Chapter Four:
He wasn't sure what he was expecting when he stepped inside. Though he was slightly relieved as he caught a first glance of the office.
The headmistress’s office was rather elegant. The furniture was all made of rich chocolatey wood, and polished to shine. The whole office seemed like a display in some antique store except the animal on the perch stand on the desk was a little club dragon. They were small black and green dragons bred as pets. More or less with size and destructiveness of a house cat.
The office was larger than he expected as well.
The first room lined with bookshelves and cabinets and the desk of course. But behind that was a small staircase leading to an upper floor with a small lounge and a mysterious door larger than practical and with a stone carving of a bull’s head mounted onto it.
The headmistress herself sat at her desk waiting patiently. She looked around fifty and like she had just come from watching a disappointing Wimbledon match. She had a pearl necklace and dark red hair cropped to her shoulders. She wore a blue and gold tailored suit instead of robes. Strangely enough she kind of looked more intimidating that way.
"Ah, good morning, Mr Goldwyn." She said.
"Hi."
"Hi, indeed." She said, in a surprisingly good-natured tone. At least she had a personality to her. "Welcome to Boxtens. Cheater cheater, pumpkin eater."
“I’m sorry?” he asked, taken aback.
"It's a nursery rhyme."
"I thought it was Peter."
"Yes, well I was making a little joke. I afford myself those little luxuries seeing as how my salary denies me any other. Have a seat please.”
Jess was slightly taken aback but yeah maybe a seat would do him some good now. She was somehow royally dignified but jibing him like she’d had a glass of wine or two.
"I'm sure you know that Boxtens is very selective. We take only the best. Although we do solely use academia to measure who may the best. There are many other ways to tell people apart. We simply trust that every student has a reason to be here, and all that we ask is that you try. I'm hoping that then end of this, that once you leave us, you’ll leave us a better person. We’ll give you everything we can, and hopefully you can give something back to the world."
Jess nodded.
"I’m sure you’re just nodding along. Most students do.” She said. “But I’ve told every student something similar when they arrive. They all realise it’s true at some point. The sooner the better.”
He nodded again. Not feeling eager to interrupt her, nor could he find any place for his words to stand alongside such sincerity from her.
“It was quite fortunate that we managed to get you in this late, but your father was rather convincing."
"Yeah, he can be."
"But he couldn’t convince you to study.”
Jesus. Where was the tact in this place?
“Can I ask why you cheated? Why you chose to live quite so…"
He shrugged. "I made a mistake. I'm sorry. Guess I wasn’t thinking."
"Come now." she said, sounding slightly annoyed. “I'm old but I'm not slow yet."
"It didn't seem worth it.” He said, a wave of exasperation coming on. He was getting tired of explaining himself. “Life is a lot of work! I mean, I had magic why not use it? And it wasn’t really cheating or being lazy. Anything I did with magic I could do without. But why go through the trouble if there's an easier way. I mean I could probably walk but I could use a car as well. That’s what everyone does."
"Well, Mr Goldwyn.” The headmistress said. “Seeing as that you are no longer home schooled you’ll have to write the departments standardized exams and tests. Hopefully, you’ll be up to par. And it may be sudden but you’ll be writing the last two examinations that the fourth years are scheduled to write. If you find yourself not up to standards, you’ll have to take remedial classes. In that case a tutor will be required, either a teacher or an older student will be assigned to you. Although, if you do well enough then there won't be a need for a tutor, and you can assimilate straight into your classes."
She seemed so interested to know why he had cheated and forced to come here but then she even didn't seem to address or give a response or acknowledge his answer She had just ploughed on with the meeting. Was she disappointed with what he said? Was she deliberately trying to provoke him? Make him feel or realise something on his own?
"At lunch break we can find a prefect to show you around the campus if you'd like.” The headmistress added. “I would take the tour, there’s a lot to see around campus.”
"That’s okay, my cousin’s going to show me around."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"Well, that seems quite fortunate. You’re lucky to start with a friendly face around. Be grateful for your family. Now, I have taken the liberty of leaving a set of instructions, your class schedule and other necessities at your dorm room for you."
He sat up a bit straighter when he heard that.
"I'm not staying at the Dorm." He said, wondering if they’d made a mistake,
"Your father informed us that he’ll be away for a few weeks at least." The headmistress said.
"That's fine." Jess said, confused by the sudden kidnapping taking place.
"I have already spoken to your father, and we think it best you stay here. You were removed from your home-schooling because you as an underage wizard used magic frequently in the presence of humans. That is quite an offence for you and your father. Furthermore, it is more than likely you’ll be needing revision classes and also your father will be away for weeks won’t he? The school sees it safer that you be housed comfortably and not remain unsupervised. I had discussed all of this with your father, but it doesn’t look like he informed you of anything-”
Just then there was allowed knocking at the door.
“How frustrating, that people target my door when Miss Beazley is on her break.” The headmistress sighed.
Jess laughed and turned to the door to hear the knocking.
“I’m not in a rush, you can let them in and see what’s happening.” Jess offered.
KNOCK.
“I’d appreciate that, though I would hardly seek to reward this sort of behaviour-”
KNOCK.
“Oh, goodness.” She muttered. “Come in, please!”
And to his surprise the door swung open and Gwen stepped in with a few tear streaks on her face.
