Bugs. Lots and lots of bugs! Big, shiny, red bugs! Evergreen's first class of the year was Transfiguration and Professor Graves had brought several live beetles to class for a spell they were to learn. The spell involved taking a live beetle and transforming it into a button. Evergreen managed to do so after a short while. He actually changed a few beetles into buttons by the time most of the class managed to do so as well. Throughout the class, Professor Graves was keeping an annoyingly close eye on Evergreen. There are so many other people in this class! The boy thought to himself.

Next, they had charms with the wizened Professor Delacroix. The 12-year-old Thunderbirds filed in quickly and found her already standing in the classroom on her raised platform. She was wearing lavender robes and her hair had been cut to a very sharp bob.

"Good morning, Thunderbirds!" she began. "Please take your seats, for we have a great many things to cover today!"

They did so before she continued. Evergreen took a seat with Andie and Diva near the front. He then pulled out his copy of Chadwick's Charms Vol 2 by Chadwick Boot.

"Can anyone tell me about the general counter-spell?" Professor Delacroix asked.

A few hands went up, including Evergreen's, but it was Andie who was chosen to answer.

"The incantation is finite incantatem or just finite and it is meant to end other spells."

"Miss Divisa." Professor Delacroix replied with a smile, "Please take 5 points for your house. Can you tell us why it is called a general counter-spell?"

"Yes ma'am." Andie replied with confidence, "It is a spell that can be generally used, but there are some curses and jinxes which need a specific counter-spell to be nullified."

"Take another 5 points."

Andie smiled brightly. Although she struggled with some of the practical parts of charms and transfiguration, she surely had the theory down pat. Evergreen always studied with her for that reason. When it came to the practical side, Evergreen always studied with Link. His wand technique was always perfect. He would definitely be formidable in the dueling club once they were finally old enough to join. Evergreen wouldn't say anything because there was no reason for it, but he felt like there was certainly some pureblood privilege that came with Link's abilities. Link grew up watching wand work and accidentally, but knowingly doing some magic of his own, people like Andie and Diva or even himself didn't get that same privilege.

They spent the rest of class practicing the general counter-spell and Diva was actually one of the first people to successfully cast it. Evergreen worked on the wand movement a few times before speaking the incantation just to be sure. The stout Joshua Oaktree from the other end of the classroom managed to accidentally disenchant the golden patch on his robes. The Thunderbird symbol completely disappeared! Professor Delacroix half-grinned in surprise before she reenchanted the patch and told him to never point his wand at himself because terrible things could happen. I could have told you that, thought Evergreen.

When lunch came, it was welcome indeed! Evergreen piled his plate high with beef soft tacos, lemon pepper chicken wings, spiced potato wedges, and a handful of vegetables to wash it all down. He had a glass of sparkling cider nearby that was his respite from the August weather. It was almost 80 degrees and where there were thick clouds that morning, there was only blue sky that afternoon.

Looking toward Link, Evergreen's face lit up in a cheeky smile. Link was deep in thought. There was something going on with him. His usual swagger was replaced by a mighty sense of preoccupation. The young wizard in question was just poking at a potato absentmindedly with his fork.

"Hey. Are you good?" Evergreen inquired, reaching out and touching his friend's arm.

Link flinched briefly at the contact but was effectively brought back into the land of the living. He looked at Evergreen with feigned outrage, purposefully stabbing his potato and popping it into his mouth.

"Peachy." He replied evenly with a smirk that Evergreen could tell was as plastic as the LEGOs he grew up playing with.

He was frustrated, confused, and a little hurt. That much Evergreen could tell. Link seemed perfectly fine at breakfast. Then again, Evergreen had been paying attention to Diva and Andie more than anyone else during their first two classes of the day. Something could have happened since then. Who knows? To find out, Evergreen would need to be the picture of subtlety, not something he had ever really been very good at.

That afternoon, the 12-year-old Thunderbirds found themselves at the base of their spiral staircase and swiftly entered the small hallway leading to Professor Woods' classroom door. Evergreen soon realized though, that there were others with them that he didn't recognize. Wait a second, he did recognize a few of them. He saw the small Hekate Yaffa with her large front teeth and black horn-rimmed glasses. They never spoke, but he certainly thought she was lovely. Oh, that's right! They had doubles Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Horned Serpent seventh graders.

