The Adventures of the Junior Phoenixes, Part 1: The Pendant of Life

Chapter 10: The Founder's Totem

Chapter 10

     The bus rolled to the Great Stone. Styx moved it slowly to the giant hill-sized boulder that towered beside the unnamed road as it forked away from Dungeon Rd for no apparent Muggle reason. For years Muggle cartographers wondered why that particular road led to nowhere. Special enchantments concealed the road’s true purpose from the curious minds of Muggle inquirers. It served as the road to the Salem Academy for Magic. Master Bonnie Blessed, wearing brown robes accentuated with rainbow ribbons and tassels, walked up to the Great Stone and tapped on it to the rhythm of the old folk song “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye”. The Great Stone rumbled for a second before it changed shape and a hole formed. The hole expanded larger and larger until it became a large gaping tunnel, big enough for several buses to drive through. Styx drove the bus into it and turned the headlights on, with the Four Masters walking beside it and then behind it. They kept a watchful eye out.

     “Holy Penelope!” Rose said out loud, “We’re inside a giant rock!”

     “Well, of course!” a girl with red-brown skin and long black hair said, “And nothing can get past the Great Stone, either.”

     “They’re new, Spirit,” Sam Meadows told the black-haired girl, “They’re from Hogwarts over in London. They’re exchange students.”

     “Well, hello!” Spirit said, holding her hand out to Ignatia, “I’m Spirit Sandpiper! Who are you?”

     Ignatia smiled shyly. “I-I’m Ignatia Jones,” she stammered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She shook Spirit’s hand.

     “Welcome to Salem Academy!” Spirit told her as the bus began to approach the end of the tunnel. “You’re going to love it here! Just you wait and see!”

     The tunnel opened to a long dirt-and-gravel road lined by long rows of thick-trunked evergreen trees forming a wall-like hall. The road was called the Hall of Evergreens. It ran straight, going at least a half mile. The thick branches and needles seemed to block out most of the sunlight. It almost seemed to give the Hall of Evergreens a cathedral-like appearance. Thin and bright sunbeams pierced through some of the branches and tree trunks at intervals, giving the appearance of a great cathedral with windows that allowed the sun to shine as beams. At the end of the Hall of Evergreens there was a huge iron gate that was held by a massive stone castle wall that stood tall, reaching upwards four stories at least. The iron gate opened and the bus rolled through.

     Beyond the iron gate and the great castle wall the land opened up into a broad and grassy plain surrounded by the wall and the Great Woods all around. The grassy plain surrounded a great stone castle that seemed larger and larger as the bus got closer. The road came up to a large circle, the Bus Circle, which brought the buses into a full turnabout so they can return back down the Hall of Evergreens. There were four statues on the outside of the Bus Circle. The statues were of four young girls holding wands that pointed towards the school. Each statue bore a name on it, the name of one of the wards of Salem. They were built in honor of four girls who, long ago, were accused of witchcraft. They had been secretly witches but never told their story until years later. Salem’s wards were named after the girls.

     The Salem Academy of Magic was a work of architecture. The front manor, called the Grand Lobby, was at least as tall as the outer walls that surrounded the school. There were three towers and one large square house on a corner of the huge castle. A large greenhouse and a pumpkin patch were to the left of the main castle while the animal pens, a barn, and a few storehouses were on the right. Behind the long and tall Commoner’s Hall to the rear of the castle, where the students and faculty ate, were the Quidditch Pitch and the sports track used for both foot racing and broom racing. Beyond that, on top of a large formation of rocks that formed a hill that towered over the entire school grounds, was the ancient and wondrous Star Chamber, where some of the astronomy classes took place. Towards the northwestern part of the campus grounds, sloping downwards towards Walden Pond was the Water House where the swimming pool and dock houses for the boats were located. A guard tower stood alone at the end of the long wall and opened up to the Great Woods and to Walden Pond. The opposite end of the long wall had a guard tower, too, and it also opened up to the Great Woods beyond.