Neutral Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own the Worst Witch or Weirdsister College series or any characters associated with them. No money is being made from this story.

Chapter 5: Old Friends

Mildred stood motionless in a dingy alley in East London, staring at the plaque on a wooden door.

Cassandra Crowfeather

Cosmic Consultations and
Occult Healings.
Curses and other malign influences
treated discretely.

Consultations by appointment only

Mildred smiled wryly. Due to the secrecy the magical community needed to maintain she supposed it must be difficult for non-magical people to tell the difference between a genuine witch and a complete fraud out to fleece them. Of course she knew Cas Crowfeather was no fraud, but that did not mean she didn't hate her.

Mildred had never thought she would see her former friend again, but then she had also never imagined the two of them could become so estranged. For nearly three years Cas had been her best friend and Mildred doubted she would have got through college so successfully without her. Then only a day before her graduation from Weirdsister everything had been torn apart when Cas had betrayed her in one of the worst ways imaginable.

Reaching out, Mildred grasped the door handle and when it didn't open pulled back. As well as being physically locked she sensed the presence of multiple locking spells and other enchantments. She smiled mockingly; the magical barriers might have been enough to stop most witches or wizards but they presented no problems for her.

Mildred casually waved her hand and after being illuminated with a brief flash of green light the door clicked open. Her lips curling into a contemptuous sneer at the inadequacy of her erstwhile friend's security, Mildred pushed the door open further and stepped inside.

She found herself in a neat, rather nondescript office with white walls and light brown furnishings. There was desk with a chair behind it and two in front, a full bookcase and to the side an open door showed a workroom filled with potion making equipment. Mildred noticed that there was a feathered headdress resting on the desk and a tomahawk and other Native American artefacts were hanging from the walls. She suspected though that all this was just Cas exploiting her ancestry to impress her clients and that most of the magic she used was conventional European witchcraft.

A sudden noise from the side room made her turn round and Mildred found herself facing her old dorm mate and former friend for the first time in five years.

Cas Crowfeather had changed a great deal since Mildred had last seen her. She was wearing a very stylish light grey women's business suit with matching heels. Her light brown hair was twisted into an elegant chignon and her face impeccably made up. The Canadian girl looked very sophisticated and professional, in marked contrast to the more casual style she had favoured at college.

"Hello Millie." Cas's voice held a slight quiver of nervousness, although her face remained composed.

"Cas!" Mildred's tone was icy. "You don't seem that surprised to see me."

Cas shrugged. "Not really. I sort of suspected Miss Hardbroom would go to you. You're an old pupil of hers and a leading authority on negative magic so it seemed logical. I hoped after all this time things might be different."

"Different?" Mildred retorted venomously. "You really think a few years can make any difference after what you did?"

The Canadian girl grimaced. "Millie, I never wanted to hurt you!"

"Not hurt me?" Mildred repeated in disbelief. "I walked into my dorm room a day before graduation and found you shagging my fiancée in my own bed and you expected me not to be hurt?"

"You weren't supposed to see that," Cas muttered uncomfortably, not meeting Mildred's eyes.

"You could have fooled me!" Mildred snarled. "If you wanted Nick Hobbes that desperately why not take him to your own room instead of mine? It's as if you deliberately wanted me to catch the pair of you!"

Her erstwhile friend did not reply and a sudden realisation struck Mildred like a thunderbolt.

"You wanted me to catch you with him!" Mildred whispered incredulously. "Hobbes didn't seduce you, you seduced him! You deliberately set out to break us up, didn't you?"

Cas looked up at Mildred, her eyes suddenly blazing with fury.

"Well someone had to do something, you were so besotted with him you refused to listen to reason! It was bad enough when you were just sleeping with the creep, but getting engaged to him was madness. If you'd married Hobbes he'd have ruined your life, Millie!"

"Just who the hell gave you the right to decide how I should live my life?" Mildred demanded angrily. "And you're in no position to carp about me sleeping with him. You didn't seem to find it that unpleasant!"

The Canadian witch just shrugged.

"Hobbes might have been a creep but he was still pretty handy in the bedroom. But then he had plenty of practice. You may not realise it Millie, but he started cheating on you almost from the moment you got together."

Mildred sighed and turned away, no longer angry but suddenly just very tired.

"I did know!"

"You knew?" Cas gasped. "And you still agreed to marry him?"

"I actually caught him with a couple of other girls, but like a fool I forgave him." Mildred admitted. "It was pretty obvious those weren't' the only ones, or it would have been if I'd let myself see it. But I was afraid to."

Cas looked at her old friend pityingly.

"You mean you were afraid you might lose him the way you lost Ben?"

