Weava the Wilful Witch (4 page)

The next day, Merry made Weava come to work with her. ‘Leave your wand behind,' she said.

Crossly, Weava put her wand on the mantelpiece. She was about to fetch the kit-fae from her room when Merry grabbed her shoulder and marched her out of the flat.

For hours, Merry drove a van from
house to house, delivering Candywaft perfume. Weava hated every minute of it. Her nose itched, and she didn't even have the kit-fae for company.

When they finally got home, Merry used Weava's broom to sweep the floor again. She wouldn't let Weava touch it.

‘Why are you being so horrible?' asked Weava, taking her wand from the mantelpiece and sneaking it back into her stocking. ‘I want you to be your real self again.'

‘This
is
my real self,' said Merry.

She was still cleaning when Mrs James and Jemima came to the flat.

‘Oh, hello, Wendy,' said Mrs James. ‘Are you excited about the party?'

‘What party?' said Weava.

‘The big Halloween party on Friday! It's happening in the loft of this building.
All the neighbourhood boys and girls are coming. I gave Mary your invitation yesterday.'

Merry looked flustered. ‘Oh… um…I must have mislaid it.'

‘Never mind. I have a spare one,' Mrs James said. She took a card from her bag and handed it to Weava.

Weava looked at the words on the card.

‘Halloween party this Friday afternoon!'
she read.
‘Come to the loft in Brimstone Buildings at 5 o'clock. Invite everyone!'

‘You must come, dear,' Mrs James said. ‘You already have the perfect costume. Where did you get it?'

‘My dad made it,' said Weava.

‘Well, you'll fit right in at my party,' said Mrs James. ‘It will be such fun. You'll never see a party so full of ghosts and bats and black cats…all the magic of childhood.'

Jemima moaned. She hated it when her mother talked like that.

Mrs James bent and pulled the wand from Weava's stocking. ‘Oh, and what's this?' she asked.

‘That's my wand,' said Weava.

‘It's lovely,' said Mrs James, waggling the wand.
‘Allakazam!'
she bellowed.

Then she laughed. ‘You should see the ugly plastic things they sell in fancy-dress shops!' She handed the wand back to Weava. ‘I'm sure you'd love to help Jemima with the party decorations, dear?'

Merry cleared her throat. ‘Actually, Mrs James, my sister has a lot of—um— homework.'

‘Oh, but it's the holidays!' said Mrs James. ‘Every child deserves to have some fun in the holidays, Mary. That's why I started my children's party business.' She smiled. ‘Off you go, girls.'

Weava grabbed Jemima's hand and scurried out the door before Merry could stop her.

‘Mum's mean,' said Jemima, as she showed Weava into her flat. ‘She keeps talking about
fun,
but look at these!' She pointed to a pile of black plastic bats.
‘I've got to thread them on strings and take them all up to the loft. And then I have to spread out a whole lot of straw.' She sighed.

Weava had an idea. ‘If I cast spells without Merry seeing, she won't know I've done a bad deed until it's too late,' she said.
‘And
if your mother's party goes badly, that might stop her from having any more.'

‘It
might,'
said Jemima. ‘But what could make it go badly?'

Weava smiled. ‘Having a real witchling there, for starters!'

Weava lifted her wand. ‘Come to me, kit-fae!' she said.

The kit-fae appeared through the open window of Mrs James's flat. ‘What?' it said, staring at the plastic bats.

‘I have a bad idea for Mrs James's Halloween party,' said Weava.

‘Weava's going to make the party go wrong,' said Jemima. ‘It will be so bad,
Mum will never have another one.'

‘And Merry will
have
to cast a spell to undo all the trouble I'm going to cause,' said Weava.

‘That
is
a bad deed,' said the kit-fae.

Weava poked her wand in the pile of bats. ‘Off you go to the loft,' she said.

To Jemima's delight, the plastic bats rose in a black cloud and flapped out of the flat and up the stairs. Weava, Jemima and the kit-fae followed.

The loft was huge. It was piled with pumpkins, hay, apples, cauldrons and wooden tubs. There were long tables, and cans of spray-on cobwebs.

‘Right,' said Weava, ‘let's get started.' She showed Jemima how to carve jack-o'-lanterns carefully. Then she waved her wand at the light bulbs, and flicked it at the plastic bats.

‘Nothing's happening,' said Jemima.

