This might well be the longest chapter in this story yet. I wanted to write some of it but then I ended up writing it all in one go so I can actually post this earlier than expected. There are probably one or two chapters left and with a little luck the next one won't take to long to write.
As for this one, well, why make up a new backstory when ther is one I can adapt? I really hope you are not too mad at me about that, though would love to hear your theories about what happened :)
'Good morning sunshine.'
'MUM!'
Mildred jumped towards her mother and pulled her in a tight hug. Julie smiled and rustled her hair.
'Are you okay, mum?'
'I'm better than ever, love. What would you like for breakfast? French toast? Pancakes? Or something else – is everything alright, Millie?'
Julie gave her daughter a concerned look when the girl didn't answer and just continued to beam at her. Finally, she grinned at her mother.
'I'm great mum! Do you remember what happened now? Do you remember being a witch?'
A shadow passed over Julie's face but it was so quick that Mildred didn't even notice it. She was way to exited after all that happened during the last week, especially last night. Suddenly, she frowned.
'Wasn't Miss Pentangle going to stay?'
'O, she did.' Julie smiled. 'But I send her up to the castle after she gave me another check-up – every girl needs her beauty-sleep.'
At that, Mildred giggled and grinned.
'Sooo,' her mother laughed and took out two plates, 'what did you say you wanted for breakfast?'
'Can we have pancakes?'
'We sure can.'
And with a wave of Julie's hand, the batter put itself together and within a minute she was frying the first pancake. Mildred was staring at her in awe.
'That's AMAZING, mum!' She squealed and almost knocked over a chair with her jumping around the kitchen. But for once, her mum didn't seem to mind at all, she just laughed.
'It is. It is, Millie. And now that I remember it, I can teach you about all the things your friends at school already know.' Surprisingly, Mildred just threw her arms around her from behind, as if she didn't mind the thought of even more studying this summer at all. Then again, with the two of them it wouldn't be like the studying for lessons at school and therefore it needn't be dreaded. Right?
Mildred certainly seemed to think so, considering that she already went through all the things that she really desperately wanted to know. Julie just smiled, content to listen to her chatter while she was finishing the last of the pancakes. Just when she was about to turn the last one around one more time, Mildred stopped rather suddenly.
'Mum?', she asked. 'If you are a witch, and I am a witch, then why are auntie Mo and Nanna no witches?'
Julie sighed. Of course Mildred would ask this question sooner rather than later – even though she had hoped that she would have a little more time to prepare an answer.
'Well…you do know that Mo is not actually my sister, right?' Mildred nodded. 'She's actually my cousin, my mum's brother's daughter. But when uncle Ben and Auntie Jane died, my mum and dad took her in and we were raised together, just like sisters.'
'But then why doesn't auntie Mo have magic?'
'Well,' Julie said as she placed the stack of pancakes in the middle of the table between them and sat down, 'you know that magic is only given from mother to daughter, right?'
Mildred nodded, understanding dawning on her.
'Nanna's from a magic family but between her mum and Mo there was uncle Ben, and the magic didn't pass through him, right?'
'Yes, that is exactly what happened, Millie. Uncle Ben couldn't get any magic from his mother because he was a boy, so Mo couldn't get it from him.'
'But then why isn't Nanna a witch, mum?'
'That, Millie, is a … well, it's a bit more complicated than just being a witch or not. Oh, you don't have to look at me like that, love, I'll explain it to you. Later, alright?'
'When later?'
'After breakfast. You need to get ready, we've got to be at Cackle's at 11.'
'But walking up there takes ages, mum!'
'Who said anything about walking?' Julie smirked and Mildred gave her a confused look. It was a long moment of silence until the penny finally dropped.
'We're going to transfer?!'
'Quite right. Now, eat up before the pancakes get all cold.'
And they dug in without realising that as witches, they were perfectly capable of using a warming charm to keep their food hot. But they had indeed been living a non-magical life for a long time and some habits don't break from one moment to the next.
At 10.55am, Mildred and Julie appeared right at the front gate of Cackle's and Julie sighed in relief. She had transferred around their flat in the morning, to see whether she could still do it or not, and it had worked just fine. But nevertheless had she been a little worried that it wouldn't work out, transferring to the school with Mildred. Then again, if she hadn't been sure she could actually do it, she wouldn't have – she'd never put Mildred in danger like that.
She shook her head and smiled at her daughter, who had just raised her hand to knock – but someone pulled the door open from the other side and Mildred almost hit Miss Hardbroom. Almost, because she managed to pull her hand back right before it touched the startled teacher.
