He woke up ready to change into his uniform - but when he saw his roommates putting on their everyday clothes, he did the same. He donned a blue polo T-shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals. He then opened the feeding port under his bed to verify that Luna had plenty of food and water before going off to the Great Hall to have breakfast himself. As soon as he had sat down, he loaded his plate with corn grits, sausage, scrambled eggs, and a biscuit — and poured himself some orange juice.
Shortly after he began to eat, Tom sat down beside him.
“Have you seen the Sorcery Times?” Tom asked.
“The what?” asked Simon.
“The Sorcery Times,” explained Tom. “The top newspaper — read by more witches and wizards in the US than any other.”
“I never heard about it before,” said Simon. “I only recently learned that magic is even real.”
“Well,” said Tom, helping himself to some grits, “BMEC found a water dragon dead near the Hiwassee River.”
“Who’s BMEC?” asked Simon.
“The Bureau of Magical Ecology and Conservation,” explained Tom. “And they’re real pissed because water dragons are a protected species. People aren’t supposed to just kill them.”
Tom pulled a newspaper out of his satchel and placed it on the table. On the front page was a story with the headline “Protected Dragon Slaughtered”. At the bottom of the article was a notice that read: “Continued on page six”. Tom triple-tapped it with his finger, and the paper rose off the table, turned itself to page six, and landed on the same spot on the table that it had lifted itself from seconds earlier.
As soon as it landed, Tom pointed to a certain paragraph in the article:
“At the present time, we do not know who killed the dragon,” a BMEC spokesperson told reporters. “Our only clue about the motive is that all of the dragon’s teeth were removed shortly after the time of death, most likely by the same poacher responsible for the dragon’s illegal killing.”
“So they killed the dragon,” said Simon, “and took all of its teeth?”
“Looks like it,” said Tom.
* * *
After breakfast, Simon went back to his dorm room in Hemlock Tower. Seeing that none of his roommates were there, he fetched his copy of “The Body Transformed” from his safe, put it in his satchel, and headed outside - hoping to find a pleasant place to sit and read.
After asking around, he found that there were a number of picnic tables in the courtyard of the South Wing. He sat down at one of the tables, pulled the book out of his satchel, and began reading.
He located the section in the book that discussed the transformation ritual for the initial casting of somamorphic spells — and studied it in excruciating detail. He learend where to place the trait imprint stone, where he should stand if casting the spell on himself, even the motions and incantations for the casting ritual. After he felt that he had absorbed the instructions for the ritual as thoroughly as he would be able to in this sitting, he found a side-note in the text that read as follows:
No somamorphy spell will initially last over twenty-four hours. However, once cast, a somamorphy spell can be extended through a renewal ritual. The longer the spell has been continually in effect without being allowed to expire, the longer a renewal ritual will be able to extend it. There have been cases of witches and wizards having maintained somamorphic transformations for the duration of their lives, the frequency with which they have needed to cast renewal rituals to maintain the transformations decreasing over the years.
Simon looked at that side note - transfixed. He was about to turn to the page of the book to where the renewal ritual was described when he heard a familiar voice.
“Hey there,” said a girl his age sitting down to his right. He looked and saw that it was none other than Clara Lawson - the very person he had met in the Fifth-and-a-Half Floor of the Sunsphere before getting on the flying carpet for Misty Peaks. She was wearing a blue denim overall dress over a short-sleeved red tunic.
“Hi, Clara,” said Simon. “How are you?”
“Pretty good,” she said. “I see you’re getting a head-start on your studying.”
“No, this isn’t for class,” said Simon.
“Oh, I see,” she said, eyeing the book curiously.
“I haven’t seen you since yesterday,” he said. “Think we’ll be in any classes together?”
“Probably not,” admitted Clara. “With the first-years, they usually put everyone in the same tower in the same homeroom, and they usually have all the same classes together. But I’m sure I’ll see around anyway.”
“Hopefully,” agreed Simon.
“So what’cha reading?” asked Clara.
“Something about a kind of magic I learned about while doing my before-school shopping,” answered Simon.
“Oh?” she said, looking at the pages in Simon’s book. “Somamorphy. That’s kinda advanced for a first-year, isn’t it?”
“It may be,” said Simon, “but it’s something I have to learn.”
“Why?” asked Clara.
“I need to make a change,” said Simon.
