A/N: This story is,with permission,based on Trauma which was written by the stargate time traveler. The story is going to be quite different even so and follows a different outcome you might find some things that are based of Trauma. This story is Rated M for a reason.

Growing Up Fast

Chapter One

Ethel Hides

Hundreds of broomsticks flew in the sky as it was the first term back at Cackles Academy and the students were returning for another year, including the three Hallow Sisters, Esmerelda, Ethel and Sybil. However, because there was so many people flying no-one paid them much attention, if they had they might of noticed what was off.

Esmerelda and Sybil were both flying normally on their broomsticks but there was clearly something off with the middle sister who had her face hidden underneath the hood of a black cloak. Esmerelda was biting her lip and looking at Ethel now and then in a concerned way as she flew. She was so distracted she nearly completely flew past Cackles.

"Esmie, you are going to far!" Sybil told her and Esmerelda shook her head, realising both her sisters had started to go downwards so they could land. Esmerelda swiftly followed them and landed just behind Ethel.

Sybil waited for her sisters sadly as she saw Ethel hiding under the cloak. It was the same cloak Esmerelda had worn when she had no powers and had come to visit Sybil and ask Miss Cackle for a job, because of this, and the fact Esmerelda was two years her senior, it was to big on Ethel and it dragged on the floor. Esmerelda walked towards Ethel who had turned away to walk into the castle the second her feet had hit the ground, Sybil looked concerned as well.

"Ethie" Esmerelda said walking after her sister who speeded up, clearly desperate to escape into the castle.

"Ethie not so fast" Esmerelda told her sister, more worried about Ethel tripping in the cloak than anything else. Ethel zoomed into the castle before anyone else could land and Esmerelda sighed, walking back to Sybil deciding to give her sister some space.

"You can go find your friends if you want to Sybie" Esmerelda told the girl with a small smile, not wanting her to stay here and be miserable as well.

"But Ethel..." Sybil replied worried about her sister and looking at Esmie with a look of concern.

"She will be fine, I will give her a while longer and then go check on her, hopefully I can get her out of that cloak" Esmerelda replied, trying to ease her sisters worries. "Go on Sybil, no point us both moping around" Esmie told her sister who nodded and went to find Clarice and Beatrice.

Esmerelda waited ten more minutes and then put her broomstick in the broomshed before she started to head towards the castle entrance to go and find her sister, but she was interrupted by someone calling her name.

"Hi Esmerelda, congratulations on making head girl" Mildred Hubble said as she stood there smiling with her friends.

It wasn't hand to notice the girl was no longer only head of year but Head Girl. The purple sash around her waist was slightly different from the head of year one, it had more detail and was the same as the one Ethel had worn briefly when Agatha had made her head girl when she took over the school. It wasn't really a surprise to anyone that Esmerelda was head girl, she was after all who people called the best student Cackles had ever had and it was not just her grades and achievements that made people say that but her loving, caring nature. She was amazing with all the pupils and was able to keep calm and break up disputes. It was perfect for Esmerelda.

The eldest blonde was in her last year of Cackles, fifth year. Ethel was a third year and Sybil was a second year. Esmerelda had missed a year of school because she had no magic but she had being able to get her powers back at the end of the year when a way was found in the witches code for them to retrieve them of Agatha, even though she had missed a year though she wasn't behind, she had being miles ahead before her absent year anyway so her role of head girl was fair.

Mildred and her friends would not claim they knew that much about Esmerelda in all honestly, they of course knew the obvious things like she loved Ethel and Sybil more than anything and she was smart and helpful and seemed to be the one who was doing the most in raising her sisters but even though the girl was a teenager and it was only natural for her to be moody from time to time, they had expected her to be happy at being congratulated about her new amazing role, but she wasn't she looked glum. In fact, they had never seen Esmerelda look so glum, not even when she had no magic.

"What?" Esmerelda said looking down at her belt like she had forgotten she was head girl "Oh yes...thanks...see you later" Esmerelda replied shortly before walking into the castle.

"Well don't get to excited" Enid commented sarcastically.

Esmerelda walked into Cackles and towards her sisters bedroom as fast as she could. She smiled at some of the pupils she passed and offered her thanks when they congratulated her on becoming head girl but her heart wasn't in it. She didn't really care about that right now.