“God, it’s like your parents are back.” The headmistress shivered. “Miss Goldwyn, are you alright dear?”
She may have sounded exasperated but whatever exasperation was there slipped away almost immediately and she gestured for Gwen to sit as well.
The doors swung closed on its own behind Gwen.
“Is everything alright, dear?”
“No! It’s frankly not alright.” Gwen snapped.
Oh, so Gwen used that tone on everybody. Good to now.
“Frankly, it’s not alright! I missed the exam and the teacher you hired refused to let write the exam afterwards!”
“Did the teacher I hired not teach you how to read the time, Miss Goldwyn.”
Jess snorted before he could help himself.
“When the big hand is on the-”
“Shut up, Jess!” Gwen snapped. “And you-” she said, turning to the headmistress. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to speak that way…” she said gingerly.
“That’s quite alright. Now I can assure you that whatever has upset you we will address but, calm yourself. You open stuck doors with grease not dynamite.”
The headmistress snapped her fingers, and three cups floated to her table from a cabinet and a steam kettle started boiling from behind her.
“I was not late for the exam!” Gwen said furiously, producing a grimoire from her bag. He remembered having one of those, but he preferred using a phone. She swiped at it furiously with her quill and the ink on the page swirled and blotted into her class schedule.
“The exam schedule says the history of magic test starts at 9! And the clocks in the dormitory all said 8.”
She slammed the grimoire down so they could all see. And yep, her exam did start at 9.
“The year four exam today started seven o’clock, not nine miss Goldwyn.” The headmistress said, reaching for the grimoire.
She drew her wand and silently cast a spell on the grimoire and the black ink started growing a purple colour and showed some strange runes he couldn’t read from this side.
“Well, it appears that some students may have played a rather cruel prank on you.” The headmistress said gravely. “Changing your timetable; and I assume the dorm clocks- though…” The headmistress paused to look up curiously. “Did you never speak to any of your classmates about the exam? Did you never hear in passing anything about the exam?”
“I- no one told me.” Gwen said. It was the first time he’d ever seen her sound so small.
Jeez, the entire dorm was in on it then.
The tea had just been poured out into cups, but no one seemed to want to reach for a cup.
“Say when, Jess.” The headmistress said. As the sugar cubes did a little dance in the air and started plopping from the container to his cup.
“Hey, there was a girl I spoke to.” Jess said suddenly. “She was a fourth year she came here looking for Gwen, and I asked her to get you to your class…”
“This happened when?” The headmistress asked, snapping into focus.
“Just before nine,” Jess answered. “So right when the exams.”
“Miss, Goldwyn.” The headmistress asked. “Why were you waiting at the faculty office this morning?”
“Um, she said that you had called her here for a meeting.” Jess said, quickly realising Gwen was just staring at the floor not moving or speaking.
“I had not called Miss Goldwyn for a meeting.” The headmistress said grimly.
“So, they would have made her wait here for hours and miss her exam! Jesus.”
Man, this place was insane. Now, he really couldn’t wait till he found that girl again…
“What did the girl who came looking for look like, Mr Goldwyn?” the headmistress asked.
“Oh, uh. She looked good. Nice hair.”
“A name would help more. Or her uniform colour. Or hair colour, clearly you saw that.”
“Yeah yeah.” He said, calmly. “Like dark blonde hair, black robes. A fourth year.”
The headmistress nodded and spoke into her wand:
“Mr Redfern.” She said clearly.
The wand glowed a faint and fading white, then glowed red and a man’s voice came through.
“Headmistress?”
“Speaking,” she answered speaking into the wand. “Did a student leave your exam room around nine today or at least before it ended?”
“A few students left the exam for bathroom breaks. A few finished early.”
“Any of them a girl with blonde hair?”
“That would be Miss Maizley. She finished well before 9.”
“Thank you.” The headmistress said, and the wand stopped glowing.
Gwen’s fist squeezed tightly at the mention of the girls name.
“It appears we have our culprit.” The headmistress said. “Miss Gwen, had this been an internal test I would gladly allow you a rewrite. But unfortunately, these are standardized department tests and so for now you will have to write a remedial test.”
Gwen nodded.
It was the only other gesture she’d made so far to any of them. Oh, man was he going to chuck Miss Maizley out of a window the next time he saw her.
He stood up.
“I think maybe we’ll leave whilst you’re busy with this. Gwen is upset, we’ll just leave.” Jess said.
“Yes, thank you for your understanding. And I assure you that this will be dealt with swiftly.” The headmistress said rising.
The tea in his mug suddenly spilled over as the sugar cubes finally overflowed in the cup and spilled onto the table like an avalanche of sugar.
“When.” He said, sheepishly. He’d forgotten about the sugar, but the headmistress didn’t seem to mind until her club dragon pounced in the cup and started writhing in the sugar and giving excited little huffs as he ate-almost lighting a set of documents on fire in his delight.
Jess pulled Gwen up gently by her arm, and she was still too… whatever she was feeling now to even resist him.
“I apologise Mr Goldwyn,” the headmistress said, as she escorted them from the office. “You’ve seen an ugly side to Boxtens today.”
“If Boxtens shows me it’s good side and lets Gwen rewrite then there’s no problem, headmistress.”