Nathan woke early the next morning. His eyes were closed but he could see daylight shining through the windows.
"That was all a dream." he thought. "I dreamed a fairy named Hallie came to let me know I was going to be going to a school for wizards and witches. When I open my eyes I will be back in the DeLace's home in Naperville." Suddenly, he heard a loud tapping noise. "And there's Aunt Poppy tapping on the cupboard door" He still didn't open his eyes though, it was such a good dream.
Tap, tap, tap.
"Alright I'm coming" he mumbled.
He sat up and the blankets fell off of him. He was still in the hut on a small island in Lake Michigan. It was full of sunlight and the storm had stopped. Hallie was sleeping on the couch. There was an owl hitting the window with its beak, which held a newspaper in it. Nathan headed over to the window and opened it. The owl flew in and dropped the paper near Hallie. It then headed over to where Nathan had slept, and started attacking the blankets. Nathan tried to move the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak at him, then went back to destroying the blankets.
"Hallie, there's an owl" he said.
She woke up. "Pay him" she said groggily.
"What?"
"He wants payment for the newspaper," she said. "Look in my bag"
Nathan picked up her bag and searched for a minute before finding some strange looking coins. "Hand him five Citrils." she said.
"Citrils?"
"The small orange ones"
Nathan grabbed five of them and put them into a pouch tied to the owl's body. The owl then flew off.
Hallie yawned then flew off the couch. "We got a lot to do today, so we'd best leave soon. I'm taking you to Chicago to buy stuff for school"
Nathan turned over the coins and examined them. He had a thought that made his heart stop for a second.
"Hallie, I don't have any money, and Uncle Robert said he wouldn't pay for me to go to this school."
"Don't worry about money, your parents left you a lot of magic world money"
"But their house was destroyed."
"They didn't keep the money in their house. They kept it in the wizard bank, Sangretts. Which will be our first stop."
"The magic world has banks?"
"Just the one. Sangretts. Run by dwarves."
Nathan dropped the smore he was eating. "Dwarves?"
"Yeah, you would be insane to try and steal from Sangretts. Word of advice. Don't mess with dwarves. Sangretts is the safest place in the magic world to keep things safe, other than maybe Newtards. Oh speaking of Newtards I need to get to Sangretts anyway to pick up something for Merryweather. I often do things like that for her, she knows she can trust me. Oh and don't ask what I am getting out of Sangretts because I am not allowed to tell you. School business. Alright let's go head to Chicago."
They left the hut. The sky outside was very clear and blue. The boat they had taken to the island was still docked. They got into the boat.
"Nathan, if I were to use some magic to speed the boat up, would you mind not telling anyone. I'm not technically supposed to do any more magic now that I've got you."
"Of course not" Nathan said, excited to see more magic. The fairy pulled out her wand and pointed it at the motor, and they sped off toward Chicago.
"Why would you be insane to attempt to steal from Sangretts?" Nathan asked her.
"Firstly they have enchantments to keep intruders out and protect the vaults, secondly they have dragons guarding some vaults, and thirdly, Sangretts is miles below Chicago. Even if you managed to steal something you would probably die of hunger before you got to the surface." She pulled out a newspaper, The Magic Times, and started reading it. Nathan remained quiet, he had learned from Uncle Robert that people liked to be left alone when reading the news.
"Magic government messing up again" Hallie mumbled.
"There's a magic government?" Nathan asked.
"Of course. The United States has a main government with a supreme court called the US Magic Government located in Washington DC. And then each state has its own magic departments. They wanted Merryweather for President but she would never leave Newtards so Khristina Toffee got elected instead. She sends Merryweather letters all the time asking for advice."
"What do they do?"
"They keep the magic world running, and also keep Normles from finding out about the magic world."
"Why?"
"Because the Normles would be jealous if they found out about us, and they would want our abilities and might even go to war with us. "
They reached the docks on the Chicago beach. They got out of the boat.
