 Mildred Hubble and Maud Moonshine are now best of friends and, often to be found in their company, are Ruby and Jadu. Ethel and Drusilla however, are always trying to stir up trouble between them, taunting Maud Moonshine by calling her "Moonface" and delighting in telling Mildred how hopeless she is. Now that they are a few weeks into the term, homesickness is taking its toll of the first years. Miss Hardbroom makes everyone write a letter home, telling their parents that they are well and doing fine, which only makes everyone feel worse - apart from Ethel and Drusilla, who apparently have no room for public sentiment. Part of their problem is the food - liver in cold, greasy gravy, fish with gazing eyes and lumpy milk puddings. As a result they ve resorted to eating too many sweets. There s a disgraceful scene in the Great Hall when Ethel "accidentally " trips Mildred and her plate of stew lands all over Miss Hardbroom. Miss Cackle decides that the only answer is to set an example by eating exactly the same food as the girls - for the whole week. "If it s good enough for the headmistress it s good enough for them!" Meanwhile, the warm and motherly school cook, Mrs. Tapioca, comes to Mildred s rescue and invites her down to the kitchen to sample her fresh pasta and pizzas. Mildred spots an extraordinary contraption, which Frank Blossom has created for catching mice. It s ridiculously large and complicated for such a small task. She also notices an interesting cupboard, which Mrs. Tapioca tells her is where the staff keeps their own food. Mildred has an idea and later she suggests to the others that they have a midnight feast. This gets an enthusiastic response from all but Ethel. Miss Cackle takes a class in simple shape-changing, and their hats are magicked into an amusing range of headgear. The girls are really enjoying themselves. Miss Cackle uses the opportunity to give them a lecture on the finer details of shape-changing: hats are easy because a witch s hat is already magic, but "suppose you wanted to make cheese, for instance" - and off she goes in a trance dreaming of all the wonderful things she s missing by restricting herself to school food. Miss Cackle also tells them the legend of Sir Walter s Wet Week. Centuries ago, Baron Overblow refused to give shelter to Sir Walter one wild and stormy night and left him in the rain to die. As a result every year it rains for a week and the water, like tears of pity, flows down the walls. On the last night of the week there s always a big storm and Sir Walter walks the corridors, looking for revenge! Ethel and Drusilla hatch a plan to scare Mildred s lot by pretending to be the ghost of Sir Walter but the tables are turned and they get more that they bargained for thanks to Miss Cackle and to Frank s amazing cheese protector! Miss Cackle has proved her point over the school food but agrees to change the rules and declares Saturdays to be pizza days, much to everyone s delight!