AN: Attempting to keep various details at least sort of consistent with the game/novel is harder than it looks… magic welding powers, go. No, I don't have a welding license, why do you ask?

Disclaimer: nonprofit fan work thing

Responses

That 'Inactive' Afiction: Time period's modern but otherwise ambiguous. Having the Fummy family move away from their old village in the boonies and into the somewhat more urban-but-still-ruralish Calmtown is supposed to be justification for more modern things showing up. Dunno how well I did it, but at least the game and end of the prequel novel are ambiguous enough about when the body swap takes place, and where exactly Viola and her father live, for it to hopefully at least kinda work. All that's really certain (given that the witch's house itself probably isn't a good indicator of time period) is that Ellen's been around for a looong time.

…I realize I didn't do responses last chapter, but then, no questions were asked (I do appreciate the reviews, though; then, now, and always). Incidentally, now's probably a good time to mention I'm willing to answer questions. ;D Granted it might take a while for answers to come…

xxWHxx

"It's not so bad to be powerless for a while." That was what Ellen had said to herself back then, in the witch's house. Of course, even when she had said it she hadn't been sure how long a 'while' was or would be. Just that eventually she would get at least some of her power back, even in Viola's body. Not all of it, of course, since the vast majority of it came from the contract with Cat, whom she had no need nor particular desire to contract with again after obtaining Viola's body and hadn't even expected to see again, but, well, you don't live in such a magic-intensive environment for so long without some of it rubbing off on you, or even on your very soul.

And, true to those words from so long ago, Ellen had gained some power back. The exact amount, well…

"…Really? Is that all you can do?" Viola said, giving the tiny, flickering, and frankly kind of pitiful flame topping Ellen's finger a funny look. And here she had been actually kind of anxious when Ellen finally remembered she could try to use magic on her (it only took her, what, a month?)…

Ellen, standing in the middle of her room, wasn't sure whether she wanted to glare at her finger or Viola more. "… I never really had a reason to use magic after stealing your body," She stated (making sure to add smug emphasis to her deed), casually theorizing about this failed attempt at Viola's unlife, "And I was pretty busy living my newly-acquired life, so I never really got around to cultivating my magic or training it or whatever. Add in the lack of spellbooks to learn from…"

"So your magic atrophied, basically?" Viola stated, casually adding to Ellen's theorizing of her attempted weapon, and ignoring the former witch's blatant needling. If only her lying back when they first met was so obvious… although then again she supposed that figuring out Ellen's plans back then probably would've ended in death, too (especially since, going by Ellen's memories, the then-witch had known the then-live Viola was in the forest and could've killed her at any time had she wanted to, only leading her to the house to begin enacting her plan)… except without all the drama of the body swap… the swap that was probably the main reason she got to be a ghost now, because of the events surrounding it…

'…The fact that I'm contemplating being grateful for Ellen stealing my life disturbs me.' Viola thought to herself, grimacing… Ellen had really put her between a rock and a hard place back then, though she didn't know it at the time. That aside, luckily, Ellen had evidently decided to glare at the flame atop her finger over Viola, apparently trying to will it to become bigger, and was too focused to notice Viola's expression. Judging by his chuckling, Cat did, though. Unless he was chuckling at Ellen's frustration. Knowing him, it was actually pretty likely to be both.

"…I think that's about right." Ellen finally answered after the flame continuously refused to bend to her will.

"Indeed it is. Excellent deductions, Detective Ellen." Confirmed Cat, who was on Ellen's bed, in a very annoyingly ambiguously sarcastic way.

Ellen let the flame go out and placed her hands on her hips. "There wouldn't happen to be a way to fix this little issue that doesn't involve making a contract with you, would there?" She asked irritably.

"Unless you're willing to attempt to see if the local library has any spellbooks hidden in it somewhere, or train extensively enough to build your magic back up over time? No." Cat answered, stretching.

Ellen frowned. "…How much time would the training take?"

"Hard to say, really, since that's both related to the intensity of the training as well as how much time you spend doing it. Factoring in your current mundane life making it such that you cannot simply train 24/7, I suspect it would take several months. And that's just getting your reserves back up, I haven't even considered learning new spells or getting reacquainted with any old ones you may still be able to perform. And of course, you will never be as strong as you would be under the power of a contract."

