Moving on with the story, some readers may be disturbed by certain parts, but please don't worry.

I don't own the Worst Witch.

Hatred at School.

Ethel loved potions because the magic was truly intricate and it allowed a witch to truly express their ability. When she had been a child growing up under the tutelage of the carers her parents had hired for her and her sisters because they had put distance between them and their children, she had excelled at making potions though she had excelled in Spells and a bit of chanting, though she had always considered that last subject unimportant in becoming a witch.

At Cackles, she had been lucky to have a teacher who had lauded her over the others - but when you had people like Mildred Hubble and Enid Nightshade in their lessons, it hadn't been difficult. But here….. Ethel had quickly learnt that while her new potions teacher Miss Bindweed was just as impressed as HB, she was more impartial in that she encouraged all of her students to work harder in her class. Her potions ability also didn't make her popular with Miss Bindweed either, in fact, none of her teachers liked her that much. In fact, all of them treated her either icily or with contempt, or they had been worried that whatever Ethel's counterpart had done here she would do again.

While she worked on her potion, Ethel wondered what was going to happen in this class; she wasn't afraid one of the others was going to throw something into her cauldron, but she was still wary. They might be angry with her but it had been drummed into every witch's mind when they had been children (with a few deliberate accidents thrown in to help drive their points home) that potions were too dangerous to play games with. Even Ethel wasn't petty and childish enough to do something like that.

Potion accidents could result in terrible injuries; the cauldron could blow up if a volatile ingredient which shouldn't be added until a certain time, spraying the others with shrapnel, another ingredient could release toxic fumes and gases, and another ingredient could spill a potion that had become a highly corrosive acid which left terrible injuries. Being subjected to some of these incidents would always drum home the knowledge potions was not a class to mess around in.

But she was wary because these witches were angry with her for what had happened to Cackles, and if she were honest a large part of Ethel actually hoped something did happen. She felt it was justifiable punishment for what had happened to the witch school her family had been attending for centuries and was part of the core of what made a Hallow witch a Hallow witch. But it was the knowledge that her actions had caused Esmerelda to die….. somehow that knowledge hurt her more than knowing the Great Wizard himself had also died.

Now that she knew that what had happened to the man, Ethel was paying close attention to the political situation in the magical community.

The Great Wizard had been an important figure in the Magic Council next to the Great Witch, the embodiment of the Witch and Wizard codes. Without his stabilising influence, there would be trials and tests for a new Great Wizard to take his place. Such a thing had not happened in centuries.

Ethel wasn't an expert on the non-magical world, but she knew enough to know that in some countries Presidents and Prime Ministers were elected into their positions by democratic voting.

The magical world did something similar, but they always selected their candidates from the more magically powerful and politically stronger wizards before they put them into tests and trials designed to showcase their magical abilities while other tests showed how they could act in political situations, negotiations. If they failed or made what looked at the time to be an inconsequential mistake or accident, like using a wrong word during a political test, then they would be ejected from the process. It was harsh but Merlin's tradition had been very strict; only the best were allowed to become Great Wizards and Great Witches to guide and control the Magic Council. Once they were finished, a final election was made.

Ideally, the reigning Great Wizard would be responsible for hosting the process and making it clear that they were to do their best while working hard and proving they could become the ideal replacement. If Hellibore were still alive, then he would be responsible for the process to see who the ideal candidates were, and when his replacement was known he would then stay on to help ease him into the role.

But since he was dead… Ethel knew that things would be hard for the council to find an ideal replacement, but they could do it, given time. It was no wonder her mother was so hateful towards her right now, though truthfully they had never been close to one another since Ethel was a child.

Ethel wondered how long it would take for the council to find a replacement Great Wizard, and she wondered what he would do; Hellibore had been a traditionalist, but there were other radical wizards out there who would love a chance to shake the magical community up, change the code a bit, and introduce new ideas while being aware there was only so much they could do since they would have the council there to moderate any change he made to the code.

Ethel had heard her father complain against some of the wizards whom he had met, who had radical leanings towards changing a few aspects of magical tradition. She understood his concerns only too well - she should, she was a Hallow, and her family had maintained their traditions proudly for centuries while adopting new ones to ensure their entire family did not die out because some of their members were too stupid and set in their ways to ignore the world around them.

But she knew if a Great Wizard appeared who was radical and whose policies caused more problems than there were already…. it could take their world decades to recover from. There were clauses that allowed for impeachment but no more than that.

