The Owl House: Coven of Shadows

by OmegusXIII

Ben Kingston never asked to be born to a cruel family that thought of no one but themselves. He'd shouldered that burden as long as he could, but one day, he had enough. And that day was when he found a strange new world. This is where his story truly begins.

4. Ignored No More

A/N: And here is Chapter 2 for the Coven of Shadows. I know I said I'd work on Infinity Train, but I just couldn't get it out of my head. Don't worry, though. Infinity Train's next chapter will come during this month. Speaking of, I'm sure you're wondering where the lemon stories for it have gone. Well, I just felt like my wattpad account hasn't been getting as much attention lately. So, I decided to try something new, just to see if it works out. If you want to see the lemon stories, you'll have to check my wattpad account. Besides that, you should all bear in mind that this chapter will have heavy themes, and it takes on some inspiration from Evilsnotbag's own Owl House stories. I hope you'll appreciate what you're about to read, but if it becomes too much for you, please allow yourself room to breathe. Other than that, enjoy. :)

Chapter 2: Ignored No More

The next morning, the sun was rising up upon the entirety of the Boiling Isles, the island that exists thanks to the remains of a fallen Titan. And as it did, many of its residents wanted to go back to sleep. A few of them even shut their windows' blinds just to preserve their sleep. But there were quite a few that didn't operate that way as some of them had many students walking out of their houses and walking out as if they were going to work. Every other house in Bonesborough had this kind of daily routine. However, there was one house which didn't operate this way: the house of Judith Clawthorne.

It was a big, dark, wooden Victorian like manor with a stretch of long vertical windows in the front of the building with a small stained glass window in the shape of an eye on the tower structure on the house. The roof is black tiled with two wooden beams holding up the long porch of the building, a red door into the house with a small peek hole, a bronze raven-shaped door knocker and bronze door knobs on the middle of the door, a three-step stairway to the porch, a rooftop with black, metal spiked fences around it, a small metal statue of a raven on the top of the tower, a small wooden grey gazebo, a big metal gate with a big hand print type of lock, two stone gargoyles standing over the gate entrance that stare down, thorn-like leafless trees that sprout out around the front yard, and a small cobblestone pathway that lead to the front door. And as the sun's light went closer to it, the Hippogriff that was out on the front lawn let out a yawn as the sunlight continued to travel onto the knocker. The moment the light went onto it, it began to let out a squawking screech before it spoke aloud.

"The Dawn has come! The Dawn has come!"

Inside the house, Ben was tossing and turning as he grumbled. In his head there were flashes of a portal that glowed brightly, followed by those of a Hippogriff that scared him to death the first time he saw it as it roared. And the most shocking of all was Ember as she prepared to attack with a loud scream as her arm got cut off and sprayed black blood on the floor, and her arm fell down to the floor along with it, forcing Ben to shoot out of bed as he exclaimed in dread, as if waking up from a nightmare. As Ben took his breath to calm himself, he began to look around at his surroundings, which at the moment appeared to be his new room.

It was a big sized room with elegant scarlet-colored walls, polished hardwood floors, a big window on the left wall draped in black see-through curtains, and a big dark wooden dresser on the wall in front of the bed which held a big mirror on it. Ben looked down next, coming to realize he'd slept on a big fancy wooden framed bed with a red fancy curtain that went around the bed canopy. It had long drapes on each bedpost tied to it with dark green sheets, blankets, and six big white fluffy pillows. Ben couldn't believe his eyes even if he was more awake. It was a lot fancier than his old bed ever was.

The bed itself stood in the middle of the room, along with a fancy wooden desk with a few drawers and a chair next to the right side of the bed. And on the left side was a wooden door. That door in particular piqued Ben's curiosity as he got up out of bed.

"I wonder where this thing leads…"

Endeavoring to answer that question, Ben opened it and found, to his surprise, a private bathroom. It had white marble floor and walls and a small sink with a big mirror above it. On the left of the mirror was a white clean toilet with a red mat in front of it, a metal bar with red towels on it next to a bathtub, as well as an enclosed space with marbled floor and a glass door with a metal shower head hanging over at the top of it. Ben was sure his mind must be playing tricks on him, because he never recalled having a room like this back home.

"I even have my own bathroom, too? What is this place?"

Just then, Ben heard a knock from far away. He hoped it wasn't the landlord of whoever owned the place, because he didn't have any rent money on him that he knew of, let alone any idea of how he got there to begin with. Still, he had to find out sooner or later.

"Coming!"

Ben went out of the bathroom and headed towards the door on the far right side of the bed. And when he opened it, he found Judith waiting for him with a smile. And she was dressed in a different outfit than he saw her in yesterday. She was wearing a dark gray belt, cowl, and boots with a light blue color on her leggings and sleeves.

"Morning, Ben. How'd you like your new room?"

Ben widened his eyes in disbelief. That was his new room? How did it come to that point? It wasn't like it was going to be a permanent stay. She had to know that. Although, it was better than having to sleep outside.

"That's… my new room?"

"Yeah. I figured you needed a better place to sleep after the day you've had, so I decided you can borrow my spare bedroom."

That was her spare? Ben wondered how a witch could have a spare bedroom, but it wasn't long before a new one popped in his head. And it concerned a certain Coven Head of the Emperor's Coven who tried to crush his hand the day before.

"And, uh, what did your mom think about that?"

Judith held her hand on her elbow with a nervous look and a smile as she replied.

"Well, uh… this isn't actually my mom's place. It's my dad's."

Ben grew puzzled from her answer.

"Your dad's place?"

Ben didn't have much of a good experience when it came to fathers, especially his own. And with how Lilith tried to crush him for being a human, he's worried about how he'd view him himself.

"And, uh, what does he think about a human staying with you?"

Judith smiled back at him before she held her hand out to him.

"Well, why don't you go see yourself?"

Ben wasn't sure if he should take her hand or not, but Judith looked certain that he had nothing to worry about. He hesitated for a moment, but Ben eventually took her hand before he walked out of his room with her and walked down the spiral staircase. When they got to the first floor, Judith and Ben heard a fine-toned voice in front of them.

"Ah, I thought I heard pitter-patters of little feet coming down my way."

The source of the voice walked into view, showing his greeting smile to Judith and Ben. He was a tall, lithe, and dark man with silver-golden yellow eyes resembling an eclipse, pale white skin, and glossy black hair that was styled to come out as slick, sharp spikes from the back of his head. As for his outfit, he wore a long-sleeved two-tone dark gray cloak and dark gray-laced boots with an obsidian gemstone in the shape of a raven on his chest. Ben began to look unnerved by his appearance as Judith came over to him.

"Dad, there's always a pitter-patter of little feet every day."

Judith gave her father a hug before he stroked her hair gently. It always did his heart good to see her smiling. However, as much as he liked to hold her, he caught sight of her human friend standing behind in anxiety as he finished the hug before his smile faded, and he spoke out to Ben in astonishment.

"So it is true. There really is another human in the Boiling Isles."

Ben didn't know if it was meant to be a good thing or a bad thing, considering his kind's role in the Salem Witch Trials. Regardless, he had to say something to let him know that he isn't being ignored.

"Uh… hi, Mr. Clawthrone, sir."

Lawrence walked towards the young man with a suspicious look, further unsettling Ben. Judith saw this and became just as concerned for him, hoping he wouldn't be as judgmental as her mother was. Lawrence leered down upon Ben as he spoke.

"I trust I don't need to remind you how humans are seen in the Boiling Isles?"

Ben held his tongue for a small moment before he answered him.

"Yeah, I… kinda figured that out yesterday."

Lawrence looked down upon Ben's hand where Lilith's claw marks were made before he looked back to him.

"I imagine you have. But you needn't worry. In light of yesterday's events, I'm quite certain you have grown out of such a savage mindset your ancestors harbored over 300 years ago."

Ben drew out a sigh of relief as he concurred with him while Judith bore a smile on her face again, relieved her father didn't harbor such a distrustful mindset as her mother. He hadn't seen anybody act out of superstition or hearsay, apart from his father, that is. But he's had enough of him for a lifetime. As far as he's concerned, he had no father.

"Well, yeah. Yeah, you don't have to worry about me, sir."

Lawrence put his hand on Ben's shoulder, forming his smile back as he replied.

"Please, call me Lawrence."

Ben looked back at Judith before she gave him a nod, making him feel more welcome than he was yesterday. This was more than enough reason to make him want to stay here. But his face sunk in sadness for a moment as he remembered why he left home in the first place. He was looking for his mother. To forget about finding her would mean to believe everything his father told him. Ben didn't want to. And he never will…

---

Not much later since then, Ben, Judith, and Lawrence were sitting on the table with one empty chair in a small room that passed for a kitchen. Ben looked at the food on his plate in curiosity as he jabbed at the egg with his fork. It didn't look any different from the food he had back home, but he had to ask just to be on the safe side.

"So, uh… what did you say the breakfast was, Lawrence?"

Lawrence looked to Ben as he answered him.

"Oh, it's quite simple, really. We're having scrambled Griffin eggs, torched toast with blood jam, wartfrog bacon, and Orangeblood."

Ben had a look of concern just from hearing what they were called, especially the wartfrog Bacon. He didn't know what kind of effect they'd have on him, much less how they'd actually taste. The human looked over to Judith as she was drinking the Orangeblood.

"And, uh… how do they taste, actually?"

When Judith finished her drink for the moment, she set the cup down before she spoke to him.

"Well, it can't be much different from what you have for breakfast, right? At least, I wouldn't think so."

Ben knew she had a point. But if there's one thing he learned back home, it's that he can't judge a book by its cover. It made him anxious to even consider trying it, but he didn't want to be rude, especially not for how he's been welcomed. Ben cautiously stabbed the egg onto his fork and picked up a piece before he took a bite. The moment he did, Ben's eyes widened in astonishment. The food tasted better than he thought it would be. In fact, it was the best thing he could've eaten.

"Whoa! This is really good!"

As Ben began to chow down on his breakfast with eager anticipation, Lawrence gave Ben a smile.

"It should be no surprise. Fidge worked tirelessly to present us this meal."

Ben hadn't recalled ever meeting anyone of that name. He looked at Lawrence in curiosity as he inquired about him.

"And who's Fidge?"

To answer him, a tiny and gentle voice spoke out from far away as it was heading toward them.

"Oh, that's me, sir."

Ben looked to the source and saw a small being walking to him, Judith, and Lawrence. He had pointy ears that dropped down behind him as opposed to how Judith and Lawrence's ears pointed up. And he also had bright blue eyes. As for his clothing, he was wearing a small grey rag that covered his chest and his lower body. Lawrence turned to him and had a big smile on his face as he held his hand out to him.

"Oh, speak of the Titan. You've outdone yourself this morning, my friend."

Fidge took Lawrence's hand before he was lifted up into the chair and sat down as he spoke his elation.

"Thank you, Master Clawthorne. I live to serve."

Ben looked at Fidge in puzzlement. The way he appeared, it reminded him of a certain house elf from one of the Harry Potter books he read. Judith then did the honor of introducing the elf as she spoke up.

"Ben, this is Fidge, our house elf."

Ben did a smile and a wave to the house elf, at least in happiness for the fact that he was getting a better treatment than the elf in the books had.

"Hey. It's nice to meet you."

Fidge smiled back at Ben as he returned his greeting.

"And you as well, Benjamin."

Ben became puzzled. He never told the elf his name. For him to somehow know was a surprise to him. But then again, everything else in the Boiling Isles was a surprise.

"Wait… I never told you my name."

Judith then explained herself, interjecting in the conversation.

"I did. I asked Fidge to help tuck you in when I brought you home."

Ben looked back to Fidge and gave the elf his gratitude.

"Well, uh, thanks, Fidge."

Fidge smiled at Ben again with a nod before Lawrence spoke up to Judith.

"So, how are things at Hexside for you, Judith? Not too troubling, I hope."

Ben had a look of puzzlement on his face as Judith answered him with a straight face.

"Not really, dad, no. Although, Canker's been on my case again about making some brand new abomination that'll put Amity Blight's to shame."

Lawrence gave Judith a light scoff before he spoke.

"No more so than usual, I assume. But I always said: the key isn't to be the best. It's-"

"To do your best. I know, Dad. You always say that."

"And you are all the better for it."

Ben looked at Judith as she made a light laugh, confused with how casually she talked about most of the words he didn't understand in context. Though he had to admit he didn't want to keep pestering them with questions, he still needed to know regardless.

"Uh, what is Hexside, exactly?"

Judith turned back to Ben for a moment. Then, a second after, she remembered that Ben hadn't stayed in the Boiling Isles long enough to know what Hexside was.

"Oh. Right, you didn't know. Well, Hexside is actually a school for magic."

Hearing this, Ben was reminded of another school of magic.

"Oh, yeah. Like Hogwarts."

It was Judith's turn to be confused next. She hadn't heard of such a school as Hogwarts.

"Hogwarts?"

Ben felt it best to explain the concept as he spoke to her.

"It's another school of magic, but it only existed in a few books I read."

"Huh. That's good to know."

Lawrence then cleared his throat, getting Judith and Ben's attention before he spoke to them.

"As Judith said, Hexside is a school. And if she doesn't want to be late, she'll have to finish her breakfast on the double."

Judith began to get back to it as she began to eat the wartfrog bacon. While she did, Ben wondered what the plans would be for him.

"And what about me? Am I going along?"

Lawrence had a lot to consider from that question.

"Well, I'm not honestly certain you can learn any traditional magic, Benjamin."

Ben had a look of confusion. Granted he had a feeling it would be difficult, but he didn't view it as impossible.

"Why not?"

"For one thing, you don't have a bile sac."

Ben raised his eyebrows. He wondered if it was his way of saying heart. But Judith clarified that just as she finished eating.

"It's an organ attached to the heart that produces magic. We'll talk more about it later."

Judith then picked up her plate and headed to the kitchen as Lawrence continued.

"And secondly, even if you did have a bile sac, the Coven System will notice you, assuming Lilith hasn't told them of you already."

Ben remembered how cold Lilith was to him at first sight. With how she viewed him, it's not likely she'd want him to learn magic anytime soon, or ever for that matter. He hung his head down as he spoke to himself.

