Soo, I never really write these things on my chapters since I find that people never really read them and why write something when nobody is going to read it anyway. But today I'm going to make an exception. I have basically no excuse for being so late with everything, all my stories and just life. It's not that I don't have time to write, it's just that I'm not happy with the content I'm producing. It takes me multiple attempts to create one chapter and that's my writing style - it's cool. The only reason I'm not really happy with myself about it is that I just can't get chapters out. This was supposed to go up a few days ago but then something was going on with fanfiction servers and I just kind of left it there. So now I have a brand new chapter for you that I've been thinking of writing for a while now and I'm already planning on my next chapter so stay tuned for that and please enjoy!
Also I'd like to respond one of the reviews I recently got.
Kanin98: This is so weird, because I grew up also watching winx club. I never even thought that they were similar in any way but when I started thinking about it - oh my god - it has so many similarities! I mean my image of this story and where it's heading is obviously different from winx but I actually found that pretty funny. Maybe it's just my unconscious just taking inspiration from winx, I don't know - I found it amusing. Anyways, thanks for the review and hope you enjoy the way the story is proceeding!
Sakura limped into the classroom for their second lesson of the day – history of magic. Sakura winced in pain as she sat down next to Tenten, Ino sitting down next to her and Hinata, naturally, next to her.
'This sure proves what flying really is – a pain in the ass!' Sakura thought to herself when feeling the sting of the pain slowly fade away.
She had bruises all over her and probably a few twigs in her hair after her first flying lesson. Sakura didn't expect to be good at flying, she was a beginner with everything magical, but you'd think she could manage one class without almost being sent into the infirmary wing. Of course her friends excelled at flying, Tenten being the best flyer she'd ever seen – not that she'd seen many. But the main point was that Sakura was horrible at it.
The courtyard, where their lesson was being held, wasn't far away from the dining hall at all. Their lesson had started with each of them getting handed out a broom. They were "starter brooms" as their flying instructor called them. Sakura didn't exactly understand the difference at first but she didn't understand most about her new life anyway so she wasn't bothered by it. They were plain wooden brooms that nearly reached Sakura's shoulder in height, but apparently were easier to control and learn how to fly on compared to regular brooms.
"Think of it like a bicycle with training wheels. You first have to grasp the whole concept before you can actually start flying," their flying instructor Miss Mitarashi explained.
It had started out really simple. Everyone was to pull out their wands and recite a flight spell. With time it would get easier, so you wouldn't need a wand for the cantation and finally you wouldn't need even the spell – you'd be able to do it without even thinking about it.
But Sakura needed all the help she could get.
"Tia freyre!" Sakura yelled at the broom. Her face was as pink as her hair and she was waving her wand around like a crazy person. Hinata and Ino were already sitting on their brooms, which were calmly floating in the air and Tenten was long gone speeding off with her own broom. From far away you could hear her shouting and complaining how slow the starter brooms were. It made Ino giggle and it would have made Hinata too if she wasn't so concentrated on the frustrated pinkette.
"Sakura, dear, if you just-" Hinata tried before she was interrupted by the stubborn pinkette who hadn't lifted herself from the ground after 20 minutes of vigorous trying.
"Tia freyre!"
"I wonder if you-"
"Tia freyre!"
"Just let me-"
"TIA FREYRE!" Sakura screamed and whipped her wand in the air so hard that it almost slipped from her hand. And still nothing happened. There was a sliver of a second when Sakura thought she felt something but the sensation disappeared as fast as it had appeared. Sakura wasn't far from nearly breaking the broom in her hands. Hinata was trying to calm the frustrated Sakura down with her calm voice, but the pinkette was way too mad at the piece of wood to hear her.
"You won't be able to do it if you're screaming."
Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and saw their flying instructor nearing her. She had her hands behind her back and was watching the pinkette closely.
"Miss Miratashi, it doesn't listen to me!" Sakura explained clearly frustrated about the whole ordeal.
