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 10: Two Conversations

Mildred forced herself to breathe slowly, trying to keep calm and focus on the task ahead of her. She was sitting on a wooden bench just outside the walls of Cackle's Academy, right next to Walkers Gate. She had often sat here during her schooldays, especially when things had been difficult and she needed time to herself. Mildred especially recalled one incident, right at the start of her Third Year at Cackle's following her ill-fated attempt to join the Cauldron Club. Although all her friends had managed to pass the initiation test Mildred herself had failed, due to the interference of Ethel Hallow. Feeling humiliated, and worried that her friends might now abandon her to hang out with Ethel and Drusilla, she had rushed out here only to find herself involved in a conversation with Miss Drill. That had been something of a turning point in her relationship with the PE teacher, who until then had seemed rather impatient with Mildred's clumsiness and lack of athletic ability. In retrospect Mildred realised it was in large part due to Miss Drill's support she had survived her Third Year at the Academy and eventually become Head Girl; certainly without the PE teacher's support she would never have coped so well with the hostility of Ethel and the disapproval of Miss Hardbroom.

Mildred sighed and shook her head slightly. There was no use dwelling on the past like this. Any issues she might have had with Ethel Hallow were long gone; in fact during their three years as students at Weirdsister they had become quite good friends and they still met up occasionally and exchanged Christmas and birthday cards. Of course Miss Hardbroom was another matter and Mildred acknowledged that even now she was still rather intimidated by the stern Potions teacher.

The sound of the gate being opened made Mildred look up and she saw Miss Hardbroom standing in the open gateway and staring at her with apparent impassivity. She couldn't restrain a tiny gasp at the older woman's appearance. Although she had seen her only a fortnight ago her condition had obviously deteriorated even in that brief time. She was noticeably thinner and there were dark shadows under her eyes and faint lines of stress etched on her forehead and around her mouth. As she stepped forward Mildred noticed the stiffness and hesitancy of the Potion teacher's movements. The woman was clearly in considerable pain but trying her best to conceal it. Without speaking, she sat down on the bench beside her.

"I received your message, Mildred." The older woman began, after a moment's awkward silence. "Although I was a little surprised you asked one of the girls to find me, instead of going to Miss Cackle."

"I thought seeing Miss Cackle again so soon might raise some awkward questions," Mildred explained. "I know you want to keep this private."

The Potions teacher nodded. "I appreciate that Mildred. Well, I assume you have news for me?"

I do," Mildred replied

After a brief pause to compose her thoughts, Mildred explained what she had discovered about the curse and her plan to break it. She had too much respect for her old form tutor to attempt to sugar coat anything, so she spared no details of the risks involved, including the possibility that even if they were successful the older witch might lose her magic.

There was a prolonged pause before the Potions teacher spoke.

"This is not an easy decision, Mildred," she said at last. "On the one hand, if something goes wrong, it could mean doomsday. Have I the right to risk that even if my life is at stake? And even if you are successful I might lose my ability to do magic."

"Isn't that better than dying?" Mildred asked quietly.

"Is it? Perhaps at your age it might seem that way, Mildred. But I have been practicing magic nearly twice as long as you have been alive. Magic is so much a part of who I am it is almost impossible to imagine being without it." She sighed heavily. "What would you advise me to do?"

"You're asking for my advice?" Mildred asked in bewilderment.

"Why should that surprise you? It was you I appealed to for help after all."

"Yes but that was just technical help in my specialist field," Mildred replied. "I didn't think you'd want my advice on any decisions."

Constance Hardbroom looked rather disapprovingly at her former pupil, shaking her head in disappointment.

"You still lack confidence in yourself Mildred, even after all this time. You are no longer that frightened little girl who couldn't fly a straight line on her broomstick, or cast spells or brew potions without causing calamity. You are now one of the most celebrated witches in the world, certainly one whose knowledge and abilities surpass my own."

Mildred blinked in surprise. Despite everything she had accomplished since leaving Cackles she still felt somewhat intimidated by her old form tutor. So it bewildering that the older witch now regarded her as an equal, and even in some respects as a superior.

"Well Mildred?" Miss Hardbroom asked softly. "What do you think I should do?"

Mildred took a deep breath. "I think you should go ahead. There are risks, but I believe they are quite small ones"

"Very well then. When do you plan to proceed?"

"How about Thursday?" Mildred suggested. "That will give me time to get everything set up. Come to Weirdsister on Thursday evening about nine, after lights out here at the school."

Miss Hardbroom sighed. "I'm afraid I lack the strength now to transport myself over such a distance."

Mildred couldn't help but be shocked by this. It meant that the older witch was weakening even faster than she had expected.

