Yang Yi and Ivan were very surprised to find Janice and the gang still at school the next morning. They had expected them to be packing their bags by now, but they were wrong.
"What's wrong, Yang Tou? Surprised to see us? Nice attempt in harming us though. Pity that it didn't work." Lawrence said sweetly, as he approached the Ivanov table. Both the boys merely scowled and cracked their knuckles, as Professor Lim was nearby.
After breakfast, they headed off for their first lesson, Defence against the Dark Arts. Their teacher, Professor Orbanaz, was an interesting person. For starters, he used to work for the Ministry Of Magic in Britain as an Auror. He later resigned and traveled around the world to get some first-hand experience. After traveling for nine years, he chose to settle down and teach in Yap Ee Chian. His teaching style was often very interesting. Instead of focusing on the contents in the textbook, which he had found to be 'utterly boring', he would take them to the Library (with the headmaster's permission), where they would read up on creatures like Unicorns and Centaurs and learn about their way of life. In Janice's opinion, it was just like a Care of Magical Creatures lesson in a Library but she still enjoyed it all the same. This day's lesson however, Professor Orbanaz actually showed them what they should do if they met a Vampire, which was very useful as Janice needed the information badly. After the lesson, Professor Orbanaz asked the gang to stay back after all their lessons were over.
"The reason I asked you all to stay back, is because I had received an owl from the Queen of Slayers this morning. It says that I was appointed as the Watcher. I just want to see who's who. Who's the Slayer?" asked Professor Orbanaz.
"Me, sir." said Janice. Professor Orbanaz merely nodded his head and proceeded with the next title.
When all of them have introduced themselves, Professor Orbanaz was silent for a minute before he spoke again. "You see, I have worked with several Slayers in the past when I was traveling, but I was never appointed as the Watcher. Leena seems to think that I'm up to the standard of being your Watcher, Janice, but I don't know if I'm good enough. Now that I'm appointed as the Watcher, I would have to train you to Slay and to fight. This means that you guys will be exempted from taking a CCA, as the training is very time-consuming and usually very intense. I will speak to Professor Lim about this matter, as this is a very exceptional case. In fact, from what I know, you are the youngest Slayer in three hundred years. Most of the Slayers I used to work with only discovered that they were Slayers at around fifteen or sixteen."
"Oh you mean, just like Buffy? " squeaked L:andy.
"Buffy is just one of them. In fact, do you know why there are so many Vampires in Sunnydale?" Professor Orbanaz asked.
"Is it because Sunnydale is in a dimension that attracts hell-raising demons, like Glory?" asked Janice.
"You got the idea. There is another place in Asia that has a similar problem. This place is none other than our very own school grounds. We were given this place to build our school hundreds of years ago by the Ministry of Magic. They had not realise then that this piece of land is essentially ground zero for all things bad and nasty. Yap Ee Chian was built on top of a Chinese Burial Ground. No, wait, Rothell: a portal to a rotted dimension that just about every slag wants to unlock and unleash hell on Earth. As you can guess, Slayers are very much needed in Yap Ee Chian because there are all sorts of weird incidents happening here, and when the school employs a Slayer to look into the situation, she is usually killed... the latest death of a Slayer on our school grounds happened only about fifty years ago... she apparently was killed by a Basilisk that went on a rampage in the forest." explained Professor Orbanaz.
"A Basilisk? That is...ew..." Zoya said, disgusted.
"That's right, Zoya, a Basilisk. But now, we are concerned about the doings of a demon, The One. Have you read about it in The Straits Prophet? Shafina, the one of the best Slayer we ever had, was slain by it. This shows that The One is getting powerful. It will be pretty hard to defeat him now." He replied.
"What happens if he join forces with Voldemort?" asked Janice, ignoring the flinches from the boys and Zoya.
"Isn't it obvious, Janice? If they joined forces, I doubt even the International Confederation Of Wizards could deal with them. And from what we have heard from the Department of Mysteries, someone spilled the beans that The One is very interested in joining forces with Voldemort. If he succeeds, it would be sort of like the end of the world." explained Professor Orbanaz.
When Professor Orbanaz finished, there was a very hushed silence. It was then did they realised that how serious the problem was. The only thing they could only do was to stare at each other with eyes as wide as saucers.
"But of course, if we manage to capture him now... we'll be foiling his plans, so the Ministry is now trying its very best to capture him." assured Professor Orbanaz, seeing the look on their faces.
"Urm... Professor? We have to go now, to do our homework." said Landy, pointing to the piles of books she was holding.
"What - Oh homework, yeah, you guys can go now." Professor Orbanaz said. With that, they quickly went back to their common room, desperate to finish their homework.
Half an hour later, they had settled down and they were still doing their homework.
However, Janice, who was able to catch up with her homework now, could not concentrate.
All she could think about was Professor Orbanaz's words. Those words seem to
play again and again like a video recorder. Just as she was thinking about Professor
Orbanaz's words, there was huge slam on their desk, causing her to jump out
of her thoughts. She was looking around to see who had made the noise, which
turned out to be Landy.
"How could you guys still have the mood to do your homework when there is danger lying right before us?" Landy hissed, so that the other students wouldn't hear her.
"Seven words. I do not want to have detention." Lawrence said, as he looked up from his History of Magic essay. (The founding of the Salem Witches Institute played an important role in the education of young Witches and Wizards in America. Discuss.)
"Is detention more important than a monster on a mad rampage?" Landy shot back.
Lawrence looked as though he was to say something, but he merely shook his head and returned to his essay. The rest, including Janice, returned to their homework.
Two hours later, their homework was done. They were now able to do what they
wanted. Lawrence and Zoya decided to spend the afternoon playing Wizard Chess
while the rest of the gang watched. Lawrence, who was usually a very good Chess
player, actually lost to Zoya for the first time, which forced him to actually
acknowledge Zoya as a better chess player. When they were done with Wizard Chess,
Amelia suggested that they should pay Professor Orbanaz a visit. With that,
they marched off to Professor Orbanaz's office.