"Ouch," Maud muttered, slowly getting to her feet. She looked around the hallway for a moment, supposing she must have tripped on something.
"Stupid staircase," she muttered to herself. Suddenly she remembered that she was already late for the final Christmas play rehearsal, and hurried towards the Great Hall. It struck her as being unusually quiet – perhaps that meant they'd already started. She hoped that HB would not give her lines for coming in late. But as she pushed open the door slowly as to not make too much noise, a surprise greeted her.
There was nobody in the hall. There was no stage, no props, and no Christmas decorations.
Puzzled, she waited in the doorway for a while. She had only gone to fetch her costume shoes, she surely hadn't been upstairs long enough for everything to be put away – even by magic!
Maud didn't know what to do. She crossed the length of the Hall, still wondering where everyone could have gone. She decided to look in the neighbouring classroom and the courtyard, but nobody was there either. She reasoned that she must have made a mistake. Perhaps the rehearsal was at a different time; perhaps she was supposed to be doing something else right now.
She hesitated outside the staffroom for a moment. Would she be in worse trouble for truanting because she had forgotten where she was supposed to be? Or would it be better to admit to a teacher that she'd lost the rest of her class? As she was about to knock on the door, however, it swung open.
A girl she didn't recognise stood there.
"Are you new?" they said simultaneously. The pair stared at each other with a similarly confused expression.
"No," it was Maud who broke the stare, "I'm Maud. I've always gone to school here."
"Well I never saw you before," the girl replied, "What year are you in?"
"Third," Maud replied indignantly.
"No you aren't," said the girl.
Maud was confused and irritated by the girl, and she knew she was already going to get into trouble.
"Just-" she sighed, "Is Miss Drill in there? Or Miss Cackle?"
The girl scowled blankly at her as though she'd made an outrageous request.
Just then the staffroom door opened again – this time by a teacher, though not one Maud was expecting. She was tall and her hair was long and dark – but it wasn't Miss Hardbroom.
"What's going on?" she asked, "Evey, you should be in the library by now. I know you have lots of work to – "
The teacher's sentence trailed off as she laid eyes on Maud. Maud made eye contact with her, oddly feeling a sense of familiarity despite her current state of confusion.
"Miss, this girl – "
"Go to the library now, please, Evey," the teacher interrupted.
The teacher waited until Evey was far along down the corridor.
"What's your name?" she asked briskly, turning back to face Maud.
"M-Maud Moonshine"
"Oh no" she whispered under her breath.
She closed her eyes for a second and then opened the staffroom door.
"You better come in," she said.
"Sit"
Maud obliged, quickly taking the nearest seat at the table. The teacher sat across from her and stared at the table. This was uncomfortable for Maud, who still had no idea what was happening. She felt as though she should know this witch, but couldn't put her finger on a name.
"You're in third year, aren't you?"
"Yes," Maud nodded.
"Doing the play?"
"Yes… Miss…"
"Maud…." The teacher paused to experience the strangeness of this particular student addressing her as Miss, "Maud, it's me. I'm Mildred Hubble."