Disclaimer - I don't own the Worst Witch.
First of two Worst Witch one-shots around Christmas. Please leave some feedback, let me know what you think.
A Cackles' Christmas.
Mildred Hubble had a bright grin on her face as she helped the other students put up the Christmas decorations, with a real tree. It was extremely rare for her and her mother to have a real Christmas tree in the flat - her mother didn't really approve of them that much since they caused such a mess and while they were beautiful she didn't really like the thought of mass growing the trees, and cutting them down and decorating them with colourful baubles.
With her were her two friends Maud and Enid, and both of them were smiling as well. "Looking forward to the Christmas break, Millie?" Maud asked.
"Yeah," Mildred replied, thankful that Cackles didn't automatically keep the students locked up for a whole term during this point in time, and let them spend a couple of weeks on holiday to enjoy Christmas and the New Year before they returned to Cackles to complete the term. "What about you, any plans?"
"My family are going to Switzerland this year," Enid said with a casual smile, clearly happy about the trip; Mildred felt a little bit of jealousy for her friend, but she was glad that Enid would be having fun.
"Sounds cool," Maud replied before she snickered at the joke, and made her two friends roll her their eyes, though they both laughed at the joke. A few of the other girls hid their own chuckles.
"Maud Spellbody. Enid Nightshade. Mildred Hubble," Miss Hardbroom's deadly whisper wiped the smiles off the faces of everyone decorating the tree. "You are supposed to be decorating this tree, not chatting and making poor jokes."
"Yes, Miss Hardbroom," all three girls chanted at once, hoping that HB had other things to do than bother with a detention, but they quickly pushed that thought aside; Miss Hardbroom had a truly spooky talent for hanging around and knowing what was in the minds of the kids she was glaring at.
Miss Hardbroom nodded approvingly and vanished. Mildred had to admit HB had a style that was next to impossible to match. The girls decorating the Christmas tree fell silent, they didn't know if HB was still lurking around.
When they were finished decorating the tree, the girls moved on to their next lesson. During Christmas, you would expect no one would give out as much work, but then again some people had never heard of Cackles' Academy. It seemed as though the teachers were showing their sadistic tendencies by putting as much course and homework on the shoulders of the students.
"Have you guys got presents yet?" Maud asked the others.
"I've got mine sorted out, but I just need to wrap them," Felicity said.
"Me too," Drusilla added.
Mildred didn't say a word since she was still getting the presents she needed for her friends. Cackles was an expensive school to attend, but there was a loophole that allowed the school to give the students a small allowance at this time of year so they could buy little gifts, but that was it. There was a small catalogue that students were given, and all they had to do was select what they wanted and order them in much the same way you would call someone with a mirror.
As a second year, Mildred felt she was lucky to still be around. She had already gotten her presents for Maud, Enid, and her mother, but she had planned on getting other presents as well, though she wondered if it was a good idea in the long term. She wasn't really sure if it was worth getting a gift for the teachers, but she only took a brief look at the catalogue a few times trying to work out what she could get them. Mildred didn't really speak to either Maud or Enid about the idea of getting gifts for the teachers, but she would keep looking before it was time to go home.
Mildred and the other girls continued chatting but they were surprised when someone pushed past them roughly, the blond hair was a dead giveaway.
"What the hell, Ethel-?" Felicity gasped before Ethel swung round, and the protest died down when they saw Ethel's face. This wasn't the usual sneering, haughty Ethel Hallow they were used to dealing with.
For a start, her long blond hair was a little dishevelled like she hadn't seen the point of combing it today, but when the girls thought about it none of them had seen Ethel or even Esmerelda, for that matter, look happy. In fact, both girls appeared to only go through the days because they had nothing better to do.
The only Hallow sister happy about Christmas was Sybil, but that girl did seem to be happy about everything, at least when she was not sobbing her heart out because she was homesick, but since the school would be turning out because of Christmas, it was probable she was just happy to be going home for a brief time.
But it was the expression on Ethel's face that silenced Felicity, and it made Maud, Mildred, Enid, and even Drusilla shut up in disbelief. Ethel looked like she was a moment away from bursting into tears, something that didn't seem at home on her face normally. Ethel swung back around and carried on her way, but Mildred called out. "Ethel, what's wrong?"
