.

Episode Eleven

The "All's Well that Ends Well" Reconfiguration

Updated 4/24/2015

=ooo=

Penny and Wyatt waited, hugging one another, as the members of the Witches' Council prepared to remove their powers and banish them back to the mortal realm, forever—

With a flash of lightning and a rumble of angry thunder, Endora appeared in front of the Council, her eyes blazing with anger.

"What is the meaning of this?!" she demanded furiously. "Who dared to call this session of the Witches' Court without informing me?!"

"Endora!" Hagatha said in surprise. "We—we thought you were busy elsewhere." She lowered her arms, cancelling the spell that would have stripped Penny and Wyatt of their powers.

"I was," Endora snapped. "Luckily, someone informed me that you had convened this meeting of the Council. It's a good thing I found out, too! Why are you trying to take Penny and Wyatt's powers from them?!"

"Penny violated the Code and brought a mortal to the Eternal Realm!" Enchantra told her. "You know we can't let that sort of thing happen without consequences!"

"Oh, rubbish!" Endora declared. She pointed an accusing finger at the Council. "You've done worse in your day, Enchantra! So have you, Hagatha, and you, too, Bertha! In fact, every person on this Council has some dirty little secret they'd like to keep hidden. With the exception of myself," she added, smugly.

The members of the Council looked at one another. Their expressions were embarrassed and guilt-ridden. "But all that's in the past now, Endora," one of the warlocks spoke. "Even your peccadillos, too, and don't pretend you don't have any!"

"Well, I may not be lily-white, either," Endora admitted. "But there's no reason for you to go after Penny because of one tiny mistake she made, a mistake that was quickly rectified."

"We beg to differ, sister," Hagatha said. "Things are different today—our younger witches and warlocks don't care about our laws and traditions like we do. We have to teach them respect!"

"Oh, Hagatha! Don't be such an old stick-in-the-mud!" Endora sneered. "Penny hasn't even been a witch a year yet! Making her a mortal again isn't going to make any difference to the younger generation!" Endora's expression turned calculating. "Or maybe that's the point, perhaps? You don't like the idea that mortals can become witches, do you?"

"That's ridiculous!" Bertha scoffed. "Nobody believes those old stories—"

"Quiet, Bertha!" Hagatha snapped, and Bertha shut up, clapping her hand over her mouth.

But it was too late. "Oh, so that's it," Wyatt said, realizing what was going on here now. "You're all afraid of losing your privileged status here, aren't you? You're afraid that we'll make more mortals into witches and warlocks, and that you'll become less and less important over time."

"But that's just the way things are," Penny said. "The old make way for the young to take over."

"Not in the Eternal Realm," Endora said. "The same people have been on the Council for—well, a very long time," she finished. "And things aren't likely to change anytime soon."

"You're a part of the Council too, Endora," Hagatha said. "So it pains us to do this." At a nod she and several other Council members gestured toward Endora, who vanished, reappearing a moment later in the small bannister with Penny and Wyatt.

Endora looked around, then glared at the Council members. "You wouldn't dare!"

"We have dared," Hagatha said. "I'm sorry, Endora. You are our sister and we love you, but you must now share the fate of your stepson and his daughter."

=ooo=

Raj opened his eyes.

He was staring at the ceiling of Emily's bedroom. She had invited him over for a double feature movie night—each of them picking a movie to watch. Raj had chosen Bridget Jones's Diary, hoping she would enjoy the interplay between the main characters, which he had watched with awe the first time he viewed the film. Emily had pronounced the film "cute"—essentially her euphemism for boring.

Emily, predictably, had chosen a horror film. This latest offering was titled Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, a Japanese movie that was, to say the least, odd. Raj shuddered as he remembered some of the gorier scenes from the show.

"Are you okay?" Emily put a hand on his arm.

"I'm okay," Raj said, smiling at her. Horror movies turned Emily on, and tonight had been no different than before. They had made love for a long time, a lot longer than Raj could normally remain, well, "prepared." Not that he was complaining, mind you! It was just strange how much better he was with Emily than with any of the other women he had been with before.

"What are you thinking?"

"Oh, that question," Raj said without thinking.

Emily rolled over toward him. "What's wrong with that question?" she asked.

"Nothing," Raj immediately replied, realizing too late how he'd sounded. "I just meant—"

"Don't worry," Emily smiled, rubbing his arm. "I was just teasing you."

