Knight of the Black Rose (19 page)

"Cadell!" a male voice boomed.

Will looked over his shoulder to see where he had just come out of, it was a giant head of a white tiger; but before he had time to think he disappeared and reappeared stood in front of a chair at table across the room, with a couple of students looking as dazed as he felt. He assumed that this was his table and pulled out a chair and sat down, then finally had a quick look around the hall. The first year round tables were at the front of the hall in front of the teachers table, then behind were rows of more round tables and right at the back were long ones. There were so many students; he had known that there were going to be, but it was something else to actually see them all, and that Eldamar guy had said that theirs was the biggest year group they had ever taken, which was probably why their tables were bigger than the other years.

In place of the tiger a stone Killibian otter Head appeared. "Clay Sa'har, Pallas!"

The Killibian otter head remained and shouted. "Roxanna Sarkul, Pallas!"

Still the tiger remained. "Lucy Luna Shepherd, Cadell!"

And the tiger remained in placed. "Gabriela Silver, Cadell!"

The tiger seemed quite pleased with itself as it remained for the last name of this group. "Troy Silverstone, Cadell!"

The four of them appeared at Will's table, the boys on his side and the girls facing him and quickly took their seats.

"See I knew we would all get into the same group," Troy told them.

"You were worried...you told me," Alex teased.

"Lucy...we got into the same estate," Jessica said leaning in front of Selena so that she would be seen.

"Well I think we did that quite well," Selena said.

"She makes it out as though we planned it like this," Troy said shaking his head.

"Yeah, but we all did want to be in the same estate, so in a way we did," Will told them smiling knowingly.

"I wanted to be in Cadell," Lucy told them.

"That's because your family are all in it," Troy told her.

She looked around the table but couldn't see her cousins. "Actually, this year, I'm the only one. But truthfully, I liked the colour of the uniforms for this estate; we get red,"

"Of course we do," Troy said shaking his head, not believing that was the only reason why she wanted to be in this estate.

"I forgot about that part," Alex said, as he had kind of forgotten that they get a separate day uniform.

"It'll be fine, everyone else has to wear them as well," Will told them, hoping that it was true.

A couple more groups on and the last of this group, the stone tiger appeared and shouted. "Ethan Edward Tormond, Cadell!"

He appeared at their table and they all stared at him as he took his seat near to a boy called Philip.

"Ethan...then why did you tell us to call you Eddie?" Lucy asked annoyed and kind of confused.

"Well...err...I guess...everyone at my last school called it me..." Eddie told them.

"Easy there Lu...what she means...what do you really want us to call you?" Troy told him.

"Eddie's fine," he assured them all.

"There we go, relax Lu," Troy told her. "Or we'll start calling you Luna again,”

Lucy knew that they wouldn't really call her that, not that it really bothered her, but she would pretend that it did to make them think that they had something over her, she liked to tease them like that. "Whatever,"

More names were called and placed into different estates; they were just thinking that they weren't getting anyone from this group, even though there were still empty seats at their table, when the stone tiger appeared. "Methos Validus, Cadell!"

Methos appeared at their table as whispers broke out, the tables behind them all seemed to get quite excited by this.

"What's going on?" Alex asked wondering if he had missed something important, which he could have, as its happened before. "Are you famous?"

"Is your dad a teacher?" Lucy asked before she could stop herself.

"Do you have to keep doing that?" Troy asked her annoyed. "If you know stuff, you're supposed to let us in on it as well..."

"I can’t tell you a lot of stuff that I'm not really supposed to," Lucy told him pouting a little.

"Yeap, that's my dad up there." Methos told them, pointing up at the top table at a man in his thirties with long brown hair tied back.

"Wow...what does he teacher?" Alex asked impressed.

"Transformations," Methos told them. "And his best mate, is the guy next to him; Professor Ordin Domnus, he teachers Defence,"

"The dark guy?" Troy asked.

Will looked up at the two men, sure that he had seen them before, which he might have considering how many people his dad had worked with over the years.

"I bet that you've already learnt loads of stuff right...I'm so jealous," Lucy said as she didn’t like to be out done.

"I know, tell me about it," Selena said next to her.

The last of the groups were called out, Libby also getting into Cadell, which she was quite pleased about considering that everyone she had met so far were also in that estate, though she didn't like that she couldn’t really sit next to them with how they had all been placed.

All the stone heads moved back into place and returned to their normal size along the top of that side of the wall they had all come through; and then a door appeared and Professor Eldamar walked through and straight up to the teachers table, right along to the empty spot next to the man that had stood making the students fall silent at his appearance.

