It wasn't unusual for students of Morgan le Fay to go out to the Fae's Foot Inn down in Dawnwich on Saturday night. It was, however, unusual for so many of them to go together. The dozen-or-so students who had decided to go to the meeting were skittish with excitement, riling each other up as they walked off the school premises towards the nearby town. Ravenna, Dan and Willem made up the very back of the procession.

"Remember this moment, fellas!" someone shouted ahead of them. "Tonight will mark the beginning of the Age of Morgan le Fay!"

A few people whooped and cheered, others just clapped.

Beside her, Dan glanced over his shoulder at the shrinking school.

She nudged his side. "You obviously don't want to be here. Why don't you just go back? Me and Willem will be fine."

The mousy boy smiled at them. He'd grown considerably paler when he could convince neither Ella nor Ezra, his two best friends, to go to this meeting. Ravenna was convinced he'd have chickened out if it hadn't been for her going, despite his interest in what Alois was doing.

Dan shoved his hands deep into his pockets. "No, I'm going. I'm curious what they have to say."

Ravenna knew he was lying. The tension in his shoulders gave away his discomfort and nerves. When he'd first heard about it, he'd refused, and tried to stop Ravenna from going as well. He'd done everything he could to convince her that it was dangerous, that Alois couldn't be trusted.

And yet here he was, following Ravenna into the cold, dark night, just to try and keep her safe. It warmed her heart.

Ravenna couldn't understand how Dan could see any danger in meeting Alois tonight. After all, the last time they talked there had been nothing threatening about him. But it made her best friend uncomfortable and upset, and she hated herself for that. She'd tried to convince him to stay back at school, but he'd refused, matching her own stubbornness.

If only he could understand that Alois was just trying to help.

The moment they entered the dingy little pub, Ravenna could feel the tingle of magic in the air around her. Floating candles lit up the cigarette smoke-filled room. The stench of alcohol filled her nose. Behind the bar, a man donning a no-longer-white apron used his wand to have the dishes do themselves. With a single glance in their direction, he flicked his wand and had a dozen glasses fill themselves with butterbeer.

The only patron present was a man standing in front of the inn's fireplace — no doubt connected to the Floo network. She recognised him immediately as Alois, with his plump face, messy, sand-coloured hair and grey, dim eyes that made Ravenna think he'd already had a few drinks tonight. Beside her, Dan balled his hands to fists.

Alois beckoned them over. As she followed after their schoolmates towards the fireplace, her boots stuck to the dirty floor with every step.

"Welcome!" He spread out his arms and smiled. Dan pulled her towards the wall, as far away as possible from the pudgy man while still close enough to be part of the group. They leaned against it, waiting for him to continue.

"Welcome, students of Morgan le Fay. My name is Alois Mallow and I myself graduated from Morgan le Fay over a decade ago. I think you all know why you're here. The wizarding world needs a change. You've seen it. You've felt it. They don't treat you the same as those Hogwarts brats, do they?"

The students glanced at one another, nodding and muttering their agreement. Of course they'd seen it. This was their everyday life.

"Let me tell you what your future looks like. After graduating from Morgan le Fay, it took me years to land a job at the Ministry — as a paper-pusher." He spat out the word and all around students grumbled along with him.

"For ten long years I've worked and worked to get a promotion. I do my job well - better than any Hogwarts graduate. And yet they keep passing me over. They always give the opportunities to them, while keeping me chained to the lowest job in the Ministry."

More grumbling broke out and Ravenna could feel the anger rise inside herself as well. This was the world that was waiting for them, once they finally managed to get through the final exams. Cruel. Prejudiced. Unfair. If they let us take the exams at all...

"And it's not just me. All my old classmates are treated this way. Every Morgan le Fay graduate is deprived of any chance in life. You all have got it even worse, I hear. Hasn't the Ministry taken away your chance to graduate? I ask you, is that fair?"

"No!" exclaimed a few of the students.

"This is the life you're all choosing to lead," he continued. "A life of disappointment, discouragement, and suffering. Is that good enough for you?"

"No!" came more voices.

"Is that what you'll settle for?"

"No!" The same word bubbled up in Ravenna's throat.

"No!" said Alois. "We will not stand for it. But change does not happen overnight. Someone will need to fight for it. We will fight for it."

He gestured towards his audience and smiled his pointy teeth bare, waiting for the cheering to die down. Ravenna couldn't help but clap along. This was what they needed. Change. People who knew what they were going through, willing to fight for a better world.

