Author's Note: I do apologize for taking a while to update this. I love this story so much. I have a ton of ideas in the future of this that I can't wait to share with you. I just got a little sidetracked. Plus, I got a big inspiration boost from last night's premier of the Owl House Season 3. That was quite a story. Only two more left, and I can't wait to see how it's gonna conclude.

In the meantime, here is my story. Any and all comments are welcome.


"I'm really nervous, Stephen."

"Are you kidding me? You've been wanting this for weeks. Right, Eda?"

"Yeah. Don't worry, kid. You and Stephen are going to be naturals."

"But what if I mess something wrong? What if I do something wrong?" Luz panicked. "What if I die?"

"Calm down." Eda said. "I had to do the same thing when I was a witchling. It's like a rite of passage. Granted, I was a little more skilled…"

"Not helping." Stephen said.

"Sorry." Eda said. "Now, get pumped."

"Pumped!" Luz exclaimed.

"Get ready."

"Ready." Stephen exclaimed.

"Now, GO!"

Stephen was the first to come on out to the stage. Right in front of him were several rows of seats. Most of them were empty, but one was filled. The person sitting on that was none other than Principal Bump.

"Hello, Principal Bump." Stephen greeted.

"Glad to have you here, Mr. Strange." Bump said.

"Now, after this performance, I am certain to prove to you how I can be a good fit at Hexside." Stephen promised.

"I have no doubt about that. You pretty much already guaranteed that at the Covention. This little examination is merely a formality. All you need to do is two magic spells and you're official."

"Right. Here's my first." Stephen twirled his finger and created a ball of light which hovered in the air. Bump smiled and nodded before writing on his clipboard.

"And here's my second." Stephen clapped his hands together and a green glow came out of them. He opened revealing a purple flower. "Had a little seed in my pocket just for this."

"Well, I've seen enough." Bump said putting the final touches on his clipboard. "Now, all that's left is your sister. I do hope she's everything you say she is."

"I think she'll surprise you, sir." Stephen said stepping away. "All right, Luz! Your turn! And I swear, if you do your movie trailer narrator voice again, I'll…"

Luz interrupted Stephen jumping to the middle of the stage covered by her dark cloak.

"From the humblest of beginnings, a hero will rise. I have traveled from another realm and trained with a powerful with to master dark and forbidden magic. I am…" She removed her cloak in a twirl. "LUZ NOCEDA!" She then pulled out a handful of confetti and tossed it.

"Right." Bump said with skepticism. "Well, let's see what you have."

"You got it. I may not do magic like Stephen, but I discovered a lost technique that changes everything." Luz said. She then picked up two papers with different glyphs on them. Luz pressed on one which created a light ball, and afterwards, she pressed on the other which created ice.

"Spells cast with paper?" Bump asked with surprise. "I've never heard of such a thing. But is it enough to pass the exam?"

"Uh… I can do other things. What about… this?" Luz put her fingers on her eyelids and flipped them inside out. "Bleep, bloop, bleep."

Stephen smacked himself in the face. "Luz, you're embarrassing me."

"Sorry, I… OW! EYELASH!" Luz moved around and slipped off the stage with her cloak. She landed on another ice glyph she had on her which lifted her up in front of Principal Bump.

"I failed, didn't I?" Luz asked.

"Believe it or not, I've seen worse." Bump said. "Welcome, Luz and Stephen, to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics."

Both Luz and Stephen smiled in excitement.


Both kids rode with Eda on her staff wearing their new school uniforms with gray sleeves and leggings. Stephen was calm, but Luz was still nervous.

"We gotta go back! This was a mistake! I'm gonna mess things up again and…"

"Luz, take it easy." Stephen said. "You've been to school before."

"That's why I'm nervous! Back at Gravesfield, I didn't make a good first impression. This is a chance to be seen as something other than a screw-up."

"This is different." Stephen said. "This is magic school. This is the school of your dreams. Even you can't screw this up."

"If you want my advice," Eda said, "Walk into class and punch the first kids you see. You establish dominance."

"Why does your device always involve violence?" Stephen said. "I'm just hoping I could find the Book of Vishanti. I lost my chance to find it last time. Hopefully, this will be different."

