BEGIN PART TWO

  Saturday morning, the day after Halloween, Rosemary Corbin woke up in her own private dorm room on the ninth floor of Hemlock Tower. Hemlock Tower was one of the four residence towers for students at Misty Peaks Academy of the Magical Arts. First-years, like Rosemary, were usually assigned dorm rooms on the first floor, just above the ground floor. She, however, was assigned to the ninth floor, which ordinarily was reserved for seventh-year students. This was because the dorm rooms on the first floor were for three or four students each. Rosemary, though, couldn’t be placed with anyone else — so she was assigned a dorm room all to herself. That meant putting her on one of the higher floors with the upperclassmen.

  She got out of bed, went into her bathroom, and took a shower. When she was done, she came out and got dressed in her school uniform. It was a girl’s school uniform — just like the one worn by all of the female students at Misty Peaks. She looked herself in the mirror. “This is it,” she said to herself.

  This wasn’t the first time Rosemary had worn this uniform. She had been wearing it since Monday of that week. However, up till then, she had been wearing the boy’s uniform. This was because when she was born, it was in a body that caused the doctors to assume she was a boy. As such, she had been raised by her parents — as a boy. And the summer before when she had received her invitation to attend Misty Peaks, she had been admitted not as a witch, but as a wizard.

  However, the label of being a boy had never felt right for her — nor had being in a boy’s body. As a matter of fact, for her whole life it had made her downright miserable. For that reason, early in the school year, the day after she and the rest of their class had built their wands, she cast a spell on herself to turn her body into a female body — the body that fit her. She had been maintaining that spell ever since with periodic renewal rituals. Yet, for fear of letting others know her secret, she had still been attending school dressed as a boy — and even going by the boy’s name her parents had given her, Simon. For most of that time, she would lock herself in the bathroom whenever she changed clothes to avoid being seen changing by the three roommates she had had until a mere few days ago.

  Then, it was announced that on Halloween and the five days before that, students would be allowed to wear their costumes in honor of the joyous holiday. She had heard that most students would not be wearing their costumes till Halloween itself — but she decided to take advantage of the whole six-day window in which costumes were allowed. Some seventh-year friends had provided her with girl’s uniforms as well as casual clothes for the weekend — and ever since Saturday, she had been using the plausible deniability of Halloween to dress as her true self, a girl.

  Then, on Monday, an altercation with a bully had landed her in the infirmary. It was then that the school nurse and key members of the faculty and school administration became aware of the transformation spell she was under. Since they obviously couldn’t have her rooming with boys anymore, she had been assigned to her new solo room on the ninth floor upon her release from the infirmary. Very few people, though, were aware of the reason for her dorm reassignment — and as such, her dressing as a girl had remained under the plausible deniability granted by Halloween.

  Today, though, was the day after Halloween. As such, it was the first day in which she no longer would enjoy this plausible deniability. Today, when she left the room dressed in a girl’s uniform, she would be effectively announcing to all that this wasn’t really a costume after all, but rather, who she would be presenting as from this point on.

  Of course, she had already sent a letter announcing her decision to Dr. Fletcher, one of the school metapsychologists of the United States Board of Magical Education and the one who had delivered to her her invitation to Misty Peaks. By now, all of her instructors would know to expect her in class dressed as a girl, and they would know how to refer to her. But her fellow students, with the exception of her closest friends, would not find out until she showed herself today.

  She looked around her room, withdrew her wand from the crystal on her bracelet where she stored it, and cast a renewal ritual on her transformation. Now, without any further renewals, the transformation would last for well over three and a half weeks to come. She was able to lock it in place for this long because she had already maintained her transformation continuously for over seven weeks. The longer she kept that solid streak, the longer she would be able to lock it in place for.

  She took the wand and slid it back into the crystal on her bracelet. Despite the fact that the bracelet was smaller than the wand, and didn’t seem to have any opening to slide a wand in through, it slid in without any trouble. As soon as the tip of the wand touched it, the crystal morphed into a small black, swirling portal that easily accepted the wand. Once the wand was fully inserted, it morphed back into a gem. The only sign that it was now holding a wand that was larger than the bracelet itself was that the gem had changed color from white to red.

  After putting her wand away, she then got her satchel and put in it the schoolbooks for her Friday classes. Finally, after taking one last glance in the mirror and wishing herself luck, she went out the door. She went down the hall and turned into a corridor where there were two staircases. On her right was a regular staircase that went down only one floor per flight. On her left, though, was a shortcut staircase — a special staircase that was enchanted to go down three floors per flight. Three flights down the shortcut staircase she went, down to the ground floor.

