Waking up in someone else bed is so strange, especially if that bed is located on another continent, in another country and in a foreign school that you just arrived to yesterday. And what even more insane ontop of that is having a girl who you just met yesterday laying almost on top of you sleeping without a care in the world.
Fila looked around the room.
Most of the other students seemed to have already left the room.
The window in the middle of the ceiling let the morning sun in, lighting the room up. Through rays being casted, dust particles floated around. Soft thumps could be heard from outside the room from shuffling students.
Fila let out a low, raspy breath, a smirk tugging at her lips. If June could see her now, she'd probably have a literal stroke. "Defecting to the locals," she'd called it. Fila supposed waking up nearly pinned to a Brazilian champion qualified as a full-scale defection.
She reached out with her senses, feeling the moisture in the air and the way the roots of the school were drinking in the morning dew. It was beautiful.
Bea looked down at the girl. And tapped her head lightly. "Wakey wakey sleepyhead." She said in a quiet voice right next to her ear.
The quiet vibration of Fila's voice against her ear was accompanied by a soft, sleepy huff. The Brazilian girl didn't move at first; she simply buried her face deeper into the crook of Fila's neck for a second longer before finally beginning to stir.
"Bom dia, gringa," Bea murmured, her voice thick and husky with sleep. She pulled back just enough to look at Fila, her brown hair with golden tips casted a chaotic halo in the morning sun. "Ainda está aqui? Achei que teria fugido para o seu dormitório assim que o sol nascesse."
Fila blinked behind her black blindfold, her head tilting slightly as she processed the melodic but completely unintelligible string of words. She could feel the warmth of Bea's breath, but the vocabulary was a total wash.
"I'm going to stop you right there, Storm," Fila rasped, her airy lilt carrying a lazy, morning edge. She didn't move to pull away from the limb-tangle, instead leaning back into the cloud-soft pillow. "I don't speak Spanish. If you're trying to tell me there's a carnivorous plant behind me or that it's time for those legendary snacks, you're going to have to use a language that didn't stay in Europe."
Bea paused, a small, sleepy smirk playing on her lips as she propped herself up on one elbow, her weight still heavy against Fila's side. She let out a soft, amused snort.
"First of all, it's Portuguese, not Spanish," Bea corrected, her English returning with that sharp, confident lilt. "If you say that to anyone else in the Snake pit, they might actually feed you to a caiman. And second, I was just saying 'Good morning' and wondering why you hadn't fled back to your guest wing yet."
"I couldn't you looked to cute sleeping and snoring." Fila replied.
Bea didn't smile back at that. "I don't snore." She said and finally sat up in the bed.
Fila sat up slowly, the cool air of the burrow feeling crisp against her bare skin. She reached out and her pants flew into her hand, an than shirt and vest followed. After a bit of shuffling she stood up fully dressed again.
Bea sat by her desk, trying to do her make up. But getting distracted by her visitor. And than she turned to her, "You should probably go wash up, lets meet at breakfast. I want you in our class." Bea said.
Fila adjusted her sleeve on her shirt, and made sure the buckles were correct.
"In your class? What you want to keep an eye on me?" she said and walked up to the table. She leaned against the table and half sat on it.
Bea scoffed, "Well yeah. You are a damn good pillow, I wouldn't want someone else to take it from me."
Fila liked that, maybe more than she should. "Alright I will see you at breakfast than." Fila said and got up from the desk. She got to the door and stopped. "Can I sleep here again tonight?" she asked while holding the handle.
The room went momentarily still, the only sound being the distant, muffled thrum of students in the common room. Beatriz froze with her makeup brush halfway to her face. "Yes…" she said, the mirror in front of her betrayed her and showed her visible red flush.
With a big smile she walked out of the dorm room. Some students who had been outside looked at her as she exited the room, some couldn't believe it and some laughed. The older students were the ones laughing.
Fila ignored the stares, her sight catching the ripples of amusement and disbelief radiating from the older students like heat off a sun-baked stone. She didn't mind being the center of a local scandal; in fact, she leaned into it, walking with that loose, rhythmic grace that made her silver-stitched vest shimmer in the morning light.
