Maria begrudgingly followed Claire into her attic. When she got up the top of the stairs she sneezed due to the dust and battered away some cobwebs. Looking around she saw boxes littering the floor and some stacked up to the roof. Seeing all the work she’d have to do she sighed.

Claire looked at Maria unimpressed. “Hey you wanted these lessons and for me to teach you we need a room. So if you really want to learn, you’re going to have to help me clean out the attic.”

“Fine,” Maria surrendered as she began to she pulled a few boxes closer to her. “So what’s staying and what’s going?” She asked her would be teacher.

“Hmm, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve been up here, so I probably don’t need any of it, except the books and supplies needed to teach you. Though some of this stuff is my grandmother’s so better check the boxes just in case.”

Maria nodded as she opened up the box in front of her to see what was inside. Her face went red and she took a step back. “Maybe you should go through the boxes while I dust and move things out of the way for you.”

Curious as to what caused Maria’s reaction, Claire walked over to the box herself. “Oh wow, these have gotten a bit bigger,” she said as she looked through the box. “Still a lot smaller that I’d like so I’ll keep my current pair so they can go.”

Maria gave Claire a confused glance. “Wait so those are your…”

“Yep, my natural pair,” Claire confirmed. “I didn’t like how small they were so I traded up. Though at the time I couldn’t give them up but now I can. Why what did you think was in this box?”

Maria’s face turned red again. “Your sex toys…” she muttered under her breath.

Claire turned to her in shock. “Well it is my box does contain my privates and I’m sure you’re not used to seeing detached body parts so I guess I can understand while you thought that.”

“Wait your privates so that… is yours too?” Mara pointed at something else in the box without looking.

“Oh no that’s not mine, I’ll never detach that. No this belonged to a girl I knew in college, she was a real bitch, spread rumors about me being a slut because of how I dressed. I just wanted to show off my new parts. Anyway to cut a long story short, I recall giving her a remark like ‘at least I can have sex’ and took those off her. Not my finest retort.”

“So you just took it, with no remorse?” Maria asked. “You actually took another woman’s genitals and put them in a box in your attic, completely forgetting about them?” Maria bit her lips. “That actually sounds kinda hot if it wasn’t so mean.”

“I could take yours off if you’d like,” Claire suggested before reaching into the box. “Better yet did you want to try this on?”

Maria looked at what Claire was holding and instantly shook her head no. “Why do you even have that?!” She screamed.

“It took my virginity, I wanted to keep it for a keepsake,” she paused as she began to think. “You know I can’t even remember the guy’s name, how terrible is that forgetting name of the person I first had sex with. Then again it was a random hookup at a party. If I recall he found the idea of me keeping it amusing and he never tried to track me down.” Claire thought for a moment. “I guess all those parts can go, unless you want them as a teaching aid.”

“How are you meant to get rid of them exactly, I’m pretty sure people will think something’s up when they find body parts in your trash,” Maria commented. “Can’t you just track down the original owners, I guess in the case of your breasts, give them to whoever your current pair belonged to?”

Claire rolled her eyes. “To find the original owners would involve scrying and I don’t know where my kit is. As for getting rid of them I can turn them into other things, or remove them from existence. Well at least on this plain, we can’t really get make things vanish from existence, I guess that’s like sending them to the dump, just for magic users.” Claire just flicked her hand at the box and it was gone. “Next box.”

Maria grabbed the box and opened it hesitantly, this time it was a fancy dinner set and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“What, not everything up here is magic related,” Claire commented. “Though I think I’ll get rid of this,” she waved her hand again and it was gone.

“What did you do that for? That would’ve been worth a lot!” Maria yelled, shocked at Claire’s willingness to get rid of something so valuable.

“It was worth a lot,” Claire agreed as she pulled out her phone and showed it to Maria. Maria let out a gasp as she saw that Claire had a large payment made to her account two weeks from now. “It’s a simple spell, you cast it on an item and you get the money you would’ve gotten if you had sold it the old fashion way, the person who would’ve bought it magically ends up with it in their possession while they have the memories of buying it. In this case, I would’ve sold it on auction for a thousand dollars two weeks from now. It saves me and the buyer some time.”

