Rebirth

Rebirth

Chapter 3: Special Studies

"Look, I've got things to do. What do you want?" continued Professor Coleraine, staring at the bird, which flew from the tree branch to his feet. It was then that the Avises, still hiding behind the rock, noticed that it was holding a bit of parchment in its beak.

Professor Coleraine grabbed the parchment and unfolded it. Geno noticed that it was a newspaper cutting. Coleraine's face went pale.

"What... when..." He was absolutely perplexed. "Was he a...?" he asked the bird, which moved its head as if nodding.

"Good Lord," he whispered. Then, in a sudden fit of rage, he threw the sword into the air. It flew over the Avises' heads and buried its blade in a tree trunk behind them.

The shock of this was so great that they were later unable to explain to themselves how they had managed to run away before he advanced to regain the sword.

***

The fat librarian was sleeping when Dulce burst in.

"Excuse me, miss, can you tell me where I can find books on ornithology, please?"

Still dumbstruck, the librarian pointed at a bookshelf to their right.

"Thank you."

"What are you looking for, Dulce?" Geno asked, as Dulce handed her books bearing the titles: Magical Birds of the Peninsula, The Great List of Birds and Magical and Non-Magical Winged Creatures.

"I want to know what that creepy birds is," she said. "I know I've seen it somewhere before."

"And how are you going to look for it?" Aenor asked disdainfully. "It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack. Besides, I know we've just met, but you don't look like the bookworm type."

"I'm not. But I've got this," she said, removing from her bag what looked like a long copper needle.

"What is it?"

"It's a Searcher. The greatest help a cheater like me can have," she said, with a triumphant smile.

"I've heard of them," said Half-Pint. "You tell them what you need to research and they'll do it for you."

"That's right." And she placed the tip of the Searcher next to her lips and whispered, "Silver bird. Go!"

In a flash, the Searcher released itself from Dulce's hand and entered inside a book, its tip going from page to page. In five minutes, all the books had been thoroughly read and opened to the pages that matched Dulce's instructions.

"Let's see..." she said. "Pixian Parrot... no... C'mon, give me a hand here."

"Hmm..." said Geno, picking up another book. "No, that's not it either."

Half-Pint and Aenor began to search through the books as well. Irina glanced at a page and took a step backwards, looking discouraged.

"Nah, this one's too small."

"And this one looks like a platypus with antennae."

"Really? Let me see."

"Hey, stop fooling around."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, your highness."

"Ah, shut up."

After the more specific books on birds, the Avises moved to those dealing more generally with all kind of magical creatures, but it was no use. It appeared that the strange bird didn't exist in any records.

***

The rest of their classes that week were more or less uneventful. Professor Cicuta, the Potions teacher, was a blond witch with a sweet voice and a shy, nervous manner, who was obviously delighted to have such a small class.

Flying was taught by Professor Ventura, who, with her long, uncomfortable-looking robes, her large floppy hat and the incredible amount of bracelets on both wrists, looked like the last witch you would imagine riding a broom.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Aenor commented after the lesson. "We're not enough to form a Quidditch team, but the head of our house is the flying teacher."

Transfiguration was taught by the very fat and very cheerful Professor Raimundo, who had the amazing ability of using laughter as a mnemonic tool. This, however, didn't seem to work on everybody. Magda would later tell the Avises (who had Transfiguration by themselves) that every time Professor Raimundo told a joke during their class, the Goas would burst out laughing while the Ceutas stared at him blankly.

The first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, however, was not so pleasant. The teacher was none other than Professor Coleraine. He taught in a very interesting way and was able to catch everybody's attention, but he forgave nothing. He took two points from Geno when she accidentally dropped her quill, and kept referring to the Avises as "the elitist house".

However, his unpleasantness didn't apply strictly to them. In fact, he was subtracting points and sternly punishing the Ceutas, who were attempting to make as much noise as they did in the previous lessons they had had with the Avises.

"Just because I'm the head of your house, don't expect special treatment," he told them, after he gave detention to LaSalete Figueiredo (the self-proclaimed Ceuta leader).

After this punishment, the Ceutas finally calmed down. Geno overheard the boy sitting behind her incessantly mumbling "bastard".

Then, Coleraine handed them a test. "I want you to do this so I can evaluate your knowledge," he said.

Geno looked at the questions with amazement and shock. How on earth was she supposed to know these things on her very first lesson? The same doubt must have occurred to Irina, who burst out crying.

"What's the matter, Petrova?" Coleraine asked with impatience, approaching the girl's table.

