Author's note:
I've been a huge fan of the 1996 Sabrina the Teenage Witch television series since I was a kid. On a whim, I decided to try writing a fic since there aren't all that many posted anywhere. For reader reference, this fic takes place in between the episodes "Bada-Ping!" and "It's a Hot, Hot, Hot Christmas." This story is intended to serve as a "lost episode" of sorts from season 7.
"And I want that on my desk by Friday at 5:00pm!" a demanding voice shouted at Sabrina.
While an outsider might consider it a hostile work environment, Sabrina was quite used to her boss Annie's demanding demeanor. She was a journalist now, after all, and the news was a fast-paced business. If you didn't cover something immediately as it happened, it could be old news by next week.
"Yes, of course, Annie." Sabrina passively agreed. It was rarely any use to challenge her, as it would only create unnecessary drama. Despite what one might think, Sabrina loved working here. She had everything she wanted, really: a college education, a well-paying job, and great friends to live with. Sabrina loved life.
"So, did Annie give you another killer assignment?" Sabrina's coworker Leonard teased her as she came out of the boss's office.
"Sure did." Sabrina nodded. "I've got only four days before Halloween to complete this assignment."
"Tough luck." James lightheartedly teased. "I've gotta get my assignment done by Wednesday. She's a real slavedriver."
"I thought I was gonna be done with assignments after graduating college!" Cole lamented.
"Well think again, man." Leonard chuckled.
"Are you gonna hang out here and work?" James inquired.
"Nah, I think I'm going to work from home." Sabrina responded. "Easier to focus on my writing there."
"Makes sense." Leonard nodded. "See you around, Brina."
"Yeah…um…see you later!" Sabrina replied.
She was trying not to behave rattled, but quite frankly, she was a bit. Since it was getting close to Halloween, Annie requested that Sabrina do a survey of the city and write an editorial article about if people believed in ghosts or not. It was a subject Sabrina was quite passionate about, given she had met ghosts before and had family living in the Other Realm. Despite how much she loved Halloween, she always hated mortals' sensationalization of ghosts, witches, and all things supernatural around the holiday. Their opinions were nearly always based off of some silly stereotype or untrue presumption. Most of the time, Sabrina just tried to ignore it, but when she had an assignment that directly forced her to engage with boorish stereotypes like that, it made her a bit worried.
Sabrina pulled her car in the driveway and scurried inside to greet her roommates. Quite frankly she wasn't in the mood to talk to them, but of course she would anyway. She wasn't the type of person to let a situation getting her down prevent her from engaging with the people she cared about most.
"Hey Sabrina! How was work?" Morgan inquired. She was currently watching National Superstar on television.
"Oh, decent. I've gotta do an editorial on whether people believe in ghosts and witches or not." Sabrina informed.
"That should be interesting!" Morgan replied.
"It'll be interesting to hear all your stories of the wackos who believe in that stuff." Roxie rolled her eyes.
Sabrina felt a pang in her heart, even though she wasn't upset with Roxie for the remark. Even if it was a hurtful remark, she didn't know any better. The blonde really wished she could tell her two roommates that she was a witch, but there was just no way it could ever happen. If she did that, they'd probably freak out and leave her forever, and she couldn't let that happen. Roxie and Morgan were two of the most important people in the world to her.
"Oh, I don't know about that. I think it will be interesting to hear different perspectives." Sabrina replied.
Roxie simply shrugged, as she laid down her yoga mat on the floor and sat on it. "Yeah, I suppose so."
"I'll be in my room thinking about an angle for the article." Sabrina said. "It's due Friday, so I've got to hurry."
Sabrina left Morgan and Roxie to their television and yoga, respectively, and hurried into her room. Admittedly, she wasn't planning on starting the article quite yet. Rather, she wanted to hear what her trusty cat, Salem, had to say on the matter.
"They want you to write an article on what?" Salem exclaimed in surprise.
"I've got to write an article on whether people believe in witches or not." Sabrina repeated for her feline companion.
"Oh, just wanted to make sure I heard you right." the feline replied. "Seems like it could be quite fun. If a mortal says anything against witches, then you can hex them into oblivion!"
"Salem, I'm not doing that." Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"Well, it was worth a shot." Salem chuckled.
"Ugh, what am I going to do?" Sabrina harrumphed. "I'm the worst person in the world to write this article. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and I don't want to spend it interviewing bigoted mortals who don't even believe in me."
"Well, that's work for ya." Salem responded. "Did I ever tell you that once, I worked for the Emperor of Egypt? Made me haul bricks for months to help create this new pyramid. Well, I showed him. Let's just say when he asked for parmesan cheese in his soup, he got a bit of a surprise."
