Knight of the Black Rose

by Nissa Gordon

  "So...yeah...did you check out the timetable?" Will asked changing the subject.

  "I know, we'll be learning spells or charms first thing," Alex said excitedly.

  "The teacher will probably go over the languages part first, unless you know all the basic magical languages?" Lucy told them.

  "You could have just let us believe for a while," Alex told her sulking.

  Lucy smiled at him. "Then you would have been even more disappointed,"

  "We won't have to learn a whole language will we, I mean before we can start doing spells?" Libby asked sounding just as disappointed as the boys.

  "No...they'll probably explain the basic structure of the language or something," Selena answered.

  As they carried on talking and eating the hall filled up with more students, some staying a while and others just popping in for a quick snack before rushing back out again. After they had all finished eating and realising that the older students were clearing away their own plates, they picked their own up and walked over to a service area near the door and put the plates in the trays, which when full would disappear and clean ones would reappear in the stack where they had got them from.

  "That's handy...shame we can't do that at home," Selena said as they followed the boys out of the hall and back outside.

  They went back outside into the still cold morning air, though with a small difference this time, there were a few more people walking around either making their way over to the food hall or over to the transport hanger, which was where they were all heading along the path.

  "Do you think they'll be using those coaches from last night?" Will asked.

  "So where was the driver?" Libby asked.

  "They’re enchanted normally, having someone then just looking over them making sure that they're working properly," Lucy told her.

  "So they're like the carriages?" Jessica asked.

  "That's it," Lucy said as they walked side by side.

  It only took them a couple of minutes along the path and then they went through the large open doors into the noises hanger where several dozen students were already waiting to be allowed onto the coach. There was one with students getting on that was facing another large open door; there were three more coaches all lined up along side of it, they were empty, and no one appeared to be trying to get on them as though they were only allowed on one at a time. There was a tall man stood at the door to the coach directing students on, he was wearing a well worn long black leather coat and had goggles on covering most of his face.

  "Wow...creepy much," Jessica whispered.

  "He does look a bit odd to be working with students...but who knows," Lucy whispered back.

  The queue moved along quickly, but as they got closer to the front they could already see that the ground level had been filled which meant if there were any seats left they would have to go up stairs, something that Lucy didn't really like doing much considering how easy she found it to fall over. But it seemed as though she didn't have to worry for now, because the man held up his hand stopping the next lot of students on the coach who grumbled a lot because they couldn't get on with their friends, but he still wouldn't let them on. He patted the side of the coach, it shudder before it came to life and moved slowly forward to the door picking up speed as it neared, then all of a sudden it shot forward and rounded the sharp corner to the right.

  "That was kind of fast," Jessica said nervously.

  The man walked over to the next coach and the door opened for him, as the students in front of them slowly walked over and climbed on board; they also followed passing the man to get on the coach, but he didn't say a word to any of them, just stood there watching behind his blacked out goggles.

  "We're all in agreement that he was creepy right?" Lucy asked quietly.

  "Yeah," Troy answered just in front.

  "I want to go upstairs," Alex said pulling Will back so that they could head up.

  "You want me to break my neck on our first day, after Troy told me not to end up in the doctor’s wing?" Lucy complained; she didn’t like going upstairs as she always thought that she was going to fall or do something embarrassing.

  "We don't have to go up with them," Jessica told her.

  Troy grabbed Lucy's wrist and pulled her along. "Yes she does. And you're not going to break your neck,"

  Troy walked along the aisle to the back of the coach still holding Lucy, following Alex who sat on the back row with Will, he squeezed in pulling Lucy down with him, while as Selena and Libby sat together on the seat in front of Alex and Jess sat on the seat in front of Lucy.

  "See you didn't fall once," Troy told her.

  "That would because the coach isn't moving," Lucy told him.

  "You won't be walking around while the coach is moving, and we're all going to the same place," Troy reminded her.

  "I still can't believe that no ones driving these buses," Libby said looking around nervously. "What if something happens?"

  "Nothings going to happen," Selena told her.

  "They go into a protective mode and are then automatically transported to their destination," Will told her; they both looked at him as though wondering how he could possibly know something like that. "My dad,"

  Libby stared at him and then at the others. "So none of your parents have normal jobs?"

  "They are normal jobs, where we come from," Will told her. "Different world, different types of jobs,"

  It didn't take long before the coach was filled with students from all three estates on this side of the complex, then it came to life and slowly pulled out gathering speed as it neared the door, until it finally shot out and rounded the corner down another small two lane road between the trees.

