Chapter 53 - Magic Theory and History with Professor Thelma Thistledown and Natural World with Professor Petra Pewterwick

AN: The longest chapter title I've ever written.

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Characters - 

Felix Sutter: Poor boy living in Sacramento, recently found out magic existed. Hard worker, knows the price of everything.

Erik Morsin: Heir to the Duchy of the Emerald Isle. Just wants to play his violin.

Sora Park: Erik’s loyal friend. Loves flying. An absolute broombrain.

Vivian Merryweather: An expert on all things color, fashion, and of the heart. Gets seasick easily.

Alexandria Renard: Wants to be the next Morgana Le Fay. Can’t speak louder than a whisper. 

Hazel Winslow: Ran away from an abusive cult. Awoke as a natural mind mage.

Emily Brown: The sick girl. I had to do an INSANE amount of research for her condition... I'll do a prize of some sort for whoever can figure it out first, it's going to be a subplot mystery.

Odric Martin: Accident prone. Prophesied to die… eventually.

Professor Thistledown: ????

 Dublin Castle, once proud and open, closed its gates like a tomb.
The Argo Pool, which shimmered with portal light, was sealed with black runes.
Wards shimmered in the air - like frost across the breath of gods.
None came in.
None went out.
The world blinked - and Dublin vanished from it for a time.

The Saga of Bjorn, Verse 22

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Felix went to magic theory with a spring in his step, excitedly talking with the other students on his way to their next class.

“Naomi was responsible for the fort?” He asked Erik.

“Apparently! It was impressive, I might’ve joined if I heard about it.” He said.

“If everyone’s in the fort though, who are they going to shoot?” Sora asked.

“Layabouts standing there for target practice.” Alexandria muttered, with a glare thrown Vivian’s way.

“Oi! I’m a lover, not a fighter!” She protested. “Not all of us are utter brutes.” She sniffed haughtily.

“It’s a core class, you’ve gotta participate.” Erik said. “I’d been hoping for our first coven meeting after class, but if you’re in detention, that’s going to be hard to manage.”

“We can do it after dinner instead.” Vivian suggested.

Felix thought about being quiet and not causing any problems, but figured that would just cause more issues.

“I’ve got a house thing after dinner.” He said. 

“Oh? Your house does activities together?” Vivian asked.

“Yes, but not that.” Felix said, thinking of morning PT and marching. “There’s a sort of ‘everyone in the house works for the house benefit’ thing going on, and I’m scheduled to work then. I think I’m also getting tutored then, not sure.”

“Wait. We’re not talking about studying, are we?” Sora asked. “Because it’s the first day. It’s great weather, the sun’s out, why don’t we go flying or something after class? All work and no play makes Sora a dull girl.”

Erik started to cackle when Sora suggested flying.

“Okay, so Vivian, don’t hate me for this, but if we’re going to be missing a member either way, I think we should miss the person screwing around who got detention, not the one that already arranged some sort of tutor-job combo thing. Sora’s also got a point that we don’t want this to take too long. Get some of it done, then move on before we become one with the library.” Erik said.

Basically everyone looked mildly offended by the suggestion, and Erik smiled weakly.

“A good compromise is one everyone dislikes slightly?” He said, pre-empting the conversation.

“Fine.” Alexandria huffed. “More time for me to practice after.”

There were agreements all around, even Hazel gave a tiny nod when prompted.

“Great! As long as nobody else manages to get detention, it’ll work. Let’s meet at the library after our last class?” Erik proposed. “We can find a room, decide on a few basics, maybe talk about homework, and call it a day.”

“Yes!” Sora pumped her fist. 

“What did you do that had the professor call you out?” Felix asked Hazel. She stared at him a minute, before mumbling out an answer.

“He wanted to know what I was doing.” She said. “I scored 0. He gave me 20 points for perfect stealth.”

The six of them paused outside the magical theory door, joined by Emily, Odric, and two other students. There was a bit of awkward silence, then the clock ticked over.

“Chop chop!” Professor Thistledown slammed the door open. “In, in, in, we don’t have all day. Sunlight’s burning.” Her tone was sharp and clipped, and she almost spoke too quickly to be understood.

“In, take a seat, don’t take out your supplies yet.” She said. “Morsin. Renard. Martin. Sutter. Merryweather…” She rapidly called out everyone’s name, then stared at them.

“Well?” She asked, chopping one hand into the other. “Do you not understand roll call? I call your name, you say you’re here. Morsin!”

“Here!” He said, and the professor did rollcall again, shaking her head.

“I hate wasting time like this. Quick, punctual, efficient. That’s how we do it here.”

“But miss-” Odric interrupted.

“You do NOT interrupt me in class!” Professor Thistledown exploded. “Take a 5 point penalty, and don’t speak for the next five minutes. Now. There’s 10 of you here. That’s far too many for remedial class. Raise your hand if you actually belong here. Come on, don’t be shy.” She said.

Felix reluctantly put his hand up, noticing he was the only one. Hazel suddenly looked around the room, then tentatively put her hand up a hair. Erik jokingly grabbed Sora’s hand and tried to put it up. Professor Thistledown shook her head.

“Stop goofing off. That’s what I thought. Three of you new to magic, although I believe only two of you made it? The eight of you, pack up your bags and leave. I’ll adjust your schedule.”

Felix didn’t like the constant feelings of awkwardness and being singled out that kept happening. He didn’t know things, he didn’t belong, and kept stumbling into stupid situations as a result. Singled out, again, because he was ignorant?

