Hi everyone. I know it's been a while, but this whole year has been...something. Please take care of yourself during this time.

Thanks.

-Poppy

Chapter 9

"Ethel, I don't want to do this." Felicity stepped back from Mildred's family tree where the face of Miss Hardbroom was glaring at her and Ethel harshly from her place on the branch.

"Felicity, you're a reporter you have to report the truth." Ethel persuades her, as she lifts her hands to cast the reversal spell on Mildred's family tree to exploit her very own father.

Felicity grabs her arm stopping her, "Ethel, no, there are other ways to find out-"

"So, you're really telling me that you're going to march straight up to Miss Hardbroom and ask about her personal life?" Ethel countered, tossing her head to Felicity, "Say goodbye to Cackle's then, Felicity because you won't be coming back after that."

"It's just not right, Ethel." Felicity shook her head, "You wouldn't want that done on your family tree, would you?"

"My family doesn't have any secrets that hurt our school." Ethel argued, "Unlike Mildred and Miss Hardbroom."

"I think you just want to hurt them because you're hurting, Ethel." Felicity said sadly, she placed her hand on Ethel's shoulder, "I know that it's probably been really hard at home with everything that happened last year-"

"Then you should understand why I need to do this. Mildred's father is a part of the same coven who hurt Esmeralda! I want our school to know that he is still out there and can hurt us, Felicity." Ethel interrupted fiercely, she placed her hands back on the pot on Mildred's family tree ready to cast, "Now, either get lost or stay here and help me."

"I can't, Ethel." Felicity turns away and runs out of the art room leaving Ethel on her own.

"I'll do it myself then!"

Felicity heard Ethel's voice shout from the empty room, and then a few moments after Felicity could hear the girl's incantation from outside the doorway. She should let Mildred know, but unfortunately, Mildred was still sick with Witches Mumps. She could let a teacher know what was happening, but she was afraid she would get in trouble as much as Ethel would be. Instead, she walked away and didn't say a word to anyone.

"Can we talk?" Pippa asked, from across Hecate's seated position in her favorite armchair.

Hecate gave a puzzled look, "I thought we already were?"

"About something I've been meaning to bring up." Pippa chewed at her lip anxiously and waved her hand up casting a silence spell over top of them.

"You have my utmost attention, Pipsqueak." Hecate gravely said, "What's wrong?"

"It's about the Great Wizard and his council." Pippa started, "It seems that I've been called in to-well, come to Cackle's to teach modern magic."

"What?" Hecate stood from her armchair, "Teach here?"

"It would be a workshop-And after Miss Cackle's trial." Pippa winced at her wording, "They seem to know what's going to happen-Ursula Hallow is making quite the case for herself."

"You mean to tell me that not only the council, but the Great Wizard already knows the fate of Cackle's?" Pippa nodded mutely, "How is that hardly fair, Pippa?"

"Ursula has a petition signed by all the parents of Cackle's that they want rid of Ada Cackle." Pippa provided her with more information, "I promise Hecate I was going to tell you sooner, but then Mildred got sick."

"How long have you known?" Hecate demanded, as she started pacing her living room floor.

"I've just known for a few days now they've pulled me into two meetings about it." Pippa admitted, "Hecate, I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you sooner."

"Pippa, please tell me that you have been defending Cackle's?" Hecate pleaded, glaring at her from her side of the room.

"I've done my best, Hecate, but this place is hardly the perfect model of a witching school-"

"Oh, but your school is?" Hecate interrupted sharply.

"Well, my students don't often find themselves in the situations that Cackle's girls find themselves in each year they attend." Pippa fired back, her shoulders slumped in defeat, "I want Mildred to be safe here-

"As do I!" Hecate rounded on her.

Pippa held up her hands almost surrendering, "I know you do-Of course I know you do, but Hecate you have to see that Mildred is target at this school-"

"A target?"

"Yes, a target-Anytime that Agatha is involved somehow Mildred is pulled into it all-"

"Mildred drags herself along with it-"

"She's concerned about her school. I understand why she does it, but why does it have to be her all the time?" Pippa questioned, "Need I also remind you that not every witch here approves of Mildred being here. How is that fair to her? I don't want to say it, but Cackle's still has work to do."

"And Pentangle's is a perfect example of excellence?" Hecate scorned, "Your students don't even understand any traditions of witchcraft."

"Is this what it boils down to? Tradition?" Pippa rolls her eyes, "Modern magic is just as powerful if not more powerful than-"

"Who says that everyone can do modern magic, Pippa?" Hecate countered, "Oh, but you can fix that can't you, Pippa?"

"Just what are you implying, Hecate?" Pippa demanded; her face grew hotter as the argument continued on.

"I've heard that you spread your modern magic very easily to your students, Pippa." Hecate crossed her arms, "How will they ever learn to do it for themselves if they can't do it, to begin with?"