The walk through the common room was a sensory overload of rich coffee, damp moss. She could feel the curious magic of the Snakes brushing against her skin, some sharp and skeptical, others warm and welcoming.
"See something you like?" Fila rasped toward a group of whispering second-years, her smirk broadening as they scrambled to look back at their scrolls.
The walk back to the guest rooms wasn't to challenging. She had partly remembered how to get there. And with the help of some Ilvermorny students who were on their way for breakfast. She finally found the room.
She opened the door and June met her there instantly. "So?" June let out.
Fila walked passed her, "What?"
June put her hand on her forehead. "I feel like a worried mother right now. You slept with your opponent, after one day and not even a day. Just a few hours."
Fila looked at June, it was obvious that the poor little girl was just trying to protect her friend. "Its fine June, what if I just met her yesterday. We only slept in the same bed, nothing…" Fila let I slip. She wasn't supposed to tell her that part.
"The same... you..." June's voice climbed an octave with every word until she was just a squeak. "Fila! You were in the same bed? On the first night? Is that an American thing? Is that a 'Flower of Ilvermorny' thing? Because I'm pretty sure it's not a 'we-are-here-for-a-prestigious-international-tournament' thing!"
Fila felt the heat creep up her own neck, though she kept her smirk firmly in place. She turned toward her trunk, pretending to be very interested in finding a fresh blindfold just to avoid the "mom glare" she knew was burning into the back of her head.
"It was a big bed, June. A hollowed-out tree trunk, actually," Fila rasped, trying to regain her cool, airy lilt. "Very traditional. Very... insulating. And for your information, it was purely a strategic move. I now know exactly how loud the Brazilian opponent snores. That's vital tactical data."
"You are a terrible liar!" June shrieked, pacing the small rug so fast the friction was probably charging her magic even further. "You went there for the snacks and stayed for the... the... I don't even have a word for this! What am I supposed to tell Professor Hale if he asks where you were? 'Oh, don't worry, sir, Fila was just performing a field study on Brazilian sleep habits'?"
"He's a Thunderbird, June. He'll probably just ask if the bed was comfortable," Fila countered, finally turning back around. She sauntered over and dropped a heavy, reassuring hand on June's shoulder. "Relax. I'm showered, dressed, and ready to kick someone's mahogany doors off their hinges today. Besides, Bea invited me to her classes. I'm going to be a model exchange student."
June stopped pacing, her magic slumping into a suspicious, dark magenta. "A model student? You? Fila, you don't even take notes in history, you just grow moss on your desk when you're bored. You're going to that class to see her, aren't you?"
Fila didn't answer immediately. She just let her thumb trace a playful rhythm on June's shoulder. "I'm going for the snacks, June. Always for the snacks. Now, are you coming to breakfast, or do I have to walk into the Great Hall and face the scary Japanese students alone?"
June let out a long, suffering sigh. "I'm coming. But if I see you two sharing a breakfast roll, I'm defecting to the Japanese team. At least they look like they know how to follow a schedule."
Suddenly June could see the face of Fila thinking. And she slapped her face, "NO, don't even think about it."
After a heated exchange between a mother and her disobeying child, they walked to the hall for breakfast. After the discussion June had a bit of an attitude. But Fila loved her, and she knew that safety was a big concern for her.
The hall was filled, both with the green robes of the Castelobruxo students, but also the. blue of the Ilvermorny and the mixed colors of the students of Mahoutokoro.
Fila breathed in the different smells coming from all sorts of breakfast items. Deep smelling coffee, exotic fruits, freshly baked bread, arepas with toppings, Colombian huevos pericos (scrambled eggs with tomatoes/onions), Argentinian medialunas (sweet croissants), and Brazilian cheese bread (pão de queijo). And a lot more that she didn't even know what It could be.
But looking at sweets and breakfast wasn't the only things she was doing, there was another snack she had her sight scan for. And it didn't take long to find it.
In the sea of different magical formations and colors. One stood out, Fila took Junes arms and yanked her.