"Right. So… what's the riddle for finding it again?" Luz asked.

Stephen sighed and recited. "'Within the walls of the school called Hexside, the Book of Vishanti, I've decided to hide. Instead of searching through all the halls, you'll find the X in the trouble-makers' walls'."

"And you still haven't figured out what it means?" Eda asked as she began to slow down and lower her staff.

"No. My best guess was the detention pit, but there wasn't anything there that could help." Stephen answered.

"Well, maybe we can find it together." Luz said.

Just then, the staff lowered itself enough for the gang to land safely on the sidewalk.

"Just try not to be too much of a goody two-shoes." Eda said. "You've got this."

"Thanks, Eda." Luz said as she walked to the school. Stephen was about to follow, but Eda stopped him.

"Hold up, kid!" Eda launghed a dismembered hand to get his attention. "I got something that might help."

"What kind of help?" Stephen asked returning the hand.

Eda looked left and right before whispering to Stephen. "Whenever you find yourself alone, try drawing a square anywhere on the school and draw a keyhole at the center."

"What? Why?"

"Call it a hunch and leave it at that." Eda kicked her staff and flew off into the distance leaving Stephen to follow Luz.

"What a strange woman."


Both Stephen and Luz was welcomed by a banner that read "Welcome to the New Semester". They walked across the courtyard admiring all the different students and banners that surrounded them.

"Hey, Luz!" greeted Amity as she approached with her abomination. "Congrats on getting in. And not being in the baby class You too, Stephen."

"Thanks, Amity. Up top." Luz said holding her hand up. Amity clapped her hand onto hers while her abomination attempted a high five of his own, but instead pressed its hand on her face.

"Well, good luck in class." Stephen said.

"Thanks." Amity replied walking away with her abomination.

"Can you believe it, Stephen? Our first day at Hexside!" Luz said. "A chance to discover our true magical potential, and maybe meet a hot yet vulnerable upperclassman."

"One step at a time, Luz." Stephen said. "Right now, my mind's just focused on finding the Book of Vishanti. I know there's a lot more to Hexside than that, but my mind keeps coming back around to it."

"Obsessive much?" asked a voice from Luz' backpack. King popped out of it and pressed his claw on Luz' face. "Boop."

"King?" Luz asked. "Why are you in my bag?"

"You're a free ride to the best buffet in town." King said as he hopped over to the nearest trash can. "The trash cans here are filled with half-eaten gold."

"Well, if anyone asks, you don't know us." Stephen said as he walked off with his sister.

"Have a wonderful day in school, someone-I-don't-know." King waved.

"Wow." Said a random student passing by king. "Thanks. I really needed to hear that."

Stephen and Luz made it to the front steps where Clea, Willow, Wong, and Gus were waiting. Their smiles grew wider as the siblings approached.

"Hello, fellow Hexoleos." Luz greeted.

"Sounds like Stephen's not the only one who comes up with silly names." Wong said.

"Hey, Sting is not a silly name." Stephen said.

"I wanted to welcome you both to Hexside with this!" Gus said as he projected a sentence above his head. It read "Better luck next time" much to everyone's surprise. "Sorry. I was covering my bases."

"I thought I told you to get rid of those." Wong said.

"So it looks like we're gonna be schoolmates." Clea said. "All the other schools are going to be so jealous… Well, when they recover anyway."

"Recover from what?" Luz asked.

"Didn't you hear?" Willow asked. "Something mysterious has been draining students and teachers of magic. Glandus high was just attacked the other day. The Emperor's Coven is baffled."

"Sounds like it might be Agatha Harkness again." Stephen said. "But it can't be. We already turned her in."

"Well, nothing like a good first day of school to get our minds off of it." Luz said. "Later everyone."


After hearing of the magic attacks at other schools, Principal Bump cheered in his office. "Ha! Take that, Glandus! Looks like this year's Grudgby match is going to be a forfeit."

Suddenly, Luz and Stephen entered the office.

"Good morning, Principal Bump." Stephen said.

"Hi, Princy-B." Luz said. "Can I call you that?"

"Absolutely not. Now, today, we'll be visited by the Emperor's Coven for a routine inspection. If we want to impress them, you two will need to join your respective coven tracks before they arrive."

