Immediately after class on Monday I found myself herded into the gym: Apparently it's not only the Freshman who have an initiation ritual.

I'd skipped last year, at least after a Senior had actually struck me for trying to get to my feet on my own. I don't mind the idea of class bonding rituals, in general, but that had been more than I'd wanted to take.

The fact that he was expelled later in the year for, well, something violent involving one of the other students probably vindicated me, on reflection.

I could probably have skipped it, but… Last year being thought the weirdo didn't bother me much. Now I am the weirdo, married to one of the teachers, no less, and I didn't want to stand out more than I needed to.

Besides, what were the chances I'd be that unlucky twice? And: I didn't actually know any of the Juniors. I'd known several of the Seniors last year, but that was because Virginia's brother was a Senior. Getting to know some of my classmates wasn't a bad idea.

So, we got directed to the bleachers, while the Juniors set up circles on the gym floor. We'd barely gotten seated when one of the Junior girls stepped into the middle of things and managed to draw everyone's attention.

She waited a moment for everyone to calm down. I recognized her, in that I'd seen her before. I really only knew her as 'the girl with feathers instead of hair'. "I, Julia Sangster of the House of Sangster, President of the Junior class of Iris Academy the welcome you, the Sophomore class of Iris Academy, having shown yourself dedicated to the study and life of magic, into the community of witches. Stand forth and present yourselves, then join us as you are bidden."

Her voice hand quieted everyone immediately, and it took me a moment to even be able to process what she had said. This certainly sounded more ritualistic than the Freshman initiation had been.

Which it might well be, actually: We did hold a lot of rituals here at Iris, after all.

A couple of Juniors were leading people back off the bleachers, to a microphone that Julia hadn't bothered to use. Each came up and gave their name, then one of the circles waved them forward, and they joined it. It went faster than I'd thought it would.

I had seated myself at the back of the bleachers, just in case, and got see how others presented themselves first. Virginia had given her name as "Virginia Danson, of the House of Danson." Ellen had been: "Ellen Middleton, Wildseed." Some people didn't mention either a House or being a Wildseed; I wondered what the difference was.

Then it was my turn: The Junior at the steps whispered: "Wildseed, just say Wildseed. If you are part of magical House, say so." Then he pushed me towards the mic.

And, suddenly, everyone's attention was on me. There might as well have been a Silence spell cast over the room; all the little murmuring stopped, and I felt a presence at my shoulder.

There was a hint of blue on the side of the metal mic, a reflection.

I froze, suddenly sure my life hang in the balance. I had to get this right.

What is my name? And was my name all that I needed to give? Might there be more?

I took a deep breath, and leaned forward, trying not to think about this to hard. "Susan Rose, Wildseed, of the House of Grabiner." I heard my voice say, then I turned to face my doom.

The manus was there. He smiled a wide smile of shark's teeth, bowed, then disappeared. The breath I was holding let out, and I turned back to the circles of seated students.

No one moved, for too long. Then a hand came up, slowly, and waved me forward. I went. Noise returned to the room, and I heard the student behind me — Fred, I think, although he gave his name as Ferdinand.

The hand had been Julia's: Virginia was also in the circle, as was Minnie. Ellen was someplace else. Julia managed to whisper: "What was that?"

"Why I'm married to Professor Grabiner." Was my answer.

Which is when the Professor himself burst into the room, wand at the ready. The ceremony stopped again, as he scanned the room. I stood up so he could see that I was here and unharmed. He saw me, relaxed visibly, then moved to lean against the wall.

The last few students managed to give their names, and the Juniors sprinkled dirt over us, and Julia said something about meeting with our circles 'at the designated times and places', and we were dismissed.

The crowd parted in front of me as I walked to Hieronymus. Potsdam had also managed to enter, a bit more discreetly, sometime along the way. "I'm fine; the manus didn't touch me."

"What name did you use?" He asked.

"Susan Rose, Wildseed, of the House of Grabiner."

"Well then, Ms. Rose-Grabiner, I as your husband welcome you to the community of magic." He gave a slight bow, for effect more than anything else.

"Thank you, husband." I returned the bow. "It is a community I am glad to enter."

It got a quirk of a smile, before he turned to the woman at his side. "And you! Petunia, how could possibly have let her participate in this without at least warning her?"

"I knew the manus is bound to your family line, Hieronymus, not the exact oath." Having defended herself, she wilted. "In truth, though, I mostly had forgotten that the Juniors use the 'community welcome' ritual as an initiation ceremony. They have done various things over the years, and I simply lost track. I came as soon as I realized what the manus manifesting here could mean." And her energy came back, all perk and brightness. "Still, no harm was done, and our Susan thought fast on her feet, with admirable composure. What did they tell you, seedling?"

