Dan noticed that as soon as she left the room she couldn't hear Kat's constant stream of threats and profanity. It dawned on her that Kat had soundproofed the house, that was why their parents hadn't heard her mooing. It didn't take long for her to find her parents, they were in the living room watching Hogan's Heroes.
When Dan walked in her parents didn't recognize her. They did recognize the wand, but that made them jump to the wrong conclusion. "Kat?" her mother asked.
"No, Dan," she answered.
Your mother stood upright in a bolt, "Did Kat do this to you?"
"No, Kat turned me into a cow. Actually she made me think I was younger than her, then she turned me into a cow. Then she," Dan stopped as the reality of what Kat had done was starting to sink in for the first time. She took a moment and then continued, "molested me and," she was forced to stop again. She had felt anger before, outrage even, but the abject horror of what Kat was doing only now became apparent to her. "she said she was going to turn one of my friends into a bull and ... and," Dan started crying. She had narrowly escaped being raped and that was simply too much to take.
Her mother put her arms around her and shushed her, "It's ok now." After a while Dan stopped crying, the tears has been cathartic and she was again able to face what had happened. Her mother seemed to sense this, and asked, "How did you get away?"
"She put a collar on me that made it so I had to obey her," Dan's mother quickly glanced at Dan's father, "but she never said I couldn't take the wand, so I grabbed it. I realized that when she made me female she made me into witch too, so I made it so I didn't have to obey her, and turned myself human."
"On your own?" Dan's mother asked.
"No, with the wand."
"What I meant was, you didn't use a spellbook?"
"Spellbook?" 'Was that what Kat had been reading?' Dan wondered, then she noticed how much her mother's eyes had widened, "Is something wrong? I didn't use any book, is that bad?"
"No, it's good. It means you're a natural witch."
"What does that mean?" Dan asked.
"It doesn't necessarily mean anything. If you don't study, don't practice, or don't put in an effort then it means nothing. But if you do," she paused and looked directly into Dan's eyes, "if you study, if you practice and if you put in honest effort then you will be a better witch than any ordinary witch could ever be."
Dan thought about that, earlier in the day she didn't believe witches existed, and was male anyway, then she had to face the prospect of life as a cow, now she was being told that she could become the most powerful kind of witch. "What does a witch do?"
"Whatever she wants," Dan's mother said.
"Just don't make money appear out of thin air," Dan's father chimed in.
"Yeah," her mother said, "inflation is a bad thing. Trust me." That hung in the air for a moment and then she said, "Actually you've seen some of what I do. I track down malicious magical devices, like the collar your sister put on you, collect them together and destroy them." She stopped, it looked like her eyes were about to tear up. "I never thought Kat would do something like that. I'm so sorry."
"It's ok," Dan told her, "It wasn't your fault and I'm fine now."
Dan's mother was reminded, once again, why she was so often proud of her son, now daughter. Dan had just been through hell, and was now trying to make her feel better. Dan cared so much about others. She thought that Dan would make a much better witch than Kat. But first she had to deal with Kat, "Where is she?" she asked Dan.
"At the bottom of the stairs. I stuck her feet to the floor."
Dan's mother smiled. "Well let's go and show her that she can't mess with her big sister."