Jocelyn knew something was different. Their group of friends met as usual in Osakond before walking together to the library. They sat as usual, bantered as usual, worked together as usual, and even stayed together the whole day. And yet, the next day, she felt the same discord she had felt the day before. This happened the next two days too. Now that they all had passed their exams and no one was required to re-write any, they all were researching various projects that they would choose to take up for the remaining two months.

She could not pin point the exact change. The best she could explain was that there seemed to be an open secret known to all but her. That something was the reason for covert looks, awkward smiles and the stifled giggles, and she did not know what it was. But even more uneasy was her feeling somehow cornered and claimed. In just five days, that feeling appeared many times.

Like one time, when they were collecting their meals in Okrag, one of the senior lady fairies had shot a hex at Jocelyn. But it missed, and Jocelyn turned about to see who had fired that hex. There was a group of senior fairies sitting at one of the benches. They were smirking at her. All of a sudden, fear flashed in their eyes and they suddenly stood up, collected their things and left. Confused, Jocelyn had turned to her friends only to be more baffled. Alano was standing just behind her, not looking at her but scowling all the same. Segrace and Saelig were looking at Alano in… disappointment? Nefira, Serine and Folana were pointedly not looking at each other, trying to… stifle their laughs? Hothar was scratching the back of his head awkwardly. She could not understand what had happened.

Another time was when they were at the library. She was trying to decide the project she wished to work on. Her project was a choice between creating a rune against fire in such a way that it would be powered by the fire itself, and creating a device which would make mental magic easier. She went to sit beside Saelig, as he was the best in runes. She felt welcomed to see his face light up when she sat with him to discuss it. Not ten minutes had passed when Segrace stopped by them as he walked by.

"Hey Joy! If you want help with anything, please do tell me."

"Thank you Grace. Umm… where are you going?"

"I will be in my cottage. The library feels very… angst'y today."

"Huh..?"

"Segrace," Alano called out, "I will come with you too." He not-so-subtly looked at her before whipping his head back to the dracken, "I have some…. Um.. Doubts? Yeah, doubts to clarify with you."

While their departure was confusing in itself, the rest of the friends' hidden laughter was obvious. The reason… not so much."

Outside, the dracken and fairy friends looked at each other in mild animosity, before looking away and sighing together. In their minds, both of them decided to confess to their love as soon as possible, lest she be lost to them before they had even tried.

This confusion was too much for Jocelyn. What was happening? She tossed and turned in her bed that night, trying to make out the situation. There seemed to be only one possible reason. She must have insulted someone, and they were still putting up with her only because they realized that it was out of ignorance. What else could it be? Not able to figure out what she did, Jocelyn finally gave up on sleep. She dressed herself and walked out into the dark.

As she walked away from her cottage, she felt tiny jerk which she ignored. She walked into the woods to her favorite tree. She lay down under it and looked up at the stars twinkling in the sky. They all were different, yet they looked the same. Idly, she imagined how it would look if someone saw the earth from the sky. They would be able to see just dots moving about, not what they were. Why should it matter how different they were, when they all had the same goals and joys in their lives. She shook herself from her silly thoughts and closed her eyes with a sigh.

So lost in her thoughts, she never expected nor detected the spell. She cried out in shock as a spell suddenly hit her and she felt herself squeezing into darkness before the world again came into view. Teleportation? She looked around in panic to identify her location, only to sigh in relief when she realized she was still in Amictos, just inside the treeline of the Teaching plane, Osakond. This confused her; why would someone teleport her here?

From the treeline, she felt a spell cast towards her and immediately jumped aside. Four other spells followed from the unknown assailants in the trees. She jumped over the first one, dodged the second and cast a block spell for the other two. Alas, she had not taken off her chain, so her spell was underpowered and could barely block one spell. The other one hit her in her lower right leg, breaking her bone. She collapsed on the ground with a cry in pain. As she hurried to remove her chain, another spell sped to her. She rolled on the ground to miss it, crying in pain as her injured leg twisted painfully. Finally free of her locket, she sat on the ground, concentrated on her magic and cast three slicing spells successively into the trees where she had seen the last spell come from. She immediately followed it up with a few stunning spells and then raised a barrier against the incoming spells. Her eyes widened when she felt the spells being blocked by the barrier. She could read that they were highly powered, so it would only mean that whoever it was, they were trying to kill or seriously harm her.

