Last of all came the circle, which was quite the easiest part.
‘All over soon,’ whispered Maud, arranging her broomstick in front of Mildred.
As soon as they had formed the circle, Mildred knew that something was the matter with her broomstick. It started to rock about, and seemed to be trying to throw her off balance.
‘Maud!’ she cried to her friend. ‘There’s something –’ but before Mildred could say any more, the broomstick gave a violent kick like a bucking bronco and she fell off, grabbing at Maud as she fell.
There was chaos in the air. All the girls were screaming and clutching at each other, and soon there was a tangled mass of broomsticks and witches on the ground. The only girl who flew serenely back to earth was Ethel. A few of the younger witches laughed, but most of them looked grim.
‘We are so sorry, Your Honour,’ apologized Miss Cackle, as Miss Hardbroom untangled the heap of girls and jerked them to their feet. ‘I’m sure there must be some simple explanation.’
‘Miss Cackle,’ said the chief magician,
sternly, ‘your pupils are the witches of the future. I shudder to think what that future will be like.’
He paused, and there was complete silence. Miss Hardbroom glared at Mildred.
‘However,’ continued the chief magician, ‘we shall forget this incident for the rest of the evening. Let us now begin the chanting.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
T dawn the celebrations ended, and the pupils flew wearily back to school, some riding double as their own broomsticks were broken. No one was speaking to Mildred (even Maud was being very cool towards her friend), and Form One was in disgrace. When they arrived at the Academy, everyone was sent straight to bed. It was the custom, after the all-night Hallowe’en celebrations, to sleep until noon the next day.
‘Mildred!’ said Miss Cackle, in a sharp voice, as Form One made their way miserably up the stairs. ‘Miss Hardbroom and I will see you in my office first thing tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Yes, Miss Cackle,’ replied Mildred, almost in tears, and she ran up the steps.
As Mildred opened her bedroom door, Ethel, who was behind her, leaned across and whispered, ‘That’ll teach you to go around changing people into pigs!’ and she pulled a face and ran away down the corridor.
Mildred closed the door and fell on to her bed, almost flattening the kitten, which leapt out of the way just in time.
‘Oh, Tabby,’ she said, burying her face in the kitten’s warm fur, ‘I’ve had such a dreadful time, and it wasn’t even my fault! I might have known Ethel wouldn’t lend me her broomstick out of kindness. Nobody will ever believe that it wasn’t me just being clumsy as usual.’
The kitten licked her ear sympathetically, and the bats returned through the narrow window and settled upside down on the picture-rail.
Two hours later, Mildred was lying in bed, still wide awake. She was imagining what the interview with Miss Cackle and her terrible form-mistress would be like. The kitten was curled up peacefully on her chest.
‘It’ll be awful,’ she thought, sadly looking towards the grey sky outside the window. ‘I wonder if they’ll expel me? Or perhaps I could tell them that it was Ethel – no, I would never do that. Suppose they decide to turn me into a frog? No, I’m sure they wouldn’t do anything like that; Miss Hardbroom said that was against the Witches’ Code. Oh, what will they do to me? Even Maud thinks it’s my fault, and I’ve never seen H.B. look more furious.’
She lay thinking about it until she was really frightened, and suddenly she leapt out of bed.
‘Come on, Tabby!’ she said, pulling a bag out of the wardrobe. ‘We’re running away.’
She stuffed a few clothes and books into the bag and put on her best robe so that no one would recognize the usual school uniform. Then she picked up her broomstick, put the kitten into the bag, and crept out along the silent corridor to the spiral staircase.
‘I shall miss the bats,’ she thought.
It was a cold, dull morning, and Mildred pulled her cape about her shoulders as she crossed the yard, glancing round in case anyone was watching. The school seemed very strange with no one about. Mildred had to fly over the gates, which were locked as usual, but it was difficult to balance with the bag slung on
the back of her broomstick, so she got off on the other side of the gates and started through the pine trees on foot.
‘I don’t know where we’re going, Tabby,’ she said, as they picked their way down the mountainside.
