Above is a reference as to what Minako will be wearing for the rest of the prologue chapters
Prepare for a very long chapter and a lot of POV switching.
When you see an asterisk (*), there will information about a topic that appears within the story and will be explained in the author's notes at the end of the chapter.
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº Minako ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
Ignorance was torture and never bliss to Minako. There was another wave of pain in her body that knocked her down to her knees. She was sick with apprehension. Literally. Up until now, she's been trying to crush down her negativity, but it all came pouring out. She cried out her frustrations even though she knew she's not allowed to for the sake of her health.
Crowley pulled her up from the floor after she collapsed. He jumped back once he got a good look at her horrid state.
"Ms. Nezumi... your face." Crowley's voice was low, opposite to the dramatics he displayed during the ceremony.
"I-I know. That's why I have to get back home." Minako sniffled. She was used to this kind of reaction whenever people see the black, vein-like markings take shape. The curse marks quickly spreading to her pale cheeks and burning her skin.
"But the Mirror said that it does not exist. Where exactly do you live?" Crowley politely offered her a hanky for her tears.
"I... I live in a city called London, it's in England. B-but I remember being at my school last... It's in Scotland," said Minako, dabbing away the tears and ruined mascara from her face.
"I know where all of my students came from, but I know not of the places you speak of," Crowley admitted. "However, we do have a vast amount of knowledge in our library. We may be able to find information about your home there."
He led her out of the chamber and into the dim corridors of the school, giving her a little time to compose herself. The library was not too far. Inside, it was filled with towering shelves, but what was most odd to her was that some of the books weren't even on the shelves. A couple of books were suspended in the air. Back at Hogwarts, floating books usually meant that someone, most likely Kento, was pulling a prank.
Minako took care to dodge the floating books that drifted by her head. Crowley motioned over a set of books and maps from the shelves with a wave of his key-shaped staff that set themselves down on a table. One book remained hovering and flipped itself open for reading.
"Have a seat," said Crowley.
Crowley kept questioning her every few seconds, hanging on the tiniest clues they could find on England or Scotland. They've been at this for who knows how long. The shelves were nearly stripped bare and not a single speck of ink spelled out her home in the maps or even in history. She's leafed through every atlas. All of them were filled with names she didn't recognize and shapes of land not found on Earth. At the very least, she knew where this school was located: the Sage's Island apparently.
"Utterly useless." Crowley tossed the final book onto the table in frustration. "Not a single word of your country is written in our texts. At this point, I'm convinced that you're truly not where you say you're from." Crowley's voice gradually lowered and he looked dead in the eyes.
Minako was tempted to use some biting sarcasm on this man, but she needed help from him. You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar. "Forgive me, but I don't see the benefit of lying about my home." She clenched and unclenched her fists under the table.
Crowley stroked his chin thoughtfully. "There is a possibility that you might have come from another world. A different reality."
Minako's stomach churned. "Considering what I've been studying, it's a valid theory." Hogwarts had a small curriculum that taught them timelines and different worlds. The destruction of all Time-Turners, however, made it difficult to expand those studies.
"You're oddly calm about this, Ms. Nezumi."
"Trust me, I'm not. This is just my face."
"Do you have any identification on you? It looks as though you're empty handed."
"Unfortunately, I only have the clothes on my back and my wand. My wallet and phone are elsewhere." Damn the Ministry of Magic for not letting her use extension charms on her space buns.
Crowley lightly pressed two clawed fingers on his temple to massage it. "Tonight is just one disaster after another. I can't just let you, someone with no knowledge of our world, stay here. But I cannot just leave a helpless child to fend for herself in the streets either. I am gracious after all!"
Helpless child?
"I can work here to earn my keep. Do you have any quarters for the staff?" she begged. She would take the tiniest room if she had to.
Crowley's face brightened. "That's right! We have an unused building on the campus. A dorm of your own that can be livable once you clean it up." Crowley smiled brightly at the idea. "As long as you're here, you can work while I look for a way to get you home. My graciousness knows no bounds! Truly I'm an example for all educators."
Minako perked up, ignoring that last arrogant remark. A house to herself was even better. "Thank you."
"Oh and one more thing," said Crowley. "Would you care to explain those black markings on your skin?"
Minako hesitated. Their interactions with each so far only warranted a scarce amount of trust. A blood curse wasn't just something people would say about themselves casually with the kind of stigma it carries. However, her potion wasn't with her right now, and only God knows how long she'll stick around here. He has to know about her curse.
"How do I put this..." Minako pondered for a second on how to break the news. "I have this blood curse that makes me sick when I'm deeply upset. I need a magical source of light as a treatment, but a potion is more effective. At the moment, I don't have it with me, but I know the recipe by heart to make it myself." She omitted the fact that it made her powers erratic, afraid of and unwilling to be forced to fend for herself on the streets. It didn't matter how gracious the Headmaster claimed himself to be.
Crowley was silent for a good minute before speaking again. "This is... concerning to hear."
Minako quietly sucked in a breath. She was prepared for him to revoke her right to stay.
He didn't. "If that is true, then I'll have Professor Crewel see to it then. Now, let's head to the dormitory."
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
The old dorm was a short walk away from the school castle. Crowley had Minako cling on to the crook of his arm as they went down the trail. The gloomy clouds blocking the light of the moon had Minako hastily reaching for her wand and casting lumos so that the tip of her wand could act as a torch. In the darkness, the curse was at its strongest should her mood turn sour at some point.
"There's no need for a light. The path is still clear even in the dark," Crowley reassured her.
"I happen to hate the dark," she said. Minako shivered when a breeze blew by. "It's awfully cold for this time of the year.."
"It is September, Autumn is nigh."
"What?" It can't be. "Yesterday it was June! Are you telling me that I missed a whole summer?"
The Headmaster gave her a double take. "The things you are telling are getting more and more troubling. Could it be that time moves differently in your world? Or maybe it's amnesia while coming all the way here."
"Neither of those sound comforting, sir."
"Now, now. Stress does not do good for your health." He got her to stop by an iron fence. "We're here, you can rest easy."