"Actually, Principal Bump, I've made my own schedule. Took me all day too." Luz said holding up a piece of paper. "First, vet care for mythical beasts, then healing and dealing, and then, after lunch…"

Principal Bump laughed interrupting her. "Studying multiple tracks at once? No one does that."

"Then me and Stephen can be the first."

"Why did you include me?" Stephen asked.

"Look, according to the rules, a good witch needs to hocus-focus." Bump said. "You can only pick one of the nine tracks. Either Potion, Abomination, Plant, Healing, Construction, Beast Keeping, Illusion, Bard, or Oracle."

"But all those are so cool." Luz said. "Is there some sort of enchanted article of clothing that could sort this out for me?"

"Well, there used to be, but… Well, let's just say Choosy Hats can get hostile when they grow up. Tell you what. I'll choose for you." Bump pointed at the coven banners above him one by one. "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Ah, yes. The potions track. You humans are filled with liquids right?" With a twirl of his finger, Luz' sleeves and leggings went from gray to yellow.

"I… guess I have always liked pouring things into other things." Luz said.

"And what about you, Mr. Strange?" Bump asked. "Would you like to join your sister on the same track?"

"Well, since I have to choose just one track," Stephen said, "I guess instead, I'll have to go with healing. I did stay in the Boiling Isles to heal my hands anyway."

"Very well." Bump twirled his finger again changing Stephen's sleeves and leggings from gray to blue. "I expect you both to be on your best behavior. Based on the costly repairs from recent incidents, we could really use a donation from the Emperor's Coven."

"We got it, sir." Stephen said. After walking out of the office, he noticed Luz looking down. "Upset that you got only one track to learn from?"

"Kinda." Luz sighed. "Do you think we can last being one-track witches here, Stephen?"

"I don't have any issue with it." Stephen said. "I need healing magic anyway. Just try to make the best of it."

"Best of it." Luz repeated. "Okay. I'll try."


After entering the healing classroom, Stephen was instantly drawn in by the waving hand of Clea. He smiled and sat down next to her. Along the way, he heard the whispers of his fellow students.

"Is that the magic human?"

"Yeah. Looks like he's in our track."

"That's awesome."

"But why is he sitting next to Clea? Isn't she like a devil spawn or something?"

"Guess she's really not that bad. Man, Boscha is not going to like this."

"Somehow, I knew you'd end up here." Clea said. "How's your sister though? I imagine she might be a bit upset about having only one track to study."

"Luz is going to have to adjust." Stephen said. "Still, I can't help but sympathize with her. Is it really wrong to mix magic?"

"Viney probably thought the same thing." Clea said.

"Who's Viney?"

"A classmate of mine. She was officially a healer, but also dabbled in beast keeping. One day, she accidently summoned a gryphon to crash into the classroom. Bump got upset and transferred her to the detention track."

"Detention track? You mean the monster pit."

"Oh, no. They're having it renovated. Instead, those who mix magic are punished with a detention track where they will remain for the rest of the semester. Haven't talked much with Viney after she left though. She was one of the nice ones."

"Sorry to hear that." Stephen said. "Hope the day goes by well."


"And so, before you clot a papercut, you need to be sure to clean it first." The healing teacher said to her class. "After all, even a healed wound can be fatal. And so…"

The teacher was interrupted by her door opening. She and the students turned their attention to Principal Bump who walked into class. He scanned the whole room until his eyes locked onto Stephen.

"Principal Bump." The teacher said. "What a surprise."

"Forgive my interruption, Professor D'Lyla. I need to speak to Stephen Strange for a moment in the hallway."

"Oh. Of course." Professor D'Lyla gestured for Stephen to leave which he did. But before he left the class, he turned to Clea who gave him a nervous thumbs up.

"What did you want to talk to me about, Principal Bump?" Stephen asked.

"Mr. Strange, do you remember when you vouched for your sister when you asked for her to be enrolled here?" Bump asked. "And when I said that if you were, you'd be responsible for her?"

Stephen took a moment to think before groaning. "Seriously? The one school where I thought she wouldn't mess up at, and she did? Gah!" He buried his face in an open hand. "All right. Give it to me straight. What did Luz do?"

