A/N: Hiiiii everyone! I had so much fun writing this chapter- and more tricks and hjinks are in store. I'm obsessed with HB as you all know- so we'll have some fun with her next chappie, but this one ends with a bang. Also I figured out how to do line breaks! Lol i'm technologically impaired! Hopefully this will make things easier! Please read and review!
"Lights out!" Miss Hardbroom's familiar harsh voice commanded, still managing to make Mildred jump even when muffled by the door.
"Yes, Miss Hardbroom" she said hurriedly, stowing her sketchbook in a drawer and taking a running leap at the bed, just as the door swung open, to reveal Enid's brilliant smirk.
"Enid!" Mildred whispered. "You scared me!" Enid smiled wider, snickering.
"What can I say, I couldn't wait! I was too excited!" she raced to the window, scanning the main lawn. A floating layer of white crystals hung a breath above each blade of grass, covering the grounds. It was as if Cackle's had experienced a light snowfall. "It's a shame we have to wait till midnight though"
"Midnight? Why is it always midnight?" Mildred grumbled.
"It's a magical hour, silly, the last minutes of the previous night, and the first few minutes of the new day" Enid explained. "Plus it sounds cool"
"Right" Millie grinned. "So, did you bring the stuff from your mum and dad?" Enid heaved a her monthly sack of candy and goodies out from underneath her cloak and onto the bed.
"That should hold us all night" Enid grinned. "You got the telescope?" Millie swung open her closet door to reveal and coppery telescope, slightly dented and rusted with age. Together the girls lifted it over to the window.
"I told Ms. Bat I was into star-gazing" Millie said grinning.
"Nice work. See, you're learning from the master" Enid said, bumping her friend playfully with her shoulder. Millie smiled at first, but then felt a pang of sadness.
"I feel bad doing all this without Maud" Millie murmured.
"But we're doing this for Maud remember? Besides, if she knew, she'd ruin the whole thing and you know it! Chocolate Pretzel Wand?"
Mildred and Enid ate, whispered, talked and laughed their way through the next two hours. Mildred sketched while Enid made shadow puppets on the walls with her magic. They broke several records for most green lime-slime balls in their mouth at once, which looked absolutely like frog gloop when cracked open with the back teeth, but tasted deliciously zesty. Enid told funny stories about getting expelled from her previous schools, including one incident involving a class hamster and a malfunctioning toilet that was so funny Mildred had to stuff a face into her pillow to cover her laughter. Sometimes Mildred would fall asleep and Enid would check the telescope and vice versa, but it wasn't long before both girls were fast asleep, leaning against each other, the remnants of slime-goo and candy bits around their mouths, in a sugar induced stupor.
And as the bell tolled midnight, from the edge of the wood, came the whisper of a sound, so light it could barely be heard, not even by witches. The sounds of little feet, wearing shoes deftly crafted for such stealthy nights as these, stealing through the underbrush. What joy, what bliss did the little men find at the sugar where salt should be? In their little green suits, with fine gold buttons, they leapt across the barrier. They pranced and they danced across the lawn, their jubilation going unheard by the residents of the castle. But they had quite forgotten about another witching tradition. Witches kept cats.
"Meowwww!" a yowling feline screech jolted Mildred awake.
"Tabby!" she groaned. "What's wrong with you!" Tabby was perched in the window, fur raised as if he had been electrocuted, hissing violently, his eyes intent upon the small figures moving through the grass that only he could see. He growled low in his throat, as Mildred grabbed him off the window sill, following his gaze. She saw nothing out of the ordinary. "Tabby, what's gotten into you, there's nothing there! The Leprechauns must be expecting the barrier to be up so maybe they just don't come here" Mildred sighed. "I guess it isn't meant to be" Suddenly, a thud, followed by silence.
"Enid! Enid, wake up!" Mildred hissed, shaking her friend violently.
"Okay, okay- I'm up what, what is it?" Enid all but shouted in irritation. Mildred shushed her, cocking her head, listening. Silence. "Whoa, I've never seen, Tabs like that. I didn't even know he got anything other than terrified. What's he so riled about?" With a yowl, Tabby jumped off the sill, jumped across the bed and slipped out the door all before Mildred and Enid could blink. Barely glancing at each other, the two friends raced after him into the hall. Hissing, tabby was nosing around the corridor, sniffing the ground and growling every so often.
"He smells something!" Mildred whispers.
"He fancies himself a bloodhound now!" Enid whispered sarcastically. "I bet he's found the leprechauns! Let's go!" Suddenly, Tabby got another whiff. He bounded around the corner and down the steps to the main floor. On the tippiest-of-toes, Mildred and Enid slunk after the cat, whose face was contorted with an instinctual rage that made him almost unrecognizable as the lazy, friendly, loving cat Mildred knew. Something in his face almost made her rethink her plan-almost.
"He's headed for the kitchens?" Mildred questioned. Enid rolled her eyes.
"Oh all this and he's just hungry…." Enid grumbled. Brow creased, Mildred shook her head.
