Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! (10 page)

We threw the flounder around to each other
and ran around attempting Spells on them, all were moderately
unsuccessful. Then it started getting dark and cold. In the school
were warm orange glows of fire as people retired to their common
room for the night, or perhaps had some dinner in the lovely warm
chamber. We, carried on all night, running around the pitch with
those blue and red founders. How ridiculous we must have
looked.

“This is how we will line up tomorrow,” said
Partington holding a large sheet of paper with the ink moving
around. “Hunter, you’re
Guardian,
that means you keep back
near our bolt-hole at all times and protect it. Robin, far left,
Avis far right…” I didn’t know if this was good or not so just
nodded. “Jess and Florence down the middle attack, and Jake and
Gret centre…”

We had no idea really, I think he put Joanna
at the front because she’s kind of wild. Jake and Gret together in
the middle because they are pretty tough. Hunter at the back
because he’s useless. And me on the right because I’m kinda quick?
I don’t know. Literally, I had no idea how tomorrow would pan
out.

We all trudged to the Chamber, grabbed a
plate of dinner and took it to our dorm room. I saw David Starlight
grinning at me, bloody idiot.

We all sat around the fire in silence. I
nearly fell asleep with a sandwich in my mouth, thinking about the
game tomorrow just made me feel sick. I already had a thumping
headache and needed a shower. Then, on the table, this pile of
sheets appeared.

“Oh no!” cried Robin. “It’s the bloody
homework from Straker!”

I’d forgotten, we all had! The clock chimed
for midnight, and we all moaned.

“Let’s just do it as quick as possible, even
if it’s rubbish at least we can say we did it.” I said and they all
kind of agreed, although I think they would have preferred to go
straight to sleep.

The questions Straker had set us were so
hard! He’d done it on purpose of course, but what a sneaky guy! My
eyes were drooping as I wrote the last sentence. Hunter was already
asleep on the sofa, and Graham’s handwriting was barely legible.
Just as I was about to get undressed and climb into bed, there was
a tiny knock at the door. The other guys were asleep and Robin was
nodding off, his ink pot dangerously close to spilling all over
him. Tina poked her head round the door, saw me and grinned. My
stomach did a strange flip, I rubbed my eyes for fear I was
dreaming.

“Fancy joining me?” she said grinning her
perfect grin.

I couldn't say no could I? Not to Tina, this
brilliant girl that had occupied my thoughts almost entirely for
the last three weeks, so I cranked myself out of the seat and
tapped Robin. He looked around with big bloodshot eyes, saw Tina at
the door and stood instantly like a soldier standing to
attention.

At the door she inspected us. “Are you sure
you’re ok? You both look knackered!”

“We’re fine…” I said smiling. “Where are we
joining you?”

“You’ll see…” me and Robin followed her
sleepily along the corridors, I kept stumbling, my legs felt like
jelly and Robin nearly walked into a suit of armour. “What’s up
with you two?” she said, pulling Robin upright.

“We’ve been playing Riptide all day…
shattered…” said Robin.

“Oh, well, if you would prefer to go back to
bed that’s fine.”

“No!” me and Robin chorused.

“We want to be here, believe me,” I said.
Some part of me had wished that she’d have picked a better day to
go off gallivanting round the school at night. But this was
Tina.

Robin began peering through his glasses as we
went deeper into corridors. “Where are we going?” he said.

“Aha, here we are…” she said, as we stopped
outside these large wooden, double doors.

“The Library?” said Robin sounding
disappointed that he was missing out on sleep to go to the
Library.

“Yes, the Library. It has books and things,
first years aren't allowed in without supervision, but… I am sure
there is a book in here which has all the information I need
about…” She looked around, then leaned in closer. “…
my
quest
. It’s just finding it that’s difficult, so you guys need
to help me look.”

“But…” I said. “We’re not allowed in the
Library, what if they catch us?”

“What if, what if. Do you want to help me or
not?” she said with a stern look.