'Hubbles,' she mumbled under her breath as she stepped aside to let them in but Julie was pretty sure she heard amusement in that tone.
It was actually the first time that Julie walked into Miss Cackles office, where a tea table was already set for five people. She had been here before, but she had always been transferred there – she should really have a word with Hecate later, about her terrible habit of transferring people like that, without warning them! What if they were in the shower or asleep or in another inconvenient situation?
'Are you going to tell us now why Nanna isn't a witch?' Mildred pulled her out of her thoughts and Julie smiled.
'Nanna?' Miss Cackle interrupted, apparently a little confused who Mildred was referring to.
'My mother. I already explained to Millie that Mo, my sister, is no witch because her dad is my mum's brother – my parents took her in after he and his wife died.'
'Ah, right. Well, then please, do tell, Ms Hubble.'
'You know, we,' Pippa pointed at Hecate and herself, 'actually looked up the magical registry this morning and there is no one listed as Hubble.'
'We are no witches? But mum and I- '
'You should really let people finish, Mildred. We did find something else, two witches from a family that was thought to be extinct: The Hubbard family.'
'And they were marked as Julieta and Mildred.'
Everyone looked at Julie now, who just nodded. She took a moment to compose herself and think of a right way to begin before she finally started.
'In 1696, a witch named Mirabelle Hubbard was born. Because she was quite powerful, she soon became the protector of her coven. But one day, after she helped another witch give birth to a daughter, some evil entered their caves and eventually it turned out to be a witch. A witch who was looking for power and thought she would find it the Morlyn-Covens sacred caves. And she was right, because that is where they kept their founding stone. Do you know what that is, Millie?'
Mildred shook her head and looked at her mum expectantly but it was Miss Cackle who answered instead.
'A founding stone is an ancient magical object, and no one knows has seen one in centuries. They once belonged only to the old covens, like the Morlyn one, and worked as a charger for magical energy. Because a founding stone helps to stabilise young magic and absorbs the magic that is flying around unneeded, the old magic council declared that the very first witching academy would be provided with a founding stone as well. When more schools were founded, some of them – like Cackles – were also granted a founding stone to boost the wards and help the students.'
'So this founding stone, love,' Julie took over from the headmistress smoothly, 'and it has been charged with surplus magic for over a millennium. It would have been bursting with magic, and of course that was something that would attract a lot of evil witches. And usually, they wouldn't have a chance for Mirabelle and the other witches were quite capable of defending their coven. But that day...they were all needed somewhere else and they didn't even notice that someone was in the sacred cave until it was too late.'
Julie stopped again and took a sip of her tea. No one spoke, the story was to captivating and no one wanted to break the tension in the room by asking a question.
'The witch found the founding stone and simply took all its powers, absorbed them to merge with her own and make her the most powerful witch. The only trouble for her was that the founding stones magic was too much for her – it was, after all, one of the eldest covens in Britain and a lot of powerful witches had left some of their magic to linger and be absorbed by the stone after their death.
You know how hard it is to try and hold on to someone else's magic if you are not just working on a spell together – yet the witch tried to keep in all the magic and you can imagine what it led to.'
All the adults nodded but Mildred shook her head.
'What happened to her, mum?'
'She got consumed by the magic, Mildred. It tore her apart and I am sure that there was nothing left of her afterwards. Only magic,' Hecate explained and Pippa added, 'Just like spontaneous self-ignition, you know?'
Mildred did know and with a nod she told her mum to continue.
'So, the witch was dead now but the founding stone…well, it had been stripped of all it's magic. The Morlyn coven would be the first and only one to find out that if you do that, you reverse the founding stone's nature. Instead of storing and providing magic, it would now consume and destroy all the magic it could find. And not only in the air around but also from the caves themselves – and once there was no magic left in the ground and the walls, it would turn to the witches. Starting from the stone itself, the dark ice - you could maybe call it the 'anti-magic', Millie, because it makes it impossible for magic to come near it without being absorbed – well, the dark ice spread. All through the caves.
The coven tried to find a way to reverse the powers of the stone but eventually they were all taken by the ice and Mirabelle was the only witch left. Desperate to save her coven, she went back to the founding stone and tried to fuel it with her own powers. But she realised that she wasn't powerful enough on her own – and she did the only thing she could think of. She gave the stone her powers and those of her daughter – and her daughters, and theirs. Nothing happened but at the twelfth generation, Mirabelle could feel her powers disappear and suddenly the founding stone was re-ignited. And the Hubbard witches would have no magic for the next 12 generations.'
