Days turned into weeks as William went about the business of being a student at Salem. As Chris had predicted things had eased up after another week of being swamped with quizzes and examinations though while no longer swamped William couldn't help but notice that his schedule of work was consistent with generally one or two classes demanding a paper or exam of him once a week. This meant that a few nights a week William found himself in the library, luckily those nights were generally not when he was at the dueling club.

William saw Nick in the halls of the school, and at the dueling club though his friend was still distant, and shrugged off any attempt to talk to him. A little bit before the full moon, William once more found himself in the potions lab illegally brewing the Wolfsbane potion. William had spoken with Franklin Perry again, and found out where the older boy got his potion supplies delivered from, and was able to procure his own large vials and the more specific ingredients that he needed. William had once more put the beautifully smoking potion into a large bottle with a special stopper to let the blue smoke carefully escape.

This time instead of trying to hand it off to Nick in the halls or after class, he made his way toward his friend's room early in the morning. A trail of blue smoke followed him as he moved in the gray light of pre-dawn before pausing in front of Nick's door. He set down the large bottle, and frowned, he had labeled it '1 week' and hoped that Nick would be willing to take it still there was no way to know. William frowned debating on whether or not to knock and then run away. However, not wanting to run the chance of his friend not accepting the gift, William just left it and hoped Nick would actually accept it.

A few nights later however, Nick hung back after the dueling club. In the club they were still perfecting the proper nuances of dueling learning how to score points on one another and what were acceptable methods for gaining the upper hand in the duel. Clark even promised that by the end of the year they would be taught the all important disarming spell. All of this was on William's mind as he nearly ran into Nick at the top of the stairs out of the stadium.

The taller boy extended the bottle to William. William could tell that it was empty, but as it was not the full moon it was obvious that Nick had not drank it at least not in its recommended dosage. "Stop trying to brew me restricted potions," Was all Nick said as he shoved the bottle into William's chest and then stomped off, the stomping quickly turning into a full run. William shook his head, wishing there was some way that he could help his friend, any way whatsoever. Still, once more all he was left with was the reality that he would have to wait.

A few days later, under the eyes of the full moon Nick was as usual absent from class, though William watched the back corner that he now normally sat in just in case for some reason his friend had been able to make it in. William sighed as he left class, he had been excited at the start of the year because Nick was his only friend in that class meaning that he and Nick would've been able to talk about dueling or whatever without bothering one of their other non-duelist friends. Now however, William couldn't help but realize just how alone as he left class that afternoon.

As he made his way down the hall though, William was also aware of another fact about being alone after class. Henry and Theodore were waiting not far down the hall, at a junction in the halls where there were always plenty of students. William could always spot them because of the way that Theodore's greasy black hair and pale skin stood as a shock in the crowd of passing Salem students. Henry also was generally distinct with the sheer roundness of his physique, and William could already see the other boy's stubby wand curled up in his short sausage fingers.

William took in a deep breath, hand resting on his wand, debating on whether or not he was going to be the one to throw the first spell. As he came toward the junction though the decision was already made for him, Theodore let out a cackling noise that was apparently him saying some sort of incantation and a quick burst of icy blue light came at William. William's wand was out in one fluid motion as was a shield charm to stop the spell. The air in front of the silver light that stood between William and the bullies was filled by a smooth frosty gas, like someone's breath on a very cold day. William marveled at the strange spell, he suddenly felt the tell-tale twist in his chest of the purple nurple, William coughed once, and then Theodore cackled again, the icy blue light caught him head on and he suddenly found himself shivering like a cold bucket of water had been dropped on him. The two bullies laughed as they moved into the crowd.

William shivered as he stepped into a bathroom quickly, he shook his head, and rubbed his hands on his sleeves. As he looked in the mirror William could see that his hair and eyebrows had flecks of ice and the like inside of them, and the upper part of his robes were frosted as well. As he looked in the mirror he suddenly realized that Theodore had used a type of freezing charm that they were taught in defense to use against small pests, or at least a variation of it. William shook his head, and then conjured blue bell flames into the sink while transforming the frost into water with a few waves of his wand. William then leaned over the sink where the warmth of the conjured flames helped to quickly warm him and dry him off so that he could rush off to his last class of the day.

