A/N: Phew. Well, this turned out much longer than I intended it to. But I think it was worth it in the end. So, I decided not to go with the flashback situation, after all. After looking through the scenes between Mattholomule and Gus, I actually noticed some good parallels to Lizzie's situation and decided to use it to put a bit of a twist on her problem, resolving it in a way that isn't quite complete but still satisfying enough for her. I also wanted to give Gus and Willow a chance to shine in this chapter, because I know the shortened Season 3 has affected how they're being handled on the show (I'm totally not looking at the executive who may or may not have influenced this decision). Plus, Lizzie doesn't really have much of a chance to interact with them because of their association with Luz more so than her, so I thought it would have been a fun little inclusion, on top of the fact I wanted Lizzie to cause some chaos in this chapter. She might be more responsible than Eda, but she has her moments of immaturity... XD I've also given you guys a bit of a treat by sneaking in some more tidbits about Lizzie's family into here. I wonder if anyone will notice...

Thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, following, reviewing and reading this story. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. I don't know when the chapters for Episode 10 will be up, as I am planning on trying to work simultaneously on this fic and another one that is in dire need of an update. But again, I'll aim to try to get it done within under a month tops. I do hope you enjoy the conclusion to Episode 9, though. And with that, I will get into answering reviews:

KaseyKay17: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much for your review. It's always nice getting reviews like this that go into detail about my decisions with the plot and my characters. Mostly because I love to talk about them and getting to share them with others. I know my story isn't like the others that follow this trope, so it's nice to see you like it regardless. I do hope you stick around for future chapters too, as things are only going to get more intense between Lizzie and Xander from here. It's also nice to see you that someone didn't entirely go for the obvious guess regarding Xander's relation to Lizzie either. I had a right chuckle looking at other people's guesses in the reviews, but it's good to see you caught on when I continually avoided using any other word but 'relative'. As Lizzie mentioned in the last chapter, she is an only child. And had it been a sibling, she would have likely mentioned them somewhere along with her parents, so... I was hoping that would have made that option less obvious. Still, thank you for your kind words. I'm glad to see you like Lizzie as a character and enjoyed my version of this common trope.


Chapter 27: Losses and Lessons

From the moment they'd left the office and allowed Bump to take the lead (after he'd obtained a bucket and a mop, which he was currently carrying in both hands), Lizzie and Eda had stuck together side by side and followed him from a reasonable distance, giving them enough space to see where Bump was going yet enough for him to not hear them talking between themselves.

Technically, neither Eda nor Lizzie needed Bump as their guide. They'd both attended this school at some point in their lives, after all. And while there was the possibility that the school would have changed a little bit between the time that Eda attended and then Lizzie attended, that didn't stop them from knowing how to get to specific areas like the back of their hands. However, the principal hadn't told them where they were heading (although it didn't take much sleuthing for either witch to suspect it was going to involve cleaning something, because of the mop and bucket) and the pair thought it wise not to ask (especially Eda, due to her not wanting to know which horror show of hers they were going to be dealing with first. Not that Lizzie could blame her, as she would have felt the same had she been in the same position), so they had no choice but to stick with Bump until they knew what was going on. But thankfully, that hadn't deterred either witch from shadowing Bump through the corridors of Hexside, preparing to face whatever was waiting for them ahead for Luz's sake.

Having linked her arm with Lizzie's closest one so that she and the young witch had no space between them as they walked, Eda lowered her voice and kept her other hand close to her mouth while speaking to Lizzie, a deep frown gracing her brow.

"All right, Redwood, listen up. I don't care what that ol' grouch said."—she prodded the middle of Lizzie's forehead with a finger—"You are not helping me with this, got it?"

"Are you sure you don't want me to help out a little?" Lizzie asked in a whisper, her eyes briefly darting in Bump's direction without moving her head to make sure they were still following him. "I honestly don't mind. You might get it done faster."

Eda waved Lizzie off with a hand and shook her head once. "Nu-uh! You've got enough on your plate already. And besides…" Her eyes drooped at her pause. "I'm the one that made bad choices when I was a rebellious teen. I have to be the one to pay for 'em, don't I?"

A small smile appeared on Lizzie's face as she raised a hand to place on Eda's closest shoulder. She couldn't deny that it made her recall the words Eda had said to her that night at the night market, when she'd attempted to rescue Eda and King from the greedy proprietor of 'Mud & Sundry'.

"Well, that's very mature of you, Eda. I'm proud of you."

Eda rolled her eyes and looked away at seeing Bump beginning to slow down, prompting her to let Lizzie go and straighten out, while simultaneously forcing Lizzie to retract her hand.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever! Let's just get this nightmare over and done with…"

Lizzie's smile dimmed down a bit, a breathless sigh escaping her while she tugged at the sides of her cloak hood to secure it properly on her head; she hadn't bothered to drop it since leaving the Owl House, so she was a little surprised that Bump had recognised her so easily when others couldn't.

'I pity you, Eda. But you're doing the right thing. Luz does need to be at Hexside, and I'm sure she'll appreciate the efforts you've taken to get her in when she finds out.'

Bump finally stopped in the middle of the corridor and faced something on his left as he placed the bucket on the floor, prompting Eda and Lizzie to copy the principal and follow his gaze towards six red lockers in a row before them. However, unlike all the other lockers that Lizzie recalled being littered about the corridor, these ones stood out to her for a specific reason: they had been vandalised by graffiti, specifically the graffiti Bump had claimed Eda had left them while she attended school. And how did Lizzie know that this was true? Well, the first clue was catching the Owl Lady's reaction to seeing the graffiti, which was her body slumping and her left eye twitching. But the biggest and most obvious clue was what was actually decorating the lockers.

At a quick glance, the blonde witch initially assumed the graffiti was fairly harmless for someone like Eda (even despite the knowledge imparted by Bump that it was hexed), with orange and dark blue swirls drawn on lockers three and six respectively along with 'EDA' in green on the latter, the word 'Hoot' painted across lockers four, five and six in pink and light blue respectively, and also with three yellow lightning streaks with purple underlines to give off a '3D' effect. Seeing that had made Lizzie wonder what Bump's deal was with this. After all, they were just random drawings and art plastered on school property.

But then there were lockers one and two, which had 'EDA RULES, BUMP EATS STINK' painted across both of them, with 'Eda' styled in bubble-like writing in red with a white 3D outline, 'Rules' styled in square-like writing in green with a purple background and a pink line underneath it, 'Bump' styled in bubble-like writing in light blue and a purple 3D outline with dark blue splodges decorated on either side of it, 'Eats' written in tiny, pink capitals, and then 'Stinks' coloured green against a yellow, spiky shaped background with 'stinks lines' stretching from the word as if to imitate a physical representation of odour.

The blonde witch could only shake her head and turn to the older witch beside her with a crinkled nose, a heavy sigh escaping her as she did so. "Oh, Eda…"

The Owl Lady responded with a scowl and the jab of a finger in Lizzie's general direction. "Hey, don't judge me, Redwood. You really don't want to know what I have to say about your antics."

Lizzie smirked faintly and gave Eda a light nudge in the ribs with her elbow. "I bet you're hating your younger self now though, huh?"

"More than ever," she growled with a squint. "If I'd known I was going to be the one to clean this up, I never would have bothered to leave it in the first place." Eda gritted her teeth and threw her head back with her eyes squeezed shut, letting out a muffled groan just as Bump moved behind them in preparation to leave. "Ugh! I can't believe I'm doing this…"

Bump smiled out of reminiscence and gave Eda's closest shoulder a rough pat with his free hand, causing her to pout and lower her head again. "Ah, there's the whiny teen I remember! This really does take me back."