“A change to how you look?” asked Clara. “Why? You look great!”
“It’s a long story,” insisted Simon.
“Okay,” conceded Clara, “you can tell me when you’re ready.”
“Thank you,” said Simon.
“Not sure what for,” responded Clara, getting up, “but you’re welcome. Anyway, hope to see you around plenty.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“You too,” said Simon.
After Clara went off, he began studying the renewal ritual.
“No matter what time a somamorphic spell is set to expire,” the textbook read, “nothing can hasten the process. However, there is a ritual that can extend the duration of the spell.”
He kept studying the renewal ritual with the same rigor and attention to detail as he had previously studied the initial casting ritual until an envelope just drifting in the air landed on top of the open book he was studying. On it was the address: “Mr. Simon Corbin - Hemlock 103”. When he opened the envelope, the first thing he saw was the following letter:
Mr. Simon Corbin,
Welcome to your first year at Misty Peaks Academy of the Magical Arts. We trust you are settling in to your new home for the school year. Enclosed is your list of classes as well as information that you will need to find them on campus.
Sincerely,
Robert Parker, Headmaster
Dora Brown, Deputy Headmistress
Simon smiled. Tomorrow he would begin his proper learning of the magical arts. Before the end of the week, Amy would help him transform into Rosemary for the first time ever. And it wouldn’t be too long till he had his own wand and would be able to transform on his own - and with the help of the renewal renewal ritual he was now studying, would be able to maintain that transformation permanently.
* * *
The rest of the day, Simon was filled with excitement for the next day. He tried to focus on practical things he had to do in preparation, such as familiarizing himself with how laundry was done in the magical world. Apparently, that was something that students would do in their own cauldrons, and there was a spell for that. When he first learned about this, he was concerned that he might run out of clothes before he had his own wand to cast the spell.
“Don’t worry about that,” assured Ethan. “Even when you have your own wand, you’ll probably be a fourth year by the time you’re ready to cast it yourself.”
“Then how do we do our laundry?” asked Simon, on the verge of panic.
“You just use one of these,” he said, handing Simon a tiny blue dropper bottle about two inches tall.
“What’s this?” asked Simon.
“It’s a liquid spell,” explained Ethan. “Basically, as its name implies, a spell in liquid form. There’s lots of different kinds of liquid spells for different things - but this one is for doing your laundry. Just fill your cauldron with dirty clothes, and put one drop on it. Then, just wait three to five minutes till the foam subsides, take your clothes out, and put them away. They’ll be cleaner than you’ve ever had them before, and it even undoes everyday wear.”
“So you can’t wear them everyday?” worried Simon.
“No,” said Ethan, “that just means it helps prevent the clothes from getting all worn out.”
“Thank you,” said Simon, taking the bottle from Ethan.
“No problem,” said Ethan. “Just keep the bottle in your safe - and when you start running low, just stop by the supply office. By the way, do you know how to get to your homeroom tomorrow after breakfast?”
* * *
The next morning after breakfast, Simon found his way over to Professor Hathaway’s class on the fifth floor of Lumière Tower as the night before Ethan had made sure he knew how to do. This was both the place for his homeroom as well as his first class of the day, Introduction to Enchantments. After some hesitation, he found a seat in the third row and sat down. He got out his volume of ‘The Amazing World of Enchantment’, the textbook for the class, as well as his notebook and some pens. At 8:20am, he heard a deep bell ring three times, and a woman who seemed to be the teacher walked in. She had orange hair tied back into a bun and wore rectangular glasses. She wore a brown robe and mage’s hat with images of acorns sown onto them.
“Good morning, class,” said the woman, waiving her wand at the board. “I am Professor Vivian Hathaway, and I will be your homeroom teacher this year, as well as your enchantments teacher.” As she spoke, the words “Prof. Vivian Hathaway - Introduction to Enchantment” wrote themselves on the board. “Let’s start by taking roll,” she continued, “and then I’ll go over the syllabus, which gives you the class’s overview. But since today is the first time we’re calling roll, we’re not just making sure everyone’s here, but also getting to know each other - so when I call your name, don’t just say ‘here’ or ‘present’, but tell me something about yourself. Let’s see who’s first.” She opened a drawer under her desk, lifted out a clipboard, and took a look. “Scott Ashford?” she called out.
“Here,” said a timid, lanky, dirty-blonde boy in the fifth row.