"Go away!" Ethel shouted back, but Mildred wouldn't go away, and ignoring her own friends, she chased after Ethel, all the time worried that she might attract HB's attention, but she wanted to know what Ethel's problem was. Everyone had noticed Ethel's appalling mood swings over the last few days, and Mildred's big heart called for her to try to find out what the problem was. Granted, she knew deep inside it probably was not a wise move, but she wanted to try.
Mildred knew there was some kind of weird connection between her and Ethel Hallow, but she had quickly worked out the pair of them would probably never be friends. But she lost the blond haired girl in the maze of corridors - Ethel had had a decent head start, and Mildred was unsure where Ethel had gone, so she gave up and returned to her friends.
After dinner, Mildred had almost forgotten about the incident with Ethel, but a part of her hadn't forgotten which probably made sense why she decided to go past Ethel's bedroom on the way to her own room.
She heard voices from the bedroom, and she paused as she recognised the voices of Ethel and her elder sister.
"-another stupid Christmas," Ethel was saying, but her voice sounded shaky like she'd been crying.
"Hey, don't be like that-" Esmerelda tried to say, but she was quickly interrupted by Ethel. "Why shouldn't I be like that? It's alright for you. At least you'll get the great gifts from our parents, I and Sybil will only get the scraps."
"For your information, our parents always give me books to read up and study. Stupid Witches' code - you might think it's going to be great for me to inherit everything in our family - name, title, prestige, businesses, and getting tutored by daddy dearest," Mildred gaped at the sarcastic and furious way Esmerelda spoke about her father, and it made her realise Ethel wasn't the only Hallow girl to have problems with her family, "on how to run the family business when he retires. But I don't want any of that; I want to be a normal teenager, Ethel. I want to have fun, go to parties, get drunk, have sex with guys," Mildred was glad she wasn't the only one to be surprised by how direct Esmerelda was about her wants if the gasp Ethel let out was any indication, "but I can't because the Witches' code forbids it. Stupid Great Wizard, I glad I didn't have to speak to him when he was here, otherwise I'd have lashed out at him for all the crap I've had to put up with. Study, study, study, being treated as nothing more than a commodity by our own parents. Do you think I enjoy seeing you and Sybil getting afterthoughts for Christmas presents?"
"I never thought of it like that, but I am just so tired," Ethel whispered.
"Of what?" Esmerelda asked, and Mildred leaned closer to the door, but she didn't go too close in case either of the Hallows opened the door and found her listening outside. She had learnt the hard way that wasn't the best thing to experience.
"I'm tired of seeing all of those girls in the corridors putting up decorations, hearing how Mildred Hubble has gotten her mother a Christmas present. I am just so jealous of her, Esme, she doesn't have what we have, but what she does have is far better; she has a mother who loves her, and doesn't seem to really care if her own daughter is so bad at school."
"I know. I'm as jealous as you are," Esmerelda whispered. Mildred almost let out a cry of indignation, she hadn't realised that her personal life was so offensive to the Hallow sisters. Who the hell were they to judge her and the relationship she had with her mother? Mildred had half a mind to storm into the bedroom, but what Esmerelda said next stopped her. "But I don't hate her, in fact I admire her for putting up with the teachers who could easily take her aside and help her, but can't because the Witches's code's rules about teaching and education mean they are there only to guide the students and not actually teach them anything because they know that young witches are told by their parents they only need to think about what they want their spells to do, and create an incantation or picture it in their mind, they can't. I've often thought of taking her aside and giving that little tip myself, but I've held back because she is more than able to work it out herself."
Mildred was staggered by what she had just heard, and a part of her was betrayed that neither Maud or Enid had told her about that little tidbit, but she worked out that like everybody else, they were just as many slaves of the Witches' code as everyone else, but one thing was for sure she now had a good idea about what to do with her powers. She had a lot of work to do to catch up.
But one thing was for sure, she was partway between feeling apathetic towards the plight of the Hallow girls, and part way between feeling sorry for the pair of them. Mildred walked off and headed for her bedroom, now lost in thought. When she arrived, she threw herself onto her bed, absently picked up Tabby and thought about the Hallows.
Mildred had never really paid much attention to the Witches' code, though she knew if she wanted to become a fully fledged witch she needed to, each time she picked that stupid book up she became bored with it. The Witches' code was full of rules and regulations about how witches were to lead their lives, but what offended her the most was the implication she was a second-class citizen because she didn't have a family of witches behind her. That was one of the reasons she had tried so hard to discover if she had any magic in her family. But what could she do about the Hallows, and she realised how sorry she felt for them, but that did not justify the jealousy they felt towards her for loving her mother.
