In a small dormitory at the end of the second floor corridor Ethel Hallow and Drusilla Paddock were plotting.

"There is no way she is beating me Dru! I don't know who she thinks she is. She's come back this year with her new broom and new shoes and she thinks she's it! I think everyone needs reminding that Mildred Hubble will always be The Worst Witch!"

"But Ethel.. What are you going to do?"

"See this" Ethel pointed to a large vial of clear liquid on her desk. "It's an anti-gravity potion, I stole it from the potion store cupboard."

"What you're going to make Mildred fly?"

"No Drusilla of course not! Don't be so stupid! This is for Miss Hardbroom, I'm going to slip a drop in into her morning coffee during potions tomorrow. But the rest of it is going in Mildred Hubble's school bag. Miss Hardbroom is bound to stop Mildred running for Head girl once she's pulled a prank on her. She'll go ballistic! "

"But Mildred wont have played a prank on her.. you will?" Drusilla was well and truly confused.

"God Drusilla you are dim! HB won't know that will she? She will think Mildred's done it. She will be furious with her, maybe she'll even get kicked out for good!" Ethel laughed with glee at the sheer genius of her plan.


The next day arrived far too quickly for Mildred, who had had a lack of sleep due to worrying about the vote. At half seven she reluctantly rose, walked to the communal showers to get washed in the lukewarm water, dressed and secured hair into her new signature chignon. She met Enid, Maud, Jadu and Ruby in the hall for breakfast, which was Cackles usual cold lumpy porridge.

"Morning Mil" Ruby greeted her cheerfully.

"How you feeling?" Maud asked.

"I'll be fine, I just hope I don't let you down." Mildred smiled unconvincingly.

The girls finished their breakfasts and set off to potions, not knowing the drama that was to come.


Meanwhile Ethel had got to class early and was busy spiking Miss Hardbroom's coffee that had been left by Mrs Tapioca to cool on her desk.

"Quick Ethel, they're coming!" Drusilla whispered from the door she had been made to guard.

Ethel grabbed the stopper and pushed it back into the glass beaker. Both girls scuttled to their desks before the rest of the class entered. At that moment HB did her usual entrance of appearing from nowhere at the front of the class.

"Morning girls, I trust you have come to lesson with your brains in gear and ready to tackle a complex potion today?" None of the class responded. "We are making a concentration potion this morning, which is ironic as it will take a lot of concentration to get it right. I want one person from each pair to come and get the ingredients which I will be handing out at the front. The instructions for this potion are on page 67 of your potions handbook. Begin."

"Now Drusilla" Ethel hissed, her eye on Miss Hardbroom telling her that she was busy.

Ethel walked up to Mildred and stood right in front of her desk. "So Hubble bubble.. You nervous about the vote?. I would be, there's going to be all those eyes watching you…Judging you."

"Go away Ethel! You're just scared I might actually win." Mildred muttered.

"Did you do it?" Ethel hissed.

"Yep, slipped it into her bag while you were distracting her." Drusilla whispered back. "Now what do we do?"

"We wait." Ethel replied smugly.

It was another five minutes before anything happened. Miss Hardbroom returned to her desk, grabbed some paperwork and took a small sip of her coffee. Before she had chance to realise that the coffee didn't taste right she had levitated to near the ceiling. The sight was funny to behold. The teacher who was always in control had such a look of surprise on her face most of the class started to laugh.

Mildred unfortunately was one of those people that had a full on guffawing laugh that she could never stop. So when most of her classmates' laughs had reduced to small sniggers, she was still laughing at full volume, much to the annoyance of her teacher who had quickly flicked her finger and returned to earth swiftly.

"Something funny Mildred", she snarled.

"Um no miss." Mildred tried unsuccessfully to replace her face with a sensible one.

"I would like to know who found it funny to add anti-gravity potion to my coffee? Would anybody like to own up? No? Well that's a shame. I want everybody's school bags on the table. I'm sure a little search will help me to find the culprit." Miss Hardbroom's voice was like venom, cold but deadly.

Xxx