Summary: Two years after Voldemort's downfall, Headmistress McGonagall finds a puzzling decrease in new Muggle-born students. Consulting the magic Quill, she and Flitwick find even wizarding children being born without magical ability. Each year fewer students are listed. If the decline continues, within decades the classrooms of Hogwarts will be half empty. Concerned how far the problem spreads, McGonagall sends a message to the Quill schools of the other continents.
In Brazil, the world of magic is revealed to a young homeless girl. When Marissa cautiously accepts an education in the wizarding world, the choice will lead her to an object somehow tied to the unknown cause of the wizarding decline. But as she struggles to show any ability at all, she is unsure if she even belongs in their world. What role can a neglected street beggar have in events that wizarding schools of all the world may soon be part of?
Categories: Post-Hogwarts Characters: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 14
Completed: No
Word count: 108625
Read: 68692
Published: 06/16/08
Updated: 07/02/13
Story Notes:
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Oh, wow! Marissa now has a WIKI. Many thanks to Inverarity for all the work of starting this, and to OliveOil_Med for her charming chapter illustrations which you can view there also.
Marissa and the Wizards in BOOK format (all chapters to date in PDF file, with illustrations)
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1. Chapter 1 - The Tale of the Quill by JCCollier
2. Chapter 2 - The Streets of Sao Paulo by JCCollier
3. Chapter 3 - An Invitation From a Witch by JCCollier
4. Chapter 4 - The Fork in the Road by JCCollier
5. Chapter 5 - The Wizards Market by JCCollier
6. Chapter 6 - The Journey to the Rainforest by JCCollier
7. Chapter 7 - Witness Stone by JCCollier
8. Chapter 8 - Choosing More Teams Than Two by JCCollier
9. Chapter 9 - Feathers and Broomsticks by JCCollier
10. Chapter 10 - Proper Girls and Smelly Girls by JCCollier
11. Chapter 11 - The Care of Tragical Creatures by JCCollier
12. Chapter 12 - A Bird's Eye View by JCCollier
13. Chapter 13 - Smellier Still by JCCollier
14. Chapter 14 - She Has An Air About Her by JCCollier
Chapter 1 - The Tale of the Quill by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
A conference in the Headmistress' tower leads to another a half a world away.
The Tale of the Quill
Outside the open window of a tall tower a tabby cat sat silently on a narrow stone ledge. It was late afternoon on a midsummer day and a light breeze moved across its fur. The cat’s long tail moved in a slow swish and flick as it gazed thoughtfully into the distance. Mountains east of the vast castle were starting to gather evening greys , only the tallest peaks still in full sunlight. The sky was a clear blue but for one faraway white line, the cloud trail of a Muggle ‘jet’.
The cat’s eyes, framed in darker fur like square glasses, turned to look down from its high perch. In the distance lay the Quidditch field, with tall spectator stands and golden hoops of the goals casting long shadows on the grass below. The noise of the whooshing brooms and cheering crowds of spring had faded away many weeks ago.
Far below the tower, the walled courtyards of Hogwarts lay quiet, empty of their usual school year bustle. Sections of new lighter stonework contrasted with the weathered original masonry. Clearly visible in many places were relaid blocks, the repairs of spell-shattered or giant-crushed walls and gates. The wizard builders could have charmed the rebuilt sections to blend with the ancient grey, but were directed not to. The great school bore its scars openly and proudly, a reminder for the students and families of Hogwarts to always remember the hour they had stood together against the evil of Voldemort. And won.
From inside came the sound of knocking, followed by the creak of the oak door slightly opening.
“Headmistress?” a high voice inquired.
The tabby cat rose from the stone ledge and stepped back through the open window. Gracefully it jumped to the floor of the tower room, disappearing behind the clawfooted legs of a huge polished desk. As it landed, in blurring quickness its shape grew and changed into a cloaked woman in square spectacles and tight bunned hair.
“Here, Professor Flitwick,” said McGonagall, emerging by the desk.
A short man in flowing robes and tall pointed hat stood in the arched doorway. The little Charms teacher entered the office with a tall stack of papers.
“The Ministry census and birth records, courtesy of our young Mr. Creevey.” It had been quicker to get the copies from a student intern at the Ministry than by the slow bureaucratic process normally required for the information.
“Well done, Filius. Let me complete this last letter so we may set them out here.”
On the desktop lay a sheet of parchment bearing the official Hogwarts letterhead and seal. Its handwritten message was similar in form to a previous letter.
August 5, 1999
Dearest Killian and Colleen,
Thank you for your inquiry about your son. His acceptance letter was not lost or misdelivered. I am sorry to have to inform you that Adrian has not been selected for Hogwarts. Notwithstanding your evidence that he can run very fast with his toy broom and pretends to fly, our records have not shown him to possess the required magical ability. It is always difficult for us to give this news to a loved child of a fine wizard family.
By your request you may appeal this decision to the Ministry of Magic. I will point out however that, in numerous cases for centuries, these findings have never been overturned. The lengthy process of challenges often implies to our nonmagic chidren that there is something wrong with them, which is simply untrue.
I’m sure Adrian is a wonderful child and gifted with other talents. There are alternate educational opportunities for Squib children in Wizard and Muggle society. It is so very important that you show Adrian that despite not being accepted at Hogwarts he is a valued member of your family and the Wizarding community. Above all, please do not let yourselves or your son see this as a disappointment, but as life’s way of opening another world to explore.
Respectfully Yours,
Minerva McGonagall
Headmistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
McGonagall pointed her wand at the quill beside the page and it floated up and began adding a few more lines to the letter.
P.S. Please remind Adrian that one of his great grandfathers was a Muggle who flew a ‘Sopwith Camel’ in 1917. He may be interested to study some of todays Muggle ‘aircraft’, some of which can carry over 500 people as fast as a broom.
The parchment folded itself and dropped into an ‘Out’ box, ready to leave by the owl mail. Professor Flitwick dropped the heavy stack of folders on the desk.
“Complete birth records for the last ten years,” he squeaked.
“Thank you for meeting me here today, Filius,” McGonagall replied. “ I had hoped our summer would be more restful.”
After last year’s break spent not on holiday but first with the many funerals then the rebuilding and training of new teachers, the two weary Professors had thought this summer would be free of any extra toils. But these new developments required some investigation. McGonagall laid her hand on the outgoing letters of rejection.
“One last year and two this year,” she said shaking her head.
“It is troubling me as much as you, Minerva,” short Flitwick replied. “Something seems not right. First the Muggle students. Only two new Muggle-born wizards selected last year and this year not one!”
“That first sign I overlooked in the commotion of reenrolling all the Muggle-borns after the Carrows year. But now we have full Wizard-born children not being selected.”
“And the lists sent to Beauxbatons and the other schools seem far too short,” added Flitwick. “Something is amiss.”
“I suppose these will confirm if our concerns are true then,” said McGonagall as she began dividing the folders into separate piles. “The book, Filius?”
Professor Flitwick took his wand from inside his cloak and stepped to a wall at the back of the room. With a ‘Tap “ tap tap “ tap’ he touched the wand to seemingly random stones and the blocks folded back to reveal an alcove. Upon the secret shelf lay an enormous aged leatherbound book, its parchment pages spread wide. On the left the open page was filled, hundreds of lines each inscribed with a name followed by a city and country. On the right side, a quarter of that page also held names. The contents of this timeworn book, kept in the tower for centuries upon centuries, traced the gift of magical ability in all the human population of Europe.
By the thick book sat a silver inkpot and above it floated a gleaming white feather quill almost three feet tall. The Quill swayed continuously back and forth, as if suspended by a tiny wind, waiting to record the next line in the moment somewhere on the continent a new wizard life was given a new name. This knowing feather was the source of all the book’s invaluable information, and the lines it wrote guided the enrollment of children in all the wizard schools of the surrounding countries. The Hogwarts acceptance letters sent last month flew on owl wing to the British children who had been recorded eleven years ago.
Flitwick closed the book’s silver-hinged cover and hefted the huge volume into his arms, teetering precariously as he packed it over to McGonagall’s desk.
THUD! It landed on the desktop.
“Always hated that,” chuckled McGonagall. “Charming a seventy pound book against levitation spells is rather…”
“…inconvenient!” huffed Flitwick as he climbed onto the chair across from the seated headmistress. “You might have picked someone larger for this job.”
“Who could I trust but you, Filius?” she replied sweetly.
To protect the treasured book, its keepers centuries ago had charmed it against Levioso, Accio, Evenesco, and a host of other spells. As a result, it could only be moved about by common Muggle labor. Which was quite a labor. McGonagall recalled the midnight journey she and Flitwick made three years earlier to carry the book, along with the much lighter Quill, down seven floors of stairways to secure it deep within the floor beneath her bed. Thankfully the Ministry oafs had believed the story that Dumbledore alone had known its hiding place and the book was lost after his death. There were no acceptance letters to nonwizard families that year. She shuddered to think what further evil would have been done if Voldemort’s puppet Ministry had found the names of all the next decade’s Muggle-born wizards. The book was protected against much magic, but Fiendfyre could destroy even it. And McGonagall would have burned it to oblivion herself rather than let it fall into the hands of Death Eaters. Happily those dark days were past and the book was in its rightful place again.
“Headmistress,” Flitwick spoke again, “of course I’ve only had this responsibility the last two years, but is it possible there’s something wrong with the Quill? That it’s… broken?”
“As Deputy Headmistress I checked the list of names for twenty years. I have never known it to be wrong. It has never chosen a child that wasn’t magic and never failed to find a child that was.”
“But could the Quill’s spell be fading? Could it be missing entries?”
“I don’t believe so. The Quill still records names every day. Over a thousand years Hogwarts has relied upon it.”
“Then maybe we’ll find the answer in here,” said Flitwick opening a folder.
“We’ll begin with next year’s enrollment,” she directed. “You take Hogwarts area and I’ll check Beauxbatons. Turn to the 1989 births.”
Flitwick began turning the huge pages, then paused. “I feel as if I’m breaking the oath.”
“I know Filius. In all these years I’ve never allowed myself to look ahead at future names. Not that I didn’t get subtle requests almost every year.”
“Johnsons, Bulstrodes, Understumps…” recited Flitwick.
“Ah, the tradition continues,” McGonagall smiled.
The contents of the mysterious Quill book was an ongoing interest, for it held now the information that would not be revealed for a decade hence. Some persons, unwilling to wait so long for answers, would on occasion contact the school for confimation of a newborn’s inclusion in the book. Wizards married to Muggle spouses were anxious to know that a new baby was born magic. Pureblood families with a young six or seven year old not displaying any magical traits yet asked the favor to check that there was nothing wrong with their child. Each request was met with an official denial of information and polite assurance that the announcement would come in due time near each child’s eleventh birthday.
By strict tradition established many centuries past, a Fidelis Charm was cast between only Headmaster and Deputy that bound them to never speak any of the book’s names before a certain time and in a certain way. Every name remained a secret until the day it was written upon an acceptance letter.
“It’s not that we can’t look, it’s simply been our custom not to since they can never be shared before the appointed time. But I don’t believe counting and comparing the book’s figures to the birth records will break our proper procedures Filius.”
“I suppose not,” he agreed. “But it feels like… cheating.”
The two Professors began examining the pages before them, checking the birth records against the book. As they totalled the figures McGonagall spoke notes to her desk quill, which in turn recorded them on a parchment pad.
“Hogwarts 1989. Forty-two born, forty selected. One Muggle. Beauxbatons 1989. Thirty-nine born, thirty-eight selected. Two Muggles.”
“Hogwarts 1990. Forty born, thirty-nine selected. One Muggle. Beauxbatons 1990. Thirty-eight born, thirty-six selected. No Muggles.”
If a child’s name was not in the wizard birth record but written in the Quill book, that meant he or she was a Muggle-born wizard. After 1991 there simply were no more. Any child in the wizard birth record that was not in the Quill book would be a Squib, a child born of magical parentage but not magical. After the 1997 records there were no further halfblood children, those born of a wizard and a Muggle parent, written in the Quill book. And each successive year there were more Squibs born of even pureblood wizard parents.
“Hogwarts 1997. Thirty-six born, twenty-nine selected. No halfblood, no Muggles,” McGonagall noted as they completed another year. “Beauxbatons similar.”
She reviewed the totals tallied on the parchment pad. As the years accumulated the pattern became more apparent and McGonagall became more convinced. They then reviewed the book’s list for the other schools also.
“It’s happening at Delphi and Durmstang too.”
“Not that Durmstang cares about loss of Muggle-borns,” Flitwick noted.
“How could I have been unaware of this?” McGonagall asked herself, shaking her head in dismay. “How did I not see sooner?”
“Tut tut, Minerva,” came a kind voice above her shoulder. “You had more urgent matters on your mind. You also, Filius my friend. Defending students from Death Eaters and battling Voldemort’s armies certainly held higher priority at the time.”
“Dumbledore,” she turned to the portrait of the white bearded wizard in the tall hat and full dress robes. “Have you followed all of this? Do you know what it means?”
“It seems Hogwarts has a shortage of Muggle-borns.”
“Of course they were all sent away the year after your death. For good reason. And the new enrollments vary up and down between years. But they never just disappear altogether. Yet none are being born.”
“And the decline of magic appears in wizard-born births also.”
“Albus, I thought it was only because of the deaths from the war. All the wizards that didn’t survive to have children. I thought that’s what the records would show.”
“But you have found it is certainly something more than that.”
“No matter the number of births, each year there are less and less of our children born with magic. Each new year the Quill lists fewer students. In a decade there will be no more Muggle-borns at our school. If this trend continues,” her upset voice hesitated, “Why, in thirty years there will be no magical children for Hogwarts to teach!”
“And Headmaster,” added Flitwick addressing the attentive portrait, “it is not only Hogwarts. It seems all of Europe is affected.”
“And what do you believe the cause of this is?” Dumbledore questioned.
“As of yet,” McGonagall replied, “I have no idea, Albus. An extremely powerful curse?”
“Unlikely,” the portrait replied. “No Dark Arts known can curse an entire continent. Unless there were a hundred wizards coordinated doing it family by family. But very, very few even have the skill for such curses. And your opinion, Filius?”
“I am confunded Dumbledore. This is very unusual.”
“Very unusual indeed,” replied the painted image. “Forces greater than the powers of wizards may be involved here. I believe you plan further investigation of this mystery, Minerva?”
“Yes Albus. But without declaring that we’ve laid open the contents of the Quill book. I’m sure the other schools must soon be realizing this trend also. And more parents will be finding out in the coming years.”
“I’m sure a public announcement is not in order yet. But one must wonder,” the portrait suggested, “how far this problem spreads.”
“Of course, Dumbledore!” McGonagall exclaimed as if she had completely overlooked something. “Filius, we need to compose a letter to the other Quill schools. Do not imply we consider it a crisis, but explain what we are experiencing and ask if they find any similar patterns.”
“Yes Headmistress,” Flitwick agreed. “And I am to send these letters…where?”
“Salem Institute and Witness Stone in the Americas,” Dumbledore’s voice directed. “Trelephant Tusk in Africa, Lotus Ghost in Asia, Wuriupranili in Australia.”
“I do pity the birds who deliver these letters,” squeaked the short Professor.
“If you do not object, Minerva,” stated Dumbledore’s image, “I would confer with Kingsley on this matter.”
“Yes. Do go, Albus,” she replied. “Kingsley should know about this.”
Dumbledore disappeared out of the frame of his portrait, leaving to the Ministry.
Yes, Minister Shacklebolt should know about this. Though what good would it do him to know until they could find out why? Why was magic disappearing from the blood of the children of the Wizarding World?
After the letters were written and addressed to their faraway destinations, Flitwick laid them in the box for the evening owls. But as he stepped to the desk to close the ancient Quill book the pages began fluttering forward until the half blank page lay open. The tall white Quill floated over to the book and began inscribing the next line.
August 5, 1999 Olivia Wood Puddlemere, England
“There is a good omen at least,” Minerva McGonagall smiled. Flitwick read the name, nodded and smiled also. He looked at the swaying feather.
“It stays amazingly bright for a thousand years old.”
“I think it’s all the moving about,” she commented as the pure white Quill glided back and forth. “Keeps the dust from settling.”
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A young woman stood by herself at the front of a long narrow room. She had a fair complexion with hazel eyes and dark brown hair, pulled back and gathered in an intricate braid the flowed halfway down her back with a score of silver charms woven into the tresses. Tall and slender, she wore a long eggshell white robe with embroidered designs that seemed to continually move across the surface of the fabric.
Three walls of the room were stone. Not identical small blocks laid in orderly layers, but immense irregular slabs of worn granite weighing many tons each and set together like puzzle pieces with no two alike. The fourth wall of the room was lined with tall windows whose vista looked down upon a dense canopy of trees that stretched far as the horizon. From the view one could tell that this room sat on a high floor of a very tall structure.
Upon the walls hung posters, charts and displays that told this was a classroom. The young woman traced the dates on a large desk calendar. It was December, just a week until Christmas. In London, from where she had just returned, that meant winter holiday for students. But here in South America the seasons were opposite and it was summer vacation.
A folder and a stack of textbooks lay to one side on the desk. A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration, Intermediate Transfiguration, and Guide to Advanced Transfiguration, all Professor’s editions of the training material. She had spent the day here reviewing lesson plans and now her work was complete. The young woman pulled her wand from within her sleeve and waved it. “Evanesco,” she spoke as books and folder vanished.
The aged panes of grey tinted glass stretched floor to ceiling between the stone columns. Grace Merrythought looked out across the rows of empty desks and chairs and into the rainforest beyond. The steady drizzle of a warm summer shower soaked the lush green foliage and dripped down trailing vines and wide leaves of immensely tall trees. In her years as a student she had spent many hours staring out these windows here in Professor Amaral’s Transfiguration classroom, but many, many more hours absorbing the knowledge and skills of a very wise wizard. Now it would be her classroom. Soon the new school year would begin and it would be her responsibility to teach first year wizards and witches how to change twigs into needles and train seventh years to pass their Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test.
Heavy stone scraped against stone on the opposite side of the classroom as a giant slab folded to one side. A passageway opened on the solid wall and an older man walked into the room. He had the deep tan skin of a rainforest native, short cut dark black hair greying at the temples and a stern, serious expression upon his face. Today he was lightly dressed in a short sleeve cotton shirt, shorts and sandals. Wide chested, solid and muscular, he was no taller than Grace but still an imposing figure of quiet strength. Although his clothing was simple, his biceps and forearms were encircled with complex decorative tattoos and he wore the paxiuba seed necklace common among tribal wizards.
“Professor Katupya,” Grace smiled as the Vice Principal entered.
“Professor Merrythought,” he nodded, smiling lightly as her expression changed.
“I’m not used to that title with my name yet,” she replied with slight embarrassment.
“You will adjust quickly. Come February you will have hundreds of students calling it over and over. Soon you may forget you have a first name.”
He walked to the back wall behind her desk where tall bookcases and storage closets formed a darkened corner where the shadowed figure of a large bird rested on a tall bronze perch. “Hello Asuoby,” he said as he held out a few palm nuts that had suddenly appeared in his hand. “How are you, old finger biter?”
“He misses Professor Amaral,” she observed and the older man nodded in agreement as he strode back to her side.
“Welcome back from your travels, Grace,” Professor Katupya said as they embraced in greeting. “How was Great Britain?”
“Very cold!” she laughed. “England’s weather is so different from Brazil, but just as I remembered. Everything else seemed changed though. So unlike the wizard society when I was a child there a lifetime ago.”
“But it has changed for the better now that their dark wizard is dead.”
“Yes. The defeat of the Dark Lord by the Boy Who Lived is still the most frequent subject of all their conversation.”
“He will be among their legends soon,” Professor Katupya stated. “Justly so.”
“I brought your package myself, Professor,” she said, confirming delivery of the parcel she had taken across the Atlantic. “Instead of mailing it.”
“Is the owl post so unreliable in Britain?” he smiled knowingly.
“I wanted to see Hogwarts.”
“Where they had the battle?”
“It’s where my grandmother taught. Where I would have gone to school if we had not moved here to South America. You know my family fled from Voldemort’s threats when I was very young, so I’d never been there before.”
“I am happy you had the chance to experience it. Hogwarts is famed throughout the Wizarding world. It is a great tragedy that Dumbledore was killed in the struggle. And so many students too.”
“The new headmistress seemed quite glad to receive the package. What was it?”
“Some research Principal Absencia delegated to me,” Katupya replied. “Statistics.”
“Her name is Minerva McGonagall. She knew my grandmother and was very kind to show me the entire castle. Did you know their great hall has a charmed ceiling the same as Witness Stone?”
“I believe that magic was brought from Europe. It may have been first cast at Hogwarts.”
“It surprised me. Just because the two schools look totally unalike in any other way.”
“One hopes you will make them alike in both producing well educated Transfiguration students.”
“Yes sir, Professor,” she replied reassuringly. “And thank you so very much for your recommendation to the Principal.”
“I believe Professors Galhos and Galaxia provided you letters also.”
“Yes, but I know your words made him offer me the position,” Grace smiled.
“We are glad you are back with us and hope you enjoyed your visit home.”
“It was more a trip to a place I once lived,” Grace replied thoughtfully. “England was my parents and grandparents home. But I was raised here so Brazil is my home. Brazil and Witness Stone School.”
Katupya stepped over to the window. Looking out he could see the great Owlery Tree and spy between the branches the hundreds of ornately carved wooden houses upon its trunk that housed the school and student’s messenger birds.
“Acceptance letters go out tomorrow. Are your lesson plans ready for the semester?”
Grace swished her wand once more and her folder reappeared on the desk. Katupya flipped through the first few pages and nodded his head. “Very good. Very thorough.”
The professor folded his hands behind his back and looked back at Grace Merrythought. “Then I have another task for you if you feel you can perform it.”
“What is it sir?”
“There is an acceptance letter that must be delivered by a personal visit.”
Grace knew what that meant. “A Muggle-born?” she asked. “But don’t the senior professors usually contact the parents to explain the Wizarding world and magic?”
“I thought you might be more suited for this particular child. Professor Guerra can be rather intimidating and Infinita begins her contacts with an half hour discourse on destiny and the alignment of the stars that may confuse the child. And there are no parents.”
She took a deep breath as thoughts connected and she realized something. “Professor. Is the letter for a child from Sao Paulo? In Santa Efigênia?”
“How did you know?”
“I have a friend. There is a little girl she has seen and told me about. Angelica swears she has seen her perform magic. But she’s a street child sir. She has no home and no family.”
“There was no last name listed in the Quill book. Only a first.”
“She’s never even been to a Muggle school. She may not even be able to read.”
“Witness Stone would be a very difficult challenge for her. When you first came to us you did not even speak our Portuguese language. I thought you would be well suited to explain to her about coming to a different world.”
“Yes,” Grace agreed. “And she’d be with other first year students from Muggle families whom this is all new to also.”
“Grace, there are no others this year,” Professor Katupya informed her.
“What?” she questioned unbelievingly. “In my first year there were ten Muggle-born students in our class!”
“There are changes in the Wizarding world. She is our only Muggle-born this year,” Katupya calmly stated. Grace was shocked.
“But this might not even be the same girl anyway,” she said. “My friend said she thought the girl was only eight or nine. What is the name on the acceptance letter sir?”
Before the word came from his mouth, Grace knew it was the very same child. A little lost witch in the slums of a giant city. She could tell as the first letter formed on his lips.
“Marissa.”
Chapter 2 - The Streets of Sao Paulo by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Strange events occur around Marissa at just the times her friends need it most. Someone else has noticed too.
The Streets of Sao Paulo
The midday sun shone down on the empty lot and the dozen ragged boys racing back and forth across it. Dark brown and black faces, with thin bodies barely clothed in worn t-shirts and shorts, yelled and cheered as they kicked a bright white soccer ball about a makeshift field. Two broken halves of an old cinder block marked the goal on one end of the lot. A broken lamp and an empty soda can a few yards apart marked it on the other end. Behind that goal a torn and soiled old mattress dumped on the lot was propped up to stop the ball from rolling into the road. Old abandoned buildings, boarded up and padlocked, bordered two other sides of their field and the last boundary was the sidewalk that ran along the potholed, untrafficked street. This was the old downtown, in an area between Rua do Triumpho and Rua da Vitória named Santa Efigênia . But people who saw it as a crime-ridden, decaying neighborhood filled only with vagrants, beggars and thieves called it by its common derisive name of Boca do Lixo, ‘the mouth of garbage’.
None of the homeless boys owned shoes. Though they had cleared most trash and debris from the dirty asphalt, timeouts were allowed to pull broken glass from cut soles before the action began again.
At the edge of the lot, a young girl sat on a patch of dirt.next to the cracked concrete sidewalk. Once decades ago the dirt was planted with grass or flowers but now held only a few stubborn weeds and the tall sickly eucalyptus tree whose trunk she leaned against. The only remaining tree on the block provided a bit of shade in the December heat. She was a small girl, slim and firm with a tan skin fairly lighter than the other children. Her hair was dark black, cropped short in a boylike cut that she preferred. Her eyes were bright blue with a wide and wary look. Like the boys she wore a threadbare cotton shirt and her faded blue shorts had tattered cuffs and a torn pocket. Like the boys she lived here because she had nowhere else to go.
The girl had lived in Santa Efigênia as long as she could remember. She didn’t return to a warm, safe home to sleep each night. She slept here on the streets. Her bed was the hard concrete of a hidden alley, with a piece of cardboard to lay on and an old beach towel found at the park as her blanket. She had waited by the bench for an hour to see if someone would come back for the towel. No one had so she thought it was okay for her to take it. But she didn’t steal it.
The city of Sao Paulo was a rich, vibrant city of towering skyscrapers, fine museums and historical architecture. Its wealthier residents enjoyed fine dining, fine music and expensive fashions. But that was not the Sao Paulo the young girl knew about. She didn’t know Sao Paulo was South America’s largest city with twenty million inhabitants filling its sprawling avenues, but she knew there were thousands of children like herself sleeping on the crowded dirty streets. She didn’t know the Jardims neighborhood where well to do families lived protected in spacious mansions, but she knew the dangerous slums where poor people lived a desparate hand to mouth existence. She didn’t know about elegant apartments in the tall highrise towers that crowded the horizons, but at night she could look up past the dark torn down warehouses and boarded storefronts and see their millions of faraway lights. All those lights of Sao Paulo were a world beyond the world she lived in.
In her hands the girl held a paperback book with frayed yellowing pages and creased cover. As she read, her mouth silently formed the sounds, slowing to figure out longer words. Perched on top of the open book was a small bird with glossy dark blue wings and a white front. At the end of her outstretched legs, two more of the little swallows sat on her right foot.
“Turn, Spero. Turn,” the young girl coaxed, and the little bird poked at the page on the right. Holding the edge in it’s beak, it hopped along the top and brought the page to the other side. The girl’s quiet laughter was interrupted by an “Ow!” as she instantly bent down to shoo away the other bird that had sharply pecked her big toe. She heard the whoosh of the soccer ball as it passed by where her head had just been.
“Sorry, Marissa!” called a younger boy who chased after the ball, aware that his stray kick had almost hit her face.
“Thank you, Fides,” Marissa called to the bird that had just fluttered to the branches above her.
The little boy came running back and tossed the ball to the others, then stopped by Marissa.
“How come you’re not cheering for our team?” he asked.
“I cheered for two hours, Tomas,” she replied, smiling. “My yell’s worn out.”
“Oh you just wanna read!”
“What’s the score?” she asked so he wouldn’t think she was ignoring them.
“A lot to a lot! You know I can’t count that high,” Tomas replied.
“Who’s winning?”
“We are!” he exclaimed with confidence. “We always win. We’re Sport Club da Luz!”
Tomas could be a hundred goals behind and would still believe his team was winning. Marissa knew reality was not allowed to intrude on what he wanted to pretend.
“Even the lady was watching us,” Tomas bragged.
“What lady?” she asked.
“The lady in the long dress,” he said and pointed behind the tree at the corner across the street. Marissa peeked around the tree but saw no one.
“She’s gone now but she was there,” he insisted. Now he was even making up pretend spectators.
“She probably went to bring back all her friends,” Marissa pretended along with him. “There’ll be hundreds of fans to watch you!”
Tomas grinned happily at the idea. Then standing still long enough made him notice something else.
“Marissa, I’m hungry.”
“I know. I am too,” she admitted. She felt the tight knot in her empty stomach. “But you guys wanted to play soccer today.”
None of them had eaten yet today, but they’d eaten twice yesterday. Pipio had shined shoes and bought bread for lunch. Then as they went back to the alley at night they were really lucky and saw a worker emptying trash at the back door of a restaurant. After he went back inside, Pipio and Nino checked the dumpster while Marissa and Tomas kept lookout so no older gang would see them and take anything they found. Most street gangs said they owned the dumpsters on their block and would beat you up if you went near them, so it was hard for smaller kids to get anything. But nobody caught them and they ran away quickly with what the boys found. There were three paper plates of half eaten dinners someone had throw away, with spicy fish, rice and black beans, and half a sandwich. Back in the alley, Marissa had divided it between the five of them and saved a bit of bread crust from her share for Fides, Spero and Amor, the three swallows. The food had been cold and a little wet from a discarded drink spilled on it, but it was nice to go to sleep with just a little more in their stomachs than bread.
“We’ll eat at the church tonight,” Marissa reminded Tomas as he rubbed his belly. Once a week the church by Parque da Luz served dinner for the homeless children. So at least this night she didn’t worry that the boys would go without. That was why she had agreed when they wanted to play soccer instead of going down to beg outside the bus stations. As long as security guards didn’t run them off, they could ask nice people there for change and collect enough to buy a meal. But yesterday a mean old man had spit on Tomas and called him ‘filthy vermin’. Then he held his arm and threatened to call the police because he swore Tomas was the boy who stole his wallet a few days before. It wasn’t true because Marissa never let them steal. Tomas almost broke his wrist getting loose and was afraid to go back. So this morning Pipio had decided that today was a holiday and they would play the Sport Club da Luz soccer tournament. The boys were so excited she just couldn’t tell them no. It was good to see them all happy.
“Wait,” she said rummaging something out of her backpack. “Here. Give one to Pipio, Nino and Paulinho too.” She gave him the last four sticks of gum and he ran back to the lot. It wasn’t real food but it might make them forget their growling stomachs for awhile. And if she could continue reading without being hit by a soccer ball that would make Marissa forget hers.
Pipio was the leader of their group. He knew he was eleven years old because his mother knew his birthday. She used to live in Santa Efigênia. Pipio visited her and his baby sisters sometimes, but had run away because her boyfriend beat Pipio when he got drunk. Then his mother moved across the city to Favela Morumbi and he never found her again.
Nino was probably ten, just a little shorter than Pipio. Marissa heard that there were good orphanages that took care of homeless children, but Nino came from one run by cruel adults who abused the children and punished them severely even when they did nothing wrong. He told about it like he had escaped from prison.
Both of them were bigger than Marissa, but they minded her on important things. They knew she was smart and did the best thing for their team. The two younger boys, Tomas and Paulinho, were both about seven or eight. Tomas was like her and had lived on the street as long as he could remember. Marissa did not know whether she was an orphan or if she had parents who were alive but had abandoned her. It was easier to believe that her unremembered mother and father had died when she was only a baby than to think they had just not cared enough to keep her.
Paulinho they had found huddled in an alley crying. He never talked at all so Marissa never knew how he got there or where he was from. But from his bruises and welt marks across his back she could tell it was someplace he didn’t want to go back to. Pipio let him join the group after Marissa said they needed to take care of him.
Marissa tried to get back to her book. Fides swooped down from the branch above, made an acrobatic turn and snapped up a passing insect in his mouth. Spero and Amor circled about the tree chasing each other. Then the quick agile swallows darted right between her face and the book, their fluttering wings brushing against her nose. Gliding and diving around her, the chorus of chirping voices asked for her attention.
“Okay, I’ll come play,” she conceded and tucked the book away in the big faded pink backpack beside the tree. She rose from the ground, stretched her arms high above her head then spread them out like wings.
“Ready?” she asked. Marissa took flight, sprinting along the sidewalk in a curving left and right path as the birds followed along. She tilted and banked her thin arms and the three graceful swallows looped and swirled about her. Marissa imagined herself soaring high into the sky, flying far away from the neglected broken sidewalks of Santa Efigênia. For a moment she was free of all the hurt and uncertainty of this desperate place.
“HEY!” a loud deep voice yelled from the other end of the block. Marissa looked back. Four tall young men had just rounded the corner of the abandoned building. One ran over and scooped up the soccer ball as it rolled across the empty lot, halting the younger children’s play. The little boys stood to see what the older ones would do.
“Who said you could play on my lot?” demanded the largest one. He was dressed in a short sleeve silk shirt with long pants, a pair of new expensive athletic shoes, and a gold watch. Probably one he stole, thought Marissa. She recognized him as Leandro, a strong, dark, ugly-faced teenager who often bullied the street kids. The others were his followers. They were a real gang. They broke into cars and houses, attacked people to steal wallets and purses, and did errands for bosses.
“It’s just an old dirty lot,” Pipio said. Most of the time Leandro’s gang just threatened kids to amuse themselves when they were bored. Trying to show he wasn’t frightened, Pipio walked over to get the ball back from the teen who held it. ”It’s not yours.”
Leandro, in a mood to be mean, rushed up to Pipio and grabbed his shirt collar. He pushed him back a few steps and shoved him hard up against the concrete wall of the building. He pulled back his fist then slugged Pipio in the stomach as his friends laughed. Afraid they were next, the other six or seven young soccer players ran away across the street. Nino, Tomas and Paulinho had fled to the far end of the lot, but waited there to see what would happen.
“Whose lot is it?” Leandro threatened, his arm pulled back ready to strike Pipio again.
“Leave him alone!” shouted Marissa as she raced across the lot, pushing past the other teens to try and help Pipio. “He didn’t do anything to you!”
Leandro turned to see her. Far stronger than Marissa, his solid muscular arm simply backhanded her across the face and knocked her to the ground. Her hands scraped painfully against the rough ground as she landed. Her jaw felt like a brick had hit it.
“Not your business, boy!” snarled Leandro.
“Girl!” corrected Marissa. She should have stayed on the ground, but immediately lifted herself despite the pain. It was her natural response from years of fighting with the boys. If you let someone see they’d hurt you, if you let them believe you were weak, then you let them believe they could always push you down all they wanted. Marissa stood up.
The other gang members now stood to block her from reaching Pipio. Leandro held his large fist against Pipio’s jaw. “Whose lot is it, gutter boy?”
“It… it’s your lot,” Pipio conceded to avoid further beating. Leandro released his hold on the torn collar, but then took him by the shoulders and forcefully threw him to the asphalt. Pipio landed hard on his knee with a cry of pain as Leandro turned away with a cruel laugh. They all started walking from the bleeding boy. Pipio tried to stand but crumpled back down with a grimace on his face.
“Hey, nice soccer ball,” Leandro said and motioned the other to toss it to him. “On my lot, too. It’s mine now.” He kicked it high in the air up the street ahead of them.
The soccer ball was the best thing Pipio owned. Besides his few secondhand clothes and two cans of shoe polish, it was really all he owned. When it got scuffed he would wipe it on his pants to keep it looking new. When they passed by Parque da Luz he would dip it in the ponds and dry it on his shirt to clean it. Pipio washed the ball more than he washed himself. It wasn’t right that Leandro could take it.
The ball was sailing through the air in a straight line when slowly the kick began curving. Leandro’s gang watched in surprise as the ball arced in a half circle and heading past them in the opposite direction. It fell to the ground and bounced a few times then rolled to rest at Pipio’s side. One of the teens began laughing at Leandro’s poor kick. His angry expression showed that Leandro did not think it was funny that a street kid had made him look foolish in front of his gang. He charged back to where the injured boy sat.
“Nice trick,” he sneered at Pipio. “How’d you do that?” Two of the others grabbed Marissa and held her arm twisted behind her back. She was unable to struggle loose.
“I didn’t do anything,” Pipio answered. He had no idea how it had happened. That wasn’t the answer Leandro wanted to hear.
“No little gutter boy disrespects me,” Leandro declared cold and cruelly. He slammed Pipio to his back on the ground, holding him down with a powerful grip on his thin neck. Pipio couldn’t cry out, couldn’t breathe. He smiled at the fear in Pipio’s eyes. “No gutter boy steals from me.”
Marissa gasped as she saw Leandro pull out a knife. He was moving the blade closer to Pipio’s throat and there was nothing she could do to help him. But she had to help him!
“Think I ain’t done this before?” Leandro boasted. “Nobody cares if a street kid dies in Boca do…”
Leandro’s arm was yanked back abruptly as the knife wrenched itself from his grip. The weapon flew away through the air and landed with a clang twenty feet away. Startled, he and the other gang members saw it fall to the ground and break. Then Leandro was suddenly slammed backwards off of Pipio by some unseen force. Marissa twisted free from her surprised captors and rushed to help Pipio to his feet.
“Run!” she cried, and pulled his hand to speed his pace. Pipio’s bleeding knee was badly hurt and he limped as they tried to escape. Behind them, Leandro had gotten up and all the gang were chasing them now. They were too fast for Marissa to outrun with Pipio. In seconds they were just a few paces behind. Leandro reached out to grab Pipio as he stumbled and there was a ripping sound. The torn shirt was in his grasp.
“Leave him alone!” pleaded Marissa, and she waved her arm back to ward them away. As if tripped by an invisible line, Leandro fell headlong to the broken concrete sidewalk. The other three tumbled hard to the ground alongside and on top of him, snared by the same unknown effect. For a moment, she and Pipio were a safe distance away.
“Hurry, hurry,” she urged Pipio. Desperately she tried to think of any nearby side alley they could get away through or a dumpster they might hide in.
As they ran by the eucalyptus tree, Marissa scooped up her backpack. The swallows alighted from the branches above and followed after her. Strangely, Pipio’s soccer ball was rolling along beside them also. Marissa hadn’t seen anybody kick it. Half a block away, she looked back to see how close the gang was behind them. Somehow they all still sat in a scrambling pile on the ground. Each time Leandro or another tried to stand, his legs would collapse beneath him and send him tumbling back to the sidewalk They couldn’t get up to chase them anymore!
Four blocks further, she let Pipio rest. It looked as if Leandro’s gang had given up on them for now. Pipio picked up his prized soccer ball which had curiously come to a stop with them after rolling the last two blocks uphill. Nino, Tomas and Paulinho, who had been running away the next block over, came down the cross street and met up with them. Some other boys who had been playing soccer were with them too. Pipio took off his ruined t-shirt. Around the back of a closed store, Marissa found an outside faucet where she could run some water to rinse off Pipio’s knee. She also rinsed the dirt out of her skinned palms that were bleeding.
“Wow! I thought you were dead!” said Nino. He had seen the knife at Pipio’s throat.
“Don’t say that!” ordered Marissa. But she had feared for Pipio’s life too.
“How did you do that? Knock all Leandro’s gang over like that?” said one of the other boys who must have watched the strange incident from across the street.
“That was like magic!” said another. A few others were looking at her and whispering to each other. They knew about the time street lights all went out or when the rolling dumpster chased security guards.
“I didn’t do anything,” insisted Marissa. “I don’t know how it happened.”
“Marissa’s brave,” bragged Tomas to the boys from the other group. “She’s not afraid of anyone!”
“I’m not afraid of him either,” declared Pipio as she tended to his knee, embarassed a bit that all the boys saw he’d been saved by a girl. “When I’m older I’ll have a big gang. We’ll have guns then and I’ll…”
“No you won’t!” Marissa commanded. “I don’t want any of you to ever be like Leandro! Why would you want to act just like the people who hate you and hurt you?”
“And we’re not a gang,” Nino reminded him. “We’re Sport Club da Luz!”
Marissa always tried to make them call themselves a team and not a gang. She didn't know why. Maybe if they dreamt of being strikers scoring the winning goal in the World Cup it would distract them from dreams of being a gang leader. Boys like Leandro wore new clothes with pockets full of money. He could always buy hot meals and would never dig in trash for scraps like they did. But having good things came from evil things he did. She never wanted Pipio or Nino to become a person who would beat someone for a purse or even a stupid soccer ball. But sometimes it seemed that was the only path boys in Santa Efigenia had when most people believed they were criminals already. Marissa hoped that life would change for them all someday. But she had no plan of how that could ever happen.
“How does it feel?” Marissa asked as she wrapped a strip of his ripped shirt around the knee to stop the bleeding.
“It’s better now,” Pipio said. He was trying to show that he was tough and not really hurt. “I just hit it real, real hard. You have a black eye.”
Marissa reached up to touch her face. It was swelled up beneath her eye where Leandro had hit her. She’d been so intent on running as fast as she could pull Pipio that she hadn’t even felt it. It didn’t hurt as much as her scraped hands.
Pipio stood up and paced back and forth on his injured leg. “See, Marissa. It’s okay.,” he assured her. Marissa was relieved. If he had broken it and needed a cast, she didn’t know if any hospitals would help street kids. They didn’t have money to pay a doctor.
Marissa saw by the shadows of the buildings that it was getting to be late afternoon. In an hour they could have dinner at Nossa Senhora da Luz, the old church by the park.
“Is anyone hungry?” she asked, knowing the answer even before the loud chorus of ‘Yes!’ came from all the boys. They started walking north along the street, up towards Avenida Tiradentes that led to the church. Nino in front and other boys behind her kept wary eyes in both directions, ready to scatter quickly if they saw Leandro’s gang again. But none of them noticed the lady in the long dress who stood watchfully at the corner across the street.
Pipio was still limping. Marissa held her arm around his back and put his over her shoulder so he could put less weight on his injured leg. Paulinho held her hand on the other side after going “Ooooo..” when he saw her skinned palm. That was about all he ever talked.
On the next block were an old hotel, used clothing shops and a second hand electronics store that sold old televisions and CD players. Empty buildings once were offices or restaurants but weren’t used anymore. Plaster crumbled off faded walls that had not seen fresh paint in many years. They were on the major street now where people filled the sidewalks and the noise of heavy traffic and smell of exhaust filled the air.
The electronics store always had a television on in the front window. On some days they could stand outside and watch a soccer game or other show unless too many street kids gathered on the walk. Then the owner would come out with his baseball bat and run them all off, yelling that they were scaring away his customers or trying to steal things. Most all of the storekeepers treated them like that, and most all of the store entrances had the same sign. ‘No children allowed without parents.’
Nino was talking to one of the boys from the soccer game, who was pointing to a side entrance of the closed and boarded building next to the store. A narrow sidewalk separated the two buildings and led to the alley in back.
“Lots of us sleep here,” the boy said as he showed Nino the chains on the double doors. “Bebo broke the padlock so we could get in. Then we chain it up again so the police can’t tell.”
“Don’t go in there, Nino,” Marissa told him as he hung around the doors with the others. It was a squat house that maybe forty or fifty homeless people used for shelter each night. Many of them were street kids, but a lot were bums, thieves and just violent crazy people. She and her boys had a safer place to sleep in their alley as long as they kept it secret.
Spero perched on her shoulder and the other two swallows landed on a windowsill. Pipio, Tomas and Paulinho had paused in front of the store window with the television.
“Aw, they just have news on,” Tomas said disappointedly, hoping for cartoons.
“Well we need to get going,” Marissa reminded them. “Nino,” she called to the boy behind them. But he wasn’t there. He had followed the other boy into the old building.
“Tomas,” Marissa directed, “go in and get Nino. Tell him we’re leaving right now.”
Tomas ducked into the door as she and the other boys waited. Minutes later they were still waiting. The building was three stories high and had many rooms. If Nino had gone upstairs and towards the back it might take Tomas a while to find him.
“Police! Police!” a boy’s voice shouted from down the street, warning that an officer was approaching. The other boys with them turned and started fleeing in the other direction. Police were the most feared opponent of street kids. The armed, uniformed men that other Sao Paulo citizens viewed as their protectors were seen by the poor homeless children as cruel oppressors. Hungry boys received brutal beatings as punishment for taking a piece of food off a street vendor’s cart. Others were arrested and jailed only for begging in a place where business owner’s thought they were too much of a nuisance. Most fearsome of all were the whispered stories of the Death Squads, the secret groups that came late at night and killed street kids simply to eliminate the excess of them. Older boys told younger ones that some men in those masked groups were truly police.
“Nino! Tomas!” Pipio yelled at the doors of the building, anxious for them to leave before the officer got nearer. “NINO!”
“POLICE! POLICE!” A young boy ran up and screamed at the top of his lungs towards the broken barred windows on the second and third floor. Marissa looked up the street.
“Oh NO!” she cried. Twenty yards away was not a single officer, but ten! They jogged along the sidewalk flanked side by side like a wall, wearing visored helmets and heavy dark vests. Police vans pulled around the corner ahead. “Pipio, look!”
Panicked boys were rushing out the doors of the abandoned building now. Pipio knew immediately just as she did that it was not just a regular patrol. Someone had reported the squat house and they were here for a round-up. They would arrest and take away every street kid and vagrant they could capture.
“Run!” Marissa shouted. “Take Paulinho to the park. We’ll meet…”
“NO! I’ll get Nino and Tomas. You take Paul…”
“You’re not fastest right now,” Marissa pleaded, pointing at his leg. When the police got close, he would be the easiest to catch. Pipio, knowing she was right, grabbed Paulinho’s hand and ran limping away. More ragged poor people scrambled out the doors. Marissa hoped two would be Nino and Tomas, but she didn’t see their faces among the frightened ones fleeing the building.
The officers reached the doors and knocked down the last two kids coming out. Six of the police drew their batons as they went inside. Four stayed at the doors to prevent anyone else escaping. Unless there was another way out, Nino and Tomas were trapped!
The police vans parked and more officers got out. A dozen more entered the building. A crowd was gathering and that was good because police never injured anyone as badly when there were witnesses around. Marissa held back among the spectators. She could hear screaming and yelling inside. Soon they would start bringing people out and filling up the vans. When she saw Nino and Tomas she would get them free somehow. An officer would be holding them and maybe she could trip him or bite him and then the three of them could run fast enough. That was all the plan she had.
“Front entrance secure,” one of the officers spoke into a two-way radio. “Rear entrance secure. Doors still barred and locked here,” came a reply. There were more police surrounding the back of the building.
“Broken open window bars upstairs,” buzzed the radio again. “Trying to climb out.”
BANG! BANG! BANG! Marissa heard the gunshots from the alley. With sudden panic, she realized they were shooting at people trying to escape out the windows!
The four officers at the doors stood ready to apprehend any persons coming out. They were too surprised to catch the quick little girl that slid right between them to rush into the building. Three blurs of blue streaked after her.
Inside was a trash-strewn graffitied hallway. Marissa saw officers at the other end pushing along two bloody, roughed up vagrants. Turning left to avoid them, she entered a stairwell with steps leading up to the second floor or down to a basement. The swallows darted upwards and she dashed up the steps after them. At the top of the stairway another officer had a teenage girl down on the dirty floor, threatening her with a baton. Marissa jumped over them. The birds were flying rapidly ahead of her down another hall as if they knew where they were going. Without knowing why, Marissa sped after them down the smelly, grimy passage. They glided past four or five rooms, then dove through a door at the right. Marissa skidded to a halt as she rounded the corner and stood in the doorway.
A half dozen ragged boys were kneeling with hands behind their heads. Nino and Tomas sat nearest the two large brawny police officers with batons. At the feet of one officer another boy lay unconsious with blood matted in his hair.
“Who’s next?” shouted the officer, then smacked Nino hard on the back of his skull with the baton just to show who was in control. Nino stumbled forward with tears in his eyes.
“NINO!” Marissa cried out. The officer turned to see her. Suddenly a flurry of wings covered his face as the swallows clawed and pecked at his eyes. His arms flailed about his head trying to disperse them. Marissa lowered her body and charged at him as fast as she could, slamming her head into his stomach. Claank! It was meant to knock the breath out of him but the thick vest was hard as metal. He hadn’t even moved.
Marissa crumpled dizzily to the floor, her eyes going dark for a moment. Then she felt the jerk of being lifted up by her arm in the painfully strong grip of the other officer. The swallows were screeching and scratching as both the officers towered above her with their heavy sticks held ready to assault her. How could she help the boys now?
“Crazy boy needs a lesson,” snarled one of them.
“Girl,” she protested weakly as they raised their weapons high to increase the force of the swings. Marissa waited for the pain of the bashing batons. Nothing happened.
She looked up to the officer’s faces. Scratched up by the swallows who now sat resting on their helmets, both bore blank expressions as if they had forgotten where they even were. They lowered the batons hesitantly with dumbfounded looks.
“Who are y… who am I?” the first officer politely asked Marissa.
“You’re.. um.. the Samba dancers,” she replied with the first idea that came into her head.
“Oh,” smiled the other officer, pleased at the idea. They looked at themselves, confused that they were not wearing the sparkly parade costumes they should be dressed in.
“Run!” Marissa ordered the kneeling boys who seemed almost as confused as the forgetful police officers. She rushed out of the room with Nino, Tomas and the other boys following close behind her. They ran back along the hall, pushing past the other officer with the girl. Scrambling down the stairwell, they all came to a stop ten feet from the guarded doors. The four huge officers were waiting with weapons drawn.
“We have them,” one responded into his radio.
“We can’t get past them, Marissa,” Nino conceded in defeat. “We’re going to jail.”
Marissa heard the fear in Nino’s voice. She recalled the stories of the children detention centers. Stories that they caged street kids up like animals and that prison guards tortured and beat them. She knew boys from other gangs who had returned from the jails scarred and broken. She knew boys who had never returned at all. She wouldn’t let it be her boys.
“NO. We’re not,” she stated. She reached out to hold Nino’s hand and took Tomas’ on her other side. “Ready?” she asked. The police officers were advancing towards them.
Marissa rushed directly at the police. Weighing only fifty pounds, she should have bounced off the four massive men like a feather. Yet before even making contact, the officers were all thrown back as if a truck had hit them. They flew across the sidewalk, slammed against the wall of the store and fell semiconscious to the ground. Stunned spectators gasped in disbelief as Marissa ducked in and out among the crowd with Nino and Tomas behind her. Two more officers were thrown to the ground as she passed them. The other boys following them scattered away free. Running as fast as they ever had in their lives, Marissa, Nino and Tomas raced up the avenue then turned through a narrow alleyway that connected with a smaller backstreet. The three swallows glided along above them as they escaped.
“That was…” Nino spoke breathlessly as they ran, “impossible!” Marissa would have to tell them once more that she didn’t do anything. Sometimes things just helped them.
They arrived at the park ten minutes later and found Pipio and Paulinho in their secret meeting place. The birds flew off into the tall trees that lined the walkways. Falling to the ground in exhaustion, Marissa laid out on the grass trying to catch her breathe. She closed her eyes and felt her whole body shaking.
“What took you guys so long?” Pipio asked.
Nino and Tomas were collapsed to their knees, panting for air. In a few minutes they could tell their story to the other boys. It was an escape no one else would ever believe. But Tomas had something else on his mind before relating the adventure.
“I’m hungry,” he stated again as he sat up. “Is it time to eat yet, Marissa?”
“Definitely…” she gulped in another breath of air, “time to eat.”
“Marissa…” Tomas said again with a slow cautious tone in his voice now.
“What?” she replied, her eyes still closed as she rested.
“Look,” he suggested.
She opened her eyes. Standing directly above her, having approached without any of the watchful, wary boys noticing until just this moment, was a lady in robelike dress. Her flowing cloak of pastel turquoise blue rippled in the breeze. Her fair white skin was framed by dark brown hair braided with little silver jewelry. Her hazel eyes gazed directly down into Marissa’s black-eyed blue ones.
“Hello, Marissa,” said Grace Merrythought.
Chapter 3 - An Invitation From a Witch by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
An unexpected visitor tells Marissa the source of her unusual abilities and offers to bring her to a place she can learn to use them.
3- AN INVITATION FROM A WITCH
“Uh… hello,” Marissa replied cautiously to the young lady as she pushed herself to a sitting position.
She could hardly believe that a stranger had appeared in their secret place without warning. In this quiet corner of the park, away from the sidewalks and hidden behind some flowery hedges, her team could see all around without being seen themselves. The boys would always whistle a danger signal long before any policeman or unknown person came near. Pipio or Paulinho should have seen the lady sooner but had not. At least it was not police who had caught them by surprise. But who was this lady?
“How did you know her name?” Nino asked.
“Maybe it’s magic,” the lady in her turquoise cloak replied with a little smile.
“No. Tomas just said it,” Marissa corrected as she stood up. She wasn’t going to let the woman think she was foolish enough to be impressed by someone knowing her name.
“A much more reasonable explanation,” the lady commended. Marissa noticed she had an unusual accent, like the tourists who came from other countries.
“It is amazing the information you can learn if you listen well,” the lady continued. “These young men are Pipio, Nino, Tomas, and Paulinho.” She made eye contact and nodded at each boy as she said his name.
Now Marissa was a little surprised. She had just said Tomas’ name, but no one had used the other boy’s names since the lady arrived. She wondered how the lady knew them all.
“Who…are you?” Marissa asked.
“I am Professor Grace Merrythought,” she replied. She acted very friendly. Most adults just brushed them aside and tried to ignore them.
“What’s a ‘professor’?” Marissa found herself asking as she always did when she heard a word she did not know.
“It’s a title, like ‘Doctor’ or ‘Captain’. A professor is a school teacher.”
“Are you lost?” Pipio asked. “I can show you how to get back to Jardins or Avenida Paulista. For just a quarter.”
Marissa could understand why Pipio thought Professor Merrythought was lost and might want to return to the wealthy part of the city. It was the same thing that she thought. Ladies like her did not just go for a walk in Parque da Luz. Well dressed and pretty, she would be noticed quickly by the thieves and vagrants who hung about the old park. She must be rich to wear the beautiful long turquoise cloak that flowed to her feet. She wore dark, gleaming heeled boots and Marissa thought the decorations in her hair must be real silver. She had no purse but probably carried money somewhere in that cloak.
“Why thank you, young man. That is a very kind offer and a fair price I’m sure. But I am exactly where I wish to be.”
Marissa looked about for bodyguards or a car waiting nearby, but the lady seemed to be here all by herself. In this poor part of the city it was dangerous for her to walk alone. If she met someone like Leandro she would be in trouble. Because she sure couldn’t run fast enough in those heels.
“This is a bad area,” Pipio kindly warned her. “Most rich ladies don’t come here.”
“I’m may not be in as much danger as you think. But thank you for your concern. I am here because the person I wish to talk with is here.”
“Who?” Marissa asked and looked about again. If she was meeting someone in the park it would be over by the benches or plaza, not here hidden in the trees.
“You, Marissa of Santa Efeginia,” she stated with a very definite tone.
“Me?” Marissa questioned, looking very puzzled. A woman who she did not even know had appeared from nowhere and said she was here to see her. That was very strange.
“Yes,” Professor Merrythought assured her. “I wish to talk to you about your future.”
“How…” Marissa paused to complete her thought. She was homeless. She had no parents or family to know where she was. Except for her boys and just a few others, Marissa had not believed anyone else was even aware or cared that she existed. “How did you know how to find me?”
“I heard there was dinner at the church tonight and that you might pass this way,” she replied. “Why don’t we let the boys go ahead while you and I talk a bit?”
Pipio and Nino glanced at Marissa to question whether they should leave her alone with the lady. She had a strange feeling about the lady in the turquoise cloak but not a feeling that she might harm her. She wondered what the woman could want with her.
“Pipio,” Professor Merrythought said. “I do have a service you can provide for me. All of you actually, and I will pay in advance. One quarter was the fee?”
Her hand withdrew from her wide cloak sleeve with four coins in her palm. The boys smiled at their good fortune as she placed one in the hand of each. Then she explained the service she required.
“If she runs at me like she did those four large policemen,” the lady said looking at Nino, “I’ll need you to hold her back from me.”
Nino and Tomas began to laugh. Pipio and Paulinho hadn’t heard of what happened yet but joined in too as they all accepted that it might not be Marissa they should worry about. Marissa wasn’t laughing. She was wondering how the lady knew about the police.
“I shall scream if I need you,” Professor Merrythought instructed as the boys sprinted off to the nearby church of Nossa Senhora da Luz. “Marissa will join you shortly.”
Marissa thought she was nice. If she talked to her for a few minutes maybe the lady would give her a quarter too.
“All so young,” Merrythought said as she watched them go. “Don’t you have anyone older to look after you?”
“There used to be Marcelo and Melinha, but they’re gone now.”
“Gone where?”
“Marcelo got caught stealing and went to jail last year. Melinha met another older boy and she went to Rio with him. She said she was coming back but she never did. Marcelo came back after jail, but then he was mean and he had a gun. One night he went out with a gang to break into cars and we never saw him again. One boy said he… said he was dead.”
“I’m so sorry. How old was Marcelo?”
“Almost grown up, same as Melinha. Maybe sixteen. It’s hard to beg when you’re not little anymore ‘cuz no one feels sorry for you. He didn’t mean to do bad things.”
“I understand,” the lady said.
She gestured for Marissa to follow as she walked over to a park bench. Marissa sat down a little apart from the lady and the swallows landed on the back of the bench.
“Ah, your little pets,” Merrythought smiled as one surprisingly hopped onto her shoulder. Its tiny beak poked at the flower patterns on her cloak that seemed to be moving. Marissa had never seen them incautious of a stranger before.
“They’re not pets. I don’t keep them in a cage or anything. They just like me.”
“What are their names?”
“That’s Fides,” she pointed to the one perched on Merrythought, “and Spero and Amor.”
“Latin,” the lady remarked. “Do you know Latin?”
“No. Sister Angelica at the church named them for me,” Marissa explained. Before that she had simply thought of them as the three birds who liked to follow her.
“Ask her about their names when you see the Sister.”
“Okay,” she accepted. She thought the lady couldn’t have come to Parque da Luz just to hear Marissa tell her about her friends and birds. “But… why did you want to talk to me?”
“I want to talk about school. Would you like to go to school Marissa?”
“Yes, but I can’t. You have to have parents to go to school.”
“Of course you don’t. Unless that’s a Muggle require…” she stopped herself.
“Well, parents don’t want homeless kids around their kids,” Marissa explained. She had stood along the sidewalks in the mornings watching the clean uniformed children going to class. She had seen the mothers frown at her in her soiled used clothes and dirty bare feet. By their faces she could tell that, like anywhere else, street kids were not welcome. “They think we’re all in gangs and will fight and steal from their kids. They think I’m not worth going to school.”
“This is a different school Marissa. A special school for special students.”
“Then why would they want me?”
“Because you are very special.”
Merrythought saw a look of distrust in Marissa’s eyes. No one in her life had ever called Marissa special before. In her world people only complimented someone when they wanted to get something, like when Pipio told businessmen what nice shoes they wore so that he might get an extra dime when he finished shining.
“Let me start in another way,” Professor Merrythought said. “I am a witch.”
“No you’re not,” Marissa told her flatly, again to show she was not foolish enough to believe such things. In the slums she had seen the old dark-skinned ladies from Rio who practiced Macumba and told fortunes or removed evil curses when someone paid them. The lady in the turquoise cloak did not look like one of them at all.
“Real Macumba witches are black,” Marissa added. “They light candles and dance around and pretend to talk to ghosts. They even kill roosters sometimes.”
Professor Merrythought laughed slightly at this. Marissa frowned and wondered if maybe she was not well. Then the lady leaned over and spoke softly near Marissa’s ear.
“You are a witch.”
“YOU are a crazy lady!” Marissa declared and stood to step back a few feet. The young woman had seemed normal at first but now she wasn’t sure. Maybe she really did think she was a witch. Maybe she was like the mad old bum who gave speeches on the corner of Rua do Triumpho and thought he was the President of Brazil.
“Possibly,” the lady nodded in agreement. “ I may have been hallucinating today. I saw four grown men toppled over by thin air. I saw a knife throw itself out of an evil boy’s hand and the boy thrown off of Pipio. Did you see anything like that or am I just crazy?”
“You were there?” Marissa asked, and then remembered Tomas’ words about a lady who watched them play soccer. “But those things just happened.”
“I’ve watched you today, Marissa. You have quite an ability to help your friends out of trouble. Those things happened because you did magic. Or can you explain them in a more reasonable way?”
“No,” Marissa admitted. It was true impossible things happened around her sometimes. Like the time Pipio’s soccer ball had fixed itself. He found it in a garbage can in the park last year but threw it back when he saw it was flat. Someone had kicked it against something sharp and ruined it. But Marissa saved the slashed ball hoping she might tape it or stuff it with newspapers to make it useable. That night she had used it for a pillow and dreamt of the boys playing soccer. In the morning the slash was somehow sealed closed. Mr. Palito filled it with air for Pipio and it was the newest ball any street kid ever had. Yet she could still just barely see the long scar on it.
“But I didn’t make spells or tell those things to do all that. I don’t know how.”
“Before young witches learn to control their powers properly, they can cause magic unknowingly when feeling strong emotions like joy, anger, or fear.”
“I wasn’t afraid of Leandro!” Marissa declared. She didn’t want to let the lady believe she was weak or helpless.
“Not if you ran at him while the others were running away,” Professor Merrythought agreed. “Or maybe you were afraid but felt something even stronger.”
Marissa did not know what she meant by that. She was still uncertain whether she believed her or whether the lady in the long cloak was making it all up. She wanted proof .
“If you really are a witch, show me,” Marissa requested. “Do something magic.”
“Fair enough. What magic would you like?”
“I wish for a million Reais,” she answered. That was Brazilian currency. It would be a stack of money to last Marissa her whole life.
“I believe you have mistaken me for… a ‘genie’ I think it is.”
“See, you can’t. You’re not a witch.”
“I could. But counterfeiting is illegal for witches just as it is for Muggles.”
“What’s ‘count-er-feit-ing’?” she replied. “And what’s ‘mubbles’?”
“Counterfeiting is making your own money. A Muggle is what people in our witch community, the Wizarding world, call nonmagic people,” Professor Merrythought explained. “What would you do with a million Reais, Marissa?”
“I would buy a house for the boys. So we don’t have to sleep in the alleys,” she said. “And food for every day. And new clothes that aren’t worn out. And a television.”
Grace Merrythought smiled at the very simple things that the young girl hoped for. “With schooling, with an education, you can have all those things one day Marissa. You can grow up and do anything you want. Except conjure money. You’ll have to earn it.”
“I could work if someone let me. Do witches have… magic jobs?”
“Yes. For example, I get paid to teach magic. And I believe you wanted a lesson.”
Professor Merrythought stood from the bench and extended her arm to Marissa. She opened her hand and motioned for Marissa to take it. Marissa grasped it hesitantly, her own hand still stinging from its scrapes.
“Hold on tightly,” she instructed as Marissa felt the squeeze of her grip. She saw the lady turn about and then everything went black as something started pushing down on her. She felt like she was being squished back into her body from every direction. She could not breathe but then suddenly she could again as she gasped air back into her lungs. The light returned and Marissa quickly realized they weren’t in Parque da Luz anymore.
She was standing on an outside terrace of a building, next to a meter high wall topped with smooth granite. Beyond the wall, as far as her eyes could see, she looked down upon skyscrapers and hundreds of giant buildings. The closely crowded structures were criss-crossed by wide lines of streets and avenues that moved with tiny dots that she saw were cars. Peering closer she could see even tinier dots on sidewalks and balconies that were faraway people. It was Sao Paulo as Marissa had never viewed it before. Not from down in dirty alleys where the buildings surrounded one like the walls of canyons and blocked out everything beyond. It was the way birds flying high in the skies saw it. It was the way God looking down from heaven must see it.
“You really are magic,” Marissa said in a soft, awed voice.
“Thank goodness,” Professor Merrythought said with relief. “For a while I thought I might just be crazy. Now hold out your hands please, palms up.”
Marissa did so as the lady removed a long thin stick from within her sleeve. She waved the wand and said a strange word, “Episkey!” Marissa watched in amazement as the scrapes and blood on her palms faded away, completely healed. The dull ache beneath her black eye was gone also.
“That’s better,” said Professor Merrythought.
“Thank you,” Marissa said. She looked out across the vast city again. “Where are we?”
“I believe it’s called Terraco Italia,” the lady replied. Marissa knew of the Italia building. It was on Avenida Ipiranga and was the highest skyscraper in Sao Paulo.
“Look there,” she pointed to the northeast at a distant large area of green tucked among the greys of the buildings. It was a dense stand of treetops. “That’s Parque da Luz.”
“I can see forever from here,” Marissa said as she stood on tiptoes to see over the wall that was almost as tall as her and gazed towards the horizon spread out in the distance. Professor Merrythought stood right beside her.
“Forever is a thousand times farther still. But the world does seem to stretch so much bigger when you see it from here, doesn’t it?” Professor Merrythought asked. Marissa nodded her agreement. “Your world can be much bigger than the blocks of Santa Efigenia, young lady.”
Marissa thought to herself that if she could go to school maybe she could be more than a beggar in Santa Efigenia someday.
“I saw you with a book earlier today,” the lady said. “Do you know how to read?”
“Yes,” she replied a bit defensively. “It’s not a picture book.”
