Maybe it was because the castle was so big. Or then again, it could be because nothing ever stayed in its right place. Or maybe it was because there were 654 staircases at Angsanian Towers, some sturdy and majestic, some rickety and downright run-down, some with a weird step that would stop you and even some that led to a different place on the third day of the Lunar year after the first week of the Gregorian calendar, yadda, yadda, yadda. And there were, of course, the doors that pretended to be walls, walls that pretended to be doors, doors that only opened if you asked them politely, doors that you needed to tickle in exactly the right spot, and hundreds of other doors. Well, whatever the cause, Procus was finding it rather problematic to get to his classes on time.
The ghosts weren't much help either. It was always a nasty surprise when one glided through a wall-door that you're trying to get through. When a ghost glides through you, you'll get a sensation of being submerged in icy water. The Silver Duke, who was the Evgenis ghost, was always happy to help any students that were lost on their way to class. But Prickly the poltergeist was worth three trick staircases and a locked door if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper bins on your head, shoot ink pellets at you, pull out rugs from under your feet or, he could just be subtle and sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose and yell, "GOT YOUR NOSE!"
Even worse than Prickly, if possible, was the caretaker, Stultus Zafran. He was obsessed with punishment and thought that the more kids that were thrown out of the school, the better. He would prowl the corridors like some ungainly shadow and could appear pretty much anywhere almost at once because of his superb knowledge of the school's secret passageways. Woe betide you if you get on the wrong side of him when you're late for class. If you do, you can count on missing the entire day of lessons and getting detention. Procus and Adi had managed to get on the wrong side of him on their first day. He caught them trying to get through a locked door that happened to be the door to the forbidden corridor. He was debating on how to punish them when they were rescued by a passing Professor Pascal.
Zafran owned a cat that he called Punishment. She was a scrawny, dusty grey and pesky thing. She would prowl the corridors, much like Zafran, with her yellow, lamp-like eyes peering at the students. If she caught you in wrongdoing, you can bet your cauldron that Zafran would be there two seconds later, panting and wheezing out stuff like disembowelment, whipping, caning, the usual gunk. It was the dearest ambition of many of the students to give Punishment a good, hearty kick. Whoever tried, however, was put into detention immediately for breaking rule number 1,546 in Zafran's rule handbook (which everyone disregarded).
Then, once you actually reached them, (lucky you) there were the lessons themselves. There was much more to magic than (as Procus quickly found out) waving a wand and saying a few funny words. Unless you're superbly gifted. Then yes, it is just a matter of waving a wand about and saying funny words. But that is extremely rare.
They had to study the night sky with their telescopes and calculate the positions of the stars for Star-Gazing every Tuesday and Friday. This was probably the only subject that Alen John Santosh, a round-faced, forgetful boy was good at. Then there was Enchantment. The Enchantment teacher, Professor Bhim, was an extremely short wizard with flyaway hair and bushy eyebrows. After taking the register, he demonstrated a Levitation Control Enchantment to the class by making Alen's toad zoom around the classroom. After making the class take various notes, he gave them the incantation (Sursum Volant!) and put them into pairs to practice. Procus was paired up with Adi. "Sorsome Vole Ant! Sorsome Vole Ant!" Adi shouted, waving his arms around like a windmill. Instead of making the feather in front of him levitate, he blasted the wand clean out of Procus' hands and made it spiral to the other end of the classroom, where it hit Professor Bhim squarely on the forehead.
"Yes… well, not so good, Mister Putra. Why don't you try, Mister Evgenis?" Professor Bhim commented drily, coming over to their table. Procus was about to cast the Enchantment when he realized that he didn't have his wand. Then, he remembered reading about wizards who were 'Spellhurlers', which meant that they could do magic without a wand. One of the best Spellhurlers was his own ancestor, Satiledif Evgenis. Excitement bubbled in the pit of his stomach. If his ancestor could do it, why couldn't he? Summoning all his powers of concentration, he held his open palm out towards the feather. He could feel power welling up inside him. All he had to do was control it.
