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Chapter Forty-Nine
Esmerelda went back to her bedroom and Morgana was pleased to see her mistress and ran to her for a hug as soon as she stepped through the door, Esmie smiled, at least someone was happy to see her and was not giving her a hard time.
"Hi little one, did you miss me?" Esmerelda asked as she patted her cat on the head, the cat started to purr and pushed her head into her hand.
"I missed you too, I am sorry I had to leave you, I wasn't very well" Esmie told her cat who went to cuddle her more, glad she was now okay. Esmerelda was glad that they had cats at the school, cats had a way of soothing you.
She spent the next half an hour cuddling her familiar until she moved her of her lap, needing to get ready for lessons, she didn't want to be late when Miss Hardbroom was already unhappy with her.
She made her way to the lesson, glad she had chanting first as it was more relaxing than other subjects, no-one said anything to her about the win and Esmerelda wondered if they had being told not to talk about it or if they actually just didn't care. She wasn't bothered though, she was glad she didn't have to pretend to like her classmates.
Her morning was uninteresting to say the least, it was just a typical day of lessons, that was until breaktime came along and Esmerelda found a large group of girls lingering in the corridors, watching something. Curiosity getting the better of her, she walked over to see what was going on and was not prepared at all for what she found.
She had expected to see a fight amongst some of the girls but she was wrong. There was indeed a fight going on, but not between some of the girls, but between the deputy head and Miss Drill.
"No, I am annoyed because you are not taking any responsibility for what you did!" Miss Drill said to the woman, her voice raised but not quite shouting at her.
"Because it is not my fault the girl did not use her brain and did something dangerous" Miss Hardbroom replied, she was actually shouting though.
"You told her she had to win no matter what, how do you think she is going to take that? She never would of done it if you hadn't put so much pressure on her" Miss Drill replied. Esmerelda watched the exchange shocked as she realised they were fighting about her and what had happened at the competition.
"Well someone had to tell her to win, you weren't even going to train her or prepare her for the competition" Miss Hardbroom shouted back. Neither teacher seemed to realise they had an audience watching the whole exchange.
"Because she was fine at flying before the competition, we all know you didn't want her to win for the school, this was all so that you didn't look stupid in front of Miss Pentangle and her school" Miss Drill replied, yelling this time, really angry.
"That woman has nothing to do with this, the problem with you is you don't push the kids at all and then they fail, I was just trying to help Esmerelda win because I know she could if she tried her best" Miss Hardbroom yelled back, angrier now Miss Pentangle had being brought into this.
"I push them so they can reach their potential, but not so much they end up sick from it, they have limits that their body can take" Dimity went on, angry and frustrated with the woman.
"You shouldn't of let her peform if she wasn't well, don't put this all on me!" Miss Hardbroom shouted back. Dimity shook her head, she couldn't believe this woman was trying to blame her.
"And now you gave the girl detention for fainting?" Miss Drill went on, amazed the woman had done that.
"She embarrassed the school, she fainted because of her silly childish prank, that is why I am punishing her" Miss Hardbroom went on and Miss Drill knew in that moment this was hopeless, her shouting at Miss Hardbroom was as about as useful as standing by her bed and shouting at her bed because her pillow was lopsided. The woman knew she should save her breathe and that was the moment she noticed they had a whole crowd of girls watching them.
"Yes we are having a disagreement, it is over, now leave go on" Miss Drill said wanting the crowd to leave, some of the girls sighed, they were enjoying the fight but some stayed, in case they were about to start fighting again.
"LEAVE NOW!" Miss Hardbroom shouted causing the remaining girls to run off, not wanting to get on the woman's wrong side when she was in a bad mood.
The woman stormed off, before her colleague could say another word to her and Esmerelda stayed watching, knowing now that Miss Hardbroom was angry at her for embarrassing her. The girl felt angry at her but she would do the detention, because she was not going to let the woman think she had got to her.
That night she went to the detention right on time, not wanting to be late. She had never had a detention with the woman before, but she knew from overhearing other people that she was ruthless in her detentions, often making the girls clean cauldrons by hand. Esmerelda walked in knowing she was going to have a bad few hours.
"Ahh Esmerelda" Miss Hardbroom said as she saw the blonde pupil. The teacher was sat her desk, with her hands together looking stressed.
"I am sorry about the competition Miss Hardbroom, you are right I deserve to be punished" Esmerelda replied through gritted teeth, she hoped the woman would go easier on her if she made it sound like it was her fault.
"Yes, do you know how it made the school looked you fainting at a competion like that? We are lucky we didn't have the Great Wizard on our case for it" the woman told Esmerelda and Esmerelda knew she was being dramatic but sighed.
"You are right Miss, pulling that trick was dangerous, I don't know what I was thinking" Esmerelda told her. Miss Hardbroom nodded before standing up and walking around her desk.
"Yes it was stupid, and dangerous, that is why I gave you this detention, now I want you to sort out the new supply of potion ingredients" Miss Hardbroom told the girl and Esmerelda sighed, it took ages to sort ingredients.
"Okay Miss" the girl said, not objecting, wanting to get the punishment over and done with so then she could leave.
Sorting ingredients was a disgusting job. When they had the ingredients in jars they didn't really have to look at them much, but having to look at fresh frog eyes as she put them in containers was gross, and not only that but because most of the ingredients were liquid it would often cause a little spillage. That meant she had to clean up the ingredients, and she wouldn't dare use magic so she was essentially touching it and tried not to cringe.
She could sense Miss Hardbroom watching her, ready to pounce if she sorted anything wrong. Esmerelda though concentrated on the task on hand and tried to ignore her. She sorted the ingredients, wondering why the woman always gave them a punishment by hand when she was normally one to use magic even for walking, but she shook her head, ignoring that and kept on with her task.
After what felt like hours, finally she had finished and she looked up at Miss Hardbroom to get her attention, the woman walked over and inspected the girl's work and then nodded.
"Alright I think you are done, you may go" the woman told her. Esmerelda didn't need to be told told twice and started rushing for the door.
"Esmerelda" the woman said and the girl stopped and turned around.
"You are our best pupil, don't start drifting astray, let this detention be a one off" she told the girl. Esmerelda nodded in agreement, not planning to her get another of HB. She left the room, the anger for the woman at breaking point.