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Episode Two
The Friendship Isolation

Published 11/5/2014

"I must say, Leonard," Sheldon remarked as he, Raj and Howard set up the board for another game of Life: Mystic Warlords of Ka'a edition. "Normally, I find the games you purchase boring, derivative or lackluster. Much like your research. But this one has turned out to be quite interesting."

Leonard sighed and smiled patiently, ignoring the condescension as much as possible. "Always nice to get a compliment from you, Sheldon."

"It is really interesting," Raj concurred. "Much more so than Klingon Bridge or that Vanilla Ice Rap game."

"You didn't like it because I was better at it than you," Leonard complained.

"Because rhyming stupid lyrics to a stolen 'Killer Queen' beat is something no one else on the planet can do like you," Howard said sarcastically, then went into an imitation of Leonard rapping Vanilla Ice lyrics to a Queen beat

"If there was a problem, Yo — I'll solve it!
Check out the hook while DJ revolves it.
Oh mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go!"

"Nice!" Raj said admiringly. "Howard's in the groove, dude!" Howard, who'd done it to mock Leonard, just stared at him, then went back to setting up the bank.

"Hey," Raj said. "How come you always get to be the banker?"

Howard smirked at him. "Well, is anyone else here Jewish?"

"Howard, you know that's racist," Leonard said, shuffling the Ka'a deck. "Let Raj be the banker if he wants to."

"Oh, all right," Howard conceded, handing the gold cards to Raj. "But just remember who to come to if you need a ruby dagger or sword of sharpness below retail."

"I'll begin," Sheldon said, placing his chariot on the Start Career space. He drew a Career card from the deck. "Oh drat," he said, disappointed. "I got the Priest card again. I got that one last time. Do-over, do-over!"

"Sheldon," Leonard pointed out. "You got Priest card last time because you called a do-over. And you were happy with it that time! Just keep it and draw a Loot card."

"All right," Sheldon muttered, disgruntled. "But I warn you, I'm beginning to rethink my opinion of you regarding this game." He drew a Loot card and a smile came over his face. "Five thousand," he said, putting the cards down in front of him. "I believe that's the highest Loot card in the deck."

"Congratulations, Sheldon," Howard said, mocking him. "You're a regular Croseus."

Raj's turn was next. He drew a Career card. "Oh, no!" he moaned. "I got the Water Sprite! The Water Sprite sucks! The Water Sprite is like the Aquaman of Mystic Warlords of Ka'a!"

"Look on the bright side, Raj," Leonard suggested.

"What bright side?" Raj muttered, annoyed.

"At least you didn't get the Enchanted Bunny."

"I'd rather be a bunny than a stupid water sprite," Raj grumbled. He drew a Loot card. His whole demeanor changed. "Oh, look! I got the IRS card! Nice!" The IRS card allowed the player holding it to collect half of each of the other player's gold when they landed on a Collect Loot space.

"Your turn, Leonard," Howard said.

"Okay," Leonard said, reaching for a career card. His phone beeped. "Uh-oh—hang on," he said, taking it out and reading the text message he'd just gotten. "Hmm," he said. "Penny's got a question about her, um, training manual."

Howard slumped in defeat. "Oh, come on! Can't we for once just have an evening together without your fiancée calling you over for a quickie on the pretext of—" he made air quotes as he said, "—'training?' What are you two training for—the Kama Sutra Olympics. Or maybe that would have been you and Priya…"

"Don't bring my sister into this!" Raj protested. "It's bad enough Leonard defiled her!"

"You mean the way you're currently defiling Emily?" Howard smiled.

"Our love is a wonderful, beautiful thing," Raj insisted.

"So is your Celestron telescope but I'll bet you don't want to kiss that," Howard snarked.

"Come on, Howard, lay off," Leonard said, putting his phone away and standing. "I better go over and see what she needs. This is Penny's first real job and she wants to be good at it."

"Right," Howard said, with a snarky grin. "Spending all day wearing low-cut blouses and flirting with handsome, sexy doctors? I'll bet she knocks 'em dead."

"Sorry, guys," Leonard said, walking to the apartment door. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He left the apartment, but leaned back inside a moment later. "Um, don't wait up for me," he said, and disappeared again.

"Well," Sheldon shrugged. "That's it for the Game of Life: Mystic Warlords of Ka'a Edition for tonight, I'm afraid."

"We can still play without Leonard," Howard pointed out.

"I'm afraid not," Sheldon disagreed. "It's Leonard's game, and he did not grant us permission to play in his absence."

"Oh, come on, Sheldon!" Raj exclaimed. "Leonard won't mind! Besides, since he hadn't picked any cards yet, technically he wasn't a player when he left the apartment, but was implicitly giving us permission to play the game while he watched. We should at least be able to finish this game. For him," Raj added, respectfully.

Sheldon looked thoughtful for several seconds. "I suppose," he said at length. "It will give me a chance to beat you twice in a row. That'll be fun."

"It's always fun losing to you, Sheldon," Howard said. "You always make it an experience to remember."

Sheldon turned a condescending eye toward him. "I do believe that's sarcasm, Howard. But I'm so looking forward to mopping the floor with you and Raj that I believe I can ignore it this time."

-=o=-

Penny looked up as Leonard opened her door and leaned inside. "Hi, come on in!" she said excitedly, motioning for him to join her.

"What's up?" Leonard asked, sitting beside her. The book she was holding was not one of her pharmaceutical manuals, but the book her grandfather Maurice had given her almost a week earlier, when Penny became a witch.

"I think I'm starting to get the hang of this stuff," Penny said eagerly. "I've been reading up on some simple witchcraft abilities and doing some practicing. Watch!" She nodded at an empty wine glass sitting on the coffee table. Next to it was a bottle of white wine. Penny made a pouring motion with her hand. The wine bottle lifted in the air, tipped and poured wine into the glass, then settled back onto the coffee table. Penny pointed at the wine glass and it lifted into the air and floated over to Leonard, who reached out and took it gingerly.

"That's amazing!" Leonard said, impressed.

"I know!" Penny agreed. "I can't believe all of the stuff I can do now!"

"Yes," Leonard nodded. Then, "Like-like what stuff, exactly?"

Penny grinned. "Watch this," she said, then gestured at herself. She had been wearing pink sweats and a white tank top. Suddenly she was dressed in a black, low-cut cocktail dress. "How about a night on the town, sailor?" she said in a husky voice.

"Um," Leonard said, not sure how to respond. "That's…amazing…" he said, a little more uncertainly this time. This wasn't quite what he'd expected when they'd found out Penny was going to learn magic.

