The inside of the tower was fresh, as the environmental wards had not yet been activated so early in the season. But this coolness didn't bother Myo in the slightest as she devoured the grilled pike fillet she had for breakfast, completely ignoring the scandalised looks of Lina and the amused looks of her other new friends sitting at the table as she licked her fingers and fed a few bits to Eldur, whose head was sticking out of the large downy scarf of Helvetic Ogul wrapped loosely around her neck and shoulders, a present from Adèle, well, she had helped to knit it, Adèle insisting that knowing how to knit was a vital skill. Myo doubted that was really the case, but she'd come out of it with a great scarf and so had no real reason to complain. Perhaps she should get back to it, Adèle having asked her how her knitting exercises were going in her last letter.

Once all the fish had been gobbled up, Myo stretched and gave a little shriek as she glanced at the clock above the refectory counter. It was nearly 8 o'clock, and her class would be starting in just a few minutes! She couldn't afford to be late for her first class at Beauxbatons!

"I've got to go, see you tonight!" she exclaimed to her tablemates as she grabbed her bag and strapped it to her chest, taking care not to disturb Eldur. She was about to make a dash for it when she stopped, Chloé Tournai's imperious voice telling her to wait.

"You can't go to class like that". The older veela said as she wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin, Myo flushed, not realising that she'd got it all over herself. "There, that's it, have a nice day Myo". She said with an amused smile, followed by a chorus of good wishes for her first day from the rest of the table, with the exception of Lina, who simply ignored her. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Aline glowering at Chloé.

Unfazed by this strange reaction, she waved her hand at everyone before running off, vowing to be more careful the next time she ate in public. She trotted to one of the large openings in the wall of the dovecote and leapt into the void, spreading her wings to let herself glide towards the campus. As she came out, she saw a tree a few hundred metres away, much larger than the others, with a canopy that protruded significantly above the top of the forest. An idea occurred to her, and a silly smile appeared on her face. But she shook her head to rid herself of the thought for the moment, she'd show Luna later. From one of the pockets of her tunic, she pulled out her timetable and the plan that had been given to them a few days ago.

After her chaotic first day back, when she'd stupidly got lost, she'd finally passed the placement exam. It consisted of a series of increasingly difficult general knowledge questions as well as all the subjects on the Beauxbatons syllabus. For some of them, she had found herself stuck very quickly, for others, such as 'sortilège', she had come through with pride, Pandora's teaching having been very comprehensive if difficult to follow at times. Especially when she couldn't stand still and just wanted to get up and go out and play or hunt instead of sitting and reading or listening.

She had been told that her timetable was based on her exam results. That's why she was starting her first day with a ritual lesson in a class that would no doubt be made up of people a year younger than her. Yes, the vast majority of questions about rituals had completely slipped her mind. Which wasn't a surprise as it wasn't a subject at Hogwarts and she hadn't had any private lessons in it unlike the others.

She hovered above the treetops of the forest covering the slopes of the mountain at the top of which the dovecote was situated, amusing herself by brushing the tips of her talons against the highest leaves. Then, after flapping her wings to regain her height, her flames excited by this beautiful morning dancing in her feathers, she flew over the roofs of the buildings towards the Bâtiment Mormal, where there was an amphitheatre in which the course would soon begin.

As she flew over an alleyway, she spotted Hermione hastening with a clumsy gait, leaning on her cane, towards the large, round, dark wooden building with bluestone foundations that she recognised as her destination. Was Hermione late too? It wasn't like her, perhaps she had overestimated her walking ability? No matter! Hermione had told her how happy she was to be in the same class for ritual lessons, she wasn't going to let her be late.

She swooped down towards Hermione, scaring off a few passing students as she went, before finally grabbing Hermione, closing her talons delicately around her shoulder and, in one great swoop, taking flight again and speeding off towards the building, ignoring her friend's cries of surprise. In any case, at this speed, the wind was whistling too loudly in her ears for her to understand what Hermione might be trying to tell her.

A few seconds later, she lowered Hermione to the ground at the entrance to the building before landing next to her. "Myo? Are you alright? You scared me!" Hermione said, leaning on her cane with one hand, the other clutching the garment over her heart.

"Hello Hermione, and we're going to be late!" she retorted, taking Hermione's forearm and pulling her towards the inside of the large round building.

