Author's Notes: Scooby Doo and all related characters and trademarks are copyright 1969-1994(or so) Hanna Barbera Productions and 1995(or so)-the present Warner Brothers/Cartoon Network/Boomerang, etc.; also this story is partly based on the movie "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost". This story has dialogue, similar plot lines, and same characters from the movie; this also will have spoilers, if you have not seen the movie.

As always I am not making any money off of writing this story and I am just a fan; so please don't sue me (I don't have any money. In addition, the events of this story take place after the events of my previous Scooby Fan Fics "Shaggy's Magical Mystery" & "The Ghost of Oak Haven"; some references and items mentioned in this story are from those two stories as well and if none of the events in this fan fic make any sense to readers, please go back and read those stories as a primer.

Chapter 1

Somewhere within the deep expanse of time and space, in what some people would probably call limbo, a man with jet black hair stands by himself, watching the swirling blackness around him.

In mortal life, the man went by the name Ben Ravencroft; he was a world famous horror author with book sales into the tens of millions of dollars. He had fame, fortune, a beautiful house, an expensive car, not to mention any female admirer would be absolutely crazy about him if he was to look for a companion or a wife.

Of course, trying to attract a member of the fairer sex was exactly the reason why Ben Ravencroft was stuck in his current situation. He had been doing some research at a museum on the East Coast, when he met the members of Mystery Inc.: Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Scooby Doo, Shaggy Rogers and Velma Dinkley.

After helping the group of sleuths known as Mystery Inc. trap a criminal, Ben Ravencroft invited the intrepid young adults and their canine companion to accompany him to his home town of Oak Haven, Massachusetts. Scooby and company were only glad to oblige the famous writer, and with Velma traveling in the writer's expensive automobile, and the rest of the gang in the Mystery Machine, following behind.

However, all was not quite well in the world of Mystery Incorporated, because one of the members of the group was having a bit of a crisis. Specifically this crisis was involving one of the other members of Mystery Incorporated, and it involved love, romance and pretty much all matters of the heart.

Specifically speaking, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, who had acquired the abilities, powers and know-how of a warlock several months prior to the Oak Haven case, was having a little trouble with his girlfriend. Shaggy's girlfriend, the aforementioned Velma Dinkley had decided to start dating the young man, after a long time of being friends, and a long standing crush on him some time before the adventure where he became a warlock took place.

But being a warlock wasn't all fun and games, as he was finding out while the Mystery Machine and the sleek black automobile traveled towards the small hamlet of Oak Haven. Velma had been a long admirer of the aforementioned author Ben Ravencroft for many years and had collected and read many of his novels.

The young woman was very impressed by the author and was more then happy to travel in his automobile, but she had no idea of what was to come and she had no clue that she was traveling with someone who had pure evil in his heart. At the moment though Ben Ravencroft was as polite as an Ivy Leaguer and was as nice as someone's grandparent, which he kept up when the group arrived in Oak Haven.

Things in the small Massachusetts town seemed to start out awkwardly, as Ben and the rest of Mystery Inc. glimpsed a large amount of people standing on the streets, possibly watching something. Soon the young adults would learn that there was something indeed rotten in Denmark, or rather Oak Haven.

But it wasn't a mere mystery involving someone in a mask; no, it was nothing like that at all. Instead it was rather unusual, rather frightening and it was also something that involved one of the oldest and most dangerous villains Mystery Incorporated had ever faced and would ever face in their careers.

At first, the gang encountered a typical fake ghost, which was supposed to have been the ghost of Sarah Ravencroft, an ancestor of Ben Ravencroft himself. After meeting three female musicians who called themselves the Hex Girls, and after the gang solved the mystery of the ghost, things began to get even stranger and scarier as well.

As it turned out, Shaggy Rogers would need his warlock powers now more then ever, but not when the ghost was unmasked, at least at first. The ghost when unmasked turned out to be the father of one of the musicians, a young lady named Sally McKnight, or Thorn, as she went by whenever she performed.

