Following the sports day, March became much less exciting and had instead evolved into cycling between classwork, homework then sleep. Julian was soon realising that learning magic was extremely fun until you had to write a series of essays about how it worked. A thought shared by Ellie.

'I swear, if Bottler keeps making us write about the difference between conjuring and transforming, I'm gonna strangle him.' Ellie was announcing one night on the way to the Astronomy tower.

Julian mumbled in agreement, wishing he could be in bed already. There was a new addition that was not so agreeable.

'How could you?' Yuko thought aloud. 'You are not that strong.'

Ellie groaned. 'I wasn't being literal.'

'Why do you speak like that then?'

'Because that's just how it is!' Ellie said louder, drawing attention from the other Terrascales ahead of them.

'This language-'

'Guys,' Julian was rubbing his temples. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, with all his roommates' snoring. 'I'm so tired, can you just not, for a few minutes.'

They quickly stopped at that.

Since having become friends with Julian, Yuko had started hanging out with them throughout the days. In some way, he was glad for her, she didn't seem to have friends to interact with on her own. But on the other hand, he seemed required to put out a few fires between the two of them. Whether it was Ellie not understanding Yuko's almost religious studying or Yuko angry for the amount of time Ellie spend in their dorm bathroom in the morning. He enjoyed both their company as individuals but as soon as you put them together, the two of them seemed to be completely at odds with each other, finding even the smallest of things to start bickering over. Which had evidently now turned to language.

On their worst days their relationship turned into complete animosity. On one Wednesday, Julian and Ellie were working on an essay for History of Magic about the origins of the persecution of witches and wizards over several hundred years ago. A topic that for once did interest Julian, making him quite proud of his roll of parchment once he had finished. The same could not be said of Ellie, her willingness to sleep during History was enough to make her eyes glaze over whenever he asked her questions.

'Who began publicising the existence of wizards during the late sixteenth century?' Julian asked her, hoping it would prompt her to start writing. He'd decided enough was enough when he'd seen her stuck at the same paragraph for the last thirty minutes.

She groaned, ruffling her own hair, causing it to become more messy than usual. 'This sucks. I can't remember anything when I write.'

'That's fine, we'll just get the book, and you can paraphrase it. We'll grab mine, change some-.'

At that moment Yuko sat down at their table in the common room. It had become something of a usual hangout during weekdays when the room was full. It was placed right next to the window looking out into the sea. It felt quite calming to Julian.

Yuko had somehow set up her homework in the miniscule time she had been there. As expected, it didn't look like anything he had worked on yet.

'Hey, Yuko. Ellie's having trouble with the history essay due tomorrow. Want to help?' He was hoping working the two of them working on something together would be good for them.

Yuko circled around the table and had a read of Ellie's essay. As she read, Yuko's expression cringed as more time passed.

'You are not a good writer.'

Ellie avoided Yuko's gaze and stared blankly across the room. 'Great.'

'Can we have a quick look at yours? Let's just get this done.' Julian asked Yuko.

'Show her yours.' Yuko suggested.

'I did, but it's better to look at two than just the one.'

Yuko sighed, looking back at Ellie's essay, cringing ever so slightly again. 'Do not copy mine.'

'We won't, just tell us some of the points you made.'

Thankfully Yuko relented and reached into her bag. Julian turned his attention back to Elly's essay about to prompt her to start when a thick roll of parchment was dropped in front of them.

'This is yours?' Julian raised an eyebrow.

With apprehension Ellie opened the roll, her eyes bulging as she unfurled it further and further.

'Isn't this a bit much?' Ellie remarked.

'Don't want to look at it? The English perfect.' Yuko declared.

Julian had to ignore the irony of that statement and asked. 'Is this right? I didn't write anywhere near this much.'

'You do not have to. But I wanted to.' She said simply.

'Sure.' Julian was confused but didn't want to press it. Despite how bizarre she acted, she seemed nice enough to him. Unfortunately, the person next to him didn't feel the same.

Ellie dropped her head into her hands. 'How can you write this much? And… What?!'

'Hmm?' Julian looked down at the essay, but it was snatched back by Yuko before he could get a look. With a red face she rolled it back up again and stashed it away. 'This is a good essay. I know it will get a good mark.' She assured him.

'I mean sure, but it looks like a lot.'

'What is wrong with that?' Yuko said defensively.

'Nothing, really. It just isn't expected of us, we're only eleven, right?' He tried laughing it off, hoping there wasn't going to be a fight.

Instead, without another word, Yuko packed up her things as quickly as possible into her bag and stormed off.

Connor Xu from another table over tilted his head at the exchange, to which all Julian needed to do was give an exaggerated shrug. Connor got the message and went back to his own work.

He turned back to Ellie. 'What was wrong with it?'

'It was insane! It was like I just read a textbook. I've never even seen some of those words.'

'Yeah, that sounds-

'And it was super long! Who has time for that?'

'I guess she does.' Julian said and left it at that, not sure what else to add.

