Duel Enrollment

The Eyes Have It

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Brian nodded, "We should hear something soon." He said and after a couple moments his cellphone rang. When he looked at the message he received his eyes widened in shock ...

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"Very good." Kathy said as Tom carefully used a small bubble to collect some sap from a trimming of a thorny plant. "Pay attention to and finish marking each plant." She instructed as Tom placed the bubble of sap on it and put it on the homework sheet.

Tom sighed and stretched his joints after writing down the answers to the rest of the homework, "Should I put the trimmings away?"

"That'd be great. I'll take a minute to grade your work. Help him out, my Peachy." Kathy said to a bowtruckle and it happily grabbed a trimming before hopping onto Tom's shoulder. As the trimmings were being put away the professor began checking each question. By the end of her grading she looked up and saw Grizzlegore entering the room. "Excellent timing! We just finished and he was putting away some things. Tom! Grizzlegore is here!" She called into the greenery.

"I'm coming! Opal! We're leaving!" Tom was heard calling out from the depths of the greenhouse. "Opal? Do you see Opal?" Tom asked just before he came out of the dense greenery with the bowtruckle.

Kathy frowned, "She's not in her sunny spot?" She asked and without any command the dozens of bowtruckles spread out to search the entire classroom. "She isn't here, but the doors are closed.

"She's ... not answering me." Tom muttered in confusion. He definitely felt the link so the baby basilisk was alive, but for whatever reason she was ignoring him. A worried Tom frowned as he tried to get a response through the mental link he shared, "She's ignoring me."

Grizzlegore tapped his long sharp flaw against his chin in thought, "When did you last see her?"

"Umm ... she was on me and nuzzling my neck before Julian left for the tournament." Tom pondered while wondering what his stubborn familiar was doing. "I was in that chair." Tom said as he pointed to his seat. "She got off me when Kathy began the lesson."

The goblin nodded, "Then let's see what happened at that moment. Perhaps it will give us an answer." He said and with a flick of a claw at that general area images of the past appeared.

There was the see through images of Julian, Tom and Opal, who was draped across Tom. Her head was tucked in his neck as the words from the recent past were replayed. They watched Julian try to reassure Tom, heard Brian's voice and heard Kathy. At that moment they all saw the basilisk slither off of Tom and supposedly to the floor.

However, Kathy, Tom and Grizzlegore changed their position so they could quite literally see the situation from a different angle. More specifically, everyone wanted to see what Opal really did. At first Opal did slither to the floor, but then she took an interest in something. To everyone's surprise she skillfully and silently opened up Julian's book bag and got in. She was completely hidden in the bag, which was carried out by an unsuspecting Julian right after.

"Oh no ... I was so focused I didn't even know she was gone the entire time!" Tom exclaimed, now even more concerned than before.

Kathy frowned, "but why would she leave? Did she have an interest in seeing the tournament? I offered to play it on the classroom TV before, but she definitely didn't care." She said as she mused over the serpent's motive.

"She wasn't interested. I think she knew it didn't keep my mind off things." Tom said with an amused chuckle as he remembered how his familiar hissed at the TV once before. "The last thing we were talking about was ..." Tom thought back and his eyes widened when he recalled the last thing he heard Opal say. "We were talking about Dumbledore and she said 'he will be ended' so ... is it possible she's trying to get to Dumbledore?" A very worried young wizard asked.