‘Charlotte,’ she shouted after her.
Margaret had said something to Charlie, and Charlotte needed to know what it was. She politely squeezed her way through the crowd as she made her way towards Charlie. Because of the parade, she had to walk the long way round to get to the other side. By the time she got there the parade had nearly finished and all the ‘excuse me,' and ‘thank you’s,’ had made her throat sore.
That’s when she saw Margaret. She’d shoved her way to the front of the crowd and was watching the parade. Charlotte squeezed her way over to her and tapped her on the shoulder.
‘Charlotte,’ Margaret smirked. ‘What a pleasant surprise, are you going to watch the end of the parade with me?’
‘What did you say to Charlie?’
‘I have no idea what you’re on about?’
‘Don’t lie to me Margaret, I saw you talking to him. What did you say?’
‘Oh, that was nothing. I was just telling him how good I thought your dragon float was. But that I was surprised it wasn’t more realistic, more like the dragon that you and Molly had been hiding in the Academy for months. Oops! Didn’t he know? I just presumed that you would have told your boyfriend everything.’
Charlotte pushed past Margaret, she was angry with her but her main thought was to find Charlie and try to explain things to him.
‘He didn’t seem very happy about your little secret,’ Margaret shouted after her.
Charlotte scanned her eyes over the crowd, looking for Charlie.
The last float passed her, it was the magical waterfall. The senior girls sat amongst blossoming flowers on either side of the impressive looking waterfall. Instead of water, colorful fairy dust flowed down into a pool of water. The girls playfully flicked fairy dust at their friends sitting on the other side of the float.
Charlotte spotted Denis in the crowd. He had a lollipop in each hand and was alternating between the two.
‘Have you seen Charlie?’ she asked him.
He pointed to the far left of him where a sullen looking Charlie was standing.
‘Thanks,’ she smiled at him.
Charlotte rushed over to Charlie. She longed to hug him but when he saw her he stared at her with a stern look and folded arms.
‘Charlie, I-’
‘Is it true?’ he shouted over the noise.
‘I don’t know what Margaret told you, but I can explain.’
He grabbed her arm and pulled her to the back of the crowd.
‘Have you been harboring a dragon in the Academy?'
‘Yes, but-’
‘So, Margaret was right. The attacks on the towns and villages are because of you?’
‘No, Flame wouldn’t do that.’
‘Flame,’ he glared at her. ‘That beast has burnt down buildings and terrified people and you have the audacity to give it a name.’
‘Charlie, it’s not like that. Flame’s a good dragon. And I didn’t name him, Molly-’
‘Molly, as in your former head girl? So, you didn’t just put yourself in danger, you dragged someone else down with you?’
‘No, she loves Flame, she just wanted to-’
‘Enough!’ he shouted. ‘You aren’t the girl I thought you were,’ he looked at Charlotte with a mixture of disbelief and hurt.
Then he walked away from her.
‘Charlie!’ she shouted after him, but he didn’t look back.
She pushed through the crowd and tried to find him so that she could explain things properly to him, but he was nowhere to be seen.
She looked down at her ring and touched it. No hologram appeared. Charlie had taken his heart from the ring.
Hot tears streamed down her face. She made her way through the crowd and took the long walk back around to the other side and walked towards her friends. She stood in silence next to Gerty.
The crowd was waiting for the results of the parade. The best three floats were about to come along the parade course again in reverse order of their placing.
The magical waterfall float appeared and the crowd went wild.
‘I wonder who’ll be in second and first places?’ Gerty asked.
Charlotte just nodded and tried not to cry.
The second float came into view and Gerty squealed excitedly and grabbed Charlotte’s arm. It was their wooden dragon float. The senior girls who were sitting on it cheered and clapped and the dragon float let out a burst of fire.
‘We should have come first,’ Alice moaned.
‘This is amazing,’ Gerty squealed again.
‘Second’s pretty good,’ Stef grinned.
‘It’s amazing!’ Gerty smiled.
‘What are those,’ Stef pointed up at the sky.
Charlotte looked up and noticed small dots far up in the sky. The dots soon enlarged like bloated marshmallows. They seemed to grow closer-and-closer until it became clear to Charlotte exactly what they were.
‘We need to get out of here,’ she shouted, her voice frantic.
‘What?’ Gerty gave her a confused look.
A dark-green dragon swooped down and lingered above the dragon float. There were screams from the crowd and Charlotte and Gerty both stared at the dragon open-mouthed.
The dragon puffed out a ball of fire and the wooden dragon float instantly erupted into flames. The girls on the float screamed and dived off the float and ran for their lives.
‘V’olitare,’ Miss Moffat flicked out her wand.
The girls began to float mid-air and traveled across the crowds. They were safely lowered down at the back of the crowd.