Hermione sighed as she looked up at the sky and let herself be pulled inside, leaning on her cane. The entrance hall was impressive, a wooden structure almost like that of a cathedral rising in a pointed arch towards a very high ceiling. It opened onto a long corridor running from one end of the building to the other, leading to another door. Along the length of the great hall were a dozen doors on either side, no doubt opening onto the lecture theatres. Behind a counter to the right of the entrance, a tall, thin man wearing a grey cape and a thin nose adorned with small round glasses was sorting papers in a file that belonged on the shelf behind him. At her request, he casually indicated the entrance to the Madrilène amphitheatre, the third door on the right.

It was by the skin of their teeth that the duo entered the large amphitheatre, the two of them sitting next to each other in one of the central rows of seats where many other students were already seated. Myo had to turn her chair round, placing her backrest facing the table, the bottom of the backrest not being pierced to accommodate her tail. She could have tried to transfigure the chair, but she didn't know the specific spell and she clearly remembered Mcgonagall telling them that they weren't ready for free transfiguration, even form transfiguration. Their classmates, about fifteen students, most of them younger, two older, glanced at them as they entered. Their gaze remained fixed on her for much longer than Hermione. Maybe they hadn't noticed her. Maybe they weren't used to seeing veela yet, after all, she was the only visibly non-human in the class. Or maybe her plumage was just beautiful enough to merit that kind of attention, she puffed herself up with pride, her feathers puffing out with warm air as her flames burned just beneath her skin. Excited as they were after that swooping flight and the attention she was getting.

Myo realised she was right to be in such a hurry when, just a few seconds after she had finished taking her course book and note-taking equipment out of her flight bag, a door concealed in a corner near the lecture theatre podium, a few metres from the blackboard, opened. A woman of medium height and proud bearing appeared, her eyes sparkling with intelligence. There was something strange about this woman, her appearance too smooth, too perfect. Her skin was like wax, her movements too fluid... and... like a kind of aura, very different from her own. Myo felt inexplicably small, and this was made all the stranger by the fact that, as she looked around, none of the other students seemed to have noticed anything. She was dark-haired, her long hair cascading down her back over her neutral black blouse, some strands even falling to the top of her trousers... well, her pockets, as her trousers seemed to be made up of more pockets than trousers.

Without waiting, with a flick of a wand that she seemed to conjure from nowhere, the following words appeared on the blackboard in elegant curvy script. "Laura Vernier, teacher of ritual magic".

Ms Vernier readjusted her small square glasses and then looked around the classroom, her gaze lingering briefly on each student. When her gaze met hers, a shiver ran down Myo's spine, her feathers puffing up unconsciously. Her reaction was noticeable enough for Hermione to give her a worried look, but Myo shook her head no, the feeling of discomfort too fleeting and diffuse for her to make anything of it.

The teacher cleared her throat and spoke in a deep voice for her stature. "Good morning everyone to your first class in ritual, common and high magic. The form of magic I'm teaching you is one of the most dangerous, so I'm asking you to take it very seriously and to follow the safety instructions to the letter. If any of you are unable to comply, you will be immediately dismissed from the course. Is that clear?" she said forcefully and authoritatively. Following this introduction to the subject, the class remained silent, stunned, which apparently did not please Madame Vernier, for she spoke again. "I want an answer when I ask a question!"

A chorus of "yes" and "yes madame" echoed through the amphitheatre. After a few seconds, she nodded in satisfaction. "Good. To begin with, I'll explain how the year will unfold. The first term will be entirely devoted to the theoretical basis of the subject and learning safety instructions. The second term will continue with the theory, but with practical application of the basic rituals. The third term will take us through a high ritual." At this statement, excited murmurs were heard in the room. A high ritual? Myo had no idea what it could be, but the look of excitement on Hermione's face as she furiously jotted down the teacher's words in her notebook was enough for her to realise that it was something big.

"Silence!" exclaimed the teacher. "No chatting during my lessons. If you have something to say, raise your hand to share it with everyone. If it's urgent, stand up at the same time. Is that understood?"

A general "Yes ma'am!" echoed around the room, to Ms Vernier's satisfaction it seemed, for a small smile played at the corner of her lips.

