Light in Dawn

Chapter Thirteen - Atypical Siblings

With unusual unity, the class looked expectantly at Julyan. Naturally Mrs North's line of sight was led to him.

"Well?"

It appeared that Julyan had a remarkable ability to compose himself at will. In one second the dangerous and threatening Julyan vanished, replaced by a blameless model student. He smiled with false earnestness, formulating a speech.

Unfortunately someone beat him to it.

"Hello there!" An energetic voice sprung from the back of the classroom. Nellie rose from her seat and made her way to the scowling teacher in fast, confident strides. "Greetings, ma'am -"

"Nelliah!" Julyan raised his voice warningly. At the same time he sprang off his chair, which collided with the desks behind harshly. The sound drew more stares to him.

Nellie froze quite literally. She blinked, perfectly aware that it was the full extent of the control she could exert on her body. That's a second-level fixation charm. Of course, a third-level disenchant can solve the problem easily, but that'll probably make him even madder...

"Who are you?" Mrs North scrutinized Nellie. The girl's calculating eyes darted back and forth with no sign of remorse. At the unwarranted drama, the previously silent class at once began to stir with whispers. Every pair of eyes was drawn to Julyan, who materialized beside Nellie, clamping her shoulders with his two hands. "Mr Knight?"

Julyan's face was faultlessly apologetic. "This is my little sister, Nellie Knight. I'm afraid that she's followed me here. I'll send her away right now."

"Sister?" "Jeez, that's so anticlimactic." The gossiping crowd made a collective noise that resembled a deflating balloon. The absurd theories were entertaining while they lasted, but with that revelation by the central character, now they were all out of the window.

Mrs North was still suspicious. "Doesn't your sister have school, Mr Knight?"

"Ah, about that," the boy looked at his sister pointedly, "Well you see, Nellie has been recently expelled from school."

Nellie glared at him as venomously as she could manage without the ability to move her head. That's low, Julyan!

It's your fault for lying to me, Julyan returned in their affectionate sibling eye-to-eye communication, all the while maintaining the facade of slight embarrassment.

Mrs North scoffed and brandished an arm. "Take her away then. We don't need dropouts here wasting our precious class time. Now, class -"

Nellie's eyes shifted to the Art teacher, cold. Without warning, the whiteboard duster that had been lying placidly on the counter jerked suddenly and fell off with a loud crashing sound. Mrs North gave a yelp and sprung backwards. To Nellie's satisfaction, she tripped on the step of the dais and fell with a disgraceful splat.

The students sitting on the front row all coiled up and backed away, squealing and rushing to the back of the classroom. Only a few bold ones remained, approaching the duster with the same cautious manner one would advance toward a snake.

Then the duster sudden leaped one metre in air. For a moment it was suspended, and the whole class held their breath - and then it shot towards the teacher with high velocity rotations.

The class gave a unified high-pitched screech. The lady clambered away in a very unladylike manner, embracing her inner sailor with a chain of fluent curses. All students within three metres radius were seen either scattering in remote corners of the room or hugging each other for support.

Julyan shielded his eyes with one hand and sighed. When he removed his hand there were already a handful of drawn memory charms; he cast them throughout the classroom without sparing them another glance. Then with the same smooth motion Julyan hauled his little sister out of the classroom.