really have expected. Absolutely the best thing that I could do would be to excel in every area that this jumped up Hogwarts offered and get out with my dignity intact and Mrs. Alcoon’s consciousness restored. My bloodfire was screaming at me to do differently, but sanity thankfully prevailed.
My escort was waiting outside, smirking at me. Clearly he had heard every single word. I gracefully resisted the impulse to slam my fist into his face and forced the edge of my mouth into a smile.
“Well, that was fun. The Dean is such an inspirational and motivational guy.”
The mage ignored me. “I’m going to take you to your room now.” He pushed himself off from the wall and motioned down the corridor. “It’s this way.”
I followed him again, back down the corridor and then up three flights of stairs. We passed several people, some of whom seemed to be students, wearing different coloured robes, and some who were older and were no doubt teachers, judging by their black academic gowns, which mirrored the Dean. None of them appeared particularly thrilled to see me, in fact more than a few moved swiftly out of my path in case they might happen to brush past and actually, shock horror and heavens forbid, touch me. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t here to make friends, and after already being thrown unceremoniously out of Cornwall where all my real friends were, I was pretty sure that this bunch couldn’t do much to hurt my feelings.
We passed a row of rooms that were filled with bunkbeds, and a few terribly young looking girls, again wearing robes of various colours, were milling around inside them. Great. Not only was I being put through all this ridiculous rigmarole, but I’d have to share a room with some giggling adolescents. I had a flicker of a memory of my old bed in the dorms at the keep in Cornwall and pushed it away out of my mind. What was past was past.
Instead of entering any of the dorm rooms, however, we went past every single one and ended up at the end of the corridor heading up a rickety spiral staircase. At the top, there was a small door. The mage pushed it open and walked inside. There was a tiny narrow bed and a small sink, and not much else. A sliver of a window let in a minuscule shaft of light.
“This will be your room,” he announced, with no small hint of satisfaction in his voice.
I looked around. The Ritz this most certainly wasn’t, but the single bed at least was reassuring. “I don’t have to share with anyone?”
He snorted. “We didn’t think it would be fair to impose your presence on any of our students.”
“I think you’ll find that I’m also one of your students.”
His lip curled in derision. “Yeah, well, that remains to be seen.”
I scowled at the mage. “Hey, I didn’t choose to come here. But I will be here until such a point as I graduate, because this is what it is going to take to free a harmless old lady that your lot have decided to keep in a coma so you can hold me ransom. Don’t blame me for being here.”
“Don’t presume to think that I give a shit what your situation is,” he retorted. “Make yourself at home. I will be back in five minutes with a robe.” He turned on his heel and walked out.
“Hey! Can you get me a toothbrush as well?”
Silence rebounded back at me. Outfuckingstanding.
I tugged at the tight hairband holding my hair in place and pulled it out, wishing I still had some silver needles concealed there so that I could have poked his eyes out with painful ease, then ran my fingers through my hair, unknotting the tangles, and lay down on the hard bed, closing my eyes. A moment later there was a knock at the door.
“Hello?” Called out a tentative, yet surprisingly cheery sounding voice.
Jeez. What now? I opened my eyes again and swung my legs to the side, sitting up. “Come in,” I muttered.
A smiling face peered round the door. “Hey! You must be Mack.”
A girl of about seventeen with short dark hair and a purple robe came in, sticking out her hand. She looked vaguely familiar for some reason. I stared at her outstretched palm for a heartbeat and then shrugged and took it. She shook my hand enthusiastically.
“I’m Mary. Level Four. I can’t believe you get your own room! Only