The next morning, the Murrays and the Yateses awoke at ten o'clock, had breakfast, helped Tristan, Kelsey, and Sadie gather all their newly bought school things, and prepared to leave Orthogon Avenue. Mr. Yates had awoken earlier in the morning, explaining later, "I received an important owl from the Administration, and since I was in Orthogon Avenue, I volunteered to help." He returned in time for breakfast with two huge trunks for all of Sadie and Kelsey's uniforms and supplies.
Sadie had a hunch that the trunks themselves were magical; even when she put all of the things she had purchased the day before within the trunk, she still had plenty of room to spare. But packing all her things in one big trunk didn't make transporting the goliath of a suitcase any easier.
"Normally, we wouldn't take the car here," Tristan said, obviously quite bothered that he was forced into manual labor by technicality. "Not only is it ten times as fast, we also don't have to worry about dragging these things around."
The most awkward part for Sadie was carrying the trunks from the wizard restroom of the Whitney Inn on the of Orthogon Avenue side into the Muggle side of the Whitney Plaza Hotel restroom. Sadie tried as hard as she could not to be embarrassed trying to squeeze the huge trunk through the bathroom stall door while a pompous woman, who had previously been applying lipstick, now stared at Sadie in confusion. This made Sadie confident her face was as red as the woman's lipstick when she finally got the trunk through and marched out of the restroom, Timber hooting furiously from his cage in Sadie's other hand. Their awkward parade through the lobby of the hotel wasn't much better; Sadie could have sworn a security guard wanted to throw them out, but was too confused to figure out on what grounds to do so.
The same valet boy from the day before was working, and Mr. Yates handed him their parking ticket. Sadie almost felt sorry that they kept exposing the poor boy to such oddity, but eventually he brought the Ford Fiesta from the garage. Sadie could only imagine what the valet thought as they somehow easily fit the three tremendous trunks into the rear of the car, as nine people comfortably into the interior, not to mention when the rickety thing blew away down the street at an insurmountable speed.
"So where exactly do you live?" Sadie asked Kelsey after they had seen the last signs of Manhattan fading quickly into the distance, the adults talking amongst themselves while Tristan scribbled Quodpot strategies in a notebook.
"A place called the South Ridge, in Michigan. One of the larger wizard neighbourhoods in the country."
"They have wizard neighbourhoods?" Sadie exclaimed. She imagined a suburbia with witches and wizards wandering everywhere, objects floating through the air, and strange things happening at every corner.
"Yeah, wizards just tend to want to be around each other. Living around Muggles is pretty weird. My family only knows so much about Muggles because my mom's an advocate for them. She really believes in Muggle rights, and thinks that we wizards should blend in with their society." This launched Kelsey's mother on to the topic of Muggle and magical cooperation between the adults.
"It's nothing special really though," Kelsey continued. "Just a country town that's shared with Muggles. The community applied to the Admin. once to become an actual town, but the Admin. denied the request. But since the town is pretty spread out and small, we can act more normal around each other. Well, normal for wizards, anyway."
"Are there a lot of wizard communities?" Sadie queried.
"Tons here in America," Tristan said, tapping his quill on the paper, which made the plays that he had drawn go into motion. "Never anywhere big. Always country towns, but there are several communities all across the states, usually where most of the wizards come from. There are wizard villages, where only wizards live, completely separate from Muggles. A lot of my friends live in an all-wizard village in Texas, and another large village in Montana. There are a few smaller ones in Alaska and Washington too, I think."
"You never hear much about those, since they're all-wizard towns," chimed in Mr. Yates while driving. "The ones that get publicity are the wizarding communities, since they're so much closer to Muggles. More chance to get in trouble, I suppose. South Ridge in Michigan, a couple in California and Colorado... there are plenty of wizard communities. There are many more in the New England area. That's the oldest wizarding region in the United States."
