Chapter 6
By the end of the day, Constance was thoroughly fed up. Her lack of sleep made every class an effort and she was not aided by Mistress Broomhead's spell on her Tutor Record. It was possible with her other books and belongings to shift them about in her bag a bit, so that when the strap was repositioned on her shoulder she was given some temporary relief from the weight. This was not the case with her Tutor Record; the magical weight simply added itself on with a constant pressure no matter how her bag was carried. It was a relief to slip it from her shoulder when he sat down to her evening meal in the refectory with her two classmates Celeste LeFey and Roberta Charm. Roberta was the girl who had winked at Constance as she left Mistress Broomhead's classroom on the first day of term.
Despite the demanding schedule of classes and tutorials, Constance had managed to make some friends at the college. Her status as Mistress Broomhead's student was enough to make her a bit of an outsider but this coupled with being the only first year she had ever tutored as well as being younger than all of her classmates had gained her an unhappy notoriety. Celeste and Roberta also had reputations; Celeste due to her unusual magic style and obvious dislike of classroom learning and Roberta for her wry disdain of the college in general and rules in particular. Thrown together as the three outsiders in the first year class, the three students had tolerated each other's quirks and company and over time this had developed into a solid and unquestioning friendship.
"She can't leave it that heavy for ever, surely" Celeste exclaimed
"The vindictive old bat!" Roberta added
"Shhhh" Constance pleaded quietly; all too aware that Mistress Broomhead's gaze was on her from her seat at the top table.
"Is she watching us?" Celeste asked, deliberately not turning her head towards the staff table
Constance gave her friend the most barely visible of nods before casting her gaze down to her plate.
"Old bat" Roberta muttered under her breath before resuming her meal.
The weight of her book bag combined with the lead weight which seemed to have settled in the pit of her stomach made Constance feel as though she could sink straight through the floor as she reluctantly made her way to Miss Broomhead's classroom that evening. The door swung open to admit her as she approached and Constance entered the seemingly empty room.
"I believe you have something to show me Constance"
Mistress Broomhead's voice echoed through the empty classroom before she materialised inches in front of Constance causing her pupil to start backwards with alarm. Mistress Broomhead held out her hand expectantly, a grim look on her already stern face. Constance, realising there was little point in delaying the inevitable, reached into her book bag and pulled out her tutor record. She placed the small book into Mistress Broomhead's outstretched hand.
"Needs to practice preservation potion" Mistress Broomhead read disdainfully. "This is elementary potion making Constance; a mistake in such a spell is beneath your intelligence. Explain yourself immediately"
"My cauldron partner…"
Mistress Broomhead held up her hand and the words forming on Constance's tongue felt as though they were wrenched from her mouth with a jerk causing her to choke slightly
"Before you continue in that vein Constance, I want to you to think carefully about the spell I placed on this book. What, do you imagine; was this intended to teach you?"
"That a good witch strives for perfection and must carry the weight of her own mistakes" Constance echoed the words spoken to her by Miss Fairwind just that morning
"Begin your explanation again. I think you know what I do not want to hear"
Constance measured her words carefully for a moment before settling on
"The cauldron needed to be stirred anti-clockwise. Ours was stirred clockwise"
"A child's mistake!" Mistress Broomhead snarled, slamming the now weighty book onto the nearest bench with a resounding thud "Even the most mediocre of witches should be able to follow simple brewing and stirring instructions. That a witch of your intelligence should make such a mistake is unthinkable. You disgrace yourself and you disgrace me! Well, don't just stare and me Constance. You need to practice, so practice"
Mistress Broomhead waved her arm and a cauldron appeared on the front bench. Simultaneously, a door behind Mistress Broomhead's desk swung open with a resounding crash revealing a small but well stocked potions store.
"What are you waiting for?" Mistress Broomhead's voice had fallen to a low and dangerous tone.
Constance's breath was taken away as a sudden sweep of magical force stuck her in the back causing her to stagger forwards towards the cauldron. Not even daring to take a moment to catch her breath, Constance drew her potions book from her bag and made her way towards the potions store. She made the potion with unmeasurable care – checking and rechecking each ingredient and measurement. After the twenty minutes brewing time, which she timed to the second, Constance stirred the potion eight times anticlockwise before decanting a small amount into a glass beaker. Mistress Broomhead looked up from where she was sat working at her desk.
"Test it" she said curtly as a small toadstool appeared in a pot on the bench beside Constance.
Carefully Constance let a few drops of the potion fall onto the toadstool. Immediately crystals appeared all over the surface of the toadstool as if it was covered in frost. The crystals began to merge and smooth until the toadstool once again returned to its original appearance. Constance reached out and touched it gently with one finger. The toadstools surface was now cool and entirely smooth –as if it was encased in a thin layer of glass.
"Do it again" Mistress Broomhead said in a bored tone, vanishing the remaining potion and ingredients with a wave of her hand.
Constance panicked as she realised that her potions book had also been vanished. She had not anticipated that she would be asked to produce the potion from memory. She recited the instructions to herself over and over as she collected the ingredients from the store, grateful to Catherine's clumsiness that she was reminded to add dock leaves to her pile at the last moment. As she was pouring the completed potion into a second flask, she noticed that a second toadstool had appeared in the pot next to the first and she dropped a little of the new potion onto it without comment. She was relieved to see that it was immediately encased in the same clear covering as the first.
"You know what they say Constance" Mistress Broomhead did not even look up from her work this time "practice makes perfect. I think one more time should make sure the lesson really sinks in"
Constance's potion and ingredients vanished once more and a third toadstool sprouted forth in the pot. The October sky outside the classroom was now inky black. The care that Constance had taken with the first potion had cost her a great deal of time and the classroom clock suddenly gave a deep chime to ring out 10 o'clock
"Again?" Constance gasped, unable to bit back the words.
Mistress Broomhead appeared in front of Constance with such speed that she did not even have time to register she had vanished.
"Once again Constance, you seem to forget who the tutor and who the student is here. You seemed so keen to have your tutor record signed by me but perhaps you have changed you mind. We could stop this lesson right now and you can simply carry the weight of this mistake around with you for the rest of term"
Mistress Broomhead dropped the heavy book onto Constance's hand causing her to wince. A small part of Constance wanted desperately to stand up and walk out and damn the consequences but the thought of carrying that incessantly heavy book around with her indefinitely was too much to bear. She stood once more and made her way to the potions store.
"And remove that insolent look from you face" Mistress Broomhead's voice boomed from the classroom behind her.
Constance collected her ingredients and rearranged her features into something she hoped resembled dignified calm before making her way back to the cauldron for the third time.
"Very well" Mistress Broomhead said, an hour later when Constance had successfully applied the preservation potion to the final toadstool "we shall conclude the lesson there"
Constance hastily began to gather her belongings as the ingredients once more were magically returned to the store.
"Oh and I want you to take the toadstools with you and keep them in your room. They can serve as a regular reminder to you of the importance of getting things right the first time"
At that Mistress Broomhead doused the lights with a flick of her fingers and promptly vanished, leaving Constance to gather up the toadstools and exit the classroom in the dark.