The purple haired woman started laughing at the pinkette, which made Sakura's frustration shift into slight confusion.
"Neither would you if you were being screamed at."
Sakura was even more confused now. "You're talking about the broom as if it were a person?"
Miss Mitarashi smiled. "Yes, kind of. Brooms do have personalities, but not many show that they have them. Yours seems to be as stubborn and fierce as you, but you need to treat it calmly and with respect to even be able to lift yourself off the ground."
Sakura shifted her gaze from her teacher to the broom she was holding in her hand. It looked like a mundane object, but in the world where witches and magic existed, brooms could probably have feelings and that most likely wasn't the weirdest thing she'd encounter. In that day.
Miss Mitarashi turned to Hinata and Ino. "Girls, there are still a few girls who haven't gotten off the ground yet. Since this obviously isn't your first time flying, could you go help them out while I talk with Miss Haruno."
They girls had heard many things about the bundle their instructor was. She was said to be quirky and relatable but also that she was loud, stubborn and would kick ass if she felt like it. But that hadn't been the case. Tenten was a wild spirit who did what she wanted and even she would listen to Miss Miratashi. Ino saw someone just as loud as her and Hinata saw a calm and caring figure in her. She was definitely going to be one of their favorite professors.
Hinata and Ino looked at each other and responded with a smile. "Yes Miss Miratashi."
"Lose the formalities girls, just call me Anko!" she yelled after the two girls who flew not too far to help a group of four girls struggling with their brooms.
"God I hate formal titles.." Sakura heard her mutter before she turned back to the pinkette.
Then the purple haired flight instructor turned to examine Sakura and her broom closely without saying anything. Sakura didn't know exactly what to say in the situation, so she just stayed quiet until her nerves couldn't stand the silence.
"Soo what am I doing wrong?" Sakura broke the silence carefully trying to spark a conversation.
Miss Mitarashi hummed in response. "Since you don't exactly have a good grasp on spells and magic yet, I can see how it doesn't translate well to an object with a personality. But let's see, I'll try to guide you through it and we'll see how it goes."
"Okay, Miss-"
"Anko. Just call me Anko." Her response was fast and had a slight irritated tone to it but the smile that followed was friendly.
"Alright, Anko."
"Now, take a firm grip of your broom and hold it beside you. Show it that you are the one in control, you are about to fly it and it is not going to fly you. It will stop resisting and give in when you know you're in control," Anko instructed Sakura, placing her hands on her hips.
Sakura followed Anko's instructions, bringing the object by her side. The broom felt weird in her hand, she didn't actually believe she could fly on it. Maybe that was the problem she'd been having – psyching herself out.
"Now say the spell with your wand out. Pronounce the spell clearly and calmly, just like I taught you and it should work out just fine."
Sakura took a deep breath and cleared her mind from her previous attempts. She took a tight grip from her wand and tapped it on the wooden surface of the broom.
"Tia freyre."
Suddenly Sakura felt the broom move in her hand. Her gaze moved to the piece of wood that was now floating by itself. She was amazed and proud of herself. A triumphant smile rose to her lips as she yelled at her friends.
"Look Hinata and Ino! I did it!" Sakura happily exclaimed and Anko grinned. There was never going to be a witch that couldn't fly on her watch.
"That's great Sakura, now mount your broom. It moves with you commanding it and it does what you want it to do. Just don't worry about it too much," Anko further explained and watched Sakura carefully throw her other leg over the broom, holding tightly onto it as if it were to run away from her.
And it floated, lifting Sakura off the ground with it.
"Good! You're doing great Sakura! Now try and fly a little bit, let's not do anything extreme today since many of you are doing it for the first time-"
Anko's sentence was interrupted by Sakura's broom uncontrollably shooting forwards with the pinkette letting out a cry of help. Anko and all of the other students in the class stared with wide eyes at the pink haired witch that was spinning, flying up and down and around the courtyard at lightning speed. Sakura tightened her grip on the broom as she tried to shift it's direction.
