Well, until all the copies are used at one time

In your little warded study nook, you take out the doll-scale miniature book with the magical link to the basic spellbooks you copied out during House Service. You tune in through the link, seeking the eager young minds studying and concentrating on the spells you copied out for them.

It's a tease, at first, only a tickle of a connection. Scholars holding the book, or napping with it as a head rest. But at length you get a clear contact, a House Beavertail first-year making an earnest effort at studying. After that they come thick and fast, like they're reviewing work for tomorrow's class, with common notes of confusion and irritation and determination. Homework, then.

Susan Quaffle. Surely no real person could be so boring and insipid as this first-year. I mean, it's actually normal to move your lips while you're studying incantations, but it seems like she has a charm that's prompting her on pronunciation and rhythm. How did she ever get into Boarbristle?

Nan. A redhead like you. Intense and self-possessed, pushing through her review work, nursing some sort of grievance, but about what? Against whom? People can be so confusing, even if you glimpse their inner thoughts and feelings like this. Mind melding through your spy book gives you a deep look, but a strange angle.

Blake. Cautious. Worried what his classmates think of him. A local. Bit of a flair for dueling, but holds it back. A local, from Turnbuckle at the edge of the Weirding Woods. Uncomfortable from going from being a townie to a gownie, but Ma and Da are proud, so he'll make a go of it.

You get a happy glow inside, knowing a little more about the first-years. You never felt like you quite connected at House Minerval, as exciting as its prospects were for you. And the Librarian, well, Miss Caldwell gave you so much from her adoration, but you still feel the wounds of her hunger, her insistence, pushing you faster and farther than you knew how to find yourself. But such aching joy, such exaltation to be adored and lit from within by her dreams of ecstasy.

You will carry her inside as long as you live and love and desire. What she found in you is part of who you are now. You can't resist raising your finger to the hinge of your glasses and letting them transform in shape to mirror Miss Caldwell's. That shape, and how she would move them, play with them, chew distractedly on one earpiece. You feel warm inside, just thinking, and holding a pair of glasses that have taken the shape of hers. Sometimes you're surprised when you look in the mirror and your glasses have taken that shape, just from thinking of her, even when you didn't realize you had been.

You drift off to sleep, later, thinking of the Librarian and the sweet danger of her forbidden affections in the murmur of restless, half-living magical books.

Buzz is off to Broom Polo practice after the morning meal, though he sits with you and chatters with great animation about his try-out yesterday and what he's looking for today. "They've a really good coach, likes to mix things up and test your limits," he says. "I'm going to give it my very best today."

The Housemistress' son gets a glow to his face, a sort of beatification, which reminds you straight off of his mother. Bertha Beeblossom radiates joy and goodwill to all around her. Buzz, well, he seems effortlessly able to charm, even if all he's talking about is himself. He smiles and nods and looks at you but doesn't stare, and by the time he trots off toward practice, you can't help but smile as he walks away.

Maybe Mum put a charm on him so anyone he meets likes him. Or maybe he's just charming. You sigh and clear your mind. You have a little bit of studying and preparation to do.

Back in your dormitory, you open the first-year spellbook issued to Buzz, and page through it, making mental notes about how to coach him on the basics he'll need, whatever his course as a scholar at Boarbristle Academy. As you go through the book, you feel the tingle of a magical link like you felt yesterday, exercising your spy book. It quickly builds to a chorus of voices, first mental, then heard as if you were in the room.

The first-years are all practicing in unison. And a magical link can be operated from either direction, sometimes unknowingly. The scholars redouble their efforts, reciting with all their intensity.

It's too much, you can't hear yourself think.

Roll +CUNNING at -1 using CAST A SPELL to break the magical link and free yourself: ⚅⚃ + 0 = 10, success!

You tear the little spy book from its hiding place and snap out a banishment on it. The mental pressure lifts, and you feel giddy, lighter than air. There's a little fire in the common area of your dormitory. You toss your spy book into it and stand close to watch it burn, feeling easier as the pages curl, twist, and shrivel in the flames.

Bye bye spybook. An unwise over-reach, you tell yourself.

You feel a presence behind you. You startle and turn to see Lupa raising an eyebrow. You raise a finger to the hinge of your glasses and they go dark, hiding your expression from your suitemate.

"We all have secrets, I suppose," she says. "Some of us more than others?"

You can't read her expression.

"Want to go push hoops?" Lupa asks.

"Hoops?"

"Hoops, silly," Lupa says. "Minerval doesn't do them?"

"No?"

"C'mon, you can't sit indoors all day. Come come!" She flips her hair back out of her eyes to give you an earnest look, somewhat spoilt by her hair falling back down the next moment.

Lupa wants you to come outside and push hoops?

Well, she's right, you can't sit about all day, and some fresh air, for once, might do you good.

Traits: Ambition -1, Bravery +0, Cunning +1, Diligence +2.
Talented Transformer: +1 to Move rolls including casting a Transformation spell.
Unpurged Minerval: Tess can use MIND MELD or STAMINA as House Sex Moves.
You no longer have a spybook.

You have a GOAL (-2 vs. Diligence) from Housemistress Beeblossom: Get Buzz settled in as a Beavertail scholar to the Housemistress' satisfaction.

You have 1 XP.

Describe what Lupa means. You may choose to ENCOUNTER Lupa (+DILIGENCE = +2) or another Beavertail scholar in attendance. Maybe you can get another ally in getting Buzz settled. Or perhaps you'll have to chase him to Broom Polo practice.