A/N: *Greetings*

As you can tell, I'm currently and slowly doing a complete overhaul of this pentalogy which has been riddled with horrible and obvious spelling and grammar mistakes and I hope I've managed to correct them all then there's the brutal doodle-block (writer's block), not having as much spare time and life in general which has pretty much prevented this…my baby and at times, my adversary from being completed.

Ignore the typos, etc! Please read & review, thanks to everyone that has either helped ping pong ideas, offered encouragement, offered virtual cookie/vodka and/or put up with crying/general grumblings and bouts of insomnia!

Enjoy.

Chapter Eight – Decisions

Zelda stared at the final reports that rested on her desk, to the left was Mistress Constance Hardbroom and to the right was Mistress Heckitty Broomhead, the reports were for their current employers and another copy for the witches guild but Zelda found herself in a predicament.

Her head rested in her hands as her eyes darted from side to side at the wax sealed envelopes, still pondering if the reports were a true and accurate representation of the two witches that had once darkened her office, forced into a counselling session with the younger witch.

But, Zelda could not forget the contents of the newly acquired folder and found herself caught in a vicious catch twenty-two, whether or not to send the reports as written or include the new information that she had learnt. The guild could assume that Zelda had lied in her reports in order to protect her patients which had the potential to open Pandora's Box.

She quickly found her opinions, both personal and professional, to be tainted as she had learnt the truth. Zelda had noticed the striking similarities between Heckitty and Constance as they both suffered from childhood heartbreak and trauma that caused Zelda to pity them, after all, her own life had been relatively normal and was a contrast when compared to her two most recent patients.

Zelda cursed herself for not seeing the obvious, the subtle signs and the shades similar of aura but the counsellor had been blinded by her own emotions when she should have been completely neutral and professional.

However, the only positive in Zelda's favour was that she did not have in her possession of the file as no doubt her session with Constance Hardbroom would have definitely been different but despite what Zelda now knew, she was bound by professional code and ethics to maintain her patients confidentiality, there was also her secret deal that she had made with Constance and could not risk an investigation or have rumours of a scandal which had potential for her other patients to lose respect and trust in her.

Zelda shivered at the thought of Hector Blackstein, who had been a professor and then dean at Witch Training College but that had been nearly two decades before the young witch counsellor although she was currently still teaching a variety of witches and wizards who had the privilege that Zelda had not. She had only learnt of the once famed professor from articles in the archives and whispered stories to scare new starts attending college.

Included in the personal folder were several old black and white photographs of Constance Hardbroom at various ages from when she first attended the college to various accomplishments and the sad detailed photographs that had been taken as evidence that depicted her painfully thin figure that was the canvas of physical abuse and in all likelihood psychological torment.

Her hand eventually rested on the report that was destined for the guild in regards to Mistress Heckitty Broomhead and Zelda found herself torn apart as the truth potion and her line of questioning has revealed a small portion of Heckitty's past and briefly how she was as a person but Zelda had now learnt that Mistress Broomhead had become a fearsome tyrant, similar to that of her own mother. Had the lonely witch that offered her heart only to be denied capable of this?

Zelda remembered and compared her session, Constance was eerily similar to Heckitty as the stable family had dissolved around her and left her with no-one and no-where to go however unlike Heckitty, Constance had not allowed her power or position to cloud her judgement and protected her students and fellow colleagues, something that had not been done for Constance when she had been a student all those years ago.

It became apparent that Zelda was only beginning to realise the magnitude of her short sightedness as it was now obvious that Heckitty had propositioned Constance when she was a student and how she politely refused the older witch's continued advances with dire consequences then Zelda cringed at the details that Constance recounted as a direct result of refusing her personal tutor.

The witch counsellor slapped her forehead, "Oh! How could you have been so blind?!"

Then Zelda turned her attention to the reports that was destined for the guild and Amelia Cackle and sighed heavily. The fate of the potion and deputy headmistress rested in the hands of a confused witch councillor.