Incidents like this continued, often several times a day. With the constant bullying William was beginning to feel like the past year in the dueling club and meeting his friends had never happened since he was back in an even worse position than when he had started at Salem. William was starting to show up to all of his classes with a limp or pain somewhere in his body that was becoming harder and harder to dismiss. After Defense classes when William would limp out, he couldn't help but feel Tall Elk's eyes on him, boring into his back as William made his way out into the halls where he would inevitably be picked on once more.

After another full week of the bullying, William caught up to Clark outside of one of her classes after he was done for the day. William noticed that older students generally had classes later than the underclassmen probably because of electives though William was never quite sure. The older girl was clearly surprised to see him standing outside of her classroom, and she smiled at several of her friends and waved as she parted from them and walked over to William.

As always, William was generally surprised with how Clark composed herself outside of the dueling club. Her robes were cut in a fashionable style and her red hair sprung freely about her cascading down in tight curls, she smiled at the younger boy and asked, "What's up William?"

William frowned, "I need," William sighed, "I need to know how to get rid of these bullies."

Clark's eyes widened as she looked down at William, "William I thought that..." She then paused unsure of what to say. The older girl took a deep breath and said, "You were never able to get them off your back were you?"

William shook his head, "I was, I thought I was but then, I don't know, Nick doesn't talk to me and my roommate is never around..." William sighed unsure of what else to say.

Clark placed her hand on his shoulder and sighed, "Yeah, Nick's been out of it lately, and I really hope that something happens to snap him out of it." She then shook her head and said, "But there's not much I can tell you about how to get rid of bullies. Beyond what I tell you in the dueling club."

William took a deep breath, and he looked up at Clark, "Is there anything you could do?"

The older girl frowned and then her face suddenly lit up, "Maybe, maybe." She then started walking off and William followed the older girl. Unsure of exactly where they were going.

They moved out into the cold air of the mid-winter afternoon and quickly made their way across the lawns of campus toward one of the other dormitories. William had never actually gone into another dorm besides Corey Hall before. They were all laid out in a similar manner, long corridors of seemingly faceless doors broken up by bathroom doors. Eventually, Clark stopped at a door, and then opened it with a swift turn of the key.

William was a tad surprised to find that the girl's dormitory was full of robes and various clothes spilled about the floor and the beds. Both desks were covered in all manner of books, parchment, vials of perfume and cosmetic potions, along with schedules, letters, and a number of various knick knacks. William also couldn't help but notice the bottle of fire whiskey sitting calmly on Clark's night stand. The older girl walked into the mess as if it weren't there and William could only creep in a few feet unsure if it was safe to sit or move things around so he could move easier.

"Close the door, Fraser," Clark said in her standard dueling command tone. William quickly shut the door and then stared as the older girl closed then opened a trunk. Once the trunk was reopened she practically dived into it, tossing various books in and out of it before finally tearing out a single thin volume. Clark then began to flip through it, before stopping on a certain page, and then she settled down at her desk. William was unsure exactly what was going on, so he just stood patiently next to the older student's desk, as she grabbed parchment, an inkwell, and quill, and began to copy something. She then flipped through the book a few more times, copying one or two more things down before finally handing the piece of fresh parchment to William.

William stared down at the parchment and then looked at Clark, "What is this?"

"That," Clark said gesturing at the parchment, "Is a list of somewhat out of the ordinary spells from this." She said holding up the thin volume. Up close William could see that it was quite old, there were cracks in the leather of the binding, and the pages inside of it were quite yellowed.

William stared at it, "What is that exactly?"

Clark smiled, "A guide to various spells that no one really uses anymore. It's been passed through my family for a few generations since they came over. Most of them are just spells from the old country you know for dealing with things that are over there, some of them are just good spells for various things like there's a spell in here that will salt mutton and another that bakes a potato really well." She shrugged, and then gave a vicious smile, "Of course, some of these spells were added over the years, for doing all sorts of wrong doing. I mean, I'm not going to give you some of the spells in here that I think are clearly dark. But these three, well, they should certainly scare off a few bullies. Just be careful with them, ok?" Clark then smiled again, and then ruffled William's hair.

"Alright," William replied.

"You promise?" She asked quickly.

"Yes, I do promise," William answered unsure of exactly why he had to worry about these spells.

"Good, now get out of her squirt, I have a paper to write," She replied, and William nodded then left the room.

