I was beginning to think that was conspiring against me.


"There's to be a trial," Amelia announced quietly, looking around the staff room table at her colleagues. She turned her attention to Imogen, suspecting that the sports teacher would be the one with the questions.

"A trial?" The question came almost straight away.

"Yes," Amelia replied solemnly. "Hortense has decided that there are grounds enough to call into question Constance's allegiance to the Guild. She seems to think that Constance is acting outside of the rules laid down by the Witches' Guild."

"That's ridiculous, surely?" Imogen argued. "I can't think of anyone who's more of a stickler for the rules than Constance."

Amelia smiled. "I have to say that it's more than a little strange to hear you sticking up for her," she admitted. "I'm more used to you voicing your frustration at what you see to be her inability to bend the rules."

Imogen allowed herself a small smile. "I know. It just strikes me that Hortense is a little keen to see Constance punished for something. Can't say as though I like to see anyone set up."

Amelia frowned. "Imogen, I must remind you again that this is a Guild investigation. Constance can only be punished if it can be shown that she acted outside of the rules. It is not possible for Hortense, or anyone to engineer a situation that didn't happen."

Imogen looked less than impressed. "What will this trial entail exactly?"

Amelia sat back in her chair and folded her arms. "It will be conducted as you'd expect, with witnesses being called and questioned."

"I presume that Hortense is prosecuting?"

Amelia shook her head and let out a slow breath. "It's not a trial in that sense. The facts of the charge will be laid out by Hortense and the judge will decide whether the case is proved or not."

"So Constance doesn't get a chance to defend herself?" Imogen's tone was one of disbelief.

"If there is no case to answer then Constance won't need to defend herself."

Imogen looked to Miss Bat to see if the chanting teacher could see the fatal flaw in the Guild's logic. She felt her heart sink as she watched Davina bite the heads off a bunch of peonies. She turned back to Amelia.

"Hortense is bound to twist things so that it looks as though Constance is guilty," she tried to make the headmistress understand.

Amelia shook her head. "Hortense will simply present the facts and Verna will decide whether Constance acted within Guild rules or not."

Imogen's eyebrows shot up. "What's Verna got to do with this?" She paused and a nasty thought sprang to her mind. "You mentioned a judge, please don't tell me that you were referring to Verna?"

Amelia frowned. "Verna Hyssop is a long standing member of the Guild; as such she is perfectly placed to act as a judge."

Imogen rolled her eyes. "She also has trouble remembering if it's gravy or milk you're supposed to put in coffee!"

"Ahhh," Imogen's fear was realised by Amelia. "I think I see your point," she finally conceded. "But if I were to question the Guild over their appointment of a judge, then that wouldn't look good."

"So Hortense has got us over a barrel," Imogen muttered.

Amelia nodded ruefully. "It certainly looks that way."

"Well I for one think that Miss Hyssop is an excellent judge of character," Davina exclaimed through a mouthful of peonies.

"Was that before or after she said that your playing of the school song was the most moving thing she'd ever heard?" Imogen inquired.

"Jealousy is an unattractive trait." Davina responded, taking another healthy bite out of the peonies.

"I think we're in danger of getting away from the point," Miss Cackle did her best to steer the conversation back to the subject in hand.

"Agreed," Imogen folded her arms and sat back in her chair. "But what's the worst that the Guild can do? I mean, at the end of the day, what sort of punishment is Constance looking at? A fine... or a suspension?"

Amelia's face darkened. "If she's found guilty of the charges that Miss Spellbinder has seen fit to lay, then the court could recommend that Constance be stripped of her powers entirely."

"What?" Imogen sat bolt upright in her chair.

"Oh yes," Amelia continued. "If the Guild feel that Constance has been acting outside of the rules or has brought the name of the Guild into disrepute, then it has the right to take away her witch status."

Imogen shook her head. "And going by the smug look that Miss Spellbinder had on her face when she arrested Constance, I'd say that that was exactly what she was planning on."

"You mustn't be so quick to fear the worst Imogen, there's every chance that Constance will be found not guilty."

Imogen looked from Amelia to Davina and found it hard to share their optimism.