Needless to say, the young woman was surprised by the fact that her father had dressed up as a ghost; but the surprises were definitely yet to come. In yet another example of Mystery Inc.'s sleuthing skills, they were able to discover that Thorn's father, and every other townsperson in Oak Haven, was a part of a scam, which involved the aforementioned ghost of Sarah Ravencroft.

Because the town's economy and tourism dollars were bordering on slim to none, the townspersons had decided to cook up the idea to use Sarah Ravencroft's spirit to boost the town's tourism and economy. Things worked out at first, and the economy of the small Massachusetts town was flourishing; but soon Ben Ravencroft started saying that his ancestor was not a witch, but a Wiccan, who helped heal people with natural herbs and remedies.

This of course led to the ghost being captured and unmasked, as what usually happened during the gang's mysteries. But during the mystery, something else began to happen, something that might have been outside of the gang's hands; the famous horror writer, who had accompanied the gang on their adventure, was starting to insist even more that his ancestor was a Wiccan, and not a witch.

During the mystery, Ben Ravencroft told the gang that he knew, almost persisting that there was proof somewhere in Oak Haven regarding the truth about his ancestor. Soon though Ben Ravencroft, with the gang's help was able to find that proof, an old box, dating back several hundred years, which contained an old diary of his ancestor's.

At least Mystery Inc. thought it was a diary, but soon they would discover that it was something more, and much worse then a mere diary. After Mystery Inc. found the box for him, Ben Ravencroft opened it and brought out an old book; the world famous author then explained to the sleuths that the book was not a diary, but that it was in fact a spell book.

Scooby Doo and his friends were shocked, stunned at what was happening. They had trusted Ben Ravencroft, had brought him into their circle and allowed him to be their friend, and allowing him to hang out with them in Oak Haven. But Ben Ravencroft had a surprise for Scooby and friends, the surprise being that his ancestor was a witch, and that he was descended from her.

Two of the members of Mystery Inc. though were more surprised with Ben's actions and what he did after getting the spell book then anyone else. For Velma Dinkley, Ben Ravencroft had lied to her, and used her to help him find the spell book, so that he could use his newfound powers to help him take control of the world and rule it with an iron fist.

For Shaggy Rogers, it was a case of jealousy and anger more then anything else. Ever since he inherited his powers from his grandparents, Shaggy had always used them for good, and to help his friends and mankind, never abusing them or using them for evil purposes.

But once he saw that Ben Ravencroft was trying to destroy Mystery Inc., and Velma specifically, Shaggy was compelled to use his powers to the best of his abilities in order to stop this mad warlock. For a while Shaggy was able to hold Ben at bay, and looked like he was getting the upper hand in the battle.

However, that all that changed when Ben Ravencroft read a spell from the spell book that brought his ghostly ancestor back from her prison inside the book. Unfortunately for Ben though, Sarah Ravencroft wasn't interested in ruling with him, but rather she was more interested in destroying the world, thus getting her revenge for what had happened to her in Colonial times.

Soon Sarah Ravencroft used her abilities to trap her ancestor in a green energy field, thereby limiting what he could do, for the moment. For Shaggy Rogers though, facing off against a ghostly witch would be a true test of his warlock powers, and a great trial of what he could really do with his supernatural abilities.

After some time though, Shaggy was able to get the upper hand on the ghostly sorceress, and was able to get the spell book as well, which would be important if the gang was going to send the witch back to where she came from, mainly her prison inside the spell book.

Being a resourceful person, Velma was able to come up with a plan in order to trap said sorceress for good; remembering that Thorn, one of the members of the aforementioned group of musicians was part Wiccan (she had told the gang that earlier in their adventure), she decided that she, along with Shaggy would read the spell to send Sarah Ravencroft into the great beyond, hopefully forever.

Despite some unwillingness at first on the part of Thorn, mostly her saying that she wasn't a real witch and that she couldn't possibly help, the leader of the Hex Girls gave in, and helped her friends in their time of need. With the help of Shaggy Rogers, Thorn read the spell to send Sarah Ravencroft back within the pages of the spell book forever; but she wasn't alone, in fact Sarah quickly grabbed hold of one Ben Ravencroft, dragging him into the book as well.

