The next morning, before homeroom, Rosemary approached Professor Hathaway at her desk.

  “Professor Hathaway,” she said. “Yesterday afternoon, I was speaking to Lilith, and something strange happened.”

  “Oh really,” said the Professor. “Is that so, Lilith?”

  “Yes it is,” said Lilith, whom Rosemary suddenly noticed was standing behind her, slightly to the left.

  “I see then,” said the Professor. “So do either of you two ladies care to tell me what it was?”

  “Lilith started glowing,” said Rosemary. “For no reason.”

  “Did she?” asked the Professor. “What color?”

  “Silver,” answered Lilith.

  “Interesting indeed,” said the Professor.

  “What’s happening to my friend?” asked Rosemary.

  “Just you two get to your seats,” said the Professor, “and we’ll get to the bottom of it in a few minutes.”

  The two girls went and sat down. After a few minutes, the bell rang three times and Professor Hathaway began homeroom. After a quick roll-call and the playing of the announcements, she called Lilith up to the front of the class.

  “I am going to do a very special scan on Lilith,” said the Professor. “Are you ready?” she asked Lilith.

  Lilith nodded.

  “Okay,” said the Professor. “In a few moments, a ball of five different colors of light is going to appear in front of you. When it does, I’m going to need you to put the tip of your wand close to it. When you do, it will all turn white and I’ll need you to chant one thing when it does: ‘Vim meam demonstra.’ Got it?”

  “Yes,” said Lilith. “Vim meam demonstra.”

  “Very good,” said the Professor. “Now get your wand ready.”

  The two of them both retrieved their wands from their bracelets. Professor Hathaway lifted hers and chanted: “Notae sint facultates.” She then pointed it at Lilith and chanted: “Facultates huius.”

  As the Professor had said would happen, a ball of light twice the size of a tennis ball appeared right between the Professor and Lilith. It shone five different colors — green, yellow, red, blue, and silver. As the Professor had instructed, Lilith put her wand to it, and all five of those colors just melted into solid white. “Vim meam demonstra,” Lilith chanted. The ball grew to double its size and turned solid silver. It stayed there for about five seconds before turning into smoke and dissipating.

  “Congratulations!” said Professor Hathaway and turned to the rest of the class. “Your classmate, Lilith Collins,” she explained, “has manifested the primary element of her magical temperament.” She turned again to Lilith and continued. “Congratulations, your primary element is spirit.”

  Everyone cheered as Lilith returned to her seat, and Professor Hathaway continued with homeroom.

  * * *

  Over the next few days, things went well. It was now November, and the weather was getting cooler. The way people dressed reflected this. Even on weekdays when everyone was wearing uniforms, the robes they were wearing became thicker to accommodate the cold. On weekends, for a while now short-sleeved shirts had given way to longer-sleeved ones — but now sweaters were starting to become more common. Even Tom was now often seen on the weekends with his favorite leather jacket, which back in September he wasn’t able to wear on account of it simply being too hot.

  Things were also going well in all of Rosemary’s classes. She was on top of the studies, usually reading chapters in the textbook before the teachers got around to covering them in class. As a result, whether it was in Enchantment class, Magical History class, or even Magical Creatures, she usually knew the answer to any question the teacher would ask the class. Of course, in Potions class, this did not prevent Mr. Prichard, Professor Pendleton’s lab assistant, from occasionally offering little suggestions here and there. Once or twice, these suggestions actually were helpful — but more often than not, Rosemary found them annoying as they deprived her of the opportunity to figure things out herself, or were even answers to things she had already figured out. Still, on the whole, even Potions class was great.

  She had passed her Broomstick Certification Exam, but she still continued to practice her flying in Ouranourgy class. “It doesn’t hurt to get more practice,” Professor Feng said to her after sending the next group of kids to be tested on the Friday after Rosemary’s test. And so, practice more Rosemary did. And without the uncertainty of the test ahead of her, she flew with greater confidence than ever before. Even though she could only fly in the designated area, as she flew she felt free.

  Her lessons with Professor Thorn were also going well. Each time she warded off his attempt at the first phase of the rag doll immobilization spell she did so more automatically and with greater ease.

