How It All Goes Down
Poor Billy
- With Mother Malkin dead, what's Tom going to do now? Well, he's not going to Disney World. He still has to save the missing child, whom he suspects is at Bony Lizzie's house.
- Alice answers the door, and Tom demands to see the child, who is crying inside.
- Tom pushes his way in and grabs the child, Tommy. He leaves. Alice taunts him as he goes. "You're a fool. […] They'll come after you. You'll never get away" (10.24).
- Unfortunately, she's right. Bony Lizzie and Tusk chase Tom and Tommy. Tom picks up Tommy and hauls butt for the Spook's property line.
- They make it, and the ground vibrates. An angry cry "filled with death" (10.39) pieces the air.
- It's the boggart, standing up for Tom, and scaring Bony Lizzie and Tusk away.
- The next day, Tom carries Tommy down to the village, and notices that the village people (no, not those Village People) are burning Bony Lizzie's house.
- Even better, the Spook is back, and safe. He took care of whatever witch problem was going down, even though he's a little worse for wear.
- Tom tells him everything. The Spook tells him he was brave, and saved a child, but he should never have killed the witch.
- Now that she's dead, Mother Malkin can possess another person. In that way, she can come back to life and run amuck.
- There are only two ways to really kill a witch: burn her or eat her heart, raw. Throwing water on her doesn't work, we guess?
- Now that Tom has squared off against a witch and lived to tell the tale, the Spook decides to tell Tom what happened to Billy, his last apprentice.
- Billy cut corners when binding a boggart. So the boggart chewed all his fingers off and sucked out his blood. Not a nice way to go.
- Then the Spook tells Tom, "We need courage and patience, but above all, we never rush" (10.100).
- We could have told him that fools rush in. Dead fools, that is.