AN: This is a bit of a long chapter and covers what Amelia does about the potions accident and Mildred meets the frog from the pond. Reviews and PM's welcome.

Chapter 10

"Constance, for goodness sake what's wrong," Amelia asked, grasping Constance's arms with her bony hands to stop the witch flapping hysterically, "Disaster... my work... all my work... my lab... it's...it's terrible," Constance stammered, her voice uncharacteristically hoarse, her bottom lip trembling as she spoke.

Amelia looked deep into the reddening eyes; had the woman been crying? "What do you mean 'disaster', what's happened?" she was worried now, wondering what could possibly provoke such a reaction from her deputy, the concern filling her voice as she tried to coax an answer from the hysteric before her.

Like a shy child that was too scared to ask for something Constance tugged at Amelia's cardigan, her earnest expression pleading her to follow her. Slightly confused by this behaviour, Amelia allowed herself to be led down the corridor, all the while still trying to get a verbal response to her questions. Constance was almost running, something she hardly ever did, in her desperation to get back to her lab; maybe the faster she got there the more could be saved. As the stench became almost unbearable, they arrived at the closed door of the lab. The foul substance had begun to leak under the door now and Amelia jumped back to avoid treading in it.

"What on earth is this?" she asked in shock, throwing open the door and reeling back from the amped up smell that continued to assault them. "I didn't know what to do," Constance whispered, "I thought you might be able to do something..." then her resolve shattered completely and she broke down into hysterical sobs, curling herself up into a ball like an armadillo and pressing herself against the wall, unable to bear the sight that confronted her.

As Amelia clapped eyes on the sobbing mess at her feet, she was overrun by the desire to help her, feeling a sense of duty to remove the cause of her colleagues pain; no, she thought, her friends pain. Turning back to the wreckage that once was the potions lab; she brought to mind the spell for repairing magic induced damage, sketching in the details from memory so that when the spell was cast, the lab should bear an almost exact semblance to what it had previously been. 'Let's just hope this works,' she prayed, raising her hands to point at the chaos bound room. She knew the foster's effect wouldn't bother her, this was a selfless act after all, and restoring the labs was for the benefit of the Academy as well as her friend. Closing her eyes she recited the incantation,

"Reversus revolvus, returnus resolvus, magicas repairus, originum replicatus"

She felt the air stir as the magic did its work, opening her eyes in time to see the last remnants of the potion disappear into thin air, she had done it.

Kneeling down next to Constance she wrapped an arm round the younger witch, "It's alright, you can open your eyes now," she said softly, her words filled with kindness. Constance lifted her head hesitantly from where she had buried them in her arms and Amelia saw with a slight smile, a look of genuine surprise boldly showing thanks to the shattered mask. "How did you?" she whispered, looking from her perfect room to Miss Cackle and back again, almost as if she was following a tennis match. Amelia smiled, "just a little something I picked up when I was at Weirdsister, never thought it would come in handy though."

"Th... thank you,"

Again Miss Cackle beamed, "No Constance, thank you for having confidence in me," and with that she got steadily to her feet and extended a hand to help Constance up. it was gratefully accepted and within seconds Constance was grinning ear to ear with her posture back to its ruler straightness, "Glad to have you back Constance,"

"Good to be back headmistress,"

Xxx

The mid morning air was not altogether unpleasant as Miss Drill jogged through the forest in her running gear. The only sounds around were the chirping of the startled birds, the drumming of her feet on the leaf littered floor and Mildred's continuous croaks of protestation at this treatment. "Now, now no need to make such a racket, you'll be home soon, I don't see what all the fuss is about," Imogen chastised her with a chuckle, "must be so easy being a frog, not having to put up with Miss Hardbroom's appearing act all the time, and being made fun of for being the only non witch in the academy teaching a useless non witch subject," she spat the words bitterly at an imaginary Constance, a pained expression matching the emotions boiling inside her.

Xxx

Mildred saw the turmoil playing out across her teachers usually calm features, revealing the years of hard feelings she had harboured against her colleague in one obvious show of melancholy. Mildred's heart filled with pity and she patted Miss Drill's hand with one webbed foot, the nearest she could get in her current form to squeezing her hand, in an attempt to let the gym mistress know that someone did care for her.

Xxx

Imogen felt the action and a tiny part of her brain registered what it meant. She stopped her running and stared into the protruding black eyes, hoping she would see the answer to her problems in those two crystal balls. They stared back meaningfully, trying to convey comfort to her. Then she shook her head, "must be losing it Imogen, frogs don't talk," even as she said the words she felt they were wrong, there was something in those eyes that denoted intelligence, she was sure of it. She doubted if anyone else would believe her if she told them about this, but then again didn't people always say that animals can sense what you were feeling? Well they said that about dogs at any rate, she didn't think anyone had tested the theory on amphibians yet but hoped the same principal applied.

She resumed her running and within a few minutes came across the pond where she guessed the frog had come from. Squatting down she placed her charge on the grass by the water's edge. "Now you stay there and don't cause any more trouble," As she stood to go a feeling of sadness took her by surprise, she had become more attached to the creature than she had realised, then she heard a croak.

The frog had jumped towards her and now had its front legs resting on her shoe, as if it was begging her not to go, she bit her lip and bent down again. "Look, I can't take you back with me, it wouldn't do you any good to be stuck in that castle all day, and besides Miss Hardbroom might try one of her potions on you and you wouldn't like that," she joked, her laughter sounding high and false. Removing the frog from her trainer she got up to go for a second time; this time not looking back until she was well out of sight of the pond and almost back at the castle.

Xxx

"No, don't leave me here, come back, Miss Drill please, come back." Mildred croaked desperately as her teacher disappeared from sight, "No please." She sank back down into the grass, trying to stave off the feeling of loneliness that wanted to overcome her.

"Hello," A male voice hollered from somewhere behind her, "is someone there?" Mildred started and looked around; she couldn't see anyone so she hopped up onto a rock to get a better view. There opposite her was a large brown male frog. 'But I thought the frog in the pond was a witch, so why is this a?' before she could finish the thought the other frog spoke, "You croak in English." He exclaimed, "Er... yes," she replied, still trying to process the idea that she was talking to another frog.

"How come?" he asked her, "Well," she began, "I'm not really a frog, I've been turned into one, I'm really a witch you see," she then went on to recount what had happened to her since that morning. When she finished her explanation he chuckled, "That's funny, I'm really a wizard, but I've been this way for about forty years now," he told her with a hint of sadness in his voice, she inquired as to what happened and listened to his tale as the sun slowly sank in the western skies, casting an early twilight over the canopy covered pool.

"and because he wouldn't listen to my side of the story he turned me into a frog and they left me behind." he finished. Mildred was once again filled with pity and vowed to help him turn back, "tell you what," she said, "I'll go back to the castle tomorrow and see if I can find help, im sure I'll find a wizard somehow."

"You're very kind," he said gratefully, then suddenly remembered something he had forgot to ask, "What's your name?"

"Mildred Hubble," she replied, "What's yours?"

He thought about it for a few seconds, watching a fly lazily whizz by as he did so, "Algernon, something Webb." Mildred laughed at his forgetfulness and began to recount some of her adventures in the hopes of cheering her new friend up. After a while the pair noticed that the sun had set fully and the moon had poked its head above the canopy.

"Looks like we had better get some sleep, you'll need your strength to get back to the castle tomorrow." She agreed with him and followed his lead as he dropped down into the cold inky waters and clambered onto a lily pad. "Sleep tight." He said, "you to." She yawned and turned her thoughts to the castle, 'I wonder if anyone misses me?' she mused, before turning her attention to sleep.