The New Miss Hardbroom.
She stared at herself in the mirror, wondering if this was who she was, for she could see no resemblance to the cheerful girl who'd once crashed her broomstick. For the moment, you wish it was all a bad dream, that the last few years never occurred. That your heart didn't collapse.
But you aren't dreaming, what you're seeing is reality. The woman in the mirror, cold, hard, unyielding is a far cry from the bubbly girl who attended Cackles Academy all those years ago.
That you wish the one you….loved, the one who you thought loved you, but ended up breaking your heart for no other reason than the fact you're a witch.
He's late, on today of all days. Your father and friends are waiting as well, your father is holding onto your shoulder, giving you strength. Your friends are being supportive. Goodness, its been so long since I last saw Maud, Enid, Jadu and Ruby. Your friends from Weirdsisters are there as well - Hobbes, dark mysterious Hobbes, dressed in his customary colours, but fortunately looking smart and dapper.
Cas, Azmat and Tim are also nearby, clearly impatient and concerned, wondering where on earth Ben is. What's taking so long ?
You bite your lip, as you glance at your wristwatch. He's over half an hour late.
When you hear the gates open, you look round with joy that today, the day you've been putting your heart into for months is about to start. It isn't Ben. It's one of his friends, he passes a letter to you. You take it, giving a puzzled look to him as he looks down, uncomfortable. Just looking at him makes me scared.
As you read the letter you can feel your heart crack, slowly, then it crashes on the last words.
Phrases like - " you're a witch," and " it wouldn't be right," or even better, " I'm not ready to get married, especially to a girl like you."
That one breaks your heart. Your mother gasps as she reads the letter, Elaine, Ben's mother looks embarrassed and ashamed. You don't care, all you can focus on is the pain and betrayal.
As I run out, I can hear my friends call after me after they've read it.
When I get back home, I tear the dress apart, tearing it to pieces in my rage. I'm so angry, more than I've ever been before. When I'm finished I collapse on my bed, crying….
Black. You remember how you used to hate the colour black since it's such a dismal colour, that it's the opposite of brighter, more lighter colours. You know that the monarch Queen Victoria wore black as a sign of remembrance for her husband, the reason you wear it is because you can't be happy anymore, that any form of it would bring nothing but more heartbreak.
You became more accustomed to it, hardly surprising since black is the principal colour of your school. Now, you love it. It's descriptive of your feelings, how you feel that your soul has darkened in your torment and grief.
As you put on your clothes, you slowly do up the zip and the buttons. As you've always done this, you feel that you're heart is darkening slowly but surely. One glance in the mirror, and you nod at the look you've now got.
She threw herself into her studies at college, not caring about your friends who desperately want to talk, you can't even go and work at the café. You quit the job by simply not going. You can't face Elaine, fortunately she doesn't hold anything against you, but you can't look her in the face without showing a sign of your rage and heartbreak.
You get another job, regardless of whether or not it's close to the college. You have heard nothing from Ben, not even anything from Elaine, whose tried to contact you. You simply don't care anymore. Your heart has died. The old you is dead, dead forever.
You can't face any form of happiness ever, Ben saw to that.
Your friends are worried about you, you can see it on their faces. Even Ethel is stunned by your transformation. She looks at you like you're no longer the girl, the enemy she once knew. Indeed, you are not. It's reflected as well in your appearance.
Where you once wore clothes in brighter colours, you've now changed your colours, made them darker. You remove the dye from your hair back to dark, wearing dark makeup. Not enough though, you don't want to look like a Goth. You're not that desperate. Besides, you remember that spell Enid cast on you to escape that rogue little broomstick.
She now puts on her shoes, high heels. The clack - clack sound they make startle anyone, making people think that death is beating sticks. As soon as you do up the buckles, your height is much greater, emphasising your figure.
It takes you a moment to feel the tightness die down as your feet adjust to the feel of the shoes.
Your breaking away. From everyone. Your friends, your family, everyone you care for. Tabby, another that's left, but fortunately died in your heart from a natural death, isn't an issue anymore. With his death, you know that you'll take his memory to your grave.
Your professors try to get you to move on, what do they think I'm doing ? I am moving on, studying and trying to make a new career for myself. Art no longer has a future for me, I do still paint and draw, but only occasionally.
Ethel, on the other hand, has learnt her place. She made a glib remark about Ben, only to find herself propelled into a wall and got herself almost crushed to death before you come to your senses. After that she's realised that you are no longer the enemy she once knew.
