03x06 - The Game

[bunniefuu]

- Maud, are you OK?


- Midnight's lost his tail.

When a familiar loses its magic, it begins to disappear.

I need your tears to cure him.

Midnight's a girl.

You saved her.

Aw.

Mildred Hubble, you've almost missed lantern duty again.

I have a clock with no hands which tells time better than you do.

It is an important job.

Do it properly.

You have to take this seriously, Mil.

What is occurring?

Do not expect this back.

Sorry, Miss Hardbroom.

And that goes for anyone else I catch playing this ghastly game.

Bad luck.

Hey, what a day, huh?

Why?

It's just a day like any other.

Really?

Nothing special planned, no parties I should know about?

Not that I know of, but if you hear about any, let us know.

Oh, come and sit with us, Miss Hubble.

Oh, what I wouldn't give for a muffin.

Muffins are buns with delusions of grandeur.

And they are banned.

What a futile waste of time.

Come, now, it encourages hand
-eye coordination, mental dexterity.

And rampant insubordination.

Oh, this term's fad, that's all.

When I was a girl, it was finglebugs, or spinning clackerhoops.

Ignore it and it will pass, as they all do.

I trust the try
-outs for the broomstick hurling squad are set for later, Miss Drill?

I feel it in my stockings.

This is the year.

Broomstick hurling, that sounds like fun.

I might have a go.

It is only open to students who are magic.

Is that the game Ethel and Felicity were playing?

How does it work?

Symbols drop, move them with your finger.

You get three or more together, like that, and then It's called Witches' Dash.

Can I have a go, please?

There, there.

Quickly, quickly.

You've got to level two.

Keep calm, Mil, keep calm.

I am calm, Maud! Unlucky.

Great, I'm rubbish at it.

Well, it was your first go.

Who's the new girl?

Actually, I've been here for two years.

Oh, look at that! It's lovely, Enid, well done.

Who on earth is Lord Gamer?

Ethel's doing well.

Get out, now! What is it?

What's wrong, Sybil?

Just my worst birthday ever.

Happy birthday! See?

I knew you'd forgotten, just like Mum, Dad, and Ethel.

She was too busy playing that stupid game.

Well, now we know, so I actually hoped you were just pretending to have forgotten, so you could throw me a surprise party, but you know I hate surprises, so I cast a foresight spell to see what the day would bring.

Sybil, those are super dangerous.

Fate should not be messed with.

I know that now.

I saw witches running, screaming, HB furious, and I saw me.

I was crying.

I don't want all that to come true.

Don't worry, we'll help you figure it out.

Miss Cackle says she's going to keep Midnight's kittens with Millie
- for next term's new first years.


- Give that back, it's mine! Isn't that hilarious, how everyone is getting so bent
- out of shape over a game?


- Uh
-huh.

I thought Miss Tapioca banned muffins.

What can I say?

My mum has her ways.

Miss Tapioca has her ways too.

Interesting book.

Apparently he's been reading it for ages.

He hasn't even realised anyone is here.

Yeah.

I thought that HB confiscated Felicity's Maglet.

Her parents got her a new one by the broomstick courier.

Hey, you knocked me into third, cheater.

Says Cackle's biggest cheater.

Hand it over if you want us to stay friends.

I guess we're not friends.

Girls, want to work together?

We'll pool all the prizes that we win and share them out equally.

So that's how you want to do this.

Girls.

Ethel totally looks like she wants to vanish Felicity.

Yes, Lord Gamer for the win! Boom! Well, that solves that mystery.

This just gets weirder.

Grab your brushes and palettes, girls, we'll be carrying on from last lesson.

What's wrong with my magic?

Mildred, have you seen Felicity?

She was in spell science.

Skipping class to play that stupid game you're all addicted to, no doubt.

Do you reckon Ethel's nobbled us about?

Oho, Miss Bat is going to love these.

Isn't that Felicity's?

Yeah, that's her new Maglet.

She's got a stack of those cases.

Why would she just leave them here?

It looks like powder, maybe soil.

Where did it come from?

I think it's time we talked to Ethel.

Remember, potion bottles are worth more than broomsticks, and whatever you do, ignore cauldrons.

Have you seen Felicity, Ethel?

Off somewhere practising, I'm sure.

No, she's not.

We found this.

Don't make me laugh, she probably has a drawer full of them.

Did I say you can stop?

First girl to win a gold prize box can take a five
-minute break.

Ethel, you don't think maybe you're just a tiny bit addicted?

I can stop any time I like.

But I don't want to stop.


- It's looking so good, Mum.


- Mm
-hm.

Do you miss being magic?

Well, it was fun, but I'm glad to see the back of it if I'm honest.


