Chapter 10 – Shocking Revelation
Hecate looked around the hall as Pippa spoke to her and Aiden, she couldn't see Mildred. Though she noticed Enid and Maud, without realizing she left Pippa and Aiden. She walked up to her former students; they seemed much happier now that they were reunited with their best friend. She took another scan of the table with her eyes, and she still could not see her.
"Miss Spellbody, were might Miss Hubble be?" she asked the chubby student.
"We wondered the same thing." Enid told her.
"She's at a meeting with Audrey and a few others in the library". Martha informed them all.
Pippa had overheard and walked over; she breathed a sigh of relief at Martha's words.
Pippa looked at Hecate and Aiden. "Want to meet the students in question?"
They both nodded and followed Pippa towards the library, as they entered, Hecate took in the familiar feeling that she got every time she entered this library and that was one of content. Pippa led them up a few flights of stairs and through a door to the right-hand side by the restricted section. Through this door was a dead-end corridor which had six doors each leading to a separate room. Three either side of the corridor. Pippa knocked on the second one to the left and Genevive answered the door and let them in.
The Dormant students were very confused firstly as Barbie never entered their meetings without a good reason. Secondly Mr Spellman wasn't aware that they had meetings at all. Lastly as one of the teachers stood there, wasn't one of their teachers, nor was she on school swop.
Pippa addressed the students, and she knew they would not like what they were about to hear, though it needed to be said. "Good afternoon, now, this will come as a shock. It did for me. Please listen carefully and know I wouldn't say this without a good reason or proof. Any communication with Miss Stormweather is henceforth banned, that includes, mirroring, letters, maglet's, you name it. We are cutting ties from here on out."
There was a lot of outrage and Pippa being Pippa let them get their frustrations out, mostly it was the group talking over each other. Clearly this news hadn't gone down well. Hecate was about to intervene, though Pippa held her hand out to tell her not to intervene. It wasn't long until the group went silent with looks of thunder on their faces.
The group was livid, their chances of fitting in and for Mildred and Claire to finally get a grip on their magic. Though like the other three they sat and waited for their headmistress to explain.
Pippa cleared her throat whilst she and the other two sat amongst the students. "Now, like I said I would only say this if it was absolutely necessary, I know you have all made great progress with her, one starting her journey of understanding who you are." She stated as she looked at Mildred. "With Darkside no longer being here and Broomhead coming out of the woodwork as well as Ethel Hallow being broken out of Wormwood. We can't ignore the signs. Also, Mr Spellman has made a discovery whilst being at Weatherley's Academy."
Aiden looked at the group as they all turned to look at him. He took out the leatherbound notebook he had showed Pippa earlier that day. "This here has all the information on every Dormant student Miss Stormweather has come across. Now, we don't believe in coincidences." He handed the leatherbound book to Audrey and one by one the students flicked through it, and they soon came to the realisation that the teachers were not being dramatic.
"Why would she have a book with all our info in, there aren't many of us, there wouldn't be any need?" Claire said with confusion.
"Our point exactly." Pippa stated.
Aiden spoke up. "From now on your lessons will be with myself and Miss Pentangle, do not fret. Though she threw a fit when we cancelled Mildred's lesson for tomorrow as far as she knows, Mildred has gone home for the weekend".
"Do you think it's happening again?" Richard asked.
"We think so, though for a school that does not flaunt our students off, this is beyond infuriating. Our entire faculty is back including the grounds staff, you are safe here as you always are."
"What do you mean by it's happening again?" Claire asked.
Hecate was the first to answer the question. "Many years ago, The Witching society didn't want those they deemed different to handle magic, some they thought were too much of a threat especially those from Dormant lines. They thought that if a line's magic disappeared, it should stay that way. So they rounded the ones up that they could find, and they were never seen again. These were the witchcraft that could hide in paintings, dream walkers, Shape shifters, element benders, Animagi. These had magic that was different, and they hadn't been a problem to anyone, until one day a young girl tried to prevent someone drowning and her magic went out of control, she was deemed dangerous and due to this the Dormant lines were rounded up. I only know this as I was taught by Broomhead herself."
"You think we are at risk of being rounded up and never seen again?" Mildred asked.
