Part 4 of my one-shot series on the question of: "What if the male main characters in Winx Club were fairies too?"
I think about this a lot, probably a lot more than I should. I've developed an entire headcanon around this idea and part of that is what this series is: how I imagine the moment they first discover that they can do a fairy transformation. Each story is related by being in the same headcanon, occasionally they overlap but they are all self-contained stories.
I've already published stories for Nabu, Helia and Sky and Brandon, so if you like this one I highly recommend you read them too. :D
In any case, I'll publish more stories as I finish them. I've finally gotten a start on Riven (he was really hard for me to think of an idea for) and then that will be all the boys I intend to write about.
Anywho, enough of the blather, read on my (new) friends. I welcome your feedback or comment so please review! :3
(Maybe if you think there's another male character in Winx Club who would look good/be awesome as a fairy we could talk about it and I may take a request).
Disclaimer: I don't own Winx Club and I don't do this so that I can claim to. We all have to thank Iginio Straffi and Rainbow s.r.l. for creating it (sometimes much in the same way that we thank Steven Moffat for writing Doctor Who but hey).
Disclaimer #2: this is actually an apology in advance - this story contains so much headcanon. I'm very sorry.
Timmy
The end of the summer marked the beginning of a new academic year on Magix. The capital was abuzz with activity, back-to-school sales ran in every store from bookshops to technology stores and even designer clothing boutiques. The malls and streets were packed as people hurried here and there to prepare for the time when their children would all be back to their studies. It was especially important on Magix, for it wasn't just the residents' own children who needed to be accommodated. The magic trinity that circled Lake Roccaluce would no doubt be receiving an influx of bright new students and returners too.
The trinity were an enviable cohort to be a part of but it was unfortunately extremely exclusive. Only the best, brightest, boldest and most gifted would ever earn their place there and sadly Timmy was not one of them. Perhaps if his situation was different he could have been accepted into Red Fountain. His room was crisscrossed with elaborate inventions and machines, most of which only did very simple things but in the most convoluted way possible. All throughout his life he was streamed into the top level classes. For an ordinary boy with an ordinary family he was quite remarkable. There was only one thing stopping him from achieving entry to Red Fountain. The trinity were schools dedicated to all advanced skills, particularly magic. However, Timmy had no magic powers.
There wasn't even a week left before school began yet the day began like any other. Timmy came out of his room and down the hall after hearing his mother call him for breakfast. There was a busy day ahead since he still had an uncompleted checklist of purchases for his new high school but his parents were so organised and on top of things that there was hardly any stress about it. As he stepped into the kitchen and dining room he had to duck suddenly as a plate went flying over his head.
"Oh, pardon me, dear! I didn't see you coming," said his mother, a portly, bespectacled woman with bouncy shoulder-length blonde hair. The plate whizzed over the table where it set itself down gently with the rest of the crockery and cutlery. It was already laden with today's breakfast spread: bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and eggs in a basket. He took a deep breath, savouring the delicious smell. "Now, where's your father gone?"
"I'm here," piped up a shy voice behind him, coming from a tall, skinny man with thin spectacles and light chestnut brown hair. "I haven't gone anywhere."
"Perfect! Now we can have a nice family breakfast."
She bustled – it was the only accurate word to describe any movement she made, bustling – over to the table to take her seat, charming the teapot to pour herself and her husband a cup each. Before even sitting down his father had already unfolded his paper and sliced up his food (never mind cutlery, they were just automatically divided into perfect fractions with a flick of the wrist). Timmy sat down and awkwardly helped himself to a glass of orange juice the magic-free way.
Their breakfast conversation was light and mostly passed between his mother and father, concerning their jobs and Timmy's schooling. His mother did research at the Magix University of the Sciences and his father was an engineer at the hadron collider. Despite such interesting job titles it usually ended up being very mundane chitter-chatter, especially to the ears of a teenager who had been hearing all about it every day of his life. After breakfast, his mother charmed the sponges and the dishes to clean themselves up while they were gone. Then they left their apartment, ready to face the day.