The world was streaking past the car windows at unfathomable speed. Sadie had a mounting unhappiness growing in her. It was only the twenty-first of July. Term at Salem, or so the letter read, didn't begin until September first. Saide was going to have to sit around and wait for over a month before she'd have any exposure to the wizarding world again. She looked down at Tristan's Quodpot journal of strategies, but quickly realized it was magical, which only made her feel worse.
As if she could read minds, Kelsey said, "Don't worry Sadie. I know you like this kind of life. Don't worry - summer is only a month longer."
"One month too long," Sadie admitted.
"I feel the same way, don't you worry."
"But you are a witch. You're around magic all the time. You aren't stuck in a house all day with nothing to do," Sadie lamented.
"You're right, my mom's always making me do chores!" Kelsey whined with a sarcastically loud sigh. Sadie couldn't help but laugh. "Really Sadie, it's not that great for me. I only know a couple spells, and even then, I'm not supposed to use them - it's illegal."
"Oh yeah... I almost forgot that you weren't allowed," Sadie mentioned. Maybe it wasn't much better for Kelsey, she thought to herself.
"But I'll write you all summer, and you can see if Timber will figure out how to deliver messages." To this remark, Timber, who seemed quite uncomfortable spending the car ride on the floor in his cage, hooted angrily. "That way we can still talk while we're waiting for school. Then, in one month," Kelsey held up a single symbolic finger, "we'll be at Salem! I can't wait for term to start!" she cheered.
"Speaking of which, Kelsey," Mrs. Yates mentioned to Kelsey, dropping her previous conversation, "you're grounded until the start of term."
"What?! Why?!" Kelsey hollered, taken aback.
"You used magic and showed it to a Muggle! It's illegal!"
"Grandma told you about that, huh?" Kelsey murmured guiltily.
"Yes, and just because you slipped passed the Administration doesn't mean you're going to get by me."
"Crap," groaned Kelsey, as Sadie choked back a laugh as Kelsey's mother told Kelsey to watch her language. Maybe the month won't be so bad.
Once they returned to Trail Lake, at the end of Mayflower Circle, the Yateses let the Murrays off at their house. Jayne was returned to her personal heaven of cell phone reception, but not before a strict lecture from both Mr. and Mrs. Yates about keeping the wizard world a secret. They warned her that the Administration had all sorts of punishments for tattle tells, and Mr. Yates turned Sadie's messenger bag into a live pig to scare Jayne into keeping quiet before reverting it. The act was very effective.
Leah didn't want to leave, but after the Yateses all exchanged hugs with her and Sadie, they got back into their car. Sadie thought that she would wait outside to watch the Yateses rickety car drive away down the street. But she forgot how fast the car moved, and in the time it took to blink, the car squealed its tires and was gone.
Truth be told, just as Kelsey had said, the rest of Sadie's summer wasn't so bad. The worst part was when her parents removed her from her Muggle elementary school. This wasn't very difficult at all though; Sadie was supposed to be transferring from her elementary school into a sixth grade middle school, so it was not too difficult to say that she was going to school in a different town.
In the meantime, Sadie had been trying to get Timber to trust her. She continued to feed him regularly, though he never seemed happy. He made a particular effort to hoot loudly when Sadie was asleep. Eventually, she let him out of his cage on a couple of occasions. But he took to flying around the room crazily, and eventually started taking things in his talons and throwing them around the room, usually toward Sadie's head.
Slowly over the course of the month, after letting him out of his cage more often, and trying to pet him, he stopped pecking and scratching Sadie as often. One night, Sadie let Timber out of her window, and he flew away into the night. She was worried he might not come back, but the next morning he returned, placing a dead and bloody rat in her hand, apparently as a gift.
The entire time Sadie spent at home, Kelsey wrote her letters, which were delivered by a brown owl with a very white, flat face that looked as if it had ran into a wall at some point. The message would be attached to its leg each time by some string. Kelsey said in her letters that its name was Harold. Once in a while, Harold would try to take one of Timber's mice after a long flight, and they began to scuffle until Sadie broke it up, earning herself many scratches.
