Hero Boy

The **Hero Boy**, or simply the **boy**, is an unnamed child who is the grandson of the Grandmother, a retired witchophile. The Grandmother told the boy all about witches and how to spot them. However, he accidentally found himself spying on a meeting of witches with the Grand High Witch and was turned into a mouse. The boy and his Grandmother devised a plan where they stole the Grand High Witch's potion and used it to turn all of the witches into mice by putting it into their soup.

Despite his victory, the boy remained a mouse for the rest of his life and went on a mission with his Grandmother to get rid of all the witches in the world.

## Biography

The boy was born in England to an English father and a Norwegian mother. He would frequently visit his Grandmother in Norway during holidays. However, after his seventh birthday, both of his parents died in a car crash. The boy's legal guardian then became his Grandmother. The boy loved all his grandmother's stories, but he most enjoyed the stories about real-life witches, who seek to kill human children. His grandmother told him a real witch looks exactly like an ordinary woman, but there are ways of telling whether she is a witch, such as real witches have claws instead of fingernails, which they hide by wearing gloves; are bald, which they hide by wearing wigs that make them break out in rashes; have square-ended feet with no toes which they hide by wearing small, pointy shoes that cause them discomfort; have eyes with pupils that change colours; have blue spit which they use for ink and have large nostrils which they use to sniff out children, who, to a witch, smell of dog's droppings; the dirtier the child, the less likely a witch can smell them.

Due to his father's will, the boy and his grandmother returned to England. However, the grandmother warned the boy to be on his guard, since English witches are known to be among the most vicious in the world, notorious for turning children into loathsome creatures so that unsuspecting adults will kill them. She also told him about the mysterious Grand High Witch of All the World, the feared and diabolical leader of all of the world's witches, who visits their councils in every country, each year.

Shortly after arriving back in England, while the boy was working on the roof of his treehouse, he saw a strange woman in black staring up at him with an eerie smile and quickly registered that she was a witch. She tries to offer him a snake but he refused and she eventually left. The grandmother eventually fell ill and was told by the doctor to take a seaside break. Around this time, the grandmother gave the boy two pet mice: William and Mary. The grandmother and the boy went to a hotel, where he met a boy named Bruno Jenkins. Despite the hotel manager forbidding the boy from letting the mice leave the hotel room, the boy decided to find a secret area to train his mice.

While the boy was training his pet mice in the hotel ballroom, the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" showed up for their annual meeting. When one of the women reached underneath her hair to scratch at her scalp with a gloved hand, the boy realised that this was the yearly gathering of England's witches, but he is trapped in the room and remained hidden. The Grand High Witch herself went up onto the stage and unmasked herself. She unveiled her master plan: all of England's witches are to purchase sweet shops and give away free sweets and chocolates laced with a drop of her latest creation: "Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker", a magic potion which turned the consumer into a mouse at a specified time set by the potion-maker. The intent was for the children's teachers and parents to unwittingly kill the transformed children.

After demonstrating the potion's effects on Bruno Jenkins, the witches soon discovered the boy and turned him into a mouse. Luckily, the transformed child retained his mentality, personality and even his voice. After tracking down Bruno, the transformed boy returned to his Grandmother's hotel room and told her what he had learned. He suggested turning the tables on the witches by slipping the potion into their evening meal. He also informs her that the Grand High Witch is staying in the hotel directly beneath them. The Grandmother put the transformed mouse-boy into a knitted sock and lowered him onto the Grand High Witch's balcony. With some difficulty, he managed to get his hands on a bottle of the mouse potion from the Grand High Witch's room.

At dinner, the mouse-boy was able to put the potion into the witches' soup. Within minutes, the Grand High Witch and her English subordinates had all been turned into mice and were killed by the hotel staff. After returning home, the boy and his Grandmother devised a plan to rid the world of witches. They decided to travel to the Grand High Witch's Norwegian castle, and use the potion to change her successor and assistants into mice, then release cats to destroy them. Using the Grand High Witch's money-making machine and information on witches in various countries, they will try to eradicate them everywhere. The grandmother reveals that, as a mouse, the boy will probably only live for about another nine years, but the boy does not mind, as he does not want to outlive his grandmother (she reveals that she is also likely to live for only nine more years), as he would hate to have anyone else look after him.

It is unknown if their plan succeeded.

## Adaptations

### 1990 movie

* *Main article: Luke Eveshim*

In the 1990 film, the boy is given the name **Luke Eveshim** and is portrayed by Jason Fisher. His role remains almost entirely the same except that he is turned back into a human at the end of the film by Susan Irvine.

### 2020 movie

* *Main article: Charlie Hansen*

In the 2020 film, the boy is given the name **Charlie Hansen** and is portrayed by Jazhir Bruno. This version of the movie is set in 1960s America.

## Appearances

* The Witches (novel)
* The Witches (1990 movie)
* The Witches (2020 movie)
* The Witches: The Graphic Novel