From within the wide sleeve of her turquoise cloak, Professor Merrythought pulled a tan parchment envelope and handed it to Marissa. On the back a wax symbol was stamped upon the fold and on the front was written her very own name.
“Break the seal and open it there,” she explained to Marissa who had never had her own mail to open before. Marissa did and withdrew the pages.
“Witness Stone School of the Mag-ic-al Arts,” she carefully sounded out the letterhead just to show the lady she could read even though she was a homeless kid. Then she silently read the rest so she would not be embarassed if there were any big words she did not know.
Dear Miss Marissa,
We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance at Witness Stone School.
Semester begins the evening of Monday February 14th with the Welcoming Banquet. Please confirm your attendance by January 1st.
Please find enclosed a list of required supplies and textbooks.
Best wishes and congratulations. We look forward to you joining us soon.
Yours sincerely,
Ubiritan Katupya
Vice Principal
She didn’t know what a ‘semester’ or a ‘banquet’ was. The very strange words at the bottom were someone’s name, maybe the boss schoolteacher. She was glad she hadn’t tried to read that out loud.
“Marissa, please listen,” Professor Merrythought said in a very serious tone. She took a step back but still held both of Marissa’s hands firmly. “You can say ‘No’ to the school. No one will force you to go. And I am not trying to hold you here against your will. But it is important that you understand completely. There is more I want you to know about the Wizarding world before you decide. Then I will take you back to the park, okay?”
“Okay…” Marissa nodded. She wouldn’t really have leapt off the ledge.
They walked along the terrace that circled the tall building, past potted trees and hedges. As if she was worried Marissa might try to jump up over the wall again, Professor Merrythought had not let go of her hand. For some reason Marissa didn’t mind. It was like when she was little and Melinha held her hand when they crossed a busy street.
“There are fifteen thousand wizards and witches in Brazil,” Merrythought continued . “Some of us live in in towns or villages of only Wizarding people, and many of us live in the large cities among Muggles. Yet every one of us keeps what we are secret from the Muggle world. Now that I have told you, you must keep it a secret also .”
“Why?”
“Because Muggles cannot know we are here. We keep our magic lives separate from nonmagic people.”
“No. Not at all. But in the past many people feared and misunderstood magic. So the Wizarding world agreed long ago to hide the existence of magic from the Muggle world and we have our own government and laws that enforce that. You will have to learn and follow those laws.”
“Why?” Marissa questioned. “If I don’t go to your school I won’t be a witch and…”
“Whether you choose to go to Witness Stone School or not, you are still a witch. The laws of the Wizarding world will still apply to you. If a witch uses magic when she shouldn’t she can be punished.”
“What do they punish you for?” Marissa asked, trying to understand.
“For example,” Professor Merrythought said, thinking of how to illustrate her point, “if I turned Leandro into a tree frog I would be punished. It is against the law to perform magic on or in the presence of Muggles and I would go to jail.”
“But you said I did magic on him. Does that mean I…”
“No. You were defending yourself and did not know about your powers. But in the future you will be held responsible. As an underage witch our government will know any time you perform magic.”
“They’ll watch me like you watched me today?”
“Yes. In a different way but yes.”
“And if I do magic when I shouldn’t then…”
“If you don’t learn to control it,” Merrythought interuppted, “you will do magic when you shouldn’t, Marissa. You won’t be able to help it. That is why it is so important for every young witch and wizard to attend school and be trained properly.”
Marissa paused to consider all of this. Although she believed that turning Leandro into a frog was something a person should be rewarded and not punished for, she felt she understood the rest of what Professor Merrythought told her. She also had a sure feeling from how easily the lady had found her today that if she did something wrong she would not be able to get away from witch police the way she had from regular police.
“Magic can heal wounds,” Professor Merrythought said. “Magic can repel an enemy. Magic can make a soccer ball float into the clouds or make it vanish altogether. Magic can even make you fly. Magic can do more wonderful things than I can tell you about in a whole day, Marissa. It would be so sad if you never get to learn all of those things.”
“But it’s so far away. The boys would think I’m leaving forever.”
“You can return every few months during holidays. There is a three week winter break and almost three months in summer,” she assured her. “I know it’s very hard the first time you go. I cried the day I left for Witness Stone because I had to be away from my very best friend in the world.”
Marissa knew for certain that if she did go to school she would never cry when she left. Other kids would see that and believe she was weak, believe she was still just a baby. Marissa had not cried for many years, ever since she had stubbornly decided to never let anyone think they could hurt her. Ever since she had decided to be strong.
“Maybe if I told them I was coming back soon,” she said.
“If you knew the boys would be okay while you were away,” Merrythought asked her, “is there any other reason why you would not want to come to our school?”
“No. I would want to. I want to learn and Mr. Palito taught me to read so I can learn.”
“That’s good. Who is Mr. Palito?”
“He’s just a man who lives by our alley,” Marissa said. She chose to leave out that he was a poor bum who slept in a box at the front of the alley. “But he’s nice to us and he’s real smart and he finds me books.”
“I want you to remember that you cannot tell any Muggles about being a witch. You cannot speak of magic or perform magic in front of the boys or other nonmagic people. But perhaps you can ask your Mr. Palito what he thinks about you going to school, as long as you do not reveal it is a Wizarding school. You can talk to him before you decide. And maybe you have other adults you could talk to.”
“Sister Angelica. She’s one of the nuns who come to the church to serve dinner.”
“The one who named the three birds.”
“Yes and… um, here they are.” By some strange coincidence, just as Professor Merrythought had spoken of them the three swallows came sweeping up over the terrace wall and glided to a landing on Marissa’s shoulders. They had flown a very long way.
“Amazing,” Professor Merrythought said as the little birds chirped a happy greeting.
“They always find me,” Marissa explained with a shrug.
“Just like an owl,” the Professor remarked.
“No. Owls fly at nighttime. My birds sleep all night by me.”
“In wizard society we use owls to send our mail and they can find anyone, anywhere,” she explained. “If you were from a wizard family your acceptance letter would have come by owl. Let me show you.”
From within a fold of her cloak Professor Merrythought withdrew a tiny feathered ball that balanced on her fingertip as she held her arm up. It shivered for a moment and two round eyes blinked a few times adjusting to the light then opened wide with a ‘Hooo.’ The little bird was smaller than the swallows.
“Ohhh,” Marissa smiled. She was always fascinated by any bird. “It’s just a tiny baby owl.”
“No, he’s ten years old,” the Professor said. “He’s a pygmy owl. His name is ‘Infinitesimal’, which means immeasurably small. But I call him Tesimal.”
“He couldn’t carry a letter. It’s bigger than him.”
“I use little parchment notes and write very small,” she smiled. “Most wizards use larger owls. Some that could almost carry you I think.”
“Are there owls at the witch school?”
“Owls and so many hundreds of other kinds of birds that I could never learn them all. Students learn to care for magical creatures too. Are you sure you don’t want to go?”
“Maybe I can,” she replied unsurely. “I can talk to Sister like you said. And I have to talk to all the boys.”
“Yes,” Professor Merrythought agreed. “I know the boys are important to you, Marissa. Your emotion to protect your friends revealed your magic. To risk your own safety for them you must love them very much.”
Marissa knew the lady thought she would cry if she left them, like she had done.
“They’re just my gang. I watch their back and they watch mine. I don’t love them.”
“Don’t love them,” Professor Merrythought murmured. “How unfortunate. My grandmother knew a very great wizard once and would always remind me of something he said. ‘Love is the strongest magic of all.’”
Love didn’t count for much in Santa Efigenia. Marissa thought if the parents she never knew had loved her they would not have left her behind alone so long ago.
“I believe we may return now” the lady said. “Do you think the swallows would like to fly back themselves or come with us?”
“With us. I bet they’re tired,” Marissa replied. She slid the pink backpack off her shoulder, unzipped the top and spread it open. Spero hopped from her shoulder into the opening, followed by Fides and Amor. She rezipped the pack, leaving a small hole for air, then slung it back on. “They like to ride in here for naps.”
Professor Merrythought tucked the small owl back into its place then held her hand out to the little girl. She turned about and Marissa saw only blackness again and felt the tight squishing sensation. Then they were back in Parque da Luz in the quiet corner by the hedges.
“Wow!” Marissa said as she took a deep breath.
“In two days Tesimal will visit you with your confirmation letter for Witness Stone.”
“What’s ‘confirmation’?” she asked.
“It’s your reply to tell us if you will be coming to Witness Stone School. If you decide to go, sign your name on the letter. If you decide not to go, send it back blank with Tesimal and I will know not to visit you again and you must try never to do magic again.”
“I still don’t know,” Marissa tried to tell her. “I don’t know.”
“Let your friends help you decide,” the lady said kindly. “Then do what is right for you.”
She stepped away from Marissa, preparing to depart alone.
“Professor Merrythought,” Marissa called before she disappeared again. “Could you really turn Leandro into a frog?”
“If he attacked me and I was defending myself, yes. But I would have to turn him back again… eventually.”
“Would you teach me that?”
Professor Merrythought smiled. “If you come to Witness Stone I will teach you that.”
Then she turned and vanished without a sound.
Chapter 4 - The Fork in the Road by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
The boys she protects are the only ones who have ever cared about her, but Merrythought's offer may be the only chance Marissa ever has to rise from homelessness.
Fides poked his head out of Marissa’s backpack. Bugs were flying about the park and the birds decided they were more hungry than tired after their long flight following her to Terraco Italia. She unzipped the top to let them free and felt her stomach growling. She wondered how long she had been with the lady and if she was too late for dinner at the church. But she was wondering more about magic.
Deep in thought, Marissa moved slowly down the walkway out of the park and towards Nossa Senhora da Luz. She waited for a break in the rush of vehicles then ran across the street and onto the sidewalk alongside the old church. She made her way to the courtyard behind the building where they served dinner and found Pipio, Nino, Tomas and Paulinho with their paper bowls emptied. Marissa saw the serving tables had been folded away and most of all the street kids who came to eat had already left.
“Sister saved you a bowl,” Pipio said. “We told her you was coming late.”
“What did the lady say?” Nino asked.
“I’ll tell you when I come back,” she called back as she jumped up the steps. She was hungry but also needed to find Sister Angelica. She came out of the doorway just as Marissa reached the top of the stairs, holding a bowl of warm soup and the last thick slice of brown bread.
“Thank you,” Marissa said gratefully. She was glad she hadn’t come too late. She bowed her head and said “Thank you, Lord” too because she knew that would make Sister happy, then took a bite of bread and sip of soup all at once.
“Sister Angelica?” Marissa asked. “Can I talk to you, please?”
“Eat first,” the Sister smiled. “Tomas said this is the only food you’ve had all day.”
Marissa sat down on the top step and quickly finished her meal as Sister Angelica patiently waited, putting the last crust of bread in her not torn pocket to save for the swallows.
“We met a lady in the park today,” Marissa said. “She was looking for me.”
“So the boys told me,” said Sister Angelica as she sat down beside her.
“She’s a teacher, a ‘Professor’. She wants me to go to her school.”
“Well, that is wonderful!” Sister Angelica exlaimed. Marissa was a little surprised at her response. Usually the Sister would warn her to be careful of strangers that might harm her, even though she knew Marissa and the boys had to talk to strangers when they begged.
“But it’s not a… regular school. They teach ‘Arts’. And she said I have ‘talents’.”
“I’m sure I agree with her. And a good school would teach you how to use them.”
“But I don’t know if I can go,” Marissa explained. “I think maybe I should say no.”
“Goodness, why is that? Don’t you believe what she told you?”
“I believe. I know she is a real wi… a real teacher. She showed me. But her school is way far away. If I say yes I have to leave. Leave the boys all alone.”
“I see. But you’ll be coming back, Marissa. I left my family when I was away at school too. It was hard at first but…”
“But it’s different,” Marissa insisted. She and the others had slept in a hundred different doorways and alleys since she could remember, moving on whenever they were run off or a place became too dangerous. It wasn’t like families with a house always there for them. “What if the boys get in trouble and have to run away from our alley? Or they go to jail like Marcelo did? Then I’ll come back and never find them again.”
“I know the idea of being away worries you. But does it frighten you enough to stop you from choosing something good for you?”
Frightened meant the same as scared. She wasn’t scared of being away. She just didn’t want the boys to think that she wasn’t part of their team anymore.
“What do you think I should do?” Marissa said to Sister Angelica.
“Why don’t we pray about it?” The Sister placed her palms together and lowered her head. Marissa quietly did the same for a few minutes.
“What did God say?” she asked when Sister Angelica lifted her head.
“What did He say to you?” the Sister responded.
“He doesn’t talk to me, he talks to you.”
“Oh, He talks to you. You just need to learn how to listen. You’ll understand one day.”
“So you don’t know if he wants me to go to school or wants me to stay with the boys?” It didn’t help her much if even God wasn’t sure what she should do.
“I know that when God gives a person a gift He is sad if they do not use it.”
“A gift like the lady said is my ‘talents’?”
“Yes.”
“Okay,” Marissa replied as she considered that. “But I’d be gone a long time, not just a few days. What if I couldn’t find the boys when I came back?”
“Do you see this building behind us, Marissa?” Sister Angelica asked. She thought that was a silly question. Of course she saw the giant old church and its tall tower. “It has stood here hundreds of years. It will be here when you return. If the boys go anywhere they will let me know and I will tell you where to find them when you come back to us.”
“So you think I should tell her yes, that I will go to the school.”
“Say yes to the chance to become what you should be, Marissa.”
“The lady said I should ask you something else too,” she said to Sister Angelica. “She said ask about the bird’s names.”
“You know what ‘Amor’ is,” the Sister smiled and Marissa nodded. “And in Latin ‘Fides’ means faith, ‘Spero’ means hope.”
“Why did you name them that?”
“Because it’s just these three that like to follow you,” she answered to the girl’s puzzled look. Marissa wondered what she would name them if a hundred birds liked her.
“It’s a verse from the Bible. First Corinthians,” Sister Angelica explained further. “And now there remain faith, hope, and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.”
Marissa thought it was almost just like something Professor Merrythought had said. ‘Love is the strongest magic of all.’
“It’s time for me to go, Marissa,” Sister Angelica said to her as she stood. “If you decide to go to school, come and say goodbye before you leave.”
“I will,” she replied as the Sister stepped inside and closed the back entrance.
She walked down the steps to the courtyard. The boys were wearing the paper bowls on their heads and playing army. “Halt!” Pipio called as he marched them to a stop before her. “Sport Club da Luz army ready for battle.” He made a salute to her and the other boys did the same.
“No more battles today,” Marissa said. She had had more than enough confrontations with gangs and police for now. “It’s time to report to the army base.”
“Where’s that?” Tomas asked.
“In our alley. We have to get back and rest for tonight,” she said as she led them out the gateway of the church courtyard. They tossed their helmets in the trash can as they left.
“Tell us about the lady in the long dress,” Tomas said as they ran across the street back to Parque da Luz and headed along Avenida Tiradentes.
“You took a long time,” Pipio added. “What did she talk to you for?”
Marissa wanted to tell them everything she had learned about witches. But Professor Merrythought had told her she could not talk about magic. It was a secret.
“Remember she said she was a teacher?” Marissa began. “She told me about her school. She asked if I want to go to her school.”
“Nuh-uh,” said Pipio “What did she really want?”
“That is what she really wanted!” she insisted, annoyed that he thought she was pretending.
“Did you say yes?” Nino asked. “’Cuz you can’t beg with us if you did. If you go to school all day.”
“I told her no. But she told me think about it and she’ll ask me again in two days.”
“Just tell her no again,” Pipio said. “Just stay with Sport Club da Luz. It’s better.”
“I told her no ‘cuz her school is far away, Pipio. If I did say yes I have to leave. But just for a little while.” She looked at Pipio. “Do you think maybe that would be okay?”
“If it’s far away it’s private school like rich kids have. They’ll treat you like a gutter kid and say they’re all special and you’re nothing. Why would you go there?”
“’Cuz maybe it’s the only chance I ever get to go to school! Wouldn’t you go?”
“No. It’s the same as Leandro.”
“Leandro?” Marissa asked puzzled. “What’s that mean?”
“You said ‘Why would you want to act just like the people who hate you and hurt you?’”
“Kids in schools don’t hate us just ‘cuz we’re street kids”
“Their parents hate us and call us ‘filthy’. I bet they teach their kids to hate us too.”
“Maybe if I go to school it will show I’m not just nothing and they won’t hate me.”
“They’ll still hate us. You want to be like them and live with them so you can leave and never come back,” Pipio accused her.
“That is not what I want!” she shouted back. “I want to go to school so maybe someday I can have a job and our own money to buy us food instead of begging. And so the boys can sleep in a bed and not on cold cement.”
“’Cuz you don’t think I can take care of my team!” he snapped back at her. He kicked the soccer ball a ways ahead, jogged after it and wouldn’t talk anymore.
“He just doesn’t want to see,” Marissa said to Nino beside her. Nino shrugged and the other boys said nothing, trying to stay out of any argument between she and Pipio.
The evening grew darker and soon they reached the empty street that led to their alley. The closed up storefronts and boarded buildings were dark. Along the littered sidewalk the street lamps were broken or burnt out except for one that always lighted the corner where they turned. The swallows flew into the shadows towards the dark end of the alley where they had a little nest above Marissa’s piece of cardboard.
Past the front of the narrow alley, in the shadows just beyond the glow of the street lamp, a large cardboard box leaned against the wall of a building. Marissa knew it used to contain a refrigerator because she had read that on the side of the box. Scraps of wood and a dented metal mailbox held down old sheets of plastic on the top to protect it from rain, a faded piece of fabric hung as a curtain over one end ,and other salvaged items lay stacked about the makeshift shelter. An unshaven, wild-haired bum in a worn long coat over a t-shirt leaned against the wall beside his home. A long wooden toothpick hung at the edge of his mouth.
“Pipio!” the man shouted at the young boy and slugged him in the shoulder as he passed. Pipio smiled and slugged him back. Mr. Palito always seemed to be there at the front of the alley at just the time they came back each night.
“Hey, kid,” he said to Marissa. “How’s the book? Did you finish your story today?”
“I didn’t have time,” she said. “Some things happened.”
“Pipio got in a fight with a gang!” Nino said. “And the police raided the old building by the TV store. They took a bunch of kids to jail.”
“Almost us too,” Tomas added to the report. “But Marissa made us run right through them!”
“She saved us!”
“And then the lady in the long dress found us at Parque da Luz.”
“Sounds like a big day,” Mr. Palito replied. “How about you dirty scruffs go wash up some before it gets late.” The faucet at the back of the alley worked sometimes, but Marissa could never get the water to run when Mr. Palito wasn’t there. Pipio led the boys back the dark passageway they knew by heart.
“The lady in the long dress?” Mr. Palito asked Marissa when the two were left alone.
“She’s a professor. She wants me to go to her school.”
His face widened with the biggest smile Marissa had ever seen on Mr. Palito and in the light of the street lamp she almost thought she even saw a tear on the corner of his eye. But that was silly.
“But I didn’t tell her yes or no yet,” she explained. “It’s far away and I’d have to leave the boys. I wanted to ask you should I go or not.” But from the expression on his face she had no doubt what Mr. Palito thought she should do. Marissa smiled too.
“Of course you should go,” he declared laughing. “Did I teach you to read and write so you could be ignorant the rest of your life?”
“No,” she replied with a smile because she knew he was joking. “But Pipio says I should tell her no. He thinks I’ll go away and never come back ‘cuz they’ll teach me to act like them and hate street kids. He thinks I’ll be… oh, I don’t know.” She couldn’t quite say what she meant.
“Thinks you’ll be ashamed of coming from Boca do Lixo,” Mr. Palito said.
Ashamed. That was the word Marissa had been trying to find. It was the way people tried to make street kids feel just because they didn’t live in better places with better lives. People like the man who called Tomas ‘filthy vermin’ looked down on them like it was their own fault they were homeless and poor and had to beg or look in trash to provide for themselves. People thought street kids were worthless. Marissa knew she was not to blame for where she lived, but sometimes she looked at the world around her and couldn’t help but question whether maybe what people thought was true. Sometimes it was hard to deny that she and the others did count for nothing in Sao Paulo.
“At first I told the lady no ‘cuz I want to stay with the boys,” she said. “That’s not ashamed. And I’ll never get teached to hate people. No one can teach me that.”
“I know that, kid,” Palito said and tussled her short dark hair.
“But if I say no I’ll never learn about mag… never learn stuff to make me smart.”
“Looks like you’re at the fork in the road, kid.”
“What’s that?”
“Means the street splits in two directions and you need to choose which way to go,” Mr. Palito explained. Absently he took the toothpick from between his teeth and flipped it around in his fingers. “The future’s kind of like that. You got to think about where you’re hoping to get to and which way will take you there.”
She saw it was like streets. Like going somewhere in the city she had never been before. The best thing to do was ask someone who had been there. She realized that was why Professor Merrythought had told her to talk to Sister Angelica and Mr. Palito.
“Did you go to school, Mr. Palito?” she asked.
“Sure did,” he replied and glanced away to the right like he was remembering something. “Best years of my life.”
“Then how did you end up…” she paused.
“A bum?” he finished for her and smiled to show he wasn’t offended. “Long story, kid. Some other time, okay?”
She nodded.
“When is the lady coming to see you again?”
“She’s going to send her…” Marissa was about to say that Professor Merrythought was sending the little owl Tesimal, but stopped herself. “She’s going to send a letter in two days. A ‘confirmation’.”
“Well you got no rush to figure it all out tonight then,” Mr. Palito said to her. “You just sleep on it and decide tomorrow.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Goodnight, Palito.”
“See ya later, kid.”
Marissa walked to the back of the dead end alley then ducked below a large rusty old ventilation unit braced to the side of the abandoned building. Underneath was the hidden area where she and the boys slept at night, sheltered from getting wet if it rained. Above her head the swallows chirped hello as she crawled in and sat on the scrap of cardboard that covered the hard cement. Remembering the bread crust in her pocket, she took it out and dropped it in their little straw nest. The boys huddled around Pipio looking at one of the comic books Mr. Palito had found for them. Pipio lighted the pages with a small flashlight that also came from their neighbor at the front of the alley. Marissa could tell by his glance that he was still upset with her.
“Read for us, Marissa,” Tomas asked.
“Why? You just make up stories for it anyway,” she replied.
“Yeah but you know what it really says,” Nino said. She looked at Pipio and he nodded.
“Okay,” she agreed and scooted over next to them. “But don’t blame me if I fall asleep in the middle of it.”
As it turned out, Nino, Tomas and Paulinho all dozed off just before her as she reached the last page of the story. When her eyes drooped shut too, Pipio took the comic from her hands, laid her beach towel over Marissa and switched off the flashlight. Darkness filled the alley but for a glow above the building roofline, the stray luminance of the million lights that burned on the towering faraway horizon of the Sao Paulo night.
Marissa awoke before dawn as she always did to the sound of Fides, Spero and Amor singing and chatting with each other. The swallows flew off just before sunrise lighted the alley. Marissa changed to her other shirt and shorts and got clean shirts for the boys out of the box she kept their few belongings in. When they woke up she went to get a drink of water and rinse off while they put on clothes. She looked towards the front of the alley to see if Mr. Palito was awake. A pair of worn old boots sat by the curtain outside his box. That meant he was still sleeping and had probably went out again late last evening after seeing they were back. On mornings after he had been gone all night he usually would sleep until the afternoon of that day, so Marissa would have to talk to him again when they came back that night.
Marissa slipped on her backpack and Pipio picked up the little wooden shoeshine box that used to be Marcelo’s but was his now. Then she and the boys headed out for the day. Pipio still wasn’t talking to her. They chose to avoid the blocks of Leandro’s territory and instead headed down towards the market area. They used the money Professor Merrythought had given the boys to purchase breakfast, a large tray of black beans and rice that they all shared. The street vendor at the cart would only give them one plastic fork so the boys used their fingers and let Marissa have the fork since girls are supposed to eat more politely.
Marissa didn’t know how to bring up the subject of school with Pipio again. She tried to think of how she could make him understand how important school was. She couldn’t tell him she had to go to school to learn to do magic right so they wouldn’t take her to witch jail. Even that wasn’t really why she wanted to go. Most of all it was because she knew it was the only real chance they had ever had to maybe not be homeless for always. But Pipio thought going to school would change her from being a street kid and then she would never want to come back to Santa Efigenia again. Just like Melinha and Marcelo and his mother had never come back.
“I’m gonna shine shoes by the big office,” Pipio told Nino as he pointed up the street at one of his regular spots. “You guys work here or come tell me if you go someplace else.”
Nino, Tomas and Paulinho took spots at one side of the bus station. Marissa, with Spero perched on her shoulder, turned to go stand about five meters away at the other side.
“It’s not fair,” Nino said. “You get more change ‘cuz people stop to hear Spero singing.” On some days thanks to the little bird she would get as much as the three boys together.
“Well maybe I could get Fides and Amor to sit on your shoulders if you didn’t try to catch them all the time,” she retorted as she moved off. Or maybe it was part of being a witch that she was the only one the little birds would perch on.
They stayed by the bus station through the morning. A few people gave them spare change, mostly pennies and nickels. Most hurried past them on the way to their jobs or said they had already given all their change to other kids. Marissa knew the thousands of homeless children hoping for a handout must far outnumber the full sum of change in all the pockets and purses of the few kind people on any one day.
After five o’clock, when most of the workers had left for the day, Marissa gathered their earnings together to see what food they might afford. They didn’t have very much so she hoped Pipio would have done better when he met them back here.
The late afternoon was very hot so the boys sat in the shade of a wall while Marissa walked under some trees along the sidewalk to find where Fides and Amor were resting. She knew she would have to make Pipio talk to her again about school.
“What do you think I should do, Spero?” she said quietly to the little swallow perched on her finger peering at her with his dark little eyes. He tilted his head to the side as if to consider the question.
“Sister and Palito say I should say yes. Pipio says I should say no, so all the boys will say that too. If I could tell him it’s a witch school, maybe Pipio would want me to go.”
But Professor Merrythought had said ‘You cannot tell any Muggles about being a witch.’ It didn’t seem right that she had to keep it secret from the boys, that she would never get to do magic for them. People with witch families didn’t have to keep it secret.
“If I learned magic I have to hide that too,” she whispered to Spero.
‘We keep our magic lives separate from nonmagic people,’ the professor had told her. That meant she could only do magic with other witches who do it too. If everything they taught her could only be used in witch places then what Pipio thought really was true. They would try to make her part of their world. Maybe not on purpose or by force, but someday all their rules might make her have to leave Santa Efigenia for good. But she couldn’t stop being part of the team. She meant nothing to anybody else in the world, but she was important to the boys. If she didn’t have the boys she didn’t have anyone.
“Marissa!” Pipio shouted from up the street as he ran towards them, waving with one hand and widely swinging the little shoeshine box in his other. He came to a stop, out of breath but smiling.
“I shined a man’s shoes!” he said excitedly like it was some fantastic news.
“So?” Marissa replied with a confused look. It was what he did every day.
“It was the man who I shine for every week,” Pipio continued as she and the boys listened. “He was with two other men and he told them I give the best shoeshines of anyone. So I shined their shoes too. Then he was going to pay me a Real for all three but he didn’t look ‘cuz they were talking and he gave me too much.”
“You should’ve gave it back.” she told him. That was the right thing to do.
“I did!” he explained. “I showed him he gave me the wrong bill. Then he said keep it for being honest! Look!” From his pocket Pipio held up the paper note, a ten Reais bill.
“Wow,” said Nino. “I wanna shine shoes. All we get is change.”
“And I got five quarters too,” he added to Tomas and Paulinho who were very happy about the team’s sudden fortune. “So you can have desserts tonight.”
“Don’t spend too much all at once,” Marissa reminded Pipio. “If we save most we can buy food all week.”
“I know. Just a treat today,” Pipio said. “Let’s go.”
At the vendor on the market street they bought five of the little fruit pastries. Pipio was able to pay with their collected change and save the ten Reais. They took them to a nearby little square of trees and benches where they could sit awhile without anyone wanting to drive them off. Pipio handed out a pastry to each of the boys who then went to sit under the shade of a tree. He held out the fourth one to Marissa sitting next to him on the bench.
“Save me the one in the bag,” she asked him as she unzipped her backpack on her lap. She took out the paperback book. “I don’t want to get the pages sticky.”
Pipio rolled his eyes that she wanted to read instead of eat. He ate his own pastry and watched as she turned through the pages. The three swallows came to sit with them also, Fides and Amor together on her right shoulder and Spero at his preferred spot on top of the open book.
Pipio took the last bite of his pastry then licked his fingers clean. He looked over to see the other boys had laid out on the grass beneath the tree after eating. He and Marissa sat silently for a few moments before he spoke.
“Sister Angelica and Mr. Palito said you should go to school, didn’t they?” Pipio said.
“Yes,” she replied. He knew she had talked to both of them about it.
“So you’re gonna tell the lady yes.”
“Not if you think I’ll never come back,” she said. “You said tell her no.”
“You’re gonna do what I say and not them?” he asked in surprise.
“Sister and Palito never sleep in the cold rain with me. Or helped me out of dumpsters when I fell in when I was little.”
“They never helped me take Leandro’s knife away when he was gonna cut my throat,” Pipio replied and they both smiled.
“You were right,” Marissa told him. “ At school they’ll try to make me like them. So I’m going to tell her no.”
“I know you’d never really hate us,” he said. “I didn’t mean that.” He shoved his shoulder against her and she shoved him back. To him that was practically like a hug.
“I can learn from books anyway,” she said. “I don’t have to go to school .”
“It’s better to stay. Tomas and Paulinho would probably cry if you went far away.”
She and the boys were used to spending every minute together. On the streets it was safer that way. But once in a while they were apart for longer times. Like on days when Pipio would shine on the other end of the block from where they begged, or during the hours she spent with Mr. Palito practicing writing and math while the boys went out without her.
“Remember the times you went to Favela Morumbi to look for your mother?” Marissa said. That had been when Melinha was still with them, before Pipio was leader and before they found Paulinho. Favela Morumbi was on the other side of the city and he had walked there.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. He didn’t talk about his mother much anymore. Maybe it made him feel bad.
“You always took a long time. After you were gone for three or four days I was afraid maybe you weren’t coming back,” she admitted. Pipio was the only one she would let hear her say the word ‘afraid’.
“I always came back!” he declared strongly, upset that she had implied he ever might abandon his team.
“Because you’re always part of Sport Club da Luz even when you’re far away.”
“Yes,” Pipio said, and smiled because she had said it like she was proud of him.
“If I went to school,” she said, “I would always come back too. I’d always be part of the team.”
“Then it wouldn’t matter if you went to school. If you come back with us then you’re still homeless. Nobody in Santa Efigenia will give you a job ‘cuz you’re still a gutter kid to them. People will still say they’re all special and you’re nothing.”
“But if I went to school I would learn all the things they know and maybe more. And then,” she confirmed, “I would never believe them anymore when they say I’m nothing. That’s what matters.”
Pipio looked at her but did not reply so Marissa continued.
“After me I’d want you and Nino to go to a school, and then the little boys. Then when people try to make us to feel ashamed of being from Boca do Lixo we’ll know we never have to be. We’ll know we’re all special.”
“And someday when we see that mean old man at the bus station again,” Pipio added to her pictured future, “Tomas can spit on him!”
Marissa gave a quick stern look to show she disapproved of that, then they both broke out laughing. The other boys heard them and came over to see what was so funny. Marissa and Pipio didn’t care to explain their whole conversation so they all just scooted together on the bench and Marissa read to them for a long time.
As it got towards evening Pipio told the boys it was time to head back to the alley. Marissa had Tomas hold her backpack while she went to the little restroom at the corner of the square. When she came back the boys were all smiling together like they had a secret. It probably meant they had put a lizard in her backpack but she didn’t care right then because it had been a good day and Pipio was happy that she decided to stay. She would figure out later how to tell Mr. Palito and Sister Angelica that she wasn’t going to school.
As they walked along Marissa thought about what extra food they could get and where she could hide it in the alley. She wished she had something to cook with or even knew how to cook so they could make their own bread or hot soup or other things.
“Tomorrow we’ll go to the market and see how much food we can buy with ten Reais,” she said to Pipio as she walked beside him. Nino, Tomas and Paulinho were watching out in front of them.
“No,” he replied. “We voted to use it for something else.” The other boys heard them talking and slowed down so they were all walking alongside her.
“Something importanter,” Nino added.
“Something else?” Marissa asked. “What else is more important than food?” She was prepared to get very angry if they had decided they wanted to spend the money on some unneeded thing like a toy or a radio. “And I didn’t vote so it doesn’t count.”
“You can vote,” Pipio said. “If you vote different than us it’s still four against one.”
“What do you think you’re going to buy?” she asked sternly, ready to tell him what a silly idea it was and how they were not going to waste the ten Reais on whatever it was. Though he saw Marissa was about to yell at him, Pipio kept walking up the street acting happy as could be.
“A girl shirt and shoes,” he said smiling and the other boys were grinning widely too. “So you’ll be dressed pretty when you go to school.”
Marissa froze on the sidewalk and couldn’t speak for a moment. It wasn’t any answer she had expected and she didn’t know what to say. The boys all started laughing.
“We voted you should tell the teacher lady yes.”
“Oh, Pipio,” she finally exclaimed, then bit her lip very hard because she felt tears coming in her eyes and didn’t want the boys to see her cry. “Thank you.”
“’Cuz no one can make you be like them anyway,” Pipio said by way of explaining his change of mind. “You’re too stubborn.”
Marissa and the boys ran the rest of the way to the alley. Marissa kept the lead until she reached the alley, still racing so fast that she had to grab the streetlamp on the corner to stop herself. She saw Mr. Palito sitting near his cardboard box and rushed over to tell him the news as the boys caught up and gathered around her.
“I’m saying yes!” she exclaimed. “I’m going to school!”
“Congratulations, kid!” Mr. Palito replied. “Wait here. We’re going to celebrate.”
From somewhere within his cardboard box he brought a tray of cheese and bread for a ‘dinner party’. They all stayed up late and talked about things she might learn in school. Mr. Palito told the boys that science was about biology, geology, and a hundred other ‘ology’ things. Marissa secretly wondered if she would learn those at witch school or if it would all be about magic things. As midnight passed he sent them all off to sleep.
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In the pitch black darkness Marissa awoke to a pricking pain in her foot. “Hey,” she whispered to whichever bird it was whose claw was holding her big toe. “Go back to sleep. It’s still night.”
“Hooo, hooo,” came a quiet reply. It wasn’t the sound of a chirping swallow. She fumbled to find the little flashlight on the ledge above her and switched it on to see the glowing eyes of a tiny creature perched on her left foot.
“Tesimal?” she whispered, trying not to wake the boys. As she sat up the little owl fluttered out into the alley. She crawled out to follow him and stood up in the darkness to find him sitting atop the rusty ventilation unit.
“You’re not s’posed to be here ‘til tomorrow,” she yawned. Tesimal held out one leg that she could see held a little sheet of paper tied with a loop. Knowing it must be her confirmation letter, she excitedly reached out and undid it from his tiny limb. As she unfolded the parchment page it expanded to a full size she could read by the glow of the flashlight.
Dear Sir,
Please accept this confirmation of my attendance at Witness Stone School of the Magical Arts for the semester beginning February 14th.
Sincerely Yours,
Professor Merrythought had told her to sign the letter if she decided yes. Marissa quietly crawled back into the shelter and found a pencil in her backpack. She laid the paper out and in her best cursive writing she carefully spelled out her name.
As she folded the letter it shrunk back to its former size then she tied it back on Tesimal’s outstretched leg. She took from her pocket a little bit of cheese she had saved from the dinner party. “Thank you, Tesimal,” she said. “I hope you like this.”
The tiny owl poked at the morsel then took it in his beak and quickly swallowed it down. “Hooo,” he called softly in his tiny owl voice, then glided silently away into the darkness.
Marissa gazed up the alleyway towards the light from the streetlamp. In her mind she imagined herself standing at the fork in the road, looking both directions, then turning to follow the road that led to Witness Stone School. The road that led to the world of magic.
Chapter 5 - The Wizards Market by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
She was told the school was far away. But another magical place is much, much closer than she could have guessed. Marissa prepares for Witness Stone with her first shopping trip.
Get ‘em, Fides!” Marissa cheered as the swallow swooped to snap up the little whiteflies rising from the leaves. Spero and Amor circled about too, catching bug after bug as Paulinho shook the bushes to disturb the insects into flight. While he helped the birds to their lunch Marissa sat in the shadow of the trees in the little sqaure. Pipio and Nino would be back with food soon and Tomas was talking with some other boys laying on the shaded benches in the afternoon heat.
Many hours ago Marissa had tried to go back to sleep after she had sent off her signed reply before dawn, but she wasn’t able to. All the day her head was full of questions. Now that she had said yes to witch school, what happened next? She knew she should practice reading and writing a lot before she went, but what else should she do? And Professor Merrythought had said her school was hundreds of miles away. How was she even going to get there? Would the professor just magic her there the same way she had taken her to the top of the Italia skyscraper?
Marissa looked again at her acceptance letter. ‘ Semester begins the evening of Monday February 14th ‘, it read. That was a long time away. Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, then it would be January before February. The second page she hadn’t read before was a list. It said she needed ‘robes’ and a lot of books and a wand and a ‘cauldron’, whatever that was. She had the ten Reais to buy a white shirt and black shoes that schoolgirls wore, but how would she get all these other things? Professor Merrythought must know she had no money to buy books and witch stuff. Didn’t she? Maybe she would find Marissa an old robe that someone had outgrown or throw away. And a wand was just a piece of wood. Maybe she could use a stick from a tree if she found a straight one and rubbed the bark off.
Marissa tucked the letter back into her faded pink backpack. The swallows, now full of bugs, circled in the air above her as Paulinho tugged at her wrist. He wanted her to play flying with the three birds so he could follow too.
“Okay,” Marissa said as she stood up and spread out her arms. But the little blue bodies circling about suddenly scattered away as a blur of dappled brown wings streaked straight towards them. It tried to bank and turn to follow the rapid swallows, only to tumble to the grass in a tiny heap of ruffled feathers. A small folded page poked with tiny claw marks floated down near it. “Hoo hoo,” the little ball announced its return.
“They might not like to play with owls,” Marissa remarked. But as Paulinho bent over to pick up the parchment the three swallows glided back down to sit beside Tesimal. Maybe they knew a pygmy owl wouldn’t eat them like big owls might. Paulinho handed her the message then jumped down on the grass after something else as she unfolded it.
Please meet me at Parque da Luz next Monday morning so we may shop for your school supplies. The Department of Education has provided funds for the items you will need.
Professor Merrythought Marissa was relieved. The professor was going to help her get ready. And she was kind of sure ‘funds’ meant money to buy stuff. With a pencil she wrote ‘OK’ on the bottom of the letter then called for Tesimal who had flown off with the swallows. As they returned, Spero performed an agile loop and roll before gliding onto her shoulder. The little owl tried to follow the same pattern but thumped lightly into her chest then dropped into Marissa’s open hands and shook his dizzy head.
“Are you okay?” she asked. Tesimal simply popped back up and took the message in his tiny claw, unfazed by his attempt at stunt flying. Then he perched on her finger, waiting.
“I’m sorry, Tesimal,” she explained. “I don’t have any food to…”
Paulinho held up the wriggling grasshopper he had just caught. The tiny bird considered it, swallowed it, then fluttered into the sky and disappeared over the buildings. Marissa smiled at Paulinho as he waved goodbye to the departing owl.
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“Good morning, Marissa,” the lady in the long cloak said as she appeared before the little girl sitting beneath a tall tree in her hidden place at Parque da Luz. “Have you been waiting long?”
“Good morning,” Marissa smiled as she put down her book and jumped up. “We were here at morning like the letter said. So I wouldn’t be late. The boys walked with me but they’re going to the bus station now”
“You certainly can't be late if you’ve been here since sunrise,” Merrythought confirmed. “Are you ready to go?”
“Oh yes,” she said excitedly and pulled on her backpack. “Hey!” she shouted to the barefoot boys playing soccer in the grassy area beyond the hedges. She waved at Pipio to say she was leaving and all of them waved back.
“Are you going to disappear us to someplace?” Marissa asked.
“No. We’ll be walking so you’ll know how to get there when you leave for school.”
“Know how to get where?”
“To the Wizards market of course. We can't buy wands and cauldrons at Daslu,” she stated. That was good because Marissa knew Daslu was a rich people store that they would never let her in anyway. “Now let’s clean you up a little before we go.”
“But I washed before…”
“Tergeo,” Merrythought’s wand waved, and her shirt and shorts brightened much cleaner than a rinse under the alley faucet had ever made them. “Scourgify,” she directed, and Marissa felt a tingle ripple down her skin until she hopped up as it tickled her bare feet. She looked to see her always soiled soles scrubbed pink and clean and she felt like she had taken a soapy bath like kids with homes do. No one could call her dirty now.
“Maybe something to make you less boyish,” the professor suggested. People always mistook her for a boy because of her short cropped hair, but Marissa liked that no one could grab hold of it in a fight. With a circular motion a twirling pink ribbon appeared from the tip of the wand. It rippled through the air and tied itself snugly over Marissa’s head.
“Shall we go then?” Merrythought asked. Marissa smiled and nodded. The swallows glided down from the trees to follow.
“I never walked anywhere with a grown up before,” the little girl stated.
“Really?” the young lady in the long cloak replied in a surprised tone.
“Well, ‘cept with Sister Angelica in the churchyard,” she added. She meant to say it was nice to walk with her. Since she had pulled her down from the ledge that day they met, Marissa felt almost like Professor Merrythought cared about her.
Avenida Tiradentes was crowded with morning traffic. Cars and buses roared and horns honked as they crossed Rua De Lima then walked some blocks further north. It was an area that Marissa was familiar with but she didn’t remember any market in this direction. Professor Merrythought turned west and led them along another street of older buildings. Above the din of traffic another noise grew louder, the noise of rhythmic joyous music.
“Here we are,” announced Professor Merrythought loudly as she stopped in front of the small building the music came from. The birds landed on a window ledge. On the wall above the entry was a large bright sign of dancing people. “Can you find your way back here when school begins in February?”
“Yes,” said Marissa. Of course she could. “But this isn't a market, it’s a samba school.”
“Oh it’s more than just that,” she said opening the windowed door. “Come in.”
Marissa followed her into a very small front room with a desk and some chairs. On a stool in the doorway to the next room sat a little dark-skinned lady tapping a gnarled wooden cane to the music. A glowing assortment of earrings dangled along her thin neck and her head was wrapped in a tower of multicolored scarves that swayed as her wrinkled old face turned to see them.
“Grace-grace Merry-merrythought,” the old woman sang the professor’s name to the music as a smile brightened her face and she reached out a fragile wrinkled hand. She looks like a real Macumba witch, Marissa thought to herself.
“Miss Julieta,” Merrythought replied and took her hand in greeting. “This is Marissa. She’ll be a first year at Witness Stone.”
“Marissa-rissa-rissa,” she sang and motioned the little girl over to her stool. “This is your first time through the samba school.”
“Um…yes,” Marissa answered as the music blared from the next room and she could feel the floor shake beneath her feet. She was still confused as to why they were here.
“Then you must dance for me.” She slowly raised herself from the stool and pointed her cane. “Twirl through the doorway.”
“It’s her custom,” Merrythought explained when Marissa gave a puzzled look.
Marissa shrugged and wondered how many more strange ‘customs’ she might have to learn. But it was just like spinning around when she played with the swallows, so she started turning circles as she moved into the next room. A room that couldn’t be there because it was ten times bigger inside than Marissa knew the small building outside was. She stopped twirling and gasped. Spread throughout the expansive hall, dressed in flowing sun-colored costumes, more than a hundred dancers moved to the music of the samba band. As the lines of performers twirled in unison the costumes of one row of them erupted in sparkles then completely changed from bright yellow to burning orange. Then each following row sparkled and changed until like a wave the whole group had transformed colors. As she watched them shifting through every shade of the rainbow Marissa knew it must be magic. And the music must be too, for she saw at the front of the room a tall long-armed black man who seemed to be the sole musician making every instrument of the band play. While he swayed and drummed a wand upon the air the pandeiro kept a rhythmic base as floating drumsticks tapped the fast excited beat upon a line of deep bass surdos and the high, piercing repinique. Hovering tamborims and cavaquinho played along. Marissa smiled as she realized that right here in old downtown was a secret witch place!
With a resounding yell and stomp the performance suddenly ended. Marissa clapped as the dancers caught their breath. “That was good!” she said to Professor Merrythought. But the wrinkled little black lady had a stern frown on her face.
“Five minutes rest then practice once more!” the old woman directed as she rapped the gnarled cane on the floor. “That’s not good enough for Carnival yet.”
“Miss Julieta’s leads to the market,” Professor Merrythought said as she took her along the front of the dance room to a door on the opposite wall. She opened the door.
“Off with you now,” Miss Julieta smiled. She touched the tip of her cane to Marissa’s side. “Very nice twirl, young lady.”
“Thank you,” she replied as the door closed behind her.
They entered a dim back room lit by streaks of colors cast upon the walls. It seemed to be a storage room or a loading area since there were many costume boxes stacked along one concrete wall and cluttered piles of old instruments and parade decorations against another. But instead of a rolling steel door that might open for trucks in an alley, Marissa saw the opening on the far wall was filled with a tall stained glass window letting in streams of light. It showed a panorama of street carts overflowing with colorful fruits and produce, breads and hung poultry. At the center, facing away as if walking into the scene, were glass shapes of four of the sparkling Samba dancers. It was very pretty but what she did not see was another door out of the room.
“There are seven colors in a rainbow,” Professor Merrythought stated as she stepped to the stained glass and touched her wand to it. “Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and…” Having tapped each of the colors, the professor paused for Marissa to name the last.
“Um…Purple.” Marissa replied hesitantly as her finger touched grapes of purple glass.
“Yes. But we’ll call it violet,” she said and tapped her wand upon Marissa’s finger.
CRAASH! The entire pane shattered and fell to the floor. Marissa was running for the door to get away when Merrythought shouted “Stop!”
Slowly she turned to see the totally destroyed artwork in a million pieces at the lady’s feet. Police chased kids for breaking little plain windows. They would lock her in jail forever for breaking that one. “I’m… sorry.”
“It’s made to do that,” Merrythought explained with a wide smile. “A joking glassmaker’s spell.”
“But won’t Miss Julieta be mad?”
“I don’t think so,” she said as she walked through the opening to the other side. “Come and see.”
Marissa tiptoed around the shattered glass. She stepped over the empty window frame and out onto a bright open plaza. Suddenly she heard the sound of breaking glass again and turned back to see all the broken pieces falling up into the window frame. As she watched, the stained glass amazingly reassembled itself completely. Except now the scene showed not the samba dancers but a glass likeness of the last two people who had stepped through. Professor Merrythought and her!
“Now you know the way to the Wizards market,” the professor stated. “Welcome to Mercado Trocado.”
“I never saw this street before,” Marissa said in surprise as she looked around at strangely angled buildings and many unusual pedestrians passing by. She thought it must be walled off from other streets.
“Mercado Trocado is hidden from Muggles by concealment charms,” the professor explained. “Even from their tall offices or in their airplanes Muggles could look down and not see it. Remember, we keep magic secret.”
Marissa gazed about to see a busy plaza filled with oddly dressed people in flowing capes and tall pointed hats. The middle of the plaza was a long grassy parkway dotted with groups of trees, flowers and stone benches. Running along either side were two wide cobblestone lanes lined with dozens of peculiar shops, some small and some large but all with funny tilts or twists to the structures. More beautiful stained glass windows framed in stone arches stood between every four or five buildings. At the far end of the plaza, some four blocks away, the dome of a tall white marble building loomed above the trees.
“Have you had breakfast?” Professor Merrythought asked.
“We never have breakfast. Just lunch and dinner,” Marissa replied. “Sometimes only dinner.”
The professor insisted she help her eat some bread and butter so they sat at a little round table outside ‘The Snidget Nest’. Marissa had a slice of toast and small glass of orange juice even though she didn’t feel right eating when she knew the boys had no meal yet.
“The underprivileged student fund provides you four vouchers for school items,” Merrythought said as Marissa took a sip of orange juice and looked at her school list. “One for textbooks, one for uniforms, one for classroom supplies and one for your wand.”
“Does ‘underprivileged’ mean poor?” she asked and the professor nodded.
“In the Wizarding world every child, rich or poor, has the opportunity to come to school.”
That meant the witch people gave her a chance and didn’t think she was nothing just because she was a street kid. That was nicer than ‘Mubbles’ ever treated her.
“Is the Wizardings helping any other homeless kids that are witches?”
“I’m sure there have been others,” she replied. “But this year only you.”
“Oh,” said Marissa, slightly disappointed. She took the last bite of toast except for the crust which she put in her pocket.
“Now let’s plan your shopping,” Professor Merrythought said. “I told Professor Katupya you might need more clothes. He said we can find used books at school and arranged for an extra uniform voucher instead of the textbook one. I think we should begin with shoes.”
“I have money for shoes!” Marissa exclaimed as she unzipped her backpack and took the ten Reais from a hidden pocket inside. “The boys saved it for me.”
“You can only use wizard money in Mercado Trocado,” she replied pointing at the strange coins she had laid on the table to pay for their meal.
“But I have to use this money,” Marissa protested. “So the boys will know they helped.”
Professor Merrythought smiled. “Very well,” she conceded. “I’ll cover it and we can exchange that at Gringott’s Bank later. Now let’s find some shoes you can show off to Sports Club da Luz.”
She found Longtoes Shoemakers by the giant copper colored boot hanging over its entrance. It wasn’t metal copper but a shiny texture like scales on a lizard. A very, very large lizard. She followed the professor inside and saw people browsing through aisles of finely crafted boots, shoes and even sandals.
“This is a new shoes store,” Marissa whispered desperately to the professor beside her. “I don’t have enough for new shoes.” She thought maybe she should wait and find some in the piles at the used shoes table outside the secondhand store in Santa Efigenia.
“Let’s ask Mr. Longtoes what you might afford,” Merrythought replied.
Marissa informed the kind twirly-mustached store owner that she didn’t know her size because she had never worn shoes before. From the shelves of colorful footwear he helped her select a perfect pair for school. “Standard shiny black, brass buckles, nice solid heels that click on the stone and echo down the halls,” he said. He also chose six pairs of brand new white socks with frilly lace on top. The shoes felt tight and uncomfortable even though Mr. Longtoes assured her they were absolutely the right size. But she very much liked the smooth slippy feeling of the socks as she wriggled her toes in them. He even let her pay with the ten Reais since he told Professor Merrythought that his Muggle daughter-in-law sometimes used their currency. Marissa was sure it wasn’t enough money for such pretty shoes and the socks but Mr. Longtoes insisted it was.
“Thank you very, very much,” she said gratefully. It was the first time in her life Marissa had been allowed inside a real store to buy something. No one had chased her out and called her ‘filthy thief’.
“I have new shoes,” she said to herself with pride as they stepped out the shop door. The heels made a wonderful ‘click-click’ on the stone doorstep, just as Mr. Longtoes had said.
She glanced up the wide walkway and a puzzled expression came to her face.
“Um… something changed,” she uncertainly told Professor Merrythought who was behind her talking with the twirly-mustached store owner.
Marissa was sure there had been a bookstore right beside Longtoes Shoemakers. But the racks of magazines and Daily Orb newspapers outside were gone, replaced by large wheeled carts of fresh fruits and vegetables beside a grocer deftly juggling five dozen apples. She looked about and found the giant book sign of Sabedoria Tomes & Scrolls now hanging across the plaza on the other lane. A few doors down from that was the gold straw nest sign of the little cafe she had breakfast at. That building wasn’t in the right place either.
“Why certainly it did, my dear,” Mr. Longtoes confirmed. “Shops never stay in one place in the Changed Market. They always pop up again somewhere else along the plaza though. Except for Fragrancia Flowers that relocated to Praca Republica somehow that once.”
“Everything moves?” Marissa questioned. “Don’t people get lost?”
“Ending up somewhere you didn’t know you were going is part of the fun,” he stated. “Of course the parkway and the Floo stops stay in one place. And Gringott’s.”
“Can I watch when it changes again?”
“Oh, it never changes while you’re looking. But each time you step out a front door the shops will be somewhere different again. Just look for a sign to find what you need.”
“Like the giant’s boot,” Merrythought pointed to the sign hanging above them.
“Hard to miss a size one hundred and thirteen,” Mr. Longtoes added.
They waved goodby to the nice shoemaker and walked down the lane in search of Cansado’s Robes. As she looked, Marissa noticed that each business did have its own uniquely shaped sign. Tangled Lines Seafood was a flipping net-wrapped fish, Corujapolis a huge birdcage, and Fragrancia Flowers (which must have found its way back) had its name spelled in blooming vines rooted in the old brick storefront. Many other people walked about, going in and out of stores carrying packages, shopping bags, little metal pots and even cages with owls! She saw many boys and girls with mothers and fathers and decided they must be shopping for witch school too.
Marissa paused to watch one of the stained glass windows between the buildings. Steps led to a wide ash-filled stone circle at its base that the masonry arch covered above. The stained glass image showed two metallic dragons chasing each others tails through the sky. And they were really moving!
WHOOSH! Marissa leapt back in surprise as the fire pit erupted in a tower of flames and a pudgy red robed woman jumped out. Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Three older boys followed behind her as they all walked off up the lane. The flames flared once more, smaller this time, and a tawny owl with a wrapped package glided out. There were just magic things happening everywhere.
“That’s a public Floo station,” Professor Merrythought explained. “Another way to come to and from Mercado Trocado. Or wizards can travel like that too.” She pointed to a grassbare spot where a dozen assorted brooms leaned on a wooden rail between two stone posts. As Marissa watched, a short white-bearded man in a curled pointy hat took hold of one, placed his leg over the long handle, then zoomed up into the sky. That was the best magic she had seen yet!
“Will you teach me to fly on a broom at witch school?” she asked excitedly.
“I won’t, but Mr. Cavaleiros will,” the professor replied. “Now where has Cansado’s hidden itself?”
“There it is,” Marissa pointed, spotting the shabby little shop across the parkway. Letters on the blowing oversize robes across its rooftop spelled out C-A-N-S-A-D-O-S. As they crossed a stepping stone path to the opposite lane Marissa admired the old, old train cars displayed at the center of the plaza. They weren’t like the huge diesel engines or metal walled freight cars that she’d seen rolling through Sao Paulo. These were ornately trimmed wooden passenger coaches with long rows of windows and tall entry doors, whitewashed in the colors of billowy clouds. Without tracks away from them, she thought maybe they had sat there a hundred years.
“Gracie!” cried a deeply tanned grey haired old Indian woman in a long skirt who wobbled out from Cansado’s with shopping bags that dropped to the ground as she hugged Professor Merrythought.
“Gran Arating,” replied the young lady. “So nice to see you.”
“We not see you with gatherers this past summer. Villages missed you.”
“I was travelling in England.”
“Ah, to lay grandmother to rest,” the elderly woman nodded sympathetically. “She say many times her friends in last years, when her home rid at last of their dark wizard she wish her soul rest there.”
“Yes. She's in Hogsmead now,” Professor Merrythought replied.
“Villages hear you to teach at Witness Stone this year. Ubiratan choose well.”
“Thank you, Gran Arating.”
“New first years Tiquinho, Beraba, Potira and Iara. I buy clothes today,” she said, then gestured to Marissa. “And this young one?”
“Yes, she is a new student also. This is Marissa.”
“Hello,” Marissa said to the old woman who reached out and pinched her cheeks.
“Small for first year,” she remarked. “And who is her family?”
“She’s not from a Wizard family. She is new to our…”
"Ahhh," Gran Arating responded as if with great joy. “A wildflower.”
“Yes,” Merrythought smiled.
She took a small object from a pouch on her waist and placed it into Marissa’s palm. “Good wishes, little wildflower,” she said softly to her, then said goodbye to Professor Merrythought as she wobbled off across the plaza. Marissa looked at the tiny carved wooden parrot the old woman had given her.
“Why did she call me a wildflower?” Marissa asked.
“Because a Muggle-born is like a flower that blooms by chance where no one expected. We all know magic children will grow from magic families, as we know daisies will grow from daisy gardens.”
“But I growed by myself without a magic family. Without a garden.”
“Yes. Like the flowers in the wild that wizards of the rainforest tribes collect. Some magical plants bloom only in the deep forest and can’t be grown in gardens. So Gran Arating’s people believe it is great fortune to find one.”
“Look what she gave me,” Marissa said holding up the wooden charm. “Is it magic?”
“No. But find a magic plant on your herbology field trips and Gran Arating will turn it to silver for you. Like this.” Professor Merrythought leaned over so she could see the little shiny figures in her long braided hair. They were all different animals and one was a small parrot the same shape as hers.
“You must have found a hundred flowers.”
“Mostly roots, really,” she replied as Marissa tucked the charm safely in the hidden pocket of her backpack before they continued. “I always liked to dig in the dirt.”
Inside the busy Cansado’s Robes, New and Gently Used, Professor Merrythought told a teenaged salesgirl that she had vouchers for uniforms. While the unsure assistant went to check with Mr. Cansado about those, they reviewed her school list. It said three robes and five uniforms. Marissa thought that was probably how many rich children had, but that wizardings would help poor kids buy one of each with the voucher.
“Students wear playclothes after classes,” the professor said. “How many outfits do you have Marissa?”
“Just this and the other shirt and shorts I wore,” the little girl replied. She hoped there weren’t rules she had to have more. If she wore a witch robe no one would see what she wore under it anyway.
“Hmmm. If we buy secondhand robes it will leave more funds for other clothes.”
“That’s good,” Marissa agreed. “I never had new new clothes before anyway.”
The salesgirl returned with approval for the vouchers and led them to the children’s used robes.
“Youre a Muggle-born, right?” she asked Marissa as they walked down the aisle.
“Um… yes.” She wondered if she had to wear different clothes because of that.
“It’s okay. I am too,” the older girl assured her. “Isn’t the wizard market exciting the first time?”
“Yes, it is!” Marissa replied more positively knowing the salesgirl was someone like her. “I have new shoes!”
“They’re lovely!” she remarked. “And don’t be too afraid your first day at Witness Stone. Professors act real scary but most of them are nice if you behave.”
Professor Merrythought smiled behind them as she heard this.
“I’m not afraid of a school,” Marissa said strongly. “Only babies get afraid.”
“I just mean it’s okay to be… nervous at first,” the salesgirl said. “I know I was. I’ll be a sixth year soon and Professor Guerra still scares me.”
The student robes weren’t completely black, but had dark grey collars and cuffs. The salesgirl selected one of the smallest size from the rack and handed it to Marissa to try on. Her arms were lost in the wide sleeves and the length fell below her feet. Merrythought took two more robes.
“I’m sorry,” the salesgirl said. “There’s custom tailoring on new fashions only.”
“Oh, Tatiane, that’s but a six inch hemming spell,” Mr. Cansado noted, hurrying to assist another customer. His wand swished as he passed and a speeding thread and needle began sewing rapidly along Marissa’s upfolded fabric then did the same to the robes held by Professor Merrythought.
“Thank you, sir,” Merrythought called to the shopkeeper as she took the robes to the counter.
In a dressing room Marissa tried on the bright white shirt and black skirt girl’s uniform. The shirt was a little loose but looked perfect to her in the tall mirror.
“It fits good,” she stated as she stepped from the dressing room. “If I can buy one more I can rinse one out each night like I do my t-shirts.” The professor had said they might have more ‘funds’ if she bought the used robe, but she knew the list said she needed a cloak too so maybe she wouldn’t have enough for another white button shirt. She didn’t understand why witches needed so many layers of clothes.
They returned to the secondhand section where Merrythought chose five white shirts and five black skirts, three colored t-shirts and three shorts. In the girls aisle she added underwears and a nightgown to a floating shopping basket that conveniently followed behind them. Then she had Marissa try on a flowing rainforest green rain cloak
“This is all for me?” Marissa asked in surprise. Professor Merrythought dropped a wide-brimmed pointy hat upon her head to check the size. It was black to match her robes, but turned inside out it was green to match the rain cloak.
“I believe that will use all the funds of your vouchers,” the professor confirmed. The shopping basket overflowed with twice more clothes than she and all the boys together had. At the counter the young salesgirl folded and bagged all three robes and all the other clothes, then wished Marissa good luck at school as she handed her two stuffed bags. Marissa thanked the salesgirl in return before they stepped out to the cobblestone walkway. The professor waited as she stuffed one shopping bag into her backpack.
“Look who’s found you,” Professor Merrythought pointed.
Fides, Spero and Amor sat along the roof of one of the antique train cars in the parkway. Once again every building along the lane had moved somewhere else. Castilhos Brooms (the flying kind) was now next door where Bludgerboys Quidditch had been. On the other side, past a Floo stop with a stained glass of galloping unicorns, Bella de Barros Potions International took up a half block. Mercado Trocado was like a big thinking game.
“If I just think where Gringott’s and the unbroke window are then I wont get lost,” she said to herself but out loud.
“How do you know Gringott’s?” Merrythought asked. “We havent been near it yet.”
“Mr. Longtoes said ‘Gringott’s’ stays in one place,” she replied. “So it has to be the big white building at the end. The window from Miss Julieta’s stayed at the other end.”
“Excellent reasoning,” the professor commended.
Professor Merrythought asked her to find Lost Cities Apothecary. Its sign shape wasn’t a big magic thing like the other stores, but the statue of a tall native man with a bare chest and grass skirt. His tattooed face looked down sternly from a ledge above the door with watchful eyes that seemed to follow Marissa as she entered. The professor visited with two dark-tanned Indian women who wore striped blouses with skirts like the statue man. When they came out a short while later, Marissa carried a round metal pot to brew potions in, a folding brass scales to weigh things, and twelve little glass tubes (the professor called them vials) in a round stand that fit right inside the cauldron to carry it all. The scowling Indian statue was watching her again.
“Who is he?” asked Marissa.
“That is Jaguating,” the professor told Marissa. “The last king of the wizard tribes. Over a thousand years ago he vanished cities and destroyed his own throne to save his people.”
“He looks mean!”
“When he fought evil pajé he had to be mean. But his people loved him and still do.”
Marissa wondered why people would love someone who had been dead a thousand years. He couldn’t even feel it so why waste love on him when there were alive people that nobody loved? But she really didn’t care anyway. Love was just something people cried about when it hurt them. She wouldn’t cry again because nothing hurt her anymore. She was stronger than that. Then she thought maybe Jaguating looked so mean to show everyone that he was strong.
WHOOSH! A man with a large toad sitting in his hat brim burst into flames and disappeared at the Floo stop. Past the stained glass of splashing mermaids was her last place to visit. Bella de Barros Fine Wands was a tall narrow building with tall narrow lead glass windows on either side of a tall mahogany door. Panelled and framed in dark and richly detailed woods, the storefront was the most elegant Marissa had seen. A tiny brass bell on the door did not jingle but echoed with a deep gong as they entered. Inside the shop lofty shelves stacked with long thin boxes stretched to a high ceiling. Polished wood floors reflected her new shoes and a long glass-fronted case displayed select examples of the wandmaker’s work. ‘Finest Quality Woods, Old World and New World’, read a sign behind the glass.
Marissa saw that each wand set upon a little stand was different in length and shape and color. One was dark red and finely grained, one grey-white with curling vines about it, one twisted and knotty with a light tan finish, and one deep brown one even had a shiny metal leaf design laced around its base. The shopkeeper was with another person so Professor Merrythought directed her to chairs where they could sit until it was her turn. As she passed the counter something flashed behind her.
“Away from the display case, little girl,” said the tall white-haired man behind the counter whose eyes caught the burst of light. He nodded to greet Professor Merrythought before turning back to a tall young girl who stood beside him. Her long blonde hair and pale lovely face reminded Marissa of fashion models in magazines and she wore a beautiful dress like one too. The white-haired man, also well dressed in a fine black robe with gold threading, handed her a wand from a few that lay atop the counter. Unwillingly the blonde girl waved it and a stream of red and gold sparks trailed from it.
“There now, see how this wand has chosen you?” he said with satisfaction. “A fine European ivy. With unicorn tailhair, just as your sisters.”
“But Tio, I want the silver lace wand. It goes with the necklace and earrings I bought.”
“My dear, a wand isn't selected to match jewelry, it’s selected to match you. What good is a pretty wand that can't cast a spell properly?”
“But Tio,” she persisted, “if you love me you would…”
“The filigreed wand is a jungle wood. A village apprentice made it.”
“Ew!” she responded. “The other girls will think I’m a native. But you can put silver on this wand for me, Tio. Or gold!”
“Metals disrupt a wand’s balance, dear,” he said. The girl made a sad-faced pout. “But perhaps we can inscribe your name in it.”
“In fancy cursive letters,” she directed.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Now go find your sister. She’s probably still in Brilhante Fashions buying out the store.”
