The next day, Beatrice was woken by the sound of an ear-splitting screech. It was a familiar sound, and so loud and so close to her head that it got the young druid bolting out of her bed in alarm immediately. Beatrice reached for the vial of silver liquid that she kept by her bedside, and tended to the grumpy mandrake. Beau stopped its scream once Beatrice stroked its leaves and muttered calmingly to it even when her own heart was bursting out of her chest. After a few drops of the silver liquid disappeared into the mandrake's mouth, Beau calmed down and the familiar's owner was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

"There, isn't that better Beau?" Beatrice muttered soothingly. "I'm sorry it took me this long to wake up. Were you waiting long?"

The mandrake squeaked in response, but didn't settle back into the soil of its pot yet. It looked back at Beatrice expectantly.

The earth witch furrowed her brow. What else did her mandrake need? "I just fed you. Um... Water?"

Beau shook its head, its leaves rustling with the movement.

"New soil?"

It shook its head again.

Beatrice watched her familiar, quite puzzled indeed.

Something else in the room squeaked, and Beatrice thought to look over at the other side of the room. Her roommate's sheep-shaped familiar was on its back with its wool all frizzy and sticking up everywhere. Beatrice couldn't help but chuckle as she crossed the line of silver tape to help the familiar up. Its legs were up in the air and wiggling helplessly.

"I'm so sorry, Fleece! We're you startled by Beau?" She said in the same soft, soothing tone. "I'm sorry about that, I should have woken up earlier."

Fleece bleated happily once it got put right-side-up again. The familiar circled Beatrice a few times, and when she reached down to pet its wool, she got a shock of static.

"Ow!" She cried, holding her hand. Meanwhile, Fleece looked quite happy. "Static, huh? Wait... Where's Nova?"

The other young witch was not in the room at all; not in her bed which was left a messy pile of blankets and pillows that were not provided by Ravensburl, nor was she at her desk. A heavy sense of realization settled in the pit of Beatrice's stomach. She looked back at Beau, who she thought was looking back at her through her blurry, glasses-less vision. "What time is it?"

After a frantic few minutes spent in a whirlwind of cleaning up, dressing, and gathering her notebook, quills, and inkwell, Beatrice hauled open the doors to the Abjuration room. The heavy old door creaked loudly, and more than a dozen students within the large amphitheater looked back to stare at her.

"Ah, Miss Gaia." Professor Hope said flatly from the head of the class. A blackboard was behind her, already scrawled over with today's lessen. "I was wondering what had happened to you. Perhaps the tour yesterday had slipped your mind completely?"

"I'm so sorry Professor!" Beatrice scurried into a bench that still had space, clutching at her skirt as she hurriedly sat and pulled out her notebook. "I misjudged the time."

"Clearly." Hope said dryly, as usual. She sighed and turned back to the board. "Happens every year. But still, we carry on. Now again, for Miss Gaia's benefit, the simple barrier spell..."

"Hey." Beatrice's seatmate whispered, leaning closer to her. It was Adeline. "Good morning!"

"Good morning. Oh this is so embarrassing, I'm late." Beatrice's lip quivered. "And on the first day of all days!"

"Shush, it's okay." Adeline put a hand on Beatrice's.

Hanan leaned forward on the bench from behind Adeline to catch Beatrice's attention. "If it helps, she's only discussed the barrier spell so far! I have some notes here if you want to copy them." She showed a page of her notebook which bore complex diagrams and notes in an organized, cramped writing. They were color coded and written with a modern pen, too.

"And I can help you with the wand work if you need." Adeline smiled. "Don't worry, we got you."

"Mmm..." Sascha yawned, sitting at the bench behind the three. "Yeah. You didn't miss much."

"Oh all of you! You're such sweet—" Beatrice started, grateful tears in her eyes, when a sharp clearing of the throat was heard just behind her.

"Miss Gaia." Professor Hope had appeared behind Beatrice, staring the young witch and her friends down. "And you three. Friendship among young witches and wizards is a wonderful thing, yes, but so is paying attention in class."