"Are you saying you sprinkled ground up bricks on top of his soup?" Sabrina put her hands on her hips in a disapproving fashion.
"Yes, exactly! So, all you have to do is find some bricks and put them on Annie's soup. Then, bam! You're even." Salem suggested.
"Oh, Salem." Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"What? I gave ya the best advice I've got. Sometimes we've all got to do stuff we don't like." Salem reminded. "Do you think I've liked being a cat for the past few centuries? All I can do is sleep and eat, play with toy mice - although, for the record, they actually are quite fun - sit around and be pet….you know, when I think about it, being a cat actually ain't so bad."
"I suppose I'll just need to suck it up." the blonde witch sighed. "Thanks for the advice, Salem."
"My pleasure! People always love my advice!" Salem responded in an entitled fashion.
"Yeah, yeah, sure they do." Sabrina muttered under her breath. For as much as she loved Salem, he could be a bit narcissistic at times.
Sabrina had spent a lot of the morning and the previous evening writing up questions to ask various people. It was quite difficult to think of what questions she would ask bigoted, irrational people, but she did the best she could. What are your views on the supernatural? is what one question asked. If you don't believe in the supernatural, what would make you believe? asked another. Why can't you be more open-minded? Sabrina wished she could ask this last question, but she figured that one wouldn't go over so well with her interviewees.
Sabrina had just walked into the office with a cup of coffee to-go in her hand. Leonard, James and Cole were already there; Cole was typing up something on his computer, James appeared to be scanning over some questions he had written for an article, and Leonard was, as usual, starting off into space watching Shaggy and Scooby-Doo bounce across his screen.
"Enjoying your screen saver there, Leonard?" Sabrina joked.
"Huh…what? No, I was in the zone and coming up with a genius article idea!" Leonard defended.
"Sure you were, buddy." Sabrina rolled her eyes.
"Did you start on your article yet, Brina?" James inquired.
"Not yet, no. I wrote up all the questions last night. I am really not looking forward to this article." Sabrina lamented.
"Really? Your article is so cool! I'm stuck writing about some boring legal case. Some neighbor reported somebody else for not taking care of their yard and now there's a court case or something…I don't know. It's boring." Cole explained.
"That actually sounds better than mine." Sabrina replied.
"Wait…seriously? Wanna trade?" Cole became excited.
"There'll be no trading!" Annie's voice exclaimed as she walked out of the doorway of her office. "You'll do whatever I assign you to do."
"Aww man. Well, it was worth a shot." Cole shrugged, as he went back to typing up his article.
"Sabrina, have you come up with a plan for interviewing people yet?" Annie questioned.
"Umm…" the blonde didn't want to say 'no' and get yelled at by her easily irritable boss. "Yeah. I'm going to go out on the street and ask people tonight."
"Good. I better see the article on my desk by Friday." Annie reminded, as she walked back up to her office.
Sabrina would do anything to get out of writing this awful excuse for an article. She'd been so stressed out about it that she'd barely gotten to do any of the normal Halloween festivities she loved so much, like carving pumpkins and shopping for candy. Wait a minute…maybe she could get out of having to write this. All she needed to do was a quick little spell to switch her and Cole's assignments, and Annie would be none the wiser.
"Make the switch and give Cole the article of the witch!" Sabrina recited the spell.
"Hey Cole." Annie called from her office.
"Yes, boss?" Cole responded.
"How's your progress on that article interviewing people about the supernatural?" Annie asked.
"Well…I haven't interviewed anyone yet, but I've got all my questions." Cole provided an update.
"Get on those interviews, Cole! The article has to be on my desk by Friday so we can publish it in time for Halloween on Saturday." Annie demanded.
"I'll go out and interview people tonight." Cole promised.
"Good." Annie nodded. "Sabrina, how's the article about the court case going?"
Sabrina of course wasn't going to say that she hadn't started on it, so she simply replied "I've got all my questions ready, and I've got an interview with the defendant and their lawyer this afternoon."
"Great! And you'll have that on my desk by Thursday, correct?" Annie checked.
"Yes, ma'am. Absolutely." Sabrina agreed.
"Wonderful." Annie headed back into her office.
Sure, she'd have to turn things around a day early, but it was still far better than having to listen to the ramblings of witch-hating bigots. Sabrina quickly began writing her questions for the interview, and would head to the lawyer's office later this afternoon to question them. Sabrina didn't know what she'd do without her powers. They were so convenient, and while there were occasionally a few hiccups, the benefits far outweighed the costs. Besides, she was getting so much better at being responsible with her powers than she was when she was younger. She remembered times when she turned her school into a soap opera, and accelerated the time-space continuum, but she was so much more knowledgeable and in control of her magic now. Well, most of the time.
