"Charlotte, there you are. I wanted to talk to you. How are your studies progressing?” asked the most amazing, lovely uncle in the world.

“Great, great. I have finished the tasks you gave me, Uncle Severin.” I answered. Severin was the only one who really seemed interested in supporting my career. Sure, mother wanted me to be happy and all that, but Uncle Severin was giving me real challenges. He was the best potion master in the world. With him, brewing potions was more than just putting a few things in a pot and heating it up to the right temperature. With him, the only limit was your imagination. He had even theorized a potion that would make the consumer lucky. Luck in a bottle. I laughed so hard when he told me that, until I realized he was serious.

[https://imgur.com/doEPQCa.jpg]

He was also quite the prankster. One time he created a potion that made people tell the truth and mixed it into Uncle Gregor's drink. When the students then asked him why he hadn’t graded the papers yet, he blatantly told them that he was out chasing after the barmaid of the local pub and didn’t sleep the whole night.

Uncle Gregor, on the other hand, didn't take the joke well and returned the favor by hiding a few Ilusiphobes in Uncle Severin's lab, bedroom, and a few classrooms where he taught. Nasty little things that transform into the things that people fear the most, and the only way to deal with them is to lock them away where no one can see them. To say that the only people who benefited from Severin and Gregor's prank war were the students would be an understatement. I mean, I like Severin, but I would have given up a few birthday presents to see how he was verbally abused in front of the entire class by his grandmother, because that is apparently his greatest fear.

Which reminds me that I definitely need to ask mother for a few Gold Coins. I had a bet with Uncle Severin that he wouldn’t get Uncle Gregor to confess his love to a student in class. Did I mention that Uncle Severin was the best potion master in the world. He developed a potion that let Gregor fall in love with a student. The hilarious thing was that it was not a pretty girl but the Baron. To Helena’s sorrow, the potion only lasted half an hour. Still, the best money I ever spent. Or will spent, I haven’t paid him yet. I also never really spent money on anything other than our bets but the point still stands.

If I were honest with myself, I was a bit of a hypocrite when I berated Percival. I mean, it was clear that he just wanted to get along with his stupid father and maybe even his super awesome uncle, but the only thing they did was prank each other or do magic that was so far out of his reach that he was basically forced to prank them to spend time with them. Hopefully, that will change after he becomes their student.

“So you are finally ready to create your own potions?” asked Uncle Severin with enthusiasm in his voice, and interrupting my straying thoughts. I was probably the only student who really appreciated his potion lessons, and so I was kind of his favorite student. The others all wanted to learn the flashier things like curses, dark magic or in some rare cases, rituals. All things I couldn’t learn even if I wanted to. At least beyond the theory.

“Definitely. Maybe. We can even try out your liquid luck potion first.”

“I don’t think so. I tested it last month. It didn’t work. I don’t know where the potion went wrong. My calculations were perfect, and to make sure everything worked, I even brewed the potion for a whole week to use the ingredients to their full potential.” Said Severin a little downcast. He is still the best uncle ever. Even if he hasn’t developed liquid luck yet.

“Don’t look so down, Uncle. I’m sure that if it is possible, that you will manage to do it. We can do something else until you figure out what went wrong.” I said and his expression immediately changed back to his cheerful one.

“Yes, that’s the spirit we need to have. We need to believe in ourselves and in our craft, and we can archive anything.”

"Uncle, you are going into crazy mode.”

"Oh, sorry, yeah. Like I said, we should do something interesting. I have theorized a shrinking potion that shrinks you so much that you would become smaller than the tip of my finger. Isn’t that fantastic? Imagine what we could do with that.” Well, I had ideas what I could do with that, but shrinking Gregor and letting him battle against a rat would probably amuse the battlemaniac.

With a comedic and scheming giggling, he led me to his lab. The moment we entered, the door closed.

“So, why did you cry?” asked my best and amazing but far too perceptive and now serious uncle.

