"Mildred Hubble's taking my sister - I wish she had never come to Cackles!"

"Thanks for helping me with this, Mildred," Esmerelda smiled gratefully at the dark-haired girl as she took the iPhone back and dropped it in her pocket.

"No problem, Esmerelda, glad I could help," Mildred smiled back at the older blond girl.

Esmerelda Hallow looked around the bedroom, thankful that in here there was no chance of Miss Hardbroom appearing out of thin air and vanishing the iPhone out of her hands in the same manner she had to Mildred's old mobile, but her eyes were drawn to a photograph of Mildred and Julie Hubble, and she felt jealousy surge through her, but she pushed it down quickly. It wasn't fair to Mildred after the younger girl had gone through all the trouble of helping her for the last hour.

But…

"Listen, Mildred, I really am grateful for your help," Esmerelda tried to explain, "you've been more helpful than my parents have been."

Mildred licked her lips. She didn't really have a lot of respect for the older Hallows. Only a week or so ago, Mrs Hallow had tried to have Miss Cackle thrown out of the school. She had almost succeeded thanks to a petition filled with the names of the parents of the girls, too bad the whole thing was a con. Mrs Hallow had known from the moment she had gotten the idea into her mind that too many of the parents had far too much respect for Miss Cackle, but that wasn't a problem because she could easily just fake the petitions. She had grabbed an official looking scroll and simply scrawled the names of the parents, including Gordon and Mavis Spellbody, Maud's parents, as well as Felicity's parents, and Enid's, and apparently Felicity's parents loved Miss Cackle. Yet their names were on the petition, so either they were a pack of liars, or something funny was going on.

Mildred's had never really thought much of Mrs Hallow.

The way she had spoken to Ethel when the Great Wizard had transported her into Miss Cackle's office and the way she had coldly told straight to Ethel's face that she had a non-magical daughter and she didn't have time to think about anything else had devastated Ethel. Mildred had never seen that look on Ethel's face before, and while the two girls didn't get along, she did feel sorry for the blond.

Ethel blamed her for her mother losing her position, but in Mildred's mind the woman had lost it herself because of her arrogance. If it wasn't for her suspicions and Miss Pentangle's help, Mrs Hallow may have succeeded. Thinking of the pink clad teacher made Mildred once more wonder what the glamorous but quirky woman wanted in the long term.

"Listen, Esmerelda, I'm sorry for getting your mother thrown out of the council-," Mildred tried to apologise, but Esmerelda chuckled. "Don't be. I'm glad she's paid the price for her little trick. She's had it in her mind for a while - don't ask me why - to make Miss Cackle pay for what happened with my powers."

"It wasn't her fault, was it?" Mildred asked.

The year before, Esmerelda had been tricked into handing over her powers to Agatha Cackle under the mistaken belief she was Ada, but it turned out to be a trick. Mildred had been surprised and upset Esmerelda was missing out on learning magic this year especially when her littlest sister was in the castle. Unlike Ethel, Mildred got along with Sybil Hallow - she wasn't sure why, but there was something about Sybil's innocence and uncertainty that appealed to her, and unlike her older sister, Sybil didn't put on airs and graces when she spoke to anyone.

When Sybil learnt that she was friends with a girl from a non-witching family, she hadn't reacted as badly as Ethel had. No, she had asked if she could teach her about that world, so she could help Esmerelda. That kid was sweet.

Esmerelda sighed. "No," she said, "but I understand where she's coming from. Don't misunderstand me, Mildred - I love Miss Cackle, and I don't want her to leave in such a manner, but if you look at it from the same angle as my mother, then you can understand why she did what she did. Miss Cackle was a convenient replacement for Agatha."

"Ah," Mildred finally understood Mrs Hallow's game, "and because the Great Wizard imprisoned her and Miss Gullet in that photo framed in the headmistress's office, there was nothing your mum could do."

"Yeah. Unfortunately, Mother and Father have spent more time looking for people to blame for what's happened to me than actually spending any time with me, and trying to find a way to give me my powers back," Esmerelda said with a sigh, and the look in her eyes broke Mildred's heart.

Mildred's brow crinkled. "Excuse me, but I thought Agatha had to be the one to give you your powers back-?"

"Who told you that?"

