Leo guided the small group through another series of corridors till they passed through another courtyard to a separate building on the grounds. Past the fountain and raven statue that Beatrice noticed were in every courtyard and sent shivers down her spine, was the south dormitory. It bore the rose-colored bricks of the main castle, along with crenellations at the top and the Ravensburl banners beside a large main arch.

"Hey, Leo?" Adeline asked, looking up at the building.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to ask by the way, what's the history of the buildings themselves? The dorm has the medieval castle things on the roof walkways."

"That's pretty observant of you, Miss LeStrade!" Leo chuckled as he led the way into the dormitory building. "The Academy structure used to be a medieval castle, crenellations, buttresses, and arrow slits and all. She bought it and decided she could turn the old thing into a place of learning instead. So it has its own history, but its history as a school is just starting."

"So....It's a very old building." Sascha said slowly. "Which parts of it is haunted?"

The upperclassman laughed. "You'll be surprised how many people ask us that! So you'll be paired up with one other person as your roommate, and who it is has already been decided. If you have any issues with your roommate, please take it up with the Headmistress. Up these stairs, watch your step. I'll take you to your rooms."

As the four students followed Leo past a large and comfortable lounge area with high windows and a cool breeze, Sascha muttered under their breath. "He didn't answer my question."

After a short while, Leo had situated each of the students under his care to a room. They were all in different rooms, and were the first ones there.

Beatrice turned back to him after entering her room. One side of the room mirrored the other perfectly, with one bed, a desk and chair, lamp, rug, and cabinet. Her own trunk and luggage were already at the foot of her bed, and Beau was asleep in its plant pot on the table, safe and sound. Someone else's luggage was at the foot of the other bed, and consisted of a sleek and modern set of suitcases and black backpacks in contrast to Beatrice's rustic trunk and rucksack.

"Um, Leo?"

"Yes Beatrice?"

"Who is my roommate?"

Leo shrugged. "I have no idea, but they must still be on the tour in Ashford's group." He smiled and patted Beatrice's shoulder. "Don't worry! I'm sure you'll get along with them just fine. Roommates are by gender, so they'll be a girl too. I suggest you focus on settling in while they’re not here yet."

Beatrice smiled, reassured. "Alright. Thank you for the tour!"

"You're welcome!" Leo smiled. "I'll be in the lounge downstairs if you need any help."

"Alright I will! Thank you!" Beatrice waved as Leo excused himself and went back down the hall to check on the other three before retiring to the lounge.

Now alone in her new dorm room, a sense of melancholy fell on Beatrice. The room was spacious enough, but it was bare. It was nothing like the room she had at her ancestral home. Looking it over, she adjusted her glasses and sighed helpless.

That home was a sprawling complex that housed several generations of the same family. It was a series of brick buildings steadily expanded with more and more rooms as the years went by, all circling the aged oak tree that had been there for hundreds of years. The tree's roots had grown so thick and strong that it grew between the bricks of the oldest sections of the house and accommodations were made to build around any overhanging branches. It was all earthen walls and brick, with creeping vines and a sprawling garden. A true druid's haven.

But here in Ravensburl, Beatrice's room was cold stone and wood. Her parents refrained from building anything with wood. Her grandfather could hear the trees cry out in pain, he said, so that habit stuck with her father and mother. Now faced with such different surroundings, Beatrice was at a loss at what to do.

On the table, Beau the mandrake peeked out of the rim of its pot. It lets out a keening whine from a gnarled slit that appeared on the surface of its tough, yam-like skin.

"Oh, Beau! Are you hungry?" Beatrice smiled as she went to pick up the pot of her familiar and stroked its leaves. "Please be patient, I'll get your food right away." Riffling through her rucksack, Beatrice pulled out a small vial with a silver liquid. She waved it above the mandrake to get its attention, and Beau opened its mouth wide to receive the three small drops Beatrice tipped into its mouth. The mandrake squeaked in a high pitch before wriggling deeper into the soil and going back to sleep.

Satisfied that her familiar was fed and placated for now, Beatrice went back to the task at hand: what to do about her half of the dorm room. She started to take clothes out of her beaten old trunk and put them away in the provided cabinet, when suddenly she heard Beau squeak.

Beatrice turned back to her familiar, and saw the mandrake simply shifting in its pot as it slept. Beau was a splash of green and brown against the plain gray stone finishing. She gasp, struck by a sudden inspiration.

The earth witch quickly finished putting the rest of her clothes away in her cabinet and made for the door. Already thinking of going down the flights of stairs to the lobby, finding Leo, and asking if she could put a wild number of plants in her dorm, the door opened outwards just as her fingers brushed the brass doorknob.

