Chapter Seven

Esmeralda had not seen her sister since that morning when she had gotten the news that she was headgirl. Esmie was not daft she knew Ethel would be upset because she always felt everything went right for Esmeralda which is how the young teenager found herself outside her sister's room.

"Ethie it's me" Esmie said cheerfully as she knocked. She had not realised her sister had gone out.

This of course got no answer as Ethel was not in the room.

"Ethie?" Esmie said as she knocked on the door again worried her sister was upset.

When she still got no answer she walked in and started to talk.

"I was thinking why don't we go to that new..." she stopped as she opened her sister's door and saw her room was empty.

She looked around confused as she had not been told Ethel had gone out. She was just about to close the door to go look elsewhere when something caught her eye.

The sun was quite bright on that summer's day and the sun was shining on the broken glass in the bin. Esmeralda walked to the bin confused and lifted the broken photo frame out.

She looked at the broken frame and realised it was one of the pictures from their holiday.

"OWW" Esmie said loudly dropping the photo frame as she had cut herself on one of the sharp broken edges of glass.

The palm of her hand started to bleed from the cut and she ran out of her sisters room to the bathroom to run her hand under the tap. As she was washing her injury she started to wonder why the frame was broken in the first place, Ethel was not normally the clumsy sort.

She turned the tap off and flicked her uninjured hand towards the cut so that it would heal over. Esmie was quite good at first aid spells considering she had sisters who were younger and were always getting injured.

After she had healed her hand she went down the stairs and found her parents talking happily to each other.

"Where is Ethie?" Esmeralda asked them still looking around.

"Oh she went out" her mum replied not expanding on it.

"Oh where too?" Esmie asked wanting to know where she was.

"I don't know" her father replied simply not bothered where exactly she was.

"You didn't ask her?" Esmie asked concerned that no one knew where she had gone.

"No, she will be fine" her mother replied not seeming concerned over her second daughter's whereabouts.

Ethel walked happily to the local witches library which was only ten minutes away from the Hallow residence. Walking in the door she once again just stopped and stared for a few moments at the amount of books that were there.

She shook her head coming out of her trance as she went to look for the section she needed.

"Potions...Witching History...Broomstick flying." she read slowly as she ran her fingers along the spines.

"Spells" she finally found the section she was looking for.

Though she had found the right section it still took her a while to find the book she wanted.

"Beginner's spells, forbidden spells, quick and simple spells, advanced spells, Senior spells." as she read the last section she smiled and took three books of the shelf wanting to make sure that they had the topic she was interested in.

She had found the books she wanted but now she had an even bigger books she wanted to take out were age restricted. Only older witches were allowed to take them because the magic could be dangerous in the wrong person's hands.

Ethel snook two books into the bag she had brought and then went to the desk to take out two other books that she didn't want. She did this so no one would suspect she was taking any other books out.

Ethel walked out the library with no problem and ran home feeling like someone would stop her for taking the books. But she was going to return it so it was not stealing right? Just temporarily borrowing.

Returning home Esmeralda hugged her sister as soon as she saw her, relived she was okay and returned safe.

"I only went to the library." Ethel commented confused why she was all over her.

"I was worried, you never told me where you were going." Esmie replied expressing her worry to her sister.

"Sorry I thought you knew." Ethie replied assuming her older sister knew she would have been there.

"Oh Ethie, what happened to that photo frame? I wasn't prying I just happened to notice it." Esmie asked bringing it up.

"Oh, Nightstar knocked it down." Ethel lied not wanting her sister to know she was upset and angry and had smashed it herself.

"Oh...well I put it in the main bin for you I cut my hand on it." Esmie replied sharing what she had done.

"Are you okay?" Ethel asked concerned that her sister was hurt.

"Yes don't worry about me, oh I was going to ask you do you want to go to that new cafe and try some cake? Sybil is driving me nuts I need to get out for a bit." Esmie asked wanting to get out the house and have some time alone with Ethie.

"Sure just let me go and put my books in my room, will be down soon." Ethie said before she went upstairs and took out the two books she had taken hiding them at the back of her bookshelf for later. Then went to join her sister for some time alone with her at the new cafe that had opened.