Magically Inclined

Summary: When the royal family is away on vacation, Baileywick calls on Cedric to help him in his castle duties; however, he may soon come to regret that decision when the sorcerer attempts to take matters into his own hands.

Disclaimer: I own nothing! 😊

A/N: This story was requested by allyrwhitney, and oh, my goodness… I know you all like seeing Cedric's and Baileywick's antics when they're together… :D Buckle up! I had WAY too much fun writing this! Lol Enjoy!

*Story*

"Ah, Cedric," Wormwood sighed in delight as he stretched his wings out and actually smiled peacefully for once. "Do you hear that?"

Cedric gazed at the raven from his seat at his desk. "What are you talking about, Wormy? I don't hear anything."

"Exactly!" Wormwood cackled and flew over to the desk, sitting on Cedric's shoulder. "With the royal family away on vacation, we get some peace and quiet! No 'Cedric, I need you to make a potion,' or—," he continued in a higher-pitched voice, "'Mr. Cedric! Teach me magic!'"

The sorcerer lifted an eyebrow at his familiar. "You do a terrible Sofia impersonation."

"That's beside the point!" The bird grinned almost too giddily as he lay his feathers on either side of Cedric's face. "No one's here to bother us for a change! We can have some quiet time! We can sleep! We can even eat whenever and whatever we please, and no one can tell us any differently!"

"Cedric?"

Both raven and sorcerer turned to the door as they heard a knock and Baileywick's voice coming from the other side.

Wormwood rolled his eyes as he flew up to his perch again. "No one except the busybody steward, that is."

Cedric shook his head and called out, "Come in, Baileywick." He turned to face the door as his fellow worker entered.

"Ah, I was hoping I'd find you here," Baileywick said as he straightened his jacket.

"Where else would you find me?" Cedric asked with a smirk.

The steward ignored the younger worker's quip and cleared his throat. "As the royal family is away for their vacation, I could really use some help around the castle."

"Ugh, Baileywick, I've got work of my own to do, you realize?" Cedric gestured toward several filled vials and neatly-stacked books on his table. "I know you know so little of sorcery, but magical experiments and potions aren't going to be performed or created themselves." Technically, he was ahead on his work and could actually afford to take a few days' worth of a break, but he wasn't about to let the older man know that… He had so been looking forward to some downtime, and Wormwood had made it sound so pleasant just a few moments ago. He stood and pointed at the older man and then back at himself as he explained, "You have your job, and I have mine."

Baileywick gave the sorcerer a grave stare. "Violet is sick."

Cedric shrugged as he walked over to his stacks of books. "I'm sorry? I'm no physician…"

"What I mean is, Violet is my second hand, so to speak. She's usually the main one I can count on. With her out, it's going to be chaotic." He sighed and ran his hands through his usually neat hair. "Without her help, we're falling behind schedule. If we get behind schedule, the castle is going to run horribly. If that happens, it messes everything else up; by the time King Roland and his family return, we'll be so far off schedule that it will affect everything and everyone thereafter! As it is, we're approximately an hour and thirty-seven minutes delayed! That is unheard of!"

"Baileywick, calm down!" Cedric insisted as he folded his arms. "Look, I think you're getting a little paranoid here. You can't possibly believe that Violet's absence will seriously negatively affect everything around here."

They both turned as another worker hurried through the door, panting. "Sir," he addressed Baileywick, "come quickly! Chef Andre's had an accident. One of the other workers accidentally tripped and fell into him, knocking him out cold. He's being sent to the royal physician."

Baileywick whirled on Cedric, giving him a pointed look.

Cedric sighed. "Oh, fine." He grabbed his wand and shook his head as he followed them both to the door. "Wormy, I'll be back later. Be good." He shut the door behind him as they rushed downstairs.

Wormwood scoffed. "Typical." He took off out the window.

In the dining room, Cedric stared in shock as he watched the sheer and utter chaos that was the group of castle workers right now. They appeared disoriented (in the smallest sense of the word) and utterly lost. Apparently, Baileywick wasn't wrong about the schedule thing…

"Everyone," Baileywick began with his usual commanding tone, yet he frowned when it appeared no one was listening to him. They all seemed to carry on with their duties, however sloppily they may have been performed, and paid him no mind. "Excuse me!"