Upon entering the lawyer's office, Sabrina immediately noticed the drab surroundings. All the walls were painted white, and only a few chairs decorated the otherwise boring office. The blonde witch quickly saw the man she was looking for coming towards her in a blue button-up shirt and gray trousers.
"Why hello there! Claim's the name, and George Claimsly's the game! Oh wait…did I get those two mixed up again?" the man introduced himself. "Sometimes I'm such a smooth talker that I outsmart myself, ya know?"
Sabrina gave a light chuckle in response. "Sabrina Spellman's the name, and reporting is my game."
"Oh, you're the reporter that I heard was comin' over!" Claimsly recognized. "Well, let me tell you right away that my client is innocent! Ron Spinesman is not guilty I tell you, not guilty! His neighbor is a con artist, a no-goodnick, and also not very nice!"
"Don't worry, I believe you!" Sabrina assured the lawyer. "I'm just here to interview you about the case so far. How's the case been going?"
"It's going fabulous! We've got to the accuser so backed into a corner that he's practically got no defense. Well, except the fact that my client didn't shovel his sidewalk for the entirety of winter, causing the neighbor to slip and sprain his back…but, that's an easy defense to argue. Anyway, gotta run! The court case resumes in an hour." Claimsly began putting on his coat.
"Oh…well, could I come with?" Sabrina asked, before adding a caveat to make her request even more convincing. "Just so I can write about what an amazing defense you have."
"I like the way you think, lady! C'mon along! With any luck, we'll have this case closed today." Claimsly promised.
"Sounds great! I'll meet you there." Sabrina said, hurrying back out to her car. This guy was definitely a smooth-talker, but it would be interesting to see just how smooth he was in court.
"This man is a menace!" the accuser shouted. He donned a gray suit and black pants. "He didn't shovel his sidewalk for the entire winter. In fact, I was going over to tell him how dangerous it was that he hadn't done so when I fell and sprained my back!"
"I have an objection to Mr. Brown's point, your honor!" Claimsly interrupted.
"Yes, go ahead." the brunette judge nodded. She wore black judge's robes.
Claimsly narrowed his gaze, looking determined and very critical of the accuser's points. "Mr. Brown, define back."
"Ugh." the judge facepalmed. "Mr. Claimsly, please stop wasting the court's time with these foolishly trivial questions."
"I'm sorry, your honor. Let me ask another question." Mr. Claimsly said, looking like he had just come up with the most genius question since Albert Einstein asked what mc squared equaled. "Mr. Brown, I'd like to ask you to define the word fell."
"I stumbled on the excessive snow on Mr. Spinesman's sidewalk, causing me to fall backwards and sprain my back." Mr. Brown elaborated. "I've had to go through several months of physical therapy to fix this issue, and it's still not quite back to normal."
"But what is a fall, Mr. Brown?" Claimsly rebutted. "Webster's Dictionary defines fall as one of the year's four seasons, in which the trees lose their leaves. The second definition provides the meaning of the verb fall, which means to pass into a specified state, for example, love. Mr. Brown, I believe I have solved this entire case with just this definition. The realization that I have come to is the following: Mr. Brown, have you fallen in love with Mr. Spinesman?"
"Oh for the love of God!" the judge burst out in frustration. "Claimsly, you continually go off on these irrelevant and absurd tangents. Moreover, you have provided no compelling evidence for your client's innocence. Even your own client has already admitted guilt!"
"She's right, you know." Mr. Spinesman nodded, hanging his head a bit. "I'm a selfish boor who has no sense of dutifulness. I didn't shovel my sidewalk for months, and I would highly recommend punishing me with numerous hours of community service as to teach my procrastinating rear end some responsibility."
"Mr. Spinesman, I just have one question for you: what is guilt? What is innocence? Are these not mere social constructs that only have taken on the meaning that we as a society have given them?" Claimsly became philosophical.
"Case dismissed!" the judge finally declared. "Mr. Spinesman, you will complete 120 hours of community service, as well as paying for Mr. Brown's medical costs and being fined by the city for not shoveling your sidewalk all winter."
"Didn't I tell ya I'd get the case dismissed within the day?" Claimsly retorted to Sabrina with a self-gratifying tone.
Sabrina confidently strutted back into the office. The court case was so silly and trivial that it would take her no time at all to write an article about that clown show.
