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Billy Pot

Billy Pot once had a pet shop that specialized in reptiles Billy loved lizards and snakes, and he specialized in breeding purple pythons The biggest python that Billy Pot had ever bred lived in the backyard of Terry Tarsal&039;s shoe shop Terry, who did not like snakes, very reluctantly used their sloughed skin for Marcia&039;s pointy snakeskin shoes

When the Supre turtles from Billy and then ordered him to move to the Palace to look after them, Billy did not dare refuse Billy&039;s niece, Sandra, took over the pet shop and to Billy&039;s great disapproval started selling fancy hamsters and fluffy rabbits Sandra&039;s new line in cuddly animals proved very popular, and she soon offered to buy the pet shop froiven hies down by the river, built the Contraption and e quest for the perfect lawn When the Heaps moved into the Palace with Jenna, Silas asked Billy to stay on and help thereed, but the job proved ier to a particularly aggressive turtle

Una Brakket

Una Brakket was housekeeper at the Young Army Barracks when Septimus was a toddler Una did not like boys, even subdued and scared Young Arot a transfer and became housekeeper to the Hunter and his Pack Una adh it is doubtful whether the Hunter even noticed her He once asked her where his socks were, and Una went around in a daydrea the Hunter&039;s socks so that he ain, but he never did

When the Supreme Custodian fled and Jenna cae of Marcia and Alther&039;s Second-Chance Scheme She applied for a job as Palace housekeeper, which she did not get as Sarah Heap thought she was scary The Scheme eventually referred her to Professor Weasal Van Klahtened to refuse

However, Una&039;s sympathies still lay with DomDaniel, and she joined the Restoration Unit, a secret network of people ished to see hiht under the pretense of country dancing classes It was through them that Una was put in touch with Simon Heap

Professor Weasal Van Kla line of Professors Many hundreds of years ago, Professor Doris Van Klampff had worked out a secret and very cos This included Shadows, such as Marcia&039;s, and Spectres like the one that had Waited for Alther when he was Apprentice to Doreat ullible and extreetful; Weasal was no exception

After Weasal&039;s father, Otto, blew hiinal Van Klaa and live a quiet life beside the Moat Oninto his house on Snake Slipway, he was dismayed to find an ancient laboratory tucked away at the end of a warren of tunnels Weasal spent nore the laboratory, but in the end the tereat, and he decided to carry on his father&039;s work He perfected Otto&039;s Ahly efficient screen for Darke energy, thus unwittingly providing an ideal hiding place for Do ed to the Restoration Unit

Beetle

Beetle was an only child He grew up in The Rae rooms on the floor immediately below the Heap family One of Beetle&039;s earliestwith a broo, "For heaven&039;s sake be quiet!" His parents refused to let Beetle have anything to do with the Heaps, which only made them more attractive, and he soon struck up a friendship with Jo-Jo Heap, as the sae of eleven, Beetle passed the highly competitive entrance test to the Manuscriptoriuht He started as General Dogsbody, and after the Inspection Clerk fell off the sled and broke his ankle, Beetle was trusted enough to take over the weekly inspections of the Ice Tunnels

Beetle liked Septimus a lot; he reminded hiyk and his liking for weird fizzy drinks Beetle shared Septiyk for, as he once said to Septi of FizzFroot, "All that Darke stuff is depressing When that awful old bloke cae boil on the end of her nose and the cat ran away All because Darke stuff stuck to ht it home Horrible"

Septimus liked Beetle a lot too He trusted him completely

Boris Catchpole

Ever since he could remember, Boris Catchpole had been known by his last name His mother had tried her best to call hi she, like everyone else, had given up and reverted to plain Catchpolesomehow Boris seemed just too familiar

Catchpole&039;s ambition was to be a Hunter He had run away fro Pack in the Badlands while Do the assassination of the Queen Catchpole had trained hard with the Pack, but he was not popular He had given up cleaning his teeth as a boy and had no intention of starting again now that he did not have hishis tongue against the roof of his mouth thatfast and was soon too tall to ood Hunter

Catchpole, true to his naressed no farther After the overthrow of the Supreme Custodian he joined the Second-Chance Scheme and was accepted as a sub-Wizarda new trainee Wizard post for those of round

Catchpole&039;s ambition was now to be a proper Wizard At the very least he wanted to be an Ordinary Wizard, but he had decided that he would not turn down the job of ExtraOrdinary Wizard if it were offered to him It never was

Jannit Maarten

If you asked Jannit Maarten to describe herself, she would say, "boat builder" And that is all she would say Jannit had little time for politics and even less time for Wizards Whatever went on in the Castle was of no concern to Jannit, whose whole world consisted of her boatyard just outside the Castle walls She slept soundly in her haht hours happily building, and all the other hundreds of wonderfully tis that boats require

Although Nicko found it hard to believe, Jannit had once been a little girl, but she had forgotten all about itpossibly because she had grown up on a small farm in the middle of the Fars Her parents never understood why, at fourteen, Jannit had dressed as a boy and run away to sea At nineteen she returned with a ship of her own and set up the Jannit Maarten Boatyard next to the derelict Castle Customs Quay Jannit was entirely happy with her life and set foot outside her beloved boatyard with great reluctance

Sleuth

Sleuth had once been a tennis ball It had spent two years lying in a damp ditch beside the Port Municipal Real Tennis House after someone had hit it out thein a fit of temper; it had been seriously nibbled byapart, until one day Simon Heap picked it up, put it in his pocket and took it back to the Observatory

Over the next few months, Sleuth lay in a Sealed box, which Siularly filled and refilled the box with gases and potions, chanted over it for long hours and encircled it with Reverse Charradually becaht and sh the box It had lain there, confused but excited, waiting to see as going to happen

Then, one night, at the Dark of the Moon, Sleuth was let out of its box and saw the world for the first time It liked what it saw and Silowed brightly and seeent; it was obedient and quick to learn Soon it followed its Master everywhere and became Simon Heap&039;s most loyal and faithful servant

Nurse Meredith

Nurse Agnes Meredith, ex-Matron Midwife, ex-baby snatcher,released from the Castle Asylum for Deluded and Distressed Persons She walked the streets looking for her son, Merrin, but she had no luck Eventually she ran out of the allowance the Asyluing house in the Rope Walk, next to the Port Witch Coven

The owner of the lodging house was a Mrs Florrie Bundy, a large wooing feuds with her neighbors, the Port Witches, and it was a heated arguwhich Florrie claimed had been deliberately aimed at her headthat led to her de better to do had indeed thrown a teabag at Florrie&039;s head, eventually got tired of being yelled at and placed a Shrink Spell on Florrie Over the course of a feeeks the Shrink Spell gradually reduced Florrie to the size of a teabag herself, and one frostyshe slipped on some ice, fell down the drain outside the backdoor and drowned

Agnes Meredith had watched Florrie Shrinking with great interest One day, when she could no longer find the di house as though nothing had happened She soonwhi the house with dried flowers and dolls She enjoyed the co for Merrin At least you knehere you ith dolls, she told herself

Maureen