"That or rounded up to be used as a weapon, I can't imagine she would train you just for you to be never seen again. There is definitely a bigger plan, especially if Broomhead and Darkside are involved." Hecate answered, though there is a hint of fear in her eyes.
"Now, I suggest you all head to the hall and get something to eat." Pippa told them as she, Aiden and Hecate walked out of the groups meeting room.
"That night Hecate stayed, and she had been caught by Ridgeway for standing in Mildred's doorway watching her sleep, wishing she and those at Cackle's gave the girl a real chance, no-one would have known she was dormant, she would have been safe.
"You can't do that, on all levels of wrong, you can't do that." Ridgeway told her, he made sure to stand where he couldn't see Mildred at all.
"She is safe here, isn't she?" Hecate's voice was clearly breaking.
"Safest place is here, most of the staff are Green Witches, a couple of Blood Witches and a few Aquanites, rumour has it there are a couple of Element Benders in the forest. Standing there watching a student sleep is not going to help anyone, I'll be surprised if you haven't heard of our school's reputation by now."
"I have, though as always, I have my doubts. This school is an old Castle, which means there will be underground tunnels etc." Hecate said with a panicked tone whilst she closed Mildred's door.
"I'm Logan by the way, we weren't formally introduced last year. Shall we see how far down the school goes?"
Hecate had a determined expression on her face, and she followed Logan down many staircases until they came to the dungeons. Logan took out a set of keys that were on a chain around his neck and hidden beneath his suit and out of sight. He unlocked the door whilst muttering the secret words that Pippa had put in place to ensure the key alone would not be enough.
There was a spiral staircase that they walked down.
"I hope you are not easily grossed out, it's full of skeletons down here, though I can assure you there are no rats". Logan called back. "Also, the air gets thinner down here."
They came upon a sea of corridors and hundreds of cells. This is what Hecate had feared and as she looked into a few of the cells, and she could see skeletons clung to the walls. Each one had clearly been left to starve.
"As you can imagine, the dungeons are inaccessible to the students and only accessible to certain members of staff. Pippa will not come down here unless she has to which is. Never. As no-one actually comes down here, she hasn't made it a priority to sort it out. Plus, it's our history, almost every cell held a witch or wizard back in the dark ages.
Logan swirled his hand around and a ball of light formed in front of him, he stopped at every cell and every wall and every part of the ceiling to allow Hecate to see for herself that there was no way that anyone was coming into the school via the dungeons. He tried blasting the walls, weakening the structure. He proved that the last part of the school to go would be the dungeons if the school was destroyed beyond repair.
"You knew there was no way for anyone to get through this way, why didn't you just say rather than have us spend hours in a dungeon." Hecate asked with confusion though she was entertained at the same time. She was a goth, so she rather enjoyed this experience.
"If I had simply told you, you wouldn't have believed me. With over sixty green witches within the faculty. Certain measures were put in place, and this was one of them. Being able to bend the element of earth has its perks." He cast a cheeky grin to her. Hecate formed her own ball of light, and she scanned the dungeons two more times to be on the safe side before following Logan back upstairs.
As they approached the locked door at the top of the stairs, they were met by non-other than Pippa herself, with her arms crossed, looking very annoyed. Logan went to speak though Pippa held her hand up to signal not to even try.
She spoke carefully though there was anger in her voice, it was sharp and pointed, this wasn't a tone that Logan or Hecate had ever heard. "How dare you, go into the dungeons without telling me. Logan your classes have waited for you for the past three hours. The air down there is very thin, you could have passed out and or been injured and no-one knew where you were. Luckily an alarm went off in my office a couple of hours ago."
Surprisingly Logan wasn't fazed by Pippa's tone, he hadn't slept all night and so he was in rather a good mood. "Pippa, come on now, we were literally just making sure there was no way for anyone to enter through the dungeons, Hecate here couldn't sleep so I thought rather than tell her that it was impossible, of which she would not have believed me, I thought I would be a gentleman and show her. I wasn't expecting to be down there all night though she insisted she check multiple times to be on the safe side. Not to push her off the broom or anything." He winked at the last part as Hecate looked at him like he had purposefully tried to blame her, though he had said the right thing.
Pippa thought hard before she spoke, Logan had a very good point. "I suppose it's better to check for weaknesses than risk anything." Pippa stated as she calmed down. Knowing it was done for the safety of the students.