Chapter 6: The Witch Part 2
"Despite the terrible thing that happened yesterday ..." one of the cheerleaders at the judges table said, "... we still have to pick new cheerleaders. If you make the team, you'll find your name posted in the Quad after lunch. Let's begin with group performance - Cordelia, Buffy, Amy, Morgan, Janice and Lishanne."
The five girls walked to the center of the gym.
"Why do my hands have to sweat when I get nervous?" Amy asked.
Buffy smiled. "Don't worry, you'll do great." She looked around at the others wondering if one of them was the witch. If Paige was right and she did receive premonitions. She hoped she would accidentally bump into one of them and discovers which one it was.
As someone hit play on the tape player the girls performed a choreographed cheer while yelling out the cheer itself.
Amy missed one of the synchronized moves and bumped into Cordelia.
"You saw that, right? That wasn't me," Cordelia said.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
After the end of tryouts Amy, still in her cheerleader outfit, stood before a trophy display case as she looked down at a picture. Buffy exited the locker room and walked up to Amy. She looked down at the photo that Amy was staring at.
"That's my mom," Amy said.
"No..." Buffy said as she read the name off the placard. "Catherine Madison. Get down with your bad self."
"Her nickname was Catherine The Great: she took that team and made them tri-county champions, no one's ever done that before or since. She and my dad were homecoming King and Queen, got married right after graduation," Amy explained.
"That's kinda romantic," Buffy said.
"Well ... he was a big loser, couldn't make any money, took off with Miss Trailer Trash when I was twelve."
Buffy shook her head. "Okay, that part's less romantic. My mom and step-dad split up, too. Neither myself or my mom knew that my step-dad was not my real dad. Not till recently anyways. We looked him, he's a nice a guy, has a wife and two sons."
"Drag, huh," Amy said. "My dad left my mom with nothing. She put herself through cosmetology school, bought me everything I ever wanted and never gained a single pound ..."
"She sounds great, Amy, but that doesn't mean you have to, you know, lock step as far as the cheerleading thing –"
Amy turned to Buffy as tears began to fill her eyes. "It's just, she was the best, and I can't get my body to move like hers. I choked in there so bad." She turned and headed for the locker room passing Willow. "... I gotta get changed ..." she called back to Buffy.
"Hi Amy ..." Willow said as the door closed behind Amy. "She okay?"
"She's wiggin' about her mother ..." Buffy said as she motioned toward the photo. "... the big cheer queen back when."
Willow nodded in understanding. "Yeah. Her mom's kinda ..."
"Nazi-like?" Buffy asked.
"Heil. If she gains an ounce she padlocks the fridge and won't eat anything but broth."
Buffy sighed. "So Mommie Dearest is really ... Mommie Dearest."
"There's a bitter streak—but Amy's nice. We used to hang in Junior High. When her mom'd go on a broth kick Amy'd come to my house and we'd just stuff ourselves with brownies."
"What did you find out on Amber?"
"Nothing thrilling," Willow said as she pulled a paper out of her bag. "Average student—got detention once for smoking—regular smoking, with a cigarette. Not being smoky. All pretty normal."
"So either this is a power she has difficulty controlling when she gets excited and in the excitement of the tryouts she loses control," Buffy said. "Or she's not the witch we're looking for."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Xander walk through the crowds after lunch waiting for the cheerleaders to post the list of who made it on the cheerleading squad. They noticed a cheerleader moving towards the bulletin board, list in hand as girls began to gather.
"Hey, they're posting the list!" Xander said as they came up beside Amy and Cordelia.
"I can't take this ..." Amy said.
"Spot me, I'm goin' in," Xander said as he dove into the throng. He worked his way to the front. He read down finding Buffy, Cordelia and Amy's names. A second later he emerged from the throng. "Cordy, you made it.
"You're lucky," Cordelia said to Amy.
"What about me?" Amy asked Xander. "Did I make it?"
"You made it also and so did you Buffy," he said. "Buffy you are first alternate and Amy you are third alternate."