  She then went on to the Common Room. Once there, she glanced to her right and saw Drippidy Falls. Drippidy Falls was a gorgeous waterfall that could be seen through a window in the Hemlock Tower Common Room — except that it wasn’t a real waterfall, and the window wasn’t a real window. Rather, the whole thing was an oramasynthic painting — that is to say, a kind of magical painting that was designed to imitate a window looking out onto a scene that wasn’t actually there. The scene in an oramasynthic painting could be an artist’s re-creation of a real place, or it could be an altogether fictional place. Drippidy Falls was somewhere in-between the two. It was in itself a fictional waterfall — but not so different from oh so many that could be found in the Smoky Mountains, which was where Misty Peaks was located, as well as elsewhere in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Furthermore, it always showed the waterfall as it would appear during the current time of the year — as it did now, with the leaves progressively falling off the trees.

  Looking around, Rosemary saw two of her friends and fellow first-years, Lilith Collins and Mika Suzuki, sitting on a couch. She had agreed to meet here with the two of them and one other to go to breakfast together. She went and sat on a nearby cozy chair to join them.

  “So, how does it feel?” asked Mika.

  “How does what feel?” asked Rosemary.

  “To be out as — you,” she said, “without using Halloween as cover?”

  “Good,” said Rosemary, “but still, a bit scary.”

  “And don’t worry about what Melissa says,” said Lilith. “It’s like Tom says, she’s a loser. Anyone who acts like she does is.”

  Melissa Langford was Rosemary’s regular bully. From the moment the two had met, Melissa had taunted Rosemary for being one of the few students in the school whose parents were not magical. Then, when the first-year students had gone on the field trip to get the cores for their wands, and Rosemary had received the feather of a harpy, which was apparently a rare accomplishment — Melissa was the first to belittle it. And finally, in the days before Halloween, Melissa had lost no opportunity to mock Rosemary for her choice of outfit.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Ultimately, it was Melissa who ended up landing Rosemary in the infirmary. Through a strange twist of fate, though, this had worked in Rosemary’s favor. If she hadn’t landed in the infirmary, she would have probably gone back to boy’s clothes and a boy’s hairdo the day after Halloween — and would have been all the more depressed to do so for having briefly been able to show herself as the girl she was.

  Rosemary sat down to join Lilith and Mika as they waited. It was less than a minute till Samantha Rogers showed up — she being the third one whom Rosemary had arranged to meet here.

  “Ready to go?” asked Samantha, without even bothering to sit down.

  * * *

  The girls had breakfast at the Great Hall, which was where all school assemblies at Misty Peaks were held — as well as where meals were served. After breakfast, they made their way to Professor Hathaway’s classroom in the fifth floor of Lumière Tower for homeroom — together with all the other first-year students from Hemlock Tower.

  Rosemary was halfway toward her seat when Melissa stepped forward and blocked her.

  “What are you doing, sprouter?” asked Melissa.

  “I’m trying to get to my seat,” said Rosemary. She tried to move around Melissa, but Melissa moved to continue blocking her.

  “You know Halloween’s over, do you?” said Melissa. “We’re not wearing costumes anymore.”

  “This isn’t a costume,” said Rosemary. “It’s who I am. Now, I need to get to my seat.”

  “Who’s stopping you?” said Melissa, moving aside.

  “Thanks,” said Rosemary, as she continued to her seat. But no sooner than she got to her desk than did Melissa come and lean down on it with one hand.

  “Just one thing,” said Melissa. “You can play dress-up all you want — but just don’t think you’re fooling anyone.”

  “Is there a problem here?” Rosemary heard a welcome voice ask. Rosemary looked and saw Tom Reynolds, one of her former roommates — and a friend who had promised to be supportive of Rosemary as she made the change in how she presented herself. Here he was, standing there, staring Melissa down.

  “Oh no, not at all,” said Melissa, getting up from leaning on Rosemary’s desk and turning to face Tom. “Just letting our friend here know a thing or two.” She quickly withdrew and headed to her own seat.

  Tom headed back to his seat too. But as he was on his way, Rosemary saw him turn to her and give her a “thumbs up” symbol with a big smile.

  Rosemary was glad that she had friends like Tom who were willing to stand up for her, but she knew that this would not be the last time Melissa would pester her. She also knew that the past Monday when she had landed her in the infirmary would probably not be the last time that Melissa would do worse than just pester her.

  * * *

  After homeroom, the students went to the Needle Tower of the North Wing Courtyard for the first actual class of the day, Ouranourgy. This class, taught by Professor Amelia Feng, was all about the art of flight. The whole first semester of this class was dedicated to the most basic of magical flight vehicles — the flying broomstick.

  The Ouranourgy classroom was the entire base floor of the needle tower. The door of the classroom was always open to the North Wing Courtyard, which was where all the drills were done, as well as all the practice flight and a lot of the class instruction. The classroom itself was only used minimally — and didn’t even have desks, but benches where the students could sit. The walls were covered with yellow locker ports.

