1
Morning, Dad!” Lluvia said cheerfully to her dad, who was already having breakfast.
“Morning, Lluvia,” he replied.
Lluvia made some breakfast and sat down at the table with it. Her mum came in just when Lluvia was taking her second bite of toast. Lluvia’s mum started frying an egg and Lluvia’s dad put his bowl in the dishwasher.
When Lluvia finished her breakfast, she went upstairs to feed Legolas the cat and Gimli the weevil. Then, she sat on her bed and read a book. She stopped reading the book when Legolas came into her room and started rubbing against her. She would really miss that cat.
At eleven o’clock, Lluvia started getting everything ready and sat in the living room with her things. She didn’t do much until the doorbell rang at exactly eleven-thirty. She brought her suitcase and Gimli’s cage in one hand and her armour in the other. When she got to the door, she put down Gimli’s cage and opened the door. She saw a tall, thin lady with a strict face and greying, black hair.
“Good morning,” the lady said in a Welsh accent. “I am Ms. Berrie, Deputy Headteacher of Griffin Academy. I am here to escort you to the carriages.”
“Good morning,” Lluvia replied.
“Let me take your case,” Ms. Berrie said, gesturing at the armour.
“Thank you,” said Lluvia, as she handed it to Ms. Berrie.
At that moment, Lluvia's parents came and said goodbye to her. Then, Lluvia picked up Gimli’s cage and followed Ms. Berrie out of the house. On the road, there was a fantastic sight. The was a train of joined carriages, driven by creatures that were half lion, half eagle: griffins.
Ms. Berrie led Lluvia to the carriages and opened the door for her, handing her the armour. Lluvia stepped up, into the carriage and saw that she was in a corridor with compartments on either side. She walked up the corridor and looked for a compartment that wasn’t too full. She soon found one that just had one boy in it.
“Is it ok if I sit in here?” she asked the boy.
“Yeah,” he replied.
Lluvia sat down and put her armour under her seat.
“What’s your name?” she asked the boy.
“I’m Owen,” he answered. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Lluvia,” she replied.
“Where are you from?” he asked, frowning a little.
“Well, my mum is from Mexico and my dad is Greek, but I’ve lived here all my life,” Lluvia answered.
“What house do you want to be in?” he asked, “My Great Uncle wants me to be in the Dragons, but I bet I’ll be in the Unicorns.”
“I don’t really know anything about the school. Neither of my parents are magical,” Lluvia answered.
“Ok, so there are five houses, but I don’t exactly know what they are for. All I know is that the Dragons is supposed to be the best,” explained Owen.
“Ok,” Lluvia replied.
“But I think someone will tell us about them when we get to school,” said Owen.
“How do you get into a house?” asked Lluvia.
“I think you have to do some kind of test,” answered Owen, looking worried.
“Ok,” Lluvia replied.
Suddenly, they started moving and lifted off the ground!
“What was that?” Lluvia asked Owen.
“Just the griffins starting to fly. You get used to it,” he replied.
“Wow,” said Lluvia.
About an hour had passed and Lluvia started to get hungry, so she took out her packed lunch and ate it. They had stopped lots of times and the carriages were getting full, but nobody came into this compartment. Lluvia expected that they would stop stopping soon and just fly to the school. Then, something hit her. She had no idea where on earth the school was.
“Owen, do you know where Griffin Academy is?” Lluvia asked.
“I think it’s somewhere in Wales, but I’m not exactly sure where,” he answered.
“Ok,” replied Lluvia.
Another hour passed and, as Lluvia had expected, they stopped stopping. Lluvia picked up Gimli’s cage to fill up his water. Then she noticed that Owen was looking totally confused.
“What is that?” he asked.
“He’s a Giraffe Necked Weevil,” answered Lluvia. “He’s called Gimli.”
“Ok,” replied Owen.
The carriages got higher and higher until they were above the clouds. It was like being in an aeroplane, but better. Soon people started coming out of compartments and the corridor got quite noisy.
At around half-past three, a group of three boys came into Owen and Lluvia’s compartment. One had short-ish, messy, brown hair; another had dark brown, shoulder-length hair and the other had neat, auburn hair. Lluvia didn’t like the look of the first two, but the boy with the auburn hair looked ok.
“Who are you?” the boy with the shorter, messy hair asked Lluvia.
“I’m Lluvia,” she answered.