Uphill, there was a dormitory as promised—dilapidated and marked with gravestones on the expanse of land. Looking at it took her back in time to her first trip to Hogsmeade where she accidentally stumbled upon the Shrieking Shack, a place that not even the Hogwarts Ghosts would dare enter. Unlike the Shrieking Shack, this place had a way in. She could only hope that her adequate skills in Charms would be enough to fix this ramshackle of a building for her to "rest easy" more or less.
"How charming." Minako knew that she was in no position to complain. Grimmauld Place had the same unwelcomeness as this dorm that can be seen and felt; she can vouch for that having lived there for four years.
"Isn't it? Why don't we take a look?" The rusty iron gate made a grating squeak when Crowley pushed it open, the hinges looking ready to give up and collapse as much as the building was.
The closer they got, the creaks and settling became louder. Minako swore she heard laughter echoing throughout the area making her hesitant to follow Crowley up the steps.
She found the Headmaster fumbling through rotting potted plants until he found a key. He unlocked the door (that was somehow still intact) and cheerfully welcomed her inside the sitting room. Dust fell from the ceiling like snow, broken furniture was scattered all about, and cobwebs decorated every corner of the room. This was going to take more magic than Minako thought.
"Well... I have a charm or two for this," she said in an attempt to comfort herself.
"Splendid! Don't use too much magic, we wouldn't want you to overblot," said Crowley. "Don't go wandering around the campus either. I'm heading back to the library to do more research."
"Got it." Minako wasn't sure what he meant by overblot and at this point, she was too afraid to ask.
"Ta-ta!" The door shut behind Crowley and the house shook with a creak.
At that, Minako was nimble on her feet to repair the house before the roof collapsed on her. First things first was tossing balls of light from the tip of her wand into the chandelier. Somehow, it made the place look less dreadful apart from rotting walls.
Next was checking every nook and cranny for infestations then casting scourgify to cast out the roaches. She found some cleaning supplies tucked away in a closet then used the same spell to put the brushes and mops to work.
The mending charm was somewhat harder. While Kento and Alexis would have fixed the whole place in seconds, Minako had to walk from room to room saying "Reparo!" twice or even five times for the spell to work. Sometimes, a couple of items were missing a few pieces, so they couldn't be repaired to their full extent.
When she was done, her clothes were beginning to feel annoyingly warm. She threw her hooded cloak on the sofa and started to unbutton the top of her under robe. She found her favourite white blouse and waistcoat underneath so she tossed her under robe away too, feeling cooler. The ceremonial pants and boots were kept on, but at least she can walk around tomorrow in casual clothes.
Lights on? Check. Pests gone? Check. Running water? Check. A bed to sleep in? Check.
As she passed by the mirror in the master bedroom, Minako thought she saw a pair of glowing dots in the glass. A trick of the light or a ghost, perhaps? There was no one behind her though. She had to backtrack to look at the mirror just to see if she was hallucinating.
Peering at her reflection once more, she met a glowing pair of dots again.
What in the world? She blinked once then twice.
Her eyes weren't brown anymore. They were turquoise!
Deep breaths. Don't let the curse consume you. Don't panic too much.
"It's okay, Minako. This isn't the weirdest thing that's ever happened to you," she told herself calmly, although a part of her wanted to freak at the change. "Look on the bright side: it's a nice colour." It's not like it was uncommon around here. Despite being half-hidden by their hoods, she was still able to catch glimpses of the uniquely-coloured hair and eyes of the students. She just hoped that this wasn't a bad sign.
The first crash of thunder pulled her out of her thoughts. Good thing she closed up all of the holes in the roof.
There was a sudden slam of a door downstairs "Eek! My ears are going out!"
Ah, she had a feeling that he would be back.
Minako raced down the stairs and unsurprisingly found Grim in the sitting room. He was now collarless, soaked, and the bluebell flames of his ears were low. He had zipped inside the house uninvitedly then proceeded to clumsily land by Minako's feet.
"Hello again," was all she could say as she helped him up. Waving her wand repetitively, a jet of warm air blew from the tip to dry him off, taking care to not blow out his ears.
Grim didn't take too kindly to that, however. "I don't need your help!" he hissed at her. "How'd you get a dorm all to yourself? That's not fair!"
"This is a temporary dorm. I'm only here to work until I find a way back home."
"Work? Are you serious?" Grim snickered. "That's hilarious! You're a magician but you're not even a student!" He began to cackle like a madman.
"I don't want to hear that from someone who isn't even allowed on the school grounds."
That shut him up.
"What am I going to do with you?" Minako pondered. "It's against my code to harm magical creatures... well, unless it's an act of self-defence and you did try to burn me to a crisp. You might try it again then I'll have to boot you out of my dorm."
"You can't just throw me out!"
"Sure I can. I have banishing charms."
Grim was none too pleased with that. She heard him growl as he stood on his hind paws scraping the wooden floor when his toes curled in.
Tears pricked his eyes. "I was meant to be here, you know! That Mirror doesn't know talent when it sees it." he huffed and crossed his arms over his pudgy torso.
Minako had never felt so conflicted over her feelings towards a creature. She was always known as an animal lover. It was never like this with other magical creatures, probably because they couldn't talk, therefore they couldn't be smart-mouthed with her.
"By the way, why do you want to get into this school?" Minako asked him.
"Why? Because I'm a genius magician destined for greatness!" Grim was suddenly in a better mood with his chest puffed out.
Minako was familiar with that feeling of wanting to be a part of a magical school. For so long she was jealous that her sister, Flor, was the first to go to Hogwarts. Whenever her sister came back home, Minako would nag her endlessly to get her to tell her about school and made attempts to take her sister's wand to cast some spells of her own (Flor always caught her in the act). Later on, she would commit the same offences to Kento and Alexis once they started school. In short, she acted like an envious brat. Did her siblings ever feel this exhausted with her then as she does with Grim now?
Her wish came true eventually on her eleventh birthday. Grim, though, never got what he wanted. The little beast was an obnoxious tosser, a wretch like she once was, but he had the ambition to keep trying to get into the school no matter what. As a Slytherin, Minako admired that.
"I see."
Mid-conversation, the lights went out. Minako was prepared to cast lumos again, but then the chandelier dropped down from the ceiling. Grim yelped and jumped high enough to cling on to her shirt.
A laugh echoed throughout the house. "Aww, I missed."
"It's been so long since we've had a guest over," said a second voice full of mirth.
