft, and myself for Riptide.”
“Riptide?” called Dawn looking into the ceiling. “I’d forgotten all about Riptide!”
“Of course Riptide!” said Partington enthusiastically. “It wouldn’t be Hailing Hall without Riptide. Oh and I am sure you’ll all be told soon but, just to give you a heads up, the way we play the games will be changing.”
“Changing?” chorused Jake, Gret and Joanna looking concerned.
Partington nodded fervently. “Yes. Back to the old ways, how we used to do it. Not sure if its all been finalised yet, so I can’t tell you anything, but of course I will. Now, the first training session will be in a few weeks when we have the stadium booked.”
“Sweet,” said Jake. “‘Opefully we will be better this year.”
“Here’s to hoping. Right, put your robes and ties on because we’re back down to the Chamber for the communal breakfast with everyone. Make sure you talk to the first years, make them feel welcome. I’m sure you remember what it was like for yourselves.” I certainly did — it was this time last year that my brother Ross had made embarrassing photo’s of my flash up on my robes for all to see.
Simon sidled up to Partington who was waiting by the door. “Sir, just before we go down can I ask you about my channeller?”
“Again Simon?”
Mental and Physical Training, I wonder what that involved. Robin looked a bit sick, he said it sounded like we were going to be lifting weights and running. “I’m no good at all that sort of thing,” he moaned, beady eyes flickering with nerves as we trundled through the lower ground corridors towards classroom 27e on the west wing.
“At least it’s not a high up classroom, you got to think of the positives,” I said. “Those high up ones make me giddy.”
“True. But you just know this Magisteer is going to be a nightmare.” I couldn’t disagree with him, I knew she would be, just from the one experience of her. And her renowned reputation amongst all the other years, who’d told us that morning that she was a ‘complete taskmaster’. A little part of me felt that they were embellishing it, as half of the Jaloofia form regaled ours on the nightmare lessons with Simone.
The Jaloofia’s included a snooty lad called Fry Ferry, who reminded me of my brother Ross, who said: “If you don’t do what she asks, or she takes a dislike to you, she has a tendency to lock you in her spiky, sprat infested coffin for the night!” I shivered, I hated sprats (they are like rats, but bigger with red eyes and some say they have a modicum of magical power). Robin scoffed at Fry Ferry when they left and said he’d never heard such drivel in all his life. Hunter looked terrified as we walked to her lesson, his top lip wobbling.
Outside number 27e we waited. Robin, Hunter, Joanna, Ellen, Gret and I lurked nervously. The others were in another class, which Gret wasn’t very happy about — she was always moody without her twin brother. Another form appeared looking apprehensive in the dimly lit corridor.
“Is this the class with Magisteer Simone?” said a timid girl coming to face me in the grey light.
I nodded. “Yes.”
They all came forwards and lurked with us.
“Oi?” called a voice. “Where did you guys go?” this voice wasn’t timid or scared. Around the corner came a girl — the first thing I saw was her hair. It nearly lit up the dim corridor all by itself, for it was bright white, curly and fell down to her waist. But now
she was frowning. “Why didn’t you wait for me?” she berated her classmates, who shrugged sheepishly. “Hello!” she said waving around at us all. “We are the Snares form with Magisteer Blackthorn.”
I blinked as my heart did a little jump. A part of me must of misheard her. “Who did you say your form tutor was?” I said.
“Magisteer Blackthorn,” she said confidently. “He’s new I think. Who are you?” I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t. My breath caught in my throat.
“He’s Avis Blackthorn,” said Robin and the girls face brightened.
“I see, how nice for you.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not nice,” I managed. “Do you know his first name? What does he look like?”
The new girl looked around at her classmates for reassurance. “Don’t know his first name… but he’s erm… tall, dark, confident, very clever, erm… he has nice skin and his eyes are dark?” she managed, shrugging at her lack of description. But I didn’t need any more, I knew exactly which brother this was after she said clever… it was the eldest of all my brothers, Harold. The one I was most scared of.
This must be a wind up? I leaned on Robin for support. Yes, it was a wind up that’s all, David Starlight had come to scare me to death by getting someone to tell me my brother was working in the school. The white haired girl looked at Robin for an explanation, but not before Hunter said: “They don’t get on. The Blackthorn’s are an evil family. But Avis isn’t evil, so he’s an outcast and they don’t like him.” The girl frowned, before the boy just behind her stepped forwards.