The sorcerer frowned before waving his wand, creating a loud whistle sound in the air and causing the workers to pause in surprise. He smirked. "Carry on, Baileywick."

The steward blinked before nodding. "Thanks, Cedric." He turned back to the others. "I know we've gotten a bit behind schedule, and with fewer workers now, we'll have to really step it up. As a matter of fact, Cedric has graciously offered to help us out."

Cedric scoffed under his breath, muttering something along the lines of, 'Graciously, nothing. More like I was guilted into it.' But he avoided saying much out loud.

"Well, if he is going to help, then why should we do anything?" one of the women asked with an annoyed tone. "He's got that magic wand, so he could easily do all of our work in half the time. We could get a break!"

"Excuse me, madam," Cedric interrupted with a somewhat harsh snip in his voice. "Like you, I also have a regular job to do. Baileywick asked me to help you all out—not take over the entire castle workforce. That wouldn't be fair. I'll be glad to offer my services, but if you think I'm going to do everything for you so that you can neglect your own duties, I'm afraid you're sadly mistaken. So, as far as I'm concerned, you can either get on board or you can show yourself to the door if you're going to act like that."

The dark-haired woman folded her arms and huffed. "I work for Mr. Baileywick. I don't work for you."

"Good thing too," Cedric remarked with a smirk. "You would have been gone already."

"Hattie, Cedric, enough," Baileywick requested with a frustrated sigh.

"Hattie," the sorcerer snickered. "Strange name for a woman… Why not Bonnet-y? Or Fedora?"

"At least the princess got my name right the first time I told it to her—not an entire year later." She grinned as Cedric gaped at her.

"Oh, I know you did not just go there—"

"Cedric, stop," Baileywick ordered with a glare at his fellow worker. He then glanced back to the woman. "Hattie, you have your own job to do. Go with Marcie and start taking care of the guest bedrooms." He narrowed his eyes at her as she attempted to argue. "Now, please."

She sighed. "Fine. Come on, Marcie." With one last glare in Cedric's direction, she marched off, her fellow maid and friend following behind her.

"She's a bit of a spitfire, isn't she?" Cedric remarked as he folded his arms.

"You didn't help the situation, so don't even start." He turned to the other workers as he glanced at his pocket watch. "Continue your duties as if we were on time, and I'll follow along with Cedric so that we can adjust things to a normal pace." He nodded as they murmured their agreements before leaving.

"So what exactly is it that I'm supposed to do?" Cedric asked as he looked around at everyone working. "It seems with the people you've got here, you should be able to get back on schedule soon enough."

"We haven't got much time to spare, Cedric," the older man reminded him with a sigh. "Not only is Violet sick; now with Chef Andre being monitored for a possible concussion, we have less food being produced—not only for us, but for upcoming events."

"You want food?" He smirked and twirled his wand before grasping it tightly. "I can handle that." He waved his wand once and called, "Serve to all, from greatest to least, a grand and most delicious feast!" Before them appeared a beautiful spread of food across the dining table, from hot dishes to cold, each with a captivating appeal to any who viewed it. "There. Food."

"Yes… Food during work hours." Baileywick shook his head. "Hopefully they don't get word of this. If they see food, they'll stop working, and we'll never—"

"Hey, lads!" one of the men called. "They've prepared a stunning meal for us in the dining hall! Let's eat!"

A mad rush to the dining table had both sorcerer and steward left in a state of surprise. They'd never seen a group of people eat so greedily in their entire lives…

"Ce…dric…" Baileywick practically growled the younger sorcerer's name before turning, realizing the accused was attempting to sneak away. He swiftly grabbed the back of his robe and practically dragged him into the hallway.

"Hey, let me go!" Cedric demanded as he twisted out of the older man's grip. "What's the big idea, Baileywick?"

"Cedric." Baileywick composed himself before continuing, "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation here… We're already an hour and thirty-nine minutes behind—"

"I thought it was thirty-seven," Cedric interjected with a smirk.