Penny seemed to sense his anxiety. "We don't have to go out," she said quickly. "How about a nice dinner?" She gestured at the coffee table. A bowl of spaghetti covered in steaming marinara sauce appeared in front of them. "Voilà! Spaghetti! Oh wait! I forgot the hot dogs!" she said, then snapped her fingers over the bowl. Pieces of cut-up wieners appeared with the spaghetti.

Leonard reached out and picked up a piece of wiener. It was hot and covered in marinara. He took a bite of it. It tasted delicious. But —

"You can just make food out of — nothing?" he asked, looking at her. "I thought that was impossible."

"No, no," she said with a casual shrug. "I think you told me they couldn't do that in the Harry Potter stories, but that's just made-up magic. This is real."

"Yeah," Leonard said. "Wow…"

"What's the matter?" Penny asked. Leonard didn't seem very happy with what she'd been able to accomplish in just a few days. "Don't you think this is cool?"

"Of course I think it's cool," Leonard said quickly, not wanting to appear unsupportive. "It's just a bit—overwhelming, I guess." She gave him an inquiring look. "Well, I-I-I mean, it's just, a week ago you were worried about working at your new job being a pharmaceutical rep. But you've this book now, and—"

"And now what?" Penny was giving him a dark look. "I'm still going through the training manuals, Leonard," she said, pointing at her stack of training manuals at the other end of the sofa. "In fact, I've already reading them."

Leonard did a double take. "You read all of those?" He asked, pointing at the manuals. It was pretty big stack.

"Yeah," Penny said, carelessly. "It was no big deal."

Leonard shook his head doubtfully. "Penny, I've seen you take a week to read an article in Cosmopolitan."

"You don't believe me?" Penny snapped. "Okay, listen to this: 'the mechanism of action of sildenafil involves the protection of cyclic guanosine monophosphate from degradation by cGMP-specific phosphodiesterase type 5 in the corpus cavernosum,'" She recited, gave him a challenging look. "How about that?"

"Do you even know what that means?" Leonard asked her. "Because I'm not sure I do!"

"It means, Viagra makes your penis hard," Penny said.

"Okay, I get it," Leonard said, giving in. "You've been able to learn magic and work on your new job. I guess I'm just not sure where we go from here."

"I don't know either," Penny said, throwing up her hands. "It's not like I expected my warlock grandfather to show up out of nowhere and turn me into a witch! I'm just trying to do the best I can with what I've got. Although I have to admit," she added candidly, "things are a hell of a lot better now than when I was working at the Cheesecake Factory. I have a job, a new company car, I'm making money…" she smiled happily.

"And you have a fiancé," Leonard added, after a second.

"That, too!" she quickly agreed. Leonard sighed. "Oh come on, Leonard!" she said, exasperated. "What do you want me to say? I'm happy to have you in my life, too!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Leonard apologized.

Penny shook her head. "This would be a lot easier if I could just talk to Amy or Bernadette about it."

"Maybe," Leonard agreed. "But Maurice warned you not to do that."

"I know," she moaned. "It's so unfair! They know so much more about stuff than I do!"

"I suppose," Leonard said. He eyed the stack of training manuals that Penny had read in the space of a few days. "That could change, though…

"Just be careful," he suggested, seriously. He pointed at The Book of Magic. "You need to take things a little more slowly. Don't be afraid to walk before you run."

"All right, Leonard," Penny said, and smiled. "I almost forgot how smart you were." She leaned forward and kissed him. "Now, are you ready for some dinner?"

"Sure," Leonard smiled too, then glanced at the bowl of spaghetti. "Can I make a suggestion about what to have?"

"Sure," Penny said. "What do you want? Thai? A steak? A no-cheese pizza?"

"Well, I was actually thinking about some fried chicken and a salad," Leonard said. "You know, like—like Sheldon's mom makes?"

"Okay," Penny said. She gestured at the bowl of spaghetti, which disappeared, then was replaced by a plate of fried chicken and a bowl of lettuce, chopped onions and carrots. "There you go!"

"It smells delicious," Leonard said, beaming as he inhaled the aroma of the chicken. "I could get used to this witch thing."

-=o=-

Amy waved, attracting Penny's attention as she entered the restaurant where they usually met for lunch once a week or so. "Bernadette didn't come with you?" she asked, as Penny sat down across from her.

"Too busy, she said," Penny told her.

"That's okay, bestie," Amy said, with her usual quirky smile. "We let her come along often enough, we don't have to throw her that bone every time."

"Right, right," Penny said, smiling at Amy's attitude. Amy always considered Bernadette the "odd girl out" in their little social circle, even though Penny had known her for some time before Amy met either of them. "So how are things going at the university?"

"Well," Amy said, "you see one rat brain under a microscope, you've seen them all, so…" she gave a plaintive shrug. "How's the new job?"

"Fine," Penny said in turn. "I'm still in training this week, so there's not much to tell."

"How's reading the training manuals coming along?" Amy asked.

"Oh, I finished them a couple of days ago," Penny said without thinking.

"Really?" Amy looked surprised. "All four of them? Wow, you must've really burned the midnight oil to do that. Must not have left much time for any hanky-panky with Leonard," she said with a smirk.

"Oh, well…" Penny shrugged off the comment. "I guess—um, can someone take our drink orders here?" she asked, looking around for a server.

-=o=-

Later, after their drinks had arrived and their orders taken, Penny was feeling more relaxed with a little wine in her. "Do you have any regrets giving up your acting career?" Amy asked, sipping on her glass of ice water.

"I'm not sure I've really given it up," Penny said, thoughtfully. "I mean, it's on hold now, but that doesn't mean I couldn't try it again someday."

"Really?" Amy's expression was skeptical. "How long were you an actress?"

Penny thought for a moment. "About ten years," she said.

"And how many acting jobs did you get during that time?"

"Well," Penny cleared her throat; she didn't exactly care for questions like this, they pointed out her overall failure to achieve anything spectacular, acting-wise. "Let's see. I did a one-night showcase of the musical Rent," she said, holding up a finger. "And that hemorrhoid commercial. I played Blanche in my acting class's production of A Streetcar Named Desire."

"I thought you did very well in that," Amy said, sincerely.

"Thanks," Penny smiled. She stared at Amy a long moment. It was true she'd been warned not to tell anyone except Leonard about her magic, but she was positively bursting to let someone else in on the secret. Amy had been her "bestie" for a few years now. It wasn't like they were engaged or anything, of course, but … given Amy's rather weird (and a bit creepy) fascination with her, maybe, just maybe, it would be okay. "Listen, there's something I want to tell you."

"What is it?" Amy asked, interested.

"But you have to promise not to tell anyone," Penny went on, warningly. "And I mean nobody. Not even Sheldon."

"Not even Sheldon?" Amy sat up straighter. "This sounds intriguing. Why not Sheldon? Aren't boyfriends and girlfriends normally considered exempt from the constraints of secret-telling?"

