"Pink hair, Headmistress!"

Those were the words that left Constance's lips as they returned to the staff room after the first day of term had come to a close. Amelia sat down, rubbing her temples, followed by Edith, Davina and Patricia. Constance remained standing.

"We need to talk about this, Amelia. It's inappropriate. What if the head of the board of governors appeared and she had her hair like that? The school would be closed down."

"It looks quite nice actually," Patricia commented, "I like it and I'm sure Mr Hallow will too!"

Constance shot Patricia an icy glare, "You would say that wouldn't you?"

Davina snorted loudly, remembering all too well Constance's reaction to the blue rinse incident of 1983. At the sight of Patricia's hair that day she had walked into the staff room and walked straight back out again.

"It is self expression," Edith stated, "However I have to agree with Constance. For a school environment-"

"For any environment." Constance scowled.

"-It is inappropriate. I'll help Amanda wash the pink out of her hair if that's okay? I know how to do it. When I was at uni my room mate Clara put purple hair dye in my shampoo as a joke," she added, turning to Davina who was sniggering at the idea of the thick and messy mass of blonde hair beside her being a brilliant violet.

Constance finally sat down after looming like the Grim Reaper and she scoffed, "Amanda Honeydew. I told you, Amelia, we should have expelled her in her first year after that incident with the harmonium. We've been far too lenient with that girl."

Davina sighed, "She did only stick eggs in the pipes. She didn't damage school property at all."

"When you started playing during morning assembly and Connie got an egg right on her bun! Eee man that was funny."

Constance remembered only too well the firework display of eggs in the great hall as she stared at Patricia, willing her to stop talking.

"I was bad laughin'. Amanda may have got detention for it but the look on your face was worth it!" Patricia had started cackling with laughter at this point as Constance sighed.

"Well she may not have damaged school property but it could have done serious harm, not to mention putrid smells," Constance said flatly, "And if we could stop talking about it," she added as Patricia descended into another fit of giggles at she caught Davina's eye, "Aren't you sixty three this year, Patricia?"

Patricia promptly cleared her throat and grabbed the empty mug in front of her, trying to take a drink, "A lady never reveals her age," she said in an extra-refined voice.

Constance nodded, smirking nastily, "Of course not."

"Well," Amelia said, "What shall we do about Amanda Honeydew? I have to agree with Constance. This behaviour can't go on."

The staff sat in silence for a few moments, mulling over ideas. Constance suggested more broomstick flying to which Amelia declined profusely, reminding her of the occasion where Amanda and her friends flew over the village and spooked a herd of cows. Davina suggested extra chanting lessons, saying that singing was good for the soul. Patricia was too sweaty to suggest anything.

Finally it was Edith's turn, "Well when I was teaching at my old school we had a book club. The kids really enjoyed it and it made reading more fun for them because we'd play games and take part in different activities pertaining to the books that we'd been reading. What do you think?"

Amelia and Constance shared a look. Constance thought encouraging reading was a brilliant idea and wondered why she hadn't thought of suggesting it herself. Amelia seemed very impressed by the new starter's idea and they planned the book club for the following afternoon after the final lesson had finished. Edith would host it and the girls would say which books they would like to read over the term so the staff could order them in.

"Can I come?" Davina asked, "I've been reading this wonderful book about lots of different places around the country."

Edith smiled brightly, "Of course you're welcome to come, Davina. I'd love for you to be there. Which book is it that you've been reading?"

Davina scurried over to the bookshelf in the corner and came back with a map of the United Kingdom.

"That doesn't count as reading material," Constance said sharply.

"It's a book!" Davina cried, flicking the pages in front of Constance's face, "It has pages and I can read it and I actually find it quite interesting."

Patricia gave a dramatic sigh as she walked out of the staff room, her back pouring with sweat as she stepped into the corridor. Constance decided to follow her and was greeted by a very loud groan rather than a voice.

"Are you that uncomfortable?"

Patricia groaned again, too exhausted to even give a proper response.

