Zak Turner - A Twist In Time (39 page)

Zak and Tallion exchanged a questioning glance which Harry spotted of course.

“He’s with his girlfriend.  One of the girls from Upper Nettleton is going out with him, well, she would be if they weren’t living four hundred miles apart, or however far it actually is!  That’s another reason we smuggled him in, so they could have a bit of time together!”

“Blimey!  That might not go down too well.  Who’s the girl?  Anyone we know?”

“Unlikely, it’s Sartrina Proudfoot.  She’s in Leo.”

“She’s the brainy one with the fabulous voice isn’t she?  Lots of people know her alright, and lots of them will be dead jealous of your friend when they find out!”

“Tell me about it,” muttered Tallion with a sigh!

“Uh-oh!  Is this is a dangerous subject?” said Harry failing to stop a grin twitching the corners of his mouth.

“Not any more.  I officially got over it.  It was me who ported him here to see her!”

“You ported here by yourself?!”

At that moment Alfie burst back into the room with half a dozen other boys, all the other Moncero first year boys to be precise, who were all grinning and yelled out their greetings to Zak and Tallion as they reached out to shake their hands or slap them on the back.  It took another half hour of dorm talk before the subject got back round to Steven, and of course, they all agreed to help.  Zak and Tallion began to feel a bit easier about the evening’s plans now that so many people knew about it and were determined to hide him.  They were reasonably sure that they’d get him in and out without any trouble.

About five o’clock there was a loud knock on the door of the crowded dorm room, and Alfie grabbed his wand and opened it with a charm.  There was no-one there, but a scroll flew in and unrolled itself.  The deputy heads voice then filled the room.

“Please note that dinner tonight will be served at six o’clock, and will be a semi-formal feast in honour of a visitor to the castle.  Robes are not required, although dress should be smart casual.  No jeans or outdoor clothing.  Thank you.”

“Well, that should help,” said Ganvard Di Guilio quickly, with his slightly Italian accent.  “Everyone will be busy trying to see who the visitor is and will be paying less attention than normal.”

The boys agreed to meet at quarter to six in the main entrance where they’d surround Steven and all go into the Banqueting Hall together.  While they were talking, another scroll slipped into the dorm, and presented itself to Tallion.  He reached out and took it, smiling at the polite way in which messages were sent around the school.  He was determined to learn how to do it himself, that evening!

Tallion,

You must think we’re so rude not getting in touch when you arrived, but we just lost track of time. 

We were in the trophy room for a while, and then we went for a walk down by the lake.  We’re now going round some of the public areas of the school and I’m showing Steven the classrooms. 

What are your plans?  Can you meet us anywhere?  Is Steven going to stay for dinner or are you taking him back before dinner?

The spell to create a messenger scroll is Scripto, and the movement is a flourishing L.  Please send a note back as soon as you can.

Sartrina

Zak heard Tallion's voice read out the scroll in his mind, and he smiled.  Before he got chance to speak though, Ross Stern’s quiet Scottish voice rounded up the boys from the other dorm rooms and encouraged them all to leave so that Zak and Tallion could get themselves sorted out before the feast.  He’d seen the second scroll arrive, and his well-developed mystical abilities had picked up the boys’ wish to be private for a few minutes. 

With a quick wink to Zak, who mouthed his thanks, and a chorus of ‘see you later’s from the others, they were gone, and relative peace returned to the room.

“How do you write a messenger scroll Harry?” asked Tallion getting out his wand.

“Easy.  Do you know the wand movement?”

“Sort of, and the incantation, but not how to put it all together.”

“Well, you do the movement, which is like this,” he said, waving his hand in a fancy L shape, “and say the incantation aloud, thinking first of the recipient, and then the message, all sort of at the same time.  If it’s working, a scroll should appear in front of you and the words you’re thinking will appear on it.  It’s quite hard though, not many first years can do it!”

“I’ll have a go.  I need to send a message to Sartrina to tell them where to meet us.”

