Conversations.

" You've found her."

Mildred looked up from stroking her feline namesake and looked into the face of her former form tutor. Miss Hardbroom wasn't looking as confidant as she normally did which surprise the younger woman. Miss Hardbroom only looked unconfident when her former tutor was around, but when Broomhead wasn't Hardbroom was capable, willing and powerful.

But now….

She looked apprehensive, scared slightly.

Mildred nodded, not trusting herself to speak, but her natural curiosity couldn't help it.

" Since when did you have a cat called Mildred ?"

Miss Hardbroom had just picked up the cat when her former student asked that question. A smile, hesitant and tentative, crossed her usually scowling features.

She sat down, keeping her eyes on Mildred - both of them.

" Two reasons - first, I couldn't really call my new cat Morganna, too many good memories of the original. I'd constantly compare the old Morganna with the new one and that's not fair."

Mildred raised an eyebrow at that. She could see the ironic hypocritical nature of that philosophy but she didn't tell Miss Hardbroom that. She had the feeling that the older woman was slightly aware of that anyway. It was a pity that Miss Hardbroom was unable to move beyond petty little insults to Hettie and couldn't see Belladonna wasn't Ethel.

Miss Hardbroom had seen Mildred raise her eyebrow when she said that, she too was aware of the hypocrisy of her comment but she decided not to let Mildred know that.

" Second reason, I wanted a reminder of you."

That caused Mildred to gawk at her, " Oh, don't gawk like that, Mildred. I keep telling you that you look like a goldfish when you do that."

Mildred closed her mouth, her face now a frowning curiosity.

" Me, you wanted a reminder of me ? I thought you hated me !"

Miss Hardbroom sat down, her face one of tearful misery. Ignoring Caspian's frown, she said, " I didn't hate you Mildred, I actually adored you. I still do."

" You had a funny way of showing it." Mildred retorted, anger starting to burn within her chest.

Miss Hardbroom sighed, this was going to be hard to explain, " Do you really believe that ? Mildred, do you remember the time you made that laughing potion into an invisibility potion ?"

Mildred nodded wondering where she was going with this.

" I knew that making an invisibility potion out of laughing potion was child's play. It was a test within a test, I wanted someone to reveal that making one potion can easily make another. It's remarkably simple."

" But why didn't you say so, why did you not say that you wanted a potion made out of an unrelated potion ?"

Miss Hardbroom smiled, " Which was the purpose of the next lesson, take the first potion and add a few different ingredients then you get a different potion."

Mildred was intrigued but it still didn't make a shred of sense in her book, " Why were you angry ?"

" On the contrary, I was proud, but I wasn't expecting a girl to actually do it ahead of schedule."

Mildred was persistent, " I remember, you sent me to Miss Cackle's office."

" Because you'd done it ahead of schedule."

" It doesn't make sense."

" Oh, it does," Miss Hardbroom said patiently. " I wanted to show how easy it was to make one potion out of another with few ingredients, you made a mistake and created the potion I wanted to demonstrate the next lesson. Unfortunately, Miss Cackle wasn't aware of my plans until afterwards and if…"

" If you had then she couldn't give me that damn title." Mildred finished with a hint of disgust with a hint of anger Miss Hardbroom picked up upon.

The Worst witch title had been a curse for Millie for years, no matter what she did she would always be thought of as the worst witch and now her own cousin had it.

Miss Hardbroom wished she could open a portal and tell Miss Cackle not to talk to Mildred like that and tell her that the title of Worst witch was the worst thing she'd ever done.

Constance held her cat closer to her chest, staring at Mildred for a long moment.

" I honestly was proud of you that day, Mildred, but I couldn't show it. I didn't continue with the plan because, well, I decided that something new should be made. That's why the next lesson was a theory, not practical."

Mildred was startled by the information she was getting, but it did make sense.

" Why did you never try to…" she fought to find the words, " Why did you never try to encourage me instead of continuously trying to get me expelled ?"

Miss Hardbroom looked down at her cat, before looking back up.

" Mildred, have you never asked yourself why I - I lack confidence in the presence of Heckitty Broomhead ?"

Confidence wasn't the word she'd normally aim at, but this was the closest she could get.