Harold would always wait for Sadie to write a reply to Kelsey's letters until Sadie finally worked up the nerve to let Timber try to transport one. He made the trip successfully, and Kelsey wrote an excited reply. By this time, Harold and Timber had become more friendly, and would escort each other to transport the replies back and forth, though they still would fight over mice.
Kelsey continued to apologize in every letter for not having anything interesting to say. Her mother had charmed the doors that lead out of the house to stay locked all the time, and Kelsey couldn't open them without using a counterspell.
I found the counterspell in that book we have for school, The Standard Book of Spells. But when I tried to use, it I melted the doorknob, which only got me in more trouble. Sadie couldn't help but laugh as Kelsey kept getting herself into more trouble being so eager to practice, mostly because Sadie, herself, could sympathize.
Kelsey also found out why she didn't get in trouble with the Administration.
My mom told me that they use a special enchantment that can detect underage magic anywhere. They put it on all wizards when they're born. You weren't born in any sort of wizarding family, so the enchantment didn't affect you, which is why they didn't detect you. I didn't get caught because they can detect where the spell was cast, but not who it was cast by. Since it was my grandma's house, and we all can use magic, they would be clueless as to who actually cast it. Then my mother mentioned that since you actually are a witch, you didn't apply to the law as being a Muggle, and I didn't break the Statute of Secrecy. I wish that would get me ungrounded though. Where's the justice?
All this talk about spells and magic convinced Sadie to delve into her books, which took up a lot of her time. She had been drawing a lot in her new magical sketchbook, but she knew that there was a trick to it, and thought she might be able to find a spell that would make the drawing move like the package it came in said it could. But there were so many spells, charms, hexes, jinxes, and enchantments in the Standard Book Of Spells that she eventually gave up. She thought it was probably for the best, since casting any sort of spell was technically illegal.
Sadie had been receiving an unusual amount of attention from her family since the trip to Orthogon and the visit of the witch, Professor Ellicot. Leah constantly followed Sadie, attempting to catch a glimpse of a spell. Jayne would still ignore her, but would do so in a way that showed she acknowledged her existence. Sadie figured that Jayne just didn't want to get turned into a pig. Sadie and her dad spent a lot of time together, since he knew she would be leaving for such a long time. The only person who refused to pay Sadie any attention was her mother, who had begun so vehemently ignoring her it was almost frightening. She cooked meals for only four people now, and even once locked Sadie's bedroom window when she knew Sadie was on the roof.
When she had a chance, which was more often than not, Sadie would walk down Mayflower Drive to Ms. Yates' house and join her in cooking a meal or just talking. She felt a lot more attached to Ms. Yates after the whole experience she had in becoming a witch, and saw her almost as a grandmother to herself as well as Kelsey. She had a lot of fun making meals when Ms. Yates used her magic.
All in all, it seemed like a mere fortnight before Sadie glanced at the calendar in her room that showed only one day before the Yates arrived at her home to take her to the Salem Institute of Magical Learning.
Sadie woke up very early the morning she was due to depart to Salem. She got dressed immediately, and when she saw herself in the mirror, she looked like she was glowing, as she was that fateful day in July. She had never remembered a time when she had ever been as happy as she felt this morning. She returned to her trunk, filled to the brim with clothes and school supplies, and found her letter to pore over the third page of parchment from Salem as she had been doing earnestly for weeks.
The Salem Institute
of Magical Learning
_______________________________________
Transportation
All students are required to report to the nearest national train station, as posted, at the appropriated times for their respective area of the country (all information seen below). They will board the school-operated train, The Salem Express, at Gate 7, as appropriately marked on the ticket that accompanies this letter. Ticket officials at the train stations will be Institute officials, and will be announcing for a train to Salem, Massachusetts. All times listed are final, and if the student does not arrive by the indicated time, the train WILL leave without them.
Pacific Northwest - King Street Station, Seattle, WA (8:00 A.M.)
Pacific Southwest - Union Station, Los Angeles, CA (10:00 A.M.)
Gulf Coast - Union Station, Dallas, TX (12:00 P.M.)
Great Lakes - Union Station, Chicago, IL (2:00 P.M.)
