A/N: Do you know what day it is?(No response) Is it really that important-
Yes it is. It's Player's NAME DAY.
Artmateur, in modern times and in Canada, we call it 'birthday', as 'name day' is from Westeros and Westeros is fictional.
What are you- Wikipedia?
Why me-pedia, more like.
(Chapter written by PrincessArtmateur and starrystarrysteph, beta'd by camilledicaramello. Aw guys, you know the drill.)
Agatha only needed two days to realize how much Good had changed, too.
For starters, Professor Dovey summoned Agatha, Beatrix and Chaddick during Royal Manners for a meeting, where Dovey announced that the second- and third-highest ranked students would become prefect and assist the Class Captain. They would also have to patrol on weekends. Beatrix and Chaddick certainly looked happy enough about the arrangement.
Then there was Hansel's Haven, which was demolished during the war. They had rebuilt the classrooms and added a brand new classroom for Good Deeds, which Professor Dovey named the Popsicle Room. It was made of its namesake, popsicles, and bore a striking resemblance to Lady Lesso's old frozen classroom. Agatha thought it was a touching tribute to honor the late Dean of Evil, even though it was extremely cold inside and she had to cast a warming charm every half an hour.
With Good Deeds taking place in the new classroom, Alchemy took over the sugarplum classroom. As soon as Good Deeds ended, Agatha hopped up, eager to know about the mystery that was 'alchemy'. She'd been puzzling over it for two days, and still didn't have the answer.
When she entered through the pumpkin candy doors she was shocked to see Professor Dovey sitting at her old sugarplum desk with a woman whose back was turned, so Agatha couldn't see her face. Dovey gave her a smile and gestured for her to sit, as her classmates started to fill into the classroom, which only contained eight student's chairs, eight desks, the large sugarplum desk, two chairs up front, a blackboard, and a large gingerbread cupboard that took up most of the room.
"Welcome to Alchemy," Professor Dovey stood and addressed the class. "As you can see, we only have eight students in our class, and only the highest-ranked eight."
Agatha swiveled around to meet the equally confused gazes of Beatrix, Chaddick, Reena, Tarquin, Giselle, Oliver and Ava. They all looked blankly back at her.
"It is a great honor to be chosen as one of the selected few. However, before we start, I will have to remind you all- Alchemy is a dangerous, difficult subject. It is a combination of runes- ancient languages, arithmetic- the advanced form of mathematics, and potion-making, or chemistry. We will be discussing complex and challenging issues related to science, which I'm sure most of you do not know of. This course is approved by the Council of Advanced Research- don't look so surprised, they are the founders of modern potions and runic discovery!- and they have generously provided us with equipment. This subject might be hard, but this is the only chance you will approach alchemy, unless your ambition is to be a Council member or a professional."
Agatha was sure no one was that ambitious.
"With permission and acceptable reasons you are indeed allowed to drop this subject, but now is not the time. Therefore let me introduce my new co-teacher, Professor Houndhunt. She was not present at the Welcoming, so… please give her a warm welcome."
"My mother told me about her once," Agatha could hear Beatrix whisper to Reena. "She was once the best and first friend of Beauty- because she was descended from merely a Sidekick hunter and Beauty herself was a Reader- they bonded really quickly."
"So she's like… Kiko to Agatha?" (Agatha chose not to acknowledge that, as it was true and interrupting the class was definitely not a smart thing to do, so she bit back the adage of the pot calling the kettle black… or was it the kettle calling the pot black?)
"Basically."
Professor Houndhunt turned away from the blackboard, and stood. Gasps rose from the class. Professor Houndhunt had a muscular, towering figure, and her face was slightly misshapen with a jagged scar running from her forehead to her cheek. Her hair were strands of thin blond strings, drooping down past her shoulders, as if she never bothered to cut it off, and even if she did, she did a lousy job of that. She was wearing the standard professors' gown, but it was a very dark charcoal grey, almost black in fact, with a burgundy satin sash on her waist as a belt. The dress was plain and dark with a wine red underskirt that matched the belt and it was devoid of any frills and lace... Overall, she looked more like a Never professor than an Ever.
Professor Houndhunt stared back at the class, and to some people it might seem like the towering, ugly Giant of the beanstalk looking down its huge nose at tiny little Jacks.
Dovey, sensing tension between her colleague and her students, broke the silence. "Artoma, would you like to introduce yourself?"
Professor Houndhunt's voice was a cross between a grunt and a drawl- weirdly smooth but incredibly deep. "I am Professor Houndhunt, a graduate from the School for Good, and Field Researcher for the Council." She said everything so matter-of-factly, she sounded bored.
