Chapter 7

 

-=Ravenwolf Magick School=-

-=Book 1: The Gathering=-

-=Chapter 7=-

***Robin’s Perspective***

Dann had been right on the money with his prediction the night before. While we were at breakfast the next morning Mr. Dowlin asked the two of us if we would help with the new arrivals that would be coming in that day. We both said that we would, though we weren’t real sure about what we could do to help. Ryan offered to stay in the suite and help the new first years pick their room and get settled. Mark offered to stay with Ryan and Rachel and Suzy said they would do the same thing for the first year girls.

After breakfast we split up to get ready to receive the new arrivals. Dann and I went downstairs to wait at the main entrance. The first batch was scheduled to start arriving any time now. Just before the bus pulled up Dann let me know that they were coming and that most of them were in pretty good spirits and looking forward to the new school.

“There’s only one or two of them that are nervous, and they are all first years, the upper class students seem to be doing all right.” Dann told me.

Mr. Dowlin was standing near by and heard what he said. “Dann, I want you to use your empathic abilities to try and calm them down and to feel comfortable when they get off the bus.”

“Ok Mr. Dowlin, I’ll do what I can.” Dann told him.

“I know you will Dann,” he responded, “I knew when you came into your powers that you would be very helpful around here.”

Dann blushed slightly at the praise.

“What about me Mr. Dowlin?” I asked.

“Robin, I want you to help the first years get their stuff together and show them to the suite. With the link you two share you can send word down here to Dann if there are any problems and he can let me know.”

“No problem.” I replied.

The bus pulled up and started offloading it’s passengers while the driver and one of the other staff members started unloading the baggage from underneath.

Everyone was milling around waiting to get their luggage and looking at the impressive sight of the castle and the grounds.

“May I have everyone’s attention please?” Mr. Dowlin called out.

Once everyone was looking at him he continued, “I want to be the first to welcome you all to RavenWolf School of Magick. I’m Mr. Dowlin the schools principal. I want to introduce you to a couple of other people who will be helping you all to find your way around this afternoon. Once everyone gets settled we will meet in the dinning hall where we will go over the information you will need.”

“To get things moving, first years, this is Mr. Morrison, he is our English teacher, and will be acting as the advisor for all first year students. Also, first years, this is Dann and Robin. Robin will be escorting the first year boys to your suite. First Year girls, this is Suzy, and she will be escorting you to your suite.”

“Second Years, this is Miss Cross, she is our World History Teacher and will also be acting as the advisor your class. Please follow her and she will show you to your suites.”

“Third Years, this is Ms. Cortize, she is our Latin teacher and will also be acting as your advisor this year. Please follow her as she will be showing you to your suites.”

“Forth Years, this is Mr. von Buran, he is our German teacher and will be your advisor for the year. He will lead you all to your suites.”

“Finally, fifth years, this is Mr. Blaque, he is our Potions teacher and will be your advisor for your final year here at RavenWolf’s and will show you to the fifth year suites.”

“Now, if everyone will grab their bags and follow those who have been assigned to you, you are free to go to your dorms. We will meet in the dinning hall in two hours for lunch and to go over the school rules and what-not before we begin showing you around the campus.”

With that everyone headed to the dorms except for Dann and Mr. Morrison.

***Danns Perspective***

After the students had all gone inside, following their assigned guides, and I had given Robin a mental hug, Mr. Dowlin turned to me and Mr. Morrison. “Dann, Robert, I want you two to stay with me. Dann, I want you to let me know if Robin thinks there are going to be any problems with the other first year boys. Robert, because of Danns empathic abilities I think he will be the best choice to be president of his class. He will be able to help all of the first years adjust to the new school better than anyone. Do you have a problem with this?”

Mr. Morrison gave me an appraising look, “No, I think you’re right. He would be the best choice.”

“Good,” Mr. Dowlin said. “I’ve already instructed the other advisors to keep a watch on their students today and to select their class presidents as well. The presidents will be the liaisons between you, the advisors and the students in each of the years. I don’t want to have class elections like in most schools, because I don’t want it to turn into a popularity contest. I want people in those positions that are actually suited to the job. Dann, do you understand what your duties will be?”

I thought for a moment, “Yes sir, I think so. If any of the first years are having problems, I’m to let Mr. Morrison here know about it. Likewise, I will be sure to relay any information he might have to the class. Is that about right?”