"Yes professor!" Beatrice yelped. "I'm sorry—"

"You've said that already. The next words out of your mouth should be "Yes professor, I will listen to your lecture."

The young witch swallowed dryly and nodded. "Yes professor, I will listen to your lecture."

Hope stared back at Beatrice with not even a twitch of expression on her face. "Good. Now I encourage all of you to listen in class." Hope walked slowly down the steps of the amphitheater to the teacher's desk at the middle. "Maybe you will actually learn something, and not need to spend so much time in my classroom out of class hours."

Hope returned to explaining and demonstrating the correct wand movement used to cast the barrier spell, and went through the pains of explaining to Felix how he can cast the spell if his wand is his earring.

The professor sighed and looked around at her nervous students. "Show of hands, who here has a wand that is not the traditional wooden magic wand?" She waited a beat, and watched as a majority of hands rose slowly. "Very well. For those with wands unique to them, you will have to channel your magic differently... Mister Carter, come here. The rest of you, watch closely."

Felix nervously descended the steps of the amphitheater and stood where Professor Hope told him to stand. He fidgeted with his earring — a gold helix piercing with a small chain that looped down to a stud in his earlobe — and listened. Following Professor Hope’s instruction to channel energy, focus intent, and copy the appropriate hand movements, a weakly shimmering wall materialized before his eyes.

"Ah, very good work Mister Carter." Professor Hope said flatly.

Suddenly, a black object sailed through the air and crashed into the shimmering barrier with a loud thunk and a splatter of ink as it bounced off. The inkwell rolled across the floor, spilling ink everywhere.

Hope's eyebrow twitched. Wordlessly she pulled out her own wand and waved it. The ink floated off the stone floor and Felix's barrier and flew back into the inkwell which Hope picked up.

"Miss Nova, was that really necessary?"

Beatrice craned her neck to look at Nova. Her roommate was lounging back in her seat.

"I wanted to see if the barrier would hold, professor." She said simply. "That is the point of it, isn't it? You said in the lecture it's purpose is to protect the caster from harm both physical and magical."

"Yeah, but you threw it at my head!" Felix retorted.

"You're still holding it up, aren't you?" Nova smirked.

Hope pinched the bridge of her nose. "You are correct, Miss Nova. While your methods to test your classmate's skill are uncouth and unconventional, you are correct. Due to Mister Felix's strength of will and focus, the barrier held and protected him from injury or stains to his person." She waved Felix back to his seat. "I want the rest of you to use the remainder of our time to practice the barrier spell on your own. But please, do not throw things in my classroom."

The class split off into groups on their own to practice, with Professor Hope being called over frequently to assist with students who were using their wands to channel magic for the first time.

"She's actually quite caring." Beatrice held her hand out to help her visualize the barrier as a strong wall just in front of her. "And really patient."

"Are you sure you'd call her patient? That was clearly not patient." Sascha replied. Instead of copying the recommended hand movements as Hope had demonstrated, they were writing in a notebook. A barrier appeared in front of them all the same.

"Well I mean, she just wanted to help and teach, right?"

"That's her job though, isn't it? We're not going to learn anything if we don't try and test the limits of what we can do."

"Wait, whose job?"

"Professor Hope's. Why, who were you talking about?"

"My roommate, Nova!"

"What about Nova?"

Beatrice looked behind her, dropping her barrier as her concentration faltered. Standing on the steps of the amphitheater was the Asian witch, one foot on a higher step and her hands in her pockets. She raised her brow. "Are you talking shit about me?"

"What?" Beatrice's brow furrowed. "Why would I..." She trailed off, confused. Nova cut a sharp figure standing on the stairs, her long black hair cascading down her shoulders. She scoffed. "Want me to throw an inkwell at you too?"

"I don't understand, why would I want you to throw—"

The Asian witch sighed and rolled her eyes, and proceeded up the steps without waiting for Beatrice to finish sentence.

It took a few seconds for Beatrice to gather her bearings. She adjusted her glasses and looked back to Adeline, Sascha, and Hanan. "What just happened?"

"Oh dearest." Adeline said softly, patting Beatrice's hand.

"What?"

"Well good thing you didn't let her intimidate you!" Hanan chimed in.