"That said, if there's ever anything that doesn't seem clear to you, or if you have any doubts, however minor, I want you to ask me. Now I'm going to talk about some basic rules for the year. Any student who doesn't get at least three quarters of the points in the theory tests and all of the points in the safety tests will be excluded from the practical classes until they have achieved a satisfactory result in the make-up tests. In this course, simply making sure you have the average to allow you to pass would be an aberration as well as a danger to yourself and others. Your essays are generally marked out of twenty, so consider anything less than fifteen to be a failure." At this statement, many of the students looked anxious, panicked and even desperate. Hermione, on the other hand, was smiling broadly, nodding her head throughout Madame Vernier's speech, drinking in her words, admiration in her eyes. Myo didn't know what to make of it, it seemed harsh for the less gifted students, but on the other hand, if practising rituals was as dangerous as the teacher was implying, then it made sense to keep away from practising all those who risked endangering themselves and others. The big question was whether she herself would prove talented enough to have access to the practical classes.

"Right, to start with, get out your notebook and some notes!" Said the teacher, after a few seconds, when the hubbub of the fifteen or so students rummaging through their belongings to get out their equipment died down, Madame Vernier asked. "Can anyone here tell me what ritual magic is?

A tall boy with short blond hair immediately raised his hand. "Yes? Monsieur..."

"Jacque Franc, madame. And ritual magic is the form of magic that uses the energy of the environment instead of that of the practitioner!" He said.

"You've just described the entire branch of magic called witchcraft, that's a start, but I need something more precise. Yes Miss?"

"Hermione Granger!" Said her friend, who had been standing upright with her hand pointing skywards since the questions began. "Ritual magic is the branch of witchcraft that requires a series of codified and precise steps to achieve a result, and it often combines several other forms of magic, such as potions and runes."

"Congratulations, Miss Granger. That's right. In fact, it's possible to consider potion concoction as a form of ritual magic in its own right. Rune circuits are not ritual magic in themselves in most cases, but they can be when combined with other elements. But there's one thing you've missed: ritual magic may not belong entirely to witchcraft. In fact, it's not uncommon during a ritual for the participants to add their own magic to it, so that it doesn't rely solely on the surrounding magic, the leylines on which it takes place, or the power stones or magically charged elements that form part of its structure." Says Ms Vernier, her eyes full of passion. "I imagine that what separates ritual magic from other forms of magic still seems a little vague to you, given its interdisciplinary nature. Tell me, does anyone have any idea what distinguishes ritual magic from other forms of magic?"

"Complexity?" Hermione said uncertainly after wisely raising her hand.

"That's right, ritual magic often draws on several other forms of magic in its practice, so it's inherently more complex than the sum of its parts. But that's not what really sets it apart. Anyone else?"

A few seconds passed without an answer, the eyes of all the students focused on the teacher. She heaved a sigh and took a few steps forward to lean against the desk. "Power," she said with a gentle, almost imperceptible smile. "All spells, potions and enchantments are based on the idea of giving form to an energy whose true nature escapes us and which, for lack of a better term, we call magic. Spells are limited by the amount of magic that can pass through your body without destroying it, and by the precision with which your intentions, words and movements can give form to this energy. Enchantments are determined by the amount of rune an object can withstand before melting under the weight of the magic passing through it. Potions are determined by the solvents and ingredients that cannot be added indefinitely without risking the creation of a beverage containing a vortex of chaotic energies that would kill you instantly."

"But ritual magic has no such limitations. All the greatest forms of magic that have changed the world profoundly, those that led to the emergence of Atlantis from the waves of the ocean and sent it flooding back centuries later. Those that support the flying cities of the proud magicians of Svorak's Hanseatic League. Those that have kept entire nations hidden in the recesses of space since the Status War. The ones that maintain the immortality of the world's greatest mages. All are ritual magics, and here in this course, I will teach you the basics that will allow you to do much more with your magic than just your wand or a cauldron."

"First of all, it's important to understand that there are two main types of ritual. Arcane rituals, which rely solely on the components and structure of the ritual to achieve the desired effect. This is the vast majority of rituals, whether in medicine for the most complex procedures of blood alchemy or the elaboration of wards. The second category is 'high rituals'. High rituals differ from arcane rituals in that they call upon an external power to perform them. This may be a divinity, a spirit, certain fairies, demons or other various entities. High rituals are not necessarily more powerful than arcane rituals, but they are generally more dangerous because of the unknown variable that is the goodwill of the entity with which the ritual interacts. Take this! Here's a very simple example of a ritual that you probably perform with your parents more out of tradition than anything else. At the winter solstice, it is traditional to leave a small round terracotta plate engraved with three concentric circles on one side and the name of the bearer on the other on a windowsill from dusk to dawn. The object then becomes a good luck charm for the coming year." Several students in the room nodded, seeming to remember practising this sort of thing. Myo remembered seeing Luna do it with Pandora, but hadn't been interested, being too busy curled up in her feathers by the fire and too sleepy to really pay attention.

