Note: Phew! I thought I was going to have to trek up to campus on my day off to post this - mark of how dedicated I am to this fic eh? But as luck would have it, my dodgy Internet connection decided to make itself useful for a brief period this lunch time, so I am taking advantage and posting this while I have the chance instead of doing my German grammar...

Note2: Thank you so much for the positive reaction to the first chapter! I knew people were looking forward to it but I was still a bit nervous, so... *Kimmeth can't think of something appropriate to say and so hands out chocolate brownies (still warm) instead.* Here's the second chapter - enjoy!

Pandora's Box

Two

Mildred woke suddenly, unable to place quite what had caused her to jerk out of blissful sleep. She tried to remember the dream she had been having, but it had already slipped away from her. She shrugged as she sat up, trying to determine the time from the amount of light that was shining through the chink in the shutters. It couldn't have been that important.

Tabby gave a disgruntled mew as Mildred crossed her legs, disturbing him from his position sitting on her feet at the end of her bed. He pawed around a few times before settling himself once more, head resting on his paws in a perfect picture of contentment. Mildred sighed and looked around the room. It was light already, the days getting longer and longer as the bright and dry month of July progressed.

The robes hanging on her wardrobe door caught Mildred's attention, and presently she slipped out of bed and padded across the room to run her fingers over the silky black fabric. They were the robes that she would wear to her graduation ceremony on Saturday, along with the mortarboard hanging beside them. It was hard to believe that she was soon to be leaving the academy, and that there had been a time, four years ago, when she didn't think that she would ever get to see the day when she walked onto the stage in those beautiful robes, reserved for this one occasion only. Graduation had always been Mildred's favourite day of the school year, and not simply because it was the last day of term and it meant that she would be going home for summer the next morning. Seeing the final-years going up to collect their certificates from Miss Cackle, listening to the head-girl's speech, catching Miss Hardbroom smiling genuinely from under the brim of her hat; they were all part and parcel of the Cackle's experience.

It suddenly struck Mildred as odd that on the day they were pronounced fully-qualified witches, they wore mortarboards instead of the traditional pointed hat, and the paradoxical nature of the situation made her laugh out loud. Hearing a noise outside her door, she thought that perhaps she had been laughing a little too loudly. There was a slight knock and then the door swung open to reveal Maud's face.

"Did you just hear something?" she asked, puzzled.

"I was laughing," said Mildred.

"No, it wasn't that. I thought it was a scream, but it cut off quickly." She paused, her mouth twitching slightly. "I thought it might be you, so I came to check, and then I heard you laughing so I guessed it couldn't have been you."

Mildred shrugged. Perhaps that was what had caused her to wake so suddenly. She turned her head on one side and looked at Maud's face, perfectly alert. She had obviously been awake for a long time prior to being disturbed by a possible scream.

"Can't sleep anyway?" she asked her friend, who shook her head in conformation and entered the room fully to perch cross-legged on the foot of the bed, causing Tabby's second protest. His grumbling ceased when Maud lifted him up onto her lap and he began to play with her fluffy slippers. "I can't believe we're nearly at the end, it seems to have flown by."

"Well, some parts have," said Maud, absently stroking Tabby's ears. "Double potions dragged sometimes. But just think, no more HB jumping out at us from the middle of nowhere anymore."

Both girls turned round quickly, as if expecting to see their form-mistress materialise in the doorway, but no such appearance occurred. Mildred found it amazing how they still managed to be caught out even after four years of surprises. One would think that they would have got used to it by now, but they were only just beginning to anticipate when she might appear.

"You never know," said Mildred, leaving the wardrobe and settling back onto her bed. "Just when we think she's gone for good, she'll burst out at me from nowhere in the middle of my flat at Weirdsister, just when I've said something nasty about her." Maud giggled. "But really, she isn't all bad. I think she's been more lenient with us this year."

"I think that might be more to do with the fact that we stopped playing up and let bygones be bygones."

In the wake of the terrifying events of the previous Autumn, when all of the final-year students had been thrown together, wondering if they would ever see the light of day again, it had been decided amongst them that a truce should be called. Whilst Ethel and Drusilla were never going to be as close friends to Mildred as Maud and Enid were, they felt that it was high time, with their graduation and their release into the adult world looming, to put the past behind them and act like the young women that they were supposed to be. The difference, Mildred noted, had been almost palpable, and she had even heard Miss Bat and Miss Drill remarking on it in corridors when they thought no-one was listening. Maud's voice pulled Mildred back to reality.

"Have you written your speech yet?" she asked, a playful glint in her eye. Mildred groaned and pulled the pillow over her head. Whilst the head-girl's speech had always been a traditional part of Cackle's graduation that she enjoyed, she was not looking forward to it this year, when she herself would be the orator. She had already decided that she would simply speak from the heart, show her true feelings and emotions at leaving the school that, despite all the slips, all the problems, all the various dangerous situations she had found herself in over the years, she loved as a second home, even with its draughts and leaks.

"I don't want to think about it yet," she said, muffled by the pillow.

"Mildred, graduation is Saturday evening. It's Thursday morning. When are you going to think about it?"

"Not now."

