By the time they landed at Merlin's institute it was dinnertime. Mildred didn't quite understand how this was possible, but Maud had said something about magical time zones. The sun had just begun to set, when Mildred spotted a glorious group of manors all clustered together. The girls gaped in awe as Miss Hardbroom took them down. Even from the sky they could see students rushing here and there to class, levitating books to follow behind them, a stables filled with horses, and a giant fountain topped with gold.
A short balding man in a maroon cloak was waving frantically, as if he was directing traffic. Miss Hardbroom raised her eyebrows but landed them gracefully in the field.
"Cackle's! Oh, my this is a treat! Welcome, welcome!" he said, rushing forward and enveloping Miss Drill in a hug.
"Well met. You are Amadeus Pip, Wizard first class?" Miss Hardbroom said skeptically, eyeing the cheerful portly figure.
"Yes, yes that's me. And you must be Hecate- Ada's told me all about you" he said moving forward arms outstretched. Miss Hardbroom glared suspiciously at him, raising her chin in warning, but he wrapped her in a bear hug anyway. Mildred and Maud fought to contain their laughter. He then turned to the girls, beaming. "We are so excited-no beyond excited, ecstatic to have you girls here! Would you like to take the tour? Ah, of course you would of course you would" he said cheerfully, not letting anyone answer. "Well come in come in for merlin's sake" he said waddling towards the academy. "I'll have some of my best students show you around"
"Single file, Ladies" Miss Drill said. "And stay with your group" Mildred and Maud followed closely behind Miss Hardbroom as the group walked through the stunning tanned archway. Many of the walls of the castle were adorned with mosaic artwork. "We're so proud of our students' artistic skills!" Mr. Pip called, turning the corner swiftly. Miss Hardbroom grimaced.
"This is Jaques Cerulean, Percival Hollysprig…and ah, I see we need a third, where's Charles?" Headmaster Pip introduced, bringing forward two young wizards, and skimming the crowd for the third. While the Headmaster inquired after the third, Mildred and Maud had a chance to examine the two boys. Jaques had blond hair, blue eyes, and a fairly earnest expression. He was tall and gangly, with a sprinkle of freckles, and he looked as if he was the kind of boy that always volunteered first for anything, without quite understanding what it was he was getting himself into- but was happy to be there, success or fail. Percival had the look of someone from a well to do family, but with the familiar stressed-out look that Mildred instantly recognized from watching Sybil and Ethel. His eyes shifted constantly, and he looked as if he'd like nothing more than to throw himself out of the nearest window, however, he seemed to glance rather shyly at Enid. "Charles in the Healing ward" the blonde one, Jaques explained apologetically. "Bad nettles rash from wiz ball yesterday" The headmaster frowned.
"Ah, poor Charles. Well, let's see we need a third..is there anyone else available?"
"I'll do it" a smug voice said. Pushing himself off the wall (where he had been observing proceedings) the boy strutted over to stand next to Jaques and Percival. "Headmaster" The headmaster looked both angry and embarrassed.
"Elliott Turtletaub, you should be in class" he whispered lowly, faking a smile towards the Cackles' groups. Elliott wore the arrogant smirk of someone who was entirely overconfident, yet at the same time extremely rash. His jet black hair in various places was jelled up into spikes, the tips of which were dipped sky blue.
"Ah, but what better way to punish me sir, than for me to have to show around the girls all day. I'm sure I'll learn more from them than I will in class" Elliott replied smoothly, winking at Ethel, who sputtered and looked the other way. Headmaster Pip looked like he wanted to say something else, but because they were in front of guests, thought better of it. "I hope we get him in our group" Maud said, and Mildred looked at her in shock.
"Him?"
"Yeah he looks exciting" Maud said. "he's good looking too" Mildred shook her head.
"Since when do you like exciting?" Mildred asked, but Maud never took her eyes off of Elliott. Mildred gazed around, and saw that many of the girls were swooning, sighing and whispering. Mildred fought the urge to vomit. What was wrong with everyone?
"Excellent idea" the Headmaster said slowly. "Well said, Elliott" Miss Hardbroom narrowed her eyes and stiffened up to full height, stepping protectively in front of her group and watching Elliott closely. Mildred bit her lip to keep from smiling. At least Elliott couldn't fool Ms. Hardbroom.
"Well met and welcome, girls," Jaques said, grinning- almost too eagerly at Maud but she ignored him. Headmaster Pip coughed and goodnaturedly elbowed him in the ribs. "Oh, uh yes sir, I mean, uh young ladies"
"Welcome to our school" Percival mumbled, looking like a deer in the headlights at all the female faces. Elliott snorted softly, rolling his eyes.
"Poor lad, look at him he's scared stiff" Miss Drill whispered to Miss Mould. "Looks as if he's never seen a girl before" Miss Mould put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.
"Right then, Miss Hardbroom, I've gotten several copies of your itinerary, and I'm quite impressed- but we better get a move one if we are going to keep to that tight schedule" The headmaster said clapping his hands, and Miss Hardbroom gave a quick jerky nod. "Elliott, why don't you take this group…with Ms….."