“I’m Eric and these are my friends, John and Adam,” the boy replied, gesturing at the boy with the long hair, then the boy with the neat hair.
Eric had just caught sight of Owen and made a face at him, then turned back to Lluvia.
“What are you doing, sharing a compartment with him?” Eric asked Lluvia.
“Why shouldn’t I?” Lluvia replied in a dangerous tone.
“Well, you can see just by looking at him!” Eric replied, after thinking for a second.
“Get out!” Lluvia ordered angrily.
Eric looked shocked and left in a hurry. His friend John (the one with the long hair) followed immediately, but Adam hesitated, as if he wanted to say something, then left without saying it. Lluvia watched them leave, then got up to close the door. When she sat back in her seat, she looked up at Owen, who was slightly pink.
“They’re so stupid,” she said.
“Yes,” Owen replied, though he didn’t look as if he believed it.
Lluvia got out a packet of sweets from her suitcase.
“Do you want one?” she asked Owen.
“Ok,” he answered and took one.
They ate the rest of the snacks that Lluvia had brought and talked. At about five, the carriages started to go down and everything on the floor moved around. They had to scramble around the compartment to try and get everything back before the bumped to the ground.
When the carriages stopped, Lluvia picked her things up and stood up. They opened the door of the compartment and followed everything outside. They had stopped on some gravel, next to some other trains of carriages, that also had people coming out of them. In front of them, was a huge castle with lots of windows.
They followed Ms. Berrie to the castle and up the steps, to a large room. The older students left up a huge staircase and Ms. Berrie led all the first-year students into another room that had a lot of doors going off it. Then, she left and a few minutes later, another teacher came in. This teacher was a tall man, with longish, wavy, brown hair and a serious, emotionless face. He stood at the front of the room and told everyone what they were doing.
“I am Mr. Sallow, your potions teacher,” he said, “You are about to be sorted into your houses. There are five houses: The Unicorns, for those who are kind; The Centaurs, for those who possess a ready mind; The Phoenixes, for those who possess good leadership skills; The Werewolves, for those who possess great physical abilities and, finally, the Dragons, for those who are brave. To be sorted into your houses, you will each be put into a room and you will be left with some raw meat. You can do what you like with it, other than, of course, eat it. The rest of you will wait for your turn.”
Then, Mr. Sallow did the register and when he called each person’s name, they went into a room. He stopped when all the rooms were full and took out his wand, then conjured seats out of thin air. He told everyone to sit down, then waited. After some minutes, the first person came out of their room. It was a girl with waist-length, blonde hair and a long cut on her arm. Mr. Sallow told the next person to go into the room that the girl had just left.
The next person who came out of their room was another girl who looked completely fine. Lluvia wondered what on Earth this test could be and if it was dangerous. As people came out of rooms, some had injuries and some didn’t, so there was no way of guessing what the test was.
Finally, it was Lluvia’s turn and she put her hair up in a half ponytail as she walked to the door of the room her test would be in. When she stepped into the room and the door closed behind her, she saw a beautiful forest. There was some raw meat on a rock and a bow, arrows, sword, shield, and ax beside it. She went to sit on the rock and looked more closely at her surroundings.
She had been sitting for about a minute when she heard a rustling. Suddenly, a huge dragon appeared out of nowhere. Lluvia jumped to her feet and tried to think of something to do. She picked up the bow and arrow and shot at the dragon’s back. The arrow bounced off. She tried again and the arrow bounced off again. Then, Lluvia stopped to think and she realised what she had been doing wrong. How could she have been so stupid? Had she read The Hobbit countless times, for nothing? You have to shoot a dragon on its weak underside, or else the arrow would just bounce off. Lluvia had read the book of magical creatures, so she knew where the heart was.
Lluvia waited until the dragon was still, aimed an arrow at its heart and it pierced the dragon’s skin. She picked up the shield and ducked under it, as the dragon spat fire at her. Then, she dropped the bow and shield and grabbed the sword as she ran at the dragon, stabbing its heart, which had already been cut by the arrow. The dragon screeched and fell to the ground, but it’s claw sliced Lluvia’s face as it fell. Lluvia hardly felt the cut.
The dragon lay, crumpled on the ground, as Lluvia put everything back on the rock, where she had found them, and walked back to the door. She left the room and went back to her seat, trying not to be noticed.
When everyone had been in and out of a room, Mr. Sallow left the room and came back, holding a bit of paper.