Then a third voice. "Want to join us in the afterlife? There's no suffering when you're a ghost!"
"No thank you! No thank you!" Grim dug his claws further into Minako's shoulders and shut his eyes tight.
"Ouch! Don't scratch me!"
Before their eyes three ghosts in top hats and capes emerged from the darkness, circling around them like vultures with glee. There was a small and stout ghost, a larger chubby ghost, and the last was a skeletally thin ghost.
Minako snorted. These were the school ghosts? The ghosts she was used to seeing were hyperrealistic and riddled with scars of their deaths (a severed head being one good example). And these ghosts...
"You look like marshmallows! How adorable!" she cooed. "I'm so sorry that we invaded your home. We need a place to stay, please." She fluttered her eyes in order to appear convincingly innocent.
The ghosts slowed down from their circling, their mischievous expressions disappearing. They stopped in their tracks to give each other quick glances, looking unsure about how to react.
Finally, the thin one spoke up. "Uh, welcome to our humble abode, miss..."
"I'm Minako. This little guy is Grim." She pried a quivering Grim off of her chest.
"Don't tell them my name!"
"Grim, be nice."
The chubbiest of the trio came up to her with a friendly smile. "The name's Phineas."*
"Ezra."* The thin one tipped his hat.
"Gus,"* said the short ghost.
Hook, line, and sinker.
"Huh, I thought this was going to be fun. She didn't even flinch when she saw us," Ezra whispered to his partners as they huddled into a corner.
"She even fixed the house in such a short time. I hope she doesn't overblot," said Phineas.
Grim was still weeping and shaking.
Minako patted his back, cradling him like a baby. "There, there. The scary ghosts won't hurt you, sweetheart." Grim was so adorable without his inflated ego. He was so soft and warm too.
"I wasn't scared!" Grim sniffed. "Are we really going to stay with them?"
"Yes. It was their house first and besides, we can handle them. I've made friends with lots of ghosts at my old school." Particularly, the teenage ghosts like a good portion of the Fallen Fifty and Myrtle Warren. The best part of having ghost friends was that none of them would get hurt if her blood curse decides to act up.
She set Grim down and bemoaned at how the chandelier managed to break through the floor as well. "Reparo. Reparo, damn it." Waving her wand a few more times, the chandelier and debris finally elevated itself to the ceiling then mended itself back together along with the floor.
"You can do all that?" Grim gave her a look of disbelief.
"I see that the Mirror of Darkness was right about you, Ms. Nezumi. You've managed to repair the house all by yourself."
Minako jumped out of her skin upon realizing that Crowley had entered the dorm. How long has he been standing there?
"When did you get in?" she asked.
"Just now. I forgot to tell you about the poltergeists that reside here, but I see you've handled that problem. If only you were an actual student," Crowley said. "Oh, Ms. Nezumi, what happened to your eyes?"
"So I wasn't hallucinating, they really did change colour. Do you have an explanation for this?"
"I was hoping that you might be able to explain that to me. Could it be some kind of symptom from your curse?" Crowley leaned down to her height to get a closer look at her.
Minako gulped. "I hope not. My eyes have never done that before." But then again, her curse did act up not too long ago.
He handed her two glass tupperwares, one containing soup and the other scrambled eggs. "Calm down, we don't know that for sure. Here, I brought you some supper and some breakfast for tomorrow."
"Um, there isn't any meat in that food, is there?" asked Minako.
"Not a meat eater? Not to worry, the ghosts make their vichyssoise purely vegetarian," said Crowley.
"No meat? That's boring. Got a can of tuna instead?" Grim butted in.
"You!" Crowley pointed an accusing finger at him. "What are you doing back here?"
Grim yelped and cowered behind Minako's legs. Before Crowley could make a move to grab him, she stopped him.
"Hold on a minute. He helped me with the ghosts," she said.
"I did?"
"He did?" Phineas uttered out dumbly then Ezra nudged his arm. "I mean he did!"
"Surely our gracious principal wouldn't thank Grim for that by throwing him out just like that." Getting a fairly good grasp on his character, Minako knew that poking Crowley's ego should do the trick.
"I-I am gracious. I am gracious," the Headmaster chanted under his breath in an attempt to reassure himself. "But a monster—"
"He wants to go to this school."
Crowley was as stubborn as she was. "I had no idea that you could be so persistent. So you've managed to tame a monster along with three ghosts, you say? What kind of experience do you have with beasts?"
"Lots. I love animals, especially the magical ones," Minako replied.
"Heh! It's no wonder you can tolerate the raccoon to some degree." Gus floated by her. "You probably don't have the heart to use that banishing charm that I heard you talk about."
"I'm not a raccoon! Why does everyone keep saying that?"
Crowley ignored them. "Tell me more about your experiences."
And she did. Minako told him all about her magizoology training and her feats in Care for Magical Creatures. Somehow, she had gone off track by info-dumping facts about dragons and mooncalves that Crowley had to put her blabbering to a halt.
"Alright, alright. Since the uproar of the Entrance Ceremony, I thought I saw something special in you. So much power within a little girl, I had the suspicion that you might have the makings of a beast tamer."
"That... sounds pretty cool. So about Grim, can he stay? Please!"
"Well..." Crowley hesitated.
"Pretty please?" The trio of ghosts chorused, leaning in closer to the Headmaster.
"Away with you three!" Crowley shooed them off. He sighed in defeat. "Fine. You may keep him around, but a monster and a teenager cannot just stay here for free."
"Damn it! So close." Grim pouted.
"That's kind of racist. Or is it speciesist?" Minako muttered.
"Listen to what I have to say. Ms. Nezumi, you said that you will work for me, so here is my proposition." Crowley chuckled a bit at the end with mischief gleaming in his yellow eyes.
Oh god. Minako didn't like the sound of that. "Don't turn me into a prostitute, please." She briefly wondered about the law system in this world and hoped that it would work in her favour.
"Pull your head out of the gutter, child!" the Headmaster squawked. "I just need the both of you to do maintenance and odd jobs around the campus. That way you can earn your keep to pay for your daily needs like food and clothes as well as give you permission to stay on school grounds. What with your magic, Ms. Nezumi, it's safe to say that you would make an excellent handywoman."
