Title: Owning Up
Fandom: The Worst Witch (2017 TV series)
Rating: G
Length: 1112 words
Content notes: set during the season finale; not so much rushing within the fic itself as exploring some consequences of people having rushed into things previously. Also for the 'Happy Ending' square of my trope-bingo card.
Author notes: I love Esmeralda with all my heart and may identify with her just a little...
Summary: Agatha is vanquished and everyone is celebrating - but Esmeralda still has a confession to make.

Miss Cackle took the frame in which her sister and Miss Gullet had just been imprisoned from the Great Wizard, and the girls cheered again. As they began to cluster into groups, all talking at the top of their voices, Esmeralda let her little sister go and squeezed her shoulder.

“Go and celebrate with your friends now, Ethie. Look, Drusilla’s waving to you.”

With a last quick hug, Ethel skipped off. Esmeralda took a deep breath and approached the adults, who were talking together.

“Your Greatness?” she said tentatively, but between their own conversation and the shrieks of the excited girls, no-one heard her. “Your Greatness,” she tried again, louder, and this time Miss Cackle noticed.

“Ah, Esmeralda, dear, what is it?”

Esmeralda winced as they all turned to her, but this had to be done. “I - I need to speak to you, Your Greatness. Well met,” she added hastily, bowing with her hand to her forehead.

“Well met, Esmeralda Hallow,” he replied, returning the gesture. “What do you need?”

“I have to own up,” she said, clasping her hands behind her back to stop herself fiddling with the ends of her sash. “I’m the one who invited Agatha and Miss Gullet in, and I gave Agatha my powers. This was all my fault, and I’m sorry.”

“That’s all right, dear - ” Miss Cackle began, but the Great Wizard raised his hand to stop her.

“I need to know more about how this happened,” he said. “You had better explain everything from the beginning, Esmeralda.”

‘Everything?’ Esmeralda thought, just stopping herself from looking over at her little sister. Ethel had been on thin ice already, through her feuding with Mildred Hubble… Thinking quickly, she began her tale at the moment Agatha had knocked on the window, explaining how she had impersonated Miss Cackle, tricking Esmeralda into letting the two evil witches in and giving Agatha her powers.

She finished speaking, and there was a silence as the Great Wizard reflected. Esmeralda couldn’t help glancing over at Miss Cackle, remembering she had seen Ethel there that night, but the headmistress didn’t seem about to say anything… For a moment, she thought she might get away with it, but then the Great Wizard asked where everything had happened. On hearing it was the study, his eyebrows shot up.

“Why were you in Miss Cackle’s study in the first place, so late at night?”

The question she’d been dreading… “I went in after Ethel, Your Greatness,” she admitted. “She was looking for a scroll - I think she heard Mildred talking about it - I know she didn’t mean for everything to happen,” she said desperately. ‘I’m sorry, Ethie,’ she thought, ‘I couldn’t lie to the Great Wizard… but I won’t let them expel you if I can help it.’

“That ridiculous feud!” Miss Hardbroom muttered.

“This would be the birth scroll? How did Mildred Hubble come to know of it?” the Great Wizard asked, turning to Miss Cackle with a frown.

Was it Esmeralda’s imagination, or did Miss Cackle actually look nervous at the question? No, surely not. She must simply still be feeling the effects of her imprisonment… And she must be sad, too, at having being forced to fight her sister once again. Esmeralda couldn’t imagine anything more horrible than that.

“It’s a long story, but Mildred was the one who found it,” Miss Cackle said. “I’ll explain later. And I’ll have a quiet word with Ethel myself, there’s no need for more.”

“She’s very sorry,” Esmeralda put in, seeing the Great Wizard looked less than convinced. “And she’s the one who sent for Mildred! I could still see what she was doing when I was a trophy, I saw her get Tabby and send him off… and she went back for me when Agatha tried to destroy the castle.”

“I had wondered why Mildred turned up,” Miss Hardbroom remarked. “I’m glad to hear Ethel was able to put the good of the school first for once.”

“We really are sorry for everything we did,” Esmeralda repeated. “We never meant for any of this to happen.”

“I think,” Miss Cackle said with her warmest smile, “it’s time to forgive and forget. After all, older and wiser witches - and wizards - have been deceived by Agatha before, wouldn’t you agree, Your Greatness?”

The Great Wizard looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then nodded. “Quite. Esmeralda, you meant well, but you rushed into things too quickly. A wise witch makes sure she knows what she’s doing, especially with something as dangerous as giving her powers away.”

“Yes, Your Greatness,” she replied quietly. She paused a second to gather her nerve, then looked up at him. “Your Greatness? Can… can you return my powers?”

“The Witches’ Code states that if a witch gives her powers to another of her own free will, only the witch who received them can return them,” the Great Wizard replied sternly, and Esmeralda’s heart fell. She already knew that, she had looked it up as soon as the truth was revealed, but she had still hoped…

“I understand,” she said, forcing herself to meet the Great Wizard’s eyes. To her surprise, there was a kindly look in them.

“I wasn’t finished,” he said. “I removed Agatha’s powers - which, of course, were your powers - when I imprisoned her. And as the Great Wizard, I can supersede the Code if I judge the circumstances merit it. Give me your hand.”

Heart racing, Esmeralda extended it. Taking it, he intoned solemnly, “I, the Great Wizard, do return Esmeralda Hallow’s witch’s powers.”

Their joined hands lit up with the warm glow of magic as he spoke; on the last word, it rushed up Esmeralda’s arm to suffuse her whole body. She beamed in delight as the familiar warmth enveloped her, the golden light fading from view as it settled into her bones once more.

“Thank you!” she exclaimed, and the Great Wizard smiled.

“Don’t be too quick to give them away again.”

“I won’t, Your Greatness,” she said, itching to try a spell just to prove she could.

Miss Cackle must have guessed what she was thinking, for she said, “I think I had better announce the rest of the day a holiday. I’m quite worn out with the battle, though… Esmeralda, would you do a loudspeaker spell for me?”

“I suppose we can’t expect them to settle down to work today,” Miss Hardbroom said drily, and the other teachers laughingly agreed.

Esmeralda was barely listening to them. She was too busy flexing her fingers, running over the words of the spell in her mind, and feeling that familiar magical tingle that she had feared she’d lost forever.