Chapter Twelve
Ada Cackle was in her office late one night with Hecate Hardbroom sat by her side. The elder witch paced her office clearly worried about the latest turn of events.
"Whatever are we going to do Hecate?" Ada asked her deputy in a panic.
"Calm down Ada" Hecate replied gently "Gladys saw no marks on the girl she can't be sure" Hecate replied trying to reassure Ada.
"She is a counsellor, she is a professional and she knows that the girl is self-harming one way or another, how did none of us notice?" Ada asked her deputy as she continued to pace back and forth in her office.
"Because the uniforms have long sleeves I suppose" Hecate replied with the most logical reason she could think off as to why everyone had missed it.
"We have messed this up, we should have kept a better eye on her" Ada replied with a sigh feeling they had somehow let the girl down.
"We did everything we could Ada, the girl needs professional help even if we had known we would not have been able to do anything to make her stop ourselves" Hecate replied smartly.
The teachers would have no idea how to force her to stop, there was other pupils in the school they couldn't exactly take everything sharp away for one pupils benefit and Esmerelda was very smart, she must know a spell to hurt herself if she wanted to.
Ada sighed but said nothing more knowing there was nothing she could do so both of them retired for the night.
The next morning Sybil walked into the bedroom on the corridor above hers. Even though the girl was the youngest, since the middle girl's death she had practically become the eldest because she was the one who made sure Esmerelda was up so she did not lounge in bed all day. Esmie was asleep but did not look peacefully and Sybil shook her.
"Esmie wake up" Sybil told the older blonde who opened her eyes with a sigh clutching her doll.
"You best get up before HB realises you are in here" Sybil told her older sister.
For the last week Esmerelda had been sleeping in Ethel's old room. The room had been sealed of after what had happened but Esmie wanted to feel close to her sister so had sneaked in but if HB found out she did not think the woman would be happy, whether she was grieving or not. Esmie sighed and stood up.
"Quick get dressed before HB does her rounds" Sybil told her sister seeing her just standing there.
Sybil was not to advanced at magic yet but Esmie was and had recently learned the spell for changing clothes quickly. The girl flicked her hand in a downwards motion waiting for her clothes to change but nothing happened.
"Erm Esmie it didn't work" Sybil commented trying to be helpful.
"Yes well I have just woken up" Esmie commented trying again. Nothing happened not even a spark happened.
"Leave Sybil, I need to get dressed" Esmie told her sister kind of harshly. The girl had got a lot harsher recently and Sybil left letting Esmie get dressed, after she was dressed Esmie tried casting another spell but nothing happened. Sybil ran back in as if she had been waiting.
"Why is your magic not working?" the girl asked looking really worried.
If this had happened last year Esmerelda would be in a huge panic but even with the realisation her powers seemed to be gone she really couldn't care less and shrugged in response to her younger sister showing she didn't know and wasn't really bothered.
"Try casting a simple spell" Sybil told her sister who rolled her eyes but tried to close the bedroom door muttering a quick spell. Nothing moved, there was no sparks and no signs there girl even had any powers.
"I will go get help!" Sybil shouted running out the door even when Esmerelda shouted after her.
Ada was sitting down with the other teaches except for Miss Drill who was on breakfast duty, and was just about to tuck in to her morning tea and a chocolate biscuit when the door flew open and the youngest Hallow sister ran in looking to be in a state of panic.
"Sybil Hallow have you never heard of knocking!" Hecate shouted.
"Miss I think Esmie has lost her powers help please" Sybil yelled ignoring her teacher's comment.
Ada and Hecate looked at each other before they transferred to Esmie's room and found her sat on her bed in there, having being smart enough to change rooms.
"Esmerelda are you okay?" Ada asked her pupil concerned.
"Yes it is true my powers are not working" Esmie said in response knowing that was what her teacher was really asking her.
"Perform a spell" Hecate told the girl who did as she was asked showing the teachers her powers were completely gone.
"Go and call a doctor Hecate" Ada told the other woman who nodded and left, all Esmie wished was that she could be left alone.
The doctor examined the girl only for a few seconds before giving his diagnosis.
"Her grief has caused her powers to not work, it happens much more often than you think" the man told Ada and Hecate.
"So how does she get them back?" Hecate asked the doctor.
"She will get them back once she starts to recover a bit more" the doctor replied.
Ada, Hecate and Sybil were all worried about what this meant for Esmerelda because none of them thought the girl was going to get any better.
As Esmerelda was losing her powers though Jennifier was just rediscovering hers, she had not realised for weeks she was a witch because her powers were taking a while to recover from her accident.
Jennifer stormed into her bedroom and sat on her bed really frustrated and upset. She was sick of being stuck in the house all the time and to top it off her social worker had come over and told her they had no other ways of tracking down her family, so the girl was in foster care for long term and unless a member of her family came forward she would be staying there. The girl put her feet up on her bed flicking her hand aggressively to reach her book when she realised the book was hovering in the air and she pushed it back down.
Only then did she her anger sustain as she realised the book had been floating...that was not normal and the girl turned to look at the book flicking her hand again wondering if she was seeing things.
The book floated into the air and Jennifer gasped looking at it before she looked at her hands seeing they looked normal. The girl pointed her fingers towards the book and lowered it back onto the table.
Jennifer stood up pointing her fingers at something else it floated too and then she pointed her fingers towards her bedroom door and it opened. Jennifer beamed excited about this new skill she had learned and started pointing her fingers at most things in her room realising how much she could do.
She could make the window open, the CD player turn on, the curtains close, she could do just about anything and the girl danced around amazed at discovering she had powers.
"Jennifer" the girl heard someone say "What is all this noise about?" Norman said walking in the room having heard doors and windows slamming for the last ten minutes.
Jennifer lost concentration as she jumped when he opened the door but then ran to him excited.
"I can do magic, I can do magic!" the girl shouted jumping up and down on the spot. Her foster dad folded his arms looking at her.
"Are you not a little old to be believing in magic?" the man asked raising his eyebrows.
"I am only believing it in because I can do spells!" the girl replied happily. The man shook his head thinking the girl had had a dream.
"It was just a dream sweetheart, there is no such thing as magic, now come on dinner" the man said leading the girl away.
Jennifer followed but knew it had not being a dream at all. She could do magic and she could not wait to practise her powers more.
