"He said nothing about the nature of the project," Dolly related to Alan and Prunella, who were gathered with her in the Prufrock living room late that afternoon. "I know not why he should need my help."

"Sounds suspicious to me," said Alan, folding his arms. "Maybe he wants to take advantage of your ability to sense gold."

"I'll bet he wants to put you in his museum," Prunella suggested. "People would come from all over the world to see a real live witch."

As they discussed Winslow's request for Dolly's assistance, the front door flew open and Francine rushed in, terrified and panting. "Dolly, hide!" she exclaimed anxiously. "They're coming for you!"

"Who is?" asked Dolly.

"An angry mob!" replied Francine, grabbing Dolly by the arm and trying to lift the girl from her chair.

"Oh, heavens," grumbled Dolly. "It's starting all over again." As Francine coaxed her up the stairway, Alan and Prunella rose to their feet with expressions of concern.

"If this is an early April Fool's joke," Alan remarked, "it's getting out of hand."

"This is all my fault," Prunella lamented. "I shouldn't have dipped into Dolly's love potion."

"No, it's my fault," Francine insisted as she watched Dolly disappear into the attic. "I shouldn't have asked for the potion in the first place."

"Stop blaming yourselves," Alan chided them. "There's a scientific explanation for what happened, and it has nothing to do with magic and love potions."

The front door was still hanging open, and six angry children suddenly burst through--Beat in the lead, with Arthur, Fern, Binky, Muffy, and George following. As they began to search the living room, opening drawers and looking under furniture, Beat stepped up to Prunella and glowered at her. "Where's Dolly?" she demanded.

"Uh, she's not here," Prunella answered evasively. "She just stepped out for, uh, for the rest of her life."

"She's at my place," Alan lied.

"We just came from your place!" retorted Fern, who was checking behind the shower curtain for hidden witch girls.

"What are you gonna do to her?" Prunella asked Beat.

"We have a message to deliver," Beat replied firmly.

"What message?"

Beat raised a fist in the air and shouted, "Dolly must go!" Her five companions followed suit, pumping their fists and chanting, "Dolly must go! Dolly must go!"

"Hey, hold it, Beat," said Francine, confronting her British friend. "What did Dolly ever do to you?"

"She cast a love spell on us!" Beat growled.

"Yeah, well, she cast one on me, too," Francine responded, "but you don't see me trying to run her out of town."

Alan gave Beat a condescending look. "Now just a minute. Both you and I know there's no such thing as witches and magic spells."

"That's easy for you to say," was Beat's reply. "You didn't get the love potion."

"Hey, I found her!" came George's voice from an upper floor. "She's in the attic!"

Without another word, Beat, Arthur, Muffy, Fern, and Binky clambered up the stairway. Alan, Prunella, and Francine followed closely behind, fearing that the worst might happen.

When they reached the attic they saw Dolly cowering behind one of Mrs. Prufrock's old trunks, with George pointing accusingly at her. The six members of the anti-Dolly mob formed a half-circle around her and began to chant once again, "Dolly must go! Dolly must go!"

"Leave her alone!" ordered Prunella, but her voice was not heard.

Certain that death was near, Dolly quivered with fright. Her only hope of escape was a well-aimed bluff. Gathering courage and rising boldly to her feet, she yelled, "Come any closer and I'll turn you all into newts! And you won't get better!"

At first her threat struck fear into the hearts of the mob, but Beat quickly became incredulous. "Don't be absurd," she said, motioning for her friends to stand their ground. "If you turned me into a newt, where would the other eighty pounds of body mass go?"

"What's a newt?" Binky wondered.

"I'm warning you!" Dolly raised her arms menacingly.

"Go ahead," said Beat petulantly. "Turn me into a newt."

The confidence in Dolly's expression faded, and she put her arms down. "I can't," she admitted. "I'm not that powerful."

