Chapter Text
Although she would never have admitted it, when Miss Hubble was late to her spell science test, Hecate was, well, not quite worried, but certainly concerned. Mildred being a bit behind schedule was certainly not surprising, but that girl was the most determined student she had ever known, right from the start. She couldn’t imagine Mildred Hubble giving up. Although it was true, now she thought about it, Mildred might have seemed worn down recently. But had her failures really weighed on her that much? As much as Hecate didn’t believe this was the right place for her, she didn’t want any harm to befall the silly girl. She could practically hear Ada suggesting Hecate’s harsh words at each of those failures had most definitely not helped. Hecate hoped, if for no reason more than to avoid the looks she would receive from Ada if the girl had truly given up, that Mildred was simply running particularly late. Again.
Hecate was distracted from this depressing line of thought by the door bursting open, and Enid and Maud skidding into the room, dragging Ethel behind them. Hecate resisted the urge to sigh. Of course they were here.
When Maud and Enid explained their theory, her first thought was that it was some kind of delaying technique, giving Mildred enough time to finish breaking whatever section of the code she was taking a sledgehammer to. When Enid grabbed what seemed to her like a random frog off the shelf, she felt almost certain of it. Ada, of course, was much kinder, and Hecate was far from surprised to notice the small spell she cast silently, allowing her to check if the frog truly was a transformation. She was, however, surprised when the spell proved positive and Ada told Ethel to transform her back. Hecate cast her own- the frog truly was a transformation. She tried not to consider the implications of that. Of what might have happened had Enid not somehow recognized her. Mildred shouldn't have been missing this long without anyone noticing- or rather, without her noticing, she thought. It was her job to keep the children safe, yet— well. Anyway. Ethel chanted, and Mildred was sitting on the table where the frog had been. Where she should never have been.That girl really had more of a propensity for trouble than anyone she had ever met. There were decades of trouble makers Hecate had endured, and none of them could hold a candle to the chaos that seemed to follow that Hubble girl.
Ada had barely finished sternly telling Ethel to go to her office before Mildred interrupted.
“Miss Cackle, I went to the pond, another frog helped me get back, he was a human too, a wizard-” she rambled. Hecate felt the annoyance fall from her face as Mildred spoke. A wizard? Could it be? Surely not- “Algernon Rowan-Webb-” It was. Of course it was. If anyone could stumble across their long lost wizard, it would be Mildred. What next, Hecate wondered, feeling her patience run thin, was he also going to be inexplicably lurking the shelves of the spell science classroom? She wondered what she had ever done to deserve trying to take care of Mildred Hubble. Across the table, Mildred's eyes scanned the shelves, and it took everything in her not to slump down into the nearest chair. The stupidity of the whole situation was exhausting. Of course he was in the shelves too. She couldn't even joke about the messes Mildred got into.
“That’s him!” Mildred cried, running towards the frog in the jar beside the one that had been her own. Miss Gullet grabbed the frog, trying desperately to throw him into her cauldron, insisting the frog was nothing more, even as Mildred begged Miss Cackle to stop her. Before Hecate had time to do anything more than marvel at the stupidity and irony of the whole situation (and consider the implications of the idea that it really was Algernon, and Miss Gullet was knowingly trying to. Well) Miss Bat was holding the Algernon Frog, and Miss Gullet was transferring away. She felt the transference spell bounce off the school wards, the ones that meant you could only transfer around the school grounds, not out of them. It was mainly there to stop seniors transferring into nearby towns just because they wanted to eat something other than Miss Tapioca's... creations, but today it served a more serious purpose. Hecate would know if she tried to leave.
“What was that about?” asked Maud.
“Mr Rowan-Webb disappeared not long after first being hired here, and Gullet got his job. I suppose she must have turned him into a frog to get him out of the way,” Miss Cackle explained.
“She will not be able to leave the premises,” Hecate stated demurely, “We will find and make her transform him back once we are done here, and, I presume, she will be fired?” Miss Cackle nodded in agreement.
“We might have to find her the long way, however. I can’t seem to find where she is with a tracing spell.” Hecate nodded.
“This is all very well, but there is still the matter of a test. T-t-” There was a clear absence of the girl in question. “Mildred Hubble,” she whispered with a sigh. The room was quiet for a moment before Ada piped up, worry clear in her voice.
“That’s strange. I can’t seem to find her with a tracing spell either.” Hecate didn’t waste a second, flicking a simple finding spell out, but she couldn’t seem to find the girl either. For the second time in as many minutes, she found the trademark annoyance leave her face, and concern rise in its absence.
“I’ll find her,” Hecate announced, before transferring out of the room.
The concerning thing was that, while it wasn’t the most complex or powerful spell, the spell that stopped a simple finding spell locating you was difficult to maintain. So difficult that even Hecate could not maintain it for long. There was no way that Mildred Hubble, who couldn’t even perform a simple animal transformation spell, could even dream of maintaining one for a second. Not even the most skilled witches could manage it before their last year at least, and even then, it would be quite an achievement. Hecate decided to try a different approach- a tracking spell. It would stop where she was when the blocking spell was cast, but it was something.
Hecate transferred to where the trail ended- in the entrance hall. Mildred's bag lay discarded on the floor, with her belongings spilling out. So she had been running away after all- Hecate ought to have been glad that Mildred had realized this school was not the right place for her, or angry at her for breaking the school rules- instead, she just felt strangely guilty. Hecate shoved away those thoughts, focusing on finding her. Judging by the knocked over side table, there had been a struggle of some kind, and then- Hecate paused, analyzing the spell traces in the air. Someone had erected a blocking spell, a large one, perhaps covering two people, and then transferred. And if the only people who had the skills necessary were the teachers, then Mildred was in great danger, because she was almost certainly in the hands of Miss Gullet.