Minako let out a sigh of relief. "I can do that. Thank you, sir."
Crowley continued. "While you're here, the library will be available to you to do more research to help you get back to your world, after you've finished all your tasks. Aren't I gracious?"
"I'm not some janitor! I want to be a student here and wear that fancy uniform!" Grim whined.
"If you hate it so much, I can just toss you out." Crowley's smile directed at Grim grew a bit forced.
Grim squeaked with fright then his shoulders dropped in defeat. "Fine, I'll do it."
"Understood," said Minako.
Crowley clapped his hands together with finality. "Wonderful! Your work starts tomorrow, so do not disappoint me. And Ms. Nezumi, please make sure that monster is under control. Good night." With that he left.
"Well, Grim, let's eat before the soup gets cold. I'm starving." Minako turned to the ghosts. "Thank you again, you three."
"Aw shucks." Phineas blushed. (Ghosts can blush?)
"It was no problem," said Gus.
Minako gently nudged Grim. "Grim, say thank you."
Begrudgingly, Grim mumbled, "Thanks, I guess."
"Was that so hard, Grimmy-boy?" Ezra teased him.
Having cleaned the kitchen earlier, Minako knew where all of the plates and bowls were stored so that she could set the table. She ate her fill with Grim, cleaned the dishes, and soon decided that it was quite late. Her day starts early tomorrow all with the cleaning she would have to do.
"There's an alarm clock on the cabinet in the master bedroom. It rings every morning at six," said Gus.
"That's perfect." Minako was grateful for the allies she made tonight.
That was where Minako and Grim both decided to sleep for the night. She was so worn out that she didn't bother to tell him that the other rooms were available.
"I hope you don't mind, but I need a nightlight," she told Grim. His ear fire was too dim to comfort her.
"Whatever." Grim yawned.
"Lumos."
She just wanted to light the bedside lamp, but the trio of ghosts howled with fright at her spell before they were forcibly cast out of the bedroom.
Oh right, that spell repels ghosts too. That's why they took down the chandelier.
"Sorry, I forgot that it does that!"
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
Despite the stress of being in another world, Minako's night was not fraught with nightmares. It was nice to be at peace for the night until she woke up with an alarm blaring in her ear and a face full of Grim. She was suffocating under his weight, so she thoughtlessly shoved him off.
Grim stirred from his sleep with a yowl. "Hey, I'm sleeping here!"
"On my face?"
The ghost trio burst in. "Wake up sleepy-heads!"
Grim hissed and pounced off of the bed. "I need breakfast," he grumbled.
Minako took a good, hard look at herself in the mirror again. Her eyes were back to normal. She checked her neck, arms, and legs. No curse marks were found.
Due to the dormitory's design being stuck somewhere in the early twentieth century, she and Grim could only take baths and not showers. The plumbing produced clean water thankfully, but it was freezing and she had yet to master the heating charm without scalding herself.
Minako slipped on her clothes, her boots, and most importantly, her wand holster. With a quick "crinus muto" charm, her hair fixed itself to create the usual half-up twin buns style.
Downstairs, Crowley was waiting for them. He greeted them with, "Good morning! I hope you slept well."
"That stupid alarm clock woke me up and she shoved me off the bed," said Grim.
"You were suffocating me," argued Minako.
"Settle down, you two. There will be no quarrelling tolerated, especially on your first day," the Headmaster scolded them. "Today, I would like you to clean Main Street from the main gate to the library and perhaps. You may use the cafeteria for lunch."
"Yes sir."
"And Ms. Nezumi, I am entrusting you to keep an eye on Grim so that he doesn't run amok like last night."
"I'll do my best."
The two were left to eat their breakfast before work. Grim was poking his eggs with dissatisfaction about being delegated to a janitor.
"I don't want to clean. I want to attend class and learn to cast cool spells!"
"I hate to tell you this, but magic school is a lot harder than you think, Grim. It's not all fun and games." As much as she loved magic, Minako has had her fair share of burnouts being one of the top students.
"Maybe in your world," Grim grumbled.
Minako doubted that. "If you really want to learn something, we can go to the library after we're done cleaning."
"But that's boring!"
After finishing up their breakfast, they gathered up the cleaning supplies and headed down to Main Street. Minako had one of the brooms enchanted to walk beside them.
"Do you think we can get more brooms and use your magic to clean everything?" asked Grim.
Minako shook her head. "I can't. I don't have the skills yet to focus my attention on more than one broom. I brought more brooms for us so that we could have three sweepers rather than two."
"Tsk. Some powerful magician."
"Witch," she corrected, "and I'm going to choose to ignore that."
Main Street was certainly a sight to behold. It had seven statues lined up on both sides on the bricked path, four on one side and three on the other. They were all crisp and clean as if they were never touched by bad weather or bad people.
"Wow," Minako whispered under breath.
Even Grim was amazed. "Cool! Hey, what's with these statues?"
"I wouldn't know. I'm not from here." Minako casually flicked her wand to get the broom to start sweeping the leaves off the street by itself and she got to sweeping the pavement manually too.
Grim padded over to a statue of an elegant, rotund woman in a gown with a heart-shaped sceptre in hand. From the crown atop the lady's head, one could tell that she was definitely a royal, likely a queen and not a princess.
"Who's this snobby-looking granny?"
Minako tutted at Grim's insensitivity. "Don't be rude." She stepped closer to get a good view of the statue.
Words were engraved at the podiums where each statue stood and she made out the words, "The Queen of Hearts," on the stone.
Last night, Riddle spoke about the Queen of Hearts like she was some idol to be revered. Now that she thought about it, Crowley called this world "Twisted Wonderland." Almost everybody back in her world knows what the old story entails: a girl named Alice falls down a rabbit hole and is transported to the fantastical world of Wonderland.
"Am I Alice?" she asked herself.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Hold on, don't you two know about the Queen of Hearts?" a stranger had inserted himself into the conversation.
The voice got their heads to turn to lock eyes with a boy she recognized from the ceremony. He was one of the first years, the one with messy hair and a mischievous grin. There was a change in his appearance other than his uniform; now there was a red heart mark painted over his left eye and he was wearing a seemingly friendly smile.
What was his name? It slipped from her mind, but she remembered to be cautious if she ever saw him again.