Atlantic - Grand Central Station, New York City, NY (4:00 P.M.)
New England - South Station, Boston, MA (6:00 P.M.)
The train is expected to arrive in Pride's Crossing Station in the town of Gallows Hill by 7:00 P.M. Students will then be escorted by carriage to The Salem Institute of Magical Learning. (You may want to italicize the letter, depending on what you have done in the past)
Waiting until two in the afternoon seemed to be appallingly cruel torture; why couldn't the train arrive sooner, Sadie wondered. But Sadie was more than willing to be patient. Her wildest dream was to leave from that train station, and she would be there, beaming, boarding that train with her best friend. She could ask for nothing more.
Her mother's building animosity for Sadie had mounted into a crescendo of derision. She refused to even make breakfast today. But besides her mother's unscrupulous anger for the day's events, the rest of Sadie's family seemed unusually happy. Leah didn't bother Sadie at all, instead following in Sadie's wake admiringly. Her father had cooked a delicious breakfast instead, and Jayne joined, carrying conversation with Sadie, though Sadie was sure she could hear some of her mother in Jayne's tone at times.
It was a wonderful day, and as a testament to her last day at home before proceeding to Salem, Sadie decided she would climb the roof once more and draw. She drew the cul-de-sac, every house in its place, from the sky, looking down diagonally. She put special emphasis on Kelsey's grandmother's house. During her work, Ms. Yates herself continued her tradition of morning walks, and waved at Sadie happily from the street. Sadie added Ms. Yates to her picture, no longer as the quirky old lady from down the road, but as a wonderful, happy woman, waving merrily.
Slowly but surely, the hours passed, only mounting Sadie's excitement. She could hardly keep still, and kept herself busy by playing catch with Leah in the backyard, who continued to ask her to throw the ball with magic.
A pitiful sounding car horn issued a honk from the front of the house. It could be none other than the Ford Fiesta and the Yates! Sadie caught Leah's pitch, raced to her, giving her a huge hug, and carried her a short way to the back door. She put Leah down and broke into a run toward the front door, where her father had just let Mr. Yates and Kelsey in. Kelsey stood next to her father, waving and smiling broadly, obviously with the same excitement that Sadie felt.
Sadie began to make a full run toward the staircase to get her luggage before Mr. Yates stopped her. "Oh, no need - stay Sadie. There's no rush. We have an hour and Tristan is getting some of his Quodpot supplies from my mother's house. I'll get your things." Mr. Yates gave a flick of his wand.
Before Sadie could question what Mr. Yates was doing, she saw that her luggage was flying down the staircase, with Timber accompanying it, screeching angrily after being woken from a nap. For a moment she thought, in a fit of excitement, Leah ran upstairs and pushed Sadie's things down the stairs to help get her trunk to the car. But in fact, the luggage was drifting through the air magically. It came to the bottom of the staircase, turned the corned toward the front door, and landed calmly on the ground. Timber seemed to realize whatever threat there was had dissipated, and closed his eyes again, while Kelsey laughed, apparently quite used to this.
They hauled the luggage out to the car where Kelsey's mother was shifting Tristan and Kelsey's trunks in the rear of the car for more room. Sadie's family, even her mother, though quite adamantly, followed into the front yard. Leah begged for Mr. Yates to make the luggage fly to the car.
"But we wouldn't want your neighbours to see that now, would we?" he kidded with a smile. After much coaxing, they finally forced Sadie's trunk in, along with Tristan's new supplies, including a large carrying case that looked as if it was made for a guitar.
Sadie turned to face her family, who all stood to wish her farewell. She gave Leah a hug first. "You be good. Don't get into too much trouble." Then she exchanged an even larger hug with her father.
"I should say the same to you," he said happily. "I love you, Sadie. I'm so proud."
Jayne seemed reluctant when Sadie approached her, but Sadie gave her full hug all the same. Sadie couldn't remember the last time that she and Jayne hugged, but after a moment, Jayne returned the hug.
