A/N: I apologise for taking so long with this chapter, thank being busy and then getting sick. But hopefully I will be able to return to updating regularly.

Chapter 21: when i come to terms with this my world will change for me

She hadn't seen Imogen in days. Something wasn't right.

She knew it had to be Broomhead.

She ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the long corridor towards Broomhead's office.

She repeatedly slammed her hand against the wooden door, hoping desperately for a response.

She never got one.

"We accomplished a lot tonight didn't we?" Imogen said.

"We did indeed, if only you still had the diary, I'm sure it would contain a lot of answers," Constance said, as she started cleaning up from their potion-making.

"I don't recall it being here, so I don't think I brought it with me, but I could always have a look. Maybe I did bring it, without knowing what it was?" Imogen suggested.

"It's worth a try, I suppose," Constance replied.

Once they had finished cleaning up, Constance used her magic to extinguish the candles in the classroom. Together they walked to the staff-room, finding it still occupied by Miss Cackle, who was marking some homework, "Second year spells," she said, predicting Constance's question.

Constance nodded and sat beside her looking over at the notebooks, "Hmm, I see they are performing as well in spells as they are in potions," she said, wholeheartedly unimpressed with their students' performance.

"They'll get there in time, Constance," Miss Cackle said.

"You hope they will you mean," she replied.

"And how are you Imogen?" Miss Cackle asked, it had not escaped her notice that Imogen had been a few steps behind Constance when she entered the staff-room.

"Very good Miss Cackle, Constance and I have been making great progress with recovering my memories, and we have a possible lead which may give us some answers," Imogen replied.

"How so?" Miss Cackle asked.

"Apparently I kept a diary during the time when Mistress Broomhead separated us and kept us from seeing each other," Imogen replied.

"She separated you?" Miss Cackle was intrigued, she did not know much of Imogen and Constance's story, so finding out any little piece of information was interesting to her.

"She did," Constance answered, succinctly, "and presumably it ended when she erased Imogen's memories."

"I do hope you can find the diary then," Miss Cackle said, "or have Imogen be able to recover her memories."

"As do we, Miss Cackle," Constance replied.

Mildred scrambled to put her boots on, why were they always so far from her reach whenever she needed them. She decided she didn't have enough time to worry about tying the laces and figured the fact that she was wearing them would be enough. She nearly tripped over as she ran out of her room and down the hallway. Before she could reach the stairs, a familiar foreboding voice rang in her ears, "Mildred Hubble! How many times have I told you not to run in the corridors! And look at the state of your bootlaces," Miss Hardbroom sighed, "will you ever learn, girl?"

Mildred lent down to tie her laces, "For goodness' sake, don't worry about it now girl, you have a class to get to, my class in fact," Miss Hardbroom said.

"Yes, Miss Hardbroom," Mildred said, hurrying down the stairs. With that Miss Hardbroom vanished, likely to the classroom where she would be waiting to yell at Mildred for some other thing she was bound to do wrong.

"I see you finally decided to turn up, Mildred," Miss Hardbroom said, as Mildred hesitantly entered the classroom, "now go and sit down," she said.

Mildred went over and sat next to Maud, who had saved a seat for her. Enid, who was sitting just behind Mildred, lent over and said, "So much for soft and kind HB, seems like that memory the other day was all she was capable of."

Mildred nodded, though she understood more about her teacher than most in the room, she figured her actually being nice all the time would be too much to ask for.

"Enough chit-chat girls," came Miss Hardbroom's voice, "now, open your books and start on the exercise on page 7, when you are done I will select one of you and you will demonstrate what you have learnt to the class."

Once they had finished their class with Miss Hardbroom they slowly walked out into the courtyard, to be met with a smiley bouncy Miss Drill, "Great, from one form of torture to another," Enid said, noticing how much energy Miss Drill had, and wondering how on Earth anyone could have that much energy at 9am.

"Good morning girls! Isn't it such a nice day for some outdoor activity?" She asked, cheerfully.