Ethel was snapped out of her thoughts concerning their community's political situation when she heard the teacher say, "I hope you are stirring that potion for a reason, Miss Hallow because you see you haven't added some of your other ingredients."

Ethel jumped at the sound of Miss Bindweed's voice and she realised she had been so lost in thought that she had fallen behind. "I'm sorry, Miss Bindweed."

Fortunately for Ethel, Miss Bindweed didn't really seem to care about asking questions. When Ethel had first met the potions teacher at this school, she had expected her to just be another Hardbroom; black clothes, pocket watch necklace, hair pulled back so tightly into a bun that it stretched her face.

But she was wrong.

Miss Bindweed was a tall willowy blond, though her hair colour was darker compared to Ethel or Sybil's hair, with grey eyes who dressed in a white tunic to protect her clothes from the potential splashes her potions made. Unlike HB, Bindweed didn't have the same scary quality but she did have a manner that showed she wasn't one to mess with. She punished her students by humiliating them. Such punishments were permissible under the code.

Ethel wasn't really bothered by the woman because she always put her work first, but the blonde girl knew that the elder blonde didn't like her, not one little bit.

Satisfied when she saw Ethel add the missing ingredients to the cauldron, Miss Bindweed walked away without a word. Ethel didn't breath again until the older witch was gone. When the class was ended, Miss Bindweed took the samples of the potions they had made with the promise of marking them up.

Ethel left the class last, following the others on their way to the next, and keeping at the back - she stuck to the back because some of the older girls had taken it into their own hands to punish her for what had happened to Cackles, but that wasn't why she hated the school. She hated it because the girls were doing something that they didn't really need to do, but she let them do it without complaint.

What would be the point? She was responsible for the death of the Great Wizard and a few other people, and her actions had led to Cackles no longer being around.

"Hey, Hallow!" A nasal voice called out to her, and Ethel sighed and then turned around in the direction of the voice. A taller girl with a mop of copper-red hair was approaching with a few other older girls.

"Cynthia," Ethel greeted her, feeling a bit sick because she knew what would soon be happening. Cynthia Horrocks was a nasty piece of work. Ethel knew she herself wasn't good, but even she baulked at the idea of physically striking someone and using magic to hit them in a physical manner. But sometimes she would use her fists and feet to deliver blows.

For reasons Ethel didn't understand, Cynthia was perhaps one of her worst bullies. Ethel had met her, from her alternate perspective, the day after she'd woken up here in this familiar but strange world. Where Felicity and Maud had used words against her, Cynthia preferred physical violence to speaking, believing that a blow to the stomach which would make her vomit was better than speaking.

Ethel could defend herself, but Cynthia was a good few years ahead of her.

Cynthia smiled at her. "Ready for your next session?"

Ethel sighed. She had come to expect these little sessions on a daily basis, that didn't mean she had to like them. "Why are you doing this?"

"You mean you haven't worked it out?" Cynthia asked in a guttural tone that mixed with her nasal accent very well. "I'm doing what others should be doing, making you pay."

Oh, it was that simple, was it? Ethel thought to herself. But despite that, she was disgusted by these girls flagrant disregard for the Code. Under the code, it was forbidden to injure a witch using physical violence. It was one thing to cast spells designed to cause harm, that was permitted under special circumstances. But physical violence without magic was considered vulgar by magical standards, many witches and wizards believed it beneath them to punch someone.

Ordinarily, Ethel would have been repulsed by this, but she knew if she put this off then it might only make things worse. It wasn't like her, but ever since she had learnt Cackles, the Great Wizard, and Esmerelda were gone because of her….. she had started not to care about what came to her.

Ethel took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "Get on with it," she said.

Cynthia and her friends smiled (the other girls looked a bit concerned about what they were about to do to her, and Ethel got the impression these girls wanted to punish her but didn't want to resort to such methods to do it), and they closed around her. Ethel took a slow but deep breath and hoped whatever they did was not painful…..

Ethel suddenly screamed in pain as she felt a spell burn the skin on her back through her shirt, but her attackers didn't let up, one spell was aimed at her left calf and she dropped to the ground, cradling her injured leg before she felt a hand grab her ponytail and roughly pull her head back before she saw someones' fist fly towards her eye.

She was still reeling from the effects of the blow to her eye when she heard a voice shout. "STOP THIS, STOP THIS AT ONCE!"

It was Miss Amulet, and she was incandescent with rage. She waved her hand angrily in their direction and they were magically transported somewhere - Ethel didn't say a word, she didn't give a damn where they were sent as long as they were away from her.