The only time they didn't argue funnily enough, was during Halliday's class. Of which there was a very common frustration point for the two of them to bond over: Defanon house. Yuko's general talent at spell work was helping to keep up with the relentless pace with which Halliday was moving through spells. Even only two months into the school year and the rest of Julian's class had almost given up trying to follow with what the Defanon house was practicing. One day when arriving earlier, Julian even witnessed Amelia Swanton from Defanon practicing a spell that emitted smoke from her wand.

This was not to say that Defence only practiced spells, the class also taught learning about dark creatures and how to combat them if coming across them in the wild. It started to become clear however that almost every monster taught about was not even native to Australia, meaning there was a high chance they would never see them. When asking Halliday about what monsters lived in the outback, Halliday quickly shut them down.

'There's not much reason for any of you to travel into the country. I am teaching you about monsters that you all have a chance of running into, such as Vampires and Imps. If you wish to learn more about creatures, take Magizoology in third year.'

Julian was sure that was quite stupid, maybe that would be true for muggles but couldn't wizards travel much further and easier. Surely there were plenty of wizards living in the outback? He decided to ask Ellie about it at dinner later that night.

'For once, wizards here are on the same page as the muggles, it's just too hard to live out there for most people. Most live along the coastline in small towns or even in the cities. There are plenty of towns here and there are magic only but that's what it is for the most part.

'In the cities? I think if they walked around in their robes, we'd all know.'

'We?' She smirked.

'Muggles, you know what I mean.' Julian groaned.

She waved it off. 'It's fine. Anyway, it doesn't take much for us to hide. Is a muggle supposed to assume magic exists, just cause they saw someone in robes? Of course not.'

'But that doesn't explain where they live.'

'Oh, all over the place. Originally, the wizard settlements were separate from the muggle cities but as those grew out, eventually they overtook the magic settlements.'

Ellie paused. Yuko came in and sat down on Julian's other side with her own plate.

'So, there's a lot of small pockets of wizard communities in the city. The guild in Melbourne is one of them, though that one is newer. You can find whole neighbourhoods in hidden spaces, if you know where to look. Further out you go we have a bunch of immigrant communities, lots of different people from Greece, Italy, South-East Asia and China in Melbourne.'

'Wait, you're from Melbourne too?' Julian realised he'd never asked her where she lived.

'Yeah.' She nodded, chewing on some potato.

'And you're from one of those communities?'

Ellie shook her head.

'We've come in recently, my family was muggleborn a couple generations back. We have a property out of the city, near a wizard settlement.'

'In Japan, it's not like that.' Yuko spoke from Julian's other side. Julian and Ellie turned towards her.

'What is it like?' Ellie asked, her own animosity disappearing.

'Lots of small communities, all over the country. Everyone outside the cities. Would not find a single witch near Tokyo.'

Ellie frowned. 'Isn't Tokyo pretty big though?'

Yuko's eyes lit up, 'You've been?

'Um, no but my sister has.' Ellie said, looking back down at her dinner.

Yuko went quiet, disappointed she turned away.

'But, maybe one day we will!' Ellie fidgeted with her hair. 'My family knows some people up there.' She trailed off as she realised Yuko was ignoring her.

Julian raised his eyebrows, 'how does your family know people there?'

'Oh, you know, we've been to a few international events.' She made it sound casual. But Julian suspected that she was referring to elaborate parties and balls.

'Um, sure, sounds fun.' He didn't really mean it.

'They're ok, I guess.' Ellie finished awkwardly.

'Julian, he's there. Go talk to him.' Ellie nudged him. Just then James the prefect had walked by their table.

'Hold on, I will. Let me finish my food.'

Since the sports day, Defanon house or at least, Peckering had made good on his threat. Before the competition, Julian had dealt with the occasional jeering and being called muggle by Peckering and his group. Now, Terrascale's treatment became worse. Any class involving them felt like a fight was going to break out. The duels inside the classroom became more brutal, particularly the Defanon boys, who pushing the limits on what was allowed. Cassius Graham sprained his ankle from being hit by a knockback jinx so powerful he spun in mid-air. Light injuries were becoming more common place, but as usually, Halliday didn't say anything about it.

If you asked Julian, that almost encouraged it.

The Defanon's didn't even let up outside the classroom either. In the hallways it became customary for Julian to be bumped into from behind, knocking his bag to the floor. Even Laura Marotti, another muggleborn in Terrascale had been the target of several trip jinxes after class.

All of these issues were stacking up, leading to the only option he felt was available, asking for help.

'I can't stop them.' James the prefect said simply, once Julian had asked him. James was working on some homework, on one of the tables in the common room.

'You're a prefect, aren't you?' Julian asked.

'They're not gonna listen to me,' He shrugged, a phrase that sounded rehearsed. 'I can give them detentions but that won't stop them, plus I need proof they did something.'

'Just walk by after our classes with them and you'll see.'

'You mean the classes with Halliday? Their head of house, who lets them get away with it?'

Julian went silent. No plan on how to respond.

'She'll just overrule me. This always happens, every year Defanon just has it in for us. If you ask me, just let it blow over.' James advised.

Julian started to protest. But was cut off.

'I'm not asking you to do nothing. They're just annoyed they lost at a sport, which is Defanon's whole thing. Once they win something else, they'll forget about it.'

'What? Just let them win?'

'Pretty much.' James went back to his homework.