"Not in this case," Penny said firmly. "I really mean it. You know Sheldon can't keep a secret, and this is really, really important? Promise?"

"I promise," Amy nodded in agreement.

Penny held up her hand, little finger extended. "Pinky swear?"

"A pinky swear?" Amy looked awestruck. "This must really be some secret," she breathed. She held up her own hand and they crossed fingers and shook. "Okay, give it," she whispered, leaning forward eagerly. "You're about to confess your secret love for me?"

"What?" Penny exclaimed, not sure she'd heard correctly.

"Never mind," Amy said quickly. "What is it?"

Penny leaned forward as well. "I'm a witch," she whispered.

"A what?" Amy shook her head, not understanding. What did Penny mean?

"A witch," Penny repeated. "I'm a witch. I can do magic."

Amy sat back, looking confused. "I don't understand."

"I'm a witch," Penny said again. "A real, spell casting, witch. I found out about a week ago. My dad's father came to me and told me that I'm a witch, but that my powers had never developed because I had something called Latent Magic Syndrome. He and a witch doctor named Dr. Bombay examined me and gave me a potion that gave me magical powers. I've been practicing with them for the past week."

Amy sat stock-still for several seconds. Then she reached for her purse. "I'm not sure what this is about," she said with a quivering voice. "But if this is your idea of a joke, it's not very funny. Tell our server I don't want my lunch." She started to stand.

"Wait a minute, Amy," Penny put out a hand, stopping her from standing. "I can prove it to you. We both ordered chef's salads, remember? Watch." Penny snapped her fingers over the table and two chef's salads appeared in front of them. Amy stared down in shock at the food that had just appeared in front of her.

At that moment their waiter appeared, carrying their meals. "Here we are," he said, "Two chef's—" he stopped, staring at the salads already on the table. "Oh. I guess someone already brought your meals out. Sorry," he said, retreating back to the kitchen.

"Oops," Penny said, smiling wryly. Amy was still staring at the bowl of salad in front of her. "I guess that was poor timing on my part."

Amy looked up at her. "I'm sorry," she said, in a neutral but slightly annoyed tone. "Who are you and why are you sitting at my table?"

"What?" Penny said. "Oh come on, Amy, don't be like that."

"And how do you know my name?" Amy asked. "Have we met?"

"Of course we've met!" Penny said, annoyed herself now. "We've known each other for years! You're my bestie, remember?"

Amy shook her head slowly. "I've never seen you before today," she said.

Penny frowned. "Well, that's just crazy," she snapped. "Why are you being so stubborn about this?" Amy just stared at her. "Well?" Penny demanded.

But Amy didn't answer. In fact, she didn't move at all. It was like she was frozen in place. A few seconds later Penny looked around, realizing everyone was like that. The entire restaurant was immobile. There were people in mid-bite; she even saw a waiter pouring water into a customer's glass—the water itself was frozen! What was going on?

"Well, well, well," another voice suddenly spoke. Penny turned to the spot opposite Amy, where an older woman had suddenly appeared at their table. "Already in trouble, I see."

The woman looked to be in her mid-50's , with upswept red hair, quite fashionably dressed. She was giving Penny a condescending smirk. "Don't you remember what Maurice told you about telling mortals what you were?"

"Who are you?" Penny asked her. "How do you know Maurice?"

"You may call me Endora," the woman said, with an airy wave of a gloved hand. "I am married, loosely speaking, to Maurice. He told me not long ago about you becoming one of us, and asked me to keep an eye on you in case you needed some help. It's been less than a week and here we are already."

"You're Maurice's wife?" Penny asked.

"Yes, as I just explained," the woman said, looking bored.

"So you're my grandma?" Penny said, with a sudden smile.

"Oh, hardly," Endora said, as if the idea was distasteful. "Even my own granddaughter calls me Endora these days. But she's been around quite a few more years than you have, my dear."

"So what's going on here?" Penny wanted to know. "Why doesn't my friend Amy here recognize me now? Did I cast some kind of spell on her and not realize it, or what?"

"It's a little more complicated than that," Endora said. "Sometime after my daughter's unfortunate marriage to a mortal, the Witches Council decided to cast a spell that would make it more difficult for any of us to tell random mortals about our existence. If you tell any mortal who is not truly a friend of yours, capable of keeping your secret, that mortal will forget everything about you, permanently." She gestured at Amy. "That is why this person no longer remembers you."

"But that can't be right!" Penny objected, stunned. "Amy and I are friends! We've known each other for years! She calls me her bestie all the time!"

"I'm sorry, my dear," Endora shook her head. "But that's apparently not true. If this person were truly your friend, the enchantment would not have made her forget you."

"Oh my God," Penny whispered, looking horrified. "So she doesn't remember anything about me at all?"

"Nothing," Endora agreed. "You are a complete stranger to her now."

"Wow," Penny muttered. "How am I going to explain this to all my other friends?" She looked at Endora. "Isn't there something you can do?"

"Not really," Endora said, with a shrug. A sly smile suddenly crossed her lips. "But, I suppose I could bring this up to the Witches Council—perhaps they will make an exception for you, since you've just become a witch and weren't familiar with the restriction."

"I would really, really appreciate if you did," Penny said hopefully. "Grandma," she added, trying out that word on the woman.

Endora shuddered and gave her a shocked look, then sniffed haughtily. "Very well," she said. "But only if you call me 'Endora' from now on! 'Grandma,' indeed!" She looked positively aghast at the idea.

"Deal," Penny said, wanting to stay on the witch's good side. Assuming there was one.

"Now let's be on our way," Endora said, taking Penny's arm as she got to her feet. "There's no use you staying here now."

"What about the rest of these people?" Penny asked as she grabbed her purse and stood. "What happened to them?"

"Oh, just a little time stop so we could talk uninterrupted," Endora said. "I'll take care of it when I leave. And I'll let you know what the Witches Council decides when I find out." She looked expectantly at Penny.

"Um, okay," Penny said. She looked around. "Uh, should I leave?" she asked, pointing toward the door.

"Haven't you learned to pop out yet?" Endora asked.

"Uh, no."

"Very well, then," Endora said, frowning. "I'll drop you off." She snapped her fingers and she and Penny disappeared.

The people in the restaurant began moving again, including Amy, who looked around for a moment for the woman who'd been sitting at the table with her. "If I were going to imagine someone having lunch with me," she muttered to herself, "I think I'd at least picked an imaginary person I know, like Armand." She resumed eating her salad.

-=o=-

Later that afternoon, Leonard and Sheldon returned to their apartment building and entered the lobby. "And another thing," Sheldon said abruptly, as Leonard started up the stairs.

Leonard stopped, sighed, and turned back to face Sheldon. "What now?" he asked, his voice tight with restraint. Sheldon had been droning on and on in the car on the way home and Leonard wanted nothing more than to go to his room for some peace and quiet for a while. A long while.