The beautiful blonde girl came out from behind the counter. She glanced at Marissa in her shirt and shorts and gave a disdainful smirk as she passed before leaving the wand shop. It was a look Marissa was used to ignoring.
Professor Merrythought stood and took her to the counter. The tall white-haired man put away the other wands then turned to face them. He gave Marissa a curious stare followed by a sidelong glance at the displayed wands she had passed.
“Mr. Bella de Barros, this is…”
“Voucher?” he interrupted. “Muggle-born?”
“Yes,” she replied. “Marissa is a…”
Not bothering to hear the rest of her words, the old man pulled a case from under the counter. It contained a half dozen long cardboard boxes and he set one on the counter.
“Standard wand, nine inches . Perfectly good oak/poplar composite with demicorn hair.”
“Demicorn? I’ve never heard of such…”
“Crossbred unicorns. The North Americans have a domestic herd to reduce hair costs.” He took the varnished black stick from its box and handed it to Marissa. It was straight and plain compared to the others. Eagarly she took the wand and held it carefully as she didn’t know what it might do.
“But you haven’t measured her,” the professor said with surprise. “Or tried any others.”
“This is approved issue for welfare vouchers Miss Merrythought,” he coolly instructed her.
“It hasn’t even chosen her,” she stated. Marissa thought that meant it didn’t sparkle like the other girl’s. “Surely you can find a better…”
“For another five galleons she can purchase whatever she likes,” he interrupted again. “The Department of Education voucher credits four and this is what it buys. Perhaps a junk shop could donate a battered worn wand you’d like better, but I run a business not a charity Miss Merrythought.”
“This one’s fine,” Marissa said to the professor. “I like it.” She was quite satisfied that she had been given any wand and didn’t need Professor Merrythought to argue for a different one.
“It will spark with practice,” the white-haired man stated.
“Very well,” she conceded and handed him the voucher. He took the wand from Marissa and replaced it in the box, then sealed it with a ‘USE ONLY IN SCHOOL’ label before handing it back to her.
“When she learns some magic,” he snorted as if to imply he found that unlikely, “she can work to buy herself a better one.”
Professor Merrythought turned to leave without even a thank you. As Marissa neared the display case on her way out she jumped when the silver laced wand exploded with a giant burst of red and gold flares that ricocheted inside the case. The professor was already out the door and saw nothing and Marissa rushed after her to avoid the white-haired man scolding her again for getting too close to his glass case. She called “Thank you” as she closed the tall door, but did not see the astonished face of Mr. Bella de Barros as he stared in disbelief at the still glimmering wand.
“He wasn’t very pleasant,” Professor Merrythought commented.
“He’s just grumpy,” Marissa said. She saw people like him every day who looked down on her because she had worn clothes. If she had bare feet he wouldn’t even have let her in his store. “But I liked all the other wizarding people!”
“You’ll see them again soon,” Professor Merrythought replied. “Did you enjoy shopping?”
“Yes! It was the best day ever.”
“Tell me what day school begins.”
“February fourteenth,” she repeated the date from her acceptance letter. “With the Welcoming Banquet,” Marissa added. Whatever that was.
“You’ll need to be here at Mercado Trocado at 8.a.m. to board for Witness Stone. Do you remember how to get to the samba school and how to open the stained glass?”
“Yes. I touch all the colors,” she said. “But I don’t know how to unbreak it.”
“Don’t worry, it does that part itself,” the professor assured her and handed her a small printed card. “This is your ticket. I can't bring you because I’ll already be at Witness Stone, but you can ask Miss Julieta or Mr. Longtoes if you need any help.”
“I won’t need help. I can take care of me.”
“In the Muggle world you can. The Wizarding world has dangers you have yet to learn about,” she asserted. “Now hold your bag tightly and take my hand.”
--------------------------------------------
Marissa took a deep breath as she unsquished and reappeared with Professor Merrythought on an empty corner in Santa Efigenia. She sat on the curb and slipped off the black shoes, then tucked the frilly socks inside them.
“I have to keep them shiny for when I go to school,” she said. The professor would think she was weak if she admitted the tight shoes hurt her feet from walking in them all day.
“Is your alley near?” Professor Merrythought asked.
“Yes,” she replied. “Just down three blocks.”
“I’ll walk you there,” she said.
As they passed an empty building, Marissa saw three children she knew huddled in a doorway. Two homeless boys tried to comfort a girl crying between them. Tears streaked down her dirty face as her frail body trembled. The sorrowful boys were visibly shaken also.
“Sofia, what’s wrong?” Marissa asked.
“It’s Marta,” the girl sobbed, pointing past the end of the building. “She’s bad sick.”
“Where is she, dear?” said Professor Merrythought bending down to the girl. “Maybe I can help her.”
“No one can help her. The… the dark thing came.”
Marissa leaped up and raced around the corner. “Where are you go…” the professor started to ask but Marissa was already gone. She ran after her down a dirty littered alleyway. At the end she found Marissa kneeling on the ground beside an older girl who lay there unmoving.
“Let me look at her,” Merrythought directed as she lifted the girl’s limp cold body. She patted her cheek with no response then looked into her face. The child’s eyes stared past Merrythought empty and unaware as if there were no feeling within her.
“Dear lord,” she cried. Instantly her wand was in her hand, held high and ready. “Marissa, get behind me.”
She shielded Marissa as she cautiously scanned the alley and the roofs above, then circled her wand about the whole area and called out “Vestigum revelio!” Five misty black lines formed to show trails of what had roamed through the alley.
“Bad dream monsters,” Marissa told her. “Other kids only feel afraid and see dark, but I…”
“Dementors,” Merrythought whispered in disbelief.
She knelt back down and held the girl’s head in her lap. Marissa saw tears on Professor Merrythought’s face but knew there would never be tears again in the empty eyes of Marta.
“You can't help her, can you?” she said. She knew this wasn’t like scraped hands and a black eye. She had seen emptied ones before and they never got better.
“No. It’s too late. No witch can save a person after… a Dementor’s kiss.”
“They’re magic things, aren’t they?” Marissa realized. “Evil things just witches can see.”
One of the young boys now stood at the head of the alley, afraid to come closer. Professor Merrythought laid the girl down and stepped over to him. “Tell me what happened,” she said gently.
“Last night the scare found our sleeping place. Then I feeled afraid I’d starve forever. The scare was all around us. Marta tried to protect us but the scare took her. It killed her alive.”
“There were five of them,” Merrythought said, though knowing the children had felt only one dark blanket of terror. “How did the rest of you escape?”
“We didn’t,” he answered. “A silver light chased the scare away.”
“Silver light?” she questioned. “A Patronus. Then there must have been Aurors.”
“What’s ‘Aurors’?” Marissa quietly asked.
“Wizards that fight dark creatures,” the professor told her. “And Dementors are the most vile dark creatures that exist. They breed in places where there is misery, despair and hopelessness.”
“Places like Boca do Lixo.”
Two men from Nossa Senhora da Luz came and gathered Marta. Her friends followed to say goodbye to the sick girl who would die soon. No will to live remained inside her. When they were gone Marissa quietly picked up her bag and walked on to her own alley, hiding the sadness that could help nothing.
“It’s too dangerous to stay here until we are sure those creatures are gone.”
“I’ll be okay if Mr. Palito is there,” Marissa replied.
“You don’t understand, Marissa. I don’t care how well you pretend nothing scares you. These are Dementors! They steal souls!”
“I know what they do!” she shouted back. Marissa was a little surprised that Professor Merrythought didn’t understand they were just another part of life in the poor slums. “I saw kids like Marta die before. And I can see… them.”
“They’ve been here before?” she demanded unbelieving.
“They’re always here. Always looking for kids who feel too hurt and too hungry and too worthless. Kids with no more hope,” she stated. “I keep the boys away from places the monsters are. But… I can't help everyone.”
Marissa turned the corner and saw the cardboard box with the faded curtain. Mr. Palito’s boots sat outside. She knew the boys would be home in a few hours and she could show them her new shoes. But she would have to tell them about Marta too.
“I’m okay,” Marissa assured the professor. “They never come in our alley.”
“Marissa, you can't possibly have unknowingly cast magic against Dementor perception,” she said as she raised her wand again to trace their past presence. But instead of any misty black trails, the length and height of the alley filled with a faint glittering light that faded back as she lowered the wand. A stunned but questioning look crossed her face.
“You are safe here,” Professor Merrythought confirmed.
“I said that,” Marissa reminded her.
“Although I am not sure how,” she added. “Always remain here at night, Marissa.”
“We do.”
“I will see you at Witness Stone in February,” she said placing her hands upon Marissa’s shoulders and looking down at her. “Now I must go to speak with someone about why dark creatures are loose in Sao Paulo.”
Merrythought turned and vanished again, and Marissa wondered again if she had made the right choice to leave the boys and go to school. Or was learning magic more important than ever now that she knew what the bad dream monsters truly were?
End Notes:
Thanks to those who have left comments. Any reviews are appreciated, compliments or criticism.
Chapter 6 - The Journey to the Rainforest by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa leaves for school and finds new acquaintances, kind and unkind, on her passage to a far away world.
Marissa stood at the doorway to the samba school dressed in her school uniform. She wore her shiny black shoes, frilly socks and the pink hair ribbon Professor Merrythought had magicked from her wand (she was glad it hadn’t disappeared like she thought it might). Pipio, Nino, Tomas and Paulinho had all come with her to see her off. Even Mr. Palito had been awake at dawn to walk with her too. That surprised her because for the last six weeks he had been staying out very late every night and always slept past noon.
“Um… this is where the school bus picks me up,” Marissa told them.
“Time to say goodbye, scruffs,” Mr. Palito directed. Pipio stood up from polishing her shoes to a perfect shine one last time.
Marissa tried to look calm and strong even though she had grown more and more nervous with each block they came. Now the moment was here. She was really leaving for school and would be gone not just a few days but for many months. Excitement and doubt swirled inside her.
“Bye, Marissa,” Tomas said. "Don’t forget about us.”
“I won’t,” she said. “Remember to save bread for the birds when you can.”
“Bye,” Pipio said. He slugged her in the shoulder and she slugged him back. Nino and Tomas punched her too, but Paulinho hugged her. He wasn’t as tough as the others and still acted like a baby sometimes.
Marissa lifted up her fat, overstuffed pink backpack and slung it onto her shoulder. Somehow she had managed to fold and tuck all her clothes and school supplies inside it. Mr. Palito opened the windowed door and walked inside with her. She waved once more to the boys as it closed. No music played now, but Miss Julieta sat on her stool just as before.
“Marissa-rissa-rissa,” she sang. The dark old lady had remembered her name and held out her wrinkled hand. “How is my little twirler?”
“I’m good,” she smiled. Miss Julieta then turned to inspect the other person who had entered. Marissa thought maybe she would tell Mr. Palito he had to leave her magic place.
“Palito,” she nodded. “A very long time since we have seen you here.”
“Miss Julieta,” he nodded back. “Just came to see off this dancing girl.”
Her cane motioned them into the next room. Whack! Mr. Palito jumped forward as the knarled stick smacked his backside when he passed. “Need no excuse to come visit more often,” the old woman said sternly but then laughed.
The giant dance hall was now an empty small room with only a few steps to the other door. Mr. Palito opened it and entered the dim storage room where the stained glass market scene pictured two tall boys carrying broomsticks.
“How do you…”
“…know Miss Julieta?” he finished Marissa’s question. “A bum gets around a lot. Meets some interesting people over time. Looks like a dead end here, huh?”
“It’s not really, but…” she paused. But she wasn’t supposed to let anyone know about magic.
“Fresh fruit,” Mr. Palito remarked as he pulled the toothpick from his lip and studied the produce carts in the glass. “Apples, oranges, lemons, melons, blueberries. Grapes too. Light purple ones and dark p…”
CRAASH! The stained glass fell to the ground. Mr. Palito calmly tucked the stick of wood back between his teeth and sqatted down next to Marissa to look her in the eye.
“If you meet kids who think they’re better than you,” he said to her, “remember that most of them couldn’t survive a week on their own in Santa Efigenia, let alone their whole life.”
“I will,” she said. He meant she was stronger.
“You go learn some… stuff. I’ll keep an eye on the scruffs.”
“Thank you, Palito.”
“See ya later, kid.” He tussled her hair then walked to the door. “Guess I’d better get a broom to clean this up.”
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Marissa walked hesitantly along the wide cobblestone lane, uncertain of where she was going. Mercado Trocado was more crowded and active this morning than it had been the day she went shopping, even though none of the stores looked open yet. Persons on flying brooms glided to the ground and all the stained glass Floo stations along the lanes were constantly erupting in flames as people arrived. Boys and girls with adults pushed large luggage trunks on wheeled carts, people carried caged owls and even a few fluffy cats, and everyone talked and waved at others as they met. She looked for other children in uniforms but it looked as if she was the only girl dressed for school, so Marissa followed the lively groups that seemed to all be heading towards the center of the parkway.
“Good morning, young lady,” said a voice at her side. She turned to see it was twirly-mustached Mr. Longtoes who smiled and began strolling along beside her. “Have you found where you’re going?”
“Um… that way,” she replied, pointing in the direction the crowd moved. Marissa was unsure how she would travel to school. Maybe one of the magic firepits led there or maybe the wizards just disappeared all the children to school at once. She would watch everyone else and figure it out so she wouldn’t look like she needed help.
“Just where I was headed also,” Mr. Longtoes said. “May I walk with you?”
She nodded her head and they continued following the flow of people until they reached the area where the old, old wooden train cars sat in the parkway. Boys and girls added their trunks to a small mountain of others stacked behind the last car. A young blue suited man with a wand motioned his empty arms as if he were lofting something into the air, and each time he did another of the trunks would fly up and load itself into the train. Marissa could see children boarding and others looking out windows of the first three whitewashed passenger cars.
“We’re riding the old train to witch school?” she questioned.
“You’re much too young to fly your own broom to Witness Stone,” he replied.
“But there’s not even an engine. Or tracks to go anywhere.”
“That’s what Muggles need to move a train,” he laughed, “not wizards.”
Marissa supposed that was true. When the train was ready to leave, wizards could probably wave their wands for magic rails to appear and the passenger cars would roll away without needing any engine to pull them. Maybe they would roll right through the unbroke window and out Miss Julieta’s samba school. Magic was exciting.
“How could a proper girl possibly survive with only one trunk, mother?” a teenaged girl in a very nice silk dress and sparkling jewelry said to an older woman. Marissa saw the tall golden blonde walking by from the luggage area and realized she looked exactly like the fashion model girl in the wand shop, only a few years older and curvier.
“Don’t worry, Cecelia. Your father tipped the porter to take your second trunk and Celestia’s as well,” the mother assured her as they passed.
Marissa thought five of her full backpack could fit in one of the large trunks. Maybe witch kids packed them with lots of schoolbooks and extra school things. No one could possibly have that many clothes to fill one.
“Show your ticket there,” Mr. Longtoes said, pointing to a door at the back of the first car where another man in a sky blue suit directed passengers into the train. “Enjoy your trip, my dear.”
“I will,” she said as he turned to leave. “And thank you again for my shoes.”
Marissa heard a flutter of feathers beside her right ear and turned to see Spero landing on her shoulder. Another rustle from behind told her Fides and Amor had set down on her backpack. “Hey!” she scolded them. “You were supposed to go back with the boys. They only let owls, cats and toads at witch school. And they’ll all eat you!” She wasn’t really sure about toads, but had seen a large one with a very wide mouth. Spero did not seem scared.
She stepped over beside a tall tree where she shooed the swallows into its branches. As they chirped in protest, Marissa watched a large cauldron near the front of the train being stirred by a wizard in sky blue cloak and blue-winged pointy hat. It overflowed with soap bubbles that floated like clear balloons and the wizard handed the biggest ones out on strings to small children. Older boys and girls in fancy clothes and dresses gathered near the passenger cars to meet friends they hadn’t seen over the summer. Some showed off new brooms or animals. In the middle of all this, two large bodies suddenly collided in front of Marissa and tumbled to the grass on the parkway.
“Team of destiny!” “Conda rules!” A pair of shouting brawny teen boys rolled about the ground pummeling each other in greeting. They both wore bright soccer jerseys with a picture of a fat snake wrapped around three gold rings. Marisssa didn’t know what team that was. As she tried to step around them, another large body knocked her aside and dove onto the pile. The group of boys rose yelling and shoving each other and moved off to board the front entry of the passenger car.
Marissa waited in the ticket line as students hugged parents before they boarded the train. She heard a lot of ‘I love you’ and ‘love you too’. A five year old insisted on kissing his big sister’s harlequin toad goodbye. One girl cried like Professor Merrythought said she had done when she first went to school. Marissa calmly ignored all the displays of affection. A street kid knew not to show feelings and look soft. But she wondered if all the families noticed that she was the only one who came by herself. She wondered if they would think she was a stranger who didn’t belong. At least in her bright school uniform and shiny shoes they wouldn’t know she was only a street beggar.
“Ticket please,” prompted the conductor. He glanced skeptically at Marissa’s height for a moment, then punched the card and pointed her up the steps. “First years in back half of first car,” he directed. She nervously climbed the wooden steps through the door into the car. A long carpeted aisle separated seat rows on either side. Uphostered chairs in pairs of two alternately faced forward or back so that all passengers were sat in groups of four. Noise filled the long room, especially in the front half where older, more talkative teenagers sat. The young first year students of Marissa’s age were a bit quieter. She saw that the next to last row at the back of the car was empty, opposite two young Japanese girls dressed in white shirts and black skirts with robes folded upon their laps. At last she found someone else wearing school uniforms.
“Um… can I sit there?” Marissa asked politely.
“Yes,” one of the girls replied. “It’s not taken.”
As she turned to slide off her backpack, Marissa accidentally bumped two older girls coming up the steps.
“Sorry,” she said to them. The black girl with beaded braids just smiled and turned to open the back door which led to the next passenger car. But the brown-skinned girl with frizzly black hair met her eyes and looked at Marissa as if she knew her.
"You're not supposed to be here,” the girl stated firmly. “You told her no.” She continued to stare directly at Marissa who did not know what to say in return. Maybe the older girl meant she was in the wrong place to sit.
“Constanca?” her friend called to the girl who stood unmoving before Marissa. “Do you know her?”
“No. I…” The frizzly-haired girl shook her head as if to clear her thoughts, but then looked confused. She seemed to forget what she had just said. “I just saw… No,” she said walking off into the next car. Marissa gave her own puzzled look then took the seat by the window so she could watch when the train began rolling through the city.
“I’m Sakura and this is my cousin Anna,” said the girl sitting across from her. Both of the slender girls had dark pretty eyes and straight jet black hair trimmed neatly at their shoulders.“What’s your name?”
“Marissa,” she replied as she slid her backpack beneath the comfortable cushiony seat. When she sat back her feet hung a few inches from the floor. She wriggled her toes inside the smooth slippy socks to relax them.
“We’re playing cards after the trip begins. Do you want…”
A bloodcurdling scream interrupted Sakura’s words as a flailing body frantically climbed over the seat behind Marissa. The chubby girl fell into the chair beside her and shrieked at a black spot moving across the back of the seat. Four boys seated across the aisle pointed and laughed.
“It’s only a spider…ers,” Marissa corrected herself as three more crawled over the cushion after the first. As she caught them in her hand a very long pink line snaked over the seat and licked the small spiders out of her palm, then slid back.
“They’re just breakfast for my Puffskein,” came a girl’s voice from the seats in front of them. “I forgot to feed him before we left.”
“I hate spiders!” called back the girl next to Marissa, still cowering down in the seat in case more of them came after her. “And creepy wet tongues are gross too.”
The two Japanese girls giggled at the other girl’s reaction. “How can you become a witch if you’re afraid of spiders, Rosaria?” asked Sakura jokingly. Marissa had to smile at the pigtailed girl also. She’d had much uglier insects than spiders crawl over her in the alley at night. When she was very, very hungry with no food she had even eaten some.
“Marissa, this is Rosaria Castilhos. Anything that crawls or squirms horrifies her.”
“Thank you for saving my life,” the girl said to Marissa. “Is it okay if I sit here?”
“Uh, sure,” Marissa replied. “I don’t think catching bugs counts as saving your life.”
“You don’t have any bugs, do you?” the girl inquired suspiciously. Marissa shook her head no as Rosaria brushed off the beautiful dress she wore and carefully checked that no more spiders were coming over her seat.
“ALL ABOARD!” shouted a loud clear voice outside the passenger cars. “Witness Stone Line departs in five minutes.”
A few more children rushed up the steps and along the aisle to where they had saved seats. The conductor stepped inside and stood at the open door.
“Let’s watch,” said Sakura as she leaned out the open double pane window. The other Japanese girl, whom Marissa noticed hadn’t said a word yet, stayed in her seat. “Oh, Anna. Don’t be so nervous. Come wave goodbye to your mom.”
Marissa sat up on her knees to look out the window next to her and moved over so the girl Rosaria could look out too. Anna timidly stood beside Sakura who showed her where their parents were standing in the crowd outside.
“Mama! Papa!” Rosaria called out. As the three girls waved, Marissa watched the blue-cloaked wizard from the bubble-making cauldron pace up and down along the passenger cars. He stopped and motioned his wand towards the large pot near the front of the train. A long clear bubble stretched out from the cauldron and bounced into the air above him. He spread his arms wide and the bubble grew to an enormous width and height, tall as the surrounding buildings. It floated above the train roof and Marissa turned her head upward to follow, but the eaves over the windows stopped her from seeing where it went. Then the wizard conjured more giant bubbles from the cauldron as small children oohed and aahed.
“What is he doing?” Marissa asked the girl beside her as she pulled her head in.
“Silly,” Rosaria replied as if Marissa were joking. “He’s blowing up the train.”
“He magics an explosion to move the…” she left her question unfinished. She had expected magic rails, but now she was just confused. Maybe wizards were crazy.
“Haven’t you ever watched the train leave?” said Sakura.
“No. This is my first time,” she said. “I’m a… a Mubble.” She hoped it wouldn’t make the girls not like her if she let them know that, but they probably could already tell she had no witch family since she had no one to wave to.
“That’s Captain Caerulus,” Sakura said of the bubble-making wizard. “He makes the balloons that fly us to Witness Stone.”
“Fly us?” she asked with surprise. As Rosaria giggled at her the entire passenger coach shivered and lifted up a few inches. Marissa’s eyes widened as she stretched back out the open window and looked down to the following cars where she could see groups of enormous clear bubbles attached to the roofs. The clustered globes continued expanding and she gasped in astonishment as she saw the entire train rise another few feet from the ground. The crowds outside clapped and waved as the passenger cars rose above them. A white steam rose from beneath the train, surrounding its wheels in clouds. She saw the blue cloaked wizard leap up to the outside platform at the front of the first car.
“Last call to board!” called out the conductor at the entrance behind her. Marissa thought anyone getting on now would have to jump very high to reach the steps. She watched him close the door then turned back to see a trio of dark blue shapes landing on the windowsill outside.
“Look at the little birds,” smiled Sakura. “They want to ride with us.”
“Oh, no!” cried Marissa. She reached her arm out the window to shoo them away but the three swallows simply hopped from her reach.
“Don’t you like birds?” asked Sakura.
“I told them they can’t come,” Marissa said in frustration. “But they won’t listen to me.”
“Oh, they’re your pets?”
“No. They’re just wild birds that like me. That’s Amor,” she said of the one pecking back as Anna tapped on the glass, “and Fides and Spero. But the letter said we can only bring owl birds.”
“Well, if they’re wild they can go where they want, can't they?” Sakura stated. As if accepting her decision, Spero fluttered up through the open window and onto Marissa’s shoulder. Rosaria jumped and scooted away a bit.
“I don’t know if I like little birds,” she said uncertainly. “They hop around too fast.”
“They get rid of bugs,” Marissa told her. “Every one they can catch.”
“Really?” Rosaria replied. “Then I do like them.”
The passenger cars rose higher and higher from Mercado Trocado until all the waving families were small dots like the people Marissa had seen from the Italia skyscraper. Billowing white mist obscured the wheels and underside of the whitewashed cars. Outside on the front platform, Captain Caerulus charmed the train westward towards the Amazon rainforest.
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A lone drifting cloud cast its shadow on cracked sidewalks along Rua da Vitória. Mr. Palito passed the vacant lot where the boys often played soccer and carefully stepped over a sleeping vagrant who leaned on a boarded storefront. The shadow darkened as he turned onto a narrow sidewalk between empty buildings. He noticed three tall figures in dark clothing gathered at the far end of the passageway.
“Your scummy friends didn’t tell you this is my block now?” Palito asked them as he flicked a toothpick from his mouth into his fingers. Without speaking in response, the group slowly advanced towards him. He backed away a few steps.
Moments later the dazed vagrant staggered to his feet and ran fearfully from the loud anguished scream that echoed from around the corner. Who it came from he did not want to find out.
--------------------------------------------
“It’s more like a wizard blimp than a train, really,” Sakura said. “If you compared it to Muggle transportation I mean.”
Marissa could tell that Sakura was very smart. She told her all about the Witness Stone Line as they watched the city pass by below. Sao Paulo had seemed endless, but eventually the crowded tall buildings gave way to poorly built shacks, then to the fields, roads and wooded hills of rural areas. Sakura said the bubbles wouldn’t burst because they were ‘impervious’, so it didn’t matter if the swallows flew up and poked at them. Marissa was glad the train wouldn’t fall out of the sky because the stubborn birds had followed her. She was also glad that the three girls she sat with didn’t seem to mind that she was a Muggle-born (not Mubble, she had said it wrong).
“Look!” Marissa cried out as she pointed to a large approaching object that at first she had thought was a drifting cloud. “It’s another wizard train!”
“First year students,” came Captain Caerulus’ voice throughout the passenger cars, “those of you who can look out our starboard windows will see the Rio de Janiero flight about to join us.”
Across the sky, three ornately trimmed wooden coaches, misted in cloud, floated beneath a fifty-foot high cluster of clear bubbles. Refracted sunlight cast colorful spectrums across the bubble surfaces. As they neared, Marissa could see other children waving from the windows. She looked back as the Rio cars slowly lined up behind their own train, then heard a ‘clank!’ as they locked together and enormous bubbles squished into each other overhead.
“Now the train is seven cars long,” Marissa said. She knew how many seats were in this passenger coach and figured out seven times it in her head. It could be almost five hundred people except for the space all those trunks took up.
“It gets longer than this,” Sakura informed her. “My big sister told us about it.”
“There’s even more coming?”
“Oh, yes. The Bela Horizonte and Salvador flights join us at Brasilia. Then Fortaleza and Recife hook on when we pass over Xingu river. And there’s… hmm…” She tried to think of one she had missed. Anna leaned over and whispered in Sakura’s ear.
“Inner Iguacu. That’s where our other cousins live now,” Sakura added. “Most of the smaller cities have just two coaches.”
“Upperclassmen may leave their seats when okayed by the conductors,” came another annoucement of the captain’s voice.
“Is that us?” Marissa asked Sakura and stood on her seat to see the conductor at the far front of the passenger coach. “Can I walk through the whole train?”
“No,” she replied as Rosaria giggled at her again. “Upperclassmen means sixth and seventh years. We’re first years. We have to stay in our seats for attendance.”
“Oh,” Marissa said with some disappointment. “What’s attendance?”
“The House Leaders take roll of all the new students. My sister says it happens later after more flights join us.”
Two of the large teens in soccer jerseys that she had seen earlier were coming loudly down the aisle to the back of the passenger car. Younger boys gave admiring looks as they passed. The door to the next car opened and a third jerseyed teen from the cars behind entered. “Rezende, Fonseca!” he greeted them loudly. “Conda rules!”
“Enjoy shovelling dragon dung all summer, Cabral?” replied the one called Fonseca as they stood in the aisle beside Marissa’s section.
“Hell, I signed up to apprentice at the reserve before they told us Ramo Cavaleiros was our new Quidditch coach. My father wouldn’t let me back out.”
“Man, you just missed the most intense training camp ever!” the one called Rezende said. “Coach Cav worked our butts off, Stenio.”
“So what’s this prophecy crap Braganza owled me about?” Stenio Cabral asked the two. “Something about an oracle and we’re all going to be legends.”
“Cavaleiros says we’re the best school team he’s ever coached,” Fonseca said. “And he hasn’t even seen us with our star chaser yet.”
“He says he believes we could be the team from the prophecy. The team of destiny.”
“Man, I flunked divination twice,” Cabral told them. “I still don’t know what the hell you guys are talking about.”
“The Olinda Oracle! My old man talks about her every time the national teams play.”
“Coach Cav says like a hundred years ago there was this famous seer in Olinda. She had a vision that one day Brazil would win three World Cups in a row.”
“No team’s ever done that,” Cabral declared.
“Exactly!” Fonseca confirmed. “Whoever does will be like Quidditch legends forever.”
“The prophecy said the players would come from a team unbeaten in every game it plays. Cavaleiros told us if we win all our games this school year we’ll be the team she foretold and it will be our destiny to join the national team and lead it to victory.”
“Unless you’re set to become a dragonherder instead of a worldwide Quidditch star.”
“Hell no,” Cabral replied. “If Ramo Cavaleiros believes it’s us, then I believe it.”
“Team of destiny!” yelled Rezende as he and Fonseca jumped up and slammed chests against each other. “Team of destiny!” They tackled Stenio Cabral and pushed themselves out the door to the next car.
“Is ‘Quidditch’ the name of the witch school soccer team?” Marissa asked after the noisy teens were gone. All three of the girls, even quiet Anna, broke out laughing for no reason. Marissa considered that maybe she should have sat with boys instead of silly girls.
“You really are a Muggle-born,” Rosaria said as she giggled.
“Well, it’s a funny name for a team,” she said defending herself.
“It’s not soccer,” Sakura said as she and Anna quieted themselves. “Quidditch is a wizarding sport, played on brooms.”
“The flying brooms?”
“Yes,” confirmed Rosaria. “It’s only the best game in the universe. There are four teams at Witness Stone, one for each house. Um… sorry I laughed after you saved my life,” she added apologetically.
“That’s okay,” Marissa said. Maybe she could get used to a group of girls. She just hadn’t been around any much since Melinha had gone. At least they said they were sorry when boys never did.
For a while they played a card game called Exploding Snap, which Marissa found she was pretty good at once she learned the rules. But they stopped after the conductor told them they were being too loud when Rosaria screamed every time a card blew up. The train continued along and Marissa watched each time another flight joined the lengthening Witness Stone Line. Soon there were almost twenty coaches and they had left all the cities and towns behind as the train flew over the dense tropical forests of Amazonia. She knew there was ground beneath it somewhere, but all that was visible was a canopy of lush green treetops. In the early afternoon they came to a great range of dark rainclouds pouring down upon the forest, and the train rose higher to pass above it until Marissa could see only a thick blanket of clouds below that reached to the horizon. The three swallows sat contentedly on her windowsill. A little cart had rolled through and given all the passengers fat sandwiches and drinks. Marissa had never had a whole sandwich by herself before, so the food cart lady cut one in half for her and Anna Yamazaki to share. Then Anna had happily fed almost all of hers to the birds after seeing Marissa give them crumbs. She wondered if swallows could get too fat to fly.
“Good afternoon, children,” echoed a voice. “First year students, your attention please.” Mr. Argiletum, the Witness Stone librarian and trip supervisor, introduced himself and the House Leaders. He stood at the front of the first passenger car, but his voice was magically turned up like a loud radio so all the train cars could hear. He wore a bland beige suit and robe with a funny eyeglass on only his left eye. Sakura had told her that House Leaders were the boy and girl bosses of the buildings where all the kids sleep. Marissa thought it must be like big hotels or something.
Mr. Argiletum explained that Baltazar Varnhagen and Tania de Feiticeiros would take attendance from the end of the train, Milo Timbira and Alika Escuro would begin in the middle cars, and Solinho Braganza and Cecelia Bella de Barros would begin here in the first passenger coach. The pairs would move in opposite directions until all had met each of the arriving first years.
The Indian girl Tania de Feiticeiros waved at Sakura and Anna as she left to the other cars. Sakura told Marissa that Tania was best friends with her older sister, but her sister graduated last year and was beginning Mermish language studies this fall. Marissa knew some English words, and knew Sister said prayers in Latin, but she had never heard of a language Mermish before. Then Rosaria talked to Marissa about the swallows for awhile and she asked if Marissa could train them to eat the ickiest bugs first. After a time the House Leaders and another girl with them were near their section.
“We’re next,” Sakura anxiously informed the other girls.
The two House Leaders turned to them but were still discussing the boys across from them. “So mark Ribeiro as a legacy for us and Ferreira as a request by Department of Sports,” said the large teen in the jersey with a fat snake and gold rings. Sakura had said he was the captain of a Quidditch team. Then they looked at the four girls.
“Names?” inquired the tall golden-haired blonde. She was the beautiful teenaged girl that had passed by Marissa outside the train. Her slightly smaller mirror image, still chatting with the first year boys across the aisle, was the fashion model girl from the wand shop.
“I’m Sakura Miyashiro,” the Japanese girl volunteered first.
“Sayuri Miyashiro’s sister?” asked Cecelia Bella de Barros, and Sakura nodded her head in reply.
“Well, we know where she’s going,” said the other House Leader.
“This is my cousin Anna Yamazaki,” Sakura added. “She would like to…”
“Yeah, yeah. Woolly too,” said Sol Braganza, who didn’t care to talk with girls as he had with the two boys in the seats across from them whose fathers were star players for a team called the Iguacu Fallers. “So who are you, pigtails?”
“Rosaria Castilhos,” replied the girl next to Marissa.
“Like Castilhos Brooms?”
“Yes,” she confirmed. “That’s my family’s business.”
The tall blonde girl leaned over and whispered something to the Quidditch captain, then wrote something on the clipboard she carried. But with a bird feather,Marissa saw, not a pencil or pen,. “And what is your name?” she said to Marissa with a snobbish voice and a look to show she was very unimpressed by her presence on the train.
“Marissa,” she said, and smiled. As a beggar she was used to people talking to her like that, and she didn’t let it bother her. Sister Angelica had taught her she should never let people who act bad make her act bad back.
“Is she really supposed to be here?” Sol Braganza asked Cecelia doubtfully. “She looks like she’s eight or nine.”
“I have my letter,” Marissa replied. She pulled out her backpack and unzipped it, then stopped. “Um… but it’s way at the bottom.”
“Where’s your wand then?” he demanded.
“Right here,” Marissa said, slipping it from the side where it was the last item she had tucked in.
The Quidditch captain began laughing loudly as he saw it. “That looks like plastic wands that Muggles play with,” he said mockingly. “Hocus pocus! Hocus pocus!”
The younger boys across the aisle laughed along with him, as did the younger blonde girl who had turned to join her sister. Rosaria smiled too though she tried not to, but the two Japanese girls frowned. They didn’t think his teasing was funny.
“Those are the cheap U.S. factory wands my uncle is trying to get rid of,” Cecelia said disdainfully. “They work so weakly even the poor natives don’t want them. So he sells them to welfare Muggle-borns.”
“I saw her at Tio’s shop,” added her younger sister. “She was wearing raggedy poor people clothes.”
Marissa didn’t say anything. They were trying to see if they could get her upset. It was better to ignore mean words and show you were too strong to be hurt by them. If she showed them she was weak it would just prove to them that they could tease her more.
“Well, look, Celestia,” the older sister commented. “She can't afford to tailor her secondhand uniform to fit, either.” She meant Marissa’s loose shirt whose sleeves were a little wide too. It was the very best shirt she had ever had, but not anything as nice as the perfectly fitted silk dresses that the curvy Bella de Barros sisters wore.
“Oh, I would just die if I had to buy used clothes at Cansado’s,” grieved Celestia.
Marissa had thought school uniforms would make her fit in with all the children. But the blonde girls wanted to make her feel ashamed that she didn’t have as pretty of clothes as they had.
“What’s your last name?” Cecelia asked her after they had made all their mean comments.
“I don’t have one. I… don’t have any parents.”
“So they died,” Cecelia Bella de Barros said bluntly.
“I don’t know,” Marissa said coolly.
“What part of your family do you live with now? Where do you live?”
“In Sao Paulo,” Marissa said. Sakura, Anna and Rosaria all watched with discomfort as the House Leader kept asking her questions.
“Well, duh. We’re all Paulistas,” broke in Sol Braganza. “They’re from Liberdade,” he said pointing at Sakura and Anna, “and we’re from Jardins. What neighborhood are you from?”
She didn’t want to tell them because she knew what they would say, but Sakura had said she had to answer anything the House Leaders asked because they were the bosses. She wanted to do good in school, so she turned and looked Cecelia directly in the face. “Santa Efigenia,” she said.
“She means Boca do Lixo,” corrected Celestia scornfully. “The mouth of garbage.”
“Oh, that’s why you have no last name,” declared Cecelia. “You’re one of those homeless Muggles who steal money and dig in dumpsters.”
She could see the taunting girl expected her to deny it, but Marissa made no response. She simply met Cecelia’s accusing stare and let no emotion show on her face. She wouldn’t be ashamed and wouldn’t let them think they hurt her.
“Oh my gosh,” said Cecelia when she saw Marissa would not reply. “She really is!”
“She probably smells like a dumpster too. They never wash themselves.”
“That’s not very nice!” Sakura protested. “To make up lies just because she’s Muggle-born.”
“You should be quiet,” Cecelia cautioned the young girl, “or you might have detention before we even get to school.” Sakura was taught to respect House Leaders and so unwillingly silenced herself.
Cecelia turned and whispered something to Celestia, furtively pointing at Rosaria.
“Rosaria, that is such a pretty dress,” the younger blonde said to her sweetly. “Won’t you stand up so I can see it better?”
“Oh, okay,” Rosaria agreed hesitantly as Celestia took her hand to help her up from the seat. “Mama chose it.”
“You wouldn’t want to get odors on it,” she said, glancing at Marissa. “Come sit up front with the better people.”
Before Rosaria could respond the younger Bella de Barros girl was pulling her away up the aisle. Cecelia Bella de Barros scratched a firm mark across the page on her clipboard as she and the Quidditch captain opened the back door to move to the next passenger car.
“They must be kidding,” said Sol Braganza in disbelief. “Witness Stone sent an acceptance letter to a Muggle gutter girl?”
“It really is sad,” Cecelia commented. “Such a proud school admitting people like that.”
Marissa took a deep breath, relieved that they had finally left. But she heard the boys across the aisle and girls in the seats ahead of them quietly laughing and saying things about her now. She stared out the window so she wouldn’t have to face the girls across from her.
“We know that’s not true what she said,” she heard Sakura say. “That you’re homeless and steal money.”
“I never stealed anything,” she said, still turning her head away from them. “Stealing is wrong.”
“But you…”
“You can sit somewhere else too if you want. If you don’t want to get my odor on you,” Marissa said dejectedly. “I don’t care.”
Maybe she had hoped no one would have to know she was just a street kid. Maybe she had thought with all the nice clothes Professor Merrythought had helped her buy that no one could tell. The girls had still treated her nice when they found out she had no witch parents and was a Muggle-born. But now that everyone on the train knew that she had no parents at all and was homeless they wouldn’t want to be around her. Or be her friends.
Maybe it was better that Cecelia Bella de Barros had found out where she came from. Now she could just work on learning things and not worry about having friends. She didn’t need friends at witch school anyway, she had the boys who she was important to. They were why she said yes to school anyway, so she could get smarter and help the team when she went back. She was never going to stay and be part of the wizardings anyway.
From the corner of her eye she saw Anna lean over to whisper something to Sakura. Then Anna got up from her seat like she was leaving. She took a few steps, then turned around and sat purposefully in the seat beside Marissa.
“We’d rather smell like you than mean, too much stinky perfume Celly Belly de Barros!” Sakura stated clearly for the both of them. They didn’t see Marissa let herself smile.
--------------------------------------------
Baltazar Varnhagen and Tania de Feiticeiros returned to the first passenger car a short while later. They had already heard of the scene with the Bella de Barros sisters from other sixth and seventh years moving about the train.
“Is she the Muggle-born girl Cecelia was teasing?” Tania asked Sakura. Marissa was still staring out the window, intent on ignoring the boys across the aisle who had passed rumors about her through all the sections.
“Yes,” Sakura replied. “She and Celestia were so rude. And Sol Braganza too.”
“Did they make her cry?”
“NO!” Marissa turned and asserted. “Girly-girl’s words can't hurt me!”
“Hey, I like her!” Baltazar Varnhagen said to Tania. “She’s tough.”
“They usually torture new boys, not girls. But I think you really are the only Muggle-born this year.”
“Learn your spells good and kick Celly’s butt in a duel next year,” Baltazar said smiling at Marissa. “Then they won’t bother you anymore.”
She smiled half-heartedly in return, but Marissa had already decided she liked Baltazar. He knew that she was strong and didn’t need them to feel sorry for her. She had lived her whole life withstanding the mistreatement of much meaner people than the snotty blonde girls.
“Don’t encourage her to get into fights, Zar. They’ll have five or six new Muggle-borns to tease next year and forget about her anyway.”
“Just trying to help,” he replied. “So do I have any good Quidditch prospects to interview up here, or has Braganza already stolen them all before the train even started?”
“That would be answer B, I think,” confirmed Tania, looking at her clipboard as they left.
Sakura politely tried to chat with her again, but Marissa did not want to talk anymore since it would only lead to questions about her. Why bother to say Yes, she did sleep in an alley and Yes, she did eat from garbage cans when all the whispers up and down the seats were already telling everyone that and even worse things about Marissa? She watched the swallows sleeping outside the window as she rolled the wand that they didn’t like around in her hand. The small words MageMart© were stamped in the black varnished wood. Maybe it wasn’t as pretty or as expensive as ones they had, but she would study hard and make it work good.
“All first year students prepare to depart,” came the echoing voice of Mr. Argelitum. “Dress in robes and stand, then you will directed by rows to line up in your car’s aisle.”
Marissa looked out the window to the forest canopy far below that was visible again now that they had passed the rainclouds. It looked like they were still too high to land anywhere yet, but she unzipped her backpack and took out her robe, then tucked her wand back in. Sakura and Anna buttoned their robes and stood waiting. Marissa held her backpack in front with an arm through one strap, because if she wore it under the robe she would look like a hunchback and get teased for that too. The three girls looked forward to watch the boys and girls begin lining up. The first group that stepped into the aisle were four girls, and the much taller of them at the front was the golden-blonde Celestia Bella de Barros.
“She’s a first year?” Marissa said. “I thought she was…”
“Thirteen or fourteen,” finished Sakura. “That’s what everyone thinks at first. But she’s just eleven, the same as us.”
The last of those four girls was Rosaria, who looked back to give a meek wave to them before more children filed in behind and they lost sight of her. Mr. Argelitum with the beige robe and monacle strode along the aisle directing each section into line. Soon standing first year students filled the length of the passenger coach and he stood at the rear by Marissa who was the last in line.
“That should have been kept in your trunk, young lady,” he said of her backpack.
“Um… I don’t have one,” she replied quietly.
“Hold on to it very tightly then,” Mr. Argelitum ordered.
“Rio ready to depart.” “Bela Horizonte ready to depart.” Voices from all the following cities confirmed that their first year students were lined up too.
“What happens now?” Marissa whispered to Sakura in front of her. Did they just stand here for fifteen minutes until the train reached the ground?
“I don’t know,” she whispered back. “My sister would never tell us about this part.”
Marissa turned to see Mr. Argelitum. He raised a wand into the air with a swirling motion and exclaimed “Velivolus!” His beige robe flowed in waves as he stepped to her side and touched his wand to Marissa’s shoulder. The fabric of her robe rippled as if wind had passed through it. Then he touched Sakura and Anna and each student as he passed back up the line.
“What was that for?” Marissa asked. Anna turned back and whispered in Sakura’s ear.
“She says it means ‘sail’,” Sakura told her.
Mr. Argelitum had returned to the front of the car and addressed the students again. “Hold the hand of the person in front of you and person behind you. Keep it held until told to release it.”
“What does he think we are, kindergarteners?” said a boy a few places ahead of Anna.
Marissa did as instructed and saw all the others clutching hands also. Maybe it was a custom like Ms. Julieta’s twirling. Then the teenagers all stood at their seats and started calling out numbers. “Four, three, two, one…”
“Glisseo!”
Suddenly a thunderous clash of sounds filled her ears. Half of it was the roar of laughter from the watching seventh years, and half was the frightened screams of falling first years as they disappeared one by one before her. The aisle floor had dropped away and they were all sliding out into the open sky beneath the train. Marissa gasped and felt herself fall out of the passenger car as she tightly squeezed Sakura’s hand. Her eyes filled with a view of expansive blue skies and the deep green forest thousands of feet below them. Wind rushed across her face and Sakura’s and Anna’s long black hair blew up behind their heads as the screaming line of children plummented to earth. It seemed they fell for a mile before rippling folds began opening like umbrellas to lift Mr. Argelitum and all the first years into a floating chain of billowing black robes. They really were sailing in the air!
“I guess… it was… a surprise!” Sakura said as she caught her breath. Now girls were shouting and boys were yelling and Anna Yamazaki was even giggling as she enjoyed the slow descent. Marissa knew the one voice still screaming somewhere at the front of the line belonged to Rosaria Castilhos.
“Look up there!” Sakura called out. Her head nodded back towards the clouded bottom of the Witness School Line far above them, where more groups of children floated down. But Sakura was indicating the three dark blue spots that streaked down at them as fast as bullets. The feathered flyers arced around in a slowing curve and landed lightly upon Marissa’s shoulders.
“Sorry, Spero,” Marissa told one little swallow. “I didn’t know I was leaving so fast.”
They gradually neared the rainforest below and the very air of the place was a new experience to Marissa, so thick with moisture she could almost breathe the wetness. As they came closer she was amazed at how immensely large the tallest trees were, many times higher than even the oldest ones in Parque da Luz. Massive vine-tangled trunks as wide as houses rose above the canopy and thick branches spread wide to the sky with clustered giant leaves. Rolling hills of foliage in the dense layers below that seemed to blanket the world completely but for a small tan river that cut its path through the forest. Little wooden boats floated up to a wooden platform built along the shore and she could see people stepping onto the dock. A pathway led to a wide clearing paved in flagstone and walled in by stone benches. The floating chain of first years was only twenty or thirty feet from the ground now and Mr. Argelitum was guiding the line towards the courtyard. As they crossed over the river Marissa could see it was Indian boys and girls arriving in the canoes. They must be coming to witch school too. And then she saw something else. Giant, giant bright colored fish were leaping from the water near another canoe still paddling to the dock. Those must be something magic.
“Anna, Sakura,” shouted Marissa. “Look at that!”
“Pink dolphins!” Sakura said as she saw what Marissa was looking at. “There are stories about the boto that…”
“Whoa,” Marissa cried out. Her backpack was slipping from her arm. She pulled loose from Sakura to catch it with both hands. “Got ya!”
“Marissa!” called Sakura. She stretched out her arm and Marissa tried to grab her hand again but had drifted out of reach while saving the backpack from falling. The first years line was moving off to land on the flagstone courtyard, but Marissa was floating without control directly down into a group of dark-tanned children stepping from their canoe.
“LOOK OUT!”
Chapter 7 - Witness Stone by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa tumbles into new people and surroundings, and learns some history of the witch school.
“LOOK OUT!”
Two barely dressed barefoot children stood on the dock with their backs toward Marissa. A vividly colored large bird with long draping tailfeathers rested on one’s shoulder, and furry long animal arms wrapped around the other’s back. Marissa landed right between the two, toppling each child in an opposite direction onto the faded wooden planks. The startled bird flew into the air, cawing and fluttering as Marissa tumbled in a somersault and landed splayed on her back with the faded pink backpack beside her. The swallows glided down to the backpack while the noisy bird, a large scarlet macaw with brilliant red, yellow, green and blue plumage, quieted itself and decided to land right on Marissa’s chest.
Marissa felt the Indian children standing about in speechless surprise. She lifted her head and met the eyes of the boy she had knocked down. A fearsome stripe of blood-red paint masked his tan face, and for an instant Marissa just knew he would begin yelling at her or even try to fight her. Then her face filled with feathers.
“LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT!” warned the scarlet macaw pacing in a circle around her chest. Suddenly the fallen boy and girl both broke into laughter and all the watching children followed along. The boy wasn’t mad at all.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Marissa proclaimed strongly. “I couldn’t turn.” It was her fault because she had been looking at the pink dolphins and forgot to hold her backpack tight.
The barefoot, shirtless boy rose to his feet. Shoulder length hair framed his red-masked face and an orange-red cloth wrapped his waist and draped the front. He lifted the girl and her animal up as the grey-furred thing buried its face in her half shirt. The scarlet macaw flapped up into the air and landed back on the boy’s shoulder.
“You’re Marissa,” he stated as he held out his hand to help her up.
“I can get up,” Marissa said, and stood on her own. She didn’t want to look weak or hurt just from falling down, especially to the very muscular boy who she could tell must be strong. “How do you know my name?”
“Gran Arating tell us look for wildflower she meet at market,” said the dark-haired girl as she boosted up her clinging animal. Her face was decorated too, with a pattern of thinner stripes. Her long ponytail was tied with two silver animal charms.
“But she didn’t tell us one would fall on us,” added the boy with a friendly smile. “I am Tiquinho and this is Potira.”
“Hi,” Marissa replied. “Sorry I…”
“Marissa! Marissa!” came a voice calling her from farther away. Sakura and Anna were running down the path to the dock, followed by Mr. Argiletum pacing briskly behind. The girls reached her side first. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Um… I didn’t land very good,” Marissa explained with an embarrassed look.
“At least you didn’t fall into the river,” Sakura said with relief.
“No one was injured, I hope,” said Mr. Argiletum as he arrived behind Anna. His monocled eye cast a severe look down upon Marissa.
“Just him,” said the boy, pointing at the creature around Potira’s chest. “A coma. But he should wake up in a month or two.”
Argiletum frowned as Potira and the Japanese girls giggled. The furry animal did seem to be in a deep sleep. Marissa was not sure if it had even woken up when they all fell down.
“The other first-years have already assembled without you,” said Mr. Argiletum sternly. “Since you could not follow instructions, you will be placed at the end of the line.”
“Okay,” Marissa replied. “I’m sorry.”
“You may follow the native children when they are finished dressing,” he told Marissa. Then Mr. Argiletum turned and hurried Sakura and Anna back up the path. The lightly clad Indian boys and girls sat on boulders by the path and took sandals and robes from woven basket backpacks. Tiquinho’s robe was different than hers and the others. It had thinner cuffs and an unusual shade of glossy blackness, like she could almost reach a hand into its dark surface. Marissa thought it must be an old hand-down like her few worn shirts. Potira moved her strange animal’s clinging arm so she could slide her robe on.
“Um…,” Marissa said, “what is he?”
“That Ker,” Potira replied. “He my sloth.”
She turned to the scarlet macaw, which was the most beautiful bird she had ever seen. “What’s his name?”
“I gave him a silly name when I was three,” Tiquinho said. “I might change it.”
“Tell her,” said Potira, and giggled with another girl near them.
“I call him Flap-Flap,” Tiquinho said, sounding slightly embarrassed.
“That’s a good name,” Marissa replied as the colorful bird beat its wings upon the air. “It’s what he does.”
“Beraba, Iara, you take front,” Tiquinho called out to another boy and girl. He directed all the native children into line and they began running up to the courtyard.
“Is Tiquinho the leader?” Marissa asked as he seemed to take charge of all the children.
“Him father chief,” Potira replied. “One day Tiquinho chief.”
“Shouldn’t he be first then?”
“Sometimes the first shall be last and the last first,” said Tiquinho, who heard Marissa’s question as he came over to sprint with them up the tree-shaded path. She had heard Sister Angelica say that before and never understood what it meant, but maybe it had something to do with lines. Maybe it meant she wouldn’t always be at the very end.
Potira held Tiquinho’s hand, Flap-Flap bounced along on his shoulder, and the swallows glided beside Marissa as they reached the flagstone courtyard. Mr. Argiletum and two blue-suited conductors had lined the children up in orderly rows of four persons wide. Tiquinho added the native boys and girls to the long column as the hundred or more first-years began marching up a wide stone pathway into the shadowy rainforest. Marissa thought that Sport Club da Luz army would like to march like that.
In some places the stone pathway became stone stairways as they climbed higher away from the river and deeper into the forest. The humid air felt almost damp upon her skin. The sounds of children’s voices and shoe heels tapping stone were muffled by the thick layers of strange and amazing vegetation that surrounded them.
“I never was in a forest before,” Marissa said wondrously to Potira beside her.
“I never go city,” Potira replied. “Tiquinho say Muggles there scary.” Marissa noticed that Potira talked in short sentences, like tourists in Sao Paulo trying to speak a language different than their own. She wondered what the Indian language was and thought maybe it was the Mermish that Sakura’s sister was learning.
Little light reached the understory of the forest, and everything lay in deep shadows. Marissa thought even the darkness here was different. It wasn’t the dangerous, desperate darkness of littered alleys in Santa Efigenia. It was magical darkness filled with bird songs and strange animal calls in the distance. She looked about at the thousands of trees and plants. Squat fan palms and tall feather palms grew among dense stands of wide branched leafy trees wrapped in trailing vines and thick winding roots. Brazil nut trees and fruit trees rose from clusters of flowery shrubs with enormous leaves as tall as Marissa. Most stunning of all were the majestic lupuna trees, whose great buttressed roots spread thirty feet wide from massive vine-laced trunks that rose to disappear past the forest canopy high above. They were like living, growing skyscrapers and twice Marissa had to run to catch up after slowing to view them. The swallows huddled on her shoulder, cautious of flying into the unfamiliar woodland.
Soon the large group reached another even wider flagstone courtyard and Mr. Argiletum stopped to let all the children gather in the clearing. Marissa looked around for Sakura and Anna or Rosaria Castilhos, but couldn’t find them in the crowd. Twenty ash-darkened stone slabs with great masonry doorframes surrounded the stone-paved clearing. Marissa quickly realized the heavy block structures were Floo fireplaces like the ones in Mercado Trocado. Only these were plain, without stained glass, and half covered in tangled vines. Then as buds on vines flowered and closed, flowered and closed in different hues, Marissa decided the Floos were not so plain. The two train conductors stepped into fireplaces and whooshed away.
“I’ve been here before,” said one boy from the train. “For Quidditch.”
“Many of you who have come to games will recognize Chasers Courtyard,” Mr. Argiletum stated loudly, “which lies six fireplaces or three portkey jumps east of Sao Paulo. The Quidditch field above us stands outside school walls so that familes and fans may attend the exciting matches. Seating can accommodate four thousand spectators.”
“Conda will beat them all this year,” the boy boasted to others near him. “Conda rules!”
“Presently I rule, young man,” corrected Mr. Argiletum “Back into rows now.”
“What’s ‘Conda’?” Marissa asked Potira as they continued to walk. The teen boys in snake and rings jerseys on the train had been shouting it too.
“It short name ‘Anaconda’,” she replied. “All House name animals.”
“When Witness Stone became a school, the first Principal organized sections like wizard schools in Europe,” Tiquinho explained. “They wanted to call the four Houses after wizard leaders, but two sides disagreed on names.”
“City wizards too hard say ‘Morubixaba Tupinambarama’,” giggled Potira. “We no like ‘Cabral House’.”
“So Houses were given animal names,” Tiquinho said. “Anaconda is the giant snake of the river. He is fifty feet long and his fat twisting body crushes the largest animal then swallows it whole.”
“I no like Anaconda name,” said Potira. “Say be better Pink Dolphin House.” Tiquinho laughed and continued.
“Jaguar is the great hunter of the rainforest. He stalks unseen like a spotted ghost and may even be watching us now.” Tiquinho looked into the branches above them and this made Marissa look too.
“Woolly monkey is the dweller of the treetops. He hangs from his long tail and plays with clever friends all day,” Tiquinho said. “And Macaw is the bright-feathered flyer of the skies.”
“Like Flap-Flap,” Marissa said. “So he has his own House named after him.”
“Yes,” Potira giggled. “But no them call it ‘Flap-Flap House’.”
They continued the march into the forest until a short time later the stone pathway ended at a towering vine-covered wall of monstrous multiform rectangular stones. There was no doorway anywhere along the length of the wall. A broad staircase stretched along its base and Mr. Argiletum directed everyone onto the steps. “Rows one through three, top step. Rows four through six, next step below. Rows seven through nine…”
Soon all the children were seated from the top to bottom along the staircase. Marissa sat on the lowest step beside Tiquinho and Potira who held his hand. Eight steps behind her she saw Anna and Sakura who quickly waved to her. At the very top step Rosaria sat next to Celestia Bella de Barros and two other dressy girls with jeweled silver hairbands. Rosaria hadn’t seen her, so Marissa turned around to avoid any contact with the mean blonde girl. But many of the train children on the steps above whispered to each other as they pointed at Marissa, and some even held their noses. She knew that Celestia had told everyone that she was a homeless thief from the ‘mouth of garbage’.
Marissa was glad she had walked wtih Tiquinho and Potira and not at front near Celestia and the mean boys spreading lies. The natives had come in bare feet and simple clothes, and had just backpacks like her, not giant trunks like Sao Paulo children. They knew she was a Muggle-born and maybe they wouldn’t look down on her because she was only a street kid.
“At the end of the fifteenth century,” Mr. Argiletum began, “European Muggles found the Americas. Thousands of them came to settle this vast continent, and European wizards came too. For in those times we still commonly lived and travelled among Muggles. The unexplored lands of South America, especially the rainforest regions, were said to teem with magical creatures and plants that European wizards had never seen or learned of.”
“They journeyed into the wild in search of these rumored species, but found nothing. Often wizards became lost for weeks, enveloped in disorienting mists that no spells could dissipate. Bright clear trails became dark trackless jungles before their eyes and lands that their revealing spells showed were uninhabited moved with shadowed figures.”
“There were rare encounters with a mysterious group, when young Indian children of no known tribe were surprised and captured. Violent battles were fought for their release and the European wizards became aware of a hidden magic culture with powers to equal their own. Powers they had never known and that only the rainforest’s secrets held.”
“In 1599, a Portuguese witch who had disappeared thirty years earlier emerged from the rainforest and told of her life among wandless wizard tribes whose ancient magics protected their lands from any intrusion. These New World wizards were once the shaman and priests of Muggle civilizations, whose powers helped Mayans, Aztecs and Incas raise mighty cities. Though their own cities and their wandlore had been lost in a terrible war, the wizard tribes held three thousand years of herbology knowledge that made them immeasurably powerful potions masters.”
“The immigrant wizards wished permission to harvest the magical plants of the forests. The native wizards wished to return wands to the lives of their children. The two groups proposed a truce to talk of sharing their skills and learning.”
“To show their willingness to share the rainforest’s secrets, the wizard tribes invited the others to a hallowed place where their own Wizard Council had met for millennia. They called it ‘where rock reaches for sky by warring river’. Four hundred years ago they gathered at Witness Stone, as we will gather today.”
Mr. Argiletum walked up the dozen steps to the wall and students turned to face his new position. Great irregular stones twice Marissa’s size fit together to form the towering obstacle behind him. Cinder block walls in Sao Paulo were small and weak compared to this wall. Mr. Argiletum posed a question.
“So why have we walked this mile of ancient pathway instead of landing at the school’s doorstep with all your fellow students?”
“Well, I could have stayed on the train of course,” answered Celestia Bella de Barros confidently, “but father thought I should experience the arrival as common wizards do.”
“When anyone comes to Witness Stone the first time,” Tiquinho stated clearly, “he must enter here to lift disillusionment and confundus charms that protect and hide our school.”
“Correct, young man,” confirmed Mr. Argiletum. “Witness Stone would remain as invisible to you, young lady, as it is to a Muggle, if you did not pass through this gate.”
“Common wizards know that,” Tiquinho said with a smile to the golden-blonde girl, who returned a spiteful stare. Quiet laughter passed among the Indian boys and girls.
“But Mr. Argiletum, there is no gate,” said Sakura Miyashiro. “How do we open a gate?”
Marissa was sure it must be a magic way. Maybe they touched different places on the stones like on Miss Julieta’s stained glass window. But if it opened the same way there would be a huge pile of broken little rocks to climb over.
“We introduce ourselves to the wall,” he said. “It has only waited two thousand years to meet you.”
In orderly row by row fashion again, Mr. Argiletum had each group walk up to the face of the wall and lay their palms against the time-worn stones. Soon they stood two to three deep and reached past others so that every child had a hand upon the wall. Then the beige-robed librarian raised his wand and spoke some of the puzzling words required for magic. “Ingressus discipulus!”
Marissa’s hand felt warm, and for a moment it seemed to turn the grey color of the stone. Then a vertical seam opened between stone blocks and the wall divided. Massive rocks slid apart until a twelve foot wide entry lay before them. But past the four foot depth of the wall was only more rainforest, denser and darker and without any stone walk now.
“Rows of four, children. Rows of four,” Mr. Argiletum directed. “Go ahead now.”
“Go where?” said Celestia, not quite as proud now to be first in line. “There’s no path.”
Rosaria, Celestia and the other two dressy girls, prodded ahead by the librarian, stepped into the thick greenery. They seemed to change to leaves themselves and disappear. “Oh, good,” came Rosaria’s voice from somewhere beyond. “It’s not dark anymore.”
Mr. Argiletum directed everyone through row by row until only she, Tiquinho and Potira remained standing with him. The stone walls began sliding closed as they all stepped through the magical gate. Her vision swirled with green leaves and shadow, but then Marissa could see clearly again as she and the two Indian children stepped out of the ‘disillusionment’ to rejoin the hundred others.
The cover of rainforest canopy was gone and the soft light of early evening shone from the open sky, down upon an expansive plaza. It was a vast walled complex of ancient stone buildings, crumbling upright slabs and rugged statuary. Grassy fields with scattered shade trees filled unpaved areas, and a long rectangular pond stretched away at their feet. But the object that drew everyone’s gaze stood at the far distant end of the open field. Rising hundreds of feet from the earth was a mountainous natural monolith, its jagged irregular surfaces suffused in evening sunlight. Upon its face Marissa could see the sculpted shapes of two immense human figures standing like guardian giants over the entire plaza.
Behind the monolith a massive sloping-walled structure was outlined against the sky. The stacked layers of the pyramid castle were broken by occasional terrace levels and there were long glass windows on those layers. Endless steep staircases climbed each sloped side of the structure. The staircase facing the first-years seemed to pass right into the base of the grey monolith. Whether the object had thrust itself through the pyramid or the pyramid was built around the mountainous rock Marissa couldn’t tell. She did know it was unlike any building she had ever seen in Sao Paulo.
“Is that giant place the witch school?” she whispered to Tiquinho, who slowly nodded.
“That is completely awesome,” said one impressed girl. Other children murmured in agreement.
“They looks quite amazing at sunset also,” noted Mr. Argiletum. “Although we shall be at the banquet by that time.”
Towering lupuna trees were silhouetted on the rainforest horizon beyond the structure, and a glimpse of glistening huge bubbles showed that the train had landed on the far side. Marissa gazed about at other amazing things across the plaza until Mr. Argiletum spoke.
“Rows of four, rows of four,” he directed again. “Let us not keep everyone waiting.”
The wall had reformed behind them and the children stood on a wide stone floor at the egde of a far-stretching plant-filled pond. Thick stone columns rose on either side, leaving no path around the pond. Hundreds of eight-foot wide lily pads floated in scattered groups upon its surface.
“Well, where are the boats to takes us across?” said Celestia Bella de Barros impatiently.
“We shall walk,” Mr. Argiletum answered to her incredulous expression. “Move along.”
Celestia, Rosaria and the other two in her row began hopping cautiously in crooked paths among the plants. Then the next row and next row were allowed to begin until all the entire column of first-years stretched out across the pond. Marissa wanted to jump ahead faster, but all the boys and girls ahead moved too slowly. One boy tripped, but before he fell into the water a lily pad rushed over and he flopped onto its surface instead.
Marissa ducked as a big dragonfly buzzed past her ear. Fides flitted after it, flew a zig-zag path and snapped up the incredibly huge insect in his beak. He returned to her shoulder and gulped it down in four bites.
“Are those magic bugs?” Marissa asked, in case the swallows shouldn’t be catching them.
“No,” Tiquinho assured her. “The birds can eat all they want.”
“Good,” Marissa smiled. “They’ll like it here.”
A piercing scream arose from the far end of the pond. Mr. Argiletum quickly raised his wand, then tucked it away with a smirk. Rosaria Castilhos stood on a lily pad and waved frantically at something in the air, then cowered down to escape it. Celestia Bella de Barros and the other girls nearby just stepped away without even helping her. Marissa knew it must be more big dragonflies scaring Rosaria and pointed them out to the swallows. “Get ‘em, Fides.”
All three birds swooped off towards the pig-tailed girl, diving and snapping about her until every insect had fled or been eaten. Rosaria cautiously stood up once she felt out of danger. “Thank you, Marissa,” called her voice from across the water. “You saved my life!”
Tiquinho shook his head and Potira rolled her eyes. Marissa shrugged at them. “I already told her catching bugs doesn’t count as that.”
