Thaumatology 101 Read Online Free PDF

potions, a huge library, and a lab and two summoning rooms in the cellar.
    ‘Right,’ the driver said. ‘Well, good luck with your recovery.’
    ‘Thanks,’ Ceri said, climbing out and closing the door behind her.
    As the car drove off she looked up at her home. From the outside it did look like a haunted house. The broken, dirty window panes and cobwebs were pure illusion, enchanted in by carefully placed runes. The architecture, three floors, with a tower climbing up over a large portico, was strictly out of a horror movie. The railings around the flat roof even had bats in the design.
    The house stood in a fairly large plot of land near to Kennington Park. Her parents had been well off, very well off, their money coming from providing services as enchanters to various corporations and celebrities. They had bought the land and had the entire house constructed to their specification not long after Ceri had been born. She had grown up in the place. Her birthday parties had always been the best; having your birthday on All Hallows’ Eve and living in a haunted house was considered pretty cool.
    She pushed open the gate and walked into the front garden. Almost immediately one of the two big front doors opened and Lily came running down the gravel path toward her. It was incredibly early for the half-succubus to be up, but Ceri was really happy to see her. She guessed Twill had sensed her entering the property. While it was not technically the fairy’s land, she had sort of adopted it and could always tell when someone entered her territory.
    ‘Come on’ Lily said, lifting Ceri off the ground in a hug. ‘You are to sit in one of the big chairs in the lounge and not move a muscle. Twill’s been worried sick about you. She’s been cleaning all the time you were in hospital.’
    ‘ All the time?’
    ‘I think she’s polished the dust,’ Lily said, giggling.
    Twill came barrelling down the stairs as soon as Ceri was through the inner doors, a ball of light which resolved into a beaming, nut-brown fairy talking too fast to make any sense of. Ceri had rarely seen her so excited in the three years since she had arrived in the house, uninvited and initially hidden in the attic.
    As the manic buzzing slowed, Ceri began to make out a few words. ‘…lounge is clean and tidy… bathroom… fire set if you’re cold… really must rest as much… very worried…’
    ‘Okay, Twill, okay!’ Ceri half-yelled, half-giggled. ‘I get it, you were worried and you’re glad I’m back. Okay. Slow down. You know you’re hard to understand when you get excited.’
    Lily’s hand pushed slightly, steering Ceri up the stairs and to the left. The ground floor was where they spent a lot of their time in the house; it had both kitchens and the utility room, and, aside from the hall which featured a lot of dark wood panelling, the rooms were bright and friendly. However, the main living rooms of the house were actually on the upper floors. The lounge occupied the south-facing side of the house, so that it got more sun. It needed it; the entire middle floor had more of the dark wood which sometimes seemed to absorb the light. It had a large fireplace which Twill had set up with logs to burn if Ceri wanted, and two big leather chairs which faced it. It was, actually, not a room Ceri really liked, but as she was directed into a chair and a blanket tucked in around her, and a bundle of daily papers was handed over as well as The Wednesday Witch and the new copy of Thaumatology Monthly, she was pretty much forced to sit still and be mothered there.
    It took a little less than two hours of Lily and Twill constantly asking if she wanted anything, whether she was warm enough, was she sure she did not want a nap, before Ceri exploded and shooed them out of the room so she could read in peace.
    The accident had made the newspaper, if only on page five. The report said that there had been a “release of magical energy during an experiment to