After a moment she rallied herself. "All right then, I'll come here on Thursday and take you to the others at Weirdsister."

Others?" Miss Hardbroom queried.

"I explained earlier," Mildred replied. "This spell will need four people, so I'll have three assistants to help me."

"And who are they?"

"Well your healer Cass Crowfeather is one," Mildred told her. "Another is Enid Nightshade."

"Enid!" The Potions teacher snorted. "I never imagined I would have to trust my life to Enid Nightshade, of all people!"

Mildred couldn't help the small chuckle that escaped her lips. "Well Enid is my flatmate so it's pretty hard to keep her out of things. I know she sometimes gets carried away and acts without thinking, but her heart's in the right place."

Miss Hardbroom gave her a rather sceptical look, but did not argue. "And who is the fourth?"

"Charlie Blossom."

"Charlie?" Now the older witch was looking really surprised. "So you and Charlie are together again?"

"Well no, we met up again recently but we're not actually together." Mildred explained, then gasped when she realised the significance of her old form tutor's words. "Hold on, do you mean you actually knew about us?"

"As I told you once before Mildred. I am the Deputy Headmistress of Cackle's Academy, and no secrets remain hidden from me."

Mildred just stared open mouthed at her old form tutor, at a complete loss for words at this astonishing revelation.

"Oh for heaven's sake, close your mouth Mildred. You look like a demented goldfish when you gape at me like that!"

Mildred shut her mouth with an audible snap, feeling suddenly like a schoolgirl again. The rebuke had brought back all the times the Potions teacher had told her off at Cackles. The feeling was almost immediately followed a surge of anger, not so much at Miss Hardbroom as at herself. She was not a schoolgirl any longer and would not allow Constance Hardbroom to treat her like one.

"If you knew about us, why didn't you do anything to stop it?" Mildred demanded.

"Do what precisely?" The older witch replied. "Have you expelled? It would hardly benefit the reputation of the school to have the Head Girl expelled for such a reason."

"So you ignored what was going on for the sake of the school's reputation?" Mildred asked sceptically.

"Not entirely. I was also reluctant to ruin the record of the best Head Girl Cackle's had ever had."

Mildred felt rather embarrassed by such praise. "I'm sure I wasn't the best the school's ever had."

"You were," the Potions teacher told her, with a quiet assurance that made it impossible for Mildred to doubt her sincerity. "And I had no wish for that to be ruined as the result of an adolescent indiscretion. I trusted that you would be both discreet enough to avoid discovery by anyone else and sensible enough to take precautions against any unfortunate consequences. In any case I felt it would be hypocritical to intervene as I did essentially the same when I was at school."

"What?" Mildred exclaimed in amazement.

"A young wizard I was involved with in my final year at witch academy. I can't really claim it was any sort of earth shaking romance, just teenage experimentation." Constance Hardbroom actually seemed rather smug she had managed to shock her former pupil. "Oh there's no need to look so surprised, Mildred. I was young once too!"

"Well you're not exactly old now," Mildred assured her. "It's just I always thought you hated men."

Now it was the older woman's turn to look bewildered. "Why on earth would you think that?"

Mildred shrugged. "You were always so disapproving whenever there were any boys at Cackles."

"Boys are not men, Mildred." The Potions teacher replied with a hint of impatience. "I objected to their presence at the school because of the disruption it always caused. It's hard enough to keep teenage girls focused on their studies at the best of times without such distractions."

"I guess that makes sense," Mildred admitted. "But I always suspected that you and Miss Drill…"

Her voice trailed off as she noticed the older witch staring at her with mild horror.

"Well really!" Miss Hardbroom spluttered. "I simply can't imagine how you came up with such an absurd notion!"

Mildred felt rather abashed. "The two of you argued so much, I couldn't help wondering if there was something behind it."

"There was!" Constance Hardbroom replied, her tone dripping sarcasm. "We have radically different personalities and outlooks and disagree on most issues." She sighed. "I do admire Imogen Drill in many ways, not least for her self confidence in standing up to me, something few have the temerity to do. But there has never been the slightest romantic attraction between us. When it comes to my private life I am, I must confess, excessively fond of men. Something I suspect is true of you also, Mildred!"

Mildred could feel herself blushing. She did not reply and made no attempt to deny the assertion, even to herself. She silently acknowledged that she did have a very strong libido and it was one focused exclusively on the male sex, without even a hint of any attraction to her own.

"Well I should be getting back to the castle." Miss Hardbroom got to her feet rather stiffly. "I will see you on Thursday, Mildred."

Mildred winced slightly as she also stood up, feeling sure she had offended the older woman.

"I'm sorry!"

"It's all right Mildred." Reaching out Miss Hardbroom gave her former pupil's shoulder a brief squeeze. "I'm accustomed to people having misconceptions about me."