Since they had finished eating, Julian went to the corner of the common room, where Ellie was sitting. Surprisingly, she was in the middle of some charm's homework.

'Any luck? She looked up from the desk.

'Nah, we're stuffed.' He sighed. Sitting down next to her, looking at what she was writing.

'Doing Creed's essay?' He asked. It was due tomorrow, luckily, Julian had already finished his.

Her right hand grabbed at her fringe.

'I can't focus, bloody levitation charm. I can't understand what makes it different from other movement spells, they all just move.'

'Isn't the direction a difference?'

She stuck out her tongue at him. Julian chuckled.

'It is a key difference, though. The knockback jinx can only be used to push something away from you but can be used from any angle, levitation is about raising it up and only up.'

'Yeah, I knew that.' Ellie said in the tone of someone who definitely did not.

'I know it's sounds obvious, but it's true. Plus, the amount of energy you need is different too. Using a single knockback jinx uses a small amount but once that spell is cast there's no more needed. Levitating it and keeping it there needs a constant amount of magic to keep it there.'

She sat blankly there for a second, nodding along before beginning to write it down.

'Where's Yuko?' Julian asked, since dinner she'd up and vanished.

'Not sure, library I think.'

'She could just study here with us.' Julian frowned.

'You mean, look at my work and say it sucks before showing us the bloody academic paper she wrote.'

Julian cringed. Since they'd compared their essays for History of Magic, Yuko hadn't come to the common room except to have dinner and sleep. The most she'd talked to them was the dinner they'd just had.

'Ok fair, but what's wrong having her here?'

'Exactly what I just said, that's what's wrong.'

'You can deal with it, I'd rather have her here with friends than with the Defanon's on the loose.'

Ellie sighed, putting her quill down. They sat in silence for a minute before she blurted something out.

'What's the deal? Do you like her or something?'

Julian recoiled, feeling his face go red. 'What? No, we're eleven, Ellie. I'm too young for that.'

'Sure.' She drew out the sound.

'It's true!'

'So why hang out with her?'

'Why not hang out with her? It's not a big deal.' He wasn't sure why she was pushing this.

'Whatever.' She shrugged, 'Look, just go.' Looking back down to her sad essay.

'If you're busy with that, I'll go get her from the library then.' Julian announced, standing to leave.

'Hey, wait. There's more to the essay, right?' Ellie pleaded.

Julian slung his bag over his shoulder, 'Everything I told you is on mine, just don't copy it word for word.' He left the common room and out into the corridors.

He went down the usual path that led back into the castle itself. Other than one short cut that got them into potions faster, Julian and the other Terrascales never really detoured from this path. The prefects had drilled it into their heads not to get lost down in the maze, saying that you could get lost for days. In Julian's opinion though, someone must've made it up. Stories to keep them in bed on time, most likely.

That being said, it had worked. Although he and some others in his year fantasized about exploring, even just to find some secret paths to other points in the castle. But nothing had really happened. He guessed no one wanted to put in the effort. And if the older students knew any other paths in the maze, then they had never let on.

He turned a corner and began to climb the staircase that led out of the maze, thinking about Ellie's words. That she'd accused him of being around Yuko because he liked her.

He hated the idea. But if he was honest, he couldn't explain why he cared. Maybe he just hated seeing someone being alone, not if he could help it. Though, he couldn't help feeling like a hypocrite, as he thought it.

After all, didn't he leave Hannah by herself on the train?

He shook his head, as if the act would cause him to stop thinking about her again. But he couldn't stop it.

He was back in the castle's ground floor now, he turned left down the hallway to get to the main staircase of the South Block. Less people were around now, most likely most were at dinner in their respective common rooms.

'You reckon it's here?'

Julian stopped, he knew that voice, usually it was snide and jeering but he recognised it. It was Peckering. It was coming from around the corner, from the staircase he wanted to use.

He silently walked up to the corner, putting his ear as close as he dared to listen in.

'It's got to be further down.' Said another voice, Julian figured it was one of the other Defanon boys.

'Mate, why didn't we just follow those guys back to their room?' Peckering asked.

'Cause they'd see us. Plus, they could lose us in that maze.'

'Isn't that the point?'

'Sure, that's exactly what we want to do, not explore and find things, naaah.' The other boy retorted dragging out the sound.

Their voices were getting close to where Julian was, he breathed suddenly, moving backwards slowly. Maybe he could duck into an empty classroom. He turned behind him. The last one he'd passed was quite a length down the hallway.

'If we want to find it down there, you realise we'll have to follow them.' Peckering said.

'I know.'

'Next time, we're doing that. Don't pick someone who's smart and will see you. Find that Idle girl, wouldn't surprise me if she sleepwalks.'

Julian's eyes widened.

'Isn't she friends with Vital and the Japanese girl? Bad plan, mate.'

'Fine, follow the blond one Graham or whatever. I don't care just pick someone and don't get caught.' Peckering ordered.

The two boys' footsteps were getting even closer. But suddenly another sound was coming from behind him, down the hallway. Someone running.

'Hold on, I hear someone.' The second boy said, they both stopped. 'Let's take this other hallway, less people will see us.'

