Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! (5 page)

“AHHHH!” I screamed.

The glowing white face screamed back at me,
it’s gaping mouth opening wider than a black hole. The others
woke.

“What’s the matter?” said Robin half asleep.
I pointed up at the thing, which floated up near the ceiling, a
large pot in it’s arms. Robin took one look and dived beneath his
sheets, trembling. Simon and Jake began laughing.

“Ha, ha,” said Jake. “Why ‘ar you gettching
sca’red of the work ghosts?”

“Work ghosts?” I said, trying to stop my
bedsheets from trembling.

“Yeah,” said Simon. “They do all the crappy
jobs in this place, didn’t you know that?”

I didn’t say anything, but turned over.
Ashamed of myself that I should have screamed out loud because of a
ghost. We had loads at home.

“Such rudeness!” The ghost cried fleeing
through the wall, dropping the chamber pot with a crash (thank
goodness it was empty).

Well, no one told me about ghosts working at
the school. As I tried to get back to sleep again, my poor heart
hammering in my chest, I could hear Jake and Simon still laughing
to each other.

It wasn’t long before we were all awake. I
woke when I heard the bedroom door creak open. Through the curtains
I could see it was still dark outside. But now someone with a gas
lamp was creeping inside.

“Good morning…” said the voice softly. I
pretended to still be asleep. “Boys?
Boys
?”

No one stirred, the man sighed softly. “Oh
well…” He clicked his fingers and a second later an ear splitting
BONG!
erupted across the room. There were a few thuds as
Hunter and Graham fell out of bed. It shocked me too and I was
already awake!

As my eyes adjusted to the small light, I saw
a man dressed in a browny-green tweed suit, with a strange
triangular hat, large round glasses, and a soft demeanour.

“Up we get boys, up we get…” He began to walk
around the room slowly. “My name is Magisteer Partington and I am
your new form tutor. Now, get dressed, as we will go and get the
girls up and then go for a walk. I’ll be outside in the hallway,
you have three minutes.”

As he shut the door, fire in brackets started
to light up around the room, casting a warm, cosy orange glow. I
hopped out of bed and pulled some clothes out of my wardrobe.
Hunter was still so sleepy he put his trousers on back to front. We
all joined Magisteer Partington in the hallway outside.

“Ah well done boys, two minutes and
fifty-four seconds. Right, lets go and get the girls up.” As we
followed him along the corridors, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
Fire in brackets popped on as we walked, lighting the hallways a
fiery orange. I wondered what time it was. It had to be early.

None of us were sure why our new form tutor
had chosen to take us out now, for none of the other new years were
up, we heard them snoring as we passed.

After waiting nearly five minutes for the
girl’s, they finally emerged looking bleary eyed and confused.
Magisteer Partington took us down a long winding staircase to the
main hall, where he stopped and turned. In the new light I saw he
had a face like an owl. A long beaky nose with round spectacles and
a thin, almost non-existent mouth.

“Now, I do this every year, take my new form
on an explore of the school, then we will go and have breakfast in
our classroom.” he pushed the door wide and stepped out into the
dark morning.

I mean, this could have been anyone, how did
we know this was our form tutor?

We walked along this tiny stone path around
the school grounds. After a few minutes Simon sidled up to me and
muttered. “That was you getting scared by the chamber pot ghost
wasn’t it?” I nodded stiffly, hoping no one else heard. Simon just
sort of laughed. What was he getting at?

“I thought you Blackthorns were supposed to
be… I dunno…
hard
.”

“Yeah well, took me by surprise.” I wanted to
say something clever, but couldn't. It was too early. Simon
sneered, clearly he thought he was better than me, just because he
wasn’t scared by a ghost.

Magisteer Partington breathed in the cool
morning air. “Ahh, I love early mornings, the quiet, the serene
beauty. When it gets warmer, we will be able to do some lessons
outside.” He said, then jumped as a small tree nearest him
stretched, yawning wide.

We walked all the way around the huge school
grounds. Robin was counting the windows under his breath, I don’t
know why. As the sun started rising, Dawn began speaking. How
strange, that Dawn should come alive at dawn.

