"Gather round girls, gather round!"
Their Great Hall lay in ruins.
Part from a few walls and columns that still stand erected, the roof was completely destroyed – debris lie around everywhere, covering most of the Hall and the platform where the staff were supposed to stand and stay during gatherings.
Students and staff alike were huddled together in the little spaces that were left; some using piled-up wreckage as a stump of some sort – sitting on them as a make-shift seat.
"Is everyone here?" Miss Constance Hardbroom asked, scanning around and checking everyone currently present in the Hall, mentally making a head count. Her hair was in disarray. Her normally neat and tight bun were lose – some of the dark locks covering her face. She looked sour more than ever.
She was answered with incoherent babbling from students and other staff members filing inside the hall.
"Silence please!" She called, but the loud chatters did not stop. It grew louder as a first year student, Sybil Hallow, stumbled and fell on a pile of wooden scraps. A few other girls loudly giggled.
A girl with strikingly red hair up in pig tails, Clarice Crow, though giggling herself, helped her now whimpering friend stand up.
"I SAID SILENCE!"
At the boom of Miss Hardbroom's voice all went silent at once.
"Good. Headmistress?" she called. Miss Amelia Cackle's usually calm and gentle demeanor has been overshadowed by weariness. Her hair was a mess, and her eyes lost their usual twinkling. She stood up beside Miss Hardbroom, regarding all that were present with tired, calculating eyes.
"As you can see", Miss Cackle gestured around the hall, "our beloved school is in complete shambles."
Miss Cackle fixed her gaze upon one particular student, a girl with long, dark, braided pig tails. She gazed on her for a long time, and soon everyone did the same. The girl bowed her head in shame.
"I am tired-", Miss Cackle went on, "-as I am sure you all are as well. The staff and I will have a meeting on what to do from this moment onwards. I suggest all of you, for the meantime, to camp out in the school courtyard. We will be spending the night in tents."
Whines from the students erupted.
Miss Hardbroom scoffed loudly. "Well, the school is partially destroyed and surely so do your dormitories. What do you expect?"
"Mildred Hubble", Miss Cackle called. The girl in long, dark, pig tails, Mildred Hubble, visibly stilled as she heard her name. "You will meet me, and your friends, first thing tomorrow morning." Mildred silently nodded in reply.
"Mister Blossom?" Miss Cackle called. A middle-aged man raised his hand in the air. "Yes, Miss Cackle?"
"Kindly please assist the girls in setting up the camp in the school courtyard." Miss Cackle instructed.
"Yes, on it!" Mister Blossom replied, and went off to do the arrangements.
"Now, I want all of you to follow Mister Blossom and help him set up the tents for the camp tonight. Manually. No magic. I expect you all to follow accordingly. I have enough mayhem for today. Do not even dare-" She paused, taking a deep breath. "Am I understood?"
"Yes Miss Cackle."
"Miss Drill? Miss Bat?" Miss Cackle motioned for them, and both women walked towards her until they were both in front of her. "If you can please, supervise the girls in helping Mister Blossom setting up the camp."
The short-haired blonde woman, Miss Imogen Drill, nodded earnestly in reply. A woman dressed in black with a very messy hair in a bun, Miss Davina Bat, answered Miss Cackle with a too much enthusiastic "Yes headmistress!" for Miss Cackle's liking.
"Miss Hardbroom and I will try to retrieve your things as much as we can. Remember, no magic. Do you hear me?"
"Yes Miss Cackle."
"Do you hear me?" Miss Cackle reiterated warningly.
"Yes Miss Cackle!"
Miss Cackle sighed. "Alright, go on." She shooed all of them with the wave of her hand. "Let's go, Constance."
Miss Hardbroom followed her out of the hall, as the rest went off to the school courtyard to set the camp for the night.