“Run, run, run! It’s Saturday, why are you not running yet lazy little kittens?!” an ear-splitting scream startled Luca awake with a convulsion upwards that landed him outside the bed. As he lay there with muddled head, completely forgetting where and why he was, the voice returned. “Gather in fifteen in front of school’s main gate or scram from our club.” a different slightly familiar tone sounded a magnitude calmer than the previous.
“Shik’is, are you sick in the head after all?” wearing casual running clothes Winnetou was making his bed as Luca floundered right at his feet, prompting the question. The boys looked at each other in silence for a good while as Luca recalled his eleven years of memories.
“This badge has a sort of communication built in, one of those bastard Makris triplets thinks he’s funny.” coughed embarrassed Luca getting up and tapping the armoured black Wampus on his chest.
“Nice, I’m going to exercise outside.” Winnetou tried to leave, but got stopped by Luca going over his attire and deciding that ditching the robe would be enough, so they went together after a brief moment. At the staircase and the common room, dozens of similar disastrous-looking wizards were stepping out to go where their club council wanted them, yawning Miranda wearing a white t-shirt and shorts one of them.
“Morning, it must have been Leonidas yelling, I can swear. We must make him look good.” she greeted Luca and his friend.
“Hi. Sure, do you have a way to tell which one is he?” Luca asked certain that she could not.
“Minor problems, where’s Ringo?” she skipped the topic aware that Luca seemed unaccompanied compared to the peculiar sight he presented on the first day.
“Should be loitering around, you know, cats. How long can you guys run?” the boy pointed his chin upwards to the swaying tails sticking out of the planking above the common room and questioned curiously how is the physical fitness of standard wizards his age, Luca himself capable of running for hours due to the drug-fueled training.
“Five minutes a mile, eleven minutes and thirty seconds two was how I measured, but running doesn’t matter after you get the animal spirit transformation at the coming of age. That form will be faster, no matter what it is.” Winnetou shrugged not to overstate the importance of timing yourself some adults placed in the competition between children at his tribe.
“I don’t know, let’s race for the first lap around the school!” Miranda strutted forward, stretching her arms mid-step, the meaning of Luca’s query missed by both. Walking out the gates, the trio could see the small crowd moving their bodies around in high spirits, headed by Daniel Slate performing backflips that looked very weird with his giant physique, Professor Fontaine in an old-school brown leotard and tied-up hair tilting forward to grab his toes standing not far behind him. His oval beard especially prominent now without any other hair distracting from it.
“Teacher, what are you doing here?” Luca looked at his outfit skeptically.
“Where else am I supposed to be? If not supervised those guys could stab their toes and cry to Juno again.” he looked with derision in the direction of a human tower the Makris triplets tried to establish with help from a dozen other guys.
“That time I almost lost my leg…” a female student doing squats nearby recalled with a trembling voice.
“Okay, everyone is here. Welcome to the newly recruited and have fun at our first gathering. First item, run four laps around the castle, then we go play ‘catch the snitch’ before breakfast is ready and other students occupy the brooms. Also sorry about the rough wake-up, everyone gotta start the rhythm after vacations again. If you have to hate, hate Leonidas.” Daniel Slate gave the basic instruction for Knight’s club warm-up meeting and set the tempo running himself.
The group of a hundred youths and an old eccentric ran for half an hour, a testament to Wampus house’s good physique. Next, Daniel led everyone to one of the towers surrounding the quidditch pitch to pick their brooms, arguments erupting over the newer ones. The triplets brought boxes filled with twitching balls chained inside them, while the rest of the people rested or discussed the upcoming quidditch season, two places vacated from yesteryear’s champion team by graduating students.
Luca went to Professor Fontaine he now noticed sporting considerable biceps and a six-pack exposed after some exertion under the tight overalls, to explain his trouble with brooms. He got the most likely explanation that his magic had some unknown properties to interact with magic items and a promise to investigate it by lending him various items to use tomorrow evening to confirm.
“Whoever catches the most snitches gets one-on-one training with Slate couched by me!” the Professor came up to the box filled with small golden-winged orbs and released them all at once. “Ten, nine…” there was an obligatory countdown proceeding every game as twenty snitches scattered across the field. “...one, go!” Fontaine waved his hand, and a hundred brooms with amped teenagers riding them rose up. From the get-go, Luca had to bob and weave among the crowd as his speed was a constant, and the stadium too small for him to keep flying in one direction. Dangerously avoiding close contact time and time again, he managed to gather five snitches by the end of the game, getting him a fighting session after breakfast and Professor’s Fontaine approval to join the ‘real’ quidditch team senior years were playing, as his speed and width of his spells were made to dominate the field. His ignorance of curses and countercurses permitted in battle quidditch the only problem that had to be solved, Themistocles offered to write them down simplified for him to learn during the three weeks remaining to the first match of the season, claiming that he knows those pesky small jinxes the best in the school.