“Oh wow, there’s a huge greenhouse. What do
we do in there, Magisteer Partyton?”

“Well, Magical studies stretch to more than
just waving our hands around and saying funny words,” he laughed.
“And… it’s err… Partington actually.”

“And!” she carried on. “I heard that the
sycamores gather when it’s someone’s birthday and sing the ancient
songs of birthday cycles. Is that true?”

“Yes, if they like you…”

“Oh!” she burst. “How do you make them like
you?”

“Well, just like people, they get a
feeling
for someone.”

I didn’t know the sycamore trees but I had a
feeling that they would find Dawn very annoying. Robin raised his
eyebrows at me, he was thinking the same, I just knew it.

The grounds were huge. Magisteer Partington
pointed to a place just off the horizon where the grounds ended. It
was a mix of forest and open green land separated by large green
hedge that moved. Beyond the hedge was a cliff edge and by all
accounts a very long drop. Off to the left and down the hill was a
stadium with a big chequered pitch, I was going to ask what it was
for, but Dawn was asking a rather exasperated Partington whether
sycamores liked being hugged or stroked.

As we started walking back round the back of
the school, the sun began streaming over the horizon. In some of
the windows I could see some people moving around, the rest of the
school was rising.

“Right off to form,” announced
Partington.

He led us back into the school, through the
huge main doors then up and up and up, to our form classroom. We
started walking up this circling staircase and I had a small
feeling we were going up the large centre spire. I was going a
little dizzy with the amount of circles we did and the air felt
thinner up here. I cursed, if we had a classroom with a long drop I
wouldn’t be happy. I hated heights.

“Here we are,” he led us out of the staircase
(finally), into another small hallway. Everything in this place was
stone. But the floors were lined with rugs, all higglede-pigglede,
with thick drapes covering the walls. Our form room was on the left
through the first door. There were a couple of other doors, but
they looked empty and unused. We all piled into our new classroom,
it smelt dusty and there was a faint whiff of mould, but it was
cosy and these great big, dark oak tables with high backed
intricately carved chairs. There were windows, at the back, and
when I looked out I went a little dizzy, but it wasn’t as high as I
thought. Perhaps five or six floors. I could just about handle
that. Hunter immediately stuck his head out the window and looked
up.

“Woah! There’s clouds up there!”

“Get in child!” called Partington.
“
Jeez
… Right, breakfast!” Partington clapped his hands and a
huge platter of food burst into existence on the desks.

We all stood around chatting and eating, the
food was really good! All around the outside of the room were these
strange objects, most of them with large dusty cloths over them. On
the walls were display boards of previous years work: above the
blackboard was a display about the
Phonetics of Spellwork,
to the left, near another window was a display of magical artwork
based on the famous Wizard Jermain, and behind us were examples of
A star written work essays.

Partington made us go around and say our
names again. Taking some paper he stretched out his hand, a pen
zoomed into it and he started writing all our names down. Rather
informally we kind of stood around and said where we were from and
stuff. When I said I was a Blackthorn, he kind of looked at me with
half a smile.

“Ah yes, you’re the Blackthorn who isn’t
evil? I remember you from the introduction.”

“Yeah, he isn’t evil alright, he screamed at
the chamber pot ghost last night,” said Simon and everyone laughed,
I could have punched him.

“They do take a bit of getting used to,” said
Partington democratically, then asked us if we had any questions
for him, so we stood and tried to think of some. “I will be taking
you for most of your lessons in the first year, teaching you the
basics and what not, but you will have specialised lessons with
other Magisteers around the school, only one at first but then
others…”

“Is it true that we start at 7am?” said Jess.
I couldn't help staring at her red lips, they were so red it was
ridiculous.

“Yes. But from 7am to 8am you will be in here
doing homework or such like, we call it the
warm up
hour.
”

“What is that pitch over there?” I said
pointing out the window to the chequered pitch in the distance.

“That’s the Riptide pitch, we will be playing
a match on there at some stage.”

