"Wormwood, do you think I'm being a little harsh on them?" Beatrix Nightblood said, petting her familiar as it napped.

"Not at all, miss," her secretary said, finally having slotted all the detention time slots into the first-years' timetables, "some people really need the correction."

"I really hope you're right." she sighed, sounding a little more deflated than usual.

Eli Wormwood was by no means a bright witch, he never was, but he'd spent enough time with Miss Nightblood to know that this was nothing like her.

"Bea, you've never been one to back down from a challenge. I'm sure you'll manage this just fine.

"Thank you for the optimism, Wormwood." she gave a tight smile, "But I may have just pissed off the wrong family."

"The Crowstrikes? You're not serious, are you?" Wormwood glared at Beatrix, "You're better than this..."

"PFFFT!" Beatrix laughed, waking up her familiar with a start, "Of course not! You think I care about what they think of me? It's the Almenaras. Would hate having to explain why their Rosa is in trouble... I don't want to trouble her mother any more. They're great people."

Her familiar gave Beatrix a side eye, and immediately stalked away to find somewhere more quiet to nap.

"Well then," Beatrix stood up, "Anything more to add, Wormwood? If not, I'm going to go after Mimi to my quarters."

"Right," Wormwood swallowed, "One of the Magic History teachers had a family emergency, so they were wondering if you could substitute for a few weeks. You're the only one available with experience on the subject."

"Which class?"

"A first year class."

"May I have a look at the student list?"

"Sure!"

Wormwood handed over the parchment. Beatrix scanned the names, before handing it back with the declaration:

"I'll take them."

Then, she swept out of her office, leaving a slightly baffled Wormwood.

"Strange," he marked something on the parchment, "Usually she only takes on the senior classes..."

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

"I can't believe we're in the same class! Isn't that exciting?" Knight grinned, as he and Sugar walked off to the first class of their school year.

"I guess so," muttered Sugar. When he had checked the class lists posted that morning, he was horrified that he was to be in the same class as Charlie and co. Whoever made those class lists was definitely having some kind of joke at his expense. At least he had Knight. And maybe Rosa? Well, he still wasn't exactly friendly with Rosa, but she was Knight's friend, so they at least were civil.

When they arrived, Charlie and his lackeys were already positioned in front of the classroom, and loudly discussing. Now Sugar could finally get a good look at them.

Of course there was Charlie, the ringleader, always so prim and proper, pretending like he was some pure soul. Sugar hated it.

Then there were the twins. They basically tailed Charlie, and from the way they acted, their families had probably known each other for generations. Salem he knew to stay away from. He had seen her outbursts, and heard enough rumours, that he knew he did not want to aggravate her in the slightest. The other twin, Asteria, on the other hand... he wasn't sure what to think of her. She was quiet, and from the way she seemed to be ignoring most of what Charlie was saying in favour of perusing a textbook, was more studious than the rest of the group combined. And probably a lot more crafty too...

Lastly, there was a guy that Sugar recognised as Charlie's roommate. He was tall, probably like an inch or so larger than Knight, and that would be saying something... also probably not someone to be messed with.

But as he looked around, he did notice someone missing. Where was Rosa? Honestly, he couldn't really blame her for wanting to skip out on class after the fight yesterday.

Sugar groaned and leaned up against the wall. The First Witch himself was going to have to step in if he was going to survive class this year. Luckily for him, the doors to the classroom soon swung open, and without looking to see if Knight was following, Sugar rushed in. Another good thing about Scarwood. The doors are all connected to the central clock, meaning the class doors will open on time, and you don't have to wait for your teacher to finally show up.

He found a seat in the middle row of tables on the left side of the classroom, and was hiding behind a stack of books when Knight came to sit down beside him.

"Hey, why'd you run off? I almost couldn't find you," Knight said with a pout.

"Like I said, I don't like them," Sugar glared in Charlie and his cronies' direction, "and they particularly like me either. So the less we see of each other, the better."