"What are we going to tell the girls?"

"I suggest that we keep the possible outcome of the trial to ourselves," Amelia suggested. "There's no point in needlessly upsetting the girls."

Imogen found that she had to agree with Amelia, although she wasn't sure exactly which of the girls would be upset by the news.


The news of the impending trial spread round the school like wildfire. At every available opportunity, pupils were exchanging the news that they had picked up. Some of it was, needless to say, a little far from the truth. Harriet Goodcharm apparently had it on good authority that the case was going to be beamed magically into all the classrooms and the pupils were going to get to vote on the verdict.

The tale of Miss Hardbroom's arrest had also taken on a life of its own; growing greater in the retelling and it was becoming impossible to convince some of the pupils that HB hadn't in fact been clapped in irons and escorted to the dungeons by a platoon of heavily armed guards conjured up by Miss Spellbinder.

The reality of the trial therefore came as something of a letdown to some of the younger pupils. They found that they were not going to be able to skip lessons to sit in and watch; they were in fact going to have to work quietly in their own rooms whilst the trial was going on, supervision being carried out by whichever member of staff was not required in the Great Hall.


Mildred stood at the closed wooden door for a few moments, her hand raised; wondering whether or not she was doing the right thing. She had to admit to herself that it did feel a little strange to be standing outside of Miss Cackle's office voluntarily and not as a result of some classroom misdemeanour.

Swallowing her nerves, she brought her knuckles down upon the rough wood and knocked twice.

There was a pause, followed by a frantic shuffling of something and a drawer being opened and closed. Finally, a slightly muffled 'come in' was uttered and Mildred pushed down on the handle of the door.

"Ahh Mildred." Mildred was more than a little surprised to see what looked like relief on her headmistresses face, she was more accustomed to seeing the smile drop from Miss Cackle's face and a look of disappointment replace it.

"What can I do for you?"

Mildred took a few nervous steps into the room.

"I wondered if I could ask you a few things about…" Mildred tailed off, her nerves getting the better of her.

The questioning expression on Miss Cackle's face softened into a smile and she indicated that Mildred should take a seat.

Mildred settled herself onto the chair opposite her headmistress and tried to order her thoughts.

"This is all my fault," she finally blurted out. "It's not Miss Hardbroom that should be on trial."

Amelia regarded Mildred for a few moments, trying to hide from her expression the surprise she was feeling.

"Miss Hardbroom did break the edict that the Guild had laid down," she reminded her pupil. "She did use her magic."

"But that was to save me from falling," Mildred protested. "If Miss Hardbroom hadn't acted I could have really hurt myself. Can't we talk to Miss Spellbinder and make her understand?"

Amelia looked at the wide, hopeful eyes of Mildred and wished that she could tell her that everything was going to be ok.

"I'm sorry," she replied quietly. "Miss Spellbinder has already reported the incident to the Witches' Guild and they have decided that a trial is the correct way to proceed."

"But can't we explain to the Guild?"

Amelia shook her head. "Miss Spellbinder is their representative. If we were to question her decisions then that would only anger the Guild. I'm afraid we'll just have to let this trial take place as ordered."

"But before that," Mildred protested. "This is all to do with what happened during parents evening and that was also all my fault."

Amelia smiled softly. "I'm sure that that's not true."

"But it is," Mildred's tone took on a more desperate edge. "I was the one who cast the perception altering spell; I was the one that caused the entity to come to the school…"

"Mildred, Mildred," Miss Cackle motioned with her hands for Mildred to calm down.

"We can't stop the trial from taking place, but I'm sure if we work together we can show that Miss Hardbroom did nothing wrong."

"I tried talking to Miss Spellbinder but she wouldn't listen to me," Mildred complained. "I tried to tell her what happened but she didn't want to know."

Miss Cackle looked at Mildred over the top of her glasses.

"I suppose I should be pleased that you are at least now willing to talk to someone about that night." She sat back in her seat. "Although things may look bad at the moment Mildred, I'm sure that the trial will show that no-one here did anything wrong."

Mildred looked at Miss Cackle, her expression showing that she wanted to believe the words her headmistress spoke, but at the back of her mind there was a voice that told her that HB didn't stand a chance.