The swallows circled Rosaria as she carefully hopped the rest of the way to shore, then swooped up into a small shade tree to wait for Marissa. In a few more minutes everyone had crossed the long pond and gathered at the beginning of a wide stone-paved avenue that led to the base of the monolith. Marissa looked for Rosaria or the Japanese girls, but they were lost in the front of the crowd. The native children all laid their backpacks near some boulders beneath the tree Fides, Spero and Amor rested in. Potira took Ker from her waist and lifted him to a branch. His furry limbs wrapped around it as he hung down and continued sleeping.
“Go, Flap-Flap,” commanded Tiquinho to the scarlet macaw. He tossed him from his arm and the bird fluttered towards the tree but then turned about and landed on Marissa.
“LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT!” he called, and rubbed his big beak on her nose.
“He might think that’s your name,” Tiquinho said.
“No, Flap-Flap,” she smiled. “I’m Marissa. Ma-riss-a.”
“MARISSA,” the macaw replied loudly. “MARISSA.”
Tiquinho laughed, but Potira frowned at him. “Flap-Flap like her,” she said. “He not very like me.”
“I think you have to stay here,” Marissa said as she lifted Flap-Flap off her shoulder and onto a branch above the sleepy sloth. “Should I leave my backpack too?” she asked Tiquinho.
“No,” he replied. “Keep it with you until you know which house you’ll be in. Your birds should come too, but they can’t fly in the school.”
“Spero,” Marissa called out as she unzipped her backpack. “Naps.” He glided from the tree and the other two followed. They barely snuggled into the overfilled pack as she zipped them in. “Now they won’t go where they shouldn’t,” she said.
“Rows of four, children,” Mr. Argiletum directed, and the column of first-years followed him up the wide avenue towards the monolith. He moved faster now and boys and girls increased their pace to keep up. His magicked loud voice carried to the back of the line as Mr. Argiletum pointed out structures they passed.
“To the east of the lily pond is the library,” he said. “Ancient Runes class is also held there.” Dark doorways were spaced between heavy stone walls on a first and second floor. As if the rainforest was reclaiming it, three giant kapok trees grew up through the library’s roof and branched out above.
“To the west of the pond are the groundskeeping buildings and the lost and found vault,” continued Mr. Argiletum. He pointed to smaller, more regular block-formed structures along the outer wall of the plaza. Thick stone columns flanked narrow entries. Foliage and vines overflowed an overhanging upper level that sat squatly on the short lower sections.
“The largest structures you see on opposite sides of the plaza are Jaguar House and Anaconda House.” They were half pyramids, with sloped walls five or six stories high ending at thick flat roofs. Stone stair rails, columns and horizontal rooflines were richly carved with fierce spotted feline motifs on one and thick twisting serpents on the other. Rain, wind and time had worn and rounded every grey surface.
“The living quarters of Macaw House and Woolly House are found to the south,” he added. “The tall capirona that grows near the foundation of our school is the Owlery Tree. Your birds shall be taken there from the train.” Marissa could see large owls gliding silently into the branches of the thick-trunked tree that stood almost as tall as the majestic lupuna giants. Dozens of them slept in little wood houses.
“The stelae we are passing record the history of tribal wizard families,” the librarian said, “and are truly beautiful sculpture even to those who cannot read them.” A score of tall stone slabs rose along each side of the avenue, each chiseled from base to top in intricate symbols and costumed human figures. Like all the buildings, the timeworn pillars looked to Marissa as if they had stood there forever.
“This is my family,” Tiquinho said proudly, indicating one pillar. “This is Potira’s,” he said showing Marissa another that rose near it.
Now they had crossed the entire avenue and stood at the base of the pyramid’s stairs. The stone monolith loomed above them and Marissa craned her neck back to see. Two figures carved deeply into the dark grey stone faced each other. One was a long-bearded old man in flowing cloak, tall pointed hat and tall boots, dressed in the style of European wizards. His left hand lay at his side with a lowered wand, while his right hand gripped the hand of the other figure. That other figure was a stern tattooed man in a feathered cape that swept back from bare arms and chest. He wore the tall feathered headdress and sandals of a native wizard chief and held a wooden staff as the two shook hands in friendship.
“Four hundred years ago, as Old World Muggles and New World Muggles clashed in hostility, wizards from the two cultures declared peace here in Amazonia. They agreed to share their knowledge and to use this ancient place to educate the descendents of both wizarding worlds. And to educate any child that inherited the powers of magic,” Mr. Argiletum stated. Marissa listened and knew his last sentence meant a child like her. Even though she was homeless and poor they gave her a chance. That’s why Professor Merrythought had found her.
“As a lasting symbol of their covenant, these two stone figures were conjured upon the face of the great monolith that watched over their meeting. Its ancient native name fell into disuse and it came to be known by all wizards simply as… Witness Stone.”
The faces high above nodded down to greet the first-years. Marissa waved up to them. Even though some people like Cecelia Bella de Barros didn’t want her here, it was the wizards on the stone who had decided long ago that she could come to witch school.
“Rows of twelve, children. Rows of twelve,” directed the librarian, reordering the first-years upon the broad staircase. “We shall now enter Witness Stone School and proceed to the anteroom.”
The formation of children marched upwards through the tunnel at the monolith’s base. Some twenty feet up the staircase divided. Two narrower sections continued upwards onto the pyramid’s face, and the wider center steps which they continued on led down to the interior. Little stone shelves along the hallway held strangely shining blue-green lights that weren’t light bulbs or candle flames. Marissa asked Potira about them.
“Glowworms,” Potira replied as the light upon walls seemed to wriggle. “Charm bright.”
Along the hallway, tall recesses in the stone held lifelike statues of witches and wizards. So lifelike that many shifted and moved to watch as the first-years passed along. Marissa recognized one as the stern native man who had watched her at Lost Cities Apothecary.
“That’s Jaguating,” she said.
“The White Jaguar,” replied Tiquinho, who seemed impressed that she knew his name. “That was his Patronus shape when he battled Dementors and Inferi armies of the dark pajé.”
“What’s a pajé?” Marissa asked.
“An Indian shaman. Wizards who know the secret magic roots and plants,” said Tiquinho, “and ways to turn them to strong potions or poisons.”
“Some pajé bad,” added Potira. “Kill all wandmakers and try make all wizard tribes slaves.”
“But great Jaguating defeated the dark pajé and freed his people.”
Maybe the statue looked at every boy and girl as they passed, but to Marissa Jaguating’s eyes seemed to follow only her. They reached the end of the long hallway and gathered in a large room with a doorless wall. Mr. Argiletum touched the wall and a very narrow passage opened within it. Marissa wondered if every place for wizardings had to have a secret door.
“I shall inform the Principal of our arrival,” the librarian said. “When the wall opens again, you will enter the upper level of the Great Hall and be seated.” Then he walked through the passage wall and it closed behind him. The children began talking in little groups as they waited, until a great scraping noise like heavy stone upon stone filled the room. Some children gasped. The scraping echoed again, along with a chip, chip, chip sound of breaking rock.
“What was that?” said one girl nervously.
“My uncle says ghosts of men who died while building this place still push their ghostly stones,” Tiquinho told them all. Children jumped as the heavy scraping came louder.
“They should push them somewhere else,” said Celestia Bella de Barros near the wall. As if following her wishes, the scraping stopped and three misty silver figures rose from the floor. Two looked brawny and powerful, one broken and thin as if something had crushed him flat. The shirtless grass-skirted stonemasons walked through Celestia and into the wall behind her. Marissa expected Rosaria Castilhos to scream, but somehow the silvery spirits didn’t scare her like bugs did.
“My great-grandpapa’s ghost has much nicer clothes,” Rosaria said matter-of-factly.
Marissa felt a wind ripple the back of her robe and coughed as a cloud of dust passed by. She turned to see where it was blowing from and jumped with a start at the little boy who had appeared behind her. He was just her height, with skin as dark as the night, and wore only faded shorts and a bright red cap. He had just one leg and held a long wooden tobacco pipe.
“Got a light?” the little black boy inquired. Marissa’s mouth dropped open.
“I know you!” she exclaimed in recognition as more first-years turned to see him. “You’re Saci Pererê!”
“I know you!” He copied her outcry. “You’re the lastie firstie!” Saci covered his face in mock terror then peeked through holes in his palms as the boys and girls all laughed.
“But you’re a real Saci,” she responded, still amazed by his appearance. The Saci cartoon was the mascot of Nino’s favorite soccer team and Mr. Palito had even found them old comics of the fabled one-legged boy.
“Am not real,” he protested. “Made of dirt, see?” Saci spun around and raised a whirlwind of dust and debris as Marissa held a hand up to keep grit from her eyes. The dirty cloud settled as he stopped.
“Saci must find his own light now,” the black as night boy remarked. He slipped a familiar looking backpack of faded pink off his shoulder.
“Hey,” Marissa shouted as she grabbed for it , “that’s mine!”
Saci spun from her reach and began tossing socks and underwear over his shoulder as he searched the contents of her backpack. The other children roared at his antics as items dropped on the stone floor.
“Birdies?” said Saci. “Why is birdies in a…”
The swallows flew from the backpack to protect their napping place. As Fides’ wings thrashed about his face, Spero’s and Amor’s claws snagged Saci’s red cap and tugged it loose when they fluttered upward.
“Get it! Get it!” Tiquinho and Potira called to Marissa as Amor came near her. Marissa snatched the hat from midair and helped the swallows detach their claws.
“Ohhh…hmph!” stomped Saci as he stopped throwing socks.
“Now Saci must do you say,” said Potira. “Make wish.”
“I wish he wouldn’t steal my backpack or any things from it,” Marissa said with some annoyance as she crawled around to collect the scattered items. She tucked all the clothes back, then lifted the backpack onto her arm and motioned the swallows inside it.
The one-legged boy acted sad and remorseful. Marissa returned Saci’s red cap because the stories said he couldn’t do his whirlwind without it. Some boys urged her to keep the hat, but that would only show she was a thief like Cecilia Bella de Barros had said.
“Ohhhh…” groaned the one-legged boy sorrowfully, “how will Saci light his pipe now?” Then he half-heartedly began to spin away.
“Saci, wait!” called Marissa. “I do have a match.” She remembered Pipio had kept some in her pack’s outside pocket to start garbage can fires on cold nights. In a moment Saci puffed contentedly as Marissa lit his tobacco. Then white pipe smoke spiralled into the whirlwind and he disappeared.
“Most people wish to catch a thousand fish, or something like that,” advised Tiquinho. Marissa shrugged. Food was a good wish idea, if only she could bring it back to Santa Efigenia to share with the boys. But she didn’t know how to cook a thousand fish, or really even one.
The wall ahead of them opened wide and the hundred or more first-years entered the Great Hall. Marissa saw another wide stone staircase that led down to a vast main room. An upper balcony that surrounded the room met a matching wide staircase at the far side. Glowworm sconces lined the walls, but the blue-green lights hardly glowed. The room was still brightened by sunlight. They were deep inside the pyramid, but Marissa looked up to see an open sky where she knew a ceiling should be.
“That’s magic,” she said to Tiquinho as she watched the blue of the sky deepen and a first star appear. So were the long murals that lined the room, because painted people moved within the scenes.
On a raised level at the Great Hall’s center sat twenty adults at two long wooden tables. Marissa knew these were the teachers for she saw Professor Merrythought at the second table among other elegantly dressed men and women. A very wide heavy man in a wide heavy chair sat in gleaming purple robe and cap at the center of the first table. At his right was an Indian man with dark black hair that greyed at the sides. He wore a a long feathered cape that many beautiful birds must have died to make. Marissa did not think she would like him.
Aisles divided the Great Hall into four quarters and above each section a long, flowing banner was suspended from the enchanted sky. The strong, graceful, yellow-orange feline of Jaguar House hung on the near left. The twisting, muscular, deep green serpent of Anaconda House hung on the near right. On the far left and right hung the winged, bright scarlet avian of Macaw House and the long-tailed, playful tan primate of Woolly House. Rows of tables in each section, lined to face the Professor’s raised level, were filled with possibly a thousand children.
“We have to sit on the floor?” said Celestia Bella de Barros when a teenage boy on the steps motioned the first-years to their places. “How degrading.”
“Maybe they ran out of extra chairs four hundred years ago,” Tiquinho remarked as Marissa sat cross-legged on the stone floor. With the hem of her robe she dusted off her shiny shoes. Pipio wouldn’t want his perfect polishing spoiled.
“WELCOME FIRST-YEARS,” resounded the voice of the wide heavy man in purple, who didn’t stand but simply floated his chair into the air. He had a shiny bald head with wrinkled forehead and a thick grey moustache trimmed down to his double chin. “And welcome all to a new year at Witness Stone. I am Principal Absencia. Your professors and I wish you success with your magical studies and with an exciting new season of Quidditch!”
This last remark drew a round of applause, especially from the students beneath the Anaconda banner and most loudly from the group of brawny Quidditch team boys who sat together at one table. Yells and shouts of “Conda rules” and “Team of destiny” echoed about.
“Calm down children, calm down,” the Principal directed and noise slightly decreased. “Before house selections, Vice Principal Katupya has a few announcements.”
The broad-chested native man in the feathered cape rose from his seat and walked to the front of the dais where he held up a hand that instantly quieted all chatter and conversations. “We are all very sad,” he began, “to note the passing of beloved Transfiguration Professor Rafael Amaral, who died in early December at the age of one hundred and twelve. His family wishes to thank all who sent condolences and attended services.”
“Please join me in welcoming your new Transfiguration instructor, Professor Grace Merrythought,” Katupya said as he spread out his arm to indicate the young lady in a pastel turquoise cloak who stood from her seat. Marissa joined the polite applause that filled the room, then heard one loud young voice yelling “Hooray, Gracie!” Katupya turned his face upward with a reprimanding look for the one-legged black boy who sat on the balcony wall blowing smoke rings.
“House Leaders, please inform new students of fruit crossings promptly, before one is dragged off by an orange,” his deep serious voice directed as a few chuckles were heard. “Also be advised the re-piranha from last spring have been cleared from the pools and it is safe to swim.”
“Darn,” whispered a boy in front of Marissa. “I wanted to see those.”
“Jaci says they chewed ten pounds onto a boy’s butt one time,” whispered back another.
“The Department of Mysteries is offering a ten galleon prize to any student finding an undocumented hierotapir this year. See Mr. Argiletum in Ancient Runes class for details. Lastly, be aware it is migration season for some of our tallest flora and watch for unexpected relocations. May our minds and hearts be filled with magic this year.”
Marissa knew she would study hard to learn magic to fill her mind, but she didn’t know how getting smart with magic would fill her heart. It didn’t think, it just pumped blood.
Professor Katupya returned to his place at the table and Principal Absencia’s chair rose back into the air. It tipped to the side a little as he adjusted his position to speak again. “House Leaders to the front of the hall,” he exclaimed. “Choosing will now begin.”
The three pairs of teenagers that had talked to Marissa and the others on the train stepped up to the center area. Two more, who weren’t on the train but maybe came in canoes like Tiquinho because they were Indian, joined them to stand before the assembly of students.
“Selections will be made by order of finish in last year’s Quidditch tournament,” declared the round heavy Principal. “With first pick by our champions… Anaconda House!”
The group beneath the fat snake banner erupted in applause and cheer. “Conda! Conda! Conda!” they chanted as Solinho Braganza raised a fist in the air and Cecelia smiled.
Two girls just in front of Marissa were talking together as Principal Absencia tried to quiet the crowd and announce who would be second. To Marissa they all seemed way too excited about what hotel buildings kids would stay in. It was just a place to sleep.
“Rico and Gio say that the school that boy went to has a talking hat that decides which house you join,” said one girl.
“Oh my gosh, Eva!” replied the other beside her. “Do you believe every crazy story your two brothers make up?”
Chapter 8 - Choosing More Teams Than Two by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa is chosen for her House and for a special job.
Marissa sat with all the first-years on the stone floor a half level above the crowded, noisy Great Hall as stars appeared in the enchanted sky above. She wriggled her toes against her slippery socks. Walking in shoes hurt her feet.
“Anaconda’s pick will be followed by Woolly House, Macaw House, and Jaguar House,” declared Principal Absencia, the heavy double-chinned wizard in gleaming purple robe. Each group applauded as its name was announced by his magically loudened voice.
“My dear first-years,” Absencia continued. “Your house selection decides not merely where you sleep, but also who you attend classes with, who you become closest friends with, and who you will cheer when the Quaffle is battled for. In short, for the years you attend Witness Stone, your house is your team and your family.”
Marissa listened intently and understood now why everyone was so anxious about houses. The principal wasn’t going to just divide the hundred or more new students into four groups as simply as Mr. Argiletum had divided them into rows. It really was going to be like teams. Like when Sport Club da Luz played soccer with other groups and Pipio and another captain would take turns picking players for a game. Only here they were choosing more teams than two and each boy or girl would be on that team for always.
Marissa had always read books when the boys played soccer because some kids didn’t like girls playing. Sometimes when teams were even and little Paulinho hadn’t been picked, she would take him pretend flying with the swallows so he wouldn’t feel sad from being left out. She wondered if houses had to have even sides.
“Each house has a fine heritage,” Principal Absencia declared. “Woolly is known for its Healers and Shapemasters, Macaw for Magizoologists and Seers, Jaguar for Herbologists and Aurors. And of course Brazil’s finest professional Quidditch players come from Anaconda House. May you each bring honor to the house you join.”
Vice Principal Katupya nodded to the first House Leaders. “Solinho Braganza and Cecelia Bella de Barros, you may begin.”
“Anaconda House picks Cristiano Ferreira,” called the brawny Quidditch captain. A young boy in the front row, the Quidditch player’s son from the train, leapt up and rushed down the steps to the Great Hall as the Anaconda section applauded. Marissa realized that attendance had been for House Leaders to compare all the first-years and decide which ones they would pick. And maybe which ones they wouldn’t.
“Ah, the famous Keeper’s boy,” Principal Absencia remarked. “We expect great things from you, my young man.”
Cecelia Bella de Barros touched her wand to the shoulder of Cristiano’s robe. “Pinxi murinus,” she said. Slowly the dark grey fabric of its collar and cuffs transformed to a deep green scaled design, the colors of the huge snake on the Anaconda banner. He joined his group as the next House Leaders stepped forward.
“Woolly House picks Caspar Varnhagen,” called Baltazar, the nice teen who had said Marissa was tough. Another young first-year rushed down the steps as the Woolly section clapped and yelled.
“A third Varnhagen boy,” Principal Absencia stated. “Another fine Quidditch prospect.”
Tania de Feiticeiros’ wand touched Caspar’s shoulder and his robe trim turned the tannish-brown color of woolly monkey fur as she stated “Pinxi lagotricha.”
“Macaw House picks Jaci Erasmi,” called Milo Timbira.
“Game warden’s grandson,” noted Absencia. “There’s a Creatures student for you, Domador.” A scarfaced man with shaggy lion’s-mane hair nodded beside him as Alika Escuro’s wand turned Jaci’s collar and cuffs a feathered pattern of bright red, orange, green and blue with a command of “Pinxi macao.”
“Marissa,” whispered Tiquinho from beside Potira, “don’t get sad if you are not picked right away.”
“I won’t,” she replied. “I know I’ll be last because I’m the new kid. The Muggle-born.” It was also because the Bella de Barros girls had told everyone she was a thief and smelled like a dumpster. But she was strong and would ignore them so they would learn nothing could hurt her.
“Jaguar House picks Tiquinho Katupya,” called the House Leader who was an Indian teen named Jaci Juruna. Tiquinho stood and walked down the staircase.
“Tiquinho’s last name is the same as the Vice Principal man?” Marissa asked Potira.
“Ubiratan him uncle,” Potira replied as he stopped in front of Araci Uirapuru, the girl House Leader. “Pinxi onca,” she said as her wand touched Tiquinho’s robe. His thin collar and cuffs turned yellow-orange with the black rosette spots of Jaguar fur.
“Why, Merlin’s beard!” said Principal Absencia as he saw Tiquinho’s glossy black robe. “Is that really a…”
“Passed down from his great-great-grandfather,” remarked Vice Principal Katupya.
“And he actually killed the thing?” Absencia asked, forgetting for a moment that his loud voice could be heard throughout the hall.
“It was a rite of passage for chief’s sons in those times,” Katupya stated.
“Another young man to expect great things of,” the Principal said nodding at Tiquinho, who then turned and took his place with Jaguar House. “And now…”
A speeding whirlwind appeared and suddenly a little black one-legged boy stood beside Sol Braganza, who was coughing from the dust he had inhaled.
“SACI HOUSE PICKS…” the dark as night boy said in a loud and important voice, then whirlwinded to the front row of first-years, “…round boy with Lumos Lollipop!” He pulled the shining candy from the surprised chubby boy’s mouth as the Great Hall erupted with laughter.
“Noooo…” spoke the calm slow voice of Vice Principal Katupya.
“Wavy-hair girl with puffystringtongue?” Saci asked Katupya, as if a different pick might be approved. He kissed the borrowed Puffskein, then spit out fur. “Or pink bag girl with matches, yes?” Saci glanced around the hundred or more first-years looking for Marissa.
“Remember our talk, Saci,” Katupya stated sternly.
“Oh…hmmph!” stomped the boy with his one foot. “Saci House kicks them all out. We has no more beds anyway.” Saci tossed the Puffskein into the air where the girl jumped to catch it. He poked the lollipop back into the boy’s mouth, then spun and disappeared from the spot. A moment later Marissa felt a dusty breeze behind her.
“House selection will continue with young ladies this round,” declared the Principal from the center of the Great Hall.
“No pranks during ceremonies..” Saci grumbled quietly behind Marissa, imitating Katupya’s stern deep voice as he sat in the shadowed corner. “Oh… hmmph!”
“Anaconda House picks Celestia Bella de Barros,” called her golden-blonde older sister. Celestia walked gracefully down the steps as all Anaconda applauded and some boys even whistled. Her robe colors were transformed and she proudly took her seat.
“Daughter of one of our finest families,” Principal Absencia said. “Another lovely addition to Anaconda.”
Trixibelle Torres was picked by Woolly House, and Serafina Palmeiro by Macaw House. Then Potira was picked by Jaguar House and waved goodbye to Marissa as she stood up. Marissa heard that her last name was Arating, just like Gran Arating whom she had met at the wizards market.
“I see soon,” Potira told her.
The selection continued with rounds of boys then rounds of girls. Principal Absencia’s comments ceased after the first dozen children and the turns went by faster. In the fifth round of girls, Rosaria Castilhos was chosen by Anaconda and Sakura Miyashiro by Woolly. Anna Yamazaki joined Sakura on the next girls pick and another Indian girl beside Marissa went to Jaguar House.
Maybe it was because first-years mostly went to the same house that older brothers and sisters or parents had went to, but to Marissa it seemed there were still the different groups that Mr. Argiletum had described with the four hundred years ago wizards. Most all of the Anaconda picks seemed to be like Sol Braganza and the Bella de Barros sisters, light-skinned European wizardings from the cities. Most all of the Jaguar picks were Indian children from the rainforest, even though some were from the train. Marissa recalled the basket backpacks left by boulders near the path to the Jaguar building and saw that the native wizardings had all known they would be chosen by Jaguar House.
But Macaw House and Woolly House were a mix of everyone. There were blacks like Alika Escuro, brown mixed-race like Milo Timbira, Japanese like Sakura and Anna, and whites like Baltazar Varnhagen. Those many-colored faces showed Marissa that the giant wizards on the stone had always kept their promise to let any child with magic come to witch school.
Jaguar House picked another Indian boy and the round ended. Only nine first-years remained sitting on the floor above the staircase. Marissa knew that meant there was one extra. If the rules were like soccer and the sides all had to be even, Marissa would not get picked. She thought if the house buildings were all full maybe she could sleep here in a hallway corner. It would be nicer than her place in the alley, except she would be alone without the boys.
If one house did get to pick an extra first-year, Marissa knew which one it would be. Cecelia Bella de Barros had figured it out too, because after Anaconda’s pick she had stepped up to talk to the purple-robed Principal Absencia. Marissa could imagine her words. “We don’t have to pick her, do we? She’s a gutter girl and steals from people.” The principal said something back to Cecelia, then the golden-blonde teen stepped over beside Sol Braganza and whispered to him. Behind the principal Marissa saw Professor Merrythought, whose eyes met hers as she turned from speaking to an older lady in a sparkling pastel pink robe with tall cone-shaped hat wrapped in sparkly veils.
The next two rounds finished and Marissa sat alone. No matter what happened next she wouldn’t let anyone see her feel upset or sad if she had no house to sleep in.
Cecilia stepped forward with a cruel smirk. “Anaconda House abstai-“
“MACAW HOUSE picks Marissa of Sao Paulo,” called the lady in sparkling pink, drowning out Cecelia’s words. “Special selection by Head of House.”
“Noooo!” came a boy’s mournful wail. “How will Saci House light its pipe?”
“The troublemaker wanted an assistant thief,” said Cecelia clearly enough to insure that everyone heard. A ripple of laughter passed among Anaconda’s tables. Marissa walked past with a cool direct look into Cecelia’s eyes to show that the words hadn’t touched her. Feathery Macaw colors spread across her collar and cuffs as Alika Escuro’s wand touched her robe.
“Thank you,” said Marissa as she turned to take her place. There was polite applause from the Macaws and a teen girl directed her to a seat. Marissa recognized her face.
“I’m Tatiane,” she said. “Do you remember me?”
“Yes,” Marissa smiled. “You helped me buy my robes.”
“They look so much nicer with scarlet than with snaky dark green, don’t you think?”
“Yes,” Marissa agreed as she slid her backpack under the bench. But all of the first-years who had been nice to her were picked by other houses. It was good that she was strong and didn’t need friends.
“And look how shiny your new shoes still are.”
“They’re tight!” Marissa replied without thinking.
“Sometimes new ones hurt until you wear them in,” the older girl remarked.
“I didn’t say they hurt,” she protested. “Just they’re tight.”
“I’m glad Professor Galaxia overruled snobby Cece,” Tatiane smiled. “You’re too tough to live with pampered baby Conda girls.” Marissa smiled and nodded as all of the glowworm sconces suddenly darkened and the only light in the Great Hall was from the thousands of unreal stars in the unreal night sky enchanted upon the ceiling.
“Now, let the welcoming banquet begin!” declared Principal Absencia as a stream of light flew from his raised wand. Everyone looked upward as bursts of fireflies swarmed in flashing trails across the sky and around the house banners, then flew to the walls to relight the sconces. When she looked down again, Marissa was stunned to see all the polished tabletops that had been empty were now full to overflowing with food. Enormous serving trays held steaming fish fillets on beds of white rice, grilled beef slices surrounded by sweet manioc, and chicken breasts simmering in aromatic juices. Wide bowls of feijoada and soup sat near trays of farofa, breads and cheeses. Before each student was a setting of fine china plates and gleaming silverware.
“Everybody is eating again?” Marissa whispered to herself in amazement. She thought the huge half sandwich she had on the old train a few hours ago was dinner. It was more than she usually got to eat in a day and she had seen some boys eat two whole ones. Now there had appeared by magic more food than she had seen in her entire lifetime. Boys and girls filled plates with heaping piles of every item within reach. There was so much of everything that no one would need to share or have just one piece.
Marissa thought of Pipio, Nino, Tomas and Paulinho. Had they collected enough change today to buy a meal of bread or beans and rice? Or had older gangs run them off from the good begging spots like sometimes happened, and left them unable to get food tonight? It didn’t feel right to fill herself again if the boys might be sleeping with empty stomachs.
“Go ahead,” Tatiane encouraged. “You can have all you want.”
“Um… I’m not very hungry,” Marissa replied. “Maybe just bread.” The swallows were snuggled in her backpack and would sleep until tomorrow. She could save them bread in case she couldn’t let them out to find bugs right away in the morning.
“Okay. I’ll be back with Alika after dinner to show all the first-year girls their rooms.”
After Tatiane went to sit with the older Macaws, Marissa took a few bites of the warm bread slice then put all the rest in her robe pocket. She was going to say hello to the girls next to her, but they were talking together about vacations and hardly noticed Marissa. Vacations meant they had gone to faraway places and done exciting things. Marissa had no experiences like that to share, but quietly listened as she reached for an empty glass. She quickly saw why the table had no pitchers of water or juice, for the tall glass simply filled itself with a glittering liquid as her hand touched it. It tasted very good and Marissa took sips as she looked around the Great Hall. Each time she took her lips away, the juice rose back up to the top of the glass.
“This is enough, thank you. I don’t need more,” Marissa whispered to the glass, hoping it would stop magically refilling. But twenty minutes later, after continuous sipping, it was still full. Marissa didn’t want to waste a whole glass of juice when she saw the girls beside her had finished theirs, so she tried the only other way she could think of to stop it from refilling. Taking a deep breath, she tipped the glass back and gulped and gulped until all the juice was gone. Then she quickly set the glass upside-down on the table, where luckily it stayed empty. Marissa got up from her seat and walked over to a table where older boys and girls sat.
“Tatiane,” she said urgently, interupting her conversation with another girl, “do they have restrooms here?”
“Did you drink too much glitter juice?” Tatiane smiled.
“It wouldn’t stop filling more!”
“You just place your hand over the top when you’ve had enough,” the girl beside Tatiane explained. Marissa thought it would be nice if someone had told her that before.
“The girls room is at the top of the staircase to your right,” Tatiane said. “Do you want me to come with you?”
“No,” Marissa stated strongly. “I can find it . I don’t need help.”
She rushed up the steps and across the hall to a stone archway that had no real door, just another layer of stone. Marissa touched a little stone relief of a girl and the wall slid away as she ran into the restroom.
When she came out a few minutes later, a joyful brown-haired girl grabbed her arm.
“Oh, there you are!” she said as if she had been looking for Marissa. “Isn't it exciting?”
“Um… what’s exciting?” Marissa asked. The shiny, flowery-smelling restroom with all the marble sinks and toilets and tall framed mirrors was very wonderful, but she didn’t think the girl meant that.
“Didn’t they tell you?” she asked with astonishment. “Oh, of course they didn’t! It’s supposed to be a secret until tomorrow. But my House Leaders couldn’t wait to tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“We’ve been chosen to serve the professor’s table at the first breakast!” the brown-haired girl exclaimed. “It’s such an honor.”
“It is?” Marissa asked. She had no idea what the girl was talking about.
“Oh, yes!” she confirmed. “Each year one first-year pureblood and one mudbl… one Muggle-born, are chosen to serve fresh milk for Principal Absencia and all the teachers. We even get to milk the ducks ourselves!”
“I’m not stupid,” Marissa replied. “Milk comes from cows.”
“Well, in the Muggle world, yes,” the girl laughed. “But how do you think we could graze those huge beasts here in the forest? Wizards have magic ducks for our milk.”
Marissa didn’t answer. With all the incredible magic things here it must be true.
“House Leaders are supposed to wake up their chosen first-year at 5 a.m. to milk the ducks. That way it’s a surprise. But mine told me now because they thought I could start earlier and get twice as much milk as the other first-year,” she explained. “But that’s not really fair, is it?”
“No,” agreed Marissa.
“If we both go early at 4 a.m. then we’ll both have time to get plenty of milk. Maybe you could even get back by five and surprise your House Leaders that you’re already done! That would be great, right?”
“Yes,” Marissa agreed hesitantly. She would like to do something to thank the wizards for letting her come to witch school. “But… I don’t know how to milk ducks.”
“Oh, that’s okay. Neither do I,” the brown-haired girl said. “The little ones will show us how, and show us the way to the duck coop. So is it a deal? Can we go together?”
“We can go together,” Marissa agreed. The girl seemed to like her and want to be friends, so Marissa thought it would be good for them to help each other.
“Meet me at the bottom of the back stairs outside,” the girl instructed. “And please don’t let anyone know that I told you already. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Then the brown-haired girl rushed into the bathroom, leaving Marissa alone in the hall. As she walked back down the wide staircase Marissa realized that she had not even asked the girl her name. But she knew she was wearing a Woolly House robe. Marissa wished it had been Sakura or Anna picked to milk ducks with her.
In the Great Hall, Marissa saw the dinner trays had been replaced by trays of layered chocolate cakes, strawberry meringues, pies, puddings and fruit filled pastries. It all made her think of the boys again and how they had been so happy to get one little pastry each on the day Pipio had earned the ten Reias. One day she would learn to make magic food and let the boys eat so many desserts that they couldn’t eat any more.
“Here she is,” Tatiane said as Marissa returned. “We thought the ghosts had led you away.”
“I was just… seeing how nice the restroom is,” Marissa replied. She watched as everyone continued eating, and thought about milking ducks. It would still be dark early in the morning, so maybe she should bring a glowworm or matches to light a stick. She hoped she would do a good job. Ducks were birds and most birds liked her, except maybe not if she was milking them. Soon a loud voice interrupted her thoughts.
“SACI IS FULL!”
The black one-legged boy with a red cap made his declaration and followed it with a long, loud burp that echoed through the Great Hall. The students cheered as they all turned their attention to Saci, who stood on the staircase with wisps of smoke drifting from the pipe tucked behind his ear.
“Are fat snakies all full?”
“YES!” came the loud reply from all the students under the Anaconda banner. Marissa saw that the Vice Principal man didn’t scold Saci for interrupting ceremonies now, but allowed him to check that everyone was done with dinner.
“Are scary kitties all full?”
“YES!” yelled those under the Jaguar banner.
“Are swingy longtails all full?”
“YES!” yelled those under the Woolly banner.
“Are big beak birdies all full?”
That meant it was her group’s turn to reply and Marissa joined all of Macaw House with a loud “YEESSSSS!”
“La, la, la, la,” Saci called out as he spun down the steps and danced along the aisles. He jumped upon a table right where Sol Braganza and Cecelia Bella de Barros sat and began to sing:
“Poor little firsties, has it worsty
House Leaders are so bossy.
They're all just finks, is what I thinks,
And they can't boss me, Saci.”
His whirlwind sucked up Cecelia’s perfect long hair and turned it to a tangled mess. Marissa could not help but laugh with everyone as he spun away and reappeared on the professor’s tables, where he slurped down Professor Merrythought’s drink and unwrapped a sparkly veil from Professor Galaxia’s cone-shaped hat as he continued singing:
“Oh such a loss, turned to a sloth,
Just ‘cuz I sipped her lost tea.
By Merrythought, I won't get caught,
And she can't boss me, Saci.”
“If you say Mars is just a star,
Galaxia may smacks ya.
She reads the night, your future's bright,
But she can't boss me, Saci.”
He jumped from the second table to the first, tugging the shaggy beard of the scarfaced professor and dancing a samba upon the principal’s large belly as he sang:
“When Vipertooths are on the loose,
Please don’t let them accost me.
Old Domador can tame their roar,
But he cant boss me, Saci.”
“Don't make trouble, he'll make double,
They'll send you to his offy.
Absencia suspendses ya,
But he can't boss me, Saci.”
He spun and landed a one-footed stance upon the shoulder of Vice Principal Katupya, who cracked a slight smile and calmly accepted his antics as the Great Hall roared with laughter.
“It wasn’t me, just ‘cuz you see,
There's something that you've losty.
You can race me, curse and chase me,
But you can't boss me, Saci.”
“When choosing’s done, I have my fun,
Till he gets mean and crossy.
Ubiritaaaaan..., can make me goooone..”
His drawn out words must have told everyone that his song was ending, for Marissa listened as almost every voice in the room joined deafeningly in his last line:
“BUT YOU CAN'T BOSS ME, SACI!”
All the students laughed as his speeding whirlwind swirled along every table in the hall, swooshing robes and sucking in clattering circles of silverware. When Saci disappeared, forks and knives lay neatly at their settings, but every spoon in the Great Hall was gone. Random shouts and curses were heard as students found items missing from their robe pockets. Two first-year girls near Marissa had lost a hairbrush and Jelly Slugs, but were still in a happy mood from the one-legged boy’s performance.
“Is he going to do that every time we eat?” asked one girl. Alika and Tatiane were now lining them up to lead them to Macaw House.
“Only tonight,” Alika Escuro replied. “Saci’s song always ends the welcoming banquet.”
“A scrumptious meal. Scrumptious!” Principal Absencia declared from the raised level. “Off to bed with us now.” He floated his chair to a stone fireplace behind the professor’s tables and lifted his rotund body to the hearth. With a toss of Floo powder he whooshed away in flames.
“First-years will leave the Great Hall first to follow House Leaders to your new quarters,” Vice Principal Katupya stated. “Older students may stay one more hour.”
Boys and girls from Jaguar and Anaconda were led up the front staircase and Marissa knew they were headed to the entrance under the two giant wizards. Her group and the Woolly first-years were led up the staircase at the opposite end of the Great Hall. Sakura and Anna waved when she saw them in the other line of girls. The lines passed through a glowworm lit hallway then climbed more steps to emerge in the night on another of the endless steep staircases that ran the face of the pyramid. As the other children marched down ahead of her, Marissa paused to gaze in awe at the millions and millions of stars that filled the night. In Sao Paulo most were invisible beyond the glare of city lights, but here they were endless.
“In Astronomy you’ll learn the names of them all,” said Tatiane, who followed the end of the first-years line.
“All of them?” Marissa asked unbelievingly. “I can’t remember that many.”
As they descended the steps, Tatiane conceded that it was only the important brightest ones she would need to learn. Then Marissa looked over the leafy canopy and saw the dark outlines of the majestic lupuna trees she had seen earlier from the far side of the school. There were three of the spreading giants off to the left corner of the pyramid and three to the right. Rainforest grew to the pyramid’s foundation, with branches and vines overflowing the first level of the structure and trailing onto a stone pathway that led south. Little stone bowls along the walk held glowworms that lit the way as they passed. Milo Timbira called them all to a halt a hundred feet further, near a glowing diamond shaped sign that read ‘CAUTION: FRUIT CROSSING’.
“Lumos,” called Alika Escuro as her wand illuminated two mangos that lay on the ground beside the stone pathway.
“Leave any fruit that you see in this area,” Milo Timbira stated. “Never try to pick it up. Never try to kick it out of your way. It belongs to Mapinguary.”
“To who?” asked one boy as the mangos rolled over unassisted.
“The fearsome mapinguary of native Muggle legend is really the slothish,” Milo Timbira told them. “It sleeps twenty-three and a half hours a day and hangs ten years in one spot before slumping through the forest to scare Muggles. It is a magical creature that can weakly summon fallen fruit, then sleeps for ten hours until it comes to him”
“The summoning blends with a powerful sticking charm to protect his meal from other animals,” explained Alika as the mangos rolled a few more inches. “Touch his fruit and you will be pulled along the ground with it until Mappy wakes up to eat a half day later.”
“That,” said Milo as his wand illuminated a large tree overhead, “is Mappy. The laziest animal on earth.” A long-armed furry creature hung from a very thick branch. Marissa thought it looked just like Potira’s sleepy sloth, only the giant slothish was the size of a car.
“Of course, you can let Condas try to pick up fruit,” added Baltazar Varnhagen from the Woolly boys line.
“Zar!” scolded Tania de Feiticeiros. “Don’t encourage them.”
“Just trying to help,” he said as the Woolly first-years were led off a different path into the trees.
Marissa’s group turned left to follow a stone pathway into the dense overhanging foliage. She could not see the Macaw House building yet, but from the path’s direction she thought that it must be somewhere near the base of the massive lupunas. In a few minutes they came to a clearing where the thirty feet wide buttress root trunks could be seen. Marissa and others gasped with surprise because there was no huge stone building like Jaguar or Anaconda. The majestic lupuna trees did not tower over Macaw House. They were Macaw House.
Twenty feet above the ground, a wide wooden floor circled the trunk of the nearest tree. Glass walls and a thatched palm roof enclosed the platform and two more levels were stacked above it. Two sets of wooden steps with vine railings spiralled around the trunk up to the first level, and thick leafy vines wrapped around and trailed from all the structure. The two farther away lupunas each had seven round levels piled upon each other like stacks of plates. Lights from the windowed walls cast an eerie radiance upon the surrounding dark forest.
“Welcome to Macaw House,” said Milo Timbira. Beside him two colorful birds with draping tailfeathers slept atop a tall stone statue of themselves. Marissa was happy to know there were really macaws at Macaw House.
“This is way cooler place to stay than some old stone temples!” declared one boy as they reached the base of the first monstrous tree.
Alika Escuro led the first-years up the wide plank steps that seemed to grow into the tree. Marissa and Tatiane were the last to enter the large airy Macaw common room furnished with fat cushiony chairs and couches, small tables and hanging glowworm lights. Milo Timbira led the boys around the other side of the trunk while Alika and Tatiane took the girls to a nearby doorway in the glass wall. A long rope bridge with plank floor reached out to the first level of another lupuna. As they crossed the swaying span, Marissa saw many more bridges stretched between the three towering trees.
“You’ll all sleep on first floor of Girls Tree,” said Alika Escuro. “Half in one room, half in the other. Find which bed your trunk was brought to and you can unpack pajamas or nightgowns before we show you the bathrooms.”
“Tatiane,” Marissa said as the girls ran off to find their luggage, “I don’t have a trunk.”
“We’ll just find you a bed,” Tatiane replied, and led her into one of the dorm rooms. “How about this one near the door?”
“I get a bed all by myself?” she asked in surprise. The headboard was carved in bird designs, as were a tall wooden box and little bedside table.
“Well sure, silly,” Tatiane answered as she took Marissa’s backpack and laid it on the fluffy pillows. “Did you think we would stuff kids into a bed in groups of four like Mr. Argiletum’s lines?”
“Um…no.” Marissa replied. She wasn’t sure what she had thought. She had always slept huddled with all the boys in the alley. In squat houses in Santa Efigenia she knew five or six kids might sleep on one old grimy mattress. Marissa hoped the other girls wouldn’t know she had never slept on a real bed before, or even inside a building. She unzipped her pink backpack to get her nightgown and check on the swallows. Fides and Amor chirped once then snuggled their heads back into a shirt.
When they all returned from the bathrooms, Alika and Tatiane told them about breakfast and class times the next day then left to their own rooms. The other first-year girls began hanging all their clothes in the wardrobes (that’s what the closet boxes were called) and Marissa followed their example. After hanging her robes she moved Fides, Spero and Amor into a drawer with her black skirts and frilly white socks. Now the seven girls whispered together on two beds at the opposite end of the room. Even though she learned each of their names from house selection or overhearing them, none of the girls had even said hello to Marissa yet. So she was surprised a few minutes later to see them all standing before her as she closed the wardrobe doors.
“Hi,” she smiled. “I’m Marissa.”
“We know who you are,” said the girl named Serafina. “Celly told us about you.”
“You’re the homeless Muggle-born who eats from trash cans,” added Leila.
“If you want to stay in our room,” said Serafina, “we have rules you have to follow.”
All of the other girls nodded their heads in agreement with their elected speaker.
“First,” Serafina told Marissa, “you’re not allowed to steal from any of us.”
“I never steal anything!” Marissa asserted strongly.
“And don’t lie, either,” said Eva Paranhos. “Everyone knows that homeless Muggles take wallets and purses. So if any of us are ever missing necklaces, clothes, money or anything, we’ll know it was you. Alika said Saci doesn’t come in Houses.”
“Second,” Serafina continued, “you’re not allowed to cheat off us in class.”
“Muggle-borns don’t know anything about magic,” Eva told Marissa, “and we don’t want you getting us in trouble by copying from our parchments.”
“Third,” Serafina instructed, “you have to take showers. Every day.”
“With soap,” added Leila. “We don’t want our room to stink like a dumpster.”
Marissa didn’t even answer. They all knew she took a shower and was as clean as them. It wasn’t her fault that all she ever had to wash by before was the faucet in the alley.
“So if you don’t want us to tell the principal and have him make you sleep in the basements with the little ones,” Serafina stated sternly, “those are the rules.”
“I won’t steal, I won’t cheat, and I will take showers every day,” said Marissa calmly as she looked Serafina Palmeiro in the eye. “But it’s not because of your dumb rules.”
“Whatever,” said Serafina. “Just behave yourself. Maybe next semester we’ll trust you.” The seven girls walked away talking about how bad-mannered Muggles were. They gathered on Eva’s and Leila’s beds, leaving Marissa by herself again.
Marissa heard the chirp-chirp of a swallow. Spero squeezed out of the barely open drawer and hopped onto her finger. She quickly sat down on the floor beside the bed where the girls couldn’t see her. She didn’t want them to decide she wasn’t allowed to have birds either.
“You still like me, don’t you?” Marissa whispered to the little blue swallow. “Maybe they’ll be nice to me when they see I got picked to serve milk for the first breakfast. At least they’re not real mean like Cecilia and Celestia.”
Soon the glowworm lights went out and Marissa heard all the girls climbing into their beds. She looked at her own bed, reluctant to lay upon the fresh pastel sheets. In Santa Efigenia right now, the boys were crawling under the rusty old ventilation unit. While she had a warm, roomy bed all to herself, they would lay cold and hungry on the hard concrete. They had never had a soft mattress and fluffy pillows to sleep on, and Marissa wished she could share it with all of them.
“I have to get up early, early tomorrow, Spero,” she whispered as she leaned against the wardrobe. “You can help me check the clock after the girls are asleep.”
Marissa was always a very light sleeper. She was sure she could take short naps and wake every few hours until she found it was a half hour before four o’clock. She would talk to Spero a while and get into the soft bed a little later.
--------------------------------------------
“Chirp-chirp. Chirp-chirp.” Marissa woke to the sound of the little swallow’s voice as he sat nestled under her chin. She opened her eyes to find herself laying on the wooden floor. She had fallen asleep without even getting into the bed. Marissa wondered how long she had been sleeping. Quietly she rose and tiptoed along the row of beds so she could see the large clock at the center of the wall. Four o’clock was just five minutes away!
She rushed to put shoes and socks on, then tucked Spero back into the drawer before she grabbed her robe. She didn’t have time to change from her nightgown because she would need to hurry to get to the staircase by four o’clock.
“Oh, wait,” she whispered to herself. Quickly she took the bread from her pocket and crumbled it in the corner of the drawer so the three birds could eat when they woke.
Silently she moved out the door, across the swaying rope bridge, through the Macaw common room and down the winding steps to the rainforest floor. In the darkness she could barely make out the stone pathway, for all the glowworm lights had faded out. But Marissa was used to the unlit alleys of Santa Efigenia and running through the night did not trouble her at all. She did hope there would be lights at the duck coop though.
Marissa arrived at the base of the pyramid and looked about for the brown-haired girl from Woolly House. She did not see her anywhere but in a moment noticed a metal pail on the first step of the staircase. A tiny white light flickered inside it and Marissa looked in to find a folded paper. As she took the note from the pail, the flickering light rose to hover above her head.
The little ones wouldn’t wait. Bring your milking pail and follow the wisp. It will lead you to us.
The tiny light began floating away along a narrow trail. Marissa grabbed the metal pail and ran after as it swirled into the dense foliage. Her flickering guide led the way up staircases through stone-walled terraces, then down other steps and back into the thick forest on winding trails. After quite a while Marissa became unsure if the light was taking her somewhere or just trying to get her lost. Then it flickered away and was gone, leaving her in total blackness. Rustling leaves told her there was something large moving about her in the trees.
Other children might be terrified, but Marissa was too strong to let herself feel afraid. In her pocket she found the matches she had used to light Saci’s pipe. She twisted up the paper of the note and lit the end. She walked a few minutes with the small torch until the paper burned away and it was dark again. She thought of lighting a stick, then spied a clearing ahead and walked until she emerged in a field beside a large stone building. It smelled like animals and Marissa thought maybe this was where the ducks were.
“Hello,” she called as she walked through a wide arched doorway. “Is anyone here?”
No one answered except a tall black animal that neighed as it lifted its head over the gate of a stall. Marissa had never seen a live horse before, but she thought that was what it was. It looked very hungry though, because its black fur clung to it ribs and showed every bone. She stepped closer to see that it had pure white eyes and big black leathery wings.
“You’re a magic horse, aren’t you?” she said, and cautiously petted its bony head. It neighed again as something behind her brightened the dark room.
“Little missies never see Thestrals,” said a voice. Marissa turned instantly to see who was there and a frightened transparent body raised its arms and cowered down before her. The misty silver ghost was only a skinny boy, thin as the bony horse.
“Please don’t hurt boy,” he said meekly, shielding his face like little kids in the slums did when older gangs beat them.
“I… I won’t hurt you,” Marissa said. She didn’t think someone even could hit a ghost.
“Why has miss come to stables at night?” asked the boy as he slowly stood up. He kept his eyes on the ground as he addressed her.
“I’m looking for the other girl,” Marissa said. “We came to milk the ducks.”
“No other girl,” he replied. “Shame, shame, bad girl.”
“I’m not being bad. I’m supposed to…”
“Not little miss. Girl who lies to miss. No ducks. No milk. Shame, bad girl.”
Marissa realized with frustration what the ghost boy was telling her. The brown-haired girl had never come there ahead of her. She hadn’t been chosen to serve duck milk at the first breakfast. The girl had tricked her so she would get lost in the dark! Now Marissa felt foolish that she had let herself be led there.
She was completely lost. The flickering light had led her in such a twisting, turning way that she could not tell the direction she came from. It was too dark to go back into the forest without a light, and sticks she found were too wet to burn. If she waited for sunrise in an hour to find her way back she would be late for her very first classes. The only good thing at the moment was that the glow of the ghostly boy let her see in the dark stables.
“Could you… help me?” Marissa reluctantly asked the silvery boy who was petting the skeletal winged horse.
“Yes, miss,” he replied, bowing his head.
“I’m lost,” she told him.
“Miss cannot lose self. Boy finds you right here.”
“But I don’t know how to get back in the dark.”
“What lost thing can boy find for miss?”
“The house,” she replied as she understood his thought. “I lost Macaw House. Can you help me find it?”
“Miss please follow boy,” he said. He turned to walk along the line of stalls.
“Ooohh!” Marissa cried out as she saw the ghost boy’s back. Beneath his tattered shirt his skin was slashed with scores of deep bleeding cuts. “What happened to you?”
“Master whipped boy to punish him for losing master’s best horses. Boy very bad.”
“But you need bandages or…” Marissa paused. Maybe ghosts couldn’t use bandages. Maybe he needed magic like Professor Merrythought had used on her scraped hands.
Silently the boy led Marissa out of the stables, past shadowy forms of more bony horses. She followed him along another trail into the dark forest. After some time they reached the clearing of Macaw House and Marissa saw lights in the windowed levels of the massive lupuna trees. Girls were waking up and they would see she was gone. She turned to the poor whipped boy who wouldn’t look up to see her.
“Thank you, um…” Marissa hesitated. “What is your name?”
“Boy has no name. Master only calls boy,” he said sadly as he faded away.
“Wait! I have to…” she called, but he was gone. Marissa ran to the first tree, up the steps and through the common room. As she raced across the bridge to Girls Tree she saw Alika Escuro at the other end.
“Where have you been!?” yelled the House Leader. “I almost called the professors to start searching the forest for you! Weren’t you told you can't just go…”
“She tricked me!” Marissa interrupted loudly. “A girl at dinner. She said we were milking ducks and she even left a pail and said follow the light and she made me get lost in the dark and… and…”
“I’m going to kill those Condas,” Alika said.
“Milo says she’s nowhere in… oh, you found her,” said Tatiane as she rushed down from the level above.
“It wasn’t a Conda,” Marissa told Alika. “Her robe had Woolly colors.”
“Oh, it was Condas. They’re the only ones that… what is that smell?”
“Um… “ Marissa said as she lifted her shoe to see the brown matter squished on her sole. “I think I stepped in magic horse poop.”
“Magic horse poop?” questioned Alika. “How is poop…”
“Not the poop, the horse.” Marissa said. “It has wings.”
“Wings?” she said with a puzzled look. “You mean Domador’s Thestrals no one can see? You got lost in the dark and made it all the way to the stables?”
Marissa nodded.
“How did you find the way back?”
“A ghost boy showed me,” Marissa said. “But he’s bleeding and we need to help him.”
Tatiane smiled kindly. “So you met negrinho do pastoreio.”
“The stable boy’s wounds can’t hurt him anymore, Marissa,” Alika assured her. “Only his memories cause him pain.”
The doors of the dorm rooms opened. All the first-year girls were dressed and ready to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Marissa stepped away from the bridge so they could walk by.
“Wait for us in the common room, girls,” directed Alika. “We’ll be right there.”
“Ewww!” sniffed Leila Semedo. “I knew she would stink up our room.”
“Don’t be mean,” Alika said as Leila passed. “You’ll all be shovelling dung piles soon.”
“Scourgify,” Tatiane said as she pointed her wand. Marissa’s shoe was clean again.
“Now follow the other girls and let’s get to breakfast,” Alika ordered.
“But I’m not dressed yet,” Marissa replied. “I just have my nightgown on.”
“I’ll wait while she changes, Alika,” said Tatiane. “Take the others and we’ll catch up.”
In the dorm room Marissa quickly put on a new shirt and skirt and grabbed her varnished black wand. She wondered where the swallows had gone, then saw them safely perched on a ceiling beam. She rushed to rejoin Tatiane in the common room and they hurried down the spiral stairs together.
“Is Alika going to detention me for leaving by myself?” Marissa asked Tatiane. That was what Sakura had told her happened when you did something wrong in school.
“No. It wasn’t your fault,” Tatiane replied. “She just didn’t want a firstie eaten by a wild animal in her first week as House Leader.”
“I won’t let anything eat me.”
“Right,” Tatiane smiled. “So what exactly happened?”
As they ran along the stone pathway and up the pyramid staircase, Marissa related the events with the brown-haired girl, the flickering light, the winged horse and the stable boy. Tatiane told Marissa that a first-year couldn’t cast a will-o-the-wisp and someone else must have helped trick her.
“I didn’t know there wasn’t really magic ducks,” she admitted as she rushed down the hallway just in time to collide with a very solid dustcloud. Tatiane fell too, and for the second time in less than a day Marissa tumbled to the floor with two people she had knocked over.
“Pink bag girl!” Saci called out happily, sitting on his head where he had landed. “Got a light?”
“Oh, Saci,” said Tatiane as she stood up. “You should quit smoking.”
“Oh, Ta-ta-ta,” he copied. “You should quit… pooping!”
“Here, Saci,” Marissa said. She held a lighted match to his pipe. “Sorry I knocked you down.”
“Lastie firstie is late for breakfast,” he said before sucking on the pipe.
“’Cuz I was trying to find stupid duck milk!”
“Poor firstie,” Saci laughed. “Doesn’t know milk comes from cows.” Then he spun around to disappear with another whirlwind. Marissa and Tatiane continued to the Great Hall and took their seats under the Macaw House banner. Marissa had just a slice of toast and some orange juice, which she made stop at half a glass.
“Oh, Boca da Lixo girl,” came a voice purposefully loud so that everyone could hear, “where is our duck milk?”
Marissa looked to see who had spoken. There was Cecelia Bella de Barros, smiling smugly as the Anaconda House tables erupted with laughter. There was the brown-haired girl laughing beside Celestia. It was Anacondas who tricked her, and Marissa just knew it was Cecelia who had planned it all. Now Cecelia taunted her to let everyone know Marissa had been their victim.
Marissa had tried to show them she was too strong to be hurt, too strong to be teased. But at witch school everyone else knew about magic things while she didn’t, and that was how they fooled her. Marissa ignored the laughter and tried to feel nothing, but inside she was angry. She was angry that she had let Cecelia Bella de Barros trick her and make her look weak.
“Quaaack!” came a distressed call overhead. “Qua-quack.”
Everyone in the Great Hall looked up to the enchanted ceiling. Hanging by his foot from a whirlwind was the one-legged black boy. Held under his left arm was a very frantic duck, and in his right hand was a silver pitcher. As he tipped the pitcher, a long stream of white flowed out and spilled down onto the tabletop where the Bella de Barros sisters sat. The liquid splattered wildly and soaked the clothing of everyone near, especially the fine silk dresses of the two beautiful golden-blonde girls.
“BREAKFAST IS SERVED!” called Saci Pererê as the milk poured endlessly.
Chapter 9 - Feathers and Broomsticks by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
As classes begin, Marissa learns about magic and learns that some people remain unhappy with her presence at Witness Stone.
"Maybe you shouldn’t sit near any of them,” Alika Escuro advised Marissa. She was handing out schedules to the Macaw first-years and had announced they would be sharing classes with the Anacondas.
“But I didn’t tell Saci to pour the milk,” Marissa replied, although she was very satisfied that his deed had made all the other houses laugh at Cecilia and Celestia louder than Anaconda House had laughed at her. Only Serafina and Leila hadn't thought it was funny, and were angry that Eva Paranhos joined in laughing at the golden-blonde girls. Eva had replied that Serafina was just trying to be Celestia's friend to become popular.
“The Condas are mad that their prank got turned around on them,” said Alika. “Especially since the princesses had their fancy dresses soaked.”
“Celestia and her friends will want to get back at you,” Milo Timbira told Marissa as he stood by a wide stone bowl that sat on a pedestal in the corner. “So watch out.”
“I don’t care if they try to tease me,” Marissa told her House Leaders. “I’ll just ignore them.” She promised herself she would learn to never fall for another trick. If she could protect the boys from gangs and police, she could surely protect herself from scheming girls. And though she let nobody see it, right now Marissa was too excited to worry about Celestia. Soon she would be in a real class with a real teacher for the very first time in her life! Plus in witch school each kind of magic had its own professor and class. She had thought she would have just one teacher, then discovered she would have eight.
The Macaw first-years were gathered on the level above the Great Hall. Planters of beautiful rainforest orchids and trailing vines lined the balcony wall. Down the long hallway behind them, Marissa had seen the Woolly group and knew that Jaguar and Anaconda first-years had followed their House Leaders to other corners of the floor. She looked to Milo as something sprang from and dropped back into the bowl on the pedestal.
“These passages take you to the other floors of Witness Stone,” Milo said to the group. He pointed to a half dozen doorways along the wall opposite the balcony. Each was framed in carved stone designs that slowly moved and altered shape as Marissa watched. “There are six more on the other side of the Great Hall. It takes time to learn your way.”
“Do we get a map then?” asked Jaci Erasmi, looking to see if his class list parchment included one. “To show us how to get to classrooms?”
“No,” confirmed Milo as he reached into the stone bowl, “you get one of these.” He tossed something up into the air and Jaci caught the flailing little shape in his hands.
“It’s… a frog,” said the puzzled young boy as he cupped the small creature in his palm.
“A guide frog,” Milo stated. “Everyone come and get one.” He began handing more out until each first-year held a tiny bright green tree frog. Marissa’s crawled onto her finger and stared at her with its shiny red eyes. “Birrip,” it said to her.
"Maps are pretty useless here. Witness Stone is like Mercado Trocado."
"No it's not, Milo," Alika contradicted. "Classrooms never change location. It's the hallmaze connecting them that moves."
"The point is that the hallway to any class today is different than the hallway that led there yesterday, and will be a different one again tomorrow."
“Guide frogs are bewitched to lead you anywhere in the school,” Alika explained. “Just tell your frog which class you want to…” A high pitched scream from far across the Great Hall interrupted her words and Alika looked around. “What was that?”
“Um… it’s Rosaria Castilho,” said Marissa, who recognized the voice and knew the Anacondas must be giving out guide frogs too. “She’s probably afraid of these ‘cuz they’re crawly.”
Alika rolled her eyes, then explained that groups could all follow one frog but that each of them should always keep a guide frog in his or her robe in case they came to class alone or got lost in the hallways. Then she instructed Serafina Palmeiro to direct her frog.
“Charms,” Serafina commanded the little green creature, reading the first class from her schedule. It leaped from her palm, hopped along the floor and disappeared into the third doorway down the hall.
“Well, hurry up, everyone” Milo prompted. “It’s not going to wait for you!”
The crowd of Macaw first-years began chasing after the frog. Marissa reached the doorway first and saw it rapidly jumping away up a narrow stone stairway. A clatter of footsteps on stone followed behind her as they all sprinted to keep up with the guide frog.
“We’ll see you back here at lunch,” Alika shouted after them. “Hopefully.”
The dimly lit passage seemed more like a tunnel than a hall, with confining walls and a low ceiling. Lines of sculpted symbols ran the length of the walls and along the steps they could use the raised stone as handrails. After several zig-zagging flights of stairs the frog came to a wide chamber and sat until Marissa and all the others caught up.
“Now what?” Serafina asked. There were no doors or other passages from the room, only the stairs they had come up. The tiny frog jumped to the wall, clinging to a stone relief. Serafina cupped her hand to catch it and as her palm touched the wall a giant slab of stone folded away to reveal the classroom entrance. “That was simple,” Serafina said, pocketing her frog as they stepped inside a bright room with a floor to ceiling glass wall that faced out upon the rainforest canopy and the towering lupunas of Macaw House.
“STUPID FROG, SLOW DOWN!” came a loud yell from below, followed by the noises of another crowd of children rushing up the steps.
“Sounds like the Condas found their way, too,” commented Jaci Erasmi.
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“She’s too poor to buy books,” Celestia Bella de Barros remarked from the front row of desks that she and her Anaconda girls has claimed as theirs. Rosaria Castilhos shifted uneasily in the seat Celestia had assigned her to.
“Because she can’t beg Galleons in Boca de Lixo,” Cristiano Ferreira said sarcastically as children around him chuckled.
“And she smells like…”
“That will be quite enough!” Students jumped, startled by the suddenly loud voice of the thin, soft-spoken Professor Galhos.
Charms class had started so well. Marissa had raised her wand with the other first-years as Professor Galhos quietly told them all about the responsibility of using and caring for wands properly. She had swirled it in the air then placed it on her desk as the professor instructed, and listened as they were told that a witch must always carry her wand, except when playing Quidditch. She tried to remember everything so that she could learn to be smart and learn to be magic. The professor had even praised her for being the first to ask what the hundred feathers floating over their heads were for, and rewarded Marissa by letting her choose the best one (she picked the long vivid blue one after being assured no birds were harmed collecting the feathers). Professor Galhos explained that these would be the object of their first practical charm, but she had left them in the air as a test of their curiousity. “Knowledge is the reward of those who ask questions,” the professor had told the class. As the other swaying plumes of every size and color each drifted down to a different desk, Celestia had frowned with displeasure at Marissa’s honor.
But then the one thing Marissa had hoped wouldn’t happen yet did. Professor Galhos asked them to open their Charms text to page three, and all the children except her retrieved books from the black bags they brought to class. When the professor walked down the aisles and saw her empty desktop, Marissa had to awkwardly explain that she didn’t have any books yet. It had been the perfect opportunity for the Anacondas to start teasing her, trying to make her feel ashamed.
“You’re the Muggle-born girl,” Professor Galhos noted after quieting the class. Marissa looked up at the grey-haired lady whose buns of hair were tied with curious curling twigs that matched patterns of branching twigs on her raincloud-grey robe. “Marissa, isn't it?”
“Yes,” Marissa replied. She hoped the professor would not detention her for having no book. That would only give the mean girls and boys something more to tease her for.
“I expect you to have your textbook tomorrow,” the thin as a branch professor stated firmly. “Today you may use the wall chart, which is the same as page three’s illustration.”
Marissa walked to the ‘Wand Motions’ chart and heard muted laughter of the Anacondas directed at her again. When Cristiano teased “Hocus pocus, hocus pocus” as she passed, it didn’t bother her. Maybe she had a plain wand and no book, but she had won the contest of asking the first question!
“Wands up!” Professor Galhos directed the class. “We shall begin with the swish.”
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“POTIONS!” a host of young voices shouted at once, and thirty-two brightly colored frogs began leaping from their hands. Outside Charms class, all the Macaw boys had argued over whose guide frog to follow to the next classroom. Then they had persuaded the Macaw girls to participate in a brilliant compromise after Jaci Erasmi suggested “Hey, what if we use all of them?”
“Oh, how childish,” stated Celestia from her group of girls as green shapes went flying.
“Don’t follow us then!” Jaci yelled back as the Macaws rushed down the stairs after the army of leaping tree frogs. Marissa hoped they really wouldn’t, but knew their Anaconda classmates would have no choice but to come the same way.
Leading the chase, Marissa raced shoulder to shoulder with Jaci and Mario Domingues while everyone else filled the narrow stone passageway behind them. As they turned the next flight of stairs, she suddenly noticed an equally large group of older students stampeding up the steps directly towards them.
“STOP!” she yelled to Jaci and Mario, but the press of people from behind wouldn’t let them. Guide frogs started bounding over heads of the oncoming group that was not halting either. Just before the spectacular collision she was sure was about to happen, harsh scraping noises echoed around them. The hall instantly widened to make way for the first-year’s headlong rush down one side of the stairway. Marissa breathed a sigh of relief as she reached the base of the stairs while the opposing crowd rushed safely past.
The army of tree frogs led them rapidly off along another narrow hallway. A thin mist swirled across the floors to obscure their tiny guides, and the glowworm lights all along the walls faded out to leave them in darkness. Everyone came to a halt as shouts of confusion filled the corridor. Marissa was sure it wasn’t another Anaconda trick because Celestia and the others had followed into the black hallway too. Then misty shadows began filling with thick, leafy trees and tangled vines. Marissa curiously passed her hand through the foliage.
