Charlotte felt sick…what if this meeting was about Flame? She chewed on her lip as she hurried into the bathroom, hoping that Molly wasn’t in trouble.
'I was about to go in there,' Alice huffed.
'I'm sure Charlotte won't be long,' Gerty said cheerily. 'What do you think this meeting is about?'
'I don't know,' Alice ran her fingers though her knotty hair. 'But the fact they sent those creatures to tell us about this meeting is ridiculous!'
'I like the talking bats, I think they're quite charming.'
'I would expect that someone like you would like those creatures,' Alice said sarcastically. She shuffled under her blanket, making a fort out of it with her legs to protect her in case any more bats flew in.
'Where's Stef?' Gerty asked, as Charlotte walked out of the bathroom.
'She's got the blue-pox, she's in the sick-bay. Molly says she'll be fine in a couple of days.'
'This whole room needs a decontamination spell as blue-pox is extremely contagious,' Alice said from her fort.
'The bats have gone and the bathroom is free, so you can come out now,' Gerty said.
'I'm not taking any chances,' she stood up and pulled the blanket around her head as she scurried to the bathroom.
'I hope Stef's okay.' Gerty gave a concerned look.
'She's fine Gerty,' Charlotte put her hand on her shoulder. 'She's just a bit blue.'
'My cousin had it once, she sweated so much she looked like a blue popsicle.'
'She'll be back with us soon,' Charlotte assured.
'You're right,' she smiled. 'And then we can tell her all about this meeting.'
'Yeah, yeah we can,' Charlotte muttered.
The three of them got dressed and the wardrobe spat out their capes and hats. They joined the rest of the students in a frenzied rush down towards the great hall. There were many rumors about the meeting. Was Miss Moffat retiring? Were the dragons back? Was the Academy in danger?
As they walked into the great hall they all looked at the stage in surprise. Sitting on a mahogany stool was a solemn looking Mistress of the Books. Her long hair was covered by a dark cape and she didn't alter her gaze...she stared straight at the students. In her hand, she firmly grasped an old leather book...perhaps trying to show that she was indeed the rightful school librarian.
'Is that the Mistress of the Books?' Alice stared at her open-mouthed.
Charlotte and Gerty shuffled Alice towards a free row of seats and they all sat down and stared at the stage.
'Yeah, it is,' Charlotte replied.
'I wonder why she's here?' Gerty asked.
Suddenly the lights dimmed and an eerie silence fell upon the room.
'I guess we're about to find out,' Charlotte whispered.
Miss Moffat walked up the aisle of the room and made her way onto the stage. With a click of her fingers, a row of columns appeared and surrounded the Mistress of the Books. With a nod of her head, a group of owls flew through the doors of the great hall and swooped onto the stage, all of them landing on one of the columns.
Miss Moffat looked around her and made eye contact with all of the owls before she clicked her fingers and a dozen seats appeared to the far side of the Mistress of the Books. Seats also appeared on the other side of the stage and the Academy's teaching staff flew up onto the stage and sat down in them.
'I introduce to you the witches and wizards' council,' her voice boomed, as she pointed towards the owls.
Charlotte and Gerty exchanged confused looks, just before the owls flew down onto the stage and morphed into witches and wizards. They each nodded in Miss Moffat's direction before they walked over to the empty seats and sat down on them.
Charlotte didn't know whether to clap or stay silent. Everyone else remained still, so she chewed on the side of her lip and didn't say a word.
'My esteemed colleagues have joined us from different parts of the world to seek out the truth. Our community is a strong one, but regardless of this there will always be rebellious witches and wizards who will foolishly try to damage the strong magical reputation that we have worked so hard to maintain.
All of you have been called here today to investigate the dismissal of the Mistress of the Books. You all know her as the former librarian here at this Academy, but today she is here to face charges for gross witch neglect.
This a serious charge and therefore I expect each and every one of you to give this case your full attention.
May the Mistress of Spells, who is our first witness, please join me on the stage,' she directed her gaze over to the Spell Mistress.
The Mistress of Spells stood up from her seat and walked over to Miss Moffat. She gave a nervous smile as she looked out at the crowd, before she quickly diverted her eyes away from them.
'Mistress of Spells, I'm going to place a truth spell on you and ask you a series of questions which I require you to answer.'
The Mistress of Spells nodded as she brought a shaking hand up to her face and itched at her nose.
'Verum,' Miss Moffat said, as she aimed her wand at the Spell Mistress.
Charlotte stared transfixed at the Mistress of Spells, she was used to seeing her looking confident and powerful, but right now she looked nervous and uncomfortable. Charlotte found herself feeling sorry for her, yes, she'd left her wand unattended but she wasn't to know what it would all lead to. In Charlotte's eyes, she was a good witch and a kind person who'd made an unintentional mistake.
'The Mistress of Spells, do you know this woman?' she gestured over to the Mistress of the Books…who was unable to meet her gaze.
