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Mildred "Millie" Peppercorn Hubble is a witch, and a student of Cackle's Academy. She is a good-hearted, but bungling young witch-in-training, who never seems to get anything right. She is friends with Maud Spellbody and Enid Nightshade and has a strong rivalry with Ethel Hallow and Drusilla Paddock. It is Miss Hardbroom who calls Mildred ‘"The Worst Witch".

Story[]

Books[]

Mildred joins Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches. When Mildred is to receive her kitten, Mildred is the last in the queue and ends up with a tabby cat, unlike the rest of the girls, who receive black cats. She names her cat ‘Tabby’. Tabby proves useless at sitting on Mildred’s broomstick, so Mildred puts Tabby in her satchel instead of on her broomstick. Miss Hardbroom, the strict form-mistress, notices Tabby in Mildred’s satchel and disapproves. A mean witch in Mildred’s year, Ethel Hallow, teases Mildred about the satchel incident. Mildred warns her that she will turn her into a frog if she continues but accidentally turns her into a pig. Mildred eventually manages to transform Ethel back into a human, causing a rivalry between the two.

For the Halloween celebrations, the first-years are to perform a broomstick display in front of the Chief Wizard. During practice, Miss Hardbroom notices Mildred’s broken broomstick, which Mildred accidentally broke on her second day. Ethel is forced to lend Mildred her spare broomstick, but unbeknownst to Mildred, puts a jinx on it.

During the Halloween broomstick display, Mildred’s broomstick starts rocking and jerking, causing a chain reaction of havoc throughout the other girls. Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom and the Chief Wizard blame Mildred and arrange an interview with her the next afternoon. Mildred, fearing expulsion, runs away with Tabby. When walking through a forest near the academy, Mildred hears voices through the trees and notices a coven of witches, led by a lady who looks very similar to Miss Cackle. Mildred overhears the coven plotting to turn every student and teacher into snails whilst they slept that night. Mildred remembers a snail-transformation spell and turns the coven into snails. She returns to the academy and notifies Miss Cackle of a woman who looked very similar to herself. Miss Cackle reveals that it was her evil twin-sister – Agatha – who was always very jealous of Miss Cackle’s leadership.

Miss Cackle turns the snails back into humans, as the Witches Code states that when a witch is turned into an animal as a defense mechanism, the witch cannot retaliate. Mildred’s interview is cancelled and she is commended as a hero.

On her first Halloween at Cackle's, Mildred saves the school from Agatha Cackle (Miss Cackle's twin sister) and her coven by turning them into snails. At the start of the next term, a new girl, Enid Nightshade, arrives at Cackle's, and after a series of misadventures, Enid becomes Mildred and Maud's new best friend.

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Mildred with the Snails

In her second year, Mildred is turned into a frog by Ethel Hallow after insulting her family. While she’s a frog, Mildred discovers Algernon Rowan-Webb, a Wizard who was turned into a frog years ago. Mildred saves Algernon from a life as a frog, and in return Algernon invites Mildred and her class to spend a week at his seaside home.

Next Term, Mildred is given a normal black cat, Ebony, to replace Tabby, but she disobeys orders and brings Tabby with her to Algernon’s home at Grim Cove. She also discovers a legendary treasure chest on Cat's Head Rock. In the end, Mildred is allowed to keep Tabby.

In her third year, Mildred once again saves the academy from the evil plots of Agatha Cackle who had sneaked into the school disguised as "Miss Granite". In the summer term, her holiday project is stolen by the treacherous and sneaky Ethel Hallow, who also gets her banned from Miss Mould's art lessons after being falsely accused of turning her pot into five rattlesnakes. However, Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom soon learn that Ethel was wrong after Mildred rescues her talking tortoise from a pine tree after Drusilla Paddock hid him there under Ethel's orders.

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Mildred with Einstein the tortise

In her fourth year, Mildred is made Lantern Monitor. She sees a shooting star and makes a wish, which comes true when she finds a stray dog while on her lantern round. Mildred names the dog Star and trains him to ride on her broomstick. At the same time, Cackle’s Academy enters a competition which to win a swimming pool; they compete against Pentangle's Academy and Moonridge High School. Each school must put on an act, and three judges will choose the winner; Cackle’s act is a broomstick ballet.

