Dimming Light

Amelia Cackle, Headmistress of Cackle's Academy of Witchcraft, smiled in content as she watched the pupils fly into the courtyard after the winter holiday. Although the woman liked some piece and quiet, she was never happier when her school was filled with her pupils. Her staff had arrived the previous day to get things sorted, and she had spent part of the afternoon going over some paperwork with her deputy, Constance Hardbroom. The tall and prim woman had been something of a puzzle to Cackle over the years, and it was a puzzle that she feared may never be solved. Hardbroom had taken a couple of posts before arriving at Cackle's some years ago, but had never applied for any other position. Amelia was in no doubt that Constance was qualified to become Headmistress of her own school, and knew for certain through contacts of several positions turned down since she had got there. All the other witch would say was that she was happy enough where she was, and would move on when the time was right.

"Miss Cackle?" a male voice shook her from her thoughts and made the Headmistress look at the staff room door to see Mr Blossom.

"Something I can do for you, Frank?" asked Cackle.

"I've just had a telephone call from the timber merchant, Miss Cackle. They can not get the wood I need until Tuesday" Mr Blossom said.

"Is that going to be much of a problem?" she asked.

"I would say no, but you know what magic can do around here" Mr Blossom replied. "Would it be possible for you to not have the girls fly their brooms near the West Wing until after I have fixed the turret beams? The magic in them affects the beams when they fly past" he asked. Blossom was not a magic user, and he never would be. He knew what the uses were for it, and knew very well what it could affect. The magical backwash from the brooms was causing the top most beams to become very weak.

"I shall inform Miss Hardbroom when I see her" Amelia said. After Blossom had left, she looked back out of the window at the last few girls to land – Mildred Hubble being amongst the last. Cackle was fully prepared to jump to the floor when she was astonished to see the girl make a text book landing. She was even more surprised to see the girl pick up her things and walk right into the hall – not bothering to speak to her friends. Perhaps she was going through a mood swing, or maybe just was tired and wanted to get some rest right away.

# # # # #

"Did you see Mildred Hubble this afternoon, Constance?" asked Cackle that evening.

"I saw all of the girls, Amelia" Hardbroom said. "I greeted them all back as they landed" but Cackle shook her head.

"I watched her land as good as Ethel Hallow could do. Then, as I watched her, she just picked up her bag and broom and went indoors. I heard from Imogen that she went right to her room" she said.

"I did notice that" said Hardbroom, "But I presumed she was going through one of the changes" Hardbroom referred to one of the changes that a Witch went though during puberty. "I overheard Maud Moonshine speaking near the Potion Lab after dinner. From what I could make out, Mildred never attended dinner but asked for just a glass of milk" and the deputy frowned ever so slightly. "I have never known her to be off her food. I know, of course, it does not look very good, but it does give them what they need. I shall keep an eye on her, and brew a special potion if there is need of it" she added. The potion was to help the witch go through the changes her body was undertaking to adapt better to magic. Although it should be brewed by qualified potion persons, Hardbroom had taught it to Imogen Drill on the grounds there might be an accident which knocked out the three other members of staff. If that happened, and one of the girls needed the potion, then it would be up to Drill to make it in a hurry.

"I do not think that it has come to that, yet…" Cackle said. "I think it prudent, however, that we keep an eye on Mildred Hubble. The last thing we need is Mistress Broomhead breathing down out necks"

"If she does that, then I shall allow Ruby Cherrytree to use her as a test subject in one of her experiments" Hardbroom said, and Cackle was not sure if this was an attempt at humour or her deputy being very serious.

# # # # #

"Milly?" Maud Moonshine knocked on the door to her friend's bedroom. There was the sound of a drawer being slammed shut and of somebody getting into bed quickly.

"Go away!" Mildred shouted through the space between them. "Go back to bed!"

"That is a very good idea, Maud" the sound of Miss Drill made the young witch turn around with a slight gasp.