"So how'd the court case go, Brina?" James inquired.
"Easy peasy." Sabrina nodded happily. "The defendant was obviously in the wrong. He even pleaded guilty at the end. There's gonna be no problems writing this article."
"Hey Sabrina?" Cole asked. His voice had a hint of nervousness in it.
"Yeah, what is it, Cole?" Sabrina inquired.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Cole questioned.
"Well, I'm all ears." Sabrina gave a light awkward giggle.
"Um…I think privately might be better." Cole stuttered. "Can we step outside and take a walk?"
"Yeah…um…of course." Sabrina was getting a bit worried. Cole always played it cool, so this weird demeanor was very unlike him. Something one of those hypothetical bigots said must have really spooked him.
Cole didn't say anything until he and Sabrina were fully outside.
"So…I don't know quite how to say this, but…" Cole stuttered. "Sabrina, are you a witch?"
Sabrina's heart nearly leapt out of her chest. How in the world had Cole come to that sudden conclusion?
"No!" Sabrina quickly blurted. "That's silly. Did you interview some whacko who thinks witches are real or something?"
"Something like that, yeah…" Cole stumbled over his words. "I thought I might as well start with…well, like you said, the whackos who believe in witches. I was thinking that would be an interesting story, right? I went to Madame Esmeralda's, which is some kooky shop downtown selling potions and crystals and…well you know. She asked me where I was working, and then she mentioned you come in there a lot…I mean…I thought that stuff was just for crazy people! I…"
Cole clearly didn't know how to finish his sentence…which was fair, because Sabrina didn't know how to start her sentence either.
"Oh…you know, a couple friends and I were just going in there to joke around one time. You know, see the whackos, right?" Sabrina lightly chuckled.
"She said you were a regular customer, though." Cole rebuked.
"Oh…um…that doesn't mean I'm a witch. Maybe I'm just into weird stuff." Sabrina immediately mentally facepalmed after finishing her sentence. That was such a stupid thing to say.
"Wait…is this how you knew pop star Ashanti?" Cole pieced together.
"I…." Sabrina was lost for words for a moment.
"Okay…umm…never mind. I don't know what I was thinking. Sorry to bother you, Sabrina." Cole digressed, as he began walking in the other direction.
Sabrina wasn't convinced Cole had fully changed his mind yet, as he seemed somewhat awkward. She was so flabbergasted by Cole's out of nowhere accusation that she decided to take the opportunity to process some of her emotions.
"Uh…no problem, Cole." Sabrina tried to play it cool, but she felt like she had miserably failed at it.
Sabrina knew she'd have no peace of mind on this until she talked with Madame Esmeralda about how she could have let such a personal piece of information slip, so she quickly gathered her belongings and planned to head over to that store.
Sabrina stormed into Madame Esmeralda's, frustrated that she could have done something so stupid. Why would she think it was okay to reveal something like that to a mortal? The blonde witch considered herself to be very cautious, so it would figure that the one magical place she went to in the mortal world would come back to bite her. Most magical stores weren't in the Mortal Realm, but Madame Esmeralda put up shop in the Mortal Realm as to cater to a wide variety of people: those Wiccans who were just experimenting with witchcraft, and more secretively, experienced witches with powers from the Other Realm.
"Oh, Sabrina! Good to see you!" Madame Esmeralda greeted. She wore a purple gown and a pointy hat. She liked going for the more old school, stereotypical presentation of what witches looked like. "Somebody was just in here asking about you!"
"Yeah, I know." Sabrina curtly said. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Why would you tell a mortal that I'm a regular customer in a store for witches?"
"Well, the easiest way to put it is as follows: I goofed!" Madame Esmeralda said with a shrug.
"You goofed?" Sabrina didn't look amused.
"Yes, that's what I said. I goofed! I thought he was from the Other Realm. He said he worked for Scorch Magazine, which reminded me of you, so I told him you were a regular customer." Madame Esmeralda explained.
"Ugh…how am I going to undo this?" Sabrina panicked. "Do you have any potions for making people forget stuff or turning back time?"
"Why, I haven't had anything like that since the Forget-Me-Not Decree of last year!" Madame Esmeralda exclaimed.
"What exactly is the Forget-Me-Not Decree of last year?" Sabrina inquired.
"The Witch's Council has outlawed any potions that wipe a mortal's memory. It can have adverse effects you see, such as erasing unintended parts of the person's memory. Thus, the Council has declared using potions like that immoral, illegal, and not very nice." Madame Esmeralda explained. "You'll just have to do it the old fashioned way."