"I have no idea what just happened! Why would I have been talking...Talking about waste?"

Hanan and Adeline exchanged a look. "Oh Beatrice you absolute darling. You're going to have lunch with us, okay? We'll explain everything."

Late wasn't till after another class, unfortunately for the hungry first-years. Professor Hope dismissed her Abjuration class rather brusquely, telling them to finish their barrier practice and to hurry and pack their things and leave her room, then proceeding to herd them all up the amphitheater stairs.

"Don't forget your homework for next class." Hope said. "I expect a researched essay about the uses of barrier spells on my desk first thing."

"Yes Professor Hope!" Beatrice smiled. "Thank you for today's class."

Hope merely raised an eyebrow and shooed Beatrice and her friends off.

"She's, um..." The young earth witch started as they started walking towards the west courtyard.

"Yeah, you see, that is definitely not patient." Sascha shrugged. A pixie flitted off their hair and towards the fountain once they had passed into the courtyard. "But at least she explains spells well."

Adeline nodded and looked over to Hanan. "What's our next class?"

"I have a list here!" She pulled out a notebook, and Beatrice saw her notes were impeccably organized with headers and different colored inks. "It's Abjuration in the first floor west hall — we're done with that — then Botany in the west courtyard."

"When's lunch?"

"After Botany. Then Illusion, then we're done for today." Hanan flipped a page. "Then Destruction first thing tomorrow."

Beatrice wiped her glasses with the hem of her blouse. "It's quite a lot, and we need to find some time to do research at the library for Abjuration homework."

"Don't worry about that!" Adeline chuckled. "We have a lot of time. Besides, aren't you excited to meet our professors first? Leo said we'd have a professor with an assistant for Botany. Do you think he's a student?"

"I mean, it might be?"

"Do you think they'd be cute?"

"Adeline!" Beatrice and her friends laughed as she pushed open the door to the Botany classroom.

The air inside the room was warm and humid, with shelves on every wall and the floor under them crammed with potted plants. The classroom held a long table in the middle with benches on either side, with another table at the head of the class. What was on the table made Beatrice gasp in delight while she took her seat with her three friends. Rows upon rows of brightly colored flowers in pots were arranged and ready for study, but that was only part of what caught Beatrice's delight. A fuzzy cat was lounging among the potted plants, lying quite comfortably with the bright pink and purple flowers.

"Awww, it's the cat from yesterday!" Beatrice cooed as she set her bag beside her on the bench seat. "Hello there, kitty!" She reached out to pet it and scratch the cat under its chin. It began to purr quite loudly.

Soon Beatrice found herself unable to take out her notebook and inkwell, as the cat decided to settle on the table directly in front of her. Whenever she lifted her hand and stopped petting its soft fur, the cat would look back at her with its amber eyes. The earth witch didn't have the heart to stop.

"Look like you can't move now, you have a cat." Hanan giggled. "It's the rules, you can't get up while you have a cat."

"Wait, what? Is that a real rule?" Beatrice asked, eyes wide. The cat kept purring under her hand.

"Of course it's not dear, but you wouldn't want to disturb it, right?" Adeline chuckled and reached over to pet the cat as well, scratching under its chin.

"I don't want to disturb it at all! It's quite lovely." Beatrice made up her mind: she wouldn't stop petting the cat even if the professor arrived. "I wish I had a cat growing up. We had only plants, which was great, but no pets."

"Not even a dog?"

"No, we had gardens aplenty, but no animals or livestock."

Beatrice heard a strange click noise suddenly, followed by another two clicks. It was a strange noise, unfamiliar to her, but when she looked up from the cat, she saw her roommate standing up and holding her phone above the plants and pointed parallel to the ground.

"Um...Nova?"

"What do you want?" The Asian witch sat back down at the bench opposite Beatrice's, her body partially hidden by flowers.

"What did you just do?"

"I took a picture."

Beatrice's eyes went wide. "What? How? You didn't have the big, bulky cameras that look like accordions."

She saw her roommate lean to the side to peer incredulously at her from behind the flowers. Nova kept her usual stoic expression, but now one eyebrow was raised. "You're kidding."

