A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews of the last chapter. I can't believe it's been another four months since I last updated, time sure does fly. I apologise in advance for any errors, I wrote and proofread this late at night so a few have probably snuck their way in.

This chapter is dedicated to Dissecting Pomegranates for her incredible support and ping-pong ideas which helped bring the creative side of the brain back to life :) I'd also like to thank NCD for providing great advice when it was needed.

Thanks for reading and enjoy.

Chapter 10

Mirror To The Soul

The dragon's address was over, and the moment she stepped out into the hallway with Agatha and the doors closed Mildred felt her muscles finally relax and release her from the chairs defiant grip. She stood to her feet and stared back at the innocent piece of furniture with a newfound fear, body poised to strike should it attempt to restrain her once more.

"You okay, Mil?" Maud's soft voice questioned and she nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine, the chair just-" she stopped. Her mouth widened and her words failed her when the chair, seemingly possessed by another spirit, floated into the air and blasted its way across Bindweed's head, shattering into pieces upon impact. The witch didn't move, and silence instantly filled the hall. Not a single student dared to speak or laugh.

"You!" Bindweed turned, stalking straight to Mildred who held her hands in front of her, desperately trying to cast a spell though knowing that it wasn't possible. The witch's hands seized her shoulders in their tight grasp before another blast of red singed the old witch's hair. Her grip released and Maud pulled Mildred away while Bindweed turned, eyes narrowed at whichever brat had dared to mess with her authority, to mess with her power.

Every eye followed her gaze to see Enid. The hall floorboards beneath her feet projected a form of thick fog that blanketed the assembly floor, preventing any from seeing where she had mysteriously emerged.

Enid flicked her right hand and sent another array of sparks the witch's way. She held her hand in front of her face to defend herself this time, the blast hitting the wall and making students fan out to the edges of the room. "How did you do that?" She questioned but Enid offered no explanation. She stepped forwards and chanted another curse, throwing it more determinedly at the witch who found herself stepping backwards in retreat. Finding a break in the students defence she threw a well placed attack that sent the student to the floor with a bang. Mildred ran forwards, pushing other students from her way as she took a hold of Enid's arm.

Enid looked into Mildred's eyes, and in that one moment, their friendship appeared to have shattered forever. Enid pulled her arm back and pushed Millie to the polished floors near the stage before she got back to her feet and ran forwards, blocking another attack from Bindweed.

Tears appeared in Millie's eyes as she watched Enid in the distance truly believing that she had made the decision to sever their friendship entirely, until she heard a familiar voice.

"Don't move," a familiar voice commanded. Millie followed instructions and stayed still, though her eyes were wider than before. "Down here." She did and saw Miss Drill, narrowly concealed under the fogs surface. Footsteps approached and Millie saw Maud leaning over her, her mouth widened when she saw the hidden PE mistress though she quickly hid it.

"We need to act fast, Enid is acting as a distraction but it won't last for long. I need you to get me some students, three or four at the most."

"What about me?" Mildred asked.

"No, Broomhead will know your missing instantly, try and get Fenny and Gris and a couple of other reliable students." The two students nodded before they joined the sidelines with the others, hoping that whatever Enid and Miss Drill were planning would work.

Enid hit the floor again, this time feeling the oxygen pushed from her lungs. She coughed and wheezed but managed to roll away from another blast as the remaining students watched in silence. She floundered from side to side, barely managing to protect herself from the menacing witch whose cackles filled her ears and the hall with every blast she managed to land. "Do you really think you have what it takes?" Bindweed taunted, stepping toward the girl, swaying slightly on her feet.

"Yeah," she smiled, her grandmothers fighting spirit burning within as she opened her arms wide. "Give me your best shot."

"Enid! No!" Mildred yelled as Bindweed smirked.

"Do it now!" Enid demanded, turning to look over her shoulder and into her friend's eyes. 'I'm sorry' she whispered silently before meeting Bindweed's vicious snarl with her own cheeky grin. "Come on Bindweed, show me what you've got!"