Beatrice saw the sheep-shaped ball of fluff standing beside black high boots first. Standing in the doorway was the tall Asian witch.

"You?" Nova said incredulously. "You're my roommate?"

Beatrice quickly backpedaled into the room.

"Well that's just great." Nova's voice was flat as she strode in, took quick stock of the state of the room, and sat heavily on the free bed.

"I beg your pardon?"

Nova glanced sharply back at Beatrice before pulling out a black rectangular mirror from her pocket. She touched its surface and the mirror lit up with an internal light. She grumbled. "Great, no cell service here. What am I supposed to do now? And this thing is supposed to be a wand?"

Her familiar bleated softly and lay across Nova's boot.

"Um..." Beatrice took a breath. "My name is Beatrice Gaia. It’s nice to meet you."

The other witch glanced back at Beatrice, then went back to fiddling with her phone. "Nova," she said after the silence began to grow awkward.

"Okay, um... My familiar's a mandrake." Beatrice gestured to the plant pot sitting on her small table. "Its name is Beau and its asleep right now. What's yours?"

"I don't know what it is." Nova muttered. "It's name's Fleece."

"That's very nice." The earth witch stood there still trying to get a conversation out of her roommate. She assumed this must have been what her mother meant by trying to talk to a brick wall. "Okay, well, I have to go ask Leo something."

Nova said nothing, didn't even look up from her phone.

Beatrice hesitated another moment before turning and leaving the room and heading down the hall.

"I got Nova as my roommate?" she said out loud. Taking a few deep breaths to calm and ground herself, she nodded to herself in determination when her foot hit the last step to the lounge.

Leo waved from the couch by the window, where he was relaxing while Ashford looked through a sheaf of papers with a drawn expression. "Miss Gaia, hello again! Do you need any help?"

"Hi Leo! I just wanted to ask, to what extent can I decorate my room?"

Leo glanced to Ashford, who was too busy to notice. "Well, there aren't many rules about it. You can hang whatever you want on the walls, change the floor if you know the spells for it even. Just don't harm the furniture or knock down the walls."

"Can I add plants?"

"How many plants?"

"A lot of plants." The earth witch looked at him with an eager smile and wide puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

Leo laughed at the sight of her. "Right, you're the druid girl! Of course you can add plants. Headmistress Cassandra encourages the witches and wizards here to explore their personal brand of magic. If yours involves plants, then go right ahead! You can get cuttings from all over the grounds, or from the greenhouse with the professor's permission."

"Great, thanks!" Beatrice sighed, relieved to hear that. A hundred plans ran through her head as she considered the space of her half room. Then her expression soured. "I do have another concern though."

"Yes?"

"My roommate is Nova? Are you sure that's not a mistake?"

Ashford finally looked up. "Why, what's wrong with Nova?"

"Well..." Beatrice hesitated. What was wrong with Nova? Why did she feel she had to bring her up at all? "I'm just getting the feeling that she doesn't like me."

"It's only the first day." Ashford smiled sheepishly. "I don't want you to stay with someone you're not comfortable with, but she might just need some time to open up."

"Hey."

The sound of Nova's sharp voice made Beatrice jump. The other witch was at the bottom of the stairs, phone in hand.

"Yes, Nova?" Leo called out.

"Where's the Headmistress's office?"

"I could take you. Excuse me, Ash. Beatrice." Leo smiled reassuringly at Beatrice as he stood and escorted Nova out of the dormitory building.

The earth witch sighed as she watched Leo and Nova walk away. "She's going to the Headmistress to have me changed as her roommate."

"You don't know that, Beatrice." Ashford said softly. He patted the couch beside him, inviting her to sit.

Beatrice sat heavily on the couch beside Ashford and leaned against the sofa with a sigh. She said nothing else till the skittish upperclassman looked over to her.

"So, what's on your mind?" He said softly. "Is it really just Nova?"

"Yes! I mean... I guess it is."

Ashford flipped through her papers. "You're from a family of druids, right?"

The earth witch nodded. "Yes, long line of druids. We live in an ancestral home built around—"

"A very large tree, right? Ancient and magical?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Well for one thing, I know that druids from long ago were nomads and they would settle only once they found a particularly powerful tree."

Beatrice nodded and took out her wand. It was made of an oak branch and was intricately carved with images of plants and animals. "My whole family has wands made from the oak tree. Me and all my cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents."

Ashford nodded, impressed. "That carving work is beautiful! So as druids, what did you do?"

"Well, we made poultices and potions for a nearby village." Beatrice chuckled as she remembered. "My chore was to look for bark that was flaking off the old oak and grind it down to a powder. My brother had to root for vegetables in the garden."

