Second Year Orientation

There are less than sixty students in your year, so you easily fit in the Grand Hall. Separated by House, you sit with the other Pegasus House students and listen to their general chatter. Everyone seems friendly enough but since it is the first day they are sticking to people they already know, meaning you have nobody to really talk to at the moment. Parisa gives you a friendly wave from where she sits but she is too far away and too busy talking to a pair of blonde girls to come over.

This means you have nothing to distract you as the elderly but somehow still menacing looking Headmaster, Frederick Hallgrave, introduces himself, a disheveled and young looking professor in a white lab coat named Samael Schwartz, and a busty, curvy, brown-haired woman in a short sweater dress and knee high griffin boots named Professor Dove. Respectively they are the heads of the Alchemic and Archaic Studies and at least both of them are pretty hot, as far as older men/women go. This makes them easy on the eyes as each of them give their own short lecture about teamwork and studying hard before the main and final attraction of the ceremony.

The students are lined up and one-by-one they are lead to the stage where Professor Schwartz places a white crown made from the branch of a thousand-year old tree on their heads. According to him, the colors it turns while on a student's head allows him to measure their magic potential on a scale of one to one hundred. The average seems to be between forty and fifty-two, though there are exceptions.

On the low end is a Wyvern-pin wearing, kinda gothy looking, very pale woman with long, waist length black hair that has streaks of purple in it somehow and is on the plumper side with an incredibly large bust and pleasingly wide hips. She scores a twenty-eight but she does not seem all that disappointed, even though you hear some derisive giggles from the people around you. It's more of a sad acceptance that makes her purple eyes shimmer as she sighs and exits the stage to be comforted by an incredibly slender girl with short brown hair.

On the high end is a short, incredibly full-chested Phoenix-pinned woman with flowing blonde hair and deeply green eyes. Her score is a ninety-three and, from the whispers you hear around you, this was to be expected as she is a member of the famous Ashcroft family that founded this academy. Sounds a bit like your typical privileged, upper-class snob since she is apparently very anti-social and does not even bother talking to anyone with a score that is not at least in the eighties. But sometimes people like that just need the right person to let them reveal their deeper, warmer sides. You do not know if that would be YOU but if she did want to make you (and your bed) warm, you cannot say you would be unwilling to try and be that person.

When your turn eventually comes, butterflies are fluttering in your stomach like mad. Both because you are curious to see where you rate and also because your ego is still enough that you do not want to place low enough that you get laughed at as well. Professor Schwartz notices your nerves and assures you there is nothing to be worried about as he puts the crown on your head. When it settles into place, the crown tightens around your skull and a sharp, piercing pain shoots into your brain as the magic item reads your potential. It is not the worst headache you have ever had but it is enough to make you visibly wince and grit your teeth, catching the interest of the three teachers.

Then something REALLY weird happens.

The crown turns a bright, vibrant color it has yet to take for anyone else and small, fresh, bright green buds poke out at the tips of its prongs. The other students are already abuzz with shocked chatter before Schwartz, in a voice too genuinely surprised sounding to be an attempt at a joke, declares your score to be one hundred and fifteen. The chatter quickly turns into an outright roar of questions, exclamations, gasps, laughs, and practically any other sound of confusion people can make.

"SILENCE PLEASE," Headmaster Hallgrave says calmly, but with magic magnifying his voice to a booming level louder than the student's din.

Once everyone goes silent, the Headmaster looks down at you and offers you a small smile of comfort before addressing the room. "I realize how unusual this may seem to all of you," he says, "Especially since, and I assure you this is not to toot my own horn, the highest score previously recorded at this school was ninety-seven. But let this be a lesson to us all as we begin this school year. Something surprising can happen anywhere, anytime. And hopefully what we teach will let you be ready for anything."

With that, the assembly ends and the three faculty members escort you to Hallgrave's office. Once there, the Headmaster takes a seat behind his desk and steeples his fingers as he looks at you and says, "I imagine you have many questions as well, young lady."