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº Ace ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
Well, well, well. Look at what we have here.
Ace Trappola was not expecting to run into that mystery girl and the raccoon-cat thing from the Entrance Ceremony again. Judging by their cleaning supplies, he had to take a guess that the Headmaster put them up to become janitors. Hilarious!
Those little freaks that had him wheezing last night with some much needed chaos after that boring ceremony. Well, it was funny until that cocky little raccoon nearly burnt him to a crisp, thinking that he'll still be accepted into the school.
He crept closer to them and... was that broom sweeping the street by itself? It was quite fast at sweeping the leaves off of the pavement, and it was getting attention from the students passing by. It was that girl's magic, no doubt.
It almost wasn't fair seeing the broom easily do half of her work for her. He thought back to a time when he was a kid attempting and failing to do something similar to get his chores done. His grandma caught him in the act and proceeded to lecture him for hours about not using his magic too much because he'll build up blot.
Then he heard the furball asking about the statue of the Queen of Hearts, and all he could think was how ripe these two were for having a little bit of fun. He still had some time before class to milk the circumstances for what it's worth.
Putting on his best smile, he asked, "Hold on, don't you two know about the Queen of Hearts?"
Heads turned to him in surprise.
"Queen of Hearts?" the raccoon echoed back. "Nope. Doesn't ring a bell."
Ace's lips nearly twitched into a smirk as he swallowed the urge to snort at the monster's stupidity. Who doesn't know the Queen of Hearts? He was willing to bet that these two didn't know about the rest of the Great Seven either.
"Really?" Ace's grin grew wider. "Long ago, she ruled over the Rose Maze. Everything and everyone was to fall under the subjugation of her laws down from the march of the Card Soldiers to the colour of the rose bushes. Anyone who disobeyed her would get their head chopped clean off."
The monster flinched out of fear. "That's terrifying!" he whimpered.
"I think it's pretty cool. Well, you can't expect people to listen to a queen who's nice all the time," Ace laughed.
"Strict rules and punishments aren't always an effective way to rule," the girl spoke. Up until now, she was practically silent.
Ace wasn't sure how to respond to that. Yeah, it was true the discipline wasn't always a good leading strategy, but there was something that was awfully biting with the way she phrased that.
He made a quick assessment of her. She looked to be sixteen like all the freshmen were. Judging from her accent, she was likely raised in the Rose Kingdom like himself, but her physical features told him that her ethnicity might also be from around here in the Sage's Island.* Her stature was rather tiny as well, a normal trait of anyone with Sage Islander blood.
"Well, the Queen sounds scary, but I guess strong leaders are better," the monster said. "Who are you, anyway?"
"The name's Ace. I'm a freshie." Ace smiled brighter at them and held out his leather clad hand.
The girl looked at his hand with hesitance, but then shook it with unease.
Shy, huh? Ace thought. Then he looked up into her eyes and felt the frosty scrutiny in her gaze. Does she know?
The monster got up on his hind paws and posed with his front paws on hips. "I'm Grim and my destiny is to become the greatest magician. And this dummy is Minako, my henchwoman—ow!"
The girl—Minako—kneeled down and delivered a hard chop to Grim's head.
Ace resisted the urge to snicker. One, this cat-raccoon thing must be delusional to think that he'll become a great magician. Two, a good whack on the head was what he deserved. He didn't think Minako was the type to become Grim's henchwoman, at least not willingly. These two turned out to be more entertaining than he thought.
"What was that for?" Grim was grasping head in pain.
"We have a job to do, we'll learn about the statues later." Minako handed Grim a scrub brush.
Ace wanted to keep them around a bit longer. "Minako, huh? Your name sounds pretty odd."
"It's not that odd." She continued with the cold disposition.
Grim turned to look at the statue of the King of Beasts, a stone lion perched on a rock with pride. "Hey, Ace. Tell me about the lion with the scar. Is he famous too?"
Ah, just what Ace suspected, Grim really didn't know anything about the Great Seven. "He sure is. The King of Beasts was actually not born to be king at first, but he managed to claim the throne through hard work and his cunning mind."
Then Grim pointed to the Sea Witch's statue, a plump cecaelia with a contract in hand. "And the octopus lady?"
Ace went on to explain who the Sea Witch was and how she made a living granting wishes for unfortunate merfolk. Whether it was for looks, finding love, or just about anything, she would make it come true for a price.
He moved on to the next statue to tell them about the Sorcerer of the Sands who stood stiff and serious holding his menacing snake-like staff. He was a vizier that served a foolish sultan and caught a peasant pretending to be a prince trying to deceive the princess. Eventually, he obtained a magic lamp that made him a powerful sorcerer.
Next, was the Beautiful Queen holding her trademark poison apple. One look and even a monster like Grim had to agree that she was a sight for sore eyes. Everyday, the Queen would ask her magic mirror about her ranking in terms of beauty, and her efforts were something to be admired whenever she would fall behind from being number one. She would risk life and limb to regain her spot as the fairest of the fair. Not only that, she was adept at making various poisons.
Then there was the frightful figure of the fiery Lord of the Underworld, a god that ruled over the dead and never took a day off from his daunting tasks. He ended up winning over the most fearsome monsters to ever tread the Underworld like Cerberus, the Hydra, even the Titans, who created his army.
Finally, they came to the last statue of the horned Witch of Thorns from Magic Mountains who was perhaps the most powerful and noble among the Seven. Her magic was something beyond this world, but she excelled at curses the most. She can summon lightning, cover an entire nation with thorns, and she can even transform into a dragon.
By the end of that brief history lesson, Grim was starry-eyed. "They all sound so cool!"
Ace glanced at Minako to see her reaction. He'd been watching her every now and then just to see if she was living under rock like Grim was. He caught her half-listening as she was cleaning the street and following them closely. Her expression had changed slightly to what looked like curiosity and maybe even confusion. So, she really didn't know.
"Yeah, they are pretty cool," Ace said, "unlike a certain raccoon."
Grim froze at the sudden jab, his blue eyes were wide open.
As for Ace, he couldn't hold it back anymore, so all of his laughter came pouring out. "You two! You're the ones who went crazy at the ceremony! Do you know how hard it was to not lose it last night?" Oh, his stomach ached.
"Rude!" Grim seethed.