Ellen sighed. "Well, it's better than nothing I guess." And then she added, "Oh and hey, you see that window back there?"

Cat glanced at the open window behind him. "…Yes, what about i-"

The demon didn't quite get to finish as Ellen roughly picked him up by the scruff of his neck and tossed him out that window, yowling. And then there was the noise of rustling leaves and more yowling.

Viola blinked. "…Wasn't there a rosebush below that window?"

Ellen smirked. "Yes. Yes there was."

"Hm." Viola hummed. "That was for the 'Detective Ellen' remark, right?"

"Yep."

"I can only imagine what your plans are for me considering your reactions to minor stuff. And that's before I think about some of the stuff in your memories."

"It's nothing pleasant, I assure you… and you know, it occurs to me," Ellen turned toward the ghost, "Why do you even still have my memories? You're not even in my body anymore."

Viola just shrugged in response. "I'unno. Maybe I just still remember them from when I had your body?"

Grudgingly accepting that, Ellen then gave her former friend a half-lidded gaze, crossing her arms over her chest. "Also, you seem oddly undistressed by the thought that I potentially may have a way to deal with you eventually, or that I tried to deal with you a few minutes ago, or that I have big plans for dealing with you in general."

Truth be told, on the inside, Viola actually was more than a little fearful of that. There was no way in hell she was going to let Ellen know that, though. So, masking her insecurity, she said, cheekily, "What, annoyed that I'm not indulging your sadism?"

"…Killjoy. It's no fun without any screaming, or fear, or terror…" Ellen mumbled as she left the room.

"Didn't you once tell me you 'were not that bad'?" Viola deadpanned, using air quotes, as she followed her.

"…Shut up."

xxWHxx

Travis Dolin Fummy was not a complex man. Arguably the most complex thing about him was how people, once they got to know him, tended to refer to him by his middle name. Something about it being more fitting since his daughter was named Viola and his late wife was named Cello, though since her passing he'd taken to referring to himself by his middle name anyway in her honor, in remembrance of happier times. And between Cello's passing and the encounter with that thing in the woods 3 years ago, he was very grateful to still have Viola. Thank God she was okay (stop snickering). Granted, she tended to act a bit odd sometimes since the incident, but he supposed that made sense since it was likely fairly traumatic for her (seriously, stop snickering).

In any case, as he himself would proclaim, he was also quite protective as a result of these things. And as an extension of this he was, naturally, rather averse to his daughter going into mysterious places like big, sprawling forests alone.

So imagine his reaction when 'Viola' mentioned that she was going to take a walk in the woods (intending to do training related stuff, not that he knew that) on the outskirts of Calmtown for a while.

"…Zzzz…" Dolin snored on the floor. Er, okay, anticlimactic much?

Ellen blinked. "Well, nice to see I can still do simple sleep spells. Saved a lot of trouble there. Anyway…" Turning, she began making her way to the front door.

"Wait," Viola said, "At least put father in his bed first."

"Oh, he'll be fine," Ellen waved her off still heading to the door, "Come on, are ya gonna stalk me to the woods like the annoying fly you always are or not?"

'…Is that a really roundabout way of saying she wants me to come or is me following her around just routine by now?' Viola wondered, suspecting the latter given the former would imply Ellen actually had a shred of friendliness in her (at least, assuming it wasn't just so the former(?) witch could have an unlive target to practice with, which was… likely), while lifting a finger and causing the front door to slam shut. Ghost powers were fun.

Ellen stared at the door for a minute, before turning and giving Viola a dour look.

The ghost girl crossed her arms. "Put father in his bed first." She said firmly.

Ellen frowned. And then she smiled. It was creepy. "Actually," she said, lifting a finger, "How about you open the door, or I put you to sleep?"

Viola raised an eyebrow. "So you weren't trying to get me to come along to use for target practice or something?" She asked, figuring Ellen wouldn't threaten to make it so the ghost couldn't come if she was.