"Oh," Raj relaxed. He was constantly worried he would do or say something that would ruin this wonderful relationship he was in. Emily had been wonderful: caring, understanding, and best part was, she was even weirder than he was! "Good," he said. "You know, I really like you. You know that, don't you?"

"I like you, too," Emily agreed. She seemed to think for a long moment. "Maybe it's time I shared something about myself with you."

A thrill of dread went up Raj's spine. "Really?" he asked, warily. "You're not by any chance transgendered, are you?"

Emily laughed. "No, sweetie, nothing like that! But what I'm about to tell you may shock you almost as much."

Raj relaxed. "Oh, I don't think there's anything you could tell me that would shock me anymore."

"I'm a witch."

"Which what?" Raj asked.

"No, Raj." Emily sat up in bed, and Raj joined her. "I'm—a—witch," she said slowly, enunciating each word carefully. "I can do magic."

A look of real horror crossed Raj's face. "Oh no! I knew it! You've been seeing Howard on the side, haven't you?! He's been teaching you magic tricks! By Shiva, I swear I will—!"

"Raj!" Emily stopped him. "You're not getting it. I'm a cauldron stirring, spell casting, broom flying witch. I can perform real magic, not just mortal tricks like Howard does."

Raj stared at her for long seconds. Then he burst out laughing. "I have to admit, you nearly got me," he sputtered between laughs. "I almost fell for it! But as I understand it, you're supposed to do April Fool jokes on April the first, not the 9th."

Emily's expression turned annoyed. "It's not a joke, Raj," she said. "Watch." She raised her hands and made a flourish in the air. Her bed lifted off the floor and floated upward until they were only inches from the ceiling.

Raj was looking around wildly as they rose in the air. "Holy crap!" he gasped. "Put us down! Put us down!" The bed floated back to the floor. Raj stared at his girlfriend, his eyes wide with surprise and perhaps a little terror. "Why are you telling me this now?"

"I had to make sure we were really friends before I could tell you," she said. "If we weren't, you would have forgotten all about me, and I didn't want that to happen. That's a rule we witches have."

"Witches? There are more of you?" Raj asked.

"Of course there are," Emily said. "We've been around for thousands of years. Well, most of us have," she added, a frown forming on her otherwise pretty features. "Your 'good friend' Penny is a witch."

"No way!" Raj gasped.

"Yes way," Emily nodded. "You see, she probably didn't think you were a good enough friend to tell you she was a witch, like I did! And by the way, don't tell her—or anybody!—I told you I'm a witch. That's our little secret."

Raj let himself fall back onto the bed. "I can't believe it. My girlfriend is a witch."

"Well, believe it," Emily said, lying back and snuggling into his side. "Now that you know I'm a witch, I can stop pretending and we can really have some fun."

"How—how do you mean?" Raj asked, not certain where she was going with this.

"You'll see," Emily smiled, holding him close as she went back to sleep.

Raj lay away for some time, trying to understand what had happened tonight. His girlfriend was a witch, and Penny, someone he had known for a long time, turned out to be one, too. What this would mean for them and their future, he had no idea, except that he probably wasn't going to get another wink of sleep tonight. At all.

=ooo=

Leonard was lying on Penny's couch, tired but too agitated to sleep. What was happening with her and Wyatt? He'd tried reaching Endora, telling the ceiling that Penny and Wyatt were being tried by the Witches Council, but she hadn't appeared. The same had gone for Penny's cousin Serena, Uncle Arthur and her grandfather Maurice. Whatever powers he still possessed weren't enough to reach them, he guessed.

He couldn't even talk to Sheldon about it, because (a) Sheldon was with Amy on an extended Date Night sleepover; (b) because Amy still didn't know about Penny's witchcraft, and (c) the only thing Sheldon cared about as far as Penny's witchcraft was concerned was whether he could learn to do it, too.

Compared to this, Penny wanting to go to that stupid Clerks 3 audition Kevin Smith had invited her to try out for was nothing. In fact, what would happen if she returned home without her powers? Leonard pondered. She still had her job as a pharmaceutical rep—that made good money (twice as much as he made, Leonard reminded himself, reluctantly). She hadn't been a witch for most of her life; she could probably readjust to being mortal once more. That wouldn't be too hard for her, he figured.