"Professor Houndhunt and I will be teaching you Alchemy this year. Now, listen carefully- Alchemy is a dangerous, possibly harming, and unpredictable subject. You eight are chosen for this class as I believe you have enough self-control and safety awareness, and of course high rankings, therefore intelligent and elites. The Nevers, too, will be taking Alchemy, but they will be solely taught by Professor Houndhunt. Sometimes you might join the Nevers as partners, or to exchange knowledge." (That probably was one of the ways Dovey hoped that can help us bond, Agatha thought.) "Without further ado, let us begin- take out your textbooks and we'll begin by testing you on your knowledge of Ancient Scripture. Please take out a piece of parchment and write down your name and we will begin."
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Agatha was fairly certain she'd failed the Runes test, as she knew nothing of the sort. She wasn't the only one who was utterly failed.
"I've failed the quiz, I just know it," Giselle moaned, face buried in her hands.
"I've failed it too, I'm sure," Ava sighed gloomily. I didn't have any idea what they were asking- what's a rune, by the way- except for the question about the unicorn, the one in the 'Number Significance' section, but that's only because Uma told us the answer in her class."
"I hope I haven't, though," Tarquin said nervously. "I've never even heard of half of the words in the quiz."
"Eighty percent for me," Oliver grumbled.
Their two Alchemy professors were correcting their quizzes at her front of the classroom, Dovey occasionally sighing to herself, and Houndhunt making loud scratching noises with her quill.
They finished marking their papers after minutes, and Agatha, as expected, received a parchment drenched in red ink (with a torn bit, probably made by the sharp end of a quill). Grumbles and disappointed exhales rose from her classmates, and Agatha knew their papers' fate was the same as hers.
"We do not blame you for not having the answers," Dovey smiled grimly. "It is no surprise that you, with no study of Ancient Scripture prior, can not fully understand the questions. Professor Houndhunt and I will teach you all about that right now, as basics. Please take out a piece of parchment and copy notes."
Houndhunt had already written 'Ancient Runes' on the board, her handwriting a scratchy, untidy scrawl. Agatha started to write, pen posed over the parchment after she had finished taking notes.
"Seeing all of you have answered the question about unicorns correctly, let us begin with creatures and significance. The unicorn has one horn, and it symbols the number 'one'- as you all know, from your results. Some creatures' unique features gives them the significance of a number, but that does not mean the rabbit, which has four legs, represents number four, nor does the human, with two feet, mean 'two'. Like the unicorn, these animals are rare and have special, extraordinary aspects or characteristics that make them worthy of being a number's symbol. Please turn to page 10 of your textbooks and read page 10 to 15, and tell me what these animals stand for."
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The fairy tale world was full of odd, fascinating (and the not-so fascinating) animals. Stymphs, for one. Unicorns. Man-wolves. Fairies. Nymphs, dragons, ugly bird-eating cats with a tendency to scratch their owners, scare humans and not rats, eat birds, hiss at everything in sight and be a spy for Good without their owners realizing until some war broke out.
And then there was the Logbitter, the Tweetums, the Lakehunters, the Asphodelian bird…
Of course, not all of them were significant, so Agatha didn't bother to recognize and read about them.
There was, though, a elephant-like creature with five large legs and five huge feet (it was number five), a nine-headed Hydra ('nine'), and a fox with seven tails ('seven', as expected). Agatha had, obviously, never seen such creatures in Gavaldon- there weren't even bears or wolves, let alone giant monsters- and this all fascinated her. She drank the knowledge up greedily- there was so much she didn't know.
Not that she would learn everything in this crazy world. Back in Gavaldon, all was normal and calm and peaceful. There was no magic, no spells, no funny-looking animals that could talk or walk. Ever since she charged out of the borders of Gavaldon trying to 'save' Sophie from the School Master, she'd stepped into an entirely different world of witchcraft and royalty and charms and potions. And it was an endless, infinite world, with undiscovered kingdoms and hidden worlds. It was intriguing, it was strange, it was full of secrets and the unexplored.
From the start, Agatha had been lured into a trap of knowledge and wonders that didn't oblige even when she asked it to let her go, and it was, she thought, a rather wonderful place to be in, despite all she'd went through.
It was a magical world nonetheless.
A/N from Player: This is not compatible to Ever Never Handbook, but Beauty was really from Gavaldon according to ENH. She is also ranked a Leader and my favorite Disney Princess along with Merida. (Ha.)Also, since none of us are actual Masters of Mythology, forgive us if we got some facts wrong. We tried to relate the alchemy in this fic to ancient alchemy, which if you are familiar with, was faulty and illogical, and it was a combination of Ancient scriptures, mythology, Science, and mostly chemistry. In fact, Alchemy is the father of modern Chemistry. (PM me if you want to geek out together!)Leave a review… and everyone at Player Enterprises will give you an internet hug. Literally. (Though it's not really an attractive deal, is it?)
A/N from Artmateur: Be a nice person and give Player a review that compensates for a birthday card, will ya? It's not everyday you have a birthday review. ;)