A Bad Spell for the Worst Witch

by Jill Murphy

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Mildred, ‘it’s a long story. I’m not really a frog at all. I’m a second-year witch at the school, and this beastly girl called Ethel Hallow has changed me into a frog and I was –’

  ‘Good gracious me!’ exclaimed the frog. ‘This is quite amazing! I’m not a frog either. I’m a magician. What a wonderful coincidence. I’ve been here for years and this is the first conversation I’ve had with a human for simply ages. How extraordinary! Well, well, well, I can scarcely believe it. Allow me to offer you a nice fly from my store.’

  ‘A fly?’ repeated Mildred.

  ‘Oh dear,’ said the frog-magician. ‘Of course, you’ve only been a frog for a while. A fly, my dear, you know, bzzzzzz. They really are quite delicious once you get used to the idea. I nearly starved at first because I couldn’t bear the idea of eating – well – insects and the like, but it’s amazing what you can get used to.’

  Mildred grimaced. ‘I’m hoping to be changed back before I get used to it,’ she said (with considerable spirit, bearing in mind how hopeless she felt). ‘Tell me how you got here in the first place.’

  ‘Well, my dear,’ said the frog-magician, settling fatly onto a stone. ‘It was so long ago that I’ve almost forgotten. Let me see… Yes, well in those days, of course, the castle was not a school. It was used for meetings and conferences of magicians. We used to have a lovely “do” in the summer. Like a holiday camp it was, endless teas and lectures and displays of magic all afternoon. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had an argument — rather like you did, by the sound of it – with a fellow magician and this was the result. Before I could persuade him to change his mind, the summer was over, everyone went home and I was left behind. I’ve been here ever since. I must admit I get very glum sometimes.’ He breathed a huge sigh and gazed into the dark water.

  ‘Why don’t you come with me?’ said Mildred brightly. ‘I’m going to find my friend Maud, after dark. I know I can make her understand, and then she’ll be able to help me. She’ll help you, too.’

  A large tear splashed from the frog-magician’s eye. ‘It’s no use,’ he croaked sadly. ‘It’s got to be a magician who takes off the spell. There aren’t any in the school, are there?’

  ‘No, there aren’t,’ said Mildred thoughtfully. ‘All right then, I’ll go to find Maud by myself, but I’ll come back for you as soon as I’m changed back and I’ll get you to a magician somehow. I won’t forget.’

  ‘You’re very kind, my dear – What is your name?’ said the frog-magician.

  ‘Mildred Hubble,’ replied Mildred. ‘What’s yours?’

  ‘Algernon er – something-or-other Webb. Isn’t that awful?’ said the frog-magician. ‘Do you know I can’t remember the first bit, I’ve been here so long. What was it now? Bowen-Webb? Stone-Webb? Or was it Webbley-Stone? I’m sorry, child, I’ve completely forgotten. Oh dear, it was all so very long ago. I must say, sometimes I’d give anything to have a proper old-fashioned tea again, one gets so fed-up with flies and water-boatmen. Every now and then I can see it all so clearly; a nice log fire and a little round table with a tablecloth, and hot toast with great slabs of butter, and crumpets with honey all oozing out of the little holes, and a china cup with steaming tea-’

  The memory was too much for him and he erupted into loud, desperate sobs, a pitiful sound to hear.

  Mildred hopped next to him and patted him with a half visible arm. ‘Don’t cry Mr Algernon, sir,’ she said comfortingly. ‘You shall have crumpets for tea again, don’t you worry. It’ll be all right, I promise it will.’

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ight had fallen and the pupils of the academy were all in bed. That is to say most of the pupils were in bed. Enid had sneaked into Maud’s room for a quick conference about Mildred. It was bitterly cold in the cell-like bedroom and the two girls were huddled on the bed, wrapped in blankets, with cats draped over their feet to keep out the cold. (Maud was taking care of Mildred’s tabby.)

  ‘Well, I give up,’ said Enid. ‘If she has run away, she’s left every single piece of clothing behind – even her cardigan, so she must be frozen solid by now.’