"Sursum Volant!" he yelled, and he could feel the power surging through his body and being released through his fingers in just the right amount. The feather flew up at once, zooming wherever he pointed. After making it zoom around the classroom and tickle Professor Bhim under the armpits, he brought it to a halt above the table in front of him and clenched his fist. The feather flopped down onto the table, lifeless. There was an astounded silence after this, in which everyone goggled at Procus. Then there was tumultuous applause in which Professor Bhim said, "Oh bravo, Mister Evgenis! Bravo! Sixty points to Evgenis!". Overall, it was one of Procus' best Enchantment classes. They were making such a noise that they barely heard the bell.
***
"You never told us that you were a Spellhurler!" Adi exclaimed while they walked to Defensive Magic.
"I told you, I didn't know it myself," Procus replied for what felt like the hundredth time. "You guys should try it, it's pretty easy," Procus said, a bit embarrassed.
"Really?" Vignesh said, unbelieving. Before Procus could reply, however, they entered the Defensive Arts classroom. This was the lesson that Procus had been looking forward to the most. However, it soon became clear that the lessons were kind of a joke. Pascal's classroom stank of garlic and half the time the poor guy was stuttering away, seemingly afraid of his own subject. It was rumored that he had left school about a year ago to get some first-hand DA experience. It was also said that he had met zombies on the Polish border, First Generation Apes and a particularly nasty breed of Alpine Horses in Interlaken, Borealis Watchers and vampires in Norway. He was never the same since the vampires. When one of Adi's elder brothers, Bill Putra, asked him eagerly how he had gotten past the vampires, Pascal just turned beetroot-red and started muttering about the grass.
Sure enough, after stuttering pointlessly, Pascal simply grouped them into pairs to try to hex or jinx or curse the others. Procus, Adi, Vignesh and Patricia were grouped together. Adi went first, attempting to bind the others in ropes using Funiculous. He was doing quite well and managed to bind them all in ropes, with the exception of Patricia, who reacted with such a swift Shield Enchantment that Adi was knocked over and bound by his own rebounding spell. Procus hastily bent down and muttered an all-counter (Esrever!), not daring to hurl the spell, lest it makes things go dastardly wrong. He could perform offensive and defensive spells without a wand, having tried it in Enchantment, but not passive spells yet. Vignesh went next, using a Blaze. This time, it was Procus who stopped the spell by using Percieus, a spell created by his ancestor. It was a means of stopping any spell dead in its tracks. Patricia made them all wobble around with well-placed Wobbly Jinxes. When it was Procus' turn to cast a spell, Professor Pascal came over to watch. Stowing away his wand, he held his open palm out towards Adi and concentrated hard. Instantly, a ball of energy formed in his hand and he flung it Adi, who was instantly stunned. Professor Pascal awarded him another sixty points and moved on.
***
Some other lessons included Care of Flora and Fauna, which took place thrice a week in the greenhouses behind the school. They would learn to care for the many weird and potentially dangerous plants and fungi of the wizarding world, from Moonpeaches to Man-Eating Tentaculus. Oh well. At least they were allowed to swear loudly if the Tentaculus seized them from behind.
Magical History was, by common consent, the most boring subject ever devised by wizardkind. It was the only class in which they had a ghost teacher. Chan had been very old indeed when she had fallen asleep in front of the staff-room fire and died. The next day, she simply got up to teach, leaving her body behind. She now cursed all the classes which she taught with the soporific drone of his voice that put the entire class into a stupor as she talked about goblin riots, giant wars, and who knows what else. Only Patricia could resist the power of Chan's voice and took notes while the rest of the class let their attention wander freely.
And of course, there was Changing, the hardest subject taken at Angsanian Towers. It involved transforming one thing into another. Their teacher, Professor Jane, who was also the head of Evgenis house, gave them a talking-to the moment that they sat down.
