Before Ethie and Sybie - Esmerelda's First Years Chapter 7, a worst witch fanfic

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Chapter Seven

Esmerelda woke up and looked around confused as to where she was. She felt something on her face and lifted her hand to touch it pulling a piece of paper of her face. It was only then when she looked at the paper she realised she had fallen asleep whilst writing her potions essay, she jumped up and saw it was midnight, she moaned knowing it was late but she had to finish her work.

So the essay was not due for a few days yet, and she only had a couple of paragraphs left to write but the blonde girl was a perfectionist, her work had to be perfect and not thrown together in the last moment, she was exhausted though so told herself half an hour more and then she would go to sleep.

Half an hour more ended up being ten minutes though as sleep overtook the girl again and she laid her head on her desk, she was out like a light within a couple of seconds.

The poor girl was so tired, an earthquake would not have woken her from her slumber and that is why she did not hear her window open or the sound of footsteps that followed, she also didn't stir when she was lifted even if bruises were forming from the people carrying her.

"You are going to be in so much trouble Hallow" a girl whispered as they laid her on the sofa and got to work.

Esmerelda normally was an early riser, she was normally up early to study, read or do some work she needed to do, but today she was so tired she overslept and it was ten when the girl finally woke, it was not that big a deal, it was a Sunday, the only thing she missed was breakfast and that was nothing to cry about.

It was only when she opened her eyes that she felt a strange feeling on her hand. It was the feeling that you get when you accidentally get glue on your hand and it dries and then your hand feels stiff. Esmie opened her eyes curiously and saw something pink on her hand. She touched it gently and felt it was very slightly damp, it looked like paint, but she didn't own any paint so why did she have paint on her hand?

It was only as she became fully awake though she realised that paint was also on her other hand and she sat up to try and make sense of this strange situation. She looked around and had no idea where she was. It wasn't her bedroom, it was a room filled with sofas and set up like it was a living room, she tried to wrack her morning brain for any sense of this when she noticed something and gasped.

Paint was covering the photo frames in the room and with horror Esmerelda realised this must be the staffroom as the paintings were of various famous witches throughout history. Someone had also drawn a smiley face in paint on the wall and had drawn a moustache on the photo of Miss Cackle. Esmerelda had no idea what was going on but she knew she had to leave before she was caught.

She rushed towards the door when it suddenly opened and Miss Hardbroom and Miss Cackle walked in casually, they only had a few seconds to realise what they were looking at when water balloons fell on them from above their heads.

"What on earth?" Miss Hardbroom shouted moving her wet hair out of her face before she caught sight of Esmerelda, covered in paint and the paint all over the room, and her eyes grew red with anger.

The young blonde was in Miss Cackle's office shocked. The thing was she was not even sure it had not being her to do the mess, could she have sleepwalked? She couldn't remember anything from before she went to sleep, but all she remembered was sitting at her desk in her room, the rest of her mind was foggy.

"I never would have expected this from you Esmerelda, I am hurt, we give you extra mirror time to try and help you and you do this!" Miss Cackle said shaking her head.

"But Miss Cackle….it wasn't me...at least I don't remember doing it" Esmerelda explained, trying to defend herself even if she was just as confused as the adults.

"Don't be silly girl, we caught you red, well in your case pink, handed!" Miss Hardbroom told her. Esmerelda had never seen the woman look so angry before.

"I am not lying, I really don't remember, I fell asleep at my desk and then woke up in the staffroom!" Esmerelda told her teachers.

"Maybe what you remember is falling asleep in the staffroom girl!" Miss Hardbroom told her not believing her.

Esmerelda was not even sure Miss Hardbroom was wrong, she was about to reply when the door opened and Miss Drill walked in.

"Miss Drill, we are in the middle of something here! Ada said annoyed that the woman was interrupting.

"I know I heard what happened, I don't think Esmerelda did anything" Miss Drill said sticking up for the girl. Someone had to because no-one looked like they would.

"Miss Drill we found her at the scene of the crime, covered in paint! Miss Hardbroom replied rolling her eyes, she was losing patience with the woman.

"But you must both know this is wrong, Esmerelda would not do this!" the woman went on annoyed.

"It is okay Miss Drill" Esmerelda said knowing she was not going to be able to get out of it and ready for her punishment. In a way she was glad, maybe she would get expelled and be able to go home and see her sisters. She missed them so much, Esmerelda actually thought she would be relieved if she got to return home to them.

"I am taking away your right to mirror call home for the next few weeks" Ada told her and Esmerelda's eyes went wide in shock.

"No you can't, I need to talk to my sisters!" Esmerelda said feeling her heart break at the thought oo not being able to talk to them, was it not bad enough she was so far away from them?

"Well you should have thought about that before" Miss Hardbroom told her. Esmerelda looked down then trying to stop the tears falling that were pricking at her eyes.

"I also want you to help Miss Hardbroom to clean the potions lab and I will be writing to your parents, now please go" Miss Cackle said using a tone Esmerelda had never heard before, she turned and left, only getting outside in time to start crying.

It would be weeks until the girl got to speak to her sisters, she didn't know how she would cope. She had started to realise as she lay on her bed someone had set her up, she suspected it was the gang of bullies in her year, but most of the school hated her so really it could have being anyone.

She assumed they were trying to get her expelled, but unfortunately Miss Cackle was to soft to take that action, but the punishment she had given the girl honestly felt worse. Maybe some people would not understand that logic but Esmerelda's universe revolved around her sisters, that was the most important thing to her and now it had being taken away from her.

"It is not fair Morgana, I should be able to speak to Ethel and Sybil" Esmerelda said wiping a tear as she stroked her little cat. The cat meowed sadly and pushed her head into her arm to comfort her.

"How will I cope without talking to them?" Esmerelda went on. She had being struggling without talking to them for days, but weeks would be torture, that was the moment Esmerelda decided something.

The girl was honestly more upset she was being made out to be a liar. Her stupid family name made it so no-one believed you when something unexpected happened, Hallows were known for their bad blood. Esmerelda knew it was hard to believe she didn't do anything but for Miss Cackle to take away the one thing important to her was what sent the girl into fits of tears. She came to a decision then, if Ethel and Sybil couldn't come to her, she would go to them.

"Morgana, we are running away" Esmerelda said as she stood up to pack some things. She didn't want to be at the school anymore, she just wanted to get home and see her two sisters, nothing else mattered in that moment.

She threw some of her clothes in her trunk and then put Morgana in her carrier before she went to her window and called her broomstick. It appeared and she sat on it and started to fly away from the castle. She knew she would get in trouble for this but in that moment she didn't really care about that.

"We will be seeing Ethel and Sybil soon" Esmerelda said smiling at her cat as she flew further away from the school, her heart soaring at the thought of soon being back at home with her two darling sisters.