As the older woman turned towards Walkers Gate, Mildred on sudden impulse called out to her.

"Just a moment Miss Hardbroom."

The Potions teacher halter and looked back at the younger witch curiously.

"What is it, Mildred?"

Mildred took a deep breath. "Don't you think you should tell me everything?"

"Everything?" Constance Hardbroom looked puzzled. "Whatever to you mean, Mildred?"

"There's something you haven't told me," Mildred replied hesitantly. "Something important."

The Potions teacher stared at her former pupil in silence for nearly half a minute before she finally spoke.

"Mildred, I really don't know where you have got such an extraordinary idea from, but I assure you I have not kept any information back. I have told you everything that might possibly be relevant."

The older woman's sincerity was obvious and Mildred didn't really know what to make of it.

"I guess I must have been mistaken then." There really wasn't anything else she could say.

"Indeed!" Miss Hardbroom nodded. "Well, I will see you on Thursday, Mildred."

She quickly turned away and disappeared through Walkers Gate. Mildred stood motionless feeling very confused. Her old form tutor's denial had seemed completely genuine. She wondered if she might have been mistaken before, yet Cas Crowfeather had also felt Miss Hardbroom was concealing something.

Baffled and rather uneasy, Mildred folded her arms and vanished in a flicker of light. She reappeared in her laboratory at Weirdsister College and sat down at her computer terminal.

For the next hour or so Mildred reran all her calculations, adding several refinements to the computations. The more detailed she made the analysis, the more optimistic she became that whey would succeed in treating Miss Hardbroom without any catastrophic consequences. Even the possibility the Potions teacher might lose her magic was looking increasingly unlikely. Yet despite this positive assessment, Mildred felt haunted by a sense of foreboding, a feeling of impending disaster.

With a sigh she glanced at her watch. It was barely four and there were still hours to go before she needed to start getting ready for her dinner date with Charlie. Feeling too unsettled to attempt any more work that afternoon, Mildred decided to go for a walk to try and clear her thoughts.

She left Weirdsister by the main gates. Despite knowing the perception spells placed on the gate should prevent anyone noticing, she couldn't help glancing around to check no one had spotted her walking through solid wood.

Mildred started walking slowly, enjoying the fresh air and late afternoon sunshine. Although she had no clear destination in mind she soon found herself strolling along King's Parade and stopping outside Trinity Court and the King's chapel.

The chapel's main doors were open and Mildred saw a group of young boys leave the building, led by a rather portly elderly gentleman. All the boys were rather incongruously dressed in top hats and Victorian looking suits, and after a moments thought Mildred realised this must be the famous 'crocodile' of the chapel's boy choristers, returning to school after singing in one of the Sunday services.

Not really sure why, Mildred walked across the grass and up to the chapel doors and slipped inside. She had been in this building a few times before; when she was still dating Ben Stemson he had sometimes taken her to concerts here. Then of course it had been packed with people, but although there was no audience or congregation now it somehow felt very far from empty.

Almost as if her feet were being guided by some unseen force, Mildred found herself walking through the wooden choir screen and into the main body of the chapel. There were a few people here, moving in the choir stalls and extinguishing candles but none of them paid any attention to her as she slowly made her way up to the high altar.

Looking up, Mildred's gaze focused on the building's great East Window. The stained glass images were dominated by a depiction of Christ hanging dead on the Cross, surrounded by other scenes from the Passion. After a moment she found that her attention was held by one in particular.

It was obviously meant to be the trial of Christ before Pilate. The medieval artist had depicted Jesus as a big man with large hands held bound before him and broad peasant shoulders. The figure was too distant for the face to be clearly distinguished; if such details as eyes had been etched onto the glass they were not visible from so far away. And yet Mildred was suddenly gripped by an irresistible conviction that distant figure was watching her. Before her mind could even process what she was doing, Mildred found herself speaking.

"Look, I know you probably hate me because I'm a witch," she whispered. "And I expect there's a lot of other things about my life you don't approve of either, but please…"

Mildred's voice trailed off as her rational mind suddenly rebelled at the absurdity of her actions. She was talking to a piece of painted glass! But some impulse deeper and more powerful than reason forced her to go on.

"Please!" Mildred continued. "I know I don't really have any right to ask, but if you can then please help us!"

Turning abruptly Mildred walked away, the click of her high heels on the stone floor resonating eerily in the high vaulted building. Even as she walked through the choir screen and made her way out of the chapel, Mildred couldn't help feeling that distant figure was still watching her.

A/N I'm sorry, I know it's been ages since I last updated. There really is no excuse I can make. But if anyone's still reading I'd be interested to know what you think