Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first part and my apologies for not getting back to you. I was a little scared that people would find the first part boring, but I knew that I had to set the scene for the start of the new term.

Apologies also for the delay in posting this part; real life keeps getting in the way.

Amelia watched Miss Drill as the young teacher shuffled nervously on her seat and picked at her nails. Imogen had been in the room for a few minutes and had not made any effort to explain what it was she wanted to talk about.

Amelia sought a way to break the silence.

"Would you like anything? Tea, Coffee… slice of cheesecake?"

Imogen raised her head. "What?" she asked distractedly. "No, thanks, I'm fine."

"If you don't mind me saying," Amelia disagreed with her colleague. "You appear to be anything other than fine."

Imogen smiled. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just finding this harder to explain than I realised."

"Take your time," Amelia advised, beginning to wish that she'd not mentioned cheesecake as she was now beginning to get a serious craving for it.

Imogen shuffled in her seat again.

"Davina wasn't completely honest with you last term when she told you about the business with Constance's file from the WTC." She decided that it was best to get to the heart of the matter. She raised her hands. "I know we shouldn't have done it but there are times when Constance is just…." Imogen broke off, wanting to check how her words were being received.

Amelia smiled weakly. "I know Constance can seem a little harsh at times."

Imogen shook her head. "It's not just that," she tried to explain. "I guess we just wanted to know a little something about her." She looked down guiltily at her hands. "Wanted to get a little dirt on her."

"Dirt?" Amelia questioned, and then her eyes widened as she realised what her colleague was getting at. "Ahh, I see."

Imogen shrugged her shoulders. "I know it was a stupid thing to do but we did it."

"And that's what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Not exactly." Imogen leant forward and rested her hands on the edge of the desk.

"As things were starting to get out of control during parents' evening, I saw flashes of pages in that file. Images and sensory memories of looking at the file." She shook her head. "But I can't remember looking at it. I've asked Constance and she tells me that she reached my room and reclaimed the file before I'd had a chance to read it."

Imogen made eye contact with Miss Cackle. "If that's the case, why is it that I can see pages of that file as clear as day?"

Amelia frowned. "Are you making an accusation against Constance?"

Imogen threw herself back in the chair and pushed her hands through her hair.

"I don't know what I'm doing," she admitted. "But something happened to me and I need to get to the bottom of it. I can't go on with this feeling in my head that someone has been playing about with my memories."

Amelia pulled a handkerchief from her cardigan pocket and began carefully cleaning the lenses of her glasses. "Have you spoken to anyone else about this?"

Imogen shook her head. "No one outside the school, only Davina."

"Hmm," Amelia rubbed hard at an invisible mark on one of the lenses. "Do you want me to have a word with Constance?"

Imogen pulled a face. "I don't want it to sound as though I'm telling tales."

"If Constance has cast some sort of memory erase spell then I think it's very important that we get to the bottom of it," Amelia told Imogen firmly. "I won't have that sort of behaviour from members of my staff."

Imogen looked at Amelia and the surprise she felt at Amelia's words must have been obvious on her face.

"No one is above the law Imogen."

"Well no, obviously not but…"

"You didn't think I'd take Constance to task?"

Imogen shrugged her shoulder apologetically. "Not really."

Amelia smiled. "Oh I know it can sometimes look as though Constance does whatever she wants, I can assure you however that I am very much in charge of this school. There are a few things that Constance and I need to discuss; I look forward to hearing her explanation."

Imogen sat back in her seat and saw the determined expression on Miss Cackle's face. She made an immediate mental note to herself never to get on the wrong side of Amelia Cackle.

"Thank you," Imogen told her gratefully. "I know that you must have a lot on your plate at the moment."

Amelia raised an eyebrow. "That's something of an understatement," she admitted. "I get the feeling that we're going to be hearing about the events of parents evening for a great many weeks to come."

Imogen's head dropped. "I'm truly sorry that I ever came up with the idea," she confessed.

Amelia smiled at her. "It's hardly your fault Imogen," she tried to reassure her colleague. "I don't imagine parents evenings at Haversham High were anything like the events that took place here last week."

"You can say that again," Imogen responded ruefully.

