The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star (15 page)

iss Cackle was seated behind her desk when Mildred and Miss Hardbroom entered her study.

‘Ah, Mildred, my dear!’ she said in her most friendly voice. Mildred’s spirits rose – being called ‘my dear’ was a very good sign. ‘Congratulations to our winning team,’ continued Miss Cackle. ‘Sit down.’

‘Sit!’ said Mildred to Star.

‘No dear!’ laughed Miss Cackle. ‘I meant
you
.’

Mildred sat down shyly and Star crept under her chair and flattened himself into the floor, remembering the last time he had been in the room.

‘Miss Hardbroom and I have been discussing your superb performance at the Supreme Magician’s castle today,’ said Miss Cackle, ‘and we both agreed that you flew like a different person.’

‘And we could not help noticing,’ continued Miss Hardbroom, ‘that you seemed to be completely in tune with your new dog-companion here – a truly magnificent performance, in fact.’

‘Thank you, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Mildred, ‘he’s just so good at flying. He always was, right from the first time I put him on the broom. I’m only the pilot really, steering him round so he can show off all his tricks.’

‘That’s rather
over
-modest, Mildred,’ said Miss Cackle ‘There was a lot of input from you, especially in such difficult manoeuvres as the loop-the-loop –’

‘And nosedives, Mildred!’ interrupted Miss Hardbroom. ‘I seem to remember you had a great deal of trouble with your nosedives at the beginning of your school career.’

At this point, Mildred hunched her shoulders nervously up round her ears, unsure of what the two teachers were actually trying to tell her. They were managing to sound admiring and disapproving at the same time and she wasn’t quite sure what was coming next.

‘Don’t look so worried, Mildred,’ said Miss Cackle, nodding at her encouragingly. ‘We have some rather
good
news for you, don’t we, Miss Hardbroom?’

‘We certainly do,’ said Miss Hardbroom. ‘You see, Mildred, it would seem to us, that the marked difference in your flying skill is down to the fact that you now have a broom-companion with natural ability.’

‘And we have also noticed,’ said Miss Cackle, ‘that your tabby cat – yes, I
know
he is a sweet little thing,’ she added, seeing the alarm on Mildred’s face, ‘but he’s not doing you any favours, Mildred. The Grand High Witch herself explained that it’s perfectly acceptable for a witch to have
any
animal on her broomstick, so we have decided to alter the time-honoured tradition of cats at this academy and allow you to have Star as your broomstick-companion. What do you say, Mildred?’

‘But what about Tabby?’ asked Mildred anxiously. ‘I can’t just send him away; he needs me, Miss Cackle – and I need him. He’s my best cat – he’s my
only
cat!’

‘You don’t
have
to send him away, my dear,’ said Miss Cackle. ‘There is no reason at all why you shouldn’t keep them both: Star for broomstick duties and Tabby for doing what he likes best – let’s face it – staying in your room in the warm and avoiding flying at all costs!
Now
, what do you say?’

‘Oh,
thank
you, Miss Cackle!’ exclaimed Mildred. ‘That would be so wonderful, I can’t think of anything better!’

‘Off you go then, Mildred,’ said Miss Cackle, rising from her chair. ‘You can go and tell all your friends the good news.’

Mildred and Star were halfway out of the door when Miss Hardbroom stopped them. ‘Wait a moment,’ she said, lifting a new Lantern Monitor’s holdall from behind the desk, ‘don’t forget the lanterns tonight, Mildred – we still need to see where we’re going, even if our best lantern-lighter
is
the school heroine of the moment. And I’ve had a word with Ethel and asked her to keep to her own side of the school, so there won’t be any trouble.’

‘Thank you
so
much, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Mildred fervently. ‘I promise I won’t let you down.’

‘And, Mildred,’ added Miss Cackle pleasantly, ‘no more strays, all right? I think that a cat, a dog, a tortoise
and
a colony of bats are quite enough to cram into one small room – any more and you’ll need an extension!’

ne day, a few weeks after the competition, the teachers were in the staffroom at morning break, excitedly discussing the swimming pool, which was at the planning stage. For a while, no one had been able to think of a place to put it as the school was perched on top of a mountain. In the end they decided on a back yard (called the Small Playground), which was only used occasionally for individual broomstick lessons. Miss Cackle had just received the architect’s plans, beautifully drawn out, showing the pool with a glass roof like a greenhouse and a row of changing rooms. The plan looked thrilling from all angles and everyone was poring over it on the table, clutching their mugs of tea.

‘I wish we’d got something nice to go with our tea,’ said Miss Cackle. ‘I’m afraid we’ve completely run out of biscuits, even the boring ones.’

At that moment, the door opened and, to everyone’s astonishment, Miss Hardbroom came into the room, her face glowing in the light of a candle-covered cake. She carried it over to the table and set it down very carefully for everyone to admire, Miss Drill surreptitiously attempting to count the candles, so she could work out how old Miss Hardbroom was.

‘What’s all this, Miss Hardbroom?’ asked Miss Cackle, who couldn’t help noticing the chocolate cake underneath the candles.

‘It’s my birthday today,’ announced Miss Hardbroom, ‘and I thought it was about time I had a proper cake, so that we could all have a slice with our morning cup of tea.’

‘What a splendid idea, Miss Hardbroom!’ agreed Miss Cackle fervently.

Miss Hardbroom took a deep breath and blew out all the candles in one go. Everyone clapped politely.

‘Did you make a wish, Miss Hardbroom?’ asked Miss Cackle, as they busied themselves removing the candles and cutting up the cake.

‘Oh really, Miss Cackle,’ laughed Miss Hardbroom, handing the headmistress an extra-large slice. ‘As if anyone actually believes in all that silly nonsense.’