"I've been thinking about the dark matter ratios in the universe," Sheldon continued. "The observable universe is supposed to contain 26.8 percent dark matter, and therefore the entire universe is around 84.5 percent."

"I remember reading that," Leonard nodded. "What's your point?"

The two of them started walking up the stairs. "I've been doing some calculations," Sheldon said. "I think those numbers are incorrect."

"Those are the best estimates we have," Leonard argued. "They agree with all of the current models."

"Not with my models," Sheldon disagreed. "My calculations put the current ratio of dark matter in the universe at 88.7 percent."

"Interesting," Leonard said. "Why haven't you Tweeted that yet?" he asked, snarkily, as they passed Mrs. Gunderson's potted plant on the third floor.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Leonard," Sheldon snorted. "I'm not giving away important data like that to any Tom, Dick or Harry with a Twitter account."

"Ah," Leonard nodded wisely. "Good idea. I look forward to reading your paper on the subject."

"Sorry," Sheldon shook his head. "This is on a strictly need-to-know basis. And Leonard, you don't need to know."

Leonard threw Sheldon a peeved look, but at that moment his phone beeped. He took it out and read the text. "Penny wants to talk to me when I get home," he said, as they started up the stairs to the fourth floor.

"Of course she does," Sheldon said. They continued trudging up the stairs. "Sometimes I deplore the ease with which people can intrude in our lives with their banal trivialities. They text and twitter meaningless jibber-jabber all the time, wasting my precious time and brain power, instead of saying some worthy of reading."

"You tweet all the time," Leonard pointed out.

"That's my point," Sheldon said, exasperated. "People should just wait for my tweets. Now those are worth reading." They stopped at the top of the stairs, on the fourth floor.

"Don't forget," Sheldon reminded him. "Raj, Howard, Bernadette and Amy are coming over later for Thai food. Siam Palace, as usual. We're planning on having dinner at six p.m., so try not to get so involved in your mating rituals that you lose track of time."

"I won't forget," Leonard said. "In fact, Penny's going with me this time," he added as he began walking toward her door.

Sheldon spun around, eyeing Leonard closely. "Wait, waitWhy is she going? I sense monkey business afoot!"

"No monkey business, Sheldon," Leonard assured him. He hesitated a bare moment. "Well, she did suggest a new Thai place over on Colorado Boulevard…"

"I knew it!" Sheldon moaned, shaking his head despairingly. "If you two keep trying to make your own decisions now, it's going to be impossible living with you after you're married!"

"Never mind," Leonard said, giving up. "Siam Palace it is. I'll see you at six."

"Alright," Sheldon said, but he gave Leonard a last suspicious glance before going into their apartment, muttering, "Boy, you gotta keep right on top of them or—pow! They start living like hippies…"

Leonard shook his head and knocked on Penny's door. She opened it almost immediately. "Hi," she said hurriedly. "Come on in." She grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.

Penny practically dragged him over to the couch. Leonard was beginning to hope she was in a sexy mood—despite Sheldon's warning he wouldn't say no to a quickie before they went for Thai. But Penny wasn't in that kind of mood.

"I think I've got a big problem," she said. Leonard leaned closer, listening intently. "I told Amy at lunch about me being a witch."

"Uh-oh," Leonard knew something bad was coming. "What happened?"

"She completely forgot who I am," Penny said. "I mean, everything. And then everyone in the restaurant froze and Endora showed up and—"

"Wait a minute," Leonard cut in. "Who's Endora?"

"She's Maurice's wife," Penny said. "And if you thought he was scary—woo!" Penny shook her head emphatically. "That woman is a WITCH with a capital W!"

"Gossip is so unbecoming," a woman's disembodied voice spoke in the air around them. Leonard looked around, trying to find its source.

"Aw, crap," Penny said. "I forgot."

"Forgot what?" Leonard asked warily.

"They can sometimes hear us when we're talking," Penny said. She looked up toward the ceiling. "Endora, if you're here you might as well appear and meet Leonard."

Endora was suddenly standing behind the couch. Leonard jumped violently.

"So this is your fiancé," Endora said, in an appraising tone that left Leonard feeling uneasy, as if he was being evaluated and coming up lacking.

"How-how do you do, ma'am," he said, still leaning away as if afraid.

"Don't worry, dear boy," she said to him, her tone pleasant but sarcastic. "I don't bite very hard."

"You—you must be Endora," Leonard said, standing and offering his hand. "It's very nice to meet you."

Endora didn't extend her hand. "You'll excuse me, I'm sure," she said. "I just had my nails done." Leonard blinked, then let his hand drop and sat down next to Penny again.

"Any word on whether the Witches Council can fix things?" Penny asked anxiously.

"They're debating it," Endora said, unconcerned. "Patience, my dear—it shouldn't take them more than three or four days to figure it out."

"We've got to go get dinner," Leonard reminded Penny. "Everyone's going to be over at our apartment in an hour."

"Can't you hurry them up?" Penny asked Endora pleadingly. "Nobody's going to understand if Amy doesn't remember me! They're going to start asking questions I can't answer without explaining I'm a witch! I'd think the Witches Council would want to avoid something like this, it's more likely to expose us as witches than not!"

"Not if everyone forgets who you are," Endora explained, smiling.

"But that's going to create a lot more problems than it solves," Leonard said. "If all my friends suddenly forget who Penny is, people are going to start asking questions and trying to figure out what's going on. Soon it'll become so widespread that somebody's bound to figure it out!"

Endora's expression turned glum. "I suppose you're right," she said in a flat, bored tone. "I'll point that out to the Council. In the meantime," she said to Penny, "you should stall as long as you can before going over there. In fact, perhaps you should just stay in this dreary little apartment of yours. Your fiancé Lonny here can tell everyone you're sick. Perhaps with the plague…" Before Penny could reply she disappeared.

"Well, that was interesting," Leonard said, bemused. "She sort of reminded me of my mother, if my mother actually had a personality."

"Let's not worry about your mother," Penny snapped. "What are we going to do?"

"Well, it's not that bad an idea for you to just stay here," Leonard suggested. "I can say you caught a cold at work today and don't want to give it to anyone. I'm sure Sheldon will appreciate that," he grinned.

"Fine," Penny shrugged. "I'll just stay here."

Leonard leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, stood and started toward the door. "Do you want me to bring you something back?" he asked.

"No," Penny said. "I'll just whip something up for myself." Leonard nodded and left. Penny gestured at the coffee table and several cartons of food appeared in front of her, along with a chilled bottle of sauvignon blanc and a wine glass. "Nice!" she said, picking up a carton of noodles and inhaling their aroma. She picked up a fork and began to eat.