A brown dragon flew down from the sky and set the princess tower alight. Another two dragons flew down dangerously close to the crowd and set fire to the other floats, including the shooting star float, which was the winning float.
The crowd was frantic as they pushed and charged in an attempt to get away from the dragons. Gerty and Charlotte were clinging onto each other and Stef was gripping onto a terrified looking Alice’s hand.
Spells were firing up at the dragons but they simply bounced off them...the dragons were too powerful.
Charlotte was desperately searching the crowd for Charlie but she couldn’t find him. Gerty yanked on her arm and pulled her along. She shouted something to her but the words became lost in the mayhem. All four girls ran, none of them sure as to where they were going.
The dragons glided through the air as smoothly as the polystyrene airplane models Charlotte used to have as a kid. They swooped themselves above the large iron entrance gates to the Academy before they all barged into them again-and-again.
The gates couldn’t withstand the dragon’s weight and power. They tumbled to the ground with an echoing thud.
A woman flew down on her broomstick and landed in front of the now open entrance. She took off her black cape to reveal long black hair that cascaded to her hips and green scales on her face. She licked her lips and gave a sly smile up at the dragons. Familiarity was alive in her eyes, yet at the same time, it was somehow lost, as if she wasn't as she once was.
With her wand raised, she took a cautious step across the entrance boundary. With a clap of her hands, the dragons swooped above her head before they set the fallen Academy gates alight.
Miss Moffat flew down in front of the scaled woman. She was followed by some of the more curious onlookers, including Charlotte and the others who had found that their feet had carried them there by chance.
The five dragons all landed behind the scaled woman, they stood unmoving like menacing statues.
Miss Moffat stepped towards the scaled woman and studied her.
‘No, it can’t be,’ she muttered.
‘Yes, it can be. You dared to banish me from this Academy, from my home! After all of the centuries of service and loyalty I showed towards you, and you cast me out as though I was nothing. It is me, The Mistress of the Books, and I have returned to claim what is rightfully mine.’
There were shocked murmurs from the crowd. Gerty clung onto Ch
arlotte's arm and lowered her gaze. Charlotte found herself unable to look away from the Mistress of the Books. She wanted to see what was happening as much as she wanted to look away, yet she found herself compelled to watch on.
‘Get off my grounds right now before I turn you into dust!’ Miss Moffat raised her wand.
The Mistress of the Books cackled before she gave a single clap of her hands. The brown dragon broke from his statuesque pose, stepped forward and breathed out a ball of fire straight at Miss Moffat's face. She ducked just in time and the fire evaporated into the air.
‘Get off my grounds!’ Miss Moffat yelled.
‘These are my grounds now. You are nothing, a nobody! I shall banish you to roam the lands with only the clothes you are wearing and see how you manage. Meanwhile, I shall make this Academy as grand and powerful as it deserves to be. No one will ever mess with me or step out of line, not unless they want to face the wrath of my dragons.’
‘Look,’ a senior girl shouted from the crowd. ‘Up there,’ she pointed up at the sky.
A figure was growing in the sky. A blonde haired woman dressed in black and there was another dragon, this one was red.
The crowd ducked for cover as the woman lingered in the sky just above the Mistress of the Books and Miss Moffat.
The red dragon began to talk to the other dragons. They moved from their statuesque poses and spoke back.
‘Stop this!’ the Mistress of the Books hissed at them.
Just then a magnificent dragon, double the size of the others appeared in the sky. It flew next to the red dragon and peered down at the others.
The dragons looked from the Mistress of the Books to the large dragon in the sky before they flew up into the air. The green dragon took a few steps forward then turned its head back, looking at the Mistress of the Books.
‘Where do you think you’re going. I insist that you come back right now,’ the Mistress of the Books aimed her wand at it.
It shook its head before it puffed out a flame and her wand caught alight. She screamed and she dropped her wand to the ground, stamping her foot on it. The green dragon flew up into the air and joined the others. The large dragon said something to the red dragon, nodded its head and flew off towards the dark forest. The other dragons followed. All except for the dragon being flown by the blonde woman.
The crowd watched on with a mix of intrigue and apprehension as the mystery woman landed her dragon down in front of the Mistress of the Books...it was Molly. She pulled out her wand and aimed it as the Mistress of the Books. The Mistress of the Books no longer had her wand, but she still remained an extremely powerful witch. She pointed her finger at Molly.
The two witches’ spells collided and white and blue sparks shot up into the air. The sparks swirled overhead before they fell down on top of The Mistress of the Books and she collapsed to her knees.
Molly kept her wand aimed at the Mistress of the Books.
‘I’m sorry, please, spare me,’ the Mistress of the Books begged.
Miss Moffat joined Molly in aiming her wand at the Mistress of the Books. Soon a circle of witches and wizards surrounded her with raised wands, including Professor Alexander and Mistress Ravenshawk.
‘Get the book,’ Miss Moffat said to the Mistress of Spells.
