Don't Try This Spell at Home

Not again, Midnight sighed, watching his witch fuss over the cauldron. Despite a dozen attempts, the spell still refused to work. Surely turning something into a bird couldn’t be that hard?

Destiny glowered in concentration. Her exams were next week, and she needed to be able to master a transformation spell or risk being held back a year. She carefully measured out a scoop of foxglove powder and tipped it into the cauldron.

Midnight jumped, hissing as the potion bubbled over, spilling onto the table next to him. Even if the spell didn’t work, he didn’t want it on his spotless black fur. Destiny’s potions always smelled funny and he had no desire to find out how they tasted during his next bath.

Destiny leaned in close to her spell book. Midnight’s ears twitched as she rehearsed the words under her breath. Turning back to the bubbling cauldron, she declared, ‘Ino Eno Murder Brava Blanco!’ as she brandished her wand towards the cauldron with a confident flourish.

The potion spat and fizzled, turning purple for a moment before returning to the same slime-green shade it had been all afternoon. Destiny crossed her fingers, grabbed a pipette and squeezed a couple of drops of potion onto the frog sitting on the far side of the table. The frog gave a loud croak, but nothing else happened.

Destiny flung her wand down in disgust and stormed out of the room. Midnight could hear her kicking pots and piles of books down the hallway as she raged about the pointlessness of exams to anything that would listen.

Midnight rose to his feet, stretching into an arch before performing a downward dog and stretching each leg behind him in a perfect arabesque. He wandered over to the spell book and reviewed Destiny’s work.

Hmmm, this says the potion should be dark green before saying the spell.

Midnight scanned the jars lined above the table. Maybe it needs more newt. He jumped onto the shelf and batted the jar of newt into the cauldron in a way cats do best.

He came back to the spell book and peered again at Destiny’s scribbled notes. No wonder she had trouble, he thought. How could anyone read this scrawl?

He squinted. Ah, here’s the problem. She pronounced it wrong.

Without realising it, he sat on Destiny’s wand. She should have said, ‘Ino Eno Murder Brava Black, not Blanco, he meowed.

Sparks shot from the wand. Midnight yowled and jumped under the table as the potion began to boil and glow deep purple.

When he had regained his composure, Midnight ventured back to the table and investigated his handiwork. Not too shabby, if I say so myself.

Just as he was leaning in for a closer look, a large bubble burst, filling the room with a metallic tang and spraying Midnight in the face. He opened his mouth in disgust, but instead of the usual raspy sound, there came a large ‘Caw.’

Midnight’s eyes darted around the room. What was that noise? He tried to flick his tail in anger, but it didn’t feel right. He noticed his reflection in Destiny’s mirror. The iridescent gleam of a raven’s wings replaced his soft black fur. A long, sharp beak replaced his pink nose.

He tried to run from his reflection, but slipped on his new scaly feet. He crouched to leap onto the bench, but instead, a violent flap of wings launched him skyward, sending jars and scrolls flying.

Destiny walked back in at that moment. She ducked for cover as beakers crashed and paper fluttered around her. She raised her head and noticed the raven flapping hysterically and was overjoyed.

‘Midnight! Midnight!’ she called. ‘My potion worked! I’ve created a bird! I’m not sure what happened, but it finally worked!’

She ran back out of the room, searching for her familiar to share the wonderful news.

Midnight groaned, and another loud caw escaped his lips. No, not lips. Beak, he thought. He hung his head in despair. How am I going to get out of this? I am not staying a stupid bird forever!

He glanced around the room, looking for any tips to help him turn back into a cat. He swore that the frog chuckled, yet each time he turned towards it, he was greeted with a placid grin. He skimmed Destiny’s scrawled notes, looking for a reversal spell. But, seeing as she hadn’t been able to get the spell to work, she hadn’t needed a reversal spell yet.

Midnight cawed in frustration and pecked at the spell book, trying to turn the pages, when Destiny reappeared.

She stroked the raven happily. ‘I still don’t know how I got the spell to work. I wish Midnight were around to see it. He sat so patiently through all my attempts. I would have given up ages ago without his support.’

Midnight blinked, guilt prickling like static through his feathers. I didn’t realise how much Destiny appreciated my presence. Mostly, he slept in the spell room because it was close to the fire. Perhaps I should work harder at being a better familiar. But first, I need to return to my cat form.

Destiny was admiring what she thought was her handiwork, gazing at Midnight in raven form.

‘I can’t believe I got it to work.’ She flicked through her spell book. ‘I’d better start practising how to reverse the spell so I can really wow them during my exam.’

Destiny prepared the potion, waving her wand and saying the magic words as Midnight observed, pleading for it to work. She grabbed her pipette and was waving it above Midnight’s head when the doorbell rang.

‘Who could that be?’ Destiny paused, placed her pipette down and left the spell room.

Midnight eyed the potion. Destiny hasn’t got a spell right yet. Should I risk trying it as is?

He shrugged his wings. Well, I’ve got nothing to lose. He leaned over the cauldron and dipped his beak into the potion. He went to dip his beak again when something tickled his whiskers, and he sneezed.

Wait a second, he thought. Whiskers?

He glanced in the mirror. He was a cat again! He couldn’t believe it. Destiny finally did a spell that worked! After a quick celebratory round of zoomies, he went back to Destiny’s workbench.

Destiny walked back in, placing a flyer on the table. ‘Why would I want to be a member of the Lupine Alliance? I’m not a werewolf,’ she muttered. She looked around the room. ‘Where did my raven go?’

She kept scanning the room when her eyes rested on Midnight. ‘Midnight! You’re back! My spell worked. I turned something into a bird! I wish you were here to see it! But the bird has vanished. I guess I’ll have to start again. No point in having a reversal spell if I have nothing to reverse.’

She put the pipette with the reversing potion to one side, unaware that it was the first successful spell she had ever done.

She went to flick her spell book back to the bird spell when she paused. ‘Strange,’ she said, frowning. ‘It’s already back on the bird spell page. Maybe the raven bumped the book when it flew away.’

She paused, peering closer at the book. ‘It looks like someone has added some notes to my spell. I wonder who could have done that. Maybe I’ll try them.’

Destiny hummed as she began preparing the bird spell again, pausing to scratch Midnight behind the ears.

Midnight purred, curling tighter, careful to keep his ink-stained claw out of sight.