"We are not alone in this," Alois continued. "My friends want to help us with this. They have the same goals as we do: incite change!"

He raised his wand, causing the crowd to erupt into cheering. Ravenna laughed and whooped along. Change. She could hardly believe it. Could these people truly make a better world?

She glanced aside to find Dan staring at Alois with his arms crossed and a frown on his face. When she nudged him, he barely spared her a smile before returning his glare to the wizard.

"Why would they do this for us?"

The students quieted, startled at the sudden, bold question from amidst them. Ravenna wasn't sure who had asked it. A sixth-level, perhaps.

Alois merely smiled. "A fair question. After all, I've just told you that nobody cares about us Morgan le Fay graduates, so why would my friends? I'll be honest with you: they don't do this for us. They have their own reasons. My associates believe the Ministry is making too many mistakes, so they want to take the power away from those bureaucrats. They want change as much as we do. As long as we help them, they will reward us fairly, and we get to profit from the fact that they have the same goals."

Exciting muttering filled the pub. The hard truth sounded much more convincing than any argument ever could. Nobody cared about Morgan le Fay students, that was a fact of life. Alois didn't deny that. But he showed them a way to profit from a group of people that wanted the same things.

"Now, then." Alois spread out his arms, grinning widely. "Let us mingle. Have a drink. It's on me. I will be here to answer any questions you have and just... Have a good time tonight."

Students stood up, already whispering excitedly amongst themselves.

"I will let you all know when the next meeting is scheduled. Do not worry; you'll soon get a chance to prove yourselves. Enjoy your evening!"

The group dispersed, picking floating mugs of butterbeer from the sky, as the bartender levitated them around. Most had a new-found spark in their eye. Willem immediately turned to a boy nearby, talking animatedly. Alois had given them the one thing nobody had ever done before: hope.

With a glance at her best friend's sour face, Ravenna said, "Will you lighten up? We still get to decide for ourselves whether or not we want to support his cause."

Dan pushed himself off the wall. "And... Do you?"

Shrugging, she said, "Honestly, I found him very convincing. He didn't pretend like it's all some fairytale. Those friends of his don't fight for us. But we want the same thing. It makes sense to me to join forces. Especially when their forces are likely a lot stronger than ours," she added darkly.

He looked at her for a moment. She could almost hear the gears turning in his head. Waiting for a response, she did not avert her gaze. "Fine," he said eventually. "Let's just go back home, okay?"

Ravenna threw a glance through the pub. She'd actually wanted to talk to some more people. See what they thought. Perhaps even get some more answers from Alois. But when her gaze landed on her best friend and saw the exhaustion in his eyes, she nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

The night air was cold in her lungs when they stepped outside, chasing away the smell of stale beer from her nose. They'd asked Willem to come, but he'd decided to stay a little longer. He seemed to get along well with the level fours, his classmates from last year.

Tiny pricks of stars illuminated the sky on their way back to school. They walked in silence until the gates of Morgan le Fay creaked shut behind them.

"Ravenna..." said Dan slowly. "I need you to stay away from him."

Ravenna's eyebrows raised. "Excuse me?"

"From Alois," he explained, frustration clear in his voice. "Stay away from Alois!"

"You know I can't do that."

"So you still b-believe him? After everything he just said?" He threw his arms up helplessly.

"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?"

Dan's blue eyes went cold. "Are you joking? He's l-looking for a fight! Why would you want to support someone like that?"

"You act as if we didn't know that already." Her anger rose with every word her best friend uttered. Why couldn't he understand how crucial this was? How could this not be important to him? "The wizarding world won't change if we don't fight for it, Dan. Why are you so worked up about this?"

Dan let out a joyless laugh and took a step back, away from her. "I can't believe you're so naive... so ignorant! You know who you sound like?"

"Willem?"

"No. My parents!"

The words felt like a slap in the face. He'd never been so nasty to her before. She was the one who always lost her temper, not him. "Your parents might be ignorant, but they know what they're fighting for. You're the one who doesn't think making a change to the wizarding world is important."

"That has nothing to do with it, Ravenna!" he roared. "Of course we need a change, but not like this! Not by willingly throwing ourselves into danger."

"Now who's being naive?" she said, taking a step closer so that they were face to face again.

He scoffed, and pushed her away. There was so much rage behind it that she stumbled backwards. "I'm d-d-done," he said. His eyes shone with a raw contempt she'd never seen on him before. "I am not getting myself involved in this."

With her jaw dropped and her right hand nursing the spot on her chest where he'd shoved her away, Ravenna stared after her best friend as he stomped off.