"So, learning magic's out for me, then."

Lawrence only sat up straight as he sighed before he corrected him.

"Not quite."

Ben looked at Lawrence in a puzzled expression. He obviously can't go to Hexside to learn magic. What other way was there? Lawrence seemed to have an idea.

"What? But you said I can't learn magic."

"No. I said you can't learn traditional magic. But there are other ways. Would you be interested, by chance, to learn what they are?"

Ben widened his eyes confoundedly. He couldn't believe what he was being offered. First, he was given a place to stay, and now he's being offered a chance to learn magic. He's starting to feel like Harry Potter himself. But unlike him, it's not as easy for him to accept.

"Lawrence, I… I'd like to, but it's not like I'm going to be staying here."

"I'm aware. But it will be a while before we get you back home. I would think it wise to have something to do in the meantime, don't you?"

Ben put considerable thought into it. It wouldn't do him much good just hoping he'd see his mother in the real world. And he has been treated much better by him than his own father in comparison. But he can't turn his back on the one who gave him life, even if she seemed to have. Not until he understood why she left him, at least. Ben gave a sigh before he gave his answer.

"Yeah, but… Look, I'l, uh, l think about it. Does that work out for you?"

Lawrence sighed once again, seeing conflict within Ben before he spoke to him. Little did he know that Judith saw that conflict, too. His face was riddled with indecision.

"I understand completely. Although, it won't permit you to stay in your new room all day. No matter how admittedly lovely it is."

This gave Judith an idea as she piped up.

"Maybe Ben can see me off."

Ben and Lawrence turned over to Judith, puzzled by her idea. Though, Ben was the most shocked out of the two. He had to keep his ears hidden, and he can't even pull that off.

"Most witches won't even notice he's a human. That's what Augustus told me, at least."

Lawrence felt just as concerned as he spoke up.

"And what if they do? They won't give a human being a warm welcome at Hexside; they're all too acquainted with the Salem Witch Trials themselves."

"I know, but... "

Before Judith could finish, Fidge interjected as he piped up.

"What if they don't see a human? What if they just happen to see another witch?"

Judith looked at Fidge, beginning to understand his plan as Lawrence became puzzled.

"What are you talking about, Fidge?"

However, Ben was still out of the loop on the meaning of it.

"Yeah, what are you talking about? What do you mean by another witch? I'm a human."

Judith looked back to Ben as she answered, getting the big picture from Fidge's suggestion.

"Of course. But nobody else would have to know."

Ben then started to get the idea as he raised his eyebrows. It was starting to come together as he recalled a certain potion that can change his appearance.

"Oh. You got a potion for that, don't you?"

Judith shook her head before she gave out her answer.

"Better. I got a spell, actually."

Judith then held her hand out before drawing a silver circle with her finger in front of Ben before she picked it up and put it over him like she was scanning him before she spoke.

"Just close your eyes, okay?"

Ben didn't hesitate to do so as she lowered it over him as a silver light came over him. When the circle touched the floor, the light left Ben before he opened his eyes. He felt a small bit of magic over him, but apart from that, not much else.

"Did it work?"

Judith's circle disappeared before she answered.

"Check your ears and see for yourself."

Ben rubbed his hands over his ears. In doing so, he felt two points at his ears, making him gasp in wonder before he spoke in surprise.

"Wait. I-It actually worked?"

Lawrence held up the mirror before showing it to Ben.

"Perhaps you can tell us."

Ben looked at himself, and found that he did have pointy ears, just like Judith and Lawrence do. He couldn't help but gasp in wonder as he felt them before he spoke.

"It worked… What exactly did you do?"

Judith smiled as she explained.

"I just cast an illusion over you. Now, as far as everyone else knows, you're just a new witch student."

Lawrence looked at Judith in astonishment before he spoke up.

"It seems you really have been improving."

Judith smiled back to her father as she spoke.

"Thank you."

However, Lawrence had a look of confusion over him.

"Although… there's no way to know how long this illusion can last. The instant they find out he's a human-"

"Don't worry, dad. I'll keep the illusion running when it starts to run out. I've got some magic to spare."

"But he doesn't. He still doesn't have a bile sac."

"Students can't use magic unless they're officially accepted. I read it over quite a few times. And besides, any rule you can't break, you can always bend."

Lawrence saw the stubbornness in Judith's eyes. There seemed to be no way to talk her out of it.

"Edalyn taught you that, didn't she?"

Judith only gave her father a smirk in response before he brought up one more point to the matter.

"Well, that would depend on whether or not Ben is interested."

Judith turned to the human in anticipation. Ben saw the look on her face, riddled with eagerness. She really did want to show the Boiling Isles to him that much. But why would she? Ben couldn't think of any other way to figure it out except by accepting the offer.

"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to take a look. I can't sit around the house, after all."

Having heard Ben's answer, Lawrence eventually conceded as Judith's smile practically beamed like a cheshire cat before he sighed.

"Fine. But if you end up expelled, I won't hear the end of it from your mother."

Judith looked back to her father before turning back to Ben with a smile, making him give a confused look her way.

"Sure thing, dad. I'll keep an eye on him."

---

Not long after, once breakfast was finished for Ben and Lawrence, the latter stood at the wall with Judith and Ben standing beside him. The young man looked at Lawrence in puzzlement.

"Uh, why are we just standing here?"

"You'll see."

Lawrence then held out his hand with his thumb on top before turning it, forming a black circle with a white outline outside it before he pushed the circle, causing the shadows to grow darker before he spoke aloud.

"Hexside School of Magic and Demonics."

In that moment, the shadows began to show a large building, amazing Ben as nothing like this was capable back home, not even in fiction books.

"Whoa."

Judith looked to Ben with a small smile as she replied to him.

"You get used to it after a while."

Lawrence then placed his hands on their backs before he spoke to them.

"Well, off we go, then."

Lawrence gave Judith and Ben a big push, making Ben exclaim as he went through the shadow before he suddenly popped up in the middle of the school courtyard alongside Judith and Lawrence. It wasn't as grand as Hogwarts like he'd read about or seen, but it was magnificent all the same. The whole school might as well be a mini castle itself. He would still be distracted by such a sight if Lawrence hadn't spoken up to him.

"Now, remember to keep your wits about you. Keep yourself in check. And remember-"

Before Lawrence could finish, she interjected him.

"Keep my focus on who I am. I know."

Lawrence gave a gentle laugh to Judith as he held her hand to the left side of her face.

"That's right. Just make good on those words like you always do, my little Ruby."

Judith nodded to him, returning his gentle smile before Lawrence let his hand slip from her face and he backed away into the shadow that brought him to Hexside as he spoke one last thing to them.

"Oh, and one more thing. if you are interested in learning magic here, Benjamin, talk to Principal Bump. He's not an easy person, so when you see him, tell him Lawrence said 'in tenebris, frater.' He'll know what it means."

Without uttering another word after, Lawrence fell down backwards to the shadow, vanishing altogether. All the while, Ben was left flummoxed by Lawrence's words.

"Uh… okay?"

Ben looked back to Judith as she looked to her left, and then to her right. She seemed pretty anxious to meet someone in the courtyard.

"Oh, where is she…?"

"Where is who?"

Judith turned back to Ben before she held out her hand.

"Ben, before we go, I'd like to introduce you to someone. We still have some time left."

"Oh, uh, sure."

Ben took her hand before she led the way into the forest to the left of the school. Every step they took led them further and further away from Hexside. He didn't know if it was any of his business, but he didn't want Judith to be late.

"Uh, are you sure there's time? We could end up being late."

"I know the same spell my dad does. Even if it did ring, I'd take us back there quickly."

"Yeah, but I'm not so sure we should…"

Just then, a feminine voice cut off Ben's words before he could finish them.

"You can do it! You can!"

Judith's ears wiggled before she turned to her right. And in that moment, she parted the bushes to see a young girl kneeling on the ground. She was a shorter-than-average chubby girl who had light skin, pointed ears, green eyes, and short, neat dark gray-blue hair with a few loose strands. She also had a pair of round glasses and the pink Hexside uniform. Judith drew out a sigh as she spoke to herself while she paced around.

"There she is."

"You can do it. Even if you get a bad grade, it's not a reflection of you as a witch. And my parents are right. [stops pacing] There are better opportunities on this track. Now, get to school!"

The girl took a step forward and pointed confidently to herself. However, her mood quickly changed when she realized that she stepped on a flower just under her boot.

"Oh, no! Oh, little friend! I'm sorry!"

The girl knelt down and repeatedly traced a spell circle in front of it. It was a light green color with a white color inside it, a great contrast to Ember and Lawrence's spells that had a black color. Anyway, thanks to the girl's efforts, the flower perked back up and fully bloomed. Ben gasped in astonishment before Judith spoke up.

"You haven't changed a bit, Willow. I'm glad one of my friends hasn't changed."

Willow turned to the direction of Judith's voice as she stepped out of the bushes and became surprised to see her before heading over to her and giving her a big hug, as if they hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"Judy! I'm so glad you're here!"

"I should say the same. I was worried you wouldn't show up to school today."

Just then, Ben was about to step out of the bushes himself, confused at the interaction between the two.

"Uh, what am I? Chopped liver?"

Willow turned to notice Judith's new friend and became astonished.

"And who's that, Judy?"

"He's my new friend. I met him yesterday."

Ben then held out his hand to Willow as he introduced himself.

"My name's Ben. It's nice to meet you, Willow."

Willow held out her hand to shake Ben's before they clasped together as she smiled at him.

"It's great to meet you, too. But I haven't really seen you around before."

Ben was caught. He tried to make an excuse for the reason he hadn't shown up, remembering what Ember suggested about him earlier.

"Oh. Well, the thing is, I'm actually a transfer student, from, uh…"

Beforte Ben could finish, Willow's ear wiggled. Not long after, she heard something rumble from nearby. She turned to the direction it came from as she gasped. Just after that, a wagon rolled through the bushes and stopped in front of her. It was being moved by magic, carrying a pot and a girl reading a book. Upon noticing her, Ben remembered who that girl was. He almost bumped into her the other day. She looked away from the book to notice the group she stopped next to.

"Willow! Wow. You're so unnoticeable I almost rolled into ya."

As the girl gave a slight chuckle, the flower that Willow just healed wilted. Ben noticed that and looked at the girl in puzzlement while Judith and Willow gave her sour looks, especially Judith. While Willow's was more saddened, Judith's had a cross expression as she crossed her arms.

"Hi, Amity."

At that moment, Ben spoke to Judith, curious about how they knew Amity.

"Wait. You guys know her?"

"Unfortunately. Ben, meet Amity Blight. Hexside's top student, and teacher's pet."

Judith stared at Amity with an unforgiving look as she enunciated the last word, making Ms. Blight give her a look that told her she was insulted.

"And what exactly do you mean by that?"

"Why don't you figure it out yourself?"

Amity returned Judith's cold expression with her own before turning to notice Ben beside her.

"Oh. It's you again."

Ben was caught off-guard for a moment before he spoke up to her.

"Oh, uh, yeah. My name's Ben. And I haven't bumped into anyone since we last met, by the way."

Amity's glare softened a bit as she sighed before speaking to him. She seemed a bit tired as she talked to him.

"Well, good for you, I guess. But shouldn't you get to class early to prep your…"

Before Amity could finish, Willow's pot began to rattle. The group turned around to see Willow's pot as it spilled out, pouring out a purple substance and an eyeball that blinked and groaned. The sight unnerved Ben as he shuddered before Amity spoke to Willow again with a condescending smile.

"Oh, Willow. You don't have anything to show, do you?"

Willow pulled up her hood as she blushed. Ben caught on to that and began to view Amity differently. When he first met her, he assumed she was more like Hermione, a character from his books that was smart and befriended Harry during his first year. However, the way she was acting now reminded him all too well about the boy's nemesis, Draco Malfoy. He didn't need to glare to see why Judith hated her so much.

"This is why people call you 'Half‐a‐Witch Willow'."

Judith got in-between Amity and Willow as she barked back at her while tending to Willow.

"I wouldn't count your griffins before they hatch, Blight. She's just warming up."

Hearing this, Ben recalled what Ember said before. She wanted to make everyone forget Blight ever existed. It would be safe to assume that Ember must've hated her guts, too. Just then, Amity's own pot began to rattle as she maintained her smirk.

"Oh, looks like someone wants to say something to you."

Amity took off the lid of the pot before she spoke out a command with a snap of her finger.

"Abomination, rise."

In response, Amity's abomination rose from the pot, becoming more solid until it was humanoid in shape. As Ben looked on in awe, it bent out of the pot to poke Willow's forehead, leaving behind mud in a star-shape.

"You're a... star."

Amity spoke up next, maintaining her smile as she readjusted her star-shaped badge that read "Top Student".

"Aw. It's like mine. But much smaller and meaningless."

Judith snapped back at her, albeit while trying to hold in her temper and keep her wits about her as Lawrence always told her.

"You got that right, Blight. When we're done, your abomination would be small and meaningless compared to hers."

Amity's look didn't change as she made a light scoff.

"Well, probably not. But as top student, it's my duty to tell you to keep at it."

Amity put her arm around Willow as she continued.

"Even you could get a passing grade someday."

While Judith was on the verge of snapping at her once again, Ben stepped up to Amity with a similar smirk as Amity's. He dealt with bullies before back home. This should be a piece of cake, he thought. Of course, he hadn't learned magic, but it should be the same principle. At least, that's what he thought.

"Listen, Blight! Willow doesn't need any help from—!"

"Well, that'll be the day."

Judith was caught off-guard by Ben's words before she looked at him in befuddlement.

"What?"

"The day Willow does get a passing grade is the day she becomes Top Student. And honestly, I'm looking forward to seeing that."

As Ben stood by Willow's side, she noticed him smiling her way, making her feel uplifted where Amity made her feel downtrodden. Judith took notice of it and bore a smile before she stood by her side.

"You know what? I'm looking forward to that, too."

Regardless, Amity still held her smirk as she rolled her eyes for a moment.

"Well, that really would be the day, wouldn't it? Abomination, cower."

The creature groaned as it heeded her command and melted back into the pot where Amity replaced the pot lid and took hold of the cart.

"See you in class, superstar."