- Miss Hubble!
- Oh! Can you just knock, you stupid I'm so sorry.

I should have knocked.

No, no, I'm sorry, it was my fault, butterfingers.

What can I help you with?

I wondered if you'd seen Mr.

Rowan Webb?

We had a lunch planned.

I'm afraid to say the sandwiches arrived, but he didn't.

Well, perhaps he's got a belly full of flies.

Couldn't get enough of them, last time I saw him! That's "Lord underscore Gamer" for you.

Hey, all your prices have doubled.

The introductory period is over.

That's business.

Maybe everyone will forget about the game, once the novelty wears off.

I'm not so sure, Maud.

It's the prices that bother me.

Nothing is ever for free, is it?

So what's the catch?

Very nice.

Good control, very impressive distance.

Now, girls, let's try you all together so we can compare techniques.

How do we even know the foresight spell worked?

Are you OK, Sybil?

Wait, I've seen this before.

Girls, hit the deck! I'll have to stop this! Girls, hit the deck! We couldn't do it.

We tried, but we couldn't stop it coming true.

It was like they weren't concentrating.

Maybe it was the game.

It seems like that's all anyone has been thinking about today.

Are we really sure about this?

You used a spell to see the future, so maybe there's one to stop it coming true.

All we need is the ingredients.

Oh! Get out, now! My second vision.

You're right, it is that game.

It's taken over everything.

That's confirmed it, then.

I hate to say it but maybe we should just accept
- that we can't fight fate.


- What about number three?

What if it's something terrible making me cry?

What if my birthday, which you, my family in fact everyone forgot, is going to end in a nightmare?

Ethel, how are you feeling?

Get your hand off me.

I felt ill and drained.

Like my magic wasn't strong enough to keep control of my broom.

Magic, that's the catch.

Magic, that's what everyone is giving up in return for winning all the prizes.

Ethel, stop! Stop playing, all of you.

I think the game is stealing magic.

Now you just sound desperate.

OK then, so what do we do?

Well, if there is a link between the game and everyone's magic becoming weaker, then we need more proof, right?

Right.

Let's start with what we know.


- What do we know?


- It's a game.


- Right.


- It uses symbols.


- Mm
-hm.

Some of the symbols are very old.

I can hardly understand them.

And where do you go when you need to know about something old?

Miss Bat! Miss Bat! Race you there.

Oh, we were looking for Miss Bat.

She didn't show up.

Very strange.

Probably slept in after her post
-lunch nap.

I'm standing in for her.

Do you recognise these?

We think they might be quite old.

From distant witchery, or something.

Any ideas?

That would be, um, yes, so, well, my speciality is more recent witchery, but I guess Yes.


- But
- It's Ivy.

Yes, Ivy.

The symbols are old.

They are from a game that used rune stones, called um, Witchymatch.

Yes, of course.

You threw the stones down, if five are matching then you won.

It's all in here.

Thanks.

You are really helpful.

Very well done, Ivy.

Nothing I didn't already know, but good.

My .

.

book.

So the magic game is an updated version of this old stone one.

Looks like it.

Although someone had to be first to play it here, so maybe if we could trace it back to that person we could solve the whole mystery.

So Margo got it from Nora, who says she got it from Felicity and Lucy got it from Harriet I wonder if Enid managed to find Miss Bat.

Found it! Oh.

This isn't good.

It became such an obsession at one school that the pupils cared about it more than their friends.

More than their magic, and, in the end, more than their school.

What happened to the school?

It b*rned down.

Everyone lived but Witchymatch was banished, never heard of again.

That is until now.

So the old game destroyed a school.

Is that why whoever is behind all this brought it back, to do that here?

OK, so Hilda got it from Ethel.

Winnie said she did, too.

In fact a lot of girls got it from Ethel.

So Ethel was the first to play it.

No wonder she was so cross about Felicity being better than her.

Let's go back and talk to her, find out who gave HER the game.

But now she knows, so all she has to do is, like, not cry, right?

It's not that simple.

It's the fear of not knowing what's going to make her cry that's upsetting her.

I'm confused.

And that's why it's such a bad idea to mess with fate.

All you can do is try to make it up to her for forgetting her birthday in the first place.

I wonder where Miss Tapioca is.

That's weird.

Hello, girls.

How can I help?

It's Sybil's birthday, Miss Hubble.

We were thinking of making her a cake.

Have you seen Miss Tapioca?

Oh, shame, you've just missed her.

But hey, good luck with the baking.

Looking for Ethel?

Join the club.

I wanted to talk to her about Sybil's birthday, but seems everyone's been disappearing today.

What do you mean?

Beatrice and I were just in the kitchen and there's no sign of Miss Tapioca either.

So that's Ethel and Miss Tapioca missing.