"Please sir, I can't..." Irina whispered, before being silenced by another flood of tears.

"I see," he said. For a split second, Geno had the impression that she had seen concern in his eyes.

He returned to his desk and wrote something on a piece of parchment. He then returned to Irina's table.

"Petrova, I want you to go to Professor Sampaio's office and give her this. She'll know what to do with you."

"But sir, I don't know vhere..." Irina began.

"Then ask for directions, for goodness sake!" Coleraine snapped. "Are you Avises that clueless?"

Trembling, Irina left the classroom, the piece of parchment crushed in her hand. The other Avises were looking at Coleraine furiously.

"Get back to work," he said.

They returned to the test. Geno could hear Half-Pint, Aenor and Dulce join the Ceuta boy on his "bastard" mantra. The memory of the teacher's eyes during that split second, however, prevented her from doing the same.

After half an hour, Coleraine collected the tests. Just then, Irina returned, her face extremely red.

"Welcome back, Petrova. Did Professor Sampaio solve your problem?"

"Yes, sir, zank you," she said, smiling.

"Good. Return to your seat. I don't want to hear you whining again in my class. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," she said, sitting down.

"What was that all about?" Dulce asked. "What did she do to you?"

"Not now," Irina replied.

Coleraine returned his attention to the tests.

"These are all wrong," he said, "but I didn't expect it to be any different. At the end of the school year, we'll repeat this test, and we'll compare the results. That way, you'll see how much you've learned."

***

"Are you sure this is the right room?"

"Must be."

They went inside the classroom where they were going to have Special Studies and were surprised to find that it was as large as the Great Hall. But what was more surprising was the fact that it was completely empty: no tables, no chairs, nothing. The walls were bare, except for what looked like an empty frame, a blackboard right below it, and a second door on the opposite side.

"What the -" cursed Aenor, pointing up. The ceiling was the only thing that didn't look bare, as it was decorated with about twenty silver birds, just like the one that had been following them all week.

"I vant to get out of here," Irina said, looking terrified.

"Yeah, I'm sick and tired of this. Everywhere we turn, we see that creepy bird," said Half-Pint, retreating to leave. "Let's go and tell Ventura - OUCH!"

"We'll tell her ouch?" said Dulce.

"Bumping into doors again, pocket wizard?" sneered Aenor.

"The door was open. I don't get it."

"Ah, leave it out, Half-Pint, we must have closed it without realizing."

"No, he's right, we left the door open," said Geno, moving towards the doorknob and failing to open it. "It's locked."

"What?"

"It's locked. Someone must have locked us up."

"Why? That's absurd!"

"You've got another idea?"

"There's something on the blackboard," Half-Pint pointed out.

And, indeed, written in red chalk was,

USE THE SECOND DOOR

LEFT AND RIGHT AND RIGHT AGAIN

THEN UP AND DOWN

FOLLOW THE LIGHT

IF YOU FIND ME, THEN YOU ARE WORTHY OF BECOMING MY STUDENTS

"What the hell is that?" asked Aenor.

"What do you think, dummy?" said Dulce. "Those are instructions."

"Yeah, but instructions for what?"

"To find our mystery teacher, of course. 'If you find me, you are worthy of becoming my students'. It's a test."

"First that bastard Professor Cholera, and now the 'mystery teacher'! Well, stuff the tests! I don't even know what 'special studies' we are supposed to take. And why us?"

"What's the matter, Aenor? Scared?" asked Half-Pint, a malicious twinkle in his eyes.

"Of course not," he lied. "But I smell a rat."

Half-Pint raised his arm and smelled his armpit. "No, that's me. I think we better get going."

"Ve haff to, don't ve?" asked Irina.

"Okay, let's see if I can remember this," Geno said, reading the writing on the blackboard again and trying to memorize it. "Left, right, right, up, down, light. Left, right, right, up, down, light..."

"Let's go."

They opened the door and saw a long corridor, its walls as bare as the classroom's. At the end were three doors, and above them another empty frame.

"Now let's see, we've got to go through the left one, right?"

"Yeah."

And they ran towards it. However...

"It's locked."

"What?"

"It's locked."

"Rats."

"Again?"

"This is getting way too repetitive..."

"Now vat do ve do?"

"I don't know."

"I've got an idea," said Half-Pint. He pointed his wand at the keyhole. "Alohomora."

Nothing happened.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," he told the others. "I tried."

Aenor, who was leaning against the wall, sighed.

"If only we could say something like 'Lily of the Valley' or som-"

He was unable to finish his sentence, as he vanished through the wall. Immediately, the others heard him cry, "OUCH!"