The only real problem Leonard could see was with his finances. Penny was investing her money, planning for her future. What had he been doing? He was in his mid-30s and he had almost nothing in savings. Meanwhile Sheldon had oodles of cash stuffed in snake jars and the buttocks of superhero statues! Not the best way to save but at least he was doing something. Howard and Bernadette were pretty much set financially (again, because of her salary, not his) and Raj's parents were Richie-Rich rich. On top of that, Raj's girlfriend was a witch (even if Raj didn't know it, and managed not to mess up their relationship at some point)! If Emily and Raj stayed together and Raj was okay with it, they could pretty much do whatever they wanted.

Leonard yawned hugely, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He was going to have to do something to make more money, somehow. He'd like to do it with science, if he could. "Yeah, I need to really think about that," he mumbled sleepily, taking off his glasses and putting them on the coffee table. "Tomorrow I'll figure something out…" His eyes closed and his breathing became low and steady. "I just wish I was smart enough…to figure everything out…" He began to snore softly.

=ooo=

"I'm sorry you got involved in this, Endora," Wyatt said to his step-mother. "This shouldn't be happening to you, too." He, Penny and Endora watched as the Witches Council stood once again, raising their arms in preparation of removing all three of their powers.

"It won't, if I have anything to say about it," Endora declared, then cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, "MAURICE!"

A blinding flash of lighting lit up the Council member and thunder crashed resoundingly around them. Behind the bench, Hagatha groaned. "Oh no, not him."

Wind swirled around all the Council members, whipping their hair and clothes as a figure suddenly materialized before them with a loud flash and puff of smoke, and the Council room shook as if an earthquake were happening right below them.

Maurice looked around the Council chamber, his expression filled with fury. "What is the meaning of this outrage?" he demanded. His gaze fixed on Hagatha. "Explain yourselves! What are my granddaughter Penny, my son Wyatt, and-" he hesitated a bare moment as he glanced at Endora "—she doing in this Court?!"

"Maurice—" Hagatha had a look of fear on her face; Maurice's temper was legendary. "You—you are not a member of this Council, you cannot—"

"I will thank you, madam, to remember that I was a founding member of this Council!" Maurice raged, shaking his walking stick at her. "And that goes for the rest of you, too!" he added, with a sweeping gesture toward the rest of the bench. "Be thankful I am not now a member—if I were, things would be run quite differently than they are today!"

"Be that as it may," an older warlock named Rolondo spoke up. "Maurice, you cannot deny that there were violations of the Code, and that your granddaughter committed them. We cannot overlook that."

"Oh, really?" Maurice drawled. "I seem to remember you used to bring some of your mortal girlfriends to our Realm, Rolondo." Rolondo blanched as the other members reacted, especially the witches. "Do you remember that one party at Caligula's?" Maurice continued. "You certainly brought down the house that night!"

He pointed to another witch on the Council. "You, Hepzibah—I remember you had your own little getaway, a pocket villa, where you entertained many a young mortal." The old witch gasped as her cheeks burned red.

"All right, Maurice," Endora called out from where she stood with Penny and Wyatt. "You've made your point. Now get us out of here."

"Hold!" Hagatha commanded. Maurice stopped in mid-rant, glaring at her. "Maurice, you're a powerful wizard and individually, none of us can match you, but you are dealing with a majority of the Witches Council now. "If you don't cease interfering this second we will remove your powers as well and banish you to Earth with Endora, your son and your granddaughter!"

Maurice's face was flushed with anger, but against the combined strength of the Council members he knew he couldn't prevail. "Very well. It appears that I am outmatched." He lifted a hand imploringly upward, "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh would melt— thaw and resolve itself into a—"

"Give it a rest, Maurice," Hagatha snapped.

Maurice shot her a baleful look. "You leave me no choice, then. I must appeal this ruling to a higher court."

"There is no higher court than the Witches Council!" Hagatha objected.

"Oh, no?" Maurice countered. "I call upon—the Queen of Witches!"

=ooo=

"That was so weird," Howard said. "I have a half-brother."

"I thought he was nice," Bernadette said. "He even said he liked your magic trick."

Howard and Bernadette were tucked in bed for the night in their new home, Howard's mother's former house. There was still the task of getting their things moved from Bernadette's apartment into the house, and figuring out what they were going to do with the things that were still there. Including Stuart, who despite having his own apartment now continued to stay in their home. Bernadette wasn't sure how she was going to deal with that, given that she'd always supported taking care of him while the comic book store was being rebuilt. But they would work that out as well. Somehow.