Timmy was already tired and ready to go home by lunchtime. In one hand he had a bag full of new stationery and in the other were two bags of new clothes (teenagers grow fast, after all). They were now in a shoe shop. His mother was going through all of the shelves of sneakers for boys and his father was off looking at some of the sturdier loafers and derbies.
"How about this pair," his mother said, practically throwing a pair of trainers in his face.
"It's fine, mom, I don't really need new shoes."
"Nonsense! Just look at those old things!"
Timmy did look. He hadn't actually had these shoes for very long but he was already outgrowing them. His big toes were starting to fight their way through the seams and the arches were cracking under the might of his pubescent growth spurts.
"Yeah, okay, maybe," Timmy conceded, "but can we have lunch yet?"
"Oh, of course! You're hungry; growing boys do need to eat," his mother said, nodding sagely. "But I want to get this out of the way. Just get the store clerk to take your size and I'll pick something for you. How much money do you think you'll need?"
Timmy sighed. If his mother insisted on getting something done, she would insist on getting it done immediately. Rather than put up a fight Timmy followed her order, accepted the money and walked out of the store, hands in pockets, to see what took his fancy in the eatery.
The eatery was a colourful place, like a central hub for all shoppers. People could disappear and blend in when they visited the stores of their choosing but they all had to mix and mingle in the eatery, even those who were less social. A group of teenagers, dressed darkly in leather with colourfully dyed hair, dark make-up and body piercings occupied a table nestled into a corner between two indoor gardens. The only boy of the group scanned the eatery with a distasteful expression and then suddenly grinned when an idea for mischief came upon him.
"Hey Mirta, Lucy," he said, turning to his friends who up until then were more interested in their pizzas and talking about their new school. They looked at him and he turned back to the eatery, pointing out at the people at the tables. "Watch this."
The end of his finger glowed with the same aquamarine blue as his dyed bangs and suddenly the drinks of everyone else in the eatery began to float, untouched by gravity. Startled gasps rippled through the atrium when people noticed what was happening and began to frantically look around for a culprit. The witches and the warlock sniggered at the prank.
Timmy looked away from the fast food menu he was perusing when the commotion began. Somebody tried to catch their drink container but only succeeded in knocking it, sending it spinning through the air slowly as the cap slowly loosened. Timmy tried to guard himself against it but the cola just went everywhere: down his arms, onto his chest and in his face. He sighed.
"Witches…" he guessed, looking for a clean part of his shirt that he could use to wipe his glasses. As part of the trinity, Cloud Tower was an exceptional school of superb students of the dark arts but for the people of the city of Magix that wasn't normally considered a blessing. So many talented mavericks and pranksters were right on their doorstep and things like this happened in public places quite frequently. From one perspective this prank was hilarious but for Timmy and most other people (even those who could use magic to fight back or protect themselves) this was really just annoying.
The furniture in the eatery began to rattle as trays, crockery and cutlery also began to float into the air. People's voices rose in unease and security burst onto the scene demanding to know the culprit. Timmy quietly hoped that they'd find them and put a stop to this. The drinks had been enough for one prank. Surely they didn't need to go any further unless they were trying to be especially cruel.
Over in the witches' corner, Mirta and Lucy laughed worriedly as their food began to levitate and their table wobbled.
"Okay Caelestis, you can stop now," Mirta said. "It was funny."
"I'm trying," the boy replied, holding his hand out. It was completely glowing with power. "I thought I'd killed the magic but it's getting stronger." The glow around his hand dissipated but nothing happened.
Suddenly tables started to lift into the air. Chairs too, taking anybody still sitting in them along for the ride if they didn't have the presence of mind to slide off their seats. Not only that, the influence of the spell was starting spread. Where it was previously confined to the eating area it was encroaching into the shops, lifting food, cooking instruments and even hot water and oil. People in the eatery were starting to get lifted off their feet and sent tumbling into the air. The spell spread down the halls to all of the other shops, lifting anything that wasn't bolted down.