"Aenor?" asked Dulce. "Hey, idiot boy? Where are you?"

"Whoa, you've got to see this!" his voice was heard from the other side of the wall.

"What happened to him?" wondered Half-Pint.

"I know!" Irina snapped her fingers. "It's a passagevay, like the Common Room mirror. He said out passvord, and the vall opened."

She touched the wall where Aenor had vanished and said, "Lily of the Valley!"

Her hand went inside the wall, as if it was made of mist.

"Er... guys?" Aenor's voice was again heard. "I really, really think you should see this."

As, one by one, they crossed the wall, they realized why he was so excited. The vision that welcomed them was indescribable. A very small room, with one of the walls covered in red squares.

"I accidentally touched one of these things when I fell, and it didn't like it," Aenor said after the others had all entered, showing a swollen hand. "Any ideas?"

"Well, let's try poking it with my wand," Dulce suggested. "If anything goes wrong, I'll just have to get a new one."

"If we get out of here," said Aenor.

"Oh shut up, Mr. Optimistic."

And Dulce touched one of the squares with the tip of her wand, and jumped back in fear and surprise when the square, with a sudden blast of light, changed color, turning into a pale blue.

"Now what?" asked Half-Pint.

"Let's try another one," said Dulce, touching another square. This one turned white, before what looked like a small lighting bolt fell from the roof, scaring everybody.

"What... was that?" panted Geno, absolutely terrified.

"I think I've got a pretty good idea," said Aenor, recovering from the surprise and returning to his usual sneering smile. "Have you girls ever played a memory puzzle?"

"Memory?" Half-Pint was slowly realizing what Aenor was thinking. "Of course! Match the squares with the same color!"

"You mean this is a puzzle?" asked Geno.

"That's right, and it looks like we'll have to solve it if we want to get out of here."

"This is stupid," grumbled Dulce. "Why all this? What's the problem of an absolutely ordinary classroom?"

"There are loads of things I don't like about this," said Geno, "but now we're trapped, and we have no choice but do this."

"Okay, ready?"

"Yeah," said Aenor. He turned to Geno and Half-Pint. "You two, start over there. You, carrot girl," he said to Dulce, "over there. And you, blondie," he then said to Irina, "we'll start over here."

"Hey, who made you leader?" Dulce complained.

"I did. Now, are we going to start this, or are we going to argue and delay?"

The others incoherently mumbled something that didn't sound too pleasant, but they all began.

"Okay, I've got a purple one here. Has anybody else found one?"

"Red-purple, blue-purple, or purple-purple?"

"Who cares? It's purple!"

"What the hell is this color?"

"It's flicts."

"Flicts? You're joking."

"I've got green with purple dots. Weird."

"Lightning. Duck!"

After what seemed like two hours, only two squares remained. After they were revealed to be bottle-green, the squares began to glow brightly, and the Avises had to avert their eyes. When they managed to look again, they found two doors where the squares used to be.

"So, it's the right door, isn't it?"

"Yeah..."

The next room was almost identical to its predecessor, except there weren't any squares on the walls (the two doors were already there) and the fact that, sitting in a corner, was an enormous creature with the body of a lion and the head of a woman. Her almond-shaped eyes stared impassively at them.

Half-Pint gasped.

"That's a... that's a... ohmygosh... that's a..."

"A Sphinx," the creature said, in a deep, hoarse voice. "Welcome, children. I'm glad to see you were lucky enough to find the invisible door, and smart enough to solve the puzzle."

None of them spoke; they were too terrified to do anything. Even Muggles knew about Sphinxes (though they believed them to only be a legend) and their fierceness.

"Now," the Sphinx continued, "to pass me, each of you will have to answer a riddle."

"Are you going to... eat us if we fail?" Dulce finally managed to speak.

"Eat you? Oh no, I'm not allowed to. If one of you fails, he or she will be sent back -"

"Sounds good to me," said Aenor.

"- with twenty points removed from your house."

They all fell silent again. The Sphinx smiled and approached Irina.

"I was informed that one of you is from Ukraine. Is that you?"

"Y-yes," Irina stuttered.

"Then I have a special riddle for you." And she began to speak in Irina's native language. The others stared blankly at this. Aenor frowned, as if that would have helped him to understand.

Irina fell silent for a short moment. Then, she gave a huge smile and replied something that was as undecipherable to the others as the riddle had been.

"You can go," the Sphinx said, nodding towards the two doors behind her.

"I'll vait for the others," Irina said.