The teacher continued after a short pause. "This is a way of honouring Cernunnos, a deity whose credo is respect for the natural cycle, whose blessing brings luck and growth to young people and children, and a serene return to the earth to the elders. This ritual has been studied and found to bring measurable benefits to its bearer... Yes, Miss Granger?"

Hermione had been fidgeting in her seat for several minutes, her arm raised in the air. "Madam, do deities exist? Does God exist? Is there proof of that?"

Ms Vernier stared at Hermione for a few seconds before answering. "Yes, there are divinities, in the most recent nomenclature, they are referred to as "class C entities". These are all entities, beings of varying degrees of sentience, capable of incarnating or not, with the common feature of having a cult in their name. To give you an idea of what this term encompasses, the Morrigan, an Irish deity, is in fact an immortal magician. Put simply, certain places at the crossroads of telluric lines can become charged with magic over the millennia, until it coagulates within an object, a plant or even an animal and becomes conscious. Many of the local deities are beings of this nature. As for Cernunnos, it's nature is very uncertain given that, to my knowledge, no-one has ever managed to make direct contact with it, but it is known that it exists because the rituals invoking its power work and its influence is sufficiently widespread to give certain objects magical properties, as I explained to you earlier. As for gods... I imagine you mean the gods of monotheistic religions?"

"Yes." Hermione said, nodding slowly as she furiously took note of what the professor had just said.

"I see, to my knowledge, no being corresponding to the definition of gods given by these religions has been proven, however, the closest thing to it is Magic with a capital M if taken on the scale of the universe. Given that it has been proven that magic and consciousness are closely linked, it is possible that an infinitely alien form of consciousness exists on scales that are difficult for us to imagine. Another hypothesis is the nexus of intense magic at the centre of our galaxy. It is certain that there is something there on a scale beyond anything known, but this is still a subject of fundamental research in progress. To answer you clearly, it is possible that such an entity exists, but not in the theistic sense of gods. The only thing that is certain is that if such an entity were to be found, it would not interact in any way with the sentient creatures of this planet.

"I see," Hermione said slowly. "But you mentioned demons? Is this related?"

"I'll be brief Miss Granger, although your questions are interesting, I can't afford to derail this class too much. What we commonly call 'class B entities' are all entities from planes of existence outside or tangential to our own. For more details I will send you a reading list on the subject. You'll find the books in the campus libraries. Depending on your results in my class, I might also be able to give you access to some books from Miskatonic University. Is there anything else?"

"No, thank you madam." Hermione said, vibrating with excitement.

From that point on, the introduction over, the course took on a more academic air, with Madame Vernier going over the various basic safety measures, such as following the instructions of a ritual to the letter. Always have a ritualist review the instructions before you even think about doing them. Above all, don't perform them without supervision, especially not at their age. The only safe rituals are those that are not treated as such in books for the general public and that do not involve the ritualist's internal magic at any point. When this precise point was broached, Myo was surprised to see Hermione, who had stiffened and turned white as a sheet, regain her colours and breathe a sigh of relief.

Then, when the subject began to get technical, Madame Vernier spoke of the various central elements of a ritual, such as the choice of location, the moment, the astronomical links, the season, the day of the week, the runes, potions and spells that could interact with each other to ensure the ritual was carried out correctly, not to mention the various objects, the symbolism and the principle of sacrifice... Myo's wings were itching, her gaze increasingly drawn to the blue sky visible through the windows of the amphitheatre. Her imagination was already leading her to see herself in the sky, playing or hunting. But on the other hand, the course was interesting! But her concentration... She couldn't stop playing with her pens and pencils, drawing little flowers or animals in the margins of her notebook...

If Hermione hadn't been there to regularly bring her attention back to the lesson, she would probably have missed most of it, which would have been a great pity. She would have to think of a present to thank Hermione... Yes, a big juicy fish should make her happy. Maybe one of the bones would have magical properties to solve two problems at once, she would have to find out if such a thing existed. Because Myo thought she'd finally understood that filling Hermione's stomach wouldn't be enough to make her happy.

oOOOo

When the teacher released them after three and a half long hours of lessons, Myo was trembling with pent-up energy. So much so that she barely had the strength to wait for Hermione to come back after asking Madame Vernier a few questions, her wings quivering with the desire to beat the air, her flames at the surface of her skin. So as not to go mad, she had packed her things and Hermione's in their bags during her short absence to keep her hands and mind busy.

