18 - “I Love Magic!”

"Keep calm, dear," Miss Harmony said. "Once you have been given the key and you touched it, it remains yours and yours alone. This key was given to you, dear. And it knows it belongs to you, so if you lose it, it will find you wherever you are, when you want to enter any of the rooms of the main building and those near Elmbridge School of Magic, where you are allowed. It will be in your possession all the time and will help you get where you want."

The woman saw that Elizabeth didn't quite understand what was going on, so she told her:

"Check the pocket of the dress ..."

The girl put her hand in the pocket and she was surprised when she found the key there. She took it again closer to her eyes, only this time she frowned at Johnny, sign that he should not dare to repeat the trick.

"Should I understand it doesn't matter where I leave it that it will be with me anyway?"

"You got it," said Professor Harmony.

"I love magic!"

Johnny also shyly entered the discussion.

"I wanted to show you that nothing happens if you forget or lose the key ..."

"You managed to prove this successfully, but that's not how you should do it. First you try to explain and then you come with facts," the woman explained.

"Yes I know. I'm sorry Elizabeth."

"Never mind, Johnny, I forgive you. I'm glad the key wasn't lost."

The woman saw the clock on the highest tower of Elmbridge School and startled as if scared by something. She gave Elizabeth the last explanations:

"The room where you stay is number 307. Now, unfortunately, I have to leave as the class of herbs and potions begins with the students of the upper grades. Johnny, are you showing her to her room, please?"

"Yes, Miss Harmony."

"He stays on the same floor ... in room 326," added the woman, after which she took her wand from the wide sleeve of the dress, where she used to keep it.

"Now I'll leave. I have to hurry."

And turning the wand, the professor disappeared as if crawling under the earth after saying:

"Specie genus!"

Excited and amazed at what magic could do, the girl finally reacted at Johnny's requests.

The two children started walking up the stairs to the 3rd floor. In the corridors they met other children about their age, some of them as confused as Elizabeth, who stayed in the same part of the building, which was distributed to beginner students.

As they climbed the stairs, Miss Edwards was amazed at the many floors of the building and the number of students up there, but there was no elevator to transport them.

She noticed some older students coming up some particular stairs, said where they wanted to go, and the stairs took them on a smooth flight to their destination, floating freely there.

"Older students stay there. I can't wait growing myself, so I can easily get to where I want to be, without having to climb these stairs," sighed Johnny.

Though, Elizabeth loved walking up the stairs, especially since she could admire… everything on her way. She saw a lot of moving pictures, changing, very appealing. Paintings ... as magic as everything in this school and its yard.

After they reached the 3rd floor, the two walked for a few moments on the corridor, after which Johnny stopped.

"Here's your room. Open the door and enter. The key must be in your pocket. In fifteen minutes we have dinner in the big room we went past when we entered the building. At the first level ... See you at dinner."

Johnny went to his room.

After just a few steps, he heard a voice shouting:

"Johnny!"

It was Elizabeth.

The boy came back to her and smiled when he saw behind the 307 room open door, that should be the door to Elizabeth's bedroom; it was just a small closet with a few mops and buckets, a few brooms and several clean linens on the shelves.

"Yes, I forgot to say. First you have to touch the key with your hand and pronounce Magicorum. That would be the first spell you cast. Which will allow you to activate the key and open all the doors you want.

The girl took the silver key in her hand and prepared to say the word.

"Stay!" Johnny stopped her. "First we have to close the door. I don't know what can happen if you say that spell for the first time with open door. No one tried ... Maybe your room fills with mops or sheets," the boy smiled as he closed the door of room 307.

After Johnny slammed the door, the girl said the magic word:

"Magicorum ..."

From the door frame some small coloured lights began to emerge like butterflies flying on the first day of spring. The butterflies headed for the door lock, and by the time they got there they were completely gone.

"Ready. You can enter now", Johnny told the girl.

Elizabeth opened the door and when she saw the room, she beamed up like a child who saw the foamed sea for the first time. A huge room, in which at least half of the children from the orphanage could sleep. A room ... just hers.

"Do you like the room?" Johnny asked, smiling.

But the girl's response to the boy was just slamming the door behind her, after she got in.

The boy looked at the closed door for a moment, and then he went to his room. He wasn't upset because she slammed the door in his face because he thought he might do the same in her shoes, at first encounter with a world full of magic and unknown.

Elizabeth Edwards began to walk around the room, dancing. The room was arranged exactly the way she wanted it to be.

She checked in turn the cupboards, the bedside tables, the shelves. She had everything ... Even her old and used things were beautifully placed on those shelves in the closet. Dresses, shirts, suits, shoes of all colours. There were also coats, hooded capes and many more.

Her parents' diary, kept very carefully, the most valuable thing for her, but which she didn't open so far to see its purpose, was on the bedside by her bed.

The room was so beautiful, with nicely drawn drapes, with unicorns and woods, with princesses and princes on them. Drawings that represented another wonderful, magic world. And all those drawings walked on that curtain, as if they were alive.

The girl pulled the curtains to admire them better, making it dark. But at that moment, because it was night in the room, the candles hanging on the wall lit themselves. And one of the candles, without the girl even noticing its whereabouts, approached Elizabeth to better illuminate the area the girl wanted to see. When she tried to read what was written on the frame of a painting, the same candle got close to the painting to make the writing easy to read as if it knew the girl's thoughts.

Elizabeth restored the drapery, the candles went out and the one flying on its own went to its place ... somewhere on a closet.

In her magic euphoria, the girl spilled an inkwell on her desk.

It broke into pieces spilling ink and scattering broken glass.

Out of the blue, a broom, a dustpan and a fire poker popped up to start cleaning. That fire poker began to swallow the ink like a hungry fish, and the broom and the dustpan collected the scattered shards all over, so in a few moments nothing seemed to happen. As if by magic, all the mess disappeared.

The girl threw herself into bed and smiled. With eyes closed, happier than ever, she said again:

"I love magic!"