“What’s Steven wearing Zak?” asked Harry a few seconds later as Tallion started to try and make his messenger scroll.

“Jeans, T-shirt and jacket.  Oh, you’re thinking he needs a change of clothes?”

“Yeah.  Are you any good with tailoring spells?”

“Nope.  You?”

“Yes.  Mum taught me intensively before I came to school.  She said it was very important to be able to ‘wear the right clothes in every situation’.  Have to say at the time I thought she was going a bit over the top, but now I know she was right.  I’ll sort him out when we meet him.”

“I bet Sartrina will have done it already!”

“She’s a girl!  She’ll not know how to do anything except a dress!  Anyway, even if she has, I’ll do it again so that he fits in perfectly with the rest of us.”

25.  The VIP

The chattering in the Banqueting Hall was louder than at the Welcome Feast on the first day of term.  The eight great chandeliers were crowded with tall flickering candles, there were extra torches round the walls, and the four fireplaces each contained a roaring log fire.

The flags of the various houses were hanging above each table, with each house shield proudly displayed on the walls.  The see-through ceiling of the hall, almost invisible behind the latticework of beams and the flickering candles, was a darkening inky mauve colour, like the sky outside.

The ten Moncero boys met up with Steven and Sartrina at quarter to six in the entrance hall.  The main doors to the school were still standing open on the relatively mild and clear October evening, with a number of charms simply swallowing up the tidal wave of bugs and midges that were trying to swarm inside!  The view east down the lake was as spectacular as ever, although none of the boys noticed it because they were taking turns saying hi to Steven. 

The farmer’s son was suffering ‘grand building fatigue’, having been dragged round one impressive place after another by his girlfriend, and he was a bit overwhelmed when the ten eleven-year-old wizards suddenly surrounded him.  He quickly rose to the occasion though, his cheery smile and down-to-earth character quickly winning him eight new friends!

Sartrina
hadn’t
sorted out his clothes because she hadn’t heard the message from Professor McCathie about the feast.  She hadn’t sorted out her own clothes either, so after handing Steven over to Zak, she quickly ran off to the girls’ bathroom to smarten herself up and magically change her outfit.

* * *

“Blimey Zak!  This place is amazing, much better than in all them films we saw!  It’s HUGE!”

“I know, and you’ve probably seen more of it this afternoon than we have.  Did you get down to the Balayage pitch?”

“Yeah, there were some students having a fly-around, or maybe it’s a sweep-around?  Anyway it was pretty impressive, doing stunts and flipping over on their brooms and stuff, just like Bjarne does at the castle, but much more daring!”

Zak was grinning and punched his friend playfully on the shoulder. 

“I told you that you’d like magic when you understood what it was all about.  Anyway, we need to get into the hall for the banquet, but you can’t go in dressed like that!  Harry’s going to sort you out a change of clothes.”

“Hi again Steven, hold tight.”

Harry swished his wand around as he muttered an incantation.  Moments later Steven’s farmer’s jacket and T-shirt had transformed into a comfortable open necked black dress shirt over a black T-shirt.  Magical symbols, richly embroidered in black thread, traced intricate designs across the closely fitted shirt, which emphasized Steven’s developing physique.  Another swish of the wand and his jeans turned into wizard trousers, which it had to be said looked and felt like a pair of fairly close fitting black chinos, complete with matching black embroidery!  The final swish replaced his hi-tops with some very expensive looking black dragon-hide ankle boots!

“They’re not wizard robes, but they
are
wizard casual clothes, like the rest of us are wearing.  The banquet tonight is to welcome someone important to the castle, and that ‘someone’ must be a well-known witch or wizard, so tonight you need to wear wizard clothes.  I need to do something with your hair too, you can’t go in there looking like you just fell off a haystack!”

Steven grinned at the silver-eyed wizard, and after a bit more swishing of Harry’s wand, his dark, tousled hair had been brushed out into fairly long wavy locks, and was looking tidier than Zak had ever seen it before!  It matched the wizard clothes very well, and added a real elegance to the young farmer that Zak would never have believed possible.  Harry’s mum had clearly done a good job when she’d taught him how to put together the right look for the occasion.

