Travel Through Time // a MPHFPC fanfiction

The headmistress

Miss Avocet was a strict woman, Ethel could tell the moment she entered the headmistress's office. Alma had left Ethel as soon as the office door slammed shut.
The headmistress didn't look up when she offered Ethel a seat, she appeared to be busy writing some documents.

After a moment of silence where only Miss Avocet's scribbling could be heard, it suddenly came to a hold and the headmistress put away her writing feather -- wich was indeed very beautiful and had some golden sprinkles at the end -- and finally turned towards Ethel.

"Your full name is Ethel Clarisse Barrinson?", Miss Avocet asked, her eyes sharp, piercing even.

"Yes."

"Born on January 13th in 1886?"

"Yes."

"And do I state correctly that your peculiarity is shapeshifting?"

"I can turn into a cat at will, yes."

"Have you ever turned into another form other than a cat?"

"No, I think the cat form is fixed."

"Wonderful. Now you're lucky, this years term has just started, so it shouldn't be a problem to catch up with your classmates. Speaking of classes, you are free to take whatever classes you want and as much as you wish, although I would advise you to definitely take Peculiar History seeing that you didn't know about peculiardom until recently."

That being said, Miss Avocet shoved a paper towards Ethel and told her that she would have time to think about the classes until tomorrow and then bring her decision back to her. On the paper was a list of at least two dozen curses Ethel could chose from.

The following evening was a very long one for Ethel. After she had left the headmistress's office Alma had shown Ethel the dining room. Dinner had already been served and there had been laughter and mumbling everywhere. The dishes themselves had been quite exquisite with an excellent Bouillabaisse as the main dish and Crème Brûlée for dessert.

After dinner Alma had introduced her to another peculiar. Her name was Clara Antoinette D'Levisier and she was a genie. She was as old as time itself and had been a slave of her lamp she had been bound to, but a few decades ago Miss Avocet had found and freed her. Her almighty form had shifted into a human body of a girl and together with Miss Avocet Clara had chosen her name.

Now that Clara was a human, she had lost her ability of fulfilling nearly every wish, but she remained a peculiar with the peculiarity to fulfill minor (and sometimes even larger) wishes. What made Clara even happier was that now she herself could decide whether she would grant a wish or not. Her peculiarity was her own now.

Alma had asked Clara for a new set of clothes seeing that Ethel had none. Clara had smiled and willingly granted the wish and now Ethel owned some of the most beautiful dresses she had ever seen and didn't want to know what they would have cost.

Currently Ethel and Alma were sitting in their beds and discussed the courses Ethel should take this term.

"Well, firstly I would definitely take Peculiar History as Miss Avocet said, it helps a lot when you are new to peculiardom. And then ... I don't know, you could either learn common subjects like mathematics and science or you could learn a new language, the possibilities are endless", Alma said.

"My father always said, that science isn't meant for girls and I actually never showed any real interest in it, but I did learn a few languages, mainly English of course. You know, my family is originally from Germany, but we moved to England a few years ago. I also speak French and I'm pretty good at Latin and Ancient Greek, these two are actually my favourites", Ethel replied.

"Ancient Greek and Latin? That's impressive, maybe you should take Old Peculiar, it's the original language of all peculiar people. Today it's sadly not spoken anymore and most peculiars don't show any interest in it because it's really hard to manage. I had to learn a bit as a part of my ymbryne training, but you could lay your entire focus on Old Peculiar if you wanted to."

"That sounds just perfect, I think I'll take it. What else would you recommend?"

Alma and Ethel had fun discussing the various subjects and by the next morning Ethel had made her decisions: She would take Peculiar History, a course of Old Peculiar Grammar and a course of Old Peculiar History, Peculiar Literature and a beginner class of mathematics (she wanted to give it a try now that she was allowed to learn it).

Ethel was a bit nervous as she gave Miss Avocet the list with her courses, but she was glad that she had the opportunity to learn new things.

Hello once again,
I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Feel free to leave some feedback and have a wonderful day!
See you soon 😊