Minako didn't react much other than clicking her tongue. A much blander response than what Ace wanted, but he still kept laughing.
"I can't believe..." Piles of laughter. "...you two were forced to become janitors." He took deep breaths and his laughter slowed so he could talk. "Then I find out that you're so stupid that you don't know the Great Seven! Go back to preschool before you go to college, alright."
"Hey, henchwoman, knock him out with one of your spells or something!"
"Let's leave. We don't want to get in trouble." Minako's hand was clenched around her wand sheathed in its holster. That meant he was getting to her.
"Scared?" Ace goaded her on.
"No, I just don't think you're worth my time," Minako responded in a manner that was calm but bitingly cold. "You should get to your classes before I go back on that and sew your mouth shut."
Ace snarled. Not worth her time? She wasn't cute at all!
"What? I'm not just letting him get away with that!" Sucking in a deep breath, Grim spat out a trail of electric blue fire across the pavement.
"Grim, don't!" Minako made a move to catch Grim by his tail, but the monster zoomed off and spat a wave of fire on the pavement.
Ace jumped back in surprise, narrowly avoiding the trail that licked his shoes. "Watch where you're aiming!"
"I'll light that mop you call hair on fire!"
"Light my hair on fire? I'll turn you into a toy poodle!"
Grim let out growl as he released the next trail of inferno, this time Ace was prepared to fight back. He took out his pen from his breast pocket with his magic surging from the ruby crystal attached to it and blasted the fire into nothing with a gust of cool wind. A smug grin etched onto his face upon seeing Grim cry out in frustration.
A blue light suddenly whizzed past Ace's face. He turned to see that Minako had her wand out.
"Stop that!" she shouted.
"Hey, is that fight over there?"
"Heck yeah! Go get 'em!"
Crap. Ace had forgotten about the other students. He had to finish this quickly. Seeing another burst of flames was headed his way, he summoned the wind again to veer it away from its path.
Then suddenly, he saw the enchanted broom from earlier fly towards Grim and push the monster to the ground. Ace wanted to laugh at that, but then the wind was knocked out of him when Minako pinned him to the ground with another broom. For someone so small, he didn't think she had the strength to do that.
"I told you to stop!" Minako was on top of him and staring him down with the first sign of emotion that wasn't so icy for once, in fact she was burning with rage. And her eyes... Ace was sure that they were brown before and not turquoise.
"Ah! The statue!" somebody cried.
Ace can still hear a loud crackling sound somewhere, which meant that the fire hadn't been put out at all. With the mutual feeling of dread, he and Minako looked up only to find the Queen of Hearts statue engulfed in blue flames.
Minako got up from the pavement and was quick to react. "Aqua eructo!" Her wand sprayed a jet of water to douse the fire, but it was too late.
No, no, no! "The statue's been charred!" Ace's hands flew up to his hair. He was in so much shit.
Grim got up from the ground and tried to pin the blame on him. "This is your fault! You should have just let yourself get fried instead!"
"What idiot would let himself get lit on fire?" Ace snapped back.
"That is enough!" The booming voice of Headmaster Crowley made everyone on Main Street freeze. He cracked his whip, flogging both Ace and Grim on the arms.
Ace hissed at the stinging pain lingering on his arm. Should a principal be allowed to keep something like that?
"Not the Lash of Love again!" cried Grim.
Ace inwardly cringed at the name. What kind of principal was this guy? He was pretty sure that Crowley was violating a couple of laws with that whip.
Crowley stomped over them. "I thought I told you to not cause anymore trouble, but then you go and scorch the Queen of Hearts! You two could be expelled for this."
Ace winced. "No. Don't do that please!" What would his parents say? He can't get expelled on the first day of school. He just can't! This wasn't his fault.
Grim, like the coward he was, jumped into Minako's arms for comfort at the mention of expulsion. Now, Crowley directed his attention to her.
Minako's shoulders were tense and her head was bowed, looking more solemn than Ace had seen all morning. "I'm sorry," she said before Crowley could say anything.
The apology resulted in a softer tone but still a stern scolding from the Headmaster. "This isn't how you supervise Grim. I thought that you could have done better."
Crowley turned back to Ace. "You, what's your name and grade?"
"Ace Trappola, first year," he answered sheepishly.
"Then Trappola, Grim, and Nezumi," Crowley started. "If you don't want to be expelled, I want the three of you to clean a hundred windows around campus without the use of magic!"
"It's his fault! He was making fun of us!" Grim protested.
"That's not fair!" Ace said. If anything it was Grim's fire that burnt the statue.
"It most definitely is, Trappola. After school, you are all to meet in the cafeteria, understand?"
"Fine," Ace sighed in defeat.
"This is the worst," said Grim.
Crowley ordered him to hurry over to his next class leaving Ace in a sour mood. There was no way he was cleaning a hundred windows. Two other people are doing the job, so what's the harm in not showing up later?
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº Minako ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
Minako was happy to see Ace leave, but she dreaded seeing him again for their punishment. She was right to be cautious about him. There was a heavy weight in her chest from the distress that both he and Grim had caused her from their altercation. She got angry and she didn't even have her potion with her! How stupid can she be? Dark energy was swelling up in her system, urging her to purge it out.
"Hey, henchwoman, you don't look too good."
Minako ignored him. "Headmaster, do you happen to have a girl's restroom?" she asked, her voice shaky.
"Ms. Nezumi? Are you feeling alright?" Crowley's arms extended out to her as if he was waiting on her to suddenly collapse.
"I feel sick. My curse is acting up again." As discreetly as she could, Minako rolled up her sleeve to show him the dark veins spreading on her arm that twisted like tree branches.
"W-what curse? What's that on your arm?" Grim stammered.
Minako took a deep breath. "I just need to calm down in private before this gets out of hand."
"Right, follow me."
They managed to make it inside the school building somehow before her magic could wreak havoc. Then in the women's restroom where Crowley hastily ushered her into, the mirror on the vanity had cracked in the corner under her power. Hopefully, Crowley wouldn't make her pay for that.
Facing her reflection, she found that the black veins had already spread to her neck and that her eyes had changed back to the turquoise colour from the previous night. Her skin was so pale that it made the marks pop out more. Was it possible that someone had noticed her cursed state on the way here?