'Fine.' Peckering said, he shrugged allowing Julian to catch a glimpse of red. Making him realise how close he'd come to being seen by the two of them. Their footsteps and voices became quieter, as the footstep behind became louder.

He quickly stood up, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible by leaning casually against the wall. In hindsight making him look the opposite. The hallway was dark enough that the person in question didn't come into view until they were close. It was Ellie.

'Oh, I found you.' She stopped to catch her breath.

'Ellie, what are you doing here?' He asked, 'You have to finish that work.'

'Eh, I've got all night, plus the book you referenced wasn't in your bag. Did you return it?'

Julian kicked himself mentally, 'Ah, I did yesterday. Come up with me.'

The library was on the fifth floor, a trip that Julian regretted as soon as he'd climbed the staircase. Ellie must have been feeling the same on this particular trip. Despite this, the few times he'd done it in the last two months, it had become easier. The room itself was quite elaborate. The walls were covered with several shelves that extended up to the second floor. Several other double-sided bookcases were arranged in rows, creating a labyrinth that Julian didn't understand. There were several tables placed against windows and plenty of open spaces not occupied by bookcases. There were at least more people in the library than in the rest of the castle, mostly older students there to study away from loud common rooms.

'Go to the charms section and find, An In-depth look at Common Charms, by Emily Keyes.' He pointed to the section of the library once they'd walked past it, 'come meet us when you got it.'

Ellie gave him a wave as she went off to search.

It took him some time to find Yuko, searching through row after row of books, looking for tables between bookcases. Eventually on the second floor, he found her in the corner, her table tucked out of view. He had a feeling she had chosen the spot for being difficult to find.

'Hey.' He announced. She didn't respond, slouched over a book.

He came a bit closer, 'Hello?'

'Hmm?' She quickly raised her head off of a book she'd been reading. He almost wondered if she'd been sleeping, before laughing at himself for considering how unlike Yuko it was.

'What are you up to?'

'Study.'

He rounded the table to look at the book. He couldn't understand it, it was in Japanese, or at least he guessed it was, considering who was reading it.

'What's it about?'

'It is not important.'

'I don't know, might be interesting.'

She sighed; she wasn't getting out of it. 'It is a gardening book.'

Julian's nodded, 'Cool.' He said trying to be nonchalant. 'Anything in there I should learn?'

'Not good, it is very old and not useful.' She shook her head.

'So why are you reading it then?' Julian wondered.

She didn't say a word, then looked down. 'There are not many Japanese books at this library.'

There was a silence between them, 'Right.' Julian said slowly.

He wasn't sure what to say. "Sorry that you have to be in a completely different country from everyone you know, using a language that you hate." He wished he could say that, but he couldn't think of a way that didn't come across as blunt and mean. He decided to switch topics.

'Yuko, you know Peckering, right?'

She narrowed her eyes. 'Of course.'

He told her about Peckering and his friend exploring the ground floor, looking for what he guessed was the Terrscale common room. It was too strange not to wonder about.

'What do you reckon?' He asked finally.

She was silent, thinking, finally she said. 'It does not matter.'

'Really?'

'Yes.' She closed the gardening book. 'Two reasons. If they find the common room, they cannot do anything to us. You cannot see the turtle if not in Terrascale, one of us would have to let him in.'

She was right, it was a fair point not to worry about it; But to him it just felt anti-climactic. Who knew what Peckering had in mind? He could plan to have them all ambush them as they left the common room for all he knew. Maybe he was just paranoid.

'What's the second reason?' he asked, Yuko had unfurled some parchment and was continuing an essay that she must have been writing beforehand.

'Are you not studying?' she asked.

'Oh um, I didn't bring anything.' Julian said sheepishly, gesturing to the absence of a bag.

Yuko shook her head, before going back to her work.

'I came up here wit-'

'At least you're not like her.'

He stopped, glad she interrupted him. Julian suddenly felt uncomfortable. He was hoping they wouldn't hate each other enough to talk about each other behind their backs. He glanced around hoping that Ellie didn't appear right behind them.

'That's a bit unfair, isn't it?'

'Jun, she does not work or study at all.'

'You know that's not true. Besides, she can be pretty smart, you ever played any games against her?'

Yuko shook her head and turned back to her work. He supposed she wasn't wrong, Ellie didn't work very much. But so what? Was that worth being mad at her for it?

'You didn't say the second reason.' Julian changed topics again.

She stopped writing and looked at him, 'We will get in trouble and lose points. If they want to look around find things in the maze then that will happen to them. If you go after them, then we will also.'

For some reason he was remembering his first day at Mornington. Did she really care about points that much? It didn't make sense to him. He wouldn't go out of his way to lose them but there were worse things to happen. Surely, it was worth it to stop whatever Peckering was up to.

'Aren't you at least a little bit interested in finding out what they're doing?'

'I…' She started to say. 'No, Jun. It will be trouble.'

'Fine, then' He was pretty sure there was something more to it. If she was right, no one that wasn't in Terrascale could enter the common room without help. But that had to be common knowledge, surely Peckering would know that? Didn't he mention that they wanted to explore the maze. That would mean they're looking for something else. He wasn't sure; the encounter was so brief that he was starting to doubt exactly what he'd heard. He slumped over on the table.

Whatever.