"Ethel did. We were arguing in the Great Hall, and we fell into a Friendship trap, meaning we were literally joined together at the arms," Mildred replied.

"A Friendship trap? I've heard of those, and I came up in conversation?"

"Yeah," Mildred replied, hoping that Esmerelda didn't ask for details. "She told me your powers could only be given back if Agatha willingly volunteered to give them back to you, but since we both know there is more chance of the Great Wizard dancing in a tutu," Mildred paused when Esmerelda threw back her head and laughed, "than Agatha Cackle giving you your powers back."

Esmerelda stopped laughing, and despite the girl's serious expression about their present topic, Mildred could see the teenager was still inwardly laughing at how she'd described the Great Wizard. "That's not entirely accurate," she said, "there is always the possibility of successfully getting the magic out of someone who is too ill to use it, or if they're a prisoner for breaking the code; in that case I wouldn't mind because I could take their powers and do something more positive with them."

"If that's true then why haven't your parents got it done yet?" Mildred questioned.

Esmerelda shrugged her shoulders, but she answered the question honestly. "I've asked myself the same question half a dozen times, I've also confronted Mother and Father about it, but they refuse to take it onboard, though now they might not have any choice. I thought for a moment it was because they would be ashamed of me, the heiress of the Hallow fortune and business, receiving the magic from a prisoner."

"Could they not do it privately, that way no-one knows how it was done?"

"I don't know," Esmerelda's tone told Mildred to drop the subject, even though the blond knew the dark-haired girl had just raised a very good point.

Fortunately Mildred dropped the subject. "Was there anything else you wanted me to check for you?" the girl asked while looking at the latest letter she'd received from Esmerelda. "Oh yeah, you had problems with the internet."

"Not just the internet," Esmerelda corrected with a sigh. "I'm having problems with computers in general. We don't need them in the magical world, you see."

Mildred looked at Esmerelda pityingly for a second. The dark-haired girl was vividly reminded of how things had been for herself when she had come to Cackles to learn magic ever since Maud accidentally crash-landed into her balcony. She had made dozens of mistakes during her time at Cackles simply because she had problems understanding the culture of magic, but what made it worse was the other girls had grown up with magic in their eyes and potion fumes being inhaled into their lungs whereas she had never brewed a potion before in her life.

Esmerelda was in the same boat she had been in, and like her was out of her depth. Mildred had done her best to tutor Esmerelda ever since she had become friendly with the older girl's youngest sister Sybil, and Mildred had discovered Esmerelda was having problems coping with the non-magical world and she had felt sorry for the older girl. Secretly she had contacted Esmerelda via letters delivered to her thanks to Sybil, who was the only one who knew. Mildred had not wanted Ethel to find out in case the other girl exploded with anger, and she had been on the receiving end of Ethel's temper enough already.

Esmerelda had been surprised at first to receive the letters, she had not expected her, Mildred Hubble, sworn enemy of her sister Ethel, to care enough about her to tell her that if she wanted any help with getting through life in the non-magical world. To say it was a struggle was an understatement for her - she had nearly made a fool of herself when she had almost greeted the other girls at the school her parents had shoved her into in the traditional manner, only to be confronted with the handshake, and she had needed to pretend that she knew about the greeting (even if it disgusted her) but preferred not to use it.

Esmerelda had been at the non-magical school for months now. She was desperate to escape it before she went mad. She hated it, she hated the fact she had gone from top student in magic to being the worst student in the school. She hated the lessons because she had no idea what they did - the only lesson that was even remotely like potions was chemistry, but even there you couldn't drink any of your experiments unless you wanted to become poisoned. Even PE was not like she had expected; when Miss Drill was teaching it, you knew you could use magic to perform some of the work, but not in the non-magical world where you soon doubled up panting for breath.

She had hoped that her parents would try to use their influence and connections to find a proper and practical solution to getting her her powers back. It would have been pathetically easy for her parents to call in a few favours and have a prisoner transfer their magic to her, or a terminally ill witch who was suffering from an illness where her magic was no good to her and she would soon die. Granted, she hadn't wanted to take anybody else's powers if they were in that state, but now she was desperate.

