Free Avis Blackthorn: Is Not an Evil Wizard! by Jack Simmonds

with Partington increased in interest, as we
learnt more and more theory, and he started setting us homework all
about Spells which I worked through each night, next to the fire
with great gusto. Robin next to me, would say things like:
    “Is a Solvent-Spell under the Law of
Richardson, or is it an Unrestricted?”
    I’d scoff and say, “Unrestricted of course!
Says it right here…” But, if I was honest, he was much cleverer
than me. He picked up Magic a lot quicker seeing as he was an
Outsider and I had already done five or six years of basic theory
at my last school.
    The first Sunday was a full day off, my god
that was a sweet day off. It was a gloriously sunny day and I woke
up really early, lit the fire then went down to breakfast with
Robin who had toothpaste all round his mouth. When I told him he
went mad.
    “Why didn’t ya tell me earlier, instead of
letting me walk round like a berk?”
    We were pretty much the only ones in the
Chamber that early, which was quite nice actually, sometimes it can
get too crowded and because there are no windows, you can get a
build up of condensation on the roof which periodically drips on
you. I sat down as food burst onto the table, I loaded my plate
with bacon and sausages and eggs and fried bread. Robin tucked into
some porridge, orange juice, tea, then a full breakfast like mine,
and some croissants for afters. He could certainly put food away,
but I wasn’t sure where it went. He was so skinny you could almost
see his heart beating through his skin, like a transparent fish.
Newspapers popped into life on the table in front of us too now.
Two copies of the Herrald. On the front page at the bottom was a
small headline about Hailing Hall:
    “ New Pupils Start a New Year of Magical
Studies.”
    “Wow,” said Robin. “We’re famous!”
    The front page of the Herrald was pretty
boring, something about Sorcerers refusing to pay tax, and the
leprechauns scrounging off the Magical Council. I never really read
newspapers before, but I felt quite civilised as I sat there
nibbling a croissant, sipping my tea and thumbing through the
Herrald. There was some good stuff too, this is what I learnt:
    • The pig people who are in charge of all the gold
want to go on strike because they are not allowed massive gold
bonus’s.
    • Mr. Wolfe, the conductor on my train is up in
court, responsible for biting a piggy banker (the consensus seemed
to be that he was more of a hero than a villain, even though the
judge was a piggy.)
    • Malakai and his supporters had stormed a local
council in Gilliggan and taken it over, (so that’s what my parents
had been up to).
    Robin was very interested about anything
Magical and asked me constant questions whenever they popped into
his head. He was fascinated with that fact that I was born into the
Magical world. Over breakfast he seemed to think of more questions,
perhaps the newspaper had sparked a few more ideas.
    “So do you have different races or species in
your Magical Kingdoms?”
    “Yes,” I said sagely, folding the newspaper.
“There’s the pig people, leprechauns, fauns, Imps, Gnomes, erm…
loads really.”
    “Cor, in my world, we were always taught that
those things were made up, myths and fairytales.”
    “Yeah, course you were,” I laughed. “Who do
you think wants you to think there a myth?” He looked at me
blankly. “We do of course, there’s more of you than there are of
us.”
    When me and Robin went back up to our dorm
the others were just rising and milling about like zombies. Me and
Robin had just started a game of backgammon, before there was a
knock at the door. It was some of the girls. I was quite glad
because Robin was beating me and I didn’t like losing.
    “Do you boys want to go for a walk around the
grounds?” said Jess, who was joined at the doorway by Gret, Ellen,
Joanna and Florence, who winced at the apparent smell that emanated
from our room.
    “Sure,” I said grateful for a reason to
abandon the