Chapter 8 - A class to show off

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After meeting again for another lunch, Alex and Justin get ready to leave the dining hall. Half way to the door, Fiendl comes in and spots them right away.

"Sir?!" He calls out. The siblings stop to give him attention. "Miss Russo!" He compliments.

"Percy!" Alex says, but not just a reply. More like mockery and accusation.

"I have some news to share." He simply goes on as if he didn't get her tone. "But first, let me acknowledge what an amazing spectacle it was seeing you two dealing with that hippogriff."

"Thank you! But…" Justin tries to make the man stop and get to the important part.

However, Fiendl continues. "It's all over the Wizard Web, already. You two have such an incredible synchrony."

"Hey! Percy…" Alex tries it this time, and still Fiendl seems to be in his own world.

Then he gapes at Justin. "Ohhh!" He interjects as something comes to him. "Full wizard siblings! I only imagine the kind of power this wields. And think about all this power in one single wizard…"

"FIENDL!" Justin shouts to bring the man out of his own head.

"Huh…?!" Fiendl gawks at Justin with a dumb face.

"You said you got news about something!?" Justin asks.

"Oh, yes!" Fiendl notices. "I may have a lead on the responsible for the hippogriff incident."

"What is it?" Justin asks.

"Well… You are aware of how other professors come to me for ingredients for potions, or every now and then they even take ingredients without telling me when I'm not around. And that is not unusual. But…" Fiendl says stepping closer to the siblings, and lowers his voice. "…this time I noticed a few odd ingredients missing in my ingredients' cabinet. I believe whoever took those was trying to make some stick-to-it powder…"

"Oh, REEEALLY!" Justin looks at Alex, with goggled, suggestive eyes. Alex guiltily purses her lips and scratches her ear.

"Yes!" Fiendl continues. "It is a very common prank amongst the kids."

Then Justin says, still staring at Alex. "I didn't know that. Did you know that… ALEX!"

"Uhm! …" She stammers. "Nope! Not really."

Fiendl takes on. "Well, maybe that can help in finding who did this."

"Alright! I will see where that leads. Thank you, Professor." Justin answers. "Alex, can I talk to you in private?" He finishes and Fiendl walks away, into the dining hall.

"We can talk right here, where there are lots of witnesses."

Justin takes her arm and pulls her out of the cafeteria. "That was your fault." He accuses once they are far enough from the door.

"Oh, come on, Justin!"

"No! You stole the ingredients from him. All because of a lame prank of getting me stuck on stuff."

"Yeah, I know!" She laments. "It's kinda hard to top getting hired to teach here!"

"Would you be serious for one moment? Do you see how many people could've got hurt because of that?"

"What?!" She protests. "Don't you think I would be careful after our last time with a hippogriff? When I left, the jar was intact. The hippogriff was very tamed. It even got back to sleep before I left."

"But it might've escaped after that because you got it agitated." Justin explains.

"I'm telling you. I didn't upset it. And, really? Agitated? Who even talks like that?" She can always insert an insult.

"Cult people!" He only gets more aggravated. "Look, I want you to make a report of what happened. I'll have to tell something to the Safety Board. I don't care what you're gonna do, but I want it done by tomorrow. I have a feeling I'll have to review it before I turn it up."

"Fine! I'll do a report on what happened the best way I can. Just don't expect a textbook-long thing. You know I hate books."

"And that's how I know I'll have to review it." Justin finally turns around to leave Alex alone.

Later, Alex teaches her class just in the beginning of the afternoon. What!? There is no way she would take a class early in the morning … Or before lunch, for that matter. Justin simply complied, because whatever he had to hear while they argued over this would happen every morning if Alex didn't get what she wanted.

The students start coming in, and even before they have the chance to settle, Alex stands up and walks to them. Instead of taking on with her lessons, she urges the kids to come after her out of the classroom. They look at each other, confused for a moment, and then rush outside, where Alex waits for them. They sneak around the hallways, careful not to call any attention as Alex instructed. They get to the same pair of giant doors Alex recently discovered, in a part of the castle where the students are usually not allowed to go.

Alex lifts her wand toward the doors and they open. She enters the big ballroom and the kids follow her in, gazing at the amazing place they have never known about. The doors close behind them. There are not any balls in this place these days, but people were not ready to get rid of the room.

Well they are here because Alex decided she should demonstrate what real spells can do. And she wanted to go big. Actually, she wanted to show off a little bit.

She starts by using simple spells that any kid would know, but using them in skilled and powerful ways they probably have never seen. For example, even using a levitation spell can be tricky. You would know if you had ever tried to use levitation to make a key fit into the keyhole, unlock a drawer, take what you want, lock the drawer back up and put the key back where it was, all because you couldn't just flash the lightsaber out of the drawer because Justin put a spell blocker on it… …Err!… Anyway… It can be tricky. So, to show what this spell is capable of doing, she makes an evolution levitating several things she finds in the room at once.

After, she steps up a notch by pointing her wand to the floor; a wall of fire rises in the middle of the room, well above their heads. The fire sways under Alex's control as she moves her wand around. Then she points it down and the fire subsides.

Next, she points her wand up. A fog blurs the ceiling, getting thicker until it turns into a cloud, a real storm cloud. After a couple of seconds, lightnings furiously strike in the center of the cloud, where it is thicker and darker.