“How did we get outside?” a confused voice asked.
“We should go back,” another said in the darkness.
“But we lost all our frogs!”
“This is what happens when we let Macaws lead the way,” Celestia Bella de Barros stated sarcastically.
“But where have they led you?” asked a deep adult voice. “Into the forest?”
“No!” Marissa responded strongly to their hidden questioner, refusing to be fooled again. Though her eyes saw it, the absence of its smells and sound told her this was not truly the rainforest. “These trees aren’t real. It’s just a…” she tried to remember what Tiquinho had called it, “a illusionment. Like at the stone wall.”
“Indeed,” chuckled the deep voice as other unseen children began agreeing with her. Then the unreal rainforest faded away and Marissa realized they were already in a classroom. Something chirruped at her feet and she scooped up the tiny frog that she could now see sitting patiently atop her shoe in the disappearing mist. The swirling haze absorbed itself back into a huge cauldron set beside a dark-robed figure. Silently he motioned all of them to seats.
Unlike the single desks and chairs of Charms class, this room had tall stools grouped at long stone-topped tables. High wooden shelves lined every wall and were stocked with an endless diversity of bottles, jars, jugs and cups of all shape and size. These were filled with colorful liquids, leaves, powders, parts, and pieces of unidentifiable nature. Light shone in from narrow opaque windows along the cobwebbed ceiling.
“Welcome to Potions, my first-years,” said the sturdy, darkly tanned native. “Wands up!”
He wore plain black today instead of the horrible feathered cape of the hundred killed birds, but Marissa could see that their Potions teacher was the stern vice principal. Professor Katupya, as he instructed them to address him in class, walked about as all the children practiced once again each of the movements they had learned in Charms.
“Wands down… and away,” he ordered clearly. “You shall never use them here again.”
Alone in the last row, Marissa obediently tucked her wand in her robe, but was confused. How would she make magic then?
“In Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense, you will learn what you can do with a wand. In the art of Potions you will learn, as importantly, what a wizard can do without one.”
The mist-filled iron pot bubbled to life again. Alika had said first-years didn’t need to bring their own cauldrons yet, but this must be where Marissa would learn to cook magic.
“For six centuries after the exodus from our ancient cities,” stated Professor Katupya, “the wizarding tribes conjured only by using the rare flora and fauna of the rainforest. Just as Witness Stone rises from Amazonia, so magic rises from the very heart of nature. It begins not in us, but in all the life that surrounds us. Our rainforest is home to five hundred mammal species, five hundred reptiles, one third of the world's birds, and some thirty million types of insect.”
“Ewwww!” shuddered Rosaria nervously before being silenced by the professor’s stare. He continued his remarks as he selected a fat glass jar from one of the wooden shelves.
“Among four hundred thousand species of plants, wizards have learned of more than a thousand magical roots, leaves, flowers, and seeds. Also some very supernatural bugs.”
Rosaria screamed, knocked over her stool, and ran as the jar of crawling live beetles was set upon her table. Unfortunately she escaped directly over to another shelf of animate ingredients. Crying out once again as she noticed jars moving with crickets and spiders, Rosaria rushed over to hide behind Marissa. The trembling girl hoped she would protect her from any attacking bugs.
“There is no screaming allowed in Potions class,” Professor Katupya stated very sternly.
“It’s not her fault!” Marissa responded loudly. It was very mean to put the jar right by her when a teacher should know that some girls might be scared of bugs.
“Not?” Katupya questioned, as if considering a thought. “Do our fears control us, or do we control our fears?”
Marissa did not know if she was supposed to respond, as he seemed to address that question to the whole class. She knew what her own answer was, but also knew Rosaria was not as brave. “I don’t like this class,” Rosaria whimpered beside her.
“Are you also afraid of insects?” Katupya asked Marissa directly. She scowled as she heard muffled laughter from Anaconda boys.
“NO!” she said defiantly, very displeased that the professor had implied to the class that she was. Professor Katupya motioned his finger for her to come to the front of the class. She forced herself to approach him calmly. He stood solid and imposing, like the dread policemen she knew to run from in the city. Marissa realized she had just yelled at the vice principal, and was sure it meant she would be detentioned.
“Our first task each day is to feed our guide frogs,” he stated as he passed the large jar to Marissa. “Please give one beetle to each student.”
Marissa walked down the aisles handing out bugs. Some girls had her feed the beetle directly to their frog so they wouldn’t have to touch it. As Marissa neared her own table again, Rosaria vigorously shook her head no to indicate that she did not want one. She had probably not taken a frog, so didn’t need any frog food.
After helping all the Macaws first, Marissa reluctantly moved to the Anacondas. Some girls held their noses when she came by them. The boys were worse.
“Bet she’s scared to eat one,” teased Fer Ribeiro as he pushed the wriggling insect she had just given him up to her lips. Marissa didn’t respond.
“Yeah, I’d pay a Sickle to see that,” added Cristiano. “She’s too afraid.”
Marissa was done with being called afraid. She grabbed a small handful of the live beetles from the jar, then calmly placed them all in her mouth and began chewing. Cristiano’s mouth dropped open in shock. Now they knew she was strong!
A sharp blow landed on Marissa’s back, sending a wet mess flying from her mouth.
“Students MAY NOT ingest potion ingredients which they don’t know the properties of,” declared the professor’s voice behind her. “Many magical insects are poisonous.”
Fer and Cristiano wiped chewed up beetle pieces from their robes and faces as Marissa picked out the other little parts left on her tongue and teeth. She didn’t think these bugs could be poison if they fed them to guide frogs.
“I believe you owe the young lady a Sickle, Mr. Ferreira,” the professor told one boy.
“But…” Cristiano stopped his protest when his eyes met Katupya’s stern gaze. He took something from his robe and handed it to Marissa. She accepted with surprise one of the shiny silver wizard coins.
“Back to your seat,” Professor Katupya told her. “Now, everyone into groups of three.”
“Bye, Marissa,” Rosaria said sadly as she stood up. “I have to ask Celly who I’m with.”
“Why should you ask her?”
“Cecelia made her my social advisor. To teach me how to act like a proper Conda girl.” Marissa knew that probably meant Celestia would teach Rosaria to not be her friend.
The Anacondas separated into their groups, and the Macaws into theirs. The girls of Marissa’s bedroom formed two trios, leaving her unchosen. But she was surprised to see that Eva Paranhos was also left out, probably because she and Serafina had been mad at each other at breakfast. Anaconda also had problems dividing its members evenly.
“Maybe I’ve miscounted, Miss Bella de Barros, but I believe this is four and not three,” Professor Katupya stated to the golden-blonde leader of the girls at the first row table.
“But, sir, there’s not another Anaconda set for our extra girl,” Celestia explained sweetly, trying to convince him to allow an exception.
“One of you must go with these Macaw girls and risk the volatile mixture of houses.”
Celestia frowned, then whispered with the other girls before forfeiting Rosaria to round out the groups properly. She seemed upset as she moved from the Anaconda girls, but when she turned from Celestia’s view Rosaria burst into a happy grin and skipped over to join Marissa. “Celly sent me because Paula said I might be disruptive,” Rosaria told her. Marissa didn’t know what disruptive meant and happily welcomed her back.
“Great,” Eva grumbled to herself as she sunk to a stool beside them. “I’m stuck with the bug-eater and the bug-ophobic.”
The groups spent the lengthy class locating potion ingredients among towering shelves. Marissa found quickly that all the terrifying insects and animal parts were along one wall. She assigned those to herself and let Rosaria do all the roots, leaves and flowers stored on the safer, unscary shelves. Eva suffered through reading them directions of how to chop, crush, or squeeze each item, then measured the prepared ingredients into hollowed seeds just like the big paxiuba seeds that Professor Katupya’s simple necklace was strung with. Though Marissa carefully kept all magic bugs on the end of the table far from Rosaria, she had to protectively squash an escaped fire-breathing dragonfly before it got near her.
“You should bring your swallows to guard us,” Rosaria suggested.
“I don’t think the professor would let me.”
“You can hide one in your robe,” Rosaria proposed. “Or mine. I’m not afraid of Spero.”
“I think we’ll be okay,” Marissa smiled at her sudden bravery. “Eva, what’s next?”
“Bazillipede ooze was the last,” she replied looking at the long parchment Professor Katupya had handed out. She raised her hand. “Sir, I think we’re done.”
Marissa did not know it had been a race, but smiled when the professor complimented them for completing their list first. His approval didn’t lessen Eva’s shock from hearing next that today’s groups would be permanent lab partners for the whole semester.
“Just because I have to sit by you now doesn’t mean I like you,” Eva warned her. “So don’t try to walk by me after class and scare away my real friends, homeless girl.”
As class ended, Eva rejoined the other Macaw girls, who deplored how unjust Professor Katupya was. Serafina had only wished to spite Eva for one hour, not punish her for the whole year. Rosaria reported back to Celestia to be sprayed with consoling perfume.
“Horrible,” the golden-blonde decried. “Forced to spend hours by a smelly gutter girl!”
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Marissa sat in the last row of desks and looked out the tall window. A guide frog had led them back up to the chamber outside the Charms class, but taken the first-years into a room on the opposite side. This glass wall faced the expansive plaza, and she could look out upon Jaguar House, another stone structure hidden under vast branches and vines, and even the nearer back side of the gigantic stone of the carved wizards. From the front of the room she had seen the huge capirona tree where all the owls lived, and grey clouds starting to fill the skies. Marissa had hoped to catch the professor’s eye to wave hello, but all the Anacondas rushing to claim the front desks had distracted her attention.
“Good day, everyone,” called out the newest and youngest instructor at Witness Stone. “I am Professor Merrythought, and this… is Transfiguration.” As she stated the last words, the large desk whose corner she had leaned on changed its form and lifted her up. Students gasped as she was suddenly riding sidesaddle upon a six foot high grey beast with a blunt, tucked in head and spiky thick tail. Its great armored shell was textured like a huge round stone, and it reared about knocking papers and books from its back. Rosaria fearfully retreated away from her desk beside Celestia.
“Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn. Horseplay or lack of attention can cause…” she jumped from the creature as it brought itself down upon the empty desk Rosaria had fled and smashed it to splintered pieces, “…serious injury. And a trip to the principal’s office.”
“I’m sitting back here today,” Rosaria confirmed timidly to Marissa, having found a new seat as far from the stampeding monster as possible. At least she hadn’t screamed.
“What is that thing?” an Anaconda boy asked. “It’s not a real animal, is it?”
“It’s a Glyptodon!” declared Jaci Erasmi. “My grandfather says some live in a canyon above one of the native villages. And they fight boulders they think are other Glyps.”
“No way? Really?”
“He is correct," smiled Grace Merrythought. “Males ram each other during mating season, or ram large river stones that their poor eyesights view as rivals.”
“They’re like a million years old and Muggles think they’re extinct,” Jaci added.
"This one of course,” she stated as it reshaped back into its true form, “is really just a desk." The professor waved her wand to also reassemble the destroyed desk while astounded murmurs ran through the room of first-years. Celestia turned and motioned Rosaria to return to the Anacondas, and she cautiously obeyed her social advisor.
Marissa was very impressed. She thought if she could make one of those appear when the police tried to catch them, they would never bother Sport Club da Luz again. With frogs, broom flying, and magic food, she added it to her mind’s list of best things to learn.
“Will you show us how to make Glyptodons today?” one boy asked hopefully. Others added affirming pleas and nods of agreement.
"I promise I will show you all how to make one of those," Merrythought said as they all smiled in anticipation, "in a few years when you have learned your basics first.”
Great long sighs of disappointment rose from first-years as she smiled at their eagerness. Then she began telling them about what she would show them today and this year, and soon the whole class was involved in an animated discussion about magic. They talked about the difference between life and the illusion of life, and how no wizard could create a living, breathing Glyptodon or other real animal, or bring a dead one back alive. The professor said they would learn other ‘exceptions’ and something called ‘Gamp’s Law’. Then she asked children about what jobs they planned to have as adults. Cristiano and Fer were going to be professional Quidditch players like their fathers, and many other boys said that too. Celestia said she would marry a famous Quidditch player (an older one, not Cristiano or Fer), but also someday be president of Bella de Barros Exports. Others named strange jobs that Marissa had never heard of, like Magizoologist, Auror, and Archimancer. One girl even said she was going to become an ‘Unspeakable’.
“Marissa,” Professor Merrythought asked, “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
In the deadly slums of Sao Paulo, she had known many children who never did grow up. If she could help some survive sickness and violence, that’s what she would want to do.
“Um… a nurse,” Marissa replied. Children laughed at her answer before being hushed.
“We call that a Healer in our world,” the professor explained. “A very noble profession.” Marissa did not know what ‘noble’ meant, but saw by her look that Merrythought was pleased with her answer. She returned her smile across the long room.
As class neared its end, rain began drizzling down outside the tall windows. A motion caught her eye end Marissa looked to see a blue swallow perched in a small tree on the terrace, shaking water from its feathers. Fides and Amor hid in the leaves near Spero.
Professor Merrythought had not made them take out books, but did assign the first chapter of ‘A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration’ to be read before tomorrow’s class. This hour had been much less rigid than Charms or Potions, and first-years happily said goodbye to the young professor as they filed out. Marissa waited until everyone had left to approach Professor Merrythought at the large polished desk that had been a Glyptodon. Something in shadows behind tall bookcases made a thrashing noise.
“Marissa, I’m so sorry,” she said to her sympathetically. “I heard what the Anaconda did. I thought they’d ended those mean Muggle-born initiation pranks years ago.”
“They can't hurt me,” Marissa replied strongly. “But… I got in trouble in Charms class.”
“Why? Are the Condas still…”
“I didn’t have a book,” she broke in, and realization came to the professor’s face.
“Oh, Marissa. That’s my fault,” she explained. “I simply forgot.” She hurriedly found a notepad and wrote something with the feather quill that witches used instead of pencils. From within her robe she took her tiny pygmy owl and handed it the message.
“Do you know where the library is?” she asked Marissa as she stepped to a glass door that opened to the outside. Tesimal flew from her hand into the sky.
“Yes,” Marissa confirmed. “It’s the building with giant trees out its roof.”
“And you have a guide frog for the hallmaze?”
“Yes,” she said, holding it in her palm. “But can't I just go that way?” she pointed out the tall glass. She could see the library from here and could walk the outside stairs.
“The inside way will keep you from the rain,” Professor Merrythought advised.
“I’m not afraid of rain,” Marissa declared. “And, um… someone’s waiting for me.” She pointed to the swallows in the tree outside. The professor smiled.
“Let’s keep you from getting soaked, then,” she said. She took the wand from her sleeve and waved it above Marissa’s robe. “Impervius,” she commanded.
“IMPERVIUS,” echoed a voice near the bookcases. It wasn’t a human voice.
“Is that… a bird?” Marissa said excitedly, and hurried around the desk to see where the sound came from. Sure enough, there in the shadows, a very large macaw sat on a tall bronze perch hidden from the commotion of the classroom. Unlike Tiquinho’s bird, this one was only one color, with deep wrinkles around its eyes and an almost featherless chest.
“Stop!” Professor Merrythought called out, and pulled Marissa away as she reached to pet the bird. “Asuoby doesn’t like people near him.”
As if to confirm this, the old bird squawked fiercely just as the professor tugged her back, and stabbed its beak forward aggressively until Marissa had retreated. Its long blue tailfeathers were the exact color as the feather she had won in Charms. A feather of a hyacinth macaw.
“He could hurt you very badly,” the professor explained. “Macaws grow very attached to their masters, especially through a hundred years. Poor Asuoby is very depressed since Professor Amaral is gone, and won’t make other friends.”
She said this as if she were very sad for the bird, then walked Marissa back to the glass door. They stepped under a covered arch outside and the swallows flew to her shoulder.
“Mr. Argiletum will have your books ready. Hurry back for lunch.”
“I will,” Marissa replied, and remembered one more thing to tell Professor Merrythought. She held up the tiny guide frog. “I named him Leandro. ‘Cuz… you know.”
The professor gave a knowing smile and Marissa could tell she remembered her promise.
“You were supposed to stay in the room,” Marissa gently scolded the swallows as she marched down the wide staircase. Her new shoes clicked sharply on the wet stones and Marissa realized they hardly hurt anymore. Tatiane had been right about ‘wear them in’. She emerged onto the plaza beneath the two giant wizards and looked high above her to see if they would move again, but they didn’t. Maybe they were only magicked to nod their heads on the first day everyone arrived. Marissa ran along the stone-paved avenue, towards the tree-covered library across the plaza. As she passed the half pyramid of Jaguar House she could see large birds roosting under stone eaves, while farther off in the downpour raindrops danced on the surface of the lily pond.
“Marissa,” called a voice behind her. Fides, Spero, and Amor glided off ahead as something larger fluttered onto her shoulder. “Marissa,” the colorful scarlet macaw squawked again, as if telling her who she was.
“Flap-Flap,” she laughed, surprised at his appearance. “You came to say hello!”
“Hello,” the bird confirmed. “Hello.”
She ran up the library steps with Tiquinho’s macaw bouncing on her shoulder, then found a sheltered ledge near the entrance to set him on since she did not think he was allowed inside. The little birds landed, shaking raindrops from their wings. Marissa found her robe had not gotten wet at all.
“I have to get my school books, Flap-Flap. You can stay here with the swallows until I come out.” He squawked his agreement and beat his feathers dry.
Past a small coatroom, she entered the immense main library where stone-tiled floors opened around the roots of the three giant kapok trees that rose like towers through the ceiling and beyond. That they grew inside a building wasn’t the most amazing part.
“Oh… my.” Her mouth remained open in awe at what she saw before her, for it seemed to Marissa as if every book in the whole world had been gathered there. Formed into the tree surfaces and circling their enormous trunks were soaring levels of shelves thirty feet high, overflowing with thousands upon thousands of books. Precariously tall ladders stood beside the trees, while below them row after row of normal bookshelves filled the rest of the room in a labyrinth of shadowed aisles. Marissa’s wide eyes took this all in with grand amazement.
“That is the look,” remarked a man who appeared quietly at her side, “of someone who loves books.” Marissa turned to see the beige-robed, monocled Mr. Argiletum with an appreciating smile on his face. She thought that maybe liking to read made up for falling out of line before.
“Are these books all yours?” she exclaimed.
He saw her confusion and chuckled at the question. “No. These books are yours.”
“Mine?” Marissa questioned again in bewildered disbelief.
“Of course you must share them with the other students,” the librarian explained, “but while you are at Witness Stone, all of these are yours to learn from.”
“I just didn’t really know,” Marissa confessed awkwardly, “how a library works.”
“Quite understandable,” he replied as he led her to a tall counter of polished mahogany. A stack of textbooks, some battered and worn but some almost brand new, lay there. Mr. Argiletum explained she would have to return them at the end of the year, and kindly found a book bag for her when she said she didn’t have one. Then he let her explore the aisles and climb a high ladder to the top of the tree shelves. When she informed him that there were ghosts reading books in one of the alcoves, the librarian even let her check out ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’, which he said would tell her about all the souls that haunted the school. Soon Marissa realized that she would miss lunch completely.
“Thank you so much,” she told Mr. Argiletum as she left hurriedly while a large group of older students arrived for Runes class. Flap-Flap flew halfway back with her and the swallows, then swooped off toward Jaguar House before she reached Witness Stone. Rivulets of water flowed down the stone wizards as Marissa took out her frog Leandro and excitedly commanded “Brooms”, the next class on her schedule.
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WHOOSH! Three Chasers of the Anaconda team zoomed past in the drizzling grey sky. The first-years watched from under the covered walkway that stretched along the ancient boundary wall. Some sixty brooms lay in lines by the benches where Marissa’s class sat.
“Strength, speed, control,” exclaimed Mr. Cavaleiros “That’s how to fly a broom!” For the first half hour of Brooms class the bulky, pot bellied flying instructor had narrated the aerial demonstration of the older student athletes, often noting to the class how most of them would never be that good. Not that he expected it of girls, of course.
“Mr. Cavaleiros, when do we get to ride brooms?” asked Mario Domingues.
“What’s the hurry, son?” he said squeezing Mario’s thin arm. “You’re too scrawny to ever be a Quidditch player.”
Anaconda boys laughed as Mario turned red. “I don’t care if he’s famous,” he whispered to Jaci after Mr. Cavaleiros walked off, “he’s a jerk!”
Marissa knew she and many others wanted to learn to fly brooms to go places, but it sounded like their flying instructor thought the only real purpose of broom riding was the wizarding sport that Anaconda House always shouted about. After Stenio Cabral and the others landed and left for their own class, Mr. Cavaleiros assigned the first-years their lesson for the rest of class. Broom maintenance.
“Everyone take a can of polish and a rag,” he directed. Jaci quietly groaned beside Marissa, for obviously they would not be flying today.
“Mr. Cavaleiros,” Celestia Bella de Barros spoke politely, “I know some people need this training. But don’t you find it superfluous for those of us whose families have little ones to polish their brooms?”
“Good point, Celestia,” the instructor concurred. “Those of you with servants who maintain your transportation please raise your hands.”
Two-thirds of the Anacondas, but none of the Macaws, did so. Mr. Cavaleiros excused them from maintenance as long as they sat apart and discussed broom-related topics.
“But, Celly, I like polishing,” Rosaria meekly pleaded as their group walked by. “Papa lets me shine our showroom models.”
“Oh…go,” Celestia brushed her off, clearly exasperated by the chubby, unpretty girl’s complete lack of skill for acting superior. “But stay away from them.”
Rosaria Castilhos knew a lot about brooms. As the class polished, she sat near Marissa but not by her, and talked to herself but really so Marissa could hear. Rosaria noted all the model names of Cleansweeps, Comets, and Quetzals (the unusual brooms with vividly stained handles and many-colored straw). She could even hold her hand above a broom and make it float up to her palm.
“How do you do that?” Marissa asked, speaking while turned away to help Rosaria not get in trouble for talking to Macaws.
Rosaria shrugged. “That’s just how it works.”
Marissa tried a few times, but it never worked for her. Maybe Mr. Cavaleiros would teach her. A few benches away, Celestia was telling the snobbish Anaconda girls about her older sister’s new broom and how very expensive it was.
“Do you get her other one?” one of her friends asked. “It’s practically new.”
“Oh, please,” Celestia said dismissively. “I would never fly a hand-me-down broom. It’s embarrassing enough to use these pathetic training brooms until I get my own next year.”
“Well, a Quidditch player should keep his broom until it breaks,” said Cristiano Ferreira. “Coach Cav says a man bonds to his broom like a wand.”
“A proper girl with the right parents can buy all the brooms she wants,” Mr. Cavaleiros advised Cristiano as he passed their clique. “Hers is for show, yours is for battle!”
Marissa and Rosaria each polished three brooms before class was done, and each hoped tomorrow she would get to fly one.
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Eruptions of glowing light splashed upon invisible domes that shielded enemy figures. Spattering colors sprayed across a chest or back each moment another fighter died, and panicked orders were shouted as blackness enveloped the battleground again. Each time wands flashed, Marissa looked about rapidly to tell who had fallen and who still survived. The Macaw first-years were down to their last protector and two attackers in the darkness were closing in from opposite sides to finish Tatiane off. Marissa heard rushing footsteps and blindly stretched her leg into the blackness as they passed. When the teen tripped, she kicked away the sparking wand he dropped as Tatiane dimly saw what had happened. Her paintblast charm to his head killed the foe before Tatiane dropped to the dark ground unseen and rolled away. Her final opponent shot a blast at her last position, allowing Tatiane to spatter his unprotected side with multi-colored paint.
“YES!” she cried triumphantly. “YES!”
Overhead lights finally revealed the cavernous Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. Tatiane flashed a knowing smile at Marissa before being engulfed by cheering Macaw sixth-years who had risen from their deaths to celebrate the victory. Fearsome Professor Guerra loomed above the group to congratulate them while across the room Anaconda fighters argued angrily over who should have done what and why they had lost.
“You began with a sacrifice play,” commented Professor Guerra.
“And it worked!” declared a tall Macaw boy. “For once we finally beat them!”
“Only because I fell over one of your stupid firsties stumbling around in the dark!” snarled the Anaconda boy wiping Macaw colors from his face. The fuming golden-blonde girl beside him was too angry to even speak.
“Stronger than magic alone,” remarked their professor, “is magic aided by wit and footwork.” The boy took this as a comment on his fall, but Guerra’s long gaze down the first-years line fell for a moment directly upon Marissa.
The entrance to Defense had been unlike any other. Instead of a sliding stone wall, a black abyss had spread beneath the narrow ledge a guide frog led them to. Professor Guerra had greeted them there, instructed them to follow him, then leapt into the dark pit. The separate groups, Macaw and Anaconda, gathered their courage and jumped. They plunged as if the ground were a hundred feet below, but landed as if they had stepped off a curb. Then the violent battle had broken loose. Three Macaw sixth-years had herded them off to a safe corner while four others made their first attack against the Anacondas who guided their own first-years to the other side.
Wizards fought with wands like gangs fought with knives and guns. But gangs never had pretend fights, which Marissa had quickly reasoned this was when the first teen hit shouted “Dang!” before sitting down to die. Three Macaws were lost immediately, doing something Marissa had seen small, desperate street kids do to older bullies. Instead of being beaten one by one, many little boys would attack the stronger foe together. Even if many were hurt just as badly, they finally defeated their abuser. Tatiane’s team had used the same plan, and it had shown Marissa who they thought the very strongest witch was. The one the Macaws had ganged up on when the fight began, and sacrificed three of their own to take out, had been Cecelia Bella de Barros.
“That is what you will learn in Defense Against the Dark Arts,” Professor Guerra told his new students after thanking the sixth-years for their demonstration. Then once again they practiced their wand movements before being assigned chapter one of ‘The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection’. Marissa already knew a little something about that last part .
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Astronomy class was much less eventful than Defense, but no less magical. Marissa remembered Professor Galaxia as the older witch in sparkling veils who had chosen her for Macaw House. A parchment scroll, wide and long as the room, was unrolled across the ceiling. Except for labels that floated on constellations, Professor Galaxia’s star chart seemed as sparklingly real as the night sky of the enchanted Great Hall ceiling.
This was only their day class. At midnight once weekly they would study real stars and planets at the ancient observatory. The professor warned that her pet Marzles there may bat their guide frogs around, but knew not to eat the indigestible animals.
“What’s a Marzle?” Marissa whispered to Jaci Erasmi.
“Interbred margay and Kneazle,” he replied. “Like a cute mini jaguar, but keep your swallows away from them!”
Astronomy was the day’s last class. From the Great Hall, Alika and Milo led them back to Macaw House to change out of uniforms before dinner. Milo Timbira had to inform sixth-years in the common room that they couldn’t wear the ‘I Killed Cece’ shirts they’d hastily created. Tatiane agreed with Marissa that her help would remain their secret.
She had only rice for dinner and saved bread for the sparrows. The tables filled with food made Marissa think of her boys again. She wondered how little they had eaten today, and wondered more deeply why she deserved to be fed, sheltered and safe, but they didn’t. She realized it was maybe the first time today she’d thought of them, and that made her unhappy. She had promised Tomas she wouldn’t forget them, yet in all today’s flurry of classes and activity she really had.
“You like Flap-Flap House?” Potira asked. Marissa was surprised that not only she and Tiquinho, but also Sakura and quiet Anna, had come over to see her.
“It’s nice,” Marissa smiled, not telling that the girls there didn’t like her. “We have treehouse rooms and swinging bridges.”
“Woolly House too,” said Sakura. “And we have real monkey troops in trees around the lupunas!”
“Saci House has real… giraffes!” lied the one-legged boy on the balcony wall above.
Tiquinho explained that the other houses were not allowed to have live anacondas or jaguars. Then they talked about classes. The Jaguar/Woolly mock battle in Defense had become a laughing ‘Aguamenti’ waterfight, so Professor Guerra had made embarrassed sixth-years practice wand movements all hour with the first-years. Tiquinho reminded the girls they had chapters to read, and Marissa said she did too. Soon everyone left for their houses.
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“Miss Bella de Barros came in today to ask permission to redecorate Anaconda House,” Principal Absencia remarked as his napkin wiped remains of dinner from his double chin.
“Redecorate?” Professor Katupya inquired warily.
“Said they’d like something more feminine,” Absencia replied. “I approved, of course. Some girlish pink curtains and lace should be harmless enough.”
“If that is all she plans.”
Grace Merrythought sat quietly beside Professor Katupya and listened to their exchange. The principal normally favored leaving daily affairs to his vice principal. Appointed in the middle of the prior school year, he seemed more bureaucrat than educator to Grace.
“Is this true what she’s told me, Ubiritan? That the Muggle-born first-year comes from a Sao Paulo slum?”
“That is where the Quill found her” Katupya acknowledged.
“I wonder if an acceptance letter was wise,” the heavy principal stated. “If I had been advised of this matter, we could have made a correction.”
“Excuse me?” the dark Indian responded. “A correction?”
“It was my understanding from some board members that the previous principal made certain adjustments at times. It would be something to consider in current conditions.”
“The current conditions of Witness Stone covenant are the same for any magic child.”
“Yes, yes. But there are changes in the Wizarding world. The entire government is in a small uproar over these reports you sent to Europe. I was caught completely unaware.”
“You saw no need to review them at the time, Arturo. Now you believe it’s important?”
“Important enough that we should have kept this wild speculation to ourselves.”
“The truth cannot be ignored much longer. And sharing information with the rest of the Wizarding world may help us discover why this is happening.”
“What’s done is done,” Absencia conceded. “But what about this Muggle-born?”
“What of her?” Katupya restated.
“With purebloods being turned away, do you think such a child belongs here?”
“Of course she belongs here,” Grace Merrythought broke in. “She’s a witch!”
The principal looked with surprise to the young woman who had impolitely interrupted.
“Please forgive her outburst, Arturo” Katupya apologized to the principal. “It was Grace who delivered the young girl’s acceptance letter and convinced her to come.”
“I told her the Wizarding world wants her to learn magic,” Merrythought said.
“Don’t the Muggles have enough problems with these street children, without us teaching one of them spells to help her rob and steal better?”
“Sir, she’s not a criminal. We must train her so she doesn’t become one. Any child that cannot control her magic will accidentally break Wizarding laws.”
“But the dirty child has lived in the streets.”
“Survived the streets,” Grace Merrythought corrected. “Thankfully someone protected her in Santa Efigenia while our government did not.”
“Protected her from what, Miss Merrythought? An unwashed face?”
“From Dementors!” she replied with subdued anger. “Preying on homeless children.”
“Dementors in Sao Paulo?” he questioned doubtfully. “A ridiculous notion, my dear.”
“Unfortunately not,” Ubiritan Katypya intoned. “Sixteen years ago in the city a Witness Stone student was taken by the Dementor’s Kiss. This time it could have been Marissa.”
The principal measured this news earnestly.
“So now you think it my responsibility to keep the waif here where she’s safe,” Absencia sighed with frustration while his heavy chair rose to his private Floo. “I suppose since we’ve already accepted her, we shall have to give her a chance…”
“That’s all she wants, sir.”
“…and hope important families do not protest,” he added before departing in flames.
Merrythought turned to Katupya. “What did Principal Absencia mean earlier, sir? Purebloods being turned away?”
“Great changes are occuring in Wizarding population, Grace. Not only in Brazil, but across all the world. And no one yet knows why.”
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The other girls could read much faster than her, and had time to talk and play before bed. Marissa had difficulty with the many unfamiliar words, but couldn’t let them know that. Very late that night, with Spero still perched on lamplit pages, the weary-eyed young girl finished her assigned chapters before nodding to sleep on the wood floor beside the soft, untouched bed that her homeless friends were not there to share.
Chapter 10 - Proper Girls and Smelly Girls by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa finds another reason why the Anacondas resent her, and learns magic does not come as easily to her as it does to others.
Marissa woke before dawn and let the swallows out. She knew they would fly to the airy plaza to hunt insects, then find her again later as they somehow had yesterday. She changed to a bright new uniform and and noticed the clean, fresh scent of soap on herself. The shiny marble bathroom with self-bubbling soap was almost as magic as flying brooms. Last night she had taken a longer shower than any of the girls, but knew Celestia would still tell everyone she smelled like a dumpster just because she came from Boca de Lixo. And Leila had reminded all the Macaw girls of the poop on Marissa’s shoe yesterday.
In the dark as everyone slept, she put on her robe and gathered her wand and books. She crossed the swaying bridge to the common room, where she sunk into a huge comfy chair and read ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’ while she waited for the rest of Macaw House to rise.
Cecelia and Celestia wore their fine dresses and shiny jewelry to breakfast again, but today a Quidditch reserve player stood behind their table and scanned the Great Hall for any suspicous activity of the one-legged black boy who had whirlwinded through earlier.
“Condas just don’t understand Saci,” Marissa heard Tatiane say from a few rows back where she sat with her sixth-year friends. “He’ll wait a few weeks until they’re off guard again before he pulls another trick.”
After her small meal of toast and juice, a leaping frog led Marissa off to classes again. As Milo Timbira had said, the way to class today was different from the way yesterday. The new route was also wildly ornamented. Saci may not have tricked Condas today, but he had lined the hallways with hundreds of silver spoons stuck to the wall by Jelly Slugs. Marissa was puzzled that she ran down stairs to reach a floor that she knew was above them, but remembered the path as she tried to learn her surroundings better.
She was very glad that her first class was Charms, where Professor Galhos liked questions. Reading ‘Magical Theory’ the night before had very much confused her about something. When Marissa asked what was the difference between a spell, a charm, a hex, and a jinx, all the class laughed.
“Stupid Muggle,” said one Anaconda girl. “Everyone knows that.” But when the professor directed her to define each for Marissa, the girl couldn’t quite explain the difference either. Nor could any of the other children until Professor Galhos helped them describe examples of each. She gave an approving smile when Marissa nodded that she understood now. They took notes the rest of class. Marissa tried very hard to use her quill without leaving inkblots all over the parchment, but was not terribly successful at this.
The entrance to Potions was just a common stone wall now, not a dark shadowy rainforest. Marissa studied the symbol that the bright green tree frog hopped upon to open the passage. Rosaria properly hid her happiness at being forced to sit with Marissa again. In Potions class, Celestia’s direction not to talk to the smelly girl was overruled by Katupya’s partner assignments. Marissa was surprised at how eager Eva Paranhos was to see Rosaria.
“Is it true?” she whispered to the Anaconda girl. “About Claudio Cabral?”
“Celly says I’m not supposed to talk about that,” Rosaria replied softly.
“Who’s Claudio Cabral?” Marissa asked Rosaria. She didn’t know why they were talking so no one could hear, but had lowered her voice too.
“He’s Celestia’s second cousin,” Eva said. “A pureblood.”
“He chose an international school,” Rosaria said as if repeating a line she was taught.
“Then it is true,” Eva declared quietly.
“Um… what’s true?” Marissa asked, completely unaware of what they were talking about.
“He wasn’t accepted at Witness Stone.”
“But Professor Merrythought said every magic child is…”
“He’s not magic,” Eva broke in. “If he didn’t get an acceptance letter, it means Claudio Cabral is… a Squib!”
“Celly says proper girls don’t spread rumors,” Rosaria told Eva, but shared a look with Marissa that said they both knew Celestia didn’t follow her own rules.
“Serafina heard about another boy in Salvador and a girl in Iguacu Falls. All Squibs.”
“What’s a…”
“Shhhh,” Eva hushed Marissa’s question as stern Professor Katupya approached. They began their assignment of listing magical properties of each ingredient they’d prepared yesterday, and were soon too busy for Marissa to ask again what a ‘Squib’ was.
Rosaria only screamed twice in Potions. Once when Anaconda boys tossed live beetles in Marissa’s hair, and once when she saw a moving picture of a spider in the Potions book. Marissa wondered why she could never think to just cover her mouth when she screamed. After the second scream, Professor Katupya made her stand in the hall until class ended to punish her for disrupting the other students. Marissa and Eva had to complete the assignment without her, and barely finished in time. Outside class, Rosaria tried to apologize before being dragged off by an annoyed Celestia. Marissa joined Jaci and Mario in the frog chase to History of Magic, a class scheduled every other day when there was not a double Potions session.
“History is BORING!” declared Professor Esquecido. “Who cares about people who died and were eaten by worms three thousand years ago?”
Surprised first-years, who may have been thinking the same thing, reacted uncertainly to the plump older witch. She wore a long white linen gown, pleated to fit her form. An extra length draped in folds across one arm and a wide golden sash circled her waist, but most stunning to Marissa was a sculpted gold owl symbol at the center of her jeweled headdress. She had learned that wizardings dressed very funny, but this professor was strangest of all. For some reason Leila Semedo was very upset by her attire and tried to avoid the sight of it.
“Ancient Egyptians, who wore clothes such as these, are part of the History of Magic,” Esquecido said. “But children who sit in classrooms are also part of the History of Magic. Why, only two years ago, at a wizarding school such as ours, a young hero like our own Sol Braganza defeated an evil wizard who sought to rule by terror and murder.”
“My father told me about him,” said Mario Domingues. Many others nodded and agreed that they had heard the story also. “But that’s not history.”
“Just because it’s not printed in a fat textbook yet?” questioned Professor Esquecido.
“Well, it hardly just happened,” he replied. “Isn't history just about old, old stuff?”
“Hmmm,” she considered. “History is a record of events, of places, and of people. Since there does seem to be a lot of peoplish activity still happening about the world, I would say history is still in process at this very moment. Wouldn’t you?”
“Uh, yeah. If you say it like that.”
“I do say it like that. This year we will study how that old, old stuff brought us to today. But while we tediously trudge through the musty world of ancient Egyptians and Greeks, we shall also delve into some history nearer and dearer to our own little hearts.”
Marissa did not know what tediously trudge or delve were, and wondered if she should raise her hand to tell the professor that, or wait and try to figure it out herself. She waited.
“Our first assignment shall be an interview. You shall each gather information from a family member to create a family tree of your past relatives, both wizard and Muggle.”
“My genealogy is well recorded,” Celestia said. “And it certainly contains no Muggles.”
“This assignment is meant to show us the importance of oral history, how stories passed from generation to generation preserved a culture’s past before written language existed. You may NOT,” the professor emphasized mostly to Celestia’s Anaconda group, “simply copy your work out of ‘Nature’s Nobility’.”
“Ma’am,” the golden-blonde girl said politely. “This assignment doesn’t seem very fair.”
“Why is that, Miss Bella de Barros?”
“A girl like me, from an important family, has to chart six centuries of relatives,” Celestia sweetly explained. “But a girl like her,” she turned and pointed at Marissa with a cruel smile unseen by the History professor, “has to do nothing. She doesn’t have a family.”
Celestia was trying to embarrass her again, but Marissa met her look without expression to show she couldn’t be hurt. Every day in Sao Paulo she had to ignore mean words, and knew how to stop herself from feeling anything from them.
“Being an orphan doesn’t keep one from having ancestors, Miss Bella de Barros.”
“But she doesn’t even know who they are,” Cristiano mocked. “Muggles threw her away in a dumpster when she was born!”
“That is enough, Mister Ferreira,” Professor Esquecido ordered before turning to Marissa. “What is your name, young lady?”
“Marissa,” she answered the professor, who waited for a last name also. “Only Marissa.”
“I see. Marissa, you may create your tree from any family. Find an adult to interview, and you can use the same list of initial questions I will provide each of you. Since I cannot balance the number of ancestors each student can trace, Miss Bella de Barros, I leave it to you to decide how much or little labor your family history deserves. I’m sure your grade will correspond with whatever amount of effort you deem appropriate.”
The grey walls of History of Magic class were circled with a long continuous scroll that Professor Esquecido called a timeline. Hundreds of dates and events through many centuries were listed above moving scenes of wizards and witches dressed in ancient fashions. After Professor Esquecido gave an overview of what they would study, she reminded the first-years that their family tree was due in three weeks when they returned from Carnival. Marissa was glad to know witches celebrated her most favorite holiday.
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Marissa felt a pull on the back of her collar as Fer Ribeiro and another Anaconda boy purposely pushed ahead of her outside Transfiguration class. They stopped to block her way as a hand from behind slid across her neck and dropped something down the back of her shirt. Cristiano Ferreira rushed past Marissa into the room and raced to his seat. She knew they wanted her to scream in fear when she felt the squirming, wriggling things against her skin, but Marissa made herself walk into class without any response. She had to twist around a little to catch them, so Professor Merrythought was watching as Marissa reached up the back of her untucked shirt and removed the two long, green whipsnakes.
“Marissa, what…”
“I’m not scared of anything you do to me,” she told Cristiano as she dropped the twisting serpents on his desk. Celestia was watching a few desks away with a disappointed look. This was probably her plan of getting even for the milk, but it hadn’t worked on Marissa. Why couldn’t they just see that she wasn’t weak and stop trying to make her their victim?
“Where did these snakes come from, Cristiano?” Professor Merrythought inquired sternly.
“They’re not mine,” he replied innocently. “Maybe they just…”
“Then you won’t mind if I change them into owl treats,” she replied, and began to wave her wand above the snakes that had curled up tamely on his desk. “Tesimal is hungry and--”
“Wait!” he held his hands up to shield them. “Uh, they, uh… look like they might be Sol Braganza’s pet snakes.”
“Yeah,” Fer added nervously. “Maybe they, uh… snuck in someone’s bookbag.”
“I see,” Professor Merrythought said. Immediately she pointed her wand to the glass wall, where its door quickly swung open. “Dimisi snakes!” she called out. “Dimisi,” a hidden voice echoed behind her as the two serpents were flung into the air, out the door and across the sky. Cristiano’s eyes opened wide.
“What did you…”
“Sent them back to Anaconda House,” the professor replied. She lowered her wand and casually laid its tip right on Cristiano’s nose with a smile. “Which I can also easily do with little boys if anything like this happens in our classroom again. Do we understand?”
“Uh, yes,” he submitted nervously. Marissa smiled as she walked to her desk at the back of the room and pictured the thought of Cristiano being hurled through the sky to his house. At least the Anacondas wouldn’t be pulling more tricks on her in Transfiguration class.
The young professor passed out matchsticks to all the class and demonstrated the spell to turn the match to a needle. For the rest of class Marissa repeated the spell unsuccessfully. She was secretly glad that almost no other first-year had accomplished the change either. Only Celestia Bella de Barros had made a needle, and had also changed it back again.
“Excellent, Celestia,” Professor Merrythought commended. “With a few days of practice, I know you’ll all have needles. Your first parchment is due tomorrow. Class dismissed.”
After the other first-years had gone, Marissa asked if she could leave by the glass door to the outside. Fides, Spero, and Amor waited there in the small tree.
“Don’t you want to go to lunch with your friends?” Professor Merrythought asked.
“Only Rosaria is my friend,” Marissa replied. “And the Anacondas don’t like her to talk to me ‘cuz I’m not a… proper girl.” The professor frowned sympathetically at this news.
“What about Tiquinho and the Woolly girls who I saw talking to you at dinner?”
“They have different classes.”
“But everyone has lunch at the same hour,” Merrythought told Marissa.
“Oh. I didn’t know that.” But in truth she still did not want to go have lunch. If she let herself be hungry for part of the day, it would make her feel closer to her boys in Santa Efeginia. It would make her feel better that she was not having everything while they might have nothing because she was not there to help them beg or help them keep safe.
“Marissa,” the young professor continued. “About the Anacondas. I know you’re not afraid of snakes or bugs or almost anything, but if any of the older Anaconda start with hexes and jinxes I want you to let me know at once.”
“No,” Marissa disagreed. “I’ll show them I’m strong and then they’ll stop.”
“They usually end this teasing after the first few days. But…” Professor Merrythought hesitated with a sigh, “they may resent you more and continue.”
“’Cuz I got a letter for witch school and a wizardings boy didn’t.”
“How did you know that?” Merrythought asked with some surprise.
“Eva Paranhos said it. That’s what a ‘Squib’ is, isn't it? A kid who should be magic and isn’t. The Anacondas are mad ‘cuz I took his place.”
“No!” Professor Merrythought declared strongly. “You took your place, Marissa. This other boy have nothing to do with you. It’s absurd to blame a Muggle-born for Squibs.”
“But some mean people still do.”
“Yes,” she unhappily nodded in agreement to Marissa. “Unfortunately, some people do.” She looked out the glass wall where midday showers were falling on the wet swallows. “Let’s bring them in from the rain for a bit,” Professor Merrythought said. “Recludo!”
“Recludo!” came the squawking voice of the hidden macaw as the door opened itself.
“Does he say every spell?” Marissa asked as she waved to the swallows, who then glided into the room and onto her shoulders. Slowly she walked to where she could see the large bird, but stayed back as Professor Merrythought had told her.
“Yes. When I was a student he used to sing songs, too. But Asuoby isn’t as happy now.”
“Is he really a hundred years old like you said?”
“Professor Amaral was one hundred and twelve, and his parents gave him Asuoby when he began Witness Stone as a first-year like you. So yes, he really is.”
“I like him,” Marissa declared. “Even if he does bite.”
“Oh, he does!” the professor assured her. “But he’s unwell, Marissa. He may pass away at any time. One day this year you’ll come to class and Asuoby will be gone.”
“Then I should say hi everyday while he’s still here,” Marissa decided. “Hello A-su-oby.” The large bird bobbed back and forth cautiously on its perch before squawking a reply. Professor Merrythought smiled, then insisted Marissa share her lunch as she sat down at her desk. Marissa accepted, and gave breadcrumbs to the swallows. They talked a little about the stonemason ghosts Marissa had read about, and then Merrythought directed her to join the Macaws in the Great Hall so she could go to her next class, Herbology, along with the first-year group. Marissa said goodbye to the old hyacinth macaw as she left.
Herbology was in a giant greenhouse built upon terraced hills a short way into the wet rainforest. Marissa thought the trail there might be one that the flickering light had led her along at night, and wondered if the stables with the ghost boy and magic horses were near. It seemed funny to her that with the millions of plants growing outside in the rainforest, wizards wanted to grow more plants inside a glass building, but it was an amazing place. Endless orderly rows of planters overflowed with wide varieties of green foliage, some bursting with flowers and some growing as high as the rain-spattered transparent ceiling.
Professor Parreira, dressed in a flowing green smock that blended in among the leaves, welcomed the first-years and explained that today they would explore the greenhouse and identify the growing forms of many ingredients they had already prepared in Potions class. She was very excited to tell the children that Friday would be their first field trip, to a wonderful cave where they would learn about enriching the soil of the herbology gardens. Celestia let out a disgusted groan a bit too loud as this was announced.
“I see you have already heard about our first-year tradition, Miss Bella de Barros,” the dark-skinned native professor remarked. As Celestia’s friends whispered back and forth, “…well I’m not either,” the golden-blonde girl simply nodded.
“Then I do hope you and your Anaconda ladies will keep healthy and strong for our walk,” Professor Parreira stated. “It would be a strange coincidence if you were to become ill and miss class on the very same day that your older sister did in her first week in Herbology.”
Celestia and the other girls gave resigned, unhappy looks. The professor directed the class to open their book, ‘One Thousand More Magical Herbs: Amazon Edition’. The twenty blank pages at back were to sketch leaves, flowers and roots, and that was today’s activity. As the other first-years spread out to find the plants on their lists, Marissa told Professor Parreira that the pages of her used book were already filled. A wand was waved and all of the old drawings disappeared, leaving the pages clean and white for Marissa to begin on. She was very happy to use a sketch pencil instead of ink quills that were so messy for her, and by the end of class had drawn and could correctly name twelve of the thousand herbs.
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“Mount, grip, kick off. Speed, slow, land.” Marissa was discouraged, but hid her feeling to avoid more taunts from Anacondas. “Mount, grip, kick off,” Mr. Cavaleiros repeated.
Rain drizzled steadily from grey clouds above the wet grassy field of Broom Flying class. Under the covered walkway Marissa and the first-years acted out the moves to control their brooms. Cristiano Ferreira and Fer Ribeiro were excused from practice because they had attended summer Quidditch camp, but every other boy and girl had to pass Mr. Cavaleiros’ inspection before joining the ‘approved to fly’ group. He had quickly okayed most of his favored Anacondas, but rejected any Macaw whose handle was lifted an inch too high or too low. Anyone who looked bored repeating his drill again and again was skipped also, and that was Rosaria Castilhos’ problem.
“But, sir, all brooms will fly like that,” she timidly replied to Mr. Caveleiros’ comment that her kick off was wrong again. It was the first time Marissa had heard her contest a teacher.
“And you have flown how many brooms?” he asked, quite sure the answer would be none. When Rosaria did not reply for a moment, he moved to the next student in line.
“Two hundred?” Rosaria unsurely estimated at last, and Caveleiros turned back with an annoyed look. “Papa says we should check every one before it goes to the showroom.”
Celestia Bella de Barros stepped quickly to Mr. Cavaleiros’ side and whispered in his ear.
“Castilhos Brooms?” he replied to Celestia. “Why didn’t you tell me before? Approved.”Marissa knew that poor Rosaria was probably in for more proper girl lessons. She just couldn’t act snobby enough for Mr. Cavaleiros to tell she was from an important family.
Marissa was not approved to fly, but not because she hadn’t learned all the broom controls. It was because, as many times as she tried, she could not make a broom float to her hand. Mr. Cavaleiros was too busy coaching the Anaconda boys to take any time to teach her.
They had no last hour class because Astronomy would be at the observatory that night. Marissa returned to Macaw House to read chapters and work on her Transfiguration paper. She hoped if she started now she could finish some before dinner.
The other girls didn’t study. They all chatted together on a bed as Serafina looked through her wardrobe. Marissa listened without their notice as she read. Everything they talked about was completely unknown to her, and this made her wonder how she could ever fit in. What could she say about wizard beaches, magical makeup, or decorating a bedroom?
“We should all wear our dresses to dinners,” Serafina suggested to the Macaw girls.
“Celly won’t let you join the princesses just because you have nice dresses,” Eva said.
“Well, Celly and I talked in Brooms class, and…”
“She talks to anyone to gossip,” Eva replied. “But you have Muggle great grandparents, so...”
“Gosh, Eva. Just tell everyone!” Serafina interrupted with a hurt look.
“Sorry, Serafina. You know I do too,” Eva reminded her. “I just mean that Bella de Barros only really socialize with purebloods. That means none of us.”
Leila Semedo changed the subject to boys that they liked and Marissa returned to her book. When the older Macaws came from classes, she looked for Tatiane Timbira.
“Um… can you do magic sewing like at the robe store?” Marissa asked.
“Sure,” Tatiane replied. “But if you just tore something, a Reparo charm is better.”
“It’s not for that,” she replied, then went on to explain what she needed. Tatiane quickly made it before they even left for dinner and Marissa put it in her book bag for tomorrow. She was glad they reached the Great Hall in time to watch the magic food appear all at once on every table. One day she would make witch dinners for Pipio, Nino, Tomas, and Paulinho. She just couldn’t let them watch. That way the magic part would stay secret.
“Are you feeling sick?” Tatiane asked later when she saw how little Marissa had eaten.
“No,” Marissa replied. “Just… not hungry.”
Potira, Sakura, and Anna came over for a few minutes before leaving to their houses. They listened as Marissa confirmed the rumors they had heard of snakes in Transfiguration class.
The noisy Anaconda Quidditch team, led by brawny Sol Braganza in his fat snake jersey, were shouting “Team of destiny! Team of destiny!” as Marissa walked from the Great Hall.
“Filling their heads with dreams of Quidditch glory, Ramo?” Professor Katupya remarked to Mr. Cavaleiros at the professors table. Grace Merrythought listened at his other side.
“No better glory out there!” the Brooms instructor and Anaconda coach replied heartily. “But what would your Jaguars know about that? They lose to the Anacondas every year.”
“Yet Jaguars pass their exams. On the other hand, Professor Guerra has said your players ‘couldn’t duel their way out of a Chocolate Frogs wrapper’. You will remind them all to study this year as well as play games, won’t you? Half of them have N.E.W.T.s to take.”
Cavaleiros grudgingly agreed before leading the Anaconda team off to evening practice. Grace saw that Katupya was dismayed by his lack of concern for the student’s classwork.
“Why have the Condas hired an internationally banned player as a coach?” Grace asked.
“City wizards are fanatic about their Quidditch,” Katupya reminded the young professor. “Last year the team lost three games. To European purebloods that is like admitting that Muggle-borns are superior wizards. They believe Cavaleiros will help them win.”
“Help them learn mortal fouls, more likely,” she replied.
“Regretfully, our principal approved his hiring.”
“Sir, has Absencia decided yet to inform professors of the wizarding decline?”
“No,” he replied. “Arturo will be at conferences in Brasilia until Monday.”
“But, sir, shouldn’t the professors know the truth of matters? The children are all spreading stories. Even Marissa had heard the talk of Squibs.”
“I believe the acting principal,” Professor Katupya smiled, “has scheduled a staff meeting Friday to provide our instructors more factual information than the rumors of first-years.”
Grace Merrythought returned his smile as they stood from the table, happy that concerns could be handled so much more effectively with Principal Absencia otherwise occupied.
Across the wide room, a well dressed group left the Anaconda section of dining tables. Cecelia and Celestia Bella de Barros gracefully ascended the stairway of the Great Hall, followed by a retinue of older Anaconda girls. Cristiano and Fer tagged after Celestia.
“At the last desk near the corner,” Celestia replied to a question from her older sister.
“That’s where he’ll leave it,” Cecelia confirmed as the group left from dinner.
“Then we’ll see what she’s scared of!” Cristiano exclaimed.
“Their little Muggle-born gutter girl will learn never to embarrass an Anaconda again.”
“Oh, yes,” Cecelia smugly agreed with her sister. “She’ll learn her place.”
A chorus of laughter rippled through the group as twin sneers rose on the sister’s faces.
Back at Macaw House, Marissa saw the swallows had decided not to wait to be let back in. Outside, on a small ledge by the window, Fides, Spero, and Amor collected straw and twigs for a nest. Marissa sat on the floor by the glass wall and read as the three birds snuggled in to sleep on the other side. Alika Escuro woke her there just before midnight and led all the first-year girls down to join Professor Galaxia, who took the class into the dark rainforest.
“AAGGHH!” yelled a surprised Anaconda boy as a small orange creature pounced upon his head from the trees above. Rosaria’s shriek made it race off into the dark undergrowth.
“That’s a Marzle,” Jaci turned to tell Marissa as the stone pathway emerged on a clearing. Before them rose the dark silhouette of a building almost as tall as Witness Stone itself. Marissa could see the shadowed stone entrance and the great round dome far above, but all the rest of the stone structure was shrouded in dense, tangled layers of bushy leaf and vine. Another black-spotted, furry orange cat hung by one paw from branches above the door, playfully swiping at children as they passed. Marissa was glad the swallows didn’t come.
High in the ancient observatory, a score of elegant brass telescopes were placed around the viewing balcony that circled the great stone dome which housed the gigantic main telescope. Each long tube focused on a different area of starry night sky for the first-years to observe. This was where Tatiane had said she would learn the name of all the stars. Marissa was still unsure how she could tell one spot of light from a million million others until Professor Galaxia said they would first learn ‘constellations’. Finding the animal and person shapes of connecting stars would be much easier. People had imagined them a long long time ago.
“Wizards have watched the night skies for thousands of years,” said Professor Galaxia. “For the movement of the stars and planets may show us strong visions of the future.”
“Like the Oracle’s vision of the team of destiny,” said Cristiano Ferreira. “Our team!”
“Many prophecies go unfulfilled,” she replied, “and no future is ever certain.”
“Except this one,” Fer Ribeiro countered. “With Sol and Stenio, Condas will never lose!”
Professor Galaxia directed the boys to save Quidditch talk for the morning, then explained to the first-years how constellations changed places in the sky as the Earth circled the sun. Marissa had never considered the idea that the whole world under her feet was moving, or that some places beyond her city were planets so far away that only telescopes could show. It reminded her of something Professor Merrythought had told her on the day they first met. “Your world can be much larger than the blocks of Santa Efigenia.”
Marissa could feel her world growing. It was growing wider and fuller of understanding. And each part of it, Potions, Herbology, History, Astronomy, seemed to connect to another. On the other side of the world, the Egyptians of History class had studied Astronomy to tell their future. Now she was here, far in their future, where she would soon study Egyptians. With every new thing she learned, her world grew bigger and bigger. To something deep inside Marissa, that was a very exciting and magical thought.
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The new hallway to Potions on Thursday passed through a dozen intersecting corridors. Marissa tried to remember all the right turns and left turns the guide frog had taken them on, but could not understand the puzzle of the halls. Yet.
“I like your hair,” she said to Rosaria as they sat down together. Her braided pigtails were gone and straight brown hair was combed down in long shiny layers.
“Celly says I’m too old for pigtails,” Rosaria replied. “And she wants me to ask Mama to send me more dresses. But Mama says school is not a fashion show.”
“I tried to tell Serafina that,” Eva said. “Your hair does look pretty,” she added kindly.
“Thank you,” Rosaria said, then leaned over and whispered to Marissa. “Don’t tell Celly, but I liked that you got Cristiano in trouble for the… eew… snakes.”
“It was great how you weren’t even scared,” Eva agreed. “I would have screamed.”
“Hey,” Marissa said, reminded by Eva’s words. “Here, Rosaria. This is to keep you from getting in trouble.” Marissa gave her the tiny white pillow that Tatiane had sewn for her.
“How does this keep me from trouble?” Rosaria asked with a puzzled look.
“When you think you might scream,” Marissa explained, “you put it in your mouth to stop the noise and Professor Katupya won’t get mad.”
“Oh! That’s a good idea,” she agreed. “But… I don’t think when I might scream, Marissa. It just happens.”
“Maybe if you practice,” Eva said.
“Practice screaming?”
“No, silly,” Eva laughed. “Practice thinking ahead of what might make you scream.”
“Oh. I see,” Rosaria smiled, then told them she would try. Marissa was glad that Eva liked the plan too. Maybe if they both helped Rosaria it would work.
For the first part of class they did a true or false worksheet about real and not real potions. Broom Cushioning was not a real potion, but Polyjuice (not Polly’s Juice) was.
“What’s a love potion?” Marissa asked.
“Just what it says, silly,” Eva replied.
“It makes a boy want to kiss you!” Rosaria added. Marissa did not think that was very useful or something she would want.
“It makes him love you and follow you around,” Eva explained further.
“Like all the boys follow Cecelia Bella de Barros,” said Rosaria.
“She doesn't need a love potion.”
“Does it work on… like… mothers or fathers?” Marissa asked hesitantly.
“Why would you do that?” Rosaria replied. “Mamas and papas already love you!”
“Puffhead!” Eva whispered and gave a sharp nudge. “She doesn’t have a mom and dad.”
“I forgot,” Rosaria said, rubbing her side. “Sorry, Marissa.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she replied. Only for one moment she had thought that maybe if her long time ago parents took a love potion for her, maybe they wouldn’t have left her alone. If wizardings could give every parent that potion, there would never be any unwanted kids.
They completed their parchment worksheets and Eva took them to the professor’s desk.
“Do you really not have any family at all?” Rosaria asked meekly. “Not even aunties or a grandmama?”
“No,” Marissa replied flatly. Everyone wanted to make families be so important.
“That must be sad. To have nobody to take care of you.”
“I take care of me,” she declared strongly. “I’m not a baby that needs to be…pampered.” Marissa was not sure where she had heard that word before, but it said what she meant. Wizarding kids had every need filled. They didn’t know how it felt to fight just to be alive.
“I only meant…” Rosaria said with a hurt look. Marissa smiled to show she wasn’t mad.
“It’s okay. But I don’t need people feeling sorry for me. I don’t need… feelings.”
Professor Katupya gave a long lecture about brewing potions, then assigned more practice. Just as before, Marissa worked on icky bug parts at the end of the table away from Rosaria. Once someone bumped her from behind and a dozen spilled squermites went scurrying across the stone tabletop.
“EEE…umph!” Marissa was amazed at how quickly Eva had stuffed the little pillow in Rosaria’s open mouth.
“Hey! That works pretty good,” Eva said. Rosaria squeezed her eyes shut and forcefully bit her scream-stopper as Marissa quickly gathered up the escaped insects. The stern-faced professor looked up from his desk to see what the disturbance was.
“It’s all right now, Rosaria. I got them all,” Marissa whispered as Eva pulled out the pillow. For only a second an amused smile passed across the watching face of Professor Katupya. Rosaria took a deep breath to calm herself, then all three girls began giggling quietly.
“You know someday you’ll have to chop up all the spiders and squermites yourself,” Eva said to Rosaria. “We don’t get partners on exams.”
“I know,” Rosaria agreed almost sadly. “Mama has already told Papa she’s afraid I’ll flunk Potions. And Herbology too if there’s many insects in the greenhouse.”
“Don’t worry,” Marissa tried to assure her. “You won’t always be afraid of bugs.”
“How do you know?”
“Um… ‘cuz…” Marissa looked for an answer. “Cuz I’m gonna teach you to be brave.”
Rosaria smiled as if she were very happy with that answer, while Marissa wondered how she could actually do what she had just said. A short while later as class was ending,
Marissa went to put away potion ingredients.
“Marissa said she doesn’t need anyone to care about her,” Rosaria said thoughtfully.
“Maybe, if she lived in a dumpster, she just never had anyone who did,” Eva replied.
“Mama says every person needs somebody to love them.”
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“Does anyone else need a new match?” Professor Merrythought asked as class began. Some practicing first-years had set theirs on fire rather than changing them to needles. Marissa raised her hand even though her own practicing last night had no results at all. She had used her matchstick after breakfast to give Saci a light.
By the end of Transfiguration, most all of the first-years had given their match a silvery surface, and twelve had changed them to needles. Marissa could not do anything to hers, even though she tried her wand in both hands to see if it liked one better than the other. Professor Merrythought told her not to worry, that her magic would come in its own time.
“I think they’re going to do something mean again. Maybe real mean,” Rosaria warned Marissa after class when she found her outside with the swallows. Rosaria had left with the Anaconda girls, but returned by herself to get the bookbag she had not accidentally left.
“Their tricks can't hurt me,” Marissa assured her nervous friend.
“I have to go soon before Celly thinks I’m gone too long,” Rosaria said. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
“Oh, wait!” Rosaria added. “How do you spell your name?”
“Um… M “ a “ r “ i “ s “ s “ a. Why?”
“I’m writing a letter to Mama. I have to tell her how you saved my life from spiders.” While Marissa rolled her eyes, Rosaria took a parchment and quill from her book bag. She laid the paper on a book and her quill quickly added more lines to a half-filled page. She wrote very girly with big loopy letters, and instead of dotting her ‘i’s she put little hearts. Marissa watched as she finished and signed the letter. Love always, Rosaria.
“Do you have any friends you can write letters to?” Rosaria asked as she folded hers.
“They can’t read,” Marissa explained. “Maybe I could write to… but I don’t have a owl.”
“You don’t need your own owl. You can use a school owl.”
“Really?”
“Uh-huh,” Rosaria replied. “Do you want some stationery? Mama bought me tons.”
Marissa accepted a few sheets of the pastel pink parchment with fancy borders. They came back inside and Rosaria waved to Professor Merrythought as she departed.
“Goodbye, Rosaria,” Merrythought called after her. “Good work on your spell today.”
“Um… Professor,” Marissa said as she stood near her desk, “is it against the witch law to send owl letters to, um… Muggles?”
“The boys?” Merrythought inquired.
“No. Mr. Palito.”
“The owl post is a form of magic kept secret from Muggles,” the professor confirmed, “but I believe we can make a small exception for Mr. Palito.”
“Good,” Marissa smiled, and laid her pink parchment on the nearest desk.
“I’m sure they’ll all want to know you are well. But remember, we don’t mention magic.”
She quickly found her quill. In a few minutes she wrote a short letter which did not say anything about magic, even though she wished she could tell Mr. Palito and the boys all about Saci Pererê and many other things.
Mr. Palito,
I am doing good. I hope you are to. Please tell my team I say hello and I think about them. The trip to school was very long. It is far away. I am trying to learn very hard. My teachers are good. Some kids are mean but some are nice. I get to come back on Easter.
See you later,
Marissa
Professor Merrythought explained where to send the letter, then gave her treats for an owl. She folded the letter and remembered to say goodbye to the old hyacinth macaw as she left. The skies above were clear and blue as she ran down the stone staircase to her next class. Her first excitement for Broom Flying had lessened, replaced in part by a feeling of worry. She wanted desperately to be approved to fly today so that no Condas could call her weak.
“Up!” she called, but the broom did not float. “Up. Up.” Marissa hid her disappointment.
“Muggle-borns always take longer to fly,” Mr. Cavaleiros said offhandedly, “because all Muggles are terrified of heights.”
“I’m not terrified,” Marissa protested.
“Handling more brooms should reduce your fears,” he said, completely ignoring her words. So Marissa sat alone and polished broomsticks again while every other first-year circled the field in flight practice. She ignored the teasing Anacondas who swooshed by laughing.