On the morning of the competition, Mildred has an altercation with Ethel which results in the ballet costumes being destroyed, but Maud and Enid have an idea: They suggest that Mildred and Star could perform their broomstick tricks, as a replacement for the ballet. The judges consider the act unusual, but declare Mildred and Star as the winners! Miss Cackle says she was impressed by Mildred's performance and allows her to keep Star, and to use him as her Broomstick Companion; she is allowed to keep Tabby as well.[1]

During summer term, it is revealed that Star was originally a circus dog known as 'Binky', who was actually lost when his cage fell off the truck as the circus was travelling to its next location. After Ethel exposes his true origin, 'Binky' is returned to the circus, but when Mildred uses her animal talking spell to confirm that the circus animals don't like it there, she is able to offer some enchanted items to the circus owners in exchange for the animals. As a result, Star is once again Mildred's broomstick companion:)

At the end of her fourth year, Mildred is made Head Girl, with Enid as her deputy.

1986 Film[]

According to the Telemovie, Mildred’s mother always wanted to be a witch, but she didn't have "the gift".

1998 TV Series[]

Mildred comes from a non-witch family and passed her entrance test to Cackle's mostly on account of her abundant imagination and her story about a three-headed giant, which greatly impressed the headmistress, Miss Cackle.[2]

On her first day at the Academy, Mildred broke her broomstick after crashing into some dustbins. She meets Maud Moonshine, who becomes her best friend when Maud rushed over to Mildred after she crashed her broomstick. When it comes time for the presentation of the kittens, Mildred is given a tabby cat instead of a normal black cat. Tabby, as Mildred calls him, is hopeless at flying on a broomstick, but very affectionate and cuddly.

On her first Halloween at Cackle's, Mildred saves the school from Agatha Cackle (Miss Cackle's twin sister) and her coven by shrinking them. At the start of the next term, a new girl, Enid Nightshade, arrives at Cackle's, and after a series of misadventures, Enid becomes Mildred and Maud's new best friend.

At the end of Mildred’s first year, Agatha Cackle tries to take over the Academy again but is foiled by Mildred, who puffifies, for which she earns a raise in her final grade from C-- to A+.

In her second year, Mildred is turned into a frog by Ethel Hallow after insulting her family. While she’s a frog, Mildred discovers Algernon Rowan-Webb, a Wizard who was turned into a frog years ago. Mildred saves Algernon from a life as a frog, and in return, Algernon invites Mildred and her class to spend a week at his riverside home.

Next Term, Mildred is given a normal black cat, Ebony, to replace Tabby, but she disobeys orders and brings Tabby with her to Algernon’s home. She also discovers a legendary treasure chest. In the end, Mildred is allowed to keep Tabby.

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Mildred with Tabby at the seaside

At the of Mildred’s second year, the Academy is nearly sold, leading to Mildred having her first ever conversation with Miss Hardbroom that doesn't involve her being in trouble. That night she calls all the students together and lets them know what's going on, and they manage to save the school.[3]

In her third year, Mildred discovers that she is a talented artist, and she has the ability to bring her drawings to life.[4] At the end of her third year, Mildred becomes Head Girl of the Academy.[5]

Weirdsister College[]

After several years at Miss Cackle's Academy, Mildred's artistic talent―she can bring drawings to life―gains her admission to Weirdsister College, a magical University in Cambridge, where she seems to improve in her skills as well as meet up with Ethel again; the two eventually learn to get on better. Mildred also makes a new friend, Cas Crowfeather. Early on, she cuts off her plaits after being cheated on by Nick Hobbes and Cas remarked them as being child-like.

Weirdsister trio

Mildred with Ethel and Cas at Weirdsister

Dr Starfinder is impressed with Mildred’s talent and determines to make use of her in his experiments, but when they mess with her beloved cat Tabby, she refuses to help any more.

She gets a job at the local cafe Misery's and falls for Ben Stemson, a non-magical boy whose mum owns the cafe. However, he doesn't like the idea of magic, and this nearly splits them up, but when she chooses him over Hobbes, he is won over. At the end of her first year at Weirdsister, Mildred helps save the college and the world from imploding.[6]

The New Worst Witch[]

Mildred becomes an accomplished and successful witch and is seen escorting her younger cousin Henrietta on her first day at Cackle's Academy. Mildred learns to Materialize like Miss Hardbroom.[7]

2017 TV Series[]

Living alone with her mother Julie in a small flat, Mildred has no idea about witches, magic and Cackle's Academy until Maud crashes on her balcony. After finding that Maud's glasses are broken, Mildred helps her fly to Cackle's and ends up getting in on a trial basis herself. Mildred is said to be the Academy's first student from a non-witch background. This attracts the attention of other members of magical society, who staunchly believe that magic should remain with the magical families.

Mildred is constantly getting in trouble, and only just scrapes by in her classes, but she manages to retain her position at Cackle's Academy. When Mildred comes second-bottom in a history test, she says it's the greatest moment in her life, because she's only the second worst witch for a change. Mildred often feels out of place at Cackle's because she's the only student from a non-witch family, but she always has the support of her mother, Maud, Enid and Miss Cackle.

