Catastrophe

Summary: Without Wormwood around, Cedric has begun testing spells and potions on himself instead. With one unfortunate mishap, he accidentally turns himself into a cat and can't seem to fix his mistake in his new form, so he turns to Sofia for help. *Requested by allyrwhitney*

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

A/N: All right, everyone! 😊 As someone pointed out to me earlier, Cedric has been through a lot in my stories recently. Yeah, you're right. Lol. And he's about to go through a bit more in here too. :D He'll be all right though. He always is. 😉 Hope you enjoy!

*Story*

"Ugh, this would be so much easier with Wormy here," Cedric complained as he closed his spell book and pushed it off to the side. "But no, he had to go and betray me by teaming up with…" He waved his right hand flippantly, scoffing. "…Whoever that was. Rotten raven." He rolled his eyes as he sighed and eyed a box full of untouched potions.

For weeks, he'd been testing spells and potions alike, either to see what they did or test their potency, or anything in between. And since his raven had opted for a new master, he'd had to do some of the testing on himself. Thankfully, the spells weren't anything outlandish or dangerous, and the potions were fairly tame thus far. The strangest thing that had happened is that he'd spilled a shrinking potion on his door, and he'd had to figure out how to enlarge it again.

With the spell checks done for the day, now came time to test out the potions. Most were his own, though Cordelia had added in some for her own research purposes. He didn't necessarily mind sharing his workshop with his sister, but he often wished that she would at least warn him if she'd changed or altered something. It was one thing misplacing his eyes of newt, but his book of counter spells was another thing entirely.

Brushing all of that aside, he picked up the first potion and read the label. "Circle Diminisher," he read aloud. "'Removes unsightly dark circles beneath the eyes.' Oh, interesting." He instantly reached up with his left hand and ran his fingers under his own eyes. "I'm quite certain I could use some of this, with my sleeping habits…" He shrugged before drinking a bit of the potion, though he couldn't notice anything. "Hmm." He grabbed his wand and conjured a floating mirror. He grinned as he noticed the darkness beneath his eyes had vanished, and he looked more rejuvenated than ever. "Yes, this is definitely a keeper." He set the bottle aside before marking some information on a list. He then grabbed the next bottle, frowning. "What language is this in?"

The bottle itself was nothing special. In fact, it was identical to the others in the box. The liquid inside was a burgundy color. The label read, "Katzenform."

"Weird." He sighed before uncorking the bottle. "Well, only one way to test it, I suppose." He lifted the bottle to his lips, sipping some of it before placing the container onto his work table. "Hmm, tastes like raspberries…" He shook his head once as a bizarre hazy feeling enveloped his senses. "I feel strange…"

Before he could say or do anything else, Cedric lost the grip on the bottle, causing it to clatter against the table, and shrank to the ground, transforming into the last thing he expected: a cat. His fur was dark purple and nearly brown at that. The scruff upon his head mimicked his usual hair style, and atop his head were two little pointy ears. And the oddest thing of all was he now wore a miniature version of his robe and golden bow tie around his small form, and lastly on each of his four paws he had tiny brown fingerless gloves. Meow!

Cedric gasped and raised one paw to his mouth, his brown eyes wide in shock. "Oh, Merlin's Mushrooms! A cat! I've turned myself into a cat!" He hissed, surprising himself and dropping all four paws to the ground. "Ooh, that Cordelia… That must have been one of her potions she mixed in with mine. Why does she need a cat potion?!"

He paced back and forth for a moment before glancing up—way up—at his work table. His new tail swished back and forth as he pondered over just how he could manage to get back up there, and most importantly, find a potion that would fix the problem.

After a few failed tries of jumping, climbing, and even clawing his way up to the higher furniture, the exhausted sorcerer-cat gave up and collapsed in a small furry heap onto the floor. "This is…ridiculous," he panted, glaring at the far too tall table. "When I find Cordelia, she's going to get a piece of my mind…" He lit up as he heard a knock at the door. "Sofia! Of course!" He beamed as he bounded over to the door, standing just out of the way. "Come in!" He then paused, frowning. "I hope she can still understand me…"

Sofia walked inside, blinking as she looked around the seemingly vacant workshop. "Uh, Mr. Cedric?"

"Down here!"

The princess glanced down, her eyes widening as she knelt to his level. "Mr. Cedric, what happened to you?"

