The walk to Miss Cackle's office was long. She had never been punished for something she hadn't done. Sure she was outspoken but all of the times she had gotten into trouble, at least she knew she had deserved it. She wondered why her aunt was so mean. After all, she had been so excited to finally meet her aunt, who her mother told her she strongly resembled. She assumed her aunt Constance would be excited to meet her. She stood in front of Amelia Cackle's office for a moment and took a deep cleansing breath before she knocked. "Come in," Miss Cackle crooned. "Ah, Hope, what's the reason for your visit? Have to bring me a message or something?" "No Miss Cackle, my aunt sent me for spilling potion ingredients. Look, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to do it." "Oh my dear, don't worry about it. Why if I gave detention to every girls Miss Hardbroom sent in here, why there would be no students left to teach!" "Thank you Miss Cackle," Hope sighed. "Is there anything else Hope." "Well, I'm a bit troubled by my aunt, you see I thought that she would be different, you know less…um.." "Strict," piped in Miss Cackle. "Yes, I don't expect any special attention or anything, that would be unfair, but I just want her to accept me. I feel that she is disappointed with me being here." "Oh. I doubt that your presence here is a disappointment. It's just that Miss Hardbroom doesn't like to show her feelings easily, or err, at all. Don't worry, that's just the way she is." "Okay, thank you Miss Cackle." Hope left the office feeling a lot better and forgot about her potions mishap as she went to broom flying with Miss Hardbroom.

"Alright class, assume the starting positions we went through last week and prepare to mount." "Uh Mildred, what's the starting position," Hope asked. "Well, you hold the broom at your side firmly with two hands, place your heels together and sort of turn yourself….yes that's it. And then you wait for Miss Hardbroom to tell you to sit down." Hope prepared her broomstick. She was scared out of her mind. As a child she had loved to fly but unfortunately she had gotten into a bit of a scrape when she was younger and so she hadn't been so keen to fly. In fact, it was her worst subject, besides P.E. of course. "Now girls, sit sideways on your broomsticks, that's right hover now. After you feel your broomsticks feeling light like this kick off from the ground lightly." She sat majestically on her broom like a queen bee watching her workers. The girls kicked off and surprisingly all of them made it into the air. Ethel flew circles around the courtyard while Mildred, Maud, and Hope flew close to the walls. "Whoa! I can never get my broom to do exactly what I want it to do." "Wow," Mildred said, "I thought you would be as good as Ethel because of how smart you are in class." "Well, I guess that I'm good at things you can learn by book, flying is hard to me because you can get seriously hurt falling off of this thing!" She wobbled a little but after a few minutes had better control of her broom and were flying a bit higher. She turned and watched her aunt flying around the yard giving pointers to different girls. She looked wonderful, she sat as straight as a stick and made it look like the broom was doing all of the work.

"Now girls," Miss Hardbroom said from midair, "It's time to try your first landing. This isn't a difficult maneuver, but for the first time it can be a little tricky. Watch me please. First you will angle your broom slightly and start flying towards the ground. Once your feet brush the ground, you will gently pull the tip of the broom up, allowing the tail to slow you down." They watched HB execute a perfect landing and then they all were supposed to try. Ethel went first and achieved a perfect landing. Then the other girls went. Ruby and Jadu did almost as well as Ethel and even Drucilla managed a non shaky landing. Maud landed with a wobble and Mildred and Hope managed to not pull up at the right moment so an awful lot of dust flew up. Coughing a bit Miss Hardbroom said, "Well that really was fine, a few of you still need some practice, but generally the group has it. I will be observing your landing skills next week, so please practice." The group began to move inside and Hope went up to her aunt. "Aun...err Miss Hardbroom? I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with my landing. You know I really.." "No," Miss Hardbroom said icily, "That will not be appropriate. However, Ethel seems to have gotten it down and I'm sure she would love to help you." Hope stared at her aunt's retreating back in amazement. How could anyone be so cruel?

Luckily for the girls, it was a weekend and even though they had tons of homework (especially Mildred who had 500 hundred lines of "I will not leave my spell books on the stairs" due on Monday) the girls were excited for some time off. On Saturday afternoon they had gotten through a few essays and decided to listen to some music on the roof. It was Mildred's idea. They turned on Mildred's cd player and put on their sunglasses. "It really is a wonderful day outside." "Yeah Maud," said Hope, "Especially because we don't have to do homework right now!" "Yeah, all we ever do is homework! In fact, except for our Halloween celebration, we never do anything really fun around here!" "Yeah," piped in Mildred, who was swaying her feet to the music. "You know," Hope began, "Tonight is the full eclipse of jupiter. Yeah, it only happens every 100 years, I read about it in my new astronomy book. According to my book it is supposed to be the most fantastic display of colors since the northern lights." "Cool," said Maud, "We should check it out before bed tonight." "Well, um, that's the fun part. It only peaks from 1 am to 1:10 am." "What," Mildred sat up, "That is breaking a major rule! We are not supposed to be out of bed after 10 and we can't leave school grounds." "Well, we could make sure no one catches us and as for the leaving school grounds part, we really won't be leaving it. If we stand just over there we should be facing the eastern sky and so it we keep on foot in the yard and one foot sort of out the gate we will still be on school grounds." Maud looked wary, "I don't know…" "Come on you guys say you never do anything fun…let's live alittle!" "Okay said Maud finally giving in, "The only problem is getting around Hb, I swear she knows everything." "Well, we will just have to be extra careful and bewitch our feet to be soundless. I learned that spell a few years ago." The girls talked excitedly about their plan. So excitedly, they didn't notice Ethel sneaking back into the school.

Hope had spent the rest of the day teaching Mildred and Maud that spell. The plan was for them to meet in the hallway at exactly 12:55 am. That way they could get down to the yard, see the lights, and be back in bed in the shortest time frame possible. Hope sat in her bed trembling with excitement. She had wanted to see these lights and sneaking out made her excited. At home she used to sneak out to the roof every night to watch the stars until she realized her parents really didn't care, and then it became less exciting. With a sigh she thought of her parents. She missed them; she loved reading with her father and being with her mother. Her mother was great, she always thought of the best games and Hope loved to watch her paint. Her mother and aunt were two completely different people. Her mother had told her that her aunt Constance had been very quiet as a child and had spent a lot of time in her room studying. She said that she wasn't very well liked in school and that she was isolated from their family. Hope wondered about her aunt, maybe she was trying to cover up some sort of hurt. Maybe she was a lot like her. She certainly felt like an outcast sometimes. She was constantly alone, her parents were always busy with work. She wondered if her aunt Constance had been left alone a lot. Well, that didn't matter because she was never going to talk to Miss Hardbroom, HB just wouldn't allow it. She looked at the clock; 12:53. She started to get ready and prepared to perform the spell. She said the magic incantation and with ticklish feet, stepped out into the hallway.

Author's note: i know wow it just keeps being boring but just wait for it, wait for it...