All that was left was her mother, who was refusing to even look toward Sadie. She stood rooted to the spot as if showing her contempt for the situation would make Sadie change her mind. Exactly because of her mother's attitude, Sadie gave her the biggest hug out of her whole family. She could barely suppress a laugh as she felt her seething, angry mother in her arms, who only gave her a slight pat on the back.
And with a few final last-minute goodbyes, Kelsey, Sadie, and the rest of the Yates entered the small magical car. They gave one final wave before the car started, and with a bang, blasted down the street at full speed, leaving Mayflower Drive instantly behind.
They were flying through crazily through the neighborhood streets, a back and forth like a ship in choppy waters. Kelsey squealed giddily, "I can't wait! I can't wait!"
"I'm telling you, you'll be regretting your words by the day after tomorrow," warned Tristan. "First week of homework isn't going to be a pushover."
"Hush, Tristan," defended Ms. Yates. "It'll be glorious, Kelsey. I promise."
"Believe me, Tristan couldn't dampen my hopes if he tried!" she said, sticking out her tongue at him. "When does the train leave again?"
"Two o'clock, exactly," Sadie recited almost instinctively, bouncing impatiently in her seat.
"How are you feeling, Sadie?" Mr. Yates asked.
"I can't wait! I really can't wait."
"That's the spirit. You'll get the full experience, I tell you. It's one thing for a wizard to go to Salem, but I can only imagine how amazing it is for a muggle going to Salem."
The car wove back and forth through the neighbourhoods, no doubt slowly making its way toward downtown Chicago and Union Station. After her two rides in the car, Sadie had already formed a casualness to the crazy, disorienting ride, and sat calmly and still in her seat like the other Yates. The blurred suburbs began to dissipate, being replaced by more urbanized buildings, until what seemed like mere minutes later they had passed into the downtown. Only a moment longer were they moving; they suddenly screeched to a stop discreetly parked in a parking garage near the station.
Sadie placed Timber's cage atop her trunk, and guiding the cart her luggage sat on, followed the Yates, who helped Kelsey keep her cat, Gatsby, calm as he ran back and forth in side his cage excitedly. They entered Union Station through the main entrance, proceeding directly toward the trains.
"Okay, everyone get their tickets out and ready," Mr. Yates advised.
"How is it that Muggles don't end up on this train too?" Sadie asked.
"Simplicity. The train is one way to Salem, and you need a special ticket to get on."
"But wouldn't it be really easy for a Muggle to board the train by accident."
"Not really. Come on, Sadie, whether you're a Muggle or a wizard, this is America. Hardly anybody rides the trains anymore. Muggles take them only when they have to now, they see them as inefficient. But we wizards think they're quite useful." True to his word, there weren't a tremendous lot of people making their way to the trains that were resting in the station. They followed a set of stairs down to platform seven.
Sitting on the rails, was a huge steam engine that looked like it had been transported through time. The engine itself was painted with blue and red, and lined with silver and gold, with a nameplate on front with white writing appropriately read THE SALEM EXPRESS.
Many Muggles who were making their way down to the platform were suddenly checking their purses and glancing at their watches. No doubt they were under the effect of some spell, and were returning somewhere else. Other Muggles who didn't seem to be affected by the spell simply didn't look in the direction of the train, as if it wasn't actually there. The wizards in the crowd, on the other hand, were wishing children away, and guiding them up to the train. Sadie could easily spot those who were true wizards in the crowd, because they had attempted to dress in Muggle clothes, with poor results.
"Now boarding, now boarding. Ten minutes left," announced a man checking kids' tickets.
"Oh, I can barely bear it!" Mrs. Yates proclaimed, now latching herself to both Tristan and Kelsey. "Both of you off to Salem. What am I going to do?" Her hug seemed to be suffocating both of them.
"I'm sure you'll find something, mom," Kelsey said, gasping for breath.
"Lindsay, if you don't let them go eventually, they won't be gone after all," Mr. Yates said.