"Nah I was," Ellen said smugly, confirming that Viola gave her too much credit, "But I can just use trees or whatever anyway. And as a bonus, I don't have to deal with your yammering."

"How do you even know your spell will work on me?" Viola questioned, slightly fearful.

"I don't." Ellen said, before quickly firing off the sleep spell, which manifested as a little mote of light that speedily shot out of her finger. "Let's find out!"

"Eep!" Viola reflexively cried, covering herself with her arms just as reflexively as… the little light passed right through her with no effect, ricocheted off a mirror that happened to be behind her, and…

"…Shit." Ellen said simply as the spell went right back to her. And then, with a 'poof' against her as it hit, the witch girl suddenly collapsed to the ground and began snoring peacefully. Also loudly.

Viola, slowly realizing she was not in fact asleep, gradually lowered her arms to be greeted by this sight. Staring at said sight in disbelief for a few moments, she finally sighed in relief. "It's like this girl is only a threat when she has a magic house under her control… I mean, she killed her parents before she even became a witch, and she didn't have any magic during all that stuff after the swap three years ago, yeah, but… well…"

The ghost girl… wasn't quite sure what to think. Eventually, she settled on pinching the bridge of her nose and muttering, "What would've been so hard about moving father to his bed… do you have to be a jerk all the time…"

Letting out another sigh, Viola gave the sleeping Ellen a half-lidded look. "You know, you're kinda cute when you're asleep, as weird as that might be to say about my own body. Too bad it's just a front. Hmph."

Cat walked in from… somewhere, right about then. "Yo." He greeted, taking a look around the foyer. "My my, what'd I miss?"

"Well, apparently Ellen can do simple sleep spells."

"I see. I assume she didn't use it on herself purposely so as to take a nap?"

"Nah. Tried to hit me." Viola pointed behind herself. "Mirror."

Cat glanced at said object, chuckling. "Perhaps three years of magical inactivity and being contractless have taken their toll."

"…Maybe?" Viola might've had Ellen's memories but she couldn't honestly say she had ever really sorted through the ones related to her magic and how it worked. When she had went on the periodic walk down Ellen's memory lane during the years she spent as demon cat food (what can she say, sitting around trying not to be digested could only stave off boredom for so long) she was usually more concerned with the endless examples of sociopathy and sadism Ellen had displayed over countless years that tended to make her constantly worry about what might happen to Dolin. They were certainly a great help in keeping her determined to escape. In short, she was not a magic buff, and therefore could neither confirm nor deny Cat's statement. Though it was probably rhetorical anyway…

"…Well, I guess I should take them to their beds…?" Viola half-asked, still a little unsure of what to do in the rather silly outcome of this situation.

"Whatever ya wanna do." Cat said, sauntering off.

xxWHxx

"Mmmph, mm…" Ellen grumbled as she slowly came back to the land of wakefulness. "No, pink puffball, go away, I'm not a witch or a dark whatever, you're annoying… huh…?" Fully waking, after a few moments the body snatcher shot up in her bed. "Who-What-… oh, right." Ellen facepalmed. "The sleep spell backfired. How humiliating…"

"If it makes you feel any better," Viola chimed in from the side, apparently reading a manga book ('Soul Eater', it looked like. Somehow it seems ironic that Ellen apparently owns that…) off to the side. Conveniently, ghosts don't need to sleep unless they want to. "This isn't really any worse than some of the stuff I've done to you since I started haunting you."

"Maybe, but there's a special flavor of humiliation involved when you do something to yourself…" Ellen blushed furiously, cupping her snarling face in her hands, with equal parts anger and embarrassment. Even the banana peel incident could be easily blamed on Viola, but this? This was her own fault. Not that the witch wouldn't try to shift the blame anyway. Ahem, damn Viola and her ghost body. And damn her for trying to make the great Ellen properly put her father to bed. And damn mirrors too, for that matter. How dare they sit there, and be all shiny, and reflective, and crap. Also damn Viola, because she clearly deserves an extra serving of damn just because.

Pausing her mental tirade and glancing around, Ellen finally noticed she was in her room, and when she realized how she probably looked to the ghost girl in her presence during this pause in her sulking, vehemently tried to push her embarrassment as far into the back of her mind as possible. Fuck looking all vulnerable in front of Viola, she wouldn't give her the satisfaction!