With that, Amity walked away as Judith glared at her like a hangry vulture. As for Willow, she removed her hood, her smile fading away. When Amity left, Judith sighed to herself, emotionally exhausted from having to see her of all people today. Afterwards, she turned to Ben.

"Thanks for that, Ben. I might've gone ballistic if you hadn't done that."

Ben smiled at her before he replied back to her.

"No problem. But what exactly happened between you guys?"

Judith moved her arm away from Ben before she answered him.

"That's not something we like to talk about. Especially not Willow."

Just then, as if on cue, the two of them overheard Willow. Unfortunately, just because Judith didn't go ballistic didn't mean Willow wasn't as she wiped the star from her forehead.

"'Oh, see you in class, superstar.' I hate when she does that.

As Willow vented her frustrations, the wind blew leaves around her, Judith, and Ben, who became a little worried from the ominous change in weather.

"I hate making abominations. I hate getting bad grades. Ugh! I can't stand this anymore!"

Judith began to get worried as well as she tried to reason with her.

"Willow, I know you're angry, and you should be, but please calm down."

"Why?! Why should I be calm?! I HAVE THE RIGHT TO BE UPSET!"

Just then, Willow opened her eyes, which now glowed dark green as she made a distorted shout of anger. As Ben and Judith backed away in alarm, the flower that wilted earlier got lost amongst giant thorny roots that burst out around it. One by one, they rose up, threatening to overtake the whole forest as Ben looked on in worry.

"Uh, Judith, does Willow always do stuff like this?"

The thorned roots surrounded Willow, glowing and writhing angrily as Judith answered him.

"It happens more often than you think…"

Just then, one of the thorns snaked out towards a bush and pulled away someone as the victim gave out a scream before it dropped her to the ground behind Willow. Ben and Judith noticed the victim and immediately recognized her as they shouted intermittently.

"Luz?!"

Willow turned back with a glare towards her as Luz looked at Willow in astonishment. However, Ben could already see the worst-case scenario. Ember wanted so badly to get rid of Amity's fame that she'd do anything to make it happen, including killing a Hippogriff. Ben didn't want to imagine what Willow would to to Luz as he shouted at her.

"Hey! You leave Luz alone!"

Ben rushed after her to stop Willow from attacking Luz. However, Willow noticed Luz and already realized what she almost did as she gasped and snapped out of her rage, leaning forward worriedly and letting the roots fall, making Ben confused as the thorns retreated to the ground.

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no! I'm so sorry!"

When she knelt down, Willow saw the roots were still wrapped around Luz's legs. To fix that, she made a wave before they retreated as Luz spoke up to her reassuringly.

"It's okay. The thorns only went through a few layers of skin."

Willow drew closer to Luz curiously, forcing her to lean back a bit. Luz was confused for a moment before Willow noticed her ears. It wasn't anything like hers. And it proved to be a dead giveaway.

"So... circly."

While Luz squealed and covered her ears, Ben once again assumed the worst as he spoke to Judith under his breath.

"Oh, crap! She knows! It's going to be the Salem Witch Trials all over again…!"

However, the look on Judith's face suggested that she wasn't as concerned as she was yesterday.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that with her."

A moment later, Willow instead showed an elated look on her face as she gasped and began to grab Luz's face in astonishment before helping her stand and walked around her.

"You're human! This is astounding! A human on the Boiling Isles! How'd you get here? What are you doing here?"

That last question was what Ben wanted to ask Luz about since he saw her. And yet, he just now realized that didn't get around to that. Perhaps he was exhausted from wrangling a Hippogriff back then, but it made him anxious while Judith elbowed him, earning a puzzled look from him.

"See? Not everyone hates humans."

Ben only covered his own ears as he spoke under his breath.

"Why didn't you tell me that sooner? Was this disguise even necessary?"

Judith leaned closer to Ben as she whispered back to him.

"Yeah. Not everybody hates humans, but there's still quite a lot of witches here who do."

"And how does this make me feel any better?"

Before Judith could answer him, they heard the bells ringing from far away. Willow flinched at the sound before she put Luz's arm down and had a somber look on her face.

"Uh, I'm sorry. I can't stay. I have to go disappoint my teacher. It was nice to meet you, human."

Willow walked away to be beside Judith as she made a half-wave, with Luz doing the same back to her. But before she could go, Luz rushed after her and spoke up.

"Wait! I'm Luz. And you're Willow, right? What you did with that flower and those plants, it was... wow."

"Thanks."

Then it occurred to Ben. Willow didn't like to do Abomination magic, but she had an aptitude for plant magic, and on a frightening scale, no less.

"Wait a minute. If you're so good at plant magic, then why don't you just do that?"

Willow maintained her sad look as she answered Ben solemnly.

"Because I'm not even supposed to be doing plant magic. My parents put me in the abomination track at school."

Luz squealed in excitement. Of course she'd be excited about anything related to magic. She always was a fan of it, not that he'd blame her. Luz grabbed Willow as she made certain Hexside was what she thought it would be.

"Like, magic school?"

Willow confirmed it with a nod, making Luz let go of her as she expressed her excitement.

"That's so cool! I'm so jealous."

Judith was confused on why she'd want to go to Hexside when she could train with the self-proclaimed most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.

"Why would you be? Isn't training with Aunt Eda enough?"

"Well, the thing is, her lessons are a bit untraditional. I bet she wouldn't even let me enroll. But I wish I could spend one day there."

Willow, on the other hand, had a different wish in mind.

"I wish I could get a passing grade for once. Then people would stop calling me 'Half‐a‐Witch Willow.'"

Willow kicked at her spilled abomination, which groaned as the eyeball rolled away. Just as it did, Ben pondered the meaning of her being 'Half-a-Witch.' She showed great prowess in Plant magic, yet she failed miserably at the abomination track. Then he thought about when Judith admires Ember's new arm.

She was convinced it was a combination of both abomination and plant magic. Of course, it turned out to be a curse, but nevertheless, it gave Ben an idea. And he apparently wasn't the only one as Luz piped up.

"Hey, wait. I know how we can both get what we want."

Judith and Ben looked to Luz, wondering where she was going with it. She picked up the abomination goo in both hands and splashed it on herself.

"Make me your abomination. I'll get you a good grade, and you can get me into magic school. It's fiendishly clever."

Ben, Judith, and Willow were puzzled by Luz's idea.

"What?"

"I saw that girl's thing. It's just chunks of stuff that talks weird. I'm chunks of stuff, and I talk weird!"

Willow made a soft giggle as she saw her point. However, Judith saw through the whole scheme. She knew Amity all too well. Even if they did give her a passing grade, she wouldn't take it sitting down, and neither would Principal Bump.

"That's true."

"Except for a few things. If I know Amity, and trust me, I wish I didn't, she'd get suspicious of how something that was mush this morning ended up better than before. And even worse, Principal Bump is an expert in abomination magic. He'd sniff out a fake in no time, or worse, he'll cut you open just to find out what you're made of."

The idea made Luz's skin crawl as she shivered, holding tight to herself before she spoke up, seeing Judith's point.

"Okay, point taken."

However, Willow only grumbled sadly from Judith's rebuttal before she sat down.

"Well, guess I'll have no choice but to resign my name to 'Half-a-Witch Willow' forever…"

However, Ben knew better than to give up as he piped up.

"Maybe you won't have to."

Willow looked at Ben, wondering what direction he might take with it.

"Huh?"

"You're so good with plant magic, and yet, your abomination magic is, uh… well, it's better left unsaid."

Judith crossed her arms, thinking he's taking a crack at Willow himself.

"And your point is?"

"If her abomination magic alone isn't doing well, then what if she added some... plant magic to it?"

Judith's eyes widened almost in terror at the idea while Willow and Luz were intrigued.

"Combine my magic?"

"Wait, you can combine magic?"

Judith didn't hesitate to speak out against it.

"No, you can't. Look, you may not know this, but you can only do one track. You can't do both."

Ben only nodded as he put his fingers on his chin.

"Well, yeah, except Willow isn't doing the plant track. She's just adding to her abomination recipe so it's easier to do."

Willow considered the info Ben gave out. She was more experienced in Plant magic than she ever was in abomination magic. And the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Then, it occurred to her and Luz why they kept calling her "Half-a-Witch Willow". She was only using half of her skill set. If she combined them, that would eliminate any chance of them calling her that ever again. It's practically brilliant! Willow was ashamed she didn't think of it sooner as she gave herself a facepalm.

"Oh… that's why they called you 'Half-a-Witch Willow.'"

"Oh, right! Why didn't I think of that sooner? I-It could work, right, Judy?"

Judith was still not in total support. While the idea was sound, she's afraid of what kind of consequences that would lead to.

"Well… I don't know, guys. What could we even add to the pot, anyway?"

As an answer, Ben had an idea as he looked down to the flower that was put back into the ground after Willow's vines went away.

"How about that flower? It perked right up after Willow's episode."

It was a start, but there's no telling how effective it would be. And even if it was effective, Willow was still bound to get caught using Plant magic instead of abomination magic.

"I'm still not sure if-"

Before Judith could finish, Willow began to look at her with puppy eyes.

"Please, Judy. I don't want to get another bad grade again…"

It was hard for Judith to look at her that way, especially when it reminded her of how she felt eight years ago. She tried to look away, only to look at the puddle of mush at her feet. She didn't want Willow to be sad anymore. And sadly, the only way to prevent it is to agree.

"Okay. Maybe it would work."

Willow perked up a little bit as she gave Judith her thanks.

"Thank you, Judy."

Willow gave her a hug before she scooped up the flower she healed earlier, and the soil along with it before placing it in the pot along with her failure of an abomination so far. The flower was now floating by itself, acting as its own island amidst the purple goop as she spoke gently to it.

"I hope you'll do okay in there."

Willow then closed the pot before she put on a smile. But Judith wasn't done yet.

"You just better know what you're doing. Don't forget, Amity's not the only one we need to look out for."

Willow nodded to Judith. She was also aware of one other unsavory customer Hexside had to offer. Judith spoke of him to Ben this morning, though he had no clue who he was.

"You mean Canker, right? Who is that guy, anyway?"

Judith only turned back to him before she replied.

"I'll explain later. Right now, we're running late. And I would use the shadow location spell, but I don't want to break Willow's pot. So…"

With that, Judith marched out of the forest with Willow pushing the cart, leaving Ben and Luz in the forest alone. Ben saw the ecstatic stamping of her feet in place. Knowing how quick she was to volunteer herself to be Willow's abomination, Ben raised an eyebrow and suspected what she was after.

"You want to go to Hexside, don't you?"

Luz nodded to him excitedly before he sighed. He knew there's no point in trying to stop her. Although, she'd have to keep the fact that she was human on the downlow, unless he wanted a repeat of the Salem Witch Trials. Even though most witches wouldn't tell if they were human, Ben was very doubtful they were forgiving. Lilith certainly wasn't.

"Alright. Go nuts."

With that, Luz squealed eagerly before heading out to join Judith and Willow, only for Ben to stop her with his arm held out.

"But, you can't go showing off your human ears. They can't know you're a human, ever."

Luz tried to disprove him with his own ears.

"And what about you? Your ears are…"

However, when Luz tried to expose them, she lost her train of thought. She noticed that they weren't circly like when she saw them before.

"...are just like a witch's! Wait. Does that mean you have a secret connection to the Boiling Isles? Have you been a witch since you were born? Is that why your brother and sister made fun of you?"

Ben was beginning to blush madly from the questions that came from her spitfire for a mouth. Any other day, Ben would brush off her questions. But as they seemed to be getting nowhere, especially since a couple of them were more hard-hitting than she meant it to, he had to dial the fangirl back.

"Luz!"

Luz jumped back, realizing that she went all up in his face as she became embarrassed.

"Right. Sorry. But how did you get those ears?"

Ben only sighed before he made it clear to her.

"It's just part of Judith's illusion spell so I can blend in."

"Oh… That makes more sense. You think she can do the same for me?"

Personally, Ben didn't know if it was in the realm of possibility, and he didn't want to risk it, especially not on Judith's account with what she went through concerning Amity.

"Let's just stick with your hoodie for now. It'll have to do."

Luz then put her hoodie on as she made a cute smile before replying.

"You can count on meow."

Ben only made a sigh regarding her own cat joke before the two of them went out of the forest.

---

Shortly after that, Ben, Judith, Luz, and Willow were on their way to Hexside as Judith showed the school to the newcomers.

"Welcome to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics."

Luz squealed and giggled at the sight of the huge school in front of her as she put on her hoodie, showing off her blue cat ears that came with it. Judith looked back, appreciating her enthusiasm. Although, she was concerned about how she'd be able to blend in.

"Luz, you do know that nobody else is supposed to know you're a human, right?"

Luz nodded to her as she explained.

"Of course. That's why I have my hoodie on. As far as everyone else knows, I'm just a cute catgirl who's ready to learn magic."

Luz did a swipe as she gave out a cute meow. Ben rolled his eyes at that performance, but if it'll convince everyone she wasn't a human, it would have to do.

"Well, whatever floats your boat, Luz. But if you want to get in, we'll have to talk with Principal Bump first. And from what I heard, he's not an easy customer."

"Well, I'm sure he's a reasonable guy."

However, what Judith had to say was quite the contrary.

"I wouldn't be so sure. The last time he caught anyone trying to sneak into school, he made sure they were never seen again."

It gave Ben an unpleasant feeling as he shuddered at the thought of what it could mean. If it were back home, it would be a rumor for sure. But in the Boiling Isles, anything could happen. And that's what worried him, which was more than Luz could say.

"I'm sure it's fine."

Ben looked at Luz with a slight frown.

"I really don't get how this is fine, Luz. I really don't get it at all…"

---

Inside the school, Ben and Luz were utterly speechless at what they witnessed. As far as the eye could see, which was from their end to the end of the hall, there were monster-like lockers with mouths. And even above the end of that, there were skylights with banners around them saying "Go, Banshees!". In Ben's view, it looked more like a cross between a school and a mall. Add in the fact that it taught magic, and that made it a triple threat. The group kept going until Judith and Willow stopped at their lockers, tickling them to open their mouths before the beasts gave them their books. As the lockers closed themselves, Ben raised his eyes, worried about where their stuff would end up.