Cas and Maud make an effort to try and get you back to the old you, the one who was cheerful, the one who was helping others. You resist their efforts. There is a reason you came to college. You came to study, to learn.
To become a witch.
The years have changed your figure - you've always been tall, thin. But this takes it to new levels. Your body is thin, with no excess weight or fat. You no longer enjoy chocolate and sugar, even if you do indulge in the spoonfulls in your drinks. No, those indulgences in the past are joys. You can no longer stand joy. Work is all you have left.
Besides, this new figure helps you in your new role.
As a disciplinarian. Being thin highlights the new severity of your face, the fresh boniness of your face and the whiteness of your skin. Your aura is also helped by your physique.
Being overweight makes it difficult to make that possible, don't you think ?
The bonds of friendship breaks when Cas makes a fatal mistake - she tries to set me up on a date, only for you to overhear the whole plan from Azmat and Tim. They think that dating will make you the person you once where.
Betrayed, you break up with Cas and the boys, this is the last straw. You make them understand that. Maud and the other girls from Cackles are starting to back away from you as your rages become more and more intense. Cas wants to make up with you, to make you see that she meant no harm, that you should move on from Ben.
" Ben ?" You laugh, a harsh rasp of a sound like you've never laughed before. You don't anymore, you can't, you feel as though your heart has gone cold.
Cas looks scared as she hears your laugh, " Please, I just wanted - "
" Shut up."
" I - "
Furious, I wave my hand to make the bitch shut up, " I said shut up !" breathing hard in your anger and taking a deep breath, you start talking, " You had no right. I don't want to date anyone. Ever ! Men are evil, just like my old form teacher always said. Ben proved it, you remember the pig ? The one that broke my heart, on my OWN wedding. I loved him with my heart and soul. What did he do ? Answer me Cas ! Answer me ! What did he do ?" you shout.
Cas is terrified as you shout like a madwoman, she now knows that you will never be the girl she remembers.
After that you no longer have any friends.
You wince as you tighten your hair into a tight bun. You've always worn your hair in pigtails, a sign of innocence. You are no longer innocent, every time you tighten your hair like this you show that your innocence collapsed and died. You are no longer innocent.
Not after the pig broke your heart.
After leaving Weirdsister with honours, you start to apply for more and more challenging courses elsewhere. You are no longer the girl who can't brew a simple basic potion or cast a basic spell. You've become more and more proficient in your magical abilities. You drive yourself, studying day and almost all night. One or two young wizards make passes at you. With your newly long black hair, newly grown after having it close cropped for two years, thin figure and pretty face, you make an attractive looking creature.
You give them the cold shoulder, after what happened with the Pig as you now call Ben, you can never ever get married and have the sort of life you once wanted.
In another 4 years, you've amassed qualifications in many fields of magic, potions and spell casting. Your transformation, the one you haven't stopped, continues when you start applying for positions in education. You've already been training to be a teacher at schools and colleges, gaining experience and references from schools like Pentangles and so on. You don't apply for Cackle's, you know your cousin is now attending and the last thing you want is to get in a family squabble.
You now know why Miss Hardbroom always showed contempt for men. You now feel it as well, it burns in your veins every time you see a member of the opposite sex.
A good thing I didn't get pregnant from the pig. I doubt the child would be alive in my rage.
That was five years ago, five years of teaching has helped shape you and your outlook on the world. You no longer think of the world as a nice place to live in, you now see it in its most hideous.
Five years since you last saw your family on good terms. They now see you as a stranger, that doesn't surprise you but it doesn't mean you don't feel saddened by it.
You are now focused on one thing in your life.
Your work. Nothing more and nothing less. You don't ever go out for drinks with friends since you no longer have any since the friendships you've had in the past have been broken off. It was your decision, and you can't do another thing about it. You break down sometimes, lonely, with only your paintings and art work, with the schoolwork to keep you company.
A photo album sits on your bedside table, in it are memories of when you were once a different person.
By this time you've finished dressing in your work clothes, looking like a clone of your old teacher.
Miss Constance Hardbroom.
Never once in the years at Cackle's did you ever see yourself as a clone of your teacher, nor did you ever see that fate and destiny has been shaping yourself into a younger copy of Constance Hardbroom.
My name is Mildred Hubble, and this is the story of how I became the new Miss Hardbroom.