As William looked over the spell list upon the parchment he couldn't help but notice that the incantations were definitely not the latin-based ones he was used to seeing. They seemed somewhat off though he couldn't quite figure out why. Still the spells themselves were strange, and Clark's notes didn't seem to include what their original intention was. The three spells would all be useful though, though as he cut back through the main building to warm up a bit as he traversed campus he was surprised at how quickly he was already putting them to use.

As he cut through the building, he spotted Henry and Theodore prowling through the corridor ahead of him. The pair smirked, and their wands were out quickly, calling out various spells. William gulped and then ducked into a side hallway as opposed to trying to block their hexes. William's wand was in his hand before he even realized it, and he could at least hear the huffing and puffing that meant Henry was rushing up on him. William looked down at the parchment, and then let out the rough unfamiliar incantation for a tripping spell. William dropped down to the ground and tapped it as per the instructions, all of a sudden a line at about shin height burst out from his wand and affixed itself to the walls. Henry bowled right into the line with a cry of several foul words as he crashed right down onto his face.

Meanwhile Theodore had stealthily rounded the corner, though William immediately called out the last spell on his list and a massive gout of bright flames burst out of William's wand. He concentrated hard and the flames abated. Theodore was standing there somewhat aghast unsure at how to respond, his robes were smoking slightly. William stuffed the list into his pocket unsure if he'd have a chance for the last spell as Theodore launched a counter-attack that William caught on a shield charm. William backed up into the other hallway quickly, spotting that Henry was about to get back up he called out the last spell. While the spell hit Henry hard in the back, it didn't bring him flying toward William or anything really, the large boy just continued to clamber back up.

Meanwhile Theodore had launched his assault as he rounded the corner. William recognized the majority of spells from observing them in the forest the previous year, but he was still surprised with how viciously Theodore was using them. Theodore let forth a guttural noise and a black smoke William recognized with a certain fear came curling out of his wand, William felt his leg twitch and then he let loose with the flame spell again before ducking to the right. The gout of bright fire burst with the smoke in a dazzling and strange array of lights, in the meantime William lay down another trip line and backed up. Both Theodore and Henry came bursting across it this time, and when they fell over William just ran through the closest door to the outside, knowing full well that he didn't want to get caught having a rampaging duel inside the school or to even continue fighting.

As William came back into Corey Hall, he reminded himself that he'd have to find a proper way to thank Clark for those spells they were surprisingly useful except for the last one he had tried. William entered his room, and there was Chris carefully working on his homework. He then stared at William when William came through the door. "Holy crap," Chris said, "You look like hell."

William shrugged and shook his head, only now realizing that despite the freezing New England winter weather his robes were soaked through, and he felt like he was about to pass out. "I..." He shrugged, "Just had a fight with Henry and Theodore."

"Wow," Chris replied as he looked at William, "They're still..."

William could only nod, "It's only gotten worse since Nick doesn't talk to me, and we don't have a lot of classes together." William shook his head as he disrobed and changed into a fresh set of clothing, "If only there was some way we could actually convince Nick that we were there for him."

Chris smiled, "Well, ya know, I've been thinking about that recently."

William looked at Chris when he said those words. There was a gleam to his roommate's eyes, and a wicked smile on his face that made William uneasy. "What are you thinking?" William asked finally.

"Well, what if we you know," Chris said after a few moments, "Met up with him on the full moon?"

"No," William said, shaking his head, he wasn't sure how to explain that he had tried that already, he then just looked at Chris, his roommate didn't seem disheartened by the no.

"Oh come on," Chris replied, "With the Wolfsbane potion he's still Nick in there, but being there would show that we actually cared."

William took a deep breath and then said, "I've already tried."

Chris let out a loud, 'pfft', "So? Try and try again is what my dad always says." Chris gave a wicked smile, "Come on William, what's the worst that could happen?"

William shook his head, "Do I have to answer that, really?"

"No, but come on, with all the stories about the Howling Hall among the older students, we know that he's in those tunnels. We just need someone to show us a way in," Chris explained.

William nodded, "I know of one entrance, and I think Alexandria knows of a few others." William explained.

"Awesome," Chris said, "So on the next full moon, we head out, deal?"

William took a deep breath, "I'm sure I'll regret this, but yeah, deal."