"Uh, don't lockers digest that stuff if they eat it?"

Judith shook her head as she gave out a crucial detail about the lockers.

"Don't be silly, Ben. How could they digest our stuff if they don't have stomachs?"

Just then, a shorter witch that was reading a magazine bumped into them. He was a young boy, noticeably shorter than Luz and Willow, with black skin and dark brown hair with lighter shades. Like all the witches and demons on the Boiling Isles, he had pointy ears. He was also wearing a grey tunic with a dark grey belt, cowl, and boots, only the color of his sleeves and leggings are similar to Judith's.

"Hmm? Oh, hey, Augustus. What's up?"

Augustus didn't bother looking up from his magazine as he spoke up to her.

"You guys would not believe humans."

This put Willow on edge already as she began to speak nervously.

"Humans? Psh. I haven't seen any. What?"

Judith bumped her elbow into Willow and spoke under her breath to her before speaking back to Gus.

"Keep it cool, Willow… Sorry about that. What is it?"

To answer, Augustus showed her the magazine's image of braces on their teeth.

"Did you know that humans nail barbed wire to their kids' teeth? But why? Maybe to make them magnetic."

Ben took a look at the magazine and it wasn't anywhere remotely close to what Augustus thought it was. He could understand how it looked, but it was a far cry from how it appeared.

"Actually, it looks like it's for straightening your teeth out."

Luz, on the other hand, had a different opinion.

"Actually, it's for storing treats."

Gus looked at the two of them and became intrigued. He'd never seen their faces around Hexside before.

"Oh, hello. Who are you guys?"

Ben stepped up to introduce himself first as he held out his hand before he spoke along with Luz.

"My name's Ben. Ben Kingston."

"And I'm Luz Noceda. What's your name?"

"My name's Augustus. I'm really impressed with how you know so much about humans. But, how do you know about them?"

Ben and Luz both had nervous looks on their faces before Judith intervened but not in the way Ben thought. Instead of going for the fact that they were transfers from Glandus, Judith went with a different approach.

"Okay, Augustus. I'm gonna tell you something. But you have to be cool."

"I can be spool. I mean, cool."

"Okay."

With that, Judith undid her illusion for Ben, exposing his circly ears, making him cover them in a panic before he looked at her in worry.

"Why are you doing this…?!"

"Relax, Ben. Augustus is part of the Human Appreciation Society."

The title made Ben puzzled. He didn't think Witches with a grudge against humans would have a Human Appreciation Society.

"Wait, what?"

Gus dropped his magazine in surprise before he spoke in utter delight as he played with his ears while looking at Ben's.

"No. No, i-it couldn't be."

Seeing the astonished look on his face, as well as due to the information about the Human Appreciation Society, Luz decided to expose herself next.

"And he's not the only one. Boop!"

Luz pulled down her hoodie and showed her ears to Augustus, making him gasp as he spoke in further delight.

"Another human?! How?!"

Ben looked over to Judith and Willow as he pondered about this so-called "Appreciation Society".

"So, what exactly is the Human Appreciation Society?"

Willow answered Ben as she looked at him with a smile.

"Isn't it obvious? It's a group that shows how much they care about humans, no matter what they did 300 years ago. And, he also happens to be the president of the Human Appreciation Society. Most witches wouldn't be able to recognize a human right away. But Augustus is an expert."

Augustus went over to Ben and Luz before he asked a question that proved otherwise.

"Where are your gills?"

Great. Another fanboy, he thought. As if Luz pestering him with questions wasn't enough, now he had to deal with a witch who seemed to think humans had gills. Although, in comparison to Lilith wanting to kill him, which he could tell by the look in her eyes when he saw her last, this was more bearable. So, he backed Augustus up a few inches before he corrected him.

"Look, we don't have gills. We're not fish."

Luz then spoke up with a smile of her own as she put her hoodie back on.

"I knew an Augustus back in the human world. We called him Gus."

That only served to fuel Augustus's enthusiasm as he practically began to shout.

"Gus? Nickname?! Human nickname?! Gus?! Call me it."

Ben didn't quite know what to make of it as he agreed to such a bizarre request.

"Uh… okay. Whatever you want, Gus."

"Wow. Gus. This is the best day of my life."

While it was good to know that Gus wasn't one of the witches who hated humans, Ben wondered how something like the Human Appreciation Society existed in the first place.

"I'm sure it is, Gus. But how come you're so interested in humans, anyway? Don't you know about the…"

Ben's eyes looked left to right for a moment before he leaned into Gus' ear and spoke in a hushed whisper.

"The Salem Witch Trials?"

Gus made a short sputter from his lips before he answered him.

"Everyone knows about that. But what they don't know is how humans have changed since then. Luckily, I know better. That's why I started the H.A.S."

"Huh. Good for you, Gus."

Just then, the bell rang, or rather it screamed, making Ben jump up from the sudden shout before Gus realized something as he picked up a wand from his pocket and picked up the magazine from the floor.

"I've gotta get to spelling class."

Judith then walked over to Gus before she spoke to him.

"I gotta go, too, guys. But first…"

Judith then did a silver spell circle before Ben's witch ears returned, making Gus impressed.

"Wow, Judy. You're getting really good at this."

"I know."

With that, Judith turned to Willow, Ben, and Luz before she gave them a warning.

"Just make sure you guys don't get in too much trouble, okay?"

With that, Judith and Gus took off for their class before they shouted.

"See you guys at lunch!"

"And be careful with Canker! He's very sneaky!"

Willow waved to the three of them before Ben spoke up in confusion.

"Wait. Who's Canker again?"

Just then, to answer her question, Luz and Willow heard a sudden shout behind them.

"Half-a-Witch!"

Willow and Luz fell over to the floor together in surprise and alarm as the source made a mischievous chuckle. He had the similar outfit as Willow, only he had scarlet red, unkempt hair with dark purple eyes.

"What do you know? It scares Half-Witches and Newb-Witches."

Ben had a galre form on his face as he just understood the sneaky part while Luz looked back up to the Witch as she tried to disprove him.

"Huh. So, that's Canker."

"I wasn't scared. I was just landing on my feet."

Luz then did another meow with a swipe of her hand while the Witch looked at them in disbelief.

"Uh-huh, sure."

Just then, Amity's voice spoke up from behind, catching the group's attention, especially Luz's.

"Hey, Canker. Why don't you save that for spelling class?"

Ben, Willow, and Luz looked past Canker to notice Amity, much to the first two of the trio's surprise.

"Amity?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was making sure you guys were getting to class alright, and then I noticed Canker was giving you guys a hard time."

Ben rolled his eyes as he gave her a scoff. He was well aware of how Amity made Willow feel last time, if her blow-up was any indication of it. And he wasn't exactly willing to root for her because of it.

"Like you haven't done that already…"

Canker looked back to Blight with a smirk as he spoke.

"I'm in the zone today, Blight. I'm gonna be doing some serious craftsmanship. Ripping it some new ones."

Amity only maintained her smirk as she crossed her arms.

"Well, that's gonna be tough, because it'd only be more embarrassing if I win, again."

Just then, Canker leaned closer to Blight before shushing her until everyone was silent. After a short silence he spoke up in a slight whisper and a devilish smirk.

"Do you hear that? It's the winds of change…"

With that, Canker walked away from the group to attend to his own cart as he pushed it along. Amity had a look of disapproval on her as she spoke to herself before she looked over to Willow, Ben, and Luz.

"What a creep… Well, let's get a move-on, superstar. We can't be late, can we?"

Willow and Ben made a small glare each towards her while Luz was puzzled by their reaction. But before Amity could go on, however, she noticed that one of the trio was different from who she saw before, namely Luz.

"Wait. I saw Ben earlier, but I don't remember seeing you around before. Who are you?"

Ben felt put on the spot once again. Although he was able to hide the fact he was human himself, the same could not be said for Luz. And if Amity were to find out, who knows what she would do? He didn't want to risk it. Luz felt it best to introduce herself as she answered her.

"My name's Luz. I'm Ben's friend. It's nice to meet you."

Luz held out her hand towards Amity, who looked unsure about what to make of her before she took it.

"Uh, I'm… sure it is."

After shaking her hand, Amity turned to Ben, wondering what he and Luz were doing in Hexside outside their standard uniforms.

"But how come you're not in your uniforms?"

Ben had to try to find a reasonable excuse considering his meeting with her the other day. But before he could finish, Amity spoke up.

"If you're trying to enroll in Hexside, it's not until next semester. Didn't you know that?"

Ben had a nervous look on his face as he brushed the back of his head. He had to think of a way to throw off Amity's suspicion. Then, he remembered what Lawrence told him. If he saw the principal, he was meant to tell him something. Maybe that's what would help Ben keep his being human a secret.

"Yeah, uh, the thing is, we're trying to look for Principal Bump. Do you know where we could find his office?"

Amity raised her eyebrow in a puzzled look, keeping her stare on Ben and Luz as the former of the two looked more nervous. She had a feeling something was up, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Either way, she's sure Principal Bump would sort it out.

"It's just down this hall and then to the left."

Ben made a relieved sigh before he gave her his thanks.

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

With that, Ben took his leave almost immediately while Luz looked at Amity with a smile, perplexing the girl. Luz didn't quite see the mean side of Amity, as far as Ben knew, but she seemed happy with how Amity stepped in to shoo Canker away from the three of them.

"You know, it really was nice to meet you."

Ben then spoke up to Luz, catching her attention.

"Hey, Luz! You coming or what?"

Luz shouted back to Ben quickly.

"Ya voy!"

Luz then walked over to join Ben before she looked back to Willow.

"I hope your abomination gets an a-nonim-ation, Willow!"

As Luz left with Ben, Willow made a soft giggle. It really was a clever wordplay from the girl. Amity looked at Willow in curiosity before she asked.

"New friends of yours, Willow?"

Willow looked back to Amity as she spoke a bit nervously, worried Amity might be onto her.

"Uh, yeah. Well, not exactly. They're more like Judy's friends. But any friend of Judy's is a friend of mine."

Willow added a slightly nervous laugh as Amity looked to the direction Ben and Luz took off from.

"Judy's friends…?"

For a time, Amity looked upset. Willow took notice of that as she tried to check on her. Amity May have been cruel to her, but she was better than that.

"Are you alright?"

Amity was snapped out of her momentary soberness before she pressed on.

"Never mind. Let's just get to class."

With that, Amity and Willow moved on, the latter looking more confused than ever.

"Okay…"

While Willow went past the hall, however, Amity stopped to take a look back down the hall where Ben and Luz went into. The last time she saw Ben was yesterday, and even back then he had a hoodie on. Then his friend shows up wearing a hoodie, too. She didn't quite know who they were, much less what they were doing here. But the fact that Judith seemed to be the key to it all made her suspicious.

Judith did have it out for her for a long time. That was partly why she was worried that two faces she'd never seen before were in the school as if they were natural when everything about them was everything but, even for the Boiling Isles.

"What are you up to, Judy…?"

---

Back in the hall, Ben and Luz were waiting out by the Principal's office. Luz had a look of excitement on her face while Ben had a cautious one. It didn't make any sense to him how she could be so happy. Although, he was more concerned with how she found her own portal to the Boiling Isles. He wanted to ask that above everything else to her, but he figured he had to ease himself into it so as not to overwhelm her.

"So, uh… how come you're not nervous?"

Luz looked at Ben with a puzzled expression.

"Why would I be?"

This made Ben remember the last time she was at the principal's office, having left it with a sad look on her face as Camila took her home.

"It's just that… you didn't exactly have a good time in there back home."

The instant Ben mentioned it, Luz had a sober look for a while before she perked back up almost immediately afterward, much to Ben's irritation.

"Yeah, well, I'm sure this will be different. It is a school of magic, after all."

"Which has a long grudge against humankind."

Luz saw the concerned look on Ben's face and tried to cheer him up.

"Hey, come on. It'll be fine, Ben. We're wearing disguises, aren't we?"

Ben still had the look of worry over him as he turned back to Luz.

"Yeah? And what if they aren't enough? What then?"

Luz, ever the optimist, persisted in trying to help Ben brighten up.

"Well, everybody we met at school seemed really nice, anyway."

Suddenly, Ben snapped back at Luz with a dark look on his face, surprising her.

"You don't know that, Luz."

Despite the chills Ben was giving him, Luz continued on.

"Sure I do. Judith, Willow, and Gus were nice-"

Ben was having enough of Luz's blind optimism, especially when it's likely to get her in trouble, trouble of which could kill the both of them. If he were back home, he'd appreciate it, but he wasn't. They were in the throes of danger that is the Boiling Isles.

"Ember wasn't."

Luz began to have a grumpy look on her face as she spoke almost bitterly.

"You had to remind me of her, didn't you?"

"I shouldn't have had to. I thought you'd have known that not everyone is looking to be your friend by now."

Luz made a soft smile as she spoke up to him.

"Well, you wanted to be my friend."

Ben looked back to Luz, astonished by what she said to him. She wasn't wrong. Ben did try to be there for her that day when Kyle and Susan put her down.

"Right…?"

Luz's face was beginning to show a somber look as she said it, hoping Ben wasn't going to reject her like the others did. Ben's heart sank at the sight of it before he had a sad look himself.

Just then, before Ben could answer her, the door began to open, revealing a tall man in a robe known as Principal Bump looking down on them. He was an older man, presumably due to the wrinkles surrounding his upper lip. His skin was light beige, and he had teal eyes with bright yellow sclera. He seemed to wear a red imp on his head, covering half of his face, which gave him the appearance of being consumed by said imp. His robe appeared to be a traditional academic dress consisting of a long black gown with a gold yoke, a black cape, gold trim at the sleeves and cape hem, plus a blue stole draped over his shoulders. As Luz grew timid and stood up straight, the principal seemed surprised to see the two of them as he spoke up.

"Ah. I wasn't expecting to see you two. Come to think of it, I haven't seen you before. Who exactly are you two?"

Luz tried her best to answer him in a full burst.

"My name is Luz Noceda, sir, and I really want to go to Hexside and learn magic here!"

Ben couldn't deny how funny she was, even when she wasn't meaning to be. He made a small grin and a laugh before he cleared his throat before he introduced himself next.