"You mean casting a spell…I suppose I'll have to. I can't let it get out that I'm a witch. Cole could tell James, Leonard and Annie!" Sabrina worried.
"You must be careful, Sabrina!" Madame Esmeralda warned. "Messing with the memories of mortals could be just as dangerous as giving them a potion, you know. It could cause them to forget memories other than the ones you intend them to, so you must use these spells with great caution."
"I'm not wiping out his whole memory. It's just making Cole forget that he heard anything from you. How bad could it be?" Sabrina rhetorically asked.
"Well…I suppose you're right…" Madame Esmeralda responded, sounding a bit hesitant.
"Alright, thanks for the tip Madame Esmeralda…" Sabrina appreciated, before switching from normal volume to a mumble. "I guess, since you're the one who caused this mess."
"Oh anytime my dear, anytime." Madame Esmeralda smiled and nodded in her normal kooky voice.
Sabrina confidently strutted back to the office, feeling a bit better now. It was a shame that Madame Esmeralda had to blab to Cole, but she felt like she had things under control. She'd just cast a little spell on Cole to make him forget, and then he'd write the article without including anything Madame Esmeralda told him. Then Sabrina would write her easy-as-pie article, and she'd please Annie by turning in her article early. Flawless plan, right?
The blonde witch saw Cole was still sitting at his desk when she returned from Madame Esmeralda's. Sabrina decided to invite him to talk outside, just like he had with her earlier.
"Hey Cole…about earlier…" Sabrina started, quickly becoming very nervous at the prospect of casting a spell on him. She had cast thousands of spells in her lifetime, so she wasn't sure why this made her so nervous, other than perhaps feeling guilty that she had screwed up.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I shouldn't have said anything." Cole admitted, still feeling nervous.
"No, no, it's fine! I just wanted to talk to you about that." Sabrina replied, heading for the door to infer she wanted to discuss it outside. She wanted to make it seem more casual than directly asking him if he wanted to talk outside. Thankfully, Cole took Sabrina's lead and followed her outside.
"Okay…what's going on Sabrina? You're acting weird." Cole asked once they were standing in front of the Scorch Magazine building.
Rather than wasting time with pleasantries, Sabrina simply began casting the spell. "There's an unfortunate dilemma with someone Cole met, reverse the knowledge and make him forget."
"What? Huh?" Cole seemed disoriented at first. "Oh…hey Sabrina. What are we doing out here?"
"Not sure. You asked me to come out here." Sabrina lied.
"Oh…must have lost my train of thought. Anyway, I gotta get started on that supernatural article. I haven't even talked to anyone about it yet!" Cole informed, as he hurried back inside.
Good. That means the spell must have worked. Easy peasy, just like Sabrina said. Sabrina followed Cole back inside and hurried to her desk. With any luck, she'd have the article finished by the end of the day today! If she could find her notes, that was.
Sabrina quickly realized that she didn't know where she had put her notes from the court case yesterday, but she would need them to make sure everything was accurate. Was the defendant's name Mr. Brown, or was that the accuser? Ugh…she must have forgotten them at home.
She didn't want to waste time driving, as that would be another 20 minutes each way. That was time she could be spending on finishing the article. Thankfully, she could just pop in at home, then pop right back to the office. She would step outside for a moment just so nobody in the office would see her disappear, of course.
"Where you goin', Brina?" Cole inquired.
"Oh…" Sabrina didn't want to say that she was going home, because then they'd question how she got back so quickly. "Just to get a coffee."
"Oh hey, can you grab me a cup? Two sugars, two creamers." James inquired.
"Sure!" Sabrina agreed, as she scurried outside. She glanced from left to right, before looking behind her to ensure nobody was around. Thankfully, nobody was. With a snap of her fingers, her body was transported back to her house in her bedroom. Once returning to her room, she remembered exactly where she'd left her notes…sitting on her bed, of course. She could be so ditzy sometimes.
The blonde witch gasped when she turned around and saw Morgan and Roxie standing in the doorframe of her bedroom, both wearing shocked looks on their faces.
"How did you do that?" Roxie gasped.
"You just appeared out of nowhere!" Morgan exclaimed.
Sabrina started to panic. She had no idea what to do, so she went for the quick fix option of casting the same spell she had on Cole.
"Roxie and Morgan saw something they should not, so take this situation and make them say they forgot." Sabrina recited the spell. She quickly disappeared and went back to the office, before her roommates could reorient themselves to what was going on.
As she reappeared back outside her office, she made sure to get the coffee for James so as not to mess up again or cause any questions. She made sure to conjure up a caramel macchiato for herself as well.