"You and Hattie spent two minutes arguing!" He huffed as the sorcerer shrunk back a bit. "And now, with them eating, it will likely be at least two hours that we're behind by the time they finish." He rubbed his head. "I just don't know what to do…"

Seeing that his fellow worker (and sometimes friend, though he didn't say it out loud) seemed distressed, Cedric sighed heavily, getting the steward's attention. "Fine. You want my help?" He lifted his wand and smiled slyly. "Let's do this."

Baileywick never imagined how beneficial it could be to have Cedric helping out with the usual castle duties. With just a few waves of his wand, he'd cleaned everything top to bottom, done all the laundry and stored it away, polished all the armor and fancy statues, taken care of any plants and animals that needed attention, and any other thing on his usual checklist. In fact, despite his earlier remark to Hattie, Cedric had in fact done the workers' job for them and basically given them a day off, whether he realized it or not. "Nicely done, Cedric," he complimented with a relieved smile as he checked his pocket watch, seeing that they were now ahead of schedule for once.

"Don't get used to it," Cedric declared at he walked ahead of him, using his wand to adjust a few things here and there. "This is only for today. Besides, again, this isn't my job."

"I know, and I truly appreciate your help." He cleared his throat. "And now, I think I can take care of things from here."

"What about the food?" The sorcerer glanced back at the older steward. "I thought we needed to organize and stock the kitchen."

"I can handle that. You've done more than enough."

Cedric scoffed. "Nonsense. I've started a job; I intend to finish it." With that he marched into the kitchen and looked around as Baileywick entered behind him. "Hmm… A food stocking spell…"

"Really, Cedric, you don't have—"

"Still here, huh?" Hattie's teasing voice asked as she walked into the room with an empty plate. She smirked at Cedric. "You may be a second-rate sorcerer, but I'll admit the food was good."

"Oh, no," Baileywick murmured under his breath as he saw the look of contempt on the sorcerer's face. "Cedric…"

"Second-rate?" Cedric smirked as he aimed his wand at Hattie. "I'll show you who's second rate, madam. Levitate!" He chuckled as she lifted into the air, spinning around and screaming.

"LET ME DOWN FROM HERE!" she yelled, the plate falling from her hands.

Baileywick gasped and moved quickly, catching the plate before it could shatter against the floor. He then glared at Cedric. "Put her down now."

"Not until she apologizes."

"She technically did pay you a compliment—"

"After she insulted me. Doesn't work like that, Baileywick." Cedric shook his head. He rolled his eyes when he saw the serious look on the steward's face. "Fine…" He slowly lowered the dark-haired woman to her feet, grinning when she fisted her hands at her sides and glared at him. "Have a good day, madam."

"Ooh! I'll never know why they let you continue working here. You're horrible!" She stormed out of the kitchen and presumably back to her duties…whatever was left of them.

"I think you meant to say 'adorable!'" Cedric called out with a snicker before facing the steward, who looked less than amused. "What? She started it."

"Cedric, I'm going to give you a little mantra I want you to say when you find yourself faced with situations like that… And I think it will stop you from making dumb decisions." He folded his arms. "How would Sofia respond?"

Cedric frowned and folded his own arms. "You're using my apprentice against me?"

"No. I'm encouraging you to think of her as your conscience. Just imagine Sofia's voice constantly in your head, Cedric. How would she have responded had she seen all the things that just went on with Hattie?"

He grinned. "You'd be surprised… Sometimes, she doesn't necessarily mind teaching a lesson to wicked people."

Baileywick scoffed. "Hattie isn't wicked!"

"That's your opinion." Cedric yawned and turned, missing the steward's narrowed stare. "I'm going back to my workshop. Try not to get an hour and thirty-seven—oops, I mean thirty-nine—minutes behind schedule again. Good luck!"

Despite his irritation, the older man just shook his head and smiled as the sorcerer walked toward the door. "Thanks, Cedric."

Cedric turned with a grin. "You owe me." With that, he disappeared from the kitchen.

Baileywick chuckled. "Indeed."

The end