"My name's Ben Kingston, sir. And I was thinking I could, uh… browse around here a little bit."

Principal Bump looked at the two of them suspiciously, particularly to Ben. His story didn't seem to fit in with his appearance as he spoke.

"I'm afraid I'll have to ask the two of you to leave."

Principal Bump snapped his fingers together and summoned a horde of purple goop-like abominations behind him. Unless Ben missed his guess, those were what Willow tried to create on her own, with no success, and he already saw how Amity did with her own. Luz made a fearful squeak before Ben piped up.

"W-Wait! There's something else, too!"

The principal looked at Ben curiously before he went on.

"Lawrence says, 'In Tenebris, Frater.'"

The instant he said this, Bump's eyes widened before he snapped them again, forcing the abominations to retreat and astonishing Luz, who looked on at the scene.

"You know Lawrence Clawthorne?"

Ben nodded to him as he explained.

"Uh, yeah. We do."

Bump stroked his chin in contemplation with his pointer and thumb before he answered.

"Come inside, both of you."

As he walked back inside, Luz looked at Ben with a puzzled look before he answered her earlier question.

"Of course I want to be your friend."

Luz had a smile form back on her face before they went inside the Principal's office and closed the door. Inside the office, there were rows of chairs lined up by the balcony window, as well as two of them placed in front of his desk. Along with it were 9 flags hanging on the wall behind him. They each showed a yellow potion, a purple ghoul-like orb (which Ben assumed was the Abomination class), a green flytrap, a blue hand, a red fist, an orange beast within an egg, a light blue mirror, a dark red harp, and a dark purple seeing eye. Principal Bump sat by his desk before prompting the two new students.

"Now, why don't you two take a seat?"

As the Principal instructed, the two of them each sat down in their chairs, anxiously waiting for what he had to say to them. After five seconds of otherwise short silence following them taking their seats with the Principal drawing in a deep breath, he spoke out to the two teenagers.

"I suppose it is true, then. There really are humans in the Boiling Isles."

This made Luz very anxious as she tried to deny it.

"Uh, what? N-No, there's, uh, no humans here. I'm just a cute cat girl, and Ben's a fellow witch."

Luz made a swipe with a cute meow added in, but Bump wasn't fooled. He got out his staff before pushing Luz's hoodie back, exposing her human-like ears, making her squeal in fright as she tried to cover her ears before Bump snapped his fingers, making Ben's illusion of his witch ears disappear. Ben was shocked that he saw through the illusion as he made a short gasp. Bump then spoke to the baffled duo as he took out his quill set on the desk and got out a paper before writing into it.

"If you're going to visit Hexside, I'd appreciate some honesty around here. Otherwise, you're marked as intruders."

Luz became confused as she inquired about it.

"Intruders?"

"People who break into the school and threaten the students, staff, and/or their well-being. The fact I'm not writing you two up for your disguises is a courtesy."

Ben grew confused by his words.

"A courtesy? W-What exactly do you mean?"

Bump only set down his quill before he spoke to them.

"I'm saying that if Lawrence favors you both, then I trust him with my life. But if I catch you causing any trouble, then you'll be banned. So, try not to cause trouble, for your sake."

Bump glared at the two as he said this, sending chills to Ben's spine while Luz nodded to him with a smile.

"You got it, sir."

Then, Luz noticed the short tail sticking out from his imp and became mesmerized by it.

"Oh, can I touch it?"

Luz reached her hand out to feel it, but Bump swatted her hand away.

"No."

As Luz grumbled from her hand being swatted away, Ben wasn't quite sure how to feel from Bump's answer, but he had to show gratitude, even if only to keep from getting on his bad side. Although, he wondered where the two of them should go from there.

"Well, uh… thanks. We'll try not to get in trouble. But, uh… where exactly should we go?"

Bump kept his gaze on the two of them as he pointed out the flags behind him.

"Well, you can choose one of the nine coven tracks here at Hexside. But seeing as you two aren't officially enrolled yet, I suppose it depends on where you'd like to go."

Of course, living in Ben's head, there was still the matter of the Salem Witch Trials to worry about.

"And, uh, what if we run into someone who, you know… hates humans?"

Bump drew a big breath from this. It honestly came as no surprise that Ben would be concerned about that. And he had every right to be. That's when he recalled their disguises. They must've known that trying to set foot in Hexside as they are would invite torture and death upon them. While most of the students and staff hadn't had that kind of mindset, they must've been afraid that would change and turn against them.

"That's why you had to disguise yourselves, wasn't it?"

Ben nodded to him before Luz asked about it. Though she had an impression she should keep her being human a secret, she never did learn why the Salem Witch Trials had anything to do with it.

"Uh, what are the Salem Witch Trials, sir?"

Bump leaned back into his chair as he gave his answer with a dark tone.

"Frankly, I'm surprised you don't know. More than 300 years ago, our ancestors went to your world before, in a place called Massachusetts."

Luz's eyes went wide in astonishment. It never occurred to her that witches had actually been to her world before she was even born, let alone 300 years prior.

"Really?"

"Yes. They showed the humans the gifts and powers they had to offer. But that only gave the humans back then a reason to blame them. For whatever bad things they've done, they blamed them on us. Most of us were able to escape. But sadly, twenty-five of them were stranded. As for what happened, your history tells it all, I assume."

Luz couldn't believe what she was hearing. The only witches she knew of were from her and Ben's books. To hear that of all stories about witches, it made her heart sink. But alas, she didn't know the history. Regrettably, someone else did. And he was sitting next to her.

"Well… what happened to them?"

Ben turned to Luz, not sure how to tell this to a big-hearted person like her.

"I read the history. And in that history, Luz… all twenty-five of them were killed dead. Twenty were hanged and five died of starvation in jail."

Luz let out a shocked gasp from her mouth. This day was not going the way she was told.

"That's… that's horrible."

Principal Bump couldn't agree more as he leaned closer to his desk.

"Exactly. Since then, Emperor Belos forbade any travel to the human realm. And if any human should come here, they, and those who associate with them, would be met with great vengeance."

This put a knot in Luz's stomach. As if being persecuted at home for her antics wasn't bad enough, now she's going to be punished for being who she is: a human girl in the Boiling Isles. None of that was right, nor was it justifiable. And Luz knew in her heart that she was nothing like those who killed their ancestors. Gus, Willow, and Judith seemed to know that, too. As she tried to state her case, she tried to hold back her tears, worried about what would happen to Eda if her human identity was found out.

"But Principal Bump, w-we're not like that…! We're not."

Ben saw how hard she was holding back her tears. He felt bad to see her like this when a few minutes ago, she was as optimistic as ever. How quickly was that for him to destroy, he wondered with great sympathy. Bump leaned closer to Luz, putting her hood back on her head as she sniffled.

"I know. Lawrence told me that as well. But regardless, it is still a possibility for them to attack you if they ever found out you're human. I'd avoid them to the best of your ability if I were you."

Ben asked another question to him next, mostly for Luz's sake.

"But what if we can't? Avoid them, I mean."

Bump put his fingers together as he looked closely at Ben.

"Then you better show them the kind of person Lawrence's little ruby knows you are."

This made Ben's face blush in surprise. As far as he knew, only Lawrence knew how well he meant to Judith. That raised a bigger question.

"Wait… how do you know what Judith sees in me?"

Bump only put on a smile as he put the illusion back on Ben's witch ears with a spell circle and spoke to him.

"In Tenebris, frater. And soror."

Ben and Luz were puzzled by Bump's words as the latter tried to say it back to him.

"Uh… In Tenebris, fratter."

Luz made a cautious smile as she inquired to the Principal.

"What does it mean, exactly?"

Grateful as he was to see Luz bounce back from such a dark history, Ben only took Luz's hand as he answered for her.

"It means, 'we gotta get going'."

It wasn't remotely close to what it actually meant, but he didn't want Luz to embarrass herself in front of Bump any more than she already has. But as they left, Bump spoke out to them.

"Hold on. You two will be needing these."

Bump made a spell circle of his own, and almost in an instant, two small slips appeared in Luz and Ben's hands, showing a paper which said "Bump Approves" with a small drawing of him giving a thumbs-up. Luz felt the drawing was neat to see as she spoke softly before Bump told them of an additional request.

"It looks so cute…"

"Just one more thing."

Ben and Luz stopped before turning back to see the principal as he spoke a warning to them. Well, mainly to Luz.

"You probably already know this, but you can't use those words publicly."

On the contrary, neither one of them knew right away. Luz was especially puzzled.

"What words?"

Ben had a feeling as he slightly elbowed Luz and gave her a look that told her to change her answer. She saw the expression and did as he silently told her.

"Uh, I mean, don't worry. Our lips are sealed. Thanks for letting us explore, Principal Bump."

With that, the two students left the office and closed the door. Left alone, Bump gave out a sigh to himself before his crystal ball rang out with an ominous bell chime. Bump had a feeling it was important as he tapped on the crystal ball before Lawrence's grinning face was shown inside it.

"Ah, there you are, old friend. And I use that term loosely."

As Lawrence made a slight laugh, Bump gave an unamused chuckle before he spoke to him.

"Very amusing, Mr. Clawthorne."

Lawrence dialed down his laugh before he spoke again with a serious face.

"Sorry about that. Anyway, I wanted to know how things are going so far."

Principal Bump assumed he was talking about Ben and Luz.

"I gave the humans the opportunity to browse around Hexside. It will be some time before they figure out which coven they belong in, but when it comes time for enrolling them, I'm sure they'll fit right in."

Lawrence maintained the look on his face as he continued.

"That's good to hear, Mr. Bump. But I wasn't asking about that. Have you found it yet? The relic?"

Bump was caught a bit unawares, but he just as quickly regained his composure.

"Yes, but apparently there's a catch. The ruins that hold it will only reveal itself during the Boiling Rains. And only a mad fool would dare walk out in the Boiling Rains. Even the Emperor's Coven knows better than to do that."

Lawrence developed somewhat of a worried look as he inquired to the Principal.

"Are you sure, Mr. Bump? That it shows itself in the Boiling Rains?"

"Yes, Mr. Clawthorne. I'm quite certain."

Lawrence drew out a sigh to himself before he spoke again.

"Then we'll have a long night ahead of us. Thank you for telling me. Meet me in my Manor come sundown, and please, bring as much witch's wool as you can."

"But what good is that without a Beast Keeper in our ranks? The beast inside it won't let us get to that relic."

Lawrence had a flabbergasted look upon him for a moment before he replied.

"I don't know. But we have to try something. The fate of the Boiling Isles depends on it."

The crystal ball then faded before Bump looked out the window. He had a puzzled and worried look upon him.

"Why is this relic so important that it needs so much witch's wool? What are you up to, Lawrence?"

---

Meanwhile, Luz and Ben were out of the principal's office, the latter drawing out a breath of relief.

"Well… that went well."

Contrary to what he thought, Ben noticed Luz bearing a somber expression on her face. He thought she had mellowed out a bit more from the truth about the Salem Witch Trials. However, it still seemed to unnerve her.

"Luz… are you okay?"

Luz turned back to Ben, speaking with a somewhat dark tone in her voice. Well, as dark a tone as she could manage.

"I think I'm starting to see why Eda didn't want me to go…"

Ben was puzzled. He'd never heard Luz speak like that. He only ever saw her this sad the last time he was in the human realm, but it couldn't compare to the sadness in her voice.

She must've guessed that Eda didn't want her to go because she'd make herself a target for just being a human. If anyone else found out, they'd do a hunt of their own. Ben didn't want the bright and optimistic Luz to go away forever. As much as she annoyed him with her questions, she always made things better with her smile. He went over to her to try to cheer her up.

"Luz, you said it yourself. You're not like that."

"But what if they don't believe me?"

Ben didn't know how to answer that. It's not always easy to change people's minds when they're told to hate the enemy since birth, and who knows how long that hatred from those trials stemmed since the incident? Regardless, he had to reassure her somehow.

"Luz, it shouldn't matter what everyone thinks of you. You know you're not a bad person. Besides, Willow, Gus, and Judith believe you. So if anything happens, we can count on them, okay?"

Luz sniffled a bit before looking at Ben as she wiped the tears from her face.

"Okay… I just— I really want to go here. But... I don't want Eda, or Raine, or Judith, or anyone to get in trouble because of me…"

Before Luz could speak any more, Ben interjected smoothly as he gently hugged her.

"Nobody's gonna get in trouble, Luz. They'll be okay."

Despite the comfort Ben was trying to give her, Luz still had her doubts. She felt like she shouldn't be scared, especially with how happy she was this morning, and yet, she can't help but be worried.

"You're sure?"

"Of course I am. Now, what do you say we head to class, okay?"

Luz began to smile softly. She hadn't had anybody else to comfort her apart from her mother before, and even then, Raine gave her the comfort while Eda wasn't much of a hugger. All the same, it's nice to know someone else from her world cared about her that much to let her know everything would be okay.

"Yeah. Okay. But… where is class?"

Ben was stumped. A lot of the covens they saw in Principal Bump's office looked intriguing. How could he just pick one? Then, it occurred to him. Judith's outfit looked similar to the light blue flag he saw in the office. And Willow's reflected the purple flag at the moment. This gave him an idea to check on both sides of their party.

"I saw the flags behind Principal Bump. Maybe I'll look for the light blue one and have a class with her."

Luz saw where his plan was going and got an idea of her own.

"And I can check up on Willow and see how her abomination does."

"So it's settled, then. We go check on our friends and learn as much from that class as we can."

"I'm liking the sound of that. Let's do it."

Luz and Ben then began to go their separate ways. But before Ben would continue, it crossed his mind that he should ask her about which portal brought her to the human realm to begin with. And he had only seconds before the opportunity went away.

"Hey, wait!"

Luz turned back to Ben, confused about what he had to say.

"What is it?"

"How did you get to the Boiling Isles, anyway?"

Luz became puzzled for a moment before she recalled her own travel.

"Oh, that. There was this creepy house behind mine, and I chased Owlbert because it got to my book, so…"

Ben still looked confused. Luz then simplified it as she spoke.

"I used a portal door. Eda gets a lot of stuff from home that way."