Mildred was beginning to think that school was the loneliest place in the world when the other students were missing. She'd been in her room for the past hour with nothing to do but sit on her bed and wait for the others to return. She glanced around the room and, as her eyes caught sight of Winky, Blinky and Nod, she smiled.

Every time she left Cackle's for any period of time she always feared that HB would come into her room and take her bats away, and so she was always pleasantly surprised to see them there when she opened the door. She wasn't sure why it was that HB seemed to tolerate bats. She seemed to have an almost fanatical hatred of anything that she didn't deem essential to a witch's education and Mildred couldn't quite figure why bats were given special dispensation; not that she was ever going to question HB's judgement of course.

"Mildred!"

Mildred snapped out of her thoughts and leapt to her feet as she recognised the voice of her best friend.

Sure enough, Maud was standing in the doorway, with a smile upon her face.

"Maud." The two girls embraced. "When did you get back?" Mildred wanted to know.

"Just a couple of minutes ago. I thought I was the only one who was going to be here early," Maud told her friend. "How was half-term?"

Mildred shrugged her shoulders. "A little quiet."

Maud winced. "How were your parents?"

Mildred shrugged her shoulders again. "They've not really said much about it," she admitted. "I think they're still trying to take it all in. I mean it's not as though magic is something that they really understand. They still find it amazing when a street magician makes a coin appear from behind your ear!"

Maud smiled. "Did you try and tell them that was how parents' evenings at witch schools are supposed to go?"

Mildred shook her head. "I think that even they realise that you're not supposed to nearly destroy the school when there are parents there."

Maud shivered at the thought. She knew that there was more to the situation than the explanation that Miss Cackle had sent out to the parents, but she had yet to broach the subject with her friend. She had meant to call Mildred during the break but had never quite gotten around to it, a part of her not wanting to know what had happened.

"So have you seen Miss Hardbroom yet?" she asked, trying to move the conversation along.

Mildred nodded. "I had to hand in my lines. When I spoke to her it was as though nothing had happened." She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess it was a bit much to expect anything to change."

"HB….Change?" Maud smiled. "I don't think she knows the meaning of the word."

Mildred met her friend's gaze and she too joined in the smile, both of them happy to forget the awkwardness that had briefly hung in the air.

Mildred knew that she owed her friend a full explanation concerning the events of parents' evening. She knew that none of her friends would be able to remember a thing and that they would all feel a little uncomfortable about it. She wanted to be able to tell them exactly what had happened but she just wasn't sure that she was ready to talk about the entity and the havoc it had so nearly wreaked.

Imogen undid the latch on the staff room window and pushed it open, leaning out to take in the sight of the pupils returning to the school. There was always something magical about the way that they swirled and ghosted in on their broomsticks.

Imogen winced as two of the first years avoided colliding with each other by the narrowest of margins. It was she amended, magical to watch the older students as they gracefully guided their brooms into land; at this stage in the term the first years were still flying their brooms with their tongues stuck out of the side of their mouths in a state of intense concentration.

She smiled and waved as Fenny and Gris spotted her and called out a greeting. Despite herself, she found herself wondering if Constance ever received such a warm welcome from the pupils.

"Ppsssst."

Imogen turned her head at the noise and saw a hand beckoning her towards the stationary cupboard. She sighed, wondering just when Davina Bat had snuck back into the school.

"What is it Davina?"

The door to the cupboard opened wider and Davina stuck her head around the gap, her hair spilling untidily around her shoulders.

"How did you know it was me?"

Imogen rolled her eyes but resolved not to be dragged into that particular conversation.

"What can I do for you Davina?" she asked patiently.

The chanting teacher looked nervously around and then beckoned Imogen over again.

"I'm not hiding in a cupboard with you," Imogen warned. "If you've got something to say to me, you have to come right out and say it."

Davina twitched nervously and glanced around before finally venturing forth from the security of the cupboard. She scurried across the room and grabbed hold of Imogen's arm, pulling her away from the window. She then reached out and slammed the window shut, before pulling the curtains across.

"You haven't spoken to Miss Cackle about Constance, have you?" she asked nervously.