"Sorry, Miss" Maud apologised. "I just wanted to make sure that she was alright. She hasn't eaten any dinner at all, and she hasn't spoken to anybody. I saw her check some books out of the library before it was closed, but that was the last I saw of her"

"Don't worry yourself, Maud" Drill said. "The rest of the staff know all about it, and we think that Mildred is going through a change"

"What chang – Oh…" Maud said.

"I bet she'll be back to the ditzy klutz we all know and love in the morning" Drill said with a reassuring smile.

"Even Miss Hardbroom?" asked Maud.

"Even Miss Hardbroom" said Drill. "Now then, get yourself to bed before I am forced to give you a detention" and Maud thanked the teacher before hurrying to her own room. As she lay in bed, she wished her friend would be better in the morning. Her mother always said that a good night's sleep was a great cure, and Maud guessed that she would find out if that was really the case.

"Oh, Milly…" she said sadly at her friend's illness.

# # # # #

Mildred waited a minute or two before stepping out of bed and crossing to her chest of drawers. She opened one of them and took out a sharp little knife and some balls of cotton. Locking her door so nobody could open it and come bounding in, she pressed the knife into her arm just below her shoulder – hissing slightly as it cut into her flesh. As she watched the blood trickle down her arm, Mildred felt alive for the first time all day. Since the accident, Mildred had been living rough. The day before her return to Cackle's, she had taken all of her clothes to a launderette to clean them in order that nobody would suspect a thing the following day. She had stolen the knife and cotton from a craft shop a few days before that, and every time she saw the blood coming out of her body, she knew she was alive. Her entire world felt dead to her, she had lost those closest to her and she included her beloved cat Tabby in that group. The poor creature had been decapitated in the crash, and Mildred had been sobbing as she buried the cat under a willow tree next to the lake near her home. She had been forced to use magic to keep herself alive, but the Foster's effect had not been brought into play. Creating a tent and a fire was essential and not a trivial or selfish purpose. She let the blood fall down her arm for a few more minutes before holding a piece of cotton to it so the bleeding stopped. Once it had stopped, she cleaned the blood trails and put a plaster over the self inflicted cut. Although she could hide them for now, she was not looking forward to PE when the plasters might be seen. If she could convince the staff she was going through one of the changes, Miss Drill might let her off the PE lessons for a short while. The knife trick would not work for long, so Mildred thought about using some tablets which would be easier to hide. She could have them delivered to her via the post which was almost never looked at by Hardbroom.

# # # # #

"You may begin" Hardbroom said, and the forth year girls turned over the papers to start the potion making. She was puzzled to see Mildred sitting at her normal place, working as hard as she could, but ignoring her friends whom had tried to talk to her. Hardbroom had let it go on for several minutes longer then she would have normally done so, but had had to start the lesson. Throughout the entire potion lesson everyone in the room spared a look at Mildred who looked a bit pale as she worked through the list of potion ingredients. The only truly odd thing was that she was itching her left shoulder from time to time, and Hardbroom had spotted something pink attached to just under her shoulder. It didn't look to be any type of sweet, nor was it a potion cheat aid, but then she thought that Mildred had cut herself before arriving back at Cackle's and therefore the itching was the skin healing back together. With her mind at ease, she was ready to test the voice changing potions once they had been brewed.

"Are you alright?" asked Maud after the lesson was over.

"Of course I am" Mildred said. "Why do you think otherwise?"

"You have been ignoring us all of HB's lesson" Enid commented, "And you were not very hospitable yesterday either" she added.

"Oh, I am sorry" Mildred said. "I knew HB was going to give us some kind of potion test today, so I wanted to be ready and not get into one of her bad moods" and her friends nodded in understanding. They knew that Hardbroom seemingly took a special delight in picking on their friend.

"That was noted, Mildred" Miss Hardbroom said. "Although I am pleased that you want to study hard, you should not ignore your friends. Sometimes, Mildred, you can try too hard" and with that she vanished into thin air.

"That is still disturbing" muttered Ruby.