"... I guess you have a point."

As other students began to filter in, Knight also got himself settled too, but before he could annoy Sugar any more, his attention was drawn by something, or rather, someone else.

"Um, can I sit here?"

Sugar looked over to see a rather mousy boy, face adorned with thick, silver glasses and a mop of brown hair on his head. He looked mortified at the fact he simply had to talk to someone else. Just some harmless nerd.

And as usual, Knight's friend-making senses immediately perked up.

"Well, hello! What's your name? I'm Knight!" he said with a grin, "Oh, and of course you can sit here. We don't bite!"

"H-Hugo..." the boy said, voice barely above a whisper, "Thank you."

Hugo quietly sat down and began to pull his things out, occasionally offering small nods and one word responses to Knight's yapping. For once, Sugar didn't complain about the newest person Knight was determined to get close with. He was quiet, and looked like he was actually here to learn. Sugar respected that.

By now, the rest of the class had filed in too, and were all chattering, wondering who their teacher was, and some even trying to guess how late they would be. The clamour was loud enough to mask the click of heels, slowly moving up the hallway.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. I had a meeting to attend"

The voice was enough to silence the whole classroom, and a few even had their mouths agape, as who would walk in other than: Headmistress Nightblood. She strode to the blackboard, and began writing something out on the board: Magic History 101.

"Now, before any of you get the wrong idea, I will not be your teacher permanently. Professor Liverwort will be away for a few weeks, and I am merely here in her stead. But you will not need to worry, I have taught this subject for over a decade. You're in good hands."

Sugar just sat in his seat, dumbfound. Why was this woman everywhere? Magic History was rapidly shaping out to be his least favourite class. A quick glance around the classroom told him that that appeared to be the collective sentiment. Nightblood pulled out a piece of parchment from her pocket.

"I will now be talking the roll. Please call out 'here' when your name is called... Rosa?"

There was only silence. Looked like Rosa actually didn't show. Frowning, Nightblood marked something down on the paper.

"Asteria and Salem,"

"Here." the twins muttered in practised unison.

"Luca."

There was once again silence, before someone piped up:

"He's on holiday!"

"I see," the headmistress said, and Sugar almost caught a touch of annoyance flash in her eyes.

Even though Headmistress Nightblood wasn't exactly the most likeable of teachers, Sugar had to admit, she was pretty good at commanding a classroom. But then again, she was the headmistress. She made quick work of the rest of the roll, and turned back to the blackboard.

"Now," Headmistress Nightblood continued, ignoring the class' stony silence, "I know you have an eventful day ahead of you: Wand Making, Mana Aptitude Tests, so I'm not going to bog you down with anything heavy. So let's start with something simple,"

She rapidly moved a chalk across the board, before moving aside to let the class get a good look at what she had written.

The First Witch: The Creation Story

"So, what do you guys know about The First Witch?... Asteria?"

"Well," the girl said, pushing up her glasses, "According to legend, The First Witch was a really powerful god who we're all descended from. He's also the one who made all the magical creatures and plants."

"Not bad. 5 out of 10. You've got the basic gist of it right," Nightblood said with a smile, "The First Witch is who we have to thank for our abilities today. But, witches are not descendants of him, he also did not make magical plants, nor all the magical creatures. Furthermore, I wouldn't really call it a legend since there is historical evidence for it being true." she wrote down the correct parts of the statement onto the board, but no one made any motions to write it down. The story of The First Witch was something that was told to children everywhere. Everyone knew this. But then again, Sugar was thankful he didn't have to think too much.

"Alright, anything else?"

"Didn't he have four human wives, that he made into powerful witches to rule over the earth?"

As soon as the question was asked, a rather sly smile spread across Nightblood's face.

