#mieow

The GW has a fit bc there’s no way Agatha - some mere witch w the powers of teenager - manage to break out of the enchantments on her own, and refused to believe it. But everyone in the Cackle’s staff submits reports of Ada’s questionable behaviour thus far, and that’s enough grounds for an actual investigation. 

They have a proper trial w witnesses and evidence and sensible things like that, and the council has to hear the testimonies of all involved. As the case goes on, it becomes clear that the original charges were false, that everything is indeed Agatha’s fault, w a side helping of Gullett and Ethel (much to Mrs Hallow’s shame). 

Hecate cops to aiding in the transformation of the GW into a balloon - a fact he’s keep on the dl since then bc he’s embarrassed af - which brings his personal vendetta to light, thus swaying the neutral voices in the council who thought their previous information was unbiased. Hecate is fully prepared to face the consequences of her actions, but it’s also clear she coerced while working the best defence of self and others. So even if the GW hadn’t shoved it under the rug, no wrongdoing would have been found, as is the case now.

By the time the defence rests, it’s irrefutably clear that no wrongdoing has occurred on Ada’s behalf, other than being a bit too kind to her sister and not receiving enough professional care in the wake of being forcibly trapped in painting (there are guidelines re treating the victims of this kind of misuse of magic and none were followed here, bc the GW never reported the incident in detail). 

Thus, Ethel is excluded from Cackle’s and sent to Wormwood’s, now a rehabilitation school for troubled witches that provides intensive, personalised therapy for each pupil; Agatha gives Esme back her powers, seemingly under her own volition, then hightails it before her own sentencing can be carried out again (she takes up baking and crochet in between freelance journalism and ruining consenting young women for pleasure and profit, and lives out the rest of her life reasonably happy); Ada keeps control of her school and her birthright bc lol jokes there’s no such thing as the evil twin it was just something garbage their mother used to say and her own neutrality allows for needs must in the face of her own demise. 

Hecate of course stays at Cackle’s, and while she’s loathed to admit it, Pippa’s classes do seem to have taken off and given the more rowdy pupils something new to concentrate on. So she takes it upon herself to integrate modern witching techniques into their new learning curriculum, taking care to steal time away from Mould’s art classes bc she still doesn’t see the point; Esme returns to Cackle’s and while she desperately wants to go back to being normal there’s a strain of Agatha’s temperament bound up in her magic, so Esme is ready to fight everyone at the drop of a hat but she soon comes to rather like having another option in human interaction that doesn’t involve being soft and kind; the new therapy system they implement for students and staff works a treat and school wide mishaps fall to an all time low.