It was here that Lizzie started to notice the significant height difference between her, Eda and Bump, prompting her to grab and fiddle at the strap of her satchel across her front subconsciously. Eda had always been taller than her whether she was wearing her heels or not, as they only added an extra five inches to her actual height. And Bump also had always been taller than Lizzie, a fact that had made him intimidating to her since she was a teen and never really helped when she would land in his office because of the trouble she'd caused. Yet seeing Bump surpass Eda even in her heels? That really highlighted just how tall the aging principal actually was, causing Lizzie to gulp quietly.

'Sheesh. No wonder I always found him so scary. He's beating Eda out even though she's wearing her heels…'

Bump's smile widened as he handed Eda the mop, which she took into both hands with narrowed eyes. "This should help you well in cleaning up all the hexed graffiti you left us." Bump walked back the way they'd just come with his hands clasped behind his back, closing his eyes and addressing the two witches as he left. "I'll be back to check on you in a little while. Good luck."

Neither witch said a word, with Eda waiting until Bump was far enough away before she stuck her tongue out. "Nyeh!"

Lizzie snorted and quickly muffled the following chuckles with her hand, deciding not to say anything yet still finding the older witch's response amusing nonetheless. Once Bump was out of sight, though, Eda was soon turning around to dip the end of the mop into the bucket, swirling it in a circle and pumping it up and down to make sure it was drenched.

"Stand back, Lizzie. This graffiti probably isn't gonna go down without a fight, and I'd rather you not get caught up in the crossfire."

Lizzie raised a brow as she did as she was told and walked over to the end of the row (specifically, locker number one), folding her arms while leaning her shoulder against one of the building's pillars with one leg crossed over the other. As absurd as it sounded, Lizzie knew not to question Eda when she told her to do something.

"You're making it sound like the graffiti has a mind of its own."

"Oho. You have no idea…" Eda mumbled, but Lizzie still managed to hear it.

At first, the younger witch chose to silently observe the older one as she lifted the mop out of the bucket and made a harsh jab towards the graffiti on the first and second lockers, deciding it wasn't wise to disturb Eda at this time. There was a lot she still wanted to discuss from back there, but it could wait. Of course, Lizzie was soon glad she did, because she was soon blinking widely in surprise when the movement from the mop caused the graffiti to move up on its own, to the point where only 'BUMP EATS STINK' was still visible.

'… Eh?'

Having lived in the Demon Realm since she was born, Lizzie was no stranger to witnessing things moving around that shouldn't have been. It was an everyday occurrence in the Demon Realm, after all, as she'd once had to explain to Luz during the first instance the human witnessed such an event. Yet she couldn't say she'd ever seen sentient graffiti, so this was surely new for the blonde.

Meanwhile, Eda scowled and tried again with an upward swing of the mop, only to have it splosh against the locker seconds after the graffiti glided gracefully towards the left, this time only exposing the latter half of each word. Eda's mouth twitched with the urge to growl, while Lizzie found her shoulders dropping at realising she was watching her employer literally fighting with animated words.

'I guess that's what the hexed part means…'

It was only when Eda sucked in a sharp breath through flared nostrils and tightened her grip on the mop with both hands that Lizzie felt it was a wise time to intervene, choosing the perfect topic to act as a distraction. The last thing they needed was Eda losing her temper and causing further damage.

"Hey, Eda…?"

Eda slowly edged the mop towards the graffiti again, only to slowly retract when it began to edge its way further towards the left to try to conceal itself. She kept her eyes locked on the graffiti when it edged itself back slowly into its previous position, deeming it safe to reveal itself again. That didn't stop her from answering Lizzie, though.

"Yeah?"

"About what was said in Principal Bump's office…"—Eda finally relaxed her stance and gave Lizzie a sideways glance, immediately regretting it the moment she saw the blonde's creased brow—"Is it true that my identity as the 'missing prisoner' was known to the public after the crash happened?"

Eda stared the blonde witch down for a solid few seconds in silence, her own brow creasing while appearing to mouth words, as if she was trying to think through what to say and was giving it a 'test run'. But eventually, the white-haired witch huffed loudly and gave a stiff nod, her eyes drooping.

"… It is."

Lizzie straightened up against the pillar and unfolded her arms, her brow creasing further. "Why did you never tell me?"

Eda returned the mop to the bucket and approached the younger witch, her expression still mirroring Lizzie's as she placed her hands to her shoulders and lowered her voice. "I just didn't want you to worry, kid. After the accident, you were a nervous wreck and injured pretty bad. It wasn't worth having you stress out over it. Plus, there was no way those guards were gonna find you with me, so I didn't see it as a concern."

"But then," Lizzie tilted her head, thinking back to Covention when she first met Lilith and the incident at the Conformatorium when they were confronted by Warden Wrath. "how come very few people in Bonesborough are aware of it now? What happened?"

Eda shrugged her shoulders, a small smile slipping onto her lips. "Who knows. Considering I was involved in that fiasco, I wouldn't be surprised if the majority eventually believed I was the escaped prisoner." She reached up to give Lizzie's head a rough pat. "But it's nothing for you to worry about. It's came and gone and you're still a nobody to most of Bonesborough."

"Not if Xander keeps talking about me…" Lizzie grumbled with the roll of her eyes, briefly pursing her lips together as Eda pulled herself away and returned to the mop and bucket.

"Right. Forgot about him." As Eda placed both hands on the mop and pulled it free from the bucket, she looked back at Lizzie with a raised brow. "Did anything Bump say back there trigger something in the ol' noggin?" Lizzie shook her head. "Not even a little bit?"

"No." Lizzie answered half-heartedly, rubbing the back of her head and looking down at her boots. "And I don't understand why. I know more about Xander now than I did this morning, but despite my new knowledge, I don't feel any different. It's like my brain still sees 'Xander Blackwood' and 'Hexside bully' as two completely different witches, when I know they're not…"

"Hm…" Eda hummed and turned her eyes to the lockers when she saw the graffiti start to edge its way out of hiding from the corner of her eyes, prompting her to spread her legs apart and bent her knees slightly. "Why don't you have a little walk around Hexside? Maybe exploring the old 'stomping grounds' will jog your memory."

Lizzie pushed herself from the pillar with a wide blink. "Are you sure?"

Eda briefly smirked and gave the younger witch a quick sideways glance. "What? Don't tell me you'd rather watch me duke it out with hexed graffiti."

As she said this, the Owl Lady suddenly swiped the mop towards the lockers and attempted to catch the graffiti off guard with two circular wiping motions. Unfortunately, this didn't work, as all it did was cause the graffiti get together and run away from it, eventually merging in a swirl of assorted colours and shifting into two new words.

Both Eda and Lizzie blinked widely at reading 'MOTHER, NOOOO!' now painted across lockers four, five and six, with 'Mother' styled in yellow, square writing with a dark purple 3D effect behind it and 'Noooo!' in light blue bubble writing.

After a moment longer of silent staring, Lizzie squinted and slowly held her palms up, beginning to walk backwards from the lockers.

"I would have… But the hexed graffiti is beginning to freak me out. So…" She swirled on her heels and started walking off towards the corridor to the left, in the opposite direction Bump had left in. "… I'm out."

"Wise choice," Lizzie heard Eda shout her way, followed by a loud resounding clang of something hitting the lockers and an annoyed groan from the Owl Lady.

The blonde witch didn't dare look back, not that she needed to. It didn't take much for Lizzie to piece together what Eda had probably just tried to do.

'Ugh…' Lizzie internally groaned and covered her face with both hands, heading off down the corridor without bothering to pay attention to where she was going. It wasn't like she actually had a destination in mind or anything. 'I came here to get answers and yet I've gotten more questions instead. Why did I think this was a good idea?'

Lizzie's inner venting became disrupted by an unfamiliar taunting voice somewhere ahead of her, one which sounded close to a male teen's, she guessed.

"I can't believe you two fell for that sob story and apology! It was too easy to fool you, Augustus!"

The blonde halted and dropped her hands from her face to look up the corridor, where she saw a short teenage beige skinned witch (based on the pointy ears he had) with dark brown eyes and straight brown hair hidden under the cowl of the uniform of Hexside he was wearing. He was standing in front of a row of lockers with a hand to his hip and another to his chest (exposing the brown sleeves and leggings that showed he was in the Construction Magic Track), a cocky smirk on his face.