"Slow down Sakura!" she heard Anko yell as her broom flew past the other witches, knocking a few down from their brooms. The broom went through bushes, leafy treetops, almost ran over faeries and nearly crashed into a few trees but bumping Sakura into them. Sakura's pink locks were flying around everywhere, her vision blurred from the wind in her eyes and she was sure she'd gotten a few scratches from flying through a beautiful yet oh-so-painful rose bush.
Sakura tried to command her broom in any way she could. In the chaos of her broom flying uncontrollably in bizarre shapes she tried thinking of the broom stopping. Didn't work. She tried commanding the broom with words. Didn't work. She tried to use magic on it. Didn't work. It was like her broom was determined to shake her off and Sakura didn't know what to do. It was like the worst second cousin of bull riding and Sakura did not excell at that either.
Tenten flew back to the group of witches watching Sakura.
"Is she alright? Because either she's a badass flyer or something very painful is going to happen soon," Tenten stated upon arriving to her friends.
"I hope Sakura can get control of her broom in time.." Hinata whispered to her two friends.
"Pinky you better make it out alive of this!" Ino screamed at her roommate.
Then the broom flipped around in mid air and Sakura felt herself being thrown off her broom. She still managed to keep her grip on the flying object and was left hanging from it as she struggled to get back on with the broom now bouncing around even worse than before.
Suddenly she felt herself losing grip of her broom and her body flying away from the wooden contraption. Sakura's body flew high up into the air. Her body twirled and vaulted in the air, stomach turning and vision blurring. She felt her magic wand appear in her hand as she squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact.
Suddenly Sakura heard a voice. It was very soft, very silent but she knew what it was. She'd heard that voice before and it was trying to tell her something. She wasn't quite sure what she'd heard but she knew what to do.
"Pluma procidens!"
Sakura felt energy flow from her as soon as she recited the spell. She didn't feel herself dropping down onto the ground anymore but flowing through the air like a leaf.
Sakura opened her eyes and was mesmerized by the fact that she was calmly descending through the air down onto the ground. She felt light as a feather and magic flowed through her body, she couldn't help but smile. Soon her feet touched the ground and the lightness left her body, magic slowly disappearing from her. She was left with a weird feeling. And a bunch of people running towards her, her friends reaching her first.
"Wow! How did you do that?"
"Oh my god, are you okay?"
"Sakura!"
"That was awesome!"
The pinkette was overrun with people swarming around her but the group of witches soon calmed down as their flight instructor pushed through to get to Sakura.
"Are you alright, Sakura?" Anko asked, protectively placing her hand on the pinkette's shoulder.
"I'm fine, just a little banged up," Sakura responded, brushing tangled up pink locks away from her face.
"Well at least you've got some spirit. I'll make a great flyer out of you," Anko cheered and patted the pinkette's back, causing Sakura to let out a strangled laugh.
'Well she's definitely not like other professors here' Sakura thought as the group of witches started scattering.
"Class is over for today, return your brooms and you're free to go but if I see any of you messing around I'll make you clean and fix every single broom in Luna Nova. With no magic," Anko announced and students slightly cautious of their instructor's warning cleared out from the courtyard.
"Flying is terrible, why does anyone fly anywhere?" Sakura groaned after thinking about her first contact with flying. Their classroom that was pretty much a smaller version of the academy's auditorium. Their boring old leech of a professor hadn't arrived yet so all the students were focused on chatting with each other and not really focusing on what was actually going on in the classroom.
"You did great for a first time! And check out that spell you used to save yourself. Nice reflexes," Tenten cheered but Sakura wasn't impressed. She had bruises all over her and a huge headache from her broom knocking her against a big oak. Hinata had tried her best at healing magic but it was best if the school nurse would take a look at her later.
"Where did you learn a feather-falling spell anyway?" Ino huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.
