Ebunoluwa was concerned. The headmaster of Uagadou was an intelligent and powerful wizard, but she still questioned his wisdom. True, they hadn't had much trouble finding and expelling the Lethifolds that had invaded the school, but the mere fact that so many of them had gotten in disturbed her. Despite her, and many of her fellow teachers', urging, the headmaster steadfastly refused to contact any of the other wizarding schools in Africa.
Ebunoluwa shook her head and sighed. In any case, it was almost time for class. Normally, she'd be looking forward to reading her students' papers on what kind of animagus form appealed to them the most. But just now, she was too worried to even think about that. It wasn't until a painted hunting dog barked at her loudly that she came back to her senses.
"Yes, Ahmed? What is it?" The dog whined and slowly transformed back into her 12-year-old student.
"Weren't you even a little surprised?" he asked.
Looking down at him, Ebunoluwa felt a surge of sympathy and shame. He was the most talented kid in her class, and she knew he must have worked very hard to become an animagus this early. And here she was, acting like his accomplishment was nothing.
"I'm sorry, Ahmed, I've got a lot on my mind. Good job getting the form down. You'll definitely be getting extra credit for that." She forced herself to smile at him.
For some reason, Ahmed turned his head down and looked ashamed.
"What's wrong?" Ebunoluwa asked.
"He helped me," he whispered.
"Who helped you?" Ebunoluwa asked.
"Grandp-I mean, the headmaster," Ahmed said, looking up at his teacher, tears in his eyes.
"And now, and now, a-and now…." Ahmed put his face in his hands and sobbed.
A feeling of dread filled Ebunoluwa. She almost sprinted off to the headmaster's office right then, but she knew she couldn't leave her student like this. She hugged him tightly, and after a while, his sobs lessened. Ebunoluwa separated herself from him, then knelt down and looked him in the eyes.
"It's gonna be ok," she said. Ahmed sniffled and nodded. He trusted her. "I want you to go to the nurse's office, ok? Find Miss Okafor, tell her what happened. She'll keep you safe."
She watched Ahmed run off, then ran in the opposite direction herself. Past the statue, under the archway, down the stairs she ran. She didn't even stop to cross the bridge over the chasm, she just used her magic to leap to the other side in a single bound. Finally, Ebunoluwa came to the entrance to the headmaster's office. She placed her hand on the wall, and the stone melted away. Ebunoluwa dashed in, running through the twisting, narrow tunnel. Finally, she came to the end. There she saw her fellow teachers gathered around the corpse of Mohammed al-Bani, the headmaster of the largest wizarding school in the world.