Mildred did not reply but she swallowed painfully as she recalled the events of her last two years at college. A few months into her second year at Weirdsister it had been the anniversary of her first date with Ben Stemson. Mildred wasn't sure if Ben even remembered the occasion, but she had and had made plans to celebrate it. Ben after all was her first serious boyfriend, or at least the first long term one. Later that night she had magically transported herself to Ben's room, wearing a very revealing negligee and intending to give her boyfriend a sexy surprise for their anniversary. Unfortunately Mildred had been the one who was surprised when she found Ben in bed with his college classmate Jeannie Stevens. Even more unfortunate was that the girl had seen her materialise and had screamed the house down, bringing Ben's mother Elaine.

The resulting row had been far from pleasant, although Mildred was relieved that Elaine did not blame her but reserved all the criticism for her son. Ben had repeatedly apologised but Mildred had refused to forgive him, and after removing the girl's memory of seeing her materialise had returned to college. After thinking about it all night Mildred decided she should give Ben another chance, but when she returned to the café the next day he had gone. Elaine told her he had decided to stay with a friend and was planning to transfer his university course to a college in London. Luckily Ben's mother still held no ill will towards Mildred over her son's departure; in fact she was furious with him, both for cheating on his girlfriend and for the cowardly way he had run off. Although Mildred was pleased things were still all right between her and Elaine, as she certainly couldn't afford to lose her job at the café, she began to feel increasingly guilty about what had happened, wondering if she ought to have forgiven Ben more readily.

That lingering sense of guilt had been disastrous later in the year when she got involved in a relationship with Nick Hobbes. Although it soon became clear he had no desire to even try to be faithful Mildred had tried to ignore the obvious facts, terrified she would be left alone again. She had even accepted his proposal of marriage, despite her nagging doubts. But catching her fiancée cheating on her with her best friend had just been too much to stomach and she had ended the engagement. It was then that Mildred swore she would never trust any man again.

"Well you got your wish and I broke it off with Hobbes," Mildred said at last. "I hope you're happy with the way things turned out."

"I wasn't happy about losing your friendship," Cas admitted. "But it was worth it to stop Hobbes ruining your life."

"Ruining my life?" Mildred laughed harshly as she turned to glare at the other girl. "You really think marrying Hobbes would have ruined my life?"

The Canadian witch nodded.

"Yes Millie, it would. You would never have achieved what you have tied to Hobbes. He would never have tolerated a wife who was more successful than him. Probably he'd have tried to tie you down with a couple of kids before you had a chance to accomplish anything."

Mildred knew Cas was right but didn't want to actually admit it.

"I suppose we'll never know for sure now," Mildred replied with a shrug. "Anyway I didn't actually come here to talk about that but about Miss Hardbroom. What can you tell me about this curse?"

"Not a lot," Cas admitted. "All I know is that it involves negative magic and is draining her life energy somehow. The tincture was the only effective treatment I could find but it's slowly losing its power and I don't know how much longer it will keep working."

"That's all you know?"

"That's all I know for sure," Cas replied. "But I think there's something she's not telling me."

"Yes, I felt the same," Mildred said thoughtfully. "I'm sure there's something she's hiding. But I have no idea what or how to get her to reveal it. If Constance Hardbroom is determined not to tell you something, it's very hard to change her mind."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I've taken a recording of the curse's magical characteristics," Mildred explained. "I should be able to get a complete analysis in a few days."

"And find a counter spell?" Cas asked hopefully.

"Well let's hope so," Mildred replied. "I should be finished by Thursday, so if you come to Weirdsister then we can discuss how to proceed."

The Canadian witch looked very surprised.

"You want me to work with you?"

"Well you are her healer so it's only right you should be involved." Mildred gave her former friend a stern glare. "But don't imagine this means our friendship will be revived because I find it hard to see that ever happening. We'll just be working together, that's all."

Cas looked disappointed. "I can remember when you always gave people second chances."

"Yeah, and look where that got me," Mildred said bitterly. "Nowadays you only get one chance with me and if you blow it that's it!"

Cas sighed but nodded in acceptance. "I understand."

"I'm giving a lecture on advanced magical theory to the third year students first thing Thursday morning," Mildred explained. "But I'll be free all day after that so I'll see you then."

Without any further formalities Mildred folded her arms and vanished in a flash of light.

She materialised in her laboratory, and after turning on the lights with a snap of her fingers rematerialised her bag. Mildred took out the magical recording crystal and placed it on the bench. After staring at it for nearly a minute she sighed. It seemed she had a lot of work to do over the next few days.

A/N I'm really sorry this has taken so long. I was rather ill for a few weeks and just didn't have the energy to write.