"Myo! That was brilliant! If you only knew what... are you okay?" Hermione said as she hobbled towards her, leaning on her cane to move forward.

"Hermione... I..." Myo began, but finding herself at a loss for words she gave up and decided to act, grabbing Hermione by the waist and flying with her through the entrance hall of the amphitheatre in a great gust of air, making the papers of the people at the reception fly away, their cries of anger and surprise already far behind them, as she took to the air just above the building. Her feathers crackled with her finally-released flames, burning with joy and energy all around her, as if they were an animal held in a cage for too long finally set free.

"Myo?! What are you doing? What's happening to you?" Hermione shouted from between her arms.

"I'm taking you to the lunch meeting point." Myo said in a lilting voice, ignoring the fact that this was a very weak reason to justify such behaviour. But it wasn't all bad. Their group of friends had arranged to meet for lunch in a corner of one of the gardens spotted by Elvetia the day before. Listening only to her boundless energy, Myo sped through the air towards the garden, a space on the edge of the campus close to the border of the forest on the hillside overlooking the rest of the campus by a few dozen metres, offering a magnificent view and the shade of a large weeping willow with silver-green foliage.

Once almost at her destination, she glided gently towards the ground, breathing a sigh of relief at the sensation of the air caressing her cheeks, her wings splitting in the wind. With a few sweeps of her wings, she set Hermione and her bag down on the ground, her friend all bewildered, not seeming to understand what had just happened. She would have stayed with her, but her energy, which had been contained all morning during the lesson, was far from exhausted. Accompanied by a long cry of excitement from Eldur, who sent images of sky and flame into her mind, she resumed her flight, her new objective clear. Luna would soon be leaving her Alchemy class, and it was obvious that she would need to be carried to the picnic site!

As the Maison Nicolas was at the other end of the campus, she made a game of trying to split the air as quickly as possible to reach the large domed building of changing colours, which she understood had been donated to the campus by Nicolas Flamel himself. It was an odd place to stand out from the landscape. She circled the building until she found the entrance door, a large round opening in the dome. A few pupils, students and teachers came and went, but there was no sign of Luna. With her course finishing at a quarter to twelve and Myo having just left class, it made sense that Luna must still be inside. Oh, this would be a good opportunity to surprise her, she thought as she discreetly landed on a branch of a large oak tree near the entrance to the building, hidden behind its foliage, paying little heed to the small branches and leaves that had found their way into her feathers and hair, and ignoring the large caterpillar crawling up her arm.

After sitting still for long hours, taking notes, her only desire is to just let go and fly off somewhere. But waiting for Luna would be well worth suffering the immobility for a few minutes. And very short minutes at that, because she didn't have to wait long before the door opened and she saw Luna coming out in the company of what she assumed to be the rest of her alchemy class. And... Luna was talking to two boys, with a smile on her lips... In other circumstances, she would have remained crouched behind the foliage to observe, but her wings were itching too much for her to give free rein to her curiosity. Instead, she jumped down from her perch, bursting through the foliage with a loud rustle of leaves and wind before catching Luna in her talons and flying off with her, causing her two companions to cry out in surprise and fear.

"Myo! You've come to get me!" Luna exclaimed.

"The picnic spot is far away, I wasn't going to let you walk all the way." She said as she lifted Luna into her arms to make the flight more comfortable, taking care not to disturb Eldur, who was still hidden in her scarf.

Hermione couldn't have been happier, this first lesson had been masterful, lots of things she had seen in the magical side of the world made so much more sense now. Starting with the ritual preventing muggles from having to deal with magic in their everyday lives. And now that she had a real authority figure on the subject, it would be so much easier for her to continue showing her mother magic that she could do on her own without having any internal magic herself. Her fears that being a witch would alienate her from her family had all but dissipated over the last few months, and now here she was, learning magic at school in France by day, and at home with her parents by night.

When, a year earlier, Professor Mcgonagall had explained to her that she would have to spend most of the year away from her parents, with no quick and reliable means of communication, she had felt as if she had been forced to make a choice between being a witch and her family, and she was grateful that this was no longer the case.

