It was late one Friday night, in the middle of January and Ada Cackle was sat in her office having a lengthy, mostly one-sided discussion with her Deputy Head and Potions Mistress, Hecate Hardbroom, who was regaling her with the tale of Mildred Hubble and Ethel hallow's latest feud. Hecate was just in the middle of telling her about the exploding jar of slugs eggs, when there was a sharp tap on her office window.
Hecate immediately stopped speaking mid-sentence and stood in what one could only call a battle pose, which really wasn't surprising, considering it was the same window Ada's twin sister, Agatha, had come through two years ago in her second attempt at taking over the school. Mildred Hubble and her friends had once again saved the day, but not before poor Esmeralda Hallow gave up her powers and then, of course, the year after, in yet another evil twin-sister takeover attempt, Agatha had enlisted the help of the Art teacher, Miss Mould. Ada had employed her, albeit against Hecate's rather annoying insistence that it would be a disaster, in which she, of course, turned out to be right. Because Hecate Hardbroom is rarely ever wrong and even if she was, she would never admit to it.
Agatha enlisted Miss Mould to free her from the portrait that the great wizard had trapped her in. Miss Mould had very nearly succeeded in freeing Agatha and that was only made possible because of Ethel Hallow's grievous mistake of destroying the founding stone of the school, by forcing Esmeralda into taking her magic back from it when Ethel accidentally got her youngest sister Sybil stuck on the roof. The draining of the founding stones magic resulted in the school and all the pupils left inside being frozen for a few hours, before once again Mildred Hubble and surprisingly her non-magical mother, Julie, managed to save the school again by Mildred giving her magic and the magic of 12 generations to come back to the founding stone. Luckily for Mildred though, Miss Mould had a sudden attack of conscience and ended up giving Mildred her magic back, resulting in her giving up her own magic instead, which I'm sure everyone will agree was the ultimate punishment. So yes, Ada supposed Hecate's reaction wasn't actually all that dramatic, considering the past attempts at school-robbery.
Ada was brought out of her musings by what she could only describe as a high pitched shriek coming from Hecate and when Ada turned to look at the object of the noise, she immediately understood why, because thereupon Hecate's head was quite a magnificent and beautiful Phoenix. It was sporting red and gold plumage and seemed to be attempting to peck Hecate's ear off. 'Ada,' drawled Hecate, sounding a lot calmer than she looked. 'Please can you inform me why there seems to be a Phoenix attached to my head. Were you expecting it? Or do you think Agatha has sent it?
Ada choose that point to jump in before Hecate went into one of her famous rants about safety, and not allowing strange creatures or even teachers, for that matter, into Cackle's, because it could very well be a part of a big plot from her evil twin sister and consistent school-stealer Agatha. 'Hecate, I'm sure that Agatha didn't send a Phoenix to sit on your head or peck your ears. No, I would imagine the answer to your question will be in the letter it has in its beak,' she says with a slight smirk in Hecate's direction. Ada then walked over to the bird who seemed to have taken a liking to Hecate's head and plucked the letter from the birds clutches. She immediately recognised the Hogwarts school crest and wondered why her younger cousin would be writing to her using it, as it is usually only used in formal situations. Ada assumed that whatever was in this letter must be serious.
Ada walked over to her desk and took a seat. She looked over at Hecate and motioned for her to do the same. Hecate immediately did so, but not without the presence of the Phoenix who was still very much attached to Hecate's head and appeared to be making some sort of nest out of her immaculately made bun.
Ada popped open the crimson wax seal and proceeded to take out the letter and read the contents. It reads as follows.
Dear Cousin Mimi,
YOU ARE READING
The Merging: Hackles Academy Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.
HumorA disaster at hogwarts has the boy who lived meeting the worst witch. Canon? What canon? Outrageous dumbledore snape has had enough Mildred is her usual clumsy self Sassy harry Hermione can't chant There's a lot of frogs Lucius just wants to kni...
