Wow, Mr Banks was not messing about. Later on that Sunday morning he had everybody who was at the school; staff and students alike gathered in the dining hall at breakfast time and got the biggest bollocking ever. He said that it was "a complete disgrace" and that whoever had done this terrible prank was to turn themselves in immediately. And of course, nobody did. I mean my Auntie M and I knew it wasn't a person that filled the fountain full of blood and Mr Banks would be waiting till the twelfth of never for somebody to come forward and admit it; who in their right mind would? Nobody turned themselves in for things like that.

Whatever, it took Marshall the best part of two days to clean out the fountain and remove all of the red stains. He was not a happy man after that. But after talking at length with Auntie M about what would possibly happen was freaking me out. Monday had gone off without a hitch. Auntie M had set aside some time in our chemistry lesson devoted to the soap we were making, even Francesca decided it was kind of fun making her own soap. Mrs Clarkson never let us do anything like this when she took our class.

After dinner and after the nightly walk I went on with Katie and Victoria, I went to see my Auntie M in her own dorm room. Normally I would go and study the family spell book on my own for a little bit and usually have some sort of fight with the sentient thing; but tonight Auntie M was with me, taking me through the procedures the coven would do whenever they met for particularly special events. This coming Sunday was Samhain, so tonight we would gather in our usual place and discuss what would happen for our gathering on Sunday. Which also happened to be when I would have my initiation. Later on however we were going out to the clearing in the woods to meet the rest of the coven for a bit of a dress run.

I was feeling a little bit nervous about it but Auntie M and everybody else in the coven kept telling me it was nothing to worry about. When I'd had my initiation, then my own powers would be a lot easier to manage and that couldn't come quick enough. I'd had a few flare ups in the past few weeks. I had gotten quite good at lighting candles using magic, I was nearly at the level where I could just do a hand gesture like pointing or snapping my fingers and the candle wicks would light but I still had to boost my magic and direct it properly with a spoken word. Normally I would point my finger at a candle then say "light" and the wick would crackle to life. One time however I tired doing that but instead of saying "light" I said "flame" and snapped my fingers in lieu of my usual pointing. I melted an entire pillar candle within seconds, thankfully I had it set on a tray so the wax didn't go everywhere. I tired switching the kettle on too one night using my powers, but I had inadvertently blew the main fuses in the entire dorm building and everything plunged in to darkness. I wouldn't be trying that again any time soon, well; not until after my initiation.

'Auntie M,' I started asking her a question as I was flicking through the pages of the spell book. 'Are there any simple spells you can recommend for me that are maybe a step up from what I've been learning?'

Auntie M who was busy rummaging through her wardrobe at the time smiled and came to stand beside me. She carefully ran through the pages of the spell book landing on a seemingly random page, who's colours were vivid and filled with really intricate drawings and fancy script.

'Now this can come in handy. It's not too difficult but it's worth practising.' She pointed at the page on the left. 'This one here is just a bit more complicated because it involves some precise hand movements but once you get it well... it's like riding a broom. Ha ha.' Auntie M chuckled at her lame joke.

The spells Auntie M had found me didn't seem like much but they would probably come in handy; the first one was a spell for refilling glasses or mugs. It was pretty strange but apparently the spell was for those witches who didn't want to get up every five minute for a drink refill. It looked like it had been written a long long time ago though. I was beginning to think there was possibly a spell for everything.

The second spell was simply called a Viewing Window spell, but also had Reflection View scrawled underneath. It seemed to not have a proper name; but after reading the spell instructions it made a bit more sense. It was a spell that could turn most reflective surfaces in to a sort of CCTV footage of a place or somebody you wanted to watch.

'So if you wanted to see what somebody was doing for example and you had a compact mirror or something, you'd recite the spell and the mirror would show you that person.' Auntie M explained to me. 'But obviously it's not something you should be doing all the time, I mean you can sort of end up catching people, um...'

'In a situation?' I added.

'Yes, a situation. The more accurate you are with the spell then the clearer the image is. Sometimes the view can be at a weird angle too so the more you practise the better the image.'

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

I had my own spell book with me so I quickly wrote them down as neatly as I could. I had to get a wriggle on as our Samhain dress rehearsal wasn't far off. Auntie M was freshening her make up with a bit of powder here, a quick buff of blusher on her cheeks and a slick of lipstick. I had quickly run a brush through my hair and tied it up in to a messy bun then we both stuck some extra layers on as it was getting pretty cold outside now, the nights were drawing in quickly now and the temperature would drop down a lot. Auntie M always wore thick thermal fleece lined leggings with comfy but rather stylish winter boots. She had even bought me a few pairs of the thermal leggings which I was grateful for, they did keep me nice and warm. We had both thrown on an extra jumper; I put on my quilted North Face coat on that mum bought for me last Christmas but I had barely worn it but, it was getting some use now. Auntie M however sank her arms in to the sleeves of a long black parka with a huge hood surrounded by fake fur.

