The Worst Witch (8 page)

‘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!

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.’

‘But everyone already knows,’ said Maud.

‘Do they?’ exclaimed Mildred. ‘Who told them?’

‘Well, you know what Ethel’s like,’ replied Maud. ‘She just had to tell someone how clever she’d been so she told Harriet, and Harriet thought it was a dreadful thing to do so
she
told everyone else. No one’s talking to Ethel now and Miss Hardbroom found out too and was furious with her.’

‘Shhhhh!’ said someone. ‘They’re coming.’

Everyone stood up as Miss Cackle came

in, followed by Miss Hardbroom and all the other teachers.

‘You may sit down, girls,’ said the headmistress. ‘As you all know, the school narrowly escaped invasion this morning. Had it not been for a certain young member of the school we should not be here but would be hopping about turned into frogs.’

The girls laughed.

‘No, no, girls! Do not laugh! It would not be at all funny had it happened. However, as it did
not
happen, I proclaim the rest of today a half holiday in honour of Mildred Hubble. Mildred, would you come up here for a moment?’

Mildred went bright red and was pushed to her feet. She stumbled through the rows of chairs, tripping over feet as she went, and clumped across the platform to Miss Cackle’s table.

‘Now don’t be shy, my dear,’ said Miss Cackle beaming. She turned to the school. ‘Come along, school! Three cheers for our heroine Mildred.’

Mildred blushed and twisted her fingers behind her back as the cheers rang out.

It was a relief to ‘the heroine’ when it was all over. As they filed out of the hall, she was thumped on the back and congratulated by everyone – except for Ethel who gave Mildred the nastiest look you’ve ever seen.

‘Good old Mil!’ yelled someone.

‘We’ll get out of our chanting test, thanks to you,’ said someone else.

‘Thanks for the holiday!’

‘Thanks, Mil!’ And so on.

Maud flung an arm around her friend.

‘You did look embarrassed,’ she said. ‘You went ever so red, I could see you from the back of the hall!’

‘Oh,
don’t
,’ said Mildred. ‘Let’s go and fetch the kittens and make the most of our holiday.’

‘One moment,’ said a chilling voice that they knew so well. The two girls turned to find their form-mistress standing behind them. They jumped to attention at once, wondering what they had done which was a natural reaction whenever Miss Hardbroom spoke.

This time, however, to their amazement, she smiled, a friendly smile not like the usual curl at the corner of the lips.

‘I just wanted to say thank you, Mildred,’ she said. ‘Run along now, girls, and enjoy your holiday before it’s over.’

She smiled again and vanished.

The girls just stared at each other.

‘Sometimes,’ said Mildred, ‘I think she probably isn’t as mean as we think she is.’

‘Perhaps you are right, Mildred,’ said

Miss Hardbroom’s voice from behind Mildred’s ear, and the two girls jumped in horror!

Mildred grabbed her friend’s hand and they hurried away down the corridor out into the misty playground leaving Miss Hardbroom’s laughter echoing from nowhere along the empty passage.