"Wha…" June let out as Fila pulled her. They made their way to the snake table. And in the middle of it sat her favorite Latina.
"Saved some breakfast for me?" Fila said from behind her.
Bea only raised her head upward, as Fila was looking down at her from right behind. "You're late, Gringa. I was beginning to think you'd actually listened to your babysitter and gone back to the guest wing."
Fila sat down and pulled June down with her. "Sorry bout that, had to convince her that I wasn't kidnapped."
Clara, sitting across from them, let out a loud, delighted cackle. "Kidnapped? Flower, we're the ones in danger. Beatriz hasn't stopped checking the door since we got here."
Fila looked to the side slightly to catch the reaction of Bea. She looked slightly flustered. "She has a very active imagination, don't listen to her too much."
The group ate and discussed things about classes and the duel in the evening. The classes sounded more or less the same as every other school. Fila had thought that they would do a lot more herbology and creature studies.
"First class is magical theory. Then in the afternoon we have herbology." Clara cut in.
Fila didn't like the sound of the first one, and on top of that she doesn't speak Spanish. And the professor didn't teach in English here as the main language spoken was Spanish.
Fila froze with a piece of pão de queijo halfway to her mouth. The realization hit her like a cold splash of water. It wasn't just the cultural barrier; it was a literal linguistic wall.
"Magical theory? In a language I don't understand?" Fila rasped, her brow furrowing behind the black blindfold. "Bea, I told you, I don't speak Spanish. I'm going to be sitting there like a decorative houseplant."
Beatriz let out a soft, melodic laugh, leaning back and crossing her arms. "Again with the Spanish? Fila, I told you this morning, it's Portuguese. If you call it Spanish in front of Professor Silva, she might actually turn you into mulch."
"Spanish, Portuguese... it all sounds like 'I'm-going-to-fail-this-class' to me," Fila countered, though her smirk was already returning.
"Don't worry, Gringa," Beatriz said, "Most of the theory textbooks are available in Latin or English for international reference, and I'll be sitting right next to you. I can translate the important parts. Besides, magic has its own language. You don't need a dictionary to feel the way the room vibrates when a spell is cast correctly."
June, who had been aggressively buttering a medialuna, looked up with a skeptical squint. "So your plan for the morning is to have a beautiful Brazilian girl whisper secrets in your ear while a professor talks about wand-theory? That sounds less like 'education' and more like 'distraction.'"
"It's called a collaborative learning environment, June. Get with the times," Fila teased, finally popping the cheese bread into her mouth. "And its great motivation to have said beautiful Brazilian girl beside me."
Bea beside them seemed to have listened as she had a very slight blush on her face that she tried to hide.
The Great Hall began to empty as students headed toward the various stone corridors leading to the classrooms. Fila got her hand pulled along with Bea and Clara. June had something else to do with studies with other Ilvermorny students.
The whole plan to have students come here and still trying to learn something really didn't sit right. For the first part of it, they wouldn't be able to focus on anything other than the fact that they were in another country and wanted to go out and look at the school. And the second part, it just felt like a vacation and that alone made everyone feel a different mood. Which in turn made no one want to study.
Being pulled along through the corridors of the school really wasn't anything to complain about. One cute and very beautiful girl in one arm and in another a cute girl. Fila wasn't complaining.
"You're awfully quiet, Gringa," Bea whispered, her hand still linked with Fila's. "Regretting your 'collaborative learning' choice already? Or are you just realizing that you have no idea where we're going?"
Fila let out a low, raspy chuckle. "I've survived dark wizards and American winters, Bea. I think I can handle a lecture in a language that sounds like a song. Besides," she squeezed Bea's hand slightly, "I have a very capable tour guide."
The classroom for Magical Theory was a wide, circular chamber. Much like the charms classroom back at home, but made with stone. Windows all around let in the brisk morning sun, and the windows were slightly open.
"Relax, Fila," Bea whispered as they stepped into a lecture hall carved directly into the bedrock. "Professor Santos is a bit of a traditionalist, but his magic is incredibly."
Fila got seated in the middle row, Bea on her right and Clara on her left.
