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Something was standing over him. Jasper opened his mouth to scream.
    The figure shoved a hand roughly over Jasper’s mouth. Jasper bit down hard on the hand and hit out at the figure.
    â€˜Ouch!’ the attacker cried as Jasper swung it onto the ground and pounced on top of it.
    Jasper stopped. As far as he knew, monsters didn’t usually say ouch . And since when did they have hands?
    Jasper had the figure by the hair, his fist raised for another punch. He paused long enough to look at the figure. Head. Hair. Legs. Arms. Body. Pyjamas. Nope, definitely not a monster.
    â€˜Er, sorry,’ Jasper said to the boy in front of him, who was dripping blood into the snow from a very sore-looking nose. ‘I thought you were a … you know, monster or something. I just got knocked out by something, and it will probably come back for us.’
    The boy looked sheepishly at Jasper and wiped his nose on his sleeve. ‘Um, I wouldn’t worry about that. It was kind of, well, me,’ he said. ‘Sorry. I thought you were a monster too.’
    Jasper’s mouth dropped open in surprise. ‘ You knocked me out?’
    The boy shrugged. He was smaller and skinnier than Jasper, and didn’t look like he could knock anybody out.
    Jasper didn’t know whether to be mad or not. His head still hurt but, then again, the boy’s nose looked kind of painful.
    â€˜Where did you learn to do that?’ Jasper asked, helping the boy to his feet.
    â€˜My dad taught me,’ he replied. ‘I’m a black belt at karate.’
    Jasper was impressed. He knew how to fight with his fists, but karate – now that was cool.
    â€˜I’m Felix,’ the boy said as he packed cold snow on his swelling nose.
    â€˜Jasper.’
    They grinned and nodded at each other. ‘So, did you just have a test too?’ Jasper asked.
    Felix nodded. ‘Yep. In a room with a Flippelsqueal in the wardrobe. It was horrible,’ he added with a shiver. ‘How did you go?’ he asked Jasper.
    â€˜Yeah, er … no worries,’ replied Jasper. He didn’t mention how much he’d wanted to scream when he saw the Snobleshriek.
    The Monstrum House School for
Troubled Children ... at 2.45am

    â€˜Scary, huh? I was petrified,’ Felix replied.
    Jasper raised his eyebrows. ‘You? You could have knocked it out with your karate moves.’
    Felix looked embarrassed. ‘I only learnt karate for self-defence because my brothers were always thumping me. But I don’t think a kick would work against a Flippealsqueal. The worst thing is, I knew what was coming. I spent all day freaking out about it. My brothers had told me what would happen.’
    Jasper was confused. ‘Are your brothers at Monstrum House too?’ he asked.
    Felix shook his head. ‘Used to be. Apparently I come from a long line of monster-hunters. My brothers weren’t meant to say anything, but they let me in on it all the night before I left.’
    â€˜That was nice of them,’ Jasper shrugged, trying to get his head around the idea of a family of monster-hunters.
    â€˜Nah – it was more in the you’d better not wuss out and make us beat you up for ruining our good name kind of way. Anyway, we’d better get back. I’ve got Stenka the ice queen for a teacher, and class starts in a few hours,’ Felix said, checking his watch.
    â€˜Me too,’ said Jasper. He was glad he had met Felix. For a kid who’d been shoved in a monster-hunting school, Felix seemed all right.

    No lights shone from the windows of the stone mansion. The flags were completely still. The place looked eerily empty.
    As Jasper and Felix ran towards the school building, Jasper’s feet felt like they were about to drop off. At least there weren’t any prefects around – that they could see. Jasper figured they were probably all too busy dragging kids out of their beds.
    â€˜Finally,’ Jasper