She wasn't going to throw that away because two girls who were clearly unhappy and having problems of their own were using her as a scapegoat.
Mildred wondered what she could do to help, and then she realised she couldn't help. They knew the Witches' code would not allow them to complain, but surely the code didn't mean that neither Esmerelda, Ethel, or Sybil couldn't have lives of their own. Thinking of the younger girl made her wonder if Sybil was just as envious, then she pushed that aside.
Didn't Agatha Cackle have some type of job before she threw it all away?
There was nothing she could do, but perhaps she could make the two blonds realise they didn't need to feel victimised their entire lives.
Mildred shrugged her shoulders, and she went over to her desk, deciding to put the matter of the Hallows out of her mind, and she decided to catch up with her magic. Remembering what Esmerelda had said about young witches being told by their parents they had to only think about what they wanted their spells to do, she picked up her rubber - it was small, nice and simple - and she pictured it becoming a small marble and she clicked her fingers over it, focusing her mind on the change.
The rubber transformed into a marble, and she smiled in delight, and she continued with her little experiments. She turned the marble into a dice, then to a coin, then a rubber duck, a reel of cotton. Finally, she got bored and switched over to a pencil. After about 20 minutes, Mildred had transformed it into a pen, a plastic wand, a flag, a small hat, an apple, an orange, and then a mouse, and then a frog. Finally, Mildred transformed it back into a pencil, and then she moved on and remembering how HB had conjured a mouse out of thin air, she pictured a can of orange spray paint on the table and she waved her hand, and it appeared, though it was leaking. Cursing furiously, Mildred quickly grabbed something to wipe the mess away. Well, at least she had got most of it right.
Mildred got rid of the spray paint can, willing to keep going but she was no longer interested in magic at that point, so she went back to Tabby after throwing open the window to let in some fresh air to take away the stench of the paint from the can, and she went back to thinking about the Hallows. Nothing sprang to mind, so she got up again, ignoring Tabby's yowl of protest, and picked up the catalog on her desk and skimmed through it idly, but truthfully because she didn't really spend that much time with the Hallows - Esmerelda because she was an older student, and Ethel because her bitchy attitude tended to put everyone but Drusilla off - she had no idea what they would've liked.
But then she realised that it didn't need to be a material thing, it could be something small scale, simple and yet touching at the same time. She thought she found the answer to the problem when her eyes came upon a particular item. She looked up in thought and she decided what the hell, it might not be what Ethel was expecting, but it was simple and small enough for the girl to appreciate its meaning.
As soon as the items she had ordered at the last minute arrived, Mildred put them on her desk, and very clearly she closed her eyes and pictured in her mind what she wanted before she clicked her fingers, and she heard the spell take place before she opened her eyes, and saw to her delight all of the presents that she'd gotten for everyone had been wrapped up neatly without the presents looking like they'd been wrapped by a blind person.
Mildred picked up the pile of presents and left her bedroom. It was the last day of the term before the Christmas, or Yule holiday, as the witches and teachers referred to the occasion as, and the students were to take all of their presents to the Great Hall where they'd be sent, en masse, to the homes of the respective students. Mildred exchanged smiles with the teachers, and she even sent a small, but tentative smile towards Ethel, but the blond girl just blanked her. Mentally shrugging, Mildred placed her presents gently on one of the tables in the room where the teachers would sort through them, and put them in the piles to be sent off.
Mildred wasn't even sure if she was even going to get any presents from anyone outside her immediate circle of friends, just because she was on good terms with some people didn't mean they would go that far. After a particularly boring speech from Cackle, followed by a more frightening speech from HB, and then the good wishes from the various teachers, the entire student body flew home on their broomsticks.
Mildred may not have been the best flyer in the school, but she wasn't that bad as long as there was no pressure on her, like if she was performing a broomstick display, or performing a test in front of the teachers. As she approached her flat, Mildred grinned as she saw her mother looking nervous as she arrived, but there was a look of awe on her face.
"For someone who says she's rubbish, and having to hear the teachers say it as well, you're actually good at flying," Julie commented as she hugged her daughter, and squeezing her to her chest.
