The Gathering: The New Order of Merlin Book 1

39. Impending failure

       Halloween events had everyone agitated and a little scared. Elsa wasn't sure what the fuss was about. So someone vandalized the school. She imagined it happened a lot in a castle filled with teenagers. What happened to the cat was sad, but she was never particularly fond of it in the first place. The halls were a little less creepy without it sneaking around.

She took her usual seat in Transfiguration and found her brother reading their textbook a few chapters ahead of their current lesson. That was beyond strange. Jack was actually studying?

"I've read the whole thing," she told him. "I don't see any tips in there to improve our transfiguration spells. It hurts how bad we are at this."

Professor McGonagall entered the classroom and the chatter quieted. The lesson started and despite her efforts, Elsa found it hard to focus. She was distracted. Her research was proving more difficult than expected. After reading that article from Luna's magazine, Elsa thought to follow the clue of the family name Gulbadox, hoping they would have a record of what happened to that mirror, but the Hogwarts library did not have any information on them. She wondered if any Gulbadox relatives were still even around.

Maybe it would've been easier to track down the person who wrote that article. There was no author listed, but she hoped Luna could ask her father for contact information.

Sometimes, Elsa doubted herself and wondered if she was wasting her time. There was no guarantee that the mirror would give her the answers she needed, but it was the closest she got so far. She knew exactly what she wanted, what her heart's desire was. If she understood that correctly, the mirror would translate it into a vision. This plan had to work. She had nothing else to go on. All of her research had come up fruitless. There was no spell to find someone who you knew nothing about.

She put her thoughts aside and focused on the spell she was supposed to practice. Transfiguration class was coming to an end but her match still didn't look like a needle. Sometimes, she managed to change its appearance slightly but never enough to turn it all the way. It was embarrassing. Jack wasn't doing any better than she was. In fact, it looked like he gave up trying and was reading the textbook again. The other students had already moved on to the next spell. Elsa didn't know why she struggled. In fact, she did very well in Charms, perfecting spells at the same speed as the other students. What was different about this branch of magic?

"You two," McGonagall stopped by their desk and said to her and Jack, "come by my office after your classes today."

Elsa's heart dropped down to her stomach. Oh, no. She'd been so obsessed with her research, she neglected McGonagall's class. What would be the witch's reaction to their failure? They were both in trouble if they couldn't figure out how to perform this magic.

"Jack, what are we..." she turned to her brother and found his seat empty.

If they were in this together, why did she always feel so alone?

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