Free The Worst Witch and the Wishing Star by Jill Murphy Page B

hover, and Star impressed them all by standing on his head. The room was already crammed to bursting with admirers when there was a knock at the door.
     

     
    ‘
Another
fan!’ laughed Maud, sweeping the door open.
    ‘I’m not sure you could actually call me a “fan”, Maud,’ said Miss Hardbroom, who was standing outside in her usual disapproving manner.
    Everyone froze, including Star, who was still standing on his head on the back of Mildred’s broom.
     

     
    ‘Miss Cackle wants to see you in her office, Mildred,’ announced Miss Hardbroom, ‘and you’d better bring the dog – preferably on all four legs.’
    ‘Yes, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Mildred, clicking her fingers at Star, who did a perfect back-flip from the broom, landing at her feet. The back-flip somehow looked slightly cheeky with Miss Hardbroom watching sternly from the doorway.
    Mildred gave a last, anxious glance back at the room full of silent pupils, Maud and Enid holding up crossed fingers and mouthing ‘good luck’.
    Mildred followed Miss Hardbroom through the winding corridors, past the unlit lanterns, which she now thought of as ‘her’ lanterns after weeks of lighting them so diligently each night. She wondered sadly who would be lighting them now, as it seemed unlikely she would still be allowed after the costumes fiasco.
     

     
    ‘Where did the dog actually
come
from Mildred?’ asked Miss Hardbroom.
    Star was now slinking behind his mistress, trying to keep as far away from Miss Hardbroom as possible.
     

     
    ‘I’m not sure you’ll believe me, Miss Hardbroom,’ explained Mildred, ‘but I saw a shooting star fall behind the school gates – ages ago on the first day of term – and I wished for a dog and the next morning I found Star outside the school gates! I know you’ll probably think I’m being silly –’
    ‘I
don’t
actually, Mildred,’ said Miss Hardbroom. ‘I feel I should tell you that
I
saw the same shooting star and wished that we would win the swimming-pool competition. The likelihood of two wishes on the same star coming true would seem, to me, to be
very
remote, yet they
did
. Interesting, isn’t it?’
     

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
     

 
    iss Cackle was seated behind her desk when Mildred and Miss Hardbroom entered her study.
    ‘Ah, Mildred, my dear!’ she said in her most friendly voice. Mildred’s spirits rose – being called ‘my dear’ was a very good sign. ‘Congratulations to our winning team,’ continued Miss Cackle. ‘Sit down.’
    ‘Sit!’ said Mildred to Star.
    ‘No dear!’ laughed Miss Cackle. ‘I meant
you
.’
    Mildred sat down shyly and Star crept under her chair and flattened himself into the floor, remembering the last time he had been in the room.
    ‘Miss Hardbroom and I have been discussing your superb performance at the Supreme Magician’s castle today,’ said Miss Cackle, ‘and we both agreed that you flew like a different person.’
    ‘And we could not help noticing,’ continued Miss Hardbroom, ‘that you seemed to be completely in tune with your new dog-companion here – a truly magnificent performance, in fact.’
     

     
    ‘Thank you, Miss Hardbroom,’ said Mildred, ‘he’s just so good at flying. He always was, right from the first time I put him on the broom. I’m only the pilot really, steering him round so he can show off all his tricks.’
    ‘That’s rather
over
-modest, Mildred,’ said Miss Cackle ‘There was a lot of input from you, especially in such difficult manoeuvres as the loop-the-loop –’
     

     
    ‘And nosedives, Mildred!’ interrupted Miss Hardbroom. ‘I seem to remember you had a great deal of trouble with your nosedives at the beginning of your school career.’
     

     
    At this point, Mildred hunched her shoulders nervously up round her ears, unsure of what the two teachers were actually trying to tell her. They were managing to sound admiring and disapproving at the same time and she wasn’t quite sure what was