# # # # #

"I pity that girl" said Drill in the staff room that afternoon. "She tries so hard to get things right, and this time tried too hard to be a model student"

"She did seem a little depressed during my chanting lesson" Miss Bat said. She was sat in the corner of the room knitting a jumper of some kind. From the looks of things, the person going to wear it had to be at least 9ft tall, 6ft wide and have five arms.

"Is that so surprising?" asked Hardbroom.

"What do you mean by that?" Bat asked, glancing at the stationary cupboard.

"What Constance means is that Mildred was not in the mood to chant and there was depressed about letting you down" Cackle said quickly.

"Oh, that poor girl" Bat said sympathetically. "Perhaps I should go and speak to her…"

"Actually, Davina, that would be a bad thing to do. I am sure that Mildred would then feel even more certain she had let you down" Drill said. "Do you not agree, Miss Hardbroom?" she asked.

"Perhaps so" the deputy said after a moment's thought.

"Nonetheless, I think we should keep an eye on her" said Cackle. "I do not want her to feel she is letting us down by making herself ill"

# # # # #

Cackle didn't know how close she was with that prediction. Mildred sliced the knife into her thigh and made a deep cut of about an inch into her flesh. As the blood ran down her leg, she hissed for a moment and then sighed as the pain hit her fully. Pain was very good. Pain let her know she was alive. Pain made everything better for a short while. Cutting into her upper thighs was better because nobody would notice the scars, and Cackle's at least had individual shower cubicles. Although the girls were wearing athletic skirts, Mildred had convinced Miss Drill that she could not find skirts of her size and therefore would have to keep wearing shorts until she could go into the village and buy some while on the next trip to Cosie's. Once she had had enough pain for the night, she went through the normal routine of stopping the blood flow and putting a larger plaster over the wound.

# # # # #

"And where, Mildred Hubble, is your cat?" asked Hardbroom. The teacher had found Mildred at the back of the group of girls that awaited the next lesson of Cat Training.

"I don't want to talk about it, Miss Hardbroom" Mildred said quietly, looking down at the floor. Her friends looked back at her with concern etched into their faces. Hardbroom was about to order the girl to say what the matter was when it occurred that something was wrong.

"Mildred, please step into the corridor. As for the rest of you, please start reading the fourth chapter of your advanced training manuals" Hardbroom watched the girls follow her instructions. She stepped into the corridor and closed the door to the classroom. "Now then, Mildred" she began, "Tell me what the matter is" and to her surprise Mildred burst into tears.

"Tabby is dead, Miss…!" she wailed. "He was hit by a car, and the impact killed him…" and Hardbroom felt sorry for the poor girl.

"I did wonder why I didn't see your cat the other day, but I merely assumed he was ill and required treatment we could not give him here" she said. "Mildred, I am most sorry for your loss. If you wish, you may sit the rest of the lesson out in your room, or go to the library and read quietly" she snapped her fingers and a small piece of paper appeared which she handed to the still crying girl.

"I'll go read in the library, Miss. Thank you, Miss" Mildred said, taking the paper and walking slowly and sadly away. When she walked in, the other girls, minus Ethel Hallow and Drusilla Paddock, looked at her as if she had been the cause of Mildred's sudden outburst of tears.

# # # # #

Mildred sat in the biggest armchair in the quietest corner of the library reading a spell book. She had not been strictly lying to Hardbroom about Tabby's death. If that car had not hit the one she was in, then her family would be alive and so would her beloved Tabby. It was hard for her to put on a normal face around her friends and the school as a whole, and Mildred assumed that it would be even harder once news of Tabby's demise got around. Looking at the time on the grandfather clock, she decided to her room and get her PE kit out and change ready for the lesson. She reached her room shortly before the end of lesson bell sounded, and she got dressed quickly and then checked her appearance so nobody would see any of the plasters on her arm or upper thigh. She was not bothered by them herself, the girl just didn't want to keep explaining the plasters to everyone she met. At least during most lessons she could keep the cuts on her thigh covered by the gymslip she wore as part of her uniform.