“It was nothing. Really, Uncle, it’s just, you know. With Percival’s ceremony…”

“It’s not Percival’s ceremony, it’s for every new student. So what is it really?” he interrupted a little rudely, but I know where he was going. There were ceremonies every year, except for the first, after my own, I didn’t care. My inability to cast magic freely also wouldn’t change no matter how many ceremonies went past, which was something I couldn’t change no matter how much I wanted it.

“I’m not jealous of my brother, if you mean that.” I answered, having thought I knew what he wanted to say.

He hit me with a papyrus roll for that. "Hey, for what was that?”

“Because you are dumb. He is your brother, Charlotte, and just because he will be able to cast magic and get his own wand today doesn’t mean he will change. He will still look up to his older sister, and he will still ask you to spend time with him. You won’t become less worth to him just because he will be able to cast magic. The only person who could become responsible for something like that would be you yourself, if you let thoughts like that affect your behavior."

I stared at him, thinking about what he said. I know I had a problem with my lack of magical abilities, but I didn’t like it when Uncle rubbed me my problems under my nose. Which naturally didn’t mean that I didn’t take his advice to heart. But it still rubbed me the wrong way.

“If that is all you wanted to tell me, I will go back now.” I said wanting to show him that I didn’t like seeing my own flaws.

“Don’t be like that; you know I just want to help you; besides that with the shrinking potion was true,” said the great, amazing uncle who wanted my forgiveness. But after he forced me to reflect on my behavior toward my brother, I wouldn’t be willing to reflect on my other problems, like knowingly acting like a spoiled princess in front of my uncle. We should have talked about that, damned... I thought and had to suppress my tears. I didn’t want to lose my brother just because I was a little stupid.

I stomped demonstratively away, and as soon as I was around the corner, I started to really cry. Stupid Uncle has to re-earn his title as amazing.

I went to the bathroom to whip my tears away. I didn’t want to show myself to other students or, even worse, to my brother like that. May the rats that drink the water from this bathroom have eternal life.

I stayed in my room till my clock told me I needed to return for the ceremony. I was still five minutes early and could see that quite a few people had already arrived. Mostly parents of the kids that would be sorted.

Seraphina would hold the entrance speech this time. The founders alternated every year, but it was only the third speech I heard from her. If the previous speeches could even be called that...

With a wave of Seraphina’s hand, the large door swung open, and a handful of little kids walked in. The last one was my little Percival.

What shocked me, and obviously everyone else in the room, was the number of kids. Only twelve kids walked in. Twelve! Twelve kids for the entire wizard population in Britain. That number was far too low. Normally, around forty or sometimes even sixty new students arrive with each batch.

“Welcome to Toadwits, your new home for the next seven years. I hope you use your time here to study earnestly, or it will be wasted time. The spirits will now sort you into the different houses.” Only a few people clapped, as they couldn’t believe that this was the speech from one of the founders of Toadwits. I was probably the only one who clapped and really meant it. Not because I liked the “speech” in particular or because I liked short speeches. I clapped because Seraphina’s speech was longer than her last one. The last time she just said welcome, this is your new home and now we will sort you. So it was an improvement. Now the students also shouldn’t waste time.

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It wasn’t even that I could be angry or disappointed with her. Seraphina hated speeches and actually was quite nervous around so many people. The only time that didn’t affect her was when she could talk about her passion, which was the reason she held amazing lectures if one had the required knowledge to understand what she was talking about, which was a hurdle most people would never overcome.

Mother had gifted her a diadem once and told her that she should just imagine herself to be an Empress and that she didn’t need to worry about what other people thought about her during a speech.

Judging from the fact that she wore the Diadem during every speech or lecture, it seemed to help her. It just let me wonder what she would have said without the diadem. Maybe she would just say welcome and be done with it.