Imogen nodded. "Just come from speaking to her as a matter of fact."

"Oh no." Davina let go of Imogen's arm and began pacing back and forth, nervously chewing the nails on her right hand.

"What is it Davina?"

"I heard from my friend Beatrice." She stopped pacing to glance in Imogen's direction. "You remember Beatrice, don't you?"

"Yes, yes," Imogen replied impatiently. "Your friend from the WTC. What about her?"

Davina glanced around the room again, checking that they really were on their own. Satisfied with her check, she grabbed hold of Imogen's arm and pulled the younger woman down to her height.

"She's been investigated."

Imogen pulled her arm free and straightened up. "Investigated by whom?"

"The Witches Guild," Davina whispered. "They'd been tipped off that someone had been removing files from the…." she clicked her fingers impatiently, trying to think of the right word. "…Whatever you call the place where files live."

Imogen rolled her eyes, understanding finally why it always proved impossible to find anything that Davina claimed to have filed.

"Constance returned the file," Imogen assured Davina, but Davina shook her head.

"It's not there." She resumed her pacing. "Beatrice cracked under the questioning and revealed all." Davina paused and covered her face with her hands. "Oh the shame and embarrassment of it all," she wailed. "Flashing the Guild inspectors."

Imogen's eyes opened wider. "She actually revealed all to the inspectors! And there was me thinking all this time that that was just an expression."

Davina waved her hands in front of her face as though trying to dislodge a particularly nasty image from her mind.

"After being cautioned by the inspectors she confessed that she'd sent the file here."

"What?" Imogen grabbed hold of Davina's arms and forced the elderly witch to stand still. "What are the Guild likely to do?"

Davina twittered, unable to articulate her thoughts.

"Will they be able to find out it was us?" Imogen wanted to know.

"They're relentless," Davina found her voice. "They'll check everything…If they send people, then they'll look into everything."

Imogen tried to remain calm. "We had an inspection from the Guild before," she pointed out. "And we survived that."

"Just," Davina squeaked, remembering Mistress Broomhead's professed hatred of bats. She grabbed hold of Imogen's arm. "This would be far worse," she tried to explain. "They'll investigate everything. If they think that there is something amiss here, then they won't stop until they've discovered what it is."

Imogen was struck by a thought. "Maybe it won't be such a bad thing," she mused, oblivious to the shaking head of Davina. "Maybe this is just the thing to make Constance confess."

Davina shook her head. "This won't be a good thing," she warned. "This won't be a good thing at all."

Mildred and Maud stood at Mildred's door, waiting to see their friends as they returned. Maud felt her friend take a pace back and turned to see what it was that had unsettled her. She sighed as she caught sight of Ethel and Drusilla walking towards them.

"It'll be fine," she whispered to her friend. "They'll have so much to catch up on that they won't have time to be bitchy."

Mildred looked less than convinced but nevertheless retook her previous place at the door.

"Well, well, well," Ethel sneered as she drew level with Mildred's door. "Who is that I see?" She stopped and stared hard at Mildred. "It is Mildred Hubble, isn't it?"

"I don't know," Drusilla appeared to be unsure. "I mean it could be anyone."

"Oh, come on," Ethel chided her friend. "Who would deliberately make themselves look like Mildred Hubble?"

"Shut up you two," Maud snapped at the girls.

"We weren't the ones who ruined parents evening," Ethel reminded Maud. "You should see the number of letters that the Governors received as a result of Hubble Bubble's blundering." Ethel took a pace closer to Mildred. "I hope your family's got enough money to pair for the repairs that need to be carried out. I don't see why the school fund should have to pay for the damage that you caused."

"What?" Mildred stammered.

"Oh yes," Ethel was beginning to enjoy the moment. "The money to repair the hall has to come from somewhere. I don't see why the rest of us should suffer for something that was your fault."

"What's going on down there?" HB's voice boomed down the corridor and the four girls all jumped, not having heard her approach. "Less dawdling and more action," she barked at them. "I want to see that everything is back where it belongs in your wardrobes, and that all cats are attended to before anyone is to go down for dinner…" She paused to make sure that her words had sunk in. "Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes Miss," a chorus of voices replied. Casting a final black look in Mildred's direction, Ethel and Drusilla continued on their way.

