There was a knock on her door.
"Come in." she said and tentatively Bella's head popped through.
"Oh, you're alone, thank God, I must speak to you." she came inside, left her bag close to the door and sat down on her bed.
"Okay, don't freak out but I kissed Alex." she said nonchalantly while her fingers picked Gwen's covers.
"You did what!?" Gwen whisper yelled. She couldn't believe it. She sat down next to her friend.
"Well he took me out towards the gardens after the ritual, trying to comfort my nerves and it just happened.. I kissed him. It didn't last long and he was the first one to pull away. Then I started excusing myself for kissing him and he dismissed the whole thing, saying it was just the moment. (She paused for a moment) I don't know, it kind of hurt though.. It's not like I am in love with him, but it did hurt to just be dismissed like that. I was so selfconscious afterwards. But then I woke up cuddled up to him. I really don't know what to think or how to approach him anymore. I feel so stupid.. I shouldn't have done that." she ended her confession by putting her hands on her face, embarrassed.
"Firstly, I think you are so brave, I mean you did what I never could. You kissed your best friend and you know better than everyone else how many sleepless nights I've had because of Seb. However I do think you should talk to him so that, if you both want it, you can make something of it, or put it behind you altogether. We will be spending a lot of time alone and we must be open about everything. Now I must also confess that I think it's better for me to put Seb behind me.. It's only bringing me pain and I feel that nothing can happen since he doesn't feel the same. Now I have a mission to fulfill and I must be strong and concentrated. From this moment on I shall only think of the journey and keeping everyone safe." she put her hand on the jewel hanging from the neck, talking about the soul of every kid that needed her protection. Izzy looked at her best friend and thought that she looked different. The veil of childhood had lifted leaving at its place a beautiful, smart woman. She felt proud of her friend and hugged her tightly.
Another knock was heard and divided the two friends.
"May we come in?" they heard Seb say from the other side.
"Come in guys." Gwen said to both of them. They opened the door, let their things on the floor and came forward. Seb flopped down on her bed and said hi to Izzy ruffling her hair as he always did when he saw her down. To him Bella was like a little sister. She swatted his hand and tried to fix her hair quickly before Alex saw her hair flying all over the place whilst turning as red as a turnip. Gwen was eyeing them and laughed at such a normal scene. Alex looked pensive and was looking seriously outside Gwen's window.
"How do you guys feel?" Seb asked no one particularly and at once all the playfulness in the room left. Silence discended but Gwen decided to break the ice and looking at everyone said:
"To be honest, I am very anxious but I know you will be with me so I don't feel it as much. Plus this will be my first time outside the Institute and I don't know, I feel all giddy inside, even if I feel the danger lurking." she confessed while her hands fidgeted together. Izzy grabbed her hands and smiled at her.
"We get it, don't worry, we are with you till the end. I just hope we get through this with no missing arms or legs. You will finally get to meet my family and see where we grew up.. It will be awesome." she chuckled gleefully. Seb and Gwen followed her and even Alex smiled, not really knowing why but suspected it had something to do with Bella's laugh, even though he would never admit it. Out of nowhere, a bell could be heard and they stopped laughing at once. The first bell was followed by 2 others. They looked at each other, this meant that everyone had to meet outside, in the courtyard.
They grabbed their bags, made sure not to leave anything behind and made they way down the stairs. A few minutes later they could see the large courtyard, filled to the brim with people. People of different races and age stood together. They made their way down the stairs and pushed their fellow schoolmates aside to pass through. At the centre of the courtyard was Principal Greenwood, hushing everybody with his hands. The other professors and assistants were also next to him, trying to count the heads of the students and see if anyone was missing or was left behind.
Professor Crow, was throwing sparks on the sky to get everyone's attention. On his right was mrs. Adeline Wood, she was their Charms teacher. Together they studied spells and her classes were some of the most noisy ones. She was a middle aged woman even though her hair had already turned white. She had the strangest eyes, one of them was purple and the other one was yellow. She was very strict but she really did love her students.
Next to her was their Defence teacher, his name was Frederick Rose, he was very young and handsome. He taught them every possible defence mechanism to shield them against enemies and dark creatures using magic or weapons. He taught fencing too and needless to say his classes were some of the best at the institute (at least in Gwendolyn's eyes). If Gwen wasn't already head over heels for Seb she certainly would have fallen for his looks and incredible charms. An avalanche of dark chocolate hair tumbled in a tousled mess framing his freckled elfin features. Ocean blue eyes deep enough to swim in and a close trimmed beard made him the talk of the whole Institute. He was tall and buffed but quick on his feet. He was wearing his armour and motioned to every student that knew how to fight to go near him.