"Yeah, you'd hate to murder Kelsey before she even got on the train for her first year, wouldn't you?" Tristan gasped, uselessly attempting to wave to someone farther down the platform.
"Fine, fine, get on the train then," Mrs. Yates chuckled, finally letting go of her children. Tristan hurriedly hugged his father, said goodbye, and ran to catch up to a boy who was waiting for him at one of the entrances to the train.
"Oh, Sadie!" Without further warning, Sadie found herself now crushed under the overpowering strength of Mrs. Yates' love. She felt a great desire to compare Mrs. Yates to a mother bear. "I do hope your first year is wonderful, and not too confusing."
"It'll be great, promise!" Sadie said, struggling to free herself from the vice grip hug. Mrs. Yates finally let go, leaving Sadie choking feebly for air. She appreciated the affection, but had never realized love was so painful.
After a few last second goodbyes, Sadie and Kelsey pulled their trunks after them as they boarded the now steaming train, which was slowly coming to life like a bear after the winter. The train had velvety red carpet with gold leading down the small hallway, cramped full of students.
"Let's get a compartment before they all fill up, so we can wave goodbye," Kelsey mentioned, making a move toward the centre of the train car.
Room after room was filled to capacity with students, but near the middle of the train car, they found a cabin with only one girl inside, and opened the door as the train slowly lurched to life and began to move.
Kelsey spoke to the lone girl in the car, "Hey, mind if we sit in here with you?"
The girl looked them over briefly, quickly moving her eyes behind them as if looking for someone else. "Yeah, sure."
Squeezing their trunks through the small doorway, Sadie and Kelsey closed the door after them, Kelsey rushing to the window and waving to her parents. Sadie joined her as the girl reopened a book she was reading.
Slowly but surely, with a few boisterous whistles, the train chugged to a start, and began gliding down the tracks, past all the waving families. In only moments, they had left the station and had begun their journey to The Salem Institute. The scenery of Chicago began to pass by in the view of the window after leaving the station. A voice emitted from somewhere in the air, resonating down the hall, "Now leaving Chicago; next stop in Grand Central Station, New York City. Brace for Speeding Charm."
With a second lurch, the train began speeding extremely fast down the tracks. The city streamed past the windows in a blur. The speed of the train reminded Sadie vividly of the Yates' Ford Fiesta.
Kelsey and Sadie had taken their seats opposite of the girl. Sadie got her first good look at their cabin companion. The girl had long, jet black hair that ran past her shoulders, and powerful, light blue eyes, just like Sadie. Her complexion was light, and on all accounts, she was stunningly beautiful. Even though Sadie knew the girl was her age, it made Jayne look nowhere near as pretty by comparison. The girl was already wearing robes, but they were clearly Haute Couture, because they were significantly shorter than any of Sadie's robes.
The girl apparently read as far as she wished in her books, and dog-eared the top of the page she was on before closing the book. "Hello then, my name is Grace. Grace Slick. And you are?"
"I'm Sadie."
"And I'm Kelsey," Kelsey replied, mouth wide open, "And I love your robes."
"Oh, these?" Grace said, picking up the ends of her robe and running it through her fingers. "Just something I threw on."
"Wow, I wish I could 'just throw on' something like that."
"Yeah. It's a refined taste, I guess," Grace said, looking unamused. Something in Grace's voice bothered Sadie. It almost seemed by the tone as if Grace wasn't at all interested in them, and was even bragging a bit, as if she were better than them. But Sadie didn't want to reserve judgment toward Grace since they only just met, and shrugged the thought off.
"Wait, Slick? Your last name is Slick?" Kelsey asked after a brief silence. "You don't mean like Hieronymus Slick, do you?"
"The same. He's my uncle. My father is Ulysses Slick," Grace replied with a proud smirk.
"I knew you looked familiar! Your uncle and dad are both really famous in the Administration. My dad works for both of them."
"Yeah, it's the sort of thing you get used to," Grace said, looking at her nails. "And who are you again?" She asked, as if she had never been told.
"Kelsey Yates. My dad's Daniel Yates. He works in the House of..."