Ethel stared out of her window and watched as a lone blackbird swooped and whirled in the cold morning air.

Routine within the school had been completely disrupted by the trial, and rather than being able to go down to the Great Hall for breakfast, all pupils not involved in delivering meals had been instructed to remain in their rooms.

Ethel sighed heavily and watched the blackbird as it disappeared behind the tree line. She envied the bird its freedom. There was nothing worse than being stuck in a room and not able to go anywhere. She turned her head as she heard a knock at the door.

"Breakfast," a voice called out and Ethel reassessed the situation. There was perhaps one thing that was worse than being stuck in a room and that was having to wait on fellow pupils.

She was about to leave her position at the window when movement from somewhere down in the courtyard caught her eye. She glanced down to see Hortense Spellbinder making her way swiftly across the open area, heading for the main building and the Great Hall. Ethel watched her, wishing not for the first time, that she could be more like the Guild inspector. There was just something so serene about her, something inherently glamorous. Ethel sighed and turned away from the window. Before she could hope to match the glamour of someone like Miss Spellbinder, she had to complete her time at Cackles.

As she made her way across her room, refusing to respond to the now frantic shouting that was coming from the other side of the door, she wished that there was some sort of spell that could fast track her to the final year and her graduation.

She pulled open the door with more force than was strictly necessary and Drusilla, who had been standing on the other side of it, practically fell into the room, the food on the plate she was carrying, coming perilously close to falling to the floor.

"Is it really necessary to carry on with all that shouting?" she demanded to know.

Drusilla straightened herself up and glared at her friend.

"You weren't replying. I thought that something might be wrong."

"And yet you didn't see fit to simply open the door?"

Drusilla looked down at her feet. "You told me never to walk into your room without an invitation."

Ethel chose to ignore the comment and looked instead at the congealing food on the plate Drusilla was carrying.

"Is that really the best that Mrs Tapioca has to offer?"

Drusilla nodded and put the plate down on the table.

"You should have seen the plate that I gave Mildred," she said with a grin.

Ethel folded her arms.

"We've got to do something about Mildred. If it wasn't for her then HB wouldn't be in trouble."

Drusilla thought about reminding Ethel that it was her fault that Mildred fell from the ladder, but then thought better of it. Arguing with Ethel was always a waste of time. There wasn't anyone in the world who was right on more occasions that Ethel claimed to be. She'd learnt a while ago that it was simply safer to agree with everything her friend said and keep quiet.

"What are you planning to do?"

Ethel thought about it for a moment.

"There's a member of the Witches' Guild here. If we could show that Mildred was behind the trouble during Parents' evening, then Miss Spellbinder would have to do something about her."

"But we tried that before," Drusilla pointed out. "Miss Spellbinder didn't seem to understand."

"Then we have to make sure that Mildred knows exactly how we feel about her," Ethel said decisively as she pulled open the drawer in her desk and drew out a sheet of paper. The paper shimmered slightly in the air and Ethel caught the frown that crossed her friend's face.

"We were told that we couldn't use any magic," Drusilla reminded her.

Ethel tutted. "This is hardly magic at all," she protested. "No-one could possibly complain about this."

Drusilla watched as Ethel began to write on the paper. She shook her head, convinced that nothing good would come of her friend's plan.


Imogen fidgeted in her seat and looked around the Great Hall. Hortense had certainly been busy. Up on the stage was a large wooden table which Miss Hyssop sat behind in a tall backed chair, a gavel at her right elbow. Below on the floor the area had been divided up. To the left hand side of the stage was another wooden table which Hortense sat at, to the right there was a plain wooden chair which Constance was sat upon. Constance had been there when Imogen had entered the room, but the potions teacher had yet to make eye contact with anyone. She simply stared into space as though the others weren't there.

Imogen tried to shrug away the sense of unease that she felt. She was seated, along with Miss Cackle along the left hand wall. There were other chairs laid out, implying that Hortense was intent on calling other members of the school to speak.

