Magica DeSpell was cleaning her little hut on Mount Vesuvius; dusting, polishing and sweeping with a new vacuum sweeper Poe had gotten for her; which she was still trying to figure out. "Stupid powered broom… how do you even turn this thing on?" She muttered while searching for the 'on' button. "Why do I even need this? My dependable broom works just fine; so, what if I drop some dust bunnies when flying?... Oh, I'll just turn it on with magic!" Magica waved her hand and recited a few words and the vacuum sweeper sprang to life; loudly!
Scrooge knocked on Magica's door but there was no response. He knocked a couple more times and was about to just leave when he heard what sounded like a scuffle inside the hut. Scrooge burst through the door, not really sure why he felt the need to see what was happening, and saw something that almost made him keel over with laughter.
Magica was attempting to wrangle her vacuum sweeper as her spell had caused it to go bonkers! The vacuum sweeper acted as though it had a mind of it's own and began to suck up Magica's hair; she held it firmly by the handle and desperately searched for the off button, or a way to pull it off of her head at least, when suddenly there was a loud CRUNCH and it fell to the floor; leaving the broken off handle in her hands and her hair in a terrible state.
Magica looked over at her savior, Scrooge McDuck, who was quietly snickering, trying not to break in to full-blown laughter at her expense. She looked down at her vacuum sweeper and could plainly see what had happened; Scrooge had beaten it to death with his cane.
"I suppose I ought to thank you now?" She looked at him, the annoyance plain to see on her face as he continued to snigger. "Some gratitude would be appreciated considering I think I just saved you from being scalped by your own appliance." Scrooge said, still stifling some laughter. "Remind me to smack my brother for that later." Magica scoffed. "So, then Scroogie, what brings you here? Surely you didn't come here just to destroy that… atrocity."
Scrooge took a breath to calm the silent laughter and shook his head. "No, not really; I um, came here because I need… your help." He admitted reluctantly. She raised an eyebrow. "You need my help? With what?"
Magica honestly had no idea why Scrooge would come to her for any reason other than to accuse her of stealing his dime; normally she was the one who had to reluctantly ask for help when her schemes backfired; if Scrooge was asking for her help, did she even want to know what was happening?
Scrooge inwardly cringed as he watched Magica eye him skeptically while questioning his coming to ask for her help, something he usually never did. The last time they had worked together was the pretend engagement and Haguk incident almost five months ago; he had really wanted nothing more than to put all that behind him but now, having to seek help from Magica, he couldn't help but find his thoughts returning to those events and the feelings that had started to come to light as a result. Forcing his mind away from the unwanted line of thinking he took a deep breath and decided to just get it over with and explain the situation.
"Well I'm sure you heard about the ruins that were discovered last month," He started, seeing curiosity rising in her dark eyes and doing his best to ignore the thought of how beautiful those eyes were.
"Go on…" Magica encouraged, interest piqued at the mention of the ruins. The discovery had made news the world over as no one could identify the civilization that had built them; they were the only known remains of an unknown people who had been lost to time until now. The idea of it intrigued and excited her because of the prospect of learning ancient and forgotten magic that no one else had known for centuries.
"Well, I managed to retrieve a puzzle box from a central pedestal in the main treasure chamber but-" "You can't figure it out and you're so desperate to know what's in it that you've come to ask for my help to open it?" Magica interrupted him with an expression that was a cross between smugness and excitement.
Scrooge almost laughed at her kid-at-Christmas like enthusiasm, it was actually kind of adorable when one considered she was obviously adding the smugness in an attempt to cover up just how giddy the idea of solving an ancient puzzle box made by a long-lost people made her. However, he remained focused on the reason he was here, swallowing his pride and admitting to needing her help.
"I haven't actually had the chance to even try solving the puzzle box; one of my nephews took a ring from the ruins." He explained. Magica's expression became more serious, almost disappointed. "And that requires my help how?"
He sighed, shoulders slumping as the thoughts of Huey's predicament returned to his mind. "It's cursed; and it has attached itself to Huey and we can't get it off. We've even had your brother take a look and he couldn't remove it; but he seems to think you might be able to."
Magica's eyes widened in surprise; she hadn't expected something like that, normally Scrooge never has too much trouble with curses, this must be bad if he can't deal with it on his own. "What exactly is happening?" She asked, wanting to get as much information as possible before agreeing to anything.
"He has these… episodes where he can't control his actions; it started with just the hand the ring is on but has gotten worse, to the point where he's unable to control most of his body." Scrooge explained. "Is that all? What does he do during these episodes?" To his surprise Magica seemed to be taking this seriously and might actually be willing to help, with that hope he continued to explain Huey's dilemma.
"He's completely aware of what's happening but has no control or ability to stop himself beyond crying out for help. His episodes are violent; it started with just slapping anyone close by and escalated to throwing and smashing things and to outright attacking anyone unfortunate enough to be near him." Magica nodded thoughtfully. "And no indication that he's been possessed by some entity that may have been in the ring?" She asked. Scrooge shook his head. "Not that I can tell; he hasn't acted like there's any other personalities in there, He just can't control his body."
Magica was silent for a few minutes; thinking over everything she'd just been told. It sounded like a spell that her friend Hazel had once cast on Donald that caused his feet and legs to do whatever she said to, regardless of what Donald said or tried to do. She had just died laughing when Hazel told her about it, imagining the agitated look that must have been on Donald's face the whole time. She figured that it wouldn't take much to deal with this 'curse' since she had already figured out what kind of spell it was so, without another thought she agreed to help Scrooge.
Scrooge stood in stunned silence for a moment before asking, "You'll help?" to confirm that he'd heard right. "That's what I said isn't it?" She turned and started to go into her bedroom. "Wait here while I pack an overnight bag; this time I'm actually going to prepare for a stay in Duckburg." She said with a small chuckle. Scrooge just nodded and waited, trying to convince himself that he wasn't feeling the slightest bit happy that she was coming back with him.
'What in the world is wrong with me?' Magica thought as she threw together a few things in a bag. 'Why am I so eager to go back? Why do I even care if his nephew is cursed?'
She couldn't figure it out and then it occurred to her that she hadn't even considered trying use the situation to get the dime back; in fact, now that she thought about it, she didn't have any desire to obtain the dime anymore; something was definitely wrong with her! After having actually gotten to use the amulet she should have been even MORE determined to get the dime; but she'd given it back and no longer wanted it. She still questioned why she returned it but every time she thought about it too much an answer she didn't want to hear would start to echo through her mind and now that answer seemed to be applying itself to all the other questions in her mind.
Shaking her thoughts from her head Magica resolved to just deal with this curse as quickly as possible and then get back home and never set foot in Duckburg again.