Hello everyone!

First of all, I have to apologise for the delay with this chapter – I just had a lot to do during the last few weeks and only little time to write. The next chapter should not take as long again but I won't promise anything. I had no idea how to write the next chapter but while writing the last part of this one earlier, I could suddenly picture everything perfectly, so that's one problem taken care of xD

Now, that's enough chatter from me, I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Friday came faster than Julie had expected, yet it felt like the longest week in her life.

Once Mildred had realised that her mum having magic made it possible for them to do spells together, she had insisted they'd go through her first-year spell book and try everything. To their immense surprise, Julie got most of the spells on her first try though she couldn't explain how she did it. Mildred had then come to the conclusion that once she got her memories back, she surely would know – and maybe then she could even teach her.

On Thursday, HB had mirrored them to inform her that she and Miss Pentangle would arrive around 7pm the next evening, so Julie was quite surprised when she was interrupted by a knock just after 6 o'clock.

Frowning she put Mildred's history book down and went to answer the door.

'Well met, Miss Hubble,' smiled the woman in front of her and bowed in the traditional way but Julie couldn't help but stare at her. It took her a moment to tear her eyes away and she clumsily imitated the greeting.

'Well met, Miss Pentangle.'

'Oh, please. It's Pippa,' interrupted her guest and stepped past Julie without waiting to be asked in. She looked around curiously and Julie finally found herself able to compose herself again and show the witch into the kitchen.

Pippa Pentangle was the absolute opposite of all the witches Julie had met yet – or at least, remembered she had met. This witch was much more glamourous, a bit like the woman she usually thought of as 'looks-but-no-brains'-people. But there was something about her that made her different from them, maybe the intelligent gleam in her eyes? Whatever it was, she reminded Julie more of fairy than of a witch with that pink dress and the blonde curls.

'I hope you don't mind me being early but I was on my way back from Cambridge and if I had gone back to Pentangles first, I surely would've been late – besides,' Pippa smiled, 'I couldn't wait to meet you!'

Julie smiled back at her.

'That's alright. Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?'

'Coffee, please, if you don't mind.'

'Of course not. Please, sit down.'

Still smiling, Pippa sat her bag down in the table before making herself comfortable on a chair and closely watching as Julie was preparing the coffee. She sighed.

'I wish we had a coffee machine at Pentangles,' she said somewhat dramatically. Julie turned to look at her.

'I thought you are the headmistress – couldn't you just get one?'

'Oh, well, I could…maybe I should…but I am not sure what my staff would say…'

'Why wouldn't say like it?' was Julie's next question as she placed the cup in front of the witch and flopped herself on the chair on the other side of the table.

'Well, most of them would probably like it – they prefer tea, you know, but they wouldn't mind it. But some of them are quite…incompatible with coffee. They get worse than first years on a sugar high!' Pippa explained and Julie had the distinct impression that she had to fight really hard to keep a straight face at the memory. Mind you, Julie could sympathise with that – the picture was hilariously absurd!

'You could get a small one for your office,' she suggested but the idea was denied with a headshake.

'I'll simply enjoy it whenever I'm out,' Pippa smiled and sipped her coffee. 'Oh, this is good!'

The surprise in her voice should probably have offended Julie but for some reason it didn't. Somehow she got the distinct impression that Pippa Pentangle could get away with almost everything without seriously offending anyone.

They continued to talk about everything and nothing for a while before Mildred became the topic of their conversation.

'She talked about you, you know? That you'd offered her that scholarship and were really nice to her,' Julie explained and Pippa slightly bowed her head.

'Well, she just seemed so unhappy – I know how hard it can be sometimes, with mean students. And Hecate can be quite harsh sometimes, even if she just wants the best for you…'

'Thank you. I'm glad she could talk to you.'

'I'm not sure if she was actually talking a lot…'was the mumbled answer as Pippa recalled the day of the spelling bee. Julie's voice pulled her back to the present, though.

'Is it true you have students from non-magical families at your school?'

'Oh.' The blonde witch was obviously startled by the question and she had to think for a moment before she answered.

'You see,' she finally started, 'it is a little more complicated than that. Hecate told you how magic is always given from mother to daughter and from father to son?'

Julie nodded.

'So if you keep that in mind, than how is it possible for a witch to be born into a non-witching family? That is why Mildred was such a big surprise for everyone.'

'Then why did Millie say you had kids like her at your school?'

'Well, as I said, it's a little more complicated. Sometimes, a witch has a daughter who doesn't seem to have any magic. Most of the time she has passive magic - sometimes her mother has sealed it away for her safety but that's rare. But if her magic is passive and she has daughter who continues this like – without being interrupted by any sons – then each generation is passively magical. And at some point, it will be turned into active magic again. Then you have a witch whose mother isn't one but maybe her great-grandmother was one. Skipping two generations are actually most common but sometimes there are more. Or a witch's granddaughter is a witch again.'

For a moment, Julie was silent as she was considering Pippa's explanation.

'That's what they thought Millie was, wasn't it?'

'Yes. And when I told Mildred about my school, that was also what I was talking about. Those coming from this background are a bit looked down upon; they usually are not quite as strong because the magic needs their generation to regenerate from passive to active again. And then they don't have any previous training, just like Mildred. All that gives them quite a disadvantage-'

'Was that why HB said Millie was to powerful?'

'What?' Pippa looked confused and Julie quickly elaborated.

'She mentioned this generation skipping but that she though that Millie was too powerful for that.'

'That would make sense, so I suppose that was what she meant…anyway, where was I?'

'Disadvantages?'

