14 Spells and Potions!

14. SPELLS AND POTIONS! Matilda rushed down the steps. Her eyes adjusted to the dark as she went, until she reached the glowing lanterns in the cave below. The Jolley-Rogers were exactly as she'd left them the day before, staring blankly at the gold. Matilda carefully placed the glass bottle containing the

Blackhole on the sand. She sat on a rock and opened the spell book. There was no contents page or index, so Matilda started leafing through, looking for anything to do with bewitching treasure. Bones came over and dropped the wand at Matilda's feet, wagging his tail. Jim was still on Bones's back, clinging to his collar, with his eyes firmly closed and his fingers pinching his nose. "Just in case I fall under the curse again," said Jim. "Ye found anythin', Tilly?" "Not... yet...." said Matilda, flicking the pages with more urgency. "Aaah! Yes! Here's one for treasure.... She picked up the wand from the floor

and, supporting the spell book on her other arm, pointed it at the treasure. "Hocus pocus, gold doubloons, emeralds and silver spoons, Rubies, sapphires, diamond rings, A treasure trove of shiny things! Add some drops of parrots blood, Curse this treasure, curse it good!" Nothing happened, but then Matilda didn't have any parrot blood and Squawk was probably a bit small, at the moment, to ask him for any. It didn't sound right anyway. She needed to uncurse the treasure, not double curse it.

"Maybe I need to find spells that don't list ingredients," she mumbled. "Hmm, this one sounds better.... Scurvy pirates, brave and bold, Still beneath the treasure's hold. Be still no more! Give flight to thee! Do my bidding and be free!" Jim's mom and dad and Nugget all started rising into the air. They still stared blankly at the treasure, but they floated up and up until their heads bumped against the cave roof. They just hung there, arms and legs dangling. "Hmm, that wasn't supposed to happen," said Matilda.

"I don't think that's the one!" Jim Lad cried, clinging onto Bones's collar, still squeezing his eyes tight shut as his body kept trying to float up to join the others. "Ooops!" said Matilda. "I'll try another one!" Matilda looked at the next spell in the book and noticed some scribbles at the bottom of the page. The handwriting was terrible, but she could just about read it: If pirates are to be unbound, the spell must then be rewound, one word and then

another read, but in reverse it should be said. Matilda raised Dabberlocks's wand again and read the spell backward. "Will their against here them keep, Still them hold, them tempt, them call, Hypnotize will hoard treasure this, Eyes yer curse, rubies and diamonds!"