Alma de Hierro

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Alma de Hierro

Summary: Alma de hierro means soul of iron. Miele's going to need that when she breaks out of the mold set for her by being the sister of a Winx Club member and attends Cloud Tower instead of Alfea. There she meets other witches in training as well as a few fairies and specialists. And learns that no matter how far you run, you can't escape who you are.

Note: I know that a lot of people know Flora's sister as Rose from the 4Kids version of Winx Club, but I liked the name Miele better. So since this is my story, that's what her name is going to be.

Dedication: Anyone who was waiting for me to update my other story about Miele at Alfea.

Disclaimer: Nearby is the country they call life, you will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.

Chapter One: We Are Not Amused

Miele was rushing around her bedroom at her parents' house trying to finish packing while her sister Flora bustled around unpacking her bags. Flora then repacked them in a way that she liked better much to Miele's ire.

"I can't believe you're all grown up and heading off to I for school." Flora gushed as she refolded her little sister's underclothes and pajamas then stuck them back in the suitcase.

Miele looked over at Flora and sighed, she'd been hoping to get her bags packed and downstairs before the shuttle came for this year of school, not the next one.

"Yeah I know." Miele replied calmly as she moved her last bag out of Flora's reach so she couldn't re-pack it. "Mom and dad said the same thing to me last night before you and Helia came over with your news."

"I know! But it's just so exciting. Making new friends, getting to know your professors, learning new spells." Flora began to get misty eyed.

Miele winced when her sister mentioned the part about spells, but held her tongue and continued to stuff the last few pairs of pants into her duffel bag.

"You're just going to love Alfea." Flora gushed.

Miele sighed loudly as she grabbed the suitcase Flora had been re-arranging then turned to face her sister. "Flora, there's something I need to tell you."

"Yes? What is it?"

The younger brunette checked to make sure Flora couldn't reach anything sharp or heavy, and then plunged in.

"I'm not going to Alfea." Miele announced solemnly.

"Then where are you going? I know Red Fountain started accepting girls now."

"It's not Red Fountain. I talked it over with mom and dad over the summer and they're okay with it."

"But if you're not going to Alfea or Red Fountain, where is it that mom and dad are okay with you going to?" Flora asked in a quietly confused tone of voice.

"I enrolled at Cloud Tower School for witches." Miele replied calmly.

Flora's cries of protest were loud enough to get the rest of the household rushing up the stairs like a herd of wild animals.

"What's happening here?" Dahlia, Flora and Miele's mom asked in worried voice looking around for signs of a struggle. Seeing that neither girl was bruised or even scratched she heaved a sigh of relief then commenced to scolding.

"Flora, why are you carrying on like that?"

"Miele's going to Cloud Tower!" Flora shouted at her mother. "And you and daddy knew about it!"

Helia turned as white as a lily and clutched the doorjamb."You're kidding right?" He croaked, worry straining his features.

"No, I'm not kidding." Miele snapped. "Why can't either of you see it my way?"

"And what way is that?" Flora demanded icily. "How can you want to go to Cloud Tower of all places?"

"At Alfea everyone would know me as the sister of one of the Winx girls. I'd be expected to act like you, have your personality, your strengths and weaknesses. I'd practically be expected to be you!"

Miele paused so Flora could absorb what she was saying, and then continued. "I love being your sister, but I don't love being expected to be just like you."

Flora was silent mulling over everything that had just happened. Her little sister had just confessed to being accepted into Cloud Tower because she didn't want to live in Flora's shadow. And their parents were condoning the whole thing. She just couldn't believe it.

Finally Flora decided to speak, and it may have been the pregnancy hormones, or the fact that she'd been kept in the dark all summer, but Flora sounded pissed.

"I really wish you'd told me how you felt sooner Miele." Flora stated in an icy tone.

Miele looked up at her sister shocked, "Well I didn't see how it was any of your business where I was going to school." She snapped back, matching Flora's tone perfectly. "And seeing how you're acting, I believe I did the right thing not telling you."

"But still, Cloud Tower? What will my friends say?"

"Flora!" Dahlia exclaimed at her older daughter's statement. "That's enough."

"I don't care what your friends say!" Miele shot back. "When they have kids they can care, but it's not your decision or theirs. This isn't about you or them, it's about me."

Flora nodded and replied quietly, "You're right it's not. But I don't believe I'll ever be okay with your decision." Then she turned and left the room, Helia trailing behind her.

