Hope wiped dust from her eye as she wrote out another bottle of eye of toad. She would have to remember that the school had dozens of bottles of the stuff so she shouldn't feel bad for using it to make a strong invisibility potion to escape from detentions.Ithad been a week since the girls snuck out of the school but Miss HArdbroom wasn't about to let the incident go. Miss HArdbroom was sitting at a small desk grading papers with many hard pressed scrapings. Basically Hope had to transfer ingredients from broken or dirty bottles into the new clean ones and re-label all of them. It was a tedious job.
The worst part was the hours of silence. It wasn't like Hope actually wanted to talk to her aunt or anything but she hated the uncomfortable silence. She had to say something. "So, uh, Miss Hardbroom how are those papers coming along." She winced at the sound of that sentence; who would ask such a dumb question. "Well as usual no on seems to have grasped the concept of place to place travel, except for Ethel of course." Hope concentrated hard on her bottle until she heard HB mutter, "Although your paper was quite good. Very logical." Hope nodded as she understood this was a great compliment coming from Miss Hardbroom. The two worked in silence for a great deal longer.
Hope wondered about her aunt….what had made her this strict and silent. Her mother had said that Aunt Constance had been caring as a child but was more introverted than most. Perhaps it was the sudden death of Hope's grandmother that caused the change or even the boarding school she was sent away to. Her mother didn't even know. Hope had been so excited to meet her aunt because her mother told her she was brilliant. Always receiving top grades and receiving a best in class award from her finishing school. Hope had heard that Miss HArdbroom's first dissertation on the art of the invisibility potion had been published immediately. But she still couldn't understand why a woman who appeared to have so much was so stony.
She realized, with a start, that she had finished her last bottle. She looked at the floor and sighed at the thought of putting them all back on the shelf and trying to decide the order….oh my. She decided that alphabetical was the safest route. She had gotten up to Hippo's tooth when Miss Hardbroom came over to inspect her work. "Alphabetical! What's all this nonsense! Have you ever stocked potions before? They should be done first by animal, second by plant, third by rock…." She trailed off when she noticed Hope looking at her with half closed eyes. Perhaps in anger, she reached out to bang on the top shelf to waken up her charge (which wasn't much of a reach for her) and instead the pressure of her hand on the shelf loosened the termite infested wood which came apart at one end and smacked down into the next shelf. Before either one of them could do anything powders and gels spilled all over them and Miss Hardbroom grabbed Hope's arm to get her out of the way of the collapsing shelf.
Hope opened her eyes in a haze of multicolored power. There was a heavy pressure on her right arm and she tried to shake it to free herself. Once the dust cleared she saw that Miss Hardbroom was still clasping her hand. "Miss Hardbroom you can let go of me now." Miss Hardbroom pulled her arm away and pulled Hope's arm with it. She grabbed hope's arm with her other hand and tried to pry her hand off of Hope's; no luck. She looked in horror at the floor and picked up a half empty bottle of liquefied frog tongue; possible the strongest bond in the witching world. They both sat there for a moment, stunned.
Suddenly it hit home; Hope was permanently stuck to Miss Hardbroom.
Author's note: yeay here it is………the real starting point of my story! Sorry it's a short one but the next chapter will be long!
