Here's another one. Hope its okay. I shouldn't be doing this, because I have an exam coming up…but I needed a break. It's a bit mushy…but I hope its good mush!

Enjoy!

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Dylan slowly made his way up the long winding staircase that lead to Marnie's room. As much as he wanted to get this conversation over with, he couldn't help but feel nervous and he was deliberately taking his time so that he would have a few extra minutes to mull things over.

He paused for a moment on the tenth step, and took in his surroundings. Even the stairway up to Marnie's room was nice- elaborately decorated candlesticks adorned the walls and lush purple silks were draped across the small niches that were carved into the walls. It figured that his sister would get a huge room in her own private wing of the castle while he, the forgettable sibling, would be put in a regular old dorm like all the other students.

Not that he thought he deserved extra privileges- but he was slightly bothered by the fact that Marnie always got the special Cromwell treatment while he was pushed aside. He was a Cromwell too, after all, and probably just as powerful as his sister was. Hell, if his grandmother hadn't decided to renounce their families claim to the Halloweentown throne and establish a democracy, he (as the oldest male heir) would probably be the one in charge of this entire castle right now…

Frankly, he was glad that he didn't have that kind of responsibility to worry about, but it would be nice if people remembered that he existed.

As he continued his trek up the stairs, Dylan's mind drifted back to that horrible Halloween two years ago when Marnie had exposed their family secret to the entire school. Edgar Dalloway had come out of the portal to claim 'all' of the Cromwell magic, but had only thought to zap the powers out of his mother, sister, and grandmother…

He had been standing right behind them the entire time, and had even braced himself for yet another magical mishap- but it had never come. Dalloway hadn't even realized that there was a fourth Cromwell in the room or, if he had, he obviously didn't think Dylan was worth the effort.

Thankfully everyone's powers had been restored at the end of the ordeal, and everything had appeared to wrap up quite nicely.

It hadn't been an end for Dylan though….it had only been a beginning…

He had dwelled on that event for several painful weeks and, horrible as it was, it had forced him to realize several things. Even though he had kept his powers that night, he had found himself unable to think of anything useful that would have saved his family. He could have done something to Dalloway- hexed him, frozen him…anything that would have protected those he loved most. But he couldn't.

He didn't know how.

That revelation had inspired him to finally start putting his powers to use. He still wasn't happy about being a warlock, and it would have been easier to continue living in denial, but he couldn't allow something similar to happen again. His sister was always getting the family into trouble, and he wouldn't have been able to live with himself if it ever fell on him to save the day and, because of his stubbornness, he failed them all. He knew that he had to learn at least a few useful spells and- much to his surprise- once he got started, he found that the magic thing really wasn't so bad after all.

In a strange and unexpected way, that night had changed everything. He didn't want to be useless, and he didn't want to be forgettable…

And finally embracing his powers was the one way to ensure that that never happened again.

Dylan was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn't notice another figure coming down the stairway in the opposite direction. He absentmindedly collided with the person's chest and they both stumbled back, grabbing onto the wall for balance.

"I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention." Dylan said, finally looking up to see that he had run into his sisters friend (and now roommate) Aneesa.

"Hey, no problem. Neither was I." The genie replied, dusting off her brightly coloured pants and giving him a warm smile.

He couldn't help but notice as, seconds later, her smile faltered and quickly turned into an expression of shock.

"Dylan?" Aneesa gaped, giving him a quick once over and obviously noting his dramatic change in attire. "Woah. I didn't recognise you for a second…" she paused "Why are you dressed like a warlock?"

Dylan tried very hard not to glare at her. He expected people to be slightly perplexed by his new look, but he hadn't been expecting quite this much shock. Had he really given off that strong of a mortal vibe before? He hadn't thought so…

"Maybe because I am a warlock." He replied after a few seconds, attempting to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. Aneesa was a nice girl, after all, and he couldn't really blame her for being surprised (as annoying as it was).

"Oh…right…well, obviously…but…" she stuttered, now embarrassed that she had brought it up. "It's just- Marnie says you hate magic related stuff…so I was caught a little off guard. Sorry."