“You have now been sorted into your houses. I will read your names off this list and you will follow a prefect for your house to your dormitories,” Mr. Sallow said, gesturing at five older students at the door, “Staring with the Unicorns: April, Felicity, Isaac, Ben, Vera, Alvaro, Amelia, Willow, Thomas, Bianca, and Caleb.”
The people in the Unicorns left and Mr. Sallow called out the people in the Phoenixes. Then, he called out the people in the Centaurs. The three boys that Lluvia had met on the train were in the Werewolves.
“And now for the Dragons: Oceane, Deja, Owen, Ewan, Arthur, Celeste, Io, Dan, Sienna, Lluvia, Luke, and Oliver,” Mr. Sallow said.
Lluvia picked her things and followed everybody else out of the room. They went up the stairs in the big room that they had first entered and followed the prefect to a door. The prefect said a password and opened the door, to reveal a large room with plenty of sofas, armchairs, tables, and chairs in it. Two staircases were coming down to the room. The perfect directed the girls up one and the boys up the other.
When the girls went up the staircase they found themselves in a corridor with eight doors along one side. The only problem was that they had no idea which door led to their dormitory. An older girl left one of the dormitories and the girl called Sienna asked her which dormitory was for them. The older girl said that room seven was free this year. They went to the seventh door and found that it was empty of people. There were six beds, each with a chest of drawers, a bedside table, and a railing, with a curtain, around them.
Lluvia went to the second bed and put Gimli’s cage on the chest of drawers. The blonde girl, that had the cut on her arm, was on the third bed and a girl with short, dark hair was on the first. Lluvia put her armour next to the chest of drawers and sat on the blue covers of her bed, to start unpacking her suitcase. She put all her weapons and shield in the bottom drawer of her chest of drawers. She had brought her school bag and put all her books and school supplies in it.
Just then, a bell rang and the prefect came into the dormitory to tell them it was dinner time. Lluvia left all the rest of her unpacking to be done after dinner. She had only just realised that she was very hungry. They followed the prefect back down the stairs, through the door, and to the biggest room yet. There were five long tables for the students of each house and a smaller one for the teachers. They went to the table in the middle and the prefect found her friends. Lluvia found Owen and sat next to him. The blonde girl sat on her other side.
Soon, the room was very noisy because more and more people came in and started talking. When it looked like everyone was in the room, an old man, with a long, grey beard and long, grey hair, wearing a grey, pointed hat, grey robes, and a grey cloak, stood up. He appeared to be a headteacher. He gave some notices, then sat down again. After a minute or two, an amazing smell of food drifted into the room and was quickly followed by the food itself. Plates of food, from all over the world, floated in, from windows that were high up on the walls. The plates landed on the tables.
Lluvia helped herself to what she liked, then said grace in her head, before tucking in. The food was delicious. The curry was spicy and flavourful, just how Lluvia liked it. This was, by far, one of the best meals that Lluvia had had in her life.
“Hello,” Lluvia said to the blonde girl beside her, “I’m Lluvia.”
“I am Deja,” the blonde girl replied, in a French accent.
“Nice to meet you, Deja. This is my friend, Owen,” said Lluvia.
“Hi, Deja,” said Owen,
For the rest of dinner, Lluvia, Deja, and Owen talked about school and their backgrounds. Deja was from France and had no siblings. It had taken a long time for her to get to Griffin Academy, all the way from France. Owen lived with his Great Uncle Brian, in England. He didn’t have any siblings either.
When most of the main course food had been eaten, the plates floated back up to the windows and the desserts came. There was ice cream in every flavour, pies of every type, and a huge array of cheesecakes. The ice cream was Lluvia’s favourite dessert, so she was really happy with this course. By the end of the meal, Lluvia was tired because it had been a long day.
After the meal, the prefects led the first years back to their common rooms. Lluvia and Deja said goodnight to Owen and went upstairs to their dormitory. When they got in, only two other people were in the room: the girl with the short, dark hair, whose bed was next to Lluvia’s, and a girl at the other end of the room, with silvery blonde hair. Lluvia went straight to her bed, to finish unpacking. She took all three parts of The Lord of The Rings out of her case and put them on her bedside table. When her suitcase was empty, she put it under her bed.
The other two girls eventually came in. The girl that Lluvia later found out was called Sienna, made everyone say who they were. The girl that was on Lluvia’s side (not Deja) was called Io and the blonde girl at the other end of the room was called Oceane. The girl next to her was Celeste and Sienna was on Deja’s other side.