The usual refrain went through his head. Paracelsus, razor, hair. 

At the same time… perhaps it was better him, than one of his kids. Camelot was a full ride scholarship, and from what he was understanding, it was the premier school in Logres. Like if the entire Ivy League merged together into one super-school.

Full ride scholarship. Felix wondered if it was going to become his mantra for the year.

“This is a remedial class, and I am going to endeavor to teach the two of you all the basics you need to know.” Professor Thistledown said. “Please take notes, it’s useless for me to simply lecture to a pair of ears.”

Hazel opened her mouth, as if to protest the unfair treatment, but Felix managed to catch her eye and slightly shake his head. The two of them quickly grabbed their supplies, and put them on their desk.

“Wands away.” Professor Thistledown said. “This is a theory class. You need what I’m teaching to understand the rest of your classes, and I’ve worked closely with your other professors to ensure you’ll be up to speed on your needed theory in order to perform the wandwork for the rest of your courses. Part of the theory is learning the history that it’s founded upon, which makes this class naturally tie into history. The two should be two different classes, but it’s only one. I’m not going to do a lot of question and answer. I’m assuming both of you are starting as blank slates. Please let me know if I’m lecturing too quickly. Both of you have eight years of missing education and cultural context to catch up on, and only one class to do it in. There will be a lot of material. This class will be more work than the others, simply due to your unfortunate circumstance. I will take pauses for you to catch up, and invite questions at the end of each session. Do not interrupt, you ruin the education and time of the other students here. With just two of you, I should be able to rapidly move through the material. Today, we’re going to cover cores, the source of all magic, covens, and The Sundering. Every wixen has a core inside of them, that…”

The professor talked fast, and Felix found himself falling behind. At the same time, every single bit was important, and he could tell it was only scratching the surface. In a half-second of idle thought, he wondered if it was better to ask her to slow down and catch everything properly, but get less material, or let her continue on at a blistering pace, but miss a few of the things in the middle?

Before he could decide, she continued on. The breakneck pace continued until the end of class, where she smoothly changed what she was saying mid-sentence.

“... homework for tomorrow. Read chapter 3 of your textbook. We’ll pick up where we left off. Dismissed!”

Felix and Hazel hurriedly packed up and left the room, where Felix slumped against a wall.

“Am I the only one who feels like we just went through a hurricane?” He asked Hazel. 

“That’s… a pretty good description.” Hazel said. Felix wasn’t quite sure, but that might’ve set the small talk record with the girl. She looked so different in her school uniform.

“Natural world next?” He asked.

Hazel didn’t answer, instead turning down the hallway and shuffling off to class.

“I think there’s a shortcut this way, if you want to come?” Felix asked.

Hazel paused, clearly thinking about it, then turned around.

“Alright.” She said.

Felix could not think how to break through the shield of awkward around the girl, and they were going to be in the same study group - errr, coven - all year. What had he done to annoy her?

The door to the natural world classroom was open when they got there, and the vines creeping around the doorway hadn’t been there when Felix was discovering where all the classrooms were. The inside was a riot of color and growing plants on every surface, including a number of the desks! Felix picked out a desk with a relatively small plant on it, hoping against hope that it wouldn’t grow into some sort of monster later on in the year.

He almost laughed to himself. His luck wasn’t that good, and he’d probably end up cursing Paracelsus’s name due to whatever antics the professor was up to.

“Good afternoon everyone!” The professor was diminutive, but every word was bubbly and upbeat. “I’m Professor Pewterwick, and this is the natural world class! I know this class isn’t very popular. There’s no magic in here. It’s all about life without magic, and how it’s supposed to work!”

Odric raised his hand. It bumped into one of the potted plants, and it came crashing down onto his desk.

“Oh, no no no.” The professor came fussing over. “Be careful! There’s a broom down the hall, please get one and clean up this mess.”

Odric mumbled an apology and left. Sora tried to sneak in a moment later.

“That’ll be a five point penalty for being late to class. Please sit down.” Petra said.

Sora mumbled an apology and slipped into a seat near the back.

“I’m sure by now you’ve heard the same speech from the rest of the professors!” Petra - Felix found it impossible to think of the happy-go-lucky woman as Professor Pewterwick - bounced to the front of the room. “This class is the most important! We should have triple the amount of time! An entire education in one classroom! Well, guess what! Use your memories and replay those lessons to yourself! Just replace the name of the class with ‘natural world’, and whatever length of time with ‘three years’ or ‘three classes.’ Good? Good! Okay, great, that just saved me a fifteen minute lecture, and you’ve got the idea. I have one year to teach you biology, chemistry, and physics. One. Year. In the noonie world, they take a year or more per subject, and that’s to only teach you ‘the very basics’ of the subject. This year is going to be split into three. Autumn for biology, winter for chemistry, and in the spring we’ll cover physics. You’ll notice right now we’re in summer. I’m going to start off by teaching you the fundamentals of all sciences. The first thing is the scientific method…”

Felix was rapidly finding himself in love with the class. It made sense! He knew most of what they were talking about! He’d been able to read the textbook ahead of time! Oh, happy days, this is what class was supposed to be like!

Hopefully, after the crash course and adjustment, all the classes would be like this one.

Except maybe charms. Charms was stupid.

Felix wasn’t holding a grudge at all.

He wrote his notes with a smile, and his pen was practically upbeat.