Everyone looked at her still half asleep, and nodded out of obligation.

"Come on now, girls, it's not that bad, besides a bit of morning exercise will wake you right up, and get you energised for the day," Miss Drill said, in response to her students less than enthusiastic attitudes, "this morning, since you're all in need of being woken up, we'll go for a bit of a run and then come back here and complete a short obstacle course," she could practically hear the disagreement and added, "and I don't want to see any moaning and groaning, it'll be fun, now line up at the gate and when I blow my whistle we run. Ready, set, and go!" She said, blowing the whistle at the end.

The girls reluctantly started to jog, and Miss Drill came up beside them and kept trying to encourage them, "Come on girls, I know you can do better than that, pick up the pace a bit!"

"Is it just me or is her spending so much time with Miss Hardbroom rubbing off on her, I swear she's becoming more like her by the minute," Enid said.

Her friends nodded in agreement.

They were most definitely in last place, and had all but given up on actually running so they decided to walk the rest of the way.

"Millie, you never did tell us why you stayed behind the other day after our potions class," Enid said, still caught up on the idea of Miss Drill becoming more like Miss Hardbroom.

"I just wanted to tell her I thought that her story was nice, and thanked her for sharing it, after everything she and Miss Drill have been through it seemed like the right thing to do," Mildred answered.

"You mean with the Inspector and all of that?" Maud asked.

"Yes, that, and just in general, they've been through a lot," Mildred replied.

"What do you mean, is there more that you haven't told us?" Enid asked, "Come on, spill!" she said, always eager to hear gossip.

"They almost lost each other, and Miss Hardbroom has been helping Miss Drill get her memories back from when they were at Witch Training College together," Mildred replied, "Miss Drill was telling me about it when I was in the concealment spell with her, she said that the Inspector hurt Miss Hardbroom and she would always try to hide it from Miss Drill, as a way to protect her, because she cared for her," Mildred explained.

"Hang on, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Enid asked.

"I'm just telling you what Miss Drill told me," Mildred replied.

"You're telling me that Miss Hardbroom fancied Miss Drill at school?" The realisation hit Enid, "Which means they're probably properly together now, oh my god!" she exclaimed, and after letting the thought sink in a bit she added, "I'm not sure if I wanted to know that."

Mildred didn't say anything, "It is true isn't it!" Enid exclaimed, "That explains a lot, actually. All of that stuff in the forest, why they're hanging out in the potion lab all the time, why HB sent Miss Drill with you into the concealment spell, what HB meant when she told me it was more complicated than I thought, oh wow," Enid said, piecing everything together.

"Yeah it is, I saw them kiss as well, before Miss Hardbroom did the concealment spell," Mildred admitted.

"You what now?!" Enid exclaimed, stopping suddenly, "And you never told us?!" she added.

"There wasn't exactly time, Enid, we were sort of in the middle of saving the school," Mildred answered, "and besides, I sort of forgot about it after a while, until the events in the forest, and then with Miss Hardbroom's memory in class the other day."

"I can't imagine forgetting that image if I had seen it," Enid replied.

Before anyone could continue the conversation Miss Drill jogged back towards them as she had wondered what had happened to them, since they were so far behind, "Come on girls, everyone's nearly finished!" she gestured for them to follow her.

They begrudgingly did so.

She stood, trying to suppress her emotions, she had to approach this rationally.

Magic.

She spoke the words and cast the spell, then impatiently tried to twist the doorknob.

Nothing.

She tried another spell.

Nothing.

There had to be another way.

She had to get in there.

Imogen led the girls back to the castle, and instructed for them to quickly complete the short obstacle course she had prepared. It essentially involved weaving through some cones, reaching a pole at the end with a flag on it which the girls would have to collect and run back with. The first to get the flag and get back first would be the winner. The girls were less than enthusiastic after their run (or walk in the case of most of them).

