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Chapter Ten
Protest
The next morning Sybil was up early and quickly got ready before she went on knocked on Beatrice's door and then Clarice's. The two girls came out, already in uniform like their friend and holding the signs they had made the night before.
"Hopefully all the teachers will be in the staffroom by now" Sybil said as she started to walk down the quiet corridors.
It was a weekend and fairly early, so the girls were not up yet, except the three who were walking downstairs. They each took a sign, nervous about what they were about to do.
"Last chance Sybs, are you sure about this?" Clarice said. Sybil nodded and went and stood in front of the staffroom door, all three girls looked at each other, wondering who should speak first.
"I'll do it" Beatrice said, being the most daring of her friends. She held up the sign and then starting to speak.
"LET ETHEL PERFORM, LET ETHEL PERFORM" She shouted twice before Clarice and Sybil joined in, holding up their signs.
Clarice's sign said 'PUNISHMENT UNFAIR' Sybil's said 'LET HER PERFORM' and Beatrice's said "SHE DESERVES A CHANCE'. The girls all held up the signs as they chanted.
Of course, after a few seconds the staffroom door opened to see what was going on. Ada and Hecate were stood there in the doorway and looked at what was happening curiously.
"What on earth?" Miss Hardbroom asked as she saw there three first years stood there and already becoming annoyed.
"Ethel's punishment is unfair! Throwing her out of the perfomance is unjust!" Clarice replied, holding the sign higher and nearly whacking Miss Hardbroom in the face.
"Ethel was punished accordingly, she has no right to threaten her teachers" Miss Cackle replied, not going down the route of anger straight away like Miss Hardbroom was.
"And Miss Hardbroom has no right to insult Sybil personally but she did that, Ethel was sticking up for Sybil because she was upset" Beatrice replied, glaring at the woman.
"Two wrongs don't make a right!" Miss Cackle told the girls, thinking this was ridiculous.
"Ethel is really upset, Esmie is coming especially, we are not saying not to punish her but just change the punishment to something else" Sybil replied bravely.
"Your sister has a temper, I don't want to risk her exploding when the Great Wizard is here, this is not only something that will affect Ethel" Miss Hardbroom shouted, her anger only growing.
"Ethel has practised just as much as the rest of us, she doesn't deserve to be kicked out of it" Sybil went on, not listening to HB.
"I am not changing the punishment" Miss Cackle said as she did not feel like she had done anything wrong.
"Now if you don't leave this instant the three of you will be in detention for a month" Miss Hardbroom said but Ada touched her arm and whispered something before they stepped back into the staffroom and closed the door, clearly deciding ignoring them was the best form of action.
"LET HER PERFORM, LET HER PERFORM, LET HER PEFORM" The three girls shouted as loud as they could, hoping eventually they would give in.
The girls were still protesting when the rest of the students started to awaken. Hearing the nosie, a lot of girls went to investigate and soon the corridor was packed with curious onlookers.
"What are you doing?" Mildred asked looking at the first years confused.
"Protesting, HB and Cackle threw Ethel out the performance for yelling at HB!" Clarice replied, looking at the brunette girl.
"Ethel won't be there to boss us around? Wooo party!" Enid said putting her fist in the air but then she fell silent when she saw Sybil glaring at her. The girls went back to their protesting and more people started asking questions.
"How long have you being here?" Maud asked them with wonderment
"Two hours" Beatrice said. "We started outside the staffroom but they transferred so here we are" the girl said as they were now outside the dining hall. Some girls who were not interested started to walk in the hall so that they could go and eat, the first years ignored them and went on.
"LET HER PERFORM, LET HER PERFORM" They shouted, hoping soon the women gave in.
Just in that moment Ethel pushed through the crowd, looking as confused as everyone else as to what was going on.
"What on earth is happening? Why is there shouting?" the girl asked looking at her sister and friends confused.
"We are protesting Ethie, it isn't fair that you were kicked out the perfomance, we are going to protest until they let you back in" Sybil said smiling at her older sister.
Ethel honestly was very touched in that moment. That her little sister would do something like this for her when she could be a right horrible person to her at times. She blinked to stop any tears that were threading to escape, but as touched as she was it didn't take long for her to come to her senses.
"Sybie, honestly I am touched and thankful, but this is completely pointless, they aren't going to back down" Ethel told her knowing the teachers would not change their minds just because they had made some signs.
"Yes they will, it will just take time, trust me Ethel" Sybil said smiling at her as she saw her eyes were shiny with tears and how grateful she actually was.
"I don't want you to get in trouble" Ethel replied, worried all that would happen is the girls would be kicked out as well.
"It is worth trying, don't you always say Hallows don't give up?" Sybil quoted, not caring if she got punished for this in the process.
"Well yes but..." Ethel said but Sybil cut her off to carry on protesting. All the students had now left because they were hungry.
"You will miss breakfast" Ethel commented, not wanting her sister to starve because of this.
"Don't worry, we thought ahead, we brought food" Clarice said holding up a bag of different sorts of snacks. Ethel smiled and went to stand next to Sybil putting her arm around her, joining in the protest.
Hours went by, they protested through, lunch, dinner and into the evening as people were going to bed, Ethel was wondering if they were planning on staying there all night but she didn't have a chance to ask because just then she heard a door slam.
Miss Hardbroom was walking towards them with a face like thunder. Ethel gulped, she had never seen the woman so angry before.
"Detention for a month and none of you will be part of the perfomance" the woman said fed up of them.
"Doesn't make a difference, we aren't stopping" Sybil said, knowing they had to do this until they gave in.
"You are just wasting your time" Miss Hardbroom told them but Sybil shrugged.
"We aren't stopping" the girl said feeling so brave in that moment and she continued to shout. Miss Cackle appeared by HB, the lines of her mouth thin in anger.
"Oh for Merlin's sake, Ethel you can be in the performance, just stop with this craziness" the woman said giving in and the students all looked at one another amazed. HB looked at her amazed at what she had just said.
"But Miss Cackle" Hecate questioned her annoyed she had just gave in.
"I have a school to run, I can't be dealing with this and the Great Wizard will not be happy if we have to call him again" she said before turning back to Ethel and the girls. "You will receive detention for a month and you can be in the performance but if you so much as look at someone wrong you will be leaving the school" Miss Cackle said fed up of Ethel and her awful behaviour. Ethel gulped but nodded. She wasn't sure what HB would consider a bad look.
The teachers transferred and the sisters hugged, Ethel whispered a grateful thank you to her sister, and Sybil snuggled in before speaking.
"We all did it, you helped Ethie" she said. The youngest was chuffed. Ethel could perform and she could not wait for it to happen, she was ready to see this transformation, like everyone else.