Alma de Hierro
Dedication: My reviewers. And my Beta reader Robert Teague. I can't get through this without the lot of you.
Disclaimer: "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education"- Albert Einstein.
Chapter Three: Learning Curve
When she finally awoke the next morning, Miele discovered two things. The first was that late sleepless nights were torture on your appearance. The second was that Melusina slept with a care worn stuffed mermaid. Luckily for the storm witch, Miele was too tired from her nocturnal wandering to give her any trouble over her bed buddy- at least for the time being.
Miele collected her clothing and toiletries hoping to be the first one to the bathroom she'd share with the other three girls for the school year. However that wasn't to be, Lorelei had gotten there first and was taking her sweet time singing in the shower. By the time the chestnut haired witch in training had finished getting ready, Miele felt her eyeballs were floating.
"Finally!" She exclaimed in relief as Lorelei exited the bathroom.
Lorelei raised one sandy eyebrow at Miele. "Didn't you know that there are two bathrooms in this suite?" she asked curiously.
"No, but I'll keep that in mind for tomorrow." Miele replied sheepishly as she slunk past Lorelei into the bathroom to get ready for breakfast and the classes beyond that.
Breakfast, the most important meal of the day for a young witch, was not without its issues. The main issue being where to sit after one picks up her dehydrated scrambled eggs, over cooked bacon and lumpy oatmeal. Miele searched for a while then spotted Octavia flagging her down from a table near the cafeteria exit where she sat with Lorelei and some other girls. The onyx haired girl was easy to spot in the room because she was one of the few students who dared to wear light colours, in this case it was a white t-shirt with a black cat on it looking up at a spider. As Miele seated herself she saw the shirt had 'and the itsy bitsy spider never crawled up the spout again' in bright red print to match her red skinny jeans.
"Are you sure you should wear that shirt considering your powers and your pet?" Miele chided as she poked at her oatmeal with a spoon. After determining that it wouldn't bite back, Miele stuck some in her mouth.
"I thought it was cute." Octavia countered as she took a sip of grapefruit juice. "So, I forgot to ask last night, how did you come across your dark magic?"
Miele was taken aback at that question coming from Octavia, it sounded more like something Melusina would ask. She swallowed the glob of oatmeal and coughed.
"Why do you ask that question?"
Octavia shrugged her slim shoulders. "No reason, it's just that with all the trade we do with Linphea I just know that being a witch is a rarity on that planet. Do you have any siblings who are witches?"
Miele relaxed slightly. "No, I have a sister who's a fairy but that's about it."
Lorelei's musical laughter trilled across the table. "On Linphea everyone has a sister who's a fairy," she giggled, "sometimes three of them. What did she say about you coming to good old Cloud Tower?"
"She definitely wasn't happy about it." Miele replied uttering one of the understatements of the year.
Lorelei was about to ask another question, but the bell announcing the end of breakfast broke through the chatter.
"Saved by the bell." Octavia joked, having no idea how accurate her statement was in Miele's case.
Each girl waved her hand in a specific pattern, and with a bit of magic, the plates, glasses, and utensils left the table and were deposited with the rest.
"Ugh, I have incantations with Professor Zarathustra, what about you two?"
"Herbology with Professor Belladonna." Lorelei answered with a grin. "What about you Miele?"
"Witchcraft 101(1) with Ms Griffin," Miele replied softly. "I didn't know that the headmistress would be teaching a class."
"That's Griffin's MO, she likes to get to know her students' strengths and weaknesses." Octavia explained as the trio entered the hallway with the other students.
"Lovely, so I don't know when I'll see you two again."
"I'm sure we have a class together or something." Lorelei said in a reassuring tone as she and Octavia departed for their classes leaving Miele to fend for herself among the sea of students.
To say that Miele's first day of classes before lunch was uneventful was to say that Marie Antoinette received a small scratch on her neck. The fun all started with Witchcraft 101. The only task she had in her first day of that class was to form an orb of dark energy and form she did. That orb was filled with Miele's energy along with an overly friendly blue vine which reached out from the orb and tried to drag Miele into it. Luckily for her, Ms Griffin helped break the vine. However Ms Griffin warned her about daydreaming and went on to make an example of her until the bell rang.
"Ms Miele," Ms Griffin called as Miele was about to exit the classroom, "May I speak with you for a moment?"
Miele said nothing, just walked over to her teacher's desk and prepared for the lecture of a lifetime.
"I have to say I'm very disappointed in you today."
"Yes ma'am." Miele replied reluctantly.
"I've seen your sister in action, she was decent here at Cloud Tower when she came here with the Winx Club, even if she did suggest breaking into groups."
"Ma'am?"
