House: Gryffindor

Position: HoH

Category: Standard

Prompt: Hiding

Word Count: 935

Beta: Shibalyfe

"Tina?"

Tina lifted her head from a stack of parchment that she had been rifling through. "Yes, Newt?"

"Have you, by any chance, seen Dougal recently?"

Tina shuffled the papers around on the desk and absently responded, "No, I haven't."

Newt popped his head around the corner, looking frazzled. "Hmm. I'll just have to keep searching for him."

Tina replied, "That's nice," before casting her eyes back to a particularly dense paragraph. Suddenly, her vision glazed over and what Newt had said sunk in. "You lost Dougal!"

Newt grinned sheepishly. "Well, I didn't lose him, per se. I thought it might be nice to teach him how to play a game for when Jacob and Queenie's kids visit next week."

"A game?" Tina's eyes bulged. "You thought it would be a good idea to teach one of your creatures how to play a game? And not just any game. You taught a demiguise how to play hide and seek. Are you insane?"

Newt shrugged. "Perhaps I didn't think it through thoroughly enough. Dougal is one of my best behaved creatures and I thought that the children would appreciate the extra challenge of finding him."

Tina mumbled under her breath.

"What was that, Tina?" Newt asked, cautiously.

She sent him a glare. "You do not want me to repeat myself." She waved her wand and set marks on the parchment so that she could resume her work later. Sighing, she pushed back from the desk. "Do you have any idea where Dougal may be hiding?"

"I checked in my case; none of the other creatures are exhibiting signs of having their habitats invaded by a demiguise. He wouldn't have gone outside in this ghastly weather." Newt gestured to the thunderstorm raging outside. "So he must be in the house somewhere."

"Brilliant observation," Tina quipped, sarcastically.

"I've already checked in the dining room, bedrooms, and bathrooms. Since you weren't aware that Dougal and I were playing a game-"

"Game?" Tina snorted.

"And that Dougal was proving to be an exceptionally good hider, I assume he is not in your study. Which only leaves the kitchen."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Tina asked. "Let's get down there and put a stop to this ridiculous game."

She marched out the door with Newt following behind muttering, "It's not ridiculous. It was quite fun until I lost track of him."

Tina chose to ignore him. Taking a calming breath, she entered the kitchen and gasped.

Every cupboard was open. Pots and pans were strewn about as if a tornado had ripped through their home. Tina suppressed the urge to growl when she saw her tin of coffee spilled across the countertop and little footprints leading from the carnage of her caffeine source of choice.

"What a mess!" exclaimed Newt.

Tina gritted her teeth. "After we find him, you will be cleaning this kitchen from top to bottom. Without magic!"

"But I-" Newt began before Tina silenced him with a look. "Yes, Tina. I'll clean this up."

"And?" she prompted.

"And I won't play hide and seek with a demiguise again."

Tina nodded. "Now that we've uncovered his hiding place, any ideas on how we'll be able to locate him."

"Well, I can see the footprints he left in your coffee. So he must be able to track food particles around while he is invisible. I wonder why I never knew this about demiguises before. I really should record this finding for the new edition of my book."

"Newt! Focus!"

"Right, sorry." Newt gave Tina a guilty smile. "As I was saying, when Dougal encounters a food substance he leaves a trail behind him. I propose that we scatter more food particles around the kitchen. If I'm right, we should be able to easily locate Dougal in his invisible form."

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea," Tina said while glancing around at the wreckage that was their kitchen.

"It'll be fine," Newt promised. "Look, here's a tin of flour."

"NO!" Tina yelled, but it was too late.

Newt spun around in a tight circle and flung the loose white powder in an arc.

Tina sputtered as she swallowed a mouthful of flour. "NEWT!"

"Shhh," he whispered. "There's Dougal!" he cried as he pointed to the flour-coated, invisible blob. "We found you!"

Tina watched as the demiguise regained an opaque form and began to groom the flour from his fur.

"You're excellent at hiding, Dougal," Newt commended.

"He's too good at it. Which is why you are never going to play hide and seek with Dougal or any other demiguise you may encounter ever again. I mean it Newt."

"Yes, Tina. I promise," Newt said as he helped brush the flour from Dougal's face, completely ignoring the flour that caked his own body.

Tina glanced down at her clothing and cringed. "I'm going to take a nice long bath and get all of this mess off of me. I expect this kitchen, and you, to be clean by the time I'm done."

"I'm sorry about this Tina. I really thought it would be a fun idea for the kids."

"I know you did, Newt, but sometimes your ideas are just plain ridiculous."

"But you love me anyway."

Tina laughed. "I do. And I love your creatures too. Come on, Dougal," she called.

When Dougal bounded over and climbed into her arms, she sneezed as a puff of flour blew into her nose. Newt let out a little laugh, causing Tina to glower at him.

"Hide and seek with a demiguise," she grumbled as she left the room. "Only Newt."