Knight of the Black Rose Read online

  "Anyone would think that I was late for school," Will muttered to himself as he walked across his bedroom over to the door.

  He opened the door out onto the landing and then walked over to the stairs, to find his father stood at the bottom of them already dressed to go out to work; he had short dark brown hair unlike his sons; he wore a grey shirt with the top three buttons open and dark fading black trousers with well worn travel boots, and thrown over his arm was a long brown almost black trench-coat.

  "You're going out early, and wearing a lot considering it's July," Will said as he made his way down the stairs.

  "It's not going to be that warm where I'm going, and it's actually quite late there," Glen told him.

  "Interesting. But I bet you're not going to tell me where you're going?" Will said as he stopped three steps from the bottom making him the same height as his father.

  Glen smiled at him. "I'm sure that you can manage to get yourself something to eat; no junk food, especially this early,"

  "Yeah sure," Will said wondering what he could do considering that he was going to have the whole day to himself, but also knowing that he better not seem too eager about it because his dad might put a stop to it before he had even thought of anything.

  "Before you get any ideas, you're going around to your Aunt Anne's for tea later; five, don't be late," Glen told him.

  "I never am," Will told him, which was true, why would he be late when she did great food. "So I can go around to Alex and Troy's then, right?"

  "I don't mind, as long as you don't end up in trouble," Glen told him as he turned and headed right, into the other living room.

  Will quickly followed after him, knowing that if he was going this way then he wouldn't be leaving by the front door but by one of the other doors; it had been a while since he himself had actually travelled through, but he also knew that as soon as he got his acceptance letter that he'd be able to go through it again.

  "So is Uncle Infidus meeting you there?" Will asked him, knowing that it wasn’t really that much of strange question as they often worked together.

  "No, not this time," Glen told him as he stopped in front of what looked like a large cupboard underneath the stairs. "Actually, Charles Shepherd needs a hand, so I told him that I'd tag along."

  "Wait a minute, isn't that Lucy's dad?" Will asked thoughtfully, he hadn't seen her for a while since Troy had beaten her once in a sparing match; he smiled remembering how upset she had been, not that he liked to see her upset, but it wasn’t very often that any of them actually got to beat her in sparing.

  "Yes, Lucy...she hasn't been around lately," Glen said thoughtfully. "Stall I ask if she wants to come over?"

  "I don't mind. But she'd probably prefer to be with her friends during the holidays, than hanging out with a bunch of lads...and anyway I'll see her at school in September," Will told him, as he remembered her telling him that she wanted to spend some time with her girl friends; though he knew she would also be upset if they forgot her, not that they ever could.

  Glen smiled at him and then turned back around and pulled his wand off of his trousers hook unlocking the door, it clicked three times before it swung outwards.

  "I'll see you later then," Glen said as he stepped inside of the small room.

  Will could just make out two doors inside of the room before the door swung shut, and he was left alone as normal in the house, whenever his dad had to go out to work and he had to stay home. Will turned around and headed to the kitchen through the door behind him, he walked into the brightly lit room, sun flooding in from the line of windows that over looked the back garden. He walked over to the breakfast table in the corner, just to the right the cupboard was just in front of the door that held all of their plates, cutlery and other odds and ends they needed. He walked around the L-shaped kitchen units to get to the fridge, opened the door and grabbed the milk, drinking straight out of the bottle in front of the glass doors that lead out into the back garden.

  Will thought about going around to his friends houses again, but knew that it was still too early even for them; he'd get ready and then hopefully it'd be a bit more of a normal time, so he could go around.

  An hour later Will was washed and dressed and ready to go, at just gone nine o'clock knowing that his friends would probably be up as they knew just as well as he did at how early his dad went out to work some mornings. He wore a white vest top with a purple and blue rocket with 'blasting off' written underneath it, his knee length shorts were plain khaki combats; and he had re-braided all of hair perfectly down his back.

  He opened the front door and stepped out into the beautifully sunny morning, then pulled out his keys from his pocket and locked the door; he replaced the keys as he walked up the garden path and onto the main street of the housing estate that they live in. It was quite a posh area with lots of big houses; Will often wondered what they would do if the neighbours found out the truth about who was living next door to them; the thought always made him smile. He went left past the parked cars as they were still in their homes and not left for work yet because it was the school holidays; he saw Mr Orrick coming towards him carrying the morning paper, dressed in a shirt and worn jeans. He was at least ten years older than his dad, or that was what Will thought, and often wondered why he didn't work as he didn’t look as though there was anything wrong with him.

