Shannon found herself standing outside of Headmistress Lea's office with her friends not long after. The only one missing was Ollie, who had been sent to the infirmary to have her ankle looked at. The atmosphere was tense; Shannon felt a little like they were being sent to their deaths.
"What do you think she's going to do?" Jared asked. "Do you think she has the legal power to beat her students? Oh God, if she gets blood on my clothes my mom is going to kill me."
"Maybe she'll just turn us into something," Ginger said. "You know, like frogs or pigs or furniture."
"I hope I don't get turned into a chair," Dexter said. "I don't want to live out my life with people sitting on me."
"Would you even know?" Jared asked. Dexter looked considering.
"She won't turn us into anything. And she won't beat us either," Allison said, but even she sounded doubtful.
"You don't know that," Jared said.
Allison was not able to respond because at that moment the door to Headmistress Lea's office opened. The woman herself stood in the doorway, looking incredibly unimpressed.
"All right, you six," she said, beckoning them in. They followed her into her office, standing in front of her desk. She sat down and got herself settled, then looked up at them expectantly. "Well, let's hear it."
All six of them began speaking at once. Shannon could barely hear her own voice. All of them, it seemed, were too nervous to stop now that they'd started.
"All right, all right!" Lea cried overtop of them, holding her hands up in front of her. "One at a time, hmm?" She looked around at them, her hawkish eyes piercing. Her gaze settled on Shannon. "Miss Malone, why don't you tell me?"
Shannon froze for a moment, looking at Lea in shock. Bizarrely, she noticed for the first time that Wanda and Dinah, Signora Moretti's chickens, were here in Lea's office.
"O-Okay, ma'am," Shannon said. Haltingly, she began relating what she and her friends had done. Lea listened intently, not saying one word. Her gaze never faltered. Shannon wasn't sure she even blinked. Shannon tried to speak as fast as possible, wanting to get the story over and done with. "It was my fault," Shannon said when her tale was done. "I had the idea; I asked them to help me."
"But we didn't have to," Caleb argued immediately. "We decided to go with you. That's not your fault."
"Right," Allison agreed.
"That's nice and all," Shannon said, "but you wouldn't have gone without me. I shouldn't have dragged you guys into this. I don't...I don't really think I belong here."
Shannon's friends looked at her in shock. Shannon couldn't look back at them; she hadn't meant to say that, but she could not deny she thought it true. She looked instead at Headmistress Lea, who looked back at her with a curious expression. For quite some time, no one said anything. Finally, Lea sighed.
"Miss Malone, I think it is safe to say that you most certainly belong here," she said. "You make as many regrettable decisions as the rest of the students."
Jared barked out a surprised laugh. Shannon felt the corners of her lips twitch.
"So you really found the vampires, hmm?" Lea said, looking appraisingly at each of them.
"Yes, ma'am," Shannon confirmed.
"And you killed them?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Lea hummed in consideration. She looked off into the corner of her office, her thoughts obviously elsewhere.
"I don't really think I have to lecture you about how irresponsible this was," she said at last. "If I thought you needed to know that, I'd have had you speak with Professor Nadig. But I think you're already quite aware."
"Yes, ma'am," Caleb said softly.
"No, I think the seven of us have more important business to attend to," Headmistress Lea said with a small nod. Shannon felt her heart rate pick up. Jared gulped audibly. "Irresponsible as it may have been, what you have done was also quite brave and, frankly, astonishing. I don't know if the school has ever seen anything like it."
Shannon caught Allison's eye for one split second; she looked as surprised as Shannon felt.
"After all, you have done what not even the Administration or I myself was able to do: you found and killed the threat that has been plaguing us all year now," Lea continued. "I do not take that lightly. You have done a great service to the schoolâthe whole town, evenâeven if what you did was...inadvisable. For that, I would like to thank you."
Shannon looked around; all her friends were looking at each other in shock.
"That being said," Lea said, "please never do it again."
Shannon and a few of the group let out breathless laughs. Allison looked at Shannon and broke out into a full grin.
"I don't really think you have to worry about that, ma'am," Ginger said quietly.
Lea fixed them with a look that was actually warm. "Oh, we'll see about that. We will see." Her expression sobered and she placed a finger on her chin. "I do want to hear more about this third vampire. You never mentioned how the last one was killed."
Shannon looked around at the group for help. She hadn't gone into detail about what Ollie had done; she hadn't been sure if she should mention Ollie could do magic or not. She didn't want to get the other girl in trouble. But she wasn't sure how to explain what had happened otherwise.
"Headmistress Lea," Ginger said hesitantly, "Ollie can do magic. She...she found a book of her parents', I guess. She's the one who...unconcealed the hole in the wall. She...did something to the vampire. I don't know; I wasn't there."
"It's like she...she threw the vampire across the room with just her mind," Shannon said. "The vampire hit the wall and just turned to dust. I don't know what she did, exactly. Just something magical, I guess."
"Did she now?" Headmistress Lea said slowly, eyes dark and thoughtful. "Did she, indeed? That's interesting."
"She didn't mean to be learning magic behind anyone's back," Ginger said hastily. "She just wanted to help."
"Oh, that doesn't surprise me," Lea said dismissively. "I've seen students do far worse. Honestly...but I suppose I'll have to speak with Miss O'Brien herself if I want any more details."
Headmistress Lea gazed thoughtfully off into space for a moment or two, and then nodded her head as if she'd come to some great decision. She said, "I don't feel the need to punish you for this. I think you understand what could have happened to you on this endeavor, and I'm simply glad things weren't worse. I do implore you to spend more time thinking things through next time, however."
"Cripes, I don't know if I could take a next time," Jared said.
Shockingly, Lea laughed. "Let's hope there isn't one." She waved a hand. "Now: out of my office. I have a million things to take care. Go see Miss O'Brien, why don't you? I'm sure she'd appreciate it."
"Yes, ma'am," Caleb said.
Glad to be excused and still shocked at how they had fared, the six of them left Lea's office together.
"Gee, I hope she doesn't tell our parents about this," Shannon said once they were out of the office.
"Why?" Allison asked.
"Because I haven't exactly told mine that this is a magic school," Shannon replied sheepishly.
"Weren't you supposed to do that like two months ago?" Caleb asked.
"Yeah," Shannon conceded.
"Oh, you could be in big trouble," Jared said, and then laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. And, walking to the infirmary that Thursday in May with her friends, Shannon thought that maybe it was.