Mildred turned to look at Maud. "It's going to be like this all term," she sighed.

"I'm sure that they'll soon forget about it," Maud tried to reassure her friend.

"But isn't that part of the point?" Mildred continued. "No-one can really remember what they did and I just know that they're going to blame me for it."

"HB knows what happened," Maud reminded her. "I'm sure that she won't stand for any nonsense."

Mildred shrugged her shoulders. "I can't see HB as my white knight in shining armour somehow."

"Mildred, Maud." Miss Hardbroom's voice broke across their conversation, and the two girls turned around guiltily, hoping that they hadn't been overheard. "Are you somehow excluded from the school rules?" she asked them pointedly. "Have you perhaps been granted some special dispensation that I haven't been informed about?"

"No Miss," the two girls chorused and looked down at their feet.

"Then may I suggest that you attend to your cats and sort out your belongings before wasting your time in idle prattling."

Mildred looked up as HB came to a halt in front of them. "Sorry Miss," she apologised.

"We did arrive early Miss Hardbroom," Maud thought she should try to explain.

"Well that's very keen of you Maud Moonshine," Miss Hardbroom replied sarcastically.

"My parents were off on a conference and Mildred had to come and have a meeting with Miss Cackle," Maud continued.

"Really!"

Mildred's heart sank as she heard the questioning tone in Miss Hardbroom's voice and felt the potion teacher's eyes fix themselves upon her.

"I trust that your meeting with Miss Cackle was illuminating Mildred?"

"Yes Miss." Mildred wished that a hole in the ground would open up and swallow her. She could feel HB's eyes boring into her, silently demanding to know what she had said to Miss Cackle. After a few moments, HB turned her attention back to Maud.

"Maud, I think perhaps you should return to your room and make sure that everything is as it should be."

"Yes Miss," Maud replied quietly and, with a quick reassuring look towards her friend, scurried off down the now empty corridor.

"I think perhaps you and I should have a quiet word," HB told Mildred firmly and indicated that Mildred should step back into her room.

Constance closed the door to Mildred's room and faced the young girl, taking in the way that Mildred was staring down at her feet, a worried expression on her face.

Despite herself, she sighed.

"Do you always assume that every time I ask to speak with you, you must be in trouble?"

"Miss?" Mildred questioned, not sure whether she should answer the question or not.

Constance let out a short breath of exasperation. "I wanted to have a word with you about parents evening," she began, trying to keep her voice calm. "I don't want you to go around the place telling everyone what you saw." She watched as Mildred raised her head. "I don't mean that you should lie to them; I just don't want people to know…." she broke off, not certain exactly how to phrase the next sentence.

"I wasn't going to say anything Miss Hardbroom," Mildred replied earnestly.

"That's good," Constance replied, slightly surprised by the tone in Mildred's voice. "I think that the less people know about magical entities and the things they can do, the better."

"Yes Miss," Mildred agreed.

"I don't want there to be an endless procession of inquisitive young witches trying to get their hands on spells that they don't have the experience to handle."

"No Miss."

"Good." Constance looked at Mildred and sensed that there was something else that the young girl wanted to say. "Come on Mildred, out with it," she sighed.

Mildred looked up and swallowed nervously. "It has gone now, hasn't it?"

"Yes Mildred. It's gone."

"And you are…"

"Perfectly," Constance answered quickly, not wanting to get involved in a conversation about her health with a pupil; it was bad enough with Amelia clucking around like an old mother hen without one of the pupils joining in.

"Good," came the quiet reply from Mildred. "I was scared when…"

"Enough Mildred," Constance cut across Mildred's sentence. "The entity has gone, the event has passed. There is nothing to be gained by dwelling on what you think you may or may not have seen during that evening."

"Sorry Miss," Mildred apologised.

"Make sure that you put everything away and then get down to the courtyard to join the others," Constance changed the subject swiftly and turned on her heel, exiting the room before Mildred could say anything further.