  “Well, it seems like you’ve worked off all your detention,” said Professor Thorn after her fourth session with him, “but I think you could benefit from another session or two. I can’t give you any more detention credit for it, but what do you say to another session or two next weekend?”

  “Okay,” said Rosemary. Even though these sessions were no longer an alternative to detention, the last thing she wanted was to have to ever again worry about some hooded and masked figure carrying her off.

  * * *

  The following Wednesday at the school assembly, Professor Parker talked about safety at school and the importance of reporting any threat to the safety of fellow students to faculty. It wasn’t that long an assembly as there wasn’t much to cover — and most of what was covered in it had been covered before. Yet everyone, especially everyone who resided in Hemlock Tower, knew what had prompted the faculty to organize this assembly.

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  After the assembly, Rosemary was approached by none other than Melissa. “Great assembly,” Melissa said. “We learned a lot about safety. Of course, you probably shouldn’t trust me.”

  “You know I don’t trust you,” said Rosemary.

  “Good,” said Melissa, “because since I don’t support your delusion, I’m obviously in cahoots with whoever it was that tried to carry you off.” She turned and walked away, leaving Rosemary feeling extremely uneasy.

  “Are you alright?” Rosemary heard Lilith ask a few minutes later.

  “No,” she answered.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Melissa,” answered Rosemary. “She has to know that I mentioned her to that Sentinel lady. To Detective Griswold.”

  “How do you know?” asked Lilith.

  Rosemary explained the interaction that had just transpired.

  “Well,” said Lilith, “she’s a jerk. But don’t worry, she won’t be able to interrupt us Saturday.”

  “Saturday?” asked Rosemary.

  “Yeah, Saturday,” said Lilith. “I’ve reserved the third-floor lounge after breakfast so we can talk about your coming out to your parents.”

  “Thank you,” said Rosemary with a huge smile.

  As the week continued, classes continued going well and Lilith continued occasionally giving Rosemary updates of more and more people who said that they were committed to coming to the lounge on Saturday morning.

  Finally the day arrived. Lilith left breakfast early to get the room ready — which mostly meant making sure she was the first one there. Later, when they were done eating — Rosemary, Mika and Samantha found Clara. Together, all four of them headed to Hemlock Tower. When they arrived at the third-floor lounge, they saw that not only was Lilith already there, but so were Sarah, Amy, Lacy, and Ethan. Jesse, Tom, and Ricky arrived shortly after.

  “Anyway,” said Lilith, as soon as everyone was there and she was ready to convene the meeting, “we’re here because — Rosemary, do you want to tell?”

  “I have to tell my parents that I’m a girl,” said Rosemary.

  “And?” prodded Lilith.

  “I’m scared.”

  “Of what?”

  “That they won’t accept it,” squirmed Rosemary.

  “Rosemary isn’t sure if her parents will accept her for who she is,” explained Lilith. “And that’s understandable, because there are parents who don’t take it well — and that’s especially true with mundies, which both of her parents are.”

  “What’ll they do if they don’t accept it?” asked Ricky.

  “Many parents have kicked their kids out of the house when they learned such things,” explained Lacy. “Some have even gotten physically violent on their kids.”

  “They better not do that,” said Tom. “If they do, I might have to put a major hex on them.”

  “Be careful what you say,” said Ethan. “There’s pretty tough penalties for hexing mundies.”

  “Yeah?” said Tom. “Well there should be for bashing your kids too.”

  “There are,” assured Ethan.

  “But we’re trying to avoid it coming to that,” explained Lilith.

  “There’s not much that can be done when it happens to a mundie kid,” noted Amy, “but in the magical world, there’s options. I know of a safe-house for magical kids on the rainbow who get mistreated by their parents. But there’s a catch.”

  “What catch?” asked Rosemary.

  “It’s in Connecticut,” explained Lacy. “Which means that if you go there, you might not be able to go to school at Misty Peaks anymore. You might have to switch to Mont Verde.”

  “Great,” said Rosemary sarcastically. “Since I’m going up that way anyway this vacation, I may as well save myself a trip.”

