Bigger chapter again but it's like 90% dialogue. Enjoy!
"- And she'll then take you for maths and spell science in year four." Fenny and Gris had continued listing through the faculty all the way back up to her room, skimming over ones Mildred wasn't likely to get in her first year. "Right cow that one. And very boring for a skeleton actually. I've never known one so dull!"
"Yes, always droning on about health and safety in the lab space… Then for history, you've- ugh. Professor Gimlet."
"What does she look like?" Mildred asked as they neared the first-year's corridor.
"Hard to tell, under all that dark- I wouldn't call it hair. bur it's not fur either. And has glasses. but she's invisible most of the time. Sort of. We think." Fenny said, then thought, "or just likes hiding in dark places."
"No one's sure. I'm not convinced the rest of staff know either and that she isn't just a shadow with glasses that came with a PHD attached." Gris shrugged. "Professor Grimm-let doesn't show up to class a lot."
"Or she is there, just lurking. Or asleep under the desk. And doesn't say anything until you do something like get up to use the bathroom. And then the Prof screams at you and gives you detention." Fenny sighed, with an air of someone who'd made that mistake one too many times.
"It's easier just to get on with whatever exercise or reading passage is set out on the board." Gris suggested. "Oh, rats!"
("Where?!" shrieked a passer-by.)
"What is it?" Mildred asked as she opened her room door, letting the duo in behind her.
Gris sighed and shook her head turning to Fenny. "I just realised, we're second-years now right?"
"Yeah. So?"
"So, Gimlet's now our Form Mistress."
"Fantastic." Fenny said, her nose wrinkled in distance. "Well I guess it's only for ten months. we managed alright last year with-! "
Fenny stopped. And Looked at Gris. Gris looked at Fenny. Then winked at one other.
"What?" Mildred asked again. Because they both then smiled at Mildred; slowly, wickedly.
"Well, it's just. Speaking for form teachers…" Gris said the pair advancing on her. Mildred backed up but her legs hit the bed and she sat her down on her bed, the gruesome twosome laughing over her.
"Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin." Fenny intoned, "But are you brave enough to listen, Mildred?"
Mildred nodded, trying to be braver then she felt. Again. "Listen to what?
"Because Finally for you our little first year," Gris said sweetly. They'd leaned in close now, one hand holding the candle the other on a scared Mildred's shoulder. Was it getting darker? Or did it just seem it, as they grinned like Cheshire cats at her, starting to pass dialogue lines between them, "our little fresh meat. Allow us to introduce,"
"The Real Monster in The Laboratory."
"The Shadow in The Corridor. Oh, I hope you kissed your folks' goodbye?"
"Your Worst Nightmare."
"The true fear of all first years."
"The Witch that scares the Bump in The Night."
"Are you scared yet, Hubble?"
"Because that Ice Queen has a Hot Cold Fury!"
"Lady of The Night!"
"The Vampire Victorious."
"Have you got your affairs in order?"
"The Real Head Witch Bitch in Charge."
"The Deputy Undead Herself-!"
"The One!"
"The Only-!"
"Miss Hardbroom?" Mildred asked (Completely unaware merely saying her name or initials might sometimes cause HB to appear out of spite!). And momentarily knocked all the wind out of the second years wind up. "Is that who you meant?"
"Tsk! Spoil-sport." Gris complained clucking her tongue.
And Fenny said with exasperation, "Of Corse we do! We said we'd come back to her."
They straightened up. And whatever spell they'd used to mess with the light in the room lifted, changing the room from sinister back to its gloomy but homely self. Mildred got the sense they'd been waiting for the right moment to spring on her with the stories and the theatrics. If they had separate bodies they might have sat one either side of her for extra effect.
"Anyway, you don't need to be afraid of Hardbroom-!" Gris continued, putting the candle down on Mildred's nightstand.
"No, be very afraid!" Fenny said with a cackle giving Millie a playful shove. "She's the strictest sharpest teacher here, Mildred."
"Even Casper's got nothing on her bad temper. Which she's always in." Gris said. "They say she has a nearby town all under her spell and at her beck and call so she can drink blood whenever she likes."
"We know her whispering even frightens the oogie-boogie students! And they eat nightmares for breakfast. (Literally, it's gross.)" Fenny said, also picking up the spooky tone again. "HB's the lady with lamp-."
Mildred however, despite already fearing HB, decided they might be twisting her arm a pinch. And trying to scare her maybe, just because she was new. And normal too.
"But with an awful bedside manner."
"More like bedtime manner."
"Don't ever, ever let her catch you up past lights out."
"Not unless you value your life. Or school record."
"I hear the last girl she caught up out of bed is still lost somewhere in the woods."
"Cursed to wander like she did the corridors that night by she who must be obeyed."
"There's a ghoul in the attic being forced to write out a trillion really long lines."
"She was alive when she started but it's been so many years!"
"And there's another at the bottom of the pond. Didn't hand her homework in or something."
"Now can only croak!"
"And then of course, there are all the horrible sort of things that happen to horrible little girls who spread horrible little rumours."
"Yeah," the pair agreed. Then Fenny and Gris, and Mildred jumped. Because that last sentence came from behind them. And in a very cold, unimpressed voice.
In the open doorway, she stood: The Real Monster in the Laboratory, The Shadow in the Corridor, and the Witch that scares the Bump in The Night. The Ice queen, the Lady of the Night, The Vampire Victorious.
The True Fear of not just first years, but All Years. Mildred's form mistress and Worst nightmare: She Who Must Be Obeyed, the Deputy Undead herself; the One and thank goodness Only…
Miss Constance Hardbroom.
AN: (finally!)