Used to startling people, Clue blinked from his blue-eyed House-mate to the next First Years to join them. When at last the Ceremony was over, and a new batch of young ones had an extra identity to call their own, Professor Black made his start-of-term speech which ended on —

Food.

The four House tables were soon creaking under the weight of platters filled with everything from smoked chicken to roast carrots. Clue was someone who ate very little (and who saved himself for pudding anyway), but he reached for the plate of buttered potatoes in front of Irene Fudge, only for his hand to hesitate over it. He frowned at the plate, and at the... tiny wormy thing on top. Was that... a rat's tail in the potatoes?!