The sun glimmered in through the panes of the stained glass window, illuminating the spell book as I worked. I threw the contents of vial after vial into the cast iron cauldron that sat in front of me. A acidic green liquid began to fill the pot with a hunter green steam rising from it, just as it stated in the book. I threw in the last ingredient, dead man's ash, and closed the book.

I grabbed a vial from the cabinet and dipped it into the cauldron, filling it with the Illusion potion that I had just created. Filling vial after vial until I was scraping the bottom of the cauldron, I stored about thirty of the little glass buggers in the mini fridge specially designed for them. Closing the door with a flourish, I turned around and ran smack into Max, my partner in crime and favorite wizard.

"Come on, Victoria! Learn to turn before you walk!" He rubbed his chest with a goofy smile on his face.

"Learn not to stand behind me while I work then. You know how focused I get when I'm doing my witchy business." I grinned back and maneuvered around his massive frame. Or rather, tried to maneuver around his massive frame. He reached out and pulled me into a huge hug before I could.

Once I could breathe again, I looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. "What was that for?"

"Nothing. I just needed a hug." His blue eyes sparkled and I was momentarily dazzled by my good fortune in getting paired with an attractive partner. His black hair looked almost blue in the light, with ice blue eyes to match. With a quarterback's body and a wit to match in quickness, he was the envy of every guy and the obsession of every girl. "And you just happened to be the most beautiful thing around."

I waved my hand around the space. "It's just me and the cauldron here."

"Exactly. I didn't want to hug the cauldron. It's cold, you're warm, get over it." He shrugged and grinned that goofy smile again.

Truth is, I had always liked Max. From my first day at Witch Academy, made coed in 1756, he was the only guy I saw. And I fell hard and fast.

Compared to my own average frame, he was tall. I was no slouch at five foot eight inches, but he had me beat at six foot one. My own black hair was currently tied back to keep it from getting in my way during my potion making, but that was quickly changed when he reached around to pull out the band, causing it to fall and gently brush my waist. I put a hand on my hip and glared at him good-naturedly. "And who said that I wanted that down?"

"It did. It positively screamed 'Free me, Max!'" His voice rose to an almost unnatural level. "Besides," he said in his normal baritone. "I like it better down." He smiled at me again before looking in the cauldron. "And

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what do we have today? Love potion? Can I test it out?" He teased.

"Oh, as if you didn't have every girl on campus falling all over you. You don't need a love potion." He muttered something that sounded like "not every girl," but I ignored him. "Anyways, love potions are purple, you know that. It's an Illusion potion. I can send you to Siberia or Paradise with just a flick of my wrist." I smiled and pretended to throw the vial. He reached out to catch it, but instead held onto my wrist.

"Why do you need an Illusion potion? Planning to send Arthur to Siberia?" Arthur is my stalker. I tried to tell him to leave me alone, but no matter how many times I say it, it never sinks through.

"I could be." I grinned wickedly, but he never let go of my wrist. "Um..Max? Captive wrist here. Kinda need it for Charms." I pointed with my good hand, but he was staring off into the space beside my right ear. "Max? What do you see?"

Max, in addition to being a wizard, is also clairvoyant and can see visions of the future. "It's Claire. She's going to be extremely pissed if we don't get to Charms on time." He grinned and broke his trance.

"Well, that would involve regaining possession of my wrist."

He turned red. "Sorry."

"No prob. Now, grab a vial out of the fridge, and let's get out of here. I don't want to miss Claire's latest exploit." I pocketed my wand and stopped inside the door frame. Max was staring off into space again. "Wow, two in one hour. Impressive. What is it this time?"

He snapped out of it and looked at me with a worried expression on his face. "Nothing. Maybe we shouldn't go to Volt tonight after all."

"What?! But it's your birthday. We always go to Volt on birthdays! It's a tradition!" Volt is a nightclub made for beings of supernatural origin. I had met some of my best friends there, including Claire, a half elf girl with incredible healing powers. Since we were legally allowed to buy drinks (being immortal has its advantages), we always celebrated special occasions at the hot spot.