The apartment door opened suddenly and Leonard entered. "Hang on a second," he said, as Penny stopped with a forkful of noodles halfway to her mouth. "What do you mean Amy won't remember you? How could that happen?" He looked at the carton in her hand. "And where did all this food come from?!" He sat down and picked up a carton. "Mee Crob Chicken?" He sniffed. "And it smells just like Sheldon likes it! You can do stuff like this?"

"You saw me make spaghetti the other night," Penny pointed out.

"Yes, but, but that was just spaghetti," Leonard said.

"With little pieces of hot dog cut up in it," Penny reminded him.

"But this—" Leonard looked at the cartons of food, each of them a different dish. "This is really amazing!" Penny smiled, proud of herself.

Leonard suddenly held up his hands. "Wait. Wait. Back to what we were talking about. Why, exactly, doesn't Amy remember who you are?"

Penny set down her carton. "You remember Maurice warned me about telling other people about my witchcraft," she said. Leonard nodded. "Well, it turns out there's an enchantment that if you tell someone about it who's not really your friend, they will forget everything about you."

"But you've known Amy for years," Leonard said.

"I know!" Penny agreed loudly. "Why would they do something like that?!"

"So…" Leonard was working through things in his head. "Does this mean that Amy is not really your friend?"

Penny blanched and looked at him. "I don't know," she said, helplessly. "I guess not. Or, I don't know, maybe there's something that's keeping us from really becoming friends."

"Because of her?" Leonard pondered. "Or because of … you?"

Penny stared at him a long moment. "Why would you say that?" she finally asked. "I don't have any trouble making friends."

"You don't have any trouble talking to people," Leonard said. "You'll talk to anyone, anywhere. You told me you once got a whole busload of people to have a sing-along with you, because you were bored."

"Oh, yeah," Penny chuckled. "That's right. 'Naughty Girl'… that was fun," she remembered.

"My point," Leonard pressed on, "is there's a difference between talking to someone and being their friend."

"But Amy says we're best friends," Penny pointed out. "She calls me her bestie all the time."

"Right, and her boyfriend is Sheldon Cooper," Leonard added. "So maybe some of this is on her, too. You told me a few years ago she didn't want you to move back to Nebraska because it would affect her popularity."

"Maybe," Penny agreed, thinking about it. "It seems like she's tried to wedge herself between Bernadette and me. I've known Bernadette longer, since we started working at the Cheesecake Factory together. It's kind of hard to imagine I've known her all this time and we haven't really been friends."

"I don't know about that," Leonard said quietly. "It seems like you, Bernadette and Amy are friends. We don't know how the magic that affected her decided to erase her memories of you, if that's what happened."

"How could that not be what happened?" Penny asked. "One minute we were talking, the next minute she didn't have a clue who I was!" She looked around the room. "Maybe that book Maurice gave me has something about it in there. Book of Magic," she said, holding out her hands. "Come here."

The book appeared in her hands. She put it on her lap and opened it, flipping through the pages. "I don't know," she said, slamming it shut a minute later. "I can't find anything."

"I can look through it sometime," Leonard suggested. "Maybe I can find something that'll explain things." He glanced at his watch. "I should probably head out to get the food," he said. "Everyone will be here in less than 45 minutes."

Penny looked thoughtful. "Or," she said, "you could spend that time helping me with this book, then I could whip up dinner for everyone."

Leonard smiled at her. "Are you sure that's how you'd like to spend the next 45 minutes?"

"You got a better idea?" Penny asked, seductively.

"Maybe," Leonard replied, moving closer to her. "I could work a little of my special magic on you."

"Mmmm," Penny purred. Leonard leaned forward, lips pursed, and she picked up the book and pushed it into his hands. "Book now, magic later," she suggested. "Tonight."

Leonard looked at her, then at the Book of Magic in his hands. "Well, all right," he said, cracking the book open. "But you owe me."

-=o=-

"Hello, Amy," Sheldon said, opening the door for her.

"Hello, Sheldon," she said, stepping into the apartment. "Thank you for inviting me to dinner tonight."

"Of course, Amy," Sheldon said, smiling at her. "Please come in and make yourself comfortable."

"Thank you," Amy said again. "By the way, although technically this is a date, it does not count as a Date Night, since on a date night the size of our group is limited to four, including another couple if we're on a double date."

"Aww." Sheldon looked disappointed. He looked around. "Raj, looks like you've got to go."

"What?" Raj looked up, surprised. "Really? Are you joking?"

"Why would I be joking?" Sheldon said, then paused. "Bazinga," he said, smiling broadly. "Of course I'm joking. Mostly."

"Sheldon, while I normally think your jokes are classic," Amy said. "In this case that one seemed in rather poor taste."

"I see I'm going to have to make some changes to the Relationship Agreement vis-à-vis your acceptance of my unique and charming style of humor," he said, as Amy sat down in the plush chair next to the sofa.

"You know," Sheldon said, walking back to his spot on the couch. "Amy, your arrival as the fifth person of our social group has reminded me of some interesting factoids. Would anyone like to hear?" A murmur of low groans and moans wafted across the room. Sheldon looked around. "I heard yes," he said. "Alright, then.

"Five is a prime number," Sheldon began. "And because it can be written in the form of two to the two to the first power, plus one, it is also a Fermat prime, and therefore a pentagram is a constructible regular polygon.

"There are five exceptional Lie groups," Sheldon went on. "Five Lagrange points in a two-body gravitational system, five circles in the Olympic symbol, and five hand positions in the game of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock."

"Very interesting, Sheldon," Howard said. He raised his hand. "Gimme five!"

Sheldon stared at him. "Five what? Oh, I see, you're employing a cultural paradigm to congratulate me for my knowledge of the number five, that also uses the word 'five.' Very good, Howard, especially for someone who went to MIT and still doesn't possess a single doctorate." Howard sighed and lowered his hand.

Bernadette looked toward the door. "I wonder when Leonard's getting here with the food," she asked, trying to distract everyone, Sheldon included.

It worked. "I reminded him that dinner would be at six p.m.," Sheldon said. "It's 5:55 now. That time leaves him only five minutes to return here on time. Incidentally, he promised he wouldn't dawdle at Penny's."

Amy gave him a quizzical look. "Why would Leonard go all the way to Glendale for our food?" she asked.

"He wouldn't," Sheldon said. "He's going to Siam Palace."

"Then why did you say he was going to Penny's?" Amy asked. "The closest J.C. Penny's is in the Glendale Galleria."

"Amy," Bernadette turned and pointed toward the door. "He obviously meant Penny, across the hallway."

"What Penny are you talking about?" Amy asked. "I don't know a Penny across the hall."

The others looked at each other in confusion. "Of course you do, Amy," Sheldon said. "You've known her for three years now. There used to be a large picture of the two of you hanging in her apartment, which you had painted for her."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sheldon," Amy said.