"Too many," you groan.

He chuckles kindly in response. "We did as well upon hearing about your little... incident that brought you to the magic world's attention. So we had someone do a little digging into your family history to see if there might be a few clues there."

The office door opens again to admit a tan-skinned woman in a loose fitting, purple track suit with black leather gloves. She is taller than everyone else in the room, looking at each of them and you with her one visible crimson eye. The other eye is covered by a large, thick eye patch that stretches from just above her eyebrow and down to her cheek and there are visible, jagged scars across her nose and jawline. Long, thin ears, the tip of the right one cut off and scarred over, stick out from her longer silver hair and you cannot help but wonder what other scars that track suit and gloves may hide.

"Thank you, Professor Zizana," Hallgrave says as the new arrival places one of the three folders she is carrying on his desk, giving the other two to Schwartz and Dove, "I'm sure your investigation is as detail-oriented as ever."

Dove gives the woman you are sure is an elf an odd, almost hostile look as she takes her folder but the taller woman does not show any visible response before giving the Headmaster a firm, silent nod and exiting again. You squirm as the three Professors scan the contents of the folders and Schwartz is the first one to speak as he notes, "It seems you have more to your bloodline than any of us thought. It may have weaved in and out of the magical world over the years but at those different 'in' moments, your ancestors picked up DNA from the Ashcrofts, Hallgraves, Kyries, AND Eldrics."

"Those are the four most historically powerful and influential magical families in existence," Hallgrave explains before a sad look momentarily crosses his face, "Though one and all but one of another of them technically no longer exist."

As much of a bombshell as that information about your family tree is for you, hearing the names and seeing the sorrow in Hallgrave's eyes causes you to ask, "So does that mean you're my great great great uncle or something?"

Professor Schwarts covers his folder with his face but is unable to hide the snort of laughter from behind it as Professor Dove gives you a warm smile. Headmaster Hallgrave all but cackles in response as he says, "As utterly DELIGHTFUL it is for we three to imagine how the heads of the Ashcrofts and Kyries would, as I believe people your age say now-a-days, 'lose their shit' over learning what you say was true, that is sadly not the case. My family's addition to yours comes far too long ago to let us have any direct relation. We are simply headmaster and student, nothing more."

You nod in understanding as Professor Dove speaks up. "But even so," she says, "it's clearly obvious that those bloodlines have left their mark on you. This may make you of great interest to a lot of different parties. We'll do what we can to protect you from those that may mean you harm but you will be quite... popular, sometimes uncomfortably so."

She pauses for a moment. "And there is something else that concerns me, if I may address it, Headmaster?" she asks before Hallgrave waves a hand for her to continue, "The nurse who performed your protection spells made a note in your health exam results expressing concern you might have been hiding how much the side-effects were adversely striking you, and you reacted quite strongly to the crown when normally one feels only a mild tingle at worst."

"Is that bad?" you ask, your head and stomach starting to ache again but for different reasons this time.

"Not bad, per say," Dove answers, "But those with the highest natural affinity for magic sometimes reach that level because their bodies and minds are more attuned to the flow of magic. It means that you may be able to easily learn and cast many spells that others would struggle with but at the same time that natural flow could mean you will find yourself much more sensitive to the effects of magic as well. Be it some naturally miasma that would otherwise be completely mild at worst to most others or a spell purposefully wielded against you."

"A wand with a point at both ends, as it were," Schwarts adds.

You are going to assume that is the same thing as a double-edged sword and panic slightly over that idea.

"Fear not, child," Hallgrave says, seeing that panic in your eyes, "As Professor Dove said, we will do what we can to protect you from what dangers we are able to. But we must also prepare you for dealing with such threats yourself, as well as helping you get a better handle on what your power is best meant to do."

With that, the meeting was over and it was time for your first class.