Chapter 4- Refusal To Play By The Rules

The staff including Miss Cackle who had inwardly laughed as they all looked at Miss Hardbroom whose face was an absolute picture. Sapphire had just walked into the hall, and it was clear she wasn't going to listen to Miss Hardbroom, they all took in the girl's hidden hair and wrongly applied sash. Miss Hardbroom couldn't have looked anymore shocked, angry and confused in the whole time the staff had known her; her face was rather comical with what looked like a distorted expression. Dimity had to leave the hall as she couldn't contain her laughter for much longer.

Dimity's laughter was so loud that everyone in the hall could hear it. It was one of those laughs you just had to laugh along with. Dimity was well known for being one of the kind teachers who never made a student feel tiny, she had a brown skin complexion and was usually smiling and bubbly, her broomstick skills where impressive she was known as the star of the skies, although an accident had stopped her competing days her title remained. She taught broomstick flying and P.E she was a medium sized woman, yet she was the picture of fitness and health at the same time. She was a firm favourite with the students. Hecate Hardbroom was the complete opposite.

Miss Hardbroom had rolled her eyes at Miss Drills laughter and knew she was being laughed at and she didn't like it.

Miss Cackle had walked up to Sapphire, and she had removed the wrongly applied sash and put it on the girl and explained that the sash should only be applied in a certain way, and she applied the sash around the girl's waist and said no more. Hecate was furious why was this girl any different from the others. No detention or lines were given to the thirteen-year-old. I have you for double potions tomorrow come without your uniform and you'll be in detention.

Her mother Pippa Pentangle had told her to mirror her the first night, but she would be sorely disappointed as Sapphire didn't talk to her.

The next day arrived, and Sapphire hadn't slept, she suffered with night terrors and flash backs. She would only wake others up with her blood curling screams. Although she was only eighteen months old at the time the day her parents perished and had shielded her, she wasn't able to forget. Her type of magic meant an increase in memory making bedtime a living nightmare.

She turned up to breakfast in her black trainers and grey jogging bottoms and a purple hoodie on with her sash around her waist and her hair in a perfectly done plait down her back. At least I put the sash on.

Again, it annoyed Hecate the girl truly was annoying. "Sapphire Stone" she said in levelled manner as she appeared behind her with a smile that stated she was in trouble. Although the smile wasn't intended to come across nicely as most of the students knew full well it was never good when she smiled.

Sapphire couldn't help but think how pretty she looked when she smiled the woman was tall and dressed in a long black and blue witches dress with a standing collar and long necklace of which had a symbol on a round plate at the end. The woman had her hair up in a bun which was done so tight and perfectly done that it was screaming to be let loose. Sapphire was an empath she could read body language and eyes in a manner of which others couldn't. Miss Hardbroom was stiff as a board super tense, her hands where the same she almost looked like a robot, her eyes was angry.

She clearly lacks confidence in herself which is why she is as strict as she is, it doesn't look like her body relaxes often a sign of fear being masked. Only her eyes will tell me the truth regarding her emotions which she is currently angry Sapphire thought to herself.

She had read Miss Hardbroom perfectly, no other student would agree with her, but she was correct.

"Detention, wrong attire, at least your hair and sash are better this morning" Miss Hardbroom's first detention of the year was handed out.

Sapphire sat amongst some other students she didn't know the name of, her purple hood was up which Miss Hardbroom had gently taken down twice by the time the other students had arrived.

She was given porridge which she hated, it always made her feel sick, so she did her usual trick and circled her hand over her plate, as her piers watched with amazement as her porridge turned pink with strawberries in it and the porridge had been warmed, tasting much better she wolfed it down eager to leave the hall.

Miss Hardbroom had watched the girl the whole time she really was known for keeping an eye on the students she disliked the most. She never hated her students only disliked. She watched in amazement how she had altered her porridge with ease and ate it way to fast and sped off to get away from everyone. She had potions as her first class.

