Lady Jolly: Thanks for the reviews! They were really helpful and no worries the story is almost done except for some tweaking. What can I say…I'm picky!

"Well Miss Hardbroom, were the girls especially rowdy to….." Miss Cackle paused mid sentence as she caught sight of a nervous looking hope besides Constance. She sighed and tried to imagine what Hope could have done to make Miss Hardbroom want to punish her. Although that didn't require much she reminded herself. But Miss Cackle was always on edge when Miss Hardbroom marched a student into her office. She would have to calm Hb down so the student wouldn't be expelled. "Err what is the matter Miss Hardbroom?" She questioned quickly. For the first time HB looked uneasy. She hadn't planned on telling the staff what had happened but they couldn't go around like this without someone finding out. "Well headmistress you see there was an accident in the basement. Due to Hope's poor stacking skills a bottle of liquefied frogs' tongues spilled…"

"Hey!" Hope accidentally exclaimed. "It wasn't my fault, it was hers. She knocked over the shelf and…" With a quick look up at her aunt she realized that she had to spend a night with her and well it was like spending a night with a tiger. Best not to get her angry. "Look it doesn't matter whose fault it was but now Miss Hardbroom and I are stuck together." The staff gasped in astonishment. Miss Cackle looked horrified, Miss Drill dropped her hot cup of tea in her lap and was now hoping up and down in pain, while Miss Bat was waving her baton in great agitation. "However", Miss Hardbroom added, "there is a potion that can unstick us so to speak, but it won't be ready till late morning." Miss Cackle looked relieved. "Yet I must make a request that none of the other students find out about this." She glared at Miss Bat who was still oblivious. Miss Cackle nodded very calmly. "Yes that would be the best thing, but since there's nothing we can do till morning how about you two have something to eat."

Eating in the staffroom was better than Hope had imagined. She always had a hunch that the teachers could eat what ever they wanted and sure enough Miss Cackle had a giant cheese soufflé, Miss Drill had the most delicious looking chicken ever, Miss Bat had some sort of funky tofu concoction on her plate, and Miss Hardbroom, well she was the exception. Hope tried to hide her disappointment as Hb ladled up a bowl of green chunky soup. Split pea? Not likely. But it was actually hot and decent. It tasted too nutritious for Hope's liking but it was better than that greasy cold stuff any day. After she was done she waited for Miss Hardbroom to tell her what to do next. It was very unnerving being in the staffroom. She felt as if she was inferior to the whole bunch, like she had mistakenly wandered into some elite club or something. Finally Miss Hardbroom stood up and after whispering a few things in Miss Cackle's ear motioned for Hope to follow her.

At least one good thing had come of their being stuck together for such an extended period of time; Miss Hardbroom didn't pull her like she did when they were first stuck together. She was much more gentle. Looking around at the darkening castle Hope guessed that it was time for bed. Mildred and Maud were probably wondering what happened to her. In fact they were probably in Mildred's room telling stories and sneaking sweets. And it was looking doubtful that HB was going to do any bed checks so they would probably be up half the night. She sighed as she thought of all the time she had wasted today. But then again it was her fault to begin with; she had snuck the girls out after hours. She had disobeyed rules. That was who she was. She did what she wanted. Her aunt didn't. How could they be so similar yet so totally opposite? At least she had finally gotten some time to spend with her aunt but she was no closer to figuring her out. HB hid behind a dark wall of solitude that was pretty hard to break down. But Hope could say this; Miss Hardbroom wasn't as outrageous as Hope thought. In fact everyone had a little HB in them if they chose to be committed and hard working. Although most of those people didn't yell at people for breathing too loud in over their potions (oh Maud).

Hope was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice where they were going. She suddenly blinked as her eyes were exposed to candlelight. It was a room she had never seen before, it must be HB's room! Slowly she looked around examining every detail. The room was plain. The bed was a little bigger than her own but it had the same plain blanket and pillow. Morgana was sitting on top very neatly, as if HB had arranged her. There was a single candle on the night table and to the left of that there was another door. Hope presumed it was the closet which probably had 10 of the same long black dresses and boots. Her broom leaned against a large bookcase that was crammed with books. She squinted and saw a lot of old moldy looking textbooks, but also some fiction like the Odyssey and Moby Dick. "Ahem," Miss Hardbroom cleared her throat loudly. Hope turned around and saw that while she had been looking at the books HB had conjured up a bed right next to hers. They looked at each other for a moment, not really sure of what the protocol was. HB waved her hand and suddenly she had on long purple pajamas. Hope guessed that she was supposed to sleep in her uniform since there was no way she could do that trick and since taking it off would leave it on the arm connecting her and HB. "Well, it's time for bed seeing as how we have an early start." "An early start Miss? The potion isn't ready until late morning." "Yes, but I still have the morning duties to perform which I would prefer to get done when the students are in bed." Hope nodded meekly; there was no end to her suffering. Miss Hardbroom started to get into her bed and for a few minutes there was a tugging of arms as the two attempted to get situated. It was very uncomfortable sleeping with an arm stretched out across the bed but it felt good to lie down. There was a long silence and then Hope said, "you know I read the Odyssey a few summers ago; it's a classic. I enjoyed it tremendously." Constance was silent for a moment then replied, "Yes well it's one of my favorites. It's a tough bit of reading for a girl your age, but I remember reading it at the same time." "My mom told me you liked to read a lot when you were a kid, like me. In fact my mom says we are a lot alike. I mean I would love to hear about your childhood, my mom never talks about it that much." "I'm sure there's a reason for that. And your mom is wrong; we are nothing alike which is clearly indicated by the fact that you want to stay up talking and I want to go to sleep. Now good night Hope." "Good night…….aunt Constance." In the silence of the night she heard HB sigh.

Long after Miss Hardbroom's breathing turned deep and smooth, Hope lay awake staring at the ceiling, thinking. She was so close to her aunt and yet had never been farther away.