CHAPTER EIGHT
T was very gloomy in the forest, and Mildred felt slightly uneasy, surrounded by dark trees which grew so thickly together that no light fell between them. When she was almost at the bottom of the mountain, she sat down to rest, leaning her back against a tree, and the kitten climbed out of the bag to stretch itself on the grass.
It was very quiet except for a few birds singing, and a rather strange noise, a sort of low humming, almost like a lot of people talking at once. In fact, the more Mildred listened, the more it did sound like voices. She looked in the direction of the noise and thought she saw something moving along the trees.
‘Let’s go and have a look, Tabby,’ she whispered.
They left the bag and broomstick leaning against the tree, and crept through the tangled undergrowth. The noise grew louder.
‘Why, it is people talking,’ said Mildred. ‘Look, Tabby, over there, through the branches.’
Sitting in a clearing in the gloom were about twenty witches, all crowded together, muttering and talking in low voices. Mildred crept nearer and listened. She didn’t recognize any of them. A tall, grey-haired witch got to her feet.
‘Listen, everyone,’ said the grey-haired witch. ‘Will you all be quiet for a few moments? Thank you. Now, what I should like to know is, are we quite sure that they will all be sleeping, or at least in their rooms?’
She sat down, and another witch got up to reply. She was a small, plump witch with green horn-rimmed glasses. For a horrible moment Mildred thought it was Miss Cackle, but her voice was different when she spoke.
‘Of course we are sure,’ this witch replied. ‘The morning after Hallowe’en celebrations the entire school sleeps until midday. It is a rule, and the school is very strict about rules, so no one will be up until five minutes to twelve at the very earliest. If we fly over the wall into the back part of the yard, we will be as far away from the bedrooms as we can be, and no one will possibly hear us. Added to this, we shall all be invisible, so we shall be extremely well protected. Then all that remains to be done is to split up, sneak into each room and turn them all into frogs. They won’t be able to see us even if they are awake. Remember to take one of these boxes with you for the frogs.’ She pointed to a neat pile of small cardboard boxes. ‘We can’t have even one of them escaping. Once this is done, the entire school and everyone in it will be under our control.
‘Is the invisibility potion ready yet?’ she continued, turning to a young witch who was stirring a cauldron over a fire. It was the same potion that the two Ms had made during the laughter potion test.
‘Another few minutes,’ replied the young witch, dropping a handful of bats’ whiskers into the mixture. ‘It needs to simmer for a bit.’
Mildred was horrified. She sneaked back to where she had left her bag, and then into the shadows so that she couldn’t be seen.
‘What on earth can we do, Tab?’ she
whispered to the kitten, imagining Maud hopping about turned into a frog. ‘We can’t let them take over the school.’
She rummaged through the bag and took out the two books she had brought with her. One was the Witches’ Code and the other was her spell book. Mildred flicked through the spell book and stopped at the page about turning people into animals. There was only one example given, and that was snails.
‘Dare I?’ thought Mildred. ‘Dare I turn the whole lot of them into snails?’ The kitten looked at her, encouragingly.
‘I know it’s agai
nst the Witches’ Code, Tabby,’ she said, ‘but they don’t seem to follow any rules. They were planning to change us into frogs while we were asleep, so I don’t see why we shouldn’t do the same to them in self-defence.’
She sneaked back to the clearing, clutching her spell book.
‘Here goes!’ she thought desperately.
The invisibility potion was being poured out into cups, so Mildred had to work quickly. She waved her arms in a circle towards the crowd of witches (this part of spell-making can be very awkward when you don’t want to draw attention to yourself) and muttered the spell under her breath. For a second, nothing happened, and the witches milling round the cauldron continued to chatter and bustle about. Mildred closed her eyes in despair, but when she opened them again everyone had vanished and on the ground was a group of snails of all different shapes and sizes.
‘Tabby!’ shrieked Mildred. ‘I’ve done it! Look!’