"Trust me, Tor, we should go another night." He sighed and looked at me with worry in his eye.

"If I'm going to get sick tonight, just tell me. Then I can skip that boring assembly tonight about the uses of unicorn hair."

"Just trust me on this. We shouldn't go out tonight. Maybe Saturday." The worried expression was still present and accounted for on his face, so I let the subject drop.

"Fine. We'll go out later this week. But don't say I didn't warn you when we miss The Blood Rose playing tonight."

Max groaned. "Maybe they'll still be there this weekend." The Blood Rose is a popular Otherworld band made of vampires that happened to be playing the night of Max's birthday.

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"Maybe. We'll see how your luck falls into place." I shook a vial filled with a silver liquid. It was all that remained of the luck potion that I had made about six weeks ago.

"Fine. We'll take that tomorrow, and we'll see about Saturday. But, right now, we'll probably be late for Charms."

I grabbed my favorite racing broom, and bolted out the door, down the hall, and into the main hall, with Max flat on my heels. "Not with this baby we won't." I straddled the broom as soon as we got outside and beckoned for him to sit behind me.

"Aww...Can't I drive?" Max whined.

I looked at him and took in the puppy-dog pout on his face. "Fine, but just because it's your birthday." I scooted back on the broom's cushioned seat and waited for him to get on. When he finally did, I wrapped my arms around his waist and breathed in the smokey, woodsy scent of his jacket. "Go ahead and take off already, or we'll have a moon elf on our tails."

"Half moon elf." He argued as he kicked off and shot into the sky. I clung on tighter as we rode the jet steam the necessary two miles to the Charms classroom. Just as my feet hit the ground and the broom came to a stop, an explosion rocked the earth, causing both Max and myself to topple off the broom. The wind was knocked out of me when he landed on top.

"Are you okay?" His eyes smoldered down at me with worry and a mixture of something else.

"I'll be fine as soon as you get your witchy butt off of me!" I choked out.

"That's my wizardy butt to you, but I'll let it slide since I was cutting off blood flow to your brain."

"Blood flow. Brain. Not yet there." I warned him.

He chuckled. "Right." He got up and held out a hand to help me to my feet. Once I was up, curiously, he didn't let go, instead intertwining our fingers and squeezing once to gauge my reaction. I let it go, since the feeling of his hand wrapped around mine was soothing after my recent near death experience.

"What did Claire do now?" I asked as we ran inside. I ordered my broom to lock itself to wall just before we got out of earshot. It obeyed and melded itself to the front of the building.

"From what I saw, she's not done yet." He pinned me up against a wall just as another explosion shook the classroom. We hurried inside once the little aftershocks stopped and nearly burst out laughing at what we saw.

Inside was Claire, dancing to a tune all her own. As she spun around, she used her magic to cause explosion after explosion, resulting in her most...well...explosive performance yet.

"So that's what you meant." I asked breathlessly. I was mesmerized by the grace of her movements. Though there was no music, she danced as

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though there were, a beautiful composition attributed to her and only her. Her long blonde hair wrapped around her body as she danced, adding an extra graceful prop to the already seamless choreography. When she bowed, a final explosion rocked the building, this one greater than the others. A few books fell off of the shelves and floated slowly to the ground due to the Feather charm placed on them.

Another form of explosion was heard, this time of clapping students, also amazed by the elf's grace and beauty. She looked up at us, her two best friends, and smiled. Her white teeth shone almost as bright as her hair as it drifted to a stop wrapped around her slender dancer's body.

I added my applause to that of the others, dislodging my hand from Max's to do so. After a moment, he joined in also. She bowed again, and took her seat just as the professor walked into the classroom.

"My, my, we do seem to be having quite a few earthquakes today." The professor muttered to himself, looking up with confusion when everyone burst out laughing. "Don't know what's funny, but welcome back to Charms everyone. Let's get down to business. I want everyone to choose a partner of the opposite sex. Today, we're doing Infatuation Charms." When Max grabbed my shoulder, I knew I was in trouble.

Oh, the class period was going to be so embarrassing.

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