Lizzie didn't know who this random student was, but her immediate reaction upon seeing him was to grip at her stomach, feeling a sense of dread churn in its pits from the sudden spike in adrenaline that pulsed through her body. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but this student's attitude felt… familiar.

But the feeling only intensified when she heard the familiar and angry growl of Gus bite back at the unknown face, causing the older witch to finally take notice of the young illusionist standing opposite the student in the doorway of an empty classroom with his legs spread apart, a scowl on his brow, his shaking fists at his sides and... a yellow paper crown decorated with red circles strapped to his head?

"What. Did. You. Do. Mattholomule?"

'… Wait.' She squinted at Gus for a few seconds, her mind just processing the last thing the unknown student—whom Lizzie now knew was called 'Mattholomule'—had previously said. 'Gus' real name is 'Augustus'? Eda's not the only one who uses a nickname in place of her full name?! Seriously, what is going on?!'

Mattholomule widened his eyes and clasped his hands together at his front, purposely putting on an exaggerated whiny tone as if to mock the younger witch.

"Boohoo! I'm the new kid! I only want friends!" Mattholomule relaxed his face and held his arms out on either side of him with a forced laugh and a cocky smile. "Ha. No. I only want power and drama, and I got one of those sending your little human friend to detention!"

Lizzie's body briefly froze, her blood running cold the moment Mattholomule's words processed in her head.

'Little human friend? Detention?'

And suddenly, something clicked in the back of her head, the recollection of Gus' words to her the day before instantly catapulting to the forefront of her mind.

'Well, she seemed a little down at first. But she was in a better mood after agreeing to come with me to— I-I mean, she's fine now!'

'Oh, Titan… Luz is at Hexside. And now she's gotten caught and sent to detention. How did I not see this coming back to bite me later?'

Lizzie wanted to mentally berate herself for letting Gus get away with his secrecy yesterday, yet that soon flew out of her head at spying Mattholomule stalking up to Gus with his hands on his hips, his smile turning sly as he squinted and got a nose's inch into the illusionist's face.

"This is what you get for lying, Mister President. What are you gonna do now, huh?"

And, as if on cue, she heard Xander's voice inside her head, feeling an intense heat rush to her cheeks and turn them a bright red.

'What's the matter, Elisabeth? Have you got anything to say for yourself?'

Meanwhile, Gus gritted his teeth at the question, his shaking intensifying in tandem, as if he was ready to explode. Fortunately for the young witch, another witch wound up exploding first, instant rage flaring up to replace the earlier dread she'd experienced.

"You little punk!"

Gus turned to his left with a wide blink at recognising the voice, his jaw slacking at the sight of the charging adult witch heading straight towards them (her hood dropped from her head in the process, but at this point Lizzie could have cared less). Mattholomule reacted calmer in comparison, delaying his reaction a few seconds after Gus with only the slight raise of his brow and his sly smile fading from his face. However, it didn't take long before he found the front of his cowl getting grabbed roughly by the pair of hands that belonged to the older witch, causing him to scream at getting swept off his feet (Lizzie mentally noted it felt like she was lifting paper; the bully didn't feel like he weighed anything at all) and feeling his back collide with the lockers with a loud clang when she shoved him towards them.

"Lizzie?!" Gus exclaimed through a gasp, staring wide-eyed at the older witch's trembling back as she kept Mattholomule pinned against the lockers. "What are you doing here?!"

"Not the time for questions, Gus," Lizzie answered with a slight hiss, the interaction giving Mattholomule the chance to pull himself together with a blink and the shake of the head. "I've got a bone to pick with this cocky wretch!"

"Who in Titan are you?!" Mattholomule managed to cry out after getting over his shock, only prompting Lizzie to tighten her grip and raise him a little higher while she stared this teen witch down with dagger-eyes, putting him on her eye level; he was way too light, she again noted to herself.

"The witch who's about to hang you from the lockers by your cowl if you don't tell me what you did to Luz!"

Mattholomule gaped for a few seconds, his brows shooting up as he shrieked his response. "You know the human too?!"

"Darn right I do!"

A rough tug on her elbow prompted Lizzie to glance down at Gus behind her, who was staring up at her wide-eyed while gripping at her arm.

"Lizzie, wait! It's not Mattholomule's fault!" When Lizzie merely responded with the raise of her brow, Gus took that as his cue to let her go and take a step back, turning his gaze to his feet and bringing his hands clasped together to his chest. His voice grew quiet at the next thing he said. "I'm the one who told Luz her Hexside ban was lifted. I'm the reason she's here and why she's in detention."

The blonde witch relaxed her stance at this, continuing to keep a tight grip on Mattholomule (who was taking this momentary distraction to try to squirm his body out of Lizzie's grip while swiping at her arms like a cornered animal) as her anger briefly evaporated in favour of being replaced with confusion.

"Why would you lie to her?"

"I-I was afraid…" Gus answered in a low voice, daring to raise his head to look Lizzie in the eyes with slumped shoulders, his lip quivering as if he was on the verge of crying. "It's hard being younger than everyone else in high school. It doesn't excuse what I did, but it doesn't mean it isn't true."

Lizzie blinked widely, the shock finally loosening her grip on Mattholomule and causing him to drop to the floor with a small yelp and thud. "Hang on." She pointed at Gus and furrowed her brow. "You're in high school?" When Gus nodded stiffly, Lizzie glanced the young illusionist up and down. "But… you're younger than Luz and Willow, so how…?"

As Lizzie trailed off, Gus responded while fidgeting his feet from side to side.

"I skipped a couple of grades." His eyes drooped. "But that hasn't stopped me from being overlooked and ignored." He reached a finger for the string attached to his crown tied under his chin, which he gave a gentle tug. "It was different with the Human Appreciation Society—my school club." Gus quickly clarified as Lizzie had opened her mouth to question what he meant, prompting her to close it again. "It was a place where everyone mattered, where I mattered, and where no one, including me, got left behind. Or at least… that's what I wanted it to be."

Lizzie didn't say anything as Gus gave Mattholomule a quick look, eventually bowing his head and closing his eyes. "But when Mattholomule came along… I-I felt threatened. I thought I was going to lose that if I lost my crown. And it made me act stupid." Gus' voice cracked as his little body began to tremble, the guilt seeping into his next words. "Luz was only supposed to help me verify some objects from the Human Realm. S-She wasn't supposed to get caught and put in d-detention…"

Lizzie stared at Gus in silent shock, her jaw having dropped so far it was a wonder it hadn't stretched to her feet. An immediate wave of déjà vu washed over her in that moment so intense, she had to grip at her chest with a hand at the ache that struck it, and it was the result of two reasons: the first reason being how similar Gus sounded to King right now, as he'd said similar things to her during the mess with Eda's curse and when he'd lost that paper crown a while back, and the second reason being… herself.

'Gus was just trying to protect something he didn't want to lose and teach this bully a lesson.' She briefly sideways glanced Mattholomule, whom she could see was slowly pushing himself to his feet under the belief she wasn't looking at him right now. 'Just like I did with Xander…'

She couldn't deny the parallels were there, and that was proven by how much her heart strings had been plucked at the familiar cord played here.

It was only when she heard Gus start to sniffle that Lizzie decided to take action, twirling her index finger in Mattholomule's direction (without breaking eye contact from Gus) and summoning a spell circle underneath him. Mattholomule froze at becoming encased in a glowing green outline and suddenly finding his body rising off the floor to levitate in the air, but Lizzie remained unfazed by this as she approached Gus and knelt on one knee in front of him, even ignoring the young construction track student's cries and shouts behind her.

"H-Hey! Put me down! You have no right to treat me like this!"

'Sorry, little man, but I'm not done with you. Just be thankful this isn't three years ago. Otherwise, you would have had a potion being chucked into your face…'

She did the right thing in keeping that thought to herself.

