"So, how did you guys go for the safety test?"

"Well, we're not in the air, are we?"

It was now two days after they had witnessed the epic Mag-Com round, and the first-years were once again having a flying class. Well, without the flying part. The group had been so distracted by the spectacle last time, that they had paid little attention to what the teacher had been saying. So naturally, none of them passed the safety test, (well, Asteria Bones did pass, but she made the wise decision to wait for the rest of the class to catch up, probably because her sister was giving her a death glare the whole time) so they were grounded for one more lesson.

"Argh, this sucks!" Rosa said, lying back down on the field of grass.

"I think that's a skill issue on your part," Sugar mused, flicking through her test, "You confused your lefts and your rights for the whole test."

"Not like you did much better..." Rosa muttered, but ultimately decided not to fight the insult.

Because quite frankly, she had been very distracted.

Ever since they first encountered the Second-Year Hecate cohort, Rosa had been borderline obsessed with the red-haired girl, Wendolyn.

"Her name's Wendolyn Graves," she had shared to Knight and Sugar over breakfast the previous morning, "but she goes by Wendy most of the time."

"Graves? I've heard of them. They're an okay family, people did say that their magical prowess went down in recent generations, though I guess we know that's not true." Sugar said, poking at a particularly soggy cornflake.

"Also, she's an electricity witch, which means that she's an elemental like me." Rosa said with a dreamy tone to her voice, "she's also an only child, and she's got a magical tattoo of her star sign on her shoulder."

"Wait, are people that young allowed to get tattoos?" Knight said, curious.

"How did you know all this?" Sugar said, mildly appalled.

Sugar reminded himself not to get on Rosa's nerves too much from now on. Who knows what she might dig up on him?

Her obsession got even worse when they went to their Magic History class yesterday afternoon. As the class before them walked out, who else would it be other than Wendy's class?

"Man, Magic History is so much more interesting with Miss Nightblood... I can't believe that it actually worked though..." Jayden said lazily, drinking from a very large bottle, "I owe you guys one."

"No worries, that's what friends are for." Wendy smiled.

"Let me read your fortune."

"... sorry Rina, I think I'll pass."

As they walked by, Sugar was pretty sure that Rosa's eyes were as wide as he had ever seen them. And they only got wider as Headmistress Nighblood stuck her head out of the door.

"You may enter. Miss Almenara, I sincerely do hope you have not copied your homework from your brothers." she said, voice as flat and bored as usual.

As they had gotten seated, Rosa had excitedly asked:

"You teach the Hecate Course?"

"Why wouldn't I?" was the nonchalant reply.

Rosa then spent the lesson trying to pry as much information about poor Wendolyn Graves from Miss Nightblood as possible, and ultimately getting nowhere. Though, Sugar had to admit, it was the first time he had seen the headmistress so amused.

Now as they sat on the back oval, it didn't seem like her obsession was waning anytime soon, as her gaze once again drifted to the Mag-Com ring.

"Ugh, whatever." Sugar tossed the test papers aside, "We have Ignatio next, right?"

"Ooh yeah!" Knight said, sitting up excitedly, "I can't wait! His dog is so cute!"

"I would have thought you'd be more excited about actually getting our wands."

"Well, yeah, that's too, but still, you can't deny that Miguel is such a cutie!" Knight smiled, "I even brought him some treats!" He shook a bag of Beef jerky he had gotten off of Rosa again.

"Ignatio was right," Sugar sighed, "the students do pamper that mutt too much."

"What do you mean too much? I think we don't pamper him enough."

"The propaganda is working..."

"Anyway, when do we get our own familiars?" Knight asked no one in particular.

"Second year," Rosa replied quickly, "it's actually probably happening about now... wait, guys, what do you think Wendy would have a familiar? I best it would be something cool... like an eagle! Or a spider!..."

As Rosa continued to prattle on, Sugar turned to Knight.

"This is your fault."

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

"Ah, welcome back everyone." Ignatio said with a smile, waving to the students, as he opened up the storage locker with their wands.

"Now today, we will commence the final step of your wandmaking process. Then, from today on, you'll be able to finally perform spells. So, please take a seat, everyone, and I'll get everything ready."

The students all scrambled to their seats, excited by the prospect of finally getting their wands. Except Knight, who made a beeline for Miguel, gave him a few treats and a headpat, then scrambled to his seat.

"Well then," Ignatio continued, "today you will channel your wands! This is a way for the wand to get accustomed to its wielder, which means that you'll be able to use it to amplify your magic! Now, every good witch should endeavour to re-channel their wand at least once a year, to make sure it's still safe to use. Actually, it's around time to me to do it myself, which makes for a lovely demonstration."

He slid a large bangle off his wrist, drawing a lot of 'oohs' from the gathered students. A non-standard wand. Usually only older and experienced witches were permitted to use one, so Ignatio had to be a prodigy of some sort.

