Griffri
Leigh woke up on Christmas morning. She pushed back the navy-velvet curtains of her four-poster bed and squinted in the blinding light coming in from the window of the dormitory. The snow outside was reflecting dazzling white light into the room and over the entire castle grounds. She pushed the curtains back the rest of the way and looked around the Ravenclaw Sixth-year girls' room. The rest of the girls were still asleep, but Jocelyn and Amie, who's bed curtains were open, had neat little piles of gifts on the feet of their beds. Leigh looked down at the foot of her bed, and saw there a similar pile of wrapped packages. She wasted no time in tearing into them.
A "Weird Sisters" tee shirt from her sister, Janna, a new set of dress robes and a pack of Fizzing Whizbees from her parents, a giant box of Bertie Botts' Every-Flavor Beans from Amie, and a book, Conniving Concoctions and Other Tricky Potions, from her Aunt Mara: these are just a few of the gifts she received, and by the time she'd gotten to the last present in her pile, Jocelyn and Penny were awake and inspecting their own gift piles. Leigh wished them both a Happy Christmas and proceeded to opening her final gift.
As she tore the blue-with-silver-stars wrapping paper from the package, Leigh heard a strange noise coming from inside the box which she now held in her hands. She stopped and listened, but heard nothing. Assuming it had been her imagination, Leigh began opening the box. She lifted the lid, and a surprised look dawned on her face. Inside the box sat a very small puppy. It looked rather like a Jack Russell terrier except for its forked tail. At the sight of Leigh the puppy barked happily and jumped out of the box onto her bed. She looked at it, a little shocked.
"Awww!" Penny exclaimed, jumping off her own bed and abandoning her presents to see the dog.
"Blimey," Jocelyn added, joining them. "That's a Crup! Isn't he cute?" They all took a moment to cuddle the puppy and show him to Amie and Acantha, who had just woken up. It was Penny who spoke next.
"Aren't you supposed to have licenses for owning a Crup? Who sent him to you,Leigh?" Penny asked, digging through the wrapping paper on Leigh's bed to find a card, perhaps, that would answer her question.
"Hold on," Leigh replied, looking inside the box in which the puppy had been. "Here it is. A letter from my brother, Peter. He works for the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, and says he rescued this little guy from muggles who wanted to put him in a lapratory, whatever that is. And here's the license for him." She held up a second piece of parchment and read it.
"Aww, look!" Amie squealed. The little black-white-and-brown furball was curled up on Leigh's pillow, asleep. The girls all watched him there for a few moments before getting up. Leigh changed into her school robes while the rest opened their gifts and changed as well, then after that they all went down to breakfast, leaving the crup curled up asleep on Leigh's pillow. The girls made their way down a long hallway to teh Ravenclaw Common Room, then out from behind a staircase into the Third-floor Corridor. They then all went down to the Great Hall for breakfast.
Once seated, Leigh, Jocelyn, and Amie (the rest had gone to speak with other friends throughout the Great Hall) began to talk about the Crup.
"You'll have to name him," Amie was saying.
"Suppose there are rules against keeping a crup in the dormitories?" Jocelyn implied.
"How about Sparticus?" Amie offered.
"You wouldn't want to get in trouble for having him here." said Jocelyn.
"Or Maybe--" Amie began, but Leigh cut her off.
"Be quiet, both of you!" Leigh said, laughing. I can't hear myself think. You two are worse than a couple of fwoopers! I'll speak to a professor about it later. Right now let's just eat." With that they had a most delicious breakfast. Friends stopped by to say hello and "Happy Christmas" all the time they were sitting there, and once everyone in the Hall had his or her fill the plates magically cleared and the Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, stood. The Great Hall became very quiet and all eyes were on the Headmaster.
"Ahhh, another wonderful Christmas breakfast," Professor Dumbledore began. "I would love to say a few words to you all, but I feel there would be no point. You would all surely forget whatever I said right afterwards. I am sure you would much rather be enjoying your friends and your new gifts! Have fun!"
The Great Hall was then turned to chaos as everyone got up and proceeded out into the Entrance Hall. Some left to go for a walk or a snowball fight out on the snowy grounds, while others milled around the Entrance Hall and talked. Some Slytherins left through the dungeon entrance to go to their underground common room, while many others went up the marble staircase and then the Grand Staircase to their own common rooms and dormitories.
On the way up to the third floor and the Ravenclaw Common Room, Leigh and Amie discussed names for the dog. They decided on Griffri, a name Leigh had seen in an ancient book she'd read from the library back in fifth year. As they reached the Common Room and went down the hall to the dormitory, Leigh, Amie, and Jocelyn heard barking from their room.
They went in to find the room in ruins. Pillows were torn, feathers were everywhere. Jocelyn's owl was perched on the top of her four-poster bed, looking ruffled. They looked around to see Griffri digging through Penny's pile of presents. All around the room lay Chocolate Frog wrappers and Bertie Botts' Beans, Cauldron Cake boxes and Fizzing Whizbee containers.
"Griffri!" Leigh groaned. The little dog looked up from the pile of wrapping paper. Leigh started to scold him more, but then burst out laughing. Amie and Jocelyn weren't sure what was so funny, then they got a better look and began laughing as well.
There sat Griffri, a Ravenclaw scarf tangled around his tiny body, wrapping paper stuck to his ear, and some strange-looking furry brown thing in his mouth. The little crup had caught a niffler by the tail as it ransacked the dorm room, looking for shiny things (The niffler currently had a sparkly green sock curled in its funny snout.). Leigh took the niffler from Griffri's clutches and held it up.
"Well done Griffri! You've got him!" Leigh stuck the niffle inside one of the boxes among the wrapping paper and closed it in.
"Where d'you reckon it came from?" She asked, but almost immediately knew the answer.
"Boys," all three girls mumbled. The niffler must've been a prank by some of the boys, who were most likely hoping to hear screaming from the girls' dorm and have an excuse to "rescue" the girls. Jocelyn and Amie began to clean up the room as Leigh disentangled Griffri from the paper and scarf and set him down on her bed.
"Well," Jocelyn said. "You know what we've got to do now."
"Payback time."
The girls quickly fromulated a plan and intended to carry it out as soon as possible, but that's another story...