  ‘She hasn’t run away,’ said Maud. ‘She wouldn’t have gone just because H.B. told her off. Anyway, she’s not likely to have run away without old Tabby here, especially as that was why H.B. was cross in the first place. It just doesn’t make sense. No, I’m quite sure that Ethel knows something about it. Don’t you remember what she said to Mildred? No one insults my family and gets away with it. Well I think she’s done something really awful to Mildred.’

  ‘Like what?’ asked Enid.

  Just at that moment, the cats all leapt to their feet with their fur on end and looked in the direction of the door. The girls exchanged nervous glances, thinking that it must be Miss Hardbroom come to reprimand them for being out of bed. Maud crept to the door and opened it very slowly.

  Outside in the shadowy corridor was the little frog which had escaped from the potion laboratory. Maud and Enid could tell it was the same one because its feet had not yet reappeared.

  Mildred hopped inside and was picked up by Maud, who took her over to Enid.

  Tabby immediately began nuzzling up against the frog in a very friendly way, unlike the other two cats who kept in the background, backs arched and humming frantically.

  ‘How strange, Enid!’ said Maud. ‘Look at Tabby. It seems as if they’ve met before.’

  The two witches suddenly looked at each other in horror.

  ‘Oh no!’ they exclaimed at the same time.

  ‘It can’t be!’ gasped Maud. ‘Or can it?’

  ‘I think it might be,’ replied Enid grimly. She took the frog from Maud and held it up near her face.

  ‘Are you –’ she began, but before she could finish, the little frog was leaping up and down, nodding its head and croaking so loudly that the girls were afraid someone would hear.

  ‘Sssh!’ whispered Enid. ‘Calm down, for goodness’ sake. Now then, are you our very good friend, Mildred Hubble?’

  There was no doubt about it, from the nodding and mad capering, that here was the answer to Mildred’s sudden disappearance.

  ‘Did Ethel do it?’ asked Maud.

  More nodding and croaking was the answer.

  ‘Right!’ said Maud. ‘Come on, Enid.’

  Ethel was not asleep, either. She was sitting up in bed learning the chant which was to be tested the next day. She nearly leapt through the ceiling when the door opened and Maud and Enid marched menacingly into the room.

  ‘Recognize this?’ asked Maud, holding out the frog. ‘Remind you of anyone, does it?’

  Ethel turned white as a sheet. ‘I – I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ she said.

  ‘All right,’ said Maud, ‘then we’re off to Miss Hardbroom. Come on, Enid. Sorry to have bothered you, Ethel.’

  ‘No!’ cried Ethel. ‘It’s Mildred, isn’t it? Oh, thank goodness you found her. I didn’t mean her to run off and get lost. I just wanted to give her a fright, that’s all. Come here and let me take off the spell.’

  ‘Hold on a moment,’ said Enid, ‘I think we’d better get Miss Hardbroom. I mean, how are we going to explain where Mildred’s been?’

  ‘Let’s tell her in the morning,’ wheedled Ethel. ‘She’ll be in a dreadful mood if we disturb her tonight. Anyway, I’m sure poor Mildred here can’t wait a moment longer.’

  Ethel spoke the words of the spell, and at once Mildred was standing before them.

  ‘Thanks for nothing, Ethel Hallow,’ she said, rubbing her arms and legs. ‘Gosh, it feels really odd to be this big again. Oh Maud, it was so awful in the potion lab, I really thought I’d had it.’

  The door opened like a thunderclap, and there stood Miss Hardbroom.

  ‘Having a little party are we, girls?’ she inquired drily. ‘Ah, Mildred, I see you’ve decided to rejoin us at last. We hope you have had a pleasant time wherever you have been. Would it be too much, perhaps, to inquire exactly wh
ere you have been. Hmm?’

  The three friends looked desperately at Ethel who stepped forward with a smirk flickering at the corners of her mouth.

  ‘I caught Mildred creeping down the corridor with Maud and Enid here,’ she said innocently. ‘So I invited them into my room and I was just coming to fetch you, Miss Hardbroom.’

  ‘Ethel!’ exclaimed Maud, Enid and Mildred together.

  ‘That’s not true, Miss Hardbroom,’ squeaked Mildred indignantly. ‘Ethel turned me into a frog and that’s where I’ve been for the last day, and it was her fault. She’s only just changed me back.’

