Chapter 4 - Magic Lessons

"And what about the guy in the skull mask?" Tails asked.

"That's professor Grimley," Cain said, "and not much, since neither of us have had him before."

While in the classroom, the students waited for the professor. After a moment, he finally arrived. He was the hooded man with the skull mask. He strode in, as if he were gliding across the floor with his long cloak barely grazing it.

The students were silent, anticipating what this somewhat scary professor would do.

He then approached his desk, in between the chalkboard and seat and removed his mask.
 He appeared to be a man in his early twenties, with pale skin and medium-length dark hair.
"Good day, students," he said. "My name is Professor Grimley," a piece of chalk levitated and wrote his name on the board for him. "Let me know if you have any questions."
 
"I have one," Sonic spoke up. The rest of the room went silent.

"What is it?" said Professor Grimley.

"How old are you?"

"Two hundred and five," Professor Grimley replied proudly. "Anyone else?" he asked. Nobody else had any questions. "Alright then, let's get started. Here in this class, you will learn the subtle science and exact art of making potions. You may not see much wand-waving here, but I assure you, this is magic."
Grimley went on with his speech as Caterina, who sat behind Amy, poked her with a wand whispering "mutant".

At three-thirty that afternoon, the Dragonthorns rushed down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. They marched onto the springy grass down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the other side of the grounds next to the forbidden forest.
The Demontails were already there, and so were at least twenty vacuum cleaners lying in neat lines on the ground.
 
“Vacuum cleaners?” Tails said, confused. “Those seem more for cleaning than flying. And I can fly just well with my own two tails if not a plane. I’m pretty sure a vacuum isn’t suited for flying.”
 
Their teacher, Ms. Partridge arrived. “I’m here to substitute for Finch,” she announced. “Well, what are you all waiting for?” she barked. “Everyone get by a vacuum. Come on, chop, chop,” she clapped her hands with the last two words.
 
The five mammals glanced down at their vacuums. Theirs were a bit old and the plastic head was a bit scratched and the main bag had dust on the outside.
 
“Stick out your right hand over the handle of your vacuum,” called Ms. Partridge, “and say ‘Up!’”
 
“UP!” everyone shouted.
 
Tails’ vacuum jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Epiphany‘s had simply rolled over on the ground, and Knuckles’ hadn’t moved at all.
 
“They’re probably spooked,” Sonic joked.
 
Ms. Partridge then showed them how to mount their vacuums without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows to correct the students’ grips. The gang, as well as Epiphany and Cain, smirked with delight when they heard her tell Caterina she’d been doing it wrong for years.
 
“Now, when I blow my whistle, you will kick off from the ground, as hard as you can,” said Ms. Partridge. “Keep your vacuums steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —”
 
“I finally got it!” Knuckles said, but he suddenly pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Ms. Partridge’s lips.
 
“Hey! Come back here, boy!” she shouted, but he was rising straight up like a bottle rocket to twelve feet up to twenty feet. His friends saw his stupefied face look down at the ground falling away, saw him slip sideways off the vacuum and —
THWACK! — A thud and a nasty crack and he lay face down on the grass in a heap. His vacuum was still rising higher and higher, and into the forest until it couldn’t be seen any longer.
 
Ms. Partridge was bending over him.
 
“Broken collarbone,” she muttered. “Come on, it’s all right, get up.”
 
She was about to turn to the rest of the class when Epiphany said “Chiro Cura,” and zapped her wand at Knuckles, which healed his collarbone.
 
“Huh? It’s not broken anymore,” he said as he felt the pain from the fracture stop.
 
“Great use of a healing a spell, Epiphany. Oh, I just remembered I am being summoned to the office today, they’ve found a new coach, stay here in the meantime.” Ms. Partridge walked off, leaving the students on the field.
 
No sooner was she out of earshot when Caterina burst into laughter. “Looks like someone left his glasses at home!”
 
The other Demontails joined in.
 