"We all know why we are here today." Hortense rose to her feet and addressed the small gathering. "The Witches' Guild have a very strict policy when it comes to the use and storage of magic where there are minors present. The guild believes that the young witches of today are our future and they strive to ensure that everything is done to make sure that pupils leave school with the correct respect towards the ancient craft that they have been taught. Where the Guild fears that its teachings and guidelines are not being adhered to, it retains the right to intervene. Following the report submitted to the Guild by my colleague and I, the Guild feels that there are sufficient grounds to question the safety of the magic being taught within this academy. Special concern was voiced at the way that the deputy head, Constance Hardbroom, was adjudged to have used magic during events that took place at the end of the last term. The Guild has decided that the matter needs to be investigated fully and has granted permission for a special trial to be conducted; to examine the use of magic by the aforementioned Constance Hardbroom and to determine whether or not she showed due care and attention to those non-magical members of the public who were within school grounds at the time."

Hortense turned her head to look at Constance for the first time.

"Do you vow to accept the decision reached here as being the decision of the Guild and to abide by the edicts that it may issue?"

Constance nodded. "I do."

"Right then," Hortense smiled at the rest of the group. "Let's get this started." She gestured towards the chair that sat at the front of the hall between herself and Constance. "Miss Cackle, if you would care to take a seat."


Mildred looked out of her window, across the courtyard and wondered exactly what was going on in the Great Hall. She knew that her attention was supposed to be focused on working on the answers to the essay questions that were on the paper in front of her, but she found that she just couldn't concentrate.

Miss Spellbinder had told her to come to Miss Cackle's office at lunchtime and Mildred feared that she was going to be told that she had to give evidence. She didn't mind admitting to Tabby that she was petrified by the idea. She'd never been all that confident when it came to talking in front of the rest of the class, and so the idea of having to answer questions in front of the Guild inspectors, not to mention HB was nothing short of terrifying.

She stared blindly down at the paper in front of her and willed time to stop.

A scraping sound from her door made her turn her head. A folded piece of paper had been pushed through the gap at the bottom. Cautiously, she rose to her feet and approached the door. One of the first things she had learnt at Cackles was that often things weren't as they first appeared. Satisfied that the paper wasn't going to explode or shower her with something unpleasant, she bent down and picked it up.

'Take your punishment.' They were the only words written upon the piece of paper. Although she didn't recognise the handwriting, she knew that Ethel was more than likely behind it.

She knew that there was no way she could convince her classmate that she didn't want anything bad to happen to the school.

Mildred was about to screw the letter into a ball when she thought better of it. Keeping it would mean that she would have some kind of evidence if anything happened to her or her work.

She folded the letter carefully and was about to place it in a drawer when it shimmered in her hands.

"No!" she cried out as she watched it slowly dissolve into nothingness.

The letter was a warning...that was obvious. Mildred swallowed and wondered just what was being planned.


In the Great Hall, Constance sat straight-backed in the chair and stared straight ahead. Her expression was neutral, not giving away the slightest emotion. Imogen regarded her colleague and wondered how she managed to remain so calm. She was certain that if someone were threatening to end her career, she'd be fighting them all the way, not sitting calmly and waiting for judgement to be announced.

Imogen wasn't certain why Hortense had ordered her to attend the trial. She'd made it perfectly clear what she thought of anyone who wasn't a witch and, given the chance, Imogen would much rather have stayed to look after the girls. So, it was with a sense of unease that she sat there and listened to Miss Spellbinder carry out her questioning.

"On the night of the 28th of last month, a magical entity came into being within the walls of this castle. The entity was drawn to this particular venue because of the actions of one of the second year pupils. It hardly needs to be mentioned that no second year pupil should be able to get their hands on magic that powerful; magic that the outside world as a whole would refer to as black magic," Hortense paused and took a much needed breath. "The spell that was used was a very specific spell, a spell that in fact only exists in one particular set of books." Hortense turned her attention to Constance, who was sitting with an expression of extreme boredom on her face. "The Forbidden Volumes are yours I believe."

Constance nodded. "They are. They have always been kept in a secure location, away from prying eyes."

"So you admit that you stored the Forbidden Volumes within academy walls?" Hortense's voice was even.

Constance inclined her head towards her questioner.

