#Hopes and Friendships

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 20-A Witch's First Day of School

Hey guys! I’ve been on a roll this month with fanfics! Getting this one worked on after RHPC and while working on Indie Kids, which I also finished.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!!

Enjoy!

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It was the first day of school. Mu looked at herself in the mirror wearing the outfit Luka and Harriet had bought for her during their shopping trip. She sighed in disappointment and sadness knowing that she would be entering a new school that doesn’t involve magic.

Many anxious scenarios played her head as she trotted downstairs to have breakfast with Harriet and Luka. What if magic just somehow happens?  What if no one likes her? Not wanting to show her nervousness Mu took a deep breath and gave a smile as she approached the kitchen.

“Morning!” Mu beamed.

“Morning Mu, how did you sleep?” Harriet asked.

“I slept okay, thanks for asking,” Mu replied as she sat down next to her best friend. Luka placed a plate of waffles topped with berries and whipped cream in front of Mu. She smiled in delight. 

Taking her fork, Mu sliced a bit of the waffle and took a bite out of it. She smiled seeing it tasted sweet, and kept on eating. 

“Is it good? It’s my dad’s secret recipe.” Harriet mentioned. Mu nodded and kept on eating.

“You're gonna need your appetite for your first day of school.”  Luka mentioned as he prepared the girls lunches.

“So any questions about human school you’d like to know?” Harriet asked.

Mu thought which questions would be good to ask as there were far too many questions she had in mind. “How are human world schools different from magic schools?” Mu asked.

“Well to start, no magic and no crazy teachers that want to kill us,” Harriet mentioned. Mu sighed, but Harriet wasn’t sure if that was a sigh of relief for no evil teachers or a sigh of sadness for a lack of magic.”But, you’re in the same class with me.”

Mu’s eyes widened. “Really?” She asked. Harriet nodded. “But how? Is that not difficult to achieve?” She asked.

“Dad has a way!” Harriet replied.

“I won’t say who, but your teacher this year was an old friend of mine. I told them how we took in an exchange student from another country and to make sure you're not separated they put you in their class.” Luka explained.

Mu felt a wave of relief wash over her. She wouldn't be separated from her best friend. Once she and Harriet were done eating they grabbed their lunches and backpacks, but before they could leave Moonjumper and Boss looked at the girls hoping to come along with them.

“Sorry guys, you have to stay home with Dad.” Harriet told them.

“Aww…” Moonjumper sighed looking down.

Boss sighed in relif. “Good. I’ll just relax.” He replied as he went to Harriet’s bed and slept.

Moonjumper then latched himself on to Harriet and gave his partner the biggest puppy dog eyes. “Come on, can we please go with you?” He asked.

“You’ll be fine at home. Dad will take care of both of you.” Harriet told him.

“I can be a plush toy! I’m good at it!” Moonjumper explained.

“I’m sorry Moon, but don’t worry. I’ll be back home soon.” Harriet gave Moonjumper a hug and put down. “See you later!” She beamed, grabbing Mu’s hand as they ran out of the house too. They made their way along their path, Mu smiled and laughed, trying to catch up to Harriet’s speed.

Once they made it to Starshine Elementary, Mu became starstruck at how big the school was. “This is your school?” Mu asked.

“Yep!” Harriet replied. She smiled as the two saw a green and blue blur running by, “And here’s one of my closest friends!” She beamed. Mu saw a girl around their age come running down before them. Jumping at Harriet and giving her a big hug.

The girl had dark skin, dark brown curly hair tied with a light blue ribbon, purple eyes and wore a green blouse with a light blue skirt, along with white cat socks and black boots. “Harriet! I missed you!” The girl beamed.

Harriet giggled. “I missed you too Brandy.”

“How was your summer?” Brandy asked.

Harriet giggled. “You could say it was magical,” she replied.

Brandy giggled. She turned to Mu. “Who’s your new friend?” 

“Oh right, Brandy this is Emily, or Mu as she likes to be called. She’s an exchange student dad and I took in over the summer.” Harriet explained, going along with the story her dad told her. “Mu this is Brandy, we’ve been friends since Kindergarten.”

“N-nice to meet you.” Mu replied, stuttering a bit.

Brandy giggled. “Hi there, any friend of Harriet is a friend of mine!” She beamed, taking Mu’s hand.

Mu was nervous to reply but managed to give a warm yet shaky chuckle. Harriet nudged her witch friend and gave a wink. “If you like me, you’ll definitely like Brandy. She's really cool and fun.” Harriet mentioned. 

Brandy giggled. “Guess what, Harriet,” she asked. “I’m in the same class as you this year!” 

Harriet squealed. “That’s great,” she beamed, “the three of us should sit together!”

“You read my mind!” Brandy replied. With that Harriet grabbed Mu’s hand as the girls went inside the classroom.

Once inside, Harriet and Brandy reunited with all their classmates and started to talk about their summer together. “So Harriet,” Brandy whispered, “tell me about your magical summer.”

Harriet nodded. “A lot has happened you see-“ Harriet was then cut off by the bell meaning class was about to start. “I’ll tell you at lunch.”

Once everyone was in class, the teacher came in. Harriet’s eyes widened as she recognized her from previous interactions. The teacher wore a light blue dress, brown pants and black shoes. Her rose red hair was tied into a side braid. She faced the class with a bright smile on her face.

“Good morning, and welcome back!” The teacher said happily. “I’m Miss. Rose, I’ll be your 5th grade teacher for this year!” 

Harriet quickly got up from her seat. “It’s nice to meet you W-I mean Miss. Rose!” She blurted out.

Miss. Rose giggled. “Harriet, I know your dad knows me, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get special treatment to call me by my full name.” She explained. 

The class giggled, which made Harriet laugh alongside them, just a tad more embarrassed, as she sat back down. “Sorry, sorry, I’m just excited for this year that’s all.” She explained.

“Well, it seems like you guys did have a nice, long, exciting break.” Miss. Rose explained. “So as a starter, why don’t we spend this morning getting to know each other before you guys go meet with the elective teachers.” The class agreed. “Alright, to start, why doesn’t the exchange student take the lead.” She said pointing to Mu.

The witch knew the teacher was talking about her and stood up nervously from her seat. “Uh… hi… I’m Emily, but I like to be called Mu.” She started. “It’s nice to meet you all.” Mu sat down and sighed in relief.

The class smiled, which made Mu smile. “Feel better?” Harriet whispered. Mu nodded and the two listened to the rest of their class each talk about themselves and their favorite moments about summer.

After a while, it was Brandy’s turn to speak. “Well, I’m Brandy, and my summer was alright. I got to visit my aunt in the city.” She explained.

She then looked at Harriet giving her a turn to speak up. “I’m Harriet Kidd, and during my summer I-“

“Was stuck in your fantasy world again?” A young boy asked, causing his little group to laugh.

“No!” Harriet snapped. “I was-“

“Pretending to be a witch!” Another boy in that same group cut Harriet off, which started to get the class except Mu and Brandy, to laugh.

Harriet went quiet and sat back down, but Mu was angry and she got up. “She and her dad visited me!” Mu yelled, getting the class quiet. “Harriet and her dad went traveling and I met them! That’s why I’m here!” Mu yelled. Harriet looked up at Mu and smiled seeing her friend stand up for her. Even if what Mu said wasn’t true it was something better than what she could’ve come up with.

“And don’t you pick on Harriet, Dylan!” Miss. Rose pointed to one of the boys. “I heard from your 4th grade teacher about your behavior towards her and others. I will not tolerate it.” Miss. Rose explained.

Dylan groaned and crossed his arms. Mu glared knowing Dylan would be on her nerves and looked at Harriet before whispering in her ear. “If you need me to get back at him let me know.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” Harriet whispered back as the two girls giggled.

The rest of class was normal and uneventful. Afterwards, the students got to visit all of the elective classes for the year. Mu was excited to try out all the classes. During the tour, Harriet kept on getting bumped and teased by Dylan, who would later act all innocent when someone else looked at him. 

Mu glared and had her wand hidden under her sleeves when she whispered a spell that caused Dylan to trip on his shoelace and fall on his face, causing everyone to laugh. Mu smirked and Harriet looked up with a smile. 

“You're horrible,l Mu.” Harriet whispered and snickered.

“I was just born that way.” Mu replied, giving a shrug. The girls giggled as they walked back to their classroom to work on their lessons for the day.

Since it was only the first day of school, the lessons were simple, so at times the kids asked Mu questions about her old school, and her life.

“So what kind of school did you go to before coming here?” One girl asked.

“A private school,” Mu replied.

“Have any friends? I’d love to meet them.” A young boy asked.

“Yep! I have a few, plus Harriet.” Mu answered, giving a nod.

Harriet smiled seeing Mu was adjusting well with everyone. She then felt a tap on her shoulder which made her turn towards Brandy. “I have a question about Mu, can I ask you very quickly?” She whispered.

“Sure what is it?” Harriet asked. Brandy leaned in Harriet’s ear and whispered her question. Harriet reacted with a cat-like smile. “Ask her at lunch. I won’t say.” She replied. Brandy smiled and gave a nod.

Lunch rolled around and Mu, Harriet and Brandy sat down at a table away from the rest of the kids. “This is where Brandy and I usually sit.” Harriet explained. 

Once the group was seated, Brandy didn’t hesitate to ask her a question. “You're a witch are you?” Brandy asked. 

Mu spit out her drink in surprise and coughed. “N-no!” She yelled. “What makes you say that?”

Harriet sighed. “Mu, remember when I said you’ll like Brandy?” She asked. Mu turned to her friend. “Well Brandy also likes magic like I do, so she’s safe to tell her you're a witch.”

Mu sighed feeling relieved. “Well to answer your question; yes I am a witch.”

Brandy’s smile widened and she hugged Mu tightly. “That is so cool!” Brandy beamed. “What kinds of magic can you do? Do you have a cat? I know witches have cats! Ooh tell me tell me!” Brandy was so excited as she wanted to know everything about Mu, the real Mu..

Mu chuckled. “Okay, okay. I can show you the magic after school. I do have a cat named Boss, he keeps me in line most of the time.” She explained.

“He’s also cuddly.” Harriet added. 

Brandy giggled in reply. “I’m guessing you didn’t travel to another country, but a witch world?” She asked, looking at Harriet.

Harriet nodded. “Yep! Speranza.” She replied. “Plus I even found clues about my mom.”

“That’s amazing!” Brandy beamed in reply. “So is she home safe?”

Harriet frowned and shook her head. Brandy frowned in reply knowing it wasn’t good news. “Turns out my grandma, who is also the headmistress, took her away from me and turned her into a monster.” Harriet explained.

Brandy frowned and hugged her friend. “I’m sorry, Harriet.” She said, before turning to Mu. “I guess you got stuck here too?” Mu nodded. 

“So now we’re trying to find a way to get back to Speranza to save my mom!” Harriet beamed.

Brandy smiled. “Um…if you want, I can help.” 

“How can you help?” Mu asked.

“I have a lot of magic-esq stuff at my house.” Brandy answered. “Maybe there’s something I have that could help.”

Mu and Harriet smiled seeing they were slowly making progress. “Alright. We’ll go!” Mu answered.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 19-Backstory

Hey guys…

We're gonna get into some deep lore on Vanessa and Luka’s lives before Harriet was born! I was excited to get to this chapter as this was one of my early ideas for this fanfic.

Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

This chapter is dedicated to my grandma, she passed away while I was working on this fanfic.

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About 18 years ago, a 14-year-old Luka Kidd decided to catch up on some reading. It was the beginning of Summer and after a beautifully bright day at the beach with family and friends, it was time to relax and read. He went to his favorite place in town, a place far away from everything.

Luka sat down underneath the tree and turned to the page where he left off in his book. The novel he was reading was about two people who were destined to be together due to a moon necklace, and are traveling around the world to find them. It was a cheesy story, but the whole story of fate spoke out to him.

He was about to start the next chapter of the story when he heard a loud splash coming from the river. He looked up from his book and saw a young girl face-flat in the river. He quickly bookmarked his novel and ran towards the girl,helped her up.

“Are you okay?” Luka asked.

The girl coughed up water and once she felt better she looked up at the boy. “Y-yeah. I’m fine.” She replied. Upon looking at him, the girl blushed. Luka also blushed. She wore a unique outfit that consisted of a green vest over a white shirt, green and white striped puffy shorts, long white stockings, and green mary jane shoes. Her hair was blonde and tied into pigtails and she wore a pair of glasses over her crystal blue eyes.

“T-That’s good,” Luka stuttered. The two turned away from each other as the blush on their face turned brighter, almost the same color as a tomato. The two took another glance at one another and Luka was the first to break the silence. “I’m…Luka.”

“My name's Vanessa.” The girl replied.

Luka smiled and turned to look at her. “Lovely name.”

Vanessa blushed and smiled. “Thank you,” she replied. Luka held his hand out, and Vanessa grabbed it as they got out of the lake together. “Aww man.” She then saw her clothes became soggy and wet from landing in the lake. “My mother will not be happy about this.”

“Well, if you want you can come over to my house and dry. I’m sure my mom has some spare clothes you could wear.” Luka explained.

“Oh, are you sure?” Vanessa asked. “I mean I could just go home and-” Luka took Vanessa’s hand, which cut her off.

“Positive!” Luka replied. Vanessa looked at Luka before turning away. She could go home and get dry, but something in her mind told her to follow this young boy instead. With a smile she nodded which made Luka smile back. “Alright! Come on, my house isn’t too far.” He said. Grabbing his book he and Vanessa started to make their way to his house.

As they walked Vanessa frowned, her mind was processing so many things at once. It feels wrong going with a stranger, but also it feels right and…safe.

The Kidd family house was a simple two-story house. Inside, Luka’s mom Autumn was just getting dinner started for her son and husband. Her appearance looked exactly like her granddaughter Harriet only with golden eyes and she wore a long red house dress and a pair of white slippers. While she put the stove on low heat the door opened. “I’m home!” Luka yelled. “I hope you don’t mind. I brought home a guest.”

“Oh, welcome home Luka!” Autumn beamed. She came out from the kitchen and was in shock seeing Vanessa soaked and her son’s pants wet. “What happened to you two?” She asked.

“Vanessa fell into the water. I figured having her stay here before going back home.” Luka explained.

Vanessa was quiet as she looked at Autumn checking her out. She trembled a bit as Autumn stared at her. Vanessa waited for a yell, but what came next surprised her. “Well, I have some clothes Vanessa can borrow. Luka, be a dear and keep an eye on dinner while I get our guest ready.” Autumn explained.

Luka nodded. “Yes, mom!” He beamed. Luka went to the kitchen to do as he was told.Vanessa looked back at her friend.

“Come on Vanessa, my room is upstairs.” Autumn said. Vanessa nodded and followed the older woman up to her room. As she went up the stairs she saw Luka's life growing up on the walls, his rewards from school, and him bonding with his family. Once upstairs Autumn went to the room on the right and opened the door and went in.

Vanessa went in right after and saw Autumn lay out a towel on the bed for her to sit on. She did and saw Autumn taking clothes out that Vanessa would like. “So Vanessa, which side of town are you from?” Autumn asked.

Vanessa’s eyes widened; she had never been to Subcon before and didn’t know the routes of the town or where to go. “Uh… the North side of town.” She lied.

“Ah, so Alpine Town.” Autumn answered.

“Yeah!” Vanessa replied, giving a nervous laugh, that laugh made Autumn worry. Something about that laugh made her think there was more about this girl that they don’t even know yet. Vanessa was confused seeing Autumn was quiet and just stayed silent.

 Autumn found enough clothes for Vanessa to go through and pick a few. “Well, I think these clothes would fit you. Pick whatever you like and meet us down for dinner.” She said as she went down. “Just yell if you need me.”

Vanessa nodded and looked through the clothes and picked two that she thought were perfect. A mint green blouse with brown spots and a white collar and a white skirt. Quickly she looked around to see if no one was coming back in and closed the door, locking it to be safe.

Grabbing her wand, Vanessa started to mumble the words to a spell and the clothes she picked magically went on her body, replacing her old witch clothes. She then unlocked the door and Vanessa went downstairs to see Luka was setting the table.

Luka blushed harder than he did when he first met her, almost dropping a plate in the process. Vanessa froze and looked at her clothes and got nervous. “Do I look okay?” She asked.

“Y-yeah. Stunning even!” Luka replied.

Vanessa smiled, giggling. “Thank you!” She beamed.

Luka smiled back. “Wanna help set up the table?” He asked. Vanessa nodded and Luka handed her a plate to put on the table. Once the two got the table set up, Autumn placed the food on the table and now they had to wait for Luka’s father to come home.

It wasn’t long, before Luka’s father Dolan showed up. The man looked exactly like Luka except for being a bit bigger and having a beard. Autumn smiled and hugged her husband and kissed him. “How was work, honey?” Autumn asked.

“Busy, as usual.” Dolan replied as he kissed his wife in reply. He then noticed Vanessa and smiled. “So Luka, is this your girlfriend?” He asked.

Vanessa and Luka blushed a bright red as they looked at each other shocked that they were dating. “N-no dad! She’s a friend, just a friend!” Luka reassured his father. He looked at Vanessa, who looked back at him nervously. “Her name is Vanessa. She fell in the lake and I took her back here.” He explained.

“Nice to meet you, sir.” Vanessa said being polite to the people that are letting her stay here and have dinner with them.

Dolan looked at the girl and smiled. “Such a sweetheart.” He chuckled. Vanessa smiled, feeling at ease with Luka’s family. “So what’s for dinner tonight?”

“Well since it’s Luka’s first summer I figured I’d cook some favorites; Alfredo pasta and chicken soup!” Autumn announced. Luka smiled and pulled up a chair for Vanessa. The latter smiled and sat down as Luka pushed her chair in. Luka sat next to her and set up her plate before handing it to her. 

Vanessa stared at her plate and saw the rest of Luka’s family serving themselves before starting to eat. Vanessa smiled and tried a bit of the soup, which made her eyes widen. The soup was warm and homey. She kept eating the soup and let out a sigh at how good it was.

“I see you're enjoying it.” Luka said.

“It’s really good!” Vanessa replied. She continued eating her soup before finishing it and started to eat the pasta. The pasta tasted even better than the soup. While eating Vanessa saw Luka and his family having a conversation while they ate as they laughed and reacted over their day.

The environment felt different than what Vanessa was used to at home. Usually, dinners were quiet unless something “interesting” by her mom’s standards was part of the conversation.

“Vanessa? Vanessa!” Luka called out.

“Huh?” Vanessa asked.

“You were spacing out.” Luka said. “I was asking what fun stuff are you into?” He asked.

“Oh!” Vanessa replied. “Well, my interests are a lot different from most others.” She explained. “But…” Her voice trailed off as she tried to think of how to explain her witch life to this family. “I like fantasy stuff and I’m good at school, though my mom has high expectations of me.” She explained.

Dolan chuckled. “So just like our boy here!” He beamed pointing at Luka.

“Dad.” Luka groaned.

“Come on son, you know I’m teasing!” Dolan replied. Luka rolled his eyes in reply and continued to eat.

Vanessa let out a giggle and continued to eat her pasta. Luka smiled, and continued to say “So you said you like fantasy stuff, correct?” He asked. Vanessa nodded. “Well, I have tons of fantasy books and movies we can look through after dinner.”

“Okay!” Vanessa replied with a smile.

Once dinner was done Luka helped his mother with the dishes as Vanessa helped dry the dishes and Dolan put the dishes away. Once the dishes were put away, Luka took Vanessa to his room and showed her his collection of fantasy novels. “These are all your books?” Vanessa asked.

“Yep! It’s nerdy I know.” Luka replied.

“I don’t think it’s nerdy.” Vanessa said. “I think it’s interesting.”

Luka smiled. He was quiet and closed the door once he saw it was safe. Luka decided to drop a bomb on Vanessa. “So…you a witch?” He asked.

Vanessa froze as she quickly covered Luka’s mouth. She looked at Luka’s door before turning to her new friend. “How did you know?” She asked.

“Well let’s see; you appeared out of nowhere, you're secretive about where you live and your life, and you like fantasy.” Luka explained, listing everything down.

“W-well anyone could like fantasy stuff, and maybe I don’t wanna talk about where I live.” Vanessa replied, giving a nervous chuckle. 

“Plus your outfit gave it away.” Luka added, not convinced by Vanessa’s lie.

