Chapter 7 – What Have We Done?

At Cackle's Academy Hecate sat at her desk. She had been sent the recording of Mildred's first flying lesson at Pentangle's. Pippa had warned her it wasn't going to be an easy watch. Hecate had just finished her marking and she was about to check on the students for the night. She was putting off watching it, if Pippa says that it would be a hard watch, then it wasn't good. She wouldn't admit it at least not yet, that she was missing Mildred for some strange reason. She hated walking into her first-year class and not seeing her there. She had admired the girl to an extent.

Twenty minutes later and she had checked all the girls in her form were in bed and their lights off, she sat down at her desk and opened her top drawer and took out her maglet. She sat staring at it for a while, barely breathing, dreading what she would see and hear. Whatever was on there was a reflection of her teaching, and she wasn't sure she wanted to see it. She and Dimity refused to start her off from scratch, this they knew was unfair and was very, very dangerous yet their prejudice had gotten in the way of allowing a student to flourish under their care.

She willed herself to start the recording. Just open it, it can't be that bad, she probably just hugged a tree again. She watched as Mildred walked up to the class shaking with fear and as she backed away from the broom that Quickstep had handed her. Hecate had never felt so ashamed of her actions like this. Her and Dimity, mainly herself had caused a student to become terrified at the sight of a broom. This was a serious problem, if Mildred failed her exams her witching education was over. She would have cost someone their education on top of their loss of confidence and that wasn't a good feeling for Hecate. She then watched as Pippa had been as comforting as she could and held the broom steady whilst Mildred gripped for dear life whilst just hovering. She saw the look on Pippa's face as she looked at her pupil with a very sorry expression. She watched as Zack hovered next to her and reassured her as well as when he hugged Mildred when she broke down.

Through out the last five minutes of the recording, Hecate, had also broke into tears, she could only just see it. She hated the feeling of self-hatred, though she was used to it, but not this badly. She sent the recording to Dimity, who barged into her room an hour later.

"Tell me I didn't just watch that?"

"Oh yes you did".

"What have we done?"

"I would say that was way more my doing than yours".

"What if she fails first year?"

They both went quiet and stood in silence until Hecate spoke.

"I'll speak to Pippa and see what her plan is, she won't have a student fail, she will find a way around it".

"If she doesn't?"

"Then that is one potential witching family down. What have I done?"

"I would like to say we gave her a chance but that would be a lie. Instead of seeing how far we can get her, we decided to try and get her expelled for being born differently. We took our own insecurities out on Mildred, and now we have to live with that guilt. That recording was not easy to watch. Poor Mildred".

Hecate decided at that second to mirror Pippa as she took out the mirror she made sure not to look at it. "Pippa Pentangle". She spoke clearly though she did not look at the mirror until Pippa could be seen, for she hated her reflection.

"Hecate, Dimity I wasn't expecting a call".

"Really?" Hecate retorted.

"I take it you watched the recording" Pippa simply stated.

"We were rather shocked" Dimity told her.

"Was rather unpleasant watching a student in that state whilst holding the broom for her, I can assure you. The recording went round the faculty here at Pentangle's and the staff where rather shocked".

Hecate said nothing, this was entirely because of her, she had told Dimity to not teach her from scratch though Dimity had protested on the grounds of health and safety.

Someone had walked into Pippa's office, this was clearly a member of staff.

Hecate took in the tall woman who was in forest green jogging set, similar to what Dimity wears, as well as the woman's long hair.

"Ah, Steph do me a favour and just go through some things with these two please, deputy head and flying". Pippa stated as she headed to the bathroom.

Stephanie took Pippa's seat.

"Stephanie Quickstep, right then, which one of you though it was brilliant idea to not taking flying from the very, very start with a student from a non-witching family?"

"That would be me" Hecate responded straight away in a quiet voice as her eyes lowered to look at her desk the mirror was stood on. Stephanie looked furious.

"That was very dangerous, I have only ever had a student act like that in my class when they are afraid of heights, I don't want to know whatever you two have done as I have a short temper right now. I hope you saw what you wanted to see, the poor girl is traumatised now, I want a reason for what you have done.

Dimity looked at Hecate as if to say your on your own with this one, I did warn you.

Hecate looked at Stephanie in the eye and noticed how pretty the woman was and tried to proceed with caution. "This is all because of me, I am not proud of the decision I made, with Mildred coming from a non- witching family I knew she would struggle; I have tried many ways to get her to leave as she was far too behind for out first years, this would mean she would struggle far too much. Granted it would have been better for her to have been refused the chance to fly rather than put her in a sticky situation".

Stephany spoke calmly but with a hint of anger. "So you wanted her gone, for what reason, the fact that you didn't think she was worth teaching or the fact that you would have to actually teach? Did it never cross your mind to perhaps use her lack of witching knowledge to your advantage? Use her as a challenge to see how far you could get her within the rankings of the class instead of rip her to shreds and make her feel unsafe. You could have tried many things as traumatising is never the answer. As fellow flying teacher, I am astounded that you thought your approach was acceptable. You need to really question if your fit to be a deputy head. In future if you get another student from a non-witching family and you cannot put your prejudice aside then do let us know".

There was no response from Hecate or Dimity.

"Now I have a traumatised student to sort out, no thanks to you two". With that Stephanie dropped the call and went to walk out the office. As she spun round, she had finally noticed Pippa stood in the doorway with her arms crossed and looking rather entertained.

"I haven't seen many bring Hecate to a loss of words, well done". Pippa stated with a smile on her face.

"Was I too harsh?".

"I thought you would have been much harsher to be honest".

"I am of to bed, good night, Pippa".

"Good night, Steph".