"Did you two have a fight?" Bernadette asked. "Are you mad at her?"

"I don't know who she is," Amy insisted. "Why do you all keep saying I know someone named Penny?"

Raj stood. "Alright," he said. "I'll get to the bottom of this. Penny will talk to me about it. I know about these sorts of things," he added knowingly.

"Maybe I should go with him," Bernadette suggested to Howard.

"Nah," Howard said. "Let the girls talk it out."

Raj shook his head, annoyed, and started toward the door.

"Alright, then," Sheldon said as Raj walked to the door. "And if Leonard's still over there, you tell those hens to stop clucking and for him to get a move on and get us our dinner."

Raj marched across the hall and knocked on 4B. "Who is it?" Penny's voice said, after a few seconds pause. "It's Raj," he said. "Can I talk to you?"

"Hang on." There were some unidentifiable sounds from inside the apartment, like someone was moving around in a hurry. Raj put his ear to the door to listen better, but all he could hear by then were footsteps moving toward the door. He stood up quickly as the door flew open. "Hi," Penny said, a bit breathlessly. "What's going on?"

"Penny, Penny, Penny," Raj said, shaking his head. "Have you been fighting with Amy? She's pretending she doesn't know who you are."

"Er—well, yeah, that's it," Penny agreed. "It's just a silly disagreement," she said quickly. "I'm sure we'll get over it soon enough."

"Well, I hope it's quickly," Raj said, sauntering into the apartment. He looked around for Leonard. "By the way," he asked. "Did Leonard head over to Siam Palace—" he caught sight of the cartons of food still on the coffee table. "What? Did you eat already?"

"No, no," Penny said. "That—" she pointed at the cartons. "That was from yesterday."

"You ate Thai yesterday?" Raj said, confused. "I thought Mondays were Thai takeout day."

"Well," Penny said, thinking furiously. "It was—it was Anything Can Happen Sunday!"

"What?" Raj exclaimed. "What the heck is that?"

"If Sheldon can have an Anything Can Happen Thursday then I can have an Anything Can Happen Sunday," Penny said, trying to sound logical.

Raj thought about that for a second. "Okay," he said, accepting it. "So are you coming over to eat with us when Leonard gets back?"

"Well…" Penny said, trying to stall. "You know, I can't think of a good reason not to, except—" she turned away and coughed into her elbow several times. "Except I may have caught a cold at work today," she said, sniffling as she turned back toward Raj.

Raj quickly stepped back. "Why didn't you say that before now! If Sheldon finds out I won't be allowed back into the apartment!" He covered his mouth and nose with both hands, turned and ran out of her apartment. He stuck his head back in a moment later, his mouth still covered. "See you later," he said through his hand, and disappeared, pulling the door closed.

Leonard emerged from Penny's bedroom. "Sounds like the cat's out of the bag over there," he said anxiously. "What do we do now?"

"You foolish mortals," Endora's disembodied voice chided him. "Always worrying about things you have no hope of understanding."

"Endora," Penny said, looking at the ceiling. "Stop fooling around and appear. I want to know what you found out."

Endora appeared next to Penny, dressed in light purple robes with a light green floor-length shawl covering them. "Really, granddaughter, don't you think you can do better than—this?" She gestured disdainfully toward Leonard.

"Maurice likes him," Penny said, defending him. "I don't see what your problem is."

"You will someday. Maurice never spent as much time with my mortal son-in-law as I did," Endora said, scornfully. "And he doted on our daughter Samantha entirely too much for her own good. Whatever she wanted, she got. Even Durbin," she added, ruefully.

"Alright, alright," Penny said impatiently. "What did the Council say?"

Endora put on a look of deep disappointment. "Unfortunately, they agreed with you, once they realized their secret was at risk and they talked with the Queen about the situation."

"The Queen?" Leonard said, confused. "The Queen of England?"

"No, silly boy," Endora said haughtily. "The Queen of Witches. Who is also my daughter Samantha, by the way."

"Your daughter is the Queen of Witches?" Penny said, surprised. "I didn't know witches had a queen."

"My dear, what you don't know about being a witch could fill a book," Endora informed her. She held out her hands, and the Book of Magic appeared in them. "Which is why Maurice gave this to you. I suggest you read through it as quickly and thoroughly as possible."

"I will," Penny promised, taking the book and setting it aside. "So when are they going to make Amy remember me?"

"It's not going to be quite that simple," Endora said, smirking. "The Council decided that since you got yourself into this situation, you had to get yourself out." She held out her hand. A small bottle appeared in it. "Your friend must drink this potion. Once she does so, she will remember you." Endora handed the bottle to Penny.

Penny eyed the bottle warily. "That's it? She just has to drink it?"

"Yes," Endora said. "But you cannot force her to drink it magically or it will have no effect. She must drink it of her own free will."

"Does she have to know what it's for?" Leonard asked.

"That's up to you," Endora said airily. She stood. "Well, I'm off to a midnight rendezvous on the Riviera with an old friend of mine. Ta-ta, Granddaughter," she said, giving Penny a kiss on the cheek. She looked at Leonard. "Farewell, Lumpkin," she said flatly, and vanished.

"It's Leonard," he said into the air, a little irritated. He looked at Penny. "You know, my mother is looking a lot better these days, compared to that woman."

"Don't worry about that now," Penny said dismissively. She held out the bottle Endora had given her. "You've got to get Amy to drink this."

"Me?" Leonard frowned. "How am I going to do that? You're the one who made her forget you!"

"She's not going to drink a bottle of something from a total stranger!" Penny pointed out. "Right now, she's gotta trust you more than she would trust me!"

"She hit me with a pillow when she found out Sheldon left town and I didn't stop him," Leonard reminded her. "Repeatedly. You were there. And she thinks I'm boring and stuffy compared to Sheldon."

"Well, from her perspective, you kind of are," Penny said.

"Oh great," Leonard said, in mock horror. "Now even my fiancée likes Sheldon more than me."

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far," Penny quickly disabused him of that notion. "Please, Leonard? You've gotta do this for me!"

"Alright," Leonard said, taking the bottle. "But you owe me big time now."

"Fix this for me," Penny said earnestly. "And tonight we'll make it a Yee-Ha night."

"Really," Leonard smiled, remembering their first Yee-Ha night of a few years ago. The next morning had been embarrassing but it had been worth it. "Okay. I'll give it my best shot."

-=o=-

Leonard glanced at his watch. "Damn, it's 6:03," he said, glumly. "Sheldon's going to be upset I'm late."

"Then we better get you over there," Penny said. "Here's your food." She snapped her fingers.

A large bag full of food cartons was suddenly in Leonard's hands. He looked inside the bag. "Good, it's Siam Palace," he said, nodding at Penny. He took a deep breath. "Wish me luck," he said, nervously.