"Well, that went rather well." Dahlia quipped.

"What do you mean by that mom?" Miele asked in disbelief as she picked her bags up off her bed.

"I was worried she'd throw something at you."

Miele sighed loudly, not sharing her mom's sense of dry humor. "Just keep me updated on how Flora's doing with the baby."

Insert witty expression here

Well there you have it, my new chapter and a new story for the New Year. I know it was a short beginning and Flora was OOC, but she's pregnant so that's the reason for that. I'm working on my other characters now and the rest of this story. As always, updates will be sporadic. Thanks for reading.

Thanks everyone. And here's the second chapter:

Alma de Hierro

Dedication: My reviewers, my beta reader and that episode of Scooby Doo I was watching when I decided to create Miele's transformation outfit.

Disclaimer: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt

Chapter Two: Unlikely Confederates

The journey of a thousand miles is most likely to start with a broken fan belt and a leaky tire. Miele's trip from Linphea to Magix wasn't much better. The shuttle driver managed to get lost on the way to Magix after picking up a few students from Andros, and somehow wound up near Eraklyon. After a few more wrong turns the driver finally consulted his maps and brought them to Magix amidst turbulence so fierce Miele felt like she was stuck in a washing machine. When the shuttle belatedly arrived at the gates of Cloud Tower, Miele scrambled out bruised and battered and fought against the urge to kiss the pavement.

"You're late." Were the first two words that the head of discipline, Professor Edeltrude, spoke to Miele and the other girls who came off the shuttle.

Miele couldn't see how this was their fault as they were neither the driver nor the shuttle itself, merely passengers who were lucky to not have sustained any gaping wounds. But she didn't feel it was her place to state that fact to the hawk-nosed woman. However a fellow passenger did.

"Professor Edeltrude, I don't see how you can fault us for a problem that is obviously beyond our control." A girl with wavy midnight blue hair, pale skin and deep aqua blue eyes opined.

"And you are?" Professor Edeltrude asked, pulling out her clipboard.

"I'm Melusina (1) from Brandelois (2), a first year student." The blue haired girl replied smoothly. "If you must know, it's a miracle we all survived such a ghastly trip."

"No need for dramatics Ms. Melusina." Professor Edeltrude scolded as she checked the Brandeloisian girl off the list. "Please collect your bags and go settle yourself in your dorm."

Melusina did as she was told and Professor Edeltrude motioned Miele to come forward next.

"Name?" she asked.

"Miele of Linphea." Miele answered quickly, she was determined to show this lady that she wasn't easily intimidated.

Professor Edeltrude's shrewd eyes swept over Miele's face as she checked the name off her list. "Miele of Linphea hmm?"

"Yes, ma'am," Miele replied crisply, "my parents and I sent in the registration form a few months back."

"You look familiar." The sour faced woman stated mid-check.

Miele felt her face grow warm, but just smiled and pushed back a strand of her strawberry blond hair. "A lot of people say that. But that's the problem with being from Linphea, many of us have some of the same physical characteristics."

"Either way, you still look familiar."

Then without waiting for Professor Edeltrude to comment further, Miele grabbed her bags and hurried into the building.

After a few wrong turns Miele found herself in the first year dorms standing in front of a door with her name on it. Incidentally the other name on the door was Melusina. Miele thought this was a good sign. Too bad she was wrong.

"Hey," The blue haired girl greeted in a distracted manner as Miele entered the dorm. "I never thought we'd be interrogated for delaying a shuttle did you?"

"Not really." Miele replied smoothly as she set her bags down on the other bed in the room. Melusina had claimed the one closer to the window. "I can't imagine why Professor Edeltrude would think we'd have anything to do with it." She looked around, noting the room was dark and the furniture gothic in design.

Melusina shrugged her broad shoulders. "I guess she figured since we're witches in training we needed something to do on the trip. I already know you're Miele, so where are you from? I ask because you got on the shuttle before I did."

"Linphea." Miele stated simply as she began to unpack the manual way.

"Oh, you're a tree hugger then?" Melusina chuckled as she directed her socks and shirts into different drawers. Seeing Miele's stormy face she sobered. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me. It's just that's how we refer to people from your world on my planet."

Miele scowled, "Whatever. You're from Brandelois... I don't believe I've heard of that planet."

"That's because we're not that big, we don't even have a Guardian Fairy like Linphea." Melusina explained quickly. "We're famous for beautiful women, water and storms though."

