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WIZARD
ACADEMIES
THE HOUSE WITH
THE WITCH'S HAT
This is Chapter One from THE HOUSE WITH THE WITCH’S HAT, a novella in the HARRY POTTER tradition now available in the anthology WIZARD ACADEMIES I: A GATHERING OF SHADOWS.
CHAPTER
ONE
Grackleflint's Academy For Reverberaunts, Wales --
December 31, 2006
The hour was late. Nearly
three in the morning. And, except
for the ticking of deathwatches behind the old manor's ashlar walls, the house
was as quiet as a churchyard.
A blue moon -- the second full moon in one month -- shined
its eldritch light through any windows without a curtain drawn or a shutter
closed. The moonbeams were silver
and bright, and the manor's windows were twice as tall as any normal man, so in
these spots the house was as bright as a snowy day. Everyplace else, though, was as black as a cave bottom.
On the manor's second floor a careful c-r-e-a-k crept through
the stillness as a bedroom door opened in the east wing.
A girl dressed in chestnut corduroys and a red shirt tiptoed into the
great corridor, closed the door behind her, and padded down the soapstone floor
on bare feet, running a hand down one wall to help guide her while being careful
not to do more than brush the portraits, armor, tapestries, tables, or chairs
along the way. Whenever she came to a window, the girl darted as quick as
she could through the light.
When the girl came to the top of a great winding staircase,
she reached into a black haversack tied to her belt and removed a papyrus scrap
and a crystal globe the size of a softball.
Etched into the globe's surface was the seven continents and lines of
longitude and latitude. She held
the globe close to her lips, took a deep breath, and exhaled so her breath
stained the globe. As the stain
evaporated, a tiny flame sparked inside the globe, barely as bright as a
firefly.
The girl read the papyrus scrap, reciting in a whisper: 'Illumination,
hear me! Cardy Wagner seeks the
truth!"
The flame grew a trifle bigger and brighter, exposing Cardy
from the darkness. She was a pretty
twelve year old with long straight sandy blonde hair parted on the left.
Her lips trembled, her russet eyes were wide as saucers, but her voice
was firm as she went on reciting: "One
I know that has its roots..."
A hundred or more hyper sparks burst from the flame to bounce
here, there, and everywhere inside the globe as the flame itself swirled and
twirled and whirled like a maelstrom, the lightshow reflecting off the walls and
floors and ceilings like a spotlight hitting a dance hall’s mirror ball.
" ...in my past that I must see!"
Cardy paused as the globe lifted off her hand to hover in the
air.
"Now I command you, take me to the Door of Damocles!"
For a few seconds the globe hovered in place, rotating like a
planet, then glided down the stairway.
Cardy took another deep breath, as if relieved the magick had worked, and then swallowed hard. Reaching into her haversack, she pulled out a pair of socks and black boots, pulled them on her feet, and then followed after the globe. She was committed now so there could be no turning back.
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