"You've a lot of potential as a credit to this school if you can buckle down and handle the work that's given to you." Ms Griffin explained with a half smile.
"Thank you Headmistress." Miele replied feeling a blush rise to her cheeks.
"However, you really need to pull your act together if you're going to survive in this school Miele. That is all."
"Thank you Ms. Griffin, may I get a pass for my next class though? I'm going to be late as it is."
"Consider it a penance for not paying enough attention your first day." Ms Griffin replied in a stony voice and turned her attention to the papers on her desk.
Miele didn't know what else she could do except rush to her next class on the opposite end of the school.
When she reached the Potionology classroom she found Professor Edeltrude glowering at her from the comfort of her desk.
"Ms Miele, on Linphea were students allowed to be tardy?" The sharp faced professor snapped causing several other students, Lorelei included, to snicker at her expense.
"No professor." Miele allowed as she slunk towards a lab table occupied by a girl with plum coloured cornrows. She considered this a safe choice since that girl was one of the few students not enjoying the impromptu lecture.
"I'll think up a fitting punishment for you this time." Professor Edeltrude promised, "but next time will result in detention."
"Yes professor."
Miele's punishment for being late to class was to be teamed up with a rather chipper pink haired girl who at first impression seemed to be hard of hearing. As it turned out, she was really just hard of listening and caused an explosion in the form of a lime green slimy substance all over their lab table. Both girls were excused to go to the washroom and clean themselves up before their next class.
"I told you to stir counter clockwise." Miele stated tersely as she scrubbed the green goo off of her arms and out of her rose print tank top.
"But I told you I can't tell the difference." The other girl replied airily as she combed the lime coloured gunk out of her pink bob.
"Then I hope you learn before you make something else explode." Miele shot back. She then rushed out the door, praying to the higher powers that she'd never be paired with that girl again.
After Potionology came Herbology with professor Belladonna. Compared to her first two classes, Miele's herbology class was rather tame and easy. No vines, no goo, just Melusina glaring at her after she'd corrected the navy haired girl on the uses for a few plants.
"It seems we have a regular plant genius in our midst." Professor Belladonna declared happily after Miele had accurately described three main properties of a rare transportation flower only found on Eraklyon.
"I hope the rest of you ladies will take as much initiative as Miele has and be just as knowledgeable." She added before heading on to the next topic.
Miele felt the glares of every other student in the room bore into her back and head at that comment. Yes, nothing hard or grueling about Herbology class. Miele made herself a mental note to not know as much tomorrow.
After the bell rang Miele rushed out of the classroom eager to get to lunch and forget that this morning had ever happened.
Lunch was nearly the same affair as breakfast except the students were more animated. Octavia had already claimed the same table they'd sat at that morning by the time Miele picked up her tray. This time Melusina deigned to sit with them.
"So, Miele, how do you know so much about plants and their magical properties?" Melusina asked as soon as the four of them had started eating.
Miele put down the fork she'd been using to pry apart her baked potato and looked at her roommate. "What do you mean?"
"I mean even for a Linphean you seem to know a lot more about the properties of magical plants than you should."
"What's this all about?" Lorelei asked curiously as she stirred sugar into her iced tea.
"Miele showed herself to be a 'genius in magical plants' in herbology." Melusina explained using Professor Belladonna's words. "Personally I think there's more to this than meets the eye."
Octavia shrugged and cast a silent spell to cut her apple into exact slices while coring it. "Miele's from Linphea, she's a nature witch. Of course she's going to know a lot about plants." The onyx haired girl stated taking a slice of apple. "Personally I believe you're being paranoid with the idea you may be rooming with a fairy. There's nothing unusual about first year witches knowing a lot about their own powers."
Miele could've hugged Octavia for that statement in her defense.
"I'm with Melusina on this one," Lorelei countered as she stabbed at her macaroni and cheese with her spork. "I believe she's hiding something."
"Like maybe I studied before getting here?" Miele offered defensively. "So I know my plants. Don't you know your powers?"
"I do." Octavia replied. "Of course there's not much to know about bugs and web slinging, but I could definitely ace a class on arachnids." She added with a laugh.
Melusina rolled her eyes unconvinced. "I still say there's something you're not telling us." She insisted looking at Miele. "And I'm going to find out what it is."
"You do that, I'm going to eat my lunch." Miele shot back as she pried open a small container of sour cream and poured it on to her baked potato.
"You can't keep who you are a secret forever."
"Yes, but you can both stop arguing so the rest of us may eat in peace." Lorelei interrupted. She may have been as curious as Melusina was to find out what Miele's secret was, but unlike Melusina she could be patient.