Timmy had been saved from floating too high up by the balcony above him but being levitated this in sudden anti-gravity field left him tense and trembling. He had to keep pushing his glasses back onto his face to keep them from flying away but they never stayed put so he ended up just holding them down. He glanced at the floor below him and gulped. It would hurt to fall from this height but at least he wasn't one of the unlucky people in the eatery's glass dome atrium. It would be a long way down for them when the spell was broken.
Some people were already trying to use magic to fix the situation. Some of the fairies and witches who happened to be around had transformed, negating the anti-gravity effect with their ability to fly but nothing any of them could do was working to stop the spell. Timmy stared at the sight in amazement. If even the witches were unable to see the funny side of a cruel situation then this really must have been something terrible.
The security guards were getting around on their jet boots. Such equipment was usually for leaping far and increasing their speed to catch delinquents in the mall but it also worked here as boosters for navigating the anti-gravity field. One of them had already fetched a Magical Delineation Sensor – a device about the size of a mobile phone with several small antennae of various lengths. Good, Timmy thought. Now they'd find the person responsible for this mess and put it to rights.
"You there!"
Timmy looked up to the sound of the security guard's voice to see who the suspected perpetrator was but to his surprise they were using their jet boots to speed towards him. There were three of them and one of them had the magic detector in their hand, outstretched in his direction. They skidded to a halt in mid-air around him.
"Alright, wise guy, you can drop the spell right now," one of them commanded gruffly.
"B-but I'm not doing this," Timmy argued.
"Don't play dumb with us, kid," said the guard brandishing the magic detector. "The MDS is getting a strong reaction from you of the same type of magic that's become dominant in the building."
"Th-that's not p-possible! I can't do magic!"
"Deactivate your spell or we'll be forced to apprehend you and use more extreme methods," the third guard said, taking his baton from his belt and swinging it, demonstrating the electrical pulse it emitted when used.
"You've gotta believe me! I can't do magic at all! Ask my parents. I was rejected from Red Fountain because I couldn't do magic and there's no way Cloud Tower would take me even if I tried applying. Besides, why would I do something like this? This spell got cola on my shirt. It's making my glasses fly away."
He let go of his glasses to show the guards how they floated off his face before he caught them again. One of the guards sighed and another rolled her eyes. The one holding the MDS frowned deeply.
"This is your last chance. Release this spell or we'll detain you and call the police."
"But I'm telling you, I didn't do this! Just listen to me!"
The guard with the baton in hand growled and reached out to grab him. However, he was interrupted by the deep rumbling sound of the walls and columns shaking right down to the foundations. Everyone in the building froze in confusion. Then the building shuddered. Timmy was shaken off the balcony and flew up into the atrium as the entire mall tipped. Shocked by the sudden development, the guards missed a chance to arrest him. People and objects were floating this way and that, fairies and witches were keeping themselves stable with their powers. Timmy tumbled higher and higher towards the glass dome. He twisted around until he stopped turning but he was still floating upwards and as he looked up to the sky the sight made his stomach churn. It was getting darker. Time hadn't suddenly raced forwards to make it late, no, it was because the atmosphere was thinning. The entire building was rising out to space.
"Oh no, this is terrible!" he squeaked, talking to himself since nobody around him was listening. "This building isn't airtight nor does it have the necessary pressurisation facilities and thermal regulators for all of the people in here to survive up there. If we don't stop floating away everyone will die! Oh, somebody please stop this!"
"Don' you think that ought to be you, laddie?"
Timmy turned around and gawked at the sight of the creature that had spoken to him. It was a sparrow. Then in a sudden, sparkly poof it was gone and in its place was a tiny, pot-bellied man dressed in green and yellow. His large hat almost flew off but he pulled it back down to his red-haired head as he grasped Timmy's collar to stay anchored.
"What do you mean me?" Timmy exclaimed. "How am I going to fix this? I can't do magic and I'm not doing this! Why doesn't anybody believe me?"
"Oh, I believe you, laddie."
Timmy blinked. "You do?"
"Course I do! The ears of a leprechaun can tell when people be tellin' fibs." He grinned and wiggled his large ears. "Problem is: Palladium said he definitely saw the source of this spell's magic in you. Yer can't fool the eyes of an elf, laddie."