The last part caught Ben by surprise. His portal wasn't a door at all. It was a small centerpiece. If Ben could gain access to that, he'd be able to find his way back home, and hopefully his mother.

"A portal door? Where's that, exactly?"

"It's back at the Owl House. You can look after class."

This day couldn't have turned out any better for Ben. He was practically on the way to meeting his mother already!

"Really? T-That's great! Thank you, Luz!"

Ben then rushed over the hallway as Luz waved to him.

"¡Eres bienvenido!"

---

Later, Ben looked around in the hallway, trying to find Judith as he looked through several doors.

"Come on, where are you, Judith?"

He looked in one room, seeing a class of children inside, along with a teacher that had the appearance of a humanoid spider.

"Okay, everyone, recite your runes."

The little children began to do as their teacher told, but most of it sounded like gibberish to Ben.

"Krom, Zix, Elgrim, Zenomide."

Ben scratched his head. Whenever he saw a humanoid spider, which was only in the movies, they'd typically go after their next victim.

"Huh. Really wasn't expecting that."

Ben went ahead to the next room, only to find a room for Witches with yellow sleeves and leggings, which matched the potion flag he saw earlier as their teacher spoke to them.

"Heximal system time! Let's get memorizin'!"

The students began writing it down as Ben spoke to himself once again.

"Nope. Still not it. Come on, where is it?"

As luck would have it, Ben noticed a door in front of him that showed him exactly what he was looking for. In the room, he saw Judith standing in place, as well as two girls and one boy, though not in that order. The first girl and boy looked similar to each other, though with different hairstyles. For all Ben knew, they must be twins.

They both had pale skin, pointed ears, golden eyes, thick black eyebrows, emerald green hair, and a mole under his right eye, while his twin had one under her left and her hair was long and tied in a braided ponytail. As for the other girl, she appeared a bit shy.

She had the same skin tone as Ben did, red chin-length hair that was covered by her hood that came with her Hexside outfit, and silver eyes. Judith saw the nervous look on her face and wanted to help her out with that.

"It's gonna be okay, Pam. You can do this."

"Y-You think so?"

"I know you can. Just focus, okay?"

Ben saw the heartwarming tenderness she was giving to Pam. If that wasn't the place he's looking for, he wouldn't know what was.

"Bingo."

With that, Ben opened the door, inadvertently startling Pam as she exclaimed before Judith took notice of who was at the door.

"Hey, guys. Hope you have room for one more."

As Ben laughed nervously, the class' teacher, a purple-blue demon with three eyes that wore a black dress with a similar hat matching in style, walked up to Ben curiously.

"And what's your name?"

Ben held out his hand as he introduced himself.

"My name's Ben Kingston. I'm just browsing around at the moment. And I wanted to see how these classes work."

Gus and Judith each made a small smile his way before her teacher spoke to him.

"Oh really? And what did Principal Bump think of this? He's not enrolling for new students until next semester."

"Well, he considered it a trial run to see which one of the covens would work out for me. But I can't really use my magic until then, so there's that…"

Ben added a bit of a nervous laugh before the teacher walked up to him.

"Well, then. Let's see your note."

Ben handed it out to the teacher and saw Bump's stamp of approval before looking towards Ben.

"I see. Everyone, it seems we have a new student with us, today."

The twins, Pam, Gus, and Judith all looked to Ben with a curious look on their faces as the teacher introduced him.

"His name is Ben Kingston, and pending his acceptance, he will stay in our class as we go over our illusion spells."

With that, Ben walked over to be next to Judith in his own station as she smiled at him while Pam looked at him with a nervous look on her.

"You're so lucky you don't have to cast a spell right now…"

Ben was puzzled by her behavior as Judith introduced him to Pam.

"This is Pam. She's just a little nervous about the presentation."

Ben looked at Pam with a confused expression.

"Why would she be?"

Not long since the question left his mouth, the teacher spoke out to Pam.

"Pamela. Let's see what you can do for us."

Being out on the spot Pam sifted through her book and tried to perform an illusion.

"Okay. Here we go…"

She did a blue spell circle as her teeth chattered. But the instant she did, her face poofed away, making her scream in muffles as Ben and Judith looked on in surprise, though the latter was quick to spring into action.

"Hold on, Pam. I got you."

Judith made her spell circle before her face poofed back onto her head, allowing her to gasp as she looked at her in relief.

"Thanks, Judy. I thought I was gonna die…"

Judith gave her a pat on the back as the teacher wrote into her notepad with a somewhat unimpressed look.

"Results will be posted outside my class next week."

As the teacher moved on, Pam made a little grumble of sadness as Judith put her arm around her and tried to reassure her.

"I'm sure you did okay, Pam."

The teacher looked over to the boy of the twins next as Ben became curious enough to look at what he had to offer.

"Edric, why don't you show me what you have been working on?"

Edric nodded to her as he spoke up.

"You got it, teach."

Edric made a dark green spell circle before a puff of smoke appeared. And when it went away, Edric's whole appearance changed from what it was normally to a sort of count with a massive jawline. Ben was immediately stunned by the illusion as he spoke to himself.

"Whoa…"

All the while, the teacher was just as impressed as she wrote into her notepad.

"Excellent work, Edirc."

The teacher then walked up to the girl as she spoke out to her.

"I trust you won't disappoint, Emira."

Emira frankly seemed certain of it as she stepped up.

"You know I won't."

Emira made a dark green circle like her brother's resulting in a puff of smoke appearing. And when it went away, Emira had grown taller, using her legs as if they were stilts as she did a curtsy. The teacher maintained her impressed look as she wrote in her notepad before she gave out her opinion.

"Another amazing display. Although, I should expect nothing less from the Blight family."

Overhearing this, Ben became baffled as his eyes widened.

"What? The Blight family? As in Amity Blight?"

Gus, Judith, and Pam spoke up to him next, giving them details about the twins in particular.

"That's right. They're actually Amity's older brother and sister."

"But they don't make other people feel bad about themselves like Amity does."

"I know, right? I mean, she's cool and all, but I like them better."

Ben looked over to the twins and had a suspicious look on his face as he glanced at them while they undid their illusions. Looking at the two of them, they reminded him of the people he'd rather forget: his own brother and sister. They seemed to give off the impression that the two of them must be similar in some way. And he didn't trust that about the twins.

"Somehow, I'm not so sure about that…"

---

Later on, the bell screamed again before coughing to itself. When class was over, most of which was spent with Ben keeping a close eye on the Blight twins, he and Judith walked out of the class and to the lockers as the latter checked with him about his first experience in the class.

"So, how was the Illusion Track Homeroom? Pretty cool illusions, right?"

Ben was still stuck on the twins when she'd asked that, but it broke his train of thought as he turned back to Judith.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're pretty neat."

Judith had a feeling that he wasn't paying attention. And considering how he looked at the twins the whole time, she knew why.

"You're thinking about Ed and Em, aren't you?"

"Can you blame me? They're in the same family as Amity. Why don't they do anything to rein in her… smug attitude?"

When they stopped at the lockers, Judith leaned against one of them and looked at Ben.

"Honestly, I wonder about that all the time. Although, I did see them pull a prank on her on one occasion. They used sneezewort on her and made her sneeze through the whole class."

Although he didn't like how they reminded him of Kyle and Susan, Ben tried to contain his laughter, but he couldn't, letting out a few giggles. It sounded reminiscent of using pepper on someone back home. It was a classic prank, one of many he himself used to enjoy doing back home.

"I know. It was pretty funny. But when Amity left to use the girls' bathroom to get rid of it, she caught Ed and Em sneaking out of their class and got them in trouble."

That was something she didn't expect to hear about the twins. The twins must've been just like he was back home. And given how badly his brother and sister treated him, Ben had to assume the roles were reversed with the Blight family.

"Oh. That makes sense. They must not have wanted to get on her bad side again."

Judith had a small smirk as she suggested otherwise.

"Well, they still messed with her in other ways since then. My point is, you don't have to worry about Ed or Em. They're not like her."

"I hope not. The last thing I need are another set of twins who torture me."

Judith became puzzled by his choice of words.

"What was that?"

Ben began to blush for a moment before clearing his throat.

"Forget I said anything…"

Just then, Willow was seen carting out her abomination with a smile on her face with Luz beside her. The latter looked especially ecstatic around her.

"That was so cool, Willow! You just blew everyone's mind in there!"

Judith and Ben saw the two of them and went over to the duo to check on them.

"So, Willow, how did you do?"

"From what I heard, you blew everyone's mind, apparently."

Willow maintained her smile as she spoke to them.

"Why don't you see for yourself? Abomination, rise."

On her command, Willow's abomination rose up from the pot. It was remarkably different from the usual abominations. It had a big muscular body with thick dark green moss covering its body with thick vines, flowers, thorn bushes and thick leaves. It also had branch-like horns coming out of its droopy looking head, big glowing green eyes, a big goopy-looking mouth with pinecone like teeth inside it. Its thick arms had a mud-looking brown color with hints of purple goop oozing out of the moss. And to top it off, it had Willow's plant on the top of its head. Ben and Judith stared in utter awe at Willow's abomination. Luz could tell from their faces that they must be surprised by the potential the beast had to offer.

"I know, I know. Pretty cool, huh?"

However, Judith was still worried about what it meant.

"Willow, was the teacher okay with… this?"

As if to answer, Willow's abomination teacher spoke up from far away.

"Wonderful work today, Willow. Looks like we have a new top student."

At the same time, Amity, who was leaving the room, gasped and dropped her books in shock as she stopped in the hall. As the Abomination Teacher took her top student badge, Amity growled and reached for her badge in a panic.

"But…"

The teacher didn't give heed to her words as he pinned the badge to Willow's cowl, making Judith, Luz, and Ben smile as they congratulated her.

"Looks like I didn't have to worry about you after all, Willow."

"You are totally the a-mom-ination, Willow."

"We're really proud of you."

Willow smiled at their comforting words before she spoke up.

"Uh‐‐ Thank you, guys."

The teacher nodded before his abomination carried him away. Willow turned to leave, but Amity was standing in front of her with her arms crossed, holding tightly onto her books that she picked up.

"Hey."

As Willow gasped, Judith had a look that showed she wasn't pleased in the least.

"Oh. It's you again."

"Last time I saw you, your abomination was mush. What did you do?"

Willow didn't want to escalate things as she tried to answer her.

"I, uh, took your pep talk to heart, Amity."

However, Judith wasn't afraid to put Amity in her place.

"Or maybe she got help from her real friends, not someone who just abandoned her because they thought she was too weak."

Amity's face had a stunted look for a moment when Judith said it with venom practically laced in her voice. Ben and Luz were both unnerved by her sudden change in behavior around Amity as the latter spoke first in worry while he tried to prevent any further conflict.

"What is going on exactly…?"

"Forget it, Judith. She's not worth it."

Judith forced her arm away from Ben as she spoke coldly.

"You don't know what she did to us, Ben. Stay out of it."

Amity shook off her shocked look before she put her look of suspicion back on her face.

"I've got my eyes on you, Half‐a‐Witch. That badge is mine."

Amity then walked away from the group before Judith spoke bitterly.

"Too bad you never deserved it."

Amity stopped dead in her tracks, as if she had heard what Judith had said to her, which worried Willow and Luz as they both made a small squeak while Ben became worried.

"Uh-oh."

Amity didn't turn back to Judith, but she spoke back in a tone that showed outrage.

"What did you just say?"

Willow looked at Judith in fear as she tried to talk her out of it.

"Judy, what are you doing…?"

Judith ignored Willow's question as she shoved her books to Willow's chest, forcing her to hold them for her as she spoke back to Amity with a louder voice.

"I said, you never deserved it!"

After that, there was a dead silence in the hallway. The atmosphere was so thick, one could cut it with a knife. Amity held tightly onto her books, her arms shaking as Judith continued to talk down to her.

"You have no right to pretend that nothing happened between us, Blight! None! You used Willow! You used me! And worst of all, you used Ember!"

With Judith shouting at her, the nearby students and staff became drawn to the conflict as Luz became puzzled to hear Judith bring up her name into the conversation.

"Wait, that mean girl knows her, too?"

Ben nodded to her as he spoke under his breath.

"It's a long story…"

Indeed it was. But Amity seemed very familiar with it as she turned back to Judith with an angry look.

"You don't know what you're talking about!"

Judith didn't care one bit about that as she stormed over to Amity, getting ready to give her a piece of her mind.

"Don't I?! I thought Ember was dead for eight years because of what you've done! But instead, you did the worst thing you ever could have done to her! She's worse off now than I thought she was!"

Amity made a shocked gasp from hearing this before the other students gasped the same way and murmured amongst themselves before the abomination teacher tried to step in.

"Now see here, Ms. Clawthorne—!"

Before he could interrupt, Judith sharply turned back to the teacher, parting her hair to reveal a cat-slit green iris for her left eye as she snapped back.

"You don't know what she did to us, baldy, so stay out of it!"

This made the teacher blush as he desperately tried to cover the bald spot on the top of his head. Amity was caught by surprise. The fact she talked about her as if she were still around meant one thing.

"Wait… Ember's still alive?"

Judith caught onto the surprised and fearful tone and assumed the worst as she stormed closer to her.

"Of course you'd be surprised to hear that. You're the one who cursed her, aren't you?"

Amity's breathing became ragged. Judith's onset of anger was actually making Blight tremble. As Judith walked closer to her, her dragon eye stared into her as she repeated the last two words in a much darker tone than what was expected out of her.

"Aren't you?!"

Amity tried to answer, but her lips couldn't let her. They were quivering. Judith didn't wait for her to answer. She made a shriek as she swung her hand at Amity, scratching her through her books and under her chest while pushing her to the floor, causing the nearby students to gasp and exclaim in surprise and alarm. It grew even worse when they saw blood streaked to the floor.

Amity looked to see her books torn to shreds while her tunic was scratched up, exposing the resulting blood that seeped out of her skin as well. Even Edric and Emira were scared for her. Before Amity could respond, Judith leapt at Amity and began to choke her as she shouted at her, her voice becoming more demonic.

"TELL ME THE TRUTH! TELL ME THE TRUTH FOR ONCE IN YOUR TITAN-DAMNED LIFE!"