Amy looked down in defeat as she turned and walked off.
"What better way to celebrate than with a romantic drive-through for two at –" Xander started to say to Cordelia
"Xander, alternates are the ones who didn't make the team," Willow interrupted. "They only fill in if something happens to the ones who did."
"Excuse me," Buffy said as she walked over to Amy who had only moved about ten feet.
"For I am Xander, King of the Cretins, and all lesser cretins must bow before me," Xander said.
"That's alright, Xander," Dawn said. "You didn't know."
"At least it's over," Buffy told Amy. "And you know what I think we should do about it? Brownie pig-out, my house, now."
Amy sighed. "How many more hours a day can I practice? How much more can I do? This would never have happened to my mom. Never." She turned and ran off as Buffy watched her.
"Buffy!"
Buffy turned to see Paige heading across the quad.
"Anything?" Paige asked when she had reached her charge.
"No," Buffy said with a sigh. "But one thing we know for sure is that according to Willow, Amber doesn't have a history, at least as far as the school is concerned, with a power that is uncontrollable. Of course that doesn't prove anything. But if she had this power someone would have likely seen it before now."
"Not unless the Cleaners erased their memories of it," Paige said. "Have you asked around to see what people remember of yesterday?"
"No," Buffy said. "I didn't think to."
"I did," Paige said. "The banner you used is back in its place and looks as if it was not used to smother the flames. Also the people I talked to said you ran up to Amber before yelling at someone to call 911. It is now being reported that Amber broke her leg."
"These cleaners must not take events sometimes into account," Buffy said. "Amber was stretching beforehand. She wouldn't have broken her leg that easily."
"I agree but that is what everyone is saying," Paige said. "So other than you, Xander, Willow, Dawn, Giles, myself and this witch. No one remembers that Amber had caught on fire."
"So we start asking to see …" Buffy started to ask.
"No," Paige said. "This witch would realize the cleaners did their job and would make sure to follow the story that everyone else has been talking about. We'll have to hope you get another premonition on who she is."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Paige woke the next morning to find Phoebe and Piper down in the kitchen sipping on cups of coffee. "Anymore left?" she asked.
"Help yourself," Piper said.
Paige moved over to the coffee maker and poured herself a cup before sitting beside her sisters.
"Anything on this witch?" Phoebe asked.
"No," Paige said with a shake of her head. "And Buffy has gotten no new premonitions either. The one she got suggests the witch knew that someone might try and discover her through a power like Buffy's or maybe through telepathy or a scrying power. We had hoped another victim might bump into Buffy and she might get another premonition. But there were no other victims."
"Which makes it possible," Piper said. "That the girl that was attack may have been the only target."
"It's possible," Paige sighed as she took a sip of her coffee. "If it was, then it is likely we may not find the witch."
"Regardless," Piper said. "It might not be a bad idea to make a binding potion. "I'll get started on it and have it ready for if or when you call needing it. Then all you have to do is orb me to Sunnydale and I will freeze the witch long enough to force the potion down her throat."
"Sounds like a plan," Paige said with a smile. "Well I better get to Sunnydale." She finished the last of her coffee and then orbed out.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Cordy?" Xander said as he walked between Cordelia, who is walking more slowly and a little less regally than usual, and Willow toward Cordelia's locker.
"I … I'm not sure," Cordelia replied.
Willow let out a sigh and shook her head. She still could not understand how Cordelia and Xander had become a couple. Oh she knew how, sure. But she and he had both been part of the I Hate Cordelia group. Now it seemed she was alone in that group. And she also realized that her crush on Xander was very likely futile at this moment.
Just then Buffy rounded the corner as Cordelia stopped at her locked and reached for the combination dial, she stumbled slightly before finding it.
"Cordy?" Xander said again as Buffy stopped next to him.
"Xander?" Cordelia said. "I … I think … I'm." She turned to face them and as she did her eyes went suddenly and startlingly white. "Blind. Oh god, I can't see."