"Elf? Leprechaun? Just who are you?"
"Sorry, laddie! I haven't introduced myself appropriately." He doffed his hat cordially. "They call me Wizgiz, Alfea's resident professor of metamorphosimbiosis, pleased to make your acquaintance. Ah, here comes Palladium now."
Timmy looked over his shoulder to follow the leprechaun's gaze. A rather thin man in a dark green vest gradually navigated his way up to them wrapped in the aura of a levitation spell.
"Whoa. A spell with that kind of versatility must be really high level magic," Timmy said, staring at the approaching professor in awe.
Wizgiz eyed him suspiciously. "For someone who can't do magic yer got a mighty keen eye for it."
Timmy's face flushed. "My parents do magic all the time so I see it every day."
"Whew," the elf muttered once he'd reached their altitude. "Sorry it took so long. It's much harder to get around all of those obstacles when you're bigger than a sparrow." He shot Timmy a stern look but on his mousy face it wasn't very intimidating. "Now, about undoing this spell…"
"He can't!" Wizgiz told him. "He's not responsible fer all o' this."
"Oh my," Palladium gasped. "Well, that complicates things. Since there's no way you could have possibly lied to Wizgiz. Try to keep as still as you can and let me take a look at you."
Palladium conjured a wand out of thin air and began a magic chant. He dragged the sparkling point of his wand over Timmy's body and Timmy marvelled at the way the glittery ball or magical energy changed colour and shape as it passed over him. After less than a minute the magic glow subsided and Palladium tucked the hand holding the wand under his left arm as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Hmmm… this is a tricky situation indeed."
"What's wrong?" Timmy asked in a panicked voice. "Why does everyone think this is my fault?"
"Because under normal circumstances, it would seem like you're doing this," Palladium explained. "There's a well of magical energy inside you that the spell is wrapped around and drawing its power from. But my analysis also indicates that you didn't do this. In fact, it indicates that you've never cast a spell in your life."
"That is exactly what I tried to tell the security guards!" Timmy yelled. "What I need to know is why this is happening to me. How is this happening?"
"We haven't the time for one o' Palladium's long-winded lectures now," Wizgiz interrupted.
"Hey! I find you can be much more long-winded and convoluted than I ever am!" Palladium snapped. "However, you're right. I'll explain all of the details of this once the crisis is averted. For now… er, what was your name?"
"It's Timothy," Timmy replied.
"Right, Timothy, what I'm about to do may surprise you but please don't resist what's about to happen."
Palladium drew a sigil on Timmy's chest with the tip of his wand and then announced an incantation so complex that Timmy was lost after only the first word. The lines of the sigil shone brightly and then began to patchily fade away. As it did it burned and stung horribly like hundreds of needles sinking into his flesh. At the same time it felt like his insides were uncurling, making him nauseous. Timmy screamed but Palladium didn't stop. When the sigil had faded completely he called out the final word of the incantation and then there was a flash of light so bright it blinded Timmy and anyone else looking directly at it. When the light subsided Timmy had to blink away the spots in his eyes.
"Well, well," Wizgiz whispered, having transformed himself into a pixie-sized leprechaun with butterfly wings and hovering over Palladium's shoulder. "Would yer look at that."
Relief flooded through Timmy's body now that the pain had lifted and he looked down at himself, curious to see what Palladium had actually done.
"Holy…" he muttered in disbelief. His outfit had changed completely. It was now bright yellow and sparkled like the clothes of the other fairies around him. As he admired himself he turned himself upright and started at the sudden control he had over his direction. The fluttering on his back told him what it was but he couldn't help looking over his shoulder anyway. "I'm a fairy? Th-that's impossible! I-I-I've never been capable of magic. How can…? How did you…?"
"Like I said," Palladium interrupted, "I have an explanation but your priority right now is taking control of this spell so that we can get everyone to safety. The air is really getting thin."
Timmy nodded and then looked around. He stared at his surroundings, stumped. "He said to take control of the spell but I've never done that before. How is this even supposed to work?" he thought.