Hieronymus was still sputtering, but I decided to answer. "Simply to present myself; the helper at the base of the stairs was telling everyone that if they were Wildseeds they didn't need to say anything else, and if we were of a magical house, we were to mention it."

"Not the clearest of instructions, given your situation. I think our little flower has earned some merits for being able to work out the correct thing to say, don't you Hieronymus?"

He just looked away, sulking.

"Yes, indeed. 10 merits to you, Ms. Rose-Grabiner, for being able to think under pressure, and for correctly navigating magical tradition without instruction."

"Thank you. Um." I looked back and forth between them. "Just so I'm clear… Did I just say my official name is 'Susan Rose-Grabiner'?"

Hieronymus answered. "You did. If you had called yourself Susan Grabiner, you would have named yourself Susan Grabiner. If you had left off either the House affiliation, or withheld your Wildseed origins, you would have no longer have been protected from the manus."

"And I would be dead."

"Possibly. Depending on exactly what you said, there was a chance — never mind. It didn't come about. And don't think you can't change your name in the future; changing your name is actually very easy in the magical community. However, for future reference, unless we have officially divorced, in formal situations like this one you will need both your antecedents and your House affiliation, for your own safety."

"Thank you. I will remember that, if the situation should come up again. And… I'd like to say thank you for coming so quickly to my rescue, even if it wasn't needed."

"As your husband, I could do no less."

He could have said more, but besides Petunia, there was a half-circle of students standing just inside hearing range who were very obviously pretending not to eavesdrop.

Still… "Perhaps, but I wouldn't want you to think I took that protection for granted. So, thank you, and good day to you. And to you, Professor Potsdam."

"Anytime dearie." And with that farewell, I left to let them discuss me without my presence.

Virginia arrived at the dorm soon after I did. "Ok, I think I got some of it, but what exactly happened back there?"

"I'll explain in a bit, just a moment."

"Why not now?"

I sat up, and grinned at her. "Because Ellen's going to demand the same thing, and I'd rather not go over it twice."

She rolled her eyes and grinned. "Ok, point. I guess I can wait that long — if she's as curious as I am, it won't take her long. Oh, by the way, you left before our 'circle' could come up with a meeting time. 9pm, tonight, under the big apple tree, that ok with you?"

"Sure. And I'll probably have to tell everyone again then, so if I told you now you'd be hearing it three times."

"I give! I give! There were a lot of rumors, though, some based on what people said they'd overheard you saying to the Professors."

I was saved from trying to dig into that by Ellen's arrival. "Ok, Susan, what exactly happened back there?"

I looked over at Virginia, and we both started laughing, causing Ellen to look back and forth between us angrily.

"Sorry, I'd just told Virginia to wait because you'd want to know as well, and that's the exact question she'd asked."

It mollified her somewhat. "So, you going to tell us or what?"

"Ok, short version: That blue creature is what my marriage to Hieronymus is supposed to protect me from. If I'd presented myself incorrectly, it would have undone the protections I get from the marriage, and it would have been able to attack me. Again."

"But you presented yourself correctly."

I shrugged. "Close enough, anyway. I'm still alive."

Virginia broke in, mind off someplace else for a moment. "So, if you hadn't said 'of the House of Grabiner' you would have refuted your House allegiance, making you vulnerable. And if you hadn't said you were a Wildseed, you would have been trying to falsify your name, bringing your entire marriage into doubt." She came back to the dorm room. "That was dangerous. I can't believe they let us do that without the Professors watching."

"Well, I'm a special case. I'm guessing it wasn't as dangerous for you."

"She could have rebutted her House allegiance, accidentally."

"No, Susan's right. If I'd made a mistake like that, well, it could be fixed. And I wouldn't be in danger. But no one there knew all the details on why you got married, so they couldn't know that it would be dangerous for you."

"What would it have done if you hadn't presented yourself correctly? I remember they put it in one of the tests last year, so it couldn't have been that dangerous."

"You didn't use Truesight on it during the test? That was an illusion. This one was real; I could tell. Trust me, it's very dangerous. And, if I'd messed up… It probably would have eaten me, or at least my soul. That's what it was trying to do when Potsdam stopped it before."

Both sets of their eyes went wide. "Right in front of everyone?" Ellen squeaked.

