Abra Cadabra

Chapter 5: No Cure for Anger

As if knowing what was going to happen next, Professor Gragenput closed the large, saffron curtains of the window which overlooked the scenery of the Living Garden down below.

Immediately, he slid below his table, and crouched while hiding his face in his arms like a child hiding in a closet during a game of hide-and-seek.

Fredrick looked around the dusking room as Fletcher summoned two candles quietly. They floated beside him which gave an ocher glow to his face, and followed him every where he moved.

Fletcher knew that Fredrick had noticed the wand in his hand. He gripped it tightly like his life depended on it.

Maybe it did.

'What are you do-' Fredrick stopped when he realized that something was going to happen because Fletcher started to back away from him, too far.

Fredrick raised both of his arms to the air as if he was surrendering to a person who was pointing a gun on his head.

With straight shoulders and feet planted to the ground, Fletcher flicked his wand towards Fredrick and cried one of the rarest spells ever used, 'Merospira!'

Fredrick panicked before a bright, strand of electric-like gushed out from the wand. He closed his eyes at the explosion and protected his face with bending knees ; preparing for impact. 

He felt as though he had been electrified. The burn on every inch of his body worsened, but they soon felt like ice. Short, pricks of ice vigorously stabbing into his skin as though he was a piece of cloth under a sewing machine.

As the light rushed back into the wand, it shoved Fletcher backward to the back of the room with a great force.

The room silenced and the only sound that could be heard was Fredrick who was breathing heavily with his eyes shut and a couple of birds outside that were whistling incoherent sounds.

'What's happening in there? Thought it was thunder or something,' Haffin, a hummingbird, asked his friend who was too busy picking a cherry with its beak.

'What's happening where?' his friend asked back.

'There,Cadwil! Behind the closed curtains in Professor Gragenput's office. It was bright like lightning or some sort,' Haffin said again.

'Don't mind that. It's Professor Gragenput after all. Always experimenting on different potions and spells.'

'I suppose so,' said Haffin as he continued to pick on the cherries; his daily morning routine.

'I presume that you all think I was going to eat you or something,' Fredrick relaxed his shoulders a while later and laughed lightly while brushing his hair with his fingers like nothing happened. He thought it was odd because he felt like his hair was thicker, and definitely a lot smoother, almost like silk. His voice was deeper as well, but he put it aside; just a feeling, he supposed.

He also thought maybe they appeared to be so terrified of him because of his outburst before, when he had that horrible, horrible migraine.

The thoughts about his family completely disappeared from his mind, as if Professor Gragenput had never mentioned it at all.

Fletcher laughed along carefully, and drifted his pupils towards Professor Gragenput who had his arms crossed and awkwardly leaning on the side of his table as they released a breath of relief.

Professor Gragenput went ahead and opened back the curtain as the light of the sun rushed back into the room.

'Are you feeling alright now, Dariu- Fredrick?' Professor Gragenput's voice cracked. He took a couple of steps to his table. He pulled the second drawer from the top, and sunk his head into the drawer while telling himself to calm down.