 Vanessa stopped chuckling before giving up. “Fine, I’m a witch.” She revealed. Vanessa then turned away, not wanting to look at Luka. “But it’s not like the fantasy stories you read. I have it rough.”

“All fantasy characters go through a rough story.” Luka replied.

“I bet these characters don’t have their mothers trying to make them perfect, or controlling them to a path they don’t want, or…hurt them.” Vanessa explained, tears falling from her eyes. She tried her best to hold it in, remembering her mother’s words that there was nothing to cry about. She took deep breaths to hold the tears back.

Vanessa’s eyes then widened when she felt Luka hug her from behind. “You can let it out.” He whispered. Vanessa kept holding it in, but soon she let it all out sobbing out all the pain she was going through. Luka frowned, feeling bad about what Vanessa was going through.

Luka then heard the door open and saw his mother come in. “Vanessa, do you need anything? Oh!” Autumn was in shock seeing Vanessa crying in her son’s arms. Autumn looked up at her son and mouthed what happened.

“I’ll tell you later.” Luka whispered. Autumn nodded and left the two alone.

It took a while, but Vanessa started to calm down. Luka took the time to give his new friend a box of tissues to wipe her tears away. “Thank you.” Vanessa whispered.

“Anytime.” Luka replied. He waited for the young witch to calm down before talking to her more. “So why did you come here?”

Vanessa sniffled as she wiped away the last of the tears from her eyes. “I always wanted to visit Earth. I heard many things about it.” She started. “But I also wanted to escape my life in Speranza, that’s the Witch World by the way.”

“What’s it like?” Luka asked.

“The usual witch world in stories. Magic creatures, witches and wizards, potions the whole shebang!” Vanessa explained. Luka giggled, which made Vanessa smile. “But, my mom expects a lot of me, I’m this perfect witch and I’m overwhelmed with everything!” She explained.

Luka sighed and put his arm around Vanessa. “You know, I can let you live here on Earth? My folks will understand.” He said.

Vanessa’s eyes widened. “Really?” She’s asked in disbelief.

“Yeah. I mean I can explain your living situation except skip the whole witch and magical world lore, and they’ll be sure to understand.” Luka explained.

Vanessa smiled and hugged Luka again, this time tighter. “Thank you, Luka.” She said, “Thank you, Thank you!”

Luka blushed and chuckled, hugging his friend back. “Anytime Vanessa.” He said. The two let go, and Luka got up to go to his parents' room and explained to them the tough situation Vanessa was in. His parents were in shock over Vanessa’s living situation, however, as much as they wanted her to be out of the living situation she was in there wasn’t any room for her to live here for a while.

“I’m sorry Luka.” Dolan said. 

Luka sighed, but he wasn’t willing to give up yet. “Is there anyone you guys know that can take her in?” He asked.

Dolan and Autumn looked at one another and went through their friend list on who can take in a young girl. It was Autumn who knew where Vanessa could go. “Well, I know one person, Mrs. Florabrite, and her daughter. They could help bring her in.” She explained.

“Really?” Luka asked.

“Sure! I’ll call them right now, and let you and Vanessa know.” Autumn said. She then walked over to the phone and started to dial Mrs. Florabrite’s number. Luka sat there nervously as his mom was on the phone talking with her friend. The second Luka saw a smile on his mother’s face knew that the news was good. “Got good news! She said yes!”

Luka smiled. “I’ll tell Vanessa the news!” He beamed. Luka ran back to his room, which made Vanessa look at him in worry. “Well good news and bad news. The bad news is you can’t live with us.” Vanessa sighed, but quickly Luka announced the good news. “Good news! My folks found you a place to stay!”

“Really? Where?” Vanessa asked.

“It’s a friend of my mom’s!” Luka replied.

Vanessa sighed. The feeling of being trapped by her mother slowly started to disappear. She no longer had to deal with her mother pressuring her. She collapsed on Luka’s bed as Luka crawled into bed and lay down with her. 

“I’m free.” Vanessa said.

“Yeah.” Luka replied.

“Now what?” 

“Well, don’t worry about that. I’ll be there to help guide you around the human world.” Luka explained. Vanessa smiled and hugged Luka once more.

Just like that, Vanessa was able to learn a lot about the human world. From the culture to the food, and history. Luka stood by her when she started her first day at a human school and taught her what she needed to know. She was so intrigued by history and science.

As Vanessa and Luka got older, they got closer and closer to the point they started to date. After a couple of years of dating, Luka decided to propose to her, and not long after they married and had a beautiful daughter, Harriet Puella Kidd.

Their life was perfect…

It was sad that it ended so soon.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 18-Living a Normal Life

Happy New Year!! We’re now in the new year! I have tons of goals in mind, but all I can say is I'm gonna create some new stories for you. I’m so excited to share some story ideas if I can get them off the ground.

For now, we’re gonna start the new year with the newest chapter of Hopes and Friendships!

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader.

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~

The following morning, Mu woke up to a lovely aroma. She groaned, let out a loud yawn, and stretched. She tried to remember what happened before she fell asleep, it started to come back to her in parts.

The fight with the Headmistress, being sent to Earth, meeting Harriet’s father…

Mu sighed and turned to the left and saw Harriet was not in bed. Mu’s guess; Harriet went downstairs. She stretched before getting out of bed and leaving the room, heading downstairs. Once downstairs she saw Luka cooking some pancakes, and Harriet enjoying said pancakes.

“Morning, Mu!” Harriet beamed.

Luka turned and smiled seeing Harriet’s witch friend was awake. “Morning kiddo, how did you sleep?” He asked.

“Pretty good, I guess.” Mu replied as she sat down at the table next to Harriet. She looked at her plate of pancakes and saw Harriet eating big bites of her breakfast. Mu felt her stomach growl seeing the food. Mu watched as a plate was set down in front of her with the same meal as Harriet.

“Pancakes?” Luka asked.

“Uh, thank you.” Mu replied. Luka smiled and went to cook more pancakes, as Mu looked at her plate and was ready to eat her pancakes before Harriet pushed a cold bottle of syrup to her.

“They taste better with this.” Harriet said.

Mu smiled and opened the bottle to pour the maple syrup on top of her pancakes. Once she put on enough,  she closed the lid and started to eat. The sweetness of the food with the syrup made stars appear in Mu’s eyes before she started to take bigger bites of the pancakes like Harriet was doing.

Once Luka finished with the rest of the batter he placed a plate of pancakes in the table's center for the girls if they wanted extras, which they did. Luka chuckled and grabbed a few pancakes for himself and started to enjoy breakfast with his daughter and her friend.

It wasn’t long till Moonjumper and Boss came down smelling the pancakes. Harriet looked at the familiars and got up to grab two plates and then grabbed two pancakes for each of them. Their eyes widened seeing how good the pancakes looked, especially seeing Harriet put a hefty amount of syrup on them.

“Here you go! Bon appetit!” Harriet beamed. Before she knew it, Moonjumper and Boss devoured their pancakes. Harriet chuckled seeing them enjoy their breakfast before going back to the table to continue eating.

“Mu,” Luka spoke up, causing the witch to look up at him. “When you're finished eating we’ll be heading out for the day.”

Mu swallowed her food. “Where are we going?” She asked.

“We're going to the mall! We’re gonna find you clothes and stuff for you to feel at home here.” Harriet explained. “Just until we get back to Sperenza.”

“O-Oh.” Mu replied. She then looked back at her plate of food and started to eat slowly. Luka and Harriet looked at each other knowing Mu was still home sick. Harriet went to put her arms around Mu causing her to look up at her friend.

“Hey, we're gonna have fun.” Harriet said. “Plus we’ll end the day with ice cream from my favorite place! You'll love it!”

Mu felt her mouth water hearing ice cream. “You have ice cream here on Earth?” She asked. Harriet nodded, which made Mu smile and quickly finish eating her breakfast. “Alright I’m ready!”

Luka and Harriet laughed. “Well the mall doesn’t open for another hour, but I guess we can finish up eating. Harriet?” Luka said.

“Yeah,” Harriet replied.

“You have to do the dishes before we leave.” Luka reminded her. Harriet sighed and looked down. “I still need to punish you for running off like that.” Harriet figured there was a catch, her dad wasn’t into grounding unless needed, but would surprise her daughter with chores as punishment.

Mu smiled and pat Harriet on the back. The latter looked at her witch friend who gave her a wink knowing she has a plan to make Harriet’s dish duty a bit faster. Harriet smiled and winked back.

“Okay dad,” Harriet said.

Luka smiled and finished his breakfast, putting the empty dish it in the sink. Once he left to get ready, Mu took out her wand as the two girls snickered. Harriet finished and put her plate in the sink before turning on the water and putting in three pumps of soap to get it nice and foamy. She started to scrub the plates as Mu used her magic to rinse the soap off, dry the plates, and put them back in the cabinet.

Once getting most of the dishes done, the girls heard the door open. Harriet and Mu started to do the dishes the normal way. Luka came by and took a peek to see the girls doing the dishes together and Mu bringing the dishes to the cabinet. Luka knew his daughter better and smirked, he went over to Moonjumper and Boss and kneeled down to their level.

“Did they use any magic?” Luka asked, whispering so the girls didn’t hear him. Boss mewled pretending to be a cat, but Luka chuckled and petted the familiar in the head. “I know you're a familier, you don’t have to act like a cat.” 

Boss’s eyes widened before frowning. Moonjumper chuckled. “Don’t worry they didn’t.” He lied. Of course Moon saw them use magic but he wasn’t going to get Harriet in trouble.

However, what Moonjumper didn’t know was that Luka knew his daughter too well. “Alright,” Luka said. He looked up at the girls. “When you two are ready let me know and we’ll get going!”

“Okay!” Harriet and Mu yelled at the same time. The two continued to clean the dishes regularly before finishing off with magic to complete it. Once done, Harriet went to her closet and grabbed some clothes for her and Mu to wear.

“I know we are getting you new clothes, but people will question your Sperenza clothes.” Harriet explained. “Also that way we can see what your clothes size is.” She then laid out some clothes for Mu to pick while Harriet grabbed a dark-gray T-shirt with a Hourglass and stars around it, dark purple jeans before going to the bathroom to change.

Mu looked at all of Harriet’s clothes wondering which one to pick. She went through her outfits and picked a pink t-shirt with a red heart on it and a pair of jeans. Mu put on the clothes before looking at herself in the mirror.

“What do you think?” Mu asked, showing the familiers her new clothes.

Boss and Moonjumper titled their heads looking at Mu. “You do look human,” Moonjumper said.

“No one will tell if you're a witch.” Boss added.

Mu sighed. “Good.”

The three then heard the door open and saw that Harriet was already dressed. “Ready to go?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Mu replied. Harriet took her friend’s hand as they went outside where Luka was waiting for them. Moonjumper and Boss decided to stay at home as they looked through the window to see the girl's head inside the car before it pulled out to the street.

Mu was impressed as she looked out the window seeing everything pass by. “So is this how humans get around?” Mu asked.

“Yep! My dad can make this thing faster. He’s done it lots of times!” Harriet explained.

“And three of those times, Mr. Kent gave me a speeding ticket.” Luka replied with a grumble. Harriet giggled and remembered one time she told her dad to drive faster thanks to her oversleeping on a school night and he ended up getting a ticket.

Mu on the other hand was confused about all of this. Tickets, and how to make the car go faster? She wanted to ask, but didn’t want to feel dumb for asking these Earth world questions. Harriet saw her friend was quiet and nudged her. The witch turned to her friend who gave her a smile, which made Mu smile back. The two enjoyed their ride and Mu looked out to see a large building.

Harriet smiled seeing they made it to the mall. 

“Wow! That’s a big place,” Mu whispered.

“It is! It’s my favorite place to shop!” Harriet beamed. Once Luka parked the car in the parking garage Harriet didn’t hesitate to get out and was ready to run to the mall entrance. However, Luka grabbed her daughter’s hand before she could run into the street.

“I know your excited kiddo, but don’t just run into the street like that.” Luka told her.

“Sorry.” Harriet replied with a chuckle. The two waited for Mu to get out of the car and join them. The young witch walked towards them as Luka held his hand out for her to hold it. Hesitating, she eventually did, and Luka led the two girls inside the mall.

Once inside the mall Mu’s eyes widened at all the stores around them. Harriet gave a smug smile seeing her friend was in awe. “You like it?” She asked.

“It’s overwhelming! There’s so much here, and it’s indoors!” Mu beamed.

“Wait till you see the stores I like! Come on! I have to show you around!” Harriet grinned ready to take her friend on a shopping spree, but before she and Mu could take their first step, Harriet felt her father grab her hand. “Hey! What gives?”

“I know you're excited for taking Mu shopping, but remember we have to find clothes for her.” Luka explained.

“Okay, but I’m taking Mu to my favorite stores after.” Harriet replied. “Please,” she added, giving a sheepish smile.

Luka chuckled. “Okay. You can take Mu to your favorite shops.” Harriet smiled and let out a cheer. Mu smiled seeing her friend happy and the trio made their way to the first clothing store. 

Looking inside the store were parents showing their daughters cute clothes and dresses, which made Mu a bit uncomfortable. “Uh…Mr.Kidd. I’m not sure this is my style.” Mu said.

“Well now we're just window shopping. I need to know what makes you comfortable so I know what to get.” Luka explained.

Mu looked at Luka surprised. She always remembered having to fit in with most girls, but never getting to wear what makes her comfortable. “Well to be honest, I can handle dresses, but nothing too flashy or fancy.” She explained.

Harriet thought for a bit, and snapped her fingers. “I think there’s something here you might like. If you want I can show you?” She asked. Mu nodded and took Harriet’s hand and they both went towards one of the clothing isles. “Let me know when you see something you like and we’ll try it on.”

Mu looked through the many clothes at the store, but couldn’t find anything that suited her. She did find a cute red jacket though, which she thought looked cute. “This one looks cool!” Mu commented.

“I like it!” Harriet added. Mu smiled and handed the jacket to Harriet. Mu continued to look through all the clothes, but all were too girly for her taste. Once knowing the sweater was all they were gonna get, the girls went back to Luka and they paid for it.

“Okay, so since cute isn’t your style, there’s one store we can check out that you may like.” Luka said. Mu nodded as she looked around to find another store to shop at. There she found more family friendly clothing that seemed to have kids of all genders go inside.

“Could we check that out?” Mu asked. Luka nodded and he and Harriet went into the store. There, Mu was able to find clothes that were more her style; like boyish, in more dark colors, and comfortable. She looked through and tried on the ones that she liked the most and gave them to Luka. 

After a while of picking new clothes. Luka saw that they had more than enough for Mu. “Okay, I think we should be good for now.” He said. Harriet and Mu smiled and watched Luka go to the counter to pay for the clothes. As he paid, Mu saw a hair clip in a section that interested her. 

The hair clip had a shooting star, and the trails were yellow, pink, and green. It was glittery and Mu thought it was cute. She wondered what the clip would look like in her hair, but the clip was still in its packaging. Harriet saw her witch friend looking at something and went over to her. “What are you looking at?” Harriet asked.

Mu got spooked in surprise as she hid the clip behind her back. “N-nothing!” Mu lied.

“Come on, show me!” Harriet sang.

Mu blushed and moved back more, touching the shelf. “No.”

“Please!” Harriet begged. Mu blushed and hesitated as Harriet kept pleading for her friend to show her the clip. Mu let out a groan and showed it to Harriet. “Oooh!”

“I-I thought it was cute, but your father wouldn’t buy this for me.” Mu explained.

“True.” Harriet replied. “But I would!” Harriet then snatched the clip and went to the counter to pay for Mu’s clip. Mu tried to stop her, but it was already too late. Harriet was ringed up and took out some cash to pay for Mu’s hair clip.

Luka was already done buying Mu’s clothes when he saw Harriet at the counter, the worker gave her a small bag. “What did you buy, kiddo?” Luka asked.

“Something for Mu.” Harriet answered. She then walked back to Mu and took the clip out of the packaging before putting it on the left side of her hair. “There! You look great!”

Mu looked up at the clip and looked back at Harriet giving a smile at her friend. “Thank you, Harriet,” she said, blushing.

“You’re welcome!” Harriet replied.

The rest of the mall trip went by smoothly. Mu found some shirts and even a pair of pajamas she liked, which Luka bought. Afterwards, the girls went window shopping at all of Harriet’s favorite shops like a toy store and a bookstore. Once their time at the mall was over, they went back to the car and drove to the local ice cream shop Harriet mentioned.

Mu was impressed at all of the ice cream flavors, not sure what to pick. She then looked at Harriet and Luka who already had their flavors picked out; rocky road and mint chocolate chip respectively. To Mu, both sounded really good, but out of the two, which one should she pick? Once Luka and Harriet got their cones, Mu made her decision.

“Have you decided yet?” The worker asked.

Mu nodded. “A Rocky Road, please.” Mu replied.  The worker gave a smile and scooped up another Rocky Road and handed it to Mu. Luka paid the worker and the three left the store to enjoy their ice cream.

“Come on, I have a place to take you two.” Luka said. The girls looked at each other confused before following the adult. During their walk, and while enjoying ice cream, the girls strolled through the park where they first met. It brought them flashbacks as they smiled and giggled how time flies. Soon enough, Luka stopped and pushed the bushes and Harriet’s eyes widened knowing where her father took them.

“How do you know about my secret place?” Harriet asked.

“Because this was my secret place first.” Luka answered.

Harriet and Mu turned to each other before following Luka who sat down underneath a big tree. The girls followed and sat down next to Luka and continued eating their ice cream. After a while, Harriet noticed her father slowly licking his ice cream as a sad expression started to form on his face.

“Dad?” Harriet spoke up. Luka then looked down at his daughter. “Are you okay?”

“Well, not really,” Luka replied, “This place here is where I met your mother.”

Harriet almost dropped her ice cream cone hearing that.

[ahatintimestorybook]

A Hat in Time-Hopes and Friendships Chap. 17-Finding a Way

The next chapter is here! We’re now gonna see what happened after the last chapter. If you missed it please go and read it!

