Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze

by Gwyneth Rees

  ‘I wonder who’ll move in next,’ Cosmo said. ‘They might not want us to stay. They might have their own witch-cat.’

  ‘I couldn’t bear it if you had to move away,’ Mia mewed. ‘Couldn’t you move in with us instead?’

  Cosmo didn’t think he could stand to live in the same house as the professor cat and be made to do lessons every day – but he didn’t want to hurt Mia’s feelings by saying that. So instead he said, ‘I don’t think we could. Father says we have to live with another witch.’

  At that moment, Mephisto was lying stretched out on Sybil’s bed watching India twist herself up in the purple bedroom curtains.

  ‘I really like living inside a house,’ she told him. India had moved inside from the garage as soon as Sybil had been taken away. ‘But I wouldn’t have liked it when Sybil was here.’

  Mephisto just grunted. He still couldn’t think of Sybil – and all the years of calling her ‘mistress’ – without his fur standing on end.

  ‘What’s wrong, Mephisto?’ India asked.

  A tight growl sounded in the back of Mephisto’s throat. ‘How could I have been so easily deceived? Even my own kitten realized the truth sooner than I did.’

  India unwrapped herself from her make-believe sari and jumped up on to the bed beside him. ‘You mustn’t blame yourself. You can’t help being so powerful that even a non-witch seems like she has magic powers in your presence.’ She gave his ear a lick.

  Mephisto frowned. He hadn’t thought of it quite like that before. ‘It’s true that I can’t help being almost one hundred per cent witch-cat,’ he agreed.

  ‘Exactly,’ India purred. ‘Mephisto, there’s something else I wanted to—’

  But before she could continue, something flew past their window that made them both leap off the bed.

  It was Bunty and Scarlett on their magic carpet, and by the time India and Mephisto got downstairs, Cosmo and Mia were already rubbing themselves against the witches’ ankles and purring loudly in welcome.

  ‘I went to visit the witch prison today,’ Bunty told them. ‘Sybil’s not going to have an easy time there. The first thing they did when she arrived was a “Finding Out” spell!’

  ‘What’s that?’ India, Cosmo and Mia all mewed together, and Bunty seemed to understand them because she continued, ‘It’s a spell that can be done to find out all the things you secretly hate the most. They did it on Sybil, and now she’s got to have Brussels sprouts, boiled cabbage and very lumpy tapioca pudding to eat every day, and she has to wear a pink, frilly dress with matching knickers and pink shoes with big bows on the front.’ Bunty smiled at the thought of it. ‘She gets let out of prison to help others during the day, because helping others is what she hates doing most of all. This week they’ve got her helping old ladies to cross the road in the mornings and removing fleas from local cats in the afternoons. And she can’t run away because they’ve tagged her with an electronic tag, so that if she tries to escape, the prison warden can locate where she is straight away and turn her into a frog. Oh, and she’s not allowed to watch any television. She’s very upset about that!’

  All four cats miaowed their approval.

  But Bunty had more to tell them. ‘Now that Sybil won’t be needing her house any longer and it’s been put up for sale, I was wondering . . . how would you like it if my sister, Goody, moved in here with her family?’

  Scarlett broke in breathlessly. ‘It was my idea! Mum and Dad still haven’t found a witch’s house that they like in the country, and I think this house would be perfect!’

  ‘You must all carry on living here too, of course,’ Bunty said. ‘Goody’s witch-cat has just retired to Cornwall, because he thinks the weather is better down there, and she’s been looking for a cat to replace him.’

  Cosmo couldn’t believe it! He was so happy that he started to run round the