Penny walked over and kissed him. "You'll do fine," she told him, then opened the door for him. Leonard walked out, heading for his own apartment, and Penny shut the door.

She looked over at her sofa, but shook her head. "I can't just wait around here," she muttered to herself. "I gotta see what happens." She looked down at herself. She was wearing a knitted top and dark slacks—appropriate clothing for a pharmaceutical rep, but for what she planned, something a bit slinkier would be better, something more like what Endora had been wearing. She made a smoothing gesture down her sides with both hands.

Her clothes transformed into a dark, close-fitting gown similar to Endora's. "Okay so far," she said, then pressed her index fingers into her temples in concentration. "Come on, come on," she murmured, until she felt a tingling sensation run down her body. She was now invisible and intangible—perfect for spying on what was happening in Leonard and Sheldon's apartment. "Here goes nothing," she said, walking toward her apartment door. She passed through the door as if it wasn't there. Pretty cool, she thought to herself.

In the hallway, she saw that the door of Leonard's apartment was open and Leonard was standing in the doorway. Sheldon, wearing a surgical mask, was blocking him from entering.

"How can you be sure you haven't inhaled any of Penny's germs?" Sheldon was saying, through the mask.

"I didn't, Sheldon," Leonard said, as patiently as he could. "I stayed at least an arm's length away when she told me she might have cold."

"Are you sure?" Sheldon persisted. "You two get pretty chummy, you know. Sometimes you're so close I don't think we could slip a graphene sheet between the two of you."

"I'm sure," Leonard said. "Scout's honor," he added, lying through his teeth. Sheldon always fell for the old Scout's honor bit.

"And she didn't touch any of the food cartons in this bag?" Sheldon pointed at the food in Leonard's arms.

"Yes," Leonard said. "She was in the back seat the whole trip back. The food was in the front seat with me."

Sheldon stared at him for a long moment. "Not good enough," he said, shutting the door in Leonard's face. Penny covered her mouth with her hands so she wouldn't laugh out loud.

"Alright," inside the apartment, Sheldon was speaking to the other. "Who's going to volunteer to make another food run?"

"Sheldon, don't be crazy," Howard said. "Let Leonard in!"

"Sheldon," Leonard said loudly outside the door. "I have my key, I can still get in."

"I'm sure that's what Typhoid Mary said when her family put her out of their home," Sheldon shouted through the door.

"Sheldon, come on," Howard's voice said. "We wouldn't be eating if it wasn't for Leonard."

"We wouldn't be eating late if it wasn't for Leonard's dawdling," Sheldon said.

"Sheldon, it's only 6:05," Bernadette said.

"And how do we know it hasn't been tainted by being in the car with a cold-infected Penny?" Sheldon demanded.

"The cartons are sealed," Bernadette. "And we could reheat them to make sure."

"First it's the food," Sheldon argued. "Then the trains start to run late. The next thing you know the cure for the zombie apocalypse doesn't reach Washington in time and the whole world turns into the walking dead. Is that what you want? Well, is it?"

"Sheldon, don't be ridiculous," Amy said. She opened the door. "Come in, Leonard."

"Thank you, Amy," Leonard said, walking inside. Invisible, Penny followed him in, stepping out of the way as Amy shut the door behind him. She walked back toward her seat, and Leonard set the bag of food on the coffee table, then grabbed his desk chair and rolled it next to Amy; he wanted to be sure to sit next to her, so he could figure out some way to get her to drink the memory-restoring potion in his pocket.

As Leonard stepped toward the coffee table, Sheldon held up his hands. "Ah-ah!" he warned. "You just keep your distance, Mr. Germy." He reached into the bag of food and pulled out a carton. "Here, Amy—you let him in, so you can hand him his food," he said, giving it to her.

"Fine, Sheldon," Amy said, handing the carton and a fork to Leonard.

"Thank you, Amy," Leonard said, settling back into his chair.

Sheldon was handing other cartons to Bernadette and Howard, who were sitting next to him on the couch. He passed another carton to Raj, who had sat on the floor next to Howard. The final carton from the bag he handed to Amy, then sat back with his own food and the group began eating.

Invisible, Penny watched anxiously as Leonard dug into his carton and began eating the mee crob noodles and chicken. He wasn't saying anything! Nobody was saying anything! Not even Sheldon, which was something of a miracle!

What could she do to help Leonard, Penny wondered. She couldn't think of anything that didn't involve magic, and using magic on Amy would make the potion she had to take ineffective against her amnesia. Penny fretted, biting her lip as she tried to come up with some way to help Leonard indirectly.

Leonard suddenly looked up. "How have you been, Amy?" he asked her. "Feeling okay these days?"

Amy looked at him blankly. "I'm fine," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, no reason," Leonard said, shrugging. He looked down again, but turned back to her almost immediately. "Maybe I shouldn't mention it, but I thought you looked a bit peaked. Are you feeling tired?"

"Really, I'm fine," Amy said. Penny stared at her. She did look fine, but Penny understood Leonard's game here—he was trying to suggest that Amy wasn't feeling well, in an effort to make her think she wasn't feeling well so he could offer her the potion as medicine that would help her. If Penny could somehow make her sneeze…

But simply making her sneeze using witchcraft might cause the potion not to work! Penny frowned in frustration, then noticed several packets of pepper on the coffee table. Could she do something with that? Penny decided to risk it. She pointed at a packet of pepper. The end disappeared and a thin stream of pepper shot out and up Amy's nose. Amy shook her head, rubbing her nose, then sneezed!

Sheldon pushed himself back against the couch, looking at her in horror. "You sneezed!" he said looking at her with wide, fearful eyes. "Did you catch what Leonard has?!"

"I'm fine, Sheldon," Amy said. "It was just a—" she suddenly sneezed again.

Sheldon stood and ran around behind the couch. "You gave it to her!" he accused Leonard.

"Sheldon, I'm not sneezing," Leonard protested, but he hid a small smile behind his carton of food. This was working out better than he'd hoped! His powers of suggestion had convinced Amy she was sick!

Leonard reached into his pocket. "It's probably because I took some of this," he said, holding up a small bottle.

"What's that?" Amy asked, sneezing again.

"It's medication that relieves your symptoms if you have a cold," Leonard said.

"Take it! Take it!" Sheldon said to Amy.

"Hold on," Bernadette interrupted. "What is that stuff? Where did you get it from?"

"I got it from a friend at work," Leonard said. "He takes it whenever he feels a cold coming on."

"What friend?" Raj wanted to know. "All your friends are in this room."

"I do know other people, Raj," Leonard informed him.

"I never see you talking to anyone except me, Sheldon and Howard."