That mostly taken care of and trying to act like nothing happened, Ellen finally asked, gesturing around her room. "What time is it and how the hell did I get here, anyway?"

If Viola had anything she wanted to say about what Ellen had looked like a minute ago, she didn't say it. Instead, to answer her housemate's question, "It's the middle of the night. I think it was… nine last time I looked at a clock? Probably a good bit later now. You were out for a couple of hours. Not bad for a 'simple' sleep spell."

"And how I got here?" Ellen pushed. Offhandedly, she noticed she'd been tucked in as well. What the hell…?

Viola raised an eyebrow. "How do you think? I brought you up here, and put you to bed."

Ellen blinked, a little disbelieving. "…Seriously?"

Viola sighed, rolling her eyes. "I know you wouldn't do the same for me, unless the bed was a flower bed and you could use a mountain of dirt as a blanket," Viola laughed a little bitterly at that, "but even though I don't exactly like you, I do still have some capacity to be nice to you, you know."

Ellen just grunted in response and pointedly looked the other way, which was… about what Viola expected. Maybe a little better since there was a lack of insults.

"…thankyou." A quick and rather grudging mumble came from the witch girl, sounding more like a quiet but garbled growl than anything else.

Naturally, Viola thus didn't exactly hear, and asked in confusion, "Eh? What'd you say?"

"Nothing. You're annoying and your kindness is stupid." Ellen bluntly stated.

"Yeah, I know," Viola deadpanned, "I've known that ever since the body swap. I don't know why I even bothered…" The ghost girl went back to reading the manga she was holding.

That over with, and figuring it was probably too late to bother doing anything else anyway (training could wait…), Ellen hopped out of bed to go brush her teeth and whatnot before going back to sleep, but stopped when something irksome suddenly occurred to her.

"…Come to think… please don't tell me you bridal carried me up here." The witchy girl stated, feeling another bout of angry embarrassment (embarrassed angriness?) coming on…

"Okay, I won't." Viola deadpanned again, not even so much as glancing away from her book, and the implication preeetty clear.

Turning a rather vivid red thankfully unseen by the ever-damnable Viola, Ellen could be heard muttering a string of swears under her breath as she rushed to the bathroom and rather loudly shut the door, as if that would actually do anything if Viola were to want to come in for some reason. Damned ghost, carrying her in such a damnable way, dammit. Also, cockdick and piss.

Viola spared a rather uncaring glance at the bathroom door. "I don't see what the big deal is…" She muttered before going back to reading. It was probably just hormones or something.

xxWHxx

Elsewhere in the house, Dolin woke up from his own impromptu spell-induced nap. After a look around his bedroom, he concluded that'd had some kind of weird dream and attempted to get back to sleep. It had to have been a dream, after all, there was no way Viola would ever try to go to a secluded, isolated, expansive forest in real life after what happened three years ago, right? That would be preposterous, surely, so it clearly had to be some kind of nightmare manifesting his fears! Granted, sure maybe he was being overprotective about that but he was justified in it dammit! Witches aren't the only thing that could be roaming around big forests! There could be demons, or ghosts, or amoral hunters that wanted to see what it would be like to have a human trophy! Or, worst of all, teenage boys looking to have unprotected sex! The very thought of that last one made Dolin shiver! …Er, and so did… the others, too… totally… yeah.

Meanwhile, as Dolin tried to get back to sleep through his errant thoughts of potential dangers to his (perceived) daughter, an observant eye could see Cat grooming himself in a corner of the room.

…What relevance does this have to anything? None whatsoever. He's just there. Licking his balls right now. Ew.

xxWHxx

AN: I've written more Witch's House fanfic in the past few weeks than I've written for anything else in months. I don't know how to feel about that. I should probably just go back to finding ways to make Ellen a butt monkey, it's fun. Mmm, karmatic donut…

Incidentally, Ellen's favorite Kirby character is Magolor, who happens to be Viola's least favorite. At least until Dream Collection. After that Ellen thought he was a wuss and Viola appreciated him more.