Chapter Four: Southeast Salem School of Magic
"Do you have all of your things?" Valerie asked her children, and Seth. They all nodded. "NO WAIT!" Madison shouted. "I FORGOT MY WAND!" Valerie shook her head. "Madison, you'll just have to be late." Madison laughed. "I was just joking." Valerie shook her head in consternation. She wished she could tell the difference between his jokes and the truth.
"One minute until leaving!" Someone shouted. "Go in," Valerie said. The three stepped into the large concrete chamber. "Goodbye!" She called. "Goodbye," Hannah and Madison said back.
It was a few weeks after they had gone to Magica Hall, and time for Salem to begin.
Hannah looked around at the chamber. It was a strange thing, she decided. As they had come Madison had explained the properties of the chamber to her. It was very powerfully magical, and was the only known way of getting in to the school of Southeast Salem.
A group of up to ten people could stand in the chamber, and an hour later be transported right outside the entrance of the underground school. Twice a year, however, the magic of the room increased, and could take as many people as could fit in or out, but took five hours.
Once the minute was up bars flew down from above the entrance, and cut off any traffic into or out of the chamber. Suddenly, the room was furnished with everything to meet the four hundred and fifty odd students' needs.
There were tables, chairs, couches, TVs, and even a snack and drink bar. Madison and Seth immediately went to this, and left Hannah to her own devices. She rolled her cart full of her possessions over to where everyone else seemed to putting theirs, and went to find Anna.
She did, a few minutes later, sitting alone at a table with a coke. Hannah and Anna both knew no one in their year other than themselves. "Soooo…" Anna began, "What have you been up to." Hannah snorted. "I only just got here." Anna nodded. "I know."
"So what do you know about Salem?" Anna asked. "Probably too much," Hannah told her, referring to the fact that she had read the history of the school three times. "Well then tell me what you know about what happens tonight." She said. It would be around seven before they got to the school.
"Well," Hannah began, "We'll get placed into different house sort of things…" She trailed off when she realized that she had never bothered to ask Madison how the houses were picked for a person. "I'll be right back," She told Anna.
It was easy to find Madison and Seth. They were sitting in a booth, surrounded by people from their year, but mostly from house Gente. Madison and Seth were playing wizards chess, and the game was a close one. Hannah approached the table timidly.
Madison spotted his sister first. "Hello!" He shouted. Most everyone from that table turned to look at her, causing her to blush. "This is my sister, Theodore!" He proclaimed. A pretty blond girl sitting at his side corrected, "It's Hannah, Madison." Madison nodded vigorously. "I lied." He said. "Her name is Hannah.
The reactions were varied. The more sane people in the group chuckled. Some nodded with a happy and dumb look on their faces. Some said, "Hello Theodore!" The girl sitting at Madison side shook her head, while Seth looked about confusedly. Eventually his eyes once again found the chessboard.
"Need something, Nanners? Madison asked, using his nickname for his sister. She nodded. "How do they sort you into houses?" She asked. At this there was an explosion of answers from the table.
She could understand none of them. Eventually the girl by Madison's side yelled, "SHUT UP!" Everyone at the table, along with some in the immediate vicinity, did so. It seemed this was the only person everyone would listen to.
Then the girl turned to Hannah. "You take a test, and they sort you based on that." Hannah nodded and whispered a thanks before going off.
"That was not very nice!" Chanteau admonished the group, but more so Madison. A flurry of apologies came, but none from Madison, who was concentrated on the game.
"Did you hear me?" Chanteau demanded. "Yeah, I love your grandmother too," Madison said. Chanteau sighed and shook her head. There was only so much she could do.
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"Is that them?" Emily asked of her friend, Marit Brocker. "Yeah," another friend said, this one nicknamed Aibyoukai, "Cause if it is we gotta hurt em," she finished, drawing her wand as she did so.
"Why?" Marit asked. "Loyalty to our house, for one thing," Emily said, "And for cursing you." Aibyoukai finished. Marit chuckled at the last thing. She sort of had merited the curses when she had fallen on the two.
"How is that showing loyalty to our house?" Marit asked. "Didn't you hear about the fighting incident?" Emily asked. Marit shook her head. "Those two, along with that girl, cursed, jinxed, and hexed two of the people from our house."
"Why didn't you tell the policemen?" Marit asked. Emily answered, "No evidence, for one thing," Aibyoukai finished for her. "And to elicit personal vengeance." "Ahhh…" Marit said, "I see. Well, you first," She said gesturing at Emily.