There was nothing else to do, he figured if he went looking for Ellie, he'd just get lost in the shelves.

Instead, he sat slumped over the table, Yuko work on her essay all the while, her brow focused. 'What are you writing?' Julian asked after a while.

'History.'

That was weird.

'Didn't we just do an essay for history a week ago?' He said casually, as if he didn't cringe at the exchange between Yuko and Ellie because of said essay.

'Yes,' she said quickly, concentrating.

'What's this one then? We haven't got a new one yet.'

'Next one.'

At Julian's confused expression she elaborated.

'We will have this one in three weeks.'

Julian was dumbfounded. 'So… why are you doing it so early?' He asked.

'Why not?'

He couldn't argue with that. 'Sure, but wouldn't you rather spend time doing things you enjoy?'

'You think I do not enjoy?' She asked, a slight edge to her voice. Julian wasn't sure that she did, not that he assumed everyone disliked writing like he and Ellie did. But just looking at Yuko, he hazarded a guess that she didn't like it at all.

'To be honest, I'm just not sure you need to do it so early.'

Yuko stopped writing. 'You do not understand.'

'No, I really don't.'

'I just need to.' Yuko asserted.

'But why?' Julian asked genuinely.

She said nothing, only giving him a look that was a mix of annoyance and something else, almost pain. He figured he should just drop it.

But hadn't he dropped it every time he asked Yuko about herself. If they were gonna be friends.

He opened his mouth to push it-

'There you are! Picked a great place to hide.' Ellie called out from where Julian came from. He sighed, maybe another time.

He turned his head to Ellie, 'Got the book?'

'Yep.' She held it up. 'Got in just as Mr Lining was packing up. Library's closing soon.'

Out of the corner of his eye, Julian noticed Yuko frown, he couldn't tell if it was from the book or on Ellie's appearance. Possibly both.

'You two can leave then, I'll finish here soon.' Yuko announced, writing a sentence of her essay. Now it was Ellie's turn to frown.

'Great, let's go, Julian.' Ellie turned to walk away.

'Come on, we should all get back together.' Julian said.

'No, It's fin-.' They both exclaimed at the same time. However, at that exact moment, the first bell rang, signalling they had around twenty minutes before curfew. At this point the two girls had no choice.

Yuko groaned.

She nodded and packed up her essay and all her books, stuffing it all into her bag. He wondered to himself how she could carry all of it in the bag before remembering it was magic. He figured maybe his might be like that as well, having bought the school bag from the Guild. A fact confirmed by Ellie once he asked her a minute later.

'You didn't know?' Ellie smirked.

'Yeah, yeah.' Julian groaned.

They left the library, the castle considerably darker. With only two other students leaving the library with them, each of them going in the direction of their respective houses.

The three walked in silence down the long staircase down the ground floor. It was the fastest way to get from the Terrascale common room to the library. Despite being easier, Julian had to wonder why the castle was designed to be as bad as possible for Terrascales to navigate. Would it really have hurt them to have some kind of lift or a shortcut that could lead between different floors?

They now made their way down the third floor. The torches on the walls being the only way to see around them. They had been told that it was faster to go down half-way down one staircase, go along one of the third-floor corridors to the other staircase, as it was closer to the Terrascale common room. It felt as if it took the same amount of time, but who was Julian to assume it did, it's not as if he carried a watch.

Just then, in front to his left, something caught Julian's eye. A faint blue light shone from under a door. Standing out from the warm light from the torches.

'Guys.' He pointed at the door. Ellie turned, her head tilting once she noticed the light and the door.

They went to stand in front of it. He knocked on the door, no one answered.

'Um, should we open it?' Ellie asked.

'I do not think we should.' Yuko said, 'we should go find someone.'

'Nah, come on, we go tell them there's a light, to them, it's no big deal. We should check what it is first.' Julian suggested.

'You do not know what it…' Yuko stopped, looking around the hallway, specifically to doors to other classrooms. It was then that Julian noticed too. The other doors were wooden and lightly decorated, set inside a carved stone arch. This door on the other hand, upon closer inspection had no decoration and had no door frame. Apart from the handle and the glow from underneath, he was sure they wouldn't have seen it.

'The door's completely different to the rest.' He said out loud.

'You're right.', the girls said, actually agreeing for once.

'Ok, we're checking this.' Julian made to open the door.

'Jun-'

'Juli-

'We're not going anywhere until we know what it is. We'll go in check around for a second, then go tell someone.'

He grabbed the handle. 'Besides, now I have to know what's going on here.'

He pushed the door open; it was heavier than he expected. He looked inside, searching for the light that moments ago had appeared underneath. Once the door was fully open, he could see there was nothing inside, the light was now missing. Replaced by complete darkness.

He dug his wand out, 'Lumos', he cast. The light having appeared on the end of his wand, he moved forward into the room. Ellie right behind him, lighting her own wand.

'Stop.' Yuko called from behind them.

'What?' Julian turned to face her.

'Why go into that?'

'It's fine, we go in, look around for a second and leave.' Ellie stated. Though, as she said it, Julian had to admit the dark was a little ominous. It hardly felt as if light emitted from their wands was enough to pierce through it completely.