The last few months had been difficult, but with the help of her psychiatrist and the healers, the nightmares and panic attacks were becoming rarer and rarer, and she would soon no longer need the cane to walk (although she was thinking of keeping it just for style).

She was beginning to believe that Myo really was her guardian angel; not only had she saved her from the troll, but she'd helped as much as she could afterwards, even becoming her best friend. She would certainly have preferred Myo to be a little less blunt, especially with the abrupt way she'd been taken to the picnic site. Besides, she'd have to start preparing the meal. She opened her bag and took out all the various little sandwiches Mum had made when she'd explained that the plan for this lunchtime was to eat outside with her friends. Mum was very involved in her new friendships... but that was understandable, she had always been a loner before she met Myo and her gang. She smiled wryly, Mum, wouldn't like to know that she was thinking of their group of distinguished girls under the term 'gang'.

As she laid out the blue tablecloth on the ground and cast a binding spell at each corner to prevent it from flying away, she looked in the direction of the campus, which looked almost like a small town stretching out at her feet, countless buildings constructed over the centuries and successive expansions of the academy. After dropping her off, Myo left again, probably to go and find Luna. It could also have been to hunt for something to eat for lunch, which would have been her first assumption if she hadn't known that Myo hadn't yet found a suitable fishing or hunting ground nearby... That girl would never really settle down in civilisation... Besides, her concentration problem in this morning's class was worrying, she'd already had a few classes with Myo at Hogwarts and had also noticed it at the time, but she didn't pay him as much attention then. Was it possible that Myo had concentration problems? Over the course of the lesson she had become increasingly charged with energy, and if she hadn't actively reminded Myo that she was in class, she was sure she would have run off (probably breaking a window in the process) before the end of the second hour.

Maybe it was just a question of discipline and habit, and after a while, Myo would manage to stay focused without having to go and play every half hour. But maybe it was more than that, in which case talking to Mum or a healer at the school might help. They have a veela healer in their towers, don't they? She'd have to ask Myo to introduce her to her veela friends so she could tell them.

Just as she had finished setting up everything and was sitting down in the shade of the willow tree with a book, she saw a small shape coming towards her. A grey owl with amber eyes soon came to land on her lap, its large round eyes fixed on hers, its gaze begging. Hermione smiled. She had been shy with her at first, but with time, their friendship had grown stronger.

She raised her eyes to the sky and took out a piece of fatty bacon from her bag. "Of course, Elvetia, if the others saw you like that..." she said as a greedy little beak had already grabbed the piece and it had disappeared just a few seconds later. Hermione couldn't help but smile as she took out another piece of bacon with one hand and scratched the feathers on the back of Elvetia's head with the other, the owl closing her eyes in pleasure for a moment before pulling herself together and taking the other piece of bacon briskly in her beak.

Once the bacon had been gobbled up, the little owl came to rest a little further away on the tablecloth before metamorphosing into the young girl for whom Hermione had felt more and more affection in recent months.

"Thank you Hermione, it's really kind of you to have some bacon available for me. You have no idea how quickly I can develop an appetite in my owl form." Elvetia said as she stretched, eyes closed, arms stretched above her head, before letting herself fall on her back next to her. "How was your morning?"

"It was great, Myo and I had our ritual class. I can't wait for you to have your first ritual class too so we can talk about it together." Hermione said as she sat closer to Elvetia, her voice full of excitement.

"Oh? What do you like so much about this class?" Elvetia asked curiously.

"It's a subject that uses concepts from all the others and coordinates them to create larger-scale magic, and then you learn about the way the world works and about magic itself, but in an applied way - it's fascinating. If only Myo could take full advantage of it too," she sighed.

"Does Myo have a problem with this course? Elvetia replied, worried.

"Not with this class in particular, more with the whole principle of long classes, this girl has an attention span problem I think... she's easily distracted, and by the end she was close to exploding with contained energy." Hermione said, her gaze fading into the distance.

"I swear, that girl, I feel like she's more like a bird than me sometimes! Maybe we should talk to someone about it, knowing her, I doubt she'll even realise there's a problem." Said Elvetia with a somewhat amused look on her face.

"Yes, that's what I thought. By the way, Elvetia, I wanted to ask you, is there a shape you're more comfortable in? Owl? Human?" she asked, full of curiosity.

Elvetia blinked in surprise.

Feeling herself blush, Hermione added quickly. "Well, I, er, I don't want to pry... if..."