Sakura's interest spiked. "So that's the spell I used?"
Hinata, who was sitting on the other side of Ino leaned in on the small table in front of them so she could see Sakura and Tenten as well.
"Yes and you mastered it in one try. You really are a natural even with your whole magic situation going on," Hinata answered.
Sakura pouted. "But I still can't fly."
Tenten's nerves got the best of her and she smacked Sakura's side, which caused the pinkette to welp.
"What was that about?!" Sakura shouted, rubbing the spot Tenten had hit her on.
"Stop that! Don't be such a downer, you got off the ground! There were still girls who didn't even get their brooms to fly," Tenten huffed back to the pinkette.
Sakura realised that Tenten was correct. There were girls that were just as beginners at flying as she was and hadn't previously had any opportunities to learn how to fly like some students. All this time she'd beated herself up for not knowing how to do something as basic as flying or commanding a broom – but she did fly. Not that she was good at it but she did get herself off the ground and that was enough.
"I guess you're right. I didn't do so badly after all." Sakura felt her mood brighten up just a bit, even a small smile rose to her lips.
But it sure didn't last long.
"Watch out, it's Miss bitch," Ino coughed to her friends and they all pretended not to notice the red haired girl entering the classroom with her two minions, loudly chatting about how hot the boys of Appleton academy were.
Sakura felt the banging at the back of her head just get worse as she and her friends were trying to talk about something so they looked like they were having a full on conversation so Karin would just walk past them. But today wasn't their day.
"Oh look girls," Karin stated to her friends, "it's that freak of nature witch that can't fly."
Karin's nasal and high-pitched voice didn't only annoy Sakura but it was making her already existing headache even worse. Sakura was all ready to respond to Karin's ill attempt at public embarrassment but Ino beat her to it as she almost flew out of her seat.
"Oh shut up, Karin. It took you a year to get your broom off the ground even with you growing up around magic, Sakura did it in twenty minutes with no previous attempts. You still suck at flying after that and Sakura's first flight had more skill than all of yours combined. Nice try bitch, you're nothing compared to her, to me or to any of us," Ino sneered at the pissed red head.
"You stupid bitch, I wasn't even talking ABOUT you. Could you be more pathetic?" Karin's words made Ino's eyes light up on fire and her blood boil. She was ready to jump out like a wild cat and rip Karin to tiny pieces, but Sakura stood up beside her friend and put her hand on Ino's shoulder to calm her.
Tenten cracked up. "Look who's talking about pathetic!"
But before Karin could even open her mouth, Sakura stopped her.
"Leave Karin, nobody is interested in you or your bullshit here." Sakura's voice was calm, she didn't really want to show any emotion to Karin because that would just excite her as Karin clearly came in looking for trouble.
Karin looked like she almost got a little offended by Sakura. "Why you little! Of course everyone is interested about me, I'm the most important witch in this school. Just because headmistress for some obscure reason chose you as her mentee, I mean, that was just pure luck and you know that spot should've been mine – but that doesn't make you better than me, more beautiful than me or more important than me."
'Sheesh, she sure thinks she's important,' Sakura thought while watching the redhead shout at her. 'But I still don't get what's her deal with me..'
"Even the guys at Appleton academy think I'm hotter. I've heard you had a little run in with Uzumaki, Hyuga, Nara and," Karin shoved a rather over-exaggerated in-love sigh in the middle of her sentence before continuing," Uchiha. You don't have anything in common with them, so don't you dare think you have any chances with any of them. Also, Sasuke Uchiha is mine and he wouldn't even bother with someone as ugly as you."
"Look who's talking about ugly," Sakura snickered with a slight smirk on her lips, copying Tenten's earlier comment. This caused Sakura's friends and a few other people sitting close by to laugh – mostly at Karin.
"Freak of nature!" Karin called out, pointing her finger at Sakura. But Sakura didn't even flinch, she was way too tired for Karin's bullshit and she was causing her headache to get worse with every time she opened her mouth.