She nodded. "Gladly," She said, as she rolled up the sleeves of her muggle shirt. She drew her wand and leveled it in Madison and Seth's general direction, and said, "Tarantellegra."
Seth seemed to notice the spell coming. To him it had slowed down to half speed, and everything else had as well. This only happened every so often, and he was glad when it did. The only strange thing was that he moved as slow as everything else. But this gave him more than enough time to draw his wand, point it at the incoming jet of the curse, and say, "Protego!"
After he did so, everything went back to its normal rate. The shielding charm Seth had cast sent the Tarantellegra spell spinning into the ceiling. Everyone sitting at their table stood, wands raised, crazy expressions gone.
There was an old saying at Salem that there was nothing more dangerous than a threatened Gente member. These were Marit's last thoughts as a barrage of hexes, jinxes, and curses hit her and her two friends.
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The only one to remained seated during this was Chanteau. "That was a bit overdoing it, don't you think?" The girl sitting on Madison's other side, a third year named Angelique, said, "I don't think so. They tried to curse our Sethy!"
There were a few chuckles at Angelique's mangling of Seth's nickname. The full nickname was Sethiroth; a name similar to that of Sephiroth, from a muggle videogame Madison and Seth loved to play.
Almost every one in the Gente house had a nickname everyone else called them. Madison's was Madi, Chanteau's was Chant, and Angelique's was Lique. Then there were the variations of these names that others used for others. Madison only called two people by names other than their nicknames. He called Chanteau just Tway, and Angelique he called Angel. Seth, however, adhered to everyone's 'true nickname' as he and Madison had termed it. Chanteau used mostly the nicknames, but used their true names when she was serious.
It was no secret that Angelique harbored amorous designs on Madison, who she regularly referred to as Her Madi, or My Madi when she was addressing him. The sort of annoyed Chanteau, but she didn't act on this. She favored Seth over Madison anyway, Seth being the more serious of the two.
"I've won!" Madison shouted. "No you haven't," Seth told him, and moved out of check. "Poo,"
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Several hours later the room had made its complete transfer to the underground school of Southeast Salem. A voice announced, "You may now make your way to school." Hannah heard Madison and Seth shout, "THANK YOU!" The bars that were formerly covering the entrance/exit to the strange chamber receded into the ceiling.
Anna shook her head and chuckled. "You've got one crazy brother." Hannah gave a little chuckle, a little apprehensive of going into the new school. Anna walked on as if everything was ok in her world. "I wouldn't be talking, if I were you," Hannah told her friend. "Yeah," Anna agreed. "Me neither."
Hannah sighed and rolled her eyes. Anna would have a ball once she met Madison and Seth. She would fit in right perfectly with the Gente crowd. Which brought to mind a worry of Hannah's. What if she didn't get into the same house as her friend? She resolved to try and answer the test in a way that would make her seem more like Anna.
She wasn't able to say anything as someone shouted, "All first years come to me!" Eventually all of the first years, about sixty-five all told, were assembled in front of the professor who had called them.
He was tall and muscular, with the frame of a wrestler. The top of his head was covered by the hood of his all-black robes. Despite his dour outfit, he smiled cheerfully at them. "Welcome to the Southeast Salem School of Magic. I'm Professor Rhodes, teacher of History of Magic. Please go into the bathrooms at your left, then go into this room here," He pointed over his shoulder at a door. "I'll be waiting in here for you."
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Hannah remembered a bit of Salem history that was one of the ways it differed from schools in any other country. It did not have a uniform, but a very un-restricting dress code. She was glad of this. The only weird part was that you had to wear the same outfit year-round.
Her outfit was all shades of light purple. It was a combination of dress and robes, and the legs only split at her knees. The outfit seemed to shimmer and looked as if it was see-through, but it wasn't.
She went out of the dressing room, and went into the test room. She quickly found a seat beside Anna, and surveyed her friend's outfit as she waited for Prof. Rhodes to give them their test.
Anna had on tight black pants, a tight black shirt, and all kinds of assorted jewelry; bracelets, anklets, necklaces and such. Draped across her back was a black cape. She looked as if she were Hannah's darker side. "More likely my insane side," Hannah muttered.
"Well," came Mr. Rhodes voice, "That's everyone." The door shut, and he waved his wand. Small cups of liquid appeared on each of the desks they were sitting at. "Drink these, and then I'll give you the test." They did, and Hannah found it tasted a lot like chocolate milk.
After Mr. Rhodes was sure everyone had drunk up, he waved his wand again. Tests, along with quills, appeared on every desk. "Begin," Prof. Rhodes said, and they did.