When clapping sounds filled the room, I focused back on what was happening before me. The first student was sorted. It looked like the idiot had gained another idiotic student. He walked to Mr. Birchcroft, who waited on the other side of the hall, quite close to us. Naturally, that idiot student got a dragon bone wand. Gregor loved teaching brutes, and if dragons were one thing, it was brutes. At least the normal ones. There were a few exceptions.

This year, like every other time Seraphina gave the entrance speech, she had fewer students than usual. But this year was a first, as she only added one new student. The students may not realize it, but their preferences influenced the spirits. As a result of Seraphina's lackluster speeches, she lost students who would otherwise have come to her house.

The idiot, on the other hand, had gained four new students so far, while mother and uncle only gained three. The last one, Pecival, would surely go to mother unless that ungrateful brat decided that his stupid father was more important than mother.

Percival looked nervous as he sat on the ceremonial chair. Four spiritual avatars that represented the founders will were walking around the chair as usual. They looked like children's versions of the animals on their banner. For a short moment, I feared my nightmare would come true as the stupid spirits hesitated. Only after two full minutes did the honey badger stop circling him and transformed into a soft, glowing sphere that flew into Percival. The moment the sphere touched him, his school uniform began to match mother’s students. Something that would be a blessing and a curse. To both of them as mother became responsible for his punishments, which she had a lackluster record of so far. But if I remember my own time, even though I only participated in the less flashy, non spellcaster classes, mother could become harder than any other founder if she wanted to.

I was so happy when Percival, instead of running to mother, ran to me for a hug. I was almost about to cry again, but I suppressed it as I thought I had prolonged the lives of enough rats for one day. The feeling of happiness I felt when he came to me was exactly what I needed. My amazing and now rehabilitated uncle had been right. I shouldn’t have worried about something like my lack of magic affecting my relationship with my brother. Sorry, mother, but I needed that that hug more than you.

After that, it was already time for dinner. Something that should have been a nice meeting to get to know the new people turned, surprisingly, into something quite serious.

The parents, who had previously sat in the back rows and watched the ceremony, were now crowding around the founders. The space that was usually reserved for new students, but I suppose I could understand the parents a little bit. They were curious as to why so few students had enrolled this year. Something I was curious about as much as they were, but the founders had all agreed that they should keep quiet until the dinner was over and that they would make another announcement to them and the older students after dinner.

This was accepted with reluctance by the parents. I, too, wanted to protest at first, but I realized I was officially in my final year, so I would undoubtedly fall into the category of older students. The painful reality was that I would never be able to graduate on a regular basis due to my lack of magic, so I'm repeating the last year and will probably repeat it many more times.

Not letting my mood fall to the bottom because of that, I celebrated with all of mother's new students. Celebrating in this case meant introducing myself while mother was present. I already hated it when people wanted to chase me out of Toadwits when they saw me for the first time because they thought I was something that I wasn’t. At least not really, and I wanted that at least my mother's students understood that Toadwits was as much my home as theirs. Well, technically, even more so, as I had my own quarter, but I kept that information to myself most of the time. Besides my family, I never get visitors anyway.

After dinner was cleaned up, the glorified spies of my family led the younger students to the dormitories.

“Attention please.” Yelled Uncle Severin, who could hold better speeches than Seraphina.

“As many of you have noticed, only twelve students enrolled this year. Many of you have asked us why that is the case. The reason for that should be quite obvious. There were no more students left that could have enrolled. Thirty-two students. All from Nowitz families, were killed before they were able to enroll in Toadwits. Thirty-two students were killed because they could use magic. Thirty-two students were cruelly tortured and executed by the church in the name of what Nowitzs call a god. Thirty-two innocent children lost their lives because of the delusion of a few people who fear what we can do. This phenomenon is not something that is limited to this year. Last year, fifteen students were killed. The year before ten. The year before that “just” two. What had changed? Why is the church killing so many of our people without justification? Why is the church even able to spot those blessed children who received the gift of magic? The answer to all these questions is Toadwits. When Toadwits was founded, we hoped to teach all students who were able and willing to learn. A dream we still have, but that gets slowly killed by the people we ourselves taught. The first few Nowitzborn students graduated five years ago. What we never considered was what would happen if one of these students, who had never laid down his faith and loyalty to the church, returned after receiving our education. Since then, the church has started to optimize their way to hunt and kill us. With wizards, and competent ones, I might add, as their generals, the church has become a threat to our existence, and we...”