In The First Witch, Mildred finds that she is the first Hubble to come to Cackle's Academy, and thinks that means she isn't a witch, as none of her family are, but Maud points out that that makes Mildred the first witch in her family, which is just as impressive.

In Out of Bounds, Mildred thinks that Agatha is pretending to be Miss Cackle again, and after narrowly escaping from Agatha, Mildred is expelled for being out of bounds, due to Maud telling on her to Miss Hardbroom. In The Worst Headmistress, Agatha takes over the Academy, and Ethel sends Tabby to Mildred with a message asking for help, and an Invisibility Potion so she can sneak into the school, where Maud apologises to Mildred and they make up. However, when they attempt to rescue Miss Cackle, they are caught by Miss Gullet. When Agatha tries to destroy the school, All the students chant together to stop her spell, and this also changes Esmerelda, the teachers, and the grand wizard back into themselves, and Agatha and Miss Gullet end up trapped in a painting by Miss Cackle.

In the end-of-year exams, Mildred crashes into a tree during her flying exam, breaking her new broom. However, Miss Hardbroom averages her score across all her exams and she just passes with a score of 51%, meaning she will be returning to Cackle's next year.

As her second year begins, Mildred has improved her broomstick skills through summer flying practice with her mother, and even created a spell that makes animals talk for a summer project, demonstrating the spell on her new pet tortoise, Einstein (Tortoise Trouble). She later becomes the top student in the new art class for the year. Exploring new ways of performing magic, Mildred creates a staff for herself, but although Miss Hardroom vanishes the staff on the grounds that staffs are for wizards rather than witches, after Beatrice accidentally opened a hole in the 'Vanishment' (the place where vanished things go), Mildred used the returned staff to impose some sense of order on the flying objects until the Great Wizard could seal the hole, with the Wizard returning the staff to Mildred with his compliments and acceptance.

On sports day, Mildred learns from her mother that her father was a non-magical plumber named Dave, and he doesn't know about Mildred as he had lost touch with Julie by the time she realized she was pregnant. Julie says Dave was kind, funny and quite clumsy. She asks Mildred if she would like to track him down, and she says maybe one day.

In The Big Freeze, just when Mildred thinks there is no hope to re-ignite the Founding Stone, she meets Mirabelle Hubble, a magical ancestor from high up on her family tree. Mirabelle explains that she is Mildred's ancestor, and that she re-ignited the founding stone, but to do so she had to give up not only her own magic, but that of her descendants for twelve generations- Mildred is the thirteenth generation, making her the first magical Hubble for centuries. Mildred decides to do what Mirabelle Hubble did and give up her magic to the stone in order to save the Academy. It works, and the Academy and its inhabitants are thawed. Miss Mould then gives her own magic to the stone, and restores Mildred’s powers.

In her third year, Mildred's mother becomes the art teacher at Cackle's, but Mildred is unhappy with the way her mother is being treated just because she isn't a witch, and uses a Wishing Star to give her Julie magical powers. However, Julie struggles to control her magic, and Mildred convinces her to give it up. But when people start disappearing, it turns that Julie kept her magic, and has gotten carried away with, turning people who annoy her into little clay statues.

Mildred manages to convince her mother to take the potion that will cure her before she turns to stone, and Julie gives up her magic for good. The potion also restores the people Julie turned to clay, as well as Indigo Moon, Miss Hardbroom's friend from 30 years ago, who became a statue in similar circumstances to Julie. Indigo turns up at Cackle's, and Mildred is made responsible for her. When Indigo finds out that Miss Hardbroom is actually her friend Joy, she runs away from Cackle's.

Mildred and Ethel take another wishing star to help find Indigo, but Ethel uses it for herself. Indigo then re-appears and threatens the Academy. Mildred realizes that Ethel wished for Indigo to threaten the school so she could save it and become a hero- but in trying to come true, the wish has created a fake Indigo. The real Indigo later turns up at Julie Hubble's apartment, and Mildred, Miss Hardbroom and the real Indigo save the academy.

In her fourth year, she has become powerful, since she and Maud correctly perform the Transference Spell in sync. On her first day of school, a sabotage by Ethel caused an apparent potions mistake that changed Mildred's appearance to a blue-eyed redhead, with the intention of making it impossible for Mildred to compete in the upcoming Head Girl challenge. Mildred's attempt to reverse the spell before sundown failed, making her new look permanent, but she made a new friend, when she saved new first-year Isabella "Izzy" Jones from a flying accident. Mildred then competed against Ethel in the Head Girl challenge, but a crisis of confidence caused her to quit half-way through the challenge, before she received a vision of some future peril if Ethel won that prompted her to return to the contest. Mildred met Izzy's father, Dave 'Spike' Jones, when she went to the Jones farm to rest after almost suffering magical burnout, where Spike revealed that he had known Mildred's mother Julie, when they were younger.