Bracing herself, Constance ushered Patricia upstairs and led her up to her bedroom, renowned to be the coldest room in the castle, and told her to sit by the window. Morgana was curled up on the bed. She stretched as Constance closed the door, blinked, then curled back up again.

"Okay. Health books," Constance began searching her overstocked bookshelf, pulling out all of her different books, flicking through them as she tried to find some cure for Patricia's menopausal symptoms, "How often are these flashes?"

Patricia, who was slumped in a chair by the window, began to count on her fingers, looking up at the ceiling. She had finally managed to get the strength to speak as she opened her mouth and said, "Constantly. I'm not even goin' to sugar coat it. I am constantly boilin' hot. I feel like somebody has attached a fireplace to es."

Constance nodded, sitting back on her heels as she flicked through all of her different books, bookmarking chapters that could be interesting or helpful for her colleague as she piled them up in order. It only took about ten minutes to actually go through Constance's wide selection of health books but to Patricia it felt like a lifetime.

"Anytime now would be great." She snapped, running a sweaty hand over her dripping wet forehead, "It's not like I'm boilin' to death or owt."

Constance scowled, "Patience is a virtue, Miss Gimlet, one that you should start heeding," as she carried the large pile of books over to Patricia, "Here are some books I've picked out. This one," she picked out a book from her pile, one she had used herself for her period cramps in the past, "Is brilliant. You have a look through some and I'll have a look through the rest. I've bookmarked the areas that are about female health," she added, seeing that Patricia looked quite bewildered at what she initially thought was Constance suggesting for her to read through a mountain of books.

They went through the books in silence. Together they found one book that may have been of some use – The Seasoned Witch: A Guide To The Ageing Female Form – and they examined the section purely about the menstrual cycle. Though it wasn't much help when it came to stopping Patricia's symptoms it did have one suggestion.

"Hormone Replacement Therapy?" Patricia boomed as she read through the chapter, "No way am I goin' on HRT. Sorry but I'd much rather sweat to death than go on that rubbish."

Constance agreed. Pumping her body full of artificial chemicals wasn't going to help Patricia get any better. The moment she decided to stop taking them she'd be back to square one again. She needed a magical, natural cure, one that would not disturb her body's progression into old age.

"Amelia had no problems when she went through menopause. Maybe we should ask her?" Constance proposed.

When they asked Amelia, however, the headmistress admitted that she had no issue. One day she just felt very hot and then that was it - done. Patricia grumbled as she, yet again, flopped into the chair in Amelia's office.

"Is there nothin' I can do? Nothin' to get the flushes to stop?" Patricia's voice was strangled as she fought off a wave of hysteria. She was so uncomfortable and so tired that she was nearly always on the verge of crying, at least since the end of the winter term.

Amelia sat down in her chair, "Well there is one thing that will help. It's not a conventional witch medicine though so you will need to see a normal doctor."

Patricia pursed her lips, "If it's HRT-"

"It's the only thing that I know that works. Do you have any suggestions, Constance? You're good with medicine."

Constance furrowed her eyebrows, "Well we looked through all of my books didn't we? We couldn't find a thing," then she moved to stand behind Patricia, who was radiating heat from where she sat, "I hate to admit that I agree with using this new-fangled medicine but Hormone Replacement Therapy does sound like the only option that is guaranteed to work. I doubt tying onions to the soles of your feet and sleeping in garlic oil will help you," she remarked, as one of the many books she had read through had mentioned some very strange methods for curing hot flashes, which were Patricia's biggest problem at the moment, beside the mood swings that she had been experiencing.

She wiped her eyes and sniffed, "I cannet understand. Normally there's a magical cure for everythin'. Magic has never let es down and I just... I just dinnar if I can use normal medicine after so many years of relyin' on magic for things," she dabbed her eyes again and took a shaking breath, "I'm gonna have to think about it, mind."

Amelia pursed her lips apprehensively. There shouldn't have been any thinking involved for her staff member. It should have been a case of accepting the cure for her ailment and going with it. Of course Amelia wasn't a trained physician but she had heard some amazing success stories about Hormone Replacement Therapy. Her friend Gloria Cosie had been taking it for years and hadn't had a hot flash since the medication worked its way into her system.