Me and Robin nodded. Tina put her hand to the
lock and whispered something that sounded like
Percival
. The
door swung open silently and we trotted inside. Moonlight lit the
dark, dusty room. I say room, it was more of a cathedral in size.
As long and far as you could possibly see. In the middle of the
room was a small river, with bridges going over all the way along.
I’d never seen a Library with a river in it before. Tina clicked
the door shut behind us and marched in. The bookcases were so high
there were ladders a hundred feet tall, if not bigger. You wouldn’t
get me up one of them.

“Oh bums, this is a lot bigger than I thought
it would be…” said Tina, marching around.

The hunt was unsuccessful, Tina grew
increasingly frustrated as we all searched for this mystery book.
Me and Robin were searching blind. We had no idea what we were
looking for.

Robin began leafing through one book and
said. “Wow, this books got Spells in it. There’s a Spell here that
blocks Magic attacks!”

“What?” I said. “Pass me that book.”

Robin chucked it down to me and I read. It
said this Spell would block most basic Magic, including Illusions,
Hexes and Spells.

Dancidios
was the Spell-blocker.

“Robin, Spell me!” I said. “Let’s try it
out.”

Robin raised his hands at me.
“Pasanthedine!”

The tornado swirled towards me.
“
Dancidios
!” I said. And as it tried to yank my leg up, this
giant black paw batted the tornado away, as if it was an annoying
gnat.

“Woah!” we both said.

“OI!” called Tina from a long way off. “You
didn’t just do what I think you did, did you?” She said, suddenly
appearing stony faced. “Because this Library has Anti-Spell alarms
after hours…”

“Whoops…” I said.

Tina swore loudly. We didn’t know that did
we? She hadn’t told us. “But you Spelled the lock on the door?” I
said as she began marching to the river in the middle of the
Library.

“That was outside! You idiots! Bloody idiots!
You’ve ruined it!” She climbed into one of the little boats and
unhooked it from the side. “Get in!” There was a rumbling and
echoing of running footsteps outside. People were coming. I stepped
into the boat as fast as my jelly legs would allow. “HURRY!” she
pulled me into the boat and shoved an oar in my arms.

“Row!” she said.

Me and Robin rowed, the boat cut through the
water silently and under three bridges before we sailed into what
looked like a big, round, black hole. Underneath the corridors of
the school. I, to tell you the truth, was terrified. As we went
into the pitch darkness and out of the moonlit Library, we heard
these deep voices echoing round in the cavernous room behind
us.

- “Intruders, in the Library!”

- “Spells and Magic has been done.”

- “Send for the Magisteers and Ghosts, we
need to do a head count, see who is out of bed.”

Tina leaned across to us in the impending
darkness and whispered. “Row faster, we need to get back to our
beds before they do.”

We did, we rowed and rowed hard. My heart was
beating fast, the adrenaline pushing my arms forwards. If I was
sleepy before then I was fully awake now. Robin was panting hard
next to me. The roof above us was low and dripped water, or
whatever it was, on my head.

“Ouch!” Robin yelped as his head made a
crunching sound as it collided with the low roof.

“Quiet!” Tina snapped. We had no idea where
the boat was going, only Tina seemed to know.

“Stop here,” she said. “You two get out,
touch the wall, there should be an opening.” Robin fumbled around,
with Tina tutting, and managed to find these slippery stone steps.
I was really wobbly getting out of the boat, but with Tina’s sharp
hisses giving directions, my feet found solid ground.

“Where are you going?” I said as she began
rowing off.

“That’s the nearest entrance to your dorm.
Mine’s up here. Speak later
idiots
.”

And that was it, she disappeared into the
blackness. Robin began slipping up the dark steps, he nearly bloody
slipped and fell in that water too. I wouldn’t have been able to
even save him because I could see nothing. God knows what was in
that water! But when we walked up through that cold, pressing
darkness Robin only walked ten steps before whispering:

“Found it…” He was looking through a small
grate. Through it, I could see sinks and cubicles. It was the boys
bathroom, right near our dorm! Tina sure knew what she was doing.
Robin pushed the metal grate away and we squeezed out of the gap as
quickly as we could, pushing the heavy grate back into place.

Then we legged it back to our dorm. As we
rounded the corner, I could hear footsteps and voices coming
quickly from behind. We jumped into our room, closed the door and
got back into bed, with all our wet clothes on, just in time.
Because as soon as my head hit the pillow, we heard voices outside
the door. Then it opened. A dull glowing bluish light fell into the
room.