Even Charlie, who had making fun of their teacher only seconds before, seemed impressed.

"Oh, that sure got you guys' attention. Yes, it is a non-standard wand." he smiled, "I've had it since when I went to school here. Maybe I'll tell you all some more later... now, channelling a wand is less of a physical process, and more of a mental process. As the name suggests, you have to channel your magic into the wand. It's easiest to close your eyes, but do whatever works for you. And then, you need to concentrate in pushing as much of your magic as you can into the wand. We say as much as possible, since correctly channelling a wand is incredibly difficult for the first time, especially since none of you really have done much magic."

As he spoke, the black stones on the bangle began glowing a soft white.

"Now, if your wand begins to glow white like that, it means that the channelling is successful. If it begins to glow any other colour, put it down, and put your hand up, so I can give you assistance. Oh, and one more thing: it's best for you to maintain a calm state of mind as you channel your wand, since it won't work when your magic levels are abnormal, which will happen when you're overly emotional. Now," he said, sliding the bangle back on, "the floor is all yours."

The students scrambled to get their wands, excited to start the process. Most of the class had barely gotten to their seats before a white glow began emanating from the back table.

"Oh, cool, I guess that worked." Asteria mused, as impassively as ever, watching as the white light that consumed her wand slowly faded away.

"Oh come on, how are you always first?" Salem pouted, "It never works for me..."

"That's because you're clearly not calm." Asteria scoffed, and went back to reading her book, "Good luck, Salem."

Salem gave another annoyed huff, but decided not to enter yet another argument with her sister, and quietly tried again.

"She's so fast..." Knight said, "that means she's really good at magic, right?"

"Eh, not necessarily..." Rosa shrugged, "how fast you channel a wand is more of a statement on how well you can control your magic. So, she could be really good at wrangling her magic, like you said, or," her eyes shone with something akin to sadism.

"She doesn't have a lot of magic in the first place, making it easier for her to control."

"That's unusual, if that's the case, " Sugar frowned, looking at his own wand, "they're twins, so they technically should have identical levels of magic."

"Not always, sometimes, a twin can absorb their sibling's magic in the womb, if they're born that way."

"You guys confuse me." Knight sighed, looking at his own wand. "How are we supposed to do this again?"

Before the conversation could continue any further, or any advice given to Knight, a paper ball was tossed at Rosa's head.

"Hey, what was that for?" she grumbled, while Sugar reached for the paper, and uncrumpled it.

I can hear you. You're lucky Salem cannot.

It said, printed in neat, orderly handwriting. At the back table, Asteria let out another huff, and flipped the page.

"This has to be confirmation." Rosa said, snatching the paper from Sugar's hands. He just rolled his eyes, leaving her alone with her drama. Instead, he turned to Knight.

"So, it's just like Ignatio said, just draw from the magic in you, and push as much as you can into the wand."

"Well, yes, I do understand that part, but how are you meant to do that? Draw on your magic, I mean..."

Oh, now that was difficult. Magic was quite an abstract concept, and each person seemed to have their own interpretation of how it felt. Sugar had no idea how to explain this one, especially not to someone as dense as Knight. But something told him that if he didn't help Knight, the poor guy wouldn't be able to get his wand working for the rest of the lesson.

"I mean, magic is kind of like an energy present in you," Sugar began, keeping his descriptions as vague as possible. If he said it vaguely enough, then it'd probably be easier for Knight to follow along... probably.

"You need to draw on that energy, by... focussing on it, and... envision it entering the wand? Damn, this is way too hard..." Sugar sighed, "whatever, I'll just do a demonstration."

A demonstration was probably going to be just as unhelpful, but Sugar didn't have anything else. Knight just nodded, and began to watch intently.

He closed his eyes, and tried to envision his own magic. To him, it had always been some rigid, many-sided mass that pulsated. He never quite understood that feeling, but he was not going to question how his magic worked. He furrowed his brow, and tried to funnel the magic into the wand. As he did, strangely, he felt something in his magic crack.

"Erm, Sugar, your wand is glowing gold."

The boy's eyes snapped open, and looked down at his wand, which sure enough, was glowing a steady amber. He dropped it onto the table, just as Ignatio came to observe. Sugar heard a few giggles from the back table, and even the ever-impassive Asteria gave him (or was it Rosa?) an attempt at a smirk. Sugar just tried to shut the voices out.

"Fascinating... a golden glow. I've never seen one of these before..." Ignatio muttered, before turning to his student, "Uhh, sorry, what was your name again?"

"Sugar."

"Well, Sugar, it looks like you'll need to undergo another test." Ignatio mused, "it seems the more I find out about you, the more similar we become. You're going to need a non-standard wand."

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

So, I guess I do owe it to Sugar to make him a main character somehow, so here you go, he can has a special wand. 

Also, I am very excited for the next chapter. hehe 

No spoilers, but things really do get intense from here on out >:3

~Viva