"It's not a matter of admitting anything," she replied flatly. "I've never attempted to hide their presence."

"But isn't it true that Miss Cackle was unaware that they were on the premises?" Hortense pointed out.

"I hardly thought it necessary to inform Miss Cackle every time I brought a book within the walls of the castle, if I were to do so I would undoubtedly waste many precious hours in her already busy day."

"You didn't think it necessary to say anything even when the contents of the book had the potential to place lives in danger?" Hortense didn't give Constance a chance to reply. She swung round to face Miss Cackle.

"Did you or did you not know that the Forbidden Volumes were within the castle walls?"

Amelia wanted to lie to help her colleague but she knew that the honesty spell in the air would prevent that.

"I wasn't aware that Constance had the volumes," she admitted.

Hortense turned and a half-smile was present on her face.

"And if you were aware, would you have been happy with the situation?"

Amelia shook her head.

"I have never felt at home with the magic that those volumes contain," she tried to explain. "I know that Constance…"

"Please, Miss Cackle…" Hortense interrupted her. "Just answer the question. "If Miss Hardbroom had informed you that she intended on bringing the Forbidden Volumes into the school, would you have been happy?"

Amelia looked down at her feet.

"No," she replied honestly, admitting to herself that that kind of magic always made her teeth itch.

Hortense turned back to face Constance.

"After hearing what your headmistress has to say on the matter, would you agree that it was more than a little remiss of you to not think that, perhaps, a school full of young girls was not the safest place to bring some of the most powerful magic books in existence?"

Constance looked evenly at Hortense for a few seconds.

"If any of us are to learn, we have to apply ourselves. Whilst some of us may be of the rather short-sighted opinion that that learning stops once one's education is over, others of us strive to continue learning, so that we might better understand the world around us." Sensing that Hortense was about to speak, Constance continued. "There are a great many things to be learnt from the Forbidden Volumes, I believe that they have their place within the school."

Hortense's right eyebrow shot up.

"You think that it's right to let young impressionable girls dabble with magic that they are obviously too inexperienced to handle?"

"That was not what I said." Constance, much to Miss Cackle's surprise, kept her tone even. "I think it would be a mistake however, and a loss to the magic community at large, if books such as the Forbidden Volumes were hounded out of existence by a few narrow-minded, small thinking witches whose greatest magical feat was to scrape through their practical magic test with the lowest score in the entire history of the college."

"Well I…" Hortense pushed up her sleeves and took on an attacking posture, her face scarlet with rage. "You'd better take that…."

"Ladies, ladies please," Verna shouted from her seat, her voice barely registering in the room. "I will not have such an outburst in my courtroom."

Constance glanced casually towards Verna, whilst picking invisible specks of fluff from the sleeve of her dress.

"I do apologise," she answered softly. "It won't happen again."

Verna banged her gavel down on the desk in front of her, in a desperate attempt to attract the attention of Hortense who was still looking as though she was about to launch a magical attack on Constance.

"Miss Spellbinder, please," Verna quavered. "Could we get back to case in hand?"

Imogen watched from the side of the hall with barely concealed amusement as Hortense fought to regain control of her temper. Although she'd never found it funny when she was the one on the end of one of Constance's scathing rants, she now gained a new appreciation of the way that her colleague could manipulate a situation.


Mildred heard the whispers as she made her way down the corridor towards the courtyard.

"It's all your fault Hubble," she heard a voice call out. Mildred turned; trying to see who had spoken but she found herself facing a wall of angry glares and folded arms.

"I haven't done anything," she tried to protest but the crowd of girls appeared not to be listening.

"If it wasn't for you, then the inspectors would never have come here."

Mildred shook her head.

"That's just not true," she protested.

"Isn't it?"

Ethel Hallow pushed her way through the crowd of girls and glared at Mildred.

"So who was it who cast the perception altering spell? Who was it who couldn't remember the reversing spell? And who is it who's been summoned to give evidence in the Great Hall?"

"What?"Mildred was momentarily lost for words.

Ethel smiled, enjoying the look of discomfort on Mildred's face. "This school is in trouble and you seem to be at the source of it all, as usual."