Despite Mildred's best efforts, she apparently lost the Head Girl contest when a new spell she had created seemingly killed Miss Cackle, resulting in her being banished to Wormwood's Academy, where all the 'Worst Witches' were sent. Fortunately, Maud was able to rescue Mildred, the two inspiring a rebellion at Wormwood, before returning to Cackle's to learn that Miss Cackle had actually been 'killed' via sabotage caused by Ethel on the advice of Agatha Cackle, Agatha subsequently tricking the rest of the students into banishing themselves to Vanishment, which would be cleared out at the end of the day, unless she was officially made head of the school. Mildred used her new appearance to create a distraction, while the remaining teachers devised a spell to restore Miss Cackle and rescue the students, after which Agatha destroyed herself. As Mildred was appointed Head Girl, Julie and Spike confirmed that Spike was Mildred's father, making Izzy her half-sister.

COMÉDIE MUSICALE

Later Life[]

Jill Murphy says: “I would say that she decides that she doesn’t want to do anything witchy at all, so she works in an animal shelter, and now and then she does magic things that nobody realizes. Perhaps you’ve even met her without realising.”[8] 

MillieHettie

Mildred with her cousin Hettie

Physical Appearance[]

Mildred is tall and thin and has long, waist-length, black hair which she wears in two messy pigtails, whereas in The Worst Witch Saves the Day, Mildred has what Miss Hardbroom calls "a bad hair day", after borrowing Maud's styling brush and getting her hair tangled in it. Ethel chops off the styling brush but then cuts off all of Mildred's hair to hide it. In a false attempt at kindness, Ethel gave Mildred a hair-growth potion which, unfortunately, makes Mildred's hair grow so long and so fast that it practically engulfs the whole school. In the 2017 Series, Mildred's appearance is changed permanently, after a spell gone wrong by Ethel, who sabotaged her spell. She is still tall and has the same pigtails, but now has long red hair and blue eyes.

In the 1986 movie, Mildred was portrayed by Fairuza Balk. In the original 1998 TV series, Mildred was portrayed by Georgina Sherrington. In the 2017 remake, Mildred is portrayed by Bella Ramsey (although in the episode "The Best Teacher", Mildred is portrayed by Rachel Bell, when she is temporarily aged into an older woman by what was meant to be a wisdom spell) and she is later replaced by newcomer Lydia Page for Season 4, when Mildred has a new look after a spell gone wrong that was sabotaged by Ethel.

Personality and Traits[]

Despite being clumsy and bumbling, Mildred's intentions are good and she is well-meaning, despite almost getting expelled in The Worst Witch Strikes Again.

Despite being friendly and slightly naive, Mildred does have traits other people find annoying. Creating havoc wherever she goes, mixing up spells and potions, Mildred is a walking disaster, frequently destroying the potion lab and often on the brink of bringing utter peril upon the school. Yet, with the help of her good friends Maud, Enid, Jadu and Ruby she manages to prevent disaster just in time.

She means well and tries hard, but she is adventurous and very impulsive, meaning she often gets into trouble with her teachers - most notably with Miss Hardbroom, who prefers zealous, hardworking pupils like Ethel Hallow. But as she has this knack of saving the teachers, the pupils and sometimes the whole academy from utter destruction, she always escapes getting expelled.

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Mildred Flying

Even on her first day at Weirdsister she is getting herself into trouble. She is the last one to arrive, and on a broomstick too (not really sensible since Cambridge is populated with a lot of non-magical people). She gets a telling off by the Beetle. At Weirdsister, Mildred is still quite naive, and as soon as she gets to Weirdsister she realizes that she needs to grow up when Nick Hobbes and Ethel take advantage of her. Mildred has very little self-confidence and is afraid of heights and the dark.

Although her Mathematics and Science skills leave much to be desired, Mildred is tenacious and channels her creative energy into her quest to become an accomplished witch.

Although she has trouble training her cat, Tabby - who is grey with black stripes rather than the required black as they 'ran out of black ones' when handing out cats - Mildred is nevertheless very fond of him, enjoying cuddling up to him in bed, and even risking expulsion to take him with her on holiday after she is forced to give him up in The Worst Witch All at Sea, and is upset when they suggest that her new dog Star replace Tabby as her broomstick companion until Miss Cackle clarifies that they intend for Tabby to remain as her general pet. She also has three bats in her room, which she has named Winky, Blinky and Nod in the series; by the fourth book in the series, the number of bats has grown to eight. Mildred also has a turtle named Einstein.