As Judith choked Amity, the nearby students went away in a panic and ran away from the scene. The teacher tried to stop the matter from getting worse as he shouted at her.

"That's enough! Abomination, subdue!"

With that, the abomination that carried him set him down before going after Judith, only for her to glare at the abomination, her left eye glowing bright red. Not long after, the abomination began to turn to stone, shocking the teacher as he gasped.

"This is impossible…!"

All the while, Ben was starting to get scared of Judith, especially Luz. The poor girl wasn't aware she had a dark side to begin with. This was even worse than she thought it'd turn out, though she had to admit that some of what Judith displayed was impressive.

"We've got to stop her! I mean, her turning things to stone power is cool, but... ¡Tenemos que detenerla!"

Ben didn't know where to start. How could he satiate the wrath of a beast if he couldn't stop the Witch from attacking before? Then he remembered what Lawrence told her.

"Now, remember to keep your wits about you. Keep yourself in check. And remember-"

Before Lawrence could finish, she interjected him.

"Keep my focus on who I am. I know."

Could this be why Lawrence tried to tell her this? Was it to avoid something like this in the first place? Either way, Judith needed to hear that advice, and she needed to hear it now. He turned to Willow as he spoke with determination.

"Willow, think you can hold Judith back?"

Willow looked back at Judith, seeing her strangle Amity like she was a doll. As much as she didn't like Amity, she hated to see Judith this way even worse. She put on her own look of determination as she spoke back to Ben with her eyes glowing green.

"I'll try. Abomination, subdue!"

With that, Willow's abomination moved towards Amity and Judith before the latter tried to petrify it. However, before she could, the abomination clutched onto her body and forced her arms away from Amity, leaving behind marks of her hands all over her as Amity coughed hoarsely before Luz went over to her as Judith tried to break out of the abomination with angry grunts of rage.

"Amity! Are you alright?"

This only made Judith's screams even worse as she tried harder to break out as Ben shouted at her.

"Judith, stop! This isn't who you are!"

Judith kept on growling viciously and thrashing around, the abomination's grip beginning to loosen as Ben tried to remind Judith of what her father told her.

"Remember what your dad said!"

The instant she heard his name, Judith stopped her thrashing around and widened her eyes. Ben hoped it meant she was listening as he tried to repeat what her father told her.

"Keep your wits about you! Keep yourself in check! And keep the focus…!"

Judith then began to finish what Ben meant to say, though her voice was still demonic.

"...on who I am."

In that moment, Judith's hair began to fall back down into place, covering her left eye as the demonic glow faded away. With it gone, Willow commanded her abomination softly as her own eyes' green glow faded away.

"Abomination, let her go and tend to Amity's wounds."

The abomination dropped Judith to the ground as per her command. When she landed on the ground, Judith saw her left hand having grown claws with blood stained on them as well as on her blue tunic. Then, she noticed the teacher's petrified abomination as she backed away. Even worse, to add to Judith's terror, she deliberately tried to kill Amity. She saw Luz looking after Amity as she groaned in pain with tears in her eyes as Willow's abomination wrapped its vines around Amity's chest.

Judith began to breathe raggedly next as she looked back to Willow and Ben with tears leaking out of her eyes as she began to speak, trying hard not to sob.

"I'm so, so sorry…!"

Judith then closed her eyes and ran away into the hall as Willow called out to her.

"Judy, wait!"

Before Willow could go after her, Ben stopped her, placing his arm over her.

"I'll go after Judith. You stay with Luz and look after Amity until help gets here, okay?"

Willow then looked over to Luz and Amity as Blight moaned, her head tilting to the side. She didn't like to see Amity suffer like that as much as she deserved it. She nodded to Ben before he ran off after her, leaving the group alone as Principal Bump arrived just in time to see the aftermath of Judith's attack.

The Principal had an aghast look upon him. The spilled blood on the floor, a petrified abomination, and a wounded student were the last things he expected to see. He was absolutely affronted!

"What in the name of Titan has happened here?!"

Willow and Luz looked over to him, feeling quite worried under his gaze. Before either one of them could speak up, the abomination teacher piped up.

"Principal Bump! Leave them be. I'll tell you everything."

---

Meanwhile, Ben was still running after Judith. He hadn't seen her act this way at all the whole time she knew her. Granted it was just for a day, but regardless, he had to find out why she did what she did.

"Judith! Wait up!"

Judith ignored his pleas and looked around desperately as she looked left and right. When she found her locker, she skidded to a stop and tickled it before it opened its mouth. Judith didn't wait before she began rummaging in the monstrous locker.

"Where is it?! Where is it?!"

By the time Judith found what she was looking for, Ben caught up to her and found her digging through the locker.

"Judith, are you okay?"

As an answer, Judith only got out a small flask of a red elixir and pulled out the stopper before she noticed her hand crackling as she held onto it. Fearing the worst, Judith didn't hesitate to drink it as Ben looked on in confusion and fear. When she was done, Judith's nails began to shrink, and her bones cracked back into place. Then, she began to breathe as shallowly as she did slowly. While she recovered, Judith turned to see Ben, a look of realization all over his face. Judith became petrified. She was afraid of what Ben would think of her as she stammered.

"Ben, I-I know how it looks, but please, l-let me e-explain…!"

However, there wasn't the need for her to explain. Ben slowly walked towards her as he recalled how she was able to do what she did. The attack on Amity, the petrification of an abomination, and the need for what appeared to be the cure told him the whole story. It was the same reason Ember wanted the blood of the Hippogriff in the first place.

"You're cursed, too… aren't you?"

It was at that moment when Judith Clawthorne became… broken. Judith began to burst into tears as she sobbed into her hands. Ben leaned down to her and held her close as she cried her heart out. Ben even gently stroked her hair down as he did.

Though he didn't know what it was like to bear a curse, he knew what it was like to live with that pain. Nobody, not even his own family, ever gave him the comfort he needed from all the pain he had to deal with. The least he could do was give it to someone who needed it just as much. And he didn't know why, but… it felt like he was getting comfort the same way. If only it could last. But alas, Principal Bump got their attention as he cleared his throat.

Ben turned to see him as he cradled Judith. He didn't forget that he shouldn't get himself into trouble, but already, he seemed to have broken it. And even worse, he was met with Lilith, who stood by his side with an especially displeased look on her face towards him.

"You're in a world of trouble, human."

---

Later, Ben (whose illusion ran out since the incident) and Judith were sitting in the Principal's office before Lilith and Bump. The former of them had an especially cross look on her face as she glared at him. As it turned out, she wanted to pay her daughter a surprise visit, only to see the chaos that came from Judith. Although, she didn't seem to know if it was the case. She believed Ben was responsible for all of it, in some way or another.

"Of all the ignorant, imbecilic, inane- of all the atrocities you could've done, this was the absolute worst. First, you intrude on school grounds under a false identity…"

While Lilith continued to berate Ben, Judith bore a sad look on her face as Principal Bump took notice.

"...then you convinced a student to use two magics at once, and if that wasn't enough, you've attacked another one! And my own protege, no less."

This came as a surprise to Ben. Although, it did seem to explain her attitude. Looking back, it reminded her all too much of Lilith.

"Just what I expected from humans like you, right from the start. THIS is why we don't allow humans to exist in the Boling Isles, let alone with us!"

Judith continued to show the look of guilt on her face as Ben tried to explain himself to the Principal.

"Principal Bump. I know how it looks, but I can explain-"

"Don't bother. Mr. Pernicies already told me about the event. And it happened differently from what you think, Ms. Clawthorne."

Lilith turned back to Principal Bump, baffled by what he said.

"I beg your pardon?"

"He told me that Willow's abomination/plant hybrid saved your protege's life. In fact, he was starstruck by combining abomination magic with other magics."

Lilith tried to counter this as she snapped back at him.

"But that practice is-!"

"Forbidden, yes. But if it hadn't been for that, Amity would've been far worse. So, I'm willing to overlook it, if only once. Besides, Willow wasn't the only one who helped. While Ms. Noceda attended to Amity, Mr. Kingstontried to stop the attack on Amity from the beginning, as well."

Lilith had reason to doubt, considering the history with the humans as she spoke to him in disbelief.

"Well, who would've attacked Amity, then? Certainly not my own daughter. I raised her better than that."

Judith held her hands together in sadness as she spoke softly.

"But… it was me…"

Ben, Lilith, and Bump overheard Judith's words, the mother stunted to hear this.

"What did you say?"

Ben saw the look on her face. And he didn't know whether or not Lilith knew she was cursed, but he couldn't let her mother know she was a monster. Somehow, it didn't sit right with him, no matter how much she hated him for being a human.

"Judith, it wasn't you, okay?"

"But it was me, Ben. I'm the one who attacked Amity."

Lilith didn't know what to think from hearing this. But she could tell from the guilt in her voice that it must've been a horrible experience. However, the look of bafflement never left her.

"But… my little ruby… how could you do that?"

Judith only looked up at her mother, her sadness starting to turn to anger.

"Was it really so hard to know why, mother?"

Lilith felt the subject was getting too personal as she tried to cut her off.

"Judith, it's not best to talk about-"

However, Principal Bump raised his hand.

"Hold on. This is a serious incident, Ms. Clawthorne. Gravely serious. If I'm to make a proper verdict concerning you and Amity, I need to know the whole story. And it's not just for the sake of this school, or even for hers, but it's for yours, too. I know the kind of person you are. You've come to this school in a long time, and not once did you show this kind of behavior until today. I think that I, as your Principal… and your friend, should have the right to know why."

There was an air of silence around them. Ben recognized the atmosphere before, and he didn't feel it best to intrude.

"Well, guess I'll be waiting outside."

Before Ben could get up, Judith spoke up.

"No, Ben. Can you please stay?"

Ben looked at her and saw a look of worry. He was there for her when she needed comfort. Perhaps it was possible that she might need him again. Either way, he leaned back in his chair before Judith took in a deep breath and gave out her story.

"8 years ago, me, Willow, Amity, and Ember, we were so close together. I thought we'd be friends forever. But, on her birthday, she told us to go away. Said we were too weak. I told her she was wrong. 'Willow may not have had magic like we did, but I'll stay with her, and prove to you that you're wrong'. That's what I told her. But Ember… you weren't there, mother. You were never there."

Judith's hands tensed angrily as she said it, sending chills down Lilith's spine as Judith continued.

"You never saw how broken she was after that. Ember tried so hard to prove Amity wrong that she killed herself and her family. I believed that lie for 8 years, mother. The only reason I wasn't angry back then, yesterday? It was because I was so happy to see her again. Maybe the only time I ever was happy in a long time. But guess what happened? Ember tried to kill a hippogriff for its blood. She was so desperate. When I stopped her from killing it, I found out why. She was cursed."

Lilith heard the venom in her voice. She had a feeling it would come up sooner or later, but she didn't suspect it would be in the Principal's own office.

"So tell me, mother. Why is it that you care more about the person who ruined my life than you ever did about the real victim, your own daughter?!"

Judith stood up from her chair, quickly letting anger get to her before Ben tried to stop her from going feral again.

"Hey, hey, hey! Take it easy. Keep your wits about you, keep yourself in check, and keep the focus."

With Ben trying to calm her down, Judith tried to take a deep breath, letting the question hang in the air as Lilith was left speechless. As for Bump, the whole tale was earthshattering, to say the least. However, Judith wasn't done yet. She began to be on the verge of crying again as she spoke.

"You may have helped me with my curse, mother… but you were never there when I needed you. Never. And you can't blame any human you see for that."

Judith's tears began to fall as Lilith held her head down. She felt ashamed. As ashamed as Judith was when she set foot into his office. Bump, on the other hand, took it all in and took a deep breath, fearing there may be more to her story that would induce Judith's pain further.

"Is there… anything else you want to tell us?"

After a few seconds of silence, Judith sniffled and answered him, her voice shaken.

"Well, more to, um… ask you something. Whatever happens next, please don't ban Willow, Luz, or Ben from Hexside. They were only ever trying to help me."

Bump drew in a breath as he replied.

"I will consider it, Judith. Not just on account of your mother's rank and standing, but… also because I know you were always a good person. And what happened here won't change that view I have towards you. But… pending the decision, you can't be allowed to go to Hexside until the final verdict."

Ben wasn't sure he liked this. He said he believed her, yet he just contradicted himself by expelling her. Granted, it was temporary, but it still wasn't fair to do that to her, not after all the pain she had to deal with. He made no hesitation to speak out against it.

"Wait, wait. You can't do that. This isn't fair."

However, Judith seemed to be on the same page as the Principal.

"No, Ben. It's okay. I just… need to get my head on straight."

Ben wanted to change her mind, but it seemed to be made up already. Besides, she had a point. If her curse broke out again, who knows what damage it could do the next time? And he wasn't sure if he'd like to see what she was turning into. So, he had to keep himself silent as Principal Bump spoke again.

"Now, starting from this moment, you, Benjamin, and Luz will be excused for the rest of the day. And while the last two will be free to come back, as previously discussed, you cannot until the final verdict has been made. That said… I hope I will see you again soon… Judith."

Judith wasn't sure if she wanted to see Amity. Even when she hated her, she didn't know if she should look at how bad the damage was when she lashed out. She drew an uneasy breath before she replied.

"Me, too…"

When it was done, Ben and Judith walked out of the Principal's office before Lilith spoke up from behind.

"Before we go, Judith, I'd like to have a word in private with Principal Bump."

Judith didn't respond other than with a nod before she turned to Ben.

"And human."

Ben looked over to her, though he was tired of the fact that she wasn't using his name.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you… for helping her."

That wasn't something he expected to hear from her. Then again, she did call him human. She must still have her pride, he supposed. Ben nodded back to her as he replied.

"Glad I could help."

With that, Lilith closed the door, leaving Ben and Judith outside the office. Inside, Lilith was trying to take deep breaths as Bump spoke up.

"So… you never told her about what really happened to Ember."

Lilith turned back to Bump with a guilty look.

"How could I? My daughter deserved better than to know her for who she is now. I wanted her to remember Ms. Autumn as her friend that she grew up with."

"I know. And I'm sure you had the best of intentions with it. But your daughter wasn't wrong. You seem more concerned with Amity than you ever were about her."