‘These are lie-in-wait-spells,' said Weava. ‘It will all
look
normal until the party starts. I can't do right-now-spells. Your mother would notice too soon.'

‘Oooh,' said Jemima. ‘Can I have a sneak-peek at what will happen?'

Weava flicked her wand at the jack-o'-lanterns. ‘Go!' she said.

The first jack-o'-lantern began to rock. Then it opened its slit of a mouth and gave a hollow laugh. ‘Ho! Ho! Ho!' it chuckled. It rolled its empty eyes towards Jemima and started to jiggle.

Another lantern let out a spurt of smelly smoke and bobbed up and down. Shadowy little legs shot out and the lantern marched towards Jemima, pulling faces as it came.

Weava laughed as Jemima squealed and
jumped out of the way. ‘See how scared the kids will be at the party?' she said.

‘Look out, witchling!' said the kit-fae. ‘Your sister's coming!'

Weava froze.

The trapdoor to the loft burst open and Merry appeared. ‘Weava!' she snapped.

She stalked over to Weava and snatched the wand from her hand. ‘I told you,
no more nonsense!'
she said in an odd tight voice. ‘But you wouldn't listen, would you?'

Weava held her breath as Merry gripped the wand. Was Merry cross enough to do a spell?

But Merry continued, ‘You just can't behave. Well, I'm going to stop your mischief. I should have done this the day you came.'

Breathing hard, Merry held the wand in both hands. Then she bent and snapped it over her knee, again and again.

She threw the bits on the floor and stalked out of the loft.

The jack-o'-lanterns fell with a soggy thud and lay still.

Weava sat down. Two fat tears ran down her cheeks and she let out an angry sob.

Jemima swallowed. ‘Can you mend your wand?' she asked.

‘No,' said Weava.

The kit-fae fluttered to sit on Weava's shoulder. It rubbed its furry face on her chin. ‘It's all right, witchling,' it said.

‘It's not!' said Weava.

‘Will the spells still work?' asked Jemima.

Weava shook her head. ‘Not without my wand to set them off.'

‘That's that, then,' said Jemima. She was so disappointed, she could barely speak, but she added, ‘Never mind, Weava. You did your best.'

‘I was trying to do my
worst,'
said Weava. ‘Merry spoiled it.' Her chin wobbled and a tear ran down her nose. ‘I'll never get to the Abademy now she's spoiled my big bad deed. And I've lost my wand, too.'

‘Can you get a new one?' said Jemima. She handed Weava her handkerchief.

Weava blew her nose and thought for a moment. ‘No,' she said slowly, ‘but maybe I can get an
old
one.' She set off towards the door.

‘Where are you going?' asked Jemima.

‘I'm going to get Merry's old wand. I brought it with me from home. All I have to do is get it out of her pocket.'

*

Weava and the kit-fae spent the next two days trying to steal Merry's wand, but Merry was ready for them. She sewed a button on her pocket, making it hard to pick. And she wore her dress all the time, even to bed.

But Merry didn't forbid Weava to go to the party. She even organised the games.

‘What's Merry up to?' Weava asked the kit-fae at breakfast on Friday morning.

‘She thinks she's won,' said the fetch, nibbling on a rasher of bacon. ‘She's smashed your wand, so you can't do spells. She thinks if you can't do spells, there's nothing to worry about.'

‘I wish I could get my hands on
her
wand,' said Weava. ‘But there's no way to get it out of her pocket.'

‘You'll have to try something else,' said the kit-fae.

‘I do have one idea,' said Weava. ‘I'm going to write some invitations and invite some friends to Mrs James's party.'

‘Who?' asked the fetch.

‘It's a surprise,' said Weava.

When Weava had written and delivered all her invitations, she went looking for Jemima. She found her in the loft, blowing up black balloons.

‘I didn't get Merry's wand,' Weava said, ‘but everything's going to be all right. Remember your mother said to invite everybody? Well, I
have.'

‘Who's everybody?' asked Jemima.

Weava giggled. ‘You'll see. Just don't be scared when they arrive.' She climbed out of the loft and down the stairs to Number 13.

She arrived just as Merry dumped a box of Candywaft bottles outside the front door.

Merry smiled sweetly at Weava. ‘Looking forward to the party?' she said.

Weava smiled back just as sweetly. ‘Oh yes,' she said.