Maria nodded in agreement as she grabbed the next box labeled hair. She opened it to discover several wigs of various colour and length. “These aren’t wigs are they?” Maria asked.

“Now you’re getting it. Back in college I didn’t have a whole lot of money to get my hair professionally done or a lot of time with exams and study either. Time spells don’t work with that. I mean you could freeze time to help you study but that freezes everything, can’t search things on the internet when your computer is frozen. That’s why I prefer books. So every week or so I’d go to my local salon and pick out a hairstyle I liked. I altered the memories to make the ladies I kept bald think they shaved their hair for charity.”

“You haven’t done anything to me without permission have you?” Maria asked, suddenly self conscious about her appearance.

“Oh you mean how you were a 63 year old Vietnam veteran that I found on the streets, and turned you into a 20 year old woman wanting to learn magic so I could convince you to help clean out my attic?” Claire said as serious as she possibly could. Maria’s face dropped and she even began to tear up. “I’m kidding! That would require way too much effort. No I haven’t used magic on you… yet.”

Maria took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself down. “Not funny!”

“I thought the other things would’ve shown you by now I can be a bitch,” Claire replied. “You know I’ve never actually done that to someone, turned them into a dog, or any animal. Inanimate objects either, I usually just take parts, change people’s age and gender, that sort of stuff.” Clair pulled forward a box and looked a little bit guilty. “Oops, scratch that, ooh she’s going to be so pissed when I open this box. Mounted heads count as inanimate objects yes?”

Maria looked down at the box. “Wait there’s a living head in that box?”

“Yeah, my cousin and I made a bet once where we put up our own heads as the prize. I won so I kept her as a trophy, the thing is I was meant to keep her on display for the next 5 years. I had a study group coming over that night who didn’t know about magic so much to her protest I boxed her up and put her into the attic where they wouldn’t accidentally find her. I guess I forgot I left her up here. It’s only been 2 years so I’m safe for leaving her as a head but having her in that box for two years, she’s going to get angry so I’m just going to send her back home,” Claire explained as she made the box vanish without even bothering to open it. “I’m expecting an angry call about that tomorrow.”

They sorted out a few more boxes, though these ones were clear of body parts or angry cousins. They had even found some of Claire's magic supplies and had the room rather open. Claire just got rid of almost everything and in the next few months she would be rich.

“Hey what’s in these?” Maria asked as she looked at a few trunks at the back of the attic.

“That’s my grandmother’s stuff, I’ve never really looked at them, mostly because she had wards up and given the fact you’re not a toad or worse my guess is they faded when she passed away earlier this year,” Claire explained as she walked over to them. “I’m not kidding about the toad thing by the way, I came up here as a kid and got turned into one that instant I touched the trunk. She kept me like that for the rest of the summer, that’s why I don’t like turning people into animals. It’s horrible.” Claire opened the trunk and found a jar full of old water and a brain.

“Woah,” Maria gasped in amazement. “I wonder who it belongs to.”

“Only one way to find out,” Claire had already put the jar down and wasted no time in opening up Maria’s head. “Sorry Maria, I’m just as curious as you and you’re the only other person around,” she said as she pulled out her brain. She then placed it on the floor before swapping it with the brain in the jar. Claire then put the mystery brain into Maria’s body.

It took a moment for Maria’s body to react but when it did, it didn’t seem happy. “What have you done to me Agnes?” Maria’s body asked Claire. “Oh you wicked woman,” she said as she felt her breasts. “You can do anything you want to me but I won’t tell you where I’ve taken Ruby.”

“Ruby, Anges, those are mum and grandma’s names, wait grandpa?” Claire teared up, giving the angry and confused Maria a hug. “Oh, grandpa! It’s so wonderful to meet you.”

Maria pushed Claire away as he examined her further, she wasn’t Agnes, in fact she looked a bit like Ruby if she was a grown woman but she was too different from her too. “Wait you’re my granddaughter?” He asked. “How long have I been gone?”

“I don’t know, my friend and I were cleaning out the attic and we went through grandma’s things and found your brain in a jar, I got curious so I put you in my friend’s body. I wish I had known about you sooner, we’ve got so much catching up to do,” she grabbed Maria’s hand and lead her out of the attic. She then closed the stars, forgetting one tiny thing.