#i just love her okay

Summary: Hilda decides to be completely honest with her mother, surprised when she seems to be a lot more in on magic than Hilda had expected her to be.

With her daughter’s association with witches, Johanna is forced to face some secrets of her own, bringing her back to feelings and people she’d rather have left behind

Dealing with insecurities and inner demons of her own, Kaisa finds herself face to face with the very issues that brought her to be so displeased with her own abilities

Or: the one where Johanna is Kaisa’s familiar

Notes:  Author’s tip, it might be nice to re-read chapter 7 after finishing this (or at least the last part of said chapter)! Now you’ll be able to understand some stuff you wouldn’t have gotten before

Read it on ao3: (chpt1) (chpt2) (chpt3) (chpt4) (chpt5) (chpt6) (chpt7) (chpt8) (chpt9) (chpt10) (chpt11) (chpt12) (chpt13)

Her parents were pissed, and it was not her fault.

Just that morning, Trolberg citizens had received the news that the Nisse who had just been captured by the Safety Patrol for stealing from his house had escaped his imprisonment. The news reporter stated that all clues led to the belief that he had received human help, and for some ridiculous reason, her mother seemed convinced that she had been the one to do it.

Well, not quite ridiculous, Johanna had to admit. When during the previous days they had been listening about the search for the outlaw house spirit, the girl had been very vocal about her thoughts on the situation. Whenever the matter came up on the dinner table, she’d argue how much of an unusual behavior that was for a Nisse, and how unfair the whole thing was. There wasn’t a morsel of doubt in her mind that the Safety Patrol wouldn’t bother to conduct a fair investigation, and the creature would be sentenced whether he was guilty or not.

Alas, she did not know how one even managed to sentence a Nisse to anything. But she was sure the Patrol would find a way.

Even though those were her opinions, however, she most certainly was not the one who had helped the little guy escape. She couldn’t be! Johanna had been too busy studying for her first exams in college and avoiding bumping into Kaisa at all costs to even leave her house much at all in the last few weeks. To think that she’d been the Nisse’s human partner in crime showed that her mother really hadn’t been paying much attention to her.

“Well, if you won’t tell me,” Her mother hissed after Johanna, sitting on the living room couch with an open textbook on her lap, repeated for the third time that she had had nothing to do with the escape. “I’ll have to look for the person you actually tell things to.”

Her mother picked up her purse and car keys from the coffee table, and closed the front door just in time to see realization and fear bloom on her daughter’s eyes.

_#_#_#_

That weird, gloomy girl used to call, text, and just generally be around Johanna all the time. Said girl had also stopped doing so, which coincided with a drastic downfall in Johanna’s mood. As her mother, it hadn’t been hard for her to put two and two together and conclude that the pair of once inseparable friends had fought, badly.

Now, mrs. Pearson wasn’t happy to see her child so downcast. It was a tragic thing to end such a long lasting relationship, that was for sure. But she never liked the reckless impulses that the girl seemed to bring to Johanna, so a part of her was admittedly relieved that that bad influence was gone from her life.

But still, even though she hadn’t seen a sign of her daughter’s former friend since before the Nisse’s robbery had been reported, the news anchor had mentioned where the Safety Patrol’s chase for the creature and its human helper had taken place: in the same street where old Miss Pilqfist lived with the odd girl. She might not have heard about Johanna’s plans from her daughter herself, but she certainly would have noticed the cause for the agitation on her street.

If she played her cards right, mrs. Pearson might just learn what it was that her child did after hours. All of this, of course, to ensure Johanna’s own safety, and that she didn’t risk her future because of dangerous ideas of grand adventures.

Parking her small car directly in front of the imposing marble staircase, the woman planted her feet on the sidewalk of the grand Public Library and began climbing.

_#_#_#_

Kaisa turned her head to look at her way too quickly, and kicked herself mentally for that. It was ridiculous of her to act jumpy as soon as Johanna appeared in her peripheral vision, she should have just ignored it and kept on with her studying. It did, however, make matters a bit better when she looked directly at the approaching figure and noticed that the older woman, though she had Johanna’s nose and hair, was not, in fact, Johanna.