When she heard Elvetia laugh, Hermione flinched, "Hermione, don't be silly, no your question doesn't bother me. I was just thinking about the answer. And, hm, to tell you the truth, I don't really know. I like being an owl, things are simpler in that form, I feel freer, less limited. But in human form, I can do more things, more magic, talk to you, but it's more restrictive and stressful in a way." Her gaze locked onto hers, a slight smile forming on her thin, elegant lips. "I don't think I'd be myself without one of my forms, whether I'm an owl or a human, I'm still me, and I'd hate to be forced to stay indefinitely in one form rather than the other. Have I answered your question?"

"Yes, thank you, I'm just having trouble imagining what it's like to be double as you describe." She said, the heat on her cheekbones still very much present.

"Oh look! Myo and Luna are coming!" exclaimed Elvetia, pointing to a shape in the sky approaching their position at high speed. A few seconds later, Myo came crashing down the hillside, Luna leaping from her arms to join them, and Eldur untangling himself from the scarf around Myo's neck to perch on her shoulder. The little phoenix was filling out faster and faster, and it would be a few months at most before he was full-grown again. "Myo? What's happened to you?" she asked, standing up to try and remove the twigs and leaves from her hair and the large caterpillar crawling across her cheek.

"I hid in a tree to ambush Luna!" she replied proudly.

"Ambush... you..." began Hermione, dazed by such carelessness. But she had no time to formulate what she wanted to say, Myo already on her way to the tablecloth and the picnic.

"Elvetia! Already here! All that's missing is Nym!

"She shouldn't be long now." Elvetia replied.

"I see. By the way, which class did you have this morning? I imagine Hermione already told you about the ritual class?"

"Yes, she told me..." It turned out that this morning Nym and Elvetia were not in the same class, but that they had bumped into each other just after the end, Nym warning her that she had just gone to get a hot sandwich at one of the canteens before joining them, something about wanting to try the local cuisine. As for Elvetia, she had just come out of a history lesson. As Hermione imagined it, a history lesson with mages and dragons could only be interesting if it wasn't a morbidly boring ghost reciting outdated nonsense in every recent history textbook. Perhaps she would have preferred Elvetia not to spoil the beginning of the programme for her, but her curiosity was too great and she found herself unable to stop herself from asking. And apparently, this year's history syllabus dealt with prehistory and what was known about the first civilisations and their relationship with magic, in particular the kind of magical creatures with which humanity coexisted at the time. The course Elvetia had attended focused on what was supposed to be the common ancestor of most of the humanoid races in existence today. Finally, Elvetia seemed very amused by her teacher, a certain William Terrot, a man as large as he was thunderous, in whose classroom it would be impossible for even a dead man to sleep.

The chaos that Hermione could feel growing around the tablecloth only increased when Nym finally arrived, her arms laden with sweets that would make her parents go pale, and she hastened to tell them about her morning in the room of Madame Noémie Durock, the transfiguration teacher. Nym was quick to tell them, shaking with excitement and with stars in her eyes, how Madame Durock had turned out to be a metamorphmagus and apparently her new idol. The latter congratulated her at the end of the lesson when she showed her that she had learned to literally grow wings, before promising to teach her all sorts of shifter tricks.

The rest of the picnic was a joyous chaos, an atmosphere which would have put her off less than a year ago, but which now only caused her tender exasperation for her stupid friends. She finally managed to miss the start of the language class, arriving breathless at the beginning, with a crown of flowers on her head from Luna and a smile on her lips from her other friends.

oOOOo

On this late afternoon, Myo was feeling a strange kind of tiredness, her mind feeling slow and sleepy, but her body vibrating with energy just waiting to be expended. She felt her head heavy and warm, so she rested it on the shoulder of Luna, who was sitting next to her, discreetly crocheting under the table. At the beginning of the Magic Theory class that occupied the second part of the afternoon after their language class, Marc Combe, an old man of medium height and strong stature, proudly sported a long, thick beard that reached halfway up his thigh and a beautiful, curly moustache whose tips came up almost to the wide brim of his large, pointed hat embroidered with small silver stars. The hat alone had distracted her for the first few minutes, until Luna called her over. It had to be said that his style really appealed to her. Maybe it was the fact that the little silver stars shone so brightly...

No, Myo, don't even think about it, you can't steal your teacher's hat, not in front of witnesses anyway. Besides, she already had all the sewing equipment she could possibly want in her room and Luna's, for the time being.