She also kept silent while Miss Amulet looked at her, she wasn't sure if the headmistress was going to do what Ada Cackle did which was basically say a few nice words and then send her on her way without anything else being offered.

Miss Amulet looked down at her as if she were trying to decide whether or not to take pity on her. In spite of what her counterpart had done, Ethel was delighted when Miss Amulet gently helped her up and took her to see the nurse.

0000000000000000000000000000000

In the other realm, the magical creature could see what had happened with Ethel Hallow, and she could tell that the girl was beginning to see that her desires were meaningless. But it was still not enough. The girl had no idea what had happened at Cackles except for the basics; little snippets were arriving every single moment, and soon it would be time for the entity to meet Ethel. For the time being the girl seemed to have given up fighting for herself. The entity could understand why. The girl was a traditionalist and a staunch follower to the code, even if she bent the rules more than once to attain her goals. But she was desperate to return home and find out what had happened all at the same time.

The entity was looking forward to that, it was always gratifying to see a young witch or wizard see for themselves the drawbacks of their wishes. The entity had long since become used to seeing witches and wizards suffer, but it was their own fault for putting the code into existence; while it was always a good idea to put laws and regulations into place to ensure everyone knew that there would be penalties if anything went wrong, they didn't need to go as far as to restrict how their children inherited whatever their parents had.

No, the entity was looking forward to meeting Ethel Hallow. She almost felt sorry for her, almost.

000000000000000000000000000000

Ethel was thankful for magic since it meant it could repair injuries so it felt as though she had never been injured to begin with, but she didn't feel better in the least. Miss Amulet had left her to the care of the nurse without bothering to see if she was alright, but to tell her to get to lessons as soon as possible. What would happen to Cynthia and her gang Ethel didn't know and frankly didn't really care.

She left the nurse after telling the witch she'd try to stay out of trouble, but she had barely left before she met her little sister. Sybil was alone for which Ethel was grateful for; she had nothing about Clarice or Beatrice, well the ones she knew from Cackles, they were okay if a bit mad and annoying, but the version of the two girls here…

As if she were reading her mind, Sybil smiled reassuringly, "Don't worry, Ethie, I didn't bring Bea or Clarice."

Hearing that little nickname had Ethel tear up a bit. Sybil's smile faded. "Ethie-?"

"It's nothing," Ethel said to her younger sister, but then she decided to be honest, "I hate what happened, Sybil. Being the eldest is not the best thing ever."

"No, it's not. Esme kept telling you that, but you never listened."

Ethel closed her eyes, not even bothering to get angry with the reminder. Sybil was right, she had been a hundred times a week being the eldest wasn't the best thing ever, told by Esmerelda herself. What had she done? She had never listened, never believed her, Ethel had always been into her own insecurities, always losing her temper and saying things she shouldn't. How many times had she said something nasty to Esmerelda? How many times had Esme stuck her neck out for her, her ungrateful younger sister?

"I know. I hate myself, Sybil," Ethel whispered. "If I could, I'd go back in time and stop it from happening, but I can't. I wish I can have Esmerelda back."

"So do I," Sybil whispered.

Ethel looked at her little sister, now her only sister, and she wrapped her arms tightly around Sybil, hoping that the girl didn't pull away, but to her relief, Sybil didn't pull away. Ethel could sense the girl was not happy with her still, but Sybil wasn't callous enough to just turn her away.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Ethel walked slowly towards her bedroom. The afternoon had been appalling for the blonde witch. She had almost been on high thanks to Sybil even if she knew her little sister was still not happy with her for Esmerelda's…..death, but she had swiftly been brought down afterwards in her other classes.

It was like the roles had been reversed where Maud and the others were concerned, instead of her being the bully they were the ones being mean to her.

They had been in spells and because of the….altercation in the corridors with Cynthia and the other girls she had gotten to her lesson late because apparently Miss Amulet, in all her infinite wisdom, had 'forgotten' to inform her next teacher of what had happened, so she had arrived five minutes late.

The spells teacher had not been happy with her and she had received a detention that she had just finished, but during the class, she had tried to keep her head down, but the spells teacher had not let that go. Apparently, she'd had a younger cousin at Cackles at the time of the school's collapse, and the poor kid had been injured so Ethel was not her favourite student. In a way, Ethel was reminded of how HB treated Mildred Hubble, only in this case Ethel accepted the bullying and turned the other cheek.