Gus didn't look up until he felt Lizzie's hands on both of his shoulders, finding his teary eyes staring into the furrowed brow and sincere green eyes of his senior. She wasn't sure why, but she felt compelled to comfort Gus with similar words Eda had given her only a moment or so ago.

"It's too late for regrets, Gus. You can't take back what you did to Luz." Her brow creased further, her grip tightening a little on his shoulders. "But you can still make it up to her by getting her out of detention."

Gus mirrored Lizzie's current expression and nodded stiffly, loudly sniffling and wiping a sleeve against his eyes to dry his lingering tears. "Y-You're right." Lizzie took that as her cue to release Gus, resting her arms upon her thigh as the young illusion scrunched his face up and finished mopping up his tears. "I've never been in detention before, but I don't want Luz getting hurt."

"Neither have I. And while I know Luz probably won't get hurt,"—Lizzie's eyes drooped in dismay—"that probably won't stop her from being traumatised by the experience…"

Lizzie had never personally been in detention, as her antics were usually met with stern warnings from Principal Bump due to the fact she didn't cause any severe damage. However, she'd heard enough from Edric and Emira (whom Lizzie recalled had wound up in detention once or twice during their amateur pranking days) during her Hexside days about what horrors lay behind that large, green monster-like door, and she was certain Luz wouldn't be able to handle the sight of it, even though she had slowly become accustomed to the unexpected randomness the Demon Realm had to offer.

Gus raised his brows at Lizzie's words, but after a few seconds he shook his head once and waved his hand about. "I'll take your word for it." He grabbed his chin and squinted. "But how are we going to get Luz out of detention? The door's always shut tight unless one of the Hexside guards brings a student there."

"Guards?" Lizzie repeated out of confusion, until her mind immediately flitted to hers and Eda's encounter with that strange creature when they'd entered the school building earlier. "Do you mean those creepy skull-faced creatures that walk around with the crooks?" When Gus nodded, Lizzie's jaw dropped. "Oh. They're guards? Yeesh. Bump went all out with the security after Luz's last incident, huh?"

But Gus' question and comments were things Lizzie had failed to consider, shown by the pressing of her lips together and the quick glance she did towards the high ceiling of the corridor.

'But he makes a good point. Normally, my first choice to handle this situation would have been going straight to Principal Bump. Yet I sense that's not an option considering Luz's ban and the amount of trouble she'll be put in if her presence is discovered…'

Luz had already caused quite a stir with the abomination incident, Lizzie recalled. And since Eda was currently in the process of trying to get Luz into Hexside, she doubted this incident would make either student or mentor look good in Bump's eyes.

'And then there's the issue of the door…'

Lizzie had passed by that door so many times during her school days, she could conjure up an image of it in her head even in her sleep—towering wood that stretched to the ceiling, coloured dark green with golden outlines surrounding three eyes that were always closed (two eyes on the bottom half with two nostril-like keyholes and one in the middle) and supported by a wooden latch keeping it shut. The blonde witch had never seen it open, but according to Edric and Emira, it was supposed to open like a giant mouth that exposed large, jagged sets of teeth, similarly to how Hooty would sometimes open the door to the Owl House and force them to walk through his mouth (which Lizzie couldn't deny was just as horrifying as this…). She doubted the door would remain open long enough for them to slip in and out, and she was sure Edric and Emira once mentioned that there was no way of opening it from the other side, which presented yet another dilemma.

So, the blonde and young illusionist beside her were left in contemplative silence, the pair attempting to consider their current options… until a familiar worried female voice called out to Gus from further down the corridor.

"Gus!" Lizzie and Gus whipped round to the sight of Willow jogging towards them, her brow creased with worry and her eyes wide. "We've got trouble! Luz is—" Willow came to a sudden halt at seeing Lizzie standing beside her friend, causing the young witch to blink widely and readjust her glasses on her face with both hands. "Lizzie?"

Lizzie wasn't exactly sure what came over her the moment her eyes landed on Willow. Maybe it was the fact she remembered Willow was now in the Plant Magic Track because of her green sleeves and leggings, or maybe it was because she remembered Luz speaking very highly of Willow's magic when she was telling her and Eda about the abomination incident. Either way, as if reminiscent to her fifteen-year-old self and coupled with some of the things she already knew and what Gus had previously mentioned, the blonde witch soon felt a sly smile spread across her face, the metaphorical lightbulb inside her head immediately flicking on with an idea.

"Willow!" Lizzie greeted in an overly sweet tone, causing Willow to raise a brow and Gus to stare up at the older witch with hunched shoulders. "Perfect timing! We were actually just coming up with a plan to help Luz." She slowly turned to look at Mattholomule flailing his arms and legs in the air to try to break out of her levitation spell, her smile widening into a smirk. "And I think you and Mattholomule here can lend us a hand…~"

Mattholomule froze mid-punch and mid-kick the moment his eyes locked with Lizzie's, causing the colour to drain from his face and sweat to start gathering on his forehead. It was clearly obvious he didn't like the look Lizzie was currently giving him.

"W-Why are you looking at me like that…?"

Lizzie squinted slightly and tilted her head, prompting the sweat to roll down Mattholomule's face at the loud gulp he gave her. "Oho, you're about to find out…~"


A few minutes later, Mattholomule's screams of protest were resounding between the walls of Hexside's corridors. He was being forcibly dragged backwards by a Hexside guard pulling him forward with their crook wrapped round his middle, drenched head-to-toe with water and leaving a small trail of it along the floor as it dripped off of him. With one of his arms stretched out and the other one gripping at the crook for support, Mattholomule continued to screech and yell as he was pulled towards detention, occasionally stumbling over his own two feet while trying to dig the heels of his boots into the floor. But of course, the guard was paying no heed to it, going about their job without showing a single reaction.

"I didn't pull the alarm! You've gotta believe me! I demand justice!"

Meanwhile, the trio of Willow, Lizzie and Gus (yes, in that order) were following the water trail along from a reasonable distance and a safe pace, with Lizzie walking along with her arms behind her head and her shoulders back, now lacking her cloak (which she'd since removed and folded away in her satchel, just to avoid any… unnecessary accidents in their escapade). Whereas Willow and Gus were observing the current scene with narrowed eyes and twisted mouths, Lizzie was grinning from ear-to-ear out of amusement.

"… I can't believe you pulled the fire alarm and stuck Mattholomule's hand to it with the gum under the desks," Willow commented, prompting Lizzie to snort and briefly duck her head down with a low chuckle.

"Yeah. I might be more responsible than Eda, but I'll admit I have my moments of immaturity."

"You can say that again," Gus mumbled, his brow furrowing as he watched the guard drag Mattholomule sharply round a corner to the right. "Although, I do feel bad using Mattholomule as bait…"

Lizzie rolled her eyes and picked up the pace in her walking when Mattholomule and the guard were out of sight, with Willow and Gus following suit. "Well, that little punk had it coming for putting Luz in detention." She shrugged her shoulders. "Plus, I did give him the chance to help willingly, seeing as he claimed he was the 'king of detention' in his old school. Not my fault he chose to become bait!"

Lizzie caught the exchanged looks between the illusionist and plant track students from the corners of her vision, but she chose not to say anything, instead allowing a small smirk to momentarily slip onto her face. She could probably guess what these two were thinking: she was sounding a lot like the Owl Lady. And she didn't blame them one bit for thinking that.

"Just remember to stick to the plan, all right?" Lizzie continued while stopping beside the corner of the wall, her gaze turning to Willow while she adjusted her satchel so it slid behind her back. "Make sure you wait for the signal. The second the door opens and the guard's left, it'll be up to you to stop it from closing so Gus and I can get in there and pull Luz out."

Willow nodded stiffly as she and Gus joined Lizzie by the corner of the wall, the two frowning out of determination and with Willow pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose with a finger. "You can count on me. I always come prepared now."