Tabby came bounding out of the undergrowth and stared at the snails, who were all moving away as fast as they could, which wasn’t very fast. Mildred took one of the cardboard boxes and put the snails into it, gently picking them up one by one.
‘I suppose we’ll have to take them back to school and tell Miss Cackle, Tab,’ she said, suddenly remembering her interview to come at noon. ‘Still, we’ll have to go back. We can’t just leave this lot here, can we?’
So they set off up the mountainside, Mildred carrying the box in her arms, while the broomstick flew alongside with the bag hanging from it and Tabby riding inside the bag.
CHAPTER NINE
HE school was still completely deserted when Mildred arrived once more at the heavy iron gates. She hurried up the spiral staircase to her room and unpacked her bag so that no one would know she had tried to run away. Just as she was making her way to the door with the box in her arms, the door opened and Miss Hardbroom appeared.
‘Would you kindly tell me what you are doing, Mildred?’ she asked frostily. ‘I have just watched you creeping up the corridor, complete with broomstick, cat, a bag and this cardboard box. Is it too much to ask for an explanation?’
‘Oh, no, Miss Hardbroom,’ replied Mildred, holding up the box for her form-mistress to see the contents. ‘You see, I found a crowd of witches on the mountainside, and they were planning to take over the school and change you all into frogs, and they were making an invisibility potion so you wouldn’t be able to see them, so I turned them all into snails and brought…’
Her words trailed into silence as she saw the expression on Miss Hardbroom’s face. Obviously, her form-mistress didn’t believe a word.
‘I suppose these are the witches?’ she asked bitterly, pointing to the snails which were all huddled up in one corner of the box.
‘Yes, they are!’ Mildred insisted desperately. ’I know it sounds a peculiar story, Miss Hardbroom, but you must believe me. Their broomsticks and cauldrons and things are still in the clearing where I found them, really.’
‘Well, you had better show the creatures to Miss Cackle,’ said Miss Hardbroom, nastily. ‘Go and wait in Miss Cackle’s office while I fetch her – and I hope this isn’t any sort of joke, Mildred. I seem to remember that you are already in a considerable amount of trouble.’
Mildred was perched nervously on the edge of a chair in the headmistress’s office when Miss Hardbroom returned with Miss Cackle, who was wearing a grey dressing-gown, and looked half asleep.
‘These are they,’ stated Miss Hardbroom, pointing to the box on the desk.
Miss Cackle sat down heavily in her chair and looked first into the box and then at Mildred.
‘Mildred,’ she said in dramatic tones, ‘I am still suffering from my public humiliation last night. Because of you the reputation of this school now lies in the mud, and yet you expect me to believe an incredible story like this?’
‘But it’s true!’ cried Mildred. ‘I can even describe some of them. One was tall and thin with thick grey hair, and there was another who looked just like you, Miss Cackle, if you’ll excuse me being personal.
She had green horn-rimmed glasses –’
‘Wait a moment!’ said Miss Cackle, pushing her own glasses on to her nose. ‘Did you say she had horn-rimmed glasses and looked like me?’
‘Yes, Miss Cackle,’ replied Mildred, blushing. ‘Green ones. I’m sorry if you thought I was being rude.’
‘No, no, child, it isn’t that,’ said Miss Cackle, peering into the box again. Then she turned to Miss Hardbroom. ‘Do you know, I think the girl may be right after all. The person whom she described sounds exactly like my wicked sister Agatha who has always been extremely jealous of my position at this Academy!’
Miss Cackle stared over her glasses at the snails.
‘Well, well, Agatha,’ she chuckled. ‘So we meet again. I wonder which of these beauties you are? What shall we do with them, Miss Hardbroom?’
‘I suggest we change them back to their natural form again.’
‘But we can’t!’ cried Miss Cackle in dismay. ‘There are twenty of them.’
Miss Hardbroom looked faintly amused.
‘May I point out,’ she said, ‘paragraph five of rule number seven in the Witches’ Code, which states that anyone having been changed into any type of animal by another witch, for purposes of self-defence, cannot, on being changed back again, practise any form of magic against their captor. In other words, they must admit defeat.’