"Need to use some magic again Nathan, don't tell anyone." Hallie pointed her wand at herself and after a minute she grew to normal human size and appeared as a fairly average looking blonde woman. "Don't want to attract any suspicion." She pointed the wand at Nathan, then handed him a mirror. He looked into it and saw that he looked like Hallie's new form's son. "If anyone asks I'm Alice Newman and you are my son Jacob."
They walked towards the nearest bus stop. Hallie looked excited whenever she saw ordinary Normle things like parking meters.
"Hallie, did you say there are dragons in Sangretts?"
"Well, so they say. I would love to get one actually. Wanted one my whole life "
They reached the station. Nathan helped Hallie spend Normle money to get train tickets.
"Nathan, do you still have your letter?" Hallie asked.
Nathan took it out of his pocket.
"Good, it has the shopping list inside of it."
Nathan pulled out a second list of paper and read it.
NEWTARDS ACADEMY OF MAGIC
UNIFORM
1st year students require the following:
5 sets of grey robes
1 pointy black hat
1 pair of black gloves
1 white winter robe
BOOKS
All 1st year students require the following books:
Guide To Basic Spells Volume 1 by Katrina Cosgrove
The History Of The Magic World by Farida Fagshot
The Theory Of Magic by Adam Wallace
Guide To Transformative Magic by Eric Swift
Herbs And Fungi by Therida Slimefoot
Guide To Elixirs by Arison James
Magical Creatures and Where They Live by Steven Snail
Guide to Defensive Magic And Dark Magic by Gregory Terror
OTHER ITEMS
A wand
Cauldron
Glass vials
Telescope set
Scales
Either an owl, a frog, or a cat
FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS.
"Can we buy all this in Chicago?" Nathan asked.
"If we look in the right place yes." said Hallie
Nathan had never actually been to Chicago before, but Hallie seemed to know where she was going. She clearly wasn't used to getting there through Normle methods though because she kept complaining about the bus going too slow.
"I don't know how Normles function without magic" Hallie said.
They finally got out of the train and started walking. They passed lots of shops and restaurants but nowhere that looked like they could sell books of magic or wands. Finally, they reached a small bar restaurant that Hallie pointed out. "There, that's the Lead Telescope. It's a famous place in our world"
Nathan wouldn't have noticed it if Hallie hadn't pointed it out. Other people on the street appeared to not be able to see it. They went inside.
Hallie pointed her wand at the two of them to dismiss their disguises.
The barkeeper walked up to them. He had short black hair and a very chubby face. "The usual Hallie?
"Nope Rick, I'm on Newtards business. I'm taking Nathan Torrance here to Triangle Lane."
"Nathan Torrance, oh my god!" Rick said "What an honor to meet you Nathan" he said as they shook hands.
Everyone looked at Nathan. Soon everyone started shaking hands with him.
"Derek Crawford, Mr. Torrance, so nice to meet you at last."
"So nice to meet you"
"Delighted to meet you Mr. Torrance. My name is Leandera Little."
"I've seen you before Leandera."
"You remember me?" He remembers me" Leandera's hat fell off and she quickly picked it up and put it back on her head.
A pale young woman walked up to Nathan.
"Liandra Quaker!. Ms. Quaker will be your Defensive Magic teacher at Newtards." Hallie said.
"T-T-T-Torrance. S-s-so n-n-nice t-t-to m-m-m-meet y-y-you." she stuttered.
"We need to leave Nathan, got a lot to do" said Hallie
They walked outside the bar into a small backyard with a stone wall. "I told you were famous Even Quaker was trembling to meet you. Although she's always trembling.
"Is she always that nervous?"
"Always. Very smart woman. She was fine when she was a scholar, but then she went on an adventure, they say she encountered vampires out there. Never been the same since then, scared of everyone and everything."
Hallie went up to the wall and tapped it a few times with her wand. Suddenly the wall moved and now had space to walk through into a bustling street with many shops.
"Welcome to Triangle Lane."