"It was a pretty good trick," Howard agreed. "Those thin mints are bigger than a half-dollar!"

"If you say so," Bernadette smiled, sounding unconvinced. "Anyway, with Stuart back in his own apartment, I thought we could go over to the apartment this weekend and start packing things up."

"We could," Howard agreed. He didn't sound very enthusiastic. "I was thinking of playing some Assassin's Creed this weekend…"

"Howie," Bernadette sighed. "We have to be moved out of the apartment by the end of the month. I can't do it alone."

"All right," Howard conceded. A moment later he said, "You could get Amy and Penny to help you…"

"Howard!" Bernadette shook her head. "Yeah, I wish I could get Penny's help with this—it would make things a lot easier."

"What does that mean?" Howard asked, confused.

"Oh, nothing," Bernadette muttered, realizing she'd said more than she meant to. She reached over to turn off her light. "Good night."

"Good night," Howard said, turning off his light.

Moments later his light came on again. "Well, it must mean something," he said to her. "Why else would you say it?"

Bernadette sat up and turned her own light back on. "It's just that—well, you know all those magic tricks you can do?"

"Yeah? So what?" Howard wondered where this was going.

"Well, Penny can do some magic tricks, too," Bernadette said, tartly. "Some pretty good tricks."

"Really?" Howard grinned, surprised. "I wonder why she never mentioned it to me? I'd like to see some of her tricks."

"I bet you would," Bernadette growled. "Penny is a witch."

Howard stared at her for several seconds, processing that. "You're kidding."

"No, I'm not," Bernadette insisted. "She can do real magic. A few months ago she took me to the place where witches and warlocks live. When she brought Leonard there he came back able to do some magic, too. When I came back all that happened was I got taller whenever I got angry."

"You know, I thought you looked taller," Howard said. "But I thought it was just your heels."

"Well at one point I was almost seven feet tall," Bernadette told him. "They had a witch doctor who brought me a potion that made me normal again, but I ended up a couple of inches taller." She glared at him. "And you mean to tell me you never noticed that?"

"Wait, wait, wait a minute," Howard held up his hands. "Potions? Witch doctors? Are you telling me Penny can do magic—real magic, not illusions like I do? And that Leonard can do real, actual, magic, too?"

"That's what I'm telling you," Bernadette said, bluntly. "She can make stuff appear out of nothing, anything at all. I guess she could even move all our stuff from the apartment to this house with one snap of her fingers."

"How long have you known about this?" Howard demanded.

"Since January," she replied.

"And you never thought to tell me?!" Howard sputtered.

"I promised Penny I wouldn't tell anyone—"

"But we're married!" Howard shouted. "Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry!" Bernadette said, hugging him. "I wasn't sure how you'd take it, Howie."

"Are you kidding?" Howard said, a wide grin coming across his face. "This is fantastic! Just think of the things Penny can do for us! Why, we can redecorate every room in the house now! For nothing! Won't that be wonderful?"

"I don't think we should impose on our friendship that way," Bernadette said doubtfully. This was why she hadn't wanted to tell Howard about Penny. Howard was bound to overreact with something like this.

"Why not?" Howard disagreed. "What does she have to do, just wave a magic wand or say a magic word? How hard could it be to do this one little thing for us?"

Bernadette stared at her husband a long moment. Yes, it was definitely a bad idea telling Howard about Penny! But now that the cat was out of the bag…

"I'll talk to her," Bernadette promised. "Just let me handle it, okay?"

"Okay," Howard agreed, smiling, anticipating all the things they could have just for the asking.

"And don't say anything to Penny," Bernadette warned. "Or Leonard, for that matter. And don't tell Amy or Raj—they don't know about Penny, either."

"They don't, eh?" Howard mused. "Hmm, good, good…" With that, he turned off his light and rolled over on his side.

With a troubled sigh, Bernadette turned off her own light and lay down to sleep, trying to figure out a way she could fix this.

=ooo=

A loud fanfare rang throughout the Council chambers as a regal blonde woman appeared between the Council's bench and the group of Penny, Wyatt, and Endora, next to Maurice. "Hello, Daddy," she smiled, pecking him on the cheek.

"Hello, my dear," Maurice said, beaming at her. "I'm glad you could come." He lowered his voice. "Your aunts have been causing trouble again."