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Enjoy!

~~~~

Harriet and Mu sat in the kitchen holding their familiars as Luka made the girls some tea. Despite no longer crying, Harriet still let out a few sniffles here and there, wiping the remaining tears from her face.

Mu was quiet and tried to reach out to comfort her best friend, but she held back and pet Boss instead.

To break the silence, Luka let out a sigh and sat down across from the girls. Harriet and Mu looked up at the man and waited to hear what he had to say. “Alright, I need to know. Where have you been Harriet?” Luka asked.

Harriet didn’t have to lie or be silent to her dad. She looked up at him and started to explain everything. “I met Mu who is a witch, I went to magic school with her in Speranza, and got to know about mom.”

Luka nodded. “Keep going.” He said.

“I also learned who my grandmother was, well she’s not a grandma, but the headmistress. An evil headmistress who took mom away from us.” Harriet explained. “And well, you know the rest.”

Luka sighed and used two fingers to press the bridge of his nose. He didn’t know how to process all this. All this time he thought his wife left or died, he’d instead think the former rather than the latter.

“It wasn’t her fault,” Mu spoke up. Harriet and Luka turned their gaze on the young witch, “I took her to Speranza, and I promised to help her find her mother. So if anyone needs to be punished it’s me.”

Luka sighed and Mu braced herself ready for Luka to yell and punish the girls. However, whatever Mu was expecting wasn’t:  “No one is getting punished.”

Mu’s eyes widened confused. “What?” She asked.

“I said no one is getting punished,” Luka replied. Harriet sighed in relief, but Mu was still confused why Luka wasn’t punishing them.

“B-but that doesn’t make sense?” Mu asked. “Why?”

“Because you went through a lot, and I’m just glad all of you are okay,” Luka explained. Harriet gave a small smile and got out of her chair and hugged her father tight. Luka smiled and hugged his little girl back. He then looked at Mu and held his arm out for the young witch. This surprised her as she went over to Luka, and she was surprised when he pulled her into a hug. Mu blinked in surprise and hugged Luka back.  Never in her life had Mu felt this much love in a household. Moonjumper and Boss smiled in awe seeing the lovely sight.

Though the hug couldn’t be like that forever as Harriet and Mu’s stomachs started to growl.  They quickly let go of Luka. “Guessing you two haven’t eaten yet?” He asked.

“Nope,” Harriet replied.

“Alright, I’ll order us take-out food tonight.” Luka said.

“Could we get Chinese Food?” Harriet asked.

After what Harriet and Mu went through, how could Luka say no? He grabbed his phone and dialed the number to Harriet’s favorite Chinese place and placed an order. While waiting for the food to arrive, Harriet went to her room and handed Mu a pair of pajamas for tonight. “You can borrow my stuff for the time being.” Harriet said.

“Thanks.” Mu replied, taking the clothes. They were red and pink two-piece pajamas that were covered in hearts. Once Mu was changed into her new pajamas the food had already arrived. Luka opened up the containers while Harriet set up the table.

Mu was confused as she sat down at the table. She’d never had a life like this, the food at the table looked and smelled so good and Luka was treating her and Harriet nicely. She knew she didn’t deserve all this, but she was so hungry she couldn’t complain.

“Here.” Luka said, handing her plate filled with noodles, rice and two egg rolls. Mu snapped out of her thoughts as Luka handed her the plate of food. “You look pretty hungry.”

“Thank you.” Mu said, taking the plate from Luka’s hands. She stared at the food for a bit before picking up her fork and scooping a bit of noodles and rice from her plate and into her mouth. Her eyes widened as the food tasted good, and continued to eat.

Once done with dinner, Luka led the young witch to the room right between his room and Harriet’s. When he opened the door, Mu was surprised by how warm and cozy the room was. Boss walked in and saw the bed and immediately ran to it before collapsing and falling asleep. Mu chuckled seeing Boss act like a pet cat. “Well make yourself comfortable, and just call me if you need anything.” Mu nodded in reply leaving her and Boss alone in the room.

Now that the young witch was able to be alone. She then got herself comfortable on her bed and started to pet Boss. “What are we gonna do now, Boss?” Mu asked. Boss looked up and let out a meow. “I mean we're stuck here till we find a way back to Speranza.” She explained. Boss let out a purr as he nuzzled his witch. Mu sighed seeing Boss can’t understand her now. “Great, now you're acting like a regular cat.”

Soon Mu heard laughter and turned to see it was Boss. “Nah, I’m just teasing you.” He said.

Mu growled as she pulled her familiar close to her face. “Don’t scare me like that again!” She threatened.

Boss chuckled, “Sorry.” He apologized. Mu sighed as she was too tired to yell at him even more. Once she let go of him he stood by her side as Mu collected her thoughts on what they should do now. While she thought Boss sensed something in the drawer next to the bed and went over to it. He sniffed it once more, which caused his tail to perk up.

“Find anything?” Mu asked.

“Open it.” Boss said.

Mu opened the drawer and her eyes widened seeing a bunch of magic books that came from Speranza. She grabbed a few and recognized these books as the ones missing from the library. “You don’t think Mr. Kidd knows about this, right?” She asked.

“Doesn’t hurt to ask.” Boss replied.

With that Mu picked up two of the magic books, and went downstairs to see Mr. Kidd. Once in the living room, she saw the man sitting on his couch reading a book. “Um, excuse me.” Mu spoke up. Luka looked up from his book and saw Mu standing there with two books.

“Oh, I see you found Vanessa’s magic books.” Luka said.

Mu nodded. “Yeah.” She replied. “I’m guessing you knew she was a witch?”

“I did.” Luka replied, giving a nod.

“Did she tell you everything?”

Luka nodded again. “Yeah, Vanessa and I planned on telling Harriet when she was older, but after Vanessa disappeared. I had to keep everything a secret.” He explained.

“Why? Don’t you know how much Harriet loves magic?” Mu asked.

“I do know, and I love her for liking it, but if she found out. I was scared she’d go look for her and would stay in Speranza, and would go through the same pressure her mother did.”

Mu frowned knowing how much Elizabeth pressured her, and anyone else in the school. However, Harriet never got that kind of pressure during her time thanks to being by Mu’s side. “Well good news, the Headmistress did not put Harriet under any pressure.” Mu told him.

Luka sighed and gave a small smile. “Thank you.” He said.

“You’re welcome.” Mu replied.

The two heard Harriet come downstairs and turned to face her. “Hey dad, think tomorrow we can take Mu out for ice cream?” She asked.

“Sure kiddo, besides we do need to get some clothes for Mu since she’ll be staying with us for a while.” Luka replied.

Harriet smiled widely as she grabbed Mu’s hand. “Come on! I have to show you my room before bed.” She said, dragging the witch up to her room. Mu chuckled and followed her friend up to her room. The witch was shocked once seeing her best friend’s room filled with posters of different fantasy series from tv shows and books.

“Wow, you truly are a fantasy fanatic.” Mu commented.

“Yep!” Harriet replied. Mu didn’t know how to reply and it was just the two girls standing there awkwardly. “M-Mu are you mad at me?” She asked.

“What! No!” Mu replied. “Shouldn’t you be mad at me for failing the mission?”

Harriet sighed. She went quiet for a bit, which made Mu think she was right. “I’m disappointed we failed, but like every story I read, no hero gives up.” She explained. “So for now we just have to plan how we can get back to Speranza and save my mom.”

“But how?” Mu asked. “Knowing the Headmistress I’m sure she put a spell blocking anyone from entering Speranza.” 

Harriet thought and remembered something. “I heard you and Dad found my mom’s old books, right?”

“Yeah.”

“We can look through those and see what we could find, maybe there’s a spell on how to get back or how to heal my mom.” Harriet explained.

Mu gave a small smile and nodded. “Okay, let’s see what we can find.” The witch then went to her room and grabbed a few books she and Harriet could look through. The two scanned and turned pages through the spells. When one of them found a spell intriguing enough, they marked it to look back on later. After an hour of looking through, Harriet let out a yawn.

“Find anything Mu?” Harriet asked. She then saw Mu was asleep and gave a small smile. She closed the book Mu was reading and tucked Mu in. “Night Mu.” Harriet whispered. She turned off the lights, tucked herself in, and fell asleep as well.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 16-A Chilling Reign

Enjoy~Hehehe

That’s all I’ll be saying.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

~~~~~~

In a flash, Mu used her wand and blocked the Headmistress’s attack. “Go rescue her, now!” Mu shouted. 

Harriet was about to argue until a loud screech cut her off. The two looked up and saw a Shadow in the form of a bear appearing right next to the Headmistress. Harriet gulped, but before she could argue, Mu went ahead and started to fight the beast, giving Harriet a chance to rescue her mother.

Harriet listened to Mu and went back to her mother’s casket. She gave one glance and saw Elizabeth was away from the casket giving Harriet a chance to wake her mother up. “M-mom!” Harriet called out. “Mommy! It’s me, Harriet! Please wake up!”

Mu got hit pretty badly as she slid to the other side of the cave. She slowly got up and used her wand to put a shield to block the shadow’s attack. The Shadow kept on attacking till it broke Mu’s shield.

Harriet turned to Mu and saw her friend was suffering. “MOM PLEASE!” Harriet screamed. “You gotta help us!” Her tears started to fall from the casket. “Please…mom.” Harriet cried on top of Vanessa’s casket, starting to lose all hope in waking her up.

Mu let out a painful yell as she slammed into the wall. This Shadow was stronger than the rest of the Shadows they battled before. Mu turned to Harriet to see her crying over her mom’s casket, watching her lose all hope.

The Shadow turned to Harriet hearing her cries and slowly started to walk toward her. Mu took notice and glared. In no way she was going to have this shadow touch her best friend! Mu slowly got up and was ready to attack again, but Elizabeth used her magic and hit Mu to stop her from interfering.

Harriet was still crying not knowing about the Shadow sneaking up behind her. The second she felt the Shadow breathing on her, Harriet looked up and was now frozen in fear. Shivering, Harriet grabbed her wand and pointed it at the Shadow.

“S-stay back!” Harriet yelled. “Don’t touch her!”

The Shadow growled ready to claw at Harriet. She closed her eyes bracing herself for the attack. Harriet let out a scream as her wand glowed a mixture of purple and blue before blasting it at the Shadow’s face. The Shadow released a painful screech as it held its face in pain.

Mu groaned as she slowly got up and saw what happened. Harriet was breathing heavily as she dropped to her knees. Harriet sniffled and went back to her sleeping mother.

“I did everything to find you. Please just wake up.” Harriet begged. Her mother just had to wake up. Tears started to fall again. Soon, Harriet heard a groan and looked down to see her mom was starting to wake up.

Harriet gasped and quickly tried to push the top portion of the casket off so her mom could breathe and wake up. The casket door was so heavy that Harriet had to use all the strength she had so she could open it.

The Shadow got up with a groan and saw Harriet trying to remove her mom from the casket.

 “Grab her!” Elizabeth growled. The Shadow growled and made its way to Harriet.

Mu saw this, and got up, gripping her wand with determination.  Harriet struggled to get the casket lid off. 

“Almost got it!” Harriet said. She used the rest of her strength to push the lid off. She gasped, getting a clear look at her mother.

“Mom.” Harriet whispered. She slowly reached her hand to touch her mother’s cheek. Before she could, the Shadow attacked, but Mu used her wand and shot a blast of magic at the Shadow, killing it.

Harriet turned and saw the Shadow before turning to Mu who sighs seeing it was all over. Harriet smiled as she reached out and touched her mother’s cheek. It made Harriet tear up touching her mother again, “Mom.” Harriet whispered again as she hugged and snuggled her.

Mu smiled seeing Vanessa would be alright. She then turned around and her eyes widened in horror seeing the Shadow fade away but she didn’t see a witch come out of it. “What, t-that doesn’t make sense.” Mu said. Harriet slowly let go of her mom and turned to face her friend. “A-a witch should’ve come out of that shadow, b-but nothing.”

Elizabeth let out a chuckle causing the two girls to look up at the evil Headmistress. “Oh you foolish girls, you’d walked up right into my trap.” She snapped her fingers and a wisp of the shadow went into her hands. “This here is a Shadow Wisp. It’s something I’d created myself. It’s what I’ve used to create the Shadows that went after you two.” She explained. Harriet and Mu’s eyes widened knowing this is what happened to Sara. “And now,” She let out a chuckle, “I can finally put my plan into motion.” Soon the Shadow Wisp flew and launched into Vanessa’s heart.

“NO!” Harriet screamed.

Vanessa’s eyes snapped open as she yelled in pain. Her eyes went from blue to a deep crimson red. Her hands turned sharp as the Wisp made Vanessa’s body a black shadow. The rest of the transformation was too terrifying for Harriet to see that Mu had to hold her and shield her from the horrifying sight.

“M-mom?” Harriet asked.

Vanessa then let out a loud screech that made Harriet scream. The monster of her mother came towards them, and all Harriet could do was stand there frozen. “Mom.” She cried. Mu grabbed her wand ready to use her magic, but Vanessa blasted a blue beam from her newly formed claw, causing the girls to be blasted back into a wall.

Headmistress Elizabeth walked towards the girls. “Now what to do with you two?” She questioned. “Do I turn you into Shadows? Or do I have Vanessa destroy you piece by piece?” Mu and Harriet whimpered holding each other as the Headmistress thought of what punishment to go with. Then, she thought of the perfect one, the smirk on her face getting wider. “Oh but wait, I have a better idea for you two.”

Headmistress Elizabeth pointed her wand at the wall behind them. Soon a portal appeared and started to pull the girls in. “Tell your father I said hi.” Headmistress Elizabeth whispered. She then laughed as she kicked Mu and Harriet into the portal.

“Harriet! Mu!” Moonjumper and Boss yelled. The two ran over to them and followed them into the portal.

The portal took the four back to Earth. “No! Mommy!” Harriet yelled. She tried to head back to the portal, but it quickly closed. “Mom! Mom!” Harriet slammed her fist on the wall hoping that the portal would magically open.

Mu, Moonjumper, and Boss stared in disbelief seeing Harriet so desperate. Suddenly, the three turned, hearing the door open.

“Hey! What’s going on here!” Harriet’s eyes widened hearing a familiar voice. She turned around and gasped seeing her father. The latter did the same seeing his daughter almost like she was gone forever. “H-Harriet?”

Harriet was silent. She blinked the tears out of her eyes before wiping them. She forced a smile on her face as she slowly walked towards her father. “Hi, Dad.” She whispered. “I-I know you're angry that I lied, and have been gone for so long, but I’m back.” She let out a chuckle. Luka was just in disbelief. “I-I found mom, b-but I-I.” She stuttered as fresh tears started to fall from her eyes. “I failed to bring her home.” Soon Harriet collapsed on her knees and started to sob. “I’m sorry, Dad! I failed to bring her back! I know you missed her!” Harriet’s eyes widened as she felt her father hug her tight causing her to sob again.

As he hugged her, Luka looked up to see Mu, Boss, and Moonjumper who stared at him not knowing what to do now.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 15-Subcon Winters

We’re finally getting into the interesting part of this fanfic. The same will go for the next one. Hehehe…sorry.

Also, this is funny, but I’ve been active on this fanfic before and during Halloween! So hopefully you get to enjoy this magical fanfic during your Halloween.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Before Harriet and Mu left for their rescue mission, the two had laid low until Friday. Once Friday came, the girls gathered their stuff and went off with their brooms and familiars to Subcon Winters.

It wasn’t a far flight, and soon after departure Harriet felt the temperature drop the closer they got to the cold winter forest. She let out a shiver as she tried her best to stay warm, but it’s hard to do that when trying to fly a broom.

“Let’s land,” Mu said. Harriet nodded and followed her friend down. They landed on the snow covered ground, and Harriet looked up to see trees covered in snow, not unlike ice cream cones.

“It’s so beautiful,” Harriet whispered. Soon a small breeze appeared causing her to hug herself for warmth. “But very cold.”

Moonjumper used his threads and created a coat for Harriet. He smiled proudly with his handy work, and draped the coat over the freezing girl. “Here.” He said.

Harriet’s shivers started to go down and she felt much better. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Moonjumper replied.

Harriet hugged her new coat close as she started to make her way towards the forest. Mu then grabbed her before she could walk any farther. “We need to stick together. I don’t want us to end up like last time.”  Harriet nodded and held Mu’s hand as they walked through Subcon Winters.

The walk through the snowy forest was similar to Harriet’s dreams. The coldness howled around them, as the forest got darker. The sound of crunching snow being silenced by the wind, and the group doing their best to stay warm as they kept on walking.

Harriet shivered as the wind started to blow harder the deeper they walked. Her memories of the dreams she had were coming back to her.

Slowly but surely, Harriet opened her mouth against the cold and started to call out to her mother. “Mom!” Harriet yelled, but the sounds of winter blocked out her call. “Mom! Where are you?”

Harriet looked around as the forest around them started to look the same every step she and Mu took. The latter held Harriet closer as they continued to walk and call for Vanessa. Moonjumper and Boss on the other hand, were getting so cold that they had to hold each other for warmth.

It felt like hours of walking. It started to get colder, and the forest was nothing but a blanket of white. Harriet kept calling out to her mother as they continued searching for her.

“H-how much further?” Moonjumper asked, shivering. Harriet grabbed Moonjumper and held him close. Mu did the same thing for Boss.

“Mom!” Harriet yelled. “Mom! Where are you?” Harriet constantly called for her mother every chance she got. “Mom! Mom! Come on! Where are you?” As they walked, Mu saw something in the distance, and her eyes widened knowing what was ahead.

“Harriet please be careful.” Mu warned her.

Harriet ignored Mu’s warning and kept on calling on her mother. “Mom! Mom!” As Harriet was calling out, her footing went through the edge of a ravine. She tried to catch her balance, but unfortunately she lost her footing and started to fall. 

“Harriet!” Mu yelled. She tried to grab her, but then started to fall down the ravine with her. Boss and Moonjumper gasped looking down. “We have to follow them!” He shouted.

Boss’s eyes widened knowing what Moonjumper meant. “Wait, what? No, no no!” He yelled. Moonjumper then scooped up Boss, and went down the ravine and followed Mu and Harriet down.

Harriet groaned as she heard voices calling her name. They sounded muffled so it was unclear who was trying to call for her.

“Harriet! Harriet!”

The voice sounded familiar to Harriet. She tried to open her eyes, but all she saw were three blurs in front of her. Soon one of the blurs grabbed her and tried to slowly shake her.

“Harriet, wake up!”

“Mu, don’t shake her!”

Harriet slowly recognized the voices; Moonjumper and Mu. She slowly opened her eyes to see her friends concerned for her. Mu felt her eyes swell up with tears, relieved that her friend was alright and gave her a hug. “Oh Harriet,” She cried. “You're okay.”

Harriet was now fully awake, and looked up at Mu. “What happened?” She asked.

“You and Mu fell down this ravine,” Moonjumper explained, “luckily, none of us are hurt.”

Harriet groaned as she slowly got up. Moonjumper was right, as she felt nothing broken thanks to the snow breaking her fall. Mu helped regain her friend’s balance, before Harriet dusted the snow off her clothes. Her eyes then looked ahead, seeing an icy blue cave with beautiful ice crystals. “Wow! Mu look at this!” Harriet yelled as she ran towards the entrance of the cave. The sparkles from the ice crystals reflected in Harriet’s eyes.

Mu walked towards the crystal cave and looked at Harriet. “You want to check it out?” She asked.

Harriet nodded and started to walk ahead with Mu and the familiers following behind. The entire walk felt magical, to say the least. It wasn’t as cold as it was outside, and the crystals glistened and reflected like mirrors as the girls continued their walk around the cavern. As they walked, Harriet glanced at one of the entrances and something glanced her eye. 

Harriet ran into the entrance and felt her heart stop. She covered her mouth in hopes to stop her from crying, but the tears slowly started to fall. Mu and the familiers quickly ran by, but all froze in fear at what they saw.

Inside was a woman, asleep in an ice coffin. That woman was… Vanessa.

“M-mom.” Harriet whispered. Mu tried to hug her again for comfort, but Harriet quickly dashed towards Vanessa’s coffin. “Mom!” She cried out as she dashed towards her. Harriet’s emotions were running wild as she ran towards her mother’s coffin, but before she could reach her a magical blast pushed her away.

“Harriet!” Mu gasped running towards her best friend. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Harriet groaned as she got up. She wondered where that blast came from till a chuckle came from behind Vanessa’s coffin. Headmistress Elizabeth walked by with a sinister smile on her face. Mu and Harriet glared at their headmistress.

“Hello girls.” Elizabeth said.

“How did you find us?” Mu asked.

Elizabeth chuckled. “You girls thought you were so sneaky.” Each word she said she took a step closer to the girls. Mu and Harriet stepped back each time she got closer. “Luckily enough my familiar,” the second she mentioned to him, it appeared right behind her, “was my eyes and ears when you snuk into my office that night.”

Mu glared and let out a growl, knowing the Headmistress was one step ahead of them.

 “What did you do to my mother?” Harriet asked. Elizabeth was about to speak, but Harriet glared and added, “The truth!”

Elizabeth smirked and shrugged. “Oh sweet Harriet.” She told her. “It wasn’t hard to find Vanessa in your crummy world.” She started. “But I guess I should tell you about your mother’s past a bit more.” Harriet glared, holding her wand tightly ready to blast her grandmother with her magic. “Your mother was an amazing witch, she was at the top of her classes, a star student, the best at everything!” Elizabeth glared, balling her hands into a fist. “Then she gave it up for a human boy!” She screamed slamming her fist onto some ice, causing the icicles to crumble and fall. “All I did was train her to be the best, to be the most powerful witch in Sperenza and THIS is how she pays me!”

Harriet glared, anger boiling inside her. Her wand was glowing as sparks started to appear. Mu, and the familiers took notice of this. “Harriet.” Mu whispered.

The Headmistress sighed. “After a while I was calm about it, but I did want her back.” She continued. “So it took me years to find her, and once I did I begged for her to come back, but no luck as she was so stubborn on coming back to Speranza, her home.” She explained. “So I simply had to tell her that Sperenza was in danger, and that she had to come back. At first she didn’t want to and that I, her own mother, could handle it myself, but I begged and lied.” She said, narrowing her eyes, which angered Harriet some more. “After all, Vanessa would care about her home before her own family.”

Those words set Harriet off, she let out a scream as her wand let out a blast of purple and pink energy. Elizabeth and her familiar dodged it as it left a gaping hole in the cave. Harriet collapsed on her knees and began to cry.

“It’s not true. It’s NOT true!” Harriet cried. She didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want to believe her own mother would just care for her home more than her family. Mu rubbed her best friend’s back in hopes of trying to comfort her.