"I caught her trying out oracle magic."

After a brief moment of silence, Stephen raised his confused face out of his hand. "That's it?"

"What do you mean 'that's it'?" Bump asked. "She wasn't doing potion magic. I told her not to practice anything else."

"Principal Bump, with all due respect, you said she was trying it out." Stephen said. "I'm not really hearing that she did anything wrong. Did she fake being gutted in public?"

"Well, no, but…"

"Did she unleash snakes into the class?"

"No…"

"Just how many spells did you catch her doing?"

"Just one, but…"

"So you pulled me out of class after just one little spell?"

"Not only that. Before this, I sent Luz to the detention track."

"What?!" Stephen gasped. "Over one tiny sample of other magic? You couldn't just give her a verbal warning?"

"I did warn her, in the office today. You were there. I told her she only had to stick with one track, and she chose and…"

"But she didn't."

"What?"

"She didn't choose. You chose for her. She wasn't really satisfied with it. She just settled because it was the first choice, a choice that she didn't even make herself."

"Well… what about you? You're not doing other magic like she was."

"First of all, you shouldn't put me on a pedestal. It's not good for Luz." Stephen said. "And secondly, I'm not as passionate about magic as Luz is. I don't think anyone is as passionate as her. You remember that schedule she made that you dismissed so easily? She worked on that all day yesterday."

"So what's your point? That I should just let her get away with it with a slap on the wrist? What if she does it again?"

"What if she doesn't? Don't you think it's a little harsh to punish somebody over something so trivial? Is she going to get even more trouble for disrupting the class with squeaky shoes?"

Bump was about to respond, but suddenly found himself speechless. His mind flashed back to the days when he was the vice principal to his cruel superior, Principal Faust, and his outrageous punishments for minor inconveniences. He sighed finally giving in.

"You really think I was a bit harsh on her?"

"I don't know. I don't have a lot of knowledge about how Demon Realm education works, but at least acknowledge that Luz works harder at being a witch than she has any other time at the human realm."

Bump rubbed his chin curiously. "Hmm… I guess I was a little nervous with the inspection coming today. Perhaps I can be a bit more lenient. I'll think it over 'til the end of the day. Right now, I have an inspector coming along. Return to class, Stephen."

Stephen was about to, but the thought of Luz in the detention track wandered into his mind. He was worried, so he decided to check it out himself.


Making sure no one was looking, Stephen opened the door to the detention track only to find a nearly empty classroom. All the students chairs were empty and the teacher was snoring on his chair. Stephen looked around curiously, but found no trace of his sister.

"That's odd." Stephen said. "Wait… Maybe Luz is off on her own adventure again. Figures she would do that." His eyes then fixed on chalkboard and remembered something that Eda said earlier. "Well, since I'm here and the teacher is counting sheep…"

Stephen picked up a piece of chalk and followed Eda's instructions. First, he drew a large square. He then drew a keyhole at the center of the square. All of a sudden, the edges of the square lit up and it creaked open like a door. Stephen opened it and found a tunnel hidden behind the chalkboard.

"What the…" Stephen said before following the tunnel.


At the end of the hall was a secret room filled with doors all along the wall. Luz was drawn to it when she was introduced to it by the rest of her detention track students, Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus. After realizing that the doors could be used to listen in on classes they wanna learn from, Luz gained a newfound appreciation for them.

"We all want to be in more than one coven track," Viney said, "But Bump just says we need to focus."

"Sounds like Bump's priorities are out of whack." Luz said.

"It's not so bad though." Jerbo said. "At least here, we can be ourselves, trouble-makers or not."

Luz' smile faded when her eyes slowly widened. "Trouble-makers… Hold on. Guys, is there something here marked with an X?"

"Well, there's that one brick right beside the Lord Calamity painting." Viney said.

Luz moved on over to the secret room's founder's portrait which was covered with graffiti. She looked in between the names until one brick caught her eye, one with an X-shape carved into it. She gripped it and removed it with ease. Inside the hole she made, she found something wrapped up in a cloth. She pulled it out and unwrapped it. She was surprised to find a gold-colored book that was labeled "The Book of Vishanti".

