School of magic

Chapter 2

I wake up when the car comes to a halt. When I look to James I see he is still sleeping. Professor Blair looks over her shoulder and smiles at me. ''You should wake him up, we're here.'' I nod and slowly shake James, when he doesn't respond I try a little harder, which finally wakes him. ''Hey there sleepyhead, we're here, come on, I want to find a dorm and get some more sleep in a real bed.'' ''I'm afraid that sleep has to wait a little longer, you guys are the last ones to arrive and there will be a initiation ceremony first. Come on, I'll show you the way, it's still a little walk before we get to the school, cars aren't allowed within the schools borders.''

After we unload everything from the car, which isn't that much, we follow professor Blair down a path through the forest. When I walk through the dimly lit forest I get a feeling I can't really explain, I only know that it's a good feeling, I feel alive, it's exciting. We walk over little bridges which cross little streams and walk by some very big tree's. They are of such enormous size, almost unreal. And after about twenty minutes I see the edge of the forest. My eyes scan the path ahead of us and then I see it, the silhouette of an enormous castle, with hundreds of dimly lit windows. It almost remind me of Harry Potter, but then, this is real life. Next to me I hear James gasp, I take it he has noticed the castle as well. When I scan more of the surroundings I see that there is a lake behind the castle, reflecting the moonlight, the little fog that lingers above it makes it almost seem magical.

I didn't notice that we stopped walking when I suddenly hear professor Blair call us, already quite ahead of us. ''Guys, come on, you don't want to be late now would you? That wouldn't be a good first impression. '' ''Sorry, we're coming!'' James responds and we both hurry after her. And after another five minutes or so we arrive at the gigantic front doors of the castle. Professor Blair opens a small door which is build within the big one and leads us inside. When we step through the door we stand within a huge entrée hall. On the other end of the hall there is another big door, to both the left and right side there are archways leading into different halls. On both sides next to the big door there are two big stairs, the left one going up and the right one going down. The walls of the hall are decorated with numerous paintings, paintings of people, of lands and of buildings. But there are a few paintings which really seem to stand out from the rest of the lot. The paintings depict animals, or better, creatures I have never seen, they seem like beings that are only talked about in fairytales. Then something occurs to me, the painting I have been looking at, of a creature that looks like a fox but dark greenish with a tail that looks like twines on a tree, it blinked. Okay, I must be really tired, paintings do not blink.

I shake my head and look to see that James and the professor are already walking towards the door at the end of the hall. Seeing that James left his luggage in a corner, I decide to put my suitcase there as well, keeping my backpack with me. ''I assume that most of the students already found a spot so just look if you two can find yourself a seat, if not, don't worry, because of recent events we have a few more students this year then normally but we should be fine.'' Professor Blaire tells us. She then opens the door to reveal a room that is three times as large as the entrée, this room is well lit by thousands of little lights that seem to float in the air, the floor is packed with chairs and tables, all seem to be occupied by hoards of students. I notice that me and James are two of the youngest students, all the other students seem like they should be college students. I thought mom send me to a high school?

Then at the far backside of the room I see a table which is placed a bit higher than the rest, seated at the table are, which I assume, the teachers. I notice that they are dressed a bit different, some teachers have clothing which look a bit medieval, but then modern as well. Almost like the characters of a role playing game like Dungeons and Dragons. Then I notice that the older students and even a few of the younger ones are dressed like this as well. It makes me feel as if I have been dropped on a set of an adventure film or something.