If it were, she wouldn’t be wearing that sickly attempt at a sweet smile.

“Good morning… dear.” The woman said when she stopped beside the desk which Kaisa had claimed as her studying spot in the library that day. A scoff nearly escaped her throat. Johanna’s mother never could memorize her name.

“Good morning, mrs. Pearson.” Kaisa put down her pen in order to make her feel like she was paying attention. “May I help you with something?”

Funnily enough, Kaisa realized that she did want to know what the woman was doing there, standing by her and looking at her expectantly. She highly doubted Johanna would have told her anything about their fight, so it probably (hopefully) wasn’t a revenge quest that had brought her there. She could not, however, think of any other reason.

Her smile grew wider, the mother clearly making a strenuous effort to make it so. “You may, actually! I came here because, well, Jo always said it was where you spent most of your time, and I needed to ask you something.”

Kaisa sat up straighter against the hard back of the wooden chair, intrigued. Mrs. Pearson took that as a sign that she could ask away.

“You see, I’m afraid Johanna might have been involved in the Nisse escape that happened today in the wee hours of the morning. Certainly you heard it?”

The witch couldn’t say she’d heard it as much as she’d heard of it. When she arrived at the library earlier, she caught some witches whispering about how they bet it was one of the Care-of-Magical-Creatures inclined novices who had performed the feat. But yes, it could be said that she did know what the woman was talking about, so she nodded, even if a little reluctantly.

“Well,” Mrs. Pearson drawled, trying to interpret the teen’s expression. “my daughter won’t open up about it, I’m afraid. But you see, I just want her to be safe. I know we’ve had our… differences over the years, dear, but I’m sure that ultimately, we both just want Johanna to have a happy and calm life. One where she doesn’t need to worry about the Safety Patrol itself putting an arrest warrant against her. They say the ordeal caused a big ruckus on Magnolia Street, so even though it was so early, you must have seen something, right?”

Kaisa’s eyes widened. Magnolia Street. That’s where Tildy lived. That’s where sheused to live. That was why Johanna’s mother thought she could help, not because she thought the two were still friends, but because she didn’t know Kaisa had moved out, sharing the expenses of a cramped apartment with a nice enough girl she’d met in college.

“So please,” She continued with wide, pleading eyes, making Kaisa notice that she truly was worried for her daughter. And of course she was. She’d always been, and that was probably where most of their differences, as she’d put it, had stemmed from. Kaisa had believed Johanna could take care of herself. The woman in front of her didn’t seem to. Not as much as Johanna deserved, at least. “If you saw that it was her helping it run away, please tell me.”

A weapon. That’s what Kaisa had just been handed. A metaphorical one, but that was even better. Were she a slightly better person, she would admit she no longer lived with Tildy, and thus couldn’t possibly have seen the whole thing happening. Were she a truly good person, she would swear Johanna would never lie and sneak behind her parents’ backs, and that she had, in fact, seen the person who was aiding the Nisse, and that had been an adult man with completely different features. But she wasn’t a better person, she truly wasn’t. She was just a broken person who couldn’t even call herself a witch anymore. She was just someone who had pushed away everyone around her. Someone who could keep her magic no more than she could keep a relationship.

So why not fire away?

“Oh, I can’t believeit.” Once, Kaisa had been awful at lying, and anyone used to be able to see through her. These last few months, dishonesty had begun coming to her as second nature, though. “She really did follow through, then? She’d mentioned this plan before, when we talked about Nisse burglars some months ago. When this case arose I was hoping she would forget what she’d said, but apparently it was stronger than her. I really did think the screams I heard at night sounded familiar.”

The fake smile morphed into a grimace. The woman pursed her lips, looking angry.

“Thank you for your honesty.” She hissed, giving Kaisa a second to let the reality of what she’d just done sink in. “I’ll take the appropriate measures.”

Her steps as she walked out of the library were tight like a soldier’s, and she headed to the exit with renewed determination.

Kaisa had the feeling she wouldn’t need to worry about seeing Johanna around town for quite some time.