"I don't believe it." Luz gasped. "It's here! It was here all along!"

"What was here? Let me see." Viney said as she took the book from Luz. She opened it up to a random page and examined it. After a second of looking, she gasped.

"What? Viney, is everything all right?" Jerbo asked joining in with Barcus.

"Guys, this is one crazy spellbook." Viney said. "I mean, really crazy. I didn't think most of these spells even existed."

"Really?" Jerbo asked.

"Sure. Let's try… this one. Looks simple enough." With a wave of her hand, Viney disappeared from where she was and suddenly reappeared right behind the boys. "Whoa! That was nuts!"

"This is amazing." Luz said taking the book back. "My brother is going to go loco when he sees this!"

"This was pretty eventful, Luz." Viney congratulated. "I'm glad you're one of us. You've made a great first impression. Would you like to add your name to the trouble-maker wall?" She offered up a black marker.

Luz gasped with excitement. She finally felt like she belonged. She reached out to take it when…

"Hello? Anyone here?"

Everyone stopped to turn to the door behind them. It opened and Stephen walked in.

"Stephen?" Luz gasped.

"Luz?" Stephen asked. "What are you doing here? What is this place? And what's going on?"

"Luz, do you know this guy?" Viney asked.

"Right. So… Stephen, this is Viney, Jerbo, and Barcus. Guys, this is my brother, Stephen."

"Stephen?" Jerbo asked. "Wait. Guys, that's the magic human who's teacher's pet to the principal!"

"What?" Viney asked. "Oh, shoot! He's going to expose us!"

"Expose you?" Stephen asked. "I have no idea what even's going on. Luz?"

Luz laughed nervously. "Well… As it turns out, the detention track has access to a secret room that connects everywhere else in school, and they've been using it to learn magic from different classes even though they're not allowed to. I stood up for them, and they invited me to be one of them, and that's when you showed up." She took a breath after the quick breath of explanation.

"Wow. That's… a revelation." Stephen said. "Anything you might have missed?"

"Oh, yeah. We also found this." Luz said before revealing the newly discovered book.

Stephen nearly lost his balance seeing the book in front of him. Once he recomposed himself, he looked back at the book with wide eyes.

"You… You really found the Book of Vishanti?"

"Yeah. As it turns out, the 'trouble-makers' walls' was actually referring to this room." Luz said. "Pretty awesome, right?"

Stephen was about to answer, but a loud roar interrupted them. Everyone opened the door where the sound came from and peeked through. And what they saw was a horrifying sight.

The Hexside hallway was nearly filled with an amphibious-looking snake with arms. She was fighting a magic student and won easily when it opened its mouth and devoured their magic. They collapsed soon after.

"Don't let it see us!" Viney yelled out closing the door. "I think that's a greater basilisk. I heard about them in a class. My cousin at St. Epiderm said she saw one, but those things should be extinct."

"Guess this one didn't get the memo." Stephen said.

"It must have attacked the other schools." Luz said. "And now, it's come for us. We have to do something."

"But if Bump catches us mixing magic again…" Jerbo said.

"He'd kick us out of school." Viney finished.

"After you save the school, I don't think he's going to care." Stephen said. "Listen, there are people getting hurt. Innocent teachers and students. Our friends. Right now, we're the most powerful witches in the school, so it's all on us to stop that thing before it moves on to the next school."

"Stephen's right, guys." Luz said. "We're trouble-makers, right? So let's get out there and make some trouble."

"But how do we do that?" Jerbo asked. "One that thing eats our magic…"

"Wait." Viney said. "Open up that book. When I was browsing earlier, I think I may have found a spell that could work for us."


The greater basilisk crept up closer to Clea who was shaking in the corner. It licked its lips as it towered over the healing student.

"Hungry. Still hungry." The greater basilisk said.

The monster opened its mouth to eat Clea when she ducked down and covered the back of her head. That's when the basilisk suddenly locked its eyes on the back of her neck and saw the birthmark.

"AHH! THE DARK DIMENSION!" the greater basilisk yelled out before slithering away quickly. "NOPE, NOPE, NOPE!"

Clea raised her head curiously. "Huh? What did it say?"