Fear filled her eyes as the spells grew more powered, shattering against her barrier. The attackers must have been allievos, because it was nigh impossible to come here without invitation from the headmaster Grendall. So, she did not want to hurt the students who were attacking her. But she could not do nothing. While holding her shield, she concentrated on her magic for what she wanted to do. In all the rush, she did not notice one of the attackers slip behind her and fire a slicing spell at her. Without knowing that, she lowered her barrier and she released her magic in a wave of stunner spell into the trees. So while the spell hit the attackers, she was also hit by a spell from behind and she shouted out in pain as the spell hit her back. A big slash appeared across her back from her right shoulder to her left waist, which immediately started bleeding heavily.

Panting and crying, she fell on the ground and looked sideways to see the outline of a person with no wings. Her vision blurred, but she could make out a person raising their hand to cast a spell. She cried out for her friend just as she was electrocuted.

"Hedwig! Help!"

Saelig was at the lake where he had been with Jocelyn. He smiled to himself remembering the happy parts of that meeting. He wanted to feel that again, the bliss of having Jocelyn in his arms close to his heart. He had lost the fight against his love a long time ago. It did not matter that she was not an elf. What mattered was the amazing and caring person she was. And beautiful too. And so so alluring, enticing and….

He shook his head. Now was not the time. He needed her to first accept him as more than a friend before he could think in that direction. Suddenly, on the lake, the two phoenixes of Jocelyn, Hedwig and Fawkes appeared in a flash. The birds seemed to be having a good time with all the playful flying they were doing. They were beautiful and filled his heart with happiness and confidence.

Hedwig and Fawkes were having a race across the lake when Hedwig heard the plea of Jocelyn. She screeched in anguish and immediately informed Fawkes to follow her along with help. In the next instant, she vanished in a flash. Fawkes immediately flashed next to the elf who was watching them on the lake. He knew that this elf, Saelig, was a friend and well wisher of Joy. He looked at the elf seriously, trying to inform him the urgency of the situation. The elf seemed to have understood his seriousness. As soon as the phoenix trilled and held out his claw, Saelig held her claw and both of them vanished in a flash of fire. When they landed, it was in the face of an incoming spell. He immediately cast a barrier to block it.

"What in the god's hell! Seamase?"

Saelig faced the owner of the voice, a senior elf he knew well. He was Naerag, the top performer of the current graduating batch. He also recognized the area as Osakond. The earth was scorched and damaged, and he could spot two allievos stunned in the trees. A whimper behind him caught his attention. There was Jocelyn on the ground, and she was seriously hurt.

"Where did you come from?" Naerag growled and shook his head angrily, "Step aside."

Saelig narrowed his eyes, his body automatically aligned to fight, "What did you say?" He asked in a low voice.

"I said STEP ASIDE" Naerag shouted and immediately thrust his hands forward, letting a beam of electricity towards them. Saelig immediately cast another barrier, but the senior was more experienced and powerful. His barrier could not hold back all of the attack and sparks started penetrating through it. But Saelig refused to step away from Jocelyn and soon had various cuts and burns throughout his torso.

"I told you to step aside, you stupid elf! That trash is mine." This time Naerag let out multitude of spells at Saelig from various directions, trying to hit the human behind him. Saelig, though hurt, still twisted his body in all directions to try and block the spells. But he could not identify a few of them which he was unable to block. While a few hit Jocelyn, he put his body in front of her and took as many spells as he could onto himself. He collapsed in front of Jocelyn soon.

"Why are you protecting that worthless thing?" Naerag said in frustration as he built up the magic for another heavy spell.

"She is my precious… my love… my life." Saelig said as he struggled to stand up again.

Naerag spat on the ground, "You foolish elf, die with her then." He let out a big line of fire at the two of them. Saelig knew he could not block that, so he looked back at Jocelyn, slightly surprised that she was awake. He smiled at her as he saw the tears flowing down her eyes.

Just as the fire was about to hit them, headmaster Grendall appeared in a flash and he immediately dispelled the spell. He shot one of his own at the shocked elf in front of him, and Naerag collapsed on the ground as his eyes rolled back.