Harsh coughs began to leave her mouth making her desperately reach for paper towels from the dispenser. She tried to expel as much of the curse's physical remnants that the flare-up had left. Removing the towel from her mouth, she inspected the black ink streaked with bright red blood. She crumpled it up and threw it away in the bin. For now, she would just have to wait until her darkened veins have gone away.
"Lumos maxima." The tip of her wand shined brightly and slowly, it repelled the marks on her skin.
There were different types of blood curses: some turn you into monsters and some leave you frail, but either way you die early (or, in some people's cases, you lose your humanity). She doubted that she would ever make it to her thirties. What with all of those times she lost control of her emotions. For all she knew, she could already be dead and this was just a long dream as she navigated through the afterlife.
Crowley may have given her shelter even with the knowledge of her curse, but how long until he decides that she was too much of a threat to the school? She might end up homeless with no way home. Rumours about her could spread and no one would be willing to approach her, let alone help her.
No, don't think like that. It will only get worse. Minako refused to cry. She took deep breaths and filled her mind with happier thoughts. Without her potion or the skill to cast the patronus charm, all she had was lumos to get it to disappear. It was a longer solution, but it was the only solution. She couldn't take looking at the black veins stubbornly remaining on her skin or how the curse was painfully draining her energy away anymore.
There was a knock on the door and Crowley's muffled voice came from the other side. "Ms. Nezumi, you've been in there for a while. Are you still alive?"
Checking the mirror one last time, Minako found that the black marks had lessened and can be easily hidden now. "Coming," she said, finally walking out of the loo.
It was surprising to see that Crowley was still waiting after quite a while. She would have thought that the Headmaster had a pile of work to do that was more important than to look after one person.
And Grim? He was waiting too when Minako would sooner believe that he would get bored and wander off. Instead, he stayed put and sat by the restroom door with his big blue eyes close to tears. Seeing Grim's concern for her lifted her spirits up a bit.
"Perhaps, it was careless of me to not ask you more about your curse," Crowley said.
Unexpectedly, Grim climbed into Minako's arms. "Careless? My henchwoman could have died because of you!"
Technically, Grim was partly responsible for her flare up too.
"So, your curse is triggered whenever you feel upset?" Crowley asked.
"Whenever I'm too upset. I'm safe if my feelings are not that strong," Minako corrected.
"You said that you require a medicinal potion to help reduce the effects?"
"That and magical light." Then Minako remembered something. "Oh! That reminds me, I wrote down the recipe last night." She reached into her pocket for an old piece of parchment that the ghosts found for her. "I'm just worried though that I might not have the ingredients in this world."
"Crewel can take care of this, you have nothing to worry about. Aren't I gracious?" Crowley beamed as he took the parchment off of her hands.
Stop it with the gracious thing, please. Minako groaned inwardly.
The bell rang and Crowley perked up. "The both of you should get something to eat now. Remember to meet after school for your punishment."
Crowley had given them enough money for lunch and a bit more to buy essentials from the school shop. The cafeteria was starting to fill with chatter with the students pushing their way through the doors. Unlike the Great Hall at Hogwarts, the tables were shorter in length and more in quantity. The students here tended to mix with different houses, but at Hogwarts, the students mostly sat at their respective tables unless they were invited by another house to sit with them.
The cafeteria was almost as big as the Great Hall if it weren't for the lower ceiling. Speaking of the ceiling, the chandelier was rather pretty, mimicking the look of a tree in a forest. The globes of light on the branches looked like fireflies or even fairies.
"Hey, you won't have time to get the best food if you keep gawking at the ceiling like that."
That voice sure didn't sound like Grim. Minako looked back down to her level and met the white-haired boy from last night greeting her with his ever cheerful expression along with a friend standing behind him.
Minako tried to remember his name. "Hey... um, Kalim?"
"Yeah! I'm so glad that you're still here," said Kalim. No longer in his ceremonial robes, Kalim was sporting some kind of looser version of the school uniform—a cream-coloured cardigan rather than a black blazer, his scarlet waistcoat unbuttoned, and a matching white-and-gold half turban wrapped around his head.
"Oh, I'm not a student here. We're just janitors for now." Minako motioned to her own clothes to show him that it was not the school uniform.
"That's too bad. I think you're great at magic."
"Oh, those spells? They're not that impressive."
"Wait a second, aren't you the one who made it rain last night?" asked Grim.
"You were the one that burnt his rear. Say you're sorry," Minako shot back.
"Don't worry about it. In hindsight, it was actually kind of funny." Kalim laughed reassuringly.
"Kalim, please, it's on my head if you'd been seriously hurt. I knew I should have gone with you to the ceremony," Kalim's friend said with exasperation.
"Oh, Minako, this is my vice dorm leader, Jamil. Jamil, this is Minako. She's the one who saved me last night."
Jamil appeared to have a more serious air to him, standing stiff like a bodyguard for Kalim. His skin was dark like his long hair, a perfect contrast to Kalim's white hair. Some of the locks in his ponytail were neatly braided and decorated with gold coins. Minako noticed too that Jamil's uniform was somewhat loose. Under his uniform blazer, he donned a red-and-black hoodie in place of the standard dress shirt and waistcoat.
"It's nice to meet you. This is Grim," Minako greeted him warmly while she tried to get a read on him at the same time. On the surface, Jamil carried himself with the same kind of irritation that her sister often did, but there was something calculating in his steely eyes as well.
"It's good to meet you too." Ironically, Jamil sounded indifferent when he said that. "Kalim, we need to get in line now."
Minako and Grim joined the two collecting their trays and standing in front of the serving line where the kitchen ghosts operated. She scanned the options that were within her budget and satisfied her dietary restrictions.
"Are there any vegetarian options?" asked Minako.
"Try some of our veggie curry," one ghost offered cheerfully.
Was it just her, or do all of the ghosts only have three standard looks? This ghost looked exactly like Phineas but with a different voice.
"Get me some of that curry with pork cutlet, henchwoman!" Grim demanded.
"You're not really his henchwoman, are you?" asked Kalim.
"No, he's just delusional."
"Hey!"
"By the way, how do I pay him? I'm not familiar with using madols," asked Minako.