"Yes, yes, that's fascinating," Grace quickly interjected, pulling out her wand. She pointed it at some of her things across from her, above Sadie and Kelsey's heads on a shelf.
"Wingardium Leviosa." The girls watched as Grace maneuvered her wand around. She aimed it at her bag, and something was clearly moving around inside.
"This shouldn't be so frustrating!" Grace said annoyed. She took a quick breath and repeated the spell slower. "Wingardium Leviosa." After a moment, a strange box lifted its way out of the bag, and floated down into Grace's lap.
"Wow, you're really good at that," Sadie said.
"I am a Slick, of course. I should be up to par. But any decent wizard would be, right?"
Kelsey somewhat blushed; Sadie remembered the haphazard levitating spell Kelsey had used on the cup.
"Don't mind if I listen to some music, do you?" Grace asked. But didn't wait for an answer, putting on a large pair of headphones. The box had a small vinyl record on it, and with the tap of Grace's wand, it began revolving, and Grace leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.
The countryside sailed past the windows as Kelsey and Sadie enjoyed the train ride. After a few hours, the train arrived at platform seven in Grand Central Station. They watched as new students boarded the train, waving goodbye to their families. While Grace dozed, slowly nodding her head to the unheard beat of her music, and the train once again lurched into motion, Sadie finally decided to ask Kelsey what Quodpot was.
"I keep forgetting how much you don't know. Well, Quodpot is this wizards game. The players fly above a field on brooms, and the idea is, they have to sink this ball called a Quod into a large cauldron, called the pot, that's floating on the other side of the field."
"That's amazing! It must be crazy to fly on brooms like that, much less play a game," Sadie said, trying to imagine what it could possibly be like.
"The flying is nothing. I've already flown once," Kelsey explained. "It was a little difficult at first though, but easy to get the hang of. The real tough part was that Tristan kept knocking me off."
Sadie couldn't help but gasp.
"Yeah, Quodpot's rough, and Tristan forgets that sometimes. Anyway, the hard part about Quodpot is making the goal. You have to get past all of the players on the other team who try and snatch the Quod from you, and land the shot."
"It sounds like almost like a couple Muggle sports. Like basketball and football."
"Maybe, but I bet the Quod in those games doesn't explode."
"What?!" Sadie exclaimed, shocked. She noticed that Grace had opened her eyes briefly, and she felt self-conscious.
"Yeah, at random times during the game, the Quod will explode. The whole deal is the pot at the end of the field has this liquid that stops the blasting curse on the Quod. Anyone holding the Quod - well obviously, they get blown up - and a new Quod is brought out."
"That's terrible!"
"I know, right? I hate it. Really exciting to watch, honestly, but it's just so violent. There's always someone falling off a broom and breaking a bone. And don't even get me started on the explosions... I much prefer Quidditch."
"Quidditch? What's that?"
But before Kelsey could answer, the door to the cabin opened. A boy peered in through the doorway, "Has anyone seen a purse?"
Sadie and Kelsey were bewildered. Grace, who apparently heard the question, took off her headphones, "What in the world are you talking about? A purse?"
"Mmhmm, a purse," the boy repeated awkwardly. He was looking out the window of the cabin as he spoke, as if he were addressing the scenery and not the girls.
"And who exactly are you?" Graced asked.
"Oh, um..." The boy suddenly seemed to have become aware that there were people addressing him, and looked embarrassed, even bashful, as he blushed on the spot. "My names Max..." he barely muttered, if possible, turning a brighter shade of red. He had short black hair, and thick, black rimmed glasses in front of his brown eyes. He was already in his uniform, along with his navy blue hat, but lacked his matching uniform robe.
"And why in the world are you looking for a purse?" Grace questioned.
The boys face instantly returned to normal. It seemed the introduction was the most embarrassing part for him, "These two boys came into my cabin while I was reading my book, The Splendid History of Salem Institute. They were very silly; they threw my book on other seat and said they needed my wand.