Mildred stood there as HB swept out of the room. Her mind was still trying to process what HB had said. She'd never known her potions teacher hide from anything but it struck Mildred that HB seemed pretty keen on keeping the details of what the entity did quiet. A gentle mew from Tabby caused the thought to drop from her mind and she turned and collected the grey tabby cat in her arms. She had spent her first few nights at home sitting up in bed, wrapped in the bedclothes and waiting for the morning to come. Without Tabby's reassuring company, she wasn't sure that she would have managed to get any sleep. She buried her face in his warm fur and was rewarded with a loud purr from him in return.

Constance wasn't unaccustomed to entering Miss Cackle's office and finding the Headmistress with a worried expression on her face and a large slice of cheesecake sitting on the table in front of her. Constance had never understood the need that some people had for what they termed 'comfort food'. Food was eaten because it was essential to the well being of the body. She had seen a self-styled 'Wicked Wizard Chef' advertised in Miss Bat's Cauldron Monthly, but she had never understood the appeal of a pre-pubescent wizard 'cooking up a storm in the kitchen'. Kitchens, to her way of thinking were most definitely not the place for storms. She had told Miss Bat so and had then had to spend the rest of the afternoon teaching the 1st year chanting class because Davina had fled to the stationary cupboard and refused to leave.

Constance shook the thought out of her head and prepared to listen to the latest woe of Amelia's.

Amelia raised her head from contemplating her, as yet untouched, slice of cherry cheesecake. She sighed heavily and indicated that Constance should take a seat.

As her deputy sat down, she rose to her feet and began pacing back and forth in front of the window.

"We've received a letter from the Witches Guild."

Constance raised an eyebrow at the news. It wasn't uncommon for the Guild to send out letters from time to time. Usually they involved useful information about where to obtain better broomstick insurance and cat healthcare programmes.

From the way that Amelia was continuing to pace, Constance reasoned that this time they had sent out something quite different.

"What is it Headmistress?" she finally asked, acutely aware that the 2nd years would be causing mayhem in the courtyard if she wasn't out there within 10 minutes.

Amelia gestured towards the desk. "Take a look for yourself."

Constance pursed her lips. Amelia wasn't exactly renowned for her neatness, she was well aware that it could take her a while to locate anything from amid the pile of paper that flowed across the top of the table. Constance scanned the visible surface area and finally caught sight of the logo of the Witches Guild poking out from beneath the cheesecake plate. Being careful to avoid coming into contact with the aforementioned cake, Constance slid the piece of paper out from beneath the plate and shook the crumbs off it before bringing it closer.

Amelia stopped her pacing and watched her deputy closely, waiting to read the emotions on her face. She watched as Constance's eyes narrowed; that in itself was a major reaction as far as Constance was concerned. Finally, the letter was lowered.

"This is preposterous," she announced.

"I get the feeling that they are deadly serious about it," Amelia replied.

"But to send an inspector to the school…" Constance protested.

"Two inspectors," Amelia corrected. "They are proposing sending two inspectors."

Constance opened her mouth to complain further, but she found that she was somewhat at a loss for words. She instead returned her attention to the letter, seeking out a particular detail. "It has come to our attention that there have been some unexplained magical occurrences." Constance raised her head and met Miss Cackle's gaze.

"Someone didn't waste any time in reporting us," Amelia voiced the thought.

"But to send inspectors?"

Amelia frowned. "I know. I get the feeling that they're fishing for something more."

"Well I don't know what they think they'll find," Constance tried to dismiss the worries that Amelia was trying to raise.

Amelia took a seat and shuffled some of the papers that were on her desk, trying to appear casual. "I think you and I need to have a little talk about what happened during parents evening."

Constance clicked her tongue against her teeth. "There is nothing to tell you."

Amelia looked at Constance over the top of her glasses. "Now we both know that that's not true." She looked and saw the flash of uncertainty that crossed her deputy's face. "With inspectors on the way, it's vitally important that I know everything that happened."

"I submitted a report to you and, as far as I'm concerned, that covered all the salient points," Constance told her firmly.

Amelia looked guiltily down at the mess of papers on her desk. She was certain that Constance's report was amid the mound of hastily read mail but she wasn't sure that she'd be able to put her hand on it any time soon.