Buffy laid a hand on Cordelia as she tried to comfort the girl. "We'll find the …" she started to say as she gasped. In her mind she saw the witch again with a doll dressed as a cheerleader. The witch dropped the doll and then pulled back the hood of her robe and smiled. "Amy," she said as her premonition ended. "The witch is Amy."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
"Blinding your enemy to disable and disorient them is a classic," Giles said ten minutes later in the library, "for a dark witch who is not concerned about personal gain."
"It is likely that the cleaners have already modified everyone's memories to make people think Cordelia was always blind," Paige said. "If we can reverse the witch's magic it will reverse the physical effects, Cordelia will see again."
"What about Amber's hands?" Dawn asked.
"With the broken foot story," Paige said. "They would have had to alter reality so that her hands were not burned. That spell is one that won't need to be reversed. The only way to reverse these spells though is with Amy's book. Okay, Rupert you take Dawn and Buffy to Amy's house. Get her book. I'm going to orb to San Francisco and get Piper who has been brewing a binding potion. Once Piper uses her power on the witch, we will be able to force the potion down her throat and bind her powers." She then orbed out.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Paige orbed into the kitchen to find Piper standing before a pot on the stove. "Is it ready?"
"Just about," Piper replied. "Did you find the witch?"
"Another student was attacked," Paige explained. "A friend of Buffy's, Cordelia. She went blind. But when Buffy touched Cordelia to comfort her, she got a premonition. Saw who it was. She, Dawn and Rupert are going to get Amy's, that's the witch's name, book. We'll meet them back at the school where Dawn will cast the reversal spells while you standby to freeze, I will have the binding potion in hand and Buffy will keep her distracted."
"Good idea," Piper agreed.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Giles knocked on the front door of Amy's house as Buffy and Dawn peeked through a window by the door. The sisters saw Amy's mom, Catherine, start at the sound of the knocking and then sliding something under a table before getting up and moving toward the door.
Buffy and Dawn step back from the window beside Giles as the door opened to reveal Catherine.
"What do you want? Is there something wrong?" Catherine asked.
"Mrs. Madison, we need to talk to you about your daughter," Giles said.
Catherine shook her head. "I'm not allowed to—you'll have to come back," she said as she tried to shut the door.
Buffy using the slightest of Slayer strength forced the door back open as she, Giles and Dawn rushed inside.
"Your daughter is up to something very dangerous," Giles asked. "Are you aware of that?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Catherine said.
Dawn shook her head. "I doubt that, after all she is your daughter."
"You have to go. She's gonna be home soon."
"There is a girl that is now blind at school. Another was burned," Giles said. "So you will shut up and you will listen to us."
"Your daughter," Dawn said, "is a powerful dark witch. Somehow your obsession with cheerleading has made her –"
"I don't care about cheerleading!" Catherine said as tears began to form. "It's not my fault she's doing stuff."
Buffy frowned as she stared intently at Catherine.
"As her mother, you should accept some responsibility for her actions," Giles said.
Surprisingly, Catherine started laughing. "Well, these kids today ..."
Buffy looked at Catherine and then took a step back to see what was under the table. "Dawn?"
Dawn moved beside Buffy and looked under the table and saw a plate of brownies. She looked to Catherine. "You're Amy," she and Buffy said simultaneously.
Catherine took a step back, her eyes wide in shock at being discovered.
"I don't understand ..." Giles said.
"Mrs. Madison," Dawn said, "switched bodies with Amy."
Buffy moved the table aside and picked up the plate of brownies. "Only a child afraid of their parent might hide them. An adult wouldn't have reason to. Amy's mom stole Amy's body and put Amy in her own." She looked at Amy. "She wanted to relive her glory days. Catherine the Great."
"Good lord ..." Giles said.