"You are here to learn Changing, one of the hardest subjects offered at any wizarding institution in the world," Then she turned the desk into a cat and back again. The class was awe-stricken. However, they soon were put out when they found out that they wouldn't be turning furniture into animals anytime soon. After taking many complicated notes, they were each given a splinter to turn into a needle. At the end of the lesson, only Patricia had made any difference to her matchstick. Professor Jane showed the class how it had gone all silvery and pointy at the ends and gave Patricia a rare smile. Last but not least, there was Brewing. Procus had his first Brewing class on Friday.
***
On Friday morning, Procus awoke cheerfully. So far, this had been the best week of his life. Sure beats staying with the Suns, anyway. he thought. Procus' parents had been killed by the strongest sorcerer of that time, Lord Bhavinav. Nobody knew why, but one fateful night long ago, Lord Bhavinav had shown up at his house in Satiledif Town, which had been named after his ancestor, Satiledif Evgenis. Lord Bhavinav murdered his parents, Nikhil and Shweta Evgenis, as well as the rest of his siblings. However, when he turned to Procus and attacked him, his spell backfired and Bhavinav was struck down. The story was not known by many. Since then, he had grown up with the Suns, who were his only living relatives, and their son, Hao Jun, an extremely fat boy with a small, round face and hardly any neck at all, just like his father, Satrid Sun. For ten miserable years, he had been bullied by Uncle Satrid, Aunt Tulip and Hao Jun, believing the stupid lie that they had told him that his parents had died in a car crash. That was until he got his letter to Angsanian Towers and learned the truth. Still grinning ear to ear, Procus got out of bed to get dressed and go down to the Main Hall for breakfast.
***
It was quite a sight to see about a hundred falcons swooping down to deliver parcels or letters. SnowWing hadn't brought Procus anything so far, occasionally coming down to nip his ear or have a sip of his pumpkin juice. So, he was surprised to see SnowWing coming to him with a letter in her beak. Pulling it off, Procus saw that it was from Dave.
Dear Procus,
I know you get Friday evenings off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me at about six? I want to hear all about your first week. Send an answer back with SnowWing.
Dave
Borrowing Adi's quill, he sent back a yes. It was a good thing he had tea with Dave to look forward to in the evening because Brewing was the worst thing that had happened to him in the week. At the Opening feast, he had gotten the idea that Kiew didn't like him. But he was wrong. Kiew hated him.
The second they took their seats around their cauldrons down in the dungeon that was kept, as it being Kiew's preference, in semi-darkness, Kiew spoke to them in barely more than a whisper, yet the class caught every word. Kiew, like Jane, had an otherworldly way of making a class keep quiet without any effort on his part in the slightest.
"I am to teach you the refined art of Brewing. Many will not understand this as magic, as there is hardly any flapping about like birds with wands or odd enchantments. I do not expect you to understand and appreciate the beauty of a Brew brewing, the wondrous smell of the fumes of a proper Brew. I could teach you to brew Brews that can make you lucky, that can produce infatuation and even mar death – if you weren't the usual bunch of idiots that I have to teach,"
Silence followed this speech, in which Procus, Adi and Vignesh exchanged looks with raised eyebrows and Patricia eagerly leaned on the edge of her seat, desperate to prove that she wasn't an idiot.
"Evgenis! What would I get if I were to fuse an essence of Vibarai and a pint Destruction Liquid?" Kiew barked suddenly, fixing his cold black eyes on Procus' red-ringed ones.
The essence of what and a pint of what now? Procus thought blankly. Patricia's hand was a blur as she shot it up in her eagerness to answer the question, brushing Procus' face ever so slightly as it flew up.
"I don't know, Professor," Procus said quietly.
Kiew's lips curled into a menacing sneer. "Tut, tut, clearly you are one of the idiots I was speaking of earlier. Let's try again, shall we? Which plant is the base of Firesludge?"
Once again, Patricia's hand flew up, barely missing Procus' glasses.
"I don't know, Professor," Procus repeated quietly.