“I think that pretty well sums it up, yes.” Mr. Dowlin answered me with a smile.

“Congratulations babe, I know you’ll make a great president.” Robin said in my head and made me smile from the feelings of warmth and confidence he was sending down to me. “By the way, all the boys seem to be taking things very well. Ryan and Mark are doing a bang-up job of helping them get settled.”

I looked at Mr. Dowlin and Mr. Morrison, “Robin says that the boys are doing fine and that Ryan and Mark are doing great at helping them get settled and feel comfortable.”

Both men smiled at me. “Ok Dann, if there doesn’t seem to be any problems with them, then I guess you can go on upstairs and rejoin Robin. I’ll see you guys in about an hour and a half in the dinning hall.” Mr. Dowlin said.

I quickly took my leave of the two older men and headed upstairs to join my boyfriend and our friends.

***Robin’s Perspective***

Suzy and I lead the first years upstairs where we split up at the second floor where Suzy lead the girls to their suite while I took the boys on up to the third floor and our suite.

When we all walked into our suite I was surprised to see that Ryan and Mark had managed to abscond with some snacks and drinks from the kitchen and had them all laid out on the table in the common room. “I’m not even going ask how you two managed to get your hands on all that stuff and get it up here.” I chuckled at the site of our welcoming party. I turned to the boys that were following me into the room, “Guys this is Ryan and Mark, their in the first room in that wing,” I said pointing towards the wing that Ryan and Mark shared with me and Dann. “You four get to pair off in the two rooms on that side.” I said indicating the other wing. “Go pick your rooms and come on back in here and relax for a bit. We have some video games, and as you can see, the guys have laid out a welcome feast for you. So hurry up and come on back in here.”

Ryan and Mark noticed the look on my face and knew that I was communicating with Dann. “So what’s that boy of yours saying?” Ryan asked me.

“You’re not going to believe this, but Mr. Dowlin just made him our class president. Seems their going to appoint the class presidents so that it doesn’t turn into a popularity contest. So it looks like this is going to be not only a welcome party, but also a congratulations party. He’s on his way up right now, so let’s quickly get the guys in here, I sent a message down to Suzy to have her bring the girls up here too, they should be here in a few seconds.”

Ryan ran through the door to the other wing and got the four new boys, just as they were entering the common room there was a knock on the door. I opened it to allow Suzy, Rachel, and the six other new girls in. I quickly brought everyone in the room up to speed on what was going on. I managed to finish just before Dann walked in the door. We all yelled congratulations to him and went about devouring the food and drinks the guys had set out.

Dann grabbed my hand and excused us before dragging me down the hall to our room.

As soon as our bedroom door was closed he grabbed me in a tight embrace and started kissing me with fervor. “Thank you so much for that babe,” he said breaking our kiss a few moments later. “That was really special, I just hope that I can be a good president for everyone.”

“You will be babe,” I said giving him another quick kiss. “Now, I think we need to get back out there and get everyone ready to head down to the dinning hall.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. It is getting a bit close to that time. But tonight we are going to celebrate privately and I’m going to show you just how much you mean to me.” He said and gave me another very passionate kiss before we rejoined the others.

“Ok Everyone,” Dann yelled out to the room after we re-entered, “It’s about time to head down to the dinning hall. So let’s get this mess cleaned up real good before we leave.”

It was amazing to see everyone jump to and start doing what he said, within moments you could not tell that there had ever been any kind of party or anything there. Once everything was cleaned up and everyone was ready we all followed Dann downstairs to the dinning hall. He led us over to our class’ table where we all grabbed our seats. The majority of the other students had already arrived and were talking animatedly at their tables. A few moments later the faculty and staff arrived taking their seats.

Before lunch was served Mr. Dowlin introduced the rest of the faculty and staff to everyone and then gave the school rules and a brief history on the founding of the school. “After lunch we will break up into the 5 classes and conduct tours of the grounds and facilities. These tours will be conducted by your class advisors. Now, unless any of the other teachers or staff has anything to add, let’s eat.” The faculty went through the serving line first followed by the fifth years and then on down the line with first years being the last through.

After everyone had eaten their fill we all broke up into our groups to take the tour. Even though Dann, Ryan and I did not need to go on the tour we went anyway as we were curious to hear what Mr. Morrison was going to tell everyone. After the tour Mr. Morrison told us that we would have a few hours to relax and get things unpacked and put away before reporting back to the dinning hall at 6pm for dinner. “I know some of you may be a bit jetlagged from traveling all the way from the west coast or farther, so you might want to take a short nap to get your internal clocks adjusted to the time change. Robin and Dann will make sure that you are awake in time for dinner.” With that he released us and went back to his own apartment.