"Here you go, James." Sabrina said in a bubbly voice, handing him his cup of coffee.
"Thanks, Sabrina!" James exclaimed. "Man, this is good! Just the motivation I need to get this article finished up."
"Speaking of that, I've gotta finish mine!" Sabrina exclaimed, grabbing her notes and quickly placing them on the table before anybody could ask why she was holding them.
The blonde was thankful that she had dealt with two close calls so flawlessly. Her fingers continued to tip-tap at the keyboard as she scurried to begin the article. Surely, it would only take a few hours with her notes, given the simplicity of the court case.
Sabrina had just gotten home. This time, she'd taken the slower route of driving home, rather than popping in. She always tried to do things the mortal way as to better assimilate into the human world, and besides, it wasn't worth risking the possibility of being discovered.
It appeared Morgan was watching National Superstar on the couch, while Roxie meditated in silence on the living room floor.
Sabrina decided to head to her room to relax for a moment, rather than bothering either of them.
"Hey Salem." Sabrina said. She knew Roxie and Morgan wouldn't hear her, so she felt it was safe enough to converse with the cat.
"And how was your day, m'lady?" Salem playfully inquired.
"Oh, I had a couple close calls today! Cole's doing an article on the supernatural for work, and he talked to Madame Esmeralda and found out I was a witch." Sabrina revealed.
"What?!" Salem cried.
"That's not even all. Roxie and Morgan saw me magically pop in the house to grab my notes for work." Sabrina finished sharing.
"You seem awful calm for somebody who's just had her witchcraft discovered." Salem observed.
"Oh, there's no need to worry. I got it taken care of." Sabrina assured.
"And just how did you do that?" Salem asked.
"I cast a memory spell on all three of them." Sabrina replied.
Salem let out a gasp. "You didn't!"
"Yeah. What's the big problem? I just erased that one specific memory for each of them. It's not going to harm them." Sabrina shrugged off.
"You have to be very cautious with those spells, Sabrina. I should know! I cast them on people all the time whenever I did something I didn't want them to remember." Salem said.
"And what happened?" Sabrina wondered aloud.
"Well let's just say it didn't help my case when the Witch's Council sentenced me to hundreds of years as a cat." Salem chuckled nervously.
"What do you mean, cautious?" Sabrina asked.
"The human mind is a delicate thing. You have to make sure you don't say one word out of place, or the spell might have disastrous consequences." Salem clarified.
"What type of disastrous consequences?" Sabrina inquired.
"They could lose other aspects of their memory if you phrase the spell the wrong way!" Salem warned.
"That's not going to happen…at least I don't think so. I was careful. I made sure the spell was catered specifically to the situation, just like they always teach you when you're first learning about your powers. Nothing to worry about." Sabrina assured.
"Well, if you say so. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to take a little bath." Salem said, as he began grooming his fur.
Sabrina didn't see any reason to worry. She rarely had any trouble with spells anymore...well, sometimes she found herself getting into sticky situations, but she always figured them out without too much of an issue. She assumed nothing more would come of it.
The blonde witch headed into work ready to take on whatever new assignment Annie threw at her today. She was confident that Annie would love her article about the court case, and would hopefully as a result be in a pleasant mood when she gave Sabrina her next assignment.
"'Sup, Sabrina!" Leonard greeted as Sabrina walked past his desk.
"Hey Leonard!" Sabrina responded.
"Oh, this must be a new girl?" Cole looked puzzled.
"I'm not that new, Cole." Sabrina chuckled. "I've been working here for a couple months."
"Oh…I guess I must have forgotten your face." Cole shook his head, looking rattled.
"What's the matter with you, man?" James inquired. "That's Sabrina, remember?"
"Oh…oh yeah. I guess I forgot." Cole looked utterly confused. Sabrina was, too, for a moment, but within a short period of time, it hit her: the memory spell.
"Oh no." Sabrina's face became gaunt. Salem was right. Even worse, she'd cast that same spell on Roxie and Morgan. She had to get home immediately…if they hadn't already forgotten her.
Sabrina began to panic. Cole wasn't just acting like he'd forgotten what happened yesterday; he was behaving as if he had never seen Sabrina before in his life. What if she had royally screwed up so badly that Roxie and Morgan completely forgot who she was too?
She craved some sort of quick fix and/or comfort for her problem, preferably both. She hoped to get advice from Salem on the matter. He wasn't always the best listener, but now that the aunts were gone, he was the closest tie Sabrina had with somebody else in the magical community.
"Well, I told you so!"