I shrugged, trying to brush it off. "Probably."

"You are being very calm about nearly being eaten. You sure you're ok?" Virginia asked. "You don't need us to… I don't know. Do something?"

"It's not the first time, and this time I wasn't paralyzed and being held over an unconscious Professor Grabiner. And for that matter, even that wasn't really as scary as him threatening to lock me in the dungeon for a year, when he thought I had told everyone. Sure, I was a scared, but I was careful, and nothing actually happened. I'm not going to panic over what might have happened, and it's not the scariest thing to happen to me in the last year."

Which managed to dumbfound both of them. "Ok, and I thought I was living an adventure by coming to study magic."

"You hadn't mentioned any of that stuff to us." Virginia accused.

"Sure I did. I just didn't give details, I guess. But I told you why I got married, and that Hieronymus had threatened me when the story exploded last year."

"Any other brushes with death we don't know about? Or is that it?" Ellen was only half-serious, but she was at least half.

"No, that should be it, I think. Unless you call nearly fainting face-first into a table full of candles, some lit, a brush with death." I joked back.

Virginia replied. "Probably not deadly, especially if there was someone around who could cast a 'Heal' spell."

"Hieronymus was there, and he actually caught me. That was back when I was selling candles in the mall last year. But I don't remember any other close brushes with death."

"The fact that you 'don't remember' any isn't exactly helping your case. Most girls our age don't have so many they forget about them!" Virginia was managing to scold me while laughing.

"Actually, now that I think about it, when I was trying to teach Ellen to ride over the summer, I probably was within range of…" I broke off and ducked a swatted pillow. "But that's my point, really: These things happen, magic or no magic, and worrying about them afterwards doesn't help. I grew up working with the horses, and operating farm machinery. A slip there could have been just as deadly, on occasion. So, you don't slip." I shrugged.

"Just "don't slip" she says." Virginia shook her head. "And I can't help but noticing that in all of the cases this year, one name came up: 'Hieronymus'." She said it in a deliberate copy of my voice.

"I thought we agreed that we weren't going to bug her about that."

"I'm not, not really. I'm just asking if she has realized exactly how many times he's been around when she's in danger. Someone could think there was a connection, that he was bad luck or something."

"Well, the candles was partly his fault; I wouldn't have been standing so long if he'd been paying attention. And the first time with the manus… He was in danger before I got there. As for him threatening me… Ok, he should have listened to me. He's apologized for that. Several times. But in general, it's his job to protect the students here. And, in my special case, it was part of his marriage oath, so he has double reason to try to protect me."

"Oh, is that what he meant when he said that as your husband, he could do no less?" Ellen had obviously been one of the eavesdroppers.

It meant a lot more than that, between the two of us. Especially with everyone watching, he wasn't going to be, well, sappy, and anything else he said would probably have been taken that way. He needed people to know he still treated me professionally, as a student.

And, as more than just his student, I wasn't going to betray that, even to my roommates. "Yes, that was part of what he was referring to." Of course, I didn't want to outright lie to them either.

Virginia, at least, didn't catch my prevarication. "So, it's more that it's his job to protect you from danger, so therefore when you've been in danger him being around, or arriving, isn't unusual."

"Exactly. Even the time he threatened me, he was trying to keep me from danger: As his wife, I can't be expelled normally, and he thought I was ignoring the rules trying to keep me safe."

"He wanted to expel you for telling people you were married?"

"No, he apologized for that. He was angry, and wanted to scare me, but he couldn't have done that for just breaking that secret."

This time Ellen was on the ball. "But it's still possible, if you were to do something which would normally get you expelled?"

"Sure, just like it's still possible for you to get your memory wiped, even though your parents' don't remember you anymore. So, don't slip."

"Ok, point taken. There are dangers everywhere, you've just bumped into a few more of them this year than we have." Ellen surrendered.

"Good. Virginia? Are you satisfied that hanging around Hieronymus is not a threat to my life?"

"Hanging around Grabby is a threat to anyone's life, girl. But sure. And, I'm glad you didn't get eaten in front of us."

"Me too!" I fervently agreed.

Author's Notes: I wanted a counterpart to the Freshman Initiation, though I don't really use it as much as I could.

Her marriage is open knowledge, but in the game not much is ever actually given out to the other students about it. They get told they can ask Grabiner about it if they want - I doubt many do. That probably worked fine for the rest of the semester, but at this point it's really on it's way to becoming 'normal': It's not hot gossip, it's just part of the environment. And, as this chapter shows, people not knowing the details can cause problems too.