Grendall turned around to his two students on the ground, "I am sorry, my students."

He inspected them. Jocelyn had a broken leg and big cut on her back. She also had various other injuries throughout her body and was shivering in pain; most likely electrocuted. Seamase too had different injuries all through his body and but he seemed better off amongst the two. Fawkes immediately flashed beside the two students and prodded into a pile of ashes on the ground. To the headmaster's surprise, a small baby white phoenix emerged from them.

"Ah! Hedwig, were you injured in the fight to save Miss Potter?"

The baby phoenix nodded and trilled cutely. Grendall nodded and waved his hand over his students, and saw that their bruises stopped bleeding and that they were out of immediate danger. He then looked at Fawkes, "Fawkes! Would you be able to take them back to Miss Potter's cottage? I will be there soon with our medic. I would like a full report of their injuries, so please avoid healing them unless urgent."

A tear slid out of Fawkes' eye as he nodded sadly. The headmaster caught it as it fell down, "Pure love, pure emotion, I can understand how you feel Fawkes. I would not want to see them in harm anymore than you, but we need a complete report if I am to punish the culprits."

Fawkes nodded and then trilled loudly. Dobby popped beside them, his eyes instantly widening as he saw the state of Joy and Saelig.

"Miss Joy!" he cried out in shock and started fretting over her.

"Dobby!" the headmaster called out to the elf, "Control your emotions and help Fawkes transport them back to the cottage."

Dobby took a deep breath, "Yes headmaster Grendall sir, I will do that." He nodded to a trill from Fawkes and gently picked Hedwig in his arms. Fawkes then held both Saelig and Jocelyn and then all of then disappeared back to the cottage. The Headmaster shook his head at the scene and the fallen allievos. He did not like it when people refused to look past the appearance of others. He spread his wings and flew out to do his tasks.

When he arrived at Jocelyn's cottage along with Imparato Sophianna (the old veela who teaches literature), both Saelig and Jocelyn were in two beds beside each other, fretted over by the house elf and Fawkes perched on the headboard of Jocelyn's bed. Hedwig was sleeping beside Jocelyn, who had her eyes squeezed tight as pain wrecked through her body.

"Oh my!" Sophianna put her hands to her lips at the sight in front of her.

"Greetings Imparato Sophianna!" Saelig greeted her. Jocelyn's eyes snapped open at the greeting, but she was immediately waved over by the veela Imparato.

"Relax Miss Potter, I will have you out of pain soon. Just relax." At the curious gaze from Saelig, Headmaster Grendall explained, "Imparato Sophianna is also our resident head medic here at Amictos." He then turned towards the said Imparato, "I will take my leave unless you have need of me, Madam Sophianna?"

She just waved him away, took out her medic case and directed Dobby how to place them ready. Meanwhile, she waved a spell over Jocelyn and placed her hand on a parchment. All the current diagnosis of her body instantly appeared on the parchment. She read it for a moment and nodded. Fawkes, noticing that she has the summary of her injuries, hopped on the bed and trilled at the Veela. Sophianna looked at the phoenix in curious wonder. Dobby came to stand beside her.

"Madam Sophianna! I have the medic case in ready. Oh, Fawkes says that he is ready to assist you in any way you need him to."

Surprised but pleased at the same time, Imparato Sophianna nodded, "That would make the treatment faster and easier. My gratitude, o phoenix!"

With a nod from the phoenix, she started the treatment of the two allievos. When she was finished, she had the two students sleeping peacefully in their beds. She turned to Dobby, "Dobby, I have treated all the minor injuries and repaired all the major ones. While Mister Seamase will be completely fine by tomorrow evening, Miss Potter would need at least another day for her pain to completely go away. The phoenix tears were a big help. She will, of course, wake up tomorrow. I need you to give them these potions as per the directions on this parchment."

"I thank you a lot, Madam Sophianna. I will do exactly as you instructed."

With a gentle smile at the house elf and a nod to Fawkes, the medic left. Dobby and Fawkes looked at each other and nodded before settling around Jocelyn's bed, looking at their mistress and charge with sadness. Both wondered the same thing, when will Jocelyn be at peace?