Dylan nodded and tried to brush it off. "It's okay." He paused. "Speaking of Marnie, is she upstairs?"

Aneesa nodded. "Yep, she's just finishing off some homework."

"Good, glad I caught her." He replied "See you later Aneesa."

"Yeah, see you."

And with that, she scurried off down the stairs, obviously eager to escape the awkward atmosphere.

Dylan sighed and walked up the final few steps. If his encounter with Aneesa had caused that much shock he could only guess how bad Marnie's reaction would be. She would probably laugh- and then ask if he was joking…and then refuse to believe him when he said he wasn't.

But, if he was really going to go though with this, he was going to have to face her sooner or later…he wasn't going to turn back now.

Reluctantly, Dylan raised his arm and knocked softly on Marnie's big oak door.

His heart was beating wildly and his head was spinning, but he forced himself to stay put.

He could do this.

He had too…

Dylan took one last deep breath as he listened to his sisters footsteps approach the door. This was really it.

Seconds later, Marnie yanked open the door and he unenthusiastically found himself face to face with his biggest critic. As he had expected, Marnie's eyes immediately grew wide as she surveyed his appearance and it took her several excruciatingly silent moments to usher him into the room and shut the door.

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but before a single sound passed her lips, she turned abruptly and sat herself down on the edge of her bed.

Dylan found himself standing awkwardly by the doorway, locked in his sister's unflinching gaze and wishing, for the firs time in his life, that she would say something. Anything.

Marnie was never silent. This had to be a bad sign.

After was felt like half an hour (but was probably only thirty seconds), she finally broke the silence.

"Okay." She said, her voice surprisingly calm. "Explain."

Dylan took a deep breath and continued to stare at his sister. Frustratingly, he found himself unable to read her tone or her expression. He had expected her to be laughing at him by this point- but she wasn't.

She almost seemed…serious.

"I…well…" he began, choking on his words. "I think we need to talk."

"Yeah. Obviously." Marnie replied, folding her arms across her chest and looking up to meet his eyes. "What is going on with you? First you get all weird at breakfast, and now you come up here looking like…like you live in Halloweentown." She paused and looked contemplative for a moment. "Are you under some sort of personality changing curse or something?"

Dylan smiled slightly. He could have sworn that he heard a genuine note of concern in that last statement.

"No," he replied "I'm not under any curse. I've just decided that…" he hesitated "That I'm tired of not fitting in, and tired of not being myself."

"Dylan, you d-"

But before she could finish her sentence, Dylan held up his hand and cut her off. "Just let me talk, okay?" he began again. "Before you laugh at me or make fun of me, I want you to hear me out."

With a sigh, the young witch shut her mouth and gave a slow nod.

"Good." Dylan said, before taking a calming breath and gathering up the courage to continue. "Look, I know you- and everyone- sees me as the family outcast. And for a long time, that was exactly how I felt. Our first trip to Halloweentown changed everything, and for several years after that, I would lay in bed every night, trying to convince myself that it had never happened, and that magic wasn't real. It was impossible to deny it though. I'd come downstairs in the morning to see you levitating a box of cereal across the room, or to find that Grandma had set an ogre loose in the house, or to see Sophie attempting to fly her broom down the hallway, or …well, you get the idea. I had always felt like the outcast at school, and now that I was sitting on this huge family secret I began to withdraw even more. I was so scared that I'd accidentally blurt it all out…or worse, accidentally do magic. Because no matter how much I tired to deny it, whenever I was in a particularly emotional situation, I could feel the power inside of me just itching to get out…"

Dylan paused and averted his gaze down to the wooden floor. "I avoided confronting it at all costs, but I always knew that I…was one of you, and that no amount of mind games could ever change that. It was better to live in denial though, because embracing it was too scary. I was so incredibly scared back then, Marnie." He confessed quietly, looking up to meet her gaze once again. "I was afraid of what I could do and afraid of what people would do to me if they found out…and as time went on, that fear turned into anger, and I became hostile towards the mere mention of the 'M' word. I'd snap whenever Grandma brought up the topic of my training, or get mad when any of you started using your powers…not because I was really mad at any of you, but because it reminded me of what I was, and reminded me of my fear…"

He trailed off, and tried to read the expression on Marnie's face. She looked shocked (as expected), but there was also something else. Something that could have been interpreted as…understanding.