"HB 2.0 we should call her," Enid said, reluctantly standing in line behind Mildred.

"It's not that bad," Mildred replied.

"This is fun to you?" She asked.

"That's not what I mean, I just mean she's still the same Miss Drill as before, she would have made us do this before you know," Mildred answered.

"Okay, you have a point there," Enid conceded.

Miss Drill blew her whistle signifying the next girl's turn.

"Just be glad HB doesn't have a whistle," Jadu interjected, having heard her friends' conversation.

"Don't even think it!" Enid said.

Once all of the girls had completed the course, Imogen dismissed them, much to their joy. She never saw them move faster than when she told them the class was over. She sighed. She could only do so much. She packed up the equipment, returning the courtyard to its previous state and returned to the staff-room.

She sat, wearily, in the small armchair that sat near the fireplace. At least there was some peace and quiet in here.

Soon after, just as she had begun to relax, she was joined by Constance and Miss Cackle. Constance noticed Imogen's fatigued posture, "Difficult class?" she asked.

"Reluctant," Imogen replied, "it's so difficult to get them motivated to do anything physical."

"I'm afraid I cannot help you there Imogen, physical activity is not a strength of mine," Constance replied, "but in terms of motivation, I find strong and firm is the best approach. Let them know you mean it, and won't take no for an answer."

"Thanks, Constance," Imogen said, knowing full well she would never employ such a strategy as it was not in her nature, but appreciated Constance's attempt at support.

Miss Cackle fetched some hot water and poured some tea for everyone, as she felt the situation warranted it.

Just as Miss Cackle placed the cup down in front of Imogen, the door was thrust open and Miss Bat emerged, covered in small bells, coupled with what was apparently some kind of chanting and some wooden sticks being clapped together.

Imogen was so startled by the sound that she raised her arms in defence, and almost as if reacting by instinct, magic flew from her fingertips and darted across the room, narrowly missing Miss Bat. Who screeched loudly in response, which did not help the situation.

"DAVINA! What on Earth are you doing?!" Constance yelled, tersely, staring directly into the other teacher's eyes with serious intent.

"I-just-I, it's a new chanting style I was experimenting with," she replied, feebly.

"The practice of which will stop immediately," Miss Cackle said, sternly.

"Yes, Miss Cackle," Miss Bat replied, removing the bells from her dress, and slowly walking over to the stationary cupboard.

Miss Cackle turned to Imogen, "Now, what just happened? It appears we now have a small hole in the door of the staffroom, thanks to you."

"I don't know Miss Cackle, it just happened, I couldn't help it," Imogen replied.

"It seems Imogen has somehow regained her magic," Constance said, "this is a significant moment, Miss Cackle, it should be treated as such. The shock of Miss Bat's 'chanting', if you could call it that, seems to have awoken Imogen's magical ability."

"What a way for it to happen," Imogen said, "certainly not how I expected that to go."

She heard a muffled apology from Miss Bat through the door of the stationary cupboard.

Imogen got up and walked over to the door, "It's all right Davina, I'm not angry with you," she said.

Though muffled weeping sounds, Imogen heard a, "That's good, I'm glad you have your magic back" from Miss Bat.

Constance rolled her eyes, she tired of Miss Bat's theatrics, however she had a more pressing issue: Imogen and her magic, "Imogen do you think you could cast a spell voluntarily?"

"I don't know, I suppose all I can do is try," she answered. Imogen lifted her fingers and pointed them at the vase in front of her, "Hareatus, Impregnatus, Res Inflaetus, Omnes Flatus!" The vase slowly began to rise, "It would seem that I can," she said.

"Well, this is promising," Constance replied, "Imogen, welcome back."

"Thank you, it's good to be back. I feel more like myself, as strange as that sounds. I may not have all of my memories yet but I feel like I just got a big part of myself back," Imogen said.

A/N: Shout-out to Solsace for her suggestion of how Imogen discovered she still had her magic. She's a comedic genius folks xD