"Kidding about what?"

"Darling," Adeline piped up. "She doesn't know about camera phones. You came from a druid household in a rural town, right?"

"Yes I did. We were pretty remote."

Nova sighed and reluctantly slipped her phone through the gap in the flowers. She held onto it, but on its lit screen was a picture of the cat from above with Beatrice's hands on it. It looked like a dark brown loaf of bread.

The earth witch gasped. "Oh! That's amazing! It's so clear—you can even see individual hairs!" She gently rubbed at the swirl-like pattern on the cat's side.

"Nova, that's really cute! Can you send me that picture later?" Hanan said, peeking over the tops of the purple flowers. "I think I gave you my number at the wand ceremony."

The Asian witch sighed again and withdrew her phone. "Yeah, sure." Came the soft reply.

"Aren't you just the cutest? And so photogenic!" Beatrice giggled while, under her ever-moving hands, the cat purred on.

"Flattery won't get you everywhere, little miss!" Came a loud voice. The classroom door swung closed just as a tall wizard in black robes strode to the front of the classroom. "It will get you far, maybe, but not quite everywhere."

Beatrice looked up quickly as the professor took his place at the head of the class, then she adjusted her glasses. "Mister Laurence?"

"That's Professor Laurence, at the moment." The pale man laughed. The man she met at the bus station was indeed standing there, wearing professor's robes with his hair slicked back. "But I'm not the Professor for Botany, I teach Illusion."

"Oh, that means...We'll be seeing you again after lunch, Professor?" Hanan checked her schedule again. "But If you teach Illusion..."

"Then why am I here? Well the answer is quite simple, your Botany professor needs an assistant. One with opposable thumbs."

"They need someone with thumbs?" Sascha repeated, not quite understanding. The pixie in their hair looked just as confused. "Why, did they lose their hands or something?"

Laurence laughed. "No, more like they never had any thumbs to begin with." He paused for dramatic effect and smirked. "Isn't that right, Professor Meowstaff?"

"Meow..."

"....Staff?"

All eyes in the Botany classroom went to the cat Beatrice was still patting laid in purring contentment.

Professor Meowstaff stretched and flexed his claws, his face splitting open to show all his teeth in the way that cats do. Then the cat stood and began to walk towards the front of the long table.

"Yes, that is correct Professor Laurence." The cat spoke. His voice was soft, and had the faint sound of a purring on the r's. "As you can see, students, I do need some assistance. But I assure you, I am a qualified professor all the same."

Meowstaff jumped onto a stack of books at the head of the table and sat facing the students. He was met with shocked expressions all around.

“Is that cat talking?” Arnold couldn’t hold back his shock while, beside him, Felix craned his neck to get a better look from behind the plants.

"Surprising first-years never gets old, does it Professor?" Laurence said with a smirk.

"It is my favorite moment of the new year." Meowstaff replied, his amber eyes closing slightly. "And thank you Miss Beatrice, the scratches were very nice. Miss Nova, I hope you captured my good side."

Both roommates wanted to sink into the stone floor of the Botany classroom and disappear completely.

Laurence laughed heartily at the student's expense, while Meowstaff merely paused to clean his face with his paw.

"Well then, let's start the class. The first lesson will be..." Meowstaff shook himself, letting the fur of his face and neck fluff up and stick out. "Actually, who can tell me what kind of plant is before you?"

Beatrice didn't wait, her hand shot up eagerly, all her prior embarrassment forgotten the second she saw the opportunity to talk about plants. "I know, Professor!"

"Yes, Miss Beatrice? Miss Adeline said you are of druid stock? If that is true then this class will be much too easy for you. Please continue. What plant is this?"

"It's aconite. Also known as monkshood or wolfsbane. It's one of the most toxic plants in the United Kingdom." She replied quickly.

The cat nodded. "Indeed it is, Miss Beatrice. Well done. I hope none of you touched it..." He looked out over to the students in the tense silence that followed. Nova looked at her hand that she passed through the gaps in the flowers, and Beatrice looked at Nova. Her roommate looked up, and looked pale indeed.