The Academy of Arcane Arts

At the Academy, the first spell you learn is keeping secrets.

There is an express that departs at midnight from a platform that exists on no official map, and those who board know that when they reach their destination the world will be radically different from what it was when they embarked. The Academy of Arcane Arts has spent five centuries training the wizards and witches who protect — without the mundane folk knowing — the delicate balance between what ordinary people consider possible and what truly exists beneath that crust of convention. Its four Houses bear the names of their founders: Ignacius for the brave, Sabella for the clever, Fierro for the loyal, and Merival for the ambitious, and the rivalry between them is as old and as deeply felt that some students come to believe their scarf colours are more important than their own families. The corridors change location on Tuesdays. The central staircase has preferences. The Dark Arts book in the restricted section has been whispering something for weeks that no librarian can fully hear. And this year, for the first time in three decades, someone's scar has begun to burn for no apparent reason.