"Shut it. The only freak of nature around here is that god awful face of yours. Now leave, you're boring and giving me a headache." Sakura waved her hand at Karin, motioning her to leave with her two friends that were now squeaking petty comebacks at Sakura but the pinkette had no interest in the two so why would she listen.
"Oh you bitch will be put in your place when we beat you in tomorrow's treasure hunt," Karin confidently stated, leaving with her friends and started climbing up the stairs. "And don't get near Sasuke or you'll be sorry," Karin spoke out as they passed the girls and took their places in the classroom as far away from Sakura as possible. And god were the girls happy about that.
Sakura sat back down on her seat and rolled her eyes, glad that Karin knew when to leave. But something about what Karin said bothered Sakura.
"God, I almost want to throw Sakura on Sasuke just to get on Karin's nerves," Ino hissed as the red head was finally out of their sights.
Sakura's eyes grew to the size of a dinner plate. "Don't you fucking dare have any ideas about me and that bastard with a weird haircut."
Ino waved innocently her hands in front of her and assured that she would do no such thing.
'Even though it would totally piss Karin off..' Ino thought as she saw Sakura slowly calm down.
"What did she say about a treasure hunt?" Hinata completely changed the tone of the conversation as she asked her friends from the thing that had bothered her in Karin's final "warning" – if you could even call it that.
Ino's brows suddenly furrowed, which meant that she was thinking. But even she wasn't able to give a clear answer and she knew practically everything about things like this.
"It's not a tradition of any kind, I have no idea where she got that from.." Ino said after a short while of pondering. Tenten didn't know anything about it either and Sakura couldn't possibly know anything so the girls were now confused by Karin's words. Soon the whole class was talking about the alleged treasure hunt after witnessing the scene between Karin and the girls – and nobody seemed to know anything about it.
Soon the chatter was interrupted by the sound of the classroom's door loudly closing. Everyone's eyes went to the slender, dark haired woman who clearly wasn't their history of magic professor. Sakura didn't know who she was but recognized her as one of the professors from the welcoming ceremony.
"Who is she?" Sakura whispered a question to her friends but based on the looks on their faces and the lack of responses given they didn't have a clue either.
"She's beautiful.." Ino's caribbean blue eyes where almost attached to the beautiful fair-skinned woman standing at the front of the classroom. "I've got to ask what conditioner she uses."
"Shh!" Hinata hushed the blonde next to her.
"I see you've heard about the event that's taking place tomorrow," the woman that had walked into the classroom stated. Her red eyes swept the classroom filled with students and saw their confusion as to why she was there.
One student lifted up her hand and stood up. "Excuse me but where is our professor?"
Sakura saw a smile rise up to the professor's lips and a glimpse in her red eyes. "Your previous professor has been summoned elsewhere for the time being and I will be taking over this class. You can refer to me as professor or Miss Kurenai."
She managed to answer everyone's questions in the two sentences she spoke. A silence fell in the classroom, nobody spoke. They had nothing to ask and nobody felt to need to say anything. One girl in the back row coughed and it echoed in the classroom. There was no tension, that's not why everyone was silent. Sakura was pretty sure it was because everyone was in awe of the new professor. Not only was she confident and well spoken, but she was absolutely gorgeous with her dark hair and bright red eyes. She was a major change from their previous professor and a major improvement.
After a while Miss Kurenai opened her mouth again. "My methods of teaching don't include reading dusty books in silence or you listening to me lecture. That's not how you'll learn and I find that very boring to do."
Sakura was really liking their new professor. She'd never liked being lectured to and Miss Kurenai was really making history of magic seem like an interesting subject. Also after their first lesson with the leech she'd take any other lesson plan offered.