Alex turns around to the kids. "And that's also a good idea to use on your brother when he pisses you off."

"Uhm…" One girl sheepishly raises her hand. "Isn't it a little too much to throw millions of Volts at his head?"

"Huh?!" Alex thinks for a second. "No. I actually mean the rain. But I don't wanna flood in here. These new sandals cost a fortune." She looks down at her feet for a moment, lost for a bit while admiring her sandals. "Anyway!"

And finally, Alex turns around again, preparing for her last show off. One more time she lifts her wand toward the center of the room and the tip shines. A light breeze starts, and it quickly becomes stronger. Then a small cone takes shape from under the cloud, still at the ceiling, and slowly descents. The wind hits them harder and harder as the swirl comes down toward the floor.

Then, just in front of them, the thin swirl of air becomes darker and larger as the wind gets stronger, until it turns into an actual tornado.

Suddenly, something starts to go wrong. There is something in the wind, something hitting them that hurts really bad. It feels like a windstorm in a beach, with sand hurting their skin. The wind feels like coming from everywhere. They can barely keep their eyes open. All the students feel it, the same as Alex. Really, she chose a bad day to be wearing sandals.

Alex drops her wand to break the spell and the tornado starts to dissipate. The wind slowly fades and she manages to open her eyes in time to see the dust settling down. What the hell was that? Slacking on the clean-up duties is okay, but this is already too much. It is bad enough that the castle is falling apart, but now it's crumbling down too? Hell, no!

In his office, Justin enjoys one of the few moments of quietude he has. He reads a book while repeatedly dipping the tea bag in his mug filled with hot water.

"Hey…" Alex angrily barges in. Justin startles, the heavy book almost escaping his grasp and the tea bag getting lost inside the mug. Damn, the day was going so well.

"…You should do something about the cleaning in this place. Did you see the amount of dust piling all around? It's ruining my new sandals." She also couldn't ignore the dust on every corner of the hallways as she made her way there.

Justin takes a deep breath, recomposing. "Yeah, we had a problem with the cleaning staff. Fiendl is working it out." He starts trying to recover the tea bag with a spoon.

"Good!" Alex replies. "Cause if I have to throw these sandals out because of it I'm gonna blame it on you. … And this dust is getting everywhere in my feet. It's so annoying." She grunts, lifting her foot and slapping off some of the dust.

"Why don't you put on some boots?" Justin suggests. "You love them."

Alex looks at him, open-mouthed. "And ruin an innocent pair of boots? What kind of monster are you?" She says in a hurt tone, then turns around and walks away.

Yes, Justin does ask Fiendl about it, but he doesn't have much to offer, as the negotiations are still in development.

Much later, already at night, Justin comes to the dining hall and sees Alex in an isolated table far back in the room, absentmindedly doodling something on her big sketchbook.

Justin crosses the room to meet her. "Alex!" He calls her attention in a light tone.

She looks at him to finally notice his presence and gives him a smile. "Hey, bro!"

"Did you finish the report on the Hippogriff attack?"

"Yup! I have it right here!" She flips back a few pages of her sketchbook while Justin watches, confused.

"Here!" She rips one page out and gives it to Justin.

The page has a representation of the animal perfectly sketched in soft pencil, and a footnote that reads "This hippogriff attacked us. We trapped it in a jar." Alex's sign just beside it.

"Alex! I can't present this to the Safety Board."

"But I nailed the drawing, didn't I? Come on, admit it."

Although somewhat annoyed, Justin looks down to the art in his hand. "Yeah, it's pretty good…" He gives in, concentrating on it. "…You even got the dark spot on the forehead." He calmly says contemplating it for a moment, scratching his own forehead, impressed. "But I still need you to describe what happened!" Justin goes back to his annoyed best.

"You got it right there on the bottom." She points it out about the footnote she left.

"I'm gonna need a little bit more than that."

She purses her lips and scrunches up her forehead in an annoyed expression. Does he seriously have to put down every great idea she has? But, after a second of consideration, she looks up at him, mouth hanging open and finger pointing straight at him. Justin recognizes in dread her "best idea" face.

"I can make it like one of your comic books, but make it cool!" She tells him.

"They are graphic novels. And they ARE cool!" He answers, offended. "And what I meant is that I need you to write down everything that happened."

"Then you got the wrong girl. Harper is the one who's good at writing. I'm good at drawing." Of course she would try.

"I mean it, Alex. I need you to write down what happened." He says with a more stern tone. And it still sounds like pleading.

"Fine! … I'll have something for you tomorrow." She gives in.

"Thank you!" He puts a lot of emphasis on it. "Wait! Does that mean you're gonna WRITE the report?"

"Uhm!… There might be some writing involved!" She tells him, but her suspicious face tells him a lot more.

"You're not gonna do what I'm asking, are you?"

"Nope! But, don't worry. You're gonna have something to show."

Justin is really tired. He so doesn't want to be doing this right now. So, he just gives up and hands the drawing back to Alex, waiting to fight this battle another time.

"Nah! Keep it. You could frame that. This way you can remember another time I saved your butt." She gives Justin a childish, naughty smile, just to tease him a little more.

He stares at her, deadpan. He is not going to play this game right now. He just turns around and leaves, taking the drawing with him. And that would be another win for her, at least in her opinion.