"It's a push, Hecate. It builds their confidence." Pippa defended, "How dare you listen to rumors about me? Do you know what they say about you, Hecate Hardbroom?"

"What makes you think I haven't heard it all?" Hecate snapped, "I know that my reputation proceeds me."

"You mean your reputation as a harsh disciplinarian? Oh, yes, I think we've all seen that, Hecate." Pippa bellowed, "It's the reason that the council asked me instead of you! So, bravo to that wonderful reputation that you so admire!"

"So you do gain something out of this! I knew it!" Hecate accused, "With Ada gone that would put me as headmaster of Cackle's, but what about you?"

"What about me, Hecate?" Pippa crossed her arms.

"I know what the council thinks of me, as you've made that exceedingly clear, so I can only imagine that all the parents who signed the petition would come after me as well." Hecate calculated, "What have they offered to you?"

Pippa let her arms dropped, "I'm protecting you too, you know? It was supposed to be-"

"What did they offer you, Pippa?" Hecate gritted her teeth.

"They are considering making me a super head." Pippa gulped, releasing her arms to her side, "They want me to run both schools."

"And one school isn't enough for you?" Hecate spat out.

"It's not about that! Don't you see that I'm protecting you-They don't want you as a headmaster here, Hecate-They think that you are still a hard-hearted disciplinarian." Pippa walked forward placing her hands-on Hecate's shoulders, "They wouldn't listen to me, Hiccup."

Hecate backed out of Pippa's hold, "You didn't have to take it though you could've said no, Pippa."

"And let someone else-Someone who was Ursula Hallow's top pick I don't think so, Hecate." Pippa shook her head, "It had to be me."

"How am I going to tell this to Ada?" Hecate pondered, collapsing in her armchair in defeat. Her brow furrowed down more, "What does this mean about the reevaluation of Mildred's adoption?"

"Miss Broomhead still plans on coming here if that's what you mean." Pippa aided, "She plans to reevaluate the school as well, but she could easily rig it with the help of Ursula Hallow."

"All the more reason that I need Mildred to be able to use her empath skills to her fullest capacity." Hecate faintly said, "Do you think it would change anything if Miss Broomhead was to give us a good review?"

"With Ursula Hallow still on the council I'm not sure that it could be managed. She has her hand everywhere." Pippa said, "As well as her money too."

"If Esmeralda still had her powers this all wouldn't be happening." Hecate declared.

"I can't say I blame her." Pippa spoke, she held up a hand to Hecate stopping her from yelling, "Hear me out, you wouldn't, nor I wouldn't like to see Mildred go through the same thing that Esmeralda Hallow did."

"No, we wouldn't." Hecate agreed.

"Then maybe Cackle's needs a bit of work-"

Hecate made a face, "Or perhaps there needs to be a change in the Great Wizard's council."

"Hecate Hardbroom, I know that you don't like to hear Cackle's in a bad light, but it's true. Agatha Cackle, though she may not be here physically there is her coven that's out on the prowl for revenge. And their plans will not be foiled by children this time." Pippa said with stern voice, "They'll be coming for Mildred again, but the whole school this time."

"They haven't done anything yet." Hecate reminded.

"That's because we have no idea what they're planning!" Pippa threw her hands up in the air frustrated by her fiancée's ignorance, "The Great Wizard isn't happy about it at all."

"No one is!" Hecate declared, "I don't want any harm to come to Cackle's."

"Then we prevent it." Pippa said, "By taking these measures."

"By getting rid of Ada Cackle?" Hecate briskly asked.

"You don't think we'd make a great team?" Pippa said with a pinched cry in her voice.

"That's not what I meant, Pippa!"

"It's what you're implying!"

"Pippa-" Hecate started.

"I'm on your side, Hecate." Pippa sadly said, "I've always been on your side."

Hecate doesn't say anything back.

Miss Mould had located where the stone was none of the teachers except for Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom knew the location for the school's source of magic. She had found it and all it took was an outbreak of witches mumps to find it. It took a lot of convincing that she was doing the right thing to unleash what her coven had given her in a bottle. First, she was worried about the girls who would be infected with it, and secondly, she was afraid it wasn't going to do anything. Every witch and wizard usually has the illness when they are very little, but not everyone contracts it that young.

Once Mildred Hubble told that Beatrice had them it wasn't long after that a few others got it as well as her. Marigold mentally apologized for Mildred getting it, but it was for the greater good of her coven. Though, thanks to her she was able to find the founding stone when all the other teachers were busy tending to students including Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom. It merely took her seconds to locate the founding stone one of her many coven sisters had shared a spell with her to search and find ancient magic. Now, all she had to do was send her thanks back and what they should do next with the stone.

Their plan was working at an incredibly fast rate.