He would be lying if Evergreen didn't feel a strong sense of aversion coming from all sides of the group of kids. The Thunderbirds were adventurers, they followed their soul while the Horned Serpents were scholars, they followed their minds. They were quite different and for that reason, there was a fair bit of animosity shared between them. Evergreen didn't know why though. He had no reason to wish ill for any of the people in that house. Elphaba never had any kids, so he knew he had no enemies there. He never understood the idea of not liking someone just because they think differently than he did. Differences should be celebrated, not feared. Possibly it was just his naivety speaking being only 12 years old and still very new to the world of magic, but he just couldn't wrap his head around it. If everyone was the same, what a boring and sad world would that be.

He thought about Dad and some of the divisive ways of his thinking. Ever since the fall of the Twin Towers in New York City when Evergreen was still super small, Dad never had a kind word to say about anyone who was Muslim. Just because of a bad experience with a few individuals who claim to have a certain thing as part of their identities, everyone else who identified with that was as bad as those earlier individuals. That 'us and them' worldview is dangerous and incredibly limiting. Evergreen couldn't allow himself to be pulled into such thinking. He resolved then and there to make a friend in the Horned Serpent house.

They shuffled in and got sat down and situated. Evergreen went out of his way to sit between Maggie and a boy in the Horned Serpent house with shaggy brown hair and who happened to be just a little overweight. He looked friendly enough, though.

"Hi." Evergreen said, reaching out. "I'm Evergreen."

The other boy looked at him with an expression that said, "what's going on here?" but that same expression softened after a beat or two.

"Valerian." He said, taking Evergreen's hand and shaking it twice, but not looking up at all.

"My mom's a witch and my dad's a No-Maj." Evergreen attempted. "I'm from Oregon, too."

"Everyone in my family is No-Maj." Valerian admitted, apparently finding his shoes very interesting, as they shuffled upon the floor. "God knows how I ended up here." Valerian followed that with an awkward laugh. "I'm actually from nearby. Salem area."

Interesting. Evergreen had never known anyone from the heart of the American Witch Trials! The boy did seem a little uncomfortable, though. He was probably an introvert. Evergreen was kind of introverted, meaning that he had a social battery that ran out at some point, not like Link, who could spend all day talking to new people if he had nothing better to do, today obviously excluded. Valerian might need some warming up. That's fine. All Evergreen had was time.

"Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to seventh grade Defense class!" Professor Woods said, appearing with a flourish from behind her office door. "This year, I hope to arm you, in some cases literally, with the knowledge you need to stay safe. This year's syllabus is all about dark beings and dark creatures. Could anyone please tell me about the distinction between those two?"

Several hands went up, but Professor Woods ended up choosing a boy with a round face and short black hair from the Horned Serpent house.

"Yes, Wolf?" she asked the boy.

"Beasts are pretty much just animals, where beings are capable of reason and are capable of not giving into their primal urges. Like humans."

"Exactly right! Thank you, Wolf. That's 10 points to Horned Serpent!"

The energy in the room suddenly shifted. Many of Evergreen's fellow Thunderbirds were suddenly grumbling and even on edge. On the flipside, many of the Horned Serpents started showing a certain measure of haughtiness in their body language. It just made Evergreen feel generally irritated.

"For those of you who have already scanned through the text, you would know that we are starting with ashwinders and basilisks. So, if you all could please turn to page 27 and start taking notes on these two serpentine beasts, we will reconvene in a few moments."

Fascinating creatures, basilisks. Evergreen opened his book and immediately scanned what he remembered reading that summer. They can grow to be dozens of feet long; their fangs can utterly destroy even the most intense of cursed objects and you would die if looking them straight in the eye. Apparently, one had been set loose at Hogwarts school in Great Britain before Evergreen was born but it was killed by a silver goblin-made sword wielded by some kid called Potter. Evergreen tried to wrap his head around something like that. If he was face-to-face with a 50-foot snake monster, he probably wouldn't fare as well as that Potter kid did.

He scribbled down a few notes and then looked at the characteristics of the ashwinder. They didn't live for very long and they were made from uncontrolled, magical fire or they were hatched from an ashwinder egg. They weren't necessarily dangerous, but their eggs were some of the most flammable objects in the wizard world. A strong freezing charm would be needed to make sure they didn't combust. They could also be used to make a pretty strong love potion. Why someone would ever want a love potion was a mystery to Evergreen. If someone didn't love you back, he thought, you should just move on and leave them alone.