  "Morning Will, you're up early," Mr Orrick said pleasantly.

  "Yeah, off to see my mates," Will told him, and caught the headline off the paper 'MAGIC WATCH'.

  Mr Orrick seemed to notice him staring at the paper and waved it at him. "I know, strange isn't it...who would have thought it? Magic supposedly being real, but that's what they're saying now...well for a couple of years now; but yeah they've finally come out...well that is if there's any truth in it,"

  "So, it's not as though they're bothering anyone," Will said.

  "That's just it isn't it, how do we know for sure?" Mr Orrick said looking over his shoulder as to see if he was being watched. "They could be up to anything...they could be the ones behind all these strange things that keep happening,"

  "Strange, here?" Will said smirking, as he knew perfectly well that nothing strange ever happened around this area which is basically why they moved out here to begin with; all he knew was that it was basically near enough on the boarder of England and Wales, so there was a mixture of both living in the area.

  "Yes well, we have a duty to keep watch," Mr Orrick said matter-of-factly.

  "It was voted in that they could live freely among us without having to register," Will told him just as matter-of-factly; he didn't actually read the papers or watch the news, but his dad was well informed of everything that was going on, and then would pass it onto him, especially something this important. "Anyway, I'm going now."

  Will walked around him and quickly carried on walking not really wanting to stick around and find out who Mr Orrick thought were witches this week, as it seemed to change every time that he bumped into him, so did his thoughts on if he believed that witches were real or not, or if the government was just using them to cover up something else.

  Five minutes later and Will had walked around the corner and was walking up the path to the front door of Alex Sedgwick’s house, one of his best mates; Will liked their garden as Laura, Alex's mum always kept it tidy. The hedges were cut into waves with mermaids swimming in them, the trees were cut in shapes of dragons; this of course had put them on Mr Orrick’s witch list along with several of the other neighbours lists. Though he did kind of understand why people would think like that, but he still loved the garden.

  Will knocked on the front door and then waited; knowing that they'd probably be up as well as Nelson, Alex's dad always went to work about this time. The front door opened suddenly and Nelson was stood there with his back to Will his short brown hair brushed neatly in a place and was dressed in a black smart suit and carrying a briefcase, facing his wife at the other end of the hall; she had sho
ulder length strawberry blond hair and was still quite pretty even though she was probably about the same age as his dad, she wore a full length blue dress with white flowers printed on it.

  "I'm just saying perhaps for a little while...just until all this stuff is out of the papers..." Nelson said.

  "But there's nothing wrong with it," Laura argued, and then smiled suddenly when she saw Will behind her husband. "Morning Will, you can go straight up...it'll make him get a move on,"

  "Ok, thanks..." Will said stepping inside past Nelson who stopped him suddenly.

  "Couldn't your dad have a word?" Nelson asked him.

  "Actually dad's seen the garden, he likes it," Will said and then turned to Laura and smiled at her before he went upstairs, he liked her because she was always nice to him and kind of treated him like her own; now Nelson he wasn't too sure about him as he wasn't always overly keen on him spending so much time around their house. He didn’t have to feel bad about what he had said because it was true his dad had seen the garden and he did like it, some of the neighbours thought it was weird but no one really cared what they thought, except for Nelson.

  "Whatever, do as you please...you always do anyway," Nelson said tiresomely.

  "Nelson dear, there's nothing wrong with the garden..." Laura told him gently.

  "Sure...I'll be late home again, so you don't need to save me anything," Nelson told her before he left closing the door behind before she could say anything more.

  Will stopped at the top of the stairs because Alex was stood there leaning over the banister rail listening to his parents, he had short sandy brown hair and blue eyes and was about the same height as Will; he stood up straight when Will joined him and went back into his room behind him, closely followed by Will who closed the door behind him.

  Alex's room was smaller than Will's, as he only had a signal bed and didn't have a TV and chair's in the corner of his; though he did have something that Will didn't, moving posters of their favourite bands and Firmasca players on broomsticks.

  "He's been on mum's back all week, keep going on about the garden," Alex said as he flopped down on his bed, while Will stayed standing and flipped through his CD collection.

  "He's probably just worried..." Will told him. "They still haven't decided what they want to do about us, have they?"

  "Dad's making it out as though it's all about him, that he'll lose everything if they found out about us," Alex told him, annoyed that his dad couldn’t see past his own selfishness.

  Will turned around to face him. "Doesn't his family know?"

  "No, he doesn't want them to know...he doesn't want anyone to know," Alex told him annoyed. "He says it's for our protection."