  Rosemary walked up to one of the locker ports and opened it. Thanks to the key clip she wore on her belt, it opened to the interior of her own locker somewhere in the storage facilities of Misty Peaks. She put her satchel in her locker and took out a broomstick. This was not a regular flying broomstick but an instructional grade one, specifically designed for young witches and wizards who were just learning to fly. There were a number of ways in which it differed from a regular flying broomstick, but the most significant was a dial near the front end of the stick that had ten settings. The lowest setting was level one, at which the broom would be controlled entirely by verbal commands. However, at the top level, level ten, the broom was controlled entirely by mental command, just like a regular flying broomstick.

  Rosemary had already mastered level nine.

  She closed the locker and saw the note that Professor Feng had already written on the board instructing the students to go into the courtyard once they had their brooms and begin practicing their drills as she had instructed.

  As Rosemary was on her way out, Professor Feng stopped her.

  “So,” said the Professor. “Rosemary Corbin it is?”

  “Yes,” answered Rosemary.

  “Very well then, Rosemary,” said the Professor. “Anyway, I realize you’ve been flying your broomstick on level nine.”

  “Is that too high?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, it’s higher than a lot of people in this class,” said the Professor, “but it’s not too high for you. You’ve mastered it very well. As a matter of fact, you’ve mastered it too well.”

  “Is that bad?” asked Rosemary.

  “That you’re mastering it?” asked Professor Feng. “No. But that you’re still lingering at level nine when you’re more than ready to go to level ten, that’s the problem. Remember, like all the lower levels, your broom only has level nine so it can be an intermediate step on your way to level ten. Level ten is your goal. So today, I want you to crank it all the way up to ten. Got that?”

  “Okay,” said Rosemary, nervously.

  “Don’t be so timid,” said the Professor. “If anyone’s got it, it’s you.”

  As soon as she was on the field, Rosemary turned the dial on her broomstick up to level ten.

  As she began doing her drills at level ten, controlling her broomstick entirely with her mind, at first she was nervous. But then, as she saw the ease with which she navigated all the obstacles in class, she became even more confident with her broomstick set to level ten than she had at any of the lower levels, including level nine.

  * * *

  After Ouranourgy, there were two more classes remaining for the day. The first was Magical History. This was taught by Professor Eleanor Whitfield — the one instructor that Rosemary didn’t particularly like. She was very soft-spoken — but too soft-spoken. It was a strain to hear what she was saying, and as such, Rosemary wasn’t able to focus on actually being able to understand the contents of her speech. Fortunately, Professor Whitfield taught according to the textbook — which at least gave Rosemary the option of studying the book between classes to make up for not being able to understand the lecture itself.

  Then, after lunch, was Professor Gideon Thorn’s class — Warding Basics. It was in this class that students were receiving their first formal instruction in how to protect themselves from magical threats.

  After classes were through for the day, Rosemary went back to Hemlock Tower to study. She had been assigned four hours of detention after her stay in the infirmary for not having properly coordinated her transformation with the school faculty from the get-go. However, to give her the chance to recuperate from having missed two days of classes while in the infirmary, she had been given permission to defer those four hours to the week of November the eleventh, which was still over a week away.

  Earlier in the year, she would usually have sat in the Common Room to study. However, as the weather was getting colder with the progress of autumn, she often decided to go to one of the tower’s study rooms instead — as she did today. She headed three flights up the shortcut stairwell to the ninth floor — and upon reaching the ninth floor, instead of heading toward the dorm rooms, she went the other way toward the center of the floor where Study Room 9A awaited her.

  Later, she had dinner with her friends, Lilith, Samantha, and Mika. Clara Lawson, her very first friend at Misty Peaks whom she had met before even boarding the flying carpet to come to school, also joined them. Rosemary didn’t see her as often as she did her other friends because Clara was housed at Hickory Tower rather than Hemlock Tower — so she cherished the times that they did get to spend together.

  “How was your first day out as you go?” asked Clara. “I mean — your first day without — you know?”

  “It went well,” said Rosemary with a smile, supposing that by “you know,” Clara was referring to the plausible deniability of a Halloween costume.

  “Of course, Melissa was a jerk,” interjected Lilith, “but what do you expect?”

  “Yeah,” said Rosemary. “She’s a loser.”

  “That’s the spirit,” affirmed Lilith.

  * * *

  When the day came to an end, Rosemary changed from her school uniform into her nightgown — a new one that her seventh-year friends, Amy Kaya and Lacy Walker, had given her the day before in celebration of her decision to go ahead and publicly transition at school.

  Rosemary was still somewhat unused to sleeping in a room by herself, but this would be the third night in a row that she had done so. She was beginning to feel confident that she would sleep soundly through the night and wake up the next morning, fully refreshed, to her new normal.

  However, long before morning, her sleep was interrupted by something strange, disturbing, and frightening.