"Oh, well, what else is new?" Samantha shrugged. She went over to where the defendants were standing. "Hello, Mother," she greeted Endora, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Hello, Samantha dear," Endora said as she accepted the kiss. She gestured to Penny and Wyatt. "I don't think you've met Wyatt before. He's your—" she shot Maurice a look "—half-brother."

"Yes," Samantha said, giving her father a vaguely chiding look as well. She extended her hand to Wyatt. "Pleased to meet you, Wyatt," she said, formally.

"Hi, Sis," Wyatt grinned, then glanced at Endora as she nudged him in the side. "Sorry," he said, taking her hand and lightly kissing it. "It's an honor to meet you, Your Highness," he said, a little uncomfortably. He straightened and gestured to Penny. "I'd like to introduce Penny, my daughter."

"Pleased to meet you," Samantha said, with an engaging smile.

"Pleased to meet you," Penny managed a small curtsey as she spoke.

Samantha leaned closer to her. "I'd like a chance to talk to you later, see how things have been going with you for the past year, with you learning witchcraft and everything."

"Sure," Penny said, surprised. "Any time."

"Good," Samantha beamed. She turned to face the Council. "Now, what seems to be the problem here? Aunt Hagatha, Aunt Enchantra?"

"Your Majesty," Hagatha said stiffly. "The Council learned recently that Penny, the defendant, brought a mortal to the Eternal Realm, a violation of the Witches' Code."

"I see," Samantha said absently, seeming to ponder what her aunt had said.

"You do realize, Your Majesty," Enchantra reminded her. "Every witch and warlock, even the Queen of Witches herself, must follow the Witches' Code, and if found guilty must be punished."

"Perhaps," Samantha nodded. "But the punishment doesn't have to be quite as harsh as being stripped of all witchcraft. It seems like you're doing that more from spite than anything else, aunties."

Hagatha looked chagrined at being reminded the Queen of Witches was her niece. "Nevertheless, Your Majesty," she reminded her, keeping her tone formal. "That is the decision of the entire Council."

"Not the entire Council," Endora reminded them. "Two members are missing—and I'm one of them!"

"The Council thought your relationship as the defendant's grandmother—"

"Step-grandmother," Endora added. Penny couldn't quite stop an "oh-really-you-had-to-remind-everyone-of-that" eye roll.

"Step-grandmother," Hagatha corrected herself, "that you might not be able to render an impartial decision."

"And you think you have," Endora scoffed. "Don't make me laugh! Half of you are Penny's great-aunts—the other half are cousins. The interrelationships in this Council would make Napoleon Bonaparte turn over in his grave."

Penny looked at Wyatt. "I don't get it," she whispered.

"Don't worry about it," Wyatt told her. "Your grandma's on a roll."

"Be that as it may," Hagatha retorted huffily. "The Council has a quorum—our decision is valid and cannot be overturned, even by the Queen herself, not without a valid justification to do so."

Endora looked at Samantha. "Is that true?" she asked, bleakly.
"I'm afraid so, Mother," Samantha said, looking unhappy.

"There must be something you can do!" Maurice protested.

"Well, Daddy, I did think of something before I came here," Samantha told him.

"What is it?" Endora, Penny and Wyatt said.

"What is it?" Maurice chimed in as well.

"What is it?" the Council chorused.

"There is a provision in the Witches' Code," Samantha said. "That the prohibition from bringing mortals to the Eternal Realm is waived for anyone having witch's blood in their veins," she explained. "I sent someone to check up on the person Penny brought to the Eternal Realm, to see if there were any of her ancestors who were witches."

"Huh," Penny said to her dad. "Not something you can look up on Ancestry dot com, I'd bet."

"Probably not," Wyatt agreed, grinning.

"Well," Hagatha said impatiently. "Where is this so-called information?"

"It's here." Another witch appeared between Samantha and Maurice, a brunette witch Penny recognized as her cousin, Serena. Standing next to Samantha, Penny saw that the two of them resembled each other closely.

Serena was holding a large leather-bound book with the words Ye Olde Family Recordes engraved into the leather. "Hi cuz," she waved at Penny and Wyatt. "I've got it right here," she said to Samantha, pointing to a page of the book.

