Always Love || TSFGAE

Chapter Seven~

Maddie POV~

Anyone could tell what happened was bad when they let the wolves take us. After the fire I was locked in my room with my roommates, Agatha locked away all by herself, I could hear the fairies coming in three times a day, bringing her food while my friends brought me some, my favourites and some other things as well.

It wasn't so bad I suppose, I mean we didn't have any classes and could be alone all day. We spoke, gossiped and laughed about different things until the third day came along, it was just after lunch when the white wolf arrived at my door with Agatha in its claws, pulling the both of us along to Professor Dovey's office, Evers glowering at Agatha and looking at me sympathetically, and I could hear by the whispers that they thought I was dragged into this by the "witch". Though the teachers barely even looked at us, though I could catch a few smiling sadly at me, before turning away when I caught them looking.

I turned my head and caught Agatha glaring at me with tears in her eyes, I gulp my eyes flickering away as she whispers to me harshly, "This is all your fault," she tells me and my lip trembled as I try to hold in tears, and even the wolf looks outraged at what she just said, digging his claws deeper, Agatha whimpering in pain as we get closer to the Dean's office.

The wolf dragged us through the Charity Tower, past a bespectacled woodpecker jabbing in new rankings on the Groom Room door, and I look surprised to see mine still high up there, just a few points away from tying with Beatrix and Tedros.

"Are we going to the School Master?" Agatha rasped out, a few dots of red dribbling down her arm from the wolf's tight hold.

The wolf snorted. He dragged us to the room at the end of the hall and knocked once.

"Come in," said the quiet voice inside.
Agatha looked into the wolf's eyes. "I don't want to die." For the first time, his sneer softened.

"I didn't either." I look at him in shock as he opens the door and pushes us through, much more gently than he was only seconds before.

Up close, Professor Clarissa Dovey, with her silver bun and rosy face, looked even more comforting and grandmotherly.

"I'd prefer the School Master handle these things," Professor Dovey said, flipping papers under a crystal pumpkin paperweight. "But we all know how he is about his privacy."

Finally, she peered up at Agatha. And for some reason, she didn't look comforting anymore. But when her eyes turned to me they softened ever so slightly.

"I have a school full of terrified students, two days of classes to make up, five hundred animals whose memories must be erased, a classroom wing that's been eaten, a treasured menagerie reduced to ash, and a headless gargoyle buried somewhere underneath all this. Do you know why this is?" Agatha couldn't get words out of her throat and I just sat there staring down at my hands.

"Because you disobeyed Pollux's simple order, pulling Madelyn along with you," Professor Dovey said. "And nearly cost lives in the process, both of yours included." She shamed Agatha with a look and went back to her scrolls. Agatha looked down guiltily, glancing at me slightly before looking out the window and I decide to copy her, wanting to see if my friends are out there so I can join them later.

The Evers were finishing up their lunches of roast chicken dolloped with mustard, spinach and Gruyère crepes, and flutes of apple cider. And I can see Tedros reenacting the menagerie scene for an enthralled audience, sporting his black eye like a badge ofhonourr.

"Can I say bye to my friend at least?" Agatha said, eyes welling. She turned to Professor Dovey, though I keep my eyes trained out the window, blinking back tears at the thought any of us might die ifwe weree not careful.

"Before you . . . kill me?"

"That won't be necessary."

"But I have to see her!"

Professor Dovey looked up. "Agatha, you received a first rank for your performance in Animal Communication and rightfully so. Only a rare talent can make a wish come to life. And though there are different accounts of what exactly happened on the roof, I would add that any pupil of this school who would risk their lives to help a gargoyle . . ." Her eyes glistened and for a moment so did the silver swan on her dress. "Well, that suggests Goodness beyond any measure."

This time both Agatha and I stared at her tongue-tied.

"But if you disobey another teacher's direct order, Agatha, I guarantee you will fail. Understood?"

Agatha nodded in relief.

I heard laughter outside and turned to see Tedros' mates kicking around two pillow dummies with twig legs, one of them with coal button eyes and the other with baby blue buttons for eyes, the one with coal eyes had blackthorns for hair the other with yellow hay. An arrow suddenly speared the black-haired one's head, spitting feathers everywhere. A second arrow ripped open the blonde's heart.

The boys stopped laughing and turned. Across the lawn, Tedros threw down his bow and walked away. And my mouth drops open slightly at the sight.

"As for your friend, she's doing just fine where she is," Professor Dovey said, thumbing through more scrolls. "But you can ask her yourself. She's in your next class."

Though neither of us was listening at that point. Our eyes were still on the dead-eyed dolls, bleeding feathers into the wind.

The dolls looked just like Agatha and Sophie.

Dun, dun, dun.

At points of this boom, everyone is going to hate everyone, NGL. Sometimes they redeem themselves other times they don't. But don't worry, it won't take Maddie too long to snap.

1000 words~