She reached into her tunic and pulled out a small brown seed to hold between her fingers, causing Lizzie to blink widely at recognising it.

"Oh, hey! That looks like the seed Luz was carrying during her first visit to Hexside."

"Uh-huh." Willow grinned and tapped at her temple with a finger. "Luz said all great witches are resourceful, so I always make sure I have something on me now, just in case."

Lizzie briefly gaped at this response before a faint smile slipped its way onto her lips, recalling those words originally coming from Eda's mouth that morning on the beach.

'Well, well. Looks like Eda's words of wisdom are being acknowledged by Luz's friends now too. What do you know.'

From top to bottom, Lizzie, Willow and Gus poked their heads round the wall to witness Mattholomule and the guard stopping in front of the door to detention at the other end of the small alcove. When the guard stopped in front of the door, the three eyes blinked open simultaneously, exposing bulging red eyeballs with yellow eyes and brown pupils. The trio of witches briefly shuddered at the chill that ricocheted down their spines at the sight, even though they were well aware that a lot of items in Hexside happened to be living beings with eyes and mouths.

'Yeesh. If that's how I feel seeing this, I can't imagine how poor Luz reacted. She probably screamed her lungs out.'

With a quiet hiss and accompanied by the sounds reminiscent of a raising drawbridge, the monster-like door raised itself from the bottom and exposed a large spiky-fanged maw that stretched open to the top of the doorway, revealing a void-like darkness on the other side. Lizzie scowled at that and pressed her lips together, as she'd been hoping to try to see Luz inside before they'd darted in there. But it looked like they were going to have to go in blind (or with what little Edric and Emira had told her, in Lizzie's case).

Without hesitation, the guard used one hand to toss its crook forward, causing Mattholomule to cry out in surprise at finding himself lifted from the floor and then flying straight between the monster's jaws. The guard didn't even wait to see if Mattholomule stayed there, immediately turning on its heels and walking off with its crook in the direction of the opposite corridor. The trio of witches waited until the guard was out of earshot and they heard the monster's jaw lowering before they emerged from their hiding spot, making a beeline straight for the door as fast as their legs would allow.

"Willow, now!" Lizzie commanded, prompting Willow to obey by tossing the seed close to the doors with one hand and then proceeding to draw a glowing green spell circle around it with her index finger.

Lizzie and Gus ran ahead of Willow when she came to a stop, the pair of witches pushing their body's limits with gritted teeth for the remaining distance before proceeding to leap forward with their arms outstretched. Lizzie and Gus dived through the now partially opened mouth into the darkness of the detention room, narrowly avoiding both the sharp teeth above and below them and a trio of the large, green, spiky vines that erupted from the seed when Willow's spell circle caused the seed's shell to evenly split in half.

Lizzie and Gus landed on their fronts on the cold hard floor with simultaneous small grunts, looking back with wide eyes at hearing the monster's mouth lowering noises ceasing in favour of being replaced with a loud roar. They were met with the sight of the three vines wedged between the monster door's trembling jaws, forcibly keeping them apart while Willow stood back with her legs spread apart and her hands outstretched toward the vines with bent fingers, her eyes glowing a bright green from behind her glasses. The monster's three eyes (yes, it turned out the eyes were on the other side of the door as well, a fact that made Lizzie's eye twitch) were watering as it tried to fight off Willow's vines to close its mouth, its consistent roars indicating it was in pain.

Lizzie admittedly felt bad, as evidenced by the momentary furrowing of her brow, but she knew it couldn't be helped given the situation.

'Dang! Luz wasn't kidding! Willow's strong!'

Eventually, Lizzie and Gus adjusted themselves so they were sitting up, using what little lighting they had from the corridor outside to repeatedly blink and get their bearings of the circular, dark green room they'd landed in. Supported by multiple pillars like the rest of Hexside, this room contained no windows, instead having accumulated multiple little piles of varying sized chunks of rubble and numerous big claw-like marks littered across its colour faded walls. The sight made Lizzie wonder if they'd accidentally jumped into some secret hidden ruins or something, especially since she, Gus and Mattholomule appeared to be the only students in here…

Speaking of Mattholomule, the blonde witch caught sight of him lying face-first on the floor a small distance away from her and Gus, surrounded by a small puddle of water that had probably dripped off his soaked uniform and body. He didn't look like he was going to be moving just yet, which gave them enough time to skedaddle before he decided to make any noise.

She was snapped out of her thoughts, however, when she saw a familiar head of hair belonging to a certain Luz Noceda on the other side of the room close to where Mattholomule, who was peeking at her and Gus from behind a large piece of rubble with wide eyes. The blonde caught Gus' jerk of movement out of the corner of her eyes, prompting her to react immediately and reach a hand toward him at predicting what he was about to do: call out to his friend fairly loudly.

"Lu—" Gus was cut off by Lizzie's hand covering his mouth. He turned his head towards her with a tilt, only for Lizzie to place her other finger to her lips and shush him.

"Sssh." She slowly moved her hand and pointed towards the floor, speaking to the younger witch in a whisper. "I don't know how detention works, but I've been told any loud sounds we make will trigger something to happen." She quickly shot Luz a glance. "Including movement. We need to be quiet."

Gus and Luz slowly nodded in understanding, with the former focusing back to Luz, who was now staring at him with a frown (she'd briefly been staring at Lizzie due to being confused as to why she was here). Following in Lizzie's lead, the illusionist addressed Luz in a whisper.

"Luz! Are you okay?"

But Luz ignored his question, whisper-shouting back to him while slowly pulling herself to her feet. "Gus, you said the ban was lifted! Why did you lie to me?! I thought we were supposed to be friends!"

"I know…" Gus mumbled, slowly standing up along with Lizzie while gripping at his elbow.

"Don't be too mad at him, Luz," Lizzie said as she jabbed a thumb in Mattholomule's general direction; she didn't know where he'd landed and frankly, she didn't care anyways. "Gus only lied to you because that jerk over there was trying to show him up. He just wanted to stop him from walking all over him in a place he thought was safe for him."

Luz's eyes appeared to widen with a sense of familiarity as she turned to Gus, looking like someone had just slapped her across the face. "Gus… is that true?"

He nodded as he hunched his shoulders and lowered his gaze to the ground, his eyes drooping while he was rubbing at his arm. "I'm always overlooked and ignored because I'm younger than everyone else. The HAS was supposed to be a safe haven for people like me. So, when Mattholomule tried to run against me for president… I-I felt threatened." He stubbornly shook his head. "But that doesn't excuse lying to you and getting you put into detention. I'm so sorry, Luz."

Luz's brow furrowed at hearing this, her focus switching to Lizzie for the moment when the blonde beckoned for her to approach with a hand. Responding to Lizzie with a nod, Luz continued to speak to Gus while taking large and slow strides away from her former hiding place, attempting to approach the two without disturbing the room.

"I get it, Gus." Gus raised his head with a blink and raised brows to see Luz smiling at him as she continued her approach. "I just wish you'd been honest with me in the first place."

It was only when Luz had gotten close enough that Lizzie noticed the young Latina was wearing a Hexside cowl over her usual clothes, causing her to squint for a few seconds.

'Wait. Where did Luz get that from?'

Gus found Luz's smile infectious as he ended up returning it, tilting his head to the side. "So, am I forgiven?"

Luz's smile widened when she finally stopped in front of the pair, reaching out a hand for Gus' closest shoulder to give it a rough pat. "Of course. You're my friend, right?"

Lizzie failed to suppress her own smile as she watched the pair's reconciliation, glad to see they'd managed to make up despite the circumstances. But then she saw Luz turn to her with a squint, retracting her hand from Gus' shoulder as she did so.

"Wait, Lizzie, why are you here?"