Mildred laughed and returned the hug, sighing happily as she fell into her mother's familiar embrace. "Hi, mum, how was work?"
Julie sighed. "Long," she replied, "Luckily I didn't get the shifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, but Boxing Day is a possibility."
Mildred nodded with a sigh, she had kind of expected that, but she was used to the chaos that went into Christmas time at the hospital, it never ceased to amaze the two Hubbles' about how many injuries you could get during the season.
Mildred followed her mother into the warmth of the flat - she knew only too well her flat's relatively small size might be cramped by the standards of some of the witches at the school, but she didn't care if they had manor houses, townhouses, or mansions with over 50 acres, to her this was home. It was true she didn't have much, but that didn't matter so long as she had her mother. That was enough for her.
After slipping off her cloak, witches' hat, and took off her uniform, slipping into her home clothes and putting her hair into a ponytail, Mildred joined her mother in the sitting room. Julie handed her a steaming mug of hot chocolate. "So, how was school?" she asked.
Mildred wondered what she could say. "Do you remember what I told you about Ethel Hallow?" she asked.
"What's she done now?"
"Nothing much," Mildred replied, "I saw her upset about Christmas. She's not happy because her mum and dad give her nothing but scraps, and her big sister Esmerelda isn't happy either because while she gets good presents, they are nothing but books or other things to help her study. It's 'cause she's the elder sister, and she's going to inherit everything in her family."
Julie held up her hand as she tried to remember what she'd read about the Witches' code - while some of it offended her, especially the parts where Mildred would need to learn how to do things herself (she had learnt about that after the parents' evening debacle the year before - she had wanted to put Hardbroom in her place for a while, after all), but she had learnt about that recently. "I remember reading that part," she said, "oh, that reminds me, Mildred, I found something in the code that means-"
"- that I would need to learn magic myself because it's expected that young witches and wizards already know how to use magic and that teachers are only meant to guide the students," Mildred finished for her.
"Oh, you know," Julie said, "sorry, I was going to tell you, but I'd only just found it, and I wanted to work it out in my mind to get the basic gist. When did you find out?"
"A few days ago. I listened to Ethel and Esmerelda outside Ethel's room - I know what you've said about eavesdropping, mum - and they talked about it. I did some practising after that, and I've been doing it for the last few days; I doubt I'll be good at potions anytime soon, but hey, I might do wonderfully at spells. I also heard from the two sisters how jealous they were of us - they have rich parents, a great big house, while you and I live in this flat, but I'm happier than they are because I've got your love and affection."
Julie smirked a little bit at the famous words from the Robbie Williams' song, but it quickly disappeared as she thought about what Mildred had just told her about the Hallow sisters. She hadn't really seen them when she had visited Cackles for the parents evening, but she had caught sight of a short blond girl who was Mildred's age and figured it might've been Ethel. But Julie hadn't really been bothered about meeting the girl since, like her daughter, she didn't let bullies get to her that much, and besides, she had been more concerned by what the teachers might say about her kid.
Psychology was not Julie's strong point, but she did know enough about it to guess the Hallow girls were constantly hurt by their parents, but what upset her the most was that they were jealous of other people - you only heard about that kind of thing in movies, and on TV, of rich kids envying those without much money, but if the Hallows thought she was going to stop loving her child, giving her hugs and kisses, just to sooth them, then they would get another thing coming.
"Do you feel jealous of them?" Julie asked, hearing a slight touch of it in Mildred's voice.
"A little bit," Mildred admitted. "I don't care about the mansion, but I envy Ethel for having a family."
Julie made an hmm of agreement, but otherwise, she didn't say a word. She actually found it ironic - the Hallows envied her and Mildred for having each other when they had nothing, and she and Mildred envied some of their material possessions but most of all envied the fact they actually had such a large family.
"I don't blame you," Julie murmured, trying hard to keep the memories of the past from surfacing in her mind; she would not think about them. "But what have you done, did you invite them here for Christmas?"
Mildred shook her head. "No, I gave them a Christmas present instead."
Julie's brow crinkled. "What did you give them?"
Mildred smiled and told her.
On Christmas day, the Hallow sisters began opening their presents. Watched by their parents and dressed in their night clothes and dressing gowns, the sisters opened their parents, and because Mr and Mrs Hallow didn't have a touch of empathy in their souls for any of their children once they'd passed the age of 4, they didn't notice that their eldest daughters' smiles were faked.
