Morgan le Fay Institute for Magic

Chapter 3 - Warm Welcome

The hallways of the school already bustled with students trying to find their respective classrooms and chatting to the friends they hadn't seen all summer. With Dan right behind her, Ravenna stepped past a group of three girls, a few years younger than her, into the hallway. She could swear the one in the front flinched at the sight of her, but she carried on, ignoring the pang in her chest. They were right to be scared of her.

"Did you see who our class tutor is this year?" asked Dan.

Ravenna wrinkled her nose. "Urgh, yes. Professor Trindine... Why did it have to be her?"

Her best friend laughed. "It might not be so bad. She's not a terrible teacher, she's just a bit... all over the place."

"That's an understatement," Ravenna grumbled. She rounded the corner and saw the door to the history classroom already open. "Did you read the Daily Prophet this morning?"

A glance over her shoulder told her that he had indeed seen the news. His jaw tightened into a worried frown. But as they entered the classroom, they lost the chance to speak more about it.

Like all classrooms at Morgan le Fay, there was a lectern at the front for the teacher and ten desks distributed in two neat, horizontal rows for the students. The walls were adorned with posters of goblin wars and witch trials, and moving portraits of historical figures. Every now and then, when the class was lucky, Professor Trindine would let one of the portraits tell their tale.

The lectern stood empty, but three of the desks in the front row were occupied. Ravenna recognised the guy in the middle, leaning back in his chair and gnawing on the nail of his thumb. Ezra. The fellow student she'd inadvertently attacked at Diagon Alley. With his 20 years of age, he was quite obviously the oldest of all of them. He looked up when they entered and glared at her darkly. She averted her gaze, discomfort churning in her stomach.

Next to him, a girl leaned over her desk to chat with the mousy boy on the other side, her voice quick and energetic. The boy, on the other hand, seemed overwhelmed at her intensity, which Ravenna couldn't blame him for.

"Oh, hey!" the girl squeaked as they entered. She clapped her hands. "The class is complete! Well, except for Professor Trindine, of course."

Dan greeted her with a smile. Brushing his hand over her elbow, he led Ravenna to the desks behind the others and sat down. "I'm sorry, I don't think we've met. My name is Dan, this is Ravenna."

"Ella," came the girl's immediate response, as she turned around in her chair to face them. "And this is Ezra, and Willem. Nice to meet you both."

The mousy boy, Willem, nodded at them, but Ezra refused to turn around.

"You two are re-doing level five, aren't you? Ezra was just telling us."

"He was?" Ravenna's eyes narrowed, flicking towards the black-clad man, as he pulled a hand through his shoulder-length black hair to swipe it to the other side of his head. Her fingers brushed the scar below her eye as she wondered what he'd told them. That they should watch their backs around her? That she was the girl who could explode in a whirlwind of magic any moment, taking out anyone unlucky enough to be nearby?

Had he told them what she'd done to him in Diagon Alley?

Dan chuckled, but she could hear the discomfort in it. "Yes, we were in the same c-c-class last year. Good to see you again, mate."

Ezra scoffed, turning towards them for the first time. "Is it?"

A silence followed. Ravenna shifted in her seat. What was she supposed to say to that?