  "Do you think everything is surrounded by trees?" Lucy asked.

  "Probably for safety," Troy said as he looked out of the window, but all they could see were trees.

  After a couple of minutes travelling along the dark road they came out finally into the light, a long road before them with a small one off to their right to the stadium; but they carried on along the main road for a couple more minutes before they turned sharply as there was a lake on the left.

  "Wow..." Libby said.

  "Do you think we'll be allowed to go swimming in the summer?" Lucy asked hopefully.

  "I'm going even if we're not." Troy told them.

  "So you want to be eaten by the creatures in the lake?" Lucy teased making him look back at her, but she could tell that he couldn't tell if she was lying or not.

  "There isn't any creatures in the lake." Troy said finally, though he wasn't completely sure about that.

  "You keep telling yourself that," Lucy teased.

  "You were the one who said she wanted to go swimming first," Troy reminded her.

  "You fall for it every time mate, seriously," Alex said laughing at his friend with Will.

  After another five or so minutes they were travelling up the main road to the school, the first building that they could see was the transport hanger and then the greenhouses to the right just outside of the forest. They travelled up the road and through the large open doors, turning left sharply with some of the students already getting up and making their way to the stairs as the coach rounded a corner stopping on the far side.

  Lucy finally stood up but she still let Alex and Will go before her and then she went after them with Troy right behind her, she wanted to make sure that someone would catch her in case she fell. The others followed closely behind them as they slowly made their way downstairs, then off of the coach into the loud hanger, where the other students were talking amongst themselves excitedly.

  Lucy made her way through the crowd taking the lead now, with the others following closely behind her, she remembered from the map where they were supposed to be heading. They made their way through the crowd and out through the main doors into the large grounds, there were buildings to their right and left, Defence on the left and Potions on their right, which they would be going
to before dinner.

  "This place is huge..." Will said in awe. "I looked over the maps...but seriously, this is something else,"

  "You know that we'll have to explore the whole place," Alex said nudging him.

  "When do you think we should start?" Troy asked.

  "How about you at least wait until break, we have two classes before hand," Lucy told them over her shoulder.

  They walked across the large expanse of the grounds to one of the large corner buildings, passing the fountains and seating areas underneath the trees, until they finally reached the entrance on the corridor section; they turned left down the corridor to get to the main part of the building. As they stepped out onto the main corridor, they suddenly realised that it wasn't what they had been expecting; from what they could see on the whole left of the corridor this was the only door except for one other at the far end. They all looked at each other and then headed for the stairs as their classroom for this lesson was on the first floor. They went up wondering if any of their classmates would have already arrived yet, they couldn't hear anyone as they reached their level and turned back on themselves for the door; again the corridor was empty.

  "What time is it?" Alex asked as he leant against the wall.

  Will looked at his watch. "Oh...we're a little early...though only about fifteen minutes,"

  "That's not too bad," Lucy said as she walked over to the door and had a look through the window, but stumbled back when it opened on its own.

  Troy went over to see what she was up to. "You opened the door?"

  "Of course not...it did it on its own," Lucy told him as she peered inside with him just behind her.

  "Are we supposed to go in?" Libby asked uncertainly.

  Selena walked over to join them. "This is our class,"

  They all slowly went into the classroom, and it was huge, tables lined the room with boards on all the walls and below them were cupboards all of them closed. They walked further into the room and noticed that on all of the tables were name places, which meant that they weren't allowed to sit wherever they wanted, so they looked along the rows for their names for a couple of minutes until they finally found them.

  "Will! We're next to each other," Lucy told him as she stood in front of their desk, Will shrugged and went over to join her.

  "Have you seen us?" Alex asked as he quickly went up the front, and was quite pleased to see that their desk was next to Will's, and sat down waving Troy over.

  Selena and Libby's table was behind Lucy's and then next to them was Jess' table, with a girl that she didn't know.

  "This isn't fair...who's Zakiya?" Jess said as she slumped in her chair, not at all pleased that she didn’t get to sit next to her best friend but someone she didn’t even know, and maybe wouldn’t even end up liking.

  Lucy turned around. "It'll be alright...you're great at making friends,"

  "That's you," Jess told her, not liking that she always felt that she was being left out when the three of them were around, it was like they were trying to steal her best friend from her.

  Lucy wanted to say something more encouraging but couldn't really think of anything, she knew that Jess would be already as soon as she got over her shyness, and she would sit next to her if she was allowed, even though she also didn't want to leave Will on his own either, but she was her best friend.