  “That’s only a last resort,” said Lilith.

  “But Rosemary’s parents are mundies,” said Mika. “Won’t the powers that be worry about them going public if it comes down to that?”

  “The Department of Magic has ways of dealing with that,” said Ethan. “They haven’t had to let any kids down to keep things secret so far — don’t think they’ll start now.”

  “You don’t know Oak Ridge,” insisted Mika. “There, people are super-paranoid about magical secrecy.”

  Rosemary squirmed uneasily.

  “Let’s see if we can’t resolve this without separating Rosemary from her family,” said Lilith, apparently taking notice of Rosemary’s discomfort.

  “Honestly,” said Clara, “I’ve met Rosemary’s parents, and they seem like really nice people. They might not have any problem at all — and if they do, my folks’ll be happy to talk to them.”

  “Are you sure that having a witch and wizard they don’t know talk to them would do much good?” asked Lilith.

  “Oh, my parents and Rosemary’s do know each other,” said Clara. “They made friends the day we left for school.”

  “Great!” said Lilith. “Rosemary, what do you say to Clara asking her parents if they’d be ready to talk to your parents?”

  “Yes,” answered Rosemary.

  “And maybe they could anyway check in with Rose’s parents after she talks to them?” suggested Lacy. “Just to see if there’s anything they have trouble with?”

  “I’ll ask them about that too,” agreed Clara, “if Rosemary’s okay with it.”

  Rosemary nodded at Clara.

  “And what if that doesn’t work?” asked Tom.

  “I’ll get the authorities involved if I have to,” said Ethan, “but hopefully it won’t come to that.”

  “So when do I tell my parents?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, it may take me a few days to work things out with my parents,” said Clara.

  “And what if I’m not ready yet then?” asked Rosemary.

  “Then you tell your parents when you are ready,” answered Lilith. “We’re not here to rush you. We’re just here to make sure that when you do tell, things go as smooth as possible.”

  * * *

  Shortly after lunch, Rosemary went to Professor Thorn’s classroom for her fifth private lesson. Professor Thorn didn’t teach her anything new this time, but just had her practice her defense against the rag doll immobilization spell some more.

  “Well, it seems like you’ve mastered the defense against this attack,” said the Professor, when less than half an hour of the lesson remained. “There’s just one thing I’m worried about.”

  “What?” asked Rosemary.

  “It’ll work just fine,” answered the Professor, “if he tries to use the rag doll immobilization spell on you again. But it might not go as well if he chooses a different attack.”

  “Can you teach me what to do then?” asked Rosemary.

  “That won’t be too easy if I don’t know what attack he’s gonna use,” said the Professor as he sat down behind his desk. “We’re gonna have to think of other ways to keep you safe.”

  “Like what?” asked Rosemary, sitting down at one of the student desks in the front row.

  “Well,” said Professor Thorn, facing Rosemary, “there isn’t a whole lot we know about that guy. We don’t even know why he tried to make off with you.”

  “Except that he needed me to get there in one piece,” reminded Rosemary.

  “Except that,” acknowledged the Professor, “and that he can walk through solid walls. Which tells us that he is probably a muriphasist.”

  “A muriphasist,” said Professor Thorn. “That’s a witch or wizard who can, well, you know, walk through solid objects. But it takes special talent — and special training.”

  “We also know he wasn’t able to carry me while walking through the closed door,” pointed out Rosemary.

  “Oh, no muriphasist can do that,” assured the Professor. “If he was able to do that, that would mean that he’s found a way to do something with muriphasy that nobody else can — or come up with a totally different way of walking through walls. But it is good to know that we probably aren’t dealing with anything like that.”

  “So how can I protect myself from someone who can walk through solid walls?” asked Rosemary.

  “Well, at night, just sleep in your room,” said the Professor. “We’ve put wards up there so his muriphasy won’t work there. And in the day, well, just remember what you’ve learned here.”

  “But it’s only in my room that there’s those wards up, right?” asked Rosemary.

  “I’m afraid so,” said the Professor.

  “Then what do I do about winter break?” asked Rosemary.