Beat cleared her throat, and her tone became formal. "Very well, then. The trial of Dolores Maria Proctor on charges of witchcraft will now commence." Dolly, still standing behind the old trunk, began to shake with terror as if she had heard these fateful words before.

"Trial?" exclaimed Alan unbelievingly. "You have no right to put Dolly on trial!"

"Objection overruled," Beat declared. "As my first witness, I call Prunella Prufrock to the stand."

"Who, me?" was Prunella's surprised response. "Don't ask me to witness against Dolly. She made the love potion, but I'm the one who..."

"Thank you, Miss Prufrock," Beat interrupted her. "As my second witness, I call Francine Frensky."

"Leave Dolly alone," urged Francine. "The love potion was my idea. I'm the one who should be on trial."

"Thank you very much, Miss Frensky," Beat intoned pompously. "We now have the testimony of two independent witnesses that Dolly Proctor did indeed prepare a love potion."

"Your Honor, I object," said Alan, raising a hand.

"On what grounds?" Beat wanted to know.

"On the grounds that, uh, nobody was really hurt."

Alan's objection was met with impassioned protests from the other kids.

"My mom grounded me because I couldn't keep my hands off Muffy!" complained Binky.

"I rode all the way to Van's house in his lap!" Fern recounted. "I couldn't stop myself from kissing him!"

"I was so in love with Muffy, I almost killed Binky!" related George.

"I had to stand there while two girls kissed me," Arthur groused. "It was so gross. Then they started fighting."

"I couldn't control myself," Beat told the others. "I could have hurt Prunella very badly."

"What do you mean, you could have hurt Prunella?" Francine asked her.

"She used some kind of martial arts on me," Prunella explained. "She blocked my punches, and then she threw me."

Suddenly suspicious, Francine stepped around the crowd of kids and faced Beat directly. "Is that true?" she inquired, her eyes narrowed. "Did you use martial arts?"

Beat shrugged. "I'm not really sure. I just did what came naturally."

Francine pointed a finger at Beat's aardvark face. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

Confusion filled Beat's eyes. "I-I don't know what you mean," she answered nervously.

Without a word of explanation, Francine pulled back her fist, aimed it at Beat's nose, and let it fly. Reacting instinctively, Beat quickly raised her arm to knock it away from her face. The other kids watched in amazement.

"You told me yourself that you never studied martial arts," snarled Francine, throwing another punch that Beat blocked just as easily. "Yet you're doing fine against me, and I have all of Sue Ellen's skill." She launched a kick at Beat's stomach, but the girl deftly avoided it. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you have somebody else in your head, like I do."

"I assure you, I don't," said Beat as she dodged Francine's attacks.

Arthur bounded forward, hoping to break up the fight before someone was seriously injured. "This is getting violent," he observed, standing between the two girls. "We don't want anyone to get hurt."

"Arthur's right," said George. "Let's all go home and cool off."

"Fine with me," said Binky, who then turned to Dolly. "But you'd better not come to our school tomorrow, or someone's gonna get clobbered, and it's not gonna be me."

"We don't want to see you in our neighborhood anymore, either," Fern barked at Dolly.

"And I want my clothes back," Muffy added.

Arthur, Fern, Binky, Muffy, and George shuffled out of the attic, muttering quietly to each other. Beat remained behind and motioned to Francine, leading her to a corner of the attic where she hoped Alan, Prunella, and Dolly wouldn't hear them.

"Mr. Putnam was combat trained," she whispered to Francine. "It's possible some of his knowledge is still in my brain."

"It's possible all of his knowledge is still in your brain," Francine whispered back. "It's like Mavis said. When he gets in your head he can act just like a normal kid, and nobody knows he's there."

"He's no longer a part of me," Beat insisted, her voice taking on a wounded tone. "I swear it, Frankie."

Apparently not convinced, Francine took a step away from Beat. "I'm watching you," she said in a normal voice, then went to assist the emotionally shaken Dolly.

TBC