“What’s Riptide?” said Hunter.

“It’s the Magic sport of course…” said Dawn
as if it was blindingly obvious, Hunter shrugged.

“Right, any more questions?” said Partington.
“I will get you your timetables…”

I needed to ask him about not having half the
right equipment, a channeller and robes but I didn’t want to look
stupid. He must have noticed because he looked at me. “Avis?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Erm… I don’t have any
Ever-changing robes, tie, or channeller.” Everyone in the room
frowned, maybe thinking I was joking.

“Right,” said Partington confused, then said
delicately. “Did you lose them?”

“No,” I said looking at the floor, wishing
they’d all look away. I should have approached Partington on his
own.

“Well… ok… we’ll have to sort some out then,
won’t we? May I ask
why
you didn't get any?” he said
softly.

Everyone looked at me and my face went and
burned all bright red, which was even more embarrassing. “Erm…
well, my parents… they didn’t… I never erm… they didn’t get me
any…” I mumbled.

The silence was horrible. They were all
judging me, I could sense it.

“Did you say your name was Avis… Avis
Blackthorn
?”

“Yes,” I said curtly, because I could sense
what he was thinking - Blackthorn’s had a reputation, we had gold
and influence so he was clearly wondering why my parents hadn’t got
me anything ready for school.

“They kind of hate me,” I said, trying to
offer him an answer. “They are all evil and I am not.”

“I see…” he smiled a bit, pleased, I think.
“Okay, go with one of the ghosts to the lost property room and get
the stuff you need. I am sure you parents will sort out what you
need in time…”

Simon sniggered. “I’m not sure that’s a good
idea sending Avis off with a ghost sir…” some of the girls laughed
now, and I tell you I could have chucked him clean out that window,
if I wasn’t so nice.

Partington had a funny little device on his
desk that looked halfway between a little bell and a pepper pot. He
shook the little thing and inside this white mist began to form,
then it shot out into the room. This transparent man, all haughty
and dead looking, said impatiently.

“Yeaass?”

“Impkus, can you take Avis here to lost
property and see if we can find him some Ever-changing robes, tie,
and channeller?”

Impkus, the ghost, nodded slowly then floated
off through the door. Partington indicated for me to follow. I
sighed, glad of a reason to leave the room and had to run to keep
up with the ghost who sailed off down the winding staircase. I
followed as best I could as he darted into a main corridor, then
straight through a large tapestry. I went under it and followed the
glowing white light down three flights of stairs. It was cold down
here.

“These are the dungeons…” said Impkus. “Don’t
make a habit of coming down here too often, unless you want to end
up like me.”

I didn’t know what he meant, it was dark and
damp but I couldn't see any danger or way of being murdered.

He zapped through a big metal door to the
left, then pushed it open for me from the inside. The lost property
room was bigger than I thought and full to the brim with stuff
piled up as high as the eye could see. The smell was an
overpowering aroma of centuries old dust, something dead and
rotten, mixed with a fifty year old broken bottle of Butterfly
perfume.

“So you need some Ever-changing robes?” said
Impkus chucking an enormous cardboard box to the ground in front of
me. I had a short coughing fit as the plumes of dust went up my
nose. Inside the box was a mass of tangled silky black
ever-changing robes. He made me search through them and boy they
stank! I found a few that fitted ok, but they just smelt so bad I
had to put them back. Eventually I picked out the only one that
didn't smell of mouldy feet and put it on. It was miles too big and
the bottom trailed on the floor behind me, but it didn’t smell.

“This one will do,” I said as the colours
changed. The black faded into this horrible bright turquoise just
like the carpet in our dorm room.

“Here’s a tie,” said Impkus, handing me this
thing that looked like a chewed up and, very dead, snakeskin. He
noticed my hesitation and huffed. “A tie’s a tie’s a tie.” I took
it and stuffed it in my robe’s pocket, glancing around to see if
there were any others I could quickly take, but there were none in
sight. There were lots of old rusty cauldrons, dented kettles and
things
floating in jars but no spare ties.