They had a time, but Sienna had to be reminded several times to go to bed. Eventually, Lluvia closed her curtain, changed, and got into bed. She fell asleep just as her head hit the pillow.
The next day, Lluvia woke up at a quarter past seven, as usual, and got out of bed straight away. She into the school uniform and did her hair in a half plait (just because it looked Elvish). She opened her curtain and saw that Io and Celeste were also up. She went over to Io and asked her when breakfast was. Io said that her parents had told her that you could go to breakfast anytime from 7:30 to 8:30 and that classes started at nine. Just then, Deja’s curtain opened.
Lluvia went back to her bed and opened The Fellowship of The Ring. She didn’t manage to finish a whole chapter because chapters were really long. Soon everyone was up and they went for breakfast. Like the night before, the food floated down from the mysterious windows and landed on the tables.
In the middle of breakfast, the prefect for the Dragons, Jenny, gave all the first years their timetables. They had magical plants first. Lluvia, Deja, and Owen went back to the common room because there were still about 45 minutes until classes started. Lluvia went up to the dormitory to get her bag and put The Fellowship of The Ring in it.
“What do we have after Magical Plants?” Lluvia asked when she got back to Deja and Owen.
“Archery, I think,” Deja responded, dreamily.
“Ok,” said Lluvia, “I love the idea or Archery. My favourite character, in my favourite book, is amazing at it.”
“Who is the character?” Asked Deja.
“Legolas, from The Lord of The Rings,” answered Lluvia.
“I have not read that book,” replied Deja.
“Neither have I,” said Owen, “It’s way too long.”
“It’s a great book,” said Lluvia, “I’ve read it loads of times. The book that comes before it, The Hobbit, is great too. It taught me how to kill a dragon.”
“Ok,” said Owen.
“Wait, I just realised something,” exclaimed Lluvia, “If we have Archery after Magical Plants, we’ll need Archery stuff!”
“Oh, yes, I did not think of that,” Deja said, absentmindedly.
They went to get their Archery things and Lluvia fed Gimli. Celeste and Deja wanted to know what he was, so Lluvia told them about him. When the girls went back downstairs and found Owen again. They waited for a bit and then decided to try and find Magical plants. Deja had a map of the school, which was useful. They very nearly got lost but managed to find their way to the right classroom, in the end.
Inside the classroom, there were no desks, but there were a lot of tables -many of which were laden with plant pots- instead. In the plant pots, there were strange plants that Lluvia had never seen before. They went to the table that the teacher, who was an enthusiastic, young man called Mr. Currie, directed them to. There was only one other person in the classroom, who was a boy who, according to Owen was called Luke. There were no chairs so they stood, waiting for the rest of the class. Celeste and Sienna were put at the same table as Luke, along with a boy called Ewan. A boy called Arthur joined Lluvia, Deja, and Owen’s table. Oceane was late because she had got lost.
When everyone was there, Mr. Currie gave everybody a plant pot and got them to fill them with the magical compost that made plants grow 4.3 times faster than normal compost would. Then, he gave each table a bag of seeds. They would grow a plant called a Perupipor, which was the main ingredient for a potion that soothed rashes.
Lluvia took a seed from the bag and put it in a little hole in the compost, that she had made with her finger. The seeds were large and looked like a cross between a raisin and an almond. Once she had covered the seed with compost, she took one of the watering cans that were now being handed round and watered her plant a little. Then, she handed it to Deja on the other side of the table. As she did so, she knocked over the bag of seeds and they scattered everywhere! Owen helped her pick them up and put them all back in the bag.
When everybody had finished, they helped Mr. Currie bring all the plant pots to the back of the classroom. When they had done this, Mr. Currie brought a big plant pot to each table. Inside each pot was a tall plant, with a silver stem and lots of dark green leaves. There were a few little white flowers that had already opened, but the rest were still buds.
“This is a fully grown Perupipor plant,” said Mr. Currie, when each table had one, “It is a very useful plant with lots of properties. I will give you each a notebook to note them down in.”
He proceeded to hand out notebooks. Then, he went back to the front of the classroom and started talking about the Perupipor. Lluvia wrote notes as quickly as she could because every word that the teacher said could be important information.