“ENOUGH! You have said enough, Severin!” Interrupted Gregor.

“And we need to protect our children.” finished Severin, with an obviously improvised ending.

While the speech was much longer than Seraphina’s, no one was clapping. Some were still shocked by what they were told. Others were a step further and were murmuring about what solution my “amazing?” uncle with, according to the murmuring people, violent tendencies had proposed.

Was Uncle really proposing a war with the Nowitzs? I couldn’t believe that. Uncle was a softie. Anyone who had seen him talk with the children would know that he wouldn’t harm a fly. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I might be wrong. Uncle cared. He really cared. He cared so much that he would wage war for the students.

The problem was that the fight wouldn’t be as onesided as one might believe. Sure, the church only had at most ten wizards, and all were weaker than one of the founders, but the church knew about us and how to identify us and the church had millions of followers. A wizard could easily block tens of arrows shot at him, but would he be able to block a hundred? A Thousand? At some point, wizards would lose, and if the church really felt threatened, they would storm Toadwits. It would become an absolute massaker. The other option would be to have a race against the church and snatch the children away from their parents as soon as they use magic for the first time. But even if they were faster 90% of the time, what would the last 10% experience? Not doing anything was also not an option. The only students that would arrive at Toadwits then would be the ones that were born into wizarding families.

I wanted to ask mother what the best solution was, but from the shaking goblet in her hand, I could already guess that she was unsure too. Which was a problem as my uncles, while friends, could have quite serious fights with each other if the topic was important enough, and only my mother or aunt Seraphina would be able to stop them then.

The discussion that filled the room afterwards was far from the structured ones we used to have during a lesson. People were screaming at each other, and I could even see a few people pulling out their wands.

“ENOUGH!” My least favorite family member yelled again, but no one seemed to listen to him.

“BANG!” Okay, now that he had pulled out his sword, and rammed it into the ground with a single fluid motion. The noise was so loud that my ears started to ring, but it apparently achieved the desired effect. People were getting quiet.

“Toadwits is first and foremost a school. The school as a whole will not become a place for politics. Everyone who wants to discuss the situation can do so outside the castle.” My uncle might be stupid, but with his large build, the sword in his hand, and his flaming red hair, he certainly looked imposing. The people, even if they looked as if they wanted to say something, fled the scene. I wasn’t sure if it was because of his attitude or his notorious tendency to challenge people who disagreed with him to a duel.

[https://imgur.com/mpCf5WS.jpg]Gregor Lionheart.

After two minutes, the founders and I were the last people in the hall. Even Helena, who had stretched some rules by staying earlier despite technically being too young, had left.

“Daughter. Leave us alone.” said the red-haired, grim-looking musclehead. I pretended to not hear him. He lost the right to call me daughter a long time ago.

“Charlotte Elenore Humblehill-Lionheart, I said you should leave.” repeated the idiot who thought I would be intimidated by him. Okey, maybe I was just a tiny little bit intimidated, but Uncle would save me, so I rushed behind him.

"Uncle, that stranger is talking to me; please help me.” I said loud enough for Gregor to hear.

I watched, satisfied, as I saw the vein on his forehead pulsating. “Charlotte, it’s enough. The adults need to talk.” Said Uncle Severin and I knew that I would lose that argument.

A look at my mother also told me that she wanted to talk with me after they were done. I guess maybe I went a bit too far with that heartless, soulless redhead.