Professor Keith, their Transfiguration teacher stood closeby. With him they studied how to change the aspect of a thing or person into something else using 3 sorts of spells. Switching, vanishing and conjuring spells. The latter had to do with creating objects out of thin air. It was some very difficult magic and lots of times accidents happened. He was one of the most serious people Gwendolyn had ever met. She didn't remember a time where his lips had curled up to a smile whatsoever, but that didn't mean his lessons were at all boring. Everyone tried to catch every last bit of information from him seeing as he was a very intelligent and experienced wizard.
Another lesson she loved was Rune studies. Before the language of today's kingdom everyone spoke an ancient language that consisted of runes. Runes could be used to perform magic. Writing a rune with a wand could give power and life to that word. It was very difficult to master and there were many complicated runes to remember. Rune Studies was taught by Miss Blythe Rowbottom. She was extremely tall and had some some sort of animalistic beauty in her. Her face was slightly elongated, she had dark almond shaped eyes, caramel skin and long straight hair that reached past her hips. All that however contrasted with the two big swirly horns that came out of her head. She wore a fiery red coat that reached her feet and a gold belt at her waist.
Next to her was miss Eloise Delaney, she was a water nymph. Nymphs were divine female nature spirits that inhabit certain natural sites. They are not immortal but extremely long lived and are distinguished according to the sphere of nature with which they are connected. She came from far beyond the citadel and was asked by the principal to come and teach Herbology at the Institute. Miss Eloise knew everything there was to know about every ingredient small or big that grew from the earth. She could tell you how and when to use them and which one was poisonous or safe to eat.
Her lessons were really interesting even though everyone was stricken by her appearance. Water nymphs just as the name suggests were made by crystal clear water that took on the aspect of a man or woman and were distinguished by the bluish hint their aetherial body possessed. It seemed like they weren't of this earth and that's probably why their feet never quite touched the ground, they were creatures of extreme elegance and purity.
Mr. Carlisle Alma was a dwarf and he was one of the grumpiest people alive, his class focused on magical beasts and most of the time it consisted of muttering and grunts from their teacher. He had showed them almost every magical creature in their lands and taught them how stupid giants, cyclops and gnomes were. How they could beat a centaur (half man and half horse) in a race, what could save them from the shrieks of a banshee or the alluring songs of the sirens. Most of the time he would tell stories of his own journeys and fights with these terrible monsters, even if no one knew if they were made up or not. They saw him perched up on a chair trying to help count all of the students.
They could see their astronomy teacher miss Edith in between the chaos outside and mr. Thomas Croft, a ghost that teached history of the magic kingdom watching over the scene.
Two teachers were missing, Dominik Ortega, their teacher for life in the non-magic kingdom and mrs. Ezra Hawthorne that teached them how to apparate. Apparition is the magical way of teleportation in the wizarding world. It's very dangerous magic and can only be performed for places you know and have seen many times before otherwise you might find yourself lost in the time-space continuum. A wizard created such spells after the portals became unstable. Gwen thought that maybe she had left for the capital already to tell them about their escape.
"Silence!" a voice boomed loudly over the noise.
It was the Principal. He looked serious and almost mad at the lot, completely different from his usual charming and calm self. Gwen could see he looked tired as he grabbed his cane forcefully and tapped it on the ground.
"We don't have much time to spare, we must go and this is taking way to long. We shall divide ourselves into groups. We have 140 students to look out for and we have more than enough teachers to guide everyone to safety. So follow your teachers commands and quietly prepare your groups. Now where is miss Richards and her friends?" the crowd around them parted and let them pass through. They reached principal Greenwood and he put his hand on Gwendolyn's shoulder.
"You four will come with me, I will personally accompany you until we part ways." the four friends nodded silently up at him. He then turned his attention on the two boys.
"Seb and Alex after we have found a place to set up camp I need to talk to you. You already know that miss Gwendolyn and Isabel must arrive unharmed at the citadel and I hope you will do everything in your power to keep them out of trouble."
"Of course we will sir." Seb said and Alex nodded looking at Bella with furtive eyes. Gwen was happy about having them come together but she didn't want them to babysit her, she knew well how to defend herself. Bella on the other hand was happy to have Alex and Seb there with them. The journey ahead was afoot and they were already walking in the steps of destiny.