“I’m sorry to say this Harriet, but it’s true.” Elizabeth said. “Your mother never loved you.” The second she said those words. Mu saw something in the corner of her eye and quickly used her wand to put a protective shield in front of her and Harriet. The latter looked up, and saw Elizabeth's attack being shielded by Mu’s magic.

Mu and Elizabeth put their wands down. “I know you're lying.” Mu said. “I may have never met Vanessa, but I know she would NEVER just leave her daughter like that!” She yelled. Harriet looked up at Mu, as the last of her tears fell. “If Vanessa was a powerful witch, she’d never just leave her daughter. That leaves one question unanswered, what did you do to her?”

Elizabeth went quiet, which made Mu frustrated. “Tell me now!” Mu yelled, her wand glowing red.

The Headmistress sighed. “Fine, fine I suppose I’ll tell you what happened.” Mu was ready to hear what the Headmistress had to say. “Vanessa did try to go back to see you, Harriet.” Harriet looked up hearing those words. “However, I told her, her place is here. When she argued with me, well I had to put her in time out.”

Mu glared and used her wand and blasted magic at the Headmistress. Elizabeth smirked and used her magic on Mu, which prompted the latter and Harriet to dodge the attack.

“Harriet! Go rescue your mother!” Mu yelled. “I’ll handle the Headmistress!”

“B-but,” Harriet stuttered. She didn’t want her friend to battle Elizabeth alone.

“Listen! You have to rescue your mom! That’s your goal right?” Mu asked.

Harriet gasped, and slowly nodded. “B-but I thought-” Harriet was cut off when Mu put her hands on Harriet's shoulder.

“Don’t worry we’ll be fine. We can do this.” Mu said. Harriet nodded, and soon saw Elizabeth ready to attack.

“Look out!” Harriet screamed. Mu turned and the two girls' eyes widened as a blast of magic came rushing towards them.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 14-Sneaking in the Office

Here is the next chapter! I went through another bad mental health breakdown working on this, and it’s been going on and off since the last fic I wrote to this one. I won’t go into too much detail after this one, I’m gonna leave it at that. I'm currently looking for help with writing this.

Some good news, I did release a new project I’ve been working on called Indie Kids, which made me feel better as it’s something I’ve been wanting to write for years!

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Enjoy!

By nightfall, everyone was asleep, except for Mu and Harriet. They stayed in their dorm and waited till they heard silence coming from the halls. Harriet and Mu left their dorm and quietly walked to the Headmistress’s office. Boss and Moonjumper heard their witches leave the dorm, and slowly got up to follow them.

“Come on,” Boss whispered.

Moonjumper nodded and followed Boss to their witches.

Harriet and Mu were just a few steps away from the office till they heard footsteps coming from behind. They gasped and hid in a corner as the footsteps came closer. Mu shushed Harriet as she looked through the corner and saw it was only their familiars following them. Mu sighed and stepped out of the corner to greet the familiars, which only scared them.

“What are you two doing here?” She asked.

“We should be asking what are you two doing?“ Moonjumper asked back.

Harriet put her hand on Mu’s shoulder and gave her a nod to let the familiars in on the plan. “Look, we found out the Headmistress has been doing something shady, and that we may need to do some investigating on her,” Mu explained.

Boss and Moonjumper looked at each other and smiled, interested in helping the girls with their mission. “We're in!” Moonjumper replied. Mu and Harriet smiled and kept making their way to the Headmistress’s office.

Once they made it, Harriet and Mu leaned in and listened to see if Headmistress Elizabeth was in her office. The only thing the girls heard was silence. “Okay, she’s not in there, but we better hurry!” Mu explained. “Boss and Moonjumper you stay here and keep an eye while I and Harriet go in. If you two see anything let us know.”

Moonjumper smiled and saluted. “Yes ma’am!” He beamed. Mu smiled and used her wand to unlock the door. 

“After you,” Mu said, letting Harriet enter first into the office before following her friend inside the office. Once the door was closed the room was pitch black, but luckily for them Harriet and Mu used their wands as flashlights. “Let me know if you see anything, alright?” 

Harriet nodded. “Okay.” She replied. The two looked through shelves and books to find anything, and Harriet paused to find a photo of a young girl that looked like the one from Mu’s poster. Using her wand, she was able to get a closer look at the young girl and her eyes widened recognizing the girl.

“Mu!” Harriet yelled.

“Shh!” Mu shushed. “We can’t have anyone hear us!”

“Sorry,” Harriet replied with a whisper. “But look at this.”

Mu walked over and looked at the photo, and she froze. “Hey, it looks like the girl in my poster.” Mu realized. The girls took another look at the photo and saw there was a note written on the photo.

Wish me luck, mother!

-Vanessa

Harriet and Mu gasped and looked at each other shocked. “That's your mom?” Mu asked in surprise.

“I-I knew she looked familiar!” Harriet added. Mu looked at her friend. “The second I saw your poster I was wondering if that was my mom or not.” Harriet smiled seeing how much her mom looked just like her, except for the glasses. It started to make her miss her mother even more. Tears came from her eyes.

What hurts the most was there was another picture of Vanessa where she was much older with the words MISSING written on the top in big bold letters. Harriet grabbed that picture and she ran her fingers across it. Her tears fell on the photo as she hugged it tight thinking it was her mother.

Mu felt hurt seeing how truly Harriet missed her mother. She hugged her friend tight and whispered. “I promise Harriet, we’re gonna find her! We’ll spend all day and night till we find her.” Harriet sniffled and wrapped her arm around Mu. The witch smiled, “I promise.”

Harriet smiled and wiped the tears from her face. “Come on. There’s gotta be something here that leads to my mom.” Mu nodded and the two continued looking for clues.

As they went through everything, a map fell on the floor which was noticed by Mu. Picking it up she unfolded it and her eyes widened seeing it was a map to one of the locations Mu listed; Subcon Winters. On that map an ice cavern was circled.

“Harriet!” Mu yelled.

Meanwhile, Boss and Moonjumper waited from the office. Moonjumper felt tired and let out a groan. “Are they done yet?” He asked. “I’m tired!”

“They better hurry.” Boss replied. “Otherwise I’ll drag Mu out of there myself!”

Soon the families heard footsteps and saw the familiar silhouette of Headmistress Elizabeth. The familiars got scared and Moonjumper used his strings to open the door. “You two better hurry! She’s coming!” Moonjumper yelled.

Harriet and Mu gasped and gathered everything they could and ran out of the office. They then hid in the hallway away from the office as they saw the Headmistress open the door, which confused her seeing it was unlocked. She turned her gaze to the hallway ahead, but couldn’t see the group due to how dark it was. Though the headmistress had a thought about who was meddling around her office, and smirked as she went inside her office. Once she was inside, Harriet, Mu and their familiars quickly made a break for it.

Headmistress Elizabeth chuckled as she turned on the lights. She then turned to the wall, “See who came by?” She asked.

A chuckle came from the Headmistress’ familiar; a spider as he came down and whispered to his partner.

“Perfect.” Headmistress replied. “I know my dear sweet granddaughter is looking for her sweet precious mother.” She then looked out the window and smirked. “But of course, I got some tricks up my sleeve.” She then chuckled evilly.

In their dorm, Mu was packing everything they would need for their trip to Subcon Winters. Meanwhile, Harriet was going through the book and spotted something interesting. “Mu, check it out!” Harriet yelled at her friend with the book she just found. “Look, it’s some spell on how witches can turn into shadows.”

Mu looked at the book, it showed a witch screaming in agony as they slowly transformed into a shadow.

“This spell here shows how the Headmistress is turning witches into shadows.” Harriet pointed out.

“But look,” Mu pointed out, “she ripped the spell.”

Harriet shrugged. “Well she is the villain we’re after.” She joked, but Mu wasn’t laughing. Harriet stopped laughing and cleared her throat. “Sorry.”

“Look, this is no time for joking around. We gathered enough evidence to know where your mother is located.” Mu said, putting her hands on Harriet’s shoulder. “Our mission is almost complete!”

Harriet smiled, her mind started to rush over the many things once she rescued her mother. Such as learning more about magic, doing mother and daughter hangouts, and much more Vanessa missed out with her. She was so close hugging her mother and seeing her again, and imagining the family being together once again.

“How early are we leaving?” Harriet asked.

“First we get some sleep, and we leave as early as possible.” Mu replied.

Harriet nodded and quickly went to bed and laid down. Mu chuckled and sighed as she finished gathering her stuff. Though she worried a bit about what could go wrong on this trip.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap.13-Apologies and Realizations

Here is the next chapter!

A little update from what I said in the last chapter, my mental health has slowly been doing better. I’m taking it easy as I go, so if I don’t feel like doing anything I won’t force myself. Hence why this chapter is a bit shorter than the rest.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Enjoy!

Harriet slowly opened her eyes as she saw she wasn’t in the classroom, but in a small, dimed lightroom. She tried to remember what happened, but her mind was fuzzy, and could only remember a few things; Asking Mu a question, the whole ordeal at lunch and class. Once Harriet realized Mu was on her mind, she tried to get up only to lay back down groaning in pain.

“Don’t force it, Harriet.”

Harriet’s eyes widened recognizing the voice and turned to see Mu sitting down on a chair next to her bed. Harriet rubbed her eyes thinking she was dreaming, but once her eyes adjusted she saw it was no dream.

“What are you doing here?” Harriet asked.

Mu raised an eyebrow “You don’t remember?” She asked. Harriet slowly shook her head. “You passed out before class started. I brought you here to the nurse's office.”

Harriet groaned slowly remembering, and it hit her; the stress of losing her friend  caused her to pass out. Harriet frowned but didn’t catch what Mu said. “Wait what did you say?”

“I said I brought you here,” Mu repeated.

“O-oh,” Harriet replied, “thanks…” If she wasn’t so exhausted she’d be excited that Mu doesn’t hate her anymore, at least she hoped Mu didn't hate her anymore.

“No problem.” Mu then handed a cup of water to Harriet. The drink refreshed Harriet, waking her up. Harriet heard a sniffle coming from Mu as she drank. She faced her friend who was wiping away tears.

Harriet put her drink down and reached out to her friend. “What’s wrong Mu?” She asked.

“I-I’m sorry,” Mu mumbled.

Harriet couldn’t hear what Mu said. “What?”

“I said, I’m sorry!” Mu said, a little louder. “Sorry I made you pass out.” Mu sniffled, starting to cry a bit.

Harriet’s eyes widened as she felt relieved, but also sad and guilty that she caused all this. “No Mu, I should be sorry.” She said, “I caused all this.”

Mu wiped the tears from her face. “No, you didn’t.” She told her. “I got angry, okay? N-No one knows that I…” She paused, which made Harriet’s eyes widen

It made sense to Harriet why Mu was angry at her. No one knew she liked girls, not many people probably knew her, sat for maybe Timmy, and Harriet being the first to find out made Mu scared.  Especially since she used the Dream Stone on her without permission.

“I get it now,” Harriet replied. Mu stopped crying and looked up at her friend. “I’m sorry for intruding on your privacy like that.”

“It's fine, just don't say anything,” Mu replied. Harriet smiled and hugged Mu tight. The latter sniffled and hugged Harriet back, seeing all is forgiven. The embrace  was interrupted as the girls heard a whimper and some cries before a piercing scream.

“Headmistress Elizabeth, No!” Harriet and Mu turned to see it was Sara, the first witch they saw become a shadow and defeated. The young girl was breathing heavily as she looked around and saw she was in the nurse's office. “W-what? Where am I?” She asked.

Mu and Harriet were horrified Sara would wake up and shout something like that. “S-Sara,” Mu spoke up. Sara’s eyes widened and turned to Mu, “A-are you okay?”

“Mu!” Sara exclaimed. “S-sorry I thought I was back at Headmistress Elizabeth’s office and…” She paused, shivering at the memory.

“What? What happened?” Harriet asked.

Sara gulped and was scared at what she wanted to tell the girls. She tried to hold it in, but the more she did she felt tears coming out of her eyes. Sara broke down in sobs over the whole ordeal.

Harriet and Mu looked at each other in shock and fear. Just what did Sara go through? Harriet slowly got up from the bed and walked towards Sara, rubbing her back. Sara  paused on her crying and gave a small smile at the girl.

“Thanks,” Sara said.

“You’re welcome.” Harriet replied. “When you feel better you can tell us what happened.”

Sara sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes. She sat in silence gathering her thoughts on everything before explaining the entire incident. “Headmistress Elizabeth called me into her office.” She started. “And she told me about this spell and wanted to show me. I-I realized s-she was doing a dark magic spell and I tried to escape, but I blacked out.”

Mu and Harriet looked at each other. Mu quickly realized what Sara meant. . Mu got up and walked out of the nurse's office as Harriet got up with her. “Mu wait!” Harriet called out. Mu ignored her friend, which made Harriet hastily reach out. Once Harriet grabbed Mu by the sleeve, the witch stopped not looking up at her friend. “What are you going to do now?”

“Easy.” Mu replied as she turned to Harriet. “I’m gonna be doing some investigating on our Headmistress tonight.” She told her.

“Let me join you!” Harriet replied.

Mu smiled. “You don’t need to ask. Of course you're joining me!” Harriet chuckled and gave her friend a tight hug. Mu froze in shock, but smiled and hugged Harriet back. The two girls let go of each other and had a determined look on their faces. 

“Come on! We got to prepare our investigation on the Headmistress’s. Who knows, maybe we can find clues about your mom.” Mu stated.

Harriet’s smile widened hearing that Mu and her would be working together. “Then let’s do this!”

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap.12-The Harsh Truth

The next chapter is here!

Just a quick update, my mental health hasn’t been right lately so fics will be worked on at a slower rate. This fic took me a while as it hurt to actually work on it, so if the next fic takes a while that’s why.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Enjoy!

Two days passed and school was now back in session. The class was interested in what Mu and Harriet had discovered in Foggy Swamp Forest.

“So wait…” Timmy interrupted. “There’s a lake, and if you fall in, you wake up to your worst fears?”

“Yeah!” Mu replied. “It’s freaky, but once you gather the courage and face your fears you actually wake up and you're free!”

The class got excited hearing that tale. Timmy then turned to Harriet who was just staring at her hands at her desk.

Her mind kept playing about Mu’s dreams and feelings. During the past few days, Harriet was using the Dream Stone to keep tabs on her dreams and it was always the same thing:

Mu would be somewhere like a beach or a meadow with another girl.

Harriet wasn’t sure how to bring it up to Mu. It felt easy to ask, but hard at the same time. The closest she’s known about this stuff was her music and theater teacher Mr. Connie, who is married to the music teacher at a local High School, and he was able to explain it well to her. Though the topic still confused her a bit.

“Hey, Harriet!” Timmy called out, which snapped the half-human half-witch girl. “You so quiet, did you think about Foggy Swamp Forest?” The whole class turned to Harriet and they waited to hear her answer.

Harriet pushed the thought about Mu away and got her mind back into Foggy Swamp Forest. “Well at first it wasn’t scary, but when Mu and I fell into the lake…then I was scared.”

“What were you guy’s worst fears anyways?” A classmate asked.

Mu and Harriet looked at each other and saw how nervous they were. “Well…” Harriet trailed off, but before she could answer, Miss. Cook walked in.

“Okay, okay class.” Miss. Cook spoke up to settle down the class. Harriet and Mu sighed as their teacher came just in time before they could reveal anything about their journey. During the rest of class, Harriet glanced at Mu, who was taking notes. Harriet tried to speak but kept her mouth shut realizing she doesn’t know how to bring it up yet.

“Is everything okay, Harriet?” Miss. Cook asked.

“Y-yeah.” Harriet replied and went back to working on her notes.

Once class was over, Harriet went back to the dorms and saw Boss and Moonjumper asleep on Mu’s bed. She slowly walked towards Boss and gave him a slight nudge. Boss groaned and slowly turned towards Harriet.

 “What?” 

“I need to ask you something,” Harriet stated.

Boss sighed and turned to face his witch’s best friend. “Alright, what is it?” He asked.

“It’s about Mu,” Harriet answered.

“What about her?” Boss asked again.

“Is there anything I need to know?”

“About her?”

Harriet nodded. Boss went close to Harriet’s face. “Why are you asking me, now?” He asked.

Harriet got nervous and chuckled. “W-well, I just figured I’ve known her for a while if there was something I should know about her.” She explained. Harriet didn’t lie, but just voided what she wanted to ask about to not make the conversation awkward as it already is.

Boss narrowed his eyes knowing Harriet was keeping something from him. “Okay,” He started. “I do know a lot about Mu, but do you think you should be asking her?”

“That’s just it,” Harriet replied. “I’m scared of how she’ll react if I ask her.”

Boss sighed. “Look, Harriet. It may not be as bad as you think.” He started.

“How would you know?” Harriet asked.

“I don’t.” Boss answered, causing Harriet to groan. “Look, the point is, you should be asking her, then having me ask for you.”

Harriet sighed. “Alright.” Harriet got up and left the dorm, but stopped and turned to Boss. “If Mu does get mad, what should I do?” She asked. At this point Boss was back to sleep, making Harriet groan in disappointment.

Harriet was walking back to class, as she quietly thought about what Boss just told her as well as Mu’s reaction to the whole thing. “Maybe Boss is right. It may not be as bad as I thought it would.” She thought. Harriet had it all thought out, she'd just tell Mu, and if Mu showed any sort of anger she’d apologize and they could bring up the conversation after class.

As Harriet was making her way back to class she didn’t realize she bumped into Mu. “Oh sorry Mu.”

“N-No it’s okay,” Mu replied. It was only for a second, but Harriet saw a blush appear on Mu’s face before it completely disappeared. “I was just looking for you.”

“Oh same,” Harriet said. The two girls stood there in silence feeling the awkward tension around them. Just say it, Harriet. The voice in her head wouldn't stop. Harriet took a deep breath. “Mu, can I ask you something?”

“Uh sure, what is it?” Mu asked.

Harriet sighed. Here it goes. She then spoke up. “W-what are your thoughts on relationships?” She asked.

Mu blushed as her eyes widened at the question. “Could you elaborate on that?” 

Harriet was nervous at this point. “I mean you know, like having a relationship with someone… similar?” At that point, it was out of her system, but the anxiety still lingered. It was also understandable to Mu what “similar” ment.

Mu’s eyes widened, and shock and fear painted her face. “W-what?!” She asked. “H-how did you know?”

Harriet gulped and chuckled nervously. She expected this. “I-I saw it through the Dream Stone.” She replied. 

“Y-you saw into my dreams?!” Mu yelled.

“I-I’m sorry!” Harriet yelled. “T-The stone was glowing the night we came back and I got curious.” However, her explanation didn’t help at all. Mu was furious that her best friend looked into her dreams without her permission.

“I-I trusted you, Harriet! H-How could you!?”

“L-look Mu, I’m sorry. I just want to ask what your dream means?” Harriet asked. She tried to reach out to her friend, but Mu smacked her hand away, causing Harriet’s heart to sink. Mu said nothing and ran off leaving Harriet alone.

Harriet sighed as she felt her eyes fill up with tears. “I knew this would happen.” She whimpered.

The bell rang and Harriet walked back to class. Once she sat down, Mu turned away from her. Throughout class Mu ignored Harriet throughout the day, the latter even tried to talk to Mu during lunch, but Mu turned a heel and sat somewhere else for lunch.

Harriet sighed and slowly ate her lunch in silence. “I see you’re by yourself.” Harriet’s eyes widened and looked up to see the Headmistress.

“Oh hi,” Harriet replied. “It’s nothing. I’m okay.”

Headmistress Elizabeth then looked at Mu. “I told you, Mu is nothing but trouble.”

“It wasn’t Mu’s fault,” Harriet said, “it was mine.”

Headmistress Elizabeth gave a small smile and put her hand on Harriet’s shoulder. “No it wasn’t Harriet, you did nothing wrong.” She reassured her. “In fact, you did the right thing asking her a question, it’s just her stubbornness making her realize the biggest mistake she’s making.”

Harriet sighed. “I should be sharing most of the blame.”

“No, you shouldn’t.” Headmistress Elizabeth replied, shaking her head. “You shouldn’t blame yourself, Harriet. You're an amazing witch, and your mother would be proud of the choice you made.”

“She would?” Harriet asked, raising an eyebrow. Harriet was taking everything the Headmistress was talking about with a grain of salt. She didn’t know how her mother would react. Possibly angry at her. 

