AN: I just needed a break from all the studying and HB/Drill drama in my head and wanted to to something fun for a change. I am going to update my I Feel Everything fanfic as soon as I get my beta-ed chapter back, no worries. ^_^ This one is going to have 11 chapters, each chapter representing a reason why Miss Hardbroom doesn't like Mildred (and then one reason why she does). It's for fun and amusment and I hope you'll get a few laughs out of it. Enjoy and tell me what you think (ideas for next chapters/reasons why HB doesn't like Mildred are very welcomed too!).

Ten Reasons Why Miss Hardbroom Doesn't Like Mildred Hubble (and one why she does)

Reason #1: The Smile

The first day of a new school year is always stressful for Constance. She doesn't mind the welcoming procedures or filling in all the papers about the new girls. In fact, that is the easiest of it all. Much harder is to make a good impression on the first year. Of course, she has been building her reputation even before they came. All it took was a silly story about turning a troublesome pupil into a frog. The word spread quickly among the newcomers, mostly thanks to Griselda and Fenella who took great delight in scaring the youngest girls with stories about Miss Hardbroom's wickedness. But even with the story out she has to impress the new girls in order to gain respect.

Mother Nature was kind to her: blessing her with a tall and bony body that frightens the girls, especially when the witch straightens up and looks down at them. The leather dress she wears ever so often adds to it a rather dangerous spark, letting the girls know she's not to be messed with. She's got the strict face, the stiff posture and the powerful magic. She is the fearsome potion teacher and the girls need to be taught that the very first day they come to the Academy. Secretly listening to the boring girl-talk in order to appear in the middle of a conservation just to remind them that she could, indeed, hear anything at any time is always incredibly exhausting. But it has to be done. Respect and discipline – that is all she demands and she won't settle for anything else.

"Thersalia Honeybloom?" she calls out a name and looks at the new girls. A small blonde nervously raises her hand.

"Here."

"Here what? Miss Honeybloom, this is a school for witches, NOT a summer camp! I believe you are aware that your teachers are superior witches who deserve to be addressed properly – they are not to be spoken to as if they were your fellow classmates! Next time I want to hear a proper and respectful answer, not a one-word response as if you were not able to talk in complex sentences. Is that understood?"

"Yes…yes, Miss Hardbroom!" the stressed girl says, looking as if she is about to faint.

Constance opens her mouth to start her welcoming speech. Griselda – as every year – stands behind her and wordlessly mouths the words exactly as the deputy headmistress is saying them, the speech always the same. The witch allows her to do so in order to scold her after the speech in front of the first graders and assign her five hundred lines. The girl apologies and promises to behave the next time. As every year, Griselda thanks to Miss Hardbroom for only five hundred lines and the first graders gasp at how strict the system at Cackles is. Of course, Constance knows the fourth grader is not going to give her any lines and Griselda knows that she doesn't have to. It's a secret pact between the two of them: and it mustn't be known to anybody else, for it would have a devastating effect on Gris's rebellious spirit and HB's disciplinary rules. They do not even know why they share such a ritual but they both benefit from it in a way; the teacher believes it helps her to be feared and for the student it is a way of apologizing for the trouble that is yet to come that year (like when they start a riot or accidentally throw a bucket of water at her to prove that she's not a wicked witch and the water cannot melt her).

By the time she sends the new girls to the castle, she's already become the most hated teacher. She is proud of that title because – as she knows – the people you hate the most are the very ones that teach you the best. Respect makes the pupils listen in the class, fright makes them do their homework, discipline makes them responsible and the rare praise from her makes them feel proud of themselves. It is Constance's style of teaching and after so many years it has became her lifestyle as well. All goes well; all goes according to the plan.

Just as the nervous newcomers are about to enter the castle, they hear a scream and turn around just to see a tall girl in a uniform running out of the forest. She has two brown braids of hair framing her freckled face and she looks worried as she runs towards Miss Hardbroom.

"My broom!" the girl shrieks and hides behind the fearsome potions mistress.

There is a broom following the girl, flying out of the forest and trying to attack her. Unfortunately it misses its target and knocks down Constance instead, sending her to the ground in not a very graceful way. Of course, even from the ground she is able to perform a simple reversing spell that stops the broom and makes it hover in the air as obediently as it should. The first graders giggle when they see her on the ground and even though she shoots them one of her most disapproving looks to silence them, some of them are still smiling. They seem to relax a bit, seeing that there are moments when the witch doesn't have to be feared. Miss Hardbroom is no longer viewed as the highest authority, since Mildred doesn't look like she's scared of her at all. Why should they be scared then?

"Mildred Hubble!" she manages to say, her voice rising with every letter in the name.

"Yes, Miss?" Mildred says with a small smile that she cannot help but summon on her face because no matter how much trouble she got herself in again (by now, she's used to it anyway), she still finds it amusing that the strict woman was attacked by her broom.

Constance assigns her hundreds of lines and essays and speaks in the high pitched voice and shouts and then disappears in the thin air. Still, Mildred is there smiling and that smile – oh that smile! – is one of the reasons why she finds the girl the most irritating student she's ever had.