The wolf nosed closer and closer. My mouth was so dry that my lips were stuck to my teeth. I started to shake.

Within a few seconds, this enormous slavering beast would be upon us – and then what? Mrs Winkle couldn’t help us – she had her hands full tackling all those other witch-animals.

When the wolf’s nose was inches away from my feet, Charlie began to yowl.

‘Quick, Charlie!’ I hissed. ‘Climb up a tree!’

Charlie wasn’t listening. To my horror, I could see he was bending himself into a crouch. Then, before I could put out my hand to stop him, he sprang out of our hiding place straight into the huge wolf’s face.

‘Charlie!’ I screamed, throwing myself after him.

The noise of the fight was deafening. The wolf snarled and howled at Charlie. Charlie yowled and hissed back. Again and again, Charlie stood on his hind legs and swiped the wolf’s snout with his stretched claws. The wolf bared his deadly teeth and snapped at Charlie.

Bit by bit, the size difference between them began to tell. As the wolf’s large paws battered Charlie around the head for the tenth time, Charlie fell back, exhausted.

Then, with one vicious lunge, the wolf trapped Charlie in his jaws, shook him around as if he were a rag doll, and dropped him onto the ground.

Charlie didn’t get up again. I saw blood seeping into his fur.

‘No, NO, NO!!!!!!’ I screamed.

I clenched my fists and launched myself at the wolf. It disappeared into thin air and I landed with a bump on the ground. When I looked up, Verbena was looming over me. She sneered at me and pushed me away with her foot.

‘Ha!’ she said. ‘See what happens when little girls don’t do as they’re told?’

I’m not ashamed to say that I huddled over Charlie and started to cry. But as I felt the tears streaming down my face and dripping off my chin, I also felt something else. Anger.

This bully, just like any other bully, did anything she wanted, no matter how much it hurt other people!

Verbena stepped back into the clearing, grabbed the toad, and held it to her bony chest.

‘Gather round, sisters,’ she shouted. ‘The moon is over the top of the Great Oak. We will begin the spell!’

With a flash of light, Verbena’s witch-animals all turned back into witches. They scuttled to the centre of the clearing and formed a circle around Verbena and the toad. A low humming sound filled the air as the moonlight crept towards them.

I’d had enough. I stroked Charlie’s soft, floppy head one more time, got up and stepped back inside my magic star. From across the clearing, I heard Mrs Winkle’s voice.

‘Go on, Anna,’ she said. ‘You can do it!’

I looked at her. Her wand was bent, her glasses were cracked and her hair had gone all frizzy – but she had held her own corner against a whole pack of witches. If she could do that, then the least I could do was try one more time to save Mary.

I stared straight into Verbena’s pale, laughing face, then I pointed at the sky and said the first rhyme that came into my head:

I felt a stream of power flowing like fire through my body. In the sky above our heads, a strange grey-white cloud appeared and blocked the moonlight. A fork of lightning shot from its middle into the clearing. It zapped two of the witches, and they limped away, yowling.

‘Good work, Anna!’ shouted Mrs Winkle.

Thunder rumbled and a few fat, heavy raindrops fell. Hailstones the size of eggs dropped from the cloud and bopped all the witches on the head. Within seconds, rain and hail were pouring down and turning the clearing into a mud bath.

‘My Full Moon Magic!’ shouted Verbena. ‘My beautiful party!’

The fire went out with a hiss. The decorations went soggy and fell into the mud. The crow choir spread their wings and flapped away.

Verbena ran over to the witches and pushed two of them in my direction.

‘You useless lumps!’ she shouted. ‘Finish off that girl, once and for all!’

The two witches swivelled their black eyes toward me. They advanced, slowly raising their wands.

‘Again, Anna!’ urged Mrs Winkle.

I pointed my index finger straight at the two witches and chanted:

There was a small flash of light. When I looked again, the two witches’ wands had turned to candyfloss.

They were so greedy and stupid that they stuffed their faces with the pink sugary goo. But after a few bites, they dropped the candyfloss and started rolling around on the ground, moaning and holding their stomachs.

I ran to Mrs Winkle. She looked at her expensive broken wand, sighed, and threw it into her bag. We stood side by side and raised our hands together. I chanted in a loud voice:

One by one, the remaining witches dropped to the ground, screeching in pain. Their clothes and hair vanished, and scales appeared all over their bodies. Their arms and legs dropped off. One by one, they turned into slithering snakes and inched away into the woods.

Except for Verbena. She stood in the middle of the muddy clearing, trying to kick the little green toad and screaming her head off in pure temper.

I looked up at Mrs Winkle.

‘May I?’ I said.

‘Please do,’ she said, her blue eyes twinkling.

I pointed one finger at Verbena and one finger at the little toad and chanted:

There was a blinding flash of light and, once again, I felt magic power surge through my body. When the smoke cleared, Mary was standing blinking in the clearing – next to a warty, grey toad with round, staring black eyes.

‘Yes!’ I shouted and punched the air.

‘Well done, Anna,’ said Mrs Winkle, patting my shoulder.

I stared at the toad. It stared back, gave one angry croak and waddled away into the trees.

The rain stopped, the magic cloud blew away and the first glimmer of dawn crept into Coldwell Wood.