Was it possible that his outgoing, popular, magic-loving sister actually understood some of his feelings? He hadn't thought that it was possible. They had always seemed so completely different- especially when it came to their thoughts on Halloweentown.

"Okay." Marnie said softly, snapping him away from his thoughts. "So what changed? Why? When?"

"Two years ago." The boy began again, feeling relieved that she hadn't yet laughed at his long winded confession. It felt great to get this off of his chest and finally explain how he had really felt for all those years. "After the exchange incident. It made me realize that pretending to be normal wasn't going to work anymore, and I decided that it was about time that I made use of my powers. I started sneaking your old spell books out of your room and I taught myself as many spells as I could. I was terrified at first, but once I got the hang of it, I actually started to enjoy it. I was completely ostracized at school by this point, and once I learned how to speed read, not even regular school work was enough to fill the time. I worked through the books pretty quickly, but I still wasn't ready to tell anyone about my new hobby. After all those years, 'magic-hating Dylan' had sort of become my persona, and I knew that I'd be a big hypocrite if I suddenly admitted that I did like magic after all."

"So no one else knows?" Marnie interrupted her eyes still wide.

Dylan shook his head. "Mom knows." He admitted. "She found out a few months ago, and I told her a lot of what I'm telling you right now. I thought she'd be mad, or loose respect for me or something…but she didn't. And that inspired me to keep going…and to take the opportunity to go to Witch U."

"That explains why you weren't angrier about having to follow me here." Marnie mused. "I was wondering about that. I mean, you always said you hated Halloweentown, and then suddenly you agreed to spend four years here. That did strike me as a little odd."

"Yeah." Dylan agreed, smiling slightly and feeling completely thrilled that this was not disintegrating into the screaming match he had envisioned. "I had taught myself everything I could on my own, and I was actually happy about getting some real training. The no magic rule kind of killed that ambition, but I still didn't mind being here."

Marnie nodded. "Okay then, that gets us up to why you don't hate it here, but I'm still wondering what inspired you to get such a dramatic new wardrobe."

Dylan looked down at his new attire for a moment and proudly adjusted his purple blazer. "Well, after feeling like such an outcast in the human world for so long, I finally wanted to fit in somewhere. I had accepted that fact that I was a warlock, but I still didn't look the part…so I asked Ethan if he would give me some advice, and we went into town to get some new clothes."

"So that explains why the two of you were acting so secretive this morning." The girl chuckled, shaking her head in bemusement. "And here I was worried that my brother and my boyfriend were involved in some terrible conspiracy or something…" she trailed off and looked back up at her brother with a smile. "Well Dylan," she began again. "I'm proud of you for finally getting over your fears and accepting your powers. I wish you had spoken to me sooner though- I know I didn't show it, but I was scared for a long time too. Sure I had always been fascinated by 'freaky' things…but I had never suspected that I was an actual witch, and when I really thought about it, there were aspects that scared me too."

As he listened to his sister speak, Dylan's mouth fell open in shock. He certainly hadn't expected her to take it this well…let alone admit that she was proud of him. And hearing her- his confidant, powerful sister- say that she had been scare too, had caught him completely off guard.

"What's wrong Dylan?" Marnie asked, getting up from her bed and walked towards him. "You look like you just saw a ghost." She paused. "Not that that would be all that weird around here…"

"I'm just…I just didn't expect you to be so nice for a change." He admitted, feeling somewhat guilty for underestimating her. "I was sure you'd laugh, and mock me until I regretted ever coming here."

