A/N: The song in this chapter was taken from a few lines of the 90's tv show, I don't own it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Esmerelda landed in the courtyard at Cackles Academy, back for her second year at the school. She saw the place was packed with pupils who were happily talking to each other and catching up, having not seen each other in six weeks, or in case of the first years, nervously looking around. Esmerelda wiped her eyes, wishing she was still at home.
She had not woken her sisters that morning, it would have been to much for her to bear to see her sisters so upset at the fact she was leaving so instead she had sneaked out the house before they were awake, knowing it would be easier that way. It might stop one of them being left broken-hearted that way.
"Hi Esmie" Esmerelda heard someone say, sending her out of her thoughts and she turned around to see Lily stood before her, her hands full with the luggage she had brought and her cat carrier.
"Oh hi Lily, did you have a good summer?" Esmerelda asked her, trying to take her mind of her homesickness and trying to pretend she was fine even if her heart was shattered.
"Oh it was great, I went skiing in France with my parents for three weeks and then the rest of the time I was at home, but it was so great being with my family again, have you ever being skiing?" the girl asked her friend as they walked.
"No, but it sounds fun" Esmerelda commented, making conversation.
"Oh it is, how was your summer?" Lily asked Esmerelda the same question.
"Great, I loved spending time with my sisters and our grandmother visited we hadn't seen her in a few years, although my sister nearly died of an allergic reaction, but the rest of it was good" Esmerelda replied causing Lily to look at her opened mouthed.
"She is fine, don't worry, it was terrifying at the time though" Esmerelda told her as they walked over to the middle of the courtyard so they could line up with the rest of their year group.
"QUIET" HB shouted as everyone got into a line. The teachers were all stood on a podium, looking at the girls who were lined up by year group and Esmerelda rolled her eyes. Miss Cackle's speeches were the most boring long winding things and she saw a lot of girls around her look tortured as the woman started to speak, clearly thinking the same thing.
"Welcome to our new girls, welcome back to our old, this year is going to be brilliant, I can assure you" Miss Cackle said and Esmerelda and Lily looked at each other and smirked knowingly, as it was was common knowledge she said that every year.
After half an hour of Miss Cackle droning on Esmerelda was in her old bedroom, putting her things away, like all the other pupils in the school. She took out her picture of her and her sisters, an updated photograph that had being taken in the park that summer and put it gently on her bedside table, trying not to think about the fact her sisters will properly be waking soon and probably crying when they find her gone.
"Ethel starts next year, one more year that I have to go through by myself, hopefully it goes fast" Esmerelda said to Morgana as she stroked her familiar who purred and rubbed her head against her hands.
"I know you miss them too, you liked them didn't you? Don't wotty we will see them at Christmas" Esmerelda said trying to be optimistic. Suddenly she heard the bell ringing for breakfast, lessons started today so she had no time to relax. She rushed out her bedroom and down the stairs to eat before she lost her appetite at the food she was served.
"I forgot how bad the food was" Esmerelda said as Lily put her food on the spoon and screeched.
"Eww it literally could be used a cement" she said as she watched the grey paste food fall into her bowl and looked disgusted, suddenly Esmerelda didn't feel hungry anymore, and she had double potions first thing, she could just tell it was going to be a joyful day already.
Double potions was to be expected awful. Hardbroom acted like the girls had never being on holiday and got straight into work, the girls had had to produce a project over the summer and invent a new spell or something that could do what they wanted and today they were presenting them. Esmerelda was second and walked up to the front nervously, she hated presentations.
"For my project I wanted to look into long distance calls, you see I have a grandmother who lives in Australia, and mirror calls just don't walk properly, they are blurry and cut out quickly, so I wanted to find a better solution and that is how I came up with this" Esmerelda said holding out her project.
In her hands was what looked like a maglet, but looking closer you would see it is not one. It was a bit bigger and had buttons on it.
"I wanted to combine the idea of mirror calling and communicating through a maglet to see if I could get a better reception, I then installed these buttons in order to make the call more controllable, so first you click this green button" Esmerelda told them before she turned it back to her.
"And then you type in the name of the person you want to call and where they are" Esmerelda told her class as she delivered her project.
"And then you use the buttons here to control the signal and quality of the call and the best part is in the corner it will tell you how long left you have to talk until the call cuts out" Esmerelda said finishing explaining her project and hearing everyone clap.
"A very interesting project, well done" Miss Hardbroom told her, always one to compliment her star pupil. Esmerelda smiled slightly and took her seat as the next girl went to present her project, but Esmerelda was not listening, all she was thinking about was lessons being over she could mirror her sisters in peace.
Esmerelda liked Miss Drill, she had helped her a lot over her first year at school, but that did not mean she did not think the woman was crazy, it was the first day back and she wanted the girls to do cross country, most of the girls had only ran in the summer to get to their pudding, and because of this the girls were even more rusty when it came to PE than normal.
"Come on girls, I want to see more effort" Miss Drill said as the girls panted and puffed as they ran, trying not to fall on the ground from tiredness.
"I can't do this, I feel like I will never catch my breathe" Lily told her friend, touching her knees, exhausted from running as Esmerelda did the same, she certainty had not missed cross country that was for sure.
After that they had lunch which was just as disgusting as breakfast and some of the first yeas looked ready to cry because of what they were served, Esmerelda was not surprised the stuff was plain nasty. She was glad when she went to chanting and that the day was almost over.
"EYE OF TOAD, EAR OF BAT, LEG OF TOAD, NAIL OF CAT, POUR IT IN, TURN IT UP, POUR IT IN A SILVER CUP" The class sang, all trying to sing in tune and not sound like a screeching cat which was difficult but luckily they then got to go to the last lesson of the day spell science with Miss Gullet and then they were free for the rest of the evening.
"Talk later Lily, I am going to use your present" Esmerelda told her friend who nodded in understanding before she rushed to her room and took the mirror out from under her pillow and called her sisters. They took a while to answer and Esmerelda was starting to worry until they appeared with bright red eyes from crying.
"Hi, I can't talk long but how are you both?" Esmerelda asked sadly as she knew they had been crying.
Ethel shrugged and didn't say anything, Sybil smiled slightly before replying.
"We miss you Esmie" Sybil said before she burst into tears slowly breaking her sisters heart into a million tiny pieces.
"I miss you both as well, I am sorry I love you both" Esmerelda told them as they all made small talk, Ethel was much quieter than normal like she normally was when someone left her and Esmie did not want to force her to talk.
"I know it is hard, but a few months and it will be Christmas and then we can be together again, we can still talk everyday though" Esmerelda told them but the girls still looked sad despite this.
"Well we can talk again tomorrow, bye girls" Esmie said before hanging up only a few minutes later, her heart shattered. They had both being so quiet and upset and Esmerelda was equally suffering without them.