Those were the words Sabrina knew she was going to hear from Salem, even though she really didn't want to. However, she knew deserved to hear them.
"I know…I'm sorry." Sabrina began getting emotional. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"Well, you'll need to reverse the spell, of course." Salem replied, a 'better-than-thou' type superior tone present in his voice.
"I know that!" Sabrina snapped, before she realized her anger had gotten the best of her. "What am I supposed to do, though? How do I reverse it without screwing up their memories more?"
The blonde witch found herself getting increasingly worried by the second, as she had no idea if Roxie and Morgan's memories were okay. They had talked about going out shopping, according to Salem, so she would presumably know the state of their memories soon.
"I think the first step is admitting responsibility." Salem suggested.
"Responsibility? What has that jerk ever done for me?" Sabrina tried to be her normal upbeat, playful self, although it was difficult. "I guess you're right. I was really selfish and messed with others' minds - literally - in order to protect myself. None of this would have happened if I would have just taken responsibility. Annie assigned me to cover that witch article and that's what I should have done. Instead, I used my magic to switch articles with Cole and that only led to trouble."
"That's the spirit!" Salem said. "Now, how exactly did you cast the spell?"
"I said something like 'There's an unfortunate dilemma with someone Cole met, reverse the knowledge and make him forget'." Sabrina recounted.
"A-ha. When you said 'someone Cole met,' you forgot to word it to have the spell focus the specific memory. Instead, you've erased all his memories of you! I may be just a cat, but I've memorized these types of spells inside and out, for….reasons." Salem's eyes became shifty.
"Um…hello…anybody home?" Morgan's voice called.
The blonde witch immediately panicked and began to wonder if Morgan was saying that because she actually remembered Sabrina, or if she was saying it thinking some burglar or miscreant had broken into the house. She debated whether to speak up, but she supposed the best she could do was try.
"Umm…yes." the witch said, with a long pause in between. "It's Sabrina!"
Sabrina's heart nearly stopped when there was a few second pause before anybody said anything else.
"Oh, good. Can you help us put some of these groceries away?" Roxie replied.
Sabrina's heart burst with happiness and relief as she ran out to greet her roommates. She had never been so happy to see them in her life. The blonde was so grateful she had only messed up Cole's spell, and that there hadn't been any adverse effects from the spell she'd cast on them.
Sabrina's heart became even more filled with warmth when she made it out to the kitchen.
"We bought you a little surprise!" Morgan revealed.
"We know you love Halloween, so we bought some pumpkins." Roxie explained. "I was thinking we could all carve them together tonight."
"Aww, that would be amazing! I love you guys." Sabrina smiled, as she embraced Roxie in a hug. She did the same for Morgan next.
"We love you too." Roxie said, seeming a bit confused by the sudden extreme concentration of appreciation.
"Did you get a raise at work or something? You seem in a really good mood." Morgan observed.
"No…" Sabrina pondered her next thought before articulating it, as not to come across as an overly-affectionate weirdo. "I've just been thinking about how we haven't been doing much together lately…Roxie's always doing yoga and Morgan's usually watching TV. I really love living with you guys and there's no one I'd rather live with. You both are awesome."
"Thanks! You're not too bad yourself." Roxie teased.
"I've just got to get changed into some clothes I don't mind ruining, and then we can carve the pumpkins." Morgan said.
"Yeah, I should change too." Sabrina said. She did need to change out of her work clothes, though her motivation was more to talk to Salem about how to remedy the Cole situation than anything.
"Maybe we can even put on a scary movie tonight!" Roxie suggested.
"Eww, no! Scary movies are just so….scary." Morgan dissented.
"That's kind of the point." Roxie chuckled.
"I'll settle for It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Sabrina shrugged.
"Great! That's more on my level of scariness." Morgan admitted.
"Oh, fine." Roxie harrumphed, pouting she wasn't able to get her scary movie fix.
"We should really start doing more together." Sabrina suggested, as she headed to her bedroom. I've been really meaning to get into National Superstar. Everybody's talking about it, so maybe I'll watch it with you some night and see what the fuss is about."
"That would be amazing!" Morgan said. "It'd be so cool to get you guys into my favorite show."
"Don't count on me getting into it." Roxie playfully teased.
Sabrina quickly went off to her room, so she could remedy the Cole situation and get it off her mind before settling into a fun time with Roxie and Morgan.
"Salem, quick, what do I do about Cole?" Sabrina asked.
"Well, I've been looking it up in this spell book…I found a spell that can replace one memory with another! I was thinking we could trade the memory of him finding out you're a witch with one about me becoming the world's supreme ruler. The Salem Revolution can all start with one follower!" the black cat maniacally exclaimed.