When she had received the letters from Mildred… Esmerelda had never really had much contact with the younger dark-haired girl in the past. She had several issues with Mildred since the girl had messed up her sister's potion during the Entrance Exam, turned her into a pig, and basically drove Ethel, who was already diagnosed with anxiety and mild depression, mad with jealously and annoyance. Esmerelda understood the reasons why her sister had basically abused Mildred and tormented the other girl, but she had tried to mitigate the worst of it. Ethel was jealous of Mildred because the girl, despite having little in the way of material items, had a mother who cared and was willing to make the effort to support her.

Esmerelda and Ethel and Sybil were not so lucky. Their mother was a narcissistic and glacial woman who cared more for what was outside her life than what there was inside. Esmerelda couldn't remember a time where the woman cuddled or kissed her or her other sisters, and as a result the Hallow girls had little understanding of love but Mildred did, and Esmerelda and Ethel were both envious of the girl. Esmerelda hid her jealousy well, Ethel didn't. It was that simple.

At first, Esmerelda had not really replied to Mildred's letters, believing that if she obeyed the tenants of the Witches' code she would eventually master her problems in the non-magical world. How hard could it be? And then she had simply realised that it was impossible since she had little understanding of how the world worked, and none of the customs Esmerelda had learnt as a young girl about the magical world she had grown up in meant anything there.

In the end Esmerelda had written back to Mildred, and from there she had found a kindred spirit, something that she had never believed would happen between herself and the other girl. It was true though; Mildred was basically a stranger in Esmerelda's true world - she refused to go entirely non-magical - but she knew how it worked whereas Esmerelda didn't.

With each letter Esmerelda received from Mildred, the easier she found it to adjust to life without magic even if she found many of the attitudes and ways of the non-magical people barbaric and primitive; their medicines for instance didn't really work as quickly as a potion did, they squabbled about things and matters that made little sense. Esmerelda had long since stopped caring, and it hadn't taken her long at all.

The best thing about the letters were the diagrams and drawings Mildred sent to her to explain in detail how things worked. Thanks to Mildred, she had learnt quite a bit, but computers were still tricky for her though she had learnt how to use a tablet. In return for her help, Esmerelda reciprocated by giving the girl hints and tips about how witches and wizards worked and lived, what some customs were, how spells worked, a bit about potions, and a few tenets of the code and bits and pieces about magical traditions.

"Okay, tell me what you've got problems with," Mildred said softly.

Esmerelda sighed; she had a thousand questions and problems, too many to list here and now. "I'm having problems with the keyboard shortcuts-," she began, but Mildred interrupted her, "I should tell you here and now that I'm exactly an expert. The best thing you can do is go online, and find out about them from there. What kind of problems are you having with the internet?"

"Well, witches don't really use the net, so I've never really had much experience with it, but sometimes it gets really slow."

Mildred frowned thoughtfully for a second as she tried to work out what Esmerelda must have done to do something to the computer to make it work like that when it hit her. She quickly drew something on one of the pieces of paper in front of her. "Do you leave loads of tabs open, like these on the computer screen?" she asked handing the paper over to Esmerelda, who took it.

"Yeah," the older girl replied slowly.

"That's the problem; I don't know how it does it so don't ask, but I know if you open too many tabs then you slow the whole thing down. Try to keep a open if possible, say….two or three?" Mildred reached out and gently took the paper back from the girl, and drew something else on it before handing it back to Esmerelda, who took it so she could see the latest additions, and she saw that the familiar 'BACK' arrow was drawn on the paper.

"When you're finished with whatever it is you're doing," Mildred explained, "click on the arrow pointing to your left, and then you're back to where you were before."

Esmerelda looked at the drawings, her mind already processing the information and she nodded. "Okay, thanks Mildred," she said before she checked her watch. What she saw made her leap to her feet. "Oh no!"

Alarmed by the sudden loudness of her visitors voice, Mildred leapt off the bed. "What's wrong?" she asked fearfully.

"I've been with you too long," Esmerelda replied, "I need to see Ethel-,"

Unfortunately by that point, the door to Mildred's bedroom was thrown open. Mildred's heart sank when she saw it was Ethel Hallow and the blond girl did not look the least bit happy at the sight of her big sister with her sworn enemy. Esmerelda felt her heart drop - she had completely lost track of time speaking to Mildred about her problems, and now Ethel was going to jump to conclusions.

But she had promised to help Ethel with her project.