The other students around looked suspicious about here being here. and some whispered about the situation with her and Bea always being together since yesterday.
"So Bea, how are you related to our French blondie?" Fila asked and leaned her head into her hand while looking at her. She had change blindfold since yesterday and now wore a cherry red one with the thunderbird emblem in the middle as all the others had.
Bea unfolded her books and took up her quill. "She's my cousin, her mother is my mothers sister."
Fila scanned her face, she didn't really see the connections. Fleur was beautiful no doubt about it, but Beatriz was on another level. Maybe she had the same Veela blood, and that had in some effect made her more effected to the girl. A playful thought, as no one else seemed to be effected on her that way, she was still plenty popular in school with the boys and some girls. But that's just natural beauty doing its thing.
The door opened again and in stepped a bold man whit a long black beard.
Fila noted that his magic was on the level of Professor Hale and some. He looked to be very proficient in charms.
"Bom dia, classe," he rumbled.
Fila didn't need a translation to know the lecture had started. She leaned back. The class seemed to get into attention immediately, writing what he wrote and what he said.
As Professor Santos began to draw glowing equations in the air with his bare fingers, the mercury-like magic swirling to form complex geometric shapes, Bea kept her promise. Every few minutes, she would lean in to translate, her whispers becoming a private lecture that Fila found herself leaning into.
The professor seemed to have been annoyed by the student who sat and didn't even take notes. Maybe he thought that she knew Portuguese.
'maybe I should ask if I can learn it' Fila thought as she kept looking at the different text being written on the board.
"Champion." A voice brought her back form her thinking.
The professor stood at the front while looking at her, he stood with his hands behind his back.
"Yes professor?" Fila answered and stood up. Still in shock as he had broken the lecture to ask her something in English, which meant that this was just for her.
Professor Santos's eyes, dark and sharp as obsidian, remained fixed on Fila's cherry-red blindfold. He did not look angry, but there was a weight to his silence that made the rest of the class hold their breath. The glowing mercury equations he had been manipulating settled into a slow, rotating ring behind him, casting long, metallic shadows across the stone floor.
"You are from Ilvermorny," he began, switching to English with a voice that rumbled like a distant rockslide. "A champion. And I am told you possess a... particular affinity for the living world."
He took a slow step forward, his hands clasped behind his back. "Tell me, Miss Ophelia: in the study of Essential Resonance, we learn that magic is influenced by its surroundings. If one were to cast a Cushioning Charm in the heart of a dense, tropical rainforest during a thunderstorm, why would the spell likely fail or manifest as something entirely different than it would in the dry air of a stone castle?"
The room went deathly silent. Clara stopped her doodling, and Fila could feel Beatriz's magic give a sharp, nervous flicker of violet static. Bea leaned in an inch, her lips barely moving as she prepared to whisper a hint, but the Professor held up a single finger, silencing her without even looking her way.
"It wouldn't fail because of the caster, Professor," Fila rasped, her voice carrying a calm, airy lilt that seemed to cut through the humidity. "It's the conductivity. In a storm like that, the air isn't empty, its saturated. Magic is lazy; it follows the path of least resistance. Instead of forming a soft cushion, the charm's energy would be siphoned off by the water and the living wood. You'd end up trying to charm the entire forest to be soft, and unless you've got the power of a god, the jungle is just going to swallow the spell whole and give you a wet patch of moss in return. In short, use a different spell for better result according to environment."
A few students whispered. Professor Santos remained motionless, his gaze boring into the red fabric of her blindfold as if trying to see the eyes beneath. Then, he gave a single, slow nod.
"The environment is not a stage, but a participant," Santos rumbled, a ghost of a smile lost in his thick beard. "An insightful answer, even if your phrasing is... unconventional. Sit, Miss Ophelia. It seems Ilvermorny has sent someone who understands that magic is more than just waving a stick."
'Hehe, thought you could get me you old fart?' Fila thought as she sat back down.
The rest of the lecture passed in a blur of glowing mercury and Bea's ticklish translations. Fila didn't bother with a quill. But with the translations that Bea gave her, she made some very small progress in understanding the language, just a few words.