“And something about yourself?” asked Professor Hathaway.
“I’m a first-year student at Misty Peaks,” mumbled Scott.
Professor Hathaway grimaced. “I suppose that will have to do,” she conceded.
“And I have a sister in the fourth year,” he blurted.
“Oh,” said Professor Hathaway. “You’re Jennifer’s brother?”
“Yes,” said Scott.
“I remember her! She was one of my brightest students!” noted the Professor. “You take after her?”
“No,” admitted Scott.
Professor Hathaway looked down at her clipboard again. “Tina Baker?” she called.
“Hi,” said a girl two desks to Simon’s left. “Both my parents and all of my grandparents went to Misty Peaks.”
“So you’re a legacy student then,” noted Professor Hathaway. She looked at her clipboard again and then called: “Lilith Collins?”
“Here,” said Lilith, who was sitting one seat ahead and to the left of Simon. “I’m Lilith, and I like to study magical history.”
“That’s definitely an interesting thing to study,” responded Professor Hathaway. “Let’s see who’s next. Simon Corbin?”
“Here,” said Simon, timidly. When the teacher looked at him, indicating he wasn’t done, he began to tense up about what to say next. “I am,” he said, and then paused, thinking what to say next. After another moment or so hesitation, he continued one or two words at a time, “the first person in my family to have magic.”
“A first-generation kid,” noted Professor Hathaway. “So I imagine there’s a lot that’s going to be new to you, then.”
“Yes,” agreed Simon.
Professor Hathaway continued calling roll, but Simon dwelled on the intimidating situation of being one of the few people in class who was relatively unfamiliar with magic. He kept spiraling until eventually he heard another familiar voice - one that he could have done just fine never hearing again. It was a voice that took all of his apprehensions about being from a non-magical family and brought them into sharper focus.
“I am Melissa Langford, of the Birmingham Langfords,” said a girl on the fourth row, two columns to Simon’s right. This girl, whose name the teacher had just called, was the same girl that Simon had had a run-in with in Merlin’s Book Cove. “My family goes back several generations and is full of some of the most distinguished witches and wizards.”
Simon wondered if the teacher noticed the glances that Melissa shot at him as she spoke.
“Thank you very much, Melissa,” said Professor Hathaway. “Being from such an illustrious family, you realize, that means you’ve got some pretty big shoes to fill. Do you?”
“I - do,” answered Melissa, somewhat less bombastically, and sat down.
After roll call was complete, Professor Hathaway took a stack of parchment sheets. She handed a small number of sheets to the front-row student at each column and gave instructions for everyone to take one sheet and pass the rest back.
“So as I said,” began the teacher moments after Simon had taken his sheet, “I am Professor Vivian Hathaway, and this is Introduction to Enchantment, as well as your homeroom class.” She glanced at a mostly-blue crystal ball swirled with other colors that was mounted on a brass stand on her desk. “So, give me a show of hands. Who here knows what enchantment is?”
Most of the students raised their hands. Simon, however, didn’t. He thought he had an idea what enchantment was, but wasn’t particularly confident. The last thing he wanted to do was take credit for having an idea that could very well be wrong.
Simon could see Professor Hathaway look at him, but she said nothing. Instead, she turned to Lilith. “Lilith, is it?” she asked. Lilith nodded. “Could you explain to the class what enchantment is?”
“Enchantment,” explained Lilith, “is the casting of spells that alter the nature of the world or something in it.”
“Very well. Thank you, Lilith,” said Professor Hathaway. She quickly glanced at with a smile at Simon, who felt worthless for not having raised his hand. Lilith’s explanation wasn’t too far off from what he would have said, but he had merely suspected that this was what enchantment was. Lilith, on the other hand, knew.
This was the low point of the class this day for Simon. As soon as Professor Hathaway started going over the syllabus, things only got better. What excited him the most was to learn how soon it would be till he would have his own wand. That coming Saturday, the class would be going together with Professor Sinclair’s homeroom on a special field-trip. The trip would be to the forest outside the castle, where every student would have a chance to obtain a core for their wand. “The core,” explained Professor Hathaway, “is the one part that you need to put together your wand that is not included in your wand construction kit, and you will need it next week when we put together our wands in class.”
Simon was nervous - yet excited. It would be less than two weeks till he would finally have his wand and be able to transform into Rosemary.