A/N: Thank you to the stargate time traveler for giving me the idea for this story. I do NOT own the Worst Witch or the Worst Witch Characters from CBBC.
Sisters See What No-One Else Can
Chapter One
The new school year at Cackle's Academy had started exactly three days ago and everyone was still settling back into the boarding school life.
Esmeralda Hallow was the eldest Hallow sister and she was now a forth year, her younger sister, Ethel, was now a second year and the youngest sister, Sybil, had just started as a first year at the school. Sybil was incredibly homesick and struggling to settle into the school, she was a lot closer to her parents than her sisters so was struggling to be away from them and spent a lot of her days crying.
Currently the three blonde girls were sat in the eldest sister's room all sat on her bed talking. Sybil was in tears worried about her flying exam that was starting very soon, she might be a Hallow but unlike her sisters flying was not her strong point.
"Don't cry Sybs you will do fine" Esmeralda told the younger girl as she wrapped her arm around her.
"If I fail they will kick me out!" Sybil cried more. She was so nervous about the whole thing.
"No they won't Sybs, Mildred Hubble was allowed to take it twice you will be allowed to as well" Ethel told her sister trying to reassure her.
"I am not good at flying like you two though" Sybil replied through her tears.
"You will do just fine don't panic so much" Esmeralda told her sister knowing she was getting herself into a state.
"I know what will cheer you up" Esmeralda replied with a smile as an idea entered her head about how to stop Sybil panicking and cheer her up.
"What?" Sybil asked the eldest with her brown eyes full of tears.
"I learned this new spell the other day, you will love it" Esmeralda said looking around the room until she spotted a notebook with a butterfly on it.
"Watch this" Esmeralda told her sisters as she lifted her hand and pointed her fingers at the notebook.
The spell in question made things come alive for a brief period, so the butterfly should in effect come alive and start flying around only nothing happened.
"Watch what?" Ethel asked her sister confused as she didn't see anything interesting happen.
"I must have not concentrated enough let me try again" Esmeralda told her sisters shaking her hand a little before she pointed her fingers at the notebook again. The notebook didn't even move a inch.
"That spell is not very good" Sybil told her sister seeing that it was not working.
"I must not be casting it right" Esmeralda replied trying to keep the panic out of her voice "I will have to study it more later" Esmeralda told her sisters as an alarm sounded. It was one and that meant time for Sybil's exam, her exam actually was starting in half an hour but she had an flying lesson first.
"We will come watch you soon" Esmeralda told Sybil hugging her for good luck. The girl sighed and left the room leaving the two eldest girls alone together.
Ethel waited for the door to close then moved nearer to her sister on the bed. Ethel could tell something was on her sister's mind as she was playing with her thumbs which she did when she was nervous or thinking deeply about something and Ethel thought this time she might know what it was.
"How come the spell didn't work?" Ethel asked getting started on the questioning. Esmie turned to look at her looking anxious and not able to hide it, not from Ethel anyway.
"I told you, I cast the spell wrong that is all" Esmeralda replied unconvincingly. Ethel raised her eyebrows at her.
"Oh really?" Ethel replied saracatically.
"Yes of course" Esmeralda told her sister nervously.
"Don't lie Esmie you are bad at lying, I know your powers are playing up" Ethel told her sister knowing what was going on.
The thing is Ethel had been noticing something really strange during the summer but she thought she was just thinking to much into it. Esmeralda seemed to be hiding her powers the whole summer, not letting anyone see her pefrom magic which was very strange, there students of Cackle's were allowed to use magic outside of school so she had no reason to hide her powers. It was almost as if Esmeralda had not wanted anyone to see her do magic because they would question something. Even so Ethel had caught her sister a few times performing magic during the summer and noticed sometimes nothing seemed to happen at all even with simple spells. Ethel had not spoken to her sister about it because she thought she was probably just seeing things but now she knew something was up with the girl's magic, Esmeralda was a genius at spells she shouldn't even have to think about it.
Esmeralda sighed before she replied knowing she must as well just tell Ethel the truth after all she would keep nagging her until she got it out of her.
"Yes..something is wrong with my powers...they haven't being right since I got them back of Agatha" Esmie admitted to the younger sister.
"How exactly are they playing up, they are not working is that it?" Ethel asked wondering if her powers were doing anything else. Magic was complicated it could be doing anything.
"It is more than that" Esmeralda started to reply "Sometimes my powers completely cut out and don't work at all, just like they did a second ago" Esmeralda told Ethel explaining why she had not being able to cast that spell.
"And sometimes they work but they do the completely wrong thing" Esmeralda replied sighing to herself. She had been trying to hide it but knew the problem was growing worse.
"But why? You got them back so why are they playing up?" Ethel asked her sister confused.
"I honestly don't know Ethie, I have been reading up about it but there is not really anything written down" Esmeralda admitted. The girl had already done research on it but failed to find she had failed to find anything that told her how to fix the problem.
"This is all my fault" Ethel replied feeling guilty. Her sister's powers would be fine if she had not tricked her into giving them to Agatha Cackle.
"Don't feel guilty, yes you did wrong but you more than made up for it in the end" Esmeralda told her sister with a smile. Ethel smiled back grateful her sister was not blaming her for it.
"There must be information about it somewhere, I mean you can't be the first person to have this happen to you" Ethel replied knowing information had to of being written down somewhere. Ethel doubted Esmeralda was there first person in the history of the craft to have lost her powers then had then returned.
"I am sure it has happened before but we both know most people would chose not to write about it" Esmeralda replied logically.
Ethel looked at her sister for a moment trying to figure out what she meant but then she understood where she was going with it. Writing about a topic such as this would be frowned upon because many witches fail to believe that powers can play up, many assume someone either has powers or they don't and they can't become weaker only get stronger except in the case of grief. Therefore a lot of witches would think they are just being paranoid and their powers are actually fine or that they had remembered their powers being stronger than they were before they lost them, also witches are not meant to complain so if someone is lucky to have powers they were supposed to deal with any problems they had without complaining to anyone about it. Having powers was a gift all witches were supposed to be grateful to have.
Ethel sighed knowing her sister was right about that but there must be a reason for it. Why were they playing up? Ethel had never heard of it happening before.
"I know take my powers, I don't deserve them I always use them for bad reasons, with my powers yours will be stronger" Ethel suggested to her wanting her sister to have working powers again.
"No Ethie I can't take your powers, it probably wouldn't help anyway" Esmeralda replied. She would never agree to take her sister's powers.
Ethel looked at her older sister and saw not only the worry on her face but the sadness. Having no powers was hard for Esmie but having them working on and off was in an way worst because it was like she was being tricked by being allowed to have them then having them taken away. None of this would have happened if Ethel's jealousy had not made her do something as stupid as she had done at the end of last year.
"I really am sorry Esmie" Ethel told her sister sadly for about the fiftieth time since the incident.
"You don't need to keep apologising" Esmeralda told her sister.
Ethel closed her eyes lost in her thoughts. Esmeralda was a good person, in theory the elder blonde should hate everything about the youngest, she should have disowned her, she shouldn't be talking to her, Ethel took things way to far and anyone else would have terminated any relationship they had with Ethel but not Esmeralda, the girl had forgiven her, the girl was not out for revenge, all she wanted was to get closer to Ethel, something that made no sense to Ethel, her sister should be distancing herself from her not wanting to get closer but Esmie did not hold grudges. Ethel decided in that moment she was going to do everything she could to help her. Her sister had done so much for her and still even now after everything kept supporting her so she would find a way to help owed her that much.