“That’s all my lot accounted for…” said
Partington’s soft sleepy voice. Then the ghost that must have been
with him muttered in suspicious agreement.

And then, I fell into a blissful, yet short
sleep.

When we awoke the next morning, big yellow
and black shirts with names on, hung at the end of our beds. For
one glorious second I thought it was Christmas and a big stocking
awaited me filled with glorious goodies. But then, as the
sleepiness slid away I came back to reality and realised what they
were. I heard some of the boys talking, I just wanted ten more
minutes sleep.

“Do we wear them down to breakfast?” said
Graham.

“No,” said Jake. “If we win then we will wear
them to dinner.”

I sat up bleary eyed about twenty minutes
later feeling no better. Robin sat up and we exchanged sympathetic
looks. The others had gone down to breakfast already.

“We were that close to being caught,” I said,
going over to poke the fire. My legs and sides were burning.

“That was too close for comfort,” Robin said
before chewing his lip anxiously. “Hey, are you a bit nervous about
today?” he was fumbling with the yellow shirt on his bed.

“Yeah,” I said, usually I would never admit
my weakness as my parents would always tell me, but I was
petrified. Butterflies were multiplying and churning somewhere deep
in my stomach.

“Me too,” said Robin, looking a deep shade of
green.

Partington was so nervous about the Riptide
game we had to calm
him
down. Our classroom was full of
nervous pacing, and farty noises. At eleven-thirty it was time to
make our way down to the pitch. The whole school was already in the
stadium. We had watched them making their way over there. We got
dressed into our shirts, mine was overlarge as usual and resembled
a baggy nighty. Hunters didn’t fit at all and threatened to burst
at the seams, and Robin’s was so baggy and small he looked like a
stick insect in a dress.

“They could have took our sizes!” said Dawn,
who looked to be struggling to breath.

“Mine fits beautifully,” said Dennis, doing a
pirouette.

Partington led us out of the safety of the
classroom, through the deserted school and towards the pitch. I
felt like my innards could fall out at any moment and I hadn’t
eaten anything. I just couldn't. The girls were really quiet and
huddled together like cold penguins. And then, sooner than
possible, we were standing in this long, dark tunnel waiting to go
out. I could hear the crowd roaring. I felt like crying. Robin’s
face was a darker shade of green than the pitch. Graham and Simon
looked grave, and both starred at the ground. Gret and Jake had
their heads together in a baying silent prayer or something. Hunter
was trying to crack jokes but no one was listening.

A tall thickset woman dressed all in black,
came up and began searching us one by one with a long probe.

“I’m Magisteer Underwood, the referee. I’m
just searching you all for restricted weapons and Spells,” she
announced, running her hands all over the place, which felt quite
undignified.

Then, she signalled for us to go out. This
was it. Butterflies in my stomach doubled, tripled, then flapped
around at a furious pace. And I needed the toilet. Again. But it
was too late now. Joanna was at the front and began leading us out
onto that chequered pitch to a tumultuous roar. The sound was
deafening, it kind of hit you making your ears squeal. All around
us were faces and eyes. Some part of me felt like this was some
massive trick and at some point they would say ‘
hold up guys,
it’s only a joke your not really playing… that would horrible and
mean of us… go back inside in the warm.’
But that didn’t
happen. The sky was dark and cloudy and moisture hung in the air.
The crowd were wrapped up warm in robes and scarves as I stood,
jealous, in a baggy yellow dress with my teeth chattering against
the cold.

Partington was waiting for us at the side of
the pitch and began yelling to us over the noise. “Take your
positions… and ready yourselves.”

What positions? This was really happening.
And none of us really knew what to do or expect. I walked over to
the right side of the pitch, over the chequered squares. I could
hear a section of the crowd calling my name.

“
Avis… Avis… Are you really a Blackthorn
Avis
?” I didn’t look up, but it sounded like my brother and all
his friends, before large swathes of the crowd began to join in.
The Stadium looked bigger now it was full of people, eyes from
everywhere watched and judged, almost sensing our ineptitude before
we’d even started.