'Yuko, light your wand.' Ellie said.

Julian turned and realised she still hadn't entered the passage. He waved his arm towards the darkness, 'come on.'

She took one last look at the castle hallway and with trepidation took a step into the passage. She lit her wand a moment later, lighting it just a little more. Julian then slowly took a step forward, Ellie just behind him, with Yuko trailing near the back.

As soon as they were all in the passage, he heard the slam of a door, it had come from behind them. The entrance. Yuko gasped.

The three of them rushed to where the entrance had been. They reached for the door that had let them in and only felt the cold stone that matched the rest of the dark passageway.

Julian and Ellie looked at each other, silently agreeing. The two knowing exactly what this meant, they were trapped.

The passageway was then filled with the sounds of Julian and Ellie's cries for help, their hands hitting the stone wall. But no sound responded in kind. After what felt like minutes yelling, Julian felt his voice become sore, his hands aching.

He turned back to the passage.

Julian tried interrupting Ellie's cries. 'Ellie, stop! It's obviously magic, no one can hear us.'

It didn't work, she kept trying. But eventually, Ellie's throat must have given out because she croaked out, 'I just had to keep trying.'

Julian nodded, 'it's ok.'

'Yuko, are you alright?' he turned to his right, now realising she hadn't made a sound since they had arrived in the tunnel. A quick look was enough to realise that she must have been as scared as he felt possibly more.

Even in the dim light he was able to see Yuko turn to him, her eyes flashing with anger.

'You-!'

'I didn't know this would happen.' Julian retorted quickly, interrupting. As if she was going to pin the blame on him. 'Besides, if we'd done like you said the door probably would have vanished as soon as we walked away.'

'It was just a door, who cares what happened?!' She continued.

'I know.' He rubbed his temples, 'look, we can't stay here forever. Maybe this leads somewhere out.'

Yuko sighed, moving away from the wall. Her anger losing steam. But it was soon replaced, she looked at the passage ahead, looking fearful of what lay in wait. But there was nothing else she could do but move onward.

Once he had caught his breath. 'Nothing else for it. You guys good to move?'

Ellie nodded, going first, wandering in into the darkness. Julian soon went second. Eventually, after what must have been mental preparation, Yuko followed behind them.

The three of them moved forward into the darkness, unsure if there was anything to find, or whether they were in a dead end. They walked slowly, Yuko lagging slightly behind and Julian checking the walls.

'Where are we do you think?' Julian wondered. 'Still in the castle?'

She shook her head and answered. 'There is no way to kno-

'Guys stop!' Ellie called.

He saw it too. The pathway ended and created a branching path, going both left and right.

'Perfect.' Julian exclaimed. This was just what they needed, a choice. 'What do you reckon?'

Ellie rubbed her forehead, after enough games with her, Julian realised this was her seriously considering her options

'I reckon we go left.'

'Why left?' Yuko asked.

Ellie looked sheepish, 'Vibes?'

Yuko scowled. 'Fine.' But despite it, she seemed glad to not be making that call.

'We should get some parchment out too, make a map.' Ellie added.

'Good idea.' Julian reached for his bag, which he didn't have. Great.

'Yuko, do you have one?'

Yuko was standing still, not listening to him.

'Yuko? You there?'

She snapped out of it, 'What you need again?'

'Some parchment and a quill.'

'Yes.' She hastily rifled through her bag, eventually handing over a spare sheet of parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink.

Ellie frowned, 'Um… Not to be mean but I can't write with this while walking.'

Yuko crossed her arms, 'That's all I have.'

'And we need to sit down and write it, every time…' She groaned. 'You know what? Don't worry about it, let's just remember it.'

She stood in front of the left path, muttering about Quills.

Just then, Julian remembered something, he reached into his robes and pulled out a pen. 'Ellie, hold on, I have something.'

He handed the pen to her, but Ellie just shrugged. 'I have no idea what this is.'

'It's a pen.' He responded. Ellie looked blankly. Wasn't that all he needed to say?

'You write with it?' He felt very weird having to explain what a pen did of all things.

'Really?' She picked it up, fiddling with it. It seemed to fascinate her.

She then took it to the parchment and drew a line of what they had explored so far. 'This is good Julian. How have I never heard of this.'

Julian shrugged. 'It's muggle. I guess that's why.'

'Still, this is so much better than a qui-.' Ellie stopped, she caught Yuko's eye and muttered, 'Sorry.'

Yuko said nothing, gesturing for them to start walking. 'You have the map, you go first.'

Julian supposed he couldn't argue with that. But first.

'Let me just check the other path really quick.'

He went back and checked the beginning of the right path; it didn't look like there was anything on the walls that told them about where they were.

He jogged back to meet with the girls and once again resumed their procession through the passageway. Not long after, they came across another crossroads. They chose left again and continued before running into more branches. After more of these, the layout stopped making sense.

For a time, he had been keeping track of the pathways so far. But eventually after taking three left turns the paths they were taking should have collided, according to their makeshift map at least. Because of this, they knew that this wasn't a designed labyrinth. After the tenth crossroads it was almost impossible to keep track of the path they had taken and they had to stop drawing the map. The layout was impossible and to Julian he half wondered if it was being created around them.

