Dresden Academy

Who: Abernathy and her sister Bernadine
When: Sometime over Spring Break
Where: Abernathy's home in Lake Luzerne, NY
What: Thinking about study after graduation, Abernathy hatches a plan to help Bernadine get the magical education she missed.
Rating: SFW.


The seniors had been encouraged to think about their plans for after graduation from early on in the year. They'd all been sent home for spring break with a pamphlet detailing University house and how the program worked on the Dresden campus.

Abernathy perused it on the ride home from the Floo station. She hadn't been planning on attending Dresden. She'd been looking at muggle colleges and had nearly settled on two or three that looked promising. The whole time she'd been thinking it over she never once managed to get a straight answer from Bernadine.

It worried her that her sister hadn't thought about what she'd do after high school. She was maybe a little too aloof for college, but then she wasn't making any other plans either. Abernathy didn't want to B shut up in their little house in the woods, dependent on their dad for the rest of her life.

She didn't broach the subject until mid-week when dad was out and Tim was off doing something in the woods. They were alone in the living room, B reading a book and Abernathy pretending to do the homework that had been assigned over break.

"So uh... I've been thinking," she began slowly.

Bernadine looked up from her book and as soon as she realized the import of Abernathy's words she set a bookmark on the page and shoved the book in between the couch cushions. "Yeah?" This was one of those times where she could just pluck a thought from the air and know what the undercurrent was all about, but she used every bit of strength she had to let Abernathy speak on her own terms.

"What are you going to do after school?"

Bernadine hadn't broached the subject because she hadn't given it much thought. She didn't feel as though there were many things she was good at. She didn't know what she wanted to explore or learn next. She was fairly certain she'd end up living in this house for the rest of her life. She shrugged in response, pursing her lips into a tiny frown.

Abernathy shoved the pamphlet across the table at her sister. "They sent me home with this," she said dubiously. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to muggle college, but if I was going to a magic university Dresden would probably be the one."

B perused the contents of the pamphlet quickly. She sat in quiet contemplation for a moment. The program at Dresden was relatively new, though it required a large amount of personal responsibility. Abernathy might like just because she would get one on one teaching. "It could work for you."

"If that's what I wanted," she replied.

"Does magic make you so unhappy?"

"It's not the magic," Abernathy replied slowly. "It's the world. I don't quite fit there."

"We don't really fit in the other world either. Not like Timmy."

Abby drew in a long slow breath to sigh out. She didn't want to admit it, but it was just as true as the previous statement. Bernadine knew it even more than Abby, but they were stuck in an in-between world; straddling the line between muggle and witch forever because they'd been raised with the expectation of being squibs.

Bernadine knew more than Abby because her ability straddled that line. Her only magical talent was divination. She didn't have enough of a spark to learn any other magic, not enough to go to a magical school though Abernathy would have fought for her all the way.

Dresden might have taken her if she'd only let Abby plead on her behalf, or if she'd let Bill talk to his old friends at the school.

Bernadine had never told her sister that their father had been training her at home. She couldn't because Bill had never revealed the truth to Abby or Tim. His two eldest didn't know that he was a wizard; he'd been living without magic for the length of their lives.

There were secrets built upon secrets and Bernadine could feel the pressure mounting. Before the end of summer these secrets would be known. What she couldn't see were the consequences of that.

"What do you want?" Bernadine finally asked.

Abernathy shrugged. "I dunno. I think I want something different. I want a new experience."

Bernadine pierced Abernathy with a single gaze. "Then you need to take the opportunity."

"So do you," Abernathy shot back. Just as soon as the words left her mouth an idea began to formulate. It blossomed out of darkness and grew so quickly Abby didn't have time to worry about consequences.

The idea was so fresh, so immediate that Bernadine couldn't help but see it. "Oh no," she said quietly. "This could just go... It could just go so horribly wrong."

Abernathy grinned. "That's almost exactly the kind of thing I'm best at."

"Getting into ridiculous amounts of trouble for no good reason."

"This is a very good reason," Abernathy affirmed. It would be tricky and they'd really have to sell it. The chance of fooling their dad was so low that the girls would need to tell him, but that was an issue for another day. "You could learn how to use your talents. And shit B, if it doesn't work out you can go to college with me. Or we can just switch back."

Bernadine looked at her sister a bit dubiously. "You want to go to collge as Bernadine and I'm supposed to pretend to be you at Dresden."

Abby nodded slowly. "You can do it. We have plenty of time to master being each other."

A quiet laugh filled the space between them. The idea was really that impossible, but probably just that much more enticing for it. The sound of a jeep pulling into the yard had their laughter dying quickly.

"We'll figure out the details before I go back to school," Abby said. She reached over and grabbed her sister's hand squeezing for reassurance. "We can do this."

The quivery feeling in Bernadine's stomach suggested otherwise, but the excitement rolling up her spine pushed her forward. She didn't need to tell her sister; she knew already. They were absolutely going to do this.