Lizzie's smile disappeared when she held up a hand. "I'll explain later. For now, let's just—"

"You wretched witch!" Lizzie, Gus and Luz all flinched and whipped round to face Mattholomule at hearing his screeching echoing off the circular chamber, seeing the construction student stomping his way over to them with his fists shaking at his sides and his glare so full of vitriol, Lizzie half-expected herself to burst into flames. "How dare you—"

Mattholomule didn't even get to finish his sentence before the floor underneath them started to violently shake, causing him to lose his balance and stumble backwards onto his bottom.

"Curses!" Lizzie hissed at normal volume as she grabbed hold of Luz's and Gus' wrists and pulled them towards the door despite the trio swaying from side-to-side, taking a quick glance at the ceiling every now and again at catching sight of bits of rubble falling towards the floor. "Go, go, go! Don't look back!"

Luz and Gus did as she instructed when they slipped out of Lizzie's hold once she'd let them go, the pair darting ahead of her towards the door (which Willow was still somehow holding up with her magic, impressively enough). The trembling in the room eventually stopped, but the blonde witch didn't dare look back. Instead, she purposely trailed behind to make sure both Gus and Luz managed to dive past the door's teeth without catching themselves on it, with her letting out a quiet sigh with a hand to her chest when they did. But just as she closed in on the door herself, she stopped at hearing familiar shrieking from Mattholomule just behind her.

Lizzie swirled round to the sight of a gaping circular hole that had since opened and covered moved most of the room (baring the floor by the entrance and a thin circular line close to the walls). Mattholomule was lying on his back a small distance away from it, looking like he'd just tripped over and attempted to roll onto his back to stand up. From the hole a long, dark-green worm-like creature with a skull-like face, exposed teeth with no lips and void-like red eyes lurked behind him, staring down at the frozen Hexside student staring back up at it with quiet whimpers and shallow breathing.

It was only when the creature's mouth opened that Lizzie—against her better judgement—dug a hand into her satchel and started dashing towards Mattholomule, who was screaming at the top of his lungs while he cowered on the floor with his arms shielding his face, his eyes squeezed shut in anticipation for what was about to happen.

'I can't believe I'm about to do this…'

"L-Leave me alone! I-I haven't done anything wrong!"

Lizzie reached Mattholomule and grabbed him under one of his arms by the time a spurt of dark blue liquid shot from the creature's mouth. She was too slow in pulling one of her light potion vials free from her satchel, so despite continuing to pull Mattholomule to his feet, she found herself freezing at the liquid shooting towards her…

…until a blue cloud of smoke briefly popped into existence, dispersing to reveal the back of Gus standing in front of them with his arms outstretched.

"Gus!"

Lizzie called out to the young illusionist as she quickly shoved her potion vial back into her satchel and reached that hand for him, but the moment the liquid from the creature splashed against Gus' front… he disappeared in the same blue cloud of smoke from before, leaving behind the hardened liquid in the form of a tentacle tongue blindly swatting at the air.

Both Lizzie and Mattholomule were left gaping and blinking widely at this new development, until Lizzie's brows raised at realising what had just happened, her mind spiralling to the day Covention was held and Gus was showing off his magical abilities.

'Illusions! Gus can cast illusions!'

He'd cast an illusion to buy her some time, she concluded.

Lizzie smirked and took the opportunity to make her escape while the creature appeared distracted at the 'vanishing act' its prey had just pulled, swirling on her heels while scooping Mattholomule up under his waist by her arm.

'The little witch of showmanship has done it again! Not bad for being the 'youngest high schooler', Gus.'

"HEY!"

The blonde witch ignored Mattholomule's screech and made her mad dash for the monster door with the construction student tucked against her side, seeing Gus and Luz stood with Willow on the other side watching her with furrowed brows and their hands on either side of their mouths.

"Hurry, Lizzie!" Luz shouted, with Gus pointing towards Willow's vines when they began to bend with a loud snap, with Willow herself violently trembling with sweat dripping down the sides of her face; she wasn't looking too good.

"Willow can't hold it open for much longer!"

Gus' shout was all it took for Lizzie to feel the rush of adrenaline surge through her limbs, giving her the last push she needed to close in on the shortening gap between the two sets of teeth. With a loud and defiant cry (along with a panicked yell blending in from Mattholomule), Lizzie dived forward and flew from the inside of the room to the corridor outside, just as Willow's vines caved in from the increased pressure with a defeated and deafening crack. The blonde narrowly avoided having her feet crushed when the jaws of the door finally caved in, finding her and Mattholomule crashing to the floor seconds after hearing a resounding boom behind her, followed by the brief rumbling made from objects tumbling to the floor and the sudden explosion of dust (which she was forced to shield her head from by wrapping her arms round them, along with Mattholomule).

The blonde witch waited until the noises had settled before slowly raising her head at deeming it safe, the first thing she saw being Willow's eyes finally dying down in glow. Her body drooped forward as her exhaustion finally caught up with her, forcing her to support herself with her hands against her knees and loud panting. But Willow's current condition didn't stop Luz from grinning like the innocent human she was, going ahead to give her friend a rough pat on the back and then hold onto her.

"Willow! That was amazing! It was just like when you took on those abominations!"

Willow glanced up at Luz with a small smile, her cheeks flushing a light pink at the compliment.

"Thanks," she said in between breaths, prompting Luz to return the smile and gently rub at her back at hearing how winded she sounded. "I just hope I never have to do that again…"

With heaving breaths and a sweaty face, Lizzie twisted her body round to be met with an empty doorway, with said 'door' lying around them in chunks of rubble of varying sizes and scattered dust that had since coated the area and, apparently, her clothes. The blonde witch cringed and sucked in a breath through her teeth, noting the severity of the damage they'd caused.

'Ooooh… We'd better scarper before—'

"What has happened here?"

The stern voice of Principal Bump sounding behind them caused the four gathered witches and the lone human to raise their shoulders and momentarily freeze with widened eyes, with Lizzie finishing her interrupted thought as a quiet squeak inside her head.

'—Principal Bump shows up…'

The five all dared to turn around to face the opposite end of the corridor, where a scowling Principal Bump stood with bared teeth and his hands balled into fists at his sides. Eda was standing to the left of him, with one hand balled against her hip and the other one hiding her eyes. Lizzie could guess why, considering both she and Luz were involved.

"Who's responsible for this?" Bump continued sternly, causing the group of five to exchange glances.

Silence lingered between the two parties while they had their tense stare off, with no one choosing to say anything. Lizzie could see that Luz, Gus and Willow were frowning at each other, likely wondering if they should say the truth or just keep quiet to avoid getting anyone in trouble. But then that moment was broken by Mattholomule, who wasted no time in leaping to his feet and moving as far away from Lizzie as he could.

"She did it!" Mattholomule yelled, scowling at the older witch while pointing at her accusingly. "She staged a coup to get the human out of detention!"

Lizzie narrowed her eyes at the construction student and stood up, dusting off her vest and skirt with both of her hands without breaking eye contact. She swore she heard Eda mumble 'cowardly snitch' from the other side of the corridor, but she didn't draw attention to it.

"That's a weird way of saying 'thanks for the help', twerp."

Mattholomule scrunched his nose and mouth up and began jumping up and down on the spot, his face flushing a bright red when he directed his finger towards the detention room beside them. "You're the one who put me in there!"

"Where you were supposed to be," Lizzie bit back with venom, putting her hands to her hips. "You got someone who doesn't even go here put in detention! I'm sure those are grounds for unnecessary disturbance and use of school resources—"

"That's enough," Bump interrupted the argument with an icy tone, causing Lizzie and Mattholomule to look toward him with a wince. Bump directed a glare at Lizzie, who shrunk under his familiar judging gaze. "I am very disappointed in you, Elisabeth.—"

The younger witch swallowed thickly and lowered her head, feeling the déjà vu slowly creeping up on her in the form of a lump prodding at the inside of her throat. It was a familiar line she had heard many times when she'd found herself in the principal's office, but given the last time she'd heard that line was on the day she'd gotten expelled, it felt like she'd been slapped in the face. Out of the corner of her eyes, Lizzie swore she saw Mattholomule smirking and standing up straight with his arms folded, a pose and reaction that caused her left eye and hands to twitch. Had she been three years younger, she knew she wouldn't have hesitated to wipe that smirk off the cocky construction student's face.

