A/N: This is a new story but it is dark, no warnings in this chapter but just so you are aware.

Broken

Chapter One

Looking For A Solution

It was early afternoon and Esmerelda Hallow was in her bedroom sitting with her legs up on her bed as she looked through the books she had taken from the library that morning, looking in desperation for anything that could help her.

Despite a new term at Cackle's Academy school had just started, Esmerelda had not returned to school, when she gave her powers away last year in place of her sister, Ethel, to who she thought was her headmistress Ada Cackle, but turned out to be her evil twin sister, Agatha Cackle, Esmie had not gotten her powers back. She had not given up though, there must be a way for her to get her powers back and she was going to find it.

Esmerelda was not even that desperate to get her powers back because she found she couldn't live without them, true she really wanted them back and she really did miss being a witch, but if she was honest with herself she wanted them back more for the reason she wanted to be able to escape from home.

People assumed things when they saw Esmerelda and her sisters. "Oh they are rich, they have everything they must be happy" was the most common thing Esmerelda heard people say but home life was anything but fun for the girls. Their parents could only be described as ..cold. They didn't ever hug or kiss their children and they put pressure on them to be perfect, especially Esmerelda. Mr and Mrs Hallow also compared their children on everything, not just to each other but to other people's children and they put their children on pedestals. To Mr and Mrs Hallow, their children were like toys that they could manipulate into doing what they wanted.

When Esmerelda had had her powers, as the eldest it had being never ending for her. Her parents would enter her in stupid competitions, want her to study at silly hours and spoke to her about the family business as if she was supposed to care about it, Esmerelda was their golden child that they bragged and showed off, entering her in everything they could possibly find, needing to show the world she was perfect and much better than their children. A normal teenage life was out of the question for Esmerelda, her parents had made sure of that.

When her parents found out Esmerelda was no longer a witch their reaction was shame. To them, Esmerelda had brought shame and embarrassment to the whole family name and they were not going to let her forget it, since they had found out, they had been treating the eldest like she had some disease and was contaminated, they didn't even care that she had done it selflessly.

And so Esmerelda was now home without her sisters, the large house was two quiet and she was not used to quiet. Before her sisters started at Cackles she still experienced a lot of noise at school and at home things were not quiet with Ethel, who liked to talk loudly, and Sybil who somehow managed to make more noise than the three of them put together.

That is why Esmerelda was flipping through pages of the books looking for a way to get her powers back. She wanted to go back to school so she did not have to see her parents glaring at her everytime they saw her and so she did not have to be in a quiet house by herself which is why she had gotten all the books she could find out of her local library to find something of use but they all said the same thing, they all told her how a witch could come to lose her powers but not how to get them back.

Esmerelda looked through four books hoping somewhere there was a secret remedy to getting her powers back, but she still found nothing. Frustrated, the girl slammed the book shut disappointed, books had never let her down before until now.

"Esmie" the blonde suddenly heard someone say, she jumped up and saw Ethel looking at her from the large mirror in her bedroom and smiled as she saw her.

"Hey Ethie" Esmerelda said sitting down in a chair she kept by the mirror to talk to her sister.

"How are things?" Ethel asked quite already basically knowing the answer to the question.

Esmerelda shrugged before she replied "Alright, I got some more books out of the library to find out any ways to get my powers back, still nothing though" Esmerelda told the younger blonde. Ethel nodded before replying.

"I am still researching too, I am sure we will find something" Ethel told her sister with a sigh feeling really guilty as after all she was the one who had tricked her sister into giving up her powers. Esmerelda fell silent for a moment biting her lip, until she started to speak again.

"How is Sybs?" Esmie asked asking over her younger sister. She had not spoke to her since school had started two days ago as she wanted her to settle a little bit first as she knew how scared she was, she didn't want the girl crying because she was scared.

"A bit better today, them two girls she became friends with seemed to have helped her with her confidence" Ethel replied reassuring Esmie that their younger sister was fine.

"I am very glad to hear it" Esmerelda replied as she had been really worried about Sybil settling in and making friends but apparently she had made friends with two girls called Beatrice and Clarice already so she had nothing to worry about.

Ethel smiled at her sister before she looked upwards at the clock in the mirror room and then looked at her sister.

"I have to go, I have Hardbroom next but I just wanted to make sure you are okay" Ethel told Esmie feeling bad for having to leave so soon.

"Thank you Ethie, give Sybil my love and try stay out of trouble" Esmerelda replied knowing her sister was a magnet for trouble,especially when it came to Mildred Hubble.

"I will try to, see you later" Ethel told her as she waved to Esmerelda.

"Bye Ethie" Esmerelda said as Ethel ended the call and Esmerelda stood up sighing to herself as she was once again left alone, she walked back to her bed and sat on it again trying to think of something to do.

That was when a book caught her attention, she had not read this one yet but it looked promising she picked it up and placed it on her knees to read when there was a sudden knock on her bedroom door.

Esmerelda lifted her head curiously as she heard this knock, no-one except her sisters ever knocked on her door but then she remembered it was a Wednesday and it was the day the servants took the washing baskets away, the servants would never dare to enter without permission because if they did they would get into serious trouble.

"Yes come in" The blonde replied without looking up as she was flicking through the pages of the book she had missed, because of this she did not even look up at who entered her bedroom, if they wanted something they would speak.

"Esmerelda" a male voice said and Esmie shot her head up narrowing her eyebrows as she saw both her mother and her father in her room.

To many people seeing their parents enter their bedroom would not even cause them to react but it was the fact this was so unusual that made Esmerelda look at her mother and father with a deep look of confusion.

Mr and Mrs Hallow never really went in to any of their girls rooms because they were never really down the corridor the girls rooms were in, if they wanted to talk to their girls they would call them downstairs, in fact thinking about it the last time Esmerelda recalled her mother or father entering her room was a couple of years ago when they had to tell her a change in a competition she was entered for that she had to leave for in a few minutes so they did not have time to wait for her to come down. Even then though it had only being her mother who entered her room, she could not remember the last time her father was in here and certainly not together.

She started to wonder why they were in there, but the real reason they had entered her room that afternoon would be something that never would have crossed her mind...