“Magisteer Blackthorn doesn’t seem that evil to me.”
“Yeah,” said the white haired girl. “He seems really nice.”
I didn’t say anything, I couldn’t. The shock had pulverised me. If it was true, then I was done for. I thought I was free from my family after Ross left last year, but now I had to deal with another — the cleverest, most cunning, out of all my family, except my parents. He’d come to get me hadn’t he? Come here to pull me out of school and take me home, let my parents deal with me.
Suddenly a great booming voice erupted through the corridor causing us all to jump. “LINE UP AND WAIT QUIETLY!” It boomed from a shadow in the alcove of door to the classroom. It was a big shadow, about three normal people wide and two up. Hunter was holding his chest, panting and whimpering in equal measure. Magisteer Simone came out of the shadows slowly and stared down at us. “Well, why aren’t any of you MOVING!” she blasted.
I jumped up and scrambled after Robin who’d made a bee line for a half-orderly line in front of her. She glanced up the line and smarted. “Did I say make the line in front of me? Make it by the DOOR!” She snapped. The line shuffled next to the door, images of being locked in a coffin made me submit to her barky commands. “And in we go…” I risked a glance at Robin who caught my eye and rolled them as if to say a whole year of this? The girl with the white hair in front of me was scowling, she did not look pleased.
We put our bags in a pile on the dusty floor and stood together in the classroom, which was grey and cold. Not as cold as Straker’s room, but cold enough to make me yearn for a jumper underneath my robes, in the middle of summer too. The walls, floor and ceiling were grey, it had no redeeming features, no blackboard, no books, no instruments, nothing. There were even cast iron bars over the one window in the room.
“Mental and Physical Training,” started Magisteer Simone slamming the door. “Makes a Wizard what they are. The best Wizards are the strongest. Fact. To be a Wizard at all you have to have tremendous inner and outer strength — that’s why most of you are hopelessly pathetic at magic, because you are weak, feeble, with no more mental strength in you’re molly-coddled lives than a Witchetty Grub. Your useless…” she was enjoying herself as she spat these words, I say spat, because I felt some of it land on my face from six feet away. She was really ugly, and I don’t mean that lightly. One bushy, bristly eyebrow went right across her brow which all but buried her narrow, beady eyes. Her skin was patchy and pock marked, her lips thin and taut, her body huge and suspended on tight, skinny legs. Her dress was even more weird, and added to the strangeness. Knee high boots, fastened tightly, with tight green trousers blended in no way with a tight brown and green collection of garments buttoned up to her neck. A black cane, or it might have been a whip also donned her right hand and she swung it round at opportune moments to emphasise her point, causing us all to duck. “I will work you hard, build the mental strength you require to be great. Of course most of you will fail and enter the world as another moderate Wizard, like we need more of those!”
***
With a click of her fingers five mop and buckets popped up in the middle of the floor. “And you will clean your own mess up!” she barked leaving the room. I stood slowly, I think all of the vomit was out of me. My stomach twinged again, and I clutched it groaning along with the others. Robin was sprawled across the dirty floor heaving into one of the buckets. Hunter had passed out in a corner of the room and the white haired girl was scrambling to open the window. The rest of her friends were sprawled on the floor clutching each other.
“You alright Robin?” I said, as a little blob of stuff fell out the corner of his mouth. Gross.
Robin heaved again and looked up, his eyes bloodshot, his face red and blotchy. “What do you think?”
I grabbed the mop and bucket which swelled with soapy water as I neared. I slopped it on the floor and guided it around my patch of yellow sick. My arms felt incredibly weak, like they had been beaten by a troll for an hour. My legs didn’t feel like my legs, they felt like someone else's — numb and wobbly. Grettle was propping up Ellen and helping her mop the sick up with a disgusted expression.
Joanna looked up through thick bushy hair at me. “We can’t do that twice a week surely?”