The blast that erupted from the witch's fingertips filled the room with white and Maud and Mildred took their moment. They ran and grabbed Ruby and Jadu's hands and pulled the two toward Miss Drill who made her way out of the trapdoor to help them in. Fenella and Griselda both jumped in and Imogen pulled the trapdoor closed.

With only the sound of her erratic heartbeat in her ears, Mildred waited with Maud by her side for the light and fog to clear, to see who of the two was left standing and who had fallen. But their answer was not something either of them expected.

The light faded, returning the hall to its bland colour scheme and the floorboards to their scratched polish glory. And standing in the centre of the hall, earning the gasp and unbelieving stare of every student that surrounded them, were both of them.

Enid's arms fell to her sides as she looked at the witch before her who seemed frozen in place. She looked to her feet to determine that she was indeed standing on her own and placed a hand against her chest, feeling the necklace now warm beneath her uniform. It had worked. All of her disbelief and doubt passed and her faith in her grandmother's prophecy of the necklaces purpose suddenly became clear. She had managed to survive an attack that was supposed to kill her, to render her body useless and her soul to the heavens above to be reunited with her grandmother's warm embrace.

Mildred watched silently, neither daring to breathe or make a sound until Bindweed fell backwards with a bang and didn't move to get back up. Enid was next, her legs giving way and smashing her to onto the wooden floorboards.

"NOBODY MOVE!" Demanded the dragon, her command echoing off the great halls stone walls as she appeared at the very centre of the hall with Agatha and Coldstone by her side.

Coldstone raced toward Betty, feeling for a pulse and searching for any signs of life.

"She's…" she paused, voice trembling. "She's dead."

Agatha's jaw dropped, her eyes widening even more than any of the students thought they could. Broomhead wasn't the least bit interested in the casualty, but more who had been responsible. With no external wounds and no blood to be seen, Broomhead quickly reasoned that either the old witch had a heart attack and fainted on her own, or the pupil lying before her feet was the true one responsible. "Magic," she mused, kneeling down and placing two slender fingers against Enid's wrist, her back staying perfectly straight in the process.

Her eyes searched the room for any other possible conspirators before she stood back to her feet. A flick of her hand made Bindweed's body disappear and into the courtyard and Coldstone and Agatha swallow their fear. They stood back to their feet before Broomhead barked her new orders. "Grab her and take her to the dungeons!"

The two fools followed her commands without a moment's hesitation. Each one took an arm and lifted her over their shoulders before aiming for one of the doors which Broomhead opened with a finger pointing beam of magic. It closed immediately after their release to prevent the others from trying anything foolish.

"It seems that you have decided to break the rules…and now it is time you faced the consequences!" With the click of her fingers, a cupboard appeared on stage and earned everyone's attention. Maud's jaw dropped slightly as she looked to Mildred for confirmation. It was definitely the stationary cupboard that Miss Bat spent the majority of her schooling life in. When Broomhead strode to its side and pulled the door open, making their chanting teacher fall to the floorboards with an unforgiving thump, it confirmed their suspicions instantly.

Davina struggled to her feet and Broomhead froze her feet in place to prevent her moving. A silencing spell stopped her from speaking though the tear streaks written on her face were enough to worry the girls. What had she done to her?

"I told you that if you did anything, that your teachers would be the ones to face the consequences!" She clicked her fingers again and Miss Bat's body shivered. Her hands, bound together by yet another spell by her sides, stopped her from releasing the pressure or trying to find her way out. She felt her entire body being curled inside some kind of barrier, slowly pushing further against her and bringing the pain. The students watched in horror before one of the older senior girls grabbed a chair and threw it in Broomhead's direction. The witch stopped it with her hand before she hit the girl to the far wall where she stuck against its surface like chewing gum to the pavement.

Another girl reacted next before a group of three tried to use their magic to blast this witch away but nothing was working until Mildred realised what they could use. Quietly she whispered to Maud and passed the message down the line. They may have all been magically powerless but that still didn't stop them from trying their best to defeat the evil scum.

