It was only when it was too late, the very second it left my ringers, that I noticed something that sent a chill straight to my heart.

The bars above the pit had been bent. Last night they’d been perfectly straight, thirteen parallel rods of iron. Now the centre ones were almost wide enough to get a head through.

They could have been bent by someone on the outside, above ground, but I doubted that. The Spook had told me that the gardens and house were guarded and that nobody could get in. He hadn’t said how and by what but I guessed it was by some sort of boggart. Perhaps the same one that made the meals.

So it had to be the witch. She must have climbed up the side of the pit somehow and begun working at the bars. Suddenly the truth of what was happening dawned inside my head.

I’d been so stupid! The cakes were making her stronger.

The Spook's Apprentice Chapter 8