Neither Esmerelda or Ethel liked Christmas that much because to them the same things happened - Esmerelda because her presents were the same, books about spells and potions. While this had definitely given her a lot of help into broadening her repertoire of magic, she just wanted to have fun like other teens, and she didn't want to study all the time, especially for those boring competitions where even her failures and losses were a result of praise.
For Ethel, it was because she was given scraps. She got books, definitely, but some of them were out of date, or they had pages missing - this was particularly irritating because witches appreciated older books, since they possessed a great deal of knowledge, and any missing pages would just make them useless.
Out of all the sisters, only Sybil received any presents with some degree of love since she was still the baby, even if she was eleven years old, but her more perky disposition made her happiness more genuine, and both Esmerelda and Ethel envied the younger girl's exuberance.
Esmerelda came upon one of the last presents - her own were stacked neatly to be taken up to her room where he'd have a look at them afterwards before returning to school - and she frowned when she came across a package which felt like a book, but she could tell from the label which surprisingly read ' To the Hallow sisters' in an unfamiliar script which wasn't written by anyone that the teenager knew. Esmerelda looked up and saw Ethel was busy opening another package, so she took the initiative and opened it herself, and her confusion grew when she saw that it was a book, but there was no title on it. A card was right underneath the colourful paper, and Esmerelda abandoned what she was doing, and opened it up and read it.
The moment she had read more than three lines, her eyes widened in surprise, and she looked up and saw that Ethel was placing yet another battered book that looked like it had been lifted out of a charity shop.
"Ethie, you'd better see this," Esmerelda said softly.
Ethel came over. "What is it?"
Esmerelda showed her. "This is from Mildred," she said in surprise, and Ethel's eyes widened for a second before narrowing, and she quickly tore off the paper of the package the dark-haired witch had gifted to them, fully expecting it to be something horrible, but she was surprised. It was a scrapbook, of all things. Esmerelda then forced Ethel to read the card she had begun to read herself.
"To the Hallow sisters,
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas. You're probably wondering why I have sent you a scrapbook at all, but if you'll give me a chance, I'll explain.
I eavesdropped on your conversation outside your room, Ethel. I had been considered about you all day after you have run off like that when I and the others were discussing Christmas.
When you both talked about how jealous you both were about what I've got between myself and my mother, I was tempted to barge in and tell you it's not all fun and games - I love my mother, but you both have a large family, you know your roots, and you've got grandparents, aunts and uncles. I don't - I only have my mother.
I'm also a bit envious of what you have, but not by much. If there's one thing I've learnt about things like big houses, power boats, planes, and cars, its that they are just things, and in a few years they will just gather dust and be forgotten. You have something I have wanted my whole life - you two (you, and Esmerelda) have each other.
I am giving you a scrapbook so then you can both fill it with whatever you want because the three of you are sisters and you've got each other no matter what, and to start it off, I hope you don't mind, I've already added a couple of things to break it in, but you can use it however you want.
Anyway, I hope the pair of you, and your younger sister, have a happy Christmas.
Love Mildred.
PS - Thanks for telling me about how to improve my spell work - it's certainly working, and now I know what to do its child's play."
Curious, in spite of themselves, though they were both inwardly annoyed and concerned Mildred had eavesdropped on their private conversation, though the card had given them a lot to think about, the two Hallow girls opened the scrapbook and the sight that met their eyes made them gape in amazement.
The first few pages were full of drawings of the Hallow sisters - all three of them - some individual pictures or all three of them together. There was a picture of all three of the girls flying on their broomsticks, all in perfect formation, cats astride on their broomsticks. But one of the most touching pictures was Ethel and Sybil being hugged by Esmerelda. The Hallow sisters were already aware of Mildred's artistic talents, but they had never seen so many of her drawings in one place before.
"What's that?" Sybil, who had already opened all of her presents, had wandered over and peered curiously at the scrapbook. Her eyes widened at the pictures she saw of herself and her sisters, and like them, she didn't have any problems recognising Mildred's work. "I thought you hated Mildred," she commented to Ethel, "why is she sending us a present?"
