The Witching Hour

Prologue

"Come on, Sage, you'll make us late!"

"Again," sighed Austin, standing stoic, leather case in hand.

Sage stuffed their teddy bear into their bag, careful not to pull out any of its stitches, and zipped it up. "I'm ready," they said. Austin rolled his eyes. "Good. This is not a good impression to make on your first day of school. Just to educate you."

The three, who were triplets, stood side by side in the doorway. Even though their school was nothing fancy, and not very big, it was a big step for each of them.

They took off down the street in their uniforms. Looking at each of them, even in the drab gray uniforms, you could tell what sort of people they were. Poppy, with her yellow duffel and bouncy hair, was the enthusiast. Austin's hair was slicked back behind his thick-rimmed glasses, and his suitcase was really more of a briefcase. The academic. Sage didn't have a thing. They were still figuring themselves out, and you could tell by the way they didn't match their bag or their shoes or their hair or their coat.

The uneven cobblestones were the ones they walked upon every day when they went outside, but today Austin noticed everything. This was the last day he had to appreciate it. He'd be too caught up in studies after this.

Poppy was excited, of course. She loved trying new things. But though she would never say it out loud, she was nervous. Small witch schools had a bad reputation for producing dark witches, and their great aunt's school was one of the smallest.

Smaller schools had greater likelihood to produce evil witches, because of how little resources they had to teach their students. That lack of resources made it much harder to learn, leading many young witches to pursue dark magic, which was much easier.

Hallow's School of Witchcraft (est. 1956) stood at the end of the cobblestone road, overlooking a tiny bakery. The lower floor was a clothing store, but the two upper floors were reserved for students and studies. The top floor was the dorms, which not many students stayed at since most of them lived nearby.

When the triplets arrived at the school, the only teacher there was Miss Evangeline Hallow, the headmistress and the triplets' great-aunt. There were six other children: James, who seemed kind; Julia, who said nothing as they walked in, all curled up in a red sweater; Tom, who made rude but unintentional jokes; Percy, who seemed just as perky as his curly red hair; Trevor, who agreed with whatever the other boys said; and Luis, who glanced furtively at Poppy and Sage.

"Welcome!" bid Miss Hallow, warmly shaking each triplet's hand. She had black hair with a single gray streak, a long, thin nose, and dark glasses that had nothing to do with her eyesight. She was their great-aunt, and since the triplets could talk, she'd been raving about when they would finally join her class.

Austin knew the school would be small, but it was even smaller than he'd expected. Poppy was intrigued, he could see–she loved little things. And an entire school consisting of only nine students was pretty cozy.

The tour showed them the layout of the house–below the clothing store on the ground floor was the cellar, which was shared between the shop and the school; on the upper floor were four bedrooms, one labeled "Boys" in white paint, the others with no labels; on the middle floor were two "classrooms", which consisted of only a table and ten chairs; and also on the middle floor was the sitting room, the dining room, the kitchen, and the bathroom. The entire house was drafty and open, except for the sitting room, which had a fireplace and no windows.

When Tom appeared, Austin was led away from his siblings and brought to the "Boys" room. Sage was glad there weren't two rooms labelled "Girls" and "Boys", because where would they go? They peeked into one of the unlabelled rooms, and saw that there were things everywhere. This was already someone's room.

The other rooms were empty, and Sage settled in with Poppy. The siblings unpacked, and Sage was surprised to see Poppy hadn't packed any of her books and drawing pads. Poppy was always reading or creating something. Poppy was probably thinking she'd be too caught up in studies, but by the look of this place, there might not be much studying.

Sage crossed to the window and opened it. It was cold outside, the leaves having started to fall, and the sky was an icy and unassuming whitish-gray.

Inside the room, there were only a few things by way of furnishing–three twin beds, a wooden chair, a wardrobe, and a small table the height of a desk. Everything looked cheap and somewhat handmade, but as long as the room was habitable, it would do.

Maybe they could make it prettier with magic.