Esmerelda knew how her sister was, and she knew that Ethel would overreact.

"Ethie-," Esmerelda began to say apologetically, but she knew it would only make things worse.

"I've waited for you for over an hour," Ethel ground out, fixing Esmerelda with a searing glare, but what made it worse for the older girl was the tell-tale sign of tears in Ethel's eyes. "I thought 'oh, Esme's looking around the school, talking to the other girls, and to Sybil' so I thought 'no big deal' but what I do find when I go out looking for you? I find you in here with HER!" Ethel shouted the last word, pointing at Mildred.

Esmerelda almost closed her eyes when Mildred opened her mouth and began to speak, didn't she know by now that was not the best thing to do?

"Ethel, sorry, I was only trying to help Esmerelda-," Mildred tried to say.

"Help her? With what?"

Esmerelda cut in before Mildred could babble and say something that would only serve to make Ethel angrier. "I overheard Mildred talk to her friends and even Clarice and Beatrice about someone non-magical, and so I asked her if she could give me hints about it. I was going to see you, Ethel, really I was."

"But you didn't!" Ethel shouted, she had been slightly mollified at first by what Esmerelda had said, but her last sentence promising to see her only made her angry again. "And now she wants to take you away from me, just like she's taken everything else from me!"

"What are you talking about?"

Ethel glared at Mildred, tears rolling down her face. "You took away my entrance exam grade, my Spelling Bee reward, you've gotten my mother thrown out of the magic council. She's evil, Esme," Ethel backed away from the confused and annoyed Mildred like she genuinely thought the dark-haired witch was contagious, "and now she wants to take you away from me!"

Mildred turned to Esmerelda in confusion, hoping the older girl would at least explain to her where she got that from. But Ethel ranted and raved, and what she said made no sense to Mildred; yeah, she got the reference that she was evil to the girl for getting her mother kicked out of her position, but Mrs Hallow deserved it.

But come on about the other stuff. Yeah, she had cheated on the entrance exam, using Ethel's ingredients, but hadn't they worked on the Spelling Bee together?

Fortunately Esmerelda seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Ethel, that is enough. Mildred may have gotten mother kicked out of the council," Esmerelda said, interrupting Mildred when the dark-haired girl indignantly said, "Hey!" but she carried on, "but mother deserved it; she lied, Ethel, she tried to con the council into thinking she had gotten the parents of the girls to kick Miss Cackle out of the school. She was too busy with thoughts of revenge that she never bothered to try to find out if there was a way for me to get my powers back; ideally Agatha would give them back to me, but there are other ways. She hasn't even tried to find an option, Ethel."

"I'm stuck in the non-magical world. Do you know what it's like? I don't know anything about the culture, I don't understand the lessons. It's like waking up everyday into a world and the colours have been bled out. I'm bullied by the other students at the school simply because I don't dress like them, or I don't know anything. The only person who knows anything about the non-magical world that I can trust is Mildred. We've been sending letters to one another," Esmerelda said, deciding to lay her cards on the table to make her younger sister see sense. "I thought I could cope at first, but her hints and tips have helped me out. When I came to see you and Sybie today, I decided to take advantage of it and see her-,"

"Only because you'd prefer her as your sister!" Ethel shouted angrily, tears rolling down her face before she stormed back out of the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Mildred looked at the older girl. "I-I'm sorry," she whispered, but Esmerelda sighed. "Don't be, its not your fault. It's mine. I should have told Ethel about the letters before this sort of thing happened, but what just happened was something I was hoping to avoid."

Mildred said nothing, she just bit her lip. She had been on the receiving end of Ethel's volatile temper often enough to know that no matter what Esmerelda simply could not win. But she was intrigued by something she'd said. "Are you really being badly bullied at the school?" she whispered as though afraid Esmerelda's own temper would be set off.

Fortunately the older girl was much calmer than Ethel. "Yeah," she admitted quietly after a moment of trying to decide whether to say anything or not, but since Mildred already knew about it, there was no harm in saying anything else. "I hate it, Mildred. I hate it so much. I hate the fact I've gone from top student to being the worst. The only upside to that school is that it's a day school, and I can go home at the end. That's it. My first days were hell, and that was the only reprieve, even if I had to contend with whomever was at home waiting for me. I hate the fact my own parents are so far into themselves and not really bothering to help me, and being more interested in punishing the twin of the woman who took my powers in the first place."

