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whispered to Felix, as they crept quietly up to the front doors, just managing to dodge the sweep of the searchlights. He slowly pulled down on the doorhandle. It wasn’t locked. They had made it. Jasper smiled at Felix with relief. He pushed the door open.
    A dark figure blocked their path.
    â€˜Out of bed, are we?’ a voice sneered viciously. Jasper recognised the scarred face and hard eyes of the prefect immediately. He hadn’t seemed nice in the food hall, and Jasper didn’t think he looked particularly nice now. ‘Right. Come with me,’ Bruno snarled.
    Bruno

10
    Jasper and Felix only just made it into their Species Studies class on time. Bruno had made them spend the rest of the night in the freezing laundry, handwashing the prefects’ dirty clothes in giant tubs of cold water. By the time the gong sounded to wake everyone up, Jasper and Felix’s hands were like cold sultanas.
    And now they were in Species Studies, listening to Stenka talk about different kinds of monsters. Saffy had also made it into Class 1B and took a seat next to Jasper and Felix.
    The Species Studies classroom wasn’t like any other Jasper had been in. A fire burned merrily behind the teacher’s desk, and instead of rows of desks and chairs for the students, each kid had their own comfy armchair or couch. It looked comforting, but it was a strange place to be taught about monsters – especially when the teacher was anything but comforting. The combination made Jasper feel a bit queasy.
    â€˜This one!’ Stenka snapped her stick against the board, her mohawk vibrating with the impact, ‘is a Sizzleguzzler.’
    Jasper stared at the picture of the monster – a slimy, wart-covered, toad-like creature that looked like something that had been splattered in the middle of the footpath.
    â€˜Sizzleguzzlers belong to the Muncher order of monsters. Munchers eat people. Or parts of people,’ Stenka said matter-of-factly, as if it were the most ordinary thing to be teaching kids.
    â€˜There are four distinct monster orders, as identified by Henrik Schnellman,’ she went on. ‘He was the founder of Monstrum House and the first person to devote his life to the study of monsters. Eventually he was eaten.’
    Jasper drew a cartoon of the Sizzleguzzler licking its lips and drooling over Henrik Schnellman’s half-eaten leg.
    â€˜The particularly nasty Munchers completely devour their victims, which is why some people disappear without a trace.’ Stenka paused and smiled fondly at the picture of the Sizzleguzzler on the board again. Its mouth hung open, and a long line of dark, swirling drool dripped from its tongue. ‘The process can be long and painful. The Sizzleguzzler, for example, will take about a week to digest a fully grown person.’
    Jasper wondered how long it took a Sizzleguzzler to digest a teenager, but he decided he didn’t really want to know.
    Sizzleguzzler Mmm, yum yum!

    He actually thought the monster looked kind of cool – it was gross but funny. A pile of vomit with legs. Although perhaps it wouldn’t be so funny if you were the one being slowly digested.
    â€˜The drool sizzles through the people it eats, like an acid,’ Stenka was saying cheerfully.
    â€˜So how do we kill it?’ asked Saffy.
    â€˜Oh no,’ Stenka whispered. ‘Monsters can’t be killed. Only caught and ... changed. We’ll get to that later. But you – you can be killed. SIZZLE!’ she added loudly for emphasis, smiling.
    There was silence in the classroom.
    â€˜How do we change them, then?’ asked Saffy, not giving up.
    But Stenka ignored her. ‘Now, on to the two most common monster orders,’ she went on. ‘The Screecher and Scrambler orders. Monsters in the Screecher order frighten people. Most of the monsters you have come across under your beds and in your wardrobes belong to the Screecher order.’
    Stenka