"It must have been some sort of game," Max continued. "I let them know that my mom had told me to always keep my wand with me, so I couldn't lend it to them. Then one of them said, 'You better watch out or I'm going to give you a purse, four-eyes.' It was a bit rude to say four-eyes, but they wanted to give me a purse! I think they're hiding it, like a scavenger hunt."
"Are you... What?" Grace mumbled, completely confused, though Sadie thought that Grace was understanding this better than she or Kelsey was.
Two boys approached from behind the boy, "For the sixth time you idiot, I said curse! Not purse!" exclaimed the first, slurring his words angrily. Both of the new boys looked nearly identical, with very short brown hair and dark eyebrows. The only visible difference was that one was slightly taller than the other. They both looked quite annoyed.
"Yeah! We'll do it too - we're not scared!" said the second boy. "You'll have to see a nurse before we even get to Salem."
"Oh, you meant nurse?" asked Max. "Here I've been looking for a purse. You should have said you were hurt. Has anyone seen a nurse?" Max called down the hallway. He quickly bustled away from the doorway.
"Andres! Alexandre!" Grace called to the two boys. "It's about time! I've been waiting here all day for you two."
"Like you didn't know we lived in Old York," said the taller boy. "Don't try and be a show off Grace, it's not going to work."
"Shut up, Andres. I can do what I want," she said, pointing her wand. For some reason, Andre and Alexandre alike both shuddered, seemingly afraid of Grace.
"Who are these girls?" Alexandre asked.
Sadie was about to introduce herself when Grace spoke first, "Just two new acquaintances of mine. Kelsey Yates, her father works for mine. And, Sadie you said? What's your last name?"
"Murray," Sadie confirmed.
"Strange, never heard of it. Anyway, I'm sure we'll see each other again," Grace said to Sadie and Kelsey. "I'm off with these two raving lunatics, the Quints."
She pointed her wand to her bag, and Andres picked it up for her. "Maybe we'll even be sorted into the same house together. Be rooting for Lupa; that's obviously where I'm going. You two should join the only real house," she touted with a proud smile.
With a swish of her hair, Grace Slick proceeded out of the room, Andres and Alexandre in hot pursuit with her trunk in their hands.
"That's wild," Kelsey said.
"What is?"
"Grace Slick. Her father and uncle are really high up in the Administration. And she's friends with the Quint brothers. They're both really famous in the wizarding world."
"Why them?" Sadie asked.
"They're one of the oldest pureblood families in the United States."
"Pureblood?"
"All wizard family, basically. There are Muggle wizards, obviously," Kelsey mentioned, pointing to Sadie, "And half-bloods, which are half Muggle and half wizard. But pureblood families like mine and Grace's are families that have no Muggle heritage. It's kinda complicated. But there aren't many purebloods anymore, and the families that are left are really old, and respected."
"And the Quints are especially old, then?"
"Very, very old! They're somehow related to the DeJarlais family, which is the oldest in the United States. I can hardly believe that I'm going to school with people as famous as the Quints and Grace Slick though."
"They sound important," Sadie said, but she wasn't sure she meant it. Grace seemed kind of rude when they rode with her in the cabin, and the Quint brothers were picking on that boy, Max.
Just as she thought about Max, he returned, sliding the door open once more. "Ever find the nurse?" Kelsey asked.
"No, but I believe those two boys wanted to hear a verse from a song. That makes much more sense, because they didn't look hurt at all. Oh, and a nice man up the hall told me that we should get our robes on. We're almost to Gallows Hill. You both should probably get your robes on as well."
Straightening his glasses, Max blushed again awkwardly, closed the door, and stumbled down the hallway out of sight. Sadie and Kelsey couldn't help but laugh. They had already met some interesting characters, and they hadn't even reached the school. As night fell across the country side, and they passed through Boston, Sadie and Kelsey dawned their school uniforms and robes, waiting for the train to pull into the final station.
Sadie Murray and the Enigma Scroll by star_sailor
Chapter Notes: It's almost time to leave. Time to say goodbye to Trail Lake, and time to say hello to The Salem Institute of Magical Learning.