Christina was so creeped out that she didn't even think to scream. Instead, she cringed and covered herself with her arms, closing her eyes. However, even with her eyes shut, she couldn't keep out the blinding flash of light.
Slowly opening her eyes and lowering her hands, Christina blinked.
"W--what happened?" she muttered to herself. "Was something supposed to happen?" Christina asked as she looked down at herself, seemingly unchanged. However, she froze when she looked up.
Nate was gone.
No, not gone...on the floor, there were...his clothes? And his wand? Huh?
Christina looked up at the sound of pounding feet and the door slamming open.
"Christina, are you okay?!!" Julius shouted worriedly as he entered with an over-eager Roger and a puffing Cody on his heels. Still in a bit of shock, Christina looked up at Julius, then down where Nate used to be.
"Why'd you take off like that?" Cody heaved as he tried to catch his breath.
"My magic reacted," Julius replied as he stepped over to the pile of clothes on the ground, his eyes narrowed. Suddenly, he reached down and grabbed something from the pile. Lifting it up, Christina saw it was a small, white mouse being held by its tail.
"That's a particularly nasty spell, Nate," Julius said flatly to the mouse. "Luckily, I placed a reflective spell on the clothes I gave Christina, or else she might have gone missing." It was only at that point that Christina began to understand what happened, and she began to scowl at Nate, who was too busy squeaking at the top of his tiny lungs at Julius. Although there were no words, Christina was sure Nate was cursing all of them. Nonplussed, Julius strode over and dropped Nate in a small glass enclosure tucked under a table.
"Better behave yourself for as long as that spell lasts, Nate," Julius sneered. "Or I might be tempted to turn someone into a cat." Nate the mouse gave everyone dirty looks, but stopped squeaking.
"Did you know...?" Christina trailed off.
"No, but I figured better safe than sorry," Julius turned back to Christina smiling, as though his expression toward Nate had been a lie. "You know, come to think of it, this might be a great opportunity. Not to mention, I figure Nate owes you. Why don't you..."