"As you wish." The Sphinx then turned to Half-Pint. "You. What we caught, we threw away: what we could not catch, we kept."

"You're joking," he replied.

"That's your riddle. Answer it."

"Okay... okay, let's see... Concentrate..." Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes wide open, and began to jump up and down, incessantly, as if struck by one of the lightning bolts from the other room. "I know! I know! Fleas!"

"Fleas? You're kidding!" said Aenor.

"He's correct," the Sphinx said. "You're free to go. Now you," she then turned to Aenor. "What is black and white and red all over?"

Aenor sneered. "That's the hardest you can do? That's not a riddle, that's a joke! It's a newspaper."

"Correct. And you," now it was Dulce's time. "My first is a vehicle, my second is a favorite, and my whole is in most drawing rooms."

"W-what?" Dulce was completely puzzled. "You don't mean that..."

"I do. You'll have to answer this, or twenty points will be removed from your house."

"Oh." She was extremely pale. "Can I think about it for a bit?"

"Take your time."

She then went to a corner and began muttering to herself. It took more than ten minutes before she returned to the Sphinx.

"I'm not sure if this is right," she said, "but I've removed all other possibilities. Here goes nothing... Is it... a carpet?"

The Sphinx looked at her in silence for a long time. It was as if she was highly amused with the girl's embarrassment. Finally, she relented and said, "Yes, it is a carpet. You are free to go."

Dulce sighed with relief and joined the others.

Now, the only one left was Geno.

"Here's your riddle: Two legs enter carrying one leg, place one leg on three legs. Exit two legs, enter four legs. Exit five legs, enter two legs. Grabs three legs, throws to four legs, and enters with one leg again."

The others gasped, but Geno began to laugh with relief. She knew the answer even before the Sphinx had finished talking; her father used to tell her that when she was little. She turned to the Sphinx.

"'Two legs' is a woman, 'one leg' is a leg of lamb, 'three legs' is a stool, and 'four legs' is a dog. The woman enters with the leg of lamb and places it on the stool. The dog enters and grabs the leg of lamb. The woman returns and throws the stool at the dog, regaining the leg."

The Sphinx smiled. "You have all answered correctly. You are free to go."

Half-Pint turned to Geno. "How did you know that?"

"My dad used to tell me that."

"Smart man."

"Yes, he was," she said, with a faint smile.

"Let's go," said Dulce. "Right door, right?"

"Right."

"Good luck," said the Sphinx, as they opened the door.

"Is the rest going to be so difficult?" asked Irina.

"Difficult? Oh, no, it will be quite easy," the Sphinx said with a smile, "but it will give you one hell of a headache."

They looked through the door and saw a long, narrow staircase.

"I see what you mean," said Dulce. "This is the 'up' bit, right?"

"My, you are smart," joked the Sphinx.

The five Avises waved goodbye and crossed the door towards the stairs. Soon they realized what the Sphinx had meant by "a headache" as, after a few steps, an irritating, shrill sound began to pierce their ears, growing increasingly higher and louder as they advanced.

"I can't take this, I really can't take this!" complained Aenor.

"Shut up and hum to yourself!" Dulce suggested.

"No way, it will make things worse."

"Oh, shut up and walk. You're giving me a headache."

After a very long time, the staircase began to get covered in thick mist, and it became increasingly difficult to see where they were going. Soon, they could no longer see each other.

"Hey, Geno, where are you?"

"Half-Pint?"

"No, it's Dulce."

"Sorry."

"Agh! That's my nose!"

"Sorry."

"Well, stop bickering and carry ooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!" Half-Pint's voice faded.

"Half-Pint?"

"Where are yooooooooouuuuuuuuu?"

Geno had just fallen through a ramp that the mist had preventing them from seeing. So this is "down," she thought, as she landed, rather painfully, on the cold floor, with Irina landing on top of her a few seconds later.

"Zorry," she said, getting up. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah," Geno said, right before being knocked down to the floor again by the arrival of Aenor.

"Where are we supposed to go now?" Dulce asked, after joining the others and falling even more awkwardly.

"The message on the blackboard said 'follow the light'," Geno repeated, pointing towards a faded light at the end of the room.

"This looks like that 'light at the end of the tunnel' thing," Aenor commented.

The five of them started walking again. When they reached the light, they realized that it came from a door.

"Well, let's open it," said Geno.

And they entered into an absolutely ordinary classroom, with desks, chairs, a blackboard...

"Good morning," said a female voice.

They turned and saw a female, gray-haired centaur.

"I'm glad to see you made it. Welcome to Special Studies. I'm your teacher."