  ‘I did not,’ lied Ethel, sounding convincingly angry. ‘I wouldn’t do such a thing – unlike some people around here,’ she added under her breath, referring to the time when Mildred had accidently changed Ethel into a pig during their first term at the school.

  ‘Mildred,’ said Miss Hardbroom, ‘you will write out five hundred times, in perfect handwriting, “I must learn to curb my imagination and to —” good gracious, girl! What on earth has happened to your feet?’

  They all looked and saw that Mildred’s feet, still recovering from the invisibility potion, had not yet reappeared, even though she had changed back to her usual self.

  ‘That proves it!’ exclaimed Mildred joyfully. ‘Miss Hardbroom, I was the frog in the potion laboratory, the one you found in the corridor, and the potion I took is only just wearing off, that’s why I haven’t any feet at the moment. Oh yes! And to prove it even more, I can tell you that you have a handkerchief, a whistle and a notebook with a rubber band round it in your pocket!’

  Miss Hardbroom turned to Ethel.

  ‘Well?’ she asked, in tones so terrifying that all four of her pupils shrank back against the wall.

  ‘I – I, well – I – she had insulted my f-family, Miss Hardb-broom,’ said Ethel feebly. ‘And I really didn’t mean her to run off like that. I only meant to give her a scare. I didn’t mean…’ she trailed into silence.

  ‘Ethel, Mildred,’ said Miss Hardbroom, ‘you will both come to my room first thing in the morning before breakfast. Now get along to bed at once, all of you.’

  Their form-mistress ushered the three friends to their separate rooms. Mildred’s room was the last of all.

  ‘Let us hope that your feet are in the correct place by the morning, Mildred,’ said Miss Hardbroom frostily, as Mildred hastened inside and closed the door.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  hortly after the rising bell had been rung, Ethel and Mildred were waiting anxiously outside Miss Hardbroom’s door. It was the first time that Ethel had been summoned to her form-mistress for any reason other than praise.

  ‘It’s your fault, Mildred Hubble,’ she muttered, as they paced up and down the corridor. ‘If you hadn’t told that stupid story to Sybil and upset her, I wouldn’t have done it to you. Anyway, I really was going to take the spell off straight away, but of course you have to go hopping off and get caught and land us in this mess.’

  ‘You’ve got a nerve, Ethel Hallow!’ said Mildred. ‘You just can’t ever admit you might be wrong, can you? It wasn’t exactly fun being pursued round the potion lab and shoved into jars. It wouldn’t occur to you that –’

  The door opened and Miss Hardbroom beckoned them inside.

  ‘Sit,’ she barked, indicating two chairs opposite her desk. They all sat down.

  ‘It wasn’t my fault, Miss Hardbroom!’ Ethel blurted out. ‘Mildred Hubble told my little sister this story about first-years being changed into frogs by the teachers. She even told Sybil that the frog in the school pond was enchanted, and poor Sybil was in such a state that I thought someone ought to teach Mildred a lesson.’

  ‘It wasn’t exactly like that, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Mildred. ‘I’d gone up to Ethel’s sister to cheer her up because she was looking so miserable. I didn’t know —’

  ‘I have heard quite enough excuses,’ interrupted Miss Hardbroom, ‘and I do not wish to hear any more. Frankly, I am not in the least bit interested in whose fault the incident was.

  ‘The reason I have called you both here is to remind you that you are now second-year witches, and I do not expect this ridiculous feud between you two girls to continue. Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes, Miss Hardbroom,’ replied Ethel and Mildred meekly.

  ‘Ethel,’ continued Miss Hardbroom, ‘just because you happen to be an excellent scholar and one of the most helpful members of my class, I do not expect you to lie your way out of a situation when it has become awkward. Do you understand this?’

  ‘Yes, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Ethel.

  ‘Neither,’ said Miss Hardbroom, ‘do I expect you to contravene the Witches Code, rule number seven, paragraph two, by changing your fellows into any sort of animal for whatever reason. Do you understand that?’

  ‘Yes, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Ethel.

  ‘Good,’ said Miss Hardbroom, ‘then you will understand why I am giving you one hundred lines which will say “I must tell the truth at all times.” ’

  She turned her attention to Mildred. ‘Mildred, I would ask you to refrain from tormenting the first-years with untrue horror stories about the academy, and to make some attempt to think – if that is possible – before you embark upon any more madcap escapades.’