He put his hands out for stability and tried to feel for his magic. When he was a child his parents and teachers encouraged him to use this technique to no avail since he was never able to feel anything. Yet this time he was surprised by tingling he was getting all over his body like small waves of electric charges. It was like a sixth sense had suddenly activated, expanding his understanding of his surroundings to include all of the space around people and objects. Even when he couldn't directly see it he could blueprint it in his mind; a comprehensive 3D map of the eatery. He could expand that too, drawing a picture of the entire mall and beyond it was nothing but sky.
"Excellent work!" Palladium praised him and he gawked at the elf. "It looks like you've gotten control of the spell. Now deactivate it."
"What? Just like that? What about all the people who'll fall? This entire building will fall."
"There are already magicians who're ready to take up the mantle once the spell is cancelled," Wizgiz told him. "But yer got to stop the spell first."
Timmy looked between the teachers and the rest of the eatery uneasily. He could trust them but the plan still left him uneasy. Now that he knew he could do this he felt responsible and he hadn't even fixed half of it.
"I don't know what they've got up their sleeves but it will take forever to lower everything safely with just levitation. I mean, if we were at least closer to the ground…"
A sudden strobe light effect flashed across his vision, followed by crackling noise and the sharp smell of ozone. Everything went still for a beat as everyone tried to comprehend what had just happened. Then they began to feel the downward pull of gravity as it regained its strength over them. People and objects that were floating low to the floor hit it unceremoniously. It took a few seconds but the magicians did get their wits about them and prevented any of the higher flying ones from falling far and causing injury. Timmy wobbled at the sudden return of the fundamental force but caught himself with his wings, managing to maintain flight.
"A teleportation spell?" Palladium exclaimed. "Remarkable! Not many people can perform space manipulation magic instinctually. And it certainly supports my theory about you."
"Speaking of which," Timmy said, "can you tell me what that is now?"
"You up there!" one of the security guards from earlier shouted up to them. All three of them were on the floor directly below them. The guard with the baton was tapping it into his hand menacingly. "We've already sent a call out to the police. Get down here immediately!"
"How heavy-handed," Wizgiz muttered.
Palladium caught the anxious look on Timmy's face and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll come down with you and explain everything."
Timmy gulped and nodded. Palladium began to descend with his levitation spell (much easier now that everything was on the floor and out of the way) and he gently dragged Timmy down with him. Timmy was thankful for that because he had no idea how to steer himself with wings. Once they were on the floor one of the guards immediately reached to arrest him but stopped abruptly when a large puff of smoke exploded between them and Timmy. Wizgiz jumped out of the smokescreen, having reverted to his normal appearance.
"Afternoon, lady and gentlemen," he said with a chuckle. "What seems to be the problem here?"
"We're detaining this kid until the police arrive," the female guard explained, irritated at the little man standing in her way. "Not only has he disrupted the peace and broken the mall rules he may have also broken the law."
"I assure you that that is not what happened," Palladium said. "This is all a big misunderstanding."
"And who're you, then?"
"I'm Palladium, a professor at Alfea." He crossed one arm over his chest and bowed in greeting. "I've had a lot of training and experience in teaching magic control and spell-casting so believe me when I say that Timothy here isn't at fault. He's not the spell-caster nor is he an accomplice to the caster."
"Then how do you explain the readings we got on the MDS?" the holder of the device demanded, showing them the screen of the gadget.
"Well, I have a hypothesis – although I can't definitively prove it without a more detailed analysis of Timothy's powers – and it's possibly all to do with whatever Timothy's aspect is."
Timmy looked at him confusedly. "My aspect?"