Miele took a quick glance at her new roommate and wasn't sure what to make about the comment about beautiful women. Melusina wasn't short, but she wasn't much past five and a half feet tall. Her shoulders were too broad, her nose was narrow and her face was still round with baby fat even though she had to be at least sixteen. Yes, Melusina carried herself with perfect poise, but except for her pale skin and large aqua colored eyes there wasn't much that was remarkable about the blue haired girl from Brandelois.

"Okay." Miele finally said, for lack of anything better. "So, what's your power?"

"Storms, mostly rains and wind. I'd like to be known as the storm witch of Brandelois."

Miele nodded and then there was some awkward silence as Melusina continued conducting her clothing and other items into their assigned spots.

"Aren't you going to ask what my power is?" Miele finally asked.

Melusina looked up from her task with a sly smile on her red lips, "You're from Linphea, which means you've most likely got some type of powers over nature." The dark haired girl stated bluntly. "It's not worth asking about the obvious."

Miele shrugged and went back to her unpacking. She wasn't about to continue a conversation with Melusina at this point.

Later in the afternoon when the unpacking and organizing had finished and the awkwardness in the room had reached its peak, other voices came from the room connected to Miele and Melusina's.

"Get back in there!" A melodious female voice ordered while another began screaming.

"I hate bugs! Why did I have to have a roommate who has bugs?" The other voice shrieked.

"Oh relax, Ophelia won't hurt you." The first voice reasoned. "She's quite sweet."

"It doesn't make her any less creepy!" The second voice shot back.

"Do you think we should see what's going on?" Miele asked as Melusina began making her way to the door that separated the two rooms.

Melusina turned and gave Miele a look that said 'What do you think I'm doing, stupid?' then opened the door to see two girls arguing about a spider

"What's all the noise in here?" The blue haired girl demanded. "A person would think that you were trying to raise the dead."

Both girls, one with shiny waist length black hair and gray eyes who was holding on to a large spider and the other with light chestnut colored hair that curled around her head to her shoulders and dark brown eyes, stopped their arguing long enough to stare at their intruders.

"Haven't you heard of knocking?" The brunette asked sounding indignant.

"Yeah this is our room." The black haired girl added as she tucked the spider into a clear plastic case.

"Separated by one door and a thin wall." Melusina finished. "So, what's the deal?"

"There is no deal." The brunette shot at Melusina, much to Miele's chagrin. "I just hate bugs, and my roommate controls them."

"I'm from Arachna, and that's what happens on that planet." The black haired girl stated defensively. "And for the record, spiders aren't bugs."

Miele decided that now would be a good time for an intervention, and since Melusina wasn't exactly the intervention type, it was up to her to do it.

"How about we just stop right there and introduce ourselves?" Miele interrupted before another spat started. "I'll go first, I'm Miele from Linphea."

"Oh I've heard of Linphea, they have some trade with Arachna (3) involving lady bugs and some other things." The black haired girl stated.

"I'm Octavia (4), by the way. My parents have some sick sense of humor because the name means eighth and my power involves bugs."

"I'm with your roommate, the spider is creepy." Melusina stated making it a point not to make eye contact with the plastic case containing Ophelia.

Miele suppressed a grin at the fact that her overbearing roommate had a distinct fear of all things creepy and crawly.

"I'm Lorelei (5) from Ayortha (6). And I'm a song witch." The brunette stated simply.

"And I'm Melusina from Brandelois. I've power over storms, and two younger sisters." Melusina told the others. "And while this 'get to know your suite mate session' is fun and all I want to go get ready for bed."

"Well, she's definitely a charming individual." Lorelei commented after Melusina had left the room.

"Tell me about it." Miele replied with a sigh. "That girl's gonna be the death of me, I just know it."

"You can always stick Ophelia in her bed if she gets to be too much." Octavia offered, gesturing at her spider which was lying peacefully under a heated stone in her container.

"That seems too cruel even for a witch." Lorelei chided her roommate who just shrugged.

"Hey if she deserves it, she deserves it." Octavia argued back crossing her slim white arms across her chest.

Privately Miele agreed with Octavia.

The three girls talked for another hour or so until Octavia couldn't control her yawning anymore.

"I guess that means it's time for me to go." Miele stated between her own yawns.

"Yeah, tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives." Lorelei joked as Miele let herself out.


