The Teenage Witch's Guide to Escaping Ilvernmorny Castle

Dakota Duff Becomes a Conspirator

She found the waterfall? No way. That was a secret we'd been trying to find for years. How on earth did she find out?

Well, I smiled to myself, at least there are some perks of being a sixth year.

Professor Amberton continued calling the names of the new students. The sorting was generally one of my favorite events of the year, but this time I was practically buzzing with excitement. How would we be able to sneak out of the castle? Amberton was breathing down our necks 24/7. She always reiterated the fact that sneaking out of the grounds would be punishable by death, or at least death-by-detention. We had found several tunnels that led out of the castle, but in general they were closed off or extremely hard to get hard to. There was one that was easily accessible, the only catch was that it deposited you on the edge of a cliff. We found that out the hard way. There was a hole at the bottom of the duck pond that could lead you to a well on the outskirts of town, if you managed to keep from drowning. But I was still nervous about this one.

"Technically, we're not leaving the grounds," Kim whispered, resting her chin on the wooden railing. "We wouldn't be breaking the Statute of Secrecy."

"Yeah, but we would be breaking a bunch of rules," I reminded her. "And we would basically be suspended for the end of our days."

"We live in the school, remember? How are they going to suspend us?" She dipped her head closer, dropping her voice even further. "Are you coming or aren't you?"

"Of course!" I was shocked that she doubted me.

"Julia Fritz," Professor Amberton called. A red-haired girl walked timidly through the doors to stand in the center of the stone floor. There was a terrifying pause, and then the Thunderbird suddenly flapped its wings.

My fellow Thunderbirds and I whooped and hollered. I glanced over at the growing pile of Chocolate Frogs and Peppermint Broomsticks. I was feeling pretty confident in my bet.

Once the last name was called, Professor Amberton dismissed us all to the dining hall. I rushed down the stairs with the other students, glad that it was finally time to eat. The castle pukwudgies pulled out all the stops for the opening dinner, so I wasn't disappointed when I sat down at the Thunderbird table to a feast. The food appeared before us on gleaming silver plates. Normally I tried to limit my portions, try a lot of things, but this time I was far too hungry to play that game.

"So, I think wings are our best bet," Kim muttered as she passed me a plate of rolls.

"There aren't any wings here," I corrected her, still thinking about food.

She rolled her eyes. "I mean the wing display!" she hissed. "Fourth floor, remember?"

"Oh, you're still talking about that," I replied. There was a passageway out to the stables on the fourth floor, if you slid past a large frame of the wings of various magical creatures.

"Yes, I'm still talking about that! This is going to be a record for us, the first escape made before the second week of school. I have big things planned." She scowled at me. "You're not going to weigh me down, are you?"

"Just what do you plan on doing in this escape?"

"I just want to see the waterfall." She sounded innocent enough, but I knew better.

"Liar. You want out in the town."

"Keep your voice down," she murmured as Professor Morton breezed past (quite literally- being our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and a former member of the Albertan Avalanche Quidditch team, he had a tendency to float instead of walk).

"What could you possibly hope to accomplish in town?" I asked. "We tried going there before. We almost got killed!"

"Hey, I didn't know the minotaurs were going to be in that meadow at that particular time."