"Drill" Miss Drill said, glancing at Miss Hardbroom with worry, but also a look that said, I-can-handle-this-punk. "Broomstick studies and Physical Education. Well met"
"Well met…and start off then with the exterior, wiz ball field..that seems right up your alley" he continued. Enid shot a panicked look at Mildred and Maud, and they gave her a tentative thumbs up as she disappeared back outside to the fields. "This is the great hall, as you can see, obviously" he said clearly. "The oak tree is our symbol, as you can see it's emblazoned there on the stained glass, representing all the branches of knowledge, as well as hearkening back to the oak tree Merlin was supposedly imprisoned in hundreds of years ago" he explained. Mildred's eyes were wide and she was soaking in everything like a sponge. "This is where we have assembly, and any ceremonies or gatherings" Jaques said. Miss Hardbroom looked as if she was scouring the place for flaws. "Through here is our scrying classroom" he pointed out. "It's for third years only, so I don't know a ton about it, but I've heard it's fantastic. We've got a very talent professor, a former gypsy, Miss Rosemerta- who's here part time when she's not telling fortunes" Miss Hardbroom pursed her lips and shook her head, as if it physically pained her.
"Next we have our spell science classroom. Every desk in here is equipped with a staff holder, because they can be quite heavy. This room is also a workshop for making our own staffs" Jaques explained, as the girls eagerly spread out and explored. "The skeleton above you is from a real griffin, donated to the school years ago"
"Do we get to try out staffs?" asked Felicity excitedly. "I mean you could show us"
"Out of the question" Miss Hardbroom barked. "We are on a very tight schedule" Jaques looked apologetic, and moved on. They covered the interior fairly quickly after that, touring the potions lab (much more advanced than at Cackle's with ingredient racks that even impressed Miss Hardbroom), the dining hall, the kitchens, the notable alumni hall of fame, and a magizoology room which held various magical creatures, during which Mildred made friends with a friendly drumble, a pint sized fluffball with excellent night vision used to clean up and absorb spilled magical ingredients.
Jaques talked animatedly, and seemed not to mind Miss Hardbroom grilling him with questions about the school, especially in regards to potions and disciplinary and conduct standards.
"Of course we have detention, but people rarely get in trouble around here" Jaques said shrugging. "If we do something really wrong, we get kicked out of class, or extra homework- but no one's been suspended or expelled in years. On rare occasions we get sent to the Headmaster's office, but he's fairly laidback as long as we learned something from what we did wrong" Miss Hardbroom looked as if she was having aneurism.
"That sounds nice.. wonder what that's like" Maud muttered, and HB glared at her. They had now reached the wiz ball court. The other groups, having finished their tours, had rejoined there- with the chaperones watching the girls play wiz ball with the young wizards. Balls were flying this way and that, and there were shouts and yells of delight.
"Ah look's like your classmates are naturals" Jaques said, looking admiringly at Enid, who was racing across the field with the ball. She levitated the ball into the goal (a glowing circular platform) where it spun, lighting up gold.
"Yeah Enid!" Mildred hollered, forgetting that she was standing next to Miss Hardbroom. "Show the boys who's boss" Mildred glanced up waiting for the rebuke, only to see that Miss Hardbroom looked secretly pleased watching Enid beat the boys. Enid gave them a thumbs up, and when the PE teacher (a muscular gentleman with shocking green hair and a bushy handlebar mustache) called time out, she motioned them over.
"Miss Hardbroom, can we play? Just for a few minutes?" Mildred asked cautiously. Miss Hardbroom arched an eyebrow. "Twenty minutes" she said firmly. "Then we adjourn for dinner" The girls jumped up and down with glee and ran off, with Miss Hardbroom seating herself albeit awkwardly (there was a lot of dress adjusting) next to Miss Drill and Miss Mould on the sidelines.
"Oh there you are Miss Hardbroom, we were beginning to worry" Miss Mould said chattily, whilst sketching a picture of the wizball game unfolding before them.
"I trust there were no problems" Miss Hardbroom inquired. "With either of your groups" Miss Mould waved her hand.
"Oh we had such fun! Did you know they have an art studio here that incorporates alchemy? They actually learn how to create art with real molten gold!" Miss Mould gushed. "I am quite impressed" Miss Hardbroom gritted her teeth. "But the girls were for the most part well behaved, although Ethel was giving that poor Percival boy a very hard time" Miss Drill frowned.
"What on earth about?" she asked.
"Well their families know each other, and so she was trying to ask him about his academics, and he seemed to be avoiding the subject- and then she got all cross because he wasn't in any extracurriculars and basically told him he wasn't doing enough to represent his family name" Miss Mould said sighing.
"Perhaps Ethel was just trying to give the boy valuable advice" Miss Hardbroom commented, wincing as Maud nearly tripped running after the ball. "He would do well to follow her example" Miss Drill and Miss Mould clearly disagreed, but fell silent at that.
"I did want discuss one other thing Miss Hardbroom" Miss Drill said. "And that's Elliott Turtletaub" Miss Hardbroom's lip curled in disgust. "Now I know it's not a great idea to make assumptions on first impressions- but I think I have a good sense about these things- and that boy is trouble" Miss Drill said confidently. Miss Hardbroom looked surprised at her comments, but pleased. The person in question was sidling up to Mildred, passing her the ball with a wink.
"I couldn't agree more" she said quietly. "We must watch him very closely"