“She can't fly,” one girl shouted, “because brooms don’t like smelly girls sitting on them!”
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Marissa plummeted into the dark abyss of Defense Against the Dark Arts and landed softly. As other Macaws landed around her, she walked across the wide, cavernous battle room and headed to the last row of desks where she could sit away from the teasing Anacondas.
She was relieved that Professor Guerra had told them that Defense class would not perform spells until after the first two weeks, because she hoped by that time she would find how to make her wand work. Even though they would learn spells against bad magic animals and not fight each other like the sixth-years had, she did not want to be the only one who could not protect herself with magic. The only one not strong.
Most of the students started taking seats while a few groups stood talking until class began. Marissa stepped to the corner desk and saw that a small ornate wood box was sitting there. She decided it had been left by someone and thought she should take it to Professor Guerra. As she reached for the box it began to shake violently, and the moment she touched it the hinged lid flew open. Marissa jumped back as she felt some presence move towards her, then something unbelievable happened. Where the sixty other children had just been there was nobody. Professor Guerra was gone too. The room and desks remained, but not a single person was there. Marissa stood frozen as a sudden panic began rising within her. Her will fought to control it, but it did not matter. There was no one to hide her fear from. She looked left then right as moments passed, but still saw only a silent empty room.
“… is she just standing there?” came words that broke the silence. Crack! A loud noise sounded and suddenly Marissa saw all the children fill the desks again, with all their eyes looking toward her.
“EEEEEEEEE!” A few desks away Leila Semedo stood screaming at the something that had turned its attention from Marissa. It had changed form and was screaming back at her. The shape that faced Leila was Leila herself, only this body had three heads growing from it, each with a mirror image of her horrified face. More girls began screaming.
“BOGGART!” someone shouted, and Marissa saw Jaci Erasmi leap between Leila and her terrible twin. Crack! As Jaci withdrew his wand, the shape changed again. A gigantic coiled anaconda reared its head towards him as its long muscular tail curled about his feet.
"Riddikulus!" Jaci shouted loudly as he pointed his wand at the massive curling serpent. Crack! Instantly its appearance changed again. The giant snake was still a snake, but now was wrapped in half a dozen lovely silk dresses along its twisting torso. Its head was framed in golden-blonde hair styled like the flowing tresses of Celestia Bella de Barros. Children burst into laughter as it slithered aimlessly across the floor.
"Riddikulus!" Jaci commanded again with a wide smile.
“RIDDIKULUS!” declared a deeper, stronger voice behind Jaci, and the comical snake blew apart into twirling puffs of smoke that disappeared in the air. Laughter turned to surprised oohs and aahs. Celestia had a very angry frown upon her face.
“Where did you learn that spell, boy?” fearsome Professor Guerra asked Jaci Erasmi.
“Uh… my grandfather taught me. There’s old dark barns on the creatures reserve that are filled with Boggarts. He thought I should…”
“Excellent!” declared Guerra as he slapped Jaci on the back and everyone but Celestia’s group began applauding. The professor directed everyone back to their desks and turned to examine the wooden box that lay open on the last desk. A severe look crossed his face.
“Are you okay?” Jaci asked Marissa, who stood unmoved. She could feel her heart racing and was still trying to force down the powerful feeling that had gripped her.
“Yes,” she lied as she sat down. Eva and Serafina helped shaken Leila to her seat while the Anancondas in the front rows whispered amongst themselves and watched Marissa. They seemed very disappointed that something more frightening had not happened to her.
“Boggarts,” said Professor Guerra, who now stood by his desk with the small wooden box, “hide in dark places like closets and little boxes, and will defend themselves when revealed. It is a magic creature that shape-shifts into whatever thing the person it faces fears most.”
“Mine turns to an anaconda,” Jaci offered, “because one almost ate me when I was five.”
“And your most frightening thought is a mummy’s curse,” he observed of Leila Semedo.
“My brother told me nightmare stories about Egyptian tombs when I was little,” she said.
“And what did you see when it sprang from this mislaid box?” the professor asked Marissa.
“Nothing,” Marissa said. Guerra’s penetrating gaze seemed to measure her response.
“How could she just see nothing?” Celestia demanded in a frustrated voice.
“The Boggart wasn’t anything until it turned into the three-headed Leila,” Jaci attested. “Marissa was looking at something, but…”
She realized that while everyone had seen the Boggart turn to the deformed girl and the snake, they could not each see all the others gone as the Boggart had made only her see.
“So, if its shape was nothing, that means there’s nothing she’s scared of?” Cristiano asked.
“It means this girl is allowed to keep what she saw to herself,” Professor Guerra replied.
And that was what Marissa would do, because she could never let anyone know what her Boggart became. It was not only the first-years here that it made disappear. Somehow the Boggart had made her see more than just this room. In her head she felt that every child and adult in Witness Stone was gone. Fides, Spero, and Amor were gone. In far Sao Paulo every street was empty of people. Sister Angelica was gone. Mr. Palito was gone. Even Pipio, Nino, Tomas and Paulinho had all left her. That was the shape that the Boggart had shown to her. Everyone in the whole world was gone and had left her alone. Not one living thing had cared to stay with her.
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Marissa picked up her guide frog outside Astronomy after she, Jaci, and Mario had raced ahead of the others. It was only after Defense that Jaci could tell her what he had seen.
“Don’t you just hate them?” Jaci Erasmi asked. He was positive some Anaconda had purposely left the Boggart to attack her, because he had noticed Celestia and the others watching her closely even before she came near the little box.
“No,” Marissa replied. “Hating people is wrong.”
“Well, they sure hate you!”
“But I won’t be like them. No matter what they do, they won’t make me learn to hate.”
At the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, she once told Sister Angelica how so many people hated street kids. The sister had said she felt sorry for people that did not understand that God values every person, and if Marissa hated them in return it only filled the world with more hate. But the words of Sister Angelica that she remembered most were that if you react to their hatred with hatred, you have let them control your feelings instead of yourself. Marissa would never let someone else control her. That would mean she was not strong.
“At least learn to laugh at them, then,” Jaci replied as they entered Galaxia’s classroom. Marissa was a little sorry she had been too stunned at the time to enjoy his Celestiaconda.
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Marissa realized after dinner that she had almost forgotten to mail her letter to Mr. Palito. She raced down the staircase and emerged beneath the two giant wizards of Witness Stone. It was past dusk and the great tall Owlery Tree near the plaza wall was a dark silhouette of vast spreading branches. As Marissa approached it, she could see its massive trunk was surrounded by many wooden posts where owls would land to have their messages attached.
“Marissa, over here,” said a voice near the tree. Sakura and Anna stood at a post, feeding a tawny owl before sending it off with their letters. “This is Anna’s owl, Kimiko.”
“Hi,” she greeted the two Japanese girls and reached to pet the owl “She’s very pretty.”
“Do you have a letter?” Sakura asked.
“Yes, right here,” she replied. “How do I…”
“Just look up and ask.”
Her head tilted up to see the birdhouses far above. “Um…hello. I need a owl, please.”
Birds began gliding down from the high branches. Not just one or two, but dozens. Then dozens more. They filled all the wooden perches and more landed in the grass around her. Sakura gasped with surprise as within moments over a hundred owls surrounded Marissa.
“How did you do that?” Sakura asked in awe. Other students sending letters all watched in equal amazement.
“Um… birds just like me,” Marissa offered. Trying to avoid more attention, she quickly stepped to the nearest owl and attached her letter, then fed it the owl treats Professor Merrythought had given her. The stately bird flapped its wings and lifted upwards.
“It’s to Mr. Palito. In Sao Paulo!” she called after the owl before turning to all the others. “Um… I just had one letter. I’ll give you turns the next times I write. Thank you.”
As they walked back together, Sakura remarked how incredible the owl gathering was. Marissa did not see it as anything special because birds had flown to her voice before. In Parque da Luz, dozens of swallows sometimes came when she called her three birds. She wished that, instead of birds following her words, her wand would follow her words. Then she could be magic.
Chapter 11 - The Care of Tragical Creatures by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa grows closer to a feathered friend, and comes a little too close to some foes.
Even many older Macaws, who had completely ignored all of the first-years before, now took notice in the common room of the homeless Muggle-born who was afraid of nothing.
“That little street girl that looks like she’s nine years old?” Marissa overheard one teen asking.
“Yes,” confirmed another. “The one the Condas wouldn’t take at house selection.”
She had hoped that the Boggart would not be mentioned again, but that was not what happened. In the bedroom after classes, her roommates had gathered at Serafina’s bed to recall the whole event. All the girls agreed that Jaci was a hero for standing between Leila and the creature. Then every one had shared with the others what frightening thing each thought she would see if a Boggart faced her. Marissa did not see how each girl could reveal herself so easily. Reveal her weakness.
Last night the girls had also told Alika Escuro and Tatiane, who had in turn told everyone. By the morning, all of Macaw House had heard of the Boggart in the first-year Defense class. Other students were not surprised by the idea that the Anacondas may have set it loose on a Muggle-born, but were in disbelief that the creature had taken no shape when it confronted Marissa. Most would not even accept that fact until every first-year had sworn it was true.
“I hope they leave her alone soon,” Alika said as they led the first-years from Macaw House. “Watch out for fruit!” she called back.
“She can handle it. She’s tough” Tatiane replied while the entire line sidestepped a papaya that lay on the pathway to Witness Stone.
“Yeah,” Alika agreed. “A Boggart can’t scare her? That’s tough!”
At breakfast Marissa felt the Anancondas watching her too, as they had at dinner last night. She could tell they also had learned of what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts. From across the Great Hall, Cecelia Bella de Barros and Sol Braganza eyed her scornfully. Marissa knew it couldn’t be Celestia or Cristiano and Fer who had left the box on her desk, but believed Jaci that it could have been placed there by the mean Anaconda House Leader. They had wanted to use the Boggart to find what she was afraid of and show she was weak. But it hadn’t worked like they wanted and now everyone saw Marissa was strong.
Rosaria had tried to warn her, but she had still fallen for the simple trap the Anacondas set. She had never been that careless in Santa Efigenia when protecting the boys and herself from gangs and police. She had sat apart from the Anacondas in class as Alika Escuro had suggested, but she would still have to be more careful to avoid their trouble.
In the excited activity after breakfast, her thoughts of Anacondas were forgotten quickly. The native boy Tiquinho stood with Caspar Varnhagen from Woolly House at the center of the Great Hall. Each held a silver shovel as Jaguars and Woollys cheered loudly.
“The wager is set,” Professor Galhos declared from the raised level. “If Woolly House collects the most, they receive a five spell lead in the Jaguar/Woolly Duelling match.”
“Woolly! Woolly!” his House tables shouted as Caspar raised his shovel. Marissa wondered what it was they were collecting, but all the older students seemed to know.
“If Jaguar House collects the most,” Galhos continued, “they receive a five goal lead in the Jaguar/Woolly Quidditch match.”
“Jaguar! Jaguar!” the native students yelled for Tiquinho.
A dirty whirlwind came rushing down the aisle and suddenly Saci stood with his own rusty shovel between the boys. “If Saci House wins, they get five pranks without being chased!”
“You are not going on the field trip,” Professor Galhos told the dark one-legged boy.
“Ohhh… hmph!” His shovel clanged loudly on the floor as Saci departed in swirls of dust. Professor Parreira from Herbology then led all the Jaguar and Woolly first-years out from the Great Hall as the laughing houses shouted and cheered for their groups. The professors at their tables joined in the applause as the first-years departed.
“He cannot prove someone meant to leave it there, Grace.”
“It didn’t become a Dementor, sir? I would think that is the most terrible thing she’s seen.”
“Guerra swears there was nothing there,” replied Professor Katupya. “Absolutely nothing.”
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The morning classes passed quickly as everyone awaited their own field trip that afternoon. Charms class was more wand movements, a lecture, and an assignment of more reading. In Potions Rosaria only screamed once, and Eva again silenced her quickly with the pillow.
“I think the idea is for this to remind you to cover your scream,” said Eva, “not me.”
“I’ll try,” Rosaria promised. “But you’re much faster.”
In History of Magic, Professor Esquecido was dressed in a hooded woolen cloak and thick layers of musty robes like old wizards called ‘Droods’. The Anaconda boys waited after class to tease Marissa about the family tree assignment.
“I found a family name for you,” Cristiano taunted in the hallway. “Marissa de Aleia.”
“No. de Calha!” corrected Fer, and both boys laughed meanly. The cruel names meant ‘Marissa of the Alley’ or ‘of the Gutter’.
“Maybe you can interview some rats in your dumpster about your family history.”
“Yeah!” Fer Ribeiro agreed. “Sol Braganza says your dumpster stink made the Boggart too sick to change to anything.”
Marissa made herself ignore them and followed after the guide frog to her next class.
In Transfiguration she hoped to practice spells, but Professor Merrythought gave a long lecture. After class the professor tried to talk with her about Boggarts, but Marissa would not share what she had seen. She was fine with letting everyone believe nothing at all scared her.
“Hello, Asuoby,” she said to the large hyacinth macaw, but he just stared with no response. There was a small pile of uneaten palm nuts in the little cup on his bronze perch.
“I think Asuoby is feeling sick today,” Professor Merrythought told her.
“He doesn’t look sick,” Marissa replied. The bird seemed as wary and alert as before.
“Birds aren’t like people,” the professor replied. “Appearing sick would be a signal to predators that they’re weak and easy prey, so they try to hide any sign they’re not well.”
“Oh,” Marissa said as she did notice that the old macaw stood tall but very still today.
“It’s in their instinct to not show vulnerability,” Merrythought explained. Then she tilted her head and smiled at her young student. “Perhaps they are like some people.”
Marissa was unsure what she meant, but before she could ask what vulnerability was, a sharp tapping sounded on glass. Outside, three blue shapes joined the dappled brown one.
“There’s Tesimal!” the professor stated. “I wondered where he had went.”
“Um… I think Fides and Amor are teaching him to fly,” Marissa said.
“I believe he knows how to fly, Marissa.”
“To fly like swallows, I mean,” she explained. As if to demonstrate, the tiny pygmy owl glided after one of the nimble swallows and followed it in a perfect loop-the-loop.
“Wonderful!” Merrythought declared with laughter as all four birds swooped into the small tree on the terrace. She walked outside with Marissa and gave Tesimal an owl treat before he fluttered back into the sleeve of her robe. The swallows would not try the little treats at all until the professor magicked them into little flying bugs which they gulped up happily.
“I want to learn that for them.”
“You will one day,” Professor Merrythought assured her. “But Transfiguration is among the most difficult magics, so I don’t want you to be discouraged if it’s not your best talent.”
“Maybe I’ll be gooder at Charms when Professor Galhos starts showing us those,” she replied. So far they were still only practicing wand movements and she did not know yet what her long blue feather was for.
“I’m sure you will,” the professor agreed as they walked back into the classroom. “Now I believe it’s time to join your class in the Great Hall.” The Herbology field trip would leave from there and last all four afternoon periods.
“Will Macaws and Anacondas have a contest like the other houses?” Marissa asked.
“No,” the professor smiled. “The Condas think that contest is too crude. You’ll see why.”
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Lunch had ended when Marissa reached the Great Hall, and students hurried off to their next classes while the Macaw and Anaconda first-years formed lines. Professor Parreira, in her leafy green garden smock and a matching headscarf, led them out the south hallway and down the outer staircase. Something glided past Marissa’s head and she looked up to see Spero, Fides, and Amor following along above the boys and girls. She noticed Rosaria far ahead of her in line waving up to them until Celestia pulled her hand down.
The sky was clear today, yet everything around was moist and humid from days of rain. The children followed a rainforest path and gathered shortly at a place familiar to Marissa. The humble stone stables stood in the forest clearing with twenty wheelbarrows and many shovels lined up in the field before it.
“We need some drivers, young men,” Professor Parreira directed. Soon ten Anaconda boys began pushing wheelbarrows along an uphill path further into the rainforest, followed by the other Anacondas, ten Macaw boys with wheelbarrows, and the other Macaw first-years. Marissa peered inside the darkened stables as she joined the end of the line, but could not glimpse the magic horses or the ghostly boy. A pen behind the structure held a small herd of curious pig-like animals with strange shapes of writing patterned in their fur.
“Hierotapirs,” stated Jaci Erasmi, who walked just ahead of her with his friend Mario.
“Why aren’t you pushing?” she asked. Unlike most of the girls, the boys would talk to her.
“We’ll push the heavy full wheelbarrows back,” Jaci explained. “And Mario is back here to protect you from being eaten by a jaguar.”
“I am?” Mario asked, unaware of such a plan.
“Yes,” Jaci confirmed, “by letting it eat you first.”
“Well, you’re walking back here to protect yourself from Leila hugging her hero again!” Mario replied. Marissa smiled as Jaci blushed.
The stone-laid walkway they travelled on was a much narrower, less used path that those close by Witness Stone. The wheelbarrows pushed through overgrown palms and vines, and two persons could barely walk side by side. The swallows retreated to her shoulder as they moved deeper into the dense, shadowed rainforest. Marissa liked being deep under the forest canopy again, among the thick leafy foliage, hanging vines, and hidden wildlife. Sometimes she could see birds high in enormous trees or in branches just above her head. Jaci Erasmi knew names of many of them, though just as many others he did not know. They saw a colorful toucan, parrots, hoatzins, uirapurus, and a even fat wattled curassow. Marissa recalled Professor Merrythought saying there were so many hundreds of kinds of birds in the rainforest that she could never learn them all. She thought it was true.
It was a full half hour until the winding trail reached its end. In a small clearing at the base of a steep rocky cliff, a gaping dark hole opened before the assembled first-years.
“Each night,” Professor Parreira explained, “ninety thousand bats fly from this cave to consume their evening meal, then return and provide something very useful for our class.”
“Bat poop!” said Mario Domingues. That was what they were filling wheelbarrows with. Marissa had heard the boys talk excitedly about bats on the way to the cave, even though the proper Anaconda girls had complained before how disgusting the entire field trip was.
“Bat guano,” stated the professor, “is the fertilizer for all of our greenhouse gardens. By long tradition, each new first-year class refills Herbology guano bins at the start of term.”
“Ma’am,” Celestia stated. “I think the school should have little ones do this menial work. Proper girls should not shovel bat guano.”
“Ah, but then you would all miss this learning experience,” Professor Parreira smiled.
“There’s nothing to learn from poop!” Celestia responded. “And bats are not plants.”
The professor simply laughed and shook her head as if Celestia had understood nothing. “The wizard tribes of Amazonia believe deeply in the bond of all life. All magic rises from nature, and all things in nature are interdependent. How are bats an example of this?”
“Because we use parts of them in Potions?” Eva Paranhos offered.
“That is one way,” the professor nodded in approval. “But how are they part of… a circle?”
It was Jaci Erasmi who gave the answer. “The bat guano feeds the soil, the soil feeds the plants, the plant leaves feed the insects, the insects feed the bats, and bats make more guano.”
“Precisely,” commended Professor Parreira. “All the nutrients that pass from one life to another eventually return to start the entire circle again.”
Marissa smiled as she realized that what the professor was teaching them was an idea like she had found on her own in Astronomy class. Like each thing she learned was connected to other things to learn, each thing alive was connected to other things alive. So interdependent meant they all counted on each other to live.
“Our ninety thousand bats have no idea they’re part of this cycle, any more than bees know they are part of a pollination cycle. Just like plants and animals, even wizards are a small part in forces greater than their own. All life is bound to other life, sometimes in ways we do not even understand. That is what you and your friends may learn from poop, Miss Bella de Barros.”
First-years all took shovels and lined up to enter the huge cave as Professor Perreira continued. “There is to be no talking, yelling, or shouting within the cave,” she noted. “Now, I was warned that one of you is sometimes upset by insects. Who is that?”
Rosaria raised her hand to admit her guilt, and was permitted to wait outside because bugs were on the guano piles. The professor didn’t want her screams to wake the ninety thousand bats.
“Well, I don’t really like insects either,” Celestia declared, but was not excused from the cave. Her Potions partner Eva was chosen to sit with Rosaria and sketch plants while all the others rolled their wheelbarrows into the darkness to collect bat guano. The swallows left Marissa’s shoulder as she entered the cave last, and Rosaria smiled as they landed beside her.
Professor Perreira guided the group along the dark floor of the cave with her lighted wand. The wheelbarrows spread out, each assigned to its own small hill to shovel. The bat poop looked like piles of loose dirt and didn't really smell as bad as everyone had said it would.
“Where are the bats?” someone whispered. The glow of Perreira's wand rose up to barely illuminate a ceiling high above, where countless tiny creatures with folded wings hung upside-down in the craggy shadows. “Wow,” Marissa uttered quietly at their vast numbers.
Marissa discovered the wheelbarrows were magicked to hold an endless amount of poop. They shovelled for an hour before the professor led the rolling line of carts from the cave. Marissa wished they did have a contest, because she knew her Macaws had collected far more guano. Celestia and the proper girls had each shovelled one required scoop, then let Anaconda boys do all the work of filling their cartloads.
Professor Perreira was at the far end of the clearing directing the wheelbarrows when Marissa came from the cave. She saw Cristiano waiting and jumped back as he flung a shovelful of guano at her feet.
“Hey!” she shouted when it spattered her new shoes.
“Here's some perfume to make you smell better,” he said loudly as the Anacondas behind him laughed. The swallows were flying to meet her, but as Amor landed on her shoulder both Spero and Fides circled about to deliver their droppings directly on Cristiano's head. Now the Macaw boys and girls laughed.
“Stupid birds!” Cristiano snarled, and took a wand from his robe to aim at tiny Spero.
Without thinking, Marissa leaped towards him with her hands raised to grab his arm.
“Expelliarmus!”
Marissa saw the wand flying from his hand but could not stop herself from crashing into his chest. She knocked him into a wheelbarrow, which tipped over, and she landed upon Cristiano in the spilled load of bat guano. The surprised boy barely struggled as she pinned his arms, forced him down, and spoke in fierce anger. “Don’t… you… ever…”
“…EVER,” came a voice from behind her more furious than her own, “point a wand at an animal in this forest!”
“I … was teasing,” Cristiano fearfully admitted to the smoldering Professor Parreira who stood above the two with her own wand. “I don’t even know a spell to do on birds.”
The professor helped Marissa from the top of Cristiano, then yanked the boy to his feet. He was covered in bat guano and his hands were soiled more as he brushed off his robe. Marissa shook with anger, and thought for a moment maybe Anacondas could make her hate them. Then she remembered what Sister Angelica said. She should feel sorry for him.
Professor Perreira took a moment to calm herself, then addressed Cristiano very strictly. “Witness Stone has a rule, a rule four hundred years old, that you should have learned your first day in Charms! Could someone please remind this foolish boy of that rule?”
“Never harm a rainforest creature without need.” Marissa was surprised the two voices that stated the rule almost in unison came from Jaci Erasmi and Celestia Bella de Barros. “Idiot!” Celestia added harshly as she glared at Cristiano, not at a puzzled Marissa.
“Now, let me clean you both…” Parreira raised her wand, but then paused. “No, I think I will let you walk back just as you are. Pick up your wand, Mr. Ferreira.”
The professor’s spell reloaded the spilled guano and Cristiano pushed it to the trailhead.
“We’re going ahead this time,” Celestia declared as she passed boys with wheelbarrows, “so I don’t step in any of this filthy mess when you spill it again.”
Professor Perreira and the proper Anaconda girls led the way back down the stone path. The Macaw girls also went before their boys, and Marissa walked just ahead of Jaci with his overfilled wheelbarrow. The three swallows perched safely on her shoulders.
“Um…why was Celestia mad at Cristiano and not me?” she asked as Jaci rolled along.
“The rainforest belongs to the wizard tribes and they care for all creatures that live here. They have sanctions for harming animals. Even little birds.”
“What’s sanctions?”
“Like a punishment,” Jaci explained as they walked. “Grandfather says a wizard killed a Glyptodon once and the tribes cut the magical plants harvest in half for a whole year.”
“But why would Celestia care if…”
“Because Bella de Barros Exports loses thousands of Galleons any time the source of potion ingredients is cut short. Her family knows that harming animals costs money.”
“Oh, I see,” Marissa said. Celestia didn’t care about animals, she just cared about herself.
The line ahead of them slowed, then came to a standstill. Jaci and the others pulled to a halt and Marissa squeezed past the single file line to find why they had stopped. The last Anaconda wheelbarrow was parked and blocked the narrow path. A chubby Anaconda boy, sweating and half-exhausted, sat on the ground behind it.
“I’ll give you a Sickle to push for me,” he weakly offered a Macaw boy who just laughed.
“I’ll push it,” Marissa responded to the chance to earn money.
“A little girl can't move a heavy wheelbarrow,” he said.
“Yes I can,” she declared firmly, and held out her hand to be paid. “So?”
The chubby boy hesitated, but handed her a silver wizardings coin from his pocket.
“Don’t tell Celly,” he told her as he slowly lifted himself up.
Marissa joined the end of the train of wheelbarrows after letting everyone waiting pass. The load was heavy, but it was really keeping the cart balanced that took the most effort as they rolled downhill. After a time they finally wheeled into the stables and emptied the loads on a great mountain of guano. Marissa gave a tired, satisfied sigh. It was good to help the greenhouse plants have food to eat.
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“Tatiane,” Marissa asked the older girl ahead of her, “where do I wash my clothes at?”
The uniforms piled at the bottom of her wardrobe now included a very dirty witch robe.
“The little ones do that for us ,” Tatiane replied as they crossed the swaying rope bridge.
“I thought first-years were the littlest,” she said. The older girl smiled at her puzzled look, then began to explain something no one had thought to tell Marissa about before.
“Eeww! Don’t put that bat poop stuff in with our clothes!” Serafina cried out a little later as Marissa brought her things to the little restroom where the laundry hamper was kept. Some of the Macaw girls had started being nicer to Marissa, but Serafina wasn’t one of them. She still wanted to be snobby and better than everyone else like Ananconda girls, and liked to accuse Marissa of stealing every time someone misplaced any little thing.
“But this is where Tatiane said I had to put my uniforms for the little ones people to clean.”
“Leave them out in the entry,” Serafina said. “I’m sure they’ll find them by the odor!”
Marissa read ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’ after taking her dirty clothes back by her wardrobe. She sat by the glass where the swallows could see her, because they still liked her to keep them company as they nested in for the night. Long after the other girls had gone to bed, there on the smooth wooden floor was where she again fell asleep.
“Huh!” With a sudden start, Marissa awoke in the darkness as she felt something near her. Instinctively she backed away, then found she wasn’t on the floor, but floating in midair. Her movement set her loose of whatever held her, and Marissa tumbled back to the floor. She jumped to her feet to face the sight of her clothes pile, standing by itself on two legs. And it was talking.
“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” a worried voice whispered. “Dozza has woke up the last firstie.” Two large round eyes peered out timidly from the middle of the small heap of uniforms. “Lifted girl to mop floor, but can’t put her there.”
“Are you,” Marissa asked in amazement as she raised a shirt from its head, “a little one?” Tatiane had said she might never, ever see one because they worked when students slept.
The clothes pile shivered as the very short being very nervously nodded yes.
“Um… I’m Marissa,” she said quietly to it. “What’s your name?”
“Dozza. Dozza the bad, bad house-elf. MyRissa can please smack Dozza with her book.”
“Smack you with… No,” Marissa refused. “What did you do bad?”
“Dozza has made MyRissa’s bed wrong,” it sniffed as tears began flowing from its eyes. “MyRissa has not sleeped in it all week, and is Dozza’s fault little girl hates her bed!” Suddenly the house-elf crumpled to the floor and started sobbing as if someone had died.
“I… I don’t hate it!” Marissa said, afraid its outburst would wake everyone. “Please, shhh.”
“Don’t hate bed?” Dozza asked hopefully, wiping tears on a rumpled robe.
“No. Um… It’s a very nice bed. I just… my friends never had a bed to sleep in, and…” She couldn’t explain to a little house-elf the mixed feelings she hadn’t faced herself.
“MyRissa only sad friends not here to shares.”
“Yes,” she admitted very, very softly.
“Friends want MyRissa to sleep on hard floor?”
“No. They would want…” Want what? They boys had wanted her to have a white shirt and new shoes when they didn’t have any. Wanted her to go to school when they couldn’t. The boys had been happy for her to have that chance. “…want me to sleep in a soft bed.”
“MyRissa sleep in bed and dream soft to them,” the little house-elf urged.
“Okay,” Marissa agreed. “I will.”
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Marissa rounded the bushes as she walked to the Great Hall on Saturday morning and saw it was true. In the center of the stone pathway stood a large thirty foot tree that had not been there before. Milo Timbira had warned everyone in the common room about it after Jaci and Mario raced to breakfast early and crashed into the unexpected obstacle.
“How did a big tree grow in one day?” Marissa had asked him.
“It didn’t,” he replied. “Travelling trees move to different spots. Sometimes they appear ten miles from where they usually grow, then move back a few days later.”
“Do they walk?” she had asked, and pictured a magic tree striding along on its roots.
“No one knows. They just show up by surprise.” It had surprised Mario with a bloody nose.
Marissa walked alone because House Leaders didn’t take them to breakfast on Saturdays, but happily she found Sakura and Anna headed up the wide stone stairway just above her. Fides, Spero and Amor glided along as she caught up to them.
“Hi, Marissa,” Sakura greeted her. “Did you really bury a Conda boy in bat guano?”
“Um… we kind of both fell. But he was trying to hurt the swallows.”
“I wish Celly Belly de Barros fell in,” Sakura said, and quiet Anna giggled with her.
As they entered Witness Stone, the three birds flew off towards the top of the pyramid. The Great Hall was only half full, so Marissa was invited to sit at the Woolly House tables with the Japanese girls. She had toast while they both had fruit slices with cream.
“Marissa!” squawked a voice beside her as a flurry of feathers landed upon her shoulder. She recognized its colors and turned to see Tiquinho following his bright scarlet macaw. Potira held his hand, and her sleepy sloth Ker was wrapped around her.
“No school today,” Potira smiled as she pointed to Marissa’s book bag on the bench. It only held ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’, which she wanted to keep dry if it rained.
“I know,” Marissa said. “I’m going to the library.” She wanted to turn in her book and check out one about Amazon birds, or house-elves, or maybe travelling trees.
“No library today,” Tiquinho ordered as he lifted Flap-Flap back to his own forearm. “You’re coming with us.”
“Where?” Marissa inquired as Flap-Flap simply flew back to her again.
“You want see pink dolphins, yes?” Potira asked. The three girls at the table all smiled.
The path to the pools led right beneath the lupunas of Woolly House, where Sakura and Anna met them again after getting bathing suits. Monkeys in the branches followed them through the treetops almost to the edge of the river, where a tall waterfall poured into a series of small pools and one very deep one that Indian boys were diving into from a cliff. The pair of pink dolphins swam about playing, sometimes leaping from the water to splash the children. Marissa enjoyed wading in the small pools before climbing up the rocks to a high ledge, then met a dolphin up close when it lifted her out from the water after she began sinking.
“Don’t take my dare to jump if you can't swim!” Tiquinho scolded as she coughed up water.
“I… thought I’d… just learn.”
“Or learn to drown,” he shook his head but smiled. “It’s better you learn that fearless shouldn’t mean foolish.”
Heavy rains sent them from the river after a few hours. Tiquinho went with some native boys, Potira took furry Ker to lunch, and Sakura had promised to help Anna with spells. Marissa said goodbye and raced off to the library.
The swallows took shelter on a ledge outside again as she entered the ancient building with its three towering bookshelf trees. Many older students sat with books and schoolwork spread out on study tables. As Marissa approached the librarian’s counter, she passed Cecelia Bella de Barros, who sat with another teen girl and seemed not to notice her at all. Marissa overheard them talking while she waited for Mr. Argiletum.
“…much more space for our dresses,” said Cecelia.
“If native wizards are so wise,” said the other girl. “how come they never discovered walk-in closets?”
“Mother says they still haven’t discovered proper clothes,” Cecelia replied sarcastically, and both girls laughed quietly. Cecelia drew things on a parchment between them.
“Think how spacious the common room will look without those ugly stone columns.”
“Can we really do that, Cece?” her friend questioned.
“Of course. I have Principal Absencia’s permission to redecorate any way we want.”
“But, I mean, that’s very difficult magic.”
“Aren’t I the best witch in school?” Cecelia asked, and waited for the girl to nod agreement. “I’ll just read an Archimancy book and learn the spells.”
“Oh, Anaconda House is going to be so wonderful, Cece. You’ll probably win best spell!”
“Probably,” she agreed confidently.
Marissa turned in ‘Spirits of Witness Stone’ to Mr. Argiletum and went to find a new book.
She searched for a section about animals, and at the far end of the rows of Magizoology found ‘Birds of the Amazon: An Illustrated Guide’. Footsteps approached behind her.
“Petrificus Totalus!” a voice whispered sharply, and the heavy book thudded to the floor. Marissa tried to turn to see who had spoken, but found she could not move at all. Her arms had pulled to her sides and her whole body felt tightly bound.
“Look what I’ve found,” said someone unseen.“The brave gutter girl with a picture book.” Cecelia Bella de Barros stepped forward into Marissa’s view. She slowly circled around her, then stood looking down with disdain.
“Celestia’s little friends are convinced that you’re not scared of anything,” she remarked. “But I think you were just too feeble-minded for a Boggart to read your simpleton thoughts. Maybe you’re not afraid of snakes, or even Cristiano, but you’re not smart enough to know what you should be afraid of.”
Marissa could not speak to answer back, or force herself loose of whatever magic held her. Cecelia placed her wandtip firmly on Marissa’s chest and looked into her unmoving eyes. How did Cecelia think she could tell if she scared someone if she had frozen their face?
“Aren’t you afraid that you’re helpless right now? Afraid I can cast any hex I like on you? You might get Saci to help you embarrass us, and defend yourself against firstie pranks, but you have no idea how to protect yourself from magic. How about a burning hex? Or I could just turn you to a lizard right now and feed you to my owl. Does that scare you?”
Maybe Cecelia could make her a lizard, but Marissa had been threatened many times before. She thought Cecelia was just bluffing to prove she was stronger. And she also realized that Cecelia surprised her in an empty, secluded aisle of the library. Just like with the snakes and the Boggart, the Anacondas always tried to hide it was them who had done something.
“I’ll let you go,” Cecelia said with pretend mercy, “but only if you stay in your treehouse of mudbloods. The plaza belongs to purebloods, and we don’t want to smell you in the library anymore. Books are no use to an ignorant beggar anyway.”
Cecelia wanted to scare her, but her words about the library made Marissa very mad. The giant wizards on Witness Stone had let her come to school, and Mr. Argiletum said all the books were hers to learn from. She would not let the mean House Leader say they weren’t.
Because if Cecelia kept her from all the things to learn, she might as well be a lizard.
“Cece!” called an urgent voice from far up the aisle. “He’s coming!”
“Finite!” whispered Cecelia, who quickly rushed around the shelf and was gone. Marissa felt herself able to move again, and turned to see Mr.Argiletum at the front of the aisle.
“Have you found what you need?” he asked.
“Um… yes,” she replied. Cecelia was unwilling to act on her threat if teachers might find out. She had found what scared the Anacondas.
Marissa walked up to the front entry and saw that Cecelia had gone back to her study table. The Anaconda girls turned and watched to see if Marissa would run away from the library.
Checking out a book wouldn’t be enough to show Cecelia she was too strong to be scared. Marissa had to confront her, and show that she wasn’t afraid to do so in front of everyone. Quickly she took out her wand and stepped right up to Cecelia’s table. With her left hand she heaved it up while she raised the wand in her right.
“Petrippitus ToadAlice!” she pronounced loudly as the small table toppled over. The two surprised Anacondas jumped back from falling books and ink-splashed parchment pages, and a roomful of students turned to look as Mr. Argiletum heard the noise and rushed over.
“Vile little…” Cecelia held her words as she saw the librarian.
“What is all this?” he asked sternly of the overturned table.
“I was just practicing the spell Cecelia taught me,” Marissa said calmly. “I guess it don’t work on tables.”
Mr. Argiletum turned to Cecelia, who looked stunned and said nothing.
“Duelling curses in the library, Miss Bella de Barros? Is this a proper place for lessons?”
“No, sir,” she replied, and turned to glare at Marissa as a small crowd watched.
“Follow me,” he ordered firmly, and led the two girls to a small room away from others.
“You may both apologize now or I will refer this to Professor Guerra,” he told Cecelia.
Marissa knew the House Leader was relieved not to speak her curt apology in public.
“I’m sorry,” Marissa said in turn. “I’ll stay away from you. But not from the library.”
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Marissa was on library probation after the incident, and Alika Escuro told he she could only go there now with other Macaws, not by herself. But she did get to go back to the river with the Jaguars on Sunday. Potira gave her swimming lessons.
At breakfast Monday morning, Marissa was surprised when scores of owls began gliding into the Great Hall, and concerned they might all land by her like they did at the owl tree. Then she saw they delivered mail, and one swooped down to drop a letter in front of her. She saw it was the pink parchment letter she had sent Mr. Palito. Had the owl not found him and brought it back? She worried maybe something had happened to Mr. Palito, then saw her name written where his had been. He had reused the same paper to write back.
Hey kid,
The scruffs are doing good and Pipio is keeping them fed. Glad you like the professors. Make sure you learn everything they have to teach you. Don’t slack off like some kids do. Boys and I are waiting to hear lots of stories about school when you get back.
See you later.
Marissa was pleased to get a letter, but puzzled by the pink parchment. She had written to him with a quill, not a pencil. How had Mr. Palito erased ink to write on the paper again?
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“Petrippitus ToadAlice!”
“Petrificus Totalus!”
Marissa smiled. The old macaw Asuoby had repeated the spell correctly, even though she had said it wrong. She didn’t use her wand, but spoke the words to see if he’d talk. Now she knew the potion from the Cares for Creatures professor had made him feel better. All the days that he was sick Asuoby hadn’t said a word.
Marissa sat by his perch in Transfiguration classroom. Professor Merrythought monitored the Great Hall all this week, but had allowed her to spend the lunch hours here as long as she kept a safe distance from Asuoby and promised to eat something. She had an orange.
The second week of school had been less eventful than the first. Except for their constant whispered insults that she ignored, the Anacondas had not done anything more to her yet. Maybe because professors were watching now, like Mr. Argiletum’s ghost librarians did.
The week was disappointing though, because she had still not made magic with her wand. In all of her classes she was learning many things, yet her magic wasn’t doing anything. The other children had almost all performed more changing spells, but she still couldn’t make a needle. All she had done with her matches was light Saci’s pipe when he asked. Some of the first-years even knew more spells that older brothers and sisters taught them. Marissa hoped she would do better with the magics that Charms and Defense would teach. Maybe her wand was waiting for a kind it liked more, like the swallows liked the tastes of some bugs more than others.
In Brooms class some others flew slow and unsteady, but only Marissa could not fly at all. It was difficult to keep trying with no results and still show no feeling from Conda taunts.
Professor Merrythought said her magic would come in time. Why was it taking so long?
“If you didn’t bite I could take you by the window and the sunshine,” she said to Asuoby. The hyacinth macaw no longer lunged to warn her away if she came too close, but never let anyone pick him up. And the professor said he got very upset if his perch was moved.
“See all the other birds,” she said as she stepped to the glass wall. Outside a flock of scarlet macaws passed in the distance and the three swallows rested in their favorite tree.
Marissa heard the stone wall moving open and turned to see Professor Merrythought enter.
“Hello, Marissa,” she smiled.
“Marissa!” echoed another voice, and with a strenuous beating of wings the aged hyacinth macaw flew across the room to the girl’s shoulder. Marissa was startled and Merrythought gasped.
“Be still or he’ll take off your ear,” she said urgently. She slowly approached Marissa with her hand half raised as if to knock the bird away.
“No!” Marissa warned. She calmly walked Asuoby back to his perch. “He won’t be mean. I’m his friend now.”
The old macaw brushed his large beak against her cheek before she lifted him up to the bronze pole. “Marissa,” he squawked, then turned and snapped as the professor came near.
“We thought he was too weak to fly anymore,” Merrythought said as she moved back.
“I think it hurts his wings,” Marissa replied She gently smoothed down his feathers, then stepped back beside her professor. “See. Asuoby likes me.”
Merrythought shook her head in disbelief as Marissa then hurried off to Herbology.
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“Are you going to Rio next week too?” Marissa asked her two native friends as they talked in the Great Hall after dinner. Sakura and Anna were going to Carnival with their family. It wasn’t a school activity, so only students whose parents picked them up at the Floos or at something called Portkeys went. But that seemed to be everyone in school except Marissa.
“No,” Tiquinho replied. “The tribes have our own celebrations.”
“Jaguars go home villages feast,” Potira added as she rocked her sloth like a baby.
“Oh. I’ll have Witness Stone all by myself,” Marissa said. She could explore places then. She wanted to learn the changing hallmaze as well as she knew streets in Santa Efigenia.
“Little ones stay you,” Potira smiled, then whispered something to Tiquinho.
“We’ll have to ask,” he replied to her.
Across the aisle two fourth-year girls from Macaw House were doing schoolwork for a class called Divination. Marissa remembered them as the black girl and the brown-skinned frizzly hair girl she had bumped into on the train.
“I see my dad buying me a Nimbus 2000 for my birthday,” the black girl said.
“Nina! That’s a wish, not a vision,” replied the other. “Be serious.”
“Okay, okay. I see it raining… so hard it floods Anaconda House and ruins all Cecelia’s dresses!” Nina giggled as she wrote down her prediction.
“That’s not nice.”
“Your turn, Constanca. What do you see?”
“I see…” she looked into the crystal ball from class, “parents. Parents.. crying?”
“Your parents?”
“All the parents. Crying,” she repeated as her own eyes welled with tears. She began to shake and her voice trembled. “Because… because all the wizarding children are gone. They’re all… no. NO!” She cried out, then fainted to the bench.
“Constanca? Cons? Professor Galhos!” Nina shouted out to the nearest teacher she saw. Galhos rushed over, saw the unconscious student, and knelt down beside her.
“What happened?”
“We were doing our assignment. She started acting funny and crying for nothing, then…"
“Rennervate,” the professor passed her wand over Constanca who began to wake.
“Are you alright, dear?”
“I think so. I… saw. I really saw.” Her eyes began to tear again.
“Alika!” the professor called to the House Leader standing in a group that had gathered to see what was happening. “Take Miss Estrelafala to Galaxia's office. Quickly please.”
Alika Escuro helped Constanca up and guided the shaken girl away down the hall.
“She’s had a vision, dear,” Professor Galhos explained to her worried friend.
“A real vision?”
“Ms. Estrelafala's great-aunt was a powerful seer. It is a very rare gift, but if a young woman inherits the ability it begins to display itself at about your age.”
“She'll really be able to see the future?”
“Possibly. Professor Galaxia will try to help her draw out a full prophecy.”
“What… what will Constanca see?”
“That is unknown. Hopefully something more meaningful than a ‘team of destiny’.”
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After class on Monday, Asuoby tried to fly to her again, but swooped to the floor in pain. Professor Merrythought had said he had an illness called arthritis that made his bones ache. Marissa had gently lifted him back to his bronze perch and talked to him. The professor showed her how, with requests of ‘next’, Asuoby would repeat every spell word he knew.
On Tuesday the aged bird was again unable to beat his wings strongly enough to reach her. He fell to the floor, then slowly stepped up Marissa’s arm when she kneeled down to help. It was sad that Asuoby was old and weak and could no longer fly free like other birds, and he must be lonely kept inside all by himself.
“Can't I just hold him a little while?” she asked. “He won’t hurt me.”
“He seems determined to reach your shoulder,” Merrythought observed. “I suppose he can rest there a bit if he stays calm.”
Marissa took the large hyacinth macaw to the tall glass wall where he could look outside. A steady rain drizzled down on the plaza far below and Asuoby seemed to enjoy the view.
“Students will leave for Carnival this Saturday,” the professor reminded Marissa.
“I don’t have parents, so I can't go,” she replied flatly.
“Not to Rio. But Professor Katupya has approved a field trip you may take.”
“A field trip where?” she asked curiously.
“To a village. Would you like to go with Tiquinho and Potira and visit their home?”
“Yes,” Marissa smiled.
“Perhaps Gran Arating could help with your History. Or do you already have a subject?”
“Um… no,” she replied. It was too awkward to ask someone to let her borrow their family.
“Marissa, it’s okay to ask for help,” Professor Merrythought said kindly. Marissa made no reply to that. Something inside always said that needing help meant she wasn’t strong.
“If everyone goes to Carnival and villages,” she asked instead, “who will care for Asuoby?”
“The little ones look after him. He bites them too.”
Marissa travelled to their village with Tiquinho, Potira, and four other Jaguar first-years. Tiquinho let her paddle after the canoe had magically risen over the waterfall at the pools, and they followed a fleet of the boats filled with native children. The little rainforest town was as wondrous as Witness Stone, with entrancing music, costumed dancers, and strange delicious foods served not on dishes, but on leaves. Most amazing of all was the long day they spent with the ancient storyteller, drawing the family tree for her History assignment. After four days, Marissa was almost reluctant to return to school.
“Isn't Professor Katupya coming?” she asked Tiquinho as they floated off. She had thought he might join them in the last canoe.
“No. He returns a different way.”
“On a broom?” she guessed.
“Watch,” Tiquinho instructed. She turned back to see the Potions master remove his robe. It disappeared from his hand as he dove from the dock. Before his body reached the river, Professor Katupya was not a person anymore. Marissa gasped. The shape that sliced into the waters with hardly a splash was that of a pink dolphin.
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“Marissa, do you have anything at all?”
“I went to Warring River village and learned stories about a native family,” Marissa said. “A long, long time ago they helped Jaguating prison the dark pajés in the lost cities.”
“And who told you the stories?” Professor Esquecido, in the shimmering gown of a Greek priestess, asked as she submitted her History assignment.
“The chief man.”
“Professor Katupya’s brother?” Esquecido asked doubtfully.
“Um… not him. The old, old chief man, his grandfather.”
“She’s lying!” proclaimed Celestia, who had just finished her own family presentation. ‘That’s why everyone in America and Europe knows the Bella de Barros,’ it had ended.
“Young lady,” the professor addressed Marissa sternly, “you can't think I would believe you had an audience with Grand Chief Ubirajara! He hasn’t been seen in thirty years.”
“My father says he isn't even alive anymore,” Celestia declared.
“Um… I have a picture” Marissa offered. Displeased at being called a liar, she thrust the magic photograph Gran Arating had taken into Professor Esquecido’s hand. The moving scene showed her, Potira, and Tiquinho at the feet of a very ancient man tracing radiant symbols in the air.
“Incredible,” murmured Esquecido. “And what part of his family tree did you learn?”
“All of it,” Marissa said as she spread out the scroll.
“Extraordinary!” The long parchment unrolled fifteen feet across the classroom floor.
“I still don’t believe her!” Celestia protested. “She stole it all from a book.”
“No, Miss Bella de Barros. These are the same symbols carved into the tallest stelae on the plaza. They trace the Katupya ancestors for sixty generations.”
Marissa smiled. She had felt something very powerful the day she drew the picture names. Sometimes she had a secret thought that the boys might forget her if she was gone a year. Jaguating’s people had remembered their families, remembered him, for a thousand years.
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“Asuoby is sick again, isn't he?” Marissa asked as she lifted the quiet bird from his perch on Saturday afternoon. She had come to visit him as she did each day now.
“Yes, I’m afraid he is,” Professor Merrythought said sadly.
“Maybe the little ones should give him more of the Cares for Creatures potion.”
“They have, Marissa, but it hasn’t helped. It may just be Asuoby’s time.”
“Time for what?”
“To pass on. We spoke about this before.” Merrythought knew her young student had become attached to the hyacinth macaw. She opened up to him as she wouldn’t to people, and his acceptance of her eased the frustration of having not yet displayed her powers.
“Maybe if he gets fresh air he’ll feel better,” Marissa suggested hopefully. “Can I take him outside?”
“If it doesn’t upset him.,” Merrythought allowed. “Only here on the terrace, though, and keep him away from other childen. He’s still strong enough to bite.”
Fides, Spero, and Amor circled about catching insects, but glided over when she came out. The sight and sounds of many children in the plaza below seemed to disturb old Asuoby, so Marissa took him around the corner to the pyramid face that looked down on the rainforest.
Professor Merrythought had not said where on the terrace she must stay, and she decided Asuoby might like a walk around all of Witness Stone.
“Look, Asuoby,” she said as two bright shapes caught her eyes. “There’s ones like you.” There were many scarlets, but it was rare to see hyacinth macaws flying near the school. They caught Asuoby’s attention and he let out a loud call which completely surprised her, then swayed back and forth excitedly.
“No, you can't go see them,” Marissa laughed. “Calm down before you hurt your…”
With a piercing screech and furious beating of wings, Asuoby suddenly set off into the sky.
He swooped past the edge of the terrace and down along the steep slope of the pyramid, then rose up to follow after the hyacinth macaws moving off over the treetops.
“Asuoby, no! Come back!” she shouted, but he was already far away.
She began racing down the steep staircase of the pyramid, taking steps in leaps of three. The swallows flew alongside as she rushed after Asuoby. Halfway down she passed by Tatiane Timbira, who noticed her frantic pace.
“Marissa, where are you going?” Tatiane called.
“Asuoby flew away! I have to find him!” she cried back. “Tell Professor Merrythought!”
She continued running and came down to where she could no longer see over the trees. “Spero, find Asuoby!” she shouted, and the swallows shot into the sky over the rainforest. She reached the ground and ran off on a pathway in the direction the old macaw had flown.
“Asuoby! Asuoby, where are you?” she called out loudly as her eyes scanned the forest. Had he landed in a tree or fallen to the ground? Either way the bird would be in danger.
He would be so weak after flying so far that if wild animals found him he might be killed.
The swallows came diving down from the canopy and Spero led her into the underbrush. She flung off her robe when it caught on branches. She quickly tore past tangled vines, ignoring cuts and scrapes on her bare legs. Following after the swallows, she finally sighted a bright blue form perched in a tree.
“Asuoby, you crazy bird. Why did you…”
Asuoby gave a great screech and a loud call answered from somewhere high in the trees. She heard frightened birds flying off and looked up to see something plummeting through leaves and branches to the ground. Asuoby’s wings shuddered, his head drooped, and he fell from the branch. Marissa rushed through the bushes to where he lay only a few feet from the other fallen creature that needed her help too. It was a featherless baby macaw. She scooped it up to protect it, then kneeled beside Asuoby. He lay on his side and was shaking.
“Oh, Asuoby,” she said, placing her hand gently on his wing. She didn’t know whether to lift him up or let him lay and rest. Something might be broken and he was surely in pain. She had set the baby down and it hopped next to Asuoby, peaking its beak at him. Its insistent attempts to wake Asuoby even made a small cut on his chest. Marissa lifted it to cradle it in her arm and it reached out and poked its little beak to her lips. She tasted blood from the cut it had made on Asuoby.
“Marissa! Marissa!” She heard two voices shouting for her and turned to see Professor Merrythought and Tatiane approaching through hanging vines and brush.
“Over here!” she called out. When she was sure they had seen her she turned back to Asuoby. His exhausted body convulsed a few moments, then was still.
“Help him, please!” she said as Merrythought arrived beside her. The professor’s wand passed over Asuoby’s silent form, then paused. Marissa began to fear the worst.
“Change him. Change him back alive!” she pleaded desperately. “You made the desk a glyffadon, so you can make…”
Marissa looked to Merrythought and Tatiane and saw the tears forming in both their eyes. She turned away quickly and bit her lip very, very hard.
“I can't, Marissa. He’s gone.”
Chapter 12 - A Bird's Eye View by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
The months pass at Witness Stone, yet she cannot cast a single spell. Marissa still hasn't discovered any magic within herself... or has she?
“He exhausted himself flying so far,” Merrythought said gently after Marissa told her how Asuoby had soared off after the other hyacinth macaws. “His old heart just gave out.”
“What about the baby bird?” Marissa asked. She cradled the featherless macaw in the crook of her left arm as she sat on wet ground beside the lifeless blue body of Asuoby. She told herself again to be strong and not show she was hurt by only an old bird dying.
Asuoby was beyond her help now, but the little baby she should try to save.
“It fell from up there,” she told Professor Merrythought, and looked to the forest canopy. “I think maybe Asuoby scared it out of a nest.”
“I know a foundling charm,” Tatiane Timbira offered. The professor nodded approval, and Tatiane bent down beside Marissa to speak the spell words as she waved her wand. Sounds of the baby macaw chirping spread through the nearby trees.
“This will call its mother here so we can return it to its nest,” the professor told Marissa.
But after a quarter hour, though some birds flew back to branches overhead, no macaw came to claim the baby.
“Can't we just find a nest to put him in?” Marissa asked.
“Only its own mother can take it. Any other macaws would push it back out of the nest.”
Marissa showed a troubled look. Everything that had happened from her taking Asuoby outside was bad. The old macaw was dead and now the baby had lost its home and mother.
“Don’t worry, Marissa,” Tatiane said, trying to console the younger girl. “We can take it to Professor Domador and he’ll have the Care of Magical Creatures students raise it.”
“No! It’s my fault he’s a orphan now,” Marissa replied, “so I have to be who helps him.”
“Are you sure, Marissa?” the professor asked. “You don’t know how to feed a baby bird.”
“I’ll learn,” she said determinedly. “Maybe Tiquinho can teach me.”
“Bring it and follow Tatiane back then. I’ll carry Asuoby.”
“I should take Asuoby,” Marissa said more quietly, “’cuz he only likes me to hold him.” She handed the baby to Merrythought, who wrapped in in Marissa’s robe she had found.
They returned to the rainforest path and shortly reached the staircase of Witness Stone. Tesimal had flown ahead with a message for Professor Katupya, who met them there. The two professors talked privately for a few moments before Professor Katupya came over to stand above Marissa. She could not see any anger in his stern face, but thought he would sanctions her for letting Asuoby die. That was the punishment she deserved.
“You know Asuoby was very, very old,” Professor Katupya stated.
“Yes,” Marissa replied. “I’m… I’m sorry I made him…”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he interrupted. “You did a good thing for Asuoby.
You helped him fly free with his own kind one last time. That is what he wished to do, and I believe he was happier to pass away in the rainforest than within a stone building.”
Professor Merrythought smiled and nodded her head in agreement with Professor Katupya. Seeing that no one blamed her for Asuoby’s death, Marissa put away her hidden feeling.
At dinner in the Great Hall she found Tiquinho, who agreed to show her how to feed and care for the baby bird. She told Tiquinho and Potira how Asuoby had flown away and died. That made Potira sad and she offered to come with Marissa to his burial the next day.
“He’s about four weeks old,” Tiquinho decided as he held the small macaw in his hands and inspected its soft bluish-white down. “See, he has little pin feathers just growing.”
“You name he?” Potira asked Marissa.
“Um… not yet,” she replied.
“In Tupi, Asuoby ‘big blue’,” Potira said. “I say he Mirioby, ‘little blue’.”
“Mirioby,” Marissa repeated.
“That’s a good name,” Tiquinho agreed.
“No silly like ‘Flap-Flap’,” Potira giggled at Tiquinho.
“Mirioby,” Marissa confirmed. “That’s your name now,” she told the baby bird as she took him back and wrapped him in her robe. He chirped loudly and bobbed his head.
“Let’s go find him something to eat,” Tiquinho said. “He’s hungry!”
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Marissa woke early the next morning from a strange dream of being curled up in a nest. As Tiquinho had said, little Mirioby was hungry again. She slowly fed him the warm baby bird formula through a hollow reed until he was full. When he fell back asleep, she tucked him into her pink backpack, which she had found would be perfect to carry him in.
After breakfast, a small group followed Professor Katupya past the Herbology greenhouse. Above the farming terraces on the hills, ancient tombs were carved into the granite ridge. Each of the hundred or more caves was sealed by a stone carved with a person’s image, and Marissa was directed to lay Asuoby by the figure of his late master, Professor Amaral.
Professor Katupya wore the feathered robe she had first seen at the Welcoming Banquet, the one she had thought that he killed so many birds to make. But at the village she had learned from Gran Arating that single feathers found in the forest were collected for many, many years to create the beautiful capes, and that the wizarding tribes never killed birds. The most amazing robe of all belonged to the old chief Ubirajara. It had gleaming white feathers taller than her, from a bird that was extinct. No more like it were alive anymore.
“What is he saying now?” Marissa asked quietly as Professor Katupya spoke in the native language while she, Tiquinho, and Potira watched with their Transfiguration professor. Professors Galaxia and Domador, friends of Asuoby’s late master, stood with them also.
“He asked Asuoby’s spirit if he will give a few feathers to be used in a Cape of the Skies,”
Professor Merrythought replied. “Now he must wait for a sign Asuoby agrees.”
“Um… he says yes,” Marissa plainly told Katupya. His stern face revealed a slight smile. The Potions master was still very strict, but maybe not as mean as she had once believed. After some tailfeathers were saved, Katupya waved his wand and Asuoby’s body vanished into the tomb as his image appeared in stone, perched upon the figure of Professor Amaral. Marissa smiled. Now Asuoby was safe with someone who cared for him.
As they returned, she overheard Galaxia and Katupya talking about Constanca Estrelafala, who had fainted again in Divination class.
“It’s unclear, Ubiritan. One cannot tell if her vision is of a decade from now, or a century.”
“Yet it seems to foresee a further decline,” Professor Katupya replied.
“Yes,” Professor Galaxia agreed in a serious tone, “it foresees something that terrified her.”
Marissa and her friends parted from the professors when they reached the ancient pyramid. Potira held Tiquinho’s hand as they walked, and held the ever-napping Ker about her waist. Flap-Flap was away delivering letters, as Tiquinho had explained not only owls could do.
“Are you coming swimming?” he asked as Marissa checked on the baby macaw nestled in her backpack. The three swallows were upset that she wouldn’t let them into the pack too.
“No swim!” Potira told him firmly. “We see Quidditch.”
“Ugh,” Tiquinho responded, which was Marissa’s thought, too. The brawny Anaconda players flew about the practice field on weekends like they owned that part of the plaza. And watching everyone fly on brooms only reminded her that she still wasn’t able to.
“No Conda, Woolly,” Potira explained. “Sakura and Anna try reserves.”
Sakura had apologized at breakfast that the two must miss Asuoby’s burial because she needed to take Anna somewhere for Woolly House. Maybe that was what this was.
“What’s reserves?” Marissa asked.
“It’s where you join the Quidditch team and maybe get to play in four or five years.”
“Come see,” Potira coaxed Marissa. “Anna much good on broom.”
Tiquinho reluctantly agreed, and they walked to the clearing at the base of the Astronomy tower where a dozen Woolly first-years and second-years practiced sprint flights across the open field. The three of them sat on the steps and watched as Baltazar Varnhagen and the team captain assessed the would-be Quidditch players.
“Okay! Now you six with me for Quaffle passing, and you six with Baltazar over here,” commanded the captain. Marissa knew his name was Valentim Magalhães, because Sakura had told her before when explaining how everyone really just called him Monkey. With his fuzzy brown hair and gangly long arms, he simply looked like one.
Sakura and Anna followed the group with Baltazar. Anna was her normal quiet, shy self, while Marissa could see Sakura continuing to prompt and encourage her to take part. Baltazar had each first year do something to demonstrate their control skill, and when it was Anna’s turn she stepped up onto a broomstick handle as it hovered inches above the ground. Using the wood as a balance beam, she positioned her feet as the broom rose higher. She jumped up, did a full twist, and landed back on the stick, soft as a feather.
“Anna father Libertade, but mother born Japan,” Potira said. “Broom 'gym-nas-tics' much old art. Mother teach Anna start four years old.”
“Not bad,” Baltazar said. “What can you do when you’re moving?”
“Show him, Anna. Show him,” Sakura urged. “I know your father would want you to.” Anna’s face rose to meet Sakura’s, and a look of determination came to her eyes.
Anna started slowly flying forward. Marissa and the others watched in amazement as she performed graceful handstands, layouts, and walkovers as the broom flew to the other end of the field. Monkey Magalhães and the other first-years had all turned to look, too. Just as Potira had said, Anna was very good.
She turned her broom to come back. As it gained speed, Anna turned to face the rear of the broom and squatted down. At just the right moment she leaped up, her body arching back. Circling above her broom as is moved forward, she completed her backflip with a perfect balanced landing upon the handle, then glided to a halt above Monkey.
“Wow!” the captain said in awe. “I don't know how we would use that in a Quidditch game, but you're in.”
By the end of the practice, both Anna and Sakura had been added to the reserve squad. While Anna quietly smiled, Sakura rushed over to the steps and jumped up and down with Potira to celebrate their acceptance. Marissa was glad she had come to watch. She was too strong to let herself act silly like Sakura, but it was nice to see her so happy.
“Oh, he’s so adorable,” Sakura said as she and Anna held little Mirioby while they all walked back to the school. “We should let him meet Anna’s owl so they’ll be friends.”
“I bet Rosaria will be on the Anaconda team,” Marissa remarked. “She flys good, too.”
“Condas only have boys play Quidditch,” Tiquinho responded. “The other Houses take boys or girls with good skills, but Condas think strength and force mean everything.”
“Monkey says they’re all brawn and no brain,” said Sakura. “The ‘team of density’.”
“What’s density?” Marissa asked as Tiquinho laughed.
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“Huh!” Marissa awoke suddenly in darkness and felt herself tumble down to the mattress. She shook from her head the funny feeling that she had fallen from a very high tree.
“MyRissa fall asleep on floor,” whispered a small figure. “Dozza put her back in soft bed.”
“Oh,” she yawned as Mirioby was carefully laid down beside her. “Thank you, Dozza.”
She had shut her eyes a moment as she sat by the window with the swallows at bedtime, but now Marissa found it was the very late hour when the little one came to clean.
“What’s that?” she asked. A very large ceramic jar sat atop her freshly washed uniforms.
“MyRissa’s baby bigbeak will be hungry in morning, so Dozza brings mushy food.”
Marissa did not understand how Dozza had known she had used up the small amount of formula from Tiquinho, but she was glad the house-elf had brought more. A lot more.
“When baby learns to fly, Dozza will brings crunchy palm nuts like old Asuoby loves.”
“Um… Dozza,” she paused, reluctant to tell the little one, “Asuoby died.”
“Dozza knows,” she replied. “Dozza is sad for that, but happy baby bird has MyRissa.”
Hours later at breakfast, one brightly colored form contrasted sharply with the earth tone shades of the many owls gliding down to deliver mail. The scarlet macaw Flap-Flap dropped a small envelope at a Jaguar table, then fluttered over to bring one to Marissa. She smiled as she looked across the hall to Potira, who nodded to confirm it was what they had been waiting for.
Marissa gathered her backpack and book bag to leave before the others finished eating. Professor Merrythought had said she could keep Mirioby in her classroom so she could feed him at lunchtimes without rushing back to Macaw House. She had to drop him off there before Charms, but also had one other thing she needed to do. Or try to do.
“I think I might not need you today, Leandro,” she told the little red-eyed tree frog as she tucked him in her robe pocket. Marissa chose the fourth doorway and began following the narrow, tunnellike hallway that led to different places on different days. Today, she soon confirmed, it led to the chamber outside Transfiguration.
“I did it!” she called as the stone wall slid open. “I found my way without a guide frog.”
“Excellent, Marissa!” Professor Merrythought commended. “How did you figure it out?”
“Eleven,” Marissa replied. “There’s eleven different ways, then it all starts over again.” She had watched the hallmaze for weeks to see how it worked. Once she considered the days she didn’t have class as part of the order, the pattern had all made sense.
“Marissa, I have third-years who still can't find classes themselves. You should be proud.”
She beamed with satisfaction as she set the backpack holding Mirioby down on the desk. Maybe she couldn’t do spells yet, but she could still show the professor she was smart.
“And look what I got from Gran Arating!” She unfolded the envelope that Flap-Flap had delivered, addressed not ‘Marissa’, but ‘Wildflower’. The tiny, shining object within was the carved macaw she had first received in Mercado Tracado, changed to a silver charm like the dozens that sparkled in Professor Merrythought’s braided hair.
“Your reward for discovering the family tree,” Merrythought smiled. She took the charm and pinned it at the center of Marissa’s hair ribbon. “I think it will look nice here.”
“Yes,” Marissa said. “Thank you.” She had never had jewelry to wear.
They moved little Mirioby behind the tall bookcase where the empty bronze perch stood. Seeing the tall post and hoop, Marissa’s mood changed.
“It doesn’t feel right that Asuoby's not here anymore,” she said quietly.
“No, it doesn’t,” Merrythought sympathized.
“Maybe Mirioby can say all the spells one day. He can learn them with me.”
“I think that’s a perfect idea,” her professor agreed. “Now, hurry off to Charms class, and don’t teach anyone else the hallmaze. They all need to learn it by themselves.”
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She laid the vibrant blue plume of a hyacinth macaw upon her desk. It seemed strange that her first lesson after Asuoby’s death would be with his feather she had won her first day.