He was an older man, with purplish dark hair, and dressed in metallic blue robes with a rich blue suit underneath; he cleared his throat before he began. "Good evening, and welcome to Burnaby Advanced School of Magical Arts; I am your Headmaster, Professor Asher Odin. I want to thank you all for being so patient this year, as you must have realised, our first year group is much larger than normal, due to the events on Earth at this time. This year will be a little different, as there are more students at the school and as I mentioned with the events unfolding on Earth; if any of you have any problems or questions with what is happening, all you have to do is speak to either your head of estate, or you can come to me. My door is always open to you all. Now, for a few introductions for our first years. The head of estates; Pallas, Professor Promise Kendra, one of our Charms and Language teachers." A young woman in her twenties stood, she had long curly blond hair and was wearing a cream short sleeved shirt and a black skirt. “As you've already met, Professor George Eldamar, Deputy Head, Head of Disa and he also teaches Defence." Eldamar briefly stood up again and then sat back down. "Cadell, Professor Adrian Hunter, who also teaches Defence." He stood up slowly from next to Methos' dad, he was also only in his late twenties; and quite handsome dressed in a basic shirt with a waist coat and tie. "Clarus, Professor Rose Haregrave; she teaches Runes and Numology." She stood up and waved at the students smiling, she was older than the others with short greying hair, and was wearing a long flowery dress. "Punga, Professor Roden Prewitt; he teaches History...a very important subject, especially at the moment." A man two seats over from Haregrave stood up briefly and then quickly sat back down; he was probably about the same age as she was and was wearing a worn brown suite. "And Lastly, Garmond, Professor Otar Ravenal; he teaches Transformations." Three seats down from Hunter another man stood up, he was taller than them all and looked as though he worked out with his shirt barely stretching over his muscles.

"Oh my god...have you seen the size of that guy," Libby whispered, but they all heard her because the hall was so quiet.

Troy, Alex and Will all lent across the table, as did Lucy, as they all wanted to see as well.

"So...what do you think he is?" Alex asked.

Lucy pretending to look as though she was thinking, not wanting to be the first one to say anything, mainly because she was already drawing too much attention to herself, she didn’t need them knowing the truth; she would be in so much trouble if they found out.

"Werewolf," Troy said excitedly.

"They're allowed to teach here?" Jessica asked worriedly, as she found them kind of scary, the idea of a person being able to change into a wild animal.

"Of course," Lucy answered dismissively.

"He could be," Will agreed, as he thought that he was big enough to be one.

Lucy shook her head, as she couldn’t believe that they hadn’t figured it out yet, and it wasn’t like she couldn’t say it, they’ve guessed already. "Demon,"

"Considering how big he is...he could be a werebear," Alex said, wanting to be right for a change. "Troy's dad said that he works with one, and he's huge,"

"You mean Jonny?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, that's the name," Alex said.

"How do you even remember all of these things?" Troy said shaking his head at her.

"Now, you all know who your heads of estates are if you ever need anything, they are all here to help you," Professor Odin continued. "There's just one more important rule that I must tell you before we eat. Every student and teacher at this school and within the Alliance Worlds, and of course out; should all be treated with the same respect. We are all equals, no one is better than anyone else, no matter what sort of back ground, race or family they come from. In this school, everyone is excepted for who he or she is; and it is one of the agreements that we all take when we enter this school. First years especially, I know that this time is hard for you, especially those who have come from non-magical backgrounds, but we ask of you to keep an open mind to the races that you will encounter during your stay. Just as those who come from magical backgrounds keep an open mind about you. Now, enough said for now; we have all waited long enough...it's time to eat."

Before any of them could ask where any of the food was coming from, the tables filled with platters full of every type of food you could think of, including some that they have never seen before. They all filled their plates with whatever they wanted and ate, forgetting for a while to speak until they seemed to realise that the food wasn't going anywhere, in fact it would refill itself once emptied or change into another dish; even some desert dishes appeared on the table.

"This is so cool!" Philip said as he grabbed more food. "Do you think that we'll be eating like this every night?"

"That's a good question," Alex answered as he poured himself a drink.

"No...I don't think so...my sisters said that we only all get together for special nights," Troy told them. "At least they told me something,"

"See you did know something," Lucy teased.

"How do you all know each other?" Philip asked.

"We all went to school together," Will told him.

"At least I'm not the only one from a normal family," Libby shouted down the table.

"What's normal mean?" Selena asked. "We all consider ourselves normal,"

"You know what she means," Jessica said. "And anyway...I come from a mixed family...but that doesn't mean that I know everything about all of this,"

"We probably know more than we should," Troy said smirking.

"Yeah, thanks to Lu..." Alex agreed.

"What my house isn't good enough?" Will asked mockingly.

"You know what we mean...she lives here," Troy said.

"And her house is huge," Alex added.

"I know...what's with that...there isn't any other house in the area that big?” Jessica asked.

"Oh..." Troy said wiggling his finger at Lucy. "That's not very nice...she's supposed to be your best friend,"

"It's my dads fault," Lucy told him.

"He is strict," Alex agreed.

"What?" Jessica asked confused.

Lucy turned to Jessica. "You know that there's other safe worlds...whatever...anyway, that's what they mean,"

The three of them burst out laughing at her.

"That’s not...even an answer..." Troy told her.

"Whatever...I'll explain in our room later," Lucy told them.

"I want to know about these other worlds as well," Libby told them.

"What do you mean...other worlds?" Philip asked somewhat interested but also distracted by all of the food. "You can't really mean other planets?"

None of them said anything, which really answered his question more than actually saying anything.

"That's not possible," Philip said not convinced at all, and just thought that they were playing a joke on him. "We were on a ship...on the sea...not a space ship..."

Methos leant over the table and said loudly. "You might as well just tell them that we're all aliens,"