A/N: At the time of writing this I got super confused as to what to label this chapter; I unfortunately mislabeled my chapter 13 to chapter 14, which means that chapter 14 had to be renamed to chapter A14, and so now I'm super confused haha. I almost buggered up again and named this one 16.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. There will be more Grabiner+Kittie action, I swear. It's just important for you to understand Kittie and how she- and her magic- works.

Just trust me on this. Heh.

Chapter 15

The next week nearly went by quickly and smoothly with little in the way of events. As it progressed, however, Kitiara was beginning to notice that both Professor Grabiner and Professor Potsdam were watching her as she learned yet more spells, but she couldn't figure out what their interest could be. It seemed that they were trying to hide their interest... But it also seemed that they were perplexed and even suspicious.

As Kitiara was walking to her room one evening, mentally going over preparations for the second exam (which was the very next day), she ran- almost literally - into Professor Potsdam. With a very serious expression on her face, the woman quickly cast a hand over Kitiara, who blinked at the sudden sensation of Green Magic.

"W-what-"

"How strange," Professor Potsdam muttered, and without another word she marched off, muttering under her breath. Kitiara watched her go, feeling very perplexed.

"That's an easy one to answer," Virginia drawled when Kitiara brought it up just a few minutes later, in their dorm room. "Professor Potsdam is trying to see if you're on any Magic Strengthening drugs."

"I- What?" Kitiara gasped, completely taken aback.

"Well, she has a good reason to," Ellen pointed out, and when it didn't seem like she was going to explain any further, Kitiara folded her arms and huffed.

"All right, would someone like to explain this 'reason' to me?" she asked, pouting.

Virginia and Ellen exchanged frowns before looking at Kitiara's face. Both of their expressions were guarded and somewhat disbelieving.

"You're not serious, right?" Virginia asked.

"I don't understand," Kitiara muttered. "Why are you looking at me that way?"

"Kittie," Ellen said slowly, sitting up, "you learn spells really fast. Like, ABNORMALLY fast. You're WAY ahead of most of the other students right now, if not all of them. Hell, you're ahead of some of the sophomores."

"You've started tutoring Minnie," Virginia said when Kitiara looked unconvinced. "NO ONE tutors Minnie.

Kitiara sat down on the edge of her bed slowly, blinking hard as she hugged her notebook to her chest. Was that really the case? She hadn't noticed if she'd been learning the spells at any particular rate...

William's surprise just over a week ago when he was teaching her spells popped into her memory. "Don't you do anything in halves?" and "Well, I wasn't expecting you to get it that fast."

Was she really ahead of the other students?

Troubled, Kitiara set her books aside.

"I- it's not a bad thing," Virginia said, sitting up off of her bed. She exchanged a baffled expression with Ellen. Neither of them could understand why being what was essentially an academic genius was causing such an affect on Kitiara.

"Am I different here, too?" Kitiara murmured softly, more to herself than her roommates. "Is it... Am I just..." Her voice trailed off, and neither of her friends could understand her anymore.

"Kittie?" Ellen pressed, and after a moment the brunette raised her head. Her brown eyes were troubled, and she was fiddling with the hem of her robes.

"I need to think," she murmured, and without another word she glided gracefully from the room. Virginia and Ellen looked at each other again, neither of them capable of fathoming Kitiara's strange reaction to learning that she was a magical prodigy.

For Kitiara, however, it wasn't so difficult to be worried. All she could think was that there was something else wrong with her in a world where she couldn't afford to have anything else bringing attention to her.

Why can't I just find something to be normal at? she found herself thinking desperately.

Kitiara realized abruptly that she had somehow arrived at her little grove. The sun was sinking; curfew would be very soon, though Kitiara found that she didn't particularly care. She needed to think, away from other students- away from anyone who was or might be judging her.

She sat down on the bench, shivering slightly but not feeling like casting anything to warm herself. Even magic was working against her, she felt.