But that wasn't all, not by a long shot. To close this mystery, a tree branch that had been hit with one of the witch's fireballs fell onto the spell book, burning it to a crisp. Or at least, that's what Scooby Doo and the gang thought after watching the book be destroyed and later having fun with the Hex Girls at their concert.

Actually they weren't thinking about it even when Shaggy and Velma talked about their relationship. And they certainly weren't thinking about it when Fred and Daphne talked about their relationship; basically all of Mystery Inc.'s thoughts had turned to love, and being thankful that their foes had been defeated.

But soon, Mystery Inc. would have to think about Oak Haven yet again. About Ben Ravencroft, and how he tried to take over the world, with the help of his ghostly, magic using ancestor.

Since he had been sent to his just reward by the members of Mystery Inc. and Thorn of the Hex Girls, Ben Ravencroft had plenty of time to think about the past, and the future as well. During most of that time, the formerly famous author spent many hours, many days and many weeks for that matter planning and plotting, hoping someday he could get his revenge on Scooby Doo and his meddling friends.

While the gang as a whole, and the Hex Girls as a whole were people whom he wanted vengeance upon, there was in fact a specific reason why he wanted to come back from the dead. Ben Ravencroft's specific reason for coming back was that he wanted a certain brunette to stop paying attention to a certain young warlock; in addition, if he could accomplish that, then maybe, just maybe she would fall in love with him, and Mr. Rogers would be a thing of the past.

The brunette was at one time quite enamored with Ben, she read all his books, and was ecstatic to spend time with him and have him along to solve a mystery with the gang. But once he showed his true colors, she gave him the cold shoulder, and spent as much time with Shaggy Rogers as possible, not that she didn't spend a lot of time with him already.

In his mind, Ben Ravencroft thought that Shaggy had put the brunette under a spell. After all, during the entire time that Velma spent around the author, she still thought about Shaggy, who reciprocated by spending most of the mystery thinking about her.

During the time he spent in his dark, bleak prison, Ben meticulously went over every single moment of his time in Oak Haven with the young mystery solvers and their Great Dane, hoping to figure out some reason, or some explanation why and how Velma enjoyed Shaggy's company, as opposed to Ben's.

However, the black haired former author knew by watching the two of them in Oak Haven that separating them was going to be a difficult task, if not an impossible one. Shaggy and Velma were getting to be inseparable, even if he didn't have magic; there was something about their relationship that mystified Ben, and made him angry. No matter what, he was going to get to the bottom of this, and break up Shaggy and Velma once and for all.

"I just can't understand it, how and why would that brat of a warlock be any better then me?" Ben growled, kicking the nothingness around him.

"I have money, fame, one of the most extensive collections of art in the world, expensive cars, and yet Velma would rather spent time with that… that hippie as opposed to me?" the evil sorcerer continued, ranting and raving, despite no one being around him.

"I swear by all that is evil, and the very powers of darkness themselves, I will get my revenge upon Mystery Inc., and especially Shaggy Rogers! And one way or another, Velma Dinkley will be mine!" Ben shouted, almost at the top of his lungs, while shattering the darkness that bordered him in every direction.

After declaring what his plan was for all to see and hear, even though there weren't that many bystanders where he was, Ben Ravencroft decided to think some more. In this case, the author turned warlock began pacing back and forth, wearing a rut into the pitch black darkness that surrounded him.

Being a warlock, Ben Ravencroft, like other evildoers enjoyed hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike like a Cobra from the darkness against the forces of good, which included Shaggy, Velma and the rest of Mystery Incorporated. But because the adolescent investigators thought he was dead, he would need another plan, another scheme to enact which would leave Scooby Doo and his friends in the same position that Ben had been in for many years now.

Author's Notes: Hopefully I ended the first chapter in a decent way. I actually got the idea for this story from someone on Deviant Art (I forget the person's username, but you know who you are). I've been working out some things for future chapters of this story and I think it's going to turn out really good; hopefully all of my readers, followers and those people who put me on their favorite authors' lists agree.