"Yes. See, in many magical beings the base of their power is drawn from a single aspect of the universe and depending on what it is it may come naturally or it may be difficult to draw out. My theory is that someone else – most likely a witch – cast a spell to play a prank. The spell was self-perpetrating and was supposed to lose effect as soon as its magic supply faded. However, the caster was evidently inexperienced and cast an imperfect indefinite spell. Beginners tend to cast indefinite spells rather than definite spells because they're easier to write and cast but indefinite spells have the ability to draw power from extra sources if they run out. Normally, a responsible caster would circumvent this by coding the spell to reject alternative sources of power so that it fades as soon as the caster ceases to cast. Even if we did have a case of a lazy caster, this is hardly ever a problem since many fairies and witches have competent control over their power so that it can't be hijacked by such simple measures. In any case it would require the spell to bear the same aspect as the source it is hijacking. And here we have a boy who just so happened to have the right magical aspect for this spell to draw from and a lot of latent power. So you see, he's not to blame for this and I believe it would be absolutely immoral for you to punish him for something outside of his control."
"What'd I tell you?" Wizgiz whispered to Timmy behind his hand. "Long-winded."
The baton-wielding guard growled. "Even if he wasn't the original caster, arguing that he shouldn't be punished on that explanation is flimsy. He's old enough to have had some magical training and he should be keeping a lid on his own powers like every other responsible fairy and witch around here."
Timmy flinched at the accusation but Palladium jumped to his defence again: "Unfortunately that wasn't possible. Timothy's powers didn't seem to have manifested until just now, so he most likely has had little to no training."
"Um, that's true," Timmy cut in, shrinking when all eyes turned to him. "But that's also something that I don't understand myself about this situation. How did I have all of this magic power inside of me and never notice it for my entire life? And why could I never do anything magical?"
"I believe that may be due to the nature of the aspect itself. It coiled up very tightly inside you, so much so that it became a gravity well for the rest of your magic, preventing you from accessing it."
"Then… what is my aspect? Gravity?"
"Possibly. There are a few explanations for what aspect allowed you to do what you were able to do but we won't be able to pinpoint it until we have a better understanding of your powers and how your magic behaves."
The guards tetchily grumbled under their breaths but the one who had stepped forwards to grab him took a few steps back. Timmy sighed with relief but then perked up at the sound of his mother frantically calling his name. He turned around. His mother and father were in the crowd, trying to politely get around the masses of confused and shaken people in the aftermath of the spell. They were already close enough to spot him, making him wonder why they hadn't but then he realised that his clothes had changed drastically and they were probably still looking out for his green sweater.
"Mom! Dad! I'm over here!" he called out to them, waving his arms to be more visible.
They both looked up to the sound of his voice and when their eyes fell on him they gawked. His father even took off his glasses and polished them before putting them back on, as if what he was seeing could have been a fault in the lenses. His mother hurried over to him and grabbed him by the face, pulling him down to her eye level.
"Timmy? Is that you? No!" she gasped in disbelief. She pinched and prodded his outfit, even pulling at the visor that had replaced his glasses in the transformation. "How did you…? What is…? Where are your…?"
She couldn't finish a single sentence or question. Timmy tried to wiggle away from her fussing but she was too persistent.
"Calm down, mom!" he complained. "I think my glasses are around… somewhere. Um… I transformed. And it turns out that I'm actually a fairy so, uh… yeah."
His mother stopped bothering and gaped at him. He shrugged awkwardly. "A fairy? No… no. That can't be! You've never done any magic in your life."
"Yeah but it turns out being a fairy is kinda responsible for that as well. It's a long and weird and complicated story."
"Are you the boy's parents?" one of the guards snapped, stomping up to them.
"Yes, we are," Timmy's father replied. "Why? Was he in some kind of trouble?"
The guard narrowed his eyes. "Barely. It turned out to be a coincidence that led to an accident but his powers are what caused this spell to get out of hand. You need to see to it that this boy gets proper tutelage in magic control."
"Yes, thank you for the unnecessary advice," Palladium said, rolling his eyes. The guard glared at him and stalked off to join his colleagues making sure that the situation was properly under control and trying to see if they could identify the real caster at this stage.
"But this is pretty neat. I can do magic now," Timmy said, marvelling at his own hands. "Hey, mom, remember when you once tried to teach me that levitation spell? Maybe I can do it now."