Esmerelda glanced at Ethel, seeing her expression frozen in surprise, but what upset her the most were the tears in Ethel's eyes. Esmerelda knew that Ethel's greatest fear was losing the love of those who loved her, namely herself and Sybil, but she knew that the scrapbook had struck a chord in Ethel. Esmerelda read the card again, but instead of feeling angry towards Mildred for eavesdropping like she had been earlier, the older Hallow sister was actually quite touched by the gift.
"Ethie?" Esmerelda whispered, gently reaching up and prodding her sister.
Ethel jumped and looked into her big sister's face. "Why would she do this to us, give us something we don't even want?"
Esmerelda loved her sister, but sometimes she was just too obtuse. "Mildred gave it to us to remind us that just because things are bad, we will always have each other," she said, repeating the lines from the card that had come with the present.
"What do we fill it with?" Sybil asked. The youngest Hallow sister didn't understand what the problem with Mildred was - sure, the dark-haired girl was clumsy, but she was nice, and Sybil got on okay with her. "We've got dozens of pictures in the albums we can fill it with."
Esmerelda smiled at her sister hoping she wasn't grimacing. She had a good idea that some of those pictures had their parents included, but she hoped not. She had grasped the message Mildred was trying to give them with the scrapbook, that even if their lives were unhappy they had the opportunity to have something that would put smiles on their faces.
The problem with Sybil was either ignorant or just plain oblivious to what their parents were really like. Esmerelda didn't know which, but she knew the girl would include pictures with their parents in them in the scrapbook. She wondered if Sybil would ever wise up, or indeed if she already knew what kind of pressures they put on her and Ethel and just ignored it because they treated her as normally as a parent could even if they weren't as demonstrative as most kids would want.
"That's lovely, Sybil," Esmerelda said, and what else could she saw to her sister and her perky optimism?
Their mother wandered over. "What's that?" she asked, gazing at the scrapbook with a critical eye.
Esmerelda spoke before either Sybil or Ethel could speak. "Oh, its a gift from one of the girls at school," she said, knowing that Ethel would probably go off into one of her rants about Mildred's background, and Sybil would do the same more innocently. But Esmerelda had interrupted because she knew if she worded it quietly and if her sisters kept their mouths shut, then her parents would just accept it without question. Esmerelda didn't know what her mother's stance about girls or boys from non-magical backgrounds being allowed to attend a school like Cackles, but she didn't want to say anything about that.
"She just wanted us to have a scrapbook so then all three of us would have something to put in together," Esmerelda smiled and hoped that her mother would just go away.
"Oh, that was nice of her," Mrs Hallow said uncaringly, and she walked off.
Esmerelda turned to her younger sisters. "Come on," she said, knowing just how reluctant Ethel was about the scrapbook. "Let's go upstairs and begin filling it."
It was a fight and a half dragging Ethel upstairs to their bedrooms to collect some of the photographs to put into the scrapbook, so Esmerelda eventually lost her patience and used a spell, and levitated her upstairs.
"I don't get it," Sybil said in a bemused voice while listening to Ethel demanding to be let free, though Esmerelda didn't listen to the protests. "Mildred's nice, why is Ethel acting like this?"
Esmerelda didn't know how to answer that question, but she decided to be honest. "Ethel is jealous of Mildred, and so am I to a point - she doesn't have the pressure of the code hanging over her head. She doesn't have to worry about what Ethel and I worry about."
Esmerelda knew that she was downplaying the jealousy angle to avoid hurting Sybil's feelings until she was sure when she knew whether or not her youngest sister knew what their parents were really like. When they finally reached Esmerelda's bedroom did the elder girl release her sister, but she sent out Sybil to grab some of her photos.
Ethel was instantly in Esme's face. "Why did you do that?"
"Because this is a nice gift, and it can allow us to express ourselves in ways our parents have never let us do before," Esmerelda replied, happy she had sent Sybil out. She had rehearsed her reply in her mind because she knew Ethel was as stubborn as she was, but Esmerelda felt it was a thoughtful gift.
Sybil and Esmerelda sorted through the pile of photographs, the older girl dragging Ethel down to the ground with them so they could sort through the photographs.
Esmerelda knew Ethel would be fighting tooth and nail all day because of this, but she hoped that by seeing herself and Sybil putting things in it, souvenirs from trips abroad and so on, Ethel would finally grow up and actually join in. Sitting stubbornly away from her sisters, Ethel picked up a book and started to flick through it, but she would always look at her sisters who were picking out photos of their collections and putting them into the scrapbook. Ethel bit her lip, and then she decided she couldn't fight it anymore, so she went over and joined them. Esmerelda looked up with a smile, and she offered Ethel a few photos to sort through.