"Salem…" Sabrina crossed her arms in a disapproving way.
"Ah, you're no fun." Salem sighed. "Now, cast a spell to bring Cole here, and repeat after me."
"In my bedroom?" Sabrina exclaimed in shock.
"He'll only be here for a second, and he won't remember it." Salem defended his plan.
"Well…if you say so." Sabrina shrugged, conjuring Cole into her room.
"What? Huh? What am I doing here?" Cole panicked. "Wait a minute…you're that new girl! Why am I in this bedroom? Somebody tell me what's going on!"
"Don't worry, Cole. We'll have you all fixed up in a minute." Sabrina promised.
"Repeat after me: Ahem." Salem began.
"Ahem." Sabrina teased.
"Not that!" Salem sneered. "Now repeat after me: I've made a mistake so forgive my haste, bring back Cole's memories without a moment to waste."
"Alright, here goes." Sabrina deeply inhaled. "I've made a mistake so forgive my haste, bring back Cole's memories without a moment to waste."
"Huh…what's going on?" Cole looked incredibly disoriented again. "Sabrina, what's up? Why am I here?"
"Don't you remember? We were walking and you looked a little lightheaded, so I just brought you to my house to lay down." Sabrina realized this was a very thin excuse, but she hoped he would be discombobulated enough to believe it.
"Oh…no, I don't remember that at all." Cole shook his head in confusion.
"That's not good. Sounds like you're still feeling really disoriented. Maybe you should lay down again." Sabrina urged.
"Yeah, maybe I should. You don't mind, do you?" Cole said, still seeming super confused.
"No, not at all." Sabrina replied. It was actually her preference, so she could zap him back to wherever he was without him knowing, or possibly even remembering this interaction had happened.
"Okay. I'll just lay down for a moment and maybe I'll feel better." Cole said. "Thanks for looking after me."
"No problem." Sabrina smiled. She waited for Cole to fully close his eyes. As soon as he did, she zapped him back almost in an instant.
"So, what have we learned?" Salem asked in a judgmental voice.
"Well, Mr. High and Mighty, I've learned quite a bit actually." Sabrina defended herself. "I thought I was knowledgeable enough about my powers that something like this wouldn't happen, but I guess that I need to be more careful in the future. I really shouldn't have used my powers in a way that benefitted me while hurting others, either. Thanks for always being there for me, Salem."
"Hey, if a cat can't be here for his favorite girl, then who can be?" Salem joked.
"Did you hear what I was saying about Roxie and Morgan, and not appreciating their company enough?" Sabrina asked.
"Yes, what about it?" Salem urged for the blonde witch to continue.
"That goes for you too. I'm really thankful I have you in my life, Salem. Honestly, if I've learned anything, it's that I need to be more appreciative of those in my life." Sabrina realized. "I could have wiped out the memories of two of the people I care about most."
"You ain't so bad yourself." Salem coyly replied.
"Come on with us to carve pumpkins! I know you can't carve with us, but you could watch!" Sabrina invited.
"If there's one Halloween tradition I miss the most, it's carving pumpkins. If only I had opposable thumbs!" Salem lamented, quickly followed by a chuckle from Sabrina.
With this, Sabrina went back into the kitchen with her roommates to carve pumpkins. She'd been through a lot today, but she was thankful for Salem's help, and more than anything, she was thankful she had a job she loved, and two amazing roommates that she loved more than anything.
Author's note:
I really hope you enjoyed this fanfic! As you may have noticed, several references to the 1996 Sabrina the Teenage Witch series were included throughout, particularly from season 7. Cole's mention of Sabrina knowing pop star Ashanti is something that occurred in the episode "Call Me Crazy." Leonard's screensaver being Shaggy and Scooby-Doo is from the episode "Sabrina Unplugged." Moreover, the TV show National Superstar from "Ping Pong a Song" is mentioned, even though the events of this episode have not happened during the period this fanfic takes place. This fanfic serves as an implicatory backstory that Morgan, Roxie and Sabrina got into watching National Superstar after this incident.
The brief mention of Sabrina turning her school into a soap opera and changing the time-space continuum refer to the events of the season 1 episodes "When Westbridge Turns" and "Sabrina Through the Looking Glass," respectively.
One reference not relating to Sabrina the Teenage Witch was included. Madame Esmeralda was named after the witch in the Rankin-Bass special Peter Cottontail, which was released in 1971.
Thank you for reading this story! If you enjoyed this story or have any feedback you'd like to provide, reviews and likes/follows are always appreciated.