'Yes,' she croaked out.
'Please tell us how it is that you know her?'
'I worked with her, we were both staff here at this Academy.'
'Please tell us what happened with your wand?' Miss Moffat said.
'Yes of course, it was during a spell class with my first year students. Two of my students took my wand without my knowledge whilst I was distracted. I merely thought that I'd misplaced it, I had no idea what they intended to use it for,' she gave a faint shake of her head.
'Thank you for your co-operation, there is no denying your loyalty towards this Academy.'
The Mistress of Spells blushed as she smiled at Miss Moffat.
'I have just one more question for you, but first I have a video message that was recorded by Demi Taylor and Destiny Catslove before they were expelled from this Academy and de-witched.'
Hearing that Demi and Destiny had not only been expelled, but also de-witched, was a shock to the students and they expressed their surprise with loud gasps.
Miss Moffat waited until the room had once again fallen silent before she swirled her wand in front of her. The hologram of two translucent, but nevertheless familiar girls appeared, one was Demi, her eyes red from crying and the other one was a lip-biting Destiny.
'We took the Mistress of Spell's wand, we took it because the Mistress of the Books asked us to get it for her,' Demi sniffed.
'I didn't mean to cause trouble, I just wanted to see a dragon. I thought that nothing bad would happen because the Mistress of the Books seemed like an upright and powerful witch,' Destiny said.
'We never would have taken the wand if we'd known what was going to happen, it wasn't meant to be like this, the Mistress of the Books made us believe that it'd just be our secret.'
'Yeah, it'll never happen again, I promise,' Destiny said.
Miss Moffat swirled her wand in the air and the hologram disappeared. Charlotte stared at the place where she'd just seen Demi and Destiny, finding it odd to think that she'd most likely never see them again. She had grown closer to them than she thought she would have and although they weren't friends as such, the thought of them being de-witched wasn't a comfortable one. They'd never again be able to make chocolate cake appear in front of them or magic up an extra five-minutes when they were in a hurry. They weren't witches any more, they were normals.
'Poor Demi and Destiny,' Gerty whispered to
Charlotte.
'I know,' she mouthed back.
'They deserved it,' Alice said snidely.
'Mistress of Spells, were the two girls from this video message the same two girls who took your wand?' Miss Moffat asked.
'Yes, yes it was them,' she nodded.
'Thank you for your assistance. Vade,' she flicked out her wand and removed the truth spell from the Mistress of Spells. 'Please return to your seat.'
The Mistress of Spells gave an awkward smile before she hurried back to her seat.
'As you've heard with the powers of a truth spell, this woman is responsible for opening the Book of Dragons with a stolen wand, a wand that she coaxed two minors into taking,' Miss Moffat looked from the council to the Mistress of the Books.
'Do you wish to argue your case?' Miss Moffat asked. But the Mistress of the Books simply lowered her head and nodded no.
'It is now time for you to vote,' she gave a stern look at the jury. 'Red is if you believe the accused to be guilty, or blue is if you believe her to be innocent.'
A witch at the end of the row held her wand into the air and a red spark soared out of it and illuminated the air. The crowd murmured amongst themselves, but none of them were surprised by this vote.
The wizard next to her held out his wand but this time a blue spark marked the air.
There were shocked gasps from the crowd. Gerty gazed at Charlotte open-mouthed.
The jury continued to vote and only red filled the air. The Mistress of the Books burst into tears and gave a pleading look to Miss Moffat.
'Mistress of the Books, please stand,' Miss Moffat said. She immediately stood up, patting down her cape.
'The jury have found you guilty, as a consequence of this you are dismissed from your librarian duties and banished from this Academy.'
'No, please,' the Mistress of the Books sobbed. 'I was foolish, but you have to believe me, I never meant for this to happen. Please, give me another chance?'
'Quiet!' Miss Moffat's voice boomed. 'I have no time for your false words. You aren't remorseful for your actions, you only regret that you were caught.'
Miss Moffat signaled over to the Mistress of Spells who hurried over to the stage clutching a broomstick, which she passed to Miss Moffat.
'If I could, I would de-witch you…but as you have been a witch for over a hundred years, this is no longer possible. Instead I want you to understand that you are never to step foot in my Academy ever again,' she bent down and snapped the broom across her knee.
Charlotte, Gerty and most of the audience gasped. The Mistress of the Books watched in horror as Miss Moffat cast the broom aside.
'You will walk away from this Academy in shame. Go, NOW!'
The Mistress of the Books gave Miss Moffat one last pleading look before she scrambled down the stage steps and along the aisle. All eyes fell on her as she walked, but no one uttered a word. Miss Moffat followed her, along with the council and the teaching staff. Led by Molly, the students began to file out of their rows of seats and join the walking line.
Gerty gripped onto Charlotte's arm as they walked alongside each other.