Mildred landed in the main courtyard of the Academy a few weeks later, her stomach still full of the Christmas food she and her mother had scoffed over the holiday. Her Christmas hadn't been too bad, though her mother had needed to work on Boxing Day, she was used to the Christmas schedule the hospital put out. She was just thankful that Christmas Day hadn't been ruined for her this time around, she still had bad memories of the last time that happened.
Mildred checked the time on the massive clock and realised she must have come earlier than she had expected - she'd hoped to fly back to the castle with Maud and Enid, but they hadn't turned up so she had needed to fly on her own. After dropping off her broomstick at the shed, she took Tabby and headed up to her room, already looking forward to trying out her new spellcasting skills.
She was just getting into her stride putting her clothes and things away when she heard the door open and thinking it was Maud she turned around with a smile, but she saw it was the Hallow sisters.
Sybil Hallow had a big smile on her face, but Esmerelda and Ethel had two completely different contrasting expressions. Ethel looked torn between embarrassment, anger, and gratitude. Esmerelda looked embarrassed but grateful.
Mildred broke the stalemate. "Hi guys," she said, hoping that the two older girls didn't attack her. They had good enough reasons - she had eavesdropped on them, give them a Christmas present that could give them the wrong idea. Anything.
"Hi, Mildred!" Sybil grinned and rushed forwards to give the startled girl a hug. "Did you have a good Christmas?"
Mildred gasped at the impact. "Yeah, thanks. How about you, Sybil?"
The younger blond pulled her head back, and Mildred was taken by surprise by how large the usually sniffly child's grin was. "Great. Oh, thanks for the present! We had fun putting our photos into it! What made you decide to give it to us? It was very nice of you."
Esmerelda had a sort of sadistic pleasure in seeing Mildred taken by surprise by her little sister's attack, but she soon decided enough was enough. "Okay, Sybs, that's enough," she said quietly. "Give her a chance to tell you what made her give us that scrapbook."
"Yeah, give her a chance," Ethel added.
Mildred looked from one older blond sister to the next, but she couldn't tell what they were really thinking. "I-I just thought it would be a good gift to have, so then you could have all your memories in one place," Mildred replied, thinking quickly as she replied.
Ethel and Esmerelda shared a look, but Sybil didn't see it. "It was fantastic anyway, Mildred," she said, hugging the girl one last time and then left the bedroom.
Mildred gulped and suddenly wished she had Sybil in the room with her still. The little girl made a very good shield. "Listen, Esmerelda, Ethel, when I got you that scrapbook-"
"You eavesdropped on us," Esmerelda interrupted, her voice so quiet that Mildred could barely hear it.
Mildred stuttered a little bit, but she eventually found her tongue. "L-listen, I only wanted to know what was wrong with Ethel about Christmas. I only wanted to help. But if you don't like the scrapbook-"
"Who said anything about hating the scrapbook?" Ethel interrupted with a smirk.
"W-what?" Mildred said, making both sisters smirk though they rolled their eyes.
"We not angry about the scrapbook, Mildred," Esmerelda explained, "in fact, we actually had a lot of fun with it when the time came. We spent quite a few days filling it with all kinds of photos."
"You can put other things in there," Mildred blurted out before she realised that the sisters already knew that. "Did you mean what you said that night, about the Witches code and taking me aside?"
Esmerelda knew precisely what Mildred was talking about. She nodded silently. "I can still do it if you want," she offered out of a sense of gratitude for giving the Hallow sisters a chance to do something together instead of Ethel feeling so isolated and alone as usual.
Mildred nodded hesitantly with a soft smile. "S-sure," she replied, happy about the offer.
Esmerelda and Ethel shared a look - it amazed Mildred the two girls seemed to be so in tune with each other that the pair of them seemed to communicate with looks. "Thanks for the scrapbook, Mildred," Ethel said, putting on that emphasis on her name which was her habit, but there was a genuine smile on her face, and then the two girls left the bedroom.
Mildred watched them go, surprised that neither of them had gone into too much depth about their true feelings about the scrapbook but they seemed genuine enough. Mildred wondered what future gifts she could get the Hallow sisters.
Finis.