She flew off quickly, down the corridor in the library and unlocked the spell on the Book of Dragons’ room. A light on the end of her wand revealed the book that had caused so many problems. For a moment, she hesitated, her fear of this powerful book froze her to the spot.
But then she heard Miss Moffat’s voice in her head. She trusted this woman with all her heart. The Mistress of Spells picked up the book and flew back to Miss Moffat.
The Mistress of the Books sobbed, ‘Please, we were colleagues. You can’t do this, please, just let me go and you’ll never see me again.’
‘Your word means nothing to me,’ Miss Moffat sneered. ‘Still, I shall give you a choice. I can either turn you into dust right here. Or you can spend the rest of your existence inside The Book of Dragons.’
‘No, please. That’s inhumane,’ she protested.
‘Very well,’ Miss Moffat was about to flick her wand.
‘No, wait,’ the Mistress of the Books held her hands up. ‘I’ll go into the book.’
The Mistress of the Spells carefully passed the ancient book to Miss Moffat.
‘May I never glance upon your pitiful face again,’ she frowned before she twirled her wand elegantly in the air.
The Book of Dragons snapped open.
‘In libro oportet manere.’
The Mistress of the Books gave one last terrified look before she floated up into the air and began to spin around. She spun faster-and-faster until she turned into crystals and swirled her way into the book. It slammed shut.
The Mistress of Spells lifted up the book and flew back towards the library.
The crowd erupted into cheers and Charlotte forced her way through it and ran up to Molly. She wrapped her arms around her, her tears soaking into Molly’s hair.
Miss Moffat looked on with confusion straining her face. She wasn’t aware that Charlotte and Molly were friends, then again it seemed as though this wasn’t the only thing that had passed her by. After all, her Academy had just been saved by a teenage girl and the dragon that she presumed had once resided in her dungeon.
Charlotte pulled away from Molly. She realized that everyone was staring at her, including her bemused looking roommates. She quickly made her way back over to her friends, yet she couldn’t hide her smile. Molly and Flame were ALIVE! And they’d both saved the day.
‘Molly, what’s going on?’ Miss Moffat asked her.
‘The dragons are good. I know this because of Flame,’ she patted his head.
‘So, when I heard about these attacks and the scaled woman that was spotted at each of them, then I knew that something was up. The dragons were being controlled by the Mistress of the Books. She was using an extremely powerful, almost unbreakable spell. The one thing she didn’t count on was me tracking down the mother dragon and getting Flame to communicate with her. I led the mother dragon here and reunited her with her children. You see, the only thing stronger than the Mistress of the Books’ spell, is a mother’s love.’
Molly took a deep breath and then continued on, ‘The dragons aren't evil. Instead, they just want to live in peace in the Dark Forest. Well, apart from Flame. I gave him the option to fly off with his mother and siblings, but it seems that he would rather live with me.’
Flame cocked his head and almost knocked Molly other. He’d grown so much but sometimes he forgot this and still thought that he was small. Molly smiled and tickled him under his chin.
‘Silly boy,’ she laughed. ‘But you’re also amazing Flame.’
‘Thank you, Molly. But I feel that I have let you down, it seems that we all have,’ she glanced at the other principals. ‘It appears evident that for many years dragons have been misunderstood. We shut them away in The Book of Dragons. Now it is apparent that they are not monsters. Please accept my apologies, Molly. Of course, you are welcome back here next year to finish off your studies if you choose to. And Flame is welcome here too.'
‘Yes,’ she nodded excitedly. ‘Both of us would love to stay,’ she patted Flame’s head.
‘Thank you, and thank you for seeing that Flame is good...that all the dragons are good.’
Miss Moffat flicked her wand and a beautiful golden medal appeared in the air.
‘This is the Dux Medal. It is reserved for the most remarkable of witches who go above and beyond to protect their community. So, it seems only fitting that you should receive it.’
The medal floated over to Molly and attached itself to her cape.
Molly’s eyes watered up and she rubbed at them. The graduating girls rushed over to her, wrapped their arms around her and then lifted her up into the air.
The whole Academy erupted into cheers.
‘How exactly did you becom
e besties with our former head girl?’ Stef asked Charlotte.
‘Now, that is a long story,’ she smiled.
‘Look,’ Gerty pointed across the crowd.
Charlie was standing there giving Charlotte an awkward smile. He mouthed the words - ‘I'm sorry Charlotte' - over to her before he pointed to his finger.
Charlotte lifted up her hand and turned the ring on her finger. The hologram rose up and the image of Charlie waved at her.
She looked over at the real Charlie and smiled back. He grinned at her before he blew her a kiss.
The End
I hope you have enjoyed the Witch School series
as much as I enjoyed writing it!
If you could leave a review that would be wonderful!
And please tell your friends about Witch School.
Have a magical day!
Katrina xxx
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