"What is it? What's happened?" Rocky asked hurriedly, before she had even fully materialized in the potions lab once again. The pain she had felt whilst being pulled through nothingness by the Eros potion had faded, replaced by wild fear.
"It's Miss Hardbroom!" Ethel's panicked voice echoed across the potions lab, "Agatha Cackle appeared and she tried to curse you but Miss Hardbroom got in the way and she hit her!"
"What did she use?" Rocky said breathlessly, moving quickly across the room to where Ethel was standing beside Constance, who had turned to face the wall. The other girls had also materialized, and were standing around the room, looking concerned.
"I don't mean a spell!" Ethel yelled, "I mean she hit her, with her hands, with... something I... I think she stabbed her hand!"
"Constance?" Rocky touched the tall witch's elbow tentatively, trying to convince herself that she would be ok when she turned around. But Constance didn't move. Rocky motioned for Ethel to move out of the way and positioned herself at an angle between Constance and the wall. Constance's tear-filled eyes were staring avidly at the blank wall in front of her; her right hand clutching her left hand to her chest, shining red blood now streaming down the pale skin of her forearms.
"It's alright," she soothed, gently taking hold of her hands as a single drop of blood fell, splashing sickeningly onto the stone floor, "Let me see?"
They remained still for a moment as the girls exchanged worried glances behind Constance's back. Slowly, the potions mistress unfurled her fingers to reveal what had been impaled in the palm of her hand. Rocky let out an involuntarily audible gasp as Constance closed her eyes.
"We have to get this out," she whispered feverishly, "We have to stop it!"
"It's too late," Constance spoke with a mixture of firmness and intense sorrow, "It's gone; it's too late."
"No," Rocky shook her head in disbelief, pulling Constance across the room to her desk and forcing her to sit down. Grabbing the first piece of equipment she could reach, Rocky carefully but quickly pulled the object out of Constance's hand and dropped it onto the wooden table. Unsure whether it would be appropriate to heal the wound with magic, she grabbed a clean-looking cloth and wrapped her colleague's hand in it, gripping it tightly as though she thought the world might end if she didn't.
"What is it?"
Griselda had cautiously approached the other side of the desk; eager to know what was happening, but also reluctant to look. She too, gasped as she saw the bloodstained, yet deep blue crystal-like object that had been embedded in her teacher's hand. Being a clever student, she had some idea what the enchanted object might have done.
"Miss... are you...?"
Fearing that she could be right, Griselda didn't know what to say.
Constance could not bring herself to speak. She alone could feel the true extent of the damage. After what seemed like an hour, she held out her shaking hand and looked up at Rocky.
"You can fix that with magic," she muttered, "It's nothing but a cut now."
Rocky obliged, running her fingers across the broken skin and watching it heal. As Constance withdrew the hand again, she felt that she still felt the pain, even if it was just psychological. She realised that her actions had been too late when she realised that it had been Constance's pain she had felt. The spell she had placed on her own mind had failed, allowing Rocky to pick up her feelings once again.
"She's a dirty dueller, that Agatha. I could've had her if it wasn't for this!" Constance breathed with a nervous laugh as she continued clutching her hand. Yet another involuntary tear fell from her cheek as she stood, and walked silently into the store cupboard at the back of the room, closing the door behind her. The second that the door closed, Rocky felt the enormous wave of grief that her colleague was attempting to conceal, but decided to leave her for a moment, turning her attention to the worried students instead.
"Miss?" Griselda murmured as Rocky gestured for them all to sit down.
"It is what you think it is, Griselda," Rocky admitted regretfully, realising that she was suddenly able to pick up on the girl's fears.
"Then has- has Miss H-Hardbroom...?"
Rocky nodded solemnly, "I think," she hesitated, not knowing whether there would be a 'best way' to phrase this, "I think that the enemies bewitched that crystal to take Miss Hardbroom's powers."
"No!" exclaimed Ethel, "She can't have, she simply can't!"
"I fear that she has, Ethel," Rocky said, placing the crystal into a small glass jar and pocketing it as she moved around the room, "Stay here for now, please, girls."
"Constance?" Rocky opened the door slowly and slipped into the store.
"She's got to be wrong!" said Ethel indignantly, "A witch like Agatha could never just steal Miss Hardbroom's powers! Miss Hardbroom is a silver steel wit-"
"Oh shut the hell up, Ethel," Griselda moaned wearily, "It's stupid people like you that attract trouble to the steel, acting all high-and-mighty and telling everyone you're better than them. If you used your brain, you'd realise that Agatha's crappy magic didn't do it, it was brute force that stabbed her with the crystal!"
"You really think she's lost her powers, then?" asked Mildred in disbelief.
"Well she seemed pretty upset," Kada said, "When have you ever seen HB do a Miss Bat and hide in a cupboard?"
"That's not funny, Kada," Griselda snarled.
"It should be," Sybil sniffed, "But it isn't."