'Ah, yes. A lot of schools are not happy to take skipped-generation-students because – like Mildred – they often struggle with control over their magic, at least in the beginning. And they lack most of the fundamental knowledge about the workings of our world that the others have grown up with…'

'But you take them anyway.' It wasn't really a question but Pippa nodded and when she answered, her words were slow and thoughtful.

'I believe that it doesn't matter where our magic comes from. Every magical child should be nurtured and supported to become the best it can. Heritage is not everything, there are much more important values.'

Julie couldn't help but smile at her words. Pippa Pentangle really was the complete opposite of every other witch she had yet met and she found that quite refreshing.

'That's what I'm always telling Millie too. That there are more important things than who your witchy ancestors are, I mean. But I'm still glad when this is over and we know if I'm really the witch HB thinks I am…'

At this, Pippa's face seemed to darken.

'What's wrong?'

'Nothing – oh, stop looking at me like that, I'll tell you!' Pippa sighed and her face grew serious as she looked at Julie.

'What we attempt to do … nothing remotely like it has ever been done before.'

'And?'

'And that means that no one knows how it will actually work. Or what could go wrong! All I know is that it will not be as easy as Hecate thought. The –'

She was interrupted by a knock on the door and a quick glance at her watch told Julie that her second guest was just in time.

Five minutes later Hecate Hardbroom had joined the two others at the table and was now sipping at her coffee while she was listening to Pippa.

'So, I was just telling Julie that I am not sure if this is going to be as easy as you thought.'

'That is the reason you are here, Pippa.'

'Well, yes –'

'What exactly do you mean by that?' interrupted Julie and the two witches turned their attention back to her.

'You,' she mentioned at Hecate, 'said we just had to undo those various memory spells, right?'

The dark haired witch nodded.

'But we don't know which spells have been used, which puts us at a disadvantage. Though that's not THAT bad, there are general counters for memory spells that should work well enough for the beginning, and then we might find out what was used anyway.'

'That's what I had planned to do anyway,' Hecate stopped her friend's explanation with a frown, obviously waiting for Pippa to make her point. The witch complied with a small sigh.

'What I fear is that all of Julies memories have been removed – then we could do a lot of damage and –'

'She hasn't done that.'

'How would you know, Hecate?'

'Because, Pippa, that would be to easy. Just find the memories and restore them, then everything will be fine again? No, that is way too simple.'

For a moment, the blonde witch looked at her old friend with a thoughtful gaze but then she simply continued without a comment.

'Right. Now, no one has ever done something like this, at least I couldn't find any information about it. I had a few concerns and in the past week, I did a lot of research. It turned out that most of my fears have been unnecessary – but some were not.'

'What's that supposed to mean?' Julie interrupted again and this time, Hecate glared at her.

'It means that it is a risky thing to do but we all knew that before – '

'So we did.'

'– but the greatest danger is that we could exhaust ourselves. I know, Hecate, we are both well trained and experienced, but still. If we have to stop halfway through recovering you memory it won't hurt you was I feared, if necessary we could shield it because just having half of your memory would be uncomfortable. But you wouldn't suddenly turn insane as I feared, simply because the memories are your own and already linked to you.'

'But it would be unpleasant and confusing,' pointed Julie out and the two other witches nodded.

'We also have to make sure that we start undoing the spells in the right order,' Pippa them continued, 'otherwise we will end up with a tangled mess of spells that are half undone and half connected or covered by others. Julie, that means for you that the first things you will remember are the last things that happened – assuming, of course, that she worked her way through your head chronologically.'

'But that's good, isn't it?'

The two blondes looked at each other, both frowning slightly.

'What do you mean?'

'Well, if the first thing I remember is what happened last, then I can tell you how the mess in my head came to, right?'

Pippa's eyebrows shot up.

'That's right. I didn't even think of that…'

'But you might remember some unpleasant things too, Julie. We don't know exactly what … Mistress Broomhead did to you but you should be prepared for the worst. She was a quite unpleasant woman.'

And that put it lightly, Hecate added as a silent afterthought to her words. But Julie just shrugged.

'Someone who messes around in other people's heads I wouldn't picture as a nice person.'

They fell silent for a moment, Pippa lost in thought about the magic they were about to perform, Julie trying to imagine why Hecate didn't seem to trust her judgement of their former teacher and Hecate herself contemplating whether or not she should tell Julie about the methods used at witch training college. In the end, she decided against it – as soon as she remembered, she would know and understand.

'One more thing,' Pippa said, pulling them about of their thoughts again, 'as soon as anyone begins to feel exhaustion, let us know! If you don't and fall unconscious while mind and body are separated, you might never be able to wake up again. I know Hecate could probably pull us back together before damage is done, but I'd rather not risk that. And Julie?'

'Yes?'

'Tell us if we hurt you.'

'Didn't you just say that this wouldn't hurt her, Pippa?'

'It won't do any lasting damage. But Julie, some of your real memories, especially the ones of your childhood, might have merged together with the 'new' memories that cover them. If they did, just undoing the spell would be painful – if you tell us, we slowly detangle them. That would take longer but it should work just as well.'

'Alright,' Julie nodded. 'But how do I tell you?'

Hecate and Pippa gave each other a look.

'What?' Now Julie became suspicious and Hecate sighed.

'That can't be explained in words. Don't worry, the moment we start, you will know what to do.'

'Are you sure?'

'I was right the last time, wasn't I?'

Having no answer for that, Julie simply nodded and took a deep breath.

'I don't think I'll get any more ready than I am.'

Pippa nodded and put her hands on the table for Hecate and Julie to take.

'Then let us begin.'