We went back to our suites were some of the boys took naps after putting their stuff away and others sat out in the common area playing video games or talking.

About 5:30 I went in to wake the boys that were napping so they could get ready for dinner. Once they were up and ready we all went downstairs to the dinning hall.

We all went through the line and got our food, then went to sit down at our table to eat. We were just finishing our meals when this kid suddenly appeared over our table and came crashing down in the middle of it. We all jumped back as the table collapsed from his impact.

I quickly went to the young boy and knelt down next to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He jumped at the contact, “Hey, it’s ok, don’t worry. No one’s going to hurt you. I’m Robin by the way, what’s your name?”

The boy looked at me, and in a shaky voice said “I…I’m Bobby.”

I helped Bobby stand up, but when he looked around and saw all the people gathering around to see what was going on he collapsed back to the ground, and balled himself up with his knees to his chest and his head buried.

Mr. Dowlin and Mr. Redfern came over and after quickly taking in the scene shooed the other students away. Mr. Dowlin squatted down in front of us and addressed Bobby, “Hey, you have nothing to be frightened of ok?” Bobby looked at him for a moment and then gave a slight nod of his head. “Do you know where you are or how you got here?” Bobby shook his head and started trembling again. “Ok, I’ll tell you. You’re at the RavenWolf School of Magick. Do you know where that is?” Bobby shook his head but did not look at the principal. “What’s your name?”

“Bobby.” He said in a very small voice.

Mr. Dowlin smiled at him, “Ok, Bobby my name is Mr. Dowlin and I’m the principal of the school. The gentleman next to me is named Mr. Redfern, he is the president of the school. Where are you from?”

“Georgia.” Bobby said.

Mr. Dowlin and Mr. Redfern looked at each other with astonished looks on their faces, then looked up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to the young man still cowering on the floor all drawn into himself.

“Ok Bobby, why don’t you come with us over to the hospital wing and let the nurse check you out, ok?” Bobby nodded his head and let them help him up.

Mr. Dowlin started leading Bobby away but Mr. Redfern held back just a moment, once they were out the door Mr. Redfern turned to me and Dann, “Boys, why don’t you get your class back to their dorms and then join us in medical. Robin, would you send a message up to your mom and let her know what’s happened and that we’re on our way up?”

“Yes sir, we’ll see you up there in a few minutes.” I said. He gave me a nod and then proceeded to catch up with Mr. Dowlin and Bobby.

I reached out with my thoughts and quickly let my mom know what had happened. I then turned saw Dann standing next me. He pulled me into a tight hug, “He’s terrified babe. I’m going to get Ryan to take charge of the other boys and get them back to the suite. I think we need to get back to Bobby as soon as we can. He seemed to relax a bit when you touched him and was comfortable with you near. I know how he feels because you have the same effect on me.” He said smiling at me.

Dann motioned Ryan over, “Ryan, I need you take charge of the guys and make sure they get back to the suit. Robin and I are going to go up to the medical suite and do what we can to help Bobby. But let’s get this mess cleaned up some first to give Robin’s mom time to check him out first.”

“Yeah, no problem Dann. I sure hope he’s ok, that was a nasty fall, and you know he had to have hit pretty hard for the table to do like it did.” Ryan said as we started to pick up the mess that was around us. We managed to get it cleaned up fairly quickly with everyone’s help. Even some of the upperclassmen gave us a hand and expressed their concern for the young man who had suddenly, quite literally, dropped into our lives.

We walked with the rest of the boys back upstairs and dropped them off at the suite before heading on down the hall to the back of the castle where mom’s office was located.

“Robin,” Dann stopped me just before we went in, “Bobby is very scared, and now I’m getting feelings of embarrassment from him. See if you can read him and find out what happened.”

I concentrated for a few moments, but could not seem to reach him. I found this kind of odd as I had never had much trouble reading anyone before. Especially when I was this close to them. “Sorry babe, I can’t reach him.” Dann nodded and then opened the door.

As soon as we stepped in we saw Bobby once again drawn up into a ball and rocking back and forth. “He’s scared and afraid he is going to be hurt.” Dann said.

“He’s so far into himself I can’t reach him. We’re going to need to call in someone stronger.” I said.