After Jamil gave her a quick tutorial on how to use the money, Kalim made her and Grim sit with them on the same table. Her mouth was already watering at the smell of the curry and rice on her tray. She took her first bite, the spices all blending together nicely like an authentic curry that didn't use powder. Those ghosts knew how to cook.
Grim practically inhaled his food and Minako grew worried for her wallet with his gluttonous behaviour. She would need to restrain him if it ever came to that point.
Kalim was looking at her. "What's that thing on your chin?"
Minako's hand went to wipe her chin and she glanced at it to examine the offending stain. To her horror it was a drop of ink from her curse.
"Uh, it's ink. I draw a lot," she half-lied. She adjusted her collar to hide her neck in case there was any marks that hadn't disappeared yet.
Grim gave her a look of confusion, but thankfully stayed quiet.
"So you're an artist? That's cool. I'm not that good at drawing, but I'm in a band and Jamil's a great dancer," said Kalim.
"Why don't you tell her about yourself more and less about me?"
"Ah, sorry, Jamil. But you really are a good dancer."
There was something one-sided about the dynamic of these two; Jamil was constantly annoyed with Kalim despite being his friend. Did he not think they were friends? Maybe he was just the type that preferred to bury his own emotions. He has been acting secretive this whole time, which was fine by Minako, though it did make her question their relationship.
"It would've been nice if you got sorted into Scarabia. Jamil's cooking is amazing and we throw lots of parties at our dorm. Say, how much do you know about the Sorcerer of the Sands?"
"Not much, but I know... enough." Minako bitterly recalled the altercation with Ace. "I'm not from here, so I've never heard about the Great Seven until this morning."
Kalim was speechless and Jamil even looked up from his plate with astonishment.
"That's impossible. How could you not know about the Great Seven? It's practically the first thing everyone learns about," Jamil said with disbelief.
"Well, Grim's from around here and he didn't know about the Great Seven either."
"Don't remind me!" Grim hissed.
"Monsters don't really go to school, so it's understandable that Grim doesn't know," Jamil explained.
Kalim was more amazed than shocked. "Wow, your country must be really far away. I thought you were just a local on the island. Where did you come from?"
Should she tell him? Kalim was incredibly kind to her so far, but that sure doesn't mean she should say anything. Was it a good idea to hide the fact that she came from another world?
The ringing of the bell stopped her from saying anything.
Jamil got up with his tray. "We better go. Kalim needs to get to his classes if he wants to make up for last year."
"I'm coming. It was nice seeing you again." Kalim also stood up from seat and waved goodbye.
Well, I guess we should go buy some supplies now.
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
The owner of the school shop, Sam, was an eccentric and cheery fellow. The man's stark, white skeletal markings on his dark skin and the rib pattern on his waistcoat caught Minako's attention immediately. There was a charm to his spooky aesthetic, and it was probably Sam's charisma that made it work so well.
When she and Grim entered Mr. S's Mystery Shop, Sam had popped out of nowhere, tipping the patchy top hat that sat on his dark dreads to greet them. "Welcome, my lost little demons. The name's Sam. Anything I can do for you two, today?" His Southern accent was pleasant to hear.
Grim jumped out of his skin. "Where did you come from?"
"Sorry about that. Interested in a couple of dreamcatchers? How about some grimoires?"
"Do you happen to sell any food and clothes that come in a small size? I'm on a budget of a hundred madol." Minako wondered about the variety of this man's shop.
"Hey, I know you. You're the girl that the Headmaster took in. Say, if you're looking for jobs, I could use a delivery girl."
"Thanks, I'll think about it."
Minako gathered two sets of clothes (interesting that he sold lady's underwear when he ran a shop at a boys school), instant food, and sanitary products. She brought it over to the checkout where Sam was already pushing in the buttons on the cash register.
What Minako found around the shop was unbelievable. Sam really did sell a variety of things, but he mainly advertised for his shady artefacts that reminded her of the antiques sold in Borgin and Burkes at Knockturn Alley. It was filled to the brim with potentially cursed objects and voodoo trinkets that she had hard time seeing any modern essentials that were sold here.
Minako stared at the shelves full of books and potions behind Sam as she waited for him to finish checking out her items. She was somehow entranced by his shadow as she caught it not matching the shopkeeper's movements. She thought it was a trick of her eye, but then the shadow peered over Sam's shoulder to count the money she gave him.
There was a second shadow on the wall, this time without a physical body to match it, running its finger along the spines of the books. Minako counted a third on the ceiling and a fourth on the floor.
"What are you staring at?" Grim's voice took her out of her stupor.
"The shadows."
Sam stopped counting the money. "You can see them?"
"Uh... yes. Friends of yours?" Minako asked.
"They sure are! My friends from the other side." Sam leaned towards her to whisper, "But you shouldn't trust them so easily. They ain't always honest."
One shadow playfully smacked Sam at the back of his head, nearly knocking his top hat off.
It was a joke, but Minako decided that she would take his word for it. "Okay then." She grabbed the shopping bag off of the counter. "We better go. Thanks, Sam."
"But I want to hang out more!" said Grim.
"Another time." Minako pulled him out the door.
"Come again soon!" said Sam as they left the shop.
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº Sam ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
That girl was a little weird. People don't normally see his shadow companions messing around in his shop, but the Headmaster did say there was something special about her magic.
As soon as the girl and her cat left, one shadow tapped Sam on the shoulder and whispered in his ear. He was sure that his eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head from what he just heard.
"That little girl is covered in blot?"
◐ ━━━━━ ºoº ━━━━━ ◑
*Phineas, Ezra, and Gus are the names of the Hitchhiking Ghosts trio from Disney's Haunted Mansion Ride. I named them based on how close each ghost was on physical appearance. I'm pretty sure someone else has used these names to name the Ramshackle Ghosts but oh well.
*There was a headcanon I found on Tumblr stating that the Rose Kingdom is the equivalent of the UK or at least England and that the Sage's Island (where NRC is located) is the equivalent of Japan. Minako being born and raised a British-Asian girl, Ace made the assumption that she was from the Rose Kingdom with a Sage's Islander background.
Also, I originally wanted to insert a gag that Minako uses her space buns as a purse and can fit just about anything in there. I decided to leave it out because it didn't match the tone that I wanted. Here's the drawing I posted on Tumblr a long time ago.