"I don't blame you for mother losing her position, Mildred. Far from it - my mother needed a potion of humility, and I was sick and tired of hearing her go on about Miss Cackle, but I never thought she would try something as extreme as faking a petition like that. I'd stay away from my mother if I were you," Esmerelda added seriously, "you're not popular at home. But its good because while I love Ethie, I don't really care what my parents say or do."

Mildred wasn't sure whether to be concerned or worried by what Esmerelda had just admitted about her parents. "Are they really that bad at school?" she asked hoping the change would help.

Esmerelda knew what Mildred was talking about. "Yeah, they are," she whispered. "A few of them have picked me out because I don't know anything, and I'm an easy target."

"I'm sorry-," Mildred whispered.

"Why should you be sorry? You're the one that's been helping me with the non-magical world and its insanities. In fact, whenever I have a test and I don't understand any of it, I've been thinking about you and how you've tried to cope with the tests and exams here."

"Well, at least you've managed to help me now-," Mildred said, but Esmerelda interrupted her again. "Yeah, but you've helped me; I think I would have died if I hadn't received your letters. They've really helped me, but I wish I had a friend, like you do with Maud and Enid to help me through the grief."

Mildred found it hard to keep her composure when she saw how close to tears Esmerelda was, she didn't deserve any of this. Privately, Mildred felt anger well inside her at how Ethel had tricked her into giving over her powers to Agatha Cackle, but what annoyed her the most was the Great Wizard had been so absorbed in putting Agatha and Miss Gullet into that picture that he hadn't bothered to take the magic she had stolen and given it back to Esmerelda. She decided there and then that if something happened to that picture, and Agatha and Miss Gullet ever escaped, then she would do her level best to make sure it was returned to Esmerelda.

"Why did you have so much trouble accepting my help?" Mildred asked.

Esmerelda chuckled. "Two things - I am a Hallow; I might have lost my powers, but I'm still from a stubborn family, and its in my blood to not accept help. Secondly, I might not be a witch anymore, but I still have the Witches' code in my head. It's hard to forget something that's been engrained into your mind. The code says witches have to help themselves."

"I don't understand-,"

"When witches and wizards are young," Esmerelda explained, trying not to feel sick about talking about magic, "the parents teach them the basics of magic, except potions because they are more intricate and small mistakes can have terrible consequences," she trailed off eyeing Mildred, who looked a bit sheepish since it was known her potions always went wrong, "but when it comes to spells, witches and wizards are taught that magic is geared to the mind, so what you want your magic will provide, but they are still taught how to control their powers."

"And you're teaching me that control," Mildred said, understanding now.

"Yeah, it would help if I had magic myself, that way I can show you where you're going wrong, but it doesn't matter," Esmerelda shrugged like it was no big deal.

"Don't say that," Mildred whispered before she decided to change the subject completely. "Was there anything else you were having trouble with?"

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Ethel stormed into her bedroom, startling Nightstar, who hissed angrily at having his nap disturbed, but his witch ignored him as she slammed the door shut again and dropped onto the bed. Ethel was shaking with rage and upset. When she had learnt her big sister was coming to the school, she had been excited even if she had tried her level best to ignore it, she had a reputation to uphold after all.

But when Esmerelda had not turned up even when Ethel had known her sister was at the school, she had panicked, assuming that Esme had forgotten about her so she frantically checked the school and asked around, hoping to find her when she heard Esme's voice in Mildred's bedroom of all places, and she went ballistic when she stormed the bedroom and saw the two girls sitting on the same bed.

Now she thought about it, Esmerelda had lied to her - she had said she had overheard Mildred talking about the non-magical world, but now it turned out they had been exchanging letters to one another! Letters! What was next, a wedding? Was Esmerelda going to suddenly ditch her and her sister Sybil and go live with Mildred and her mother?!

Ethel sighed tiredly, but her anger towards Mildred Hubble wouldn't go away. "Mildred Hubble," she whispered furiously to herself, "it always come down to Mildred Hubble. She's ruined my life, now she's taking my sister away from me. I wish she had never come to Cackles."

Suddenly Ethel heard a popping sound in her bedroom and she began to feel very sleepy, and she closed her eyes.