Mildred nodded, confused at the apparent change of subject.

Constance sighed, normally she would keep such things hidden. Her experiences as student under Broomhead were so horrifying she wouldn't wish it on her worst enemy. Mildred had been far from a perfect student, but even Constance would never sink to those levels.

" Mistress Broomhead was my personal tutor, Mildred, at Witch training college. She, more or less, taught me everything I know. But, unfortunately, she was a witch of the old school. That means that the methods she employs are….barbaric," she said, hoping Mildred caught the hint.

" Barbaric ? How d'you mean ?" Mildred remembered in history classes, the way teachers beat students. Did the same apply in the magical world ? It would be exactly like Broomhead.

Constance sighed, hoping she wouldn't frighten the girl. Mildred was incredibly sensitive, she would feel sympathy for anybody even Ethel. Well, to a point.

" In the old times, school was terrifying. You think I'm terrifying, you should see the way history records witch teaching. Potions experiments were sabotaged by the teachers, who also encouraged students to inflict serious psychological harm on others. Teachers themselves were worse than I could ever be, broomstick flying was lethal, the teachers would sometimes vanish the brooms just to get things moving."

Mildred was starting to understand, " With the witch in the air, I suppose ?" At her teachers nod, her face twisted with anger, " That's not just barbaric…that's …that's evil !"

Constance nodded, " Broomhead is one of the few supporters that believe magic teaching should be like that. When I say few, I mean few. Even the Hallow's grandmother, who was taught in a more diluted manner to the old ways, despises the idea. That's one of the reasons behind the Hallows always coming here, to Cackles. But at home, the Hallows, along with some other families, practice teaching in a similar fashion."

Mildred wondered why, when she realised that the Hallows had been magical for centuries, of course they would stay traditional. It would explain so much, like why Ethel was such an arrogant bitch and why Sybil had been such a weakling.

Miss Hardbroom could see where Mildred's train of thought was going, and nodded. " Now you're starting to understand. Good, but Mildred, you shouldn't judge families that harshly. Even the Hallows have more care."

Mildred got back on the original subject, " That still doesn't answer the question, why did you treat me like….like I was a dog turd ?"

" Because it was the only way I knew how to treat you, to make you come into your potential. I always knew you were talented. Granted, I made it sound like you weren't, but I could see it. Mildred, do you have any concept of how talented you are ?"

" We've been over that, I can draw, I can appear out of nowhere. Yadda yadda, old history," Mildred waved her hand impatiently.

She was stopped by Constance's look of stunned shock, " Is that how you see youself ? Girl, you honestly don't understand. You managed to learn an art that took me 3 years to learn properly. 3 years. Heavens, it took Broomhead over 5 ! You learned it over a month !"

Mildred looked down, even she wasn't one hundred percent sure how she'd learnt that technique. It just….came to her.

She hadn't really bee trying to impress anybody. It just happened, like a lot of other things that happened with her over the years she'd been a witch.

Miss Hardbroom stroked her cat as she watched Mildred's almost sheepish expression, " What's wrong ?"

Mildred jumped, " What ?"

" What's wrong ? Your face looks like its on a journey of discovery."

Mildred sighed, " Do you want to know how I learnt your ability to appear from nowhere so quickly ?"

Miss Hardbroom frowned.

Mildred sighed again, " I was practicing magic at home, when I wished to have a drink of lemonade, it was a hot day and I was thirsty. I willed myself downstairs, similar to the way you willed us and the whole potions class to the great hall. But I didn't do it deliberately, I just willed for it. I practiced it during summer to the point where I felt it was perfect, but I didn't have either you nor Broomhead teaching me, which I can say is a relief."

Hardbroom didn't blame her.

Mildred carried on, " I started to work on my powers, working on spells, trying to make them perfect." She looked down at the book on her desk.

" I think, when I came here, I was afraid of magic. It makes sense, at least to me, if you're afraid of a horse, it responds by bucking you off."

Constance hadn't thought of that before and she did admit, that Mildred had an excellent analogy for the reason she'd had problems with practicing magic at Cackles.

The two women carried on talking for the best part of an hour, when they left.

It wasn't exactly a truce, but it was enough.

A/N Please leave a review. I'm sorry it took so long to update.