Note: Yes, sorry it's been a very long time. To be quite honest I started getting anxious about the story, feeling that I wasn't characterizing Aggie right and that the story was too predictable so I completely deleted 4 more hum drum chapters. Good news is I finally have a bit more of an idea and will at least try to get this story going again. Better news: I am also really excited about another story about HB and might be starting that story as well. Two at a time….well it's kind of like having twins I expect. ;)

Jasmine. Miss Amelia Cackle breathed in the fragrant steam from her tea cup as she tried to ascertain whether she should laugh at the idea of Mildred and her friends dressed up in witch masks or if she should be highly offended, as Constance was.

Of course Constance's morning reports were never ones of happy news so Amelia had taken it with a grain of salt, or, er, a crumb of lemon poppy seed muffin to be exact.

Impersonating wicked witches; yes there were some truly wicked witched out there and Amelia happened to be related to one of them.

And as for Mildred, here she gave a poignant sigh, hopefully she wouldn't be expelled. Amelia had seen creativity and originality in Mildred's entrance test; something different from the mundane perfect Ethel Hallows of the world. She should get a chance! She should get a chance especially when she was so much like….

"Mellie!", Amelia Cackle panted, out of breath, blond pigtails bobbing.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mia," Melanie Hattrick cried out, "I wanted to see if I could catch up to Wilemina to get my frog back, I didn't mean to leave without you, we always walk to class together." Having stopped, she tossed a messy brown braided pigtail over her shoulder and bent over to tie her undone boot laces.

"It's alright; you just took off like a bat."

"Well hopefully you don't mean Davina, because we all know she's one Bat that isn't very good at taking off!"

The two laughed together and headed down the fading hallway.

As the scene faded completely Amelia brushed Agatha, Melanie, and Mildred from her mind as she settled down to read a letter from The Grand Wizard outlining the details of the upcoming Halloween celebration.

But as luck would have it, Mildred Hubble was not one to be banished from the teachers' minds for long. There was a knock at the door; hesitant and meek, but it was there. Amelia closed her eyes as she said, "Come in", hoping to the puddles of Gloucester that it wasn't who she thought it would be.

"I'm sorry Miss," Mildred squeaked.

Miss Cackle sighed again, twice in one morning. "What are you in for this time Mildred?"

"Well, you see, I made the wrong potion in class today. We were supposed to make a laughter potion and I made an invisibility potion."

Miss Cackle's somewhat forced smile faded off her face. Mildred felt strangely sad; she hated to see Miss Cackle disappointed, it was worse than seeing Miss Hardbroom enraged.

"Mildred," she began pursing her lips together, "I'm not even sure what to say to you anymore. You are constantly sent to my office for various mishaps that far exceed simple potion mistakes. You, you must be the worst witch in the entire school. I hate to say it but, unless you are more careful and work harder in the future, you may never get you Witches Higher Certificate."

"I'm so sorry headmistress, but no matter how hard I try, things just go wrong."

"Well Mildred, even if that may be, you must take your education more seriously. Don't underestimate Miss Hardbroom or I, we will be forced to, uh, take drastic action if you don't improve. You must try harder Mildred."

"Yes Miss Cackle."

"Good Mildred, now, you are free to go back to class, run along."

Mildred nodded and slowly backed out the door with a downcast look. Miss Cackle just shook her head; maybe she had been wrong. Perhaps there was a time when you had to give up on students. She shook her head vigorously, though no one was there to see it; Mildred wasn't lost yet and she, Amelia, would keep fighting.

Whether it was for Mildred's sake or maybe it was still for her own, she didn't quite know.

Mildred, Melanie. Oh Melanie.

Amelia closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift back to the memories.

"Uggh this chowder tastes awful!" Melanie exclaimed.

Amelia nodded in approval, her mouth filled with the awful substance. The two of them were eating lunch by themselves in the corner of the room.

"Hey Mia."

"Mmmph", muttered Amelia

"Look, Davina is sitting all alone again; maybe we should go sit with her so she isn't alone." Sure enough there was Davina Bat, a young witch with curly brown hair, sitting alone and humming to herself as she wrote something down on a piece of paper. She was slurping up her chowder with such gusto she must have actually liked it.

"Yes, I think that is a good idea, although I doubt she will even notice anyone else has even sat down." The two girls grabbing their trays and walked over to the table Davina was sitting at.

"Hello Davina, mind if we join you? Davina?"

"Ahh, yes, so sorry, I was transcribing the school song into A minor. It takes up most of my attention." Both Amelia and Melanie smiled knowingly and sat down.

"So Davina," began Amelia, "What did you think about Miss Cauldren's potion test today? It was pretty challenging."

"Well yes, I suppose, but if you put in the right ingredients you will be fine."

Both girls looked at each other blankly; sometimes Davina could be too literal.

Lunchtime ended up being a rather quiet affair and Amelia found herself relieved when it was time to go back to class. After lunch they always had spells; Amelia's favorite class. Of course she was good at potions, chanting, and broomstick flying, but she was especially good at casting spells. To her it was like poetry; she loved reading the spells, focusing on the sounds the words made together and the rhyming pattern. A potion was very precise, very textbook, but spells were much more subjective.

She groaned inwardly as she saw her twin Aggie, also slightly chubby with blonde pigtails, sitting up near the front of the class with some of her friends. Their hatred of each other had only gotten worse since they had started school. Agatha had immediately risen to the role of teacher's pet; she was sweet and serious in class and never failed to get an answer right.

Amelia, on the other hand, was far from the teacher's pet. She did well in school, perhaps equal to the level of her sister, but was constantly getting into to trouble. Some of it was Melanie's fault; she was a non witch and was just getting the hang of magic. The first day they had met she had sat down next to Amelia and had started jabbering away; the tow had quickly become friends. It was only later that day that Amelia had realized Melanie was going to need quite a bit of help not blowing up the potions lab.

Of course, most of the time the pair got into trouble it was usually Aggie's fault. Aggie was so quick at spells that Melanie never had a chance to stop them. However it was also very helpful to be the granddaughter of the headmistress; Amelia still had her fair share of detentions, but her grandmother let her slip by in most cases.

Suddenly Miss Moonstone popped into the room with a flourish. She giggled and said, "Alright class, who is ready to try one of the most important spells you will ever learn?" The class murmured in acceptance. "Today's spell is one every witch should know: a proper reversing spell. I mean, you never know when you or a loved one will be changed into a frog! Now say it after me girls: Reversus Revolvus returnus resolvus illio allio redux reducio!"

The class split up into pairs and practiced changing each other into various animals and then reversing it. It took Mellie several tries to turn Amelia back into a person; she had made the common mistake of mispronouncing the last word 'reducio', which turned Amelia into a duck! Agatha roared with laughter as she was the transformation.

"That's right, just leave her as a duck, she's kind of quacky anyways!" Her sidekicks roared with laughter.

"Well if she is a duck than Davina should certainly be turned into a bat!" shouted Hortensia Hallow, as she promptly turned a confused Davina into a bat.

"EEEEEEEEEEE", Wilemina Wormwood shrieked, "I hate bats, I hate bats; Aggie make it stop." Agatha turned Davina Bat back into a human right as Miss Moonstone walked around her way.

"Ah, excellent Agatha, you've got the spell down quite well," praised the teacher. "Keep trying Melanie, and remember to say 'redooochio' and not 'reduckio' this time."

"Reversus Revolvus returnus resolvus illio allio redux…"

"Reduckio" said Miss Cackle with a start.

"No headmistress, I didn't say anything about ducks, I said Punky Night," said Miss Bat, prancing about the room.

It was going to be a very long day indeed.