At the end of the lesson, they packed up their things and the entire class attempted to make their way to Archery. They all carried longbows and quivers of arrows. They finally managed to find the right classroom and Sienna knocked on the door. A strange-looking man answered it. He was very tall and had long blonde hair! He wore what looked like an adult-sized version of the school uniform.
“Good morning!” he said cheerfully to the class, as he let them in. “I am Mr. Wood. You may sit where you like.”
The classroom was enormous. At the front of the room, there were twelve desks and at the back of the room, there was a space with targets. Lluvia took a seat next to Deja, with a boy with light blonde hair and pale skin, on her other side. She put her bag on the back of her chair and sat down.
“Let me do the register,” said Mr. Wood. “When I say your name, put your hand up so I can note your names down on the seating plan.”
He got a register out of a drawer in his desk and picked up a pen, ready to note down names on the seating plan.
Mr. Wood started calling out names, “Oceane Ableman, Luke Bannister, Deja Cadieux, Owen Collins, Arthur Jayson, Sienna Lashbrook, Oliver Nettle, Io O’Laughlin, Ewan Rauschenberg, Celeste Raven, Lluvia Selinofoto, and Dan Wadford.”
Lluvia put her hand up and said “Here!” when Mr. Wood called her name. The boy sitting next to her was Luke. Mr. Wood talked a bit about Archery and people asked him questions for the rest of the lesson. Lluvia liked Mr. Wood, but he seemed easy to distract. She was quite surprised at how many questions people had.
At the end of the lesson, most people got up and left quickly because the break was next. Lluvia, Owen, and Deja were the last to leave because Lluvia’s pencil case fell out of her bag and rolled under a desk. She attempted to retrieve it and knocked over the chair, which was picked up by Owen, who promptly knocked it over again. When they returned to Deja, who was crying with laughter, Lluvia rolled her eyes at her. They left the room and Lluvia got out her timetable to check how long the break was.
“We have half an hour for a break,” Lluvia said. “and we can go to the grounds, the common room, or the library.”
“Should we go back to the common room?” suggested Owen. “We can put our Archery things away.”
“Yes, we can go there!” said Deja, as they started walking.
“What do you think of the teachers?” asked Lluvia.
“I think they seem nice enough,” replied Owen.
Deja did not reply because she was looking hard at her map, trying to find where they were. They walked silently for a while until Deja suddenly stopped.
“What is it?” Lluvia skied her.
“I have forgotten my arrows!” she exclaimed. “I will go back for them.”
“Ok,” said Owen.
She left and Lluvia and Owen went on without her. After a minute or two, they realised that they had no idea where to go because Deja still had the map.
“Which way should we go?” asked Owen.
“I don’t know. Deja still has the map,” replied Lluvia.
“Then, what should we do?” Owen asked Lluvia.
“I don’t know. We might have to ask someone the way,” she replied.
They turned the corner, looking for someone, and found some people, but they were the three people they least wanted to see: Eric, John, and Adam. This day was not starting well. First getting lost and now this!
“What are you doing, still hanging out with him?” Eric asked Lluvia, scowling at Owen.
“What is your problem with Owen?” Lluvia asked angrily.
Eric thought for a moment, then totally changed the subject, “Your parents aren’t magical, are they?”
“So what if they’re not?” answered Lluvia.
“Ah, so you wouldn’t know to mix with the wrong people,” said Eric.
“What do you mean?” asked Lluvia.
“Some magical families are better not to mix with. Some of them care too much about little things and that can lead to trouble.” Eric replied.
“You’re talking total nonsense,” said Lluvia.
“I’m not!” Eric replied.
“Well, then you can leave Owen alone before I try a spell on you!” replied Lluvia.
“You wouldn’t do that to me!” said Eric, though he looked slightly scared.
“Oh yes, I would! You have approximately five seconds before I get my wand out!” she replied.
“Lluvia, we can go now!” murmured Owen.
“No, they can go,” said Lluvia, as she took out her wand.
“She’s actually going to do it!” said John to Eric and with that, they sprinted off.
“Were you actually going to put a spell on him?” asked Owen.
“Well, if he didn’t leave soon, I would have!” said Lluvia, smiling at the thought of it.
“Wow!” Owen replied.
“I kind of wish I had,” Lluvia said. “He really deserved it, picking fights for no reason.”
“You would’ve got into huge trouble if someone found out and you really don’t have to do anything to him,” replied Owen.
“Don’t say things like that, of course, I have to stand up for my friends!” Lluvia replied
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