Miss Cackle looked embarrassed.
‘Oh, yes!’ she said brightly. ‘I remember now. It slipped my mind for the moment. Did you hear that, Agatha? Do you think they can hear us, Miss Hardbroom?’
‘Most certainly,’ replied Miss Hard
broom. ‘Perhaps you could line them up on your desk, and ask your sister to step forward?’
‘What a splendid idea,’ said Miss Cackle, who was beginning to enjoy herself. ‘Help me, Mildred, my dear.’
They lined the snails up on the desk and Miss Cackle asked Agatha to step forward. One snail shuffled rather reluctantly out of line.
‘Listen, Agatha,’ said Miss Cackle. ‘You must admit that you don’t really have much choice. If you will agree to abide by the Witches’ Code, then we can change you back, but not otherwise. If you agree, go back into line so that we know what you want us to do.’
The snail shuffled back into line again.
Miss Hardbroom spoke the words of the spell which released them, and suddenly the room was full of witches, all looking furious and talking angrily at the same time. The noise was terrible.
‘Will you be quiet at once!’ commanded Miss Cackle.
She turned to Mildred who was still perched on her chair. ‘You may go back to bed, Mildred, and in view of what you have done for the school this morning, I think we will have to forget about the interview you were to have had with Miss Hardbroom and myself this afternoon. Don’t you agree, Miss Hardbroom?’
Miss Hardbroom raised one eyebrow and Mildred’s heart sank.
‘Before I agree, Miss Cackle, if you’ll forgive me,’ she said, ‘I would just like to ask Mildred what she was doing wandering about on the mountain when she should have been in bed?’
‘I – I was out for a walk, Miss Hardbroom,’ replied Mildred.
‘And you just happened to have your spell book with you.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Mildred, unhappily.
‘Such devotion to the school!’ said Miss Hardbroom, smiling in a most unpleasant way. ‘Taking your spell book with you wherever you go. I expect you were also singing the school song as you rambled along, weren’t you, my dear?’
Mildred looked at the floor. She could feel all the other witches staring at her.
’I think we must let the child go to bed,’
said Miss Cackle. ‘Run along now, Mildred.’
Mildred shot out of the room before her form-mistress could say anything else, and was in bed in five seconds!
CHAPTER TEN
T noon the rising bell clanged through the
corridors but Mildred pulled the pillow over her head and went back to sleep. It wasn’t long before the door of her room burst open.
‘Wake up, Mildred!’ shrieked Maud, seizing the pillow and hitting her friend over the head with it.
Mildred screwed up her eyes against the daylight and saw what seemed to be hundreds of people around the bed all talking and shouting. Maud was actually on the bed, bouncing up and down.
‘What’s the matter?’ asked Mildred, sleepily.
‘As if you didn’t know!’ replied Maud, breathless from bouncing. ‘The whole school’s talking about it.’
‘About what?’ said Mildred, who was still half-asleep.
‘Will you wake up?’ shrieked Maud, pulling the bedclothes back. ‘You saved the whole school from Miss Cackle’s wicked sister, that’s all!’
Mildred sat bolt upright.
‘So I did!’ she exclaimed, and everyone laughed.
‘Miss Cackle’s called a meeting in the Great Hall,’ said Dawn and Gloria, two other members of Form One. ‘You’d better hurry and dress, she’ll expect you to be there.’
Mildred jumped out of bed and her friends went off to the hall. She was soon
ready and ran to join them, shoelaces trailing along the floor as usual.
Maud had saved a place for her, and Mildred was embarrassed to notice that everyone stared as she came into the hall. While they waited for the teachers to arrive, Mildred decided to tell her friend about Ethel.
‘Listen,’ she whispered, leaning towards Maud so that no one could hear. ‘It wasn’t my fault about the display. Ethel cast a spell on the broomstick that she lent me, and I know because she told me. Don’t tell anyone else, will you? But I wanted you to know because I don’t want you thinking that I was just being clumsy.’
The Worst Witch Page 3
