The Maple Witches (Worst Witch Spin-Off)

Chapter Ten

The student witches in the courtyard had arranged themselves into four rows; they had instinctively mirrored their seating positions in their tutor base. Magical or not, they were all creatures of habit.

Sephy stood in the back row, framed by Ana and Cassie. Ana looked nervous but determined, clutching her badly-mended broom so tightly that her knuckles were white.

All of a sudden, HB materialised in front of the group, broomstick in hand and looking as displeased as ever. Everyone turned to face the front, a few standing a little straighter than they normally would have done. It seemed that the class was divided into two camps when it came to HB – the first years had either chosen to a) try to behave perfectly in the hopes that if they ever found themselves in trouble, their form tutor would go easier on them or b) avoid her wrath by hiding amongst their fellow classmates and not drawing attention to themselves. Sephy fit into the latter category.

"The first important thing to recognise about broomsticks is that they are not cute or friendly," Miss Hardbroom barked.

Sephy couldn't help wonder how many times Miss Hardbroom had used the word cute in her lifetime.

"They only do what you tell them to do, so you must always be firm, confident and assertive." HB continued. "To fly, you must first instruct your broom to hover, which we shall now practise. Place your broom in front of you, stand with your hands aligned over the broom, and command it to hover."

The girls lay their broomsticks on the ground and then started trying to get them to hover. Hazel and Cassie managed it on their first try. Ana needed a couple of attempts for the nervous tremor to leave her voice, but eventually, her broom reluctantly rose upwards to hip-height. Sephy joined in with the chorus of hovers that were echoing around the courtyard, but to no avail. That was probably because she was willing the broom to stay where it was with every shred of her being. What Sephy failed to realise was that the longer it took her to get the broomstick to hover, the more people would be watching her failed attempts later on.

Unsurprisingly, before long, everyone was looking at Sephy.

"Again, girls."

Everyone returned their broomsticks to the ground and repeated the exercise. Ana managed to get her broom to hover first time when they did so, just as she had done on the first day of term when she and Sephy had met.

"Hover?" Sephy tried.

Please don't hover, please don't hover.

The broom didn't move an inch.

"What are you doing Persephone?"

HB had just materialised right in front of Sephy, who recoiled in shock.

"It's... not working," she mumbled.

"What have I already told you? You need to be firm. You're not asking the broom whether it fancies flying. You are the one in control. Now try again."

Sephy bit her lip. "Maybe this is just a bad idea Miss -"

"Try again."

There was no getting out of it. The only way everyone would stop staring and HB's lip would stop curling upwards in annoyance was if she managed the simple task everybody else was ready to move on from.

Okay, broom. I need you to hover this time.

She had yet to command the broomstick to hover when it zipped upwards to float beneath her outstretched hands.

The rest of the class murmured in surprise.

"Woah, Sephy! How did you manage that?" Ana exclaimed.