Abilities[]

In the beginning, Mildred is hopeless at passing exams smoothly, and could not attend lessons without making major mistakes. Her creativity seemed to be her sole strength, for it helped her over the course of her adventures. Over the years, as Mildred became increasingly knowledgeable and confident, she improved - by her third year, she was able to cast non-verbal spells, and was a reasonable flier.

It was also revealed that Mildred used to take art at her junior school, but her art teacher used to look over her shoulder and criticize her the entire time, making her so nervous that she was unable to start anything until it was too late.[9] Fortunately, after regaining her confidence, Mildred learned to nurture her skills in art and creative-writing, to the extent where she became a distinct talent in drawing and painting. In fact, her artistic talents manifested in a magical way - she could make her drawings come to life, a feat that left even Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom in complete awe, for they had never seen anything like it. This ability was also what helped her pass the entrance exams to Weirdsister College in Cambridge.

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Mildred Drawing

In Cinderella in Boots, when Mildred used magic against Ethel, her fingers were shown to be in the same style that Miss Hardbroom used to cast spells - pointing with the index and little fingers. This instance, coupled with her magical artistic talents, testify to her having matured out of her initial incompetence into a powerful witch.

As seen in The Seventh Sense, after her graduation from Weirdsister College, Mildred became an accomplished and successful witch, with the ability to appear out of and disappear into nowhere like Miss Hardbroom.

Relationships[]

Friends[]

She is best friends with Maud Moonshine and Enid Nightshade, and is also friends with Jadu Wali and Ruby Cherrytree.

Ethel Hallow[]

Ethel Hallow, backed up by her sidekick, Drusilla Paddock, takes a disliking to Millie right away. The pair of them tries very hard to

Millie Maud

Mildred and Maud

get her thrown out - but as she has this knack of saving the teachers, the pupils and sometimes the whole academy from utter destruction, she always escapes getting expelled. At Weirdsister, Millie discovers that her arch-enemy Ethel is her room-mate, however they eventually manage to settle their differences. At Weirdsister, Mildred also makes friends with Cas Crowfeather.

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Mildred with Maud and Enid

Boys[]

Boys in general (including Charlie Blossom and Merlin Langstaff) tend to fancy Mildred - though while at school she never seems to know what to do with them when they fall for her. Even Baz and Gaz are shown to fancy Millie under the influence of a truth potion. At Weirdsister, Millie is attracted to both Nick Hobbes and Ben Stemson, but ends up choosing Ben.

Miss Hardbroom[]

Miss Hardbroom took a particular disliking to Mildred at first sight - It is Miss Hardbroom who gives Mildred the title of "the worst witch in the school." This used to be quite mutual. However, getting acquainted with each other and actually saving each other´s life now and then, both grudgingly had to learn (though not to admit) that each of them has her strong points - which results in a kind of love-hate relationship. Still, Miss Hardbroom relishes in yelling at Mildred and her friends and approving smiles are very thin on the ground with her.

Mother[]

Mildred and her mother, Julie, have a close relationship; Maud comments to Mildred that: "Your mum knows you're happy. You're like best friends."

Trivia[]

  • Mildred’s parents’ address can be seen in the episode The Uninvited, on the expulsion letter envelope. See this Image
  • Along with Miss Hardbroom and Deirdre Swoop, she is one of only three characters to appear in all three television series (The Worst Witch 1998, Weirdsister College and The New Worst Witch)
  • In the 2017 TV Series, unlike the books and previous series, Mildred does have witching ancestors, but Mirabelle Hubble, a magical ancestor from high up on her family tree. Mirabelle explains that she re-ignited the founding stone, but to do so she had to give up not only her own magic, but that of her descendants for twelve generations- Mildred is the thirteenth generation, making her the first magical Hubble for centuries.
  • Mildred Hubble’s name in other languages: 
    • French: Amandine Malabul
    • German: Mildred Hoppelt - Mildred Hopping
    • Dutch: Merel Hobbel - Merel Bump
    • Latin-American: Mildred Embrollo, In Spanish, "embrollo" means "imbroglio" or "tangle"
    • Czech: Mildred Virválová

Appearances[]

Appearances

The Worst Witch (2017 TV Series) Episodes
 1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10 11 12 13
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Legend
= Appeared = Appeared as older or younger counterpart = Appeared as current counterpart as well as older or younger counterpart = Appeared as anything magic-related (hologram, magic mirror, etc.) = Did not appear


References[]

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