"Theory is done," Clara announced, slamming her textbook shut with a decisive thud. "Now we have an hour before the Hanging Gardens. I don't know about you two, but I need real food, not just cheese bread. The kitchen house is making feijoada today."
Bea stood up, smoothing her green robes. "Actually, Clara, go ahead. I wanted to show Fila the transition corridor between the theory wing and the gardens. It's... better when it's quiet."
Clara glanced between the two of them, her grin widening into something positively wicked. "Right. 'Quiet.' I'll see you at the gardens then, Flower. Try not to get lost in the greenery."
Once Clara had disappeared into the flow of students, Bea turned to Fila. The red flush from the morning hadn't entirely faded, but her confidence was back. "lets go, I want to show you this."
The corridor was breathtaking—a bridge made of living wood and crystal that stretched across a massive gorge between two sections of the school. Far below, a river roared.
"Fleur never mentioned a cousin this interesting," Fila remarked, her gaze still on the river down below.
Bea stopped in the middle of the bridge, leaning her back against the railing. "She probably wouldn't. The Delacours are very... focused on their own world. But I'm glad you're here, Fila. Even if you are a terrible influence on my study habits."
Fila turned and smiled. "Oh I know."
On the bridge the two girls stood quiet, only sound that came through was of the river being broken down below and the wood creaking on the bridge. An odd thing really, she had let Fila here. all alone. It really doesn't look good when looking back at previous experiences she had with being alone with a girl. But a sense of trust had been built with her being related to Fleur, who she considered a dear friend. Who even came to visit when she got home from the cellar.
"Can I ask you something?" Bea asked. She held her hands together, and played with some sort of ring on her ring finger.
Fila raised an eyebrow, straightening up from her leaned position that she had against the railing of the bridge.
"Yeah, of course." Fila answered.
Bea held her silence while looing at the bridge ahead of her, she had her back turned against Fila.
"You told me about what happened to you and how the dark… you know." She tried to say something that wouldn't make this too sad.
She paused, twisting the silver ring on her finger. It was a delicate thing, etched with what looked like tiny thunderbolts. "I see your magic, Fila. It's beautiful—bright and wild…"
Bea took a small step closer, the wood of the bridge creaking under her boots. "I wanted to ask... how do you do it? How do you walk around with so much confidence and mischief when you've seen the worst parts of our world? My family... we have the lightning, the 'teeth' as I called it. But most of us are terrified of the dark. We use our light to hide from it."
Fila was taken aback by the question, no one had really asked her about this in such a serious way before. the girl before her had gone through something, or maybe her family. And she needed a perspective for it.
The usual sharp, playful mask she wore didn't exactly slip, but it softened into something more authentic.
"You think I'm not scared, Bea?" Fila asked, her voice low and raspy, lacking its usual performative edge. She reached up and adjusted the cherry-red fabric of her blindfold, her fingers grazing the silver Thunderbird emblem.
"Confidence isn't about not being afraid," Fila continued, her voice gaining a steadier, more appropriate quality. "It's about making the choice to be loud anyway. When I was in that cellar, the silence was the worst part. It felt like the world had forgotten I existed. So now? I make sure everyone knows I'm here. Every smirk, every joke, every time I kick a door open instead of knocking—it's me proving that I'm still here. That the dark didn't win."
She turned her head toward where she sensed Bea was standing, the cherry-red fabric of her blindfold catching the dappled light of the canopy.
"Your light shouldn't be a shield, Bea. It's part of you. If you only use it to hide the shadows, you're letting the shadows dictate how you live." Fila offered a small, genuine smile—one that lacked her usual predatory sharp edges. "Fleur didn't help me find the light because she felt sorry for me. She helped me because she knew I had my own fire, I just needed someone to hold the match for a second."
"A match," Bea murmured, her fingers finally relaxing their grip on her silver ring. She looked out over the gorge, her posture shifting from defensive to something more open. "I think I've spent so much time worrying about being the 'Champion' that I forgot I'm allowed to just... be a nuisance."