We walked over and sat down on either side of Bobby trying to comfort him.

Mr. Redfern turned to Mr. Dowlin, “Bill, will you go get Mr. Black? I think he can help us.”

“Sure, be back in a moment.” He said and quickly left the office.

Mom had a look of worry on her face, “What’s wrong mom?” I asked her telepathically.

“I’m just worried about him. What kind of parents could make a boy feel like that?” she thought back.

A few minutes later Mr. Dowlin returned with Mr. Black, the spell casting teacher. Mr. Black took one look at Bobby and immediately came over to us.

Dann let me feel what he was feeling and I could sense the revulsion coming from Mr. Black as he silently communicated with Bobby, at the same time I could feel Bobby starting to calm down.

After several minutes Mr. Black opened his eyes and so did Bobby. Bobby looked around and noticed that Dann and I were with him.

“Hi Bobby, I’m Dann. I’m Robin’s boyfriend.” Dann told him holding his hand out to Bobby.

Bobby looked at Dann with a dumbstruck expression for a moment before slowly shaking Dann’s hand. We helped him off the floor and led him to a couch that was in mom’s outer office leaving the adults to talk. When we sat down Dann and I put our arms around Bobby and he melted into our embrace and finally fully relaxed.

A moment later we saw Mr. Redfern leave mom’s office. Mom, Mr. Dowlin and Mr. Black came out to check on us. “Would you boys like something to drink?” Mom asked us. We all said we could use some soda. Mr. Black said he’d get it and left. He came back a few minutes later with sodas for us and coffees for the adults.

Several minutes later Mr. Redfern returned. “Bobby, your parents will be here tomorrow.” He said.

Bobby started to shake and silently cry.

“What’s wrong?” Dann asked him.

“My dad is going to so pissed... er, sorry, I mean mad. I don’t know what to tell them.” He said letting his head drop to his chest.

Mr. Black came over and knelt down in front of Bobby. He slowly lifted Bobby’s chin so he could look him in the eye. “Bobby, you have nothing to fear. I am not going to let anyone hurt you; you’re just a child and about what happened, you have a special gift that will need to be trained. I am the one who can and will train you in that gift. For now I am going to put a block in your mind so you don’t accidentally walk through a shadow and hurt yourself. Alright?”

Bobby looked at him and slowly nodded his head, “Yes Mr. Black.”

“Good, now relax and close your eyes.”

They both closed their eyes for several minutes. Mr. Black opened his eyes and looked at Bobby with a smile on his face, “Finished, how do you feel?” he asked Bobby.

“Ok, just very tired.” Bobby replied letting out a yawn.

Everyone in the room smiled at him.

Mr. Dowling came over to us. “Also Bobby, why don’t you go and bunk with Robin and Dann if they don’t mind. As for night clothing we may be able to find you something to wear.”

“Yeah he can stay with us, we don’t mind.” Dann said giving Bobby a reassuring smile.

“Ok, thanks, and don’t worry about sleeping clothes, I usually sleep in my underwear.” Bobby said and then blushed once he realized what he had just admitted to total strangers.

Everyone gave a polite chuckle before Dann and I lead Bobby out of the medical facilities and headed down the hall to our suite.

When we got there Ryan and Mark were the only ones still up. “What are you guys still doing up?” I asked them.

“We were waiting for you guys.” Mark said

“Yeah, we wanted to see how Bobby was doing. He doesn’t look to be to worse for wear.” Ryan said smiling at Bobby.

“Bobby, these are our friends Ryan and Mark.” Dann said by way of introduction. “Guys, Bobby is tired and so are we, so can we postpone the interrogation until the morning? We’re heading to bed.”

“Sure thing,” Mark said. “G’night guys and Bobby, welcome to RavenWolf’s.”

We showed Bobby into our room and we all got undressed and crawled into the big bed Dann and I had made by un-stacking the bunk beds and pushing then together. We put Bobby in the middle so that Dann and I were on either side of him so we could comfort him if he needed it.

We said good night and then settled in for the night. Bobby fell asleep quickly.

“What do you think babe? This poor kid seems to be pretty messed up.” Dann sent to me.

“I agree hon. He needs friends in the worst of ways. I don’t think we can turn our backs on him. We’ll do everything we can for him.” I said.

“I love you babe, goodnight.” Dann told me before he went to sleep. I was not far behind him.

-=End Chapter 7=-