“Shut up, Caterina,” snapped Epiphany. “It couldn’t be helped!”
 
“Ooh, sticking up for the doofus?” said one of Caterina’s bratty friends, “Never thought you’d go for blind idiots.”
 
“I don’t like him that in that way,” Epiphany said.

Epiphany gave Caterina a fierce glare, and Caterina looked back at her friends and rolled her eyes with a pursed lip smirk.

"You foul, despicable little vermin!" Epiphany shouted as she pointed her wand at Caterina.

"Epiphany, just let it go!" Cain said.
Epiphany still had her wand pointed at Caterina's face. "I'll make you even uglier than you already are!" she threatened. Caterina winced at those words. After a few seconds , she retracted her wand and walked away. Caterina and her rotten friends immediately started laughing.
"I knew you'd punk ou-" Epiphany gave Caterina a swift punch in the lip.

The court fell silent. "Well," said Epiphany, "I feel good."

"That was awesome!" Amy said.

"Ugh!" Caterina said, "you ruined my perfectly pouty lips!"

"You're in trouble now..." said one of Caterina's friends. The band of bratty snobs gathered around.
"Hold my purse!" Caterina said to one of them, "while I deal with this freak." Epiphany looked amused, "I'm ready when you are."
The gang then gathered around, backing her up.
"You better not threaten to hit a friggen girl," one of Caterina's short friends with her dark hair in a ponytail and a hard face said to the male mammals.
Amy brought out her hammer.
"She's cast a hammer spell!"
"First year's luck!" members of Caterina's group clammered. One of Caterina's friends plucked the hammer out of Amy's hands from behind, but it immediately fell to the ground with its weight.
"It's so heavy..."
"Ooh, is that a potion in your coat?" asked a Demontail student, noticing a vial hanging out of Epiphany's coat.
Epiphany looked at her pocket, "I must have forgotten to take it out during class."
"Ooh, Grimley's gonna lay hard boiled eggs when he finds out," one of Caterina's friends said, smirking and obviously taking amusement in Epiphany's predicament.
"I plan to give it back, I swear," Epiphany begged.
"Here, allow me," said a chubby boy, swiping it. "Keepaway!"
"Oh boy! I love this game!" A girl said.
All the nasty little Demontail students flew around on their vacuums trying to play keepaway with the vial.
The gang flew on their vacuums after them immediately, diving and ducking as the Demontails tried to keep the vial away from them too. Finally, Tails pulled off a maneuver that involved twists and spirals that baffled Caterina as he flew by, and Amy snatched the vial as she was distracted.
"Oh," Caterina panted, "you can have your vial back, since it's so important to you. You really are a freak."
"And you're just a scared little bully," Amy shot back, and the other students gasped.
Caterina was ready to take out her wand, "Unpopularis Permane-"

 When Professor Grimley, who was in hiding, took out his wand and turned Caterina into a rat.

Everyone gasped as she transformed.

"Well, I see who's the real filthy rat around here," Grimley said as he made her float around.

"Professor Grimley!" said Mrs. Partridge as she walked by, approaching him, "what are you doing?"

"I'm in the middle of a lesson," Grimley said.

"Is that rat a student?" Mrs. Partridge asked.

"It is currently a rat," Grimley replied.

"Eek!" One student shouted as Caterina crawled inside his pantsleg, "Get her out! Get her out!"

The Dragonthorns chuckled, as Mrs. Partridge transformed Caterina to her normal, terrible self.

Caterina stood on all fours, still scratching her head with her foot. She realized what she was doing and started to run away, giving Grimley a look of contempt as she ran off.

"That's right," Grimley said, "I hope you learned a valuable lesson."

"Professor Grimley!" Mrs. Partridge said sternly "we do not use transformation as a punishment, I'm sure you remember Flynn telling you that," she said, pointing a wand at his chin, and walked away.

Professor Grimely huffed in contempt as she walked away. "You youngsters come with me," he said to Sonic and Co.

"Oooooh," the Demontails said.

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