“Why of course.” Headmistress Elizabeth answered. “After all she’d lost all her friends due to how jealous they were, once they saw how skilled she was they left her. Now Mu is doing the same to you.”

Harriet gulped, it felt like she was being fed lies, but because of not knowing much about her mother she needed to know if that was the truth. “How do you know?” She asked.

“Because.” Headmistress Elizabeth smiled pulling Harriet close to her. “We’re family, and family always tells the truth.” She told her.

Harriet slowly nodded. “O-okay.” She stuttered. It felt wrong, but what was she to know? Her father never told her that her mother was a witch. However, he wasn’t a liar and never lied a day in his life.

The headmistress then left, leaving Harriet to wonder what the Headmistress said to her. The words We’re family, and family always tells the truth. repeated in her head.

Harriet sighed and looked down to see her half-eaten lunch. All this stress made her lose her appetite. She went to the nearest garbage can and threw the rest of her lunch away before walking back to the classroom and deciding to stay there for the rest of lunch.

Before the next lesson could even start, Harriet was drawing on a piece of scratch paper. Her doodles consisted of her and Mu being friends again doing magic together and having fun together. Harriet sniffled as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

Harriet then heard laughter and turned to see it was Mu talking and laughing with their classmates. Harriet felt her heart in pain as her mind raced.

“Maybe she hates you now.”

“What if Elizabeth was right?”

“You don’t deserve a friend like Mu.”

Harriet’s heart started to beat as fast as a car. She took deep breaths in and out to calm down, but it made her anxiety feel worse. She was able to snap out of it when Mu put her books down on her desk.

Harriet slowly turned to Mu and opened her mouth to speak up. “M-Mu?” She let out.

Mu turned to her with a glare on her face. Harriet flinched at her glare and felt nervous trying to apologize to her again. “I’m guessing you're still mad at me, huh?” Harriet asked.

“What do you think?” Mu replied, turning away from Harriet. The latter sighed and looked back at her desk. She watched as her classmates walked with their friends talking and having fun making Harriet feel even more pain in her chest. Harriet sniffled holding back her tears as the dark thought of Mu no longer being friends started to play in her mind.

The thought that Mu wouldn’t help Harriet find her mother.

The thought that Mu will throw away everything they had together.

All of those thoughts rushed through Harriet’s mind to the point it made her light-headed. Her eyes rolled back as she collapsed.

Her class screamed out in horror.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap 11-Dark Waters

Here is the next chapter! We’re getting closer to the exciting parts and I’m just smiling because I’m excited to share the interesting part of the story!

Sorry it’s been a month since I last updated! I’m working on two other stories alongside this one, but I’m gonna share them here as well because I don’t know what will be posted first: I’m on a new work schedule and working on making videos on YouTube and Twitch so I’ve been trying to find a balance to work on.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Hope you enjoy it!

Harriet groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Quickly, she snapped them open and saw she was still in Foggy Swamp Forest but she was alone. She got up and dusted herself off before calling out. “Mu!” She yelled. 

However, there was no answer. Just silence.

“Mu!” Harriet yelled. Still no response. “Moonjumper! Boss! Are you there?” She called out. Harriet started to look for her friends, but she didn’t have to look long as she saw Mu. Harriet smiled seeing her best witch friend. “MU!” She beamed running to her and hugging her friend right.

Though Mu didn’t hug her friend back and glared, confused as to why Harriet was hugging her.

“Oh Mu, I’m so glad you're okay,” Harriet said as she hugged her best friend closer.

“Where were you?!” Mu snapped. Harriet quickly let go and stepped back seeing her friend snapped at her like that.

“W-what?” Harriet asked, confused. “Mu, we both got pulled into the river. Don’t you remember?”

Mu raised her eyebrow not giving a clue to what Harriet was talking about. Harriet was confused and scared why Mu wasn’t believing her. Harriet was getting frustrated at all this. Mu then started to walk away. “H-hey! Mu wait up!” Harriet yelled as she started to run after her friend.

“Leave me alone!” Mu growled.

Ignoring it, Harriet kept going after her friend as she called out to her to slow down and ask what’s wrong. She was on the brink of tears as she wondered what caused Mu to get mad at her. “Mu! Please, I'm sorry!” Harriet cried. “I’m sorry.”

What Harriet didn’t know was there was another voice calling out of her.

Farther away from where Harriet and ‘Mu’ were. Mu, the real Mu was calling for Harriet, but Harriet ignored her calls. The only sounds Mu heard was the sound of Harriet giggling as Mu called for her.

“Harriet! This isn’t funny! Stop hiding and come out now!” Mu yelled. The witch just heard more of her human friend giggle, which hurt her friend more. “Come on Harriet! Stop this!” 

Harriet’s laughs started to grow louder, causing Mu to hyperventilate. She started to feel tears go down her face as the only person she called her best friend was constantly laughing at her.

Mu took deep breaths trying to calm down, despite her failing to relax she kept walking to find Harriet and get to the bottom of this.

The laughter got louder, and Mu tried hard not to listen. “Ignore it! Don’t listen.” Mu thought to herself. The laughs got louder and louder and soon Mu tripped and slammed to the ground. Mu slowly got up and couldn’t hold back her tears anymore she ended up letting out a loud yell.

“HARRIET!” Mu yelled.

Meanwhile, Harriet’s eyes widened as Mu’s yell echoed throughout the forest. She looked around wondering where Mu’s voice was coming from. “Mu!” Harriet called out. ‘Mu’ stopped and turned, looking at Harriet calling for Mu.

“Why would you call for that loser?” ‘Mu’ asked as she crossed her arms and glared.

“Hey!” Harriet shouted, tired of ‘Mu’s’ behavior. “Leave Mu alone! I don’t know who you are pretending to be my friend! But, you’ve been nothing but mean to me!” She yelled. ‘Mu’ went quiet as the two stared at each other. 

Soon, ‘Mu’ broke the silence and slowly started to walk toward Harriet. “You don’t know what all this is, do you?” ‘Mu’ asked.

Harriet stood her ground and glared at the fake version of her friend. She wasn’t sure what was about to come and had to prepare herself in case this fake Mu was going to attack her. ‘Mu’ stopped just inches away from Harriet.

“This isn’t real, Harriet.” ‘Mu’ told her.

Raising an eyebrow, Harriet asked, “What do you mean?”

“This isn’t the real Foggy Forest. As you said, you fell into the river with Mu, right?” ‘Mu’ asked. Harriet nodded in reply. “So you should’ve been smart enough to know you're in an imaginary world.”

Harriet glared, puffing her cheeks up.

"You should’ve been smarter than that.”

“Look, just give me the answer before you can bully me more!” Harriet yelled.

‘Mu’ sighed. “Fine. Fine. I’ll tell you.” The girl gave another sigh before continuing. “Okay, like you said you fell into the river, but here’s what you don’t know. Once you fall in this river you're greeted with an illusion of your worst fear.” She explained.

Harriet’s eyes widened as she realized that ‘Mu’ was an illusion of her worst fear: Being betrayed and having those closest to her leave her.

“You're afraid of Mu leaving you into the dust and no longer being your best bud.” ‘Mu’ explained. “Well I should tell you this Harriet, it’s gonna happen!”

“No, she WON’T!” Harriet snapped. “I know she won’t! I trust her enough that she won’t leave me!”

“You sure about it?” ‘Mu’ asked. “You sure she won’t be like all the people that you befriended that ended up leaving you because you were “different.”

Harriet gasped as remembered the countless bullying from her classmates over her love of fantasy stories. There was only one girl who defended her and that was her only friend, but Harriet was scared that she would lose her. 

When Mu came along, it gave Harriet a bit of hope that she may make new friends and won’t be alone again.

“I’m so sure about it,” Harriet told the fake version of her friend. “No matter what happens. Nothing will break Mu and me apart.” She explained, pride heard in her voice.

‘Mu’ smirked. “Okay.” She replied. “But one day Harriet, you’ll see that this magical world is not all magic and gumdrops like your stupid stories.” Harriet saw that ‘Mu’ was gone and she was alone again.

Harriet looked around and soon heard Mu calling for her. “Harriet! Harriet!” Her voice echoed throughout the forest and Harriet ran as fast as she could to find Mu.

“Mu! Mu! Where are you?” Harriet called out.

Mu stopped crying and wiped the tears from her face as she heard someone calling for her. She heard the call a bit more clearly and gasped hearing it was Harriet. “Harriet! Harriet!” Mu yelled louder.

Harriet gasped and ran to where she heard Mu calling for her. “Mu!” Harriet yelled once again.

“Harriet!” Mu yelled again, a little louder. Soon she saw a purple blur running towards her and before the witch knew it tackled her with a big hug. Mu and Harriet fell to the ground, and Mu opened her eyes to see Harriet hugging her tight.

“Mu! I found you! You're okay!” Harriet cried, hugging her tight.

Mu blinked and slightly blushed. She smiled and felt tears going down her face too as she hugged Harriet back. “I-I’m glad you're okay too! I thought you left me.” 

“I would never leave you Mu. We’re friends, remember?” Mu nodded remembering. Before Harriet could say more, the two felt water touching them and Harriet realized the two were breaking free from the river. Holding her breath as she and Mu were ready to swim back up.

Back at the real Foggy Swamp Forest, Boss and Moonjumper looked down below the river worried for Mu and Harriet. They’ve been down for a long time and haven’t come back up for air yet.

“I’m scared for them,” Moonjumper said. “Should we go down there and see if they’re alright?”

Boss’s eyes widened. “What?!“ He shouted. “I’m not jumping in there!” Boss chuckled nervously realizing his cat instincts were coming in. “Sorry cat instincts.”

Soon the two familiers saw the water start to bubble and the two girls came out of the water coughing and finally able to breathe.

“Harriet!” Moonjumper yelled.

“Mu!” Boss yelled back.

Harriet and Mu looked behind them and smiled seeing their familiers were there and they were finally back in the real Speranza.

“Moonjumper! Boss!” Harriet yelled. The two witches swam back to shore as Moonjumper used his red strings and pulled the girls out of the water.

“What happened to you guys?!” Boss asked.

“It’s a long story.” Harriet started. “But to keep it short we had to face our worst fears.”

Mu turned to the river and looked back at her friend. “Our worst fear?” She thought to herself. Mu didn’t realize till now that she was facing her worst fear.

“You okay?” Moonjumper asked.

Harriet nodded. “We’re fine! Right, Mu?” She asked.

Mu snapped out of it and gave a small smile and nodded. “Y-yeah. Listen, Harriet.” Mu started. Harriet turned to her friend. “I’m sorry we couldn’t find your mom.” 

Harriet put her hand on Mu’s shoulder, “Hey, we may have not found her today, but we have many more places to look. We can’t give up now!” She explained.

Mu blinked and gave a smile. Something about this girl made her heart beat twice as fast. “Right! Next weekend we’ll look for her!” She beamed.

Harriet gave a smile and looked up to see the sky starting to get dark. “We should head back to the academy and get some rest.”

Mu nodded and the two girls summoned their brooms and flew back to Magia Academy. Once back at the school the girls went through the window of their dorm, got cleaned up, and were ready to get some sleep.

As Mu finished getting ready, she saw Harriet sitting on her bed holding Moonjumper tight. “Hey Mu,” Harriet spoke up.

“Yeah? What is it?” Mu asked.

“What is your fear? I mean if being pulled into the Foggy Swamp river let us see our worst fears. I want to know what’s yours.” Harriet explained.

Mu blinked and turned away. It was hard for her to tell Harriet the truth of what she was afraid of, but she wondered if answering would be enough for her half-witch half-human friend.

“Being alone,” Mu replied before going to her bed and lying down facing the wall.

Harriet frowned. She wondered what Mu was afraid of traumatizing her in some way. Her anxious thoughts were pushed away when she saw the Dream Stone glowing. “That’s weird. It usually glows for me to get info on my mom.” Harriet whispered. She looked at Mu who was already asleep and slowly walked towards her.

“Harriet. Should we be looking into Mu’s dreams?” Moonjumper asked. “I mean she’ll get mad.”

“It’s just one look,” Harriet reassured her. She placed the stone near Mu and soon started to see Mu’s dreams start to transform.

Mu’s dreams started to form and showed Mu sitting down in a meadow and right next to her was another girl, but she couldn’t tell who it was. Mu and the girl started to share a laugh before Mu smiled blushing a bit. Soon Mu started to lean toward the girl and kissed her.

Harriet gasped and quickly removed the Dream Stone from Mu. The witch groaned and turned in her sleep with a big smile on her face. Harriet sighed seeing she didn’t wake up Mu, and put the Dream Stone on the desk before going to bed herself.

It took Harriet a while to fall asleep, as what she witnessed played in her mind before sleep took her.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 10-Foggy Swamp Forest

Got the next chapter up! Hope you're excited about what is to come starting this chapter because after this chapter we will be getting into some interesting stuff.

Also, stories are going to be coming out at a slow rate, besides work I’ve been doing other hobbies atm so I’m trying to balance all that and writing, which is hard as I never balanced that many kinds of projects before. Hopefully, I’ll have a system by then to work things out.

Thanks to @gigilefache for beta reading the story!

Enjoy!

The weekend was finally here and Harriet and Mu were finally going to start their mission to find Vanessa. It was early in the morning and Harriet and Mu were ready to fly off with their familers and head over to Foggy Swamp Forest. Harriet let out a yawn as she flew, Moonjumper heard the said yawn and looked over at Harriet.

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Moonjumper asked.

“I did,” Harriet replied and let out another yawn, “but I’m not an early bird.”

“Well, it’s best to go early that way no one asks us where we are going,” Mu explained. Harriet nodded knowing Mu was right, and the two kept flying to Foggy Swamp Forest. The girls got closer as they saw in the distance, fog. Soon the fog got closer and the girls went in for a landing, which didn’t turn out as rough as they expected.

Harriet was about to take a step into the forest before Mu grabbed her hand and held her back. “We have to stick together,” Mu told her. “The fog here is so thick we can get separated.”

“Okay,” Harriet replied.

“However,” Mu spoke up. “I did bring this.” She then pulled out a tornado necklace and soon the fog around them started to clear. “It will only clear the fog around us.” Harriet nodded and soon the they started walking.

Deeper into the foggy forest, Harriet started to call for her mom. “Mom! Mom!” She called out.

Moonjumper decided to call for her as well. “Vanessa! It’s me, Moonjumper!” He called out. “Can you hear us!” However, no response, only the wind was the only response they got. They kept walking and calling out for Vanessa, but no response.

“We should start heading back.” Boss suggested.

“No!” Harriet yelled. “We have to find her! She has to be around here somewhere!”

Boss sighed. “If we get lost I’m blaming you.” He mumbled. Soon he felt a soft kick and looked up to see Mu glaring at him. “What?” He asked.

“Look, we promised to help Harriet and that’s what we are going to do.” Mu replied.

Boss rolled his eyes and followed the group. “Look!” Harriet shouted. The group stopped and looked up as a shadow faced the group before running off. “Wait! Hold on!” Harriet then ran off to follow the shadow.

“Harriet!” Moonjumper and Mu yelled at the same time before chasing after her. Moonjumper quickly caught up to Harriet and held onto her, but the human girl kept on running to chase after that shadow. To Harriet this shadow may be her mother, and if not they may have the answers to where her mother is located.

“Stop! Harriet!” Moonjumper yelled again. Harriet finally listened and stopped, but she had lost track of the shadow. Not only that, she also separated herself from Mu. The human girl looked around to see where she was, but everything looked the same.

“Um where’s Mu?” Harriet asked.

Moonjumper looked around and saw they ended up running off from Mu and Boss. “Well I guess this is what we get for separating from the group.” He pointed out.

Ignoring Moonjumper’s comment, Harriet went off to look for Mu. “Mu! Boss! Where are you guys?!” She called out. However, it looked like her call went unanswered. “Mu! Boss! Can anyone hear me?!” Harriet called out once again and started to walk back in hopes she’d run into Mu and Boss again.

“Hello!” Moonjumper called out, helping the human. “I know we shouldn’t have run that far! But we’re over here!”

Still no answer…

The fog started to think the more they walked and it scared Moonjumper and Harriet that they weren’t any closer to finding Mu and Boss or Vanessa. “Let’s just stay in one place for now.” Moonjumper suggested. “Mu and Boss might find us a lot faster if we are in one spot.”

Harriet sighed, agreeing with her familiar. She sat underneath a tree and pulled her legs close to her as she buried her face and softly cried. Moonjumper frowned and rubbed the young girl’s back. “This is all my fault.” Harriet whispered.

“No it’s not.” Moonjumper reassured her. “Look, we all know you want to find your mom, and that you get excited when there is something or someone they may know where she is.” He explained.

“But I shouldn’t have run off like that. Now we're stuck here and I doubt Mu and Boss will find us.” Harriet said. She buried her face again, and Moonjumper frowned patting his witch in the back. She cried for a while before a glow started to appear from her bag. Moonjumper shook Harriet’s arm, making the young girl look up and see the glow.

Harriet went and dug through her bag and pulled out her wand. Soon a small purple ball of light appeared before it went flying.

“Quick! Follow that light!” Harriet beamed. Moonjumper quickly held on to Harriet before the young girl started to sprint off and she ended up separated again in this dark spooky forest.

“Harriet!” Mu called out. “Harriet, where are you?” Mu started to get frustrated seeing her friend still hasn’t heard her calls.

“Told you we should’ve headed back.” Boss replied. “Now we lost a human!”

“Which is why I told her to stick with me and not run off!” Mu yelled. The witch took a deep breath and started to calm down. “Look, we will head back. I just need to find her first.” Soon Mu saw her wand was glowing. She was confused about what was going on till a small pink ball of light appeared. “What in the…”

Soon the pink ball of light started to fly away and Mu and Boss went to follow it.

The girls then followed their little balls of light throughout the forest till the ball of lights stopped in their place and the girls stopped seeing the lights had led them to each other. “Mu?” Harriet asked.

“Harriet.” Mu gasped. The two girls ran toward each other and hugged seeing they were reunited.

“I thought I-” The girls paused seeing they talked at the same time. “Sorry.” They said at the same time again. “You go first. No you.” The girls started to laugh seeing how excited they were to reunite with one another despite losing all hope that they will be stuck here forever.

“How did you find me?” Harriet asked.

Mu pointed at the small balls of light that soon floated back to their wands, disappearing. “I never seen anything like that before.” Mu gasped. “Did you accidently chant a spell?”

Harriet shook her head. “No.” She replied. “All I did was look for you and Moonjumper saw this happen.” She explained showing her wand.

Mu looked at her wand and realized her wanting to find Harriet and vice versa caused their wands to glow and caused a spell to happen to find them. “I guess we caused some spell to happen during our time of need.”

“Maybe.” Harriet replied. Mu held her hand out, and Harriet took it as they started to try and make their way out of Foggy Swamp Forest. As they walked to make their way out of the forest a shadow went right in front of them. “That’s who I saw.” Harriet gasped. She slowly walked up to the person and asked, “Um excuse me do you know where my mother is?”

The shadow didn’t respond and the familiars and Mu felt something was off with this person. “Harriet be careful,” Mu warned her.

“I’ve been trying to look for you because you might be able to help me find my mother,” Harriet explained. “Think you can help us?”

The shadow still didn’t respond and the familiers started to sense something was really wrong. “Harriet! Watch out!” Moonjumper yelled. He reached his hand out and red threads wrapped the shadow figure causing it to let out a monstrous cry.

Soon enough it was a shadow in the form of a wolf stared down and growled at the group. Mu and Harriet had their wands ready to fight this shadow. “I knew something was fishy about this figure.” Mu said.

The shadow wolf growled and went to attack the witches as they jumped out of the way. The shadow wolf turned to Harriet and started to run towards her before some red strings wrapped around the shadow’s paws. Harriet and the shadow turned to see it was Moonjumper trying to stop the shadow on his own.

“You can do that?!” Harriet asked.

“You’d be surprised what Vanessa gave me before I became her familiar!” Moonjumper explained. He then pulled the shadow away, but the latter pulled back and started to swing and slam Moonjumper to the ground. The shadow’s attacks caused the strings to break and Moonjumper skidded to the ground and slammed right into a tree.

“Moonjumper!” Harriet yelled.

The shadow howled and went to attack the human, and Harriet jumped to the side before running to stand by Mu. The latter put her Defog protection charm away, which caused the fog to cover them.