She felt she deserved the punishment after learning what had happened to the Great Wizard, though even he took a back broom compared to Esme.

What would be the point of fighting back when the teacher held all of the cards? In any case, why fight back when she felt rotten for what had happened to Esmerelda and the Great Wizard? But things had grown worse. She had heard Felicity say to Maud "I thought to be the eldest meant being good for sticking up for yourself."

Hearing that upset Felicity more than anything. Now she was free from her detention, Ethel headed to her room. She had missed dinner, but despite the aching hunger in her stomach, she didn't care. She entered her bedroom and flicked her hands at the door to lock it completely, and then she headed to the bed and picked Nightstar up and cuddled the cat to her chest. Holding the cat, Ethel felt free to give into her sorrows and she began to cry using everything that had happened since she had arrived in this terrible reality to fuel her sobs.

She cried for the fact she had ruined not just her life, but the lives of everyone she had known. She cried that Sybil and her friends looked at her with either pity or anger or a mixture of the two, she cried that Felicity and Maud hated her for reasons even she couldn't ignore. She cried for the loss of Cackles Academy though she didn't yet know the full cause, and she cursed herself for not having a proper diary so she could read for herself what had happened. She had caught snippets here and there, but nothing concrete enough to tell her anything. She cried for Miss Cackle and for Cackle's Academy, she cried for the little cousin of her spell's teacher at Miss Amulets' who'd been injured, she cried for the Great Wizard.

But more importantly, she cried for Esmerelda, her big sister. She remembered all of those times Esmerelda had done her best to help her, going out of her way to calm her down whenever Mildred said or did something stupid to annoy her, how she had always stuck up for her…..

And she had always repaid her by sniping at her, sneering that she didn't need Esmerelda's help. Inwardly she would feel physically sick as each horrible and mean word left her mouth to rip a new hole in Esme while she'd felt justified because it had been her doing it.

Twelve years of memories came back to haunt her. Her parents pushing her to the side, treating her as if she were a stranger instead of her middle daughter. Jealousy settling in whenever she had to listen to her parents talk about Esme this, Esme that, or Sybil this and Sybil that. Ethel remembered all those lonely times where Esme had been at Cackles, leaving her with Sybil and having to put up with her little sister's sorrow whenever their parents just said "That's nice," in uncaring voices.

Ethel remembered how long it had taken her to learn how to fly in a professional and graceful manner to impress Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom, and she remembered hearing their whispers of awe at how well she had performed. Ethel had been on cloud nine when she had heard that….. only for her happiness to disappear when Miss Cackle had basically told her not to bother to try to be the best, that was for Esmerelda and Esmerelda alone. Miss Cackle had not cared about her feelings or her hurt. At the time Ethel recalled seeing how uncomfortable her big sister was, but she had been too hurt and angry to care.

It wasn't until later she found out Miss Cackle had a sister who was basically tarred with the same broomstick she was, but instead of learning her lessons from her childhood where she had had to watch as Agatha was pushed to the sidelines because of her stated age which turned out to be a big lie and violation of the code, Ada had continued to make them and ignore Ethel's good points and attempts to be better.

But while she might dislike Miss Cackle, Ethel had never wanted the woman to die because of something she'd had a hand in doing. She was just grateful that Agatha Cackle was being chased across the country.

Finally, she calmed down and she felt so tired and sad, she opened her mouth and the thought that had been in her mind for a while came out.

"Why, why is this happening? I hate the being the eldest child, it's not what I thought it would be. I wish I could go home, I wish I could have Esme back. I didn't mean what I said in Mildred's bedroom. I didn't-," she broke down crying again.

Suddenly she became aware that everything around her was a bright white in colour, and as she looked around she was surprised to find that her bedroom was gone. Instead, she was in a white… space that was so bright it was impossible for the blonde haired witch to work out the scale. Space here might have been as large as the Great Hall at Cackles, or it could have been the same size as the girl's lavatory.

But there was a familiar figure in the space with her. A short, squat woman with jaw-length white hair with glasses perched on her face. The only thing about the woman that seemed out of place was the fact she was wearing long white robes.

"I gave you a chance that every middle or younger child in the magical world wants, a chance to be the eldest and to experience the glory of inheriting the family legacy, and I also granted your wish of never meeting Mildred Hubble. Now all she wants is to complain? Is nothing good enough for you?"

Ethel just registered what the woman had said, but she was more focused on the woman's appearance. "Miss….Cackle?" she asked in hope.

Next time - Home Truths, where Ethel discovers what happened.