It had now been several long minutes since Professor Combe had launched into what he called a parenthesis deriving from the subject of the origins of the formal magical theory that had given rise to all the branches of magic known today. Previously, people had practised magic more or less instinctively, through tradition and knowledge discovered by chance but not yet really studied. Wizardry was not even considered as a concept at the time. He then went on to describe the life of Amephys, a royal magician from the court of Ny-hor in Egypt's predynastic period 4000 years ago, and how by formalising one of the first large-scale magics of that time, he had helped to make the banks of the Nile much more fertile, which in turn had led to the planting of new, more productive crops and thus to an increase in the population of the time... And blah blah blah... it was interesting, but the successive parentheses made it difficult to follow and disjointed. All the more so as the blue sky visible through the window of the small classroom was making him want to jump out of the window more and more.

Professor Combe was in the middle of a sentence when the bell rang, and he sighed, clearly disappointed at having to end the lesson. "Well, that's it for today. Next time, read the first chapter of your book and make a short summary of what you think it says about the nature of magic! Have a good afternoon, children!" He said before taking out his wand and disappearing in a lovely cloud of sparkling blue smoke.

Myo was speechless for a moment, her decision made, she had to learn this spell! It was as if the cloud was full of little white sparks! She shook her head and hurried to put her things away in her bag before helping Luna to do the same, who was having a bit of trouble putting away her crochet equipment.

Once outside, Myo stretched, stretching her arms, legs and wings until she got a satisfying crackling sound. The air, wind and sunshine outside made her headache evaporate. "Luna, you have no idea how happy I am to be done for today." she said with a yawn.

"Yes, I do." Luna simply said with a smirk.

"Yes?" asked Myo, surprised.

"You fell asleep three times and drooled on my shoulder." Said Luna, raising her eyebrows, not at all impressed.

"Sorry... I'm having a bit of trouble keeping up… Well, that's all right!, Says Luna, do you want to see something cool?"

"What's up?" asked Luna curiously.

"Let me show you. She said as she grabbed Luna by the sides before launching herself into the sky with a great flap of her wings, sending up a cloud of dead leaves and dust. Her objective was clear: the large tree she had seen this morning would be a good candidate for the installation of her little project.

She shaved the treetops until she found a place to pass through the undergrowth and arrive at the foot of her objective. The oak was enormous, its trunk surrounded by huge moss-covered roots plunging deep into the earth, its bark thick and cracked, revealing the age of this ancient wooden titan. Large blue mushrooms grew on its bark, and yellow and blue flowering vines dangled from its wide branches. At the base of its branches, Myo could already see her project taking shape.

"It's beautiful... Is this what you wanted to show me?" Luna asked as she approached the tree to place her hand on its bark, her gaze roving through the branches in search of a few creatures that Myo couldn't see.

"Yes, but that's not all, what about making our nest there? We could braid some of its branches to make a place just for us. What do you think?" she asked as she approached.

"Oh, that would be great, I miss sleeping together, you know? Luna said excitedly.

"I miss sleeping together too! We won't be able to spend every night there, because one of the reasons I'm at the dovecote is so that my aura can calm down, but I'm already looking forward to being able to cuddle here, or draw, just rest... " Said Myo as she lifted Luna onto the flat of one of the large branches at the junction of the trunk, a good ten metres high.

"I think we could just guide some of the branches and push the tree into the best shape," suggested Luna. They both set to work, and soon a spherical braid took shape at the junction of several branches.

oOOOo

That evening, in the dovecote, Margaut was worried; she hadn't seen Myo at dinner, or even been inside the tower. Chloé wasn't worried, Lina didn't care, and Héloïse was ... let's say, busy with her mate that evening. The only one who paid any attention to her concerns was Aline, who came to look for her with her. A short visit to the infirmary and the tower library proved pointless, as Myo wasn't there and no-one had seen her there. So Aline suggested going to see if she was in her room. After several minutes of ringing the little bell, with the curtain closed, she decided to go in.

"What the..." she said, as she saw the devastation in front of her. The room was turned upside down, objects jumbled and knocked over in all directions..."Has someone abducted Myo?" she asked, a lump in her throat.

It had only been a few days since she had met this cheerful ball of innocent feathers, and she had already become attached to her: kind, talented, her aura almost hypnotic at times...

"No, the wards in the dovecote are among the strongest on campus, there have been kidnapping attempts in the past and they've all failed..." Aline said. But that didn't give them any answers about the chaos in front of them. What on earth had happened to Myo?