Fila nodded with agreement. "Hell yeah, let loose a little. Relax those shoulders. Being a nuisance is the best part of being a witch, I mean look at me. I make my professor want to pull their hair out most of the time."
The words had shifted something that Beatriz needed to hear for it to change.
But could she change it. "Show me your magic."
Bea blinked, "huh?" she said with her mouth slightly open. Did she mishear it?
"Shoot your magic at me" Fila said now more commanding.
The shift in Fila's tone was instantaneous. The soft, empathetic friend who had just been sharing life lessons vanished, replaced by the sharp, focused edge of a duelist who lived for the friction of combat. She stepped back from the railing, her boots finding a firm, balanced grip on the living wood of the bridge.
Beatriz stood frozen for a second, her hands hovering mid-air. "Fila, we're on a bridge. A bridge made of plants. If I lose control—"
"Then don't lose control," Fila challenged, her smirk returning, wider and more predatory than before. She rolled her shoulders, "You said your family uses their light to hide. I'm telling you to stop hiding. Hit me with that lightning you're so proud of. I want to feel the Storm, Bea. Not the girl pretending to be one."
"You're insane," Bea whispered, but she was already drawing her wand. It wasn't a standard Ilvermorny flick; it was a sweeping, aggressive motion. "Don't blame me if I singe that pretty red blindfold."
"Stop talking and do it!" Fila rasped.
With a sudden, sharp intake of breath, Bea lashed out. It wasn't a spell found in any textbook Fila had encountered in the North. It was raw, crackling violet energy that hissed through the air. It snapped towards Fila like an angry cat lashing out for the first time.
Fila wasn't scared, she smiled. A sick smile to anyone who looked. A smile that wouldn't be seen on anyone in a deadly situation.
But yet she was unmoving, and with a simple snap of the finger she disappeared.
Bea who still felt unsure about this had her eyes widened as she couldn't see her anymore. The lighting continued until it hit the door on the other side of the bridge.
And then nothing. Silence, apart from the river down below.
Bea stood with her wand still raised.
"Fila?" she called out, her voice echoing into the gorge. "This isn't funny. Where—"
"Behind you, Storm."
The raspy whisper was right against the shell of her ear. Bea spun around, her heart leaping into her throat, but at the same time her feet were pulled from below her and yanked up into the air.
She now hung upside down facing Fila who stood just centimeters from her at perfect eye level.
Fila had this smile, like a proud mother seeing her child take its first steps. "That must have felt good, yes?"
Beatriz hung there, her brown hair with golden tips spilling toward the bridge floor like a waterfall. The blood rushed to her head, but it was nothing compared to the adrenaline coursing through her veins.
"I..." Bea started, her voice a bit breathless from the position. She let out a short, jagged laugh, her dark eyes bright with a fire that hadn't been there at breakfast. "It felt like I was actually breathing for the first time since I got to this school. It felt... heavy. Powerful."
Fila reached up and held Bea on both sides of her head, to stop her from swaying too much. And she leaned in and whispered, really close to her. "You did so good."
The whisper sent shivers that felt like pure electricity up the spine of Bea, the hairs on her arms and legs raised in a sudden spark.
But fila didn't stop there, Bea could feel that they had some sort of eye contact. Even when it wasn't there. But in a swift motion Fila sank down slightly, just until her forehead. And kissed it.
Fila's lips against her forehead and the gentle pressure of those steady hands holding her world in place while she hung suspended in the air.
Fila didn't pull away immediately. She stayed there, her face just inches from Bea's upside-down features, her airy breath ghosting over Bea's skin. The cherry-red blindfold was so close Bea could see the individual golden threads of the Thunderbird emblem.
And with a snap, the vines that had held the girl up. Slowly let her down on the floor.
Bea didn't stand up directly, body was currently experiencing everything she didn't think she would from being hung upside down.
But when looking up at the girl who reached her hand out for her, she couldn't hold it back. The smile, the feeling of danger and mischief. "You cant do that to a girl Fila…."
Fila gave her a gentle smile and took her hand. "I can do whatever I want"