  Will turned around. "It's probably just for this lesson,"

  "Well I guess so," Jess said a little more hopeful at hearing this.

  It didn't take long before the others slowly started to arrive and walked among the desks looking for their own, they did pretty much get the idea that each estate was on one side of the room, with a few of the tables in the centre mixed; Eddie and Methos sat in front of Troy and Alex, and Lucy was quite surprised to find her two cousins on the table next to her, which also made her a little happier for Jess considering that she knew them as well.

  The door closed once everyone was in the classroom and then the bell rang and another door behind the teachers desk opened and a beautiful young woman walked out; she had golden almost bronze hair worn partly lose and then the bottom half tied. Her robes in deep reds and burnt browns, with a flowing dress underneath giving it extra layers.

  She smiled brightly at them all as papers appeared on her desk. "Good morning class, I am pleased to see that you're all here and you were all early as well; defiantly a good start to the day. Now then, I'm Professor Burnhill and I will be teaching you Charms and the proper use of the magical languages for the next seven years; and I do hope that we all get along. Okay, we'll start with the basic introductions today. As you've all noticed, there were names on each of your desks. Now, yes you're all basically sat next to or near someone that you know, or there about’s. I am sorry that you weren't allowed to choose who you sat next to in class, but the school decides who you will sit next to for the year. You may not know this, but you all have been tested in some way of your powers, that is how you got into this school to begin with. That means that the person you are sat next to will be able to help you to advance in the areas that needs work this year. Your seating arrangements will be looked into every year. Now my class, as you've probably noticed this floor is mine; meaning that beyond is the practical area for the bigger charms that we'll be learning. Charms can be used for so many every day uses and also to help you protect yourself, that's what you will be learning in my class. You will also be learning the language as well, you might not think that it's important, but it is. Someone could throw an unknown spell at you, and your only defence would be to understand what that person is saying to you; that is what you will also be learning in this class which will help you in all of your lessons."

  She waved her hand in front of her and books appeared on all of the desks in front of everyone and then she turned back to the board as she pulled her wand out from under her robes and pointed at it and writing appeared in an elegant scroll.

  Chapter Nine

  They walked out of the food hall and down the corridor to the adjoined building for their next lesson, as their break was almost over; Troy was trying to eat another piece of toast while Alex complained next to him. "We haven't done any magic yet,"

  "She said that we had to understand the basics first," Lucy told him again.

  "English wasn't really what I was expecting," Libby said from the back of the group.

  "I think it's kind of cool, to learn to write your own spells," Lucy said as she took a piece of toast off of Troy. "It isn't as though you can really eat all of that yourself,"

  "I could have," Troy told her, but he didn't really mind.

  "Do you think that was the only lesson we have with another estate?" Jess asked as she walked beside of Lucy.

  "So, is Zakiya alright?" Lucy asked her.

  Jess shrugged. "She seems it,"

  Lucy smiled suddenly. "I got it...Burnhill said that who we've been placed with will help us...Zakiya is to help with you being a little shy around people you don't know. I've tried...but, maybe she'll be better at it than I am."

  "I thought it was supposed to help with our magic?" Will asked confused.

  "Yes of course," Lucy said as though this was obvious. "You need self confidence with your magic; otherwise you won't be able to use it properly,"

  "I don't have a problem with my confidence," Jess said a little embarrassed that she was bringing it up in front of everyone, which she kind of guessed proved her point, but she also knew that Lucy wasn’t very shy, but she didn’t like to be centre of attention either.

  "What I mean is; that you'll be even more powerful than you are now," Lucy said not sure that she was explaining it properly.

  "That explains you, your parents putting you out there and knowing so many people," Selena said.

  "Tell me about it," Lucy said before she finished her toast off as they came onto the main corridor with was laid out like the Charms Block.

  There were already a dozen or so Disa lads stood outside of the classroo
m talking amongst themselves, they looked over and started to snigger as they approached, not that they stood too close to them.

  "I over looked that," Will said annoyed that he had missed that they would be having this lesson with Disa.

  "As long as we don't have to sit with any of them, I'll be fine," Eddie said.

  "They can't all be bad," Lucy said looking over at them, but considering how they were already glaring at them, she was starting to rethink her comment.

  "My brothers alright...can't say much about his friends though," Selena told them. "I don't really like them that much, but dad didn't seem to mind them,"