"I see most of you are first year students but I know that you shouldn't all be treated as beginners, because you are not all just that. That's why me, a few professors and the headmistress have prepared a little test for you. The treasure hunt. Your scores will determine your starting level as a witch and we will proceed off of that. Some of you will be beginners and some will be more advanced, we'll see tomorrow."
"I like her," Ino whispered to Sakura and Sakura answered with a nod. She most likely wouldn't fall asleep in Kurenai's classes since they hadn't even done anything and she was already interested more in the subject than before.
"Yeah, she's seems really nice," Hinata added, watching Miss Kurenai pull out her wand. She gave the classroom's chalkboard a gentle tap with it and golden text started appearing on the dark surface.
Miss Kurenai cleared her throat and pointed her wand towards the board. "Now we'll go through some basics for tomorrow. As you know history of magic isn't only about studying the historical events of witches and magic, but it's about understanding the basics of magic and foundations of magic. You will learn about magic and how to use it in this course, other courses and professors will then pick up and start to teach you specialized magic like white magic, culinary magic and alchemy."
"Luna Nova is an old castle built around the magical power of our sorcerer's stone. It's also a place where the leylines cross, which just adds to the history. There are tunnels under our academy that haven't been visited in decades, centuries even. Tomorrow you will be divided into teams and you will go under Luna Nova and find treasures there. The more special the item you bring back, the more points your team scores. The further down you go, the more special treasures you'll find. But it won't be just that easy. There are monsters and you will be faced with puzzles you will need to solve. You are allowed and you will need to use all of your skills tomorrow and you will have today to prepare for tomorrow. Teams will be revealed tomorrow before the hunt begins and further details will be revealed tomorrow."
"This is awesome!" Tenten exclaimed as excitedly jumped after Kurenai had let them out of class. She was pumped and everyone could see it. Sakura knew how energetic the girl could get but this amount of energy seemed even slightly dangerous.
"Not only do we have this day off, all of tomorrow's classes are also cancelled and we get to compete in a treasure hunt. And we will totally win it." Tenten pumped her fist into the air as they made their way through the student filled corridors.
"Tenten watch out, you'll punch someone if you keep doing that!" Hinata squeaked after the brunette almost hit someone and then her. Tenten turned to her with an apologizing face and murmured an apology to the blue-haired girl who responded to it with a smile.
"It's okay," Hinata responded to Tenten, whose face lit up again after having her apology accepted.
"Just remember that there's no guarantee we will all be in the same team," Ino pointed out. This calmed Tenten down, her cheerful energy slowly disappearing. She pouted and kicked air, her brows furrowed together.
"It'll suck if we don't get to be in the same team," Tenten huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. It was true, they were so excited about working as a team and the chance that they could be separated into different teams ruined the element of friendship and teamwork for them.
"If we end up in different teams then we'll just do our best," Hinata tried cheering her friends up, closing up a book she'd been reading the whole day. Sakura saw the title written on the front of the book as Hinata hugged the small object.
'Metamorphosis magic and how to use it… why is Hinata reading that? I don't remember us having metamorphosis magic in any of our courses..' Sakura wondered as she studied the plain dark blue book in Hinata's arms.
But before Sakura could ask her about it, Ino interrupted her thoughts with her signature mischievous laughter.
"No, if we end up in different teams everyone's aim is to beat Karin's ass," Ino snickered and all four girls bursted out into a heartful bundle of laughter.
"Hey girls, what should we do now? I mean, we don't have school for today and lunch isn't for an hour or two. We should probably prepare for tomorrow, right?" the pinkette asked after the laughter slowly died down, everyone feeling better after laughing for a minute or two.
"We should probably go up to our room and make a game-plan. Kurenai said that we should use all our abilities and that means more than just wand-magic." Ino looked at Hinata, who had again opened up her book of metamorphosis magic and was now flicking through the pages as if she was looking for something.
"Hinata, you still drabble with potions - right?" Ino asked with a glint in her eye – that meant she definitely had a plan in her mind.
❦ Goddess of Glam