Unfortunately, Herbology was just as bad as Potions. The greenhouses were very stuffy, and, to make things worse, there were all sorts of plants inside, and some of them were quite scary-looking. One of them had leaves as sharp as saws and some had fluttering leaves like butterflies. Luckily, the plant they were going to touch was fairly tame. It was the Mandrake plant, but, they had to wear huge, fluffy earmuffs so that they didn't have to hear the screams of the baby Mandrakes, which can be fatal. Planting Mandrakes was an immensely difficult task for them, as the baby Mandrakes would struggle and squirm about when they were being pulled out of their pots and planted into bigger pots. However, when their teacher, Professor Rahim demonstrated, he looked as though he was just planting some carrots instead of Mandrakes. In fact, Janice was the only one in class who managed to plant two Mandrakes, while the rest were still struggling to plant them. Some of them became frustrated. A girl from Mohammed tried to enforce the Appeasement Charm they had seen yesterday. Instead of soothing the plant down, the plant struggled even more, making soil fly everywhere, and resulting in three points taken off from Mohammed.


"Terrible day, huh?" Landy said, as they dragged themselves out of the Greenhouse, and headed towards the hall for their lunch.

"You bet. I wonder what's for lunch." Janice replied. Besides feeling hungry, she's looking forward to Transfiguration.


When they arrived at the hall, they quickly settled down and helped themselves to liberal amounts of Nasi Lemak. Lawrence, however, was reading the wizarding newspaper, The Straits Prophet. As he read on, Janice could see that he looked very worried.

"What's wrong?" Boon Kee said, through a mouthful of Nasi Lemak, causing bits of food to come out of his mouth.

"Just read the headlines." Lawrence replied simply, looking at Janice in the eye as he spoke.

Wondering what had happened, she took a peek from the Paper and read the headlines of an article with a picture of a really beautiful witch with long hair.

Slayer Killed by Demon

One of the most famous Slayers, Shafina Bte Abdul, died in the hands of a Demon, "The One", last night at age 26. It is widely believed that she was stabbed by the Demon while trying to defend her friends, who had tried to help her. The Demon is currently still at large.

"Shafina was one of the finest Slayers we had ever worked with. She was also witty, smart, confident and always cheerful." Her colleague, Goh Xinyi, also a Slayer, said tearfully. She is not alone. As more people came to her funeral, many spoke well of her. Many are still wondering who the next Slayer will be to join in the line. It is rumoured that it will be someone from Yap Ee Chian Academy. If this is true, the new Slayer will be the youngest in three hundred years. The headmaster of the school, Professor Lim Hong Mok, refused to comment on this matter.

However, the Queen of Slayers, Leena Ravindran, has something to say. "We have already sent a message to the next Chosen One in the form of a dream. She will know who she is. If she is reading this, she would understand what I mean."

Now, the only thing we can do is to wait for the new Slayer to appear. The Straits Prophet would like to send its condolences to Shafina's parents.

"Well?" Lawrence said, after Janice had finished reading the article. " You had a dream..." He said quietly.

"It's just a coincidence." Janice said casually, still trying to brush off that uneasiness in her stomach. Well, she had a dream where she was called a Slayer. Was she really the Chosen One?

***

"School's Over!" Landy said, as they stepped out of the History Of Magic classroom. Unlike Professor Binns in Hogwarts, their History Of Magic teacher, Professor Chew, was an interesting teacher. She was able to teach History in a way that was as interesting as a Goblin Rebellion, which held the whole class spellbound. They were very sad to leave when the bell rang.

"Well, we had tons of homework to do." Janice reasoned. The thought of doing homework always puts her in a bad mood.

"Xian Nu." Both of them said to the Portrait Lady. The portrait then swung forward and they quickly climbed in, grateful of the blast of cool wind from the air-conditioner that greeted them. They quickly rushed to their dormitory, put their bags down and made a dash to the bathroom, where they had their long showers.

After their long shower, they started out on their homework, which was a lot for them. The homework was quite easy for Landy, but to Janice, it was as good as climbing Mt Everest in three days time. But, with the help of Landy, she was able to finish her homework.

"You guys finished your homework?" Lawrence said, as he stepped into the Common room.

"Yeah, with the help of Landy." Janice said, smiling.

"Good. You can lend it to us then." Boon Kee said cheerfully.

"To copy?" Landy said severely. "Over my dead body."

"Please?" Chee Hao said, with a whiny voice.

"How are you going to learn? No, its out of the question." Janice said.

Defeated, they stormed off to their dormitories. But Janice and Landy knew them long enough to know that they would soon be on talking terms again.

***


The days flew by without many happenings. Then suddenly, the gang realised one morning that it was Tuesday, meaning that it was time for their duel with Yang Yi and Ivan. They were actually looking forward to it.

"Those two guys are going to have a shock of their lives." Lawrence said, as he ate his toast.

"You bet. From the spells we've learnt, they are going to wet their pants out." Janice said through a mouthful of cereal.

"We're going to win." Boon Kee said gleefully.

"Let's meet at like, say five minutes before midnight in the common room? We could go together then." Janice suggested.

"Good idea." Chee Hao said.

***


Later that night, Janice was awoken by Landy, who was already up.

"What is it?" Janice mumbled.

"Have you forgotten about it? We're supposed to meet the boys at the common room five minutes before twelve! Hurry up!" Landy hissed.

With that, Janice quickly changed into her robes and grabbed her wand. They quickly sneaked out of the dormitory and dashed down the stairs, where the boys were waiting.

"What took you guys so long? We're almost late!" Lawrence hissed.

"Sorry, couldn't wake up on time." Janice replied earnestly.

"Where are you guys going?" someone squeaked.

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