  "He's worried about the hate groups probably," Will told him, his dad had told him about them, and could understand why people didn't want to be outted while there were people like that around, but his dad had also told him that the register might go under another vote.

  "Mum assured him that she could handle them," Alex told him off handily; Will couldn't help himself as he smiled, which made Alex laugh. "That didn't really help as you can imagine."

  "I bet it didn't, but she has a point," Will said.

  "Come on...I need to get out of here," Alex said standing up, ready to go also wearing a vest top, but his was plain blue, his shorts though were green and with yellow flowers, like you would wear on holiday.

  "So what's you're dad up to today?" Alex asked him as he led the way out and down the stairs.

  "He's gone to help out Lucy's dad," Will told him.

  Alex stopped suddenly making Will walk into him. "I haven't seen her for a while...a bit touchy the last time that we saw her,"

  "Her dad is a bit like mine, she probably didn't like Troy beating her...while he was going easy on her," Will said nudging him to carry on.

  "We all go easy on her; I'm not going to beat up a girl," Alex said jumping down the bottom steps as a low mist seeped through the cracks in the door and letters floated to the ground, then the mist disappeared once more as though it had never been there in the first place. "Post is here mum!"

  "We're all in agreement about that, even though dad says that she have to be able to go up against anyone," Will said agreeing that he didn't like to fight her; it just didn't feel right; Alex picked up the three letters and began to flick through them. "There are just some things that you don't..."

  "It's for me!" Alex shouted excitedly, and handed Will the other letters as he ripped open his own. "You could have told me that they were coming today?”

  "I left before the post arrived," Will said as he handed the other two letters to Laura who had come out of the kitchen after hearing her son shouting.

  "Well, where's it from?" Laura asked excitedly.

  Alex pulled the letters out of the envelope and then read aloud for them all to hear.

  Dear Mr Alexander Sedgwick,

  I'm pleased to inform you that your place at Burnaby Advance School of Magical Arts has been accepted into our first years.

  Accommodations will be provided in our dorms, as it is a live in school which we hope will soon become like a second home to you while you stay; students are of course allowed to return home for Christmas and Solaces Holidays or remain at the school if one wishes too.

  School begins on Monday 7th September; all students should have arrived on Sunday 6th, in the afternoon on the ship Fatum (your ticket is enclosed along with details on how to find the dock).

  Your reply confirming your acceptation should be return by the 6th August and no later, we look forward to seeing you on the 6th of September.

  Yours sincerely

  Deputy Head, Professor Eldamar

  P.S

  Please find enclosed a list of school books and equipment required by all students.

  "I'm so proud of you," Laura said hugging him tightly.

  "I can't believe I got in, it's the best school in the world...in the galaxy," Alex said excitedly as he pulled out the other letter which had the list of everything that he would need for school.

  First year students will require the following.

  Set books: -

  A Beginners Guide to Transformations by Raisa Foxglove

  Basic Defence by Gerwin Talieson

  The Study of Potions Ingredients by Javan Millard

  Level One Charms by Primrose Bark

  The Magical Language by Julian Cartwright

  A World of Plants by The Sisters of Heathgrow

  Stars and Above by The Order of Luna Stars

  History, as Seen Through Magical Eyes by Jeffery Warrick

  Equipment: -

  1 wand

  1 cauldron

  1 telescope & astral scales

  First year set of potions ingredients

  Uniform: -

  1 school uniform

  At least 2 sets of estate uniforms (these will be awaiting you at school after you have been measured up.)

  Gym clothes (students are allowed to wear their own clothes or matching colours to the school or estate uniform.)

  Protective gloves (Dragon scales or sea separate scales)

  Apron

  Students are allowed to bring with them one pet, as along as it is modestly trained and student willing to take full responsibility for it.

  First year students are NOT allowed to bring a broomstick.

  "Finally, I get a wand," Alex said handing the list over to his mum. "So when can we go out and get all this then?"

  "After I've talked this over with your father," Laura told him.

  "What, so if he decides that he doesn't want me going, then I can't go?" Alex asked angrily, as he so wasn’t going to go along with that, he was going to go even if his dad said that he couldn’t, it wasn’t like he could really stop him.

  "No, of course not; I wouldn't agree to that," Laura assured him dismissing his worries. "It's Burnaby Advanced...I don't think anyone from our family has ever gotten in there before,"

  "I thought that
you went?" Will asked her, a little confused.

  "No I went to Burnaby with Anne, just the normal one," Laura told him.

  "Oh," Will said kind of unsure what else to say, it was still a good school but it wasn’t as good as the Advanced school that nearly always won the interschool challenges.