“What are you doing!” Harriet yelled.

“Look.” Mu pointed. Harriet squinted as the shadow searched around the fog surrounding it. “As long as the fog protects us we won’t be attacked.” She explained.

Harriet remembered reading about this in one of her favorite books. “Oh like in one of my favorite novels! The Wind Warrior! A brave warrior who travels across lands with a cute, but annoying fairy and has a sword with wind powers!” She explained. “In book 5, Skye was stuck in a foggy forest and had to battle this forest spirit.” Harriet gasped. “Just like this one!”

The shadow heard the young girl’s yell and started to make its way towards them. The girls both turned and dodged to the left as the shadow pounced. The shadow looked around for the girls, not knowing they were a foot away from the beast.

“Follow my lead.” Harriet whispered to Mu. She then waved her wand around causing it to light up, attracting the shadow towards her. Realizing she doesn’t know a wind or air spell she turned to Mu. “Do you know any wind spells?” She asked.

Mu groaned and went over to Harriet holding her hand to show her the spell, not noticing the glow on Harriet’s wand was glowing brighter. “Spell of the North Wind! Twister!” Mu shouted.

Soon a big tornado came out of Harriet’s wand pushing the girls back and pushing the shadow into a tree knocking it out.

“Okay!” Mu shouted. “That wasn’t supposed to be that strong!”

“Still, that was AWESOME!” Harriet cheered.

The shadow wolf slowly got up and growled seeing it was now done with the young witches games. Mu then grabbed her wand to use the shadow healing spell.

“Ready?” Mu asked.

“Ready!” Harriet answered. The two girls pointed their wands at the shadow and were ready to chant their healing spell. “Shadow Begone!”

“Disappear from the Darkness from once you came!” Mu yelled.

The light from their wands blasted and swirled around the Shadow. Soon it faded away as a young boy fell to the ground and passed out.

Mu’s eyes widened as she walked over to the boy. “I know him. He’s from one of the other big academy’s in Sperenza.” Mu explained. “He’s been missing for months now.”

The young boy groaned as he rubbed his head. “What happened?” He asked. The boy gasped and looked around the forest. “W-why am I here?”

“You were turned into a shadow, but we healed you.” Harriet explained. She then held her hand out, and helped the young boy up. The boy wobbled a bit on his feet before Harriet held him up. “Do you remember anything before becoming one?”

The boy tried to remember, but it gave him a headache trying to think who. “It hurts to think.” He groaned.

“Don’t push yourself.” Mu told him. “Take your time.” The young boy smiled and nodded.

“Mu! Harriet!” Boss yelled. “We have a problem!” Harriet and Mu looked at each other and back at the young witch.

“Go on ahead. I’ll teleport my way back.” The boy replied. Harriet and Mu nodded as they followed Boss as the boy used his wand and teleported out of the Foggy Forest.

Moonjumper groaned as he held his arm. That part of his arm suffered a tear as stuffing tried to come out of it. “Moonjumper! Are you okay?” Harriet yelled. She gasped as Moonjumper slowly removed his hand covering the injury as a bit of the stuffing started to come out.

Harriet gasped. “Here.” She said, as she put her hand on Moonjumper’s injury. “Heal and grow. Lee, the pain fades away.” Harriet chanted. Soon a glow appeared on Moonjumper’s injury and it was gone.

The familiar moved his arm and laughed seeing he was fully healed. Moonjumper laughed and gave Harriet a hug. “Thank you! Thank you!” He beamed.

Harriet giggled and hugged her familiar back. “You’re welcome.”

“How did you know that spell?” Mu asked, surprised to see Harriet knew a healing spell.

“My mom.” Harriet replied. “She always said that when I was hurt.” Harriet gave a small smile as she remembered one time she got injured by another kid and her mom made her feel better saying that spell.

Soon the fog around them started to clear up a bit, and Harriet then saw something in the distance. “What’s that?” She asked.

Mu turned and saw it was a body of water and the two slowly walked towards it. “Guess we made it to the swamp part of Foggy Swamp Forest.” Mu explained.

“Is there anything special about this swamp?” Harriet asked.

“I’m not sure.” Mu replied, the two stopped as they were close to the edge of the river. As she continued to explain, the river started to reach over to the girls “No one told me anything about this swamp, only saying not to get to-”

Mu and Harriet screamed as they got pulled into the river and went under.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap.9-Familiar Familiar

Hey everyone! Got the next chapter up!

I was drained from working the past few weeks from non-stop lines, people yelling, and being assholes, and I also had to work overtime for one week. Not only that, I'm currently doing two Pokemon Challenges as well.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader!

Enjoy!

The following day in class, Mu showed Harriet a map of Speranza and circled the places that Vanessa could be. 

“Okay, I’ve circled two locations where your mom may be located,” Mu stated. “Foggy Swamp Forest and Subcon Winters. Foggy Swamp Forest is known to have many secrets inside the forest and we could find your mom there, if not Subcon Winters is our next stop, but.”

“But what?” Harriet asked.

“At this time, the weather in Subcon Winters is terrible with it being cold as a freezer and with winds that a tornado can pop up from the ground!” Mu explained.

“Wow!” Harriet whispered.

Mu nodded. “So what do you say?” She asked.

Harriet thought for a second, even though Subcon Winters looks like the place she has seen in her dreams, going to Foggy Swamp Forest might be the best place to start, maybe she’ll be lucky and find some clues leading to her mother’s disappearance. “As much as I want to check Subcon Winters first, I agree to go to Foggy Swamp Forest. Who knows we may find clues about my mom.”

Mu smiled. “Perfect!” She beamed. “Since it’s almost our weekend! How about after school we can prepare before we leave!” Harriet nodded in reply. The girl’s conversation ended just in time as Miss. Cook came in ready to teach today’s lesson.

“Alright class, we have another fun lesson for you all.” Miss. Cook announced as the class went quiet and faced their teacher. “Okay, today’s lesson is going to be on familiars.” The second she said that the entire class familiar's appeared excited about the lesson. Miss. Cook chuckled, “I see the familiars are interested. Now I brought up this topic for today because our new student Harriet doesn’t have one yet,” The second Miss. Cook said that the class turned to Harriet, which made her slightly uncomfortable, even though that wasn’t Miss. Cook’s intent. “I thought it would be nice to share what familiars are and how it improves your skills as a witch.”

Harriet started to feel at ease and was excited to learn about familiars. “Don’t think of this as a fun lesson,” Boss said as he went to Harriet’s desk.

“What’s so bad about it?” Harriet asked.

“It’s not a bad thing. It’s how some witches think familiars are like pets, but that’s not the point.” Boss replied.

Then Timmy spoke up. “He’s right. Your familiar is there to guide and protect you and you do the same in return. If you can’t bond with your familiar then how will your skills as a witch improve.”

“I see.” Harriet realized. She then turned towards Boss, “So are all familiars animals?”

“Not really,” Boss replied. “Familiars could be just about anything. Look at Timmy’s.” Harriet turned back to Timmy who then showed her his familiar.

Timmy’s familiar was a little black blob with a white cow skull as its head and one eye. Timmy’s familiar made bubbling and squeaking noises as it glanced at Harriet.

“Aww cute,” Harriet said. She then used her finger to pet her classmate’s familiar as it continued to squeak. “So how do I get one?” She asked.

“There are two ways,” Mu spoke up. “You're given it by a witch, or the familiar chooses you.”

“The superintendent gave me mine,” Timmy said.

“And Miss. Cook gave me Boss,” Mu added. Boss went back to Mu’s desk as she petted her familiar. “I’ll tell you about it at lunch,” Mu whispered. Boss' eyes widened hearing that and glared at his witch. Harriet smiled and soon followed with the lesson in class.

After class, Mu and Harriet were enjoying their lunch but in the middle of it, Harriet had to ask Mu about how she met Boss. “So are you going to tell me how you met Boss?” Harriet asked.

Boss groaned and turned to his witch. “Do you have to tell her?”

“Yep.” Mu replied. Boss groaned and shook his head. “Okay, remember when I said familiars can be anything?” Harriet nodded remembering that. “Well, Boss is both.”

Harriet tilted her head in confusion. Boss sighed and decided to explain in detail. “I was not always a cat, I was once one of the strongest wizards all over Speranza.” 

“And the most infamous,” Mu added. Boss’s eyes widened hearing Mu mention that. “Boss here was part of a wizard mafia.”

“That is so cool!” Harriet beamed.

Mu scoffed. “It wasn’t.”

“It was.” Boss corrected her. “My Mafia and I brought fear into the people of Sperenza, but we got caught and I was punished.”

“And that’s how you became a cat?” Harriet asked.

“No,” Boss replied. “Before I was a cat, I was turned into a pile of slime by one of the strongest witches at this school!” God, the familiar, remembered that day being a pile of pink goo stuffed into a jar as he was left in a closet staring at nothing but darkness.

“That’s…” Harriet paused trying to think of a word to describe Boss’s backstory. “Rough.” Was the only word on her mind.

“It’s worse than that! It was horrible, lonely, dark, cold!” He complained.

“So how did you become a cat, then?”

Boss sighed remembering that day…

When Boss was still a pile of goo inside a jar, his eyes widened seeing the door open thinking it was someone to finally release him from his fate. However, he saw Mu looking around for someone. “Miss. Cook is gonna kill me.” She groaned. “Here kitty, kitty! Where are you?” She called out. While Mu was looking for the cat, said cat came into the closet and looked around. The cat then climbed on the shelf and was unknowingly knocking stuff on the shelf.

Boss’s eyes widened seeing the cat walking closer to him. “Please no.” He whimpered. However, the cat didn’t listen and pushed the Boss off the shelf as he fell to the ground with a crack. The goo spilled all over the floor and Boss let out a groan. 

The cat then mewed liking his lips seeing the goo. Boss screamed as the cat started to lick all of the goo off the floor as something magical happened.

When Mu and Miss. Cook opened the closet a bit later and they were in shock seeing Boss freaking out in the cat’s body.

Mu started to laugh hearing the story again, but Boss felt embarrassed telling his story. “Mu, stop that’s mean!” Harriet scolded. “Though probably the worst fate to have.” She added.

“It’s horrible! Out of all the bodies I can have back it had to be a cat!” Boss yelled.

“Quit being a drama queen!” Mu scolded as she picked up her familiar. “Besides I’m glad Miss. Cook gave me you before the Headmistress did.”

Harriet sighed and imagined what her familiar was going to be. “I can’t wait to meet mine!” She beamed. “Then maybe my familiar and Boss could be best friends just like us!” Mu smiled in reply.

As the girls were chatting, someone was hiding in the bushes, their eyes widening as they set their gaze on Harriet. The figure gasped hearing the school bell ring and the girls gathering their stuff to head back inside. They waited for the girls to be far away before following them inside the school.

Once classes were done for the day, Harriet was going to the library to learn more about the locations she and Mu were going to explore. However, Harriet saw a blue hand in the corner of the room and rushed over to it. She gasped seeing a plush on the ground.

The plush had a crescent moon face with a smile and stitched red diamond eyes, had no legs, and wore a red and gold prince outfit. Harriet looked around to see if someone was looking for their lost toy, but everyone seemed to be occupied with everything else. 

Harriet picked up the plush and smiled thinking it was cute.“You do look pretty cool.” She commented. “I’ll bring you back to me and Mu’s dorm, maybe along the way someone is looking for you.” Harriet then decided to go back to the dorm to drop the ‘plushie’ off before going to the library.

“Mu guess what?!” Harriet asked as she barged into the dorm. Mu was startled as her pencil broke causing a squiggle on her paper.

“Don’t scare me like that,” Mu replied.

“Sorry,” Harriet replied with a giggle. “But, look at this plushie I found!” She then showed the ‘plush’ to Mu.

Mu squinted as she looked at the ‘toy.’ “What kind of toy is that?” She asked.

“I don’t know?” Harriet replied. “I found it on my way to the library.”

Boss got up on the bed and took a sniff of the plush before snarling at it. “Drop the plush, Harriet.”

Harriet and Mu blinked in surprise as Harriet followed the cat’s orders and dropped the plush.

“Ow!” The group’s eyes widened as they looked down at the plush. They shrieked as they stepped back from the plush as they saw it moving.

“Is it alive?” Harriet asked.

The “plush” rubbed his head and floated up groaning. “Be careful dropping me next time.”

“S-sorry,” Harriet replied. “Who are you?”

The “plush’s” eyes widened and blinked seeing Harriet. “I’m Moonjumper!” He beamed, flying around as he did a pose.

“Moonjumper?” Harriet asked.

Moonjumper nodded. “Yep, I’m a familiar belonging to a witch who I’ve known for a long time.” He explained. “But, she’s been missing for a long time now.” He frowned. Harriet frowned and put her hand on Moonjumper’s back. The plush turned to her with a smile and that’s when Moonjumper noticed something about Harriet.

He got a closer look and gasped. “Your eyes.”

Harriet tilted her head in confusion, “What about them?”

“They remind me of my witch,” Moonjumper answered. “Do you know a witch named Vanessa?”

The group gasped in surprise. “If you're talking about my mom then yes,” Harriet answered.

Moonjumper’s eyes widened as he gave a wide smile and hugged Harriet.”Oh, I’m so glad my witchy best friend is alive and back!” He beamed.

Harriet’s eyes widened as she let out a sigh. Moonjumper sensed something was wrong and slowly let go of the young girl. “My mom is still missing.” She told the familiar.

“In the human world?” Moonjumper asked.

“No,” Harriet replied, shaking her head. “Someone here has taken her.”

“You mean she came back?!” Harriet nodded in reply. “T-that doesn’t make sense! Her mother told me Vanessa has been missing since she left on her mission.”

“What!” Everyone gasped.

“Well, that’s what the Head-I mean mother told me. She said Vanessa went on a mission and she will never come back to Sperenza, ever again.”

Harriet and Mu looked at each other and both glared knowing the Headmistress would lie to her own daughter’s familiar. Harriet pulled Moonjumper into a hug, which made him smile. “So where have you been all this time? And how did you find me?” She asked.

“Well, I was just hiding in the school, and soon I picked up your scent,” Moonjumper explained. Harriet was confused as she looked at her uniform and gave it a sniff herself, which caused Moonjumper to laugh. “I mean I’m able to smell it, but it now makes sense why you share Vanessa’s scent.”

“Well, the good news is we're going to find her!” Harriet told him. “Want to join us?” She asked.

Moonjumper smiled as his eyes sparkled. “Yes! I want to see her again!” He replied.

Harriet smiled. “Me too, Moonjumper, me too.”

Harriet’s wand suddenly started to glow, as well as Moonjumper's. Harriet quickly grabbed her wand and soon a moon-shaped charm appeared on her wand. “W-what just happened?” Harriet asked.

“That is when a witch has made a connection with a familiar,” Boss answered.

Harriet blinked in surprise. “But Moonjumper is my mom’s familiar.” 

“That has happened,” Mu added.

Harriet smiled as she hugged Moonjumper tightly. The familiar chuckled as he hugged Harriet back. “You hug just like Vanessa did.” Harriet smiled as she felt tears in her eyes as she hugged Moonjumper closer to her.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 8-Path to Dreams

So sorry for the long update!

I actually got back into writing this fanfic thanks to work. February and March was NOT a good time for me and I was having on and off stress, panic attacks, anxiety, etc. So, during the quiet and slow hours of work I’d written the ideas of how the next couple of chapters are going to go down, and BOY I love the path this story is going!

Good news: I'm on vacation from work. It's more of a staycation but I’m gonna need it as work is EXTREMELY busy during March Madness.

Thanks to @gigilefache for being my beta reader! Also give them some love they had a rough day yesterday!!

Enjoy!

Once Harriet was back to her dorm she told Mu everything that Headmistress Elizabeth told Harriet about her mother. Mu was not surprised that the headmistress went off on her friend like that, but what had surprised Mu was that her best friend is the granddaughter of the Headmistress.

“I-I can’t believe the Headmistress would just talk to you like that!” Mu shouted. “Especially about your mother, her own daughter!”

Harriet sighed as she hugged her pillow tighter. Mu loosened her glare and sat down next to Harriet putting her arm around her. “You don’t actually believe her do you?”

“No! Of course not!” Harriet replied. “I just need to know why my mom left! I know she loves my dad, she loves me, and she couldn’t leave us just like that.”

Mu pulled Harriet closer and rubbed her arm in hopes to calm her down. Soon it was silent between the two girls.

“So what are you going to do?” Mu asked, breaking the silence. Harriet looked up at her friend. “Do you want me to take you back to Earth and tell your father about your mom, or would you like to stay here and look for her?”

Harriet thought about the question for a bit. She wanted to do both, but one problem remained: Going home would be great and she would tell her dad the news about her mother, but offhand he doesn’t believe her, and forbids her from going back to Sperenza would be a problem if she had to go back to look for her mom.

Even though she didn’t want to, she had only one choice. “I’m gonna stay here and look for her,” Harriet answered, “there’s no point going back home now. My mom is somewhere in Speranza and I need to find her and bring her home.”

Mu sighed. “Alright I won’t stop you.” She told her. Harriet smiled in reply. “But,” Harriet’s expression changed, “I’m going to help you find her.”

Harriet smiled and hugged her witch friend tight, which suprissed Mu. Mu gave a small smile and hugged Harriet tight back.

“Thanks Mu, you're the best witch friend a human could ever have.”

Mu was happy with the friendly comment. “And you're the coolest human I ever met.” She replied.

Once the sky became dark and the night sky loomed overhead, Harriet and Mu were already in bed sound asleep. Though, Harriet would be sleeping more soundly if not for another specific dream.

Harriet looked around and saw she was back in the same snowy forest. The person calling for her sounded much clearer than last time. “Harriet!”

Harriet gasped recognizing the voice. It wasn’t Mu calling for her it was…

“M-Mom?” She asked.

“Harriet!” Vanessa called out again.

“M-Mom!” Harriet yelled. “Mom! Where are you?!”

“Harriet! I’m here, but you must hurry.” Vanessa called out.

This confused Harriet.

“Hurry? Why?” she asked.

The blizzard then picked up, causing Harriet to bundle herself the best she could as the wind muffled Vanessa’s calls.

Harriet gasped waking up from her dream. She saw that the blankets were wrapped around her almost like a cocoon. She loosened herself from the blankets and looked around till her eyes landed on Mu’s bed. The witch was still asleep, and Harriet was relieved that her dream didn’t wake up Mu.

With a sigh, Harriet got out of bed and looked out the window.

“I miss you mom,” Harriet whispered, “I’ll find you and then take you to all the places dad took me to cheer me up.” She frowned and went back to bed and lied down going back to sleep.

The following morning, Harriet sat alone in class waiting for it to start. To pass the time she took notes and drawings of the things that happened in her dreams. She sighed as she put the finishing touches on her sketch.

“Thinking about your mom, again?” Mu asked.

Harriet gasped and turned around, surprised by her friend. “Oh, Mu” Harriet sighed, “please don’t do that again.”

Mu chuckled. “Sorry.” She she sat down on her desk.

“It’s okay, but to answer your question…” Harriet paused before continuing. “Remember a few nights ago when I had that dream of someone calling for me?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Mu replied.

“Well, I had it again, but I was able to hear who was calling for me. It was my mom.” Harriet explained.

Mu’s eyes widened in surprise. “Seriously?” She asked. Harriet nodded. “Did you see her, did she say where she is?” Mu had a ton of questions, but Harriet shook her head in response.

“I only heard her, but where she was…I don’t know.” Harriet replied.

Soon Miss. Cook came into class, along with the rest of the students, and everyone settled down and got ready for the day's lesson.

“Alright class, settle down.” She said, Soon the class went quiet and faced their teacher. “Okay class, today you’ll be working on charms.”

Mu squealed as her eyes sparkled with stars. Harriet turned and smiled at her friend, “You look happy.”

“I’ve been wanting to learn about this lesson!” Mu replied, whispering to her friend.

“For this lesson, you and a partner,” The second Miss. Cook said the word partner she heard desks, feet and tables being moved as her class seated with who they wanted to be partnered with. “Will work together to create your own charm.” She continued. “Now, if you or your partner have the notes we took last week, use that to help create your charm.”

As Miss. Cook continued about the lesson, Mu gave Harriet her notes about the lesson. “Read it.” Mu whispered. Harriet slowly nodded and looked through Mu’s notes about charms.