'Stef will be annoyed she missed this,' Gerty whispered to Charlotte.
Charlotte nodded, she knew that Stef would want to be here, but right now she would have happily switched places with her, even if it meant turning blue. Charlotte felt uncomfortable and took no pleasure from this very public fall from grace.
None of them had been overly fond of the Mistress of the Books, she had a short temper, had appeared unapproachable and had a fondness for turning students into frogs and mice for doing as little as coughing in her library. Still, Charlotte couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Yes, what she'd done was awful, but to be shamed so publicly wasn't easy to watch.
They reached the large gates of the Academy and they creaked open. The Mistress of the Books turned to Miss Moffat and fell to her knees.
'Please, please give me one more chance.'
'Get out!' Miss Moffat pointed her finger towards the world past the gates.
The Mistress of the Books gave a weak nod of her head before she stood up, rearranged her cape and walked through the gates.
The gates slammed shut.
Charlotte couldn't help but notice that as she walked along the path outside the gates, the Mistress of the Books didn't look back once.
Chapter Six
Charlotte sat cross-legged on Molly's bed and watched as Flame prowled across the bedroom floor and pounced on a shoe, chewing on its rubber sole.
'Flame, stop!' Molly hissed, as she rushed over and wrestled the shoe free from his mouth. 'Great, you’ve ruined my best pair.'
Flame looked up at her with enlarged eyes before he stuck his tongue out at her and then flew off over to Charlotte. As he perched down next to her the bed creaked beneath his weight.
'Hi boy,' Charlotte chuckled, as she patted his head.
'He just chewed up my best shoes and being nice to him,' Molly grunted, as she held up her half-eaten shoe.
'He was only playing around…anyway, you can fix it with a spell.'
'That's not the point,' she huffed. 'I shouldn't have to keep using a fixing spell, he should have learnt by now that shoe chewing is not allowed,' she glared at Flame.
Flame stared back at her unblinking, before he stuck out his tongue and then hiccupped. A smile crept onto Molly's face and she let out a sigh.
'Fine,' she rolled her eyes. 'I'll let you off this time Flame, but don't do it again.'
Flame hiccupped out a spark before he snuggled his head up against Charlotte's side.
'Reficere,' Molly flicked her wand out at her shoe and the sole instantly repaired.
Molly knew many spells and she was good at using them. The problem was that the bigger Flame became, the more destruction he caused and Molly was struggling to keep on top of this. The ends of her curtains were singed, the velvet deep-red throw on her bed was now frayed with chewed edges. And yesterday, when she'd put on her cardigan, she'd failed to notice the palm-sized hole that had been burnt into the back of it. Luckily she'd managed to convince her classmates that it was the result of a gone-wrong spell, but she knew that she needed to be more careful.
Still, as she watched Flame's body jolt up and down as he hiccupped, she couldn't help but smile. She loved that scaly, not-so-small dragon with all of her heart and no amount of chewed shoes and singed clothes would change this.
'I’d better go to class; I don't want to be late for Miss Zara. Last time that happened she shouted at me in Russian and then made me stay behind after class and polish all of her crystal balls,' Charlotte said, as she gently pushed aside Flame's head and then stood-up.
'I better get going too,' Molly sighed. 'I just worry about him here all day by himself, especially with Mr. Bumble sniffing around.
'He'll be fine,' Charlotte bent down and scratched underneath Flame's head. He lifted it up so far that he nearly somersaulted backwards. 'See you later Flame,' Charlotte chuckled.
Flame jumped off the bed and weaved his way through Charlotte's feet, nearly tripping her up. 'Flame, I have to go,' she stopped moving and glared down at him.
He coughed out a yellow and orange flame that shot forward and set the wooden chair in front of him on fire. Instantly the fire alarm started to sound loudly.
Molly leapt over to the cupboard, opened the door and bribed Flame into it with one of the apples that she kept in her cardigan pocket. She closed the door just as the window burst open and sparkling fairies in colorful dresses flew into her room, buckets of water in their hands. They sprinkled the water down onto the chair and the flames instantly died down. The fire-alarm stopped ringing and the room fell silent.
'Thank you, I messed up another spell,' Molly lied, forcing a smile as she watched the fairies flutter out of the window.
It was the third time this week that Flame had caused a fire in her room and set off the fire alarm. She rolled her eyes as she walked over to the window and
shut it.
'Do you know any fire-proofing spells?' Charlotte asked her, as she studied the ashen chair.
'No,' Molly shook her head. 'But at least I know a repair one. Reficere,' she aimed her wand at the chair and it quickly restored itself back to normal.
'Wow, that is a great repair job,' Charlotte smiled. 'Anyway, I have to go,' Charlotte gave Molly a wave as she rushed towards the door.
Books for Girls - WITCH SCHOOL - Books 2-6: Book 1 is FREE! Page 29