Kiew's sneer became even more pronounced. "Well, well, well. So, it seems that you didn't feel like opening a schoolbook before coming, eh, Evgenis?" he said, poison in every syllable. Procus stared back with a stare glacial enough to match Kiew's. He had opened his books at the Suns, but did Kiew really expect him to remember everything in The A to Z of Magical Flora and Fauna? He was trying very hard to ignore a pale girl with her up in a bun, and two Hao Jun-like boys beside her, doubling up with silent laughter at the other end of the dungeon. Kiew was still ignoring Patricia's quivering hand.
"For your information, Evgenis, the essence of a Vibarai, when merged with Destruction Liquid, forms a destruction draught so powerful, it is known as The Draught of Consumption. As for the base plant of Firesludge, it is crushed FlameLeaf. Well? Why aren't you copying that down?" he snapped. There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment, over which Kiew said, "And twenty points from Evgenis for not being able to answer my questions!"
Things didn't improve for the Evgenises as the class went on. When Kiew set the class a simple potion to heal minor incised wounds, he began stalking around the class, criticizing the Evgenises and complimenting the Ravikumars. While Kiew was showing the class the perfect way that the same pale girl had crushed her beetles, there was a hiss and the smell of burnt metal. Then, acid-green clouds began to form above their heads, starting from the cauldron where Alen and Edbert were working. Suddenly, the entire class was standing on their chairs to avoid the blood-red liquid that was now all over the dungeon floor and was seeping out from Edbert's twisted blob of a cauldron that Alen had somehow made.
"Idiot boy! I suppose that you forgot the phoenix hair, didn't you!" Kiew said in a vehement hiss. Alen whimpered as his face erupted into huge, red, pus-filled boils that gave him the appearance of a warthog. "You! Take this fool up to the hospital wing! And twenty points from Evgenis!" he spat at Edbert, who hurriedly escorted Alen out of the dungeon, looking thankful to leave. Kiew then rounded on Procus, Adi and Vignesh. "You! Evgenis! Why didn't you remind him to add the phoenix hair? Thought it would make you look good if he failed, eh? Another twenty points from Evgenis!" he snapped at Procus, who had opened his mouth to protest but closed it again at a sharp nudge in the ribs from Vignesh. "Don't push it. I've heard that Kiew can get really nasty sometimes," Vignesh told Procus in an undertone. Procus nodded but didn't say anything. Evgenis had just lost the lead for the House Cup that he had gained using his Spellhurling. He had never been so happy to hear the bell for the next lesson go. The Evgenises left Brewing in a grim mood and went for their next lesson, Changing.
Before that though, Procus stopped the pale girl just outside the dungeons.
"Why were you laughing so hard back there?" He asked, evidently inflamed.
"Oh I'm so sorry that I hurt your feelings," she drawled in a way that made Procus feel like punching her.
"Who are you?" he asked, even angrier now.
"I am Kyae Sin. And I already know who you are, Evgenis," she spat out his last name as though it was an insult, then leaned close to whisper into his ear, "Your father once wronged my father, and I intend to get revenge on you for it,"
She stalked off with her two hulking friends beside her.
***
Their last lesson was Arts of Magic. It was only taken once a week as it was so strenuously difficult. Even the greatest wizards in history, such as Dumbledore and Merlin, had great difficulties mastering the seven Arts of magic. Their teacher, Professor Lim, was a tall and gangly man with hair as jet-black as Procus' but unlike Procus' hair, which grew in all directions, Professor Lim's hair was immaculately groomed with a neat side parting.
"Magic," Professor Lim began once they were all seated, "can be divided into seven categories: Changing, Binding, Protecting, Naming, Leaping, Eliminating and the most mysterious, Seeing. All have a special representing symbol, which we will not study for now. Their names can be found practically everywhere. In fact, if you look at your book, their names and corresponding symbols are printed on the first page after the contents. But that is not our concern as of now. Today, I will teach you what every element means, as well as a bit of basic Binding. First things first, who can tell me why the Art of Seeing is the most difficult?"
Patricia's evidently well-trained hand hit the air before anyone else's.
"It requires the most concentration and purity of soul," She answered.