Everyone grabbed a chair and threw it at once, but they weren't aiming for Broomhead. She stopped the odd one that came her way while the others bashed into the organs pipes and emitted a loud and obnoxious sound. Hecketty was momentarily distracted and she held her hands to her ears, allowing Miss Bat some time to breathe before she attacked again full force. The wrapping spell constricted her body tighter than she could stand and within a few seconds she was screaming. The girls stopped their onslaught and submitted and she smirked. "See the progress you have already made after just a day under my care?" she asked. "You've already learnt your place and to respect authority, learnt about self control and self discipline. Should you misbehave or fail to understand this lesson we shall repeat it, but this time with one of you." Her spell released and Davina crumpled into a heap on the floor before, right in front of their eyes, being blown away like dust particles in a breeze. Each fragment pulled its way from her and, within seconds, all that was left was a pile of black ash.

"Let that be a lesson to you…all of you!" she crossed her arms and vanished, taking the cupboard with her and leaving the students with not a sliver of hope in their veins. It looked like they were never going to get home. At least, not without some help.

"Eww, what was that?" Jadu complained, feeling something slimy against her hand in the passage way. With nothing to light their path they kept themselves together in a human chain, using the odd beam of light that erupted from the surface to guide them.

"Who cares, I just want to get out of here a.s.a.p," Ruby concluded, earning agreements from Fenella and Griselda in the process.

"What a minute! Look! Up there!" Ruby pointed as she crawled from another wet and spider infested tunnel into an underground catacomb storage room of sorts that provided the girls time to stand to their full heights. Above them was a half broken staircase to some sort of door and Imogen felt a smile tug the corners of her lips. "Girls help me move some of these chests."

Ruby pushed one side with Griselda while Fenella and Jadu tried lifting another on top to form their own staircase. They only had a few resources, some old vines that had been growing down in the caverns for years, a couple of chests full of nothing but old linen, the odd photograph or two and the tiniest amount of light coming through a hole in the earth to their far right that trickled water from outside their dome of discomfort.

With everything seemingly in order, Imogen turned to the group and asked the question. "Who first?" Ruby raised her hand and started for the pile, carefully taking a step at a time towards their possible exit. The higher she got the more she found herself searching the walls for additional support and occasionally stumbling. Her legs started to shake when she looked down and realised how far she had come, but thankfully the door was within her grasp. Pulling the handle down, Ruby pushed her shoulder into the wood, finding it unwilling to fulfil its only purpose in life.

"Everything alright, Ruby?" Imogen asked from below.

"Yeah," she groaned, pushing a little harder, "this damn door is too stubborn for its own-" before she could finish her sentence she fell forwards and landed with a thud. A smile stretched across her face as she got back to her feet and pulled a nearby curtain away. Before her lay shelves full of old books, paintings were strung on the walls. An old gramophone sat in the corner covered in dust while a few extra assembly chairs sat across the room in a circle.

"Ruby!" Jadu's cry echoed from below, making her turn and poke her head out the door.

"Come on up, you've got to see this!"

After Imogen and the girls made it up their makeshift staircase and entered the room they too were taken by surprise. "What do you think this used to be used for?" Jadu asked, picking up an old photograph. Most of it had deteriorated though the school uniform the figures wore was unmistakably their own. "Must have been an old hideout."

Imogen walked to the farthest corner before pulling back another drape and finding herself walking up the stairs. At the top she saw another trapdoor and rolled her eyes at just how confusing this place had turned out to be. Hidden secret society club rooms, dungeons, caverns full of ancient mysteries and cobwebs, and an endless series of trapdoors and hidden tunnels, it was the perfect location for a childhood nightmare although it seemed ironic that the very places that used to scare her in her dreams had now become her home.

Lifting the door she searched around, instantly recognising the library. With the coast clear she pushed the door further open and made to leave when voices entered her ears and she retreated back into her hole. "I can't believe it," Coldstone bittered as Imogen peered through the open library door. Her eyes widened the moment she saw Enid cradled between the two. "How could this child!"

"I don't know!" Agatha snapped. "But if we don't get her to the dungeons Broomhead will skin us alive."

Scurrying back downstairs, Imogen ushered the girls together. "Okay, we need a plan - I think we need to split up."