She made her way to Ethel's bedroom and saw the door was open. Ethel was sitting on her bed still with the large cloak on and seemed to be making no attempt to get up and unpack, or to take the cloak of. Esmerelda walked into the bedroom and closed the door casting a quick locking spell as she did not want them disturbed right now. She made her way around Ethel's bed and knelt down in front of her, sighing as she still had the hood up.

"Ethie...you are going to have to take the cloak off now" Esmerelda told her. She could barely see her sister's face hidden under the big hood.

"I can't….I look awful" Ethel replied glumly in response.

"You can't keep it on forever you know that, HB will never allow you to" Esmie told her sister logically and Ethel sighed wanting nothing more than to keep it on but she knew Esmie was right, HB would confiscate it anyway so she must as well take it off herself.

Ethel lifted her hands and slowly pulled the hood back and Esmerelda smiled softly at her, still finding it hard to look at her little sister injured and still feeling her chest hurt at it, even though it had been two weeks now.

Ethel had a black eye on her right eye, bruises on her cheek, she had a large cut on her forehead and her eyes were red as if she had not slept properly in a while. This is exactly why she had begged Esmie to let her borrow her cloak, she couldn't bear the thought of anyone seeing her like this.

"Can we not get rid of them?" Ethel asked Esmerelda clearly dreading facing anyone when her face showed she had being beaten up. Esmerelda sighed and stroked Ethel's hair behind her ear, looking at her in the eyes.

"I did as much as I could, healing spells are tricky and I don't want to cause more damage, plus magic is not very good at healing bruises, you know that" Esmerelda told her sister who kept her eyes down sadly.

"People are going to ask me stuff…..I don't want to talk about it" Ethel replied quietly. She just wanted everyone to ignore her face and keep quiet but she knew that they wouldn't. Esmie moved to sit next to Ethel on the bed and hugged her.

"You will just have to ignore them Ethie, just tell them you don't want to talk about it but you can't hide up here forever" Esmerelda told Ethel knowing she was planning on trying to do that.

Since Esmerelda's powers had been restored Ethel was a lot nicer to her sister as she had realised she almost lost her for good, and honestly she liked her fussing over her so much, Ethel leaned her head into the older girl's chest letting her hug her and Ethel hugged her back, holding on for dear life as she started to cry a little.

"Hey it is okay Ethie, don't get upset" Esmerelda told her hating to see the girl cry but that is exactly why she was worried about her. Ethel had been crying a lot over the last two weeks, it was so unlike her sister to let herself cry in front of others.

Ethel cried quietly leaning into her sister more and Esmie rubbed her back letting her, knowing she could not do anything to make it better. All she could do was be there for her. After a while, someone started to knock on the door and Esmie spoke.

"Do you want me to tell them to go?" Esmie asked her sister who sighed but shook her head. "You are right, it is better to get it over with" Ethel replied as Esmerelda nodded and stood up, unlocked the door, and opened it to Felicity.

"Oh hi Esmerelda, congratulations on making Head girl, everyone is talking about it" the dark haired girl told her with a smile.

"Oh...are they?" Esmerelda asked with a sigh but Felicity didn't seem to notice that she seemed upset about that. She stepped into Ethel's room and Ethel put her hood back up again, she thought she would be okay other people seeing it but she was so embarrassed.

"Ethie….come on...what did we just talk about?" Esmerelda asked her sister and Ethel for the second time that day lowered her hood. Felicity gasped as she took in the blonde's face.

"What on earth?" Felicity asked as her eyes widened as she took in Ethel's appearance.

"I don't want to talk about it right now, I am fine honest" Ethel told the girl who nodded slowly.

"If you say so….." Felicity replied not knowing what to think.

"She is fine Felicity, now I have to go check on the first years so I will see you later" Esmerelda told the younger girls.

"No don't leave!" Ethel replied her lip quivering. She had been clinging onto Esmerelda so much recently, she never wanted her out of her sight and as much as Esmerelda loved Ethel was finally accepting her love, it did worry her. Ethel had never being so clingy, she was always that child who wanted independence and to have their own space at times, her being this clingy was just so out of character.

"Come on then, you can help me, see you later Felicity" Esmerelda told the girl with a smile as she put her hand on Ethel's shoulder after she had stood up and lead her out the door leaving Felicity to only gawp in amazement after them. Felicity had no idea what had happened to Ethel but one thing was for sure, The Hallows were acting really strange and it meant something must have happened during the summer that they were hiding.