“Now, remember the proper movement,” Professor Galhos instructed. “Swish and flick.”
“Wingardium Leviosa,” Marissa pronounced carefully as she moved her wand. “Wingar…”
“Wingardium hocus pocus,” came a distracting taunt from an Anaconda boy two rows over. Purposely, she made no response, but tried to think only of making the blue feather float. She was sure a magic with bird things would be one she was able to do.
“Wingardium Leviosa. Wingardium Leviosa,” she told her wand again, and heard the spell being echoed like a chant by all the other voices around the room. Her feather didn’t move. No one else seemed to be having any success either, except one student.
“Splendid, Miss Bella de Barros,” Professor Galhos exclaimed, as Celestia confidently charmed not one, not two, but three feathers high into the air. But they were much smaller than the long blue tailfeather, and Marissa wondered if she should try a lighter one first.
Only three other first-years floated their feathers by the end of class. Professor Galhos directed everyone to practice that night so they could work on the spell again tomorrow. Marissa chased a leaping tree frog to Potions with Jaci and Mario, not telling yet that she really didn’t need a guide anymore.
Marissa enjoyed Potions class. Not only was it the only place she could freely talk with Rosaria Castilhos, but it was also one of the classes, like History of Magic, Herbology, and Astronomy, where she could prove she was smart just by learning all that she could. There were no spells to show that everyone else could do magic while she still couldn’t. And the Anacondas could hardly tease her here, because, together with Rosaria and Eva, she was in the best potion brewing group in class. Professor Katupya had even directed other first-years to watch her and Rosaria prepare their ingredients, so they could learn the difference between dicing and ‘hacking’.
“See, that doesn’t scare you,” Marissa stated to Rosaria before class.
“Well, it does a little, but…”
Rosaria, who was a very good artist, had been showing them the beautifully sketched plants in her Herbology book, when Eva pointed out that she had drawn a ladybug on a leaf, and that was an insect! After explaining that she had only drawn it because it was there, and that she hadn’t screamed because ladybugs are pretty, Rosaria had followed Marissa’s request to draw an ant. Then, hesitantly and shaking, she was coaxed into drawing a very simple spider (which she refused to give the detail of her other sketches).
“Now scribble it out,” Marissa directed, and Rosaria happily scrawled her quill over the spider drawing until it was gone. “See, it can't hurt you. You’re stronger than a spider.”
“And you’re not scared of real bugs if they’re far away,” Eva Paranhos stated.
“Yes I am!” Rosaria disagreed. It was true that she shuddered even just looking at the shelves of live potion ingredients across the room, but the girls were trying to convince Rosaria that she was braver than she thought.
“Shhh!” Eva warned as Professor Katupya began his lecture. It wasn’t until half an hour later, when he had finished, that it was safe to talk again.
“Marissa, do you think I’m fat?” Rosaria asked uneasily.
“Huh?” she replied to the funny question.
“Celestia says I need to go on a diet,” Rosaria said, “because a proper Anaconda girl should be slender to get the best husband.”
“You’re not fat!” Eva broke in. “Celestia is an idiot.”
“But, I’m… plumper than other girls.”
“That’s what makes you the perfect Rosaria shape,” Marissa declared. “That’s what I like.”
Rosaria smiled at her words.
“Besides, why would we want someone shaped like Celly Belly de Barros sitting with us?” Eva said to her. “That’s scarier than a hundred squermites loose on the table!”
The girls giggled so loudly that Professor Katupya had to quiet them with a stern glare.
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In History of Magic, Professor Esquecido, dressed with strange long fingers and a silly pointed beard, asked for volunteers to play bodies in the Goblin Rebellion reenactment that the fifth-years would perform in April. Jaci and Mario enthusiastically agreed to be covered in blood, then they all listened to a long lecture on wizards of ancient Thebes.
In Transfigurations, Marissa checked that Mirioby was still asleep before taking her seat. Professor Merrythought let her practice the teacup spell with all the others, even though she was supposed to perform the match into a needle transfiguration before advancing. The professor did that to lessen the Anaconda taunts, but they would only tease her later. Marissa knew how to hide any sign that mean words affected her, but wished she didn’t have to be always guarding herself against them.
After class she showed Professor Merrythought how she had learned to hand feed Mirioby, then tucked him back in her backpack before going outside to play with the swallows for a while so they wouldn’t feel ignored. The professor let Tesimal come out to fly with them.
“Um… do you have real money I could trade wizardings money for?” Marissa asked her professor, and showed her the the two silver Sickles she had been saving.
“I believe I may,” Merrythought replied. “Where did you get those?”
“Professor Katupya made Cristiano give me one…”
“Oh, yes. I heard about that,” she smiled.
“…and a Conda boy paid me one to push his wheelbarrow on the field trip.”
“Why do you want Muggle money instead?”
“To send to the boys with my letter to Mr. Palito. People give lots of change at Carnival, but after that it’s harder to beg or find food.”
Marissa thought each wizarding coin was worth a quarter, or maybe two quarters, but the professor took the coins from her and from a small purse handed Marissa a five Reais bill.
“That’s too much,” Marissa said.
“What?” said Professor Merrythought, pretending to take offense. “Now you know more about Galleon exchange rates than your teacher?”
“Um… no,” she smiled as they walked back inside.
“Tell Sports Club da Luz I send my regards,” the professor smiled in return.
“That means you say hello. I will.”
In Herbology, Professor Parreira taught them about magical plants that grew in marshes, then directly after, in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Guerra taught the hex to repel marsh-dwelling Dugbogs. When the creature bit Marissa’s ankle as she stood in the practice marsh, she simply kicked the sharp-toothed branch away and out of the water. Professor Guerra praised her quick reaction, but said she should practice magic, not soccer.
In Astronomy class they learned about orbits, and how the alignment of the planets could predict important events. That of course made Cristiano talk all about the ‘team of destiny’. Professor Galaxia instructed that Quidditch was “not the axis of all things in the universe.”
-------------------------------------------------------------
“Wingardium Leviosa.”
Marissa sat alone by the glass near the swallow’s nest and continued to practice her spells, using some smaller feathers she had found at the Owlery Tree when she sent off her letter. Mirioby was fed and sleeping, and the other girls had all gone to the common room.
She had begun with Charms, and then the Transfiguration spell, and then the Defense hex. None of them had done anything, so she started again with the floating a feather charm. She had even tried dropping a feather from over her head and charming it as it drifted to the floor, thinking maybe that would give her a head start. That didn’t work either.
“Wingardium Leviosa,” she persisted. “Wingardium Leviosa. Wingardium Levi… ooh!” Frustrated, she shook the wand vigorously, then tried once again. It made no difference. With a dejected sigh, she let it fall from her hand and roll across the floor.
She looked at the black varnished wand, the one all the Anacondas teased her about, as it stopped at the glass. Maybe it really wasn’t as good as other wands. Was there something wrong with it, or something wrong with her?
A fluttering outside the window caught her eye, and Marissa saw a winged figure land.
“I don’t think the swallows want to come out and play, Tesimal,” she told the little owl. Fides, Spero, and Amor wouldn’t fly at night, but the professor said owls were nocturnal. Last week he had landed on her shoulder at midnight as the first-years went to Astronomy. Tesimal hoo-hooed at the swallows once, then glided silently away.
Marissa picked up her wand, saw the little stamped word MageMart©, and wondered what that was. She put the discouraging stick away and began reading her Potions chapter.
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"Real witches ride brooms, girl! Are you Muggle-born, or just plain Muggle?"
Mr. Cavaleiros bellowed the words loudly. Marissa had weeks ago given up the idea that she could ever learn broom flying from the mean, pot-bellied Anaconda coach who thought embarrassing kids made them learn. She wished he and the teasing boys would just leave her alone to practice.
Cavaleiros had begun class by congratulating Cristiano and Fer, who had officially joined the Anaconda Quidditch reserves. Both wore the snake green cap of new team members. Jaci and Mario were both disappointed that they had not made the Macaw House reserves, but had been told they could try out again next year.
“Hah!” Cristiano Ferreira sat upon his broom and jeered. “We’ll win the World Cup before you two ever make a Quidditch team.”
“Maybe you should start an Exploding Snaps team with the girls,” Fer Ribeiro added.
“Shut up, jerks! It’s not like you…”
FWOMP! An errant broom rider skidded sidelong into Cristiano and Fer, knocking them ten yards across the sky.
“Oh, sorry,” Rosaria apologized as she clumsily regained control of her broom.
“Castilhos!” Mr. Cavaleiros yelled. “How does your steering get worse every week?”
“I’m just a girl,” she shrugged and floated off. Marissa didn’t think her steering was worse. Rosaria had expertly taken out not one, but both of the taunting Anaconda boys with a single pass.
From another unfulfilling Brooms class, Marissa moved to unsuccessful spells in Defense.
“Ow!” she had cried out once, before deciding she would not show Dugbog bites hurt her. She wasn’t allowed to kick them away, but she just couldn’t make the hex work at all.
“Well?” said Professor Guerra as he stood by the marsh waiting for some result.
“I think my wand doesn’t work,” Marissa said as the creatures nipped at her legs.
Guerra took the wand from her. “Aguamenti,” he called, and water sprayed from its tip, splashing around her as he pulled her from the practice marsh.
“This is a perfectly acceptable wand. A number of other needy students use these also. If it chose you, then…”
“But, I don’t think it…”
Guerra glared at her fiercely. Interrupting him was not allowed.
“Back to the end of the line. You may try again after the others have their turns.”
Rosaria screamed at the Dugbogs, but then performed the spell to chase them away. Hexes must be easier than Charms, because half of the first-years did it on the first try. But Marissa only had a second and then third turn of silently letting her ankles be eaten.
Astronomy was a welcome relief from her disappointing spell performance.
“Excellent, Marissa,” stated Professor Galaxia. Marissa had just correctly recited the orbit times of all nine planets.
“How does a stupid gutter girl know all that?” Cristiano muttered.
“Mr. Ferreira, to the hall. You were warned.”
Cristiano slumped from the room as Galaxia asked if anyone else would like to join him. When class ended, Marissa was the first to pass him as she rushed off to collect Mirioby.
“Hey! She’s not even using a guide frog!” she heard as she ran down the hall.
Back in the bedroom, she took care of Mirioby before she had to return to the Great Hall. It happened again as Marissa fed the hungry macaw his formula through the hollow reed. That morning she had shaken the image from her head, but now she closed her eyes and let it come over her. She could still see, but she wasn’t looking down upon the baby bird. She was looking up at her own face from where Mirioby lay in her arm.
The image faded instantly when she heard the other girls talking as they entered the room. Marissa puzzled over what had just happened. She’d had funny dreams of Mirioby before, but now she was awake. Had she really just seen herself from the baby bird’s eyes?
“It better not be pooping all over our room!” Serafina said as the girls changed for dinner.
“Oh, stop it, Serafina,” said Eva Paranhos. “Alika said he could stay here.”
“And he’s cute,” Leila added. “Jaci said we should make him our class mascot.”
“I think you want to make Jaci your mascot,” Serafina replied.
“Well, maybe Celestia will give you Cristiano. She likes older boys.”
“She doesn’t own him.”
“Acts like she does. She even bosses him how to tease Marissa.”
“Be quiet and change,” Eva told the two. “Alika is tired of us always being ready last.”
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As the week continued, Marissa fell into a routine of feeding Mirioby at dawn, at lunch hour, and before her own dinner in the Great Hall. She was troubled that classes also fell into a routine. In Charms, Ttransfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts, while other children mastered spells and moved on to new ones, Marissa continued to practice doggedly but could perform no magic. No feather would move, no match would change, no Dugbog would flee.
She began watching intently as other performed their spells, to see what they did different. What were they doing right that she was doing wrong? What had they learned that she hadn’t? She was sure she was as smart as any of them, but that didn’t seem to matter. It was even more frustrating that something so difficult for her took almost no effort at all for a few others. Professor Merrythought said Celestia Bella de Barros was so good at every magic because she had matured earlier and was naturally gifted. Marissa wondered if maybe she was just not tall enough yet to be a witch, or if maybe she was not gifted at all. The professor had promised her again that her magic would come in time, but that didn’t help her now.
In Mr. Cavaleiros’ class, she fought a growing certainty that she may just be doomed to watching others fly while she polished broom handles forever. But she always fed Mirioby just before Brooms, so at least came to class feeling she had accomplished something.
The first day of April would be the first Quidditch game of the year, and throughout the school the excitement was building for the match between the Anacondas and Jaguars. At every meal the Great Hall was continuously filled with chants of ‘Conda! Conda!’ and ‘Team of destiny’. The confidence of the Anaconda Quidditch team was overwhelming. The Jaguars supported their team also, but Marissa thought they had shown more spirit for the bat guano contest.
Marissa was glad when her last class ended on Friday and she had reached the weekend, so she could spend time with the friends she only met for short whiles during the week. She also wanted to visit Mr. Argiletum to find a book about what she needed to know.
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The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall mirrored the dreary weather outside Witness Stone. The rain clouds that usually cleared by late afternoon continued to drizzle into Friday night.
“I was hoping she had achieved some results in Charms or Defense,” Grace Merrythought remarked to the others at the professors table.
“No,” Professor Galhos replied. “Her wand movement and enunciation seem correct, but she hasn’t shown any success with basic charms.”
“Though she has courage to face a Boggart,” added Guerra, “I see no signs of magic yet.”
“And she hides it, sir,” Merrythought stated to Professor Katupya, “but Marissa is very disappointed that she cannot fly a broom yet.”
“She is doing very well in Astronomy and Potions,” Katupya found positive words to say.
“That proves little, Ubiritan,” the Defense professor replied. “Your tribes teach even Squibs to prepare potion ingredients.”
“It is not our custom to expel them from our society, as wizards of European descent do.”
“Claudio Cabral will adjust to the Muggle world. It’s the best thing for him.”
“It’s heartless, is what it is!” Professor Galhos responded to Guerras’s statement. “What will become of all these others? Will the city families banish them year by year, then act as if their own children never existed?”
“Let us focus on Marissa for now,” said Katupya, turning the discussion back to its subject.
“Maybe it is her small size, Ubiritan. Except for the Quill’s record, no one would believe she is eleven. Maybe her body is not mature enough yet to begin displaying magic.”
“That may be true, Varinha,” he replied to the Charms professor. “Certainly she has been undernourished by years of growing up in the Muggle slums.”
“I don’t think that’s it, sir,” Merrythought said. “Something else is holding her back, but I can't tell what. And she resists extra tutoring because she thinks it is weak to need help.”
“I say let her struggle through it herself,” Professor Guerra declared. “She is not the only first-year slow in developing her skills. Look at the Libertade girl.”
“That is not the same, Tarcisio,” Galhos said. “Anna experienced a traumatic event.”
“Maybe Marissa has, too! We have no idea what horrors happened to her in Sao Paulo.”
“Merrythought,” Tarcisio Guerra said abruptly, “she is stronger than you think! If she is brave enough to throw the Ferreira boy to the ground, she is brave enough to stand some failures before success. Don’t feel that because you brought her here, you need to coddle the girl. That is not what she needs. If she desires to prove herself, somehow she will!”
Grace Merrythought was silenced a moment by his harsh words.
“I believe that, for now,” Professor Katupya announced to them, “I agree with Tarcisio.” “Let us allow Marissa some time to discover her magic, before we try to find it for her.”
“I am sorry for my bluntness, Grace,” Guerra said to the younger professor, “but I do know a fighter when I see one. I knew you.”
She smiled to show she accepted his apology. “I suppose you may be right.”
“Arturo!” Professor Katupya exclaimed as a burst of flame subsided and Principal Absencia stepped from the Floo to his wide chair. “So unlike you to be late for dinner.”
“Ubiritan, they’ve called me to appear before the Congress of Magic! Not at a pleasant Congressional dinner party, mind you, but before Congress. They’re all concerned about these three Squibs and want Quills explained.”
Katupya simply nodded acknowledgement.
“Not Quill, Ubiritan, Quills. How many of the silly things are there?”
“Six,” Professor Katupya stated.
“So each of South America’s wizarding schools has one.”
“No. There are six in the world,” Katupya clarified. “Many mistakenly believe our Quill shows only Witness Stone children, but in truth it records all magical births in the entire continent. We forward the area records to other South American schools each year.”
“Review these Quills with me,” an agitated Absencia said. “I’m going to be questioned.”
“The Quill is an artifact that has resided at Witness Stone since the tribe’s earliest times. Wizarding societies learned from each other that on each continent there is a sole Quill, passed down through ages of scholars to find its way to the largest wizarding school. Through ancient enchantments, these six Quills sense and record all magical births, within our wizarding world and in the Muggle world.”
“And all this furor is because these Quills wrote down less Muggle-borns last year?”
“They have recorded fewer Muggle-born and fewer wizard-born in ten successive years.”
“I hardly see it as cause for panic that some young couples choose to have less children.”
“They are having as many children, Arturo. They are simply not having magic children. Our Department of Records reported one hundred and thirty-one births last year. The Quill only recorded seventy-five names for Witness Stone. What must the others be?”
“Why, Squibs, I suppose. But…” his mind figured the number, “that can't be possible!”
“Claudio Cabral was the first to receive no acceptance letter. There will be many more. Every Quill on every continent shows magical births declining year by year. We fear that a year may come when they write no names at all.”
“Why, the wizarding world would cease to exist! What are we to do?”
“Find the cause,” Ubiritan Katupya said soberly.
Principal Absencia took a deep breath, seeming to finally realize the scope of the matter. “So all this talk of a full meeting of the International Confederation is not a mere rumor.”
“It may be the most important meeting wizards ever convene.”
Absencia chose to ruminate upon these concerns while partaking in an extended dinner. The professors had departed the hall by the time he began the first of his three desserts.
“Principal Absencia,” Cecelia Bella de Barros said sweetly as she stepped up to his table.
“Yes, my dear?” the large, rotund wizard replied between bites.
“Sir, I just wanted to ask if you could please order the school little ones to stay out of Anaconda House.”
“Stay out?” Absencia questioned. “Why is that?”
“They keep interfering with our redecorating. And they tell Professor Guerra everything. The girls so want to keep our plans a surprise, then show the professors when we’re done.”
“Who would do the housework? Surely, proper girls can't be expected to…”
“Of course not, sir” Celestia firmly agreed. “Father can send our personal house-elves from home. They’re so much more obedient. Oh, could you please help Anaconda, sir?”
“Yes, yes, my dear,” Absencia conceded to the beautiful blonde’s pleading smile. “I’ll visit the little ones kitchen myself and order them out.”
Cecelia leaned over and kissed his plump cheek before gliding away in her lovely dress. She gave a disdainful glance to two young girls she passed as she left the Great Hall.
“Are the Condas still teasing you about spells?” Sakura asked Marissa as they waited on the stairs for Anna and Potira to return from the restroom.
“They can't hurt me,” she answered. In fact, they had taunted her even more this week. As new members of the Quidditch team, Cristiano Ferreira and Fer Ribeiro felt it was now their job to prove how bold and mean they could be. Their favorite new trick was running off with her pink hair ribbon, then dropping it somewhere down the hallways. They teased that she had stolen her silver charm, or was too poor to afford real jewelry. That was added to Celestia’s new rumor that Marissa wasn’t really a witch at all.
“You can practice with Anna and I sometimes, if you want,” the Japanese girl offered.
“I don’t need help,” Marissa replied curtly. “I’ll just do it myself till my spells work.” She didn’t want the other girls to watch her failing and think she was weak.
“Anna has trouble with her spells, too,” Sakura stated.
“She does?”
“Yes. You know, because she doesn’t talk.”
“Oh,” Marissa responded. After a moment she asked, “Sakura, why doesn’t Anna talk?”
“Something really bad happened. She used to talk lots. Like a chatterbox, her mom said. Sometimes her dad would shout ‘Be quiet, Anna! I’m working.’ when we talked too loud. I think, maybe… it was the last thing he said to her.”
“If it hurt her feelings,” Marissa said, “he should tell Anna he’s sorry.”
“He can’t now. He died.”
Sakura said nothing more. Maybe it was something Anna didn’t want people to know.
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“You can come in if you like,” Araci Uirapuru said as Marissa sat outside of Jaguar House.
“Um… okay,” Marissa replied. She hadn’t known if she was allowed in other Houses, but Araci was very welcoming, just as all the natives had been when she visited the village.
Marissa had wanted to see if the morning fog that lay upon the forest covered the plaza too, so she had decided to surprise Tiquinho and Potira by meeting them here before breakfast. Witness Stone has risen like a grey giant above the eerie mists, and from the stairway near the stone wizards all she had seen were the tops of buildings and stelae circled in white.
She passed through a long hall lined with figures displaying the fanciful native costumes. The Jaguar common room was like Macaw’s its in size, but walled by stone and not glass, and instead of circling an immense tree trunk, this room centered around giant stone pillars. After a short wait, she saw her friends come down a stairway, with Potira of course holding Tiquinho’s hand. Flap-Flap quickly flew to Marissa’s shoulder, which made Potira frown because he would never sit on hers.
After joining Sakura and Anna for breakfast, they played cards until the day warmed up. Later they had races across the lily pond. Marissa could beat everyone and tie Tiquinho, but only Anna, with Sakura’s urging, could cartwheel across all of the lily pads and back.
At lunch they all took turns feeding Mirioby, then watched the Jaguar Quidditch team.
“This is their first practice?” Sakura asked in disbelief as the players chose positions.
“They haven’t had time with Duelling practice, too,” Tiquinho replied.
“Well, gee, their first Quidditch match is next week! What’s more important?”
“Duelling,” Tiquinho stated quite absolutely. That was clearly not Sakura’s thought, but he insisted on showing them how Expelliarmus was far more useful than a Beater’s bat. Marissa agreed to let him disarm her with the spell he had mastered, even though she thought there was hardly a reason to if she couldn’t make her wand do anything anyway.
By the end of their active day, she found she would have to go to the library on Sunday.
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“Mr. Argiletum,” Marissa asked the librarian as she returned 'Birds of the Amazon’, which she had checked out a second time, “are there magic birds?”
“Yes. The Phoenix, the Augurey, and of course the Golden Snidget, to name just a few.” She had seen the tiny golden birds, because Tiquinho’s village was inside their sanctuary. The swallows had found a pair of the rare, lightning fast flyers to play with during her visit. But none of the birds Mr. Argiletum had named were what she was really looking for.
“Are there magic macaws?”
“No. Macaws are a common bird. They can be taught to deliver mail, and even Muggles can train one to talk, but that is the extent of a macaw’s abilities.”
“Oh,” she accepted. “Um… is there magic that makes you see what someone else sees?”
“My, you are inquisitive today,” Mr. Argiletum declared. “Is all this to find a new book?”
“Yes,” Marissa confirmed.
“There is a magic called Legilimency that allows one to see the thoughts and memories of another,” the librarian explained. “Now, why are you curious about such a difficult spell?”
“I had a dream about Mirioby,” she told him. Mr. Argiletum had allowed her to bring the baby macaw inside the library if he stayed in her packpack.
“Children sometimes dream of pets,” he smiled. “What has that to do with Legilimency?”
“I had a dream I saw by his eyes. Then when I was awake… I think he Legillancied me.”
Argiletum tossed back his head and laughed loudly. Marissa didn’t let her face show that she was displeased by his response, but she did not see what was so funny.
“First of all, child,” he said when he had finished laughing, “birds do not perform spells. Perhaps you had a vivid thought that seemed real, but it was only your imagination.”
“But, I saw me looking at him and…”
“Wizards can perform Legilimency only on other Beings. The mind of a bird is different. There are spells, curses which you should never use, that could control a bird’s motions, but Legilimency cannot see the thoughts and memories of animals.”
Maybe Mr. Argiletum was right. Maybe it wasn’t real, but just something she imagined.
“Legilimency is magic for seventh-years, and only the most well-studied of those. Why don’t we find something easier for you to read? Perhaps a book on Amazon mammals.”
“Okay,” she agreed. “Do you have a book about the pigs with writing?”
“Ah, the hierotapirs,” Argiletum replied. “A mystery I have studied myself for years.” He pointed his wand to one of the immense library trees, and a book floated down to her.
“The symbol writing growing within the fur of the hierotapirs has never been deciphered. Some believe the writing tells the locations of the lost cities, but the tribes tell us it holds a message in a forgotten language of wizarding kings from ages before Jaguating. Hierotapir herds are a puzzle whose missing pieces roam somewhere in Amazonia.”
“I like to learn puzzles,” Marissa declared, and soon left for Macaw House with the book about the animals with secret writing.
The last week of March passed the same as those before. Though others did spells wrong, Marissa was the only first-year who could not do spells at all. As she became even more desperate to make her wand work, the excitement of her first weeks was slowly overcome by clouds of doubt. What if her professor was wrong? What if she just couldn't do magic?
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Marissa followed the cheering crowds that left from the Great Hall on Saturday afternoon. The line of children flowed out of the school and across the plaza, through the ancient gate, into the rainforest and onto Chaser’s Courtyard, where an ocean of people met them.
The twenty vine-laced stone Floos that surrounded the stone-paved clearing whooshed with flames again and again as excited spectators arrived for the season’s first Quidditch game. Loud annoucements echoed above the din, and Marissa recognized some names called out. Sakura and Anna were to meet their parents at Floo twelve, and Jaci his grandfather at Floo seven. Marissa felt awkward and out of place among all the emotional hugs and greetings of the families gathering. Slowly, she pushed her way alone through the flowing crowds.
Marissa was eager to watch her first real game and learn just how Quidditch was played. She expected to see a large clearing ahead, but instead the rainforest grew dark and denser. She followed a pathway marked by a Macaw House symbol, and her eyes widened as she arrived beneath a pair of towering lupuna trees where hundreds of people were ascending to an elaborate tiered seating structure that stretched between the gigantic trunks far above. Scores of moving platforms along an array of vine cables brought passengers up one tree and dropped them off along the seats before lowering back down the opposite tree like a circling Carnival ferris wheel. Marissa waited her turn to board.
“Are you lost, little girl?” questioned a grey-haired man who saw her standing alone.
“No. I’m…”
“Grandpa, this is Marissa!” said Jaci Erasmi appearing beside him.
“This little sprite is the one the Boggart couldn’t scare?” the old man asked with surprise. “Well, I am impressed!”
Jaci’s grandfather invited her to join them, and they boarded a quickly ascending platform. As she rose to the seating area, Marissa felt like a bird who had flown up to the highest tree to view all the surrounding forest, and soon saw why she had discovered no clearing below. The Quidditch field of Witness Stone lay not on the rainforest floor, but here on its roof! Set within the billowy foliage of treetops, fifty feet above the ground, was a magically smoothed playing surface not of grass, but of deep green leaves. High above its sidelines loomed more pairs of crowd-filled lupunas, and at each end of the field rose three golden posts with hoops.
“The goals look like Asuoby’s perch!” Marissa said.
“Welcome students and staff, welcome family and friends,” annouced Principal Absencia from his center seat in the Anaconda stands, “to our first Quidditch match of the year!” As the teams met at the middle of the field, he went on to announce the Anaonda players. Their fans erupted in cheers as Sol Braganza, Stenio Cabral, and five others were named. The Jaguar players, four boys and three girls, were introduced to less frenzied applause.
“Their only chance is if Uirapuru can catch the Snitch quickly,” said Jaci’s grandfather. “These brawny Conda boys outsize them by half, and will push them all over the sky.”
The teams rose from the field and the game began as the bright red Quaffle was released. Jaci Juruna captured it first, but lost it immediately as Stenio Cabral slammed into him to knock it away. Another Anaconda Chaser recovered it and passed it to a third. The hefty Condas raced away, knocking aside the lighter Jaguar defenders to easily reach the goals.
“Ten points Anaconda!” called an announcer, and the Anaconda stands roared in support.
The pace of the game was rapid, with the Quaffle most always in control of the Condas, who with brute force could simply jar it away from the two girl Chasers of Jaguar House. Besides their bright new uniforms that stood in contrast to the faded older Jaguar jerseys, the Condas all had racing brooms while the natives used the slow school training brooms.
“Ten points Anaconda!”
“Ten points Anaconda!”
“Ten points Anaconda!”
Jaci and his grandfather explained Chasers, Beaters, and Seekers as the game went on. By the time the score was ninety to ten (the Jaguars had scored a penalty goal on a foul), Marissa saw why Jaguar could only win if Araci got the hundred and fifty point Snitch. But the Condas constantly aimed the dangerous iron Bludgers at her, or flew into her path whenever the Jaguar Seeker tried to follow after the tiny golden ball.
“Ten points Anaconda!” the annoucer repeated again, and the spreading lupuna branches shook from celebration in the Anaconda stands. “Conda! Conda! Conda!” they roared. Giant banners spread across their seating area. One showed a long coiling snake wrapped around the words ‘WE WILL DEVOUR YOU’, and others displayed the far too familiar phrase ‘Team Of Destiny!’.
Jaci said crashing, grabbing other players brooms, or hitting their handles with bats were all fouls, but the Condas did all of that constantly whenever the referee wasn’t looking. Sol Braganza attacked players who didn’t even have the Quaffle just to intimidate them, while Stenio and Achilles battled the Jaguars Chasers as if purposely trying to hurt them. They reminded Marissa of the violent gangs in Santa Efigenia.
With sheer determination, Jaci Jaruna had twice gotten by the brutal Conda defenders to give Jaguar two more goals, but his battered and bruised team was tired of playing prey. The Anacondas were bigger, faster, and willing to do anything to win by a large margin.
“Conda scores again! One hundred and ninety to thirty!”
WHAM! Gasps arose from the crowds as a Bludger slammed into a player’s stomach. One Anaconda Beater had batted it toward Araci Uirapuru, and from behind her Sol Braganza had pushed her directly into its path. The Condas cheered as the Seeker was knocked from her broom. Luckily Jaci caught her and brought Araci safely to the field.
The Jaguar players gathered to see that she was okay. Returning to the air after Araci was taken away by the school Healer, Jaci Jaruna directed his team to put up no defense as the Anaconda Seeker hunted the Snitch to end the game. When the large clumsy boy finally captured it almost by accident, the Conda fans exploded in celebration.
“Anaconda wins! Three hundred and forty to thirty!”
“That was a massacre,” Jaci’s grandfather stated as they left from the Macaw seating area. “If they abuse the other Houses like that, the Condas may win every game.”
“Do you think they really are the team of destiny, Grandpa?”
“If destiny means using every dirty foul Ramo Cavaleiros has taught them, they may be,” the old man replied, “but I hope the Olinda Oracle envisioned a more honorable team.”
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Tiquinho was reluctantly led on Sunday to see another Woolly House Quidditch practice. Marissa could see the older players off in the sky passing Quaffles and hitting Bludgers. Sakura was standing on the steps throwing rocks into the air, and she wondered why until she came around the Astronomy tower to see Anna flying to catch them one after another.
“Monkey says Anna might make a good Seeker,” Sakura explained, “so I’m helping her practice, kind of. But rocks don’t fly as fast as a Golden Snitch.”
“Here, let me try.” Tiquinho hurled a stone into the sky twice as far as Sakura’s throws. Anna zoomed after it and caught the rock as it began to fall.
“Great, you throw awhile. My arm’s tired.”
Sakura came and sat with Marissa while Tiquinho and Potira held hands and threw rocks.
“He’s getting a lot more feathers,” she said looking in on Mirioby in the pink backpack.
“Yes,” Marissa agreed. “And getting bigger!”
Fides, Spero, and Amor swooped down to join them as they watched Anna capture rocks.
“I wish we had training Snitches like the Condas,” said Sakura.
“Um… why don’t you?” Marissa asked.
“The Anaconda parents bought them, and Cavaleiros won’t let anyone else use them.”
Marissa recalled the speeding ball that the Seeker had caught to end the Quidditch game. Knowing Anna could get real good if she had one to train with, an idea came into her head.
“Um… I think I can help Anna practice Seekering.”
“Are you going to call a Golden Snidget out of the rainforest?” Sakura asked half jokingly, unsure if Marissa possibly could do such a thing.
“No,” Marissa smiled. “But what about… a blue Snidget?”
In a short while Anna zoomed past again, twisting and turning to follow her elusive target. She curved about to intercept its path, and tagged the nimble little swallow upon its tail.
“Your turn, Spero!” Marissa said as Fides glided down to rest on her backpack. Half of the Woolly Quidditch team had floated over to watch Anna chase the speeding birds. After a few more rounds, an exhausted Anna glided down to rest.
“Does Potira always hold your hand?” Marissa asked Tiquinho when the other girls left for the Astronomy tower to use its restroom. She had never said anything before, but thought the native girl was a little old to be led around wherever she went.
“Since we were four. She thinks I’m her boyfriend.”
“Oh,” she replied. “Um… do you think you’re her boyfriend?”
“I’ll marry her someday,” Tiquinho said plainly, “after I become an Auror.”
“Aurors fight bad wizards, right? Like all the chiefs who fighted the dark pajés.”
“Yes, like that,” he confirmed. “But the tribes didn’t call them Aurors in those times.”
“How do you get to be a Auror?”
“First you learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, and become a good dueller.”
“When we watched the Duelling teams practice, the Jaguars were best of all.”
“All Jaguars learn to fight well, to protect our people if the dark pajés ever return.”
“But I thought Jaguating vanished them all.”
“Do you remember the Grand Chief’s story?” Tiquinho asked. Marissa nodded her head. “Every Seer foretold that the dark pajés would enslave the seven cities and rule them for a thousand years. Great Jaguating could not stop the prophecy, but he tricked the evil ones. He emptied his people from the cities, and imprisoned the attacking armies within them using the blood magic of all the wizard tribes.”
“Now the tribes life in villages,” Marissa said, “because he made the cities disappear.”
“Yes. But the lost cities still exist, they just cannot be seen or reached now. If they ever reappear, the descendents of the pajés may still be there. So our Aurors must always be ready to fight their evil again one day.”
Marissa turned to see that the three girls had returned and overheard the last things she and Tiquinho had said. Potira frowned that Flap-Flap was on Marissa’s shoulder again.
“Is that really true?” Sakura asked. “Or just like… a legend.”
“It is true,” Tiquinho said. “We study it in History of Magic next year.”
“So that’s why almost every Jaguar joins Duelling team instead of playing Quidditch?”
“Because dark pajés cannot be battled with a game of flying brooms,” he smiled.
“Well, I don’t care if Jaguars don’t like Quidditch,” Sakura stated firmly. “You still better come watch us if we ever get to… Marissa, is something wrong?”
Marissa was frozen in surprise, because her eyes had stopped seeing Sakura and Tiquinho. What she perceived was beyond her own view, yet so clear that it could not be imagination. Behind her, Potira and Anna were looking into her backpack at the baby macaw who had grown so much these last few weeks. The girl’s faces filled her vision as Marissa viewed them, without any doubt, through Mirioby’s eyes.
Chapter 13 - Smellier Still by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa doesn't want trouble but it finds her again, while what she wants most she can't seem to find at all.
The first weeks of April passed with Marissa still unable to make her wand do any magic. She was almost happy that she wouldn’t have to use it in her midnight stargazing class.
–You have to stay here,†she whispered strictly as she tucked Mirioby in and laid the pink backpack by her pillow. –If I take you to Astronomy, the Marzles will try to eat you!†He closed his eyes again before she left to follow the other first-years down from the tree. Marissa hoped his strange new dream would not interrupt her during constellation study.
Tatiane Timbira led them through the rainforest to the clearing, where the Macaws joined Professor Galaxia and a line of Anaconda classmates. The rainclouds had cleared and Marissa’s eyes caught sight of a tiny owl sailing silently through the star-filled night sky. Then she winced, but did not cry out, as she felt her hair pulled by someone running by.
–Give it back, Cristiano!†Mario shouted at the boy who had grabbed her pink hair ribbon with the silver charm and ran ahead in the darkness. He chased after him.
–Ugh!†Mario cried out as he fell violently to the hard stone pathway when Fer Ribeiro stuck out a leg to trip him.
–What’s going on there?†Professor Galaxia called from the head of the line.
–I… fell over a root,†Mario replied to show Cristiana and Fer that he wasn’t a baby who needed a professor to defend him.
–Ignore them like Marissa does,†Mario’s friend Jaci said as he helped him up. –He’ll just throw the ribbon on a tree branch later.â€
–Stupid Condas think they own the whole school just ‘cuz they’re in Quidditch reserves.†Mario was so upset that he didn’t even notice his torn robe or the scrape across his cheek. –I wish I could steal their dumb team caps and throw those in a tree!â€
On the path ahead, Cristiano and Fer had caught up with the other laughing Anacondas. Their teasing never hurt her, but Marissa did not like that they had tormented Mario in Brooms class all week. Maybe he couldn’t take the caps from the stronger boys, but…
–Tesimal,†she whispered, knowing the tiny owl nearby could hear the slightest of sounds. As she hoped, he glided from the blackness to her outstretched hand a moment later.
–His hat, his hat,†she quietly told the little bird, patting her head to act out the words. Perched upon her finger, Tesimal observed intently as she pointed out Cristiano Ferreira.
–What are you…†Jaci held back his question as he watched Tesimal fly from Marissa’s hand. The owl glided over the line of Macaw first-years, then soundlessly swooped down to snatch the green cap from Cristiano’s head.
–Hey!†Cristiano yelled as he saw his hat floating away into the night. –You stupid owl!†He chased after the escaping cap as everyone turned to look and some started laughing. Tesimal glided low across the ground and dropped the cap onto something in the grass. Cristiano swore softly as he ran off the stone path and bent down to retrieve it.
–Dang!†As Cristiano tried to stand back up, his feet slid from under him and he landed squarely on his behind. The cap, with his hand upon it, was still right where it had fallen.
–Mr. Ferreira, what are you doing?†asked Professor Galaxia, who had turned to look.
–Some runt owl stole my cap! Now it’s…†He yanked at the cap, but seemed unable to loose it from some object beneath it, or from his hand. –I’m stuck on… a mango?â€
Jaci Erasmi began laughing so loudly that frightened birds fluttered away in the night. –It’s Mappy’s fruit!†he exclaimed. –You touched it when you grabbed your cap.â€
–I did not!â€
–I’m afraid he’s right,†stated Galaxia, who inspected the mango with her glowing wand before shining its light upon a huge grey beast hanging in a tree some twenty yards away. –Your cap has fallen on Mapinguary’s breakfast.â€
–She did it!†Cristiano shouted and pointed at Marissa. –de Calha made that owl trap me!â€
–Nonsense! The owl mistook the cap for food, then dropped it when he saw it wasn’t.â€
–It’s your own fault for stealing Marissa’s ribbon!†Jaci Erasmi added.
–Take it, then!†Cristiano said, throwing the pink ribbon toward Marissa with his free hand.
–I’ll notify your House Leaders of your situation,†Galaxia stated. –Move on now, class.â€
–You’re… you’re just going to leave me?†Cristiano asked nervously.
–Unfortunately, there is no spell to counter a Slothish sticking charm.â€
–But… there’s wild animals out here.â€
–Any that attack will be stuck to the fruit along with you,†she answered calmly. –The Mapinguary’s charm will release you when he wakes up to eat… sometime after dawn.â€
Cristiano glared at Marissa as the class was led away through the darkness.
–That was great!†Mario whispered gleefully.
–I didn’t tell Tesimal to put his cap on the mango!†Marissa tried to explain. But it was the only piece of fruit in the clearing. Did the tiny owl really on purpose drop the cap there?
She glanced back at Cristiano trapped alone in the darkness. –What if wild animals do…â€
–Don’t worry,†Jaci told her. –Repelling charms keep big predators off school grounds.â€
–But it’d be cool if a real anaconda came and swallowed that one!†Mario added.
Soon they entered the vine-circled stone doorway of the Astronomy tower. From the circling stairway above, Celestia Bella de Barros and her followers looked down upon Marissa. It was very clear that they blamed her for Cristiano being trapped.
–You’re going to get it now,†Fer threatened. –You’ll be sorry you attacked the Condas again, Marissa de Calha!â€
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The next morning Marissa came to the Macaw common room to find Milo and Tatiane at a tall window, watching a huddled figure just visible far below through the trees.
–Braganza brought him a blanket last night then left,†Milo said.
–Guess Sol wouldn’t think to stay with Cristiano,†his sister replied.
–Thank you for helping Mirioby last night,†Marissa said as she neared Tatiane.
The older girl returned a questioning glance.
–You found him after he crawled out and got scared,†Marissa reminded her.
–How did you know that? You were at Astronomy class.â€
–Um… Mirioby showed me. With his eyes.â€
–What is she talking about?†questioned Milo.
–Her macaw was on her bed chirping when I came back from taking them to Galaxia,†Tatiane explained. –I put him back in her backpack so he wouldn’t fall off the bed.â€
–And you saw that?†Milo asked Marissa.
–Um… yes.â€
–I know birds like her,†Milo said to his younger sister, –but that’s just weird.â€
The swallows landed upon Marissa’s shoulders and chirped good morning as the Macaw students descended the spiral stairs of the great lapuna tree and marched toward the main path. A line of matted grass nearby showed where Mappy’s fruit had dragged its captive.
–Hey, Cristiano!†Milo called to the bedraggled boy who sat almost directly beneath the mountainous Slothish that was slowly stretching down from a branch to collect its meal. –You want to walk to breakfast with us? We can wait a few minutes until you’re free.â€
–NO!†the Anaconda boy replied angrily. –I’ll walk by myself!â€
–Okay,†Milo called back. –But you should read this big warning sign when you go by.†The Macaw children all laughed, Jaci and Mario most loudly. But from the hateful glares that awaited her in the Great Hall, Marissa saw that Anaconda House didn’t think the Slothish accident was funny.
The aromas of breakfast filled the dining area and the huge room was loud with chatter about Saturday’s Quidditch game. The shouts between Macaw House and Woolly House were friendly and joking, unlike the mean and degrading chants the Condas had used on their opponents before the last game. Marissa ducked as team members began playfully tossing bread rolls as each other. Dozens of them suddenly stopped in midair between the two groups.
–House food fights are allowed only at game day breakfast,†Professor Galhos declared as she rose from the High Table. With another wave of her raised wand, each roll reversed its path and flew back to the person who had thrown it. –And only if each House has assigned someone to take the wasted food to the Hierotapir pens.â€
Marissa would ask Alika for that job so she could see the pigs with secret writing again.
When Marissa left the Great Hall, a large figure waited behind a pillar at the top of the staircase. The brawny captain of Anaconda’s ‘Team of Destiny’ snarled in a low voice.
–You messed with my players, little gutter girl. Now you have me to mess with.â€
–So?†Marissa replied, as carelessly bold as possible to show his threat didn’t scare her. She knew he wouldn’t make any spells on her where he might get caught by professors.
–You really are too stupid to know who to be afraid of,†Sol Braganza declared.
She ignored him in the way she ignored mean people when she begged in Santa Efigênia, but knew that Sol meant to cause her more trouble. She just didn’t know what trouble.
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Eva Paranhos raised her hand to notify Professor Katupya that their potion was complete, and smiled with satisfaction that they had once again finished ahead of Celestia’s group. The blonde girl glanced over, and for a tiny moment lost the normally overconfident look that Eva called her air of superiority. Marissa had learned that those words meant Celestia Bella de Barros thought she was better than everyone else. The trouble was that it was true. In every other class, Celestia was always the first student to perform a new spell perfectly. Celestia was gifted, while Marissa was still nothing. So beating her group in Potions made Marissa just as happy as Eva. She was also glad to have time to practice with Rosaria.
–Remember,†Marissa told her, –you know it can't move or crawl on you.â€
–I… I know it can't move or crawl on me,†Rosaria repeated.
–So just be strong and make your feeling go away. Tell yourself you won’t feel afraid.â€
–I… I won’t feel afraid.â€
Marissa slowly set the dried spider body on the table in front of Rosaria as Eva sat on her other side with the little pillow, ready to silence their Potions partner if she screamed.
–See,†Marissa confirmed, –a dead bug can't hurt you.â€
Rosaria shivered slightly, but kept her eyes directly on the insect only a few inches away. She gave a nervous smile to Marissa, who smiled back before looking up to see that their stern Potions professor had quietly appeared behind Rosaria.
–We finished our potion, sir,†Eva told him. –Marissa is helping Rosaria to…â€
–I see what she is doing,†Professor Katupya confirmed.
–Now hold out your hand,†Marissa instructed as she gently placed the spider in Rosaria’s shaking palm. –Look! You did it. You’re touching a bug!â€
Rosaria held the dead spider for barely a second, then dropped it back on the table and took a deep breath. A faint smile crossed their stern professor’s face as he turned away.
–I might finally pass my Switching Spell test,†Eva said as they talked of their next class.
–Uh, have you…– Rosaria hesitantly inquired if Marissa had succeeded with any spells.
Marissa simply frowned.
–That’s okay,†Eva allowed. –I'm pretty poor at Transfiguration, too.â€
Marissa understood that Eva said that to try to make her feel better, but it really did not. If not the right thing, at least something happened from Eva’s wand when she practiced. Of all the first-years, only Marissa got nothing to happen from hers at all.
–I’m sorry Cece and Celly are telling everyone you’re not a witch,†Rosaria said guiltily. She often apologized for mean things the Condas said just because she was one too.
–They can't hurt me,†Marissa replied. –I’m stronger than them.â€
–And braver!†Rosaria added decidedly.
Professor Katupya called Marissa to his desk when class ended. She thought it might be to detention her for making Cristiano get trapped by the fruit last night, but was surprised to be complimented for helping Rosaria.
–Perhaps after you have shown Miss Castilhos how to handle the live potion ingredients, you can practice mixing and brewing,†he firmly suggested. Unlike other groups where each student took turns doing the different jobs, in their group Marissa always prepared insects while Rosaria always prepared plants and Eva always brewed the potions.
–Um… – she replied hesitantly.
–Something bothers you about that idea?â€
–I don’t have any magic yet,†she plainly admitted what she was sure he already knew. –If… if I stir, the potions won’t work.â€
–You are not stirring with a wand, Marissa,†Professor Katupya strongly informed her, –and the talent to create a powerful potion is different from the talent to perform spells. If you have not found it in your wand, maybe you will discover your magic in a cauldron. But not if Eva Paranhos brews every potion.â€
Marissa had never thought of it that way before. It didn’t matter as much that spells she practiced by herself failed again and again. But she was worried that, without any magic, she would let her partners down by turning all their carefully prepared ingredients into some useless, gloppy soup. Did her worry kept her from learning a magic that she might really be able to do?
–After I teach Rosaria to be brave with live bugs,†Marissa said, –I’ll brew our potions.†At least she would try.
Professor Katupya nodded his approval and then motioned toward the wall passage to show she should leave for her next class.
A few minutes later she arrived at Transfiguration after rushing through the hallmaze. Her nose wrinkled from a strong odor as Marissa touched the wall to open the passage. Others were at their desks already, but she had ran fast enough to not be late.
–Eeew!†exclaimed Serafina Palmeiro as Marissa rushed by to take her seat.
–Oh, that’s disgusting!†Celestia Bella de Barros declared from the front row, and raised her hand like she was waving away fumes. Marissa suddenly noticed that the bad smell that she had thought was something she passed in the hall was really coming from her.
–Stinks the same as always to me!†Fer Ribeiro declared.
With a harsh look around the classroom, Professor Merrythought silenced any other comments before directing Marissa to step out to the terrace.
–Who hexed you?†the young professor asked after she had followed her outside.
–Hexed m… oooh,†Marissa said as she realized what had happened. –Some older boys I ran by in the halls were saying mean stuff. But I didn’t know it was a…â€
–A Skunkspray Hex,†Merrythought’s displeased voice confirmed. –What boy cast it?â€
Marissa shrugged like she didn’t know it was Stenio Cabral. She made herself feel nothing from the trick, just like she always felt nothing from the constant teasing of the Condas. Professor Merrythought noticed this cool response as she helped take off the smelly robe.
–Marissa, you’re allowed to be angry at them,†she told her young student.
Marissa didn’t explain to her professor that reacting to the Conda tricks would let them believe they could hurt her, which they could not. But there was another reason, too.
–Angry is the same as hate,†Marissa replied. –Sister Angelica says…†She paused as she glanced back into the classroom at the gleeful grins upon all the Anaconda faces.
–…that we shouldn’t hate the people who hate us,†Merrythought completed the words that she had probably heard from church too. She smiled at Marissa as she led her back inside, yet shook her head as if she couldn’t agree that ignoring the Anacondas was the best way to deal with them.
After class, Marissa fed Mirioby and talked for awhile with Professor Merrythought about how Tiquinho was going to help her teach the baby macaw to fly and to talk.
–He says Mirioby will learn if I just talk to him all the time,†she explained.
–That should be easy,†her professor replied. –You already talk to the swallows.â€
–Yes,†Marissa agreed. –But they can't say spells like Mirioby will someday!â€
Professor Merrythought smiled, then reminded her it was time to leave for her next class.
In Broom Flying Marissa polished handles and ignored the teasing Conda boys flying by. The colorful old Quetzals were easy to tell apart, and she gave special attention to the two favorite brooms that Sakura and Anna always chose for their Woolly Quidditch practice. Sometimes she would try to make a broom float to her hand, but nothing happened at all.
In Defense Against the Dark Arts, she practiced a hex with the rest of the class.
–Again, Marissa!†Professor Guerra shouted, not because he wanted to embarrass her like Mr. Cavaleiros tried to, but because he refused to let her doubt that she could do magic. Somehow Marissa liked that he forced her to try over and over even though she’d never made any spell work. It meant that Professor Guerra still believed she might be a witch.
In Astronomy she stayed a moment after class to show Professor Galaxia her star chart, so Marissa was by herself in the hallmaze when more Anaconda boys cast a hex on her. She hoped she could get back to Macaw House before anyone noticed, but rushed across a passageway right into all the Jaguar first-years following their guide frogs.
–Marissa,†Potira Arating said as they met. –You…†she hesitated politely.
–…STINK!†Tiquinho finished for her bluntly. –Did you spill a potion on yourself?â€
–No, that’s a Dungheap Hex,†stated the Jaguar House Leader, Jaci Juruna, who stood nearby. He waved his wand and the terrible odor was gone.
–Um… thank you,†she said. At least no professors would smell her.
–Who did it?†Tiquinho asked, raising his own wand to some passing Condas. –I’ll…â€
–NO!†Marissa called out, holding down his arm. –Nobody has to protect me from their dumb baby tricks.â€
The Anacondas were afraid to do anything that could really hurt her.
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For most of the day Friday she walked between classes with the other Macaw first-years, but she helped Professor Parreira stir the compost bins after Herbology so two Anaconda teens caught her alone on the rainforest path after that. Marissa sat by herself on the Broom Flying field so no one would smell a Skunkspray Hex had been put on her again. Luckily by the end of class their poorly cast hex had faded away.
At dinner the Great Hall was again noisy with excitement over tomorrow’s Quidditch match, yet Marissa barely noticed as her head filled with pictures of a faraway area of the Amazon rainforest. Mirioby’s eyes showed her a place where she was very sure the baby bird had never been. She saw his memory clearly, but where did he see it from?
Students could hear only the murmur of muffled conversations from the High Table. The principal was away from Witness Stone once again rather than at the evening meal.
–Absencia is visiting the Commissioner of Sport with Cavaleiros to plan an interschool exhibition game for Anaconda House,†Professor Katupya explained to his faculty. –Ramo feels the other House teams are poor competition for his Quidditch stars.â€
–Arturo seems as convinced as Braganza and Cabral that they’ll be World Cup stars and never need their wizarding education,†Professor Galaxia said with a disapproving tone.
–But their Head of House,†Katupya nodded to Professor Guerra, –has reminded the players that failing their midterms would make them ineligible for the remaining season.â€
The faculty reviewed issues of each grade until discussion came to the first-year class.
–It was wonderful, Ubiritan! She finally performed a charm, yet I couldn’t hear a word,†Professor Galhos commented. –She’s behind her class, but we all think she’ll catch up.â€
–Catch up?†Tarcisio Guerra snorted. –With her wand tuned to her quietness, I’d wager that in a few years Anna Yamazaki may be the best non-verbal spell caster in the school.â€
–But she will remain exempt from spoken exams for now,†Katupya directed.
–Sir,†Grace Merrythought spoke next with a concerned tone. –What about Marissa? Are there really parents demanding that Principal Absencia take her out of the school?â€
–Unfortunately, yes,†he nodded. –They have conveyed this Slothish incident to him as another attack by a dangerous Muggle-born street child on decent wizarding children.â€
–They can't really believe her troubles with the Anacondas are...â€
–It is more than that, Grace,†Katupya continued. –There is anxiety growing in the cities. Many important families are seeing younger children they realize will not be invited to Witness Stone. So they question why a Muggle-born with no apparent magical ability has been.â€
–Marissa only needs time, and surely Congress plans to explain the decline in wizarding births.â€
–The Congress of Magic has decided to give no public comment until after the International Confederation has met to discuss what the Quill books have shown.â€
–Unbelievable,†Grace Merrythought replied.
–I will postpone Absencia taking any action until after the midterm,†Katupya assured her. –By then Marissa must show abilities or a decision will be made.â€
–We just need to keep encouraging her, sir.â€
–No one here is giving up on her, Grace,†Tarcisio Guerra stated to her in a serious tone. –But you need to accept that someday we could find she is only a Muggle.â€
–How can you say she isn't a witch if she was sent an acceptance letter?â€
–You know as well as any of us that such a thing has happened before.â€
–I… yes, I know,†Grace Merrythought unwillingly admitted to Guerra. –But…â€
–We hope it is not so,†Professor Katupya stated. –But if despite the Quill’s record, her magical powers have somehow been suppressed or lost, Marissa will have to leave Witness Stone.â€
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Mirioby hopped about on her bed and wildly beat his bright wings as Marissa sat nearby practicing alone while all her roomates socialized in the common room on Friday night.
Over the last eight weeks she had tried every spell in all her schoolbooks, hoping to find just one that her wand would like to do. Now she started again with a basic one.
–Lumos,†she called out yet another time. –Lumos. Lumos!†Still nothing happened.
It was a simple spell, just a glow on the tip of a wand. She had seen the other first-year girls use it to read books in bed at night or to light their way to the bathroom in the dark.
It was simple for them, but she just could not understand why it was impossible for her.
–This isn't how it was s’posed to be, Mirioby,†she sadly told the little hyacinth macaw. She was supposed to have found her magic by now to prove that she really was a witch, not just the ‘gutter girl’ that the Condas believed she was. Secretly she had even hoped that if she studied very, very hard she could be one of the goodest witches in her class. –I wanted to show that I’m smart as them, and magic as them,†she said. –But I’m not.â€
–Don’t say that!â€
Marissa turned quickly, surprised that someone had entered the room without her notice. She willed the disappointed look off her face so that Tatiane wouldn’t think she was weak.
–Just because Muggleborns might not learn magic as fast as wizarding kids who grew up with it all around them,†Tatiane told her, –doesn’t mean we’re not as good as them.â€
–But… I still can't even...â€
–Galaxia says it’s only because you’re smaller than the other girls,†Tatiane said kindly. –Ya know you might grow some if you ate more than a piece of bread each meal.â€
Marissa was quiet and chose not to say that in Santa Efigenia she and the boys often had not even that to eat. She still wondered each night if they had gone to sleep hungry.
–And spells aren’t the only magic, Marissa,†the older girl added encouragingly. –I mean, look what you can do with your macaw!â€
–That’s not magic, its just cuz birds like me. Professor Merrythought asked the Cares for Creatures professor, and he said birds can't Legillancy, just like Mr. Argiletum said too.â€
–Well, Domador and Argiletum don’t know everything!†Tatiane replied assuredly. –Maybe the way you see with Mirioby is a magic they don’t know. Maybe we should ask someone else.â€
–Um… who else?†Marissa asked, a little puzzled by the bold statement that a professor and the librarian who kept thousands of books about all the magics could both be wrong. Tatiane’s long silence showed that she hadn’t thought who a ‘someone else’ might be.
–Hey, I know!†she finally answered. –Our pen pals club sends letters to other schools every month. We could write to Care of Magical Creatures professors in other countries and ask. One of them must know about other animal magic.â€
Marissa’s face brightened to the idea that she might show her professors she could do something magic, even though she was not at all sure it was a magic that came from her. At Tatiane’s urging, she found her quill and from a wardrobe drawer took sheets of the fancy pastel pink parchment that Rosaria gave her more of every week in Potions class.
Tatiane took the quill. –Should I write that…â€
â€NO! I can write!†Marissa replied before realizing she had said the words very mean.
–Fine, you write,†Tatiane conceded as they moved to a small desk near the tall windows. Soon Marissa finished her carefully worded letter.
Hello Professer of cares for creetures,
My name is Marissa. I am a girl. I go to witness stone magic school. I have a blue macaw bird. I say I can see in my head things he sees. My professers say it's not true but Tatiane said I can ask someone else. Can you tell me if seeing by Mirioby is magic? Do you have a boys or girls who like birds? If you have kids who see what ther bird sees will you ask them to write to me? Please.
Marissa
–Hmmm. I guess that about says it,†Tatiane stated after reviewing the page. –Now for about a dozen more so we can send one to every pen pal school!â€
Marissa watched with surprise as Tatiane performed a charm that copied her letter to all the other parchment sheets. It was much easier than her writing it again that many times. With another wave of Tatiane’s wand, each letter folded up and added itself to a stack.
–I’ll send these with our letter bundles. Maybe someone will answer in a few weeks.â€
–Thank you, Tatiane,†Marissa smiled. Then she raised her wand to practice again.
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The food fight Saturday morning was a joyous battle between Woolly and Macaw House. Marissa could not help but smile as waves of buns and fruit slices flew back and forth across the aisles of the Great Hall. From the balcony, Saci flung mushy berries towards Anaconda House. Professor Galaxia had assigned collecting food for the hierotapirs to some sixth-year boys that broke curfew, but that was okay because Sakura had invited Marissa to bring the swallows again to help Anna practice Seeking.
–Are you coming to services tomorrow?†Sakura asked her as the three headed to the practice field after breakfast. Tiquinho and Potira walked hand in hand ahead of them, though Flap-Flap had joined Marissa atop her pink backpack where Mirioby slept.
–Um… I don’t know,†Marissa replied. She did not want to say that she had never been allowed inside church before, only eaten meals in the courtyard of Nossa Senhora da Luz. She did know that Palm Sunday meant it was only a week until the Easter holiday, when the Witness Stone Line would take her back to Santa Efigenia to see the boys!
–You should come with Anna and I,†Sakura suggested. –And you can sit with us at the Quidditch game this afternoon so our parents can meet you. Would you like that?â€
–Um… maybe.†She also did not want to say that she felt out of place with families.
A soft rain drizzled steadily as Marissa, Tiquinho and Potira sat beneath an overhang of the Astronomy tower wall and watched the Japanese girls gliding across the grey skies. Each time one of the blue Snitches was tagged by Anna, it would fly back to Marissa’s side where Potira would charm its wings dry while the next swallow flew off to take its turn. Fides, Spero, and Amor all enjoyed being warmed by Potira’s magic.
While Sakura and Anna practiced, Tiquinho told stories of dark-skinned little ones who were sometimes glimpsed in the ruins of ancient altars hidden deep in the rainforests. Legends said that although the dark pajés and their armies were imprisoned in the lost cities, somehow the native elves that once served Jaguating could still come and go from those places. It was good fortune to see a ruin-elf for even a second before it disappeared.
After their practice the Japanese girls had to hurry off to change their rain-soaked robes. But as they passed by Marissa, silent Anna suddenly embraced her.
–Um… what was that?†Marissa asked awkwardly after she was released.
–Anna’s thank you for always letting her train with your swallows, silly!†Sakura smiled.
–Oh,†Marissa said. She did not want to say that hugs were not what a strong person did, because at the moment she felt strangely warm in the drizzling cool rain.
She parted from Tiquinho and Potira too, and returned to the towering trees of Macaw House. The three swallows flew to their window ledge nest to rest from their morning of playful flying while Marissa changed from her damp robes before feeding little Mirioby. She was late following her roommates to lunch and delayed by an unplanned meeting.
–Pink bag girl!†a welcoming voice called out just as she reached the Great Hall balcony. Politely she stopped to light Saci’s pipe then dusted herself off as he whirlwinded away.
Lunch was ending and crowds of students flowed out from the Great Hall. The chanting Woolly House team led them out to the vast ancient plaza toward the Quidditch field. Marissa trailed at the end of the throng of children as she entered Chaser’s Courtyard. Like at the last game, thousands of visitors overflowed the rainforest clearing with noisy excitement. Moving quietly into the jostling, shouting crowds that pushed about to find family and friends, Marissa heard bits of passing conversations.
–You’ll have another chance to pass the App test,†a father said encouragingly to his son.
–An Outstanding in Potions?†a mother said to a daughter. –Oh, we’re so proud of you!â€
Marissa knew that somewhere in the crowd Anna and Sakura were meeting their family too and would be sharing all their happy news. Sakura would be telling their parents how good Anna and her were doing in Quidditch reserves and how Anna could make spells now even if no one heard her say the words! Anna’s mother would be very happy.
Sakura had said about sitting at the game with them, but Marissa wasn’t sure she should. The Japanese girls’ parents might believe she was scared to sit alone and wasn’t strong.
–Dad! Mom! Over here!†cried an older sixth-year girl who rushed to hug her mother as Marissa quickly darted aside to avoid being crushed between them. Amid the joyful greetings, happiness and laughter, Marissa felt very full and very empty at the same time. She was surrounded by all of this, but not really part of it. All of the wizardings children had families to believe in them, families to be proud of them. They all had people who…
–Ugh,†Marissa stumbled as someone pushing from behind almost knocked her down.
–Oh, sorry, I…†a large teen started to apologize until he turned and saw who she was. –Clumsy dumpster rat!†the boy swore and raised his wand.
–Not here!†one of three more Anaconda Quidditch players with him whispered sharply. –Sol said only when she’s alone.â€
–Yeah, yeah,†the teen replied as they moved away, angrily brushing off his jersey like touching Marissa made it dirty.
Marissa moved alone through the crowd. She rode the carousel platform up to the stands and made her way to the highest row. The tall golden hoops at either end of the field stood out against the drizzling grey skies, while thunderous applause filled the air as the Quidditch match began.
Through an hour of play the Quaffle changed hands constantly as teams traded goals.
–Ten points Woolly!â€
–Ten points Macaw!â€
–Ten points Woolly!â€
–Ten points Macaw!â€
This match was very different than the game of two weeks ago. The Woolly and Macaw teams battled just as energetically, but with smiles and laughter, not sneers and snarls. Their struggles were playful pushing and shouting, not the violent attacks, mean bullying and cheating of the Anacondas team. Marissa enjoyed this game much more, and clapped loudly each time her Macaw team scored or gained control of a fumbled Quaffle. It was just like cheering Pipio and Nino when they made soccer goals in Santa Efigenia.
Macaw House scored one last goal just before Woolly’s Seeker caught the speeding Golden Snitch to end the game at 190 to 40. The Woolly House stands erupted in cheers as opposing players shook hands and slapped each other on their backs. That was something Marissa knew the Anaconda team would never do.
Some spectators departed quickly in bursts of glowing flame at the heavy stone Floos, but many of the hundreds of family members lingered about the courtyard to visit longer. Marissa pushed past the crowds and ran quickly along the empty path to Witness Stone, hoping for time to practice spells before the other girls returned to their dorm room. But at the broad staircase of the ancient wall four familiar boys in Anaconda jerseys waited. Refusing to let them think she was afraid, Marissa met their gaze as she walked the steps.
–I guess gutter girl just knows she’s gonna stink for the rest of her life,†sneered the large one who had bumped into her earlier.
–Foetor Putorius,†another teen called out as he pointed his wand. Marissa ignored their laughter, but her nose wrinkled from the rising odor as she touched the immense slab and passed through to the other side of the vine-covered wall. The boys did not follow her. She sighed and shook her head, wondering how long she must wait until the terrible odor went away. She crossed the lily pad pond and slumped down beneath a tree on the plaza.
–Marissa!†a voice called. –Marissa!â€
–Hello Flap-flap,†she smiled half-heartedly as Tiquinho’s scarlet macaw fluttered down and landed on her shoulder. –At least you don’t mind I smell like a skunk again!â€
After a while she saw Jaguar students returning from the game. Jaci Juruna frowned when he stopped behind Tiquinho, Potira and her sloth, Ker, who all held their noses.
–Again?†he said. Marissa simply shrugged as he raised his wand and called out –Finite.â€
–How many times have they hexed you?†asked Araci Uirapuru, the other House Leader, whose dark long hair framed a tan face decorated with a flowing jungle leaves tattoo.
–Um… just four.â€
–You should tell a professor,†Araci stated.
–NO,†Marissa answered firmly. Telling would mean she wasn’t strong. Marissa had to show their meanness couldn’t make her feel hurt. They couldn’t make her feel anything.
–Walk back to Macaw House with Marissa,†Jaci told Tiquinho.
–So Ker see Mirioby!†Potira added before Marissa could disagree.