Suddenly the thought hit him.

'We're in the maze, we have to be.' He exclaimed excitedly.

Yuko and Ellie stopped, the realisation dawning on them too. 'How?'

'I don't know. I thought maybe this is some hidden passage but there's no way something this big can work like this on the third floor. We've covered too much ground.'

Ellie nodded. 'So… where are we?'

'I don't know.' Julian grimaced. 'Only one way to found out though.'

They continued down the passage. Julian was now beginning to feel the strain of magic from leaving his wand lit for so long.

'Hey, I'm gonna turn off my light, I think we should save some energy. Ellie, you want to keep yours?'

'I'm tired too, I'll turn mine off for a bit.' She agreed.

'Yuko, we'll just use yours then.'

Yuko's eyes widened behind him. She started stammering again. 'N-no, Jun. We might not be too far from the common room, just a little more.'

Julian was confused.

'Just cause we're in the maze doesn't mean we'll get there. Besides, I probably have less practice with magic than you so you should keep it on. Then we can all take turns.' Ellie nodded in agreement.

'But… I don't think we can see with only one.' She argued. Her usual demeaner replaced with a hesitation.

'True, but if we both do it, we're gonna get tired and then we'll all be in the dark.' He wasn't sure what was her deal with being apprehensive. It made perfect sense.

'Um…'

'It's ok, Yuko,' Ellie suddenly said, attempting to be reassuring 'You'll be able to see the most out of us, with yours on. We'll be relying on you.' She gave a thumbs up.

Yuko paused, their animosity almost forgotten, it was like her words encouraged her. She took a breath. 'OK. I will keep mine on then.'

'Nox.' Julian said, turning off his wand light, Ellie did the same, reducing the amount they could see dramatically. With only one wand, the three of them could only see less than a metre in front of them. A little scary if Julian had anything to say about it.

'Well then, let's keep going.' He said, breaking the silence. He was trying to keep himself energetic. The added darkness didn't help Yuko in the slightest, she stuck much closer than before.

The corridor continued, not revealing anything. Julian contemplated talking about something to stave off the boredom. But he couldn't really think of anything at all to say, it was then he remembered he didn't know too much about Yuko or Ellie.

Besides, it was his fault they were walking through the dark. Was he supposed to pretend that they were casually going for a stroll?

Instead, his mind wandered. Why did the door disappear once they were in? Was it a trap? Did someone design this for unsuspecting first years. Was it connected to the maze? The three of them had been too high up for there to be a simple passage to it. It made him question why Peckering and his friend were looking in the maze itself if there was an entrance on the third floor.

'Yuko? Remember I asked you about Peckering?'

'Yes.' She mumbled.

'If we're in the maze? Then what could they be looking for? There's nothing here.'

'Wait, what are you talking about?' Ellie interrupted. He then explained what he had seen to her.

'You think they're trying to find the common room then?' She asked.

'They could be… But it doesn't seem right.'

'Why?'

'Wouldn't they know they can't get in? If they're trying to find our common room, it wouldn't be that obvious. Even if their common room doesn't work like ours, it's too strange.'

'Stop thinking about it, Jun.' Yuko shook her head.

'You can't seriously be worried about losing points? Not after all of this!' He gestured to their environment, still as dark as ever. Except...

'Wait, look!' To his right he spied a pattern, their wand light having revealed it. Julian felt this was a good a time as any to light his wand again. It was another door. But different to the previous one, from what little they could see. The door stood double Julian's height and was a lighter colour than the dark stone walls surrounding it. Carved swirls emanated from the centre, which itself was raised off the surface.

Yuko ran her hand over the edge of the frame, Julian and Ellie stood back.

'Are you checking for something?'

'Runes or anything.' She muttered before stopping. Julian could see Ellie roll her eyes at that, as if any of them could tell being first years.

Yuko pointed, 'Here.'

Julian ran his hand over the smooth stone. Feeling around for what she had found. He soon felt engravings running along the edge of the frame. They didn't seem like runes, as far as he could tell with his limited knowledge. These were more like written words making a sentence, he continued his hand along the engraving until he couldn't anymore, it was just too high up for his arm to reach.

'Do you know what language it's in?' He asked Yuko.

Yuko shook her head.

'Ok, let's write it down, I want to know what this says.' He looked at Ellie and without asking she got out the makeshift map.

'No.' Yuko said.

'Come on. It's not much.' Ellie said

'No. The door is sealed with powerful magic. We should tell a teacher. You cannot say it is nothing this time.'

Julian groaned, this again. He was not going to give this find up. 'They won't believe us, Yuko. We should at least copy it down.'

She looked stubbornly at the door before relenting. She must have felt it was two against one. 'Ok, but if it is something we have to tell them.'

'Yes, why don't we try translating it? Once we can get out of here at least. If it is bad Yuko, we'll tell someone.' Ellie suggested. Yuko slowly nodded. Finally agreeing with something that Ellie said.

'Ok.' He replied, not truly agreeing. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

Ellie went up to the wall and placed the parchment over the engravings, she had just begun to trace over them with the pen when Yuko coughed.