The girl smiled again. "Yeah…well, don't get used to it." She said with a wink. "Tomorrow I'll go back to being your annoying older sister…but right now, I know that isn't want you need. Believe it or not, I can be sensitive sometimes."

Dylan laughed. "Yeah…I suppose that I should know that anything is possible by now."

She gave him an affectionate punch in the arm before joining into his chuckles. "Yes, I suppose so." She agreed.

After the two had regained their composure, Dylan opened the door and took a step out into the hallway. It had been an extremely long day, and now that this was taken care of, he was looking forward to some nice relaxation time in his room.

"Thanks for listening Marnie." He said, giving her one last smile.

"Sure, no problem." She replied. "And for what it's worth, I think the new outfit looks good. My boyfriend makes great style choices, doesn't he?"

"You bet." Dylan nodded. "Goodnight Marnie. I'll see you later."

And with that he began to head back down the long winding steps. He had only gone down two stairs, however, when his sister's voice caused him to turn back around.

"Oh, one more thing." She said, leaning against the door frame with a smirk on her face. "About the whole 'magic is actually pretty cool' thing…" she paused and shot him her victorious smile "I TOTALLY told you so."

Dylan chuckled and shook his head. That was sister he was used to.

"Yeah Marnie." He conceded. "You win."

And this time, she truly had.

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Ethan Dalloway placed the potion ingredients on his bookshelf and sat down on his bed with the dusty old tome that contained the power restoration spell.

He read the page over for the hundredth time, making sure (once again) that he really had taken everything into consideration.

He seemed to have all of the ingredients now…and the incantation was simple enough…

All that he had left to worry about was making the potion properly and performing the spell before they had to sign up for their electives next week.

There still had not been an official announcement about when sign up would be, but rumour had it that they would be holding some sort of signup/ testing thing on Wednesday.

That left him less then a week to get his powers back, but with any luck, he was sure that everything would be fine. By next Wednesday, he'd have his magic, he'd be able to sign up for the classes he wanted, and Marnie would be happy to be dating a real warlock who could share her love of spells and midnight flights.

Yes…everything was going to be perfect.

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Meanwhile…

As Edgar Dalloway watched his son leaf through the old spell book, he could not suppress the wide grin that was growing on his face.

It was all too easy…and Ethan, as usual, had proven himself to be far too easy to manipulate.

"What? What are you looking at?" A voice asked, breaking his concentration and, thus, his view of his son.

Edgar turned around and gave his companion an angry glare. "I was watching my son, Grogg." He replied, making no attempt to mask his annoyance. "And he just so happens to be our ticket out of here."

"Really?" a third voice asked as its owner emerged from the thick fog that clouded this alternate dimension. "Ethan? How? I thought he was on the 'good' side. He's dating the Cromwell girl."

Edgar grimaced at the reminder. He hated that his pathetic excuse for a son had betrayed him so terribly. Not only had the idiot helped the Cromwell's imprison him, he had now given up his powers, and begun dating the girl that had ruined everything.

"He doesn't know he's helping us." Edgar said, glancing over at Dr. Goodwin. "I've been channelling the magical residue that floats around this realm and using what little power I can muster to influence events in Halloweentown." He paused and took a moment to smile at his own brilliance. "Everyday for two weeks I made the same old book fall onto Ethan's bedroom floor and open to the same page. He finally got the hint and noticed that the book was opening to a power restoration spell."

"Oh." Goodwin said, her forehead crinkled in confusion. "So…you think he's going to get his powers back and break us out? Because I don-"

"No, you idiot." Edgar snapped. "He's too much of a goodie-goodie to ever do that. What he doesn't know, is that when he performs the spell to restore his powers, my powers will be restored too. And once that happens, I'll get us out of here, and we'll finally get our revenge on those meddlesome Cromwell's…"

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A/N Dun dun DUN! The plot thickens…

I doubt anyone picked up on the detail about the book two chapters ago, but this is what it was leading up to ;) Hope it was a mildly decent twist.

If you want more, REVIEW.

I have to admit; I'm a bit worn out/short on time and might not keep going if you don't keep me inspired :(