One of Mildred's line about Ethel comes from Labyrinth via bitletsanddrabbles on tumblr. Hope you you don't mind me borrowing the suggestion.
I would love to see the fae encountered in series 3 of The Worst Witch '17 tho whose in?
She had meant to get a glass of water then go back to class. Instead Mildred saw the nurse at Maud's insistence. Not that it did much.
Nor did Nurse Knighting-Gail the school witchdoctor (no relation to Ms Nightingale). She was stout matronly-sort complete with an old fashioned blue dress and cap. And a mummy. Except the bandages she was wrapped in were fresh and sterile on that morning, rather than rotten and filthy like in the films. Nor did she curse Mildred and Maud for entering the sickbay.
She did however make Maud wait outside in in the small courtyard. Matron then felt Mildred's forehead and back of head. Then shined a light in each of Mildred eyes (very dazzling compared to the rest of the gloom!) and asked things like did you eat at breakfast and how did you bang your head on a book?
"Ah only your second time on a broom you say?" She said kindly. "Nothing broken! You just have to get straight back on it."
With that diagnosis, Matron gave her two lemon drops and a cold paper towel to put on her wrist (which didn't even hurt), and sent her away again.
Mildred joined Maud outside on the bench by a busy spells class room. Maud pressed a glass of water into her hand and fussed over her, much to Mildred embarrassment.
"Are you feeling better now Millie?"
"Yes but Maud I wasn't really ill in the first place." Mildred said and apologised for fibbing. And Gave Maud one of the lemon drop to make up for it, pocketing the other. "It's not my head either. I only said it because I just wanted for a few minutes, before I had to try flying. It makes me feel like I'm going to throw up. Maybe We should head back…"
"oh. Well Matron's right, it is only your second time on a broomstick." Maud shrugged, trying to unwrap the sweet. (while made had opposable thumbs, paws were not very good against waxed paper wrapping.)
"You'll get better at it."
"I won't. I'm no good on fairground rides or anything." Mildred insisted.
"It's flying not a rollercoaster. You don't have to any loop-de-loops." Maud giggled. "Don't worry I'll help you. You might even like it once you get the hang of it!"
"I cant even look down out of my window without feeling sick! I tried." Mildred said. "Whose ever heard of a witch afraid of heights?"
"There's bound to have been one!"
"Then I bet she wasn't afraid of the dark as well!" Mildred sulked.
"Well there's lots of monsters are afraid of light so there must be some witches who are scared of the dark." Maud said. adding quietly, "and Full moons."
"Lots of monsters are afraid of daylight for good reason. Some turn to stone and HB burns up!" Mildred pointed out. "wait- full moons? Isn't that-?"
"I bet there was lots of witches and monsters who are afraid of heights and the dark and they just pretended to be brave." Maud persisted, cutting across Mildred.
"How am I going to manage that here when most of our lessons take place at midnight?" Mildred said. This was fast becoming an argument and she didn't like it. Especially not with Maud. "And when I've Ethel throwing books at me and saying things, and picking on you too -."
"I can manage Ethel's silly fur and hair pulling trick. Maybe you'll just have to manage with midnights in the opposite was as Izzy and some of group B manage in times they must go out in sunlight? You won't burn or seize up at least." Maud frowned.
"and anyway, don't listen to Ethel! She's just a bully. And you know what the Fae are like with their mood swings."
"No, I don't." Mildred reminded her.
"Oh. No, you don't." Maud realized. "Right well urm… they only tend to feel one emotion at a time. And a lot of the time it takes over them. if they're happy, their ecstatic. If somethings not right they're not just cross they're furious. which is hard because fairies can be tricky too especially if they need something or don't like you."
"I thought fairies did nice things. Like grant wishes."
"That's genies. And they can be tricky too." Maud corrected. "I think maybe that's why Ethel's so beastly to you. She might have a grudge against you for life, save for when she wants a favour from you."
"Great. Just what I wanted." Mildred said, thoroughly put out.
"Oh, I'm sorry Maud but it's no use! I can't fly, I'm bad books with the vamp AND a fairy. I'm deadwood, I'm bound to be on the next bus home-!"
"Stop that! Do you want to be a witch and be here or not?" Maud said sharply leaping up from the bench. It was almost a bark. Mildred would swear later even the class room behind them went quiet.
"Do you want to be a witch here? With Me and Jadu and Ruby and the others?" Maud repeated. "Or are you going to transfer to a common witch school to learn how to use your magic and have to do your first day all over again and let Ethel and HB win. Or worse get covered in wards and have go back to a human school and pretend to be non-magical all your life?"
Mildred gulped and unsure whether to nod or shake her head to Maud's impassioned rant settled for a mumbled "Here. Sorry."
"Good." Maud huffed, tearing off the sweet wrapper and raver aggressively popping the lemon drop into her mouth. She took a deep breath and sitting back down continued,
"Then no more mopping or apologising Millie. You'll never have to get on a broom again once you leave school, if you don't want to. We even learn transport spells in forth year. Or You could even drive a bobo like your mum or use common public trains and things." She said Giving Mildred's arm a squeeze.
"But right now- ugh how old are these sweets? – right now Mildred We need to concentrate on teaching you how to fly!"