Catherine nodded, quietly. "She said I was wasting my youth ... So she took it," she said as she sat down on the couch. "I didn't know about her ... her power. When my dad was here they would fight, he called her a witch. I thought he meant something else. When he left I wanted to go with him but she wouldn't even let me call. She got crazy. She'd lock herself upstairs for days. And she'd get down on me all the time. She said I didn't deserve to have it so easy, that I didn't know how hard it was to be her. I guess she showed me, huh?"
"Amy, it's gonna be okay," Dawn said.
"A few months ago I woke up in her bed, I didn't know where I was ... and I looked in the mirror ..."
"She locked herself upstairs," Giles said. "Where?"
"She has a room in the attic," Catherine said.
"Make sense," Buffy said. "Paige said her family kept their book in the attic. Not many people would look for it up there. They would tend to look for it in the public areas of the house."
"Show us," Giles said.
Amy showed them up stairs to the attic door. It was locked. Buffy using her slayer strength forced the door open.
Giles followed Buffy and Dawn into the attic as Catherine stood in the doorway.
"If she finds out I've been in here she'll kill me," Catherine said.
"My God ..." Giles said as he looked at the dolls. "I believe we can reverse your mother's spell. All of them, in fact."
"You really could?" Catherine asked.
"Yes," Buffy said. "But we need her book. Where would she keep her book of shadows?"
"I … I don't know," Catherine said.
Giles, Buffy and Dawn rummaged around the attic till they found a trunk.
As Giles went to open the trunk he said to Dawn, "Collect the dolls and anything else you think we'll need." Just as he opened the trunk a cat sprang at him from its depths, screeching and forcing Giles to jump back as the cat hit the floor and ran out of the room. "Nice kitty ..." he said as he looked in the trunk. "What were you guarding? Yes ..." he reached in and pulled out the book of shadows. "This is it."
They along with Catherine drove back to the school where they found Paige waiting with Piper.
"Good you have her book," Paige said. "We can reverse her magic. Now who do we have here?"
"This is Amy," Dawn said. "The real Amy, Mrs. Madison switched bodies."
Piper looked towards her sister. "We might be able to reverse that spell ourselves. Remember the soul switching potion you made when you were first learning."
"Of course," Paige said. "I'll orb back to the Manor and get the ingredients." She orbed out and thirty minutes later she orbed back in. "Got them." She looked to Dawn. "While I make this potion. I need you to reverse Mrs. Madison's spells." She then handed a potion to Giles. "Piper is going to freeze and we're going to need you to force that down Mrs. Madison's throat once her soul is back in her body."
"Got it," Giles said as he took the potion from Paige.
"Buffy you need to keep Catherine distracted once the spell is reversed," Paige said.
Paige began working on her potion as Dawn worked over another. When she looked at the book it mentioned a chant. "Paige," she said. "This doesn't look like a spell you mentioned."
"Interesting," Paige said. "The spell calls on Hecate. I don't think … Piper?"
Piper moved next to the book and read the spell that went with the potion Dawn was making. "Your right," she said. "I've never seen such a spell before. Of course this is the first time since …" and then she stopped as she remembered the Grimoire. "Paige, touch the book."
Paige looked at her sister and saw the look on Piper's face. Piper knew something. She reached down and touched the book.
"As I thought," Piper said. "Remember the Grimoire. It could protect itself from good. A dark witch would have had similar protection on her book. Buffy, Dawn, did either of you touch this book?"
"No," Buffy said. "Giles picked it up. Why?"
"I believe that the witch is a progenitor, not an actual dark witch. She can still cast spells and may even have limited powers but she is not a gifted witch like the four of us. If she was her book would likely have a way of protecting itself from us."
"What does that mean?" Dawn wondered.
"That Amy is the gifted witch," Paige said realizing where Piper was going. She looked at Catherine. "That you have powers. If your mother is progenitor, you are the gifted. The start of our magical family line was Charlotte Warren, she was a progenitor. Her daughter Melinda was gifted and the powers me and my sister have were passed down from Melinda. It is very likely that you may be gifted yourself and that your mother may have at one time bound your powers and then unbound them when she stole your body. Which means you will likely be assigned a Whitelighter the moment you are back in your own body."
