Chapter 51: A date between friends

Knock! Knock!

The sound of the door woke William from his sleep before his usual scheduled start time for classes, learning with the dueling club members had mentally exhausted him.

Knock, knock!

"I'm coming, I'm coming, no need to knock on the door so many times" William complained loudly rubbing his right hand on his face to finish opening his eyes, then when he opened the door the figure of a person he hadn't seen for days appeared.

"Manuela?"

"who else could it be?"

They both stared at each other for a few seconds, waiting for the other to say something but nothing came out of their mouths.

"What are you doing here?" William was the first to break the silence and opened his mouth.

Manuela was still smiling, she looked around but there were no students standing "We're going to gather materials at the magical creature farm."

"At six in the morning?"

"This is the ideal time to go get the materials, you should be thankful, a beauty like me came to invite you. Think of this as a wizard date."

"No thanks, I want to continue on a date with my bed. I don't have classes today" William closed his door and walked back to his bed when....

Knock! Knock!

Knock! Knock!

Knock! Knock!

Knock! Knock!

"Agh!" William hit his head against a wall then simply sighed "I'm horrible with human relationships..."

The door to his room opened once more, revealing Manuela again "I'm going to shower before I leave, then we can go pick up materials."

She nodded her head and watched again as William closed the door, she waited patiently until the moment when the white-haired man came back out of his room with his uniform on his body.

"Let's go" he said stepping forward then Manuela just pulled him by the arm and they both ran through the school. Together they looked like a pair of siblings.

When they got to the magical creature farm all was quiet "let's get started" she said stepping forward, William helplessly began to gather all the possible materials for his formulas.

There was not much talk between the two, William hesitated a bit about asking the reason for her disappearance, but in the end he gave up the idea, everyone had their own secrets and if she decided not to tell then he was not the right person to get honest answers.

Once they had gathered all they could, they were both exhausted and stared at each other for a couple of seconds when Manuela's stomach gave the signal to forage for food.

"I think the next stop on our date is the dining room" laughed William eliciting a smirk from Manuela.

Both of their steps were quick, to Manuela all the surroundings were just as she remembered them, nothing had changed except that now many students were greeting William along the way.

"you've become quite popular Will what did you do during my absence?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary, I followed the classes to the letter and maybe started practicing with the members of the dueling club."

"The dueling club?!"

"With Anana and her friends?"

"Yes, they're all teaching me a bit of their skills, they're really good people."

Manuela stared at William for a couple of seconds, her expression was serious causing the white-haired man's discomfort.

"William..." she called

"Yes?"

"Do you remember what it was I told you the first time you walked into the dining room?"

William stroked her chin softly "something about staying away from the dueling club."

"Exactly!" she exclaimed contentedly "the members of the dueling club are always getting into trouble, each and every one of them are considered the most troublesome students in Castelobruxo. Anana as their captain is one of the most troublesome of them all and I would really like you to stay away from them."

"But I didn't approach them, it was Anana who approached me to challenge me to a duel."

"Exactly, it was me who approached him first, you don't have to growl at William."

William felt an arm behind the back of his neck and placed over his shoulders, as he turned his head he could see Anana smiling as she looked at Manuela.

"We just want to give him the best of all the experiences that Castelobruxo can offer, besides William is a child, we just want to instruct him" When Anana said that the members of the dueling club present nodded their heads "you don't have to get angry Manuela, we promise to do our best so that William is not exposed to any kind of trouble, just let us continue teaching him our tricks"

Manuela just stared at Anana, she had her arms crossed and was quite upset, William understood that Manuela's concern for his well being was quite sincere but he also knew that something else had happened between Anana and her.

"When William returns to Hogwarts everyone will know that our school is the best of them all" said Anana in her quest to get Manuela's permission to keep William with them.

She finally sighed full of helplessness "fine, you guys win, I just ask that you don't get William in trouble" everyone started to celebrate when she said that "and I will be close to your group, I don't want you to teach William strange things like making invisible walls so that people collide out of nowhere."

William started to walk away from manuela along with the members of the dueling club to a table reserved for them, behind stayed Manuela and Anana, both looking at William.

"I understand that you talked him into a duel, but how is it possible that you all became friends so quickly?"

"It's the nature of men I guess, but the fact that he was sent to the third year classes just accelerated things did you know that he was able to create and improve a peace filter on his first try? just so you know, William is a true genius, I can feel it."

Anana started walking leaving Manuela standing behind staring at her classmates and William himself.