On Mu’s notes it said:

Charms are magical items created by witches. Each charm can do abilities such as wishes, looking into memories, and creating good luck. They come in many shapes and colors, and their powers vary depending on such.

The way to create a charm is with a magical clay made by sand from Cowrie Beach, and the plants from Wineberry Grove. Then while chanting, a spell would be stored in the charm. From there the charm is created and can be used then constantly chanting a spell when another spell could be used.

Other than the written notes Mu had jotted down, there were also some doodles featuring Mu and some charm style ideas in her notebook as well.

Then Harriet had an idea. “Hey Mu.” She whispered. Mu turned to face her friend. “Think we can make a dream charm?”

“We can try.” Mu replied, whispering back. Harriet smiled as they continued listening to Miss. Cook’s lesson, or at least the last bit of it.

“When you're done with your charm. Your homework will be to test your charm and take notes to show next week.” Miss. Cook finished. “Alright everyone ready?” The class nodded in reply except for Harriet realizing she only knows the lessons from Mu’s notes. “Great, let's get started.”

Harriet looked around and saw the groups around her already getting started on their charms, and she was the odd one out not knowing what to do. However, before she could freak out Mu put a hand on her friend’s shoulder as she used her other hand to hold the clay.

“Just watch me and I’ll tell you what to do.” Mu told her.

Harriet nodded in reply. “Okay.” Mu smiled and started to mold the clay into an oval shape.

“Harriet, grab my spell book and look for the dream spell that would be perfect for this specific charm.” Mu commanded.

Harriet nodded and took out Mu’s spell book and went through the Table of Contents to find the dream spell section. The human girl read through all the different spells and saw one that sounded perfect for the dreams she’s been having.

Harriet shoved the book close to Mu and pointed at the spell. “How does this one sound?“ She asked. Mu looked at the spell and smiled.

“Perfect!” She replied. Mu looked at the shape of the charm being a crescent moon shaped. “What do you think?”

“I love it!” Harriet replied.

Mu smiled and then grabbed her wand. “Got your wand ready?” She asked.

“Ready!” Harriet replied, grabbing her wand.

“Now we must whisper the spell, if we say it too loudly we’ll end up affecting the group.” Mu told her. Harriet nodded and the two pointed their wands at the charm as they whispered the spell together.

“Dream bright. Dream light. I want to see the dream tonight.” Mu and Harriet whispered together. Soon their wands started to glow together and went to the charm causing it to glow and change color. The charm turned a magenta color as it started to shine.

“Did it work?” Harriet asked.

Mu picked up the charm and looked at it and smiled giving a nod. Harriet sighed and smiled seeing that they are one step closer into trying out their Dream Charm.

Miss. Cook walked by the girls’ desk and smiled at their charm. “Impressive work you two.” She commented. “Can’t wait to see how well your charm will work.” Mu and Harriet smiled, but the former’s smile was a bit wider.

“See, I told you you're good.” Harriet told Mu putting her arm around her. Mu smiled, getting a bit of confidence now thanks to her teacher and best friend.

Once the class was done making their charms the rest of the day was standard for Mu and Harriet. By nighttime, Harriet was laying down in bed as Mu held the charm in her hand. “Okay here is what we’ll do! When you're asleep I’ll use the charm and it should show me what you're dreaming. When you wake up, we will discuss your dreams.” She explained. Harriet nodded in reply. “Ready to do this?”

“Ready.” Harriet replied. The human girl got relaxed and closed her eyes. She took some deep breaths before she let herself fall into slumber. Once asleep, Mu put the dream charm on Harriet’s head and soon the charm glowed as it showcased Harriet walking in that same snowy place, however this time fog covered the area.

Mu quickly wrote down what she was seeing in Harriet’s dreams, and saw her calling out and looking for her mother.

“Mom…where…” Harriet said in her sleep. “Mom.”

Mu reached her hand out, but she backed down and put her hand down and continued to take notes as Harriet dreamed. The latter started to toss and turn in her sleep, and in her dreams saw Harriet covering up from the cold. Soon a gust of wind pushed Harriet back, causing the dream to fade and Harriet to wake up.

Harriet breathed heavily and Mu walked over to her putting a hand on her shoulder. Harriet flinched a bit and turned to see it was only Mu. “I was back there again, but now it was foggy and my mom’s voice sounded more distant.”

“I saw.” Mu replied. Harriet turned and felt calmer knowing that the dream charm did work. “In fact, I may know where you might be.”

“You do?” Harriet asked. “W-where?”

“That’s the thing! It’s gotta be one of two places.” Mu answered.

“Well what are we waiting for! We gotta get going!”

Mu scoffed. “This late and on a school night?” Harriet groaned and frowned, collapsing back on her bed. Mu sighed and laid down with her friend. “Don’t worry. We will find her, and we will bring her back home.”

Harriet sighed and turned away. “I just miss her.” Tears were slowly starting to come out of her eyes.

Feeling bad for her, Mu pulled Harriet close and hugged her. Harriet whimpered as she let out a few sobs before turning to Mu and hugging her back softly crying on her.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 6-Hidden Shadows

Hello! Here is the next chapter!

Had to take my time with this one. Personal stuff was keeping me from working on this story throughout October, but I was glad to have it up and ready for you all to read!

Thanks to @gigilefache for beta reading the fanfic!

Enjoy!!

So far, Harriet was doing well with her orientation. Despite her near mishap with the flowers a while back the rest of Harriet’s orientation went without a hitch. Mu and Miss. Cook seemed impressed with how skilled the human was with magic, however, Headmistress Elizabeth was glaring at the young girl though saying nothing about it.

After Harriet finished the 9th part of her orientation; using magic to make illusions, she turned to face the trio wondering what is next. “Alright! I’m ready for the next one!”

“Harriet. You're done with orientation.” Miss. Cook told her.

The human girl’s eyes widened as she gave a big smile. “I have?” She asked. Miss. Cook nodded, and soon Harriet cheered in celebration. In her celebration, she grabbed Mu’s hand and started to dance with her, which made the witch happy and she started to laugh with Harriet.

However, Headmistress Elizabeth was still glaring, and the glare felt colder and deeper hearing that a human girl passed orientation with flying colors. She hadn’t seen that in years since…the headmistress shook the memory from her head.

Miss. Cook noticed the headmistress’s expression and was about to confront her about it. However, the headmistress turned her back on the girls and left. The teacher gave a small glare at the headmistresses before turning towards the girls.

“Well then.” Miss. Cook spoke up, which stopped the girl's celebration. “I’ll go and let Superintendent Tim know you passed Harriet.”

Harriet nodded in reply as the teacher then left to send her message. Once she and Mu were alone the two girls kept gushing about how they're both going to school together.

“This is great!” Mu exclaimed. “I’m still in school! You're in school with me and we can do magic together!”

Harriet smiled and nodded at what her friend told her, but soon she realized something; her dad.

How would Harriet go home to see him? Would she still be able to go home? If so, how would she go home and go to her human school? All of these thoughts raced through her mind, wanting her to back out of going to school with Mu.

“Well Harriet, let’s go to Speranza Square and celebrate! I need to get you your Witch uniform, I’ve got to take you to all the best places to eat-“

“Mu!” Harriet spoke up, cutting her friend off. “Listen, I need to tell you something.” Mu turned to her friend and frowned seeing her friend’s expression. “I know you're excited, but something came to mind.”

“What is it?” Mu asked.

Harriet sighed. “Well, home. How will I explain all this to my dad? H-how will I get home!”

“Hey! Hey! Don’t worry.” Mu reassured her friend by grabbing her hands. “I’ll help you find a way to balance school and home.”

Harriet looked up at her friend, and while the anxiety hadn’t left her yet, she felt this sort of safety. “You promise?” Harriet asked.

Mu smiled and replied, “I promise.” Harriet smiled and nodded, putting her trust in her new friend. “Now come on! I’ve got a lot to show you!” Mu grabbed Harriet’s hand and then dragged her to show her around Speranza Square.

“Okay!” Harriet replied. As the girls left a pair of eyes through the window glared down at the girls.

Mu took Harriet to the entrance of Speranza Square and the human was surprised seeing the place up close then up in the air. Up close Speranza Square almost felt like something off a video game village vibe where the main characters would go to get items before their next quest.

“Alright, where are we going to go first?” Harriet asked.

“First would be your witch uniform? So you can fit in with everyone else here!” Mu explained. “Your human clothes are too basic.”

“Hey!” Harriet glared, feeling insulted.

“Sorry. But it’s true.” Mu then took Harriet’s hand and took her inside the clothing store. Harriet rolled her eyes as she followed her friend inside.

The old man who ran the store then saw the two girls come into the store and smiled seeing Mu. “Ah Mu! Welcome!” He exclaimed. “Who’s your friend?”

“This is Harriet! She’s new here!” Mu exclaimed. Harriet gave a nervous smile and wave. The man smiled and waved back at the young girl.

“We’ll take your time Mu, I got some new clothes in the back if nothing interests your friend.” He told her.

“Will do!”

Mu guided Harriet around the store in hopes of finding her new friend something for her to wear. The two walked around the aisles looking through different outfits and Mu grabbed a couple and handed it to Harriet. The human girl carried piles and piles of clothes that she was almost buried in.

“Mu! Slow down!” Harriet yelled.

Mu turned and didn’t see her friend, but a pile of clothes. Soon Harriet popped out of the pile and gave a small glare to her friend. The witch chuckled seeing she went far with her shopping. “Sorry.” Mu apologized.

Harriet sighed. “It’s fine.” She replied. Soon her eyes glanced at one of the outfits and pulled it from the pile. The outfit was a black witch dress with a purple belt and collar. “What do you think of this?”

Mu looked at the outfit and smiled looking at how cool it was. “I like it!”

The human girl smiled and went to put on the outfit as Mu went over to the counter to go pay for it. “Oh no Mu! You don’t need to pay! It’s all on me.” The store owner said.

“Are you sure?” Mu asked. The store owner nodded. “Wow! Thank you!”

“What do you think?” Harriet asked, as she came out of the dressing room in her new clothes. Mu and the shopkeeper’s eyes widened seeing Harriet.

“Y-you l-look great.” Mu stuttered.

Harriet smiled. “Thanks Mu.” Mu smiled back in reply.

“You’re welcome! Now, we have a few more stops before we can head back. We need to get your supplies for class!” Mu grabbed Harriet’s hand and soon dragged her out of the store and to the next store.

Meanwhile, Boss woke up from his nap and saw Mu and Harriet weren’t there, so he left their dorm to go and look for them. As he was, he sensed something was not right and headed downstairs. “What are you doing now, Mu.” Once he made it downstairs he realized nothing seemed out of place. Boss thought he was just tired and that nothing was going wrong.

Boss turned towards the door and saw a purple and pinkish light and went to check it out. “Mu, are you in there?” He called out. Boss jumped up on the door knob to open it and his eyes widened seeing what he saw. Quickly he dashed off from the screen and ended up bumping into Miss. Cook.

“Oh Boss! You’re awake!” She beamed, though her smile quickly faded seeing how scared the cat was. “Er...what’s wrong?”

Before Boss could answer the door quickly opened and the two were horrified at what they saw.

Back with Mu and Harriet, the two were heading back to Magia Academy with an ice cream cone in one hand and a few shopping bags in the other. “I can’t believe you got most of my stuff for free!” Harriet exclaimed.

“Well, everyone knows me so it’s on them.” Mu told her.

“That’s good. I guess.”

Mu smiled, but stopped seeing Miss. Cook and Boss running towards them. “Miss. Cook, Boss! What’s going on?”

Miss. Cook sighed. “Oh thank goodness you're both okay!”

“W-what’s going on?” Harriet asked.

“T-There’s a monster in the school!” Boss shouted.

“What?!” Both girls shouted. They dropped everything and ran inside to see a door open and glowing. The girls looked at each other and went into the door only to see a bat-like creature scavenging and destroying things. Mu gulped at the sight of the monster, but Harriet was determined to go and fight it.

Grabbing her wand Harriet quickly went down the stairs, but was stopped by Mu. “What are you doing?”

“Gonna fight the beast!” Harriet exclaimed, grabbing her wand.

“Are you out of your mind? It’s dangerous!”

Harriet ignored her friend’s warning and confronted the monster. In her mind, she started to feel like the main character in her stories, ready to fight the monster and win. “Hey you!” She shouted, getting the monster’s attention. “What are you looking for, huh?”

The monster screeched and went to attack Harriet, but the young girl jumped out of the way and pointed her wand at the monster, but saw no magic was coming out. “Come on!” Harriet shouted, frustrated that no magic was coming out to fight the monster. “Why isn’t this working!”

“Because you need to cast a spell first!” Mu shouted as she came down with her wand.

“Oh.” Harriet realized looking at her wand. “I got too caught up at the moment.” She chuckled nervously as she rubbed the back of her head.

“Look out!” Mu shouted.

Harriet turned and saw the bat-like creature heading towards her. She quickly dodged the attack by jumping to the side, but ended up losing her wand in the process. She tried to grab it, but the monster loomed over her preventing her from getting her wand. It snarled and leaned in closer to Harriet.

“Leave her alone!” Mu yelled. “Crystalline Hardening!” Mu used her wand commanding her spell as crystals started to cover the monster’s leg. Once the monster was stabilized, Mu grabbed Harriet’s wand and threw it to her.

“Thanks!” Harriet beamed.

“Anytime!” Mu replied. Soon the two heard the monster roar as it struggled to free itself from the crystals. Harriet held her wand up ready to use a spell of her own, but she only knew a few.

“Bright and Light! Flash a light!” Harriet yelled and soon the monster was blinded by the light from Harriet’s wand. The young girl chuckled seeing that work.

However, it didn’t work for long. As the monster growled and crushed the crystals. It dashed towards the two girls. Due to fear, Mu and Harriet quickly held their hands and soon their wands started to glow pink and purple respectively. The monster soon froze in its tracks, as Harriet and Mu slowly opened their eyes to see their wands glow bright.

Soon something clicked in the two girl’s minds and they started to chant a spell, “Shadow begone!” Harriet shouted.

“Disappear from the darkness from once you came!” Mu continued.

The light from their wands blasted and swirled around the monster. It faded away leaving behind a young girl’s body.

Boss, Miss. Cook and Headmistress Elizabeth quickly ran down and saw what had happened. “What’s going on here?” The Headmistress asked.

Harriet and Mu groaned and looked at their wands and each other. Both appeared to be confused over what happened. “What was that?” Harriet asked.

“I don’t know?” Mu replied. She then picked up her wand and looked at it. “I never learned a spell like that before.”

“Mu!” Headmistress Elizabeth shouted. Harriet and Mu flinched and turned towards the headmistress who stomped her way towards the two girls. “What did you do this time?”

“N-nothing! Miss. Cook and Boss saw something and we went to check out! There was this bat monster and me and Harriet tried to stop it!” Mu explained.

Headmistress Elizabeth glared and crossed her arms. “Likely story.”

“No!” Harriet interrupted. “It’s true!”

“Oh great! So the human girl is another trouble maker!” Headmistress Elizabeth shouted. Harriet’s eyes widened and frowned.

“Wait!” Miss. Cook shouted. The girls and the headmistress turned to face Miss. Cook and Boss. “This was no monster.”

Mu and Harriet went over to Miss. Cook wondered what she met. Mu gasped seeing this was one of her classmates. “S-Sara?” She asked.

“This was no monster, it was a Shadow.” Boss explained.

“A shadow?” Harriet asked, confused.

“I’ve read about them.” Mu said. “Shadows are witches who are corrupted by vengeance or sadness.” She explained. “Recently, Shadows have been showing up more and more often for a year or two now.”

Harriet gulped, this was now starting to sound like all the stories she read. Monsters showing up out of nowhere, created by emotions. “How so?”

“Rumors have been around saying someone is forcing witches to be Shadows.” Mu explained. While this did sound exciting, Harriet quickly turned her gaze at Sara, who was now lifted by Miss. Cook. “I’ll take her to the nurses office.” Miss. Cook said.

“Is she going to be alright?” Harriet asked.

Miss. Cook nodded. “She’s fine. She just needs some rest, and we’ll be able to hear what happened when she wakes up.”

Once Miss. Cook left with the girl, Headmistress Elizabeth glared at Harriet and Mu. “You’re spared this time.” She threatened before marching away. “Also,” she stopped and looked back at the girls. “Clean this place up before you go to bed for the night.” With that the Headmistress left.

Mu glared and growled at the Headmistresses, at this point she was getting on her nerves. Though with everything destroyed from the Shadow, the place did need some cleaning. “Well, we should get started.” Mu spoke up as she walked towards where the brooms and mops are kept. The witch saw her human friend was silent and looking down. “Harriet? Are you okay?”

“I was hoping we would get home after this? But guess I’ll be stuck here for another day.” Harriet sighed.

Mu’s eyes widened, she forgot Harriet was supposed to get home at this time. The witch looked outside and saw the sun starting to set, which meant the World Ripple will be opening soon. “Hey, don’t worry.” Mu told her, putting a hand on her shoulder. “If we get this done, maybe we’ll have time to take you home.”

“Promise?” Harriet asked.

“Promise!” Mu replied smiling.

Harriet nodded and soon she and Mu started to clean the basement. “Don’t worry dad. I’ll be home soon. Give me another day. Maybe two.” Harriet thought to herself as she helped Mu clean.

Back on Earth, Luka was in Harriet’s room sitting on her bed. He looked like he was crying as he held a photo of her in his hands. Turns out she wasn’t at Brandy’s house and was currently missing, just like his wife.