Miele was having a restless night in her new room at Cloud Tower. Finally around two in the morning after tossing herself out of her twin bed and landing on the plum coloured throw rug the Linphean native had had enough. She untangled herself from the indigo tinted sheets and took herself to one of the towers for solitude. Despite Miele's rash decision to attend Cloud Tower and her parents' support of her choice, she still wasn't completely settled with the idea of being a witch.

The main reason was because it had to remain a secret between Miele and her parents. This made sense because despite the fact that it was understood not all witches were bad, it was still considered scandalous to have one in the same family as a Guardian Fairy. Everyone seemed to be afraid what could happen to Flora in her condition if she found out her little sister had dark magic running through her veins. Miele didn't think it would do much damage, but she did agree to wait until after Flora and Helia had their baby to break the news.

The other reason Miele wasn't settled with the idea was the simple fact that it was such a rarity on Linphea to have any trace of dark magic. She may have been a magical being, but Miele was still a teenaged girl who wasn't keen on the idea of being an outsider in her own family. Even if her mother did insist she had a witch or two way down on the family tree, that did little to soothe Miele's feelings of freakishness when they arose. And arise they did especially after the first time Miele found out she wasn't a prime candidate for Alfea.


"Mom!" Miele shouted in a panic. She'd been trying to concentrate her magic to turn one small strawberry plant into a patch of strawberries. Instead the magic had misfired, focused on a garden slug and enlarged the slimy thing until it was the size of a lap dog.

Luckily for Miele she'd been able to reverse the spell. She'd watched Flora botch things up and fix them for years, so there was no major damage unless you counted the untimely end of a garden gnome.

Unfortunately for Miele when she tried to focus her Winx (7) for the reversal she'd transformed and was now wearing a bright red jumper with a flared skirt over a white blouse with puffed sleeves. A black sash was around her waist and she wore a choker with a jeweled red rose. There were also no wings, hence the panic in her voice.

"Mom!" Miele tried again, louder and more urgent this time. "Come quick something happened!"

"What is it Miele?" Dahlia called back sounding nervous as she ran into the back yard. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the gnome carnage and Miele kneeling on the grass wearing clothes she definitely hadn't left the house in."What happened?"

Miele looked up at her mom and tried not to cry.

"I had an accident."She blurted out, "I was trying to multiply the strawberry plants, but instead I kinda enlarged a garden slug."

"Where is it?" Dahlia asked sounding disgusted, but relieved at the fact her daughter wasn't hurt.

Miele shrugged her shoulders as her outfit faded back to her old pink t-shirt and ratty jeans. "I got rid of it by focusing more of my energy." She explained carefully, "But it wasn't my Winx, it was something else."

"So I noticed. You didn't have wings and your make up… well I haven't seen you with eye shadow like that since you and Flora played 'salon'."

Miele sighed at the reminder of her younger years experimenting with make up. "Yeah, no wings, and it's just…" Another possibility occurred to her. "Mom am I a witch then?"

Dahlia pursed her mouth and furrowed her brow.

"More than likely." She finally replied, "There have been a few in our family. Your great-great grandmother on your dad's side was our most recent witch." Dahlia paused, but saw the worry lines in her daughter's brow so she quickly added, "But she wasn't evil."

"Does Flora know?" Miele asked cautiously as the ancestry and the fact that genetics really do suck some times began to sink in.

"No, and right now I believe that should be our little secret." Dahlia gave her daughter a conspiratorial look.

"Okay, for now. So I guess we should start filling out the application for Cloud Tower."


Miele stayed in the solitude of the tower for an hour or so with her thoughts from the past year and her mother's request to keep everything a secret. Then feeling her eyelids grow heavy, Miele began making her way silently back to her room. Once there she crawled back into bed and, pulling the dark violet blankets over her head, prayed for a dreamless sleep.

Bon Chance

Whew, second chapter done. I'd like to thank my Beta reader Robert Teague for fixing what needed fixing.

1.) According to legend she's a French or German water goddess. She also appears as a specter wailing in the wind when someone going to die.

2.) This is the name of the mountain Melusina persuaded her two sisters to help enclose their father in for betraying their mother.

3.) Scientific name for anything concerning spiders

4.) Octavia means eight or eighth. I figured since her planet is Arachna and spiders have eight legs it'd be a good idea.

5.) According to a German myth it's the name of sirens which lured sailors to their death with their singing.

6.) Name of a country in both Ella Enchanted and Fairest by Gail Carson Levine, the country's inhabitants are known for their singing.

Wow...Nice work!!