When lunch was over the afternoon classes commenced. Lorelei and Melusina headed off together for Witchcraft 101 leaving Miele and Octavia to wander over towards Incantations 101 with Professor Zarathustra. (2)
"She's gonna eat us alive." Octavia muttered as she took a seat next to Miele.
"What do you mean?" Miele asked curiously as other girls filed into the room. She found it hard to believe that anyone could be more frightening than Headmistress Griffin, and in all honesty the vines from her energy orb were more frightening.
"Just watch."
Zarathustra didn't eat anyone alive, but this could've been because it was the first day of classes. Instead she rattled on about meter and tone for the proper incantation then ordered each girl to write a quick incantation that didn't involve raising the dead as that night's homework. After feeling assured that her students were slightly bewildered, Professor Zarathustra then called on three girls to pick up their text books, head to the front of the room and recite the basic incantation she assigned them to see what happened. Octavia was one of the 'lucky' participants.
"But professor, we haven't studied on how to correctly pronounce the words in this spell." One of the other students protested as she approached the desk.
Miele fought the urge to duck under the table when she saw the protesting girl was the same pink haired girl from her Potionology class.
"Ms. Calliope, either you do the task or I deduct five grade points from everyone in this class." Professor Zarathustra threatened.
At that statement Miele did duck as well as a few other girls who'd had the misfortune to be in Potionology with Calliope that morning. Other students began to follow suit as Zarathustra's hawk like gaze swept over them.
Despite the outward signs of a no confidence vote Calliope, not wanting to be responsible for anyone failing the class later on in the school year did as she was asked. The words were simple, the spell was just supposed to create a bright light used to guide the caster in tunnels and caves. However in Calliope's incapable hands the spell became a large blast with a bright light knocking student and teacher on their respective derrières.
Professor Zarathustra held her head as she righted herself with the aide of her desk. "Class dismissed." She groaned.
"Remind me to never team up with that girl!" was whispered loudly by more than one student to her friend or acquaintance as everyone exited the class room. Calliope shuffled out behind everyone else with her head down and her bright pink hair standing on end.
After the blast in incantations Miele was eager for the silence and ease of Magical History class which she found she shared with Lorelei. This could either be a blessing or a curse depending on what the teacher decided to talk about on any given day.
Being the first day of classes the teacher, a middle aged man with his eyeglasses on a lanyard and a full head of skin introduced himself as Professor Ganymede (3) from Andros. Then he asked each student to introduce herself and tell which planet she was from and one fact about her planet.
When Lorelei's turn came, the chestnut haired witch stood up, smoothed her olive drab cargo skirt and smiled. "My name is Lorelei from Ayortha." She stated in her musical voice. "And one fact about my planet is that some of our inhabitants are nymphs who lure men to their deaths then bathe in their skin."
Miele noticed that Lorelei's smile never faltered as she stated this gruesome piece of information. But the girl next to her did look a little more green than was healthy. Professor Ganymede nodded.
"Remind me to bring ear plugs if I ever venture to Ayortha for a cruise." The teacher quipped before moving on to the next student who of course was Miele.
"I'm Miele of Linphea." Miele said in a clear voice. "And an interesting fact about my planet is that we have the Black Willow Tree whose tears can reverse time." (4)
"Maybe I'll stop there after going to Lorelei's planet." One girl joked, others laughed as well.
Tidbits and useless facts flew about the room and then professor Ganymede got down to business outlining the syllabus and projects.
Levitation class was supposed to follow magical history, but the professor in that class was still recuperating from last year's first year class in a quiet villa in the resort realm and wouldn't be back until next week. So instead all the students for that class were given a free period before their final class of the day.
After managing to avoid Melusina and Lorelei during that free period since the three of them shared seventh period levitation Miele was thankful for her final class which was Transfiguration with Professor Circe (5) a short blonde woman who demonstrated for the class what they'd be learning this year by turning herself into a realistic version of Discordia, the pixie who was bonded with Cloud Tower.
There was a long discussion about the proper way to go about transformations then before class was over it was announced that each student would be expected to be able to transform one physical feature of herself by next week.
All and all it was a very full day for the first year girls and Miele was grateful to get back to her dorm.
End!
Sorry for the delay in updating. I'm working two jobs and will be having my baby soon. I also just found out that I'm going to be an aunt for the first time somewhere around my birthday. I hope you all enjoyed this obligatory info chapter.
1.) Mentioned in Twinning with the Witches in season 2 when the Winx and Mirta went to Cloud Tower. And yes this class really was taught by Ms Griffin in the show.
2.) Honestly I don't know what she teaches. But I figured since she's a canon character she needed a class to teach.
3.) Greek mythology reference a shepherd whom Zeus had a relationship with.
4.) Third season reference this may pop up again later in the story.
5.) A Greek Sorceress whose specialties included potions which turned men into beasts.
