Hacharias Zona, the Wizard with a Red Beard, and the Great Witch Belle Oldred

This book is the prequel to The Adventures of Princess the Staffy Dog, and it starts with a wonderful witch called Belle Oldred who, along with her friends, learn great powerful magic from the powerful wizard Hacharias Zona. A wizard who happens to have a red beard.
Along the way, Belle will have to make choices with her magic to save her friends whilst always impressing the great Hacharias Zona. Together, they will each lose loved ones so dear to them, as they fight off the evil sorcerer Legamuss, who is seeking the power to delay death. Though will Hacharias reveal this power, or will it be left to Belle to right all that was wronged. Through her legacy, the powerful books that Belle has created, would one day in the far future, help a castle when it comes under attack from a colony of rats.