Word Count: 734
The Mysterious Case of the Ginger Cat in the Castle
There was a certain scent which followed Crookshanks. Mrs Norris kept her distance for the time being, evaluating and wondering. It had been annoying enough when Minerva McGonagall had mastered the animagus transformation and had the form of a cat; now for there to be yet another cat animagus seemed quite ridiculous.
'Three's a crowd,' she thought to herself.
He was clever, whoever he was. He rarely left the Gryffindor Tower where she could not go, and when he did decide to wander through the castle he seemed to have a particular talent for going down secret passages and preferred to run through the forest. This affronted Mrs Norris even more - she and Argus had mapped the castle and for there now to be someone who thought they were better at sneaking around, well she couldn't let that be. There would be consequences and she would not let herself be liable.
It was inappropriate, she decided. She knew that he was animagus, his 'owner' was a young teenage girl and he spent a lot of time around the children. She laid in wait for him, day after day. Eventually Mrs Norris had to do the one thing she did not want to do. She made a stand.
She transformed into her human form.
Casting magic was something she hadn't done for some time, but she managed several disillusionment spells and then spent several hours laying her trap. It worked so perfectly she bared her teeth in a wild grin, as the ginger cat stepped across the runes she had painstakingly carved into the floor and turned into a man before her eyes.
They stared at each other for a long moment and then he raised himself to his full height.
"So we finally meet. I must say, I am extremely surprised. My name's Regulus Black, and yours madame?"
It had been months since she had spoken, much preferring to remain in cat form even around Argus so she had to clear her throat to get the words out.
"Francis Hortense. You won't have heard of me. What are you doing here?"
The tale he told her rang of insanity, as did his wild grey eyes. She could remember the two Black boys, many years ago attending the school but the man with unkempt hair and jerky gesticulations reminded her nothing of their composed, aristocratic nature. He spoke of the Dark Lord, of horcruxes, of being thought dead by most of the world.
"My brother is the dog animagus that keeps roaming the forest, I assume you can smell him too?"
"I do not go outside," she sniffed in disdain. "I guard the castle and am here to tell you, you must leave."
He shook his head fiercely.
"I could say the same to you. You creep around with Filch, what are you, his lover?"
She coloured and hissed at him.
"He saved my life. You speak of being on the run, I too am wanted dead by many and have been for some years."
Regulus put his hands up in a placating manner.
"Francis, we can do something important here. We can help save the children and the castle. I propose you let me explain in a more succinct fashion and then we can come up with some sort of plan. I don't want to be your enemy, we both have a common goal here."
She was reluctant to accept his proposal but kept listening.
"You know how the Ministry, even the Headmaster just keep making decisions for their own gain. Surely you must see that this battle has to be fought in the shadows. They are always thinking of themselves and their image, what about us? The ones who have had to suffer for their mistakes?"
As he kept talking late into the night, Francis found herself swayed. Regulus was crazy, that she was sure of but then she had been living as a cat for thirty years so she didn't consider herself quite sane either. He was also a coward, hiding as Crookshanks. But then, so was she. Plus, she was rather fond of the ginger cat he turned into too. Perhaps eventually, she would come to admire the man in the same way.
So she said yes and as both cats slipped away through the castle into the night, tails occasionally brushing, Mrs Norris purred happily. She did love a mystery.
A/N: Prompts and challenges:
- The Fanfiction Resolutions Challenge: 57. Write a crack fic.
- Love in Motion: Crack - Crookshanks/Mrs Norris
- Scavenger Hunt: 12. Write about an Animagus
- Gobstones Club: Pink Stone - Deception. (Accuracy: 'What about Us by Pink (song), Power: Mystery (genre), Technique: inappropriate (word))
- Library Loves: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - boarding school (setting), insanity (trait), write about a proposal
- The 365 Prompts Challenge: 149. Genre - Mystery
- The Insane House Challenge: 540. Being lured into a trap
- Serpent Day: Boomslang - wild (word)
- Disney Challenge: Raja - Write about a cat
- Book Club: Whitney Horgan - Challenging someone, stand (word), consequence (word)
- Showtime: coward (trait)
- Lyric Alley: 25. But I hate changin'