"The village near you, the folk there had known you and your family for years?"

"Yes, that's right. They took to depending on our family to be healers. I've seen everything from small cuts to broken bones being healed with a potion made from things that grew in our garden."

Ashford leaned back. "Well, that's your problem."

"What is? What's my problem?"

"That's the root of your problem with Nova."

Beatrice stared back at Ashford, confusion written all over her face. "Excuse me?"

"Coming from a family of druids and having little contact with others other than the people of the village, I understand it may be hard to see where other people who come from different backgrounds are coming from?"

"Well, I understand that, but—"

"It's not my place to explain everything, but just be patient with your roommate, okay?" Ashford said kindly. "She doesn't hate you."

"How are you so sure about that?"

"Because me and Leo were like that too." The upperclassman chuckled. "I hated his guts when I first met him, and he ended up being my roommate so I was stuck with him. But eventually I realized, that wasn't what rankled me so much."

"What!" Beatrice leaned forward. "What was it then? It might be the same with Nova! How do I get along with her?"

"For me, I was scared." He shrugged. "Thankfully, Leo was patient. He was like an excited puppy dog that wouldn't leave me alone or shut up, but he was patient with my silence. In time, I got used to him and I opened up." He chuckled suddenly, covering his mouth as he did. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to get sappy.

Beatrice smiled. Ashford laughed so daintily and honestly, it must have been a truly happy memory. "So... I should just give her some time?"

"I believe that's best, yes." Ashford said. "She'll come around eventually. After all, its your very first day at Ravensburl. Everything is new and everyone are strangers." He fixed his pile of papers. "Have you settled in yet? Gotten your things unpacked?"

"Yes I have! The dormitory is pretty spacious, and I am used to sharing a room, but..."

"But not with someone you're not related to, huh? It'll be alright. Just takes some time to get used to."

Beatrice nodded thoughtfully. "I supposed that's— oh!"

"Yes?"

"What are the rules for using magic in the dorms? Or outside of class?"

Ashford thought about it for a while. "Just don't break anything. Headmistress Cassandra is pretty lenient when it comes to spellcasting. An important value of Ravensburl is to let its students develop their personal brand and skill with magic. If that means letting them use magic whenever the fancy strikes, so be it." He waved Beatrice back when she got up suddenly, bursting with excitement. "But! But, but, do not play pranks on your fellow students okay? No destruction magic or malicious transmutation and illusions. No spellcasting with reckless abandon!"

Beatrice couldn't help but laugh, Ashford's expression looked for panicked! "Okay, I got it! But a growth spell or two on some room plants won't hurt right?"

The upperclassman breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Is that all? That will be alright as long as the plants don't—" He began to count on his fingers. "—1. Destroy the structure of the dorm room. And 2, encroach on your roommate's space. If you can keep the plants on your side of the room, it's perfectly fine."

"Oh that's easy!" Beatrice took Ashford's thin hands in hers and shook them. "Thank you so much Ashford!"

"You're welcome!" Ashford stuttered from the movement but recovered. "I hope you enjoy your time at Ravensburl!"

"I will! Thank you!"

Beatrice spent the rest of the day putting away her things and roaming the courtyard and greenhouse area with a claypot for clippings she could propagate. On her way, she came across Hanan who was doing the exact same thing, gathering plants. Together they collected cuttings of creeping vines and flowering plants till they couldn't carry anymore and would have to come back another time with more pots.

"You're going to put creeping vines by your desk? That's wonderful!" Beatrice was all smiles as she walked back to the dormitory with Hanan. "I'm thinking of putting mine by the cabinet.

"My idea was a curtain of vines near the desk, then hanging plants by the window." Hanan beamed. "Let's look for flowers next time!"

"Yes! I saw some beautiful pink and white blooms near the greenhouse, but the cat in the fruit plant pot. Oh, who is your roommate?"

"I think their name was Sascha. I saw them at your table earlier, the one with the pixie?"

"I hope you two get along well."

"We have been, so far. How about you, who is your roomie?"

"It's Nova." Beatrice shrugged. "I don't know if I'm making any progress getting along with her, but I shouldn't worry about it. Right?"

"Right! It'll be okay. We're going to have class all together tomorrow anyway, so I'll see you then?" The two of them stopped at the first room on Beatrice's floor.

"Yes of course! See you then!" Beatrice waved as Hanan headed into her dorm room. The earth witch went over to her own room and stopped in the doorway. Just inside the dorm, Nova was busy sticking a strip of silver tape down half the room, bisecting it with a clear boundary. Beatrice sighed heavily. She gave a silent prayer to the earth spirits. It was going to be a difficult first few weeks at Ravensburl.