As Sapphire entered the Potions Lab, she felt a familiar feeling creep up in her, potions were always her best subject. The classroom had shelves at the front full of jars of ingredients on. Miss Hardbroom's desk was in front which was adorned with potion ingredients which was to be used for the class. She had guessed the potion to be brewed in class was going to be easy, but she couldn't do the incantation for it, she was an Element bender a different type of witch to everyone else which meant incantations wasn't even an option for her. Luckily it looked like a type of weather spell she could easily mask the lack of incantation magic whilst bending the elements and muttering some sort of incantation that won't do anything. The rest of the room was a pleasant sight the desks in a slight horse-shoe shaped position with 2 rows and eight desks each adorned with a cauldron, she took the remaining desk which was the furthest from the door with a Teal coloured stripe around it.

After the formalities of what they would be brewing which Sapphire had guessed correctly and the go ahead to start. Sapphire who didn't need a potion book took the ingredients she needed and set to making the potion, Miss Hardbroom had stated it needed to have lightning as well as thunder in the weather spell, which made it a step up from the first-year version. This wasn't a problem for Sapphire. The potion was as always brewed perfectly with a slight tweak to what the book had written in it.

"Has everyone finished" Miss Hardbroom's voice carried across the classroom.

"Yes" every student had responded.

Miss Hardbroom had the students pair up to the student next to them and one group at a time did their spells. One student drank the potion whilst the one who brewed it said the incantation most students had managed the first-year version, only one had done it with lightning.

It got to Sapphires turn her partner hadn't managed it, so she was dry, she gave her potion to her partner to try and then she said some funky version of the incantation. She moved her arms around a little and using her element bending skills she conjured a perfect dark cloud above her partners head making sure to ensure that there would be thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Miss Hardbroom was fairly impressed it seemed effortless for the girl.

"An acceptable attempt" is all Miss Hardbroom stated yet Sapphire noticed her eyes looked rather shocked at the ease the girl did the spell with.

"Don't forget detention tonight at seven and don't be late" Miss Hardbroom reminded Sapphire as everyone exited the room heading to flying, which Sapphire was definitely not attending, she had wings that she could summon from her back, brooms don't work for her kind. She wasn't sure how she would explain it to miss drill.

As the class approached their broomsticks Miss Drill did not bother to look for Sapphire as she knew her kind did not use brooms and the girl most likely wouldn't turn up knowing she would be laughed at by the others. Unfortunately, Miss Hardbroom had turned up to watch for some utterly bizarre reason that Miss Drill could not fathom.

"Honestly"

"What is the problem Hecate".

"Where is Sapphire Stone" Hecate simply answered as she couldn't see her amongst the girls.

"She is running me an errand" was all Dimity Drill could think of quick enough.

As Hecate rolled her eyes the students one by one mounted their brooms and tried perfecting their widdershins.

Sapphire had taken herself to the woods and to her delight there was a big circular lake, this would be perfect for bending practice that she needed to keep from the others. She sighed and then realised she was being pulled through the void in a transference spell oh no you don't, I am not a rag doll thank you very much. She managed to pull herself back to the woods, she loathed the idea of pulling someone from one place to the other without their permission. The one being transferred doesn't know where they will end up, could be dangerous, I could have been getting changed, could have been on the toilet, she had a feeling she had just avoided Miss Hardbroom.

Miss Hardbroom was very confused her spells never went wrong; she was the best at transfer spells in the school. She was flabbergasted why are my spells not working, she should have been right here next to me and in front of a broom. She then hovered the nearest broom and realised her magic hadn't stopped working, something or someone had blocked it. how, that kind of magic no child can do. How very wrong she was.

The rest of the week had flown by and to Miss Hardbroom's relief Sapphire had been ok after her transfer spell hadn't worked. No child had ever been missing, severely injured or worse in her care. Sapphire had made it her mission to annoy miss Hardbroom as much as possible and had managed to get a detention every night of which she was sorting out potion ingredients for. Her potions where always brewed to perfection yet all the ones which included an incantation did nothing apart from the weather spell one. Pippa was getting worried not one letter, magic mirror meeting nothing not one word she had heard from her. She had mirrored both Ada and Dimity and they both said she was fine, yet both had stated one of Pippa's worries that Sapphire and Hecate were making each other's lives difficult.