“That’ll do.  You’ll merge in just fine now.  We’d best get a move on everyone, or we’ll be last in.”

The group of Moncero first years moved as one through the doors into the Banqueting Hall, shepherding along Steven who was still studying his new clothes with a happy expression on his face.  They went to some empty benches near the middle of the Moncero table, and sat down on both sides keeping Steven well out of sight. 

So far the plan was working a treat, and they all relaxed as they settled down for the feast.  No-one else had given Steven a second glance, probably due to Harry’s master stroke of dressing him in black which made him more or less invisible in the light of the many flickering flames!

No-one, that is, except Professor Trell.  He eventually spotted Steven amongst the group of Moncero boys, but only after he’d identified Zak and Tallion, and was scrutinising all their companions to see if Steven was amongst them.  He smiled at the skilful disguise. 

He looked up at their caretaker, Tabor Wattmuff, who was standing by the Banqueting Hall doors, and raised his eyebrows.  The man stepped outside and glanced both ways checking to see if any students were hurrying towards the hall.  There were none, so he flicked his wand at the double doors of the main entrance and they started to swing slowly closed.  The caretaker turned back to the headmaster and nodded.  The Banqueting Hall doors then swung silently closed behind him, and silence fell as Professor Trell stood up to speak.

“Welcome, welcome, one and all.  I hope the short notice change of time for dinner hasn’t affected your plans for the evening too dramatically.  Just a few announcements before we begin, starting with congratulations to Moncero house for winning their Mhonarr Balayage League match this morning.  Well done MONCERO!”

There was a loud cheer from the Monceros and a more muted round of applause from everyone else.

“That means, with all teams having played two games apiece, the Moncero second team are six points clear of Leo at the top of their league, and join the Moncero
first
team who are twenty eight points clear of Aquila in
their
league!  I’m quite sure that situation will change a few times before the summer play-offs.” 

“Congratulations are also in order to a number of second years for winning their bouts in the prelims for the duelling championship and now move on to the inter-house stages of the tournament!  Well done Lee, Rekha, Darius, David, Jonty and Charlotte!”  

There was a lot more applause this time, and a few more cheers because
each
house had something to cheer about, and for those with sharp enough eyes, the second years who’d been named all went a bit pink as they smiled in acknowledgement of the acclaim.

The headmaster gave out a few more notices and then stopped.  After a pause, he announced that the reason for the banquet was to welcome a special guest to the school who would be staying with them for the next few days and joining them in some of their classes.

“It’s a rare thing for anyone to invite themselves into the school, but please join me in welcoming our newest student, Steven Robson!” 

The headmaster started to clap his hands, and soon the rest of the school joined in with more cheering as they all stood up to see the new student.

Steven went white, and froze in shock, as did Zak and Tallion!  The Moncero first years surrounding them all winced too, feeling the extreme disquiet that comes from being caught doing something that you know you shouldn’t have been doing!  So far though, no-one was even looking at them because they were all craning their necks to see the platform where they expected Steven to appear.

The headmaster’s voice rang out again over the applause, which quickly died away.

“Steven, welcome to Mhonarr Castle, and to the British and Irish School of Wizardry.  You will now become an associate student in the same manner as your friends, Zak and Tallion, who smuggled you onto the premises earlier this afternoon!”

There was a large “Ohhhh!” from the rest of the students, who’d picked up the irony in the headmaster’s voice, and knew that the two first years were going to find themselves in a bit of trouble!

“It’s a long, long, time since anyone managed to sneak into Mhonarr Castle, Steven, but we’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that it’s because you wanted to study here.  All we need to do now is find out which house you belong to.”

The headmaster waved his hand towards the centre of the room, and a sheet that had been invisibly hiding the Divining Orb on the centre platform, became visible as it whisked upwards into the air, where it immediately vanished again.  There was a collective gasp and everyone realised that Steven was about to go through the normal house selection process!  The older students sniggered, as they understood that this was all coming as a complete surprise to the new boy, wherever he was hiding!