"That's been debunked," she calmly said, revelling in the confused expression on everyone's faces, "when your parents were still in school, it was taught like that, but recently, historians have found evidence that a particularly puritan group of early witches altered a lot of the texts. Now, I would like everyone to guess at what they might have changed. Talk with the person next to you, and don't peek at your textbooks."

Sugar glanced over at Knight and Hugo.

"You guys got anything?"

He had somewhat of a vague idea of what was covered up. It definatelt had to be something that was considered highly taboo for the early witches. Which was pretty much everything. Early witch mythos was highly linked to human religion, after all.

"Well," Knight started, probably thinking as hard as he could, "the wives could have been non-human..."

"Don't be daft, sentient non-human creatures didn't exist till he made them." Sugar snapped, before remembering that Knight probably didn't come from a family of witches, "But I guess you don't know that. It's okay though."

"M-my dad's a Magic Historian, but I haven't seen him in months," Hugo said,his voice somehow even quieter than before, "he would know what it was..." before he slumped down a bit more, deflated. Despite his morals telling him this was probably not a good topic to raise, Sugar now found himself incredibly curious about Hugo's parents.

Sugar was about to ask Hugo about his dad, when Miss Nightblood clapped her hands.

"Alright, that's enough discussion. Any ideas?"

There was a brief moment of silence before a familiar voice called out:

"The four 'wives' were actually not women," Rosa said, walking into the classroom, "Is that right?"

"So nice of you to finally join us, Miss Almenara," Nightblood said in her usual deadpan tone, "I will be expecting some reasoning for this tardiness, but you are correct. Take a seat."

Of course. That's what it was. Sugar internally chided himself. He should've known it was that. Funnily enough, that was still pretty controversial today. Sugar had sometimes overheard his mother complain about it a few times, especially after she had to meet with those other elite covens...

Rosa looked around for an empty seat, eyes settling on Hugo for a few seconds before she sat down in the row behind Sugar.

"When modern Magic Historians re-examined some of the oldest documents detailing the legend of The First Witch, they noticed that someone at a later point in time edited the documents with magic. Of course, they undid the spell to find that the original documents said that The First Witch instead bestowed his powers upon four of his most faithful male companions. There are many interpretations of this new information, so you are free to make your own decisions as to what this could mean."

Sugar spied Charlie fake dry heave, but just rolled his eyes and ignored it.

The rest of the lesson went pretty smoothly. Headmistress Nightblood was actually a pretty good teacher.

"She makes magic history exciting, which is virtually impossible! Literally all my siblings who didn't have her fell asleep in every second class." Rosa had whispered to Knight, thinking Sugar couldn't hear.

Another thing: she was extraordinarily fair. Even Charlie got praise when he got a question correct.

Sugar mused that she could've been a student-favourite teacher, if only she wasn't so hard-headed and determined to shake things up. That just made a lot of the students dislike her. Him included.

"All right, that marks the end of your first class. Homework will to write me a paragraph about one of the five domains of magic. Don't copy one from your seniors. I wish you all a very good first day."

The class breathed a sigh of relief as they all began to file out, chatting about much more exciting classes.

✧༺✦✮✦༻∞　　∞༺✦✮✦༻✧

With a flick of her wrist, Beatrix Nightblood cleared the board. She didn't have anything on her schedule for a while, so she could sit and just have a think, a rare luxury nowadays. Almost made her miss that place.

"Well, he's certainly a smart boy, isn't he?" she said to her familiar, who had been napping on the desk the whole lesson, and was only just beginning to wake up.

"Just like his mother," Beatrix mused. "I wonder if he'll be just as bad as her at flying,"

A smirk spread across her face.

"I'd pay to see that."

┌─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┐

𝔸𝕦𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕣'𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕖

└─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.☪ .* :☆ﾟ. ───┘

As an apology for my  Classic Viva Disappearance, have this monster of a chapter! I think this might be the longest chapter I have written for any of my books. 

Oof, I am a bit knackered after all this writing. Might disappear again ehehhheh /j

~Viva