Paige looked back at her the soul swapping potion. "Okay. Now it's time for the last ingredient," she said as she picked up the powdered toadstool and held out her hand to Catherine. "Only you can add it. Speak clearly that you want to be you again."
Catherine nodded as she took the ingredient and let out a sigh. "I want to be me again," she said as she dropped the powdered toadstool into the bubbling potion. She swooned for a second and then looked around confused.
"Catherine Madison," Buffy said, drawing Catherine's attention to her. "Good your back in your own body. Piper, now!"
Piper lifted her hands and froze Catherine as Giles rushed over to Catherine and forced the potion down her throat. As he stepped away Catherine unfroze and sputtered. "What did you do?" she asked.
"We pound your magic," Paige said. "And we've also called social services, who should be at your house momentarily getting evidence to have your daughter taken from you for abuse."
Catherine muttered a spell and found her magic had truly been bound. As the spell that she cast didn't even work for her. In the face of other witches, she knew that she could not win. Not as a mortal anyways. She turned and ran out of the room passing Amy, Xander and Willow as they entered.
"It worked," Amy said as she smiled.
"Now just to reverse the spell on Cordelia," Dawn said. "The center is dark. The darkness breathes. The listener hears." She threw in an ingredient. "Hear me. Unlock the gate, let the darkness shine. Cover us with holy fear. Show me. Corsheth, and Gilail, the gate is closed. Receive the dark, release the unworthy ... Take of mine energy and be sated!" She plunged her hands into the potion. She pulled her hands back out. "Be sated! Release the unworthy! Release!"
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked Amy.
"I'm fine," Amy said feelingly. "And happy to be back in my own body."
"We called social services," Piper said. "While we were waiting on you guys to arrive. You won't have to go back to her."
"I think Cordy's blindness has been reversed," Dawn said. "Of course it was my first spell casting, I may have got it wrong."
"Seeing how it is unlike anything we've ever seen before," Paige said. "Who knows for sure."
"I'll check on Cordy," Xander said. "She's still in the library." He turned and left the room.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Several days later Buffy and Amy are walked through the hall.
"Dad is so impossible," Amy said. "He doesn't ever want me going anywhere, wants to spend total quality time together. I'm like, Dad, I can go out, it's perfectly safe. He's got all this guilt at leaving me with mom and he's being a total pain."
Buffy smiled. "You're loving it."
Amy nodded. "Every single minute."
Cordelia nodded to Buffy, who smiled at her friend, as she and the other cheerleaders walked past. Cordelia could see again and Amber no longer had a broken foot or burned hands. They were both recovered from their ordeal, and only Cordelia seemed to remember any of it.
"Hey," Cordelia said as the other cheerleaders walked off leaving the three of them alone in the middle of the hall. "Hey, I'm really sorry you guys got bumped back to alternate."
"Well, I know I'll miss the intellectual thrill of spelling words out with my arms," Amy said sarcastically. "Really I'm interested, never was. That was all my mom."
"I know," Cordelia said. "Talking about her, have you seen her lately?"
Amy shook her head. "She left town, she didn't even go back to the house to get any clothes or anything. I think its safe to say till she finds a way to unbind her magic, she won't be back."
"That's good," Cordelia said.
"Regardless, I'm just happy to have my body back. I'm thinking of getting fat," Amy said as the three of them continued down the hall.
"Well, that look is in for spring," Buffy said as the three of them laughed.
Author's Note: The next chapter is the Charmed Episode Scry Hard. Just to note this won't be like Another Halliwell or Last Halliwell where every other chapter is one from either series or the other. The story takes place mostly on the Buffy side of things. But just as there are guest appearances of Phoebe or Piper along with Paige and Leo in BTVS episodes the reverse will be true for some of the major episodes of Charmed such as the season 7 finale, and the season 8 premiere. Scry Hard is for Buffy though an introduction more or less to the family and the Charmed version of demons.