–I think Marissa is right,†Jaci said to Araci when the first-years had gone. –Kids hex each other all the time and nobody runs to a professor for help.â€
–That’s practice! This is Braganza’s goons attacking a firstie every time she moves. And you know Sol has his players do it so he can squirm out of trouble if she did tell.â€
–I know. For being such a moron in every class, he’s sure smart about being mean. But Gran Arating’s little wildflower is too strong to let Braganza think she’s afraid of them.â€
Araci Uirapuru smiled and reluctantly nodded agreement.
–Potira says Cece’s proper girls still tease her every day about being from the city slums. Maybe stink hexes are harmless,†Araci conceded, –but it’s just not fair.â€
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–We’re not very happy that you didn’t meet our family at the game,†Sakura said sternly the next morning as Marissa found her and Anna waiting in the Macaw common room.
–Um…â€
–So you have to come to Mass with us today to make up for it,†she ordered with a smile. Marissa followed down the steps, secretly glad that her two friends had come to take her.
She was amazed, though maybe she shouldn’t be by now, that the tiny chapel beside the library had grown to a giant room inside that held hundreds of worshippers. She watched the blessing of the palms and heard the Bible reading of the Jesus story. Sakura very quietly explained ‘Communion’ to her, and Marissa was even splashed by holy water as the priest walked up the aisles blessing children by waving the palm fronds. Her first time inside a church was very wonderful, but still she felt like she did not really belong there the way the wizardings children around her did.
In the afternoon Potira and the Japanese girls wanted to sew a dress for her pet sloth, so Potira was not too upset at letting Tiquinho go with Marissa to study the tall stelae that lined the plaza. Comparing their carved symbols to the illustrations in her library book, Marissa found they were very different but still felt the patterns could somehow help her solve the puzzle of the hierotapir writing.
Marissa was hexed again by the Anacondas on Monday, and two more times on Tuesday. Because she didn’t want to look like she hid behind her classmates, sometime each day the Condas found her alone. Cecelia and Celestia had always liked to tell everyone that she smelled like a dumpster, but Sol’s Quidditch boys were trying to make it so Marissa really did stink all of the time!
On Wednesday it happened on her way to Herbology class, but in the greenhouses she sat off by the fragrant magic flowers so nobody noticed the bad smell until it was gone away.
After classes that day she chanced to meet Tiquinho and Potira by the hallmaze doorways after picking up Mirioby from Professor Merrrythought’s classroom.
–He’ll be ready to fly in a few weeks,†Tiquinho declared confidently as Marissa held up her young macaw to show him how long its bright feathers were growing.
–You come village?†Potira asked.
–I want to,†Marissa replied, –but… I promised Sport Club da Luz.â€
The Easter break was only a few days away, and the Jaguars had invited her to visit their wonderful rainforest village once more. Marissa was almost sad that she would have to miss seeing the mysterious magical place again, but on Friday morning the ancient train cars of the Witness Stone Line would fly her back to Sao Paulo. Mr. Palito’s last letter even said he would meet her at Miss Julieta’s samba school.
–You miss friends,†Potira replied. –Come village other time.â€
–Yes. But please tell Gran Arating and the old, old Chief I say hello.â€
–I tell,†she smiled.
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The Pungent Pee Hex the Condas cast on her Thursday hardly mattered to Marissa at all because she was filled with thoughts of returning to the boys of Sport Club da Luz soon. That night she slept lightly, rising after midnight as she heard her wardrobe doors open.
–Dozza,†she whispered softly to the house-elf putting away clean clothes, –will you feed Mirioby while I’m away?â€
Marissa knew she couldn’t bring the baby bird to Sao Paulo. The noisy city would scare Mirioby and police would say she stole the hyacinth macaw and try to take him away.
–Yes, MyRissa. Little ones takes care of pets,†Dozza quietly assured her.
–Thank you.â€
–MyRissa goes to see boys who has no beds?â€
–Yes,†she answered. Marissa had seen the little one a few more times since their first meeting, and when Dozza asked she had told more about the boy’s life in Santa Efigenia. Dozza was truly distressed that she could not provide soft beds and pillows for them.
–For MyRissa’s friends,†she whispered, and placed a neatly wrapped package on top of the folded shirts.
Marissa smiled. She had also told Dozza how the boys on some days had no food at all, and had never had a dessert good as house-elfs made. Marissa was sure the small square was a slice of the marvelous cake of tilting layers she’d seen at dinner earlier that night.
–Thank you, Dozza.â€
She tucked it away with the clothes she was taking, and early Friday morning she carried it with her as hundreds of children streamed aboard the elegant old wooden train cars. Sakura waved her over to the same row of seats they sat in on the ride to Witness Stone. Soon the Captain had magicked the giant bubbles and the train rose into the skies above the rainforest. Anna was happy to see Fides, Spero and Amor perched on the windowsill.
A short time later, someone ducked into the open seat beside them like she was hiding.
–Rosaria!†Marissa smiled.
–Cece isn’t here,†Rosaria declared. –Her and Celly are Portkeying to meet their parents in North America. And Sol and the other players are racing brooms back to Sao Paulo.â€
–Good!†Sakura answered. –It will be a nicer trip without...â€
–But if any Anacondas come by,†Rosaria cautioned, –pretend we’re doing homework.â€
–Okay,†Marissa agreed.
Many hours later the rainforest view gave way to the towering skyscrapers of Sao Paulo. The Witness Stone Line arrived in Mercado Trocado as evening came, and Marissa soon found her way through the magical stained glass and out to Miss Julieta’s samba studio. Mr. Palito tussled her hair as she met him and eagerly she rushed toward Parque da Luz. The roar of evening traffic and acrid exhaust fumes were far different sounds and smells than those Marissa had become used to in the deep Amazon rainforests of Witness Stone. The three swallows flew joyfully through the familiar trees when they reached the park where the boys waited, and a happy feeling filled Marissa as they greeted her.
–Hey, schoolgirl,†Pipio hit her shoulder. She hit him back before noticing his face.
–You were in a fight!†Marissa said, seeing dark bruises on his jaw, deep cuts on his lip, and badly scraped arms.
–But he won!†Nino said proudly, hoping that might change the disapproval on her face.
–I don’t want you fighting like gangs!â€
–I know,†Pipio replied, –but I had to stand up to boys trying to take our corner from us. Sometimes we have to show we’re strong.â€
–We’re not as lucky without you, Marissa,†Nino said. –Bullies don’t fall down chasing us, or have knives fly away.â€
Marissa paused. It was true that Pipio couldn’t protect the team the way those things did, and at least none of them looked thinner or sick as she had worried they might be.
–Okay,†she conceded, not wanting to be mad at the boys. –But I don’t like it.â€
Mr. Palito led them to a picnic table under a tall tree.
–I brung something for us!†Marissa said. She took the wrapped cake slice from her bag, satisfied to show she could still provide for her team.
–What is it?†Nino asked.
–You’ll see!†she replied, knowing the boys would be excited to share the sweet dessert. Marissa pulled open a corner, then jumped back in surprise as a steaming cloud expanded from the unsealed edge. Within the steam the package unfolded, unfolded and unfolded itself again until its unbelievable contents spread before the astonished boys.
–Um…â€
Professor Merrythought had reminded her again that morning as she boarded the train. She wasn’t supposed to tell about magic, but what just happened was a bunch of magic! Along with a dozen slices of the delicious wizardings cake she thought Dozza had given her one piece of, palm leaf trays overflowed with simmering chicken breasts, fish fillets, wild rice, and heaps of fruits and cheeses. How could she explain all that?
–Army rations!†Mr. Palito announced. –I didn’t know schools had those too.â€
–Um…â€
–Army food is pressure packed for marching troops to carry,†he continued. –Marissa’s school probably uses them for field trips.â€
–COOL!†Tomas declared. All four boys were very impressed with Palito’s explanation. Marissa smiled and told herself she must thank Dozza again when she returned.
–We should save most for the rest of the week,†Pipio quickly decided.
That was the smart thing to do, Marissa thought. At the same time she realized it was always her who had decided that before.
–We’ll share the fish now and take the rest back to the alley,†Pipio told the boys.
–And some cake?†Tomas added, with little Paulinho looking just as hopeful.
–One piece of cake,†Pipio ordered firmly.
–And after dinner Marissa can tell us all about school,†Mr. Palito added with a wink.
Marissa told them about Sakura and quiet Anna, Tiquinho and Potira, and Rosaria who was scared of bugs, but she didn’t tell that her classmates were learning at a witch school! She told the boys about the exciting school soccer games that thousands of people came to watch, but wished that she could tell them it was really Quidditch with flying brooms!
Mr. Palito took them to their alley before departing for his nightly roam through the city. Late that night they crawled to sleep under the shelter of the rusty old ventilation unit. The cement was hard and cold, but Marissa was contented to sleep there with her boys. She awoke once in the night, and smiled as she recalled what was not really a dream. Even here, a thousand miles from Witness Stone, through Mirioby’s eyes she had seen the baby macaw being fed by Dozza.
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Marissa rose at dawn with the swallows and changed to her worn t-shirt and shorts. She rinsed herself at the faucet and set out threadbare but clean shirts for the boys.
–Today is a holiday!†Pipio declared when they woke .
–Hurray!†the team shouted.
–But Pipio,†Marissa protested at his announcement, –the swallows and me can ask for change with you today. So the team might have extra money before I go back to school.â€
Secretly she had looked forward to begging at the bus stations in the business district. After disappointing months of not doing magic, that was something she could do good. With Spero singing on her shoulder, she always collected more coins than the boys.
–You can’t beg,†Pipio replied laughing. –You’re a schoolgirl!â€
–And we got so much army food, we won’t need money for dinner tonight,†Nino added.
The boys looked so happy to have a free day that Marissa did not oppose Pipio any more. They walked together toward Parque da Luz, but followed Pipio into a back street when they saw a pair of policemen a block ahead.
–What’s that smell?†Marissa asked as they walked barefooted along the sidewalk.
–Just the ditch,†Pipio replied with a puzzled look. –It smells the same as always.â€
Marissa did not remember the stench of the waste-filled sewer runoff being so strong. In fact when she thought about it she couldn’t recall that she’d ever noticed it at all before. But after returning here from the rainforest, every odor of Santa Efigenia seemed sharper. Dirty sewage water, urine in alleyways, scattered garbage, burnt oil from abandoned cars, and even a dirty homeless bum they passed each left bad smells in her nose.
‘It smells the same as always,’ she thought. The odors of the slums were such a part of Santa Efigenia that street kids didn’t even notice. Then she thought of something more. From her very first day at Witness Stone, Celestia and Cecelia has told everyone Marissa smelled like a dumpster. Over and over they teased though she was too strong to be hurt. Maybe they were not just being mean. Maybe, though Marissa couldn’t tell it herself, she really had smelled like Boca da Lixo.
At the park the older boys kicked the soccer ball while Marissa and Paulinho raced with the swallows. Later they ate rice and beans Pipio had brought along and the boys told her about things that happened while she was gone. A gun battle for drug territory in one of the favelas, a raid on a condemned building where homeless people slept, and more street kids beaten.
Marissa felt a surge of guilt. Her going to school could help them escape from all those dangers someday, but while she was gone she was helpless to protect Sport Club da Luz. And if she couldn’t be magic soon, it would mean she left them in danger for nothing!
–And…†Pipio added hesitantly, –they found two of Leandro’s gang on Rua da Vitória.â€
–Dead?†Marissa asked.
–No. Empty,†he replied, knowing she would understand this just as all homeless street kids did. The invisible horror that visited the desperate streets of Santa Efigenia had found more prey, but the name of the evil that sucked away souls was another secret of magic Marissa could not tell.
–Dementors,†she whispered to herself, and was troubled even more. Then a shout distracted her.
–Look! It’s Marissa!†called one boy from a band of ragged children crossing the street.
–We told you she would come back!†Nino shouted like he had been proven right.
The other homeless kids gathered around to greet her. One thin little girl hugged her.
–I was afraid the dark thing got you,†Sofia whispered, –like Marta and those boys.â€
–Marissa was at school, like we said.†Pipio told Sofia.
–Really?†she asked Marissa, plainly believing the boys had made up a story.
–Yes,†Marissa confirmed, and quickly she found herself repeating her tales of school for the captivated group of children. History and Astronomy were classes she might have in a regular school, but she changed Herbology to ‘Gardening’ and Potions to ‘Cooking’.
–Oh that’s girl classes!†Tomas protested. All the young boys agreed.
–What good stuff do they teach?†Nino asked.
Marissa didn’t know what she could change Transfiguration or Defense Against the Dark Arts to, and didn’t want to say how terrible she was doing at the most important classes.
–Tell us more about soccer games!†Nino demanded. She happily changed the topic and creatively described as soccer plays all the action of the Quidditch matches she had seen.
–The bully team cheats all the time,†Nino said.
–I hope they lose next game!†Tomas added.
Though she described everything with all the excitement she could, Marissa knew none of it was as fantastic as it could be if she was allowed to tell them about magic!
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On Easter Sunday the boys came to Nossa Senhora da Luz with Marissa. Maybe if she had worn her bright, clean school uniform and shoes she could even have gone inside the church, but Marissa waited in the courtyard with her team until the Mass was over.
–Is Sister Angelica inside?†she politely asked an older nun.
–I’m sorry, dear. I believe she’s at the Cathedral today,†the Sister replied.
–Oh,†Marissa answered with disappointment. She wanted to tell Sister Angelica about school too, though she wasn’t sure she should make up stories like she did for the boys. She hoped Sister hadn’t gone to the big church in the nice part of Sao Paulo for good.
The rest of the holiday was happy as the boys played their own exciting soccer game, ate their fill of wonderful meals, and fell asleep as Marissa read a Saci comic they had found! Marissa laid out her uniform for the morning and covered it with flower blossoms she had picked at the church. She hoped their sweet fragrance would cover any bad smells that Santa Efigenia might have. Before dawn she would wash very good at the faucet.
On Monday morning she said goodbye to the boys again, and Mr. Palito walked with her to the samba school even though she knew he had returned to the alley just before dawn. Pipio had polished her shoes to a shiny gloss as pretty as the day they were brand new.
–Pipio is handling the scruffs okay,†Mr. Palito said as the swallows glided above them.
–Maybe…†Marissa replied quietly, –maybe he can take care of the team without me.â€
–Ha! Who fed them all so they didn’t have to beg while you visited?â€
–It was just one piece of cake, but Doz…†She stopped herself from saying more because she couldn’t tell about magic.
–So how’s school going then?†the weatherworn homeless man asked after a bit.
–Um… good.†She couldn’t make up stories to Mr. Palito.
–Don’t be playing around too much,†he directed. –Work hard and do your best.â€
–I am, but…†Marissa bit her lip sharply and turned away quickly as her voice faltered. How could she tell him she wasn’t really doing good at all? The wand she wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about wouldn’t do anything for her yet. What if she could never find how to make it work? She would never get a wizardings job and never make a better life for the boys.
–Course you are!†Palito declared loudly when he saw Marissa hide her face from his view. –Stupid of me to even doubt it.â€
Mr. Palito tussled her hair. Marissa turned back and smiled.
–Just don’t want you to be like I was in school,†he continued. –Played… soccer every hour instead of learning what I really needed.â€
–I’ll study hard,†Marissa promised as they reached the door of the small samba school.
Mercado Trocado was filled with people. It wasn’t as busy as the first day of school, but most of the younger children had families to see them off on the long train journey again. Marissa looked about trying to catch sight of the shops she had visited before. There was Longtoes Shoemakers, there was the Snidget Nest, there was another and another curious place that would be somewhere else completely if she were to walk in and out a doorway. Translucent stained glass unicorns galloped in the artwork behind the magic fireplaces. As more wizardings people arrived at the flaming Floo stations, Marissa made her way along the plaza to the parkway where the ornate old passenger coaches stood. She expected to find Sakura and Anna already on board the train, but saw the two girls and their mothers in the plaza talking with the Woolly Quidditch captain Monkey Magalhães and his parents.
Marissa stepped inside the train and took her place where she had sat before, hoping the cousins would join her soon. Fides, Spero, and Amor all glided down to the windowsill outside.
In a few minutes a line of finely dressed girls boarded the train. Celestia Bella de Barros led her Anaconda first-year roommates up the aisle, with Rosaria Castilho tucked among the other fair-skinned girls. She looked helplessly toward Marissa for one moment before her social advisor corrected her glance.
–Come on Rosaria,†Celestia ordered. –Proper girls don’t associate with those!â€
Marissa turned to look out the window. It didn’t matter that Celestia looked down on her because she came from Santa Efigenia or because she didn’t believe Marissa was a witch. It only mattered that she did good in school so one day she would have a wizardings job and the boys would have a real home with food they didn’t have to take from dumpsters.
But how could she do good in school if she could never make spells or charms or hexes? She promised Mr. Palito she would study hard, but worried that studying was not enough. Something else let all the first-years work their wands but somehow would never let her. She desperately needed to find what that was.
–I have to be magic, Spero,†Marissa whispered to the little swallow upon the windowsill. –I just have to be.â€
Because she never wanted to return one day to Santa Efigenia and have to tell Sport Club da Luz she had failed them.
Chapter 14 - She Has An Air About Her by JCCollier
Author's Notes:
Marissa handles her problems in the way she knows how. she would never ask for help, but after a time receives some anyway.
Charms was the first class on Tuesday morning after returning from the Easter holiday. Her wand had rested for four days and Marissa was sure it must be ready to work now! She dropped off Mirioby in Professor Merrythought’s classroom, then raced back down to breakfast only to find a great commotion on the balcony levels above the Great Hall. Confused groups of children gathered around stone bowls that were unexpectedly empty.
–Saci Pererê took all the guide frogs!†Eva told Marissa as she approached.
–To be first-years in Saci House,†Jaci Erasmi added laughingly as the one-legged black boy swirled past singing:
–We teach froggy Potions,
We teach froggy Charms.
They swish froggy wands,
With their froggy arms.â€
Saci disappeared as Alika Escuro assigned Tatiane Timbura to lead first-years to classes. House Leaders at other bowl pedestals were working to organize their younger students so they wouldn’t get lost in the hallmaze.
–Tatiane doesn’t have to take us,†Jaci Erasmi told Alika. –We can follow Marissa!â€
–She knows all the ways!†Mario Domingues confirmed. Alika could hardly believe that, but after all of her classmates agreed it was true, Marissa led them off to Charms so that Alika and Tatiane could guide the second-year and third-year classes. Her Macaw group arrived a full five minutes before their Anaconda classmates found the way.
Marissa drew her wand at Professor Galhos’ instruction and prepared for practice again. –I said I would do my best,†she whispered to the shiny stick. –Please charm something.â€
Yet despite how carefully she completed each word and wand movement, she still could not ‘Leviosa’ her long blue practice feather even an inch off the desk. Her wand didn’t know or care about her promise to Mr. Palito.
–If I just believe,†she told herself, –like everyone else just believes and magic happens.†But it was hard to keep that idea in her head while across a few aisles Cristiano and Fer laughed at her every attempt. Charms ended with Marissa as discouraged as ever.
–I’m sorry Celestia was so mean,†Rosaria Castilhos apologized as they met in Potions, because she hadn’t been allowed to sit beside Marissa on the trip back to Witness Stone.
–It’s not your fault Celly puts on her princess airs,†Eva Paranhos told Rosaria.
–I just don’t want Marissa to hate me because I have to…â€
–Celestia can’t make me hate you!†Marissa declared sharply. –I don’t let me feel what she wants.â€
–I told Mama all about how you’re helping me in Potions!†Rosaria offered more happily. –Papa can hardly believe I can touch bugs now without screaming.â€
–Dead ones at least,†Eva added.
–And I told Mama that Marissa is nicest to me of all the girls in school,†she continued. –I… I just didn’t tell her you’re not in Anaconda House,†Rosaria added weakly.
–Why?†Eva asked. –What does that matter?â€
–Cecelia says I’ll disappoint Mama and Papa if they think that I’m making friends with… um.. common wizards.â€
–Common wizards?â€
–Well, that’s not what Cece and Celly call Marissa,†she admitted. –They say…â€
–Say… †Eva prompted when Rosaria paused.
–You know. Gut…†Rosaria’s face drew into a painful expression, unwilling to finish the word. Eva understood without the rest and Marissa did too. Gutter girl . That was what the Bella de Barros sisters wanted everyone to call her because she was a homeless child from the slums. Marissa could see it hurt her Potions partner to even half say it.
–It’s okay Rosaria,†Marissa said. –I’m used to everyone saying I’m not good as them. In Sao Paulo rich people hate street kids, even when the rich people are just Mubbles.â€
–Muggles,†Eva corrected.
–Um… that.†All three giggled at her slip, easing the tension of Rosaria’s confession.
–But I don’t think you’re not as good,†Rosaria declared. –I think you’re the best of all!â€
Marissa smiled. She was happy spending the next hour with her partners brewing Leaf Shine Potion for the greenhouse plants, but not as happy as Eva Paranhos was when their trio finished first once again and she could see Celestia’s air of superiority falter for a few moments when Professor Katupya praised their perfectly blended potion.
In Transfiguration Marissa’s wand showed the same results as it had in Charms. None.
–I’m sure your magic will happen soon,†Professor Merrythought assured her once again after class ended and she had directed Tesimal to lead the other first-years down to lunch.
Marissa dejectedly made no reply as she fed Mirioby.
–How was your Easter visit?†the young professor asked. –Are the boys doing well?â€
–Yes, they’re good. And Mr. Palito is too,†Marissa replied. –Um… I didn’t say about magic, but I told them about my friends here and made Quidditch be soccer games.â€
–I’m sure they loved that.â€
–But… I wished I can tell them I’m doing good at school.â€
–You’ll do very well in your own time. Don’t be discouraged!†Merrythought ordered.
–Okay,†Marissa agreed. They talked until lunch period was ending, then she tucked Mirioby back in the pink backpack and ran off to Broom Flying class.
Mr. Cavaleiros chuckled when the Anaconda boys flew by and teased her as she polished broom handles. To show them all she was strong Marissa made herself feel nothing.
Marissa led her classmates to Defense Against the Dark Arts, to Astronomy, and back to the Great Hall when classes ended that day. That evening at dinner it rained hundreds of guide frogs from a dusty cloud beneath the enchanted ceiling. Marissa rescued one that splashed into her glass of glitter juice.
–At least they didn’t all come hopping out of our toilets this time,†one older girl said.
–Saci kidnaps the frogs once or twice every year,†Tatiane leaned over and told Marissa. – I think Katupya lets him just to force more kids to learn the hallmaze.â€
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Marissa hoped that after the holiday the Anacondas might give up hexing her with smells. She found out the next day that Sol’s Quidditch team were still sworn to their mean tricks, they just hadn’t been able to find her alone Tuesday when she was being hallmaze guide. To make up for that the Conda teens hexed her seven times over the next three days, but never once did Marissa let them see they could make her feel angry or hurt.
Rosaria showed Marissa and Eva her Herbology sketchbook in Potions class Wednesday. She had colored it all to life with magic paints that her mother had given her for Easter. The tiny ladybug she had drawn was now bright red and flew from each page to the next as sketches turned to moving images of blooming orchids or budding leaves. She had even painted a landscape of the hillside terrace of magical Brazilian Dutchman’s Pipe flowers that weren’t allowed to grow in the greenhouses with other plants.
–They’re beautiful, Rosaria,†Eva said.
–But I’m NOT painting to life any of the spiders you had me draw. Only my ladybug.â€
Marissa and Eva laughed. She was less scared of insects, but Rosaria was still Rosaria.
After Potions Celestia took Rosaria aside in the hall and spritzed her with her perfume. –So we won’t have to smell the odors you get by sitting next to that,†she told Rosaria.
On Saturday morning Marissa went with her friends to the Woolly Quidditch practice. While the three swallows practiced with Anna, Tiquinho helped her teach Mirioby to land. His macaw Flap-Flap would glide from her shoulder and she would coax Mirioby to follow. Soon he could set down without tumbling over in the grass.
–Good Mirioby!†Marissa said as Tiquinho set him back on her shoulder. He couldn’t fly back like Flap-Flap yet, but awkwardly thrashed his wings to show he would learn soon.
–Tiquinho, has Flap-Flap ever flied far, far away in the deep rainforest?†Marissa asked. Last night Mirioby had once more filled her eyes with a bird’s eye view of a very distant forest valley. Somehow Marissa knew it was real, but could not understand how Mirioby could know a place he had never been.
–No. He only flies here at school and around our village,†Tiquinho replied. –Why?â€
–I just thought maybe he told Mirioby about places he went,†she explained.
–I don’t know if birds do that, Marissa.â€
–Um… they sing and squawk to each other. Maybe ones can let others see things like…â€
–Like you see by Mirioby.â€
Marissa nodded. But Fides, Spero and Amor had never been to a deep rainforest either. If the only birds ever with him didn’t show Mirioby the faraway place, who did?
Sakura and Anna finished practice and they all walked together back through Witness Stone and out to the great wide plaza that the two giant statue wizards watched over. A group of older girls walking in the opposite direction passed by Marissa and her friends. With an air of superiority more practiced than her younger sister, beautiful Cecelia Bella de Barros cast a disdainful glance and fanned her hand beside her nose.
–I hope Principal Absencia does something about her gutter stink soon,†she said loudly to the girls following her, –or all of Witness Stone will end up smelling that bad!â€
Tiquinho was holding hands with Potira, but turned to raise his wand in the other hand.
–NO,†Marissa quietly said as she held his arm down.
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–…and he flew up to my headboard!†Marissa excitedly told Professor Merrythought on Monday morning as she dropped off Mirioby before classes. It was only a few feet up from her mattress, but he did fly!
–Then I think it’s time Mirioby found a new place in the classroom,†her professor said. –He’s growing too big to stay in your backpack all day.â€
She motioned to the tall bronze stand that had sat empty for so long. Marissa hesitated.
–Um… do you think Asuoby might be mad if Mirioby used his perch?†she asked.
–I’m sure Asuoby would be happy to let him use it.â€
Marissa lifted the young macaw near the stand and as he stepped to the perch a thought suddenly came to her. Asuoby! When he was a baby Mirioby had been right by Asuoby when he died. Could the very old macaw have been the one who showed Mirioby the rainforest place that he made her see again and again?
–Professor,†she asked, –did Asuoby ever fly in forests far away from Witness Stone?â€
–Oh, I’m sure Asuoby flew most all the forests of the Amazon,†Merrythought replied. –He travelled with Professor Amaral in the summers and in his younger years Asuoby delivered the professor’s letters to the native villages just as owls do.â€
Then it must be Asuoby who gave Mirioby his view of the forest valley! Maybe it was a place he was trying to fly to that day and he let the baby bird see it just before he died.
–Hurry now or you’ll be late!†Professor Merrythought ordered.
Marissa raced along the passages, taking each twist and turn and stairway that she knew would lead back to the Great Hall this morning. Just as she’d found the hallmaze secret, now she’d found where Mirioby’s memory came from.
At breakfast an almost deafening ‘Team of Destiny’ chant echoed through the dining area. The next Quidditch game Saturday would be Anaconda House against Macaw House and the ever-confident Condas were already cheering their team and degrading the Macaws.
–Loserbirds on loser brooms! Loserbirds on loser brooms!†Stenio Cabral led his players in shouting at the Macaw tables. Like Jaguar House, most of the Macaw team would use the worn school practice brooms while Anaconda team members all had sleek, fast racing brooms bought by their wealthy city parents.
Marissa was hexed on her way to Herbology by Conda Quidditch boys in the hallmaze. Surprisingly the three almost overlooked her because they were busy slamming a Macaw player against a stone wall to demonstrate how hard he might be hit in the game. Marissa stumbled into them as hard as she could so the other boy could go on his way, then let the angry teens cast a weak hex that was almost gone when she reached the greenhouses.
On Tuesday Marissa met Tiquinho after classes to give Mirioby more flying lessons. He was mad when he smelled she had been stink-hexed again, but she asked him to ignore it. On Wednesday she was hexed once between morning classes and once in the afternoon. More Conda players almost stunk her again on Thursday, but the teens were surprised by a strong whirlwind that blew their wands from their hands as it rushed along the hallway. –Pink bag girl!†Saci stopped to greet her as the two boys ran to catch their fallen wands that were still rolling away with the wind. –Got a light?â€
After classes she arrived at the balcony above the Great Hall and found Sakura, Anna, Potira and Tiquinho all there, along with many native first-years.
–He’s getting so big, Marissa,†Sakura remarked as Mirioby sat happily on her shoulder. Marissa didn’t keep him in the pink backpack anymore and he even slept perched on her headboard now.
–Any hexes to undo today?†the Jaguar House Leader Jaci Jaruna asked her.
–Um… no.â€
–The Condas were busy bullying the Macaw team,†Araci Uirapuru told Jaci as she lined up Jaguar first-year girls to return to their house. –I heard one Macaw Chaser sprained her wrist when she was accidentally knocked down a staircase by some Conda players.â€
Behind them Tiquinho held open a little animal-skin pouch as another native boy poured a small bit of reddish powder into it from a shell of his potions necklace. In the last few moments many other Jaguar first-years had quietly and almost secretly done the same. Marissa’s sharp eyes were not the only ones that noticed.
–What is that?†Araci questioned as she quickly appeared beside the two boys.
–Jealous Pipe,†Tiquinho answered his House Leader.
–For who?†she demanded strictly.
–Everyone,†he replied casually. Araci gave him a stern, disapproving stare that Marissa was sure she must have learned from Professor Katupya. Tiquinho was unmoved by it.
–For everyone you’ll need a lot more than just first-years can brew,†another voice said. Now her stern look turned to Jaci to show she did not approve of encouraging Tiquinho.
–Well... uh... he will,†Jaci Juruna asserted hesitantly, somehow more affected by her expression than Tiquinho was.
Marissa did not know why Araci turned to glance at her for a moment before her look softened and Araci made a very definite reply to all the Jaguars around her.
–Yes. I guess we will.â€
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The excitement for the coming Quidditch game had continued at meals through the week, mostly with mean taunts and bullying shouts from the Anacondas, not the friendly back and forth chants between houses that had come before the match of Macaw and Woolly. Marissa continued to fail at any magic she tried, but her dismay at this was lessened some by her joy at seeing how quickly Mirioby was learning to fly. By Thursday evening he could glide fifteen feet from Tiquinho’s arm to hers and even fly up to low tree branches. Marissa wished they could take him for lessons again on Friday after dinner, but both the Anaconda/Macaw and Jaguar/Woolly classes had a very hard Potions assignment that Tiquinho decided they must all work on. When all the dishes had magically disappeared, Marissa and Eva took out books and parchment to do their homework in the Great Hall. Sakura, Anna and Potira, who were a group in their Potions class, came over to join them.
–Where Rosaria?†Potira asked.
–Celly don’t let her sit with me,†Marissa replied.
–Not even for classwork?†Sakura said. –That’s silly!â€
–Us common wizards aren’t good enough for proper girls,†Eva said, placing herself and the cousins with Marissa. But the Anacondas didn’t hate them the way they did her.
–Well, we wish Celly would stop trying to make Rosaria into one!†Sakura declared for herself and Anna. Potira nodded agreement.
Marissa wished that too. She was not happy that she could only see her friend in Potions class where partner assignments overruled Celestia’s order that Rosaria never be near her.
–Look,†Eva pointed. –It must be the first-years turn to be kicked out of their bedrooms.â€
Across the Great Hall every Anaconda first-year girl remained at their table and everyone understood they would be there all evening. Week by week Cecelia Bella de Barros and her friends had been redecorating every level of the Anaconda House girls dormitories, forcing one year from their rooms each weekend while Cecelia’s vast project progressed. That year’s girls were ordered to stay in the Great Hall until bedtime during the redesign. Rosaria had told Marissa that last Friday and Saturday all the second-year girls had slept with the first-years while their rooms were redone. It looked like this weekend Celestia’s proper girls must share someone else’s beds.
–How will Celly survive?†Eva cried dramatically.
–Don’t worry,†Sakura replied. –Cece has probably designed a private suite for her... and her dresses.â€
While all the girls giggled Marissa watched Rosaria sit uncomfortably next to Celestia at the Anaconda tables. She was probably being told again what wasn’t allowed on her diet. Marissa did not care what they did to Anaconda House, but she didn’t want the Bella de Barros sisters to ‘redecorate’ Rosaria.
Many other students studied in the Great Hall too. Serafina, Leila and Maria sat together at the next table, while at another some fourth-year girls studying for their crystal balls class talked about a boy sitting further away.
Constanca Estrelafala, the frizzly-hair girl who sometimes recognized Marissa clearly but at other times didn’t, replied to her friend Nina.
–Maybe you should be a little nicer to him since he’s going to be your husband.â€
–Constanca! I would never even date Romão. He’s a jerk!†Nina shouted.
–Well don’t get mad at ME because you asked me who and I told you. One day you’re going to marry him.â€
Nina dropped her face into her hands. –I hate Divination.â€
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On Saturday morning Tiquinho led the way down the forest path to the Astronomy tower. Mirioby sat on Marissa’s shoulder while the swallows hid from the rain inside her robes. Watching the Woolly Quidditch practice each weekend had become as regular as classes from Monday to Friday. Marissa liked having the three swallows play Snitch for Anna, but it was really Potira who insisted they come to see her Woolly friends fly the brooms.
Marissa was surprised to see Monkey Magalhães, the seventh-year Woolly team captain, meet Sakura and Anna on the path as they all came to the clearing.
–What are they doing here?†Tiquinho asked as he was the first to notice two people who Marissa was also not pleased to see. On the far side of the field Mr. Cavaleiros and Sol Braganza stood watching as Woolly players flew overhead.
–Spying!†Monkey answered very definitely with a scowl.
–Tell they leave,†Potira said bluntly. She disliked the potbellied teacher just as much as Marissa did. He ignored the girls in Potira’s Brooms class too, besides barely teaching any flying skills to Jaguar and Woolly boys.
–Love to!†Monkey replied. –But as Brooms instructor, Cavaleiros gets to inspect that we’re ‘following proper broom safety’ in team practices.â€
He handed Sakura and Anna their brooms he had brought over, followed by a direction. –Sakura, no Blue Snitch chasing for Anna today. The spies don’t need to know we might have a great Seeker in a few years, so you two do Quaffle passing drills today.â€
Sakura nodded and went with Anna to join the other Woolly reserve players. Tiquinho, Potira and Marissa sat by the Astronomy tower wall, sheltered from the drizzling rain. Marissa was not in a mood for Mirioby’s lessons with Mr. Cavaleiros and Sol watching, so instead she listened to Tiquinho tell the story of the thousand cauldrons of Jaguating while Potira and her sloth cheered the passing drills. Ker was asleep, but Potira helped him clap.
Across the field, Cavaleiros and Sol followed a practice match closely for half an hour. Every so often Baltazar would shoot a fireball spell from his wand for the two opposing Seekers to chase, and Marissa noticed that Mr. Cavaleiros pointed this out to Sol every time. She was happy to see them leave a short time later.
After practice and taking Mirioby back to her room, they all went to the Great Hall for an early lunch. There was no giant banquet laid out like on school days, but a tray of food and drinks appeared before them moments after Marissa and the others sat at one table. Somehow the unseen little ones knew when children were ready to eat.
–Our family won’t be here for this game,†Sakura said as she and Anna filled their plates, –but Monkey wants the reserves to sit together so he can teach us to analyze opponents.â€
–What’s analyze?†Marissa asked.
–Learning the Anacondas style and weaknesses.â€
–Conda weakness they mean,†Potira said.
–I don’t know if that’s a weakness,†Sakura replied unsurely.
–It is,†Tiquinho asserted confidently.
Tiquinho and Potira wouldn’t be at the Quidditch game that afternoon. They were going into the rainforest with a group of native students to collect plants.
–I thought the greenhouses have all the plants we need for potions,†Marissa said.
–This is for... a special project,†Tiquinho replied and said nothing more.
–He wouldn’t tell us either,†Sakura said to Marissa. –Anna thinks it’s for some secret Jaguar ceremony.â€
No one had invited her with them to the Quidditch game, but Marissa did want to watch so she could have another match to tell Sport Club da Luz all about someday. On the trail she let some Anacaonda Quidditch boys catch and hex her, then sat off behind a vine-shrouded lupuna tree to let the smell fade away before she continued on to the game.
Chasers Court overflowed with wizardings people again and Marissa found that because this was an Anaconda House game there were many more of the European city families. She pushed through the crowds and rode the circling platform up to the Macaw stands.
The echoing voice of the announcer welcomed the crowd to the year’s third Quidditch game. The trees of the Anaconda seating area shook with loud applause as their players were introduced, but an even louder roar rose from all the other bleachers a short time later when the Macaw Chaser scored the first goal and Macaw House incredibly led 10-0. Sol Braganza and his other Beater had tried to crush the Chaser between them, but they misjudged his speed and smashed into each other instead!
The rest of the game was incredibly violent, even more than the first game Marissa saw. Sol seemed so outraged that the Macaws had scored first that he had his team hit, slam, and foul every Macaw player at every chance, almost always without the referee seeing. While one Conda distracted the official with a fake struggle, another would viciously foul another Macaw Chaser or Beater with the real attack. Loud ‘BOOOO’s rose from every stand except Anaconda, where wild applause came from fans urging on the mean plays.
Two Macaw players were forced out of the game by injuries. With an accidental wild swing of his Beater’s bat, Sol Braganza smashed the broom of the Chaser who had scored first. The boy landed safely on the remaining strand of splintered wooden handle. Later the Macaw Seeker was slammed into the floor of the field by the other huge Anaconda Beater, again to the cheering approval of Anaconda spectators. The Condas continued to intimidate the Macaws and to score at will for another hour. Sol even knocked his own Seeker away from catching the Golden Snitch once so they could have more time to beat up the other team. Finally the game ended at 390 to 30. The Anacondas team rushed together to congratulate themselves, ignoring the battered Macaw players who limped off the field in defeat.
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On Sunday morning Marissa went to the stables to see if Hierotapirs always laid down in the same rows like her book said. It was true. Each one would lay next to the same other animals each time, lining up like words on a page. Some spots were empty, but whatever secret message was in their patterned fur, somehow the Hierotapirs knew what order it should be read in.
She was cornered in the stables by two Conda teens who got her with a Skunkspray Hex before they were run off by the frightful, angry neighs of the Thestrals they couldn’t see.
–Boy does not like them,†Negrinho do Pastoreio said from the shadows.
–No,†Marissa agreed. –They’re not nice.†Happily she talked with the spirit slave boy until the smell wore off.
Monday morning Marissa received two letters. One was from Mr. Palito, an answer to her last letter sent back again on pink stationary with her own writing somehow erased. The second letter was from a girl.
Dear Marissa,
My name is Rainha. I attend Huascaran Academy in Peru. It is on the other side of the Andes from your school. I love birds. I have twelve canaries that sing Bach concertos. Sometimes I pretend I can tell what they're thinking too. I love Macaws also. My uncle had one, but he works at the Cordillera Blanca Reserve and it was eaten by a dragon! Keep yours away from them!
Sincerely,
Rainha
P.S. Here is a picture of my canaries.
One of the magic photos was folded in the letter, filled with bright yellow birds flying. After she had read it, Marissa shared with Tatiane the reply to the letter she had helped her write.
–That’s nice,†Tatiane said. –It’s not quite what you asked though, is it?â€
–No,†Marissa agreed, –but I like the picture.â€
Somehow the Condas missed her on Tuesday, but on Wednesday they hexed her twice. Just after the last class of the day was one of their favorite times to find her, so the smell still covered her when she came from the hallmaze doorway to the balcony area where the Jaguar students always gathered after classes. Jaci Juruna kindly unhexed her as she greeted Tiquinho and Potira.
–Tiq, we have extract for you,†two second-year Jaguar girls said as they took shells from their necklaces. The simple necklaces that every native child wore were filled with potion ingredients helpful for living in the rainforests. Once Potira had told Marissa that some were cures for poisons, or dusts to help escape wild animals. This looked like the same reddish powder Tiquinho had collected before.
–Girls,†Araci Uirapuru cautioned. –Not here on the balcony. Back at our common room where others won’t see.†Marissa wondered if she should pretend she didn’t see.
–The third-years will have theirs on Friday,†Araci quietly told Tiquinho. –And fourths and fifths have another batch on Monday. First-years, line up and let’s go!â€
–Pungent Pee Hex again,†Jaci Juruna noted as he still stood behind Marissa. –Skunk, dung, pee. Skunk, dung, pee. Don’t they know any other hexes?â€
–Well, NO, they don’t. They’re Conda Quidditch players!†Araci replied, which was all the explanation anyone needed. The Jaguars all laughed as they marched away.
After she fed Mirioby his dinner and the swallows had flown to their nest for the night, Marissa practiced her Transfiguration spell that evening while her roommates were away in the common room. Eva Paranhos offered to practice with her but Marissa declined.
–Um... no, I don’t need help,†she had said. –I just need me.â€
Marissa waved her wand many, many times but couldn’t see one sign that her matchstick might change to a needle anytime in the next few hours. She sighed quietly. She was so tired of looking weak and dumb in her magic classes while others were learning so much. Celestia Bella de Barros had turned six matching teacups into little white mice today and sent them scurrying down one table and up to another where they all formed back into the set of china. Her air of superiority glowed from her the entire day. Celestia was gifted.
–But I’m still nothing,†she said to Mirioby as he swooped over to her from the bedpost. –How come I can’t learn magic as fast as you’re learning to fly? How come I just can’t?â€
Marissa gave up practicing and read her History of Magic chapter before going to bed.
The next day she still could not make any spells in Charms, Transfiguration, or Defense Against the Dark Arts. And Friday was the same. Marissa was sure that by now mean Professor Guerra believed she would just be swallowed whole by a monster someday. How much longer would it be before her teachers gave up and decided the same thing that the Bella de Barros sisters told everyone? That Marissa was not a witch.
After dinner ended on Friday evening Sakura came over to find her at the Macaw tables.
–We’re not practicing at the Astronomy tower fields tomorrow,†she told Marissa.
–Um... why?†she replied with a little disappointment. Fides, Spero and Amor loved playing with Anna every Saturday.
–Because we get to practice on the REAL Quidditch field with the REAL golden hoops!†Sakura exlaimed excitedly, jumping up and down.
–Well now that the whole world has heard, can you ask about the rest a little quieter?†said Baltazar Varnhagen, who with quiet Anna had arrived behind Sakura at the table.
–Ask what?â€
–The Quidditch field is over twice the length of our practice area,†Sakura informed her, though Marissa knew the small clearing was nowhere near the size of the stadium hidden among the towering trees. –Can the swallows fly fast that far to help Anna practice?â€
–Yes,†Marissa smiled. –Yes they can!†The swallows would fly for miles through the city in Santa Efigenia without ever tiring. A few hundred meters would be very easy.
–Good!†Sakura replied. Anna smiled.
Baltazar explained that Professor Galhos had been in heated discussions with Ramo Cavaleiros for weeks to allow the Woolly players to practice on the full Quidditch field. She finally reached an agreement after reminding him that Anaconda House did not own the field.
–If I were Galhos, I would have just turned him into a pig instead of arguing,†Baltazar declared. –But I guess with that potbelly Cavaleiros is almost there already.â€
So on Saturday morning Marissa met the cousins near Woolly House and walked to the wide lily pond they would cross to reach the massive wall that surrounded Witness Stone. The swallows flew along above them, but Tiquinho and Potira were not with them today. Once again they had gone with the plant collecting Jaguar children, leaving even earlier to travel into deeper forest areas to gather more secret plants. But Tiquinho’s scarlet macaw stayed behind. Far across the plaza Marissa saw him perched with other colorful birds on the stone ledges of Jaguar House.
–Awk!†Mirioby called out.
–Yes, it’s Flap-Flap,†she said to the young hyacinth macaw on her shoulder. –But you can’t fly that fa...â€
Mirioby swooped from her shoulder. With a strong, smooth stroke of his outstretched wings he rose high into the sky. Marissa watched in amazement as he flew the entire distance across the plaza, a hundred meters further than he had ever flown before. She and the cousins smiled with delight.
–I think Mirioby wants to stay with Flap-Flap this morning,†Sakura laughed.
–Yes,†Marissa agreed happily. –He can fly anywhere now!â€
With Sakura and Anna she stepped across the wide pond on the floating path of lilypads. They passed through the gate and soon reached the courtyard and the heavy stonework Floos surrounding it. With other arriving Woolly players they rode a lift that took them up to the field level of the Quidditch stadium. The swallows happily sped far across the wider area of open sky, playing Blue Snitch with Anna. Even on the worn old Quetzal broom that was her favorite, Anna too could reach higher speeds across the long field.
–Damn, she is fast!†Monkey Magalhães said to Baltazar as they watched Anna rushing after Spero, dipping and rolling to follow his path of flight until she lightly tagged him.
Spero glided back to the players bench. –Your turn, Fides!†Marissa called out to the other swallow who was snapping up a dragonfly before he zoomed away past Anna. Across the field Sakura hovered on her broom in front of the three tall golden hoops, assigned as Keeper while the reserves players practiced scoring runs. She was having trouble knocking the Quaffle away from the hoops, but like all the others was excited to be on the big field.
–We play Jaguar House next Saturday,†Monkey announced to his team when practice ended. –But they’re just a warmup for our match against the Anacondas next month.â€
The Anaconda name brought boos and hisses from all the team.
–Yeah, we probably can’t win,†Monkey admitted reluctantly, –but let’s show Sol and his goons there’s one team at this school that can put up a real fight against their bullying and cheating. Woolly House isn’t gonna be beaten by three hundred points.â€
Monkey and Baltazar led a cheer of –Woolly! Woolly! Woolly!†before they all departed back to Witness Stone. Marissa stopped for a while at Chaser’s Court with the cousins. Sakura explained to her how the vine-covered stone Floos worked with magic fire ash, and for awhile they played hide-and seek with the swallows around the huge fireplaces. It was nearly noon when they began walking the stone pathway back to the school.
Halfway back Marissa saw a group of large boys coming from the opposite direction. She continued walking ahead of Sakura and Anna until she met Sol Braganza, Stenio Cabral, and two more seventh-year Anaconda players named Fonseca and Rezende. To show she didn’t have to hide from their tricks, Marissa quietly stopped and waited for one to put a stink hex on her.
–I got this one, Sol,†the Fonseca boy said raising his wand.
–Not in front of the Jap girls, stupid!†Sol growled. He stood and glared at Marissa but she could not tell what he might do. Sol stepped forward to stand almost on top of her. –Ya know, I’m already pissed we lost half our practice to your monkeyblood friends!â€
Marissa stood her ground, though the swallows upon her shoulders shuddered nervously. –Stay with Anna,†she whispered, and they fluttered away behind her. Sol Braganza looked very angry that she had not backed away.
–Aren’t you tired of this yet, gutter girl?†he finally said to her. –Just run away! Go ask Principal Absencia to send you back to Boca da Lixo where everyone stinks like you!â€
Sol and the Bella de Barros thought Marissa should be hurt by hexes and mean names. They didn’t understand that nothing they did to her was worse that what people in Sao Paulo did to homeless children every day. Those kids couldn’t run away, they had to stay and face their desperate lives. Face hunger and sickness, brutal police, and deadly gangs that laughed at killing street kids. The Anacondas thought hexes would make her run away, but it was easier to face them than anything she faced in Santa Efigenia. Knowing that made her stronger than them.
–Don’t you get it?†Sol’s voice grew lounder. –YOU DON’T BELONG HERE. Look, even the mute can cast a spell now and you can’t! Doesn’t that tell you something?â€
Anna shivered as he pointed at her. They were three very little girls facing four very big boys. Marissa wished her friends were not here to be scared by Sol, but she stood firm.
–Are you gonna hex me then?†she asked. He wanted her to be scared of him too, but she wouldn’t be. That just made Sol Braganza angrier.
–Why?†he yelled. –You’re so soaked in stink hexes already you’ll probably smell like skunks and horse shit forever!â€
–It don’t work that way.â€
–What?â€
–Hexes fade away,†she told him. –Tiquinho told me hexes cast on different days don’t soak to each other. Umm... and he says the ‘team of density’ is too dumb to know that.†She added the last part because she didn’t like what he called Anna.
Instantly Sol swung his arm to hit her, but Marissa could see he hadn’t put real force into the swing. His fist halted an inch from her face. He had expected her to flinch or cover herself. She didn’t.
–Sol, don’t! She’s a first-year!†Rezende warned him.
Marissa felt Anna’s hand on her sleeve, pulling to ask her to step away and leave, but she stood as still as a statue. She was going to stand there until Sol walked away.
He raised both his fists now. Sol Braganza was very strong, but could probably not hit her any harder than Leandro had when he knocked her to the ground in Santa Efigenia.
–Dumb? I know more spells than you’ll ever cast with that welfare wand!†he snarled. –You’ll never cast ONE!â€
–Sol, we have to get to practice,†Stenio Cabral urged the furious Quidditch captain. –Coach will be waiting at the Floos.â€
Sol bent down, his face inches from Marissa’s. –Afraid of nothing, gutter girl?†he said. –I’ll put a Boggart up your behind and we’ll see what your guts are afraid of!â€
Marissa said nothing, but she didn’t think that worked that way either.
–Let’s go!†Sol yelled as he stormed by her down the path. The other three followed. As they disappeared around a bend, Marissa turned to see Sakura had tears on her face.
–I... I thought he was really going to hit you.â€
Both of the cousins were very shaken. Marissa sat with them a few minutes until they were better.
–How did you stay so calm?†Sakura asked her after wiping tears away.
–I decide what I feel, not them! They can’t make me feel anything.â€
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The girls agreed not to tell anyone about the confrontation with Sol and the Conda boys, mostly because they knew Tiquinho would want to fight all of them with duelling spells. By Monday afternoon Marissa believed that Sol had made his players say nothing too. Celestia, Cristiano and Fer had not teased her in any way about the meeting on the trail, so maybe Sol didn’t want anyone to know he was forced to walk away from a girl.
Sol Braganza was wrong to think he could scare her, but he was right about one thing. Her wand. After more hours of practice through the weekend, it still made no magic. Marissa could deny that Condas hurt her, but not that she couldn’t cast a single spell.
Monday was May 15th, a full three months since she had first come to Witness Stone, yet Marissa had not found how to make her wand work any more than it had on her first day. At lunchtime she sat with Professor Merrythought on the terrace outside her classroom. They shared a sandwich and sliced fruit while watching the swallows fly with Tesimal.
–Beginning next week we won’t have this time together,†her professor reminded her.
–Cuz you’re gonna be tu..tutoring.â€
–Yes. Helping fifth-years and seventh-years prepare for OWLs and NEWTs.â€
Marissa was disappointed that her private time with Professor Merrythought would be going away, but made sure not to show that because it would make her look not strong. Mirioby was eating nuts now, so she don’t have to nurse him his baby bird food each day. Feeding him was why Marissa really stayed here at lunchtime.
–Um... Professor,†Marissa said quietly, –first-years have tests too. At the end of the year and at the semmers...â€
–Semester,†her professor said.
–What happens if someone gets bad grades on a test?†Marissa asked. –What happens if I.. if someone can’t do...â€
–Oh, Marissa,†Merrythought replied, feeling her concern. –The end of semester is two months away. I’m sure you’ll find your magic by then!â€
It was less than two months, Marissa thought. It was really only six weeks.
–Your spells won’t have to be perfect,†she tried to assure her student, – just improving. –Believe in yourself, Marissa.â€
–I’m trying.â€
–I know you are. Now let’s get Mirioby to his perch and you off to Herbology.â€
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Sol Braganza was unwilling to hex her himself, but didn’t stop his players from continuing to. Over the next week the Anaconda teens stepped up their attacks on Marissa even more often. Over the next week too a joyful contest of cheers went on at every meal between the teams playing in the next Quidditch match on Saturday. Marissa was sure it would be a fun, friendly game until Thursday after classes when she heard Jaci Juruna answer Baltazar’s request for a favor from the Jaguar team.
–You want us to cheat?†the confused House Leader asked.
–Really. I need you to knock us around as hard as you can,†Baltazar confirmed his request. –Slam us! Foul us! Hurt us! Help me get the Woolly Quidditch team ready for the Condas.â€
Jaci shrugged to Araci Uirapuru beside him before he agreed.
And so the Quidditch game Saturday was a fierce battle, filled with jarring collisions, flailing fists and countless fouls, but also joking and laughter among the opposing teams. When Woolly finally won, the players met at midfield to congratulate each other on a hard-fought game and all the fans rose to cheer both teams. To Marissa it was the most awesome game yet! And that morning she had got to collect leftovers from the food fight to help feed the Hierotapirs. That more than made up for being stink hexed two times again on Sunday by the Anacondas.
Tiquinho found Marissa on Monday after dinner.
–Come on, we’re going for a walk,†he said.
–Won’t Potira be mad?†Marissa asked. Potira frowned sometimes lately when Tiquinho spent too much time with Marissa.
–No, her and the cousins are doing a Potions report,†he replied, –and I told her I’m going to duel with the Jaguar boys.â€
–Are you?â€
–Sure. After we’re done,†he confirmed.
–Where are we going?†Marissa asked as she followed him down the hall leading out of Witness Stone.
–If I tell you I’d have to Obliviate you.â€
Marissa knew that was a spell because she’d heard the old macaw Asuoby repeat it, but it wasn’t one in any of her first-year spells books so she didn’t know what it did.
They walked along outside, hopping over oranges on the pathway. Tiquinho led her past the ways that went to Macaw House and Woolly House, and past the Astronomy tower.
–This way,†Tiquinho said after they had crossed the Quidditch practice field and come under the cover of the forest again. A narrow stone walkway, smaller than the regular paths through the school grounds, led into the shadowed leafy undergrowth. Marissa had never been beyond Witness Stone in this direction. Curious monkeys swung along above them in the trees.
–Where are we going?†she asked again.
–Upstream along a ridge,†Tiquinho replied.
She knew that. Warring River flowed somewhere along to their right, out of sight in the dense rainforest foliage and curtains of vine. The vegetation was growing thicker and the shadows darker as it grew late. Soon they had been walking half an hour.
–It’s further than I thought,†Tiquinho said, stepping over some monstrous tree roots that grew across the path.
In the dimming light they lost the path and had to backtrack thirty feet before finding it again. The stone steps were hidden under giant-leafed bushes.
–Um... are we lost?†Marissa said.
–NO. Jaci told me the way, but I guess it’s pretty overgrown. Mostly only little ones use this path.â€
Tiquinho pushed through hanging vines and huge palm fronds as night arrived.
–It’s here somewhere,†he said hesitantly, following the barely visible stones muddied by a little stream that had washed over them.
–What’s here?†Marissa asked. –Maybe you should turn on your...â€
–AAAAHH!â€
–Tiquinho!â€
His shadowed form had just vanished in front of her, dropping into the darkness amid tearing branches. He had fallen, but it was too dark ahead for Marissa to see how far.
–Tiq? Tiq?†she shouted louder without an answer. She needed a flashlight or even a glowworm light to see, but all she had was her wand. Marissa took it uncertainly from the fold of her robes.
–Please!†she held it to her lips and whispered. –Tiquinho might be hurt!â€
–Uuu... uuu... – came a sound from far below in the pitch black.
–Lumos,†Marissa cried out as clearly as she could. A tiny, hopeful glow appeared at the tip of her wand, but at the same moment a much brighter light illuminated the darkness below and Tiquinho’s wand beside his fallen body. It wasn’t her magic, Marissa quickly realized. Tiquinho had turned on her wand along with his.
He lay some twelve feet below in a stone-walled room like a basement without a house on top of it. Her wand faded out in a second, but by Tiquinho’s she could see a steep narrow stairway that led down into the space. Vines tangled around her ankles and almost made Marissa fall too as she rushed down the leaf-strewn steps to Tiquinho.
The floor was hard stone too, but he had fallen on his chest and face in a spot where the foliage trailing from the walls had covered the ground.
–Are you okay?†she asked as she dropped to her knees beside him.
–Ugh...†he rolled over to one side and pushed himself up on his left arm. In the wand’s light she saw a grimace of pain on his face. –I... broke my wrist.â€
–I have to take you to the Healer,†Marissa told him firmly.
–When we’re done,†Tiquinho replied. He clenched his teeth as he got to his feet and looked around. Marissa could hear water running and along the room ran a number of carved stone canals that disappeared back into the ground on the wall opposite them.
–What is this place?†Marissa asked.
–The cisterns,†he replied. –Water from the river flows in here to be filtered before it gets sent to different buildings of Witness Stone.â€
It was like faucet pipes, Marissa saw, but very old. There were six stone-lined channels, each with a carved symbol above a water spout that poured into it. A bird, a monkey, a cat, a snake, wizard hats and...
–That goes to the greenhouses,†Tiquinho said of a leaf symbol as Marissa scraped off some moss to see it clearly, –and those are...â€
–I know what they are!†she said. It was very simple. –But why did we come here?â€
–Plumbing maintenance,†he replied, pushing back his robes to take an animal-skin pouch from his waist. It was the one the other Jaguars had poured their necklace shell powder into a few weeks ago. With his good hand he held it over one channel of flowing water.
–I need some help,†he said, holding his injured wrist against himself.
Marissa lifted the bottom of the pouch so that its content emptied out as Tiquinho held it. The dark red powder poured into the water for two or three minutes, dissolving as it flowed away. Marissa thought it was ten times as much powder as the little pouch should be able to hold. She didn’t know what this was all about and Tiquinho wouldn’t say.
They made their way back to Witness Stone, guided by Tiquinho’s shining wand light. Alika and Tatiane were out looking for Marissa and met them near Macaw House.
–Tiquinho broke his wrist!†Marissa told Alika as she was about to scold them for being out by themselves later than first-years were allowed.
–How?†Alika replied.
–I.. tripped and fell trying not to step on Mappy’s fruit,†Tiquinho said. –It’s nothing.â€
–It’s NOT nothing!†Marissa told him. It was very swollen and she’d heard his moans of pain as they returned on the dark trail.
–I’ll take him to the Healer or he won’t go,†Alika stated. –You get to your room, now!†she added to Marissa.
–Be at the Great Hall early tomorrow,†Tiquinho said to them all as Alika led him away. –Before breakfast appears!â€
Tatiane turned to Marissa with a questioning look, like she wanted to know a reason for his instruction. Marissa could only shrug.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Marissa and all the students of Macaw House came to the Great Hall at 6:45 on Tuesday. First-years were always led to breakfast at seven, but on most mornings many upper-year students would straggle in later or or even skip breakfast to sleep in if they liked.
–Araci asked the Woollys to come early too,†Alika said, nodding to the Woolly House tables that were also already fully seated with every student. No one was arriving late.
–Something is definitely going on,†Milo Timbira replied.
Breakfast appeared at exactly 7 a.m. The tables instantly filled with trays of fluffy eggs, fried carne de sol, fresh rolls and bolo de fubá, all smelling like they had been taken from the ovens or stoves only the second before the little ones magicked it to the Great Hall. The aromas of black coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice blended with all the others.
As her roommates began filling their plates, Marissa heard voices across the vast room increasing in number and loudness. Sudden shouts, yells and cries of distress were filling one quarter of the Great Hall. Soon everyone’s attention was turned to the Anacondas.
Benches were knocked over as children jumped from their seats and pushed away plates. Marissa watched curiously as scores of Anaconda students checked the bottoms of shoes, sniffed at their sleeves, flung off their robes and even tore off shirts in frantic, bewildered efforts to find the source of something.
–Milo,†Alika Escura asked as the disturbance increased, –is that...â€
–Yes,†he replied. –This is gonna be good!â€
Marissa saw other students backing away as far as possible from the Anacondas section. There was a bad smell. A VERY bad smell, far worse than any stink hex ever cast on her, that kept growing stronger and stronger. Marissa and her boys had seen a dead dog in an alley in Santa Efigenia once. It was there for days maybe, decaying in the summer heat. It was the worst thing her nose ever smelled... until this smell. This was like a thousand rotting dog bodies, and there was no doubt that it was all coming from the Conda tables!
–Oh my stars!†Principal Absencia cried out at the High Table, pausing abruptly from tucking a napkin into his shirt collar as he prepared to eat. –What is THAT?â€
–A rather strong smell,†Professor Katupya stated plainly. To his right Professor Parreira inhaled the air deeper as if to analyze its composition.
–Well, cast a spell or spread a potion dust to dispel it please.â€
–I’m afraid it may not be so easy, sir,†said Parreira, the Herbology professor.
–AAAACK!!â€
In a whirlwind of dust, the one-legged black boy Saci Pererê dramatically fell from the balcony with his hands clutching his throat. He stumbled along an aisle gagging as if the putrid odor was choking him to death. Falling to the floor, Saci then rolled down the aisle in a fit of laughter at Anaconda House’s plight. Others began joining in with him.
As Marissa viewed this all, she found the Anacondas starting to realize a shocking truth. It wasn’t their trays of food, and it wasn’t something on their clothes or something they’d stepped in. The horrendous smell was coming directly from their skin! And not from just a few of them or even just a few dozen, but from every one of almost two hundred and fifty Anaconda students. The incredibly bad smell was even making some kids faint! All of this had happened in only two minutes, and now Professor Guerra and a few more professors rushed from the raised level of the High Table to help the sickened children.
At the center of the chaos, Cecelia Bella de Barros stood at a table with her wand raised. Marissa watched as she frantically waved it outward again and again and then at herself. She looked to be casting spell after spell trying to dispel the increasing odor, but nothing was working. As all the air about her overflowed with the horrible stench, the beautiful blonde girl’s air of superiority seemed to vanish. Filled with frustration, Cecelia lowered her wand and simply screamed.
Professor Katupya’s deep voice rose above the loudening disturbance.
–Anaconda House Leaders and seventh-years, please lead all of your students out to the plaza. The aroma will be less overpowering in the open air.â€
–Aroma!?†Principal Absencia cried. –It smells like a slaughterhouse! How is...â€
–And please DO NOT return to Anaconda House to use your baths or showers. Your water supply may be tainted.â€
–Tainted?†Absencia shouted. –Katupya, what is this all about?â€
As the Anacondas rushed up the aisles, Katupya gave additional orders to other House Leaders for care of sick or nauseous children before turning to answer the principal.
–Aristolochia Gigantea, Arthur. Or Brazilian Dutchman’s Pipe as we commonly call it. A flower which produces a malodorous scent attracting insects to assist in pollination,†His voice still magically loud, Marissa and everyone around could hear the explanation. –There is a magical subspecies which responds to the fragrance of any other blooming flower by emitting its own overpowering carrion scent that brings insects to itself instead of the competing blossoms. Because it envys the beautiful fragrances of the others we call our magical variety Jealous Pipe.â€
–Yes, yes, magical flowers! What does that have to do with this... this... horror!?â€
–The Anaconda House water may be contaminated with Aristolochia essence.â€
–How?â€
–Oh, possibly by vines growing into a water channel somewhere and flowers falling in,†Katupya responded calmly. –In water the essence is unnoticable when someone bathes or washes hands, which I’m sure all the Anaconda children did last evening or this morning. But after the water has dried a residue remaining on the skin will react as the flower.â€
–React as the flower? What does... what does that...†Absencia threw his hands in the air.
–When breakfast appeared and food aromas began filling the Great Hall as they do, Jealous Pipe essence on Anaconda students reacted by issuing its own powerful smell.â€
–Which can’t be counteracted by spells,†Professor Parreira added. –Magic Aristolochia has to wear away.â€
–Well... well...†Absencia seemed at a loss of how to respond. –Take care of it all then,†he hastily declared as he rushed to leave the hall by his personal Floo behind the table.
The hundreds of stinking Anacondas were running to flee the Great Hall, accompanied now by an unending laughter from all the other Houses greatly entertained by the sight.
Cecelia Bella de Barros rushed alongside her sister while directing out the last group. –Our dresses!†she shouted at Sol Braganza ahead of her. –They’re ruined. RUINED!â€
At the High Table Professor Katupya calmed observed the chaotic retreat.
–Ubiritan,†Parreira observed. –Aristolochia essence must be extracted and purified to a powder. You and I both know petals falling into water couldn’t cause this.â€
–We do?†Katupya answered innocently. –Maybe I need more Herbology classes.â€
–Hmmph, maybe you do!†she replied, noticing his barely perceptible smile.
Though she would not show it, Marissa secretly enjoyed seeing all of Anaconda House embarrassed and ashamed by the foul odors. The way they always tried to make her feel.
–I don’t think they’ll call you smelly anymore,†said a voice from behind her. Marissa turned to see the young native boy with crimson red striped face who she’d met by falling on him her first day at Witness Stone.
–Oh, Tiquinho!†she exclaimed, as she realized what the he must have planned for weeks. The powder all the Jaguar classes had secretly made, their trips gathering flowers, and the mysterious visit to the cisterns had all been.. for her. Her head told her she couldn’t slug him in the shoulder like she would the boys in Sao Paulo, but before it could tell her what she should do, her body had somehow acted on its own. Suddenly, without her realizing just how it happened, she was hugging Tiquinho.
Standing just behind him, Potira Arating did not look happy about that at all.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.