She looked at them puzzled. She reached into her bag and retrieved another piece of parchment and ink. Then she took her wand out and muttered a spell in Japanese, a faint silver light then appeared on the end of her wand. Yuko then traced the writing with her wand, starting from as far as she could reach on the left side, down to the ground, across to the other side of the door frame and finished where she could no longer reach. After laying parchment on the ground, she dipped her wand in the ink bottle and ran it across the parchment. The engravings on the door were then replicated onto the parchment.

Ellie was impressed. 'That spell's amazing.'

Yuko shrugged; Julian felt she was trying to play it off. 'Everyone in Japan knows this spell.'

'Still, Yuko, teach me that. I'd much rather do that then copy the notes from my book.' Ellie admitted.

'Not so good for that, it is for small amounts of writing. Not whole page. But… I can teach.' She nodded. 'Now, lift me up.' She gestured to the top of the door frame.

'Um, ok?' Julian asked, unsure what she meant, he guessed she would need the height by using him to reach that high. He stood in front of the door, expecting her piggybag off him.

Ellie stared at him confused, 'With magic, Jun.' He heard a brief laugh from Yuko, before she stopped herself.

'Oh.' Julian felt about as dumb as he possible could, forgetting that he was a wizard.

Once she was in place in front of the door, he pointed his wand at her and cast. 'Wingardium Leviosa.'

Once Yuko's floating was stable, she traced the rest of the engraving and copied it soon after.

'Alright, so… Keep going I guess?' Julian wondered aloud.

'You think we can get out?' Ellie replied.

'If we can find a way. I reckon. If we're in the maze we could get to the entrance near the common room.'

'Are you sure about that?' Ellie asked.

'Nope.'

He started walking, Yuko turned off her wand light to rest while Julian kept his on. They settled once again into a rhythm, every intersection being a random chance of going either direction.

But soon, after too many of these intersections Julian was just about ready to give up finding the common room. The three of them felt as if they were ready to drop. He slowed down, he turned, about to say something to other two about resting. But suddenly, as Julian had arrived around the corner he stopped.

They were in a completely different passage, now lined with torches. It was a sight that Julian could remember well, it reminded him of the passageways near the common room. Yuko and Ellie were just as dumbfounded. Behind them was a blank stretch of wall. It was as if the passageway they had just been in didn't exist at all.

'Is this where I think it is?' Julian asked.

Ellie nodded and rushed ahead down the hallway; Julian followed suite, keeping an eye out for anything that was recognisable. They ran through these new hallways. Eventually arriving at an area that looked quite familiar to Julian. It was the corridors that led to the common room.

'This is it.' Ellie exclaimed. 'We're back.'

Julian went to the end of the corridor looking for the blue turtle. It was further away from the door than usual. Once found he touched it, the door to the common room revealed itself.

They entered the common room, it was deserted, all the older students all having gone off to bed. The three collapsed on armchairs around the fireplace, exhausted from all the walking. After they caught their breath, Yuko looked around the room and asked. 'What time is it?'

'They must have left for bed a while ago. Remember the curfew was about to start when we went in there.' Ellie explained. 'We must have been there for a few hours at least.'

Yuko nodded understanding. But Julian was barely paying attention to them, now that they were safe and out of the maze his mind raced. How did they get in and out of the maze? If Peckering was looking for a way into it, how did they get in by accident? What exactly were those two looking for?

He didn't have any answers, and it didn't seem like pondering them was going to make them appear. He wanted to find a way to translate the runes or whatever they were. But first.

'I'm going to bed.' He announced, hoping that he could with everything rattling around in his brain. The two of them stood, beginning to walk towards the girls dormitory. Suddenly, Ellie stopped.

'Oh no, I still have that essay.' She groaned out. 'It's due tomorrow.'

'You want any help?' Julian asked.

'Nah, it's fine. It's my fault I left it to the last minute.' She stared at her shoes. 'You both rest up.'

'You sure?'

Ellie nodded and with a yawn went back to the common room. 'Night, guys.'

Julian said goodnight and Yuko nodded, which was about as good as it was going to get. Julian left the two of them and entered his own dorm room, barely remembering to get changed before he slept.

The next morning, he went out into the common room for breakfast. His body aching the second he woke up. He glanced at their usual table by the window, Ellie was slumped over it, asleep.

She must have been writing all night.

He called her name when that failed, shook her awake. Ellie grumbled as she woke up.

'I'm up, I'm up.' She sat up properly.

'Did you finish it?'

'Uh… I think so?' She wondered. Looking down at her now finished essay. 'To be honest, I don't feel like I remember what I wrote. I guess I was just that tired.' Her stomach rumbled. 'I'm starving though.' She went up to the breakfast table.

Julian skimmed over the essay; it was all finished but something was off about it. After having read over many of Ellie's essays over the last two months, he thought he was used to her writing style. He wouldn't go so far to call it bad, but normally her work reflected that it was created at the last minute.

As he skimmed the newer section, it went into much more detail about the magic and how it worked than he was used to reading from her essays. It was in Ellie's hand-writing but it reminded him more of-

At that moment, he saw Yuko come out of the dorm entrance, looking more worse for wear than even he or Ellie looked. She briefly glanced at the essay in front of him. She gave a nod, doing her best to suppress a yawn.