Along with Felicity and Mr.

Rowan Webb.

And maybe Miss Bat.

That makes five.

Could it be the game making them disappear?

I mean, Mr.

Rowan Webb was playing it, but Miss Tapioca, Miss Bat?

What else connects them?

So what we're looking at here is an evil plot that's stealing magic, making people vanish, and might end up destroying the school.

How?

We don't even know who's behind it.

They could be anywhere.

This isn't happening in any other schools.

All the names on the scoreboard were from here.

I think whoever is behind it is here too.

The prize boxes are coming from somewhere, right?

Let's start by figuring out where.

He's already a great tracker, so with a keen smell spell I'm hoping he'll lead us to where the prize boxes are being made.

Maybe even the missing people too.

Star! Drink this potion, hear my spell, that will increase your sense of smell.

What about a plan B?

How about a plan C?

I can't believe you drank the potion.

It didn't taste too bad, actually, and it's working.

Isn't it?

I think it's that way.

You deserve this, Maud.

What do you reckon?

Giant spider?

Ancient super
-evil witch?

I'm going with the giant ghost spider, evil witch
-wizard hybrid.

Ivy, get out of here! There's a giant spider ghost! Or a witch
-wizard.

We don't know.

No, Maud .

.

I don't think there is.

It's you, Ivy, isn't it?

You're behind all of this.

That's another surprise arranged for a girl who hates surprises.

I hope it's enough to avert disaster, and Sybil realises after today life's a lot more fun when you don't know what's going to happen.

Yeah, come on.

You wanted to destroy the school.

No, I love it here.

I only used the old game for inspiration and copied the symbols, that all.

You still haven't told us why.

It's my hobby.

I make them for myself, but this one I released.

To steal magic.

Just a pinch from each girl to increase my own.

But everyone got so addicted, it got out of hand.

I just wanted people to like me.

By stealing their magic.

It's OK for you.

You've got friends.

People ignore me, like I'm invisible.

You know what that's like?

I just thought .

.

if I had more magic, then I'd be more popular.

Don't tell on me, please.

I don't want to get thrown out.

Only if you promise to fix all this right away.

Delete the game, return all of the magic.

Make a new game that's fun, that doesn't pinch magic, and let everyone know that you made it.

Then they'll all want to be your friend.

Now tell us where they are.

Who?

The people that have been going missing.

Where are you keeping them?

What are you talking about?

It's not you vanishing them?

The game takes magic, not people.

If anyone's gone missing it's nothing to do with me.

We'll find them.

I'll go and try and find Enid and then we'll meet up in my room and decide what to do next.

We're not giving up, Maud.

If it's not the game, what else connects them?

Take your hand off me! Well, maybe he had a belly full of flies.


- You stupid!
- I'm so sorry! It looks like powder.

Or clay dust.

What are you doing, Maud?

I So I think I'm worried that your mum might I think your mum might have something to do with everyone going missing.

Is this a joke?

This is my mum we're talking about, remember.

I know, I'm sorry, but she's the only link between all the missing people.

Why would she do that?

And how, even?

She's not magic any more.

So where did that muffin come from?

That's your evidence?

A muffin?

! Well, it's a good job it wasn't a fudge brownie, or she'd be really guilty.


- This isn't a joke, Mildred.


- I'm not laughing, Maud.

She saved your cat, remember, and this is how you thank her?

The old Mildred would have believed me.

What is that supposed to mean?

You're the one who's acting different.

No, ever since your mum got here, you've changed.

So that's what this is really about.

You know what, I've been through a lot this term already and I'm glad my mum is here, but you're just, you're just jealous!
- Jealous of what?

Of you?


- Yes! Because I'm the best witch, from the best witching family, and you can't handle it! No, Mildred, you're the worst witch and you always will be.


- Happy birthday!
- Happy birthday! Better now than never, right?

No magic, made with love.

Not working?

Teachers must have had it shut down.

We set up a special message from Esme in the mirror room, then we'll eat a ton of sweets.


- The sweets are complimentary.


- Yes! And by that, I mean you can buy them full price with my compliments.

What?

And when we're feeling sick from all the sweets then we'll play some fun games! I have an idea for a game.

It's called Pin The Wart On The Witch.

Sounds great, Ivy.

Tell us more.

Think pin the tail on the donkey, only the witch is on a broomstick and we splatter a million warts on her, using magic.

Don't cry, Sybil.

My third vision.

But it's OK.

All that worrying for nothing.

Turns out they were happy tears after all, because my two best friends have thrown me the best surprise party ever.

Hi, Maud.

Have you seen Mildred?

Um Maud's wristband.

Maud had this crazy idea that you might still be magical.

That was a bit cheeky.

There is nothing we can do for your mother.