"Why? Isn't it better if we stay together?" Jadu questioned, earning a concurring nod from Ruby.

"We have too much to do and not a lot of time to do it in, they wouldn't have noticed your absence at the assembly but we need to use this time wisely. I need to go and get Enid from the dungeons where I overheard the witches were taking her, but we also need to find out what's happened to Miss Hardbroom and Miss Cackle."

"And what about this magical thing? We haven't been able to use our magic." Fenella noted and Imogen nodded.

"I know, Enid and I saw it from the outside, it looks like a shield or spell that covers the entire school, its stopping anyone from inside using magic."

"But why could Enid use it then?" Griselda questioned.

"She has what could be the key to getting us all out of here, another reason why I need to go and find her."

"We will go with you," Jadu volunteered, turning to the two fourth year girls. "You're both super good at sneaking around and you know more spells than we do. Maybe you could work on trying to find the spell and work on getting some possible location information."

"Good idea, Jadu, does everyone know what they are doing?" Imogen asked and they nodded. "Remember to stay hidden, well out of sight and do not risk yourselves getting caught. We'll meet back here in an hour, if one team doesn't show up than the other knows that something's gone wrong, agreed?" Their heads nodded a second time and, after carefully scouting the library and the corridor entrance, Imogen and her team of two made a dash while Fenny and Gris closed the door and started searching the shelves for anything useful that could get them out of this mess. With no word on their remaining teacher's conditions, the entire schools fate rested on the small group's shoulders, the weight of which making each decision and second count.

Broomhead's rod-straight posture failed her. She bent forwards after materialising in Miss Cackle's office, her hands desperately gripping a chair in front of her to keep her body upright. Her head spun, arms were weak and tired, and quickly she manoeuvred the chair around and took a much needed rest. Closing her eyes she inhaled and exhaled slowly, knowing that the feeling was bound to pass in a few moments. She had been planning her takeover of Cackle's Academy for so long, had vowed to defeat its headmistress and accomplish her ultimate goals, but never had she thought it would be this draining. Between the incompetence from her insufferable colleagues Agatha and Millicent and her age, she found herself struggling to keep up her menacing pace.

Her breathing felt staggered in her chest and she cursed herself for allowing herself to harbor such weakness. Her entire life she had strived for perfection, had strived to achieve the very best, and if she couldn't have what her evil and dark heart desired than no one else was going to. Cackle's academy would become hers, no matter who stood in her way, no matter how much she needed to sacrifice, no matter how long it would take.

Her head stopped spinning though she still felt a dull thud probing her conscious mind. It was between each pound that she started to ponder exactly what had happened inside that Great Hall. She failed to understand how a single child had managed to kill another witch unless… her eyes widened and she quickly stood to her feet and ran to the cupboard on the other side of the room. Quickly she searched through the documents, trying to identify the familiar name, anything that could have helped her understand whether her hunch had been correct. Then she saw it, the name, in perfectly hand written scrawl that only the great Constance Hardbroom could have inscribed.

Enid Nightshade.

Pulling the file she spread the information sheets, checking the details and a smirk spread on her lips. It was then she noticed it. An innocent letter, sent from Enid's mother and father to inform Miss Cackle of her grandmothers passing. Her fist pounded the table, making the papers shudder as her jaw tightened, her back teeth grinding in frustration and anger. Her eyes were wide, heart rate increased, she felt her shoulders begin to physically quiver and from more than tiredness. If that old fool thought that she could fool her like this than she had another thing coming.

Agatha and Coldstone opened the door, immediately jumping back at their mistresses seething gaze. "Where is she?!"

"In the dungeons, like you told us," Agatha answered before Broomhead pushed her way out the door, deciding it better to go on foot than to risk transporting herself and ending up incapable of finishing the job.

"Hecketty," Millicent tried to speak, she and her equally confused friend following closely behind. "What are you doing?" Her feet stopped instantly and she turned, forcing Millicent to hit the brakes and her shoes to skid slightly against the cement walkway.

"Finishing what I should have a long time ago."