The Institute

The Black Door

And that was how Penny's time at the Bowland Institute began. Over the coming days the stares and whispers gradually faded as the other students got used to her appearance. Only a few—most of them apparently friends of Terrence, Edgar, and Susan, and some others—still sniggered and made jokes, many of them quite crude. Penny and Abigail tried their hardest to ignore them, but they were old enough to feel humiliated when that lot made snide remarks about Abigail petting her pussy.

At least when classes were in session, Penny didn't have to endure the insults and nasty comments of Terrence and Edgar's gang, and after her placement tests, she was quickly moved up to second year, much to the delight of Abigail and the disgruntlement of Obi. Penny pointed out that at least Obi had been given the opportunity to start first year a year earlier, as he would have been in sixth year at primary school if he hadn't been raised at the Institute given his age.

"...but you're not even eleven yet—not for weeks and they put you in with the second years," Obi had grumbled after classes one afternoon.

"That's only because I was already doing second year work in fifth year at primary school, but the school system didn't want to advance me to the local Secondary School at my age," said Penny briskly. "As I'm already here, there wasn't much point holding me back in first year—"

Obi cheered up a bit when a few weeks later Penny had earned enough points to get a little portable stereo, and Abigail was just as thrilled to have something to listen to during their off hours when they weren't doing homework. Abigail's marks also improved considerably thanks to Penny's influence. And with friends and schoolwork to distract her it was easier for Penny to stop herself from being too miserable about her parents being dead and desperately missing Meg.

Meg had been with Penny every step of the way for nearly two months while child services sorted things out with her parents' will and insurance and bank accounts and property and had her evaluated by the NHS—where the doctors were baffled by her unusual "condition"—and had tried to get her placed in foster care. Meg had been her rock, the only one who hadn't treated Penny like she was completely mental for talking about Magi and magic.

As it had occasionally when she was little, at odd moments Penny's mind drifted toward the enigma that was the larger Magi community. She had visited the Bureau of Magi Affairs and the Council of Elders only once on a day trip to London with Mum and Dad.

She had met other Magi children at the summer festivals in Devon and Cornwall, but by and large, she rarely came across any Magi children, as she and her parents had lived in a Dorset suburb where there were no other Magi. There were the twins who lived in Bournemouth, but they had never got on particularly well with Penny, and all of her friends had been Normals.

Mum and Dad had been going to register her with a Magi secondary school over the summer, but that was months and months away, nearly a whole school year, and now they would never get the chance to. From what Penny had been told, Magi children attended Normal primary schools with the Normals to ensure a proper education in the fundamentals as the Magi secondary schools focused primarily on Magical subjects.

Mum and Dad had taught her a bit of Magi history and a few basic spells of course, but now Penny wondered if she would ever get to attend a Magi school before she was 18. And what about Obi and the other boy? She still hadn't met Septimus, as he was in third year, and he kept to himself after classes.

Most of the teachers were alright—a few were strict but not as mean as the Monitors—and were used to the occasional "odd" orphans.

The weather grew wetter and colder as the weeks passed, and she finally turned eleven a week after the beginning of November, and by the time December drew nearer Penny had earned enough points for a little television, much to the delight of Abigail and Obi, who had both been going a bit stir crazy stuck inside (but at least Obi had been happy enough to hang out in Penny and Abigail's dorm after classes, where she could be a girl to her heart's content without being harassed).