The greater basilisk continued to slither through the halls when an ice glyph was dropped in front of it. It activated underneath the beast and sent it crashing to the wall. It slowly recovered right when Luz presented herself in her cloak.

"From the humblest of beginnings, a hero will rise. I've trained with a secret society to discover the power of mixing magic. I am…"

"Dinner!" the greater basilisk roared as it shot itself toward Luz. She dodged out of the way and gave chase with the beast behind her.

Luz rushed down the hall until she reached a certain point. She signaled for Viney to unleash a gryphon onto the greater basilisk.

"Attagirl, puddles. Jerbo, now!" Viney commanded.

"On it!" Jerbo responded while his abomination opened a secret door. He then shot several plant vines to pull the greater basilisk right through the secret room and fall right into the auditorium.

Barcus found his cue. He poured a potion onto the greater basilisk's paw and read from it. He made inaudible dog noises scaring the monster.

"What's he doing? What'd he say?"

"He's reading your palm." Stephen said as he walked out with the Book of Vishanti in his hands. "And your future looks bleak. Have a little taste with a magic release spell."

"Magic release?" the greater basilisk asked. "There's no way to force me to do that."

"There is now." Stephen said pointing his hand which glowed white at the giant snake.

Suddenly, the greater basilisk's mouth began to glow and several beams of light escaped from it. They all flew across the room and outside of it. As soon as one of them hit Principal Bump who was laying weakly on the floor, he had newfound energy and returned to his feet. The same could be said for everyone else.

As soon as everyone got their magic back, Luz hugged all of her friends. "We did it! You were amazing! You guys…"

"Are in so much trouble." Principal Bump said when he confronted the students. "Leaving your homeroom. Mixing magic. And is that a secret hideout?"

"Yeah, it is." Luz admitted proudly. "But let's think about this, Principal Bump. Why would kids in the detention track need a secret hideout?"

"I don't care to know the ins and outs of rascality." Bump said. "But if the Emperor's Coven can send an actual inspector this time…"

"Okay, you need coven money." Luz said. "But if you have to hurt your students to get it, what's the point? They saved Hexside. They should be allowed to study what they wish."

Principal Bump looked over to Stephen who shrugged his shoulders. "To be honest, sir, I always thought this 'focus on one magic' process was very counter productive."

Bump smiled. "All right. I'm smart enough to know when I've made a mistake. Tell me, students, which tracks would you like to be in?"

"Healing and beast keeping." Viney answered.

"Plants and abomination." Jerbo said.

Barcus just barked, but it was clear he wanted potions and oracle.

"So be it." Bump said waving his finger. Each of the students wore outfits who had different colors on their sleeves and leggings. "But if any of you cause more property damage, I'm feeding you to the Choosy Hat. And what about you, Luz?"

"Oh, I still can't choose." Luz said. "Maybe it's crazy, but I wish I could study a little bit of everything."

Luz suddenly got her wish. Her sleeves and leggings suddenly changed to have a bit of every last color in the magic tracks.

"Yeah! I'm gonna study everything!"

"I suppose you are." Bump said before turning to Stephen. "What about you? Are you going to remain to just one track or would you like to try more?"

In the past, Stephen would've decided to stay in the more practical course. But seeing Luz happy and admiring her new colors made him smile.

"You know what? Go ahead. I wanna learn it all too." Stephen's outfit changed to match her sisters.

"Go Stephen!" Luz said. "Now, we have multiple tracks to study and the Book of Vishanti!"

"Wait. The book of what?" Bump asked.

"Not important." Stephen said quickly hiding the book.

"All right. I won't pry. You earned this." Bump said. "You know, only one other student wanted to study every track. Unfortunately, she was never given the opportunity." He summoned up a portrait of Lord Calamity from the secret room and cleaned off the mess made on it. The person revealed on it was a certain teenage girl with yellow sleeves and orange hair. That girl was a young Eda Clawthorn.

"I should've guessed." Luz chuckled.

"So that's what made her suspect where the book was." Stephen said with a smile. "She found the room in the first place."

"Think she knew the book was there all along?" Luz asked.

"No, but I suspect she had a hunch. In any case, this turned out to be quite a memorable first day."

"Yeah." Luz said looking at the many colors her brother wore. "It certainly did."