"Well they're there," Leonard said shortly. "Would you like some or not?" he said to Amy. He put his hand on the lid. "If not, I'm just going to drink the rest of it myself."

"Take it, take it!" Sheldon urged again.

"I don't know, Amy," Bernadette said. "I wouldn't take any medication if I didn't know where it came from."

"Then how come you're always offering me medicine from your company?" Amy asked.

"Because I do know where that comes from," Bernadette snapped. "I helped develop a lot of it! But if you're so smart I guess you can do what you want."

Amy looked at the bottle in Leonard's hand. Invisibly, Penny crossed her fingers. "I suppose," Amy said slowly, "I will…pass this time. You can take it, Leonard." Silently, Penny smacked her face with her palm.

Leonard stood there for several seconds holding the lid of the bottle, trying to figure out what to do next. "I will," he finally said. "I'll take it later," he added. "I'm just going to go put it with my other medications." He turned and slowly walked down the hall toward his room.

Amy suddenly sneezed. Sniffling, she spoke again. "Wait, Leonard. Maybe I will try it."

"Oh, good," Leonard breathed, turning and quickly walking back to her.

"What did you say?" Amy asked as she took the bottle from him.

"Oh. I said, 'Here you go,'" Leonard said in a solicitous tone. "Just open the top and drink it down." Amy took the lid off and poured the contents down her throat.

"Mmm, not bad," Amy said, looking at the bottle. "Interestingly, it reminds me of some peppermint schnapps I tried once at Penny's." She looked around the room. "Where is Penny, by the way? I thought she would be here tonight."

"She was delayed," Leonard said, relieved.

"She's not coming," Sheldon said at the same moment.

"Well, which is it?" Amy asked.

Penny hurriedly ran through the door, materialized, and knocked on the door. Leonard intuitively sensed who it was. "I'll bet that's her," he said, walking briskly to the door and opening it. "Hi, honey—" he said, then stopped dead, looking at what she was wearing. "Have—have you been sleeping?" he asked.

Penny looked down. She was still wearing the black witch's costume. "Oops, sorry," she said. "I forgot what I was wearing."

"It's okay," Leonard said, as she came in. "It looks—interesting."

The others were craning for a view. "Hey, bestie," Amy said. "How come I've never seen you wearing that before? It suits you perfectly. Of course, everything you wear suits you perfectly," she added, as a matter of fact.

"What, this old thing?" Penny said disparagingly. "It's just something I found in the back of my closet." She came over and sat next to Amy in the plush chair.

Leonard went over to the food bag, still sitting on the coffee table. "There's nothing else in it," Sheldon said. "Penny will just have to share your meal, Leonard." Leonard looked over at Penny and gave a half-shrug.

"Look again, sweetie," Penny said, pointing at the bag. Leonard reached in and pulled out another carton of food. "I guess you missed that one, Sheldon," she said, smiling at him as Leonard handed it to her and sat down in his chair with his own meal. Sheldon, perplexed, looked into the bag again, then picked it up and looked at the bottom, as if trying to figure out where the last carton had come from.

"How'd you do that?" he said to Penny. "I was sure there was no more food in there!"

"Maybe I can make food appear as well as disappear," Penny said, smiling at him. She glanced over at Leonard, who was smiling as well.

"You're never going to beat my mother, though," Howard said. "She's still the all-time champion food magician. Did you know she once made a whole chicken disappear?"

"Yes," everyone in the room answered.

-=o=-

Later, after the meal and a spirited discussion of the merits of a neurobiology doctorate versus a theoretical physics doctorate in a post-apocalyptic future, Penny and Leonard went back in her apartment, where Leonard gravitated toward Penny's Book of Magic. "I've wondered what kind of stuff is in this book," he told her, leafing through it.

Penny was making tea for them. "Oh, you know," she said. "Levitation, dematerialization, invisibility, flying. Stuff like that."

"It all sounds amazing," Leonard murmured, studying the book in more detail. "But none of this seems to make any sense. Listen to this," he said, and started reading from the book.

"Ay vigoru linore nes eres nilerar etocamij na ares et peguco leje voneve, pebat ovorane cis minur. Roda sadod dase doyiefed 'lesoloronu' at otie lokaca iyecere resic nidande ec sodulat."

He looked up as Penny handed him a cup of tea. "Huh," she said, looking where he was reading. "I can read it perfectly fine," she said, then began reading what Leonard had read.

"A useful ability in the mortal realm is the ability to make oneself intangible, or imperceptible by normal objects," she read. "This renders the witch 'ghostlike' in that they can pass through solid barriers and objects." She pointed to the text. "I was totally doing that earlier," she said.

"What, being intangible?" Leonard asked, looking at her in surprise.

"Yeah!" she nodded. "I mean, when you left my apartment earlier I turned myself invisible, then I walked through the door to follow you over to your place."

"That's amazing!" Leonard said, fascinated. "You're really getting into this witchcraft, aren't you?"

"Well, you know," Penny said, turning philosophical. "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I survived becoming a witch, so I'm going to make the most of it. Even if nobody can know about it but you," she added, a bit sadly.

"Well, you never know," Leonard said, moving closer to her and rubbing her back. "It's not that you can't tell anyone," he reminded her. "It's just that they need to be a true friend to you before you do."

"I know, but—" Penny sighed, exasperated. "I've known Amy for years now. It hurts to find out that she doesn't really consider me a friend. Or maybe I don't consider her one. I don't know!"

"Hey, hey," Leonard said soothingly, trying to calm her fears. "You and Amy are friends. I mean, even if she does have kind of a weird, sexually ambiguous attraction to you—"

"I know," Penny muttered. "That is totally weird."

"At least her social skills are better than Sheldon's," Leonard went on. "Actually, better than mine in some ways, now that I think about it—she got me to dance when I went to that wedding reception with her a few years back."

"Yeah, she told me," Penny was smiling. "She was afraid afterwards you'd fallen in love with her."

"Really?" Leonard laughed. "Why would she think that?"

"Probably for the same reason Sheldon always thought I was madly in love with him," Penny grinned. "It's all about the Shamy!"

They both laughed. Penny's smile turned sultry. "Is it about rodeo time?" she asked him.

Leonard nodded eagerly. "Oh, I'm always ready for rodeo time," he agreed, leaning closer to her. "Yee-haa," he said, as they kissed.

-=o=-

A/N: Readers, please let me know what you think of this episode. Penny is learning magic pretty fast. How do you think this new knowledge will affect her and others around her? Would her feelings toward Leonard start to change, as he feared in the first episode? How much does this change the dynamics of their relationship? And how much will the restriction of talking about her magic affect Penny?

Some upcoming episode ideas:
"The Teleportation Secret" — Penny learns to travel using magic.
"The Love Spell Confabulation" — Penny meets her cousin Serena, who takes an interest in Leonard.