“If you will please join me here on the platform Steven, I will explain what happens next!”

Headmaster Trell was fully aware that Steven’s legs might not carry him to the teacher’s platform, and was preparing to use an enchantment to give him ‘a hand’, when he saw the boy stand up from amongst his Moncero chaperones, and walk resolutely towards him. 

The headmaster smiled.  He already had a shrewd idea which house Steven would belong to, and his prediction was still on track…

“Welcome to Mhonarr Castle, Steven,” he said quietly to the clearly very nervous boy who’d climbed the steps up to the teachers platform to join him.  “Next time you’ll ask won’t you, rather than trying to sneak in?”

“Yes sir, sorry sir.”

“It takes quite a lot of nerve though to do what you’ve done so far, so I hope there’s a bit left to finish the job properly?”

“Aye sir, now’t ter lose now, so I might as well just keep goin’!”

“Excellent, that’s the spirit!  In a minute you need to walk down the platform to the centre of the room and place your hands either side of the orb like this.” 

The headmaster held out his own hands and a miniature orb appeared between them showing how he expected Steven to hold the Divining Orb.  The eleven-year-old’s eyes went wide as the small orb vanished again, and he nodded.

“A voice will then speak into your mind, and the orb will change colour.  The voice will tell you which house you’ll join, and may well say other things too.  Listen very carefully, for it’s all very important.”

“Unless the orb puts you in Moncero, which I have to say is pretty unlikely, you won’t be going back to sit with Zak and Tallion for the rest of the banquet, but you’ll be going to join your new housemates at their table.  Once you’ve become a student here at Mhonarr Castle, you need to abide by all the rules, and sitting at your own house table, except for informal meals at weekends, is one of the rules.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir.”

“Off you go then.  A prefect will come and meet you when the orb has divined your house.”

Steven took a deep breath and turned to face the entire school.  His legs were shaking a bit as he walked along the platform to the orb, and he was very much aware that almost a thousand people were watching him closely.  He felt oddly detached from his body, as though he too was watching himself, rather than taking part.

He tried to block out all the faces that were staring at him, and placed his hands on the orb.  Immediately the sights and sounds of the room faded away, and he was alone in his mind, where a comfortable lady’s voice spoke to him.

Welcome, Steven of Netherdale, hidden wizard indeed!

Do not be reluctant to take your place in our world, for you have skills few other witches and wizards will ever know or comprehend.  To be able to stay in the shadows is a rare gift.

Your choice in life is wise, for you are indeed a son of the earth, a shepherd, and a tender of nature, but that is not to be your only role.

You are to be a guardian of all that is good, and all that is wholesome and pure.  A fearless defender of those whose roll it is to make war for light, to succour and sustain them in times of need.

Your house here at the school is to be Leo, although you will not often grace its galleries and garrets.  Your courage in the face of danger far outstrips your many other attributes, and Leo will give you the support and strength you need to walk the pathway set before you.

Take heart young Steven, you are not alone, and fare well in all your life’s endeavours.

Steven hadn’t noticed the orb slowly turning red in colour, because he’d closed his eyes in concentration while the voice spoke to him.  Now, as he opened them, the red glow illuminated his face, and he took a deep breath.  It was true then, he wasn’t going to be with Zak and Tallion, and for the first time in his life he felt suddenly cut off from his friends. 

He glanced over to where they were sitting at the Moncero table.  He frowned as the emotion of loss rose up inside him, realising that he wasn't going to be with any of the
other
new friends he’d just made there either!

He took his hands off the orb, but didn’t know what to do next.  Which table was Leo?  He heard cheering and clapping from in front of him, and saw the Leo boy prefect standing at the bottom of the steps with his right hand outstretched in welcome. 

Well, at least the Leo table was
next
to the Moncero table.  He’d end up
close
to his two friends even if he wasn't with them.