“Where are you Harriet? Please. Come home.” Luka cried, hugging the picture close.

~~~~

Alright! So how about some lore time for the end of this chapter!

So The Shadows are based off of the witches from Madoka Magica. There are a few differences to witches and shadows, but are both related to corrupting a person. There’s also the fact when a Shadow is defeated the witch is turned back to normal.

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 5- Witch Training Day 1

Hey everyone! It’s October/Spooky Month/Whatever you call October and I can't have Halloween without my Witch AU updated.

Thanks to @mun-auroralore and @gigilefache for being my beta readers!!!

Enjoy!

“I can’t believe Superintendent Tim accepted you into the school,” Mu said, surprised.

Harriet told Mu everything that happened while she was in the office, and while Mu was excited for her new friend joining her at Magia Academy, hearing that Mu will be expelled if Harriet failed scared her.

“I know,” Harriet replied. The two were silent for a bit as they walked to the dorm rooms. “Are you excited we get to learn magic together?” She asked.

“Yes!” Mu replied. The two girls laughed excitedly that they’ll be learning together. “We’re here.” Harriet paused her excitement as they finally made it to their dorm room.

Mu opened the door and let Boss and Harriet in first. The latter was in awe with everything Mu had in her room, from textbooks, to potions and posters of famous witches.

“This is your room?” Harriet asked.

“Yep!”

Harriet looked at the room a bit more till she saw an empty bed collecting dust. “What happened to your roommate?” She asked.

“I never had one,” Mu replied. “Headmistress Elizabeth said I don’t deserve one.”

If Harriet wasn’t furious with how Headmistress Elizabeth was treating Mu before, she was furious now. “I just don’t get it!” She started as she threw her bag on the bed, causing some dust to fly off. Harriet coughed and tried to push all the dust away. “Why does the headmistress hate you so much! You haven’t done anything wrong?!”

Mu sighed and walked over to the human girl and sat right next to her. “I have done some troublesome things.” She replied.

“That still doesn’t give the headmistress the right to treat you like this!”

Mu tried to respond, but quickly closed her mouth knowing Harriet was right. Just then, Harriet saw a poster of a blonde haired witch with glasses that caught her interest. “Who is that?” She asked.

“Oh! That was one of the best students at Magia Academy a long time ago.” Mu explained. “Miss. Cook gave me the poster as a present. Harriet walked over to the poster and inspected it a bit more. The human girl thought the witch looked familiar, but couldn’t put her finger on it. “One day, I want to be one of the best just like her.”

“Same.” Harriet said. After looking at the poster for a bit longer, Mu let out a yawn after the long day the girls had, it’s no wonder they’ll feel tired. “Gonna call it a night?”

“Yep!” Mu let out a yawn and using her wand changed into pajamas. “Well good night!” The witch then went to bed with Boss at the foot of it.

“Good night!” Harriet dusted the bed a bit more before lying down. She smiled as she slowly closed her eyes and fell asleep.

When Harriet opened her eyes, she woke up on a snow covered ground. She was confused and got up to look around. “Hello!” She called out, her voice echoing in the distance. “Mu! Boss! Where are you!?” Harriet decided to walk through the snow calling out to her friends, but still no one answered her call.

Until…

“Hello!” A whisper called out.

Harriet turned to where the call came from, but everything around her looked the same, the sound could come from anywhere. “Hello! Mu is that you!” Harriet yelled back.

“Hello! It’s me!” The whisper called out again.

“Mu! Mu!” Harriet yelled, but soon she was engulfed by a bright light.

Harriet gasped and quickly got up, she looked around and saw she was in Mu’s room, not in a snowy area. “A dream. A very weird dream.” She said to herself.

“Hey!” Mu shouted. Harriet let out a yelp as she fell off her bed. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” Harriet got up, and rubbed her head. “I just had a very...weird dream.”

“Well what happened?”

“I was alone, in the snow and someone was calling for me.” Harriet explained. “I-I wasn’t sure if it was you, or Boss or someone, but it sounded like they were lost too.”

Mu sighed, she agreed with Harriet that it did sound like a weird dream. “Well, since we're up early, why not give you a tour of the school?” She suggested. “It may help clear your mind from the dream.”

Harriet didn’t give it a second thought and nodded with a smile. “That would be nice.” Mu quickly got dressed in her witch uniform and slowly opened the door to see if anyone was around.

From the looks of it, everyone was still in their dorms and Headmistress Elizabeth didn’t seem to be around walking the halls. Mu signaled for Harriet to follow her as they left the dorm hallway to start their little tour.

“So we just left the girls dorms, and now we’re making our way to the classrooms.” Mu explained. “We take classes in spells, potions, charms, magical creatures, and that's just to name a few!”

“Is there a subject on fighting monsters?” Harriet asked, as she gave a few punches.

Mu chuckled. “No, the magical creature class is only learning about them and how to avoid them.” Harriet was a bit disappointed it wasn’t like her favorite book series, but was happy to learn all the other witch things at the school.

The two girls took a turn as it led them downstairs towards the back entrance of the school as well as another door leading down the basement. What caught Harriet’s attention with the basement was it was glowing yellow. She walked towards it and tried to look inside, but it was still too dark to see what was going on.

“Harriet! Come on!” Mu yelled.

“Coming!” Harriet replied, she turned back to the door before catching up with her witch friend. The two continued their tour. “Hey what goes down in the basement?”

“Nothing really, the lights down there just have been having problems and the headmistress doesn’t want us to worry about it.” Mu answered.

Now this gave Harriet more to suspect about this headmistress. The girls continued their tour as Mu showed Harriet many of the places at the Magia Academy from the lunchroom to the sports field.

The girls then stopped in front of a large building outside, and Harriet’s eyes widened seeing what this was. “Is that the library?” She asked.

“Oh yeah. We have a large library that has every book known to the world!” Mu explained.

“Can we go in?” The human girl was excited to see inside the library.

Mu nodded in reply and opened the door. Inside Harriet’s eyes widened at the inside of the library. Shelves were as high as the ceiling and there were hundreds, no, millions of books inside the room.

Soon Harriet’s eyes widened when one of the books was one of her favorite books there; Five Perfect Witches. “I didn’t know you had these books here!”

“We have many books from the human world here, and that seems to be everyone’s favorite.” Mu explained. Harriet was excited hearing that and quickly grabbed one of the books on the shelf and started to skim through it. To her surprise it was in a different language other than english.”Looks like you got the Japanese one.”

“I’ve been wanting to learn Japanese for like, ever! And this is how I want to learn!”

Harriet and Mu got started reading the book, but soon the girls were interrupted when the door opened. With a gasp the girls quickly hid, and hoped it wasn’t Headmistress Elizabeth.

“Hello! Is anyone there!” Mu’s eyes widened as she sighed in relief. It was only Miss. Cook, her teacher. “Mu!”

“I’m here!” Mu shouted. Miss. Cook turned her gaze towards the two girls, and smiled seeing they were here. “Please don’t tell Headmistress Elizabeth.”

Miss. Cook smiled. “I won’t.” Mu smiled in reply. “Come on, I'll make you two some breakfast before we start our day.” Mu and Harriet looked at each other with a smile before following Miss. Cook.

They followed Miss. Cook to her living quarters as the teacher made the girls some pancakes for breakfast, which got devoured within minutes.

“Man these were good!” Harriet exclaimed. “Better than my dad’s pancakes!”

Mu chuckled. “Not only is Miss. Cook is one of the best teachers at the school, she’s also one of the best chefs!” She explained.

Miss. Cook smiled and ruffled Mu’s hair. “Isn’t Mu a great girl.” She added.

“She is!” Harriet replied. “She’s an amazing witch!”

Mu flinched in surprise and slightly blushed at Harriet’s comment. Miss. Cook giggled, but soon she realized something. “Oh I almost forgot.” She then walked over to the counter where a neatly folded Magia School uniform laid, picked it up and handed it to Harriet. “This is for you.”

Harriet took the uniform from Miss. Cook and look at it before looking back at her. “Is this my uniform?”

Miss. Cook nodded. “I was going to give it to you when class starts, but since you're up I figured now was the best time.”

Harriet unfolded the uniform and smiled. “Could I put it on?” She asked. Miss. Cook nodded and in a flash Harriet quickly went to another room to get dressed into her uniform. Soon she went back out and presented herself wearing her uniform. “What do you think?”

“Perfect!” Miss. Cook and Mu replied giving a thumbs up. Harriet giggled, blushing a bit.

Afterwards, Miss. Cook took Mu and Harriet to her classroom and then to a door. She pulled out her wand and unlocked it. “Ready to meet your wand?” She asked.

Harriet nodded, giving a beaming smile, and with that Miss. Cook opened the door and Harriet was introduced with boxes upon boxes of wands. Soon Harriet went in and looked at all the wands that were inside the shop. “How will I choose?” She asked.

“Wands can be a bit tricky.” Mu replied, taking out her wand. “You either choose them or they choose you.”

Harriet took those words to heart and decided to look through every shelf for a wand. She picked up and looked at a few wands then looked at some more. After about five minutes of searching none seemed to interest Harriet.

During her search, Harriet tripped and fell on the floor, when she got up she saw a purple and yellow wand with an hourglass symbol on the handle. “Hello.” She said, reaching for the handle as the wand flew in her hands.

“Find a wand yet?” Mu asked.

“Yeah!” Harriet replied. She hurried over to where Mu and Miss. Cook was and showed them the wand that picked her.

Mu looked at her friend’s wand before giving her answer. “Not bad.”

“Well, it seems you're all prepared for your first lesson then.” Miss. Cook said. Harriet replied with a smile, excited to do her first witch training session.

Later the trio made it outside to see Headmistress Elizabeth was outside waiting for them in an open field. “I see you made it early.” She told them.

“Yep.” Mu replied.

Harriet walked up and stood right in front of them. “Your first lesson is simple, show us some magic.” Headmistress Elizabeth said.

“Easy.” Harriet replied. She looked around the open clearing hoping to find something to practice her magic with, but something else came to mind; a scene from her book in which one of the main characters used their magic to wish up a chocolate cake, a big one!

“Chocolatey and sweet! Make a big chocolate cake!” Harriet commanded, waving her wand around. Soon enough a quadruple layered chocolate cake appeared in front of Harriet. She let out a laugh seeing it worked.

“W-well that was good,” Headmistress Elizabeth replied. “For a beginner.” She mumbled quietly so no one could hear. “You passed the first test.”

“Yes!” Harriet cheered.

A bit later, Miss. Cook brought out a broom and handed it to Harriet, who caught it. “Your next test is broom flying.” Mu told her friend.

Harriet chuckled seeing this test was easy. She remembered what Mu taught her on their first flight together and soon she flew off in a dash. The human girl laughed as she flew in the sky, circling around the school before flying off into the distance to fly some more.

“Well, looks like she passed that one.” Miss. Cook said.

“We’ll see. If she lands well, she’ll pass.” Headmistress Elizabeth added.

Not long after, Harriet flew back, haunted her broom to a stop and jumped off her broom. “That was fun! Did I pass?”

“You did.” Miss. Cook told her.

“This is easy!”

“Don’t be too cocky.” Headmistress Elizabeth told her. “It won’t be easier from here on out. Your third test would be to make something come alive.”

Harriet gulped, she remembered these kinds of scenarios in her fantasy books and shows. If someone makes anything come to life, chaos erupts. Though she was thinking that maybe it will be different here, and it won’t be anything like her stories. All she needed to do was take a deep breath, think of something simple to bring to life, and she’ll pass this one with flying colors too.

With a bit of thinking, Harriet had an idea of what to bring to life. “Is there a flower garden around here?” She asked.

Headmistress Elizabeth then took Harriet to a big flower field. The human girl raised her wand, took a deep breath and chanted out the spell. “Dance and swing! Flowers dance to the beat!” Her magic wand then let out magic and went through the flowers.

Soon the flower went up a little higher and soon started to dance and sing. Harriet sighed seeing everything was fine, she was ready to hear she passed this one, but instead she felt a vine tie on her feet and lifted her up in the air. The young girl let out a scream as the vines swung her around in the air.

“Woah! Help me!!” Harriet yelled.

Mu gulped, scared seeing her friend in trouble. She looked at Miss. Cook and Headmistress Elizabeth who seemed to be watching Harriet giving Mu the chance to rescue her friend. Sliding her wand into her sleeve she pointed the wand at Harriet and soon her magic freed Harriet from the plant as she landed on her feet.

Harriet sighed seeing she was free, but turned to her friend and teachers realizing she embarrassed herself. “I failed, did I?”

Headmistress Elizabeth looked at the human girl and back at the moving plants. In her mind, she wanted to fail the girl, but for some reason she was able to free herself and impress her. “Well, if it weren’t for freeing yourself, you’d fail. For now you pass.” She told Harriet.

Harriet let out a sigh of relief and the group moved on to the next test. “You okay?” Mu asked.

“Yeah.” Harriet replied. She glanced back at Headmistress Elizabeth and leaned in whispering to her witch friend, “Thanks for saving me,”

“No problem.”

They continued their walk to the next test, but a rustle in the bushes caught Mu’s attention. She turned, but saw no one was there. Thinking it was just an animal, or the wind she shrugged it off, but not before giving one last look before walking away.

Whatever or whoever was in the bushes took a small peek at the group. “Could that be?” He questioned. “No, it can’t be? Could it?”

[ahatintimestorybook]

Hopes and Friendships Chap. 4-Now I am a Witch

Did a double upload today!!

Enjoy!

Harriet’s eyes widened seeing everything Speranza had to offer. Witches, wizards, and other magical creatures walking about at night. For Harriet, everything she’s seeing right now is what she dreamt about, what she read about, what she wanted to experience for her entire life.

“Speechless?” Mu asked.

“Very.” Harriet squeaked.

Mu laughed hearing the human’s laugh. She continued her flight around Speranza to show even more sights. “Alright, what do you want to check out first?” Mu asked.

Harriet thought for a bit, but there was so much she wanted to ask Mu. “Are there any magic shops?” She asked.

“Tons of them!” Mu replied. She then lowered her broom a bit more to a local bazaar where a bunch of shops were. “There’s potion shops, charm shops, clothing stores and human stores too.”

“Human stores?” Harriet asked, confused.

“Stores where witches find rare items from the human world to sell.” Mu explained.

Harriet sighed. “Thought it was a store where they sell humans or human remains in a jar.”

Mu raised an eyebrow. “Why would anyone do that?” She asked. Harriet shrugged and soon the two laughed thinking how gross and weird that was.

Boss however felt horrified that his witch and her human friend had those kinds of thoughts in their head.

“Okay, what’s your favorite place to go?” Harriet asked.

Mu chuckled. “I’ll show you!” She replied as she flew high up and passed the bazaar to a small wooded forest. Once there Mu, Boss and Harriet landed, and the latter saw the forest was dark and quiet.

“What’s this place?” Harriet asked.

“You’ll see.” Mu replied as she took out her wand. She then unleashed some magic to the ground, which lit up the trees, flowers and mushrooms around them. Harriet’s eyes widened, almost dropping her bag.

“No way!” Harriet laughed. “My mom read a book about a luminescent Forest before and it’s almost like the book!” She beamed. “Though a ghost was in charge of the forest and had minions that helped him guard and protect the forest from strangers!” Harriet paused and looked at Mu. “There are no ghosts or minions here, right?”

Mu giggled, “No! I’ve been in the forest multiple times, and there are no ghosts here!” She explained.

Harriet sighed in relief. “That’s good!” She replied.

“But, there’s this!” Mu mentioned. She waved her wand in the air and soon the bushes started to rustle. Harriet stepped back and soon a skunk and a fox appeared. As soon as they saw the glowing mushrooms they pressed their noses into them and changed colors.

The skunk was glowing a luminescent blue, while the fox was glowing a luminescent pink.

Harriet’s mouth dropped seeing the animals change color and walking away leaving a bioluminescent trail and glitter all around. “Mu, you are the most amazing witch ever!” She beamed.

Mu blushed and rubbed the back of her head and chuckled. She was about to speak up until a familiar voice shouted, “Mu, you troublesome witch!”

It was Headmistress Elizabeth who stepped out of the shadows and marched towards Mu and Harriet. Mu gulped knowing now she was in big, and I mean BIG trouble.

“Where were you?” She sneered.

“W-well I-I was out for a flight and I ended up in a portal and got sent to the human world and-“ Mu was cut off when Headmistress Elizabeth snapped at her.

“I don’t believe you! You're just making up lies!” Headmistress Elizabeth shouted.

“She’s telling the truth!” Harriet interrupted. Elizabeth and Mu turned to the human girl. “I was the one keeping her away from coming back here! I’m the proof Mu needs that she was in the human world with me!” She shouted.

Headmistress Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at the human girl. “And who are you exactly?” She asked.

“Harriet. Harriet Kidd!” She introduced herself. “If anything I should be punished. Not Mu.”

The headmistress said nothing. All she did was just stare at the girl, almost like she recognized her from somewhere.

Harriet gulped, wondering if she just made Mu’s situation worse than it already is. “If you want I-I could be sent back and never step foot in this world again.” Harriet offered.

Headmistress Elizabeth sighed and sapped her fingers as her broom came and scooped Harriet, Boss and Mu up. The headmistress held on to Mu’s broom as she went on hers and they flew off.

The flight was silent and Harriet just looked down at Speranza, but not enjoying the pretty sights as she was in trouble alongside Mu. They then made it to Magia Academy and Harriet’s eyes widened at how big the school was.

“Is this a magic school?” Harriet asked.

“Yes.” Headmistress Elizabeth replied. “Though don’t get any ideas that you’ll be attending this school.”

Harriet glared at the Headmistress' attitude towards her, but as much as she wanted to call her names using words her father forbade her to use; Mu was in enough hot water as it is and didn’t want to push her down even further.

Headmistress Elizabeth landed her broom down and got off and Harriet, Mu, and Boss followed afterwards. They then headed inside the school and went inside Headmistress Elizabeth’s office where the two girls were going to face their punishment.

It felt like forever, as the two girls waited on Headmistress Elizabeth to find out what their punishment was.

The Headmistress was talking with the superintendent about why Mu will be expelled from the school. The man had white hair covering his forehead like he was hiding something and blue eyes. He wore a dark grey cloak and wore an hourglass necklace.

“Headmistress Elizabeth, I understand Mu has been causing enough problems at the school, but isn’t it going too far that Mu entered a World Ripple by accident?” The superintendent explained. “Most students and witches have stumbled upon them from time to time.”

“Still!” Headmistress Elizabeth shouted slamming her hands on the desk. “Mu has been nothing but trouble!”

“Not all the time!” Mu’s teacher shouted. Her teacher had short orange ruffled hair and dark skin and wore a red and white cloak. “Look, I apologize for lashing out like this Elizabeth, but Mu has the potential of being a good witch.” She explained.

Headmistress Elizabeth groaned. “Cara! This is the kind of manor to why Mu keeps causing trouble!” She shouted back.

Tim, the superintendent of the school stood up ready to split the two girls apart. “Elizabeth! Cara! Please calm down!” He shouted as well.

Cara, or Miss. Cook glared at the headmistress. That wasn’t true at all, Cara knew Mu would be an amazing witch, it was Headmistress Elizabeth’s actions towards Mu making the young child act like this.

At least that’s what Cara Cook wanted to tell her, but she knew how strict the headmistress was and like Harriet she didn’t want Mu in more trouble.

“Now.” Tim sighed. “Headmistress, didn’t you mention Mu brought a human here?” He asked.

“Yes.” Headmistress Elizabeth replied.

The superintendent blinked in surprise. “How is it possible? No human can go through a World Ripple.” He explained.

“Well, Mu must have done something to bring her here!” Headmistress Elizabeth speculated.

“Now, now.” Tim reassured her. “Before you speculate, let me go talk to this human girl.”

Headmistress Elizabeth tried to argue, but she knew Tim would confer her argument. With a sigh she walked towards the door and opened it. “Human!” She shouted, causing Harriet and Mu to flinch and look up. “Our superintendent wants to speak with you.”

Harriet gulped and got up from her seat as she walked into the room. She gave one glance at Mu before Elizabeth closed the door. Mu flinched at the door being slammed, and quickly got up to overhear what the Headmistress and Superintendent had to say to Harriet.

Once Harriet was in the room she sat down in front of Tim and Miss. Cook. The former went up to Harriet’s face and scanned her features up and down, which made the young girl uncomfortable.

“Y-your not going to use me for some magical experiments are you?” Harriet asked.

Tim let out a laugh. “Oh for goodness sakes child! No.” He told her, giving Harriet a sigh of relief. “However, I do need to ask you a question.” Harriet sat up straight and nodded. “How did you get through the World Ripple?”

“Mu got me through.” Harriet replied. “She was giving me a broom ride and well we went through.” She explained.

“I knew it.” Headmistress Elizabeth spoke up. “I knew Mu had something to do with it!”

“Now, now!” Tim reassured the headmistress. “Did Mu do any magical spells?” He asked.

Harriet shook her head. “No! All I did was go on her broom and we were flying off then we made it here!” She explained.

Tim blinked in surprise. “That’s surprising. No human can go through a World Ripple nor get on a witches broom.” He revealed.

“Really?” Harriet asked.

Tim nodded before looking at the young girl again. When he saw her eyes he had to take another look at them. “Your eyes.” He whispered.

Harriet blinked in confusion. “W-what about them?” She asked.

“They're familiar. They remind me of my student when I was a teacher at this school.” Tim explained.

Headmistress Elizabeth cleared her throat and gave a cold glare at Tim. The superintendent sighed knowing this subject was touchy for the headmistress. “Anyways. I should’ve asked this, but what is your name human?”

“Harriet Kidd!” Harriet replied. When no one was paying attention , Elizabeth’s glare got colder and it was ready to cut like a knife.

“Well Harriet, you seem to surprise me.” Tim started. “Because you're the first known human to go through World Ripples, I want to offer you a chance to learn at Magia Academy.” He offered.

“What!?” Elizabeth asked, shocked at what the superintendent offered to the human.

Harriet’s jaw dropped, but she quickly closed it to reply to Tim. “W-what? Really?” She asked.

Tim nodded. “You’ll get to study more about Speranza, plus I can sense a lot of potential.” He explained.

Harriet was speechless once again. She was living her fantasy of living in a magic world and attending a magic school.

“Tim! You can’t be serious!?” Elizabeth shouted. “A-a human can’t attend Magia Academy!”

Tim smiled and leaned back in his chair. “I am serious, Elizabeth.” He replied, though the second he looked up at the headmistress he felt a threatening aura around her, and gulped. “But, if it makes you happy I can put her through orientation like most of the students who enrolled here.”

Elizabeth thought about it, and nodded. “Alright, the human will take on our orientation. However, if she fails this, the human isn’t allowed back in Sparenza and Mu will be expelled from the school.” She explained.

Harriet wanted to speak up against that bet the headmistress, but if she remembered from her books; the main character loves a good challenge. “Deal.” Harriet replied.

Elizabeth replied with a smirk, knowing that Harriet wouldn’t last one hour during the orientation. Harriet replied with a smirk back. She will show the headmistress that she isn’t just an ordinary human.