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Going back to the dining hall, Ringo waited for Luca at the edge of the table licking his fur, tuna spread for breakfast alluring enough to get over here instead of the pet-kitchen dispensing meals at the back of a real kitchen connected to the Wampus common room by an enchantment personally cast by Isold Sayre. Luca held the kitten firmly in his grip as Miranda fiercely petted his head with both hands as a form of punishment for abandoning the boy for a couple of days.
Rest of the day, the club stuck together in a practice of spells and sword fighting inside the castle’s training room, proving the rumours concerning Luca’s extraordinary aptitude correct, as he could hold his own against Slate well enough, blocking his heavy swipes with pure strength until his muscles had no choice but to give up. The same amazement happened as he cast the petrifying spell, Alexander offering to be the guinea pig for its effect on humans. In the presence of Professor Fontaine, Luca agreed despite having some doubts about safety. It worked the same as it did on the dummy, turning the poor Makris into a statue as his brothers took pictures of his confident face frozen looking straight forward in a grey stone rendition while laughing. Winnetou tagging along also got his badge, as he defeated a lot of second and third years in succession.
At dinner, Luca learned that Bryce’s Order of Slick Horns club spent the day at the library, discussing what they learned in the summer and their favourite books. The boys deliberately looked to ask the remaining houses what are their clubs doing, Pukwudgies were taken to the forest and had a barbecue along with a survival lesson and marksmanship contest from the magical creatures, Thunderbirds flew on the brooms around the school grounds, then gathered to play in the gardens and exercise similar to Luca’s activities.
Luca decided to visit the library dragging the unwilling Miranda with him on the grounds that she had to know more than a single spell, as she confessed that her transfiguration practice failed miserably, managing only to turn the match a bit silver. Walking past the staircase, they reached a ‘black-hole-door’ common in Iverstead that disinfected them of filth before entering the sacred room of knowledge, it in every way as impressive as Luca imagined. Giant three-storey bookshelves lined the white-lit room, a statue of a witch reading a book in one hand, petting her cat with the second was situated in the middle of it all, concentric circles of tables and chairs with four open paths leading to the middle surrounding her. In the corners of the room, sofas and armchairs abound, coffee tables near them. A lot still occupied by students Luca guessed coming from the Horned Serpent’s house, after looking around he requested a direction to the shelf containing basic transfiguration books from the receptionist. Miranda followed him with an unlovable face, Ringo given an escape from Luca’s clutches because of the no-pets rule he was reminded of at the entrance.
This day Luca at long last got a breather and could sleep at peace, despite that, he still lay there with hands behind his head having random thoughts leading nowhere. The next day, filled with his roommates gathering to write their homework and training from Makris brothers, the appointment time with Professor Fontaine came. Before he knocked on the door of his office, it opened by itself inviting him to go in. Inside, the first thing that caught his attention were two glowing barriers, one containing Abigail locked up and banging on it mechanically with a numb expression, second one cast around a half-eaten apple.
“How is it, I managed to make a barrier ghosts can’t cross in only two or three days spent on the subject.” Professor Fontaine bragged to him from his chair behind the cluttered desk.
“That's great, but why is Abigail locked there, Sir?” Luca had to cautiously question the abuse of deceased.
“Of course to determine if it gets any weaker as she tries to exit, another seal for comparison. Are you smart but don’t want to think too much by yourself? That’s a bad trait.” Professor started his mentoring mode which lasted for hours as they talked mainly about Luca’s past, he needed to know more about his pupil than secretly observed so far. The boy not shy about his experience, discussed the Blanco family and orphanage freely. Luca tried to ignore the ghost girl sending him looks begging for pity across the room, unknowingly his inaction a test from Fontaine.
They managed to activate many magical items and spells the boy could grasp, eventually defeated by the complexity of those taught in third grade and beyond. Most of them produced unknown mutations that didn’t occur when Fontaine attempted to use them after him, which set in stone the special nature of the boy’s magic.
“Generally, you amplify with no truly adverse effects, but it is to be carefully confirmed learning each new spell or an accident simply has to happen. Control has to be a fundamental part of your days, practice the simplest spells at least an hour before bedtime, besides that, train physically every morning if you have the motivation to become stronger for revenge to get rid of that mark. Your physique has the potential to be more deadly than spells, after all, wizards rely too much on wands that telegraph clearly where you aim, so alone, on average, we are not opponents of any faster creature. Aurors and teachers here an obvious exception, I make sure to test newcomers personally, there can’t be shoddy slackers teaching students from my house.” Professor Fontaine concluded by putting an end to Luca’s doubts that arose watching others cast entirely different-looking magic.
After all that commotion centered on him settled down, Luca began to enjoy his now-peaceful school life just as the rest of the students who were initially giddy for each new lesson, then slowly dragged down by homework and the realization that magic requires practice, patience, and a lot of reading. Occasionally petting Ringo, watching Miranda fight with the triplets, and hearty physical or mental competitions organized by various house clubs made for a pleasant environment conducive to everyone's improvement. Daily runs and practice continued as hardwired Luca lazed down for only a week spent at Vilemyr Inn. Released Abigail approached him sporadically, even if they were both not sure how to get together for a ghost and human, making for awkward vibes in their interactions.