The white haired girl was tilting her hair back and fanning herself, trying to pull some of the air from the open window inside. I noticed as I stood, feeling very sick, how utterly stunning she was. Her face was mischievous like a pixie, and her hair was like a beautiful mermaid’s — long, bushy and silky. Some strange feelings gurgled inside me and I wasn’t sure if they were the guilt of looking at this new girl over Tina, or whether it was more sick ready to come up. I shook my head, hoping it would expel any thoughts of the white haired girl.
All the sick was just about mopped up. Robin was leaning on his mop for dear life in case he might topple over and Hunter didn’t know what part of his body to clutch, so settled with lying in a foetal position. It had been the hardest, most gruelling hour of my life. Magisteer Simone was an absolute git, and made us do so much physical exertion that it drove most to be sick — and she didn’t even let us stop when we were, she made us do press ups in other people’s sick. That’s what set me off being sick, having to come face to face with Robin’s! It stank! She really enjoyed barking: “Twenty press-ups!…Fifty sits-ups!…Another thirty press ups!…A hundred squats!” Then when we did, it was never good enough: “Hunter missed a rep, that’s five more for everyone!” or “You must touch your toes on a sit-up!” And you couldn’t just not do something, like Hunter did, halfway through refusing through absolutely exhaustion, to do another hundred star jumps, she screamed in his face: “YOU PATHETIC EXCUSE FOR A WIZARD! A HUNDRED MORE SITS-UPS FOR EVERYONE!” It was torture. And now everything hurt, my back, my sides, my legs, arms, neck, head, even parts of me I didn’t know existed.
One good thing I supposed was that it gave me no time to think about my brother Harold being a Magisteer at the school. Every time I thought about it, I went even weaker. So I stopped, putting it out of my mind until it was confirmed properly — when I saw him with my own eyes. A part of me thought maybe they were mistaken, it was someone who sounded like Blackthorn, or coincidently had the same name but was of no relation. Yeah, that would be it… hopefully.
Everyone exited the room as quickly as we could (waddle was a better word), down to lunch where I for one, ate nothing.
I couldn’t. Robin didn’t either, he just sat making moaning noises whenever he moved. “Pass me a drink of water please Simon,” said Robin.
“Get it ‘yerself!” said Simon grinning at Robin’s apparent pain.
“You stupid idiot,” Robin smarted, before reaching across the table for the water jug. “AWWOOO!” he cried clutching his side, and causing people from the surrounding tables to look in both parts sorry for him and knowingly. He poured himself a glass gingerly and looked up at Simon menacingly. “You will see mate, when you get up there later, how you enjoy it! Then we’ll see if anyone passes you the water.” Robin slammed the jug back on the table and moaned again.
I just sat in silence trying not to move, for when I did, it hurt. About five or six tables away was the unmistakable white haired girl. She was suffering too and was nibbling on the end of a baguette and rolling her eyes skywards. I glanced across at the Magisteer’s table again to see if my brother was there. Only Magisteers Trunwood, Mallard and Dodaline were up there, no one else.
“Here he is,” said a voice behind me. Then, the most agonising pain — I screamed as a heavy hand clapped me on the back.
“Ahhhhwwwwa!” I whimpered turning my stiff neck, my eyes watering as I came face to face with the blue eyes and charismatic charm of Ernie Partington.
“Woah, sorry Avis didn’t mean to. What’s wrong with you?” he said.
Hunter glanced up from his slumber and said, “Simone.”
“Ahhh! I see, well I’m sorry and if it helps, it does get better, no not better, easier.”
“Thanks, I think,” I said as Ernie sat on the empty seat next to me. Last year Ernie was a ghost, and found me when I was locked up in one of the high turrets, he remained a great companion for me during that time, sneaking me food and doing work with me. I found a way of bringing him back to life at the end of the year using the Book of Names that Malakai was trying to keep. Robin was the one who actually raised us both back to our bodies in record time — for I had become a ghost too, it was all part of my plan to end Malakai. We agreed afterwards for Ernie to take all the credit for ending Malakai, instead of me, because think about — Malakai is my parents employer. They would kill me if they found out the truth. Now Ernie had come back to life, he could retake his last year. He chose Magisteer Nottingham’s form the Phoenix’s, who were very pleased to have a celebrity amongst their ranks.
Avis Blackthorn and the Magical Multicolour Jumper (The Wizard Magic School Series, Book 2) Page 6
