If a Shoggy's amorphous non-features could bear an expression of smitten devotion, they deepened all the more when China thanked it- actual signs of appreciation weren't something Shoggies were used to getting. Engineered slaves didn't get a thanks, usually. There wasn't a reason for it. But, the Shoggies did have a small component of individuality, and this affected Shoggy 23's very much. It had found its Mastress, as far as it was concerned, and would have agreed that it was now her Shoggy. And that this was 'sooo cool'. The other two Shoggies, unafflicted with a Shoggy version of love, were fully occupied with enveloping pices of chicken, of which there were very few remaining.

"Yes, that might be it, Mastress!" said Shoggy 23. "I think people said what house we should have. I don't know if we're supposed to say what house you get, but, if we can, you should get. . ." It had to dig around through the morass of Shoggy memory to the recall the name of the only house it knew- good at recalling acts and sounds, but not much else. "Hufflepuff House," it said after a moment, having managed to extract the information from some sort of Shoggy replay. "It is the house that was given to us, Mastress! It's soo cool. It's has a food libraries!"