Lilith's face sunk in sadness as she gave him the reason.

"You don't understand, Bump. Amity has suffered just as much as she did. The only curse she has is her so-called family. And even then, no cure can be found for that, any more than hers could be."

"So I've been told. Which is why I haven't told her parents about this incident today."

Lilith took a momentary sigh during the pause before she spoke again.

"And I thank you for that, but… Judith still doesn't know what's going on with her. What she's forcing Amity into. She doesn't even care."

Bump stood up from his chair and looked out to the field as he spoke.

"Given their history, it's not hard to guess why. But I'm hoping that in the time she has before the verdict, your daughter can learn to see the bigger picture between you and Amity. But you'll need to pull your own weight with her as well. You know that, don't you?"

Lilith held her head down, recalling what her daughter had said to her face.

"You may have helped me with my curse, mother… but you were never there when I needed you. Never."

Lilith found it hard to live it down as she sat on the chair.

"I know. It's bad enough my own mother neglected me for Edalyn, but now… to think I ended up sentencing my daughter to the same punishment…"

Bump then turned away from the field to Lilith before he spoke softly.

"It's always often said. 'Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it.' And it might surprise you to know, Lilith, that that lesson came from the human realm."

Lilith made a light gasp. How could a human be able to share that kind of advice? Weren't they mindless savages that killed and tortured whomever they pleased? At least, that's how she viewed them. Perhaps Judith's window wasn't the only thing that was shrunk. And Ben's recent actions around her proved that as well. Bump then gave her a wink with a smile before he continued.

"And the good thing about that lesson is that no matter how long ago it was made, it's never too late to learn."

Bump then began to walk out of his own office as he spoke to her again.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Witch's Wool to deliver to Mr. Clawthorne's place."

Lilith became confused. What possible use could he have for Witch's Wool as a form of apology?

"Witch's Wool? What for?"

Principal Bump only raised one of his fingers before he spoke to her.

"In Tenebris, Soror."

Bump then left his office, leaving Lilith to comprehend what Bump had told her. She dug into her pocket and got out the Portal centerpiece Hexifer gave her the other day. As she stared at it, Lilith thought back to what Hexifer told her concerning Ben when Ember tried to kill the Hippogriff. The whole time he was here, he acted contrary to what she thought all humans were like. Could it be possible that they have learned from their history where she did not? All evidence seemed to point to that. Lilith drew out a sorrowful sigh to herself as she looked out of the window to see her daughter walking with her human companion.

---

Outside, Ben and Judith were walking by themselves. The former was still stunned by what she had to tell them. No wonder she hated Amity. And yet, he couldn't help but see Amity's own look of surprise when she heard Ember was still alive. It could've meant anything, but it was safe to say that she had a role in it. Speaking of which, he remembered when Judith was happy to see her. And it made him curious as he looked at her.

"You never told me you thought she was dead."

Judith held her head down as she spoke softly.

"What else could I have said? That my best friend I thought was dead for 8 years suddenly decided to come back? Even for the Boiling Isles, that's crazy."

It made Ben laugh a little bit before he looked at her with a smile before it faded a little.

"Speaking of friends, do you wanna check on Willow and Luz? They've gotta be worried about us."

Judith only shook her head as she answered.

"No. I think they'll visit sooner or later, anyway."

Not long after she said this, Luz came running towards them.

"Ben! Judith!"

The duo turned to see Luz before she stopped, almost out of breath with Judith feeling her point was made while Ben was checking on her.

"Told you."

"Whoa, Luz. Are you okay?"

Luz then looked up to Ben with a guilty look as she tried to apologize.

"I'm so sorry you guys. I just wanted to see what a real magic school was like."

While Luz bore a sad look, Judith's face perked up a bit before she asked her opinion.

"So, what do you think?"

Luz looked over to her, a small smile beginning to form on her face as she answered.

"It's lovely, actually."

The two then shared a laugh together before Judith spoke to her again.

"Luz, none of this was your fault. I'm the one who started it, and I'm the one who attacked her. Besides, Bump said it's just until the final verdict."

"And how long is that?"

"I don't know. But I have a lot to figure out about myself. I just… hope I can do it before then."

Then, Judith became puzzled to see a lack of presence from another friend of hers.

"What about Willow? How's she doing?"

Luz made a soft smile as she answered.

"She's patching up Amity's wounds. She wouldn't have been able to do it if it wasn't for this."

Luz dug into her pocket and got out a small busted shell. Judith recognized it immediately as she held onto it.

"It's a seed. Where did you find it?"

Luz rubbed the back of her head as she made a small blush.

"Yeah, I actually found it while digging through a trash slug. Long story."

Ben let out a soft laugh as he brushed her hair.

"Good thinking, Luz. You really pulled through for her, today."

However, knowing how Judith was furious over Amity before, she felt like mentioning her was a touchy subject.

"So, about you and Amity, I'm… I'm sorry to hear about that."

Judith looked back to Luz and smiled as she replied.

"It's okay, Luz. I'm just glad things didn't get worse than they already turned out."

Then, she remembered what her father told her that morning.

"Fine. But if you end up expelled, I won't hear the end of it from your mother."

Judith began to blush nervously as she spoke in a similar tone, though Ben tried to help her see the bright side.

"Although, my dad's probably not going to like what I'm going to tell him."

"Well, at least you aren't expelled."

Just then, they heard a familiar voice running to the bushes.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Ben, Luz, and Judith turned to the source as two of the trio spoke out.

"Wasn't that…?"

"Eda? What's she doing here?"

Judith had a bad feeling in her stomach as she spoke solemnly.

"She probably heard that I went berserk on school grounds…"

Ben didn't think it was likely. Even if it was the case, the news couldn't have traveled that fast. Then, he recalled what Luz told him before as she looked at his friend.

"I don't think so. I think she's more worried about you, Luz."

"Oh, that's right. I should probably go back to her."

The trio then went over to where Eda's voice came from. The way it sounded, it must have come from behind the school itself. They went around it, where they saw Eda peeking through the windows.

"No. Blind obedience."

She then went to another window, and saw another example that stunned the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles. While she did, Ben leaned over to Judith as he whispered.

"Uh, should we tell her?"

"No. It's actually funny to see her like this."

Ben couldn't argue. As much as he didn't like the disaster that happened today, it was somehow entertaining to see Eda flip her lid over school stuff.

"No! Pointless busywork!"

Then, she stopped at another window before seeing a bizarre sight. Through the window, as best as she could make out from the silhouettes, there were people holding each other close as they made lip contact and a lot of them even began to remove their clothes, making Eda gasp before she shouted in further disbelief.

"No! Senseless love-making!"

Then, Eda paused for a moment, thinking back on what she'd just said.

"Actually, I kinda liked that one."

Ben and Luz became puzzled about how a school that had kindergarten would allow something like that.

"Wait, love-making?"

"You mean, like, making love potions or something?"

Judith looked to Ben with a slight blush as she answered.

"Yeah, it's actually part of Hexside's Sexual Education class."

That earned a bigger blush from Ben and Luz simultaneously. If he were to turn any redder, he'd get a nosebleed! As for Luz, she responded with a high-pitched voice.

"And now, I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."

In that moment, Eda overheard Ben's embarrassed voice, making her turn to see the trio outside the school building. As Luz waved to her nervously, Eda drew out a breath of relief.

"Thank goodness! I thought for a second you actually went inside the school."

However, what Luz had to tell her told her otherwise.

"Um, actually… I did go to school."

This earned a dramatic gasp from Eda before she shouted to the skies above.

"No! Why?! SCHOOOOOOOL!"

Judith then began to snicker a bit from her reaction before she cleared her throat.

"But it's okay. Your lesson actually helped us out today."

Eda became puzzled as she turned to her niece.

"Come again?"

Luz went up to Eda before she explained the situation herself.

"It's true! Keeping junk in my pocket helped a friend of mine and saved Amity's life!"

Eda saw the busted shell Luz kept in her pocket and had a smirk on her face before she heard the context of what Luz had told her.

"Of course, it did! But wait. Why did Amity of all people need saving in the first place?"

Judith's look of shame came over her as she spoke up.

"About that… I lost my temper during school, and I… attacked her."

Hearing this, Eda became aghast with surprise before she made a sad look, understanding the rest of the story.

"It was your curse, wasn't it?"

Judith didn't bother looking up to Eda. On the other hand, Luz was surprised.

"Wait, you were cursed?"

"From when I was born, yeah…"

Eda then knelt down in front of the sad niece. She could tell that Judith was afraid to go back home after what she did. She also knew Lawrence wasn't the type of man to punish her harshly, but she didn't want Judith to dread seeing her father. She drew out a heavy sigh before she tried to comfort her.

"Hey, it'll be okay. You can stay at my place for the time being. I'll let your father know what happened, and we'll try to work it out, okay?"

Judith sniffled before she nodded, tears beginning to come out of her eyes as she gave Eda a hug, confusing the all-powerful witch as she pondered.

"H-Hey. What are you doing now?"

Ben felt it was strange for Eda to not know what it was as he explained it to her.

"It's called a hug. It's something you do when you need to know you can count on someone. Didn't Raine tell it to you?"

Eda made a small blush on her cheeks.

"Oh. Yeah."

She then began to return the hug as she spoke softly.

"You'll be okay, Judy. I know what you're going through. You can trust me."

Judith started to sob lightly on her dress as Ben and Luz looked on, though the former was puzzled over how Eda could possibly know what Judith was going through. Just then, the group heard a familiar voice behind him.

"What happened here?"

Ben, Luz, and Judith spun around to see Lawrence with a mortified look on his face. Ben guessed he must've arrived there via shadow teleportation. Eda saw him and had a dismal look on her face as she answered him.

"It was her curse. She attacked Amity and left her in stitches. No pun intended, of course."

Lawrence's face began to sink low as he looked at his crying daughter. How did it all go so wrong? Although, his sad tone indicated he'd seen it coming.

"I suppose it was only a matter of time…"

Lawrence walked closer to his daughter as Ben and Luz stepped aside, the latter amazed by his appearance.

"Whoa. That's her dad? He looks so cool. And yet, he looks very familiar, too..."

Lawrence then knelt down to Judith beside Eda as he stroked her hair gently.

"Principal Bump already told me everything on the raven. But I don't blame you one bit, my little ruby."

Judith started to blubber as she tried to speak.

"But I broke my promise… I promised that I'd keep myself focused…"

"No. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. I should've known better than to let you enroll in Hexside, knowing Blight would be there."

As Judith continued to sob, Eda looked to Lawrence with a look of worry over her niece.

"So, what do we do?"

Lawrence took a deep breath before he answered her.

"Edalyn, Judith will stay with you for the time being. She'll need time to recover from the incident."

Eda helped Judith up to her feet as she nodded.

"Got it. Come on, Judy. Let's go have ourselves a sleepover. Would you like that?"

Judith wiped her tears away before she nodded. After that, she and Eda walked away, making Luz anxious as she ran with them.

"Hey! Wait for me!"

Ben was about to go with them, but Lawrence held out a scythe in front to stop him. The blade was actually a raven by itself. Unless he missed his guess, this must be Lawrence's own Palisman.

"And as for you, Benjamin. You and I need to have a talk."

Ben had a feeling it was because of the incident. He tried to explain himself.

"Listen, I didn't know Judith was going to flip out the way she did."

Lawrence only removed his scythe from Ben's path as he initiated a different discussion from what Ben had in mind.

"I know, Ben. Bump told me about your role in the incident, too. How you were somehow able to calm down my daughter in her feral state."

This confounded the young man. The way he talked about it, it's like nobody had ever done that before. Was it really that deadly?

"You say that like nobody's ever done it."

"That's because nobody has. Those who tried were attacked. But you weren't. She listened to you. How did you do that?"

Ben didn't think much beyond trying to save his first friend. He just didn't want her to cause so much pain, let alone be subject to her own pain.

"I don't know. I just remembered what you always told her. I figured they were important to her. So I jumped the gun. And I don't… I don't know if I could've done that without Willow."

Lawrence looked back to Ben, trying to read into his answer. The last part did make sense; the boy didn't have a bile sac, and therefore no ability to perform magic naturally. Or did he…?

Ben was brave enough to try to talk sense into her, but that could've been anyone. Anyone else would have failed. But Ben was the one who got through to her. It was almost as if he could reason with the beast within… It gave Lawrence a hopeful idea as he spoke up.

"I see. Come along, then."

Lawrence then walked forward from the school. Ben was confused by his words.

"What? But why?"

As Ben caught up with him, Lawrence stopped in place before turning to him.

"Because with any luck, you might be just what the Boiling Isles needs."

Ben looked up at Lawrence, the concept of his words still eluding him.

"What? W-What are you talking about?"

"I told you. There's more than one way to learn magic."

Ben looked at Lawrence in befuddlement before the latter held his hand out to him. He took the Witch's hand, but the instant he did, he suddenly found himself in a dark room with a glowing dark blue fire in the center of the room. And above it was a black and white flag. The symbol it held was a black shadowy figure against a white circle background that was twisted, looking like it was swirling around like a swirl used to hypnotize people. And in the middle of the twisted figure would be a single bright red eye. Ben stood in awe as Lawrence looked down upon him.

"Benjamin… welcome to the Shadow Coven."

A/N: And there you have it. The Shadow Coven finally makes its appearance. And it seems that Lawrence is keen on Ben for helping his daughter. But for what relic could he possible need him for? Well, if you looked at my deviantart profile, GoldenWraith, you'd know the answer, so you can look forward to it. ;) And also, you can bet that further down the line of the story, there will be some scenes of love that would be shown, especially in the Sexual Education Class for Hexside, which is partly why it is rated M. As for the rest, it should be plain to see given the incident. But don't worry. Amity's still alive and kicking, thanks to Luz and Willow. And now, here's the cast for the most recent newcomers in this chapter.

Gilbert Gottfried - Raven Doorknocker

Lawrence Clawthorne - Jude Law

Rob Paulsen - Fidge

Steve Buscemi - Canker

Helen Mirren - Illusion Homeroom Teacher

Grey Griffin - Pam

And for one more surprise, there will be a special development for Luz coming soon in ten chapters from this one. I'll leave it at that, so you can figure out what it means. ;)