Hannah found the test interesting. On it were questions like, Do you like your hair long or short, and: are your fingernails long or short. Hannah thought all of these questions were kind of irrelevant to sorting her into a house.
When everyone was through, Prof. Rhodes waved his wand and all of the tests flew to his outstretched hand. "Now go through that door, up the stairs, take a right," He told them, "And assemble at the front of the hall." They nodded, and went to do so.
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"Here come the small ones!" Seth said gleefully. "Now be nice," Chanteau told her volatile friend. Seth shrugged. "I'll try," was all he said.
Chanteau looked Seth up and down. He was wearing a black chainmail outfit, and over that was a black cape. It looked becoming on him, she thought, but must be heavy. Why does he where it, then? She asked herself. Then she looked around to try and find Madison, whose outfit was likely to be much more interesting than Seth's.
She couldn't find him, but was not worried. Angelique was a bit, however. She kept looking around, and was fiercely guarding the seat next to her. Chanteau chuckled at Angelique's protectiveness. One time she had said a curse that was half one, half the other, at a person who had hugged Madison, and both had worked, an amazing feat of magical potency.
Seth had joked that if Angelique ever needed to win a duel all they needed to do was let Madison hug the person she would fight. He had had to hastily retreat the room as Angelique sent a barrage of hexes his way.
Chanteau eyed the girl with a slight frown. Chanteau's outfit was a deep blue dress, and nothing more complex than that. Anqelique's, however, was at the edge of the dress code.
The girl had an super-tight black shorts that came down to her mid thigh, a sleeveless shirt that was cut extremely low and showed her belly button. Over this was a mostly transparent red robe, which matched the girl's red hair.
When all of the first years were standing right in front of the staff table, the headmaster of the school, an older man in glowing pink robes and matching top hat stood up. "Here begins the placement of the new first ye-" He was cut off when the doors on the left side of the hall burst open. Everyone knew immediately who it was, and several of the teachers sighed.
It was Madison, who was what he preferred to be: fashionably late.
His cape, made of shimmering gray silk, was casually draped over his back, and wrapped around his left leg.
His wand no one could see, because of his habit of hiding somewhere, and no one knew where that place was. No one could deny, though, Madison's quickness at getting the wand out of wherever he put it. He wore dark purple clothing that fit his form loosely, giving the impression that he was underweight. On his wrists and ankles were many gold, silver, and black bracelets.
He wore shining black dragon-skin boots, and a matching pair of gloves. He wore his dark blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, which was mostly hidden by his cape. On his head was a particular object of curiosity, his gigantic wide-brimmed hat. It was plumed with a gigantic purple cockatrice feather.
Every eye in the room was on him as he strode to the Gente table, though he took it all in stride.
"Glad you could join us," The headmaster said. "Me too." Madison answered without meeting a beat. He was one of the few students who would act this way with any member of the staff. He did this because he knew that he would not get into any trouble with the headmaster, the two of them being equally crazy.
"How have you been, Caelyn?" Madison asked, referring to the headmaster by his first name. "Well enough." The headmaster looked around, and then bent forwards and lowered his voice, as if trying to tell Madison as quietly as he could.
"We might be interrupting something." Caelyn told the young wizard. Madison jumped backwards a bit. "What?" He asked. "You may continue," He told everyone. Caelyn nodded demurely.
Madison sat down next to Angelique, and everyone listened to what houses the first years were put into.
After this was over with, (Hannah and Anna both being put into Gente) the headmaster stood up again. "Ah bee, ah bah, ah boo boo." He said, then sat down again. Everyone was confused at these words, but most of them were used to their Headmaster's craziness.
Madison, however, was particularly amused at Caelyn's choice of words. They had been Madison's first words. Madison shrugged this off as he set into the feast that had just appeared in front of him.
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After the feast everyone headed up to their dormitories. Angelique clung to Madison's arm, and guided him off to the side to talk to him as they made their way through the underground halls of Southeast Salem.
Chanteau was walking to Seth, though was not clinging to his arm, as was Angelique Madison's. "A bit aggressive, isn't she?" Chanteau asked. Seth shot a glance over at Madison and Angelique, and smirked. "Yep. I bet Madison doesn't mind, though."
Chanteau snorted. "That's probably putting it lightly." Madison had been severely disliked by almost everyone his age before he had come to Salem, and was sort-of starved for attention from his peers. Chanteau had to admit that he was doing a remarkably good job of getting it.
They came to the entrance to house Gente, and several people said good night to friends from other houses. Seth went into the room and sighed. It was good to be back.