The Events of 1978

Mrs. Amelie located a seat in the office and sat down as she began to lament.

"Who is this dark wizard of Prague that has got you so rattled?" Sarah asked Mrs. Amelie.

"He isn't no ordinary wizard he was a monster," Mrs. Amelie said as she continued crying.

"Do you mind telling us more about this Lucien Beaulfoy, so we know what we're up against?" Sarah said after which Mrs. Amelie wiped her tears and began to narrate the incident that took place in 1978.

"The humans of the magic world in France lived in Harmony with the higher race of magical species bordering us like the trolls, orcs, goblins, and centaurs till a misunderstanding broke the peace. One night we found the body of a little girl in the waters that separated our town from that of the magic species, when we pulled her to shore we saw she was missing her limbs and a large cut across her lower abdomen, and that was how the orcs paid tribute with sacrifice to their gods, and it led us to believe it was an act of war against us. The family of the girl in retaliation gathered a group of people and went to their farm just across the river and burnt it to the ground and killed some orcs on the land too. At first, we thought things had died down because two weeks passed and there wasn't a single form of attack on us, but we thought wrong. They spent those two weeks raising an army and on the third week they sailed on fleets of ships to our shores, we tried to intercept them but they were very cunning, they used the ships sailing towards us as a diversion and their actual troops took an underwater route. While we engaged them with all our forces in the waters we were suddenly taken aback by the other numerous forces appearing from under the water close to our shores and at that point, we didn't know what to do. Everything happened so quickly and when we sent word out to the magic council in Luxembourg and Belgium they refused to help as they didn't want to involve themselves in our war as we were the only ones targeted, so at that point, it was our deaths. We held an emergency meeting at the magic council in Paris to see if there were any immediate measures we could employ to ensure our victory but there were none until a now deceased member of the council, council man Olivier Hansen suggested we freed Lucien Beaulfoy from his Portrait prison but place him under the chains of control which was a very technical and difficult spell to use. After deliberating we bought the idea and that night we went to the Labyrinths of Nazaire, the only way to break the seal was with a curse which we used and I'm quite sure it was what young Master Marcel used too. Nazaire Beaulfoy specifically used a curse as the key because at the time he sealed him curses were non-existent in most of our world so he thought it would be impossible to break the seal since we didn't use curses but the times evolved and corruption shattered our world and books on curses were brought from the demon realm into our world though it was highly illegal and the punishment was instant execution. That night we laid our hands on a book of curses and that was how we released him, the chains of control worked, and using him as our weapon we were able to sink most of their ships and they retreated. They later came back but it was for treaty purposes after which they left again, we tried sending Lucien to his Portrait prison but it turned out we were betrayed by the sorcerer who cast the control spell and he intended to use him for his selfish purposes but the dark wizard sensed his malicious intent and the spell broke. He took a sword as his weapon and with telekinesis, he used the sword to kill the sorcerer who cast the spell and went on to annihilate the council members who stood to face him while the others ran. I was a member of the council at the time, I was youthful and full of energy so I didn't back down. I fought him viciously with all my might and with every spell and the little curses I knew then and the best I could do was break the hold he had on the sword but it wasn't enough to stop him, as he struck me with a freezing spell. I think he didn't strike me with the sword because he thought me a strong opposition, he left the council building and went Into the town, and honestly, it was a massacre, he was on a killing spree and could not be stopped until my younger sister (at this point she began to cry) who was just 19 at the time used a blood spell that took her life to bind him to the portrait. After he got sealed we took the portrait back to the Labyrinth and we never spoke of it again".

"There's no need to panic because when he comes we'll be ready," Sarah said assuredly.

"I hope so, but for now Sarah, go with Mr. Andre and the other teachers and take the students back to their dormitories and set up a barrier to keep them safe," Mrs. Amelie said.

"Peter and Alice are already on that," Mr. Andre said. They all left the office to check the barrier Peter and Alice had set but they were shocked at what they saw, the older students didn't want to go back to their dormitories but they insisted on staying to defend the school.

"I speak for all of us when I say that we won't hide like little children anymore" the head boy Gaston said to Peter who was trying his best to get them to go inside their dorms. "Peter you have to understand that this is what our late Principal has been preparing us for all this time, so we won't back down and let all the lessons we've learned from you go to waste".

"Children, children, please you have to understand that you're our last hope at defending Nazaire, so you go in and when we can't defeat the evil you'll come to join us" Mrs. Amelie pleaded, "and besides I've sent word to the council so extra help will come".

"With all our forces put together, we stand a better chance at defeating whatever comes at us" Gaston reiterated and the students behind him sounded with a loud cheer as they let out flares from their wands towards the sky. Gaston and the other prefects gathered the younger students from year one to three and took them back to their dormitories and with the help of Melissa and Alice they set up a protective barrier over the dormitory.

"How much time do we have till he gets here?" Peter asked.

"Not very much. once his soul is fully released from the portrait it takes about thirty minutes for it to form into a body" Mrs. Amelie said.

"Then why don't we go down there and destroy his soul before it forms," Alice asked.

"He's immortal. He attained immortality when my sister bound him to the portrait by killing herself" Mrs. Amelie said.

"How does that make him immortal?" Alice asked.

"It's because my sister was born on the night of a blood moon" Mrs. Amelie answered.

"Then how do we stop him?" Peter asked.

"I know a sealing spell that will prove very effective since he's a wizard" Sarah answered.

The students alongside Peter, Alice, and the other teachers who were on the school fields got into formation in preparation to attack while Sarah and Melissa hid behind the statues so they could take him unaware. Mrs. Amelie despite being old mounted the clock tower wielding her wand to assist from above them. They heard a loud creaking sound coming from the school's drainage system and immediately the whole field went silent, that night was the most silent the school had ever been before because not even the sound of frogs from the water fountain or the chirps from crickets or the sounds of rats running around or the squeaking noises from the squirrels or the hoots of owls on the trees could be heard, it was almost as if all the nocturnal animals had either died or gone into hiding because they too sensed the impending danger. Suddenly they heard a noise coming from the entrance into the school building but it was only Mr. Julien who had been asleep the whole time and didn't know what was going on, he rubbed his eyes as he walked across the fields towards the dormitory but just then after his eyes cleared he saw the students and teachers wielding their wands with an aggressive look in their eyes but he also saw the look of despair and fright too. He continued to stare at them without even saying a word until Mrs. Camille the elixirs teacher signaled him to leave the field. He was about to walk away when the air became cooler than it normally was and a portal was opened a couple of meters from them and they saw soldiers coming through the portal but just then they heard a loud bellow from above them, it was a voice Mrs. Amelie knew very well, it was Lucien Beaulfoy the dark wizard of Prague.