"Whoa, where did you go, woman?" Lawrence yelled the moment Janice stepped
into the common room. It was only then that Janice remembered she was supposed
to meet the boys and Landy in the common room to do a research on spells.
"Sorry, guys, I went to the Owlery to send a letter to my parents."
She mumbled.
"Oh, you miss your parents?" Lawrence questioned. Janice, expecting
Lawrence to tease her, held her breath and waited for him to sneer at her. But
what he said next made her choke. "It's normal. Don't worry, you'll get used
to it in a few months time." He assured.
Meekly, she mumbled a 'thanks for your concern' and quickly joined them in their search for spells.
"Hey, how about going to the library? We might be able to find some useful
spells there." Landy suggested.
"Well, it might be a good try. There might be some really good spells."
Boon Kee replied. With that, they marched off to the Library.
The coolness of the air-conditioner greeted them the moment they stepped into
the Library. Compared to the humid weather outside, this place was heaven. "
I could stay in here forever." Chee Hao said, clearly enjoying the coolness.
"Is there anything I can help you? " A voice said. Turning around, it was the librarian they had seen earlier. She was standing before them with a kind smile. "My name is Madam Tay. I'm the Head Librarian here. Is there anything I can help you? " She said after introducing herself.
"We need some help on Charms." Janice lied. She didn't want the Librarian to think that they were up to something if they said they wanted books on dueling.
"Charms? Oh, the books are on the second floor. Just go up by the spiral
staircase behind you. All the books on spells are just up there." She said,
pointing the spiral staircase behind them. Mumbling a hasty "thanks",
they made their way up the stairs, where they reached the second floor of the
Library.
The second floor of the Library was even larger than the first floor. There
were rows upon rows of bookshelves that would make one dizzy just by looking
at it. "Where do we start?" squeaked Boon Kee.
"Well, I guess that we could start by finding some seats first, and split into groups to find the information." Landy said, pointing at the desks nearby. With that, they quickly found a seat and split themselves into groups to search the different shelves.
Ten minutes later, each one of them were carrying at least five books. They
quickly dumped the books onto the desks and flipped through the pages for any
tips on dueling.
"This book's practically useless!" Chee Hao exclaimed, as he held
up a copy of Dueling Made Easy by Hen Rong Yi and slammed the book onto
the desk, causing the rest of the group to jump. (They were deeply engrossed
in their research, including Janice).
"Why don't you try this then," Landy said, as she picked up a copy of The Magic of Dueling by Ramanov Slovenski, "It might be of some help." She said, before returning to her research. Gratefully, Chee Hao took the book and within five minutes, there was peace again.
"How about this spell? The Purple Smoke charm. It's supposed to distract the other party when we are at our wits end so that we can escape." Boon Kee said.
"Good idea." Lawrence said. With that, he took out a piece of parchment and a quill and began writing down the incantation.
"How about this then? The Disarmament charm." Landy said, looking at Lawrence for an answer.
"Good one!" Lawrence exclaimed, with that, he recorded the incantation.
"I think this should be okay for now. We've already found about fifteen spells." Lawrence said, checking the list of parchment.
"Fifteen? Yeah, It's fine. At the rate we're going, we'll ace at Charms." Landy replied, closing her copy of Dueling for Dummies by Nina McPherson. Hastily, they put the books back to the shelves and rushed out of the Library for dinner.
"I wonder what's for dinner, I'm really starving, and I could eat a horse!" Lawrence declared.
"You're always starving. Sometimes, I really wonder if you were a pig in your past life!" Landy remarked.
"Maybe I was, but who cares for now? I'm really hungry! All I want is
to EAT!" he replied, with that he dashed to the entrance of the
hall. Shaking their heads and rolling their eyes, they slowly made their way
to the CuiHua table. They quickly settled down and helped themselves to dinner.
"Do you think that we ought to try out the spells tonight?" Landy
said, stirring her bowl of Bak Kut Teh.
"Tonight? Well, I suppose we better start right away, because some of the
spells we're going to try out are pretty tough.
"Good idea." Janice remarked, as she took a bite of her Rojak.
After dinner, they made their way back to their common room and began trying
out their spells, which spelled disaster.
"HabukUngu!" Boon Kee said, sending lots of Purple Smoke into the
common room, causing the students nearby to choke and incurred tons of curses
from the other students.
"Well, at least we know that the spell worked..." Boon Kee said, after
the smoke and the curses subsided, which took about ten minutes.
"Okay, that spell worked, now let's get on to the next spell" Landy
said, as she took a glance at it.
"Fangshia!" Landy said, pointing at Lawrence, causing his wand to
slip out of his hands and Landy caught it deftly. With that, everyone tried
to disarm each other, and to their surprise, the spell worked on their first
try. This continued for the next three hours, until it was eleven o'clock, which
was almost bedtime.
"Well, we've tried all the spells, and all of them worked for us."
Landy said, as she ticked off the last charm they had practiced.
"Not exactly, we still need to practise a bit on the Freezing charm. It's
supposed to freeze the opponent for about fifteen minutes but we only managed
to freeze each other for about five minutes, remember?" Chee Hao reminded.
"Oh yeah..." Landy trailed.
"WHY ARE YOU PUPILS NOT SLEEPING? IT'S ALREADY ELEVEN O'CLOCK, GET INTO
YOUR BEDS BEFORE I DEDUCT ANY POINTS!" A voice behind them shrieked
suddenly.
Turning around, it was one of the teacher's they had seen earlier this morning
during their tour. But, she was dressed in her nightgown and had her hair tied
in a bun, making her look very ferocious. Janice presumed that she must be the
Head of the CuiHua house. Muttering a 'sorry', they quickly rushed back to their
dormitories before the teacher could deduct any points.