'You are generation 13, aren't you, Julie?' Pippa asked solemnly into the silence that followed Julies words. She nodded.
'It's why my mum doesn't have magic – she is a witch but she her magic was used on that stone. Though I think that even without magic, she is more of a witch than she thought – she called me that day you helped me get back my magic, you know, Hecate? She asked if something about me had changed because she had a hunch…I didn't think much of it until this morning. Thinking of it, she always knew when something was wrong with Millie AND I think she could see the witches code…'
'Well, just because she doesn't have magic that doesn't mean she is no witch, so it is quite possible that she can still use some of her gifts,' mused Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom nodded.
'Quite right. Do you know what happened to the stone after that, Julie?'
'Unfortunately not. I never got around to do the research on what happened to the coven when I went to College and well, you know what happened there.'
Once again, everyone but Mildred nodded, though Hecate's eyes darkened rapidly at the mention of Mistress Broomhead's school. Before Mildred could ask what happened though, Pippa interrupted again.
'I think I might be able to help with that,' she chimed in. 'I never came across what you just told us, Julie, but I did some research on lost Covens a while ago. For the Morlyn coven, there was a lot of talk about 'an incident' and 'the loss of many great witches' though that was nowhere specified. But I assume it must be this – it did happen in the 1740s, didn't it?'
'I think so, yes.'
'Well, then after Mirabelle gave up her family's magic, the Hubbard's left the coven – I don't know if they had to or if they wanted to leave but the rest of the coven was weakened and they send their children off to schools for the first time instead of teaching them in the coven.'
'Magic schools were, in a way, the downfall of the old covens. Often times, young witches would finish their schooling and decide that they wanted to stay with their friends, they created their own new covens and the old ones…well, they got smaller and smaller until there was no one left.' Hecate paused to look around and it was Mildred who asked the question they all had.
'But what happened to the stone?'
'No one knows, Mildred,' she shrugged apologetically. But again, Pippa shook her head.
'Actually, the Council decided a while ago to search for some of the old founding stones. I'm not sure what for exactly, I mean, we certainly didn't get one for Pentangles but I know they did find one up in the Highlands, where the Uanie coven used to be.'
'Can they do that? Just take the founding stones away?'
'Well, it's not like there is anyone from that coven left to claim it, right?'
'So if we found the stone that belonged to Mirabelle's coven, we could decide what to do with it?' Mildred asked slowly and in a way, no one was surprised that she had been able to follow their discussion. Despite her absolute incapability to actually listen during class, she was a very clever girl.
And that was actually a very good and valid question none of them had thought about. Realistically, the chances of finding the stone were almost non-existent but in theory? It would certainly be interesting to play that through. Eventually, no now, though.
That was what they told Mildred and with her curiosity satisfied for the moment, she excused herself to go outside and enjoy the sun. The four women talked way past lunchtime, mostly about the things that had changed in magical politics and research since Julie 'left' and then a bit about her schooling and what she'd teach Mildred over the summer and at some point Pippa and Ada drifted off to headmistress talk and Julie decided to go looking for Mildred.
She wasn't even down the first corridor when she realised that Hecate had followed her. With a slight frown, she turned around but then she saw the look on her friends face.
Somehow she knew what was about to come, what Hecate wanted to know. And really, she was the only one who would – could – both ask and understand because she had been there.
'What did she do to you, Julie?'
'Probably all the things you imagine she did – Hecate?'
'Yes?'
'How…how did you get through that?'
Neither needed to say what they were talking about, they couldn't possibly. Their time at the witch training college, under the 'tutelage' of Mistress Broomhead…it was too painful and in a way, Julie wished that THAT part of her memory stayed forgotten. Now, she looked at Hecate who somehow managed to survive the entire schooling there. The dark haired women closed her eyes for a moment before she answered.
'Like you, I suppose. Battered and scared and afterwards I forgot and moved on.'
Julie didn't say anything to that statement, she just nodded. For a moment, the two of them stood there, a pair of kindred spirits understanding each other.
Then Julie remembered why she actually left the office and with a smile she went off to collect her daughter. Hecate just stood in the hallway, looking after her while a million thoughts ran through her head. The last one before she transferred back into Ada's office, was perhaps the most unlike HB one.
What would a summer with magic do to a witchling like Mildred Hubble?