All Kitiara had wanted was to find a way to be normal. Magic had been her means to normalcy, her means to health and the ability to finally join the people around her as one of them. She wanted to run, to jump, to be as carefree as they were, but it seemed that she was a freak in all aspects of her life. Kitiara didn't want to be noticed; she didn't want to be powerful, she didn't want to be a "magical prodigy". She just wanted to cure herself and help the people around her.

"A little late for melancholy debating, isn't it Miss Kix?"

Kitiara looked up slowly to see Professor Grabiner walking toward her, a book resting lightly in the crook of one arm. He didn't appear to be angry; merely cautious and curious, and perhaps even a trifle worried.

"You must think I'm on drugs too," she said miserably, and the Professor stopped short, blinking rapidly for a moment.

"I- Pardon?" Professor Grabiner asked, his voice suddenly filled with confusion. Kitiara had never heard so much emotion- even if it was just confusion- in his voice before this point.

"I'm a freak," she explained, looking ahead of her. She was suddenly too ashamed to look at her professor. "I learn spells faster than the other students. I- I j-just wanted to be n-normal and I'm a f-freak here too. Now my professor's all th-think that I'm on d-d-drugs... I just want to be n-normal." To her mild horror, Kitiara realized she was crying. She was also shivering with cold.

A sudden burst of warmth spread through her, and Kitiara felt herself slowly stop shivering. She blinked in surprise before she realized that, of course, the Professor had cast Warm. He was moving to sit beside her, and to her mild surprise he seemed awkward and unsure of what to do.

"I... I don't understand where this is coming from," he said quietly.

"Professor Potsdam just cast a spell over me," Kitiara explained quietly. "I couldn't figure out what she was doing, but I nearly bumped into her and she cast Diagnosis- at least, some form of Diagnosis. My roommates..." she sniffed, tears starting to fall again. She didn't particularly care anymore; who knew what everyone thought of her at this point. "My roommates said it was b-because I learn spells too quickly. They s-s-said I'm ahead of some of the sophomores..."

Silence fell, interrupted only by Kitiara's sniffles and ungainly hiccups.

"I admit that you learn more quickly than other students," Professor Grabiner said after a moment, "but I do not think that you are on any illicit substances. I never have."

Kitiara glanced up at him, but she didn't appear to be too mollified by his admittance.

"The other students still think I'm a freak," she said miserably. "Professor Potsdam still thinks-"

"Why does what they think matter?" Professor Grabiner asked quietly.

"Because no matter where I've g-gone, where I've b-been," Kitiara sniffed, suddenly hating herself, "I've never been normal. N-never. Even before my m-magic, I couldn't fit in, and now... This was all I had. This was my way into that world..."

"What world is that?"

"The one where I can join everyone else," Kitiara whispered, forgetting that Professor Grabiner knew nothing of her condition. "The one where I'm not constantly in danger."

"Danger?" Professor Grabiner blinked in surprise and bewilderment, looking around and quickly casting a series of spells. There was no danger that he could see, and yet this girl beside him seemed deadly serious. "Miss Kix, I see no danger here."

Realizing what she'd said, Kitiara remained silent. She didn't want him to look at her any differently now too. Professor Grabiner watched curiously as a series of emotions flitted one after another across his brightest pupil's face- realization, guilt, fear, misery, and uncertainty- and she quickly turned her face away. She gave nothing in the way of explanation, and Professor Grabiner found that he was fighting to convince himself that using magic to read the girl's mind would be bad. Very bad. And that he shouldn't do it.

Heaving a slightly frustrated sigh- he very much disliked not knowing things- Professor Grabiner thought about how he could help this student out without knowing... whatever it was that was bothering her. First off, he needed to decide whether this "danger" was something that he should in fact know about.

"I understand that you have your privacy, Miss Kix," he said quietly, "but I need to know: is this something I should know? Is this something that will affect the other students?"

"No," Kitiara said quietly. "It just a danger to myself. No one else."