The last class of the day was History with Miss Agatha. As Evergreen took his seat near to the middle of the room, he quietly observed his lovely history teacher. She was a vampire, of course, with the perfect complexion of her snow-white skin, ruby red lips, and glossy, black hair. She was dressed in red that day in particular which really made her look even paler. She was typically in a good mood, but she seemed maybe… preoccupied?

"Welcome Thunderbirds," she said, her usual enthusiasm somewhat subdued. "Last year, we discussed in detail about the founding of the fine school of Ilvermorny and how it was the only school of magic to be founded by a No-Maj and a witch. She was a descendant of the legendary Salazar Slytherin, but gladly didn't share his hateful opinions."

Immigration was an interesting topic to start the year with, but the way Miss Agatha taught the information, it was just like her telling a story. She had been there, after all. The vampire was a few hundred years old, after all. She talked about the great ships that made their way to the new world in response to the idea that there was so much land that was unexplored by the Europeans. The land wasn't unexplored though, it was inhabited, and the inhabitants were either forced off their land, or killed off by the No-Majes. Evergreen knew this, but the blunt way that Miss Agatha had been presenting all the information for the day was startling to say the least. Evergreen wondered what was going on.

He decided to stay after class. Sure, it was none of his business, but he felt a certain protective sense for Miss Agatha. She was quite lovely and quite nice, even though she was a vampire who had likely spent most of her life being feared and rejected. After everyone else left, Link and Andie briefly stayed behind, but he told them that he would catch up with them in a bit.

"Miss Agatha…" Evergreen said, approaching her desk.

"Yes, my dear, Evergreen?" she asked, hardly looking up from her parchment.

"I was – I mean, I think – I-I…" he took a deep breath. "Are you doing okay?"

Miss Agatha stopped writing upon the parchment and looked up to Evergreen. She had an unreadable expression on her face that he didn't know what to do with.

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked, evenly.

"I mean, you seem to have something on your mind." His words came with an earnest expression.

It was at this moment that Miss Agatha stood up. It was sudden and startling, so Evergreen naturally jumped back with a yelp, tripping over himself in the process like the graceful swan he was born to be. Seta also tumbled to the floor but righted himself quickly.

"What I do or don't have on my mind seems hardly your affair." She stated, a sense of warning in her voice, as she towered before Evergreen, who was sprawled on the ground. "What you think about my state of mind does not matter in the slightest. So, if you don't mind, please leave my classroom, and stay out of my personal business!"

To say he was terrified would be an understatement. She was standing above him, her sharp teeth glinting in the lamp light, her amber eyes looking more red than anything, and her hair wildly flipping about. Evergreen had never heard Miss Agatha raise her voice to anyone, even those she gave detentions to. Here she was, one of his favorite teachers, yelling at him because he was being nosy. He had a bad feeling something like this could happen. He pulled himself to his feet and took off running, with Seta in tow.

He ran off out of the basement into the annex and then out on the grounds. He beelined it over to the massive snakewood tree made by Isolt Sayre, the founder with the wand of Salazar Slytherin that grew in front of the castle a few yards out and hid himself inside of a small cave made by several of the huge, twisting roots. He made himself as small as he could and then let out a sob. He didn't want to be a burden on anyone and there he was, being a burden for Miss Agatha. She didn't deserve that. She was so lovely and so nice; thus, he was the obvious problem. First, he barged into Professor Woods' office, interrupting their morning meeting, then he had the audacity to demand answers from her? So, he let himself cry, being quite ashamed of himself. Seta made a motion to possibly say something, but he didn't at the last moment. Evergreen was grateful that Seta let him weep in peace.

A few minutes later, Evergreen heard Seta's voice and felt the familiar feeling of a small paw resting on his arm. He looked up to see the bunny standing before him, his nose quivering in the way it always did.

"You were frightened, weren't you?" he simply asked.

"Yeah. I was."

"That makes sense. Professor Shadowmend can be intimidating when she wants to be. But she's probably just having a bad day. You shouldn't let it get to you."

"E-easier said than d-done." Evergreen managed.

"Come on Evergreen, let's get you cleaned up and ready for dinner, you'll feel much better afterward."

Even though Evergreen didn't have much of an appetite, he agreed with the bunny. So, he washed his face in the little stream there behind the snakewood tree and then headed back to the school with Seta. He figured he would eat something small, so his friends don't start asking him difficult questions. The last thing he wanted was to be a burden on them as well.