She would need to wait and see how Patricia felt in a few days time. Until then her main focus was the book club that Edith had recommended they do and, after Patricia had left the office, Amelia and Constance worked on a reading list, or their proposed reading list. It was highly unlikely the girls were going to read any of the books their teachers suggested.

They provided Edith with the list on Wednesday afternoon, just before the book club took place in the great hall. The furniture had been rearranged so the chairs were in a circle rather than in rows. Edith had asked for this specifically as it allows the girls to discuss their ideas and opinions of the books more freely rather than swivelling in their chairs and having to raise their voices to be heard.

The girls filed into the hall in silence, taking their seats and picking up the empty notepads that had been placed on their seats.

Edith rubbed her hands together,"Hello girls! Thanks for coming." She announced as best she could in her breathy voice. The girls all looked up towards her and fell silent, "Now as you are aware I've asked Miss Cackle to start up a book club so I can share some of my favourite books with you and you can share some of your favourite books with each other. Hopefully we can get to know each other a bit more and I'm hoping the rest of the teachers will muck in too."

"Muck in?" Constance sneered, turning ever so slightly to Amelia, "How impertinent."

Amelia sighed, "She's just trying to get onto the girls' level. Give her time. You're jumping down her throat and you've only known her for five minutes."

Edith's voice echoed around the silent hall, "Now girls I want you to write down what you would like to cover in our book club and we'll go round and talk about them; why you like them, why you think your friends will like them and such like," she caught Constance's eye, "And that includes the staff as well."

Constance cleared her throat, lowering her head as she whispered, "Well the girls will never want to read what we suggest will they? And didn't we give her a list earlier?"

"Humour her." Amelia hissed from the corner of her lips, "I'm sure she knows what she's doing."

After everyone had jotted down the book they would like to read during the book club, Edith went around the room and asked everyone one at a time what they would like. Amanda Honeydew suggested The Catcher In The Rye, Davina had scrawled The Cat In The Hat, Constance wrote down Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Amelia put forward To Kill A Mockingbird.

"That's not at all appropriate for fourteen year old girls, Miss Gimlet!" Edith cried as she looked at Patricia's suggestion of The Delta of Venus.

"Well they need to know these things." Patricia said in a very blasé tone.

"Shoving sex under their noses isn't going to give them a healthy attitude towards it once they get older. Moving on..." Edith continued around the room, taking suggestions from the other students.

A lot of the girls wanted to read The Lord of the Rings series which Edith was very excited about, given that it was her favourite book series when she had been growing up. She could remember going to the charity shop with her foster mother when she had been no older than six years old and picking up a battered copy of The Fellowship Of The Ring and staying up all night with a torch reading. That had been when she had fallen in love with words – silky and flowing so beautifully, unfurling like a spiral of daisies in a grassy meadow on a warm summer's day. That's how she saw them anyway. To someone else it would have been numbers, science, art, music...

She jotted down all of the ideas and promised the girls she would come up with a shortlist for next week's club meeting. Once the girls had disbanded and gone for their breaks Constance left with Amelia to go over the week ahead.

They had agreed that Constance would sit in on the interviews for the new deputy headmistress and Amelia had a few ladies she wanted to meet. She wanted to run them past Constance before she called them in however as the formidable potions mistress was known for her scrutiny of minute details. She would know the one to go for. Of course poor Constance still had her heart set on the position herself and Amelia had a little plan for their private afternoon meeting that the all knowing Miss Hardbroom was not yet aware of.

Amelia sat down behind her desk, Constance sitting opposite her, and pulled out a large A4 notepad and a pen. She pulled her glasses down onto her nose and began to write.

"Have you compiled a list of potential deputies?" Constance asked quickly, wanting to get this out of the way as quickly as possible. The fact that Amelia was wanting her to be involved in this decision was a great feeling but at the same time she felt as though the job was hers by right.

Amelia nodded gently, "But first I want to ask you a question, Constance."

