But there was no one about now, Sophie was sure of that. Even if you said you had to go to the lavatory, that was not accepted as an excuse and they punished you just the same. You got punished if you were caught out of bed after lights-out. She decided to get out of bed and close the gap in the curtains. The moonbeam was brighter than ever on Sophie's pillow. The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world to themselves. Perhaps, she told herself, this was what they called the witching hour. Not the tiniest sound could be heard anywhere.
The window behind the curtain was wide open, but nobody was walking on the pavement outside. There were no footsteps on the floor above either. The moonbeam was like a silver blade slicing through the room on to her face. Sophie closed her eyes and lay quite still. The other children in the dormitory had been asleep for hours.