He pointed his palms at a nearby chair and attempted to channel his magic to it but instead of magic coming out he felt a cold chill through his veins as his magic drew back in and he reverted back to his normal clothes in a sparkly flash, glasses askew. Wizgiz chuckled but applauded the attempt nonetheless.
"Good try, laddie, but don' worry. First time magicians always have their teething problems."
Timmy groaned in disappointment and righted his glasses.
"I'm sorry, but who are you?" Timmy's father asked. Wizgiz laughed and gave his flamboyant introduction – complete with a demonstration of his favourite magical ability: transformation – and Palladium also shyly introduced himself. Timmy's parents exchanged glances. "Professors? From Alfea?"
"If they hadn't been here to help we would have all been goners," Timmy explained. "Palladium did something that unlocked my magic – at least for a little while – so that I could deactivate the spell."
"Aside from that, Timmy did show a surprising amount of talent in other areas, without our assistance," Palladium added. "I think he has a very rare magical aspect – at least, of the possibilities I'm thinking of, most of them are quite rare – and I would certainly be delighted to teach him to harness it properly. If you're not disinclined, would you consider enrolling him in a Rocalucce Trinity school? Obviously he can't attend Alfea since it's girls' school but I do correspondence classes and combined classes with Red Fountain students who are magically talented."
"We might suggest Cloud Tower as a possibility but I highly doubt yer a warlock," Wizgiz said.
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you can do magic," his mother said, shaking her head and pinching herself as if this might be a dream. "All these years…"
"His talents were just hiding themselves until the time was right," his father said, patting his mother on the back. "And no, I don't think we'd be disinclined. In fact, I think I'm quite honoured. His lack of magic was the only thing stopping him from gaining entry to Red Fountain… oh, but surely their places are already filled."
"Actually, Red Fountain doesn't usually fill every single one of their places," Palladium told them. "I can send a reference letter to the headmaster and see what he says."
"But I think we all agree that this isn't the type of power that deserves to go unappreciated," said Wizgiz. "Why don't you folks go home and think about it?"
"Will do. And thank you for all you've done." Both of Timmy's parents waved as the teachers took their leave. Then they turned to their boy. "Who would have thought? Timmy at Red Fountain?"
"It's still only a possibility at this stage," his mother reminded them practically. "It could still fall through but at the very least we should be prepared in case it eventuates. Oh dear! Now there's so much more to do."
She started to list off all the things they would need now and moaned about how they would need to find the time to do it but Timmy wasn't listening. He spaced out with a silly smile on his face. He'd been magic all along and not only had he found his powers, it was now a real possibility that he would be accepted into Red Fountain. Red Fountain! Despite the mess and the stress, Timmy couldn't help but to think that this was definitely the coolest day ever. And it had started off so ordinary.
A/N: this is going to be the A/N of unanswered questions, like what happened to Mirta, Lucy and Caelestis? Well, presumably they slunk off during the aftermath while nobody could prove that Caelestis did it. As for what Timmy's magical aspect actually is, well...
I told you there was an unacceptable level of headcanon on this story and I am still very sorry about it, especially all that nonsense about leprechauns and elves. It's not related to the actual mythology nor is there any evidence in the show to suggest this, I just did it because it made getting on with the plot easier and quicker and at the time I thought it would be a cool detail. I also took some incredible levels of liberty with magic theory because I could and because it sometimes bothers me how broken the world building in Winx Club is when it comes to how their magic system works.
You also need to know that you need to be picturing pre-Nick season 1's Professor Palladium because that is how I always headcanon him and this is the reason: in season 2, he gets a major character design overhaul. In pre-Nick seasons of Winx Club, they had this habit of not glossing over major design changes, usually by having the characters openly talk about them in the show, which as you can imagine sometimes got ridiculous, especially in the case of Palladium, who went from a small, mousy, nerdy guy to this tall, handsome, impressive hunk. And the girls just talked about it really blatantly like: "Hey, doesn't Professor Palladium look different?" It was like, implying that he'd undergone some kind of elven metamorphosis between season 1 and 2. It was the greatest unintentional detail in this show and Nickelodeon took it away.
So, like, review? Please?