Mildred heard Maud sigh, and for a few moments she wondered what she was going to do without her best friend to organise her once they went their separate ways to magical colleges. Both girls had been accepted on scholarships to different establishments. Mildred was going to Weirdsister in Cambridge for creative spellwork. (Or 'fancy drawing' as a jealous Ethel sometimes remarked when she thought Mildred was out of earshot. Still, it marked some degree of progression, thought Mildred. The old Ethel would have said it to her face.) Maud was off to Avalon in London for transfiguration and transmogrification. Whilst her title might sound more impressive, Maud had joked, at least people could actually pronounce Mildred's. She thought for a few moments about the paths her other friends were taking. Jadu was going to study English at a non-magical college, with a view to becoming a journalist for Witchcraft Weekly. Ruby and Enid had both been accepted to continue studying magic at Primrose Hill, in the middle of the Yorkshire countryside. They were all going to such far flung corners of the country, and Mildred hoped sincerely that they would be able to keep in touch.

"What shall we do tomorrow... well, later today?" she asked, pointedly changing the subject. "What time is it, anyway?"

"Judging from the position of the light in the sky and the moon rising in Venus and swimming in Aquariums, I'd say ten past five."

Mildred raised an eyebrow.

"I'm serious! Ok, I'll admit, I checked my watch before I left my room, but still, it was a pretty convincing impression!"

It was Mildred's turn to sigh, and try to think of how she would occupy their day. Since the exams were over and the results posted, the fourth-years had a virtually free reign to do as they pleased in their final few days at the school, as long as they didn't disturb the teaching of the other classes, the penalty for which, a stern-faced Miss Hardbroom had told them, was to sit in with the first years for the rest of the week until Saturday. Naturally, the school had been church-quiet for the first three days of the week, but now Mildred was itching to do something more constructive than laze around by the pond, reading and reminiscing.

"We haven't been to Cosie's for a while," she said absent-mindedly. "In fact, we haven't been anywhere with chocolate fudge cake for a while."

"What you mean is, we haven't been to the bookshop for a while." Mildred grinned sheepishly as her friend found her out, but it was true. With the preparations for their final exams and coursework, the girls had been kept on a very tight leash, and there had been no town visits for the final-years for the past three months. Mildred was beginning to feel slightly guilty that the friendship that they had struck up with Della Spinder, cousin of Ethel and one-time magical Liaison, had been ignored in recent weeks, but it had been unavoidable. Now that it was permissible, Mildred felt they ought to pay her a visit.

"Just think of all that fudge cake going uneaten because we haven't been there!" said Mildred. "We have to go!"

"I never said we shouldn't," said Maud levelly. "I was merely pointing out that your subtle hints were not very subtle."

"Excellent, a trip to Spinder's it is then. What about the others?"

"I think Jadu said something about showing next year's head-girl and deputy the ropes. Ruby's volunteered to fix Mr Blossom's aunt's toaster, but I think Enid will be up to it."

"Will Della be up to Enid, though?"

Both girls laughed as they remembered the last time they had been to the bookshop with their mischievous friend, and a rather shellshocked Della had ended up with frogspawn growing from the ceiling of her shop.

"Failing all that, I'm sure Miss Bat wouldn't mind." This sparked another peal of laughter, and neither girl noticed the faint flash of purple light in the early morning sun outside, nor the momentary chill that blew into the room and caused Tabby's fur to stand on end, occasioning a small growl.

"I should probably go back to bed," said Maud with a yawn, rising from the end of Mildred's bed and making for the door. She paused. "Are you sure you didn't hear a scream?"

Mildred nodded, although she wasn't completely positive. If only she could remember her dream... Maud shrugged and opened the door.

"See you later."

"Yep."

Mildred turned over and allowed Tabby to pad up the bed and snuggle into the covers with her, holding him tightly and wondering if she would be allowed to keep him with her at Weirdsister. If it was a college for witches, surely their familiars were welcome too?

Mildred was still pondering this as she fell asleep in the early dawn light. She didn't notice the raven that had been circling silently outside her window for the past few minutes. She didn't notice when it came in to land softly on her windowsill in the crack where the shutters did not quite meet. It cast a glance round the room, seeming to take everything in with the perception of a human, its silver eyes shimmering in the rising light, and occasionally, when the shadows fell in a certain way, flickering red.

Mildred didn't notice the strange quality of its wings as it spread them out, the feathers so fine and thin they were almost like leaves of jet-black tissue paper. She didn't notice as it floated into the room on the breeze to land gently on the floor, making no noise. Tabby got off the bed, his heightened senses alerted by something, and he sniffed around the floor, looking for the bird that he thought he had smelled, not that he could do much with it should he have the opportunity to pounce.

Mildred didn't notice that the eerie, silent raven that had visited her was no longer a raven, but an envelope of a material not so very unlike feathers in a deep ebony colour, with shining silver ink beginning to bleed through, dancing over the paper and forming into a haunting, elegant cursive. Was it writing a name? An address? A message?

The ink stopped moving once two complete words had been formed. When Mildred found the envelope on her bedroom floor when she woke a few hours later, she could not understand them, and, putting the envelope in her bag, she carried the words in her head like a mantra as she tried to divine their possible meaning.

Caram Pandora.

Note3: *Kimmeth digs out her pointy stick from under her bed, dusts it off with her sleeve, and waves it at the review button.*