"Correct, take a well-earned five points," Professor Lim said, a benign smile on his face. He went on to explain what the seven Arts were and how they were applied in their daily lives. He then put them into pairs to practice basic Binding, basically using a seal. It was, unexpectedly, hard and fiddly work in which each syllable of the spell needed to be pronounced perfectly and the wand needed to be waved in a double-eight movement, ending in a sharp jab. By the end of the lesson, nobody had managed to conjure up so much a simple seal. Professor Lim told them not to worry as no one in history had managed it their first time. It was when he said this that Procus felt a swoop of jubilation completely unrelated to his feelings at that moment and heard a high, cold laugh that made his skin crawl. This was followed by his wand heating up to unimaginable extents. He cried out in pain and tried to drop his wand, but it seemed glued to his palm. He fell on the ground, shaking with pain as the heat seeped through the rest of his body. This was agony, he wanted it to end, surely death would be better than this amount of pain. And, the pain, as suddenly as it had come, ended. His surroundings, which seemed to have gone into a heat haze, came back into clear focus and he saw Professor Lim bending over him, eyeing him with concern and behind him, Adi, Vignesh and Patricia, all with similar looks of concern on their faces. It was then that Procus realized that he was covered in cold sweat and was lying on the floor with his hair flying outwards in all directions, even more so than usual.
"Evgenis, are you alright?" Professor Lim asked his voice heavy with concern.
"Yes, Professor, I'm fine, just a bit of pain," he replied in a weak and trembling voice.
***
"Hullo. So, how's your first week been?" Dave said, smiling around at the four in his little cottage on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
"Well, it was…" Procus began, but was immediately cut off by Adi and Vignesh, who began reciting the week's happenings at top speed.
"… of course it's easy for you, you're a Spellhurler!" Adi shouted into the shouted conversation that had started like this: Adi kept on talking on and on about how History of Magic was utterly useless, with Procus arguing fiercely that it was probably the most useful subject, then Vignesh joined in and said that the most important subject was Defensive Arts, but was immediately shouted down by Procus, who said that Pascal's lessons were a complete joke... well, you get the general idea. All the while that this conversation was being shouted, Dave sat and watched, listening but not agreeing or disagreeing, merely sitting on the fence (or in this case, the chair), his beetle-black eyes twinkling in a way reminiscent of Professor Foong. However, the last sentence caught his attention.
"Procus, you're a Spellhurler? You mean to say that you can control magic without a wand?" Dave asked, his face looking shocked, pleased, surprised, and… did I mention shocked?
"Oh, um, yeah," Procus said, looking down at the coffee table. A newspaper article dated on his birthday (which was the day that they had gone to get their books) caught his eye. Picking it up, he scanned through it. It was just a snippet, really, not an entire article. This is what it said:
Asian Wizarding Bank Break-in
The Wizarding World News brings you the baffling break-in at one of the most secure places known to wizardkind: The Asian Wizarding Bank. The robbery, which occurred on the 27th of March, was on a vault that had been emptied that day. According to reliable sources, the item that was trying to be stolen was about 2 inches long and was wrapped in brown paper. Should anyone see this package, please report to Gringotts immediately. The emptier of the vault, which was number 777, is Amberacis Dave, who currently works in the Angsanian Towers School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
That was all. "Dave, this happened on my birthday! You were at Gringotts that day, you told us! And that package that you had with something purp…" Procus shouted in shock. His last sentence was cut short by Dave jumping up and clamping a hand over his mouth while looking out the window fearfully.
"Shush! Do you want me to lose my job?" Dave asked a strangled whisper.
After that. All that happened was that Dave refused to tell them anymore and insisted on them eating some of his homemade rock cake. When Procus bit into one, he heard a loud and ominous crack from one of his back molars. After Vignesh unearthed a large fang in his, the others seemed to have no appetite left at all, so they waved goodbye to Dave and headed for the castle. Procus thought that none of his lessons had given him more to think about than tea with Dave. What was in that grubby little package? Where was it now? Who had tried to steal it? These were just a few of his thoughts. I could list more, but that would take us all day, so I won't.