"Oh, good you can understand me," he sighed in relief before frowning heavily. "From here on out, I blame Wormwood for everything. I lost something? Wormwood should have been here to help me find it. I dropped something? I'm distracted wondering where he is. I turned myself into a blooming cat? Wormwood is my tester for spells and potions! This is his fault!" He lowered his head and glared at the ground, his tail swishing back and forth on the cold floor.

Sofia couldn't help it. She started laughing, causing her much smaller mentor to peer up at her agitatedly.

"And just what is so funny?" he asked, his brown eyes narrowed as he eyed her curiously.

"I know you're probably irritated about all of this," she began, softening her laughter to snickers, "but I'm sorry, Mr. Cedric. I just can't take you seriously right now. You're too cute!"

Cedric balked and made a sound of repugnance. "I am not cute! I'm a miniature fuzzball with admittedly stylish clothing. However, I am in no way supposed to be a fuzzy feline!"

"I'll help you get turned back to normal," she promised as she gently gathered him up, tucking him into the crook of her left arm and using her right hand to scratch behind his ears.

"Sofia, I'm not a real cat. I don't like to…" His words fell into silence as a contented purr poured from him before he could stop it. He glared up at the smirking princess. "I'm glad you're finding this entertaining."

"I've always wondered what it would be like to have a cat as a pet," she admitted, giggling as his eyes widened in fear. "Fortunately for you, I need my friend to get back to his human form, and Dad is really allergic to cats." She grinned as he sighed in relief. "In fact, he's probably sneezing right now somewhere in the castle and wondering why…"

"Ugh, let's just get to work and find the potion that will turn me back to normal." He raised one paw and pointed in the direction of the box of bottles still sitting on his table. "I only got through two, and I'm rather certain this potion wasn't even mine to begin with."

"Where's the bottle that had the cat potion in it?" she asked as she placed Cedric onto the table.

Attempting to use his paws to pick up the fallen bottle, Cedric lifted it enough for Sofia to read the label.

"Katzenform… Mr. Cedric, it even sounds like 'cat.'" She laughed as he whined a bit.

"I don't need an entomology lesson. I just need to return to myself!"

Sofia smiled and gently caressed his fur. "Okay, calm down. I'll help you." She glanced over in the box, rifling through the labeled bottles. "Sleeping potion, energy potion…" She gave him a concerned stare. "Mr. Cedric, you don't drink too many of those energy potions, do you? I hardly ever find you asleep as it is."

He shrugged, causing him to lose his balance before digging his claws into the table and forcing him to stay upright. He cleared his throat. "Not as often as you might think, honestly. Keep looking. Surely, if there's an animal-transformation-potion, one would have been courteous enough to put a human potion in there."

"The weird things I hear on a daily basis," she murmured thoughtfully before giggling and returning to her task. "Hmm… Deodorizing potion. That would actually come in handy." She sifted through a few more before pulling out a bottle with light blue liquid inside. "Forma Humana. I'm going to make an educated guess and say this is probably it." She uncorked the bottle before sniffing the contents curiously. "Hmm… You'd think something blue would smell like blueberries or something." She grinned at him. "It smells like oranges."

"It could smell like Baileywick's socks, for all I care," the sorcerer-cat huffed as he raised one paw emphatically. "I just want to be Cedric again. Not Cat-ric."

"Hmm, Mr. Cat-ric." She laughed as he shook his head furiously. "I kind of like that."

"No, no, no! It's bad enough it took you an entire year not to call me Mr. Ceedric. For the love of magic, please don't give me a new nickname."

"I'm just teasing you, Mr. Cedric." She smiled and tilted his head back. "Okay, here we go." She lowered the bottle to his mouth, allowing him to gulp down a few sips.

Within seconds and in a magical cloud of blue smoke, Cedric returned to normal… However, both he and Sofia had forgotten a key problem, and he was sitting like a cat on top of his table, which was steadily creaking under the unexpected change of weight. He grumbled a bit before quickly composing himself and clambering to the floor. He dusted off his robe and then gave Sofia a grateful smile. "Thank you, my dear." He blinked in surprise as she suddenly hugged him.

"Good to have you back, Mr. Cedric," she told him happily, smiling up at him. "As cute as you were as a cat, I don't think the hugs would have been nearly as good."

He chuckled and returned the hug with one arm before playfully patting her head. "Cute, Sofia. Really cute."

"Right back at ya, Mr. Cat-ric!" She grinned as he groaned in dismay, releasing her with an exaggerated roll of his eyes as she laughed.

"Here we go again…"

The end