"No….I've never seen Tabby like this. This is different. I think you're right Enid" Mildred said, carefully moving towards the kitchen. "But we need to be careful, on my three count, we're going to open the door, and be prepared for what we might find. Ready, One!"On one they inched closer to the kitchen door. Through the wood they could hear Tabby's hisses get louder. "Two" Enid ground her fingernails painfully into Mildred's palm. "Three!" The girls practically fell through the door into the kitchen and looked about to see…..nothing. Except Tabby, hissing and screeching and making an awful racket. His eyes constantly moved from various points all over the room. "Tabby I hate to do this but, I'm going to have to put a silencing spell on you because you're acting crazy" Mildred said, and murmured the words she recalled from chanting. Instantly Tabby's yowls became silent. Suddenly, there was the sound of Irish laughter, first only a chuckle or two, here and there until the room was filled with the brogue, high and low pitched, soft and loud all at once.
"Thank ye lass" one voice behind the pot spoke. "For silencing that barmy feline"
"We are much obliged to ye" said another from the top of the cupboard shelf. "He was making a terrible fit he was"
"You would think- " said another from in between some unions "That he had never seen a Leprechaun before" Mildred's eyes widened, and Enid clasped her hand over her mouth to keep herself from screaming in sheer excitement.
"You- you mean…you're…you're leprechauns" Mildred stammered.
"Why can't we see you?" Enid blurted.
"Ah… another said from behind the knife rack. "Tis a precautionary measure, little miss. Witches and Leprechauns don't get on well…and as we are in a castle full of witches, we like to be unseen till we are sure you mean us no harm"
"But we don't" Enid said quickly. "Please, please will you show yourselves? See we're the ones who lowered the barrier to let you in"
"Ah, well, in that case…." One by one they appeared, no smaller than a thimble, hanging on pots and pans, crouching in cupboards, or peeping out of drawers, were little men. They were, for the most part, exactly as Mildred had imagined them, with their little dapper green suits with tiny gold pocket watches, top hats with a bright gold buckle. Their little beards were of varying hues, from brilliant red, to rugged rust, to coal black, to wizened white with faces that suggested a range of ages. Their eyes gleamed a beautiful green tinged with gold, and as they smiled Mildred (squinting) noticed a few had a few teeth missing. "We should introduce ourselves" the voice who had been speaking finished, revealing himself to be a red-haired little man with who had pulled himself cleanly from the onions. "My name is Shamas O'Malley, and this is my clan- clan O'Malley" A resounding "Aye" came from the rest of the little men. "And who might you be? Witching students, yes?"
"I'm Mildred. And this is Enid. And yes we're…wait how did you know that?" Mildred said confused. Shamas's smile gleamed white.
"We know a fair bit about this school. You could say our histories are intertwined" Shamas said mysteriously, flicking a piece of lint off of his shoulder.
"Well we've let you in for a reason, and we need your help" Enid continued, ignoring Mildred's frown at his remarks. "We've got a friend named Maud. She's sort of in need of some help creating….well pranks, and mischief that sort of thing" Shamas brightened.
"Say no more, say no more lass, we do that anyway, but in gratitude for your letting us in, we shall take it up a notch. And you can credit our work to your friend" he said, humbly taking a bow. Enid jumped for joy.
"Millie did you hear that? It worked. Maud's going to be the most popular girl in school"
"Oh we have some excellent tricks up our sleeves. In fact, we might just go and wake the teachers" Shamas said, doing a bit of a jig.
"No, no you mustn't" Mildred whispered, her palms beginning to sweat.
"Oh but it would be such fun, ay lads?"
"Aye" resounded from the group.
"That's not a prank, that's just mean" Enid scolded.
"I'm not sure I know the difference" Shamas said grinning. "But you'll get what you wish for and much more. But first, you best get to bed before anyone catches you up and about. But since I'm sportsman-like, I'll give you girls a good head start. 10 seconds? Count with me boys, Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, Five….." Mildred and Enid bolted out of the room, grabbing Tabby and climbing the steps two at a time. "Four, three" Un beknownst to Mildred and Enid, leprechauns had been in position with their traps; with horns in all faculty bedrooms (including one Hecate Hardbroom), a bucket of syrup poised above their slumbering heads, and a fan and pillow feathers at the ready;. "The old tar- and feather" Shamas had reflected fondly. "I do love that one, and it's been so long since we've tricked witches. TWO!"
"ONE!" Mildred and Enid both lay panting in their beds, bodies tensed, waiting in agony.
"For the record, this is what happens when we don't tell Maud what we're up to. We have no one to keep us grounded from these stupid schemes" Mildred ground out, knowing her lower lip.
"They're definitely getting us expelled. I told you we couldn't trust leprechauns" Enid whispered in annoyance.
"Wait that's it!" Mildred cried, waiting and listening. "Maybe they aren't doing anything. You said it yourself we can't trust them- so maybe they lied about waking the teachers to scare us" she flopped back and relaxed. "Enid they tricked us! They were bluffing"
As Enid opened her mouth to respond a large bugle horn blew throughout the castle, and five separate buckets of syrup were emptied. And the screams of shock and rage were almost as loud as the horn. Mildred and Enid paled as they heard the familiar chuckles. Tabby cowered under the bed.
"Nice knowing you" Enid said weakly, quaking.