"—Seeing you today, I thought you'd finally turned over a new leaf despite your circumstances." Bump gestured a hand to the rubble surrounding her without breaking eye contact. "But it seems you still can't go one day on school grounds without using your potions to blow something up."

Lizzie's head snapped up at the last thing Bump said, her brows raising with a wide blink after giving the rubble a quick glance. "Wait, what—?"

"You're wrong!" Luz's voice cut into the conversation before Lizzie could get her words out, with the blonde witch seeing the young human approaching Bump with a furrowed brow and her hands held out in surrender. "Lizzie didn't—"

"And as for you," Bump cut Luz off verbally and with the same glare while throwing his hands into the air, causing the girl to raise her shoulders and step away with her hands curling into her chest as he started to shout. "why am I not surprised that a student of Edalyn's would be capable of doing anything except create chaos?!"

Luz ended up backing into Lizzie's front, prompting the older blonde to gently hold Luz by the shoulders and give them a small squeeze out of reassurance. Lizzie had always known that Bump was a stern yet understanding principal, and while she was positive everything Bump was saying now was purely out of anger, she couldn't help frowning at her former principal for stating an opinion that had likely hurt Luz.

Bump turned to Eda and jabbed a finger in her direction, with the Owl Lady scowling back at him. "Edalyn, take your student and Elisabeth and leave, because effective immediately, all three of you are—"

"Wait, Principal Bump!" Brows raised between Lizzie, Luz, Eda, Bump and Willow when Gus raised a hand and stepped forward towards the elderly principal, his own brow creasing. Mattholomule seemed indifferent, but Lizzie assumed it was because he wasn't the one getting into trouble. "Please don't blame Luz and Lizzie for this." His lip quivered as he placed a hand to his chest, taking in a quick breath and squaring his shoulders. "I told Luz the ban was lifted." Lizzie and Luz gaped and leaned back at hearing Gus confess, watching the young illusionist clasp his fingers together at his front and fiddle with them. "I brought Luz to Hexside because we were fighting over the Human Appreciation Society. Lizzie was only trying to help me get Luz out of detention, but I was the one who broke the door, not her."

Willow blinked widely at the fact that Gus was covering for her, yet she chose to keep quiet when Bump stared at Gus for a moment before looking to Luz and Lizzie, a hand going under his chin. "Is this true?" When both girls reluctantly nodded, Bump let out a heavy sigh and focused on Gus again, stroking his chin. "In that case, Augustus, are you willing to accept their punishments as your own?"

Gus dared to peek over his shoulder at Luz and Lizzie before answering, showing no hesitation or pause when he did so, as if he'd already known this was the decision he was going to make. "Yes, Principal Bump."

Lizzie smiled widely at the young illusionist and gave him a stiff nod, prompting Gus to return it while Eda showed her own smile and tilted her head to the side with her hands on her hip.

"Aw. Dang, dweebus."

'Well done, Gus. I know that probably wasn't easy for you.'

Bump, meanwhile, nodded in approval and turned to Eda, returning his hands behind his back. "Well then, Edalyn, Elisabeth, I owe you both my sincerest apologies. It appears I was wrong about you both, after all. And in light of that, barring any more trouble…" Bump partially turned to where Lizzie and Luz were still standing, giving the latter a wide smile while holding both of his hands out towards her. "…we would be happy to officially enrol Luz into Hexside next semester. Consider your pupil our pupil."

Luz's jaw slacked as she let out a sharp gasp, her gaze repeatedly flitting between Lizzie and Eda out of disbelief, while Gus and Willow also shared gasps of their own, obviously not being aware of this development. Eda and Lizzie could only grin at Luz's reaction, knowing she would have been ecstatic the moment she found out what they were up to. When Luz's gaze finally rested on the older witch, though, the girl finally broke out of her shellshocked state, managing to get some words out.

"Really…? Am I really…?"

And in response, Eda held her arms on either side of her, her grin widening. "Surprise, kid!" She slightly shook her hands about. "Guess who got you into Hexside!"

With the confirmation given, Luz let out a loud high-pitched squeal and wasted no time in darting headfirst for the Owl Lady. The young Latina flung her arms around Eda's waist and twirled the older witch around a couple of times, leaving Lizzie laughing at her antics with an arm round her stomach and Eda chuckling as she tried to steady herself before they both fell over.

"Oh, Eda, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"A-All right, kid. Take it easy." When Luz stopped twirling her around, Eda placed her hands firmly on Luz's shoulders. "Just remember I'm only doing this because I have faith in you and how smart you are to not fall for the one-witch, one-coven nonsense. You'll learn a lot from the witches here." She raised a finger to her nose to give a tap while she winked. "And maybe you can teach them some of that Bad Girl Coven magic too."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Bump grumbled as he went to approach Gus, returning his voice to normal volume and regaining his stern expression once he'd stopped beside the young student witch. "As for you, Augustus, I would send you to detention right now…" He momentarily trailed off while darting his eyes between the rubble scattered about his feet. "But seeing as it's currently out of commission,"—he raised a hand to lift Gus' crown from the illusionist's head, causing Gus to pout and stick out his lower lip—"you'll be removed from the Human Appreciation Society instead."

At hearing this, Mattholomule perked up with a wide blink and slight gape, holding up a hand to get Bump's attention. "Does that make me president now?"

"Uh…" Bump flitted his gaze between the crown in his hand and Mattholomule for a few seconds, eventually shrugging his shoulders and tossing the crown in the construction student's direction. "Sure."

Mattholomule smirked triumphantly as he caught the crown between his hands, prompting Gus' shoulders to slump and Lizzie to scowl when he held it in the air like he'd just won a first-place trophy in grudgby. "Yes! I've won!" He glanced at Gus and pointed toward him with one hand, using the other to place the crown on his head atop his cowl hood. "In your face, Augustus!"

Gus and Lizzie watched Mattholomule run off from the area with his fists raised in the air, with the latter rolling her eyes. She honestly wished Mattholomule hadn't gotten his way, but she knew from experience that life worked in mysterious ways sometimes.

Once Mattholomule was out of sight, though, Lizzie side-stepped to Gus' side and leaned down a little to whisper his way, keeping one hand by her mouth.

"Psst!" Gus looked to Lizzie with two blinks, seeing the wide smile stretched onto her face. "Don't feel too bad. He's just trying to protect his ego from the fact that he couldn't get himself out of trouble and you had to save his butt back there." She gave Gus a light nudge in the ribs with an elbow, followed by a wink. "Thanks for the backup. You've got good skills there, showman."

Gus' cheeks flushed a light pink at this as a small smile appeared, causing him to look away and rub a hand at the back of his head at feeling the heat rising to his face. "T-Thanks."

The blonde also took the opportunity to glance towards Willow, giving her a thumbs up and a wink as well. "Same to you, Willow."

Willow chuckled and ended up copying Gus when her cheeks flushed pink as well, rubbing at her neck with her shoulders slightly raised. "Aw, shucks!"

Lizzie pulled away from Gus at seeing Bump looking at her with a small smile on his face, prompting her to raise a brow and tilt her head at him after a moment or two of silent staring.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just refreshing to see you finally beginning to act wisely with your concoctions," Bump replied with a slight chuckle, eventually turning around to walk off towards the corridor. "It reminds me of when I got to see your parents learn from their mistakes when they were here…"

Bump had mumbled the last part, but Lizzie still managed to catch it, causing her to briefly gape before she could try to muster herself to say something. "W-Wait, what was that last thing you—?"

"Now then, with that accomplished," Bump purposely cut Lizzie off as he walked by Luz and Eda, with the latter having since stood up again and pulled away from the former. "there's still the matter of the paperwork to fill out. You'll be needed for that, Edalyn."