"Well, in that case, I will let you keep your secret. I can see that it is something that bothers you though, and if it's truly dangerous I would suggest at least telling-"

"Professor Potsdam already knows," Kitiara said quietly, leaning back. She still refused to look her Professor in the eye, and he was suddenly aware of how world-weary that Kitiara looked in front of him. This troubled him a great deal; he was aware of the kind of sacrifices and the kind of mental stress that it took to place a person of her age and youth in that kind of mental state, and it wasn't something that he would wish on his greatest enemy.

"Then the only advice I can offer you really isn't advice," he said carefully. Kitiara looked at him in confusion, and the older man nodded slowly. "I won't lie to you, Kitiara. Your magic marks you apart from the other students, but it isn't a bad thing."

"But"

"It is not something you should be worried about," he repeated. "Kitiara, you are one of the brightest pupils I have ever had. You learn magic far faster than many witch's or wizards I've ever met and that is a very wonderful gift. It isn't a curse."

"It feels like one," Kitiara grumbled miserably. "I don't want to be set apart."

"From what you said earlier," Professor Grabiner said, trying a different tact, "it seems as if there is something very particular that you want from Magic."

"Yes. It is the one reason that I am learning magic," she responded immediately.

"Then this is a gift," he reassured her. "How can you learn that quickly and use it if you are not a prodigy?"

Kitiara thought about this, a look of intensity on her face. She bit one of her fingernails and furrowed her brows together, and Professor Grabiner realized with a start that he was watching her expressions with an unnatural attentiveness. He blinked and, frowning, turned his head forward again, giving her a moment to collect her thoughts.

"I..." she said after a moment. "What if-"

"The students look up to you," Professor Grabiner said gruffly. "They look to you for guidance. I have seen no discontent from them towards your natural ability; only respect and admiration."

"And... You aren't angry?"

Professor Grabiner turned without thinking and saw her looking up at him with sad, wide brown eyes. There was so much raw feeling, pain, and emotion in those eyes that the professor found himself deeply troubled. No 16 year old should know that feeling; he was a testament to that.

"I am not angry," he said quietly. "On the contrary; I look forward to teaching you what I know. Perhaps one day you will be able to teach me."

Kitiara snorted, crossing her arms.

"I somehow doubt that," she said. "You know everything."

Professor Grabiner let out a bark of laughter that was very uncharacteristic of him, earning a very surprised look from Kitiara.

"Now THAT is doubtful, Kitiara," he said humorously. "Even I am still learning, no matter how much I like to pretend otherwise."

Kitiara could hear the bitterness in his voice, and she knew there was another story behind that statement. She also wisely said nothing about it.

"If you say so," she said, shrugging. The more she thought about what he had said, though, the better she was beginning to feel. She looked up, feeling fresh determination run through her, and smiled in gratitude at Professor Grabiner.

"Thank you, Professor," she said, beaming at him. "I owe you. I don't know what state this would have left me in, and that... Would have been detrimental to much more that you know."

He blinked at her a few times before coughing and standing, his face suddenly impassive.

"Yes, well... It is my duty to help my students grow, as it is my duty to ensure that they meet curfew."

"Ah!" Suddenly realizing what time it was, Kitiara jumped up and hurriedly moved to head back toward her dorm, feeling slightly foolish. She turned back and waved, not quite running but not quite walking.

Professor Grabiner- Hieronymous Grabiner- watched her go with trepidation. He stood for a great deal of time, thinking long and hard about this particular student; it appeared that things were not as they seemed, and he wasn't entirely sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Sensing that something was happening- coming- he absentmindedly decided on testing the boundaries of his magic.

As he returned to his own room, he mentally filed away his newly learned information on Miss Kitiara Kix.

In another area of the school, Kitiara was busily getting ready for bed- having fended off curious and worried questions (and then the immediately following Grabiner teasing)- Kitiara paused as she realized something strange.

Professor Grabiner had stopped referring to her as "Miss Kix" and had begun to call her "Kitiara". For some odd reason, this made her pleased, though she didn't question it too hard. It must just be because she was happy to be considered either an acquaintance (versus just a student) or even something akin to an aspiring equal. That would be nice... she thought groggily before passing off into a hopeful sleep.