There was a roaring cheer from the older girls and some of the less reserved teachers. With a clap of her hands and a flex of her see through fingers, Miss Cackle turned assembly hall out into a banqueting hall!

"Tuck in!"

The rows of chairs the girls were sat in were now parked around gingham covered tables. Plates bowls cups and cutlery started popping into existence, along with enough food to feed monstrous amount of witches. And the assembly gave way to the oddest tea party Mildred had ever been to! It was almost catering for everyone. And what couldn't be found on your table could be passed over. Tots of tea, juice and sludgy stuff. Sandwidges of all sorts, whole little fishes, dishes of eye balls, spuds, bugs, soups, salads, puddings and cakes, fruits, sweets, meats-! Lots of meat actually.

"That's ham. So's that. That looks like slime but it's actually jam. That's squid I think. That's chicken. That looks like jam but it's actually slime. That's lamb." Maud said, her sense of smell picking out bits Mildred could eat.

"What's this one?" Mildred asked, poking the plate of something experimentally with a serving spoon. It looked like rice pudding but-, "AH!"

"What?"

"It Moved!"

The plate of something did indeed move. Then it opened an eye. Mildred yelped, Ruby shrieked and everyone turned to see what the fuss was. Whatever it was leapt off the table with SPOOT and made a run for it. Well a scuttle for it out of the door. With someone's cat chasing after it…

"Well…I don't think you'll want any of that." Maud said apologetically and returned to daintily eating a large leg of something. HB ordered them to settle down and the older girls seemed to think it was perfectly normal occurrence. Mildred decided not to ask what certain things on the plates were after that! There was now a top table on the stage where the teachers sat. The first years kept a not so subtle eye on them, putting Names and rumours to faces and wondering things aloud. Like; if and how Miss Cackle ate? and why was there an empty seat? and whose bird was that? Mildred mostly nodded and listened feeling the witch equivalent of jet lagged.

"Does anyone know if cobweb bread is gluten free?"

"I once convinced my cousin shepherd's pie had actual shepherds in."

"Pass the slimeade please?"

"Can you move the crisps, some of us are allergic to salt!"

"Those second years said they'd be squashed frogs for breakfast." Grumbled a girl at the end of the table with at least a dozen eyes, and whose name Mildred had missed and felt silly to ask again.

"Really?" Jadu asked. "…Have you tried maybe on one of the other tables?"

"Yeah. But I can't see any." The girl nodded looking put out. Gloria on the other hand looked ill at the thought.

Some tables got a little rowdy as the feast went on. The odd shout, bark of laughter. The occasional plate being levitated or bun being thrown rather than sensibly passed over the table. Some of this resulted in loud telling off from the top table or a teacher getting up to have a quiet word till it settled down again. She spotted Fenny and Gris giving an over dramatic recount of some story, and got a wave when they spotted her. Mildred waved back. Maybe a bit to enthusiastically. As she accidently knocked some one's skull spinning.

"Hey! Watch it!"

Miss Gullet had a very nasally voice for someone who didn't have a nose. She took hold of her head to stop it spinning like a plate. Then snapped it right way around and put her jaw back on with a glower and much grumbling. Everyone else found it hilarious.

"You're posing a hazard doing that. Waving isn't on my risk assessments and it's against the rules to physically assault staff!" She scowled at Mildred. Mildred blushed and apologised. Miss Gullet was thankfully more interested in the third year she'd seen swinging back in her chair before Mildred had accidently walloped her. So Mildred got away with a scold. The third year? Two days detention.

"Anyone would think she'd never been up for a witching welcome before, first falling asleep now attacking skeletons." Ethel sneered. Thankfully everyone else was busy with their own conversations Ethel wasn't really heard this time. She got a glare from Jadu but was otherwise ignored. Mildred decided Ethel really needed to work on her insults.

"No, I haven't. thanks for noticing." She said sweetly with a grin and a bite of the drop scone she'd been eating. And felt a little victory when Ethel huffed and turned back away.

"Don't Mildred, she'll-! Ew. Mildred." Maud grimaced.

"That?"

"That's literally a squashed fly biscuit!"

"Oh. Is it? It's not bad actually." She'd already eaten half of. Against spitting it out at the table, Mildred took another bite. "Tastes like raisins. But crunchy."

She added, Much to the others' gross amusement.

All too soon the feast drew to a close. The food and scraps vanished, and plates were stacked at one end of the table. There was another few inspirational words from Miss Cackle. Then the girls gathered their school bags, before leaving table by table.

"Quietly!" The deputy reminded them. not that it stopped the noise starting up once the groups left the hall. At last the first years were dismissed. They filed out in a pack. What happen next Maud would later describe as the second half of the Walker's Gate.

Almost all the older girls stood lining the corridors, hung about in doorways and on the stairs, waiting. Some on the ceilings! As the first years walked past them, these older girls stood aside; whooping and hollering and shouting all sorts of things. About mummies and learning to fly and tears and things going to get you.

Fenny and Gris winked at her but Mildred didn't find it reassuring. Especially as Fenny yelled, "Have fun first years!" and Gris added, "last one to cry in class is a rotten egg!"

They got worse the closer to the Potions Lab they got.

"First Formers Never last!"

"Bet you had garlic for breakfast!"

"Hope it doesn't SUCK!"

A few girls even started an impromptu song going.

"Who's afraid of Miss Ha-Hardbroom, Miss Hardbroom Miss Hardbroom? Who's afraid of Miss Ha-Hardbroom? Tra la la l-."

"That will DO, girls!" A familiar disembodied voice barked. "Too your own lessons forthwith!"

The older girls scattered, leaving the first years lined up in front of the door in terrified silence. Well… silence, with a hint of tinny pop music playing on a contraband device turned up far too loud.

This time Ruby's ear phones were not zapped in her ears. They were yanked hard out of her collar. Along with the attached Walkman that nearly clipped her nose as it shot away.

"Hey!" She started. But stopped short.

A disembodied hand to match the disembodied voice had appeared and snapped the device out of the air. The hand was Followed by an arm and the scowling head along with the rest of Miss Hardbroom's figure.

And Mildred realised what Fenny and Griz had meant when they'd said about HB 'appearing' over their shoulders.