'Northerners hate coats but we can handle a parka.' She chuckled. I chuckled along with her, it was true. I'd never known her or my own mother even to wear coats willingly. I think my mum even owned a parka.

I made myself useful and carried a big box of Fox's biscuits Auntie M had bought for tonight. We actually left by the front door of the teachers dorm tonight instead of teleporting straight there. As soon as we were outside and it was safe to do so, Auntie M opened a portal that landed us near the clearing in the forest. As soon as we got there though there were some weird energy spikes, really weird ones. I could feel the other members of our coven but there were other energies I didn't recognise. I could pinpoint individual members of our coven now as when we all met up, we didn't really have to mask our powers. Auntie M began stomping her way down to the clearing where the bonfire was already lit and I followed her as quick as I could, carrying the box of biscuits. As we got closer to the bonfire we could hear shouting, one voice sounded like Deirdre and the other one belong to a man.

'A man?' I thought. 'That's not right.'

We've never seen or even heard of your coven until now, what makes you think you have the right to barge in and take over?' Deirdre exclaimed at the man who was stood in front of her.

'We decided we needed a change of energy and this spot is exactly the energy we need.' The man replied. 'Our covens energy is in dire need of boosting and we want to use this place to practise our craft from now.'

I looked at the guy who was attempting to over talk Deirdre who was having none of it, then my Auntie M glided on over and stood next to her. I could feel the energy of the man who was arguing with Deirdre and it did feel a bit stronger than hers. I noticed there were at least another half dozen men or so stood behind the shouty one. Lo and behold, Mr Evans was directly behind the angry man and a few yards away from him was Liam! He was also holding a large box of biscuits like I was. Our eyes honed in on each other. He gave me a slight wave with a free hand, but was looking a tad worried and a bit confused to what was going on. I didn't blame him, I was feeling the same too, so I waved back at him. I could sense that his energy was fairly similar to mine, it was all over the place but for some reason I felt like I was more powerful than him.

I watched as Deirdre took a step back to let Auntie M stand in front of the angry guy. He looked to be somewhere in his late fifties, maybe early sixties. He was about five-foot-eight with a bit of an old man belly, with wispy greyish hair and a slight sense of superiority about him. He was a typical Great British Boomer and I reckon he thought Deirdre was the head of our coven mainly because she was the oldest; hence why he was shouting at her like he did.

'Martin, let me introduce you to the head of our coven. Morrigan Taylor.' Deirdre sighed. 'I tried telling you but you wouldn't listen.' She shook her head and stood a few yards behind Auntie M. Molly and Macy however had quickly flanked me from both sides, Molly took the box of biscuits off me and quickly placed them on the table that had been set up with the usual supplies then stood beside me again; watching intently with slight grins. I noticed that everybody in our coven had crossed their right hand over their chest to the left shoulder and had bowed their heads, facing my Auntie M. Knowing this was one of those moments, I followed suit and did the same.

'You? The head of this coven?' The man named Martin said mockingly.

Ooh that was a bad question.

Auntie M had unleashed her full power. For a few seconds I genuinely felt like I was skinny dipping in an active volcano. My eyes were watering like mad as I tried to see what was happening. The rest of our coven were having a similar reaction, we were upright but only just. The men however were not doing so good. Martin was on the ground on his knees, frantically panting and clutching his head. Mr Evans was rolling on the ground on his back in agony. Some of the other men were doing the same, rolling around or clutching their heads as if it would give them some kind of relief. Liam however had dropped his own box of biscuits and was busy throwing his guts up near a tree which he was trying to use to hold himself up. Trying though, he was failing miserably.

And as quick as it happened, it stopped. Auntie M had turned her powers off as easy as flicking a light switch.

'How cool is that?' Macy whispered in my ear. 'Maddie, our Aunt is one of the most powerful witches in the world and she's mentoring us all in the craft!'

'Everyone in our family has great potential Maddie.' Molly whispered to me this time. 'It's so cool.'

I looked around at the broken men on the forest floor. Auntie M was glaring Martin down, if looks could kill then he would've been pulverised.

Was it cool? Yeah, it was. Was it scary. Ab-so-fucking-lutely.