  ‘Yes, Miss Hardbroom,’ replied Mildred. ‘Oh, and Miss Hardbroom, I’ve just remembered, there is a frog in the pond and it really is someone under enchantment. I know it sounds like another made-up story –’

  ‘Mildred Hubble,’ said Miss Hardbroom wearily, ‘what have I just said to you? No, don’t attempt to answer. I expect you’ve completely forgotten already, haven’t you? Sometimes I feel that any attempt to communicate with you is an utter waste of time.

  ‘Now I have said all that I wish to say to you girls except, Mildred, that you will write one hundred lines which will say, “I must try very hard not to be quite so silly.” Now hurry along to breakfast, girls. That will be all.’

  Mildred was now faced with the impossible task of convincing someone that there was an elderly magician in the pond. She tried to tell Maud and Enid, but they had had enough of frog stories, particularly as Mildred had actually admitted to them, at the time, that the story she had told Sybil was not true.

  It seemed quite hopeless. The only way of getting to a magician was at the celebrations on Hallowe’en night, but after the broomstick display, which Mildred had ruined the year before, she felt very worried about creating any more havoc in that direction.

  Mildred spent a lot of time by the pond telling the frog-magician that she hadn’t forgotten him and that she would get him out if it was the last thing she did. He always kept a distance from her, but she felt sure he knew who she was. Looking at his froggy face, half-submerged in the murky water, it was hard to believe that he really was anything more than an ordinary frog, and Mildred could see why no one had recognized her when she was in the same plight.

  CHAPTER NINE

  week before the Hallowe’en celebration, Miss Hardbroom entered the classroom, looking grim.

  ‘Sit, girls,’ she said, looking round severely at the rows of pupils. ‘I have here a letter from the chief magician, Mr Hellibore, who presides over the Hallowe’en festivities each year. In this letter he specifically requests that the girls responsible for the utter fiasco, which should have been our broomstick display last year, are to be kept away from this year’s display so that he can relax and enjoy the events taking place. Those two girls were Ethel Hallow and Mildred Hubble. It is true that the incident was not actually Mildred’s fault, for once, because Ethel had cast a spell on the broomstick which Mildred was using, but in view of our little chat this morning, girls —’ here she darted a glance at Ethel and Mildred who wriggled uncomfortably in their seats, ‘I feel this is a most fitting punishment for both of you. As you retire to your beds at dusk on the eve of Hallowe’en, perhaps you might ponder upon the exciting evening you could have been enjoying and resolve to end this ridiculo
us feud at last.’

  Mildred was very upset at her exclusion from Hallowe’en for several reasons. One was the awful unfairness of it all, as it really hadn’t been her fault that Ethel had cast a bad spell on the broomstick she had lent to Mildred, thus ruining the display. Also it would be very hard to stay in bed and miss the evening’s fun. But, worst of all, she would not be able to take her unfortunate friend to be changed back to his normal self, and this was the only night of the whole year when she would be in the presence of a magician.

  There was only one thing to do. She would have to persuade someone to change places with her, and if that didn’t work she would have to kidnap someone and force them to swap places. Even the thought of this plan seemed dreadful to Mildred, who could see how such a course of action was fraught with danger, but there really was no alternative if she was to help the frog-magician.

  Maud and Enid were the obvious people to ask but they flatly refused.

  ‘You must be barmy, Mildred,’ exclaimed Maud. ‘H.Β. would slaughter us if we got caught. Anyway what’s it for? I mean if I was you I’d just put up with it and stay in bed. Enid and I will describe it all when we come back.’

  ‘Look, Maud,’ pleaded Mildred, ‘I know it’s hard for you to believe me, but that frog in the pond really is a magician and he can only be changed back by another magician. If you don’t want to change places with me, then couldn’t you take him yourself and ask the chief magician for help? Please.’

  ‘No fear!’ said Maud and Enid together.

  ‘Honestly, Mil,’ said Enid gently, ‘I know it must have been awful when you were turned into a frog, what with the narrow squeak in the potion lab and everything, but don’t you think perhaps you’re getting a little obsessed with frogs and ponds? Maud and I have seen you down there chatting away to the empty water. Perhaps a nice evening in bed might be good for you, after all.’