Eda gawked at this while watching Bump go on ahead. "What?! There's more stuff I have to do?!" When Bump didn't answer and kept walking, Eda threw her head back with a loud 'ugh!', only to lower it again and give Luz a smirk and small ruffle of her hair, which Luz smiled at. "You'd better make sure this was all worth it, kid!" The Owl Lady moved her hand away and started to follow Bump in the direction he'd left in, waving a hand in the air in a beckoning motion as she addressed her older witch charge. "C'mon, Redwood! We're not done here yet."

Lizzie quietly shook her head at Eda's antics before gripping at her satchel strap and sprinting after the older witch without a word, giving Luz a small wave as she passed her by. "We'll see you later, Luz." She winked at her while putting on an exaggerated stern tone. "Try to stay out of trouble, okay?"

Luz giggled at that and nodded. "I will. That's a promise."

Returning the nod with another small chuckle, Lizzie fully turned away and made to catch up with Eda and Bump, feeling a sense of pride swell in her chest as she locked eyes with Eda's back.

'What do you know. Eda actually managed to clean up her mess, after all. Guess she's finally growing into the role of a responsible mentor.'


Lizzie didn't know how much time elapsed while she stood there watching Eda and Bump going through mountains of papers. But once everything was in order and Bump confirmed that Luz was officially going to be enrolled into Hexside, the two witches considered their jobs done for the day and were finally able to leave the school grounds with some feeling of accomplishment, and in Eda's case, the large pile of documentation recorded of all her antics from Hexside. Yes, for some reason Lizzie couldn't fathom, Bump had given Eda her permanent record to take away with her, and while he'd offered to do the same with her, Lizzie had respectively declined, naturally because she had no need for it.

With Luz being allowed to stay behind to get a proper tour of the school with Willow and Gus as her guides, Eda and Lizzie walked together away from Hexside's building and gates under the rays of the afternoon sun, with Lizzie having returned her cloak to her person and Eda carrying the stack of papers and books in both hands. The true scale of how tall the pile was hadn't hit Lizzie when it was resting on Bump's desk. But now that she was literally seeing it towering over Eda, blocking her view of where she was going and looking ready to topple onto her at any second, she couldn't bring herself to take her eyes off it. She did offer to carry some to avoid any accidents, but Eda reassured her this was no sweat and to just keep her eyes out for any obstructions on her behalf, which the blonde agreed to without complaint.

Of course, their walk back to the Owl House wasn't as silent or as tense as it was this morning, with Eda happily filling in on what she'd gotten up to while Lizzie had gotten distracted by Gus' dilemma with Mattholomule.

"—And then I had to clear the girl's changing room of those ghosts I left to haunt it." Eda paused to shudder and stick her tongue out. "Bleh! I tell ya, that ectoplasm isn't as slimy as Hooty's mucus, but it was still horrible to be doused in…"

Lizzie chuckled and failed to muffle it with a hand to her mouth, yet that didn't stop her from making a response. "Sounds like you had a tough day, huh?"

"Yeah." Eda tilted her head to the younger blonde with a lopsided grin. "But I'll admit, it was worth it to see the smile on Luz's face. The things I'm doing for that kid…" Eda shook her head and let her grin dim down into a small smile, her brow furrowing slightly. "I'm sorry it didn't work out so well for you, though. You went through all that, but you still can't remember a thing about Mister Tool."

And, much to Eda's surprise as evidenced by the wide blink she ended up giving her, Lizzie merely smiled at the Owl Lady and gave her shoulders a shrug, clasping her hands behind her back. "It's fine. It worked out for the best."

"Huh?" The Owl Lady slowed her pace down a bit, prompting Lizzie to do the same with her own walking. "Aren't you disappointed?"

"Not really." Lizzie turned her gaze towards the path ahead of them, her smile slowly fading as her eyes drooped. "I mean, sure, despite Principal Bump giving me the answers I wanted, my brain refuses to remember and acknowledge it. It still sees 'Xander Blackwood' and 'Hexside Bully' as two separate witches, and I doubt that's going to change." She rubbed a hand at her forehead. "Whatever happened that night must have caused my brain to permanently suppress anything connected to that trauma. But honestly…" The hint of a smile returned. "…I'm glad it did."

"… You are?" Eda questioned with a squint, prompting Lizzie to nod in confirmation and straighten out her shoulders.

"Seeing Mattholomule picking on Gus reminded me of how much my bully and I were like them. He was always looking to pick drama and fights with me for no reason, always wanting to one-up me in everything I did. He saw me as some kind of rival, even though I never entertained his antics and just ignored him. But I can't deny that I didn't have my faults either. I got sick of him constantly getting in my face and I thought using my potions against him would make him stop. Yet the situation escalated because I was careless with my potions back then. I used them even when I knew they weren't ready, which is why I caused so many accidents." She unclasped her hands to place one to her chest, giving it a rub through her vest with a widened smile. "It wasn't until Principal Bump pointed it out that I realised how much I've matured since then. That incident left its mark, and I won't deny that it caused me to manage it in an unhealthy way…"

"Locking your potions away in that chest comes to mind," Eda replied with a slight smirk and light nudge to the younger witch's ribs, causing Lizzie to roll her eyes before she continued.

"But aside from one occasion during that whole mess, I never once thought to use my potions. And the one time I did, it was my least harmful potion, even though I had the explosive one right here at the ready." She gave her satchel a light tap, raising her head to meet Eda's eyes. "As annoying as it is that I can't physically remember Xander and have him replace 'the bully' in my head, I think it's for the better that my brain chose to block him out. Because he was nothing but a terrible influence in my life, and without him I feel like I've become a better witch. It's enough that I know what happened without having to remember it."

Eda was left staring at Lizzie with a silent blink and slight gape for a few seconds. But that was soon replaced by a proud smile and a quick wink. "Well, good for you, kiddo. At least you got something out of that experience, after all. Maybe now you'll stop being so hard on yourself with your progress in your magic, huh?"

Lizzie's brows raised as she came to a sudden stop and leaned back, prompting Eda to stop as well. "Wait, how did you—?"

Eda tilted her head to the side and darted her eyes in the direction of where the Owl House was, even though they were currently nowhere near it. "Need I remind you of our resident gossipy house demon?"

Lizzie's eyes narrowed the second she realised who Eda was talking about, causing the blonde witch to huff and the two witches to resume their walking, once the younger witch had smacked her forehead with her palm, of course. "Dang it, Hooty!"

Eda snorted and shook her head at Lizzie's reaction, her gaze briefly landing back on her book pile in her arms. A sudden thought struck her the moment she did, prompting her to tilt her head to the sky. "You know, I think I knew a 'Blackwood' back in my Hexside days…"

Lizzie focused on Eda with a wide blink and raised brows, her words delayed by a couple of seconds. "Really?"

"Uh-huh." The Owl Lady squinted at the sky, as if trying to recall what little she could about this witch. "We weren't friends or anything. In fact, I don't think we shared the same classes. But funnily enough, I think he was also in the Potions Magic Track, and the only time I ever saw 'im was when I was in the principal's office." Eda gave a shrug and lowered her head to face Lizzie. "Obviously, I'm not saying it's Mister Tool. Just thought it was a strange coincidence, is all."

Lizzie could only nod in agreement, reaching a hand to stroke her chin as she turned her gaze away to the ground. "A strange coincidence, indeed. Not that it's the first of today between us."

Lizzie's comment had Eda chuckling, prompting the pair to break out into the new topic of the similarities between their Hexside days, from the fact the pair were in the same magic track, to the fact they were both troublemakers of some sort back in the day. And yet while Lizzie found herself engaged in this conversation, Eda's earlier comments reminded her of Bump's remarks toward her, which sprung to the forefront of her mind.

'It reminds me of when I got to see your parents learn from their mistakes when they were here…'

'Principal Bump, what did you mean by that?'