Return to Groosham Grange (2003)

Return to Groosham Grange is a fantasy novel by English author Anthony Horowitz and the second novel in the Groosham Grange series. It was first published in 1999 under the name The Unholy Grail, but was reissued in 2003 under the new name, Return to Groosham Grange. This change in the title was to help link the two books together.

Return to Groosham Grange serves as a direct sequel to Horowitz's 1988 novel Groosham Grange and mainly revolves around a plot concerning a secret agent of the Bishop of Bletchley trying to destroy the Groosham Grange boarding school once and for all. A second sequel was planned, but Horowitz changed his mind after the success of the Harry Potter series.

Plot

After initially hating Groosham Grange when David arrived almost a year ago, he has decided to accept it. David now realizes that he belongs to this school and has a new goal. He wants to win the school's top prize, The Unholy Grail.

Throughout the year, David had worked hard to earn the most points so he could walk away with the Grail. But three months ago, Vincent King – a new student, had joined the school. Vincent being adaptive, quickly earned points and then stood second in line behind David to win the prize. Seeing Vincent as a rival, David had an instantaneous dislike to the new boy, even though Vincent became very popular.

Finally, when the year was coming to an end and only one test was left (i.e. "Advanced Cursing"), David is relieved to hear that he still has a 30-point lead over Vincent. One day, David witnesses Vincent exiting a tall tower. When David tries to enter the tower, he is spotted by Gregor, the school porter and is thus forced to return to his classes. Convinced that Vincent is up to something, David wants to know what is inside the tower. Being held up by Gregor causes David to be late in class and he loses three points, which gives him a 27-point lead over Vincent.

Afterwards, David starts a fight with Vincent and loses nine more points. But that night, David awakens and notices that Vincent's bed is empty. In the hallway, he thinks he sees Vincent sneak into Mr. Fitch and Mr. Teagle's office. When David enters the room, no one is there except Mr. Fitch and Mr. Teagle who are sleeping on the bed. David spies some paper and picks them up and sees that they are the questions for the "Advanced Cursing" test he is supposed to take the next day. Just as he is putting them down, the office door flies open and Mr. Helliwell caught him. David loses fifteen points, and now Vincent is right behind him in the race for the top prize, with just a lead of one point.

Finally, the "Advanced Cursing" test takes place and Vincent scores one mark higher than him and that settles the score and there's a tie. The correcting teacher, Mr. Kilgraw says that he didn't write one full answer and David is alarmed as he's sure he wrote it. Then, there's a tie-breaker where a blue statuette of Miss Pedicure (another teacher) needs to be recovered from the British Museum without any use of magic. In the end, he manages to solve the cryptic message given by Mr. Kilgraw and finds it. But at the end, wax models from Madame Tussauds attack him and he loses the statuette. Later, he discovers that Vincent got the statuette. Therefore, Vincent's declared the winner of the Unholy Grail. As usual, he suspects Vincent of treachery as he believed Vincent made those wax models to attack him.

When David does finally get into the tower, he finds evidence which claims that someone is trying to destroy Groosham Grange. The agent's plan is to take the Unholy Grail off the island and then to Canterbury which will cause the school to destroy itself. He also sees homing bats in the tower – which he deduces must be sending secret messages to the Bishop of Bletchley. While he's reading, he's suddenly pushed from the window, however he survives as he gets tangled in some vines growing on the walls of the East Tower. David realizes that he must prevent the destruction from happening.

On the day of prize-giving, Vincent is finally awarded the Grail, but as soon as the parents leave from the prize-giving ceremony, sudden destruction occurs. And David thinks Vincent is responsible. So, he ventures into the tower to find out what's happening but then is captured by the agent. Then he finds himself face-to-face with Jill Green, his best friend and Vincent King, his rival. He's ashamed to find that Vincent had not been responsible for anything. The only reason he entered the tower that day was because he smoked. By that time, Eliot had guessed who did this.

He took off on Mrs. Windergast's broomstick and found the Unholy Grail with Mr. Helliwell near the Canterbury Church. The pieces of the puzzle start fitting in together. It was Mr. Helliwell who was collecting the test papers – so he just removed the sheet with the answer. He was the one who had made the wax models to attack him and he's of course the agent. He had met the Bishop of Bletchley at Haiti who had reformed him and under his instructions had tried to destroy Groosham Grange. Somehow formulating a plan, David manages to get the Grail and returns it to the school. However, for personal purposes, he then decides to leave the school for good.