Constance sighed, frustrated that once again, Amelia had treated a carefully written report as though it were nothing more than a covering for the bottom of a litter tray.

"Due to Mildred Hubble's ill-advised dabbling into magic that she was too inexperienced to handle, a magical entity was summoned and I had to take necessary steps to ensure that no-one in the hall came to any harm. Mildred remembered the spell and we were able to banish the entity." Constance held her hands out to the side. "That is all there is to it."

Amelia looked up at her deputy, certain that there was much more that was being kept from her. Mildred had been equally as cagey when it came to explaining what had happened after everyone was frozen. She resolved to get to the bottom of it eventually, but first there were other matters to attend to.

"I take it that you've done something about the Forbidden Volumes?"

Constance sniffed. "I have placed a much stronger spell over that particular room. I'd like to see any of the pupils try and get in there now."

Amelia chose her next words carefully. "I was rather hoping to hear that you had removed the volumes from the school."

"I haven't had the opportunity," Constance told her.

Amelia frowned. "But this past week…"

"I have been engaged in some research work," Constance finished the sentence smoothly.

Amelia's frown deepened. "I thought I told you to take the week off."

Constance raised an eyebrow. "I did. There were no lessons."

Amelia sighed inwardly. Constance had never really come to terms with the concept of relaxing. She'd tried enforcing rest on Constance during the half-term stay at Rowan Webb's but that had backfired on her. Two days of rest had seen Constance come back to the school and work like a witch-possessed, making up for the hours that she had spent relaxing. Amelia realised that it was pointless to push the issue further.

"There is one other matter that you and I need to discuss."

"Oh?"

The 'oh' was enough to cause Amelia to lose heart. She'd told Imogen that no one was outside of the rules but Amelia had to admit to herself that she did find it hard to confront her deputy.

"Miss Drill came to see me earlier." Amelia had been hoping that a look of guilt or recognition would reveal itself on Constance's face, but there was nothing. She was determined to make this as hard as possible. Amelia searched around for the best way to phrase the next sentence. "Imogen mentioned that she hadn't been exactly honest about her dealings with that file of yours from the WTC."

Constance let out a heavy sigh. "I thought we'd dealt with that sorry business last term."

Amelia looked at Constance over the top of her glasses. "As did I but Imogen has raised a matter than means that I shall have to look into it again."

Constance sighed heavily again. "I suppose she told you all about her 'dream' of looking at my file."

"It didn't sound like a dream to me Constance," Amelia warned her deputy. "It sounded very much like someone who was subjected to a memory erase spell."

Constance rose to her feet. "Are you accusing me of casting a spell on Miss Drill without her knowledge?"

"I'm not accusing you of anything," Amelia hurriedly replied, trying to keep the conversation under control. "I just want to know if anything happened that I should know about."

Constance folded her arms tightly across her chest. "I am not in the habit of casting spells over non-magical members of the school against their will and I object to the suggestion that I did so."

"I'm sorry Constance," Amelia was apologetic. "But Imogen was so certain that something had happened. I had to check it out."

"Yes," Constance said flatly. "Of course you did."

"With inspectors on the way, we can't afford any…" Amelia searched around for the right word.

"Skeletons in the closet?" Constance suggested dryly.

Amelia huffed. "For want of a better word, yes. Those inspectors are going to be into everything." Amelia scanned the desktop again and finally caught sight of a file bearing Constance's precise handwriting. She pulled it free, only to watch as a pile of letters next to it cascaded to the floor. "The inspectors are going to be very interested in this," she warned Constance.

Constance narrowed her eyes. "Are you implying that I may have left a few details out?"

"No no," Amelia was quick to explain. "But I'm sure you understand just how thorough an investigation from the Guild can be."

"I have nothing to hide."

Amelia looked at her colleague over the top of her glasses, not sure that she should try and push the matter further at this stage. "Well I suppose we'd better break the news to the girls," she suggested.

Constance pursed her lips. "I somehow think that breaking the news to Davina should take precedence. Heaven alone knows how long it's going to take us to get her out of the stationary cupboard once she hears the news."

Amelia's heart sank as she realised that Constance had a point; breaking things like this to Davina were never straightforward.