"Very good, Serena, thank you," Samantha said. With a wave of her hand she floated the book over to land in front of Hagatha. "If you'll look at those records," Samantha said. "You'll find that a male child was born in the late 1700's to a witch and warlock living in Poland. The child was unable to perform witchcraft and the Council at the time—which most of you were on, by the way—required them to give the child to a mortal family. She was adopted by a family named the Rostenkowskis. That child grew up to have children of his own. Eventually, that child's descendant, Mike Rostenkowski, married and had a baby girl, naming her Bernadette. And the rest," Samantha concluded with a smile, "is history. Or in this case, genealogy."

Hagatha looked vastly disappointed. But there was no choice— "Due to the new information brought to light, the charges against Penny are hereby dropped." She banged the gavel. "Congratulations," she said to Penny. "This time," she added, warningly. "Court is adjourned!" The Council members all vanished.

"So that's it?" Penny said, looking around in surprise. "It's over? I won?!"

"Yes you did!" Samantha agreed. "Congratulations!" The barrier surrounding her, her father and Endora vanished, and Samantha hugged Penny.

"However," Samantha said to Penny, as they finished hugging, "that was a very close call. If it had turned out that Bernadette's family hadn't descended from witches, I couldn't have done anything to help you."

"I'm really grateful you did," Penny said sincerely. "It's been very interesting, learning witchcraft and learning all about its history and my heritage as a witch."

"We're very pleased with our granddaughter, Samantha," Maurice said proudly. "Even," he added with a significant look at Penny, "if she is engaged to marry a mortal."

"Well," Endora said with heavy sigh, "we've dealt with it before. I suppose we can deal with it again."

"I've met her fiancé," Wyatt told them. "He's a good guy. He's smart—in the mortal world he's an important scientist. Heck," he shrugged. "Who knows—one day you might even invite him to come here and learn how to be a warlock."

"I wouldn't go that far," Maurice said, sternly. When Penny put on a pouty expression, however, her grandfather softened. "But who knows what the future may bring? We'll see, my dear. We'll see."

"You know he can already do a little wishcraft," Penny reminded them. "We've been waiting to see if it develops into anything more."

"Maybe you should have Dr. Bombay look at him," Samantha suggested.

"I've tried," Penny complained. "He just wants to wait and see."

"Hmm," Samantha shook her head. "Men."

"Tell me about it," Penny agreed.

"Right," Wyatt broke in. "Well, we should probably head back to your apartment," he said to Penny. "Leonard is probably worried sick about what's been happening to us."

"You're right," Penny nodded. She turned to Samantha. "It's been an honor to meet you, Your Majesty." She did another little curtsey.

"Likewise," Samantha smiled. "And call me Samantha from now on. After all, we're family."

"Ugh," Endora groaned under her breath.

"Perhaps we can meet for tea sometime," Samantha suggested.

"I'd like that," Penny smiled happily.

"Good," Samantha said. "Well, you two have a pleasant trip home." She gestured toward Penny and Wyatt and they disappeared.

"That was a close call," Endora said, after they were gone. "I didn't realize the Witches Council was so prejudiced against Penny and Wyatt."

"Things haven't changed much in 50 years," Samantha agreed, sadly. "Poor Darrin had to put up with a lot while we were together." She looked at her mother and father. "And you two were responsible for quite a bit of that," she added in an accusing tone.

"After all, my dear, you can't really blame us," Maurice countered defensively. "We'd seen quite a few relationships between witches and mortals come to a bad end—we wanted to protect you from that."

"Yes," Endora agreed. "It wasn't that we thought Durwood was a bad fellow, but things just usually didn't work out between our kinds."

"Well, you were wrong then," Samantha said, smugly. "Mostly," she added as Maurice and Endora both gave her skeptical looks. "Things between Darrin and I were just fine for many years. In the end, though, the only thing that kept him from becoming a warlock and joining us in the Eternal Realm was prejudice, pure and simple." She shook her head sadly. "I just wish he'd learned to accept witchcraft before he died."

=ooo=

When Penny and Wyatt rematerialized in Penny's apartment they found Leonard sleeping fitfully on her couch. "Leonard, sweetie," Penny said softly, not to startle him. "We're back."

"Sheldon, no!" Leonard cried out. His eyes snapped open as came awake with a start.

"Are you okay," Penny asked, concerned. "It sounded like you were having a nightmare."

"I was," Leonard nodded. He sat up on the couch, rubbing his face to wake himself up. "I dreamed Sheldon was a warlock."

"Oh, dear," Penny said, though she couldn't keep from smiling. "That must've been awful."