Constance shuffled in her seat, straightening her back. She did look quite elegant sat there, her long dark hair pulled into a neat bun, her back straight and her neck extended like that of a swan.

"Would you like me to interview you for this position?" Amelia asked, "I know how keen you are to get this job and it's inevitable your application will end up on my desk eventually so we might as well cut out the middle man and-"

Constance nodded quickly, "Of course, Amelia! Oh thank you," She beamed at the headmistress for the first time in nearly twelve years and for a moment Amelia thought she saw a glimmer of the young girl she had interviewed so many years before. Of course this glimmer of joy was gone almost immediately as the younger witch in front of her resumed her usual straight backed authoritative demeanour.

"Right, well. First thing's first. I must ask if you have a criminal record?"

Constance's eyes widened in shock. Having spent near enough the best part of the last twelve years together, Amelia should have known Constance wasn't the type of woman to have a criminal record, "Well of course not. You know that."

Amelia looked over her glasses at Constance, "There's no harm in double checking. I don't now what you get up to when you're not here."

"Oh yes, kidnapping kittens and stealing canes from elderly gentlemen are only a few of my many criminal pastimes." Constance said dryly, then seeing the shocked expression on Amelia's face she snapped, "For goodness sake! You know I would never do that."

Pursing her lips and giving another glance over her glasses, Amelia wrote something down on her notepad. The rest of the interview continued in much the same way; Amelia treating it as a standard interview, asking questions that would be asked to a complete stranger and Constance taking all of the standard queries as personal jibes.

When Amelia asked about her hobbies Constance refused to answer, saying that Amelia knew all too well what she got up to in her spare time.

"Marking school work doesn't constitute a hobby, Constance," Amelia stated, pushing her glasses back up on to her head.

Rolling her eyes, Constance sighed, "Fine. When I'm not marking school work I like to garden and train Morgana."

Constance watched as Amelia scribbled something else on her jotter until finally she said, "Right. Let's have a look at this other applicants then."

"What?" Constance said in an almost squeaky voice, "Is that it?"

Amelia sighed deeply, "I'm treating your application as I would any other. Just because we're friends and work colleagues doesn't mean you will be a successful candidate, nor does it lessen your chances either. I'm remaining impartial until I have seen all of the other candidates. You are still in the running, dear." She added, seeing Constance's slight pout that she would give when she wasn't getting her own way.

Finally they started going through the mound of application forms. They had stopped advertising the role in the newspapers so now they were working their way through the piles upon piles of applications.

"Ah," Amelia said after a little while, "You remember I was thinking about adding P.E to the syllabus?"

"Mm-hmm?" Constance didn't look up as she organised piles of application forms.

"Well, here's a lady who I think will be perfect. She's a swimming teacher-"

Constance's head snapped up at the mention of swimming, "Where do you expect her to teach the girls? In the brook?"

Amelia laughed softly, "No. There's a swimming pool in the village school we could use. I'd need to write to the headmaster, Mr Ridley, but I'm sure it won't be an issue. He's used plenty of our facilities before."

"When was this exactly?" Constance asked.

"Well before you started here, he and Trish had a fling and-"

"Oh!" Constance grimaced, "Say no more. I get the picture."

"Anyway I shall write to this lady, Mrs Pole, and ask her to come to the school for an interview and a trial."

"Headmistress," Constance said, sounding softer than usual, "I know I've said this before but I'm really not sure about adding P.E to the syllabus for this school. Don't the girls get enough exercise what with their broomstick flying?"

Amelia smiled, "Well they do do a lot of broomstick flying, but that isn't invigorating exercise is it? They need to be physically stimulated and we need to encourage a healthy lifestyle," she said as she reached across her desk for a packet of custard creams.

Constance slapped her hand away, "Encouraging a healthy lifestyle indeed," and she directed her casting fingers at the packet of biscuits, receiving an anguished gasp from Amelia.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this update! Next week we'll be meeting Mrs Pole and perhaps seeing a bit more of the mischievous Amanda Honeydew.