"He'd just won the Nobel Prize," Leonard remembered.

"Which one?" Wyatt asked.

"All of them," Leonard said. "Why go in for half-measures, he said. He was in the middle of his acceptance speech when Endora showed up to make him give them back. Sheldon refused."

"Oooh," Wyatt winced. "That couldn't have gone over good, especially not with Endora!"

"It didn't," Leonard agreed. "She told him she was going to turn him into a sofa cushion and put him in his spot on the couch. Sheldon dared her to do her worst, and I was trying to stop him." Leonard looked up at Penny and her father. "That's when I woke up."

"Well, it was all just a bad dream, sweetie," Penny said, sitting down on the couch next to him and hugging him.

"The reality isn't much better," Leonard said as she sat back.

"What do you mean?" Penny asked warily.

"Sheldon was over here earlier," Leonard explained. "I told him you'd been taken to the Witches Council, that they might take your witchcraft away. Sheldon wanted to know if he could have your powers!"

"Now you see why we have to keep our powers a secret," Wyatt explained. "People think it would be wonderful to have these powers, but it's almost more of a curse than a blessing."

"No, Daddy," Penny disagreed. "We can do a lot of good with our powers, if we're careful with them. It's just that some people think about themselves first. Bernadette was jealous of my witchcraft, and when I told Amy I was a witch, she promptly forgot all about me! She always said I was her bestie but I don't think she really likes anyone except Sheldon. But Leonard has been nothing but supportive of my powers, and even though he has some of his own he hasn't tried to use them for material gain."

"Right," Leonard agreed. "Well," he amended a moment later. "Not too much for material gain."
"Anyway," Wyatt said. "I think we should still keep our powers a secret from all mortals, as much as possible, except those we think can handle them, like Leonard here." He clapped a hand on Leonard's shoulder.

Penny thought about that for several seconds. "You may be right about that," she finally agreed. "What do you think, Leonard?" she asked.

"Me?" Leonard looked almost surprised to be asked.

"Well, yeah—I mean, you still have some wishcraft, don't you?"

"Maybe," Leonard said, uncertainly. "So far nothing I've wished for in the past couple of months has come true, though. I'm beginning to think it's gone."

"Maybe that's just as well, son," Wyatt told him. "The Witches Council wouldn't like it one bit if they found you had developed powers from visiting the Eternal Realm. They're afraid mortals are going to gain witchcraft and take over their precious realm."

"Samantha wasn't afraid," Penny pointed out. "She even invited me to tea some time," she added, happily.

"Who's Samantha?" Leonard asked.

"Just the Queen of Witches," Penny said smugly. "And, she's my aunt, too!" she added, brightly.

"The Q-Queen of Witches?" Leonard looked surprised and not a little awed by that revelation. "And she invited you to tea?"

"Pretty cool, huh?" Penny beamed.

"Well, yeah," Leonard admitted. "In comparison, Sheldon sending me out of Fort Cozy McBlanket to fetch him some orange soda doesn't stack up at all."

Penny laughed. "Well, I'll get you something to drink—how about a cup of Swiss Miss chocolate before we turn in for the night?"

"Sounds good to me," Leonard agreed. He glanced at Wyatt. "That is, if it's okay with you, sir."

"Why not?" Wyatt said. "And I'm serving." He snapped his fingers and three cups appeared in their hands. "What do you think of that?" he asked Penny, smiling proudly.

"Pretty good, Dad," Penny said. She held up her cup to show him it was empty. "Except there's no hot chocolate in them."

Wyatt sighed gustily. "Dammit, I still can't get the hang of liquids," he complained.

=ooo=

A/N: The next episode (#12) will be titled, "The Brainiac Conclusion." It's not the final chapter but there aren't many more left in this story.

I saw on the Big Bang Theory Wiki at Wikia dot com that Sheldon and Leonard's moms will be together for the next to last episode of season 8. I'm looking forward to seeing how they interact in that episode. According to the story summary they get into a fight.

The last episode of season 8 will be on May 7, 2015. It looks like something big is in the works for Sheldon and Amy for this episode.

The next episode of The Witch-Bang Theory will probably be out by May 15. That will give me time to reconcile any major changes in the canon story with my storyline. I've made the assumption that canon episodes and Witch-Bang episodes are occurring interspersed with one another. I've tried to take into account what's happening in canon with the elements of this story.